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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Seattle_Art_Museum.txt", "Alexander_Calder.txt" ], "title": [ "Seattle Art Museum", "Alexander Calder" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as \"SAM\") is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, USA. It maintains three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill, and the Olympic Sculpture Park on the central Seattle waterfront, which opened on January 20, 2007. Admission to the sculpture park is always free. Admission to the other facilities is free on the first Thursday of each month; SAM also offers free admission the first Saturday of the month. And even the normal admission is suggested, meaning that the museum would like visitors to pay the complete admission but if they can not pay fully they can still enjoy the museum. \n\nHistory\n\n The SAM collection has grown from 1,926 pieces in 1933 to nearly 25,000 as of 2008. Its original museum provided an area of 25000 sqft; the present facilities provide 312000 sqft plus a 9 acre park. Paid staff have increased from 7 to 303, and the museum library has grown from approximately 1,400 books to 33,252.\n\nSAM traces its origins to the Seattle Fine Arts Society (organized 1905) and the Washington Arts Association (organized 1906), which merged in 1917, keeping the Fine Arts Society name. In 1931 the group renamed itself as the Art Institute of Seattle. The Art Institute housed its collection in Henry House, the former home, on Capitol Hill, of the collector and founder of the Henry Art Gallery, Horace C. Henry (1844–1928).Dave Wilma, [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id\n2082 \"Seattle Art Museum opens in Volunteer Park on June 23, 1933\"], historylink.org, accessed March 11, 2007 \n\nRichard E. Fuller, president of the Seattle Fine Arts Society, was the animating figure of SAM in its early years. During the Great Depression, he and his mother, Margaret MacTavish Fuller, donated $250,000 to build an art museum in Volunteer Park on Seattle's Capitol Hill. The city provided the land and received ownership of the building. Carl F. Gould of the architectural firm Bebb and Gould designed an Art Deco/Art Moderne building for the museum, which opened June 23, 1933. The Art Institute collection formed the core of the original SAM collection; the Fullers soon donated additional pieces. The Art Institute was responsible for managing art activities when the museum first opened. Fuller served as museum director into the 1970s, never taking a salary.\n\nSAM joined with the National Council on the Arts (later NEA), Richard Fuller, and the Seattle Foundation (in part, another Fuller family endeavor) to acquire and install Isamu Noguchi's sculpture Black Sun in front of the museum in Volunteer Park. It was the NEA's first commission in Seattle. \nIn 1983–1984, the museum received a donation of half of a downtown city block, the former J. C. Penney department store on the west side of Second Avenue between Union and Pike Streets. They eventually decided that this particular block was not a suitable site: that land was sold for private development as the Newmark Building, and the museum acquired land in the next block south. On December 5, 1991, SAM reopened in a $62 million downtown facility designed by Robert Venturi. The next year, one of Jonathan Borofsky's Hammering Man sculptures was installed outside the museum as part of Seattle City Light's One Percent for Art program. Hammering Man would have been installed in time for the museum's opening, but on September 28, 1991, as workers attempted to erect the piece, it fell, was damaged, and had to be returned to the foundry for repairs. Hammering Man was used in a guerrilla art installation on Labor day in 1993 when Jason Sprinkle and other local artists attached a ball and chain to the leg of the sculpture. In 1994 the Volunteer Park facility reopened as the Seattle Asian Art Museum. In 2007 the Olympic Sculpture Park opened to the public, culminating an 8-year process.\n\nExhibitions\n\nAmong the museum's notable exhibitions (besides the aforementioned Treasures of Tutankhamun) were a 1954 exhibition of 25 European paintings and sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; these pieces were donated to SAM in 1961. A 1959 Van Gogh exhibit drew 126,100 visitors. That same year, SAM organized a retrospective of the work of Northwest School painter Mark Tobey that traveled to four other U.S. museums. Tobey's works and highlights of SAM's Asian collection were featured under the museum's aegis at the Century 21 Exposition (the 1962 Seattle World's Fair). A Jacob Lawrence retrospective in 1974 honored a giant of African American art who had settled in Seattle four years earlier. Leonardo Lives (1997) featured the Codex Leicester, the last manuscript of Leonardo da Vinci in private hands, which had then been recently purchased by Bill Gates. \n\nCollection\n\nAs of June 2008, the SAM collection includes nearly 25,000 pieces. Among them are Alexander Calder's Eagle (1971) and Richard Serra's Wake (2004), both at the Olympic Sculpture Park; the aforementioned Hammering Man; Cai Guo-Qiang's Inopportune: Stage One (2004), a sculpture constructed from cars and sequenced multi-channel light tubes on display in the lobby of the SAM Downtown; The Judgment of Paris (c. 1516-18) by Lucas Cranach the Elder; Mark Tobey's Electric Night (1944); Yéil X'eenh (Raven Screen) (c. 1810), attributed to the Tlingit artist Kadyisdu.axch'; Do-Ho Suh's Some/One (2001); and a coffin in the shape of a Mercedes Benz (1991) by Kane Quaye of Ghana. While SAM's collections of modern and ethnic art are notable, its collection of more-traditional European painting and sculpture is quite thin, and the Museum relies on traveling exhibitions rather than its own collection to fill that notable gap. Nevertheless, there are early Italian paintings by Dalmasio Scannabecchi, Puccio di Simone, Giovanni di Paolo, Luca Di Tomme, Bartolomeo Vivarini, and Paolo Uccello. There are paintings by V. Sellaer, Jan Molenaer, Emanuel De Witte, Luca Giordano, Luca Carlevaris, Armand Guillaumin, and Camille Pissarro. This museum also has a large collection of Twentieth Century American paintings by Jacob Lawrence and Mark Tobey. There is an appreciable collection of Aboriginal Australian Art.\n\nReturn of looted art\n\nThe museum returned a painting by Henri Matisse to the heirs of 1930s French-Jewish impressionist and post-impressionist art dealer Paul Rosenberg that had been looted by Nazis in World War II, after having requested that the family sue in order to reach a legal settlement that included another art dealer. So in October 1997, Rosenberg's family filled suit in District Court, to recover the painting Odalisque (1927 or 1928). It was the first lawsuit against an American museum concerning ownership of Nazi plunder during World War II. Then museum director Mimi Gardner Gates brokered an 11th hour settlement that returned the artwork, after which the museum sued the gallery which had sold it the painting in the 1950s. Author Héctor Feliciano said it was only the second instance in the US of a museum returning looted art. \n\nLibraries\n\nThe Seattle Art Museum contains the Dorothy Stimson Bullitt Library and the McCaw Foundation Library of Art.\n\nDorothy Stimson Bullitt Library\n\nThe Dorothy Stimson Bullitt Library was founded in 1991. As of 2011 it contained 20,000 books and subscribed to 100 periodicals. It specializes in African art, contemporary art, decorative ars, European art, Modern art, and photography. \n\nMcCaw Foundation Library of Asian Art\n\nThe McCaw Foundation Library of Asian Art was founded in 1933. As of 2011 it contained 15000 book volumes and subscribed to 100 periodicals. It specializes in Asian art.\n\nPresent downtown facility\n\nThe museum's main collection moved to its present location on First Avenue in December 1991; the museum's original building became the Seattle Asian Art Museum in 1994. The building, a limestone-covered rectangle with a streak of tile and terra cotta around its outside, is located at University Street and First Avenue, and was completed by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates at 150000 sqft with a $28,100,000 budget. \n\nIn 2006, the Seattle Art Museum began expanding its 1991 location in a joint effort with Washington Mutual (WaMu); the enlarged building was originally known as the WaMu Center. The expansion actually began in July 2004. Several pieces had to be temporarily moved to prevent them from being damaged due to vibrations during construction. This would have been the initial foundation phase of the WaMu Center. In addition to reworking the Venturi building, SAM now takes up the first four floors of a 16-floor building designed by Portland, Oregon architect Brad Cloepfil. SAM also owns the next eight floors, which WaMu originally rented; Washington Mutual owned the top four floors. As SAM expands in the future, it can take over one or more of the rented floors. \n\nBecause of the construction, the museum's downtown location was closed from January 5, 2006 to May 5, 2007. The expanded building offers 70 percent more gallery space, an expanded museum store, and a new restaurant. In anticipation of the expansion, over a thousand new pieces, with a total value over a billion dollars, were donated to the collection. \n\nWashington Mutual's 2008 failure and subsequent acquisition by JPMorganChase resulted in Northwestern Mutual purchasing WaMu's share of the building September 9, 2009, and renaming it the Russell Investments Center. Currently, Russell Investments, a Northwestern Mutual subsidiary, is headquartered there, having relocated from Tacoma, Washington.\n\nModern Art Pavilion\n\nAfter the Century 21 Exposition, the fairgrounds became Seattle Center, and the UK Pavilion became the Modern Art Pavilion of the museum. It remained in use until 1987.\n\nSeattle Asian Art Museum\n\nThe Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) has been located since 1994 in the original 1933 Deco/Moderne SAM facility in Volunteer Park on Seattle's Capitol Hill.\n\nOlympic Sculpture Park\n\nThe Olympic Sculpture Park is a 9 acre public park on the Seattle waterfront just north of downtown. It opened on January 20, 2007. \n\nManagement\n\nGovernance\n\nKimerly Rorschach was hired in 2012 to lead the Seattle Art Museum. \n\nFunding\n\nThe Seattle Art Museum only receives 4% of its funding from the government; the rest of its operating costs are covered by ticket fees and its membership base. As of 2014, the museum has a $23 million budget. As a result of the banking crisis, the museum in 2009 lost $5.8 million in annual rental and related income from its tenant Washington Mutual. It faced an accumulated debt of $56 million dating back from when the museum and Washington Mutual partnered on a new downtown building they intended to share. After the bank was sold to JPMorgan Chase in 2008, it left the museum with eight floors of office space, at a cost of about $5.8 million a year. Help came in the form of grants from the JPMorgan Chase and the Gates Foundation. The museum’s endowment for art purchases is currently at less than $7.8 million. \n\nAttendance\n\nWhile the number of visitors has grown, the pattern is more complicated: 346,287 people visited the museum in its first year; in 1978 the traveling exhibit Treasures of Tutankhamun (shown in the facility at Seattle Center) drew 1.3 million visitors in a mere four months; 2007 attendance was 797,127. In 2010, the exhibition \"Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris\" drew more than 405,000 people and was the museum's most-attended exhibition since it moved to its downtown location from Volunteer Park in 1991. In SAM's history, only the 1978 King Tut exhibition, held at Seattle Center, ranked higher in attendance. \n\nNotes", "Alexander Calder (; August 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known as the originator of the mobile, a type of moving sculpture made with delicately balanced or suspended shapes that move in response to touch or air currents. Calder’s monumental stationary sculptures are called stabiles. He also produced wire figures, which are like drawings made in space, and notably a miniature circus work that was performed by the artist.\n\nEarly life\n\nAlexander \"Sandy\" Calder was born in 1898 in Lawnton, Pennsylvania. His actual birthday, however, remains a source of much confusion. According to Calder's mother, Nanette (née Lederer), Calder was born on August 22, yet his birth certificate at Philadelphia City Hall, based on a hand-written ledger, stated July 22. When Calder's family learned about the birth certificate, they reasserted with certainty that city officials had made a mistake.\n\nCalder's grandfather, sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, was born in Scotland, immigrated to Philadelphia in 1868, and is best known for the colossal statue of William Penn on top of Philadelphia City Hall's tower. His father, Alexander Stirling Calder, was a well-known sculptor who created many public installations, a majority of them in nearby Philadelphia. Calder's mother was a professional portrait artist, who had studied at the Académie Julian and the Sorbonne in Paris from around 1888 until 1893. She moved to Philadelphia where she met Stirling Calder while studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Calder's parents married on February 22, 1895; his sister, Mrs. Margaret Calder Hayes, was instrumental in the development of the UC Berkeley Art Museum.Hayes, Margaret Calder. Three Alexander Calders: A Family Memoir. Middlebury, VT: Paul S. Eriksson, 1977. \n\nIn 1902, Calder posed nude for his father’s sculpture The Man Cub, a cast of which is now located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. That same year he also completed his earliest sculpture, a clay elephant. Three years later, Stirling Calder contracted tuberculosis, and Calder's parents moved to a ranch in Oracle, Arizona, leaving the children in the care of family friends for a year. The children were reunited with their parents in late March 1906 and stayed at the ranch in Arizona until fall of the same year. \n\nAfter Arizona, the Calder family moved to Pasadena, California. The windowed cellar of the family home became Calder's first studio and he received his first set of tools. He used scraps of copper wire that he found in the street to make jewelry for his sister's dolls. On January 1, 1907, Nanette Calder took her son to the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, where he observed a four-horse-chariot race. This style of event later became the finale of Calder's miniature circus performances. \n\nIn the fall of 1909, the Calder family moved back to Philadelphia, where Calder briefly attended Germantown Academy, then moved to Croton-on-Hudson, New York. That Christmas, he sculpted a dog and a duck out of sheet brass as gifts for his parents. The sculptures are three-dimensional and the duck is kinetic because it rocks when gently tapped. In Croton, during his early high school years, Calder was befriended by his father's painter friend Everett Shinn with whom he built a gravity powered system of mechanical trains. Calder described it, \"We ran the train on wooden rails held by spikes; a chunk of iron racing down the incline speeded the cars. We even lit up some cars with candle lights\". After Croton, the Calders moved to Spuyten Duyvil to be closer to New York City, where Stirling Calder rented a studio. While living in Spuyten Duyvil, Calder attended high school in nearby Yonkers. In 1912, Stirling Calder was appointed acting chief of the Department of Sculpture of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California, and began work on sculptures for the exposition that was held in 1915.\n\nDuring Calder's high school years (1912–1915), the family moved back and forth between New York and California. In each new location, Calder's parents reserved cellar space as a studio for their son. Toward the end of this period, Calder stayed with friends in California while his parents moved back to New York, so that he could graduate from Lowell High School in San Francisco. Calder graduated with the class of 1915. \n\nLife and career\n\nCalder's parents did not want him to suffer the life of an artist, so he decided to study mechanical engineering. An intuitive engineer since childhood, Calder did not even know what mechanical engineering was. \"I was not very sure what this term meant, but I thought I'd better adopt it,\" he later wrote in his autobiography. He enrolled at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1915. When asked why he decided to study mechanical engineering instead of art Calder said, \"I wanted to be an engineer because some guy I rather liked was a mechanical engineer, that's all.\" At Stevens, Calder was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity and excelled in mathematics. He was well-liked and the class yearbook contained the following description, \"Sandy is evidently always happy, or perhaps up to some joke, for his face is always wrapped up in that same mischievous, juvenile grin. This is certainly the index to the man's character in this case, for he is one of the best natured fellows there is.\" \n\nIn the summer of 1916, Calder spent five weeks training at the Plattsburg Civilian Military Training Camp. In 1918, he joined the Student’s Army Training Corps, Naval Section, at Stevens and was made guide of the battalion.\n\nCalder received a degree from Stevens in 1919. For the next several years, he held a variety of jobs, including working as a hydraulic engineer and a draughtsman for the New York Edison Company. In June 1922, Calder found work as a mechanic on the passenger ship H. F. Alexander. While the ship sailed from San Francisco to New York City, Calder slept on deck and awoke one early morning off the Guatemalan Coast and witnessed both the sun rising and the full moon setting on opposite horizons. He described in his autobiography, \"It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch—a coil of rope—I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other.\" \n\nThe H.F. Alexander docked in San Francisco and Calder traveled up to Aberdeen, Washington, where his sister lived with her husband, Kenneth Hayes. Calder took a job as a timekeeper at a logging camp. The mountain scenery inspired him to write home to request paints and brushes. Shortly after this, Calder decided to move back to New York to pursue a career as an artist.\n\nCalder moved to New York and enrolled at the Art Students League, studying briefly with Thomas Hart Benton, George Luks, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and John Sloan. While a student, he worked for the National Police Gazette where, in 1925, one of his assignments was sketching the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Calder became fascinated with the action of the circus, a theme that would reappear in his later work.\n\nIn 1926, Calder moved to Paris, enrolled in the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and established a studio at 22 rue Daguerre in the Montparnasse Quarter. In June 1929, while traveling by boat from Paris to New York, Calder met his future wife, Louisa James (1905-1996), grandniece of author Henry James and philosopher William James. They married in 1931. While in Paris, Calder met and became friends with a number of avant-garde artists, including Fernand Léger, Jean Arp, and Marcel Duchamp. Calder and Louisa returned to America in 1933 to settle in a farmhouse they purchased in Roxbury, Connecticut, where they raised a family (first daughter, Sandra born 1935, second daughter, Mary, in 1939). In 1955 Alexander and Louisa Calder travelled around in India for three months, where Calder produced nine sculptures as well as some jewelry. \n\nIn 1963, Calder settled into his new workshop, which overlooked the valley of the Lower Chevrière to Saché in Indre-et-Loire (France). He donated to the town a sculpture, which since 1974 has been situated in the town square. Throughout his artistic career, Calder named many of his works in French, regardless of where they were destined for eventual display.\n\nIn 1966, Calder published his Autobiography with Pictures with the help of his son-in-law, Jean Davidson.\n\nCalder died unexpectedly on November 11, 1976, shortly after the opening of a major retrospective show at the Whitney Museum in New York.\n\nArtistic work\n\nSculpture\n\nIn 1926, at the suggestion of a Serbian toy merchant in Paris, Calder began to make mechanical toys. At the urging of fellow sculptor Jose de Creeft, he submitted them to the Salon des Humoristes. Calder began to create his Cirque Calder, a miniature circus fashioned from wire, cloth, string, rubber, cork, and other found objects. Designed to be transportable (it eventually grew to fill five large suitcases), the circus was presented on both sides of the Atlantic. Soon, his Cirque Calder (on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art at present) became popular with the Parisian avant-garde. He also invented wire sculpture, or \"drawing in space,\" and in 1929 he had his first solo show of these sculptures in Paris at Galerie Billiet. The painter Jules Pascin, a friend of Calder's from the cafes of Montparnasse, wrote the preface to the catalog. A visit to Piet Mondrian's studio in 1930, where he was impressed by the environment-as-installation, \"shocked\" him into fully embracing abstract art, toward which he had already been tending.\n\nIt was the mixture of his experiments to develop purely abstract sculpture following his visit with Mondrian that led to his first truly kinetic sculptures, manipulated by means of cranks and motors, that would become his signature artworks. Calder’s kinetic sculptures are regarded as being amongst the earliest manifestations of an art that consciously departed from the traditional notion of the art work as a static object and integrated the ideas of gesture and immateriality as aesthetic factors. \n\nDating from 1931, Calder’s sculptures of discrete movable parts powered by motors were christened “mobiles” by Marcel Duchamp, a French pun meaning both \"motion\" and \"motive.\" By 1932, he moved on to hanging sculptures which derived their motion from touch or the air currents in the room. They were followed in 1934 by outdoor pieces which were set in motion by the open air. At the same time, Calder was also experimenting with self-supporting, static, abstract sculptures, dubbed \"stabiles\" by Jean Arp in 1932 to differentiate them from mobiles. In 1935-1936 he produced a number of works made largely of carved wood. At Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) the Spanish pavilion included Alexander Calder's sculpture Mercury Fountain.\n\nDuring World War II, Calder attempted to join the Marines as a camofleur, but was rejected. He continued to sculpt, adapting to a scarcity of aluminum during the war by returning to carved wood in a new open form of sculpture called \"constellations.\" Once the war was over, Calder began to cut shapes from sheet metal into evocative forms and would hand-paint them in his characteristically pure hues of black, red, blue, and white. Calder created a small group of works from around this period with a hanging base-plate, for example Lily of Force (1945), Baby Flat Top (1946), and Red is Dominant (1947). Calder also set about creating new works such as Seven Horizontal Discs (1946), which, like Lily of Force (1945) and Baby Flat Top (1946), he was able to dismantle and send by mail despite the stringent size restrictions imposed by the postal service at the time. His 1946 show at the Galerie Louis Carré in Paris, composed mainly of hanging and standing mobiles, made a huge impact, as did the essay for the catalogue written, at the artist's invitation, by French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. In 1951, Calder devised a new kind of sculpture, related structurally to his constellations. These \"towers,\" affixed to the wall with a nail, consist of wire struts and beams that jut out from the wall, with moving objects suspended from their armatures. \n\nWhile not denying Calder's power as a sculptor, an alternate view of the history of twentieth-century art cites Calder's turning away in the early 1930s from his motor-powered works in favor of the wind-driven mobile as marking a decisive moment in Modernism's abandonment of its earlier commitment to the machine as a critical and potentially expressive new element in human affairs – and an abandonment, in effect, of its larger goal of a rapprochement with science and engineering – and this with unfortunate, if not to say disastrous, long-term implications for contemporary art:\n\nThe larger myth of the mobile is that it represents the triumph of kinetic sculpture, when in reality the mobile was as different as one could imagine from the original vision: passive rather than active; not at all mechanical; and random rather than directed in its motion. Indeed, the mobile drew upon none of the incredible technical resources of the twentieth century, the appropriation of which had of course been the principal inspiration of the original kineticists.\n\nTheatrical productions\n\nAs a renowned artist, part of Calder's repertoire includes pivotal stage sets for more than a dozen theatrical productions: Nucléa, Panorama, Horizon, Socrate, Work in Progress. Calder would describe some of his stage sets as dancers performing a choreography due to their rhythmic movement. The production of the Socrate set in 1936 became a decisive moment in Calder's artistic development. Calder described it in these terms: «it serves as an indication of a good deal of my subsequent work». \n\nMonumental works\n\nIn the 1950s, Calder increasingly concentrated his efforts on producing monumental sculptures (his self-described period of \"agrandissements\"). Notable examples are .125 for JFK Airport in 1957, Spirale for UNESCO in Paris 1958 and Trois disques, commissioned for Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada. Calder's largest sculpture at 25.7 meters high was El Sol Rojo, constructed outside the Aztec Stadium for the 1968 Summer Olympics \"Cultural Olympiad\" events in Mexico City.\n\nIn 1934, Calder made his first outdoor works in his Roxbury, Connecticut studio, using the same techniques and materials as his smaller works. Exhibited outside, Calder's initial standing mobiles moved elegantly in the breeze, bobbing and swirling in natural, spontaneous rhythms. In fact, the first few outdoor works were too delicate for strong winds, which forced Calder to rethink his fabrication process.\n\nIn 1936, he responded to the problem, changing his working methods. He began to create smaller scale maquettes that he then enlarged to monumental size. The small metal maquette, the first step in the production of a monumental sculpture, was already for Calder a sculpture in its own right. The larger works were made under his direction, using the classic enlargement techniques used in different ways by traditional sculptors, including his father and grandfather. Calder began to draw his designs on brown craft paper, which he enlarged using a grid. His large-scale works were created according to his exact specifications, while also allowing him the liberty to adjust or correct a shape or line if necessary. \n\nHe made most of his monumental stabiles and mobiles after 1962 at Etablissements Biémont in Tours, France. Calder would create a model of his work, the engineering department would scale it up to final size under Calder's direction, and then technicians would complete the actual metalwork — all under Calder's watchful eye. Stabiles were made in steel plate, then painted in black or in colors. An exception was Trois disques, in stainless steel at 24 meters tall, which was commissioned by International Nickel Company of Canada.\n\nIn 1958, Calder asked Jean Prouvé to construct the steel base of Spirale in France, a monumental mobile for the UNESCO site in Paris, while the top was fabricated in Connecticut. In June 1969, Calder attended the dedication of his monumental stabile La Grande Vitesse in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This sculpture is notable for being the first civic sculpture in the United States to receive funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. \n\nCalder created a sculpture called Bent Propeller, which in 1971 was installed at the entrance of the World Trade Center's North Tower in New York City. When Battery Park City opened, the sculpture was moved to Vesey and Church Streets. The sculpture stood in front of 7 World Trade Center until it was destroyed on September 11, 2001. \n\nIn 1974 Calder unveiled to the public two sculptures, Flamingo at Federal Plaza and Universe at Sears Tower, in Chicago, Illinois. The exhibition Alexander Calder: A Retrospective Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, opened simultaneously with the unveiling of the sculptures. Originally meant to be constructed in 1977 for the Hart Senate Office Building, Mountains and Clouds was not built until 1985 due to government budget cuts. The massive project, constructed of sheet steel and weighing 35 tons, spans the entire nine-story height of the building's atrium in Washington DC. Calder designed the maquette in the last year of his life for the US Senate. \n\nPainting and printmaking\n\nIn addition to sculptures, Calder painted throughout his career, beginning in the early 1920s. He picked up his study of printmaking in 1925, and continued to produce illustrations for books and journals. His many projects from this period include pen-and-ink line drawings of animals for a 1931 publication of Aesop’s fables. As Calder’s sculpture moved into the realm of pure abstraction in the early 1930s, so did his prints. The thin lines used to define figures in the earlier prints and drawings began delineating groups of geometric shapes, often in motion. Calder also used prints for advocacy, as in poster prints from 1967 and 1969 protesting the Vietnam War. \n\nAs Calder’s professional reputation expanded in the late 1940s and 1950s, so did his production of prints. Masses of lithographs based on his gouache paintings hit the market, and deluxe editions of plays, poems, and short stories illustrated with fine art prints by Calder became available for sale.\n\nPainted aircraft\n\nIn 1972, Dallas, Texas, based Braniff International Airways commissioned Calder to paint a full-size Douglas DC-8-62 four engined airliner as a \"flying canvas.\" George Stanley Gordon, founder of the New York City advertising agency Gordon and Shortt, approached Alexander Calder with the idea of painting a jet airliner. Calder responded that he did not paint toys and Gordon told him it was a real full sized airliner that he proposed that Calder paint. Calder immediately gave his approval and George knew that Braniff International, known for melding the worlds of fashion and design with the mysterious world of aviation, would be the perfect company to propose his idea of Calder painting one of their jets. Braniff Chairman Harding Lawrence was highly receptive to the idea and a contract was drawn up that called for the painting of one Douglas DC-8-62 jet liner and 50 gouaches for a total price of $100,000.\n\nPainted automobile\n\nIn 1975, Calder was commissioned to paint a BMW 3.0 CSL, which would be the first vehicle in the BMW Art Car Project. \n\nJewelry\n\nCalder created over 2,000 pieces of jewelry over the course of his career, many of them as gifts for friends and relatives. Several pieces reflect Calder's fascination with art from Africa and other continents. They were mostly made of brass and steel, with bits of ceramic, wood and glass. Calder rarely used solder; when he needed to join strips of metal, he linked them with loops, bound them with snippets of wire or fashioned rivets. Calder created his first pieces in 1906 at the age of eight for his sister's dolls using copper wire that he found in the street.\n\nFor his lifelong friend Joan Miró, he set a shard of a broken porcelain vessel in a brass ring. Peggy Guggenheim received enormous silver mobile earrings and later commissioned a hammered silver headboard that shimmered with dangling fish. In 1942, Guggenheim wore one Calder earring and one by Yves Tanguy to the opening of her New York gallery, The Art of This Century, to demonstrate her equal loyalty to Surrealist and abstract art, examples of which she displayed in separate galleries. Others who were presented with Calder's pieces were the artist's close friend, Georgia O'Keeffe; Teeny Duchamp, wife of Marcel Duchamp; Jeanne Rucar, wife of the filmmaker Luis Buñuel; and Bella Rosenfeld, wife of Marc Chagall. \n\nExhibitions\n\nCalder's first solo exhibition came in 1927, at the Gallery of Jacques Seligmann in Paris. In 1928, his first solo show in a US commercial gallery was at the Weyhe Gallery in New York City. In 1933, he exhibited with the Abstraction-Création group in Paris.\n\nIn 1935, he had his first solo museum exhibition in the United States at The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. In New York, he was championed from the early 1930s by the Museum of Modern Art, and was one of three Americans to be included in Alfred H. Barr Jr.'s 1936 exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art. \n\nCalder's first retrospective was held in 1938 at George Walter Vincent Smith Gallery in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1943, the Museum of Modern Art hosted a well-received Calder retrospective, curated by James Johnson Sweeney and Marcel Duchamp; the show had to be extended due to the sheer number of visitors. Calder was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949. His mobile, International Mobile was the centerpiece of the exhibition. Calder also participated in documentas I (1955), II (1959), III (1964). A retrospective of his work opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1964. Five years later, the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, held its own Calder retrospective. In addition, both of Calder's dealers, Galerie Maeght in Paris and the Perls Galleries in New York, averaged about one Calder show each per year.\n\nCollections\n\nCalder's work is in many permanent collections across the world. The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, has the largest body of work by Alexander Calder. Other important museum collections include the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. \n\nThe Philadelphia Museum of Art offers a view of works by three generations of Alexander Calders. From the second floor window on the east side of the Great Stair Hall (on the opposite side from the armor collection) there is behind the viewer the Ghost mobile from the 3rd generation (born 1898), ahead on the street is the Swann Memorial Fountain by the 2nd generation (born 1870), and beyond that the statue of William Penn atop City Hall from the 1st generation (born 1846).\n\nRecognition and awards\n\n* 1952 – Calder represented the United States at the Venice Biennale and was awarded the main prize for sculpture \n* 1958 – First Prize for Sculpture at the Pittsburgh International\n* 1998 – US Postal Service issues a 32-cent stamp honoring Calder \n\nArt market\n\nIn the late 1930s and early 1940s, even as Calder’s international acclaim was growing, his works were still not highly sought after, and when they sold, it was often for relatively little money. A copy of a Pierre Matisse sales ledger in the foundation’s files shows that only a few pieces in the 1941 show found buyers, one of whom, Solomon R. Guggenheim, paid only $233.34 (about $3,500 in 2014 dollars) for a work. The Museum of Modern Art had bought its first Calder in 1934 for $60, after talking Calder down from $100.Randy Kennedy (October 18, 2011), [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/arts/design/alexander-calder-in-1941-at-the-pace-gallery.html A Year in the Work of Calder] New York Times. In 2010, his metal mobile Untitled (Autumn Leaves), sold at Sotheby's New York for $3.7 million. Another mobile brought $6.35 million at Christie's later that year. Also at Christie's, a standing mobile called Lily of Force (1945), which was expected to sell for $8 to $12 million, was bought for $18.5 million in 2012. Calder’s 7 1/2-foot-long hanging mobile Poisson volant (Flying Fish) (1957) fetched $25.9 million, setting an auction record for the sculptor at Christie's New York in 2014. \n\nGalerie Maeght in Paris became Calder's exclusive Parisian dealer in 1950 and for the rest of Calder's life. After his New York dealer Curt Valentin died unexpectedly in 1954, Calder selected the Perls Galleries in New York as his new American dealer, and this alliance also lasted until the end of his life. \n\nLegacy\n\nFrom 1966 through the present, winners of the National Magazine Awards are awarded an \"Ellie\", a copper-colored stabile resembling an elephant, which was designed by Calder. Two months after his death, the artist was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, by President Gerald Ford. However, representatives of the Calder family boycotted the January 10, 1977 ceremony \"to make a statement favoring amnesty for Vietnam War draft resisters\".\n\nCalder Foundation\n\nIn 1987, the Calder Foundation was established by Calder's family. The foundation \"is dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, preserving, and interpreting the art and archives of Alexander Calder and is charged with an unmatched collection of his works.\" The foundation has large holdings, with some works owned by family members and others by foundation supporters. The art includes more than 600 sculptures (including mobiles, stabiles, standing mobiles, and wire sculptures), and 22 monumental outdoor works, as well as thousands of oil paintings, works on paper, toys, pieces of jewelry, and domestic objects. The US copyright representative for the Calder Foundation is the Artists Rights Society.\n\nAfter having worked mainly on cataloging Calder’s works, the Calder Foundation is now focusing on organizing global exhibitions for the artist. \n\nAuthenticity issues\n\nThe Calder Foundation does not authenticate artworks; rather, owners can submit their works for registration in the Foundation's archive and for examination. The committee that performs examinations includes experts, scholars, museum curators, and members of the Calder family. The Calder Foundation's website provides details on the current policies and guidelines governing examination procedures. \n\nIn 1993, the owners of Rio Nero (1959), a sheet-metal and steel-wire mobile ostensibly by Calder, went to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia charging that it was not by Alexander Calder, which the dealer who had sold it to them had claimed. That same year, a federal judge ruled that for Rio Nero the burden of proof had not been fulfilled. Despite the decision, the owners of the mobile could not sell it because the recognized expert, Klaus Perls, had declared it a copy. The judge recognized the problem at the time, noting that Perls’ pronouncement would make Rio Nero unsellable. In 1994, the Calder Foundation declined to include the mobile in the catalogue raisonné on the artist. \n\nReferring to the Rio Nero case, the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court in 2009 rejected the appeal of an art collector who wished to sell a couple of stage sets that Calder had designed but did not live to see completed, which had been unsuccessfully submitted to the Calder Foundation for authentication. The court found that it did not have the power to declare the purported Calder work authentic, nor to order the Calder Foundation to include it in the catalogue raisonné.\n\nIn 1995, questions arose about another purported Calder, Two White Dots (this piece is distinguished from a similarly-named piece, Two White Dots in the Air, created by Calder in 1958). Calder created a 1 ft high sheet metal maquette in 1973 for an unrealized stabile he called Two White Dots. He gave this maquette to Carmen Segretario, founder and owner of the Segré Foundry of Waterbury, Connecticut. For decades, Calder had utilized the services of Segré Foundry in manufacturing his mobiles and stabiles. Each piece (no matter how many copies were made) would be initialled personally by Calder in white chalk, after which a welder would follow the chalk marks to burn the initials into the work. Calder died in 1976, without a full-size version of Two White Dots ever having been made. In 1982, Segretario constructed a full-size version of Two White Dots, and sold it in 1983 to art dealer Shirley Teplitz for $70,000. Segetario's documentation claimed that the work had been fabricated around 1974 \"under the supervision and direction of Artist\". Two White Dots was then sold at auction in May 1984 for $187,000. Over the next decade, the piece was sold repeatedly. In 1995, Jon Shirley (the former president of Microsoft and a Calder collector) purchased Two White Dots for $1 million. When Shirley submitted the work to the Calder Foundation for inclusion in their catalogue raisonné, the Foundation contested the work's authenticity. The André Emmerich Gallery refunded Shirley's money, and sued the Segré Foundry, which sought bankruptcy protection. The suit was settled out of court in the late 1990s. Two White Dots now resides outdoors on a farm near a river outside the small town of Washington, Connecticut.\n\nPlans for a Calder Museum\n\nAfter similar ideas were developed for New York in 1998, plans for a museum devoted to Calder in Philadelphia were announced in 2000. The proposed 35,000-square-foot Calder museum, designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, was to be located on a two-acre lot. The facility, which was slated for a 2008 opening, would have cost an estimated $70 million. The late sculptor's heirs had agreed to an unprecedented gift to the museum but in 2005, the plans were abandoned over failed fundraising efforts. \n\nQuotes\n\n\"How can art be realized?\n\nOut of volumes, motion, spaces bounded by the great space, the universe.\n\nOut of different masses, tight, heavy, middling—indicated by variations of size or color—directional line—vectors which represent speeds, velocities, accelerations, forces, etc. . . .—these directions making between them meaningful angles, and senses, together defining one big conclusion or many.\n\nSpaces, volumes, suggested by the smallest means in contrast to their mass, or even including them, juxtaposed, pierced by vectors, crossed by speeds.\n\nNothing at all of this is fixed.\n\nEach element able to move, to stir, to oscillate, to come and go in its relationships with the other elements in its universe.\n\nIt must not be just a fleeting moment but a physical bond between the varying events in life.\n\nNot extractions,\n\nBut abstractions\n\nAbstractions that are like nothing in life except in their manner of reacting.\" \n\n::: – From Abstraction-Création, Art Non Figuratif, no. 1, 1932.\n\nGallery\n\nImage:Wfm_calder.jpg|L'empennage (The Empennage) (1953), Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art\nFile:Aula Magna-Calder-UCV.JPG|Acoustic Ceiling (1953),Aula Magna, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela\nImage:Mobil 3 Moderna museet, Stockholm 2006.jpg|The Four Elements (1961), Moderna Museet, installation in front of the museum entrance\nFile:Calder Rotterdam 002.jpg|Le tamanoir (The Anteater) (1963),Rotterdam, Netherlands\nFile:Calder3.jpg|Têtes et queue (Heads and tail) (1965),Berlin, Germany\nFile:De tre vingarna, Alexander Calder.JPG|De tre vingarna (The Three Wings) (1967), Blå Stället, Angered, Gothenburg, Sweden.\nFile:Cc belem 2.jpg|Untitled (1968), Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon, Portugal\nFile:Sandy Calder 3 disks 1 lacking 1968 no c.JPG | Three Disks, One Lacking (1968), Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania \nFile:NGA Bobine by Alexander Calder (429168632).jpg|Bobine (Bobbin) (1970), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia\nFile:Hannover Calder Modern art.jpg|Le hallebardier (The Halberdier) (1971), Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany\nFile:Alexander Calder Crinkly avec disc Rouge 1973-1.jpg|Crinkly avec disque rouge (Crinkly with Red Disk) (1973), Schlossplatz in Stuttgart, Germany\nFile:Feuille D'arbro.jpg|Feuille d'arbre (Tree leaf) (1974),Tel Aviv, Israel\n\nSelected works\n\n* Dog (1909), folded brass sheet; this was made as a present for Calder's parents\n* The Flying Trapeze (1925), oil on canvas, 36 x 42 in.\n* Elephant (c. 1928), wire and wood, 11½ x 5¾ x 29.2 in.\n* Hi! (ca. 1928), brass wire, painted wood base, Honolulu Museum of Art\n* Policeman (ca. 1928) Wire and wood.\n* Aztec Josephine Baker (1930), wire, 53\" x 10\" x 9\". A representation of Josephine Baker, the exuberant lead dancer from La revue nègre at the Folies Bergère.\n* Untitled (1931), wire, wood and motor; one of the first kinetic mobiles\n* Small Feathers (1931), wire, wood and paint; first true mobile, although designed to stand on a desktop\n* Cône d'ébène (1933), ebony, metal bar and wire; early suspended mobile (first was made in 1932)\n* Object with Yellow Background (1936), Painted wood, metal, string, Honolulu Museum of Art\n* Mercury Fountain (1937), sheet metal and liquid mercury metal\n* Devil Fish (1937), sheet metal, bolts and paint; first piece made from a model\n* 1939 New York World's Fair (maquette) (1938), sheet metal, wire, wood, string and paint\n* Necklace (c. 1938), brass wire, glass and mirror\n* Sphere Pierced by Cylinders (1939), wire and paint; the first of many floor standing, life size \"stabiles\" (predating Anthony Caro's \"plinthless\" sculptures by two decades)\n* Lobster Trap and Fish Tail (1939), sheet metal, wire and paint (suspended mobile); design for the stairwell of the Museum of Modern Art, New York\n* Black Beast (1940), sheet metal, bolts and paint (freestanding plinthless stabile)\n* S-Shaped Vine (1946), sheet metal, wire and paint (suspended mobile)\n* Sword Plant (1947) sheet metal, wire and paint (standing mobile)\n* Snow Flurry (1948), sheet metal, wire and paint (suspended mobile)\n* Stillman House Mural (1952), (pool mural) http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/stillman-house-i-881\n* .125 (1957), steel plate, rods and paint\n* [http://www.unesco.org/artcollection/DetailAction.do?idOeuvre=1549 Spirale] (1958), steel plate, rod and paint, 360\" high; public monumental mobile for Maison de l'UNESCO, Paris\n* Guillotine pour huit (Guillotine for eight), (1962), at the LaM, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France\n* Teodelapio (1962), steel plate and paint, monumental stabile, Spoleto, Italy\n* La Grande voile (1966), a 33-ton metal sculpture composed of five intersecting forms, four planes, and one curve. It stands 40 ft tall, on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.\n* Man (1967) stainless steel plate, bolts and paint, 65' x 83' x 53', monumental stabile, Montreal Canada\n* Gwenfritz (1968) National Museum of American History\n* La Grande vitesse, (1969), steel plate, bolts and paint, 43' x 55' x 25', Grand Rapids, Michigan\n* Bent Propeller, [destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001] 1970-71, 7 World Trade Center, New York City\n* Peau Rouge Indiana (Red Skin Indiana) (1970), steel plate, bolts and paint, 40' x 32' x 33', Bloomington, Indiana\n* Reims, Croix du Sud (Reims, Cross of the South) (1970), at the LaM, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France\n* Eagle (1971), steel plate, bolts and paint, 38'9\" x 32'8\" x 32'8\", Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, Washington\n* White and Red Boomerang (1971), Painted metal, wire, Honolulu Museum of Art\n* Stegosaurus (1973), steel plate, bolts and paint, 50' tall, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut\n* Cheval Rouge (Red Horse) (1974), red painted sheet metal, at the National Gallery, Washington DC\n* Flamingo (1974), red painted steel, at the Federal Plaza, Chicago, Illinois\n* Universe (1974), motorized \"wallmobile,\" black, red, yellow, and blue painted steel, Willis Tower, Chicago, Illinois\n* The Red Feather (1975), black and red painted steel, 11' x 6'3\" x 11'2\", The Kentucky Center\n* Flying Dragon (1975), red painted steel, believed to be the final stabile personally created by Alexander Calder, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois \n* Untitled (1976), aluminum honeycomb, tubing and paint, 358½ x 912\", National Gallery of Art Washington DC\n* L'Araignée Rouge (The Red Spider) (1976), 15m tall, monumental sculpture, Paris La Défense France\n* Mountains and Clouds (1976), painted aluminum and steel, 612 inches x 900 inches, Hart Senate Office Building\n* Calder's set for Socrate (1976), Pivotal stage sets presented in New York on the first anniversary of Calder's death\n\nNotes" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Dire_Straits.txt" ], "title": [ "Dire Straits" ], "wiki_context": [ "Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals and lead guitar), his younger brother David Knopfler (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar and backing vocals), and Pick Withers (drums and percussion). Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, and blues, and came closest to beat music within the context of rock and roll. Despite the prominence of punk rock during the band's early years, their stripped-down sound contrasted with punk, demonstrating a more \"rootsy\" influence that emerged from pub rock. Many of Dire Straits' compositions were melancholic. \n\nDire Straits' biggest selling album,1985's Brothers in Arms has sold over 30 million copies, and was the first album to sell a million copies on the then new CD format. They also became one of the world's most commercially successful bands, with worldwide records sales of over 100 million. Dire Straits won four Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards—winning Best British Group twice, two MTV Video Music Awards, and various other music awards.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8394556.stm \"Dire Straits given plaque honour\"]. BBC News, 4 December 2009. Retrieved: 14 January 2015. The band's songs include \"Money for Nothing\", \"Sultans of Swing\", \"So Far Away\", \"Walk of Life\", \"Brothers in Arms\", \"Private Investigations\", \"Romeo and Juliet\", \"Tunnel of Love\", and \"Telegraph Road\".\n\nAccording to the Guinness Book of British Hit Albums, Dire Straits have spent over 1,100 weeks on the UK albums chart, ranking fifth all-time. Their career spanned a combined total of 15 years. They originally split up in 1988, but reformed in 1991, and disbanded for good in 1995 when Mark Knopfler launched his solo career full-time. There were several changes in personnel over both periods, leaving Mark Knopfler and John Illsley as the only two original bandmates who remained throughout the band's career.\n\nHistory\n\n1977–79: Early years and first two albums\n\nBrothers Mark and David Knopfler, and friends John Illsley, and Pick Withers formed the band in 1977. In 1977, Dire Straits (a name given to the band by a musician flatmate of drummer Pick Withers, allegedly thought up while they were rehearsing in the kitchen of a friend, Simon Cowe, of Lindisfarne), recorded a five-song demo tape which included their future hit single, \"Sultans of Swing\", as well as \"Water of Love\", \"Down to the Waterline\", \"Wild West End\" and David Knopfler's \"Sacred Loving\". After a performance at The Rock Garden in 1977, they took a demo tape to MCA in Soho but were turned down. Then they went to DJ Charlie Gillett, who had a radio show called \"Honky Tonk\" on BBC Radio London. The band simply wanted advice, but Gillett liked the music so much that he played \"Sultans of Swing\" on his show. Two months later, Dire Straits signed a recording contract with the Vertigo division of Phonogram Inc. In October 1977, the band recorded demo tapes of \"Southbound Again\", \"In the Gallery\" and \"Six Blade Knife\" for BBC Radio London; in November demo tapes were made of \"Setting Me Up\", \"Eastbound Train\" and \"Real Girl\".\n\nThe group's first album, Dire Straits, was recorded at Basing Street studios in West London in February 1978, at a cost of £12,500. Produced by Muff Winwood, the album was first released in the United Kingdom on Vertigo Records, then a division of Phonogram Inc. The album came to the attention of A&R representative Karin Berg, working at Warner Bros. Records in New York City. She felt that it was the kind of music audiences were hungry for, but only one person in her department agreed at first. Many of the songs on the album reflected Mark Knopfler's experiences in Newcastle, Leeds and London. \"Down to the Waterline\" recalled images of life in Newcastle; \"In the Gallery\" is a tribute to Leeds sculptor/artist Harry Phillips (father of Steve Phillips); \"Wild West End\" and \"Lions\" were drawn from Knopfler's early days in the capital. \n\nThat same year, Dire Straits began a tour as opening band for Talking Heads after the re-released \"Sultans of Swing\" finally started to climb the UK charts. This led to a United States recording contract with Warner Bros. Records; before the end of 1978, Dire Straits had released their self-titled debut worldwide. They received more attention in the United States, but also arrived at the top of the charts in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Dire Straits eventually went top 10 in every European country.\n\nThe following year, Dire Straits embarked on their first North American tour. They played 51 sold-out concerts over a 38-day period. \"Sultans of Swing\" scaled the charts to number four in the United States and number eight in the United Kingdom. The song was one of Dire Straits' biggest hits and became a fixture in the band's live performances. Bob Dylan, who had seen the band play in Los Angeles, was so impressed that he invited Mark Knopfler and drummer Pick Withers to play on his next album, Slow Train Coming. \n\nRecording sessions for the group's second album, Communiqué, took place in December 1978 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas. Released in June 1979, Communiqué was produced by Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett and went to No. 1 on the German album charts, with the debut album Dire Straits simultaneously at No. 3. In the United Kingdom the album peaked at No. 5 in the album charts. Featuring the single \"Lady Writer\", the second album continued in a similar vein as the first and displayed the expanding scope of Knopfler's lyricism on the opening track, \"Once Upon a Time in the West\". In the coming year, however, this approach began to change, along with the group's line-up.\n\n1980–84: Increased musical complexity and early success\n\nIn 1980, Dire Straits were nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for \"Sultans of Swing\". In July 1980 the band started recording tracks for their third album. Produced by Jimmy Iovine with Mark Knopfler also sharing credit, Making Movies was released in October 1980. During the recording sessions, tension between Mark and David Knopfler took its toll on the band, and David Knopfler left over creative differences with his brother to pursue a solo career; he was uncredited on the album. The sessions continued with Sid McGinnis on rhythm guitar and keyboardist Roy Bittan from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. After the recording sessions were completed, keyboardist Alan Clark and Californian guitarist Hal Lindes joined Dire Straits as full-time members for tours of Europe and North America.\n\nMaking Movies received mostly positive reviews and featured longer songs with more complex arrangements, a style which would continue for the rest of the band's career. The album featured many of Mark Knopfler's most personal compositions. The most successful chart single was \"Romeo and Juliet\" (number 8 in the UK singles chart), a song about a failed love affair, with Knopfler's trademark in keeping personal songs under fictitious names. Although never released as a hit single, \"Solid Rock\" was featured in all Dire Straits' live shows from this point on for the remainder of their career, while the album's lengthy opening track, \"Tunnel of Love\", with its intro \"The Carousel Waltz\" by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, was featured in the film An Officer and a Gentleman. Although \"Tunnel of Love\" only reached the position of No. 54 in the UK Singles Chart when released as a single in 1981, it remains one of Dire Straits' most famous and popular songs and immediately became a favourite at concerts. Making Movies stayed in the UK Albums Chart for 5 years, peaking at number 4. \n\nDire Straits' fourth studio album Love Over Gold, an album of songs filled with lengthy, experimental passages that featured Alan Clark's piano and keyboard work, was well received when it was released in September 1982, going gold in America and spending four weeks at number one in the United Kingdom. The title was inspired by graffiti seen from the window of Knopfler's old council flat in London. The phrase was taken from the sleeve of an album by Captain Beefheart. Love Over Gold was the first Dire Straits album produced solely by Mark Knopfler, and its main chart hit, \"Private Investigations\", gave Dire Straits their first top 5 hit single in the United Kingdom, where it reached the number 2 position despite its almost seven-minute length, and became another of the band's most popular live songs.[https://books.google.com/books?id\ngZIjT8PgJMEC&pgPA282&dq\nprivate+investigations+dire+straits&hlen&ei\nSAAcTcmEE4iChQeP-pW3Dg&saX&oi\nbook_result&ctresult&resnum\n5&ved0CEIQ6AEwBA#v\nonepage&qprivate%20investigations%20dire%20straits&f\nfalse International who's who in popular music], p. 282. Routledge, 2002.\n\nIn other parts of the world, \"Industrial Disease\", a song that looks at the decline of the British manufacturing industry in the early 1980s, focusing on strikes, depression and dysfunctionality, was the main single from the album, particularly in Canada, where it became a top 10 hit. As well as the title track and \"It Never Rains\", Love Over Gold featured the 14-minute-long epic \"Telegraph Road\". Also written by Knopfler during this period was \"Private Dancer\", which did not appear on the album, but was eventually given to Tina Turner for her comeback album of the same name. Love Over Gold reportedly sold two million copies during the first six weeks after its release. Shortly after the release of Love Over Gold, drummer Pick Withers left the band. His replacement was Terry Williams, formerly of Rockpile and a range of other Welsh bands including Man.\n\nIn 1983, a four-song EP titled ExtendedancEPlay was released while Love Over Gold was still in the album charts. It featured the hit single \"Twisting By the Pool\" which reached the Top 20 in the UK and Canada. Dire Straits also embarked on an eight-month-long world tour to promote Love Over Gold, which finished with two sold out concerts London's Hammersmith Odeon on 22 and 23 July 1983. The double album Alchemy Live, was a recording of excerpts from these two concerts and was reportedly released without studio overdubs. It was mixed in November 1983 and released in March 1984, reaching the Top 3 in the UK Albums Chart. The concert was also issued on VHS and was remastered and released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2010 – the only performance on the new format to date.\n\nDuring 1983 and 1984 Mark Knopfler was also involved in other projects outside of the band. He wrote the music scores for the films Local Hero and Cal, which were also released as albums. Also, during this time Knopfler produced Bob Dylan's Infidels album which featured Alan Clark on keyboards, as well as Aztec Camera and Willy DeVille. Also in 1984, John Illsley released his first solo album, Never Told a Soul, to which Mark Knopfler, Alan Clark and Terry Williams contributed.\n\n1985–86: The Brothers in Arms era and international success\n\nDire Straits returned to the recording studios at the end of 1984, and began recording tracks at Air Studios Montserrat for their upcoming fifth studio album, Brothers in Arms, produced by Knopfler with Neil Dorfsman. The sessions saw further personnel changes. The band added a second keyboardist, Guy Fletcher, who had previously worked as a session musician with Roxy Music and on the Cal soundtrack. Guitarist Hal Lindes left the band during the recording sessions and was replaced by New York guitarist Jack Sonni.\n\nAccording to a Sound on Sound magazine interview with Neil Dorfsman, a month after the recording sessions began, drummer Terry Williams was temporarily replaced by jazz session drummer, Omar Hakim, who recorded the drums for the entire album during a two-day stay before leaving for other commitments. Both Hakim and Williams are credited on the album, although Williams' only contribution is the drumming on \"Walk of life\" and the improvised crescendo at the beginning of \"Money for Nothing\". The remainder of the album features Hakim on drums. Andy Kanavan joined briefly as a potential permanent drummer. Williams would be back in the band for the music videos and the subsequent world tour. Neither Kanavan nor Sonni were credited as official band members for the new album release.\n\nReleased in May 1985, Brothers in Arms entered the UK Albums Chart at number 1 and spent a total of 228 weeks in the charts. It went on to become the best-selling album of 1985 in the UK. Brothers in Arms was similarly successful in the US, peaking at No. 1 on Billboard 200 for nine weeks, going multi-platinum, selling nine million copies. The album spent thirty-four weeks at number 1 on the Australian ARIA Chart, making it the longest-running number one album in Australia. The album featured a more lavish production and overall sound than Dire Straits' earlier work, and spawned several big chart singles:\n\n\"Money for Nothing\", which reached number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 4 in the UK Singles Chart, \"So Far Away\" (#20 UK, No. 19 US), \"Brothers in Arms\" (#16 UK), \"Walk of Life\" (#2 UK, No. 7 US), and \"Your Latest Trick\" (#26 UK).[http://www.rockonthenet.com/artists-d/direstraits_main.htm Rock on the Net: Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler] Retrieved: 29–12–10. \"Money for Nothing\" was the first video to be played on MTV in Britain and featured guest vocals by Sting, who is credited with co-writing the song with Mark Knopfler, although in fact, it was just the inclusion of the melody line from \"Don't Stand So Close To Me\" that triggered the copyright credit, no actual lyrics were written by Sting. It also won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 28th Grammy Awards in February 1986. \n\nBrothers in Arms was among the first albums recorded on digital equipment due to Knopfler pushing for improved sound quality. The album's title track is reported to be the world's first CD single. It was issued in the UK as a promotional item distinguished with a logo for the tour, Live in '85, while a second to commemorate the Australian leg of the tour marked Live in '86. Containing just four tracks, it had a very limited run. \"Walk of Life\" meanwhile was nearly excluded from the album when co-producer Neil Dorfsman voted against its inclusion, but the band members out-voted him. The result was Dire Straits' most commercially successful hit single in the UK, peaking at number two. \"Money for Nothing\", \"Walk of Life\", and \"Brothers in Arms\" immediately became live concert favourites.\n\nThe album is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first compact disc to sell a million copies, and has been credited with helping to popularise the CD format. The Brothers in Arms CD featured the full version of the \"Money for Nothing\" cut, rather than the version that appears on the LP. In fact, the CD includes extended versions of all tracks featured on the first side of the original LP, with the exception of \"Walk of Life\".\n\nThe 1985–86 world tour which followed the album's release was phenomenally successful. Saxophonist Chris White joined the band, and the tour began on 25 April 1985 in Split, Yugoslavia (now Croatia). While playing a 13-night residency at Wembley Arena, the band moved down the road to Wembley Stadium on the afternoon of 13 July 1985, to appear in a Live Aid slot, in which their set included \"Money For Nothing\" with Sting as guest vocalist. The tour ended at the Entertainment Centre in Sydney, Australia on 26 April 1986, where Dire Straits still holds the record for consecutive appearances at 21 nights. The band also made an impromptu attempt at the famous Australian folk song \"Waltzing Matilda\". In a two-year span, Dire Straits played 247 shows in over 100 different cities.\n\nAdditionally in 1985, a group set out from London to Khartoum to raise money for famine relief led by John Abbey, was called The Walk of Life. Dire Straits donated the Brothers in Arms Gold disc to the participants in recognition of what they were doing.\n\nThe band's 10 July 1985 concert at Wembley Arena, in which they were accompanied by Nils Lofgren for \"Solid Rock\" and Hank Marvin joined the band at the end to play \"Going Home\" (the theme from Local Hero), was televised in the United Kingdom on The Tube on Channel 4 in January 1986. (Although never officially released, bootleg recordings of the performance entitled Wembley does the Walk (2005) have been circulated.)\n\nIn 1986 Brothers in Arms won two Grammy Awards, and also won Best British Album at the 1987 Brit Awards. Q magazine placed the album at number 51 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever in 2000. The album also ranked number 351 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the \"500 Greatest Albums of All Time\" in 2003. Brothers in Arms is also ranked number 3 in the best albums of 1985 and number 31 in the best albums of the 1980s, and as of April 2012, the album was ranked the seventh best-selling album in UK chart history, and is the 107th best-selling album in the United States. In August 1986, MTV Europe was launched with Dire Straits' \"Money for Nothing\". \n\n1987–90: First break-up\n\nAfter the Brothers in Arms tour ended Mark Knopfler took a break from Dire Straits and during 1987 he concentrated on solo projects and film soundtracks. Dire Straits regrouped in 1988 for the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert staged on 11 June 1988 at Wembley Stadium, in which they were the headline act. They were joined for their set by Eric Clapton[http://www.mark-knopfler-news.co.uk/biogs/mark.html Mark Knopfler – Authorized Biography]. mark-knopfler-news.co.uk who performed his hit \"Wonderful Tonight\" with the group and played rhythm guitar on the other songs performed by the band, while guitarist Jack Sonni was absent. Soon afterwards, Williams left the band.\n\nMark Knopfler announced the official dissolution of Dire Straits in September 1988. He told Rob Tannenbaum in Rolling Stone: \"A lot of press reports were saying we were the biggest band in the world. There's not an accent then on the music, there's an accent on popularity. I needed a rest.\" The tremendous success of the Brothers in Arms album and the tour that went with it left the band members under a significant amount of stress, and Knopfler announced that he wanted to work on more personal projects. A greatest hits album, Money for Nothing, was released in October 1988 and reached the number one position in the United Kingdom. Also in 1988, John Illsley released his second solo album, Glass which featured Mark Knopfler, Alan Clark, Guy Fletcher and Chris White.\n\nIn 1989, over a meal at a Notting Hill wine bar, Knopfler formed The Notting Hillbillies, a country-focused band whose line-up featured Guy Fletcher, Brendan Croker, and Steve Phillips and manager Ed Bicknell on drums. The Notting Hillbillies' one album, Missing...Presumed Having a Good Time with its minor hit single \"Your Own Sweet Way\", was released in 1990. The Notting Hillbillies toured for the remainder of the year, and also appeared on Saturday Night Live. Knopfler would further emphasise his country music influences on his 1990 collaboration with guitarist Chet Atkins, Neck and Neck.\n\nIn 1990, Dire Straits performed alongside Elton John and Eric Clapton at Knebworth Festival, playing three songs: \"Solid Rock\", \"Money for Nothing\" and a song which Knopfler prefaced as an experimental song, unsure if they should record it on a following record. The song, titled, \"I Think I Love You Too Much\", a blues rock piece with solos by both Knopfler and Clapton; this song also appeared on the 1990 album Hell To Pay as a gift to Canadian blues/jazz artist Jeff Healey from Knopfler. This was prior to the time that Knopfler, Illsley and manager Ed Bicknell decided to reform the band the following year.Tobler, John. (1991) Who's Who in Rock & Roll, p. 1988. Crescent Books.\n\n1991–95: Resurrection, final albums and final dissolution\n\nIn early 1991, Knopfler and Illsley resurrected Dire Straits, bringing back with them former keyboardists Alan Clark, and Guy Fletcher. Retaining Bicknell as their manager, Dire Straits was trimmed down and comprised only four members once again. The band began recording tracks for a new album, integrating new session players who included steel guitarist Paul Franklin, and percussionist Danny Cummings. Saxophonist Chris White returned, and guitarist Phil Palmer filled the vacancy left by Sonni. During the recording sessions, American drummer Jeff Porcaro performed in place of Williams. Afterwards, he was invited to join the band full-time but declined because of a prior commitment to Toto.\n\nDire Straits released their final studio album, On Every Street, in September 1991, which, although a highly anticipated release, met with more moderate success and mixed reviews, as well as a significantly reduced audience, despite Dire Straits' previous international success. Some reviewers including the All Music Guide dubbed On Every Street as an \"underwhelming\" follow-up to Brothers in Arms. However, it still managed to sell 8 million copies, reaching number one in the United Kingdom and number 12 in the United States.\n\nThe album failed to produce a major hit single in the United Kingdom. The first single release was the opening track \"Calling Elvis\", which had a video based on the 1960s television show Thunderbirds. It charted at number 21 in the UK but dropped out of the charts within four weeks. The follow-up single, \"Heavy Fuel\", failed to reach the Top 50 in the UK singles chart, however in the United States the track reached number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, their second song to do so (after \"Money for Nothing\"). Similarly, the album's title track was also relatively unsuccessful, failing to reach the UK Top 40. The final single released from the album and from the band in the United Kingdom was \"The Bug\", which contains backing vocals by Vince Gill, who was also invited to join the band full-time and declined.\n\nSession drummer Chris Whitten joined Dire Straits as a side-man when the band embarked on an extensive two-year, 300-show tour, playing in front of some 7.1 million ticket-buying fans. While musically more elaborate than the previous 1985–86 world tour, the band's gruelling final tour was not as successful. It proved to be too much for Dire Straits, and by this time Mark Knopfler had had enough of such massive operations. This led to the group's second and final break-up. Bill Flanagan described the sequence of events in Gentleman's Quarterly: \"The subsequent world tour lasted nearly two years, made mountains of money and drove Dire Straits into the ground. When the tour was over, both Knopfler's marriage and his band were gone\". The last stop on the tour and the final touring concert of the group took place on 9 October 1992 in Zaragoza, Spain.\n\nAfter the end of the tour, Mark Knopfler expressed a wish to give up touring on a big scale, and took some time out from the music business. A live album, On the Night, was released in May 1993, which documented the tour, again to very mixed reviews. Nevertheless, it reached the UK Top 5, a rare achievement for a live album. The four track Encores EP was also released and rose to number one in the French singles chart.\n\nDire Straits' final album, Live at the BBC, was a collection of live recordings spanning the years 1978–81, which mostly featured the original line-up of the band. Released in June 1995, their third and final live album was a contractual release to Vertigo Records (now a division of Mercury Records).[https://books.google.com/books?idwAsEAAAAMBAJ&pg\nPA62&dqDire+Straits+LIVE+AT+THE+BBC+1995&hl\nen&ei3QwcTdqOM5KwhAfuzZS4Dg&sa\nX&oibook_result&ct\nresult&resnum6&ved\n0CEgQ6AEwBQ#vonepage&q&f\nfalse Billboard 26 Aug 1995] Billboard Retrieved: 30 December 2010. At this time, Mark Knopfler quietly disbanded Dire Straits and prepared to work on his first fully-fledged solo album (still signed to Mercury Records).\n\n1996–present\n\nAfter disbanding Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler started his career as a solo artist, releasing his first solo album, Golden Heart, in March 1996 after nearly 20 years of collaborations.\n\nBrothers in Arms was certified nine times platinum in the US in August 1996. During that year, the entire Dire Straits catalogue was remastered by Bob Ludwig and re-released on CD on Mercury Records, in most of the world outside the United States. The remasters were released in September 2000 in the United States, on Warner Bros.\n\nKnopfler, John Illsley, Alan Clark and Guy Fletcher reunited for one last time on 19 June 1999, with Ed Bicknell on drums, playing five songs including a performance of Chuck Berry's \"Nadine\" for Illsley's wedding. In 2000, Ed Bicknell, who had managed Dire Straits, officially ended his professional relationship with Mark Knopfler and former Dire Straits members Illsley, Clark, and Fletcher.\n\nIn 2002, Mark Knopfler was joined by John Illsley, Guy Fletcher, Danny Cummings and Chris White for four charity concerts. Brendan Croker joined Knopfler during the first half, playing mainly material composed with The Notting Hillbillies. Illsley came on for a Dire Straits session, toward the end of which, at a Shepherd's Bush concert, Jimmy Nail came on to provide backing vocals for Knopfler's solo composition, \"Why Aye Man\".\n\nThe most recent compilation, The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations, was released in November 2005 and reached the UK Top 20. Featuring material from the majority of Dire Straits' studio albums as well as Mark Knopfler's solo and soundtrack material, it was released in two editions, a single CD with grey cover and a double CD in blue cover. The only previously unreleased track on the album, \"All the Roadrunning\", is a duet with singer Emmylou Harris. The album was well received. Also in 2005 Brothers in Arms was re-released in a limited 20th anniversary edition, which was a success, winning a Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album at the 48th Grammy Awards ceremony. \n\nSince the break-up of Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler has shown no interest in reforming the band and is quoted as saying \"Oh, I don't know whether to start getting all that stuff back together again,\" and telling reporters that \"I would only do that for a charity. I'm glad I've experienced it all – I had a lot of fun with it – but I like things the way they are.\" However, keyboardist Guy Fletcher has been associated with almost every piece of Knopfler's solo material to date, and Danny Cummings has frequently contributed, notably to three of Knopfler's most recent solo album releases All the Roadrunning (with Emmylou Harris), Kill to Get Crimson and Get Lucky.\n\nIn 2007, Knopfler said he did not miss the global fame that came his way at the height of the band's success, explaining that \"It just got too big.\" In October 2008, John Illsley told the BBC that he wanted Knopfler to agree to reform Dire Straits for a comeback tour. Knopfler declined, saying that he was often reluctant to reform the group and insisted that he \"isn't even a fan of Dire Straits' early hits.\" In the same interview, Illsley also suggested that Knopfler is enjoying his continued success as a solo artist, saying that \"He's doing incredibly well as a solo artist, so hats off to him. He's having a perfectly good time doing what he's doing.\" Guy Fletcher stated on his website that Knopfler has no interest in reforming Dire Straits. \n\nIn December 2009, the band was commemorated with a Heritage Award from PRS for Music. A plaque was placed on a block of flats in Deptford, London, the location where Dire Straits played their first gig. \n\nIn 2011, Alan Clark, Chris White, and Phil Palmer, along with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' drummer Steve Ferrone, put together a band called \"The Straits\", to perform at a charity show at the Albert Hall. \n\nBand members\n\n* Mark Knopfler: lead vocals, guitar \n* John Illsley: bass, vocals, guitar \n* Pick Withers: drums \n* David Knopfler: guitar \n* Alan Clark: keyboards, organ, piano \n* Hal Lindes: guitar \n* Terry Williams: drums \n* Guy Fletcher: synthesizer, keyboards, guitar, vocals \n* Jack Sonni: guitar \n* Chris White: saxophone, flute, percussion \n* Various other personnel from 1989–92 as session and touring musicians.\n\nDiscography\n\n;Studio albums\n* Dire Straits (1978)\n* Communiqué (1979)\n* Making Movies (1980)\n* Love over Gold (1982)\n* Brothers in Arms (1985)\n* On Every Street (1991)\n\nAwards\n\n* BRIT Awards 1983 – Best British Group\n* Grammy Awards 1986 – Best Rock Performance by a Duo Or Group (for \"Money for Nothing\")\n* Grammy Awards 1986 – Brothers in Arms Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical\n* Juno Award 1986 – International Album of the Year\n* BRIT Awards 1986 – Best British Group\n* MTV Video Music Awards 1986 – Video of the Year (for \"Money for Nothing\")\n* MTV Video Music Awards 1986 – Best Group Video (for \"Money for Nothing\")\n* Grammy Awards 1987 – Best Music Video, Short Form \"Dire Straits Brothers in Arms\"\n* BRIT Awards 1987 – Best British Album (for Brothers in Arms)\n* Grammy Awards 2006 – Best Surround Sound Album for his surround sound production (for Brothers in Arms—20th Anniversary Edition, Chuck Ainlay, surround mix engineer; Bob Ludwig, surround mastering engineer; Chuck Ainlay and Mark Knopfler, surround producers)\n* PRS for Music Heritage Award 2009.\n\nAward nominations\n\n* Grammy Awards 1980 – Best New Artist\n* Grammy Awards 1980 – Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo Or Group (for \"Sultans of Swing\")\n* American Music Award 1986 – Favorite Pop/Rock Single (for \"Money for Nothing\")\n* Grammy Awards 1986 – Album of the Year (for Brothers in Arms)\n* Grammy Awards 1986 – Record of the Year (for \"Money for Nothing\")\n* MTV Video Music Awards 1986 – Best Stage Performance Video (for \"Money for Nothing\")\n* MTV Video Music Awards 1986 – Best Concept Video (for \"Money for Nothing\")\n* MTV Video Music Awards 1986 – Best Direction (for \"Money for Nothing\")\n* MTV Video Music Awards 1986 – Best Special Effects (for \"Money for Nothing\")\n* MTV Video Music Awards 1986 – Viewer's Choice (for \"Money for Nothing\")\n* MTV Video Music Awards 1986 – Best Art Direction (for \"Money for Nothing\")\n* MTV Video Music Awards 1986 – Best Editing (for \"Money for Nothing\")\n* MTV Video Music Awards 1986 – Most Experimental Video (for \"Money for Nothing\")\n* MTV Video Music Awards 1986 – Best Overall Performance (for \"Money for Nothing\")\n* Grammy Awards 1992 – Best Music Video, Short Form (for \"Calling Elvis\")" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi.txt", "Iran.txt", "Hood_Canal_Bridge.txt", "Jimmy_Carter.txt", "Swamp_rabbit.txt", "Star_Trek.txt", "Star_Trek:_The_Motion_Picture.txt" ], "title": [ "Mohammad Reza Pahlavi", "Iran", "Hood Canal Bridge", "Jimmy Carter", "Swamp rabbit", "Star Trek", "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" ], "wiki_context": [ "Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi ( Mohammad Rezâ Šâhe Pahlavi; 26 October 1919 – 27 July 1980) was the Shah of Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979. He took the title Shāhanshāh (\"Emperor\" or \"King of Kings\") on 26 October 1967. He was the second and last monarch of the House of Pahlavi of the Iranian monarchy. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi held several other titles, including that of Āryāmehr (Light of the Aryans) and Bozorg Arteshtārān (Head of the Warriors). \n\nMohammad Reza Pahlavi came to power during World War II after an Anglo-Soviet invasion forced the abdication of his father, Reza Shah. During Mohammad Reza's reign, the Iranian oil industry was briefly nationalized, under the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, until a US and UK-backed coup d'état deposed Mosaddegh and brought back foreign oil firms. Iran marked the anniversary of 2,500 years of continuous monarchy since the founding of the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great during his reign, at which time he also changed the benchmark of the Iranian calendar from the hegira to the beginning of the Persian Empire, measured from Cyrus the Great's coronation. As ruler, he introduced the White Revolution, a series of economic, social and political reforms with the proclaimed intention of transforming Iran into a global power and modernising the nation by nationalising certain industries and granting women suffrage.\n\nA secular Muslim, Mohammad Reza gradually lost support from the Shi'a clergy of Iran as well as the working class, particularly due to his strong policy of modernisation, secularisation, conflict with the traditional class of merchants known as bazaari, relations with Israel, and corruption issues surrounding himself, his family, and the ruling elite. Various additional controversial policies were enacted, including the banning of the communist Tudeh Party, and a general suppression of political dissent by Iran's intelligence agency, SAVAK. According to official statistics, Iran had as many as 2,200 political prisoners in 1978, a number which multiplied rapidly as a result of the revolution. \n\nSeveral other factors contributed to strong opposition to the Shah among certain groups within Iran, the most significant of which were US and UK support for his regime, clashes with Islamists and increased communist activity. By 1979, political unrest had transformed into a revolution which, on 17 January, forced him to leave Iran. Soon thereafter, the Iranian monarchy was formally abolished, and Iran was declared an Islamic republic led by Ruhollah Khomeini. Facing likely execution should he return to Iran, he died in exile in Egypt, whose President, Anwar Sadat, had granted him asylum. Due to his status as the last de facto Shah of Iran, he is often known as simply \"the Shah\". His eldest son, Reza Pahlavi, currently heads National Council of Iran, a government in exile of Iran.\n\nEarly life\n\nBorn in Tehran to Reza Pahlavi and his second wife, Tadj ol-Molouk, Mohammad Reza was the eldest son of the first Shah of the Pahlavi dynasty, Reza Shah, and the third of his eleven children. He was born with a twin sister, Ashraf Pahlavi. However, Shams, Mohammad Reza, Ashraf, Ali Reza, and their older half-sister, Fatemeh, were born as non-royals, as their father did not become Shah until 1925. Nevertheless, Reza Shah was always convinced that his sudden quirk of good fortune had commenced in 1919 with the birth of his son who was dubbed khoshghadam (bird of good omen). \n\nBy the time Mohammad Reza turned 11, his father deferred to the recommendation of Abdolhossein Teymourtash, the Minister of Court, to dispatch his son to Institut Le Rosey, a Swiss boarding school, for further studies. He would be the first Iranian prince in line for the throne to be sent abroad to attain a foreign education and remained there for the next four years before returning to obtain his high school diploma in Iran in 1936. After returning to the country, the Crown Prince was registered at the local military academy in Tehran where he remained enrolled until 1938. He was a qualified pilot. \n\nEarly reign\n\nDeposition of his father\n\nIn the midst of World War II in 1941, Nazi Germany began Operation Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union, breaking the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This had a major impact on Iran, which had declared neutrality in the conflict. \n\nLater that year British and Soviet forces occupied Iran in a military invasion, forcing Reza Shah to abdicate. Mohammad Reza replaced him on the throne on 16 September 1941. Subsequent to his succession as king, Iran became a major conduit for British and, later, American aid to the USSR during the war. This massive supply effort became known as the Persian Corridor. \n\nMuch of the credit for orchestrating a smooth transition of power from the King to the Crown Prince was due to the efforts of Mohammad Ali Foroughi. Suffering from angina, a frail Foroughi was summoned to the Palace and appointed Prime Minister when Reza Shah feared the end of the Pahlavi dynasty once the Allies invaded Iran in 1941. When Reza Shah sought his assistance to ensure that the Allies would not put an end to the Pahlavi dynasty, Foroughi put aside his adverse personal sentiments for having been politically sidelined since 1935. The Crown Prince confided in amazement to the British Minister that Foroughi \"hardly expected any son of Reza Shah to be a civilized human being\", but Foroughi successfully derailed thoughts by the Allies to undertake a more drastic change in the political infrastructure of Iran. \n\nA general amnesty was issued two days after Mohammad Reza Shah's accession to the throne on 19 September 1941. All political personalities who had suffered disgrace during his father's reign were rehabilitated, and the forced unveiling policy inaugurated by his father in 1935 was overturned. Despite the young king's enlightened decisions, the British Minister in Tehran reported to London that \"the young Shah received a fairly spontaneous welcome on his first public experience, possibly rather [due] to relief at the disappearance of his father than to public affection for himself\".\n\nDespite his public professions of admiration in later years, Mohammad Reza had serious misgivings about not only the coarse and roughshod political means adopted by his father, but also his unsophisticated approach to the affairs of the state. The young Shah possessed a decidedly more refined temperament, and among the unsavory developments that \"would haunt him when he was king\" were the political disgrace brought by his father on Teymourtash; the dismissal of Foroughi by the mid-1930s; and Ali Akbar Davar's decision to commit suicide in 1937. An even more significant decision that cast a long shadow was the disastrous and one-sided agreement his father had negotiated with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) in 1933, one which compromised the country's ability to receive more favourable returns from oil extracted from the country.\n\nOil nationalization and the 1953 coup\n\nBy the early 1950s, the political crisis brewing in Iran commanded the attention of British and American policy leaders. In 1951, Mohammad Mosaddegh was elected Prime Minister and committed to nationalising the Iranian petroleum industry controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) (as Anglo-Persian Oil Company or APOC had become). Under the leadership of Mosaddegh's democratically elected nationalist movement, the Iranian parliament unanimously voted to nationalise the oil industry—thus shutting out the immensely profitable AIOC, which was a pillar of Britain's economy and provided it political clout in the region. \n\nAt the start of the confrontation, American political sympathy was forthcoming from the Truman Administration. In particular, Mosaddegh was buoyed by the advice and counsel he was receiving from American Ambassador in Tehran, Henry F. Grady. However, eventually American decision-makers lost their patience, and by the time a Republican Administration came to office fears that communists were poised to overthrow the government became an all-consuming concern (these concerns were later dismissed as \"paranoid\" in retrospective commentary on the coup from US government officials). Shortly prior to the 1952 presidential election in the United States, the British government invited CIA officer Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., to London to propose collaboration on a secret plan to force Mosaddegh from office. This would be the first of three \"regime change\" operations led by Allen Dulles (the other two being the successful CIA-instigated 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état and the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba).\n\nUnder the direction of Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., a senior Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer and grandson of former US President Theodore Roosevelt, the American CIA and British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) funded and led a covert operation to depose Mosaddegh with the help of military forces disloyal to the democratically elected government. Referred to as Operation Ajax, the plot hinged on orders signed by Mohammad Reza to dismiss Mosaddegh as prime minister and replace him with General Fazlollah Zahedi – a choice agreed on by the British and Americans.\n\nDespite the high-level coordination and planning, the coup initially failed, causing the Shah to flee to Baghdad, and then to Rome. After a brief exile in Italy, he returned to Iran, this time through a successful second attempt at a coup. A deposed Mosaddegh was arrested and tried. The king intervened and commuted the sentence to three years, to be followed by life in internal exile. Zahedi was installed to succeed Mosaddegh.Pollack, The Persian Puzzle (2005), pp. 73–2\n\nBefore the first attempted coup, the American Embassy in Tehran reported that Mosaddegh's popular support remained robust. The Prime Minister requested direct control of the army from the Majlis. Given the situation, alongside the strong personal support of Conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden for covert action, the American government gave the go-ahead to a committee, attended by the Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles, Kermit Roosevelt, Henderson, and Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson. Kermit Roosevelt returned to Iran on 13 July 1953, and again on 1 August 1953, in his first meeting with the king. A car picked him up at midnight and drove him to the palace. He lay down on the seat and covered himself with a blanket as guards waved his driver through the gates. The Shah got into the car and Roosevelt explained the mission. The CIA bribed him with $1 million in Iranian currency, which Roosevelt had stored in a large safe – a bulky cache, given the then exchange rate of 1,000 rial to 15 dollars. \n\nThe Communists staged massive demonstrations to hijack Mosaddegh's initiatives. The United States actively plotted against him. On 16 August 1953, the right wing of the Army attacked. Armed with an order by the Shah, it appointed General Fazlollah Zahedi as prime minister. A coalition of mobs and retired officers close to the Palace executed this coup d'état. They failed dismally and the Shah fled the country in humiliating haste. Even Ettelaat, the nation's largest daily newspaper, and its pro-Shah publisher, Abbas Masudi, were against him. \n\nDuring the following two days, the Communists turned against Mosaddegh. Opposition against him grew tremendously. They roamed Tehran, raising red flags and pulling down statues of Reza Shah. This was rejected by conservative clerics like Kashani and National Front leaders like Hossein Makki, who sided with the king. On 18 August 1953, Mosaddegh defended the government against this new attack. Tudeh partisans were clubbed and dispersed. \n\nThe Tudeh party had no choice but to accept defeat. In the meantime, according to the CIA plot, Zahedi appealed to the military, and claimed to be the legitimate prime minister and charged Mosaddegh with staging a coup by ignoring the Shah's decree. Zahedi's son Ardeshir acted as the contact between the CIA and his father. On 19 August 1953, pro-Shah partisans – bribed with $100,000 in CIA funds – finally appeared and marched out of south Tehran into the city centre, where others joined in. Gangs with clubs, knives, and rocks controlled the streets, overturning Tudeh trucks and beating up anti-Shah activists. As Roosevelt was congratulating Zahedi in the basement of his hiding place, the new Prime Minister's mobs burst in and carried him upstairs on their shoulders. That evening, Henderson suggested to Ardashir that Mosaddegh be not harmed. Roosevelt gave Zahedi US$900,000 left from Operation Ajax funds. \n\n \nUS actions further solidified sentiments that the West was a meddlesome influence in Iranian politics. In the year 2000, reflecting on this notion, US Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright stated:\n\n\"In 1953 the United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran's popular Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh. The Eisenhower Administration believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons; but the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development. And it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs.\" \n\nMohammad Reza Pahlavi returned to power, but never extended the elite status of the court to the technocrats and intellectuals who emerged from Iranian and Western universities. Indeed, his system irritated the new classes, for they were barred from partaking in real power. \n\nAssassination attempts\n\nMohammad Reza Pahlavi was the target of at least two unsuccessful assassination attempts. On 4 February 1949, he attended an annual ceremony to commemorate the founding of Tehran University. At the ceremony, Fakhr-Arai fired five shots at him at a range of ten feet. Only one of the shots hit the king, grazing his cheek. Fakhr-Arai was instantly shot by nearby officers. After an investigation, it was thought that Fakhr-Arai was a member of the Tudeh Party, which was subsequently banned. However, there is evidence that the would-be assassin was not a Tudeh member but a religious fundamentalist member of Fada'iyan-e Islam. The Tudeh was nonetheless blamed and persecuted. \n\nThe second attempt on the Shah's life occurred on 10 April 1965. A soldier shot his way through the Marble Palace. The assassin was killed before he reached the royal quarters. Two civilian guards died protecting the Shah.\n\nAccording to Vladimir Kuzichkin – a former KGB officer who defected to the SIS – the Shah was also allegedly targeted by the Soviet Union, who tried to use a TV remote control to detonate a bomb-laden Volkswagen Beetle. The TV remote failed to function. A high-ranking Romanian defector Ion Mihai Pacepa also supported this claim, asserting that he had been the target of various assassination attempts by Soviet agents for many years.\n\nMiddle years\n\nImperial coronation\n\nOn 26 October 1967, twenty-six years into his reign as Shah (\"King\"), he took the ancient title Shāhanshāh (\"Emperor\" or \"King of Kings\") in a lavish coronation ceremony held in Tehran. He said that he chose to wait until this moment to assume the title because in his own opinion he \"did not deserve it\" up until then; he is also recorded as saying that there was \"no honour in being Emperor of a poor country\" (which he viewed Iran as being until that time). \n\nImperial symbols\n\nThe Pahlavi imperial family employed rich heraldry to symbolize their reign and ancient Persian heritage. The imperial crown image was included in every official state document and symbol—from the badges of the armed forces to paper money and coinage. The crown image was naturally the centerpiece of the imperial standard of the Shah (Shāhanshāh).\n\nThe personal standards—for the Shāhanshāh, for his wife the Shahbānū (Shahbanu) and for the eldest son who was his designated successor (Crown Prince)—had a field of pale blue (the traditional colour of the Iranian Imperial Family) at the centre of which was placed the heraldic motif of the individual. The Imperial Iranian national flag was placed in the top left quadrant of each standard. The appropriate Imperial standard was flown beside the national flag when the individual was present.\n\nForeign relations\n\nMohammad Reza Shah supported the Yemeni royalists against republican forces in the Yemen Civil War (1962–70) and assisted the sultan of Oman in putting down a rebellion in Dhofar (1971).\n\nConcerning the fate of Bahrain (which Britain had controlled since the 19th century, but which Iran claimed as its own territory) and three small Persian Gulf islands, the Shah negotiated an agreement with the British, which, by means of a public consensus, ultimately led to the independence of Bahrain (against the wishes of Iranian nationalists). In return, Iran took full control of Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Musa in the Strait of Hormuz, three strategically sensitive islands which were claimed by the United Arab Emirates.\n\nDuring this period, the Shah maintained cordial relations with the Persian Gulf states and established close diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia.\n\nRelations with Iraq, however, were often difficult due to political instability in the latter country. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was distrustful of both the Socialist government of Abd al-Karim Qasim and the Arab nationalist Baath party. In April 1969, he abrogated the 1937 Iranian-Iraqi treaty over control of the Shatt al-Arab, and as such, Iran ceased paying tolls to Iraq when its ships used the Shatt al-Arab. He justified his move by arguing that almost all river borders all over the world ran along the thalweg (deep channel mark), and by claiming that because most of the ships that used the Shatt al-Arab were Iranian, the 1937 treaty was unfair to Iran. Iraq threatened war over the Iranian move, but when on 24 April 1969 an Iranian tanker escorted by Iranian warships sailed down the Shatt al-Arab, Iraq being the militarily weaker state did nothing. The Iranian abrogation of the 1937 treaty marked the beginning of a period of acute Iraqi-Iranian tension that was to last until the Algiers Accords of 1975. He financed Kurdish separatist rebels, and to cover his tracks, armed them with Soviet weapons which Israel had seized from Soviet-backed Arab regimes, and then handed over to Iran at the Shah's behest. The initial operation was a disaster, but the Shah continued attempts to support the rebels and weaken Iraq. Then in 1975, the countries signed the Algiers Accord, which granted Iraq equal navigation rights in the Shatt al-Arab river, while Mohammad Reza Pahlavi agreed to end his support for Iraqi Kurdish rebels. The Shah also maintained close relations with King Hussein of Jordan, Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and King Hassan II of Morocco. \n\nThe Shah's diplomatic foundation was the United States' guarantee that they would protect him, which was what enabled him to stand up to larger enemies. While the arrangement did not preclude other partnerships and treaties, it helped to provide a somewhat stable environment in which Pahlavi could implement his reforms. Another factor guiding Pahlavi in his foreign policy was his wish for financial stability which required strong diplomatic ties. A third factor in his foreign policy was his wish to present Iran as a prosperous and powerful nation; this fuelled his domestic policy of Westernisation and reform. A final component was his promise that communism could be halted at Iran's border if his monarchy was preserved. By 1977, the country's treasury, Pahlavi's autocracy, and his strategic alliances seemed to form a protective layer around Iran. \n\nIn July 1964, the Shah, Turkish President Cemal Gürsel and Pakistani President Ayub Khan announced in Istanbul the establishment of the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) organisation to promote joint transportation and economic projects. It also envisioned Afghanistan's joining some time in the future.\n\nThe Shah of Iran was the first regional leader to recognise the State of Israel as a de facto state, although when interviewed on 60 Minutes by reporter Mike Wallace, he criticised American Jews for their presumed control over US media and finance. \n\nAlthough the United States was responsible for putting the Shah in power, he did not always act as a close US ally. In the early 1960s, when a policy planning staff that included William R. Polk encouraged the Shah to spread around Iran's growing revenues more equitably, slow the rush toward militarisation, and open the government to political processes, he became furious and identified Polk as \"the principal enemy of his regime.\" The US-Iran relationship grew more contentious when the US became dependent on him to be a stabilising force in the Middle East. When Nixon's National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger visited Tehran in May 1972, the Shah convinced him to take a larger role in what had, up to then, been a mainly Israeli-Iranian operation to aid Iraqi Kurds in their struggles against Iraq, against the warnings of the CIA and State Department that the Shah would ultimately betray the Kurds. He did this in March 1975 with the signing of the Algiers Accord that settled Iraqi-Iranian border disputes, an action taken without prior consultation of the US, after which he cut off all aid to the Kurds and prevented the US and Israel from using Iranian territory to provide them assistance. \n\nThe Shah also manipulated America's dependence of Middle Eastern oil; although Iran did not participate in the 1973 oil embargo, he purposely increased production in its aftermath to capitalise on the higher prices. In December 1973, only two months after oil prices were raised by 70 percent, he urged OPEC nations to push oil prices even higher, which they agreed to and more than doubled the price. Oil prices increased 470 percent over a 12-month period, which also increased Iran's GDP by 50 percent. Upon personal pleas from President Richard Nixon, the Shah ignored any complaints, claimed the US was importing more oil than any time in the past, and proclaimed that \"the industrial world will have to realise that the era of their terrific progress and even more terrific income and wealth based on cheap oil is finished.\"\n\nModernization and evolution of government\n\nWith Iran's great oil wealth, the Shah became the pre-eminent leader of the Middle East, and self-styled \"Guardian\" of the Persian Gulf. In 1961, he defended his style of rule, saying \"when Iranians learn to behave like Swedes, I will behave like the King of Sweden\". \n\nDuring the last years of his government, the Shah's government became more centralised. In the words of a US Embassy dispatch, \"The Shah's picture is everywhere. The beginning of all film showings in public theaters presents the Shah in various regal poses accompanied by the strains of the National anthem...The monarch also actively extends his influence to all phases of social affairs...there is hardly any activity or vocation which the Shah or members of his family or his closest friends do not have a direct or at least a symbolic involvement. In the past, he had claimed to take a two-party system seriously and declared, \"If I were a dictator rather than a constitutional monarch, then I might be tempted to sponsor a single dominant party such as Hitler organised\". \n\nBy 1975, he abolished the multi-party system of government in favour of a one-party state under the Rastakhiz (Resurrection) Party. Mohammad Reza Shah's own words on its justification was; \"We must straighten out Iranians' ranks. To do so, we divide them into two categories: those who believe in Monarchy, the constitution and the Six Bahman Revolution and those who don't...A person who does not enter the new political party and does not believe in the three cardinal principles will have only two choices. He is either an individual who belongs to an illegal organisation, or is related to the outlawed Tudeh Party, or in other words a traitor. Such an individual belongs to an Iranian prison, or if he desires he can leave the country tomorrow, without even paying exit fees; he can go anywhere he likes, because he is not Iranian, he has no nation, and his activities are illegal and punishable according to the law\". In addition, the Shah had decreed that all Iranian citizens and the few remaining political parties become part of Rastakhiz. \n\nAchievements\n\nIn his \"White Revolution\" starting in the 1960s, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi made major changes to modernise Iran. He curbed the power of certain ancient elite factions by expropriating large and medium-sized estates for the benefit of more than four million small farmers. He took a number of other major measures, including extending suffrage to women and the participation of workers in factories through shares and other measures. In the 1970s the governmental program of a free of charge nourishment for children at school known as Taghziye Rāyegan (Persian:تغذیه رایگان) was implemented. Under the Shah's reign, the national Iranian income showed an unprecedented rise for an extended period.\n\nImprovement of the educational system was made through new elementary schools and additionally literacy courses were set up in remote villages by the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces, this initiative being called \"Sepāh-e Dānesh\" (Persian:سپاه دانش) meaning \"Army of Knowledge\". The Armed Forces were also engaged in infrastructural and other educational projects throughout the country \"Sepāh-e Tarvij va Ābādāni\" (Persian:سپاه ترویج و آبادانی) as well as in health education and promotion \"Sepāh-e Behdāsht\" (Persian:سپاه بهداشت). The Shah instituted exams for Islamic theologians to become established clerics. Many Iranian university students were sent to and supported in foreign, especially Western countries and the Indian subcontinent.\n\nIn the field of diplomacy, Iran realised and maintained friendly relations with Western and East European countries as well as the state of Israel and China and became, especially through the close friendship with the United States, more and more a hegemonial power in the Persian Gulf region and the Middle East. The suppression of the communist guerrilla movement in the region of Dhofar in Oman with the help of the Iranian army after a formal request by Sultan Qaboos was widely regarded in this context.\n\nAs to infrastructural and technological progress, the Shah continued and developed further the policies introduced by his father. As part of his programs, projects in several technologies, such as steel, telecommunications, petrochemical facilities, power plants, dams and the automobile industry may be named. The Aryamehr University of Technology was established as a major new academic institution. \n\nIn terms of cultural activities, international cooperations were encouraged and organised, such as the Shiraz Arts Festival. As part of his various financial support programs in the fields of culture and arts, the Shah, along with King Hussein of Jordan donated an amount to the Chinese Muslim Association for the construction of the Taipei Grand Mosque. \n\nCriticism of reign and causes of his overthrow\n\nAt the Federation of American Scientists, John Pike writes:\nIn 1978 the deepening opposition to the Shah erupted in widespread demonstrations and rioting. Recognising that even this level of violence had failed to crush the rebellion, the Shah abdicated the Peacock Throne and fled Iran on 16 January 1979. Despite decades of pervasive surveillance by SAVAK, working closely with CIA, the extent of public opposition to the Shah, and his sudden departure, came as a considerable surprise to the US intelligence community and national leadership. As late as 28 September 1978 the US Defense Intelligence Agency reported that the Shah \"is expected to remain actively in power over the next ten years.\" \n\nExplanations for why Mohammad Reza was overthrown include that he was a dictator put in place by a non-Muslim Western power, the United States, whose foreign culture was seen as influencing that of Iran. Additional contributing factors included reports of oppression, brutality, corruption, and extravagance. Basic functional failures of the regime have also been blamed – economic bottlenecks, shortages and inflation; the regime's over-ambitious economic program; the failure of its security forces to deal with protest and demonstration; the overly centralised royal power structure. \nInternational policies pursued by the Shah in order to increase national income by remarkable increases of the price of oil through his leading role in the Organization of the Oil Producing Countries (OPEC) have been stressed as a major cause for a shift of Western interests and priorities and for an actual reduction of their support for him reflected in a critical position of Western politicians and media, especially of the administration of US President Jimmy Carter, regarding the question of human rights in Iran, and in strengthened economic ties between the United States of America and Saudi Arabia in the 1970s. \n\nIn October 1971, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi celebrated the twenty-five-hundredth anniversary of the Iranian monarchy. The New York Times reported that $100 million was spent. Next to the ancient ruins of Persepolis, the Shah gave orders to build a tent city covering 160 acre, studded with three huge royal tents and fifty-nine lesser ones arranged in a star-shaped design. French chefs from Maxim's of Paris prepared breast of peacock for royalty and dignitaries around the world, the buildings were decorated by Maison Jansen (the same firm that helped Jacqueline Kennedy redecorate the White House), the guests ate off Limoges porcelain and drank from Baccarat crystal glasses. This became a major scandal as the contrast between the dazzling elegance of celebration and the misery of the nearby villages was so dramatic that no one could ignore it. Months before the festivities, university students went on strike in protest. Indeed, the cost was so sufficiently impressive that the Shah forbade his associates to discuss the actual figures. However he and his supporters argued that the celebrations opened new investments in Iran, improved relationships with the other leaders and nations of the world, and provided greater recognition of Iran. \n\nOther actions that are thought to have contributed to his downfall include antagonising formerly apolitical Iranians — especially merchants of the bazaars — with the creation in 1975 of a single party political monopoly (the Rastakhiz Party), with compulsory membership and dues, and general aggressive interference in the political, economic, and religious concerns of people's lives; and the 1976 change from an Islamic calendar to an Imperial calendar, marking the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus as the first day, instead of the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina. This supposed date was designed that the year 2500 would fall on 1941, the year when his own reign started. Overnight, the year changed from 1355 to 2535. During the extravagant festivities to celebrate the 2500th anniversary, the Shah was quoted as saying at Cyrus's tomb: \"Rest in peace, Cyrus, for we are awake\". \n\nIt has been argued that the White Revolution was \"shoddily planned and haphazardly carried out\", upsetting the wealthy while not going far enough to provide for the poor or offer greater political freedom. \n\nSome achievements of the Shah—such as broadened education—had unintended consequences. While school attendance rose (by 1966 the school attendance of urban seven- to fourteen-year-olds was estimated at 75.8%), Iran's labor market could not absorb a high number of educated youth. In 1966, high school graduates had \"a higher rate of unemployment than did the illiterate\", and educated unemployed often supported the revolution. \n\nBlack Friday\n\nThe Shah-centred command structure of the Iranian military, and the lack of training to confront civil unrest, was marked by disaster and bloodshed. There were several instances where army units had opened fire, the most notorious one being the events of 8 September 1978. On this day, which later became known as \"Black Friday\", thousands had gathered in Tehran's Jaleh Square for a religious demonstration. With people refusing to recognise martial law, the soldiers opened fire, killing and seriously injuring a large number of people. Black Friday played a crucial role in further radicalising the protest movement. This massacre seriously reduced the chances for reconciliation to the level that Black Friday is referred to as point of no return for the revolution. \n\nRevolution\n\nThe overthrow of the Shah came as a surprise to almost all observers. The first militant anti-Shah demonstrations of a few hundred started in October 1977, after the death of Khomeini's son Mostafa. A year later strikes were paralysing the country, and in early December a \"total of 6 to 9 million\"—more than 10% of the country—marched against the Shah throughout Iran. On 2 October 1978, the Shah declared and granted an amnesty to dissidents living abroad, including Ayatollah Khomeini.\n\nOn 16 January 1979, he made a contract with Farboud and left Iran at the behest of Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar (a longtime opposition leader himself), who sought to calm the situation. Spontaneous attacks by members of the public on statues of the Pahlavis followed, and \"within hours, almost every sign of the Pahlavi dynasty\" was destroyed. Bakhtiar dissolved SAVAK, freed all political prisoners, and allowed Ayatollah Khomeini to return to Iran after years in exile. He asked Khomeini to create a Vatican-like state in Qom, promised free elections, and called upon the opposition to help preserve the constitution, proposing a \"national unity\" government including Khomeini's followers. Khomeini rejected Bakhtiar's demands and appointed his own interim government, with Mehdi Bazargan as prime minister, stating that \"I will appoint a state. I will act against this government. With the nation's support, I will appoint a state.\" In February, pro-Khomeini revolutionary guerrilla and rebel soldiers gained the upper hand in street fighting, and the military announced its neutrality. On the evening of 11 February, the dissolution of the monarchy was complete.\n\nExile\n\nDuring his second exile, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi traveled from country to country seeking what he hoped would be temporary residence. First he flew to Aswan, Egypt, where he received a warm and gracious welcome from President Anwar El-Sadat. He later lived in Marrakesh, Morocco as a guest of King Hassan II, as well as in Paradise Island, in the Bahamas, and in Cuernavaca, Mexico, near Mexico City, as a guest of José López Portillo. Richard Nixon, the former president, visited the Shah in summer 1979 in Mexico. The Shah suffered from gallstones that would require prompt surgery. He was offered treatment in Switzerland, but insisted on treatment in the United States.\n\nOn 22 October 1979, President Jimmy Carter reluctantly allowed the Shah into the United States to undergo surgical treatment at the New York–Weill Cornell Medical Hospital. While in Cornell Medical Center, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi used the name \"David D. Newsom\", Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs that time, as his temporary code name, without Newsom's knowledge.\n\nThe Shah was taken later by U.S. Air Force jet to Kelly Air Force Base in Texas and from there to Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base. It was anticipated that his stay in the United States would be short; however, surgical complications ensued, which required six weeks of confinement in the hospital before he recovered. His prolonged stay in the United States was extremely unpopular with the revolutionary movement in Iran, which still resented the United States' overthrow of Prime Minister Mosaddegh and the years of support for the Shah's rule. The Iranian government demanded his return to Iran, but he stayed in the hospital. \n\nThere are claims that this resulted in the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran and the kidnapping of American diplomats, military personnel, and intelligence officers, which soon became known as the Iran hostage crisis.Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, ISBN 978-0307389008, p. 274. In the Shah's memoir, Answer to History, he claimed that the United States never provided him any kind of health care and asked him to leave the country. \n\nHe left the United States on 15 December 1979 and lived for a short time in the Isla Contadora in Panama. This caused riots by Panamanians who objected to the Shah being in their country. The new government in Iran still demanded his and his wife's immediate extradition to Tehran. A short time after Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's arrival in Panama, an Iranian ambassador was dispatched to the Central American nation carrying a 450-page extradition request. That official appeal alarmed both the Shah and his advisors. Whether the Panamanian government would have complied is a matter of speculation among historians.\n\nAfter that event, the Shah again sought the support of Egyptian president Anwar El-Sadat, who renewed his offer of permanent asylum in Egypt to the ailing monarch. He returned to Egypt in March 1980, where he received urgent medical treatment, including a splenectomy performed by Michael DeBakey. \n\nDeath\n\nMohammad Reza Pahlavi died from complications of Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma) on 27 July 1980, aged 60. Egyptian President Sadat gave the Shah a state funeral. In addition to members of the Pahlavi family, Anwar Sadat, Richard Nixon and Constantine II of Greece attended the funeral ceremony in Cairo. \n\nMohammad Reza Pahlavi is buried in the Al Rifa'i Mosque in Cairo, a mosque of great symbolic importance. The last royal rulers of two monarchies are buried there, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran and King Farouk of Egypt, his former brother-in-law. The tombs lie to the left of the entrance. Years earlier, his father and predecessor, Reza Shah had also initially been buried at the Al Rifa'i Mosque.\n\nLegacy\n\nIn 1969, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi sent one of 73 Apollo 11 Goodwill Messages to NASA for the historic first lunar landing. The message still rests on the lunar surface today. He stated in part, \"we pray the Almighty God to guide mankind towards ever increasing success in the establishment of culture, knowledge and human civilisation\". The Apollo 11 crew visited Mohammad Reza Shah during a world tour.\n\nShortly after his overthrow, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi wrote an autobiographical memoir Réponse à l'histoire (Answer to History). It was translated from the original French into English, Persian (Pasokh be Tarikh), and other languages. However, by the time of its publication, the Shah had already died. The book is his personal account of his reign and accomplishments, as well as his perspective on issues related to the Iranian Revolution and Western foreign policy toward Iran. He places some of the blame for the wrongdoings of SAVAK, and the failures of various democratic and social reforms (particularly through the White Revolution), upon Amir Abbas Hoveyda and his administration.\n\nRecently, the Shah's reputation has experienced something of a revival in Iran, with some people looking back on his era as a time when Iran was more prosperous and the government less oppressive. Journalist Afshin Molavi reported that some members of the uneducated poor—traditionally core supporters of the revolution that overthrew the Shah—were making remarks such as, \"God bless the Shah's soul, the economy was better then\", and found that \"books about the former Shah (even censored ones) sell briskly\", while \"books of the Rightly Guided Path sit idle\". \n\nThe Shah's writings\n\nMohammad Reza Pahlavi published several books in the course of his kingship and two later works after his downfall. Among others, these include:\n*Mission for My Country (1960)\n*The White Revolution (1967)\n*Toward the Great Civilisation. Persian version: Imperial 2536 (1977); English version (1994).\n*Answer to History (1980)\n*The Shah's Story (1980)\n\nWomen's rights\n\nUnder Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's father, the government supported advancements by women against child marriage, polygamy, exclusion from public society, and education segregation. However, independent feminist political groups were shut down and forcibly integrated into one state-created institution, which maintained many paternalistic views. Despite substantial opposition from Shiite religious jurists, the Iranian feminist movement, led by activists such as Fatemah Sayyeh, achieved further advancement under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. His regime's changes focused on the civil sphere, and private-oriented family law remained restrictive, although the 1967 and 1975 Family Protection Laws attempted to reform this trend. Specifically, women gained the right to become ministers such as Farrokhroo Parsa and judges such as Shirin Ebadi, as well as any other profession regardless of their gender.\n\nMarriages and children\n\nPahlavi married three times:\n\nFawzia of Egypt\n\nMustafa Kemal Ataturk suggested to Reza Shah during the latter's visit to Turkey that a marriage between the Iranian and Egyptian courts would be beneficial for the two countries and their dynasties. In line with this suggestion, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Princess Fawzia married. Dilawar Princess Fawzia of Egypt (5 November 1921 – 2 July 2013), a daughter of King Fuad I of Egypt and Nazli Sabri, was a sister of King Farouk I of Egypt. They married on 15 March 1939 in the Abdeen Palace in Cairo. Reza Shah did not participate in the ceremony. They were divorced in 1945 (Egyptian divorce) and in 1948 (Iranian divorce). Together they had one child, a daughter, HIH Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi (born 27 October 1940).\n\nSoraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari\n\nHis second wife was Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari (22 June 1932 – 26 October 2001), a half-German half-Iranian woman and the only daughter of Khalil Esfandiary, Iranian Ambassador to West Germany, and his wife, the former Eva Karl. They married on 12 February 1951, when Soraya was 18 according to the official announcement; however, it was rumoured that she was actually 16, the Shah being 32. As a child she was tutored and brought up by Frau Mantel, and hence lacked proper knowledge of Iran, as she herself admits in her personal memoirs, stating, \"I was a dunce—I knew next to nothing of the geography, the legends of my country, nothing of its history, nothing of Muslim religion.\" The Shah and Soraya's controversial marriage ended in 1958 when it became apparent that, even through help from medical doctors, she could not bear children. Soraya later told the New York Times that the Shah had no choice but to divorce her, and that he was heavy-hearted about the decision. \n\nHowever, even after the marriage, it is reported that the Shah still had great love for Soraya, and it is reported that they met several times after their divorce and that she lived her post-divorce life comfortably as a wealthy lady, even though she never remarried; being paid a monthly salary of about $7,000 from Iran. Following her death in 2001 at the age of 69 in Paris, an auction of the possessions included a three-million-dollar Paris estate, a 22.37 carat diamond ring and a 1958 Rolls-Royce. \n\nPahlavi subsequently indicated his interest in marrying Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy, a daughter of the deposed Italian king, Umberto II. Pope John XXIII reportedly vetoed the suggestion. In an editorial about the rumors surrounding the marriage of a \"Muslim sovereign and a Catholic princess\", the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, considered the match \"a grave danger\", especially considering that under the 1917 Code of Canon Law a Roman Catholic who married a divorced person would be automatically, and could be formally, excommunicated.\n\nFarah Diba\n\nMohammad Reza Pahlavi's third and final wife was Farah Diba (born 14 October 1938), the only child of Sohrab Diba, a captain in the Imperial Iranian Army (son of an Iranian ambassador to the Romanov Court in Moscow, Russia), and his wife, the former Farideh Ghotbi. They were married in 1959, and Queen Farah was crowned Shahbanu, or Empress, a title created specially for her in 1967. Previous royal consorts had been known as \"Malakeh\" (Arabic: Malika), or Queen. The couple remained together for twenty one years, until the Shah's death. Farah Diba bore him four children:\n*HIH Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi (born 31 October 1960), heir to the now defunct Iranian throne. Reza Pahlavi is the founder and leader of National Council of Iran, a government in exile of Iran.\n*HIH Princess Farahnaz Pahlavi (born 12 March 1963)\n*HIH Prince Ali-Reza Pahlavi (28 April 1966 – 4 January 2011)\n*HIH Princess Leila Pahlavi (27 March 1970 – 10 June 2001)\n\nWealth\n\nMohammad Reza Pahlavi inherited the wealth built by his father Reza Shah who preceded him as king of Iran and became known as the richest person in Iran during his reign, with his wealth estimated to be higher than 600 million rials and including vast amounts of land and numerous large estates especially in the province of Mazandaran obtained usually at a fraction of its real price. Reza Shah, facing criticism for his wealth, decided to pass on all of his land and wealth to his eldest son Mohammad Reza in exchange for a sugar cube, known in Iran as habbe kardan. However shortly after obtaining the wealth Mohammad Reza was ordered by his father and then king to transfer a million tooman or 500,000 dollars to each of his siblings. By 1958 it was estimated that the companies possessed by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had a value of $157 million (in 1958 USD) with an estimated additional 100 million saved outside Iran. The rumours and constant talk of his, and his family's corruption greatly damaged his reputation and led to the creation of the Pahlavi Foundation in the same year and the return to the people of some 2,000 villages inherited by his father, often at very low and discount prices. It can be argued, however, that this was too little too late, as the royal family's wealth and corruption can be seen as one of the factors behind the Iranian revolution in 1979. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's wealth was even considerable during his time in exile. While staying in the Bahamas he offered to purchase the island that he was staying on for $425 million (in 1979 USD), however his offer was rejected by the Bahamas claiming that the island was worth far more. On 17 October 1979, again in exile and perhaps knowing the gravity of his illness, he split up his wealth between his family members, giving 20% to Farah, 20% to his eldest son Reza, 15% to Farahnaz, 15% to Leila, 20% to his younger son, in addition to giving 8% to Shahnaz and 2% to his granddaughter Mahnaz Zahedi.\n\nOn 14 January 1979, an article titled \"Little pain expected in exile for Shah\" by The Spokesman Review newspaper found that the Pahlavi dynasty had amassed one of the largest private fortunes in the world; estimated then at well over $1 billion. A list submitted to the ministry of justice in protest of the royal family's penetration of every corner of the nation's economy detailed that the then Pahlavi dynasty dominated the economy of Iran. The list showed that the Pahlavi dynasty had interests in, amongst other things, 17 banks and insurance companies, including a 90 percent ownership in the nation's third-largest insurance company, 25 metal enterprises, 8 mining companies, 10 building materials companies, including 25 percent of the largest cement company, 45 construction companies, 43 food companies, and 26 enterprises in trade or commerce, including a share of ownership in almost every major hotel in Iran. According to another source, the Pahlavis owned 70 percent of the then hotel capacity in the country. Much of the Pahlavi dynasty fortune was required to be transferred to the \"Pahlavi Foundation\", a charitable organisation and the families' trust. The organisation refuses to give any value of its assets or an annual income but a published book in Iran by Robert Graham, a British journalist, calculates that on the basis of its known holdings, the then foundation assets totalled over $2.8 billion.\n\nThe Pahlavi foundation was said to have owned in Iran four leading hotels: the Hilton, the Vanak, the Evin and the Darband. The foundation gained international attention for purchasing the DePinna building on Fifth Avenue, New York, valued in 1975 at $14.5 million. Such investment in a foreign market by the Pahlavi foundation gained media attention because in order to do such foreign investment the foundation had to register as an American charitable foundation with the declared aim of using the rental to pay for Iranian students studying in America. The advantage of such charitable status was that the US authorities could not investigate the books of the Pahlavi Foundation in Iran. \n\nMohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was also known for his interest in cars and had a personal collection of 140 classic and sports cars including a Mercedes-Benz 500K Autobahn cruiser, one of only six ever made. \n\nHonours\n\nNational dynastic honours\n\n* House of Pahlavi: 6th Sovereign Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Zolfaghar \n* House of Pahlavi: 2nd Sovereign Knight Grand Cordon with Collar of the Order of Pahlavi \n* House of Pahlavi: 6th Sovereign Sardar Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Aqdas\n* House of Pahlavi: 1st Sovereign Knight of the Order of the Light of the Aryans \n* House of Pahlavi: 6th Sovereign of the Order of Aftab\n* House of Pahlavi: 8th Sovereign Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of the Lion and the Sun\n* House of Pahlavi: 3rd Sovereign Knight Grand Cordon with Collar of the Order of the Crown \n* House of Pahlavi: 1st Sovereign of the Order of the Pleiades\n* House of Pahlavi: 2nd Sovereign Knight Grand Cordon of the [http://curgmok.tripod.com/irani.htm Order of Homayoun]\n* House of Pahlavi: 2nd Sovereign Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of the Red Lion and the Sun\n* House of Pahlavi: 2nd Sovereign Knight Commander of the [http://www.ordersandmedals.net/World/Iran/iran.htm Order of Glory, 1st Class]\n* House of Pahlavi: 2nd Sovereign Knight Commander of the [http://www.ordersandmedals.net/World/Iran/iran.htm Order of Service, 1st Class]\n* House of Pahlavi: 2nd Sovereign Knight Commander of the [http://www.ordersandmedals.net/World/Iran/iran.htm Order of the Hero, 1st Class] \n* House of Pahlavi: 2nd Sovereign Knight Commander of the Military Order of Merit, 1st Class \n* House of Pahlavi: 2nd Sovereign Knight Commander of the [http://www.ordersandmedals.net/World/Iran/iran.htm Order of Honour, 1st Class]\n* House of Pahlavi: 2nd Sovereign Knight Commander of the [http://www.ordersandmedals.net/World/Iran/iran.htm Order of Pas, 1st Class] \n* House of Pahlavi: 2nd Sovereign Knight of the Imperial Family Decoration of Emperor Reza Shah I \n* House of Pahlavi: 1st Sovereign Recipient of the [http://irancollection.alborzi.com/Orders/pages/Scout-get-ready.htm Land Reform Medal]\n* House of Pahlavi: 1st Sovereign Recipient of the [http://irancollection.alborzi.com/Orders/pages/Scout-get-ready.htm Scout Medal]\n* House of Pahlavi: 1st Sovereign Recipient of the [http://irancollection.alborzi.com/Orders/pages/Army-sport-centre.htm Sport Medal]\n* House of Pahlavi: Sovereign Recipient of the [http://irancollection.alborzi.com/RezaShahorder/pages/Service-2.htm Emperor Reza Shah I Coronation Medal]\n* House of Pahlavi: Sovereign Recipient of the [http://www.ordersandmedals.net/World/Iran/iran.htm Persepolis Medal]\n* House of Pahlavi: Sovereign Recipient of the [http://www.ordersandmedals.net/World/Iran/iran.htm Commemorative Medal of the 2,500 year Celebration of the Persian Empire]\n* House of Pahlavi: Sovereign Recipient of the [http://www.ordersandmedals.net/World/Iran/iran.htm 1953 Coup d'état Medal]\n* House of Pahlavi: Sovereign Recipient of the [http://www.ordersandmedals.net/World/Iran/iran.htm Emperor Reza Shah I Centennial Medal]\n\nForeign honours\n\n* Afghani Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Supreme Sun \n* : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Liberator General San Martin\n* : Grand Cross of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria, Grand Star \n* : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the [http://www.royalark.net/Bahrain/orders.htm Order of Al-Khalifa]\n* : Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold \n* : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Southern Cross\n* : Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Family Order of the Crown of Brunei\n* : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the White Lion \n* : Grand Cross of the Order of Propitious Clouds\n* : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Elephant \n* Egypt\n** Egyptian Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the [http://www.royalark.net/Egypt/orders.htm Order of Muhammad Ali] \n** : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Nile\n** : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Republic\n* Ethiopian Imperial Family: Knight Grand Collar of the Order of Solomon\n* Ethiopian Imperial Family: Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of the Seal of Solomon\n* : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the White Rose of Finland\n* : Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour \n* : Recipient of the Cross of War Medal 1939 - 1945\n* Greek Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Redeemer\n* : Grand Cross of the Order of the Flag of the Republic of Hungary\n* Iraqi Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the [http://www.royalark.net/Iraq/iraq4.htm Order of the Hashemites]\n* : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Republic \n* : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Golden Spur\n* : Knight Grand Cordon with Collar of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum\n* : Knight Grand Cordon with Collar of the Order of al-Hussein bin Ali\n* : Knight Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Renaissance, Special Class \n* : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Mubarak the Great\n* : Grand Cross of the Order of Merit, Extraordinary Class\n* Libyan Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Idris I\n* : Honorary Recipient of the Order of the Crown of the Realm \n* : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Aztec Eagle \n* : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Charles\n* : Knight with Collar of the Order of Muhammad, Special Class\n* Nepal: Member of the Mahendra Chain\n* Nepal: Member Grand Cross of the Order of Honour\n* Nepal: Member Grand Cross of the Order of Ojaswi Rajanya\n* : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion\n* : Recipient of the Silver Wedding Anniversary Medal of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard \n* : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of St. Olav \n* : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Al-Said\n* : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Oman, 3rd Class\n* : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Pakistan\n* : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the [http://www.royalark.net/Qatar/qatar8.htm Order of Independence]\n* : Knight of the Great Badr Chain\n* : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Abdulaziz al Saud\n* Spain\n** : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Charles III \n** Francoist Spain: Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Yoke and Arrows\n* : Grand Cross with Chain of the Order of Honour\n* : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Seraphim \n* : Knight Grand Cordon with Collar of the Order of the Rajamitrabhorn \n* : Grand Cross with Collar of the [http://www.medals.org.uk/tunisia/tunisia004.htm Order of Independence] \n* : Recipient of the Royal Victorian Chain \n* : Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit \n* : Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic, Special Class \n* : Grand Cross of the Order of the Yugoslav Star, Grand Star\n\nGallery\n\nFile:State Flag of Iran (1964).svg|Flag of Iran during the Pahlavi dynasty 1925 to 1979\nFile:Imperial_Coat_of_Arms_of_Iran.svg|The Coat of Arms of Iran, during Pahlavi dynasty 1925 to 1979. The Farvahar (Atra) is seen. (In the circle, right, top).", "Iran ( or; ), also known as Persia ( or), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (), is a sovereign state in Western Asia. It is bordered to the northwest by Armenia, the de facto Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, and Azerbaijan; to the north by Kazakhstan and Russia across the Caspian Sea; to the northeast by Turkmenistan; to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan; to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; and to the west by Turkey and Iraq. Comprising a land area of 1648195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East and the 18th-largest in the world. With 78.4 million inhabitants, Iran is the world's 17th-most-populous country. It is the only country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The country's central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, make it of great geostrategic importance. Tehran is the country's capital and largest city as well as its leading economic center.\n\nIran is heir to one of the world's oldest civilizations, beginning with the formation of the Proto-Elamite and Elamite kingdoms in 3200–2800 BC. The area was first unified by the Iranian Medes 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. Iran reached its greatest geographic extent during the Achaemenid Empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC, which at one time stretched from parts of Eastern Europe in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east, making it the largest empire the world had yet seen. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, but reemerged shortly after as the Parthian Empire. Under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. \n\nBeginning in 633 AD, Rashidun Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Sunni Islam. Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. The rise of the Safavid Dynasty in 1501 led to the establishment of Twelver Shia Islam as the official religion of Iran, marking one of the most important turning points in Iranian and Muslim history. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, and under Nader Shah briefly possessed what was arguably the most powerful empire at the time. Through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a constitutional monarchy and the country's first legislative body, the Majles. Following a coup d'état instigated by the U.K. and the U.S. in 1953, Iran gradually became closely aligned with the United States and the rest of the West but grew increasingly autocratic. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution and the establishment of an Islamic republic.\n\nIran is a major regional and middle power, and its large reserves of fossil fuels — which include the largest natural gas supply in the world and the fourth-largest proven oil reserves — exert considerable influence in international energy security and the world economy. Iran's rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. \n\nIran is a founding member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC, and OPEC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a parliamentary democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims and Persian is the official language. \n\nEtymology\n\nThe term Iran derives directly from Middle Persian Ērān, first attested in a 3rd-century inscription at Rustam Relief, with the accompanying Parthian inscription using the term Aryān, in reference to Iranians. The Middle Iranian ērān and aryān are oblique plural forms of gentilic ēr- (Middle Persian) and ary- (Parthian), both deriving from Proto-Iranian *arya- (meaning \"Aryan\", i.e. \"of the Iranians\"), argued to descend from Proto-Indo-European ', meaning \"skillful assembler\". In Iranian languages, the gentilic is attested as a self-identifier included in ancient inscriptions and the literature of Avesta, and remains also in other Iranian ethnic names such as Alans (Ossetic: Ир – Ir) and Iron (Ossetic: Ирон – Iron).\n\nHistorically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis (), meaning \"land of the Persians\". As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, the term persisted, even long after the Persian rule in Greece. However, Persis (Old Persian: Pārśa; Modern Persian: Pārse) was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the southern end of the Zagros Mountains, and is today defined as Fars Province.\n\nIn 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, Iran. As the New York Times explained at the time, \"At the suggestion of the Persian Legation in Berlin, the Tehran government, on the Persian New Year, Nowruz, March 21, 1935, substituted Iran for Persia as the official name of the country.\" Opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably. Today, both Persia and Iran are used in cultural contexts; although, Iran is the name used officially in political contexts. \n\nHistorical and cultural usage of the word Iran is not restricted to the modern state proper. \"Greater Iran\" (Irānzamīn or Irān e Bozorg) correspond to territories of the Iranian cultural and linguistic zones. In addition to modern Iran, it includes portions of the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Central Asia. \n\nHistory\n\nPrehistory\n\nThe earliest archaeological artifacts in Iran, like those excavated at the Kashafrud and Ganj Par sites, attest to a human presence in Iran since the Lower Paleolithic era, c. 800,000–200,000 BC. Iran's Neanderthal artifacts from the Middle Paleolithic period, c. 200,000–40,000 BC, have been found mainly in the Zagros region, at sites such as Warwasi and Yafteh Cave. Around 10th to 8th millennium BC, early agricultural communities such as Chogha Golan and Chogha Bonut began to flourish in Iran, as well as Susa and Chogha Mish developing in and around the Zagros region. \n\nThe emergence of Susa as a city, as determined by radiocarbon dating, dates back to early 4,395 BC. There are dozens of prehistoric sites across the Iranian plateau, pointing to the existence of ancient cultures and urban settlements in the 4th millennium BC. During the Bronze Age, Iran was home to several civilizations including Elam, Jiroft, and Zayande River. Elam, the most prominent of these civilizations, developed in the southwest of Iran, alongside those in Mesopotamia. The emergence of writing in Elam was paralleled to Sumer, and the Elamite cuneiform was developed since the 3rd millennium BC. \n\nThe Elamite Kingdom continued its existence until the emergence of the Median and Achaemenid empires. Between 3400 BC until about 2000 BC, northwestern Iran was part of the Kura-Araxes culture that stretched into the neighbouring regions of the Caucasus and Anatolia. Since the earliest 2nd millennium BC, Assyrians settled in swaths of western Iran, and incorporated the region into their territories.\n\nClassical antiquity\n\nDuring the 2nd millennium BC, Proto-Iranian tribes arrived in Iran from the Eurasian steppes, rivaling the native settlers of the country. As these tribes dispersed into the wider area of Greater Iran and beyond, the boundaries of modern Iran were dominated by the Persian, Median, and Parthian tribes.\n\nFrom the late 10th to late 7th centuries BC, the Iranian peoples, together with the pre-Iranian kingdoms, fell under the domination of the Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia. Under king Cyaxares, the Medes and Persians entered into an alliance with Nabopolassar of Babylon, as well as the Scythians and the Cimmerians, and together they attacked the Assyrian Empire. The civil war ravaged the Assyrian Empire between 616 BC and 605 BC, thus freeing their respective peoples from three centuries of Assyrian rule. The unification of the Median tribes under a single ruler in 728 BC led to the foundation of the Median Empire which, by 612 BC, controlled the whole Iran and the eastern Anatolia. This marked the end of the Kingdom of Urartu as well, which was subsequently conquered and dissolved. \n\nIn 550 BC, Cyrus the Great, son of Mandane and Cambyses I, took over the Median Empire, and founded the Achaemenid Empire by unifying other city states. The conquest of Media was a result of what is called the Persian Revolt. The brouhaha was initially triggered by the actions of the Median ruler Astyages, and was quickly spread to other provinces, as they allied with the Persians. Later conquests under Cyrus and his successors expanded the empire to include Lydia, Babylon, Egypt, parts of the Balkans and Eastern Europe proper, as well as the lands to the west of the Indus and Oxus rivers.\n\n539 BC was the year in which Persian forces defeated the Babylonian army at Opis, and marked the end of around four centuries of Mesopotamian domination of the region with the transition from the Neo-Babylonian Period to the Achaemenid Period. Cyrus entered Babylon and presented himself as a traditional Mesopotamian monarch. Subsequent Achaemenid art and iconography reflect the influence of the new political reality in Mesopotamia.\n\nAt its greatest extent, the Achaemenid Empire included the modern territories of Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, much of the Black Sea coastal regions, northeastern Greece and southern Bulgaria (Thrace), northern Greece and Macedonia (Paeonia and Ancient Macedon), Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, all significant ancient population centers of ancient Egypt as far west as Libya, Kuwait, northern Saudi Arabia, parts of the UAE and Oman, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and much of Central Asia, making it the first world government and the largest empire the world had yet seen.\n\nIt is estimated that in 480 BC, 50 million people lived in the Achaemenid Empire. The empire at its peak ruled over 44% of the world's population, the highest such figure for any empire in history. In Greek history, the Achaemenid Empire is considered as the antagonist of the Greek city states, for the emancipation of slaves including the Jewish exiles in Babylon, building infrastructures such as road and postal systems, and the use of an official language, the Imperial Aramaic, throughout its territories. The empire had a centralized, bureaucratic administration under the emperor, a large professional army, and civil services, inspiring similar developments in later empires. Schmitt Achaemenid dynasty (i. The clan and dynasty) Furthermore, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, was built in the empire between 353 and 350 BC.\n\nEventual conflict on the western borders began with the Ionian Revolt which erupted into the Greco-Persian Wars, and continued through the first half of the 5th century BC, and ended with the Persian withdrawal from all of their European territories in the Balkans and Eastern Europe proper.\n\nIn 334 BC, Alexander the Great invaded the Achaemenid Empire, defeating the last Achaemenid emperor, Darius III, at the Battle of Issus. Following the premature death of Alexander, Iran came under the control of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire. In the middle of the 2nd century BC, the Parthian Empire rose to become the main power in Iran, and the century-long geopolitical arch-rivalry between Romans and Parthians began, culminating in the Roman–Parthian Wars. The Parthian Empire continued as a feudal monarchy for nearly five centuries, until 224 CE, when it was succeeded by the Sassanid Empire. Together with their neighboring arch-rival, the Roman-Byzantines, they made up the world's two most dominant powers at the time, for over four centuries.\n\nThe Sassanids established an empire within the frontiers achieved by the Achaemenids, with their capital at Ctesiphon. The Sassanid Empire of the Late Antiquity is considered as one of the most influential periods of Iran, as Iran influenced the culture of ancient Rome (and through that as far as Western Europe), Africa, China, and India, and played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art. \n\nMost of the era of both Parthian and Sassanid empires were overshadowed by the Roman-Persian Wars, which raged on their western borders at the Anatolia, the western Caucasus, Mesopotamia, and the Levant, for over 700 years. These wars exhausted both Romans and Sassanids, and led to the defeat of both at the hands of the invading Muslim Arabs.\n\nSeveral offshoots of the Achaemenids, Parthians, and Sassanids, established eponymous dynasties and branches in Anatolia and the Caucasus, including the Kingdom of Pontus, the Mihranids, and the Arsacid dynasties of Armenia, Iberia (Georgia), and Caucasian Albania (present-day Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan).\n\nMedieval period\n\nThe prolonged Byzantine-Sassanid Wars, most importantly the climactic Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602-628, as well as the social conflict within the Sassanid Empire, opened the way for an Arab invasion to Iran in the 7th century. Initially defeated by the Arab Rashidun Caliphate, Iran came under the rule of the Arab caliphates of Umayyad and Abbasid. The prolonged and gradual process of the Islamization of Iran began following the conquest. Under the new Arab elite of the Rashidun and later the Umayyad caliphates, both converted (mawali) and non-converted (dhimmi) Iranians were discriminated against, being excluded from the government and military, and having to pay a special tax called Jizya. Gunde Shapur, home of the Academy of Gunde Shapur which was the most important medical center of the world at the time, survived after the invasion, but became known as an Islamic institute thereafter. \n\nIn 750, the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads, due mainly to the support from the mawali Iranians. The mawali formed the majority of the rebel army, which was led by the Iranian general Abu Muslim. The arrival of the Abbasid Caliphs saw a revival of Iranian culture and influence, and a move away from the imposed Arabic customs. The role of the old Arab aristocracy was gradually replaced by an Iranian bureaucracy. \n\nAfter two centuries of the Arab rule, semi-independent and independent Iranian kingdoms such as the Tahirids, Saffarids, Samanids, and Buyids began to appear on the fringes of the declining Abbasid Caliphate. By the Samanid era in the 9th and 10th centuries, the efforts of Iranians to regain their independence had been well solidified. \n\nThe blossoming literature, philosophy, medicine, and art of Iran became major elements in the formation of a new age for the Iranian civilization, during the period known as the Islamic Golden Age. The Islamic Golden Age reached its peak by the 10th and 11th centuries, during which Iran was the main theater of the scientific activities. After the 10th century, Persian language, alongside Arabic, was used for the scientific, philosophical, historical, musical, and medical works, whereas the important Iranian writers, such as Tusi, Avicenna, Qotb od Din Shirazi, and Biruni, had major contributions in the scientific writing.\n\nThe cultural revival that began in the Abbasid period led to a resurfacing of the Iranian national identity, and so earlier attempts of Arabization never succeeded in Iran. The Iranian Shuubiyah movement became a catalyst for Iranians to regain independence in their relations with the Arab invaders. The most notable effect of this movement was the continuation of Persian language attested to the epic poet Ferdowsi, now regarded as the most important figure in Iranian literature.\n\nThe 10th century saw a mass migration of Turkic tribes from Central Asia into the Iranian plateau. Turkic tribesmen were first used in the Abbasid army as mamluks (slave-warriors), replacing Iranian and Arab elements within the army. As a result, the mamluks gained a significant political power. In 999, large portions of Iran came briefly under the rule of the Ghaznavids, whose rulers were of mamluk Turk origin, and longer subsequently under the Turkish Seljuk and Khwarezmian empires. These Turks had been Persianized and had adopted Persian models of administration and rulership. The Seljuks subsequently gave rise to the Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia, while taking their thoroughly Persianized identity with them. The result of the adoption and patronage of Persian culture by Turkish rulers was the development of a distinct Turko-Persian tradition.\n\nIn 1219–21 the Khwarezmian Empire suffered a devastating invasion by the Mongol army of Genghis Khan. According to Steven R. Ward, \"Mongol violence and depredations killed up to three-fourths of the population of the Iranian Plateau, possibly 10 to 15 million people. Some historians have estimated that Iran's population did not again reach its pre-Mongol levels until the mid-20th century.\"\n\nFollowing the fracture of the Mongol Empire in 1256, Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, established the Ilkhanate in Iran. In 1370, yet another conqueror, Timur, followed the example of Hulagu, establishing the Timurid Empire which lasted for another 156 years. In 1387, Timur ordered the complete massacre of Isfahan, reportedly killing 70,000 citizens. The Ilkhans and the Timurids soon came to adopt the ways and customs of the Iranians, choosing to surround themselves with a culture that was distinctively Iranian. \n\nEarly modern period\n\nBy the 1500s, Ismail I from Ardabil, established the Safavid Dynasty, with Tabriz as the capital. Beginning with Azerbaijan, he subsequently extended his authority over all of the Iranian territories, and established an intermittent Iranian hegemony over the vast relative regions, reasserting the Iranian identity within large parts of the Greater Iran. Iran was predominantly Sunni, but Ismail instigated a forced conversion to the Shia branch of Islam, by which the Shia Islam spread throughout the Safavid territories in the Caucasus, Iran, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia. As a result, thereof, the modern-day Iran is the only official Shia nation of the world, with it holding an absolute majority in Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, having there the 1st and 2nd highest number of Shia inhabitants by population percentage in the world. \n\nThe centuries-long geopolitical and ideological rivalry between Safavid Iran and the neighboring Ottoman Empire, led to numerous Ottoman–Persian Wars. The Safavid Era peaked in the reign of Abbas the Great, 1587–1629, surpassing their Ottoman arch rivals in strength, and making the empire a leading hub in Western Eurasia for the sciences and arts. The Safavid Era saw the start of mass integration from Caucasian populations into new layers of the society of Iran, as well as mass resettlement of them within the heartlands of Iran, playing a pivotal role in the history of Iran for centuries onwards. Following a gradual decline in the late 1600s and early 1700s, which was caused by the internal conflicts, the continuous wars with the Ottomans, and the foreign interference (most notably the Russian interference), the Safavid rule was ended by the Pashtun rebels who besieged Isfahan and defeated Soltan Hosein in 1722.\n\nIn 1729, Nader Shah, a chieftain and military genius from Khorasan, successfully drove out and conquered the Pashtun invaders. He subsequently took back the annexed Caucasian territories which were divided among the Ottoman and Russian authorities by the ongoing chaos in Iran. During the reign of Nader Shah, Iran reached its greatest extent since the Sassanid Empire, reestablishing the Iranian hegemony all over the Caucasus, as well as other major parts of the west and central Asia, and briefly possessing what was arguably the most powerful empire at the time.\n\nNader Shah invaded India and sacked far off Delhi by the late 1730s. His territorial expansion, as well as his military successes, went into a decline following the final campaigns in the Northern Caucasus. The assassination of Nader Shah sparked a brief period of civil war and turmoil, after which Karim Khan of the Zand Dynasty came to power in 1750, bringing a period of relative peace and prosperity.\n\nThe geopolitical reach of the Zand Dynasty was limited, compared to its preceding dynasties. Many of the Iranian territories in the Caucasus gained de facto independence and were locally ruled through various Caucasian khanates. However, despite the self-ruling, they all remained subjects and vassals to the Zand king. The khanates exercised control over their affairs via international trade routes between Central Asia and the West. \n\nAnother civil war ensued after the death of Karim Khan in 1779, out of which Aqa Mohammad Khan emerged, founding the Qajar Dynasty in 1794. In 1795, following the disobedience of the Georgian subjects and their alliance with the Russians, the Qajars captured Tblisi by the Battle of Krtsanisi, and drove the Russians out of the entire Caucasus, reestablishing a short-lived Iranian suzerainty over the region. The Russo-Persian wars of 1804–1813 and 1826–1828 resulted in large irrevocable territorial losses for Iran in the Caucasus, comprising all of Transcaucasia and Dagestan, which made part of the very concept of Iran for centuries, and thus substantial gains for the neighboring Russian Empire.\n\nAs a result of the 19th century Russo-Persian wars, the Russians took over the Caucasus, and Iran irrevocably lost control over its integral territories in the region (comprising modern-day Dagestan, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan), which got confirmed per the treaties of Gulistan and Turkmenchay. The area to the north of the river Aras, among which the contemporary Republic of Azerbaijan, eastern Georgia, Dagestan, and Armenia, were Iranian territory until they were occupied by Russia in the course of the 19th century. \n\nAs Iran shrank, many Transcaucasian and North Caucasian Muslims moved towards Iran, especially until the aftermath result of the Caucasian War, and the decades afterwards, while Iran's Armenians were encouraged to settle in the newly incorporated Russian territories, causing significant demographic shifts.\n\nLate modern period\n\nAround 1.5 million people—20 to 25% of the population of Iran—died as a result of the Great Famine of 1870–1871. \n\nBetween 1872 and 1905, a series of protests took place in response to the sale of concessions to foreigners by Nasser od Din and Mozaffar od Din shahs of Qajar, and led to the Iranian Constitutional Revolution. The first Iranian Constitution and the first national parliament of Iran were founded in 1906, through the ongoing revolution. The Constitution included the official recognition of Iran's three religious minorities, namely Christians, Zoroastrians, and Jews, which has remained a basis in the legislation of Iran since then.\n\nThe struggle related to the constitutional movement continued until 1911, when Mohammad Ali Shah was defeated and forced to abdicate. On the pretext of restoring order, the Russians occupied Northern Iran in 1911, and maintained a military presence in the region for years to come. During World War I, the British occupied much of Western Iran, and fully withdrew in 1921. The Persian Campaign commenced furthermore during World War I in Northwestern Iran after an Ottoman invasion, as part of the Middle Eastern Theatre of World War I. As a result of Ottoman hostilities across the border, a large amount of the Assyrians of Iran were massacred by the Ottoman armies, notably in and around Urmia.Richard G. Hovannisian. [https://books.google.nl/books?id\nK3monyE4CVQC&pgPA271&dq\nassyrian+genocide+in+urmia&hlnl&sa\nX&eibQ9IVd6vGcLYU9CxgaAO&ved\n0CCAQ6AEwAA#vonepage&q\nassyrian%20genocide%20in%20urmia&ffalse The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies]. pp. 270–271. Transaction Publishers, 31 dec. 2011 ISBN 1412835925 Apart from the rule of Aqa Mohammad Khan, the Qajar rule is characterized as a century of misrule.\n\nIn 1921, the Qajar Dynasty was overthrown by Reza Khan of the Pahlavi Dynasty, who was the Prime Minister of Iran and the former general of the Persian Cossack Brigade, and he became the new Shah.\n\nIn 1941, Reza Shah was forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and established the Persian Corridor, a massive supply route that would last until the end of the ongoing war. The presence of so many foreign troops in the nation also culminated in the Soviet-backed establishment of two puppet regimes in the nation; the Azerbaijan People's Government, and the Republic of Mahabad. As the Soviet Union refused to relinquish the occupied Iranian territory, the Iran crisis of 1946 was followed, which particularly resulted in the dissolution of both puppet states, and the withdrawal of the Soviets.\n\nIn 1951, Mohammad Mosaddegh was elected as the prime minister. He became enormously popular in Iran, after he nationalized Iran's petroleum industry and oil reserves. He was deposed in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, an Anglo-American covert operation that marked the first time the US had overthrown a foreign government during the Cold War. \n\nAfter the coup, the Shah became increasingly autocratic and sultanistic, and Iran entered a phase of decades long controversial close relations with the United States and some other foreign governments. While the Shah increasingly modernized Iran and claimed to retain it as a fully secular state, arbitrary arrests and torture by his secret police, the SAVAK, were used to crush all forms of political opposition.\n\nAyatollah Ruhollah Khomeini became an active critic of the Shah's White Revolution, and publicly denounced the government. Khomeini was arrested and imprisoned for 18 months. After his release in 1964, Khomeini publicly criticized the United States government. The Shah sent him into exile. He went first to Turkey, then to Iraq, and finally to France.\n\nDue to the 1973 spike in oil prices, the economy of Iran was flooded with foreign currency, which caused inflation. By 1974, the economy of Iran was experiencing double digit inflation, and despite many large projects to modernize the country, corruption was rampant and caused large amounts of waste. By 1975 and 1976, an economic recession led to increased unemployment, especially among millions of youth who had migrated to the cities of Iran looking for construction jobs during the boom years of the early 1970s. By the late 1970s, many of these people opposed the Shah's regime and began to organize and join the protests against it. \n\nAfter the 1979 Revolution\n\nThe 1979 Revolution, later known as the Islamic Revolution, began in January 1978 with the first major demonstrations against the Shah. \n\nAfter a year of strikes and demonstrations paralyzing the country and its economy, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled the country and Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile to Tehran in February 1979, forming a new government. After holding a referendum, in April 1979, Iran officially became an Islamic Republic. A second referendum in December 1979 approved a theocratic constitution. \n\nThe immediate nationwide uprisings against the new government began by the 1979 Kurdish rebellion with the Khuzestan uprisings, along with the uprisings in Sistan and Baluchestan Province and other areas. Over the next several years, these uprisings were subdued in a violent manner by the new Islamic government. The new government went about purging itself of the non-Islamist political opposition, as well as of those Islamists who were not considered radical enough. Although both nationalists and Marxists had initially joined with Islamists to overthrow the Shah, tens of thousands were executed by the Islamic government afterward. \n\nOn November 4, 1979, a group of students seized the United States Embassy and took the embassy with 52 personnel and citizens hostage, after the United States refused to return Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to Iran to face trial in the court of the new regime and all but certain execution. Attempts by the Jimmy Carter administration to negotiate for the release of the hostages, and a failed rescue attempt, helped force Carter out of office and brought Ronald Reagan to power. On Jimmy Carter's final day in office, the last hostages were finally set free as a result of the Algiers Accords.\n\nThe Cultural Revolution began in 1980, with an initial closure of universities for three years, in order to perform an inspection and cleanup in the cultural policy of the education and training system.[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/scrc.htm Supreme Cultural Revolution Council] GlobalSecurity.org\n\nOn September 22, 1980, the Iraqi army invaded the Iranian Khuzestan, and the Iran–Iraq War began. Although the forces of Saddam Hussein made several early advances, by mid 1982, the Iranian forces successfully managed to drive the Iraqi army back into Iraq. In July 1982, with Iraq thrown on the defensive, Iran took the decision to invade Iraq and conducted countless offensives in a bid to conquer Iraqi territory and capture cities, such as Basra. The war continued until 1988, when the Iraqi army defeated the Iranian forces inside Iraq and pushed the remaining Iranian troops back across the border. Subsequently, Khomeini accepted a truce mediated by the UN. The total Iranian casualties in the war were estimated to be 123,220–160,000 KIA, 60,711 MIA, and 11,000–16,000 civilians killed. \n\nFollowing the Iran–Iraq War, in 1989, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his administration concentrated on a pragmatic pro-business policy of rebuilding and strengthening the economy without making any dramatic break with the ideology of the revolution. In 1997, Rafsanjani was succeeded by the moderate reformist Mohammad Khatami, whose government attempted, unsuccessfully, to make the country more free and democratic. \n\nThe 2005 presidential election brought conservative populist candidate, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to power. During the 2009 Iranian presidential election, the Interior Ministry announced incumbent president Ahmadinejad had won 62.63% of the vote, while Mir-Hossein Mousavi had come in second place with 33.75%. Allegations of large irregularities and fraud provoked the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, both within Iran and in major cites outside the country. \n\nHassan Rouhani was elected as President of Iran on June 15, 2013, defeating Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and four other candidates. The electoral victory of new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has improved the relations of Iran with other countries. \n\nGeography\n\nIran has an area of 1648195 km2. Iran lies between latitudes 24° and 40° N, and longitudes 44° and 64° E. Its borders are with Azerbaijan (611 km, with Azerbaijan-Naxcivan exclave, 179 km) and Armenia (35 km) to the north-west; the Caspian Sea to the north; Turkmenistan (992 km) to the north-east; Pakistan (909 km) and Afghanistan (936 km) to the east; Turkey (499 km) and Iraq (1458 km) to the west; and finally the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the south.\n\nIran consists of the Iranian Plateau with the exception of the coasts of the Caspian Sea and Khuzestan Province. It is one of the world's most mountainous countries, its landscape dominated by rugged mountain ranges that separate various basins or plateaux from one another. The populous western part is the most mountainous, with ranges such as the Caucasus, Zagros and Alborz Mountains; the last contains Iran's highest point, Mount Damavand at 5610 m, which is also the highest mountain on the Eurasian landmass west of the Hindu Kush. \n\nThe northern part of Iran is covered by dense rain forests called Shomal or the Jungles of Iran. The eastern part consists mostly of desert basins such as the Dasht-e Kavir, Iran's largest desert, in the north-central portion of the country, and the Dasht-e Lut, in the east, as well as some salt lakes. This is because the mountain ranges are too high for rain clouds to reach these regions.\n\nThe only large plains are found along the coast of the Caspian Sea and at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, where Iran borders the mouth of the Arvand river. Smaller, discontinuous plains are found along the remaining coast of the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman.\n\nDamavand in winter.jpg|Mount Damavand\nNamarestagh.jpg|Namarestagh\nBadab-e Surt Samaee.jpg|Badab-e Surt\nThe misty mountains.jpg|Mountains in Arasbaran\nSand dunes of Maranjab Desert in Kavir National Park.jpg|Maranjab Desert\nHaraz river.jpg|Haraz River, Amol\nKados maklawany.jpg|Mountains in Maklavan\nKaluts, Iran (5072510138).jpg|Lut Desert\nFile:Alvand1.jpg|Alvand\nOshtoran kuhj.jpg|Sepiddasht, Lorestan\nFile:Khezr Beach, Hormoz Island, Persian Gulf, Iran, 02-09-2008.jpg|Hormuz Island, Persian Gulf\n\nClimate\n\nIran's climate ranges from arid or semiarid, to subtropical along the Caspian coast and the northern forests. On the northern edge of the country (the Caspian coastal plain) temperatures rarely fall below freezing and the area remains humid for the rest of the year. Summer temperatures rarely exceed 29 °C. Annual precipitation is 680 mm in the eastern part of the plain and more than 1700 mm in the western part. United Nations Resident Coordinator for Iran Gary Lewis has said that \"Water scarcity poses the most severe human security challenge in Iran today\". \n\nTo the west, settlements in the Zagros basin experience lower temperatures, severe winters with below zero average daily temperatures and heavy snowfall. The eastern and central basins are arid, with less than 200 mm of rain, and have occasional deserts. Average summer temperatures rarely exceed 38 °C. The coastal plains of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman in southern Iran have mild winters, and very humid and hot summers. The annual precipitation ranges from 135 to.\n\nFauna\n\nThe wildlife of Iran is composed of several animal species, including bears, gazelles, wild pigs, wolves, jackals, panthers, Eurasian lynx, and foxes. Other domestic animals of Iran include sheep, goats, cattle, horses, water buffaloes, donkeys, and camels. Pheasants, partridges, storks, eagles, and falcons are also native to the wildlife of Iran.\n\nOne of the most famous members of the Iranian wildlife is the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah, also known as the Iranian cheetah, whose numbers were greatly reduced after the 1979 Revolution. The Persian leopard, which is the world's largest leopard subspecies living primarily in northern Iran, is also listed as an endangered species. Iran lost all its Asiatic lions and the now extinct Caspian tigers by the earlier part of the 20th century. \n\nAt least 74 species of Iranian wildlife are on the red list of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, a sign of serious threats against the country’s biodiversity. The Iranian Parliament has been showing disregard for wildlife by passing laws and regulations such as the act that lets the Ministry of Industries and Mines exploit mines without the involvement of the Department of Environment, and by approving large national development projects without demanding comprehensive study of their impact on wildlife habitats. \n\nRegions, provinces and cities\n\nIran is divided into five regions with thirty one provinces (ostān), each governed by an appointed governor (ostāndār). The provinces are divided into counties (shahrestān), and subdivided into districts (bakhsh) and sub-districts (dehestān).\n\nIran has one of the highest urban growth rates in the world. From 1950 to 2002, the urban proportion of the population increased from 27% to 60%. The United Nations predicts that by 2030, 80% of the population will be urban. Most internal migrants have settled near the cities of Tehran, Isfahan, Ahvaz, and Qom. The listed populations are from the 2006/07 (1385 AP) census. \n\nTehran, with a population of around 8.1 million (2011 census), is the capital and largest city in Iran. It is an economical and cultural center in Iran, and is the hub of the country's communication and transport network.\n\nThe country's second largest city, Mashhad, has a population of around 2.7 million (2011 census). It is the capital of Razavi Khorasan Province, and is a holy city in Shia Islam, as it is the site of the Imam Reza Shrine. About 15 to 20 million pilgrims visit the Shrine of Imam Reza every year. \n\nIsfahan, with a population of around 1.7 million (2011 census), is Iran's third largest city and the capital of Isfahan Province. It was also a former capital of Iran, and contains a wide variety of historical sites; including the famous Image of the World Square, Siose Bridge, and the sites at the Armenian district of New Jolfa. It is also home to the 5th largest shopping mall in the world, namely Isfahan City Center.\n\nThe fourth major city of Iran, Karaj, has a population of around 1.6 million (2011 census). It is the capital of Alborz Province, and is situated 20 km west of Tehran, at the foot of the Alborz mountains. It is a major industrial city in Iran, with large factories producing sugar, textiles, wire, and alcohol.\n\nTabriz, the capital of East Azerbaijan Province, is considered the second industrial city of Iran (after Tehran). With a population of around 1.4 million (2011 census), it is the fifth major city of Iran, which had been the second-largest until the late 1960s. It is one of the former capitals of Iran, the first capital of the Safavid Empire, and has also been proven extremely influential in the country’s recent history.\n\nShiraz, with a population of around 1.4 million (2011 census), is the sixth major city of Iran. It is the capital of Fars Province, and was also a former capital of Iran. The area was greatly influenced by the Babylonian civilization, and after the emergence of the ancient Persians, soon came to be known as Persis. Persians were present in the region since the 9th century BC, and became rulers of a large empire under the reign of the Achaemenid Dynasty in the 6th century BC. The ruins of Persepolis and Pasargadae, two of the four capitals of the Achaemenid Empire, are located around the modern-day city of Shiraz.\n\nGovernment and politics\n\nThe political system of the Islamic Republic is based on the 1979 Constitution, and comprises several intricately connected governing bodies. The Leader of the Revolution (\"Supreme Leader\") is responsible for delineation and supervision of the general policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran. \nThe Supreme Leader is Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, controls the military intelligence and security operations, and has sole power to declare war or peace. The heads of the judiciary, state radio and television networks, the commanders of the police and military forces and six of the twelve members of the Guardian Council are appointed by the Supreme Leader. The Assembly of Experts elects and dismisses the Supreme Leader on the basis of qualifications and popular esteem. However, the ability of the Assembly of Experts to guess who is popular is questionable. For example, in 2015 they elected Mohammad Yazdi as chairman of the Assembly of Experts, but in 2016 in the popular election, Mohammad Yazdi was voted out of the Assembly of Experts itself. \n\nAccording to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the powers of government in the Islamic Republic of Iran are vested in the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive powers, functioning under the supervision of the \"Absolute Guardianship and the Leadership of the Ummah\" () that refers to the Supreme Leader of Iran. \n\nAfter the Supreme Leader, the Constitution defines the President of Iran as the highest state authority. The President is elected by universal suffrage for a term of four years and can only be re-elected for one term. Presidential candidates must be approved by the Guardian Council before running, in order to ensure their allegiance to the ideals of the Islamic Revolution. \n\nThe President is responsible for the implementation of the Constitution and for the exercise of executive powers, except for matters directly related to the Supreme Leader, who has the final say in all matters. The President appoints and supervises the Council of Ministers, coordinates government decisions, and selects government policies to be placed before the legislature. The current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has fired as well as reinstated Council of Ministers members. Eight Vice-Presidents serve under the President, as well as a cabinet of twenty-two ministers, who must all be approved by the legislature. \n\nThe legislature of Iran (known as the Islamic Consultative Assembly) is a unicameral body. The Parliament of Iran comprises 290 members elected for four-year terms. The parliament drafts legislation, ratifies international treaties, and approves the national budget. All parliament candidates and all legislation from the assembly must be approved by the Guardian Council. \n\nThe Guardian Council comprises twelve jurists including six appointed by the Supreme Leader. The others are elected by the Iranian Parliament from among the jurists nominated by the Head of the Judiciary. The Council interprets the constitution and may veto Parliament. If a law is deemed incompatible with the constitution or Sharia (Islamic law), it is referred back to Parliament for revision. The Expediency Council has the authority to mediate disputes between Parliament and the Guardian Council, and serves as an advisory body to the Supreme Leader, making it one of the most powerful governing bodies in the country. Local city councils are elected by public vote to four-year terms in all cities and villages of Iran.\n\nIran has adopted the separation of powers among the servants of the Supreme Leader, having three typical division of branches: Executive (incumbent: Hassan Rouhani), Legislature (incumbent: Ali Larijani), and the Judiciary (incumbent: Sadeq Larijani).\n\nLaw\n\nThe Supreme Leader appoints the head of Iran's judiciary, who in turn appoints the head of the Supreme Court and the chief public prosecutor. There are several types of courts including public courts that deal with civil and criminal cases, and revolutionary courts which deal with certain categories of offenses, including crimes against national security. The decisions of the revolutionary courts are final and cannot be appealed.\n\nThe Special Clerical Court handles crimes allegedly committed by clerics, although it has also taken on cases involving lay people. The Special Clerical Court functions independently of the regular judicial framework and is accountable only to the Supreme Leader. The Court's rulings are final and cannot be appealed. The Assembly of Experts, which meets for one week annually, comprises 86 \"virtuous and learned\" clerics elected by adult suffrage for eight-year terms. As with the presidential and parliamentary elections, the Guardian Council determines candidates' eligibility. The Assembly elects the Supreme Leader and has the constitutional authority to remove the Supreme Leader from power at any time. It has not challenged any of the Supreme Leader's decisions. The current head of the judicial system Sadeq Larijani, appointed by long-time Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said that it is illegal for the Assembly of Experts to supervise Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. \n\nForeign relations\n\nThe Iranian government's officially stated goal is to establish a new world order based on world peace, global collective security and justice. \n\nOften, Iran's foreign relations since the time of the revolution have been portrayed as being based on two strategic principles: eliminating outside influences in the region and pursuing extensive diplomatic contacts with developing and non-aligned countries. \n\nIran is considered a State Sponsor of Terrorism by the United States. \n\nSince 2005, Iran's nuclear program has become the subject of contention with the international community following earlier quotes of Iranian leadership favoring the use of an atomic bomb against Iran's enemies and in particular Israel. Many countries have expressed concern that Iran's nuclear program could divert civilian nuclear technology into a weapons program. This has led the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against Iran which had further isolated Iran politically and economically from the rest of the global community. In 2009, the US Director of National Intelligence said that Iran, if choosing to, would not be able to develop a nuclear weapon until 2013. \n\n, Iran maintains diplomatic relations with 99 members of the United Nations, but not with the United States or Israel, a state which Iran has not recognized since the 1979 Revolution. \n\nOn July 14, 2015, Tehran and the P5+1 came to a historic agreement to end economic sanctions after demonstrating a peaceful nuclear research project that meets International Atomic Energy Agency standards. \n\nIran is also a member of dozens of international organizations including the G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, IDA, IDB, IFC, ILO, IMF, International Maritime Organization, Interpol, OIC, OPEC, the United Nations, WHO, and currently has observer status at the World Trade Organization.\n\nMilitary\n\nThe Islamic Republic of Iran has two types of armed forces: the regular forces Islamic Republic of Iran Army, Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, Islamic Republic of Iran Navy and the Revolutionary Guards, totaling about 545,000 active troops. Iran also has around 350,000 Reserve Force totaling around 900,000 trained troops. \n\nIran has a paramilitary, volunteer militia force within the IRGC, called the Basij, which includes about 90,000 full-time, active-duty uniformed members. Up to 11 million men and women are members of the Basij who could potentially be called up for service; GlobalSecurity.org estimates Iran could mobilize \"up to one million men\". This would be among the largest troop mobilizations in the world. In 2007, Iran's military spending represented 2.6% of the GDP or $102 per capita, the lowest figure of the Persian Gulf nations. Iran's military doctrine is based on deterrence. In 2014 arms spending the country spent $15 billion and was outspent by the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council by a factor of 13. \n\nIran supports the military activities of its allies in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon (Hezbollah) with thousands of rockets and missiles. \n\nSince the 1979 Revolution, to overcome foreign embargoes, Iran has developed its own military industry, produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, guided missiles, submarines, military vessels, guided missile destroyer, radar systems, helicopters and fighter planes. In recent years, official announcements have highlighted the development of weapons such as the Hoot, Kowsar, Zelzal, Fateh-110, Shahab-3 and Sejjil missiles, and a variety of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The Fajr-3 (MIRV) is currently Iran's most advanced ballistic missile, it is a liquid fuel missile with an undisclosed range which was developed and produced domestically.\n\nEconomy\n\nIran's economy is a mixture of central planning, state ownership of oil and other large enterprises, village agriculture, and small-scale private trading and service ventures. In 2014, GDP was $404.1 billion ($1.334 trillion at PPP), or $17,100 at PPP per capita. Iran is ranked as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank. In the early 21st century the service sector contributed the largest percentage of the GDP, followed by industry (mining and manufacturing) and agriculture. \n\nThe Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for developing and maintaining the Iranian rial, which serves as the country's currency. The government doesn't recognize trade unions other than the Islamic Labour Councils, which are subject to the approval of employers and the security services. The minimum wage in June 2013 was 487 million rials a month ($134). Unemployment has remained above 10% since 1997, and the unemployment rate for women is almost double that of the men.\n\nIn 2006, about 45% of the government's budget came from oil and natural gas revenues, and 31% came from taxes and fees. , Iran had earned $70 billion in foreign exchange reserves mostly (80%) from crude oil exports. Iranian budget deficits have been a chronic problem, mostly due to large-scale state subsidies, that include foodstuffs and especially gasoline, totaling more than $84 billion in 2008 for the energy sector alone. In 2010, the economic reform plan was approved by parliament to cut subsidies gradually and replace them with targeted social assistance. The objective is to move towards free market prices in a 5-year period and increase productivity and social justice. \n\nThe administration continues to follow the market reform plans of the previous one and indicated that it will diversify Iran's oil-reliant economy. Iran has also developed a biotechnology, nanotechnology, and pharmaceuticals industry. However, nationalized industries such as the bonyads have often been managed badly, making them ineffective and uncompetitive with years. Currently, the government is trying to privatize these industries, and, despite successes, there are still several problems to be overcome, such as the lagging corruption in the public sector and lack of competitiveness. In 2010, Iran was ranked 69, out of 139 nations, in the Global Competitiveness Report. \n\nIran has leading manufacturing industries in the fields of car-manufacture and transportation, construction materials, home appliances, food and agricultural goods, armaments, pharmaceuticals, information technology, power and petrochemicals in the Middle East. According to FAO, Iran has been a top five producer of the following agricultural products in the world in 2012: apricots, cherries, sour cherries, cucumbers and gherkins, dates, eggplants, figs, pistachios, quinces, walnuts, and watermelons. \n\nEconomic sanctions against Iran, such as the embargo against Iranian crude oil, have affected the economy. Sanctions have led to a steep fall in the value of the rial, and as of April 2013 one US dollar is worth 36,000 rial, compared with 16,000 in early 2012. Following a successful implementation of the 2015 nuclear and sanctions relief deal, the resulting benefits might not be distributed evenly across the Iranian economy as political elites such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have garnered more resources and economic interests. \n\nTourism\n\nAlthough tourism declined significantly during the war with Iraq, it has been subsequently recovered. About 1,659,000 foreign tourists visited Iran in 2004, and 2.3 million in 2009, mostly from Asian countries, including the republics of Central Asia, while about 10% came from the European Union and North America. [https://web.archive.org/web/20131221100152/http://previous.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id121199&sectionid\n351020108 Iran hosted 2.3 million tourists this year]. PressTV, March 19, 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2011. Over five million tourists visited Iran in the fiscal year of 2014–2015, ending March 21, four percent more year-on-year. \n\nAlongside the capital, the most popular tourist destinations are Isfahan, Mashhad and Shiraz. In the early 2000s, the industry faced serious limitations in infrastructure, communications, industry standards and personnel training. The majority of the 300,000 tourist visas granted in 2003 were obtained by Asian Muslims, who presumably intended to visit important pilgrimage sites in Mashhad and Qom. Several organized tours from Germany, France and other European countries come to Iran annually to visit archaeological sites and monuments. In 2003, Iran ranked 68th in tourism revenues worldwide. According to UNESCO and the deputy head of research for Iran Travel and Tourism Organization (ITTO), Iran is rated 4th among the top 10 destinations in the Middle East. Domestic tourism in Iran is one of the largest in the world. Weak advertising, unstable regional conditions, a poor public image in some parts of the world, and absence of efficient planning schemes in the tourism sector have all hindered the growth of tourism.\n\nEnergy\n\nIran has the second largest proved gas reserves in the world after Russia, with 33.6 trillion cubic metres, and third largest natural gas production in the world after Indonesia, and Russia. It also ranks fourth in oil reserves with an estimated 153,600,000,000 barrels. It is OPEC's 2nd largest oil exporter and is an energy superpower. \nIn 2005, Iran spent US$4 billion on fuel imports, because of contraband and inefficient domestic use. Oil industry output averaged 4 Moilbbl/d in 2005, compared with the peak of six million barrels per day reached in 1974. In the early years of the 2000s (decade), industry infrastructure was increasingly inefficient because of technological lags. Few exploratory wells were drilled in 2005.\n\nIn 2004, a large share of natural gas reserves in Iran were untapped. The addition of new hydroelectric stations and the streamlining of conventional coal and oil-fired stations increased installed capacity to 33,000 megawatts. Of that amount, about 75% was based on natural gas, 18% on oil, and 7% on hydroelectric power. In 2004, Iran opened its first wind-powered and geothermal plants, and the first solar thermal plant is to come online in 2009. Iran is the third country in the world to have developed GTL technology. \n\nDemographic trends and intensified industrialization have caused electric power demand to grow by 8% per year. The government’s goal of 53,000 megawatts of installed capacity by 2010 is to be reached by bringing on line new gas-fired plants and by adding hydroelectric, and nuclear power generating capacity. Iran’s first nuclear power plant at Bushehr went online in 2011. It is the second Nuclear Power Plant that ever built in the Middle East after Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant in Armenia. \n\nEducation, science and technology\n\nEducation in Iran is highly centralized. K-12 education is supervised by the Ministry of Education, and higher education is under the supervision of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The adult literacy rated 93.0% in September 2015, while it had rated 85.0% in 2008, up from 36.5% in 1976.\n\nThe requirement to enter into higher education is to have a high school diploma and pass the national university entrance examination, Iranian University Entrance Exam (known as concour), which is the equivalent of the US SAT exams. Many students do a 1–2 year course of pre-university (piš-dānešgāh), which is the equivalent of GCE A-levels and International Baccalaureate. The completion of the pre-university course earns students the Pre-University Certificate. \n\nHigher education is sanctioned by different levels of diplomas. Kārdāni (associate degree; also known as fowq e diplom) is delivered after 2 years of higher education; kāršenāsi (bachelor's degree; also known as licāns) is delivered after 4 years of higher education; and kāršenāsi e aršad (master's degree) is delivered after 2 more years of study, after which another exam allows the candidate to pursue a doctoral program (PhD; known as doctorā). \n\nAccording to the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, the top-ranking universities in the country are the University of Tehran (468th worldwide), the Tehran University of Medical Sciences (612th) and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (815th). \n\nIran has increased its publication output nearly tenfold from 1996 through 2004, and has been ranked first in terms of output growth rate, followed by China. According to SCImago, Iran could rank fourth in the world in terms of research output by 2018, if the current trend persists. \n\nIn 2009, a SUSE Linux-based HPC system made by the Aerospace Research Institute of Iran (ARI) was launched with 32 cores, and now runs 96 cores. Its performance was pegged at 192 GFLOPS. Sorena 2 Robot, which was designed by engineers at the University of Tehran, was unveiled in 2010. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has placed the name of Surena among the five prominent robots of the world after analyzing its performance. \n\nIn the biomedical sciences, Iran's Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics is a UNESCO chair in biology. In late 2006, Iranian scientists successfully cloned a sheep by somatic cell nuclear transfer, at the Royan Research Center in Tehran. \n\nAccording to a study by David Morrison and Ali Khadem Hosseini (Harvard-MIT and Cambridge), stem cell research in Iran is amongst the top 10 in the world. Iran ranks 15th in the world in nanotechnologies. \n\nIran placed its domestically built satellite, Omid into orbit on the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Revolution, on 2 February 2009, through Safir rocket, becoming the ninth country in the world capable of both producing a satellite and sending it into space from a domestically made launcher. \n\nThe Iranian nuclear program was launched in the 1950s. Iran is the seventh country to produce uranium hexafluoride, and controls the entire nuclear fuel cycle. \n\nIranian scientists outside Iran have also made some major contributions to science. In 1960, Ali Javan co-invented the first gas laser, and fuzzy set theory was introduced by Lotfi Zadeh. Iranian cardiologist, Tofy Mussivand invented and developed the first artificial cardiac pump, the precursor of the artificial heart. Furthering research and treatment of diabetes, HbA1c was discovered by Samuel Rahbar. Iranian physics is especially strong in string theory, with many papers being published in Iran. Iranian-American string theorist Kamran Vafa proposed the Vafa-Witten theorem together with Edward Witten.\nIn August 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani became the first-ever woman, as well as the first-ever Iranian, to receive the Fields Medal, the highest prize in mathematics. \n\nDemographics\n\nIran is a diverse country, consisting of many religious and ethnic groups that are unified through a shared Persian language and culture. \n\nIran's population grew rapidly during the latter half of the 20th century, increasing from about 19 million in 1956 to around 75 million by 2009. However, Iran's birth rate has dropped significantly in recent years, leading to a population growth rate—recorded from July 2012—of about 1.29%. Studies project that the growth will continue to slow until it stabilizes above 105 million by 2050. \n\nIran hosts one of the largest refugee populations in the world, with more than one million refugees, mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq. Since 2006, Iranian officials have been working with the UNHCR and Afghan officials for their repatriation. According to estimates, about five million Iranian citizens have emigrated to other countries, mostly since the 1979 Revolution. \n\nAccording to the Iranian Constitution, the government is required to provide every citizen of the country with access to social security that covers retirement, unemployment, old age, disability, accidents, calamities, health and medical treatment and care services. This is covered by tax revenues and income derived from public contributions. \n\nLanguages\n\nThe majority of the population speak Persian language, which is also the official language of the country. Others include speakers of the rest of the Iranian languages within the greater Indo-European languages, and the languages of the other ethnicities in Iran.\n\nIn northern Iran, mostly confined to Gilan and Mazenderan provinces, Gilaki and Mazenderani languages are widely spoken. They both have affinities to the neighboring Caucasian languages. In parts of Gilan, Talysh language is also widely spoken, which stretches up to the neighboring country of Azerbaijan. Kurdish is widely spoken in Kurdistan Province and nearby areas. In Khuzestan, many distinct Persian dialects are spoken. Luri and Lari languages are spoken in southwestern and southern Iran.\n\nTurkic languages and dialects, most importantly Azerbaijani language which is by far the most spoken language in the country after Persian, are spoken in different areas in Iran, but is especially widely and dominantly spoken in Iranian Azerbaijan.\n\nNotable minority languages in Iran include Armenian, Georgian, Neo-Aramaic, and Arabic. Khuzi Arabic is spoken by the Arabs in Khuzestan, and the wider group of Iranian Arabs. Circassian language was also once widely used by the large Circassian minority, but, due to assimilation over the many years, no sizable number of Circassians speak the language anymore. \n\nPercentages of spoken language continue to be a point of debate, as many opt that they are politically motivated; most notably regarding the largest and second-largest ethnicities in Iran, the Persians and Azerbaijanis. The following percentages are according to the CIA's World Factbook: 53% Persian, 16% Azerbaijani, 10% Kurdish, 7% Mazenderani and Gilaki, 7% Luri, 2% Turkmen, 2% Balochi, 2% Arabic, and 2% the remainder Armenian, Georgian, Neo-Aramaic, and Circassian.\n\nEthnic groups\n\nAs with the spoken languages, the ethnic group composition also remains a point of debate, mainly regarding the largest and second largest ethnic groups, the Persians and Azerbaijanis, due to the lack of Iranian state censuses based on ethnicity. The CIA's World Factbook has estimated that around 79% of the population of Iran are a diverse Indo-European ethno-linguistic group that comprise the speakers of Iranian languages, with Persians (incl. Mazenderanis and Gilaks) constituting 61% of the population, Kurds 10%, Lurs 6%, and Balochs 2%. Peoples of the other ethnicities in Iran make up the remaining 21%, with Azerbaijanis constituting 16%, Arabs 2%, Turkmens and Turkic tribes 2%, and others 1% (such as Armenians, Talysh, Georgians, Circassians, Assyrians). \n\nThe Library of Congress issued slightly different estimates: Persians 65% (incl. Mazenderanis, Gilaks and Talysh people), Azerbaijanis 16%, Kurds 7%, Lurs 6%, Baluchi 2%; Turkic tribal groups such as Qashqai 1%, and Turkmens 1%; and non-Iranian, non-Turkic groups such as Armenians, Georgians, Assyrians, Circassians, and Arabs less than 3%. It determined that Persian is the first language of at least 65% of the country's population, and is the second language for most of the remaining 35%. \n\nOther non-governmental estimations regarding the groups other than the Persians and Azerbaijanis roughly congruate with the World Factbook and the Library of Congress. However, many scholarly and organisational estimations regarding the number of these two groups differ significantly from the mentioned census. According to many of them, the number of ethnic Azerbaijanis in Iran comprises between 21.6–30% of the total population, with the majority holding it on 25%. In any case, the largest population of Azerbaijanis in the world live in Iran.\n\nReligion\n\nHistorically, Proto-Iranian religion and the subsequent Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism were the dominant religions in Iran, particularly during the Median, Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanid empires. This changed after the fall of the Sassanid Empire by the Muslim Conquest of Iran. Iran was predominantly Sunni until the conversion of the country (as well as the people of what is today the neighboring Republic of Azerbaijan) to Shia Islam by the order of the Safavid dynasty in the 16th century.\n\nToday, the Twelver Shia Islam is the official state religion, to which about 90% to 95% of the population officially belong. About 4% to 8% of the population are Sunni Muslims, mainly Kurds and Balochs. The remaining 2% are non-Muslim religious minorities, including Christians, Jews, Bahais, Mandeans, Yezidis, Yarsanis, and Zoroastrians. \n\nJudaism has a long history in Iran, dating back to the Achaemenid Conquest of Babylonia. Although many left in the wake of the establishment of the State of Israel and the 1979 Revolution, around 8,756 Jews remain in Iran, according to the latest census. Iran has the largest Jewish population in the Middle East outside of Israel. \n\nAround 250,000–370,000 Christians reside in Iran, and it is the largest recognized minority religion in the nation. Most are of Armenian background with a sizable minority of Assyrians as well. \n\nChristianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and the Sunni branch of Islam are officially recognized by the government, and have reserved seats in the Iranian Parliament. But the Bahá'í Faith, which is said to be the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran, is not officially recognized, and has been persecuted during its existence in Iran since the 19th century. Since the 1979 Revolution, the persecution of Bahais has increased with executions, the denial of civil rights and liberties, and the denial of access to higher education and employment. \n\nThe government has not released statistics regarding irreligiosity. However, the irreligious figures are growing and are higher in the diaspora, notably among Iranian Americans. \n\nTakht-e-soleiman-3.jpg|Adur Gushnasp Temple\nIranShushGrabDaniels3.jpg|Tomb of Daniel\nArmenian Monastery of Saint Thaddeus - closeup.jpg|Saint Thaddeus Monastery\nSaint Stephen Church - 8614907041.jpg|Saint Stepanos Monastery\nSheikh lotfolla.jpg|Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque\nMosque of Jamkaran.png|Jamkaran Mosque\nImam reza shrine in Mashhad.jpg|Imam Reza Shrine\n\nCulture\n\nThe earliest recorded cultures within the region of Iran date back to the Lower Paleolithic era.\n\nOwing to its dominant geopolitical position and culture in the world, Iran has directly influenced cultures as far away as Greece, Macedonia, and Italy to the West, Russia to the North, the Arabian Peninsula to the South, and indirectly South and East Asia to the East.\n\nArt\n\nIranian works of art show a great variety in style, in different regions and periods. Iranian art encompasses many disciplines, including architecture, painting, weaving, pottery, calligraphy, metalworking, and stonemasonry. The Median and Achaemenid empires left a significant classical art scene which remained as basic influences for the art of the later eras. The art of the Parthians was a mixture of Iranian and Hellenistic artworks, with their main motifs being scenes of royal hunting expeditions and investitures. The Sassanid art played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art, which carried forward to the Islamic world, and much of what later became known as Islamic learning, such as philology, literature, jurisprudence, philosophy, medicine, architecture, and science, were of Sassanid basis. \n\nThere is also a vibrant Iranian modern and contemporary art scene, with its genesis in the late 1940s. The 1949 Apadana Gallery of Tehran, which was operated by Mahmoud Javadi Pour and other colleagues, and the emergence of artists such as Marcos Grigorian in the 1950s, signaled a commitment to the creation of a form of modern art grounded in Iran. \n\nIranian carpet-weaving dates back to the Bronze Age, and is one of the most distinguished manifestations of the art of Iran. Iran is the world's largest producer and exporter of handmade carpets, producing three quarters of the world's total output and having a share of 30% of world's export markets. \n\nIran is also home to one of the largest jewel collections in the world.\n\nArchitecture\n\nThe history of Iranian architecture goes back to the 7th millennium BC. Iranians were among the first to use mathematics, geometry, and astronomy in architecture.\n\nIranian architecture displays great variety, both structural and aesthetic, developing gradually and coherently out of earlier traditions and experience. The guiding motifs of Iranian architecture are unity, continuity, and cosmic symbolism. \n\nIran ranks seventh among countries with the most archaeological architectural ruins and attractions from antiquity, as recognized by UNESCO. \n\nPersepolis_06.jpg|Ruins of Persepolis\nNaghshe Jahan Square Isfahan modified.jpg|Naqsh-e Jahan Square\nSoltan amir bath house2.jpg|Qasemi Bath\nIsfahan Royal Mosque entrance.JPG|Entrance of the Shah Mosque\nAzadi Tower in Tehran, 2011.jpg|Azadi Tower\n\nAllahverdi khan Bridge.jpg|Siose Bridge\nShazde Garden, Mahan, Kerman.jpg|Shazdeh Garden\nGhavam Garden Darafsh (6).JPG|Qavam House\nBazaar of Yazd.jpg|A ceiling at the Bazaar of Yazd\nGolestan palace Tehran.jpg|Golestan Palace\n\nLiterature\n\nIranian literature is one of the world's oldest literatures, dating back to the poetry of Avesta and Zoroastrian literature.\n\nPoetry is used in many Iranian classical works, whether in literature, science, or metaphysics. Persian language has been dubbed as a worthy language to serve as a conduit for poetry, and is considered as one of the four main bodies of world literature. Dialects of Persian are sporadically spoken throughout regions from China to Syria and Russia, though mainly in the Iranian Plateau. \n\nIran has a number of famous poets; most notably Rumi, Ferdowsi, Hafez, Saadi Shirazi, Khayyám Ney-Shapuri, and Nezami Ganjavi. Historically, Iranian literature has inspired writers including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.\n\nPhilosophy\n\nIranian philosophy originates to Indo-Iranian roots, with Zarathustra's teachings having major influences.\n\nAccording to the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, the chronology of the subject and science of philosophy starts with the Indo-Iranians, dating this event to 1500 BC. The Oxford dictionary also states, \"Zarathushtra's philosophy entered to influence Western tradition through Judaism, and therefore on Middle Platonism.\"\n\nWhile there are ancient relations between the Indian Vedas and the Iranian Avesta, the two main families of the Indo-Iranian philosophical traditions were characterized by fundamental differences, especially in their implications for the human being's position in society and their view of man's role in the universe.\n\nThe Cyrus cylinder, which is known as \"the first charter of human rights\", is often seen as a reflection of the questions and thoughts expressed by Zarathustra, and developed in Zoroastrian schools of the Achaemenid Era. \n\nThe earliest tenets of Zoroastrian schools are part of the extant scriptures of the Zoroastrian religion in Avestan language. Among them are treatises such as the Shikand-gumanic Vichar, Denkard, Zātspram, as well as older passages of Avesta, and the Gathas. \n\nMythology\n\nIranian mythology consists of ancient Iranian folklore and stories, all involving extraordinary beings. They reflect attitudes towards the confrontation of good and evil, actions of the gods, and the exploits of heroes and fabulous creatures.\n\nMyths play a crucial part in the culture of Iran, and understanding of them is increased when they are considered within the context of actual events in the history of Iran. The geography of Greater Iran, a vast area covering the present-day Iran, the Caucasus, Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Central Asia, with its high mountain ranges, plays the main role in much of the Iranian mythology.\n\nShahnameh of Ferdowsi is the main collection of the mythology of Iran, which draws heavily on the stories and characters of Zoroastrianism, from the texts of Avesta, Denkard, and Bundahishn.\n\nObservances\n\nIran has three official calendar systems, including the Solar calendar as the main, the Gregorian calendar for international and Christian events, and the Lunar calendar for Islamic events.\n\nThe main national annual of Iran is Nowruz, an ancient tradition celebrated on 21 March to mark the beginning of spring and the New Year of Iran. It is enjoyed by people with different religions, but is a holiday for Zoroastrians. It was registered on the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, and was described as the Persian New Year by UNESCO in 2009.\n\nOther remained national annuals of Iran include:\n* Čā'r Šanbe Suri: A prelude to Nowruz, in honor of Ātar (the Holy Fire), celebrated by fireworks and fire-jumping, on the last Wednesday before Nowruz\n* Sizda' be Dar: Leaving the house to join the nature, on the thirteenth day of the New Year (April 2)\n* Čelle ye Zemestān: Also known as Yaldā; the longest night of the year, celebrated on the eve of Winter Solstice, by reciting poetry and having the customary fruits which include watermelon, pomegranate, and mixed nuts\n* Tirgān: A mid summer festival, in honor of Tishtrya, celebrated on Tir 13 (July 4), by splashing water, reciting poetry, and having traditional dishes such as šole-zard and spinach soup\n* Mehrgān: An autumn festival, in honor of Mithra, celebrated on Mehr 16 (October 8), by family gathering and setting a table of sweets, flowers, and a mirror\n* Sepand Ārmazgān: Dedicated to Ameša Spenta (the Holy Devotion); celebrated by giving presents to partners, on Esfand 15 (February 24)\n\nAlong with the national celebrations, annuals such as Ramezān, Eid e Fetr, and Ruz e Āšurā are marked by Muslims; Noel, Čelle ye Ruze, and Eid e Pāk are celebrated by Christians; and the festivals Purim, Eid e Fatir, and Tu Bišvāt are celebrated by Jewish people in Iran.\n\nMusic\n\nIran is the apparent birthplace of the earliest complex instruments, as evidenced by the archaeological records found in Western Iran, dating back to the 3rd millennium BC. The Iranian use of both vertical and horizontal angular harps have been documented at the sites Madaktu and Kul-e Farah, with the largest collection of Elamite instruments documented at Kul-e Farah. Multiple depictions of horizontal harps were also sculpted in Assyrian palaces, dating back between 865 and 650 BC.\n\nXenophon's Cyropaedia refers to a great number of singing women at the court of the Achaemenid Iran. Athenaeus of Naucratis states that, by the time of the last Achaemenid king, Artashata (336–330 BC), Achaemenid singing girls were captured by the Macedonian general, Parmenion. Under the Parthian Empire, a type of epic music was taught to youth, depicting the national epics and myths which were later represented in the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi. \n\nHistory of the Sassanid music is better documented than the earlier periods, and is specially more evident in the Zoroastrian contexts. iv. First millennium C.E. (1) Sasanian music, 224–651. By the time of Khosrow II, the Sassanid royal court was the host of prominent musicians, namely Ramtin, Bamshad, Nakisa, Azad, Sarkash, and Barbad.\n\nSome Iranian traditional musical instruments include saz, Persian tar, Azerbaijani tar, dotar, setar, kamanche, harp, barbat, santur, tanbur, qanun, dap, tompak, and ney.\n\nThe first national music society of the modern-day Iran was founded by Rouhollah Khaleghi in the 1940s, with the School of National Music established in 1949. Today, the main orchestra of Iran include the National Orchestra, the Nations Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestra of Tehran.\n\nIranian pop music emerged by the Qajar Era. It was led to major developments in the 1950s, by the emergence of stars such as Viguen, who was referred to as the king of Persian pop and jazz. The 1970s is known as a \"Golden Age\" for Iranian pop music, where a revolution was formed in the music industry of Iran, using indigenous instruments and forms and adding electric guitar. Hayedeh, Faramarz Aslani, Farhad Mehrad, Googoosh, and Ebi are among the leading artists of this period.\n\nThe emergence of genres such as modern rock in the 1970s and hip hop in the 1980s, which replaced the outdated musical styles among the youth, followed major movements and influences in the music of Iran. \n\nTheater\n\nTheater background of Iran dates back to antiquity. The earliest recorded representations of dancing figures within Iran were found in prehistoric sites such as Tepe Siyalk and Tepe Mūsīān. \n\nThe oldest initiation of theater and phenomena of acting among the people of Iran can be traced in the epic ceremonial theaters, such as Soug e Sivash and Mogh Koshi (Megakhouni), and also dances and theater narrations of Iranian mythological tales reported by Herodotos and Xenophon.\n\nThere are several theatrical genres which emerged before the advent of cinema in Iran, including Xeyme Shab Bazi (Puppetry), Saye Bazi (Shadow play), Ru-howzi (Comical plays), and Tazieh (Sorrow plays).\n\nBefore the 1979 Revolution, the Iranian national stage had become a famous performing scene for known international artists and troupes, with the Roudaki Hall of Tehran constructed to function as the national stage for opera and ballet. Opened on October 26, 1967, the hall is home to the Symphony Orchestra of Tehran, the Opera Orchestra of Tehran, and the Iranian National Ballet Company, and continues now with Vahdat Hall as its official name.\n\nThe opera Rostam o Sohrab, based on the epic of Rostam and Sohrab from Shahnameh, is an example of opera performances in the modern-day Iran.\n\nCinema and animation\n\nThe earliest examples of visual representations in Iranian history are traced back to the bas-reliefs of Persepolis, c. 500 BC. Persepolis was the ritual center of the ancient kingdom of Achaemenids, and the figures at Persepolis remain bound by the rules of grammar and syntax of visual language. The Iranian visual arts reached a pinnacle by the Sassanid Era. A bas-relief from this period in Taq Bostan depicts a complex hunting scene. Similar works from the period have been found to articulate movements and actions in a highly sophisticated manner. It is even possible to see a progenitor of the cinema close-up in one of these works of art, which shows a wounded wild pig escaping from the hunting ground. \n\nBy the early 20th century, the five-year-old modern industry of cinema came to Iran. The first Iranian filmmaker was Mirza Ebrahim Khan (Akkas Bashi), the official photographer of Mozaffar od Din Shah of Qajar. He obtained a camera and filmed the Shah's visit to Europe.\n\nIn 1904, Mirza Ebrahim Khan (Sahhaf Bashi) opened the first movie theater in Tehran. After him, several others like Russi Khan, Ardeshir Khan, and Ali Vakili tried to establish new movie theaters in Tehran. Until the early 1930s, there were around 15 cinema theaters in Tehran and 11 in other provinces.\n\nThe first silent Iranian film was made by Professor Ovanes Ohanian in 1930, and the first sounded one, Lor Girl, was made by Abd ol Hossein Sepanta in 1932.\n\nThe 1960s was a significant decade for Iranian cinema, with 25 commercial films produced annually on average throughout the early 60s, increasing to 65 by the end of the decade. The majority of production focused on melodrama and thrillers. With the screening of the films Kaiser and The Cow, directed by Masoud Kimiai and Dariush Mehrjui respectively in 1969, alternative films established their status in the film industry. Attempts to organize a film festival that had begun in 1954 within the framework of the Golrizan Festival, bore fruits in the form of the Sepas Festival in 1969. The endeavors also resulted in the formation of the Tehran World Festival in 1973. \n\nAfter the Revolution of 1979, as the new government imposed new laws and standards, a new age in Iranian cinema emerged, starting with Viva... by Khosrow Sinai and followed by many other directors, such as Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi. Kiarostami, an admired Iranian director, planted Iran firmly on the map of world cinema when he won the Palme d'Or for Taste of Cherry in 1997. The continuous presence of Iranian films in prestigious international festivals, such as the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, and the Berlin International Film Festival, attracted world attention to Iranian masterpieces. In 2006, six Iranian films, of six different styles, represented Iranian cinema at the Berlin International Film Festival. Critics considered this a remarkable event in the history of Iranian cinema. \n\nAsghar Farhadi, a well-known Iranian director, has received a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and was named as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world by Time Magazine in 2012.\n\nThe oldest records of animation in Iran date back to the late 3rd millennium BC. An earthen goblet discovered at the site of the 5,200-year-old Burnt City in southeastern Iran, depicts what could possibly be the world’s oldest example of animation. The artifact bears five sequential images depicting a Persian ibex jumping up to eat the leaves of a tree. \n\nThe art of animation, as practiced in modern Iran, started in the 1950s. After four decades of Iranian animation production and three-decade experience of Kanoon Institute, the Tehran International Animation Festival (TIAF) was established in February 1999. Every two years, participants from more than 70 countries attend this event in Tehran, which holds Iran's biggest national animation market. \n\nMedia\n\nIran's telecommunications are handled by the state-owned Telecommunication Company of Iran. Almost all of the media outlets in Iran are state-owned or subject to authority monitoring. Outlets such as books, movies and music albums must be approved by the Ministry of Ershad before being released to the public.\n\nMost of the newspapers published in Iran are in Persian. The most widely circulated periodicals of the country are based in Tehran. Iran's widespread daily and weekly newspapers include Ettela'at, Kayhan, Hamshahri and Resalat. Tehran Times, Iran Daily, and Financial Tribune are among the English language newspapers based in Iran.\n\nTelevision was introduced to Iran in 1958. Although the 1974 Asian Games was broadcast in color, full color programming began in 1978. Since the 1979 Revolution, Iran's largest media corporation is the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). Over 30 percent of Iranians watch satellite channels, but observers state that the figures are likely to be higher. \n\nIran received access to the Internet in 1993. According to 2014 census, around 40% of the population of Iran are Internet users. Iran ranks 24th among countries by number of Internet users. According to the statistics provided by the web information company of Alexa, Google Search and Yahoo! are the most used search engines in Iran. Over 80% of the users of Telegram, a cloud-based instant messaging service, are from Iran. Instagram is the most popular online social networking service in Iran. Direct access to Facebook has been blocked in Iran since the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, due to organization of the opposition movements on the website; but however, Facebook has around 12 to 17 million users in Iran who are using virtual private networks and proxy servers to access the website. Around 90% of Iran's e-commerce takes place on the Iranian online store of Digikala, which has around 750,000 visitors per day and more than 2.3 million subscribers. Digikala is the most visited online store in the Middle East, and ranks 4th among the most visited websites in Iran.\n\nSports\n\nWith two thirds of Iran's population under the age of 25, many sports are played in Iran, both traditional and modern.\n\nIran is the birthplace of polo, known as čowgān in Persian, and košti e pahlevāni, which means \"the heroic wrestling\". Freestyle wrestling has been traditionally regarded as Iran's national sport, where the national team has been Olympic and world champion.\n\nAssociation football has been regarded as the most popular sport in Iran, with men's national team having won the Asian Cup on three occasions.\n\nVolleyball has been Iran's second most popular sport. Men's national team ranked fourth in 2014 FIVB Volleyball World League, ranked sixth in 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, and achieved the best result among the Asian national teams. \n\nBeing a mountainous country, Iran is a venue for hiking, rock climbing, and mountain climbing. \n\nIran is home to several skiing resorts, the most famous being Tochal, Dizin, and Shemshak, which are all within one to three hours traveling time from the city of Tehran. Tochal resort is the world's fifth-highest ski resort (3730 m at its highest station).\n\nBasketball is also popular in Iran, with men's national team having won three Asian Championships since 2007. \n\nIn 1974, Iran became the first country in West Asia to host the Asian Games, which were held from September 1, 1974 to September 16, 1974 in Tehran.\n\nCuisine\n\nIranian cuisine is diverse due to its variety of ethnic groups and the influence of other cultures. Herbs are frequently used along with fruits such as plums, pomegranates, quince, prunes, apricots, and raisins. Iranians usually eat plain yogurt with lunch and dinner; it is a staple of the diet in Iran. To achieve a balanced taste, characteristic flavourings such as saffron, dried limes, cinnamon, and parsley are mixed delicately and used in some special dishes. Onions and garlic are normally used in the preparation of the accompanying course, but are also served separately during meals, either in raw or pickled form. Iran is also famous for its caviar.", "The Hood Canal Bridge (officially William A. Bugge Bridge) is a floating bridge located in the U.S. state of Washington that carries Washington State Route 104 across Hood Canal and connects the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas. At 7869 ft long, (floating portion 6521 ft) it is the longest floating bridge in the world located in a saltwater tidal basin, and the third longest floating bridge overall. First opened in 1961, it was the second concrete floating bridge constructed in Washington. Since that time, it has become a vital link for local residents, freight haulers, commuters, and recreational travelers. The convenience it provides has had a major impact on economic development, especially in eastern Jefferson County.\n\nThe bridge is officially named after the director of the Department of Highways, William A. Bugge (1900–1992), from 1949 to 1963 who was a leader in the planning and construction of the bridge. The bridge, however, has continued to be popularly known as the Hood Canal Bridge.\n\nHistory\n\nDesign, fabrication, and construction\n\nThe design and planning process for the Hood Canal Bridge took nearly a decade amid criticism from some engineers throughout that time. Critics questioned the use of floating pontoons over salt water, especially at a location with a high tide fluctuations and the funneling effect of the Hood Canal might magnify the intensity of winds and tides. The depth of the water, however, made construction of support columns for other bridge types prohibitively expensive. The water depth below the pontoons ranges from 80 to 340 feet (24 to 104 m). In its marine environment, the bridge is exposed to tide swings of 16.5 feet (5 m). \n\nThe pontoons for the bridge were fabricated in the Duwamish Waterway in Seattle, Washington. During fabrication two of the pontoons sank.\nWhen they were attached for the first time, and then towed into place and anchored, sea conditions in the Hood Canal were too severe and the pontoons were returned to a nearby bay until a better method of attaching could be devised. The structural engineers and the contractor decided the design was faulty. A new contractor was hired and the design modified. It was decided to use a large rubber dam between each of the two pontoons as they were attached, clean the concrete surfaces of all marine growth, epoxy, and tension them with a number of cables welded to a variety of attachment points. This system seemed to work from when the bridge opened in 1961 until the disaster of 1979.\n\nThe east approach span weighs more than 3,800 tons (3,400 tonnes) and the west approach span weighs more than 1,000 tons (907 tonnes)\n\n1979 sinking\n\nThe Hood Canal Bridge suffered catastrophic failure during the February 13, 1979 windstorm. During the night the bridge had withstood sustained winds of up to and gusts estimated at , and finally succumbed at about 7:00 a.m., February 13. The western drawspan and the pontoons of the western half had broken loose and sunk, despite the drawspan being opened to relieve lateral pressure.\n\nAt the time of the failure, the bridge had been closed to highway traffic and the tower crew had evacuated; no casualties resulted. Evidence points to blown-open hatches allowing flooding of the pontoons as the cause of the sinking.\n\nWest-half reconstruction and 1982 re-opening\n\nEfforts to repair the bridge began immediately and Washington Secretary of Transportation William A. Bulley secured a commitment of federal emergency relief money for the project. On June 15, 1979 actual work began with the removal of the west truss and transport for storage. The Washington State Department of Transportation attempted to mitigate the impact of the disaster by redirecting traffic to US Highway 101 to drive around the 50 mile (80 km) Hood Canal and by re-establishing the Washington State ferry run between Lofall and South Point across the canal just south of the bridge. This route had been discontinued after the 1961 bridge opening and the state needed to re-acquire access to and restore operational conditions on both landings. During the course of the closure an additional ferry route was temporarily added between Edmonds and Port Townsend.\n\nThe Hood Canal Bridge re-opened to vehicular traffic on October 25, 1982. The west-half replacement had been designed and constructed in less than three years using $100 million in federal emergency bridge replacement funds at a total cost of $143 million.\n\nThe bridge re-opened as a toll bridge, but tolls were lifted in 1985 after a court ruling that the insurance settlement constituted repayment of the construction bonds, and since federal funds were used in re-constructing the bridge, the Washington State Department of Transportation could not charge tolls after the bonds were retired.\n\nEast-half replacement\n\nIn a project that lasted from 2003 to 2009, WSDOT replaced the east-half floating portion of the bridge, the east and west approach spans, the east and west transition spans, and the west-half electrical system. The total cost of the project, about $471 million, is being paid by state, federal and agency funds. The project required the bridge to close to traffic for five weeks to allow the old pontoons of the east-half to be cut away and the new pontoons floated into position, cabled together and connected by cables to large anchors on the sea floor. The transition spans and center draw span were also replaced during this closure. The bridge reopened June 3, 2009. \n\nThe pontoons and anchors for the bridge could not be built at the bridge site due to space and facility limitations. WSDOT evaluated different sites at which to build during a site selection process. The Port Angeles graving dock was chosen for its accessibility to water and land as well as the work force. Before purchase, the National Historic Preservation Act required archaeologists to perform a review of the historical site. At that time, “there was no evidence of historic properties or cultural resources” (NEPA Re-evaluation Consultation, FHWA) and WSDOT was able to purchase the site and begin construction.\n\nWithin the first two weeks of construction, artifacts were found from an ancestral burial ground from an ancient village called Tse-whit-zen. WSDOT stopped all work on the site, and a government-to-government consultation process began among the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, WSDOT, the Federal Highway Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the State Historical Preservation Office. On August 14, 2006, WSDOT agreed to donate the site to the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, rebury all remains uncovered, and pay $2.5 million in damages. \n\nIt is believed that this discovery may be documentation of the first time that Natives and non-Natives began to interact on this shore. These historical findings will be investigated thoroughly by the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and archaeologists.\n\nOn December 21, 2004, Governor Locke and Secretary MacDonald announced that WSDOT would stop pontoon and anchor construction at the Tse-whit-zen site in Port Angeles and begin searching for a more suitable place to build. Many sites were considered but the best option to be found by WSDOT was in Tacoma, Wash. at Concrete Technology.\n\nConstruction began on the new east-half floating pontoons at Concrete Technology in April 2006. Fourteen pontoons will be built in four cycles at the site. Completed pontoons will be floated out of the graving dock in Tacoma and transported to Seattle for outfitting at Todd Shipyards. Outfitting includes adding all electrical and mechanical parts, connecting the pontoons into sections and building the roadway on top of the pontoons. Another three pontoons, built during the west-half bridge replacement in the early 1980s, will be retrofitted in Seattle.\n\nUse\n\nIn planning for a prolonged closure of the bridge for the east-half replacement, the Washington State Department of Transportation conducted a five-day survey of bridge use in early June 1998 in order to assess closure impact and plan effective mitigation strategies. The survey was in three stages: A video camera count of traffic on weekdays (Tuesday and Wednesday) and a weekend (Friday through Sunday) to estimate average volume; the use of that video to record license plate numbers for vehicle registration addresses to assess which communities would be most affected; and the mailing of a questionnaire to the registered owners of those vehicles seeking information on trip origin, destination, and purpose, and choice of travel alternatives during a bridge closure.\n\nThe video count produced a weekday average of 14,915 trips/day and a weekend average of 18,759 trips/day. Peak volumes reach 20,000 vehicles on summer weekends. The vehicle registration information indicated that a majority of trips were by residents of communities near the bridge. The most represented communities were, in numerical order, Port Ludlow (8%), Port Townsend (7%), Port Angeles (6%), Seattle (6%), Sequim (5%), Poulsbo (5%), Bremerton (4%), Port Hadlock (2%), and Silverdale (2%).\n\nThe questionnaires revealed that a majority of trips were to and/or from communities near the bridge. On the weekend 48% of westbound trips originated on the north and central Kitsap Peninsula, with 88% of the destinations in areas near Port Ludlow, Port Townsend, Sequim, and Port Angeles. For weekday trips, nearly 55% of westbound trips originated in northern or central Kitsap County with 90% of the destinations in the Port Ludlow, Port Townsend, Sequim, and Port Angeles areas. A large number of eastbound weekday morning trips appeared to be for commuting purposes, with 92% of originating in Port Ludlow, Port Townsend, Sequim, or Port Angeles, and 60% with central or northern Kitsap County as a destination, and 32% ending in the Seattle metropolitan area. The evening westbound trips seemed to mirror the morning patterns. When asked the purpose of their trips, respondents reported that for weekend trips 21% were for recreational, 21% for social, 19% for personal, 18% for work, 6% for business, and 4% for medical reasons. For weekday trips 33% were for work, 17% for personal, 14% for business, 11% for medical, 9% for social, and 8% for recreational reasons.\n\nSources\n\n*Burows, Alyssa. [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7289 \"Bulley, William A. (b. 1925)\"] in the HistoryLink.org Cyberpedia Library, Essay 7289. March 28, 2005 (retrieved July 24, 2006).\n*Burows, Alyssa. [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7256 \"William Adair Bugge assumes duties as Director of Highways on July 1, 1949\"] in the HistoryLink.org Timeline Library, Essay 7256. March 5, 2005 (retrieved July 24, 2006).\n*Hamilton, Charles. [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7280 \"Hood Canal Bridge opens on August 12, 1961\"] in the HistoryLink.org Timeline Library, Essay 7280. March 17, 2005 (retrieved July 24, 2006).\n* Hood Canal Bridge East-Half Replacement Closure Mitigation Plan — Preferred Options. Washington State Department of Transportation and Bucher, Willis & Ratliff Corporation. February 2000. [http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/B2244DE6-6FA8-4B8C-83AF-55872C2463E8/4531/HCBClosure.PDF]\n* Hood Canal Bridge - A Floating Lift Draw Bridge. Michael J. Abrahams, Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade and Douglass, Inc. 1982. Heavy Movable Structures Symposium[http://heavymovablestructures.org/assets/technical_papers/18.pdf]\n\nNotes", "James Earl \"Jimmy\" Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician and author who served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Carter Center.\n\nCarter, a Democrat raised in rural Georgia, was a peanut farmer who served two terms as a Georgia State Senator, from 1963 to 1967, and one as the Governor of Georgia, from 1971 to 1975. He was elected President in 1976, defeating incumbent President Gerald Ford in a relatively close election; the Electoral College margin of 57 votes was the closest at that time since 1916.\n\nOn his second day in office, Carter pardoned all evaders of the Vietnam War drafts. During Carter's term as President, two new cabinet-level departments, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education were established. He established a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II), and the return of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama. On the economic front he confronted persistent \"stagflation\", a combination of high inflation, high unemployment and slow growth. The end of his presidential tenure was marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In response to the Soviet move he ended détente, escalated the Cold War, and led the international boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. By 1980, Carter's popularity had eroded such that, running for re-election that year, he was challenged by Senator Ted Kennedy in the Democratic Party's primaries for the presidential nomination, marking the most recent Democratic primary in which an incumbent faced serious opposition. Carter won the 1980 primary with 51.13% of the vote (all incumbent candidates since have won at least 72.8% of their party's primary votes) but lost the general election in an electoral landslide to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan, who won 44 of 50 states.\n\nHis presidency has drawn medium-low responses from historians, with many considering him to have accomplished more with his post-presidency work. He set up the Carter Center in 1982 as his base for advancing human rights. He has also traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, observe elections, and advance disease prevention and eradication in developing nations. Additionally, Carter is a key figure in the Habitat for Humanity project. Regarding current political views, he has criticized of some of Israel's actions and policies in regards to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He has vigorously opposed the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC to strike down McCain-Feingold limits on campaign spending by corporations and unions, saying that the U.S. is \"no longer a functioning democracy\" and now has a system of \"unlimited political bribery.\" He is a supporter of President Obama but has been critical of aspects of his foreign policy, particularly with regard to the use of drones and Obama's failure to close Guantanamo Bay detention camp. With his 35-year post-presidency, Carter is the longest-retired president in American history, breaking the record previously held by Herbert Hoover in 2012.\n\nIn August 2015, at age 90, Carter was diagnosed with melanoma which had metastasized to his liver and brain, and he began treatment which included surgery, immunotherapy, and radiation. Less than four months later, on December 6, 2015, Carter, now 91, said that he was cancer-free, and on March 7, 2016, he concluded his cancer treatment.\n\nEarly life\n\nJames Earl Carter was born on October 1, 1924, at the Wise Sanitarium in Plains, Georgia. He is a descendant of English immigrant Thomas Carter, who settled in Virginia in 1635. Numerous generations of Carters lived as cotton farmers in Georgia. Plains was a boomtown of 600 people when Carter was born. Carter's father, James Earl Carter Sr., was a successful local businessman who ran a general store and had begun to invest in farmland. He had been a reserve second lieutenant in the U.S. Army's Quartermaster Corps during World War I. Carter's mother, Bessie Lillian Gordy, was a nurse at the Wise hospital. Carter was the first of Earl and Lillian's children; they moved several times during his infancy. \n\nThe Carters settled on a dirt road in nearby Archery, which was almost entirely populated by impoverished African American families. They eventually had three more children: Gloria, Ruth, and Billy. Carter got along well with his parents, although his mother worked long hours and was often absent in his childhood. Although Earl was staunchly pro-segregation, he allowed his son to befriend the black farmhands' children. An enterprising teenager, Carter was given his own acre of Earl's farmland where he grew, packaged, and sold peanuts. He also rented out a section of tenant housing he had purchased.\n\nCarter attended the Plains High School from 1930 to 1941. The Great Depression had by then impoverished Archery and Plains, but the family benefited from New Deal farming subsidies, and Earl took a position as a community leader. Young Carter was a diligent student with a fondness for reading. A popular anecdote holds that he was passed over for valedictorian after he and his friends skipped school to venture downtown in a hot rod. Carter's truancy was mentioned in a local newspaper, although it is not clear he would have been valedictorian anyway. Carter's teacher, Julia Coleman, was an especially strong influence. As an adolescent, Carter played on the Plains High School basketball team; he also joined the Future Farmers of America and developed a lifelong interest in woodworking.\n\nNaval career\n\nCarter had long dreamed of attending the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. He initially started undergraduate coursework in engineering at Georgia Southwestern College in nearby Americus in 1941, transferred to Georgia Tech in Atlanta in 1942, and achieved admission to the Naval Academy in 1943. He was a good student but was seen as reserved and quiet, in contrast to the academy's culture of aggressive hazing of freshmen. While at the academy, Carter fell in love with his sister Ruth's friend Rosalynn Smith, whom he would marry shortly after his graduation in 1946. Carter graduated 60th out of 820 midshipmen in the class of 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned as an ensign. From 1946 to 1953, Carter and Rosalynn lived temporarily in Virginia, Hawaii, Connecticut, New York and California, as he served deployments in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. In 1948 he began officers' training for submarine duty, served aboard the USS Pomfret. He was promoted to lieutenant junior grade in 1949. In 1951 he became attached to the diesel/electric USS K-1, (a.k.a. USS Barracuda), qualified for command, and served in several duties including Executive Officer. \n\nIn 1952 Carter began an association with the US Navy's fledgling nuclear submarine program led by then-Captain Hyman G. Rickover. Rickover's demands on his men and machines were legendary, and Carter later said that, next to his parents, Rickover was the greatest influence on his life. He was sent to the Naval Reactors Branch of the then Atomic Energy Commission in Washington, D.C. for three month temporary duty, while Rosalynn moved with their children to Schenectady, New York. On December 12, 1952, an accident with the experimental NRX reactor at Atomic Energy of Canada's Chalk River Laboratories caused a partial meltdown resulting in millions of liters of radioactive water flooding the reactor building's basement and leaving the reactor's core ruined. Carter was ordered to Chalk River to lead a U.S. maintenance crew that joined other American and Canadian service personnel to assist in the shutdown of the reactor. The painstaking process required each team member to don protective gear and be lowered individually into the reactor for a few minutes at a time, limiting their exposure to radioactivity while they disassembled the crippled reactor. During and after his presidency, Carter said that his experience at Chalk River had shaped his views on atomic energy and led him to cease development of a neutron bomb. After that experience, Carter rejoined his family to work on the , one of the first two U.S. nuclear submarines, at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory which supports the U.S. naval nuclear propulsion program. In March 1953 he began nuclear power school, a six-month non-credit course covering nuclear power plant operation at Union College in Schenectady and would lead to becoming an engineering officer for a nuclear power plant. But in July his father died and the family business became his. Deciding to leave Schenectady proved difficult. Settling after moving so much Rosalynn had grown comfortable with their life. Returning to small-town life in Plains seemed \"a monumental step backward,\" she said later. On the other hand, Carter felt restricted by the rigidity of the military and yearned to assume a path more like his father's. Carter was honorably discharged from the Navy on October 9, 1953. He served in the Navy Reserve until 1961, and left the service with the rank of lieutenant. Carter's awards included: the American Campaign Medal; World War II Victory Medal; China Service Medal; and National Defense Service Medal. \n\nFarming\n\nEarl Carter died a relatively wealthy man, having also recently been elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. However, between his forgiveness of debts and the division of his wealth among heirs, his son Jimmy inherited comparatively little. For a year, Jimmy, Rosalynn, and their three sons lived in public housing in Plains; Carter is the only U.S. president to have lived in housing subsidized for the poor. Knowledgeable in scientific and technological subjects, however, Carter set out to expand the family's peanut-growing business. The transition from Navy to agribusinessman was difficult, as the harvest his first year failed due to drought; Carter was compelled to open several bank lines of credit to keep the farm afloat. Meanwhile, he also took classes and read up on agriculture while Rosalynn learned accounting to manage the business's books. Though they barely broke even the first year, the Carters grew the business and became quite successful. \n\nEarly political career, 1963–71\n\nGeorgia State Senator (1963–67)\n\nRacial tension was inflamed in Plains by the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court's anti-segregation ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Carter was in favor of racial tolerance and integration—at one point, the local White Citizens' Council boycotted his peanut warehouse when he refused to join them—but he often kept those feelings to himself to avoid making enemies. By 1961 he was a prominent member of the community and the Baptist Church as well as chairman of the Sumter County school board, where he began to speak more loudly in favor of school integration. A state Senate seat was opened by the dissolution of Georgia's County Unit System in 1962; Carter announced his run for the seat 15 days before the election. Rosalynn, who had an instinct for politics and organization, was instrumental to his campaign. The initial results showed Carter losing, but this was the result of fraudulent voting orchestrated by Joe Hurst, the sheriff of Quitman County. Carter challenged the results; when fraud was confirmed, a new election was held, which he won. \n\nThe Civil Rights Movement was well underway as Carter took office. He and his family had become staunch John F. Kennedy supporters. In 1962, the town of Americus was the site of mass beatings and incarcerations of black protesters, echoing similar unrest throughout the country. Carter remained relatively quiet on the issue at first, even as it polarized much of the county, to avoid alienating his segregationist colleagues. He did speak up on a few divisive issues, giving speeches against literacy tests and against a change to the Georgia Constitution which, he felt, implied a compulsion to practice religion. A diligent legislator, Carter took speed-reading courses to keep up with the workload. Within two years his connections landed him on the state Democratic Executive Committee, where he helped rewrite the state party's rules. He became chairman of the West Central Georgia Planning and Development Commission, which oversaw the disbursement of federal and state grants for projects such as historic site restoration. When Bo Callaway was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 1964, Carter immediately began planning to unseat him. The two had previously clashed over which two-year college would be expanded to a four-year college program by the state; Carter wanted it to go to Georgia Southwestern College in Americus, but Callaway wanted the funding to go to downtown Columbus. Carter saw Callaway, a Republican, as a rival who represented the inherited wealth and selfishness he despised in politics. \n\nCarter was re-elected in 1964 to serve a second two-year term. For a time in the State Senate, he chaired its Education Committee; he also sat on the Appropriations Committee toward the end of his second term. Before his term ended he contributed to a bill expanding statewide education funding and getting Georgia Southwestern a four-year program. He leveraged his regional planning work, giving speeches around the district to make himself more visible to potential voters. The last day of the term, he announced his run for Congress. \n\n1966 and 1970 campaigns for governor\n\nThe congressional race was shaken up in mid-May when Callaway dropped out and decided to run for Governor of Georgia instead. Callaway was a very strong candidate, and state Democrats panicked over the prospect of losing the governorship they had held since Reconstruction. Carter soon decided to follow Callaway and run for governor himself. In the Democratic primary he ran as a moderate alternative to both the liberal former governor Ellis Arnall and the conservative Lester Maddox. In a press conference he described his ideology as \"Conservative, moderate, liberal and middle-of-the-road. ... I believe I am a more complicated person than that.\" He lost the Democratic primary, but drew enough votes as a third-place candidate to force Arnall into a runoff election with Maddox. A chain of events then resulted in Maddox, the dark horse candidate, being elected governor. The result was a sharp blow to Carter, who was left deeply in debt. His attempt to rescue the race from Callaway had resulted in the unlikely election of the segregationist Maddox, which he considered an even worse outcome. \n\nCarter returned to his agriculture business and, during the next four years, carefully planned his next campaign for Governor in 1970. This period was a spiritual turning point for Carter; he grew increasingly evangelical, undertaking several religious missions in other states. Inspired by his sister Ruth and liberal theologians such as Reinhold Niebuhr, he declared himself born again, a growing movement in 1960s America. His last child Amy was born around this time. \n\nThe liberal former governor, Carl Sanders, was Carter's main opponent in the 1970 Democratic primary. Carter ran a more modern campaign this time around, employing printed graphics and statistical analysis. Responding to poll data, Carter leaned more conservative than before. He positioned himself as a populist, quickly going negative against Sanders for his wealth (labeling him \"Cufflinks Carl\") and associating him with the national Democratic Party. He accused Sanders of corruption, but when pressed by the media, could come up with no evidence. Throughout the campaign Carter sought both the black vote and the \"Wallace vote\", after the prominent segregationist George Wallace. While he met with black figures such as Martin Luther King Sr. and Andrew Young, and visited many black-owned businesses, he also praised Wallace and promised to invite him to give a speech in Georgia. He implied support or dislike of private schools depending on the audience. The appeal to racism became more blatant over time; Carter's senior campaign aides handed out a photograph of his opponent Sanders celebrating with black basketball players.\n\nThat September, Carter came ahead of Sanders in the first ballot by 49 to 38 percent, leading to a runoff. The campaign grew even more bitter; Carter's campaign criticized Sanders for supporting Martin Luther King Jr. Carter won the runoff election with 60 percent of the vote—winning 7 percent of the black vote—and went on to win the general election easily over the Republican Hal Suit, a local news anchor. Once he was elected, Carter began to speak confidently against Georgia's racist politics. Leroy Johnson, a black state Senator, voiced his support for Carter, saying, \"I understand why he ran that kind of ultra-conservative campaign. ... I don't believe you can win this state without being a racist.\"\n\nGovernor of Georgia (1971–75)\n\nCarter was sworn in as the 76th Governor of Georgia on January 12, 1971. He declared in his inaugural speech that \"the time of racial segregation was over. No poor, rural, weak, or black person should ever again have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity for an education, a job, or simple justice.\" The crowd was reportedly shocked by this message, contrasting starkly with Georgia's political culture and particularly Carter's campaign. The many segregationists who had supported Carter during the race felt betrayed. Time magazine ran a story on the progressive \"New South\" governors elected that year in a May 1971 issue, featuring a cover illustration of Carter. \n\nLester Maddox, Carter's predecessor as governor, became lieutenant governor. Carter had endorsed Maddox, although the two did not campaign as a ticket. The two found little common ground during their four years of service, often publicly feuding with each other. Richard Russell Jr., then President pro tempore of the United States Senate, died in office during Carter's second week in office; the newly inaugurated governor appointed David H. Gambrell, state Democratic Party chair, to fill Russell's unexpired term in the Senate. \n\nWith Carter's reluctance to engage in back-slapping and political favors, the legislature found him frustrating to work with. He looked to aggressively expand the governor's authority while reducing the complexity of the state government. Therefore, he negotiated a bill allowing him to propose executive restructuring and to force a vote on it. He implemented zero-based budgeting within state departments and added a Judicial Selection Commission to verify the credentials of judges appointed by the governor. The reorganization plan was submitted in January 1972, but had a cool reception in the legislature. After two weeks of negotiations it was passed at midnight on the last day of the session. Ultimately he merged about 300 state agencies into 22—a fact he would emphasize in his presidential run—although it is disputed that there were any overall cost savings from doing so. \n\nCivil rights were a heartfelt priority for Carter. He expanded the number of black state employees, judges, and board members. He hired Rita Jackson Samuels, a black woman, to advise him on potential appointments. He placed portraits of Martin Luther King Jr. and two other prominent black Georgians in the capitol building, even as the Ku Klux Klan picketed the unveiling ceremony. Still, Carter tried to keep his conservative allies comfortable. He co-sponsored an anti-busing resolution with George Wallace at the 1971 National Governors Conference. After the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Georgia's death penalty statute in Furman v. Georgia (1972), Carter signed a revised death penalty statute which addressed the court's objections, thus re-introducing the practice in the state. Carter later regretted endorsing the death penalty, saying, \"I didn't see the injustice of it as I do now.\" \n\nCarter pushed reforms through the legislature to provide equal state aid to schools in the wealthy and poor areas of Georgia, set up community centers for mentally handicapped children, and increased educational programs for convicts. He took pride in his program for the appointment of judges and state government officials. Under this program, all such appointments were based on merit, rather than political influence. \n\nIn one of his more controversial decisions, he vetoed a plan to build a dam on Georgia's Flint River. After surveying the river and the literature himself, he argued that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was underestimating both the project's cost and its impact on the region. The veto won the attention of environmentalists nationwide. When Lieutenant William Calley was convicted in a military trial and sentenced to life for his role in the My Lai Massacre in South Vietnam, a politically polarizing issue, Carter avoided paying direct tribute to Calley. He instead instituted \"American Fighting Man's Day\" and asked Georgians to drive for a week with their lights on in support of the military. \n\nNational ambition\n\nLooking toward a potential presidential run, Carter engaged himself in national politics and public appearances. He was named to several southern planning commissions and was a delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention, where the liberal U.S. Senator George McGovern was the likely presidential nominee. Carter tried to ingratiate himself with the conservative, anti-McGovern voters, so that the convention would consider him for McGovern's running mate on a compromise ticket. He endorsed Senator Henry \"Scoop\" Jackson, in part to distance himself from George Wallace. Carter was still fairly obscure at the time, and his attempt at triangulation failed; the 1972 Democratic ticket went to McGovern and Senator Thomas Eagleton. \n\nAfter McGovern's loss in November 1972, Carter began meeting regularly with his fledgling campaign staff. He had quietly decided to begin putting a presidential bid together. He tried unsuccessfully to become chairman of the National Governors Association to boost his visibility. On David Rockefeller's endorsement he was named to the Trilateral Commission in April 1973. The following year he was named chairman of the Democratic National Committee's congressional, as well as gubernatorial, campaigns. In 1973 he appeared on the game show What's My Line, where a group of celebrity panelists would try to guess his occupation. None recognized him and it took several rounds of question-and-answer before movie critic Gene Shalit correctly guessed he was a governor. \n\n1976 presidential campaign\n\nWhen Carter entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries in 1976, he was considered to have little chance against nationally better-known politicians; his name recognition was two percent. As the Watergate scandal of President Nixon was still fresh in the voters' minds, Carter's position as an outsider, distant from Washington, D.C., became an asset. He promoted government reorganization. Carter published Why Not the Best? in June 1976 to help introduce himself to the American public. \n\nCarter became the front-runner early on by winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. He used a two-prong strategy: In the South, which most had tacitly conceded to Alabama's George Wallace, Carter ran as a moderate favorite son. When Wallace proved to be a spent force, Carter swept the region. In the North, Carter appealed largely to conservative Christian and rural voters; he had little chance of winning a majority in most states. He won several Northern states by building the largest single bloc. Carter's strategy involved reaching a region before another candidate could extend influence there. He had traveled over 50,000 miles, visited 37 states, and delivered over 200 speeches before any other candidates announced that they were in the race. Initially dismissed as a regional candidate, Carter proved to be the Democrat with the most effective national strategy, and he clinched the nomination.\n\nThe national news media discovered and promoted Carter, as Lawrence Shoup noted in his 1980 book The Carter Presidency and Beyond:\n\nCarter was interviewed by Robert Scheer of Playboy for the November 1976 issue, which hit the newsstands a couple of weeks before the election. While discussing his religion's view of pride, Carter said: \"I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times.\" He is the only interviewee of Playboy to become US president. \n\nAs late as January 26, 1976, Carter was the first choice of only four percent of Democratic voters, according to a Gallup poll. Yet \"by mid-March 1976 Carter was not only far ahead of the active contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, he also led President Ford by a few percentage points\", according to Shoup. \n\nHe chose Senator Walter F. Mondale as his running mate. He attacked Washington in his speeches, and offered a religious salve for the nation's wounds. \n\nCarter began the race with a sizable lead over Ford, who narrowed the gap during the campaign, but lost to Carter in a narrow defeat on November 2, 1976. Carter won the popular vote by 50.1 percent to 48.0 percent for Ford, and received 297 electoral votes to Ford's 240. Carter became the first contender from the Deep South to be elected President since the 1848 election. Carter carried fewer states than Ford—23 states to the defeated Ford's 27—yet Carter won with the largest percentage of the popular vote (50.1 percent) of any non-incumbent since Dwight Eisenhower.\n\nPresidency (1977–81)\n\nCarter's tenure was a time of continuing inflation and recession, as well as an energy crisis. Among his first acts was the fulfillment of a campaign promise by issuing an executive order declaring unconditional amnesty for Vietnam War-era draft evaders. On January 7, 1980, Carter signed [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=32978 Law H.R. 5860 aka Public Law 96-185] known as The Chrysler Corporation Loan Guarantee Act of 1979, bailing out Chrysler Corporation. He canceled military pay raises during a time of high inflation and government deficits.\n\nCarter attempted to calm various conflicts around the world, most visibly in the Middle East with the signing of the Camp David Accords; giving back the Panama Canal; and signing the SALT II nuclear arms reduction treaty with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. His final year was marred by the Iran hostage crisis, which contributed to his losing the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan. \n\nIran hostage crisis\n\nOn November 4, 1979 a group of Iranian students, belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who were supporting the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for the next 444 days until January 20, 1981. During the crisis, Carter remained in isolation in the White House for more than 100 days, until he left to participate in the lighting of the National Menorah on the Ellipse. On April 24, 1980, Carter ordered Operation Eagle Claw to try free the hostages. The mission failed, leaving eight American servicemen dead and causing the destruction of two aircraft.\n\nU.S. energy crisis\n\nOn April 18, 1977, Carter delivered a televised speech declaring that the U.S. energy crisis during the 1970s was the moral equivalent of war. He encouraged energy conservation by all U.S. citizens and installed solar water heating panels on the White House. He wore sweaters to offset turning down the heat in the White House. \n\nEPA Love Canal Superfund\n\nIn 1978, Carter declared a federal emergency in the neighborhood of Love Canal in the city of Niagara Falls, New York. More than 800 families were evacuated from the neighborhood, which was built on top of a toxic waste landfill. The Superfund law was created in response to the situation. Federal disaster money was appropriated to demolish the approximately 500 houses, the 99th Street School, and the 93rd Street School, which were built on top of the dump; and to remediate the dump and construct a containment area for the hazardous wastes. This was the first time that such a process had been undertaken. Carter acknowledged that several more \"Love Canals\" existed across the country, and that discovering such hazardous dumpsites was \"one of the grimmest discoveries of our modern era\". \n\nDeregulation\n\nIn 1977, Carter appointed Alfred E. Kahn, a professor of economics at Cornell University, to be chair of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). He was part of a push for deregulation of the industry, supported by leading economists, leading 'think tanks' in Washington, a civil society coalition advocating the reform (patterned on a coalition earlier developed for the truck-and-rail-reform efforts), the head of the regulatory agency, Senate leadership, the Carter administration, and even some in the airline industry. This coalition swiftly gained legislative results in 1978.\n\nThe Airline Deregulation Act () was signed into law by President Carter on October 24, 1978. The main purpose of the act was to remove government control over fares, routes and market entry (of new airlines) from commercial aviation. The Civil Aeronautics Board's powers of regulation were to be phased out, eventually allowing market forces to determine routes and fares. The Act did not remove or diminish the FAA's regulatory powers over all aspects of airline safety.\n\nIn 1979, Carter deregulated the American beer industry by making it legal to sell malt, hops, and yeast to American home brewers for the first time since the effective 1920 beginning of Prohibition in the United States. This Carter deregulation led to an increase in home brewing over the 1980s and 1990s that by the 2000s had developed into a strong craft microbrew culture in the United States, with 3,418 micro breweries, brewpubs, and regional craft breweries in the United States by the end of 2014. \n\nU.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics\n\nIn response to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Carter called for a boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, which raised a bitter controversy. It was the only time since the founding of the modern Olympics in 1896 that the United States had not participated in a Summer or Winter Olympics. The Soviet Union retaliated by boycotting the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. It did not withdraw troops from Afghanistan until 1989 (eight years after Carter left office).\n\nInternational trips\n\nCarter made twelve international trips to twenty-five countries during his presidency. Carter was the first president to make a state visit to Sub-Saharan Africa when he went to Nigeria in 1978. His travel also included trips to Europe, Asia and Latin America. He made several trips to the Middle East to broker peace negotiations. His December 31, 1977 – January 1, 1978 visit to Iran took place less than a year before the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. \n\n1980 presidential campaign\n\nCarter later wrote that the most intense and mounting opposition to his policies came from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, which he attributed to Ted Kennedy's ambition to replace him as president. Kennedy surprised his supporters by running a weak campaign, and Carter won most of the primaries and secured renomination. However, Kennedy had mobilized the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, which gave Carter weak support in the fall election. \n\nCarter's campaign for re-election in 1980 was one of the most difficult, and least successful, in history. He faced strong challenges from the right (Republican Ronald Reagan), the center (independent John B. Anderson), and the left (Democrat Ted Kennedy). He had to run against his own \"stagflation\"-ridden economy, while the hostage crisis in Iran dominated the news every week. He alienated liberal college students, who were expected to be his base, by re-instating registration for the military draft. His campaign manager and former appointments secretary, Timothy Kraft, stepped down some five weeks before the general election amid what turned out to have been an uncorroborated allegation of cocaine use. Carter was defeated by Ronald Reagan in a landslide, and the Senate went Republican for the first time since 1952. \n\nPost-presidency (1981–present)\n\nIn 1981, Carter returned to Georgia to his peanut farm, which he had placed into a blind trust during his presidency to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. He found that the trustees had mismanaged the trust, leaving him more than one million dollars in debt. In the years that followed, he has led an active life, establishing the Carter Center, building his presidential library, teaching at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and writing numerous books. He has also contributed to the expansion of Habitat for Humanity, to build affordable housing. Since early September 2012, Carter has been alive longer after leaving the White House than any other U.S. President. \n\nCarter Center and Nobel Prize \n\nCarter has been involved in a variety of national and international public policy, conflict resolution, human rights and charitable causes. In 1982, he established the Carter Center in Atlanta to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering. The non-profit, nongovernmental Center promotes democracy, mediates and prevents conflicts, and monitors the electoral process in support of free and fair elections. It also works to improve global health through the control and eradication of diseases such as Guinea worm disease, river blindness, malaria, trachoma, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis. It also works to diminish the stigma of mental illnesses and improve nutrition through increased crop production in Africa.\n\nA major accomplishment of The Carter Center has been the elimination of more than 99 percent of cases of Guinea worm disease, from an estimated 3.5 million cases in 1986 to 148 reported cases in 2013 to 23 in 2015 The Carter Center has monitored 96 elections in 38 countries since 1989. It has worked to resolve conflicts in Haiti, Bosnia, Ethiopia, North Korea, Sudan and other countries. Carter and the Center support human rights defenders around the world and have intervened with heads of state on their behalf.\n\nIn 2002, President Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work \"to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development\" through The Carter Center. Three sitting presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Barack Obama, have received the prize; Carter is unique in receiving the award for his actions after leaving the presidency. He is, along with Martin Luther King Jr., one of only two native Georgians to receive the Nobel. \n\nDiplomacy\n\nNorth Korea\n\nIn 1994, North Korea had expelled investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency and was threatening to begin processing spent nuclear fuel. In response, then-President Clinton pressured for US sanctions and ordered large amounts of troops and vehicles into the area to brace for war.\n\nBill Clinton secretly recruited Carter to undertake a peace mission to North Korea, under the guise that it was a private mission of Carter's. Clinton saw Carter as a way to let North Korean President Kim Il-sung back down without losing face. \n\nCarter negotiated an understanding with Kim Il-sung, but went further and outlined a treaty, which he announced on CNN without the permission of the Clinton White House as a way to force the US into action.\n\nThe Clinton Administration signed a later version of the Agreed Framework, under which North Korea agreed to freeze and ultimately dismantle its current nuclear program and comply with its nonproliferation obligations in exchange for oil deliveries, the construction of two light water reactors to replace its graphite reactors, and discussions for eventual diplomatic relations.\n\nThe agreement was widely hailed at the time as a significant diplomatic achievement. However, in December 2002, the Agreed Framework collapsed as a result of a dispute between the George W. Bush Administration and the North Korean government of Kim Jong-il.\n\nIn 2001, George W. Bush had taken a confrontational position toward North Korea. And in January 2002, Bush had named North Korea as part of an \"Axis of Evil\". Meanwhile, North Korea began developing the capability to enrich uranium.\n\nBush Administration opponents of the Agreed Framework believed that the North Korean government never intended to give up a nuclear weapons program. However, supporters of the Agreed Framework believed that the agreement could have been successful, had it not been undermined by the Bush Administration. \n\nIn August 2010, Carter traveled to North Korea in an attempt to secure the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes. Gomes, a U.S. citizen, was sentenced to eight years of hard labor after being found guilty of illegally entering North Korea. Carter successfully secured the release. \n\nMiddle East\n\nCarter and experts from The Carter Center assisted unofficial Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in designing a model agreement for peace—called the Geneva Accord—in 2002–2003. \n\nCarter has also in recent years become a frequent critic of Israel's policies in Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza. \n\nIn 2006, at the UK Hay Festival, Carter stated that Israel has at least 150 nuclear weapons. He expressed his support for Israel as a country, but criticized its domestic and foreign policy;\n\"One of the greatest human rights crimes on earth is the starvation and imprisonment of 1.6m Palestinians,\" said Carter.\n\nHe mentioned statistics showing nutritional intake of some Palestinian children was below that of the children of Sub-Saharan Africa and described the European position on Israel as \"supine\". \n\nIn April 2008, the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat reported that Carter met with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on his visit to Syria. The Carter Center initially did not confirm nor deny the story. The US State Department considers Hamas a terrorist organization. Within this Mid-East trip, Carter also laid a wreath on the grave of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah on April 14, 2008. Carter said on April 23 that neither Condoleezza Rice nor anyone else in the State Department had warned him against meeting with Hamas leaders during his trip. Carter spoke to Mashaal on several matters, including \"formulas for prisoner exchange to obtain the release of Corporal Shalit.\" \n\nIn May 2007, while arguing that the United States should directly talk to Iran, Carter again stated that Israel has 150 nuclear weapons in its arsenal. \n\nIn December 2008, Carter visited Damascus again, where he met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and the Hamas leadership. During his visit he gave an exclusive interview to Forward Magazine, the first ever interview for any American president, current or former, with a Syrian media outlet. \n\nCarter visited with three officials from Hamas who have been living at the International Red Cross office in Jerusalem since July 2010. Israel believes that these three Hamas legislators had a role in the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, and has a deportation order set for them. \n\nIn August 2014, Carter was joined by Mary Robinson during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict with the pair pressing for the inclusion of Hamas as an actor in peace talks with Israel, recognition of the group as a legitimate political entity, and the lifting of the siege of Gaza. The two Elders, in an op-ed article in Foreign Policy, noted the recent unity deal between Hamas and Fatah when Hamas agreed with the Palestinian Authority to denounce violence, recognize Israel and adhere to past agreements, saying it presented an opportunity. Carter and Robinson called on the UN Security Council to act on what they described as the inhumane conditions in Gaza, and mandate an end to the siege. \n\nAfrica\n\nCarter held summits in Egypt and Tunisia in 1995–1996 to address violence in the Great Lakes region of Africa. \n\nCarter played a key role in negotiation of the Nairobi Agreement in 1999 between Sudan and Uganda. \n\nOn June 18, 2007, Carter, accompanied by his wife, arrived in Dublin, Ireland, for talks with President Mary McAleese and Bertie Ahern concerning human rights. On June 19, Carter attended and spoke at the annual Human Rights Forum at Croke Park. An agreement between Irish Aid and The Carter Center was also signed on this day.\n\nAmericas\n\nCarter led a mission to Haiti in 1994 with Senator Sam Nunn and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell to avert a US-led multinational invasion and restore to power Haiti's democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. \n\nCarter visited Cuba in May 2002 and had full discussions with Fidel Castro and the Cuban government. He was allowed to address the Cuban public uncensored on national television and radio with a speech that he wrote and presented in Spanish. In the speech, he called on the US to end \"an ineffective 43-year-old economic embargo\" and on Castro to hold free elections, improve human rights, and allow greater civil liberties. He met with political dissidents; visited the AIDS sanitarium, a medical school, a biotech facility, an agricultural production cooperative, and a school for disabled children; and threw a pitch for an all-star baseball game in Havana. The visit made Carter the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since the Cuban revolution of 1959. \n\nCarter observed the Venezuela recall elections on August 15, 2004. European Union observers had declined to participate, saying too many restrictions were put on them by the Hugo Chávez administration. A record number of voters turned out to defeat the recall attempt with a 59 percent \"no\" vote. The Carter Center stated that the process \"suffered from numerous irregularities,\" but said it did not observe or receive \"evidence of fraud that would have changed the outcome of the vote\". On the afternoon of August 16, 2004, the day after the vote, Carter and Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General César Gaviria gave a joint press conference in which they endorsed the preliminary results announced by the National Electoral Council. The monitors' findings \"coincided with the partial returns announced today by the National Elections Council,\" said Carter, while Gaviria added that the OAS electoral observation mission's members had \"found no element of fraud in the process.\" Directing his remarks at opposition figures who made claims of \"widespread fraud\" in the voting, Carter called on all Venezuelans to \"accept the results and work together for the future\". A Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates (PSB) exit poll had predicted that Chávez would lose by 20 percent; when the election results showed him to have won by 20 percent, Douglas Schoen commented, \"I think it was a massive fraud\".M. Barone, [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/baroneweb/mb_040820.htm \"Exit polls in Venezuela,\"] US News & World Report, August 20, 2004. US News & World Report offered an analysis of the polls, indicating \"very good reason to believe that the [Penn, Schoen & Berland] exit poll had the result right, and that Chávez's election officials - and Carter and the American media - got it wrong.\" The exit poll and the Venezuela government's control of election machines became the basis of claims of election fraud. However an Associated Press report states that Penn, Schoen & Berland used volunteers from pro-recall organization Súmate for fieldwork, and its results contradicted five other opposition exit polls. \n\nFollowing Ecuador's severing of ties with Colombia in March 2008, Carter brokered a deal for agreement between the countries' respective presidents on the restoration of low-level diplomatic relations announced June 8, 2008. \n\nVietnam\n\nOn November 18, 2009, Carter visited Vietnam to build houses for the poor. The one-week program, known as Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project 2009, built 32 houses in Dong Xa village, in the northern province of Hải Dương. The project launch was scheduled for November 14, according to the news source which quoted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga. Administered by the non-governmental and non-profit Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), the annual program of 2009 would build and repair 166 homes in Vietnam and some other Asian countries with the support of nearly 3,000 volunteers around the world, the organization said on its website. HFHI has worked in Vietnam since 2001 to provide low-cost housing, water, and sanitation solutions for the poor. It has worked in provinces like Tiền Giang and Đồng Nai as well as Ho Chi Minh City. \n\nThe Elders\n\nOn July 18, 2007, Carter joined Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa, to announce his participation in The Elders, a group of independent global leaders who work together on peace and human rights issues. The Elders work globally, on thematic as well as geographically specific subjects. The organization's priority issue areas include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Korean Peninsula, Sudan, and South Sudan, sustainable development, and equality for girls and women. \n\nCarter has been actively involved in the work of The Elders, participating in visits to Cyprus, the Korean Peninsula, and the Middle East, among others \nIn October 2007, Carter toured Darfur with several of the Elders, including Desmond Tutu. Sudanese security prevented him from visiting a Darfuri tribal leader, leading to a heated exchange. He returned to Sudan with fellow Elder Lakhdar Brahimi in May 2012 as part of The Elders' efforts to encourage the presidents of Sudan and South Sudan to return to negotiations, and highlight the impact of the conflict on civilians. \n\nIn November 2008, President Carter, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and Graça Machel, wife of Nelson Mandela, were stopped from entering Zimbabwe, to inspect the human rights situation, by President Robert Mugabe's government. The Elders instead made their assessment from South Africa, meeting with Zimbabwe– and South Africa-based leaders from politics, business, international organisations and civil society in Johannesburg. \n\nCriticism of U.S. policy\n\nIn 2001, Carter criticized President Bill Clinton's controversial pardon of Marc Rich, calling it \"disgraceful\" and suggesting that Rich's financial contributions to the Democratic Party were a factor in Clinton's action.\n\nIn June 2005, Carter urged the closing of the Guantanamo Bay Prison in Cuba, which has been a focal point for recent claims of prisoner abuse. \n\nIn September 2006, Carter was interviewed on the BBC's current affairs program Newsnight, voicing his concern at the increasing influence of the Religious Right on US politics. \n\nIn September 2009, Carter put weight behind allegations by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, pertaining to United States involvement in the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt by a civilian-military junta, saying that Washington knew about the coup and may have taken part. \n\nOn June 16, 2011, the 40th anniversary of Richard Nixon's official declaration of America's War on Drugs, Carter wrote an op-ed in The New York Times urging the United States and the rest of the world to \"Call Off the Global War on Drugs\", explicitly endorsing the initiative released by the Global Commission on Drug Policy earlier that month and quoting a message he gave to Congress in 1977 saying that \"[p]enalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.\"\n\nCriticisms of George W. Bush\n\nCarter has also criticized the presidency of George W. Bush and the Iraq War. In a 2003 op-ed in The New York Times, Carter warned against the consequences of a war in Iraq and urged restraint in use of military force. In March 2004, Carter condemned George W. Bush and Tony Blair for waging an unnecessary war \"based upon lies and misinterpretations\" to oust Saddam Hussein. In August 2006, Carter criticized Blair for being \"subservient\" to the Bush administration and accused Blair of giving unquestioning support to Bush's Iraq policies. In a May 2007 interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, he said, \"I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history,\" when it comes to foreign affairs. Two days after the quote was published, Carter told NBC's Today that the \"worst in history\" comment was \"careless or misinterpreted,\" and that he \"wasn't comparing this administration with other administrations back through history, but just with President Nixon's.\" The day after the \"worst in history\" comment was published, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said that Carter had become \"increasingly irrelevant with these kinds of comments.\" \n\nOn May 19, 2007, Blair made his final visit to Iraq before stepping down as British Prime Minister, and Carter criticized him afterward. Carter told the BBC that Blair was \"apparently subservient\" to Bush and criticized him for his \"blind support\" for the Iraq war. Carter described Blair's actions as \"abominable\" and stated that the British Prime Minister's \"almost undeviating support for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world.\" Carter said he believes that had Blair distanced himself from the Bush administration during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, it might have made a crucial difference to American political and public opinion, and consequently the invasion might not have gone ahead. Carter states that \"one of the defenses of the Bush administration ... has been, okay, we must be more correct in our actions than the world thinks because Great Britain is backing us. So I think the combination of Bush and Blair giving their support to this tragedy in Iraq has strengthened the effort and has made the opposition less effective, and prolonged the war and increased the tragedy that has resulted.\" Carter expressed his hope that Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, would be \"less enthusiastic\" about Bush's Iraq policy.\n\nDue to his status as former President, Carter was a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Carter announced his endorsement of Senator (now president) Barack Obama. Speaking to the Syrian English monthly Forward Magazine of Syria, Carter was asked to give one word that came to mind when mentioning President George W. Bush. His answer was: the end of a very disappointing administration. His reaction to mentioning Barack Obama was: honesty, intelligence, and politically adept. \n\nCriticisms of Barack Obama\n\nCarter has criticized the Obama administration for its use of drone strikes against suspected terrorists.\nCarter also said that he disagrees with President Obama's decision to keep the Guantánamo Bay detention camp open, saying that the inmates \"have been tortured by waterboarding more than 100 times or intimidated with semiautomatic weapons, power drills or threats to sexually assault their mothers.\" He claimed that the U.S. government had no moral leadership, and was committing human rights violations, and is no longer \"the global champion of human rights\". \n\nIn July 2013, Carter expressed his criticism of current federal surveillance programs as disclosed by Edward Snowden indicating that \"America has no functioning democracy at this moment.\" \n\nAuthor\n\nCarter has been a prolific author in his post-presidency, writing 21 of his 23 books. Among these is one he co-wrote with his wife, Rosalynn, and a children's book illustrated by his daughter, Amy. They cover a variety of topics, including humanitarian work, aging, religion, human rights, and poetry.\n\nPalestine: Peace Not Apartheid\n\nIn a 2007 speech to Brandeis University, Carter stated: \"I have spent a great deal of my adult life trying to bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, based on justice and righteousness for the Palestinians. These are the underlying purposes of my new book.\" \n\nIn his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, published in November 2006, Carter states:\n\nHe declares that Israel's current policies in the Palestinian territories constitute \"a system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land, but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights.\" In an Op-Ed titled \"Speaking Frankly about Israel and Palestine,\" published in the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, Carter states:\n\nWhile some - such as a former Special Rapporteur for both the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the International Law Commission, as well as a member of the Israeli Knesset - have praised Carter for speaking frankly about Palestinians in Israeli occupied lands, others - including the envoy to the Middle East under Clinton, as well as the first director of the Carter Center - have accused him of anti-Israeli bias. Specifically, these critics have alleged significant factual errors, omissions and misstatements in the book. \n\nThe 2007 documentary film, Man from Plains, follows President Carter during his tour for the controversial book and other humanitarian efforts. \n\nIn December 2009, Carter apologized for any words or deeds that may have upset the Jewish community in an open letter meant to improve an often tense relationship. He said he was offering an Al Het, a prayer said on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. \n\nInvolvement with Bank of Credit and Commerce International\n\nAfter Carter left the presidency, his interest in the developing countries led him to having a close relationship with Agha Hasan Abedi, the founder of Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). Abedi was a Pakistani, whose bank had offices and business in a large number of developing countries. He was introduced to Carter in 1982 by Bert Lance, one of Carter's closest friends. (Unknown to Carter, BCCI had secretly purchased an interest in 1978 in National Bank of Georgia, which had previously been run by Lance and had made loans to Carter's peanut business.) Abedi made generous donations to the Carter Center and the Global 2000 Project. Abedi also traveled with Carter to at least seven countries in connection with Carter's charitable activities. The main purpose of Abedi's association with Carter was not charitable activities, but to enhance BCCI's influence, in order to open more offices and develop more business. In 1991, BCCI was seized by regulators, amid allegations of criminal activities, including illegally having control of several U.S. banks. Just prior to the seizure, Carter began to disassociate himself from Abedi and the bank. \n\n2012 Presidential race\n\nDespite being a Democrat, Carter endorsed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the Republican party 2012 Presidential primary in mid-September 2011, not because he supported Romney, but because he felt Obama's re-election bid would be strengthened in a race against Romney. Carter added that he thought Mitt Romney would lose in a match up against Obama and that he supported the president's re-election. \n\nCarter addressed the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina by videotape, and did not attend the convention in person. \n\nOther activities\n\nCarter has participated in many ceremonial events such as the opening of his own presidential library and those of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. He has also participated in many forums, lectures, panels, funerals and other events. Carter delivered a eulogy at the funeral of Coretta Scott King and, most recently, at the funeral of his former political rival, but later his close, personal friend and diplomatic collaborator, Gerald Ford. \n\nPresident Jimmy Carter serves as an Honorary Chair for the World Justice Project. The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity. \n\nCarter serves as Honorary Chair for the Continuity of Government Commission (he was co-chair with Gerald Ford until the latter's death). The Commission recommends improvements to continuity of government measures for the federal government.\n\nPersonal views\n\nAbortion\n\nAlthough \"personally opposed\" to abortion, after the landmark US Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, 410 US 113 (1973), Carter supported legalized abortion. As president, he did not support increased federal funding for abortion services. He was criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union for not doing enough to find alternatives. \n\nIn a March 29, 2012 interview with Laura Ingraham, Carter expressed his current view of abortion and his wish to see the Democratic Party becoming more pro-life:\n\nDeath penalty\n\nCarter is known for his strong opposition to the death penalty, which he expressed during his presidential campaigns, as had George McGovern. Two successive nominees, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis, also opposed the death penalty. In his Nobel Prize lecture, Carter urged \"prohibition of the death penalty\". He has continued to speak out against the death penalty in the US and abroad. \n\nIn a letter to the Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, Carter urged the governor to sign a bill to eliminate the death penalty and institute life in prison without parole instead. New Mexico abolished the death penalty in 2009. Carter wrote: \"As you know, the United States is one of the few countries, along with nations such as Saudi Arabia, China, and Cuba, which still carry out the death penalty despite the ongoing tragedy of wrongful conviction and gross racial and class-based disparities that make impossible the fair implementation of this ultimate punishment.\" In 2012, Carter wrote an op-ed in the LA Times supporting passage of a state referendum which would have ended the death penalty. He opened the article: \"The process for administering the death penalty in the United States is broken beyond repair, and it is time to choose a more effective and moral alternative. California voters will have the opportunity to do this on election day.\" \n\nCarter has also called for commutations of death sentences for many death-row inmates, including Brian K. Baldwin (executed in 1999 in Alabama), Kenneth Foster (sentence in Texas commuted in 2007) and Troy Anthony Davis (executed in Georgia in 2011). \n\nEquality for women\n\nIn October 2000, Carter, a third-generation Southern Baptist, announced that he was severing connections to the Southern Baptist Convention over its opposition to women as pastors. What led Carter to take this action was a doctrinal statement by the Convention, adopted in June 2000, advocating a literal interpretation of the Bible. This statement followed a position of the Convention two years previously advocating the submission of wives to their husbands. Carter described the reason for his decision as due to: \"an increasing inclination on the part of Southern Baptist Convention leaders to be more rigid on what is a Southern Baptist and exclusionary of accommodating those who differ from them.\" The New York Times called Carter's action \"the highest-profile defection yet from the Southern Baptist Convention.\" \n\nIn subsequent years, Carter has joined with other world leaders who have spoken out about the subjugation of women by religious and other institutions. On July 15, 2009, Carter wrote an opinion piece about equality for women in which he stated that he chooses equality for women over the dictates of the leadership of what has been a lifetime religious commitment. He said that the view that women are inferior is not confined to one faith, \"nor, tragically does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple.\" Carter stated:\n\nIn 2014, he published A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power. \n\nGun control\n\nCarter has publicly expressed support for assault weapons bans and background checks. In May 1994, Carter, along with former presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, wrote to the U.S. House of Representatives in support of banning \"semi-automatic assault guns.\" In a February 2013 appearance on Piers Morgan Tonight, Carter agreed that if the assault weapons ban did not pass it would be mainly due to the National Rifle Association and its pressure on \"weak-kneed\" politicians.\n\nSame-sex marriage\n\nCarter has stated that he supports same-sex marriage and that he believes that Jesus would also support it, saying \"I believe Jesus would. I don't have any verse in scripture. ... I believe Jesus would approve gay marriage, but that's just my own personal belief. I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else, and I don't see that gay marriage damages anyone else.\" \n\nRace in politics\n\nCarter ignited debate in September 2009 when he stated, \"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he is African-American.\" Obama disagreed with Carter's assessment. On CNN Obama stated, \"Are there people out there who don't like me because of race? I'm sure there are ... that's not the overriding issue here.\" \n\nTorture\n\nIn a 2008 interview with Amnesty International, Carter criticized the use of torture at Guantanamo Bay, saying that it \"contravenes the basic principles on which this nation was founded.\" He stated that the next President should make the promise that the United States will \"never again torture a prisoner.\" \n\nPersonal life\n\nCarter and his wife, Rosalynn, are well known for their work as volunteers with Habitat for Humanity, a Georgia-based philanthropy that helps low-income working people around the world to build and buy their own homes and access clean water. \n\nCarter's hobbies include painting, fly-fishing, woodworking, cycling, tennis, and skiing. He also has an interest in poetry, particularly the works of Dylan Thomas. Carter suggested during a state visit to the UK in 1977 that Thomas should have a memorial in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey, an idea which came to fruition in 1982. \n\nReligion\n\nFrom a young age, Carter showed a deep commitment to Christianity. He teaches Sunday school and is a deacon at the Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains. As president, Carter prayed several times a day, and professed that Jesus Christ was the driving force in his life. Carter had been greatly influenced by a sermon he had heard as a young man. It asked, \"If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?\" The New York Times noted that Carter had been instrumental in moving evangelical Christianity closer to the American mainstream during and after his presidency. \n\nIn 2000, Carter severed his membership with the Southern Baptist Convention, saying the group's doctrines did not align with his Christian beliefs. In April 2006, Carter, former President Bill Clinton, and Mercer University President Bill Underwood initiated the New Baptist Covenant. The broadly inclusive movement seeks to unite Baptists of all races, cultures and convention affiliations. Eighteen Baptist leaders representing more than 20 million Baptists across North America backed the group as an alternative to the Southern Baptist Convention. The group held its first meeting in Atlanta, January 30 through February 1, 2008. \n\nFamily\n\nCarter had three younger siblings: sisters Gloria Carter Spann (1926–1990) and Ruth Carter Stapleton (1929–1983), and brother Billy Carter (1937–1988). He was first cousin to politician Hugh Carter and a distant cousin to the Carter family of musicians. \n\nCarter and Rosalynn Smith were married in July 1946. Together, they have three sons, one daughter, eight grandsons, three granddaughters, and two great-grandsons. They celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary in July 2011, making them the second-longest wed Presidential couple after George and Barbara Bush. Their eldest son Jack Carter was the 2006 Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Nevada before losing to the Republican incumbent, John Ensign. Carter's grandson Jason Carter is a former Georgia State Senator and in 2014 was the Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia, losing to the Republican incumbent, Nathan Deal. On December 20, 2015 while teaching a Sunday school class, Carter announced that his 28-year-old grandson Jeremy Carter had died from an unspecified illness. \n\nCancer diagnosis\n\nOn August 3, 2015, Carter underwent elective surgery to remove \"a small mass\" on his liver, and his prognosis for a full recovery was initially said to be \"excellent\". On August 12, however, Carter announced he had been diagnosed with cancer that had metastasized, without specifying where the cancer had originated. On August 20, he disclosed that melanoma had been found in his brain and liver, and that he had begun treatment with the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab and was about to start radiation therapy. His healthcare is being managed by Emory Healthcare of Atlanta. The former President has an extensive family history of cancer, including both of his parents and all three of his siblings. On December 6, 2015 Carter said in a statement that his cancer was gone.\n\nFuneral and burial plans\n\nCarter has planned to be buried in front of his home in Plains, Georgia. Carter noted in 2006 that a funeral in Washington, D.C. with visitation at the Carter Center was planned as well. \n\nPublic image and legacy\n\nPublic opinion\n\nIn the wake of Nixon's Watergate Scandal, exit polls from the 1976 Presidential election suggested that many still held Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon against him. By comparison Carter was a sincere, honest, and well-meaning Southerner. Carter began his term with a 66 percent approval rating which had dropped to 34 percent approval by the time he left office, with 55 percent disapproving. \n\nIn the 1980 campaign, former California Governor Ronald Reagan projected an easy self-confidence, in contrast to Carter's serious and introspective temperament. What many people believed to be Carter's personal attention to detail, his pessimistic attitude, his seeming indecisiveness and weakness with people were accentuated in contrast to what many people believed, Reagan's charismatic charm and delegation of tasks to subordinates. Reagan used the economic problems, Iran hostage crisis, and lack of Washington cooperation to portray Carter as a weak and ineffectual leader. Like his immediate predecessor, Gerald Ford, Carter did not serve a second term as president. Among those who were elected as president, Carter was the first since Hoover in 1932 to lose a reelection bid. \n\nCarter's post-Presidency activities have been favorably received. The Independent wrote, \"Carter is widely considered a better man than he was a president.\" His presidential approval rating, at 31 percent just prior to the 1980 election, was polled in early 2009 at 64 percent. \n\nLegacy\n\nCarter's presidency was initially viewed by some as a failure. In historical rankings of US presidents, the Carter presidency has ranged from No. 19 to No. 34. Although his presidency received mixed reception, his peace keeping and humanitarian efforts since he left office have made Carter renowned as one of the most successful ex-Presidents in American history. \n\nThe documentary Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace (2009) credits Carter's efforts at Camp David, which brought peace between Israel and Egypt, with bringing the only meaningful peace to the Middle East. The film opened the 2009 Monte-Carlo Television Festival in an invitation-only royal screening on June 7, 2009 at the Grimaldi Forum in the presence of Albert II, Prince of Monaco. \n\nHonors and awards\n\nCarter has received numerous awards and accolades since his presidency, and several institutions and locations have been named in his honor. His presidential library, Jimmy Carter Library and Museum was opened in 1986. In 1998, the US Navy named the third and last Seawolf-class submarine honoring former President Carter and his service as a submariner officer. It became one of the few US Navy vessels to be named for a person living at the time of naming. That year he also received the United Nations Human Rights Prize, given in honor of human rights achievements, and the Hoover Medal, recognizing engineers who have contributed to global causes. He won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, which was partially a response to President George W. Bush's threats of war against Iraq and Carter's criticism of the Bush administration. Six of Carter's audiobook recordings have been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album; his book Our Endangered Values won the award in 2007. The Souther Field Airport in Americus was renamed Jimmy Carter Regional Airport in 2009. \n\nBooks", "The swamp rabbit (Sylvilagus aquaticus), or swamp hare, is a large cottontail rabbit found in the swamps and wetlands of the southern United States. Other common names for the swamp rabbit include marsh rabbit and cane-cutter. The common name, along with the species name “aquaticus” (meaning found in water), are suitable names for a species with a strong preference for wet areas and that will take to the water and swim.\n\nRange and habitat\n\nThe swamp rabbit is found in much of the south-central United States and along the Gulf coast. It is most abundant in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, but also inhabits South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, and Georgia.\n\nSwamp rabbits mainly live close to lowland water, often in cypress swamps, marshland, floodplain, and river tributaries. Swamp rabbits spend much of their time in depressions which they dig in tall grass or leaves, providing cover while they wait until the nighttime to forage.\n\nPhysical description\n\nS. aquaticus is the largest of the cottontail species, although its ears are smaller than of other cottontails. Males are slightly larger than females. The head and back are typically dark or rusty brown or black, while the throat, ventral surface, and tail are white, and there is a cinnamon-colored ring around the eye. Their sides, rump, tail and feet are much more brownish, along with a pinkish-cinnamon eye-ring, as opposed to the whitish eye-ring in eastern cottontails. \n\nS. aquaticus males vary in weight from 1816 g to 2554 g, with an average of 2235 g; females vary from 1646 g to 2668 g, averaging 2161 g. S. aquaticus ranges in length from 452 mm to 552 mm, with an average length of 501 mm.\n\nPredation\n\nKnown predators of S. aquaticus are domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis), and humans (Homo sapiens). Even though their swimming abilities lack the speed to escape a pack\nof hunting dogs, swamp rabbits elude pursuers by lying still in the water\nsurrounded by brush or plant debris with only their nose visible. The species is hunted for fur, meat, and sport, and is the second-most commonly hunted rabbit in the United States. Swamp rabbits have several adaptations to avoid predators: cryptic coloration, \"freezing,\" and rapid, irregular jumping patterns.\n\nOntogeny and reproduction\n\nS. aquaticus are synchronous breeders. Females give birth to altricial young. Young are born with well-developed fur but their eyes are closed and they are immobile. Their eyes have opened by day 3 and the young have begun walking. They are weaned and leave the nest after about 15 days. Young are sexually mature at 7 months and reach adult weight at 10 months. The nests in which the young are born consist of a slight depression in the earth that is filled with grasses mixed with rabbit hair.\n\nBreeding season varies widely across the range of S. aquaticus, occurring anywhere between February and August, and can occur year round in Texas. Spermatogenesis has been noted to occur in S. aquaticus in Missouri in October and November. In a Mississippi study, groups of males harvested in December and February had the higher percentage of individuals with descended testes than those harvested in any other month (Class 2006). S. aquaticus exhibit induced ovulation and have an hour-long estrous period. The gestation period lasts 35 to 40 days. Females can have 1 to 3 litters a year with each litter consisting of 4 to 6 young. It has been documented that the occurrence of embryo resorption in seen in S. aquaticus. This loss of in-utero litters is thought to be attributed to some type of habitat disturbance such as flooding, which may cause overcrowding to occur.\n\nDiet\n\nSwamp rabbits are herbivorous; they eat a variety of foraged plants, including grasses, sedges, shrubs, tree bark seedlings, and twigs. They feed mainly at night but rain showers will often cause them to feed during daytime as well. A study has found that the preferred foods of S. aquaticus are savannah panicgrass (Phanopyrum gymnocarpon), false nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica), dewberry (Rubus sieboldii) and greenbrier (Smilax bona-nox).\n\nLike other lagomorphs, they have a double digestion. Food passes through their gut twice, first producing soft, green feces (cecotropes) which still contain nutrients. These are eaten by the animal (coprophagy), and after further digestion the remains form drier, dark brown or black hard pellets, which are not eaten.\n\nSpecies competition \n\nRival males will often engage in aggressive encounters that sometimes become violent enough to kill one of the combatants. When fighting, males will stand on their hind legs and use their teeth and claws to inflict wounds on their opponent. They will also jump from the ground and strike with the sharp claws of the hind feet.\n\nCarter incident \n\nIn 1979, the swamp rabbit species enjoyed a brief stint of notoriety when one swamp rabbit had a close encounter with Jimmy Carter. In April of that year, as President Carter was fishing on a small pond on his farm, a visibly agitated swamp rabbit approached his boat and tried to board. Carter used a paddle to splash water at the rabbit to dissuade it from swimming towards the boat.", "Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry and owned by CBS and Paramount Pictures.For a more detailed history of the ownership of the franchise, see the corporate ownership section. The television series Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series,See the Canon issues section of the The Animated Series page for more details. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery as well as the Star Trek film franchise make up the franchise's canon.\n\nThe first series, now referred to as The Original Series, debuted in 1966 and ran for three seasons on NBC. It followed the galactic adventures of James T. Kirk and the crew of the starship Enterprise, an exploration vessel of a 23rd-century interstellar \"United Federation of Planets\". In creating the first Star Trek, Roddenberry was inspired by Westerns such as Wagon Train, the Horatio Hornblower novels and Gulliver's Travels. In fact, the original series was originally described as Wagon Train to the Stars. These adventures continued in the short-lived Star Trek: The Animated Series and six feature films. Four spin-off television series were eventually produced: Star Trek: The Next Generation followed the crew of a new starship Enterprise set a century after the original series; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, set contemporaneously with The Next Generation; and Star Trek: Enterprise, set before the original series, in the early days of human interstellar travel. Four additional The Next Generation feature films were produced. In 2009, the film franchise underwent a \"reboot\" set in an alternate timeline, the \"Kelvin Timeline\", titled simply Star Trek. This film featured a new cast portraying younger versions of the crew from the original show. A sequel to that film, Star Trek Into Darkness, premiered on May 16, 2013. A thirteenth film feature and sequel, Star Trek Beyond, was released in July 2016, to coincide with the franchise's 50th anniversary. A new Star Trek TV series, titled Star Trek: Discovery, will premiere in January 2017 on the digital platform CBS All Access.\n\nStar Trek has been a cult phenomenon for decades. Fans of the franchise are called Trekkies or Trekkers. The franchise spans a wide range of spin-offs including games, figurines, novels, toys, and comics. Star Trek had a themed attraction in Las Vegas that opened in 1998 and closed in September 2008. At least two museum exhibits of props travel the world. The series has its own full-fledged constructed language, Klingon. Several parodies have been made of Star Trek. In addition, viewers have produced several fan productions.\n\nStar Trek is noted for its influence on the world outside of science fiction. It has been cited as an inspiration for several technological inventions, including the cell phone and tablet computers. The franchise is also noted for its progressive civil rights stances. The Original Series included one of television's first multiracial casts. Star Trek references can be found throughout popular culture from movies such as the submarine thriller Crimson Tide to the animated series South Park.\n\nConception and setting\n\nAs early as 1964, Gene Roddenberry drafted a proposal for the science-fiction series that would become Star Trek. Although he publicly marketed it as a Western in outer space—a so-called \"Wagon Train to the Stars\" (like the popular Western TV series) —he privately told friends that he was modeling it on Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, intending each episode to act on two levels: as a suspenseful adventure story and as a morality tale. \n\nMost Star Trek stories depict the adventures of humansMembers of the human species are occasionally called \"Terrans\" in Star Trek, although usage has been inconsistent. and aliens who serve in Starfleet, the space-borne humanitarian and peacekeeping armada of the United Federation of Planets. The protagonists have altruistic values, and must apply these ideals to difficult dilemmas.\n\nMany of the conflicts and political dimensions of Star Trek represent allegories of contemporary cultural realities. Star Trek: The Original Series addressed issues of the 1960s, just as later spin-offs have reflected issues of their respective decades. Issues depicted in the various series include war and peace, the value of personal loyalty, authoritarianism, imperialism, class warfare, economics, racism, religion, human rights, sexism, feminism, and the role of technology. Roddenberry stated: \"[By creating] a new world with new rules, I could make statements about sex, religion, Vietnam, politics, and intercontinental missiles. Indeed, we did make them on Star Trek: we were sending messages and fortunately they all got by the network.\"\n\nRoddenberry intended the show to have a progressive political agenda reflective of the emerging counter-culture of the youth movement, though he was not fully forthcoming to the networks about this. He wanted Star Trek to show humanity what it might develop into, if it would learn from the lessons of the past, most specifically by ending violence. An extreme example is the alien species, the Vulcans, who had a violent past but learned to control their emotions. Roddenberry also gave Star Trek an anti-war message and depicted the United Federation of Planets as an ideal, optimistic version of the United Nations. His efforts were opposed by the network because of concerns over marketability, e.g., they opposed Roddenberry's insistence that the Enterprise have a racially diverse crew.\n\nStar Trek has also been accused of evincing racism and imperialism, however, by frequently depicting Starfleet and the Federation trying to impose their values and customs on other planets. \n\nMythology\n\nThe central trio of Kirk, Spock and McCoy from Star Trek: The Original Series was modeled on classical mythological storytelling.\n\nWilliam Shatner said: “There is a mythological component [to pop culture], especially with science fiction. It’s people looking for answers – and science fiction offers to explain the inexplicable, the same as religion tends to do… If we accept the premise that it has a mythological element, then all the stuff about going out into space and meeting new life – trying to explain it and put a human element to it – it’s a hopeful vision. All these things offer hope and imaginative solutions for the future.” \n\nRichard Lutz wrote: “The enduring popularity of Star Trek is due to the underlying mythology which binds fans together by virtue of their shared love of stories involving exploration, discovery, adventure and friendship that promote an egalitarian and peace loving society where technology and diversity are valued rather than feared and citizens work together for the greater good. Thus Star Trek offers a hopeful vision of the future and a template for our lives and our society that we can aspire to.” \n\nHistory and production\n\nBeginnings\n\nIn early 1964, Roddenberry presented a brief treatment for a proposed Star Trek TV series to Desilu Productions comparing it to Wagon Train, \"a Wagon Train to the stars.\" Desilu worked with Roddenberry to develop the treatment into a script, which was then pitched to NBC.\n\nNBC paid to make a pilot, \"The Cage\", starring Jeffrey Hunter as Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike. NBC rejected The Cage, but the executives were still impressed with the concept, and made the unusual decision to commission a second pilot: \"Where No Man Has Gone Before\".\n\nThe first regular episode (\"The Man Trap\") of Star Trek: The Original Series aired on Thursday, September 8, 1966. While the show initially enjoyed high ratings, the average rating of the show at the end of its first season dropped to 52nd (out of 94 programs).\n\nUnhappy with the show's ratings, NBC threatened to cancel the show during its second season. The show's fan base, led by Bjo Trimble, conducted an unprecedented letter-writing campaign, petitioning the network to keep the show on the air. NBC renewed the show, but moved it from primetime to the \"Friday night death slot\", and substantially reduced its budget. In protest Roddenberry resigned as producer and reduced his direct involvement in Star Trek, which led to Fred Freiberger becoming producer for the show's third and final season.Roddenberry did, however, co-author two scripts for the third season. Despite another letter-writing campaign, NBC cancelled the series after three seasons and 79 episodes.\n\nRebirth\n\nAfter the original series was cancelled, Paramount Studios, which had bought the series from Desilu, licensed the broadcast syndication rights to help recoup the production losses. Reruns began in the fall of 1969 and by the late 1970s the series aired in over 150 domestic and 60 international markets. This helped Star Trek develop a cult following greater than its popularity during its original run.\n\nOne sign of the series' growing popularity was the first Star Trek convention which occurred on January 21–23, 1972 in New York City. Although the original estimate of attendees was only a few hundred, several thousand fans turned up. Star Trek fans continue to attend similar conventions worldwide.\n\nThe series' newfound success led to the idea of reviving the franchise. Filmation with Paramount Television produced the first post original series show, Star Trek: The Animated Series. It ran on NBC for 22 half-hour episodes over two seasons on Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1974. Although short-lived, typical for animated productions in that time slot during that period, the series garnered the franchise's only \"Best Series\" Emmy Award as opposed to the franchise's later technical ones. Paramount Pictures and Roddenberry began developing a new series, Star Trek: Phase II, in May 1975 in response to the franchise's newfound popularity. Work on the series ended, however, when the proposed Paramount Television Service folded.\n\nFollowing the success of the science fiction movies Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Paramount adapted the planned pilot episode of Phase II into the feature film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The film opened in North America on December 7, 1979, with mixed reviews from critics. The film earned $139 million worldwide, below expectations but enough for Paramount to create a sequel. The studio forced Roddenberry to relinquish creative control of future sequels.\n\nThe success of the critically acclaimed sequel, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, reversed the fortunes of the franchise. While the sequel grossed less than the first movie, The Wrath of Khans lower production costs made it net more profit. Paramount produced six Star Trek feature films between 1979 and 1991. In response to the popularity of Star Trek feature films, the franchise returned to television with Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) in 1987. Paramount chose to distribute it as a first-run syndication show rather than a network show.\n\nAfter Roddenberry\n\nFollowing Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Roddenberry's role was changed from producer to creative consultant with minimal input to the films while being heavily involved with the creation of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Roddenberry died on October 24, 1991, giving executive producer Rick Berman control of the franchise. Star Trek had become known to those within Paramount as \"the franchise\", because of its great success and recurring role as a tent pole for the studio when other projects failed. TNG had the highest ratings of any Star Trek series and became the #1 syndicated show during the last years of its original seven-season run. In response to TNG's success, Paramount released a spin-off series Deep Space Nine in 1993. While never as popular as TNG, the series had sufficient ratings for it to last seven seasons.\n\nIn January 1995, a few months after TNG ended, Paramount released a fourth TV series, Voyager. Star Trek saturation reached a peak in the mid-1990s with DS9 and Voyager airing concurrently and three of the four TNG-based feature films released in 1994, 1996, and 1998. By 1998, Star Trek was Paramount's most important property; the enormous profits of \"the franchise\" funded much of the rest of the studio's operations. Voyager became the flagship show of the new United Paramount Network (UPN) and thus the first major network Star Trek series since the original. \n\nAfter Voyager ended, UPN produced Enterprise, a prequel TV series to the original show. Enterprise did not enjoy the high ratings of its predecessors and UPN threatened to cancel it after the series' third season. Fans launched a campaign reminiscent of the one that saved the third season of the Original Series. Paramount renewed Enterprise for a fourth season, but moved it to the Friday night death slot. Like the Original Series, Enterprise ratings dropped during this time slot, and UPN cancelled Enterprise at the end of its fourth season. Enterprise aired its final episode on May 13, 2005. Fan groups, \"Save Enterprise\", attempted to save the series and tried to raise $30 million to privately finance a fifth season of Enterprise. Though the effort garnered considerable press, the fan drive failed to save the series. The cancellation of Enterprise ended an eighteen-year continuous production run of Star Trek programming on television. The poor box office performance in 2002 of the film Nemesis, cast an uncertain light upon the future of the franchise. Paramount relieved Berman, the franchise producer, of control of Star Trek.\n\n2009 \"reboot\"\n\nParamount turned down several proposals in the mid-2000s to restart the franchise. These included pitches from film director Bryan Singer, Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, and Trek actors Jonathan Frakes and William Shatner. The studio also turned down an animated web series. Instead, Paramount hired a new creative team to reinvigorate the franchise in 2007. Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and Lost producer, J. J. Abrams, had the freedom to reinvent the feel of Trek.\n\nThe team created the franchise's eleventh film, titled simply Star Trek, releasing it in May 2009. The film featured a new cast portraying the crew of the original show. Star Trek was a prequel of the original series set in an alternate timeline, known as the \"Kelvin Timeline\". This gave the film and future sequels to it freedom from the need to conform to the franchise's canonical timeline. The eleventh Star Trek film's marketing campaign targeted non-fans, even stating in the film's advertisements that \"this is not your father's Star Trek\". \n\nThe film earned considerable critical and financial success, grossing in inflation-adjusted dollars more box office sales than any previous Star Trek film. The plaudits include the franchise's first Academy Award (for makeup). The film's major cast members are contracted for two sequels. Paramount's sequel to the 2009 film, Star Trek Into Darkness, premiered in Sydney, Australia on April 23, 2013, but the film did not release in the United States until May 17, 2013. While the film was not as successful in the North American box office as its predecessor, internationally, in terms of box office receipts, Into Darkness was the most successful of the franchise. A thirteenth film entitled Star Trek Beyond was released on July 22, 2016. \n\nStar Trek will return to subscription-television in January 2017. The new series, titled Star Trek: Discovery, will be the first series produced specifically for CBS All Access. Episodes will also be available on Netflix within 24 hours of their U.S. premieres. \n\nTelevision series\n\nSix television series make up the bulk of the Star Trek mythos: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. All the different versions in total amount to 726 Star Trek episodes across the 30 seasons of the TV series.This episode count includes the animated series, and the original pilot, \"The Cage\". Two part episodes that were not originally aired at the same time are considered two separate episodes. Ten feature-length episodes were originally aired as two-hour presentations and are sometimes considered single episodes, however in this count they too are seen as two individual episodes.\n\nThe Star Trek wiki Memory Alpha differs from the count listed because it includes the feature films in its total and it uses the method that counts feature-length episodes as single episodes. This makes that wiki's total release count 728.\n\nThe Original Series (1966–69)\n\nStar Trek: The Original Series or \"TOS\"Originally titled Star Trek, it has in recent years become known as Star Trek: The Original Series or as \"Classic Star Trek\"—retronyms that distinguish it from its sequels and the franchise as a whole. debuted in the United States on NBC on September 8, 1966. The show tells the tale of the crew of the starship Enterprise and its five-year mission \"to boldly go where no man has gone before.\" The original 1966–1969 television series featured William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Spock, DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard \"Bones\" McCoy, James Doohan as Montgomery \"Scotty\" Scott, Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, George Takei as Hikaru Sulu, and Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov. During the series' original run, it earned several nominations for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and won twice: for the two-parter \"The Menagerie\" and the Harlan Ellison-written episode \"The City on the Edge of Forever\".\n\nNBC canceled the show after three seasons; the last original episode aired on June 3, 1969. The petition near the end of the second season to save the show signed by many Caltech students and its multiple Hugo nominations would, however, indicate that despite low Nielsen ratings, it was highly popular with science fiction fans and engineering students. The series later became popular in reruns and found a cult following.\n\nThe Animated Series (1973–74)\n\nStar Trek: The Animated Series, produced by Filmation, ran for two seasons from 1973 to 1974. Most of the original cast performed the voices of their characters from The Original Series, and many of the writers who worked on The Original Series, D. C. Fontana, David Gerrold, and Paul Schneider, wrote for the series. While the animated format allowed the producers to create more exotic alien landscapes and life forms, animation errors and liberal reuse of shots and musical cues have tarnished the series' reputation. Although it was originally sanctioned by Paramount, which owned the Star Trek franchise following its acquisition of Desilu in 1967, Gene Roddenberry often spoke of TAS as non-canon. Star Trek writers have used elements of the animated series in later live-action series and movies, and , the Animated Series has references in the library section of the official Startrek.com web site officially bringing the series into the franchise's main canon.\n\nThe Animated Series won Star Treks first Emmy Award on May 15, 1975. Star Trek TAS briefly returned to television in the mid-1980s on the children's cable network Nickelodeon. Nickelodeon's Evan McGuire greatly admired the show and used its various creative components as inspiration for his short series called Piggly Wiggly Hears A Sound which never aired. Nickelodeon parent Viacom would purchase Paramount in 1994. In the early 1990s, the Sci-Fi Channel also began rerunning TAS. The complete TAS was also released on Laserdisc format during the 1980s. The complete series was first released in the USA on eleven volumes of VHS tapes in 1989. All 22 episodes were released on DVD in 2006.\n\nThe Next Generation (1987–1994)\n\nStar Trek: The Next Generation, also known as \"TNG\", takes place about a century after The Original Series (2364–2370). It features a new starship, the Enterprise-D, and a new crew led by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes). Some crewmembers represent new alien races, including Deanna Troi, a half-Betazoid counselor played by Marina Sirtis. Michael Dorn plays Worf, the first Klingon officer in Starfleet, alongside Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher, LeVar Burton as chief engineer Geordi La Forge, the android Data portrayed by Brent Spiner, and Dr. Crusher's son Wesley Crusher played by Wil Wheaton. The show premiered on September 28, 1987, and ran for seven seasons, ending on May 23, 1994. It had the highest ratings of any of the Star Trek series and became the #1 syndicated show during the last few years of its original run, allowing it to act as a springboard for ideas in other series. Many relationships and races introduced in TNG became the basis of episodes in Deep Space 9 and Voyager. During its run it earned several Emmy awards and nominations – including a nomination for Best Dramatic Series during its final season – two Hugo Awards and a Peabody Award for Outstanding Television Programming for the episode \"The Big Goodbye\". \n\nDeep Space Nine (1993–99)\n\nStar Trek: Deep Space Nine, also known as \"DS9\", takes place during the last years and the immediate post-years of The Next Generation (2369–2375) and aired for seven seasons, debuting the week of January 3, 1993. Like Star Trek: The Next Generation, it aired in syndication in the United States and Canada. Unlike the other Star Trek series, DS9 takes place primarily on a space station rather than aboard a starship.\n\nThe show begins after the brutal Cardassian occupation of the planet Bajor. The liberated Bajoran people ask the United Federation of Planets to help run a Cardassian built space station, Deep Space Nine, near Bajor. After the Federation takes control of the station, the protagonists of the show discover a uniquely stable wormhole that provides immediate access to the distant Gamma Quadrant making Bajor and the station one of the most strategically important locations in the galaxy. The show chronicles the events of the station's crew, led by Commander (later Captain) Benjamin Sisko, played by Avery Brooks, and Major (later Colonel) Kira Nerys, played by Nana Visitor. Recurring plot elements include the repercussions of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, Sisko's spiritual role for the Bajorans as the Emissary of the Prophets, and in later seasons a war with the Dominion.\n\nDeep Space Nine stands apart from earlier Trek series for its lengthy serialized storytelling, conflict within the crew, and religious themes—all elements that critics and audiences praised but Roddenberry forbade in the original series and The Next Generation. Nevertheless, he was informed before his death of DS9, making this the last Star Trek series connected to Gene Roddenberry. \n\nVoyager (1995–2001)\n\nStar Trek: Voyager ran for seven seasons, airing from January 16, 1995, to May 23, 2001, launching a new Paramount-owned television network UPN. It features Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway, the first female commanding officer in a leading role of a Star Trek series, and Commander Chakotay, played by Robert Beltran.\n\nVoyager takes place at about the same time period as Deep Space Nine and the years following that show's end (2371–2378). The premiere episode has the USS Voyager and its crew pursue a Maquis (Federation rebels) ship. Both ships become stranded in the Delta Quadrant about 70,000 light-years from Earth. Faced with a 75-year voyage to Earth, the crew must learn to work together to overcome challenges on their long and perilous journey home while also seeking ways to shorten the voyage. Like Deep Space Nine, early seasons of Voyager feature more conflict between its crewmembers than seen in later episodes. Such conflict often arises from friction between \"by-the-book\" Starfleet crew and rebellious Maquis fugitives forced by circumstance to work together on Voyager. Eventually, though, they settle their differences, after which the overall tone becomes more reminiscent of The Original Series. The starship Voyager, isolated from its home, faces new cultures and dilemmas not possible in shows based in the Alpha Quadrant. Later seasons, however, brought an influx of characters and cultures from prior shows, the Borg, Q, the Ferengi, Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians and cast members of The Next Generation.\n\nEnterprise (2001–05)\n\nStar Trek: Enterprise, originally titled Enterprise, is a prequel to the original Star Trek series. It aired from September 26, 2001 to May 13, 2005. Enterprise takes place in the 2150s, some 90 years after the events of Zefram Cochrane's first warp flight and about a decade before the founding of the Federation. The show centers on the voyages of Earth's first warp-five capable starship, the Enterprise, commanded by Captain Jonathan Archer (played by Scott Bakula), and the Vulcan Sub-Commander T'Pol (played by Jolene Blalock).\n\nDuring the show's first two seasons, Enterprise featured self-contained episodes, like The Original Series, The Next Generation and Voyager. The third season consisted of one arc, \"Xindi mission\", which had a darker tone and serialized nature similar to that of Deep Space 9. Season 4 consisted of several two to three episode mini-arcs. The final season showed the origins of elements seen in earlier series, and it rectified and resolved some core continuity problems between the various Star Trek series. Ratings for Enterprise started strong but declined rapidly. Although critics received the fourth season well, both fans and the cast reviled the series finale, partly because of the episode's focus on the guest appearance of members of The Next Generation cast. The cancellation of Enterprise ended an 18-year run of back-to-back new Star Trek shows beginning with The Next Generation in 1987.\n\nDiscovery (2017–)\n\nOn November 2, 2015, it was announced that a new Star Trek TV series is in development by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman. The new series will premiere on CBS All Access in January 2017. \n\nFeature films\n\nParamount Pictures has produced thirteen Star Trek feature films, the most recent being released in July 2016.[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2660888/] The first six films continue the adventures of the cast of The Original Series; the seventh film, Generations was designed as a transition from that cast to The Next Generation television series; the next three films, 8–10, focused completely on the Next Generation cast.Film titles of the North American and UK releases of the films no longer contained the number of the film following the sixth film (the sixth was Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country but the seventh was Star Trek Generations). However, European releases continued using numbers in the film titles until Nemesis. The eleventh and twelfth films take place in an alternate timeline from the rest of the franchise set with a new cast playing the original series characters, and with Leonard Nimoy as an elderly Spock providing a physical link to the original timeline. This alternate timeline has been named by CBS, for the computer came Star Trek Online , the Kelvin Timeline. Star Trek, Into Darkness, and Beyond occur in a separate timeline from the rest of the series. \n\nMerchandise\n\nMany licensed products are based on the Star Trek franchise. Merchandising is very lucrative for both studio and actors; by 1986 Nimoy had earned more than $500,000 from royalties. Products include novels, comic books, video games, and other materials, which are generally considered non-canon.\n\nBooks\n\nSince 1967, hundreds of original novels, short stories, and television and movie adaptations have been published. The first original Star Trek novel was Mission to Horatius by Mack Reynolds, which was published in hardcover by Whitman Books in 1968.\n\nThe first publisher of Star Trek fiction aimed at adult readers was Bantam Books. In 1970, James Blish wrote the first original Star Trek novel published by Bantam, Spock Must Die!. Pocket Books is the publisher of Star Trek novels.\n\nProlific Star Trek novelists include Peter David, Diane Carey, Keith R. A. DeCandido, J. M. Dillard, Diane Duane, Michael Jan Friedman, and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Several actors from the television series have also written or co-written books featuring their respective characters: William Shatner, John de Lancie, Andrew J. Robinson, J. G. Hertzler and Armin Shimerman. Voyager producer Jeri Taylor wrote two novels featuring back story for Voyager characters, and screen authors David Gerrold, D. C. Fontana, and Melinda Snodgrass have penned books, as well.\n\nA scholarly book published by Springer Science+Business Media in 2014 discusses the actualization of Star Treks holodeck in the future by making extensive use of artificial intelligence and cyborgs. \n\nComics\n\nStar Trek-based comics have been almost continuously published since 1967. They have been offered by several companies, including Marvel, DC, Malibu, Wildstorm, and Gold Key. Tokyopop is publishing an anthology of Next Generation-based stories presented in the style of Japanese manga. , IDW Publishing secured publishing rights to Star Trek comics and published a prequel to the 2009 film, Star Trek: Countdown. In 2012, they published Volume I of Star Trek – The Newspaper Strip featuring the work of Thomas Warkentin. \n\nGames\n\nThe Star Trek franchise has numerous games in many formats. Beginning in 1967 with a board game based on the original series and continuing through today with online and DVD games, Star Trek games continue to be popular among fans.\n\nVideo games of the series include Star Trek: Legacy and Star Trek: Conquest. An MMORPG based on Star Trek called Star Trek Online was developed by Cryptic Studios and published by Perfect World. It is set in the TNG universe about 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. The most recent video game, set in the new timeline debuted in J. J. Abrams's film, was titled Star Trek.\n\nOn June 8, 2010, Wiz Kids Games, which is owned by NECA, announced that they are developing a Star Trek collectible miniatures game using the HeroClix game system. \n\nMagazines\n\nStar Trek has led directly or indirectly to the creation of a number of magazines which focus either on science fiction or specifically on Star Trek. Starlog was a magazine which was founded in the 1970s. Initially, its focus was on Star Trek actors, but then it began to expand its scope.\n\nIn 2013, Star Trek Magazine was a significant publication from the U.K. which was sold at newsstands and also via subscription. Other magazines through the years included professional magazines as well as magazines produced by fans, referred to as \"fanzines\". Star Trek: The Magazine was a magazine published in the U.S. which ceased publication in 2003.\n\nCultural impact\n\nThe Star Trek media franchise is a multibillion-dollar industry, owned by CBS. Gene Roddenberry sold Star Trek to NBC as a classic adventure drama; he pitched the show as \"Wagon Train to the Stars\" and as Horatio Hornblower in Space. The opening line, \"to boldly go where no man has gone before,\" was taken almost verbatim from a U.S. White House booklet on space produced after the Sputnik flight in 1957. The central trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy was modeled on classical mythological storytelling.\n\nStar Trek and its spin-offs have proven highly popular in syndication and are shown on TV stations worldwide. The show's cultural impact goes far beyond its longevity and profitability. Star Trek conventions have become popular among its fans, who call themselves \"trekkies\" or \"trekkers\". An entire subculture has grown up around the show which was documented in the film Trekkies. Star Trek was the highest-ranked cult show by TV Guide. The franchise has also garnered many comparisons of the Star Wars franchise being rivals in the science fiction genre with many fans and scholars. \n\nThe Star Trek franchise inspired some designers of technologies, the Palm PDA and the handheld mobile phone. Michael Jones, Chief technologist of Google Earth, has cited the tricorder's mapping capability as one inspiration in the development of Keyhole/Google Earth. The Tricorder X Prize, a contest to build a medical tricorder device was announced in 2012. Ten finalists have been selected in 2014, and the winner will be selected in January 2016. Star Trek also brought teleportation to popular attention with its depiction of \"matter-energy transport\", with the famously misquoted phrase \"Beam me up, Scotty\" entering the vernacular. The Star Trek replicator is credited in the scientific literature with inspiring the field of diatom nanotechnology. In 1976, following a letter-writing campaign, NASA named its prototype space shuttle Enterprise, after the fictional starship. Later, the introductory sequence to Star Trek: Enterprise included footage of this shuttle which, along with images of a naval sailing vessel called the Enterprise, depicted the advancement of human transportation technology.\n\nBeyond Star Treks fictional innovations, its contributions to TV history included a multicultural and multiracial cast. While more common in subsequent years, in the 1960s it was controversial to feature an Enterprise crew that included a Japanese helmsman, a Russian navigator, a black female communications officer, and a Vulcan-Human first officer. Captain Kirk's and Lt. Uhura's kiss, in the episode \"Plato's Stepchildren\", was also daring, and is often mis-cited as being American television's first scripted, interracial kiss, even though several other interracial kisses predated this one. \n\nParodies\n\nEarly TV comedy sketch parodies of Star Trek included a famous sketch on Saturday Night Live titled \"The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise\", with John Belushi as Kirk, Chevy Chase as Spock and Dan Aykroyd as McCoy. In the 1980s, Saturday Night Live did a sketch with William Shatner reprising his Captain Kirk role in The Restaurant Enterprise, preceded by a sketch in which he played himself at a Trek convention angrily telling fans to \"Get a Life\", a phrase that has become part of Trek folklore. In Living Color continued the tradition in a sketch where Captain Kirk is played by a fellow Canadian Jim Carrey. \n\nA feature-length film that indirectly parodies Star Trek is Galaxy Quest. This film is based on the premise that aliens monitoring the broadcast of an Earth-based TV series called Galaxy Quest, modeled heavily on Star Trek, believe that what they are seeing is real. Many Star Trek actors have been quoted saying that Galaxy Quest was a brilliant parody. \n\nStar Trek has been blended with Gilbert and Sullivan at least twice. The North Toronto Players presented a Star Trek adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan titled H.M.S. Starship Pinafore: The Next Generation in 1991 and an adaptation by Jon Mullich of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore that sets the operetta in the world of Star Trek has played in Los Angeles and was attended by series luminaries Nichelle Nichols, D.C. Fontana and David Gerrold. A similar blend of Gilbert and Sullivan and Star Trek was presented as a benefit concert in San Francisco by the Lamplighters in 2009. The show was titled Star Drek: The Generation After That. It presented an original story with Gilbert and Sullivan melodies. \n\nBoth The Simpsons and Futurama television series and others have had many individual episodes parodying Star Trek or with Trek allusions. An entire series of films and novels from Finland titled Star Wreck also parodies Star Trek.\n\nIn August 2010, the members of the Internal Revenue Service created a Star Trek themed training video for a conference. Revealed to the public in 2013, the spoof along with parodies of other media franchises was cited as an example of the misuse of taxpayer funds in a congressional investigation. \n\nStar Trek has been parodied in several non-English movies, including the German Traumschiff Surprise - Periode 1 which features a gay version of The Original Series bridge crew and a Turkish film that spoofs that same series' episode \"The Man Trap\" in one of the series of films based on the character Turist Ömer.\n\nNotable fan fiction\n\nAlthough Star Trek has been off the air since 2005, CBS and Paramount pictures have allowed fan-produced shows to be created. While not officially part of the Star Trek universe, several veteran Star Trek actors, actresses, and writers have contributed their talents to many of these productions. While none of these films have been created for profit, several fan productions have turned to crowdfunding from sites, such as Kickstarter to help with production costs. \n\nTwo series set during the TOS time period are Star Trek Continues and the Hugo award nominated Star Trek: Phase II. Another series, Star Trek: Hidden Frontier, takes place on the Briar Patch, a region of space introduced in Star Trek Insurrection. It has had over 50 episodes produced, and has two spin-off series, Star Trek: Odyssey and Star Trek: The Helena Chronicles. Several standalone fan films have been created including Star Trek: Of Gods and Men. Future fan films include Star Trek: Axanar.Kickstarter[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/194429923/star-trek-prelude-to-axanar Star Trek: Prelude to Axanar]Prelude to Axanar features some well known actors portraying both new and familiar characters in the Star Trek universe. Audio only fan productions includes Star Trek: The Continuing Mission. Several fan film parodies have also been created.\n\nAwards and honors\n\nOf the various science fiction awards for drama, only the Hugo Award dates back as far as the original series.Although the Hugo Award is mainly given for print-media science fiction, its \"best drama\" award is usually given to film or television presentations. The Hugo does not give out awards for best actor, director, or other aspects of film production. Before 2002, films and television series competed for the same Hugo, before the split of the drama award into short drama and long drama. In 1968, all five nominees for a Hugo Award were individual episodes of Star Trek, as were three of the five nominees in 1967.The other two films nominated for the Hugo in 1967 were the films Fahrenheit 451 and Fantastic Voyage. The only Star Trek series not even to get a Hugo nomination are the animated series and Voyager, though only the original series and Next Generation ever won the award. No Star Trek feature film has ever won a Hugo, though a few were nominated. In 2008, the fan-made episode of Star Trek: New Voyages entitled \"World Enough and Time\" was nominated for the Hugo for Best Short Drama. \n\nThe two Star Trek series to win multiple Saturn awards during their run were The Next Generation (twice winning for best television series) and Voyager (twice winning for best actress – Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan).The science fiction Saturn Awards did not exist during broadcasting of the original series. Unlike the Hugo, the Saturn Award gives out prizes for best actor, special effects and music, and also unlike the Hugo (until 2002) movies and television shows have never competed against each other for Saturns. The original series retroactively won a Saturn Award for best DVD release. Several Star Trek films have won Saturns including categories best actor, actress, director, costume design, and special effects. However, Star Trek has never won a Saturn for best make-up. \n\nAs for non science fiction specific awards, the Star Trek series has won 31 Emmy Awards. The eleventh Star Trek film won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Makeup, the franchise's first Academy Award. \n\nCorporate ownership\n\nAt Star Treks creation, Norway Productions, Roddenberry's production company, shared ownership with Desilu Productions and, after Gulf+Western acquired Desilu in 1967, with Paramount Pictures, the conglomerate's film studio. Paramount did not want to own the unsuccessful show; net profit was to be shared between Norway, Desilu/Paramount, Shatner, and NBC but Star Trek lost money, and the studio did not expect to syndicate it. In 1970 Paramount offered to sell all rights to Star Trek to Roddenberry, but he could not afford the $150,000 ($ in 2007) price.\n\nIn 1989, Gulf+Western renamed itself as Paramount Communications, and in 1994 merged with Viacom. In 2005, Viacom divided into CBS Corporation, whose CBS Television Studios subsidiary retained the Star Trek brand, and Viacom, whose Paramount Pictures subsidiary retained the Star Trek film library and rights to make additional films, along with video distribution rights to the TV series on behalf of CBS.", "Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first Star Trek film and stars the cast of the original 1966–1969 Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud known as V'Ger approaches Earth, destroying everything in its path. Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) resumes command of his previous starship—the recently refitted USS Enterprise—to lead it on a mission to save the planet and determine VGers origins.\n\nWhen the original television series was cancelled in 1969, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry lobbied Paramount to continue the franchise through a film. The success of the series in syndication convinced the studio to begin work on a feature film in 1975. A series of writers attempted to craft a suitably epic script, but the attempts did not satisfy Paramount, so the studio scrapped the project in 1977. Paramount instead planned on returning the franchise to its roots with a new television series, Star Trek: Phase II. The box office success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind convinced Paramount that science fiction films other than Star Wars could do well at the box office, so the studio cancelled production of Phase II and resumed its attempts at making a Star Trek film. In 1978, Paramount assembled the largest press conference held at the studio since the 1950s to announce that double Academy Award–winning director Robert Wise would direct a $15 million film adaptation of the television series.\n\nWith the cancellation of Phase II, writers rushed to adapt its planned pilot episode, \"In Thy Image\", into a film script. Constant revisions to the story and shooting script continued, to the extent of hourly script updates on shooting dates. The Enterprise was modified inside and out; costume designer Robert Fletcher provided new uniforms and production designer Harold Michelson fabricated new sets. Jerry Goldsmith composed the score, beginning an association with Star Trek that would continue until 2002. When the original contractors for the optical effects proved unable to complete their tasks in time, effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull was given carte blanche to meet the December 1979 release date. The film came together only days before the premiere; Wise took the just-completed film to its Washington, D.C., opening, but always felt that the theatrical version was a rough cut of the film he wanted to make.\n\nReleased in North America on December 7, 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture received mixed reviews from critics, many of whom faulted the film for its lack of action and over-reliance on special effects. The final production cost ballooned to approximately $46 million. The film earned $139 million worldwide, falling short of studio expectations but enough for Paramount to propose a cheaper sequel. Roddenberry was forced out of creative control for The Wrath of Khan. In 2001, Wise oversaw a director's cut for a special DVD release of the film, with remastered audio, tightened and added scenes, and new computer-generated effects.\n\nPlot\n\nIn 2273, a Starfleet monitoring station, Epsilon Nine, detects an alien force, hidden in a massive cloud of energy, moving through space towards Earth. The cloud destroys three of the Klingon Empire's new K't'inga-class warships and the monitoring station en route. On Earth, the starship Enterprise is undergoing a major refit; her former commanding officer, James T. Kirk, has been promoted to Admiral and works in San Francisco as Chief of Starfleet Operations. Starfleet dispatches Enterprise to investigate the cloud entity as the ship is the only one in intercept range, requiring her new systems to be tested in transit.\n\nKirk takes command of the ship citing his experience, angering Captain Willard Decker, who had been overseeing the refit as its new commanding officer. Testing of Enterprises new systems goes poorly; two officers, including the science officer, are killed by a malfunctioning transporter, and improperly calibrated engines almost destroy the ship. Kirk's unfamiliarity with the new systems of the Enterprise increases the tension between him and first officer Decker. Commander Spock arrives as a replacement science officer, explaining that while on his home world undergoing a ritual to purge all emotion, he felt a consciousness that he believes emanates from the cloud.\n\nEnterprise intercepts the energy cloud and is attacked by an alien vessel within. A probe appears on the bridge, attacks Spock and abducts the navigator, Ilia. She is replaced by a robotic doppelgänger, a probe sent by \"V'Ger\" to study the crew. Decker is distraught over the loss of Ilia, with whom he had a romantic history. He becomes troubled as he attempts to extract information from the doppelgänger, which has Ilia's memories and feelings buried within. Spock takes a spacewalk to the alien vessel's interior and attempts a telepathic mind meld with it. In doing so, he learns that the vessel is V'Ger itself, a living machine.\n\nAt the center of the massive ship, V'Ger is revealed to be Voyager 6, a 20th-century Earth space probe believed lost. The damaged probe was found by an alien race of living machines that interpreted its programming as instructions to learn all that can be learned, and return that information to its creator. The machines upgraded the probe to fulfill its mission, and on its journey the probe gathered so much knowledge that it achieved consciousness. Spock realizes that V'Ger lacks the ability to give itself a focus other than its original mission; having learned what it could on its journey home, it finds its existence empty and without purpose. Before transmitting all its information, V'Ger insists that the Creator come in person to finish the sequence. Realizing that the machine wants to merge with its creator, Decker offers himself to V'Ger; he merges with the Ilia probe and V'Ger, creating a new form of life that disappears into another dimension. With Earth saved, Kirk directs Enterprise out to space for future missions.\n\nCast\n\n* William Shatner as James T. Kirk, the former commanding officer of the USS Enterprise and an Admiral at Starfleet headquarters, who re-assumes command of the Enterprise, and with it, temporary demotion to his previous rank, captain. When asked during a March 1978 press conference about what it would be like to reprise the role, Shatner said, \"An actor brings to a role not only the concept of a character but his own basic personality, things that he is, and both Leonard Nimoy and myself have changed over the years, to a degree at any rate, and we will bring that degree of change inadvertently to the role we recreate.\" \n* Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, the Enterprises half-Vulcan, half-human science officer. Nimoy had been dissatisfied with unpaid royalties from Star Trek and did not intend to reprise the role, so Spock was left out of the screenplay. Director Robert Wise, having been informed by his daughter and son-in-law that the film \"would not be Star Trek\" without Nimoy, sent Jeffrey Katzenberg to New York City to meet with Nimoy. Katzenberg gave Nimoy a check to make up for his lost royalties, and the actor attended the March 1978 press conference with the rest of the returning cast. Nimoy was dissatisfied with the script, and his meeting with Katzenberg led to an agreement that the final script would need Nimoy's approval. Despite the financial issues, Nimoy said he was comfortable with being identified as Mr. Spock because it had a positive impact on his fame.\n* DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy, the chief medical officer aboard the Enterprise. Kelley had reservations with the script, feeling that the characters and relationships from the series were not in place. Along with Shatner and Nimoy, Kelley lobbied for greater characterization, but their opinions were largely ignored. \n* James Doohan as Montgomery Scott, the Enterprises chief engineer. Doohan created the distinctive Klingon vocabulary heard in the film. Linguist Marc Okrand later developed a fully realized Klingon language based on the actor's made-up words. \n* Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov, the Enterprises weapons officer. Koenig noted that the expected sense of camaraderie and euphoria at being assembled for screen tests at the start of the picture was nonexistent. \"This may be Star Trek,\" he wrote, \"but it isn't the old Star Trek.\" The actor was hopeful for the film, but admitted he was disappointed by his character's bit part. \n* Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, the communications officer aboard the Enterprise. Nichols noted in her autobiography that she was one of the actors most opposed to the new uniforms added for the film because the drab, unisex look \"wasn't Uhura\". \n* George Takei as Hikaru Sulu, the Enterprises helmsman. In his autobiography, Takei described the film's shooting schedule as \"astonishingly luxurious\", but noted that frequent script rewrites during production \"usually favored Bill\" [Shatner]. \n* Persis Khambatta as Ilia, the Deltan navigator of the Enterprise. Khambatta was originally cast in the role when The Motion Picture was a television pilot. She took the role even after Roddenberry warned her that she would have to shave her head completely for filming. \n* Stephen Collins as Willard Decker, the new commanding officer of the Enterprise at the start of the film. He is temporarily demoted from captain to commander and first officer when Kirk takes command of the Enterprise. Collins was completely unfamiliar with the franchise, having never seen an episode of the series. Kelley's dressing room was next to Collins', and the older actor became his mentor for the production. Given the preexisting television cast, Collins' casting was the only one that director Wise participated in; he called Collins' performance \"excellent—in a difficult role.\"\n\nOther actors from the television series who returned include Majel Barrett as Christine Chapel, a doctor aboard the Enterprise; and Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand, formerly one of Kirk's yeomen and now a transporter operator. David Gautreaux, who had been cast as Xon in the aborted second television series, cameos as Branch, the commander of the Epsilon 9 communications station. Mark Lenard portrays the Klingon commander in the film's opening sequence; he also played Spock's father, Sarek, in the television series and in later feature films. \n\nProduction\n\nEarly development\n\nThe original Star Trek television series ran for three seasons from 1966 to 1969 on NBC. The show was never a hit with network executives, and the show's low Nielsen ratings bolstered their concerns. When the show was cancelled, owner Paramount Studios hoped to recoup their production losses by selling the syndication rights to the show. The series went into reruns in the autumn (September/October) of 1969, and by the late 1970s had been sold in over 150 domestic and 60 international markets. The show developed a cult following, and rumors of reviving the franchise began. \n\nRoddenberry had first proposed a Star Trek feature at the 1968 World Science Fiction Convention. The movie was to have been set before the television series, showing how the crew of the Enterprise met. The popularity of the syndicated Star Trek caused Paramount Pictures and Roddenberry to begin developing the film in May 1975. Roddenberry was allocated $3 to $5 million to develop a script. By June 30, he had produced what he considered an acceptable script, but studio executives disagreed. This first draft, The God Thing, featured a grounded Admiral Kirk assembling the old crew on the refitted Enterprise to clash with a godlike entity many miles across, hurtling towards Earth. The object turns out to be a super-advanced computer, the remains of a scheming race who were cast out of their dimension. Kirk wins out, the entity returns to its dimension, and the Enterprise crew resumes their voyages. The basic premise and scenes such as a transporter accident and Spock's Vulcan ritual were discarded, but later returned to the final script. The film was postponed until spring (March/April) 1975 while Paramount fielded new scripts for Star Trek II (the working title) from acclaimed writers such as Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon and Harlan Ellison. Ellison's story had a snake-like alien race tampering with Earth's history to create a kindred race; Kirk reunites with his old crew, but they are faced with the dilemma of killing off the reptilian race in Earth's prehistory just to maintain humanity's dominance. When Ellison presented his idea, an executive suggested Ellison read Chariots of the Gods? and include the Maya civilization into his story, which enraged the writer because he knew Mayans did not exist at the dawn of time. By October 1975, Robert Silverberg had been signed to work on the screenplay along with a second writer, John D. F. Black, whose treatment featured a black hole that threatened to consume all of existence. Roddenberry teamed up with Jon Povill to write a new story that featured the Enterprise crew setting an altered universe right by time travel; like Black's idea, Paramount did not consider it epic enough. \n\nThe original Star Trek cast—who had agreed to appear in the new movie, with contracts as-yet unsigned pending script approval—grew anxious about the constant delays, and pragmatically accepted other acting offers while Roddenberry worked with Paramount. The studio decided to turn the project over to the television division, reasoning that since the roots of the franchise lay in television the writers would be able to develop the right script. A number of screenwriters offered up ideas that were summarily rejected. As Paramount executives' interest in the film began to wane, Roddenberry, backed by fan letters, applied pressure to the studio. In June 1976, Paramount assigned Jerry Isenberg, a young and active producer, to be executive producer of the project, with the budget expanded to $8 million. Povill was tasked with finding more writers to develop a script. His list included Edward Anhalt, James Goldman, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Ernest Lehman and Robert Bloch. To cap off his list, Povill put as his last recommendation \"Jon Povill—almost credit: Star Trek II story (with Roddenberry). Will be a big shot some day. Should be hired now while he is cheap and humble.\" The end result was a compiled list of 34 names, none of whom were ever chosen to pen the script. Finally, British screenwriters Chris Bryant and Allan Scott, who had penned the creepy Donald Sutherland thriller Don't Look Now were hired to write a script. Bryant believed he earned the screenwriting assignment because his view of Kirk resembled what Roddenberry modeled him on; \"one of Horatio Nelson's captains in the South Pacific, six months away from home and three months away by communication\". Povill also wrote up a list of possible directors, including Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Lucas and Robert Wise, but all were busy at the time (or were not willing to work on the small script money budget). Philip Kaufman signed on to direct and was given a crash course in the series. Roddenberry screened ten episodes from the original series for Kaufman, including the most representative of the show and those he considered most popular: \"The City on the Edge of Forever\", \"The Devil in the Dark\", \"Amok Time\", \"Journey to Babel\", \"Shore Leave\", \"The Trouble with Tribbles\", \"The Enemy Within\", \"The Corbomite Maneuver\", \"This Side of Paradise\" and \"A Piece of the Action\". Early work was promising and, by the fall of 1976, the project was building momentum.\n\nDuring this time, fans organized a mail campaign that flooded the White House with letters, influencing Gerald Ford to rechristen the Space Shuttle Constitution to Enterprise., and Roddenberry and most of the Star Trek cast were present for its roll-out on September 17, 1976.\n\nOn October 8, Bryant and Scott delivered a twenty-page treatment entitled Planet of the Titans, which executives Barry Diller and Michael Eisner liked. In the treatment, Kirk and his crew encounter beings they believe to be the mythical Titans and travel back millions of years in time, accidentally teaching early man to make fire. Planet of the Titans also explored the concept of the third eye. With the studio's acceptance of this treatment Roddenberry immediately stopped work on other projects to refocus on Star Trek, and the screenwriters and Isenberg were swamped with grateful fan mail. Isenberg began scouting filming locations and hired designers and illustrators. Key amongst these were famed production designer Ken Adam, who said that \"I was approached by Gene Roddenberry and we got on like a house on fire\", and thus he was employed to design the film. In turn Adam employed artist Ralph McQuarrie fresh off the yet to be released Star Wars. They worked on designs for planets, planetary and asteroid bases, a black hole \"shroud\", a crystalline \"super brain\", and new concepts for the Enterprise, including interior concepts which Adam later revisitted for the film Moonraker and a flat-hulled starship design (frequently credited to McQuarrie, but which McQuarrie's own art of book identifies as an Adam design ). McQuarrie wrote that \"there was no script\" thus much of the work was \"winging it\". When that film folded after three months for Adam and \"a month and a half\" for McQuarrie, their concepts were shelved, although a handful of them were revisited in later productions. \n\nThe first draft of the completed script was not finished until March 1, 1977, and it was described as \"a script by committee\" and rejected by the studio a few weeks later. Bryant and Scott had been caught between Roddenberry and Kaufman's conflicting ideas about of what the film should be and Paramount's indecision. Feeling it was \"physically impossible\" to produce a script that satisfied all parties, they left the project by mutual consent on March 18, 1977. \"We begged to be fired.\" Kaufman reconceived the story with Spock as the captain of his own ship and featuring Toshiro Mifune as Spock's Klingon nemesis, but on May 8 Katzenberg informed the director the film was cancelled, less than three weeks before Star Wars would be released. \n\nPhase II and restart\n\nBarry Diller had grown concerned by the direction Star Trek had taken in Planet of the Titans, and suggested to Roddenberry that it was time to take the franchise back to its roots as a television series. Diller planned on a new Star Trek series forming the cornerstone for a new television network. Though Paramount was loath to abandon its work on the film, Roddenberry wanted to bring many of the production staff from the original series to work on the new show, titled Star Trek: Phase II. \n\nProducer Harold Livingston was assigned to find writers for new episodes, while Roddenberry prepared a writers' guide briefing the uninitiated on the franchise canon. Of the original cast, only Leonard Nimoy stated he would not return. To replace Spock, Roddenberry created a logical Vulcan prodigy named Xon. Since Xon was too young to fill the role of first officer, Roddenberry developed Commander William Decker, and later added Ilia. The new series' pilot episode \"In Thy Image\" was based on a two-page outline by Roddenberry about a NASA probe returning to Earth, having gained sentience. Alan Dean Foster wrote a treatment for the pilot, which Livingston turned into a teleplay. When the script was presented to Michael Eisner, he declared it worthy of being told as a feature film. At the same time, the success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind showed Paramount that Star Wars success in the science fiction genre at the box office could repeat. On November 11, just two and a half weeks before production on Phase II was due to start, the studio announced that the television series had been cancelled in favor of a new feature film. Cast and crew who had been hired that Monday were laid off by Friday, and construction came to a halt. Production was moved to April 1978 so that the necessary scripts, sets, and wardrobe could be upgraded. \n\nOn March 28, 1978, Paramount assembled the largest press conference held at the studio since Cecil B. DeMille announced he was making The Ten Commandments. Eisner announced that Academy-Award winning director Robert Wise would direct a film adaptation of the television series, titled Star Trek—The Motion Picture. Wise had only seen a few Star Trek episodes, so Paramount gave him about a dozen to watch. The budget was projected at $15 million. Dennis Clark (Comes a Horseman) was invited to rewrite the script and to include Spock, but he disliked Roddenberry, who demanded sole credit. Livingston returned as writer, and although he also found Roddenberry unreasonable, Wise and Katzenberg convinced him to continue rewriting the script throughout production.\n\nThe writers began to adapt \"In Thy Image\" into a film script, but the script was not completed until four months after production commenced. Wise felt that the story was sound, but the action and visuals could be made more exciting. As the intended start of filming in late spring 1978 approached, it was clear a new start date was needed. Time was of the essence; Paramount was worried that their science fiction film would appear at the tail end of a cycle, now that every major studio had such a film in the works. Livingston described the writers' issue with the story, calling it \"unworkable\":\nWe had a marvelous antagonist, so omnipotent that for us to defeat it or even communicate with it, or have any kind of relationship with it, made the initial concept of the story false. Here's this gigantic machine that's a million years further advanced than we are. Now, how the hell can we possibly deal with this? On what level? As the story developed, everything worked until the very end. How do you resolve this thing? If humans can defeat this marvelous machine, it's really not so great, is it? Or if it really is great, will we like those humans who do defeat it? Should they defeat it? Who is the story's hero anyway? That was the problem. We experimented with all kinds of approaches...we didn't know what to do with the ending. We always ended up against a blank wall. \nThe script received constant input from the producers and from Shatner and Nimoy. The discussions led to repeated rewrites, right up to the day the pages were to be shot. At one point, scenes were being rewritten so often it became necessary to note on script pages the hour of the revision. Though changes were constant, the biggest push for alteration revolved around the ending. Much of the rewriting had to do with the relationships of Kirk and Spock, Decker and Ilia, and the Enterprise and Vger. A final draft of the third act was approved in late September 1978, but had it not been for a Penthouse interview where NASA director Robert Jastrow said that mechanical forms of life were likely, the ending may not have been approved at all. \n\nDesign\n\nThe first new sets (intended for Phase II) were constructed beginning July 25, 1977. The fabrication was supervised by Joseph Jennings, an art director involved in the original television series, special-effects expert Jim Rugg, and former Trek designer Matt Jefferies, on loan as consultant from Little House on the Prairie. When the television series was cancelled and plans for a film put into place, new sets were needed for the large 70 mm film format.\n\nWise asked Harold Michelson to be the film's production designer, and Michelson was put to work on finishing the incomplete Phase II sets. The designer began with the bridge, which had nearly been completed. Michelson first removed Chekov's new weapons station, a semicircular plastic bubble grafted onto one side of the bridge wall. The idea for Phase II was that Chekov would have looked out toward space while crosshairs in the bubble tracked targets. Wise instead wanted Chekov's station to face the Enterprises main viewer, a difficult request as the set was primarily circular. Production illustrator Michael Minor created a new look for the station using a flat edge in the corner of the set. \n\nThe bridge ceiling was redesigned, with Michelson taking structural inspiration from a jet engine fan. Minor built a central bubble for the ceiling to give the bridge a human touch. Ostensibly, the bubble functioned as a piece of sophisticated equipment designed to inform the captain of the ship's attitude. Most of the bridge consoles, designed by Lee Cole, remained from the scrapped television series. Cole remained on the motion picture production and was responsible for much of the visual artwork created. To inform actors and series writers, Lee prepared a USS Enterprise Flight Manual as a continuity guide to control functions. It was necessary for all the main cast to be familiar with control sequences at their stations as each panel was activated by touch via heat-sensitive plates. The wattage of the light bulbs beneath the plastic console buttons was reduced from 25 watts to 6 watts after the generated heat began melting the controls. The seats were covered in girdle material, used because of its stretching capacity and ability to be easily dyed. For the science station, two consoles were rigged for hydraulic operation so that they could be rolled into the walls when not in use, but the system was disconnected when the crew discovered it would be easier to move them by hand.\n\nAside from control interfaces, the bridge set was populated with monitors looping animations. Each oval monitor was a rear-projection screen on which super 8 mm and 16 mm film sequences looped for each special effect. The production acquired 42 films for this purpose from an Arlington, Virginia-based company, Stowmar Enterprises. Stowmar's footage was exhausted only a few weeks into filming, and it became clear that new monitor films would be needed faster than an outside supplier could deliver them. Cole, Minor, and another production designer, Rick Sternbach, worked together with Povill to devise faster ways of shooting new footage. Cole and Povill rented an oscilloscope for a day and filmed its distortions. Other loops came from Long Beach Hospital, the University of California at San Diego, and experimental computer labs in New Mexico. In all, over two hundred pieces of monitor footage were created and catalogued into a seven-page listing. \n\nThe Enterprise engine room was redesigned while keeping consistent with the theory that the interior appearance had to match the corresponding area visible in exterior views of the starship. Michelson wanted the engine room to seem vast, a difficult effect to achieve on a small sound stage. To create the illusion of depth and long visible distances, the art department staff worked on designs that would utilize forced perspective; set designer Lewis Splittgerber considered the engine room the most difficult set to realize. On film the engine room appeared hundreds of feet long, but the set was actually only 40 ft in length. To achieve the proper look, the floor slanted upward and narrowed, while small actors of three, four, and five feet in height were used as extras to give the appearance of being far from the camera. For \"down shots\" of the engineering complex, floor paintings extended the length of the warp core several stories. J.C. Backings Company created these paintings; similar backings were used to extend the length of ship hallways and the rec room set.\n\nRedesigning the Enterprise corridors was also Michelson's responsibility. Originally the corridors were of straight plywood construction reminiscent of the original series, which Roddenberry referred to as \"Des Moines Holiday Inn Style\". To move away from this hotel look, Michelson created a new bent and angular design. Roddenberry and Wise agreed with Michelson that in three hundred years, lighting did not need to be overhead, so they had the lighting radiate upward from the floor. Different lighting schemes were used to simulate different decks of the ship with the same length of corridor. Aluminum panels on the walls outside Kirk's and Ilia's quarters were covered with an orange ultrasuede to represent the living area of the ship. \n\nThe transporter had originally been developed for the television series as a matter of convenience; it would have been prohibitively expensive to show the Enterprise land on every new planet. For the redesign Michelson felt that the transporter should look and feel more powerful. He added a sealed control room that would protect operators from the powerful forces at work. The space between the transporter platform and the operators was filled with complex machinery, and cinematographer Richard Kline added eerie lighting to the set to create atmosphere. \n\nAfter the redesign of the Enterprise sets was complete, Michelson turned his attention to creating the original sets needed for the film. The recreation deck occupied an entire soundstage, dwarfing the small room built for the planned television series; this was the largest interior in the film. The set was 24 ft high, decorated with 107 pieces of custom-designed furniture, and packed with 300 people for filming. Below a large viewing screen on one end of the set was a series of art panels containing illustrations of previous ships bearing the name Enterprise. One of the ships was NASA's own Enterprise, added per Roddenberry's request:\nSome fans have suggested that our new Enterprise should carry a plaque somewhere which commemorates the fact it was named after the first space shuttle launched from Earth in 1970s. This is an intriguing idea. It also has publicity advantages if properly released at the right time. It won't hurt NASA's feelings either. I'll leave it to you where you want it on the vessel. \nAnother large construction task was the Vger set, referred to by the production staff as \"the Coliseum\" or \"the microwave wok\". The set was designed and fabricated in four and a half weeks, and was filmable from all angles; parts of the set were designed to pull away for better camera access at the center. Throughout production Star Trek used eleven of Paramount's thirty-two sound stages, more than any other film done there at the time. To save money, construction coordinator Gene Kelley struck sets with his own crew immediately after filming, lest Paramount charge the production to have the sets dismantled. The final cost for constructing the sets ran at approximately $1.99 million, not counting additional costs for Phase II fabrication. \n\nProps and models\n\nThe first Star Trek movie models constructed were small study models for Planet of the Titans based on designs by Adam and McQuarrie, but these flat-hulled Enterprise concepts were abandoned when that film was cancelled (although one was later used in the spacedock in the movie Star Trek III, and another later appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode \"The Best of Both Worlds\"). \n\nWhen the Phase II series was in development, original series designer Matt Jefferies updated the Enterprise design to feature a larger saucer with twin elevators (turbolifts) to the bridge, a wider secondary hull, docking ports, a dedicated phaser weapon assembly at the base of the ship's neck, and angled struts supporting the nacelles. The nacelles themselves were completely changed to less cylindrical shapes and designed to feature glowing grilles on the sides. Likewise, an orbiting drydock, space office complex, and V'ger has been designed by artist Mike Minor. At the time Phase II was cancelled a roughly five foot long model of the Enterprise was under construction by Don Loos of Brick Price Movie Miniatures, and models of the drydock and V'ger were under construction as well. All of these models were abandoned, unfinished (although a Brick Price Enterprise was repurposed as the exploded Enterprise wreck in Star Trek III).\n\nWhen the project finally became The Motion Picture, Robert Abel and Associates art director Richard Taylor wanted to completely redesign the ship, but Roddenberry insisted on the same shape as designed by Jefferies for Phase II. Taylor focused on the details, giving it a stylization he considered \"almost Art Deco\". Concept artist Andrew Probert helped refine the redesign. The general shape and proportions of the Phase II ship were retained, but the angles, curves and details refined. Taylor took on the nacelles, and Probert the rest of the ship. Changes included \"radiator grill\" nacelle caps, a glowing deflector dish, a new impulse engine, new shapes for the aft end and hangar doors of the secondary hull, more docking ports, rounder windows, hatches, and windows for an observation lounge, recreation deck, and arboretum. Probert also replaced the Phase II ship weapons tube with a twin launcher torpedo deck and added elements such as features for a separating saucer and landing pads that were never utilized on any film featuring the model.\n\nMost of the models in The Motion Picture were created by Magicam, a Paramount subsidiary. The main Enterprise model was eight feet long, to a scale of 1/120th scale size, or 1 in to 10 ft. It took 14 months and $150,000 to build. Instead of standard fiberglass used for older models, the new Enterprise was constructed with lightweight plastics, weighing 85 lb. The biggest design issue was making sure that the connective dorsal neck and twin warp nacelle struts were strong enough so that no part of the ship model would sag, bend, or quiver when the model was being moved, which was accomplished via an arc-welded aluminum skeleton. The completed model could be supported at one of five possible points as each photographic angle required. A second, 20-inch (50.8 cm) model of the ship was used for long shots. While the hull surface was kept smooth, it was treated with a special paint finish that made its surface appear iridescent in certain light. Transparencies of the film's sets were inserted behind some windows, and as jokes, some featured Probert, other production staff members, and Mickey Mouse. The Enterprise was revised again after Abel & Associates were dismissed.\n\nMagicam also produced the orbital dry dock seen during the Enterprises first appearance in the film. Measuring 4 ft x 10 ft x 6 ft (1.22m x 3.05m x 1.83m), its 56 neon panels required 168,000 volts of electricity to operate, with a separate table to support the transformers; the final price for the dock setup was $200,000. \n\nThe creation of V'Ger caused problems for the entire production. The crew was dissatisfied with the original four-foot clay model created by the Abel group, which looked like a modernized Nemo's Nautilus submarine. Industrial designer Syd Mead was hired to visualize a new version of the mammoth craft. Mead created a machine that contained organic elements based on input from Wise, Roddenberry, and the effects leads. The final model was 68 ft long, built from the rear forward so that the camera crews could shoot footage while the next sections were still being fabricated. The model was built out of a plethora of materials—wood, foam, macramé, Styrofoam cups, incandescent, neon and strobe lights. \n\nDick Rubin handled the film's props, and set up a makeshift office in the corner of stage 9 throughout production. Rubin's philosophy as property master was that nearly every actor or extra ought to have something in their hands. As such, Rubin devised and fabricated about 350 props for the film, 55 of which were used in the San Francisco tram scene alone. Many of the props were updated designs of items previously seen in the television series, such as phasers and handheld communicators. The only prop that remained from the original television series was Uhura's wireless earpiece, which Nichols specifically requested on the first day of shooting (and all the production crew save those who had worked on the television show had forgotten about). The new phaser was entirely self-contained, with its own circuitry, batteries, and four blinking lights. The prop came with a hefty $4000 price tag; to save money, the lights were dropped, reducing the size of the phaser by a third. A total of 15 of the devices were made for the film. The communicators were radically altered, as by the 1970s the micro-miniaturization of electronics convinced Roddenberry that the bulky handheld devices of the television series were no longer believable. A wrist-based design was decided upon, with the provision that it look far different from the watch Dick Tracy had been using for decades previous. Two hundred communicators were fashioned, but only a few were the $3500 top models, used for close-ups of the device in action. Most of the props were made from plastic, as Rubin thought that in the future man-made materials would be used almost exclusively. \n\nCostumes and makeup\n\nRoddenberry firmly believed that throwaway clothes were the future of the industry, and this idea was incorporated into the costumes of The Motion Picture. William Ware Theiss, the designer who created the original television series costumes, was too busy to work on the film. Instead Robert Fletcher, considered one of American theater's most successful costume and scenic designers, was selected to design the new uniforms, suits, and robes for the production. Fletcher eschewed man-made synthetics for natural materials, finding that these fabrics sewed better and lasted longer. As times had changed, the Starfleet uniforms, with their bright reds, blues, greens, and golds, had to be revised: the miniskirts worn by females on the show seemed exciting in the 1960s but would now be considered sexist. Wise deemed the original multicolored uniforms too garish, and Fletcher believed that the brightness of these old designs would work against believability when seen on the wide screen—the designer's first task was to create new, less conspicuous uniforms. \n\nIn the original series, divisions in ship assignments were denoted by shirt color; for the movie, these color codes were moved to small patches on each person's uniform. The Starfleet delta symbol, which previously indicated duty branches—command, science, medical, engineering, and so forth—was replaced with the command symbol for all branches, superimposed over a circle of color indicating area of service. The blue color of previous uniforms was discarded, for fear they might interfere with the blue screens used for optical effects. Three types of uniforms were fabricated: dress uniforms used for special occasions, Class A uniforms for regular duty, and Class B uniforms as an alternative. The Class A designs were double-stitched in gabardine and featured gold braid designating rank. It was felt that the traditional four gold sleeve stripes for the captain's rank was too blatantly militaristic. Povill had to send out a memo to Fletcher with the modified stripe rank system, as the designer continued to get the 20th and 23rd centuries confused. Fletcher designed the Class B uniform as similar to evolved T-shirts, with shoulder boards used to indicate rank and service divisions. Each costume had the shoes built into the pant leg to further the futuristic look. An Italian shoemaker decorated by the Italian government for making Gucci shoes was tasked with creating the futuristic footwear. Combining the shoes and trousers was difficult, time-consuming, and expensive, as each shoe had to be sewn by hand after being fitted to each principal actor. There were difficulties in communication, as the shoemaker spoke limited English and occasionally confused shoe orders due to similar-sounding names. Jumpsuits, serving a more utilitarian function, were the only costumes to have pockets, and were made with a heavyweight spandex that required a special needle to puncture the thick material. A variety of field jackets, leisure wear, and spacesuits were also created; as these parts had to be designed and completed before most of the actors' parts had been cast, many roles were filled by considering how well the actors would fit into existing costumes. \n\nFor the civilians of San Francisco, Fletcher decided on a greater freedom in dress. Much of the materials for these casual clothes were found in the old storerooms at Paramount, where a large amount of unused or forgotten silks, crepes, and leathers lay in storage. One bolt of material had been handpicked by Cecil DeMille in 1939, and was in perfect condition. The red, black, and gold brocade was woven with real gold and silver wrapped around silk thread; the resulting costume was used for a Betelgeusean ambassador and, at a price of $10,000 for the fabric alone, was the most expensive costume ever worn by a Hollywood extra. Fletcher also recycled suedes from The Ten Commandments for the Zaranite costumes. With the approval of Roddenberry, Fletcher fashioned complete backgrounds for the alien races seen in the Earth and recreation deck sequences, describing their appearances and the composition of their costumes. \n\nFred Phillips, the original designer of Spock's Vulcan ears, served as The Motion Pictures makeup artist. He and his staff were responsible for fifty masks and makeup for the aliens seen in the film. The designs were developed by Phillips himself or else off Fletcher's sketches. In his long association with Star Trek Phillips produced his 2000th Spock ear during production of The Motion Picture. Each ear was made of latex and other ingredients blended together in a kitchen mixer, then baked for six hours. Though Phillips had saved the original television series casts used for making the appliances, Nimoy's ears had grown in the decade since and new molds had to be fabricated. While on the small screen the ears could be used up to four times, since nicks and tears did not show up on television, Phillips had to create around three pairs a day for Nimoy during filming. The upswept Vulcan eyebrows needed to be applied hair by hair for proper detail, and it took Nimoy more than two hours to prepare for filming—twice as long as it had for television. \n\nBesides developing Vulcan ears and alien masks, Phillips and his assistant Charles Schram applied more routine makeup to the principal actors. Khambatta's head had to be freshly shaved each day, then given an application of makeup to reduce glare from the hot set lights. Khambatta had no qualms about shaving her head at first, but began worrying if her hair would grow back properly. Roddenberry proposed insuring Khambatta's hair after the actress voiced her concerns, believing the price of such insurance to be negligible. Roddenberry also saw other benefits to taking out a policy:\n...Second, [the insurance] would have the advantage of reassuring [Khambatta] and making her feel more comfortable during her role. Third and finally, if the price does turn out to be negligible, John Rothwell, our publicist, assures me that we would probably get many times the cost back in publicity about the insurance. \nThe idea was ultimately scrapped, as it turned out such a guarantee would be highly expensive; the insurance company believed that there would be difficulty in proving that the hair grew back exactly the same as before. Instead, Khambatta visited the Georgette Klinger Skin Care Salon in Beverly Hills, where experts recommended that she receive six facials and scalp treatments during the course of production. The salon also prescribed a daily scalp treatment routine of cleansing bars, brilliantine lotion, conditioner, makeup remover, and cleansing lotion. The studio agreed these measures were necessary and footed the bill while Khambatta spent six months following the tedious instructions (her hair eventually regrew without issue, though she kept her shaven locks after production had ended.) \n\nTechnical consulting\n\nIn the decade between the end of the Star Trek television series and the film, many of the futuristic technologies that appeared on the show—electronic doors that open automatically, hypodermic injections, talking computers, weapons that stun rather than kill, and personal communication devices—had become a reality. Roddenberry had insisted that the technology aboard the Enterprise be grounded in established science and scientific theories. The Motion Picture likewise received technical consultation from NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as individuals such as a former astronaut and the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. \n\nThe greatest amount of technical advice for the production came from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), who provided Trek fan Jesco von Puttkamer as advisor to the film. Roddenberry had known Puttkamer since 1975, when they had been introduced by a mutual friend, the Assistant Director of Astronautics at the Smithsonian Institution. From 1976 until the completion of the film Puttkamer provided the writers, producer, and director with memos on everything technical in the script; the scientist reviewed every line in the script, and was unpaid for his assistance. \"Science fiction films, including those of the recent past, have been woefully short of good science advice,\" he said. \"Star Wars [is] really not science fiction. I loved it, but it's a fairy tale of princes and knights in another galaxy. The technology was improbable, the science impossible.\" \n\nDuring the rewrite of the final scenes, the studio executives clashed with Roddenberry about the script's ending, believing that the concept of a living machine was too far-fetched. The executives consulted Asimov: if the writer decided a sentient machine was plausible, the ending could stay. Asimov loved the ending, but made one small suggestion; he felt that the use of the word \"wormhole\" was incorrect, and that the anomaly that the Enterprise found itself in would be more accurately called a \"temporal tunnel\". \n\nFilming\n\nFilming of The Motion Pictures first scene began on August 7, 1978. A few ad-libbed ceremonies were performed before the cameras rolled; Roddenberry gave Wise his baseball cap, emblazoned with \"Enterprise\" in gold lettering (the cap was a gift from the captain of the nuclear carrier Enterprise.) Wise and Roddenberry then cracked a special breakaway bottle of champagne on the bridge set (there was no liquid inside, as flying champagne would have damaged the readied set.) The scene planned was the chaotic mess aboard the Enterprise bridge as the crew readies the ship for space travel; Wise directed 15 takes into the late afternoon before he was content with the scene. The first day's shots used 1650 ft of film; 420 ft were considered \"good\", 1070 ft were judged \"no good\", and 160 ft were wasted; only one and one-eighth pages had been shot. \n\nAlex Weldon was hired to be supervisor of special effects for the film. Weldon was planning on retiring after 42 years of effects work, but his wife urged him to take on Star Trek because she thought he did not have enough to do. When Weldon was hired, many of the effects had already been started or completed by Rugg; it was up to Weldon to complete more complex and higher-budgeted effects for the motion picture. The first step of preparation involved analyzing the script in the number, duration, and type of effects. Before costs could be determined and Weldon could shop for necessary items, he and the other members of the special effects team worked out all possibilities for pulling off the effects in a convincing manner. \n\nRichard H. Kline served as the film's cinematographer. Working from sketch artist Maurice Zuberano's concepts, Wise would judge if they were on the right track. Kline and Michelson would then discuss the look they wanted (along with Weldon, if effects were involved.) Each sequence was then storyboarded and left to Kline to execute. The cinematographer called his function to \"interpret [the] preplanning and make it indelible on film. It's a way of everybody being on the same wavelength.\" Kline would recall that there was not a single \"easy\" shot to produce for the picture, as each scene required special consideration. The bridge, for example, was lit with a low density of light to make the console monitors display better. It was hard to frame shots so that reflections of the crew in monitors or light spilling through floor grilles were not seen in the final print. \n\nWhile Kline was concerned with lighting, print quality, and color, Bonnie Prendergast, the script supervisor, took notes that would be written up after the company had finished for the day. Prendergast's role was to ensure continuity in wardrobe, actor position, and prop placement. Any changes in dialogue or ad-libbed lines were similarly written down. Assistant director Danny McCauley was responsible for collaborating with unit production manager Phil Rawlins to finalize shooting orders and assigning extras. Rawlins, McCauley, production manager Lindsley Parsons Jr., and Katzenberg were all tasked with keeping things moving as fast as possible and keeping the budget under control; every hour on stage cost the production $4000. \n\nThe production was for most of the filming a closed set, with great measures taken to maintain the secrecy of the plot. Scripts were numbered and lists kept of who received each copy. The press was told nothing about the story and only a few production stills were allowed to be published. During construction one young visitor to a soundstage stole a copy of blueprints for the bridge set and sold duplicates of them to any fans who would pay him $75; Paramount reported the matter to the FBI, who turned the case over to the Los Angeles Police Department. The police arrested, convicted, and fined the culprit $750; it was later discovered that the stolen plans were not the final copies. Visitor's badges were created to keep track of guests, and due to the limited number were constantly checked out; among the visitors included friends of the cast and crew, the press, fan leaders, and actors such as Clint Eastwood, Tony Curtis, Robin Williams, and Mel Brooks. Security swept cars leaving the lots for stolen items; even the principal actors were not spared from this inconvenience. \n\nBy August 9, the production was already a full day behind schedule. Despite the delays, Wise refused to shoot more than twelve hours on set, feeling he lost his edge afterwards. The director was patient on set; bets were placed on when he would finally lose his temper, but pool organizers returned the money when Wise never lost his cool. Given his unfamiliarity with the source material Wise relied on the actors, especially Shatner, to help ensure that dialog and characterizations were consistent with the show. While the bridge scenes were shot early, trouble with filming the transporter room scene delayed further work. Crew working on the transporter platform found their footwear melting on the lighted grid while shooting tests. Issues with the wormhole sequences caused further delays. The footage for the scene was filmed two ways; first, at the standard 24 frames per second, and then at the faster 48 frames; the normal footage was a back-up if the slow-motion effect produced by the faster frame speed did not turned out as planned. The shoot dragged on so long that it became a running joke for cast members to try and top each other with wormhole-related puns. The scene was finally completed on August 24, while the transporter scenes were being filmed at the same time on the same soundstage. \n\nThe planet Vulcan setting was created using a mixture of on-location photography at Minerva Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park and set recreation. Yellowstone was selected after filming in Turkish ruins proved to be too expensive. Securing permission for filming the scenes was difficult in the middle of the summer tourist season, but the Parks Department acquiesced so long as the crew remained on the boardwalks to prevent damage to geological formations. Zuberano, who had helped select the site for the shoot, traveled to Yellowstone and returned with a number of photos. Minor also made a trip and returned to create a large painting depicting how the scene might look. In consultations with Michelson, the crew decided to use miniatures in the foreground to create the Vulcan temples, combined with the real hot springs in the background. In the film, the bottom third of the frames were composed of miniature stairs, rocks, bits of red glass and a Vulcan statue. The center of the frame contained Nimoy's shots and the park setting, while the final third of the frame was filled with a matte painting. On August 8, the day after production began at Paramount, an eleven-person second unit left for Yellowstone. The sequence took three days to shoot.\n\nOn returning to Paramount, the art department had to recreate parts of Yellowstone in a large \"B tank\", 110 by long. The tank was designed to be flooded with millions of gallons of water to represent large bodies of water. Minor set up miniatures on the tank's floor before construction and made sure that the shadows that fell on Spock at Yellowstone could be properly recreated. A plywood base was built on metal platforms to create stone silhouettes, reinforced with chicken wire. Polyurethane foam was sprayed over the framework under the supervision of the Los Angeles Fire Department. The bottom part of the statue miniature was represented by a 16 ft high fiberglass foot. Weldon matched the effects filmed at Yellowstone using dry ice and steam machines. To recreate the appearance of the swirling eddies of water in the real Yellowstone, a combination of evaporated milk, white poster paint, and water was poured into the set's pools. The pressure of the steam channeled into the pools through hidden tubing causes enough movement in the whirlpools to duplicate the location footage. Due to the requirement that the sun be in a specific location for filming and that the environment be bright enough, production fell behind schedule when it was unseasonably cloudy for three days straight. Any further scenes to recreate Vulcan would be impossible, as the set was immediately torn down to serve as a parking lot for the remainder of the summer. \n\nThe computer console explosion that causes the transporter malfunction was simulated using brillo pads. Weldon hid steel wool inside the console and attached an arc welder to operate by remote control when the actor pulled a wire. The welder was designed to create a spark instead of actually welding, causing the steel wool to burn and make sparks; so effective was the setup that the cast members were continually startled by the flare-ups, resulting in additional takes. Various canisters and cargo containers appear to be suspended by Anti-gravity throughout the film. These effects were executed by several of Weldon's assistants. The crew built a circular track that had the same shape as the corridor and suspended the antigravity prop on four small wires that connected to the track. The wires were treated with a special acid which oxidized the metal; the reaction tarnished the wires to a dull gray that would not show up in the deep blue corridor lighting. Cargo boxes were made out of light balsa wood so that fine wires could be used as support. \n\nAs August ended, production continued to slip farther behind schedule. Koenig learned that rather than being released in 14 days after his scenes were completed, his last day would be on October 26—eight weeks later than expected. The next bridge scenes to be filmed after the wormhole sequence, Enterprises approach to V'Ger and the machine's resulting attack, were postponed for two weeks so that the special effects for the scene could be planned and implemented, and the engine room scenes could be shot. Chekov's burns sustained in V'Ger's attack were difficult to film; though the incident took only minutes on film, Weldon spent hours preparing the effect. A piece of aluminum foil was placed around Koenig's arm, covered by a protective pad and then hidden by the uniform sleeve. Weldon prepared an ammonia and acetic acid solution that was touched to Koenig's sleeve, causing it to smoke. Difficulties resulted in the scene being shot ten times; it was especially uncomfortable for the actor, whose arm was slightly burned when some of the solution leaked through to his arm. \n\nKhambatta also faced difficulties during filming. Due to the actress' personal objections, she would not appear nude as called for in the script during the Ilia probe's appearance. The producers got her to agree to wear a thin skin-colored body stocking, but she caught a cold as a result of the shower mist, created by dropping dry ice into warm water and funneling the vapors into the shower by a hidden tube. Khambatta had to leave the location repeatedly to avoid hypercapnia. One scene required the Ilia probe to slice through a steel door in the sickbay; doors made out of paper, corrugated cardboard covered in aluminum foil, and cork were tested before the proper effect was reached. The illuminated button in the hollow of the probe's throat was a 12–volt light bulb that Khambatta could turn on and off via hidden wires; the bulb's heat eventually caused a slight burn. \n\nThe last week of production was fraught with issues. Red gel lights appeared orange upon reviewing the daily footage; the lights were faulty, and three people were nearly electrocuted. On January 26, 1979, the film finally wrapped after 125 days. The three leads (Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley) delivered their final lines at 4:50 pm. Before the crew could go home, a final shot had to be filmed — the climactic fusing of Decker and V'Ger. The script prescribed a heavy emphasis on lighting, with spiraling and blinding white lights. Collins was covered in tiny dabs of cotton glued to his jacket; these highlights were designed to create a body halo. Helicopter lights, 4000–watt lamps and wind machines were used to create the effect of Decker's fusion with the living machine. The first attempts at filming the scene became a nightmare for the crew. The extreme lighting caused normally invisible dust particles in the air to be illuminated, creating the appearance that the actors were caught in a blizzard. During the retakes throughout the week the crew mopped and dusted the set constantly, and it required later technical work to completely eliminate the dust in the final print. \n\nTwo weeks later, the entire cast and crew joined with studio executives for a traditional wrap party. Four hundred people attended the gathering, which spilled over into two restaurants in Beverly Hills. While much of the crew readied for post-production, Wise and Roddenberry were grateful for the opportunity to take a short vacation from the motion picture before returning to work. \n\nPost-production\n\nWhile the cast departed to work on other projects, the post-production team was tasked with finalizing the film in time for a Christmas release; the resulting work would take twice as long as the filming process had taken. Editor Todd Ramsay and assistants spent principal photography syncing film and audio tracks. The resulting rough cuts were used to formulate plans for sound effects, music, and optical effects that would be added later.\n\nRoddenberry also provided a large amount of input, sending memos to Ramsay via Wise with ideas for editing. Ramsay tried to cut as much unnecessary footage as he could as long as the film's character and story development were not damaged. One of Roddenberry's ideas was to have the Vulcans speak their own language. Because the original Vulcan scenes had been photographed with actors speaking English, the \"language\" needed to lip-sync with the actor's lines. \n\nAfter the groundbreaking opticals of Star Wars, The Motion Pictures producers realized the film required similarly high-quality visuals. Douglas Trumbull, a film director with an excellent reputation in Hollywood who had worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey, was the first choice for director of special effects, but declined the offer. When approached, Trumbull was busy on Close Encounters, and was tired of being ignored as a director and having to churn out special effects for someone else's production; after completing the effects work, Trumbull planned on launching his own feature using a new film process. The next choice, John Dykstra, was similarly wrapped up in other projects. Post-production supervisor Paul Rabwin suggested Robert Abel's production company Robert Abel and Associates might be up to the task. The scope and size of the effects grew after the television movie became The Motion Picture. Abel and Associates bid $4 million for doing the film's effects and Paramount accepted. As new effects were added, Abel increased their bid by $750,000, and Roddenberry suggested that the effects costs and schedules be reexamined. \n\nRumors surfaced about difficulties regarding the special effects. By a year into the production, millions of dollars had been spent, yet almost no usable footage had been created; Abel and Associates was not experienced in motion picture production and the steep learning curve worried the producers. Due to contract obligations, Trumbull served as a consultant to Abel and Associates, while effects artist Richard Yuricich acted as a liaison between Abel and Paramount. To speed up the work, Abel passed off miniature and matte painting tasks to Yuricich. Despite being relieved of nearly half the effects work, it became clear by early 1979 that Abel and Associates would not be able to complete the remainder on time. Creative differences grew between Abel and Associates and the Paramount production team, and by mid-February 1979 the two companies parted ways.\n\nThe studio had wasted $5 million and a year's worth of time with Abel and Associates, although Abel reportedly gained a new production studio filled with equipment using Paramount's money. Trumbull, meanwhile, had completed Close Encounters but his plan for a full feature had been cancelled by Paramount, a move some considered punishment for passing on Star Trek. With Trumbull now available, primary responsibility for The Motion Pictures optical effects passed on to him. In March the studio offered Trumbull virtual carte blanche if he could get the opticals work completed by December, the release date to which Paramount was financially committed (having accepted advances from exhibitors planning on a Christmas delivery). Trumbull was confident that he could get the work done without a loss of quality despite a reputation for missing deadlines because of his perfectionism. Paramount assigned a studio executive to Trumbull to make sure he would meet the release date, and together with Yuricich the effects team rushed to finish. The effects budget climbed to $10 million.\n\nYuricich's previous work had been as Director of Photography for Photographic Effects on Close Encounters, and he and Trumbull reassembled the crew and equipment from the feature, adding more personnel and space. Time, not money, was the main issue; Trumbull had to deliver in nine months twice the effects as found in Star Wars or Close Encounters, which had taken years to complete. The Glencoe-based facilities the teams had used for Close Encounters were deemed insufficient, and a nearby facility was rented and outfitted with five more stages equipped with camera tracks and systems. Dykstra and his 60-person production house Apogee Company were subcontracted to Trumbull. \n\nTrumbull and Dykstra found the Magicam models problematic. The Klingon cruiser's lighting was so dim that there was no way to make them bright enough on film. As Trumbull also felt the Enterprises lights were ill-suited for his needs, he rewired both models. He questioned that the Enterprise could be traveling years from any source of light and yet still be fully illuminated. Instead of having the ship completely dark save for viewports, Trumbull came up with a system of self-illumination; he pictured the ship as something like an oceanliner, \"a grand lady of the seas at night\". A similar method was used on the Klingon cruiser model, but he made it less well-lit to convey a different look than the clean visuals of the Federation—the cruiser was meant to evoke \"an enemy submarine in World War II that's been out at sea for too long\". The models were filmed in multiple passes and composited together in post-production; multiple passes with only the model's lighting running were added to the original pass for the final look. The Klingon cruiser sequence was developed to avoid an opening similar to Star Wars, with one model used for all three seen in the film.\n\nWhile Dykstra's team handled the ships, the V'Ger cloud was developed by Trumbull. Trumbull wanted the cloud to have a specific shape to it—\"it couldn't just be a blob of cotton,\" he said, \"it had to have some shape that you could get camera angles on.\" A special camera support track was built that could pan and focus over a 40 by piece of art, with the light strobed to provide depth. While the team planned on compositing multiple passes to provide physical movement to the cloud shots, Trumbull felt that it detracted from the sense of scale, and so small animations were subtly introduced in the final product. The torpedo effects were simulated by shooting a laser through a piece of crystal mounted on a rotating rod after experiments with Tesla coils proved insufficient. The same effect was recolored and used for the Klingons and the Enterprise; the aliens' torpedoes glowed red while the \"good guys\" had blue-colored weaponry. V'Ger's destruction of the ships was created using scanning lasers, with the multiple laser passes composited onto the moving model to create the final effect. \n\nThe scenes of Kirk and Scott approaching the Enterprise in drydock spanned two pages of script but took forty-five different shots—averaging one shot a day—for the travel pod containing Kirk to make its flight from the space office complex to the docking ring. Double shifts around the clock were required to finish the effect on time. For close shots of the pod traveling to the Enterprise, close-ups of Shatner and Doohan were composited into the model, while in long shots lookalike puppets were used.\n\nDykstra and Apogee created three models to stand in for the Epsilon 9 station. A 6 by model was used for distance shots, while an isolated 5 by panel was used for closer shots. The station control tower was replicated with rear-projection screens to add the people inside. A 2 ft model spaceman created for the shot was used in the drydock sequence and Spock's spacewalk. Unique destruction effects for the station had to be discarded due to time constraints. V'Ger itself was filmed in a hazy, smoky room, in part to convey depth and also to hide the parts of the ship still under construction. The multiple passes were largely based on guesswork, as every single available camera was in use and the effects had to be generated without the aid of a bluescreen.\n\nEven after the change in effects companies, Yuricich continued to provide many of the matte paintings used in the film, having previously worked on The Day the Earth Stood Still, Ben-Hur, North by Northwest and Logan's Run. The paintings were combined with live action after a selected area of the frame was matted out; the blue Earth sky over Yellowstone, for example was replaced with a red-hued Vulcan landscape. More than 100 such paintings were used.\n\nDespite being hired after the completion of nearly all the principal photography, Trumbull had an enormous amount of creative input on the film. The Spock spacewalk sequence, for example, was radically changed from the Abel version. The original plan was for Kirk to follow Spock in a spacesuit and come under attack from a mass of sensor-type organisms. Spock would save his friend, and the two would proceed through V'ger. Wise, Kline and Abel had been unable to agree on how to photograph the sequence, and the result was a poorly designed and ungainly effect that Trumbull was convinced was disruptive to the plot and would have cost millions to fix. Instead, he recommended a stripped-down sequence that omitted Kirk entirely and would be simple and easy to shoot; Robert McCall, known for designing the original posters to 2001: A Space Odyssey, provided Trumbull with concept art to inform the new event.\n\nMusic\n\nThe score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture was predominantly written by Jerry Goldsmith, who later composed the scores for The Final Frontier, First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis, as well as the themes to the television series The Next Generation (a simplified arrangement of the theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture and fronted with Alexander Courage's \"Star Trek Fanfare\" intro from The Original Series) and Voyager. Gene Roddenberry had originally wanted Goldsmith to score Star Trek's pilot episode, \"The Cage\", but the composer was unavailable. When Wise signed on to direct, Paramount asked the director if he had any objection to using Goldsmith. Wise, who had worked with the composer for The Sand Pebbles, replied \"Hell, no. He's great!\" Wise later considered his work with Goldsmith one of the best relationships he ever had with a composer. \n\nGoldsmith was influenced by the style of the romantic, sweeping music of Star Wars. \"When you stop and think about it, space is a very romantic thought. It is, to me, like the Old West, we’re up in the universe. It’s about discovery and new life [...] it’s really the basic premise of Star Trek,\" he said. Goldsmith's initial bombastic main theme reminded Ramsay and Wise of sailing ships. Unable to articulate what he felt was wrong with the piece, Wise recommended writing an entirely different piece. Although irked by the rejection, Goldsmith consented to re-work his initial ideas. The rewriting of the theme required changes to several sequences Goldsmith had scored without writing a main title piece. The approach of Kirk and Scott to the drydocked Enterprise by shuttle lasted a ponderous five minutes due to the effect shots coming in late and unedited, requiring Goldsmith to maintain interest with a revised and developed cue. Star Trek: The Motion Picture is the only Star Trek film to have a true overture, using \"Ilia's Theme\" (later re-recorded - as a lyrical version - by Shaun Cassidy as \"A Star Beyond Time\" with lyrics by Larry Kusik) in this role, most noticeably in the \"Director's Edition\" DVD release. Star Trek and The Black Hole were the only feature films to use an overture from the end of 1979 until 2000 (with Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark). \n\nMuch of the recording equipment used to create the movie's intricately complicated sound effects was, at the time, extremely cutting edge. Among these pieces of equipment was the ADS (Advanced Digital Synthesizer) 11, manufactured by Pasadena, California custom synthesizer manufacturer Con Brio, Inc. The movie provided major publicity and was used to advertise the synthesizer, though no price was given. The film's soundtrack also provided a debut for the Blaster Beam, an electronic instrument 12 to long. It was created by musician Craig Huxley, who played a small role in an episode of the original television series. The Blaster had steel wires connected to amplifiers fitted to the main piece of aluminum; the device was played with an artillery shell. Goldsmith heard it and immediately decided to use it for V'Ger's cues. Several state-of-the-art synthesizers were used as musical instruments, notably the Yamaha CS-80, ARP 2600, Oberheim OB-X, and Serge synthesizer. An enormous pipe organ first plays the V'Ger theme on the Enterprises approach, a literal indication of the machine's power.\n\nGoldsmith scored The Motion Picture over a period of three to four months, a relatively relaxed schedule compared to typical production, but time pressures resulted in Goldsmith bringing on colleagues to assist in the work. Alexander Courage, composer of the original Star Trek theme, provided arrangements to accompany Kirk's log entries, while Fred Steiner wrote eleven cues of additional music, notably the music to accompany the Enterprise achieving warp speed and first meeting V'Ger. The rush to finish the rest of the film impacted the score. The final recording session finished at 2:00 am on December 1, only five days before the film's release. \n\nA soundtrack featuring the film's music was released by Columbia Records in 1979 together with the film debut, and was one of Goldsmith's best-selling scores. Sony's Legacy Recordings released an expanded two-disc edition of the soundtrack on November 10, 1998. The album added an additional 21 minutes of music to supplement the original track list, and was resequenced to reflect the story line of the film. The first disc features as much of the score as can fit onto a 78-minute disc, while the second disc contains \"Inside Star Trek\", a spoken word documentary from the 1970s. In 2012, the score was released yet again via La-La Land Records in association with Sony Music. This 3-CD set contains the complete score for the first time, plus unreleased alternate and unused cues, in addition to the remastered original 1979 album. \n\nThe score to Star Trek: The Motion Picture went on to garner Goldsmith nominations for the Oscars, Golden Globe and Saturn awards. It is often regarded as one of the composer's greatest scores and was also one of the American Film Institute's 250 nominated scores for their top 25 American film scores. \n\nSound effects\n\nSound designer Frank Serafine, a longtime Star Trek fan, was invited to create the sound effects for the picture. Given access to state-of-the-art audio equipment, Serafine saw the picture as the chance to modernize outdated motion picture sound techniques with digital technology. Owing to background noise such as camera operation, much of the ambient noise or dialogue captured on set was unusable; it was Serafine's job to create or recreate sounds to mix back into the scenes. \n\nAs all the sound elements such as dubbed lines or background noise came together, they were classified into three divisions: A Effects, B Effects, and C Effects. A Effects were synthesized or acoustic sounds that were important and integral to the picture—the sound of V'Ger's weapon (partly done with the Blaster Beam instrument) for example, or Spock's mind meld, as well as transporters, explosions, and the warp speed sound effect. B Effects consisted of minor sounds such as the clicks of switches, beeps or chimes. C Effects were subliminal sounds that set moods—crowd chatter and ambient noise. All the elements were mixed as \"predubs\" to speed integration into the final sound mix. \n\nWhen The Motion Picture was announced, many synthesizer artists submitted demo tapes to Paramount. Ramsay and Wise consulted and decided that the film should have a unique audio style; they were particularly concerned with avoiding sounds that had become pervasive and clichéd due to repetitious use in other science fiction movies. Events such as Enterprise bridge viewscreen activation were kept silent to provide a more comfortable atmosphere. In contrast, almost every action on the Klingon bridge made noise to reflect the aliens' harsh aesthetic. While much of the effects were created using digital synthesizers, acoustic recordings were used as well. The wormhole's sucking sounds were created by slowing down and reversing old Paramount stock footage of a cowboy fight, while the warp acceleration \"stretch\" sound was built on a slowed-down cymbal crash. The crew encountered difficulty in transferring the tapes used for creating the sounds to the 35 mm film used for the final prints; while the film was to be released with Dolby sound, Serafine found it was easier to mix the sounds without regard to format and add the specific format after, during the later transfer to 35 mm. \n\nThemes\n\nAccording to Michele and Duncan Barrett, Roddenberry had a decidedly negative view of religion that was reflected in the Star Trek television series episodes; in the episode \"Who Mourns for Adonais?\", for example, the god Apollo is revealed to be a fraud, an alien rather than a divine being from Earth's past. In comparison, religious scholar Ross Kraemer says that Roddenberry \"pulled his punches\" regarding religion and in the television show religion was not absent but highly private. Barrett suggests that with the Star Trek feature films this attitude of not addressing religious issues shifted.\n\nIn the television series, little time was spent pondering the fate of the dead. In The Motion Picture, meanwhile, Decker is apparently killed in merging with V'Ger, but Kirk wonders if they have seen the creation of a new life form. Decker and Ilia are listed as \"missing in action\" rather than deceased, and the lighting and effects created as a result of the merge have been described as \"quasimystical\" and \"pseudo-religious\". The discussion of a new birth is framed in a reverential way. While V'Ger is a machine of near omnipotence, according to Robert Asa the film (along with its successor, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier) \"implicitly protest[s] against classical theism\". \n\nRelease\n\nTo coincide with the film's release, Pocket Books published a novelization written by Roddenberry. The only Star Trek novel Roddenberry wrote, the book adds back story and elements that did not appear in the movie; for example, the novelization mentions that Willard Decker is the son of Commodore Matt Decker from the original series episode \"The Doomsday Machine\"—a plot element intended for the Phase II television series. The novel also has a different opening scene to introduce Vejur and Kirk, concentrates in sections on Kirk's struggle with confidence in taking command of the Enterprise again and expands on Ilia and Decker's relationship. The Vejur spelling for the \"intruder's\" name was used exclusively in the novel Roddenberry authored, from its first appearance on page 179 of the first paperback edition of the novelization through to the account on the novel's page 241 of Kirk reading the undamaged \"V-G-E-R\" letters on the fictional \"Voyager 6\" space probe's nameplate. In addition to the novel, Star Trek printed media included a coloring book, ship blueprints, and a comic book adaptation published by Marvel Comics as Marvel Super Special #15 (Dec. 1979). Toys included action figures, ship models, and a variety of watches, phaser mockups and communicators. McDonald's sold specially designed Star Trek Happy Meals. The marketing was part of a coordinated approach by Paramount and its parent conglomerate Gulf+Western to create a sustained Star Trek product line. The Motion Picture novel started Pocket Books' Star Trek book franchise, which produced 18 consecutive bestsellers within a decade. \n\nOwing to the rush to complete the film, The Motion Picture was never screened before test audiences, something Wise later regretted. The director carried the fresh print of the film to the world premiere, held at the K-B MacArthur Theater in Washington, D.C. Roddenberry, Wise, and the principal cast attended the function, which also served as an invitational benefit for the scholarship and youth education fund of the National Space Club. While thousands of fans were expected to attend, rain reduced fan turnout to around 300. The premiere was followed by a black-tie reception at the National Air and Space Museum. More than 500 people—consisting of the cast and crew, working members of the space community, and the few \"hardcore Trekkies\" who could afford the $100 admission price—filled the museum. The film was the first major Hollywood adaptation of a television series that had been off the air for nearly a decade to retain its original principal cast.\n\nBox office\n\nThe Motion Picture opened in North America on December 7, 1979, in 859 theaters and set a box office record for highest weekend gross, making $11,815,203 in its first weekend (generally considered to be a slow time for the movie business). The film beat the record set by Superman (1978), which had opened in a similar number of theaters but had been released in late December—a busier time. The Motion Picture earned $17 million within a week. At its widest domestic distribution, the film was shown in 1,002 theaters; it grossed $82,258,456 in the United States, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film of 1979 in that country. Overall, the film grossed $139 million worldwide. The Motion Picture was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Art Direction (Harold Michelson, Joseph R. Jennings, Leon Harris, John Vallone and Linda DeScenna), Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Score. \n\nIn the United States, the film sold the most tickets of any film in the franchise until 2009's Star Trek, and it remains the highest-grossing film of the franchise worldwide adjusted for inflation, but Paramount considered its gross disappointing compared to expectations and marketing. The Motion Pictures budget of $46 million, including costs incurred during Phase II production, was the largest for any film made within the United States up to that time. David Gerrold estimated before its release that the film would have to gross two to three times its budget to be profitable for Paramount. The studio faulted Roddenberry's script rewrites and creative direction for the plodding pace and disappointing gross. While the performance of The Motion Picture convinced the studio to back a (cheaper) sequel, Roddenberry was forced out of its creative control. Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer would produce and direct The Wrath of Khan, which received better reviews (becoming a fan favorite) and continued the franchise. With the successful revival of the Star Trek brand on the big screen setting an example, Hollywood increasingly turned to 1960s television series for material.\n\nCritical reception\n\nThe Motion Picture met with average reviews from critics; a 2001 retrospective for the BBC described the film as a critical failure. As of July 2016, the film holds a 47% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 34 reviews with the consensus stating: \"Featuring a patchwork script and a dialogue-heavy storyline whose biggest villain is a cloud, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a less-than-auspicious debut for the franchise.\" Gary Arnold and Judith Martin of The Washington Post felt that the plot was too thin to support the length of the film, although Martin felt that compared to such science-fiction films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars and Alien, The Motion Pictures pretense was \"slightly cleverer\". Times Harold Livingston wrote that the film consisted of spaceships that \"take an unconscionable amount of time to get anywhere, and nothing of dramatic or human interest happens along the way\". Livingston also lamented the lack of \"boldly characterized\" antagonists and battle scenes that made Star Wars fun; instead, viewers were presented with lots of talk, \"much of it in impenetrable spaceflight jargon\". David Denby said that the slow movement of ships through space was \"no longer surprising and elegant\" after films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, and that much of the action consisted of the crew's reacting to things occurring on the viewscreen, which the New York Magazine critic considered to be \"like watching someone else watch television\". Variety disagreed, calling the film \"a search-and-destroy thriller that includes all of the ingredients the TV show's fans thrive on: the philosophical dilemma wrapped in a scenario of mind control, troubles with the space ship, the dependable and understanding Kirk, the ever-logical Spock, and suspenseful take with twist ending\". \n\nThe characters and acting received a mixed reception. Stephen Godfrey of The Globe and Mail rated their performances highly: \"time has cemented Leonard Nimoy's look of inscrutability as Mr. Spock [...] DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy is as feisty as ever, and James Doohan as Scotty still splutters about his engineering woes. At a basic level, their exchanges are those of an odd assortment of grumpy, middle-aged men bickering about office politics. They are a relief from the stars, and a delight.\" Godfrey's only concern was that the reunion of the old cast threatened to make casual viewers who had never seen Star Trek feel like uninvited guests. Martin considered the characters more likable than those in comparable science fiction films. Conversely, Arnold felt that the acting of the main cast (Shatner in particular) was poor; \"Shatner portrays Kirk as such a supercilious old twit that one rather wishes he'd been left behind that desk\", he wrote. \"Shatner has perhaps the least impressive movie physique since Rod Steiger, and his acting style has begun to recall the worst of Richard Burton.\" Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the actors did not have much to do in the effects-driven film, and were \"limited to the exchanging of meaningful glances or staring intently at television monitors, usually in disbelief\". Stephen Collins and Persis Khambatta were more favorably received. Gene Siskel felt the film \"teeter[ed] towards being a crashing bore\" whenever Khambatta was not on screen, and Jack Kroll of Newsweek felt that she had the most memorable entrance in the film. \"[Khambatta] is sympathetic enough to make one hope she'll have a chance to show less skin and more hair in future films\", Godfrey wrote.\n\nMany critics felt that the special effects overshadowed other elements of the film. Canby stated that the film \"owes more to [Trumbull, Dykstra and Michelson] than it does to the director, the writers or even the producer\". Livingston felt that Trumbull and Dykstra's work on the film was not as impressive as on Star Wars and Close Encounters due to the limited amount of production time. Godfrey called the effects \"stunning\", but conceded that they threatened to overpower the story two-thirds of the way into the film. Kroll, Martin, and Arnold agreed that the effects were not able to carry the film or gloss over its other deficiencies; \"I'm not sure that Trumbull & Co. have succeeded in pulling the philosophic chestnuts of Roddenberry and his co-writers out of the fire,\" Arnold wrote.\n\nJames Berardinelli, reviewing the film in 1996, felt that the pace dragged and the plot bore too close a resemblance to the original series episode \"The Changeling\", but considered the start and end of the film to be strong. Terry Lee Rioux, Kelley's biographer, noted that the film proved \"that it was the character-driven play that made all the difference in Star Trek\". The slow pacing, extended reaction shots, and the film's lack of action scenes led fans and critics to give the film a variety of nicknames, including The Motionless Picture, The Slow Motion Picture, The Motion Sickness, and Where Nomad [the probe in \"The Changeling\"] Has Gone Before.\n\nAmerican Film Institute recognition:\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:\n** James T. Kirk - Nominated Hero \n* AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores - Nominated \n\nHome media\n\nParamount Home Entertainment released the film on VHS, Betamax, Laserdisc, and CED videodisc in 1981 in its original theatrical version. \n\nIn 1983, an extended cut was released on VHS and premiered on the ABC television network. It added roughly 12 minutes to the film. The added footage was largely unfinished, and cobbled together for the network premiere; Wise hadn't wanted some of the footage to be included in the final cut of the film. This version was released by Paramount in late 1983 on VHS, Betamax, and Laserdisc. \n\nTwo members of Wise's production company, David C. Fein and Michael Matessino, approached Wise and Paramount and persuaded them to release a revised version of the film on video; Paramount released the updated Director's Edition of the film on VHS and DVD in 2001. Wise, who had considered the theatrical presentation of the film a \"rough cut\", was given the opportunity to re-edit the film to be more consistent with his original vision. The production team used the original script, surviving sequence storyboards, memos, and the director's recollections. In addition to cuts in some sequences, 90 new and redesigned computer-generated images were created. Care was taken that the effects meshed seamlessly with the old footage. The edition runs 136 minutes, about four minutes longer than the original release. Included among the special features are the deleted scenes which had been part of the television cut.\n\nAside from the effects, the soundtrack was remixed. Ambient noise such as the buzz of bridge controls were added to enhance certain scenes. Goldsmith had always suspected that some overly long cues could be shortened, so he made the cues repetitive. Although no new scenes were added, the MPAA rated the revised edition \"PG\" in contrast to the \"G\" rating of the original release. Fein attributed the rating change to the more \"intense\" sound mix that made scenes such as the central part of V'Ger \"more menacing\". \n\nThe Director's Edition was better received by critics than the original theatrical release. The DVD Journal's Mark Bourne said that the Director's Edition showcased \"a brisker, more attractive version of the movie\" that was \"as good as it might have been in 1979. Even better maybe.\" Complaints included the edition's 2.17:1 aspect ratio, as opposed to the original 2.40:1 Panavision. Jeremy Conrad of IGN felt that despite the changes, the pacing might still be too slow for some viewers. \n\nThe film's original theatrical cut was released on Blu-ray Disc in May 2009 to coincide with the new Star Trek feature, packaged with the five following features as the Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection. The Motion Picture was remastered in 1080p high-definition. All six films in the set have 7.1 Dolby TrueHD audio. The disc features a new commentary track by Star Trek authors and contributors Michael and Denise Okuda, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and Daren Dochterman. The original theatrical cut was also released with the four Next Generation movies as the Star Trek: Stardate Collection. \n\nAnnotations" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Phil_Hartman.txt", "Lionel_Hutz.txt" ], "title": [ "Phil Hartman", "Lionel Hutz" ], "wiki_context": [ "Philip Edward \"Phil\" Hartman (September 24, 1948 - May 28, 1998; born Hartmann) was a Canadian-American actor, voice actor, comedian, screenwriter and graphic artist. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Hartman and his family moved to the United States in 1958. After graduating from California State University, Northridge, with a degree in graphic arts, he designed album covers for bands like Poco and America. Feeling the need for a more creative outlet, Hartman joined the comedy group The Groundlings in 1975 and there helped comedian Paul Reubens develop his character Pee-wee Herman. Hartman co-wrote the screenplay for the film Pee-wee's Big Adventure and made recurring appearances on Reubens' show Pee-wee's Playhouse.\n\nHartman garnered fame in 1986 when he joined the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. He won fame for his impressions, particularly of President Bill Clinton, and he stayed on the show for eight seasons. Given the moniker \"The Glue\" for his ability to hold the show together and help other cast members, Hartman won a Primetime Emmy Award for his SNL work in 1989. In 1995, after scrapping plans for his own variety show, he starred as Bill McNeal in the NBC sitcom NewsRadio. He had voice roles on The Simpsons, from seasons 2–10 as Lionel Hutz, Troy McClure, and others, and appeared in the films Houseguest, Sgt. Bilko, Jingle All the Way, Small Soldiers and the English dub of Kiki's Delivery Service.\n\nHartman had been divorced twice before he married Brynn Omdahl in 1987; the couple had two children together. However, their marriage was fractured, due in part to Brynn's drug use. On May 28, 1998, Brynn shot and killed Hartman while he slept in their Encino, Los Angeles, home, then committed suicide several hours later. In the weeks following his death, Hartman was celebrated in a wave of tributes. Dan Snierson of Entertainment Weekly opined that Hartman was \"the last person you'd expect to read about in lurid headlines in your morning paper...a decidedly regular guy, beloved by everyone he worked with\". Hartman was posthumously inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2012 and the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2014.\n\nEarly life\n\nHartman was born Philip Edward Hartmann (later dropping one \"n\") on September 24, 1948 in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. He was the fourth of eight children of Doris Marguerite (Wardell) and Rupert Loebig Hartmann, a salesman specializing in building materials. His parents were Catholic and raised their children in that faith. As a middle child, Hartman found affection hard to earn and stated: \"I suppose I didn't get what I wanted out of my family life, so I started seeking love and attention elsewhere.\"\n\nHe and his family moved to the United States in 1958, gaining American citizenship in 1990. The family first lived in Connecticut, and later moved to the West Coast. There, Hartman attended Westchester High School and frequently acted as the class clown. \n\nAfter graduating, Hartman studied art at Santa Monica City College, dropping out in 1969 to become a roadie with a rock band. He returned to school in 1972, this time studying graphic arts at California State University, Northridge. He developed his own graphic arts business, which he operated on his own, creating over 40 album covers for bands including Poco and America, as well as advertising and the logo for Crosby, Stills & Nash. In the late 1970s, Hartman made his first television appearance on an episode of The Dating Game; he won but was stood up by his date.\n\nCareer\n\nEarly career (1975–1985)\n\nWorking alone as a graphic artist, Hartman frequently amused himself with \"flights of voice fantasies\". Eventually he felt he needed a more social outlet and in 1975, aged 27, developed this talent by attending evening comedy classes run by the California-based improvisational comedy group The Groundlings. While watching one of the troupe's performances, Hartman impulsively decided to climb on stage and join the cast. After several years of training, paying his way by re-designing the group's logo and merchandise, Hartman formally joined the cast of The Groundlings; by 1979 he had become one of the show's stars.\n\nHartman met comedian Paul Reubens and the two became friends, often collaborating on writing and comedic material. Together they created the character Pee-wee Herman and developed The Pee-wee Herman Show, a stage performance which also aired on HBO in 1981. Hartman played Captain Carl on The Pee-wee Herman Show and returned in the role for the children's show Pee-wee's Playhouse. Reubens and Hartman made cameos in the 1980 film Cheech & Chong's Next Movie. Hartman co-wrote the script of the 1985 feature film Pee-wee's Big Adventure and had a cameo role as a reporter in the film. Although he had considered quitting acting at the age of 36 due to limited opportunities, the success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure brought new possibilities and changed his mind. After a creative falling-out with Reubens, Hartman left the Pee-Wee Herman project to pursue other roles. \n\nIn addition to his work with Reubens, Hartman recorded a number of voice-over roles. These included appearances on The Smurfs, Challenge of the GoBots, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, and voicing characters Henry Mitchell and George Wilson on Dennis the Menace. Additionally Hartman developed a strong persona providing voice-overs for advertisements.\n\nSaturday Night Live (1986–1994)\n\nAfter appearing in the 1986 films Jumpin' Jack Flash and ¡Three Amigos!, Hartman successfully auditioned for NBC's variety show Saturday Night Live (SNL) and joined the cast and writing staff. He told the Los Angeles Times, \"I wanted to do [SNL] because I wanted to get the exposure that would give me box-office credibility so I can write movies for myself.\" In his eight seasons with the show Hartman became known for his impressions, and performed as over 70 different characters. Hartman's original Saturday Night Live characters included Eugene, the Anal Retentive Chef and Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. His impressions included Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, Ed McMahon, Barbara Bush, Charlton Heston, Phil Donahue and Bill Clinton; the last was often considered his best-known impression.\n\nHartman first performed his Clinton impression on an episode of The Tonight Show. When he met Clinton in 1993 Hartman remarked, \"I guess I owe you a few apologies\", adding later that he \"sometimes [felt] a twinge of guilt about [his Clinton impression]\". Clinton showed good humor and sent Hartman a signed photo with the text: \"You're not the president, but you play one on TV. And you're OK, mostly.\" For his Clinton impression, Hartman copied the president's \"post-nasal drip\" and the \"slight scratchiness\" in his voice, as well as his open, \"less intimidating\" hand gestures. Hartman opted against wearing a larger prosthetic nose when portraying Clinton, as he felt it would be distracting. He instead wore a wig, dyed his eyebrows brighter and used makeup to highlight his nose. One of Hartman's more famous sketches as Clinton saw the president visit a McDonald's restaurant and explain his policies by eating other customers' food. The writers told him that he was not eating enough during rehearsals for the sketch – by the end of the live performance, Hartman had eaten so much he could barely speak.\n\nBackstage at SNL, Hartman was called \"the Glue\", a name coined by Adam Sandler, according to Jay Mohr's book Gasping for Airtime. However, according to a biography on Hartman's life entitled You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman written by Mike Thomas, author and staff writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, the nickname was created by SNL cast member and Hartman's frequent on-screen collaborator Jan Hooks. Hartman often helped other cast members. For example, he aided Jan Hooks in overcoming her stage fright. SNL creator Lorne Michaels explained the reason for the name: \"He kind of held the show together. He gave to everybody and demanded very little. He was very low-maintenance.\" Michaels also added that Hartman was \"the least appreciated\" cast member by commentators outside the show, and praised his ability \"to do five or six parts in a show where you're playing support or you're doing remarkable character work\". Hartman won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program for SNL in 1989, sharing the award with the show's other writers. He was nominated in the same category in 1987, and individually in 1994 for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.\n\nAfter his co-stars Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller, Jan Hooks and Dana Carvey had left, Hartman said he felt \"like an athlete who's watched all his World Series teammates get traded off into other directions ... It was hard to watch them leave because I sort of felt we were all part of the team that saved the show.\" This cast turnover contributed to his leaving the show in 1994. Hartman had originally planned to leave the show in 1991, but Michaels convinced him to stay to raise his profile; his portrayal of Clinton contributed to this goal. Jay Leno offered him the role of his sidekick on The Tonight Show but Hartman opted to stay on SNL. NBC persuaded him to stay on SNL by promising him his own comedy–variety show entitled The Phil Show. He planned to \"reinvent the variety form\" with \"a hybrid, very fast-paced, high energy [show] with sketches, impersonations, pet acts, and performers showcasing their talents\". Hartman was to be the show's executive producer and head writer. Before production began, however, the network decided that variety shows were too unpopular and scrapped the series. In a 1996 interview, Hartman noted he was glad the show had been scrapped, as he \"would've been sweatin' blood each week trying to make it work\". In 1998, he admitted he missed working on SNL, but had enjoyed the move from New York City to Southern California.\n\nNewsRadio (1995–1998)\n\nHartman became one of the stars of the NBC sitcom NewsRadio in 1995, portraying radio news anchor Bill McNeal. He signed up after being attracted by the show's writing and use of an ensemble cast, and joked that he based McNeal on himself with \"any ethics and character\" removed. Hartman made roughly $50,000 per episode of NewsRadio. Although the show was critically acclaimed, it was never a ratings hit and cancellation was a regular threat. After the completion of the fourth season, Hartman commented, \"We seem to have limited appeal. We're on the edge here, not sure we're going to be picked up or not\", but added he was \"99 percent sure\" the series would be renewed for a fifth season. Hartman had publicly lambasted NBC's decision to repeatedly move NewsRadio into different timeslots, but later regretted his comments, saying, \"this is a sitcom, for crying out loud, not brain surgery\". He also stated that if the sitcom were cancelled \"it just will open up other opportunities for me\". Although the show was renewed for a fifth season, Hartman died before production began. Ken Tucker praised Hartman's performance as McNeal: \"A lesser performer ... would have played him as a variation on The Mary Tyler Moore Show's Ted Baxter, because that's what Bill was, on paper. But Hartman gave infinite variety to Bill's self-centeredness, turning him devious, cowardly, squeamish, and foolishly bold from week to week.\" Hartman was posthumously nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1998 for his work on NewsRadio, but lost to David Hyde Pierce. \n\nThe Simpsons (1991–1998)\n\nHartman provided the voices for numerous characters on the Fox animated series The Simpsons, appearing in 52 episodes. He made his first appearance in the second season episode \"Bart Gets Hit by a Car\". Although he was originally brought in for a one-time appearance, Hartman enjoyed working on The Simpsons and the staff wrote additional parts for him. He voiced the recurring characters Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure, as well as several one-time and background characters. His favorite part was that of McClure, and he often used this voice to entertain the audience between takes while taping episodes of NewsRadio. He remarked, \"My favorite fans are Troy McClure fans.\" He added \"It's the one thing that I do in my life that's almost an avocation. I do it for the pure love of it.\" \n\nHartman was popular among the staff of The Simpsons. Showrunners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein stated that they enjoyed his work, and used Hartman as much as possible when working on the show. To give Hartman a larger role, they developed the episode \"A Fish Called Selma\", which focuses on Troy McClure and expands the character's backstory. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening said that he \"took [Hartman] for granted because he nailed the joke every time\", and that his voice acting could produce \"the maximum amount of humor\" with any line he was given. Before his death, Hartman had expressed an interest in making a live action film about Troy McClure. Many of The Simpsons production staff expressed enthusiasm for the project and offered to help. Hartman said he was \"looking forward to [McClure's] live-action movie, publicizing his Betty Ford appearances\", and \"would love nothing more\" than making a film and was prepared to buy the film rights himself in order to make it happen.\n\nOther work\n\nHartman's first starring film role came in 1995's Houseguest, alongside Sinbad. Other films included Greedy, Coneheads, Sgt. Bilko, So I Married an Axe Murderer, CB4, Jingle All the Way, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Small Soldiers, the last of which was his final theatrically released film. At the same time, he preferred working on television. His other television roles included appearances on episodes of Seinfeld, The John Larroquette Show, The Dana Carvey Show, and the HBO TV film The Second Civil War as the President of the United States. He appeared as the kidnapper Randy in the third season cliffhanger finale of 3rd Rock from the Sun — a role reportedly written especially for him, but he died before filming of the concluding episode could take place. Executive producer Terry Turner decided to recast the part, reshoot and air the finale again, noting: \"I have far too much respect for [Hartman] to try to find some clever way of getting around this real tragedy.\" Hartman made a considerable amount of money from television advertising, earning $300,000 for a series of four commercials for the soft drink Slice. He also appeared in advertisements for McDonalds (as Hugh McAttack) and 1-800-Collect (as Max Jerome). \n\nHartman wrote a number of screenplays that were never produced. In 1986 he began writing a screenplay for a film titled Mr. Fix-It, and completed the final draft in 1991. Robert Zemeckis was signed to produce the film, with Gil Bettman hired to direct. Hartman called it \"a sort of a merger of horror and comedy, like Beetlejuice and Throw Momma From the Train\", adding, \"It's an American nightmare about a family torn asunder. They live next to a toxic dump site, their water supply is poisoned, the mother and son go insane and try to murder each other, the father's face is torn off in a terrible disfiguring accident in the first act. It's heavy stuff, but it's got a good message and a positive, upbeat ending.\" Zemeckis could not secure studio backing, however, and the project collapsed. Another movie idea involving Hartman's Groundlings character Chick Hazard, Private Eye also fell through.\n\nStyle\n\nIn contrast to his real-life personality, which was described as \"a regular guy and, by all accounts, one of show business' most low-key, decent people\", Hartman often played seedy, vain or unpleasant characters as well as comedic villains. He noted that his standard character was a \"jerky guy\", and described his usual roles as \"the weasel parade\", citing Lionel Hutz, Bill McNeal, Troy McClure and Ted Maltin from Jingle All the Way as examples. Hartman enjoyed playing such roles because he \"just want[ed] to be funny, and villains tend to be funny because their foibles are all there to see.\"\n\nHe often played supporting roles, rather than the lead part. He said \"throughout my career, I've never been a huge star, but I've made steady progress and that's the way I like it,\" and \"It's fun coming in as the second or third lead. If the movie or TV show bombs, you aren't to blame.\" Hartman was considered a \"utility player\" on SNL with a \"kind of Everyman quality\" which enabled him to appear in the majority of sketches, often in very distinct roles. Jan Hooks stated of his work on SNL: \"Phil never had an ounce of competition. He was a team player. It was a privilege for him, I believe, to play support and do it very well. He was never insulted, no matter how small the role may have been.\" He was disciplined in his performances, studying the scripts beforehand. Hooks added: \"Phil knew how to listen. And he knew how to look you in the eye, and he knew the power of being able to lay back and let somebody else be funny, and then do the reactions. I think Phil was more of an actor than a comedian.\" Film critic Pauline Kael declared that \"Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks on Saturday Night Live are two of the best comic actors I've ever seen.\" \n\nWriter and acting coach Paul Ryan noted Hartman's work ethic with his impressions. He assembled a collection of video footage of the figure he was preparing to impersonate and watched this continually until he \"completely embodied the person\". Ryan concluded that \"what made [Hartman's impressions] so funny and spot on was Phil's ability to add that perfect touch that only comes from trial and error and practicing in front of audiences and fellow actors.\" Hartman described this process as \"technical.\" Journalist Lyle V. Harris said Hartman showed a \"rare talent for morphing into ... anybody he wanted to be.\" \n\nKen Tucker summarized Hartman's comedic style: \"He could momentarily fool audiences into thinking he was the straight man, but then he'd cock an eyebrow and give his voice an ironic lilt that delivered a punchline like a fast slider—you barely saw it coming until you started laughing.\" Hartman claimed that he borrowed his style from actor Bill Murray: \"He's been a great influence on me – when he did that smarmy thing in Ghostbusters, then the same sort of thing in Groundhog Day. I tried to imitate it. I couldn't. I wasn't good enough. But I discovered an element of something else, so in a sick kind of way I made myself a career by doing a bad imitation of another comic.\"\n\nPersonal life\n\nHartman married Gretchen Lewis in 1970 and they divorced sometime before 1982. He married real estate agent Lisa Strain in 1982, and their marriage lasted three years. Strain told People that Hartman was reclusive off screen and \"would disappear emotionally ... he'd be in his own world. That passivity made you crazy.\" Hartman married former model and aspiring actress Brynn Omdahl (born Vicki Jo Omdahl) in November 1987, having met her on a blind date the previous year. Together they had two children, Sean and Birgen Hartman. The marriage had difficulties — Brynn reportedly felt intimidated by her husband's success and was frustrated she could not find any on her own, although neither party wanted a divorce. Hartman considered retiring to save the marriage. He tried to get Brynn acting roles but she became progressively more reliant on narcotics and alcohol, entering rehab several times. Because of his close friendship with SNL associate Jan Hooks, Brynn joked on occasion that Hooks and Hartman were married \"on some other level\".\n\nStephen Root, Hartman's NewsRadio co-star, felt that few people knew \"the real Phil Hartman\" as he was \"one of those people who never seemed to come out of character,\" but he nevertheless gave the impression of a family man who cared deeply for his children. In his spare time, Hartman enjoyed driving, flying, sailing, marksmanship and playing the guitar.\n\nDeath\n\nOn the evening of May 27, 1998, Brynn Hartman visited the Italian restaurant Buca di Beppo in Encino, California, with producer and writer Christine Zander, who said she was \"in a good frame of mind.\" After returning to the couple's nearby home, Brynn started a \"heated\" argument with her husband, who threatened to leave her if she started using drugs again, after which he then went to bed. While Hartman slept, Brynn entered his bedroom sometime before 3:00 a.m. local time on May 28 with a .38 caliber handgun and fatally shot him twice in the head once in his side. She was intoxicated and had recently taken cocaine. \n\nBrynn drove to the home of her friend Ron Douglas and confessed to the killing, but he did not initially believe her. The pair drove back to the house in separate cars, after which Brynn called another friend and confessed a second time. Upon seeing Hartman's body, Douglas called 911 at 6:20 a.m. Police subsequently arrived and escorted Douglas and the Hartmans' two children from the premises, by which time Brynn had locked herself in the bedroom and committed suicide by shooting herself in the mouth.\n\nLos Angeles police stated Hartman's death was caused by a \"domestic discord\" between the couple. A friend stated that Brynn allegedly \"had trouble controlling her anger ... She got attention by losing her temper.\" A neighbor of the Hartmans told a CNN reporter that the couple had been experiencing marital problems: \"It's been building, but I didn't think it would lead to this\", and actor Steve Guttenberg said they had been \"a very happy couple, and they always had the appearance of being well-balanced.\"\n\nOther causes for the incident were later suggested. Before committing the act, Brynn was taking the antidepressant drug Zoloft. A wrongful-death lawsuit was filed in 1999 by Brynn's brother, Gregory Omdahl, against the drug's manufacturer, Pfizer, and her child's psychiatrist Arthur Sorosky, who provided samples of Zoloft to Brynn. Hartman's friend and former SNL colleague Jon Lovitz has accused Hartman's former NewsRadio co-star Andy Dick of re-introducing Brynn to cocaine, causing her to relapse and suffer a nervous breakdown. Dick claims to have known nothing of her condition. In 2006, Lovitz claimed that Dick had approached him at a restaurant and said, \"I put the Phil Hartman hex on you; you're the next one to die.\" The following year at the Laugh Factory comedy club in Los Angeles, Lovitz and Dick had a further altercation over the issue. Dick asserts that he is not at fault in relation to Hartman's death.\n\nBrynn's sister Katharine Omdahl and brother-in-law Mike Wright raised the two Hartman children. Hartman's will stipulated that each child will receive their inheritance over several years after they turn 25. The total value of Hartman's estate was estimated at $1.23 million. In accordance with Hartman's will, his body was cremated by Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary, Glendale, California, and his ashes were scattered over Santa Catalina Island's Emerald Bay. \n\nResponse and legacy\n\nHartman was widely mourned in Hollywood. NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer stated that Hartman \"was blessed with a tremendous gift for creating characters that made people laugh. Everyone who had the pleasure of working with Phil knows that he was a man of tremendous warmth, a true professional and a loyal friend.\" Guttenberg expressed shock at Hartman's death, and Steve Martin said he was \"a deeply funny and very happy person.\" Matt Groening called him \"a master\", and director Joe Dante said, \"He was one of those guys who was a dream to work with. I don't know anybody who didn't like him.\" Dan Snierson of Entertainment Weekly concluded that Hartman was \"the last person you'd expect to read about in lurid headlines in your morning paper\" and \"a decidedly regular guy, beloved by everyone he worked with.\" In 2007, Entertainment Weekly ranked Hartman the 87th greatest television icon of all time, and Maxim named Hartman the top Saturday Night Live performer of all time. \n\nRehearsals for The Simpsons were canceled on the day of Hartman's death, as was that night's performance by The Groundlings. The season five premiere episode of NewsRadio, \"Bill Moves On,\" finds Hartman's character, Bill McNeal, has died of a heart attack, while the other characters reminisce about his life. Lovitz joined the show in his place from the following episode. A special episode of Saturday Night Live commemorating Hartman's work on the show aired on June 13, 1998. Rather than substituting another voice actor, the writers of The Simpsons retired Hartman's characters, and the season ten episode \"Bart the Mother\" (his final appearance on the show) was dedicated to him, as was his final film, Small Soldiers. \n\nAt the time of his death, Hartman was preparing to voice Zapp Brannigan, a character written specifically for him on Groening's second animated series Futurama. Even though the role was made for Hartman, he still insisted on auditioning and according to Groening, he 'nailed it'. After Hartman's death, Futuramas lead character Philip J. Fry was named in his honor, and Billy West took over the role of Brannigan. Though executive producer David X. Cohen credits West with using his own take on the character, West later said that he purposely tweaked Zapp's voice to better match Hartman's intended portrayal. Hartman was also planning to appear with Lovitz in the indie film The Day of Swine and Roses, scheduled to begin production in August 1998.\n\nLaugh.com and Hartman's brother, John Hartmann, published the album Flat TV in 2002. The album is a selection of comedy sketches recorded by Hartman in the 1970s that had been kept in storage until their release. Hartmann commented: \"I'm putting this out there because I'm dedicating my life to fulfilling his dreams. This [album] is my brother doing what he loved.\" In 2013, Flat TV was optioned by Michael \"Ffish\" Hemschoot's animation company Worker Studio for an animated adaptation. The deal came about after Michael T. Scott, a partner in the company, posted a hand-written letter he had received from Hartman in 1997 on the internet, leading to a correspondence between Scott and Paul Hartmann. \n\nIn 2007, a campaign was started on Facebook by Alex Stevens and endorsed by Hartman's brother, Paul Hartmann, to have Hartman inducted to Canada's Walk of Fame. Amongst the numerous events to publicize the campaign, Ben Miner, of the Sirius XM Radio channel Laugh Attack, dedicated the month of April 2012 to Hartman. The campaign ended in success and Hartman was inducted to the Walk of Fame on September 22, 2012, with Paul accepting the award on his late brother's behalf. Hartman was also awarded the Cineplex Legends Award. In June 2013, it was announced that Hartman would receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which was unveiled on August 26, 2014. Additionally, a special prize at the Canadian Comedy Awards was named for Hartman. Beginning with the 13th Canadian Comedy Awards in 2012, the Phil Hartman Award was awarded to \"an individual who helps to better the Canadian comedy community.\" In 2015, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Hartman as one of the top-ten greatest Saturday Night Live cast members throughout the show's forty-year history, coming in seventh on their list of all one-hundred-and-forty-one players. \n\nHartman has been cited as an influence by Bill Hader and Mike Myers. \n\nFilmography\n\nFilm\n\nTelevision\n\nVideo games\n\nNotes\n\nFootnotes\n\nBibliography\n\n*", "Lionel Hutz is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He was voiced by Phil Hartman, and his first appearance was in the season two episode \"Bart Gets Hit by a Car\". Hutz is a stereotypical ambulance chasing lawyer in Springfield with questionable competence and ethics. He is nevertheless often hired by the Simpsons. Following Hartman's murder in 1998, Hutz was retired out of respect; and his final speaking role was in the season nine episode \"Realty Bites\" five months earlier.\n\nRole in The Simpsons\n\nPersonality\n\nLionel Hutz is an inept ambulance chaser and, according to Lisa Simpson, a \"shyster\" whom the Simpsons nonetheless repeatedly hire as their lawyer (a fact remarked on by Marge Simpson in a typically self-aware aside). His legal practice, located in a shopping mall, is named \"I Can't Believe It's a Law Firm!\" and also offers \"expert shoe repair.\" He often tries to entice potential clients with free gifts, including a \"smoking monkey\" doll, a pen that looks like a cigar, an exotic faux-pearl necklace, a business card that \"turns into a sponge when you put it in water,\" and even an almost-full Orange Julius he once had.\n\nHutz is characterized as both a grossly incompetent lawyer and an unethical individual in general. This, along with his greed in wanting half of the money, was supported in Bart Gets Hit By a Car in his first appearance. Hutz is disliked by both Marge and Lisa whom see him for the person he is inside: especially when he along with Homer made Bart lie about the extent of his injuries. Marge later testified against Hutz out of spite for hiring Dr. Nick, a quack doctor with a shady reputation, along with making Bart lie about his injuries and being in intense pain, when he was fine. Hutz' incompetence and greed is also well noted by the Blue Haired Lawyer. In the episode \"Marge in Chains\" he describes the following as his \"problem\" with Judge Snyder: Well, he's had it in for me ever since I kinda ran over his dog... Well, replace the word \"kinda\" with the word \"repeatedly\" and the word \"dog\" with \"son\".\n\nHutz is a recovering alcoholic. Also in \"Marge in Chains\", he hastily leaves the courtroom after handling a bottle of bourbon in order to consult his sponsor, David Crosby. He then gives his closing statement, unaware that he is not wearing any pants and thinks that Clarence Darrow was \"The black guy on The Mod Squad\". Beyond practicing law, he also tries his hand at selling real estate, reasoning that it was a natural move as most of his clients ended up losing their homes anyway, and out of desperation for work, babysitting, where he produces a switchblade upon awakening suddenly, and also burns several presumably incriminating documents in the Simpsons' fireplace, and then claiming he is now \"Miguel Sanchez\". His other alias is \"Dr. Nguyen Van Phuoc\". He also ran a shoe-repair business out of his law office. Hutz's incompetence and financial desperation sometimes lead him to resort to rooting through dumpsters, claiming it is client-related. Hutz was briefly married to Selma Bouvier, although this storyline is not shown in an episode. Hutz has also been known to use a phone booth as an office.\n\nHutz does not seem to care about conflict of interest; in \"A Streetcar Named Marge\" he represents clients in a lawsuit against the producer(s) of a local production of A Streetcar Named Desire for not giving them any roles in the play, although he had a role himself.\n\nAnother display of his incompetence takes place in \"The Boy Who Knew Too Much\" when, while representing a French waiter who is accusing Mayor Quimby's nephew Freddy of battery, he is surprised when the opposing counsel mentions that Hutz's client is an immigrant (despite the client's French accent). Hutz then demands that his client tell him everything from then on. He also misunderstands simple legal terms like \"mistrial\" and \"lawyer.\" \n\nCases won\n\nAlthough Hutz loses most of his cases, he does win several cases for the Simpsons. In \"New Kid on the Block\", he represents Homer in his case against the Sea Captain and the Frying Dutchman restaurant over its \"All You Can Eat\" offer (\"The most blatant case of fraudulent advertising since my suit against the film The Never Ending Story\"). He also wins a case for Bart Simpson in \"The Day the Violence Died\", by proving that Itchy was created by an old man named Chester J. Lampwick—though the deciding factor of the case is mainly proven by Bart's footwork to collect the crucial piece of evidence, rather than Hutz's competence. Hutz initiates the trial with zero credible evidence. In \"'Round Springfield\", Hutz successfully sues Krusty the Clown after Bart consumes a jagged metal Krusty-O from a box of cereal, resulting in an inflamed appendix. After winning the case, Hutz gives Bart only $500 of the $100,000 settlement. In \"Sideshow Bob Roberts\", Hutz wins a case against Sideshow Bob, who was mayor at that time, for electoral fraud, in which Bart and Lisa found evidence connected to it.\n\nThe only other case technically won by Hutz was in \"Treehouse of Horror IV\", where he represents Homer against Satan (represented as Ned Flanders). In a purportedly-deleted scene for this episode, as subsequently seen in \"The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular\", Hutz's slogan is \"Cases won in 30 minutes or your pizza is free\". After he thinks he has lost the case, he gives the Simpsons their pizza. However, Marge informs him that they did win. Then, he tells them that the box was empty anyway. In the video game The Simpsons: Hit & Run, billboards can be seen around Downtown Springfield promoting Lionel Hutz's free pizza offer.\n\nRetirement\n\nAfter Hartman's death in 1998, Hutz and Hartman's other main character, Troy McClure, were retired out of respect. The last episode to feature Hutz speaking was the season 9 episode \"Realty Bites\". Since the Simpson family frequently appears in court, other characters have represented the Simpsons in legal matters since Hutz's retirement. For example, in \"Sweets and Sour Marge\", the equally-incompetent Gil Gunderson stepped in. The Blue Haired Lawyer—who is just as unethical yet very competent - has also served as the family's attorney. Following Hartman's death, Hutz appeared infrequently in clip shows and flashbacks, as well as crowd scenes, but only in non-speaking roles. His last appearance in the series was in the season 12 episode \"A Tale of Two Springfields\". Hutz and McClure still appear in Simpsons Comics.\n\nReception\n\nEntertainment Weekly named Hutz as one of their 15 favorite fictional television and film lawyers." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Jeopardy!.txt", "Wheel_of_Fortune_(U.S._game_show).txt" ], "title": [ "Jeopardy!", "Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Jeopardy! is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show features a quiz competition in which contestants are presented with general knowledge clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in the form of questions. The original daytime version debuted on NBC on March 30, 1964, and aired until January 3, 1975. A weekly nighttime syndicated edition aired from September 1974 to September 1975, and a revival, The All-New Jeopardy!, ran on NBC from October 1978 to March 1979. The current version, a daily syndicated show produced by Sony Pictures Television, premiered on September 10, 1984 and is still airing, making it by far the program's most successful incarnation.\n\nBoth NBC versions and the weekly syndicated version were hosted by Art Fleming. Don Pardo served as announcer until 1975, and John Harlan announced for the 1978–79 show. Since its inception, the daily syndicated version has featured Alex Trebek as host and Johnny Gilbert as announcer.\n\nWith 7,000 episodes aired, the daily syndicated version of Jeopardy! has won a record 31 Daytime Emmy Awards and is the only post-1960 game show to be honored with the Peabody Award. In 2013, the program was ranked No. 45 on TV Guides list of the 60 greatest shows in American television history. Jeopardy! has also gained a worldwide following with regional adaptations in many other countries. The daily syndicated series' 32nd season premiered on September 14, 2015.\n\nGameplay \n\nThree contestants each take their place behind a lectern, with the returning champion occupying the leftmost lectern (from the viewer's perspective). The contestants compete in a quiz game comprising three rounds: Jeopardy!, Double Jeopardy!, and Final Jeopardy!. The material for the questions covers a wide variety of topics, including history and current events, the sciences, the arts, popular culture, literature, and languages. Category titles often feature puns, wordplay, or shared themes, and the host will regularly remind contestants of topics or place emphasis on category themes before the start of the round. \nFirst two rounds \n\nThe Jeopardy! and Double Jeopardy! rounds each feature six categories, each of which contains five clues, which are ostensibly valued by difficulty. The dollar values of the clues increased over time. On the original Jeopardy! series, clue values in the first round ranged from $10 to $50. On The All-New Jeopardy!, they ranged from $25 to $125. The current series' first round originally ranged from $100 to $500, and were doubled to $200 to $1,000 on November 26, 2001. On the Super Jeopardy! specials, clues were valued in points rather than in dollars, and ranged in the first round from 200 to 1,000 points.\n\nThe Jeopardy! round begins when the returning champion selects a clue, which may be from any position on the game board. The clue is revealed and read aloud by the host, after which any contestant may ring-in using a hand-held signaling device. The first contestant to ring-in successfully is prompted to provide a response to the clue, phrased in the form of a question. For example, if a contestant were to select \"Presidents for $200\", the resulting clue could be \"This 'Father of Our Country' didn't really chop down a cherry tree\", to which the correct response would be \"Who is/was George Washington?\" (Contestants are free to phrase the response in the form of any question; the traditional phrasing of \"who is/are\" for people or \"what is/are\" for things or words is almost always used.) If the contestant responds correctly, the clue's dollar value is added to the contestant's score, and they may select a new clue from the board. An incorrect response, or a failure to respond within five seconds, deducts the clue's value from the contestant's score and allows the other contestants the opportunity to ring-in and respond. If no contestant responds correctly, the host gives the correct response; the \"last correct questioner\" chooses the next clue. \n\nFrom the premiere of the original Jeopardy! until the end of the first season of the current syndicated series, contestants were allowed to ring-in as soon as the clue was revealed. Since September 1985, contestants are required to wait until the clue is read before ringing-in. To accommodate the rule change, lights were added to the game board (unseen by home viewers) to signify when it is permissible for contestants to signal; attempting to signal before the light goes on locks the contestant out for half of a second. The change was made to allow the home audience to play along with the show more easily and to keep an extremely fast contestant from potentially dominating the game. In pre-1985 episodes, a buzzer would sound when a contestant signaled; according to Trebek, the buzzer was eliminated because it was \"distracting to the viewers\" and sometimes presented a problem when contestants rang in while Trebek was still reading the clue. Contestants who are visually impaired or blind are given a card with the category names printed in Braille before each round begins, and an audible tone is played after the clue has been read aloud.\n\nThe second round, Double Jeopardy!, features six new categories of clues. Clue values are doubled from the Jeopardy! round (except in Super Jeopardy!, where Double Jeopardy! values ranged from 500 to 2,500 points). The contestant with the least money at the end of the Jeopardy! round makes the first selection in Double Jeopardy!; if there is a tie, the tied contestant standing at the leftmost lectern selects first.\n\nA \"Daily Double\" is hidden behind one clue in the Jeopardy! round, and behind two in Double Jeopardy! The name and inspiration were taken from a horse racing term. Only the contestant who uncovers a Daily Double may respond to that clue and need not use his/her signaling device to do so. Before the clue is revealed, the contestant must declare a wager, from a minimum of $5 to a maximum of his/her entire score (known as a \"true Daily Double\") or the highest clue value available in the round, whichever is greater. A correct response adds the value of the wager to the contestant's score, while an incorrect response deducts it. Whether or not the contestant responds correctly, he or she maintains control of the board.\n\nDuring the Jeopardy! round, except in response to the Daily Double clue, contestants are not penalized for forgetting to phrase their response in the form of a question, although the host will remind contestants to watch their phrasing in future responses. In the Double Jeopardy! round and in the Daily Double in the Jeopardy! round, the phrasing rule is followed more strictly, with a response not phrased in the form of a question counting as wrong if it is not re-phrased immediately. If it is determined that a previous response was wrongly ruled to be correct or incorrect, the scores are adjusted at the first available opportunity. If, after a game is over, a ruling change is made that would have significantly altered the outcome of the game, the affected contestant(s) are invited back to compete on a future show.\n\nContestants who finish Double Jeopardy! with $0 or a negative score are automatically eliminated from the game at that point and awarded the third place prize. On at least one episode hosted by Art Fleming, all three contestants finished Double Jeopardy! with $0 or less, and as a result, no Final Jeopardy! round was played. During Celebrity Jeopardy! games, contestants with a $0 or negative score are given $1,000 for the Final Jeopardy! round.\n\nFinal Jeopardy! \n\nThe Final Jeopardy! round features a single clue. At the end of the Double Jeopardy! round, the host announces the Final Jeopardy! category, and a commercial break follows. During the break, barriers are placed between the contestant lecterns, and each contestant makes a final wager between $0 and his/her entire score. Contestants enter their wagers using a light pen to write on an electronic display on their lectern. After the break, the Final Jeopardy! clue is revealed and read by the host. The contestants have 30 seconds to write their responses on the electronic display, while the show's iconic \"Think!\" music plays in the background. In the event that either the display or the pen malfunctions, contestants can use an index card and a marker to manually write their response and wager. Visually impaired or blind contestants use a Braille keyboard to type in a wager and response.\n\nContestants' responses are revealed in order of their pre-Final Jeopardy! scores, from lowest to highest. A correct response adds the amount of the contestant's wager to his/her score, while a miss, failure to respond, or failure to phrase the response as a question (even if correct) deducts it. The contestant with the highest score at the end of the round is that day's winner. If there is a tie for second place, consolation prizes are awarded based on the scores going into the Final Jeopardy! round. If all three contestants finish with $0, no one returns as champion for the next show, and based on scores going into the Final Jeopardy! round, the two contestants who were first and second will receive the second-place prize, and the contestant in third will receive the third-place prize.\n\nWinnings \n\nThe top scorer(s) in each game retain the value of their winnings in cash, and return to play in the next match. Non-winners receive consolation prizes. Since May 16, 2002, consolation prizes have been $2,000 for the second-place contestant(s) and $1,000 for the third-place contestant. Since the show does not generally provide airfare or lodging for contestants, cash consolation prizes alleviate contestants' financial burden. An exception is provided for returning champions who must make several flights to Los Angeles.\n\nBefore 1984, all three contestants received their winnings in cash (contestants who finished with $0 or a negative score received consolation prizes). This was changed in order to make the game more competitive, and avoid the problem of contestants who would stop participating in the game, or avoid wagering in Final Jeopardy!, rather than risk losing the money they had already won. From 1984 to 2002, non-winning contestants on the Trebek version received vacation packages and merchandise, which were donated by manufacturers as promotional consideration. The current cash consolation prize is provided by Aleve.\n\nReturning champions \n\nThe winner of each episode returns to compete against two new contestants on the next episode. Originally, a contestant who won five consecutive days retired undefeated and was guaranteed a spot in the Tournament of Champions; the five-day limit was eliminated at the beginning of season 20 on September 8, 2003. \n\nTies for first place following Final Jeopardy! are broken with a tie-breaker clue, resulting in only a single champion being named, keeping their winnings, and returning to compete in the next show. Previously, if two or all three contestants tied for first place, they were declared \"co-champions\", and each retained his or her winnings and returned on the following episode. A tie occurred on the January 29, 2014 episode when Arthur Chu, leading at the end of Double Jeopardy!, wagered to tie challenger Carolyn Collins rather than winning; Chu followed Jeopardy! College Champion Keith Williams's advice to wager for the tie to increase the leader's chances of winning. A three-way tie for first place has only occurred once on the Trebek version, on March 16, 2007, when Scott Weiss, Jamey Kirby, and Anders Martinson all ended the game with $16,000. \n\nIf no contestant finishes Final Jeopardy! with a positive total, there is no winner. This has happened on several episodes, most recently on January 18, 2016. Three new contestants appear on the next episode. A triple zero has also occurred twice in tournament play (1990 Seniors and 2013 Teen), and also once in a Celebrity Week episode in 1998. In Celebrity play, the full first, second, and third place prize money for charities is given based on the score before the round. In tournament play, an additional high scoring non-winner will advance to the next round.\n\nSpecial considerations have been given for contestants who were unable to return as champion because of circumstances beyond their control, especially when there is a considerable time between taping of episodes. This occurred for the first time in season 25, when Priscilla Ball, who won on January 16, 2009, was unable to attend the taping of the next episode because of illness; as a result, three new contestants appeared on the next episode. Ball returned as a co-champion to play on the episode airing April 9, 2009. On the episode aired December 21, 2015, the returning champion, Claudia Corriere, could not return as champion because of a job offered in the weeks between tapings, so three new contestants played that day as well. Corriere returned as a co-champion on the January 18, 2016 episode, but was eliminated in a three-way loss.\n\nTypically, the two challengers participate in a backstage draw to determine lectern positions. In all situations with three new contestants, the draw will also determine who will take the champion's position and select first to start the game.\n\nVariations for tournament play \n\nTournaments generally run for 10 consecutive episodes and feature 15 contestants. The first five episodes, the quarter-finals, feature three new contestants each day. The winners of these five games, and the four highest scoring non-winners (\"wild cards\"), advance to the semi-finals, which run for three days. The winners of these three games advance to play in a two-game final match, in which the scores from both games are combined to determine the overall standings. This format has been used since the first Tournament of Champions in 1985 and was devised by Trebek himself.\n\nIf there is a tie for the final wild card position, the non-winner that advances will be based on the same regulations as two contestants who tie for second; the tie-breaker is the contestant's score after the Double Jeopardy! round, and if further tied, the score after the Jeopardy! round determines the contestant who advances as the wild card. In the rare case after the first round of the tournament, fewer than four non-winners have a positive score to advance to the second round, then the contestants who have a zero score after Final Jeopardy! will be ranked in the same procedure.\n\nIf two or more contestants have the same positive score at the end of match (first round, semi-final game, or end of a two-game final), a one-clue tiebreaker is used. The tied contestants are given a category, and then the clue. The first contestant to ring-in and respond correctly becomes that game's winner. Contestants are not eliminated for providing an incorrect response, and cannot win by default. If it takes multiple attempts to determine a winner, only the final clue will air.\n\nIf none of the contestants in a quarter-final or semi-final game end with a positive score, all three are provisionally eliminated and an additional wild card contestant advances instead. This occurred in the quarter-finals of the 1991 Seniors Tournament and the semi-finals of the 2013 Teen Tournament.\n\nIf a finalist finishes Double Jeopardy! with a $0 or negative score on either day, that contestant is eliminated from Final Jeopardy! as usual for that leg of the two-legged tie only, and their score for that leg is recorded as $0. If any game of the finals ends in which no finalist finishes with a positive score, all scores for that day are recorded as $0. If, at the end of the finals, no finalist finishes with a positive score after combining the totals from the first and second games, the one-clue tiebreaker is played.\n\nConception and development \n\nIn a 1964 Associated Press profile released shortly before the original Jeopardy! series premiered, Merv Griffin offered the following account of how he created the quiz show:\n\nGriffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not easily be shown on camera, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories. He originally intended the show to require grammatically correct phrasing (e.g., only accepting \"Who is...\" for a person), but after finding that grammatical correction slowed the game down, he decided that the show should instead accept any correct response that was in question form. Griffin discarded his initial title for the show, What's the Question?, when skeptical network executive Ed Vane rejected his original concept of the game, claiming, \"It doesn't have enough jeopardies.\"\n\nJeopardy! was not the first game show to give contestants the answers and require the questions. That format had previously been used by the Gil Fates-hosted program CBS Television Quiz, which aired from July 1941 until May 1942.\n\nPersonnel \n\nHosts and announcers \n\n \nThe first three versions of the show were hosted by Art Fleming. Don Pardo served as announcer for the original NBC version and weekly syndicated version, but when NBC's revival The All-New Jeopardy! launched in 1978, Pardo's announcing duties were taken over by John Harlan.\n\nAlex Trebek has served as host of the daily syndicated version since it premiered in 1984, except when he switched places with Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak as an April Fool's joke on the episode aired April 1, 1997. His most recent contract renewal, from March 2015, takes his tenure through the 2017–18 season. In the daily syndicated version's first pilot, from 1983, Jay Stewart served as the show's announcer, but Johnny Gilbert took over the role when that version was picked up as a series and has held it since then.\n\nClue Crew \n\nThe Jeopardy! Clue Crew, introduced on September 24, 2001, is a team of roving correspondents who appear in videos, recorded around the world, to narrate some clues. Explaining why the Clue Crew was added to the show, executive producer Harry Friedman said, \"TV is a visual medium, and the more visual we can make our clues, the more we think it will enhance the experience for the viewer.\"\n\nFollowing the initial announcement of auditions for the team, over 5,000 people applied for Clue Crew posts. The original Clue Crew members were Cheryl Farrell, Jimmy McGuire, Sofia Lidskog, and Sarah Whitcomb. Lidskog departed the Clue Crew in 2004 to become an anchor on the high school news program Channel One News, and a search was held to replace her in early 2005. The winners were Jon Cannon and Kelly Miyahara, who formally joined the crew starting in season 22, which premiered on September 12, 2005. Farrell continued to record clues for episodes aired as late as October 2008, and Cannon continued to appear until July 2009. \n\nThe Clue Crew has traveled to 280 cities worldwide, spanning all 50 of the United States and 44 other countries. In addition to appearing in Jeopardy! clue videos, the team's members also travel to meet fans of the show and future contestants. Occasionally, they visit schools to showcase the educational game Classroom Jeopardy! Miyahara also serves as announcer for the Sports Jeopardy! spin-off series. \n\nProduction staff \n\nRobert Rubin served as the producer of the original Jeopardy! series for most of its run, and later became its executive producer. Following Rubin's promotion, the line producer was Lynette Williams.\n\nGriffin was the daily syndicated version's executive producer until his retirement in 2000. Trebek served as producer as well as host until 1987, when he began hosting NBC's Classic Concentration for the next four years. At that time, he handed producer duties to George Vosburgh, who had formerly produced The All-New Jeopardy!. In the 1997–98 season, Vosburgh was succeeded as producer by Harry Friedman, Lisa Finneran, and Rocky Schmidt. Beginning in 1999, Friedman became executive producer, and Gary Johnson became the show's new third producer. In the 2006–07 season, Deb Dittmann and Brett Schneider became the producers, and Finneran, Schmidt, and Johnson were promoted to supervising producers.\n\nThe original Jeopardy! series was directed at different times by Bob Hultgren, Eleanor Tarshis, and Jeff Goldstein. Dick Schneider, who directed episodes of The All-New Jeopardy!, returned as director for the Trebek version's first eight seasons. Since 1992, the show has been directed by Kevin McCarthy, who had previously served as associate director under Schneider.\n\nThe current version of Jeopardy! employs nine writers and five researchers to create and assemble the categories and clues. Billy Wisse and Michele Loud, both longtime staff members, are the editorial producer and editorial supervisor, respectively. Previous writing and editorial supervisors have included Jules Minton, Terrence McDonnell, Harry Eisenberg, and Gary Johnson.\n\nThe show's production designer is Naomi Slodki. Previous art directors have included Henry Lickel, Dennis Roof, Bob Rang, and Ed Flesh (who also designed sets for other game shows such as The $25,000 Pyramid, Name That Tune, and Wheel of Fortune). \n\nProduction \n\nThe daily syndicated version of Jeopardy! is produced by Sony Pictures Television (previously known as Columbia TriStar Television, the successor company to original producer Merv Griffin Enterprises). The copyright holder is Jeopardy Productions, which, like SPT, operates as a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. The rights to distribute the program on television in the United States are owned by CBS Television Distribution, which absorbed original distributor King World Productions in 2007.\n\nThe original Jeopardy! series was taped in Studio 6A at NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, and The All-New Jeopardy! was taped in Studio 3 at NBC's Burbank Studios at 3000 West Alameda Avenue in Burbank, California. The Trebek version was initially taped at Metromedia Stage 7, KTTV-TV, on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, but moved its production facilities to Hollywood Center Studios' Stage 9 in 1985. After the final shows of season 10 were recorded on February 15, 1994, the Jeopardy! production facilities were moved to Sony Pictures Studios' Stage 10 on Washington Boulevard in Culver City, California, where the show has been recorded ever since.\n\nSet \n\nVarious technological and aesthetic changes have been made to the Jeopardy! set over the years. The original game board was exposed from behind a curtain and featured clues printed on cardboard pull cards which were revealed as contestants selected them. The All-New Jeopardy!s game board was exposed from behind double-slide panels and featured flipping panels with the dollar amount on one side and the clue on the other. When the Trebek version premiered in 1984, the game board used individual television monitors for each clue within categories. The original monitors were replaced with larger and sleeker ones in 1991. In 2006, these monitors were discarded in favor of a nearly seamless projection video wall, which was replaced in 2009 with 36 high-definition flat-panel monitors manufactured by Sony Electronics.\n\nFrom 1985 to 1997, the sets were designed to have a background color of blue for the Jeopardy! round and red for the Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy! rounds. At the beginning of season 8 in 1991, a brand new set was introduced that resembled a grid. On the episode aired November 11, 1996, two months after the start of season 13, Jeopardy! introduced the first of several sets designed by Naomi Slodki, who intended the set to resemble \"the foyer of a very contemporary library, with wood and sandblasted glass and blue granite\".\n\nShortly after the start of season 19 in 2002, the show switched to yet another new set, which was given slight modifications when Jeopardy! and sister show Wheel of Fortune transitioned to high-definition broadcasting in 2006. During this time, the show began to feature virtual tours of the set on its official web site. The various HD improvements for Jeopardy! and Wheel represented a combined investment of approximately $4 million, 5,000 hours of labor, and 6 mi of cable. Both shows had been shot using HD cameras for several years before beginning to broadcast in HD. On standard-definition television broadcasts, the shows continue to be displayed with an aspect ratio of 4:3.\n\nIn 2009, Jeopardy! updated its set once again. The new set debuted with special episodes taped at the 42nd annual International CES technology trade show, hosted at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester (Las Vegas Valley), Nevada, and became the primary set for Jeopardy! when the show began taping its 26th season, which premiered on September 14, 2009. It was significantly remodeled when season 30 premiered in September 2013. \n\nTheme music \n\nSince the debut of Jeopardy! in 1964, several different songs and arrangements have served as the theme music for the show, most of which were composed by Griffin. The main theme for the original Jeopardy! series was \"Take Ten\", composed by Griffin's wife Julann. The All-New Jeopardy! opened with \"January, February, March\" and closed with \"Frisco Disco\", both of which were composed by Griffin himself. \n\nThe best-known theme song on Jeopardy! is \"Think!\", originally composed by Griffin under the title \"A Time for Tony\", as a lullaby for his son. \"Think!\" has always been used for the 30-second period in Final Jeopardy! when the contestants write down their responses, and since the syndicated version debuted in 1984, a rendition of that tune has been used as the main theme song. \"Think!\" has become so popular that it has been used in many different contexts, from sporting events to weddings. Griffin estimated that the use of \"Think!\" had earned him royalties of over $70 million throughout his lifetime. \"Think!\" led Griffin to win the Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) President's Award in 2003, and during GSN's 2009 Game Show Awards special, it was named \"Best Game Show Theme Song\". In 1997, the main theme and Final Jeopardy! recordings of \"Think!\" were rearranged by Steve Kaplan, who served as the show's music director until his December 2003 death. In 2008, Chris Bell Music and Sound Design overhauled the Jeopardy! music package for the show's 25th anniversary. \n\nAudition process \n\nProspective contestants of the original Jeopardy! series called the show's office in New York to arrange an appointment and to preliminarily determine eligibility. They were briefed and auditioned together in groups of ten to thirty individuals, participating in both a written test and mock games. Individuals who were successful at the audition were invited to appear on the program within approximately six weeks.\n\nAuditioning for the current version of the show begins with a written exam, comprising fifty questions in total. This exam is administered online periodically, as well as being offered at regional contestant search events. Since season 15 (1998–99), the show has used a Winnebago recreational vehicle called the \"Jeopardy! Brain Bus\" to conduct regional events throughout the United States and Canada. Participants who correctly answer at least 35 out of 50 questions advance in the audition process and are invited to compete in mock games. Those who are approved are notified at a later time and invited to appear on the show.\n\nIn 2016, producers disallowed Canadians from applying online, citing new Canadian privacy rules regarding personal information on the Internet. Trebek confirmed this to The Ottawa Citizen in an interview. Neither named a particular law or regulation, and The Toronto Star was unable to discern the exact problem. \n\nBroadcast history \n\nThe original Jeopardy! series premiered on NBC on March 30, 1964, and by the end of the 1960s was the second-highest-rated daytime game show, behind only The Hollywood Squares. The show was successful until 1974, when Lin Bolen, then NBC's Vice President of Daytime Programming, moved the show out of the noontime slot where it had been located for most of its run, as part of her effort to boost ratings among the 18–34 female demographic. After 2,753 episodes, the original Jeopardy! series ended on January 3, 1975; to compensate Griffin for its cancellation, NBC purchased Wheel of Fortune, another show that he had created, and premiered it the following Monday. A syndicated edition of Jeopardy!, distributed by Metromedia and featuring many contestants who were previously champions on the original series, aired in the primetime during the 1974–75 season. The NBC daytime series was later revived as The All-New Jeopardy!, which premiered on October 2, 1978 and aired 108 episodes, ending on March 2, 1979; this revival featured significant rule changes, such as progressive elimination of contestants over the course of the main game, and a bonus round instead of Final Jeopardy!\n\nThe daily syndicated version debuted on September 10, 1984, and was launched in response to the success of the syndicated version of Wheel and the installation of electronic trivia games in pubs and bars. This version of the program has met with greater success than the previous incarnations; it has outlived 300 other game shows and become the second most popular game show in syndication (behind Wheel), averaging 25 million viewers per week. The show's most recent renewal, in April 2015, extends it through the 2017–18 season. \n\nJeopardy! has spawned versions in many foreign countries throughout the world, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Israel, and Australia. The American syndicated version of Jeopardy! is also broadcast throughout the world, with international distribution rights handled by CBS Studios International. \n\nThree spin-off versions of Jeopardy! have been created. Rock & Roll Jeopardy! debuted on VH1 in 1998 and ran until 2001; the show centered around post-1950s popular music trivia and was hosted by Jeff Probst. Jep!, which aired on GSN during the 1998–99 season, was a special children's version hosted by Bob Bergen and featured various rule changes from the original version. Sports Jeopardy!, a sports-themed version hosted by Dan Patrick, premiered in 2014 on the Crackle digital service and eventually moved to the cable sports network NBCSN in 2016. \n\nArchived episodes \n\nOnly a small number of episodes of the first three Jeopardy! versions survive. From the original NBC daytime version, archived episodes mostly consist of black-and-white kinescopes of the original color videotapes. Various episodes from 1967, 1971, 1973, and 1974 are listed among the holdings of the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The 1964 \"test episode\", Episode No. 2,000 (from February 21, 1972), and a June 1975 episode of the weekly syndicated edition exist at the Paley Center for Media. Incomplete paper records of the NBC-era games exist on microfilm at the Library of Congress. GSN holds The All-New Jeopardy!s premiere and finale in broadcast quality, and aired the latter on December 31, 1999, as part of its \"Y2Play\" marathon. The UCLA Archive holds a copy of a pilot taped for CBS in 1977, and the premiere exists among the Paley Center's holdings.\n\nGSN, which, like Jeopardy!, is an affiliate of Sony Pictures Television, has rerun ten seasons since the channel's launch in 1994. Copies of 43 Trebek-hosted syndicated Jeopardy! episodes aired between 1989 and 2004 have been collected by the UCLA Archive, and the premiere and various other episodes are included in the Paley Center's collection.\n\nReception \n\nJeopardy! has won a record 31 Daytime Emmy Awards since 1984. The show holds the record for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show, with fourteen awards won in that category. Another five awards have been won by Trebek for Outstanding Game Show Host. Twelve other awards were won by the show's directors and writers in the respective categories of Outstanding Direction for a Game/Audience Participation Show and Outstanding Special Class Writing before these categories were removed in 2006. On June 17, 2011, Trebek shared the Lifetime Achievement Award with Sajak at the 38th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony. The following year, the show was honored with a Peabody Award for its role in encouraging, celebrating, and rewarding knowledge; as such, it holds the distinction of being the only game show since 1960 to win the Peabody Award.\n\nIn its April 17–23, 1993 issue, TV Guide named Jeopardy! the best game show of the 1970s as part of a celebration of its 40th anniversary. In January 2001, the magazine ranked the show number 2 on its \"50 Greatest Game Shows\" list—second only to The Price Is Right. It would later rank Jeopardy! number 45 on its list of the 60 Best TV Series of All Time, calling it \"habit-forming\" and saying that the program \"always makes [its viewers] feel smarter\". Also in 2013, the show ranked number 1 on TV Guides list of the 60 Greatest Game Shows. In the summer of 2006, the show was ranked number 2 on GSN's list of the 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time, second only to Match Game. \n\nA hall of fame honoring Jeopardy! was added to the Sony Pictures Studios tour on September 20, 2011. It features the show's Emmy Awards as well as retired set pieces, classic merchandise, video clips, photographs, and other memorabilia related to Jeopardy!s history. \n\nTournaments and other events \n\nRegular events \n\nStarting in 1985, the show has held an annual Tournament of Champions featuring the top fifteen champions who have appeared on the show since the last tournament. The top prize awarded to the winner was originally valued at $100,000, and increased to $250,000 in 2003. Other regular tournaments include the Teen Tournament, with a $75,000 top prize; the College Championship, in which undergraduate students from American colleges and universities compete for a $100,000 top prize; and the Teachers Tournament, where educators compete for a $100,000 top prize. Each tournament runs for ten consecutive episodes in a format devised by Trebek himself, consisting of five quarter-final games, three semifinals, and a final consisting of two games with the scores totaled. Winners of the College Championship and Teachers Tournament are invited to participate in the Tournament of Champions.\n\nNon-tournament events held regularly on the show include Celebrity Jeopardy!, in which celebrities and other notable individuals compete for charitable organizations of their choice; and Kids Week, a special competition for school-age children aged 10 through 12. \n\nSpecial events \n\nThree International Tournaments, held in 1996, 1997, and 2001, featured one-week competitions among champions from each of the international versions of Jeopardy!. Each of the countries that aired their own version of the show in those years could nominate a contestant. The format was identical to the semifinals and finals of other Jeopardy! tournaments. In 1996 and 1997, the winner received $25,000; in 2001, the top prize was doubled to $50,000. The 1997 tournament was recorded in Stockholm on the set of the Swedish version of Jeopardy!, and is significant for being the first week of Jeopardy! episodes to be taped in a foreign country.\n\nThere have been a number of special tournaments featuring the greatest contestants in Jeopardy! history. The first of these \"all-time best\" tournaments, Super Jeopardy!, aired in the summer of 1990 on ABC, and featured 37 top contestants from the previous seasons of the Trebek version and one notable champion from the original Jeopardy! series competing for a top prize of $250,000. In 1993, that year's Tournament of Champions was followed by a Tenth Anniversary Tournament conducted over five episodes. In May 2002, to commemorate the Trebek version's 4,000th episode, the show invited fifteen champions to play for a $1 million prize in the Million Dollar Masters tournament, which took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The Ultimate Tournament of Champions aired in 2005 and pitted 145 former Jeopardy! champions against each other, with two winners moving on to face Ken Jennings in a three-game final for $2,000,000, the largest prize in the show's history; overall, the tournament spanned 15 weeks and 76 episodes, starting on February 9 and ending on May 25. In 2014, Jeopardy! commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Trebek version with a Battle of the Decades tournament, in which 15 champions apiece from the first, second, and third decades of Jeopardy!s daily syndicated history competed for a grand prize of $1,000,000. \n\nIn November 1998, Jeopardy! traveled to Boston to reassemble 12 past Teen Tournament contestants for a special Teen Reunion Tournament. In 2008, the 25th season began with reuniting 15 contestants from the first two Kids Weeks to compete in a special reunion tournament of their own. During the next season (2009–10), a special edition of Celebrity Jeopardy!, called the Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational, was played in which twenty-seven contestants from past celebrity episodes competed for a grand prize of $1,000,000 for charity; the grand prize was won by Michael McKean. \n\nThe IBM Challenge aired February 14–16, 2011, and featured IBM's Watson computer facing off against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in a two-game match played over three shows. This was the first man-vs.-machine competition in Jeopardy!s history. Watson won both the first game and the overall match to win the grand prize of $1 million, which IBM divided between two charities (World Vision International and World Community Grid). Jennings, who won $300,000 for second place, and Rutter, who won the $200,000 third-place prize, both pledged to donate half of their winnings to charity. The competition brought the show its highest ratings since the Ultimate Tournament of Champions. \n\nRecord holders \n\nJeopardy!s record for the longest winning streak is held by Ken Jennings, who competed on the show from June 2 through November 30, 2004, winning 74 matches before being defeated by Nancy Zerg in his 75th appearance. He amassed $2,520,700 over his 74 wins and a $2,000 second-place prize in his 75th appearance. At the time, he held the record as the highest money-winner ever on American game shows, and his winning streak increased the show's ratings and popularity to the point where it became TV's highest-rated syndicated program. Jennings later won the $500,000 second-place prize in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, the $300,000 second-place prize in the IBM Challenge, and the $100,000 second-place prize in the Battle of the Decades.\n\nThe highest-earning all-time Jeopardy! contestant is Brad Rutter, who has won a cumulative total of $4,355,102. He became an undefeated champion in 2000 and later won an unprecedented four Jeopardy! tournaments: the 2001 Tournament of Champions, the 2002 Million Dollar Masters Tournament, the 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions, and the 2014 Battle of the Decades. Rutter broke Jennings's record for all-time game show winnings when he defeated Jennings and Jerome Vered in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions finals. Jennings regained the record through appearances on various other game shows, culminating in an appearance on Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? on October 10, 2008. In 2014, Rutter regained the title after winning $1,000,000 in the Battle of the Decades, defeating Jennings and Roger Craig in the finals.\n\nCraig is the holder of the all-time record for single-day winnings on Jeopardy!. On the episode that aired September 14, 2010, he amassed a score of $47,000 after the game's first two rounds, then wagered and won an additional $30,000 in the Final Jeopardy! round, finishing with $77,000. The previous single-day record of $75,000 had been set by Jennings.\n\nThe record-holder among female contestants on Jeopardy!—in both number of games and total winnings—is Julia Collins, who amassed $429,100 over 21 games between April 21 and June 2, 2014. She won $428,100 in her 20 games as champion, plus $1,000 for finishing third in her twenty-first game. Collins also achieved the second-longest winning streak on the show, behind Jennings. The streak, which was interrupted in May by the Battle of the Decades, was broken by Brian Loughnane. \n\nThe highest one-day score in a Celebrity Jeopardy! tournament was achieved by comedian Andy Richter during a first round game of the 2009–10 season's \"Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational\", in which he finished with $68,000 for his selected charity, the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. \n\nThree contestants on the Trebek version have won a game with the lowest amount possible ($1). The first was U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Darryl Scott, on the episode that aired January 19, 1993; the second was Benjamin Salisbury, on a Celebrity Jeopardy! episode that aired April 30, 1997; and the third was Brandi Chastain, on the Celebrity Jeopardy! episode that aired February 9, 2001. \n\nOther media \n\nPortrayals and parodies \n\nJeopardy! has been featured in a number of films, television shows and books over the years, mostly with one or more characters participating as contestants, or viewing and interacting with the game show from their own homes.\n*On \"Questions and Answers\", a season 7 episode of The Golden Girls aired February 8, 1992, Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur) auditions for Jeopardy!, but despite her excellent show of knowledge, she is rejected by a contestant coordinator who feels that America would not root for her. In a dream sequence, Dorothy competes against roommate Rose Nylund (Betty White) and neighbor Charlie Deitz (David Leisure), in a crossover from Empty Nest. Trebek and Griffin appear as themselves in the dream sequence, and Gilbert provides a voice-over. \n*A 1988 episode of Mama's Family titled \"Mama on Jeopardy!\" features the titular Mama, Thelma Harper (Vicki Lawrence), competing on the show after her neighbor and friend Iola Boylan (Beverly Archer) is rejected. For most of the game the questions given by Mama are incorrect, but she makes a miraculous comeback near the end and barely qualifies for Final Jeopardy! Her final question given is also incorrect, but she finishes in second place by $1 and wins a trip to Hawaii for herself and her family. Again, Trebek guest stars and Gilbert provides a voice-over.\n*In the Cheers episode \"What Is... Cliff Clavin?\" (1990), the titular mailman, portrayed by John Ratzenberger, appears on the show and racks up an impressive $22,000 going into the Final Jeopardy! round, well ahead of his competitors. Despite having a total that his competitors cannot reach in Final Jeopardy!, Cliff risks all of his winnings on the final clue, which is revealed to be \"Archibald Leach, Bernard Schwartz and Lucille LeSueur\" (the real names of Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, and Joan Crawford, respectively). Cliff's response, \"Who are three people who've never been in my kitchen?\", is deemed incorrect, and he leaves with no money.\n*In \"I Take Thee Quagmire\", a season 4 episode of Family Guy aired March 12, 2006, Mayor Adam West appears as a contestant on Jeopardy!. He spells Trebek's name backwards (as \"Kebert Xela\"), \"sending him back\" to the fifth dimension, in reference to when Mister Mxyzptlk, a nemesis to DC Comics' Superman, is sent to the fifth dimension when someone makes him say his own name backwards. \n*Trebek appears as himself on \"Miracle on Evergreen Terrace\", a season 9 episode of The Simpsons in which Marge Simpson appears on a fictional version of the show, but performs very poorly, leaving with –$5,200. \n*From 1996 to 2002 and again in 2005, 2009, and 2015, Saturday Night Live featured a recurring Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch in which Trebek, portrayed by Will Ferrell, has to deal with the constant taunts of antagonists such as Sean Connery (played by Darrell Hammond) and Burt Reynolds (Norm Macdonald), the latter of which insists on being called \"Turd Ferguson\". \n*Jeopardy! is featured in a subplot of the 1992 film White Men Can't Jump, in which Gloria Clemente (Rosie Perez) attempts to pass the show's auditions. She succeeds, and ends up appearing on the show, winning over $14,000.\n*Other films and television series in which Jeopardy! has been portrayed over the years include The 'Burbs, Die Hard, Men in Black, Rain Man, Charlie's Angels, Dying Young, The Education of Max Bickford, The Bucket List, Groundhog Day, and Finding Forrester. \n*In the David Foster Wallace short story \"Little Expressionless Animals\", first published in The Paris Review and later reprinted in Wallace's collection Girl with Curious Hair, a character competes and wins on every Jeopardy! game for three years (a total of 700 episodes), using her winnings to pay for the care of her autistic brother. \n*The Ellen's Energy Adventure attraction at Epcot's Universe of Energy pavilion features a dream sequence in which Ellen DeGeneres plays a Jeopardy! game entirely focused on energy. \n*Fleming makes a cameo appearance reprising his role as host of Jeopardy! in the 1982 film Airplane II: The Sequel.\n*The music video \"I Lost on Jeopardy\", a parody of Greg Kihn's 1983 hit song \"Jeopardy\", was released by \"Weird Al\" Yankovic in 1984, a few months before Trebek's version debuted; the video featured cameos from Fleming, Pardo, Kihn, and Dr. Demento. \n\nMerchandise \n\nOver the years, the Jeopardy! brand has been licensed for various products. From 1964 through 1976, Milton Bradley issued annual board games based on the original Fleming version. The Trebek version has been adapted into board games released by Pressman Toy Corporation, Tyco Toys, and Parker Brothers. In addition, Jeopardy! has been adapted into a number of video games released on various consoles and handhelds spanning multiple hardware generations, starting with a Nintendo Entertainment System game released in 1987. The show has also been adapted for personal computers, Facebook, Twitter, Android, and the Roku Channel Store. \n\nA DVD titled Jeopardy!: An Inside Look at America's Favorite Quiz Show, released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on November 8, 2005, features five memorable episodes of the Trebek version (the 1984 premiere, Jennings' final game, and the three finals matches of the Ultimate Tournament of Champions) and three featurettes discussing the show's history and question selection process. Other products featuring the Jeopardy! brand include a collectible watch, a series of daily desktop calendars, and various slot machine games for casinos and the Internet.\n\nInternet\n\nJeopardy!s official website, active as early as 1998, receives over 400,000 monthly visitors. The website features videos, photographs, and other information related to each week's contestants, as well as mini-sites promoting remote tapings and special tournaments. As the show changes its main title card and corresponding graphics with every passing season, the Jeopardy! website is re-skinned to reflect the changes, and the general content of the site (such as online tests and promotions, programming announcements, \"spotlight\" segments, photo galleries, and downloadable content) is regularly updated to align with producers' priorities for the show. In its 2012 \"Readers Choice Awards\", About.com praised the official Jeopardy! website for featuring \"everything [visitors] need to know about the show, as well as some fun interactive elements\", and for having a humorous error page. \n\nIn November 2009, Jeopardy! launched a viewer loyalty program called the \"Jeopardy! Premier Club\", which allowed home viewers to identify Final Jeopardy! categories from episodes for a chance to earn points, and play a weekly Jeopardy! game featuring categories and clues from the previous week's episodes. Every three months, contestants were selected randomly to advance to one of three quarterly online tournaments; after these tournaments were played, the three highest scoring contestants would play one final online tournament for the chance to win $5,000 and a trip to Los Angeles to attend a taping of Jeopardy! The Premier Club was discontinued by July 2011. \n\nThere is an unofficial Jeopardy! fansite known as the \"J! Archive\" ([http://j-archive.com/ j-archive.com]), which transcribes games from throughout Jeopardy!s daily syndicated history. In the archive, episodes are covered by Jeopardy!-style game boards with panels which, when hovered over with a mouse, reveal the correct response to their corresponding clues and the contestant who gave the correct response. The site makes use of a \"wagering calculator\" that helps potential contestants determine what amount is safest to bet during Final Jeopardy!, and an alternative scoring method called \"Coryat scoring\" that disregards wagering during Daily Doubles or Final Jeopardy! and gauges one's general strength at the game. The site's main founding archivist is Robert Knecht Schmidt, a student from Cleveland, Ohio, who himself appeared as a Jeopardy! contestant in March 2010. Before J! Archive, there was an earlier Jeopardy! fansite known as the \"Jeoparchive\", created by season 19 contestant Ronnie O'Rourke, who managed and updated the site until Jennings' run made her disillusioned with the show.", "Wheel of Fortune (often known simply as Wheel) is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show features a competition in which contestants solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a giant carnival wheel.\n\nWheel premiered as a daytime series on NBC on January 6, 1975, and continued to air on the network until June 30, 1989. After some changes were made to its format, the daytime series returned on July 17, 1989 as part of CBS' daytime lineup. On January 14, 1991, Wheel moved back to NBC and aired on that network until it was cancelled on September 20, 1991. The popularity of the daytime series led to a nightly syndicated edition being developed; that series premiered on September 19, 1983 and continues to air to this day.\n\nThe network version was originally hosted by Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford, with Charlie O'Donnell as its announcer. O'Donnell left in 1980, Woolery in 1981, and Stafford in 1982; they were replaced, respectively, by Jack Clark, Pat Sajak, and Vanna White. After Clark's death in 1988, M. G. Kelly took over briefly as announcer until O'Donnell returned in 1989. O'Donnell remained on the network version until its cancellation, and continued to announce on the syndicated show until his death in 2010, when Jim Thornton succeeded him. Sajak left the network version in January 1989 to host his own late-night talk show, and was replaced on that version by Rolf Benirschke. Bob Goen replaced Benirschke when the network show moved to CBS, then remained as host until the network show was canceled altogether. The syndicated version has been hosted continuously by Sajak and White since its inception.\n\nWheel of Fortune ranks as the longest-running syndicated game show in the United States, with over 6,000 episodes aired. TV Guide named it the \"top-rated syndicated series\" in a 2008 article, and in 2013, the magazine ranked it at No. 2 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever. The program has also come to gain a worldwide following with sixty international adaptations. The syndicated series' 33rd season premiered on September 14, 2015.\n\nGameplay\n\nMain game\n\nThe core game is based on Hangman. Each round has a category and a blank word puzzle, with each blank representing a letter in the answer. The titular Wheel of Fortune is a roulette-style wheel mechanism with 24 spaces, most of which are labeled with dollar amounts ranging from $500 to $900, plus a top dollar value: $2,500 in Round 1, $3,500 in Rounds 2 and 3, and $5,000 for Round 4 and any subsequent rounds. The wheel also features two Bankrupt wedges and one Lose a Turn, both of which forfeit the contestant's turn, with the former also eliminating any cash or prizes the contestant has accumulated within the round. Each game features three contestants, or occasionally, three two-contestant teams; each contestant/team is positioned behind a single scoreboard with its own flipper. The left scoreboard from the viewer's perspective is colored red, the center yellow, and the right blue; which contestant/team occupies which position is determined by a random selection.\n\nA contestant spins the wheel to determine a dollar value and guess a consonant.\nCalling a correct letter earns the value before the corresponding flipper, multiplied by the number of times that the letter appears in the puzzle. A contestant with at least $250 may buy a vowel for a flat rate of that amount, until all the vowels in the puzzle have been revealed. Calling a correct letter keeps the wheel in the contestant's control. Control passes to the next contestant clockwise from the viewer's perspective if the wheel lands on Lose a Turn or Bankrupt, or if the contestant calls a letter that is not in the puzzle, calls a letter that has already been called in that round, fails to call a letter within five seconds of the wheel stopping, or gives an incorrect answer. The only exception is the Free Play wedge, on which the contestant may call a consonant for $500 per occurrence, call a free vowel, or solve the puzzle, with no penalty for an incorrect letter or answer.\n\nIn Rounds 1–3, the wheel contains a Wild Card and a Gift Tag, while two ½ Car tags are present in Rounds 2 and 3 only. The ½ Car tags are not used on weeks with two-contestant teams, unless the teams are married couples. The Wild Card may be used to call an additional consonant after any turn (for the amount that the contestant has just spun) or taken to the bonus round to call an extra consonant there. The Gift Tag offers either a $1,000 credit toward purchases from, or $1,000 in cash courtesy of, the sponsoring company, and the ½ Car tags award a car if the contestant wins the round(s) in which he or she claims both. Unlike the other tags, the ½ Car tags are replaced in subsequent rounds unless the car is won. A special wedge in the first two rounds awards a prize which is described by the announcer if won. All of the tags and the prize wedge are located over the $500 wedges, so calling a letter that appears in the puzzle when landed upon awards both the tag/wedge and $500 per every occurrence of that letter in the puzzle. The first three rounds also contain a special wedge which, if won and taken to the bonus round, offers an opportunity to play that round for $1,000,000. A contestant must solve the puzzle in order to keep any cash, prizes, or extras accumulated during that round, with the exception of the Wild Card; once this is picked up, it is kept until the contestant either loses it to Bankrupt or uses it. Bankrupt does not affect score from previous rounds, but it does take away the Wild Card, individual ½ Car tags, and/or million dollar wedge if any was claimed in a previous round. Contestants who solve a round for less than $1,000 in cash and prizes ($2,000 on weeks with two-contestant teams) have their scores increased to that amount.\n\nEach game also features three toss-up puzzles, which reveal the puzzle one random letter at a time, and award cash to whoever rings in with the right answer. The first determines who is interviewed first by the host, the second determines who starts Round 1, and the third determines who starts Round 4; respectively, these are valued at $1,000, $2,000, and $3,000. In addition to these, each game has a minimum of four rounds. Rounds 2 and 3 are respectively started by the next two contestants clockwise from the contestant who began Round 1.\n\nRound 2 features two \"mystery wedges\". Calling a correct letter after landing upon this wedge offers the contestant the chance to accept its face value of $1,000 per letter, or forfeit that amount to flip over the wedge and see whether its reverse side contains a $10,000 cash prize or Bankrupt. Once either mystery wedge is flipped over, the other becomes a standard $1,000 space and cannot be flipped. Round 3 is a prize puzzle, which offers a prize (usually a trip) to the contestant who solves it. Starting with Season 31, an \"Express\" wedge is also placed on the wheel in Round 3. A contestant who lands on this space and calls a consonant that appears in the puzzle receives $1,000 per appearance. The contestant can then either \"pass\" and continue the round normally, or \"play\" and keep calling consonants for $1,000 each (without spinning) and buying vowels for $250. The Express play ends when the contestant either calls an incorrect letter (which has the same effect as landing on a Bankrupt wedge) or solves the puzzle. \n\nThe final round is always played at least in part in a \"speed-up\" format, in which the host spins the wheel to determine the value of each consonant, with $1,000 being added to the value on which the wheel stops before the red contestant's arrow. Vowels do no add or deduct money from the contestants' scores in the speed-up round. The contestant in control calls one letter; if it appears in the puzzle, the contestant is given three seconds to attempt to solve. Play proceeds from the viewer's left to right, starting with the contestant who was in control at the time of the final spin, until the puzzle is solved. The three-second timer does not begin until the hostess has revealed all instances of a called letter and moved aside from the puzzle board, and the contestant may offer multiple guesses on his/her turn. After the speed-up round, the total winnings of the three contestants are compared; the contestant with the highest total winnings wins the game and advances to the bonus round. Contestants who fail to earn any cash or prizes in the game are awarded a consolation prize of $1,000 (or $2,000 on weeks with two-contestant teams).\n\nIf two or all three contestants are tied for first place at the end of the speed-up round, an additional toss-up puzzle is played between the tied contestants. The contestant who solves the toss-up puzzle wins $1,000 and advances to the bonus round.\n\nBonus round\n\nIn the bonus round, the winning contestant spins a smaller wheel with 24 envelopes to determine the prize. He or she is given a category, and a puzzle for which every instance of R, S, T, L, N, and E is revealed. The contestant provides three more consonants (four if he/she is holding the Wild Card) and one more vowel, then has 10 seconds to solve the puzzle after his or her other letters (if any) are revealed. The contestant may make as many guesses as necessary, so long as the correct answer is given before time expires. Whether or not the contestant solves the puzzle, the host only opens the envelope at the end of the round to reveal the prize at stake. Prizes in the bonus round include cash amounts ranging from $33,000 (commemorating the syndicated version's 33rd anniversary) to $50,000; a vehicle (or two vehicles during weeks with two-contestant teams); and a top prize of $100,000.\n\nIf the contestant has the Million Dollar Wedge, the $100,000 envelope is removed and replaced with a $1,000,000 envelope. The $1,000,000 prize has been awarded three times: to Michelle Loewenstein on the episode that aired October 14, 2008, to Autumn Erhard on the episode that aired May 30, 2013, and to Sarah Manchester on the episode that aired on September 17, 2014. Contestants who win the $1,000,000 may receive it in installments over 20 years, or in a lump sum of that amount's present value. \n\nPrevious rules\n\nOriginally, after winning a round, contestants spent their winnings on prizes that were presented onstage. At any time during a shopping round, most often if the contestant did not have enough left to buy another prize, a contestant could choose to put his or her winnings on a gift certificate; alternatively, he or she could put the winnings \"on account\" for use in a later shopping round, but at the risk of losing any \"on account\" money to a Bankrupt. The shopping element was eliminated from the syndicated version on the episode that aired October 5, 1987, both to speed up gameplay and to alleviate the taxes paid by contestants. However, the network version continued to use the shopping element until the end of its first NBC run on June 30, 1989. \n\nBefore the introduction of toss-up puzzles at the start of the 18th syndicated season, the contestant at the red arrow always started Round 1, with the next contestant clockwise starting each subsequent round. In addition, if a tie for first place occurred, an additional speed-up round was played between the tied contestants for the right to go to the bonus round. The wheel formerly featured a Free Spin wedge, which automatically awarded a token that the contestant could turn in after a lost turn to keep control of the wheel. It was replaced in 1989 with a single Free Spin token placed over a selected cash wedge. Free Spin was retired, and Free Play introduced, at the start of the 27th syndicated season in 2009. Between September 16, 1996 and the end of Season 30, the show featured a progressive jackpot wedge, which had been in several different rounds in its history. This wedge started at $5,000 and had the value of every spin within the round added to it; to claim the jackpot, a contestant had to land on the wedge, call a correct letter, and solve the puzzle all in the same turn. In later years, it also offered $500 per correct letter and $500 to the jackpot, regardless of whether or not it was won.\n\nThe network version allowed champions to appear for up to three days (originally five). The syndicated version, which originally retired contestants after one episode, adopted the three-day champion rule at the start of the seventh season. In later years, the top three winners from the week's first four shows would return to compete in the \"Friday Finals\"; when the jackpot wedge was introduced, its value was affected as well, beginning at $10,000 instead of $5,000. The rules allowing champions to return after their initial appearances were eliminated permanently beginning with the syndicated episode aired September 21, 1998; as was the case before Season 7, winners are once again retired after one episode. \n\nBefore December 1981, the show did not feature a bonus round. Under the bonus round's original rules, no letters were provided automatically; the contestant was asked for five consonants and a vowel, and had fifteen seconds to attempt solving the puzzle. Also, bonus prizes were selected by the contestant at the start of the round. The current time limit and rules for letter selection were introduced on October 3, 1988. Starting on September 4, 1989, the first episode of the seventh syndicated season, bonus prizes were selected by the contestant choosing from one of five envelopes labeled W, H, E, E, and L. One prize was always $25,000 in cash, and the rest were changed weekly; any prize that was won was taken out of rotation for the rest of the week. These envelopes were replaced with the Bonus Wheel on October 22, 2001. \n\nConception and development\n\nMerv Griffin conceived Wheel of Fortune just as the original version of Jeopardy!, another show he had created, was ending its 11-year run on NBC with Art Fleming as its host. Griffin decided to create a Hangman-style game after recalling long car trips as a child, on which he and his sister would play Hangman. After he discussed the idea with Merv Griffin Enterprises' staff, they thought that the idea would work as a game show if it had a \"hook\". He decided to add a roulette-style wheel because he was always \"drawn to\" such wheels when he saw them in casinos. He and MGE's then-president Murray Schwartz consulted an executive of Caesars Palace to find out how to build such a wheel. \n\nWhen Griffin pitched the idea for the show to Lin Bolen, then the head of NBC's daytime programming division, she approved, but wanted the show to have more glamour to attract the female audience; she suggested that Griffin incorporate a shopping element into the gameplay, and so, in 1973, he created a pilot episode titled Shopper's Bazaar, with Chuck Woolery as host and Mike Lawrence as announcer. The pilot started with the three contestants being introduced individually, with Lawrence describing the prizes that they chose to play for. The main game was played to four rounds, with the values on the wheel wedges increasing after the second round. Unlike the show it evolved into, Shopper's Bazaar had a vertically mounted wheel, which was spun by Woolery rather than by the contestants; this wheel lacked the Bankrupt wedge and featured a wedge where a contestant could call a vowel for free, as well as a \"Your Own Clue\" wedge that allowed contestants to pick up a rotary telephone and hear a private clue about the puzzle. At the end of the game, the highest-scoring contestant would play a bonus round called the \"Shopper's Special\" where all the vowels in the puzzle were already there, and the contestant had 30 seconds to call out consonants in the puzzle.\n\nEdd Byrnes, an actor from 77 Sunset Strip, served as host for the second and third pilots, both titled Wheel of Fortune. These pilots were directed by Marty Pasetta, who gave the show a \"Vegas\" feel that more closely resembled the look and feel that the actual show ended up having, a wheel that was now spun by the contestants themselves, and a lighted mechanical puzzle board with letters that were now manually turnable. Showcase prizes on these pilots were located behind the puzzle board, and during shopping segments a list of prizes and their price values scrolled on the right of the screen. By the time production began in December 1974, Woolery was selected to host, the choice being made by Griffin after he reportedly heard Byrnes reciting \"A-E-I-O-U\" to himself in an effort to remember the vowels. Susan Stafford turned the letters on Byrnes' pilot episodes, a role that she also held when the show was picked up as a series. \n\nPersonnel\n\nHosts and hostesses\n\nThe original host of Wheel of Fortune was Chuck Woolery, who hosted the series from its 1975 premiere until December 25, 1981, save for one week in August 1980 when Alex Trebek hosted in his place. Woolery's departure came over a salary dispute with show creator Merv Griffin, and his contract was not renewed. On December 28, 1981, Pat Sajak made his debut as the host of Wheel. Griffin said that he chose Sajak for his \"odd\" sense of humor. NBC president and CEO Fred Silverman objected as he felt Sajak, who at the time of his hiring was the weatherman for KNBC-TV, was \"too local\" for a national audience. Griffin countered by telling Silverman he would stop production if Sajak was not allowed to become host, and Silverman acquiesced. \n\nSajak hosted the daytime series until January 9, 1989, when he left to host a late-night talk show for CBS. Rolf Benirschke, a former placekicker in the National Football League, was chosen as his replacement and hosted for a little more than five months. Benirschke's term as host came to an end due to NBC's cancellation of the daytime Wheel after fourteen years, with its final episode airing on June 30, 1989. When the newly formatted daytime series returned on CBS on July 17, 1989, Bob Goen became its host. The program continued for a year and a half on CBS, then returned to NBC on January 14, 1991 and continued until September 20, 1991 when it was cancelled for a second and final time.\n\nSusan Stafford was the original hostess, serving in that role from the premiere until October 1982. Stafford was absent for two extended periods, once in 1977 after fracturing two vertebrae in her back and once in 1979 after an automobile accident. During these two extended absences, former Miss USA Summer Bartholomew was Stafford's most frequent substitute, with model Cynthia Washington and comedian Arte Johnson also filling in for Stafford. \n\nAfter Stafford left to become a humanitarian worker, over two hundred applicants signed up for a nationwide search to be her replacement. Griffin eventually narrowed the list to three finalists, which consisted of Summer Bartholomew, former Playboy centerfold Vicki McCarty, and Vanna White. Griffin gave each of the three women an opportunity to win the job by putting them in a rotation for several weeks after Stafford's departure. In December 1982, Griffin named White as Stafford's successor, saying that he felt she was capable of activating the puzzle board letters (which is the primary role of the Wheel hostess) better than anyone else who had auditioned. White became highly popular among the young female demographic, and also gained a fanbase of adults interested in her daily wardrobe, in a phenomenon that has been referred to as \"Vannamania\". White remained on the daytime series for the rest of the time it was on the air.\n\nSajak and White have starred on the syndicated version continuously as host and hostess, respectively, since it began, except for very limited occasions. During two weeks in January 1991, Tricia Gist, the girlfriend and future wife of Griffin's son Tony, filled in for White when she and her new husband, restaurateur George San Pietro, were honeymooning. Gist returned for the week of episodes airing March 11 through 15, 1991, because White had a cold at the time of taping. On an episode in November 1996, when Sajak proved unable to host the bonus round segment because of laryngitis, he and White traded places for that segment. On the March 4, 1997 episode, Rosie O'Donnell co-hosted the third round with White after O'Donnell's name was used in a puzzle. \n\nOn April 1, 1997, Sajak and Alex Trebek traded jobs for the day. Sajak hosted that day's edition of Jeopardy! in place of Trebek, who presided over a special two-contestant Wheel celebrity match between Sajak and White, who were playing for the Boy Scouts of America and the American Cancer Society, respectively; Lesly Sajak, Pat's wife, was the guest hostess for the day. In January and February 2011, the show held a \"Vanna for a Day\" contest in which home viewers submitted video auditions to take White's place for one episode, with the winner determined by a poll on the show's website; the winner of this contest, Katie Cantrell of Wooster, Ohio (a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design), took White's place for the second and third rounds on the episode that aired March 24, 2011.\n\nAnnouncers\n\nCharlie O'Donnell was the program's first and longest tenured announcer. In 1980, NBC was discussing cancelling Wheel and O'Donnell agreed to take the position as announcer on The Toni Tennille Show. The network decided against the cancellation but O'Donnell decided to honor his commitment and left the series. His replacement was Jack Clark, who added the syndicated series to his responsibilities when it premiered in 1983 and announced for both series until his death in July 1988. Los Angeles radio personality M. G. Kelly was Clark's replacement, starting on the daytime series in August 1988 and on the syndicated series when its new season launched a month later. Kelly held these positions until O'Donnell was able to return to the announcer position, doing so after his duties with Barris Industries came to an end at the end of the 1988–89 television season. O'Donnell remained with the series until shortly before his death in November 2010. Don Pardo, Don Morrow, and Johnny Gilbert have occasionally served as substitute announcers. \n\nAfter O'Donnell's death, the producers sought a permanent replacement, and a series of substitutes filled out the rest of the season, including Gilbert, John Cramer, Joe Cipriano, former The Price Is Right announcer Rich Fields, voice actress Lora Cain, and Jim Thornton, a KNX news anchor. For the show's twenty-ninth season, Thornton was chosen to be the new announcer for Wheel, and he has been with the show ever since. \n\nProduction staff\n\nWheel of Fortune typically employs a total of 100 in-house production personnel, with 60 to 100 local staff joining them for those episodes that are taped on location. Griffin was the executive producer of the network version throughout its entire run, and served as the syndicated version's executive producer until his retirement in 2000. Since 1999, the title of executive producer has been held by Harry Friedman, who had shared his title with Griffin for his first year, and had earlier served as a producer starting in 1995.\n\nJohn Rhinehart was the program's first producer, but departed in August 1976 to become NBC's West Coast Daytime Program Development Director. Afterwards, his co-producer, Nancy Jones, was promoted to sole producer, and served as such until 1995, when Friedman succeeded her. In the 15th syndicated season, Karen Griffith and Steve Schwartz joined Friedman as producers; they were later promoted to supervising producers, with Amanda Stern occupying Griffith and Schwartz's old post.\n\nThe show's original director was Jeff Goldstein, who was succeeded by Dick Carson in 1978. Mark Corwin, who had served as associate director under Carson, took over for him upon his retirement at the end of the 1998–99 season, and served as such until he himself died in July 2013 (although episodes already taped before his death continued airing until late 2013). Jeopardy! director Kevin McCarthy, Corwin's associate director Bob Cisneros, and Wheel and Jeopardy! technical director Robert Ennis filled in at various points until Cisneros became full-time director in November 2013. Ennis returned as guest director for the weeks airing October 13 through 17 and November 17 through 21, 2014, as Cisneros was recovering from neck surgery at the time of taping. With the start of the 33rd season on September 14, 2015, Ennis was promoted to full-time director. \n\nProduction\n\nWheel of Fortune is owned by Sony Pictures Television (previously known as Columbia TriStar Television; the successor company to original producer Merv Griffin Enterprises). The production company and copyright holder of all episodes to date is Califon Productions, Inc., which like SPT has Sony Pictures Entertainment for its active registered agent, and whose name comes from a New Jersey town where Griffin once owned a farm. The rights to distribute the show on American television are owned by CBS Television Distribution, into which original distributor King World Productions was folded in 2007.\n\nThe show was originally taped in Studio 4 at NBC Studios in Burbank. Upon NBC's 1989 cancellation of the network series, production moved to Studio 33 at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, where it remained until 1995. Since then, the show has occupied Stage 11 at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. Some episodes are also recorded on location, a tradition which began with two weeks of episodes taped at Radio City Music Hall in late 1988. Recording sessions usually last for five or six episodes in one day.\n\nSet\n\nVarious changes have been made to the basic set since the syndicated version's premiere in 1983. In 1996, a large video display was added center stage, which was then upgraded in 2003 as the show began the transition into high-definition broadcasting. In the mid-1990s, the show began a long-standing tradition of nearly every week coming with its own unique theme; as a result, in addition to its generic design, the set also uses many alternate designs, which are unique to specific weekly sets of themed programs. The most recent set design was conceived by production designer Renee Hoss-Johnson, with later modifications by Jody Vaclav. Previous set designers included Ed Flesh and Dick Stiles.\n\nThe first pilot used a vertically mounted wheel which was often difficult to see on-screen. Flesh, who also designed the sets for The $25,000 Pyramid and Jeopardy!, designed the wheel mechanism. Originally made mostly of paint and cardboard, the modern wheel mechanism is framed on a steel tube surrounded with Plexiglas and more than 200 lighting instruments, and is held by a stainless steel shaft with roller bearings. Altogether, the wheel weighs approximately 2400 lb. \n\nThe show's original puzzle board had three rows of 13 manually operated trilons, for a total of 39 spaces. On December 21, 1981, a larger board with 48 trilons in four rows (11, 13, 13 and 11 trilons) was adopted. This board was surrounded by a double-arched border of lights which flashed at the beginning and end of the round. Each trilon had three sides: a green side to represent spaces not used by the puzzle, a blank side to indicate a letter that had not been revealed, and a side with a letter on it. With these older boards, in segments where more than one puzzle was present, while the viewer saw a seamless transition to the next puzzle, what actually happened was a stop-down of the taping; during the old stop-downs, the board would be wheeled offstage and the new puzzle loaded in by hand out of sight of the contestants. On February 24, 1997, the show introduced a computerized puzzle board composed of 52 touch-activated monitors in four rows (12 on the top and bottom rows, 14 in the middle two). To illuminate a letter during regular gameplay, the hostess touches the right edge of the monitor to reveal it. The computerized board obviated the stop-downs, allowing tapings to finish quicker at a lower cost to the production company. The former board was subsequently sent to the Smithsonian Institution for storage.\n\nAlthough not typically seen by viewers, the set also includes a used letter board that shows contestants which letters are remaining in play, a scoreboard that is visible from the contestants' perspective, and a countdown clock. The used letter board is also used during the bonus round, and in at least one case, helped the contestant to see unused letters to solve a difficult puzzle. \n\nMusic\n\nAlan Thicke composed the show's original theme, which was titled \"Big Wheels\". In 1983, it was replaced by Griffin's own composition, \"Changing Keys\", to allow him to derive royalties from that composition's use on both the network and syndicated versions. Steve Kaplan became music director starting with the premiere of the 15th syndicated season in 1997, and continued to serve as such until he was killed when the Cessna 421C Golden Eagle he was piloting crashed into a home in Claremont, California, in December 2003; his initial theme was a remix of \"Changing Keys\", but by the 18th syndicated season, he had replaced it with a composition of his own, which was titled \"Happy Wheels\". Since 2006, music direction has been handled by Frankie Blue and John Hoke; themes they have written for the show include a remix of \"Happy Wheels\" and an original rock-based composition.\n\nIn addition to \"Changing Keys\", Griffin also composed various incidental music cues for the syndicated version which were used for announcements of prizes in the show's early years. Among them were \"Frisco Disco\" (earlier the closing theme for a revival of Jeopardy! which aired in 1978 and 1979), \"A Time for Tony\" (whose basic melody evolved into \"Think!\", the longtime theme song for Jeopardy! ), \"Buzzword\" (later used as the theme for Merv Griffin's Crosswords), \"Nightwalk\", \"Struttin' on Sunset\", and an untitled vacation cue.\n\nAudition process\n\nAnyone at least 18 years old has the potential to become a contestant through Wheel of Fortunes audition process. Exceptions include employees and immediate family members of CBS Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, or any of their respective affiliates or subsidiaries; any firm involved in supplying prizes for the show; and television stations that broadcast Wheel and/or Jeopardy!, their sister radio stations, and those advertising agencies that are affiliated with them. Also ineligible to apply as contestants are individuals who have appeared on a different game show within the previous year, three other game shows within the past ten years, or on any version of Wheel of Fortune itself. \n\nThroughout the year, the show uses a custom-designed Winnebago recreational vehicle called the \"Wheelmobile\" to travel across the United States, holding open auditions at various public venues. Contestants are provided with entry forms which are then drawn randomly. Individuals whose names are drawn appear on stage, five at a time, and are interviewed by traveling host Marty Lublin. The group of five then plays a mock version of the speed-up round, and five more names are selected after a puzzle is solved. Everyone who is called onstage receives a themed prize, usually determined by the spin of a miniature wheel. Auditions typically last two days, with three one-hour segments per day. After each Wheelmobile event, the \"most promising candidates\" are invited back to the city in which the first audition was held, to participate in a second audition. Contestants not appearing on stage have their applications retained and get drawn at random to fill second-level audition vacancies. At the second audition, potential contestants play more mock games featuring a miniature wheel and puzzle board, followed by a 16-puzzle test with some letters revealed. The contestants have five minutes to solve as many puzzles as they can by writing in the correct letters. The people who pass continue the audition, playing more mock games which are followed by interviews. \n\nBroadcast history\n\nWheel of Fortune premiered on January 6, 1975, at 10:30 am (9:30 Central) on NBC. Lin Bolen, then the head of daytime programming, purchased the show from Griffin to compensate him for canceling the original Jeopardy! series, which had one year remaining on its contract; Jeopardy! aired its final episode on the Friday before Wheels premiere. The original Wheel aired on NBC, in varying time slots between 10:30 am and noon, until June 30, 1989. Throughout that version's run, episodes were generally 30 minutes in length, except for six weeks of shows aired between December 1975 and January 1976 which were 60 minutes in length. NBC announced the cancellation of the show in August 1980, but it stayed on the air following a decision to cut the duration of The David Letterman Show from 90 to 60 minutes. The network Wheel moved to CBS on July 17, 1989, and remained there until January 14, 1991. After that, it briefly returned to NBC, replacing Let's Make a Deal, but was canceled permanently on September 20 of that year.\n\nThe daily syndicated version of Wheel premiered on September 19, 1983, preceded by a series of episodes taped on location at the Ohio State Fair and aired on WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio. From its debut, the syndicated version offered a larger prize budget than its network counterpart. The show came from humble beginnings: King World chairmen Roger, Michael, and Robert King could initially find only 50 stations that were willing to carry the show, and since they could not find affiliates for the syndicated Wheel in New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago, Philadelphia was the largest market in which the show could succeed in its early days. Only nine stations carried the show from its beginning, but by midseason it was airing on all 50 of the stations that were initially willing to carry it, and by the beginning of 1984 the show was available to 99 percent of television households. Before long, Wheel succeeded Family Feud as the highest-rated syndicated show, and at the beginning of the 1984–85 season, Griffin followed up on the show's success by launching a syndicated revival of Jeopardy!, hosted by Alex Trebek. The syndicated success of Wheel and Jeopardy! siphoned ratings from the period's three longest-running and most popular game shows, Tic-Tac-Dough, The Joker's Wild, and Family Feud, to the point that all three series came to an end by the fall of 1986. At this point, Wheel had the highest ratings of any syndicated television series in history, and at the peak of the show's popularity, over 40 million people were watching five nights per week. The series, along with companion series Jeopardy!, remained the most-watched syndicated program in the United States until dethroned by Judge Judy in 2011. The program has become America's longest-running syndicated game show and its second-longest in either network or syndication, second to the version of The Price Is Right which began airing in 1972. The syndicated Wheel has become part of the consciousness of over 90 million Americans, and awarded a total of over $200 million in cash and prizes to contestants.\n\nThe popularity of Wheel of Fortune has led it to become a worldwide franchise, with over forty known adaptations in international markets outside the United States. Versions of the show have existed in such countries as Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The American version of Wheel has honored its international variants with an occasional theme of special weeks known as \"Wheel Around the World\", the inaugural episode of which aired when the 23rd syndicated season premiered on September 12, 2005. \n\nBetween September 1997 and January 1998, CBS and Game Show Network concurrently aired a special children's version of the show titled Wheel 2000. It was hosted by David Sidoni, with Tanika Ray providing voice and motion capture for a virtual reality hostess named \"Cyber Lucy\". Created by Scott Sternberg, the spin-off featured special gameplay in which numerous rules were changed; for example, the show's child contestants competed for points and prizes instead of cash, with the eventual winner playing for a grand prize in the bonus round. \n\nReception\n\nWheel of Fortune has long been one of the highest-rated programs on U.S. syndicated television. It was the highest-rated show in all of syndication before it was dethroned by Two and a Half Men in the 28th season (2010–11). The syndicated Wheel shared the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show with Jeopardy! in 2011, and Sajak won three Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Game Show Host—in 1993, 1997, and 1998. In a 2001 issue, TV Guide ranked Wheel number 25 among the 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time, and in 2013, the magazine ranked it number 2 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever, second only to Jeopardy! In August 2006, the show was ranked number 6 on GSN's list of the 50 Greatest Game Shows. \n\nWheel was the subject of many nominations in GSN's Game Show Awards special, which aired on June 6, 2009. The show was nominated for Best Game Show, but lost to Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?; Sajak and White were nominated for Best Game Show Host, but lost to Deal or No Deals Howie Mandel; and O'Donnell was considered for Best Announcer but lost to Rich Fields from The Price Is Right. One of the catchphrases uttered by contestants, \"I'd like to buy a vowel\", was considered for Favorite Game Show Catch Phrase, but lost to \"Come on down!\", the announcer's catchphrase welcoming new contestants to Price. The sound effect heard at the start of a new regular gameplay round won the award for Favorite Game Show Sound Effect; the sound heard when the wheel lands on Bankrupt was also nominated. Despite having been retired from the show for nearly a decade by that point, \"Changing Keys\" was nominated for Best Game Show Theme Song; however, it lost to its fellow Griffin composition, \"Think!\" from Jeopardy! \n\nA hall of fame honoring Wheel of Fortune is part of the Sony Pictures Studios tour, and was introduced on the episode aired May 10, 2010. Located in the same stage as the show's taping facility, this hall of fame features memorabilia related to Wheels syndicated history, including retired props, classic merchandise, photographs, videos, and a special case dedicated to White's wardrobe. Two years later, in 2012, the show was honored with a Ride of Fame on a double decker tour bus in New York City. \n\nMerchandise\n\nNumerous board games based on Wheel of Fortune have been released by different toy companies. The games are all similar, incorporating a wheel, puzzle display board, play money and various accessories like Free Spin tokens. Milton Bradley released the first board game in 1975. In addition to all the supplies mentioned above, the game included 20 prize cards (to simulate the \"shopping\" prizes of the show; the prizes ranged in value from $100 to $3,000). Two editions were released, with the only differences being the box art and the included books of puzzles. Other home versions were released by Pressman Toy Corporation, Tyco/Mattel, Parker Brothers, Endless Games, and Irwin Toys. \n\nAdditionally, several video games based on the show have been released for personal computers, the Internet, and various gaming consoles spanning multiple hardware generations. Most games released in the 20th century were published by GameTek, which produced a dozen Wheel games on various platforms, starting with a Nintendo Entertainment System game released in 1987 and continuing until the company closed in 1998 after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Subsequent games were published by Hasbro Interactive and its acquirer Infogrames/Atari, Sony Online Entertainment, and THQ. \n\nWheel has also been licensed to International Game Technology for use in its slot machines. The games are all loosely based on the show, with contestants given the chance to spin the wheel to win a jackpot prize. Since 1996, over 200 slot games based on the show have been created, both for real-world casinos and those on the Internet. With over 1,000 wins awarded in excess of $1,000,000 and over $3 billion in jackpots delivered, Wheel has been regarded as the most successful slots brand of all time. \n\nNotes" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Austin_Powers:_International_Man_of_Mystery.txt" ], "title": [ "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" ], "wiki_context": [ "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (commonly referred to as just Austin Powers) is a 1997 American spy action comedy film and the first installment of the Austin Powers series. It was directed by Jay Roach and written by Mike Myers, who starred as both the title character Austin Powers and main antagonist Dr. Evil, Powers' arch-enemy. The film co-stars Elizabeth Hurley, Robert Wagner, Seth Green and Michael York. The film also includes appearances by Will Ferrell, Mimi Rogers, Carrie Fisher, Tom Arnold, Neil Mullarkey and Burt Bacharach.\n\nThe film is known for spoofing the James Bond films, amongst other classic movies. \n\nThe film, which cost US$16.5 million, opened on May 2, 1997, grossing US$53 million from its North American release and over $67 million worldwide. The film later spawned two sequels, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), with Myers repeatedly mentioning the possibility of a fourth film over the years (as of 2016). \n\nPlot\n\nIn 1967, British spy Austin Powers (Mike Myers) thwarts an assassination attempt by his nemesis Dr. Evil (also played by Mike Myers) in a London nightclub. Dr. Evil escapes in a space rocket disguised as a Big Boy statue, and cryogenically freezes himself. Powers volunteers to be placed into cryostasis in case Dr. Evil returns in the future.\n\nThirty years later, in 1997, Dr. Evil returns to discover his henchman Number 2 (Robert Wagner) has developed Virtucon, the legitimate front of Evil's empire, into a multibillion-dollar enterprise. Uninterested by genuine business, Dr. Evil conspires to steal nuclear weapons and hold the world hostage for $100 billion. Evil also learns that during his absence his associates have artificially created his son, Scott Evil (Seth Green), using his frozen semen. Now a Generation X teenager, Scott is resentful of his father’s absence, and resists Dr. Evil's attempts to get closer to him.\n\nHaving learned of Dr. Evil's return, the British Ministry of Defence unfreezes Powers, acclimatizing him to the 1990s with the help of agent Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley), the daughter of his sidekick in the 1960s, Mrs. Kensington (Mimi Rogers). Posing as a married couple, Powers and Kensington track Number 2 to Las Vegas and meet his Italian secretary, Alotta Fagina (Fabiana Udenio). Later, Powers infiltrates Fagina's penthouse suite for reconnaissance and discovers plans for Dr. Evil's \"Project Vulcan\", which involves drilling a nuclear warhead into the Earth's molten core and triggering volcanic eruptions worldwide. Fagina discovers Powers in her suite and seduces him into revealing his true identity. Learning that Powers is back, Dr. Evil and his entourage conspire to defeat the spy by creating a series of fembots; beautiful female androids equipped with automatic guns concealed in their breasts.\n\nPowers and Kensington attempt to infiltrate the Virtucon headquarters, but are soon apprehended by Dr. Evil's henchman, Random Task (Joe Son). Meanwhile, the United Nations concede to the demands of Dr. Evil, who decides to proceed with Project Vulcan regardless. Powers and Kensington are placed in a death trap by Dr. Evil, but the pair easily escape and Kensington is sent for help. While searching for Dr. Evil, Powers is confronted by the fembots, who he defeats by performing a striptease. Led by Kensington, British forces raid the underground lair, while Powers finds the doomsday device and deactivates it. Powers confronts Dr. Evil, but Fagina arrives holding Kensington hostage. They are interrupted by Number 2, who attempts to betray Dr. Evil by making a deal with Powers. Dr. Evil uses a trap door to eliminate Number 2, then activates the base’s self-destruct mechanism and escapes. Powers and Kensington escape just as the lair is destroyed in a nuclear explosion.\n\nPowers and Kensington are later married, and during their honeymoon Powers is attacked by Random Task. Powers subdues the assassin using a penis pump, allowing Kensington to knock him out using a bottle of champagne. Afterwards, the couple adjourn to their balcony. Among the stars, Powers spots the cryogenic chamber of Dr. Evil, who vows revenge on Powers.\n\nCast\n\n*Mike Myers as Austin Powers/Dr. Evil\n*Elizabeth Hurley as Vanessa Kensington\n*Robert Wagner as Number 2\n*Seth Green as Scott Evil\n*Mindy Sterling as Frau Farbissina\n*Michael York as Basil Exposition\n*Fabiana Udenio as Alotta Fagina\n*Will Ferrell as Mustafa\n*Mimi Rogers as Mrs. Kensington\n*Joe Son as Random Task\n*Paul Dillon as Paddy O'Brien\n*Charles Napier as Commander Gilmour\n*Elya Baskin as General Borschevsky\n*Clint Howard as Johnson Ritter\n*Tom Arnold as Texan\n*Carrie Fisher as Therapist\n*Larry Thomas as Casino Dealer\n*Burt Bacharach as Himself\n*Michael McDonald as Henchman\n*Cindy Margolis as Fembot\n\nProduction\n\nInspiration\n\nMyers created the character of Austin Powers for the faux 1960s rock band Ming Tea that Myers started with Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs following his Saturday Night Live stint in the early 1990s. Mike Myers stated that he was inspired to create the character after hearing the song \"The Look of Love\" on the radio, which was the theme song of Ursula Andress' character, Vesper Lynd, in the 1967 version of Casino Royale. Myers' then wife Robin Ruzan encouraged him to write a film based on the character. Dana Carvey felt that Myers copied Carvey's impression of Lorne Michaels for the Dr. Evil character. \n\nCasting\n\nMyers sought out Jim Carrey to play Dr. Evil, as his initial plan was not to play multiple characters in the series. Carrey was interested in the part, but had to turn the role down due to scheduling conflicts with Liar Liar. \n\nJames Bond references\n\nThe film adopts the late '60s psychedelic pop culture stylings and adapts / parodies many characters, lines, set pieces, and plot points of the James Bond films from that era. Elements from all of the early Bond movies are used for inspiration, including:\n\n* Dr. No (1962): the shower sequence during the unfreeze sequence; Austin's and Vanessa's change of clothing and dinner with Dr. Evil; Dr. Evil's outfit and general surroundings during the climax; Vanessa's bikini identical to Honey Rider's.\n* From Russia with Love (1963): modeling the Irish assassin on both Red Grant and the leprechaun character from the Lucky Charms commercials; Frau Farbissina partly modeled on Rosa Klebb.\n* Goldfinger (1964): Random Task's name and role modeled on Oddjob; the dialogue \"do you expect them to pay? - No, I expect them to die\" based on \"Do you expect me to talk? - No, I expect you to die\"; Random Task/Odd Job chopping off the head of a statue; the final fight between Austin and Random Task against a wall modeled on fight between Bond and Odd Job against a wall inside Fort Knox; Powers stating to Random Task \"Who throws a shoe, honestly?\" (in Goldfinger, Oddjob kills by throwing his hat); the character Alotta Fagina modeled after the name of Auric Goldfinger's companion and partner in crime, Pussy Galore.\n* Thunderball (1965): Dr. Evil's headquarters, where he kills people around the table; the plot about stealing nuclear arms and holding the world to ransom; conversation about a swimming pool with sharks; Austin playing Black Jack with No 2.; No. 2 modeled on Emilio Largo; both Austin and Bond fighting with a bad-guy in drag—though the audience does not know that it is the bad-guy in drag until the fighting begins.\n* Casino Royale (1967): the song \"The Look Of Love\"; the rotating bed; psychedelic set during Dr. Evil's initial 1967 escape; No. 2 cheating at cards by having special glasses modelled on a similar sequence with Orson Welles.\n* You Only Live Twice (1967): the lines \"this organization does not tolerate failure\" and \"in Japan men come first\"; the scenes with the Jaguar and the video communication with Basil Exposition at the very beginning modeled on similar sequences with Bond, Aki and Tiger Tanaka; external shots of the Virtucon enterprise modeled on external shots of the Osato enterprise; interior of Alotta's apartment; bath tub sequence in Alotta's apartment; Austin's poetry similar to Tiger Tanaka's reading of poetry (actually written by Bond in the novel); Mr. Bigglesworth (Dr. Evil's cat) being a parody of Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld's white Persian, although it becomes hairless due to the cryostasis; interior of Dr. Evil's lair modelling interior of Blofeld's volcano lair; face and suit of Dr. Evil modeled on Blofeld.\n* On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969): the look and behaviour of Austin Powers modeled on Lazenby's Bond; Frau Farbissina modelled on Irma Bunt; Dr. Evil's killing at the Pussycat Club modelled on Blofeld's death; the Fembots are based on Blofeld's angels of death.\n* Diamonds Are Forever (1971): Nevada and Las Vegas locations; Austin climbing through the window into Alotta Fagina's apartment modeled on how Bond enters Blofeld's apartment; double entendres by Austin and Vanessa modeled after those made by the two homosexual hitmen (i.e. \"moving\", \"heartwarming\" in the original film); No. 2 using a model of the US to explain the enterprise; final attack on Austin at the hotel modeled on similar final sequence on the Queen Elizabeth.\n* Live and Let Die (1973): Dr. Evil's shark tank is an allusion to Kananga's shark tank.\n* Octopussy (1983): Mustafa modeled on Gobinda.\n* A View to a Kill (1985): Vanessa knocking out Random Task by hitting him on the head with a bottle of champagne is a reference to Stacey Sutton knocking out one of Max Zorin's henchman by hitting him on the head with an urn containing her grandfather's ashes. The bed onboard Austin's jet is an homage to Bond's onboard his personal submarine craft. The tub scene with Allota Fagina is similar to the scene Bond has with Pola Ivanova.\n\nAdditionally, Mike Myers has stated that Austin's thick chest hair is based on Sean Connery's.\n\nOther sources of inspiration\n\nThe film also drew inspiration and elements from other movies and television shows of the late 1960s, including:\n\n* Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, the BBC series Adam Adamant Lives!, in which an Edwardian hero is frozen by his arch-enemy The Face and is revived in 1960s London, Michael Caine's bespectacled Harry Palmer character from The Ipcress File (which is why Austin wears glasses), Matt Helm's The Ambushers (Mustafa) and Peter Wyngarde's \"Jason King\" character from Department S and Jason King.\n* The idea of the Fembots may have been adapted from the 1965 film The 10th Victim and the 1966 film Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. The word \"fembot\" first appeared during a crossover episode of The Bionic Woman and The Six Million Dollar Man.\n* The leather-clad Mrs. Kensington was inspired by Diana Rigg's character Emma Peel from the British TV series The Avengers.\n* The characters of Commander Gilmour and General Borchevsky were named after Doug Gilmour and Nikolai Borschevsky, two former players from Myers' favorite National Hockey League team, his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs.\n* The intro scene in which Austin is chased around London by a crowd of women is a reference to the iconic opening of The Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night, in which John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison are similarly chased by a frenzied mob of admirers. Powers is also pictured disguised with a fake beard, after Paul McCartney in the same scene.\n* The toilet fight scene resembles a similar scene in Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily?, and the unfreezing scene references Allen's Sleeper.\n* The shots of dancing girls in bikinis and body paint between scenes are taken from the 1960s television show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.\n* The line \"This is my happening, and it freaks me out\" is from the 1970 film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.\n* The film ends with a parody/homage of Veruschka's photo shoot in the 1966 film Blowup.\n*The film contains several references to The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! including the steamroller scene and Dr. Evil's finger pointing move.\n*The opening dance sequence is hugely influenced by Bob Fosse's 1969 musical film \"Sweet Charity.\"\n\nMyers estimated that about 30-40% of film was improvised. \n\nFilming locations\n\nThe film was shot at the following locations:\n* Japanese Gardens, Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys, California—Alotta Fagina's penthouse (interior shots);\n* Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada—Alotta Fagina's penthouse (exterior shots);\n* Riviera Hotel and Casino in Winchester, Nevada—Interior shots;\n* Stardust Resort & Casino in Winchester, Nevada—Interior shots;\n* Valley of Fire State Park in Overton, Nevada;\n* Vasquez Rocks National Area Park in Agua Dulce, California;\n* Circus Circus in Winchester, Nevada—Exterior shot\n\nDeleted scenes\n\nThe international release differs from the North American release, as it includes these additional scenes:\n\n* Evel Knievel is among the celebrities frozen in cryo-stasis alongside Austin.\n* When Austin and Vanessa first enter the restricted area at Virtucon, Austin hypnotizes the guard (played by Christian Slater) with a mind control technique he learned on a trip to India.\n* Right after one of Dr. Evil's security guards is crushed by a steam roller driven by Austin and Vanessa, the security guard's wife (played by former Bond Girl Lois Chiles) and stepson are notified of his death.\n* After another guard has his head eaten by ill-tempered mutated sea bass, his friends (led by Rob Lowe, who would play the younger No. 2 in the sequel and has previously worked with Mike Myers in the film version of Wayne's World and with Seth Green in The Hotel New Hampshire) hosting a surprise Bachelor's Party at a Hooters are notified of his death.\n* While Austin and Vanessa are escaping Dr. Evil's underground lair which is about to explode, the guard Austin hypnotized earlier in the movie shows up and gives Austin a container of orange Sherbet.\n* Austin's fight with Random Task is longer, with Austin reaching for a knife, a candlestick, and a coral rake during the fight.\n\nThe UK release deleted the Princess Diana joke from the theatrical release as the film was released on the week of her death. The joke was subsequently restored in the VHS and DVD releases, as well as its TV broadcast on UK's Channel 4.\n\nIn addition, many scenes cut from the theatrical release are found on the DVD:\n\n* While No. 2 talks about the business ventures he created during Dr. Evil's absence, he mentions the Franklin Mint Cheeses of the World Series Commemorative Plates;\n* Austin's flirting with the lead stewardess (played by Cheri Oteri, who later acted with Mike Myers in Shrek the Third) aboard his Jumbo Jet. A portion of this scene was played in the official trailer;\n* During Austin's final confrontation with Dr. Evil, No. 2 attempts to bribe Austin with $1 billion in a Fendi briefcase. When Austin grabs just one stack of $100 bills, he notes that the money is $832 short of a billion, to which No. 2 mentions that the cost of the Fendi briefcase makes up the remainder. They continue to argue until Dr. Evil presses the button to eliminate No. 2;\n* Three alternate endings, all of which show Austin and Vanessa in a lifeboat.\n\nSoundtrack\n\nTrack listing\n\n# \"The Magic Piper (of love)\" by Edwyn Collins\n# \"BBC\" by Ming Tea\n# \"Incense and Peppermints\" by Strawberry Alarm Clock\n# \"Carnival\" by The Cardigans\n# \"Mas Que Nada\" by Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66\n# \"Female Of The Species\" (Fembot Mix) by Space\n# \"You Showed Me\" by The Lightning Seeds\n# \"Soul Bossa Nova\" by Quincy Jones and His Orchestra\n# \"These Days\" by Luxury\n# \"Austin's Theme\" by The James Taylor Quartet\n# \"I Touch Myself\" by Divinyls\n# \"Call Me\" by The Mike Flowers Pops\n# \"The Look Of Love\" by Susanna Hoffs\n# \"What The World Needs Now Is Love\" by Burt Bacharach and The Posies\n# \"The Book Lovers\" by Broadcast\n# \"Austin Powers\" by Wondermints\n# \"The 'Shag-adelic' Austin Powers Score Medley\" by George S. Clinton\n\nThere are two notable omissions: \"Secret Agent Man\", which is played during the attack on Dr. Evil's compound, and \"These Boots Are Made for Walkin'\", which plays during the Fembot presentation.\n\nAnother CD featuring George S. Clinton's scores to the film and its sequel was later released in 2000. \n\nHome video releases\n\nAustin Powers: International Man of Mystery was released to region 1 single disc \"flipper disc\" DVD with widescreen and full screen versions on opposing sides of the disc. The widescreen transfer is unusual in that it is a modified version of the theatrical ratio: despite being filmed in 2.35:1 aspect ratio, on DVD it is presented as 2:1 ratio, \"as specified by the director\" according to the disc packaging. The film was featured in the correct theatrical aspect ratio for the first time when it was released on Blu-ray, in the Austin Powers Collection.\n\nAll versions of the film released on home video (including VHS) have two alternate endings and a set of deleted scenes. The DVD and Blu-ray versions feature a commentary, as well. However, all US versions of the films are the PG-13 cut, with edits to sexual humor/language. International versions are uncut.\n\nThe film's distribution rights were transferred to Warner Bros. in 2008.\n\nLegacy\n\nOn their official website, the UK Ministry of Justice revealed that every week they have one person who wants to change their middle name to 'Danger' – inspired by the line in Man of Mystery, \"Danger is my middle name!\". \n\nReception\n\nAustin Powers: International Man of Mystery received positive reviews. The film received a 70% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 60 reviews, with an average rating on 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus read, \"A light and goofy comedy which provides laughs, largely due to performances and screenwriting by Myers\". The movie debuted at No.2 at the box office with US$9.5 million. \n\nAmerican Film Institute recognition:\n\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:\n** Austin Powers - Nominated Hero \n* AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs - Nominated \n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:\n** \"One million dollars!\" - Nominated \n** \"Yeah, baby!\" - Nominated\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Beltway_sniper_attacks.txt", "John_Allen_Muhammad.txt", "Terrorism_in_the_United_States.txt" ], "title": [ "Beltway sniper attacks", "John Allen Muhammad", "Terrorism in the United States" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Beltway sniper attacks were a series of coordinated shootings that took place over three weeks in October 2002 in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Ten people were killed and three other victims were critically injured in several locations throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia. The rampage was perpetrated by John Allen Muhammad (then aged 42) and Lee Boyd Malvo (then 17), driving a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan. Their crime spree began in February 2002 with murders and robberies in the states of Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and Washington, which resulted in seven deaths and seven injuries, bringing the ten-month shooting spree total to 17 deaths and 10 injuries. \n\nIn September 2003, Muhammad was sentenced to death. One month later, Malvo was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. On November 10, 2009, Muhammad was executed by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center near Jarratt, Virginia.\n\nPreliminary shootings\n\nOn February 16, 2002, Keenya Cook was shot and killed at the front door of her home in Tacoma, Washington. Several other deaths and injuries followed in several other states from March to August 2002.\n\nOn August 1, 2002, John Gaeta was changing a tire at a parking lot in Hammond, Louisiana, and was shot in the neck by Malvo. The bullet exited through Gaeta's back, and he pretended to be dead while Malvo stole his wallet. Gaeta ran to a service station after the shooter left and discovered that he was bleeding; he went to a hospital and was released within an hour. On March 1, 2010, he received a letter of apology from Malvo. \n\nOn September 5, 2002, at 10:30 p.m., Paul LaRuffa, a 55-year-old pizzeria owner, was shot six times at close range while locking up his Italian restaurant in Clinton, Maryland. LaRuffa survived the shooting, and his laptop computer was found in John Allen Muhammad's car when he and Malvo were arrested. \n\nOn September 21, 2002, at 12:15 a.m., 41-year-old Million A. Woldemariam was fatally shot in the head and back with a .22-caliber pistol in Atlanta, Georgia. Woldemariam was helping the owner of a Sammy's Package Store close up for the night when the shooting occurred. \n\nNineteen hours later on the same day, Claudine Parker, a liquor store clerk in Montgomery, Alabama, was shot and killed during a robbery. Her co-worker, Kellie Adams, was injured but survived. Evidence found at the crime scene eventually tied this killing to the Beltway attacks and allowed authorities to identify Muhammad and Malvo as suspects, although this connection was not made until October 17.\n\nOn September 23, 2002, at 6:30 p.m., 45-year-old Hong Im Ballenger was shot in the head and killed with a Bushmaster rifle in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Muhammad and Malvo were linked to the killing. \n\nAttacks in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area\n\nMontgomery County, Maryland\n\nAt 5:20 p.m. on October 2, 2002, a shot was fired through a window of a Michaels craft store in Aspen Hill. The bullet narrowly missed Ann Chapman, a cashier at the store. Since no one was injured, no serious alarms were raised. However, one hour later, at 6:30 p.m., James Martin, a 55-year-old program analyst at NOAA, was shot and killed at 2201 Randolph Road in the parking lot of a Shoppers Food Warehouse grocery store, located in Wheaton. \n\nOn the morning of October 3, four people were shot dead within a span of approximately two hours in Aspen Hill and other nearby areas in Montgomery County. Another was killed that evening in the District of Columbia, just over the border from Silver Spring.\n* At 7:41 a.m., James L. Buchanan, a 39-year-old landscaper known as \"Sonny\", was shot dead at 11411 Rockville Pike near Rockville, Maryland. Buchanan was shot while mowing the grass at the Fitzgerald Auto Malls.\n* At 8:12 a.m., 54-year-old part-time taxi driver Premkumar Walekar was killed in Aspen Hill in Montgomery County, while pumping gasoline into his taxi at a Mobil station at Aspen Hill Road and Connecticut Avenue.\n* At 8:37 a.m., Sarah Ramos, a 34-year-old babysitter and housekeeper, was killed at 3701 Rossmoor Boulevard at the Leisure World Shopping Center in Norbeck. She had gotten off a bus, and was seated on a bench, reading a book.\n* At 9:58 a.m., in what was to be the last killing of the morning, 25-year-old Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera was killed while vacuuming her Dodge Caravan at the Shell station at the intersection of Connecticut & Knowles Avenues in Kensington, Maryland.\n* The snipers then waited until 9:20 p.m. before shooting Pascal Charlot, a 72-year-old retired carpenter, while he was walking on Georgia Avenue at Kalmia Road, in Washington, D.C. Charlot died less than an hour later.\n\nIn each shooting, the victims were killed by a single bullet fired from some distance and in each case, the killers struck and then vanished. This pattern was not detected until after the shootings occurred on October 3. \n\nFear quickly spread throughout the region as news of the shootings spread. At a press conference meeting, Charles Moose informed parents that schools were on a code blue alert; keeping children indoors and that for the time being the schools were safe. Many parents went to pick up their children at school early, not allowing them to take a school bus or walk home alone. Montgomery County Public Schools, District of Columbia Public Schools, and private schools went into a lockdown, with no recess or outdoor gym classes. Other school districts in the area also took precautionary measures, keeping students indoors. \n\nPolice only had a few pieces of evidence to work with; including one initial report that during the Silver Spring attack someone had reportedly seen a white box truck. After the murder in Washington DC, witnesses then began telling police that they had seen a blue Chevrolet Caprice instead of the white box truck. They also had initially believed that all the murders were carried out with the use of a .223 caliber rifle.\n\nVirginia and other areas\n\nAt this point Malvo and Muhammad started covering a wider area and taking two or three days between shootings.\n\n* On October 4, 43-year-old homemaker Caroline Seawell was wounded at 2:30 p.m. in the parking lot of another Michaels store at Spotsylvania Mall in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, while she was loading purchases into her minivan. By this point, hundreds of journalists had converged to cover the unfolding events. Schools officials reassured the public that they were taking every measure possible to protect children: by tightening security and cancelling all outdoor activities.\n* On October 7, at 8:09 a.m., Iran Brown, a 13-year-old boy, was shot in the abdomen and critically wounded as he arrived at the Benjamin Tasker Middle School at 4901 Collington Road in Bowie, Maryland, in Prince George's County (Brown's name was concealed from the public but was later revealed). His aunt, a nurse who had just brought him to school, rushed him to a hospital emergency room. Despite serious injuries, including damage to several major organs, Brown survived the attack and ultimately testified at Muhammad's trial. At this crime scene the authorities discovered a shell casing as well as a Tarot card (the Death card) inscribed with the phrase, \"Call me God\" on the front and, on three separate lines on the back, \"For you Mr. Police.\" \"Code: 'Call me God'. Do not release to the press.\" \n* On October 9 at 8:18 p.m., 53-year-old civil engineer Dean Harold Meyers was shot dead while pumping gasoline at a Sunoco gas station at 7203 Sudley Road in Prince William County, Virginia, near the city of Manassas.\n* On the morning of October 11 at 9:30 a.m., 53-year-old businessman Kenneth Bridges was shot dead while pumping fuel at an Exxon station off Interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near Fredericksburg. \n* On October 14, at 9:15 p.m., 47-year-old Linda Franklin (née Moore), an FBI intelligence analyst who was a resident of Arlington County, Virginia, was shot dead at Arlington Boulevard and Patrick Henry Drive after she finished shopping at a Home Depot with her husband in Fairfax County, Virginia, just outside Falls Church at Seven Corners Shopping Center. The police received what seemed to be a very good lead after the October 14 shooting, but it was later determined that the witness was inside the Home Depot at the time and was lying. The witness was subsequently arrested for interfering with the investigation.\n\nBy this point, gas stations had begun to put tarps up to conceal their customers (see Public reaction, below). Malvo and Muhammad did not commit any more shootings for five days.\n\nOn October 19 at 8:00 p.m., 37-year-old Jeffrey Hopper was shot in a parking lot near the Ponderosa steakhouse at State Route 54 in Ashland, Virginia, about 90 miles south of Washington, near Interstate 95. Authorities discovered a four-page letter from the shooter in the woods that demanded $10 million and made a threat to children.\n\nOn October 21, Richmond-area police arrested two men, one with a white van, outside a gas station. The men turned out to be illegal immigrants with no connection to the shooter and they were remanded in the custody of what was then the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which subsequently deported them.\n\nThe next day, October 22, bus driver Conrad Johnson was shot at 5:56 a.m. while standing on the steps of his bus at the 14100 block of Grand Pre Road in Aspen Hill, Maryland. Chief Moose released part of the content of one of the shooter's letters, in which he declares, \"Your children are not safe, anywhere, at any time\". Johnson later died of his injuries\n\nWhile no shootings occurred on October 23, the day is significant for two events. First, ballistics experts confirmed Johnson as the tenth fatality in the Beltway shootings. Second, in a yard in Tacoma, Washington, police searched with metal detectors for bullets, shell casings, or other evidence that might provide a link to the shooters. A tree stump believed to have been used for target practice was seized.\n\nPublic reaction\n\nWith seven separate shooting victims, including six deaths, in the first 15 hours of the D.C. area spree, the North American media soon devoted enormous coverage to the shootings. By the middle of October 2002, all news television networks provided live coverage of the aftermath of each attack, with the coverage often lasting for hours at a time. The Fox show America's Most Wanted devoted an entire episode to the shooters in hopes of aiding in their capture. Much of the coverage of the case in The New York Times was written by Jayson Blair and subsequently found to be fabricated; the ensuing scandal led the newspaper's two top editors, Howell Raines and Gerald Boyd, to resign.\n\nDuring the weeks when the attacks occurred, fear of the apparently random shootings generated a great deal of public apprehension, especially at service stations and the parking lots of large stores. People pumping gasoline at gas stations would walk around their cars quickly, hoping that they would be a harder target to hit. Some stations put up tarps around the awnings over the fuel pumps so people would feel safer. Also, many people would attempt to fuel their vehicles at the naval base of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, as they felt it was safer inside the guarded fence. Various government buildings such as the White House, U.S. Capitol, and the Supreme Court building, and memorial tourist attractions at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. also received heightened security. For the duration of the attacks, United States Senate pages received a driven police escort to and from the United States Capitol every day and were not allowed to leave their residence hall for any reason except work. Drivers of white vans and box trucks were viewed with suspicion from other motorists as initial media reports indicated the suspect may be driving such a vehicle. \n\nAfter the specific threat against children was delivered, many school groups curtailed field trips and outdoors athletic activities based upon safety concerns. At the height of the public fear, some school districts, such as Henrico County Public Schools and Hanover County Public Schools, after the Ponderosa shooting, simply closed school for the day. Other schools such as the MJBHA, cancelled all outdoor activities after the shooting at the Connecticut and Aspen Hill intersection. Others changed after-school procedures for parents to pick up their kids to minimize the amount of time children spent in the open. Extra police officers were placed in schools because of this fear. In addition to this, Joel Schumacher's film Phone Booth was deemed potentially upsetting enough that its release was delayed for months. \n\nInvestigation\n\nThe investigation was publicly headed by the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) and its chief, Charles Moose. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, the Virginia Department of Transportation, and police departments in other jurisdictions where shootings took place, provided assistance in the investigation. \n\nPolice responded within minutes to reports of attacks during the three weeks of the sniper attacks, cordoning off nearby roads and highways and inspecting all drivers, thereby grinding traffic to a halt for hours at a time. Police canvassed the area, talking to people, and collected surveillance tapes.\n\nBy Friday night, October 4, the five shootings on October 3 and two on October 2 were forensically linked to the same gun. \n\nEyewitness accounts of the attacks were mostly confused and spotty. Hotlines set up for the investigation were flooded with tips. Early tips from eyewitnesses included reports of a white box truck with dark lettering, speeding away from the Leisure World shopping center, with two men inside. Police across the area and the state of Maryland were pulling over white vans and trucks. A gray car was spotted speeding away after the October 4 shooting in Spotsylvania.\n\nThe shooter attempted to engage the police in a dialogue, compelling Moose to tell the media cryptic messages intended for the sniper. At several scenes Tarot cards were left as calling cards, including one Death card upon which was written \"Call me God\" on the front and on the back on three separate lines the words, \"For you mr. Police.\" \"Code: 'Call me God'.\" \"Do not release to the press.\" This information was leaked to the press and misquoted often as \"I am God\" or some similar misquote of the actual words on the tarot card. Later scenes had long, handwritten notes carefully sealed inside plastic bags, including a rambling one that demanded $10,000,000 and threatened the lives of children in the area.\n\nA telephone call from the shooter(s) was traced to a pay telephone at a gasoline station in Henrico County, Virginia. Police missed the suspects by a matter of a few minutes, and initially detained occupants of a van at another pay telephone at the same intersection.\n\nOn the phone call, the sniper, boasting of his cleverness, also mentioned a previous unsolved murder in \"Montgomery\". This was identified as the September 21 shooting at a liquor store in Montgomery, Alabama. On October 17 authorities said they matched Malvo's fingerprint found at the Benjamin Tasker Middle School site with one lifted from the liquor store scene. After further research into Malvo's background it was discovered he had close ties to John Allen Muhammad.\n\nDifficult progress\n\nDespite an apparent lack of progress publicly, federal authorities were making significant headway in their investigation and developed leads in Washington state, Alabama, and New Jersey. They learned that Muhammad's ex-wife, who had obtained a protective order against him, lived near the Capital Beltway in Clinton, a community in suburban Prince George's County, Maryland. Information was also developed about an automobile purchased in New Jersey by Muhammad.\n\nMuch to their shock, police discovered that the New Jersey license plates issued to Muhammad on the blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice had been checked by radio patrol cars several times near shooting locations in various jurisdictions in several states, but the car had not been stopped because law enforcement computer networks did not indicate that it was connected to any criminal activity and they were focused exclusively on the \"white van\".\n\nOn October 3, 2002, police in Washington, D.C. stopped the Caprice for a \"minor traffic infraction\", two hours prior to the shooting of Pascal Charlot, after which witnesses reported seeing a Caprice near the scene.\n\nOn October 8, 2002, Baltimore Police Department investigated a dark blue Chevrolet Caprice with a person sleeping inside parked near the Jones Falls Expressway at 28th St. in Baltimore. The officers were concerned that the driver's license was from Washington state and the vehicle tag was from New Jersey. Although the vehicle was suspicious enough for them to investigate, and it fit the description of a vehicle associated with the shooting in Washington, D.C. five days earlier, the officers did not question the occupants extensively, nor did they search the vehicle.\n\nAuthorities were quick to issue a media alert to the public to be on the lookout for a dark blue Chevrolet Caprice sedan. For the public, as well as for law enforcement agencies throughout the region, this was a major change from the mysterious \"white box truck\" earlier sought based upon reported sightings.\n\nThe Chevrolet Caprice was also later revealed to have formerly been used as an undercover police car in Bordentown, New Jersey. \n\nArrest\n\nThe incident came to a close at 3:15 a.m. on October 24, 2002, when Muhammad and Malvo were found sleeping in their car, a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice (which had been dismissed earlier in the investigation), at a rest stop off of Interstate 70 near Myersville, Maryland, and arrested on federal weapons charges. Police were tipped off by Whitney Donahue, who noticed the parked car. (Four hours earlier, Montgomery County police chief Charles Moose had relayed this cryptic message to the sniper: \"You have indicated that you want us to do and say certain things. You have asked us to say, 'We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose'. We understand that hearing us say this is important to you\". Moose asked the media \"to carry the message accurately and often\". This mysterious and arguable reference to a Cherokee fable has never been explained.)\n\nTrooper First Class D. Wayne Smith of the Maryland State Police was the first to arrive to the scene and immediately used his light blue unmarked police vehicle to block off the exit by positioning the car sideways between two parked tractor-trailers. As more troopers arrived at the scene the rest area was effectively sealed off at both the entrance and exit ramps without the suspects being aware of a rapidly growing police presence. Later, as truck driver Ron Lantz was attempting to exit the rest area, his tractor-trailer was commandeered by troopers who used the truck, in place of the police car, to complete the roadblock at the exit. With the suspects' escape route sealed off, the SWAT officers then moved in to arrest them. A stolen Bushmaster .223-caliber weapon and bipod were found in a bag in Muhammad's car. Ballistics tests later conclusively linked the seized rifle to 11 of the 14 shootings, including one in which no one was injured. \n\nConclusions of investigations\n\nLogistics and tactics\n\nThe attacks were carried out with a stolen Bushmaster XM-15 (AR-15 style) semiautomatic .223 caliber rifle equipped with an EOTech holographic weapon sight which is effective at ranges of up to 550 yards found in the vehicle. The trunk of the Chevrolet Caprice was modified to serve as a \"rolling sniper's nest\". The back seat was modified to allow a person access to the trunk. Once inside, the sniper could lie prone with shots taken from a small hole near the license plate created for that purpose. \n\nMotive\n\nInvestigators and the prosecution suggested during pre-trial motions that Muhammad intended to kill his second ex-wife Mildred, who had estranged him from his children. According to this theory, the other shootings were intended to cover up the motive for the crime, since Muhammad believed that the police would not focus on an estranged ex-husband as a suspect if she looked like a random victim of a serial killer. Muhammad frequented the neighborhood where she lived during the attacks, and some of the incidents occurred nearby. Additionally, he had earlier made threats against her. Mildred herself made the claim that she was his intended target. However, Judge LeRoy Millette, Jr. prevented prosecutors from presenting that theory during the trial, saying that a link had not been firmly established.\n\nWhile imprisoned, Malvo wrote a number of erratic diatribes about what he termed \"jihad\" against the United States. \"I have been accused on my mission. Allah knows I'm gonna suffer now\", he wrote. Because his rants and drawings featured not only such figures as Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, but also characters from the film series The Matrix, these musings were dismissed as immaterial. Some investigators reportedly said they had all but eliminated terrorist ties or political ideologies as a motive. Nonetheless, in at least one of the ensuing murder trials, a Virginia court found Muhammad guilty of killing \"pursuant to the direction or order\" of terrorism. \n\nA series of trial exhibits suggested Malvo and Muhammad were motivated by an affinity for Islamist Jihad. \n\n* Exhibit 65-006: A self-portrait of Malvo in the cross hairs of a gun scope shouting, \"ALLAH AKBAR!\" The word \"SALAAM\" scrawled vertically. A lyric from Bob Marley's Natural Mystic \"Many more will have to suffer. Many more will have to die. Don't ask me why.\"\n* Exhibit 65-016: A portrait of Saddam Hussein with the words \"INSHALLAH\" and \"The Protector,\" surrounded by rockets labeled \"chem\" and \"nuk\".\n* Exhibit 65-043: Father and son portrait of Malvo and Muhammad. \"We will kill them all. Jihad.\"\n* Exhibit 65-056: A self-portrait of Malvo as sniper, lying in wait, with his rifle. \"JIHAD\" written in bold letters.\n* Exhibit 65-067: A suicide bomber labeled \"Hamas\" walking into a McDonald's restaurant. Another drawing of the Twin Towers burning captioned: \"85 percent chance Zionists did this.\" More scrawls: \"ALLAH AKBAR,\" \"JIHAD,\" and \"Islam will explode.\"\n* Exhibit 65-103: A lion accompanies chapter and verse from the Quran (Sura 2:190): \"Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you and slay them wherever ye catch them.\"\n* Exhibit 65-109: Portrait of Osama bin Laden, captioned \"Servant of Allah.\"\n* Exhibit 65-117: The White House drawn in crosshairs, surrounded by missiles, with a warning: \"Sep. 11 we will ensure will look like a picnic to you\" and \"you will bleed to death little by little.\"\n* Exhibit 65-101: Malvo's thought for the day: \"Islam the only true guidance, the way of peace.\"\n\nAt the 2006 trial of Muhammad, Malvo testified that the aim of the killing spree was to kidnap children for the purpose of extorting money from the government and to \"set up a camp to train children how to terrorize cities\", with the ultimate goal being to \"shut things down\" across the United States. \n\nAftermath\n\nCriminal prosecutions\n\nVirginia trials\n\nBefore the trial, Chief Moose engaged in a publicity tour for his book on the sniper investigation, including appearances on Dateline NBC, The Today Show, and The Tonight Show. Assistant Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney James Willett told The Washington Post, \"Personally, I don't understand why someone who's been in law enforcement his whole life would potentially damage our case or compromise a jury pool by doing this.\" \n\nChange of venue requests by defense attorneys were granted, and the first trials were held in the independent cities of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach in southeastern Virginia, more than 100 mi from the closest alleged attack (in Ashland, Virginia).\n\nDuring their trials in the fall of 2003, involving two of the victims in Virginia, Muhammad and Malvo were each found guilty of murder and weapons charges. The jury in Muhammad's case recommended that he be sentenced to death, while Malvo's jury recommended a sentence of life in prison without parole instead of the death penalty. The judges concurred in both cases. Alabama law enforcement authorities allege that the snipers engaged in a series of previously unconnected attacks prior to October 2 in Montgomery, Alabama. Other charges are also pending in Maryland and other communities in Virginia.\n\nAfter the initial convictions and sentencing, Will Jarvis, the Assistant Prince William County prosecutor, stated he would wait to decide whether to try Malvo on capital charges in his jurisdiction until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on whether juveniles may be subject to the penalty of execution. While that decision in an unrelated case was still pending before the high court, in October 2004, under a plea agreement, Malvo pleaded guilty in another case in Spotsylvania County, for another murder to avoid a possible death penalty sentence, and agreed to additional sentencing of life imprisonment without parole. Malvo had yet to face trial in Prince William County.\n\nIn March 2005, the Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons that the Eighth Amendment prohibits execution for crimes committed when under the age of 18. In light of this Supreme Court decision, the prosecutors in Prince William County decided not to pursue the charges against Malvo. Prosecutors in Maryland, Louisiana, and Alabama were still interested in putting both Malvo and Muhammad on trial. As Malvo was 17 when he committed the crimes, he could no longer face the death penalty but still could be extradited to Alabama, Louisiana, and other states for prosecution. At the time of the Roper v. Simmons ruling, Malvo was 20 years old and was held at Virginia's maximum security Red Onion State Prison in Pound in Wise County.\n\n\"Muhammad, with his sniper team partner, Malvo, randomly selected innocent victims,\" Virginia Supreme Court Justice Donald Lemons wrote in the decision. \"With calculation, extensive planning, premeditation and ruthless disregard for life, Muhammad carried out his cruel scheme of terror.\"\n\nMuhammad's death penalty was affirmed by the Virginia Supreme Court on April 22, 2005, when it ruled that he could be sentenced to death because the murder was part of an act of terrorism. This line of reasoning was based on the handwritten note demanding $10 million. The court rejected an argument by defense lawyers that Muhammad could not be sentenced to death because he was not the triggerman in the killings linked to him and Malvo.\n\nOn September 16, the circuit court judge Mary Grace O'Brien set an execution date by lethal injection for November 10, 2009. His attorneys petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution, but it was denied. They also requested clemency from current Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, but this was denied as well. The execution began shortly after 9 p.m. on November 10, and he was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. \n\nMaryland trials\n\nIn May 2005, Virginia and Maryland announced that they had reached agreements to allow Maryland to proceed with prosecuting charges there, where the most shootings occurred. There were media reports that Malvo and his legal team were willing to negotiate his cooperation, and he waived extradition to Maryland.\n\nMuhammad and his legal team responded by fighting extradition to Maryland. Muhammad's legal team was ultimately unsuccessful, and extradition was ordered by a Virginia judge in August 2005.\n\nMaryland agreed to transfer Muhammad and Malvo back to the Commonwealth of Virginia after their trials. A date for Muhammad's pending execution in Virginia had been set for November 10, 2009. \n\nMalvo pleaded guilty to six murders and confessed to others in other states while being interviewed in Maryland and while testifying there against Muhammad. Malvo was sentenced to six consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.\n\nOn May 30, 2006, a Maryland jury found John Allen Muhammad guilty of six counts of murder in Maryland. In return, he was sentenced to six consecutive life terms without possibility of parole on June 1, 2006.\n\nOn May 6, 2008, it was revealed that Muhammad had asked prosecutors in a letter to help him end legal appeals of his conviction and death sentence \"so that you can murder this innocent black man.\" An appeal filed by Muhammad's defense lawyers in April 2008 cited evidence of brain damage that might render Muhammad incompetent to make legal decisions, and that he should not have been allowed to represent himself at his Virginia trial.\n\nMalvo testimony\n\nIn John Allen Muhammad's May 2006 trial in Montgomery County, Maryland, Lee Boyd Malvo took the stand and confessed to the 17 murders. He also gave a more detailed version of the pair's plans. Malvo, after extensive psychological counseling, admitted that he was lying at the earlier Virginia trial where he had admitted to being the trigger man for every shooting. Malvo claimed that he had said this in order to protect Muhammad from a potential death sentence, and because it was more difficult to obtain the death penalty for a minor. Malvo said that he wanted to do what little he could for the families of the victims by letting the full story be told. In his two days of testimony, Malvo outlined detailed aspects of all the shootings.\n\nPart of his testimony concerned Muhammad's complete multiphase plan. His plan consisted of three phases in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metro areas. Phase one consisted of meticulously planning, mapping, and practicing their locations around the D.C. area. This way after each shooting, they would be able to quickly leave the area on a predetermined path, and move on to the next location. Muhammad's goal in Phase One was to kill six white people a day for 30 days. Malvo went on to describe how Phase One did not go as planned due to heavy traffic and the lack of a clear shot or getaway at locations.\n\nPhase Two was meant to take place in Baltimore, Maryland. Malvo described how this phase was close to being implemented, but was not carried out. Phase Two was intended to begin by killing a pregnant woman by shooting her in the stomach. The next step would have been to shoot and kill a Baltimore police officer. Then, at the officer's funeral, they planned to create several improvised explosive devices complete with shrapnel. These explosives were intended to kill a large number of police, since many police would attend another officer's funeral.\n\nThe last phase was to take place during or shortly after Phase Two, which was to extort several million dollars from the United States government. This money would be used to finance a larger plan, to travel north to Canada. Along the way, they would stop in YMCAs and orphanages recruiting other impressionable young boys with no parents or guidance. Muhammad thought he could act as their father figure as he did with Malvo.\n\nOnce he recruited a large number of young boys and made his way up to Canada, he would begin their training. Malvo described how John Muhammad intended to train boys in weapons and stealth as he had been taught. Finally, after their training was complete, John Allen Muhammad would send them out across the United States to carry out mass shootings in many other cities, just as he had done in Washington and Baltimore. These attacks would be coordinated and be intended to send the country into chaos that had already been built up after 9/11.\n\nCivil and regulatory actions\n\nAccording to The Seattle Times in a story of April 20, 2003, Muhammad had honed his marksmanship at Bull's Eye's firing range. The newspaper also reported that Malvo told investigators that he shoplifted the 35-inch-long carbine from the \"supposedly secure store.\" \n\nAccording to U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) officials, the store and its owners had a long history of firearms sales and records violations and a file 283 pages thick. In July 2003, the ATF revoked the federal firearms license of Brian Borgelt, a former Staff Sergeant with the U.S. Army Rangers and owner of Bull's Eye Shooter Supply. Later that month he transferred ownership of the store to a friend and continued to own the building and operate the adjacent shooting gallery. \n\nOn January 16, 2003, the Legal Action Project of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, on behalf of the families of many of the victims of the sniper attacks both in and out of the D.C. area who were killed (including Hong Im Ballenger, \"Sonny\" Buchanan, Jr., Linda Franklin, Conrad Johnson, Sarah Ramos, and James L. Premkumar Walekar) as well as two victims who survived the shooting (Rupinder \"Benny\" Oberoi and 13-year old Iran Brown) filed a civil lawsuit against Bull's Eye Shooter Supply and Bushmaster Firearms, Inc. of Windham, Maine, the gun distributor and manufacturer that made the rifle used in the crime spree, as well as Borgelt, Muhammad, and Malvo. Muhammad, who had a criminal record of domestic battery, and Malvo, a minor, were each legally prohibited from purchasing firearms.\n\nThe suit claimed that Bull's Eye Shooter Supply ran its gun store in Tacoma, Washington, \"in such a grossly negligent manner that scores of its guns routinely \"disappeared\" from its store and it kept such shoddy records that it could not account for the Bushmaster rifle used in the sniper shootings when asked by federal agents for records of sale for the weapon.\" It was alleged that the dealer could not account for hundreds of guns received from manufacturers in the years immediately prior to the Beltway sniper attacks. It was also claimed that Bull's Eye continued to sell guns in the same irresponsible manner even after Muhammad and Malvo were caught and found to have acquired the weapon there. Bushmaster was included in the suit because it allegedly continued to sell guns to Bull's Eye as a dealer despite an awareness of its record-keeping violations.\n\nThe case had been set for trial in April 2005; however the parties settled before then. Bushmaster said it settled because of escalating legal fees and the dwindling amount of insurance money it had left for the case. Bull's Eye contributed $2 million and Bushmaster contributed $500,000 to an out-of-court settlement. Bushmaster also agreed to educate its dealers on safer business practices. \n\nAfter the settlement was announced, WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., reported that Sonia Wills, mother of victim Conrad Johnson, said her family took part in the lawsuit more to send a message than to collect money. \"I think a message was delivered that you should be responsible and accountable for the actions of irresponsible people when you make these guns and put them in their hands,\" she said. \n\nExecution of John Allen Muhammad\n\nIn the days leading up to his execution, John Allen Muhammad spent time with his lawyer working out a final appeal to the Supreme Court. It was reported that the two had become close friends, with Muhammad telling his lawyer, \"I love you, brother,\" and granting him permission to write a book about the trial.\n\nMuhammad was executed by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia on November 10, 2009. The execution procedure began at 9:06 p.m. EST; Muhammad was pronounced dead five minutes later. It was reported that when asked if he had any last words, Muhammad made no reply. Twenty-seven people, including victims' family members, witnessed his execution.\n\nMemorials\n\nA memorial to the victims of the D.C. area sniper attacks is located at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland. An additional memorial was constructed in 2014 in the government plaza of Rockville, Maryland.\n\nIn popular culture\n\nFilm and television\n\n* On October 17, 2003, the USA Network's U.S. cable station aired D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear, a television movie based on the 2002 sniper attacks.\n* During the fall of 2007, BET showcased a documentary on the Beltway snipers in its American Gangster series.\n* In June 2008, Barbara Kopple released her documentary The D.C. Sniper's Wife, which told the story through the eyes of Mildred Muhammad, wife of John Allen Muhammad. Mildred was to appear on CNN's Larry King Live on November 9, the day before her ex-husband's execution.\n* An episode of Serial..., a TLC show about serial killers, also covered the shootings.\n* The 2009 film, D.C. Sniper, directed by Ulli Lommel, is based on the attacks.\n* On January 3, 2011, Canadian actor William Shatner spoke at length with three survivors of the sniper shootings—Paul LaRuffa, Kellie Adams, and Caroline Seawell—on The Biography Channel's Aftermath with William Shatner.\n* The 2013 film Blue Caprice, also known as The Washington Snipers in some regions, is based on the attacks, focusing heavily on the father-son relationship between Muhammed and Malvo.\n* The attacks were mentioned in the TV show Castle by Richard Castle in S4E9 \"Kill Shot\"\n*On July 22, 2015, an episode of the Lifetime Movie Network's Monster in my Family featured Mildred Muhammad meeting with then injured victims along with family members of the deceased with Lee Malvo also appearing in the episode while in prison. \n*In an episode of The Cleveland Show, the main character makes a reference saying \"Why can't you be more like the D.C. Sniper's son?\". \n\nPublications\n\n* In 2003, former Montgomery County police chief Charles Moose, the primary official in charge of the Beltway sniper attacks, published Three Weeks in October.\n* Diary of the D.C. Sniper, by Lee Boyd Malvo and Anthony Meoli, M.A., J.D., describes the stressors within Malvo's early life that led him to become one-half of the Beltway snipers. (2012, Meoli Forensic Consulting, LLC)\n\nSpoken word\n\n* Interview with the D.C. Sniper, released in 2013, this hour-long audio CD interview with criminal profiler, Anthony Meoli, details the events of the shootings in Lee Malvo's own voice.", "John Allen Muhammad (December 31, 1960 – November 10, 2009) was an American convicted murderer from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He, along with his seventeen-year-old partner, Lee Boyd Malvo, carried out the Beltway sniper attacks of October 2002, killing at least 10 people. Muhammad and Malvo were arrested in connection with the attacks on October 24, 2002, following tips from alert citizens. Although the pairing's actions were classified by the media as psychopathy attributable to serial killer characteristics, whether or not their psychopathy meets this classification or that of a spree killer is debated by researchers. \n\nBorn as John Allen Williams, Muhammad joined the Nation of Islam in 1987 and later changed his surname to Muhammad. At Muhammad's trial, the prosecutor claimed that the rampage was part of a plot to kill his ex-wife and regain custody of his children, but the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support this argument.[http://edition.cnn.com/2003/LAW/11/19/sprj.dcsp.muhammad.trial/index.html CNN.com – \"Muhammad told ex-wife, 'I will kill you', she says\"], CNN, November 20, 2003.Horwitz, Ruane. Sniper: Inside the Hunt for the Killers Who Terrorized the Nation: Random House (ISBN 0-345-47662-X) His trial for one of the murders (the murder of Dean Harold Meyers in Prince William County, Virginia) began in October 2003, and the following month he was found guilty of capital murder. Four months later he was sentenced to death. While awaiting execution in Virginia, in August 2005, he was extradited to Maryland to face some of the charges there, for which he was convicted of six counts of first-degree murder on May 30, 2006.\n\nUpon completion of the trial activity in Maryland, Muhammad was returned to Virginia's death row pending an agreement with another state or the District of Columbia seeking to try him. He was not tried on additional charges in other Virginia jurisdictions, and faced potential trials in three other states and the District of Columbia involving other deaths and serious woundings. All appeals of his conviction for killing Dean Harold Meyers had been made and rejected. Appeals for Muhammad's other trials remained pending at the time of his execution.\n\nMuhammad was executed by lethal injection on November 10, 2009, at 9:06 p.m. EST at the Greensville Correctional Center near Jarratt, Virginia, and was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. EST. Muhammad declined to make a final statement. \n\nEarly life\n\nBorn John Allen Williams in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Ernest and Eva Williams, he and his family moved to New Orleans when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer; she died when he was three. After his mother's death, his father left and he was raised mostly by his grandfather and an aunt. In 1987 he joined the Nation of Islam. \n\nAs a member of the Nation of Islam, Muhammad helped provide security for the \"Million Man March\" in 1995, but Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has publicly distanced himself and his organization from Muhammad's crimes. Muhammad kidnapped his children and brought them to Antigua around 1999, apparently engaging in credit card and immigration document fraud. It was during this time that he became close with Lee Boyd Malvo, who later acted as his partner in the killings. Williams changed his name to John Allen Muhammad in October 2001.\n\nAfter his arrest, authorities also claimed that Muhammad admitted that he admired and modeled himself after Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, and approved of the September 11 attacks. Malvo testified that Muhammad had indoctrinated him into believing that the proceeds of the extortion attempt would be used to establish \"a camp in Canada where homeless children would be trained as terrorists.\" \n\nMuhammad was twice divorced; his second ex-wife, Mildred Muhammad, sought and was granted a restraining order. Muhammad was arrested on federal charges of violating the restraining order by possessing a weapon. Under federal law, those with restraining orders are prohibited from purchasing or possessing guns, as per the Lautenberg Amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968. Defense attorneys in the Malvo trial, and prosecutors in Muhammad's trial, argued that the ultimate goal of the Beltway sniper murders was to kill Mildred in order to regain custody of his three children. \n\nMilitary service\n\nIn August 1978, Muhammad enlisted in the Louisiana Army National Guard at Baton Rouge as a combat engineer. Muhammad transferred to the Regular Army on November 6, 1985 and Muhammad's first tour was with the 15th Engineer Battalion at Fort Lewis in 1985. In 1991, he served in the Gulf War with a company that dismantled Iraqi chemical warfare rockets. In 1992, he was at Fort Ord, Calif., with the 13th Engineers, and in 1993 back at Fort Lewis with the 14th Engineer Battalion.\n\nWhile in the U.S. Army, Muhammad was trained as a mechanic, truck driver, and specialist metalworker. He qualified with the Army's standard rifle, the M16, earning the Expert Rifleman's Badge. This rating is the Army's highest of three levels of basic rifle marksmanship for a soldier. \n\nMuhammad served in an engineer unit during the 1991 Gulf War. Muhammad received the Southwest Asia Service Medal, the Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia), and the Kuwait Liberation Medal (Kuwait).\n\nMuhammad was honorably discharged from the Army on April 24, 1994 after 17 years of service with the rank of Sergeant.\n\nFor his service in the Army, Muhammad received the following awards: Army Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Overseas Ribbon, Noncommissioned Officers Professional Development Ribbon, and Army Achievement Medal.\n\nBeltway sniper attacks\n\nPolice followed a lead in which Muhammad or Malvo left a note at one of the shootings to tell the police to check out a liquor store robbery-murder that had occurred in Montgomery, Alabama. Investigators responding to that crime scene found one of the suspects had dropped a magazine with his fingerprints on it; these were subsequently identified as belonging to a 17-year-old Jamaican immigrant, Lee Boyd Malvo, whose prints were on file with the INS. Malvo was known to associate with Muhammad. They had lived together in Tacoma, Washington, for around one year, where Malvo used the alias John Lee Malvo.\n\nMuhammad's identification led to the discovery that he had purchased a former police car, a blue Chevrolet Caprice, in New Jersey on September 11, 2002. A lookout broadcast to the public on that vehicle resulted in their arrest when it was spotted parked in an Interstate 70 rest stop in Myersville, Maryland, just outside Frederick, Maryland.\n\nCriminal case\n\nMuhammad was captured in Maryland, where most of the attacks and murders took place. Although Maryland sought to bring him to trial, United States attorney general John Ashcroft reassigned the case from the Maryland prosecutor Doug Gansler, a Democrat, to a Republican prosecutor in Virginia, Jerry W. Kilgore. Kilgore was planning to run for governor. Virginia was viewed as the more likely jurisdiction to provide a death sentence, which was borne out by the Virginia and Maryland verdicts, and Virginia also allowed the death penalty for juveniles. \n\nIn October 2003, Muhammad went on trial for the murder of Dean Meyers at a Prince William County service station near the city of Manassas. The trial had been moved from Prince William County, to Virginia Beach, approximately 200 miles away. Muhammad was granted the right to represent himself in his defense, and dismissed his legal counsel, though he immediately switched back to having legal representation after his opening argument.\n\nMuhammad was charged with murder, terrorism, conspiracy and the illegal use of a firearm, and faced a possible death sentence. Prosecutors said the shootings were part of a plot to extort $10 million from local and state governments. The prosecution said that they would make the case for 16 shootings allegedly involving Muhammad. The terrorism charge against Muhammad required prosecutors to prove he committed at least two shootings in a three-year period.\n\nThe prosecution called more than 130 witnesses and introduced more than 400 pieces of evidence intended to prove that Muhammad undertook the murders and ordered Malvo to help carry it out. Evidence included a rifle, found in Muhammad's car, that was linked by ballistics tests not only to 8 of the 10 killings in the Washington area but also to two others, in Louisiana and Alabama; the car itself, which was modified so that a sniper could shoot from inside the trunk; and a laptop computer, also found in the car, that contained maps with icons pinpointing shooting scenes.\n\nThere were also witness accounts that put Muhammad across the street from one shooting and his car near the scene of several others. There was also a recorded phone call to a police hotline in which a man, his voice identified by a detective as Muhammad's, demanded money in exchange for stopping the shootings.\n\nMuhammad's defense asked the court to drop the capital murder charges due to the fact that there was no direct evidence. Malvo's fingerprints were on the Bushmaster rifle found in Muhammad's car, and genetic material from Muhammad himself was also discovered on the rifle, but the defense contended that Muhammad could not be put to death under Virginia's \"trigger-man law\" unless he actually pulled the trigger to kill Meyers, and no one testified that they saw him do so.\n\nOn November 17, 2003, by verdict of his jury, Muhammad was convicted in Virginia of all four counts in the indictment against him: capital murder for the shooting of Dean H. Meyers; a second charge of capital murder under Virginia's antiterrorism statute, for homicide committed with an intent to terrorize the government or the public at large; conspiracy to commit murder; and the illegal use of a firearm. In the penalty phase of the trial, the jury, after five hours of deliberation over two days, unanimously recommended that Muhammad should be sentenced to death. On March 9, 2004, a Virginia judge agreed with the jury's recommendation and sentenced John Allen Muhammad to death.\n\nOn April 22, 2005, the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed his death penalty, stating that Muhammad could be sentenced to death because the murder was part of an act of terrorism. The court also rejected an argument by defense lawyers that he could not be sentenced to death because he was not the triggerman in the killings. Virginia Supreme Court Justice Donald W. Lemons said at the time, \"With calculation, extensive planning, premeditation and ruthless disregard for life, Muhammad carried out his cruel scheme of terror.\"\n\nIn May 2005, Maryland and Virginia reached an agreement to allow his extradition to face Maryland charges, but Muhammad was fighting the action legally. He was held at the maximum security Sussex I State Prison near Waverly in Sussex County, Virginia, which houses Virginia's male death row inmates. While awaiting execution in Virginia, in August 2005, he was extradited to Montgomery County, Maryland to face charges there.\n\nOn May 30, 2006, a Maryland jury found John Allen Muhammad guilty of six counts of murder in Maryland. In return, he was sentenced to six consecutive life terms without possibility of parole on June 1, 2006. Neither Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, or Washington State moved to try Muhammad, given his death sentence for murder in Virginia. In 2006, Malvo confessed that the pair also killed victims in California, Arizona, and Texas, making 14 victims.\n\nOn May 6, 2008, it was revealed that Muhammad asked prosecutors in a letter to help him end legal appeals of his conviction and death sentence \"so that you can murder this innocent black man.\" An appeal filed by Muhammad's defense lawyers in April 2008 cited evidence of brain damage that would render Muhammad incompetent to make legal decisions, and that he should not have been allowed to represent himself at his Virginia trial. \n\nOn September 16, 2009, Muhammad's execution date was set for November 10, 2009. On November 9, 2009, Muhammad's petition for review of his death sentence was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Stevens, joined by Justice Ginsburg and Justice Sotomayor wrote a separate opinion stating that Virginia's rush to set an execution date \"highlights once again the perversity of executing inmates before their appeals process has been fully concluded\", while noting that they concurred with the decision that the appeal ought not be heard.\n\nCivil case\n\nIn 2003, Malvo and Muhammad were named in a major civil lawsuit by the Legal Action Project of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence on behalf of two of their victims who were seriously wounded and the families of some of those murdered. Although Malvo and Muhammad were each believed to be indigent, codefendants Bull's Eye Shooter Supply and Bushmaster Firearms, Inc. contributed to a landmark $2.5 million out-of-court settlement in late 2004. \n\nTestimony of Lee Boyd Malvo\n\nIn John Allen Muhammad's May 2006 trial in Montgomery County, Maryland, Lee Boyd Malvo, who is serving a sentence of life without parole for his role in the shootings, took the stand and confessed to a more detailed version of the pair's plans. Malvo, after extensive psychological counseling, admitted that he was lying at the earlier Virginia trial where he had admitted to being the triggerman for every shooting. Malvo claimed that he had said this in order to protect John Allen Muhammad from the potential death penalty, because it was more difficult to achieve the death penalty for a minor. Malvo said that he wanted to do what little he could for the families of the victims by letting the full story be told. In his two days of testimony, Malvo outlined many very detailed aspects of all the shootings.\n\nPart of his testimony concerned Muhammad's complete multiphase plan. His plan consisted of three phases in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metro areas. Phase One consisted of meticulously planning, mapping, and practicing their locations around the DC area. This way after each shooting they would be able to quickly leave the area on a predetermined path, and move on to the next location. John Allen Muhammad's goal in Phase One was to kill 6 white people a day for 30 days (180 per month). Malvo went on to describe how Phase One did not go as planned due to heavy traffic and the lack of a clear shot and/or getaway at different locations.\n\nPhase Two was meant to be moved up to Baltimore. Malvo described how this phase was close to being implemented, but never was carried out. Phase Two would begin with the killing of a pregnant woman with a shot to the abdomen. The next step would have been to shoot and kill a Baltimore City police officer. Then, at the officer's funeral, they were to detonate several improvised explosive devices complete with shrapnel. These explosives were intended to kill a large number of officers, since many of them would be at a comrade's funeral.\n\nPhase Three was to take place very shortly after, if not during, Phase Two. The third phase was to extort several million dollars from the United States government. This money would be used to finance a larger plan to travel north into Canada, stopping along the way in YMCAs and orphanages recruiting other impressionable young boys with no parents or guidance. John Allen Muhammad thought he could act as their father figure as he did with Lee Boyd Malvo. Once he recruited a large number of young boys and made his way up to Canada, he would begin their training. Malvo described how Muhammad allegedly intended to train the youths with weapons. After their training was complete, Muhammad would send them out across the United States to carry out mass shootings in many different cities, just as he had done in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. \n\nExecution\n\nOn September 16, 2009, a Virginia judge set a November 10, 2009, execution date for Muhammad. On November 9, 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States refused a last-minute appeal. On November 10, hours before Muhammad's scheduled execution, pleas for clemency made by his attorneys were denied by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine. \n\nUnder Virginia law, an inmate is allowed to choose the method by which he or she will be put to death, either lethal injection or electrocution. Because Muhammad declined to select a method, by law, the method of lethal injection was selected for him. He was offered a selection of a last meal, which he accepted, but refused publication of its contents. J. Wyndal Gordon, Muhammad's attorney, told the Associated Press that Muhammad's last meal consisted of \"chicken and red sauce, and ... some cakes\". \n\nMuhammed declined to make a final statement, and the execution began at 9:00 p.m. EST at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia. According to the official statement of the prison spokesperson, the actual lethal injection process started at 9:06 pm EST. He was then pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. EST. His body was cremated and the ashes given to his son in Louisiana. \n\nIn popular culture\n\n*Muhammad is portrayed by Bobby Hosea in the 2003 film, D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear.\n*Muhammad is portrayed by Ken Foree in the 2010 film D.C. Sniper.\n*Muhammad is portrayed by Isaiah Washington in the 2013 film, Blue Caprice.", "A common definition of terrorism is the systematic use or threatened use of violence in order to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change. This article serves as a list and compilation of acts of terrorism, attempts of terrorism, and other such items pertaining to terrorist activities within the domestic borders of the United States by non-state actors or spies acting in the interests of or persons acting without approval of state actors.\n\nAttacks by date\n\n1800–99\n\n* November 7, 1837: A pro-slavery mob killed abolitionist Elijah P. Lovejoy, editor of the Alton Observer. \n* August 6-November 1, 1838: 1838 Mormon War — As Mormons began to pour into Missouri (which Mormons considered their \"promised land\"), their distinct theology and abolitionist tendencies were met with friction by the locals, which soon escalated into accusations, recriminations, and ultimately armed violence. After some skirmishing, the Mormon Extermination Order was passed, and the murder of Mormons was legalized in the state of Missouri. Eventually, Mormons were almost completely driven from the state of Missouri.\n* May 21, 1856: Sacking of Lawrence – Pro-Slavery forces enter Lawrence, Kansas to disarm residents and destroy the town's presses and the Free State Hotel.\n* September 11, 1857: Mountain Meadows Massacre — During the Utah War, Mormon militias, fueled by paranoia, attack the Baker–Fancher Party wagon train, killing everyone older than 7. The party's 17 very young children were kidnapped into Mormon families, and the party's property was auctioned off to the Mormon community. Mormons attempted unsuccessfully to blame the slaughter on Indians. Some 120 people were murdered in cold blood, making this attack the single deadliest act of terrorism on US soil until the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995.\n* October 16, 1859: Anti-slavery Pottawatomie massacre – In response to the sacking of Lawrence, John Brown led a group of abolitionists to murder five Kansas settlers from Tennessee, whom he presumed to be pro-slavery.\n* April 14, 1865: Pro-slavery Abraham Lincoln assassination – Part of a conspiracy by Confederate supporters John Wilkes Booth, Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward in Washington, D.C. to create chaos for the purpose of overthrowing the Federal Government. Booth succeeded in assassinating Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, Seward suffered numerous stab wounds by Powell who stabbed others as he was chased out of Seward's home, and Atzerodt failed to carry out the planned murder of Johnson. Booth was killed by soldiers when he failed to surrender. Eight conspirators were tried and convicted for their role in the conspiracy by a military tribunal, including Powell and Atzerodt. Four defendants were executed for their roles including Powell, Azterodt and Mary Surratt, the first woman ever to be hanged by the U.S. government, whom historians mostly conclude was innocent.\n* May 4, 1886: Haymarket affair – An unknown person or persons at Haymarket Square in Chicago detonated a bomb during a labor rally, killing a police officer and prompting the police to open fire. In the mayhem, an undetermined number of civilians and seven more police officers were killed, mostly by the police shooting in response. Eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy, and four of them hanged the next year. One killed himself, and the remaining three were later pardoned.\n* October 28, 1893: Carter Harrison assassination-Patrick Eugene Joseph Prendergast was upset that the Mayor of Chicago, Carter Harrison, Sr., advocated for the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, seeing it as an action against the citizenry and acting under the influence of England, the Rothschild bankers of Europe, and Wall St. Prendergast imagined this as part of a larger conspiracy that betrayed the will of Jesus Christ. As a delusional newspaper man, he found himself unable to influence policy in Washington or Chicago and ultimately took it upon himself to change the course of history by assassinating the powerful mayor. He felt that his inevitable acquittal would establish a precedent wherein Christian law would be established throughout the city. Prendergast was found sane by a jury and hanged on July 14, 1894. \n\n1900–59\n\n* September 6, 1901: President William McKinley was assassinated by Michigan-born anarchist Leon Czolgosz, in Buffalo, New York.\n* December 30, 1905: Former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg was killed by a bomb in front of his Caldwell, Idaho home. The assassin, Harry Orchard, turned state's evidence and accused the Western Federation of Miners of having hired him to assassinate Steunenberg in retaliation for breaking up miners' strikes. However, the labor leaders put on trial due to his accusations were acquitted as defense attorneys Clarence Darrow and Edmund F. Richardson successfully discredited Orchard's testimony. \n* October 1, 1910: Los Angeles Times bombing. The Los Angeles Times building in Los Angeles was destroyed by dynamite, killing 21 workers. The bomb was apparently placed due to the paper's opposition to unionization in the city; two labor organizers, the McNamara brothers, were found guilty.\n* May 30, 1915: German agents blew up a barge carrying 15 tons of refined gunpowder just off of Harbor Island, Seattle, Washington. \n* July 2, 1915: Frank Holt (also known as Eric Muenter), a German professor who wanted to stop American support of the Allies in World War I, exploded a bomb in the reception room of the U.S. Senate. The next morning he tried to assassinate J. P. Morgan, Jr. the son of the financier whose company served as Great Britain's principal U.S. purchasing agent for munitions and other war supplies. Muenter was overpowered by Morgan in Morgan's Long Island home before killing himself in prison on July 7. \n* July 22, 1916: The Preparedness Day Bombing killed ten people and injured 40 in San Francisco. Two radical labor leaders, Warren K. Billings and Thomas Mooney, were convicted of the crime and sentenced to hang, but with little evidence of their guilt both sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. They were eventually pardoned, and the actual bombers' identities remain unknown.\n* July 30, 1916: The Black Tom explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey was an act of sabotage on American ammunition supplies by German agents to prevent the materiel from being used by the Allies in World War I.\n* November 24, 1917: A bomb exploded in a Milwaukee police station, killing nine officers and a civilian. Anarchists were suspected. \n* 1919 United States anarchist bombings: A series of package bombs were mailed to prominent business and government leaders around the country. Most were intercepted and did not go off, with only one person killed. Italian Galleanist anarchists were suspected, but not convicted.\n* 1920 Wall Street bombing: A horse-drawn wagon filled with explosives was detonated in front of the J. P. Morgan bank on Wall Street, killing 38 and wounding 143. Galleanist anarchists were again suspected, but the perpetrators were never caught. \n* May 31, 1921: During the Tulsa race riot, there were reports that whites dropped dynamite from airplanes onto a black neighborhood in Tulsa known as the Black Wall Street. The riot killed 39–300 people and destroyed more than 1,100 homes and hundreds of businesses. \n* May 18, 1927: The Bath School disaster (bombings) killed 45 people and injured 58. Most of the victims were children in the second to sixth grades (7–12 years of age) attending the Bath Consolidated School. Their deaths constitute the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history. The perpetrator was school board member Andrew Kehoe.\n* October 10, 1933: A Boeing 247 was destroyed in mid-flight over Indiana by a nitroglycerin bomb. All seven people aboard were killed. This incident was the first proven case of air sabotage in the history of aviation. The identity of the perpetrator and the motive for the attack are unknown.\n* July 4, 1940: Two New York City policemen were killed and two critically wounded while examining a bomb they had found at the British Pavilion at the World's Fair.\n* 1940–1956: George Metesky, the Mad Bomber, placed over 30 bombs in New York City in public places such as Grand Central Station and The Paramount Theatre injuring ten during this period in protest of the high rates of a local electric utility. He also sent many threatening letters to various high profile individuals.\n* 1951: A wave of hate-related terrorist attacks occurred in Florida. African-Americans were dragged and beaten to death, with 11 race-related bombings, the dynamiting of synagogues, and a Jewish School in Miami and explosives found outside of Catholic Churches in Miami.\n* October 12, 1958: Bombing of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple of Atlanta, Georgia. The acts were carried out by white supremacists.\n\n1960–69\n\n* 1960: The Sunday Bomber detonated a series of bombs in the New York City Subway. and ferries during Sundays and Holidays, killing one woman and injuring 51 other commuters.\n* August 1, 1966: Charles Whitman, the \"Texas Tower Sniper\", killed 16 and wounded 32 at the University of Texas before being killed by police.\n* April 1968: Students at Trinity College hold the board of trustees captive until their demands were met.[http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/37/87/c2.pdf Report of Presidents Commission on Campus Unrest/Scranton Commission 1970]\n* April 23–30, 1968: During a student rebellion at New York's Columbia University members of the New Left organization Students for a Democratic Society and Student Afro-American Society held a dean hostage, demanding an end to both military research on campus and construction of a gymnasium in nearby Harlem. \n* June 5, 1968: Senator Robert F. Kennedy while campaigning for U.S. presidency during the 1968 United States Presidential election was shot to death by Palestinian-Jordanian Sirhan Sirhan in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. (See Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy)\n* November 1968: Officials of San Fernando State College held at knife point by students.\n* January 1, 1969 – April 15, 1970: 8200 Bombings, attempted bombings and bomb threats attributed to \"campus disturbances and student unrest\"\n* February 1969: Secretary at Pomona College severely injured by bomb.\n* March 1969: Student critically injured while attempting to bomb a San Francisco State College classroom.\n* August 7. 1969: Twenty were injured by radical leftist Sam Melville in a bombing of the Marine Midland Building in New York City.\n* August 8, 1969: United States Department of Commerce offices in New York City was damaged by bombing.\n* September 18, 1969: The Federal Building in New York City was bombed by radical leftist Jane Alpert.\n* October 7, 1969: Fifth floor of the Armed Forces Induction Center in New York City was devastated by explosion attributed to radical leftist Jane Alpert.\n* November 12, 1969: A bomb was detonated in the Manhattan Criminal Court building in New York City. Jane Alpert, Sam Melville, and 3 other militant radical leftists are arrested hours later. \n\n1970–79\n\n* The most active perpetrators of terrorism in New York City were Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional (FALN), a Puerto Rican separatist group, responsible for 40 NYC attacks in this decade. The Jewish Defense League (JDL), which engaged in attacks against targets it perceived to be anti-Semitic, launched 27 attacks during this period. Both the Independent Armed Revolutionary Commandos (CRIA), another Puerto Rican separatist group, and Omega 7, an anti-Castro Cuban organization, were also each responsible for 16 attacks during this period. \n* April 1970: At Stanford University over a period of several nights bands of student radicals systematically set fires, break windows and throw rocks.\n*May 1970: In reaction to the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, Kent State shootings, and Jackson State killings a Fresno State College computer center was destroyed by a firebomb. While reaction to these three events was massive, most were peaceful.\n* August 24, 1970: Sterling Hall bombing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in protest of the Army Mathematics Research Center and the Vietnam War, killing one. Bombers Karleton Armstrong, Dwight Armstrong, David Fine, and Leo Burt claimed the death of physicist Robert Fassnacht was unintentional but acknowledged that they knew the building was occupied when they planted the bomb.\n* November 21, 1970: Bombing of the City Hall of Portland, Oregon in an attempt to destroy the state's bronze Liberty Bell replica. The late night explosion destroyed the display foyer, blew out the building doors, damaged the council hall, and blew out windows more than a block away. The night janitor was injured in the blast. The crime remains unsolved, though a number of local anti-war and radical leftist groups of the era remain the primary suspects.\n* 1970: The Jewish Defense League was linked to a bomb explosion outside of Aeroflot's New York City office in protest of the treatment of Soviet Jews. \n* 1971: The Jewish Defense League was linked to a detonation outside of Soviet cultural offices in Washington, D.C. and rifle fire into the Soviet mission to the United Nations. \n* March 1, 1971: The radical leftist group Weatherman exploded a bomb in the United States Capitol to protest the U.S. invasion of Laos.\n* June 1, 1973: Yosef Alon, the Israeli Air Force attache in Washington, D.C., was shot and killed outside his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The Palestinian militant group Black September was suspected, though the case remains unsolved. \n* June 13, 1974: The 29th floor of the Gulf Tower in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was bombed with dynamite at 9:41 pm resulting in no injuries. The radical leftist group Weatherman took credit, but no suspects have ever been identified. \n* Summer 1974: \"Alphabet Bomber\" Muharem Kurbegovich bombed the Pan Am Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport, killing three and injuring eight. He also firebombed the houses of a judge and two police commissioners as well as one of the commissioner's cars. He burned down two Marina Del Rey apartment buildings and threatened Los Angeles with a gas attack. His bomb defused at the Greyhound Bus station was the most powerful the LAPD bomb squad had handled up until that time. His personal vendetta against a judge and the commissioners grew into demands for an end to immigration and naturalization laws, as well as any laws about sex. \n* December 29, 1975: LaGuardia Airport Bombing killed 11 and injured 75. The bombing remains unsolved. \n* January 24, 1975: A bomb was exploded in the Fraunces Tavern of New York City, killing four people and injuring more than 50 others. The Puerto Rico nationalist group FALN, the Armed Forces of Puerto Rican National Liberation, which had other bomb incidents in New York in the 1970s, claimed responsibility. No one was ever prosecuted for the bombing.\n* September 11, 1976: Croatian terrorists hijacked a TWA airliner and diverted it to Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, and then Paris, demanding a manifesto be printed. One police officer was killed and three injured during an attempt to defuse a bomb that contained their communiques in a New York City train station locker. Zvonko Bušić who served 32 years in prison for the attack, was released and returned to Croatia in July 2008. In September 2013 Bušić shot himself and was given a hero's funeral by the Croatian government. \n* September 21, 1976: Orlando Letelier, a former member of the Chilean government, was killed by a car bomb in Washington, D.C. along with his assistant Ronni Moffitt. The killing was carried out by members of the Chilean Intelligence Agency, DINA.\n\n1980–89\n\n* June 3, 1980: Bombing of the Statue of Liberty. At 7:30 pm, a time delayed explosive device detonated in the Statue of Liberty's Story Room. Detonated after business hours, the bomb did not injure anyone, but caused $18,000 in damage, destroying many of the exhibits. The room was sealed off and left unrepaired until the Statue of Liberty restoration project that began years later. FBI investigators believed the perpetrators were Croatian seeking media coverage of living conditions of Croats in Yugoslavia, though no arrests were made.\n* July 22, 1980: Ali Akbar Tabatabai, an Iranian exile and critic of Ayatollah Khomeni, was shot in his Bethesda, Maryland home. Dawud Salahuddin, an American Muslim convert, was apparently paid by Iranians to kill Tabatabai. \n* August 26–27, 1980: Harvey's Casino Bombing in Stateline, Nevada. John Birges, Sr. built and placed a 1,000-pound sophisticated bomb in the casino in attempts to extort money from the casino in which he had lost a great deal of money. FBI and local bomb technicians responded to the event and during an attempt to render the device safe, inadvertently detonated the device. No one was killed or injured, however the casino suffered catastrophic damage. \n* December 7, 1981: James W. von Brunn served 6 years in prison for attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve at their headquarters in Washington, D.C. He testified his motive was to raise awareness of alleged \"treacherous and unconstitutional\" acts by the Federal Reserve. \n* January 28, 1982: Kemal Arikan, the Turkish Consul-General in Los Angeles, was killed by members of the Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide.\n* May 4, 1982: Turkish Honorary Consul Orhan Gunduz was assassinated in his car in Somerville, Massachusetts by the Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide.\n* November 7, 1983: U.S. Senate bombing. The Armed Resistance Unit, a militant leftist group, bombed the United States Capitol in response to the U.S. invasion of Grenada.\n* 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack: In what is believed to be the first incident of bioterrorism in the United States the Rajneesh movement spreads salmonella in salad bars at 10 restaurants in The Dalles, Oregon, to influence a local election which backfired as suspicious residents came out in droves to prevent the election of Rajneeshee candidates. Health officials say that 751 people were sickened and more than 40 hospitalized. All but one of the establishments attacked went out of business. Investigators believed that similar attacks had previously been carried out in Salem, Portland and other cities in Oregon. \n* June 18, 1984: Alan Berg, Jewish lawyer-talk show host was shot and killed in the driveway of his home on Capitol Hill, Denver, Colorado, by members of a White Nationalist group called The Order. Berg had stridently argued with a member of the group on the show earlier who was convicted in his murder.\n* October 11, 1985: Alex Odeh, a prominent Arab-American, was killed by a bomb in his office in Santa Ana, California. The case is unsolved, but it is thought the Jewish Defense League was responsible.\n* December 11, 1985: computer rental store owner, Hugh Scrutton, was the first fatality of the Unabomber's neo-luddite campaign.\n* March 1, 1989: 1989 firebombing of the Riverdale Press. The Riverdale Press, a weekly newspaper in the Bronx, New York, was firebombed one week after publishing an editorial defending author Salman Rushdie's right to publish The Satanic Verses, which questioned the founding story of Islam. \n* November 17, 1989: 1989 Harlem Nights movie theater shooting. Detroit suburban theater shooting that occurred simultaneous to a shooting scene in the film. Two men were shot and killed inside AMC Americana 8 theater in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, Michigan. Less than an hour after the shooting, police arrived and found a 24-year-old Detroit man who had shot at an officer. The gunman was wounded when the officer shot him back in the theatre parking lot. The incident caused the theatre chain to cancel showings of Harlem Nights. \n\n1990–99\n\n* November 5, 1990: El Sayyid Nosair, a member of an Islamist terror cell led by Sheik Omar Abdul-Rahman, disguises himself as an orthodox Jew in order to assassinate politician and Rabbi Meir Kahane by shooting him at point-blank range. Nosair is acquitted of Kahane's murder, but convicted of other crimes. In prison, Nosair admits to Kahane's murder.\n* January 25, 1993: CIA Shooting — Pakistani Mir Qazi (a/k/a Mir Aimal Kansi), outraged by U.S. policy toward Palestinians, opens fire on cars stopped at a traffic signal outside CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. He kills 2 and injures 3, then escapes to Pakistan. He is subsequently apprehended, confesses, is tried and executed.\n* February 26, 1993: World Trade Center bombing — Ramzi Yousef, a member of Al Qaeda, masterminds the truck-bombing of the World Trade Center. The bomb is meant to destabilize the foundation of the building, causing it to collapse and destroy surrounding buildings, leading to mass casualties. It failed to do so, but the detonation killed 6 people and injured more than 1000. \n* March 10, 1993: Murder of David Gunn — Army of God (United States) member Michael F. Griffin ambushes and shoots gynecologist David Gunn three times in the back outside the Pensacola Women's Medical Services clinic. Before murdering Gunn, Griffin shouts, \"Don't kill any more babies!\"\n* March 1, 1994: Brooklyn Bridge Shooting — Lebanese-born Rashid Baz ambushes and shoots up a van full of Jewish students returning from a visit with Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson. One student dies, 3 are injured. \n* July 29, 1994: Army of God (United States) member Rev. Paul Jennings Hill murders gynecologist John Britton and Britton's bodyguard James Barrett with a shotgun at close range, outside the Ladies Center clinic in Pensacola, Florida. Hill admits to the murder, is tried, convicted, and executed by lethal injection.\n* December 10, 1994: Advertising executive Thomas J. Mosser is killed by a mail bomb sent by Unabomber. Mosser is the second person murdered by Kaczynski.\n* December 30, 1994: Anti-abortion activist John C. Salvi III shoots and kills 2 employees and injures 5 others in a rampage attack at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Brookline, Massachusetts. Salvi escapes and drives to Norfolk, Virginia, where Army of God (United States) spokesman Rev. Donald Spitz resides.\n* December 31, 1994: Salvi attacks the Planned Parenthood clinic in Norfolk, Virginia. A security guard returns fire and Salvi flees. Salvi is apprehended shortly after, and has in his possession Army of God (United States) spokesman Donald Spitz's name and unlisted telephone number.\n* April 19, 1995: Oklahoma City bombing — Timothy McVeigh parks a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City which explodes killing 168 people, including 19 children. McVeigh and Terry Nichols are convicted in the bombing, motivated by their outrage over the FBI's handling of the Waco Siege.\n* April 24, 1995: Timber industry lobbyist Gilbert P. Murray, is killed in the third and final mailbomb attack by the Unabomber.\n* July 27, 1996: Centennial Olympic Park bombing Army of God (United States) member Eric Robert Rudolph places a three pipe bombs in a backpack, which he leaves in busy Centennial Olympic Park. The bomb is discovered by security guard Richard Jewell who raises an alert. One person is killed and 111 others are wounded in the explosion. Rudolph escapes and becomes a fugitive for 10 years. Rudolph's bomb is intended to force the cancellation of the Atlanta Olympics due to his outrage over legal abortion.\n* January 16, 1997: Army of God (United States) member Eric Robert Rudolph bombs a women's health clinic in Sandy Springs, Georgia. There are two bombs; the first meant to kill people inside the clinic, the second bomb placed in the parking lot and time-delayed to kill first-responders. No one was harmed by the first bomb, but six people were injured by the second. \n* February 21, 1997: Army of God (United States) member Eric Robert Rudolph bombs the Otherside Lounge, a gay bar in Atlanta, Georgia. There are two bombs; the first left on the outdoor patio, the second bomb left in the parking lot, time-delayed to kill first-responders. The initial explosion injures five, the second bomb is discovered and disposed of by the police bomb squad. Rudolph's motive for this bombing was his outrage over the existence of homosexuality. \n* February 24, 1997: Palestinian Ali Hassan Abu Kamal, opens fire on tourists from an observation deck atop the Empire State Building. He shoots 7 people, killing 1. He then kills himself. A handwritten note carried by the gunman claims this was a punishment attack against the \"enemies of Palestine\". \n* January 29, 1998: Army of God (United States) member Eric Robert Rudolph bombs a women's clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, killing 1 and critically injuring another.\n* August 10, 1999: Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting — white supremacist Buford O. Furrow, Jr., armed with an Uzi-type sub-machine gun, walked into the lobby of the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, California and began spraying bullets, wounding five. Furrow escapes and then kills a postal worker for being a minority and a federal employee.\"A Visitor from the Dark Side: The accused L.A. gunner drove into town on a high of delusion and self-destruction.\" Newsweek. 134.9. August 23, 1999. p32. Furrow surrendered himself to the FBI, and pled guilty to avoid the death penalty.\n* December 31, 1999: Four members of the Earth Liberation Front start a fire in Michigan State University's Agriculture Hall causing $1 million in damage. \n\n2000–09\n\n* October 10, 2000: 2000 New York terror attack. Three young men of Arab descent hurled crude Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in The Bronx, New York to \"strike a blow in the Middle East conflict between Israel and Palestine\".\n* October 13, 2000: Firebombing of Temple Beth El (Syracuse)\n* May 21, 2001: The Center for Urban Horticulture at the University of Washington burned by the Earth Liberation Front. Replacement building cost $7 million ($ today). Earth Liberation Front members pled guilty. \n* September 11, 2001: The September 11 attacks were carried out against the United States by the Al Queda Network, killing 2,507 civilians, 343 firefighters, 72 law enforcement officers, 55 military personnel, and 19 perpetrators. Four domestic commercial airliners were hijacked simultaneously while flying within the Northeastern United States; two flew directly into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the third into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and the fourth (thanks to the revolt by the passengers and crew members) into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, during a failed attempt to destroy its intended target in Washington, D.C., either the White House or the United States Capitol. The Twin Towers were ultimately destroyed, and the Pentagon received extensive damage in the western side of the building. Building 7 of the World Trade Center was also destroyed in the attack, though there were no casualties.\n* September 18 - November, 2001: 2001 anthrax attacks. Letters tainted with anthrax killed five across the U.S., with politicians and media officials as the apparent targets. On July 31, 2008, Bruce E. Ivins a top biodefense researcher committed suicide. On August 6, 2008, the FBI concluded that Ivins was solely responsible for the attacks, and suggested that Ivins wanted to bolster support for a vaccine he helped create and that he targeted two lawmakers because they were Catholics who held pro-choice views. However, subsequent evaluations have found that the FBI's investigation failed to provide any direct evidence linking Ivins to the mailings. \n* July 4, 2002: 2002 Los Angeles Airport shooting Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, a 41-year-old Egyptian national, killed two Israelis and wounds four others at the El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport. The FBI concluded this was terrorism, though they did not find evidence linking Hadayet to a terrorist group. \n* October 2002 Beltway sniper attacks: During three weeks in October 2002, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo killed 10 people and critically injured 3 others in Washington D.C., Baltimore, and Virginia. The pair were also suspected of earlier shootings in Maryland, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, and Washington state. No motivation was given at the trial, but evidence presented showed an affinity to the cause of the Islamic jihad.\n* 2003 Ohio highway sniper attacks A series of over 24 sniper attacks concentrated along the Cap-City Beltway I-270 in the Columbus Metropolitan Area caused widespread fear across Ohio and leaving one dead.\n* March 5, 2006: Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar injured 6 when he drove an SUV into a group of pedestrians at UNC-Chapel Hill to \"avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world\". \n* March 25, 2006: Capitol Hill massacre: Kyle Aaron Huff entered a rave afterparty in the southeast part of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood and opened fire, killing six and wounding two. He then killed himself as he was being confronted by police on the front porch of 2112 E. Republican Street. \n* July 28, 2006: Seattle Jewish Federation shooting, Naveed Afzal Haq, an American citizen of Pakistani descent, killed one woman and shoots five others at the Jewish Federation building in Seattle. During the shooting, Haq told a 911 dispatcher that he was angry with American foreign policy in the Middle East. \n* October 26, 2007: A pair of improvised explosive devices were thrown at the Mexican Consulate in New York City. The fake grenades were filled with black powder, and detonated by fuses, causing very minor damage. Police were investigating the connection between this and a similar attack against the British Consulate in New York in 2005. \n* March 3, 2008: Four luxury woodland houses near Woodinville, Washington were torched, leaving behind a message crediting the Earth Liberation Front. \n* March 6, 2008: Times Square bombing. A homemade bomb damaged an Armed Forces Recruiting Office in Times Square. In June 2013, The FBI and New York City police offered a $65,000 reward for information in the case and revealed that ammunition used for the bomb is the same as is used in the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones. On April 15, 2015, the F.B.I increased the award to $115,000 and said they have persons of interest \n* May 4, 2008: Multiple pipe bombs exploded at 1:40 am at the Edward J. Schwartz United States Courthouse in San Diego causing \"considerable damage\" to the entrance and lobby and sending shrapnel two blocks away, but causing no injuries. The FBI is investigating links between this attack and an April 25 explosion at the FedEx building also in San Diego. \n* April 8, 2009: According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, intruders left malware in power grids, water, and sewage systems that could be activated at a later date. While the attacks which have occurred over a period of time seem to have originated in China and Russia, it is unknown if they are state-sponsored or errors in the computer code. \n* May 31, 2009: Assassination of George Tiller: Scott Roeder shoots and kills Dr. George Tiller in a Wichita, Kansas church. Roeder, an anti-abortion extremist who believes in justifiable homicide of abortion providers, was arrested soon afterward. Roeder was convicted of the crime and sentenced to 50 years in prison in 2010. Tiller, who performed late-term abortions, had long been a target of anti-abortion extremists; his clinic was firebombed in 1986 and Tiller was shot and wounded five times in 1993 in a shooting attack by Shelley Shannon. \n* May 25, 2009: 17-year-old Kyle Shaw sets off a crude explosive device at a Starbucks at East 92nd Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, shattering windows and destroyed a bench at the coffee shop. There were no injuries. The attack was a \"bizarre tribute\" of the movie Fight Club, in an attempt to emulate \"Project Mayhem\", a series of assaults on corporate America portrayed in the film. Shaw took a plea agreement and was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison in November 2010. \n* June 1, 2009: Arkansas recruiting office shooting: Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad shot and killed one military recruiter and seriously wounded another at a Little Rock, Arkansas Army/Navy Career Center in an act of Islamic extremism. Muhammad, a convert to Islam, had visited Yemen for sixteen months where he spent time in prison and became radicalized. Muhammad, said he was part of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and was upset over the U.S. Army's murder of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, like the Kandahar massacre and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. \n* November 5, 2009: 2009 Fort Hood shooting: Nidal Malik Hasan, a US Army Major serving as a Psychiatrist, opens fire at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 and wounding 29. On August 23, 2013 Hasan was convicted by a Military tribunal. Hasan acted as his own attorney and took responsibility for the attack saying his motive was jihad to fight \"illegal and immoral aggression against Muslims\". On August 28 Hasan was sentenced to death. \n\n2010–present\n\n* February 18, 2010: Austin suicide attack: Andrew Joseph Stack III flying his single engine plane flew into the Austin Texas IRS building killing himself and one IRS employee and injuring 13 others. Stack left a suicide note online, comparing the IRS to Big Brother from the novel 1984.\n* March 4, 2010: 2010 Pentagon shooting: John Patrick Bedell shot and wounded two Pentagon police officers at a security checkpoint in the Pentagon station of the Washington Metro rapid transit system in Arlington County, Virginia.\n* September 1, 2010: Discovery Communications headquarters hostage crisis: James J. Lee, armed with two starter pistols and an explosive device, takes three people hostage in the lobby of the Discovery Communications headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland before being killed by police. After nearly four hours, Lee was shot dead by police and all the hostages were freed without injury. Lee had earlier posted a manifesto railing against population growth and immigration. \n* July 20, 2012: Aurora shooting. James Eagan Holmes opened fire inside a Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight screening of the film The Dark Knight Rises. The gunman, dressed in tactical clothing, set off tear gas grenades and shot into the audience with multiple firearms. Twelve people were killed and seventy others were injured, which was the largest number of casualties in a shooting in the United States until the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting.\n* August 5, 2012: Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting: Six people were killed and three others were injured, including a police officer who was tending to victims at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. The gunman, 40-year-old Wade Michael Page, killed himself after being shot by police. The shooting is being treated by authorities as an act of domestic terrorism. While a motive has not been clearly defined, Page had been active in white supremacist groups.\n* February 3 – 12, 2013: Christopher Dorner shootings and manhunt. Christopher Dorner, 33, an involuntarily terminated Los Angeles police officer, was named as a suspect wanted in connection with the series of shootings that killed four people and wounded three others. The rampage ended on February 12, 2013, when Dorner died during a standoff with police at a cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains. \n* April 15, 2013: Boston Marathon bombing: Two bombs detonated within seconds of each other near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing 3 and injuring more than 180 people. Late in the evening of April 18 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, an MIT campus police officer was shot and killed while sitting in his squad car. Two suspects then carjacked an SUV and fled to nearby Watertown, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. A massive police chase ensued, resulting in a shootout during which several IED's were thrown by the suspects. A Boston transit police officer was critically wounded and suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a Russian immigrant of Chechen ethnicity, was killed. The second suspect, Tsarnaev's younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, escaped. A \"Shelter in place\" order was given for Boston, Watertown, and the surrounding areas while house-to-house searches were conducted, but the suspect remained at large. Shortly after the search was called off Tsarnaev was discovered by a local resident hiding inside a boat parked in the resident's driveway less than three blocks from the scene of the shootout. He was taken into custody after another exchange of gunfire and taken to nearby Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he was treated for injuries received during his pursuit and capture. Tsarnaev was arraigned on federal terrorism charges from his hospital bed on April 22, 2013. Preliminary questioning indicated the Tsarnaev brothers had no ties to terrorist organizations. A note written by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the boat where he was captured said the bombings were retaliation for US actions in Iraq and Afghanistan against Muslims. On April 8, 2015, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty on all 30 counts related to the bombing and shootout with police. On May 15, 2015, Tsarnaev was sentenced to death. \n* April 16, 2013: April 2013 ricin letters: Two letters, sent to Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker and president Barack Obama, were tested positive for ricin. Each letter contained the message \"I am KC and I approve this message\". On April 27, 2013, a man named Everett Dutschke was arrested.\n* November 1, 2013: 2013 Los Angeles International Airport shooting: Paul Anthony Ciancia entered the checkpoint at the Los Angeles International Airport and fired his rifle, killing one Transportation Security Administration officer and injuring six others. The motivation behind the attack was Paul's inspiration of the anti-government agenda, such as believing in the New World Order conspiracy theory, and stating that he \"wanted to kill TSA\" and described them as \"pigs\".\n* December 13, 2013: 2013 Wichita bomb attempt: 58-year-old avionics technician, identified as Terry Lee Loewen, was arrested on December 13, 2013, for attempting a suicide bombing at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, where he was employed. Loewen became radicalized after reading extremist Islamic material on the Internet. He was arrested while driving a vehicle into the airport with what he believed to be an active explosive device. Later sentenced to 20 years in Federal prison. \n* April 13, 2014: Overland Park Jewish Community Center shooting: A pair of shootings committed by a lone gunman occurred at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and Village Shalom, a Jewish retirement community, in Overland Park, Kansas. A total of three people died in the shootings. One suspect, identified as Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr., a neo-Nazi neo-Pagan, was arrested and charged with capital murder, first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and aggravated assault.\n* June 8, 2014: 2014 Las Vegas shootings: Two police officers and one civilian died in a shooting spree in the Las Vegas Valley committed by a couple, identified as Jerad and Amanda Miller, who espoused anti-government views and were reportedly inspired by the outcome of the Bundy standoff. The Millers both died during a gunfight with responding police; Jerad Miller was fatally shot by officers, while Amanda Miller committed suicide after being wounded.\n* October 23, 2014: 2014 New York City hatchet attack: Zale Thompson injured two New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers, once critically at a Queens, New York City shopping district by striking them with a hatchet. Four officers were posing for a photograph when Thompson charged them. The police opened fire killing Thompson and injuring a civilian. Thompson who converted to Islam 2 years before the attack posted \"anti-government, anti-Western, anti-white\" messages online. \n* November 28, 2014: Austin, Texas: Right-wing and anti-government extremist Larry Steven McQuilliams set a fire at the Mexican Consulate and shot towards several government buildings. Police arrived on scene and shot him dead. McQuilliams had a prior criminal history including drug possession and robbery.\n* December 2014: \"The Guardians of Peace\" linked by the United States to North Korea launched a cyber attack against SONY pictures. Embarrassing private emails were published and the organization threatened attacks against theaters that showed The Interview, a satire which depicted the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Following the refusal of theater chains to show the movie, SONY Pictures withdrew release of the movie, a decision that was criticized by President Obama and others. Obama said the USA will respond. North Korea denied responsibility for the attack and proposed a joint investigation with the U.S. \n* December 20, 2014: Ismaaiyl Brinsley killed two New York City police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Brinsley was reported to have walked up and fired directly into the officers squad car. Other officers chased the suspect into a nearby subway station, where he committed suicide. Prior to the shooting, Brinsley had written Instagram messages calling for revenge attacks in response to the police killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. He also allegedly shot his girlfriend in Maryland earlier that day. \n* May 3, 2015: Curtis Culwell Center attack: Two gunmen opened fire outside the Curtis Culwell Center during an art exhibit hosted by an anti-Muslim group called the American Freedom Defense Initiative in Garland, Texas. The center was hosting a contest for cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Both gunmen were killed by police. A Garland Independent School District (ISD) police officer was injured by a shot to the ankle but survived. The attackers, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, were motivated by the Charlie Hebdo shooting in France and the 2015 Copenhagen shooting in Denmark earlier in the year. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the attack through a Twitter post. \n* June 17, 2015: Charleston church shooting: a mass shooting took place at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. The church is one of the United States' oldest black churches and has long been a site for community organization around civil rights. Nine people were killed, including the senior pastor, Clementa C. Pinckney, a state senator. A tenth victim was also shot, but survived. 21-year old Dylann Roof was arrested and later confessed that he committed the shooting in order to initiate a race war.\n* July 16, 2015: 2015 Chattanooga shootings: Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire on two military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He first committed a drive-by shooting at a recruiting center, then traveled to a naval reserve center and continued firing. He was killed by police in a gunfight. Four Marines were killed immediately, and another Marine, a Navy sailor, and a police officer were wounded; the sailor died from his injuries two days later. The motive of the shootings is currently under investigation. \n* November 27, 2015: Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting: Robert L. Dear, armed with an assault-style rifle opened fire at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic. Two civilians and one police officer were killed, and four civilians and five police officers were wounded before the suspect surrendered. Dear told police \"No more baby parts\" after being taken into custody. \n* December 2, 2015: 2015 San Bernardino attack: A mass shooting occurred at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, with 14 dead and 22 injured. Two suspects, Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, fled in an SUV, but were later killed. \n* June 12, 2016: 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting: 49 people were killed and 53 were injured in a terrorist attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The nightclub shooting is currently the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history. The sole suspect behind the slaughter was identified as Omar Mateen, an American-born citizen with Afghan immigrant parents who was later killed. The FBI asserted his possible link to radical Islam. \n* July 7, 2016: 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers: On July 7, 2016, Micah Xavier Johnson ambushed and shot twelve police officers and two civilians in Dallas, Texas, United States, killing five of the officers. Johnson was an African-American former Army Reserve veteran who specifically targeted white police officers, reportedly angry over recent police shootings of black men. \n\nAttacks by type\n\nOrganized KKK violence\n\n* 1865–77: Over 3,000 Freedmen and their Republican Party allies were killed by a combination of the Ku Klux Klan and well organized campaigns of violence by local whites in a campaign of terrorist violence that overthrew Reconstructionist governments in the south and reestablished segregation. \n* October 22, 1868: James M. Hinds, Arkansas congressional representative, was assassinated by a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Little Rock\n* November 10, 1898: In the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, white supremacists overthrew the biracial Republican government of Wilmington, North Carolina, killing at least 22 African Americans, marking the beginning of the Jim Crow era in North Carolina.\n* 1927: The Ku Klux Klan launched a wave of political terror in Alabama, attempting to undermine African American rights.\n* December 25, 1951: Harry T. Moore state co-coordinator of the Florida NAACP and his wife were killed by dynamite bomb in his Mims, Florida home. Despite extensive FBI investigation no one was arrested but Orlando KKK suspected.\n* June 12, 1963: NAACP organizer Medgar Evers was killed in front of his Mississippi home by member of the Ku Klux Klan.\n* September 16, 1963: 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. A member of the Ku Klux Klan bombed a Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls.\n* June 21, 1964: In the Mississippi civil rights worker murders, three civil rights workers were murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi by the Ku Klux Klan.\n* March 25, 1965: The Ku Klux Klan murdered Viola Liuzzo, a Southern-raised white mother of five who was visiting Alabama from her home in Detroit to attend a civil rights march. At the time of her murder, Liuzzo was transporting Civil Rights Marchers.\n* January 10, 1966: Vernon Dahmer died in the firebombing of his own home in Mississippi at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan.\n* November 3, 1979: Members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party fired on meeting of members of a Communist group who were trying to organize local African American workers in Greensboro, North Carolina, killing five. See Greensboro massacre.\n* March 20, 1981: Michael Donald was randomly selected to be lynched by two Ku Klux Klan members near his Alabama home. He was beaten, had his throat slit, and was hanged.\n\nLeft-wing extremism and anti-government\n\n* September 6, 1901: President William McKinley assassinated by Michigan born Russian-Polish anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, in Buffalo, New York.\n* October 1, 1910: Los Angeles Times bombing. The Los Angeles Times building in Los Angeles was destroyed by dynamite, killing 21 workers. The bomb was apparently placed due to the paper's opposition to unionization of its employees; the McNamara brothers were found guilty.\n* November 24, 1917: A bomb explodes in a Milwaukee police station, killing nine officers and a civilian. Anarchists were suspected.\n* 1919 1919 United States anarchist bombings\n* 1920 Wall Street bombing\n* 1969-1987: Weather Underground, a radical socialist movement, committed dozens of bombings and other terrorist activities over this time period. List of Weatherman actions\n* August 7, 1969: Twenty were injured by radical leftist Sam Melville in a bombing of the Marine Midland Building in New York City.\n* September 18, 1969: The Federal Building in New York City was bombed by radical leftist Jane Alpert.\n* October 7, 1969: Fifth floor of the Armed Forces Induction Center in New York City was devastated by explosion attributed to radical leftist Jane Alpert.\n* November 12, 1969: A bomb was detonated in the Manhattan Criminal Court building in New York City. Jane Alpert, Sam Melville, and 3 other militant radical leftists were arrested hours later.\n* 1971 - 1975: The New World Liberation Front was a radical left-wing group in the San Francisco area in the 70's who conducted multiple bombings in the Bay area over a 3-year period. They claim almost 50 successful bombings. \n* March 1, 1971: The radical leftist group Weather Underground exploded a bomb in the United States Capitol to protest the U.S. invasion of Laos.\n* June 13, 1974: The 29th floor of the Gulf Tower in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was bombed with dynamite at 9:41 pm resulting in no injuries. The radical leftist group Weather Underground took credit, but no suspects have ever been identified.\n* November 7, 1983: U.S. Senate bombing. The Armed Resistance Unit, a militant leftist group, bombed the United States Capitol in response to the U.S. invasion of Grenada.\n\nWhite supremacy\n\n* 1951: Wave of hate related terrorist attacks in Florida. Blacks dragged and beaten to death, 11 race related bombings, dynamiting of synagogues and a Jewish School in Miami and explosives found outside of Catholic Churches in Miami.\n* 1988: Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr. a Vietnam Veteran and who according to the Southern Poverty Law Center founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1980s served three years in Federal penitentiary for trying to assassinate Morris Dees founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The FBI found a cache of weapons in his home after they used tear gas to drive him out and arrest him. He testified against 14 White Supremacists as part of a plea bargain deal. \n* January 17, 2011: Spokane Bombing attempt\n* August 5, 2012: Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting: Wade Michael Page killed 6 people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin before being killed by police officers. During the investigation of the crime, police found out that Page was a member of white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations. With this evidence, the police concluded that racial hatred was the main cause of the murders.\n* June 17, 2015: Charleston church shooting: Suspect Dylann Roof carried out a mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, United States. The church is one of the United States' oldest black churches and has long been a site for community organization around civil rights. Nine people were killed, including the senior pastor, Clementa C. Pinckney, a state senator. A tenth victim was also shot, but survived. The FBI has not classified the act as terrorism, which was met with controversy.\n\nAntisemitism\n\n* October 12, 1958: Bombing of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple of Atlanta, Georgia. The acts were carried out by white racists.\n* June 18, 1984: Alan Berg, Jewish lawyer-talk show host was shot and killed in the driveway of his home on Capitol Hill, Denver, Colorado, by members of a White Nationalist group called The Order. Berg had stridently argued with a member of the group on the show earlier who was convicted in his murder.\n* August 10, 1999: Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting in Granada Hills, California of Los Angeles. 5 people were wounded in the Jewish community center and its daycare facility. The gunman, Buford O. Furrow had antisemitic and anti-government views and was a member of a Neo-Nazi group The Order. Shortly thereafter, Furrow murdered a mail carrier, fled the state, and finally surrendered to authorities. \n* June 10, 2009: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting: 88-year-old James Wenneker von Brunn, a white supremacist and neo-Nazi, walked into the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., shooting and mortally wounding Stephen Tyrone Johns, a security guard. Von Brunn was wounded when other museum guards immediately returned fire and on January 6, 2010, von Brunn died of natural causes at a hospital near where he was imprisoned awaiting trial. During the investigation it was discovered that von Brunn had planned to target White House senior adviser David Axelrod leading to increased protection for Axelrod and other steps. \n* April 13, 2014 Overland Park Jewish Community Center shooting: 3 killed 1 critically injured in shootings at Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and Village Shalom in Overland Park, Kansas. Suspect is 74-year-old Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr.. On April 27, 2015, Miller told the Associated Press he plans to plead guilty and his motivation was to \"put the Jews on trial where they belong\". \n\nPuerto Rican nationalism\n\n* March 1, 1954: United States Capitol shooting incident. Four Puerto Rican nationalists shoot and wound five members of the United States Congress during an immigration debate.\n* October 14, 1969: The Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN), a Puerto Rican nationalist group, claims responsibility for a small bomb explosion at Macy's Herald Square\n* January 24, 1975: FALN bombs Fraunces Tavern in New York City, killing four and injuring more than 50.\n* December 29, 1975: A bomb set off by FALN in East Harlem, New York, permanently disables a police officer while causing him to lose an eye.\n* August 3, 1977: FALN bombs exploded on the twenty-first floor of 342 Madison Avenue in New York City, which housed United States Department of Defense security personnel, as well as the Mobil Building at 150 East Forty-Second Street, killing one. In addition the group warned that bombs were located in thirteen other buildings, including the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center resulting in the evacuation of one hundred thousand people. Five days later a bomb attributed to the group was found in the AMEX building.\n* May 3, 1979: FALN exploded a bomb outside of the Shubert Theatre in Chicago, injuring five people.\n* March 15, 1980: Armed members of FALN raided the campaign headquarters of President Jimmy Carter in Chicago and the campaign headquarters of George H. W. Bush in New York City. Seven people in Chicago and ten people in New York were tied up as the offices were vandalized before the FALN members fled. A few days later, Carter delegates in Chicago received threatening letters from FALN.\n* May 16, 1981: One was killed in an explosion in the toilets at the Pan Am terminal at New York's JFK airport. The bombing is claimed by the Puerto Rican Resistance Army. \n* December 31, 1982: FALN explodes bombs outside of the 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, Federal Bureau of Investigation Headquarters and a United States courthouse in Brooklyn. Three New York Police Department police officers are blinded with one officer losing both eyes. All three officers sustained other serious injuries trying to defuse a second Federal Plaza bomb. \n\nPalestinian militancy\n\n* March 4, 1973: A failed terrorist attack by Palestinian group Black September, with car bombings in New York City while Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir was visiting the city\n* June 1, 1973: Yosef Alon, the Israeli Air Force attache in Washington, D.C., was shot and killed outside his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Palestinian militant group Black September is suspected, though the case remains unsolved.\n* July 1, 1973: Bethesda, MD, An Israeli diplomat is gunned down in his driveway by Palestinian activist.\n\nBlack radicalism \n\n* October 22, 1970: An antipersonnel time bomb explodes outside a San Francisco church, showering steel shrapnel on mourners of a patrolman slain in a bank holdup; no one is injured. The Black Liberation Army is suspected. \n* 1971: During this year the Black Liberation Army is suspected of killing three policemen one at his desk in San Francisco, shooting four others and opening fire on three patrol cars and rolling a grenade which heavily damages a police car and injures two officers. An attempt is made to bomb a police station. These incidents happen in various cities around the country. In August the group runs a one-month-long guerrilla warfare school in Fayetteville, Georgia. Seven are arrested in January 2007 in connection with the San Francisco desk shooting incident. \n* January 22, 1972: Two New York City policemen, Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie, are shot in the back by at least three persons; four suspects in the case are members of the Black Liberation Army; one suspect is later killed in a street battle with police; the recovered pistol matches Laurie's.\n* December 28, 1972: A Brooklyn, New York bartender is held for $12000 ransom by the Black Liberation Army.\n* January 7, 1973: After shooting a police officer a week earlier Mark Essex a former Black Panther party member shoots nineteen people, ten of them police officers, in retaliation for police killings in and around a Howard Johnson's hotel in New Orleans. He also set fires in the hotel before being killed by police.\n* 1973: A New York City transit detective is killed and ten law enforcement personnel are shot four by machine gun during the year mostly in and around New York City by the Black Liberation Army. Also two members of that organization are arrested with a car full of explosives. In the next few years there are a number of violent incidents involving this organization but they are more criminal in nature. \n* December 7, 1993: The Long Island Rail Road massacre, a man guns down white passengers on a train. \n* 2006 Sears Tower plot\n* July 7, 2016: 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers: On July 7, 2016, Micah Xavier Johnson ambushed and shot twelve police officers and two civilians in Dallas, Texas, United States, killing five of the officers. Johnson was an African-American former Army Reserve veteran who specifically targeted white police officers, reportedly angry over recent police shootings of black men.\n\nJewish extremism\n\n*see Jewish Defense League\n\nRight-wing extremism and anti-government\n\n* April 19, 1995: Oklahoma City bombing: A truck bomb shattered the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. Right-wing terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were convicted in the bombing.\n* July 27, 1996: Centennial Olympic Park bombing by Eric Robert Rudolph occurred in Atlanta, Georgia, during the Atlanta Olympics. One person was killed and 111 injured. In a statement released in 2005 Rudolph said the motive was to protest abortion and the \"global socialist\" Olympic Movement.\n* May 2002: Lucas John Helder rigged pipe bombs in private mailboxes to explode when the boxes were opened. He injured 6 people in Nebraska, Colorado, Texas, Illinois, and Iowa. His motivation was to garner media attention so that he could spread a message denouncing government control over daily lives and the illegality of marijuana, as well as promote astral projection.\n* July 27, 2008: Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting: Jim David Adkisson enters the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee with a shotgun, killing two and injuring several congregants before being tackled to the ground. Adkisson stated to the police and in a manifesto that he desired to kill Democrats, liberals, African Americans and homosexuals. Adkisson pleaded guilty to the crime in February 2009 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. \n* November 1, 2013 2013 Los Angeles International Airport shooting: 23-year-old Paul Ciancia kills a Transportation Security Administration agent and wounds 7 others, 3 of them TSA agents. Ciancia was shot and taken into custody. A note found in Ciancia's pocket said he believed he was a patriot and wanted to kill \"patriot\" upset at former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and that he wanted to kill \"TSA and pigs\". \n* June 8, 2014: Two Las Vegas police officers while eating pizza in a restaurant and one civilian were shot to death allegedly by Jerad and Amanda Miller a married couple in a suicide attack. A Gadsden flag, swastika and a note promising \"revolution,\" was placed on the deceased officers bodies. The couple were thrown out a patriot group defending rancher Cliven Bundy. The Millers were both killed in a shootout with police on the same day. \n* September 16, 2014: Eric Matthew Frein described as a survivalist is alleged to have killed a Pennsylvania State trooper and critically wounded another at the Blooming Grove barracks. Life was disrupted in the region during the ensuing manhunt. On October 30 Frein was captured near an abandoned airport hangar and was shackled with the handcuff belonging to the trooper he is accused of killing. Prosecutors said they would pursue the death penalty. \n\nAnti-abortion violence\n \n\n* 1982: Three men identifying as the Army of God kidnapped Hector Zevallos (a doctor and clinic owner) and his wife, Rosalee Jean, holding them for eight days.\n* 1983: Joseph Grace set the Hillcrest clinic in Norfolk, Virginia ablaze. He was arrested while sleeping in his van a few blocks from the clinic when an alert patrol officer noticed the smell of kerosene.\n* 1984: Two men entered a Birmingham, Alabama clinic on Mother's Day weekend shortly after a lone woman opened the doors at 7:25 A.M. Forcing their way into the clinic, one of the men threatened the woman if she tried to prevent the attack while the other, wielding a sledgehammer, did between $7,500 and $8,500 of damage to suction equipment. The man who damaged the equipment was later identified as Father Edward Markley. Father Markley is a Benedictine priest who was the Birmingham diocesan \"Coordinator for Pro-Life Activities\". Markley was convicted of first-degree criminal mischief and second-degree burglary. His accomplice has never been identified. The following month (near Father's Day), Markley entered a women's health center in Huntsville, Alabama (see above).\n* 1984: An abortion clinic and two physicians' offices in Pensacola, Florida, were bombed in the early morning of Christmas Day by a quartet of young people (Matt Goldsby, Jimmy Simmons, Kathy Simmons, Kaye Wiggins) who later called the bombings \"a gift to Jesus on his birthday.\" The clinic, the Ladies Center, would later be the site of the murder of Dr. John Britton and James Barrett in 1994 and a firebombing in 2012.\n* 1987: Eight members of the Bible Missionary Fellowship, a fundamentalist church in Santee, California, attempted to bomb the Alvarado Medical Center abortion clinic. Church member Cheryl Sullenger procured gunpowder, bomb materials, and a disguise for co-conspirator Eric Everett Svelmoe, who planted a gasoline bomb. It was placed at the premises but failed to detonate as the fuse was blown out by wind.\n* 1989: A fire was started at the Feminist Health Center clinic in Concord NH on the day U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Missouri law banning funding of public facilities as related to abortion. The clinic was set afire again in 2000.\n* 1993: Blue Mountain Clinic in Missoula, Montana; at around 1 a.m., an arsonist snuck onto the premises and firebombed the clinic. The perpetrator, a Washington man, was ultimately caught, convicted and imprisoned. The facility was a near-total loss, but all of the patients' records, though damaged, survived the fire in metal file cabinets.\n* 1993: David Gunn was murdered by anti-abortion activist Michael F. Griffin\n* 1993: Dr. George Tiller was shot outside of an abortion facility in Wichita, Kansas. Shelley Shannon was charged with the crime and received an 11-year prison sentence (20 years were later added for arson and acid attacks on clinics).\n* 1994: Abortion provider John Britton and James Barrett (both killed) and his wife June (shot but not killed) became victims of Reverend Paul Jennings Hill.\n* 1994: Two receptionists, Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, were killed in two clinic attacks in Brookline, Massachusetts. 5 others critically injured. John Salvi was arrested and confessed to the killings. He died in prison and guards found his body under his bed with a plastic garbage bag tied around his head. Salvi had also confessed to a non-lethal attack in Norfolk, Virginia days before the Brookline killings.\n* 1996–98: anti-abortion extremist Eric Rudolph cited biblical passages as his motivation for a series of bombings, including Atlanta's Olympic Centennial Park, a Lesbian bar, and several abortion clinics. Rudolph acknowledges his attacks were religiously motivated, but denies that his brief association with the racist Christian Identity movement was a motivation for his attacks.\n* 1996: Dr. Calvin Jackson of New Orleans, Louisiana was stabbed 15 times, losing 4 pints of blood. Donald Cooper was charged with second degree attempted murder and was sentenced to 20 years. \"Donald Cooper's Day of Violence\", by Kara Lowentheil, Choice! Magazine, December 21, 2004\n* 1997: Dr. David Gandell of Rochester, New York was injured by flying glass when a shot was fired through the window of his home by an anti-abortion Christian extremist.\n* 1997: Eric Rudolph admitted, as part of a plea deal for the Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Olympic Games to placing a pair of bombs that exploded at the Northside Family Planning Services clinic in the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs.\n* 1998: Three people were seriously injured when acid was poured at the entrances of five abortion clinics in Miami, Florida.\n* 1998: Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer who worked as a security guard at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, was killed when his workplace was bombed. Eric Rudolph admitted responsibility; he was also charged with three Atlanta bombings: the 1997 bombing of an abortion center, the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing, and another of a lesbian nightclub. He was charged with the crimes and received two life sentences as a result.\n* 1998: Emily Lyons, a nurse, was severely injured, and lost an eye, in the Christian extremist \"anti-abortion\" bombing which also killed off-duty police officer Robert Sanderson.\n* 1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian was shot to death with a high-powered rifle at his home in Amherst, New York. His was the last in a series of similar shootings against providers in Canada and northern New York State which were all likely committed by James Kopp. Kopp was convicted of Slepian's murder after being apprehended in France in 2001. \n* 1998: James Kopp killed at least one and went on a series of anti-abortion shooting sprees, both in the U.S. and Canada.\n* 1999: Martin Uphoff set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, causing US$100 worth of damage. He was later sentenced to 60 months in prison.\n* 2000: An arson at a clinic in Concord, New Hampshire, resulted in several thousand dollars' worth of damage. The case remains unsolved. This was the second arson at the clinic.\n* 2000: John Earl, a Catholic priest, drove his car into the Northern Illinois Health Clinic after learning that the FDA had approved the drug RU-486. He pulled out an ax before being forced to the ground by the owner of the building, who fired two warning shots from a shotgun.\n* 2001: An unsolved bombing at a clinic in Tacoma, Washington, destroyed a wall, resulting in $6,000 in damages.\n* 2005: A clinic Palm Beach, Florida, was the target of an arson. The case remains open.\n* 2005: Patricia Hughes and Jeremy Dunahoe threw a Molotov cocktail at a clinic in Shreveport, Louisiana. The device missed the building and no damage was caused. In August 2006, Hughes was sentenced to six years in prison, and Dunahoe to one year. Hughes claimed the bomb was a \"memorial lamp\" for an abortion she had had there.\n* 2006: David McMenemy of Rochester Hills, Michigan, crashed his car into the Edgerton Women's Care Center in Davenport, Iowa. He then doused the lobby in gasoline and started a fire. McMenemy committed these acts in the belief that the center was performing abortions; however, Edgerton is not an abortion clinic. Time magazine listed the incident in a \"Top 10 Inept Terrorist Plots\" list.\n* 2007: A package left at a women's health clinic in Austin, Texas, contained an explosive device capable of inflicting serious injury or death. A bomb squad detonated the device after evacuating the building. Paul Ross Evans (who had a criminal record for armed robbery and theft) was found guilty of the crime.\n* 2007: An unidentified person deliberately set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Virginia Beach, Virginia.\n* 2007: Chad Altman and Sergio Baca were arrested for the arson of Dr. Curtis Boyd's clinic in Albuquerque. Baca's girlfriend had scheduled an appointment for an abortion at the clinic.\n* 2009: Matthew L. Derosia, 32, who was reported to have had a history of mental illness rammed an SUV into the front entrance of a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota.\n* 2009: Anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder killed George Tiller in Kansas. \n* 2012: Bobby Joe Rogers, 41, firebombed the American Family Planning Clinic in Pensacola, Florida, with a Molotov cocktail; the fire gutted the building. Rogers told investigators that he was motivated to commit the crime by his opposition to abortion, and that what more directly prompted the act was seeing a patient enter the clinic during one of the frequent anti-abortion protests there. The clinic had previously been bombed at Christmas in 1984 and was the site of the murder of Dr. John Britton and James Barrett in 1994.\n* 2012: A bomb exploded on the windowsill of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, resulting in a fire that damaged one of the clinic's examination rooms. No injuries were reported.\n* 2015: Robert Lewis Dear kills 3 people in a shooting at a Planned Parenthood Clinic. At his court hearings Dear declared himself a \"warrior for the babies\". \n\nIslamic extremism\n\n* April 14, 1972 (New York, NY): Ten members of a local mosque phone in a false alarm and then ambush responding officers, killing one.\n* 1973 - 1974 (Oakland, CA): Series of shootings by a radicalized group claiming affiliation to \"Nation of Islam\".\n* March 9, 1977 (Washington, DC): Hanifi Muslims storm three buildings including a B'nai B'rith to hold 134 people hostage. At least two innocents were shot and one died.\n* January 25, 1993 (Langley, VA): A Pakistani with Mujahideen ties guns down two CIA agents outside of the headquarters.\n* February 26, 1993 (New York, NY): Islamic terrorists detonate a massive truck bomb under the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring over 1,000 in an effort to collapse the towers.\n* March 1, 1994 (Brooklyn, NY): A Muslim gunman targets a van packed with Jewish boys, killing a 16-year-old.\n* March 23, 1997 (New York, NY): A Palestinian leaves an anti-Jewish suicide note behind and travels to the top of the Empire State building where he shoots seven people in a Fedayeen attack.\n* September 11, 2001 (New York, NY): Islamic hijackers steer two planes packed with fuel and passengers into the World Trade Center, killing hundreds on impact and eventually killing thousands when the towers collapsed. At least 200 are seriously injured.\n* September 11, 2001 (Washington, DC): Nearly 200 people are killed when Islamic hijackers steer a plane full of people into the Pentagon.\n* September 11, 2001 (Shanksville, PA): Forty passengers are killed after Islamic radicals hijack the plane in an attempt to steer it into the U.S. Capitol building.\n* June 25, 2006 (Denver, CO): Saying that it was 'Allah's choice', a Muslim shoots four of his co-workers and a police officer.\n* July 28, 2006 (Seattle, WA): An 'angry' Muslim-American uses a young girl as hostage to enter a local Jewish center, where he shoots six women, one of whom dies.\n* June 1, 2009 (Little Rock, AR): A Muslim shoots a local soldier to death inside a recruiting center explicitly in the name of Allah.\n* November 5, 2009 Ft. Hood, TX A Muslim psychiatrist guns down thirteen unarmed soldiers while yelling praises to Allah.\n* September 11, 2011 (Waltham, MA): Three Jewish men have their throats slashed by Muslim terrorists.\n* February 7, 2013 (Buena Vista, NJ): A Muslim targets and beheads two Christian Coptic immigrants.\n* April 15, 2013 (Boston, MA): Foreign-born Muslims describing themselves as 'very religious' detonate two bombs packed with ball bearings at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and causing several more to lose limbs.\n* September 25, 2014 (Moore, OK): A Sharia advocate beheads a woman after calling for Islamic terror and posting an Islamist beheading photo.\n* July 16, 2015 Chattanooga, TN A Muslim stages a suicide attack on a recruiting center at a strip mall and a naval center which leaves five dead.\n* December 2, 2015 San Bernardino, CA A Muslim shoots up a Christmas party with his wife, leaving fourteen dead.\n* June 12, 2016 Orlando, FL Omar Mateen shoots and kills 49 people and injures 53 more at a gay bar, the largest mass shooting in U.S. history.\n \n\nEnvironmental terrorism\n\nsee: Eco-terrorism\n* University of Washington firebombing incident\n\nDeadliest attacks\n\nThis list includes all known terrorist attacks in the United States which have killed at least 10 people.\n\nFailed attacks\n\n* November 25, 1864: Confederate Army of Manhattan Fires were set at 19 New York City hotels, P.T. Barnum's Museum, and 2 hay barges resulting in minor damage. Plot to burn down New York City organized by Confederate Lieutenant Colonel Robert Martin failed because the Greek fire incendiary devices were defective and the Lincoln Administration had been tipped off by a double agent and intercepted telegraph messages. After the conspirators found out the plot had been discovered they escaped to Canada. Confederate Captain Robert C. Kennedy became the only conspirator apprehended when he was arrested following his return to the U.S. Kennedy was tried by a military tribunal and hanged. \n* September 16, 1920: The Wall Street bombing: A suspected attempt to kill financier J.P. Morgan by exploding the first car bomb. Bomb was created by putting scrap metal and 100 pounds of dynamite on a horse-drawn cart and blowing it up on Wall Street. Morgan was out of town but 38 people were killed. Responsibility for the attack has never been firmly established. \n* June 1940: Two dynamite bombs were discovered outside of the Philadelphia Convention Hall during the Republican National Convention. A total of seven bombs were discovered in the greater Philadelphia area during this period. \n* November 1, 1950: Assassination attempt on President Harry S. Truman by members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party at the Blair House in Washington, D.C.\n* 1965 The Monumental Plot – New York Police thwart an attempt to dynamite the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell, and the Washington Monument by three members of the pro-Castro Black Liberation Front and a Quebec Separatist. \n* March 6, 1970: Three members of the Weather Underground are killed when their \"bomb factory\" located in New York's Greenwich Village accidentally explodes. WUO members Theodore Gold, Diana Oughton, and Terry Robbins die in this accident. The bomb was intended to be planted at a non-commissioned officer's dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The bomb was packed with nails to inflict maximum casualties upon detonation. See Greenwich Village townhouse explosion.\n* April 1971: Pipe bombs found at the embassies of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in Washington, D.C. \n* 1972: Two Jewish Defense League members were arrested and charged with bomb possession and burglary in a conspiracy to blow up the Long Island residence of the Soviet mission to the United Nations\n* March 7, 1972: 4.5 pounds of C-4 explosives found on a plane by New York City Police Bomb Squad.\n* March 6, 1973: 1973 New York bomb plot Explosives found in the trunks of cars were defused at the El Al air terminal at Kennedy Airport, the First Israel Bank and Trust Company, and the Israel Discount Bank, in New York City. The plot was foiled when the National Security Agency intercepted an encrypted message sent to the Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad to the Palestine Liberation Organization's office. The attacks were meant to coincide with visit of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Khalid Duhham al-Jawary of the Black September was convicted on charges relating to the attacks in 1993 and was released to immigration authorities in 2009. \n* September 22, 1975: Sarah Jane Moore tries to assassinate President Gerald Ford outside of the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. The attempt fails when a bystander grabs her arm and deflects the shot. Moore has stated the motive was to create chaos to bring \"the winds of change\" because the government had declared war on the left wing. \n* 1984: According to Oregon law enforcement there was an abortive plot by the Rajneeshee cult to murder United States Attorney for Oregon, Charles Turner. \n* April 1985: The FBI arrested several members of a Sikh terrorist group who were plotting to kill Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi when he visited New York in June.\n* April 12, 1988: Yū Kikumura, a member of the Japanese Red Army, is arrested with three pipe bombs on the New Jersey Turnpike. According to prosecutors, Kikumura planned to bomb a military recruitment office in the Veteran's Administration building in lower Manhattan on April 14, the anniversary of the U.S. raid on Libya.\n* June 1993: New York City landmark bomb plot. Followers of radical cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman were arrested while planning to bomb landmarks in New York City, including the UN headquarters.\n* August 1994: Two right-wing extremists, Douglas Baker & Leroy Wheeler, both members of the Minnesota Patriots Council, are arrested for making ricin, a deadly toxin. The two will later be convicted of attempting to poison federal agents. \n* March 1995: Charles Ray Polk is arrested while attempting to buy a quantity of plastic explosives and machine guns in order to assassinate four police officers and a female judge, and to use in a planned bombing of the IRS offices in Tyler, Texas. \n* November 9, 1995: Willie Ray Lampley, a self-proclaimed Prophet, along with his wife Cecilia and a family friend John Dare Baird, were arrested for a plot to bomb numerous targets, including the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, the Anti-Defamation League offices in Dallas and Houston, Texas, as well as a number of gay bars & abortion clinics. \n* December 1995: Tax protesters Joseph Martin Bailie and Ellis Edward Hurst attempt to blow up the Internal Revenue Service building in Reno, Nevada with a 100-pound ANFO bomb. \n* April 1996: Anti-government activist & survivalist Ray Hamblin is arrested after authorities find 460 pounds of the high explosive Tovex, 746 pounds of ANFO blasting agent, and 15 homemade hand grenades on his property in Hood River, Oregon during an investigation into a series of explosions in his storage sheds. \n* July 1996: Twelve members of an Arizona militia group called the Viper Team are arrested on federal conspiracy, weapons and explosive charges after planning to bomb a number of Federal office buildings, including one that houses the office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI. \n* July 1996: Washington State Militia leader John Pitner and seven others are arrested on weapons and explosives charges in connection with a plot to build pipe bombs for a confrontation with the federal government. Pitner and four others will be convicted on weapons charges, while conspiracy charges against all eight will end in a mistrial. Pitner will later be retried on that charge, convicted and sentenced to four years in prison. \n* October 1996: Seven members of the Mountaineer Militia are arrested in a plot to blow up the FBI's national Criminal Justice Information Services Division in Clarksburg, West Virginia. In 1998, leader Floyd \"Ray\" Looker, will be sentenced to 18 years in prison. \n* March 17, 1997: anti-abortion extremist Peter Howard puts 13 gas cans and three propane tanks in his truck, and drives it through the door of a California women's clinic in a failed attempt to fire bomb the clinic. \n* September 1999: anti-abortion extremist Clayton Lee Waagner was pulled over by the Pennsylvania State Police, but fled into the woods and evaded capture, leaving behind a stolen car that contained firearms, explosives, fake ID, and a list of abortion clinics. Later in September 1999, while on a self-described \"Mission from God\", he took his wife and their nine children on a cross-country road trip headed west in a stolen Winnebago, planning to murder various abortion doctors, beginning with one in Seattle, Washington. However, after crossing into Illinois his vehicle broke down, and Waagner was arrested when Illinois State Police stopped to investigate. Waagner was convicted on charges of interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle and for being a convicted felon in possession of firearms. Waagner later escaped and used a cross country crime spree to continue to fund his anti-abortion mission.\n* January 1, 2000: 2000 millennium attack plots, plan to bomb LAX Airport in Los Angeles\n* December 5, 2001: anti-abortion extremist Clayton Lee Waagner is arrested in a Kinko's while he was preparing to fax bomb threats to a mass list of abortion clinics.\n* December 12, 2001: Jewish Defense League plot by Chairman Irv Rubin and follower Earl Krugel to blow up the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California and the office of Lebanese-American Congressman Darrell Issa foiled.\n* December 22, 2001: British citizen and self-proclaimed Al Qaeda member Richard Reid attempted to detonate the C-4 explosive PETN concealed in his shoes while on a flight from Paris to Miami. He was subdued by crew and passengers with the plane landing safely in Boston.\n* 2004 financial buildings plot: Al-Qaeda plan to bomb the International Monetary Fund, New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup and Prudential buildings broken up after arrest of computer expert in Pakistan and plotters in Britain.\n* 2004 Columbus Shopping Mall bombing plot: A loosely organized group of young men planned to carry out an attack on an unnamed shopping mall.\n* September 11, 2006: A man rammed his car into a women's clinic that he thought was an abortion clinic and set it ablaze in Davenport, Iowa causing $20,000 worth of damage to the building. \n* April 25, 2007: A bomb was left in a women's clinic in Austin, Texas but failed to explode. \n* 2009 2009 New York bomb plot\n* December 25, 2009: British and Nigerian citizen and self-described Al-Qaeda member Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in flight over Detroit by igniting his underpants which were filled with the C-4 explosive PETN. He has been indicted in a U.S. federal court; charges include the attempted murder of 289 people. Several days later, Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen and Saudi Arabia claimed responsibility for the attempted attack. Addressing America, the group threatened to \"come for you to slaughter.\" On January 24, 2010 an audio tape that US intelligence believes is authentic was broadcast in which Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing. The intelligence officials expressed doubt about the veracity of bin Laden's claim. On October 12, 2011 Abdulmutallab pled guilty to all counts against him and read a statement to the court saying \"I attempted to use an explosive device which in the U.S. law is a weapon of mass destruction, which I call a blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims, for U.S. use of weapons of mass destruction on Muslim populations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and beyond\". \n* May 1, 2010 2010 Times Square car bomb attempt and plot: An attempted evening car bombing in crowded Times Square in New York City failed when a street vendor saw smoke emanating from an SUV and called police. The White House has blamed Tehrik-e-Taliban the Pakistani Taliban for the failed attack and said Faisal Shahzad aged 30, an American of Pakistani origin who has been arrested in relation to the incident was working for the group. In July 2010, the Pakistani Taliban released a video featuring Shahzad in which he urged other Muslims in the West to follow his example and to wage similar attacks. On May 3, Shahzad was arrested at Kennedy Airport as he was preparing to fly to Dubai. The device was described as crude and amateurish but potent enough to cause casualties. On May 13 the F.B.I. raided several locations in the Northeast and arrested 3 on alleged immigration violations. Several suspects were arrested in Pakistan including the co-owner of a prominent catering firm used by the US embassy. On June 21 Shahzad pled guilty to 10 counts saying he created the bomb to force the US military to withdraw troops and stop drone attacks in a number of Muslim countries. Shahzad said he chose the location to cause mass civilian casualties because the civilians elected the government that carried out the allegedly anti Muslim policies. On October 4, 2010 Shahzad was sentenced to life in prison. During his sentencing, he threatened that \"the defeat of the U.S. is imminent\" and that \"we will keep on terrorizing you until you leave our lands.\" Shahzad planned on detonating a second bomb in Times Square two weeks later. \n* July 21, 2010: Bryon Williams captured after shootout with California Highway Patrol with guns strapped on his body armor alleged to have confessed that he was on his way to kill workers at the American Civil Liberties Union and follow it up with and attack on Tides Center allegedly was angry with left-wing politics and inspired by conspiracy theories of Glenn Beck and hoped the attack would ignite a revolution. \n* January 17, 2011: Spokane bombing attempt: A small pipe bomb in a backpack designed to be detonated by remote control and spread shrapnel in a specific direction was discovered during a Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane, Washington. White supremacist Kevin Harpham is convicted and sentenced to 32 years in federal prison. \n* April 8, 2013: Letters believed to contain the poison Ricin were sent to President Barack Obama and Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker and a Mississippi Justice official. Tests on the granular substance found in the letters tested positive for \"low grade\" ricin.\n* April 25, 2013: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, told investigators that he and his brother discussed using leftover explosives to attack Times Square. According to NYC Police commissioner Raymond Kelly the plan was conceived after they attacked Boston and was foiled when their SUV ran out of gas as they tried to escape from the Boston marathon bombing manhunt. \n* January 15, 2015: Washington, DC. U.S. Capitol Terror Attack Stopped By FBI. Investigators say a 20-year-old Ohio man now in FBI custody wanted to set off pipe bombs at the U.S. Capitol as a way of supporting ISIS. Federal authorities identified the man as Christopher Lee Cornell, also known as Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah. Cornell, who lives in the Cincinnati area, allegedly told an FBI informant they should \"wage jihad,\" and showed his plans for bombing the Capitol and shooting people, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. The FBI said Cornell expressed his desire to support the Islamic State. Authorities say Cornell was arrested Wednesday after buying two semi-automatic rifles and about 600 rounds of ammunition, but an FBI agent says the public was never in danger.\n* May 3, 2015: Garland, Texas. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, roommates from North Phoenix, Arizona, were killed by a security guard when they started shooting at a building holding a Mohammad cartoon contest sponsored by Stop Islamization of America. A school security officer helping with security at the event was shot in the leg. \n\nAlleged and proven plots\n\n* November 1864: Plan by Confederate Lieutenant Colonel Robert Martin and the Copperheads organization Sons of Liberty to attack New York City and disrupt elections collapsed when the Sons of Liberty backed out upon seeing large numbers of Union troops.[http://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/inside.asp?ID\n103&subjectID=4 Terrorist Conspiracy: Hotel Bombings Lincoln Institute project of Lahrman Institute] \n* February 28, 1865 Dahlgren Affair: Alleged plot by Union General Judson Kilpatrick to burn down Richmond, Virginia and kill Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet. Allegations based on papers recovered by a 13-year-old member of the Confederate home guard. The authenticity of the papers have been a matter of dispute. \n* January 1940: The FBI shuts down the Christian Front after discovering its members were arming themselves for a plot to \"murder Jews, communists, and 'a dozen Congressmen'\" and establishing a government modeled after Nazi Germany. \n* March 31, 1943: Clarence Cull arrested and charged with attempting to assassinate President Franklin D. Roosevelt by suicide bombing. Cull blamed Roosevelt for lost convoys of Merchant Ships.\n* November 9, 1995: Oklahoma Constitutional Militia members arrested while in the planning stages for bombings of Southern Poverty Law Center, gay bars and abortion clinics. \n* January 1, 1996: Members of the Viper Team militia are arrested after they caught surveying government buildings in Arizona.\n* July 13, 1996: John J. Ford, 47, of Bellport, Long Island, a former court officer and president of the Long Island U.F.O. Network, and Joseph Mazzachelli plotted to poison local politicians with radium and shoot them if that did not work. They believed the government was covering up knowledge of UFO landings. \n* November 11, 1996: Seven members of the Mountaineer Militia are arrested in a plot to blow up the FBI fingerprint records center in West Virginia.\n* July 4, 1997: Members of the splinter militia group the Third Continental Congress are arrested while planning attacks on military bases which they believed were being used to train United Nations troops to attack U.S. citizens.\n* July 30, 1997: Two men who were planning to bomb the New York City subway the next day arrested. A resident of their apartment informed police after he overheard the men discussing the plot. \n* March 18, 1998: Members of the North American Militia are arrested in plot to bomb Federal Buildings in Michigan, a television station and an interstate highway intersection.\n* December 5, 1999: Members of the San Joaquin Militia are arrested on charges of plotting to bomb critical infrastructure locations in hopes of sparking an insurrection. The leaders of the group pled guilty to charges of plotting to kill a Federal judge.\n* December 8, 1999: The leader of the Southeastern States Alliance militia group is arrested in plot to bomb energy faculties with the goal of causing power outages in Florida and Georgia.\n* March 9, 2000: The former leader of the Texas Militia is arrested in a plot to attack the Federal Building in Houston.\n* February 8, 2002: Two members of Project 7 are arrested plotting to kill judges and law enforcement officials in order to kick off a revolution.\n* May 8, 2002: José Padilla, accused by John Ashcroft of plotting to attack the United States with a dirty bomb, declared as an enemy combatant, and denied habeas corpus. No material evidence has been produced to support the allegation.\n* July 26, 2002 2002 White supremacist terror plot: Two white supremacists were convicted of conspiring to start a race war by bombing landmarks associated with Jews and Blacks. \n* September 3, 2002: An Idaho Mountain Militia Boys plot to kill a judge and a police officer and break a friend out of jail is uncovered.\n* April 24, 2003: William Krar is charged for his part in the Tyler poison gas plot, a white supremacist related plan. A sodium cyanide bomb was seized with at least 100 other bombs, bomb components, machine guns, and 500,000 rounds of ammunition. He faces up to 10 years in prison. \n* May 1, 2003: Iyman Faris pleads guilty to providing material support to al-Qaeda and plotting to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge by cutting through cables with blowtorches. He had been working as a double for the FBI since March, but in October was sentenced to 20 years in prison.\n* August 31, 2005 2005 Los Angeles bomb plot: Kevin James, Hammad Samana, Gregory Patterson, and Levar Washington were indicted on charges to wage war against the U.S. government through terrorism in California. The men planned attacks against Jewish institutions and American military locations in Los Angeles during the Yom Kippur holiday. \n* February 21, 2006: The Toledo terror plot where three men were accused of conspiring to wage a \"holy war\" against the United States, supply help to the terrorist in Iraq, and threatening to kill the US president.\n* June 23, 2006: The Miami bomb plot to attack the Sears Tower where seven men were arrested after an FBI agent infiltrated a group while posing as an al-Qaeda member. No weapons or other materials were found. On May 12, 2009 after two mistrials due to hung juries five men were convicted and one acquitted on charges related to the plot. Narseal Batiste, the groups ringleader, was convicted on four charges, the only defendant to be convicted on all four charges brought against the defendants. \n* July 7, 2006: Three suspects arrested in Lebanon for plotting to blow up a Hudson River tunnel and flood the New York financial district.\n* November 29, 2006: Demetrius Van Crocker a white supremacist from rural Tennessee was sentenced to 30 years in prison for attempting to acquire Sarin nerve gas and C-4 explosives that he planned to use to destroy government buildings. \n* December 8, 2006: Derrick Shareef, 22, a Muslim convert who talked about his desire to wage jihad against civilians was charged in a plot to set off four hand grenades in garbage cans December 22 at the Cherryvale Mall in Rockford, Illinois. \n* March 5, 2007: A Rikers Island inmate offered to pay an undercover police officer posing as a hit man to behead New York City police commissioner Raymond Kelly and bomb police headquarters in retaliation for the controversial police shooting of Sean Bell. The suspect wanted the bombing to be considered a terrorist act. \n* May 1, 2007: Five members of a self-styled Birmingham, Alabama area anti-immigration militia were arrested for planning a machine gun attack on Mexicans. \n* May 7, 2007: Fort Dix attack plot. Six men inspired by Jihadist videos arrested in a failed homegrown terrorism plot to kill soldiers. Plot unravels when Circuit City clerk becomes suspicious of the DVDs the men had created and report it to authorities who place an informant in the group. In October 2008 one man pleaded guilty to charges related to the plot. On December 22, 2008 five other men were convicted with conspiracy to kill American soldiers but were acquitted of attempted murder. Dritan, Shain and Eljvir Duka were sentenced to life in prison. \n* June 3, 2007: John F. Kennedy International Airport terror plot. Four men indicted in plot to blow up jet-fuel supply tanks at JFK Airport and a 40 mi connecting pipeline. One suspect is a U.S. citizen and one, Abdul Kadir, a former member of parliament in Guyana. The airport was targeted because one of the suspects saw arms shipments and missiles being shipped to Israel from that locale. In a recorded conversation one of the suspects allegedly told an informant that \"Anytime you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States. To hit John F. Kennedy, wow.... They love JFK – he's like the man\". Plot unraveled when a person from law enforcement was recruited. On June 29, 2010 Abdel Nur pled guilty to material support charges. Due to health reasons Kareem Ibrahim was removed from the case and will be tried separately. On August 2 Russell M. Defreitas and Abdul Kadir were convicted for their role in the plot. \n* March 26, 2008: Michael S. Gorbey who was detained in January 2008 for carrying a loaded shotgun two blocks from the Capitol Building has been charged planning to set off a bomb after a device containing can of gunpowder duct-taped to a box of shotgun shells and a bottle containing buckshot or BB pellets was found in the pickup truck he was driving. The pickup truck was moved to a government parking lot where for a three-week period the device inside it went unnoticed. Michael Gorbey gets 22 years prison, but he insisted that police planted weapons. \n* October 27, 2008: Federal agents claim to thwarted a plot by two white power skinheads to target an African American High School and kill 88 blacks and decapitate 14 more (the numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic to white supremacists) and although expecting to fail try to assassinate Barack Obama. \n* May 20, 2009: 2009 New York City bomb plot Three U.S. citizens and one Haitian from Newburgh, New York were arrested in a plot to bomb a Riverdale Temple and a Riverdale Jewish Center in The Bronx, New York City in an alleged homegrown terrorist plot. It was also alleged that they planned to shoot down military planes operating out of Stewart Air National Guard Base also in Newburgh. One of the suspects whose parents are from Afghanistan was said to be \"unhappy that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by the United States Military forces.\" On October 18, 2010, the four were convicted on most of the charges brought against them. On June 29, 2011 three of the men were sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by a judge who criticized the governments handling of the case. A 2014 award-winning HBO documentary about the four, The Newburgh Sting, claimed that it was a clear case of entrapment and an egregious miscarriage of justice. \n* September 2009 New York City Subway and United Kingdom plot: Najibullah Zazi of Denver was indicted on charges of trying to build and detonate a weapon of mass destruction by purchasing hydrogen peroxide, acetone and other chemicals. He and two others allegedly planned to detonate the homemade explosives on the New York City subway system. On February 22, 2010 Zazi pled guilty to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support for a terrorist organization. Zazi said he was recruited by al-Qaeda as part of a \"martyrdom plan\". Zazi agreed to cooperate with authorities and has told them that the groups planned to walk into the Times Square and Grand Central stations with backpack bombs at rush hour and then choose which subway lines to attack. Several days later Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay high school classmates of Zazi were indicted and pled not guilty to charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support for a terrorist organization. On April 12 a fourth man was arrested in Pakistan. On April 23 Prosecutors said that two Senior Al Queda officials who were reportedly later killed in drone attacks ordered the attacks and Zarein Ahmedzay pleaded guilty to plot related charges. On July 7 five others were indicted including al-Qaeda leader Adnan Shukrijumah, and it was alleged the United Kingdom was also a target of the plot. While in Pakistan, Zazi, Ahmedzay and Medunjanin were allegedly recruited and directed by Shukrijumah, a former Florida student who is designated as one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, to conduct a terrorist attack in the U.S. On August 6 new charges were brought against Medunjanin and 4 others including Shukrijumah. Medunjanin pleaded not guilty. \n* August – September 2009: On September 24, William Boyd and Hysen Sherifi charged with \"conducting reconnaissance of the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia and obtaining armor-piercing ammunition with the intent to attack Americans\". Boyd, two of his sons and several other suspects had been charged on international terrorism charges in August, but at the time there was no indication that they wanted to plot a United States attack. An audio tape of Boyd decrying the U.S. military, discussing the honor of martyrdom, and bemoaning the struggle of Muslims was played at an August hearing. It is the first case of a ring of homegrown terrorists having specific targets. \n* September 24, 2009: Michael Finton/Talib Islam a 29-year-old man from Illinois charged with trying to kill federal employees by detonating a car bomb at the federal building in Springfield, Illinois. Charges based on F.B.I. sting operation. He is said to idolize American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh.\n* September 24, 2009: Hosam Maher Husein Smadi a 19-year-old illegal immigrant from Jordan charged with trying the bomb the 60 story Fountain Place office tower in Dallas, Texas. Charges are based on F.B.I. sting operation in which agents posed as members of an al-Qaeda sleeper cell.\n* January 7, 2010: Adis Medunjanin an alleged 2009 New York City Subway plotter attempts a suicide attack by intentionally crashing his car on the Whitestone Bridge in New York City. He is indicted for this on July 7. Medunjanin has since been charged for his role in an Al Qaeda plot to conduct coordinated suicide bombings on New York's subway system. \n* May 2010: Paul Rockwood Jr. a meteorologist who took official weather observations and his pregnant wife Nancy from King Salmon, Alaska compiled a list of 20 targets, including members of the military and media and had moved to the operational phase of their plan pled guilty to lying to FBI about the list and making false statements to the FBI. Under a plea agreement Mr. Rockwood will serve eight years in prison and three years probation while Ms. Rockwood will serve probation. Motive was revenge for alleged descecration of Islam. \n* September 20, 2010: Sami Samir Hassoun, 22, a Lebanese citizen living in Chicago, was charged with one count each of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted use of an explosive device after placing a backpack with what he thought was a bomb near Wrigley Field. Alleged plot was foiled by FBI informant. Hassoun discussed other ideas for mass destruction attacks with informant. \n* October 27, 2010: Farooque Ahmed, 34, a naturalized U.S. citizen indicted for conspiracy to bomb 4 Washington Metro stations with people he thought were al-Qaeda. \n* November 26, 2010: Mohamed Osman Mohamud a 19-year-old Somali-American is alleged to have attempted a car bombing at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon. The device was a dud created by the FBI. Motive is reported to be Jihad. On January 31, 2013 a jury found Mohamud guilty of the charge of trying to use a weapon of mass destruction. \n* December 8, 2010: Antonio Martinez, also known as Muhammad Hussain arrested after a sting operation in an alleged plot to bomb a military recruiting center in Catonsville, Maryland. The 21-year-old suspect is an American who converted to Islam. The suspect was reported to be upset that the military continues to kill Muslims. \n* December 21, 2010: Internet radio broadcaster Hal Turner sentenced to 33 months in prison after he published the work addresses and photographs of three judges who had upheld gun control laws and advocated for their assassination. \n* February 24, 2011: Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari a 20-year-old Saudi Arabian student arrested for building bombs to use in alleged terrorist attacks. Targets allegedly were home of George W. Bush, hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants, nightclubs and the homes of soldiers who were formerly stationed at the Abu Ghraib prison. In Aldawsari's journal he wrote he was inspired by the speeches of Osama bin Laden. Alleged plot uncovered when supplier noticed suspicious purchases. \n* May 11, 2011: In the 2011 Manhattan terrorism plot, Ahmed Ferhani resident of Queens, New York and native of Algeria and Mohamed Mamdouh aged 20 also from Queens and Moroccan native arrested in a lone wolf plot against a New York Synagogue that had yet to be chosen. It also alleged that they hoped to attack the Empire State Building. The pair were arrested after buying two Browning semi-automatic pistols, one Smith & Wesson revolver, ammunition and one grenade. The pair disguised themselves as Jewish temple goers and pretended to pray. The suspects were said to be \"committed to violent jihad\". \n* June 23, 2011: Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif and Walli Mujahidh of Long Beach, California are arrested on charges of buying machine guns and grenades and conspiring to attack a federal building housing a Military Entrance Processing Station in Seattle, Washington.Plot was uncovered by informent. Motive was to send message in protest of US action abroad. On April 8, 2013 Walli Mujahidh apologized and was sentenced to 17 years for his role in the plot. \n* July 27, 2011: AWOL U.S. Army Private, and conscientious objector, Naser Jason Abdo from Garland, Texas was arrested in an alleged plot against Fort Hood, Texas. Materials for up to two bombs were found with jihadist materials in Abdo's motel room. Investigation began when owner of a local gun store called police after becoming suspicious when Abdo asked questions indicating he did not know about the items he was purchasing. \n* September 28, 2011: Rezwan Ferdaus, a US citizen,was indicted for allegedly plotting to use remote-controlled aircraft carrying explosives to bomb the Pentagon and the US Capitol. He also allegedly planned to hire people to shoot at people fleeing the Pentagon. Ferdaus was said to be motivated by Al Queada videos and the alleged plot was uncovered by an F.B.I. sting operation. In July 2012 he pleaded guilty to plotting an attack on the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Under a plea bargain, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison and then 10 years of supervised release. \n* October 11, 2011: Operation Red Coalition. Alleged plot that was \"conceived, sponsored and was directed from Iran\" to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States Adel al-Jubeir with a bomb and bomb the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C. It is not known if Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had knowledge of the plot. The alleged plot was disrupted by an FBI and DEA investigation. The investigation began in May 2011 when an Iranian-American approached a DEA informant seeking the help of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador. Iran has denied the allegations. \n* October–November 2011: Georgia terrorist plot Four elderly men from a Georgia militia arrested for plotting to buy ricin in preparation for an attack they claimed would \"save the Constitution\". They allegedly discussed blowing up IRS and ATF buildings, dispensing ricin from a plane over Atlanta and other cities, and assassinating \"un American\" politicians. Informant used to break up alleged plot. \n* November 20, 2011: Jose Pimentel, aged 27, an American citizen and a convert to Islam from New York City arrested and accused of being the process of building pipe bombs (and one hour away from his building his first bomb) to target post offices police cars and U.S. military personnel returning from abroad in New York City and Bayonne, New Jersey. Was said to be a follower of the late al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki. The FBI did not consider Pimentel who was said to be radicalized via the internet by enough of a threat to investigate but NYC police considered him a 2 on a threat scale of 1 to 5. \n* January 7, 2012: Sami Osmakac a naturalized American from Kosovo arrested in plot to create mayhem in Tampa, Florida by car bombing, hostage taking and exploding a suicide belt. Allege bomb targets included by night clubs in the Ybor City, a bar, and the operations center of the sheriff's office and South Tampa businesses. Osmakac allegedly told an FBI undercover agent \"We all have to die, so why not die the Islamic way?\". Osmakac pled not guilty on February 8. \n* 2012 February 17: Amine El Khalifi a Moroccan man from Alexandria, Virginia arrested in alleged suicide bombing plot of U.S. Capital. Was arrested was a result of F.B.I. sting operation. As a result of a plea agreement El Khalifi was sentenced to 30 years in prison on September 14. \n* May 1, 2012: 5 self described anarchists were arrested in an alleged plot to blow up a bridge in Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Brecksville, Ohio. The group was being monitored as part of an F.B.I. undercover operation and had considered other plots previously. One of the suspects expressed a desire to cause financial damage to companies while avoiding casualties. \n* August 27, 2012: Four non-commissioned officers from Fort Stewart in Georgia, along with five other men, were charged in an alleged plot to poison an apple orchard and blow up a dam in Washington State, seize control of Fort Stewart, set off explosives in a park in Savannah, Georgia, and assassinate President Barack Obama. The alleged plot was on behalf of the \"FEAR\" militia for the long term purpose of overthrowing the government. \n* 2012 October 17: Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis age 21 arrested in plot to bomb the Manhattan office of the Federal Reserve Bank on behalf of \"our beloved Sheikh Osama bin Laden\". Motive was to destroy the economy and possibly force cancellation of the Presidential election. Suspect who has a student visa is a Bangladeshi national who come to the U.S. to launch a terrorist attack. Arrest was result a joint FBI-New York City police sting operation. Suspect was pulling detonator on disabled 1000 pound van bomb when arrested.[http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Federal-Reserve-Bank-Plot-NYC-Terror--174628031.html Suspected Terrorist Arrested for Alleged Plot to Bomb Federal Reserve in NYC WNBC4 October 17, 2012] On August 9, 2013 Nafis was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Prior to his sentencing Nafis wrote a letter apologizing to the people of America and New York for his actions which he said were caused by personal and family problems and said he is now pro American. \n* November 29, 2012: Raees Alam Qazi and his brother Sheheryar Alam Qazi of Florida naturalized citizens of Pakistani descent arrested for being in the aspirational stages of a plot to attack New York City. Raees Alam Qazi is alleged be inspired by Al Queda and of trying to contact terrorists abroad. On June 11, 2015 Reees and Sheheryar were sentenced to 35 and 20 years respectively for the plot and attacking federal officials while in custody. \n* June 19, 2013: Two middle aged upstate New York men Scott Crawford and Eric J. Feight arrested by FBI in alleged plot to target a political figure reported to be President Obama and a Muslim group deemed enemies of Israel by constructing and using an X-Ray Gun that was described by the FBI as \"useful and \"functional\". Obama was believed by the pair to be allowing Muslims into the country without background checks. Investigation was launched when a synagogue and the Ku Klux Klan whom Crawford was a member of told authorities that Crawford tried to recruit them to take part in the alleged plot. \n* December 13, 2013: Terry Lee Loewen, an avionics technician, was arrested for attempting to bomb the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. A Muslim-convert inspired by Anwar Al-Awlaki, he is alleged to have spent several months planning a suicide attack with a car-load of explosives.\n* 2014: Brandon Orlando Baldwin and Olajuwon Ali Davis allegedly plotted to kill St. Louis County, Missouri Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch and Ferguson, Missouri Police Chief Tom Jackson as well as bomb the Gateway Arch in reaction to the shooting of Michael Brown. The suspects were caught as a result of an undercover operation. \n* March 26, 2015: Hasan R. Edmonds, an Illinois National Guardsman, and his cousin, Jonas M. Edmonds, arrested in an alleged terrorist plot against a Northern Illinois military base. The alleged plot involved Hasan leaving the country and Jones using Hasan's uniform to gain access. Motive was to bring \"the flames of war to the heart\" of America. Alleged plot broken up by sting operation. \n* April 2, 2015: Two women from Queens, New York, 28-year-old Noelle Velentzas and 31-year-old Asia Siddiqui, arrested on charges of trying to detonate explosives in the US. They had purchased propane tanks. It is believed to be first case of a women only conceived terror plot in the US. Suspected busted by sting operation. Siddiqui alleged to have Al Quaeda contact. On May 7, the two pled not guilty. \n* April 10, 2015: the FBI arrested 63-year old Robert Rankin Doggart, of Signal Mountain, Tennessee, who ran as a congressional candidate in 2014. He was wiretapped explaining plans to raise a militia to burn down a mosque, school and cafeteria and gun down Muslims in an enclave called Islamberg in New York. He planned to amass M4 carbines, pistols, Molotov cocktails and machetes, saying \"We will offer [our] lives as collateral to prove our commitment to our God,\" and \"We shall be Warriors who inflict horrible numbers of casualties upon the enemies,\" and \"If it gets down to the machete, we will cut them to shreds.\" He has a Ph.D. from a diploma mill and an ordination from an ordination mill. He pled guilty on May 15, 2015. \n* June 17, 2015: Fareed Mumuni, 21 of Staten Island and Munther Omar Saleh, 20 of Queens arrested for allegedly trying to conspire to assist ISIS in committing an attack in the New York area. Both suspects allegedly charged at law enforcement trying to arrest them with a knife. \n* July 3–5, 2015: F.B.I. Director James Comey said his agency disrupted multiple July 4 weekend terror plots. \n* July 13, 2015: Alexander Ciccolo, 23, of Adams, Massachusetts a son of a Boston police captain arrested in plot to attack a state college and broadcast executions of students on the internet. Suspect who was turned in by his father is said to be inspired by ISIS and reportedly characterized America as \"Satan\" and \"disgusting\". Ciccolo has guns and possible bomb making equipment. \n* August 22, 2015: Kevin Norton, 18, and James Stumbo, 27 of Iowa were arrested in a plot to shoot up the 2015 Pokémon World Championships. The two posted status updates and images of their weaponry on social media, which were noticed by various Pokémon fans who treated them as supposed threats against the tournament. The two were arrested on charges of unlicensed possession of firearms and ammunition. The weapons recovered were a recently purchased Remington shotgun, an AR-15, a hunting knife and several hundred rounds of ammunition." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Mack_Trucks.txt" ], "title": [ "Mack Trucks" ], "wiki_context": [ "Mack Trucks, Inc., is an American truck–manufacturing company and a former manufacturer of buses and trolley buses. Founded in 1900 as the Mack Brothers Company, it manufactured its first truck in 1907 and adopted its present name in 1922. Mack Trucks is a subsidiary of AB Volvo which purchased Mack along with Renault Trucks in 2000. After being founded in Brooklyn, New York, the company's headquarters were in Allentown, Pennsylvania, from 1905 to 2009, when they moved to Greensboro, North Carolina. The entire line of Mack products is still produced in Macungie, Pennsylvania, with additional assembly plants in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Australia, and Venezuela.\n\nOperations\n\nCurrently, the company's manufacturing facilities are located at the Macungie Assembly Operations Plant in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania. Mack Trucks is one of the top producers in the vocational and on-road vehicle market, class 8 through class 13. It is also one of the most popular manufacturers of heavy-duty off-road trucks in the United States.\n\nMack trucks have been sold in 45 countries. The Macungie, Pennsylvania, manufacturing plant, located near its former Allentown corporate headquarters, produces all Mack products. The Mack MP-series engine, Mack transmissions, the TC-15 transfer cases, and rear engine power take-offs are designed and manufactured in Hagerstown, Maryland, which, according to local historians, was the original factory location.\n\nParts for Mack's right-hand-drive vehicles are produced in Brisbane, Australia, for worldwide distribution. Assembly for South America is done at Mack de Venezuela C.A., in Caracas, Venezuela. The Venezuela operation is a complete knock down (CKD) facility. Components are shipped from the United States to Caracas, and the plant then does the final assembly.\n\nIn addition to its Macungie manufacturing facility, Mack also has a remanufacturing center in Middletown, Pennsylvania, where it takes used parts and refurbishes them for resale and reuse.\n\n2008 restructuring plan\n\nOn August 14, 2008, Mack Trucks announced a major restructuring plan that included:News/Events: [http://www.macktrucks.com/default.aspx?pageid\n2601 Mack Plans Restructuring to Increase Competitiveness, Secure Long-Term Leadership Position]. – News Releases 2008. – Mack Trucks. – August 14, 2008. – Retrieved: 2008-08-15\n*Relocation of Mack's head office, product development, most support functions, and purchasing functions to Greensboro, North Carolina, in 2009. Mack's parent, Volvo Trucks, already has its North American base in Greensboro.\n*Assembly of all produced Mack highway vehicles in Macungie, Pennsylvania from 2008\n*Mack's testing facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania, being converted into a \"customer demonstration/reception center\" in 2010\n*Restructuring the parts distribution network by 2010\n*Later delayed to first quarter 2011\n*As of November 2009, assembly of Mack Highway products is planned to shift to the Macungie Manufacturing Division. All of Mack's product are assembled in Macungie.\n\nHistory\n\nCorporation timeline\n\nThis is a timeline of Mack Trucks history. Most of the information is taken from the Mack history page at MackTrucks.com, unless otherwise noted. \n\n*1890: John M. (\"Jack\") Mack gets a job at Fallesen & Berry, a carriage and wagon company in Brooklyn, New York.\n*1893: John Mack and his brother, Augustus F. (\"Gus\") Mack, buy the company John worked for.\n*1894: A third Mack brother, William C. Mack, joins his brothers in the company's operations. The Macks try working with steam powered and electric motor cars.\n*1900s: Inspired by Orville and Wilbur Wright, Willis Carrier and Henry Ford's inventions, John Mack has a vision of producing heavy duty trucks and engines.\n*1900: The Macks open their first bus manufacturing plant. The \"Mack bus\", ordered by a sightseeing company, is delivered.\n*1902: The Mack Brothers Company established in New York\n*1904: The company introduces the name \"Manhattan\" on its products\n*1905: Allentown selected as the home of main manufacturing operations, and headquarters. A fourth Mack brother, Joseph Mack, becomes a stockholder. Mack begins making rail cars and locomotives.\n*1910: The \"Manhattan\" trucks are since known as \"Mack\" trucks. Charles Mack, a fifth Mack brother, joins the company.\n*1911: The Saurer Motor Truck Company, headed by C.P. Coleman, had the rights to manufacture and sell heavy trucks under the Saurer brand name at its plant in Plainfield, New Jersey. On September 23, 1911, the Saurer Motor Truck Company merged with the Mack Brothers Motor Car Company of Allentown, headed by J. M. Mack, to form the International Motor Truck Company (IMTC). IMTC would continue to make and sell trucks using the Saurer name until 1918. The capitalization of IMTC was $2.6 million total ($1.6m for Saurer, or 61.5%, and $1.0m for Mack Brothers). \n*1912: Brothers John and Joseph Mack leave.\n*1919: The United States Army conducts a transcontinental project using Mack Trucks to study the need for national highway systems.\n*1922: The company name is changed to Mack Trucks, Inc. The bulldog is accepted as the company's corporate symbol.\n*1924: John Mack dies in a car crash in Weatherly, Pennsylvania.\n* 1932: While recuperating from an operation, Alfred Fellows Masury, Mack's chief engineer, carved the first bulldog hood ornament. Masury applied for and received a patent for his design; the bulldog ornament has adorned Mack trucks ever since.\n*1933: Mack Trucks helps in the building of many American structures, including the Hoover Dam.\n*1941: Fire Apparatus manufacturing moved from Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Long Island City, New York (in Queens).\n*1951: Fire Apparatus manufacturing moved back to Allentown, Pennsylvania, from Long Island City, New York.\n*1956: Mack Trucks, Inc., buys Brockway Motor Company. (Brockway ceases in 1977)\n*1966: Mack begins production at its assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. The facility closed in 1993.\n*1967: Mack Trucks becomes a part of the Signal Oil and Gas Company in a one-for-one exchange for cumulative convertible preferred stock. Later that year Signal changes its name to The Signal Companies, Inc.\n*1970: Mack moves into its new Allentown world headquarters.\n*1979: Renault buys 10% of Mack Trucks, Inc.\n*1982: Renault increases ownership stake to 20%, Signal lowers its stake to 10%.\n*1983: Mack Trucks conducts an IPO and issues 15.7 million shares of common stock. Renault increases holdings to 40%, while Signal reduces its stake to 10.3%.\n*1987: Renault reorganizes; Renault Véhicules Industriels buys Renault's Mack shares.\n*1990: Mack Trucks becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Renault Véhicules Industriels when remaining publicly traded shares acquired at $6.25 per share.\n*2001: Mack together with Renault Véhicules Industriels becomes part of Volvo AB of Sweden, the parent company Renault S. A. receives a 20% stake in the combined company. (In 2002 Renault Véhicules Industriels changes its name to Renault Trucks.)\n*2006: Mack has a record sale year.\n*2008: Mack announces relocation of corporate headquarters to Greensboro, North Carolina.\n\nMarket, model and products timeline\n\nThis is a timeline of Mack Trucks history. Most of the information is taken from the Mack History page at MackTrucks.com, unless otherwise noted. Photos of most models 1906–1978 available at. \n\n*1909: A junior model 1-1/2 ton truck is introduced.\n*1910: Mack delivers the first motorized hook and ladder firetruck used by the city of Morristown, New Jersey.\n*1914: The Mack ABs are introduced \n*1916: The Mack ACs are introduced. Ultimately, over 40,000 of these models are sold.\n*World War I: Mack delivers over 6,000 trucks, both to the United States and Britain's military. A legend surfaces that British soldiers would call for Mack Bulldogs to be sent when facing adversity.\n*1918: Mack becomes the first manufacturer to apply air cleaners and oil filters to their trucks.\n*1920: Mack Trucks are the first with power brakes on their trucks.\n*1922: Mack introduces first truck with drive shaft instead of chain 1922 Model AB\n*1922: International Motors Company develops gasoline-driven passenger railcar for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. A standard passenger railcar on top of a standard motor truck chassis, seating between 36 and 50 passengers, at a cost of $16,500. The car operates in a ten-mile (16 km) stretch between New Haven, and Derby, Connecticut. \n*1927: Mack's BJ and BB models built.\n*1932: The Bulldog starts to travel on the hoods of Mack trucks.\n*1934: Production of electric \"trolley coaches\" began, continuing only until 1943. A total of 290 trolley buses were built, with Portland, Oregon being by far the biggest customer (with 141 total).\n*1936: The Mack E series introduced. Mack Jr trucks introduced.\n*1938: Mack trucks is the first company to produce its own heavy-duty diesel engines.\n*World War II: Mack trucks were used by the military in various capacities, and the company built many heavy-duty trucks to help the allied forces win the day. From 1941 to 1945, the combined armed forces of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Canada took delivery of 35,096 total vehicles. The combat \"N Series\" (NB, NJU, NM, NO, NR, etc.) accounted for 26,965 of the total. Commercial type vehicles including: trucks, off-highway, fire-trucks, trailers, and buses, accounted for the rest. A total of 2,053 NO models alone were produced from 1940 to 1945. The 7 1/2-ton 6x6 NO was the most important specifically military model, and could be used as a transport or tractor for the 155 mm Long Tom field gun. Mack also built over 2600 power trains for tanks. The Allentown bus plant (5C) built Vultee PBY Catalina flying boats as well as components for the BT-13 Valiant Trainer and B-24 Liberator Bombers. More than 700 NJU (5-to-6 ton 4x4) models were in the hands of the U.S. Army by 1942. In 1939 & 1940 the French and British received several hundred NR4 and EXBU models. Mack Trucks ranked 63rd among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts. \n*1940: L Model series introduced, continuing until 1952.\n*1950: The Mack A Model series of trucks is introduced, produced until 1953.\n*1953: The Mack B Model series of trucks is introduced. 127,786 produced until 1966.\n*1955: The D Model low cab forward city delivery truck entered the market. Access to the engine compartment was possible by the Verti-lift cab. The cab lifted straight up hydraulically, guided by a forklift style mast behind the cab. Two styles of D Models were produced, the first styling had a square grille and no dress up trim. It was produced in 1955 and early 1956. The second styling included a styled grille, cab rear corner windows and stylish emblems and trim. The second styling was built from mid 1956 until the end of the D Model in 1958. A total of 832 D Model Mack Trucks were produced from 1955 until 1958.\n*1955: The military M123 10 ton 6X6 semi tractor went into production. Developed from the NO, it would be the US Army's standard until replaced by the M911 starting in 1976. \n*1956: Mack buys the tooling of the Ahrens-Fox Fire Engine Co. and introduced the Mack C Model cab forward fire engine which was an Ahrens-Fox design and the first of the \"Cincinnati Cabs\" ( later built by the Truck Cab Manufacturing Co. an OEM vendor builder of Cincinnati, Ohio), that have been the staple of the American fire service to this day.\n*1959: The first aluminum rivetted construction COE (cab-over-engine) family of trucks is introduced: The G Model which had a short production due to a striking resemblance to the Kenworth COE and Mack having the F Model ready for production. A total of 2181 G Model\n*1960: City of Hamilton, Bermuda buys first Mack built diesel-power fire truck in a B Model Chassis. \n*1962: The Second of the COE (cab-over-engine) family of trucks is introduced: The F Model all steel sleeper (FL) or non sleeper (F) is the first of this family of models for Mack.\n*1965: Mack releases the Super Pumper System, to be used by the New York City fire department. It would help put out 2,200 fires.\n*1965: The R Model Series introduced, to replace the B Model Series. Some R series models continue in production until 2005.\n*1966: The RL (for R-Western) model built at Hayward, California until 1981.\n*1967: The CF model Fire Engine introduced, replacing the C model. The CF was a cab forward adaptation of the cab over style commercial \"F\" Model cab. \n*1969: Mack patents the cab air suspension.\n*1975: Macungie plant opens, build the Cruise-Liner series until 1983.\n*1977: Super-Liner introduced, production runs for 15-years until 1993.\n*1978: Introduction of the low-cab-forward urban MC/MR series.\n*1979: Medium-duty model Mid-Liner introduced, built by Renault Véhicules Industriels in France. This lighter truck filled a gap at the lower end of Mack's spectrum, as they were almost unrepresented in the Class 6 segment. Before the introduction of the Mid-Liner, the smallest engine made by Mack had been the 210 hp diesel inline-six ETZ 477.\n*1982: Production of the MH Ultra-Liner model begins.\n*1988: Mack introduces the CH series for highway applications.\n*1989: E7 engine replaces E6 engine\n*1990: Fire Apparatus production ends.\n*1994: Mack introduces the LE (low entry) refuse vehicle.\n*1998: Electronic Unit Pump (EUP) replaces electronic fuel injection pump\n*1999: A new premium highway tractor is introduced: the \"Vision by Mack\".\n*2000: Mack builds 100 limited edition Visions with black paint and custom gold stripes and stainless badges for the 100th anniversary\n*2001: Medium-duty Freedom series introduced (built by Renault Trucks in France like its predecessor, the Mid-Liner series).\n*2001: Mack redesigns R Series dash with new gauges and buttons and door padding.\n*2001: Granite series for construction applications introduced.\n*2003: Mack pulls out of the medium-duty market and discontinues the Freedom series.\n*2006: Introduction of Pinnacle highway vehicle it is which was the replacement for the Vision highway product.\n*2007: A new product line is introduced to include Models LEU and MRU amongst others.\n*2007: Introduction of US07 compliant engines in all of its trucks. \n*2008: In March, Mack introduces the Titan, a heavy duty model with a 16-liter big-block MP10, the largest ever 6-cylinder engine from Mack, with 515, 565, and 605 hp models. \n*2010: In October Mack announced that a version of its Terrapro Cabover would run on natural gas using a Cummins Westport engine. \n\nProducts\n\nCurrent models\n\nNorth America\n\nList of current models produced for the North American market. \n\n*Construction Series:\n**Granite\n***Granite Axle Back\n**TerraPro Cabover\n*Heavy Duty:\n**Titan\n*Highway Series:\n**Pinnacle:\n***Pinnacle Sleepers\n***Pinnacle Axle Forward\n***Pinnacle DayCab\n***Pinnacle Rawhide\n**Granite\n**Smartway\n*Refuse Series:\n**LR\n**TerraPro Cabover\n**TerraPro Low Entry\n**Granite Axle Back\n**Granite\t\n*Military:\n**Granite Armored Line Haul\n\nAustralia, New Zealand and South Africa\n\nList of current models produced for the Australian, New Zealand, and South African market at the Wacol, Queensland factory. \n*Granite\n*Metro-Liner\n*Super-Liner\n*Titan\n*Trident\n**Trident Axle Forward\n**Trident Axle Back\n*TerraPro (Overseas order through Mack Trucks Australia)\n** TerraPro Cabover\n**TerraPro Low Entry\n\nFire apparatus products\n\nMack Trucks produced fire apparatuses from 1911 until 1990. Despite the abrupt shutdown of their production, many have been refurbished and still serve with fire departments throughout the world.\n\nSome examples of Mack fire apparatus:\n* MC611F12 pumper\n* MR686P aerial trucks\n* MR686S 90' Bronto aerial truck\n* MR690S 100 aerial truck\n* MR688P pumper\n* MS Midliner pumper\n* CF-611 series cab-forward apparatus\n* CF-700 series attack engine\n\nFire apparatus gallery\n\nFile:Mack_Engine_343_FDNY_jeh.jpg|\nFile:1961MackB95.jpg|1961 B95\nFile:1982_Mack_CF685FC_-_Flickr_-_111_Emergency_(2).jpg|1982 CF685\nFile:Flintstone,_MD_Fire_%26_EMS_Parade_3_June_2011_(5879127238)_(2).jpg|CF\nFile:Peter_Stehlik_-_FDNY_Collapse_Rescue_1_-_2012.05.20.jpg|MR\nFile:King_Fire_Engine.jpg|MC\n\nPrevious models\n\nAC\n\nThe heavy duty AC, with its well known tapered hood, was the truck which started the bulldog theme. A 377 CID 4 cylinder gasoline engine 4X2 with chain drive, it was strong, reliable, and worked well in rough terrain. Introduced in 1916, there was a great demand because of World War I, over 6000 3 1/2, 5 1/2, and 7 1/2 ton trucks were built for the UK and US military. There were also commercial sales from 1916, the AC was well suited for logging and construction work. A larger version, the AP, built between 1926 and 1938, was an off-road haul truck used on Boulder dam and other large projects. 40,299 ACs had been built when production ended in 1939.\n \n \n\nN Series\n\nThe N Series was Mack's first military design, large 6 and 7 1/2 ton 6X6 artillery prime movers. Between its development in the late 1930s and the beginning of production in 1940 US military requirements changed and the truck was not needed. All NMs and most of the larger NOs were exported as foreign aid. After World War II the NO was developed into the successful M 123 semi-tractor. \n\nB Models\n\nThe B Models were Mack's primary vehicle from its introduction in 1953 until it was replaced by the R Series in 1966. They ranged in size from the medium duty B20P gas powered 4X2 to the oversized B873SX turbo-diesel 6X6. B Models were commonly used as semi tractors and in the construction industry. They were also used as fire engines and trucks, sometimes with the roof of the cab removed. 127,786 B Models were built.\n\nR/RB/RD/RL/RM/RW, U, DM/DMM Models\n\nMack started to produce the R, RW, and U models in 1966 for highway use, and the RD, DM, and all wheel drive RM and DMM Models for construction use. The lightweight RL model followed in 1967, the RW Superliner with a large, rectangular hood and grill in 1977, and the setback front axle RB in the 1990s. All these models featured the same cab; the U, DM, and DMM had the cab offset to the left.\n\nIn the 1990s, the R, RW, and U Models were discontinued and the RB was introduced, mostly for severe-duty applications. The hood was modified slightly for the model RB. 2004 was the last year for the RD, and 2006 for the RB and DM. The DM was the last model to use this cab style, and was the last model of this family to be produced. \n\nAs a replacement for the construction models, Mack started to offer the Granite, Granite Bridge-Formula and Granite Axle-back.\n\nAlso this model is serving in the Mexican Army as a Troop and Utility Truck in Configuration 6X6 OR 6X4\n\nEngines\n\nBy 1916 Mack was producing 4 and 6 cylinder gasoline engines, in 2014 they continue to build their engines. Other builders' engines were often optional, engines from Caterpillar, Cummins, Detroit Diesel, Hercules, Scania, and Waukesha have been used.\n\nMack started making diesels in 1938, in 1957 the END and turbocharged ENDT 673 diesel were introduced. This 672 CID I6 engine family was successful, and remained in production for over 30 years.\n\nIn the early 1960s, Mack Truck's executive vice president of product and engineering, Walter May, developed the Maxidyne high-torque rise engine. The engine was introduced as an inline six in 1966, as a V8 in 1970, and as the intercooled inline six 300 series in 1973. This was an industry-changing event. The Maxidyne, with an operating range of 1200–2100 R.P.M, and later 1050–1700 R.P.M., allowed a heavy Class 8 truck to be operated with a 5 speed (Maxitorque) transmission. Previously, heavy trucks typically operated between 1800-2100R.P.M. and were equipped with 10 or more gears.\n\nIn 2014 Mack offers three engine series, the 11 L MP 7, 13 L MP8, and 16 L MP10, with 325 hp to 605 hp and 1200 lbft to 2060 lbft.\n \n\n \n\nOther products\n\nMack also produced railroad cars and locomotives between 1905 and 1930. \n\nTrademark\n\nThe company's trademark is the bulldog. It can be found on the front of almost all Mack trucks. A Mack truck with a gold-plated bulldog indicates that the truck was made with a Maxidyne engine. Trucks made with any other engine came with a chrome bulldog.\n\nMack trucks earned this nickname in 1917, during World War I, when the British government purchased the Mack AC model to supply its front lines with troops, food and equipment. British soldiers dubbed the truck the \"Bulldog Mack\", because they said it had \"the tenacity of a bulldog.\" Its pugnacious, blunt-nosed hood, coupled with its incredible durability, reminded the soldiers of the tenacious qualities of their country's mascot, the British Bulldog.[http://www.macktrucks.com/default.aspx?pageid\n255 History: 1910-1919]. – Mack Trucks. – Retrieved: 2008-06-08 \n\nThe logo was first used in 1921 for the AB chain drive models and made the official corporate logo in 1922.[http://www.macktrucks.com/default.aspx?pageid\n256#1922 History: 1920-1929]. – Mack Trucks. – Retrieved: 2008-06-08\n\nLeadership\n\nThis is a list of the highest ranking executive officer of Mack Trucks since its inception:\n\nMilitary models\n\nWorld War II\n\nMack built over 35,000 heavy duty military trucks during World War II, most for export under Lend-Lease. None were US Army standard types, all were designed and built exclusively by Mack.\n\nThe EH series was a commercial design 5 ton (4,536 kg)On road load rating. 4x2 adapted for military service. The EH, EHU (cabover) and semi-tractor models EHT and EHUT were used by the US Army in Europe. Over 2,400 were built in 1942.\n \n\nThe LMSW was a commercial design 10 ton (9,072 kg) 6x4 chassis adapted for military wreckers, most were exported to Great Britain.\n\nThe NJU (G-639) series were military design 5 ton (5,443 kg)Off road load rating 4x4 semi-tractors used to tow bridging pontoons and equipment. Several other manufactures built standardized models of similar trucks, so only 700 were produced in 1941-1942.\n\nThe NM (G-535) and NO (G-532) series were military design 6 ton (5,443 kg) and ton (6,803 kg) 6x6 artillery prime movers. All NMs and most of the larger NOs were exported as foreign aid. Over 8,400 NMs and 2,000 NOs were built between 1940 and 1944.\n\nThe NR series were military design 10 ton (5,443 kg) 6x4 cargo trucks. Intended for British use in North Africa, they had Mack ED diesel engines, making them valuable for long distance trips. Over 15,000 were built between 1940-1944.\n\nPost World War II\n\nSince World War II, Mack has had limited military production.\n\nThe M39 (G-744) series, which includes the M54 cargo truck, were a standardized military design 5 ton (4,536 kg) 6x6 chassis, with many models. Mack developed a competing design, when the M39 was standardized Mack built a relatively small number of M51 dump trucks. In the early 1960s they took part in a short lived program to retrofit some of the series with Mack END 672 engines.\n \n\nThe M123 and M125 (G-792) were standardized military design 10 ton (9,072 kg) 6x6 semi tractors and artillery prime movers. Designed by Mack, using many components from the NO series. Mack built 392 M123s, used with a lowboy trailer to recover and transport tanks, and all 552 M125s, between 1955 and 1957. Later follow-up orders called for 420 M123s and retrofitted 210 more with Cummins engines.\n \n\nNotable appearances in media\n\nThe 1968 C&W song \"Phantom 309\" by Red Sovine is about a ghost trucker who, when asked about the name Phantom 309, replies that \"This Ole' Mack will put 'em all to shame. There aint a driver or rig runnin' any line that seen nothin' but tailights from 'Phantom 309'\".\nFive 1970s Mack RS700 series trucks were used in the motion picture Convoy starring Kris Kristofferson as Martin 'Rubber Duck' Penwald and Ali MacGraw as Melissa.\n\nA 1970s Mack R-600 truck with a \"coolpower\" engine setup is used to haul an oil tanker in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.\n\nMack DM series dump trucks appeared prominently in Die Hard with a Vengeance (the third movie in the series).\n\nMaximum Overdrive (1986) is a horror tale of machinery come to life which includes a truck stop with various vehicles.\n\nA Mack M915 (LHRT) Line-Haul Replacement Tractor (military version of the Mack Granite GU713 10-wheeler) with a (military version M970 fuel tanker) semi-trailer, will be the vehicle mode for Megatron in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.\n\nThe beginning of Blake Crouch's best selling novel Pines has the main protagonist. Secret Service Agent Ethan Burke. suffering temporary amnesia after the car he is travelling in crashes. He believes he must seek out a person named \"Mack\" as it the only word he is able to recall. He later realizes the significant of \"Mack\" is in fact his recollection of his vehicle being intentionally hit by a Mack truck.\n\nA 1984 Mack Superliner, owned by J.R. Collins Pulling Team, is also officially sponsored by Mack. The truck (named \"Buckeye Bulldog\") runs in the NTPA (National Tractor Pulling Association) in the \"Super Semi\" class.\n\nDale Gribble, a character from King of the Hill, is rarely seen without his Mack cap.\n\nIn Bad Boys II (2003), a 2000 Mack CX 613 Vision truck is used by the villains.\n\nIn the film Cars, Mack is Lightning McQueen's transport, an animated 1985 Mack Super-Liner voiced by John Ratzenberger. Ratzenberger's father drove a Mack truck to deliver oil for three decades. On the \"Disney/Pixar Road Trip '06\", which promoted the film in a four-month tour of forty-one cities, \"Mack\" is a 2006 CH Rawhide 460-horsepower Mack truck carrying an Eddie Paul customised Trans Am as \"Lightning\".\n\nCEO Denny Slagle took part in CBS' Undercover Boss in 2011. \n\nIn the 2001 movie Vanilla Sky, a green mack truck almost crashes into David Aames's mustang, stopping just in time." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Film_studio.txt", "Bugs_Bunny.txt" ], "title": [ "Film studio", "Bugs Bunny" ], "wiki_context": [ "A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production company. The majority of firms in the entertainment industry have never owned their own studios, but have rented space from other companies.\n\nThere are also independently owned studio facilities, who have never produced a motion picture of their own because they are not Entertainment companies or Motion Picture companies; they are companies who sell only studio space.\n\nThe largest film studio in the world is Hengdian World Studios, in Zhejiang, China. \n\nBeginnings\n\n In 1893, Thomas Edison built the first movie studio in the United States when he constructed the Black Maria, a tarpaper-covered structure near his laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey, and asked circus, vaudeville, and dramatic actors to perform for the camera. He distributed these movies at vaudeville theaters, penny arcades, wax museums, and fairgrounds. The pioneering Thanhouser film studio was founded in New Rochelle, New York in 1909 by American theatrical impresario Edwin Thanhouser. The company produced and released 1,086 films between 1910 and 1917, successfully distributing them around the world. The first film serial ever, Million Dollar Mystery, was released by the Thanhouser company in 1914.\n\nIn the early 1900s, companies started moving to Los Angeles, California. Although electric lights were by then widely available, none were yet powerful enough to adequately expose film; the best source of illumination for motion picture production was natural sunlight. Some movies were shot on the roofs of buildings in Downtown Los Angeles. Early movie producers also relocated to Southern California to escape Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company, which controlled almost all the patents relevant to movie production at the time.\n\nThe first movie studio in the Hollywood area was Nestor Studios, opened in 1911 by Al Christie for David Horsley. In the same year, another 15 independents settled in Hollywood. Other production companies eventually settled in the Los Angeles area in places such as Culver City, Burbank, and what would soon become known as Studio City in the San Fernando Valley.\n\nThe \"majors\"\n\nThe Big 5\n\nBy the mid-1920s, the evolution of a handful of American production companies into wealthy motion picture industry conglomerates that owned their own studios, distribution divisions, and theaters, and contracted with performers and other filmmaking personnel, led to the sometimes confusing equation of \"studio\" with \"production company\" in industry slang. Five large companies, 20th Century Fox, RKO Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer came to be known as the \"Big Five,\" the \"majors,\" or \"the Studios\" in trade publications such as Variety, and their management structures and practices collectively came to be known as the \"studio system.\"\n\nThe Little 3\n\nAlthough they owned few or no theaters to guarantee sales of their films, Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and United Artists also fell under these rubrics, making a total of eight generally recognized \"major studios\". United Artists, although its controlling partners owned not one but two production studios during the Golden Age, had an often-tenuous hold on the title of \"major\" and operated mainly as a backer and distributor of independently produced films.\n\nThe minors\n\nSmaller studios operated simultaneously with \"the majors.\" These included operations such as Republic Pictures, active from 1935, which produced films that occasionally matched the scale and ambition of the larger studio, and Monogram Pictures, which specialized in series and genre releases. Together with smaller outfits such as PRC TKO and Grand National, the minor studios filled the demand for B movies and are sometimes collectively referred to as Poverty Row.\n\nThe independents\n\nThe Big Five's ownership of movie theaters was eventually opposed by eight independent producers, including Samuel Goldwyn, David O. Selznick, Walt Disney, Hal Roach, and Walter Wanger. In 1948, the federal government won a case against Paramount in the Supreme Court, which ruled that the vertically integrated structure of the movie industry constituted an illegal monopoly. This decision, reached after twelve years of litigation, hastened the end of the studio system and Hollywood's \"Golden Age\".\n\nTypical major film studio components\n\nBy the 1950s, the physical components of a typical major film studio had become standardized. Since then, a major film studio has usually been housed inside a physically secure compound with a high wall, which protects filmmaking operations from unwanted interference from paparazzi and crazed fans of leading movie stars. Movement in and out of the studio is normally limited to specific gates (often capped with grand decorative arches), where visitors must stop at a boom barrier and explain the purpose of their visit to a security guard. Studio premises generally feature multiple sound stages along with an outside backlot, as well as offices for studio executives and production companies. There is normally a studio \"commissary\", which is the traditional term in the film industry for what other industries call a company cafeteria. Early nitrate film was notoriously flammable, and sets were and are still very flammable, which is why film studios built in the early-to-mid 20th century have water towers to facilitate firefighting.\n\nFilm to television\n\nHalfway through the 1950s, with television proving to be a lucrative enterprise not destined to disappear any time soon—as many in the film industry had once hoped—movie studios were increasingly being used to produce programming for the burgeoning medium. Some midsize film companies, such as Republic Pictures, eventually sold their studios to TV production concerns, which were eventually bought by larger studios, such as the American Broadcasting Company which was purchased by The Walt Disney Company in 1996.\n\nToday\n\nWith the growing diversification of studios into such fields as video games, television, theme parks, home video and publishing, they have become multi-national corporations. As the studios increased in size they began to rely on production companies, like J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions, to handle many of the creative and physical production details of their feature films. Instead the studios transformed into financing and distribution entities for the films made by their affiliated production companies. With the decreasing cost of CG and visual effects, many studios sold large chunks of their once massive studio spaces or backlots to private real-estate developers. Century City in Los Angeles was once part of the 20th Century Fox backlot, which was among the largest and most famous of the studio lots. In most cases portions of the backlots were retained and are available for rental by various film and television productions. Some studios offer tours of their backlots, while Universal Pictures allows visitors to its adjacent Universal Studios Hollywood theme park to take a tram tour of the backlot where films such as Psycho and Back to the Future were once shot.\n\nIndependent film and the studios\n\nIn the 1980s and 90s, as the cost of professional 16mm film equipment decreased, along with the emergence of non-film innovations such as S-VHS and Mini-DV cameras, many young filmmakers began to make films outside the \"studio system\". Filmmakers such as Jim Jarmusch, Robert Rodriguez, Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith and Richard Linklater made films that pushed boundaries in ways the studios were then reluctant to do. In response to these films, many distributed by \"mini-studios\" like Miramax, the \"majors\" created their own in-house mini-studios meant to focus on edgier \"independent\" content. Focus Features was created by Universal Pictures and Fox Searchlight was created by 20th Century Fox for this purpose.\n\nNotable film studios\n\n*20th Century Fox (USA)\n*Amblin Entertainment (USA)\n*Anchor Bay Entertainment (USA)\n*Annapurna Studios (Hyderabad, India)\n*Ardmore Studios (Ireland)\n*Artisan Entertainment (USA)\n*Atlas Entertainment (USA)\n*Atlas Studios (Morocco)\n*AVM Productions (Chennai, India)\n*Babelsberg Studio (Germany)\n*Barrandov Studios (Czech Republic)\n*Bavaria Film (Germany)\n*BBC Films (UK)\n*Belarusfilm (Belarus)\n*Bigfoot Entertainment (USA, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong)\n*Biograph Studios (USA)\n*Blue Sky Studios (USA)\n*The Bridge Studios (British Columbia, Canada)\n*Cannon Films (USA)\n*Carolco (USA)\n*CBS Films (USA)\n*Christie Film Company (USA)\n*Ciby 2000 (Canada, Norway, UK)\n*Cinecittà (Italy)\n*Cinema City International (Hong Kong)\n*Cinergi Pictures (USA)\n*Columbia Pictures (USA)\n*Constantin Film (Germany)\n*Crystal Sky Pictures (USA)\n*Daiei Film (Japan)\n*Dimension Films (USA)\n*Disneynature (France)\n*Dovzhenko Film Studios (Ukraine)\n*DreamWorks (USA)\n*Edison Studios (USA)\n*Edison's Black Maria (USA)\n*Elstree Studios (UK)\n*Entertainment One (Canada)\n*Eros Entertainment(India)\n*Famous Players Film Company (USA)\n*FBO (USA)\n*Fireworks Entertainment (USA & Cuba)\n*Five & Two Pictures (USA)\n*Focus Features (USA)\n*Fox Searchlight Pictures (USA)\n*Fox Star Studios (India)\n*Full Moon Features (USA)\n*Gaumont Film Company (France)\n*Gener8Xion Entertainment (USA)\n*Genius Products (USA, Australia & UK)\n*Globo Filmes (Brazil)\n*Goldwyn Pictures (USA)\n*GoodTimes Entertainment (USA)\n*Gorky Film Studio (Russia)\n*Grassroots Films (USA)\n*Hemdale Film Corporation (USA)\n*Hengdian World Studios (China)\n*Hollywood Pictures (USA)\n*Illumination Entertainment (USA)\n*ITC Entertainment (UK)\n*Jerry Bruckheimer Films (USA)\n*Kadokawa Pictures (Japan)\n*Kalem Company (USA)\n*Kanteerava Studios (Bangalore, (India)\n*KDK Factory (USA)\n*Keystone Studios (USA)\n*Korda Studios (Hungary)\n*LandCast Productions (USA)\n*Legendary Pictures (USA)\n*Lenfilm (Russia)\n*Lions Gate Entertainment (USA, Canada)\n*Lubin Studios (USA)\n*Lucasfilm (USA)\n*LVN Pictures (Philippines)\n*Marwah Films & Video Studios (New Delhi, India)\n*Media Asia Entertainment Group (Hong Kong)\n*MediaPro Pictures (Romania)\n*Méliès Films (France)\n*Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (USA)\n*Miramax Films (USA)\n*Moldova-Film (Moldova)\n*Moonbeam Entertainment (USA)\n*Mosfilm (Soviet Union [now Russia])\n*Mutual Film (USA)\n*National Film Board of Canada (Canada)\n*Nerigan Entertainment (New Zealand & Russia)\n*Nestor Studios (USA)\n*New Line Cinema (USA)\n*New World Pictures (USA)\n*Nikkatsu (Japan)\n*Nordisk Film (Denmark)\n*Nu Boyana Film (Bulgaria)\n*Open Road Films (USA)\n*Orange Sky Golden Harvest (Hong Kong)\n*Orion Pictures (USA)\n*Overture Films (USA)\n*Padmalaya Studios (Hyderabad, India)\n*Pantelion Films (USA)\n*Paramount Pictures (USA)\n*Pathé (France)\n*Pinewood Studios (UK)\n*Pixar Animation Studios (USA)\n*Possibility Pictures (USA)\n*Praise Pictures (USA)\n*Premium Picture Productions (USA)\n*Pure Flix Entertainment (USA)\n*Ramanaidu Studios (Hyderabad, India)\n*Ramoji Film City (Hyderabad, India)\n*Rank Organisation (UK)\n*Relativity Media (USA)\n*Republic Pictures (USA)\n*Revolution Studios (USA)\n*RKO Pictures (USA)\n*Russian World Studios (Russia)\n*Sampaguita Pictures (Philippines)\n*Sanrio (Japan & USA)\n*Screen Gems (USA)\n*Se-ma-for (Poland)\n*Selig Polyscope Company (USA)\n*Shanghai Film Group Corporation (China)\n*Shaw Brothers Studio (Hong Kong, China)\n*Shepperton Studios (UK)\n*Sherwood Pictures (USA)\n*Shochiku (Japan)\n*Solax Studios (USA)\n*Somali Film Agency (Somalia)\n*Sonar Entertainment (USA)\n*Sony Pictures Entertainment (USA & Japan)\n*Soyuzmultfilm (Russia)\n*Spiderwood Studios (USA)\n*Spyglass Entertainment (USA)\n*Stark Productions (Canada)\n*Studio Ghibli (Japan)\n*StudioCanal (France)\n*Summit Entertainment (USA)\n*AB Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden)\n*Sverdlovsk Film Studio (Russia)\n*Thanhouser Company (USA)\n*Three Mills Studios (UK)\n*THX (USA)\n*Tiffany Pictures (USA)\n*Tinapa Studios (Nigeria)\n*Toei (Japan)\n*Toho (Japan)\n*Tohokushinsha Film (Japan)\n*Touchstone Pictures (USA)\n*Triangle Film Corporation (USA)\n*TriStar Pictures (USA)\n*Troma Entertainment (USA)\n*Troublemaker Studios (USA)\n*Twickenham Film Studios (UK)\n*United Artists (USA)\n*Universal Studios (USA)\n*Victor Studios (USA)\n*Village Roadshow Pictures (Australia)\n*Vitagraph Studios (USA)\n*Walt Disney Pictures (USA)\n*Warner Bros. (USA)\n*The Weinstein Company (USA)\n*Wimbledon Studios (UK)\n*WingNut Films (New Zealand & USA)\n*World Wide Pictures (USA)\n*Village Roadshow (USA Australia)\n*Vishesh Films (India)\n*Yash Raj Films (India)", "Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character, created by the staff of Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by the \"Man of a Thousand Voices,\" Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated short films, produced by Warner Bros. during the golden age of American animation. His popularity during this era led to his becoming an American cultural icon, as well as a corporate mascot of Warner Bros. Entertainment. \n\nBugs is an anthropomorphic gray hare or rabbit who is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality; a pronounced New York accent; his portrayal as a trickster; and his catch phrase \"Eh... What's up, doc?\", usually said while chewing a carrot. Though a similar rabbit character began appearing in the Warner Bros. cartoon shorts during the late 1930s, the definitive character of Bugs Bunny is widely credited to have made his debut in director Tex Avery's Oscar-nominated film A Wild Hare (1940).\n\nSince his debut, Bugs has appeared in various short films, feature films, compilations, TV series, music records, comic books, video games, award shows, amusement park rides and commercials. He has also appeared in more films than any other cartoon character, is the ninth most-portrayed film personality in the world, and has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. \n\nHistory\n\nDevelopment \n\nAccording to Chase Craig, who was a member of Tex Avery's cartoon unit and later wrote and drew the first Bugs Bunny comic Sunday pages and the first Bugs comic book; \"Bugs was not the creation of any one man but rather represented the creative talents of perhaps five or six directors and many cartoon-writers. In those days the stories were often the work of a group who suggested various gags, bounced them around and finalized them in a joint story conference.\" A rabbit with some of the personality of Bugs, though looking very different, was originally featured in the film Porky's Hare Hunt, released on April 30, 1938. It was co-directed by Ben \"Bugs\" Hardaway and an uncredited Cal Dalton (who was responsible for the initial design of the rabbit). This cartoon has an almost identical plot to Avery's Porky's Duck Hunt (1937), which had introduced Daffy Duck. Porky Pig is again cast as a hunter tracking a silly prey who is more interested in driving his pursuer insane and less interested in escaping. Hare Hunt replaces the little black duck with a small white rabbit. The rabbit introduces himself with the odd expression \"Jiggers, fellers,\" and Mel Blanc gave the character a voice and laugh much like those he would later use for Woody Woodpecker. Hare Hunt also gives its rabbit the famous Groucho Marx line, \"Of course you realize, this means war!\" The rabbit character was popular enough with audiences that the Termite Terrace staff decided to use it again. According to Friz Freleng, Hardaway and Dalton had decided to dress the duck in a rabbit suit. The white rabbit had an oval head and a shapeless body. In characterization, he was \"a rural buffoon\". He was loud, zany with a goofy, guttural laugh. Blanc provided him with a hayseed voice. \n\nThe rabbit returns in Prest-O Change-O (1939), directed by Chuck Jones, where he is the pet rabbit of unseen character Sham-Fu the Magician. Two dogs, fleeing the local dogcatcher, enter his absent master's house. The rabbit harasses them, but is ultimately bested by the bigger of the two dogs. This version of the rabbit was cool, graceful, and controlled. He retained the guttural laugh but was otherwise silent.\n\nThe rabbit's third appearance comes in Hare-um Scare-um (1939), directed again by Dalton and Hardaway. This cartoon—the first in which he is depicted as a gray bunny instead of a white one—is also notable as the rabbit's first singing role. Charlie Thorson, lead animator on the film, gave the character a name. He had written \"Bugs' Bunny\" on the model sheet that he drew for Hardaway. In promotional material for the cartoon, including a surviving 1939 presskit, the name on the model sheet was altered to become the rabbit's own name: \"Bugs\" Bunny (quotation marks only used, on and off, until 1944). In his autobiography, Blanc claimed that another proposed name for the character was \"Happy Rabbit.\" In the actual cartoons and publicity, however, the name \"Happy\" only seems to have been used in reference to Bugs Hardaway. In Hare-um Scare-um, a newspaper headline reads, \"Happy Hardaway.\" \n\nThorson had been approached by Tedd Pierce, head of the story department, and asked to design a better rabbit. The decision was influenced by Thorson's experience in designing hares. He had designed Max Hare in Toby Tortoise Returns (1936). For Hardaway, Thorson created the model sheet previously mentioned, with six different rabbit poses. Thorson's model sheet is \"a comic rendition of the stereotypical fuzzy bunny\". He had a pear-shaped body with a protruding rear end. His face was flat and had large expressive eyes. He had an exaggerated long neck, gloved hands with three fingers, oversized feet, and a \"smart aleck\" grin. The end result was influenced by Walt Disney Animation Studios' tendency to draw animals in the style of cute infants. He had an obvious Disney influence, but looked like an awkward merger of the lean and streamlined Max Hare from The Tortoise and the Hare (1935), and the round, soft bunnies from Little Hiawatha (1937).\n\nIn Jones' Elmer's Candid Camera (1940) the rabbit first meets Elmer Fudd. This time the rabbit looks more like the present-day Bugs, taller and with a similar face—but retaining the more primitive voice. Candid Cameras Elmer character design is also different: taller and chubbier in the face than the modern model, though Arthur Q. Bryan's character voice is already established.\n\nOfficial debut \n\nWhile Porky's Hare Hunt was the first Warner Bros. cartoon to feature a Bugs Bunny-like rabbit, A Wild Hare, directed by Tex Avery and released on July 27, 1940, is widely considered to be the first official Bugs Bunny cartoon. It is the first film where both Elmer Fudd and Bugs (both redesigned by Bob Givens) are shown in their fully developed forms as hunter and tormentor, respectively; the first in which Mel Blanc uses what would become Bugs' standard voice; and the first in which Bugs uses his catchphrase, \"What's up, Doc?\" A Wild Hare was a huge success in theaters and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cartoon Short Subject. \n\nFor the film Avery asked Givens to remodel the rabbit. The result had a closer resemblance to Max Hare. He had a more elongated body, stood more erect, and looked more poised. If Thorson's rabbit looked like an infant, Givens' version looked like an adolescent. Blanc gave Bugs the voice of a city slicker. The rabbit was as audacious as he had been in Hare-um Scare-um and as cool and collected as in Prest-O Change-O.\n\nImmediately following on A Wild Hare, Bob Clampett's Patient Porky (1940) features a cameo appearance by Bugs, announcing to the audience that 750 rabbits have been born. The gag uses Bugs' Wild Hare visual design, but his goofier pre-Wild Hare voice characterization.\n\nThe second full-fledged role for the mature Bugs, Chuck Jones' Elmer's Pet Rabbit (1941), is the first to use Bugs' name on-screen: it appears in a title card, \"featuring Bugs Bunny,\" at the start of the film (which was edited in following the success of A Wild Hare). However, Bugs' voice and personality in this cartoon is noticeably different, and his design was slightly altered as well; Bugs' visual design is based on the prototype rabbit in Candid Camera, but with yellow gloves and no buck teeth, has a lower-pitched voice and a more aggressive, arrogant and thuggish personality instead of a fun loving personality. After Pet Rabbit, however, subsequent Bugs appearances returned to normal: the Wild Hare visual design and personality returned, and Blanc re-used the Wild Hare voice characterization.\n\nHiawatha's Rabbit Hunt (1941), directed by Friz Freleng, became the second Bugs Bunny cartoon to receive an Academy Award nomination. The fact that it didn't win the award was later spoofed somewhat in What's Cookin' Doc? (1944), in which Bugs demands a recount (claiming to be a victim of \"sa-bo-TAH-gee\") after losing the Oscar to Jimmy Cagney and presents a clip from Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt to prove his point. \n\nWorld War II \n\nBy 1942, Bugs had become the number one star of Merrie Melodies. The series was originally intended only for one-shot characters in films after several early attempts to introduce characters (Foxy, Goopy Geer and Piggy) failed under Harman–Ising. By the mid-1930s, under Leon Schlesinger, Merrie Melodies started introducing newer characters. Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (1942) shows a slight redesign of Bugs, with less-prominent front teeth and a rounder head. The character was reworked by Robert McKimson, then an animator in Clampett's unit. The redesign at first was only used in the films created by Clampett's unit, but in time it would be taken up by the other directors, with Freleng and Frank Tashlin the first. When McKimson was himself promoted to director, he created yet another version, with more slanted eyes, longer teeth and a much larger mouth. He used this version until 1949 (as did Art Davis for the one Bugs Bunny film he directed) when he started using the version he had designed for Clampett. Jones would come up with his own slight modification, and the voice had slight variations between the units. Bugs also made cameos in Avery's final Warner Bros. cartoon, Crazy Cruise. \n\nSince Bugs' debut in A Wild Hare, he appeared only in color Merrie Melodies films (making him one of the few recurring characters created for that series in the Schlesinger era prior to the full conversion to color), alongside Elmer predecessor Egghead, Inki, Sniffles, and Elmer himself. While Bugs made a cameo in Porky Pig's Feat (1943), this was his only appearance in a black-and-white Looney Tunes film. He did not star in a Looney Tunes film until that series made its complete conversion to only color cartoons beginning in 1944. Buckaroo Bugs was Bugs' first film in the Looney Tunes series, and was also the last Warner Bros. cartoon to credit Schlesinger (as he had retired and sold his studio to Warner Bros. that year).[http://www.davemackey.com/animation/wb/1944.html Warner Bros. Cartoon Releases - 1944]\n\nBugs' popularity soared during World War II because of his free and easy attitude, and he began receiving special star billing in his cartoons by 1943. By that time Warner Bros. had become the most profitable cartoon studio in the United States. In company with cartoon studios such as Disney and Famous Studios, Warners pitted its characters against Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and the Japanese. Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (1944) features Bugs at odds with a group of Japanese soldiers. This cartoon has since been pulled from distribution due to its depiction of Japanese people. He also faces off against Hermann Göring and Hitler in Herr Meets Hare (1945), which introduced his well-known reference to Albuquerque as he mistakenly winds up in the Black Forest of 'Joimany' instead of Las Vegas, Nevada. Bugs also appeared in the 1942 two-minute U.S. war bonds commercial film Any Bonds Today?, along with Porky and Elmer.\n\nAt the end of Super-Rabbit (1943), Bugs appears wearing a United States Marine Corps dress blue uniform. As a result, the Marine Corps made Bugs an honorary Marine Master Sergeant. From 1943 to 1946, Bugs was the official mascot of Kingman Army Airfield, Kingman, Arizona, where thousands of aerial gunners were trained during World War II. Some notable trainees included Clark Gable and Charles Bronson. Bugs also served as the mascot for 530 Squadron of the 380th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force, U.S. Air Force, which was attached to the Royal Australian Air Force and operated out of Australia's Northern Territory from 1943 to 1945, flying B-24 Liberator bombers. Bugs riding an air delivered torpedo served as the squadron logo for Marine Torpedo/Bomber Squadron 242 in the Second World War. Additionally, Bugs appeared on the nose of B-24J #42-110157, in both the 855th Bomb Squadron of the 491st Bombardment Group (Heavy) and later in the 786th BS of the 466th BG(H), both being part of the 8th Air Force operating out of England.\n\nIn 1944, Bugs Bunny made a cameo appearance in Jasper Goes Hunting, a Puppetoons film produced by rival studio Paramount Pictures. In this cameo (animated by McKimson, with Blanc providing the usual voice), Bugs (after being threatened at gunpoint) pops out of a rabbit hole, saying his usual catchphrase; after hearing the orchestra play the wrong theme song, he realizes \"Hey, I'm in the wrong picture!\" and then goes back in the hole. Bugs also made a cameo in the Private Snafu short Gas, in which he is found stowed away in the titular private's belongings; his only spoken line is his usual catchphrase.\n\nAlthough it was usually Porky Pig who brought the Looney Tunes films to a close with his stuttering, \"That's all, folks!\", Bugs replaced him at the end of Hare Tonic and Baseball Bugs, bursting through a drum just as Porky did, but munching on a carrot and saying in his Bronx-Brooklyn accent, \"And that's the end!\"\n\nPost-war era \n\nAfter World War II, Bugs continued to appear in numerous Warner Bros. cartoons, making his last \"Golden Age\" appearance in False Hare (1964). He starred in over 167 theatrical short films, most of which were directed by Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson and Chuck Jones. Freleng's Knighty Knight Bugs (1958), in which a medieval Bugs trades blows with Yosemite Sam and his fire-breathing dragon (which has a cold), won an Academy Award for Best Cartoon Short Subject (becoming the first Bugs Bunny cartoon to win said award). Three of Jones' films — Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck! Rabbit, Duck! — compose what is often referred to as the \"Rabbit Season/Duck Season\" trilogy and are famous for originating the \"historic\" rivalry between Bugs and Daffy Duck. Jones' classic What's Opera, Doc? (1957), casts Bugs and Elmer Fudd in a parody of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. It was deemed \"culturally significant\" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1992, becoming the first cartoon short to receive this honor.[http://www.loc.gov/film/titles.html National Film Registry: 1989-2007]\n\nIn the fall of 1960, ABC debuted the prime-time television program The Bugs Bunny Show. This show packaged many of the post-1948 Warners cartoons with newly animated wraparounds. After two seasons, it was moved from its evening slot to reruns on Saturday mornings. The Bugs Bunny Show changed format and exact title frequently, but remained on network television for 40 years. The packaging was later completely different, with each cartoon simply presented on its own, title and all, though some clips from the new bridging material were sometimes used as filler. \n\nLater years \n\nBugs did not appear in any of the post-1964 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies films produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises or Seven Arts Productions, nor did he appear in the lone Looney Tunes TV special produced by Filmation. He would not appear in new material on-screen again until Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals aired in 1976.\n\nFrom the late 1970s through the early 1990s, Bugs was featured in various animated specials for network television, such as Bugs Bunny's Thanksgiving Diet, Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales and Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over. Bugs also starred in several theatrical compilation features during this time, including the United Artists-distributed documentary Bugs Bunny: Superstar (1975) and Warner Bros.' own efforts The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979), The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981), Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982) and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988).\n\nIn the 1988 live-action/animated comedy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Bugs appeared as one of the inhabitants of Toontown. However, since the film was being produced by Disney, Warner Bros. would only allow the use of their biggest star if he got an equal amount of screen time as Disney's biggest star, Mickey Mouse. Because of this, both characters are always together in frame when onscreen. Roger Rabbit was also one of the final productions in which Mel Blanc voiced Bugs (as well as the other Looney Tunes characters) before his death in 1989.\n\nBugs later appeared in another animated production featuring numerous characters from rival studios: the 1990 drug prevention TV special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. This special is notable for being the first time that someone other than Blanc voiced Bugs and Daffy (both characters were voiced by Jeff Bergman for this). Bugs also made guest appearances in the early 1990s television series Tiny Toon Adventures, as the principal of Acme Looniversity and the mentor of Buster Bunny. He made further cameos in Warner Bros.' subsequent animated TV shows Taz-Mania, Animaniacs and Histeria!\n\nBugs returned to the silver screen in Box-Office Bunny (1990). This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon since 1964 to be released in theaters and it was created for Bugs' 50th anniversary celebration. It was followed by (Blooper) Bunny, a cartoon that was shelved from theaters, but later premiered on Cartoon Network in 1997 and has since gained a cult following among animation fans for its edgy humor. \n\nIn 1996, Bugs and the other Looney Tunes characters appeared in the live-action/animated film, Space Jam, directed by Joe Pytka and starring NBA superstar Michael Jordan. The film also introduced the character Lola Bunny, who becomes Bugs' new love interest. Space Jam received mixed reviews from critics, but was a box office success (grossing over $230 million worldwide). The success of Space Jam led to the development of another live-action/animated film, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, released in 2003 and directed by Joe Dante. Unlike Space Jam, Back in Action was a box-office bomb, though it did receive more positive reviews from critics. \n\nIn 1997, Bugs appeared on a U.S. postage stamp, the first cartoon to be so honored, beating the iconic Mickey Mouse. The stamp is number seven on the list of the ten most popular U.S. stamps, as calculated by the number of stamps purchased but not used. The introduction of Bugs onto a stamp was controversial at the time, as it was seen as a step toward the 'commercialization' of stamp art. The postal service rejected many designs, and went with a postal-themed drawing. Avery Dennison printed the Bugs Bunny stamp sheet, which featured \"a special ten-stamp design and was the first self-adhesive souvenir sheet issued by the U.S. Postal Service.\" \n\nA younger version of Bugs is the main character of Baby Looney Tunes, which debuted on Kids' WB in 2001. In the action comedy Loonatics Unleashed, his definite descendant Ace Bunny is the leader of the Loonatics team and seems to have inherited his ancestor's Brooklyn accent and comic wit. \n\nModern era \n\nIn 2011, Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang returned to television in the Cartoon Network sitcom, The Looney Tunes Show, with Jeff Bergman returning to voice both Bugs and Daffy Duck for the first time in almost 20 years. The characters feature new designs by artist Jessica Borutski. Among the changes to Bugs' appearance were the simplification and enlargement of his feet, as well as a change to his fur from gray to a shade of mauve (though in the second season, his fur was changed back to gray). In the series, Bugs and Daffy are portrayed as best friends as opposed to their usual pairing as rivals or frenemies. At the same time, Bugs is more openly annoyed at Daffy's antics in the series (sometimes to the point of aggression), compared to his usual carefree personality from the original cartoons. Bugs and Daffy are close friends with Porky Pig in the series, although Bugs tends to be a more reliable friend to Porky than Daffy is. Bugs also dates Lola Bunny in the show, although at first he finds her to be \"crazy\" and a bit too talkative (he later learns to accept her personality quirks, similar to his tolerance for Daffy). Unlike the original cartoons, Bugs lives in a regular home, which he shares with Daffy, Taz (whom he treats as a pet dog) and Speedy Gonzales, in the middle of a cul-de-sac with their neighbors Yosemite Sam, Granny and Witch Lazeh.\n\nIn 2015, Bugs starred in the direct-to-video film Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run, and later returned to television yet again as the star of Cartoon Network and Boomerang's new comedy series Wabbit. A Looney Tunes Production. \n\nBugs has also appeared in numerous video games, including the Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle series, Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout, Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage, Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble, Looney Tunes B-Ball, Looney Tunes Racing, Looney Tunes: Space Race, Bugs Bunny Lost in Time, Bugs Bunny and Taz Time Busters, Loons: The Fight for Fame, Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal and Scooby Doo and Looney Tunes: Cartoon Universe.\n\nPersonality and catchphrases\n\nBugs Bunny is characterized as being clever and capable of outsmarting anyone who antagonizes him, including Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Tasmanian Devil, Marvin the Martian, Wile E. Coyote, Cecil Turtle, Witch Hazel, Rocky and Mugsy, The Crusher, Beaky Buzzard, Willoughby the dog, Count Blood Count and a host of others. Bugs almost always wins these conflicts, a plot pattern which recurs in Looney Tunes films directed by Chuck Jones. Concerned that viewers would lose sympathy for an aggressive protagonist who always won, Jones arranged for Bugs to be bullied, cheated, or threatened by the antagonists while minding his own business, justifying his subsequent antics as retaliation or self-defense. He's also been known to break the fourth wall by \"communicating\" with the audience, either by explaining the situation (e.g. \"Be with you in a minute, folks!\"), describing someone to the audience (e.g. \"Feisty, ain't they?\"), clueing in on the story (e.g. \"That happens to him all during the picture, folks.\"), explaining that one of his antagonists' actions have pushed him to the breaking point (\"Of course you realize, this means war.\"), admitting his own deviousness toward his antagonists (\"Gee, ain't I a stinker?\"), etc.\n\nBugs will usually try to placate the antagonist and avoid conflict, but when an antagonist pushes him too far, Bugs may address the audience and invoke his catchphrase \"Of course you realize this means war!\" before he retaliates, and the retaliation will be devastating. This line was taken from Groucho Marx and others in the 1933 film Duck Soup and was also used in the 1935 Marx film A Night at the Opera. Bugs would pay homage to Groucho in other ways, such as occasionally adopting his stooped walk or leering eyebrow-raising (in Hair-Raising Hare, for example) or sometimes with a direct impersonation (as in Slick Hare). Other directors, such as Friz Freleng, characterized Bugs as altruistic. When Bugs meets other successful characters (such as Cecil Turtle in Tortoise Beats Hare, or the Gremlin in Falling Hare), his overconfidence becomes a disadvantage.\n\nBugs' nonchalant carrot-chewing standing position, as explained by Freleng, Jones and Bob Clampett, originated in a scene from the 1934 film It Happened One Night, in which Clark Gable's character Peter Warne leans against a fence, eating carrots rapidly and talking with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert's character. This scene was well known while the film was popular, and viewers at the time likely recognized Bugs Bunny's behavior as satire. Coincidentally, the film also features a minor character, Oscar Shapely, who addresses Peter Warne as \"Doc\", and Warne mentions an imaginary person named \"Bugs Dooley\" to frighten Shapely. \n\nThe carrot-chewing scenes are generally followed by Bugs' most well-known catchphrase, \"What's up, Doc?\", which was written by director Tex Avery for his first Bugs Bunny film, A Wild Hare (1940). Avery explained later that it was a common expression in his native Texas and that he did not think much of the phrase. When the cartoon was first screened in theaters, the \"What's up, Doc?\" scene generated a tremendously positive audience reaction. As a result, the scene became a recurring element in subsequent cartoons. The phrase was sometimes modified for a situation. For example, Bugs says \"What's up, dogs?\" to the antagonists in A Hare Grows in Manhattan, \"What's up, Duke?\" to the knight in Knight-mare Hare and \"What's up, prune-face?\" to the aged Elmer in The Old Grey Hare. He might also greet Daffy with \"What's up, Duck?\" He used one variation, \"What's all the hub-bub, bub?\" only once, in Falling Hare. Another variation is used in Looney Tunes: Back in Action, when he greets a blaster-wielding Marvin the Martian saying \"What's up, Darth?\"\n\nIn many of Bugs' appearances in the 1940s Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes shorts, his carrot-chewing made its way into the opening sequence of the cartoon. In these cases, Bugs would be lying atop the Warner Brothers shield logo as it came onto the screen and eating his carrot. After a few seconds, Bugs would stop eating and shoot the audience a dirty look for staring at him. From there, one of two things would happen. Frequently, the open would simply dissolve into the cartoon series logo, but on occasion Bugs would reach up to the top of the screen and pull the logo down like a curtain to give himself some privacy. This formed the basis for the later intro to Bugs' cartoons, where he would pull the bottom of the screen up and be shown sitting atop his own intro screen while eating a carrot.\n\nSeveral Chuck Jones films in the late 1940s and 1950s depict Bugs travelling via cross-country (and, in some cases, intercontinental) tunnel-digging, ending up in places as varied as Barcelona, Spain (Bully for Bugs), the Himalayas (The Abominable Snow Rabbit) and Antarctica (Frigid Hare) all because he \"shoulda taken that left toin at Albukoikee.\" He first utters that phrase in Herr Meets Hare (1945), when he emerges in the Black Forest, a cartoon seldom seen today due to its blatantly topical subject matter. When Hermann Göring says to Bugs, \"There is no Las Vegas in 'Chermany'\" and takes a potshot at Bugs, Bugs dives into his hole and says, \"Joimany! Yipe!\", as Bugs realizes he's behind enemy lines. The confused response to his \"left toin\" comment also followed a pattern. For example, when he tunnels into Scotland in My Bunny Lies over the Sea (1948), while thinking he's heading for the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California, it provides another chance for an ethnic joke: \"Therrre arrre no La Brrrea Tarrr Pits in Scotland!\" (to which Bugs responds, \"Scotland!? Eh...what's up, Mac-doc?\"). A couple of late-1950s/early-1960s cartoons of this ilk also featured Daffy Duck travelling with Bugs (\"Since when is Pismo Beach inside a cave?!\").\n\nVoice actors\n\nThe following are the various vocal artists who have voiced Bugs Bunny over the last 75-plus years for Warner Bros.' animated productions:\n\n;Mel Blanc\nMel Blanc voiced the character for almost 50 years, from Bugs' debut in the 1940 short A Wild Hare until Blanc's death in 1989. Blanc described the voice as a combination of Bronx and Brooklyn accents; however, Tex Avery claimed that he asked Blanc to give the character not a New York accent per se, but a voice like that of actor Frank McHugh, who frequently appeared in supporting roles in the 1930s and whose voice might be described as New York Irish. In Bugs' second cartoon Elmer's Pet Rabbit, Blanc created a completely new voice for Bugs, which sounded like a Jimmy Stewart impression, but the directors decided the previous voice was better. Though Blanc's best-known character was the carrot-chomping rabbit, munching on the carrots interrupted the dialogue. Various substitutes, such as celery, were tried, but none of them sounded like a carrot. So for the sake of expedience, he would munch and then spit the carrot bits into a spittoon rather than swallowing them, and continue with the dialogue. One often-repeated story, possibly originating from Bugs Bunny: Superstar, is that Blanc was allergic to carrots and had to spit them out to minimize any allergic reaction — but his autobiography makes no such claim. In fact, in a 1984 interview with Tim Lawson, co-author of The Magic Behind The Voices: A Who's Who of Voice Actors, Blanc emphatically denied being allergic to carrots.\n\n;Others\n* Jeff Bergman (Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, The Earth Day Special, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Tiny Toon Adventures, Box Office Bunny, (Blooper) Bunny, Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers, The Looney Tunes Show, Scooby Doo and Looney Tunes: Cartoon Universe, Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run, Wabbit. A Looney Tunes Production) \n* Greg Burson (Tiny Toon Adventures, Taz-Mania, Animaniacs, Carrotblanca, From Hare to Eternity)\n* John Kassir (Tiny Toon Adventures)\n* Noel Blanc (Tiny Toon Adventures)\n* Billy West (Space Jam, Histeria!, Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas, video games)\n* Joe Alaskey (Tweety's High-Flying Adventure, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Hare and Loathing in Las Vegas, Daffy Duck for President, Justice League: The New Frontier, Looney Tunes ClickN READ Phonics, video games)\n* Samuel Vincent (Baby Looney Tunes, Baby Looney Tunes: Egg-straordinary Adventure)\n* Bill Farmer (Robot Chicken)\n\nReception and legacy\n\nLike Mickey Mouse for Disney, Bugs Bunny has served as the mascot for Warner Bros. and its various divisions. According to Guinness World Records, Bugs has appeared in more films (both short and feature-length) than any other cartoon character and is the ninth most-portrayed film personality in the world. On December 10, 1985, Bugs became the second cartoon character (after Mickey) to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.\n\nHe also has been a pitchman for companies including Kool-Aid and Nike. His Nike commercials with Michael Jordan as \"Hare Jordan\" for the Air Jordan VII and VIII became precursors to Space Jam. As a result, he has spent time as an honorary member of Jordan Brand, including having Jordan's Jumpman logo done in his image.\n\nIn 2002, TV Guide compiled a list of the 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time as part of the magazine's 50th anniversary. Bugs Bunny was given the honor of number 1. In a CNN broadcast on July 31, 2002, a TV Guide editor talked about the group that created the list. The editor also explained why Bugs pulled top billing: \"His stock...has never gone down...Bugs is the best example...of the smart-aleck American comic. He not only is a great cartoon character, he's a great comedian. He was written well. He was drawn beautifully. He has thrilled and made many generations laugh. He is tops.\" \n\nNotable films \n\nsee also List of Bugs Bunny cartoons\n\n* Porky's Hare Hunt (1938) (prototype debut)\n* A Wild Hare (1940) (official debut; Oscar nominee; first appearance with Elmer Fudd)\n* Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt (1941) (Oscar nominee)\n* Hare Trigger (1945) (first appearance with Yosemite Sam)\n* Haredevil Hare (1948) (first appearance with Marvin the Martian)\n* Rabbit Fire (1951) (first appearance with Daffy Duck)\n* Devil May Hare (1954) (first appearance with Taz)\n* What's Opera Doc (1957) (voted #1 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time and inducted into the National Film Registry)\n* Knighty Knight Bugs (1958) (Oscar winner)\n* False Hare (1964) (final regular cartoon)\n* Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) (first and only appearance in a Disney film; appeared alongside Disney's star character, Mickey Mouse)\n* Space Jam (1996) (appeared alongside NBA superstar, Michael Jordan)\n* Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) (final feature length live-action animated film appearance)\n\nLanguage \n\nAmerican use of the term Nimrod to mean \"idiot\" is attributed (in Garner's Modern American Usage) entirely to Bugs's expostulation \"What a Nimrod!\" to describe the inept hunter Elmer Fudd." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Brass.txt", "Alloy.txt" ], "title": [ "Brass", "Alloy" ], "wiki_context": [ "Brass is a metal alloy made of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other within the same crystal structure.\n\nBy comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin. However, bronze and brass may also include small proportions of a range of other elements including arsenic, phosphorus, aluminium, manganese, and silicon. The term is also applied to a variety of brasses, and the distinction is largely historical. Modern practice in museums and archaeology increasingly avoids both terms for historical objects in favour of the all-embracing \"copper alloy\". \n\nBrass is used for decoration for its bright gold-like appearance; for applications where low friction is required such as locks, gears, bearings, doorknobs, ammunition casings and valves; for plumbing and electrical applications; and extensively in brass musical instruments such as horns and bells where a combination of high workability (historically with hand tools) and durability is desired. It is also used in zippers. Brass is often used in situations in which it is important that sparks not be struck, such as in fittings and tools used near flammable or explosive materials. \n\nProperties\n\nBrass has higher malleability than bronze or zinc. The relatively low melting point of brass (900 to 940 °C, 1652 to 1724 °F, depending on composition) and its flow characteristics make it a relatively easy material to cast. By varying the proportions of copper and zinc, the properties of the brass can be changed, allowing hard and soft brasses. The density of brass is approximately .303 lb/cubic inch, 8.4 to 8.73 grams per cubic centimetre. \n\nToday, almost 90% of all brass alloys are recycled. Because brass is not ferromagnetic, it can be separated from ferrous scrap by passing the scrap near a powerful magnet. Brass scrap is collected and transported to the foundry where it is melted and recast into billets. Billets are heated and extruded into the desired form and size.\n\nAluminium makes brass stronger and more corrosion-resistant. Aluminium also causes a highly beneficial hard layer of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) to be formed on the surface that is thin, transparent and self-healing. Tin has a similar effect and finds its use especially in seawater applications (naval brasses). Combinations of iron, aluminium, silicon and manganese make brass wear and tear resistant. \n\nLead content\n\nTo enhance the machinability of brass, lead is often added in concentrations of around 2%. Since lead has a lower melting point than the other constituents of the brass, it tends to migrate towards the grain boundaries in the form of globules as it cools from casting. The pattern the globules form on the surface of the brass increases the available lead surface area which in turn affects the degree of leaching. In addition, cutting operations can smear the lead globules over the surface. These effects can lead to significant lead leaching from brasses of comparatively low lead content. \n\nSilicon is an alternative to lead; however, when silicon is used in a brass alloy, the scrap must never be mixed with leaded brass scrap because of contamination and safety problems. \n\nIn October 1999 the California State Attorney General sued 13 key manufacturers and distributors over lead content. In laboratory tests, state researchers found the average brass key, new or old, exceeded the California Proposition 65 limits by an average factor of 19, assuming handling twice a day. In April 2001 manufacturers agreed to reduce lead content to 1.5%, or face a requirement to warn consumers about lead content. Keys plated with other metals are not affected by the settlement, and may continue to use brass alloys with higher percentage of lead content. \n\nAlso in California, lead-free materials must be used for \"each component that comes into contact with the wetted surface of pipes and pipe fittings, plumbing fittings and fixtures.\" On January 1, 2010, the maximum amount of lead in \"lead-free brass\" in California was reduced from 4% to 0.25% lead. The common practice of using pipes for electrical grounding is discouraged, as it accelerates lead corrosion. \n\nCorrosion-resistant brass for harsh environments\n\n The so-called dezincification resistant (DZR or DR) brasses, sometimes referred to as CR (corrosion resistant) brasses, are used where there is a large corrosion risk and where normal brasses do not meet the standards. Applications with high water temperatures, chlorides present, or deviating water qualities (soft water) play a role. DZR-brass is excellent in water boiler systems. This brass alloy must be produced with great care, with special attention placed on a balanced composition and proper production temperatures and parameters to avoid long-term failures.\n\nUse in musical instruments\n\nThe malleability and traditionally attributed acoustic properties of brass have made it the metal of choice for musical instruments such as the trombone, tuba, trumpet, cornet, baritone horn, euphonium, tenor horn, and French horn which are collectively known as brass instruments. Even though the saxophone is classified as a woodwind instrument and the harmonica is a free reed aerophone, both are also often made from brass. In organ pipes of the reed family, brass strips (called tongues) are used as the reeds, which beat against the shallot (or beat \"through\" the shallot in the case of a \"free\" reed). Although not part of the brass section, snare drums are also sometimes made of brass. Some parts on electric guitars are also made from brass, especially inertia blocks on tremolo systems for its tonal properties, and for string nuts and saddles for both tonal properties and its low friction.\n\nGermicidal and antimicrobial applications\n\nThe bactericidal properties of brass have been observed for centuries, particularly in marine environments where it prevents biofouling. It is the copper in brass that makes brass germicidal. Depending upon the type and concentration of pathogens and the medium they are in, brass kills these microorganisms within a few minutes to hours of contact.\n\nA large number of independent studies confirm this antimicrobial effect, even against antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as MRSA and VRSA. The mechanisms of antimicrobial action by copper and its alloys, including brass, are a subject of intense and ongoing investigation.\n\nResearch is being conducted at this time to determine whether brass, copper, and other copper alloys can help to reduce cross contamination in public facilities and reduce the incidence of nosocomial infections (hospital-acquired infections) in healthcare facilities.\n\nSeason cracking\n\nBrass is susceptible to stress corrosion cracking, especially from ammonia or substances containing or releasing ammonia. The problem is sometimes known as season cracking after it was first discovered in brass cartridge cases used for rifle ammunition during the 1920s in the British Indian Army. The problem was caused by high residual stresses from cold forming of the cases during manufacture, together with chemical attack from traces of ammonia in the atmosphere. The cartridges were stored in stables and the ammonia concentration rose during the hot summer months, thus initiating brittle cracks. The problem was resolved by annealing the cases, and storing the cartridges elsewhere.\n\nBrass types\n\nHistory\n\nAlthough forms of brass have been in use since prehistory, its true nature as a copper-zinc alloy was not understood until the post medieval period because the zinc vapor which reacted with copper to make brass was not recognised as a metal. The King James Bible makes many references to \"brass\". The Shakespearean English form of the word 'brass' can mean any bronze alloy, or copper, rather than the strict modern definition of brass. The earliest brasses may have been natural alloys made by smelting zinc-rich copper ores.Craddock, P.T. and Eckstein, K (2003) \"Production of Brass in Antiquity by Direct Reduction\" in Craddock, P.T. and Lang, J. (eds) Mining and Metal Production Through the Ages London: British Museum pp. 226–7 By the Roman period brass was being deliberately produced from metallic copper and zinc minerals using the cementation process and variations on this method continued until the mid-19th century. It was eventually replaced by speltering, the direct alloying of copper and zinc metal which was introduced to Europe in the 16th century.\n\nEarly copper zinc alloys\n\nIn West Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean early copper zinc alloys are now known in small numbers from a number of third millennium BC sites in the Aegean, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kalmykia, Turkmenistan and Georgia and from 2nd Millennium BC sites in West India, Uzbekistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq and Palestine. However, isolated examples of copper-zinc alloys are known in China from as early as the 5th Millennium BC.\n\nThe compositions of these early \"brass\" objects are highly variable and most have zinc contents of between 5% and 15% wt which is lower than in brass produced by cementation. These may be \"natural alloys\" manufactured by smelting zinc rich copper ores in redox conditions. Many have similar tin contents to contemporary bronze artefacts and it is possible that some copper-zinc alloys were accidental and perhaps not even distinguished from copper. However the large number of copper-zinc alloys now known suggests that at least some were deliberately manufactured and many have zinc contents of more than 12% wt which would have resulted in a distinctive golden color. \n\nBy the 8th–7th century BC Assyrian cuneiform tablets mention the exploitation of the \"copper of the mountains\" and this may refer to \"natural\" brass. \"Oreikhalkon\" (mountain copper), the Ancient Greek translation of this term, was later adapted to the Latin aurichalcum meaning \"golden copper\" which became the standard term for brass. In the 4th century BC Plato knew orichalkos as rare and nearly as valuable as gold and Pliny describes how aurichalcum had come from Cypriot ore deposits which had been exhausted by the 1st century AD. X-ray fluorescence analysis of 39 orichalcum ingots recovered from a 2,600-year-old shipwreck off Sicily found them to be an alloy made with 75–80 percent copper, 15–20 percent zinc and small percentages of nickel, lead and iron. \n\nBrass making in the Roman World\n\nDuring the later part of first millennium BC the use of brass spread across a wide geographical area from Britain and Spain in the west to Iran, and India in the east. This seems to have been encouraged by exports and influence from the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean where deliberate production of brass from metallic copper and zinc ores had been introduced. The 4th century BC writer Theopompus, quoted by Strabo, describes how heating earth from Andeira in Turkey produced \"droplets of false silver\", probably metallic zinc, which could be used to turn copper into oreichalkos. In the 1st century BC the Greek Dioscorides seems to have recognised a link between zinc minerals and brass describing how Cadmia (zinc oxide) was found on the walls of furnaces used to heat either zinc ore or copper and explaining that it can then be used to make brass. \n\nBy the first century BC brass was available in sufficient supply to use as coinage in Phrygia and Bithynia, and after the Augustan currency reform of 23 BC it was also used to make Roman dupondii and sestertii. The uniform use of brass for coinage and military equipment across the Roman world may indicate a degree of state involvement in the industry, and brass even seems to have been deliberately boycotted by Jewish communities in Palestine because of its association with Roman authority.\n \nBrass was produced by the cementation process where copper and zinc ore are heated together until zinc vapor is produced which reacts with the copper. There is good archaeological evidence for this process and crucibles used to produce brass by cementation have been found on Roman period sites including Xanten and Nidda in Germany, Lyon in France and at a number of sites in Britain. They vary in size from tiny acorn sized to large amphorae like vessels but all have elevated levels of zinc on the interior and are lidded. They show no signs of slag or metal prills suggesting that zinc minerals were heated to produce zinc vapor which reacted with metallic copper in a solid state reaction. The fabric of these crucibles is porous, probably designed to prevent a buildup of pressure, and many have small holes in the lids which may be designed to release pressure or to add additional zinc minerals near the end of the process. Dioscorides mentioned that zinc minerals were used for both the working and finishing of brass, perhaps suggesting secondary additions. \n\nBrass made during the early Roman period seems to have varied between 20% to 28% wt zinc. The high content of zinc in coinage and brass objects declined after the first century AD and it has been suggested that this reflects zinc loss during recycling and thus an interruption in the production of new brass. However it is now thought this was probably a deliberate change in composition and overall the use of brass increases over this period making up around 40% of all copper alloys used in the Roman world by the 4th century AD. \n\nBrass making in the medieval period\n\nLittle is known about the production of brass during the centuries immediately after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Disruption in the trade of tin for bronze from Western Europe may have contributed to the increasing popularity of brass in the east and by the 6th–7th centuries AD over 90% of copper alloy artefacts from Egypt were made of brass. However other alloys such as low tin bronze were also used and they vary depending on local cultural attitudes, the purpose of the metal and access to zinc, especially between the Islamic and Byzantine world. Conversely the use of true brass seems to have declined in Western Europe during this period in favour of gunmetals and other mixed alloys but by about 1000 brass artefacts are found in Scandinavian graves in Scotland, brass was being used in the manufacture of coins in Northumbria and there is archaeological and historical evidence for the production of brass in Germany and The Low Countries, areas rich in calamine ore.\n\nThese places would remain important centres of brass making throughout the medieval period, especially Dinant. Brass objects are still collectively known as dinanterie in French. The baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège in modern Belgium (before 1117) is an outstanding masterpiece of Romanesque brass casting, though also often described as bronze. The metal of the early 12th-century Gloucester Candlestick is unusual even by medieval standards in being a mixture of copper, zinc, tin, lead, nickel, iron, antimony and arsenic with an unusually large amount of silver, ranging from 22.5% in the base to 5.76% in the pan below the candle. The proportions of this mixture may suggest that the candlestick was made from a hoard of old coins, probably Late Roman. Latten is a term for decorative borders and similar objects cut from sheet metal, whether of brass or bronze. Aquamaniles were typically made in brass in both the European and Islamic worlds.\n\nThe cementation process continued to be used but literary sources from both Europe and the Islamic world seem to describe variants of a higher temperature liquid process which took place in open-topped crucibles. Islamic cementation seems to have used zinc oxide known as tutiya or tutty rather than zinc ores for brass-making, resulting in a metal with lower iron impurities. A number of Islamic writers and the 13th century Italian Marco Polo describe how this was obtained by sublimation from zinc ores and condensed onto clay or iron bars, archaeological examples of which have been identified at Kush in Iran. It could then be used for brass making or medicinal purposes. In 10th century Yemen al-Hamdani described how spreading al-iglimiya, probably zinc oxide, onto the surface of molten copper produced tutiya vapor which then reacted with the metal. The 13th century Iranian writer al-Kashani describes a more complex process whereby tutiya was mixed with raisins and gently roasted before being added to the surface of the molten metal. A temporary lid was added at this point presumably to minimise the escape of zinc vapor. \n\nIn Europe a similar liquid process in open-topped crucibles took place which was probably less efficient than the Roman process and the use of the term tutty by Albertus Magnus in the 13th century suggests influence from Islamic technology. The 12th century German monk Theophilus described how preheated crucibles were one sixth filled with powdered calamine and charcoal then topped up with copper and charcoal before being melted, stirred then filled again. The final product was cast, then again melted with calamine. It has been suggested that this second melting may have taken place at a lower temperature to allow more zinc to be absorbed. Albertus Magnus noted that the \"power\" of both calamine and tutty could evaporate and described how the addition of powdered glass could create a film to bind it to the metal. \nGerman brass making crucibles are known from Dortmund dating to the 10th century AD and from Soest and Schwerte in Westphalia dating to around the 13th century confirm Theophilus' account, as they are open-topped, although ceramic discs from Soest may have served as loose lids which may have been used to reduce zinc evaporation, and have slag on the interior resulting from a liquid process. \n\nBrass in Africa\n\nSome of the most famous objects in African art are the lost wax castings of West Africa, mostly from what is now Nigeria, produced first by the Kingdom of Ife and then the Benin Empire. Though normally described as \"bronzes\", the Benin Bronze plaques, now mostly in the British Museum and other Western collections, and the large portrait heads such as the Ife Head of \"heavily leaded zinc-brass\" and the Bronze Head of Queen Idia, both also British Museum, are better described as brass, though of variable compositions. Work in brass or bronze continued to be important in Benin art and other West African traditions such as Akan goldweights, where the metal was regarded as a more valuable material than in Europe.\n\nBrass making in Renaissance and post-medieval Europe\n\nThe Renaissance saw important changes to both the theory and practice of brassmaking in Europe. By the 15th century there is evidence for the renewed use of lidded cementation crucibles at Zwickau in Germany. These large crucibles were capable of producing c.20 kg of brass. There are traces of slag and pieces of metal on the interior. Their irregular composition suggesting that this was a lower temperature not entirely liquid process. The crucible lids had small holes which were blocked with clay plugs near the end of the process presumably to maximise zinc absorption in the final stages. Triangular crucibles were then used to melt the brass for casting. \n\n16th-century technical writers such as Biringuccio, Ercker and Agricola described a variety of cementation brass making techniques and came closer to understanding the true nature of the process noting that copper became heavier as it changed to brass and that it became more golden as additional calamine was added. Zinc metal was also becoming more commonplace By 1513 metallic zinc ingots from India and China were arriving in London and pellets of zinc condensed in furnace flues at the Rammelsberg in Germany were exploited for cementation brass making from around 1550. \n\nEventually it was discovered that metallic zinc could be alloyed with copper to make brass; a process known as speltering and by 1657 the German chemist Johann Glauber had recognised that calamine was \"nothing else but unmeltable zinc\" and that zinc was a \"half ripe metal.\" However some earlier high zinc, low iron brasses such as the 1530 Wightman brass memorial plaque from England may have been made by alloying copper with zinc and include traces of cadmium similar those found in some zinc ingots from China.\n \nHowever the cementation process was not abandoned and as late as the early 19th century there are descriptions of solid-state cementation in a domed furnace at around 900–950 °C and lasting up to 10 hours. The European brass industry continued to flourish into the post medieval period buoyed by innovations such as the 16th century introduction of water powered hammers for the production of battery wares. By 1559 the Germany city of Aachen alone was capable of producing 300,000 cwt of brass per year. After several false starts during the 16th and 17th centuries the brass industry was also established in England taking advantage of abundant supplies of cheap copper smelted in the new coal fired reverberatory furnace. In 1723 Bristol brass maker Nehemiah Champion patented the use of granulated copper, produced by pouring molten metal into cold water. This increased the surface area of the copper helping it react and zinc contents of up to 33% wt were reported using this new technique. \n\nIn 1738 Nehemiah's son William Champion patented a technique for the first industrial scale distillation of metallic zinc known as distillation per descencum or \"the English process.\" This local zinc was used in speltering and allowed greater control over the zinc content of brass and the production of high-zinc copper alloys which would have been difficult or impossible to produce using cementation, for use in expensive objects such as scientific instruments, clocks, brass buttons and costume jewellery. However Champion continued to use the cheaper calamine cementation method to produce lower-zinc brass and the archaeological remains of bee-hive shaped cementation furnaces have been identified at his works at Warmley. By the mid-to-late 18th century developments in cheaper zinc distillation such as John-Jaques Dony's horizontal furnaces in Belgium and the reduction of tariffs on zinc as well as demand for corrosion-resistant high zinc alloys increased the popularity of speltering and as a result cementation was largely abandoned by the mid-19th century.", "An alloy is a mixture of metals or a mixture of a metal and another element. Alloys are defined by metallic bonding character. An alloy may be a solid solution of metal elements (a single phase) or a mixture of metallic phases (two or more solutions). Intermetallic compounds are alloys with a defined stoichiometry and crystal structure. Zintl phases are also sometimes considered alloys depending on bond types (see also: Van Arkel-Ketelaar triangle for information on classifying bonding in binary compounds).\n\nAlloys are used in a wide variety of applications. In some cases, a combination of metals may reduce the overall cost of the material while preserving important properties. In other cases, the combination of metals imparts synergistic properties to the constituent metal elements such as corrosion resistance or mechanical strength. Examples of alloys are steel, solder, brass, pewter, duralumin, phosphor bronze and amalgams.\n\nThe alloy constituents are usually measured by mass. Alloys are usually classified as substitutional or interstitial alloys, depending on the atomic arrangement that forms the alloy. They can be further classified as homogeneous (consisting of a single phase), or heterogeneous (consisting of two or more phases) or intermetallic.\n\nIntroduction\n\nAn alloy is a mixture of either pure or fairly pure chemical elements, which forms an impure substance (admixture) that retains the characteristics of a metal. An alloy is distinct from an impure metal, such as wrought iron, in that, with an alloy, the added impurities are usually desirable and will typically have some useful benefit. Alloys are made by mixing two or more elements; at least one of which being a metal. This is usually called the primary metal or the base metal, and the name of this metal may also be the name of the alloy. The other constituents may or may not be metals but, when mixed with the molten base, they will be soluble, dissolving into the mixture.\n\nWhen the alloy cools and solidifies (crystallizes), its mechanical properties will often be quite different from those of its individual constituents. A metal that is normally very soft and malleable, such as aluminium, can be altered by alloying it with another soft metal, like copper. Although both metals are very soft and ductile, the resulting aluminium alloy will be much harder and stronger. Adding a small amount of non-metallic carbon to iron produces an alloy called steel. Due to its very-high strength and toughness (which is much higher than pure iron), and its ability to be greatly altered by heat treatment, steel is one of the most common alloys in modern use. By adding chromium to steel, its resistance to corrosion can be enhanced, creating stainless steel, while adding silicon will alter its electrical characteristics, producing silicon steel.\n\nAlthough the elements usually must be soluble in the liquid state, they may not always be soluble in the solid state. If the metals remain soluble when solid, the alloy forms a solid solution, becoming a homogeneous structure consisting of identical crystals, called a phase. If the mixture cools and the constituents become insoluble, they may separate to form two or more different types of crystals, creating a heterogeneous microstructure of different phases. However, in other alloys, the insoluble elements may not separate until after crystallization occurs. These alloys are called intermetallic alloys because, if cooled very quickly, they first crystallize as a homogeneous phase, but they are supersaturated with the secondary constituents. As time passes, the atoms of these supersaturated alloys separate within the crystals, forming intermetallic phases that serve to reinforce the crystals internally.\n\nSome alloys occur naturally, such as electrum, which is an alloy that is native to Earth, consisting of silver and gold. Meteorites are sometimes made of naturally occurring alloys of iron and nickel, but are not native to the Earth. One of the first alloys made by humans was bronze, which is made by mixing the metals tin and copper. Bronze was an extremely useful alloy to the ancients, because it is much stronger and harder than either of its components. Steel was another common alloy. However, in ancient times, it could only be created as an accidental byproduct from the heating of iron ore in fires (smelting) during the manufacture of iron. Other ancient alloys include pewter, brass and pig iron. In the modern age, steel can be created in many forms. Carbon steel can be made by varying only the carbon content, producing soft alloys like mild steel or hard alloys like spring steel. Alloy steels can be made by adding other elements, such as molybdenum, vanadium or nickel, resulting in alloys such as high-speed steel or tool steel. Small amounts of manganese are usually alloyed with most modern-steels because of its ability to remove unwanted impurities, like phosphorus, sulfur and oxygen, which can have detrimental effects on the alloy. However, most alloys were not created until the 1900s, such as various aluminium, titanium, nickel, and magnesium alloys. Some modern superalloys, such as incoloy, inconel, and hastelloy, may consist of a multitude of different components.\n\nTerminology\n\nThe term alloy is used to describe a mixture of atoms in which the primary constituent is a metal. The primary metal is called the base, the matrix, or the solvent. The secondary constituents are often called solutes. If there is a mixture of only two types of atoms, not counting impurities, such as a copper-nickel alloy, then it is called a binary alloy. If there are three types of atoms forming the mixture, such as iron, nickel and chromium, then it is called a ternary alloy. An alloy with four constituents is a quaternary alloy, while a five-part alloy is termed a quinary alloy. Because the percentage of each constituent can be varied, with any mixture the entire range of possible variations is called a system. In this respect, all of the various forms of an alloy containing only two constituents, like iron and carbon, is called a binary system, while all of the alloy combinations possible with a ternary alloy, such as alloys of iron, carbon and chromium, is called a ternary system. \n\nAlthough an alloy is technically an impure metal, when referring to alloys, the term \"impurities\" usually denotes those elements which are not desired. These impurities are often found in the base metals or the solutes, but they may also be introduced during the alloying process. For instance, sulfur is a common impurity in steel. Sulfur combines readily with iron to form iron sulfide, which is very brittle, creating weak spots in the steel. Lithium, sodium and calcium are common impurities in aluminium alloys, which can have adverse effects on the structural integrity of castings. Conversely, otherwise pure-metals that simply contain unwanted impurities are often called \"impure metals\" and are not usually referred to as alloys. Oxygen, present in the air, readily combines with most metals to form metal oxides; especially at higher temperatures encountered during alloying. Great care is often taken during the alloying process to remove excess impurities, using fluxes, chemical additives, or other methods of extractive metallurgy. \n\nIn practice, some alloys are used so predominantly with respect to their base metals that the name of the primary constituent is also used as the name of the alloy. For example, 14 karat gold is an alloy of gold with other elements. Similarly, the silver used in jewelry and the aluminium used as a structural building material are also alloys.\n\nThe term \"alloy\" is sometimes used in everyday speech as a synonym for a particular alloy. For example, automobile wheels made of an aluminium alloy are commonly referred to as simply \"alloy wheels\", although in point of fact steels and most other metals in practical use are also alloys. Steel is such a common alloy that many items made from it, like wheels, barrels, or girders, are simply referred to by the name of the item, assuming it is made of steel. When made from other materials, they are typically specified as such, (i.e.: \"bronze wheel\", \"plastic barrel\", or \"wood girder\").\n\nTheory\n\nAlloying a metal is done by combining it with one or more other metals or non-metals that often enhance its properties. For example, steel is stronger than iron, its primary element. The electrical and thermal conductivity of alloys is usually lower than that of the pure metals. The physical properties, such as density, reactivity, Young's modulus of an alloy may not differ greatly from those of its elements, but engineering properties such as tensile strength and shear strength may be substantially different from those of the constituent materials. This is sometimes a result of the sizes of the atoms in the alloy, because larger atoms exert a compressive force on neighboring atoms, and smaller atoms exert a tensile force on their neighbors, helping the alloy resist deformation. Sometimes alloys may exhibit marked differences in behavior even when small amounts of one element are present. For example, impurities in semiconducting ferromagnetic alloys lead to different properties, as first predicted by White, Hogan, Suhl, Tian Abrie and Nakamura. \nSome alloys are made by melting and mixing two or more metals. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, was the first alloy discovered, during the prehistoric period now known as the bronze age; it was harder than pure copper and originally used to make tools and weapons, but was later superseded by metals and alloys with better properties. In later times bronze has been used for ornaments, bells, statues, and bearings. Brass is an alloy made from copper and zinc.\n\nUnlike pure metals, most alloys do not have a single melting point, but a melting range in which the material is a mixture of solid and liquid phases. The temperature at which melting begins is called the solidus, and the temperature when melting is just complete is called the liquidus. However, for many alloys there is a particular proportion of constituents (in some cases more than one)—either a eutectic mixture or a peritectic composition—which gives the alloy a unique melting point.\n\nHeat-treatable alloys\n\nAlloys are often made to alter the mechanical properties of the base metal, to induce hardness, toughness, ductility, or other desired properties. Most metals and alloys can be work hardened by creating defects in their crystal structure. These defects are created during plastic deformation, such as hammering or bending, and are permanent unless the metal is recrystallized. However, some alloys can also have their properties altered by heat treatment. Nearly all metals can be softened by annealing, which recrystallizes the alloy and repairs the defects, but not as many can be hardened by controlled heating and cooling. Many alloys of aluminium, copper, magnesium, titanium, and nickel can be strengthened to some degree by some method of heat treatment, but few respond to this to the same degree that steel does.\n\nAt a certain temperature, (usually between 1500 F and 1600 F, depending on carbon content), the base metal of steel undergoes a change in the arrangement of the atoms in its crystal matrix, called allotropy. This allows the small carbon atoms to enter the interstices of the iron crystal, diffusing into the iron matrix. When this happens, the carbon atoms are said to be in solution, or mixed with the iron, forming a single, homogeneous, crystalline phase called austenite. If the steel is cooled slowly, the iron will gradually change into its low temperature allotrope. When this happens the carbon atoms will no longer be soluble with the iron, and will be forced to precipitate out of solution, nucleating into the spaces between the crystals. The steel then becomes heterogeneous, being formed of two phases; the carbon (carbide) phase cementite, and ferrite. This type of heat treatment produces steel that is rather soft and bendable. However, if the steel is cooled quickly the carbon atoms will not have time to precipitate. When rapidly cooled, a diffusionless (martensite) transformation occurs, in which the carbon atoms become trapped in solution. This causes the iron crystals to deform intrinsically when the crystal structure tries to change to its low temperature state, making it very hard and brittle.\n\nConversely, most heat-treatable alloys are precipitation hardening alloys, which produce the opposite effects that steel does. When heated to form a solution and then cooled quickly, these alloys become much softer than normal, during the diffusionless transformation, and then harden as they age. The solutes in these alloys will precipitate over time, forming intermetallic phases, which are difficult to discern from the base metal. Unlike steel, in which the solid solution separates to form different crystal phases, precipitation hardening alloys separate to form different phases within the same crystal. These intermetallic alloys appear homogeneous in crystal structure, but tend to behave heterogeneous, becoming hard and somewhat brittle.\n\nSubstitutional and interstitial alloys\n\nWhen a molten metal is mixed with another substance, there are two mechanisms that can cause an alloy to form, called atom exchange and the interstitial mechanism. The relative size of each element in the mix plays a primary role in determining which mechanism will occur. When the atoms are relatively similar in size, the atom exchange method usually happens, where some of the atoms composing the metallic crystals are substituted with atoms of the other constituent. This is called a substitutional alloy. Examples of substitutional alloys include bronze and brass, in which some of the copper atoms are substituted with either tin or zinc atoms. With the interstitial mechanism, one atom is usually much smaller than the other, so cannot successfully replace an atom in the crystals of the base metal. The smaller atoms become trapped in the spaces between the atoms in the crystal matrix, called the interstices. This is referred to as an interstitial alloy. Steel is an example of an interstitial alloy, because the very small carbon atoms fit into interstices of the iron matrix. Stainless steel is an example of a combination of interstitial and substitutional alloys, because the carbon atoms fit into the interstices, but some of the iron atoms are replaced with nickel and chromium atoms. \n\nHistory and examples\n\nMeteoric iron\n\nThe use of alloys by humans started with the use of meteoric iron, a naturally occurring alloy of nickel and iron. It is the main constituent of iron meteorites which occasionally fall down on Earth from outer space. As no metallurgic processes were used to separate iron from nickel, the alloy was used as it was. Meteoric iron could be forged from a red heat to make objects such as tools, weapons, and nails. In many cultures it was shaped by cold hammering into knives and arrowheads. They were often used as anvils. Meteoric iron was very rare and valuable, and difficult for ancient people to work. \n\nBronze and brass\n\nIron is usually found as iron ore on Earth, except for one deposit of native iron in Greenland, which was used by the Inuit people. Native copper, however, was found worldwide, along with silver, gold and platinum, which were also used to make tools, jewelry, and other objects since Neolithic times. Copper was the hardest of these metals, and the most widely distributed. It became one of the most important metals to the ancients. Eventually, humans learned to smelt metals such as copper and tin from ore, and, around 2500 BC, began alloying the two metals to form bronze, which is much harder than its ingredients. Tin was rare, however, being found mostly in Great Britain. In the Middle East, people began alloying copper with zinc to form brass. Ancient civilizations took into account the mixture and the various properties it produced, such as hardness, toughness and melting point, under various conditions of temperature and work hardening, developing much of the information contained in modern alloy phase diagrams. Arrowheads from the Chinese Qin dynasty (around 200 BC) were often constructed with a hard bronze-head, but a softer bronze-tang, combining the alloys to prevent both dulling and breaking during use. \n\nAmalgams\n\nMercury has been smelted from cinnabar for thousands of years. Mercury dissolves many metals, such as gold, silver, and tin, to form amalgams (an alloy in a soft paste, or liquid form at ambient temperature). Amalgams have been used since 200 BC in China for plating objects with precious metals, called gilding, such as armor and mirrors. The ancient Romans often used mercury-tin amalgams for gilding their armor. The amalgam was applied as a paste and then heated until the mercury vaporized, leaving the gold, silver, or tin behind. Mercury was often used in mining, to extract precious metals like gold and silver from their ores. \n\nPrecious-metal alloys\n\nMany ancient civilizations alloyed metals for purely aesthetic purposes. In ancient Egypt and Mycenae, gold was often alloyed with copper to produce red-gold, or iron to produce a bright burgundy-gold. Gold was often found alloyed with silver or other metals to produce various types of colored gold. These metals were also used to strengthen each other, for more practical purposes. Copper was often added to silver to make sterling silver, increasing its strength for use in dishes, silverware, and other practical items. Quite often, precious metals were alloyed with less valuable substances as a means to deceive buyers. Around 250 BC, Archimedes was commissioned by the king to find a way to check the purity of the gold in a crown, leading to the famous bath-house shouting of \"Eureka!\" upon the discovery of Archimedes' principle. \n\nPewter\n\nThe term pewter covers a variety of alloys consisting primarily of tin. As a pure metal, tin was much too soft to be used for any practical purpose. However, in the Bronze age, tin was a rare metal and, in many parts of Europe and the Mediterranean, was often valued higher than gold. To make jewelry, forks and spoons, or other objects from tin, it was usually alloyed with other metals to increase its strength and hardness. These metals were typically lead, antimony, bismuth or copper. These solutes sometimes were added individually in varying amounts, or added together, making a wide variety of things, ranging from practical items, like dishes, surgical tools, candlesticks or funnels, to decorative items such as ear rings and hair clips.\n\nThe earliest examples of pewter come from ancient Egypt, around 1450 BC. The use of pewter was widespread across Europe, from France to Norway and Britain (where most of the ancient tin was mined) to the Near East. The alloy was also used in China and the Far East, arriving in Japan around 800 AD, where it was used for making objects like ceremonial vessels, tea canisters, or chalices used in shinto shrines. \n\nSteel and pig iron\n\nThe first known smelting of iron began in Anatolia, around 1800 BC. Called the bloomery process, it produced very soft but ductile wrought iron. By 800 BC, iron-making technology had spread to Europe, arriving in Japan around 700 AD. Pig iron, a very hard but brittle alloy of iron and carbon, was being produced in China as early as 1200 BC, but did not arrive in Europe until the Middle Ages. Pig iron has a lower melting point than iron, and was used for making cast-iron. However, these metals found little practical use until the introduction of crucible steel around 300 BC. These steels were of poor quality, and the introduction of pattern welding, around the 1st century AD, sought to balance the extreme properties of the alloys by laminating them, to create a tougher metal. Around 700 AD, the Japanese began folding bloomery-steel and cast-iron in alternating layers to increase the strength of their swords, using clay fluxes to remove slag and impurities. This method of Japanese swordsmithing produced one of the purest steel-alloys of the early Middle Ages.Smith, Cyril (1960) History of metallography. MIT Press. pp. 2–4. ISBN 0-262-69120-5.\n\nWhile the use of iron started to become more widespread around 1200 BC, mainly because of interruptions in the trade routes for tin, the metal is much softer than bronze. However, very small amounts of steel, (an alloy of iron and around 1% carbon), was always a byproduct of the bloomery process. The ability to modify the hardness of steel by heat treatment had been known since 1100 BC, and the rare material was valued for the manufacture of tools and weapons. Because the ancients could not produce temperatures high enough to melt iron fully, the production of steel in decent quantities did not occur until the introduction of blister steel during the Middle Ages. This method introduced carbon by heating wrought iron in charcoal for long periods of time, but the penetration of carbon was not very deep, so the alloy was not homogeneous. In 1740, Benjamin Huntsman began melting blister steel in a crucible to even out the carbon content, creating the first process for the mass production of tool steel. Huntsman's process was used for manufacturing tool steel until the early 1900s. \n\nWith the introduction of the blast furnace to Europe in the Middle Ages, pig iron was able to be produced in much higher volumes than wrought iron. Because pig iron could be melted, people began to develop processes of reducing the carbon in the liquid pig iron to create steel. Puddling was introduced during the 1700s, where molten pig iron was stirred while exposed to the air, to remove the carbon by oxidation. In 1858, Sir Henry Bessemer developed a process of steel-making by blowing hot air through liquid pig iron to reduce the carbon content. The Bessemer process was able to produce the first large scale manufacture of steel. Once the Bessemer process began to gain widespread use, other alloys of steel began to follow. Mangalloy, an alloy of steel and manganese exhibiting extreme hardness and toughness, was one of the first alloy steels, and was created by Robert Hadfield in 1882. \n\nPrecipitation-hardening alloys\n\nIn 1906, precipitation hardening alloys were discovered by Alfred Wilm. Precipitation hardening alloys, such as certain alloys of aluminium, titanium, and copper, are heat-treatable alloys that soften when quenched (cooled quickly), and then harden over time. After quenching a ternary alloy of aluminium, copper, and magnesium, Wilm discovered that the alloy increased in hardness when left to age at room temperature. Although an explanation for the phenomenon was not provided until 1919, duralumin was one of the first \"age hardening\" alloys to be used, and was soon followed by many others. Because they often exhibit a combination of high strength and low weight, these alloys became widely used in many forms of industry, including the construction of modern aircraft." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Washington_(state).txt" ], "title": [ "Washington (state)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Washington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States located north of Oregon, west of Idaho, and south of the Canadian province of British Columbia on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Named after George Washington, the first President of the United States, the state was made out of the western part of the Washington Territory, which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 in accordance with the Oregon Treaty in the settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889. Olympia is the state capital. Washington is sometimes referred to as Washington State or the State of Washington to distinguish it from Washington, D.C., the capital of the U.S., which is often shortened to Washington.\n\nWashington is the 18th largest with an area of 71,362 square miles (184,827 sq km), and the 13th most populous state with over 7 million people. Approximately 60 percent of Washington's residents live in the Seattle metropolitan area, the center of transportation, business, and industry along the Puget Sound region of the Salish Sea, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean consisting of numerous islands, deep fjords, and bays carved out by glaciers. The remainder of the state consists of deep temperate rainforests in the west, mountain ranges in the west, central, northeast and far southeast, and a semi-arid basin region in the east, central, and south, given over to intensive agriculture. Washington is the second most populous state on the West Coast and in the Western United States, after California. Mount Rainier is the state's highest elevation at almost 14,411 feet (4,392 m).\n\nWashington is a leading lumber producer. Its rugged surface is rich in stands of Douglas fir, hemlock, ponderosa pine, white pine, spruce, larch, and cedar. The state is the biggest producer of apples, hops, pears, red raspberries, spearmint oil, and sweet cherries, and ranks high in the production of apricots, asparagus, dry edible peas, grapes, lentils, peppermint oil, and potatoes. Livestock and livestock products make important contributions to total farm revenue, and the commercial fishing of salmon, halibut, and bottomfish makes a significant contribution to the state's economy.\n\nManufacturing industries in Washington include aircraft and missiles, shipbuilding and other transportation equipment, lumber, food processing, metals and metal products, chemicals, and machinery. Washington has over 1,000 dams, including the Grand Coulee Dam, built for a variety of purposes including irrigation, power, flood control, and water storage.\n\nEtymology\n\nThe Washington Territory was named after George Washington, the first President of the United States. The area was originally part of a region called the Columbia District after the Columbia River. Incidentally, the area was renamed Washington in order to avoid confusion with the District of Columbia, which contains the city of Washington. \n\nWashington is the only U.S. state named after a president. To distinguish it from the U.S. capital, which is also named for George Washington, Washington is sometimes referred to as \"Washington State\", or, in more formal contexts, as \"the State of Washington\". Washingtonians and other residents of the Pacific Northwest refer to the state simply as \"Washington\", calling the nation's capital \"Washington, D.C.\" or, more often, simply \"D.C.\".\n\nGeography\n\nWashington is the northwestern-most state of the contiguous United States. Its northern border lies mostly along the 49th parallel, and then via marine boundaries through the Strait of Georgia, Haro Strait and Strait of Juan de Fuca, with the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north. Washington is bordered by Oregon to the south, with the Columbia River forming the western part and the 46th parallel forming the eastern part of the southern boundary.\n\nTo the east, Washington borders Idaho, bounded mostly by the meridian running north from the confluence of the Snake River and Clearwater River (about 116°57' west), except for the southernmost section where the border follows the Snake River. To the west of Washington lies the Pacific Ocean.\n\nWashington is part of a region known as the Pacific Northwest, a term which always includes Washington and Oregon and may or may not include some or all of the following, depending on the user's intent: Idaho, western Montana, northern California, British Columbia, and Alaska.\n\nThe high mountains of the Cascade Range run north-south, bisecting the state. From the Cascades westward, Western Washington has a mostly marine west coast climate, with mild temperatures and wet winters, autumns and springs, and relatively dry summers. The Cascade Range contains several volcanoes, which reach altitudes significantly higher than the rest of the mountains. From the north to the south, these volcanoes are Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams. Mount St. Helens is currently the only Washington volcano that is actively erupting; however, all of them are considered active volcanoes. Mount Rainier, the tallest mountain in the state, is 50 mi south of the city of Seattle, from which it is prominently visible. The 14411 ft Mt. Rainier is considered the most dangerous volcano in the Cascade Range, due to its proximity to the Seattle metropolitan area, and most dangerous in the continental U.S. according to the Decade Volcanoes list. It is also covered with more glacial ice than any other peak in the contiguous 48 states. \n\nWestern Washington also is home of the Olympic Mountains, far west on the Olympic Peninsula, which support dense forests of conifers and areas of temperate rainforest. These deep forests, such as the Hoh Rainforest, are among the only temperate rainforests in the continental United States. \n\nIn contrast, Eastern Washington, east of the Cascades, has a relatively dry climate with large areas of semiarid steppe and a few truly arid deserts lying in the rain shadow of the Cascades; the Hanford reservation receives an average annual precipitation of 6 to. Farther east, the climate becomes less arid, increasing as one goes east to in Pullman. The Okanogan Highlands and the rugged Kettle River Range and Selkirk Mountains cover much of the northeastern quadrant of the state. The Palouse southeast region of Washington was grassland that has been mostly converted into farmland, and extends to the Blue Mountains.\n\nClimate\n\nWashington's climate varies greatly from west to east. An oceanic climate (also called \"west coast marine climate\") predominates in western Washington, and a much drier semi-arid climate prevails east of the Cascade Range. Major factors determining Washington's climate include the large semi-permanent high pressure and low pressure systems of the north Pacific Ocean, the continental air masses of North America, and the Olympic and Cascade mountains. In the spring and summer, a high pressure anticyclone system dominates the north Pacific Ocean, causing air to spiral out in a clockwise fashion. For Washington this means prevailing winds from the northwest bring relatively cool air and a predictably dry season.\n\nIn the autumn and winter, a low-pressure cyclone system takes over in the north Pacific Ocean, with air spiraling inward in a counter-clockwise fashion. This causes Washington's prevailing winds to come from the southwest, bringing relatively warm and moist air masses and a predictably wet season. The term \"Pineapple Express\" is used colloquially to describe the extreme form of this wet season pattern. \n\nDespite western Washington's having a marine climate similar to those of many coastal cities of Europe, there are exceptions such as the \"Big Snow\" events of 1880, 1881, 1893 and 1916 and the \"deep freeze\" winters of 1883–84, 1915–16, 1949–50 and 1955–56, among others. During these events western Washington experienced up to 6 ft of snow, sub-zero (−18 °C) temperatures, three months with snow on the ground, and lakes and rivers frozen over for weeks. Seattle's lowest officially recorded temperature is 0 F set on January 31, 1950, but low-altitude areas approximately three hours away from Seattle have recorded lows as cold as . \n\nWeather during the cold season is greatly influenced by the Southern Oscillation. During the El Niño phase, the jet stream enters the U.S. farther south through California, therefore late fall and winter are drier than normal with less snowpack. The La Niña phase reinforces the jet stream through the Pacific Northwest, causing Washington to have even more rain and snow than average.\n\nIn 2006, the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington published The Impacts of Climate change in Washington's Economy, a preliminary assessment on the risks and opportunities presented given the possibility of a rise in global temperatures and their effects on Washington state. \n\nRain shadow effects\n\nRainfall in Washington varies dramatically going from east to west. The western side of the Olympic Peninsula receives as much as 160 in of precipitation annually, making it the wettest area of the 48 conterminous states and a temperate rainforest. Weeks may pass without a clear day. The western slopes of the Cascade Range receive some of the heaviest annual snowfall (in some places more than 200 in water equivalent) in the country. In the rain shadow area east of the Cascades, the annual precipitation is only 6 in. Precipitation then increases again eastward toward the Rocky Mountains.\n\nThe Olympic mountains and Cascades compound this climatic pattern by causing orographic lift of the air masses blown inland from the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the windward side of the mountains receiving high levels of precipitation and the leeward side receiving low levels. This occurs most dramatically around the Olympic Mountains and the Cascade Range. In both cases the windward slopes facing southwest receive high precipitation and mild, cool temperatures. While the Puget Sound lowlands are known for clouds and rain in the winter, the western slopes of the Cascades receive larger amounts of precipitation, often falling as snow at higher elevations. (Mount Baker, near the state's northern border, is one of the snowiest places in the world: in 1999, it set the world record for snowfall in a single season: 1140 in.) \n\nEast of the Cascades, a large region experiences strong rain shadow effects. Semi-arid conditions occur in much of eastern Washington with the strongest rain shadow effects at the relatively low elevations of the central Columbia Plateau—especially the region just east of the Columbia River from about the Snake River to the Okanagan Highland. Thus instead of rain forests much of eastern Washington is covered with grassland and shrub-steppe.\n\nTemperatures\n\nThe average annual temperature ranges from 51 F on the Pacific coast to 40 F in the northeast. The lowest temperature recorded in the state was in Winthrop and Mazama. The highest recorded temperature in the state was 118 F at Ice Harbor Dam. Both records were set east of the Cascades. Western Washington is known for its mild climate, considerable fog, frequent cloud cover and long-lasting drizzles in the winter, and warm, temperate summers. The Eastern region occasionally experiences extreme climate. Arctic cold fronts in the winter and heat waves in the summer are not uncommon. In the Western region, temperatures have reached as high as 112 F in Marietta. and as low as in Longview. \n\nFlora and fauna\n\nForests cover 52% of the state's land area, mostly west of the North Cascades. Approximately two-thirds of Washington's forested area is publicly owned, including 64% of federal land. Other common trees and plants in the region are camassia, Douglas fir, hemlock, penstemon, ponderosa pine, western red cedar, and many species of ferns. The state's various areas of wilderness offer sanctuary, with substantially large populations of shorebirds and marine mammals. The Pacific shore surrounding the San Juan Islands are heavily inhabited with killer, gray and humpback whales.\n\nMammals native to the state include the bat, black bear, bobcat, cougar, coyote, deer, elk, gray wolf, moose, mountain beaver, muskrat, opossum, pocket gopher, raccoon, river otter, skunk, and tree squirrel. Because of the wide range of geography, the State of Washington is home to several different ecoregions which allow for a varied range of bird species. This range includes raptors, shorebirds, woodland birds, grassland birds, ducks, and others. There have also been a large number of species introduced to Washington, dating back to the early 1700s, including horses and burros. The channel catfish, lamprey, and sturgeon are among the 400 known freshwater fishes. Along with the Cascades frog, there are several forms of snakes that define the most prominent reptiles and amphibians. Coastal bays and islands are often inhabited by plentiful amounts of shellfish and whales. There are five species of salmon that ascend the Western Washington area, from streams to spawn. \n\nWashington has a variety of National Park Service units. Among these are the Alta Lake State Park, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, San Juan Islands National Wildlife Refuge, as well as three national parks, the Olympic National Park, North Cascades National Park and Mount Rainier National Park. The three national parks were established between 1899 and 1968. Almost 95% (876,517 acres, 354,714 hectares, 3,547.14 square kilometers) of Olympic National Park's area has been designated as wilderness under the National Wilderness Preservation System. Additionally, there are 143 state parks and 9 national forests, run by the Washington State Park System and the United States Forest Service. The Okanogan National Forest is the largest national forest located on the West Coast, encompassing . It is managed together as the Okanogan–Wenatchee National Forest, encompassing a considerablely larger area of around . \n\nHistory\n\nEarly history\n\nThe skeletal remains of Kennewick Man, one of the oldest and most complete human remains ever found in North America, were discovered in Washington. Before the coming of Europeans, the region had many established tribes of aboriginal Americans, notable for their totem poles and their ornately carved canoes and masks. Prominent among their industries were salmon fishing and, notably among the Makah, whale hunting. The peoples of the Interior had a very different subsistence-based culture based on hunting, food-gathering and some forms of agriculture, as well as a dependency on salmon from the Columbia and its tributaries. The smallpox epidemic of the 1770s devastated the Native American population. \n\nEuropean exploration\n\nThe first recorded European landing on the Washington coast was by Spanish Captain Don Bruno de Heceta in 1775, on board the Santiago, part of a two-ship flotilla with the Sonora. He claimed all the coastal lands up to Prince William Sound for Spain as part of their claimed rights under the Treaty of Tordesillas, which they maintained made the Pacific a \"Spanish lake\" and all its shores part of the Spanish Empire.\n\nIn 1778, British explorer Captain James Cook sighted Cape Flattery, at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but Cook did not realize the strait existed. It was not discovered until Charles William Barkley, captain of the Imperial Eagle, sighted it in 1787. The straits were further explored by Spanish explorers Manuel Quimper in 1790 and Francisco de Eliza in 1791, and British explorer George Vancouver in 1792.\n\nSettlement\n\nThe British-Spanish Nootka Convention of 1790 ended Spanish claims of exclusivity and opened the Northwest Coast to explorers and traders from other nations, most notably Britain and Russia as well as the fledgling United States. American captain Robert Gray (for whom Grays Harbor County is named) then discovered the mouth of the Columbia River. He named the river after his ship, the Columbia. Beginning in 1792, Gray established trade in sea otter pelts. The Lewis and Clark Expedition entered the state on October 10, 1805.\n\nExplorer David Thompson, on his voyage down the Columbia River camped at the confluence with the Snake River on July 9, 1811, and erected a pole and a notice claiming the country for Great Britain and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a trading post at the site.\n\nBritain and the United States agreed to what has since been described as \"joint occupancy\" of lands west of the Continental Divide to the Pacific Ocean as part of the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, which established the 49th Parallel as the international boundary west from Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. Resolution of the territorial and treaty issues, west to the Pacific, were deferred until a later time. Spain, in 1819, ceded their rights north of the 42nd Parallel to the United States, although these rights did not include possession.\n\nNegotiations with Great Britain over the next few decades failed to settle upon a compromise boundary and the Oregon boundary dispute was highly contested between Britain and the United States. Disputed joint-occupancy by Britain and the U.S. lasted for several decades. With American settlers pouring into Oregon Country, Hudson's Bay Company, which had previously discouraged settlement because it conflicted with the fur trade, reversed its position in an attempt to maintain British control of the Columbia District.\n\nFur trapper James Sinclair, on orders from Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, led some 200 settlers from the Red River Colony west in 1841 to settle on Hudson Bay Company farms near Fort Vancouver. The party crossed the Rockies into the Columbia Valley, near present-day Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia, then traveled south-west down the Kootenai River and Columbia River. Despite such efforts, Britain eventually ceded all claims to land south of the 49th parallel to the United States in the Oregon Treaty on June 15, 1846.\n\nIn 1836, a group of missionaries including Marcus Whitman established several missions and Whitman's own settlement Waiilatpu, in what is now southeastern Washington state, near present day Walla Walla County, in territory of both the Cayuse and the Nez Perce Indian tribes. Whitman's settlement would in 1843 help the Oregon Trail, the overland emigration route to the west, get established for thousands of emigrants in following decades. Marcus provided medical care for the Native Americans, but when Indian patients – lacking immunity to new, 'European' diseases – died in striking numbers, while at the same time many white patients recovered, they held 'medicine man' Marcus Whitman personally responsible, and murdered Whitman and twelve other white settlers in the Whitman massacre in 1847. This event triggered the Cayuse War between settlers and Indians.\n\nFort Nisqually, a farm and trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company and the first European settlement in the Puget Sound area, was founded in 1833. Black pioneer George Washington Bush and his Caucasian wife, Isabella James Bush, from Missouri and Tennessee, respectively, led four white families into the territory and founded New Market, now Tumwater, in 1846. They settled in Washington to avoid Oregon's discriminatory settlement laws. After them, many more settlers, migrating overland along the Oregon trail, wandered north to settle in the Puget Sound area.\n\nStatehood\n\nThe growing populace of Oregon Territory north of the Columbia River formally requested a new territory, which was granted by the U.S. government in 1853. The boundary of Washington Territory initially extended farther east than the present state's, including what is now the Idaho Panhandle and parts of western Montana, and picked up more land to the southeast that was left behind when Oregon was admitted as a state. The creation of Idaho Territory in 1863 established the final eastern border. A Washington State constitution was drafted and ratified in 1878, but it was never officially adopted. Although never approved by Congress, the 1878 constitution is an important historical document which shows the political thinking of the time. It was used extensively during the drafting of Washington State's 1889 constitution, the one and only official Constitution of the State of Washington. Washington became the 42nd state in the United States on November 11, 1889. \n\nEarly prominent industries in the state included agriculture and lumber. In eastern Washington, the Yakima River Valley became known for its apple orchards, while the growth of wheat using dry farming techniques became particularly productive. Heavy rainfall to the west of the Cascade Range produced dense forests, and the ports along Puget Sound prospered from the manufacturing and shipping of lumber products, particularly the Douglas fir. Other industries that developed in the state included fishing, salmon canning and mining.\n\nIndustrial Era\n\nFor a long period, Tacoma was noted for its large smelters where gold, silver, copper and lead ores were treated. Seattle was the primary port for trade with Alaska and the rest of the country, and for a time it possessed a large shipbuilding industry. The region around eastern Puget Sound developed heavy industry during the period including World War I and World War II, and the Boeing company became an established icon in the area.\n\nDuring the Great Depression, a series of hydroelectric dams were constructed along the Columbia river as part of a project to increase the production of electricity. This culminated in 1941 with the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam, the largest concrete structure in the United States.\n\nDuring World War II, the state became a focus for war industries. While the Boeing Company produced many of the nation's heavy bombers, ports in Seattle, Bremerton, Vancouver, and Tacoma were available for the manufacture of warships. Seattle was the point of departure for many soldiers in the Pacific, a number of whom were quartered at Golden Gardens Park. In eastern Washington, the Hanford Works atomic energy plant was opened in 1943 and played a major role in the construction of the nation's atomic bombs.\n\nMount St. Helens eruption, 1980\n\nOn May 18, 1980, following a period of heavy tremors and eruptions, the northeast face of Mount St. Helens erupted violently, destroying a large part of the top of the volcano. The eruption flattened the forests, killed 57 people, flooded the Columbia River and its tributaries with ash and mud, and blanketed large parts of Washington eastward and other surrounding states in ash, making day look like night. \n\nDemographics\n\nThe United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Washington was 7,170,351 on July 1, 2015, a 6.63% increase since the 2010 United States Census. The state ranks 13th overall in population, and the third most populous (after California and Texas) west of the Mississippi River. \n\nAccording to the United States Census, in 2010, Washington had an estimated population of 6,724,540, which was an increase of 445,811 or 6.63 percent from the year 2010. This includes a natural increase of 380,400 people, and an increase from net migration of 450,019 people into the state. Washington ranks first in the Pacific Northwest region in terms of population, followed by Oregon, and Idaho. In 1980, the Census Bureau reported Washington's population as 90% non-Hispanic white.\n\nIn 2011, 44.3% of Washington's population younger than age 1 were minorities. \n\nThe center of population of Washington in 2000 was located in an unpopulated part of the Cascade Mountains in rural eastern King County, southeast of North Bend, northeast of Enumclaw and west of Snoqualmie Pass. \n\nAt the 2010 U.S. census, the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Metropolitan Area's population was 3,439,809, approximately half the state's total population. \n\n6.7 percent of Washington's population was reported as under five years of age, 25.7 percent under 18 years of age, and 11.2 percent were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 50.2 percent of the population.\n\nThe largest ancestry groups (which the Census defines as not including racial terms) in the state are: \n* 20.7% German\n* 12.6% Irish\n* 12.3% English\n* 8.2% Hispanic\n* 6.2% Norwegian\n* 3.9% French\n* 3.9% American\n* 3.8% Italian\n* 3.6% Swedish\n* 3.3% Scottish\n* 2.5% Scotch Irish\n* 2.5% Dutch\n* 1.9% Polish\n* 1.8% Russian\n\nRace and ethnicity\n\nAccording to the 2010 United States census, the racial and ethnic composition of Washington was the following: \n* White: 77.3% (Non-Hispanic Whites 71%, White Hispanics 6.3%)\n* Black or African American: 3.6%\n* Native Americans: 1.5%\n* Asian: 7.2%\n* Pacific Islander: 0.4% (0.2% Samoan, 0.1% Guamanian, 0.1% Hawaiian)\n* Two or more races: 4.7%\n* Other races 5.1%\n\nThere is a sizable population with Hispanic or Latino heritage at 11.2%.\n\nThe Hispanic/Latino population can belong to any of the racial groups and consists of people of mainly Mexican (8.9%), Spanish (0.4%), Cuban (0.4%), Salvadoran (0.2%), Guatemalan (0.1%), Colombian (0.1%) heritage.\nAccording to 2010 United States Census estimates, 77% of Washingtonians are white or European American, although this is ambiguous as it includes not only caucasians, such as those who are born in Western Europe, Canada, Australasia, and the former USSR, but people from countries in the Middle East and North Africa (the number of Arab American nationalities rose dramatically in the 1990s and 2000s). \n\nAreas of concentration\n\nWhile the population of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest is scarce overall, they mostly concentrate in South End and Central District areas of Seattle, and in inner Tacoma. The black community of Seattle developed after World War II when wartime industries and the U.S. Armed Forces employed and recruited tens of thousands of African Americans from the Southeastern United States. They left a high influence in west coast rock music and R&B and soul in the 1960s, including Seattle native Jimi Hendrix, a pioneer in hard rock, who was of African American and Cherokee Indian descent.\n\nAmerican Indians lived on Indian reservations or jurisdictory lands such as the Colville Indian Reservation, Makah, Muckleshoot Indian Reservation, Quinault (tribe), Salish people, Spokane Indian Reservation and Yakama Indian Reservation. The westernmost and Pacific coasts have primarily American Indian communities, such as the Chinook, Lummi and Salish. But Urban Indian communities formed by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs relocation programs in Seattle since the end of World War II brought a variety of Native American cultures to this diverse metropolis. The city was actually named for Chief Seattle when European Americans settled the isthmus in the very early 1850s.\n\nAsian Americans and Pacific Islanders are mostly concentrated in the Seattle−Tacoma metropolitan area. Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond, which are all located within King County, have sizable Chinese communities (including Taiwanese), as well as significant Indian and Japanese communities that are present there. The Chinatown-International District in Seattle has a historical Chinese population dating back to the 1860s, who mainly emigrated from Guangdong Province in southern China, and is currently home to a diverse East and Southeast Asian community. Koreans are heavily concentrated in the suburban cities of Federal Way and Auburn to the south and in Lynnwood to the north. Tacoma is home to thousands of Cambodians, and has one of the largest Cambodian American communities in the United States, along with Long Beach, California and Lowell, Massachusetts. The Vietnamese and Filipino populations of Washington are mostly concentrated within the Seattle metropolitan area. Washington state has the second highest percentage of Pacific Islander people in the mainland U.S. (behind Utah); the Seattle-Tacoma area is home to over 15,000 people of Samoan ancestry, who mainly reside in southeast Seattle, Tacoma, Federal Way, and in SeaTac. \n\nThe most numerous (ethnic, not racial, group) are Latinos at 11%, as Mexican Americans formed a large ethnic group in the Chehalis Valley, farming areas of Yakima Valley and Eastern Washington. In the late 20th century, large-scale Mexican immigration and other Latinos settled in the southern suburbs of Seattle with limited concentrations in King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties during the region's real estate construction booms in the 1980s and 1990s.\n\nAdditionally, Washington has a large Ethiopian community, with many Eritrean residents as well. Over 30,000 Somali immigrants also reside in the Seattle area.\n\nLargest cities\n\nThe largest cities in Washington according to 2014 state estimates. \n\nThe Tri-Cities, which consists of the four neighboring cities of Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, and West Richland, has a combined population of 211,110 in official 2014 estimates which would be ranked above Tacoma.\n\nLanguages\n\nIn 2010, 82.51% (5,060,313) of Washington residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 7.79% (477,566) spoke Spanish, 1.19% (72,552) Chinese (which includes Cantonese and Mandarin), 0.94% (57,895) Vietnamese, 0.84% (51,301) Tagalog, 0.83% (50,757) Korean, 0.80% (49,282) Russian, and German was spoken as a main language by 0.55% (33,744) of the population over the age of five. In total, 17.49% (1,073,002) of Washington's population age 5 and older spoke a mother language other than English. \n\nReligion\n\nMajor religious affiliations of the people of Washington are: \n* Christian: 60%\n** Evangelical Protestant: 25%\n** Mainline Protestant: 14%\n** Catholic: 17%\n** Mormon: 4%\n* Unaffiliated: 32%\n* Jewish: 1%\n* Muslim: 0.5%\n* Other religions 3%\n\nThe largest denominations by number of adherents in 2010 were the Roman Catholic Church with 784,332; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) with 282,356; and the Assemblies of God with 125,005. \n\nAquarian Tabernacle Church is the largest Wiccan church in the country. \n\nAs with many other Western states, the percentage of Washington's population identifying themselves as \"non-religious\" is higher than the national average. The percentage of non-religious people in Washington is one of the highest in the United States.\n\nEconomy\n\nThe 2014 total gross state product for Washington was $425.017 billion, placing it 14th in the nation. The per capita GDP in 2009 was $52,403, 10th in the nation. Significant business within the state include the design and manufacture of aircraft (Boeing), automotive (Paccar), computer software development (Microsoft, Bungie, Amazon.com, Nintendo of America, Valve Corporation, ArenaNet), telecom (T-Mobile USA), electronics, biotechnology, aluminum production, lumber and wood products (Weyerhaeuser), mining, beverages (Starbucks, Jones Soda), real estate (John L. Scott), retail (Nordstrom, Eddie Bauer, Car Toys, Costco, R.E.I.), and tourism (Alaska Airlines, Expedia, Inc.). A Fortune magazine survey of the top 20 Most Admired Companies in the US has four Washington-based companies in it: Amazon.com, Starbucks, Microsoft, and Costco. The state has significant amounts of hydroelectric power generation at over 80%. Significant amounts of trade with Asia pass through the ports of the Puget Sound\n\nWith the passage of Initiative 1183, the Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) ended its monopoly of all state liquor store and liquor distribution operations on June 1, 2012.\n\nAmong its resident billionaires, Washington boasts Bill Gates, technology advisor and former Chairman & CEO of Microsoft, who, with a net worth of $84.1 billion, is the wealthiest man in the world as of 2013. Other Washington state billionaires include Paul Allen (Microsoft), Steve Ballmer (Microsoft), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Craig McCaw (McCaw Cellular Communications), James Jannard (Oakley), Howard Schultz (Starbucks), and Charles Simonyi (Microsoft). \n\n, the state's unemployment rate is 6.3 percent. \n\nTaxes\n\nThe state of Washington is one of only seven states that does not levy a personal income tax. The state also does not collect a corporate income tax or franchise tax. However, Washington businesses are responsible for various other state levies, including the business and occupation tax (B & O), a gross receipts tax which charges varying rates for different types of businesses.\n\nWashington's state base sales tax is 6.5 percent which is combined with a local rate. , the rate is 9.5 percent in Seattle and other cities. These taxes apply to services as well as products. Most foods are exempt from sales tax; however, prepared foods, dietary supplements and soft drinks remain taxable. The combined state and local retail sales tax rates increase the taxes paid by consumers, depending on the variable local sales tax rates, generally between 8 and 9 percent.\n\nAn excise tax applies to certain select products such as gasoline, cigarettes, and alcoholic beverages. Property tax was the first tax levied in the state of Washington and its collection accounts for about 30 percent of Washington's total state and local revenue. It continues to be the most important revenue source for public schools, fire protection, libraries, parks and recreation, and other special purpose districts.\n\nAll real property and personal property is subject to tax unless specifically exempted by law. Personal property also is taxed, although most personal property owned by individuals is exempt. Personal property tax applies to personal property used when conducting business or to other personal property not exempt by law. All property taxes are paid to the county treasurer's office where the property is located. Washington does not impose a tax on intangible assets such as bank accounts, stocks or bonds. Neither does the state assess any tax on retirement income earned and received from another state. Washington does not collect inheritance taxes; however, the estate tax is decoupled from the federal estate tax laws, and therefore the state imposes its own estate tax.\n\nWashington's tax policy differs significantly from neighboring Oregon's, which levies no sales tax but a very high income tax. This leads to border economic anomalies in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area. Additional border economies exist with neighboring Canada and Idaho.\n\nAgriculture\n\nWashington is a leading agricultural state. (The following figures are from the [http://agr.wa.gov/AgInWA/ Washington State Department of Agriculture] and the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Washington Field Office.) For 2013, the total value of Washington's agricultural products was $10.2 billion.\nIn 2013, Washington ranked first in the nation in production of red raspberries (92.7 percent of total U.S. production), hops (79.2 percent), spearmint oil (72.9 percent), wrinkled seed peas (60 percent), apples (57 percent), sweet cherries (50.9 percent), pears (49.5 percent), Concord grapes (36.5 percent), carrots for processing (36.5 percent), green peas for processing (34.4 percent), and peppermint oil (31.4 percent).\n\nWashington also ranked second in the nation in production of fall potatoes (a quarter of the nation's production), nectarines, apricots, grapes (all varieties taken together), sweet corn for processing (a quarter of the nation's production), and summer onions (a fifth of the nation's production).\n\nThe apple industry is of particular importance to Washington. Because of the favorable climate of dry, warm summers and cold winters of central Washington, the state has led the U.S. in apple production since the 1920s. Two areas account for the vast majority of the state's apple crop: the Wenatchee–Okanogan region (comprising Chelan, Okanogan, Douglas, and Grant counties), and the Yakima region (comprising Yakima, Benton and Kittitas counties). \n\nWine\n\nWashington ranks second in the United States in the production of wine, behind only California. By 2006, the state had over 31000 acre of vineyards, a harvest of 120000 ST of grapes, and exports going to over 40 countries around the world from the 600 wineries located in the state. While there are some viticultural activities in the cooler, wetter western half of the state, the majority (99%) of wine grape production takes place in the desert-like eastern half. The rain shadow of the Cascade Range leaves the Columbia River Basin with around 8 in of annual rain fall, making irrigation and water rights of paramount interest to the Washington wine industry. Viticulture in the state is also influenced by long sunlight hours (on average, two more hours a day than in California during the growing season) and consistent temperatures. \n\nInternet access\n\nAs of December 2014, there are 124 broadband providers that offer service to Washington state with 93% of consumers having access to broadband speeds of 25/3mbps or more. Additionally, there are 406,000 people who live in Washington who live in an area served by only 1 broadband provider leaving them without a competitive market. \n\nFrom 2009–2014 the Washington State Broadband Project was awarded $7.3M in federal grants but program was discontinued in 2014. For infrastructure another $166M was awarded for broadband infrastructure projects in Washington state since 2011. \n\nTransportation\n\nWashington has a system of state highways, called State Routes, as well as an extensive ferry system which is the largest in the nation and the third largest in the world. There are 140 public airfields in Washington, including 16 state airports owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) is the major commercial airport of greater Seattle. Boeing Field in Seattle is one of the busiest primary non-hub airports in the US. The unique geography of Washington creates exceptional transportation challenges.\n\nThere are extensive waterways in the midst of Washington's largest cites, including Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma and Olympia. The state highways incorporate an extensive network of bridges and the largest ferry system in the United States to serve transportation needs in the Puget Sound area. Washington's marine highway constitutes a fleet of twenty-eight ferries that navigate Puget Sound and its inland waterways to 20 different ports of call, completing close to 147,000 sailings each year. Washington is home to four of the five longest floating bridges in the world: the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge and Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge over Lake Washington, and the Hood Canal Bridge which connects the Olympic Peninsula and Kitsap Peninsula. Washington has a number of seaports on the Pacific Ocean, including Seattle, Tacoma, Kalama, Anacortes, Vancouver, Longview, Greys County, Olympia, and Port Angeles.\n\nThe Cascade Mountain Range also provides unique transportation challenges. Washington operates and maintains roads over seven major mountain passes and eight minor passes. During winter months some of these passes are plowed, sanded, and kept safe with avalanche control. Not all are able to stay open through the winter. The North Cascades Highway, State Route 20, closes every year. This is because the extraordinary amount of snowfall and frequency of avalanches in the area of Washington Pass make it unsafe in the winter months. The Cayuse and Chinook Passes east of Mount Rainier also close in winter.\n\nWashington is crossed by a number of freight railroads, and Amtrak's passenger Cascade route between Eugene, Oregon and Vancouver, BC is the eighth busiest Amtrak service in the USA and one of the few profitable routes in the system. Public transportation has generally lagged, although the much-delayed link light rail system in the greater Seattle region opened its first line in 2002. Residents of Vancouver have resisted proposals to extend Portland's mass transit system into Washington.\n\nEnvironment\n\nIn 2007, Washington became the first state in the nation to target all forms of highly toxic brominated flame retardants known as PBDEs for elimination from the many common household products in which they are used. A 2004 study of 40 mothers from Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Montana found PBDEs in the breast milk of every woman tested.\n\nThree recent studies by the Washington Department of Ecology showed that toxic chemicals banned decades ago continue to linger in the environment and concentrate in the food chain. In one of the studies, state government scientists found unacceptable levels of toxic substances in 93 samples of freshwater fish collected from 45 sites. The toxic substances included PCBs; dioxins, two chlorinated pesticides, DDE and dieldrin, and PBDEs. As a result of the study, the department will investigate the sources of PCBs in the Wenatchee River, where unhealthy levels of PCBs were found in mountain whitefish. Based on the 2007 information and a previous 2004 Ecology study, the Washington State Department of Health is advising the public not to eat mountain whitefish from the Wenatchee River from Leavenworth downstream to where the river joins the Columbia, due to unhealthy levels of PCBs. Study results also indicated high levels of contaminants in fish tissue that scientists collected from Lake Washington and the Spokane River, where fish consumption advisories are already in effect. \n\nOn March 27, 2006, Governor Christine Gregoire signed into law the recently approved House Bill 2322. This bill would limit phosphorus content in dishwashing detergents statewide to 0.5 percent over the next six years. Though the ban would be effective statewide in 2010, it would take place in Whatcom County, Spokane County, and Clark County in 2008. A recent discovery had linked high contents of phosphorus in water to a boom in algae population. An invasive amount of algae in bodies of water would eventually lead to a variety of excess ecological and technological issues. \n\nGovernment and politics\n\nState government\n\nWashington's executive branch is headed by a governor elected for a four-year term. The current statewide elected officers are:\n* Jay Inslee, Governor (D)\n* Brad Owen, Lieutenant Governor (D)\n* Kim Wyman, Secretary of State (R)\n* Bob Ferguson, Attorney General (D)\n* Jim McIntire, State Treasurer (D)\n* Troy Kelley, State Auditor (D) \n* Randy Dorn, Superintendent of Public Instruction (non-partisan office)\n* Peter J. Goldmark, Commissioner of Public Lands (D)\n* Mike Kreidler, Insurance Commissioner (D)\n\nThe bicameral Washington State Legislature is the state's legislative branch. The state legislature is composed of a lower House of Representatives and an upper State Senate. The state is divided into 49 legislative districts of equal population, each of which elects two representatives and one senator. Representatives serve two-year terms, whilst senators serve for four years. There are no term limits. As of the 2013 and 2014 session, the Democratic Party held the majority in the House, while the Republicans had control of the state Senate with a coalition of some Democrats. In the 2014 midterm elections, the Republican Party took full control of the Senate.\n\nThe Washington Supreme Court is the highest court in the state. Nine justices serve on the bench and are elected statewide.\n\nU.S. Congress\n\nThe two U.S. Senators from Washington are Patty Murray (D) and Maria Cantwell (D).\n\nWashington's ten representatives in the United States House of Representatives (see map of districts) are Suzan DelBene (D-1), Richard Ray (Rick) Larsen (D-2), Jaime Herrera (R-3), Dan Newhouse (R-4), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-5), Derek Kilmer (D-6), Jim McDermott (D-7), Dave Reichert (R-8), Adam Smith (D-9), and Dennis Heck (D-10).\n\nDue to Congressional redistricting as a result of the 2010 Census, Washington gained one seat in the United States House of Representatives. With the extra seat, Washington also gained one electoral vote.\n\nPolitics\n\nThe state is typically thought of as politically divided by the Cascade Mountains, with Western Washington being liberal (particularly the ) and Eastern Washington being conservative. Washington has voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in every election since 1988.\n\nDue to Western Washington's large population, Democrats usually fare better statewide. The Seattle metropolitan combined statistical area, home to almost two-thirds of Washington's population, generally delivers stronger Democratic margins than most other parts of Western Washington. This is especially true of King County, home to Seattle itself and almost a third of the state's population.\n\nWashington was considered a key swing state in 1968, and it was the only western state to give its electoral votes to Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey over his Republican opponent Richard Nixon. Washington was considered a part of the 1994 Republican Revolution, and had the biggest pickup in the house for Republicans, who picked up seven of Washington's nine House seats. However, this dominance did not last for long as Democrats picked up one seat in the 1996 election and two more in 1998, giving the Democrats a 5–4 majority. \n\nThe two current United States Senators from Washington are Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both Democrats. The governorship is currently held by Democrat Jay Inslee, who was elected to his first term in the 2012 gubernatorial election. In 2013 and 2014 both houses of the Washington State Legislature (the Washington Senate and the Washington House of Representatives) were under a Democratic majority, though the state senate was under Republican control, due to two Democrats joining Republicans to form a Majority Coalition Caucus. After the 2014 elections the Democrats retained control of the House, while Republicans took a majority in the Senate without the need for a coalition.\n\nPassed bills\n\nWashington is one of three states to have legalized assisted suicide. In 2008 voted on by initiative the Washington Death with Dignity Act passed and became law.\n\nIn November 2009, Washington state voters approved full domestic partnerships via Referendum 71, marking the first time voters in any state expanded recognition of same-sex relationships at the ballot box.\n\nThree years later, in November 2012, same-sex marriage was affirmed via Referendum 74, making Washington one of only three states to have approved same-sex marriage by popular vote.\n\nAlso In November 2012, Washington state became one of just two states to pass by initiative the legal sale and possession of cannabis for both medical and non-medical use with Initiative 502. The law took effect in December 2012. Although marijuana is still illegal under U.S. Federal law, persons 21 and older in Washington state can possess up to one ounce of marijuana, 16 ounces of marijuana-infused product in solid form, 72 ounces of marijuana-infused product in liquid form, or any combination of all three, and to legally consume marijuana and marijuana-infused products. Some 334 legal recreational marijuana retail outlets are projected to open by June 2014.\n\nWashington state was the first state in the United States where assisted suicide, same-sex marriage, and recreational cannabis use all became legal. After the 2014 elections, it was joined by Oregon.\n\nEducation\n\nElementary and secondary\n\nAs of the 2008–2009 school year, 1,040,750 students were enrolled in elementary and secondary schools in Washington, with 59,562 teachers employed to educate them. As of August 2009, there were 295 school districts in the state, serviced by nine Educational Service Districts. Washington School Information Processing Cooperative (a non-profit, opt-in, State agency) provides information management systems for fiscal & human resources and student data. Elementary and secondary schools are under the jurisdiction of the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), led by State School Superintendent Randy Dorn. \n\nHigh school juniors and seniors in Washington have the option of utilizing the state's Running Start program. Initiated by the state legislature in 1990, the program allows students to attend institutions of higher education at public expense, simultaneously earning high school and college credit. \n\nThe state also has several public arts focused high schools including Tacoma School of the Arts, Vancouver school of Arts and Academics, and The Center School. There are also four Science and Math based high schools: one in the Tri-Cities, Washington, known as Delta, one in Tacoma, Washington, known as SAMI, another in Seattle known as Raisbeck Aviation High School, and one in Redmond, Washington known as Tesla STEM High School.\n\nHigher education\n\nThere are more than 40 institutions of higher education in Washington. The state has major research universities, technical schools, religious schools, and private career colleges. Colleges and Universities include the University of Washington, Seattle University , Washington State University, Western Washington University, Eastern Washington University, Central Washington University, and The Evergreen State College.\n\nHealthcare in Washington\n\nCurrent notable sports teams\n\nMajor professional teams\n\nMinor professional and amateur teams\n\nCollege sports teams\n\n; NCAA Division I\n\n* Washington Huskies (Pac-12 Conference; Football Bowl Subdivision)\n* Washington State Cougars (Pac-12 Conference; Football Bowl Subdivision)\n* Gonzaga Bulldogs (West Coast Conference)\n* Seattle Redhawks (Western Athletic Conference)\n* Eastern Washington Eagles (Big Sky Conference)\n\n; NCAA Division II\n\n* Central Washington Wildcats\n* Saint Martin's Saints\n* Seattle Pacific Falcons\n* Western Washington Vikings\n\n; NCAA Division III\n\n* Pacific Lutheran Lutes\n* Puget Sound Loggers\n* Whitman Missionaries\n* Whitworth Pirates\n\nSymbols, honors, and names\n\nFour ships of the United States Navy, including two battleships, have been named USS Washington in honor of the state. Previous ships had held that name in honor of George Washington.\n\nThe Evergreen State\n\nThe state's nickname \"Evergreen\" was proposed in 1890 by Charles T. Conover of Seattle, Washington. The name proved popular as the forests were full of evergreen trees and the abundance of rain keeps the shrubbery and grasses green throughout the year. Although that nickname is widely used by the state, appearing on vehicle license plates for instance, it has not been officially adopted. The publicly funded Evergreen State College in Olympia also takes its name from this nickname.\n\nState symbols\n\nThe state song is \"Washington, My Home\", the state bird is the American goldfinch, the state fruit is the apple, and the state vegetable is the Walla Walla sweet onion. The state dance, adopted in 1979, is the square dance. The state tree is the western hemlock. The state flower is the coast rhododendron. The state fish is the steelhead. The state folk song is \"Roll On, Columbia, Roll On\" by Woody Guthrie. The unofficial, but popularly accepted, state rock song is Louie Louie. The state grass is bluebunch wheatgrass. The state insect is the green darner dragonfly. The state gem is petrified wood. The state fossil is the Columbian mammoth. The state marine mammal is the orca. The state land mammal is the Olympic marmot. The state seal (featured in the state flag as well) was inspired by the unfinished portrait by Gilbert Stuart." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Where's_George?.txt" ], "title": [ "Where's George?" ], "wiki_context": [ "Where's George? is a website that tracks the natural geographic circulation of American paper money. Its popularity has led to the establishment of a number of other currency tracking websites (among which it remains the most popular by far), and sites that track other objects such as used books. Statistics generated by the website have been used in at least one research paper to study patterns of human travel in the United States. \n\nOverview\n\nThe site was established in December 1998 by Hank Eskin, a database consultant in Brookline, Massachusetts. Where's George? refers to George Washington, whose portrait appears on the $1 bill. In addition to the $1 bill, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 denominations can be tracked. The $1 bill is by far the most popular denomination, accounting for over 70% of bills with \"hits\" (explained below), followed by $20 bills, and the $5 bill a close third. \n\nAs of January 1, 2016, over 250,144,000 bills, with a total face value of more than $1.38 billion have been entered into the site database. \n\nTo track a bill, a user enters their local ZIP code, the serial number of the bill, and series designation of any US currency denomination. Users outside the US also can participate by using an extensive database of unique codes assigned to non-American/Canadian locations. Once a bill is registered, the site reports the time between sightings, the distance between sightings, and any comments from the finders (called \"user notes\").\n\nThe site does not track bills older than series 1963. \n\nWhere's George? is supported by advertising, sales of memorabilia, and by users who pay a fee for extra features. The \"Friends of Where's George?\" (FOG) program allows these users to access the website free of advertisements, access certain features that others cannot, and refresh reports on the user's entered bills. The standard FOG costs $8/month, while FOG+ costs $13/month. Eskin states that the \"Friends of Where's George?\" program will always be optional and payment to use the site will always be at the individual's option.\n\nInspired by Where's George, Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, launched Stamp Stampede in 2012 to protest the influence of big money in politics. Stamp Stampede stamps messages like \"Not to Be Used for Bribing Politicians\" on dollar bills. \n\nHits\n\nA \"hit\" occurs when a registered bill is re-entered into the database after its initial entry. Where's George? does not have specific goals other than tracking currency movements, but many users like to collect interesting patterns of hits, called \"bingos\". One of the most commonly sought after bingos involves getting at least one hit in all 50 states (called \"50 State Bingo\"). Another common bingo, called \"FRB Bingo\", occurs when a user gets hits on bills from all 12 Federal Reserve Banks. \n\nMost bills do not receive any responses, or hits, but many bills receive two or more hits. The approximate hit rate is around 11.4%. Double- and triple-hitters are common, and bills with 4 or 5 hits are not unheard of. Almost daily, a bill receives its 6th hit. , the site record is held by a $1 bill with 15 entries (though no new hits have been reported since March 26, 2005). \n\nTo increase the chance of having a bill reported, users (called \"Georgers\") may write or stamp text on the bills encouraging bill finders to visit www.wheresgeorge.com and track the bill's travels. Bills that are entered into the database, but not marked, are known as \"naturals\", \"stealths\", or \"ghosts\". If a bill entry violates the established rules of \"natural circulation\" (e.g. a user has found the same bill twice, a user has had more than 20 bills wind up with another user, etc.), it is flagged as an \"alternate entry\". If a user claims a \"wild\" (A bill found in circulation that has been marked or stamped with wheresgeorge.com as having already been entered on the site.), he or she is the submitters' \"child\". \n\nControversy\n\nThe site does not encourage the defacement of US currency. In October 1999, when interviewed for The New York Times, Eskin commented on why the Secret Service has not bothered the webmaster over possible defacement of US currency: \"They've got better things to do. They want to catch counterfeiters counterfeiting billions of dollars.\"\n\nIn April 2000, the site was investigated by the United States Secret Service, which informed Eskin that the selling of \"Where's George?\" rubber stamps on the web site is considered \"advertising\" on United States currency, which is illegal under . The site's administrators immediately ceased selling the rubber stamps; no further action against the site was taken. At least one spokesperson for the US Secret Service has pointed out in print that marking US bills, even if not defacement, can still be illegal if it falls under \"advertisement\". However, a Secret Service spokesman in Seattle, Washington, told The Seattle Times in 2004: \"Quite frankly, we wouldn't spend too much looking into this.\"\n\nWhere's George? and geocaching\n\nThe Where's George? site says it \"prohibits trading or exchanging bills with friends, family or anyone known to the bill distributor for the purpose of re-entry\". This rule is to encourage natural circulation of the currency, and to prevent multiple fake hits from happening on any bill. As a result, all bill entry notes containing the word \"geocache\" or \"cache\" are tagged as a geocache bill. The site has also dropped a separate listing of \"Top 10 Geocache bills\" and is cautioning that, if geocache sites are used too often, \"all Geocache bills will be removed from this site\". \n\nGeorge Score\n\nThe \"George Score\" is a method of rating users based on how many bills they have entered and also by how many total hits they have had. The formula is as follows:\n\n100\\times\\left[\\sqrt{\\ln({\\rm bills\\ entered})}+\\ln({\\rm hits}+1)\\right]\\times[1-({\\rm days\\ of\\ inactivity}/100)]\n\nThis logarithmic formula means that the more bills a user enters and the more hits the user receives, the less the user's score increases for each entered bill or new hit. Thus, a user's score does not increase as quickly when the user has entered many bills. The #1 user, Wattsburg Gary, has an official George Score of 1,704.93 (as of February 15, 2015), and was the first user to break the 1500-George-Score mark and the one-million and two-million bills entered mark. Gary has entered over 2,197,536 bills. \n\nAlthough there is a scoring system, the site makes it clear that this is not intended to be a contest. The site also prohibits marking bills and depositing them into financial institutions. \n\nCommunity\n\nWhere's George? includes a community of users that interact via forums. The forums are divided into several categories, ranging from regional to new-member-help threads. Some members of the site also participate in gatherings, held in various cities around the United States. Several of these gatherings have become annual events, and can vary widely in scope and size. \n\nReleased in 2006, the documentary film by Brian Galbreath named WheresGeorge.com gives insight into the hobby, the hobbyists, and their get-togethers, which are known as \"gatherings\". The 27-minute color DVD features various interviews with \"Georgers\" at a St. Louis, Missouri gathering, and with Hank Eskin (the creator of wheresgeorge.com), as well as narrated information and statistics about the site and culture. The film has aired on PBS affiliates WTTW and WSIU. \n\nUse in research\n\nAlthough Where's George? does not officially recognize the bills that travel the farthest or fastest, some have approached it as a semi-serious way to track patterns in the flow of the American currency. \n\nMoney flow displayed through Where's George was used in a 2006 research paper published by theoretical physicist Dirk Brockmann and his coworkers. The paper described statistical laws of human travel in the United States, and developed a mathematical model of the spread of infectious disease resulting from such travel. The article was published in the January 26, 2006, issue of the journal Nature. Researchers found that 57% of the nearly half a million dollar bills studied traveled between 30 and over approximately nine months in the United States. A short clip of a Brockmann's presentation on the subject from the IdeaFestival has been posted on YouTube. More recently, \"Where's George?\" data have been used to attempt to predict the rapidity and pattern of projected spread of the 2009 swine flu outbreak." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Vice_President_of_the_United_States.txt" ], "title": [ "Vice President of the United States" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Vice President of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest position in the executive branch of the United States, after the President. The executive power of both the vice president and the president is granted under Article Two, Section One of the Constitution. The vice president is indirectly elected, together with the president, to a four-year term of office by the people of the United States through the Electoral College. The vice president is the first person in the presidential line of succession, and would normally ascend to the presidency upon the death, resignation, or removal of the president. The Office of the Vice President of the United States assists and organizes the vice president's official functions.\n\nThe vice president is also president of the United States Senate and in that capacity only votes when it is necessary to break a tie. While Senate customs have created supermajority rules that have diminished this constitutional tie-breaking authority, the vice president still retains the ability to influence legislation; for example, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 was passed in the Senate by a tie-breaking vice presidential vote. Additionally, pursuant to the Twelfth Amendment, the vice president presides over the joint session of Congress when it convenes to count the vote of the Electoral College.\n\nWhile the vice president's only constitutionally prescribed functions aside from presidential succession relate to their role as President of the Senate, the office is commonly viewed as a component of the executive branch of the federal government. The United States Constitution does not expressly assign the office to any one branch, causing a dispute among scholars whether it belongs to the executive branch, the legislative branch, or both. The modern view of the vice president as a member of the executive branch is due in part to the assignment of executive duties to the vice president by either the president or Congress, though such activities are only recent historical developments.\n\nOrigin\n\nThe creation of the office of vice president was a direct consequence of the creation of the Electoral College. Delegates to the Philadelphia Convention gave each state a number of presidential electors equal to that state's combined share of House and Senate seats. Yet the delegates were worried that each elector would only favor his own state's favorite son candidate, resulting in deadlocked elections that would produce no winners. To counter this potential difficulty, the delegates gave each presidential elector two votes, requiring that at least one of their votes be for a candidate from outside the elector's state; they also mandated that the winner of an election must obtain an absolute majority of the total number of electors. The delegates expected that each elector's second vote would go to a statesman of national character.\n\nFearing that electors might throw away their second vote to bolster their favorite son's chance of winning, however, the Philadelphia delegates specified that the runner-up would become vice president. Creating this new office imposed a political cost on discarded votes and forced electors to cast their second ballot.\n\nRoles of the vice president\n\nThe Constitution limits the formal powers and role of vice president to becoming president, should the president become unable to serve, prompting the well-known expression \"only a heartbeat away from the presidency,\" and to acting as the presiding officer of the U.S. Senate.\nOther statutorily granted roles include membership of both the National Security Council and the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. \n\nPresident of the United States Senate\n\nAs President of the Senate, the vice president has two primary duties: to cast a vote in the event of a Senate deadlock and to preside over and certify the official vote count of the U.S. Electoral College. For example, in the first half of 2001, the Senators were divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats and Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the Senate majority.\n\nRegular duties\n\nAs President of the Senate (Article I, Section 3, Clause 4), the vice president oversees procedural matters and may cast a tie-breaking vote. There is a strong convention within the U.S. Senate that the vice president should not use their position as President of the Senate to influence the passage of legislation or act in a partisan manner, except in the case of breaking tie votes. As President of the Senate, John Adams cast twenty-nine tie-breaking votes, a record no successor except John C. Calhoun ever threatened. Adams's votes protected the president's sole authority over the removal of appointees, influenced the location of the national capital, and prevented war with Great Britain. On at least one occasion Adams persuaded senators to vote against legislation he opposed, and he frequently addressed the Senate on procedural and policy matters. Adams's political views and his active role in the Senate made him a natural target for critics of George Washington's administration. Toward the end of his first term, a threatened resolution that would have silenced him except for procedural and policy matters caused him to exercise more restraint in hopes of seeing his election as President of the United States.\n\nFormerly, the vice president would preside regularly over Senate proceedings, but in modern times, the vice president rarely presides over day-to-day matters in the Senate; in their place, the Senate chooses a President pro tempore (or \"president for a time\") to preside in the vice president's absence; the Senate normally selects the longest-serving senator in the majority party. The President pro tempore has the power to appoint any other senator to preside, and in practice junior senators from the majority party are assigned the task of presiding over the Senate at most times.\n\nExcept for this tie-breaking role, the Standing Rules of the Senate vest no significant responsibilities in the vice president. Rule XIX, which governs debate, does not authorize the vice president to participate in debate, and grants only to members of the Senate (and, upon appropriate notice, former presidents of the United States) the privilege of addressing the Senate, without granting a similar privilege to the sitting vice president. Thus, as Time magazine wrote during the controversial tenure of Vice President Charles G. Dawes, \"once in four years the Vice President can make a little speech, and then he is done. For four years he then has to sit in the seat of the silent, attending to speeches ponderous or otherwise, of deliberation or humor.\" \n\nRecurring, infrequent duties\n\nThe President of the Senate also presides over counting and presentation of the votes of the Electoral College. This process occurs in the presence of both houses of Congress, generally on January 6 of the year following a U.S. presidential election. In this capacity, only four vice presidents have been able to announce their own election to the presidency: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren, and George H. W. Bush. At the beginning of 1961, it fell to Richard Nixon to preside over this process, which officially announced the election of his 1960 opponent, John F. Kennedy. In 2001, Al Gore announced the election of his opponent, George W. Bush. In 1969, Vice President Hubert Humphrey would have announced the election of his opponent, Richard Nixon; however, on the date of the Congressional joint session (January 6), Humphrey was in Norway attending the funeral of Trygve Lie, the first elected Secretary-General of the United Nations. \n\nIn 1933, incumbent Vice President Charles Curtis announced the election of House Speaker John Nance Garner as his successor, while Garner was seated next to him on the House dais.\n\nThe President of the Senate may also preside over most of the impeachment trials of federal officers. However, whenever the President of the United States is impeached, the US Constitution requires the Chief Justice of the United States to preside over the Senate for the trial. The Constitution is silent as to the presiding officer in the instance where the vice president is the officer impeached.\n\nSuccession and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment\n\nThe U.S. Constitution provides that should the president die, become disabled while in office or removed from office, the \"powers and duties\" of the office are transferred to the vice president. Initially, it was unclear whether the vice president actually became the new president or merely an acting president. This was first tested in 1841 with the death of President William Henry Harrison. Harrison's vice president, John Tyler, asserted that he had succeeded to the full presidential office, powers, and title, and declined to acknowledge documents referring to him as \"Acting President.\" Despite some strong calls against it, Tyler took the oath of office as the tenth President. Tyler's claim was not challenged legally, and so the Tyler precedent of full succession was established. This was made explicit by Section 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1967.\n\nSection 2 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment provides for vice presidential succession:\n Gerald Ford was the first vice president selected by this method, after the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1973; after succeeding to the presidency, Ford nominated Nelson Rockefeller as vice president.\n\nAnother issue was who had the power to declare that an incapacitated president is unable to discharge his duties. This question had arisen most recently with the illnesses of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Section 3 and Section 4 of the amendment provide means for the vice president to become acting president upon the temporary disability of the president. Section 3 deals with self-declared incapacity of the president. Section 4 deals with incapacity declared by the joint action of the vice president and of a majority of the Cabinet.\n\nWhile Section 4 has never been invoked, Section 3 has been invoked three times: on July 13, 1985 when Ronald Reagan underwent surgery to remove cancerous polyps from his colon, and twice more on June 29, 2002 and July 21, 2007 when George W. Bush underwent colonoscopy procedures requiring sedation. Prior to this amendment, Vice President Richard Nixon informally assumed some of President Dwight Eisenhower's duties for several weeks on each of three occasions when Eisenhower was ill.\n\nInformal roles\n\nThe extent of any informal roles and functions of the vice president depend on the specific relationship between the president and the vice president, but often include tasks such as drafter and spokesperson for the administration's policies, adviser to the president, and being a symbol of American concern or support. The influence of the vice president in this role depends almost entirely on the characteristics of the particular administration. Dick Cheney, for instance, was widely regarded as one of President George W. Bush's closest confidants. Al Gore was an important adviser to President Bill Clinton on matters of foreign policy and the environment. Often, vice presidents are chosen to act as a \"balance\" to the president, taking either more moderate or radical positions on issues.\n\nUnder the American system the president is both head of state and head of government, and the ceremonial duties of the former position are often delegated to the vice president. The vice president is often assigned the ceremonial duties of representing the president and the government at state funerals or other functions in the United States. This often is the most visible role of the vice president, and has occasionally been the subject of ridicule, such as during the vice presidency of George H. W. Bush. The vice president may meet with other heads of state or attend state funerals in other countries, at times when the administration wishes to demonstrate concern or support but cannot send the president themselves.\n\nOffice as stepping stone to the presidency\n\nIn recent decades, the vice presidency has frequently been used as a platform to launch bids for the presidency. The transition of the office to its modern stature occurred primarily as a result of Franklin Roosevelt's 1940 nomination, when he captured the ability to nominate his running mate instead of leaving the nomination to the convention. Prior to that, party bosses often used the vice presidential nomination as a consolation prize for the party's minority faction. A further factor potentially contributing to the rise in prestige of the office was the adoption of presidential preference primaries in the early 20th century. By adopting primary voting, the field of candidates for vice president was expanded by both the increased quantity and quality of presidential candidates successful in some primaries, yet who ultimately failed to capture the presidential nomination at the convention.\n\nOf the thirteen presidential elections from 1956 to 2004, nine featured the incumbent president; the other four (1960, 1968, 1988, 2000) all featured the incumbent vice president. Former vice presidents also ran, in 1984 (Walter Mondale), and in 1968 (Richard Nixon, against the incumbent vice president, Hubert Humphrey). The first presidential election to include neither the incumbent president nor the incumbent vice president on a major party ticket since 1952 came in 2008 when President George W. Bush had already served two terms and Vice President Cheney chose not to run. Richard Nixon is also the only non-sitting vice president to be elected president, as well as the only person to be elected president and vice president twice each.\n\nSelection process\n\nEligibility\n\nThe Twelfth Amendment states that \"no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States.\" Thus, to serve as vice president, an individual must:\n* Be a natural-born U.S. citizen;\n* Be at least 35 years old\n* Have resided in the U.S. at least 14 years. \n\nDisqualifications\n\nAdditionally, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment denies eligibility for any federal office to anyone who, having sworn an oath to support the United States Constitution, later has rebelled against the United States. This disqualification, originally aimed at former supporters of the Confederacy, may be removed by a two-thirds vote of each house of the Congress.\n\nUnder the Twenty-second Amendment, the President of the United States may not be elected to more than two terms. However, there is no similar such limitation as to how many times one can be elected vice president. Scholars disagree whether a former president barred from election to the presidency is also ineligible to be elected or appointed vice president, as suggested by the Twelfth Amendment. The issue has never been tested in practice.\n\nAlso, Article I, Section 3, Clause 7 allows the Senate, upon voting to remove an impeached federal official from office, to disqualify that official from holding any federal office.\n\nResidency limitation\n\nWhile it is commonly held that the president and vice president must be residents of different states, this is not actually the case. Nothing in the Constitution prohibits both candidates being from a single state. Instead, the limitation imposed is on the members of the Electoral College, who must cast a ballot for at least one candidate who is not from their own state.\n\nIn theory, the candidates elected could both be from one state, but the electors of that state would, in a close electoral contest, run the risk of denying their vice presidential candidate the absolute majority required to secure the election, even if the presidential candidate is elected. This would then place the vice presidential election in the hands of the Senate.\n\nIn practice, however, residency is rarely an issue. Parties have avoided nominating tickets containing two candidates from the same state. Further, the candidates may themselves take action to alleviate any residency conflict. For example, at the start of the 2000 election cycle Dick Cheney was a resident of Texas; Cheney quickly changed his residency back to Wyoming, where he had previously served as a U.S. Representative, when Texas governor and Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush asked Cheney to be his vice presidential candidate.\n\nNominating process\n\nThough the vice president does not need to have any political experience, most major-party vice presidential nominees are current or former United States Senators or Representatives, with the occasional nominee being a current or former Governor, a high-ranking military officer, or a holder of a major post within the Executive Department. The vice presidential candidates of the major national political parties are formally selected by each party's quadrennial nominating convention, following the selection of the party's presidential candidates. The official process is identical to the one by which the presidential candidates are chosen, with delegates placing the names of candidates into nomination, followed by a ballot in which candidates must receive a majority to secure the party's nomination.\n\nIn practice, the presidential nominee has considerable influence on the decision, and in the 20th century it became customary for that person to select a preferred running mate, who is then nominated and accepted by the convention. In recent years, with the presidential nomination usually being a foregone conclusion as the result of the primary process, the selection of a vice presidential candidate is often announced prior to the actual balloting for the presidential candidate, and sometimes before the beginning of the convention itself. The first presidential aspirant to announce his selection for vice president before the beginning of the convention was Ronald Reagan who, prior to the 1976 Republican National Convention announced that Richard Schweiker would be his running mate. Reagan's supporters then sought to amend the convention rules so that Gerald R. Ford would be required to name his vice presidential running mate in advance as well. The proposal was defeated, and Reagan did not receive the nomination in 1976. Often, the presidential nominee will name a vice presidential candidate who will bring geographic or ideological balance to the ticket or appeal to a particular constituency.\n\nThe vice presidential candidate might also be chosen on the basis of traits the presidential candidate is perceived to lack, or on the basis of name recognition. To foster party unity, popular runners-up in the presidential nomination process are commonly considered. While this selection process may enhance the chances of success for a national ticket, in the past it often insured that the vice presidential nominee represented regions, constituencies, or ideologies at odds with those of the presidential candidate. As a result, vice presidents were often excluded from the policy-making process of the new administration. Many times their relationships with the president and his staff were aloof, non-existent, or even adversarial.\n\nThe ultimate goal of vice presidential candidate selection is to help and not hurt the party's chances of getting elected. A selection whose positive traits make the presidential candidate look less favorable in comparison can backfire, such as in 1988 when Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis chose experienced Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen, and in 2008 when Republican candidate John McCain picked dynamic Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. However, Palin also hurt McCain when her interviews with Katie Couric led to concerns about her fitness for the presidency. In 1984, Walter Mondale picked Geraldine Ferraro whose nomination became a drag on the ticket due to repeated questions about her husband's finances. Questions about Dan Quayle's experience and temperament were raised in the 1988 presidential campaign of George H.W. Bush, but he still won. James Stockdale, the choice of third-party candidate Ross Perot in 1992, was seen as unqualified by many, but the Perot-Stockdale ticket still won about 19% of the vote.\n\nHistorically, vice presidential candidates were chosen to provide geographic and ideological balance to a presidential ticket, widening a presidential candidate's appeal to voters from outside his regional base or wing of the party. Candidates from electoral-vote rich states were usually preferred. However, in 1992, moderate Democrat Bill Clinton (of Arkansas) chose moderate Democrat Al Gore (of Tennessee)\nas his running mate. Despite the two candidates' near-identical ideological and regional backgrounds, Gore's extensive experience in national affairs enhanced the appeal of a ticket headed by Clinton, whose political career had been spent entirely at the local and state levels of government. In 2000, George W. Bush chose Dick Cheney of Wyoming, a reliably Republican state with only three electoral votes, and in 2008, Barack Obama mirrored Bush's strategy when he chose Joe Biden of Delaware, a reliably Democratic state, likewise one with only three electoral votes. Both Cheney and Biden were chosen for their experience in national politics (experience lacked by both Bush and Obama) rather than the ideological balance or electoral vote advantage they would provide.\n\nThe first presidential candidate to choose his vice presidential candidate was Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. The last not to name a vice presidential choice, leaving the matter up to the convention, was Democrat Adlai Stevenson in 1956. The convention chose Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver over Massachusetts Senator (and later president) John F. Kennedy. At the tumultuous 1972 Democratic convention, presidential nominee George McGovern selected Senator Thomas Eagleton as his running mate, but numerous other candidates were either nominated from the floor or received votes during the balloting. Eagleton nevertheless received a majority of the votes and the nomination, though he later resigned from the ticket, resulting in Sargent Shriver becoming McGovern's final running mate; both lost to the Nixon-Agnew ticket by a wide margin, carrying only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.\n\nIn cases where the presidential nomination is still in doubt as the convention approaches, the campaigns for the two positions may become intertwined. In 1976, Ronald Reagan, who was trailing President Gerald R. Ford in the presidential delegate count, announced prior to the Republican National Convention that, if nominated, he would select Senator Richard Schweiker as his running mate. This move backfired to a degree, as Schweiker's relatively liberal voting record alienated many of the more conservative delegates who were considering a challenge to party delegate selection rules to improve Reagan's chances. In the end, Ford narrowly won the presidential nomination and Reagan's selection of Schweiker became moot.\n\nElection, oath, and tenure\n\nVice presidents are elected indirectly in the United States. A number of electors, collectively known as the Electoral College, officially select the president. On Election Day, voters in each of the states and the District of Columbia cast ballots for these electors. Each state is allocated a number of electors, equal to the size of its delegation in both Houses of Congress combined. Generally, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College.\n\nThe winning slate of electors meet at its state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, to vote. They then send a record of that vote to Congress. The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president, acting in his capacity as President of the Senate and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which was elected at the same time as the president.\n\nPursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the vice president's term of office begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. This date, known as Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the four-year terms of both the president and vice president.\n\nAlthough Article VI requires that the vice president take an oath or affirmation of allegiance to the US Constitution, unlike the president, the United States Constitution does not specify the precise wording of the oath of office for the vice president. Several variants of the oath have been used since 1789; the current form, which is also recited by Senators, Representatives and other government officers, has been used since 1884:\n\nThe term of office for vice president is four years. While the Twenty-Second Amendment generally restricts the president to two terms, there is no similar limitation on the office of vice president, meaning an eligible person could hold the office as long as voters continued to vote for electors who in turn would renew the vice president's tenure. A vice president could even serve under different administrations, as George Clinton and John C. Calhoun have done.\n\nOriginal election process and reform\n\nUnder the original terms of the Constitution, the electors of the Electoral College voted only for office of president rather than for both president and vice president. Each elector was allowed to vote for two people for the top office. The person receiving the greatest number of votes (provided that such a number was a majority of electors) would be president, while the individual who received the next largest number of votes became vice president. If no one received a majority of votes, then the House of Representatives would choose among the five candidates with the largest numbers of votes, with each state's representatives together casting a single vote. In such a case, the person who received the highest number of votes but was not chosen president would become vice president. In the case of a tie for second, then the Senate would choose the vice president.Wikisource:Constitution of the United States of America#Section 1 2\n\nThe original plan, however, did not foresee the development of political parties and their adversarial role in the government. For example, in the election of 1796, Federalist John Adams came in first, but because the Federalist electors had divided their second vote amongst several vice presidential candidates, Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson came second. Thus, the president and vice president were from opposing parties. Predictably, Adams and Jefferson clashed over issues such as states' rights and foreign policy. \n\nA greater problem occurred in the election of 1800, in which the two participating parties each had a secondary candidate they intended to elect as vice president, but the more popular Democratic-Republican party failed to execute that plan with their electoral votes. Under the system in place at the time (Article II, Section 1, Clause 3), the electors could not differentiate between their two candidates, so the plan had been for one elector to vote for Thomas Jefferson but not for Aaron Burr, thus putting Burr in second place. This plan broke down for reasons that are disputed, and both candidates received the same number of votes. After 35 deadlocked ballots in the House of Representatives, Jefferson finally won on the 36th ballot and Burr became vice president. \n\nThis tumultuous affair led to the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804, which directed the electors to use separate ballots to vote for the president and vice president. While this solved the problem at hand, it ultimately had the effect of lowering the prestige of the vice presidency, as the office was no longer for the leading challenger for the presidency.\n\nThe separate ballots for president and vice president became something of a moot issue later in the 19th century when it became the norm for popular elections to determine a state's Electoral College delegation. Electors chosen this way are pledged to vote for a particular presidential and vice presidential candidate (offered by the same political party). So, while the Constitution says that the president and vice president are chosen separately, in practice they are chosen together.\n\nIf no vice presidential candidate receives an Electoral College majority, then the Senate selects the vice president, in accordance with the United States Constitution. The Twelfth Amendment states that a \"majority of the whole number\" of Senators (currently 51 of 100) is necessary for election. Further, the language requiring an absolute majority of Senate votes precludes the sitting vice president from breaking any tie which might occur. The election of 1836 is the only election so far where the office of the vice president has been decided by the Senate. During the campaign, Martin Van Buren's running mate Richard Mentor Johnson was accused of having lived with a black woman. Virginia's 23 electors, who were pledged to Van Buren and Johnson, refused to vote for Johnson (but still voted for Van Buren). The election went to the Senate, where Johnson was elected 33-17.\n\nSalary\n\nThe vice president's salary is $230,700. The salary was set by the 1989 Government Salary Reform Act, which also provides an automatic cost of living adjustment for federal employees.\n\nThe vice president does not automatically receive a pension based on that office, but instead receives the same pension as other members of Congress based on his position as President of the Senate. The vice president must serve a minimum of five years to qualify for a pension. \n\nSince 1974, the official residence of the vice president and their family has been Number One Observatory Circle, on the grounds of the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.\n\nVacancy\n\nArticle I, Section 2, Clause 5 and Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution both authorize the House of Representatives to serve as a \"grand jury\" with the power to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for \"treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.\" Similarly, Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 and Article II, Section 4 both authorize the Senate to serve as a court with the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. No vice president has ever been impeached.\n\nPrior to ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967, no provision existed for filling a vacancy in the office of vice president. As a result, the vice presidency was left vacant 16 times—sometimes for nearly four years—until the next ensuing election and inauguration: eight times due to the death of the sitting president, resulting in the vice presidents becoming president; seven times due to the death of the sitting vice president; and once due to the resignation of Vice President John C. Calhoun to become a senator.\n\nCalhoun resigned because he had been dropped from the ticket by President Andrew Jackson in favor of Martin Van Buren, due primarily to conflicting with the President over the issue of nullification. Already a lame duck vice president, he was elected to the Senate by the South Carolina state legislature and resigned the vice presidency early to begin his Senate term because he believed he would have more power as a senator.\n\nSince the adoption of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, the office has been vacant twice while awaiting confirmation of the new vice president by both houses of Congress. The first such instance occurred in 1973 following the resignation of Spiro Agnew as Richard Nixon's vice president. Gerald Ford was subsequently nominated by President Nixon and confirmed by Congress. The second occurred 10 months later when Nixon resigned following the Watergate scandal and Ford assumed the presidency. The resulting vice presidential vacancy was filled by Nelson Rockefeller. Ford and Rockefeller are the only two people to have served as vice president without having been elected to the office, and Ford remains the only person to have served as both vice president and president without being elected to either office.\n\nThe original Constitution had no provision for selecting such a replacement, so the office of vice president would remain vacant until the beginning of the next presidential and vice presidential terms. This issue had arisen most recently when the John F. Kennedy assassination caused a vacancy from November 22, 1963, until January 20, 1965, and was rectified by Section 2 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment.\n\nGrowth of the office\n\nFor much of its existence, the office of vice president was seen as little more than a minor position. Adams, the first vice president, was the first of many who found the job frustrating and stupefying, writing to his wife Abigail that \"My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.\" Many vice presidents lamented the lack of meaningful work in their role. John Nance Garner, who served as vice president from 1933 to 1941 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, claimed that the vice presidency \"isn't worth a pitcher of warm piss.\" Harry Truman, who also served as vice president under Roosevelt, said that the office was as \"useful as a cow's fifth teat.\" \n\nThomas R. Marshall, the 28th vice president, lamented: \"Once there were two brothers. One ran away to sea; the other was elected Vice President of the United States. And nothing was heard of either of them again.\" His successor, Calvin Coolidge, was so obscure that Major League Baseball sent him free passes that misspelled his name, and a fire marshal failed to recognize him when Coolidge's Washington residence was evacuated. \n\nWhen the Whig Party asked Daniel Webster to run for the vice presidency on Zachary Taylor's ticket, he replied \"I do not propose to be buried until I am really dead and in my coffin.\" This was the second time Webster declined the office, which William Henry Harrison had first offered to him. Ironically, both of the presidents making the offer to Webster died in office, meaning the three-time presidential candidate could have become president if he had accepted either. Since presidents rarely died in office, however, the better preparation for the presidency was considered to be the office of Secretary of State, in which Webster served under Harrison, Tyler, and later, Taylor's successor, Fillmore.\n\nFor many years, the vice president was given few responsibilities. Garret Hobart, the first vice president under William McKinley, was one of the very few vice presidents at this time who played an important role in the administration. A close confidant and adviser of the president, Hobart was called \"Assistant President.\" However, until 1919, vice presidents were not included in meetings of the President's Cabinet. This precedent was broken by President Woodrow Wilson when he asked Thomas R. Marshall to preside over Cabinet meetings while Wilson was in France negotiating the Treaty of Versailles. President Warren G. Harding also invited his vice president, Calvin Coolidge, to meetings. The next vice president, Charles G. Dawes, did not seek to attend Cabinet meetings under President Coolidge, declaring that \"the precedent might prove injurious to the country.\" Vice President Charles Curtis was also precluded from attending by President Herbert Hoover.\n\nIn 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt raised the stature of the office by renewing the practice of inviting the vice president to cabinet meetings, which every president since has maintained. Roosevelt's first vice president, John Nance Garner, broke with him at the start of the second term on the Court-packing issue and became Roosevelt's leading political enemy. In 1937, Garner became the first vice president to be sworn in on the Capitol steps in the same ceremony with the president, a tradition that continues. Prior to that time, vice presidents were traditionally inaugurated at a separate ceremony in the Senate chamber. Gerald R. Ford and Nelson A. Rockefeller, who were both appointed to the office under the terms of the 25th amendment, were inaugurated in the House and Senate chambers, respectively.\n\nGarner's successor, Henry Wallace, was given major responsibilities during the war, but he moved further to the left than the Democratic Party and the rest of the Roosevelt administration and was relieved of actual power. Roosevelt kept his last vice president, Harry Truman, uninformed on all war and postwar issues, such as the atomic bomb, leading Truman to remark, wryly, that the job of the vice president was to \"go to weddings and funerals.\" Following Roosevelt's death and Truman's ascension to the presidency, the need to keep vice presidents informed on national security issues became clear, and Congress made the vice president one of four statutory members of the National Security Council in 1949.\n\nRichard Nixon reinvented the office of vice president. He had the attention of the media and the Republican party, when Dwight Eisenhower ordered him to preside at Cabinet meetings in his absence. Nixon was also the first vice president to formally assume temporary control of the executive branch, which he did after Eisenhower suffered a heart attack on September 24, 1955, ileitis in June 1956, and a stroke in November 1957.\n\nUntil 1961, vice presidents had their offices on Capitol Hill, a formal office in the Capitol itself and a working office in the Russell Senate Office Building. Lyndon B. Johnson was the first vice president to be given an office in the White House complex, in the Old Executive Office Building. The former Navy Secretary's office in the OEOB has since been designated the \"Ceremonial Office of the Vice President\" and is today used for formal events and press interviews. President Jimmy Carter was the first president to give his vice president, Walter Mondale, an office in the West Wing of the White House, which all vice presidents have since retained. Because of their function as Presidents of the Senate, vice presidents still maintain offices and staff members on Capitol Hill.\n\nThough Walter Mondale's tenure was the beginning of the modern day power of the vice presidency, the tenure of Dick Cheney saw a rapid growth in the office of the vice president. Vice President Cheney held a tremendous amount of power and frequently made policy decisions on his own, without the knowledge of the President. After his tenure, and during the 2008 presidential campaign, both vice presidential candidates, Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, stated that the office had expanded too much under Cheney's tenure and both had planned to reduce the role to simply being an adviser to the president. \n\nPost–vice presidency\n\nThe five former vice presidents now living are:\n\nFile:Walter Mondale 2014.jpg|Walter Mondale42nd (1977–1981)\nFile:President George H. W.tif|George H. W. Bush43rd (1981–1989)\nFile:Quayle2k11.tif|Dan Quayle44th (1989–1993)\nFile:Gore2k11.tif|Al Gore45th (1993–2001)\nFile:Cheney.tif|Dick Cheney46th (2001–2009)\n\nFour vice presidents have been elected to the presidency immediately after serving as vice president: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren and George H. W. Bush. Richard Nixon, John C. Breckinridge, Hubert Humphrey and Al Gore were all nominated by their respective parties, but failed to succeed the presidents with whom they were elected, though Nixon was elected president eight years later.\n\nTwo vice presidents served under different presidents. George Clinton served under both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, while John C. Calhoun served under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. In the modern era, Adlai Stevenson I became the first former vice president to seek election with a different running mate, running in 1900 with William Jennings Bryan after serving under Bryan's rival, Grover Cleveland. (He was also narrowly defeated for Governor of Illinois in 1908.) Charles W. Fairbanks, vice president under Theodore Roosevelt, sought unsuccessfully to return to office as Charles Evans Hughes' running mate in 1916.\n\nSome former vice presidents have sought other offices after serving as vice president. Daniel D. Tompkins ran for Governor of New York in 1820 whilst serving as vice president under James Monroe. He lost to DeWitt Clinton, but was re-elected vice president. John C. Calhoun resigned as vice president to accept election as US Senator from South Carolina. Hannibal Hamlin, Andrew Johnson, Alben Barkley and Hubert H. Humphrey were all elected to the Senate after leaving office. Levi P. Morton, vice president under Benjamin Harrison, was elected Governor of New York after leaving office.\n\nRichard Nixon unsuccessfully sought the governorship of California in 1962, nearly two years after leaving office as vice president and just over six years before becoming president. Walter Mondale ran unsuccessfully for president in 1984, served as U.S. Ambassador to Japan from 1993 to 1996, and then sought unsuccessfully to return to the Senate in 2002. George H. W. Bush won the presidency, and his vice president, Dan Quayle, sought the Republican nomination in 2000. Al Gore also ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 2000, turning to environmental advocacy afterward. Cheney had previously explored the possibility of running for president before serving as vice president, but chose not to run for president after his two terms as vice president.\n\nSince 1977, former presidents and vice presidents who are elected or re-elected to the Senate are entitled to the largely honorific position of Deputy President pro tempore. So far, the only former vice president to have held this title is Hubert Humphrey following his return to the Senate. Walter Mondale would have been entitled to the position had his 2002 Senate bid been successful.\n\nUnder the terms of an 1886 Senate resolution, all former vice presidents are entitled to a portrait bust in the Senate wing of the United States Capitol, commemorating their service as presidents of the Senate. Dick Cheney is the most recent former vice president to be so honored.\n\nUnlike former presidents, who receive a pension automatically regardless of their time in office, former vice presidents must reach pension eligibility by accumulating the appropriate time in federal service. Since 2008, former vice president are also entitled to Secret Service personal protection. Former vice presidents traditionally receive Secret Service protection for up to six months after leaving office, by order of the Secretary of Homeland Security, though this can be extended if the Secretary believes the level of threat is sufficient. In 2008, a bill titled the \"Former Vice President Protection Act\" was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush. It provides six-month Secret Service protection by law to a former vice president and family. According to the Department of Homeland Security, protection for former vice president Cheney has been extended numerous times because threats against him have not decreased since his leaving office. \n\nTimeline of vice presidents" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Niagara_Falls.txt", "Horseshoe_Falls.txt" ], "title": [ "Niagara Falls", "Horseshoe Falls" ], "wiki_context": [ "Niagara Falls is the collective name for three waterfalls that straddle the international border between Canada and the United States; more specifically, between the province of Ontario and the state of New York. They form the southern end of the Niagara Gorge.\n\nFrom largest to smallest, the three waterfalls are the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. The Horseshoe Falls lie mostly on the Canadian side and the American Falls entirely on the American side, separated by Goat Island. The smaller Bridal Veil Falls are also on the American side, separated from the other waterfalls by Luna Island. The international boundary line was originally drawn through Horseshoe Falls in 1819, but the boundary has long been in dispute due to natural erosion and construction. \n\nLocated on the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, the combined falls form the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world that has a vertical drop of more than 165 ft. Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful waterfall in North America, as measured by vertical height and flow rate. The falls are 17 mi north-northwest of Buffalo, New York, and 75 mi south-southeast of Toronto, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York.\n\nNiagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean. While not exceptionally high, the Niagara Falls are very wide. More than six million cubic feet (168,000 m3) of water falls over the crest line every minute in high flow, and almost four million cubic feet (110,000 m3) on average.\n\nThe Niagara Falls are renowned both for their beauty and as a valuable source of hydroelectric power. Balancing recreational, commercial, and industrial uses has been a challenge for the stewards of the falls since the 19th century.\n\nCharacteristics\n\nThe Horseshoe Falls drop about 188 ft, while the height of the American Falls varies between 70 and because of the presence of giant boulders at its base. The larger Horseshoe Falls are about 2600 ft wide, while the American Falls are 1060 ft wide. The distance between the American extremity of the Niagara Falls and the Canadian extremity is 1039 m.\n\nThe volume of water approaching the falls during peak flow season may sometimes be as much as 225000 ft3 per second. The average annual flow rate is 85000 ft3 per second. Since the flow is a direct function of the Lake Erie water elevation, it typically peaks in late spring or early summer. During the summer months, at least 100000 ft3 per second of water traverses the falls, some 90% of which goes over the Horseshoe Falls, while the balance is diverted to hydroelectric facilities. This is accomplished by employing a weir - the International Control Dam - with movable gates upstream from the Horseshoe Falls. The falls' flow is further halved at night, and, during the low tourist season in the winter, remains a minimum of 50000 ft3 per second. Water diversion is regulated by the 1950 Niagara Treaty and is administered by the International Niagara Board of Control (IJC). \n\nThe verdant green colour of the water flowing over the Niagara Falls is a byproduct of the estimated 60 tonnes/minute of dissolved salts and \"rock flour\" (very finely ground rock) generated by the erosive force of the Niagara River itself. The current rate of erosion is approximately 1 ft per year, down from a historical average of 3 ft per year. It is estimated that 50,000 years from now, even at this reduced rate of erosion, the remaining 20 mi to Lake Erie will have been undermined and the falls will cease to exist. \n\nGeology\n\nThe features that became Niagara Falls were created by the Wisconsin glaciation about 10,000 years ago. The same forces also created the North American Great Lakes and the Niagara River. All were dug by a continental ice sheet that drove through the area, deepening some river channels to form lakes, and damming others with debris. Scientists argue there is an old valley, buried by glacial drift, at the approximate location of the present Welland Canal.\n\nWhen the ice melted, the upper Great Lakes emptied into the Niagara River, which followed the rearranged topography across the Niagara Escarpment. In time, the river cut a gorge through the north-facing cliff, or cuesta. Because of the interactions of three major rock formations, the rocky bed did not erode evenly. The top rock formation was composed of erosion-resistant limestone and Lockport dolostone. That hard layer of stone eroded more slowly than the underlying materials. The aerial photo on the right clearly shows the hard caprock, the Lockport Formation (Middle Silurian), which underlies the rapids above the falls, and approximately the upper third of the high gorge wall.\n\nImmediately below the hard-rock formation, comprising about two thirds of the cliff, lay the weaker, softer, sloping Rochester Formation (Lower Silurian). This formation was composed mainly of shale, though it has some thin limestone layers. It also contains ancient fossils. In time, the river eroded the soft layer that supported the hard layers, undercutting the hard caprock, which gave way in great chunks. This process repeated countless times, eventually carving out the falls.\n\nSubmerged in the river in the lower valley, hidden from view, is the Queenston Formation (Upper Ordovician), which is composed of shales and fine sandstones. All three formations were laid down in an ancient sea, their differences of character deriving from changing conditions within that sea.\n\nAbout 10,900 years ago, the Niagara Falls was between present-day Queenston, Ontario, and Lewiston, New York, but erosion of their crest has caused the waterfalls to retreat approximately southward. The Horseshoe Falls, which are approximately 2600 ft wide, have also changed their shape through the process of erosion; evolving from a small arch, to a horseshoe bend, to the present day gigantic V. Just upstream from the falls' current location, Goat Island splits the course of the Niagara River, resulting in the separation of the mostly Canadian Horseshoe Falls to the west from the American and Bridal Veil Falls to the east. Engineering has slowed erosion and recession. \n\nHistory\n\nThere are differing theories as to the origin of the name of the falls. According to Iroquoian scholar Bruce Trigger, \"Niagara\" is derived from the name given to a branch of the local native Neutral Confederacy, who are described as being called the \"Niagagarega\" people on several late-17th-century French maps of the area. According to George R. Stewart, it comes from the name of an Iroquois town called \"Ongniaahra\", meaning \"point of land cut in two\". \n\nHenry Schoolcraft reported:\n\n\"Niagara Falls. This name is Mohawk. It means, according to Mrs. Kerr, the neck; the term being first applied to the portage or neck of land, between lakes Erie and Ontario. By referring to Mr. Elliott's vocabulary, (chapter xi) it will be seen that the human neck, that is, according to the concrete vocabulary, his neck, is onyara. Red Jacket pronounced the word Niagara to me, in the spring of 1820, as if written O-ne-au-ga-rah.\" \n\nA number of figures have been suggested as first circulating an eyewitness description of Niagara Falls. The Frenchman Samuel de Champlain visited the area as early as 1604 during his exploration of Canada, and members of his party reported to him the spectacular waterfalls, which he described in his journals. The Finnish-Swedish naturalist Pehr Kalm explored the area in the early 18th century and is credited with the first scientific description of the falls. The consensus honoree for the first description is the Belgian missionary Louis Hennepin, who observed and described the falls in 1677, earlier than Kalm, after traveling with the explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, thus bringing the falls to the attention of Europeans. Further complicating matters, there is credible evidence the French Jesuit missionary Paul Ragueneau visited the falls some 35 years before Hennepin's visit, while working among the Huron First Nation in Canada. Jean de Brébeuf also may have visited the falls, while spending time with the Neutral Nation. \n\nIn 1762, Captain Thomas Davies, a British Army officer and artist, surveyed the area and painted the watercolor, An East View of the Great Cataract of Niagara, the first eyewitness painting of the falls. \n\nDuring the 19th century, tourism became popular, and by mid-century, it was the area's main industry. Theodosia Burr Alston, daughter of Vice-President Aaron Burr and her husband Joseph Alston were the first recorded couple to honeymoon there in 1801. Napoleon Bonaparte's brother Jérôme visited with his bride in the early 19th century. \n\nIn 1837 during the Caroline affair a rebel supply ship, the Caroline, was burned and sent over the falls. In March 1848, ice blockage caused the falls to stop; no water (or at best a trickle) fell for as much as 40 hours. Waterwheels stopped, mills and factories shut down for having no power. \n\nLater that year demand for passage over the Niagara River led to the building of a footbridge and then Charles Ellet's Niagara Suspension Bridge. This was supplanted by German-born John Augustus Roebling's Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge in 1855. After the American Civil War, the New York Central Railroad publicized Niagara Falls as a focus of pleasure and honeymoon visits. With increased railroad traffic, in 1886, Leffert Buck replaced Roebling's wood and stone bridge with the predominantly steel bridge that still carries trains over the Niagara River today. The first steel archway bridge near the falls was completed in 1897. Known today as the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge, it carries vehicles, trains, and pedestrians between Canada (through Canadian Customs Border Control) and the U.S.A. just below the falls.\n\nIn 1912 much of the water coming over the American Falls froze, though there was still a trickle and the falls ran at the other two sites.\n\nIn 1941 the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission completed the third current crossing in the immediate area of Niagara Falls with the Rainbow Bridge, carrying both pedestrian and vehicular traffic between the two countries and Canadian and U.S. customs for each country.\n\nAfter the First World War, tourism boomed again as automobiles made getting to the falls much easier. The story of Niagara Falls in the 20th century is largely that of efforts to harness the energy of the falls for hydroelectric power, and to control the development on both sides that threaten the area's natural beauty.\n\nA team from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dammed the American Falls in June 1969 to clear rock from the base of the falls. Rockslides caused a significant buildup of rock at the bottom of the American side of the falls, and the engineers were to clean up the rock and repair some faults to prevent eventual erosion of the American side of the waterfall. A temporary dam was built to divert the flow of water to the Canadian side; the dam measured 600 ft across and was made of nearly 30,000 tons of rock. The engineers cleared the rock debris and tested for safety, finishing the project in November of that year. Water flow was restored on November 25, 1969.\n\nBefore the late 20th century the northeastern end of the Horseshoe Falls was in the United States, flowing around the Terrapin Rocks, which was once connected to Goat Island by a series of bridges. In 1955, the area between the rocks and Goat Island was filled in, creating Terrapin Point. In the early 1980s the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers filled in more land and built diversion dams and retaining walls to force the water away from Terrapin Point. Altogether 400 ft of the Horseshoe Falls was eliminated, including 100 ft on the Canadian side. According to author Ginger Strand, the Horseshoe Falls is now entirely in Canada. Other sources say \"most of\" Horseshoe Falls is in Canada. \n\nImpact on industry and commerce\n\nPower\n\nThe enormous energy of Niagara Falls has long been recognized as a potential source of power. The first known effort to harness the waters was in 1759, when Daniel Joncaire built a small canal above the falls to power his sawmill. Augustus and Peter Porter purchased this area and all of American Falls in 1805 from the New York state government, and enlarged the original canal to provide hydraulic power for their gristmill and tannery. In 1853, the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Mining Company was chartered, which eventually constructed the canals that would be used to generate electricity. In 1881, under the leadership of Jacob F. Schoellkopf, the Niagara River's first hydroelectric generating station was built. The water fell 86 ft and generated direct current electricity, which ran the machinery of local mills and lit up some of the village streets.\n\nThe Niagara Falls Power Company, a descendant of Schoellkopf's firm, formed the Cataract Company headed by Edward Dean Adams, with the intent of expanding Niagara Falls' power capacity. In 1890, a five-member International Niagara Commission headed by Sir William Thomson among other distinguished scientists deliberated on the expansion of Niagara hydroelectric capacity based on seventeen proposals, but could not select any as the best combined project for hydraulic development and distribution. In 1893, Westinghouse Electric (which had built the smaller-scale Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant near Ophir, Colorado, two years earlier) was hired to design a system to generate alternating current on Niagara Falls, and three years after that this large-scale AC power system was created (activated on August 26, 1895). The Adams Power Plant Transformer House remains as a landmark of the original system.\n\nBy 1896, financing from moguls including J.P. Morgan, John Jacob Astor IV, and the Vanderbilts had fueled the construction of giant underground conduits leading to turbines generating upwards of 100000 hp, sent as far as Buffalo, 20 mi away. Some of the original designs for the power transmission plants were created by the Swiss firm Faesch & Piccard, which also constructed the original 5,000 HP waterwheels.\n\nPrivate companies on the Canadian side also began to harness the energy of the falls. The government of Ontario eventually brought power transmission operations under public control in 1906, distributing Niagara's energy to various parts of the Canadian province.\n\nOther hydropower plants were also being built along the Niagara River. But in 1956, disaster struck when the region's largest hydropower station was partially destroyed in a landslide. This drastically reduced power production and put tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs at stake. In 1957, Congress passed the Niagara Redevelopment Act, which granted the New York Power Authority the right to fully develop the United States' share of the Niagara River's hydroelectric potential.\n\nIn 1961, when the Niagara Falls hydroelectric project went online, it was the largest hydropower facility in the Western world. Today, Niagara is still the largest electricity producer in New York state, with a generating capacity of 2.4 gigawatts (million kilowatts). Up to 375000 U.S.gal of water a second is diverted from the Niagara River through conduits under the city of Niagara Falls to the Lewiston and Robert Moses power plants. Currently between 50% and 75% of the Niagara River's flow is diverted via four huge tunnels that arise far upstream from the waterfalls. The water then passes through hydroelectric turbines that supply power to nearby areas of Canada and the United States before returning to the river well past the falls. This water spins turbines that power generators, converting mechanical energy into electrical energy. When electricity demand is low, the Lewiston units can operate as pumps to transport water from the lower bay back up to the plant's reservoir, allowing this water to be used again during the daytime when electricity use peaks. During peak electrical demand, the same Lewiston pumps are reversed and actually become generators, similar to those at the Moses plant.\n\nTo preserve Niagara Falls' natural beauty, a 1950 treaty signed by the U.S. and Canada limited water usage by the power plants. The treaty allows higher summertime diversion at night when tourists are fewer and during the winter months when there are even fewer tourists. This treaty, designed to ensure an \"unbroken curtain of water\" flowing over the falls, states that during daylight time during the tourist season (April 1 to October 31) there must be 100,000 cubic feet per second (2,800 m3/s) of water flowing over the falls, and during the night and off-tourist season there must be 50,000 cubic feet per second (1,400 m3/s) of water flowing over the falls. This treaty is monitored by the International Niagara Board of Control, using a NOAA [http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/stationhome.html?id9063007 gauging station] above the falls. During winter, the Power Authority of New York works with Ontario Power Generation to prevent ice on the Niagara River from interfering with power production or causing flooding of shoreline property. One of their joint efforts is an 8800 ft ice boom, which prevents the buildup of ice, yet allows water to continue flowing downstream.\n\nThe most powerful hydroelectric stations on the Niagara River are the Sir Adam Beck 1 and 2 on the Canadian side and the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant and the Lewiston Pump Generating Plant on the American side. Together, Niagara's generating stations can produce about 4.4 gigawatts of power.\n\nIn August 2005 Ontario Power Generation, which is responsible for the Sir Adam Beck stations, started a major civil engineering project, called the Niagara Tunnel Project, to increase power production by building a new diameter, water diversion tunnel. It was officially placed into service in March 2013, helping to increase the generating complex's nameplate capacity by 150 megawatts. It did so by tapping water from farther up the Niagara River than was possible with the preexisting arrangement. The tunnel provided new hydroelectricity for approximately 160,000 homes. \n\nTransport\n\nShips can bypass Niagara Falls by means of the Welland Canal, which was improved and incorporated into the Saint Lawrence Seaway in the mid-1950s. While the seaway diverted water traffic from nearby Buffalo and led to the demise of its steel and grain mills, other industries in the Niagara River valley flourished with the help of the electric power produced by the river. However, since the 1970s the region has declined economically.\n\nThe cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, and Niagara Falls, New York, United States, are connected by two international bridges. The Rainbow Bridge, just downriver from the falls, affords the closest view of the falls and is open to non-commercial vehicle traffic and pedestrians. The Whirlpool Rapids Bridge lies 1 mi north of the Rainbow Bridge and is the oldest bridge over the Niagara River. Nearby Niagara Falls International Airport and Buffalo Niagara International Airport were named after the waterfall, as were Niagara University, countless local businesses, and even an asteroid. \n\nPreservation efforts\n\nNiagara Falls have long been a source of inspiration for explorers, travelers, artists, authors, filmmakers, residents and visitors, few of whom realize the falls were nearly to be solely devoted to industrial and commercial use. In the 1870s, sightseers had limited access to Niagara Falls and often had to pay for a glimpse, and industrialization threatened to carve up Goat Island to further expand commercial development. Other industrial encroachments and lack of public access led to a conservation movement in the U.S. known as Free Niagara, led by such notables as Hudson River School artist Frederic Edwin Church, landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted, and architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Church approached Lord Dufferin, governor-general of Canada, with a proposal for international discussions on the establishment of a public park.\n\nGoat Island was one of the inspirations for the American side of the effort. William Dorsheimer, moved by the scene from the island, brought Olmsted to Buffalo in 1868 to design a city park system and helped promote Olmsted's career. In 1879, the New York state legislature commissioned Olmsted and James T. Gardner to survey the falls and to create the single most important document in the Niagara preservation movement, a Special Report on the preservation of Niagara Falls. The report advocated for State purchase, restoration and preservation through public ownership of the scenic lands surrounding Niagara Falls. Restoring the former beauty of the falls was described in the report as a \"sacred obligation to mankind.\" In 1883, New York Governor Grover Cleveland drafted legislation authorizing acquisition of lands for a state reservation at Niagara, and the Niagara Falls Association, a private citizens group founded in 1882, mounted a great letter-writing campaign and petition drive in support of the park. Professor Charles Eliot Norton and Olmsted were among the leaders of the public campaign, while New York Governor Alonzo Cornell opposed.\n\nPreservationists' efforts were rewarded on April 30, 1885, when Governor David B. Hill signed legislation creating the Niagara Reservation, New York's first state park. New York State began to purchase land from developers, under the charter of the Niagara Reservation State Park. In the same year, the province of Ontario established the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park for the same purpose. On the Canadian side, the Niagara Parks Commission governs land usage along the entire course of the Niagara River, from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.\n\nIn 1887, Olmsted and Calvert Vaux issued a supplemental report detailing plans to restore the falls. Their intent was \"to restore and conserve the natural surroundings of the Falls of Niagara, rather than to attempt to add anything thereto,\" and the report anticipated fundamental questions. How would preservationists provide access without destroying the beauty of the falls? How would they restore natural landscapes damaged by man? They planned a park with scenic roadways, paths and a few shelters designed to protect the landscape while allowing large numbers of visitors to enjoy the falls. Commemorative statues, shops, restaurants, and a 1959 glass and metal observation tower were added later. Preservationists continue to strive to strike a balance between Olmsted's idyllic vision and the realities of administering a popular scenic attraction. \n\nPreservation efforts continued well into the 20th century. J. Horace McFarland, the Sierra Club, and the Appalachian Mountain Club persuaded the United States Congress in 1906 to enact legislation to preserve the falls by regulating the waters of the Niagara River. The act sought, in cooperation with the Canadian government, to restrict diversion of water, and a treaty resulted in 1909 that limited the total amount of water diverted from the falls by both nations to approximately 56,000 cubic feet (1,600 m3) per second. That limitation remained in effect until 1950. \n\nErosion control efforts have always been of extreme importance. Underwater weirs redirect the most damaging currents, and the top of the falls have also been strengthened. In June 1969, the Niagara River was completely diverted away from the American Falls for several months through construction of a temporary rock and earth dam (clearly visible in the photo at right). During this time, two bodies were removed from under the falls, including a man who had been seen jumping over the falls, and the body of a woman, which was discovered once the falls dried.\n\nWhile the Horseshoe Falls absorbed the extra flow, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers studied the riverbed and mechanically bolted and strengthened any faults they found; faults that would, if left untreated, have hastened the retreat of the American Falls. A plan to remove the huge mound of talus deposited in 1954 was abandoned owing to cost, and in November 1969, the temporary dam was dynamited, restoring flow to the American Falls. Even after these undertakings, Luna Island, the small piece of land between the main waterfall and the Bridal Veil, remained off limits to the public for years owing to fears that it was unstable and could collapse into the gorge.\n\nCommercial interests have continued to encroach on the land surrounding the state park, including the construction of several tall buildings (most of them hotels) on the Canadian side. The result is a significant alteration and urbanisation of the landscape. One study indicated it has caused the airflow near the falls to change direction. Students at the University of Guelph demonstrated, using scale models, that as air passes over the top of the new hotels it causes a breeze to roll down the south sides of the buildings and spill into the gorge below the falls, where it feeds into a whirlpool of moisture and air. The inference was that a documented rise in the number of \"mist days\" was a result of these breezes, where mist days refers to the mist plume of the falls reaching landside. In 1996 there were 29 mist days recorded, but by 2003 that number had risen to 68. Another study has discounted this opinion and linked mist production to the difference in air and water temperature at the falls. However, this study does not offer opinion as to why mist days have been increasing, just that the hotel breezes are an unlikely cause. \n\nIn 2013 New York State began an effort to renovate The Sisters Islands located on Goat Island. New York State used funds from the re-licensing of the New York Power Authority hydroelectric plant downriver in Lewiston, New York, to rebuild walking paths on the Three Sisters Islands and to plant native vegetation on the islands. The state also renovated the area around Prospect Point at the brink of the American Falls in the state park.\n\nIn January 2016, it was announced the American Falls would again be de-watered to repair two bridges that are near collapse. The de-watering is envisioned to occur in a few years, and will last at least four months, depending on what plan is adopted.\n\nOver the falls\n\nIn October 1829, Sam Patch, who called himself \"the Yankee Leapster\", jumped from a high tower into the gorge below the falls and survived; this began a long tradition of daredevils trying to go over the falls.\n\nJumps and plunges\n\nOn October 24, 1901, 63-year-old Michigan school teacher Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to go over the falls in a barrel as a publicity stunt; she survived, bleeding, but otherwise unharmed. Soon after exiting the barrel, she said, \"No one ought ever do that again.\" Before Taylor's attempt, on October 19 a domestic cat named Iagara was sent over the Horseshoe Falls in her barrel to test its strength. Contrary to rumours at the time, the cat survived the plunge unharmed and later posed with Taylor in photographs. Since Taylor's historic ride, 14 people have intentionally gone over the falls in or on a device, despite her advice. Some have survived unharmed, but others have drowned or been severely injured. Survivors face charges and stiff fines, as it is illegal, on both sides of the border, to attempt to go over the falls.\n\nIn 1918, there was a near disaster when a barge, known locally as the Niagara Scow, working upriver broke its tow, and almost plunged over the falls. Fortunately, the two workers on board saved themselves by grounding the vessel on rocks just short of the falls. \n\nEnglishman Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English Channel, drowned in 1883 trying to swim the rapids downriver from the falls. \n\nIn the \"Miracle at Niagara\", Roger Woodward, a seven-year-old American boy, was swept over the Horseshoe Falls protected only by a life vest on July 9, 1960, as two tourists pulled his 17-year-old sister Deanne from the river only 20 ft from the lip of the Horseshoe Falls at Goat Island. Minutes later, Woodward was plucked from the roiling plunge pool beneath the Horseshoe Falls after grabbing a life ring thrown to him by the crew of the Maid of the Mist boat. \n\nOn July 2, 1984, Canadian Karel Soucek from Hamilton, Ontario, plunged over the Horseshoe Falls in a barrel with only minor injuries. Soucek was fined $500 for performing the stunt without a license. In 1985, he was fatally injured while attempting to re-create the Niagara drop at the Houston Astrodome. His aim was to climb into a barrel hoisted to the rafters of the Astrodome and to drop 180 ft into a water tank on the floor. After his barrel released prematurely, it hit the side of the tank and he died the next day from his injuries.\n\nIn August 1985, Steve Trotter, an aspiring stuntman from Rhode Island, became the youngest person ever (age 22) and the first American in 25 years to go over the falls in a barrel. Ten years later, Trotter went over the falls again, becoming the second person to go over the falls twice and survive. It was also the second-ever \"duo\"; Lori Martin joined Trotter for the barrel ride over the falls. They survived the fall but their barrel became stuck at the bottom of the falls, requiring a rescue. \n\nOn September 28, 1989, Niagara natives Peter DeBernardi (age 42) and Jeffery James Petkovich (age 25) became the first \"team\" to make it over the falls in a two-person barrel. The stunt was conceived by DeBenardi, who wanted to discourage youth from following in his path of addictive drug use. The pair emerged shortly after going over with minor injuries and were charged with performing an illegal stunt under the Niagara Parks Act. \n\nOn September 27, 1993, John \"David\" Munday, of Caistor Centre, Ontario, completed his second journey over the falls.\n\nKirk Jones of Canton, Michigan, became the first known person to survive a plunge over the Horseshoe Falls without a flotation device on October 20, 2003. While it is still not known whether Jones was determined to commit suicide, he survived the 16-story fall with only battered ribs, scrapes, and bruises. \n\nA second person survived an unprotected trip over the Horseshoe Falls on March 11, 2009, and when rescued from the river, was reported to be suffering from severe hypothermia and a large wound to his head. His identity has not been released. Eyewitnesses reported seeing the man intentionally enter the water.\n\nOn May 21, 2012, an unidentified man in his early 40s became the third person to survive an unprotected trip over the Horseshoe Falls. Eyewitness reports show he \"deliberately jumped\" into the Niagara River after climbing over a railing. \n\nWalks\n\nOther daredevils have made crossing the gorge their goal, starting with the successful passage by Jean François \"Blondin\" Gravelet, who crossed Niagara Gorge in 1859. Between 1859 and 1896 a wire-walking craze emerged, resulting in frequent feats over the river below the falls. One inexperienced walker slid down his safety rope. Only one man fell to his death, at night and under mysterious circumstances, at the anchoring place for his wire.\n\nThese tightrope walkers drew huge crowds to witness their exploits. Their wires ran across the gorge, near the current Rainbow Bridge, not over the waterfall itself. Among the many was Ontario's William Hunt, who billed himself as \"The Great Farini\" and competed with Blondin in performing outrageous stunts over the gorge. On three occasions Blondin carried his manager, Harry Colcord, on his back—on the final time being watched by the Prince of Wales.Anne Neville, [http://www.buffalonews.com/topics/niagara-falls-wire-walk/article896230.ece \"Daredevils who wire-walked before Wallenda\"], buffalonews.com\n\nIn 1876, 23-year-old Italian Maria Spelterini was the only woman ever to cross the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope, making four crossings over 18 days. On July 12, she crossed wearing peach baskets strapped to her feet, on July 19 blind-folded, on July 22 with her ankles and wrists manacled and finally on July 26. Tightrope crossings of the falls ended—by law—in 1896, when James Hardy crossed.\n\nOn June 15, 2012, high wire artist Nik Wallenda became the first person to walk across the falls in 116 years, after receiving special permission from both governments. The full length of his tightrope was 1800 ft. Wallenda crossed near the brink of the Horseshoe Falls, unlike walkers who had crossed farther downstream. According to Wallenda, it was the longest unsupported tightrope walk in history. He carried his passport on the trip and was required to present it upon arrival on the Canadian side of the falls.\n\nOther entertainment\n\nMovies and television\n\nAlready a huge tourist attraction and favorite spot for honeymooners, Niagara Falls visits rose sharply in 1953 after the release of Niagara, a movie starring Marilyn Monroe and Joseph Cotten. In 1956, the Woody Woodpecker series released the episode Niagara Fools. Later in the 20th century, the falls was a featured location in the 1980 movie Superman II, and was itself the subject of a popular IMAX movie, Niagara: Miracles, Myths and Magic. Much of the episode \"Return of the Technodrome\" in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series takes place near the Niagara Falls and its hydroelectric plant. Illusionist David Copperfield performed a trick in which he appeared to travel over the Horseshoe Falls in 1990. The falls, or more particularly, the tourist-supported complex near the falls, was the setting of the short-lived Canadian-shot US television show Wonderfalls in early 2004. More recently, location footage of the falls was shot in October 2006 to portray \"World's End\" of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. \n\nMusic\n\nComposer Ferde Grofé was commissioned by the Niagara Falls Power Generation project in 1960 to compose the Niagara Falls Suite in honor of the completion of the first stage of hydroelectric work at the falls. Each movement is dedicated to the falls, or to the history of the greater Buffalo region. In 1997, composer Michael Daugherty composed Niagara Falls, a piece for concert band inspired by the falls.\n\nLiterature\n\nThe Niagara Falls area features as the base camp for a German aerial invasion of the United States in the H. G. Wells novel The War in the Air.\n\nMany poets have been inspired to write about the falls. Among them was the Cuban poet José Maria Heredia, who wrote the poem \"Niagara\". There are commemorative plaques on both sides of the falls recognising the poem.\n\nIn the original 1920s and 1930s Buck Rogers stories and newspaper cartoons, Buck Rogers, in his adventures in the 25th century that take place on Earth, helps in the fight for a free Northern America from the liberated zone around Niagara, New York (which by then has grown to a large metropolis—the capital of the liberated zone—that includes Niagara Falls, New York, Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Buffalo, New York), against the Red Mongol Empire, a Chinese empire of the future which in the 25th century rules most of North America. \n\nThe Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov beautifully portrays the impressiveness of the Niagara Falls in his book, \"To Chicago and back\".\n\nFine art\n\nFile:Brooklyn Museum - Niagara - Louis Rémy Mignot - overall.jpg|Louis Rémy Mignot, Niagara, Brooklyn Museum\nFile:Brooklyn Museum - Niagara Falls - Arthur Parton - overall.jpg|Arthur Parton, Niagara Falls, Brooklyn Museum\nFile:Distant View of Niagara Falls 1830 Thomas Cole.jpg|Thomas Cole, Distant View of Niagara Falls 1830, Art Institute of Chicago\nFile:A General View of the Falls of Niagara, 1820, by Alvan Fisher - SAAM - DSC00862.JPG|Alvan Fisher, A General View of the Falls of Niagara, 1820, Smithsonian Institution\nFile:Frederic Edwin Church - Niagara Falls - WGA04867.jpg|Frederic Edwin Church, Niagara Falls, 1857, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.\nImage:Hunt - Niagara Falls.jpg|William Morris Hunt, Niagara Falls, 1878\n\nTourism\n\nPeak visitor traffic occurs in the summertime, when Niagara Falls are both a daytime and evening attraction. From the Canadian side, floodlights illuminate both sides of the falls for several hours after dark (until midnight). The number of visitors in 2007 was expected to total 20 million, and by 2009 the annual rate was expected to top 28 million tourists.\n\nThe oldest and best known tourist attraction at Niagara Falls is the Maid of the Mist boat cruise, named for an ancient Ongiara Indian mythical character, which has carried passengers into the rapids immediately below the falls since 1846. Cruise boats operate from boat docks on both sides of the falls.\n\nAmerican side\n\nFrom the U.S. side, the American Falls can be viewed from walkways along Prospect Point Park, which also features the Prospect Point Park observation tower and a boat dock for the Maid of the Mist. Goat Island offers more views of the falls and is accessible by foot and automobile traffic by bridge above the American Falls. From Goat Island, the Cave of the Winds is accessible by elevator and leads hikers to a point beneath Bridal Veil Falls. Also on Goat Island are the Three Sisters Islands, the Power Portal where a huge statue of Nikola Tesla (the inventor whose patents for the AC induction motor and other devices for AC power transmission helped make the harnessing of the falls possible) can be seen, and a walking path that enables views of the rapids, the Niagara River, the gorge, and all of the falls. Most of these attractions lie within the Niagara Falls State Park.\n\nThe Niagara Scenic Trolley offers guided trips along the American Falls and around Goat Island. Panoramic and aerial views of the falls can also be viewed from the Flight of Angels helium balloon ride, or by helicopter. The Niagara Gorge Discovery Center showcases the natural and local history of Niagara Falls and the Niagara Gorge. A casino and luxury hotel was opened in Niagara Falls, New York, by the Seneca Indian tribe. The Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel occupies the former Niagara Falls Convention Center. The new hotel is the first addition to the city's skyline since completion of the United Office Building in the 1920s.\n\nCanadian side\n\nOn the Canadian side, Queen Victoria Park features manicured gardens, platforms offering views of both the American and Horseshoe Falls, and underground walkways leading into observation rooms that yield the illusion of being within the falling waters. The observation deck of the nearby Skylon Tower offers the highest view of the falls, and in the opposite direction gives views as far as Toronto. Along with the Minolta Tower (formerly the Seagrams Tower and the Konica Minolta Tower, now called the Tower Hotel), it is one of two towers in Canada with a view of the falls. \n\nAlong the Niagara River, the Niagara River Recreational Trail runs 35 mi from Fort Erie to Fort George, and includes many historical sites from the War of 1812.\n\nThe Whirlpool Aero Car, built in 1916 from a design by Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres y Quevedo, is a cable car that takes passengers over the Niagara Whirlpool on the Canadian side. The Journey Behind the Falls consists of an observation platform and series of tunnels near the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side.\n\nThere are two casinos on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, the Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort and Casino Niagara. The former is situated in the Fallsview Tourist Area, while the latter is adjacent to Clifton Hill, on Falls Avenue.\n\nPanoramic views", "The Horseshoe Falls, also known as the Canadian Falls, as most of it lies in Canada, is part of Niagara Falls, on the Niagara River. Approximately 90% of the Niagara River, after diversions for hydropower generation, flows over Horseshoe Falls. The remaining 10% flows over the American Falls. It is located between Terrapin Point on Goat Island in the US state of New York, and Table Rock on the Ontario side of the falls. According to official U.S. Geological Survey maps (see References [7][8] below), approximately two-thirds of Horseshoe Falls is located in Ontario, Canada with the remaining one-third in New York, United States. \n\nBoundary controversies\n\nWhen the boundary line was determined in 1819 based on the Treaty of Ghent, the northeastern end of the Horseshoe Falls was in New York, United States, flowing around the Terrapin Rocks, which was once connected to Goat Island by a series of bridges. In 1955 the area between the rocks and Goat Island was filled in, creating Terrapin Point. In the early 1980s the United States Army Corps of Engineers filled in more land and built diversion dams and retaining walls to force the water away from Terrapin Point. Altogether 400 ft of the Horseshoe Falls was eliminated. Constant erosion indicates the boundary line will alter into the future.\n\nIn October 2007, the Horseshoe Falls was featured in a Disney produced video titled Welcome: Portraits of America, made for the United States Department of State and Department of Homeland Security to promote United States tourism. A controversy surrounded the film, because instead of showing just the American falls and Bridal Veil Falls, they focused on Horseshoe Falls, which lies mostly, though not all, in Canada.\n\nCurrent (2014) online promotional materials from the Niagara Falls State Park, including the interactive map of the State Park, show the part of the Horseshoe Falls that is in U.S. territory, as determined by U.S. Geological Survey maps. This presentation of only part of Horseshoe Falls reflects a more accurate depiction of the boundaries of Niagara Falls State Park and U.S. territory. These official maps show approximately one-third of the Horseshoe Falls lies within the U.S. (New York State), while approximately two-thirds of the Horseshoe Falls lies on the Canadian side (province of Ontario). Scientists indicate Horseshoe Falls will continue to erode, thus altering future U.S.-Canadian boundaries. \n\nBoth the 1995 map cited above and the new 2013 map of the U.S. Geological Survey indicate most of the Horseshoe Falls is in Canada, and both U.S. and New York State boundaries are shown on the newer map." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Reality_television.txt", "Jordan_Lloyd.txt", "Big_Brother_(franchise).txt", "Big_Brother_1_(U.S.).txt" ], "title": [ "Reality television", "Jordan Lloyd", "Big Brother (franchise)", "Big Brother 1 (U.S.)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents supposedly unscripted real-life situations, and often features an otherwise unknown cast of individuals who are typically not professional actors, although in some shows celebrities may participate. It differs from documentary television in that the focus tends to be on drama, personal conflict, and entertainment rather than educating viewers. Reality TV programs also often bring participants into situations and environments that they would otherwise never be a part of. The genre has various standard tropes, including \"confessionals\" used by cast members to express their thoughts, which often double as the shows' narration and competitive elements. Reality TV shows often have a host who asks questions to the participants or comments on the participants. In competition-based reality shows, a notable subset, there are other common elements such as one participant being eliminated per episode, a panel of judges, and the concept of \"immunity from elimination.\"\n\nAn early example of the genre was the 1991 Dutch series Nummer 28, which was the first show to bring together strangers and record their interactions. It then exploded as a phenomenon in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the global success of the series Survivor, Idols, and Big Brother. These shows and a number of others (usually also competition-based) became global franchises, spawning local versions in dozens of countries. Reality television as a whole has become a fixture of television programming. In the United States, various channels have retooled themselves to focus on reality programs, most famously MTV, which began in 1981 as a music video pioneer, before switching to a nearly all-reality format in the early 2000s.\n\nThere are grey areas around what is classified as reality television. Documentaries, television news, sports television, talk shows, and traditional game shows are not classified as reality television, even though they contain elements of the genre, such as unscripted situations and sometimes unknown participants. Other genres that predate the reality television boom have sometimes been retroactively grouped into reality TV, including hidden camera shows such as Candid Camera (1948), talent-search shows such as The Original Amateur Hour (1948), documentary series about ordinary people such as the Up Series (1964), high-concept game shows such as The Dating Game (1965), home improvement shows such as This Old House (1979), and court shows featuring real-life cases such as The People's Court (1981).\n\nReality television has faced significant criticism since its rise in popularity. Much of the criticism has centered on the use of the word \"reality\", and such shows' attempt to present themselves as a straightforward recounting of events that have occurred. Critics have argued that reality television shows do not accurately reflect reality, in ways both implicit (participants being placed in artificial situations), and deceptive or even fraudulent, such as misleading editing, participants being coached in what to say or how to behave, storylines generated ahead of time, and scenes being staged or re-staged for the cameras. Other criticisms of reality television shows include that they are intended to humiliate or exploit participants (particularly on competition shows); that they make stars out of either untalented people unworthy of fame, infamous personalities, or both; and that they glamorize vulgarity and materialism. Professional screenwriters have expressed concern about the popularity of a genre which does not require scriptwriting.\n\nHistory\n\nTelevision formats portraying ordinary people in unscripted situations are almost as old as the television medium itself. Producer-host Allen Funt's Candid Camera, in which unsuspecting people were confronted with funny, unusual situations and filmed with a hidden camera, first aired in 1948, and is often seen as a prototype of reality television programming. \n\n1940s–1950s\n\nPrecedents for television that portrayed people in unscripted situations began in the late 1940s. Queen for a Day (1945–1964) was an early example of reality-based television. The 1946 television game show Cash and Carry sometimes featured contestants performing stunts. Debuting in 1948, Allen Funt's hidden camera show Candid Camera (based on his previous 1947 radio show, Candid Microphone) broadcast unsuspecting ordinary people reacting to pranks. In 1948, talent search shows Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour and Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts featured amateur competitors and audience voting.\n\nIn the 1950s, game shows Beat the Clock and Truth or Consequences involved contestants in wacky competitions, stunts, and practical jokes. Confession was a crime/police show which aired from June 1958 to January 1959, with interviewer Jack Wyatt questioning criminals from assorted backgrounds. \n\nThe radio series Nightwatch (1951–1955) tape-recorded the daily activities of Culver City, California police officers. The series You Asked for It (1950–1959) incorporated audience involvement by basing episodes around requests sent in by postcard from viewers.\n\n1960s–1970s\n\nFirst broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1964, the Granada Television documentary Seven Up!, broadcast interviews with a dozen ordinary 7-year-olds from a broad cross-section of society and inquired about their reactions to everyday life. Every seven years, a film documented the life of the same individuals during the intervening period, titled the Up Series, episodes include \"7 Plus Seven\", \"21 Up\", etc.; it is still ongoing. The program was structured as a series of interviews with no element of plot. However, it did have the then-new effect of turning ordinary people into celebrities.\n\nThe first reality show in the modern sense may have been the series The American Sportsman, which ran from 1965 to 1986 on ABC in the United States. A typical episode featured one or more celebrities, and sometimes their family members, being accompanied by a camera crew on an outdoor adventure, such as hunting, fishing, hiking, scuba diving, rock climbing, wildlife photography, horseback riding, race car driving, and the like, with most of the resulting action and dialogue being unscripted, except for the narration.\n\nAnother precursor may be considered Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom which aired from 1963 through 1988. This show featured zoologist Marlin Perhins traveling across the globe and illustrating the wide variety of animal life on the planet. Though mostly a travelogue, it was popular in syndication and new episodes were produced through the eighties. \n\nIn the 1966 Direct Cinema film Chelsea Girls, Andy Warhol filmed various acquaintances with no direction given; the Radio Times Guide to Film 2007 stated that the film was \"to blame for reality television\". \n\nThe 12-part 1973 PBS series An American Family showed a nuclear family (filmed in 1971) going through a divorce; unlike many later reality shows, it was more or less documentary in purpose and style. In 1974 a counterpart program, The Family, was made in the UK, following the working class Wilkins family of Reading. Other forerunners of modern reality television were the 1970s productions of Chuck Barris: The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and The Gong Show, all of which featured participants who were eager to sacrifice some of their privacy and dignity in a televised competition. In 1978, Living in the Past recreated life in an Iron Age English village.\n\n1980s–1990s\n\nProducer George Schlatter capitalized on the advent of videotape to create Real People, a surprise hit for NBC, which ran from 1979 to 1984. The success of Real People was quickly copied by ABC with That's Incredible, a stunt show co-hosted by Fran Tarkenton; CBS's entry into the genre was That's My Line, a series hosted by Bob Barker. The Canadian series Thrill of a Lifetime, a fantasies-fulfilled reality show, originally ran from 1982 to 1988 and was revived from 2001 to 2003.\n\nIn 1985, underwater cinematographer Al Giddings teamed with former Miss Universe Shawn Weatherly on the NBC series Oceanquest, which chronicled Weatherly's adventures scuba diving in various exotic locales. Weatherly was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in informational programming. \n\nCOPS, which first aired in the spring of 1989 on Fox and came about partly due to the need for new programming during the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike, showed police officers on duty apprehending criminals; it introduced the camcorder look and cinéma vérité feel of much of later reality television.\n\nThe series Nummer 28, which aired on Dutch television in 1991, originated the concept of putting strangers together in the same environment for an extended period of time and recording the drama that ensued. Nummer 28 also pioneered many of the stylistic conventions that have since become standard in reality television shows, including a heavy use of soundtrack music and the interspersing of events on screen with after-the-fact \"confessionals\" recorded by cast members, that serve as narration. One year later, the same concept was used by MTV in its new series The Real World. Nummer 28 creator Erik Latour has long claimed that The Real World was directly inspired by his show; however, the producers of The Real World have stated that their direct inspiration was An American Family. \n\nAccording to television commentator Charlie Brooker, this type of reality television was enabled by the advent of computer-based non-linear editing systems for video (such as produced by Avid Technology) in 1989. These systems made it easy to quickly edit hours of video footage into a usable form, something that had been very difficult to do before (film, which was easy to edit, was too expensive to shoot enough hours of footage with on a regular basis). \n\nThe series Expedition Robinson, created by television producer Charlie Parsons, which first aired in 1997 in Sweden (and was later produced in a large number of other countries as Survivor), added to the Nummer 28/Real World template the idea of competition and elimination, in which cast members/contestants battled against each other and were removed from the show until only one winner remained (these shows are now sometimes called elimination shows).\n\nChanging Rooms, a program that began in 1996, showed couples redecorating each other's houses, and was the first reality show with a self-improvement or makeover theme.\n\nThe dating reality show Streetmate premiered in the UK in 1998. Originally created by Gabe Sachs as Street Match, it was a flop in the United States; however, the show was revamped in the UK by Tiger Aspect Productions and became a cult hit. The production team from the original series went on to create popular reality shows Strictly Come Dancing, Location, Location, Location, and the revamped MasterChef, amongst others.\n\nThe 1980s and 1990s were also a time when tabloid talk shows came to rise, many of which featured the same types of unusual or dysfunctional guests who would later become popular as cast members of reality shows.\n\n2000s\n\nReality television saw an explosion of global popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with the successes of the Big Brother and Survivor/Expedition Robinson franchises.\n\nIn the United States, reality television programs experienced a temporary decline in viewership in 2001, leading some entertainment industry columnists to speculate that the genre was a temporary fad that had run its course. Reality shows that suffered from low ratings included The Amazing Race (although the show has since recovered and is in its 27th edition), Lost (unrelated to the better-known serial drama of the same name) and The Mole (which was successful in other countries). \n\nHowever, this proved not to be the case for stronghold shows Survivor and American Idol, which both topped the U.S. season-average television ratings in the 2000s: Survivor led the ratings in 2001–02, and Idol has the longest hold on the No. 1 rank in the American television ratings, dominating over all other primetime programs and other television series in the overall viewership tallies for eight consecutive years, from the 2003–2004 to the 2010–2011 television seasons.\n\nInternationally, a number of shows created in the late 1990s and 2000s have had massive global success. At least ten reality-television franchises created during that time have had over 30 international adaptations each: the singing competition franchises Idols, Star Academy and The X Factor, other competition franchises Survivor/Expedition Robinson, Big Brother, Got Talent, Top Model, MasterChef, and Dancing with the Stars, and the investment franchise Dragons' Den. Several \"reality game shows\" from the same period have had even greater success, including Deal or No Deal, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and Weakest Link, with over 50 international adaptions each. (All but two of these franchises, Top Model and Dragons' Den, were created by either British producers or the Dutch production company Endemol; and even Dragons' Den, which originated in Japan, has had most adaptations be based on the British version.)\n\nIn India, the competition show Indian Idol was the most popular television program for its first six seasons. \n\nThe 2000s saw the launches of three television channels devoted exclusively to reality television: Fox Reality in the United States, which existed from 2005 to 2010; Global Reality Channel in Canada, which lasted two years from 2010 to 2012; and Zone Reality in the United Kingdom, which operated from 2002 to 2009. In addition, several other cable channels, including Bravo, A&E, E!, TLC, History, VH1, and MTV, changed their programming to mostly comprise reality television series during the 2000s. \n\nDuring the early part of the 2000s, network executives expressed concern that reality-television programming was limited in its appeal for DVD reissue and syndication. DVDs for reality shows in fact sold briskly; Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, The Amazing Race, Project Runway, and America's Next Top Model all ranked in the top DVDs sold on Amazon.com, and in the mid-2000s, DVDs of The Simple Life outranked scripted shows like The O.C. and Desperate Housewives. Syndication, however, has indeed proven problematic; shows such as Fear Factor, COPS, and Wife Swap in which each episode is self-contained, can indeed be rerun fairly easily, but usually only on cable television and/or during the daytime (COPS and America's Funniest Home Videos being exceptions). Season-long competitions such as The Amazing Race, Survivor, and America's Next Top Model generally perform more poorly and usually must be rerun in marathons to draw the necessary viewers to make it worthwhile (even in these cases, it is not always successful: the first ten seasons of Dancing with the Stars were picked up by GSN in 2012 and was run in marathon format, but experienced very poor ratings). Another option is to create documentaries around series including extended interviews with the participants and outtakes not seen in the original airings; the syndicated series American Idol Rewind is an example of this strategy.\n\nCOPS has had huge success in syndication, direct response sales and DVD. A Fox staple since 1989, COPS has, as of 2013 (when it moved to cable channel Spike), outlasted all competing scripted police shows. Another series that has seen wide success is Cheaters, which has been running since 2000 in the U.S. and is syndicated in over 100 countries worldwide.\n\nIn 2001, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences added the reality genre to the Emmy Awards in the category of Outstanding Reality Program. In 2003, to better differentiate between competition and informational reality programs, a second category, Outstanding Reality-Competition Program, was added. In 2008, a third category, Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program, was added.\n\nIn 2007, the web series The Next Internet Millionaire appeared; it was a competition show based in part on The Apprentice, and was billed as the world's first Internet reality show.\n\n2010s\n\nIn 2010, The Tester became the first reality television show aired over a video game console. \n\nBy 2012, many of the long-running reality television show franchises in the United States, such as American Idol, Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor, had begun to see declining ratings. However, reality television as a whole remained durable in the U.S., with hundreds of shows across many channels. In 2012, New York Magazine's Vulture blog published a humorous Venn diagram showing popular themes across American reality shows then running, including shows set in the U.S. states of Alaska, Louisiana and Texas, shows about cakes, weddings and pawnbrokers, and shows, usually competition-based, whose title includes the word \"Wars\". \n\nThe Voice, a singing competition franchise created by John de Mol that started in 2010, is the newest highly successful reality television franchise, with almost 50 international adaptations.\n\nDuck Dynasty, a reality series featuring the Robertson family that founded Duck Commander, in 2013 became the most popular reality series in U.S. cable television history. Its fourth season premiere was viewed by nearly 12 million viewers in the United States, most of which were in rural markets; its rural audience share has ranked in the 30s, an extremely high number for any series, broadcast or cable. \n\nIn 2014, Entertainment Weekly and Variety again noted a stagnation in reality television programs' ratings in the U.S., which they attributed to \"The diminishing returns of cable TV's sea of reality sameness\". They noted that a number of networks that featured reality programming, including Bravo and E!, were launching their first scripted shows, and others, including AMC, were abandoning plans to launch further reality programs; though they clarified that the genre as a whole \"isn't going anywhere.\" \n\nSubgenres\n\nThe genre of reality television consists of various subgenres. There are eight subgenres of reality television as proposed by Murray and Ouellette. These subgenres are: gamedocs, dating programs, makeover programs, docusoaps, talent contests, court programs, reality sitcoms, and celebrity variations of other programs.\n\nOthers such as Hill, Weibull, and Nilsson suggest that five subgenres or categories exist. They suggest the following: infotainment, docusoap, lifestyle, reality game shows, and lifestyle experiment programs as main categories of reality TV. on the other hand, proposed a categorization based on six main topics: romance, crime, informational, reality-drama, competition/game, and talent. Similarly, Fitzgerald proposed a similar categorization focusing on talent and survival competitions, personal makeover, home makeover, get-rich-quick schemes, docudramas, and \"Mr. Right\" programs. \n\nStill others suggest that categorization can be determined by either narrative or performation reality. Narrative reality television is based on \"entertaining the viewers by an authentic or staged rendition of extraordinary, real, or close-to-reality events with non-prominent actors, whereas formats providing a stage for uncommon performances with a direct impact on the participants' lives fall into the category of performative reality TV.\" From the perspective of Klaus and Lucke,\"docusoaps\" portray people in their usual living environment and \"reality soaps\" bring them in a new, uncommon environment.\"\n\nA variety of what could be called \"adventure\" reality television places people in wild and challenging natural settings. The genre includes such shows as Survivorman, Man vs. Wild, Marooned with Ed Stafford, Naked and Afraid, and Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls.\n\nDocumentary-style\n\nIn many reality television programs, camera shooting and footage editing give the viewer the impression that they are passive observers following people going about their daily personal and professional activities; this style of filming is sometimes referred to as fly on the wall or factual television. Story \"plots\" are often constructed via editing or planned situations, with the results resembling soap operas – hence the terms docusoap and docudrama. Documentary-style programs give viewers a private look into the lives of the subjects.\n\nWithin documentary-style reality television are several subcategories or variants:\n;Special living environment: Some documentary-style programs place cast members, who in most cases previously did not know each other, in artificial living environments; The Real World is the originator of this style. In almost every other such show, cast members are given specific challenges or obstacles to overcome. Road Rules, which started in 1995 as a spin-off of The Real World, started this pattern: the cast traveled across the country guided by clues and performing tasks.\n\nBig Brother is probably the best known program of this type in the world, with around 50 international versions having been produced. Other shows in this category, such The 1900 House, involve historical re-enactment, with cast members living and working as people of a specific time and place. 2001's Temptation Island achieved some notoriety by placing several couples on an island surrounded by single people in order to test the couples' commitment to each other. U8TV: The Lofters combined the \"special living environment\" format with the \"professional activity\" format noted below; in addition to living together in a loft, each member of the show's cast was hired to host a television program for a Canadian cable channel.\n\n;Soap-opera style: Although the term \"docusoap\" has been used for many documentary-style reality television shows, there have been shows that have deliberately tried to mimic the appearance and structure of soap operas. Such shows often focus on a close-knit group of people and their shifting friendships and romantic relationships. One highly influential such series was the American 2004–2006 series Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, which attempted to specifically mimic the primetime soap opera The O.C., which had begun airing in 2003. Laguna Beach had a more cinematic feel than any previous reality television show, through the use of higher-quality lighting and cameras, voice-over narration instead of on-screen \"confessionals\", and slower pacing. Laguna Beach led to several spinoff series, most notably the 2006–2010 series The Hills. It also inspired various other series, including the highly successful British series The Only Way Is Essex and Made in Chelsea, and the Australian series Freshwater Blue.\n\nDue to their cinematic feel, many of these shows have been accused of being pre-scripted, more so than other reality television shows have. The producers of The Only Way Is Essex and Made in Chelsea have admitted to coaching cast members on what to say in order to draw more emotion from each scene, although they insist that the underlying stories are real. \n\nAnother highly successful group of soap-opera-style shows is the Real Housewives franchise, which began with The Real Housewives of Orange County in 2006 and has since spawned nearly twenty other series, in the U.S. and internationally. The franchise has an older cast and different personal dynamics than that of Laguna Beach and its imitators, as well as lower production values, but similarly is meant to resemble scripted soap operas – in this case, the television series Desperate Housewives and Peyton Place.\n\nA notable subset of such series focus on a group of women who are romantically connected to male celebrities; these include Basketball Wives (2010), Love & Hip Hop (2011) and Hollywood Exes (2012).\n\n;Celebrities: Another subset of fly-on-the-wall-style shows involves celebrities. Often these show a celebrity going about their everyday life: notable examples include The Anna Nicole Show, The Osbournes, Gene Simmons Family Jewels, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Hogan Knows Best. In other shows, celebrities are put on location and given a specific task or tasks; these include The Simple Life, Tommy Lee Goes to College and The Surreal Life. VH1 in the mid-2000s had an entire block of such shows, known as \"Celebreality\". Shows such as these are often created with the idea of promoting a celebrity product or upcoming project.\n\n;Professional activities: Some documentary-style shows portray professionals either going about day-to-day business or performing an entire project over the course of a series. One early example (and the longest running reality show of any genre) is Cops, which has been airing since 1989.\n\nOther examples of this type of reality show include the American shows Miami Ink, Bikini Barbershop, The First 48, Dog the Bounty Hunter, American Chopper, Lizard Lick Towing and Deadliest Catch; the British shows Airport, Police Stop! and Traffic Cops; the Australian shows Border Security and Bondi Rescue, and the New Zealand show Motorway Patrol. U.S. cable networks TLC and A&E in particular show a number of reality shows of this type.\n\nVH1's 2001 show Bands on the Run was a notable early hybrid, in that the show featured four unsigned bands touring and making music as a professional activity, but also pitted the bands against one another in game show fashion to see which band could make the most money.\n\n;Subcultures: Some documentary-style shows shed light on cultures and lifestyles rarely seen otherwise by most of their viewers. One example is shows about people with disabilities or people who have unusual physical circumstances, such as the American series Push Girls and Little People, Big World, and the British programmes Beyond Boundaries, The Undateables and Seven Dwarves.\n\nAnother example is shows that portray the lives of ethnic or religious minorities. Examples include All-American Muslim (Lebanese-American Muslims), Shahs of Sunset (affluent Persian-Americans), Sister Wives (polygamists from a Mormon splinter group), Breaking Amish and Amish Mafia (the Amish), and Washington Heights (Dominican Americans).\n\nThe Real Housewives franchise offers a window into the lives of social-striving urban and suburban housewives. Many shows focus on wealth and conspicuous consumption, including Platinum Weddings, and My Super Sweet 16, which documented huge coming of age celebrations thrown by wealthy parents. Conversely, the highly successful Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty are set in poorer rural areas of the Southern United States.\n\nReality legal programming\n\nAnother subgenre of reality television is \"reality legal programming.\" These are programs that center on real-life legal matters.\n\nCourt show\n\nOriginally, court shows were all dramatized and staged programs with actors playing the litigants, witnesses and lawyers. The cases were either reenactments of real-life cases or cases that were fictionalized altogether. Among examples of stage courtroom dramas are Famous Jury Trials, Your Witness, and the first two eras of Divorce Court. The People's Court revolutionized the genre by introducing the arbitration-based \"reality\" format in 1981, later adopted by the vast majority of court shows. The genre experienced a lull in programming after The People's Court was cancelled in 1993, but then soared after the emergence of Judge Judy in 1996. This led to the debuts of a slew of other reality court shows, such as Judge Mathis, Judge Joe Brown, Judge Alex, Judge Mills Lane and Judge Hatchett.\n\nThough the litigants are legitimate, the \"judges\" in such shows are actually arbitrators, as these pseudo-judges are not actually presiding in a court of law. Typically, however, they are retired judges, or at least individuals who have had some legal experience.\n\nCourtroom programs are typically daytime television shows that air on weekdays.\n\nLaw enforcement documentaries\nAnother subgenre of reality legal programming are law enforcement documentaries. Law enforcement documentaries are programs that capture police officers on duty. These shows tend to be shocking in nature as they consist of individuals caught in real-life criminal acts and circumstances, as well as confrontations with police officers. The most successful installment of this subgenre is Cops.\n\nReality competition/game shows\n\n:See also: List of reality television game shows\n\nAnother subgenre of reality television is \"reality competition\", \"reality playoffs\", or so-called \"reality game shows,\" which follow the format of non-tournament elimination contests. Typically, participants are filmed competing to win a prize, often while living together in a confined environment. In many cases, participants are removed until only one person or team remains, who is then declared the winner. Usually this is done by eliminating participants one at a time (or sometimes two at a time, as an episodic twist due to the number of contestants involved and the length of a given season), through either disapproval voting or by voting for the most popular to win. Voting is done by the viewing audience, the show's own participants, a panel of judges, or some combination of the three.\n\nA well-known example of a reality-competition show is the globally syndicated Big Brother, in which cast members live together in the same house, with participants removed at regular intervals by either the viewing audience or, in the American version, by the participants themselves.\n\nThere remains disagreement over whether talent-search shows such as the Idol series, the Got Talent series and the Dancing with the Stars series are truly reality television, or just newer incarnations of shows such as Star Search. Although the shows involve a traditional talent search, the shows follow the reality-competition conventions of removing one or more contestants in every episode, allowing the public to vote on who is removed, and interspersing performances with video clips showing the contestants' \"back stories\", their thoughts about the competition, their rehearsals and unguarded behind-the-scenes moments. Additionally, there is a good deal of unscripted interaction shown between contestants and judges. The American Primetime Emmy Awards have nominated both American Idol and Dancing with the Stars for the Outstanding Reality-Competition Program Emmy.\n\nGame shows like Weakest Link, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, American Gladiators and Deal or No Deal, which were popular in the 2000s, also lie in a gray area: like traditional game shows (e.g., The Price Is Right, Jeopardy!), the action takes place in an enclosed television studio over a short period of time; however, they have higher production values, more dramatic background music, and higher stakes than traditional shows (done either through putting contestants into physical danger or offering large cash prizes). In addition, there is more interaction between contestants and hosts, and in some cases they feature reality-style contestant competition and/or elimination as well. These factors, as well as these shows' rise in global popularity at the same time as the arrival of the reality craze, have led to such shows often being grouped under both the reality television and game show umbrellas. \n\nThere have been various hybrid reality-competition shows, like the worldwide-syndicated Star Academy, which combines the Big Brother and Idol formats, The Biggest Loser, which combines competition with the self-improvement format, and American Inventor, which uses the Idol format for products instead of people. Some reality shows that aired mostly during the early 2000s, such as Popstars, Making the Band and Project Greenlight, devoted the first part of the season to selecting a winner, and the second part to showing that person or group of people working on a project.\n\nPopular variants of the competition-based format include the following:\n;Dating-based competition: Dating-based competition shows follow a contestant choosing one out of a group of suitors. Over the course of either a single episode or an entire season, suitors are eliminated until only the contestant and the final suitor remains. In the early 2000s, this type of reality show dominated the other genres on the major U.S. networks. Shows that aired included The Bachelor, its spin-off The Bachelorette, as well as Temptation Island and Average Joe. In Married by America, contestants were chosen by viewer voting. More recent such shows include Flavor of Love (a dating show featuring rapper Flavor Flav that led directly and indirectly to over 10 spinoffs), The Cougar and Love in the Wild. This is one of the older variants of the format; shows such as The Dating Game that date to the 1960s had similar premises (though each episode was self-contained, and not the serial format of more modern shows).\n\n;Job search: In this category, the competition revolves around a skill that contestants were pre-screened for. Competitors perform a variety of tasks based on that skill, are judged, and are then kept or removed by a single expert or a panel of experts. The show is usually presented as a job search of some kind, in which the prize for the winner includes a contract to perform that kind of work and an undisclosed salary, although the award can simply be a sum of money and ancillary prizes, like a cover article in a magazine. The show also features judges who act as counselors, mediators and sometimes mentors to help contestants develop their skills further or perhaps decide their future position in the competition. Popstars, which debuted in 1999, may have been the first such show, while the Idol series has been the longest-running and, for most of its run, the most popular such franchise. The first job-search show which showed dramatic, unscripted situations may have been America's Next Top Model, which premiered in May 2003. Other examples include The Apprentice (which judges business skills); Hell's Kitchen, MasterChef and Top Chef (for chefs); Shear Genius (for hair styling), Project Runway (for clothing design), Top Design (for interior design), Stylista (for fashion editors), Last Comic Standing (for comedians), I Know My Kid's a Star (for child performers), On the Lot (for filmmakers), RuPaul's Drag Race (for drag queens), The Shot (for fashion photographers), So You Think You Can Dance (for dancers), MuchMusic VJ Search and Food Network Star (for television hosts), Dream Job (for sportscasters), American Candidate (for aspiring politicians), Work of Art (for artists), Face Off (for makeup artists), Ink Master and Best Ink (for tattoo artists), Platinum Hit (for songwriters) and The Tester (for game testers).\n\nA notable subset is shows in which the winner gets a specific part a known film, television show, musical or performing group. Examples include Scream Queens (where the prize is a role in the Saw film series), The Glee Project (for a role on the television show Glee) and Any Dream Will Do (the lead role in a revival of the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat). The most extreme prize for such a show may have been for 2005's Rock Star: INXS, where the winner became the lead singer of the rock band INXS. J.D. Fortune, who won the show, went on to be INXS's lead singer until 2011.\n\nSome shows use the same format with celebrities: in this case, there is no expectation that the winner will continue this line of work, and prize winnings often go to charity. The most popular such shows have been the Dancing with the Stars and Dancing on Ice franchises. Other examples of celebrity competition programs include Deadline, Celebracadabra and Celebrity Apprentice.\n\n;Sports: Most of these programs create a sporting competition among athletes attempting to establish their name in that sport. The Club, in 2002, was one of the first shows to immerse sport with reality television, based on a fabricated club competing against real clubs in the sport of Australian rules football; the audience helped select which players played each week by voting for their favorites. Golf Channel's The Big Break is a reality show in which aspiring golfers compete against one another and are eliminated. The Contender, a boxing show, became the first American reality show in which a contestant committed suicide after being eliminated from the show; the show's winner was promised a shot at a boxing world championship. Sergio Mora, who won, indeed got his title shot and became a world champion boxer. In The Ultimate Fighter, participants have voluntarily withdrawn or expressed the desire to withdraw from the show due to competitive pressure.\n\nIn sports shows, sometimes just appearing on the show, not necessarily winning, can get a contestant the job. The owner of UFC declared that the final match of the first season of Ultimate Fighter was so good, both contestants were offered a contract, and in addition, many non-winning \"TUF Alumni\" have prospered in the UFC. Many of the losers from World Wrestling Entertainment's Tough Enough and Diva Search shows have been picked up by the company.\n\nNot all sports programs involve athletes trying to make a name in the sport. The 2006 U.S. reality series Knight School focused on students at Texas Tech University vying for a walk-on (non-scholarship) roster position on the school's men's basketball team under legendary coach Bob Knight. In the Republic of Ireland, RTÉ One's Celebrity Bainisteoir involves eight non-sporting Irish celebrities becoming bainisteoiri (managers) of mid-level Gaelic football teams, leading their teams in an officially sanctioned tournament.\n\nImmunity\n\nOne concept pioneered by, and unique to, reality competition shows is the idea of immunity, in which a contestant can win the right to be exempt the next time contestants are eliminated from the show. Possibly the first instance of immunity in reality TV was on the U.S. version of Survivor, which premiered in 2000. On that show, there are complex rules around immunity: a player can achieve it by winning challenges (either as a team in the tribal phase or individually in the merged phase), or, in more recent seasons, through finding a hidden totem. They can keep their immunity a secret from other players, and they can also pass on their immunity to someone else. \n\nOn most shows, immunity is quite a bit simpler: it is usually achieved by winning a task, often a relatively minor task during the first half of the episode; the announcement of immunity is made publicly and immunity is usually non-transferable. Competition shows that feature immunity include the Apprentice, Big Brother, Biggest Loser, Top Model and Top Chef franchises. In one Apprentice episode, a participant chose to waive his earned immunity and was immediately \"fired\" by Donald Trump for giving up this powerful asset. \n\nConfession room\n\nAnother common characteristic of reality competition shows is the presence of a confession room, or confessional interviews, wherein contestants \"confess\" details of their strategy/gameplay or their concerns and struggles on the show. These segments are usually filmed after episodes or a season.\n\nSelf-improvement/makeover\n\nSome reality television shows cover a person or group of people improving their lives. Sometimes the same group of people are covered over an entire season (as in The Swan and Celebrity Fit Club), but usually there is a new target for improvement in each episode. Despite differences in the content, the format is usually the same: first the show introduces the subjects in their current, less-than-ideal environment. Then the subjects meet with a group of experts, who give the subjects instructions on how to improve things; they offer aid and encouragement along the way. Finally, the subjects are placed back in their environment and they, along with their friends and family and the experts, appraise the changes that have occurred. Other self-improvement or makeover shows include The Biggest Loser, Extreme Weight Loss and Fat March (which covers weight loss), Extreme Makeover (entire physical appearance), Queer Eye, What Not to Wear and How Do I Look? (style and grooming), Supernanny (child-rearing), Made (life transformation), Trinny & Susannah Undress and Bridalplasty (fashion and cosmetic makeover and marriage), Tool Academy (relationship building) and Charm School and From G's to Gents (self-improvement and manners). The British programme Snog Marry Avoid? takes participants who usually have a wild dress sense or wear excess make-up and \"fakery\" and makes them look more presentable.\n\nRenovation\n\nSome shows make over part or all of a person's living space, work space, or vehicle. The American series This Old House, which debuted in 1979, features the start-to-finish renovation of different houses through a season; media critic Jeff Jarvis has speculated that it is \"the original reality TV show.\" The British show Changing Rooms, beginning in 1996 (later remade in the U.S. as Trading Spaces) was the first such renovation show that added a game show feel with different weekly contestants. Other shows in this category include Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Debbie Travis' Facelift, Designed to Sell, While You Were Out and Holmes on Homes. Pimp My Ride and Overhaulin' show vehicles being rebuilt. Some shows, such as Restaurant Makeover and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, show both the decor and the menu of a failing restaurant being remade.\n\nThe issue of \"making over\" was taken to its social extreme with the British show Life Laundry, in which people who had become hoarders, even living in squalor, were given professional assistance. The American television series Hoarders and Hoarding: Buried Alive follow similar premises, presenting interventions in the lives of people who suffer from compulsive hoarding.\n\nFinancial transactions and appraisals\n\nAnother subset of reality TV shows focuses on haggling and financial transactions, often over unique or rare items whose value must first be appraised. Two such shows, both of which have led to multiple spinoff shows, are Pawn Stars and American Pickers. Other shows, while based around such financial transactions, also show elements of its main cast members' personal and professional lives; these shows include Hardcore Pawn and Comic Book Men.\n\nSuch shows have some antecedent in the British series Antiques Roadshow, which began airing in 1979 and has since spawned numerous international versions, although that show includes only appraisals and does not include bargaining or other dramatic elements.\n\nThe globally syndicated format Dragons' Den involves financial transactions with much higher amounts, showing a group of wealthy investors choosing whether or not to invest in a series of pitched startup companies. The series Restaurant Startup similarly involves investors, but involves more of a game show element in which restaurant owners compete to prove their worth.\n\nThe British series Show Me the Monet offers a twist in which artworks' artistic value, rather than their financial value, is appraised by a panel of judges, who determine whether each one will be featured at an exhibition.\n\nSocial experiment\n\nAnother type of reality program is the social experiment that produces drama, conflict, and sometimes transformation. British TV series Wife Swap, which began in 2003, and has had many spinoffs in the UK and other countries, is a notable example. In the show, people with different values agree to live by each other's social rules for a brief period of time. Other shows in this category include Trading Spouses, Bad Girls Club and Holiday Showdown. Faking It was a series where people had to learn a new skill and pass themselves off as experts in that skill. Shattered was a controversial 2004 UK series in which contestants competed for how long they could go without sleep. Solitary was a controversial 2006-2010 Fox Reality series that isolated contestants for weeks in solitary confinement pods with limited sleep, food and information while competing in elimination challenges ended by a quit button, causing winners to go on for much longer than needed as a blind gamble to not be the first person to quit.\n\nHidden cameras\n\nAnother type of reality programming features hidden cameras rolling when random passers-by encounter a staged situation. Candid Camera, which first aired on television in 1948, pioneered the format. Modern variants of this type of production include Punk'd, Trigger Happy TV, Primetime: What Would You Do?, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment and Just for Laughs: Gags. The series Scare Tactics and Room 401 are hidden-camera programs in which the goal is to frighten contestants rather than just befuddle or amuse them.\n\nNot all hidden camera shows use strictly staged situations. For example, the syndicated program Cheaters purports to use hidden cameras to record suspected cheating partners, although the authenticity of the show has been questioned, and even refuted by some who have been featured on the series. Once the evidence has been gathered, the accuser confronts the cheating partner with the assistance of the host. In many special-living documentary programs, hidden cameras are set up all over the residence in order to capture moments missed by the regular camera crew, or intimate bedroom footage.\n\nSupernatural and paranormal\n\nSupernatural and paranormal reality shows such as MTV's Fear, place participants into frightening situations which ostensibly involve the paranormal. In series such as Celebrity Paranormal Project, the stated aim is investigation, and some series like Scariest Places on Earth challenge participants to survive the investigation; whereas others such as Paranormal State and Ghost Hunters use a recurring crew of paranormal researchers. In general, the shows follow similar stylized patterns of night vision, surveillance, and hand held camera footage; odd angles; subtitles establishing place and time; desaturated imagery; and non-melodic soundtracks.\n\nNoting the trend in reality shows that take the paranormal at face value, New York Times culture editor Mike Hale characterized ghost hunting shows as \"pure theater\" and compared the genre to professional wrestling or softcore pornography for its formulaic, teasing approach. \n\nHoaxes\n\nIn hoax reality shows, a false premise is presented to some of the series participants; the rest of the cast may contain actors who are in on the joke. These shows often served to parody the conventions of the reality television genre. The first such show was the 2003 American series The Joe Schmo Show. Other examples are My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss (modeled after The Apprentice), My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, Hell Date (modeled after Blind Date), Superstar USA (modeled after American Idol), Bedsitcom (modeled after Big Brother), Space Cadets (which convinced the hoax targets that they were being flown into space), Invasion Iowa (in which a town was convinced that William Shatner was filming a movie there) and Reality Hell (which featured a different target and premise every episode).\n\nOther hoax shows are not intended for comedic affect and do not include actors. In some shows, a person of wealth and/or power has their identity disguised so that they can go among less-privileged people in order to see them in their natural state and judge their worthiness for largesse; the other participants are not told the true nature of the show during filming. Popular examples include Undercover Boss (though that show is also intended to let bosses see their business more accurately) and The Secret Millionaire.\n\nOther shows, though not hoax shows per se, have offered misleading information to some cast members in order to add a wrinkle to the competition. Examples include Boy Meets Boy and Joe Millionaire.\n\nCriticism and analysis\n\n\"Reality\" as misnomer\n\nThe authenticity of reality television is often called into question by its detractors. The genre's title of \"reality\" is often criticized as being inaccurate because of claims that the genre frequently includes elements such as premeditated scripting, acting, urgings from behind-the-scenes crew to create specified situations of adversity and drama, and misleading editing. It has often been described as \"scripting without paper\".\n\nIn many cases, the entire premise of the show is a contrived one, based around a competition or another unusual situation. However, various shows have additionally been accused of using fakery in order to create more compelling television, such as having premeditated storylines and in some cases feeding participants lines of dialogue, focusing only on participants' most outlandish behavior, and altering events through editing and re-shoots. \n\nTelevision shows that have been notably accused of, or admitted to, deception include The Real World,Fretts, Bruce. (July 21, 1995). [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,297971_3,00.html \"The British Invasion The Real World returns for fourth season – The MTV hit invades London\"]. Entertainment Weekly. Page 3 of 4 Roberts, Michael. [http://www.westword.com/1996-03-14/music/the-unreal-world/ \"The Unreal World\"]. Denver Westword. March 14, 1996 the U.S. version of Survivor, Joe Millionaire, The Hills, Hell's Kitchen, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, Hogan Knows Best, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, Pawn Stars,Harrison, Rick (2011). License to Pawn: Deals, Steals, and My Life at the Gold & Silver . Hyperion. 2011. New York. ISBN 978-1-4013-2430-8 pp. 70, 89 Storage Wars, and Keeping Up with the Kardashians. \n\nPolitical and cultural impact\n\nReality television's global successes has been, in the eyes of some analysts, an important political phenomenon. In some authoritarian countries, reality television voting has been the first time many citizens have voted in any free and fair wide-scale elections. In addition, the frankness of the settings on some reality shows present situations that are often taboo in certain orthodox cultures, like Star Academy Arab World, which began airing in 2003, and which shows male and female contestants living together. A Pan-Arab version of Big Brother was cancelled in 2004 after less than two weeks on the air after a public outcry and street protests. In 2004, journalist Matt Labash, noting both of these issues, wrote that \"the best hope of little Americas developing in the Middle East could be Arab-produced reality TV.\" \n\nIn 2007, Abu Dhabi TV began airing Million's Poet, a show featuring Pop Idol-style voting and elimination, but for the writing and oration of Arabic poetry. The show became popular in Arab countries, with around 18 million viewers, partly because it was able to combine the excitement of reality television with a traditional, culturally relevant topic. In April 2010, however, the show also become a subject of political controversy, when Hissa Hilal, a 43-year-old female Saudi competitor, read out a poem criticizing her country's Muslim clerics. Hilal's poetry was well received by both critics and the public; she received the highest scores from the judges throughout the competition, and came in third place overall.\n\nIn India, in the summer of 2007, coverage of the third season of Indian Idol focused on the breaking down of cultural and socioeconomic barriers as the public rallied around the show's top two contestants.\n\nThe Chinese singing competition Super Girl (a local imitation of Pop Idol) has similarly been cited for its political and cultural impact. After the finale of the show's 2005 season drew an audience of around 400 million people, and eight million text message votes, the state-run English-language newspaper Beijing Today ran the front-page headline \"Is Super Girl a Force for Democracy?\" The Chinese government criticized the show, citing both its democratic nature and its excessive vulgarity, or \"worldliness\", and in 2006 banned it outright. It was later reintroduced in 2009, before being banned again in 2011. Super Girl has also been criticized by non-government commentators for creating seemingly impossible ideals that may be harmful to Chinese youth.\n\nIn Indonesia, reality television shows have surpassed soap operas as the most-watched programs on the air. One popular program is Jika Aku Menjadi (\"If I Were\"), which follows young, middle-class people as they are temporarily placed into lower-class life, where they learn to appreciate their circumstances back home by experiencing daily life for the less fortunate. Critics have claimed that this and similar programs in Indonesia reinforce traditionally Western ideals of materialism and consumerism. However, Eko Nugroho, reality show producer and president of Dreamlight World Media, insists that these reality shows are not promoting American lifestyles but rather reaching people through their universal desires.\n\nAs a substitute for scripted drama\n\nReality television generally costs less to produce than scripted series.\n\nVH1 executive vice president Michael Hirschorn wrote in 2007 that the plots and subject matters on reality television are more authentic and more engaging than in scripted dramas, writing that scripted network television \"remains dominated by variants on the police procedural... in which a stock group of characters (ethnically, sexually, and generationally diverse) grapples with endless versions of the same dilemma. The episodes have all the ritual predictability of Japanese Noh theater,\" while reality television is \"the liveliest genre on the set right now. It has engaged hot-button cultural issues – class, sex, race – that respectable television... rarely touches.\" \n\nTelevision critic James Poniewozik wrote that reality shows like Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers showcase working-class people of the kind that \"used to be routine\" on scripted network television, but that became a rarity in the 2000s: \"The better to woo upscale viewers, TV has evicted its mechanics and dockworkers to collect higher rents from yuppies in coffeehouses.\" \n\nInstant celebrity\n\nReality television has the potential to turn its participants into national celebrities, at least for a short period. This is most notable in talent-search programs such as Idol and The X Factor, which have spawned music stars in many of the countries in which they have aired. Many other shows, however, have made at least temporary celebrities out of their participants; some participants have then been able to parlay this fame into media and merchandising careers. For example, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a contestant on Survivor: The Australian Outback, later became a host on daytime talk show The View and a correspondent on Fox and Friends. Jamie Chung (from The Real World: San Diego), Kristin Cavallari (from Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County), and NeNe Leakes (from The Real Housewives of Atlanta) all have had acting careers since appearing on reality television. Several cast members of MTV's Jersey Shore have had lucrative endorsement deals, and in some cases their own product lines. Tiffany Pollard, originally a contestant on Flavor of Love, was eventually given four additional reality series of her own on VH1. In Britain, Jade Goody became famous after appearing on Big Brother 3 in 2002; she later appeared on other reality programs, wrote a bestselling autobiography and launched a top-selling perfume line. She later received extensive media coverage during her battle with cervical cancer, from which she died in 2009. Bethenny Frankel, who gained fame after appearing on several reality television shows, launched the successful brand Skinnygirl Cocktails, and got her own short-lived syndicated talk show, Bethenny. Two cast members of non-athletic reality shows, Mike \"The Miz\" Mizanin (from The Real World and its spin-off, The Challenge) and David Otunga (from I Love New York), became professional wrestlers for the WWE. Some reality-television alumni have parlayed their fame into paid public appearances.Childers, Linda (July 7, 2011). [http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/06/smallbusiness/rick_harrison/ \"Rick Harrison of 'Pawn Stars' spills success secrets\"]. CNN Money.\n\nIn a rare case of a reality television alumnus succeeding in the political arena, The Real World: Boston cast member Sean Duffy is a U.S. Representative from Wisconsin. Businessman and television personality Donald Trump, who hosted The Apprentice from 2004 to 2015 and is currently the Republican candidate in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, could also be considered an example: though he was nationally-known before The Apprentice began, some commentators have credited his campaign success in part to the show, since it greatly increased his fame, and showcased him as a tough and experienced authority figure. \n\nSeveral socialites, or children of famous parents, who were somewhat well-known before they appeared on reality television shows have become much more famous as a result, including Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Kelly Osbourne, Kim Kardashian, and many of the rest of the Kardashian family.\n\nReality television personalities are sometimes derided as \"Z-list celebrities\", \"Bravolebrities\", and/or \"nonebrities\" who are effectively \"famous for being famous\" and have done nothing to warrant their sudden fame. Some have been lampooned for exploiting an undeserved \"15 minutes of fame\".[http://insideedition.com/news/7392/kim-kardashian-is-fighting-back-against-backlash.aspx \"Kim Kardashian Is Fighting Back Against Backlash\"]. Inside Edition. December 21, 2011 The Kardashian family is one such group of reality television personalities who were subject to this criticism in the 2010s,*[http://www.theimproper.com/18677/elton-john-trashes-kim-kardashian-reality-television \"Elton John Trashes Kim Kardashian, Reality Television\"]. The Improper. February 4, 2011.*Vanderberg, Madison (December 23, 2011). [http://www.hollyscoop.com/kim-kardashian/kardashian-family-the-backlash-of-being-overexposed.html \"Kardashian Family: The Backlash of Being Overexposed\"]. Hollyscoop.*Gostin, Nicki (December 12, 2011). [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/13/jonah-hill-the-sitter-kardashians_n_1146242.html \"Jonah Hill Talks 'The Sitter,' Weight Loss And Disgust With Kardashians\"]. The Huffington Post.*Sarah Bull (November 30, 2011). [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2067753/Daniel-Craig-launches-foul-mouthed-rant-f--ing-idiots-Kardashians-making-career-private-lives.html \"Daniel Craig brands the Kardashians 'f***ing idiots' for making careers out of their private lives\"]. Daily Mail.*Marikar, Sheila (March 19, 2012). [http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/03/jon-hamm-defends-kim-kardashian-criticism/ \"Jon Hamm Defends Kim Kardashian Criticism\"]. ABC News. Kim Kardashian in particular. \n\nYouth audience\n\nIn 2006, four of the ten most popular programs among viewers under 17 were reality shows. Studies have shown that young people emulate the behavior displayed on these programs, gathering much of their knowledge of the social world, particularly about consumer practices, from television. Many of the programs watched by teens contain questionable role models, in particular the representation of sexually objectified women in shows like The Girls Next Door. \n\nIn 2007, according to the Learning and Skills Council, one in seven UK teenagers hoped to gain fame by appearing on reality television. \n\nAppeal\n\nA number of studies have tried to pinpoint the appeal of reality television. Factors that have been cited in its appeal include personal identification with the onscreen participants; pure entertainment; diversion from scripted TV; vicarious participation; a feeling of self-importance compared to onscreen participants; enjoyment of competition; and an appeal to voyeurism, especially given \"scenes which take place in private settings, contain nudity, and/or include gossip\". Batya Ungar-Sargon, PhD believes reality TV's appeal comes from people taking pleasure in watching the suffering or humiliation of the show's protagonists. \n\nA 2012 survey by Today.com found that Americans who watch reality television regularly are more extroverted, more neurotic, and have lower self-esteem than those who do not. \n\nSimilar works in popular culture\n\nA number of fictional works since the 1940s have contained elements similar to elements of reality television. They tended to be set in a dystopian future, with subjects being recorded against their will, and often involved violence.\n* \"The Seventh Victim\" (1953) was a short story by science fiction author Robert Sheckley that depicted a futuristic game in which one player gets to hunt down another player and kill him. The first player who can score ten kills wins the grand prize. This story was the basis for the Italian film The 10th Victim (1965).\n* You're Another, a 1955 short story by Damon Knight, is about a man who discovers that he is an actor in a \"livie\", a live-action show that is viewed by billions of people in the future.\n* A King in New York, a 1957 film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin has the main character, a fictional European monarch portrayed by Chaplin, secretly filmed while talking to people at a New York cocktail party. The footage is later turned into a television show within the film.\n* \"The Prize of Peril\" (1958), another Robert Sheckley story, was about a television show in which a contestant volunteers to be hunted for a week by trained killers, with a large cash prize if he survives. It was adapted in 1970 as the TV movie Das Millionenspiel, and again in 1983 as the movie Le Prix du Danger.\n* Richard G. Stern's novel Golk (1960) was about a hidden-camera show similar to Candid Camera.\n* \"It Could Be You\" (1964), a short story by Australian Frank Roberts, features a day-in-day-out televised blood sport.\n* Survivor (1965), a science fiction story by Walter F. Moudy, depicted the 2050 \"Olympic War Games\" between Russia and the United States. The games are fought to show the world the futility of war and thus deter further conflict. Each side has one hundred soldiers who fight in a large natural arena. The goal is for one side to wipe out the other; the few who survive the battle become heroes. The games are televised, complete with color commentary discussing tactics, soldiers' personal backgrounds, and slow-motion replays of their deaths.\n* \"Bread and Circuses\" (1968) was an episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek in which the crew visits a planet resembling the Roman Empire, but with 20th-century technology. The planet's \"Empire TV\" features regular gladiatorial games, with the announcer urging viewers at home to vote for their favorites, stating, \"This is your program. You pick the winner.\"\n* The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968) was a BBC television play in which a dissident in a dictatorship is forced onto a secluded island and taped for a reality show in order to keep the masses entertained.\n* The Unsleeping Eye (1973), a novel by D.G. Compton (also published as The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe), was about a woman dying of cancer whose last days are recorded without her knowledge for a television show. It was later adapted as the 1980 movie Death Watch.\n* \"Ladies And Gentlemen, This Is Your Crisis\" (1976) was a short story by science fiction author Kate Wilhelm about a television show in which contestants (including a B-list actress who is hoping to revitalize her career) attempt to make their way to a checkpoint after being dropped off in the Alaskan wilderness, while being filmed and broadcast around the clock through an entire weekend. The story focuses primarily on the show's effect on a couple whose domestic tensions and eventual reconciliation parallel the dangers faced by the contestants.\n* Network (1976) includes a subplot in which network executives negotiate with an urban terrorist group for the production of a weekly series, each episode of which was to feature an act of terrorism.\n* The Running Man (1982) was a book by Stephen King depicting a game show in which a contestant flees around the world from \"hunters\" trying to chase him down and kill him; it has been speculated that the book was inspired by Robert Sheckley's The Prize of Peril. The book was loosely adapted as a 1987 movie of the same name. The movie removed most of the reality-TV element of the book: its competition now took place entirely within a large television studio, and more closely resembled an athletic competition (though a deadly one).\n* The film 20 Minutes into the Future (1985), and the spin-off television series Max Headroom, revolved around television mainly based on live, often candid, broadcasts. In one episode of Max Headroom, \"Academy\", the character Blank Reg fights for his life on a courtroom game show, with the audience deciding his fate.\n* Vengeance on Varos (1985) was an episode of the television show Doctor Who in which the population of a planet watches live television broadcasts of the torture and executions of those who oppose the government. The planet's political system is based on the leaders themselves facing disintegration if the population votes 'no' to their propositions.\n\nPop culture references\n\nSome scripted and written works have used reality television as a plot device:\n\nFilms\n\n* Real Life (1979) is a comedic film about the creation of a show similar to An American Family gone horribly wrong.\n* Louis the 19th, King of the Airwaves (1994) is a Québécois film about a man who signs up to star in a 24-hour-a-day reality television show.\n* The Truman Show (1998) is a film about a man (Jim Carrey) who discovers that his entire life is being staged and filmed for a 24-hour-a-day reality television show.\n* EDtv (1999) was a remake of Louis the 19th, King of the Airwaves.\n* Series 7: The Contenders (2001) is a film about a reality show in which contestants have to kill each other to win.\n* Halloween: Resurrection (2002) is a horror/slasher film that takes place in a wired house full of surveillance cameras. Each \"contestant\" is recorded as they attempt to survive and solve the mystery of the murders.\n* American Dreamz (2006) is a film set partially on an American Idol-like show.\n* Slumdog Millionaire (2008) is a film in which a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is interrogated because he knows all the answers.\n\nTelevision\n\n* The Comeback (2005) satirizes the indignity of reality television by presenting itself as \"raw footage\" of a new reality show documenting the attempted comeback of has-been star Valerie Cherish.\n* Dead Set (2008) is a British television programme featuring a zombie apocalypse affecting the Big Brother house. Part of the film was shot during an actual eviction with host Davina McCall making a cameo appearance.\n* Rock Rivals (2008) is a British television show about two judges on a televised singing contest whose marriage is falling apart.\n* Unreal (2015) is an American television show that depicts the behind-the-scenes drama on a show similar to The Bachelor.\n\nBooks\n\n* Chart Throb (2006) is a comic novel by Ben Elton that parodies The X Factor and The Osbournes, among other reality shows.\n* Dead Famous (2001) is a comedy/whodunit novel, also by Ben Elton, in which a contestant is murdered while on a Big Brother-like show.\n* Oryx and Crake (2003), a speculative fiction novel by Margaret Atwood, occasionally makes mentions of the protagonist and his friend entertaining themselves by watching reality television shows of live executions, Noodie News, frog squashing, graphic surgery, and child pornography. \n* L.A. Candy (2009) is a young adult novel series by Lauren Conrad, which is based on her experiences on Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County and The Hills.\n\nOther influences on popular culture\n\nA number of scripted television comedy and satire shows have adopted the format of the documentary-type reality television show, in \"mockumentary\" style. The first such show was the BBC series Operation Good Guys, which premiered in 1997. Subsequent examples include People Like Us (BBC UK, 1998), The Games (ABC Australia, 1999), Trailer Park Boys (2001), Reno 911! (2003), Drawn Together (2004), Summer Heights High (2007), Total Drama (2007), Parks and Recreation (2009), Modern Family (2009), Come Fly With Me (2010), and The Muppets (2015). Arguably the best-known and most influential \"mockumentary\" sitcom is the BBC's The Office (2001), which spawned numerous international remakes, including a successful American version.\n\nNot all reality-television-style mockumentary series are comedic: the 2013 American series Siberia has a science fiction/horror bent, while the 2014 Dutch series Brugklas is a drama.\n\nThe 2013-2015 American sketch comedy series Kroll Show set most of its sketches as excerpts from various fictional reality television shows, which one critic wrote \"aren't far off from the lineups at E!, Bravo, and VH1\", and parodied those shows' participants' \"lack of self-awareness\". The show also satirized the often incestuous nature of reality television, in which some series lead to a cascade of spinoffs. Kroll Show writer John Levenstein said in an interview that reality TV \"has so many tools for telling stories in terms of text and flashbacks and ways to show things to the audience that it's incredibly convenient for comedy and storytelling if you use the full reality show toolkit.\" \n\nSome feature films have been produced that use some of the conventions of documentary film and/or reality television; such films are sometimes referred to as reality films, and sometimes simply as documentaries. Allen Funt's 1970 hidden camera movie What Do You Say to a Naked Lady? was based on his reality-television show Candid Camera.\n\nThe television series Jackass has spawned five films: Jackass: The Movie in 2001, Jackass: Number Two in 2006, Jackass 2.5 in late 2007, Jackass 3D in 2010, and Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa in 2013. A similar show, Extreme Duudsonit, was adapted for the film The Dudesons Movie in 2006. The producers of The Real World created The Real Cancun in 2003. The Chinese reality show Hurry Up, Brother was adapted for the 2015 film Running Man.\n\nIn 2007, broadcaster Krishnan Guru-Murthy stated that reality television is \"a firm and embedded part of television's vocabulary, used in every genre from game-shows and drama to news and current affairs.\" \n\nThe mumblecore film genre, which began in the mid-2000s, and uses video cameras and relies heavily on improvisation and non-professional actors, has been described as influenced in part by what one critic called \"the spring-break psychodrama of MTV's The Real World\". Mumblecore director Joe Swanberg has said, \"As annoying as reality TV is, it's been really good for filmmakers because it got mainstream audiences used to watching shaky camerawork and different kinds of situations.\"", "Jordan Hailie Lloyd (born November 21, 1986) is an American reality television participant, and the winner of the 11th season of Big Brother. Lloyd has also participated in reality shows including The Amazing Race 16, Big Brother 13 and Marriage Boot Camp.\n\nBig Brother\n\nSeason 11\n\nLloyd was chosen to be a houseguest on the eleventh season of the CBS reality show Big Brother in the summer of 2009. As part of the season's high school cliques twist, Lloyd was placed in the popular clique, alongside Braden Bacha and Laura Crosby.\n\nIn the first week, Lloyd formed a close friendship with house outsider Jeff Schroeder, leading to a long-lasting alliance between the pair. When her clique member and friend Braden was nominated for eviction, Jordan was instrumental in the attempt to save him, seemingly gathering the votes to evict Chima Simone. However, on eviction night, Ronnie Talbot betrayed the alliance, forcing a tie that caused Braden's eviction. Jordan was nominated in the following two weeks, but was spared on both occasions as she was considered less of a threat than her fellow nominees Laura and Casey - both members of her initial alliance.\n\nThings began to turn in Jordan's favor in the fourth week of the show, when during a key Head of Household competition, Jeff struck a deal with Russell Kairouz, guaranteeing safety for himself and Jordan if he allowed Russell to win the competition. This allowed Russell to target and evict Ronnie. In the same week, Jeff won a public vote, and was secretly awarded the coup d'état – the power to overthrow a Head of Household and change the nominations. Jeff opted to use the power during Chima's Head of Household reign the week after Ronnie's Eviction, saving Russell from eviction, and condemning Jessie to the jury.\n\nFollowing Jessie's eviction, the balance of power in the house firmly flipped, with the rival alliance acting angrily to Jessie's eviction, eventually resulting in Chima leaving the game. Following Chima's surprise exit, Jordan won her first competition in the impromptu Head of Household competition, with Lydia Tavera and Natalie Martinez being her choices for nominations. Jordan then proceeded to win the Power of Veto competition for the first time, and ensured Lydia's eviction by keeping the nominations the same. Jeff then became Head of Household for the first time, but after continued manipulation by Natalie and Kevin Campbell, Jeff became paranoid about Russell's true loyalties, and after winning the Veto, used it on Kevin and replacing him with Russell, who was then evicted. Kevin then proceeded to win Head of Household, choosing to nominate Jeff and Michele for eviction. Michele won the veto, and Jordan was named as the replacement nominee. Despite openly expressing her wish for Jeff to stay in the game instead of her, Jordan was spared and moved into the final four. Nominated alongside her last ally Michele, Jordan was once again spared, as Michele was seen as more likely to win the final Head of Household competition.\n\nNow in the final three, Jordan was outnumbered 2-1 by the alliance of Kevin and Natalie, and lost the first part of the final Head of Household competition to Kevin. However, she then rebounded by surprisingly winning the final two parts, earning herself a spot in the final two. She chose to evict Kevin and take Natalie to the final with her. Faced with the jury, Jordan admitted she hadn't played as strong a strategic game as Natalie, but in the end emerged as the winner in a 5-2 vote, gaining the votes of Jeff, Michele, Lydia, Jessie and a vote from America, losing just Kevin and Russell's votes.\n\nJordan was well received by the audience of the show during the season, with her and Jeff being described as two of the most popular houseguests in years. At the 2009 Fox Reality Awards, the pair were given the award for \"Favorite Duo\". \n\nDuring the first Big Brother 12 eviction show, nominee Annie Whittington cited Lloyd and Schroeder's relationship as an example of why her fellow houseguests should evict fellow nominee Rachel Reilly, who had become involved in a relationship with housemate Brendon Villegas. Lloyd and Schroeder later appeared in the fifth week of the season as hosts of a veto competition.\n\nSeason 13\n\nTwo years after her initial appearance, Jordan returned to the house for the thirteenth season of the show, again with Jeff, as part of the duos twist. In the first week, Jordan joined an alliance of the six returning players, consisting of herself and Jeff, father and daughter Dick and Daniele Donato, and fellow couple Brendon Villegas and Rachel Reilly, and following Dick's unexpected departure, was pivotal in securing the key votes of Shelly Moore and Kalia Booker in the Veteran's successful attempt to save Porsche Briggs and evict her partner, Keith Henderson. Jordan continued to prove her worth by winning the second Head of Household competition, and opted to target the popular Dominic Briones, nominating him alongside Adam Poch. However, when Dominic used the veto on the pair, Jordan was forced to nominate a replacement pair, and under pressure from her alliance, she reluctantly nominated Shelly and Cassi Colvin for eviction, resulting in Cassi's unanimous eviction. After surviving eviction, Shelly pledged her loyalty to Jeff and Jordan, agreeing to go to the final three with them.\n\nIn the third week of the game, Jordan's alliance collapsed when Daniele turned on her and Jeff, trying to persuade Rachel to nominate them. They objected to her move, cementing the alliance between the two couples, but resulting in Daniele leaving the alliance when Dominic was evicted. Daniele then won the Head of Household competition and immediately targeted her former allies for eviction. However, she then backtracked on her plans to evict Jeff, and after promising Jeff and Jordan safety, instead targeted and nominated Brendon and Rachel. Brendon then won the Power of Veto and after using it on Rachel, Jordan was nominated as a pawn by Daniele. On eviction night, Jordan was spared, and Brendon was evicted by a vote of 5-2, gaining the votes of Rachel and Porsche. The following week, Kalia rose to power for the first time, but opted to keep Jordan safe throughout the week due to an earlier promise between the pair never to nominate each other. The next week, Brendon returned to the game, and Daniele again became Head of Household. Fearing Jeff would win the next Head of Household competition, Daniele tried to strike a deal with Jeff and Jordan after naming Brendon as her replacement nominee, but when Jeff did win Head of Household, and when Daniele failed to win the Power of Veto, she was named as the replacement nominee.\n\nDespite the votes being locked to evict Daniele, Shelly began to have doubts about her alliance with Jeff and Jordan, and actively began campaigning to save Daniele, upsetting Jeff who engaged in an argument with Shelly shortly before the live show. The houseguest's learned it was Fast-Forward eviction night, and after Daniele was evicted, Kalia became the new Head of Household and nominated Jeff and Rachel for eviction. Jeff was unable to win the veto, and Shelly voted to evict Jeff, forcing a tie, which Kalia broke in Rachel's favor, resulting in Jeff's eviction. Jordan furiously declared the end of her friendship with Shelly, losing her temper in a rare moment of anger. With Porsche now in power, Rachel and Jordan felt doomed, but were given a chance of reprieve when Porsche opened Pandora's Box, re-activating the Duos twist for one week. Jordan paired up with Rachel, and despite initially being nominated as a pair, Rachel won the Veto, and used it on herself and Jordan, essentially giving them the choice of who to evict from the two replacement nominees – Adam and Shelly. One week after Jeff's eviction, Jordan and Rachel chose to take revenge on Shelly, evicting her in a 2-1 vote. Rachel then proceeded to win the next Head of Household competition, and despite Adam having the ability to use his Veto to put Jordan in a position of certain eviction, he chose to maintain his long-standing alliance with Jordan, pushing her into the final four. Wanting to keep her early deal with nominated houseguest Kalia, Jordan voted to evict Porsche on eviction night, aware that Rachel would break the resultant tie and evict Kalia anyway. The following week, Jordan narrowly lost the power position to Adam by a single point, and lost the Veto to Porsche, who also gained the sole power to choose who to evict of Jordan and Rachel. Jordan's choice to vote to evict Porsche two days previously came back to haunt her, and she was evicted from the game for the first time, after 69 days in the house. Jordan voted for Rachel to win Big Brother 13.\n\nThe Amazing Race\n\nIn 2009, rumors appeared online that Lloyd and Schroeder would be appearing on the upcoming 2010 edition of the reality show The Amazing Race. Their position was later confirmed when the cast list was revealed, with the pair being labeled as \"Newly Dating.\" Lloyd and Schroeder won the first leg of the race, came 6th in the second leg, then came in 5th place in the third leg of the race. In the fourth leg, they came in 8th, last place, but they were safe because it was a non-elimination leg. In spite of a penalty \"Speed Bump\" in the 5th leg, they finished in 7th place. However, they came in last place in the sixth leg and were the fifth team eliminated, finishing in 7th place out of 11 teams.\n\nPersonal life\n\nLloyd stated after winning season 11 of Big Brother that the first thing she would do with her half-million dollar win was to put a down-payment on a house for herself and her family. She subsequently bought and moved into a 3-bedroom townhouse in Waxhaw, North Carolina with her mother and brother. As planned, she went back to work at the salon and attended school. \n\nFollowing their appearance together on Big Brother, Lloyd confirmed in October 2009 that she had begun dating fellow contestant Jeff Schroeder. In May 2012, Lloyd and Schroeder moved together to Los Angeles. A web show entitled \"Jeff and Jordan do America\", which documented their trip to Los Angeles, aired on CBS Interactive in July 2012. Lloyd became engaged to Schroeder in September 2014, after he proposed to her in the backyard of the Big Brother house while they were visiting the season 16 houseguests. Their intended wedding date was October 1, 2016. On April 6, 2016, the couple announced that they had quietly married in the March of 2016 and are expecting their first child, a boy, due in October 2016. \n\nDuring the summer of 2010, Lloyd hosted a segment on RealPlayer SuperPass called \"Home Life With Jordan\" discussing Big Brother 12, along with fellow Big Brother alumna, Chelsia Hart.", "Big Brother is an originally Dutch reality game show franchise created by John de Mol. In the show, a group of people called \"housemates\" or \"house guests\" live together in a specially constructed large house that is isolated and cut off from the outside world. During their stay in the house, contestants are continuously monitored by live, in-house television cameras, as well as personal audio microphones. Each season lasts for about three months, with at least ten contestants entering the house during this time. To win the final cash prize, a contestant must survive periodic (usually weekly) evictions and be the last housemate or house guest remaining in the compound by the series' conclusion. In English-speaking countries, the program is often referred to as \"BB\". \n\nBackground\n\nHistory\n\nThe ideas for Big Brother is said to have come during a brainstorming session at the Dutch-based international television production firm Endemol on 10 March 1997 . The first version of Big Brother was broadcast in 1999 on Veronica in the Netherlands. Since then the format has become a worldwide TV franchise, airing in many countries in a number of versions. \n\nAlthough each country has made its own adaptations of the format, the contestants are confined to a specially-designed house where their every action is recorded by cameras and microphones and they are not permitted contact with the outside world. In most countries that have produced Big Brother the contestants have been known as \"housemates\"; however in the American and Canadian version they are referred to as \"house guests\". The term Big Brother originates from George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Besides living together under continuous observation, which is the chief attraction of the contest, the program relies on four basic props: (1) the stripped-bare back-to-basics environment in which they live, (2) the evictions, (3) the weekly tasks and competitions set by Big Brother and (4) the \"Diary or Confession Room\" where housemates convey their thoughts, feelings, and frustrations, and reveal their nominees for eviction. Contestants are required to evict one of their own on a regular basis. In the earlier series of Big Brother, contestants were evicted every two weeks, however, the UK version introduced weekly evictions; almost all versions of Big Brother now follow this format.\n\nIn regular intervals, the housemates privately nominate a number of fellow housemates whom they wish get evicted from the house. In several seasons, however, housemates regularly make their nominations in front of every housemate. The housemates with the most nominations are then announced, and viewers are given the opportunity to vote via telephone for whom they wish to see evicted. Some more recent editions have since included additional methods of voting, such as voting through social media and smartphone applications. The exceptions to this process are in the American and Canadian versions, in which the housemates vote to evict each other. After the votes are tallied, the \"evictee\" leaves the house and is interviewed by the host of the show. In some cases, two housemates may be evicted simultaneously (a \"double eviction\"); rarely, no housemates will be removed that week. At the end of the game the last remaining housemate is declared the winner for the particular series and receives prizes (often including a large amount of money, a car, a vacation and—in some editions—a house).\n\nIn the first season of most series of Big Brother, the house was very basic. Although essential amenities such as running water, furniture and a limited ration of food were provided, luxury items were often forbidden. This added a survivalist element to the show, increasing the potential for social tension. Nearly all later series provide a modern house for the contest with a jacuzzi, sauna, VIP suite, loft and other luxuries.\n\nThe contestants are required to do housework and are assigned tasks by the producers of the show (who communicate with the housemates via the omnipresent authority figure known to them only as \"Big Brother\"). The tasks are designed to test their teamwork abilities and community spirit; in some countries, the housemates' shopping budget or weekly allowance depends on the outcome of assigned tasks. The housemates have a weekly allowance, with which they can buy food and other essentials.\n\nMost international versions of the show remain quite similar to each other; their main format remains true to the original fly on the wall observational style with the emphasis on human relationships, to the extent that contestants are forbidden from discussing nominations or voting strategy. Since 2001 the American version adopted a different format from the others during its second season, where the contestants are encouraged to strategize to advance in the game. In this format the contestants themselves vote to evict each other. In 2011, the UK version controversially adapted the discussion of nominations before reverting this rule back after a poll by Big Brother broadcaster Channel 5. \n\nOverview\n\nFrom a sociological and demographic perspective, Big Brother allows an analysis of how people react when forced into close confinement with people outside of their comfort zone (with different opinions or ideals, or from a different socioeconomic group). The viewer has the opportunity to see how a person reacts from the outside (through the constant recording of their actions) and the inside (in the Diary or Confession Room). The Diary Room is where contestants can privately express their feelings about the game, strategy and the other contestants. The results range from violent or angry confrontations to genuine and tender connections (often including romantic interludes).\n\nThe show is notable for involving the Internet. Although the show typically broadcasts daily updates during the evening (sometimes criticized for heavy editing by producers from viewers and former contestants alike ), viewers can also watch a continuous feed from multiple cameras on the Web in most countries. These websites were successful, even after some national series began charging for access to the video stream. In some countries, Internet broadcasting was supplemented by updates via email, WAP and SMS. The house is shown live on satellite television, although in some countries there is a 10–15 minute delay to allow libelous or unacceptable content (such as references to people not participating in the program who have not consented to have personal information broadcast) to be removed.\n\nContestants occasionally develop sexual relationships; the level of sexual explicitness allowed to be shown in broadcast and Internet-feed vary on the country's broadcasting standards.\n\nIsolation \n\nBig Brother contestants are isolated in the house, without access to television, radio or the Internet. They are not permitted routine communication with the outside world. This was an important issue for most earlier series of the show. In more-recent series, contestants are occasionally allowed to view televised events (usually as a reward for winning at a task). In most versions of the program books and writing materials are also forbidden, although exceptions are sometimes made for religious materials such as the Bible, Tanakh or the Qur'an. Some versions ban all writing implements, even items that can be used to write (such as lipstick or eyeliner). Despite the housemates' isolation, some contestants are occasionally allowed to leave the house as part of tasks. Contestants are permitted to leave the house in an emergency.\n\nContestants have regularly-scheduled interactions with the show's host on eviction nights. Throughout each day the program's producer, in the \"Big Brother\" voice, issues directives and commands to contestants. Some versions of the show allow private counseling sessions with a psychologist. These are allowed at any time, and are often conducted by telephone from the Diary Room.\n\nFormat changes and twists\n\nRegional versions\n\nDue to the intelligibility of certain languages across several nations, it has been possible to make regional versions of Big Brother. All these follow the normal Big Brother rules, except that contestants must come from each of the countries in the region where it airs: Big Brother Angola e Moçambique of Angola and Mozambique, Big Brother Africa of Africa (includes Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe), Big Brother: الرئيس of the Middle East (includes Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, and Tunisia), Gran Hermano del Pacífico of South America (includes Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru), Big Brother of Scandinavia (includes Norway and Sweden), and Veliki brat of the Balkans (includes Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia). The British version of the show accepts Irish applicants and was available between 2000 and 2010 as Channel 4 was available; as of 2015 the show returned to Irish screens as TV3 bought the rights from UK broadcaster Channel 5 to air the show.\n\nMultiple areas and houses\n\nIn 2001, Big Brother 3 of the Netherlands introduced the \"Rich and Poor\" concept, wherein the house is separated into a luxurious half and a poor half and two teams of housemates fight for a place in the luxurious half. The Dutch version continued this concept until its fourth season. Other versions later followed and introduced a similar concept, of which some have their own twists: Africa (in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013), Albania (in 2010), Australia (in 2003 and 2013), Balkan States (in VIP 2010 and 2011), Brazil (in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014), Canada (2013–present), Denmark (in 2003), Finland (in 2009 and 2014), Germany (in 2003, 2004–2005, 2005–2006, 2008 and 2008–2009), Greece (in 2003), India (in 2012 and 2013), Israel (in 2009), Italy (in 2006 and 2007), Norway (in 2003), Philippines (in 2009, Teen 2010 and 2011), Poland (in 2002), Portugal (in VIP 2013), Slovakia (in 2005), Slovenia (in 2008, 2015 & 2016), Scandinavia (in 2005), South Africa (in 2014), Spain (in VIP 2004, 2008, 2009–2010 and 2010), United Kingdom (in 2002, Celebrity 2007, 2008 and Celebrity 2013), and United States (in 2009–present).\n\nIn 2011-2012 (GH7), the Argentinian edition added \"La Casa de al Lado\" (\"The House Next Door\"), a smaller, more luxurious house which served multiple functions. The first week it hosted 4 potential housemates, and the public voted for two of them to enter the main house. The second week, two pairs of twins competed in the same fashion, with only one pair allowed in. Later, the 3rd, 4th and 5th evicted contestants were given the choice of staying on their way out and they competed for the public's vote to reenter the house. Months later, after one of the contestants left the house voluntarily, the House Next Door reopened for four contestants who wanted to reenter and had not been in such a playoff before. The House Next Door was also used in other occasions to allow contestants from the main house for limited periods of time, especially to have some more privacy (which of course could be seen by the public). \n\nEvil Big Brother\n\nIn 2004, the fifth series of the UK version introduced an evil Big Brother. Big Brother becomes villainous with harsher punishments, such as taking away prize money, more difficult tasks and secret tricks. This concept has also been used in Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, South America, Scandinavia, Serbia, Spain, Thailand, the Philippines, and Mexico.\n\nTwin or triplet housemates \n\nIn 2004, the Big Brother 5 of the US version introduced twins Adria & Natalie Montgomery. They were tasked to switch back and forth in the house. If they successfully changed places numerous times for five weeks without being caught, they could play the game as individual house guests. This twist was used again in 2015 during Big Brother 17 following slightly different rules: If they successfully changed places numerous times for five weeks without being evicted, they could play the game as individual house guests. The twins Liz and Julia Nolan were discovered after the first two weeks, but were not evicted before being able to play as individuals.\n\nThis twin/triplet twist was used in several countries. Some made modifications in this said twist; others have had twins in the house together without this element of secrecy. The following are the countries that have featured twins or triplets: Australia (in 2005), Germany (in 2005-2006), Bulgaria (in 2006 and 2012), United Kingdom (in 2007, Celebrity 2011, Celebrity 2012, 2013 , 2015 and 2016), France (in 2007, 2011, 2013 and 2015), Spain (in 2007 and 2013), Poland (in 2007), India (in 2008), Africa (in 2009), Balkan Region (in 2009, 2013), Philippines (in 2009, Teen 2012 and 2014), Portugal (in 2010 and 2012), Israel (in 2011), Ukraine (in 2011), Argentina (in 2011,2016) and Albania (in 2013).\n\nSecret missions\n\nSecret missions are a common element of the show since their introduction during the sixth UK series. During these missions, one or more housemates are set a task from Big Brother with the reward of luxuries for the household and/or a personal reward if the task is successful. Some versions of Big Brother have secret tasks presented by another character who lives in plain sight of the housemate. Such characters include Marsha the Moose (from BB Canada) and Surly the Fish (from BB Australia).\n\nThe U.S. version of Season 8 (2007) introduced \"America's Player\", where a selected house guest must complete various tasks (determined by public vote) in secret for the duration of his stay in the house in exchange for a cash reward . It was repeated in U.S. Season 10 (Summer 2008) for a week. Season 16 (2014) featured \"Team America\", in which 3 houseguests were selected to work as a team to complete tasks (again determined by public voting) for a cash reward. This continued for the entire season despite the eviction of a member.\n\nOpening night twists\n\nSince Big Brother 2, the UK series has opened with a twist. This has included the public choosing the final housemate from three possibilities (Big Brother 2); public voting for a housemate to leave during the first week and the housemates choosing between two housemates with the least number of votes (Big Brother 3); first-night nominations (Big Brother 4); suitcase nominations (Big Brother 5); Unlucky Housemate 13 (Big Brother 6); Big Brother Hood (Big Brother 7); an all-female house and a set of twins as contestants (Big Brother 8); a couple entering as housemates, who must hide their relationship (Big Brother 9); housemates having to earn housemate status (Big Brother 10); a mole entering the house with an impossible task (Big Brother 11); Jackie Stallone entering a house containing her son's ex-wife (Celebrity Big Brother 3); a non-celebrity in a celebrity edition (Celebrity Big Brother 4) and a visit from Jade Goody's family (Celebrity Big Brother 5). During Celebrity Big Brother 6 La Toya Jackson entered first, walked straight into a private bedroom (the bedrooms are usually locked until everyone has arrived) and put her bag on the bed to claim it as her own. Terry Christian became head of the house which was used at the end of the previous non-celebrity series and had to nominate three housemates for the first eviction; the others voted to save one of the nominees, Ben Adams, leaving Lucy Pinder and eventual winner Ulrika Jonsson to face the first eviction. In the summer series of 2009 the house was empty at first, with only crates to sit on. The new arrivals had to earn housemate status by completing tasks; Noirin Kelly was required to shave off her hair and draw a mustache and glasses on her face. Freddie Fisher and eventual winner Sophie Reade had to change their names by deed poll to Halfwit and Dogface. On day four, the six people who had not received housemate status were nominated for a public vote. The person with the fewest votes (Beinazir Lasharie) left, and the house was transformed into a \"Big Brother\" house. Other countries, such as Bulgaria, the United States and (previously) Australia, have also begun using opening-night twists.\n\nAs common opening twist is to only introduce a single sex cast on the premiere of the show while having members of the other sex introduced over the next few days. The eighth UK series first used this twist with an initial all-female house. However, two days later one male housemate arrived. The same twist was used in Bulgaria (BB4). Africa (BBA4) used a similar twist, with an all-male premiere.\n\nFake evictions\n\nThe fifth UK edition introduced fake evictions, where one or two housemates are \"evicted\". In the eighth UK Series one housemate was evicted, interviewed and sent back into the house.\n\nIn the fifth Philippine edition, four housemates (Daniel Matsunaga, Manolo Pedrosa, Jane Oineza, and Vickie Rushton) were fake evicted and stayed in a place called bodega.\n\nIn Big Brother Australia 2013 Benjamin 'Ben' Zabel was \"fake\" evicted on Day 50. He was removed and put into the house's presidential suite, where he spent 24 hours without the other housemates knowing he was still in the house. He had immunity from eviction that week. After his 24 hours, Ben returned to the house. In Big Brother Australia 2014 Travis Lunardi was \"fake\" evicted and Ben who was fake evicted from the previous edition joined him for 24 hours to give him some advice. Travis returned after 3 days total in the Sanctuary — a small private house with a pool and some amenities. Like Ben from his fake eviction, Travis had immunity from eviction that week.\n\nIn Big Brother Brasil 13 Anamara Barreira was \"fake\" evicted. She was removed and put into a small private apartment without the other housemates knowing she was still in the house. After 24 hours, Anamara returned to the house as Head of Household and with immunity from eviction that week. In Big Brother Brasil 16, an similar situation happened, Ana Paula Renault was \"fake\" evicted. She was also removed and put into a small private apartment without the other housemates knowing she was still in the house. After 48 hours, Ana Paula returned to the house. She had immunity from eviction that week.\n\nIn first season of the Big Brother Türkiye, there's a fake eviction in week 10. Arsel and Hüseyin are part of the fake eviction. Also this week, Seda and Yasin returned the show.\n\nIn Big Brother Canada 4, first Kelsey Faith and then Loveita Adams (who were rivals in the house) were evicted in a fake double eviction on Day 28. At the end of the episode, Kelsey and Loveita moved into a special suite where they were able to watch the remaining houseguests. A week later, the remaining houseguests were required to unanimously decide who to bring back into the house. The houseguests chose to bring back Kelsey.\n\nTwists involving multi-franchises\n\nHousemate exchanges\n\nIn 2002, Mexico (BBM1) and the Spain (GH3) temporarily made housemate exchanges. Mexico's Eduardo Orozco swapped with Spain's Andrés Barreiro in 7 days. In 2010, the first 2-housemates exchange was held in Spain and Italy. Gerardo Prager and Saray Pereira from GH11 of Spain was swapped with Carmela Gualtieri and Massimo Scattarella of GF10 of Italy for 7 days.\n\nIn later years, several housemate exchanges were done around the world: Argentina (GH3) and Spain (GH4), Ecuador (GH1) and Mexico (BBM2), and Africa (BBA1) and United Kingdom (BB4) in 2003; Scandinavia (BB2) and Thailand (BBT2) in 2006; Philippines (PBB2) and Slovenia (BB1), and Argentina (GH5) and Spain (GH9) in 2007; Africa (BBA3) and Finland (BB4) in 2008; Finland (BB5) and Philippines (PBB3) in 2009; Finland (BB6) and Slovenia (BBS1) in 2010; Spain (GH12) and Israel (HH3) in 2010 to 2011; Finland (BB7) and Norway (BB4) in 2011; Argentina (GH7) and Israel (HH4) in 2012; and Mexico (BB4) and Spain (GH16) in 2015.\n\nEvicted housemate exchanges\n\nIn 2003, Mexico's Isabel Madow (BB VIP2) and Spain's Aída Nízar (GH5) was swapped for 7 days. This twist was also done between Russia (BBR1) and Pacific (GHP1) in 2005; and Argentina (GH4) and Brazil (BBB7) in 2007.\n\nEvicted housemate visits\n\nAnouska Golebiewski, an evicted housemate from United Kingdom (housemate from BB4) visited Australia (BB3) in 2003. In 2005, United Kingdom (Nadia Almada of BB5) visited Australia (BB5) again. In 2006, United Kingdom (Chantelle Houghton of CBB4) visited Germany (BBG6). This twist was copied in later years by various other countries: Africa (Ricardo Ferreira of BBA3) visited Brazil (BBB9) in 2009; Germany (Annina Ucatis and Sascha Schwan of BBG9) visited the Philippines (PBB3) in 2010, and Italy (George Leonard and Veronica Ciardi of GF10) visited Albania (BB3) in 2010; Sweden (Martin Granetoft and Peter OrrmyrSara Jonsson of BB5) visited Norway (BB4) in 2011; Brazil (Rafael Cordeiro of BBB12) visited Spain (GH12), and Argentina (Agustín Belforte of GH4) visited Colombia (GH2) in 2012; United States (Dan Gheesling of BB10/BB14) visited Canada (BB1 and the BB2 Jury) in 2013; Canada (Emmett Blois of BB1) visited South Africa (BBM3) in 2014; and Spain (Paula Gonzalez of GH 15) visited Mexico (BBM4) in 2015.\n\nA similar event took place between the United States and Canada in 2014 wherein Rachel Reilly (from BB12/BB13) made a video chat to Canada (BB2). Rachel Reilly also appeared on Big Brother Canada's side show, which airs after the eviction episode once a week.\n\nHousemates competing in another country\n\nThere were times that a former housemate from his franchise participated and competed in another foreign franchise: Daniela Martins of France (SS3) competed in Portugal (SS1); Daniel Mkongo of France (SS5) competed in Italy (GF12); Brigitte Nielsen of Denmark (BB VIP) competed in the United Kingdom (CBB3); Jade Goody of the United Kingdom (BB3, BB Panto, and CCB5) competed in India (BB2); Sava Radović of Germany (BB4) competed in the Balkan States (VB1); Nikola Nasteski of the Balkan States (VB4) competed in Bulgaria (BB All-Stars 1); Žarko Stojanović of France (SS5) competed in the Balkan States (VB VIP5); Željko Stojanović of France (SS5) competed in the Balkan States (VB VIP5); Kelly Baron of Brazil (BBB13) competed in Portugal (BB VIP); Lucy Diakovska of Bulgaria (VIP B4) competed in Germany (PBB1); Leila Ben Khalifa of Italy (GF6) competed in France (SS8); Priya Malik of Australia (BB11) competed in India (BB9), Tim Dormer of Australia (BB10) and Nikki Grahame of the United Kingdom (BB7, UBB) competed in Canada (BB4); Leonel Estevao-Luto of Africa (BB4) competed in Angola & Mozambique (BB3); Frankie Grande of the United States (BB16) competed in the United Kingdom (CBB18).\n\nOther twists\n\n* Task visits: Cathrine Petersen and Henrik Andreassen of Denmark's BB4 and Patricia Andersen and Umar Nyonyintono of Sweden's BB6 visited each country's Big Brother Houses for 7 days in 2012.\n* Kidnapping: Annica Englund of Sweden's BB6 was kidnapped by Denmark's BB4 for 7 days in 2012.\n* Current-to-evicted housemate exchange: Evicted Laisa Portella of Brazil (housemate from BBB12) was exchanged with Non-Evicted Noemí Merino of Spain's GH13 in 2012. Portella stayed in the Spanish Big Brother House for 7 days, while Merino stayed in the Brazilian Big Brother house for 5 days.\n* Casting selection exchange: Doroti Polito and Leonia Coccia of Italy's GF9 visited Spain's GH10 in 2009.\n* Red Button: Gran Hermano Argentina Series 7 (GH7) incorporated a red button in the Confession Room, encased in a transparent box. This button was to be used when a contestant wanted to leave the house voluntarily, and it would fire an alarm in the whole house. When the alarm sound ceased, the contestant would be given five minutes to leave the house. This button is also used in Secret Story series, however in this case whoever presses the button will try to guess someone's secret. There is also an alarm in the whole house.\n* Telephone: Gran Hermano Argentina Series 4 (GH4) added a telephone in the living room. This telephone rang once a week for ten seconds, and if nobody picked up the call, the full house would be nominated for eviction. The first person to pick up the receiver was given an order or news from Big Brother, either to their benefit or against them. If an order was refused, they would be nominated for eviction. \n\nMulti-franchise competitions\n\nEurovision Song Contest\n\nFIFA World Cup\n\nOthers\n\nIn Germany, a new sixth-season version of the show was Big Brother - Das Dorf (Big Brother - The Village). The season ended after 363 days in February 2006 because of low ratings. For season seven, RTL II switched back to a traditional version. The fourth Greek season introduced a mother. During the tenth week of the seventh UK season, the housemates were paired with their \"best friend\" in the house and had to nominate and face eviction as couples. The ninth American season added a romantic aspect by pairing up the housemates up and having them compete as couples.\n\nThe ninth Brazilian season featured the \"Bubble\": a glass house in a shopping mall in Rio de Janeiro where four potential housemates lived for a week. Later in the season a bubble was built inside the Big Brother house, with another two housemates living in it for a week until they were voted in and the glass house dismantled. The Glass House later was reused in the eleven season, featuring five evicted housemates competing for a chance to join the house again and in thirteen Brazilian season, with six potential housemates competing for two places in the main house.\n\nA familiar twist occurred in the second celebrity edition of the Philippine version, where two housemates related by profession or family played as one. Also in the Philippine version, the second season of the teen edition, also featured the parents/guardians of the teens that are staying in the house. The parents had their own living quarters and were considered as housemates. If a teen housemate was evicted, the coinciding parent/guardian would also be evicted. In Celebrity Hijack UK evicted housemates were given the opportunity to choose if a \"ninja\" delivered good or bad gifts to the house. Later that year Big Brother Australia 2008 introduced the Housemate Hand Grenade, where an evicted housemate decided which housemate received a penalty. Big Brother 5 of Bulgaria, which began in early 2010, introduced a new family format (Big Brother Family). Whole families entered the house with their spouses, children and relatives. They received a salary for their stay and the winning family received a cash prize, a car and an apartment. The eleventh American season featured Pandora's Box, in which the winning head of household was tempted (with money, a celebrity visit or time alone with a loved one) to open a box. If an HoH chooses to open Pandora's Box, however, there may be unintended consequences.\n\nThe twelfth American season featured a saboteur, who entered the house to wreak havoc with tasks suggested by viewers. Big Brother Africa 6 in 2011 was the first season of Big Brother to have two winners, each getting $200,000. The thirteenth American season introduced Dynamic Duos, where eight new house guests would enter the house with three duos from past seasons. The fourth Philippine season featured Unli-Day and Unli-Night, where two separate groups of housemates were covered in two separate programs. It also introduced reserved housemates, shortlisted auditioners who were given a chance to be a housemate by completing tasks assigned by Big Brother (this was also done in Argentina's seventh season). The Philippine version introduced the 100-second session, in which housemates are given a chance to be with their loved ones for only 100 seconds in the Confession Room. The fourteenth American season had four house guests from past seasons returning to the house to coach twelve new house guests. The four returning house guests played their own game for a separate prize of $100,000 until they joined the normal game later after a reset twist. The fifteenth American season Introduced the Big Brother M.V.P twist where every week, the viewers would vote one of the house guests who the viewers thought was playing the best game, also introduced three nominations in the US version where the HOH would nominate the first two houseguests for eviction (like in previous seasons) while the 3rd nomination is made by the M.V.P of that week in a further twist for the M.V.P, the viewers decided who the 3rd nominee would be for the week, half way into the season the M.V.P twist ended and the show continued on with just 2 nominees a week as in previous seasons.\n\nIn the fourteenth Brazilian season, 7 mothers and 2 aunts, relatives of the 9 remaining housemates, entered the Big Brother Brasil house to celebrate International Women's Day. The housemates could not see or touch their relatives because the house was divided by a wall. An improvised house was assembled for the mothers and aunts. They stayed in the house for 6 days.\n\nThe sixteenth American season and the seventeenth American season featured two Heads of Household every week and had four House Guests nominated for eviction. While, in previous seasons, the HoH was guaranteed immunity until the next eviction, this was not the case due to a new competition called \"Battle of the Block,\" in which the two sets of nominees compete to save themselves. The winning pair of nominees were removed from the block while dethroning the HoH who nominated them; while the Battle of the Block winners were ineligible to be named as a replacement nominee if the Veto was used, the dethroned HoH was not.\n\nSpecial editions\n\nCelebrity and VIP Big Brother\n\nThe Big Brother format has been adapted in some countries; the housemates are local celebrities, and the shows are called Celebrity Big Brother or Big Brother VIP. In some countries, the prize money normally awarded to the winning housemate is donated to a charity, and all celebrities are paid to appear in the show as long as they do not voluntarily leave before their eviction or the end of the series. The rest of the rules are nearly the same as those of the original version. The celebrity version has become particularly popular in the UK, causing UK broadcaster Channel 5 to extend its deal with Endemol enabling them to air two celebrity series in addition to the civilian version every year from 2012, again in 2013 and again in 2014, with the first of the two series having already aired this year (the first being in January and the second after the main series in the summer). In Bulgaria, VIP Brother has replaced the original format of the show and more seasons of the celebrity edition have been produced compared to the regular one. Due to the show's popularity there, it lasts for two months unlike most countries where it only airs for a month.\n\nVariations\n\nThe 2006 Netherlands series was entitled Hotel Big Brother. This variation introduced a group of celebrity hoteliers and a Big Boss, who run a hotel and collect money for charity without nominations, evictions or a winner.\n\nAnother variation appeared in the UK in early 2008, entitled Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack. This temporarily replaced the 2007 Celebrity Big Brother in the wake of a racial-abuse incident. Instead of celebrities playing housemates the celebrities became Big Brother himself, creating tasks and holding nominations with the help of Big Brother. The housemates were considered by the producers \"Britain's most exceptional and extraordinary\" 18- to 21-year-olds. The prize for the winner of the series was £50,000. \n\nIn 2009 VIP Brother 3 Bulgaria introduced the concept of celebrities competing for charitable causes, sometimes allowed to leave the house to raise money for the charity (which changed each week).\n\nUS and English Canadian version\n\n \nThe United States and Canada's version of Big Brother is different from most versions of the series. The American series began in 2000 with a format much similar to the international format, however, due to poor ratings and the strong popularity of Survivor, beginning in the second season, a more game play-oriented format was implemented where the contestants are encouraged to strategize and form alliances with others to avoid weekly eviction and improve their chance at winning. For this new format, a group of 12 to 16 contestants, known as \"HouseGuests,\" compete to win the series by voting each other off and being the last HouseGuest remaining. One HouseGuest, known as the Head of Household (HoH), must nominate two of their fellow house guests for eviction. The winner of the Power of Veto (PoV, introduced in the 3rd American season) has the option to save one of the nominees for eviction, forcing the HoH to nominate another house guest in his or her place. The HouseGuest then vote to evict one of the nominees, and the HouseGuest with the most votes is evicted. When only two HouseGuests remain, the most recently evicted HouseGuests (generally 7) form The Jury and decide which of the two remaining house guests would win the grand prize.\n\nIn 2013, English-speaking Canada began its own version based on the US version, but the viewing audience are given more control of the game. Secret tasks were also introduced and are usually presented by the show's mascot \"Marsha the Moose\". These two elements cause fans of the show to call it a hybrid of the U.S edition and the U.K/international editions.\n\nElements of this format (such as having one contestant winning the position of or similar to Head of Household or allowing contestants to talk and strategize about the nomination/eviction process) have been adapted in other editions of the show, notably the French Canadian version, where the format was followed almost exactly, but the public could evict a housemate on some occasions, and eventually decided the winner in the end.\n\nOther editions\n\nThe Big Brother format has been otherwise modified in some countries:\n* Big Brother: All-Stars (Belgium, 21 days; Bulgaria: Season 1–4, 27–29 days; United States, 72 days; United Kingdom, 18 days; Canada, 64 days; Africa, 91 days; Spain, 56 days; Portugal Secret Story: Season 1–4, 22–50 days): Previous housemates from previous seasons compete. Belgium was the first country to have an All-Stars season (2003). Bulgaria was the first country to have 3 All-Stars season (2014). Portugal was the first country to have 4 All-Stars season (2015)\n* Big Brother: Reality All-Stars (Sweden, 6 days; Denmark, 32 days; Spain, 56 days): Contestants from different reality shows, including Big Brother, compete.\n* Big Brother: You Decide / Big Brother: Back in the House / Big Brother: Try Out (Poland: Season 1–2, 7–13 days; Norway, 9 days; Serbia, 7 days): Housemates, new or old, compete for a spot in the next regular season without nominations or evictions.\n* Teen Big Brother: The Experiment| (United Kingdom, 10 days; Philippines: Season 1–4, 42–91 days): Teen aged 13 and older compete.\n* Pinoy Big Brother: All In, 737 and Lucky 7: A mix of Teenagers, regular adults, and celebrities compete in one season.\n* Secret Story (disambiguation)#Television| (France, Lithuania, Portugal, Netherlands, Peru & Albania): Each housemate has a secret.\n* Big Brother Panto (UK)| (United Kingdom, 11 days): Housemates from previous series spent time in the Big Brother House to perform a pantomime at the series' end.\n\nFor their tenth year celebration, the Philippines held Pinoy Big Brother: 737, where two editions were held in one season, a teen edition and a regular edition for adult housemates. Two sets of four finalists from each batch made it to the finale, which resulted to having two winners for this season.\n\nThere are also \"test runs\", with a group of celebrities (or journalists) living in the house for several days to test it. There are occasions where people who have auditioned for the show are also put in the house, most notably in the British edition, where many housemates claim to have met before. These series have been televised in Argentina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Mexico, the Pacific region, the Philippines, and Spain. In some cases, it is not broadcast, but in others, such as the U.S. edition, it is used as a promotional tool.\n\nVersions\n\nThrough 10 July 2016, Big Brother has produced 381 winners in over 54 franchises. The most recent winner is Jason Burrill from United Kingdom.\n\nCurrently airing (4)\nAn upcoming season (18)\nStatus unknown (7)\nNo longer airing (26)\n\nControversies\n\nLegal\n\nIn April 2000, Castaway, an independent production company, filed a lawsuit against John de Mol and Endemol for stealing the concepts of their own show called Survive!, a reality television show where contestants are placed in a deserted island and will have to take care of themselves alone. These contestants were also filmed by cameras around them. The court later dismissed the lawsuit filed by Castaway against de Mol and Endemol. The Survive! reality television format was later turned into Survivor. \n\nIn 2000, the estate of George Orwell sued CBS Television and Endemol for copyright and trademark infringement, claiming that the program infringed on the Orwell novel '1984' and its trademarks. After a series of court rulings adverse to the defendants - CBS and Endemol - they settled the case for an undisclosed amount of money on the eve of trial. \n\nSexual-related incidents\n\nThere have been two documented occurrences of possible rape happening during the show. In Big Brother South Africa a male housemate was accused of assaulting a fellow housemate while she was asleep. The pair were filmed kissing and cuddling in bed before the cameras moved away and the male housemate reportedly claimed to housemates the next day that he had intercourse with the contestant. However, the female housemate was apparently shocked by the claims and informed female housemates that she had not consented to having sex with him. (Under South African law, this act would be constituted as rape.) This male housemate was expelled immediately after the allegations surfaced, while the female housemate was removed from the house for her own protection and counselling. In Big Brother Brazil, many viewers reported that they watched a male housemate allegedly force himself on a female housemate while she was passed out drunk after a \"boozy party.\" As a result, the male housemate was later escorted out of the Big Brother house by the police.", "Big Brother 1 was the debut season of the American reality television series Big Brother. It was based upon the Netherlands series of the same name, which gained notoriety in 1999 and 2000. The series premiered on July 5, 2000 and lasted for a total of 88 days. The season concluded after 88 days with Eddie McGee being crowned the winner, and Josh Souza the runner-up. The premise of the series drastically differed from future installments of the series. The series revolved around ten strangers living in a house together with no communication with the outside world. They were constantly filmed during their time in the house, and were not permitted to communicate with those filming them. Every other week, each contestant, referred to as \"HouseGuests\", chose two people to be up for nomination. The two or more people with the most votes were nominated to leave the house. The viewers then decide which of the nominees should leave, with the selected person leaving during a live show. This process continued until only three HouseGuests remained, at which time the viewers would decide which of them would win the $500,000 grand prize.\n\nDevelopment\n\nThe series first launched in Netherlands, with editions in countries such as Germany proving to be hits with the public. Following the international success of the series, a bidding war for the rights to series engaged between CBS, ABC, and a cable network, with the series initially set to last 100 days. Mark Itkin, the senior vice president of William Morris, was quoted as saying, \"I had no idea the bidding would be so hot. But the show has so many elements, from being on 100 days in a row to an Internet component that is especially attractive to networks.\" Ultimately, it was confirmed that the show had been picked up by CBS for an estimated $20 million. It was later reported that production costs added to an estimated $200,000 per episode. Paul Romer, co-creator of the original series, served as the Executive Producer for the series. On the concept, Romer stated \"The show is all about human interactions. It's people who are, loving each other, hating each other. They fight, they cry, they laugh -- all emotions, we'll see in the house.\" In a later interview, Romer added \"The first thing people think of when they hear the Big Brother idea are the sexual things, the nudity, the sexual activity in the house [...] That's not what the show is about.\" The series was one of the first reality shows to air, and required a crew of over 150 people. \n\nThe first season of Big Brother featured two hosts, Julie Chen as the main host and Ian O'Malley as a co-host. On earning the job, O'Malley stated \"I didn’t really know what it was. This is the ground floor of reality television. [But] SAG went on strike [and it was] a very lengthy and very painful strike for many folks.\" O'Malley was later released from his contract after only one month on the series; he was bought out of his contract, which he later cited as a \"relief\".http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2007/09/big-brother-1-ian_omalley_interview/ Chen, who hoped to be a part of 60 Minutes in the future, initially turned down the offer to host the series as she did not want to be in the entertainment division of the network. Upon declining the offer, CBS News president Andrew Heyward told Chen that refusal to do the series could be seen as \"insubordination\". Chen clarified \"They said they needed someone who knows how to ask questions on live TV and I asked ‘Am I forever sealing the door on 60 Minutes?’ and [Heyward] said ‘yes,’”. Dr. Drew Pinsky and AOL Online Advisor Regina Lewis appeared once per week on the series to discuss the events in the house. The cast for the series was revealed during the premiere. HouseGuest William was revealed to be a member of the Black Panther Party, while Jamie was crowned Miss Washington USA the year prior to her participation on the show. HouseGuests Curtis and Josh had done modeling prior to entering the house. Jean Jordan had been an exotic dancer before entering the house, while Karen and George were married and had children. Cassandra and William were both African-American. Series creator John de Mol later stated \"The 10 people in our house, you can relate to them. It's the girl next door, it's the guy in the grocery store [...] It's ordinary people, and I think that Big Brother proves ordinary people can be interesting.\" \n\nThe first season of Big Brother premiered on July 5, 2000. The premiere was filmed on July 4, 2000. The series initially aired five nights per week, though a sixth episode was later added into the schedule. The addition of a sixth episode per week caused the live banishment episode to move to Wednesday instead of Thursday. Four of these episodes were half-hour daily recap episodes, while one episode was an hourly-long weekly recap; the sixth episode was the live banishment. During the live banishment, the HouseGuest who exits the house was subject to an interview with host Julie Chen. The first season had a total of 67 episodes, the most for any season to date. This season lasted for a total of 88 days. The theme song for the series, known as \"Live\", was performed by Jonathan Clarke. It was played during the closing credits of each episode, and segments of the theme were played throughout the show. Viewers of the series could also watch the live feeds in the house, which were available for free on the official website. The feed was edited for music copyrights and to protect the privacy of some contestants. The feeds also featured a disclaimer for users under the age of 21, due to unedited aspect to the feeds. \n\nHouse\n\nThe house used for the first season was a one story house with two bedrooms, a kitchen and dining room, and one bathroom. The house was an estimated 1,800 square feet, and was located at the CBS Studio Center in Hollywood, California. Throughout the house, there are a total of 28 cameras and 60 microphones, making all areas of the house visible to the cameras. During their stay in the house, the HouseGuests were required to wear microphones at all times, ensuring everything they said in the house was heard. Throughout the house there are two way mirrors lined against the walls, with a production team filming behind them. The bedrooms featured infrared imaging cameras, allowing the cameras to continue filming while the lights were off. The house was designed to have bad feng shui, with clashing colors and positioning.http://architecture.about.com/library/weekly/aa073100a.htm The house featured bright colors as part of its theme, with the kitchen being a bright blue and the living room yellow. The two bedrooms in the house were identical, with both featuring a bunk bed and three single beds. The bathroom featured one toilet, one shower, a washboard and a washtub. The Red Room was where HouseGuests were required to share their thoughts on the events in the house, and were often given tasks. The backyard of the house featured a patio area where the HouseGuests could sit outside. The backyard also featured a chicken coop, and the HouseGuests were able to use the eggs from the chickens as food. \n\nFormat\n\nBig Brother is a game show in which a group of contestants, referred to as HouseGuests, lived in a custom built \"house\", constantly under video surveillance. While in the house, the contestants were completely isolated from the outside world, meaning no phone, television, internet, magazines, newspaper, or contact with those not in the house. This rule could be broken, however, in the event of a family emergency or passing. During their time in the house, the HouseGuests were required to nominate two of their fellow contestants for potential banishment, and the two with the most votes would be nominated. Should multiple HouseGuests receive the most nominations, then all of the HouseGuests were marked for banishment. This process was mandatory for all HouseGuests, and failure to comply could result in expulsion from the house. The public, through a vote conducted by phone, would vote to banish one of the nominated HouseGuests from the house, and the HouseGuest with the most votes from the viewers would be banished from the house. When only three HouseGuests remained, the viewers would vote for which of them should win the series, and the HouseGuest with the most votes would become the winner. The HouseGuests were competing for a $500,000 cash prize, though the Runner-Up of the series would receive $100,000 and the second Runner-Up would receive $50,000.\n\nDuring their time in the house, HouseGuests were given weekly tasks to perform. The HouseGuests would wager a portion of their weekly shopping budget on the task, and would either win double their wagered fund or lose the wagered fund depending on their performance in the task. The HouseGuests were required to work as a group to complete the task, with the format of the tasks varying based on the amount of remaining HouseGuests. Should the HouseGuests run out of the food provided for them, an emergency ration was available to them. HouseGuests were also required to make visits to the Red Room during their stay in the house, where they were able to share their thoughts and feelings on their fellow HouseGuests and the game. The format of the series was mainly seen as a social experiment, and required HouseGuests to interact with others who may have differing ideals, beliefs, and prejudices. While a competition, the series allows viewers to witness the relationships formed in the house and the behavior of the HouseGuests. Nina Tassler, president of entertainment at CBS, stated \"You're talking about people from very disparate walks of life and confining them in a house for a finite period of time [...] you have to recognize yes, this is that show. It is a social experiment.\" Though locked in the house, the HouseGuests were free to quit the game, though would not be allowed entry back into the house. Should a HouseGuest break the rules of the game, they could be expelled from the house, and unable to return. \n\nHouseGuests\n\nThe first season of Big Brother featured ten HouseGuests, each of which were complete strangers. All of the HouseGuests were from different states except for Eddie and Curtis, both of whom were from New York. Eddie was the youngest HouseGuests, at 21, while Karen was the oldest, at 43. The viewers were introduced to Beth, a potential eleventh HouseGuest, though she ultimately did not enter. Big Brother 1 is the only season to feature ten HouseGuests, with subsequent seasons featuring at least twelve or more.\n\nFuture appearances\n\nGeorge Boswell returned for Big Brother: All-Stars, he finished in 5th. He also returned for Big Brother 10 to host a food competition along with other Big Brother alumnus. George is the only houseguest for Big Brother 1 to appear on a future season on the show.\n\nSummary\n\nOn Day 1, Brittany, Cassandra, Curtis, Eddie, Karen, George, Jamie, Jordan, Josh, and William entered the house.http://www.salon.com/2000/07/19/bb_episodes/ On Day 2, they were given their first task to complete. They were required to solve a word puzzle, which would inform them of the location to find money for groceries. They were successful and earned $100 as a group. On Day 3, HouseGuests were given the task of building a clock out of potatoes in the house. Should they fail this task, they would not know the time in the house; they passed the task. On Day 4, HouseGuests were given the task of making plaster masks of themselves. On Day 5, one of the chickens in the backyard was injured. It was removed from the house and brought back later to be nursed back to health. On Day 7, HouseGuests were given their first weekly task. They were given the names of dozens of celebrities and had to state whether they were dead or alive. They were given days to attempt to recall the correct answers and would be quizzed about it at a later date. They wagered 20% of their weekly budget on this task, which they ultimately failed. William intentionally failed his portion of the challenge, upsetting many HouseGuests. On Day 9, the HouseGuests participated in their first round of nominations. William and Jordan were announced as the nominees this week, with William receiving six nominations and Jordan receiving five. Josh, Jamie, George, and Cassandra all received no nominations this week. HouseGuests were later given their new task, which required them to ride a stationary exercise bike to achieve a total distance of 1,000 miles. They wagered 50% of their weekly budget on this task, which they passed. HouseGuests were later given another task, in which they were required to imitate another HouseGuest in the Red Room. On Day 16, William became the first HouseGuest to be banished from the house when he received 73% of the public vote. \n\nOn Day 20, HouseGuests are given their new weekly challenge, in which they had days to practice making a set of dominoes fall down in a single session. They had to set up 12,100 dominoes to form the series logo and then make them all fall by knocking only one domino over. The group passed this task, which they wagered 20% on. The HouseGuests later held a fake trial dealing with the issue of flag burning, with Karen as the judge, Jordan being on trial, Brittany being a witness, Curtis and Cassandra as lawyers, and the other HouseGuests as members of the jury. On Day 22, HouseGuests participated in the second round of nominations. Curtis and Jordan became the second set of nominated HouseGuests this season, with Curtis receiving six nominations and Jordan receiving five nominations. Josh, Jamie, Cassandra, and Brittany received no nominations this week, making it the second time in a row that Josh, Jamie, and Cassandra had received no nominations from their fellow HouseGuests. HouseGuests were later given their new weekly task, which required them to ride a stationary bike for a total of one thousand miles. They wagered 50% of their shopping budget on the task, which they passed. The HouseGuests were later given another task, which required them to split into three teams and attempt to toss water balloons to their teammates from across the pool. The team of Eddie, Cassandra, and George won, though there was no reward. On Day 28, the HouseGuests held a roast for Curtis and Jordan as they were marked for banishment. On Day 29, Jordan became the second HouseGuest to be banished from the house when she received 78% of the public vote. \n\nHouseGuests were given their new weekly task, which required them to write a poem pertaining to the game. They would then have to jump rope together while the rope holders recited the poem. They had one chance to correctly complete the poem, and failure to do so would result in the group failing the task. They wagered 30% of their shopping budget on the task, which they failed. HouseGuests were later given the task of hosting their own daytime talk show. On Day 36, HouseGuests participated in a live challenge in which they had to vote for one HouseGuest to receive a phone call from home; they voted for George. That night, it was revealed that Cassandra, Josh, and Karen had been marked for banishment due to a tie in the voting process. George was the only HouseGuest to receive no nominations this week. That same night, the HouseGuests were given their new weekly task, which required them to take care of a pug named Chiquita. In the days following her nomination, Karen began to ask the viewers to banish her from the house as she missed her children. HouseGuests were later given their new weekly task, in which they were required to make eight raspberry and eight blueberry pies, and split into teams named after the various pies. The first team to eat all eight of their pies would choose how the weekly allowance was spent. On Day 43, HouseGuests participated in a live challenge in which they were tempted with a reward in exchange for watching the nominations process. They ultimately chose not to watch the nominations, thus were not given a prize. That night, Karen became the third HouseGuest to be banished from the house as she had received 76% of the public vote.\n \nHouseGuests were given their new weekly task, which required them to memorize all of the major highways in the country. They would then be required to state what highways would get them from one city to another. The group wagered 20% of their shopping budget on this task, which they passed. The group was later given a new task in which they were required to paint each other like animals. In another task for the week, HouseGuests competed in a sumo wrestling competition in an attempt to win a luxury massage. Eddie was the winner, with former HouseGuest William secretly giving him a bad massage. For their next weekly task, the HouseGuests were required to have two HouseGuests dancing at all times. When cued, all HouseGuests would be required to dance at the same time. They passed this task, which they wagered 20% of their weekly budget on. On Day 50, the HouseGuests participated in their fourth round of nominations. Due to a tie in the voting, Brittany, Cassandra, Curtis, Eddie, George, and Josh were all marked for banishment. For the first time, all of the HouseGuests received at least one nomination from their fellow HouseGuests. That same night, Jamie won a two-minute conversation with a casting director due to winning a task earlier in the week. HouseGuests were later given a task in which they had to name a \"Mr. and Miss Big Brother 2000\", with Eddie, Brittany, and Cassandra being given the title; they won a dinner with the meal of their choice. On Day 57, Jamie was given a live task in which she was able to co-host the episode with Julie Chen, including announce who had been banished from the house. That night, it was revealed that Brittany had become the fourth HouseGuest to be banished from the house when she received 34% of the public vote. \n\nHouseGuests were given their new weekly task, which required them to build a puzzle that featured 4,928 pieces by the end of the week. The group wagered 50% of their weekly shopping budget on this task, which they failed. The HouseGuests were later given the task of discussing whether or not they would be willing to split the total prize money. On Day 64, it was revealed that Cassandra, Curtis, and Eddie had been marked for banishment. Much like the previous round of nominations, all of the HouseGuests received at least one nomination from their fellow HouseGuests. Following this, the six remaining HouseGuests were offered $20,000 to walk from the game, with this offer later rising to $50,000. Should one of the HouseGuests accept the offer, a new HouseGuest named Beth was set to enter the house and the nominations would be voided. Ultimately, none of the HouseGuests took the offer, thus Beth did not enter the game. That same night, Brittany was able to talk to Josh as part of a task. HouseGuests were later given a new task in which they had to estimate the price of a luxury item requested by another HouseGuest. If they came within one dollar of the correct price, they would earn that luxury. For their new weekly task, the HouseGuests had to train Chiquita to go through an obstacle course. The group passed this task, which they wagered 20% of their weekly budget on. During a luxury competition, Curtis won the reward of going to the 52nd Primetime Emmy Awards. On Day 71, HouseGuests were given the live task of writing a message to be flown on a banner plane above the house. That same night, Cassandra became the fifth HouseGuest to be banished from the house as she had received 46% of the public vote. \n\nHouseGuests were given their new weekly task, which required at least one HouseGuest to be juggling at all times. They were not permitted to drop more than two balls, or they would fail the task. The group wagered 50% on the task, which they ultimately failed. On Day 74, the HouseGuests were given another live task in which they had five minutes to make a phone call to a loved one. The timer did not stop while the HouseGuests were dialing. That same night, the group made their nominations live for the first time. It was revealed that Curtis, Eddie, George, and Jamie were marked for banishment. Josh received no nominations this week, and was the only HouseGuest not to be marked for banishment. HouseGuests were later given a new task in which they had to write lyrics for the show's theme song, and were later required to record their song in the Red Room. In another task for the week, the HouseGuests attempted to find Chiquita in the house, with the winner being able to present the weather from inside the house; Josh was the winner. On Day 78, the five remaining HouseGuests were asked to select one of the previously banished HouseGuests to return to the house in a matter of days; they chose Cassandra. That night, George became the sixth HouseGuest to be banished from the house as he had received 51% of the public vote. \n\nHouseGuests were given their new weekly task, in which they were required to determine whether or not specific news articles had actually appeared in the news or not. The group wagered 50% of their weekly shopping budget on the task, which they passed. The group was later given another task in which they played the Big Brother board game. On Day 81, the HouseGuests participated in their second round of live nominations. Due to a tie in the voting, all four of the remaining HouseGuests were marked for banishment. This was the final round of nominations for the season. Former HouseGuest Cassandra entered the house as a guest that same night, as the HouseGuests had selected her to return days prior. Due to a new task, Josh was selected to become a saboteur in the house, and performed tasks such as setting time back on the potato clock. If one of the other three HouseGuests correctly guessed that Josh was the saboteur, they would win a new flat screen television; Curtis won this prize. On Day 85, Jamie became the seventh HouseGuest to be banished from the house as she had received 31% of the public vote. Chiquita also exited the house that night, and was adopted by a couple upon her exit. On Day 88, it was revealed that Curtis had come in third place, receiving 14% of the public vote to win. Minutes later, it was revealed that Josh had come in second place with 27% of the public vote, meaning Eddie had been crowned the winner with a total of 59% of the public vote. \n\nNominations table\n\nNotes\n\n*: Cassandra and Karen had three nominations each, Josh had five. Due to the tie, three HouseGuests were \"Marked for Banishment\".\n*: There was a five way tie between Brittany, Cassandra, Curtis, Eddie, and Josh each receiving two nomination vote each. George received three nomination votes. Due to the five way tie, six HouseGuests were \"Marked for Banishment.\"\n*: The percentage results were not revealed during the live show.\n*: There was a three way tie between Cassandra, Eddie, and Curtis. As a result, they were \"Marked for Banishment.\"\n*: Curtis, Eddie, and Jamie received two nomination votes each. As a result, they were \"Marked for Banishment\" along with George.\n*: On Day 81, Cassandra visited the remaining HouseGuests for a discussion. There was a tie between all four HouseGuests so all were \"Marked for Banishment.\" \n*: The viewers voted for who to win, not to banish.\n\nReception\n\nRatings\n\nBig Brother 1 premiered on July 5, 2000 in the US, with the season premiere having over 22 million viewers. Despite the high premiere, ratings for the series quickly began to decline, and the series quickly dropped out of the Top 10 slot in terms of viewers. Ratings began to decline even more following the banishments of Will \"Mega\" and Jordan, who were both seen as colorful characters in the game. Big Brother 1 was noted as having its highest ratings on Wednesdays, when it aired after the hugely successful Survivor: Borneo. The Saturday, July 8 episode was beaten out by an episode of the reality series Cops. This episode saw ratings lower from the previous episode. Ratings continued to drop, with at one point the series had fallen behind re-runs of shows such as Friends. The Monday, September 4 episode only achieved 5.5. Cassandra's banishment episode did see an increase in ratings, however, receiving 12.5 million viewers. The finale garnered 11.13 million viewers, beating out the Olympics. Despite the decline in ratings, the series' official website did receive a large amount of traffic, due to the live feed being available there. It was also noted that as the ratings decreased, traffic onto the main site increased. The online aspect of the series \"changed both the dynamic in the house and the TV show’s content\" according to the LA Daily News. It was also reported that the official website for the series was one of the most popular new websites for the month of July. \n\nPublic reaction\n\nBig Brother 1 has typically been cited as \"boring\" by critics and fans of the series. John Carman of The San Francisco Chronicle stated \"Wondering 'Will Karen run out of Kleenex?' is about the most interesting thing about Big Brother.\" Comedian Kathy Griffin (who has since become a fan of the series, making guest appearances in Big Brother 16 and Big Brother 17) mocked the series, stating \"Do you guys [watch] those ‘tards on Big Brother?\" Joyce Millman of Salon.com felt that ratings for the series dropped due to the \"boring\" cast. The New York Times later reported that CBS was disappointed with the series. Les Moonves, CBS chief, stated that the \"casting sucked\" for the series, leading to its disappointing run.http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2001/01/big-brother-1-the_casting_sucked/ He later stated \"there were more provocative storylines that could have been followed that were dropped.\" John de Mol, the creator of the series and owner of Endemol, blamed not only the casting but the changes made to the show and format to suit American audiences. Executive producer Paul Romer felt that the group of HouseGuests were \"too aware of the cameras\" and were concerned with \"how they'd look on TV.\" Former co-host Ian O'Malley claimed he predicted the series would be panned, stating \"I knew the critics were probably going to go bananas because of the voyeuristic aspect.\"\n\nUpon its announcement, the series has come under fire for both controversy and criticism. After the premiere of the first season, Chicago attorney Marvin Rosenblum filed a lawsuit against CBS, then corporate parent Viacom, and the production company Orwell Productions for alleged copyright infringement. Rosenblum, a producer of the film 1984, owns the film and TV rights to the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and claimed the show \"illegally borrows from it.\" Rosenblum accused the network of illegally using the Big Brother moniker from the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and \"deceiving the public into thinking the author's classic novel was the origin of the show.\" CBS, Viacom, and Orwell Productions filed a motion to dismiss the $20 million lawsuit. The dismissal was denied on January 4, 2001. In 2001 Rosenblum, CBS and Viacom settled the lawsuit under undisclosed terms. The decision to select Chen as the host of the series caused much debate, mainly due to her role on the talk show The Early Show. Andy Rooney of 60 Minutes said Chen's participation in the series was \"a further deterioration of news standards\", and further controversy arose when it was revealed some of Chen's lines had been scripted. \n\nNumerous events occurred during the game that sparked controversy as well. The show's security was breached early in the series when two publicity-seeking screenwriters threw a tennis ball stuffed with fake news stories - including one in which then President of the United States, Bill Clinton, purportedly called Big Brother a \"national disgrace\" - into the house's garden after finding it was unguarded. The HouseGuests were also communicated with by a plane towing a banner reading: \"Big Brother is worse than you think. Get out now.\" The show also came under criticism after HouseGuest George Boswell's wife and family began campaigning for viewers to vote out some of the more popular HouseGuests to keep George in the game. Recently evicted HouseGuest Brittany, who was permitted to talk to Josh for a certain amount of time, informed Josh of this news. Various \"anti-George\" banners were flown over the house, leading Josh to inform them of the news. Various other points in the game led to the HouseGuests feeling they were being portrayed poorly, and they would often be required to do acts they didn't necessarily feel like doing. George then decided he would walk from the game, and attempted to convince the other HouseGuests to walk with him as well during a live episode. Ultimately, none of the HouseGuests chose to leave the game. There was speculation that CBS had hired for the banners to be flown over the house, though this was never confirmed. \n\nRenewal\n\nDespite the lack of strong ratings and numerous controversies surrounding the series, Big Brother did help earn CBS a 17% increase for its time slot, and was ultimately renewed in September 2000 for a second season. It was then confirmed, however, that there would be numerous changes to the format of the series." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Rock_and_Roll_Hall_of_Fame.txt" ], "title": [ "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a hall of fame and museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was established on April 20, 1983, by Atlantic Records founder and chairman Ahmet Ertegun to recognize and archive the history of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers, and other notable figures, who have each had some major influence on the development of rock and roll. In 1986, Cleveland was chosen as the hall of fame's permanent home. Since opening in September 1995, the \"Rock Hall\" – part of the city's redeveloped North Coast Harbor – has hosted more than 10 million visitors and had a cumulative economic impact estimated at more than $1.8 billion. \n\nFoundation and museum\n\nFounder Ahmet Ertegun assembled a team that included attorney Suzan Evans, Rolling Stone magazine editor and publisher Jann S. Wenner, attorney Allen Grubman, and record executives Seymour Stein, Bob Krasnow, and Noreen Woods. The Foundation began inducting artists in 1986, but the Hall of Fame still had no home. The search committee considered several cities, including Philadelphia (home of Bill Haley and American Bandstand), Memphis (home of Sun Studios and Stax Records), Detroit (home of Motown Records), Cincinnati (home of King Records), New York City, and Cleveland.\n\nCleveland lobbied for the museum, citing that WJW disc jockey Alan Freed both coined the term \"rock and roll\" and heavily promoted the new genre—and that Cleveland was the location of Freed's Moondog Coronation Ball, the first major rock and roll concert. In addition, Cleveland cited radio station WMMS, which played a key role in breaking several major acts in the U.S. during the 1970s and 80s, including artist David Bowie, who began his first U.S. tour in the city, Bruce Springsteen, Roxy Music, and Rush among many others. Cleveland was also one of the premier tour stops for most rock bands.\n\nCivic leaders in Cleveland pledged $65 million in public money to fund the construction. A petition drive was signed by 600,000 fans favoring Cleveland over Memphis, and Cleveland ranked first in a 1986 USA Today poll asking where the Hall of Fame should be located. On May 5, 1986, the Hall of Fame Foundation chose Cleveland as the permanent home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Sam Phillips of Sun Studios fame and many others were stunned and disappointed that it ended up in Cleveland. \"The hall of fame should've been in Memphis, certainly,\" wrote Peter Guralnick, author of acclaimed two-volume Elvis Presley biography. \n\nCleveland may also have been chosen as the organization's site because the city offered the best financial package. As The Plain Dealer music critic Michael Norman noted, \"It was $65 million... Cleveland wanted it here and put up the money.\" Co-founder Jann Wenner later said, \"One of the small sad things is we didn't do it in New York in the first place,\" but then added, \"I am absolutely delighted that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is in Cleveland.\"\n\nDuring early discussions on where to build the Hall of Fame and Museum, the Foundation's board considered the Cuyahoga River. Ultimately, the chosen location was in downtown Cleveland by Lake Erie, just east of Cleveland Browns Stadium and the Great Lakes Science Center.\n\nAt one point in the planning phase when a financing gap existed, planners proposed locating the Rock Hall in the then-vacant May Company Building, but finally decided to commission architect I. M. Pei to design a new building. Initial CEO Dr. Larry R. Thompson facilitated I. M. Pei in designs for the site. Pei came up with the idea of a tower with a glass pyramid protruding from it. The museum tower was initially planned to stand 200 ft (61 m) high, but had to be cut down to 162 ft (49 m) due to its proximity to Burke Lakefront Airport. The building's base is approximately 150,000 square feet (14,000 m2). The groundbreaking ceremony took place on June 7, 1993. Pete Townshend, Chuck Berry, Billy Joel, Sam Phillips, Ruth Brown, Sam Moore of Sam and Dave, Carl Gardner of the Coasters and Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum all appeared at the groundbreaking.\n\nThe museum dedicated on September 1, 1995, with the ribbon being cut by an ensemble that included Yoko Ono and Little Richard, among others, before a crowd of more than 10,000 people. The following night an all-star concert was held at the stadium. It featured Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Al Green, Jerry Lee Lewis, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, Iggy Pop, John Fogerty, John Mellencamp, and many others.\n\nIn addition to the Hall of Fame inductees, the museum documents the entire history of rock and roll, regardless of induction status. Hall of Fame inductees are honored in a special exhibit located in a wing that juts out over Lake Erie. \n\nEconomic impact\n\nSince 1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has selected new inductees. The formal induction ceremony has been held in New York City 25 times (1986–92, 1994–96, 1998–2008, 2010–11, 2014, and 2016); twice in Los Angeles (1993 and 2013); and four times in the Hall of Fame's home in Cleveland (1997, 2009, 2012, and 2015). Beginning in 2018, the induction ceremonies will alternate each year between Cleveland and New York. \n \nThe 2009 and 2012 induction weeks were made possible by a public–private partnership between the City of Cleveland, the State of Ohio, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and local foundations, corporations, civic organizations and individuals. Collectively these entities invested $5.8 million in 2009 and $7.9 million in 2012 to produce a week of events, including free concerts, a gospel celebration, exhibition openings, free admission to the museum, and induction ceremonies filled with both fans and VIPs at Public Hall. \n \nMillions viewed the television broadcast of the Cleveland inductions; tens of thousands traveled to Ohio during induction week to participate in Induction-related events. The economic impact of the 2009 induction week activities was more than $13 million, and it provided an additional $20 million in media exposure for the region. The 2012 induction week yielded similar results. \n\nLayout\n\nThere are seven levels in the building. On the lower level is the Ahmet M. Ertegun Exhibition Hall, the museum's main gallery. It includes exhibits on the roots of rock and roll (gospel, blues, rhythm & blues and folk, country and bluegrass). It also features exhibits on cities that have had a major impact on rock and roll: Memphis, Detroit, London and Liverpool, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Seattle. There are exhibits about soul music, the Fifties, Sun Records, Atlantic Records, Cleveland's rock and roll legacy, the music of the Midwest, rock and roll radio and dee-jays, and the many protests against rock and roll. This gallery also has exhibits that focus on individual artists, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and others. Finally, the Ahmet M. Ertegun Exhibition Hall includes two theaters, one of which features a film about the roots of rock and roll and one that features films on various subjects. \n\nThe first floor of the museum is the entrance level. It includes a stage that the museum uses for various special performances and events throughout the year, and a section called Right Here, Right Now, which focuses on contemporary artists. The second floor includes several interactive kiosks that feature programs on one-hit wonders and the Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. This level also includes a gallery with artifact-filled exhibits about Les Paul, Alan Freed, Sam Phillips and the evolution of audio technology. \n\nVisitors enter the Hall of Fame section of the museum on the third floor. This section includes a wall with all of the inductees' signatures, a theater that features filmed musical highlights from all of the Hall's inductees and an exhibit featuring artifacts from the latest class of inductees. Visitors exit the Hall of Fame section on the fourth floor. That level features the Foster Theater, a state-of-the-art 3-D theater that is used for special events and programs. \n\nFinally, the top two levels of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame feature large, temporary exhibits. Over the years, numerous exhibits have been installed on these two levels, including exhibits about Elvis Presley, hip-hop, the Supremes, the Who, U2, John Lennon, the Clash, Bruce Springsteen, Women Who Rock, and the Rolling Stones.\n\nArchitecture\n\nDesigned by I. M. Pei, and structurally engineered by Leslie E. Robertson Associates, the building rises above the shores of Lake Erie. It is a combination of bold geometric forms and dynamic cantilevered spaces that are anchored by a 162-foot tower. The tower supports a dual-triangular-shaped glass \"tent\" that extends (at its base) onto a 65,000-square-foot plaza that provides a main entry facade.\n\nThe building houses more than 55,000 square feet of exhibition space, as well as administrative offices, a store, and a café.\n\n\"In designing this building,\" Pei said, \"it was my intention to echo the energy of rock and roll. I have consciously used an architectural vocabulary that is bold and new, and I hope the building will become a dramatic landmark for the city of Cleveland and for fans of rock and roll around the world.\" \n\nExhibit history\n\nSince 1997, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has featured numerous temporary exhibits that range in size from major exhibits that fill the top two floors of the Museum to smaller exhibits that are often installed in the main exhibition hall on the lower level.\n\nThe museum's first major exhibit opened on May 10, 1997. It was called I Want to Take You Higher: The Psychedelic Era, 1965 – 1969. It included artifacts from numerous artists, including John Lennon, Eric Clapton, John Sebastian, the Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin, as well as artifacts related to the Monterey International Pop Festival and Woodstock.\n\nThat exhibit was followed by Elvis is in the Building, an exhibit about the \"King of Rock and Roll\", which ran from August 8, 1998, to September 5, 1999. This year-long tribute was the first ever special exhibit devoted to a single artist, Elvis Presley, the first inductee into the RRHOF in 1986. Graceland supplied a significant selection of representative artifacts for this special tribute spanning Elvis' life and legendary career. (see Larry G. Keeter, \"Elvis Is In the Building,\" \"Elvis International Forum,\" Summer 2000, pp. 28–29) Next, the museum curated Roots, Rhymes and Rage: The Hip-Hop Story. That was the first major museum exhibit to focus on hip-hop. It ran from November 11, 1999, to August 6, 2000. It was followed by Rock Style, an exhibit that focused on rock and roll and fashion. It featured clothing from Buddy Holly to Alice Cooper, from Ray Charles to David Bowie and from Smokey Robinson to Sly Stone. After it closed in Cleveland, Rock Style traveled to other museums in the U.S.\n\nOther temporary exhibits have included Lennon: His Life and Work, which ran from October 20, 2000, to January 1, 2003. It was followed by In the Name of Love: Two Decades of U2 and then Reflections: The Mary Wilson Supreme Legacy Collection.\n\nOther large temporary exhibits have focused on the Clash (Revolution Rock: The Story of the Clash), the Doors (Break on Through: The Lasting Legacy of the Doors), the Who's Tommy (Tommy: The Amazing Journey), and Bruce Springsteen (From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen). Another thematic temporary exhibit focused on the role of women in rock and roll (Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power). Both the Springsteen exhibit and the Women Who Rock exhibits traveled to other museums after closing in Cleveland. The museum's current major temporary exhibit is about the Rolling Stones.\n\nThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame also curates many smaller temporary exhibits. Over the years, these exhibits have focused on such topics as the Vans Warped Tour, the Concert for Bangladesh, Woodstock's 40th anniversary, Austin City Limits, the Monterey International Pop Festival, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Marty Stuart.\n\nThe Museum also devotes exhibits to photography and artwork related to rock and roll. Among the photographers whose work has been featured at the Hall of Fame are George Kalinsky, Alfred Wertheimer, Tommy Edwards, Kevin Mazur, Janet Macoska, Lynn Goldsmith, Mike McCartney, Robert Alford, and George Shuba. The museum also featured the artwork of Philip Burke in one of its temporary exhibits. \n\nPublic programs\n\nThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum produces numerous public programs, including concerts, interviews, lectures, film screenings, and other events that help tell the story of rock and roll.\nEvery February, the Museum celebrates Black History Month by hosting concerts, film screenings and lectures that illustrate the important role African-Americans have played in the history of rock and roll. Since the program began in 1996, such artists as Robert Lockwood, Jr., the Temptations, Charles Brown, Ruth Brown, the Ohio Players, Lloyd Price, Little Anthony and the Imperials, and Al Green have appeared at the Museum during Black History Month.\n\nAnother program is the Hall of Fame Series. This series began in April 1996 and features interviews with Hall of Fame inductees in a rare and intimate settings, most often in the Museum's Foster Theater. The interviews are usually followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience and, often, a performance by the inductee. Among the inductees who have taken part in this series are Darryl \"DMC\" McDaniels of Run-D.M.C., Lloyd Price, Marky Ramone, Seymour Stein, Ray Manzarek of the Doors, Ronnie Spector, Bootsy Collins, Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, and Jorma Kaukonen of the Jefferson Airplane.\n\nA similar program is the Legends Series. The only real difference between this program and the Hall of Fame Series is that it features artists who have not yet been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Peter Hook of Joy Division, Spinderella of Salt n Pepa, Tommy James, and the Chi-Lites are among the artists who have participated in the Legends Series.\n\nThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's most acclaimed program is the annual American Music Masters series. Each year the Museum celebrates one of the Hall's inductees with a week-long series of programs that include interviews, film screenings, and, often, a special exhibit. The celebration ends with an all-star concert held at a Cleveland theater. The concerts include a diverse mix of artists, from Hall of Fame inductees to contemporary musicians.\n\nThe American Music Masters series began in 1996 with Hard Travelin': The Life and Legacy of Pete Seeger. Since then, the programs have honored the following inductees: Jimmie Rodgers (1997), Robert Johnson (1998), Louis Jordan (1999), Muddy Waters (2000), Bessie Smith (2001), Hank Williams (2002), Buddy Holly (2003), Lead Belly (2004), Sam Cooke (2005), Roy Orbison (2006), Jerry Lee Lewis (2007), Les Paul (2008), Janis Joplin (2009), Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew (2010), Aretha Franklin (2011), and Chuck Berry (2012). \n\nThe Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll\n\nHall of Fame museum curator James Henke, along with \"the museum's curatorial staff and numerous rock critics and music experts\", created an unordered list of \"500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll\". The list is part of a permanent exhibit at the museum, and was envisioned as part of the museum from its opening in 1995. It contains songs recorded from the 1920s through the 1990s. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones are the most represented on the list, with eight songs each. Elvis Presley has seven songs, while the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder and Chuck Berry each have five. The oldest song on the list is \"Wabash Cannonball\", written circa 1882 and credited to J. A. Roff. Since then, however, an additional 155 songs have been added, and the list is now simply referred to as \"The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.\" The most recent songs on the list are Gnarls Barkley's \"Crazy\" and My Chemical Romance's \"Welcome to the Black Parade,\" both released in 2006.\n\n25th anniversary concert\n\nThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame celebrated its 25th anniversary with a concert series over two days on October 29 and 30, 2009 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The celebration included performances by Jerry Lee Lewis, U2, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Simon & Garfunkel, Dion DiMucci, Metallica, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Fergie, Mick Jagger, Lou Reed, Ray Davies, Ozzy Osbourne, Paul Simon, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Sting, Little Anthony & the Imperials, and Crosby, Stills and Nash. The first night ran almost six hours with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band closing the concert with special guests John Fogerty, Darlene Love, Tom Morello, Sam Moore, Jackson Browne, Peter Wolf, and Billy Joel. \n\nInductees\n\nArtists are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at an annual induction ceremony. Over the years, the majority of the ceremonies have been held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. However, on January 12, 1993, the ceremony was held in Los Angeles, and was held there again in 2013. On May 6, 1997, about a year and a half after the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, the ceremony was held in Cleveland. It returned to Cleveland in 2009 and again in 2012. Current plans call for the ceremony to be in Cleveland every three years. \nGenerally, the number of inductees ranges from about a half-dozen to a dozen. Virtually all living inductees have attended the ceremonies, and they are presented with their Hall of Fame award by an artist who was influenced by that inductee's music. Both the presenter and the inductee speak at the ceremonies, which also include numerous musical performances, by both the inductees and the presenters.\nThe first group of inductees, inducted on January 23, 1986, included Elvis Presley, James Brown, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Robert Johnson, Jimmie Rodgers, and Jimmy Yancey were inducted as Early Influences, John Hammond received the Lifetime Achievement Award and Alan Freed and Sam Phillips were inducted as Non-Performers.\n\nPerformers\n\nA nominating committee composed of rock and roll historians selects names for the \"Performers\" category (singers, vocal groups, bands, and instrumentalists of all kinds), which are then voted on by roughly five hundred experts across the world. Those selected to vote include academics, journalists, producers, and others with music industry experience. Artists become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. Criteria include the influence and significance of the artists' contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll. To be selected for induction, performers must receive the highest number of votes, and also greater than 50% of the votes. Around five to seven performers are inducted each year. \n\nIn 2012, six additional groups, the Miracles, the Famous Flames, the Comets, the Blue Caps, the Midnighters, and the Crickets, were inducted as performers by a special committee due to the controversial exclusions when their lead singer was inducted. \"There was a lot of discussion about this,\" said Terry Stewart, a member of the nominating committee. \"There had always been conversations about why the groups weren't included when the lead singers were inducted. Very honestly, nobody could really answer that question – it was so long ago... We decided we'd sit down as an organization and look at that. This is the result.\" \n\nEarly Influences\n\nEarly Influences includes artists from earlier eras, primarily country, folk, and blues, whose music inspired and influenced rock and roll artists. Other notable artists that have been inducted as Early Influences include Bill Kenny & The Ink Spots, country musicians Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams, blues musicians Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, and jazz musicians Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong. After Nat King Cole and Billie Holiday in 2000, no one was inducted in this category until 2009, when rockabilly singer Wanda Jackson was selected. Unlike earlier inductees in this category, Jackson's career almost entirely took place after the traditional 1955 start of the \"rock era\".\n\nAhmet Ertegun Award for Lifetime Achievement\n\nFormerly the \"Non-Performers\" award, this category encompasses those who primarily work behind the scenes in the music industry, including record label executives, songwriters, record producers, disc jockeys, concert promoters and music journalists. This category has had at least one inductee every year except 2007 and 2009. Following the death of the Hall of Fame's co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, this award was renamed in his honor in 2008. \n\nAward for Musical Excellence\n\nFormerly the \"Sidemen\" award, this category was introduced in 2000 and honors veteran session and concert players who are selected by a committee composed primarily of producers. The category was dormant from 2004 through 2007 and re-activated in 2008. This honor was renamed the \"Award for Musical Excellence\" in 2010. According to Joel Peresman, the president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, \"This award gives us flexibility to dive into some things and recognize some people who might not ordinarily get recognized.\" \n\nLibrary and archives\n\nThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's Library and Archives is the world's most comprehensive repository of materials related to the history of rock and roll. The Library and Archives is located in a new building on the Metro Campus of Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland's Campus District.\n\nThe Library and Archives' mission is to collect, preserve and provide access to these materials. The Library and Archives operates on two levels: people may come into the library and read the books and magazines, listen to music and other recordings, and watch videos and films. More serious scholars, historians and journalists may also make an appointment for access to the archival collections under the supervision of the staff archivists.\n\nThe library is composed of books, academic dissertations, and other references. It also includes popular magazines, scholarly journals and trade publications; commercial audio and video recordings, and research databases.\n\nThe archival collections include music-business records from record executives, artist managers, labels, historic venues, recording studios, specialists in stage design and lighting, and long-running concert tours. The collections also contain important individual items, such as personal letters penned by Aretha Franklin and Madonna, handwritten working lyrics by Jimi Hendrix and LL Cool J, papers from music journalists such as Sue Cassidy Clark, and rare concert recordings from CBGB in the 1970s. \n\nCriticism\n\nThe most frequent criticism of the Hall of Fame is that the nomination process is controlled by a few individuals who are not themselves musicians, such as founder Jann Wenner (co-founder and editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone magazine), former foundation director Suzan Evans, and writer Dave Marsh, reflecting their personal tastes rather than the views of the rock world as a whole. A former member of the nominations board once commented that \"At one point Suzan Evans lamented the choices being made because there weren't enough big names that would sell tickets to the dinner. That was quickly remedied by dropping one of the doo-wop groups being considered in favor of a 'name' artist ... I saw how certain pioneering artists of the '50s and early '60s were shunned because there needed to be more name power on the list, resulting in '70s superstars getting in before the people who made it possible for them. Some of those pioneers still aren't in today.\" Sister Rosetta Tharpe is considered \"The Godmother/Grandmother of Rock & Roll\" by most music observers, but has yet to be inducted, as the influential soul/funk group Tower of Power has not yet been honored. Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker has dismissed the Hall of Fame as the \"Hall of Lame\". \n\nThere is also controversy in the lack of transparency in the selection process. Janet Morrissey of The New York Times wrote:\n\"With fame and money at stake, it's no surprise that a lot of backstage lobbying goes on. Why any particular act is chosen in any particular year is a mystery to performers as well as outsiders – and committee members say they want to keep it that way.\" \n\nJon Landau, the chairman of the nominating committee, says they prefer it that way. \"We've done a good job of keeping the proceedings nontransparent. It all dies in the room.\"\n\nAccording to Fox News, petitions with tens of thousands of signatures were also being ignored, and some groups that were signed with certain labels or companies or were affiliated with various committee members have even been put up for nomination with no discussion at all. The committee has also been accused of largely ignoring certain genres. According to author Brett Milano, \"entire genres get passed over, particularly progressive rock, '60s Top 40, New Orleans funk and a whole lot of black music.\" \n\nAnother criticism is that too many artists are inducted. In fifteen years, 97 different artists were inducted. A minimum of 50% of the vote is needed to be inducted; although, the final percentages are not announced and a certain number of inductees (five in 2011) is set before the ballots are shipped. The committee usually nominates a small number of artists (12 in 2010) from an increasing number of different genres. Several voters, including Joel Selvin, himself a former member of the nominating committee, did not submit their ballots in 2007 because they did not feel that any of the candidates were truly worthy. \n\nMembers of the British punk rock band Sex Pistols, inducted in 2006, refused to attend the ceremony, calling the museum \"a piss stain\" and \"urine in wine\". \n\nIn BBC Radio 6 Music's Annual John Peel Lecture in 2013, the singer Charlotte Church accused the museum of gender bias, stating, \"Out of 295 acts and artists in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, 259 are entirely male, meaning that Tina Weymouth's part in Talking Heads makes them one of the 36 female acts.\" In fact, the actual percentage of woman inductees is a scant 8.5%. Combining all the categories, there have been 719 inductees, out of which only 61 have been women, none of which has been inducted more than once or awarded the Lifetime Achievement. \n\n2007 vote controversy\n\nOn March 14, 2007, two days after that year's induction ceremony, Roger Friedman of Fox News published an article claiming that the Dave Clark Five should have been the fifth inductee, as they had more votes than inductee Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. The article went on to say \"Jann Wenner used a technicality about the day votes were due in. In reality, The Dave Clark Five got six more votes than Grandmaster Flash. But he felt we couldn't go another year without a rap act.\" \n\nThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation would later deny fixing the vote, although they did not deny that late votes were received, saying, \"No. There is a format and rules and procedure. There is a specific time when the votes have to be in, and then they are counted. The bands with the top five votes got in.\" The Dave Clark Five was subsequently nominated again and then inducted the following year. \n\nThe Monkees controversy\n\nIn June 2007, Monkee Peter Tork complained to the New York Post that Wenner had blackballed the Monkees, commenting:\n\nIn a Facebook post, fellow Monkee Michael Nesmith stated that he does not know if the Monkees belong in the Hall of Fame because he can only see the impact of the Monkees from the inside, and further stated: \"I can see the HOF (Hall of Fame) is a private enterprise. It seems to operate as a business, and the inductees are there by some action of the owners of the Enterprise. The inductees appear to be chosen at the owner's pleasure. This seems proper to me. It is their business in any case. It does not seem to me that the HOF carries a public mandate, nor should it be compelled to conform to one.\" \n\nVarious magazines and news outlets, such as Time, NPR radio, The Christian Science Monitor, Goldmine magazine, Yahoo Music and MSNBC have argued that the Monkees belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Spice.txt" ], "title": [ "Spice" ], "wiki_context": [ "A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, berry, bud or other vegetable substance primarily used for flavoring, coloring or preserving food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are parts of leafy green plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Many spices have antimicrobial properties. This may explain why spices are more commonly used in warmer climates, which have more infectious diseases, and why the use of spices is proeminent in meat, which is particularly susceptible to spoiling. Spices are sometimes used in medicine, religious rituals, cosmetics or perfume production, or as a vegetable.\n\nHistory\n\nEarly history\n\nThe spice trade developed throughout South Asia and Middle East by at least 2000 BCE with cinnamon and black pepper, and in East Asia with herbs and pepper. The Egyptians used herbs for mummification and their demand for exotic spices and herbs helped stimulate world trade. The word spice comes from the Old French word espice, which became epice, and which came from the Latin root spec, the noun referring to \"appearance, sort, kind\": species has the same root. By 1000 BCE, medical systems based upon herbs could be found in China, Korea, and India. Early uses were connected with magic, medicine, religion, tradition, and preservation.A Busy Cook's Guide to Spices by Linda Murdock (p.14)\n\nArchaeological excavations have uncovered clove burnt onto the floor of a kitchen, dated to 1700 BCE, at the Mesopotamian site of Terqa, in modern-day Syria. The ancient Indian epic Ramayana mentions cloves. The Romans had cloves in the 1st century CE, as Pliny the Elder wrote about them.\n\nIn the story of Genesis, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants. In the biblical poem Song of Solomon, the male speaker compares his beloved to many forms of spices. Generally, early Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, and Mesopotamian sources do not refer to known spices.\n\nHistorians believe that nutmeg, which originates from the Banda Islands in Southeast Asia, was introduced to Europe in the 6th century BCE. \n\nIndonesian merchants traveled around China, India, the Middle East, and the east coast of Africa. Arab merchants facilitated the routes through the Middle East and India. This resulted in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria being the main trading center for spices. The most important discovery prior to the European spice trade were the monsoon winds (40 CE). Sailing from Eastern spice cultivators to Western European consumers gradually replaced the land-locked spice routes once facilitated by the Middle East Arab caravans.\n\nMiddle Ages\n\nSpices were among the most demanded and expensive products available in Europe in the Middle Ages, the most common being black pepper, cinnamon (and the cheaper alternative cassia), cumin, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. Given medieval medicine's main theory of humorism, spices and herbs were indispensable to balance \"humors\" in food, a daily basis for good health at a time of recurrent pandemics.\n\nSpices were all imported from plantations in Asia and Africa, which made them expensive. From the 8th until the 15th century, the Republic of Venice had the monopoly on spice trade with the Middle East, and along with it the neighboring Italian city-states. The trade made the region rich. It has been estimated that around 1,000 tons of pepper and 1,000 tons of the other common spices were imported into Western Europe each year during the Late Middle Ages. The value of these goods was the equivalent of a yearly supply of grain for 1.5 million people. The most exclusive was saffron, used as much for its vivid yellow-red color as for its flavor. Spices that have now fallen into obscurity in European cuisine include grains of paradise, a relative of cardamom which mostly replaced pepper in late medieval north French cooking, long pepper, mace, spikenard, galangal and cubeb.\n\nEarly Modern Period\n\nThe control of trade routes and the spice-producing regions were the main reasons that Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama sailed to India in 1499. Spain and Portugal were not happy to pay the high price that Venice demanded for spices. At around the same time, Christopher Columbus returned from the New World, he described to investors new spices available there.\n\nAnother source of competition in the spice trade during the 15th and 16th century was the Ragusans from the maritime republic of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia. \n\nThe military prowess of Afonso de Albuquerque (1453–1515) allowed the Portuguese to take control of the sea routes to India. In 1506, he took the island of Socotra in the mouth of the Red Sea and, in 1507, Ormuz in the Persian Gulf. Since becoming the viceroy of the Indies, he took Goa in India in 1510, and Malacca on the Malay peninsula in 1511. The Portuguese could now trade directly with Siam, China, and the Maluku Islands. The Silk Road complemented the Portuguese sea routes, and brought the treasures of the Orient to Europe via Lisbon, including many spices.\n\nWith the discovery of the New World came new spices, including allspice, chili peppers, vanilla, and chocolate. This development kept the spice trade, with America as a late comer with its new seasonings, profitable well into the 19th century.\n\nAs times have changed and convenience has become a major factor for consumers, the spice trade has shifted into finding cheaper alternatives to satisfy demand. One of these ways is diluting spices to make inferior quality powdered spices, by including roots, skins and other admixture in production of spice powder. \n\nClassification and types\n\nCulinary herbs and spices\n\nBotanical basis\n\n* Dried fruits or seeds, such as fennel, mustard, nutmeg, and black pepper\n* Arils, such as mace (part of Nutmeg plant)\n* Barks, such as cinnamon and cassia\n* Dried flower buds, such as cloves\n* Stigmas, such as saffron\n* Roots and rhizomes, such as turmeric, ginger and galingale\n* Resins, such as asafoetida\n\nCommon spice mixtures\n\n* Advieh (Iran)\n* Baharat (Arab world, and the Middle East in general)\n* Berbere (Ethiopia and Eritrea) and Somalia)\n* Bumbu (Indonesia)\n* Chaat masala (India and Pakistan)\n* Chili powder\n* Curry powder\n* Five-spice powder (China)\n* Garam masala (South Asia)\n* Harissa (North Africa)\n* Hawaij (Yemen)\n* Jerk spice (Jamaica)\n* Khmeli suneli (Georgia, former U.S.S.R.)\n* Masala (a generic name for any blend of spices used in South Asia)\n* Mixed spice (United Kingdom)\n* Old Bay Seasoning (United States)\n* Panch phoron (India and Bangladesh)\n* Pumpkin pie spice (United States)\n* Quatre épices (France)\n* Ras el hanout (North Africa)\n* Shichimi togarashi (Japan)\n* Vegeta (Croatia)\n* Za'atar (Middle East)\n* Sharena sol (literally \"colorful salt\", Bulgaria) - contains summer savory, paprika, fenugreek and salt.\n\nHandling spices\n\nA spice may be available in several forms: fresh, whole dried, or pre-ground dried. Generally, spices are dried. A whole dried spice has the longest shelf life, so it can be purchased and stored in larger amounts, making it cheaper on a per-serving basis. Some spices are not always available either fresh or whole, for example turmeric, and often must be purchased in ground form. Small seeds, such as fennel and mustard seeds, are often used both whole and in powder form.\n\nThe flavor of a spice is derived in part from compounds (volatile oils) that oxidize or evaporate when exposed to air. Grinding a spice greatly increases its surface area and so increases the rates of oxidation and evaporation. Thus, flavor is maximized by storing a spice whole and grinding when needed. The shelf life of a whole dry spice is roughly two years; of a ground spice roughly six months. The \"flavor life\" of a ground spice can be much shorter. Ground spices are better stored away from light. \n\nTo grind a whole spice, the classic tool is mortar and pestle. Less labor-intensive tools are more common now: a microplane or fine grater can be used to grind small amounts; a coffee grinder is useful for larger amounts. A frequently used spice such as black pepper may merit storage in its own hand grinder or mill.\n\nSome flavor elements in spices are soluble in water; many are soluble in oil or fat. As a general rule, the flavors from a spice take time to infuse into the food so spices are added early in preparation. \n\nSalmonella contamination\n\nA study by the Food and Drug Administration of shipments of spices to the United States during fiscal years 2007-2009 showed about 7% of the shipments were contaminated by Salmonella bacteria, some of it antibiotic-resistant. As most spices are cooked before being served salmonella contamination often has no effect, but some spices, particularly pepper, are often eaten raw and present at table for convenient use. Shipments from Mexico and India, a major producer, were the most frequently contaminated.\n\nHowever, with new radiation sterilization methods, the risk of Salmonella contamination is now lower.\n\nNutrition\n\nBecause they tend to have strong flavors and are used in small quantities, spices tend to add few calories to food, even though many spices, especially those made from seeds, contain high portions of fat, protein, and carbohydrate by weight. Many spices, however, can contribute significant portions of micronutrients to the diet. For example, a teaspoon of paprika contains about 1133 IU of Vitamin A, which is over 20% of the recommended daily allowance specified by the US FDA. When used in larger quantity, spices can also contribute a substantial amount of minerals, including iron, magnesium, calcium, and many others, to the diet.\n\nMost herbs and spices have substantial antioxidant activity, owing primarily to phenolic compounds, especially flavonoids, which influence nutrition through many pathways, including affecting the absorption of other nutrients. One study found cumin and fresh ginger to be highest in antioxidant activity. These antioxidants can also act as natural preservatives, preventing or slowing the spoilage of food, leading to a higher nutritional content in stored food.\n\nProduction\n\nIndia contributes 75% of global spice production.\n\nStandardization\n\nThe International Organization for Standardization addresses spices and condiments, along with related food additives, as part of the International Classification for Standards 67.220 series. \n\nResearch\n\nThe Indian Institute of Spices Research in Kozhikode, Kerala, is devoted exclusively to researching all aspects of spice crops: black pepper, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, garcinia, vanilla, etc." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Wreck-It_Ralph.txt" ], "title": [ "Wreck-It Ralph" ], "wiki_context": [ "Wreck-It Ralph is a 2012 American 3D computer-animated fantasy-comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 52nd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. The film was directed by Rich Moore, who has directed episodes of The Simpsons and Futurama, and the screenplay was written by Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee from a story by Moore, Johnston and Jim Reardon. John Lasseter served as the executive producer. The film features the voices of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, and Jane Lynch. The film tells the story of the eponymous arcade game villain who rebels against his role and dreams of becoming a hero. He travels between games in the arcade, and ultimately must eliminate a dire threat that could affect the entire arcade, and one that Ralph himself inadvertently started.\n\nWreck-It Ralph premiered at the El Capitan Theatre on October 29, 2012, and went into general release on November 2. The film has earned $471 million in worldwide box office revenue, $189 million of which was earned in the United States and Canada; it was met with critical and commercial success, winning the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature and receiving nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 5, 2013.\n\nA sequel titled Wreck-It Ralph 2 is scheduled for release on March 9, 2018.\n\nPlot\n\nWhen Litwak's Family Fun Center & Arcade closes at night, the various video-game characters leave their normal in-game roles and are free to travel to other games. Within the game Fix-It Felix, Jr., the characters celebrate its titular hero but ostracize the game's villain character, Wreck-It Ralph. At a support group for video-game antagonists, Ralph reveals his desire to stop being the bad guy. Back home, Ralph finds the other characters celebrating their game's 30th anniversary without inviting him. Felix reluctantly invites Ralph to join them, but the others isolate him. They tell him that if he won a medal, just as Felix does in their game, they would respect him.\n\nAt Tapper's, Ralph learns he can win a medal in the first-person shooter Hero's Duty. Ralph enters the game and encounters Sergeant Calhoun, its leader. Between game sessions, Ralph climbs the game's central beacon and collects the medal, accidentally hatching a Cy-Bug, one of the game's enemies. It clings to Ralph as he stumbles into an escape pod that launches him out of the game. Meanwhile, with Ralph missing, a girl reports to arcade-owner Litwak that Fix-It Felix, Jr. is malfunctioning. Since broken games get unplugged, leaving their characters homeless, Felix searches for Ralph.\n\nRalph crash-lands in Sugar Rush, a kart-racing game. As he searches for his medal, he meets Vanellope von Schweetz, a glitchy character who takes the medal and uses it to buy entry into a race. King Candy and the other racers refuse to let Vanellope participate, claiming she is not really part of the game. Ralph helps Vanellope build a kart. At her home in Diet Cola Mountain, an unfinished racing course, he discovers she is a natural racer.\n\nBack in Hero's Duty, Felix meets Calhoun, who warns that the Cy-Bugs can take over any game they enter. As the pair searches for Ralph and the Cy-Bug in Sugar Rush, they separate when Felix, enamored with Calhoun, inadvertently reminds her of her fiancé, who had been killed by a Cy-Bug in her backstory. Calhoun finds hundreds of Cy-Bug eggs underground, and Felix becomes imprisoned in King Candy's castle during his search for Ralph.\n\nDesperate, King Candy hacks the game's code to retrieve Ralph's medal and offers it to Ralph, explaining that letting Vanellope race would be disastrous for both her and the game. Fearing for Vanellope's safety, Ralph wrecks the kart and returns to his own game, but finds that everyone has evacuated, expecting the game to be unplugged in the morning. Discovering Vanellope's image on the Sugar Rush cabinet, Ralph realizes she is an intended part of the game, not a glitch.\n\nRalph returns to Sugar Rush, finds Felix and Vanellope, and asks Felix to fix the wrecked kart. As the race proceeds, the hatched Cy-Bugs attack and Felix, Calhoun, and Ralph battle them. When Vanellope catches up to King Candy, her glitching reveals that he is actually Turbo, a rogue character from an old game, Turbo Time, who sabotaged a newer game out of jealousy, causing both to be unplugged. Vanellope escapes from Turbo, who is consumed by a Cy-Bug. The group flees the doomed game, but Vanellope finds she cannot pass through the exit. Calhoun says the game cannot be saved without a beacon to attract and kill the Cy-Bugs.\n\nRalph heads to Diet Cola Mountain, where he plans on collapsing its Mentos stalactites into the cola at the bottom, causing a blinding eruption that would attract the bugs. Before he can finish, Turbo, merged with the Cy-Bug that had consumed him, attacks and carries Ralph away. Ralph breaks free and dives toward the mountain, intending to sacrifice himself to start the eruption on impact. Vanellope in turn uses her glitching abilities to save Ralph. The eruption starts and draws the Cy-Bugs and Turbo to their destruction. Vanellope crosses the finish line, restoring her memory and status as Princess Vanellope, the game's ruler and lead character, while keeping her advantageous glitching ability. Felix and Ralph return to their game in time for Litwak to see it still works, sparing it from being unplugged. Calhoun and Felix marry, and the characters of Fix-It Felix, Jr. gain a new respect for Ralph.\n\nVoice cast\n\n* John C. Reilly as Wreck-It Ralph, a large hillbilly brute who is the villain of the game Fix-It Felix, Jr.\n* Sarah Silverman as Vanellope von Schweetz, a racer/glitch in Sugar Rush.\n* Jack McBrayer as Fix-It Felix, Jr., a repairman who is the hero of Fix-It Felix, Jr.\n* Jane Lynch as Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun, the lead character of Hero's Duty.\n* Alan Tudyk as King Candy, the ruler of Sugar Rush. He is secretly Turbo, the vengeful star racer of TurboTime. King Candy/Turbo's vocal stylings are based on comedian Ed Wynn, and his physical mannerisms are modeled from Wynn's Mad Hatter character in Alice in Wonderland. \n* Mindy Kaling as Taffyta Muttonfudge, a racer in Sugar Rush. \n* Joe Lo Truglio as Markowski, a soldier from Hero's Duty that Ralph meets in Tapper.\n* Ed O'Neill as Mr. Stan Litwak, owner of Litwak's Family Fun Center & Arcade.\n* Dennis Haysbert as General Hologram, a holographic general in Hero's Duty.\n* Adam Carolla as Wynnchel, a Long John who is a member of the Sugar Rush police department.\n* Horatio Sanz as Duncan, a doughnut who is a member of the Sugar Rush police department.\n* Rich Moore as Sour Bill, King Candy's sour ball henchman. \n\nThe cast also includes the Fix-It Felix, Jr. Nicelanders, Edie McClurg as Mary, Raymond S. Persi as Mayor Gene, Jess Harnell as Don, Rachael Harris as Deanna, and Skylar Astin as Roy; Katie Lowes as Candlehead, Jamie Elman as Rancis Fluggerbutter, Josie Trinidad as Jubileena Bing-Bing, and Cymbre Walk as Crumbelina DiCaramello, racers in Sugar Rush; Phil Johnston as Surge Protector, Game Central Station security; Stefanie Scott as Moppet Girl, a young arcade-game player; John DiMaggio as Beard Papa, the security guard at the Sugar Rush candy-kart factory; Raymond Persi as a Zombie, Brian Kesinger as a Cyborg (based on Kano from Mortal Kombat) and Martin Jarvis as Saitine, a devil-like villain, who attends the Bad-Anon support group; Tucker Gilmore as the Sugar Rush Announcer; Brandon Scott as Kohut, a soldier in Hero's Duty; and Tim Mertens as Dr. Brad Scott, a scientist and Sgt. Calhoun's deceased fiancé in Hero's Duty (voiced by Nick Grimshaw in the UK version but not in the UK home release). \n\nThe film features several cameos from real-world video game characters including: Root Beer Tapper (Maurice LaMarche), the bartender from Tapper; Sonic the Hedgehog (Roger Craig Smith); Ryu (Kyle Hebert), Ken Masters (Reuben Langdon), M. Bison (Gerald C. Rivers), and Zangief (Rich Moore) from Street Fighter II; Clyde (Kevin Deters) from Pac-Man; and Yuni Verse (Jamie Sparer Roberts) from Dance Dance Revolution. \n\nA character modeled after dubstep musician Skrillex makes an appearance in Fix-It Felix, Jr. as the DJ at the anniversary party of the game. \n\nVideo game cameos and references\n\nIn addition to the spoken roles, Wreck-It Ralph contains a number of other video game references, including characters and visual gags. The video game villains at the support meeting, in addition to those mentioned above, include: Bowser from the Mario franchise, Doctor Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog, and Neff from Altered Beast. \nAdditionally, the game cabinet of the Fix It Felix, Jr. arcade game is stylized to strongly resemble the cabinet of the original Nintendo Donkey Kong arcade game, with Ralph and Felix taking similar poses as Donkey Kong and Mario, respectively. The Hero's Duty game is a reference to the hugely successful first-person shooter games Halo and Call of Duty.\nCharacters from Q*bert, including Q*bert, Coily, Slick, Sam, and Ugg, are shown as \"homeless\" characters and later taken in by Ralph and Felix into their game (Q*bert also speaks to Felix at one point using the signature synthesized gibberish and word-balloon symbols from his game, called Q*bert-ese). Scenes in Game Central Station and Tapper's bar include Chun-Li, Cammy and Blanka from Street Fighter, Pac-Man, Blinky, Pinky, and Inky from Pac-Man, the Paperboy from Paperboy, the two paddles and the ball from Pong, Dig Dug, a Pooka, and a Fygar from Dig Dug, The Qix from Qix, Frogger from Frogger, and Peter Pepper from BurgerTime. Additionally, Lara Croft and Mario are referenced, but not seen. \n\nAdditional references are based on sight gags. The residents of Niceland and the bartender from Tapper are animated using a jerky motion that spoofs the limited animation cycles of the sprites of many eight- and sixteen-bit arcade games. King Candy uses the Konami Code on an NES controller to access the programming of Sugar Rush. Throughout Game Central Station is graffiti that includes \"Aerith lives\" (referencing the character of Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII), \"All your base are belong to us\" (an Engrish phrase popularized from the game Zero Wing), \"Sheng Long Was Here\" (referencing an April Fool's joke around a made-up character Sheng Long from Street Fighter), and \"Jenkins\" (a nod to the popular Leeroy Jenkins meme from World of Warcraft). There is also a reference to the Metal Gear series when Ralph is searching for a medal in Tapper's Lost and found, finding first a Super Mushroom from the Mario franchise, and then Metal Gears \"Exclamation point\" (with the corresponding sound effect from the game). Mr. Litwak wears a black and white striped referee's shirt, a nod to the iconic outfit of Twin Galaxies founder Walter Day. One of the songs in the credits is an original work from Buckner and Garcia, previously famous for writing video game-themed songs in the 1980s. The Walt Disney Animation Studios opening logo is animated in an 8-bit pixelated fashion, whereas the Walt Disney Pictures closing production logo appears in a glitched state, a reference to the kill screen from many early arcade games such as Pac-Man.\n\nProduction\n\nThe concept of Wreck-It Ralph was first developed at Disney in the late 1980s, under the working title High Score. Since then, it was redeveloped and reconsidered several times: In the late 1990s, it took on the working title Joe Jump, then in the mid-2000s as Reboot Ralph. \n\nJohn Lasseter, the head of Walt Disney Animation Studios and executive producer of the film, describes Wreck-It Ralph as \"an 8-bit video-game bad guy who travels the length of the arcade to prove that he's a good guy.\" In a manner similar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Toy Story films, Wreck-It Ralph featured cameo appearances by a number of licensed video-game characters. For example, one scene from the film shows Ralph attending a support group for the arcade's various villain characters, including Clyde from Pac-Man, Doctor Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog, and Bowser from Super Mario Bros. Rich Moore, the film's director, had determined that for a film about a video-game world to feel authentic, \"it had to have real characters from real games in it.\" Moore aimed to add licensed characters in a similar manner as cultural references in Looney Tunes shorts, but considered \"having the right balance so a portion of the audience didn't feel they were being neglected or talked down to.\" However, Moore avoided creating the movie around existing characters, feeling that \"there's so much mythology and baggage attached to pre-existing titles that I feel someone would be disappointed,\" and considered this to be a reason why movies based on video game franchises typically fail. Instead, for Ralph, the development of new characters representative of the 8-bit video game was \"almost like virgin snow,\" giving them the freedom to take these characters in new directions.\n\nBefore production, the existing characters were added to the story either in places they would make sense to appear, or as cameos from a list of characters suggested by the film's creative team, without consideration if they would legally be able to use the characters. The company then sought out the copyright holders' permissions to use the characters, as well as working with these companies to assure their characters were being represented authentically. In the case of Nintendo, the writers had early on envisioned the Bad-anon meeting with Bowser as a major character within the scene; according to Moore, Nintendo was very positive towards this use, stating in Moore's own words, \"If there is a group that is dedicated to helping the bad guy characters in video games then Bowser must be in that group!\" Nintendo had asked that the producers try to devise a scene that would be similarly appropriate for Mario for his inclusion in the film. Despite knowing they would be able to use the character, the producers could not find an appropriate scene that would let Mario be a significant character without taking away the spotlight from the main story, and opted to not include the character. Moore debunked a rumor that Mario and his brother character Luigi were not included due to Nintendo requesting too high a licensing fee, stating that the rumor grew out of a joke John C. Reilly made at Comic-Con.\nDr. Wily from Mega Man was going to appear, but was cut from the final version of the film. Overall, there are about 188 individual character models in the movie as a result of these cameo inclusions.\n\nAn earlier draft of the screenplay had Ralph and Vanellope spending time going around the game world to collect the pieces for her kart for Sugar Rush, and at times included Felix traveling with the pair. During these scenes, Ralph would have lied to Felix regarding his budding relationship with Calhoun, leading eventually to Ralph becoming depressed and abandoning his quest to get his medal back. At this point, a fourth game world, Extreme Easy Living 2, would have been introduced and was considered a \"hedonistic place\" between the social nature of The Sims and the open-world objective-less aspects of Grand Theft Auto, according to Moore. Ralph would go there to, wallowing in his depression, and would find happiness by gaining \"Like It\" buttons for doing acceptable actions in the party-like nature of the place. Moore stated that while it was difficult to consider dropping this new game world, they found that its introduction in the second half of the film would be too difficult a concept for the viewer to grasp. They further had trouble working out how a social game would be part of an arcade, and though they considered having the game be running on Litwak's laptop, they ultimately realized that justifying the concept would be too convoluted. Line art sketches and voice over readings of the scene were included on the home media release of the film.\n\nThe film introduced Disney's new bidirectional reflectance distribution functions, with more realistic reflections on surfaces, and new virtual cinematography Camera Capture system, which makes it possible to go through scenes in real-time. To research the Sugar Rush segment of the film, the visual development group traveled to trade fair ISM Cologne, a See's Candy factory, and other manufacturing facilities. The group also brought in food photographers, to demonstrate techniques to make food appear appealing. Special effects, including from \"smoke or dust,\" looks distinct in each of the segments. \n\nRelease\n\nThe film was originally scheduled for a release on March 22, 2013, but it was later changed to November 2, 2012 due to it being ahead of schedule. The theatrical release was accompanied by Disney's animated short film, Paperman. \n\nMarketing\n\nThe first trailer for Wreck-It Ralph was released on June 6, 2012, debuting with Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Rock of Ages. This also coincided with the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo, for which Disney constructed a mock aged arcade cabinet for the fictional Fix-It Felix, Jr. game on display on the show floor. Disney also released a browser-based Flash-based version of the Fix-It Felix, Jr. game as well as iOS, Android and Windows Phone versions, with online Unity-based versions of Sugar Rush and Hero's Duty. A second trailer for the film was released on Sep 12, 2012, coinciding with Finding Nemo 3D and Frankenweenie.\n\nTo promote the home media release of Wreck-It Ralph, director Rich Moore produced a short film titled Garlan Hulse: Where Potential Lives. Set within the movie's universe, the mockumentary film was designed as a parody of The King of Kong. \n\nHome media\n\nWreck-It Ralph was released on Blu-ray Disc (2D and 3D) and DVD in North America on March 5, 2013 from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. The film was made available for digital download in selected regions on Feb 12, 2013. Wreck-It Ralph debuted at #1 in Blu-ray and DVD sales in the United States. \n\nReception\n\nBox office\n\nWreck-It Ralph grossed $189.4 million in North America and $281.8 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $471.2 million. It was the 14th-highest-grossing film of 2012, and the fourth-highest-grossing 2012 animated film.\n\nIn North America, the film debuted with $13.5 million, an above-average opening-day gross for an animated film released in November. During its opening weekend, the film topped the box office with $49 million, making it the largest opening for a Walt Disney Animation Studios film at the time. \n\nOutside North America, Wreck-It Ralph earned $12 million on its opening weekend from six markets. Among all markets, its three largest openings were recorded in the UK, Ireland and Malta ($7.15 million), Brazil ($5.32 million with weekday previews), and Russia and the CIS ($5.27 million). In total grosses, the three largest markets were the UK, Ireland and Malta ($36.2 million), Japan ($29.6 million), and Australia ($24.0 million).\n\nCritical response\n\nThe review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 87% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 171 reviews with an average score of 7.5/10. The site's consensus reads: \"Equally entertaining for both kids and parents old enough to catch the references, Wreck-It Ralph is a clever, colorful adventure built on familiar themes and joyful nostalgia.\" At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 72 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating \"generally favorable reviews\". The film earned an \"A\" from audiences polled by CinemaScore. \n\nRoger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and wrote, \"More than in most animated films, the art design and color palette of Wreck-It Ralph permit unlimited sets, costumes and rules, giving the movie tireless originality and different behavior in every different cyber world.\" A.O. Scott of The New York Times wrote, \"The movie invites a measure of cynicism – which it proceeds to obliterate with a 93-minute blast of color, noise, ingenuity and fun.\" Peter Debruge of Variety stated, \"With plenty to appeal to boys and girls, old and young, Walt Disney Animation Studios has a high-scoring hit on its hands in this brilliantly conceived, gorgeously executed toon, earning bonus points for backing nostalgia with genuine emotion.\" Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times said, \"The movie's subversive sensibility and old-school/new-school feel are a total kick,\" while Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, \"With a mix of retro eye-candy for grown-ups and a thrilling, approachable storyline for the tykes, the film casts a wide and beguiling net.\" Conversely, Christopher Orr of The Atlantic found it \"overplotted and underdeveloped.\" \n\nAccolades\n\nSoundtrack\n\nThe film's score was composed by Henry Jackman. The soundtrack also features original songs by Owl City, AKB48, Skrillex, and Buckner & Garcia. Early in the development process, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote an original song for the film; it was later cut out. \n\nVideo games\n\nIn addition to the Flash version of the Fix-It Felix, Jr. game, Disney released a tie-in side-scrolling platform game called Wreck-It Ralph for the Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo DS, to mostly negative reviews. The arcade style side-scrolling game was produced in collaboration between Disney Interactive and Activision and serves as a \"story extension\" to the film. Taking place following the events of the film, players may play as Wreck-It Ralph or Fix-It Felix, causing or repairing damage, respectively, following another Cy-Bug incident. Game levels are based on the locations in the film like the Fix-It Felix, Jr., Hero's Duty, and Sugar Rush games as well as Game Central Station. It was released in conjunction with the film's release, in November 2012. \n\nIn October 2012, Disney released fully playable browser-based versions of the Hero's Duty and Sugar Rush games on the new official film site. A mobile game titled Wreck-it Ralph was released in November 2012 for iOS and Android systems, with a Windows Phone 8 version following almost a year later. Initially, the game consisted of three mini-games, Fix-it Felix Jr., Hero's Duty and Sweet Climber, which were later joined by Turbo Time and Hero's Duty: Flight Command. The game was retired on August 29, 2014. \n\nRalph also appears in Sega's Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed as a playable guest character. Ralph and Vanellope appear as playable characters in Disney Infinity as well (voiced by Brian T. Delaney and Silverman, respectively); the Disney Store released their individual figures on January 7, 2014. A combo \"toy box pack\" of the two figures with Sugar Rush customization discs was released April 1, 2014 from the Disney Store.\n\nSequel\n\nIn an interview on October 25, 2012, director Rich Moore said that he and Disney have ideas about a sequel that would bring the characters up to date and explore online gaming and console gaming. Moore stated that many of the crew and voice cast are open to the sequel, believing that they have \"barely scratched the surface\" of the video game world they envisioned. He also stated that he plans to include Mario and Tron in the sequel. In a 2014 interview, the film's composer Henry Jackman said that a story for the sequel is being written. In July 2015, John C. Reilly said he had signed on to reprise his role of Ralph in a projected sequel.\n\nOn March 24, 2016, Rich Moore stated that a sequel is still being planned. Moore also hopes to specifically include an appearance from Mario, citing a \"good relationship with Nintendo\". On June 30, 2016, Walt Disney Animation Studios announced that a sequel would be released on March 9, 2018, with Reilly, Moore and writer Phil Johnston attached, and that it would focus on \"Ralph leaving the arcade and wrecking the Internet\". Official concept art was also released." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Seattle.txt" ], "title": [ "Seattle" ], "wiki_context": [ "Seattle is a West Coast seaport city and the seat of King County, Washington. With an estimated 684,451 residents , Seattle is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. In July 2013, it was the fastest-growing major city in the United States and remained in the Top 5 in May 2015 with an annual growth rate of 2.1%. The Seattle metropolitan area is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the United States with over 3.7 million inhabitants. The city is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound (an inlet of the Pacific Ocean) and Lake Washington, about 100 mi south of the Canada–United States border. A major gateway for trade with Asia, Seattle is the third largest port in North America in terms of container handling . \n\nThe Seattle area was previously inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, Oregon, on the schooner Exact at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. The settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay and named it \"Seattle\" in 1852, after Chief Si'ahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.\n\nLogging was Seattle's first major industry, but by the late-19th century, the city had become a commercial and shipbuilding center as a gateway to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush. By 1910, Seattle was one of the 25 largest cities in the country. However, the Great Depression severely damaged the city's economy. Growth returned during and after World War II partially due to the local Boeing company, which established Seattle as a center for aircraft manufacturing. The Seattle area developed as a technology center beginning in the 1980s, with companies like Microsoft becoming established in the region. In 1994, Internet retailer Amazon was founded in Seattle. The stream of new software, biotechnology, and Internet companies led to an economic revival, which increased the city's population by almost 50,000 between 1990 and 2000.\n\nSeattle has a noteworthy musical history. From 1918 to 1951, nearly two dozen jazz nightclubs existed along Jackson Street, from the current Chinatown/International District, to the Central District. The jazz scene developed the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Ernestine Anderson, and others. Seattle is also the birthplace of rock musician Jimi Hendrix and the alternative rock subgenre grunge.\n\nHistory\n\nFounding\n\nArchaeological excavations suggest that Native Americans have inhabited the Seattle area for at least 4,000 years. By the time the first European settlers arrived, the people (subsequently called the Duwamish tribe) occupied at least seventeen villages in the areas around Elliott Bay. \n\nThe first European to visit the Seattle area was George Vancouver, in May 1792 during his 1791–95 expedition to chart the Pacific Northwest.\nIn 1851, a large party led by Luther Collins made a location on land at the mouth of the Duwamish River; they formally claimed it on September 14, 1851. Thirteen days later, members of the Collins Party on the way to their claim passed three scouts of the Denny Party. Members of the Denny Party claimed land on Alki Point on September 28, 1851. The rest of the Denny Party set sail from Portland, Oregon and landed on Alki point during a rainstorm on November 13, 1851.\n\nDuwamps 1852–1853\n\nAfter a difficult winter, most of the Denny Party relocated across Elliott Bay and claimed land a second time at the site of present-day Pioneer Square, naming this new settlement Duwamps. Charles Terry and John Low remained at the original landing location and reestablished their old land claim and called it \"New York\", but renamed \"New York Alki\" in April 1853, from a Chinook word meaning, roughly, \"by and by\" or \"someday\". For the next few years, New York Alki and Duwamps competed for dominance, but in time Alki was abandoned and its residents moved across the bay to join the rest of the settlers. \n\nDavid Swinson \"Doc\" Maynard, one of the founders of Duwamps, was the primary advocate to name the settlement after Chief Sealth (\"Seattle\") of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.\n Includes bibliography. \n\nIncorporations\n\nThe name \"Seattle\" appears on official Washington Territory papers dated May 23, 1853, when the first plats for the village were filed. In 1855, nominal land settlements were established. On January 14, 1865, the Legislature of Territorial Washington incorporated the Town of Seattle with a board of trustees managing the city. The town of Seattle was disincorporated January 18, 1867 and remained a mere precinct of King County until late 1869, when a new petition was filed and the city was re-incorporated December 2, 1869 with a Mayor-council government. The corporate seal of the City of Seattle carries the date \"1869\" and a likeness of Chief Sealth in left profile. \n\nTimber town\n\nSeattle has a history of boom-and-bust cycles, like many other cities near areas of extensive natural and mineral resources. Seattle has risen several times economically, then gone into precipitous decline, but it has typically used those periods to rebuild solid infrastructure.\n Author has granted blanket permission for material from that paper to be reused in Wikipedia. Now at .\n\nThe first such boom, covering the early years of the city, rode on the lumber industry. (During this period the road now known as Yesler Way won the nickname \"Skid Road\", supposedly after the timber skidding down the hill to Henry Yesler's sawmill. The later dereliction of the area may be a possible origin for the term which later entered the wider American lexicon as Skid Row.)\n\n Like much of the American West, Seattle saw numerous conflicts between labor and management, as well as ethnic tensions that culminated in the anti-Chinese riots of 1885–1886. This violence originated with unemployed whites who were determined to drive the Chinese from Seattle (anti-Chinese riots also occurred in Tacoma). In 1900, Asians were 4.2% of the population. Authorities declared martial law and federal troops arrived to put down the disorder.\n\nSeattle achieved sufficient economic success that when the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 destroyed the central business district, a far grander city-center rapidly emerged in its place.\n\n Finance company Washington Mutual, for example, was founded in the immediate wake of the fire.\n\n However, the Panic of 1893 hit Seattle hard. \n\nGold Rush, World War I, and the Great Depression\n\nThe second and most dramatic boom and bust resulted from the Klondike Gold Rush, which ended the depression that had begun with the Panic of 1893; in a short time, Seattle became a major transportation center. On July 14, 1897, the S.S. Portland docked with its famed \"ton of gold\", and Seattle became the main transport and supply point for the miners in Alaska and the Yukon. Few of those working men found lasting wealth, however; it was Seattle's business of clothing the miners and feeding them salmon that panned out in the long run. Along with Seattle, other cities like Everett, Tacoma, Port Townsend, Bremerton, and Olympia, all in the Puget Sound region, became competitors for exchange, rather than mother lodes for extraction, of precious metals. The boom lasted well into the early part of the 20th century and funded many new Seattle companies and products. In 1907, 19-year-old James E. Casey borrowed $100 from a friend and founded the American Messenger Company (later UPS). Other Seattle companies founded during this period include Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer. Seattle brought in the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm to design a system of parks and boulevards. \n\nThe Gold Rush era culminated in the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909, which is largely responsible for the layout of today's University of Washington campus.\n\nA shipbuilding boom in the early part of the 20th century became massive during World War I, making Seattle somewhat of a company town; the subsequent retrenchment led to the Seattle General Strike of 1919, the first general strike in the country. A 1912 city development plan by Virgil Bogue went largely unused. Seattle was mildly prosperous in the 1920s but was particularly hard hit in the Great Depression, experiencing some of the country's harshest labor strife in that era. Violence during the Maritime Strike of 1934 cost Seattle much of its maritime traffic, which was rerouted to the Port of Los Angeles. \n\nSeattle was also the home base of impresario Alexander Pantages who, starting in 1902, opened a number of theaters in the city exhibiting vaudeville acts and silent movies. His activities soon expanded, and the thrifty Greek went on and became one of America's greatest theater and movie tycoons. Between Pantages and his rival John Considine, Seattle was for a while the western United States' vaudeville mecca. B. Marcus Priteca, the Scottish-born and Seattle-based architect, built several theaters for Pantages, including some in Seattle. The theaters he built for Pantages in Seattle have been either demolished or converted to other uses, but many other theaters survive in other cities of the U.S., often retaining the Pantages name; Seattle's surviving Paramount Theatre, on which he collaborated, was not a Pantages theater.\n\nPost-war years: aircraft and software\n\nWar work again brought local prosperity during World War II, this time centered on Boeing aircraft. The war dispersed the city's numerous Japanese-American businessmen due to the Japanese American internment. After the war, the local economy dipped. It rose again with Boeing's growing dominance in the commercial airliner market. Seattle celebrated its restored prosperity and made a bid for world recognition with the Century 21 Exposition, the 1962 World's Fair. Another major local economic downturn was in the late 1960s and early 1970s, at a time when Boeing was heavily affected by the oil crises, loss of Government contracts, and costs and delays associated with the Boeing 747. Many people left the area to look for work elsewhere, and two local real estate agents put up a billboard reading \"Will the last person leaving Seattle – Turn out the lights.\" \n\nSeattle remained the corporate headquarters of Boeing until 2001, when the company separated its headquarters from its major production facilities; the headquarters were moved to Chicago. The Seattle area is still home to Boeing's Renton narrow-body plant (where the 707, 720, 727, and 757 were assembled, and the 737 is assembled today) and Everett wide-body plant (assembly plant for the 747, 767, 777, and 787). The company's credit union for employees, BECU, remains based in the Seattle area, though it is now open to all residents of Washington.\n\nAs prosperity began to return in the 1980s, the city was stunned by the Wah Mee massacre in 1983, when 13 people were killed in an illegal gambling club in the International District, Seattle's Chinatown. Beginning with Microsoft's 1979 move from Albuquerque, New Mexico to nearby Bellevue, Washington, Seattle and its suburbs became home to a number of technology companies including Amazon.com, RealNetworks, Nintendo of America, McCaw Cellular (now part of AT&T Mobility), VoiceStream (now T-Mobile), and biomedical corporations such as HeartStream (later purchased by Philips), Heart Technologies (later purchased by Boston Scientific), Physio-Control (later purchased by Medtronic), ZymoGenetics, ICOS (later purchased by Eli Lilly and Company) and Immunex (later purchased by Amgen). This success brought an influx of new residents with a population increase within city limits of almost 50,000 between 1990 and 2000, and saw Seattle's real estate become some of the most expensive in the country. In 1993, the movie Sleepless in Seattle brought the city further national attention. Many of the Seattle area's tech companies remained relatively strong, but the frenzied dot-com boom years ended in early 2001. \n\nSeattle in this period attracted widespread attention as home to these many companies, but also by hosting the 1990 Goodwill Games and the APEC leaders conference in 1993, as well as through the worldwide popularity of grunge, a sound that had developed in Seattle's independent music scene. Another bid for worldwide attention—hosting the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999—garnered visibility, but not in the way its sponsors desired, as related protest activity and police reactions to those protests overshadowed the conference itself. The city was further shaken by the Mardi Gras Riots in 2001, and then literally shaken the following day by the Nisqually earthquake. \n\nYet another boom began as the city emerged from the Great Recession. Amazon.com moved its headquarters from North Beacon Hill to South Lake Union and began a rapid expansion. For the five years beginning in 2010, Seattle gained an average of 14,511 residents per year, with the growth strongly skewed toward the center of the city, as unemployment dropped from roughly 9 percent to 3.6 percent. The city has found itself \"bursting at the seams\", with over 45,000 households spending more than half their income on housing and at least 2,800 people homeless, and with the country's sixth-worst rush hour traffic.\n\nGeography\n\nWith a land area of 83.9 square miles (217.3 km²), Seattle is the northernmost city with at least 500,000 people in the United States, farther north than Canadian cities such as Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal, at about the same latitude as Salzburg, Austria.\n\nThe topography of Seattle is hilly. The city lies on several hills, including Capitol Hill, First Hill, West Seattle, Beacon Hill, Magnolia, Denny Hill, and Queen Anne. The Kitsap and the Olympic peninsulas along with the Olympic mountains lie to the west of Puget Sound, while the Cascade Range and Lake Sammamish lie to the east of Lake Washington. The city has over 5540 acres of parkland.\n\nCityscape\n\nTopography\n\nSeattle is located between the saltwater Puget Sound (an arm of the Pacific Ocean) to the west and Lake Washington to the east. The city's chief harbor, Elliott Bay, is part of Puget Sound, which makes the city an oceanic port. To the west, beyond Puget Sound, are the Kitsap Peninsula and Olympic Mountains on the Olympic Peninsula; to the east, beyond Lake Washington and the eastside suburbs, are Lake Sammamish and the Cascade Range. Lake Washington's waters flow to Puget Sound through the Lake Washington Ship Canal (consisting of two man-made canals, Lake Union, and the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks at Salmon Bay, ending in Shilshole Bay on Puget Sound).\n\nThe sea, rivers, forests, lakes, and fields surrounding Seattle were once rich enough to support one of the world's few sedentary hunter-gatherer societies. The surrounding area lends itself well to sailing, skiing, bicycling, camping, and hiking year-round. \n\nThe city itself is hilly, though not uniformly so. Like Rome, the city is said to lie on seven hills; the lists vary but typically include Capitol Hill, First Hill, West Seattle, Beacon Hill, Queen Anne, Magnolia, and the former Denny Hill. The Wallingford, Mount Baker, and Crown Hill neighborhoods are technically located on hills as well. Many of the hilliest areas are near the city center, with Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Beacon Hill collectively constituting something of a ridge along an isthmus between Elliott Bay and Lake Washington. The break in the ridge between First Hill and Beacon Hill is man-made, the result of two of the many regrading projects that reshaped the topography of the city center. The topography of the city center was also changed by the construction of a seawall and the artificial Harbor Island (completed 1909) at the mouth of the city's industrial Duwamish Waterway, the terminus of the Green River. The highest point within city limits is at High Point in West Seattle, which is roughly located near 35th Ave SW and SW Myrtle St. Other notable hills include Crown Hill, View Ridge/Wedgwood/Bryant, Maple Leaf, Phinney Ridge, Mt. Baker Ridge, and Highlands/Carkeek/Bitterlake.\n\nNorth of the city center, Lake Washington Ship Canal connects Puget Sound to Lake Washington. It incorporates four natural bodies of water: Lake Union, Salmon Bay, Portage Bay, and Union Bay.\n\nDue to its location in the Pacific Ring of Fire, Seattle is in a major earthquake zone. On February 28, 2001, the magnitude 6.8 Nisqually earthquake did significant architectural damage, especially in the Pioneer Square area (built on reclaimed land, as are the Industrial District and part of the city center), but caused only one fatality. \nOther strong quakes occurred on January 26, 1700 (estimated at 9 magnitude), December 14, 1872 (7.3 or 7.4), April 13, 1949 (7.1), and April 29, 1965 (6.5). The 1965 quake caused three deaths in Seattle directly and one more by heart failure. Although the Seattle Fault passes just south of the city center, neither it nor the Cascadia subduction zone has caused an earthquake since the city's founding. The Cascadia subduction zone poses the threat of an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 or greater, capable of seriously damaging the city and collapsing many buildings, especially in zones built on fill. \n\nAccording to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , water (41.16% of the total area).\n\nClimate\n\nSeattle's climate is classified as oceanic or temperate marine, with cool, wet winters and warm, relatively dry summers. Like much of the Pacific Northwest, according to the Köppen climate classification it has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb). \nOther climate classification systems, such as Trewartha, place it in the Oceanic zone (Do), like much of Western Europe. The city and environs are part of USDA hardiness zone 8b, with isolated coastal pockets falling under 9a. \n\nHot temperature extremes are enhanced by dry, compressed wind from the west slopes of the Cascades, while cold temperatures are generated mainly from the Fraser Valley in British Columbia. \n\nTemperature extremes are moderated by the adjacent Puget Sound, greater Pacific Ocean, and Lake Washington. The region is largely shielded from Pacific storms by the Olympic Mountains and from Arctic air by the Cascade Range. Despite being on the margin of the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, the city has a reputation for frequent rain.\nThis reputation stems from the frequency of light precipitation in the fall, winter, and spring. In an average year, at least of precipitation falls on 150 days, more than nearly all U.S. cities east of the Rocky Mountains. It is cloudy 201 days out of the year and partly cloudy 93 days. Official weather and climatic data is collected at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, located about 19 km south of downtown in the city of SeaTac, which is at a higher elevation, and records more cloudy days and fewer partly cloudy days per year.\n\nFrom 1981 to 2010, the average annual precipitation measured at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport was 37.49 inches (952 mm). Annual precipitation has ranged from in 1952 to in 1950; for water year (October 1 – September 30) precipitation, the range is in 1976–77 to in 1996–97. Due to local variations in microclimate, Seattle also receives significantly lower precipitation than some other locations west of the Cascades. Around 80 mi to the west, the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park on the western flank of the Olympic Mountains receives an annual average precipitation of 142 in. Sixty miles (95 km) to the south of Seattle, the state capital Olympia, which is out of the Olympic Mountains' rain shadow, receives an annual average precipitation of 50 in. The city of Bremerton, about 15 mi west of downtown Seattle, receives of precipitation annually.\n\nIn November, Seattle averages more rainfall than any other U.S. city of more than 250,000 people; it also ranks highly in winter precipitation. Conversely, the city receives some of the lowest precipitation amounts of any large city from June to September. Seattle is one of the five rainiest major U.S. cities as measured by the number of days with precipitation, and it receives some of the lowest amounts of annual sunshine among major cities in the lower 48 states, along with some cities in the Northeast, Ohio and Michigan. Thunderstorms are rare, as the city reports thunder on just seven days per year. By comparison, Fort Myers, Florida reports thunder on 93 days per year, Kansas City on 52, and New York City on 25.\n\nSeattle experiences its heaviest rainfall during the months of November, December and January, receiving roughly half of its annual rainfall (by volume) during this period. In late fall and early winter, atmospheric rivers (also known as \"Pineapple Express\" systems), strong frontal systems, and Pacific low pressure systems are common. Light rain & drizzle are the predominant forms of precipitation during the remainder of the year; for instance, on average, less than of rain falls in July and August combined when rain is rare. On occasion, Seattle experiences somewhat more significant weather events. One such event occurred on December 2–4, 2007, when sustained hurricane-force winds and widespread heavy rainfall associated with a strong Pineapple Express event occurred in the greater Puget Sound area and the western parts of Washington and Oregon. Precipitation totals exceeded 350 mm in some areas with winds topping out at 209 km/h along coastal Oregon. It became the second wettest event in Seattle history when a little over 130 mm of rain fell on Seattle in a 24-hour period. Lack of adaptation to the heavy rain contributed to five deaths and widespread flooding and damage. \n\nAutumn, winter, and early spring are frequently characterized by rain. Winters are cool and wet with December, the coolest month, averaging , with 28 annual days with lows that reach the freezing mark, and 2.0 days where the temperature stays at or below freezing all day; the temperature rarely lowers to 20 °F. Summers are sunny, dry and warm, with August, the warmest month, averaging , and with temperatures reaching 90 °F on 3.1 days per year, although 2011 is the most recent year to not reach 90, 2015 had 13days over 90 degrees.  °F. The hottest officially recorded temperature was 103 °F on July 29, 2009; the coldest recorded temperature was 0 °F on January 31, 1950; the record cold daily maximum is 16 °F on January 14, 1950, while, conversely, the record warm daily minimum is 71 °F the day the official record high was set. The average window for freezing temperatures is November 16 through March 10, allowing a growing season of 250 days.\n\nSeattle typically receives some snowfall on an annual basis but heavy snow is rare. Average annual snowfall, as measured at Sea-Tac Airport, is . Single calendar-day snowfall of six inches (15 cm) or greater has occurred on only 15 days since 1948, and only once since February 17, 1990, when of snow officially fell at Sea-Tac airport on January 18, 2012. This moderate snow event was officially the 12th snowiest calendar day at the airport since 1948 and snowiest since November 1985. Much of the city of Seattle proper received somewhat lesser snowfall accumulations. Locations to the south of Seattle received more, with Olympia and Chehalis receiving 14 to. Another moderate snow event occurred from December 12–25, 2008, when over one foot (30 cm) of snow fell and stuck on much of the roads over those two weeks, when temperatures remained below 32 °F, causing widespread difficulties in a city not equipped for clearing snow. The largest documented snowstorm occurred from January 5–9, 1880, with snow drifting to 6 ft in places at the end of the snow event. From January 31 to February 2, 1916, another heavy snow event occurred with 29 in of snow on the ground by the time the event was over. With official records dating to 1948, the largest single-day snowfall is on January 13, 1950. Seasonal snowfall has ranged from zero in 1991–92 to in 1968–69, with trace amounts having occurred as recently as 2009–10. The month of January 1950 was particularly severe, bringing of snow, the most of any month along with the aforementioned record cold.\n\nThe Puget Sound Convergence Zone is an important feature of Seattle's weather. In the convergence zone, air arriving from the north meets air flowing in from the south. Both streams of air originate over the Pacific Ocean; airflow is split by the Olympic Mountains to Seattle's west, then reunited to the east. When the air currents meet, they are forced upward, resulting in convection. Thunderstorms caused by this activity are usually weak and can occur north and south of town, but Seattle itself rarely receives more than occasional thunder and small hail showers. The Hanukkah Eve Wind Storm in December 2006 is an exception that brought heavy rain and winds gusting up to 69 mph, an event that was not caused by the Puget Sound Convergence Zone and was widespread across the Pacific Northwest.\n\nOne of many exceptions to Seattle's reputation as a damp location occurs in El Niño years, when marine weather systems track as far south as California and little precipitation falls in the Puget Sound area. Since the region's water comes from mountain snow packs during the dry summer months, El Niño winters can not only produce substandard skiing but can result in water rationing and a shortage of hydroelectric power the following summer. \n\nDemographics\n\nAccording to the 2010 United States Census, Seattle had a population of 608,660 with a racial and ethnic composition as follows: \n*White: 69.5% (Non-Hispanic Whites: 66.3%)\n*Asian: 13.8% (4.1% Chinese, 2.6% Filipino, 2.2% Vietnamese, 1.3% Japanese, 1.1% Korean, 0.8% Indian, 0.3% Cambodian, 0.3% Laotian, 0.2% Pakistanis, 0.2% Indonesian, 0.2% Thai)\n*Black or African American: 7.9%\n*Hispanic or Latino (of any race): 6.6% (4.1% Mexican, 0.3% Puerto Rican, 0.2% Guatemalan, 0.2% Salvadoran, 0.2% Cuban)\n*American Indian and Alaska Native: 0.8%\n*Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 0.4%\n*Other race: 2.4%\n*Two or more races: 5.1%\n\nSeattle's population historically has been predominantly white. The 2010 census showed that Seattle was one of the whitest big cities in the country, although its proportion of white residents has been gradually declining. In 1960, whites comprised 91.6% of the city's population, while in 2010 they comprised 69.5%. According to the 2006–2008 American Community Survey, approximately 78.9% of residents over the age of five spoke only English at home. Those who spoke Asian languages other than Indo-European languages made up 10.2% of the population, Spanish was spoken by 4.5% of the population, speakers of other Indo-European languages made up 3.9%, and speakers of other languages made up 2.5%.\n\nSeattle's foreign-born population grew 40% between the 1990 and 2000 censuses. The Chinese population in the Seattle area has origins in mainland China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan. The earliest Chinese-Americans that came in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were almost entirely from Guangdong Province. The Seattle area is also home to a large Vietnamese population of more than 55,000 residents, as well as over 30,000 Somali immigrants. The Seattle-Tacoma area is also home to one of the largest Cambodian communities in the United States, numbering about 19,000 Cambodian Americans, and one of the largest Samoan communities in the mainland U.S., with over 15,000 people having Samoan ancestry. Additionally, the Seattle area had the highest percentage of self-identified mixed-race people of any large metropolitan area in the United States, according to the 2000 United States Census Bureau. According to a 2012 HistoryLink study, Seattle's 98118 ZIP code (in the Columbia City neighborhood) was one of the most diverse ZIP Code Tabulation Areas in the United States.\n\nIn 1999, the median income of a city household was $45,736, and the median income for a family was $62,195. Males had a median income of $40,929 versus $35,134 for females. The per capita income for the city was $30,306. 11.8% of the population and 6.9% of families are below the poverty line. Of people living in poverty, 13.8% are under the age of 18 and 10.2% are 65 or older.\n\nIt is estimated that King County has 8,000 homeless people on any given night, and many of those live in Seattle. In September 2005, King County adopted a \"Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness\", one of the near-term results of which is a shift of funding from homeless shelter beds to permanent housing.\n\nIn recent years, the city has experienced steady population growth, and has been faced with the issue of accommodating more residents. In 2006, after growing by 4,000 citizens per year for the previous 16 years, regional planners expected the population of Seattle to grow by 200,000 people by 2040. However, former mayor Greg Nickels supported plans that would increase the population by 60%, or 350,000 people, by 2040 and worked on ways to accommodate this growth while keeping Seattle's single-family housing zoning laws. The Seattle City Council later voted to relax height limits on buildings in the greater part of Downtown, partly with the aim to increase residential density in the city centre. As a sign of increasing inner-city growth, the downtown population crested to over 60,000 in 2009, up 77% since 1990. \n\nSeattle also has large lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations. According to a 2006 study by UCLA, 12.9% of city residents polled identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. This was the second-highest proportion of any major U.S. city, behind San Francisco Greater Seattle also ranked second among major U.S. metropolitan areas, with 6.5% of the population identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. According to 2012 estimates from the United States Census Bureau, Seattle has the highest percentage of same-sex households in the United States, at 2.6 per cent, surpassing San Francisco. \n\nIn addition, Seattle has a relatively high number of people living alone. According to the 2000 U.S. Census interim measurements of 2004, Seattle has the fifth highest proportion of single-person households nationwide among cities of 100,000 or more residents, at 40.8%. \n\nEconomy\n\nSeattle's economy is driven by a mix of older industrial companies, and \"new economy\" Internet and technology companies, service, design and clean technology companies. The city's gross metropolitan product was $231 billion in 2010, making it the 11th largest metropolitan economy in the United States. The Port of Seattle, which also operates Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, is a major gateway for trade with Asia and cruises to Alaska, and is the 8th largest port in the United States in terms of container capacity. Though it was affected by the Great Recession, Seattle has retained a comparatively strong economy, and remains a hotbed for start-up businesses, especially in green building and clean technologies: it was ranked as America's No. 1 \"smarter city\" based on its government policies and green economy. In February 2010, the city government committed Seattle to becoming North America's first \"climate neutral\" city, with a goal of reaching zero net per capita greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. \n\nStill, very large companies dominate the business landscape. Four companies on the 2013 Fortune 500 list of the United States' largest companies, based on total revenue, are headquartered in Seattle: Internet retailer Amazon.com (#49), coffee chain Starbucks (#208), department store Nordstrom (#227), and freight forwarder Expeditors International of Washington (#428). Other Fortune 500 companies popularly associated with Seattle are based in nearby Puget Sound cities. Warehouse club chain Costco (#22), the largest retail company in Washington, is based in Issaquah. Microsoft (#35) is located in Redmond. Weyerhaeuser, the forest products company (#363), is based in Federal Way. Finally, Bellevue is home to truck manufacturer Paccar (#168). Other major companies in the area include Nintendo of America in Redmond, T-Mobile US in Bellevue, Expedia Inc. in Bellevue and Providence Health & Services — the state's largest health care system and fifth largest employer — in Renton. The city has a reputation for heavy coffee consumption; coffee companies founded or based in Seattle include Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee, and Tully's. There are also many successful independent artisanal espresso roasters and cafés.\n\nPrior to moving its headquarters to Chicago, aerospace manufacturer Boeing (#30) was the largest company based in Seattle. Its largest division is still headquartered in nearby Renton, and the company has large aircraft manufacturing plants in Everett and Renton, so it remains the largest private employer in the Seattle metropolitan area. Former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels announced a desire to spark a new economic boom driven by the biotechnology industry in 2006. Major redevelopment of the South Lake Union neighborhood is underway, in an effort to attract new and established biotech companies to the city, joining biotech companies Corixa (acquired by GlaxoSmithKline), Immunex (now part of Amgen), Trubion, and ZymoGenetics. Vulcan Inc., the holding company of billionaire Paul Allen, is behind most of the development projects in the region. While some see the new development as an economic boon, others have criticized Nickels and the Seattle City Council for pandering to Allen's interests at taxpayers' expense. Also in 2006, Expansion Magazine ranked Seattle among the top 10 metropolitan areas in the nation for climates favorable to business expansion. In 2005, Forbes ranked Seattle as the most expensive American city for buying a house based on the local income levels. In 2013, however, the magazine ranked Seattle No. 9 on its list of the Best Places for Business and Careers. \n\nAlaska Airlines, operating a hub at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, maintains its headquarters in the city of SeaTac, next to the airport. \n\nSeattle is a hub for global health with the headquarters of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PATH, Infectious Disease Research Institute, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. In 2015, the Washington Global Health Alliance counted 168 global health organizations in Washington state, many are headquartered in Seattle. \n\nCulture\n\nNicknames\n\nFrom 1869 until 1982, Seattle was known as the \"Queen City\". Seattle's current official nickname is the \"Emerald City\", the result of a contest held in 1981; the reference is to the lush evergreen forests of the area. Seattle is also referred to informally as the \"Gateway to Alaska\" for being the nearest major city in the contiguous US to Alaska, \"Rain City\" for its frequent cloudy and rainy weather, and \"Jet City\" from the local influence of Boeing. The city has two official slogans or mottos: \"The City of Flowers\", meant to encourage the planting of flowers to beautify the city, and \"The City of Goodwill\", adopted prior to the 1990 Goodwill Games. Seattle residents are known as Seattleites.\n\nPerforming arts\n\nSeattle has been a regional center for the performing arts for many years. The century-old Seattle Symphony Orchestra is among the world's most recorded and performs primarily at Benaroya Hall. The Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet, which perform at McCaw Hall (opened 2003 on the site of the former Seattle Opera House at Seattle Center), are comparably distinguished, with the Opera being particularly known for its performances of the works of Richard Wagner and the PNB School (founded in 1974) ranking as one of the top three ballet training institutions in the United States. The Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras (SYSO) is the largest symphonic youth organization in the United States. The city also boasts lauded summer and winter chamber music festivals organized by the Seattle Chamber Music Society. \n\nThe 5th Avenue Theatre, built in 1926, stages Broadway-style musical shows featuring both local talent and international stars.Examples of local talent are Billy Joe Huels (lead singer of the Dusty 45s) starring in Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story and Sarah Rudinoff in Wonderful Town. National-level stars include Stephen Lynch in The Wedding Singer, which went on to Broadway and Cathy Rigby in Peter Pan\n Seattle has \"around 100\" theatrical production companies \"around 100 theater companies ... Twenty-eight have some sort of Actors' Equity contract ...\" and over two dozen live theatre venues, many of them associated with fringe theatre; Seattle is probably second only to New York for number of equity theaters (28 Seattle theater companies have some sort of Actors' Equity contract).\nIn addition, the 900-seat Romanesque Revival Town Hall on First Hill hosts numerous cultural events, especially lectures and recitals. \n\nBetween 1918 and 1951, there were nearly two dozen jazz nightclubs along Jackson Street, running from the current Chinatown/International District to the Central District. The jazz scene developed the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Bumps Blackwell, Ernestine Anderson, and others.\n\nEarly popular musical acts from the Seattle/Puget Sound area include the collegiate folk group The Brothers Four, vocal group The Fleetwoods, 1960s garage rockers The Wailers and The Sonics, and instrumental surf group The Ventures, some of whom are still active.\n\nSeattle is considered the home of grunge music, having produced artists such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Mudhoney, all of whom reached international audiences in the early 1990s. The city is also home to such varied artists as avant-garde jazz musicians Bill Frisell and Wayne Horvitz, hot jazz musician Glenn Crytzer, hip hop artists Sir Mix-a-Lot, Macklemore, Blue Scholars, and Shabazz Palaces, smooth jazz saxophonist Kenny G, classic rock staples Heart and Queensrÿche, and alternative rock bands such as Foo Fighters, Harvey Danger, The Presidents of the United States of America, The Posies, Modest Mouse, Band of Horses, Death Cab for Cutie, and Fleet Foxes. Rock musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Duff McKagan, and Nikki Sixx spent their formative years in Seattle.\n\nThe Seattle-based Sub Pop record company continues to be one of the world's best-known independent/alternative music labels.\n\nOver the years, a number of songs have been written about Seattle.\n\nSeattle annually sends a team of spoken word slammers to the National Poetry Slam and considers itself home to such performance poets as Buddy Wakefield, two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champ; Anis Mojgani, two-time National Poetry Slam Champ; and Danny Sherrard, 2007 National Poetry Slam Champ and 2008 Individual World Poetry Slam Champ. Seattle also hosted the 2001 national Poetry Slam Tournament. The Seattle Poetry Festival is a biennial poetry festival that (launched first as the Poetry Circus in 1997) has featured local, regional, national, and international names in poetry. \n\nThe city also has movie houses showing both Hollywood productions and works by independent filmmakers. Among these, the Seattle Cinerama stands out as one of only three movie theaters in the world still capable of showing three-panel Cinerama films. \n\nTourism\n\nAmong Seattle's prominent annual fairs and festivals are the 24-day Seattle International Film Festival, Northwest Folklife over the Memorial Day weekend, numerous Seafair events throughout July and August (ranging from a Bon Odori celebration to the Seafair Cup hydroplane races), the Bite of Seattle, one of the largest Gay Pride festivals in the United States, and the art and music festival Bumbershoot, which programs music as well as other art and entertainment over the Labor Day weekend. All are typically attended by 100,000 people annually, as are the Seattle Hempfest and two separate Independence Day celebrations. \n\nOther significant events include numerous Native American pow-wows, a Greek Festival hosted by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Montlake, and numerous ethnic festivals (many associated with Festál at Seattle Center). \n\nThere are other annual events, ranging from the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair & Book Arts Show; an anime convention, Sakura-Con; Penny Arcade Expo, a gaming convention; a two-day, 9,000-rider Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic; and specialized film festivals, such as the Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival, the Seattle Asian American Film Festival (formerly known as the Northwest Asian American Film Festival), Children's Film Festival Seattle, Translation: the Seattle Transgender Film Festival, the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and the Seattle Polish Film Festival. \n\nThe Henry Art Gallery opened in 1927, the first public art museum in Washington. The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) opened in 1933; SAM opened a museum downtown in 1991 (expanded and reopened 2007); since 1991, the 1933 building has been SAM's Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM). SAM also operates the Olympic Sculpture Park (opened 2007) on the waterfront north of the downtown piers. The Frye Art Museum is a free museum on First Hill.\n\nRegional history collections are at the Loghouse Museum in Alki, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, the Museum of History and Industry, and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. Industry collections are at the Center for Wooden Boats and the adjacent Northwest Seaport, the Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum, and the Museum of Flight. Regional ethnic collections include the Nordic Heritage Museum, the Wing Luke Asian Museum, and the Northwest African American Museum. Seattle has artist-run galleries, including ten-year veteran Soil Art Gallery, and the newer Crawl Space Gallery. \n\nThe Seattle Great Wheel, one of the largest Ferris wheels in the US, opened in June 2012 as a new, permanent attraction on the city's waterfront, at Pier 57, next to Downtown Seattle. The city also has many community centers for recreation, including Rainier Beach, Van Asselt, Rainier, and Jefferson south of the Ship Canal and Green Lake, Laurelhurst, Loyal Heights north of the Canal, and Meadowbrook. \n\nWoodland Park Zoo opened as a private menagerie in 1889 but was sold to the city in 1899. The Seattle Aquarium has been open on the downtown waterfront since 1977 (undergoing a renovation 2006). The Seattle Underground Tour is an exhibit of places that existed before the Great Fire. \n\nSince the middle 1990s, Seattle has experienced significant growth in the cruise industry, especially as a departure point for Alaska cruises. In 2008, a record total of 886,039 cruise passengers passed through the city, surpassing the number for Vancouver, BC, the other major departure point for Alaska cruises. \n\nProfessional sports\n\nSeattle has three major men's professional sports teams: the National Football League (NFL)'s Seattle Seahawks, Major League Baseball (MLB)'s Seattle Mariners, and Major League Soccer (MLS)'s Seattle Sounders FC. Other professional sports teams include the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)'s Seattle Storm, who won the WNBA championship in 2004 and 2010, and the Seattle Reign of the National Women's Soccer League.\n\nThe Seahawks' CenturyLink Field has hosted NFL playoff games in 2006, 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2015. The Seahawks have advanced to the Super Bowl three times: 2005, 2013 and 2014. They defeated the Denver Broncos 43-8 to win their first Super Bowl championship in Super Bowl XLVIII, but lost 24-28 against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX.\nSeattle Sounders FC has played in Major League Soccer since 2009, sharing CenturyLink Field with the Seahawks, as a continuation of earlier teams in the lower divisions of American soccer. The Sounders have not won the MLS Cup but have, however, won the MLS Supporters' Shield in 2014 and the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on four occasions: 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2014. \n\nSeattle's professional sports history began at the start of the 20th century with the PCHA's Seattle Metropolitans, which in 1917 became the first American hockey team to win the Stanley Cup. \nSeattle was also home to a previous Major League Baseball franchise in 1969: the Seattle Pilots. The Pilots relocated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and became the Milwaukee Brewers for the 1970 season.\nFrom 1967 to 2008 Seattle was also home to an National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise: the Seattle SuperSonics, who were the 1978–79 NBA champions. The SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Oklahoma City Thunder for the 2008–09 season. \n\nThe Major League Baseball All-Star Game was held in Seattle twice, first at the Kingdome in 1979 and again at Safeco Field in 2001. That same year, the Seattle Mariners tied the all-time single regular season wins record with 116 wins. The NBA All-Star Game was also held in Seattle twice: the first in 1974 at the Seattle Center Coliseum and the second in 1987 at the Kingdome. \n\nThe Seattle Thunderbirds hockey team plays in the Canadian major-junior Western Hockey League and are based in the Seattle suburb of Kent. \nSeattle also boasts a strong history in collegiate sports. The University of Washington and Seattle University are NCAA Division I schools. The University of Washington's athletic program, nicknamed the Huskies, competes in the Pac-12 Conference, and Seattle University's athletic program, nicknamed the Redhawks, competes in the Western Athletic Conference.\n\nParks and recreation\n\nSeattle's mild, temperate, marine climate allows year-round outdoor recreation, including walking, cycling, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, kayaking, rock climbing, motor boating, sailing, team sports, and swimming. \n\nIn town, many people walk around Green Lake, through the forests and along the bluffs and beaches of 535 acre Discovery Park (the largest park in the city) in Magnolia, along the shores of Myrtle Edwards Park on the Downtown waterfront, along the shoreline of Lake Washington at Seward Park, along Alki Beach in West Seattle, or along the Burke-Gilman Trail.\n\nGas Works Park features the majestic preserved superstructure of a coal gasification plant closed in 1956. Located across Lake Union from downtown, the park provides panoramic views of the Seattle skyline.\n\nAlso popular are hikes and skiing in the nearby Cascade or Olympic Mountains and kayaking and sailing in the waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Strait of Georgia. In 2005, Men's Fitness magazine named Seattle the fittest city in the United States.\n\nIn its 2013 ParkScore ranking, the Trust for Public Land reported that Seattle had the tenth best park system among the 50 most populous US cities. ParkScore ranks city park systems by a formula that analyzes acreage, access, and service and investment.\n\nGovernment and politics\n\nSeattle is a charter city, with a Mayor–Council form of government. From 1911 to 2013, Seattle's nine city councillors were elected at large, rather than by geographic subdivisions. For the 2015 election, this changed to a hybrid system of seven district members and two at large members as a result of a ballot measure passed on November 5, 2013. The only other elected offices are the city attorney and Municipal Court judges. All city offices are technically non-partisan. \n\nLike most parts of the United States, government and laws are also run by a series of ballot initiatives (allowing citizens to pass or reject laws), referenda (allowing citizens to approve or reject legislation already passed), and propositions (allowing specific government agencies to propose new laws/tax increases directly to the people). Federally, Seattle is part of Washington's 7th congressional district, represented by Democrat Jim McDermott, elected in 1988 and one of Congress's liberal members. Ed Murray is currently serving as mayor.\n\nSeattle's political culture is very liberal and progressive for the United States, with over 80% of the population voting for the Democratic Party. All precincts in Seattle voted for Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election. In partisan elections for the Washington State Legislature and United States Congress, nearly all elections are won by Democrats. Seattle is considered the first major American city to elect a female mayor, Bertha Knight Landes. It has also elected an openly gay mayor, Ed Murray, and a socialist councillor, Kshama Sawant. For the first time in United States history, an openly gay black woman was elected to public office when Sherry Harris was elected as a Seattle city councillor in 1991. The majority of the current city council is female, while white men comprise a minority. \n\nSeattle is widely considered one of the most liberal cities in the United States, even surpassing its neighbor, Portland, Oregon. Support for issues such as same-sex marriage and reproductive rights are largely taken for granted in local politics. In the 2012 U.S. general election, an overwhelming majority of Seattleites voted to approve Referendum 74 and legalize gay marriage in Washington state. In the same election, an overwhelming majority of Seattleites also voted to approve the legalization of the recreational use of cannabis in the state. Like much of the Pacific Northwest (which has the lowest rate of church attendance in the United States and consistently reports the highest percentage of atheism ), church attendance, religious belief, and political influence of religious leaders are much lower than in other parts of America. \n\nSeattle also has a thriving alternative press, with the Web-based daily Seattle Post-Intelligencer, several other online dailies (including Publicola and Crosscut), The Stranger (an alternative, left-leaning weekly), Seattle Weekly, and a number of issue-focused publications, including the nation's two largest online environmental magazines, Worldchanging and Grist.org.\n\nIn July 2012, Seattle banned plastic shopping bags. In June 2014 the city passed a local ordinance to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour on a staged basis from 2015 to 2021. When fully implemented the $15 hourly rate will be the highest minimum wage in the nation. \n\nOn October 6, 2014, Seattle officially replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day, honoring Seattle's Native American community and controversies surrounding the legacy of Christopher Columbus. \n\nEducation\n\nOf the city's population over the age of 25, 53.8% (vs. a national average of 27.4%) hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and 91.9% (vs. 84.5% nationally) have a high school diploma or equivalent. A 2008 United States Census Bureau survey showed that Seattle had the highest percentage of college and university graduates of any major U.S. city. The city was listed as the most literate of the country's 69 largest cities in 2005 and 2006, the second most literate in 2007 and the most literate in 2008 in studies conducted by Central Connecticut State University. \n\nSeattle Public Schools desegregated without a court order but continue to struggle to achieve racial balance in a somewhat ethnically divided city (the south part of town having more ethnic minorities than the north). In 2007, Seattle's racial tie-breaking system was struck down by the United States Supreme Court, but the ruling left the door open for desegregation formulae based on other indicators (e.g., income or socioeconomic class). \n\nThe public school system is supplemented by a moderate number of private schools: five of the private high schools are Catholic, one is Lutheran, and six are secular. \n\nSeattle is home to the University of Washington, as well as the institution's professional and continuing education unit, the University of Washington Educational Outreach. A study by Newsweek International in 2006 cited the University of Washington as the twenty-second best university in the world. Seattle also has a number of smaller private universities including Seattle University and Seattle Pacific University, the former a Jesuit Catholic institution, the latter Free Methodist; universities aimed at the working adult, like City University and Antioch University; colleges within the Seattle Colleges District system, comprising North, Central, and South; seminaries, including Western Seminary and a number of arts colleges, such as Cornish College of the Arts, Pratt Fine Arts Center, and The Art Institute of Seattle. In 2001, Time magazine selected Seattle Central Community College as community college of the year, stating the school \"pushes diverse students to work together in small teams\". \n\nMedia\n\n, Seattle has one major daily newspaper, The Seattle Times. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, known as the P-I, published a daily newspaper from 1863 to March 17, 2009, before switching to a strictly on-line publication. There is also the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, and the University of Washington publishes The Daily, a student-run publication, when school is in session. The most prominent weeklies are the Seattle Weekly and The Stranger; both consider themselves \"alternative\" papers. The weekly LGBT newspaper is the Seattle Gay News. Real Change is a weekly street newspaper that is sold mainly by homeless persons as an alternative to panhandling. There are also several ethnic newspapers, including the The Facts, Northwest Asian Weekly and the International Examiner, and numerous neighborhood newspapers.\n\nSeattle is also well served by television and radio, with all major U.S. networks represented, along with at least five other English-language stations and two Spanish-language stations. Seattle cable viewers also receive CBUT 2 (CBC) from Vancouver, British Columbia.\n\nNon-commercial radio stations include NPR affiliates KUOW-FM 94.9 and KPLU-FM 88.5 (Tacoma), as well as classical music station KING-FM 98.1. Other stations include KEXP-FM 90.3 (affiliated with the UW), community radio KBCS-FM 91.3 (affiliated with Bellevue College), and high school radio KNHC-FM 89.5, which broadcasts an electronic dance music radio format and is owned by the public school system and operated by students of Nathan Hale High School. Many Seattle radio stations are also available through Internet radio, with KEXP in particular being a pioneer of Internet radio. Seattle also has numerous commercial radio stations. In a March 2012 report by the consumer research firm Arbitron, the top FM stations were KRWM (adult contemporary format), KIRO-FM (news/talk), and KISW (active rock) while the top AM stations were KOMO (AM) (all news), KJR (AM) (all sports), KIRO (AM) (all sports). \n\nSeattle-based online magazines Worldchanging and Grist.org were two of the \"Top Green Websites\" in 2007 according to TIME. \n\nSeattle also has many online news media websites. The two largest are The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.\n\nInfrastructure\n\nHealth systems\n\nThe University of Washington is consistently ranked among the country's top leading institutions in medical research, earning special merits for programs in neurology and neurosurgery. Seattle has seen local developments of modern paramedic services with the establishment of Medic One in 1970. In 1974, a 60 Minutes story on the success of the then four-year-old Medic One paramedic system called Seattle \"the best place in the world to have a heart attack\". \n\nThree of Seattle's largest medical centers are located on First Hill. Harborview Medical Center, the public county hospital, is the only Level I trauma hospital in a region that includes Washington, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. Virginia Mason Medical Center and Swedish Medical Center's two largest campuses are also located in this part of Seattle, including the Virginia Mason Hospital. This concentration of hospitals resulted in the neighborhood's nickname \"Pill Hill\". \n\nLocated in the Laurelhurst neighborhood, Seattle Children's, formerly Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, is the pediatric referral center for Washington, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has a campus in the Eastlake neighborhood. The University District is home to the University of Washington Medical Center which, along with Harborview, is operated by the University of Washington. Seattle is also served by a Veterans Affairs hospital on Beacon Hill, a third campus of Swedish in Ballard, and Northwest Hospital and Medical Center near Northgate Mall.\n\nTransportation\n\nThe first streetcars appeared in 1889 and were instrumental in the creation of a relatively well-defined downtown and strong neighborhoods at the end of their lines. The advent of the automobile sounded the death knell for rail in Seattle. Tacoma–Seattle railway service ended in 1929 and the Everett–Seattle service came to an end in 1939, replaced by inexpensive automobiles running on the recently developed highway system. Rails on city streets were paved over or removed, and the opening of the Seattle trolleybus system brought the end of streetcars in Seattle in 1941. This left an extensive network of privately owned buses (later public) as the only mass transit within the city and throughout the region.\n\nKing County Metro provides frequent stop bus service within the city and surrounding county, as well as a South Lake Union Streetcar line between the South Lake Union neighborhood and Westlake Center in downtown. Seattle is one of the few cities in North America whose bus fleet includes electric trolleybuses. Sound Transit currently provides an express bus service within the metropolitan area, two Sounder commuter rail lines between the suburbs and downtown, and its Central Link light rail line between the University of Washington and Sea-Tac Airport. Washington State Ferries, which manages the largest network of ferries in the United States and third largest in the world, connects Seattle to Bainbridge and Vashon Islands in Puget Sound and to Bremerton and Southworth on the Kitsap Peninsula.\n\nAccording to the 2007 American Community Survey, 18.6% of Seattle residents used one of the three public transit systems that serve the city, giving it the highest transit ridership of all major cities without heavy or light rail prior to the completion of Sound Transit's Central Link line. The city has also been described by Bert Sperling as the fourth most walkable U.S. city and by Walk Score as the sixth most walkable of the fifty largest U.S. cities. \n\nSeattle–Tacoma International Airport, locally known as Sea-Tac Airport and located just south in the neighboring city of SeaTac, is operated by the Port of Seattle and provides commercial air service to destinations throughout the world. Closer to downtown, Boeing Field is used for general aviation, cargo flights, and testing/delivery of Boeing airliners.\n\nThe main mode of transportation, however, relies on Seattle's streets, which are laid out in a cardinal directions grid pattern, except in the central business district where early city leaders Arthur Denny and Carson Boren insisted on orienting their plats relative to the shoreline rather than to true North. Only two roads, Interstate 5 and State Route 99 (both limited-access highways), run uninterrupted through the city from north to south. State Route 99 runs through downtown Seattle on the Alaskan Way Viaduct, which was built in 1953. However, due to damage sustained during the 2001 Nisqually earthquake the viaduct will be replaced by a tunnel. The 2 mi Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel was originally scheduled to be completed in December 2015 at a cost of US$4.25 billion. Unfortunately, due to issues with the worlds largest tunnel boring machine (TBM), which is nicknamed \"Bertha\" and is 57 ft in diameter, the projected date of completion has been pushed back to 2017. Seattle has the 8th worst traffic congestion of all American cities, and is 10th among all North American cities. \n\nThe city has started moving away from the automobile and towards mass transit. From 2004 to 2009, the annual number of unlinked public transportation trips increased by approximately 21%. In 2006, voters in King County passed proposition 2 (Transit Now) which increased bus service hours on high ridership routes and paid for five bus rapid transit lines called RapidRide. After rejecting a roads and transit measure in 2007, Seattle-area voters passed a transit only measure in 2008 to increase ST Express bus service, extend the Link Light Rail system, and expand and improve Sounder commuter rail service. A light rail line from downtown heading south to Sea-Tac Airport began service on December 19, 2009, giving the city its first rapid transit line with intermediate stations within the city limits. An extension north to the University of Washington opened on March 19, 2016; and further extensions are planned to reach Lynnwood to the north, Des Moines to the south, and Bellevue and Redmond to the east by 2023. Former mayor Michael McGinn has supported building light rail from downtown to Ballard and West Seattle. \n\nUtilities\n\nWater and electric power are municipal services, provided by Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light respectively. Other utility companies serving Seattle include Puget Sound Energy (natural gas, electricity); Seattle Steam Company (steam); Waste Management, Inc and CleanScapes, Inc. (curbside recycling and solid waste removal); and CenturyLink, Frontier Communications and Comcast (telecommunications and television).\n\nAbout 90% of Seattle's electricity is produced using hydropower. Less than 2% of electricity is produced using fossil fuels. \n\nNotable people\n\nSister cities\n\nSeattle is partnered with: \n\n* Beersheba, Israel (since 1977) \n* Bergen, Norway (since 1967)\n* Cebu, Philippines (since 1991)\n* Chongqing, China (since 1983)\n* Christchurch, New Zealand (since 1981)\n* Daejeon, South Korea (since 1989)\n* Galway, Ireland (since 1986)\n* Gdynia, Poland (since 1993)\n* Haiphong, Vietnam (since 1996)\n* Kaohsiung, Taiwan (since 1991)\n* Kobe, Japan (since 1957) \n* Limbe, Cameroon (since 1984)\n* Mazatlán, Mexico (since 1979)\n* Mombasa, Kenya (since 1981)\n* Nantes, France (since 1980)\n* Pécs, Hungary (since 1991)\n* Perugia, Italy (since 1993)\n* Reykjavík, Iceland (since 1986)\n* Sihanoukville, Cambodia (since 1999)\n* Surabaya, Indonesia (since 1992)\n* Tashkent, Uzbekistan (since 1973)" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Columbus,_Ohio.txt", "Dave_Thomas_(businessman).txt" ], "title": [ "Columbus, Ohio", "Dave Thomas (businessman)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Columbus (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Ohio. It is the 15th largest city in the United States, with a population of 850,106 (2015 estimate). It is the core city of the Columbus, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which encompasses a ten county area. It is the third largest metropolitan area in Ohio, behind Cleveland and Cincinnati (which includes portions of Kentucky and Indiana). \n\nUnder the Combined Statistical Area (CSA) model, the Columbus, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area was the 28th largest in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH Combined Statistical Area (which also includes Marion, Chillicothe, and Mount Vernon) has a population of 2,370,839, making it the second largest metropolitan area in Ohio behind Cleveland. It is also the fourth most populous state capital in the United States, and the third largest city in the Midwestern United States.Population in Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas Ranked by 2000 Population for the United States and Puerto Rico: 1990 and 2000 (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. December 30, 2003. Retrieved on 2007-11-20 from http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t29/tab03a.pdf.\n\nColumbus is the county seat of Franklin County. The city proper has also expanded and annexed portions of adjoining Delaware County and Fairfield County. Named for explorer Christopher Columbus, the city was founded in 1812 at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers, and assumed the functions of state capital in 1816.\n\nThe city has a diverse economy based on education, government, insurance, banking, fashion, defense, aviation, food, clothes, logistics, steel, energy, medical research, health care, hospitality, retail, and technology. Columbus is home to the Battelle Memorial Institute, the world's largest private research and development foundation; Chemical Abstracts Service, the world's largest clearinghouse of chemical information; NetJets, the world's largest fractional ownership jet aircraft fleet; and The Ohio State University, one of the largest universities in the United States. , the city has the headquarters of five corporations in the U.S. Fortune 500: Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, American Electric Power, L Brands, Big Lots, and Cardinal Health. The fast-food corporations Wendy's and White Castle are also based in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area.\n\nIn 2012, Columbus was ranked in BusinessWeeks 50 best cities in America. In 2013, Forbes gave Columbus an A rating as one of the top cities for business in the U.S., and later that year included the city on its list of Best Places for Business and Careers. Columbus was also ranked as the no. 1 up-and-coming tech city in the nation by Forbes in 2008, and the city was ranked a top ten city by Relocate America in 2010. In 2007, fDi Magazine ranked the city no. 3 in the U.S. for cities of the future, and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium was rated no. 1 in 2009 by USA Travel Guide.\n\nHistory\n\nOhio Country\n\nThe area including modern-day Columbus once comprised the Ohio Country, under the nominal control of the French colonial empire through the Viceroyalty of New France from 1663 until 1763. In the 18th century European traders flocked to the area, attracted by the fur trade. \n\nThe area found itself frequently caught between warring factions, including American Indian and European interests. In the 1740s, Pennsylvania traders overran the territory until the French forcibly evicted them. \nIn the early 1750s the Ohio Company sent George Washington to the Ohio Country to survey. Fighting for control of the territory in the French and Indian War (1754-1763) became part of the international Seven Years' War (1756-1763). During this period the region routinely suffered turmoil, massacres and battles. The 1763 Treaty of Paris ceded the Ohio Country to the British Empire.\n\nVirginia Military District\n\nFollowing the American Revolution, the Ohio Country became part of the Virginia Military District, under the control of the United States. Colonists from the East Coast moved in, but rather than finding an empty frontier, they encountered people of the Miami, Delaware, Wyandot, Shawnee, and Mingo nations, as well as European traders. The tribes resisted expansion by the fledgling United States, leading to years of bitter conflict. The decisive Battle of Fallen Timbers resulted in the Treaty of Greenville, which finally opened the way for new settlements. By 1797, a young surveyor from Virginia named Lucas Sullivant had founded a permanent settlement on the west bank of the forks of the Scioto River and Olentangy River. An admirer of Benjamin Franklin, Sullivant chose to name his frontier village \"Franklinton\". The location was desirable for its proximity to navigable rivers—but Sullivant was initially foiled when, in 1798, a large flood wiped out the new settlement. He persevered, and the village was rebuilt.\n\n19th century\n\nAfter Ohio achieved statehood in 1803, political infighting among prominent Ohio leaders resulted in the state capital moving from Chillicothe to Zanesville and back again. State legislature finally decided that a new capital city, located in the center of the state, was a necessary compromise. They chose Columbus because of its central location within the state, and proximity to major transportation routes (primarily rivers). The legislature chose it as the capital over a number of other competitors, including Franklinton, Dublin, Worthington, and Delaware. Prior to the state legislature's decision in 1812, Columbus did not exist. The city was designed from the beginning as the state capital. Named in honor of Christopher Columbus, the capital city was founded on February 14, 1812, on the \"High Banks opposite Franklinton at the Forks of the Scioto most known as Wolf's Ridge.\" At the time, this area was a dense forestland, used only as a hunting ground. \n\nThe \"Burough of Columbus\" was officially established on February 10, 1816. Nine people were elected to fill the various positions of Mayor, Treasurer, and several others. Although the recent War of 1812 had brought prosperity to the area, the subsequent recession and conflicting claims to the land threatened the success of the new town. Early conditions were abysmal with frequent bouts of fevers and an outbreak of cholera in 1833. \n\nThe National Road reached Columbus from Baltimore in 1831, which complemented the city's new link to the Ohio and Erie Canal and facilitated a population boom. A wave of immigrants from Europe resulted in the establishment of two ethnic enclaves on the outskirts of the city. A significant Irish population settled in the north along Naghten Street (presently Nationwide Boulevard), while the Germans took advantage of the cheap land to the south, creating a community that came to be known as the Das Alte Südende (The Old South End). Columbus's German population constructed numerous breweries, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, and Capital University.Lentz, pp. 63–64\n\nWith a population of 3,500, Columbus was officially chartered as a city on March 3, 1834. On that day the legislature carried out a special act, which granted legislative authority to the city council and judicial authority to the mayor. Elections were held in April of that year, with voters choosing one John Brooks as the first mayor. Columbus annexed the then-separate city of Franklinton in 1837. \n\nIn 1850, the Columbus and Xenia Railroad became the first railroad into the city, followed by the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad in 1851. The two railroads built a joint Union Station on the east side of High Street just north of Naghten (then called North Public Lane). Rail traffic into Columbus increased—by 1875, eight railroads served Columbus, and the rail companies built a new, more elaborate station. \n\nOn January 7, 1857, the Ohio Statehouse finally opened to the public after 18 years of construction. \n\nDuring the Civil War, Columbus was a major base for the volunteer Union Army. It housed 26,000 troops and held up to 9,000 Confederate prisoners of war at Camp Chase, located at what is now the Hilltop neighborhood of west Columbus. Over 2,000 Confederate soldiers remain buried at the site, making it one of the largest Confederate cemeteries in the North. North of Columbus, along the Delaware Road, the Regular Army established Camp Thomas, where the 18th U.S. Infantry organized and trained.\n\nBy virtue of the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act, the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College (which became The Ohio State University) founded in 1870 on the former estate of William and Hannah Neil. \n.\nBy the end of the 19th century, Columbus was home to several major manufacturing businesses. The city became known as the \"Buggy Capital of the World,\" thanks to the presence of two dozen buggy factories—notably the Columbus Buggy Company, founded in 1875 by C.D. Firestone. The Columbus Consolidated Brewing Company also rose to prominence during this time, and might have achieved even greater success were it not for the Anti-Saloon League, based in neighboring Westerville. \n\nIn the steel industry, a forward-thinking man named Samuel P. Bush presided over the Buckeye Steel Castings Company. Columbus was also a popular location for labor organizations. In 1886, Samuel Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor in Druid's Hall on S. Fourth Street, and in 1890 the United Mine Workers of America was founded at old City Hall. In 1894, James Thurber, who would go on to an illustrious literary career in Paris and New York City, was born in the city. Today the Ohio State's theater department has a performance center named in his honor, and his youthful home near the Discovery District is on the National Register of Historic Places.\n\n20th century to the present\n\n\"The Columbus Experiment\" was an internationally recognized environmental project in 1908, which involved construction of the first water plant in the world to apply filtration and softening, designed and invented by two brothers, Clarence and Charles Hoover. Those working to construct the project included Jeremiah O'Shaughnessy, name-bearer of the Columbus metropolitan area's O'Shaughnessy Dam. This invention helped drastically reduce typhoid deaths. The essential design is still used today. \n\nColumbus earned one of its nicknames, The Arch City, because of the dozens of wooden arches that spanned High Street at the turn of the 20th century. The arches illuminated the thoroughfare and eventually became the means by which electric power was provided to the new streetcars. The city tore down the arches and replaced them with cluster lights in 1914—but reconstructed them from metal in the Short North district in 2002 for their unique historical interest. \n\nOn March 25, 1913, the Great Flood of 1913 devastated the neighborhood of Franklinton, leaving over ninety people dead and thousands of West Side residents homeless. To prevent future flooding, the Army Corps of Engineers recommended widening the Scioto River through downtown, constructing new bridges, and building a retaining wall along its banks. With the strength of the post-World War I economy, a construction boom occurred in the 1920s, resulting in a new Civic center, the Ohio Theatre, the American Insurance Union Citadel, and, to the north, a massive new Ohio Stadium. Although the American Professional Football Association was founded in Canton in 1920, its head offices moved to Columbus in 1921 to the New Hayden Building and remained in the city until 1941. In 1922, the association's name was changed to the National Football League. A decade later, in 1931, at a convention in the city, the Jehovah's Witnesses took that name by which they are known today.\n\nThe effects of the Great Depression were somewhat less severe in Columbus, as the city's diversified economy helped it fare marginally better than its Rust Belt neighbors. World War II brought a tremendous number of new jobs to the city, and with it another population surge. This time, the majority of new arrivals were migrants from the \"extraordinarily depressed rural areas\" of Appalachia, who would soon account for more than a third of Columbus's rising population. In 1948, the Town and Country Shopping Center opened in suburban Whitehall, and it is now regarded as one of the first modern shopping centers in the United States. \n\nThe construction of the interstate highway signaled the arrival of rapid suburb development in central Ohio. To protect the city's tax base from this suburbanization, Columbus adopted a policy of linking sewer and water hookups to annexation to the city. By the early 1990s, Columbus had grown to become Ohio's largest city in both land area and in population.\n\nEfforts to revitalize downtown Columbus have had some success in recent decades, though like most major American cities, some architectural heritage was lost in the process. In the 1970s, landmarks such as Union Station and the Neil House Hotel were razed to construct high-rise offices and big retail space. The National City Bank building was constructed in 1977, as well as the Nationwide Plazas and other towers that sprouted during this period. The construction of the Greater Columbus Convention Center has brought major conventions and trade shows to the city. The Scioto Mile is a showcase park being developed along the riverfront, an area that already had the Miranova Corporate Center and The Condominiums at North Bank Park. Corporate interests have developed Capitol Square, including the local NBC affiliate locating at the corner of Broad and High.\n\nThe 2010 United States foreclosure crisis forced the city to purchase numerous foreclosed, vacant propertieseither to renovate or demolish themat a cost of tens of millions of dollars. As of February 2011, Columbus had 6,117 vacant properties, according to city officials.\n\nAviation\n\nIn 1907, 14-year-old Cromwell Dixon built the SkyCycle, a pedal-powered blimp, which he flew at Driving Park.[https://web.archive.org/web/20050205141621/http://www.port-columbus.com/about/75anniv.asp \"75 Years of Flight in Columbus\"], Port Columbus International Airport. Retrieved July 3, 2012. Three years later, one of the Wright Brothers' exhibition pilots, Phillip Parmalee, conducted the world's first commercial cargo flight when he flew two packages containing 88 kilograms of silk 70 mi from Dayton to Columbus in a Wright Model B. \n\nMilitary aviators from Columbus distinguished themselves during World War One. Six Columbus pilots, led by top ace Eddie Rickenbacker, achieved forty-two \"kills\" – a full 10% of all US aerial victories in the war, and more than the aviators of any other American city. \n\nAfter the war, Port Columbus Airport became the axis of a coordinated rail-to-air transcontinental system that moved passengers from the East Coast to the West. TAT, which later became TWA, provided commercial service, following Charles Lindbergh's promotion of Columbus to the nation for such a hub. Following the failure of a bond levy in 1927 to build the airport, Lindbergh personally campaigned in the city in 1928, and the next bond levy passed that year. On July 8, 1929 the airport opened for business with the inaugural TAT west-bound flight from Columbus to Waynoka, Oklahoma. Among the 19 passengers on that flight was Amelia Earhart, with Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone attending the opening ceremonies.\n\nIn 1964, Ohio native Geraldine Fredritz Mock became the first woman to fly around the world, leaving from Columbus and piloting the Spirit of Columbus. Her flight lasted nearly a month, and set a record for speed for planes under 3858 lb}}.", "Rex David \"Dave\" Thomas (July 2, 1932 - January 8, 2002) was an American businessperson and philanthropist. Thomas was the founder and chief executive officer of Wendy's, a fast-food restaurant chain specializing in hamburgers. He is also known for appearing in more than 800 commercial advertisements for the chain from 1989 to 2002, more than any other company founder in television history. \n\nEarly life\n\nThomas was born on July 2, 1932 in Atlantic City, New Jersey to a young unmarried woman he never knew. He was adopted at six weeks by Rex and Auleva Thomas, and as an adult became a well-known advocate for adoption, founding the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. After his adoptive mother's death when he was 5, his father moved around the country seeking work. Thomas spent some of his early childhood near Kalamazoo, Michigan with his grandmother, Minnie Sinclair, who he credited with teaching him the importance of service and treating others well and with respect, lessons that helped him in his future business life. \n\nAt 12, Thomas had his first job at Regas Restaurant, a fine dining restaurant in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, then lost it in a dispute with his boss; decades later, Regas Restaurant installed a large autographed poster-photo of Thomas just inside their entrance until the business closed down December 31, 2010. He vowed never to lose another job. Moving with his father, by 15 he was working in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the Hobby House Restaurant owned by the Clauss family. When his father prepared to move again, Dave decided to stay in Fort Wayne, dropping out of high school to work full-time at the restaurant. Thomas, who considered ending his schooling the greatest mistake of his life, did not graduate from high school until 1993, when he obtained a GED. \n\nHe subsequently became an education advocate and founded the Dave Thomas Education Center in Coconut Creek, Florida, which offers GED classes to young adults. \n\nU.S. Army\n\nAt the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, rather than waiting for the draft, he volunteered for the U.S. Army to have some choice in assignments. Having food production and service experience, Thomas requested the Cook's and Baker's School at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was sent to Germany as a mess sergeant and was responsible for the daily meals of 2000 soldiers, rising to the rank of staff sergeant. After his discharge in 1953, Thomas returned to Fort Wayne and the Hobby House.\n\nFast food career\n\nKentucky Fried Chicken\n\nIn the mid-1950s, Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Col. Harland Sanders came to Fort Wayne to find restaurateurs with established businesses in order to try to sell KFC franchises to them. At first, Thomas, who was the head cook at a restaurant, and the Clausses declined Sanders' offer, but Sanders persisted and the Clauss family franchised their restaurant with KFC and later also owned many other KFC franchises in the Midwest. During this time, Thomas worked with Sanders on many projects to make KFC more profitable and to give it brand recognition. Among other things Thomas suggested to Sanders, that were implemented, was that KFC reduce the number of items on the menu and focus on a signature dish. Thomas also suggested Sanders make commercials that he appear in himself. Thomas was sent by the Clauss family in the mid-1960s to help turn around four failing KFC stores they owned in Columbus, Ohio.\n\nBy 1968 Thomas had increased sales in the four fried chicken restaurants so much that he sold his share in them back to Sanders for more than $1.5 million. This experience would prove invaluable to Thomas when he began Wendy's about a year later.\n\nArthur Treacher's\n\nAfter serving as a regional director for Kentucky Fried Chicken, Thomas became part of the investor group which founded Arthur Treacher's. His involvement with the new restaurant lasted less than a year before he went on to found Wendy's. \n\nWendy's\n\nThomas opened his first Wendy's in Columbus, Ohio, November 15, 1969. (This original restaurant remained operational until March 2, 2007, when it was closed due to lagging sales.) Thomas named the restaurant after his eight-year-old daughter Melinda Lou, whose nickname was \"Wendy\", stemming from the child's inability to say her own name at a young age. According to Bio TV, Dave claims himself that people nicknamed his daughter \"Wenda. Not Wendy, but Wenda. 'I'm going to call it Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers'.\" \n\nIn 1982, Thomas resigned from his day-to-day operations at Wendy's. However, by 1985, several company business decisions, including an awkward new breakfast menu and loss in brand awareness due to fizzled marketing efforts, caused the company's new president to urge Thomas back into a more active role with Wendy's. Thomas began to visit franchises and espouse his hardworking, so-called \"mop-bucket attitude.\" In 1989, he took on a significant role as the TV spokesperson in a series of commercials for the brand. Thomas was not a natural actor, and initially, his performances were criticized as stiff and ineffective by advertising critics. \n\nBy 1990, after efforts by Wendy's agency, Backer Spielvolgel Bates, to get humor into the campaign, a decision was made to portray Thomas in a more self-deprecating and folksy manner, which proved much more popular with test audiences. Consumer brand awareness of Wendy's eventually regained levels it had not achieved since octogenarian Clara Peller's wildly popular \"Where's the beef?\" campaign of 1984.\n\nWith his natural self-effacing style and his relaxed manner, Thomas quickly became a household name. A company survey during the 1990s, a decade during which Thomas starred in every Wendy's commercial that aired, found that 90% of Americans knew who Thomas was. After more than 800 commercials, it was clear that Thomas played a major role in Wendy's status as the country's third most popular burger restaurant.\n\nIn 1994, Thomas made a cameo appearance as himself in Bionic Ever After?, a reunion TV movie based upon The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.\n\nPersonal life\n\nThomas had four children besides Melinda: three daughters, Pam, Lori and Molly, and a son, Kenny. Though Kenny died in 2013, Dave's daughters still continue to own and run multiple Wendy's locations. Thomas founded the chain Sisters Chicken and Biscuits in 1978, named in reference to his other 3 daughters. \n\nHonors and memberships\n\nThomas, realizing that his success as a high school dropout might convince other teenagers to quit school (something he later claimed was a mistake), became a student at Coconut Creek High School. He earned a GED in 1993. Thomas was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1999.\n\nThomas was an honorary Kentucky colonel, as was former boss Colonel Sanders. \n\nThomas was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003.\n\nDeath\n\nThomas had been battling Carcinoid Cancer (AKA Neuroendocrine Tumor) since the 1990s, the disease had metastasized to his liver. He died on January 8, 2002 at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the age of 69. Thomas was buried in Union Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio. At the time of his death, there were more than 6,000 Wendy's restaurants operating in North America." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Latin.txt", "Semper_fidelis.txt" ], "title": [ "Latin", "Semper fidelis" ], "wiki_context": [ "Latin (Latin: ,) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets.\n\nLatin was originally spoken in Latium, Italy. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, initially in Italy and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language. Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine.\n\nBy the late Roman Republic (75 BC), Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin. Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the written language from the 3rd century, and Medieval Latin the language used from the 9th century to the Renaissance which used Renaissance Latin. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved. Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the official language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.\n\nToday, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently. It is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. \n\nLatin is a highly inflected language, with three distinct genders, seven noun cases, four verb conjugations, four verb principle parts, six tenses, three persons, three moods, two voices, two aspects and two numbers.\n\nLegacy\n\nThe language has been passed down through various forms.\n\nInscriptions\n\nSome inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the \"Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL)\". Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same: volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance and relevant information. The reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. About 270,000 inscriptions are known.\n\nLiterature\n\nThe works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part, in substantial works or in fragments to be analyzed in philology. They are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. Their works were published in manuscript form before the invention of printing and are now published in carefully-annotated printed editions, such as the Loeb Classical Library, published by Harvard University Press, or the Oxford Classical Texts, published by Oxford University Press.\n\nLatin translations of modern literature such as The Hobbit, Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, Paddington Bear, Winnie the Pooh, The Adventures of Tintin, Asterix, Harry Potter, Walter the Farting Dog, Le Petit Prince, Max and Moritz, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, \"fabulae mirabiles,\" are intended to garner popular interest in the language. Additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissner's Latin Phrasebook.\n\nLinguistics\n\nThe Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. In the Middle Ages, borrowing from Latin occurred from ecclesiastical usage established by Saint Augustine of Canterbury in the 6th century or indirectly after the Norman Conquest, through the Anglo-Norman language. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed \"inkhorn terms\", as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, but some useful ones survived, such as 'imbibe' and 'extrapolate'. Many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French.\n\nThe influence of Roman governance and Roman technology on the less-developed nations under Roman dominion made those nations adopted Latin phraseology in some specialized areas, such as science, technology, medicine, and law. For example, the Linnaean system of plant and animal classification was heavily influenced by Historia Naturalis, an encyclopedia of people, places, plants, animals, and things published by Pliny the Elder. Roman medicine, recorded in the works of such physicians as Galen, established that today's medical terminology would be primarily derived from Latin and Greek words, the Greek being filtered through the Latin. Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole. Latin law principles have survived partly in a long list of legal Latin terms.\n\nA few international auxiliary languages have been heavily influenced by Latin. Interlingua is sometimes considered a simplified, modern version of the language. Latino sine Flexione, popular in the early 20th century, is Latin with its inflections stripped away, among other grammatical changes.\n\nEducation\n\nThroughout European history, an education in the classics was considered crucial for those who wished to join literate circles. Instruction in Latin is an essential aspect. In today's world, a large number of Latin students in the US learn from Wheelock's Latin: The Classic Introductory Latin Course, Based on Ancient Authors. This book, first published in 1956, was written by Frederic M. Wheelock, who received a PhD from Harvard University. Wheelock's Latin has become the standard text for many American introductory Latin courses.\n\nThe Living Latin movement attempts to teach Latin in the same way that living languages are taught, as a means of both spoken and written communication. It is available at the Vatican and at some institutions in the US, such as the University of Kentucky and Iowa State University. The British Cambridge University Press is a major supplier of Latin textbooks for all levels, such as the Cambridge Latin Course series. It has also published a subseries of children's texts in Latin by Bell & Forte, which recounts the adventures of a mouse called Minimus.\n\nIn the United Kingdom, the Classical Association encourages the study of antiquity through various means, such as publications and grants. The University of Cambridge, the Open University (OU), a number of prestigious independent schools, for example Eton and Harrow, and Via Facilis, a London-based charity, run Latin courses. In the United States and in Canada, the American Classical League supports every effort to further the study of classics. Its subsidiaries include the National Junior Classical League (with more than 50,000 members), which encourages high school students to pursue the study of Latin, and the National Senior Classical League, which encourages students to continue their study of the classics into college. The league also sponsors the National Latin Exam. Classicist Mary Beard wrote in The Times Literary Supplement in 2006 that the reason for learning Latin is because of what was written in it. \n\nOfficial status\n\nLatin was or is the official language of European states:\n\n* – used in the diocese, with Italian being the official language of Vatican City\n* – Latin was the official language of Croatian Parliament (Sabor) from the 13th to the 19th century (1847). The oldest preserved records of the parliamentary sessions (Congregatio Regni totius Sclavonie generalis) – held in Zagreb (Zagabria), Croatia – date from 19 April 1273. An extensive Croatian Latin literature exists.\n* – officially recognised and widely used between the 9th and 18th centuries, commonly used in foreign relations and popular as a second language among some of the nobilityKarin Friedrich et al., The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569–1772, Cambridge University\nPress, 2000, ISBN 0-521-58335-7, [https://books.google.com/books?idqsBco40rMPcC&pg\nPA88&dqLatin+language+szlachta&as_brr\n3&eiJ44rR5_XFZXC7AK4xeGVBQ&sig\n3ecP0DjPuCLnTaEdVI76Ck8xSE8 Google Print, p.88]\n\nHistory\n\nAccording to Roman mythology, Latin was established by a tribal people called the Latini before the Trojan War. A number of historical phases of the language have been recognised, each distinguished by subtle differences in vocabulary, usage, spelling, morphology and syntax. There are no hard and fast rules of classification; different scholars emphasise different features. As a result, the list has variants, as well as alternative names. In addition to the historical phases, Ecclesiastical Latin refers to the styles used by the writers of the Roman Catholic Church as well as by Protestant scholars from Late Antiquity onward.\n\nAfter the Western Roman Empire fell in 476, and Germanic kingdoms took its place, the Germanic people adopted Latin as a language more suitable for legal and other formal uses.\n\nOld Latin\n\nThe earliest known form of Latin is Old Latin, which was spoken from the Roman Kingdom to the middle of the Roman Republic period. It is attested both in inscriptions and in some of the earliest extant Latin literary works, such as the comedies of Plautus and Terence. The Latin alphabet was devised from the Etruscan alphabet. The writing later changed from an initial right-to-left or boustrophedon to a left-to-right script. \n\nClassical Latin\n\nDuring the late republic and into the first years of the empire, a new Classical Latin arose, a conscious creation of the orators, poets, historians and other literate men, who wrote the great works of classical literature, which were taught in grammar and rhetoric schools. Today's instructional grammars trace their roots to such schools, which served as a sort of informal language academy dedicated to maintaining and perpetuating educated speech. \n\nVulgar Latin\n\nPhilological analysis of Archaic Latin works, such as those of Plautus, which contain snippets of everyday speech, indicates that a spoken language, Vulgar Latin (sermo vulgi (\"the speech of the masses\") by Cicero), existed at the same time as the literate Classical Latin. The informal language was rarely written, so philologists have been left with only individual words and phrases cited by classical authors and those found as graffiti. \n\nAs it was free to develop on its own, there is no reason to suppose that the speech was uniform either diachronically or geographically. On the contrary, romanised European populations developed their own dialects of the language. The Decline of the Roman Empire meant a deterioration in educational standards that brought about Late Latin, a postclassical stage of the language seen in Christian writings of the time. It was more in line with the everyday speech not only because of a decline in education but also because of a desire to spread the word to the masses.\n\nDespite the dialect variation (which is found in any widespread language) the languages of Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy retained a remarkable unity in phonological forms and developments, bolstered by the stabilising influence of their common Christian (Roman Catholic) culture. It was not until the Moorish conquest of Spain in 711 cut off communications between the major Romance regions that the languages began to diverge seriously. The Vulgar Latin dialect that would later become Romanian diverged somewhat more from the other varieties, as it was largely cut off from the unifying influences in the western part of the Empire.\n\nOne way to determine whether a Romance language feature was in Vulgar Latin is to compare it with its parallel in Classical Latin. If it was not preferred in Classical Latin, then it most likely came from the invisible contemporaneous Vulgar Latin. For example, Romance \"horse\" (cavallo/cheval/caballo/cavalo) came from Latin caballus. However, Classical Latin used equus. Caballus therefore was most likely the spoken form (slang). \n\nVulgar Latin began to diverge into distinct languages by the 9th century at the latest, when the earliest extant Romance writings begin to appear. They were, throughout the period, confined to everyday speech, as Medieval Latin was used for writing.\n\nMedieval Latin\n\nMedieval Latin is the written Latin in use during that portion of the postclassical period when no corresponding Latin vernacular existed. The spoken language had developed into the various incipient Romance languages; however, in the educated and official world Latin continued without its natural spoken base. Moreover, this Latin spread into lands that had never spoken Latin, such as the Germanic and Slavic nations. It became useful for international communication between the member states of the Holy Roman Empire and its allies.\n\nWithout the institutions of the Roman empire that had supported its uniformity, medieval Latin lost its linguistic cohesion: for example, in classical Latin sum and eram are used as auxiliary verbs in the perfect and pluperfect passive, which are compound tenses. Medieval Latin might use fui and fueram instead. Furthermore, the meanings of many words have been changed and new vocabularies have been introduced from the vernacular. Identifiable individual styles of classically-incorrect Latin prevail.\n\nRenaissance Latin\n\nThe Renaissance briefly reinforced the position of Latin as a spoken language by its adoption by the Renaissance Humanists. Often led by members of the clergy, they were shocked by the accelerated dismantling of the vestiges of the classical world and the rapid loss of its literature. They strove to preserve what they could and restore Latin to what it had been and introduced the practice of producing revised editions of the literary works that remained by comparing surviving manuscripts. They corrected Medieval Latin out of existence no later than the 15th century and replaced it with more correct versions supported by the scholars of the rising universities, who attempted, by scholarship, to discover what the classical language had been.\n\nNew Latin\n\nDuring the Early Modern Age, Latin still was the most important language of culture in Europe. Therefore, until the end of the 17th century the majority of books and almost all diplomatic documents were written in Latin. Afterwards, most diplomatic documents were written in French and later just native or other languages.\n\nContemporary Latin\n\nThe largest organisation that retains Latin in official and quasi-official contexts is the Catholic Church. Latin remains the language of the Roman Rite; the Tridentine Mass is celebrated in Latin. Although the Mass of Paul VI is usually celebrated in the local vernacular language, it can be and often is said in Latin, in part or whole, especially at multilingual gatherings. It is the official language of the Holy See, the primary language of its public journal, the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, and the working language of the Roman Rota. Vatican City is also home to the world's only automatic teller machine that gives instructions in Latin. In the pontifical universities postgraduate courses of Canon law are taught in Latin, and papers are written in the same language.\n\nIn the Anglican Church, after the publication of the Book of Common Prayer of 1559, a Latin edition was published in 1560 for use at universities such as Oxford and the leading \"public schools\" (English private academies), where the liturgy was still permitted to be conducted in Latin and there have been several Latin translations since. Most recently, a Latin edition of the 1979 USA Anglican Book of Common Prayer has appeared. \n\nSome films of ancient settings, such as Sebastiane and The Passion of the Christ, have been made with dialogue in Latin for the sake of realism. Occasionally, Latin dialogue is used because of its association with religion or philosophy, in such film/television series as The Exorcist and Lost (\"Jughead\"). Subtitles are usually shown for the benefit of those who do not understand Latin. There are also songs written with Latin lyrics. The libretto for the opera-oratorio Oedipus rex (opera) by Igor Stravinsky is in Latin.\n\nSwitzerland adopts the country's Latin short name Helvetia on coins and stamps since there is no room to use all of the nation's four official languages. For a similar reason, it adopted the international vehicle and internet code CH, which stands for Confoederatio Helvetica, the country's full Latin name.\n\nMany organizations today have Latin mottos, such as \"Semper paratus\" (always ready), the motto of the United States Coast Guard, and \"Semper fidelis\" (always faithful), the motto of the United States Marine Corps. Several of the states of the United States also have Latin mottos, such as \"Qui transtulit sustinet\" (\"He who transplanted still sustains\"), the state motto of Connecticut; \"Ad astra per aspera\" (\"To the stars through hardships\"), that of Kansas; \"Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam, circumspice\" (\"If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you\"), that of Michigan; \"Salus populi suprema lex esto\" (\"The health of the people should be the highest law\"), that of Missouri; \"Esse quam videri\" (To be rather than to seem), that of North Carolina; \"Sic semper tyrannis\" (Thus always for tyrants), that of Virginia; and \"Montani semper liberi\" (Mountaineers are always free), that of West Virginia. Another Latin motto is \"Per ardua ad astra\" (Through adversity/struggle to the stars), the motto of the Royal Air Force (RAF). Some schools adopt Latin mottos, for example Harvard University's motto is \"Veritas\" meaning (truth). Veritas was the goddess of truth, a daughter of Saturn, and the mother of Virtue.\n\nSimilarly Canada's motto \"A mari usque ad mare\" (from sea to sea) and most provincial mottos are also in Latin (British Columbia's is Splendor Sine Occasu (splendor without diminishment)).\n\nOccasionally, some media outlets broadcast in Latin, which is targeted at enthusiasts. Notable examples include Radio Bremen in Germany, YLE radio in Finland, and Vatican Radio & Television, all of which broadcast news segments and other material in Latin.\n\nThere are many websites and forums maintained in Latin by enthusiasts. The Latin Wikipedia has more than 100,000 articles written in Latin.\n\nLatin is taught in many high schools, especially in Europe and the Americas. It is most common in British public schools and grammar schools, the Italian liceo classico and liceo scientifico, the German Humanistisches Gymnasium and the Dutch gymnasium. In the United States, it is taught in Boston Latin School, English High School of Boston, Boston Latin Academy, Central High School of Philadelphia, and Baltimore City College.\n\nPhonology\n\nNo inherited verbal knowledge of the ancient pronunciation of Latin exists so it must be reconstructed. Among the data used for reconstruction are explicit statements about pronunciation by ancient authors, misspellings, puns, ancient etymologies, and the spelling of Latin loanwords in other languages. \n\nConsonants\n\nThe consonant phonemes of Classical Latin are shown in the following table: \n\nIn Old and Classical Latin, the Latin alphabet had no distinction between uppercase and lowercase, and the letters did not exist. In place of , were used. represented both vowels and consonants. Most of the letterforms were similar to modern uppercase, as can be seen in the inscription from the Colosseum shown at the top of the article.\n\nThe spelling systems used in Latin dictionaries and modern editions of Latin texts, however, normally use in place of Classical-era . Some systems use for the consonant sounds except in the combinations for which is never used.\n\nSome notes concerning the mapping of Latin phonemes to English graphemes are given below:\n\nDoubled consonants in Latin are pronounced long. In English, consonants are pronounced double only between two words or morphemes, as in unnamed, which has a doubled like the nn in Latin annus.\n\nVowels\n\nSimple vowels\n\nIn Classical Latin, the letter was written as even if it was used as a vowel. was adopted to represent upsilon in loanwords from Greek, but it was pronounced like and by some speakers. It was also used in native Latin words by confusion with Greek words of similar meaning, such as sylva and ὕλη.\n\nClassical Latin distinguished between long and short vowels. Then, long vowels, except for , were frequently marked using the apex, which was sometimes similar to an acute accent . Long was written using a taller version of , called i longa \"long I\": . In modern texts, long vowels are often indicated by a macron , and short vowels are usually unmarked except when it is necessary to distinguish between words, when they are marked with a breve: .\n\nLong vowels in Classical Latin were pronounced with a different quality from short vowels and also were longer. The difference is described in table below:\n\nA vowel and at the end of a word, or a vowel and before or , was long and nasal, as in monstrum.\n\nDiphthongs\n\nClassical Latin had several diphthongs. The two most common were . was fairly rare, and were very rare, at least in native Latin words. \n\nThe sequences sometimes did not represent diphthongs. and also represented a sequence of two vowels in different syllables in aēnus \"of bronze\" and coēpit \"began\", and represented sequences of two vowels or of a vowel and one of the semivowels, in cauē \"beware!\", cuius \"whose\", monuī \"I warned\", soluī \"I released\", dēlēuī \"I destroyed\", eius \"his\", and nouus \"new\".\n\nOld Latin had more diphthongs, but most of them changed into long vowels in Classical Latin. The Old Latin diphthong and the sequence became Classical . Old Latin and changed to Classical , except in a few words whose became Classical . These two developments sometimes occurred in different words from the same root: for instance, Classical poena \"punishment\" and pūnīre \"to punish\". Early Old Latin usually changed to Classical . \n\nIn Vulgar Latin and the Romance languages, merged with . A similar pronunciation also existed during the Classical Latin period for less-educated speakers.\n\nOrthography\n\nLatin was written in the Latin alphabet, derived from the Old Italic script, which was in turn drawn from the Greek alphabet and ultimately the Phoenician alphabet. This alphabet has continued to be used over the centuries as the script for the Romance, Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, Finnic.and many Slavic languages (Polish, Slovak, Slovene, Croatian and Czech), and it has been adopted by many languages around the world, including Vietnamese, the Austronesian languages, many Turkic languages, and most languages in sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, and Oceania, making it by far the world's single most widely used writing system.\n\nThe number of letters in the Latin alphabet has varied. When it was first derived from the Etruscan alphabet, it contained only 21 letters. Later, G was added to represent, which had previously been spelled C, and Z ceased to be included in the alphabet, as the language then had no voiced alveolar fricative. The letters Y and Z were later added to represent Greek letters, upsilon and zeta respectively, in Greek loanwords. \n\nW was created in the 11th century from VV. It represented in Germanic languages, not Latin, which still uses V for the purpose. J was distinguished from the original I only during the late Middle Ages, as was the letter U from V. Although some Latin dictionaries use J, it is for rarely used for Latin text, as it was not used in classical times, but many other languages use it.\n\nClassical Latin did not contain sentence punctuation, letter case, or interword spacing, but apices were sometimes used to distinguish length in vowels and the interpunct was used at times to separate words. The first line of Catullus 3, originally written as\n\nLV́GÉTEÓVENERÉSCVPÍDINÉSQVE (\"Mourn, O Venuses and Cupids\")\n\nor with interpunct as\n\nLV́GÉTE·Ó·VENERÉS·CVPÍDINÉSQVE\n*\nwould be rendered in a modern edition as\n\nLugete, o Veneres Cupidinesque\n\nor with macrons\n\nLūgēte, ō Venerēs Cupīdinēsque.\n\nThe Roman cursive script is commonly found on the many wax tablets excavated at sites such as forts, an especially extensive set having been discovered at Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall in Britain. Curiously enough, most of the Vindolanda tablets show spaces between words, but spaces were avoided in monumental inscriptions from that era.\n\nAlternate scripts\n\nOccasionally, Latin has been written in other scripts:\n* The disputed Praeneste fibula is a 7th-century BC pin with an Old Latin inscription written using the Etruscan script.\n* The rear panel of the early 8th-century Franks Casket has an inscription that switches from Old English in Anglo-Saxon runes to Latin in Latin script and to Latin in runes.\n\nGrammar\n\nLatin is a synthetic, fusional language in the terminology of linguistic typology. In more traditional terminology, it is an inflected language, but typologists are apt to say \"inflecting\". Words include an objective semantic element and markers specifying the grammatical use of the word. The fusion of root meaning and markers produces very compact sentence elements: amō, \"I love,\" is produced from a semantic element, ama-, \"love,\" to which -ō, a first person singular marker, is suffixed.\n\nThe grammatical function can be changed by changing the markers: the word is \"inflected\" to express different grammatical functions, but the semantic element does not change. (Inflection uses affixing and infixing. Affixing is prefixing and suffixing. Latin inflections are never prefixed.)\n\nFor example, amābit, \"he or she or it will love\", is formed from the same stem, amā-, to which a future tense marker, -bi-, is suffixed, and a third person singular marker, -t, is suffixed. There is an inherent ambiguity: -t may denote more than one grammatical category: masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. A major task in understanding Latin phrases and clauses is to clarify such ambiguities by an analysis of context. All natural languages contain ambiguities of one sort or another.\n\nThe inflections express gender, number, and case in adjectives, nouns, and pronouns, a process called declension. Markers are also attached to fixed stems of verbs, to denote person, number, tense, voice, mood, and aspect, a process called conjugation. Some words are uninflected and undergo neither process, such as adverbs, prepositions, and interjections.\n\nNouns\n\nA regular Latin noun belongs to one of five main declensions, a group of nouns with similar inflected forms. The declensions are identified by the genitive singular form of the noun. The first declension, with a predominant ending letter of a, is signified by the genitive singular ending of -ae. The second declension, with a predominant ending letter of o, is signified by the genitive singular ending of -i. The third declension, with a predominant ending letter of i, is signified by the genitive singular ending of -is. The fourth declension, with a predominant ending letter of u, is signified by the genitive singular ending of -ūs. The fifth declension, with a predominant ending letter of e, is signified by the genitive singular ending of -ei.\n\nThere are seven Latin noun cases, which also apply to adjectives and pronouns and mark a noun's syntactic role in the sentence by means of inflections. Thus, word order is not as important in Latin as it is in English, which is less inflected. The general structure and word order of a Latin sentence can therefore vary. The cases are as follows:\n\n# Nominative – used when the noun is the subject or a predicate nominative. The thing or person acting: the girl ran: puella cucurrit, or cucurrit puella\n# Genitive – used when the noun is the possessor of or connected with an object: \"the horse of the man\", or \"the man's horse\"; in both instances, the word man would be in the genitive case when it is translated into Latin). It also indicates the partitive, in which the material is quantified: \"a group of people\"; \"a number of gifts\": people and gifts would be in the genitive case). Some nouns are genitive with special verbs and adjectives: The cup is full of wine. Poculum plēnum vīnī est. The master of the slave had beaten him. Dominus servī eum verberāverat.\n# Dative – used when the noun is the indirect object of the sentence, with special verbs, with certain prepositions, and if it is used as agent, reference, or even possessor: The merchant hands the stola to the woman. Mercātor fēminae stolam trādit.)\n# Accusative – used when the noun is the direct object of the subject and as the object of a preposition demonstrating place to which.: The man killed the boy. Vir necāvit puerum.\n# Ablative – used when the noun demonstrates separation or movement from a source, cause, agent or instrument or when the noun is used as the object of certain prepositions; adverbial: You walked with the boy. cum puerō ambulāvistī.\n# Vocative – used when the noun is used in a direct address. The vocative form of a noun is often the same as the nominative, but exceptions include second-declension nouns ending in -us. The -us becomes an -e in the vocative singular. If it ends in -ius (such as fīlius), the ending is just -ī (filī), as distinct from the nominative plural (filiī) in the vocative singular: \"Master!\" shouted the slave. \"Domine!\" clāmāvit servus.\n# Locative – used to indicate a location (corresponding to the English \"in\" or \"at\"). It is far less common than the other six cases of Latin nouns and usually applies to cities and small towns and islands along with a few common nouns, such as the word domus, house. In the singular of the first and second declensions, its form coincides with the genitive (Roma becomes Romae, \"in Rome\"). In the plural of all declensions and the singular of the other declensions, it coincides with the ablative (Athēnae becomes Athēnīs, \"at Athens\"). In the fourth-declension word domus, the locative form, domī (\"at home\") differs from the standard form of all other cases.\n\nLatin lacks both definite and indefinite articles so puer currit can mean either \"the boy is running\" or \"a boy is running\".\n\nAdjectives\n\nThere are two types of regular Latin adjectives: first- and second- declension and third-declension. They are so-called because their forms are similar or identical to first- and second-declension and third-declension nouns, respectively. Latin adjectives also have comparative (more --, -er) and superlative (most --, est) forms. There are also a number of Latin participles.\n\nLatin numbers are sometimes declined. See Numbers below.\n\nFirst- and second-declension adjectives\n\nFirst- and second-declension adjectives are declined like first-declension nouns for the feminine forms and like second-declension nouns for the masculine and neuter forms. For example, for mortuus, mortua, mortuum (dead), mortua is declined like a regular first-declension noun (such as puella (girl)), mortuus is declined like a regular second-declension masculine noun (such as dominus (lord, master)), and mortuum is declined like a regular second-declension neuter noun (such as auxilium (help)).\n\nFirst- and second-declension -er adjectives\n\nSome first- and second-declension adjectives have an -er as the masculine nominative singular form and are declined like regular first- and second-declension adjectives. Some but not all adjectives keep the e for all of the forms.\n\nThird-declension adjectives\n\nThird-declension adjectives are mostly declined like normal third-declension nouns, with a few exceptions. In the plural nominative neuter, for example, the ending is -ia (omnia (all, everything)), and for third-declension nouns, the plural nominative neuter ending is -a or -ia (capita (heads), animalia (animals)) They can have one, two or three forms for the masculine, feminine, and neuter nominative singular.\n\nParticiples\n\nLatin participles, like English participles, are formed from a verb. There are a few main types of participles:\n\nPrepositions\n\nLatin sometimes uses prepositions, depending on the type of prepositional phrase being used. Prepositions can take two cases for their object: the accusative (\"apud puerum\" (with the boy), with \"puerum\" being the accusative form of \"puer\", boy) and the ablative (\"sine puero\" (without the boy), \"puero\" being the ablative form of \"puer\", boy).\n\nVerbs\n\nA regular verb in Latin belongs to one of four main conjugations. A conjugation is \"a class of verbs with similar inflected forms.\" The conjugations are identified by the last letter of the verb's present stem. The present stem can be found by omitting the -re (-rī in deponent verbs) ending from the present infinitive form. The infinitive of the first conjugation ends in -ā-re or -ā-ri (active and passive respectively): amāre, \"to love,\" hortārī, \"to exhort\"; of the second conjugation by -ē-re or -ē-rī: monēre, \"to warn\", verērī, \"to fear;\" of the third conjugation by -ere, -ī: dūcere, \"to lead,\" ūtī, \"to use\"; of the fourth by -ī-re, -ī-rī: audīre, \"to hear,\" experīrī, \"to attempt\". \n\nIrregular verbs may not follow the types or may be marked in a different way. The \"endings\" presented above are not the suffixed infinitive markers. The first letter in each case is the last of the stem so the conjugations are also called a-conjugation, e-conjugation and i-conjugation. The fused infinitive ending is -re or -rī. Third-conjugation stems end in a consonant: the consonant conjugation. Further, there is a subset of the thid conjugation, the i-stems, which behave somewhat like the fourth conjugation, as they are both i-stems, one short and the other long. The stem categories descend from Indo-European and can therefore be compared to similar conjugations in other Indo-European languages.\n\nThere are six general tenses in Latin (present, imperfect, future, perfect, pluperfect and future perfect), three moods (indicative, imperative and subjunctive, in addition to the infinitive, participle, gerund, gerundive and supine), three persons (first, second and third), two numbers (singular and plural), two voices (active and passive) and three aspects (perfective, imperfective, and stative). Verbs are described by four principal parts:\n\n# The first principal part is the first-person singular, present tense, indicative mood, active voice form of the verb. If the verb is impersonal, the first principal part will be in the third-person singular.\n# The second principal part is the present infinitive active.\n# The third principal part is the first-person singular, perfect indicative active form. Like the first principal part, if the verb is impersonal, the third principal part will be in the third-person singular.\n# The fourth principal part is the supine form, or alternatively, the nominative singular, perfect passive participle form of the verb. The fourth principal part can show one gender of the participle or all three genders (-us for masculine, -a for feminine and -m for neuter) in the nominative singular. The fourth principal part will be the future participle if the verb cannot be made passive. Most modern Latin dictionaries, if they show only one gender, tend to show the masculine; but many older dictionaries instead show the neuter, as it coincides with the supine. The fourth principal part is sometimes omitted for intransitive verbs, but strictly in Latin, they can be made passive if they are used impersonally, and the supine exists for such verbs.\n\nThere are six tenses in the Latin language. These are divided into two tense systems: the present system, which is made up of the present, imperfect and future tenses, and the perfect system, which is made up of the perfect, pluperfect and future perfect tenses. Each tense has a set of endings corresponding to the person and number referred to. Subject (nominative) pronouns are generally omitted for the first (I, we) and second (you) persons unless emphasis on the subject is desired.\n\nThe table below displays the common inflected endings for the indicative mood in the active voice in all six tenses. For the future tense, the first listed endings are for the first and second conjugations, and the second listed endings are for the third and fourth conjugations:\n\nThe future perfect endings are identical to the future forms of sum (with the exception of erint) and that the pluperfect endings are identical to the imperfect forms of sum.\n\nDeponent verbs\n\nSome Latin verbs are deponent, causing their forms to be in the passive mood but retain an active meaning: hortor, hortārī, hortātus sum (to urge).\n\nVocabulary\n\nAs Latin is an Italic language, most of its vocabulary is likewise Italic, ultimately from the ancestral Proto-Indo-European language. However, because of close cultural interaction, the Romans not only adapted the Etruscan alphabet to form the Latin alphabet but also borrowed some Etruscan words into their language, including persona \"mask\" and histrio \"actor\". Latin also included vocabulary borrowed from Oscan, another Italic language.\n\nAfter the Fall of Tarentum (272 BC), the Romans began hellenizing, or adopting features of Greek culture, including the borrowing of Greek words, such as camera (vaulted roof), sumbolum (symbol), and balineum (bath). This hellenization led to the addition of \"Y\" and \"Z\" to the alphabet to represent Greek sounds. Subsequently the Romans transplanted Greek art, medicine, science and philosophy to Italy, paying almost any price to entice Greek skilled and educated persons to Rome and sending their youth to be educated in Greece. Thus, many Latin scientific and philosophical words were Greek loanwords or had their meanings expanded by association with Greek words, as ars (craft) and τέχνη.\n\nBecause of the Roman Empire's expansion and subsequent trade with outlying European tribes, the Romans borrowed some northern and central European words, such as beber (beaver), of Germanic origin, and bracae (breeches), of Celtic origin. The specific dialects of Latin across Latin-speaking regions of the former Roman Empire after its fall were influenced by languages specific to the regions. The dialects of Latin evolved into different Romance languages.\n\nDuring and after the adoption of Christianity into Roman society, Christian vocabulary became a part of the language, either from Greek or Hebrew borrowings or as Latin neologisms. Continuing into the Middle Ages, Latin incorporated many more words from surrounding languages, including Old English and other Germanic languages.\n\nOver the ages, Latin-speaking populations produced new adjectives, nouns, and verbs by affixing or compounding meaningful segments. For example, the compound adjective, omnipotens, \"all-powerful,\" was produced from the adjectives omnis, \"all\", and potens, \"powerful\", by dropping the final s of omnis and concatenating. Often, the concatenation changed the part of speech, and nouns were produced from verb segments or verbs from nouns and adjectives. \n\nPhrases\n\nThe phrases are mentioned with accents to show where to stress. In Latin, most words are stressed at the second-last (penultimate) syllable, called in Latin paenultima or syllaba paenultima.Tore Janson - Latin - Kulturen, historien, språket - First edition, 2009. A few words are stressed at the third-last syllable, called in Latin antepaenultima or syllaba antepaenultima.\n\nsálve to one person / salvéte to more than one person - hello\n\náve to one person / avéte to more than one person - greetings\n\nvále to one person / valéte to more than one person - goodbye\n\ncúra ut váleas - take care\n\nexoptátus to male / exoptáta to female, optátus to male / optáta to female, grátus to male / gráta to female, accéptus to male / accépta to female - welcome\n\nquómodo váles?, ut váles? - how are you?\n\nbéne - good\n\namabo te - please\n\nbéne váleo - I'm fine\n\nmále - bad\n\nmále váleo - I'm not good\n\nquáeso (['kwajso]/['kwe:so]) - please\n\níta, íta est, íta véro, sic, sic est, étiam - yes\n\nnon, minime - no\n\ngrátias tíbi, grátias tíbi ágo - thank you\n\nmágnas grátias, mágnas grátias ágo - many thanks\n\nmáximas grátias, máximas grátias ágo, ingéntes grátias ágo - thank you very much\n\naccípe sis to one person / accípite sítis to more than one person, libénter - you're welcome\n\nqua aetáte es? - how old are you?\n\n25 ánnos nátus to male / 25 ánnos náta to female - 25 years old\n\nloquerísne ... - do you speak ...\n*Latíne? - Latin?\n*Gráece? (['grajke]/['gre:ke]) - Greek?\n*Ánglice? (['aŋlike]) - English?\n*Italiáne? - Italian?\n*Gallice? - French?\n*Hispánice? - Spanish?\n*Lusitánice? - Portuguese?\n*Theodísce? ([teo'diske]) - German?\n*Sínice? - Chinese?\n*Japónice? ([ja'po:nike]) - Japanese?\n*Coreane? - Korean?\n*Arábice? - Arabic?\n*Pérsice? - Persian?\n*Indice? - Hindi?\n*Rússice? - Russian?\n\núbi latrína est? - where is the toilet?\n\námo te / te ámo - I love you\n\nNumbers\n\nIn ancient times, numbers in Latin were written only with letters. Today, the numbers can be written with the Arabic numbers as well as with Roman numerals. The numbers 1, 2 and 3 and every whole hundred from 200 to 900 are declined as nouns and adjectives, with some differences.\n\nThe numbers from 4 to 100 often do not change their endings.\n\nExample text\n\nCommentarii de Bello Gallico, also called De Bello Gallico (The Gallic War), written by Gaius Julius Caesar, begins with the following passage:", "Semper fidelis is a Latin phrase that means \"always faithful\" or \"always loyal\". In the United States it is best known as the motto of the United States Marine Corps. Elsewhere, it is a common motto for towns, families, schools, and military units. \n\nThe earliest definitively recorded use of semper fidelis is as the motto of the French town of Abbeville since 1369. It has also been used by other towns, and is recorded as the motto of various European families since the 16th century, and possibly since the 13th century or earlier. Records show many families in England, France and Ireland using this motto.\n\nThe earliest recorded use of semper fidelis by a military unit is by the Duke of Beaufort's Regiment of Foot, raised in south-western England in 1685. This is apparently linked to its use as a motto by the city of Exeter since no later than 1660. Subsequently, a variety of military organizations adopted the motto.\n\nFamilies and individuals\n\nThis phrase was used in Europe, at least in Great Britain, Ireland and France and probably in other countries as well. A more recent adoption is by Senator Joe Doyle, in arms granted by the Chief Herald of Ireland in 1999.\n\nBernard Burke in 1884 listed many notable families in Great Britain and Ireland using the motto \"Semper fidelis\" in their coats of arms. They include:\n*Lynch family (Ireland): \"Semper Fidelis\" is the family motto of the Lynch family. The Lynches were one of the Tribes of Galway who were fourteen merchant families who dominated the political, commercial, and social life of the city of Galway in western Ireland between the 13th and 16th centuries. Members of the 'Tribes' were considered Old English gentry. The Lynches were descended from William Le Petit, who was one of the Norman knights who settled in Ireland following the grant of Ireland as a fiefdom by Pope Adrian IV to King Henry II of England in the early 12th century. \"Semper Fidelis\" appears on the Lynch Family coat of arms. Although the earliest traceable reference to this usage is James Hardiman's history of Galway published in 1820, the history of the family makes it likely that the motto was in use by the 14th or 15th century.\n*Frith family (Ireland): The family of John Frith, Protestant martyr, is thought to have used the motto as far back as the 16th century. John Frith is the earliest entry in Burke's list of the Frith family. The Friths settled in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, after John Frith's execution. The family fought at the Battle of the Boyne.\n*Edge family (England): The Edge family of Strelley, Nottinghamshire, were using the motto \"Semper fidelis\" by 1814 at the latest (see UK National Archives document reference DD/E/209/32-34). The arms were granted in 1709, but it is not recorded whether the motto formed part of the initial grant.\n*Onslow family (England): the family of the Earls of Onslow uses the motto \"Semper fidelis\" (see also Lodge, 1832), though their alternative motto (the punning Festina lente) is better known.\n*Stewart family (Scotland; also spelled Steuart, especially in older sources): \"Semper Fidelis\" is the family motto of the Stewart family of Ballechin in Perthshire. J. Burke (1836, pp. 149–150) records that the family goes back to an illegitimate son of James II of Scotland (1430–1460), and the motto is recorded by Burke and by Robson (1830). However they do not report the date of its first use.\nBurke's full list of families using the motto was: Booker, Barbeson, Bonner, Broadmead, Carney, Chesterman, Dick, Dickins, Duffield, Edge, Formby, Frisby, Garrett, Haslett, Hill, Houlton, Kearney, Lynch, Lund, Marriott, Nicholls, Onslow, Pollexfen, Smith, Steele, Steehler, Steuart, Stirling and Wilcoxon. A large portion of these families were Irish or Scottish.\n \nChassant and Tausin (1878, p. 647) list the following French families as using it: D'Arbaud of Jonques, De Bréonis, Chevalier of Pontis, Du Golinot of Mauny, De Coynart, De Genibrouse of Gastelpers, Macar of the Province of Liege, Milet of Mureau, Navoir of Ponzac, De Piomelles, De Poussois, De Reymons, and De Rozerou of Mos.\n\nCities\n\nAbbeville (since 1369)\n\nThe city of Abbeville in France is recorded by 19th century sources (such as Chassant and Taussin, 1878) as using the motto \"Semper fidelis,\" and recent sources state that the city was accorded this motto by Charles V, by letters patent of 19 June 1369, issued at Vincennes. This would make it the earliest recorded user of the motto among cities. However both Louandre (1834, p. 169) and the city's current official website give the motto simply as \"Fidelis\", and Sanson (1646, p. 15) claimed that even this was not part of Charles's original grant, but was added later, sometime in the 14th to 17th centuries.\n\nExeter (since 1660 or earlier)\n\nThe City of Exeter, in Devon, England, has used the motto since at least 1660, when it appears in a manuscript of the local chronicler, Richard Izacke. Izacke claimed that the motto was adopted in 1588 to signify the city's loyalty to the English Crown. According to Izacke, it was Queen Elizabeth I who suggested that the city adopt this motto (perhaps in imitation of her own motto, Semper eadem, \"Ever the same\"); her suggestion is said to have come in a letter to \"the Citizens of Exeter,\" in recognition of their gift of money toward the fleet that had defeated the Spanish Armada. John Hooker's map of Exeter of around 1586 shows the city's coat of arms without the motto, suggesting that the city's use of the motto is no older than this. However the city archives do not hold any letter relating to the motto, and Grey (2005) argues that the Elizabethan origin of the motto may be no more than a local myth, since it is not recorded in contemporary chronicles, and that it may have been adopted at the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy to compensate for the city's less than total loyalty to the crown during the English Civil War.\n\nVarious bodies associated with the city of Exeter also use the motto:\n*The Royal Navy HMS Exeter, which is named after the City of Exeter.\n*Various Exeter-based units of the British Army, see below.\n*There is a Masonic Lodge in Exeter, called \"Lodge Semper Fidelis.\"\n*Exeter City Police - the motto was inscribed on the force crest.\n*The crest of Exeter City Football Club \n\nLviv (since 1658)\n\nThe motto \"Semper fidelis\" is applied to the city of Lwów (; now Lviv) in 1658 by Pope Alexander VII in recognition of the city's key role in defending Europe from Muslim invasion. That same year, the Sejm (parliament) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth passed the Semper fidelis Poloniae [\"Ever Faithful to Poland\"] Act (as most people construed the Latin phrase).\n\nBoth Leopolis and Exeter, in addition to sharing the same motto, featured a three-turreted castle on their coats-of-arms. This is apparently a coincidence.\n\nToday, in Poland, the motto is referenced mainly in connection with the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1919 following the collapse of Austro-Hungary in the wake of World War I, and more especially in connection with the Polish-Bolshevik War that followed.\n\nIn Ukraine, the phrase is used much less, and refers to the survival of the Ukrainian Church through the period of Soviet persecution.\n\nSt. Malo (since 17th century or earlier)\n\n\"Semper fidelis\" is the motto of the town of St. Malo, in Brittany, France. The date of its adoption is not known, but it appears to have been in use in the 17th century, replacing an earlier motto, \"Cave canem\".\n\nCalvi\n\n\"Civitas Calvi Semper Fidelis\" may have been the motto of the city of Calvi, Balagna area in Corsica for 500 years.\n\nWhite Plains\n\n\"Semper Fidelis\" is the motto of the city of White Plains, in New York, United States.\n\nMilitary units\n\nRegiments from south-western England (from 1685)\n\nThe south-western English town of Exeter has used the motto semper fidelis since no later than 1660, inspiring its use by several south-western English military units.\n\nDuke of Beaufort's Regiment of Foot (from 1685)\n\nIn 1685 the motto was used by Duke of Beaufort when The Duke of Beaufort's Regiment of Foot, or Beaufort Musketeers, were raised to defend Bristol against the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion. It was numbered as the 11th Regiment of Foot when the numerical system of regimental designation was adopted in 1751 and was designated the regiment for North Devonshire. Also general Hudson used this motto in the war of eighteen twelve\n\nThe 1st (Exeter and South Devon) Rifle Volunteer Corps (from 1852)\n\nThe 1st (Exeter and South Devon) Rifle Volunteer Corps, raised in Exeter in 1852, was using the motto on its cap badge by 1860 at the latest; the Illustrated London News reported its use in its 7 January 1860 issue. The motto was continued by The Devonshire Regiment of the British Army.\n\nDevonshire and Dorset Regiment (from 1958)\n\nThe motto was further continued on the badges of the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment when the Devonshires were amalgamated into them in 1958. This use of the motto evidently derives from these regiments' close connection with the city of Exeter, where they had a base from their foundation (see the Illustrated London News article referenced above) until their disappearance by amalgamation into the Rifles in 2007.\n\nThe Irish Brigade of France (1690-1792) (Semper et ubique Fidelis)\n\nThe Irish units in France used a similar motto, \"Semper et ubique Fidelis\", meaning \"Always and Everywhere Faithful\". These units, forming the Irish Brigade, were raised in 1690-1 under the terms of the Treaty of Limerick, which ended the war between King James II and King William III in Ireland and Britain. As the native Irish army in exile, \"Semper et ubique Fidelis\" was a reference to their fidelity to the Catholic faith, King James II, and to the king of France. For decades the Irish Brigade served as an independent army within the French army, remaining \"Always and Everywhere Faithful\" to their native Irish traditions (such as having the men elect their own officers, unheard of in France and England).\n\nWalsh's regiment of the Irish Brigade is noted for aiding the American cause in the American Revolution, when they were assigned as marines to John Paul Jones's ship, the Bonhomme Richard. \n\nThe involvement of Irish Brigade soldiers serving as marines in the American War of Independence may have inspired the adoption of the motto \"Semper Fidelis\" by the U.S. Marines. This would be ironic since the Irish Brigade motto referred specifically to their loyalty to the Catholicism and Catholic kings, while the American rebels were fighting for a republican form of government for a largely Protestant population. \n\nThe phrase \"Semper Fidelis\" was made the official motto of the Marine Corps by Charles Grymes McCawley, the eighth Commandant of the Marine Corps, who was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which had a large Irish Catholic population. McCawley owed his commission to Senator Pierre Soule of Louisiana a Catholic, born and raised in France, who would have been well aware of the Irish Brigade's service as Marines during the American Revolution. \n\n11th Infantry Regiment, United States Army (since 1861)\n\n\"Semper fidelis\" is also the motto of the 11th Infantry Regiment, which was founded in May 1861 by President Abraham Lincoln. It served as part of the Army of Ohio and later in the Indian wars, Spanish–American War, 1916 Mexican Border war, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam war. Today the regiment trains young Army officers at Fort Benning, Georgia.\n\nThe West Nova Scotia Regiment (since 1936, inherited from Lunenburg Regiment, 1870) \n\n\"Semper fidelis\" is the motto of The West Nova Scotia Regiment (of the Canadian Forces), formed in 1936. It inherited the motto from The Lunenburg Regiment, formed in 1870.\n\nThe United States Marine Corps (since 1883)\n\nThe United States Marine Corps adopted the motto \"Semper Fidelis\" in 1883, on the initiative of Colonel Charles McCawley (January 29, 1827 – October 13, 1891), the 8th Commandant of the Marine Corps. \n\nThere were three mottos prior to Semper Fidelis including\nFortitudine (meaning \"with courage\") antedating the War of 1812, Per Mare, Per Terram (\"by sea, by land\"; presumably inherited from the British Royal Marines, who have that as a motto), and, up until 1843, there was also the Marines' Hymn motto \"To the Shores of Tripoli\". \"Semper fidelis\" signifies the dedication and loyalty that individual Marines have for 'Corps and Country', even after leaving service. Marines frequently shorten the motto to \"Semper Fi\".\n\n*\"Semper Fidelis\" is also the title of the official march of the United States Marine Corps, composed by John Philip Sousa in 1889. Sousa was director of the United States Marine Band (The President's Own) when a replacement for Hail to the Chief was requested, but later rejected. Sousa considered it to be his 'most musical' march. It was prominently featured in the movie A Few Good Men. Charles Burr wrote the lyrics to the march.\n*On the United States Marine Corps Seal, the symbols of the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor emblem holds a ribbon emblazoned \"Semper Fidelis\".\n\nCadet Corps of the Dutch Royal Military Academy (since 1898)\n\n\"Semper fidelis\" is the motto of the cadets corps of the Dutch Royal Military Academy. The corps was founded in 1898. \n\nCanadian Forces Base Valcartier (since 1914)\n\n\"Semper fidelis\" is the motto of CFB Valcartier. The base was originally erected as a military camp in August 1914.\n\nSwiss Grenadiers (since 1943)\n\nThe Swiss Grenadiers, first designated as such in 1943, and since 2004 forming a distinct Command in the Swiss Army, use the motto \"Semper fidelis\". \n\nRepublic of China Marine Corps (similar non-Latin version) (since 1947)\n\nA Chinese language version of Semper fidelis has been the motto of the Republic of China Marine Corps since April 1, 1947. The motto is not in Latin and translates as \"loyalty forever\". Their motto is specifically modeled on the US marine motto.\n\nRomanian Protection and Guard Service (since 1990)\n\n\"Semper Fidelis\" is the motto of the Protection and Guard Service, a Romanian secret service concerned with the national security and personal security of officials in Romania. \n\nHungarian Government Guard (since 1998)\n\n\"Semper Fidelis\" has been the official motto of the Hungarian Government Guard since 28 August 1998.\n\nSchools\n\n\"Semper Fidelis\" serves as the motto of a number of schools around the world:\n\n* Cathedral Grammar School, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand\n* Killarney Secondary School, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada\n* St. Anne's Catholic School (Southampton), an 11-18 girls school in Southampton, England\n* Gordon's School, a secondary school in West End, Surrey, England\n* Kapiti College, in Raumati, New Zealand\n* Emma Willard School, in Troy, New York, United States Of America\n* Sacred Heart College, Kyneton of Victoria, Australia \n* Meriden School in Strathfield, of Sydney, Australia\n* Bloemhof Girls High in Stellenbosch, South Africa\n* St Mary's Catholic High School in Blackpool, England\n* College of Immaculate Conception, Uwani, Enugu, Nigeria\n* Mount Carmel RC High School, Accrington, Lancashire, England\n* Wynnum State High School, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia\n* Vancouver College High School, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada\n* Chetwood Memorial Primary School, Montego-Bay, St James, Jamaica\n\nVariants\n\nB. Burke (1884) and Chassant & Tausin (1878), and other sources, list a number of similar mottos that appeared in family or city coats of arms in Great Britain, Ireland and France, though none was ever as popular as \"Semper fidelis\". They include:\n*Semper constans et fidelis (\"Always constant and faithful\"; Irton, Lynch, Mellor and Spoor families)\n*Semper fidelis esto (\"Be always faithful\"; Steele family, Henry de Lolière family Auvergne Nobili Tome III) \n*Semper et ubique fidelis (\"Always and everywhere faithful\"; De Burgh family, presently used by Gonzaga College, Dublin)\n*Semper fidelis et audax (\"Always faithful and brave\"; Moore and O'More families)\n*Semper fidelis, mutare sperno (\"Always faithful, I scorn to change\"; City of Worcester)\n*Semper Fidus (\"Always faithful\")" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Guantanamo_Bay_Naval_Base.txt" ], "title": [ "Guantanamo Bay Naval Base" ], "wiki_context": [ "Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, (also called GTMO because of the airfield designation code or Gitmo because of the common pronunciation of this code by the U.S. military ) is a United States military base located on 45 sqmi of land and water at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which the US leased for use as a coaling and naval station in 1903 (for $2,000 per year until 1934, when it was increased to $4,085 per year). The base is on the shore of Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. It is the oldest overseas U.S. Naval Base. Since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the Cuban government has consistently protested against the U.S. presence on Cuban soil and called it illegal under international law, alleging that the base was imposed on Cuba by force. At the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2013, Cuba's Foreign Minister demanded the U.S. return the base and the \"usurped territory\", which the Cuban government considers to be occupied since the U.S. invasion of Cuba during the Spanish–American War in 1898. \n\nSince 2002, the naval base has contained a military prison, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, for unlawful combatants captured in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places during the War on Terror. Alleged cases of torture of prisoners, and their alleged denial of protection under the Geneva Conventions, have been condemned internationally. \n\nUnits and commands \n\nResident units \n\n* Customer Service Desk (CSD) \n* Joint Task Force Guantanamo \n* Marine Corps Security Force Company\n* Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Atlantic Detachment Guantanamo Bay\n* Naval Hospital Guantanamo Bay\n* Navy Supply\n* U.S. Coast Guard Aviation Detachment Guantanamo Bay\n\nAssigned units \n\n* Fleet Composite Squadron Ten (VC-10) (1965–1993)\n* US Marine Corps Ground Defense Force (GDF) (1977–2009)\n* Naval Security Group Activity (Company L) (1966–2001) \n* Shore Intermediate Maintenance Activity (SIMA) (1903–1995) \n* Fleet Training Group (FTG) (1943–1995) \n\nHomeported watercraft \n\n* YC 1639 (open lighter) \n* Leeward (YFB-92) (ferry boat) \n* Windward (YFB-93) (ferry boat) \n* YON 258 (non-self propelled fuel oil barge) \n* (large Harbor Tug) \n* LCU 1671 and MK-8: landing craft used as an alternate ferry for transportation to areas inaccessible by the primary ferry and for moving hazardous cargo. \n* GTMO-5, GTMO-6 and GTMO-7 (50-ft. utility boats): used for personnel transportation during off-ferry hours.\n\nCivilian contractors \n\nBesides servicemen, the base houses a large number of civilian contractors working for the military. Largely imported from Jamaica and Philippines, they are thought to constitute up to 40% of the base's population.\n\nHistory \n\nSpanish colonial era \n\nThe area surrounding Guantanamo bay was originally inhabited by the Taíno people. On 30 April 1494, Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage, arrived and spent the night. The place where Columbus landed is now known as Fisherman's Point. Columbus declared the bay Puerto Grande. The bay and surrounding areas came under British control during the War of Jenkins' Ear. Prior to British occupation, the bay was referred to as Walthenham Harbor. The British renamed the bay Cumberland Bay. The British retreated from the area after a failed attempt to march to Santiago de Cuba.\n\nGuantanamo Bay during the Spanish–American War \n\nDuring the Spanish–American War, the U.S. fleet attacking Santiago secured Guantánamo's harbor for protection during the hurricane season of 1898. The Marines landed at Guantanamo Bay with naval support, and American and Cuban forces routed the defending Spanish troops. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris of 1898, in which Spain formally relinquished control of Cuba. Although the war was over, the US maintained a strong military presence on the island. In 1901 the US government passed the Platt Amendment as part of an Army Appropriations Bill.[http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash\ntrue&doc=55 1901 Platt Amendment commentary] at the US Archives online Section VII of this amendment read\n\nAfter initial resistance by the Cuban Constitutional Convention, the Platt Amendment was incorporated into the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba in 1901. The Constitution took effect in 1902, and land for a naval base at Guantanamo Bay was granted to the United States the following year. \n\nLease \n\nThe 1903 lease agreement was executed in two parts. The first, signed in February, included the following provisions: \n#a promise by Cuba to lease to the United States a specified area at Guantanamo Bay \"for the time required for the purposes of coaling and naval stations\";\n#the right to acquire any privately owned land within the leased area \"by purchase or by exercise of eminent domain with full compensation to the owners thereof\";\n#the right to use the areas as naval stations, and for no other purpose, with a non-exclusive easement to adjacent waters;\n#consent on the part of Cuba to the US exercising \"complete jurisdiction and control over\" within the leased area;\n#recognition by the US of Cuba's \"ultimate sovereignty\" over the leased area. \n\nThe second agreement, signed five months later in July 1903, established the amount of USD$2,000 to be paid to Cuba annually by the US. Additional stipulations included the following:\n#payments were to be made in gold coin;\n#the US would pay to build and maintain fences marking the boundary of the leased area;\n#commercial and industrial activities in the area would be restricted;\n#mutual right of extradition\n#a duty-free zone, but not a port of entry for weapons or other goods into Cuba proper\n#Cuban shipping to have the right of access to the Bay\n#ratification to be within seven months.\n\nThe payment of $2,000 was increased to $4,085 in 1934. The new amount was paid by checks from the United States Treasury, payable to \"The Treasurer General of the Republic\". Payments have been sent annually, but only one lease payment has been cashed since the Cuban Revolution. Fidel Castro claimed that this check was deposited due to \"confusion\" in 1959, and the Government of Cuba has declined all further payments.\n\nWorld War II \n\nDuring World War II, the base was set up to use a nondescript number for postal operations. The base used the Fleet Post Office, Atlantic, in New York City, with the address: 115 FPO NY. The base was also an important intermediate distribution point for merchant shipping convoys from New York City and Key West, Florida, to the Panama Canal and the islands of Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago. \n\n1958–99 \n\nUntil the 1953–59 revolution, thousands of Cubans commuted daily from outside the base to jobs within. In mid-1958, vehicular traffic was stopped; workers were required to walk through the base's several gates. Public Works Center buses were pressed into service almost overnight to carry the tides of workers to and from the gate. By 2006, only two elderly Cubans, Luis Delarosa and Harry Henry, still crossed the base's North East Gate daily to work on the base, because the Cuban government prohibits new recruitment. They retired at the end of 2012. \n\nDuring the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, the families of military personnel were evacuated from the base. Notified of the evacuation on 22 October, evacuees were told to pack one suitcase per family member, to bring evacuation and immunization cards, to tie pets in the yard, to leave the keys to the house on the dining table, and to wait in front of the house for buses. Dependents traveled to the airfield for flights to the United States, or to ports for passage aboard evacuation ships. After the crisis was resolved, family members were allowed to return to the base in December 1962.\n\nFrom 1939, the base's water was supplied by pipelines that drew water from the Yateras River about northeast of the base. The U.S. government paid a fee for this; in 1964, it was about $14,000 a month for about 2500000 U.S.gal per day. In 1964, the Cuban government stopped the flow. The base had about 14000000 U.S.gal of water in storage, and strict water conservation was put into effect immediately. The U.S. first imported water from Jamaica by barge, then relocated a desalination plant from San Diego (Point Loma). When the Cuban government accused the United States of stealing water, base commander John D. Bulkeley ordered that the pipelines be cut and a section removed. A 38 in length of the 14 in diameter pipe and a 20 in length of the 10 in diameter pipe were lifted from the ground and the openings sealed.\n\nThe military facilities at Guantanamo Bay employ over 9,500 U.S. sailors and Marines. It is the only military base the U.S. maintains in a communist country.\n\nNotable persons born at the naval base include actor Peter Bergman and American guitarist Isaac Guillory.\n\n21st century \n\nIn 2005, the US Navy completed a $12 million wind project erecting four wind turbines capable of supplying about a quarter of the base's peak power needs, reducing diesel fuel usage and pollution from the existing diesel generators (the base's primary electricity generation), while saving $1.2 million in annual energy costs. \n\nIn January 2009, President Obama signed executive orders directing the CIA to shut what remains of its network of \"secret\" prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year. However, he postponed difficult decisions on the details for at least six months. On 7 March 2011, President Obama issued an executive order that permits ongoing indefinite detention of Guantánamo detainees. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 would have authorized indefinite detention of suspected terrorists, but enforcement of the relevant section was blocked by a federal court ruling in the case of Hedges v. Obama on 16 May 2012, a suit brought by a number of private citizens, including Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, and Birgitta Jónsdóttir. The government sidestepped the ruling, however, saying \"The government construes this Court's Order as applying only as to the named plaintiffs in this suit.\" , the detention center was in operation. However, President Obama announced the proposal of plans for the detention center's closure with all detainees being transferred to holding centers in the United States. \n\nGeography \n\nThe Naval Base is divided into three main geographical sections: Leeward Point, Windward Point, and Guantánamo Bay. Guantánamo Bay physically divides the Naval Station into sections. The bay extends past the boundaries of the base into Cuba, where the bay is then referred to as Bahía de Guantánamo. Guantánamo Bay contains several cays, which are identified as Hospital Cay, Medico Cay, North Toro Cay, and South Toro Cay.\n\nLeeward Point of the Naval Station is the site of the active airfield. Major geographical features on Leeward Point include Mohomilla Bay and the Guantánamo River. Three beaches exist on the Leeward side. Two are available for use by base residents, while the third, Hicacal Beach, is closed.\n\nWindward Point contains most of the activities on the Naval Station. There are nine beaches available to base personnel. The highest point on the base is John Paul Jones hill at a total of 495 feet. The geography of Windward Point is such that there are many coves and peninsulas along the bay shoreline providing ideal areas for mooring ships.\n\nCactus Curtain \n\n\"Cactus Curtain\" is a term describing the line separating the naval base from Cuban-controlled territory. After the Cuban Revolution, some Cubans sought refuge on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. In the fall of 1961, Cuban troops planted an 8 mi barrier of Opuntia cactus along the northeastern section of the 17 mi fence surrounding the base to stop Cubans from escaping Cuba to take refuge in the United States. This was dubbed the Cactus Curtain, an allusion to Europe's Iron Curtain, the Bamboo Curtain in East Asia or the similar Ice Curtain in the Bering Strait.\n\nU.S. and Cuban troops placed some 55,000 land mines across the \"no man's land\" around the perimeter of the naval base creating the second-largest minefield in the world, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. On 16 May 1996, U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered the demining of the American field. They have since been replaced with motion and sound sensors to detect intruders on the base. The Cuban government has not removed its corresponding minefield outside the perimeter. \n\nDetention camp \n\nIn the last quarter of the 20th century, the base was used to house Cuban and Haitian refugees intercepted on the high seas. In the early 1990s, it held refugees who fled Haiti after military forces overthrew president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. These refugees were held in a detainment area called Camp Bulkeley until United States district court Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. declared the camp unconstitutional on 8 June 1993. This decision was later vacated. The last Haitian migrants departed Guantanamo on 1 November 1995.\n\nBeginning in 2002, some months after the War on Terror started in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, a small portion of the base was used to detain several hundred enemy combatants at Camp Delta, Camp Echo, Camp Iguana, and the now-closed Camp X-Ray. The U.S. military has alleged without formal charge that some of these detainees are linked to al-Qaeda or the Taliban. In litigation regarding the availability of fundamental rights to those imprisoned at the base, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that the detainees \"have been imprisoned in territory over which the United States exercises exclusive jurisdiction and control.\" Therefore, the detainees have the fundamental right to due process of law under the Fifth Amendment. A district court has since held that the \"Geneva Conventions applied to the Taliban detainees, but not to members of Al-Qaeda terrorist organization.\" \n\nOn 10 June 2006, the Department of Defense reported that three Guantanamo Bay detainees committed suicide. The military reported the men hanged themselves with nooses made of sheets and clothes.[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/11/AR2006061100357.html DOD Identifies 3 Guantanamo Suicides], Washington Post, 11 June 2006 A study published by Seton Hall Law's Center for Policy and Research, while making no conclusions regarding what actually transpired, asserts that the military investigation failed to address significant issues detailed in that report. \n\nOn 6 September 2006, President George W. Bush announced that alleged or non-alleged combatants held by the CIA would be transferred to the custody of Department of Defense, and held at Guantanamo Prison. Of approximately 500 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, only 10 have been tried by the Guantanamo military commission, but all cases have been stayed pending the adjustments being made to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld.\n\nPresident Barack Obama said he intended to close the detention camp, and planned to bring detainees to the United States to stand trial by the end of his first term in office. On 22 January 2009, he issued three executive orders. Only one of these explicitly dealt with policy at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and directed the camp's closure within one year. All three could have possibly impacted the detention center, as well as how the United States holds detainees.\n\nWhile mandating closure of the detention camp, the naval base as a whole is not subject to the order and will remain operational indefinitely. This plan was thwarted for the time being on 20 May 2009, when the United States Senate voted to keep the prison at Guantanamo Bay open for the foreseeable future and forbid the transfer of any detainees to facilities in the United States. Senator Daniel Inouye, a Democrat from Hawaii and chairman of the appropriations committee, said he initially favored keeping Guantanamo open until Obama produced a \"coherent plan for closing the prison.\" \n\nRepresented businesses \n\nA Baskin-Robbins ice cream store, which opened in the 1980s, was the first franchise business on the base.\nIn 1986, Guantanamo became host to the first and only McDonald's restaurant within Cuba. \n\nA Subway shop was opened in November 2002. Other fast food outlets have followed. These fast food restaurants are on base, and not accessible to Cubans. It has been reported that prisoners cooperating with interrogations have been rewarded with Happy Meals from the McDonald's located on the main section of the base. \n\nIn 2004, a combined KFC & A&W restaurant was opened at the bowling alley and a Pizza Hut Express at the Windjammer Restaurant. There is also a Taco Bell, and the Triple C shop that sells Starbucks coffee and Breyers ice cream. All the restaurants on the installation are franchises owned and operated by the Department of the Navy. [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url\nhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.miamiherald.com%2Fnews%2Famericas%2Fcuba%2Fstory%2F586867.html&date=2008-11-29 mirror]\n\nAll proceeds from these restaurants are used to support morale, welfare, and recreation (MWR) activities for service personnel and their families. \n\nAirfields \n\nThere are two airfields within the base, Leeward Point Field and McCalla Field. Leeward Point Field is the active military airfield, with the ICAO code MUGM and IATA code NBW. McCalla Field was designated as the auxiliary landing field in 1970.\n\nLeeward Point Field was constructed in 1953 as part of Naval Air Station (NAS) Guantanamo Bay. Leeward Point Field has a single active runway, 10/28, measuring 8000 ft. The former runway, 9/27 was 8500 ft. Currently, Leeward Point Field operates several aircraft and helicopters supporting base operations. Leeward Point Field was home to Fleet Composite Squadron 10 (VC-10) until the unit was phased out in 1993. VC-10 was one of the last active-duty squadrons flying the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk.\n\nMcCalla Field was established in 1931 and remained operational until 1970. Naval Air Station Guantanamo Bay was officially established 1 February 1941. Aircraft routinely operating out of McCalla included JRF-5, N3N, J2F, C-1 Trader, and dirigibles. McCalla Field is now listed as a closed airfield. The area consists of 3 runways: 1/19 at 4500 ft, 14/32 at 2210 ft, and 10/28 at 1850 ft. Camp Justice is now located on the grounds of the former airfield.\n\nAccess to the Naval Station is very limited and must be preapproved through the appropriate local chain of command with Commander Naval Base GTMO as the final approval. Since berthing facilities are limited, visitors must be sponsored indicating that they have an approved residence for the duration of the visit. \n\nEducation \n\nDepartment of Defense Education Activity (DODEA) provides for the education of dependent personnel with two schools. Both schools are named for Rear Admiral William Thomas Sampson. W.T. Sampson Elementary School serves grades K–5 and W. T. Sampson High School serves grades 6–12. The Villamar Child Development Center provides child care for dependents from six weeks to five years old. MWR operates a Youth Center that provides activities for dependents. Some former students of the Guantánamo have shared stories of their experiences with the Guantánamo Public Memory Project. The 2013 documentary Guantanamo Circus directed by Christina Linhardt and Michael Rose reveals a glimpse of day-to-day life on GTMO as seen through the eyes of circus performers that visit the base. It is used as a reference by the Guantánamo Public Memory Project.\n\nClimate \n\nU.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay has an annual rainfall of about 61.5 cm (24 in). The amount of rainfall has resulted in the base being classified as a semi-arid desert environment. The annual average high temperature on the base is , the annual average low is ." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Wah-wah_pedal.txt", "Synthesizer.txt" ], "title": [ "Wah-wah pedal", "Synthesizer" ], "wiki_context": [ "A wah-wah pedal (or just wah pedal) is a type of guitar effects pedal that alters the tone of the signal to create a distinctive effect, mimicking the human voice. The pedal sweeps the peak response of a filter up and down in frequency to create the sound (spectral glide), also known as \"the wah effect\". The wah-wah effect originated in the 1920s, with trumpet or trombone players finding they could produce an expressive crying tone by moving a mute in the instrument's bell. This was later simulated with electronics for the electric guitar, controlled by movement of the player's foot on a rocking pedal connected to a potentiometer. Wah-wah effects are used when a guitarist is soloing, or creating a \"wacka-wacka\" funk-styled rhythm. \n\nHistory\n\nThe first wah pedal was created by Bradley J. Plunkett at Warwick Electronics Inc./Thomas Organ Company in November 1966. This pedal is the original prototype made from a transistorized MRB (mid-range boost) potentiometer bread-boarded circuit and the housing of a Vox Continental Organ volume pedal. The concept, however, was not new. Country guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins had used a similar, self-designed device on his late 1950s recordings of \"Hot Toddy\" and \"Slinkey\". Jazz guitarist Peter Van Wood had a modified Hammond organ expression\npedal; he recorded in 1955 a version of George Gershwin's \"Summertime\" with a \"crying\" tone, and other recordings including humourous \"novelty\" effects. A DeArmond Tone and Volume pedal was used in the early 1960s by Big Jim Sullivan, notably in some Krew Cats instrumental tracks, and in Dave Berry's song \"The Crying Game\".\n\nThe creation of the modern wah pedal was actually an accident which stemmed from the redesign of the Vox Super Beatle guitar amplifier in 1966. Warwick Electronics Inc./Thomas Organ Company had bought the Vox name due to the brand name's popularity and association with the Beatles. Warwick Electronics Inc. also owned Thomas Organ Company and had assigned Thomas Organ Company to create a new product line called the all-electric Vox Amplifonic Orchestra; the project was headed by musician and bandleader Bill Page. While creating the Vox Amplifonic Orchestra, the Thomas Organ Company needed to re-design the Vox amplifier into a transistorized solid state amplifier, rather than tube, which would be less expensive to manufacture. During the re-design of the USA Vox amplifier, Stan Cuttler, head engineer of Thomas Organ Company, assigned Brad Plunkett, a junior electronics engineer, to replace the expensive Jennings 3-position MRB circuit switch with a transistorized solid state MRB circuit.\n\nPlunkett had lifted and bread-boarded a transistorized tone-circuit from the Thomas Organ (an electric solid state transistorized organ) to duplicate the Jennings 3-position circuit. After adjusting and testing the amplifier with an electronic oscillator and oscilloscope, Plunkett connected the output to the speaker and tested the circuit audibly. At that point, several engineers and technical consultants, including Bill Page and Del Casher, noticed the sound effect caused by the circuit. Page insisted on testing this bread-boarded circuit while he played his saxophone through an amplifier. John Glennon, an assistant junior electronics engineer with the Thomas Organ Company, was summoned to bring a volume control pedal which was used in the Vox Continental Organ so that the transistorized MRB potentiometer bread-boarded circuit could be installed in the pedal's housing. After the installation, Page began playing his saxophone through the pedal and had asked Joe Banaron, CEO of Warwick Electronics Inc./Thomas Organ Company, to listen to the effect. At this point the first electric guitar was plugged into the prototype wah pedal by guitarist Del Casher who suggested to Joe Banaron that this was a guitar effects pedal rather than a wind instrument effects pedal. Banaron, being a fan of the big band style of music, was interested in marketing the wah pedal for wind instruments as suggested by Page rather than for the electric guitar as suggested by Casher. After a remark by Casher to Banaron regarding the Harmon mute style of trumpet playing in the famous recording of \"Sugar Blues\" from the 1930s, Banaron decided to market the wah-wah pedal using Clyde McCoy's name for endorsement.\n\nAfter the initial invention of the wah pedal, the prototype pedal was then modified by Casher and Plunkett to better accommodate the harmonic qualities of the electric guitar. However, since Vox had no intention of marketing the wah pedal for electric guitar players, the prototype wah-wah pedal was given to Del Casher for performances at Vox press conferences and film scores for Universal Pictures. The un-modified version of the Vox wah pedal was released to the public in February 1967 with an image of Clyde McCoy on the bottom of the pedal.\n\nWarwick Electronics Inc. assigned Lester L. Kushner, an engineer with the Thomas Organ Company, and Brad Plunkett to write and submit the documentation for the wah-wah pedal patent. The patent application was submitted on February 24, 1967 which included technical diagrams of the pedal being connected to a four-stringed \"guitar\" (as noted from the \"Description of the Preferred Embodiment\"). Warwick Electronics Inc. was granted [http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1PTO2&Sect2\nHITOFF&p1&u\n%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r1&f\nG&l50&co1\nAND&dPALL&s1\n3530224.PN.&OSPN/3530224&RS\nPN/3530224 US patent 3530224] (\"foot-controlled continuously variable preference circuit for musical instruments\") on September 22, 1970.\n\nEarly versions of the Clyde McCoy featured an image of McCoy on the bottom panel, which soon gave way to only his signature. Thomas Organ then wanted the effect branded as their own for the American market, changing it to Cry Baby which was sold in parallel to the Italian Vox V846. Thomas Organ's failure to trademark the Cry Baby name soon led to the market being flooded with Cry Baby imitations from various parts of the world, including Italy, where all of the original Vox and Cry Babys were made.[http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/vox-v848-clyde/Apr-07/26876 Guitar Player : The Complete Electric Guitar Package] Jen, who had been responsible for the manufacture of Thomas Organ and Vox wah pedals, also made rebranded pedals for companies such as Fender and Gretsch and under their own Jen brand. When Thomas Organ moved production completely to Sepulveda, California and Chicago, Illinois these Italian models continued to be made and are among the more collectible wah pedals today.\n\nSome of the most famous electric guitarists of the day were keen to adopt the wah-wah pedal soon after its release. Among the very first recordings released featuring wah-wah pedal were \"Tales of Brave Ulysses\" by Cream with Eric Clapton on guitar and \"Burning of the Midnight Lamp\" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, both released in 1967.\n\nOther functions\n\nAnother function of the pedal is to use it to boost certain frequencies by keeping it in a single position, emphasizing the \"sweet spot\" in the tonal spectrum of an instrument.\n\nThe preeminent electric guitar player to use the pedal in this way was Jimi Hendrix, who revolutionized its application by combining a Fender Stratocaster with stacked Marshall Amplifiers (in both static and modulated mode) for lead and rhythm guitar applications unheard of before then. According to Del Casher, Hendrix learned about the pedal from Frank Zappa, another well-known early user. Milestones of this signature guitar and amplifier combination include songs such as \"Voodoo Child (Slight Return)\" as well as the \"Star Spangled Banner\" which was played by Hendrix at Woodstock in 1969.\n\nMick Ronson used a Cry Baby for the same purpose while recording The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. \n\nAn envelope filter or envelope follower is often referred to as an auto-wah.\n\nAnother famous style of wah-wah playing is utilizing it for a percussive \"wacka-wacka\" effect by muting strings and moving the pedal at the same time. This was first heard on the song \"Little Miss Lover\" (1967) by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. One of the most famous uses of this effect is heard on Isaac Hayes's \"Theme from Shaft\" (1971), Charles Pitts playing the guitar.\n\nMichael Schenker also utilized the pedal in his work. \n\nDavid Gilmour (Pink Floyd) used the pedal to create the 'whale' effect during 'Echoes'. He discovered this effect as a result of a roadie accidentally plugging his guitar into the output of the pedal and the input being plugged into his amp. The effect was first used during live performances of 'The Embryo' during 1970 but was then switched into 'Echoes' as it was being developed before being released on the 'Meddle' album on 31st October 1971.\n\nOther instruments\n\nMany bassists have also used the wah-wah effect, for example Michael Henderson on Miles Davis's album On the Corner (1972). Bassist Cliff Burton of Metallica used a Morley Wah pedal (along with a Big Muff Distortion) extensively, including on \"(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth\", which is primarily a bass solo recorded for Kill 'Em All (1983), and \"The Call of Ktulu\" and \"For Whom the Bell Tolls\", both recorded for Ride the Lightning. Geezer Butler, bassist of Black Sabbath, used it when playing his solo \"Bassically\", along with the bass line in \"N.I.B.\". Chris Squire of Yes used a wah-wah pedal on his solo piece \"The Fish\" on the album Fragile. While wah pedals are less popular as a bass effect, various companies now offer pedals designed specifically for bass guitars.\n\nMany steel guitar players use a wah-wah, such as Robert Randolph from the Robert Randolph and the Family Band.\n\nMelvin Ragin, better known by the nickname Wah Wah Watson, was a member of the Motown Records studio band, The Funk Brothers, where he recorded with artists such as The Temptations, The Jackson 5, The Four Tops, Gladys Knight & The Pips, and The Supremes. He played on numerous sessions in the 1970s and 1980s for many top soul, funk and disco acts, including Herbie Hancock.\n\nKeyboardists have also made use of the wah-wah effect both in the studio and during live performances. Garth Hudson famously used a wah-wah pedal on a clavinet in The Band's song \"Up on Cripple Creek\" to emulate a jaw harp. Rick Wright of Pink Floyd played a Wurlitzer electric piano through a wah-wah pedal in their song \"Money\" to give the impression of many consecutive chords being played. Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater made an extensive use of the wah-wah pedal on Dream Theater's album Train of Thought. John Medeski of Medeski, Martin, and Wood uses a wah pedal with his clavinet.\n\nMany jazz fusion records feature wind and brass instruments with the effect - Miles Davis's trumpet being a well-known example. Davis first used this technique in 1970 (at concerts documented on Live-Evil and The Cellar Door Sessions) at a time when he also made his keyboard players (Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea) play electric pianos with a wah-wah pedal. Napoleon Murphy Brock played a saxophone amplified through a wah-wah pedal in the Frank Zappa movie The Dub Room Special, as well as on some of Zappa's albums. David Sanborn can be heard playing an alto saxophone modified by a wah-wah pedal on the David Bowie album Young Americans. Noted saxophonist King Curtis was also known to use a wah-wah pedal. Dick Sims, the keyboard player with Eric Clapton in the late 1970s, used a Hammond organ in conjunction with a wah-wah pedal, placed on top of the organ and operated by his palm.\n\nThe effect is also extensively used with the electric violin. Notable examples are Jerry Goodman with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Jean-Luc Ponty, Don \"Sugarcane\" Harris and Shankar with Frank Zappa, all usually engaged in long wah-wah violin/guitar duels. Boyd Tinsley of the Dave Matthews Band is known to use a wah-wah pedal live.", "A synthesizer (usually abbreviated as \"synthesizer\" or \"synth\", also spelled \"synthesiser\") is an electronic musical instrument that generates electric signals that are converted to sound through instrument amplifiers and loudspeakers or headphones. Synthesizers may either imitate instruments like piano, Hammond organ, flute, vocals; natural sounds like ocean waves, etc.; or generate new electronic timbres. They are often played with a musical keyboard, but they can be controlled via a variety of other input devices, including music sequencers, instrument controllers, fingerboards, guitar synthesizers, wind controllers, and electronic drums. Synthesizers without built-in controllers are often called sound modules, and are controlled via MIDI or CV/Gate using a controller device, often a MIDI keyboard or other controller.\n\nSynthesizers use various methods to generate electronic signals (sounds). Among the most popular waveform synthesis techniques are subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis, wavetable synthesis, frequency modulation synthesis, phase distortion synthesis, physical modeling synthesis and sample-based synthesis. Other less common synthesis types (see #Types of synthesis) include subharmonic synthesis, a form of additive synthesis via subharmonics (used by mixture trautonium), and granular synthesis, sample-based synthesis based on grains of sound, generally resulting in soundscapes or clouds.\n\nSynthesizers were first used in pop music in the 1960s. In the 1970s, synths were used in disco, especially in the late 1970s. In the 1980s, the invention of the relatively inexpensive, mass market Yamaha DX7 synth made synthesizers widely available. 1980s pop and dance music often made heavy use of synthesizers. In the 2010s, synthesizers are used in many genres of pop, rock and dance music. Contemporary classical music composers from the 20th and 21st century write compositions for synthesizer.\n\nHistory \n\nThe beginnings of the synthesizer are difficult to trace, as there is confusion between sound synthesizers and arbitrary electric/electronic musical instruments.\n\nEarly electric instruments \n\nOne of the earliest electric musical instruments, the musical telegraph, was invented in 1876 by American electrical engineer Elisha Gray. He accidentally discovered the sound generation from a self-vibrating electromagnetic circuit, and invented a basic single-note oscillator. This musical telegraph used steel reeds with oscillations created by electromagnets transmitted over a telegraphy line. Gray also built a simple loudspeaker device into later models, consisting of a vibrating diaphragm in a magnetic field, to make the oscillator audible.\n\nThis instrument was a remote electromechanical musical instrument that used telegraphy and electric buzzers that generated fixed timbre sound. Though it lacked an arbitrary sound-synthesis function, some have erroneously called it the first synthesizer.\n\nEarly additive synthesizer: tonewheel organs \n\nIn 1897, Thaddeus Cahill invented the Teleharmonium (or Dynamophone), which used dynamos (early electric generator),\n and was capable of additive synthesis like the Hammond organ, which was invented in 1934. However, Cahill's business was unsuccessful for various reasons (size of system, rapid evolutions of electronics, crosstalk issues on the telephone line etc.), and similar but more compact instruments were subsequently developed, such as electronic and tonewheel organs.\n\nEmergence of electronics and early electronic instruments \n\nIn 1906, American engineer, Lee De Forest ushered in the \"electronics age\". He invented the first amplifying vacuum tube, called the Audion tube. This led to new entertainment technologies, including radio and sound films. These new technologies also influenced the music industry, and resulted in various early electronic musical instruments that used vacuum tubes, including:\n\n* Audion piano   by Lee De Forest in 1915\n\n* Theremin   by Léon Theremin in 1920 \n* Ondes Martenot   by Maurice Martenot in 1928\n* Trautonium   by Friedrich Trautwein in 1929\nMost of these early instruments used \"heterodyne circuits\" to produce audio frequencies, and were limited in their synthesis capabilities. Ondes Martenot and Trautonium were continuously developed for several decades, finally developing qualities similar to later synthesizers.\n\nGraphical sound \n\nIn the 1920s, Arseny Avraamov developed various systems of graphic sonic art,\n and similar graphical sound systems were developed around the world, such as those as seen on the .\n In 1938, USSR engineer Yevgeny Murzin designed a compositional tool called ANS, one of the earliest real-time additive synthesizers using optoelectronics. Although his idea of reconstructing a sound from its visible image was apparently simple, the instrument was not realized until 20 years later, in 1958, as Murzin was \"an engineer who worked in areas unrelated to music\" .\n\nSubtractive synthesis & polyphonic synthesizer \n\nIn the 1930s and 1940s, the basic elements required for the modern analog subtractive synthesizers — audio oscillators, audio filters, envelope controllers, and various effects units — had already appeared and were utilized in several electronic instruments.\n\nThe earliest polyphonic synthesizers were developed in Germany and the United States. The Warbo Formant Organ developed by Harald Bode in Germany in 1937, was a four-voice key-assignment keyboard with two formant filters and a dynamic envelope controller\n (July 2011), originally published as\n\n and possibly manufactured commercially by a factory in Dachau, according to the '.\n (Note: the original URL is still active, however the original title and content have been changed)\n\nThe Hammond Novachord released in 1939, was an electronic keyboard that used twelve sets of top-octave oscillators with octave dividers to generate sound, with vibrato, a resonator filter bank and a dynamic envelope controller. During the three years that Hammond manufactured this model, 1,069 units were shipped, but production was discontinued at the start of World War II. \n (see also '[http://www.novachord.co.uk/history.htm History]' page) Both instruments were the forerunners of the later electronic organs and polyphonic synthesizers.\n\nMonophonic electronic keyboards \n\nIn the 1940s and 1950s, before the popularization of electronic organs and the introductions of combo organs, manufactures developed and marketed various portable monophonic electronic instruments with small keyboards. These small instruments consisted of an electronic oscillator, vibrato effect, passive filters etc. Most of these (except for Clavivox) were designed for conventional ensembles, rather than as experimental instruments for electronic music studios—but they contributed to the evolution of modern synthesizers.\nThese small instruments included:\n* Solovox (1940) by Hammond Organ Company: a monophonic attachment keyboard instrument consisting of a large tone-cabinet and a small keyboard-unit, intended to accompany the pianos with monophonic lead voice of organ or orchestral sound.\n* Multimonica (1940) designed by Harald Bode, produced by Hohner: dual keyboard instrument consisting of an electrically-blown reed organ (lower) and a monophonic sawtooth synthesizer (upper).\n* Ondioline (1941) designed by Georges Jenny in France.\n* Clavioline (1947) designed by Constant Martin, produced by Selmer, Gibson, etc. This instrument was featured on various 1960s popular recordings, including Del Shannon's \"Runaway\" (1961), and The Beatles' \"Baby, You're a Rich Man\" (1967).\n* Univox (1951) by Jennings Musical Instruments (JMI).\n \n This instrument was featured on The Tornados' \"Telstar\" (1962).\n* Clavivox (1952) by Raymond Scott.\n\nOther innovations \n\nIn the late 1940s, Canadian inventor and composer, Hugh Le Caine invented the Electronic Sackbut, a voltage-controlled electronic musical instrument that provided the earliest real-time control of three aspects of sound (volume, pitch, and timbre)—corresponding to today's touch-sensitive keyboard, pitch and modulation controllers. The controllers were initially implemented as a multidimensional pressure keyboard in 1945, then changed to a group of dedicated controllers operated by left hand in 1948.\n\nIn Japan, as early as in 1935, Yamaha released Magna organ, a multi-timbral keyboard instrument based on electrically-blown free reeds with pickups. It may have been similar to the electrostatic reed organs developed by Frederick Albert Hoschke in 1934 and then manufactured by Everett and Wurlitzer until 1961.\n\nHowever, at least one Japanese was not satisfied the situation at that time. In 1949, Japanese composer Minao Shibata discussed the concept of \"a musical instrument with very high performance\" that can \"synthesize any kind of sound waves\" and is \"...operated very easily,\" predicting that with such an instrument, \"...the music scene will be changed drastically.\"\n\nElectronic music studios as sound synthesizers \n\nAfter World War II, electronic music including electroacoustic music and musique concrète was created by contemporary composers, and numerous electronic music studios were established around the world, especially in Bonn, Cologne, Paris and Milan. These studios were typically filled with electronic equipment including oscillators, filters, tape recorders, audio consoles etc., and the whole studio functioned as a \"sound synthesizer\".\n\nOrigin of the term \"sound synthesizer\" \n\nIn 1951–1952, RCA produced a machine called the Electronic Music Synthesizer; however, it was more accurately a composition machine, because it did not produce sounds in real time.\n RCA then developed the first programmable sound synthesizer, RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer, installing it at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1957. Prominent composers including Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening, Milton Babbitt, Halim El-Dabh, Bülent Arel, Charles Wuorinen, and Mario Davidovsky used the RCA Synthesizer extensively in various compositions.\n\nFrom modular synthesizer to popular music \n\nIn 1959–1960, Harald Bode developed a modular synthesizer and sound processor,\n\n (Note: Draft typescript is available at the tail of [http://www.studio250.fr/docs/divers%20synthese/History%20of%20electronic%20sound%20modification.pdf PDF version], along with without draft.) and in 1961, he wrote a paper exploring the concept of self-contained portable modular synthesizer using newly emerging transistor technology.\n He also served as AES session chairman on music and electronic for the fall conventions in 1962 and 1964.\n His ideas were adopted by Donald Buchla and Robert Moog in the United States, and Paolo Ketoff et al. in Italy \n\n at about the same time: among them, Moog is known as the first synthesizer designer to popularize the voltage control technique in analog electronic musical instruments. \n\nA working group at Roman Electronic Music Center, composer Gino Marinuzzi, Jr., designer Giuliano Strini, MSEE, and sound engineer and technician Paolo Ketoff in Italy; their vacuum-tube modular \"FonoSynth\" slightly predated (1957–58) Moog and Buchla's work. Later the group created a solid-state version, the \"Synket\". Both devices remained prototypes (except a model made for John Eaton who wrote a \"Concert Piece for Synket and Orchestra\"), owned and used only by Marinuzzi, notably in the original soundtrack of Mario Bava's sci-fi film \"Terrore nello spazio\" (a.k.a. Planet of the Vampires, 1965), and a\nRAI-TV mini-series, \"Jeckyll\".\n\nRobert Moog built his first prototype between 1963 and 1964, and was then commissioned by the Alwin Nikolais Dance Theater of NY;\n Moog synthesizer, [http://www.music.umich.edu/research/stearns_collection/keyboards/page12.htm Stearns 2035] is known as 1st commercial Moog synthesizer commissioned by the Alwin Nikolais Dance Theater of New York in October 1964. Now it resides as part of the Stearns Collection at the University of Michigan\n* \n while Donald Buchla was commissioned by Morton Subotnick.\n\nIn the late 1960s to 1970s, the development of miniaturized solid-state components allowed synthesizers to become self-contained, portable instruments, as proposed by Harald Bode in 1961. By the early 1980s, companies were selling compact, modestly priced synthesizers to the public. This, along with the development of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), made it easier to integrate and synchronize synthesizers and other electronic instruments for use in musical composition. In the 1990s, synthesizer emulations began to appear in computer software, known as software synthesizers. Later, VST and other plug-ins were able to emulate classic hardware synthesizers to a moderate degree.\n\nThe synthesizer had a considerable effect on 20th-century music. Micky Dolenz of The Monkees bought one of the first Moog synthesizers. The band was the first to release an album featuring a Moog with Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. in 1967, which reached number 1 in the charts. The Perrey and Kingsley album The In Sound From Way Out! using the Moog and tape loops was released in 1966. A few months later, both the Rolling Stones' \"2000 Light Years from Home\" and the title track of the Doors' 1967 album Strange Days featured a Moog, played by Brian Jones and Paul Beaver, respectively. In the same year, Bruce Haack built a homemade synthesizer that he demonstrated on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. The synthesizer included a sampler (musical instrument) that recorded, stored, played, and looped sounds controlled by switches, light sensors, and human skin contact. Wendy Carlos's Switched-On Bach (1968), recorded using Moog synthesizers, also influenced numerous musicians of that era and is one of the most popular recordings of classical music ever made, alongside the records (particularly Snowflakes are Dancing in 1974) of Isao Tomita, who in the early 1970s utilized synthesizers to create new artificial sounds (rather than simply mimicking real instruments ) and made significant advances in analog synthesizer programming. \n\nThe sound of the Moog reached the mass market with Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends in 1968 and The Beatles' Abbey Road the following year; hundreds of other popular recordings subsequently used synthesizers, most famously the portable Minimoog. Electronic music albums by Beaver and Krause, Tonto's Expanding Head Band, The United States of America, and White Noise reached a sizable cult audience and progressive rock musicians such as Richard Wright of Pink Floyd and Rick Wakeman of Yes were soon using the new portable synthesizers extensively. Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock also contributed strongly to the popularisation of synthesizers in Black American music. Other early users included Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Keith Emerson, Todd Rundgren, Pete Townshend, and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown's Vincent Crane. In Europe, the first no. 1 single to feature a Moog prominently was Chicory Tip's 1972 hit \"Son of My Father\". \n\nPolyphonic keyboards and the digital revolution \n\nIn 1978, the success of the Prophet 5, a polyphonic and microprocessor-controlled keyboard synthesizer, strongly aided the shift of synthesizers towards their familiar modern shape, away from large modular units and towards smaller keyboard instruments. This form factor helped accelerate the integration of synthesizers into popular music, a shift that had been lent powerful momentum by the Minimoog, and also later the ARP Odyssey. Earlier polyphonic electronic instruments of the 1970s, rooted in string synthesizers before advancing to multi-synthesizers incorporating monosynths and more, gradually fell out of fashion in the wake of these newer, note-assigned polyphonic keyboard synthesizers. These polyphonic synthesizers were mainly manufactured in the United States and Japan from the mid-1970s to the early-1980s, and included the Yamaha CS-80 (1976), Oberheim's Polyphonic and OBX (1975 and 1979), Sequential Circuits' Prophet-5 (1978), and Roland's Jupiter 4 and Jupiter 8 (1978 and 1981).\n\nBy the end of the 1970s, digital synthesizers and digital samplers arrived on the market around the world (and are still sold today), as the result of preceding research and development. Compared with analog synthesizer sounds, the digital sounds produced by these new instruments tended to have a number of different characteristics: clear attack and sound outlines, carrying sounds, rich overtones with inharmonic contents, and complex motion of sound textures, amongst others. While these new instruments were expensive, these characteristics meant musicians were quick to adopt them, especially in the United Kingdom\n  (Note: CMI III seems not in count)\n and the United States. This encouraged a trend towards producing music using digital sounds,\n\t\tFor the details of the new trend of music influenced by early digital instruments, see Fairlight§Artists who used the Fairlight CMI, Synclavier§Notable users and E-mu Emulator§Notable users.\n and laid the foundations for the development of the inexpensive digital instruments popular in the next decade (see below). Relatively successful instruments, with each selling more than several hundred units per series, included the NED Synclavier (1977), Fairlight CMI (1979), E-mu Emulator (1981), and PPG Wave (1981).List of commercially successful early digital synthesizers and digital samplers introduced during the late-1970s and early-1980s, each sold over several hundred of units per series:\n*\t\tNED Synclavier (1977-1992) by New England Digital, based on the research of Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer since 1973.\n*\t\tFairlight CMI (1979-1988, over 300 units) in Sydney, based on the early developments of Qasar M8 by Tony Furse in Canberra since 1972.\n*\t\tYamaha GS-1, GS-2 (1980, around 100 units) and CE20, CE25 (1982) in Hamamatsu, based on research into frequency modulation synthesis by John Chowning between 1967-1973, and early developments of TRX-100 and Programmable Algorithm Music Synthesizer (PAMS) by Yamaha between 1973-1979.\n*\t\tE-mu Emulator (1981-2000s) in California, roughly based on a notion of table-lookup oscillator seen on the MUSIC language in 1960s\n*\t\tPPG Wave (1981-1987, around 1,000 units) in Hamburg, based on wavetable synthesis previously implemented on PPG Wavecomputer 360, 340 and 380 circa 1978.\netc. Most products listed above are still sold in the 21st century, e.g. Yamaha DX200 in 2001, E-mu Emulator X in 2009, Fairlight CMI 30A in 2011, and Waldorf's wavetable synthesis products as the reincarnations of PPG Wave.\n\t\tIn addition, the long history of additive synthesis is notable for providing fundamental research that underlies the technology used in various forms of digital synthesis, but is not listed above due to the lack of commercially successful products. Additive synthesis has influenced most products in list above, and even the Yamaha Vocaloid released in 2003 (Excitation plus Resonance (EpR), which is based on Spectral modeling synthesis (SMS)).\n\n \n\nIn 1983, however, Yamaha's revolutionary DX7 digital synthesizer\n\n swept through popular music, leading to the adoption and development of digital synthesizers in many varying forms during the 1980s, and the rapid decline of analog synthesizer technology. In 1987, Roland's D50 synthesizer was released, which combined the already existing sample-based synthesis\nSample-based synthesis was previously introduced by the E-mu Emulator II in 1984, Ensoniq Mirage in 1985, Ensoniq ESQ-1 and Korg DSS-1 in 1986, etc.\n and the onboard digital effects, while Korg's even more popular M1 (1988) now also heralded the era of the workstation synthesizer, based on ROM sample sounds for composing and sequencing whole songs, rather than solely traditional sound synthesis. \n\nThroughout the 1990s, the popularity of electronic dance music employing analog sounds, the appearance of digital analog modelling synthesizers to recreate these sounds, and the development of the Eurorack modular synthesiser system, initially introduced with the Doepfer A-100 and since adopted by other manufacturers, all contributed to the resurgence of interest in analog technology. The turn of the century also saw improvements in technology that led to the popularity of digital software synthesizers. In the 2010s, new analog synthesizers, both in keyboard instrument and modular form, are released alongside current digital hardware instruments. In 2016, Korg announced the release of the Korg Minilogue, the first polyphonic analogue synth to be mass-produced in decades.\n\nImpact on popular music \n\nIn the 1970s, Jean Michel Jarre, Larry Fast, and Vangelis released successful synthesizer-led instrumental albums. Over time, this helped influence the emergence of synthpop, a subgenre of new wave, in the late 1970s. The work of German electronic bands such as Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, British acts Gary Numan and David Bowie and the Japanese Yellow Magic Orchestra were also influential in the development of the genre. Gary Numan's 1979 hits \"Are 'Friends' Electric?\" and \"Cars\" made heavy use of synthesizers. OMD's \"Enola Gay\" (1980) used distinctive electronic percussion and a synthesized melody. Soft Cell used a synthesized melody on their 1981 hit \"Tainted Love\". Nick Rhodes, keyboardist of Duran Duran, used various synthesizers including the Roland Jupiter-4 and Jupiter-8. \n\nChart hits include Depeche Mode's \"Just Can't Get Enough\" (1981), The Human League's \"Don't You Want Me\" and Giorgio Moroder's \"Flashdance... What a Feeling\" (1983) for Irene Cara. Other notable synthpop groups included New Order, Visage, Japan, Men Without Hats, Ultravox, Spandau Ballet, Culture Club, Eurythmics, Yazoo, Thompson Twins, A Flock of Seagulls, Heaven 17, Erasure, Soft Cell, Blancmange, Pet Shop Boys, Bronski Beat, Kajagoogoo, ABC, Naked Eyes, Devo, and the early work of Tears for Fears and Talk Talk.\nGiorgio Moroder, Howard Jones, Kitaro, Stevie Wonder, Peter Gabriel, Thomas Dolby, Kate Bush, Dónal Lunny, Deadmau5, Frank Zappa and Todd Rundgren, and Owl City all made use of synthesizers.\n\nThe synthesizer became one of the most important instruments in the music industry.\n\n \n \n\nAdditive synthesis builds sounds by adding together waveforms (which are usually harmonically related). Early analog examples of additive synthesizers are the Teleharmonium and Hammond organ. To implement real-time additive synthesis, wavetable synthesis is useful for reducing required hardware/processing power,\n\n and is commonly used in low-end MIDI instruments (such as educational keyboards) and low-end sound cards.\n\nSubtractive synthesis is based on filtering harmonically rich waveforms. Due to its simplicity, it is the basis of early synthesizers such as the Moog synthesizer. Subtractive synthesizers use a simple acoustic model that assumes an instrument can be approximated by a simple signal generator (producing sawtooth waves, square waves, etc.) followed by a filter. The combination of simple modulation routings (such as pulse width modulation and oscillator sync), along with the physically unrealistic lowpass filters, is responsible for the \"classic synthesizer\" sound commonly associated with \"analog synthesis\"—a term often mistakenly used when referring to software synthesizers using subtractive synthesis.\n\nFM synthesis (frequency modulation synthesis) is a process that usually involves the use of at least two signal generators (sine-wave oscillators, commonly referred to as \"operators\" in FM-only synthesizers) to create and modify a voice. Often, this is done through the analog or digital generation of a signal that modulates the tonal and amplitude characteristics of a base carrier signal. FM synthesis was pioneered by John Chowning, who patented the idea and sold it to Yamaha. Unlike the exponential relationship between voltage-in-to-frequency-out and multiple waveforms in classical 1-volt-per-octave synthesizer oscillators, Chowning-style FM synthesis uses a linear voltage-in-to-frequency-out relationship and sine-wave oscillators. The resulting complex waveform may have many component frequencies, and there is no requirement that they all bear a harmonic relationship. Sophisticated FM synths such as the Yamaha DX7 series can have 6 operators per voice; some synths with FM can also often use filters and variable amplifier types to alter the signal's characteristics into a sonic voice that either roughly imitates acoustic instruments or creates sounds that are unique. FM synthesis is especially valuable for metallic or clangorous noises such as bells, cymbals, or other percussion.\n\nPhase distortion synthesis is a method implemented on Casio CZ synthesizers. It is quite similar to FM synthesis but avoids infringing on the Chowning FM patent. It can be categorized as both modulation synthesis (along with FM synthesis), and distortion synthesis along with waveshaping synthesis.\n\nGranular synthesis is a type of synthesis based on manipulating very small sample slices.\n\nPhysical modelling synthesis is the synthesis of sound by using a set of equations and algorithms to simulate a real instrument, or some other physical source of sound. This involves modelling components of musical objects and creating systems that define action, filters, envelopes and other parameters over time. Various models can also be combined, e.g. the model of a violin with characteristics of a pedal steel guitar and the action of piano hammer. When an initial set of parameters is run through the physical simulation, the simulated sound is generated. Although physical modeling was not a new concept in acoustics and synthesis, it was not until the development of the Karplus-Strong algorithm and the increase in DSP power in the late 1980s that commercial implementations became feasible. The quality and speed of physical modeling on computers improves with higher processing power.\n\nSample-based synthesis involves recording a real instrument as a digitized waveform, and then playing back its recordings at different speeds (pitches) to produce different tones. This technique is referred to a \"sampling\". Most samplers designate a part of the sample for each component of the Attack Decay Sustain Release (ADSR) envelope, repeating that section while changing the volume according to the envelope. This allows samplers to vary the envelope while playing the same note. See also Wavetable synthesis, Vector synthesis.\n\n is a form of synthesis that uses a series of bandpass filters or Fourier transforms to analyze the harmonic content of a sound. The results are then used to resynthesize the sound using a band of oscillators. The vocoder, linear predictive coding, and some forms of speech synthesis are based on analysis/resynthesis.\n\nEssynth is a mathematical model for interactive sound synthesis based on evolutionary computation and uses genetic operators and fitness functions to create sound.\n\nImitative synthesis \n\nSound synthesis can be used to mimic acoustic sound sources. Generally, a sound that does not change over time includes a fundamental partial or harmonic, and any number of partials. Synthesis may attempt to mimic the amplitude and pitch of the partials in an acoustic sound source.\n\nWhen natural sounds are analyzed in the frequency domain (as on a spectrum analyzer), the spectra of their sounds exhibits amplitude spikes at each of the fundamental tone's harmonics corresponding to resonant properties of the instruments (spectral peaks that are also referred to as formants). Some harmonics may have higher amplitudes than others. The specific set of harmonic-vs-amplitude pairs is known as a sound's harmonic content. A synthesized sound requires accurate reproduction of the original sound in both the frequency domain and the time domain. A sound does not necessarily have the same harmonic content throughout the duration of the sound. Typically, high-frequency harmonics die out more quickly than the lower harmonics.\n\nIn most conventional synthesizers, for purposes of re-synthesis, recordings of real instruments are composed of several components representing the acoustic responses of different parts of the instrument, the sounds produced by the instrument during different parts of a performance, or the behavior of the instrument under different playing conditions (pitch, intensity of playing, fingering, etc.)\n\nComponents \n\nSynthesizers generate sound through various analogue and digital techniques. Early synthesizers were analog hardware based but many modern synthesizers use a combination of DSP software and hardware or else are purely software-based (see softsynth). Digital synthesizers often emulate classic analog designs. Sound is controllable by the operator by means of circuits or virtual stages that may include:\n\n* Electronic oscillators – create raw sounds with a timbre that depends upon the waveform generated. Voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) and digital oscillators may be used. Harmonic additive synthesis models sounds directly from pure sine waves, somewhat in the manner of an organ, while frequency modulation and phase distortion synthesis use one oscillator to modulate another. Subtractive synthesis depends upon filtering a harmonically rich oscillator waveform. Sample-based and granular synthesis use one or more digitally recorded sounds in place of an oscillator.\n* Low frequency oscillator (LFO) – an oscillator of adjustable frequency that can be used to modulate the sound rhythmically, for example to create tremolo or vibrato or to control a filter's operating frequency. LFOs are used in most forms of synthesis.\n* Voltage-controlled filter (VCF) – \"shape\" the sound generated by the oscillators in the frequency domain, often under the control of an envelope or LFO. These are essential to subtractive synthesis.\n* ADSR envelopes – provide envelope modulation to \"shape\" the volume or harmonic content of the produced note in the time domain with the principal parameters being attack, decay, sustain and release. These are used in most forms of synthesis. ADSR control is provided by envelope generators.\n* Voltage-controlled amplifier (VCA) – After the signal generated by one (or a mix of more) VCOs has been modified by filters and LFOs, and its waveform has been shaped (contoured) by an ADSR envelope generator, it then passes on to one or more voltage-controlled amplifiers (VCAs). A VCA is a preamp that boosts (amplifies) the electronic signal before passing it on to an external or built-in power amplifier, as well as a means to control its amplitude (volume) using an attenuator. The gain of the VCA is affected by a control voltage (CV), coming from an envelope generator, an LFO, the keyboard or some other source.\n\n* Other sound processing effects such as ring modulators may be encountered.\n\nFilter \n\nElectronic filters are particularly important in subtractive synthesis, being designed to pass some frequency regions through unattenuated while significantly attenuating (\"subtracting\") others. The low-pass filter is most frequently used, but band-pass filters, band-reject filters and high-pass filters are also sometimes available.\n\nThe filter may be controlled with a second ADSR envelope. An \"envelope modulation\" (\"env mod\") parameter on many synthesizers with filter envelopes determines how much the envelope affects the filter. If turned all the way down, the filter produces a flat sound with no envelope. When turned up the envelope becomes more noticeable, expanding the minimum and maximum range of the filter.\n\n \n\nWhen an acoustic musical instrument produces sound, the loudness and spectral content of the sound change over time in ways that vary from instrument to instrument. The \"attack\" and \"decay\" of a sound have a great effect on the instrument's sonic character. \n Sound synthesis techniques often employ an envelope generator that controls a sound's parameters at any point in its duration. Most often this is an (ADSR) envelope, which may be applied to overall amplitude control, filter frequency, etc. The envelope may be a discrete circuit or module, or implemented in software. The contour of an ADSR envelope is specified using four parameters:\n\n* Attack time is the time taken for initial run-up of level from nil to peak, beginning when the key is first pressed.\n* Decay time is the time taken for the subsequent run down from the attack level to the designated sustain level.\n* Sustain level is the level during the main sequence of the sound's duration, until the key is released.\n* Release time is the time taken for the level to decay from the sustain level to zero after the key is released.\n\nAn early implementation of ADSR can be found on the Hammond Novachord in 1938 (which predates the first Moog synthesizer by over 25 years). A seven-position rotary knob set preset ADS parameter for all 72 notes; a pedal controlled release time. The notion of ADSR was specified by Vladimir Ussachevsky (then head of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center) in 1965 while suggesting improvements for Bob Moog's pioneering work on synthesizers, although the earlier notations of parameter were (T1, T2, Esus, T3), then these were simplified to current form (Attack time, Decay time, Sustain level, Release time) by ARP.\n\nSome electronic musical instruments can invert the ADSR envelope, reversing the behavior of the normal ADSR envelope. During the attack phase, the modulated sound parameter fades from the maximum amplitude to zero then, during the decay phase, rises to the value specified by the sustain parameter. After the key has been released the sound parameter rises from sustain amplitude back to maximum amplitude.\n\nA common variation of the ADSR on some synthesizers, such as the Korg MS-20, was ADSHR (attack, decay, sustain, hold, release). By adding a \"hold\" parameter, the system could hold notes at the sustain level for a fixed length of time before decaying. The General Instruments AY-3-8912 sound chip included a hold time parameter only—the sustain level was not programmable. Another common variation in the same vein is the AHDSR (attack, hold, decay, sustain, release) envelope, in which the \"hold\" parameter controls how long the envelope stays at full volume before entering the decay phase. Multiple attack, decay and release settings may be found on more sophisticated models.\n\nCertain synthesizers also allow for a delay parameter before the attack. Modern synthesizers like the Dave Smith Instruments Prophet '08 have DADSR (delay, attack, decay, sustain, release) envelopes. The delay setting determines the length of silence between hitting a note and the attack. Some software synthesizers, such as Image-Line's 3xOSC (included with their DAW FL Studio) have DAHDSR (delay, attack, hold, decay, sustain, release) envelopes.\n\nLFO \n\nA low-frequency oscillator (LFO) generates an electronic signal, usually below 20 Hz. LFO signals create a periodic control signal or sweep, often used in vibrato, tremolo and other effects. In certain genres of electronic music, the LFO signal can control the cutoff frequency of a VCF to make a rhythmic wah-wah sound, or the signature dubstep wobble bass.\n\nPatch \n\nA synthesizer patch (some manufacturers chose the term program) is a sound setting. Modular synthesizers used cables (\"patch cords\") to connect the different sound modules together. Since these machines had no memory to save settings, musicians wrote down the locations of the patch cables and knob positions on a \"patch sheet\" (which usually showed a diagram of the synthesizer). Ever since, an overall sound setting for any type of synthesizer has been referred to as a patch.\n\nIn mid–late 1970s, patch memory (allowing storage and loading of 'patches' or 'programs') began to appear in synths like the Oberheim Four-voice (1975/1976)\n and Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 (1977/1978). After MIDI was introduced in 1983, more and more synthesizers could import or export patches via MIDI SYSEX commands. When a synthesizer patch is uploaded to a personal computer that has patch editing software installed, the user can alter the parameters of the patch and download it back to the synthesizer. Because there is no standard patch language, it is rare that a patch generated on one synthesizer can be used on a different model. However, sometimes manufacturers design a family of synthesizers to be compatible.\n\nControl interfaces \n\nModern synthesizers often look like small pianos, though with many additional knob and button controls. These are integrated controllers, where the sound synthesis electronics are integrated into the same package as the controller. However, many early synthesizers were modular and keyboardless, while most modern synthesizers may be controlled via MIDI, allowing other means of playing such as:\n\n* Fingerboards (ribbon controllers) and touchpads\n* Wind controllers\n* Guitar-style interfaces\n* Drum pads\n* Music sequencers\n* Non-contact interfaces akin to theremins\n* Tangible interfaces like a Reactable, AudioCubes\n* Various auxiliary input device including: wheels for pitch bend and modulation, footpedals for expression and sustain, breath controllers, beam controllers, etc.\n\nFingerboard controller \n\nA ribbon controller or other violin-like user interface may be used to control synthesizer parameters. The idea dates to Léon Theremin's 1922 first concept\n and his 1932 Fingerboard Theremin and Keyboard Theremin,\n — the article reported Léon Theremin's new electronic instruments used on his electric orchestra's first public recital at Carnegie Hall, New York City, including Fingerboard Theremin, Keyboard Theremin with fingerboard controller, and Terpsitone (a performance instrument in the style of platform on which a dancer could play a music by the movement of body).\n  Maurice Martenot's 1928 Ondes Martenot (sliding a metal ring),\n  Friedrich Trautwein's 1929 Trautonium (finger pressure), and was also later utilized by Robert Moog.\n — Max Brand's version of Mixture Trautonium, built by Robert Moog during 1966–1968.\n\n The ribbon controller has no moving parts. Instead, a finger pressed down and moved along it creates an electrical contact at some point along a pair of thin, flexible longitudinal strips whose electric potential varies from one end to the other. Older fingerboards used a long wire pressed to a resistive plate. A ribbon controller is similar to a touchpad, but a ribbon controller only registers linear motion. Although it may be used to operate any parameter that is affected by control voltages, a ribbon controller is most commonly associated with pitch bending.\n\nFingerboard-controlled instruments include the Trautonium (1929), Hellertion (1929) and Heliophon (1936),\n\n Electro-Theremin (Tannerin, late 1950s), Persephone (2004), and the Swarmatron (2004). A ribbon controller is used as an additional controller in the Yamaha CS-80 and CS-60, the Korg Prophecy and Korg Trinity series, the Kurzweil synthesizers, Moog synthesizers, and others.\n\nRock musician Keith Emerson used it with the Moog modular synthesizer from 1970 onward. In the late 1980s, keyboards in the synth lab at Berklee College of Music were equipped with membrane thin ribbon style controllers that output MIDI. They functioned as MIDI managers, with their programming language printed on their surface, and as expression/performance tools. Designed by Jeff Tripp of Perfect Fretworks Co., they were known as Tripp Strips. Such ribbon controllers can serve as a main MIDI controller instead of a keyboard, as with the Continuum instrument.\n\nWind controllers \n\nWind controllers (and wind synthesizers) are convenient for woodwind and brass players, being designed to imitate those instruments. These are usually either analog or MIDI controllers, and sometimes include their own built-in sound modules (synthesizers). In addition to the follow of key arrangements and fingering, the controllers have breath-operated pressure transducers, and may have gate extractors, velocity sensors, and bite sensors. Saxophone-style controllers have included the Lyricon, and products by Yamaha, Akai, and Casio. The mouthpieces range from alto clarinet to alto saxophone sizes. The Eigenharp, a controller similar in style to a bassoon, was released by Eigenlabs in 2009. Melodica and recorder-style controllers have included the Martinetta (1975)\n and Variophon (1980),\n and Joseph Zawinul's custom Korg Pepe.\n (also [http://www.melodicas.com/images/zawinulpepe.jpg another photograph] is shown on [http://www.melodicas.com/melodica_photo_gallery.htm gallery] page) A harmonica-style interface was the Millionizer 2000 (c. 1983).\n\nTrumpet-style controllers have included products by Steiner/Crumar/Akai, Yamaha, and Morrison. Breath controllers can also be used to control conventional synthesizers, e.g. the Crumar Steiner Masters Touch,\n Yamaha Breath Controller and compatible products.\n Several controllers also provide breath-like articulation capabilities. \n\nAccordion controllers use pressure transducers on bellows for articulation.\n\nOthers \n\nOther controllers include: Theremin, lightbeam controllers, touch buttons (touche d’intensité) on the Ondes Martenot, and various types of foot pedals. Envelope following systems, the most sophisticated being the vocoder, are controlled by the power or amplitude of input audio signal. A musician uses the Talk box to manipulated sound using the vocal tract, though it is rarely categorized as a synthesizer.\n\nMIDI control \n\nSynthesizers became easier to integrate and synchronize with other electronic instruments and controllers with the introduction of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) in 1983.\n First proposed in 1981 by engineer Dave Smith of Sequential Circuits, the MIDI standard was developed by a consortium now known as the MIDI Manufacturers Association. MIDI is an opto-isolated serial interface and communication protocol. It provides for the transmission from one device or instrument to another of real-time performance data. This data includes note events, commands for the selection of instrument presets (i.e. sounds, or programs or patches, previously stored in the instrument's memory), the control of performance-related parameters such as volume, effects levels and the like, as well as synchronization, transport control and other types of data. MIDI interfaces are now almost ubiquitous on music equipment and are commonly available on personal computers (PCs).\n\nThe General MIDI (GM) software standard was devised in 1991 to serve as a consistent way of describing a set of over 200 sounds (including percussion) available to a PC for playback of musical scores. For the first time, a given MIDI preset consistently produced a specific instrumental sound on any GM-compatible device. The Standard MIDI File (SMF) format (extension .mid) combined MIDI events with delta times – a form of time-stamping – and became a popular standard for exchanging music scores between computers. In the case of SMF playback using integrated synthesizers (as in computers and cell phones), the hardware component of the MIDI interface design is often unneeded.\n\nOpen Sound Control (OSC) is another music data specification designed for online networking. In contrast with MIDI, OSC allows thousands of synthesizers or computers to share music performance data over the Internet in realtime.\n\nTypical roles \n\nSynth lead \n\nIn popular music, a synth lead is generally used for playing the main melody of a song, but it is also often used for creating rhythmic or bass effects. Although most commonly heard in electronic dance music, synth leads have been used extensively in hip-hop music since the 1980s and some types of rock songs since the 1970s. Many post-1980s pop music songs use a synth lead to provide a musical hook to sustain the listener's interest throughout a song.\n\nSynth pad \n\nA synth pad is a sustained chord or tone generated by a synthesizer, often employed for background harmony and atmosphere in much the same fashion that a string section is often used in orchestral music and film scores. Typically, a synth pad is performed using whole notes, which are often tied over bar lines. A synth pad sometimes holds the same note while a lead voice sings or plays an entire musical phrase or section. Often, the sounds used for synth pads have a vaguely organ, string, or vocal timbre. Much popular music in the 1980s employed synth pads, this being the time of polyphonic synthesizers, as did the then-new styles of smooth jazz and new-age music. One of many well-known songs from the era to incorporate a synth pad is \"West End Girls\" by the Pet Shop Boys, who were noted users of the technique.\n\nThe main feature of a synth pad is very long attack and decay time with extended sustains. In some instances pulse-width modulation (PWM) using a square wave oscillator can be added to create a \"vibrating\" sound.\n\nSynth bass \n\nThe bass synthesizer (or \"bass synth\") is used to create sounds in the bass range, from simulations of the electric bass or double bass to distorted, buzz-saw-like artificial bass sounds, by generating and combining signals of different frequencies. Bass synth patches may incorporate a range of sounds and tones, including wavetable-style, analog, and FM-style bass sounds, delay effects, distortion effects, envelope filters. A modern digital synthesizer uses a frequency synthesizer microprocessor component to generate signals of different frequencies. While most bass synths are controlled by electronic keyboards or pedalboards, some performers use an electric bass with MIDI pickups to trigger a bass synthesizer.\n\nIn the 1970s miniaturized solid-state components allowed self-contained, portable instruments such as the Moog Taurus, a 13-note pedal keyboard played by the feet. The Moog Taurus was used in live performances by a range of pop, rock, and blues-rock bands. An early use of bass synthesizer was in 1972, on a solo album by John Entwistle (the bassist for The Who), entitled Whistle Rymes. Genesis bass player Mike Rutherford used a Dewtron \"Mister Bassman\" for the recording of their album Nursery Cryme in August 1971. Stevie Wonder introduced synth bass to a pop audience in the early 1970s, notably on \"Superstition\" (1972) and \"Boogie On Reggae Woman\" (1974). In 1977 Parliament's funk single \"Flash Light\" used the bass synthesizer. Lou Reed, widely considered a pioneer of electric guitar textures, played bass synthesizer on the song \"Families\", from his 1979 album The Bells.\n\nWhen the programmable music sequencer became widely available in the 1980s (e.g., the Synclavier), bass synths were used to create highly syncopated rhythms and complex, rapid basslines. Bass synth patches incorporate a range of sounds and tones, including wavetable-style, analog, and FM-style bass sounds, delay effects, distortion effects, envelope filters. A particularly influential bass synthesizer was the Roland TB-303 following Firstman SQ-01. Released in late 1981, it featured a built-in sequencer and later became strongly associated with acid house music. This method gained wide popularity after Phuture used it for the single \"Acid Tracks\" in 1987. \n\nIn the 2000s, several equipment manufacturers such as Boss and Akai produced bass synthesizer effect pedals for electric bass guitar players, which simulate the sound of an analog or digital bass synth. With these devices, a bass guitar is used to generate synth bass sounds. The BOSS SYB-3 was one of the early bass synthesizer pedals. The SYB-3 reproduces sounds of analog synthesizers with Digital Signal Processing saw, square, and pulse synth waves and user-adjustable filter cutoff. The Akai bass synth pedal contains a four-oscillator synthesizer with user selectable parameters (attack, decay, envelope depth, dynamics, cutoff, resonance). Bass synthesizer software allows performers to use MIDI to integrate the bass sounds with other synthesizers or drum machines. Bass synthesizers often provide samples from vintage 1970s and 1980s bass synths. Some bass synths are built into an organ style pedalboard or button board.\n\nArpeggiator \n\nAn arpeggiator (arp) is a feature available on several synthesizers that automatically steps through a sequence of notes based on an input chord, thus creating an arpeggio. The notes can often be transmitted to a MIDI sequencer for recording and further editing. An arpeggiator may have controls for speed, range, and order in which the notes play; upwards, downwards, or in a random order. More advanced arpeggiators allow the user to step through a pre-programmed complex sequence of notes, or play several arpeggios at once. Some allow a pattern sustained after releasing keys: in this way, sequence of arpeggio patterns may be built up over time by pressing several keys one after the other. Arpeggiators are also commonly found in software sequencers. Some arpeggiators/sequencers expand features into a full phrase sequencer, which allows the user to trigger complex, multi-track blocks of sequenced data from a keyboard or input device, typically synchronized with the tempo of the master clock.\n\nArpeggiators seem to have grown from the accompaniment system of electronic organs in mid-1960s – mid-1970s,\n and possibly hardware sequencers of the mid-1960s, such as the 8/16 step analog sequencer on modular synthesizers (Buchla Series 100 (1964/1966)). Also they were commonly fitted to keyboard instruments through the late 1970s and early 1980s. Notable examples are the RMI Harmonic Synthesizer (1974),\n Roland Jupiter 8, Oberheim OB-8, Roland SH-101, Sequential Circuits Six-Trak and Korg Polysix. A famous example can be heard on Duran Duran's song Rio, in which the arpeggiator on a Roland Jupiter-4 plays a C minor chord in random mode. They fell out of favor by the latter part of the 1980s and early 1990s and were absent from the most popular synthesizers of the period but a resurgence of interest in analog synthesizers during the 1990s, and the use of rapid-fire arpeggios in several popular dance hits, brought with it a resurgence." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Tootsie_Pop.txt" ], "title": [ "Tootsie Pop" ], "wiki_context": [ "Tootsie Pops are hard candy lollipops filled with chocolate-flavored chewy Tootsie Roll. They were invented in 1931 by Lukas R. \"Luke\" Weisgram, an employee of The Sweets Company of America. The company changed its name to Tootsie Roll Industries in 1969.\n\nThe candy debuted to the public in 1931. In addition to chocolate (the original flavor), Tootsie Pops come in cherry, orange, caramel, grape, raspberry, strawberry, watermelon, blue raspberry, candy cane (seasonal), and now, pomegranate, banana, blueberry, and green apple flavors. Another release of Tootsie Roll Pops, named Tropical Stormz, features six swirl-textured flavors: orange , lemon lime, strawberry banana, apple blueberry, citrus punch, and berry berry punch.\n\nIn 2002, 60 million Tootsie Rolls and twenty million Tootsie Pops were produced every day. \n\nDevelopment\n\nAt an office meeting employees were asked to share any ideas for new candies. Mr. Weisgram had been thinking beforehand. Just the other day, Clara, his daughter, had shared a lick of her lollipop, and at the same time, Weisgram had a Tootsie Roll in his mouth. He thought about how good it tasted and up popped an idea. The board loved his idea and began to plan for the creation of this new candy. Committees were formed and changes made until finally everything was ready. Tootsie Pops are produced up to this day and additional flavors are added once every while. \n\nCommercials\n\nTootsie Pops are known for the catch phrase \"How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?\". The phrase was first introduced in an animated commercial which debuted on U.S. television in 1969. In the original television ad, a questioning boy poses the question to a cow, a fox, a turtle and an owl. Each one of the first three animals tells the boy to ask someone else, explaining that they'd bite a Tootsie Pop every time they lick one. Eventually, he asks the owl, who starts licking it, but bites into the lollipop after only three licks, much to the chagrin of the boy, who gets the empty stick back. The commercial ends the same way, with various flavored Tootsie Pops unwrapped and being \"licked away\" until being crunched in the center. \n\nWhile the original commercial is 60 seconds long, an edited 30-second version and 15-second version of this commercial are the ones that have aired innumerable times over the years. The dialogue to the 60-second version is as follows:\nQuestioning Boy (Buddy Foster): Mr. Cow...\nMr. Cow (Frank Nelson): Yeeeeesss!!?\nQuestioning Boy: How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?!\nMr. Cow: I don't know, I always end up biting. Ask Mr. Fox, for he's much cleverer than I.\nQuestioning Boy: Mr. Fox, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?!!\nMr. Fox (Paul Frees): Why don't you ask Mr. Turtle, for he's been around a lot longer than I! Me, heheh, I bite!\nQuestioning Boy: Mr. Turtle, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?\nMr. Turtle (Ralph James): I've never even made it without biting. Ask Mr. Owl, for he is the wisest of us all.\nQuestioning Boy: Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop!?\nMr. Owl (Paul Winchell): A good question. Let's find out. (He takes the Tootsie pop and starts licking) A One... A two-HOO... A tha-three..\n(crunch sound effect)\nMr. Owl: A Three!\nQuestioning Boy: If there's anything I can't stand, it's a smart owl.\nNarrator (Herschel Bernardi): How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?\n(crunch sound effect)\nNarrator: The world may never know.\n\nIn the shorter 30-second ad, Mr. Owl returns the spent candy stick, and the boy's final line is replaced with a reaction shot and a beat of silence. The 30-second commercial dialogue is as follows:\n\nQuestioning Boy: Mr. Turtle, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?\nMr. Turtle: I've never even made it without biting. Ask Mr. Owl.\nQuestioning Boy: Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?\nMr. Owl: Let's find out. A One... A.two-HOO...A three..\n(crunch sound effect)\nMr. Owl: A Three!\nNarrator: How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?\n(crunch sound effect)\nNarrator: The world may never know.\n\nThe 15-second commercial (which still airs today) only shows the boy with Mr. Owl and a different narrator (Frank Leslie) speaks the same above line, but without the scene showing the Tootsie Roll pops slowly disappearing with a different tune playing in the background. The question still stands unanswered. The dialogue is as follows:\nQuestioning Boy: Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?\nMr. Owl: Let's find out. A One... A.two-HOO...A three..\n(crunch sound effect)\nNarrator (Frank Leslie): How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know.\n\nAfter the commercial, Mr. Owl became the mascot for Tootsie Roll Pops, appearing in marketing campaigns and on the packaging.\n\nIn the 1990s, a new commercial was made featuring a boy asking a robot and a dragon how many licks it takes to get to the center, with the Tootsie Pops known for the catch phrase \"How many licks to the center of a Tootsie Pop?\", rather than \"How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?\". \n\nIn the early 1970s, Tootsie Pops were the initial lollipop of choice of the titular character in the TV series Kojak, and are seen prominently beginning in the December 12, 1973 episode \"Dark Sunday\" when Lt. Theo Kojak decides to favor them instead of cigarettes.\n\nRumors and set attempts \n\nAt some point, a rumor began that the lollipop wrappers which bore three unbroken circles were redeemable for free candy or even free items like shirts and other items. The rumor was untrue, but some shops have honored the wrapper offer over the years, allowing people to \"win\" a free pop.\n\nSome stores redeemed lollipop wrappers with the \"shooting star\"(bearing an image of a child dressed as a Native American aiming a bow and arrow at a star) for a free sucker. This was clearly up to the store owner and not driven by the lollipop manufacturer. One convenience store in Iowa City, Iowa, for example, gave candy away when the children asked. Also in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Osco Drug used to give children free suckers for star wrappers. In 1994, the owner of Dan’s Shortstop told a reporter that when he first opened children came by often, but after a while, he said he had to stop giving stuff away. Giveaways also occurred in Chico, California, where a 7-Eleven store manager in the Pleasant Valley area, said she had to stop because it had become too expensive. Since 1982, Tootsie Roll Industries has been distributing a short story, The Legend of the Indian Wrapper, to children who mail in their Indian star wrappers as a \"consolation prize\". \n\nA student study at the University of Cambridge concluded that it takes 3,481 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. Another study by Purdue University concluded that it takes an average of 364 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop using a \"licking machine\", while it takes an average of 252 licks when tried by 20 volunteers. Yet another study by the University of Michigan concluded that it takes 411 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. A 1996 study by undergraduate students at Swarthmore College concluded that it takes a median of 144 licks (range 70–222) to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. Nolan Walker personally found that it takes 1,139 licks as documented in a home experiment on December, 1997. Harvard Grad students created a rotating mechanical tongue and concluded it took 2255 licks. It took 2256 licks on one attempt for a normal raspberry Tootsie Pop to get the center showing. YouTube star Ryan Higa found out that it took 700 licks to get to the center of the Tootsie Pop. \n\nIn 2014 the Tribology Laboratory at the University of Florida published a study examining the coupled effects of biology, corrosion, and mechanical agitation on the wear of Tootsie Roll Pops. Self reported wear data from 58 participants was used in conjunction with statistical analysis of actual lollipop cross-sectional information in a numerical simulation to compute the average number of licks required to reach the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Roll Pop. The number of licks required to reach the center, based on equatorial cross-section data, was found to be nearly independent of the licking style with the one-sided approach requiring 195±18 licks and the full-surface approach requiring 184±33. Detailed examination of the lollipops indicates that the minimum candy shell thickness is rarely (if ever) located along the equator. Using the global minimum distance resulted in a calculated 130±29 licks to reach the center, independent of licking style. \n\nFlavors\n\nOriginal Assortment\n\n* Chocolate\n* Orange\n* Raspberry\n* Grape\n* Cherry\n* Lemon (discontinued but reintroduced 2015)\nAll assortment flavors can also be purchased in single-flavor bulk.\nIn 2004, and again in 2011 with different flavors, Tootsie Pops would have a random, rotating sixth flavor.\n\n\"Tropical Stormz\" Assortment (Discontinued)\n\n* Cake Mix\n* Taco Bell's Fire\n* Citrus Punch\n* Berry Punch\n*Coconut Apple\n*Mango-Pineapple\n\n\"Wild Berry\" Assortment\n\n* Wild Apple Berry\n* Wild Blueberry\n* Wild Black Cherry\n* Wild Cherry Berry\n* Wild Mango Berry\n* Wild Berry Asian\n\nNon-Standard Flavors\n\n* Banana (Rotated as a \"Sixth Flavor\" in 2011)\n* Pomegranate (Rotated as a \"Sixth Flavor\" in 2012)\n* Blueberry (Rotated as a \"Sixth Flavor\" in 2011)\n* Lemon-Lime (Rotated as a \"Sixth Flavor\" in 2004)\n* Blue Raspberry (Rotated as a \"Sixth Flavor\" in 2004)\n* Watermelon (Rotated as a \"Sixth Flavor\" in 2004)\n* Strawberry (Rotated as a \"Sixth Flavor\" in 2004)\n* Strawberry-Watermelon (Rotated as a \"Sixth Flavor\" in 2015)\n* Green Apple (Rotated as a \"Sixth Flavor\")\nNon-standard flavors can be now purchased in single-flavor bulk.\n\nAdditional flavors: Strawberry-Vanilla, Cherry (Valentine's Day), Tangerine, Pineapple, Tropical Punch , Wild Blackberry and Strawberry Watermelon.\n\nSeasonal Flavors\n\n* Candy Cane (Christmas seasonal flavor, also available as Pop Drops)\n* Caramel (Halloween seasonal flavor but seems to be sold all year)\n\n\"Sweet & Sour Bunch Pops \" package of 8 Assortment pops .50 oz. / 14.8 grams each \n\n* Sour Apple\n* Sour Blackberry\n* Sour Blue Raspberry\n* Sour Lemon\n* Sweet Cherry\n* Sweet Grape\n* Sweet Orange\n* Sweet Raspberry\n\nSister Products\n\n* Tootsie Rolls - The original Tootsie candy that Tootsie Pops were based from.\n* Tootsie Pop Drops - Smaller Tootsie Pops without the stick, made to be portable and often sold in a pocket package. \n** Pop Drops Assortment: Cherry, Orange and Grape\n** Candy Cane Pop Drops (seasonal)\n* Caramel Apple Pops - Similar to Tootsie Pops (hard candy apple shell with chewy caramel center) but flatter.\n** Caramel Apple Pops (Original Flavor: Green Apple aka Granny Smith)\n** Caramel Apple Orchard Pops (Three Flavors: Red Macintosh, Green Apple, Golden Delicious)\n* Charms Blow Pops - Tootsie Pops with gum in the center instead of a Tootsie Roll\n** Charms Blow Pops Assortment: Cherry, Sour Apple, Grape, Watermelon, Strawberry, Blue Raspberry\n** Super Blow Pops\n** Blow Pops Minis\n** Way-2-Sour Blow Pops" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Charles_Manson.txt" ], "title": [ "Charles Manson" ], "wiki_context": [ "Charles Milles Manson (born Charles Milles Maddox, November 12, 1934) is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in the California desert in the late 1960s. Manson and his followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations over a period of five weeks in the summer of 1969. In 1971 he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the murders of seven people — most notably of the actress Sharon Tate — all of which were carried out by members of the group at his instruction. He is currently serving nine concurrent life sentences at Corcoran State Prison in Corcoran, California.\n\nManson believed in what he called \"Helter Skelter\", a term he took from the Beatles' song of the same name. Manson believed Helter Skelter to be an impending apocalyptic race war, which he described in his own version of the lyrics to the Beatles' song. He believed the murders would help precipitate that war. From the beginning of his notoriety, a pop culture arose around him in which he ultimately became an emblem of insanity, violence and the macabre.\n\nAt the time the Family began to form, Manson was an unemployed former convict, who had spent half of his life in correctional institutions for a variety of offenses. Before the murders, he was a singer-songwriter on the fringe of the Los Angeles music industry, chiefly through a chance association with Dennis Wilson, drummer and co-founder of the Beach Boys. After Manson was charged with the crimes of which he was later convicted, recordings of songs written and performed by him were released commercially. Various musicians have covered some of his songs.\n\nEarly life \n\nChildhood \n\nBorn to an unmarried 16-year-old named Kathleen Maddox (1918–1973), in the General Hospital, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Manson was first named \"no name Maddox\". Within weeks, he was called Charles Milles Maddox. \nFor a period after his birth, his mother was married to a laborer named William Manson (1910?), whose last name the boy was given. His biological father appears to have been Colonel Walker Scott (May 11, 1910December 30, 1954) against whom Kathleen Maddox filed a paternity suit that resulted in an agreed judgment in 1937. Possibly, Charles Manson never knew his biological father.\n\nSeveral statements in Manson's 1953 case file from the seven months he would later spend at the National Training School for Boys in Washington, D.C., allude to the possibility that \"Colonel Scott\" was black. These include the first two sentences of his family background section, which read: \"Father: unknown. He is alleged to have been a colored cook by the name of Scott, with whom Charles's mother had been promiscuous at the time of pregnancy.\" When asked about these official records by attorney Vincent Bugliosi in 1971, Manson emphatically denied that his biological father had black ancestry. In addition, the 1920 and 1930 census list Colonel Scott and his father as white.\n\nIn the biography Manson in His Own Words, Colonel Scott is said to have been \"a young drugstore cowboy ... a transient laborer working on a nearby dam project.\" It is not clear what \"nearby\" means. The description is in a paragraph that indicates Kathleen Maddox gave birth to Manson \"while living in Cincinnati\", after she had run away from her own home, in Ashland, Kentucky. \n\nThere is much about Manson's early life that is in dispute because of the varying stories he has offered to interviewers, many of which were untrue. Manson's mother was allegedly a heavy drinker. According to Manson, she once sold her son for a pitcher of beer to a childless waitress, from whom his uncle retrieved him some days later. \n\nWhen Manson's mother and her brother were sentenced to five years' imprisonment for robbing a Charleston, West Virginia, service station in 1939 by brandishing a ketchup bottle, Manson was placed in the home of an aunt and uncle in McMechen, West Virginia. Upon her 1942 parole, Manson's mother retrieved her son and lived with him in a series of run-down hotel rooms. Manson himself later characterized her physical embrace of him on the day she returned from prison as his sole happy childhood memory. In 1947, Kathleen Maddox tried to have her son placed in a foster home but failed because no such home was available. The court placed Manson in Gibault School for Boys in Terre Haute, Indiana. After 10 months, he fled from there to his mother, who rejected him.\n\nFirst offenses \n\nBy burglarizing a liquor store, Manson obtained money that enabled him to rent a room. He committed a string of burglaries of other stores, including one from which he stole a bicycle, but was eventually caught in the act and sent to an Indianapolis juvenile center. He escaped after one day, but was recaptured and placed in Boys Town. Four days after his arrival there, he escaped with another boy. The pair committed two armed robberies on their way to the home of the other boy's uncle.\n\nCaught during the second of two subsequent break-ins of grocery stores, Manson was sent, at age 13, to the Indiana Boys School, where, he would later claim, he was brutalized sexually and otherwise. After many failed attempts, he escaped with two other boys in 1951.\n\nIn Utah, the three were caught driving to California in cars they had stolen. They had robbed several filling stations along the way. For the federal crime of taking a stolen car across a state line, Manson was sent to Washington, D.C.'s National Training School for Boys. Despite four years of schooling and an I.Q. of 109 (later tested at age 21), he was illiterate. A caseworker deemed him aggressively antisocial.\n\nFirst imprisonment \n\nIn October 1951, on a psychiatrist's recommendation, Manson was transferred to Natural Bridge Honor Camp, a minimum security institution. Less than a month before a scheduled February 1952 parole hearing, one of the boys there \"took a razor blade and held it against another boy's throat while Manson sodomized him.\" Manson was transferred to the Federal Reformatory, Petersburg, Virginia, where he was considered \"dangerous.\" In September 1952, a number of other serious disciplinary offenses resulted in his transfer to the Federal Reformatory at Chillicothe, Ohio, a more secure institution.\nAbout a month after the transfer, he became almost a model resident. Good work habits and a rise in his educational level from the lower fourth to the upper seventh grade won him a May 1954 parole.\n\nAfter temporarily honoring a parole condition that he live with his aunt and uncle in West Virginia, Manson moved in with his mother in that same state. In January 1955, he married a hospital waitress named Rosalie Jean Willis, with whom, by his own account, he found genuine, if short-lived, marital happiness. He supported their marriage via small-time jobs and auto theft.\n\nAround October, about three months after he and his pregnant wife arrived in Los Angeles in a car he had stolen in Ohio, Manson was again charged with a federal crime for taking the vehicle across state lines. After a psychiatric evaluation, he was given five years' probation. His subsequent failure to appear at a Los Angeles hearing on an identical charge filed in Florida resulted in his March 1956 arrest in Indianapolis. His probation was revoked; he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment at Terminal Island, San Pedro, California.\n\nWhile Manson was in prison, Rosalie gave birth to their son, Charles Manson, Jr. During his first year at Terminal Island, Manson received visits from Rosalie and his mother, who were now living together in Los Angeles. In March 1957, when the visits from his wife ceased, his mother informed him Rosalie was living with another man. Less than two weeks before a scheduled parole hearing, Manson tried to escape by stealing a car. He was subsequently given five years probation, and his parole was denied.\n\nSecond imprisonment \n\nManson received five years' parole in September 1958, the same year in which Rosalie received a decree of divorce. By November, he was pimping a 16-year-old girl and was receiving additional support from a girl with wealthy parents. In September 1959, he pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to cash a forged U.S. Treasury check. He received a 10-year suspended sentence and probation after a young woman with an arrest record for prostitution made a \"tearful plea\" before the court that she and Manson were \"deeply in love ... and would marry if Charlie were freed.\" Before the year's end, the woman did marry Manson, possibly so testimony against him would not be required of her.\n\nThe woman's name was Leona; as a prostitute, she had used the name Candy Stevens. After Manson took her and another woman from California to New Mexico for purposes of prostitution, he was held and questioned for violation of the Mann Act. Though he was released, he evidently suspected, rightly, that the investigation had not ended. When he disappeared, in violation of his probation, a bench warrant was issued; an April 1960 indictment for violation of the Mann Act followed. Arrested in Laredo, Texas, in June, when one of the women was arrested for prostitution, Manson was returned to Los Angeles. For violation of his probation on the check-cashing charge, he was ordered to serve his 10-year sentence.\n\nIn July 1961, after a year spent unsuccessfully appealing the revocation of his probation, Manson was transferred from the Los Angeles County Jail to the United States Penitentiary at McNeil Island. There, he took guitar lessons from Barker-Karpis gang leader Alvin \"Creepy\" Karpis, and obtained a contact name of someone at Universal Studios in Hollywood from another inmate, Phil Kaufman. According to Jeff Guinn's 2013 biography of Manson, Charlie's mother Kathleen moved from California to Washington state to be closer to him during his McNeil Island incarceration, working nearby as a waitress.\n\nAlthough the Mann Act charge had been dropped, the attempt to cash the Treasury check was still a federal offense. His September 1961 annual review noted he had a \"tremendous drive to call attention to himself\", an observation echoed in September 1964. In 1963, Leona was granted a divorce, in the pursuit of which she alleged that she and Manson had a son, Charles Luther.\n\nIn June 1966, Manson was sent, for the second time in his life, to Terminal Island, in preparation for early release. By March 21, 1967, his release day, he had spent more than half of his 32 years in prisons and other institutions. This was mainly because he had broken a number of federal laws; then as now, federal sentences are much more severe than state sentences for many of the same offenses. Telling the authorities that prison had become his home, he requested permission to stay, a fact touched on in a 1981 television interview with Tom Snyder. \n\n1968–69: Manson Family crimes\n\n1971–present: third imprisonment\n\n1980s–90s\n\nIn the 1980s, Manson gave four notable interviews. The first, recorded at California Medical Facility and aired June 13, 1981, was by Tom Snyder for NBC's The Tomorrow Show. The second, recorded at San Quentin Prison and aired March 7, 1986, was by Charlie Rose for CBS News Nightwatch; it won the national news Emmy Award for \"Best Interview\" in 1987. The third, with Geraldo Rivera in 1988, was part of that journalist's prime-time special on Satanism. At least as early as the Snyder interview, Manson's forehead bore a swastika, in the spot where the X carved during his trial had been. \n\nIn 1989, Nikolas Schreck conducted an interview of Manson, cutting the interview up for material in his documentary Charles Manson Superstar. Schreck concluded that Manson was not insane, but merely acting that way out of frustration. \n\nOn September 25, 1984, while imprisoned at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville, Manson was severely burned by a fellow inmate who poured paint thinner on him and set him alight. The other prisoner, Jan Holmstrom, explained that Manson had objected to his Hare Krishna chants and had verbally threatened him. Despite suffering second- and third-degree burns on over 20 percent of his body, Manson recovered from his injuries.\n\nIn June 1997, Manson was found to have been trafficking in drugs by a prison disciplinary committee. That August, he was moved from Corcoran State Prison to Pelican Bay State Prison.\n\nIn a 199899 interview in Seconds magazine, Bobby Beausoleil rejected the view that Manson ordered him to kill Gary Hinman. He stated Manson did come to Hinman's house and slash Hinman with a sword. In a 1981 interview with Oui magazine, he denied this. Beausoleil stated that when he read about the Tate murders in the newspaper, \"I wasn't even sure at that point – really, I had no idea who had done it until Manson's group were actually arrested for it. It had only crossed my mind and I had a premonition, perhaps. There was some little tickle in my mind that the killings might be connected with them ...\" In the Oui magazine interview, he had stated, \"When [the Tate-LaBianca murders] happened, I knew who had done it. I was fairly certain.\" \n\n2000s–10s \n\nOn September 5, 2007, MSNBC aired The Mind of Manson, a complete version of a 1987 interview at California's San Quentin State Prison. The footage of the \"unshackled, unapologetic, and unruly\" Manson had been considered \"so unbelievable\" that only seven minutes of it had originally been broadcast on The Today Show, for which it had been recorded. \n\nIn a January 2008 segment of the Discovery Channel's Most Evil, Barbara Hoyt said that the impression that she had accompanied Ruth Ann Moorehouse to Hawaii just to avoid testifying at Manson's trial was erroneous. Hoyt said she had cooperated with the Family because she was \"trying to keep them from killing my family.\" She stated that, at the time of the trial, she was \"constantly being threatened: 'Your family's gonna die. [The murders] could be repeated at your house. \n\nOn March 15, 2008, the Associated Press reported that forensic investigators had conducted a search for human remains at Barker Ranch the previous month. Following up on longstanding rumors that the Family had killed hitchhikers and runaways who had come into its orbit during its time at Barker, the investigators identified \"two likely clandestine grave sites ... and one additional site that merits further investigation.\" Though they recommended digging, CNN reported on March 28 that the Inyo County sheriff, who questioned the methods they employed with search dogs, had ordered additional tests before any excavation. On 9 May, after a delay caused by damage to test equipment, the sheriff announced that test results had been inconclusive and that \"exploratory excavation\" would begin on 20 May. In the meantime, Tex Watson had commented publicly that \"no one was killed\" at the desert camp during the month-and-a-half he was there, after the Tate-LaBianca murders. On 21 May, after two days of work, the sheriff brought the search to an end; four potential gravesites had been dug up and had been found to hold no human remains. \nIn March 2009, a photograph taken of a 74-year-old Manson, showing a receding hairline, grizzled gray beard and hair and the swastika tattoo still prominent on his forehead, was released to the public by California corrections officials. \n\nIn November 2009, a Los Angeles DJ and songwriter named released correspondence and other evidence indicating he may have been biologically fathered by Manson. Roberts' biological mother claims to have been a member of the Manson Family who left in the summer of 1967 after being raped by Manson; she returned to her parents' home to complete the pregnancy, gave birth on March 22, 1968, and subsequently put Roberts up for adoption. Manson himself has stated that he \"could\" be the father, acknowledging the biological mother and a sexual relationship with her during 1967; this was nearly two years before the Family began its murderous phase. \n\nIn 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported that Manson was caught with a cell phone in 2009, and had contacted people in California, New Jersey, Florida and British Columbia. A spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections stated that it was not known if Manson had used the phone for criminal purposes. \n\nOn October 4, 2012, Bruce Davis, who had been convicted of the murder of Shorty Shea and the attempted robbery by Manson Family members of a Hawthorne gun shop in 1971, was recommended for parole by the California Department of Corrections at his 27th parole hearing. In 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had reversed the board's previous finding in favor of Davis, denying him parole for two more years. On March 1, 2013, and again on August 8, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown also denied parole for Davis. \n\nOn November 17, 2014, it was announced that Manson was engaged to 26-year-old Afton Elaine \"Star\" Burton while still in prison, and had obtained a marriage license on November 7. Burton had been visiting Manson in prison for at least nine years, and maintained several websites that claimed his innocence. The wedding license expired on February 5, 2015, without a marriage ceremony taking place. It was later reported that, according to journalist Daniel Simone, the wedding was cancelled after it was discovered that Burton only wanted to marry Manson so she and a friend Craig \"Gray Wolf\" Hammond could use his corpse as a tourist attraction after he dies. According to Simone, Manson believes he will never die, and may just be using the possibility of marriage as a way to encourage Burton and Hammond to continue visiting him and bringing him gifts. Together with a co-author Heidi Jordan Ley and with the assistance of some of Manson's fellow prisoners, Simone has written a book about Manson and is seeking a publisher for it. Burton said on her web site that the reason the marriage did not take place is merely logistical – that Manson is suffering from an infection and has been in a prison medical facility for two months, and cannot receive visitors. She said she still hoped the marriage license will be renewed and the marriage will take place.\n\nParole hearings \n\nA footnote to the conclusion of California v. Anderson, the 1972 decision that neutralized California's death sentences, stated, \"[A]ny prisoner now under a sentence of death … may file a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the superior court inviting that court to modify its judgment to provide for the appropriate alternative punishment of life imprisonment or life imprisonment without possibility of parole specified by statute for the crime for which he was sentenced to death.\" \n\nThis made Manson eligible to apply for parole after seven years' incarceration. His first parole hearing took place on November 16, 1978, at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. \n\nManson was denied parole for the 12th time on April 11, 2012. Manson did not attend the hearing where prison officials argued that Manson had a history of controlling behavior and mental health issues including schizophrenia and paranoid delusional disorder and was too great a danger to be released. It was determined that Manson would not be reconsidered for parole for another 15 years, at which time he would be 92 years old. \n\nHis California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmate number at Corcoran State Prison is B33920. \n\nLegacy \n\nRecordings \n\n \n\nOn March 6, 1970, the day the court vacated Manson's status as his own attorney, LIE, an album of Manson music, was released. This included \"Cease to Exist\", a Manson composition the Beach Boys had recorded with modified lyrics and the title \"Never Learn Not to Love\". Over the next couple of months, only about 300 of the album's 2,000 copies sold. \n\nSince that time, there have been several releases of Manson recordings—both musical and spoken. The Family Jams includes two compact discs of Manson's songs recorded by the Family in 1970, after Manson and the others had been arrested. Guitar and lead vocals are supplied by Steve Grogan; additional vocals are supplied by Lynette Fromme, Sandra Good, Catherine Share, and others. One Mind, an album of music, poetry, and spoken word, new at the time of its release, in April 2005, was put out under a Creative Commons license. \n\nAmerican rock band Guns N' Roses recorded Manson's \"Look at Your Game, Girl\", included as an unlisted 13th track on their 1993 album \"The Spaghetti Incident?\" \"My Monkey\", which appears on Portrait of an American Family by Marilyn Manson (no relation, as is explained below), includes the lyrics \"I had a little monkey / I sent him to the country and I fed him on gingerbread / Along came a choo-choo / Knocked my monkey cuckoo / And now my monkey's dead.\" These lyrics are from Manson's \"Mechanical Man\", which is heard on LIE. Crispin Glover covered \"Never Say 'Never' To Always\" on his album The Big Problem ≠ The Solution. The Solution \n Let It Be released in 1989. Transgressive punk rock performance artist GG Allin covered \"Garbage Dump\" (from LIE) on his album You Give Love A Bad Name.\n\nSeveral of Manson's songs, including \"I'm Scratching Peace Symbols on Your Tombstone\" (a.k.a. \"First They Made Me Sleep in the Closet\"), \"Garbage Dump\", and \"I Can't Remember When\", are featured in the soundtrack of the 1976 TV-movie Helter Skelter, where they are performed by Steve Railsback, who portrays Manson. \n\nAccording to a popular urban legend, Manson unsuccessfully auditioned for the Monkees in late 1965; this is refuted by the fact that Manson was still incarcerated at McNeil Island at that time. \n\nCultural influence \n\nBeginning in January 1970, Manson was embraced by the underground newspapers Los Angeles Free Press and Tuesday's Child, with the latter proclaiming him \"Man of the Year\".[http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/charles-manson-the-incredible-story-of-the-most-dangerous-man-alive-19700625 Charles Manson: The Incredible Story of the Most Dangerous Man Alive] rollingstone.com. Retrieved May 30, 2015. In June 1970, he was the subject of a Rolling Stone cover story, \"Charles Manson: The Incredible Story of the Most Dangerous Man Alive\". When a Rolling Stone writer visited the Los Angeles District Attorney's office in preparing that story, he was shocked by a photograph of the bloody \"Healter Skelter\" that would bind Manson to popular culture. \n\nBernardine Dohrn, a leader of the Weather Underground reportedly said about the Tate murders: \"Dig it, first they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, then they even shoved a fork into a victim's stomach. Wild!\".\n\nManson has been a presence in fashion, graphics, music, and movies, as well as on television and the stage. In an afterword composed for the 1994 edition of the non-fiction book Helter Skelter, prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi quoted a BBC employee's assertion that a \"neo-Manson cult\" existing then in Europe was represented by, among other things, approximately 70 rock bands playing songs by Manson and \"songs in support of him\".\n\nManson has even influenced the names of musical performers such as Kasabian, Spahn Ranch, and Marilyn Manson, the last a stage name assembled from \"Charles Manson\" and \"Marilyn Monroe\". The story of the Family's activities inspired John Moran's opera The Manson Family and Stephen Sondheim's musical Assassins, the latter of which has Lynette Fromme as a character. The tale has been the subject of several movies such as the 1984 film Manson Family Movies, including two television dramatizations of Helter Skelter. In the South Park episode \"Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson\", Manson is a comical character whose inmate number is 06660, an apparent reference to 666, the Biblical \"number of the beast\". \n\nThe 2002 novel The Dead Circus by John Kaye includes the activities of the Manson Family as a major plot point. \n\nIn 2015, NBC premiered the crime drama Aquarius, with Gethin Anthony playing Manson. The series was set in 1967 and included storylines inspired by actual events involving Manson. \n\nDocumentaries \n\n* Manson (1973), directed by Robert Hendrickson and Laurence Merrick \n* Charles Manson Superstar (1989), directed by Nikolas Schreck \n* Life After Manson (2014), directed by Olivia Klaus" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Iron_Chef_America.txt", "Good_Eats.txt", "Alton_Brown.txt" ], "title": [ "Iron Chef America", "Good Eats", "Alton Brown" ], "wiki_context": [ "Iron Chef America: The Series is an American cooking show based on Fuji Television's Iron Chef, and is the second American adaptation of the series, following the failed Iron Chef USA. The show is produced by Food Network, which also carried a dubbed version of the original Iron Chef. Like the original Japanese program, the program is a culinary game show. In each episode, a new challenger chef competes against one of the resident \"Iron Chefs\" in a one-hour cooking competition based on a secret ingredient or ingredients, and sometimes theme.\n\nThe show is presented as a successor to the original Iron Chef, as opposed to being a remake. The Chairman is portrayed by actor and martial artist Mark Dacascos, who is introduced as the nephew of the original Japanese chairman Takeshi Kaga. The commentary is provided solely by Alton Brown, & Kevin Brauch is the floor reporter. The music is written by composer Craig Marks, who released the soundtrack titled \"Iron Chef America & The Next Iron Chef\" by the end of 2010. In addition, regular ICA judge and Chopped host Ted Allen provided additional floor commentary for two special battles: Battle First Thanksgiving (Symon/Flay v. Cora/Morimoto) and Battle White House Produce (Batali/Lagasse v. Flay/Comerford).\n\nPer the introduction fiction from the Battle of the Masters miniseries (and ignoring story elements from the 2002 Iron Chef Japan Cup Special), Chairman Kaga (the character) has ordered his nephew to continue the tradition of Kitchen Stadium, initially in Los Angeles, where the Battle of the Masters took place, before establishing a permanent Kitchen Stadium in New York's Chelsea Market. For the Battle of the Masters, the elder Chairman dispatched two Iron Chefs: Hiroyuki Sakai and Masaharu Morimoto. In Season 11, the show's fiction expanded to include international Iron Chefs, spread by the Chairman \"like Johnny Appleseed\". In the first episode of that season Iron Chef UK chef Judy Joo competed on the US show against Iron Chef Guarnaschelli as an Iron Chef.\n\nUnlike the original Iron Chef or Iron Chef USA, Alton Brown, rather than the Chairman, is credited as the show's host.\n\nThe Iron Chefs\n\nOn this version of Iron Chef, the Iron Chefs have either been previous Food Network personalities, are current personalities, were part of the original Iron Chef, or earned their position on The Next Iron Chef. \n\nIron Chef statistics\n\nThe win/loss data is based solely on the performance of the participant as an Iron Chef in Iron Chef America: The Series and the Battle of the Masters.\nCurrent\n \n\nFormer\n \n\nJackets\n\nEach Iron Chef wears a specially designed chef's jacket, a simplified version of the more stylized attire worn by the Japanese Iron Chefs, along with an apron and trousers of their choice for each battle. Through the Battle of the Masters and the show's first six seasons, the Iron Chefs wore contemporary denim chef's jackets with individualized solid-colored patches and trim: Batali's jacket trim was red, Cora's pink, Flay's blue, Morimoto's white, Puck's green and Symon's black. On the left shoulder of each jacket was a flag representing the Chef's country of origin.\n\nDuring the show's sixth season, designer and Iron Chef America judge Marc Ecko designed new jackets for the Iron Chefs, which were first worn on the 2008 \"Thanksgiving Showdown\" episode. The jackets are individualized for each chef and include features such as short sleeves for Symon's jacket that make it resemble the black shirts he wears at his restaurant, Lola, or men's kimono styling and colors for Morimoto's jacket that suggest the costume he wore on the original Iron Chef. With the exception of Symon and Garces (whose long sleeves were shortened for his second season on ICA), the jackets have long, turn-back sleeves. Colors differ by chef: charcoal grey (Flay), black (Symon), light blue (Cora), silver with a red undershirt (Morimoto), white with light brown trim (Batali), white with green trim (Lagasse, for Battle White House produce), brown with wide red edging (Garces), grey with white trim (Forgione), grey with black trim (Zakarian), and black with white trim (Guarnaschelli). \"Iron Chef\" with the chef's last name underneath is embroidered in the font from the show's logo on the left front side of the jacket, in the manner of a traditional chef's coat. The jackets also include a large embroidered Iron Chef patch on the right arm also bearing the chef's name, and an American flag on the left sleeve.\n\nHistory\n\nIron Chef America first aired as a special titled Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters. Unlike Iron Chef USA, Iron Chef America quickly earned legitimacy with the appearance of Iron Chefs Hiroyuki Sakai and Masaharu Morimoto. (Chen Kenichi was also originally slated to appear, but he was absent due to a scheduling conflict.) The first Battle of the Masters involved Sakai and Flay, with the theme of trout. There, Sakai had made two dishes of note: one was gift-wrapped to commemorate the opening of Kitchen Stadium America, while the other was trout ice cream, a dish that would be repeatedly recalled and referred to later on when anyone used the ice cream maker. Other battles in Battle of the Masters were Morimoto taking on Batali, Morimoto taking on Wolfgang Puck, and a tag team battle where Morimoto and Flay teamed up against Sakai and Batali. Battle of the Masters was largely successful and a regular series was commissioned.\n\nThe regular series is taped in New York, while Battle of the Masters took place in Los Angeles at Los Angeles Center Studios. Because of his other interests, Puck was forced to decline to appear in the regular series, and Morimoto took his place. Later that season, Cat Cora debuted as an Iron Chef during \"Battle Potato\", becoming the first female chef to hold the rank.\n\nThe second season of Iron Chef America began airing in July 2005. This season saw its first and second ties on the American show: the first aired on July 31, 2005, with both challenger and Iron Chef receiving 45 points. In this case, unlike Iron Chef, there is no overtime, although a rematch was suggested by Alton Brown. The third such tied result occurred in Season Three, when Susur Lee challenged Bobby Flay in Battle Bacon.\n\nStarting November 2006, Australia's SBS, the domestic rights holder to the original Iron Chef program, started airing Iron Chef America: The Battle Of The Masters, replacing the original Japanese incarnation of the program. On December 9, Season 1 of Iron Chef America began airing. The show was scheduled to run until February 17, 2007, but due to viewer feedback, SBS ended broadcast of Iron Chef America three weeks early and resumed showing the original Iron Chef on February 3, 2007.\n\nStarting in Season 8, Mario Batali was dropped from the show's opening sequence, though he continues to appear in on-air promos for the show. Despite his appearance during the special battle in which he was teamed up with Emeril Lagasse against Flay and White House Chef Cristeta Comerford, it is not clear whether or not he will return to compete in Iron Chef America on a regular basis. In a July 2010 interview with Slashfood's Allen Salkin, Batali explained that his absence from the series was due to travel conflicts with the show's summer shooting schedule and expressed a desire to appear in 2-3 battles for Season 9. However, in a May 2012 interview with The Atlantic, Batali later explained that he resented the decision to move away from serious food critics to \"skinny little actresses\" and other personalities he felt weren't credible enough to judge his cuisine. \n\nFormat\n\nAfter the active Iron Chefs are introduced by Alton Brown, the challenger chef is introduced. The Iron Chef introduction sequence is sometimes skipped in the holiday shows and other specials. In the first two seasons, the Chairman announced the challenger's Iron Chef opponent. Starting with Season 3, the show returned to the format of its predecessor, where the challenger chef selects the Iron Chef they will battle. In reality, the match-ups are determined well in advance in all three incarnations of the show, which is not to say that the challengers have no influence on the selection of their opponent.\n\nAn ingredient or group of ingredients (referred to as the \"secret ingredient(s)\") is revealed, and the cooking begins. On occasion, the ingredients are actually a 'theme meal;' for example, eggs, bacon, potatoes, etc. are revealed and thus the \"secret ingredient\" is breakfast. Just as with the original Iron Chef, the \"secret\" ingredient is not truly secret. Both the competitor and the Iron Chef are given a list of three to five ingredients before the battle, of which one will be the secret ingredient. \n\nUnlike Iron Chef, where chefs had roughly 5 minutes to discuss their strategy before the battle begins, the revelation of the theme ingredient occurs 45 minutes before the start of the battle. However, this segment is not shown on television, and it is a common assumption that the battle starts immediately after the secret ingredient is revealed. This practice was described on an episode of Unwrapped.\n\nThe Chairman announces the start of each battle with:\n\n\"So now America, with an open heart and an empty stomach, I say unto you in the words of my uncle: 'Allez cuisine!' \n\n\"Allez cuisine!\" (loosely translated as \"Go cook!\" or \"Start cooking!\") is the phrase that started battles in the original Japanese series (hence the reference to his uncle, Chairman Kaga).\n\nOn Iron Chef America, both the challenger and the Iron Chef have 60 minutes to prepare a minimum of five dishes based on a theme ingredient. Starting with Season 11 (2012–13), the first course is due to the judges 20 minutes after the start. After that point, a \"culinary curveball\" is announced by the chairman. It can be an ingredient, piece of equipment or plating device. Each chef is required to integrate the item into at least one of their remaining dishes, and receives scoring from the judges based on their use.\n\nAfter the first commercial break, Brown typically asks Kevin Brauch to introduce the judges. Generally, Kevin pays homage to the program's origins by adding, Konban Wa (Japanese for \"Good evening\") to his introduction. Unlike the original series, none of the judges participate in the running commentary, although Brown or Brauch visit with them roughly mid-battle for their comments on the ongoing action and the secret ingredient. Over the course of the cooking hour, Brown may also provide further information on the theme ingredient, using visual aids as required.\n\nThe dishes are tasted by the chairman and a panel of three judges, two of whom are professional food critics (a contrast to the original Iron Chef, which typically had one professional food critic as a judge). Like the original Iron Chef, each chef can be awarded up to 20 points by each judge; consisting of 10 points for taste, 5 for plating (the appearance or presentation of the dishes), and 5 for originality. The rules are explained by Kevin Brauch before judging. The chef with the higher score is declared the winner. If there is a tie, it remains as the final result, unlike Iron Chef, where an overtime battle was immediately called with a new theme ingredient; however, if the overtime battle also resulted in a tie, that would be the final result. (Also in contrast with the original, the final scores are subdivided by category, rather than by individual judge.) Starting with Season 11 (2012–13), an additional 10 points per judge is also available: up to 5 points for the first dish presentation, and up to 5 points for the use of the \"culinary curveball\". The scoring for the first dish is revealed shortly after the dishes are presented to and tasted by the judges, and the total score (including the \"culinary curveball\" points) is reserved for the judgment and revelation of the winner.\n\nIron Chef America is not affiliated with any culinary institution, unlike Iron Chef, which was associated with Hattori Nutrition College. Chefs also bring in their own sous-chefs. Like Iron Chef, each chef is allowed two sous-chefs. In tag-team or two-on-one battles, both chefs on one side each bring one sous-chef. On the original Iron Chef, early episodes had two chefs without sous-chefs, while later episodes had two chefs and one sous-chef per side. The sous-chefs employed by the Iron Chefs are as follows:\n\n* Batali – Anne Burrell and Mark Ladner\n* Cora – Lorilynn Bauer, David Schimmel, Ed Cotton, Richard Blais (other sous-chefs have been employed on occasion)\n* Flay – Flay employs a rotating staff of sous-chefs from his restaurants\n* Morimoto – Ariki Omae, Makoto Okuwa, and Jamison Blankenship (other sous-chefs have been employed on occasion)\n* Symon – Cory Barrett and Derek Clayton\n* Garces – Dave Conn, MacGregor Mann, Jessica Mogardo\n* Forgione - rotating staff of sous-chefs from Forgione's restaurants\n* Zakarian - Paul Cosentino, Eric Haugen, Alex Guarnaschelli (before her promotion to Iron Chef)\n* Guarnaschelli - Ashley Merriman and Wirt Cook\n\nAll of the sous-chefs for both the Iron Chef and challenger are informally introduced at some point in the contest, unlike the original Iron Chef. Sous-chefs have occasionally entered into battle against Iron Chefs, including the Iron Chef under whom they worked.\n\nThe rules in Iron Chef America are thought to favor the Iron Chef less than the original program, however, some challengers have noted favoritism in the selection of theme ingredients. On Iron Chef the Iron Chef's food was always tasted second, while on Iron Chef America, the chef whose food is tasted first is determined by toss of coin before the show.\n\nAs the tasting and judgment take upwards of 45 minutes to complete (although it is edited down in post-production), the chef serving second is allowed to reheat his or her dishes, which was allowed on Iron Chef.\n\nSeveral of the secrets to how the show is taped were revealed in an episode of Unwrapped entitled \"Food Network Unwrapped 2.\" It was stated that the chefs find out what the secret ingredient is about 15 minutes before the battle begins because the opening sequence is recorded many times. It is only the final taping of this sequence where the words \"Allez cuisine!\" are said and the battle begins. Moreover, at the end of the one-hour battle, the chefs must still prepare 4 plates of each of their 5 dishes for the judges and the Chairman. This is done during a 45-minute period after the battle ends and before tasting begins. They consider this to be part of the competition, and it is timed, but it is not recorded or shown to the viewers. The plates which the audience sees prepared during the one-hour battle are the plates used to obtain close-up footage of the dish for use in the final episode. Usually, on taping days, two different battles will be taped, one beginning at about 10 a.m. and the second at about 4 p.m. A Food Network crew has about 90 minutes between each show to clean the set and prepare for the second show.\n\nChefs provide the producers with shopping lists for each of the possible secret ingredients. Consequently, they can surmise what the secret ingredient will be just before it is officially revealed, based on which of their items were purchased.\n\nSpecial battles\n\nICA will occasionally stage special themed battles, generally during the holiday period. The first of these was held on November 12, 2006. A special 90-minute episode of Iron Chef America pitted two guest Food Network personalities, Giada De Laurentiis and Rachael Ray, the latter of whom does not consider herself a chef due to lack of formal training, against each other after they each received tips and training from Iron Chefs Bobby Flay and Mario Batali, respectively. While the early part of the episode made it appear as though it would be a head-to-head battle, the Chairman announced just prior to the secret ingredient reveal that it would in fact be a tag-team battle, with each of the women joined by the Iron Chef who trained her. The secret ingredient for the special was cranberries. The expanded timeframe allowed for longer cuts of the competition hour and the tasting segments to be presented, and the show as a whole had a more laid-back feel than regular ICA episodes. Plenty of joking and good-natured ribbing took place on both sides of the kitchen, such as Batali's effort to \"bribe\" the judges with cranberry bellini cocktails. The battle was won by Iron Chef Batali and guest chef Ray.\n\nA second special holiday episode premiered on Sunday, November 25, 2007. This special, titled Iron Chef America: All Star Holiday Dessert Battle, paired Iron Chef Cat Cora and popular Food Network personality Paula Deen against fellow Food Network chefs Tyler Florence and Robert Irvine, with sugar as the secret ingredient. While this special was the usual 60-minutes in length, the tone was similar to the previous ICA special, with lots of \"smack talking\" and teasing among the four chefs. Iron Chef Cora and guest chef Deen's team emerged victorious.\n\nOn October 26, 2008, a Halloween battle took place between Iron Chef Michael Symon and former Next Iron Chef competitor Chris Cosentino. The theme ingredient was offal (organ meats, pig trotters, coxcombs, etc.), an ingredient with which each of the chefs is known to cook routinely. Igor and the Monster from the Broadway production of Young Frankenstein also made a special appearance, assisting with the presentation of the secret ingredient. The victory went to Iron Chef Symon.\n\nA 90-minute \"Thanksgiving Showdown\" premiered on November 16, 2008. The secret ingredients were foods that might have been used at the first Thanksgiving feast: duck, lobster, heritage turkey, venison, leeks and walnuts. This battle marked the first time in ICA history that the American Iron Chefs competed against each other, with the team of Bobby Flay and Michael Symon battling against Cat Cora and Masaharu Morimoto. There were two floor reporters for this special: regular floor reporter Kevin Brauch covered Flay and Symon while ICA judge Ted Allen covered Cora and Morimoto. In addition, Mark Ecko appeared early in the episode to present the new Iron Chef jackets and describe the design process. Iron Chefs Flay and Symon defeated Iron Chefs Cora and Morimoto by one point.\n\nFirst Lady Michelle Obama's White House Kitchen Garden was featured in a new special episode on January 3, 2010. The episode, called \"The Super Chef Battle\", featured Iron Chef Mario Batali and Super Chef Emeril Lagasse against Iron Chef Bobby Flay and White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford in a battle that required the chefs to create an American meal, with the produce from the White House garden as the secret ingredient. First Lady Michelle Obama made a special appearance, welcoming the chefs to the White House, and announcing the secret ingredient. This battle was also notable as the first for which the Chairman was not present in Kitchen Stadium. Although the Chairman appeared on video, and presented a supplemental range of sustainable foods to be used in the battle, it fell to announcer Alton Brown to start the battle with the traditional \"Allez cuisine!\" This battle was also the first that carried a prize: $25,000 was donated to City Meals, a New York charity similar to Meals on Wheels in the names of the winning team. Iron Chef Flay and Chef Comerford defeated Iron Chefs Batali and Lagasse.\n\nOn January 2, 2011, \"Battle Deep Freeze\" aired. The show featured Iron Chef Michael Symon and Chef Anne Burrell facing off against Iron Chef Cat Cora and Chef Robert Irvine. There was no formal secret ingredient, just the theme \"deep freeze.\" The chefs had to prepare 5 dishes, each with a frozen component, on the following five themes: Fruits and Vegetables, Meat, Aromatics, Seafood, and Alcohol. The dishes were either served in or accented by ice carvings.\n\nGreatest moments\n\nOn November 16, 2008, the Food Network preceded its \"Thanksgiving Showdown\" ICA special with a half-hour retrospective of the 10 best ICA moments. In the program, the Chairman presents each moment, followed by a female voice-over narration describing the challenge the Iron Chefs face, including live fish, big ingredients, time, the ice cream machine and unorthodox cooking methods. The introduction is followed by a clip of each moment interspersed with comments by the Iron Chefs and ICA judges.\n\nProduction details\n\nKitchen Stadium\n\nLocated at the Chelsea Market in New York City, Iron Chef Americas version of Kitchen Stadium has a more modern appearance than the one from Iron Chef. Much of the equipment in the kitchen is top-of-the line; appliances include six burner stove tops, an infrared grill, blast chillers, convection ovens, deep fryers, cutting boards, a plethora of small electrical appliances like blenders and food processors, as well as pantry stations. Both kitchens in Kitchen Stadium are set up with the same appliances, and each pantry station has the same food items including expensive items like saffron. Challengers may also sometimes bring their own equipment to their sections; most notably, postmodern chef Homaro Cantu brought a Class 4 Laser, liquid nitrogen, and an inkjet printer with edible inks and paper for his signature dishes. One of the most infamous appliances in the kitchen is the ice cream machine (dubbed by the commentators as the Ice Cream Machine of Doom), which is often used to create unusual and abstract flavors of ice cream when chefs attempt to make a dessert course with the theme ingredient. \n\nThe commentator's station has Alton Brown standing in front of two large monitors feeding him camera angles from both sides of Kitchen Stadium. To stay informed, he also keeps his laptop open to reference an extensive food database and, in later seasons, an iPad to look up ingredients on the fly. An earbud allows him to be fed information from the culinary producer, who in turn is fed information from two culinary spotters on the floor. The station is much closer to and on the same level as the cooking stations, allowing Alton Brown to converse with the competitors and ask brief questions. Alton Brown has made frequent comments about Kitchen Stadium being \"an orbiting space station\" or \"an underwater facility.\" Brown has also called Kitchen Stadium \"Kitchen Stadium Number One, Two, and so on until number seven as of Battle Eggs.\n\nThere is a small section in the back of the stadium reserved for the studio audience, which is mostly composed of guests of the chefs. During the first two seasons, the audience is almost never mentioned or shown on camera unless there is a special guest in the audience. Starting with season 3, the show again takes a cue from its predecessor and gives a little more attention to the audience, particularly when someone close to the challenger or special guests are present. The audience is also now sometimes heard applauding the chefs, although they are ignored by cameras.\n\nDespite Kitchen Stadium America's state-of-the-art appearance, problems arose during the first season. In her battle against Mario Batali, Chef Anita Lo had trouble getting her burners hot enough to cook her food. At one point, one of Lo's assistants took a pot over to Mario Batali's side of the kitchen to use his stove, to which Batali happily agreed. In several battles contestants have experienced technical problems with the ice cream machine. Though there have not been serious injuries in Kitchen Stadium America, several contestants have suffered minor cuts from knife slips.\n\nIn the Behind the Scenes: Iron Chef America special, Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai voices his distaste for the modern look of the American Kitchen Stadium. Sakai referred to the kitchen as \"cold.\"\n\nSubtitles and dubbing\n\nMorimoto speaks English with a thick Japanese accent, and he sometimes speaks in Japanese when describing his dishes. Consequently, his voice is at times dubbed by Joe Cipriano. Cipriano, a veteran TV announcer and Los Angeles radio personality, also provided the voice for Hiroyuki Sakai in Battle of the Masters. When his voice is not dubbed, subtitles may be provided to help viewers understand what Morimoto is saying. In the episode Battle Eggs, Takashi Yagihashi had subtitles when the screen showed whom he challenged (Michael Symon).\n\nCountdown\n\nIron Chef America Countdown premiered in 2012. Each half-hour episode features a countdown of five moments on a theme from the television series. The show uses clips from Iron Chef America, as well as commentary from people who participated in the featured moments.http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/iron-chef-america-countdown/episode-1-season-1/you-had-me-at-bacon/347678/\n\nThe Next Iron Chef\n\nIn 2007, a competition was held to determine who among eight chefs would become the next Iron Chef. The show ran for six episodes, and followed the contestants through a series of eight culinary challenges taking place in the United States, France, and Germany. Contestants were eliminated by a panel of judges at the end of each episode, until the final two chefs returned to the United States to compete in Kitchen Stadium. The final battle featured swordfish as the secret ingredient, and was judged by Iron Chefs Flay, Cora, and Morimoto. Chef Michael Symon was declared the winner of the competition and subsequently joined Iron Chef America. \n\nA second season of The Next Iron Chef pitted ten chefs against one another for the title of Iron Chef beginning in October 2009. This season ran for eight episodes, during which the contestants competed in culinary challenges held in the United States and Japan. Contestants were eliminated by a panel of judges at the end of each episode until the finale, in which chefs Jehangir Mehta and Jose Garces returned to the United States to compete in Kitchen Stadium. The final battle featured various racks and ribs (pork, buffalo, and beef) as the secret ingredient, and was judged by the panel along with Iron Chefs Flay, Morimoto, and Symon. Chef Jose Garces was declared the winner of the competition, and joined Iron Chef America as its newest Iron Chef. Garces made his debut as an Iron Chef on January 17, 2010 against Seattle chefs Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi in Battle Hawaiian Moi, with Iron Chef Garces emerging victorious. Jose Garces went on to receive the first perfect score ever in Season 9 (see List of Episodes).\n\nFood Network launched its third season of The Next Iron Chef in October 2010. Competition took place in Los Angeles, before moving to Las Vegas. The final battle took place in Kitchen Stadium between Chefs Marco Canora and Marc Forgione, with traditional Thanksgiving proteins, such as turkey, lobster and venison as the secret ingredient. Chef Marc Forgione was declared the winner of the third season of \"The Next Iron Chef\" on November 21, 2010. His first battle took place on November 28, 2010, against Washington, D.C.-based Chef RJ Cooper.\n\nIn October 2011, a fourth season of The Next Iron Chef premiered featuring super chefs like Alex Guarnaschelli, Anne Burrell, Robert Irvine, among others. The December 18 battle in Kitchen Stadium featured Geoffrey Zakarian and Elizabeth Falkner. Zakarian prevailed and was named the winner. His first battle aired on December 25, 2011 during which he emerged victorious, being the second chef ever to receive a perfect overall score of 60 on Iron Chef America.\n\nThe fifth season of The Next Iron Chef in November 2012 featured 8 chefs who had previously competed on the show, plus 2 newcomers. In the final battle, Alex Guarnaschelli defeated Amanda Freitag, becoming the second female Iron Chef, as well as the first female to win the competition. She made her debut as an Iron Chef on December 30, 2012 against Judy Joo from Iron Chef UK. Iron Chef Joo previously judged season 4 of The Next Iron Chef, in which Guarnaschelli had competed in and lost. Iron Chef Guarnaschelli was ultimately declared the winner.\n\nVideo game\n\nAn Iron Chef America video game, titled Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine, was developed for the Wii and Nintendo DS by Black Lantern Studios and published by Destineer. Both versions were released on November 6, 2008, having been delayed from the original release date of September 23, 2008.\n\nThe game features \"a series of fast-paced and intense culinary challenges\" and includes the voice acting and likeness of The Chairman (Mark Dacascos), commentator Alton Brown and Iron Chefs Mario Batali, Masaharu Morimoto and Cat Cora, who players can either play or compete against. The Wii version of the game has received mediocre to slightly unfavorable reviews, with an average score of 42% determined by critical score aggregator Metacritic. The DS version of the game has received overall better scores, with median review score of 62%.", "Good Eats is a television cooking show, created and hosted by Alton Brown, which aired in North America on Food Network and later Cooking Channel. Likened to television science educators Mr. Wizard and Bill Nye, Brown explores the science and technique behind the cooking, the history of different foods, and the advantages of different kinds of cooking equipment. The show tends to focus on familiar dishes that can easily be made at home, and also features segments on choosing the right appliances, and getting the most out of inexpensive, multi-purpose tools. Each episode of Good Eats has a distinct theme, which is typically an ingredient or a certain cooking technique, but may also be a more general theme such as Thanksgiving. In the tenth anniversary episode, Alton Brown stated that the show was inspired by the idea of combining Julia Child, Mr. Wizard, and Monty Python. On May 11, 2011, Alton Brown announced that the series would come to a close, ending production at episode 249. Good Eats is the third longest running Food Network series, behind 30 Minute Meals and Barefoot Contessa.\n\nFormat\n\nThe show had a distinct visual style involving Dutch angles and shots from cameras placed inside and on various items in the kitchen, including the ovens, refrigerator, and microwave oven. In some episodes, Brown and other actors play various characters to tell the story of the food. For example, in the episode \"The Big Chili\", Brown played a cowboy trying to rustle up the ideal pot of chili. In the episode \"Give Peas a Chance\" (a parody of The Exorcist), Brown plays a Father Merrin-like character who tries to convince a \"possessed\" child to eat (and like) peas. In other episodes Brown is simply himself, but interacts with fictional characters such as his eggplant- and tomato-wielding neighbor Mr. McGregor, or a city councilman who refuses to eat fudge. He also uses various makeshift teaching aids to demonstrate scientific concepts. They also feature many episodes where the ingredients themselves are portrayed by actors, represented by an agent who uses Alton to \"gussy up\" these foods for mainstream appeal.\n\nEpisodes of Good Eats typically began with an introductory monologue or skit that leads into the phrase \"good eats.\" The show often closed with the phrase as well. For the first several seasons, Brown himself would say the words \"good eats.\" Since approximately season seven, however, Brown avoids saying \"good eats\" at the end of the intro, stopping just short and allowing the main title graphics to complete the phrase.\n\nEpisodes were primarily set in the (fictional) kitchen of Brown's house, although his actual home kitchen was used in \"Give Peas a Chance\". In seasons 1–4, the episodes were shot in the actual home kitchen of Brown's original partners in the Atlanta, Georgia, area. In season 5, taping moved to the new home of the show's Line Producer (Dana Popoff) and Director of Photography (Marion Laney), in which they built a much larger and more versatile kitchen for taping. A 7 foot section of the island was built for the show and placed on wheels, so it can be moved (or removed) for various shots, and a 12 sqft grid of pipe was hung from the ceiling, for easier placement of cameras and microphones. Starting with season 7, the show moved, this time to an exact replica of the previous kitchen and surrounding areas of the home, built on a sound stage. In the \"Behind the Eats\" special, Brown said that complaints by Popoff's neighbors (not adjacent neighbors but at the end of the block) prompted the move. The stove top and the sink are the only functioning pieces in this kitchen. Many of the other appliances have even had part of their backs removed, so shots of Brown can be taken from inside cabinets, ovens, and refrigerators. This change was generally not known until after season 7 started airing when the house used in season 5–6 was put on eBay for sale. It was then revealed that they had moved. It is generally thought that in the \"Q\" episode on barbecue that was taped in Brown's Airstream trailer, when Brown says that they are \"building the set for Good Eats: The Motion Picture\" this is in reality a reference to the new house set. The set was not officially unveiled on the show as a set until \"Curious Yet Tasty Avocado Experiments\".\n\nIncidental music during the show is typically a variation of the show's theme, which in turn was inspired by music from the film Get Shorty. There are dozens of variations of the theme played throughout, crossing all genres of music, including the keypad tones in \"Mission: Poachable\" and nearly every incidence where a countdown of ten seconds is used. New music is composed for each episode by Patrick Belden of Belden Music and Sound. Brown met Belden while working on other projects before Brown's culinary training. \n\nEach episode also featured tidbits, text pieces containing trivia related to the food or cooking technique featured in the episode. These are always shown just before ad breaks, and are often shown between major transitions in location or cooking action. The information presented is usually notes about the history of the food or technique, helpful cooking hints, or technical or scientific information which would be too detailed or dry to include as part of the show's live content.\n\nDuring the show's first seasons, at the end of each episode Brown would give a summary of the important points covered during the episode; these points would be shown on the screen as he talked. These summaries still appear in later seasons from time to time, but rarely have the textual accompaniment. Brown also traveled to food manufacturing facilities frequently in the first few seasons to talk with experts about the foods being featured. In later seasons, he still visits farms, groves, and other places food is grown as well as processing plants and other factories, but less frequently.\n\nBeginning in season 9, episodes have been filmed in high definition, and these episodes also appear on Food Network HD. \n\nCast and crew\n\nA staple feature of Good Eats is the presence of several recurring characters who play important roles on the show, from Brown's relatives and neighbors to various nemeses. In season 9, the episode \"Behind the Eats\" offered a backstage look at the show's production and revealed the origin of several characters. In the episode, Brown stated that all of the show's staff members have appeared on camera at some point.\n\nSeveral members of Brown's real-life family have appeared on the show. His mother had a walk-on part; his daughter, Zoey, has appeared in several episodes; and his late grandmother, \"Ma\" Mae Skelton, co-hosted the biscuit episode \"The Dough Also Rises\". Even his Basset Hound and iguana have shown up in a couple of episodes. However, his then-wife DeAnna (who is also the show's executive producer) has never appeared in an episode, though she was mentioned in \"Where There's Smoke, There's Fish\". Specialists who hold real-life positions commonly appeared as themselves to provide Brown with useful information on the topic at hand.\n\nRecurring characters\n\nFictional\n\nReal\n\nBrown plays other roles from time to time, often consisting of him explaining something in the foreground while another Brown demonstrates in the background (similar to the technique used to present B.A. Brown). Sometimes he participates in an on-screen skit to re-enact such topics as cavemen discovering cooking techniques, while providing a voice-over narrative. At other times Brown talks to another character played by himself, with the camera cutting between the two as each delivers his lines, for instance, when he is (also) playing a Government Agent.\n\nHistory\n\nTwo pilot episodes for Good Eats (\" Steak Your Claim\" and \"This Spud's For You\") aired on the Chicago, Illinois, PBS affiliate WTTW in July 1998. \n\nThe show was discovered by Food Network when an executive saw a clip of the show on the Eastman Kodak website which used the clip to showcase a new type of film stock sold by the company. The show was picked up in July 1999 by Food Network, which then owned exclusive rights to the show. The back catalog of shows were added to the repeat rotation of sister network Cooking Channel in the fall of 2011, and Brown announced that his contract with Food Network had expired and moved to Cooking Channel in 2011\n\nNew episodes aired on Wednesdays in the late evenings from 1999—2007, when they were moved to Mondays at 8 p.m. From July 9, 2007, until Summer 2009, at least two different episodes aired each weeknight (8 p.m. and 11 p.m., along with late-night replays at 2 a.m.), with a third airing on Wednesday nights at 8:30 p.m.; additional episodes were occasionally added (usually coinciding with a Food Network series or event).\n\nOn October 10, 2009, Good Eats celebrated its 10th anniversary with an hour-long live stage show aired on the Food Network. Guests included Ted Allen of Food Detectives and Chopped. One of the demonstrations in the show proved that a fire extinguisher was not a unitasker, as Brown constantly repeated in regular episodes that the fire extinguisher was the only unitasker in the kitchen.\n\nOn the January 4, 2010 episode, Good Eats revealed Alton Brown's changed eating habits that led to his losing 50 pounds in 9 months. Brown emphasized that he was not on a diet; in spite of this claim, however, Brown went on to describe a regimen that prescribes certain healthful foods with specific degrees of regularity (daily, once every two days, etc.) while proscribing unhealthy foods. He did, however, make clear that this was not a diet in the modern American sense of the word, but in the original Greek meaning. Prescribed foods included breakfast every day (usually a fruit smoothie), oily fish, whole grains, etc. The episode comically claimed the entire story was in Brown's new book, Buff Like Me.\n\nReception\n\nGood Eats was nominated for the James Beard Foundation's \"Best T.V. Food Journalism Award\" in 2000, and the series earned a Peabody Award in 2006. \"Rarely has science been taught on TV in such an entertaining – and appetizing – manner as it is in Alton Brown's goofy, tirelessly inventive series.\" \n\nIn 2011, Alton Brown was given the James Beard Award for Best TV Food Personality for his work on Good Eats. \n\nThe end of Good Eats\n\nOn May 9, 2011, Alton Brown announced via his Twitter that he is \"retiring\" the show after 249 episodes, and there will be three new one-hour episodes to be produced and premiered in 2011. The back catalog of shows were added to the repeat rotation of sister network Cooking Channel in the fall of 2011, and Brown announced that his contract with Food Network has expired and moved to Cooking Channel in 2011.\nThe crew of the show with their families are shown at the end of the first hour-long episodes (\"Right On Q\") eating BBQ while Alton narrates that truly a BBQ is just an event meant to be shared with friends and family. In the special Thanksgiving episode of 2011, \"Reromancing the Bird\", favorite characters of the show — sister Marsha, niece Marsha Jr., neighbor Chuck, the southerner Uncle Colonel Bob Boatwright, the food agent Sid, Frances Andersen portraying Uncle Bob's nurse, and the Dungeon Master — reappeared for a last time as a final tribute to their contribution to the show. At the end of the final episode, for the first time in years, Alton Brown did not finish the show with the line \"see you next time on Good Eats\". Instead, he said, \"Stay dark, America\", snapped his fingers, and the screen went dark.\n\nThe final episode of Good Eats, titled \"Turn on the Dark\", was aired February 10, 2012. Alton Brown announced the following statement via Facebook earlier that day at approximately 2:00 PM EST:\n\nWhen asked about the end of the show on the August 29, 2012 episode of The Nerdist Podcast, Brown stated \"I've put Good Eats into cryogenic holding. I'm not saying it's gone. I didn't shoot it in the head, I didn't kill it, but after 13 solid years of production, I needed a break.\" \n\nIn an interview with Larry King, Alton Brown said \"I crossed the 250 episode line, and I realized that I was tired. It was a very stressful show to make; it was completely scripted, we did between 300 and 600 pages of research. I can only do 22 a year, because they were very involved. We shot them like movies, single-camera … I crossed that line, and I also kind of saw the writing on the wall, I think, which was that the era of the instructional or educational culinary show was frankly coming to an end in primetime. I think I saw that primetime food shows were going to go to competitions and reality. … I would have rather put it out to pasture than be cancelled.\"\n\nAlton Brown addressed Good Eats future at the end of a video he posted to his official Facebook page on July 16, 2015. In response to fan questions, Brown replied: \"You want to see Good Eats again? Get in touch with the Food Network. Tell them you want it. Tell them I sent you.\"\n\nMerchandise\n\n* Books\n** Good Eats: The Early Years - ISBN 978-1584797951 - Covers the first 80 episodes. \n** Good Eats 2: The Middle Years - ISBN 978-1584798576 - Covers episodes 81 - 164\n** Good Eats 3: The Later Years - ISBN 978-1584799030 - Covers the last episodes (except for the last three specials).\n\nEpisode guide", "Alton Crawford Brown (born July 30, 1962) is an American television personality, food show presenter, author, actor, and cinematographer. He is the creator and host of the Food Network television show Good Eats (14 seasons), host of the mini-series Feasting on Asphalt and Feasting on Waves, and host and main commentator on Iron Chef America, Cutthroat Kitchen and Camp Cutthroat. Brown is also the author of several books on food and cooking.\n\nEarly life\n\nBrown was born July 30, 1962 in Los Angeles, California and spent his youth in Georgia. Brown's father, Alton Brown, Sr., was a media executive in Cleveland, Georgia, owner of radio station WRWH and publisher of the newspaper White County News. \n\nIn the late 1980s and early 1990s, Brown was the cinematographer for several music videos, including \"The One I Love\" by R.E.M.. \n\nCareer\n\nBrown notes that he was dissatisfied with the quality of cooking shows airing on American television, so he set out to produce his own show. In preparation, he enrolled in the New England Culinary Institute, graduating in 1997. Brown says that he was a poor science student in high school and college, but he focused on the subject to understand the underlying processes of cooking. He is outspoken in his shows about his dislike of single-purpose kitchen utensils and equipment (\"unitaskers\"), such as garlic presses and margarita machines, although he adapts a few traditionally single-purpose devices, such as rice cookers and melon ballers, into multi-purpose tools. \n\nTV series\n\nGood Eats\n\nThe pilot for Good Eats first aired in July 1998 on the PBS member TV station WTTW in Chicago, Illinois. Food Network picked up the show in July 1999. In May 2011, Alton Brown announced an end to Good Eats after 14 seasons. The final episode, \"Turn on the Dark\", aired February 10, 2012.\n\nMany of the Good Eats episodes feature Brown building makeshift cooking devices in order to point out that many of the devices sold at conventional \"cooking\" stores are simply fancified hardware store items.\n\nGood Eats was nominated for the Best T.V. Food Journalism Award by the James Beard Foundation in 2000. The show was also awarded a 2006 Peabody Award. \n\nIron Chef America\n\nIn 2004 Brown appeared on Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters. This was the second attempt to adapt the Japanese cooking show Iron Chef to American television. The first being UPN's Iron Chef USA, which featured William Shatner. The latter was not well received. Brown served as the expert commentator, a modified version of the role played by Dr. Yukio Hattori in the original show. When the show became a series, Brown began serving as the play-by-play announcer, with Kevin Brauch as kitchen reporter. Brown also served as the host for all four seasons of the spin-off The Next Iron Chef.\n\nFeasting on Asphalt\n\nBrown's third series, Feasting on Asphalt, explores the history of eating on the move. Brown and his crew crossed the United States via motorcycle in a four-part miniseries about the history of road food. Brown samples food all along his travel route. He includes a \"history of food\" segment documenting famous road trips and interviews many of the foodies he meets en route.\n\nThe series premiered on Food Network on July 29, 2006. The mini-series was picked up for a second run, entitled Feasting on Asphalt 2: The River Run, in 2007. Six episodes were filmed during April and May 2007. The episodes trace the majority of the length of the Mississippi River through Brown's travels. The second run of episodes began airing on Food Network on August 4, 2007.\n\nThe third season uses the title Feasting on Waves and has Brown traveling the Caribbean Sea by boat in search of local cuisine.\n\nCutthroat Kitchen\n\nIn 2013, Brown began hosting the cooking competition series Cutthroat Kitchen on the Food Network. In each episode, four chefs are each given $25,000 with which to bid on items that can be used to hinder their opponents' cooking, such as confiscating ingredients or forcing them to use unorthodox tools and equipment. Three chefs are eliminated one by one, and the winner keeps his/her unspent money as the day's prize. The series premiered on August 11, 2013. \n\nOther appearances\n\nBrown served as a mentor on Season 8 of The Next Food Network Star alongside Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis. During season 8, each mentor selected and mentored a team of five finalists. Team Alton's finalist Justin Warner was the season 8 winner; however, Brown will not be producing Warner's show. \n\nHe returned, along with Flay and De Laurentiis, as a mentor and judge for season 9. Due to a format change, season 9 did not feature teams.\n\nIn 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013, Brown hosted Thanksgiving Live! for The Food Network, a show featuring other Food Network personalities preparing various Thanksgiving dishes and answering viewers' questions.\n\nOn November 11, 2007, Brown was the guest programmer on Turner Classic Movies as part of their guest programmer month. The films he selected were What's Up, Tiger Lily?, Closely Watched Trains, Point Blank, and Blowup.\n\nIn 2008 he guest starred on Nickelodeon's TV series SpongeBob SquarePants in the show's sixth season episode, \"House Fancy\", where he voiced the host of a home show, Nicholas Withers.\n\nBrown also appeared in the Kung Fu Panda DVD feature \"Mr. Ping's Noodle House\".\n\nBrown appeared on the November 18, 2012 episode of MythBusters, assisting in the testing of two myths involving pressure-cooked popcorn and using a car's hot engine compartment to cook a holiday meal. A third segment testing a dishwasher to cook lasagna was posted on the show's website.\n\nIn 2013, Brown's voice and likeness appeared in \"Cooking with Archer\", an animated extra on the DVD release of season 3 of the show Archer.\n\nBrown appeared on the Travel Channel show The Layover with Anthony Bourdain which focused on the city of Atlanta in 2013. In the episode Bourdain takes Brown to the Clermont Lounge. \n\nBrown guest starred as the \"Guest Bailiff\" and \"Expert Witness\" in John Hodgman's comedy/court show podcast Judge John Hodgman. \n\nIn October 2013, Alton launched \"Alton Brown Live: The Edible Inevitable Tour,\" his first national tour visiting 46 cities through March 2014. The show includes stand-up comedy, talk show antics, a multimedia lecture, live music and \"extreme\" food experimentation \n\nAfter a hiatus of several months while Brown worked on his Food Network shows, the tour resumed in October 2014 and is set to conclude April 4, 2015, in Houston, Texas, after visiting more than 60 cities. \n\nAlton makes an appearance as himself in the October 4, 2015 episode of The Simpsons, \"Cue Detective\", as the judge of a cooking competition the Simpsons enter.\n\nIn 2015, Brown voiced a character in the show Miles from Tomorrowland.\n\nCommercials\n\nBrown has done commercial work for General Electric (GE) products, including five infomercials touting the benefits of GE refrigerators, washers and dryers, water purifiers, Trivection ovens, and dishwashers. The infomercials are produced in the Good Eats style, employing the use of unusual camera angles, informational text, props, visual aids, scientific explanations, and the same method of delivery. These infomercials are distributed to wholesale distributors of appliances/plumbing devices.\n\nBrown has also aided GE in developing a new type of oven. He was initially called by GE to help their engineers learn more about the effects of heat on food; that grew into an active cooperation to develop GE's Trivection oven.\n\nBrown has also done promotion for Dannon yogurt, Welch's, Shun knives, and for Heifer International.\n\nIn 2010, he endorsed salt use in a campaign for Cargill. \n\nTwitter\n\nIn 2012, Brown gained popularity by pioneering the use of humorous \"Analog Tweets,\" wherein he posts pictures of hand-drawn Twitter responses on Post-it notes which he has stuck to his computer monitor. \n\nThe Alton Browncast\n\nOn June 28, 2013, Alton Brown joined the Nerdist Podcast Network with his podcast The Alton Browncast. In this podcast, Brown reviews recent food news, takes calls and questions from listeners, and interviews celebrities and other guests. Food is often a focal point of the podcast, but several episodes have branched off into other areas of Brown's interest, including men's style, production and recording of music, and various aspects of acting and cinematography. So far, it has featured chats with food luminaries such as Justin Warner, Hugh Acheson, Alex Guarnaschelli, Bobby Flay, and Keith Schroder. Guests have also included men's style maven Sid Mashburn and clothing manufacturing team Adam Schoenberg and Cory Rosenberg; producer Jim Milan and soundman Patrick Beldin from \"The Edible Inevitable Tour\" and actor Bart Hansard, who played multiple characters on Good Eats. \n\nAwards\n\nBon Appétit magazine named him \"Cooking Teacher of the Year\" in 2004. He was named \"Best Food Guru\" by Atlanta magazine in 2005. In 2011, he won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best TV Food Personality. \n\nPersonal life\n\nBrown lives in Marietta, Georgia. He divorced his wife DeAnna in 2015. DeAnna and Alton have a daughter Zoey (born in 1999). A few members of his extended family have appeared on Good Eats (such as his late grandmother, Ma Mae, his mother, and daughter, Zoey, who is known on the show as \"Alton's Spawn\"), but most of his \"family\" portrayed on the series is made up of actors and the show's production crew. \n\nBrown is a motorcycling enthusiast, owning a BMW R1150RT. He gave up motorcycling by 2012, citing slowing reflexes and safety. Brown is a pilot, and was featured in the aviation magazine AOPA Flight Training. He completed his first solo flight on June 25, 2007, and earned his private pilot certificate on June 5, 2008. He owned two planes, a Cessna 206 and a Cessna 414. \n\nBrown changed his eating habits in 2009 in order to lose weight and become healthier, losing 50 lb over the course of nine months.\n\nBrown is a Christian. He says, \"I'm not a spooky snake handler because I live in Georgia and I'm Christian, that I believe in the Bible, that I travel with the Bible, that I read the Bible every day. I'm still me. I'm still a guy doing a job. I find, actually, that people ask me a lot about it. I don't hit people over the head with the Bible ... I still feel a funny little tinge in my stomach when I'm out to dinner with my wife and daughter in New York. We'll go to dinner and we'll be sitting around the table and we'll say Grace. You know what? People are going to stare at you. I used to feel really self-conscious. But I've gotten to a point where I think, nah, I'm not going to feel bad about that. I'm not going to apologize about that.\" Brown said in a December 2014 interview in Time that he \"could no longer abide the Southern Baptist Convention's indoctrination of children and its anti-gay stance\" adding that he's now \"searching for a new belief system.\" \n\nBibliography\n\n* I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking (ISBN 1-58479-083-0, 2002)\n* Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen (ISBN 1-58479-296-5, 2003)\n* I'm Just Here for the Food: Kitchen User's Manual (ISBN 1-58479-298-1, 2003)\n* I'm Just Here for the Food: Cook's Notes (ISBN 1-58479-299-X, 2003)\n* I'm Just Here for More Food: Food × Mixing + Heat = Baking (ISBN 1-58479-341-4, 2004)\n* I'm Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0 (ISBN 1-58479-559-X, 2006)\n* Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run (ISBN 1-58479-681-2, 2008)\n* Good Eats: The Early Years (ISBN 1-58479-795-9, 2009)\n* Good Eats 2: The Middle Years (ISBN 1-58479-857-2, 2010)\n* Good Eats 3: The Later Years (ISBN 1-58479-903-X, 2011)\n\nBrown was also a contributor to the 2005 cookbook Food Network Favorites: Recipes from Our All-Star Chefs (ISBN 0696230216). He selected the nonprofit world hunger organization Heifer International to receive a portion of the royalties." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Jacob_Black.txt", "Edward_Cullen.txt", "Bella_Swan.txt" ], "title": [ "Jacob Black", "Edward Cullen", "Bella Swan" ], "wiki_context": [ "Jacob \"Jake\" Black is a character in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. He is described as an attractive Native American of the Quileute tribe in La Push, near Forks, Washington. In the second book of the series, he discovers that he can shapeshift into a wolf. For the majority of the series, Jacob competes with Edward Cullen for Bella Swan's love. In the films Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn Part 1 and Breaking Dawn Part 2, Jacob is played by Taylor Lautner.\n\nConcept and creation\n\nAccording to Stephenie Meyer, Jacob was originally meant to be a device through which Bella could learn Edward's secret in Twilight. Meyer, her agent, and her editor all liked the character so much that they decided to give him a larger role in the following book, New Moon, with Meyer calling the character, \"my favorite gift that New Moon gave to me.\" \n\n\"Jacob was my first experience with a character taking over—a minor character developing such roundness and life that I couldn't keep him locked inside a tiny role....From the very beginning, even when Jacob only appeared in chapter six of Twilight, he was so alive. I liked him. More than I should for such a small part.\"\n\nMeyer has said that after Jacob started emerging as a prominent character in New Moon, she went back to Twilight, which she was editing at the time, to \"weave Jacob and [his father Billy] throughout Twilight more centrally.\"\n\nRole in the books \n\nTwilight Saga\n\nJacob is given a small role in the first book of the series. He is introduced as the son of Billy Black, an old Swan family friend. When Bella uses him to get information on Edward Cullen and his family, Jacob tells her Quileute legends and introduces her to the idea that Edward is a vampire. Bella comes to like Jacob, and he develops a crush on her. \n\nNew Moon\n\nIn New Moon, Jacob's character is used as a device to help Bella emerge from her months-long depression, brought on by her distress over Edward's departure. The friendship between the two characters grows strong, but Jacob also develops romantic feelings for Bella that she does not reciprocate. It is revealed that, as a member of the Quileute tribe, Jacob is descended from an ancient line of \"shapeshifters\" that assume wolf form. In their backstory, the Quileutes are vampires' mortal enemies. When Jacob undergoes his first transformation into a wolf, it is in response to a new vampire threat. Soon, he becomes busy patrolling the forest with his pack, searching for vampires in the area. When Bella is caught by the vampire Laurent alone in a clearing, she is saved by Jacob and the wolf pack, who chase and kill Laurent.\n\nJacob serves as a rescue for Bella and a foil to Edward on multiple occasions in the narrative. When Bella, who has taken increasingly dangerous risks to feel closer to Edward, impulsively jumps off a cliff and almost drowns, Jacob rescues her. After Edward mistakenly believes she has died and plans to kill himself, Bella and Edward's sister, Alice Cullen, rush to Italy to prevent his suicide, leaving Jacob hurt and resentful. Jacob is disgusted by Edward's return and by Bella's willingness to take Edward back after he left her. Jacob reminds Edward of his tribe's treaty with the Cullen family, which states that the Cullens are not allowed to bite humans. Bella interrupts and points out that she wants to become a vampire, therefore it is not Jacob's problem. This angers Jacob, who attempts to start a fight with Edward, and Bella has to intervene. \n\nEclipse\n\nIn Eclipse, Jacob, enraged by the fact that Bella plans to become a vampire, attempts to distance himself by not returning her phone calls and refusing to see her. Later, during the scene when Jacob visits Bella and Edward to discuss the vampire Victoria's return, he tells Bella that he misses her and wishes that they could remain friends. With Edward's approval, Bella begins to visit Jacob on a regular basis. On one of these visits, Jacob tells Bella that he is in love with her and that he wants her to choose him over Edward. Bella is caught off guard by his confession and tells him she only thinks of him as a friend. He forcibly kisses her, and she reacts by punching him in the face. This breaks her hand, though it does not effect Jacob because he is a werewolf and doesn't get hurt easily. This act later enrages Edward, and the two get into a heated argument in front of Bella's house. They come extremely close to a physical fight, until Bella pushes Edward always and pleads for them to stop. Edward, still fuming with rage, tells Jacob that if Bella gives him the word, he will harm him. Bella's father comes outside at that moment, and demands to know what's going on. Jacob admits that he kissed Bella, and she broke her hand punching him. Jacob apologizes and leaves.\n\nLater on, Jacob's shapeshifter wolf pack and the Cullen family join forces to defeat Victoria and the army of newborn vampires she has created. The night before the battle, Edward and Jacob are alone with Bella on the top of a mountain. They are there, in a secluded spot, to protect her from Victoria and her blood-hungry army. It is night, and a blizzard beats at their tent. Bella is freezing to death, huddled in a blanket hold and shivering violently. Edward watches on with despair, as he can do nothing to help because his vampire skin is ice-cold. Jacob, being a werewolf, is never cold and has very a warm body. He moves forward to lay down with Bella, knowing his body heat would keep her warm. Edward shoves him away, outraged, and says he will not go near her. Bella, hardly conscious, pleads for them not to fight. Jacob insists that Bella needs his warmth, and reluctantly Edward lets him crawl into the blankets with her. She cuddles into his warmth, still hardly conscious. Bella stops shaking and chattering. She falls asleep in his arms. While she is sleeping, Edward and Jacob begin to talk quietly. As the night wears on, their private conversation softens and the two become closer.\n\nRight before the battle the next morning, Jacob overhears Edward and Bella discussing their engagement. He did not know about this, because Bella was trying to keep it a secret until the battle was over, for she knew he'd be reckless with his anger. Jacob is outraged, and refuses to believe that Bella truly loves Edward more than him. He threatens suicide by hoping he'd be killed in the battle. He is about to run off to join the soon-to-be-battle. Bella, in an attempt to stop him from getting killed, demands to be kissed by him. Jacob doesn't hesitate, and he kisses her passionately. Then, he leaves for the battle and Bella feels relieved to know that he no longer wants to be killed while fighting.\nAfter he is gone, she comes to the realization that she does love Jacob. \n\nIn the battle, Jacob fights ferociously and savagely. He is in his wolf form as is the rest of the pack. He kills many vampires and together, with the Cullens, they defeat Victoria's newborn army. The battle is over, but one newborn vampire who had remained hidden the whole time, emerges from hiding. Leah, one of the wolves, immediately attacks. The enemy vampire wraps his arms around her neck and tries to strangle her, but Jacob lunges forward and knocks him off. They engage in a brief but vicious fight. Jacob falls and the vampire crushes his body with violent force. At once the vampire is pulled off by the other wolves and killed. Jacob is now back in human form. He is writhing on the ground naked and in extreme agony. Carlisle, the doctor vampire, announces that the bones in the right half of his body are crushed. The other wolves, now back in their human form too, stare in horror as Carlisle continues to inspect him. Leah is full of guilt and shame, and insists that she \"had him\" [the vampire]. Sam tells her to shut up. Then, they haul Jacob off the ground and carry him off.\n\nAt Jacob's house, he is in bed with a high fever. Bella is worried and apologizes to him, wishing he'll get better soon. She also admits that it was a mistake to kiss him, and tries to tell him that even if she does love him, he has to accept that it is Edward who truly lies in her heart. Then she leaves, and Jacob his angered and deeply hurt.\n\nThe epilogue is written from Jacob's point of view; angry and heartbroken at Bella's decision to become a vampire. He runs away in his wolf form to escape his pain. \n\nBreaking Dawn\n\nJacob returns after an absence of several weeks to attend Ashley and Sam's wedding in Breaking Dawn. Though described as being still visibly pained by her decision, he tells Bella that he wants her to be happy. However, when Bella inadvertently informs him that she and Edward plan to have sex before she becomes a vampire, Jacob becomes enraged because he is said to know that Edward's strength could kill her. When Bella and Edward return from their honeymoon, Jacob becomes the narrator of the story for several chapters, during which he learns that she is pregnant with Edward's half-vampire, half-human child and has become desperately weak. When Jacob informs the pack of Ashley's pregnancy, their leader Sam Uley plans an attack on the Cullens in order to kill Bella and, thereby, her unborn child because of the threat he believes the child presents. Jacob, who feels that the Cullens are innocent, disobeys Sam's command and separates himself from the pack. Fulfilling his birthright as an Alpha wolf, he is joined in a new pack by Seth and Leah Clearwater, who aid Jacob and the Cullens in protecting Bella and Renesmee. After the birth of Renesmee Carlie Cullen, Bella and Edward's daughter, Jacob immediately \"imprints\"—an involuntary response in which a shape-shifter finds his soul mate—on Renesmee. As a result, his affections are shifted and the romantic conflict between Jacob and Bella's characters is resolved. They remain close friends. The enmity between Jacob and the Cullens is also dispelled, and he and Edward come to view each other as brothers after Jacob emotionally bonds with Edward's newborn baby. \n\nCharacterization\n\nPhysical appearance\n\nPersonality and abilities\n\nBella describes Jacob as a \"happy person\" who extends this happiness to the people around him. As Jacob's character emerges in New Moon, he is shown to be cheery, passionate, and adventurous, but hot-headed. Jacob is also able to shape-shift at will into a giant wolf, and sometimes when angered he will involuntarily phase. His body temperature is warmer than a human's body should be, reaching about , which allows him to withstand very cold weather. In human form, his body heals within seconds, he possesses superhuman strength and speed, has a high durability rate, sharp senses and free running abilities. In wolf-form he can communicate with his wolf pack telepathically, has enhanced superhuman strength and speed and a substantial size increase. While in wolf-form, his teeth can cut through the granite-hard bodies of a vampire with ease. Members of Quileute wolf-pack do age if they do not phase for long time, which was pointed out when they were talking about the tribes history, as long as they phase from every now and again they don't age with Jacob's body physically grown to the equivalent of a 25-year-old in Breaking Dawn but stopping after that. Jacob is the strongest of the pack. Once they begin phasing, a Quileute shapeshifter may \"imprint\"—a method of finding one's soulmate—on someone, and will act as whatever the imprintee needs, whether it be a protector, a lover, or an older sibling. Jacob imprints on Edward and Bella's daughter Renesmee in Breaking Dawn.\n\nWhile treating Jacob in Eclipse, Carlisle takes a blood sample and runs some tests on it. He discovers that he has 24 pairs of chromosomes, one more than a human. A distinction is made in Breaking Dawn between the old world Children of the Moon (\"true werewolves\") and this shape-shifting Quileute tribe. The former are held to be a more ferocious and territorial type, with a transformative venomous bite and who involuntarily phase as do traditional werewolves on the full moon. The latter are implied as being blessed with the supernatural ability to shapeshift into other giant animals or \"spirits of nature\".\n\nFilm portrayal\n\nTaylor Lautner played the part of Jacob Black in the film adaptation of Twilight. Due to major physical changes in the character of Jacob between Twilight and New Moon, director Chris Weitz considered replacing Lautner in the sequel with an actor who could more accurately portray \"the new, larger Jacob Black.\" In an attempt to keep the role, Lautner stated, \"I have been working out. I've been working out since the day we finished filming Twilight. I just weighed myself today; I've put on 19 pounds... [and] I'm guaranteeing Weitz 10 more [pounds] by filming.\" Lautner would continue to play the role of Jacob in New Moon, and all the subsequent films.\n\nTeam Jacob\n\nMany fans of the Twilight franchise, particularly teenagers, have debated whether Edward or Jacob is the better match for Bella. Both sides of the debate have coalesced around informal \"teams\" of followers, whether \"Team Jacob\" or \"Team Edward.\" In a poll done by Novel Novice Twilight and appearing on NNT News in 2008, Team Jacob got 2,641 votes and Team Edward got 5,130 votes. A poll done by Top7 with over 43,000 votes had Jacob trailing Edward by around 3,000 votes. \n\nLautner portrayed a diehard Edward supporter in a December 12, 2009 sketch lampooning Twilight fans on Saturday Night Live.", "Edward Cullen (né Edward Anthony Masen) is a fictional character in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. He is featured in the books Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, and their corresponding film adaptations, and the as yet unfinished novel Midnight Sun—a re-telling of the events of Twilight from Edward's perspective. Edward is a telepathic vampire who, over the course of the series, falls in love with, marries, and has a child with Bella Swan, a human teenager who later chooses to become a vampire as well. In the Twilight film series, Edward is played by actor Robert Pattinson.\n\nConcept and creation\n\nStephenie Meyer stated that the original concept of Edward originated in a dream that she had, in which an \"average girl\" and a \"fantastically beautiful, sparkly ... vampire ... were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods.\" In this dream, the pair \"were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that ... they were falling in love with each other while ... the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her.\" She chose the name \"Edward\" because she thought it was \"a name that had once been considered romantic, but had fallen out of popularity for decades\". The development of the character was influenced by the fictional characters Gilbert Blythe, Fitzwilliam Darcy, and Edward Rochester—particularly the last, who, like Edward Cullen, sees himself as a \"monster\". A recurring theme in the series, especially in the first three books, is that Edward is constantly trying to avoid accidentally harming Bella, due to his vampire nature.\n\nAppearances\n\nTwilight\n\nIn Twilight, Edward meets Bella Swan, a human girl whose thoughts he is unable to read, and whose blood smells overwhelmingly sweet to him. He fights a growing attraction to her, but after saving her life on several occasions, he succumbs and eventually falls in love with her. Edward admits to Bella that he is a vampire, and that although he retains the physical body of a seventeen-year-old, he was actually born on June 20, 1901. His adoptive father, Carlisle Cullen, transformed him into a vampire in 1918 to prevent him from dying in the Spanish influenza epidemic in Chicago, Illinois by the request of Edward's mother who begged him to do whatever it took to save him. Carlisle instilled in him a sense of morality uncommon in most vampires, and central to his way of life is the refusal to consider humans as food.\n\nHowever, Edward constantly warns Bella against being with him, perceiving her life to be at risk if she continues to associate with him. Bella's love and confidence in Edward's restraint cause her to ignore his warnings, even after she becomes the vampire James' target. Unlike the Cullen family, who are \"vegetarian\" vampires (committed to only feeding on animals), James regularly feeds on humans and will not stop until he drinks Bella's blood. With his family's help, Edward is able to save Bella from James' predations, but how to assure Bella's continued safety remains an open question. \n\nNew Moon\n\nIn New Moon, Edward's fears for Bella's safety intensify when she cuts her finger and is almost attacked by his brother Jasper. In an attempt to protect her, he convinces her that he no longer loves her, and moves away with his family, leaving Bella heartbroken. Edward finds it difficult to live without Bella, and becomes severely depressed at the prospect of an infinitely long and meaningless life. After he mistakenly learns from his sister Rosalie that Bella has committed suicide, Edward attempts to convince a group of Italian vampires, the Volturi, to kill him. Together with his sister Alice, Bella rushes to Italy and stops Edward before the Volturi can destroy him.\n\nEdward explains why he left, and apologizes to Bella. She eventually forgives him entirely, and they continue with their relationship as though Edward had never left, with the exception that Bella has ties that cannot be broken with a werewolf named Jacob Black. Bella successfully seeks the support of Edward's family on turning her into a vampire. While Edward is furious at the prospect, he later agrees to change her himself if she agrees to marry him first. \n\nEclipse\n\nIn Eclipse, Bella agrees to marry Edward on the condition he will make love to her while she is still human. Edward eventually relents and agrees, on the stipulation it will only occur after they are married. The plot is driven by the machinations of the vampire Victoria, who, seeking revenge for the death of her mate James, is hunting Bella and creating new vampires to build an army. A grudging truce is made between the Cullens and the Native-American werewolf pack led by Sam Uley and Jacob Black, a friend of Bella's who was there for her when Edward broke her heart. However, the truce is endangered when Bella realizes Jacob means more to her than she thought. Ultimately, Edward accepts that Bella cares for Jacob and successfully destroys Victoria, and Bella acknowledges that Edward is the most important person in her life. Edward tells Bella that they may attempt making love before they get married, as he realizes that she spends too much of her life trying to please other people. However, she refuses his offer and agrees to doing things the way Edward initially wanted: marriage, making love, and then becoming a vampire. \n\nBreaking Dawn\n\nBreaking Dawn sees Edward and Bella marry. Bella becomes pregnant on their honeymoon, and the rapid growth of the half-human, half-vampire fetus swiftly impacts on Bella’s health. Edward tries to coerce her into having an abortion in order to save her own life. However, Bella feels a bond with her unborn child and insists on giving birth. Edward comes to feel love for the baby as well, after he hears its thoughts and learns that the baby loves Bella in return. Bella nearly dies giving birth in an emergency c-section, but Edward successfully delivers his daughter and then injects Bella's heart with his venom, healing her wounds by turning her into an immortal vampire. During Bella's painful transformation, Jacob imprints on their baby daughter, Renesmee.\n\nAfter a vampire named Irina mistakes Renesmee for an immortal vampire child—a creation forbidden in the vampire world—the Volturi arrive to destroy the Cullens. Edward stands with Bella and their allies to convince the Volturi that Renesmee is not an immortal child and poses no threat to their existence. Once the Volturi leave, Edward and Bella feel free to live their lives in peace with their daughter. \n\nCharacterization\n\nEdward is described in the book as being charming, polite, determined, and very stubborn. He is very protective over Bella and puts her safety, humanity and welfare before anything else. He often over-analyzes situations and has a tendency to overreact, especially in situations where Bella's safety is at risk. He retains some outdated speech from his human life in the early 20th century. Edward sees himself as a monster, and after falling in love with Bella, he desperately wishes that he were human instead of a vampire.\n\nPhysical appearance\n\nLike all the vampires in the Twilight series, Edward is described as being impossibly beautiful. At various points in the series, Bella compares him to the mythical Greek god Adonis. His skin is \"like marble\"—very pale, ice cold, and sparkles in the sunlight. She describes his facial features as being perfect and angular—high cheekbones, strong jawline, a straight nose, and full lips. His hair, which is always messy, retains the unusual bronze shade that he inherited in his human life from his biological mother. His eyes, once green, are now described as topaz. His appearance changes if he goes too long without feeding: his eyes darken, becoming almost black, and purple bruises appear beneath his eyes. Edward is 6'2\", and has a slender but muscular body.\n\nVampiric abilities and personal interests\n\nEdward, like all vampires in the Twilight series, possesses superhuman stamina, senses, mentality, and agility, as well as a healing factor and night vision. His superhuman strength allows him to subdue his prey, uproot trees, throw cars, and crush metal. His bodily tissue is stronger than granite, making him much more durable and tougher than humans as well as contributing slightly to his body weight. He is described as being inhumanly beautiful with refined and perfected features. His scent and voice are enormously seductive to Bella, so much so that he occasionally sends her into a pliant daze entirely by accident. In Twilight, Edward explains that like other vampires, he does not need to breathe, though he chooses to do so out of habit and because it is helpful to smell his environment. He cannot digest regular food, and compares its attractiveness for him to the prospect of eating dirt for a regular person. Like other vampires, Edward is not able to sleep.\n\nIn addition to the traits he shares with his fellow vampires, Edward has certain abilities that are his alone. He possesses superior superhuman speed compared to that of other vampires and is the fastest of the Cullens, able to outrun any of them. Edward is also telepathic, able to read the mind of anyone within a few miles of himself; Bella is the sole exception to this rule, which Meyer has stated is due to Bella having a very private mind. Edward also retains some of the traditional mindset and dated patterns of speech from his early-20th century human life.\n\nEdward is musical, able to play the piano like a virtuoso. He enjoys a wide range of music, including classical, jazz, progressive metal, alternative rock, and punk rock, but dislikes country. He prefers indie rock to mainstream, and appreciates rock and classical music equally. He mentions in Twilight that he likes music from the fifties better than the sixties, dislikes the seventies, and says the eighties were \"bearable\".\n\nA hobby of Edward's is collecting cars. He owns a Volvo S60 R and an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish as a \"special occasion\" car. He also gave his sister Alice a Porsche 911 Turbo as a gift in Eclipse. He bought a motorcycle to ride alongside Bella, but gave it to Jasper after he realized that riding motorcycles was a hobby she enjoyed sharing with Jacob.\n\nFilm portrayal\n\nCasting\n\nPrior to the role of Edward being cast for the 2008 Twilight film, Meyer opined that, although Edward was \"Indisputably the most difficult character to cast, [he] is also the one that I'm most passionately decided upon. The only actor I've ever seen who I think could come close to pulling off Edward Cullen is....(drumroll)....Henry Cavill.\" When the film was optioned by Summit Entertainment in July 2007, Meyer stated that; \"The most disappointing thing for me is losing my perfect Edward\", as Cavill was by then 24 years old, and thus too old to realistically fill the role. Meyer reported on her website that the four most popular fan suggestions for actors to play Edward were Hayden Christensen, Robert Pattinson, Orlando Bloom and Gerard Way. On 11 December 2007, it was announced that Pattinson, known for his portrayal of Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter films, had been cast in the role. Erik Feig, Summit Entertainment’s President of Production, stated: \"It is always a challenge to find the right actor for a part that has lived so vividly in the imaginations of readers but we took the responsibility seriously and are confident, with Rob Pattinson, that we have found the perfect Edward for our Bella in Twilight.\" Meyer stated that; \"I am ecstatic with Summit's choice for Edward. There are very few actors who can look both dangerous and beautiful at the same time, and even fewer who I can picture in my head as Edward. Robert Pattinson is going to be amazing.\" \n\nTwilight's director, Catherine Hardwicke, said of the casting process that \"[e]verybody has such an idealized vision of Edward. They were rabid [about who I was going to cast]. Like, old ladies saying, 'You better get it right.\" She revealed that she was initially underwhelmed by a photo of Pattinson, but said of his audition, which was a love scene with co-star Kristen Stewart: \"It was electric. The room shorted out, the sky opened up, and I was like, 'This is going to be good.'\" Pattinson has admitted; \"I had no idea how to play the part when I went in, and it was a good thing to find during the audition. I really wanted it after that, but I didn’t really even know what it was. I hadn’t really read any of the books. And just from that, ‘I want this job.’ It was pretty much because of Kristen.\" In early 2008, Pattinson spoke of a fan backlash against his casting, disclosing Entertainment Weekly that \"I stopped reading [fansites and blogs] after I saw the signatures saying 'Please, anyone else.'\" He revealed to the Evening Standard that; \"The books have a huge following, and I’ve already got bags of letters from angry fans, telling me that I can’t possibly play Edward, because I’m Diggory. I hope I can prove them wrong.\" \n\nDevelopment\n\nFollowing an April 2008 set visit, Meyer opined that Pattinson and Stewart had developed chemistry so good it \"may cause hyperventilation\". Pattinson revealed that Meyer had given him an early copy of Midnight Sun—a re-telling of the events of Twilight, narrated from Edward's point of view. He explained that: \"That is what I liked about [taking on] the job, because the guy doesn’t really exist that much, so you can just create whatever you want. Then, when I found out there was another book from Edward’s perspective, [I read it and it turned out] we had the same perspective!\" In preparation for the role, Pattinson wrote journal entries as Edward and distanced from his friends and family, explaining that he \"wanted to feel his isolation\". Physically, he revealed that; \"I was supposed to get a six-pack. But it didn't really work out.\" One scene in the story sees Edward, a gifted pianist, compose a lullaby for Bella. Pattinson was given the opportunity to submit a composition for consideration for this scene, with Hardwicke stating; \"I told him he should write one, and let’s see if we can make it work, because that would be really cool if it was Rob’s song. He’s a beautiful musician, a very creative soul, very similar to Edward. He just totally reads the most interesting stuff, and sees the most interesting movies, and is very introspective and diving into his existential self.\" Meyer approved; \"If Robert could write a lullaby, that would definitely add to some of the mystique of the movie, wouldn’t it?\" While two of Pattinson's compositions do feature in the final film, the lullaby piece finally selected was composed by Carter Burwell. \n\nIn April 2008, Hardwicke, in a turnabout from her initial underwhelmed reaction upon first seeing a photograph of Pattinson, enthused; \"The thing that’s great about him is he really does [...] feel like he’s otherworldly. I mean, he doesn’t look like a normal guy. And when you read the book, you think, ‘Who on the planet can live up to this description?’ But I think he does. He’s just got that chiseled face that photographs exactly like it’s described in the book. When you read about the sculptured cheeks and chiseled jawbone and everything, it’s like, ‘Wow. Did she write this for Rob?\" Pattinson, in a detailed interview on how he perceives the character, admitted to having incorporated aspects of Rebel Without a Cause into his portrayal of Edward, assessing; \"I guess kind of the thing which I found interesting is that he is essentially the hero of this story but violently denies that he is the hero. Like at every point even when he does heroic things he still thinks that he’s [...] the most ridiculously selfish evil creature around. [..] He refuses to accept Bella’s love for him but at the same time can’t help but just kind of needs it, which is kind of what the essential storyline is.\" Appearing at ComicCon in July 2008 while the film was in post-production, Pattinson surmised the Twilight experience as: \"bizarre. You kind of know that it is essentially the book. The book has so many obsessive, obsessively loyal fans. It's strange because people just immediately relate you to the character right away rather than you as an actor.\" Pattinson reprised his role as Edward in all of the Twilight sequels. \n\nIn an interview, Pattinson admits that he never had formal training on how to do his American accent; \"...I just grew up watching American movies... I kind of learned how to act, or whatever, from American films. \n\nReception\n\nLarry Carroll for MTV Movies deemed Edward and Bella \"an iconic love story for a whole generation\", while Kirkus cited Edward's portrayal in Twilight as being \"overly Byronic\". Edward Cullen was also ranked #5 on the Forbes list of Hollywood's 10 Most Powerful Vampires. Entertainment Weekly named him \"one of the greatest characters of the last 20 years\" and described him as a \"literary influence and love of girls and women everywhere for a long time to come\". \n\nSince the release of the Twilight series, the character of Edward has developed somewhat of a cult following, with millions of devoted, mostly female, fans worldwide. However, while the character has been called the \"obsession of teen girls\", several criticisms of his character, in particular accusations of sexism, have emerged. Gina R. Dalfonzo of the National Review Online described Edward's character as mentally unstable and a \"predator\", using behavioral examples such as spying on Bella while she sleeps, eavesdropping on her conversations, dictating her choice of friends, and encouraging her to deceive her father as reasons why Dalfonzo believes he is \"one of modern fiction's best candidates for a restraining order.\" Author and editor of Twilight and Philosophy Rebecca Housel suggested that Edward's romantic literary persona translates in real life into what Housel called a \"stalker\" in her chapter focusing on separating the fact from the fiction in Twilight.", "Isabella Marie \"Bella\" Swan (later Bella Cullen) is a character and the protagonist of the Twilight series, written by Stephenie Meyer. The Twilight series, consisting of the novels Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn, is primarily narrated from Bella's point of view. In the film series, Bella is portrayed by actress Kristen Stewart.\n\nIn Twilight, Bella moves to her father's home in Forks, Washington, meets the mysterious Cullen family, and falls in love with Edward Cullen. However, she soon discovers that the family is a coven of vampires. Bella expresses a desire to become a vampire herself, against Edward's wishes. In the second novel, New Moon, Edward and the other Cullens leave Forks in an effort to keep Bella safe from the vampire world. Jacob Black, a member of the Quileute tribe who is also a shape shifter taking a wolf form, comforts the distraught and severely depressed Bella. She comes to care deeply for Jacob, though less than she loves Edward. At the end of Eclipse, Bella becomes engaged to Edward, and they marry in Breaking Dawn. On their honeymoon, she becomes pregnant by Edward and, due to the peculiar nature of her baby, Bella nearly dies giving birth to their daughter, Renesmee Cullen. Edward turns her into a vampire to save her life.\n\nConcept and creation\n\nThe premise for both the Bella Swan character and the Twilight series originated in a dream Stephenie Meyer had in which an \"average girl\" and a \"fantastically beautiful, sparkly ... vampire ... were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods.\" In this dream, the pair \"were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that ... they were falling in love with each other while ... the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her.\"\n\nMeyer's original characters were unnamed; she took to calling the characters, who would later become Edward Cullen and Bella, 'he' and 'she' for the purpose of convenience as she, \"didn't want to lose the dream.\" The name 'Isabella' was decided upon, Meyer explains, because \"after spending so much time with [the character], I loved her like a daughter. ... Inspired by that love, I gave her the name I was saving for my daughter,... Isabella.\"\n\nBella's positive reception at her new school in Forks, particularly her popularity with male characters, was modelled after Meyer's real life move from high school to college.\n\nAppearances\n\nTwilight\n\nTwilight is about a 17-year-old girl named Bella Swan, who moves from her mother's home in Phoenix, Arizona, to live with her father in her birthtown of Forks, Washington. There, she becomes intrigued by a student, Edward Cullen. When Edward saves her life, he exhibits super-human qualities. Bella learns from family friend Jacob Black that Quileute legends say the Cullen family are vampires. Edward eventually admits to this truth, though his family hunts only animals, not humans, through moral choice. Edward constantly warns Bella against being with him, perceiving her life to be at constant risk if she continues to associate with him because the scent of her blood is more powerful to him than that of any other human he has ever encountered. Bella's love and confidence in Edward's restraint is such that his warnings go unheeded, and on an outing with the Cullens she becomes the target of a sadistic vampire, James. With his family's help, Edward is able to save Bella from James' predations, but Edward is still unwilling to change Bella into a vampire himself. \n\nNew Moon\n\nNew Moon begins on Bella's eighteenth birthday. She dreams about looking much older than Edward Cullen, her boyfriend. During a birthday celebration at the Cullens, Bella gets a small paper cut while unwrapping a present. Edward's brother, Jasper, instinctively thirsting for her blood, launches an attack, though he is stopped. Edward realizes that his relationship with Bella puts her in danger. In a misguided attempt to protect Bella, he convinces her that he no longer loves her and moves away with his family, leaving her heartbroken and depressed for months.\n\nTo appease her worried father, Bella attends a movie with her school friend, Jessica. While there, she carelessly approaches a group of dangerous-looking men outside a bar and discovers she can hear Edward's voice when her adrenaline is high. Desperate to hear his voice again, Bella continually seeks out danger; she convinces Jacob Black to repair two old motorcycles and teach her to ride. Their friendship grows, and Jacob admits that he has romantic feelings for Bella, though she does not reciprocate them. When a vampire named Laurent tries to attack and kill her, Bella is saved by a pack of giant wolves. Later, Bella learns that Jacob and other tribe members are shapeshifters who assume a wolf form to protect humans from vampires. Bella also discovers that the vampire Victoria has returned to Forks, seeking to kill Bella to avenge her mate, James', death.\n\nTo hear Edward's voice, Bella attempts cliff-diving and nearly drowns, but she is saved by Jacob. Edward, after mistakenly being informed that Bella has committed suicide, travels to Volterra, Italy, to request the Volturi to destroy him. Alice returns to Forks and discovers Bella is alive; she and Bella pursue Edward to Italy and successfully prevent him from showing himself in daylight to humans, an act that would result in his execution. The trio are taken to the Volturi. Because Bella knows about vampires, the Volturi want to kill her, but Alice claims she has foreseen Bella becoming a vampire. Because most humans are unaware that vampires exist, the Volturi threaten to kill Bella if this does not happen soon. Upon returning home, Edward tells Bella that he never stopped loving her, and he only left Forks because he thought it would protect her. He apologizes for his misguided action and asks for her forgiveness, which Bella quickly grants. Bella, intent on becoming a vampire, decides that Edward's family should vote on her fate. All but Rosalie and Edward vote for her to be changed, but Edward agrees to change her himself if she will marry him. \n\nEclipse\n\nEclipse continues the drama of Bella and Edward's relationship. Edward explains that he is reluctant to change Bella into a vampire because he believes that vampires are soulless creatures who have no place in heaven. Bella, whose opinion of marriage is jaded by her own parents' early divorce, agrees to marry Edward on the condition that he will make love with her while she is still human and then turn her into a vampire. He initially refuses, saying that he could easily lose control in the heat of the moment and unintentionally kill her. However, seeing how important it is to Bella, he agrees to try, but only after they are married. \n\nThe plot is driven by the machinations of the vampire Victoria, who first encountered Bella and the Cullens during the first book, Twilight. Victoria, seeking to avenge her lover, James', death, hunts Bella while building a new vampire army. To combat this threat, a grudging truce is struck between the Cullens and the Native American shape-shifting wolf pack led by Sam Uley and Jacob Black, who pits himself against Edward as a love interest for Bella. Initially, Bella considers Jacob only as a friend but, despite her engagement to Edward, she shares a kiss with Jacob and realizes she loves him as well. Ultimately, Edward accepts Bella's love for Jacob and successfully destroys Victoria. Bella acknowledges that Edward is the most important person in her life, agreeing to announce their engagement to her father. \n\nBreaking Dawn\n\nBreaking Dawn begins with the wedding of Bella and Edward at the Cullen home in the outskirts of Forks. They spend their honeymoon on Isle Esme, a fictional small island off the coast of Brazil that was given to Esme as a gift from Carlisle. They consummate their marriage, but their lovemaking sparks a conflict between the newlywed couple: Edward is horrified that he has bruised his wife, but Bella insists that she is fine and wants Edward to make love to her again. He vows not to do so again while she is still human. He eventually gives in. Afterwards, Bella becomes very sick and realizes that she is pregnant with their child.\n\nEdward is shocked and rushes Bella home to see Carlisle, who, as a doctor, confirms that she is expecting a child. As the pregnancy takes a toll on Bella's health, Edward tries to talk her into having an abortion to save her own life. However, Bella feels a bond with her unborn child and insists on giving birth. Soon, Edward comes to love the baby as well, after he hears its thoughts and learns that the baby loves Bella in return and doesn't mean to hurt her.\n\nBella nearly dies giving birth but Edward successfully delivers their baby girl and then injects his venom into Bella's heart, thus healing her wounds by turning her into a vampire. During Bella's painful transformation, Jacob imprints—an involuntary process in which a shape-shifter finds his soul mate—on the baby, Renesmee Cullen.\n\nAfter a vampire named Irina mistakes Renesmee for an immortal vampire child (a creation that is forbidden in the vampire world), Alice foresees the Volturi will arrive to destroy the Cullens as punishment for the alleged transgression. The Cullens find an array of vampire witnesses to observe the mortality of Renesmee. Bella soon discovers her ability to shield people from their mental thoughts and senses. Edward stands with Bella and their allies to convince the Volturi that Renesmee is not an immortal child and poses no threat to their existence. Once the Volturi leave, Edward and Bella are finally free to live their lives in peace with their daughter forever and stay with them. \n\nCharacterization\n\nPhysical appearance\n\nBella is described in the novels as being very pale with brown hair which is often described as mahogany, chocolate brown eyes, and a heart-shaped face. Beyond this, a detailed description of her appearance is never given in the series. Stephenie Meyer explains that she \"left out a detailed description of Bella in the book so that the reader could more easily step into her shoes.\" While Meyer stresses that \"Bella's looks are open to interpretation\", she does supply her own personal interpretation on her website, describing Bella as: Bella also has a small crescent-shaped scar on her arm/wrist where she was bitten by James, a tracker vampire, in Twilight. The scar is described as pale, always a few degrees colder than the rest of her body, and slightly sparkly in the sunlight.\n\nAfter Bella was changed into a vampire by her husband Edward Cullen in Breaking Dawn, in keeping with the appearance of most vampires, she became extremely beautiful, her eyes turned red, and her skin became paler and smoother.\n\nPersonality traits and abilities\n\nBella is described as being clumsy and stubborn. She is also said to be a terrible liar, but occasionally demonstrates good acting ability. She has a habit of biting her lower lip, and knits together her eyebrows when feeling strong emotions such as anxiety. Bella becomes faint when she smells blood, though this no longer bothers her once she becomes a vampire. Stephenie Meyer has stated that Bella's \"tragic flaw\" in Eclipse is her lack of self-knowledge. After being turned into a vampire, she describes having a much clearer view of the world. She is also very self-controlled, being able to ignore the scent of human blood on her first hunting trip. Bella's private mind that was able to repel some vampires' mental abilities while she was human evolved after she became a vampire; her skill strengthened, allowing her to shield herself and those around her from other vampires' mental gifts. By the end of Breaking Dawn, she is able to cast the shield away from herself. She is also described by Edward as \"very graceful\", even for a vampire, in comparison to her earlier clumsiness.\n\nFilm portrayal\n\nIn the film adaptations, Bella is portrayed by actress Kristen Stewart. Meyer stated that she was \"very excited\" to see Stewart play the part and that she was \"thrilled to have a Bella who has practice [in a vast array of film genres]\", since, according to Meyer, Twilight has moments that fit into many genres. Stewart wears contact lenses in the films in order to achieve a chocolate brown eye colour as described in the books.\n\nReception\n\nBella has received a generally negative reception from critics. Publishers Weekly states that, after her transformation into a vampire, \"it's almost impossible to identify with her\" in Breaking Dawn. Lilah Lohr of the Chicago Tribune compares Bella's character to the story of the Quileute wolves and describes it as \"less satisfying.\" During Twilight, Kirkus Reviews stated that \"Bella's appeal is based on magic rather than character\", but that her and Edward's \"portrayal of dangerous lovers hits the spot\". In the review of New Moon, Kirkus Reviews said that Bella's personality was \"flat and obsessive\". Laura Miller of salon.com said, in regards to Edward and Bella, \"neither of them has much personality to speak of.\" Entertainment Weeklys Jennifer Reese, in her review of Breaking Dawn noted, in regard to Bella, \"You may wish she had loftier goals and a mind of her own, but these are fairy tales, and as a steadfast lover in the Disney Princess mold, Bella has a certain saccharine appeal\", and that during Bella's pregnancy \"she is not only hard to identify with but positively horrifying, especially while guzzling human blood to nourish the infant.\" Washington Post journalist Elizabeth Hand noted how Bella was often described as breakable and that \"Edward's habit of constantly pulling her onto his lap or having her ride on his back further emphasize her childlike qualities\", continuing to write that \"the overall effect is a weird infantilization that has repellent overtones to an adult reader and hardly seems like an admirable model to foist upon our daughters (or sons).\" Gina Dalfonzo, in an article posted on the National Review website, calls Bella \"self-deprecating\" before her transformation into a vampire, and afterwards she is \"insufferably vain\". Dalfonzo also states that Bella gets what she wants and discovers her worth \"by giving up her identity and throwing away nearly everything in life that matters.\" Bella has also been described by some critics as \"boring, bland, and a Mary Sue\"." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Pillsbury_Doughboy.txt" ], "title": [ "Pillsbury Doughboy" ], "wiki_context": [ "Poppin' Fresh, more widely known as the Pillsbury Doughboy, is an advertising icon and mascot of the Pillsbury Company, appearing in many of their commercials. Many commercials from 1965 until 2004 (returned in 2009 to 2011 and 2013 in a Geico Commercial) conclude with a human finger poking the Doughboy's stomach. The Doughboy responds when his stomach is poked by giggling (Hoo-Hoo!, or earlier on, a slight giggle \"tee hee\").\n\nHistory \n\nThe Pillsbury Doughboy was created by Rudy Perz, a copywriter for Pillsbury's longtime advertising agency, Leo Burnett. Perz was sitting in his kitchen in the spring of 1965, under pressure to create an advertising campaign for Pillsbury's refrigerated dough product line (biscuits, dinner rolls, sweet rolls and cookies). Perz imagined a living dough boy popping out of a Pillsbury Crescent Rolls can. To distinguish the dough boy from the rolls, he gave it a scarf, a chef's hat, two big blue eyes, a blush, and a soft, warm chuckle when poked in the stomach. The Doughboy was originally designed by Milt Schaffer and brought to life using stop motion clay animation. Today, CGI is used. The first CGI commercial was directed by Tim Johnson who at that time was working for PDI.\n\nPerz originally conceived the Doughboy as an animated figure, but changed his mind after seeing a stop motion titling technique used in the opening credits for The Dinah Shore Show. A three-dimensional Doughboy puppet was then created at a cost of $16,000. Veteran cartoon voice actor Paul Frees was chosen to be Fresh's voice. Veteran stop-motion animator George Pal was hired to animate him. The first Poppin' Fresh commercials aired in October 1965. Since then, Pillsbury has used Poppin' Fresh in more than 600 commercials for more than fifty of its products. He also appeared in a MasterCard commercial, with the Jolly Green Giant, the Morton Salt Girl, the Vlasic stork, and Count Chocula, as some of the ten merchandising icons, depicted as having dinner together. He even appears in ads for the Got Milk? ad campaign and the Sprint Phone Company.\n\nAfter Frees' death in 1986, Jeff Bergman took over. Today, the high-pitched giggles are done by Jobe Cerny.\n\nPillsbury family\n\nIn the 1970s, a Pillsbury Doughboy family was created and sold as dolls individually and in the form of various playsets. \n\nIncluded in the family are:\n* Poppie Fresh (a.k.a. Mrs. Poppin' Fresh, Pillsbury Doughgirl). It is debated among collectors as to whether Poppie is Poppin's wife, girlfriend or sister. \n* Granpopper and Granmommer (grandparents)\n* Popper (boy) and Bun-Bun (baby)\n* Flapjack (dog) and Biscuit (cat)\n* Uncle Rollie\n\nTrademark conflict\n\nIn May 2016, Pillsbury's lawyers served a cease and desist notice to My Dough Girl, LLC. a Salt Lake City, Utah Cookie Retailer. Some reported that an attorney for General Mills instructed her not to talk to the press." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Coccyx.txt" ], "title": [ "Coccyx" ], "wiki_context": [ "The coccyx ( ; plural: coccyges or coccyxes), commonly referred to as the tailbone, is the final segment of the vertebral column in humans and apes, and certain other mammals such as horses.\nIn animals with bony tails, it is known as tailhead or dock, in bird anatomy as tailfan.\nIt comprises three to five separate or fused coccygeal vertebrae below the sacrum, attached to the sacrum by a fibrocartilaginous joint, the sacrococcygeal symphysis, which permits limited movement between the sacrum and the coccyx.\n\nStructure \n\nThe coccyx is formed of either three, four or five rudimentary vertebrae. It articulates superiorly with the sacrum. In each of the first three segments may be traced a rudimentary body and articular and transverse processes; the last piece (sometimes the third) is a mere nodule of bone. The transverse processes are most prominent and noticeable on the first coccygeal segment. All the segments lack pedicles, laminae and spinous processes. The first is the largest; it resembles the lowest sacral vertebra, and often exists as a separate piece; the remaining ones diminish in size from above downward.\n\nMost anatomy books incorrectly state that the coccyx is normally fused in adults. In fact it has been shown that the coccyx may consist of up to five separate bony segments, the most common configuration being two or three segments. \n\nSurfaces \n\nThe anterior surface is slightly concave and marked with three transverse grooves that indicate the junctions of the different segments. It gives attachment to the anterior sacrococcygeal ligament and the levatores ani and supports part of the rectum. The posterior surface is convex, marked by transverse grooves similar to those on the anterior surface, and presents on either side a linear row of tubercles–the rudimentary articular processes of the coccygeal vertebrae. Of these, the superior pair are the largest, and are called the cornua coccygeum they project upward, and articulate with the cornua of the sacrum, and on either side complete the foramen for the transmission of the posterior division of the fifth sacral nerve.\n\nBorders \n\nThe lateral borders are thin and exhibit a series of small eminences, which represent the transverse processes of the coccygeal vertebrae. Of these, the first is the largest; it is flattened from before backward, and often ascends to join the lower part of the thin lateral edge of the sacrum, thus completing the foramen for the transmission of the anterior division of the fifth sacral nerve; the others diminish in size from above downward, and are often wanting. The borders of the coccyx are narrow, and give attachment on either side to the sacrotuberous and sacrospinous ligaments, to the coccygeus in front of the ligaments, and to the gluteus maximus behind them.\n\nApex \n\nThe apex is rounded, and has attached to it the tendon of the external anal sphincter. It may be bifid (divided into two).\n\nExtensor coccygis \n\nThe extensor coccygis is a slender muscle fascicle, which is not always present. It extends over the lower part of the posterior surface of the sacrum and coccyx. It arises by tendinous fibers from the last segment of the sacrum, or first piece of the coccyx, and passes downward to be inserted into the lower part of the coccyx. It is a rudiment of the extensor muscle of the caudal vertebrae of other animals.\n\nSacrococcygeal and intercoccygeal joints \n\nThe joints are variable and may be: (1) synovial joints; (2) thin discs of fibrocartilage; (3) intermediate between these two; (4) ossified. \n\nFunction \n\nIn humans and other tailless primates (e.g., great apes) since Nacholapithecus (a Miocene hominoid), Note: Nacholapithecus and Nakaliphitecus nakayamai are two different species of Miocene hominoids (specimens from Nakali and Nachola respectively). See for example \"Comparisons with Other Hominoids\" in (Kunimatsu, Nakatsukasa et al. Dec 2007) the coccyx is the remnant of a vestigial tail, but still not entirely useless; it is an important attachment for various muscles, tendons and ligaments—which makes it necessary for physicians and patients to pay special attention to these attachments when considering surgical removal of the coccyx. Additionally, it is also a part of the weight-bearing tripod structure which acts as a support for a sitting person. When a person sits leaning forward, the ischial tuberosities and inferior rami of the ischium take most of the weight, but as the sitting person leans backward, more weight is transferred to the coccyx.\n\nThe anterior side of the coccyx serves for the attachment of a group of muscles important for many functions of the pelvic floor (i.e., defecation, continence, etc.): the levator ani muscle, which include coccygeus, iliococcygeus, and pubococcygeus. Through the anococcygeal raphe, the coccyx supports the position of the anus. Attached to the posterior side is gluteus maximus which extend the thigh during ambulation.\n\nMany important ligaments attach to the coccyx: the anterior and posterior sacrococcygeal ligaments are the continuations of the anterior and posterior longitudinal ligaments that stretches along the entire spine. Additionally, the lateral sacrococcygeal ligaments complete the foramina for the last sacral nerve. And, lastly, some fibers of the sacrospinous and sacrotuberous ligaments (arising from the spine of the ischium and the ischial tuberosity respectively) also attach to the coccyx.\n\nAn extension of the pia mater, the filum terminale, extends from the apex of the conus, and inserts on the coccyx.\n\nClinical significance \n\nInjuring the coccyx can give rise to a painful condition called coccydynia and one or more of the bones or the connections thereof may be broken, fractured tailbone. \n A number of tumors are known to involve the coccyx; of these, the most common is sacrococcygeal teratoma. Both coccydynia and coccygeal tumors may require surgical removal of the coccyx (coccygectomy). One very rare complication of coccygectomy is a type of perineal hernia known as a coccygeal hernia. \n\nHistory \n\nEtymology \n\nThe term coccyx is derived from the ancient Greek word kokkyx \"cuckoo\"; the latter is attested in the writings of the Greek physician Herophilus to denote the end of the vertebral column. This Greek name for the cuckoo was applied as the last three or four bones of the coccyx resemble the beak of this bird, when viewed from the side. \n\nThis established etymological explanation can also be found in the writings of the 16th century anatomist Andreas Vesalius whom wrote: os cuculi, a similitudine rostri cuculi avis (the cuckoo bone shows a likeness to the beak of the cuckoo bird). Vesalius used the Latin expression os cuculi, with os, bone and cuculus, the Latin name for the cuckoo. The 16th/17th century French anatomist Jean Riolan the Younger gives a rather hilarious etymological explanation, as he writes: quia crepitus, qui per sedimentum exeunt, ad is os allisi, cuculi vocis similitudinem effingunt (because the sound of the farts that leave the anus and dash against this bone, shows a likeness to the call of the cuckoo). The latter is not considered as potential candidate.\n\nBesides os cuculi, os caudae, with caudae, of the tail is attested. This Latin expression might be the source of the English, French language, German and Dutch terms tailbone, l'os de la queue, Schwanzbein and staartbeen. In the current official anatomic Latin nomenclature, Terminologia Anatomica, coccyx and os coccygis is used.\n\nAdditional images \n\n File:Illu vertebral column.jpg|Vertebral column.\n File:Gray 111 - Vertebral column-coloured.png|Vertebral column.\n File:Gray404.png|Left Levator ani from within.\n File:Gray1228.png|Median sagittal section of male pelvis.\n File:Gray1230.png|Median sagittal section of female pelvis." ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "Coccygeal Vertebrae", "Tailbone", "Coccyx", "Coxics", "Coxyx", "Tumbong", "Coccygeal vertebrae", "Os coccygeum", "Coccyges", "Coccygeal", "Tail-bone", "Os coccygicum", "Coccygeal cornu", "Extensor coccygis", "Coxix", "Tail bone", "Os caudae", "Coccygeal vertebræ", "Human tail bone", "Os coccygis", "Cocsix" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "os coccygeum", "coccygeal cornu", "human tail bone", "os coccygis", "coccygeal", "tailbone", "coccyges", "extensor coccygis", "coxix", "coccyx", "os caudae", "cocsix", "coccygeal vertebræ", "coxyx", "tumbong", "tail bone", "os coccygicum", "coxics", "coccygeal vertebrae" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "tailbone", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "Tailbone" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Freestyle_BMX.txt" ], "title": [ "Freestyle BMX" ], "wiki_context": [ "Freestyle BMX is bicycle motocross stunt riding on BMX bikes. It is an extreme sport descended from BMX racing that consists of five disciplines: street, park, vert, trails, and flatland.\n\nEarly years\n\nThe earliest photographic documentation of BMX freestyle shows Devin and Todd Bank in 1974 riding BMX bikes on an eight foot tall skateboard ramp they built at their childhood home in West Los Angeles, California. This was the birth of BMX ramp riding. Devin Bank was also documented doing 360 degree freestyle spinning tricks on the street and also in the air by jumping off curbs. Skateboarder Magazine then published photos of kids on bikes riding in empty household swimming pools in 1975.[1]. In 1975 kids started riding bikes in concrete reservoir channels in Escondido San Diego, California. In 1976 Devin and Todd Bank began riding BMX bikes inside the Runway Skatepark in Carson California. And, bike riders were also seen in 1976 riding at Carlsbad Skatepark in Carlsbad, California.[2]. Bob Haro and John Swanguen rode BMX bikes at Skateboard Heaven, a concrete skatepark in San Diego, California, late 1976. Later they transformed freestyle beyond skateparks by creating new bike tricks on flat streets.[3] In the fall of 1977 Bob Haro was hired as a staff artist at BMX Action Magazine where he be friended R.L. Osborn, son of the magazine publisher Bob Osborn. Haro and R.L. often practiced freestyle moves in their free time.[4]\n\nIn the summer of 1978, Paramount, Lakewood, and other Southern California skateparks began reserving sessions or whole days exclusively for BMX bikes. BMX racer Tinker Juarez was innovating freestyle moves in vert bowls. \n\nBMX Action Magazine published the first freestyle how to article in their January/February 1979 issue which showed Bob Haro doing a \"rock walk.\" \n\nBMX bike riders also performed a demonstration freestyle show in 1979 during a skate competition at Rocky Mountain Surf Skatepark in Salt Lake City, Utah. \n\nTowards the end of 1979, Bob Haro and R.L. Osborn formed the BMX Action Trick Team and later began performing freestyle shows at BMX races and other events. After the BMXA Trick Team became known, other organized trick teams were founded and quickly gained prominence. The freestyle movement at this point was all underground. Although several BMX manufacture-sponsored freestyle teams were touring the US, they were promoting the sport of BMX in general, not specifically freestyle.\n\nThe American Freestyle Association (AFA) was the first governing body for BMX freestyle, founded by Bob Morales in 1982.\n\nBob Osborn founded a slick quarterly magazine devoted solely to freestyle BMX. In the summer of 1984, Freestyling' Magazine made its debut. The BMX world suddenly noticed the sport's massive potential. Manufacturers hurried to the drawing boards to develop new freestyle bikes, components, and accessories, and began searching for talented riders to sponsor. Bike shops began stocking freestyle products. The AFA began to put on organized flatland and quarter-pipe competitions.\n\nPeak and decline in popularity\n\nFrom 1980 until 1987, the sport of freestyling was at its Highest Point, with 1987 reaching its highest peak in popularity. During this time period, the sport progressed with new bike models being released all the time, as well as new components and accessories designed strictly for freestyle. For example, Haro released the Haro FST, Sport and Master each year consistently with blazing graphical colors, new look and new frame designs.\n\nIn the early 1990s, BMX freestyle suffered a decline in its commercial popularity; subsequently a number of large companies reduced or terminated their investment in the sport. In this economic climate, communities of new rider-owned companies and initiatives began to re-define the sport according to their own needs and interests, paving the way for what is now a largely new lead in the industry with clothing companies and material companies. Mostly popular with the younger generation, because of its high energy requirement. This decline and subsequent new phase of the sport's development into an independently driven industry was notably referenced in the introduction to the BMX video Ride On (directed by Eddie Roman).\n\nPractice disciplines \n\nFreestyle BMX riders participate in several well-established disciplines. As in the other forms of freestyle riding, there are no specific rules; style/aesthetics, skills, and creativity are emphasised.\n\nStreet \n\nStreet riders make use of urban and public spaces to perform tricks. These tricks can be performed on curbs, handrails, stairs, ledges, banks, and other obstacles. Styles among street riders vary, as riders often depend upon their own urban surroundings. BMX street rose to prominence as an increasingly defined discipline in the late 1980s. It became a strategic contest, because big tricks equal more points.\n\nBMX Park \n\nPark denotes the BMX discipline of exclusively riding Skateboarding, often with an emphasis on riding bowl transitions or ramp jumps.\n\nSkateparks are used by BMX riders as well as skateboarders, inline skaters and freestyle scooter-riders. Skateparks themselves can be made of wood, concrete or metal. Styles of riding will depend on the style of the parks. Wood is more suited to a flowing style, with riders searching for gaps and aiming to higher air from the coping. Concrete parks usually tend to contain bowls and pools. However, it is not unusual for riders to merge the two styles in either type of park.\n \nConcrete parks are commonly built outdoors due to their ability to withstand years of exposure to the elements of conditions. Concrete parks are also often publicly funded due to their permanent and costly nature. Parks made from wood are popular with commercial skateparks, but hard to maintain due to ease, availability of materials, cost, and the relative safety associated with falling on wood instead of concrete. Parks designed with BMX use in mind will typically have steel coping along the side that is less prone to damage than concrete or pool coping.\n\nVert Ramp \n\nVert is a freestyle BMX discipline performed in a half pipe consisting of two quarter pipes set facing each other (much like a mini ramp), but at around 10–15 feet tall (around 2.5 to 3.5 meters high). The biggest ramp ever used in competition is the X-Games big air ramp at 27 ft tall. Both ‘faces’ of the ramp have an extension to the transition that is vertical, hence the name. Coping is a round metal tube at the lip of the vert that helps freestyle BMXers do grinds, and stalls on the lip of the vert.\n\nRiders go up each jump, performing air tricks before landing into the transition having turned 180 degrees. A typical run involves going from one side to the other, airing above the coping each side. Also possible are 'lip tricks' - tricks on the platform at the top of the ramps before dropping into the ramp. It when the back tip or front tip of the bike hit the vert in landing. Many tricks consist of the rider grabbing a part of the bike or removing body parts off the bike.\n\nTrails\n\nTrails are lines that lead to jumps built from dirt and are (heavily compacted). It can also be named as a pack such as a 4 pack, 6 pack and 8 pack. The jumps consist of a steep take off, called a lip, with an often slightly less steep landing. The lip and landing are usually built as separate mounds, divided by a gap. The gap is measured from the topmost part of the lip, horizontally to the topmost part of the far side of the landing. Gaps typically range from only a couple of feet to over twenty feet. A moderate gap is around twelve feet.\n\nTrails riding is sometimes also referred to as \"dirt jumping\". Most trails riders maintain that a subtle difference exists in the style and flow of \"dirt jumps\" and \"trails\"; trails riders focus more on a flowing smooth style from one jump to the next while performing other stylish tricks. While dirt jumpers try to perform the craziest tricks they can over larger, less flow-oriented jumps.\n\nAlthough many regard trails and street as being completely opposite, the attraction is similar — trails riders build their own jumps so their riding is limited only by their creativity and resourcefulness.\n \nTrails riders usually run a rear brake only as they have no use for a front brake, and usually a rotor (gyro) to make it easier to do barspins, so they do not have to spin the bars back the other way to untangle them, which is hard to do on trails. In general, trail/dirt jumping bikes have longer wheelbases (chainstays) than other BMXs to aid with stability, the added stability is important in trails riding.\n\nFlatland\n\nFlatland BMX occupies a position somewhat removed from the rest of freestyle BMX. People who ride in the above disciplines will generally take part in at least one of the others, but flatlanders tend to only ride flatland. They are often very dedicated and will spend several hours a day perfecting their technique.\n\nFlatland also differs from the others in that the terrain used is nothing but a smooth, flat surface (e.g. an asphalt parking lot, basketball courts, etc.). Tricks are performed by spinning and balancing in a variety of body and bicycle positions. Riders almost always use knurled aluminum pegs to stand on to manipulate the bike into even stranger positions.\n \nFlatland bikes typically have a shorter wheelbase than other freestyle bikes. Flatland bikes differ from dirt jumping bikes and freestyle bikes in one way. The frames are often more heavily reinforced because the people riding flatland often stand on the frames. This shorter wheelbase requires less effort to make the bike spin or to position the bike on one wheel. One of the primary reasons flat landers often ride only on flatland. It is the decreased stability of a shorter bike on ramps, dirt courses and streets.\n \nA variety of options are commonly found on flatland bikes, because its in an open space. The most unifying feature of flatland bikes is the use of four pegs, one on the end of each wheel axle. Flatland riders will choose to run either a front brake, a rear brake, both brakes, or no brakes at all, depending on stylistic preference.\n\nTricks\n\nAir tricks \n\nThese tricks take place in the air. Freestyle dirt BMX involves many air tricks.\n\n* Tabletop: While in the air the rider will bring the bike up to one side of him/her by turning the handlebars and using body movement making the bike look like it is flat like the top of a table. Commonly confused with the \"invert\" trick which does not include much turning of the bars, but still executes the move in a tabletop manner.\n* Superman: The rider removes both feet and extends them outwards to resemble Superman in flight.\n* Superman seat grab: A variation of the superman where the rider takes one hand off and grabs the seat while extending their body before grabbing back on to the bars and landing\n* Barspin: Spinning the handle bars one full rotation around while in the air and catching them.\n* Tailwhip: The rider throws the bike out to one side while still holding onto the handle bars so that the frame goes 360° around the steering tube; the rider then catches the frame again and stands back on the pedals.\n* Decade: Similar to the flatland decade, the riders throw themselves around the bike while still holding on the handlebars before coming back round to meet the bike and land on the pedals.\n* Backflip: Both rider and bike do a backward flip while in midair.\n* Frontflip: Both rider and bike do a forward flip while in midair.\n* Flair: Both rider and bike do a backflip combined with a 180, to land facing back down the ramp. Usually performed on a quarter pipe.\n* 180°: The rider and bike spin 180° in the air and land backwards, in what is called fakie (riding backwards).\n* 360°: The rider and bike spin 360°.\n*360° nose tap:rider does a 360 then inverts into a nose tap on a bench box ramp etc.\n* 540°: The rider picks up the bike and spins it 540 degrees.\n* X-up: The rider turns the bars at least 180 degrees, so the arms are crossed and then turns them back.\n* Can can: The rider brings a foot over the bike to the other side.\n* No-footed can: The rider does a can can but takes the other foot off the pedal as well, so that both legs are on one side of the bike.\n* Tire grab: The rider grabs the front tire.\n* Toboggan: The rider takes one hand off the bars and grabs their seat, then returns their hand to the bars before landing.\n* Tuck no Hander: The rider tucks in the handlebars and takes both hands off.\n* Turn down: The rider will whip the bike out to one side and turn the handle bars into his or her legs wrapping them around their leg.\n* Crankflip: The rider bunny hops and kicks the pedals backwards so the crank arms spin one full crank around and then the feet catch back onto the pedals to stop the cranks.\n* ET: The rider is in mid air and pedals one full crank as though he is riding normally.\n* TE: The rider is in mid air and pedals backwards one full crank quickly. Basically an ET, but in reverse.\n* Bikeflip: The rider flips his bicycle without moving his body in mid air. Similar to a tailwhip.\n* Truckdriver: The rider spins the bike 360 degrees whilst doing a barspin in mid air.\n* Half cab: The rider fakies/rollouts and gives extra pedal pressure to pick up the bike and make a 180 degree rotation, completing the fakie, rollout.\n* Full cab: The rider fakies/rollouts and gives extra pedal pressure to pick up the bike and make a 360 degree rotation, making the bike return in the same position, and having to finish the fakie/rollout.\n* 540 cab: The rider fakies/rollouts and gives extra pedal pressure to pick up the bike and make a 540 degree rotation, with no need to finish to fakie/rollout. \n* Nothing: The rider lets go of the handlebars and pedal at the same time in mid air. \n* Suicide no-hander: The rider lets go of only the handle bars similar to a tuck no-hander, but rather stretches his/her arms out to the sides without tucking the bike. \n*double peg stall: the rider going up the ramp spinning 90 and land on the pegs and balance.\n*720: two 360's in one jump\n\n \nVariations and combinations of these tricks also exist, for example a 360° tailwhip would be where the rider spins 360° in one direction and the frame of the bike spins 360° around the steer tube, both bike and rider will then meet again, with the rider catching the pedals, facing the same direction as before the trick.\n\nFlatland tricks \n\nBMX flatland tricks usually involve much balance, more often than not with only one wheel in contact with the ground.\n\n* Wheelie or Catwalk: The most basic of flatland tricks, the wheelie is when the rider rides the bike on only the back wheel whilst pedaling.\n* Endo: Basic flatland trick where the rider uses the front brake or a curb to lift the back wheel and balance on the front tire.\n* Front or Back Pogos: Basic flatland trick where the rider stands on the wheel pegs (front or back), locks the wheel's brake, and hops with the other wheel in the air.\n* Manual: A step-up from the wheelie, the manual is essentially the same only the rider does not pedal; this makes the trick more difficult to perform as point of balance between the front and back of the bike has to be reached. Professional riders can often do this until their bike runs out of momentum.\n* Pogo: The most popular advanced basic trick. Created in the 80's, it is executed by swinging the bike to a vertical position on its rear wheel while the rider sits and hops on it to maintain balance.\n* Nose manual: The same concept as a manual, only performed with the back wheel in the air and the front wheel on the ground.\n* Bunny hop: A bunny hop is achieved when a rider jumps the bike into the air from flat ground (this can also be done close to the lip of ramp to gain more height) so that neither wheels are touching the ground.\n* Miami Hop: Endo to Pogo on front wheel turned sideways rather than on rear wheel upright, best executed with Z-Rims or mags\n* Dork manual: When rider puts one foot on the peg, and the other foot in the air, controlling balance, and ride down the street in a manual with the foot on the peg.\n* Fork manual: When a rider puts one foot on the front peg and spins the handlebars around, to lift the bike up into a fakie manual, with both feet on pegs.\n* Footjam tailwhip: The rider jams his/her foot in the fork to start a foot jam endo then kicks the tail of the bike around. When the tail of the bike goes 360 degrees the rider puts his/her foot back on the pedals. An alternate trick is to jump the frame as it comes around repeatedly until the rider elects to put his/her foot back on the pedals.\n* Footjam: The rider jams his foot between the forks and tire, stopping the bike, and he balances with the back tire airborne.\n* Hang-5: The rider performs a nose manual whilst having one foot on the front axle peg and the other foot dangling, usually used to keep balance and steady.\n* Steamroller: An Advanced trick. The rider stands on one front peg, and sends the bike to front with his other foot, then balances on one wheel while holding the body of bike with one hand and moving at front.\n* Time machine: An extremely hard trick. Rider stands on one back peg, then starts to make a manual, after balances it, changes hands on bar while manualing and grabs the front peg with his free hand. After that, rider starts to turn at extremely high speed as if he's drawing an \"O\" on the ground.\n* Indian giver: This is where the rider naturally or purposely fakies/rollouts in the opposite direction than the way of that they spun in. This is usually easily fixed by learning how to fakie/rollout the correct way, thus making the execution and finishing look cleaner." ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "Bycicle", "Pedal bicycle", "Bicycles", "Bicycle", "Pedal cycle", "Dutch bicycles", "🚲", "Bicicletta", "Bikes", "Pedalcycle", "Pedal bike", "Push bike", "Push-bike", "Bycycle", "Pushbike" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "bycicle", "bicicletta", "pedal bicycle", "push bike", "bicycle", "🚲", "pedal cycle", "pedal bike", "bicycles", "pedalcycle", "bycycle", "dutch bicycles", "pushbike", "bikes" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "bicycles", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "Bicycles" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "China.txt", "Sampan.txt" ], "title": [ "China", "Sampan" ], "wiki_context": [ "China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), in Asia, is the world's most populous state, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China based in the capital of Beijing. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau), and claims sovereignty over Taiwan. China is a great power and a major regional power within Asia, and has been characterized as a potential superpower. \n\nCovering approximately 9.6 million square kilometers, China is the world's second largest state by land area, and either the third or fourth-largest by total area, depending on the method of measurement. China's landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes and the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts in the arid north to subtropical forests in the wetter south. The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from south and central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, run from the Tibetan Plateau to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14500 km long, and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China, and South China seas.\n\nChina is a cradle of civilization, with its known history beginning with an ancient civilization – one of the world's earliest – that flourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties. Since 221 BCE, when the Qin Dynasty first conquered several states to form a Chinese empire, the state has expanded, fractured and reformed numerous times. The Republic of China (ROC) replaced the last dynasty in 1912, and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the Communist Party of China in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the People's Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, while the ROC government relocated to Taiwan with its present capital in Taipei. Both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China.\n\nChina had the largest economy in the world for most of the past two thousand years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China has become one of the world's fastest-growing major economies. , it is the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP and largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). China is also the world's largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army and second-largest defense budget. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the BCIM and the G-20.\n\nEtymology\n\nThe English word \"China\" is thought to have been originally derived from the Sanskrit word Cīna (), which is translated into the Persian word Chīn (). Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata (5th century BCE) and the Laws of Manu (2nd century BCE).Wade, Geoff. \"[http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp188_yelang_china.pdf The Polity of Yelang and the Origin of the Name 'China']\". Sino-Platonic Papers, No. 188, May 2009, p. 20. The word \"China\" itself was first recorded in 1516 in the journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa.\"China\". Oxford English Dictionary (1989). ISBN 0-19-957315-8.[https://books.google.com.vn/books?id\nedzW9fuOF-cC&pgPA211&dq\n#vonepage&q\n%22Very%20Great%20Kingdom%20of%20China%22&ffalse The Book of Duarte Barbosa] (chapter title \"The Very Great Kingdom of China\"). ISBN 81-206-0451-2. In the [http://purl.pt/435/ Portuguese original], the chapter is titled \"O Grande Reino da China\". The journal was translated and published in England in 1555.Eden, Richard (1555). Decades of the New World: \"The great China whose kyng is thought the greatest prince in the world.\" The traditional theory, proposed in the 17th century by Martino Martini and supported by many later scholars, is that the word China and its earlier related forms are ultimately derived from the state of \"Qin\" (), the westernmost of the Chinese kingdoms during the Zhou dynasty which unified China to form the Qin dynasty. Other suggestions for the derivation of \"China\" however exist. \n\nThe official name of the modern state is the People's Republic of China (). The common Chinese names for the state are ' (, from ', \"central\" or \"middle\", and ', \"state\" or \"states\", and in modern times, \"nation\") and ' (), although the state's official name has been changed numerous times by successive dynasties and modern governments. The term ' appeared in various ancient texts, such as the Classic of History of the 6th century BCE, and in pre-imperial times it was often used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia tribes from perceived \"barbarians\". The term, which can be either singular or plural, referred to the group of states or provinces in the central plain, but was not used as a name for the state as a whole until the nineteenth century. The Chinese were not unique in regarding their state as \"central\", with other civilizations having the same view of themselves. \n\nHistory\n\nPrehistory\n\nArchaeological evidence suggests that early hominids inhabited China between 250,000 and 2.24 million years ago. A cave in Zhoukoudian (near present-day Beijing) exhibits hominid fossils dated at between 680,000 and 780,000 BCE. The fossils are of Peking Man, an example of Homo erectus who used fire. Fossilised teeth of Homo sapiens dating to 125,000–80,000 BCE have been discovered in Fuyan Cave in Dao County, Hunan. Chinese proto-writing existed in Jiahu around 7000 BC, Dadiwan from 5800 BC to 5400 BC, Damaidi around 6000 BC and Banpo dating from the 5th millennium BC. Some scholars have suggested that the Jiahu symbols (7th millennium BC) constituted the earliest Chinese writing system.\n\nEarly dynastic rule\n\nAccording to Chinese tradition, the first dynasty was the Xia, which emerged around 2100 BCE. The dynasty was considered mythical by historians until scientific excavations found early Bronze Age sites at Erlitou, Henan in 1959. It remains unclear whether these sites are the remains of the Xia Dynasty or of another culture from the same period. The succeeding Shang dynasty is the earliest to be confirmed by contemporary records. The Shang ruled the plain of the Yellow River in eastern China from the 17th to the 11th century BCE. Their oracle bone script (from c. 1500 BCE) represents the oldest form of Chinese writing yet found, and is a direct ancestor of modern Chinese characters. The Shang were conquered by the Zhou, who ruled between the 11th and 5th centuries BCE, though centralized authority was slowly eroded by feudal warlords. Many independent states eventually emerged from the weakened Zhou state and continually waged war with each other in the 300-year Spring and Autumn Period, only occasionally deferring to the Zhou king. By the time of the Warring States period of the 5th–3rd centuries BCE, there were seven powerful sovereign states in what is now China, each with its own king, ministry and army.\n\nImperial China\n\nThe Warring States period ended in 221 BCE after the state of Qin conquered the other six kingdoms and established the first unified Chinese state. Qin Shi Huang, the emperor of Qin, proclaimed himself \"First Emperor\" () and imposed reforms throughout China, notably the forced standardization of Chinese characters, measurements, length of cart axles, and currency. His dynasty also conquered the Yue tribes, incorporating the Lingnan area into China. The Qin dynasty lasted only fifteen years, falling soon after Qin Shi Huang's death, as its harsh legalist and authoritarian policies led to widespread rebellion. \n\nThe subsequent Han dynasty ruled China between 206 BCE and 220 CE, and created a lasting Han cultural identity among its populace that has endured to the present day. The Han Dynasty expanded the empire's territory considerably with military campaigns reaching southern Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia and Central Asia, and also helped establish the Silk Road in Central Asia. Han China gradually became the largest economy of the ancient world. The Han Dynasty adopted Confucianism, a philosophy developed in the Spring and Autumn period, as its official state ideology. Despite the Han's official abandonment of Legalism, the official ideology of the Qin, Legalist institutions and policies remained and formed the basis of the Han government. \n\nAfter the collapse of Han, a period of disunion known as the period of the Three Kingdoms followed. The brief unification of the Jin dynasty was broken by the uprising of the Five Barbarians. Nevertheless, the ethnic integration in northern China was achieved with the drastic sinicization policy of Emperor Xiaowen of the Xianbei dynasty Northern Wei. In 581 CE, China was reunited under the Sui. However, the Sui Dynasty declined following its defeat in the Goguryeo–Sui War (598–614). \n\nUnder the succeeding Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese economy, technology and culture entered a golden age. The Tang Empire returned control of the Western Regions and the Silk Road, and made the capital Chang'an a cosmopolitan urban center. However, it was devastated and weakened by the An Shi Rebellion in the 8th century. In 907, the Tang disintegrated completely with the local military governors being ungovernable. Finally the Song Dynasty ended the separatist situation, as a result the balance of power appeared between Song and Khitan Liao. The Song was the first government in world history to issue paper money and the first Chinese polity to establish a permanent standing navy which was supported by the developed shipbuilding industry along with the sea trade. Between the 10th and 11th centuries, the population of China doubled in size to around 100 million people, mostly because of the expansion of rice cultivation in central and southern China, and the production of abundant food surpluses. The Song dynasty also saw a revival of Confucianism, in response to the growth of Buddhism during the Tang, and a flourishing of philosophy and the arts, as landscape art and porcelain were brought to new levels of maturity and complexity. However, the military weakness of the Song army was observed by the Jurchen Jin dynasty. In 1127, Emperor Huizong of Song and the capital Bianjing were captured during the Jin–Song Wars, remnants of the Song retreated to southern China. \n\nIn the 13th century, China was gradually conquered by the Mongol Empire. In 1271, the Mongol leader Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty; the Yuan conquered the last remnant of the Song dynasty in 1279. Before the Mongol invasion, the population of Song China was 120 million citizens; this was reduced to 60 million by the time of the census in 1300. A peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Yuan Dynasty in 1368 and founded the Ming dynasty. Under the Ming Dynasty, China enjoyed another golden age, developing one of the strongest navies in the world and a rich and prosperous economy amid a flourishing of art and culture. It was during this period that Zheng He led voyages throughout the world, reaching as far as Africa. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, China's capital was moved from Nanjing to Beijing. With the budding of capitalism, philosophers such as Wang Yangming further critiqued and expanded Neo-Confucianism with concepts of individualism and equality of four occupations. The scholar-official stratum became a supporting force of industry and commerce in the tax boycott movements, which, together with the famines and the wars against Japanese invasions of Korea and Manchu invasions led to an exhausted treasury. \n\nIn 1644, Beijing was captured by a coalition of peasant rebel forces led by Li Zicheng. The last Ming Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide when the city fell. The Manchu Qing dynasty then allied with Ming dynasty general Wu Sangui and overthrew Li's short-lived Shun dynasty, and subsequently seized control of Beijing, which became the new capital of the Qing Dynasty.\n\nEnd of dynastic rule\n\nThe Qing dynasty, which lasted from 1644 until 1912, was the last imperial dynasty of China. As a conquest dynasty, it successively conquered the Ming loyalists and Dzungar Khanate, adding Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang into the empire, and strengthened the centralized autocracy to crackdown on anti-Qing sentiment. The Haijin (\"sea ban\") and the ideological control as represented by the literary inquisition caused social and technological stagnation. In the 19th century, the dynasty experienced Western imperialism following the First Opium War (1839–42) and the Second Opium War (1856–60) with Britain and France. China was forced to sign unequal treaties, pay compensation, open treaty ports, allow extraterritoriality for foreign nationals, and cede Hong Kong to the British under the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. The First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) resulted in Qing China's loss of influence in the Korean Peninsula, as well as the cession of Taiwan to Japan. \n\nThe Qing dynasty also began experiencing internal unrest in which millions of people died. In the 1850s and 1860s, the failed Taiping Rebellion ravaged southern China. Other major rebellions included the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars (1855–67), the Nian Rebellion (1851–68), the Miao Rebellion (1854–73), the Panthay Rebellion (1856–73) and the Dungan Revolt (1862–77). The initial success of the Self-Strengthening Movement of the 1860s was frustrated by the series of military defeats in the 1880s and 1890s.\n\nIn the 19th century, the great Chinese Diaspora began. Losses due to emigration were added to by conflicts and catastrophes such as the Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–79, in which between 9 and 13 million people died. In 1898, the Guangxu Emperor drafted a reform plan to establish a modern constitutional monarchy, but these plans were thwarted by the Empress Dowager Cixi. The ill-fated anti-Western Boxer Rebellion of 1899–1901 further weakened the dynasty. Although Cixi sponsored a program of reforms, the Xinhai Revolution of 1911–12 brought an end to the Qing dynasty and established the Republic of China.\n\nRepublic of China (1912–49)\n\nOn 1 January 1912, the Republic of China was established, and Sun Yat-sen of the Kuomintang (the KMT or Nationalist Party) was proclaimed provisional president. However, the presidency was later given to Yuan Shikai, a former Qing general who in 1915 proclaimed himself Emperor of China. In the face of popular condemnation and opposition from his own Beiyang Army, he was forced to abdicate and reestablish the republic. \n\nAfter Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, China was politically fragmented. Its Beijing-based government was internationally recognized but virtually powerless; regional warlords controlled most of its territory. In the late 1920s, the Kuomintang, under Chiang Kai-shek, the then Principal of the Republic of China Military Academy, was able to reunify the country under its own control with a series of deft military and political manoeuvrings, known collectively as the Northern Expedition. The Kuomintang moved the nation's capital to Nanjing and implemented \"political tutelage\", an intermediate stage of political development outlined in Sun Yat-sen's San-min program for transforming China into a modern democratic state. The political division in China made it difficult for Chiang to battle the Communists, against whom the Kuomintang had been warring since 1927 in the Chinese Civil War. This war continued successfully for the Kuomintang, especially after the Communists retreated in the Long March, until Japanese aggression and the 1936 Xi'an Incident forced Chiang to confront Imperial Japan. \n\nThe Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), a theatre of World War II, forced an uneasy alliance between the Kuomintang and the Communists. Japanese forces committed numerous war atrocities against the civilian population; in all, as many as 20 million Chinese civilians died. An estimated 200,000 Chinese were massacred in the city of Nanjing alone during the Japanese occupation. During the war, China, along with the UK, the US and the Soviet Union, were referred to as \"trusteeship of the powerful\" and were recognized as the Allied \"Big Four\" in the Declaration by United Nations. Along with the other three great powers, China was one of the four major Allies of World War II, and was later considered one of the primary victors in the war. After the surrender of Japan in 1945, Taiwan, including the Pescadores, was returned to Chinese control. China emerged victorious but war-ravaged and financially drained. The continued distrust between the Kuomintang and the Communists led to the resumption of civil war. In 1947, constitutional rule was established, but because of the ongoing unrest, many provisions of the ROC constitution were never implemented in mainland China. \n\nPeople's Republic of China (1949–present)\n\nMajor combat in the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the Communist Party in control of most of mainland China, and the Kuomintang retreating offshore, reducing the ROC's territory to only Taiwan, Hainan, and their surrounding islands. On 1 October 1949, Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. In 1950, the People's Liberation Army succeeded in capturing Hainan from the ROC and incorporating Tibet. However, remaining Nationalist forces continued to wage an insurgency in western China throughout the 1950s. \n\nMao's regime consolidated its popularity among the peasants through the land reform with between 1 and 2 million landlords executed. Under its leadership, China developed an independent industrial system and its own nuclear weapons. The Chinese population almost doubled from around 550 million to over 900 million. However, Mao's Great Leap Forward, a large-scale economic and social reform project, resulted in an estimated 45 million deaths between 1958 and 1961, mostly from starvation. In 1966, Mao and his allies launched the Cultural Revolution, sparking a decade of political recrimination and social upheaval which lasted until Mao's death in 1976. In October 1971, the PRC replaced the Republic of China in the United Nations, and took its seat as a permanent member of the Security Council. \n\nIn 1976, Mao died. The Gang of Four was quickly arrested and held responsible for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. In 1978 Deng Xiaoping took power and instituted significant economic reforms. The Communist Party loosened governmental control over citizens' personal lives, and the communes were gradually disbanded in favour of private land leases. This marked China's transition from a planned economy to a mixed economy with an increasingly open market environment. China adopted its current constitution on 4 December 1982. In 1989, the violent suppression of student protests in Tiananmen Square brought condemnation and sanctions against the Chinese government from various countries. \n\nJiang Zemin, Li Peng and Zhu Rongji led the nation in the 1990s. Under their administration, China's economic performance pulled an estimated 150 million peasants out of poverty and sustained an average annual gross domestic product growth rate of 11.2%. The country formally joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, and maintained its high rate of economic growth under Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao's leadership in the 2000s. However, rapid growth also severely impacted the country's resources and environment, and caused major social displacement. Living standards continued to improve rapidly despite the late-2000s recession, but centralized political control remained tight. \n\nPreparations for a decadal Communist Party leadership change in 2012 were marked by factional disputes and political scandals. During China's 18th National Communist Party Congress in November 2012, Hu Jintao was replaced as General Secretary of the Communist Party by Xi Jinping. Under Xi, the Chinese government began large-scale efforts to reform its economy, which has suffered from structural instabilities and slowing growth. The Xi–Li Administration also announced major reforms to the one-child policy and prison system.\n\nGeography\n\nPolitical geography\n\nThe People's Republic of China is the second-largest country in the world by land area after Russia, and is either the third- or fourth-largest by total area, after Russia, Canada and, depending on the definition of total area, the United States. China's total area is generally stated as being approximately 9600000 km2. Specific area figures range from 9572900 km2 according to the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9596961 km2 according to the UN Demographic Yearbook, to 9596961 km2 according to the CIA World Factbook. \n\nChina has the longest combined land border in the world, measuring 22117 km from the mouth of the Yalu River to the Gulf of Tonkin. China borders 14 nations, more than any other country except Russia, which also borders 14. China extends across much of East Asia, bordering Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar (Burma) in Southeast Asia; India, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in South Asia; Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in Central Asia; and Russia, Mongolia, and North Korea in Inner Asia and Northeast Asia. Additionally, China shares maritime boundaries with South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines.\n\nLandscape and climate\n\nThe territory of China lies between latitudes 18° and 54° N, and longitudes 73° and 135° E. China's landscapes vary significantly across its vast width. In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, there are extensive and densely populated alluvial plains, while on the edges of the Inner Mongolian plateau in the north, broad grasslands predominate. Southern China is dominated by hills and low mountain ranges, while the central-east hosts the deltas of China's two major rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. Other major rivers include the Xi, Mekong, Brahmaputra and Amur. To the west sit major mountain ranges, most notably the Himalayas. High plateaus feature among the more arid landscapes of the north, such as the Taklamakan and the Gobi Desert. The world's highest point, Mount Everest (8,848m), lies on the Sino-Nepalese border. The country's lowest point, and the world's third-lowest, is the dried lake bed of Ayding Lake (−154m) in the Turpan Depression. \n\nChina's climate is mainly dominated by dry seasons and wet monsoons, which lead to pronounced temperature differences between winter and summer. In the winter, northern winds coming from high-latitude areas are cold and dry; in summer, southern winds from coastal areas at lower latitudes are warm and moist. The climate in China differs from region to region because of the country's highly complex topography.\n\nA major environmental issue in China is the continued expansion of its deserts, particularly the Gobi Desert. Although barrier tree lines planted since the 1970s have reduced the frequency of sandstorms, prolonged drought and poor agricultural practices have resulted in dust storms plaguing northern China each spring, which then spread to other parts of east Asia, including Korea and Japan. China's environmental watchdog, SEPA, stated in 2007 that China is losing a million acres (4,000 km²) per year to desertification. Water quality, erosion, and pollution control have become important issues in China's relations with other countries. Melting glaciers in the Himalayas could potentially lead to water shortages for hundreds of millions of people. \n\nBiodiversity\n\nChina is one of 17 megadiverse countries, lying in two of the world's major ecozones: the Palearctic and the Indomalaya. By one measure, China has over 34,687 species of animals and vascular plants, making it the third-most biodiverse country in the world, after Brazil and Colombia. The country signed the Rio de Janeiro Convention on Biological Diversity on 11 June 1992, and became a party to the convention on 5 January 1993. It later produced a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, with one revision that was received by the convention on 21 September 2010. \n\nChina is home to at least 551 species of mammals (the third-highest such number in the world), 1,221 species of birds (eighth), 424 species of reptiles (seventh) and 333 species of amphibians (seventh). China is the most biodiverse country in each category outside the tropics. Wildlife in China share habitat with and bear acute pressure from the world's largest population of homo sapiens. At least 840 animal species are threatened, vulnerable or in danger of local extinction in China, due mainly to human activity such as habitat destruction, pollution and poaching for food, fur and ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine. Endangered wildlife is protected by law, and , the country has over 2,349 nature reserves, covering a total area of 149.95 million hectares, 15 percent of China's total land area. \n\nChina has over 32,000 species of vascular plants, and is home to a variety of forest types. Cold coniferous forests predominate in the north of the country, supporting animal species such as moose and Asian black bear, along with over 120 bird species. The understorey of moist conifer forests may contain thickets of bamboo. In higher montane stands of juniper and yew, the bamboo is replaced by rhododendrons. Subtropical forests, which are predominate in central and southern China, support as many as 146,000 species of flora. Tropical and seasonal rainforests, though confined to Yunnan and Hainan Island, contain a quarter of all the animal and plant species found in China. China has over 10,000 recorded species of fungi, and of them, nearly 6,000 are higher fungi. \n\nEnvironmental issues\n\nIn recent decades, China has suffered from severe environmental deterioration and pollution. While regulations such as the 1979 Environmental Protection Law are fairly stringent, they are poorly enforced, as they are frequently disregarded by local communities and government officials in favour of rapid economic development. Urban air pollution is a severe health issue in the country; the World Bank estimated in 2013 that 16 of the world's 20 most-polluted cities are located in China. China is the world's largest carbon dioxide emitter. The country also has significant water pollution problems: 40% of China's rivers had been polluted by industrial and agricultural waste by late 2011. This crisis is compounded by increasingly severe water shortages, particularly in the north-east of the country. \n\nHowever, China is the world's leading investor in renewable energy commercialization, with $52 billion invested in 2011 alone; it is a major manufacturer of renewable energy technologies and invests heavily in local-scale renewable energy projects. By 2009, over 17% of China's energy was derived from renewable sources – most notably hydroelectric power plants, of which China has a total installed capacity of 197 GW. In 2011, the Chinese government announced plans to invest four trillion yuan (US$618.55 billion) in water infrastructure and desalination projects over a ten-year period, and to complete construction of a flood prevention and anti-drought system by 2020. In 2013, China began a five-year, US$277-billion effort to reduce air pollution, particularly in the north of the country. \n\nPolitics\n\nChina's constitution states that The People's Republic of China \"is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants,\" and that the state organs \"apply the principle of democratic centralism.\" The PRC is one of the world's few remaining socialist states openly endorsing communism (see Ideology of the Communist Party of China). The Chinese government has been variously described as communist and socialist, but also as authoritarian and corporatist, with heavy restrictions in many areas, most notably against free access to the Internet, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, the right to have children, free formation of social organizations and freedom of religion. Its current political, ideological and economic system has been termed by its leaders as the \"people's democratic dictatorship\", \"socialism with Chinese characteristics\" (which is Marxism adapted to Chinese circumstances) and the \"socialist market economy\" respectively. \n\nCommunist Party\n\nChina's constitution declares that the country is ruled \"under the leadership\" of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The electoral system is pyramidal. Local People's Congresses are directly elected, and higher levels of People's Congresses up to the National People's Congress (NPC) are indirectly elected by the People's Congress of the level immediately below. The political system is decentralized, and provincial and sub-provincial leaders have a significant amount of autonomy. Other political parties, referred to as democratic parties, have representatives in the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). \n\nCompared to its closed-door policies until the mid-1970s, the administrative climate is less restrictive than before. China supports the Leninist principle of \"democratic centralism\", but critics describe the elected National People's Congress as a \"rubber stamp\" body. \n\nGovernment\n\nThe President of China is the titular head of state, serving as the ceremonial figurehead under National People's Congress. The Premier of China is the head of government, presiding over the State Council composed of four vice premiers and the heads of ministries and commissions. The incumbent president is Xi Jinping, who is also the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, making him China's paramount leader. The incumbent premier is Li Keqiang, who is also a senior member of the CPC Politburo Standing Committee, China's de facto top decision-making body. \n\nThere have been some moves toward political liberalization, in that open contested elections are now held at the village and town levels. However, the Party retains effective control over government appointments: in the absence of meaningful opposition, the CPC wins by default most of the time. Political concerns in China include the growing gap between rich and poor and government corruption. Nonetheless, the level of public support for the government and its management of the nation is high, with 80–95% of Chinese citizens expressing satisfaction with the central government, according to a 2011 survey. \n\nAdministrative divisions\n\nThe People's Republic of China has administrative control over 22 provinces and considers Taiwan to be its 23rd province, although Taiwan is currently and independently governed by the Republic of China, which disputes the PRC's claim. China also has five subdivisions officially termed autonomous regions, each with a designated minority group; four municipalities; and two Special Administrative Regions (SARs), which enjoy a degree of political autonomy. These 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, and four municipalities can be collectively referred to as \"mainland China\", a term which usually excludes the SARs of Hong Kong and Macau. None of these divisions are recognized by the ROC government, which claims the entirety of the PRC's territory.\n\nForeign relations\n\nThe PRC has diplomatic relations with 173 countries and maintains embassies in 162. Its legitimacy is disputed by the Republic of China and a few other countries; it is thus the largest and most populous state with limited recognition. In 1971, the PRC replaced the Republic of China as the sole representative of China in the United Nations and as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. China was also a former member and leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, and still considers itself an advocate for developing countries. Along with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, China is a member of the BRICS group of emerging major economies and hosted the group's third official summit at Sanya, Hainan in April 2011. \n\nUnder its interpretation of the One-China policy, Beijing has made it a precondition to establishing diplomatic relations that the other country acknowledges its claim to Taiwan and severs official ties with the government of the Republic of China. Chinese officials have protested on numerous occasions when foreign countries have made diplomatic overtures to Taiwan, especially in the matter of armament sales. \n\nMuch of current Chinese foreign policy is reportedly based on Premier Zhou Enlai's Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and is also driven by the concept of \"harmony without uniformity\", which encourages diplomatic relations between states despite ideological differences. This policy may have led China to support states that are regarded as dangerous or repressive by Western nations, such as Zimbabwe, North Korea and Iran. China has a close economic and military relationship with Russia, and the two states often vote in unison in the UN Security Council. \n\nTrade relations\n\nIn recent decades, China has played an increasing role in calling for free trade areas and security pacts amongst its Asia-Pacific neighbours. In 2004, it proposed an entirely new East Asia Summit (EAS) framework as a forum for regional security issues. The EAS, which includes ASEAN Plus Three, India, Australia and New Zealand, held its inaugural summit in 2005. China is also a founding member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), along with Russia and the Central Asian republics. China became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 11 December 2001.\n\nIn 2000, the United States Congress approved \"permanent normal trade relations\" (PNTR) with China, allowing Chinese exports in at the same low tariffs as goods from most other countries. China has a significant trade surplus with the United States, its most important export market. In the early 2010s, US politicians argued that the Chinese yuan was significantly undervalued, giving China an unfair trade advantage. In recent decades, China has followed a policy of engaging with African nations for trade and bilateral co-operation; in 2012, Sino-African trade totalled over US$160 billion. China has furthermore strengthened its ties with major South American economies, becoming the largest trading partner of Brazil and building strategic links with Argentina. \n\nTerritorial disputes\n\nEver since its establishment after the second Chinese Civil War, the PRC has been claiming the territories governed by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity today commonly known as Taiwan, as a part of its territory, which includes the island of Taiwan as Taiwan Province, Kinmen and Matsu as a part of Fujian Province and islands the ROC controls in the South China Sea as a part of Hainan Province and Guangdong Province. These claims are controversial because of the complicated Cross-Strait relations, and has been one of the most important principles in Chinese diplomacy. \n\nIn addition to Taiwan, China is also involved in other international territorial disputes. Since the 1990s, China has been involved in negotiations to resolve its disputed land borders, including a disputed border with India and an undefined border with Bhutan. China is additionally involved in multilateral disputes over the ownership of several small islands in the East and South China Seas, such as the Senkaku Islands and the Scarborough Shoal. On 21 May 2014 President Xi, speaking at a conference in Shanghai, pledged to settle China's territorial disputes peacefully. \"China stays committed to seeking peaceful settlement of disputes with other countries over territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests\", he said. \n\nEmerging superpower status\n\nChina is regularly hailed as a potential new superpower, with certain commentators citing its rapid economic progress, growing military might, very large population, and increasing international influence as signs that it will play a prominent global role in the 21st century. Others, however, warn that economic bubbles and demographic imbalances could slow or even halt China's growth as the century progresses. \nSome authors also question the definition of \"superpower\", arguing that China's large economy alone would not qualify it as a superpower, and noting that it lacks the military and cultural influence of the United States. \n\nSociopolitical issues, human rights, and reform\n\nThe Chinese democracy movement, social activists, and some members of the Communist Party of China have all identified the need for social and political reform. While economic and social controls have been significantly relaxed in China since the 1970s, political freedom is still tightly restricted. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China states that the \"fundamental rights\" of citizens include freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to a fair trial, freedom of religion, universal suffrage, and property rights. However, in practice, these provisions do not afford significant protection against criminal prosecution by the state. Although some criticisms of government policies and the ruling Communist Party are tolerated, censorship of political speech and information, most notably on the Internet, are routinely used to prevent collective action. In 2005, Reporters Without Borders ranked China 159th out of 167 states in its Annual World Press Freedom Index, indicating a very low level of press freedom. In 2014, China ranked 175th out of 180 countries. \n\nRural migrants to China's cities often find themselves treated as second-class citizens by the hukou household registration system, which controls access to state benefits. Property rights are often poorly protected, and taxation disproportionately affects poorer citizens. However, a number of rural taxes have been reduced or abolished since the early 2000s, and additional social services provided to rural dwellers. \n\nA number of foreign governments, foreign press agencies and NGOs also routinely criticize China's human rights record, alleging widespread civil rights violations such as detention without trial, forced abortions, forced confessions, torture, restrictions of fundamental rights, and excessive use of the death penalty. The government has suppressed popular protests and demonstrations that it considers a potential threat to \"social stability\", as was the case with the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.\n\nFalun Gong was first taught publicly in 1992. In 1999, when there were 70 million practitioners,Seth Faison, [http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/042799china-protest.html \"In Beijing: A Roar of Silent Protestors\"], New York Times, 27 April 1999 the persecution of Falun Gong began, resulting in mass arrests, extralegal detention, and reports of torture and deaths in custody. The Chinese state is regularly accused of large-scale repression and human rights abuses in Tibet and Xinjiang, including violent police crackdowns and religious suppression. \n\nThe Chinese government has responded to foreign criticism by arguing that the right to subsistence and economic development is a prerequisite to other types of human rights, and that the notion of human rights should take into account a country's present level of economic development. It emphasizes the rise in the Chinese standard of living, literacy rate and average life expectancy since the 1970s, as well as improvements in workplace safety and efforts to combat natural disasters such as the perennial Yangtze River floods. Furthermore, some Chinese politicians have spoken out in support of democratization, although others remain more conservative. Some major reform efforts have been conducted; for an instance in November 2013, the government announced plans to relax the one-child policy and abolish the much-criticized re-education through labour program, though human rights groups note that reforms to the latter have been largely cosmetic. During the 2000s and early 2010s, the Chinese government was increasingly tolerant of NGOs that offer practical, efficient solutions to social problems, but such \"third sector\" activity remained heavily regulated. \n\nMilitary\n\nWith 2.3 million active troops, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the largest standing military force in the world, commanded by the Central Military Commission (CMC). The PLA consists of the Ground Force (PLAGF), the Navy (PLAN), the Air Force (PLAAF), and the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF). According to the Chinese government, China's military budget for 2014 totalled US$132 billion, constituting the world's second-largest military budget. However, many authorities – including SIPRI and the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense – argue that China does not report its real level of military spending, which is allegedly much higher than the official budget. \n\nAs a recognized nuclear weapons state, China is considered both a major regional military power and a potential military superpower. According to a 2013 report by the US Department of Defense, China fields between 50 and 75 nuclear ICBMs, along with a number of SRBMs. However, compared with the other four UN Security Council Permanent Members, China has relatively limited power projection capabilities. To offset this, it has developed numerous power projection assets since the early 2000s – its first aircraft carrier entered service in 2012, and it maintains a substantial fleet of submarines, including several nuclear-powered attack and ballistic missile submarines. China has furthermore established a network of foreign military relationships along critical sea lanes. \n\nChina has made significant progress in modernising its air force in recent decades, purchasing Russian fighter jets such as the Sukhoi Su-30, and also manufacturing its own modern fighters, most notably the Chengdu J-10, J-20 and the Shenyang J-11, J-15, J-16, and J-31. China is furthermore engaged in developing an indigenous stealth aircraft and numerous combat drones. Air and Sea denial weaponry advances have increased the regional threat from the perspective of Japan as well as Washington. China has also updated its ground forces, replacing its ageing Soviet-derived tank inventory with numerous variants of the modern Type 99 tank, and upgrading its battlefield C3I and C4I systems to enhance its network-centric warfare capabilities. In addition, China has developed or acquired numerous advanced missile systems, including anti-satellite missiles, cruise missiles and submarine-launched nuclear ICBMs. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's data, China became the world's third largest exporter of major arms in 2010–14, an increase of 143 per cent from the period 2005–09. \n\nEconomy\n\n, China has the world's second-largest economy in terms of nominal GDP, totalling approximately US$10.380 trillion according to the International Monetary Fund. If purchasing power parity (PPP) is taken into account, China's economy is the largest in the world, with a 2014 PPP GDP of US$17.617 trillion. In 2013, its PPP GDP per capita was US$12,880, while its nominal GDP per capita was US$7,589. Both cases put China behind around eighty countries (out of 183 countries on the IMF list) in global GDP per capita rankings.\n\nEconomic history and growth\n\nFrom its founding in 1949 until late 1978, the People's Republic of China was a Soviet-style centrally planned economy. Following Mao's death in 1976 and the consequent end of the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping and the new Chinese leadership began to reform the economy and move towards a more market-oriented mixed economy under one-party rule. Agricultural collectivization was dismantled and farmlands privatized, while foreign trade became a major new focus, leading to the creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Inefficient state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were restructured and unprofitable ones were closed outright, resulting in massive job losses. Modern-day China is mainly characterized as having a market economy based on private property ownership, and is one of the leading examples of state capitalism. The state still dominates in strategic \"pillar\" sectors such as energy production and heavy industries, but private enterprise has expanded enormously, with around 30 million private businesses recorded in 2008. \n\nSince economic liberalization began in 1978, China has been among the world's fastest-growing economies, relying largely on investment- and export-led growth. According to the IMF, China's annual average GDP growth between 2001 and 2010 was 10.5%. Between 2007 and 2011, China's economic growth rate was equivalent to all of the G7 countries' growth combined. According to the Global Growth Generators index announced by Citigroup in February 2011, China has a very high 3G growth rating. Its high productivity, low labour costs and relatively good infrastructure have made it a global leader in manufacturing. However, the Chinese economy is highly energy-intensive and inefficient; China became the world's largest energy consumer in 2010, relies on coal to supply over 70% of its energy needs, and surpassed the US to become the world's largest oil importer in September 2013. In the early 2010s, China's economic growth rate began to slow amid domestic credit troubles, weakening international demand for Chinese exports and fragility in the global economy. \n\nIn the online realm, China's e-commerce industry has grown more slowly than the EU and the US, with a significant period of development occurring from around 2009 onwards. According to Credit Suisse, the total value of online transactions in China grew from an insignificant size in 2008 to around RMB 4 trillion (US$660 billion) in 2012. The Chinese online payment market is dominated by major firms such as Alipay, Tenpay and China UnionPay. \n\nChina in the global economy\n\nChina is a member of the WTO and is the world's largest trading power, with a total international trade value of US$3.87 trillion in 2012. Its foreign exchange reserves reached US$2.85 trillion by the end of 2010, an increase of 18.7% over the previous year, making its reserves by far the world's largest. In 2012, China was the world's largest recipient of inward foreign direct investment (FDI), attracting $253 billion. In 2014, China's foreign exchange remittances were $US64 billion making it the second largest recipient of remittances in the world. China also invests abroad, with a total outward FDI of $62.4 billion in 2012, and a number of major takeovers of foreign firms by Chinese companies. In 2009, China owned an estimated $1.6 trillion of US securities, and was also the largest foreign holder of US public debt, owning over $1.16 trillion in US Treasury bonds. China's undervalued exchange rate has caused friction with other major economies, and it has also been widely criticized for manufacturing large quantities of counterfeit goods. According to consulting firm McKinsey, total outstanding debt in China increased from $7.4 trillion in 2007 to $28.2 trillion in 2014, which reflects 228% of China's GDP, a percentage higher than that of some G20 nations. \n\nChina ranked 29th in the Global Competitiveness Index in 2009, although it is only ranked 136th among the 179 countries measured in the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom. In 2014, Fortunes Global 500 list of the world's largest corporations included 95 Chinese companies, with combined revenues of US$5.8 trillion. The same year, Forbes reported that five of the world's ten largest public companies were Chinese, including the world's largest bank by total assets, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. \n\nClass and income equality\n\nChina's middle-class population (if defined as those with annual income of between US$10,000 and US$60,000) had reached more than 300 million by 2012. According to the Hurun Report, the number of US dollar billionaires in China increased from 130 in 2009 to 251 in 2012, giving China the world's second-highest number of billionaires. China's domestic retail market was worth over 20 trillion yuan (US$3.2 trillion) in 2012 and is growing at over 12% annually , while the country's luxury goods market has expanded immensely, with 27.5% of the global share. However, in recent years, China's rapid economic growth has contributed to severe consumer inflation, leading to increased government regulation. China has a high level of economic inequality, which has increased in the past few decades. In 2012, China's Gini coefficient was 0.474.\n\nInternationalization of the renminbi\n\nSince 2008 global financial crisis, China realized the dependency of US Dollar and the weakness of the international monetary system. The RMB Internationalization accelerated in 2009 when China established dim sum bond market and expanded the Cross-Border Trade RMB Settlement Pilot Project, which helps establish pools of offshore RMB liquidity. \n\nIn November 2010, Russia began using the Chinese renminbi in its bilateral trade with China. This was soon followed by Japan, Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Canada. As a result of the rapid internationalization of the renminbi, it became the eighth-most-traded currency in the world in 2013. \n\nScience and technology\n\nHistorical\n\nChina was a world leader in science and technology until the Ming Dynasty. Ancient Chinese discoveries and inventions, such as papermaking, printing, the compass, and gunpowder (the Four Great Inventions), later became widespread in Asia and Europe. Chinese mathematicians were the first to use negative numbers. However, by the 17th century, the Western world had surpassed China in scientific and technological development. The causes of this Great Divergence continue to be debated. \n\nAfter repeated military defeats by Western nations in the 19th century, Chinese reformers began promoting modern science and technology as part of the Self-Strengthening Movement. After the Communists came to power in 1949, efforts were made to organize science and technology based on the model of the Soviet Union, in which scientific research was part of central planning. After Mao's death in 1976, science and technology was established as one of the Four Modernizations, and the Soviet-inspired academic system was gradually reformed. \n\nModern era\n\nSince the end of the Cultural Revolution, China has made significant investments in scientific research, with $163 billion spent on scientific research and development in 2012. Science and technology are seen as vital for achieving China's economic and political goals, and are held as a source of national pride to a degree sometimes described as \"techno-nationalism\". Nonetheless, China's investment in basic and applied scientific research remains behind that of leading technological powers such as the United States and Japan. Chinese-born scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Physics four times, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Physiology or Medicine once respectively, though most of these scientists conducted their Nobel-winning research in western nations.\n\nChina is rapidly developing its education system with an emphasis on science, mathematics and engineering; in 2009, it produced over 10,000 Ph.D. engineering graduates, and as many as 500,000 BSc graduates, more than any other country. China is also the world's second-largest publisher of scientific papers, producing 121,500 in 2010 alone, including 5,200 in leading international scientific journals. Chinese technology companies such as Huawei and Lenovo have become world leaders in telecommunications and personal computing, and Chinese supercomputers are consistently ranked among the world's most powerful. China is furthermore experiencing a significant growth in the use of industrial robots; from 2008 to 2011, the installation of multi-role robots in Chinese factories rose by 136 percent. \n\nThe Chinese space program is one of the world's most active, and is a major source of national pride. In 1970, China launched its first satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, becoming the fifth country to do so independently. In 2003, China became the third country to independently send humans into space, with Yang Liwei's spaceflight aboard Shenzhou 5; , ten Chinese nationals have journeyed into space, including two women. In 2011, China's first space station module, Tiangong-1, was launched, marking the first step in a project to assemble a large manned station by the early 2020s. In 2013, China successfully landed the Chang'e 3 probe and Yutu rover onto the Moon; China plans to collect lunar soil samples by 2017. \n\nInfrastructure\n\nTelecommunications\n\nChina currently has the largest number of active cellphones of any country in the world, with over 1 billion users by February 2012. It also has the world's largest number of internet and broadband users, with over 688 million internet users , equivalent to around half of its population. The national average broadband connection speed is 9.46 MB/s, ranking China 91st in the world in terms of internet speed. As of July 2013, China accounts for 24% of the world's internet-connected devices. Since 2011 China is the nation with the most installed telecommunication bandwidth in the world. By 2014, China hosts more than twice as much national bandwidth potential than the U.S., the historical leader in terms of installed telecommunication bandwidth (China: 29% versus US:13% of the global total). \n\nChina Telecom and China Unicom, the world's two largest broadband providers, accounted for 20% of global broadband subscribers. China Telecom alone serves more than 50 million broadband subscribers, while China Unicom serves more than 40 million. Several Chinese telecommunications companies, most notably Huawei and ZTE, have been accused of spying for the Chinese military. \n\nChina is developing its own satellite navigation system, dubbed Beidou, which began offering commercial navigation services across Asia in 2012, and is planned to offer global coverage by 2020. \n\nTransport\n\nSince the late 1990s, China's national road network has been significantly expanded through the creation of a network of national highways and expressways. In 2011 China's highways had reached a total length of 85000 km, making it the longest highway system in the world. In 1991, there were only six bridges across the main stretch of the Yangtze River, which bisects the country into northern and southern halves. By October 2014, there were 81 such bridges and tunnels.\n\nChina has the world's largest market for automobiles, having surpassed the United States in both auto sales and production. Auto sales in 2009 exceeded 13.6 million and may reach 40 million by 2020. A side-effect of the rapid growth of China's road network has been a significant rise in traffic accidents, with poorly enforced traffic laws cited as a possible cause—in 2011 alone, around 62,000 Chinese died in road accidents. In urban areas, bicycles remain a common mode of transport, despite the increasing prevalence of automobiles – , there are approximately 470 million bicycles in China.\n\nChina's railways, which are state-owned, are among the busiest in the world, handling a quarter of the world's rail traffic volume on only 6 percent of the world's tracks in 2006. , the country had 103144 km of railways, the third longest network in the world. All provinces and regions are connected to the rail network except Macau. The railways strain to meet enormous demand particularly during the Chinese New Year holiday, when the world's largest annual human migration takes place. In 2013, Chinese railways delivered 2.106 billion passenger trips, generating 1,059.56 billion passenger-kilometers and carried 3.967 billion tons of freight, generating 2,917.4 billion cargo tons-kilometers.\n\nChina's high-speed rail (HSR) system, built entirely since the early 2000s, had 11028 km of track in 2013 and was the longest HSR network in the world. The network includes the Beijing–Guangzhou–Shenzhen High-Speed Railway, the single longest HSR line in the world, and the Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway, which has three of longest railroad bridges in the world. The HSR track network is set to reach approximately 16000 km by 2020. The Shanghai Maglev Train, which reaches 431 km/h, is the fastest commercial train service in the world. \n\nAs of May 2014, 20 Chinese cities have urban mass transit systems in operation, with a dozen more to join them by 2020. The Shanghai Metro, Beijing Subway, Guangzhou Metro, Hong Kong MTR and Shenzhen Metro are among the longest and busiest in the world.\n\nThere were 182 commercial airports in China in 2012. With 82 new airports planned to open by 2015, more than two-thirds of the airports under construction worldwide in 2013 were in China, and Boeing expects that China's fleet of active commercial aircraft in China will grow from 1,910 in 2011 to 5,980 in 2031. With rapid expansion in civil aviation, the largest airports in China have also joined the ranks of the busiest in the world. In 2013, Beijing's Capital Airport ranked second in the world by passenger traffic (it was 26th in 2002). Since 2010, the Hong Kong International Airport and Shanghai Pudong International Airport have ranked first and third in air cargo tonnage.\n\nSome 80% of China's airspace remains restricted for military use, and Chinese airlines made up eight of the 10 worst-performing Asian airlines in terms of delays. \nChina has over 2,000 river and seaports, about 130 of which are open to foreign shipping. In 2012, the Ports of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Ningbo-Zhoushan, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Tianjin, Dalian ranked in the top in the world in container traffic and cargo tonnage . \n\nOther infrastructure\n\nAccording to data presented by the Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation of WHO and UNICEF in 2015, about 36% of the rural population in China still did not have access to improved sanitation. \n\nWater supply and sanitation infrastructure in China is facing challenges such as rapid urbanization, as well as water scarcity, contamination, and pollution. In June 2010, there were 1,519 sewage treatment plants in China and 18 plants were added each week. \n\nDemographics\n\nThe national census of 2010 recorded the population of the People's Republic of China as approximately 1,370,536,875. About 16.60% of the population were 14 years old or younger, 70.14% were between 15 and 59 years old, and 13.26% were over 60 years old. The population growth rate for 2013 is estimated to be 0.46%. \n\nAlthough a middle-income country by Western standards, China's rapid growth has pulled hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty since 1978. Today, about 10% of the Chinese population lives below the poverty line of US$1 per day, down from 64% in 1978. Urban unemployment in China reportedly declined to 4% by the end of 2007. At present, the urban unemployment rate of China is about 4.1%. \n\nWith a population of over 1.3 billion and dwindling natural resources, the government of China is very concerned about its population growth rate and has attempted since 1979, with mixed results, to implement a strict family planning policy, known as the \"one-child policy.\" Before 2013, this policy sought to restrict families to one child each, with exceptions for ethnic minorities and a degree of flexibility in rural areas. A major loosening of the policy was enacted in December 2013, allowing families to have two children if one parent is an only child. The government is now dropping the one-child policy in favor of a two-child policy. Data from the 2010 census implies that the total fertility rate may now be around 1.4. \n\nThe policy, along with traditional preference for boys, may be contributing to an imbalance in the sex ratio at birth. According to the 2010 census, the sex ratio at birth was 118.06 boys for every 100 girls, which is beyond the normal range of around 105 boys for every 100 girls. The 2010 census found that males accounted for 51.27 percent of the total population. However, China's sex ratio is more balanced than it was in 1953, when males accounted for 51.82 percent of the total population.\n\nEthnic groups\n\nChina officially recognizes 56 distinct ethnic groups, the largest of\nwhich are the Han Chinese, who constitute about 91.51% of the total\npopulation. The Han Chinese – the world's largest single ethnic group – outnumber other ethnic groups in every provincial-level division except Tibet and Xinjiang. Ethnic minorities account for about 8.49% of the population of China, according to\nthe 2010 census. Compared with the 2000 population census, the Han population increased by 66,537,177 persons, or 5.74%, while the population of the 55 national minorities combined increased by 7,362,627 persons, or 6.92%. The 2010 census recorded a total of 593,832 foreign citizens living in China. The largest such groups were from South Korea (120,750), the\nUnited States (71,493) and Japan (66,159). \n\nLanguages\n\nThere are as many as 292 living languages in China. The languages most commonly spoken belong to the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, which contains Mandarin (spoken natively by 70% of the population), and other Chinese varieties: Wu (including Shanghainese), Yue (including Cantonese and Taishanese), Min (including Hoochew, Hokkien and Teochew), Xiang, Gan, and Hakka. Languages of the Tibeto-Burman branch, including Tibetan, Qiang, Naxi and Yi, are spoken across the Tibetan and Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau. Other ethnic minority languages in southwest China include Zhuang, Thai, Dong and Sui of the Tai-Kadai family, Miao and Yao of the Hmong–Mien family, and Wa of the Austroasiatic family. Across northeastern and northwestern China, minority ethnic groups speak Altaic languages including Manchu, Mongolian and several Turkic languages: Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Salar and Western Yugur. Korean is spoken natively along the border with North Korea. Sarikoli, the language of Tajiks in western Xinjiang, is an Indo-European language. Taiwanese aborigines, including a small population on the mainland, speak Austronesian languages. \n\nStandard Mandarin, a variety of Mandarin based on the Beijing dialect, is the official national language of China and is used as a lingua franca in the country between people of different linguistic backgrounds. \n\nChinese characters have been used as the written script for the Sinitic languages for thousands of years. They allow speakers of mutually unintelligible Chinese varieties to communicate with each other through writing. In 1956, the government introduced simplified characters, which have supplanted the older traditional characters in mainland China. Chinese characters are romanized using the Pinyin system. Tibetan uses an alphabet based on an Indic script. Uyghur is most commonly written in a Perseo-Arabic script. The Mongolian script used in China and the Manchu script are both derived from the Old Uyghur alphabet. Modern Zhuang uses the Latin alphabet.\n\nUrbanization\n\nChina has urbanized significantly in recent decades. The percent of the country's population living in urban areas increased from 20% in 1980 to over 50% in 2014. It is estimated that China's urban population will reach one billion by 2030, potentially equivalent to one-eighth of the world population. , there are more than 262 million migrant workers in China, mostly rural migrants seeking work in cities. \n\nChina has over 160 cities with a population of over one million, including the seven megacities (cities with a population of over 10 million) of Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Shenzhen, and Wuhan. By 2025, it is estimated that the country will be home to 221 cities with over a million inhabitants. The figures in the table below are from the 2010 census, and are only estimates of the urban populations within administrative city limits; a different ranking exists when considering the total municipal populations (which includes suburban and rural populations). The large \"floating populations\" of migrant workers make conducting censuses in urban areas difficult; the figures below include only long-term residents.\n\nEducation\n\nSince 1986, compulsory education in China comprises primary and junior secondary school, which together last for nine years. In 2010, about 82.5 percent of students continued their education at a three-year senior secondary school. The Gaokao, China's national university entrance exam, is a prerequisite for entrance into most higher education institutions. In 2010, 27 percent of secondary school graduates are enrolled in higher education. Vocational education is available to students at the secondary and tertiary level. \n\nIn February 2006, the government pledged to provide completely free nine-year education, including textbooks and fees. Annual education investment went from less than US$50 billion in 2003 to more than US$250 billion in 2011. However, there remains an inequality in education spending. In 2010, the annual education expenditure per secondary school student in Beijing totalled ¥20,023, while in Guizhou, one of the poorest provinces in China, only totalled ¥3,204. Free compulsory education in China consists of primary school and junior secondary school between the ages of 6 and 15. In 2011, around 81.4% of Chinese have received secondary education. By 2007, there were 396,567 primary schools, 94,116 secondary schools, and 2,236 higher education institutions in China. \n\n, 94% of the population over age 15 are literate, compared to only 20% in 1950. In 2009, Chinese students from Shanghai achieved the world's best results in mathematics, science and literacy, as tested by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a worldwide evaluation of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance. Despite the high results, Chinese education has also faced both native and international criticism for its emphasis on rote memorization and its gap in quality from rural to urban areas.\n\nHealth\n\nThe National Health and Family Planning Commission, together with its counterparts in the local commissions, oversees the health needs of the Chinese population. An emphasis on public health and preventive medicine has characterized Chinese health policy since the early 1950s. At that time, the Communist Party started the Patriotic Health Campaign, which was aimed at improving sanitation and hygiene, as well as treating and preventing several diseases. Diseases such as cholera, typhoid and scarlet fever, which were previously rife in China, were nearly eradicated by the campaign. After Deng Xiaoping began instituting economic reforms in 1978, the health of the Chinese public improved rapidly because of better nutrition, although many of the free public health services provided in the countryside disappeared along with the People's Communes. Healthcare in China became mostly privatized, and experienced a significant rise in quality. In 2009, the government began a 3-year large-scale healthcare provision initiative worth US$124 billion. By 2011, the campaign resulted in 95% of China's population having basic health insurance coverage. In 2011, China was estimated to be the world's third-largest supplier of pharmaceuticals, but its population has suffered from the development and distribution of counterfeit medications. \n\n, the average life expectancy at birth in China is 75 years, and the infant mortality rate is 12 per thousand. Both have improved significantly since the 1950s. Rates of stunting, a condition caused by malnutrition, have declined from 33.1% in 1990 to 9.9% in 2010. Despite significant improvements in health and the construction of advanced medical facilities, China has several emerging public health problems, such as respiratory illnesses caused by widespread air pollution, hundreds of millions of cigarette smokers, and an increase in obesity among urban youths. China's large population and densely populated cities have led to serious disease outbreaks in recent years, such as the 2003 outbreak of SARS, although this has since been largely contained. In 2010, air pollution caused 1.2 million premature deaths in China. \n\nReligion\n\nOver the millennia, Chinese civilization has been influenced by various religious movements. The \"three teachings\", including Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, historically have a significant role in shaping Chinese culture. Elements of these three belief systems are often incorporated into popular or folk religious traditions. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by China's constitution, although religious organizations that lack official approval can be subject to state persecution. \n\nDemographically, the most widespread religious tradition is the Chinese folk religion, which overlaps with Taoism, and describes the worship of the shen (神), a character that signifies the \"energies of generation\". The shen comprises deities of the natural environment, gods representing specific concepts or groups, heroes and ancestors, and figures from Chinese mythology. Among the most popular folk cults are those of Mazu (goddess of the seas), Yellow Emperor (one of the two divine patriarchs of the Chinese race), Guandi (god of war and business), Caishen (god of prosperity and richness), Pangu and many others. China is home to many of the world's tallest religious statues, including the tallest of all, the Spring Temple Buddha in Henan.\n\nThe government of the People's Republic of China is officially atheist. Religious affairs and issues in the country are overseen by the State Administration for Religious Affairs. A 2015 poll conducted by Gallup International found that 61% of Chinese people self-identified as \"convinced atheist.\" Scholars have noted that in China there is no clear boundary between religions, especially Buddhism, Taoism and local folk religious practice. According to the most recent demographic analyses, an average 80% of the Chinese population practice some form of Chinese folk religions, Taoism and Confucianism. Approximately 10—16% are Buddhists, 2—4% are Christians, and 1—2% are Muslims. In addition to Han people's local religious practices, there are also various ethnic minority groups in China who maintain their traditional autochthone religions. Various sects of indigenous origin comprise 2—3% of the population, while Confucianism as a religious self-designation is popular among intellectuals. Significant faiths specifically connected to certain ethnic groups include Tibetan Buddhism and the Islamic religion of the Hui and Uyghur peoples.\n\nCulture\n\nSince ancient times, Chinese culture has been heavily influenced by Confucianism and conservative philosophies. For much of the country's dynastic era, opportunities for social advancement could be provided by high performance in the prestigious imperial examinations, which have their origins in the Han Dynasty. The literary emphasis of the exams affected the general perception of cultural refinement in China, such as the belief that calligraphy, poetry and painting were higher forms of art than dancing or drama. Chinese culture has long emphasized a sense of deep history and a largely inward-looking national perspective. Examinations and a culture of merit remain greatly valued in China today. \n\nThe first leaders of the People's Republic of China were born into the traditional imperial order, but were influenced by the May Fourth Movement and reformist ideals. They sought to change some traditional aspects of Chinese culture, such as rural land tenure, sexism, and the Confucian system of education, while preserving others, such as the family structure and culture of obedience to the state. Some observers see the period following the establishment of the PRC in 1949 as a continuation of traditional Chinese dynastic history, while others claim that the Communist Party's rule has damaged the foundations of Chinese culture, especially through political movements such as the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, where many aspects of traditional culture were destroyed, having been denounced as \"regressive and harmful\" or \"vestiges of feudalism\". Many important aspects of traditional Chinese morals and culture, such as Confucianism, art, literature, and performing arts like Peking opera, were altered to conform to government policies and propaganda at the time. Access to foreign media remains heavily restricted. \n\nToday, the Chinese government has accepted numerous elements of traditional Chinese culture as being integral to Chinese society. With the rise of Chinese nationalism and the end of the Cultural Revolution, various forms of traditional Chinese art, literature, music, film, fashion and architecture have seen a vigorous revival, and folk and variety art in particular have sparked interest nationally and even worldwide. China is now the third-most-visited country in the world, with 55.7 million inbound international visitors in 2010. It also experiences an enormous volume of domestic tourism; an estimated 740 million Chinese holidaymakers travelled within the country in October 2012 alone. \n\nLiterature\n\nChinese literature is based on the literature of the Zhou dynasty. Concepts covered within the Chinese classic texts present a wide range of thoughts and subjects including calendar, military, astrology, herbology, geography and many others. Some of the most important early texts include the I Ching and the Shujing within the Four Books and Five Classics which served as the Confucian authoritative books for the state-sponsored curriculum in dynastic era. Inherited from the Classic of Poetry, classical Chinese poetry developed to its floruit during the Tang dynasty. Li Bai and Du Fu opened the forking ways for the poetic circles through romanticism and realism respectively. Chinese historiography began with the Shiji, the overall scope of the historiographical tradition in China is termed the Twenty-Four Histories, which set a vast stage for Chinese fictions along with Chinese mythology and folklore. Pushed by a burgeoning citizen class in the Ming dynasty, Chinese classical fiction rose to a boom of the historical, town and gods and demons fictions as represented by the Four Great Classical Novels which include Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber. Along with the wuxia fictions of Jin Yong, it remains an enduring source of popular culture in the East Asian cultural sphere. \n\nIn the wake of the New Culture Movement after the end of the Qing dynasty, Chinese literature embarked on a new era with written vernacular Chinese for ordinary citizens. Hu Shih and Lu Xun were pioneers in modern literature. Various literary genres, such as misty poetry, scar literature and the xungen literature, which is influenced by magic realism, emerged following the Cultural Revolution. Mo Yan, a xungen literature author, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012. \n\nCuisine\n\nChinese cuisine is highly diverse, drawing on several millennia of culinary history and geographical variety, in which the most influential are known as the \"Eight Major Cuisines\", including Sichuan, Cantonese, Jiangsu, Shandong, Fujian, Hunan, Anhui, and Zhejiang cuisines. All of them are featured by the precise skills of shaping, heating, colorway and flavoring. Chinese cuisine is also known for its width of cooking methods and ingredients, as well as food therapy that is emphasized by traditional Chinese medicine. Generally, China's staple food is rice in the south, wheat based breads and noodles in the north. The diet of the common people in pre-modern times was largely grain and simple vegetables, with meat reserved for special occasions. And the bean products, such as tofu and soy milk, remain as a popular source of protein. Pork is now the most popular meat in China, accounting for about three-fourths of the country's total meat consumption. While there is also a Buddhist cuisine and an Islamic cuisine. Southern cuisine, due to the area's proximity to the ocean and milder climate, has a wide variety of seafood and vegetables; it differs in many respects from the wheat-based diets across dry northern China. Numerous offshoots of Chinese food, such as Hong Kong cuisine and American Chinese food, have emerged in the nations that play host to the Chinese diaspora.\n\nSports\n\nChina has become a prime sports destination worldwide. The country gained the hosting rights for several major global sports tournaments including the 2008 Summer Olympics, the 2015 World Championships in Athletics and the upcoming 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.\n\nChina has one of the oldest sporting cultures in the world. There is evidence that archery (shèjiàn) was practised during the Western Zhou Dynasty. Swordplay (jiànshù) and cuju, a sport loosely related to association football date back to China's early dynasties as well. \n\nPhysical fitness is widely emphasized in Chinese culture, with morning exercises such as qigong and t'ai chi ch'uan widely practised, and commercial gyms and fitness clubs gaining popularity in the country. Basketball is currently the most popular spectator sport in China. The Chinese Basketball Association and the American National Basketball Association have a huge following among the people, with native or ethnic Chinese players such as Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian held in high esteem. China's professional football league was established in 2004, it is the largest football market in Asia. Other popular sports in the country include martial arts, table tennis, badminton, swimming and snooker. Board games such as go (known as wéiqí in Chinese), xiangqi, mahjong, and more recently chess, are also played at a professional level. In addition, China is home to a huge number of cyclists, with an estimated 470 million bicycles . Many more traditional sports, such as dragon boat racing, Mongolian-style wrestling and horse racing are also popular. \n\nChina has participated in the Olympic Games since 1932, although it has only participated as the PRC since 1952. China hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where its athletes received 51 gold medals – the highest number of gold medals of any participating nation that year. China also won the most medals of any nation at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, with 231 overall, including 95 gold medals. In 2011, Shenzhen in Guangdong, China hosted the 2011 Summer Universiade. China hosted the 2013 East Asian Games in Tianjin and the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing.", "A sampan () is a relatively flat bottomed Chinese wooden boat. Some sampans include a small shelter on board, and may be used as a permanent habitation on inland waters. Sampans are generally used for transportation in coastal areas or rivers, and are often used as traditional fishing boats. It is unusual for a sampan to sail far from land as they do not have the means to survive rough weather.\n\nThe word \"sampan\" comes from the original Hokkien term for the boats, 三板 (sam pan), literally meaning \"three planks\". The name referred to the hull design, which consists of a flat bottom (made from one plank) joined to two sides (the other two planks). The design closely resembles Western hard chine boats like the scow or punt.\n\nSampans may be propelled by poles, oars (particularly a single, long sculling oar called a yuloh ) or may be fitted with outboard motors.\n\nSampans are still in use by rural residents of Southeast Asia, particularly Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar) and Vietnam.\n\nImage gallery\n\nImage:Sampan-01.png|Traditional hongtou (red-head) sampans of Shanghai, China\nFile:Indonesian Sampan.jpg|A contemporary sampan comes back from fishing, on the north coast of Java\nFile:Japon-1886-32.jpg|Japanese sampan-like river boat. Dating from before 1886\nFile:Sampan under sunset Hong Kong.jpg|Small sampan still being used for passenger transportation between islands in Hong Kong\nFile:Sampan.jpg|[http://digitalcollections.library.ubc.ca/cdm/ref/collection/chung/id/20798/rec/67 A Sampan in Shanghai, China]" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Washington_(state).txt" ], "title": [ "Washington (state)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Washington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States located north of Oregon, west of Idaho, and south of the Canadian province of British Columbia on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Named after George Washington, the first President of the United States, the state was made out of the western part of the Washington Territory, which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 in accordance with the Oregon Treaty in the settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889. Olympia is the state capital. Washington is sometimes referred to as Washington State or the State of Washington to distinguish it from Washington, D.C., the capital of the U.S., which is often shortened to Washington.\n\nWashington is the 18th largest with an area of 71,362 square miles (184,827 sq km), and the 13th most populous state with over 7 million people. Approximately 60 percent of Washington's residents live in the Seattle metropolitan area, the center of transportation, business, and industry along the Puget Sound region of the Salish Sea, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean consisting of numerous islands, deep fjords, and bays carved out by glaciers. The remainder of the state consists of deep temperate rainforests in the west, mountain ranges in the west, central, northeast and far southeast, and a semi-arid basin region in the east, central, and south, given over to intensive agriculture. Washington is the second most populous state on the West Coast and in the Western United States, after California. Mount Rainier is the state's highest elevation at almost 14,411 feet (4,392 m).\n\nWashington is a leading lumber producer. Its rugged surface is rich in stands of Douglas fir, hemlock, ponderosa pine, white pine, spruce, larch, and cedar. The state is the biggest producer of apples, hops, pears, red raspberries, spearmint oil, and sweet cherries, and ranks high in the production of apricots, asparagus, dry edible peas, grapes, lentils, peppermint oil, and potatoes. Livestock and livestock products make important contributions to total farm revenue, and the commercial fishing of salmon, halibut, and bottomfish makes a significant contribution to the state's economy.\n\nManufacturing industries in Washington include aircraft and missiles, shipbuilding and other transportation equipment, lumber, food processing, metals and metal products, chemicals, and machinery. Washington has over 1,000 dams, including the Grand Coulee Dam, built for a variety of purposes including irrigation, power, flood control, and water storage.\n\nEtymology\n\nThe Washington Territory was named after George Washington, the first President of the United States. The area was originally part of a region called the Columbia District after the Columbia River. Incidentally, the area was renamed Washington in order to avoid confusion with the District of Columbia, which contains the city of Washington. \n\nWashington is the only U.S. state named after a president. To distinguish it from the U.S. capital, which is also named for George Washington, Washington is sometimes referred to as \"Washington State\", or, in more formal contexts, as \"the State of Washington\". Washingtonians and other residents of the Pacific Northwest refer to the state simply as \"Washington\", calling the nation's capital \"Washington, D.C.\" or, more often, simply \"D.C.\".\n\nGeography\n\nWashington is the northwestern-most state of the contiguous United States. Its northern border lies mostly along the 49th parallel, and then via marine boundaries through the Strait of Georgia, Haro Strait and Strait of Juan de Fuca, with the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north. Washington is bordered by Oregon to the south, with the Columbia River forming the western part and the 46th parallel forming the eastern part of the southern boundary.\n\nTo the east, Washington borders Idaho, bounded mostly by the meridian running north from the confluence of the Snake River and Clearwater River (about 116°57' west), except for the southernmost section where the border follows the Snake River. To the west of Washington lies the Pacific Ocean.\n\nWashington is part of a region known as the Pacific Northwest, a term which always includes Washington and Oregon and may or may not include some or all of the following, depending on the user's intent: Idaho, western Montana, northern California, British Columbia, and Alaska.\n\nThe high mountains of the Cascade Range run north-south, bisecting the state. From the Cascades westward, Western Washington has a mostly marine west coast climate, with mild temperatures and wet winters, autumns and springs, and relatively dry summers. The Cascade Range contains several volcanoes, which reach altitudes significantly higher than the rest of the mountains. From the north to the south, these volcanoes are Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams. Mount St. Helens is currently the only Washington volcano that is actively erupting; however, all of them are considered active volcanoes. Mount Rainier, the tallest mountain in the state, is 50 mi south of the city of Seattle, from which it is prominently visible. The 14411 ft Mt. Rainier is considered the most dangerous volcano in the Cascade Range, due to its proximity to the Seattle metropolitan area, and most dangerous in the continental U.S. according to the Decade Volcanoes list. It is also covered with more glacial ice than any other peak in the contiguous 48 states. \n\nWestern Washington also is home of the Olympic Mountains, far west on the Olympic Peninsula, which support dense forests of conifers and areas of temperate rainforest. These deep forests, such as the Hoh Rainforest, are among the only temperate rainforests in the continental United States. \n\nIn contrast, Eastern Washington, east of the Cascades, has a relatively dry climate with large areas of semiarid steppe and a few truly arid deserts lying in the rain shadow of the Cascades; the Hanford reservation receives an average annual precipitation of 6 to. Farther east, the climate becomes less arid, increasing as one goes east to in Pullman. The Okanogan Highlands and the rugged Kettle River Range and Selkirk Mountains cover much of the northeastern quadrant of the state. The Palouse southeast region of Washington was grassland that has been mostly converted into farmland, and extends to the Blue Mountains.\n\nClimate\n\nWashington's climate varies greatly from west to east. An oceanic climate (also called \"west coast marine climate\") predominates in western Washington, and a much drier semi-arid climate prevails east of the Cascade Range. Major factors determining Washington's climate include the large semi-permanent high pressure and low pressure systems of the north Pacific Ocean, the continental air masses of North America, and the Olympic and Cascade mountains. In the spring and summer, a high pressure anticyclone system dominates the north Pacific Ocean, causing air to spiral out in a clockwise fashion. For Washington this means prevailing winds from the northwest bring relatively cool air and a predictably dry season.\n\nIn the autumn and winter, a low-pressure cyclone system takes over in the north Pacific Ocean, with air spiraling inward in a counter-clockwise fashion. This causes Washington's prevailing winds to come from the southwest, bringing relatively warm and moist air masses and a predictably wet season. The term \"Pineapple Express\" is used colloquially to describe the extreme form of this wet season pattern. \n\nDespite western Washington's having a marine climate similar to those of many coastal cities of Europe, there are exceptions such as the \"Big Snow\" events of 1880, 1881, 1893 and 1916 and the \"deep freeze\" winters of 1883–84, 1915–16, 1949–50 and 1955–56, among others. During these events western Washington experienced up to 6 ft of snow, sub-zero (−18 °C) temperatures, three months with snow on the ground, and lakes and rivers frozen over for weeks. Seattle's lowest officially recorded temperature is 0 F set on January 31, 1950, but low-altitude areas approximately three hours away from Seattle have recorded lows as cold as . \n\nWeather during the cold season is greatly influenced by the Southern Oscillation. During the El Niño phase, the jet stream enters the U.S. farther south through California, therefore late fall and winter are drier than normal with less snowpack. The La Niña phase reinforces the jet stream through the Pacific Northwest, causing Washington to have even more rain and snow than average.\n\nIn 2006, the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington published The Impacts of Climate change in Washington's Economy, a preliminary assessment on the risks and opportunities presented given the possibility of a rise in global temperatures and their effects on Washington state. \n\nRain shadow effects\n\nRainfall in Washington varies dramatically going from east to west. The western side of the Olympic Peninsula receives as much as 160 in of precipitation annually, making it the wettest area of the 48 conterminous states and a temperate rainforest. Weeks may pass without a clear day. The western slopes of the Cascade Range receive some of the heaviest annual snowfall (in some places more than 200 in water equivalent) in the country. In the rain shadow area east of the Cascades, the annual precipitation is only 6 in. Precipitation then increases again eastward toward the Rocky Mountains.\n\nThe Olympic mountains and Cascades compound this climatic pattern by causing orographic lift of the air masses blown inland from the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the windward side of the mountains receiving high levels of precipitation and the leeward side receiving low levels. This occurs most dramatically around the Olympic Mountains and the Cascade Range. In both cases the windward slopes facing southwest receive high precipitation and mild, cool temperatures. While the Puget Sound lowlands are known for clouds and rain in the winter, the western slopes of the Cascades receive larger amounts of precipitation, often falling as snow at higher elevations. (Mount Baker, near the state's northern border, is one of the snowiest places in the world: in 1999, it set the world record for snowfall in a single season: 1140 in.) \n\nEast of the Cascades, a large region experiences strong rain shadow effects. Semi-arid conditions occur in much of eastern Washington with the strongest rain shadow effects at the relatively low elevations of the central Columbia Plateau—especially the region just east of the Columbia River from about the Snake River to the Okanagan Highland. Thus instead of rain forests much of eastern Washington is covered with grassland and shrub-steppe.\n\nTemperatures\n\nThe average annual temperature ranges from 51 F on the Pacific coast to 40 F in the northeast. The lowest temperature recorded in the state was in Winthrop and Mazama. The highest recorded temperature in the state was 118 F at Ice Harbor Dam. Both records were set east of the Cascades. Western Washington is known for its mild climate, considerable fog, frequent cloud cover and long-lasting drizzles in the winter, and warm, temperate summers. The Eastern region occasionally experiences extreme climate. Arctic cold fronts in the winter and heat waves in the summer are not uncommon. In the Western region, temperatures have reached as high as 112 F in Marietta. and as low as in Longview. \n\nFlora and fauna\n\nForests cover 52% of the state's land area, mostly west of the North Cascades. Approximately two-thirds of Washington's forested area is publicly owned, including 64% of federal land. Other common trees and plants in the region are camassia, Douglas fir, hemlock, penstemon, ponderosa pine, western red cedar, and many species of ferns. The state's various areas of wilderness offer sanctuary, with substantially large populations of shorebirds and marine mammals. The Pacific shore surrounding the San Juan Islands are heavily inhabited with killer, gray and humpback whales.\n\nMammals native to the state include the bat, black bear, bobcat, cougar, coyote, deer, elk, gray wolf, moose, mountain beaver, muskrat, opossum, pocket gopher, raccoon, river otter, skunk, and tree squirrel. Because of the wide range of geography, the State of Washington is home to several different ecoregions which allow for a varied range of bird species. This range includes raptors, shorebirds, woodland birds, grassland birds, ducks, and others. There have also been a large number of species introduced to Washington, dating back to the early 1700s, including horses and burros. The channel catfish, lamprey, and sturgeon are among the 400 known freshwater fishes. Along with the Cascades frog, there are several forms of snakes that define the most prominent reptiles and amphibians. Coastal bays and islands are often inhabited by plentiful amounts of shellfish and whales. There are five species of salmon that ascend the Western Washington area, from streams to spawn. \n\nWashington has a variety of National Park Service units. Among these are the Alta Lake State Park, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, San Juan Islands National Wildlife Refuge, as well as three national parks, the Olympic National Park, North Cascades National Park and Mount Rainier National Park. The three national parks were established between 1899 and 1968. Almost 95% (876,517 acres, 354,714 hectares, 3,547.14 square kilometers) of Olympic National Park's area has been designated as wilderness under the National Wilderness Preservation System. Additionally, there are 143 state parks and 9 national forests, run by the Washington State Park System and the United States Forest Service. The Okanogan National Forest is the largest national forest located on the West Coast, encompassing . It is managed together as the Okanogan–Wenatchee National Forest, encompassing a considerablely larger area of around . \n\nHistory\n\nEarly history\n\nThe skeletal remains of Kennewick Man, one of the oldest and most complete human remains ever found in North America, were discovered in Washington. Before the coming of Europeans, the region had many established tribes of aboriginal Americans, notable for their totem poles and their ornately carved canoes and masks. Prominent among their industries were salmon fishing and, notably among the Makah, whale hunting. The peoples of the Interior had a very different subsistence-based culture based on hunting, food-gathering and some forms of agriculture, as well as a dependency on salmon from the Columbia and its tributaries. The smallpox epidemic of the 1770s devastated the Native American population. \n\nEuropean exploration\n\nThe first recorded European landing on the Washington coast was by Spanish Captain Don Bruno de Heceta in 1775, on board the Santiago, part of a two-ship flotilla with the Sonora. He claimed all the coastal lands up to Prince William Sound for Spain as part of their claimed rights under the Treaty of Tordesillas, which they maintained made the Pacific a \"Spanish lake\" and all its shores part of the Spanish Empire.\n\nIn 1778, British explorer Captain James Cook sighted Cape Flattery, at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but Cook did not realize the strait existed. It was not discovered until Charles William Barkley, captain of the Imperial Eagle, sighted it in 1787. The straits were further explored by Spanish explorers Manuel Quimper in 1790 and Francisco de Eliza in 1791, and British explorer George Vancouver in 1792.\n\nSettlement\n\nThe British-Spanish Nootka Convention of 1790 ended Spanish claims of exclusivity and opened the Northwest Coast to explorers and traders from other nations, most notably Britain and Russia as well as the fledgling United States. American captain Robert Gray (for whom Grays Harbor County is named) then discovered the mouth of the Columbia River. He named the river after his ship, the Columbia. Beginning in 1792, Gray established trade in sea otter pelts. The Lewis and Clark Expedition entered the state on October 10, 1805.\n\nExplorer David Thompson, on his voyage down the Columbia River camped at the confluence with the Snake River on July 9, 1811, and erected a pole and a notice claiming the country for Great Britain and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a trading post at the site.\n\nBritain and the United States agreed to what has since been described as \"joint occupancy\" of lands west of the Continental Divide to the Pacific Ocean as part of the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, which established the 49th Parallel as the international boundary west from Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. Resolution of the territorial and treaty issues, west to the Pacific, were deferred until a later time. Spain, in 1819, ceded their rights north of the 42nd Parallel to the United States, although these rights did not include possession.\n\nNegotiations with Great Britain over the next few decades failed to settle upon a compromise boundary and the Oregon boundary dispute was highly contested between Britain and the United States. Disputed joint-occupancy by Britain and the U.S. lasted for several decades. With American settlers pouring into Oregon Country, Hudson's Bay Company, which had previously discouraged settlement because it conflicted with the fur trade, reversed its position in an attempt to maintain British control of the Columbia District.\n\nFur trapper James Sinclair, on orders from Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, led some 200 settlers from the Red River Colony west in 1841 to settle on Hudson Bay Company farms near Fort Vancouver. The party crossed the Rockies into the Columbia Valley, near present-day Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia, then traveled south-west down the Kootenai River and Columbia River. Despite such efforts, Britain eventually ceded all claims to land south of the 49th parallel to the United States in the Oregon Treaty on June 15, 1846.\n\nIn 1836, a group of missionaries including Marcus Whitman established several missions and Whitman's own settlement Waiilatpu, in what is now southeastern Washington state, near present day Walla Walla County, in territory of both the Cayuse and the Nez Perce Indian tribes. Whitman's settlement would in 1843 help the Oregon Trail, the overland emigration route to the west, get established for thousands of emigrants in following decades. Marcus provided medical care for the Native Americans, but when Indian patients – lacking immunity to new, 'European' diseases – died in striking numbers, while at the same time many white patients recovered, they held 'medicine man' Marcus Whitman personally responsible, and murdered Whitman and twelve other white settlers in the Whitman massacre in 1847. This event triggered the Cayuse War between settlers and Indians.\n\nFort Nisqually, a farm and trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company and the first European settlement in the Puget Sound area, was founded in 1833. Black pioneer George Washington Bush and his Caucasian wife, Isabella James Bush, from Missouri and Tennessee, respectively, led four white families into the territory and founded New Market, now Tumwater, in 1846. They settled in Washington to avoid Oregon's discriminatory settlement laws. After them, many more settlers, migrating overland along the Oregon trail, wandered north to settle in the Puget Sound area.\n\nStatehood\n\nThe growing populace of Oregon Territory north of the Columbia River formally requested a new territory, which was granted by the U.S. government in 1853. The boundary of Washington Territory initially extended farther east than the present state's, including what is now the Idaho Panhandle and parts of western Montana, and picked up more land to the southeast that was left behind when Oregon was admitted as a state. The creation of Idaho Territory in 1863 established the final eastern border. A Washington State constitution was drafted and ratified in 1878, but it was never officially adopted. Although never approved by Congress, the 1878 constitution is an important historical document which shows the political thinking of the time. It was used extensively during the drafting of Washington State's 1889 constitution, the one and only official Constitution of the State of Washington. Washington became the 42nd state in the United States on November 11, 1889. \n\nEarly prominent industries in the state included agriculture and lumber. In eastern Washington, the Yakima River Valley became known for its apple orchards, while the growth of wheat using dry farming techniques became particularly productive. Heavy rainfall to the west of the Cascade Range produced dense forests, and the ports along Puget Sound prospered from the manufacturing and shipping of lumber products, particularly the Douglas fir. Other industries that developed in the state included fishing, salmon canning and mining.\n\nIndustrial Era\n\nFor a long period, Tacoma was noted for its large smelters where gold, silver, copper and lead ores were treated. Seattle was the primary port for trade with Alaska and the rest of the country, and for a time it possessed a large shipbuilding industry. The region around eastern Puget Sound developed heavy industry during the period including World War I and World War II, and the Boeing company became an established icon in the area.\n\nDuring the Great Depression, a series of hydroelectric dams were constructed along the Columbia river as part of a project to increase the production of electricity. This culminated in 1941 with the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam, the largest concrete structure in the United States.\n\nDuring World War II, the state became a focus for war industries. While the Boeing Company produced many of the nation's heavy bombers, ports in Seattle, Bremerton, Vancouver, and Tacoma were available for the manufacture of warships. Seattle was the point of departure for many soldiers in the Pacific, a number of whom were quartered at Golden Gardens Park. In eastern Washington, the Hanford Works atomic energy plant was opened in 1943 and played a major role in the construction of the nation's atomic bombs.\n\nMount St. Helens eruption, 1980\n\nOn May 18, 1980, following a period of heavy tremors and eruptions, the northeast face of Mount St. Helens erupted violently, destroying a large part of the top of the volcano. The eruption flattened the forests, killed 57 people, flooded the Columbia River and its tributaries with ash and mud, and blanketed large parts of Washington eastward and other surrounding states in ash, making day look like night. \n\nDemographics\n\nThe United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Washington was 7,170,351 on July 1, 2015, a 6.63% increase since the 2010 United States Census. The state ranks 13th overall in population, and the third most populous (after California and Texas) west of the Mississippi River. \n\nAccording to the United States Census, in 2010, Washington had an estimated population of 6,724,540, which was an increase of 445,811 or 6.63 percent from the year 2010. This includes a natural increase of 380,400 people, and an increase from net migration of 450,019 people into the state. Washington ranks first in the Pacific Northwest region in terms of population, followed by Oregon, and Idaho. In 1980, the Census Bureau reported Washington's population as 90% non-Hispanic white.\n\nIn 2011, 44.3% of Washington's population younger than age 1 were minorities. \n\nThe center of population of Washington in 2000 was located in an unpopulated part of the Cascade Mountains in rural eastern King County, southeast of North Bend, northeast of Enumclaw and west of Snoqualmie Pass. \n\nAt the 2010 U.S. census, the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Metropolitan Area's population was 3,439,809, approximately half the state's total population. \n\n6.7 percent of Washington's population was reported as under five years of age, 25.7 percent under 18 years of age, and 11.2 percent were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 50.2 percent of the population.\n\nThe largest ancestry groups (which the Census defines as not including racial terms) in the state are: \n* 20.7% German\n* 12.6% Irish\n* 12.3% English\n* 8.2% Hispanic\n* 6.2% Norwegian\n* 3.9% French\n* 3.9% American\n* 3.8% Italian\n* 3.6% Swedish\n* 3.3% Scottish\n* 2.5% Scotch Irish\n* 2.5% Dutch\n* 1.9% Polish\n* 1.8% Russian\n\nRace and ethnicity\n\nAccording to the 2010 United States census, the racial and ethnic composition of Washington was the following: \n* White: 77.3% (Non-Hispanic Whites 71%, White Hispanics 6.3%)\n* Black or African American: 3.6%\n* Native Americans: 1.5%\n* Asian: 7.2%\n* Pacific Islander: 0.4% (0.2% Samoan, 0.1% Guamanian, 0.1% Hawaiian)\n* Two or more races: 4.7%\n* Other races 5.1%\n\nThere is a sizable population with Hispanic or Latino heritage at 11.2%.\n\nThe Hispanic/Latino population can belong to any of the racial groups and consists of people of mainly Mexican (8.9%), Spanish (0.4%), Cuban (0.4%), Salvadoran (0.2%), Guatemalan (0.1%), Colombian (0.1%) heritage.\nAccording to 2010 United States Census estimates, 77% of Washingtonians are white or European American, although this is ambiguous as it includes not only caucasians, such as those who are born in Western Europe, Canada, Australasia, and the former USSR, but people from countries in the Middle East and North Africa (the number of Arab American nationalities rose dramatically in the 1990s and 2000s). \n\nAreas of concentration\n\nWhile the population of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest is scarce overall, they mostly concentrate in South End and Central District areas of Seattle, and in inner Tacoma. The black community of Seattle developed after World War II when wartime industries and the U.S. Armed Forces employed and recruited tens of thousands of African Americans from the Southeastern United States. They left a high influence in west coast rock music and R&B and soul in the 1960s, including Seattle native Jimi Hendrix, a pioneer in hard rock, who was of African American and Cherokee Indian descent.\n\nAmerican Indians lived on Indian reservations or jurisdictory lands such as the Colville Indian Reservation, Makah, Muckleshoot Indian Reservation, Quinault (tribe), Salish people, Spokane Indian Reservation and Yakama Indian Reservation. The westernmost and Pacific coasts have primarily American Indian communities, such as the Chinook, Lummi and Salish. But Urban Indian communities formed by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs relocation programs in Seattle since the end of World War II brought a variety of Native American cultures to this diverse metropolis. The city was actually named for Chief Seattle when European Americans settled the isthmus in the very early 1850s.\n\nAsian Americans and Pacific Islanders are mostly concentrated in the Seattle−Tacoma metropolitan area. Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond, which are all located within King County, have sizable Chinese communities (including Taiwanese), as well as significant Indian and Japanese communities that are present there. The Chinatown-International District in Seattle has a historical Chinese population dating back to the 1860s, who mainly emigrated from Guangdong Province in southern China, and is currently home to a diverse East and Southeast Asian community. Koreans are heavily concentrated in the suburban cities of Federal Way and Auburn to the south and in Lynnwood to the north. Tacoma is home to thousands of Cambodians, and has one of the largest Cambodian American communities in the United States, along with Long Beach, California and Lowell, Massachusetts. The Vietnamese and Filipino populations of Washington are mostly concentrated within the Seattle metropolitan area. Washington state has the second highest percentage of Pacific Islander people in the mainland U.S. (behind Utah); the Seattle-Tacoma area is home to over 15,000 people of Samoan ancestry, who mainly reside in southeast Seattle, Tacoma, Federal Way, and in SeaTac. \n\nThe most numerous (ethnic, not racial, group) are Latinos at 11%, as Mexican Americans formed a large ethnic group in the Chehalis Valley, farming areas of Yakima Valley and Eastern Washington. In the late 20th century, large-scale Mexican immigration and other Latinos settled in the southern suburbs of Seattle with limited concentrations in King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties during the region's real estate construction booms in the 1980s and 1990s.\n\nAdditionally, Washington has a large Ethiopian community, with many Eritrean residents as well. Over 30,000 Somali immigrants also reside in the Seattle area.\n\nLargest cities\n\nThe largest cities in Washington according to 2014 state estimates. \n\nThe Tri-Cities, which consists of the four neighboring cities of Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, and West Richland, has a combined population of 211,110 in official 2014 estimates which would be ranked above Tacoma.\n\nLanguages\n\nIn 2010, 82.51% (5,060,313) of Washington residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 7.79% (477,566) spoke Spanish, 1.19% (72,552) Chinese (which includes Cantonese and Mandarin), 0.94% (57,895) Vietnamese, 0.84% (51,301) Tagalog, 0.83% (50,757) Korean, 0.80% (49,282) Russian, and German was spoken as a main language by 0.55% (33,744) of the population over the age of five. In total, 17.49% (1,073,002) of Washington's population age 5 and older spoke a mother language other than English. \n\nReligion\n\nMajor religious affiliations of the people of Washington are: \n* Christian: 60%\n** Evangelical Protestant: 25%\n** Mainline Protestant: 14%\n** Catholic: 17%\n** Mormon: 4%\n* Unaffiliated: 32%\n* Jewish: 1%\n* Muslim: 0.5%\n* Other religions 3%\n\nThe largest denominations by number of adherents in 2010 were the Roman Catholic Church with 784,332; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) with 282,356; and the Assemblies of God with 125,005. \n\nAquarian Tabernacle Church is the largest Wiccan church in the country. \n\nAs with many other Western states, the percentage of Washington's population identifying themselves as \"non-religious\" is higher than the national average. The percentage of non-religious people in Washington is one of the highest in the United States.\n\nEconomy\n\nThe 2014 total gross state product for Washington was $425.017 billion, placing it 14th in the nation. The per capita GDP in 2009 was $52,403, 10th in the nation. Significant business within the state include the design and manufacture of aircraft (Boeing), automotive (Paccar), computer software development (Microsoft, Bungie, Amazon.com, Nintendo of America, Valve Corporation, ArenaNet), telecom (T-Mobile USA), electronics, biotechnology, aluminum production, lumber and wood products (Weyerhaeuser), mining, beverages (Starbucks, Jones Soda), real estate (John L. Scott), retail (Nordstrom, Eddie Bauer, Car Toys, Costco, R.E.I.), and tourism (Alaska Airlines, Expedia, Inc.). A Fortune magazine survey of the top 20 Most Admired Companies in the US has four Washington-based companies in it: Amazon.com, Starbucks, Microsoft, and Costco. The state has significant amounts of hydroelectric power generation at over 80%. Significant amounts of trade with Asia pass through the ports of the Puget Sound\n\nWith the passage of Initiative 1183, the Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) ended its monopoly of all state liquor store and liquor distribution operations on June 1, 2012.\n\nAmong its resident billionaires, Washington boasts Bill Gates, technology advisor and former Chairman & CEO of Microsoft, who, with a net worth of $84.1 billion, is the wealthiest man in the world as of 2013. Other Washington state billionaires include Paul Allen (Microsoft), Steve Ballmer (Microsoft), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Craig McCaw (McCaw Cellular Communications), James Jannard (Oakley), Howard Schultz (Starbucks), and Charles Simonyi (Microsoft). \n\n, the state's unemployment rate is 6.3 percent. \n\nTaxes\n\nThe state of Washington is one of only seven states that does not levy a personal income tax. The state also does not collect a corporate income tax or franchise tax. However, Washington businesses are responsible for various other state levies, including the business and occupation tax (B & O), a gross receipts tax which charges varying rates for different types of businesses.\n\nWashington's state base sales tax is 6.5 percent which is combined with a local rate. , the rate is 9.5 percent in Seattle and other cities. These taxes apply to services as well as products. Most foods are exempt from sales tax; however, prepared foods, dietary supplements and soft drinks remain taxable. The combined state and local retail sales tax rates increase the taxes paid by consumers, depending on the variable local sales tax rates, generally between 8 and 9 percent.\n\nAn excise tax applies to certain select products such as gasoline, cigarettes, and alcoholic beverages. Property tax was the first tax levied in the state of Washington and its collection accounts for about 30 percent of Washington's total state and local revenue. It continues to be the most important revenue source for public schools, fire protection, libraries, parks and recreation, and other special purpose districts.\n\nAll real property and personal property is subject to tax unless specifically exempted by law. Personal property also is taxed, although most personal property owned by individuals is exempt. Personal property tax applies to personal property used when conducting business or to other personal property not exempt by law. All property taxes are paid to the county treasurer's office where the property is located. Washington does not impose a tax on intangible assets such as bank accounts, stocks or bonds. Neither does the state assess any tax on retirement income earned and received from another state. Washington does not collect inheritance taxes; however, the estate tax is decoupled from the federal estate tax laws, and therefore the state imposes its own estate tax.\n\nWashington's tax policy differs significantly from neighboring Oregon's, which levies no sales tax but a very high income tax. This leads to border economic anomalies in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area. Additional border economies exist with neighboring Canada and Idaho.\n\nAgriculture\n\nWashington is a leading agricultural state. (The following figures are from the [http://agr.wa.gov/AgInWA/ Washington State Department of Agriculture] and the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Washington Field Office.) For 2013, the total value of Washington's agricultural products was $10.2 billion.\nIn 2013, Washington ranked first in the nation in production of red raspberries (92.7 percent of total U.S. production), hops (79.2 percent), spearmint oil (72.9 percent), wrinkled seed peas (60 percent), apples (57 percent), sweet cherries (50.9 percent), pears (49.5 percent), Concord grapes (36.5 percent), carrots for processing (36.5 percent), green peas for processing (34.4 percent), and peppermint oil (31.4 percent).\n\nWashington also ranked second in the nation in production of fall potatoes (a quarter of the nation's production), nectarines, apricots, grapes (all varieties taken together), sweet corn for processing (a quarter of the nation's production), and summer onions (a fifth of the nation's production).\n\nThe apple industry is of particular importance to Washington. Because of the favorable climate of dry, warm summers and cold winters of central Washington, the state has led the U.S. in apple production since the 1920s. Two areas account for the vast majority of the state's apple crop: the Wenatchee–Okanogan region (comprising Chelan, Okanogan, Douglas, and Grant counties), and the Yakima region (comprising Yakima, Benton and Kittitas counties). \n\nWine\n\nWashington ranks second in the United States in the production of wine, behind only California. By 2006, the state had over 31000 acre of vineyards, a harvest of 120000 ST of grapes, and exports going to over 40 countries around the world from the 600 wineries located in the state. While there are some viticultural activities in the cooler, wetter western half of the state, the majority (99%) of wine grape production takes place in the desert-like eastern half. The rain shadow of the Cascade Range leaves the Columbia River Basin with around 8 in of annual rain fall, making irrigation and water rights of paramount interest to the Washington wine industry. Viticulture in the state is also influenced by long sunlight hours (on average, two more hours a day than in California during the growing season) and consistent temperatures. \n\nInternet access\n\nAs of December 2014, there are 124 broadband providers that offer service to Washington state with 93% of consumers having access to broadband speeds of 25/3mbps or more. Additionally, there are 406,000 people who live in Washington who live in an area served by only 1 broadband provider leaving them without a competitive market. \n\nFrom 2009–2014 the Washington State Broadband Project was awarded $7.3M in federal grants but program was discontinued in 2014. For infrastructure another $166M was awarded for broadband infrastructure projects in Washington state since 2011. \n\nTransportation\n\nWashington has a system of state highways, called State Routes, as well as an extensive ferry system which is the largest in the nation and the third largest in the world. There are 140 public airfields in Washington, including 16 state airports owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) is the major commercial airport of greater Seattle. Boeing Field in Seattle is one of the busiest primary non-hub airports in the US. The unique geography of Washington creates exceptional transportation challenges.\n\nThere are extensive waterways in the midst of Washington's largest cites, including Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma and Olympia. The state highways incorporate an extensive network of bridges and the largest ferry system in the United States to serve transportation needs in the Puget Sound area. Washington's marine highway constitutes a fleet of twenty-eight ferries that navigate Puget Sound and its inland waterways to 20 different ports of call, completing close to 147,000 sailings each year. Washington is home to four of the five longest floating bridges in the world: the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge and Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge over Lake Washington, and the Hood Canal Bridge which connects the Olympic Peninsula and Kitsap Peninsula. Washington has a number of seaports on the Pacific Ocean, including Seattle, Tacoma, Kalama, Anacortes, Vancouver, Longview, Greys County, Olympia, and Port Angeles.\n\nThe Cascade Mountain Range also provides unique transportation challenges. Washington operates and maintains roads over seven major mountain passes and eight minor passes. During winter months some of these passes are plowed, sanded, and kept safe with avalanche control. Not all are able to stay open through the winter. The North Cascades Highway, State Route 20, closes every year. This is because the extraordinary amount of snowfall and frequency of avalanches in the area of Washington Pass make it unsafe in the winter months. The Cayuse and Chinook Passes east of Mount Rainier also close in winter.\n\nWashington is crossed by a number of freight railroads, and Amtrak's passenger Cascade route between Eugene, Oregon and Vancouver, BC is the eighth busiest Amtrak service in the USA and one of the few profitable routes in the system. Public transportation has generally lagged, although the much-delayed link light rail system in the greater Seattle region opened its first line in 2002. Residents of Vancouver have resisted proposals to extend Portland's mass transit system into Washington.\n\nEnvironment\n\nIn 2007, Washington became the first state in the nation to target all forms of highly toxic brominated flame retardants known as PBDEs for elimination from the many common household products in which they are used. A 2004 study of 40 mothers from Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Montana found PBDEs in the breast milk of every woman tested.\n\nThree recent studies by the Washington Department of Ecology showed that toxic chemicals banned decades ago continue to linger in the environment and concentrate in the food chain. In one of the studies, state government scientists found unacceptable levels of toxic substances in 93 samples of freshwater fish collected from 45 sites. The toxic substances included PCBs; dioxins, two chlorinated pesticides, DDE and dieldrin, and PBDEs. As a result of the study, the department will investigate the sources of PCBs in the Wenatchee River, where unhealthy levels of PCBs were found in mountain whitefish. Based on the 2007 information and a previous 2004 Ecology study, the Washington State Department of Health is advising the public not to eat mountain whitefish from the Wenatchee River from Leavenworth downstream to where the river joins the Columbia, due to unhealthy levels of PCBs. Study results also indicated high levels of contaminants in fish tissue that scientists collected from Lake Washington and the Spokane River, where fish consumption advisories are already in effect. \n\nOn March 27, 2006, Governor Christine Gregoire signed into law the recently approved House Bill 2322. This bill would limit phosphorus content in dishwashing detergents statewide to 0.5 percent over the next six years. Though the ban would be effective statewide in 2010, it would take place in Whatcom County, Spokane County, and Clark County in 2008. A recent discovery had linked high contents of phosphorus in water to a boom in algae population. An invasive amount of algae in bodies of water would eventually lead to a variety of excess ecological and technological issues. \n\nGovernment and politics\n\nState government\n\nWashington's executive branch is headed by a governor elected for a four-year term. The current statewide elected officers are:\n* Jay Inslee, Governor (D)\n* Brad Owen, Lieutenant Governor (D)\n* Kim Wyman, Secretary of State (R)\n* Bob Ferguson, Attorney General (D)\n* Jim McIntire, State Treasurer (D)\n* Troy Kelley, State Auditor (D) \n* Randy Dorn, Superintendent of Public Instruction (non-partisan office)\n* Peter J. Goldmark, Commissioner of Public Lands (D)\n* Mike Kreidler, Insurance Commissioner (D)\n\nThe bicameral Washington State Legislature is the state's legislative branch. The state legislature is composed of a lower House of Representatives and an upper State Senate. The state is divided into 49 legislative districts of equal population, each of which elects two representatives and one senator. Representatives serve two-year terms, whilst senators serve for four years. There are no term limits. As of the 2013 and 2014 session, the Democratic Party held the majority in the House, while the Republicans had control of the state Senate with a coalition of some Democrats. In the 2014 midterm elections, the Republican Party took full control of the Senate.\n\nThe Washington Supreme Court is the highest court in the state. Nine justices serve on the bench and are elected statewide.\n\nU.S. Congress\n\nThe two U.S. Senators from Washington are Patty Murray (D) and Maria Cantwell (D).\n\nWashington's ten representatives in the United States House of Representatives (see map of districts) are Suzan DelBene (D-1), Richard Ray (Rick) Larsen (D-2), Jaime Herrera (R-3), Dan Newhouse (R-4), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-5), Derek Kilmer (D-6), Jim McDermott (D-7), Dave Reichert (R-8), Adam Smith (D-9), and Dennis Heck (D-10).\n\nDue to Congressional redistricting as a result of the 2010 Census, Washington gained one seat in the United States House of Representatives. With the extra seat, Washington also gained one electoral vote.\n\nPolitics\n\nThe state is typically thought of as politically divided by the Cascade Mountains, with Western Washington being liberal (particularly the ) and Eastern Washington being conservative. Washington has voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in every election since 1988.\n\nDue to Western Washington's large population, Democrats usually fare better statewide. The Seattle metropolitan combined statistical area, home to almost two-thirds of Washington's population, generally delivers stronger Democratic margins than most other parts of Western Washington. This is especially true of King County, home to Seattle itself and almost a third of the state's population.\n\nWashington was considered a key swing state in 1968, and it was the only western state to give its electoral votes to Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey over his Republican opponent Richard Nixon. Washington was considered a part of the 1994 Republican Revolution, and had the biggest pickup in the house for Republicans, who picked up seven of Washington's nine House seats. However, this dominance did not last for long as Democrats picked up one seat in the 1996 election and two more in 1998, giving the Democrats a 5–4 majority. \n\nThe two current United States Senators from Washington are Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both Democrats. The governorship is currently held by Democrat Jay Inslee, who was elected to his first term in the 2012 gubernatorial election. In 2013 and 2014 both houses of the Washington State Legislature (the Washington Senate and the Washington House of Representatives) were under a Democratic majority, though the state senate was under Republican control, due to two Democrats joining Republicans to form a Majority Coalition Caucus. After the 2014 elections the Democrats retained control of the House, while Republicans took a majority in the Senate without the need for a coalition.\n\nPassed bills\n\nWashington is one of three states to have legalized assisted suicide. In 2008 voted on by initiative the Washington Death with Dignity Act passed and became law.\n\nIn November 2009, Washington state voters approved full domestic partnerships via Referendum 71, marking the first time voters in any state expanded recognition of same-sex relationships at the ballot box.\n\nThree years later, in November 2012, same-sex marriage was affirmed via Referendum 74, making Washington one of only three states to have approved same-sex marriage by popular vote.\n\nAlso In November 2012, Washington state became one of just two states to pass by initiative the legal sale and possession of cannabis for both medical and non-medical use with Initiative 502. The law took effect in December 2012. Although marijuana is still illegal under U.S. Federal law, persons 21 and older in Washington state can possess up to one ounce of marijuana, 16 ounces of marijuana-infused product in solid form, 72 ounces of marijuana-infused product in liquid form, or any combination of all three, and to legally consume marijuana and marijuana-infused products. Some 334 legal recreational marijuana retail outlets are projected to open by June 2014.\n\nWashington state was the first state in the United States where assisted suicide, same-sex marriage, and recreational cannabis use all became legal. After the 2014 elections, it was joined by Oregon.\n\nEducation\n\nElementary and secondary\n\nAs of the 2008–2009 school year, 1,040,750 students were enrolled in elementary and secondary schools in Washington, with 59,562 teachers employed to educate them. As of August 2009, there were 295 school districts in the state, serviced by nine Educational Service Districts. Washington School Information Processing Cooperative (a non-profit, opt-in, State agency) provides information management systems for fiscal & human resources and student data. Elementary and secondary schools are under the jurisdiction of the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), led by State School Superintendent Randy Dorn. \n\nHigh school juniors and seniors in Washington have the option of utilizing the state's Running Start program. Initiated by the state legislature in 1990, the program allows students to attend institutions of higher education at public expense, simultaneously earning high school and college credit. \n\nThe state also has several public arts focused high schools including Tacoma School of the Arts, Vancouver school of Arts and Academics, and The Center School. There are also four Science and Math based high schools: one in the Tri-Cities, Washington, known as Delta, one in Tacoma, Washington, known as SAMI, another in Seattle known as Raisbeck Aviation High School, and one in Redmond, Washington known as Tesla STEM High School.\n\nHigher education\n\nThere are more than 40 institutions of higher education in Washington. The state has major research universities, technical schools, religious schools, and private career colleges. Colleges and Universities include the University of Washington, Seattle University , Washington State University, Western Washington University, Eastern Washington University, Central Washington University, and The Evergreen State College.\n\nHealthcare in Washington\n\nCurrent notable sports teams\n\nMajor professional teams\n\nMinor professional and amateur teams\n\nCollege sports teams\n\n; NCAA Division I\n\n* Washington Huskies (Pac-12 Conference; Football Bowl Subdivision)\n* Washington State Cougars (Pac-12 Conference; Football Bowl Subdivision)\n* Gonzaga Bulldogs (West Coast Conference)\n* Seattle Redhawks (Western Athletic Conference)\n* Eastern Washington Eagles (Big Sky Conference)\n\n; NCAA Division II\n\n* Central Washington Wildcats\n* Saint Martin's Saints\n* Seattle Pacific Falcons\n* Western Washington Vikings\n\n; NCAA Division III\n\n* Pacific Lutheran Lutes\n* Puget Sound Loggers\n* Whitman Missionaries\n* Whitworth Pirates\n\nSymbols, honors, and names\n\nFour ships of the United States Navy, including two battleships, have been named USS Washington in honor of the state. Previous ships had held that name in honor of George Washington.\n\nThe Evergreen State\n\nThe state's nickname \"Evergreen\" was proposed in 1890 by Charles T. Conover of Seattle, Washington. The name proved popular as the forests were full of evergreen trees and the abundance of rain keeps the shrubbery and grasses green throughout the year. Although that nickname is widely used by the state, appearing on vehicle license plates for instance, it has not been officially adopted. The publicly funded Evergreen State College in Olympia also takes its name from this nickname.\n\nState symbols\n\nThe state song is \"Washington, My Home\", the state bird is the American goldfinch, the state fruit is the apple, and the state vegetable is the Walla Walla sweet onion. The state dance, adopted in 1979, is the square dance. The state tree is the western hemlock. The state flower is the coast rhododendron. The state fish is the steelhead. The state folk song is \"Roll On, Columbia, Roll On\" by Woody Guthrie. The unofficial, but popularly accepted, state rock song is Louie Louie. The state grass is bluebunch wheatgrass. The state insect is the green darner dragonfly. The state gem is petrified wood. The state fossil is the Columbian mammoth. The state marine mammal is the orca. The state land mammal is the Olympic marmot. The state seal (featured in the state flag as well) was inspired by the unfinished portrait by Gilbert Stuart." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Sugar.txt" ], "title": [ "Sugar" ], "wiki_context": [ "Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. They are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are various types of sugar derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose, and galactose. The table or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide. (In the body, sucrose hydrolyses into fructose and glucose.) Other disaccharides include maltose and lactose. Longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides. Chemically-different substances may also have a sweet taste, but are not classified as sugars. Some are used as lower-calorie food substitutes for sugar described as artificial sweeteners.\n\nSugars are found in the tissues of most plants, but are present in sufficient concentrations for efficient extraction only in sugarcane and sugar beet. Sugarcane refers to any of several species of giant grass in the genus Saccharum that have been cultivated in tropical climates in South Asia and Southeast Asia since ancient times. A great expansion in its production took place in the 18th century with the establishment of sugar plantations in the West Indies and Americas. This was the first time that sugar became available to the common people, who had previously had to rely on honey to sweeten foods. Sugar beet, a cultivated variety of Beta vulgaris, is grown as a root crop in cooler climates and became a major source of sugar in the 19th century when methods for extracting the sugar became available. Sugar production and trade have changed the course of human history in many ways, influencing the formation of colonies, the perpetuation of slavery, the transition to indentured labour, the migration of peoples, wars between sugar-trade–controlling nations in the 19th century, and the ethnic composition and political structure of the New World.\n\nThe world produced about 168 million tonnes of sugar in 2011. The average person consumes about 24 kg of sugar each year (33.1 kg in industrialised countries), equivalent to over 260 food calories per person, per day.\n\nSince the latter part of the twentieth century, it has been questioned whether a diet high in sugars, especially refined sugars, is good for human health. Sugar has been linked to obesity, and suspected of, or fully implicated as a cause in the occurrence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, macular degeneration, and tooth decay. Numerous studies have been undertaken to try to clarify the position, but with varying results, mainly because of the difficulty of finding populations for use as controls that do not consume or are largely free of any sugar consumption.\n\nEtymology\n\nThe etymology reflects the spread of the commodity. The English word \"sugar\" originates from the Sanskrit śarkarā, via Persian shakkar. It most probably came to England by way of Italian merchants. The contemporary Italian word is zucchero, whereas the Spanish and Portuguese words, azúcar and açúcar respectively, have kept a trace of the Arabic definite article. The Old French word is zuchre – contemporary French sucre. The earliest Greek word attested is σάκχαρις (sákkʰaris). A satisfactory pedigree explaining the spread of the word has yet to be done. The English word jaggery, a coarse brown sugar made from date palm sap or sugarcane juice, has a similar etymological origin; Portuguese xagara or jagara, from the Sanskrit śarkarā. \n\nHistory\n\nAncient times and Middle Ages\n\nSugar has been produced in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times. It was not plentiful or cheap in early times and honey was more often used for sweetening in most parts of the world. Originally, people chewed raw sugarcane to extract its sweetness. Sugarcane was a native of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. Different species seem to have originated from different locations with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule and S. officinarum coming from New Guinea. One of the earliest historical references to sugarcane is in Chinese manuscripts dating back to 8th century BC that state that the use of sugarcane originated in India.\n\nSugar remained relatively unimportant until the Indians discovered methods of turning sugarcane juice into granulated crystals that were easier to store and to transport.Adas, Michael (January 2001). Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History. Temple University Press. ISBN 1-56639-832-0. Page 311. Crystallized sugar was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, around the 5th century AD. In the local Indian language, these crystals were called khanda (Devanagari:खण्ड,), which is the source of the word candy. \n\nIndian sailors, who carried clarified butter and sugar as supplies, introduced knowledge of sugar on the various trade routes they travelled. Buddhist monks, as they travelled around, brought sugar crystallization methods to China.Kieschnick, John (2003). The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09676-7. During the reign of Harsha (r. 606–647) in North India, Indian envoys in Tang China taught methods of cultivating sugarcane after Emperor Taizong of Tang (r. 626–649) made known his interest in sugar. China then established its first sugarcane plantations in the seventh century. Chinese documents confirm at least two missions to India, initiated in 647 AD, to obtain technology for sugar refining.Kieschnick, John (2003). The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture Princeton University Press. 258. ISBN 0-691-09676-7. In South Asia, the Middle East and China, sugar became a staple of cooking and desserts.\n\nThe triumphant progress of Alexander the Great was halted on the banks of the Indus River by the refusal of his troops to go further east. They saw people in the Indian subcontinent growing sugarcane and making granulated, salt-like sweet powder, locally called Sharkara (Devanagari:शर्करा,), Latin saccharum, Greek ζάκχαρι (zakkhari). On their return journey, the Macedonian soldiers carried the \"honey-bearing reeds\" home with them. Sugarcane remained a little-known crop in Europe for over a millennium, sugar a rare commodity, and traders in sugar wealthy.\n\nCrusaders brought sugar home with them to Europe after their campaigns in the Holy Land, where they encountered caravans carrying \"sweet salt\". Early in the 12th century, Venice acquired some villages near Tyre and set up estates to produce sugar for export to Europe, where it supplemented honey, which had previously been the only available sweetener. \nCrusade chronicler William of Tyre, writing in the late 12th century, described sugar as \"very necessary for the use and health of mankind\". In the 15th century, Venice was the chief sugar refining and distribution centre in Europe.\n\nModern history\n\nIn August 1492, Christopher Columbus stopped at La Gomera in the Canary Islands, for wine and water, intending to stay only four days. He became romantically involved with the governor of the island, Beatriz de Bobadilla y Ossorio, and stayed a month. When he finally sailed, she gave him cuttings of sugarcane, which became the first to reach the New World. \n\nThe first sugar cane harvest was conducted in Hispaniola in 1501, and many sugar mills had been constructed in Cuba and Jamaica by the 1520s. The Portuguese took sugar cane to Brazil. By 1540, there were 800 cane sugar mills in Santa Catarina Island and another 2,000 on the north coast of Brazil, Demarara, and Surinam.\n\nSugar was a luxury in Europe until the 18th century, when it became more widely available. It then became popular and by the 19th century, sugar came to be considered a necessity. This evolution of taste and demand for sugar as an essential food ingredient unleashed major economic and social changes. It drove, in part, colonization of tropical islands and nations where labor-intensive sugarcane plantations and sugar manufacturing could thrive. The demand for cheap labor to perform the hard work involved in its cultivation and processing increased the demand for the slave trade from Africa (in particular West Africa). After slavery was abolished, there was high demand for indentured laborers from South Asia (in particular India). Millions of slave and indentured laborers were brought into the Caribbean and the Americas, Indian Ocean colonies, southeast Asia, Pacific Islands, and East Africa and Natal. The modern ethnic mix of many nations that have been settled in the last two centuries has been influenced by the demand for sugar. \n\nSugar also led to some industrialization of areas where sugar cane was grown. For example, Lieutenant J. Paterson, of the Bengal establishment, persuaded the British Government that sugar cane could be cultivated in British India with many advantages and at less expense than in the West Indies; as a result, sugar factories were established in Bihar in eastern India. \n\nDuring the Napoleonic Wars, sugar beet production increased in continental Europe because of the difficulty of importing sugar when shipping was subject to blockade. By 1880, the sugar beet was the main source of sugar in Europe. It was cultivated in Lincolnshire and other parts of England, although the United Kingdom continued to import the main part of its sugar from its colonies. \n\nUntil the late nineteenth century, sugar was purchased in loaves, which had to be cut using implements called Sugar nips. In later years, granulated sugar was more usually sold in bags.\n\nSugar cubes were produced in the nineteenth century. The first inventor of a process to make sugar in cube form was the Moravian Jakub Kryštof Rad, director of a sugar company in Dačice. He began sugar cube production after being granted a five-year patent for the process on January 23, 1843. Henry Tate of Tate & Lyle was another early manufacturer of sugar cubes at his refineries in Liverpool and London. Tate purchased a patent for sugar cube manufacture from German Eugen Langen, who in 1872 had invented a different method of processing of sugar cubes. \n\nChemistry\n\nScientifically, sugar loosely refers to a number of carbohydrates, such as monosaccharides, disaccharides, or oligosaccharides. Monosaccharides are also called \"simple sugars,\" the most important being glucose. Almost all sugars have the formula (n is between 3 and 7). Glucose has the molecular formula . The names of typical sugars end with -ose, as in \"glucose\" and \"fructose\". Sometimes such words may also refer to any types of carbohydrates soluble in water. The acyclic mono- and disaccharides contain either aldehyde groups or ketone groups. These carbon-oxygen double bonds (CO) are the reactive centers. All saccharides with more than one ring in their structure result from two or more monosaccharides joined by glycosidic bonds with the resultant loss of a molecule of water () per bond.\n\nMonosaccharides in a closed-chain form can form glycosidic bonds with other monosaccharides, creating disaccharides (such as sucrose) and polysaccharides (such as starch). Enzymes must hydrolyze or otherwise break these glycosidic bonds before such compounds become metabolized. After digestion and absorption the principal monosaccharides present in the blood and internal tissues include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Many pentoses and hexoses can form ring structures. In these closed-chain forms, the aldehyde or ketone group remains non-free, so many of the reactions typical of these groups cannot occur. Glucose in solution exists mostly in the ring form at equilibrium, with less than 0.1% of the molecules in the open-chain form.\n\nNatural polymers of sugars\n\nBiopolymers of sugars are common in nature. Through photosynthesis, plants produce glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (G3P), a phosphated 3-carbon sugar that is used by the cell to make monosaccharides such as glucose () or (as in cane and beet) sucrose (). Monosaccharides may be further converted into structural polysaccharides such as cellulose and pectin for cell wall construction or into energy reserves in the form of storage polysaccharides such as starch or inulin. Starch, consisting of two different polymers of glucose, is a readily degradable form of chemical energy stored by cells, and can be converted to other types of energy. Another polymer of glucose is cellulose, which is a linear chain composed of several hundred or thousand glucose units. It is used by plants as a structural component in their cell walls. Humans can digest cellulose only to a very limited extent, though ruminants can do so with the help of symbiotic bacteria in their gut. DNA and RNA are built up of the monosaccharides deoxyribose and ribose, respectively. Deoxyribose has the formula and ribose the formula . \n\nFlammability\n\nBecause sugars burn easily when exposed to flame, the handling of sugars risks dust explosion. The 2008 Georgia sugar refinery explosion, which killed 14 persons and injured 40, and destroyed most of the refinery, was caused by the ignition of sugar dust.\n\nTypes of sugar\n\nMonosaccharides\n\nFructose, galactose, and glucose are all simple sugars, monosaccharides, with the general formula C6H12O6. They have five hydroxyl groups (−OH) and a carbonyl group (CO) and are cyclic when dissolved in water. They each exist as several isomers with dextro- and laevo-rotatory forms that cause polarized light to diverge to the right or the left.\n\n*Fructose, or fruit sugar, occurs naturally in fruits, some root vegetables, cane sugar and honey and is the sweetest of the sugars. It is one of the components of sucrose or table sugar. It is used as a high-fructose syrup, which is manufactured from hydrolyzed corn starch that has been processed to yield corn syrup, with enzymes then added to convert part of the glucose into fructose. \n*In general, galactose does not occur in the free state but is a constituent with glucose of the disaccharide lactose or milk sugar. It is less sweet than glucose. It is a component of the antigens found on the surface of red blood cells that determine blood groups. \n*Glucose, dextrose or grape sugar, occurs naturally in fruits and plant juices and is the primary product of photosynthesis. Most ingested carbohydrates are converted into glucose during digestion and it is the form of sugar that is transported around the bodies of animals in the bloodstream. It can be manufactured from starch by the addition of enzymes or in the presence of acids. Glucose syrup is a liquid form of glucose that is widely used in the manufacture of foodstuffs. It can be manufactured from starch by enzymatic hydrolysis. \n\nDisaccharides\n\nLactose, maltose, and sucrose are all compound sugars, disaccharides, with the general formula C12H22O11. They are formed by the combination of two monosaccharide molecules with the exclusion of a molecule of water.\n\n*Lactose is the naturally occurring sugar found in milk. A molecule of lactose is formed by the combination of a molecule of galactose with a molecule of glucose. It is broken down when consumed into its constituent parts by the enzyme lactase during digestion. Children have this enzyme but some adults no longer form it and they are unable to digest lactose. \n*Maltose is formed during the germination of certain grains, the most notable being barley, which is converted into malt, the source of the sugar's name. A molecule of maltose is formed by the combination of two molecules of glucose. It is less sweet than glucose, fructose or sucrose. It is formed in the body during the digestion of starch by the enzyme amylase and is itself broken down during digestion by the enzyme maltase. \n*Sucrose is found in the stems of sugarcane and roots of sugar beet. It also occurs naturally alongside fructose and glucose in other plants, in particular fruits and some roots such as carrots. The different proportions of sugars found in these foods determines the range of sweetness experienced when eating them. A molecule of sucrose is formed by the combination of a molecule of glucose with a molecule of fructose. After being eaten, sucrose is split into its constituent parts during digestion by a number of enzymes known as sucrases. \n\nSources\n\nThe sugar contents of common fruits and vegetables are presented in Table 1.\nAll data with a unit of g (gram) are based on 100 g of a food item.\nThe fructose/glucose ratio is calculated by dividing the sum of free fructose plus half sucrose by the sum of free glucose plus half sucrose.\n\nThe carbohydrate figure is calculated in the USDA database and does not always correspond to the sum of the sugars, the starch, and the \"dietary fibre\".\n\nProduction\n\nSugar beet\n\nSugar beet (Beta vulgaris) is a biennial plant in the Family Amaranthaceae, the tuberous root of which contains a high proportion of sucrose. It is cultivated in temperate regions with adequate rainfall and requires a fertile soil. The crop is harvested mechanically in the autumn and the crown of leaves and excess soil removed. The roots do not deteriorate rapidly and may be left in a clamp in the field for some weeks before being transported to the processing plant. Here the crop is washed and sliced and the sugar extracted by diffusion. Milk of lime is added to the raw juice and carbonatated in a number of stages in order to purify it. Water is evaporated by boiling the syrup under a vacuum. The syrup is then cooled and seeded with sugar crystals. The white sugar that crystallizes out can be separated in a centrifuge and dried. It requires no further refining. \n\nSugarcane\n\nSugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is a perennial grass in the family Poaceae. It is cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical regions for the sucrose that is found in its stems. It requires a frost-free climate with sufficient rainfall during the growing season to make full use of the plant's great growth potential. The crop is harvested mechanically or by hand, chopped into lengths and conveyed rapidly to the processing plant. Here, it is either milled and the juice extracted with water or extracted by diffusion. The juice is then clarified with lime and heated to kill enzymes. The resulting thin syrup is concentrated in a series of evaporators, after which further water is removed by evaporation in vacuum containers. The resulting supersaturated solution is seeded with sugar crystals and the sugar crystallizes out and is separated from the fluid and dried. Molasses is a by-product of the process and the fiber from the stems, known as bagasse, is burned to provide energy for the sugar extraction process. The crystals of raw sugar have a sticky brown coating and either can be used as they are or can be bleached by sulfur dioxide or can be treated in a carbonatation process to produce a whiter product. About 2500 l of irrigation water is needed for every one kilogram of sugar produced. \n\nRefining\n\nRefined sugar is made from raw sugar that has undergone a refining process to remove the molasses. Raw sugar is a sucrose which is synthesized from sugarcane or sugar beet and cannot immediately be consumed before going through the refining process to produce refined sugar or white sugar. \n\nThe sugar may be transported in bulk to the country where it will be used and the refining process often takes place there. The first stage is known as affination and involves immersing the sugar crystals in a concentrated syrup that softens and removes the sticky brown coating without dissolving them. The crystals are then separated from the liquor and dissolved in water. The resulting syrup is treated either by a carbonatation or by a phosphatation process. Both involve the precipitation of a fine solid in the syrup and when this is filtered out, many of the impurities are removed at the same time. Removal of colour is achieved by using either a granular activated carbon or an ion-exchange resin. The sugar syrup is concentrated by boiling and then cooled and seeded with sugar crystals, causing the sugar to crystallize out. The liquor is spun off in a centrifuge and the white crystals are dried in hot air and ready to be packaged or used. The surplus liquor is made into refiners' molasses. \nThe International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis sets standards for the measurement of the purity of refined sugar, known as ICUMSA numbers; lower numbers indicate a higher level of purity in the refined sugar. \n\nRefined sugar is widely used for industrial needs for higher quality. Refined sugar is purer (ICUMSA below 300) than raw sugar (ICUMSA over 1,500). The level of purity associated with the colors of sugar, expressed by standard number ICUMSA (International Commission for Uniform Methods of sugar Analysis), the smaller ICUMSA numbers indicate that higher purity of sugar.\n\nProducing countries\n\nThe five largest producers of sugar in 2011 were Brazil, India, the European Union, China and Thailand. In the same year, the largest exporter of sugar was Brazil, distantly followed by Thailand, Australia and India. The largest importers were the European Union, United States and Indonesia. At present, Brazil has the highest per capita consumption of sugar, followed by Australia, Thailand, and the European Union. \n\nForms and uses\n\n*Brown sugars are granulated sugars, either containing residual molasses, or with the grains deliberately coated with molasses to produce a light- or dark-colored sugar. They are used in baked goods, confectionery, and toffees.\n*Granulated sugars are used at the table, to sprinkle on foods and to sweeten hot drinks, and in home baking to add sweetness and texture to cooked products. They are also used as a preservative to prevent micro-organisms from growing and perishable food from spoiling, as in candied fruits, jams, and marmalades. \n*Invert sugars and syrups are blended to manufacturers specifications and are used in breads, cakes, and beverages for adjusting sweetness, aiding moisture retention and avoiding crystallization of sugars.\n*Liquid sugars are strong syrups consisting of 67% granulated sugar dissolved in water. They are used in the food processing of a wide range of products including beverages, hard candy, ice cream, and jams.\n*Low-calorie sugars and sweeteners are often made of maltodextrin with added sweeteners. Maltodextrin is an easily digestible synthetic polysaccharide consisting of short chains of glucose molecules and is made by the partial hydrolysis of starch. The added sweeteners are often aspartame, saccharin, stevia, or sucralose. \n*Milled sugars (known as confectioner's sugar and powdered sugar) are ground to a fine powder. They are used as icing sugar, for dusting foods and in baking and confectionery.\n*Molasses is commonly used to make rum, and sugar byproducts are used to make ethanol for fuel.\n*Polyols are sugar alcohols and are used in chewing gums where a sweet flavor is required that lasts for a prolonged time in the mouth.\n*Screened sugars are crystalline products separated according to the size of the grains. They are used for decorative table sugars, for blending in dry mixes and in baking and confectionery.\n*Sugar cubes (sometimes called sugar lumps) are white or brown granulated sugars lightly steamed and pressed together in block shape. They are used to sweeten drinks.\n*Syrups and treacles are dissolved invert sugars heated to develop the characteristic flavors. (Treacles have added molasses.) They are used in a range of baked goods and confectionery including toffees and licorice.\n*In winemaking, fruit sugars are converted into alcohol by a fermentation process. If the must formed by pressing the fruit has a low sugar content, additional sugar may be added to raise the alcohol content of the wine in a process called chaptalization. In the production of sweet wines, fermentation may be halted before it has run its full course, leaving behind some residual sugar that gives the wine its sweet taste. \n\nConsumption\n\nIn most parts of the world, sugar is an important part of the human diet, making food more palatable and providing food energy. After cereals and vegetable oils, sugar derived from sugarcane and beet provided more kilocalories per capita per day on average than other food groups. According to the FAO, an average of 24 kg of sugar, equivalent to over 260 food calories per day, was consumed annually per person of all ages in the world in 1999. Even with rising human populations, sugar consumption is expected to increase to per person per year by 2015.\n\nData collected in multiple nationwide surveys between 1999 and 2008 show that the intake of added sugars has declined by 24 percent with declines occurring in all age, ethnic and income groups. \n\nThe per capita consumption of refined sugar in the United States has varied between 27 and in the last 40 years. In 2008, American per capita total consumption of sugar and sweeteners, exclusive of artificial sweeteners, equalled per year. This consisted of pounds of refined sugar and 31 kg pounds of corn-derived sweeteners per person. \n\nHealth effects\n\nSome studies involving the health impact of sugars are effectively inconclusive. The FAO meta studies and WHO studies have shown directly contrasting impacts of sugar in refined and unrefined forms. Hence, There are articles such as Consumer Reports on Health that stated in 2008, \"Some of the supposed dietary dangers of sugar have been overblown. Many studies have debunked the idea that it causes hyperactivity, for example\". \n\nAddiction\n\nSugar addiction is the term for the relationship between sugar and the various aspects of food addiction including \"bingeing, withdrawal, craving and cross-sensitization\". Some scientists assert that consumption of sweets or sugar could have a heroin addiction-like effect. \n\nAlzheimer's disease\n\nClaims have been made of a sugar–Alzheimer's disease connection, but debate continues over whether cognitive decline is attributable to dietary fructose or to overall energy intake. \n\nBlood glucose levels\n\nCarbohydrates are classified according to their glycemic index, a system for measuring how quickly a food that is eaten raises blood sugar levels, and glycemic load, which takes into account both the glycemic index and the amount of carbohydrate in the food. This has led to carbohydrate counting, a method used by diabetics for planning their meals. \n\nCardiovascular disease\n\nStudies in animals have suggested that chronic consumption of refined sugars can contribute to metabolic and cardiovascular dysfunction. Some experts have suggested that refined fructose is more damaging than refined glucose in terms of cardiovascular risk. Cardiac performance has been shown to be impaired by switching from a carbohydrate diet including fiber to a high-carbohydrate diet. \nSwitching from saturated fatty acids to carbohydrates with high glycemic index values shows a statistically-significant increase in the risk of myocardial infarction. Other studies have shown that the risk of developing coronary heart disease is decreased by adopting a diet high in polyunsaturated fatty acids but low in sugar, whereas a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet brings no reduction. This suggests that consuming a diet with a high glycemic load typical of the \"junk food\" diet is strongly associated with an increased risk of developing coronary heart disease. \n\nThe consumption of added sugars has been positively associated with multiple measures known to increase cardiovascular disease risk amongst adolescents as well as adults. \nStudies are suggesting that the impact of refined carbohydrates or high glycemic load carbohydrates are more significant than the impact of saturated fatty acids on cardiovascular disease. \nA high dietary intake of sugar (in this case, sucrose or disaccharide) can substantially increase the risk of heart and vascular diseases. According to a Swedish study of undertaken by Lund University and Malmö University College, sugar was associated with higher levels of bad blood lipids, causing a high level of small and medium low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and reduced high-density lipoprotein (HDL). In contrast, the amount of fat eaten did not affect the level of blood fats. Incidentally quantities of alcohol and protein were linked to an increase in the good HDL blood fat. \n\nHyperactivity\n\nThere is a common notion that sugar leads to hyperactivity, in particular in children, but studies and meta-studies tend to disprove this. Some articles and studies do refer to the increasing evidence supporting the links between refined sugar and hyperactivity. The WHO FAO meta-study suggests that such inconclusive results are to be expected when some studies do not effectively segregate or control for free sugars as opposed to sugars still in their natural form (entirely unrefined) while others do. One study followed thirty-five 5-to-7-year-old boys who were reported by their mothers to be behaviorally \"sugar-sensitive.\" They were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. In the experimental group, mothers were told that their children were fed sugar, and, in the control group, mothers were told that their children received a placebo. In fact, all children received the placebo, but mothers in the sugar expectancy condition rated their children as significantly more hyperactive. This result suggests that the real effect of sugar is that it increases worrying among parents with preconceived notions.\n\nObesity and diabetes\n\nControlled trials have now shown unequivocally that consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages increases body weight and body fat, and that replacement of sugar by artificial sweeteners reduces weight. \nStudies on the link between sugars and diabetes are inconclusive, with some suggesting that eating excessive amounts of sugar does not increase the risk of diabetes, although the extra calories from consuming large amounts of sugar can lead to obesity, which may itself increase the risk of developing this metabolic disease. \nOther studies show correlation between refined sugar (free sugar) consumption and the onset of diabetes, and negative correlation with the consumption of fiber. These included a 2010 meta-analysis of eleven studies involving 310,819 participants and 15,043 cases of type 2 diabetes. \nThis found that \"SSBs (sugar-sweetened beverages) may increase the risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes not only through obesity but also by increasing dietary glycemic load, leading to insulin resistance, β-cell dysfunction, and inflammation\". As an overview to consumption related to chronic disease and obesity, the World Health Organization's independent meta-studies specifically distinguish free sugars (\"all monosaccharides and disaccharides added to foods by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices\") from sugars occurring naturally in food. The reports prior to 2000 set the limits for free sugars at a maximum of 10% of carbohydrate intake, measured by energy, rather than mass, and since 2002 have aimed for a level across the entire population of less than 10%. The consultation committee recognized that this goal is \"controversial. However, the Consultation considered that the studies showing no effect of free sugars on excess weight have limitations\".\n\nTooth decay\n\nIn regard to contributions to tooth decay, the role of free sugars is also recommended to be below an absolute maximum of 10% of energy intake, with a minimum of zero. There is \"convincing evidence from human intervention studies, epidemiological studies, animal studies and experimental studies, for an association between the amount and frequency of free sugars intake and dental caries\" while other sugars (complex carbohydrate) consumption is normally associated with a lower rate of dental caries. Lower rates of tooth decay have been seen in individuals with hereditary fructose intolerance. \n\nAlso, studies have shown that the consumption of sugar and starch have different impacts on oral health with the ingestion of starchy foods and fresh fruit being associated with low levels of dental caries. \n\nRecommended dietary intake\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that both adults and children reduce the intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake. A reduction to below 5% of total energy intake brings additional health benefits, especially in what regards dental caries. These recommendations were based on the totality of available evidence reviewed regarding the relationship between free sugars intake and body weight and dental caries.\n\nFree sugars include monosaccharides and disaccharides added to foods and beverages by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, and sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates.\n\nMeasurements\n\nVarious culinary sugars have different densities due to differences in particle size and inclusion of moisture.\n\nDomino Sugar gives the following weight to volume conversions (in United States customary units): \n*Firmly packed brown sugar 1 lb = 2.5 cups (or 1.3 L per kg, 0.77 kg/L)\n*Granulated sugar 1 lb = 2.25 cups (or 1.17 L per kg, 0.85 kg/L)\n*Unsifted confectioner's sugar 1 lb = 3.75 cups (or 2.0 L per kg, 0.5 kg/L)\n\nThe \"Engineering Resources – Bulk Density Chart\" published in Powder and Bulk gives different values for the bulk densities: \n*Beet sugar 0.80 g/mL\n*Dextrose sugar 0.62 g/mL ( = 620 kg/m^3)\n*Granulated sugar 0.70 g/mL\n*Powdered sugar 0.56 g/mL" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Nepal.txt" ], "title": [ "Nepal" ], "wiki_context": [ "Nepal (; ), officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia with a population of 26.4 million. It is a multiethnic nation with Nepali as the official language. Kathmandu is the nation's capital and largest city. Modern Nepal is a secular parliamentary republic. Its economy depends on tourism, handicrafts, garments, carpets, tea, coffee, IT services, banking and hydropower.\n\nNepal is bordered by China to the north and India to the south, east, and west. It is separated from Bangladesh by a narrow Indian corridor and from Bhutan by the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal is located in the Himalayas and is home to eight of the world's ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Its southern Madhesh region is fertile and humid. The country has an area of , making it the world's 93rd largest country by area. It is also the 41st most populous country.\n\nNepal is first recorded in texts from the Vedic Age, the era that founded Hinduism, the country's predominant religion. Nepal was the world's last Hindu monarchy. Siddharta Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, was born in Lumbini in the country's Rupandehi District. Buddhism is the country's second largest religion, with Tibetan Buddhism being the chief sect. The country also has minorities of Muslims, Kiratans and Christians. \n\nEstablished in the 18th century, the early modern Kingdom of Nepal was led by the Shah dynasty, after Prithvi Narayan Shah unified many principalities in the region. The Rana dynasty administered Nepal's government as hereditary Prime Ministers until 1951. A multiparty democracy evolved until King Mahendra enacted the panchayat system in 1960. In 1990, a parliamentary government was permitted by King Birendra. Nepal faced a decade-long Communist Maoist insurgency and mass protests against the authoritarian King Gyanendra in 2005, which led to the abolition of the monarchy in 2008. Its 2nd constituent assembly promulgated a new constitution in 2015.\n\nThe Nepalese government works in the framework of a representative democracy with seven federal provinces. Nepal is a developing nation, ranking 145th on the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2014. The country struggles with the transition from a monarchy to a republic. It also suffers from high levels of hunger and poverty. Despite these challenges, Nepal is making steady progress, with the government declaring its commitment to elevate the nation from least developed country status in 2022. \n\nNepal has friendship treaties with India and the United Kingdom. It is a founding member and hosts the permanent secretariat of SAARC. It is also a member of the United Nations and BIMSTEC. Nepal is strategically important due to its location between Asia's great powers, China and India.\n\nEtymology\n\nLocal legends say that a Hindu sage named \"Ne\" established himself in the valley of Kathmandu in prehistoric times and that the word \"Nepal\" came into existence as the place was protected (\"pala\" in Pali) by the sage \"Ne\". It is mentioned in Vedic texts that this region was called Nepal centuries ago. According to the Skanda Purana, a rishi called \"Ne\" or \"Nemuni\" used to live in the Himalayas. In the Pashupati Purana, he is mentioned as a saint and a protector. He is said to have practised meditation at the Bagmati and Kesavati rivers and to have taught there. \n\nThe name of the country is also identical in origin to the name of the Newar people. The terms \"Nepāl\", \"Newār\", \"Newāl\" and \"Nepār\" are phonetically different forms of the same word, and instances of the various forms appear in texts in different times in history. Nepal is the learned Sanskrit form and Newar is the colloquial Prakrit form. A Sanskrit inscription dated 512 CE found in Tistung, a valley to the west of Kathmandu, contains the phrase \"greetings to the Nepals\" indicating that the term \"Nepal\" was used to refer to both the country and the people. \n\nIt has been suggested that \"Nepal\" may be a Sanskritization of \"Newar\", or \"Newar\" may be a later form of \"Nepal\". According to another explanation, the words \"Newar\" and \"Newari\" are vulgarisms arising from the mutation of P to V, and L to R. \n\nHistory\n\nAncient\n\nNeolithic tools found in the Kathmandu Valley indicate that people have been living in the Himalayan region for at least eleven thousand years. The oldest population layer is believed to be represented by the Kusunda people. \n\nNepal is first mentioned in the late Vedic Atharvaveda Pariśiṣṭa as a place exporting blankets and in the post-Vedic Atharvashirsha Upanishad. In Samudragupta's Allahabad Pillar it is mentioned as a bordering country. The Skanda Purana has a separate chapter known as \"Nepal Mahatmya\" that explains in more details about the beauty and power of Nepal. Nepal is also mentioned in Hindu texts such as the Narayana Puja. \n\nTibeto-Burman-speaking people probably lived in Nepal 2500 years ago. However, there is no archaeologic evidence of the Gopal Bansa or Kirati rulers, only mention by the later Licchavi and Malla eras. \n\nAround 500 BCE, small kingdoms and confederations of clans arose in the southern regions of Nepal. From one of these, the Shakya polity, arose a prince who later renounced his status to lead an ascetic life, founded Buddhism, and came to be known as Gautama Buddha (traditionally dated 563–483 BCE).\n\nBy 250 BCE, the southern regions came under the influence of the Maurya Empire of North India and parts of Nepal later on became a nominal vassal state under the Gupta Empire in the fourth century CE. Beginning in the third century CE, the Licchavi Kingdom governed the Kathmandu Valley and the region surrounding central Nepal.\n\nThere is a quite detailed description of the kingdom of Nepal in the account of the renowned Chinese Buddhist pilgrim monk Xuanzang, dating from c. 645 CE. Stone inscriptions in the Kathmandu Valley are important sources for the history of Nepal.\n\nThe Licchavi dynasty went into decline in the late eighth century, probably due to the Tibetan Empire, and was followed by a Newar or Thakuri era, from 879 CE (Nepal Sambat 1), although the extent of their control over the present-day country is uncertain. In the eleventh century it seems to have included the Pokhara area. By the late eleventh century, southern Nepal came under the influence of the Chalukya dynasty of South India. Under the Chalukyas, Nepal's religious establishment changed as the kings patronised Hinduism instead of the Buddhism prevailing at that time.\n\nMedieval\n\nIn the early 12th century, leaders emerged in far western Nepal whose names ended with the Sanskrit suffix malla (\"wrestler\"). These kings consolidated their power and ruled over the next 200 years, until the kingdom splintered into two dozen petty states. Another Malla dynasty beginning with Jayasthiti emerged in the Kathmandu valley in the late 14th century, and much of central Nepal again came under a unified rule. In 1482 the realm was divided into three kingdoms: Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur.\n\nKingdom of Nepal (1768–2008)\n\n \n\nIn the mid-18th century, Prithvi Narayan Shah, a Gorkha king, set out to put together what would become present-day Nepal. He embarked on his mission by securing the neutrality of the bordering mountain kingdoms. After several bloody battles and sieges, notably the Battle of Kirtipur, he managed to conquer the Kathmandu Valley in 1769. A detailed account of Prithvi Narayan Shah's victory was written by Father Giuseppe, an eyewitness to the war. \n\nThe Gorkha dominion reached its height when the North Indian territories of the Kumaon and Garhwal Kingdoms in the west to Sikkim in the east came under Nepal rule. At its maximum extent, Greater Nepal extended from the Teesta River in the east, to Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, across the Sutlej in the west as well as further south into the Terai plains and north of the Himalayas than at present. A dispute with Tibet over the control of mountain passes and inner Tingri valleys of Tibet forced the Qing Emperor of China to start the Sino-Nepali War compelling the Nepali to retreat and pay heavy reparations to Peking.\n\nRivalry between Kingdom of Nepal and the East India Company over the annexation of minor states bordering Nepal eventually led to the Anglo-Nepali War (1815–16). At first the British underestimated the Nepali and were soundly defeated until committing more military resources than they had anticipated needing. They were greatly impressed by the valour and competence of their adversaries. Thus began the reputation of Gurkhas as fierce and ruthless soldiers. The war ended in the Sugauli Treaty, under which Nepal ceded recently captured portions of Sikkim and lands in Terai as well as the right to recruit soldiers. Madhesis, having supported the East India Company during the war, had their lands gifted to Nepali. \n\nFactionalism inside the royal family led to a period of instability. In 1846 a plot was discovered revealing that the reigning queen had planned to overthrow Jung Bahadur Kunwar, a fast-rising military leader. This led to the Kot massacre; armed clashes between military personnel and administrators loyal to the queen led to the execution of several hundred princes and chieftains around the country. Jung Bahadur Kunwar emerged victorious and founded the Rana dynasty, later known as Jung Bahadur Rana.\nThe king was made a titular figure, and the post of Prime Minister was made powerful and hereditary. The Ranas were staunchly pro-British and assisted them during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (and later in both World Wars). Some parts of the Terai region populated with non-Nepali peoples were gifted to Nepal by the British as a friendly gesture because of her military help to sustain British control in India during the rebellion. In 1923, the United Kingdom and Nepal formally signed an agreement of friendship that superseded the Sugauli Treaty of 1816. \n\nSlavery was abolished in Nepal in 1924. Nevertheless, debt bondage even involving debtors' children has been a persistent social problem in the Terai. Rana rule was marked by tyranny, debauchery, economic exploitation and religious persecution. \n\nIn the late 1940s, newly emerging pro-democracy movements and political parties in Nepal were critical of the Rana autocracy. Meanwhile, with the invasion of Tibet by China in the 1950s, India sought to counterbalance the perceived military threat from its northern neighbour by taking pre-emptive steps to assert more influence in Nepal. India sponsored both King Tribhuvan (ruled 1911–55) as Nepal's new ruler in 1951 and a new government, mostly comprising the Nepali Congress, thus terminating Rana hegemony in the kingdom. \n\nAfter years of power wrangling between the king and the government, King Mahendra (ruled 1955–72) scrapped the democratic experiment in 1959, and a \"partyless\" Panchayat system was made to govern Nepal until 1989, when the \"Jan Andolan\" (People's Movement) forced King Birendra (ruled 1972–2001) to accept constitutional reforms and to establish a multiparty parliament that took seat in May 1991. In 1991–92, Bhutan expelled roughly 100,000 Bhutanese citizens of Nepali descent, most of whom have been living in seven refugee camps in eastern Nepal ever since.\n\nIn 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal started a bid to replace the royal parliamentary system with a people's republic by violent means. This led to the long Nepali Civil War and more than 12,000 deaths.\n\nOn June 1, 2001, there was a massacre in the royal palace. King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and seven other members of the royal family were killed. The perpetrator was Crown Prince Dipendra, who committed suicide (he died three days later) shortly thereafter. This outburst was alleged to have been Dipendra's response to his parents' refusal to accept his choice of wife. Nevertheless, there is speculation and doubts among Nepali citizens about who was responsible.\n\nFollowing the carnage, King Birendra's brother Gyanendra inherited the throne. On February 1, 2005, King Gyanendra dismissed the entire government and assumed full executive powers to quash the violent Maoist movement, but this initiative was unsuccessful because a stalemate had developed in which the Maoists were firmly entrenched in large expanses of countryside but could not yet dislodge the military from numerous towns and the largest cities. In September 2005, the Maoists declared a three-month unilateral ceasefire to negotiate.\n\nIn response to the 2006 democracy movement, King Gyanendra agreed to relinquish sovereign power to the people. On 24 April 2006 the dissolved House of Representatives was reinstated. Using its newly acquired sovereign authority, on 18 May 2006 the House of Representatives unanimously voted to curtail the power of the king and declared Nepal a secular state, ending its time-honoured official status as a Hindu Kingdom. On 28 December 2007, a bill was passed in parliament to amend Article 159 of the constitution – replacing \"Provisions regarding the King\" by \"Provisions of the Head of the State\" – declaring Nepal a federal republic, and thereby abolishing the monarchy. The bill came into force on 28 May 2008. \n\nRepublic (2008)\n\nThe Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) won the largest number of seats in the Constituent Assembly election held on April 10, 2008, and formed a coalition government which included most of the parties in the CA. Although acts of violence occurred during the pre-electoral period, election observers noted that the elections themselves were markedly peaceful and \"well-carried out\". \n\nThe newly elected Assembly met in Kathmandu on May 28, 2008, and, after a polling of 564 constituent Assembly members, 560 voted to form a new government, with the monarchist Rastriya Prajatantra Party, which had four members in the assembly, registering a dissenting note. At that point, it was declared that Nepal had become a secular and inclusive democratic republic, with the government announcing a three-day public holiday from May 28–30. The king was thereafter given 15 days to vacate Narayanhity Palace so it could reopen as a public museum. \n\nNonetheless, political tensions and consequent power-sharing battles have continued in Nepal. In May 2009, the Maoist-led government was toppled and another coalition government with all major political parties barring the Maoists was formed. Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) was made the Prime Minister of the coalition government. In February 2011 the Madhav Kumar Nepal Government was toppled and Jhala Nath Khanal of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) was made the Prime Minister. In August 2011 the Jhala Nath Khanal Government was toppled and Baburam Bhattarai of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) was made the Prime Minister. \n\nThe political parties were unable to draft a constitution in the stipulated time. This led to dissolution of the Constituent Assembly to pave way for new elections to strive for a new political mandate. In opposition to the theory of separation of powers, then Chief Justice Khila Raj Regmi was made the chairman of the caretaker government. Under Regmi, the nation saw peaceful elections for the constituent assembly. The major forces in the earlier constituent assembly (namely CPN Maoists and Madhesi parties) dropped to distant 3rd and even below. \n\nIn February 2014, after consensus was reached between the two major parties in the constituent assembly, Sushil Koirala was sworn in as the new prime minister of Nepal. \n\nIn September 20, 2015, a new constitution, the \"Constitution of Nepal 2015\" was announced by President Ram Baran Yadav in the constituent assembly. The constituent assembly was transformed into a legislative parliament by the then-chairman of that assembly. The new constitution of Nepal has changed Nepal practically into a federal democratic republic by making 7 unnamed states.\n\nOn April 25, 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal. Two weeks later, on May 12, another earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 hit Nepal, killing more than 150 people in Nepal and more than 200 people in total.\n\nIn October 2015, Bidhya Devi Bhandari was nominated as the first female president. \n\nGeography\n\nNepal is of roughly trapezoidal shape, 800 km long and 200 km wide, with an area of 147181 km2. See List of territories by size for the comparative size of Nepal. It lies between latitudes 26° and 31°N, and longitudes 80° and 89°E.\n\nNepal is commonly divided into three physiographic areas: Mountain, Hill and Terai. These ecological belts run east-west and are vertically intersected by Nepal's major, north to south flowing river systems.\n\nThe southern lowland plains or Terai bordering India are part of the northern rim of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. They were formed and are fed by three major Himalayan rivers: the Kosi, the Narayani, and the Karnali as well as smaller rivers rising below the permanent snowline. This region has a subtropical to tropical climate. The outermost range of foothills called Sivalik Hills or Churia Range cresting at 700 to marks the limit of the Gangetic Plain, however broad, low valleys called Inner Tarai Valleys (Bhitri Tarai Uptyaka) lie north of these foothills in several places.\n\nThe Hill Region (Pahad) abuts the mountains and varies from 800 to in altitude with progression from subtropical climates below 1200 m to alpine climates above 3600 m. The Lower Himalayan Range reaching 1500 to is the southern limit of this region, with subtropical river valleys and \"hills\" alternating to the north of this range. Population density is high in valleys but notably less above 2000 m and very low above 2500 m where snow occasionally falls in winter.\n\nThe Mountain Region (Himal), situated in the Great Himalayan Range, makes up the northern part of Nepal. It contains the highest elevations in the world including 8848 m height Mount Everest (Sagarmāthā in Nepali) on the border with China. Seven other of the world's \"eight-thousanders\" are in Nepal or on its border with China: Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Kangchenjunga, Dhaulagiri, Annapurna and Manaslu.\n\nClimate\n\nNepal has five climatic zones, broadly corresponding to the altitudes. The tropical and subtropical zones lie below 1200 m, the temperate zone 1200 to, the cold zone 2400 to, the subarctic zone 3600 to, and the Arctic zone above 4400 m.\n\nNepal experiences five seasons: summer, monsoon, autumn, winter and spring. The Himalaya blocks cold winds from Central Asia in the winter and forms the northern limit of the monsoon wind patterns. In a land once thickly forested, deforestation is a major problem in all regions, with resulting erosion and degradation of ecosystems.\n\nNepal is popular for mountaineering, having some of the highest and most challenging mountains in the world, including Mount Everest. Technically, the south-east ridge on the Nepali side of the mountain is easier to climb; so, most climbers prefer to trek to Everest through Nepal.\n\nThe highest mountains in Nepal are given here: \n\nGeology\n\nThe collision between the Indian subcontinent and Eurasia, which started in Paleogene time and continues today, produced the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau. Nepal lies completely within this collision zone, occupying the central sector of the Himalayan arc, nearly one third of the -long Himalayas. \n\nThe Indian plate continues to move north relative to Asia at the rate of approximately per year. This is approximately twice the speed at which human fingernails grow, which is very fast given the size of the blocks of Earth's crust involved. As the strong Indian continental crust subducts beneath the relatively weak Tibetan crust, it pushes up the Himalayan Mountains. This collision zone has accommodated huge amounts of crustal shortening as the rock sequences slide one over another.\n\nBased on a study published in 2014, of the Main Frontal Thrust, on average a great earthquake occurs every 750 ± 140 and 870 ± 350 years in the east Nepal region. A study from 2015 found a 700-year delay between earthquakes in the region. The study also suggests, that because of tectonic stress transfer, the earthquake from 1934 in Nepal and the 2015 earthquake are connected - following a historic earthquake pattern. \n\nErosion of the Himalayas is a very important source of sediment, which flows via several great rivers: the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra River systems to the Indian Ocean. \n\nEnvironment\n\nThe dramatic differences in elevation found in Nepal result in a variety of biomes, from tropical savannas along the Indian border, to subtropical broadleaf and coniferous forests in the Hill Region, to temperate broadleaf and coniferous forests on the slopes of the Himalaya, to montane grasslands and shrublands and rock and ice at the highest elevations.\n\nAt the lowest elevations is the Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands ecoregion. These form a mosaic with the Himalayan subtropical broadleaf forests, which occur from 500 to and include the Inner Terai Valleys. Himalayan subtropical pine forests occur between 1000 and.\n\nAbove these elevations, the biogeography of Nepal is generally divided from east to west by the Gandaki River. Ecoregions to the east tend to receive more precipitation and to be more species-rich. Those to the west are drier with fewer species.\n\nFrom 1500 to, are temperate broadleaf forests: the eastern and western Himalayan broadleaf forests. From 3000 to are the eastern and western Himalayan subalpine conifer forests. To 5500 m are the eastern and western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows.\n\n File:Thakuri village near Khartuwa 2013.jpg|View of Khartuwa village from Thakuri village of Sitalpati, Shankhuwasabha, eastern Nepal.\n File:NASA Landsat 7 Nepal.png|NASA Landsat-7 Image of Nepal. Nepal shares its boundaries with India and China\n File:Himalaya sud avion.JPG|The Annapurna range of the Himalayas.\n File:Panorama phoksumdo lake from camp.jpg|Phoksundo Lake\n File:Kaligandaki ghasa.jpg|Kali Gandaki Gorge is one of the deepest gorges on earth.\n File:Marsyangdi valley near Pisang (4518299825).jpg|Marshyangdi Valley – There are many such valleys in the Himalaya created by glacier flows.\n File:Everest kalapatthar crop.jpg|Mount Everest, the highest peak on earth, lies on the Nepal-China border\n File:Wind erosion Kalopani Nepal.jpg|Wind erosion in Kalopani\n File:Terai nepal.jpg|A field in Terai\n File:Phulchowki Hill.jpg|Phulchowki Hill\n File:Hills Views.jpg|Hills view of Ghorahi, Dang\n File:View of hills.jpg|View of mountains\n\nPolitics\n\nNepal has seen rapid political changes during the last two decades. Up until 1990, Nepal was a monarchy under executive control of the King. Faced with a communist movement against absolute monarchy, King Birendra, in 1990, agreed to a large-scale political reform by creating a parliamentary monarchy with the king as the head of state and a prime minister as the head of the government.\n\nNepal's legislature was bicameral, consisting of a House of Representatives called the Pratinidhi Sabha and a National Council called the Rastriya Sabha. The House of Representatives consisted of 205 members directly elected by the people. The National Council had 60 members: ten nominated by the king, 35 elected by the House of Representatives, and the remaining 15 elected by an electoral college made up of chairs of villages and towns. The legislature had a five-year term but was dissolvable by the king before its term could end. All Nepali citizens 18 years and older became eligible to vote.\n\nThe executive comprised the King and the Council of Ministers (the cabinet). The leader of the coalition or party securing the maximum seats in an election was appointed as the Prime Minister. The Cabinet was appointed by the king on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. Governments in Nepal tended to be highly unstable, falling either through internal collapse or parliamentary dissolution by the monarch, on the recommendation of the prime minister, according to the constitution; no government has survived for more than two years since 1991.\n\nThe movement in April 2006 brought about a change in the nation's governance: an interim constitution was promulgated, with the King giving up power, and an interim House of Representatives was formed with Maoist members after the new government held peace talks with the Maoist rebels. The number of parliamentary seats was also increased to 330. In April 2007, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) joined the interim government of Nepal.\n\nIn December 2007, the interim parliament passed a bill making Nepal a federal republic, with a president as head of state. Elections for the constitutional assembly were held on 10 April 2008; the Maoist party led the results but did not achieve a simple majority of seats. The new parliament adopted the 2007 bill at its first meeting by an overwhelming majority, and King Gyanendra was given 15 days to leave the Royal Palace in central Kathmandu. He left on 11 June. \n\nOn 26 June 2008, the prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, who had served as Acting Head of State since January 2007, announced that he would resign on the election of the country's first president by the Constituent Assembly. The first round of voting, on 19 July 2008, saw Parmanand Jha win election as Nepali vice-president, but neither of the contenders for president received the required 298 votes and a second round was held two days later. Ram Baran Yadav of the Nepali Congress party defeated Maoist-backed Ram Raja Prasad Singh with 308 of the 590 votes cast. Koirala submitted his resignation to the new president after Yadav's swearing-in ceremony on 23 July 2008.\n\nOn 15 August 2008, Maoist leader Prachanda (Pushpa Kamal Dahal) was elected Prime Minister of Nepal, the first since the country's transition from a monarchy to a republic. On 4 May 2009, Dahal resigned over on-going conflicts with regard to the sacking of the Army chief. Since Dahal's resignation, the country has been in a serious political deadlock with one of the big issues being the proposed integration of the former Maoist combatants, also known as the People's Liberation Army, into the national security forces. After Dahal, Jhala Nath Khanal of CPN (UML) was elected the Prime Minister. Khanal was forced to step down as he could not succeed in carrying forward the Peace Process and the constitution writing. On August 2011, Maoist Babu Ram Bhattarai became third Prime Minister after the election of constituent assembly. On 24 May 2012, Nepals's Deputy PM Krishna Sitaula resigned.\n\nOn 27 May 2012, the country's Constituent Assembly failed to meet the deadline for writing a new constitution for the country. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai announced that new elections will be held on 22 November 2012. \"We have no other option but to go back to the people and elect a new assembly to write the constitution,\" he said in a nationally televised speech. One of the main obstacles has been disagreement over whether the states which will be created will be based on ethnicity. \n\nNepal is one of the few countries in Asia to abolish the death penalty and the first country in Asia to rule in favor of same-sex marriage. The decision was based on a seven-person government committee study, and enacted through Supreme Court's ruling November 2008. The ruling granted full rights for LGBT individuals, including the right to marry and now can get citizenship as a third gender rather than male or female as authorized by Nepal's Supreme Court in 2007. \n\nConstitution\n\nNepal is governed according to the Constitution of Nepal, which came into effect on September 20, 2015, replacing the Interim Constitution of 2007. The Constitution was drafted by the Second Constituent Assembly following the failure of the First Constituent Assembly to produce a constitution in its mandated period. The constitution is the fundamental law of Nepal. It defines Nepal as having multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious, multi-cultural characteristics with common aspirations of people living in diverse geographical regions, and being committed to and united by a bond of allegiance to national independence, territorial integrity, national interest and prosperity of Nepal. All the Nepali people collectively constitute the nation.\n\nGovernment\n\nThe Constitution of Nepal has defined three organs of the government. \n\nExecutive\n\nThe form of governance of Nepal shall be a multi-party, competitive, federal democratic republican parliamentary system based on plurality.\n\nFederal executive\n\nThe executive power of Nepal shall rest with the Council of Ministers in accordance with the Constitution and law.The President shall appoint the parliamentary party leader of the political party with the majority in the House of Representatives as a Prime Minister, and a Council of Ministers shall be formed in his/her chairmanship\n\nProvincial executive\n\nThe executive power of the Province shall, pursuant to the Constitution and laws, be vested in the Council of Ministers of the Province. Provided that the executive power of the Province shall be exercised by the Provincial Head in case of absence of the Provincial Executive in a State of Emergency or enforcement of Federal rule. Every province shall have a Provincial Head as the representative of the Federal government. The President shall appoint a Provincial Head for every province. The Provincial Head shall exercise the rights and duties as specified in the constitution or laws. The Provincial Head shall appoint the leader of the parliamentary party with majority in the Provincial Assembly as the Chief Minister and the Provincial Council of Ministers shall be formed under the chairpersonship of the Chief Minister.\n\nLegislative\n\nFederal legislature\n\nThere shall be a Legislature, called Federal Parliament, consisting of two Houses, namely the House of Representatives and the National Assembly.\n\nThe House of Representatives\n\nExcept when dissolved earlier, the term of House of Representatives shall be five years. The House of Representatives shall consist of 275 members as follows:\n* 165 members elected through the first-past-the-post electoral system consisting of one member from each of the one hundred and sixty five electoral constituencies formed by dividing Nepal into 165 constituencies based on geography, and population.\n* 110 elected from proportional representation electoral system where voters vote for parties, while treating the whole country as a single electoral constituency.\n\nThe National Assembly\n\nNational Assembly shall be a permanent house. The tenure of members of National Assembly shall be six years. The National Assembly shall consist of two 59 members as follows:\n* 56 members elected from an Electoral College comprising members of Provincial Assembly and chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of Village councils and Mayors and Deputy Mayors of Municipal councils, with different weights of votes for each, with eight members from each province, including at least three women, one Dalit, one person with disability or minority;\n* 3 members, including at least one woman, to be nominated by the President on the recommendation of Government of Nepal.\n\nProvincial legislature\n\nThere shall be a unicameral legislature in a province which shall be called the Provincial Assembly.\nEvery Provincial Assembly shall consist of the following number of members:\n* Members equal to double the number of members to be elected through the first-past-the-post (FPTP) election system to the House of Representatives from the concerned province,\n* The number of members to be elected through the Proportional Representation (PR) election system equal to the number equivalent to the remaining forty per cent when the number of members from FPTP is regarded as sixty per cent.\n\nJudiciary\n\nPowers relating to justice in Nepal shall be exercised by courts and other judicial institutions in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution, other laws and recognized principles of justice. There shall be the following courts in Nepal:\n* Supreme Court\n* High Courts\n* District Courts\n\nForeign relations\n\nNepal has close ties with both of its neighbors, India and China. In accordance with a long-standing treaty, Indian and Nepali citizens may travel to each other's countries without a passport or visa. Nepali citizens may work in India without legal restriction. The Indian Army maintains seven Gorkha regiments consisting of Gorkha troops recruited mostly from Nepal.\n\nHowever, in the years since the Government of Nepal has been dominated by socialists, and India's government has been controlled by more right-wing parties, India has been remilitarizing the \"porous\" Indo-Nepali border to stifle the flow of Islamist groups. \n\nNepal established relations with the People's Republic of China on 1 August 1955, and relations since have been based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Nepal has aided China in the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and China has provided economic assistance for Nepali infrastructure. Both countries have cooperated to host the 2008 Summer Olympics summit of Mt. Everest. Nepal has assisted in curbing anti-China protests from the Tibetan diaspora. \n\nMilitary\n\n \nNepal's military consists of the Nepali Army, which includes the Nepali Army Air Service. The Nepali Police Force is the civilian police and the Armed Police Force Nepal is the paramilitary force. Service is voluntary and the minimum age for enlistment is 18 years. Nepal spends $99.2 million (2004) on its military—1.5% of its GDP. Much of the equipment and arms are imported from India. Consequently, the US provided M16s, M4s and other Colt weapons to combat communist (Maoist) insurgents. The standard-issue battle rifle of the Nepali army is the Colt M16. \n\nIn the new regulations by Nepali Army, female soldiers have been barred from participating in combat situations and fighting in the frontlines of war. However, they are allowed to be a part of the army in sections like intelligence, headquarters, signals and operations. \n\nSubdivisions\n\nAs of 20 September 2015 Nepal is divided into 7 provinces and 75 districts.\n\nProvince No. 1\n1. Taplejung District\n2. Panchthar District\n3. Ilam District\n4. Sankhuwasabha District\n5. Terhathum District\n6. Dhankuta District\n7. Bhojpur District\n8. Khotang District\n9. Solukhumbu District\n10. Okhaldhunga District\n11. Udayapur District\n12. Jhapa District\n13. Morang District\n14. Sunsari District\nProvince No. 2\n1. Saptari District\n2. Siraha District\n3. Dhanusha District\n4. Mahottari District\n5. Sarlahi District\n6. Rautahat District\n7. Bara District\n8. Parsa District\nProvince No. 3\n1. Dolakha District\n2. Ramechhap District\n3. Sindhuli District\n4. Kavrepalanchowk District\n5. Sindhupalchowk District\n6. Rasuwa District\n7. Nuwakot District\n8. Dhading District\n9. Chitwan District\n10. Makwanpur District\n11. Bhaktapur District\n12. Lalitpur District\n13. Kathmandu District\nProvince No. 4\n1. Gorkha District\n2. Lamjung District\n3. Tanahu District\n4. Kaski District\n5. Manang District\n6. Mustang District\n7. Parbat District\n8. Syangja District\n9. Myagdi District\n10. Baglung District\n11. Nawalparasi District (east of Bardaghat Susta)\nProvince No. 5\n1. Nawalparasi District (west of Bardaghat Susta)\n2. Rupandehi District\n3. Kapilbastu District\n4. Palpa District\n5. Arghakhanchi District\n6. Gulmi District\n7. Rukum District (eastern part)\n8. Rolpa District\n9. Pyuthan District\n10. Dang District\n11. Banke District\n12. Bardiya District\nProvince No. 6\n1. Rukum (Western part)\n2. Salyan District\n3. Dolpa District\n4. Jumla District\n5. Mugu District\n6. Humla District\n7. Kalikot District\n8. Jajarkot District\n9. Dailekh District\n10. Surkhet District\nProvince No. 7\n1. Bajura District\n2. Bajhang District\n3. Doti District\n4. Achham District\n5. Darchula District\n6. Baitadi District\n7. Dadeldhura District\n8. Kanchanpur District\n9. Kailali District\n\nEconomy\n\nNepal's gross domestic product (GDP) for 2012 was estimated at over $17.921 billion (adjusted to nominal GDP). In 2010, agriculture accounted for 36.1%, services comprised 48.5%, and industry 15.4% of Nepal's GDP. While agriculture and industry are contracting, the contribution by the service sector is increasing. \n\nAgriculture employs 76% of the workforce, services 18% and manufacturing and craft-based industry 6%. Agricultural produce – mostly grown in the Terai region bordering India – includes tea, rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, root crops, milk, and water buffalo meat. Industry mainly involves the processing of agricultural produce, including jute, sugarcane, tobacco, and grain. Its workforce of about 10 million suffers from a severe shortage of skilled labor.\n\nNepal's economic growth continues to be adversely affected by the political uncertainty. Nevertheless, real GDP growth was estimated to increase to almost 5 percent for 2011–2012. This is an improvement from the 3.5 percent GDP growth in 2010–2011 and would be the second-highest growth rate in the post-conflict era. Sources of growth include agriculture, construction, financial and other services. The contribution of growth by consumption fueled by remittances has declined since 2010/2011. While remittance growth slowed to 11 percent (in Nepali Rupee terms) in 2010/2011, it has since increased to 37 percent. Remittances are estimated to be equivalent to 25–30 percent of GDP. Inflation has been reduced to a three-year low of 7 percent.\n\nThe proportion of poor people has declined substantially since 2003. The percentage of people living below the international poverty line (people earning less than US$1.25 per day) has halved in seven years. At this measure of poverty the percentage of poor people declined from 53.1% in 2003/2004 to 24.8% in 2010/2011. With a higher poverty line of US$2 per-capita per day, poverty declined by one quarter to 57.3%. However, the income distribution remains grossly uneven. \n\nIn a recent survey, Nepal has performed extremely well in reducing poverty along with Rwanda and Bangladesh as the percentage of poor dropped to 44.2 percent of the population in 2011 from 64.7 percent in 2006—4.1 percentage points per year, which means that Nepal has made improvement in sectors like nutrition, child mortality, electricity, improved flooring and assets. If the progress of reducing poverty continues at this rate, then it is predicted that Nepal will halve the current poverty rate and eradicate it within the next 20 years. \n\nThe spectacular landscape and diverse, exotic cultures of Nepal represent considerable potential for tourism, but growth in the industry has been stifled by political instability and poor infrastructure. Despite these problems, in 2012 the number of international tourists visiting Nepal was 598,204, a 10% increase on the previous year. The tourism sector contributed nearly 3% of national GDP in 2012 and is the second-biggest foreign income earner after remittances. \n\nThe rate of unemployment and underemployment approaches half of the working-age population. Thus many Nepali citizens move to other countries in search of work. Destinations include India, Qatar, the United States, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Brunei Darussalam, Australia, and Canada. Nepal receives $50 million a year through the Gurkha soldiers who serve in the Indian and British armies and are highly esteemed for their skill and bravery. , the total remittance value is around $3.5 billion. In 2009 alone, the remittance contributed to 22.9% of the nation's GDP.\n\nA long-standing economic agreement underpins a close relationship with India. The country receives foreign aid from the UK, India, Japan, the US, the EU, China, Switzerland, and Scandinavian countries. Poverty is acute; per-capita income is around $1,000. The distribution of wealth among the Nepali is consistent with that in many developed and developing countries: the highest 10% of households control 39.1% of the national wealth and the lowest 10% control only 2.6%.\n\nThe government's budget is about $1.153 billion, with expenditure of $1.789 billion (FY 20005/06). The Nepali rupee has been tied to the Indian rupee at an exchange rate of 1.6 for many years. Since the loosening of exchange rate controls in the early 1990s, the black market for foreign exchange has all but disappeared. The inflation rate has dropped to 2.9% after a period of higher inflation during the 1990s.\n\nNepal's exports of mainly carpets, clothing, hemp, leather goods, jute goods and grain total $822 million. Import commodities of mainly gold, machinery and equipment, petroleum products and fertilizer total US$2 billion. European Union (EU) (46.13%), the US (17.4%), and Germany (7.1%) are its main export partners. The European Union has emerged the largest buyer of Nepali ready-made garments (RMG). Exports to the EU accounted for \"46.13 percent of the country's total garment exports\". Nepal's import partners include India (47.5%), the United Arab Emirates (11.2%), China (10.7%), Saudi Arabia (4.9%), and Singapore (4%).\n\nBesides having landlocked, rugged geography, few tangible natural resources and poor infrastructure, the ineffective post-1950 government and the long-running civil war are also factors in stunting the nation's economic growth and development. \n\nInfrastructure\n\nEnergy\n\nThe bulk of the energy in Nepal comes from by fuel wood (68%) agricultural waste (15%), animal dung (8%), and imported fossil fuel (8%). Except for some lignite deposits, Nepal has no known oil, gas or coal deposits. All commercial fossil fuels (mainly oil and coal) are either imported from India or from international markets routed through India and China. Fuel imports absorb over one-fourth of Nepal's foreign exchange earnings. Only about 1% energy need is fulfilled by electricity. Paradoxically, the perennial nature of Nepali rivers and the steep gradient of the country's topography provide ideal conditions for the development of some of the world's largest hydroelectric projects in Nepal. Current estimates put Nepal's economically feasible hydropower potential to be approximately 83,000 MW from 66 hydropower project sites. However, currently Nepal has been able to exploit only about 600 MW from 20 major hydropower plants and a number of small and micro hydropower plants. There are 9 major hydropower plants under construction, and additional 27 sites considered for potential development. Only about 40% of Nepal's population has access to electricity. There is a great disparity between urban and rural areas. The electrification rate in urban areas is 90%, whereas the rate for rural areas is only 5%. Power cuts of up to 22 hours a day take place in peak demand periods of winter and the peak electricity demand is almost the double the capability or dependable capacity. The position of the power sector remains unsatisfactory because of high tariffs, high system losses, high generation costs, high overheads, over staffing, and lower domestic demand.\n\nTransport\n\nNepal remains isolated from the world's major land, air and sea transport routes although, within the country, aviation is in a better state, with 47 airports, 11 of them with paved runways; flights are frequent and support a sizable traffic. The hilly and mountainous terrain in the northern two-thirds of the country has made the building of roads and other infrastructure difficult and expensive. In 2007 there were just over 10142 km of paved roads, and 7140 km of unpaved road, and one 59 km railway line in the south.\n\nThere is a single reliable road route from India to the Kathmandu Valley. More than one-third of its people live at least a two hours walk from the nearest all-season road; 15 out of 75 district headquarters are not connected by road. In addition, around 60% of road network and most rural roads are not operable during the rainy season. The only practical seaport of entry for goods bound for Kathmandu is Kolkata in West Bengal state of India. Internally, the poor state of development of the road system makes access to markets, schools, and health clinics a challenge.\n\nCommunications\n\nAccording to the Nepal Telecommunication Authority MIS May 2012 report, there are seven operators and the total voice telephony subscribers including fixed and mobile are 16,350,946 which gives a penetration rate of 61.42%. The fixed telephone service account for 9.37%, mobile for 64.63%, and other services (LM, GMPCS) for 3.76% of the total penetration rate. Similarly, the numbers of subscribers to data/internet services are 4,667,536 which represents 17.53% penetration rate. Most of the data service is accounted by GPRS users. Twelve months earlier the data/internet penetration was 10.05%, thus this represents a growth rate of 74.77%.\n\nNot only has there been strong subscriber growth, especially in the mobile sector, but there was evidence of a clear vision in the sector, including putting a reform process in place and planning for the building of necessary telecommunications infrastructure. Most importantly, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) and the telecom regulator, the National Telecommunications Authority (NTA), have both been very active in the performance of their respective roles. \n\nDespite all the effort, there remained a significant disparity between the high coverage levels in the cities and the coverage available in the underdeveloped rural regions. Progress on providing some minimum access had been good. Of a total of 3,914 village development committees across the country, 306 were unserved by December 2009. In order to meet future demand, it was estimated that Nepal needed to invest around US$135 million annually in its telecom sector. In 2009, the telecommunication sector alone contributed to 1% of the nation's GDP. As of 30 September 2012, Nepal has 1,828,700 Facebook users. \n\n, the state operates two television stations as well as national and regional radio stations. There are roughly 30 independent TV channels registered, with only about half in regular operation. Nearly 400 FM radio stations are licensed with roughly 300 operational. According to the 2011 census, the percentage of households possessing radio was 50.82%, television 36.45%, cable TV 19.33%, computer 7.23%. According to the Press Council Nepal, there are 2,038 registered newspapers in Nepal, among which 514 are in publication. In 2013, Reporters Without Borders ranked Nepal at 118th place in the world in terms of press freedom. \n\nEducation\n\nThe overall literacy rate (for population age 5 years and above) increased from 54.1% in 2001 to 65.9% in 2011. The male literacy rate was 75.1% compared to the female literacy rate of 57.4%. The highest literacy rate was reported in Kathmandu district (86.3%) and lowest in Rautahat (41.7%). While the net primary enrollment rate was 74% in 2005; in 2009, that enrollment rate was 90%. \n\nHowever, increasing access to secondary education(grades 9-12) remains a major challenge, as evidenced by the low net enrollment rate of 24% at this level. More than half of primary students do not enter secondary schools, and only one-half of them complete secondary schooling. In addition, fewer girls than boys join secondary schools and, among those who do, fewer complete the 10th grade. \n\nNepal has seven universities: Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu University, Pokhara University, Purbanchal University, Mahendra Sanskrit University, Far-western University, and the Agriculture and Forestry University of Nepal (AFU). Some newly proposed universities are Lumbini Bouddha University, and Mid-Western University. Some fine scholarship has emerged in the post-1990 era. \n\nHealth\n\nPublic health and health care services in Nepal are provided by both the public and private sectors and fare poorly by international standards. According to 2011 census, more than one third (38.17%) of the total households do not have a toilet. Tap water is the main source of drinking water for 47.78% of households, tube well/hand pump is the main source of drinking water for about 35% of households, while spout, uncovered well/kuwa and covered well/kuwa are the main source for 5.74%, 4.71% and 2.45% respectively. Based on 2010 World Health Organization (WHO) data, Nepal ranked 139th in life expectancy in 2010 with the average Nepali living to 65.8 years. \n\nDiseases are more prevalent in Nepal than in other South Asian countries, especially in rural areas. Leading diseases and illnesses include diarrhea, gastrointestinal disorders, goitres, intestinal parasites, leprosy, visceral leishmaniasis and tuberculosis. About 4 out of 1,000 adults aged 15 to 49 had human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and the HIV prevalence rate was 0.5%. Malnutrition also remains very high: about 47% of children under five are stunted, 15 percent wasted, and 36 percent underweight, although there has been a declining trend for these rates over the past five years, they remain alarmingly high. In spite of these figures, improvements in health care have been made, most notably in maternal-child health. In 2012, the under-five infant mortality was estimated to be 41 out of every 1000 children. Overall Nepal's Human Development Index (HDI) for health was 0.77 in 2011, ranking Nepal 126 out of 194 countries, up from 0.444 in 1980. \n\nCommunity forestry\n\nThe Community Forestry Program in Nepal is a participatory environmental governance that encompasses well-defined policies, institutions, and practices. The program addresses the twin goals of forest conservation and poverty reduction. As more than 70 percent of Nepal's population depends on agriculture for their livelihood, community management of forests has been a critically important intervention. Through legislative developments and operational innovations over three decades, the program has evolved from a protection-oriented, conservation-focused agenda to a much more broad-based strategy for forest use, enterprise development, and livelihood improvement. By April 2009, one-third of Nepal's population was participating in the program, directly managing more than one-fourth of Nepal's forest area. \n\nThe immediate livelihood benefits derived by rural households bolster strong collective action wherein local communities actively and sustainably manage forest resources. Community forests also became the source of diversified investment capital and raw material for new market-oriented livelihoods. Community forestry shows traits of political, financial, and ecological sustainability, including emergence of a strong legal and regulatory framework, and robust civil society institutions and networks. However, a continuing challenge is to ensure equitable distribution of benefits to women and marginalized groups. Lessons for replication emphasize experiential learning, establishment of a strong civil society network, flexible regulation to encourage diverse institutional modalities, and responsiveness of government and policymakers to a multistakeholder collaborative learning process. \n\nCrime and law enforcement\n\nLaw enforcement in Nepal is primarily the responsibility of the Nepali Police Force which is the national police of Nepal. It is independent of the Nepali Army. In the days of its establishment, Nepal Police personnel were mainly drawn from the armed forces of the Nepali Congress Party which fought against the feudal Rana autocracy in Nepal. The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) and National Investigation Department of Nepal (NID) are the investigation agencies of Nepal. They have offices in all 75 administrative districts including regional offices in five regions and zonal offices in 14 zones. Numbers vary from three to five members at each district level in rural districts, and numbers can be higher in urban districts. They have both Domestic and International surveillance unit which mainly deals with cross border terrorists, drug trafficking and money laundering. \n\nA 2010 survey estimated about 46,000 hard drug users in the country, with 70% of the users to be within the age group of 15 to 29. The same survey also reported that 19% of the users had been introduced to hard drugs when they were less than 15 years old; and 14.4% of drug users were attending school or college. Only 12 of the 17 municipalities studied had any type of rehabilitation center. There has been a sharp increase in the seizure of drugs such as hashish, heroin and opium in the past few years; and there are indications that drug traffickers are trying to establish Nepal as a transit point. \n\nHuman trafficking is a major problem in Nepal. Nepali victims are trafficked within Nepal, to India, the Middle East, and other areas such as Malaysia and forced to become prostitutes, domestic servants, beggars, factory workers, mine workers, circus performers, child soldiers, and others. Sex trafficking is particularly rampant within Nepal and to India, with as many as 5,000 to 10,000 women and girls trafficked to India alone each year. \n\nWith wider availability of information technology, cyber crime is a growing trend. The police handled 16 cases of cyber crime in fiscal year 2010/2011, 47 cases in 2011/2012 and 78 in the current fiscal year. \n\nCapital punishment was abolished in Nepal in 1997. In 2008, the Nepali government abolished the Haliya system of forced labour, freeing about 20,000 people. However, the effectiveness of this has been questioned by the Asian Legal Resource Centre. \n\nDemographics\n\nAccording to the 2011 census, Nepal's population grew from 9 million people in 1950 to 26.5 million. From 2001 to 2011, the average family size declined from 5.44 to 4.9. The census also noted some 1.9 million absentee people, over a million more than in 2001; most are male laborers employed overseas, predominantly in South Asia and the Middle East. This correlated with the drop in sex ratio from 94.41 as compared to 99.80 for 2001. The annual population growth rate is 1.35%.\n\nThe citizens of Nepal are known as the Nepalese or Nepali people. The country is home to people of many different national origins. As a result, Nepalese do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizenship and allegiance.\nAlthough citizens make up the majority of Nepalese, non-citizen residents, dual citizeners, and expatriates may also claim an Nepalese identity.\nNepal is multicultural and multiethnic country because it became a country by occupying several small kingdoms such as Mustang, Videha (Mithila), Madhesh, and Limbuwan in 18th century. The oldest settlements in Mithila and Tharuhat are indigenous Maithil and aboriginal Tharu people. Northern Nepal is historically inhabited by Kirants Mongoloid, Rai and Limbu people. The mountainous region is sparsely populated above , but in central and western Nepal ethnic Sherpa and Lamapeople inhabit even higher semi-arid valleys north of the Himalaya. Kathmandu Valley, in the middle hill region, constitutes a small fraction of the nation's area but is the most densely populated, with almost 5 percent of the nation's population.\nThe Nepali are descendants of three major migrations from India, Tibet, and North Burma and the Chinese province of Yunnan via Assam. Among the earliest inhabitants were the Kirat of east mid-region, Newars of the Kathmandu Valley, aboriginal Tharus of Tharuhat, Madhesis of Madhesh and Maithils of Mithila region. Ancient and Indigenous Madhesis are descendents of Nepalese origin tribes while Indian origin Madhesis are the descendents of Nepalese migrants to Madhesh from Indian state of Bihar and Uttar pradesh; the Brahmin (Bahun) and Kshatriya (Chettri) caste groups are descendents of migrants from India's present Banaras, Kumaon, Garhwal and Kashmir regions, while other ethnic groups trace their origins to North Burma and Yunnan and Tibet, e.g., the Gurung and Magar in the west, Rai, Sunuwar and Limbu in the east (from Yunnan and north Burma via Assam), and Sherpa and Bhutia in the north (from Tibet).\n\nDespite the migration of a significant section of the population to the Madhesh (southern plains) in recent years, the majority of Nepalese still live in the central highlands; the northern mountains are sparsely populated. Kathmandu, with a population of over 2.6 million (metropolitan area: 5 million), is the largest city in the country and the cultural and economic heart.\n\nAccording to the World Refugee Survey 2008, published by the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Nepal hosted a population of refugees and asylum seekers in 2007 numbering approximately 130,000. Of this population, approximately 109,200 persons were from Bhutan and 20,500 from People's Republic of China. The government of Nepal restricted Bhutanese refugees to seven camps in the Jhapa and Morang districts, and refugees were not permitted to work in most professions. At present, the United States is working towards resettling more than 60,000 of these refugees in the US. \n\nLanguages\n\nNepal's diverse linguistic heritage stems from three major language groups: Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, and various indigenous language isolates. The major languages of Nepal (percent spoken as native language) according to the 2011 census are Nepali (44.6%), Maithili (11.7%), Bhojpuri (Awadhi Language) (6.0%), Tharu (5.8%), Tamang (5.1%), Nepal Bhasa (3.2%), Bajjika (3%) and Magar (3.0%), Doteli (3.0%), Urdu (2.6%) and Sunwar. Nepal is home to at least four indigenous sign languages.\n\nDerived from Sanskrit, Nepali is written in Devanagari script. Nepali is the official language and serves as lingua franca among Nepali of different ethnolinguistic groups. The regional languages Maithili,\nAwadhi, Bhojpuri and rarely Urdu of Nepali Muslims are spoken in the southern Madhesh region. Many Nepali in government and business speak Maithili as main language and English as their de facto lingua franca. Varieties of Tibetan are spoken in and north of the higher Himalaya where standard literary Tibetan is widely understood by those with religious education. Local dialects in the Terai and hills are mostly unwritten with efforts underway to develop systems for writing many in Devanagari or the Roman alphabet.\n\nReligion\n\nThe overwhelming majority of the Nepalese population follows Hinduism. Shiva is regarded as the guardian deity of the country. Nepal is home to the famous Lord Shiva temple, the Pashupatinath Temple, where Hindus from all over the world come for pilgrimage. According to Hindu mythology, the goddess Sita of the epic Ramayana, was born in the Mithila Kingdom of King Janaka Raja.\n\nLumbini is a Buddhist pilgrimage site and UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Kapilavastu district. Traditionally it is held to be the birthplace in about 563 B.C. of Siddhartha Gautama, a Kshatriya caste prince of the Sakya clan, who as the Buddha Gautama, founded Buddhism.\n\nThe holy site of Lumbini is bordered by a large monastic zone, in which only monasteries can be built. All three main branches of Buddhism exist in Nepal and the Newa people have their own branch of the faith. Buddhism is also the dominant religion of the thinly populated northern areas, which are mostly inhabited by Tibetan-related peoples, such as the Sherpa.\n\nThe Buddha, born as a Hindu, is also said to be a descendant of Vedic Sage Angirasa in many Buddhist texts. The Buddha's family surname is associated with Gautama Maharishi. Differences between Hindus and Buddhists have been minimal in Nepal due to the cultural and historical intermingling of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. Moreover, traditionally Buddhism and Hinduism were never two distinct religions in the western sense of the word. In Nepal, the faiths share common temples and worship common deities. Among other natives of Nepal, those more influenced by Hinduism were the Magar, Sunwar, Limbu and Rai and the Gurkhas. Hindu influence is less prominent among the Gurung, Bhutia, and Thakali groups who employ Buddhist monks for their religious ceremonies. Most of the festivals in Nepal are Hindu. The Machendrajatra festival, dedicated to Hindu Shaiva Siddha, is celebrated by many Buddhists in Nepal as a main festival. As it is believed that Ne Muni established Nepal, some important priests in Nepal are called \"Tirthaguru Nemuni\".\nIslam is a minority religion in Nepal, with 4.2% of the population being Muslim according to a 2006 Nepali census. Mundhum, Christianity and Jainism are other minority faiths. \n\nLargest cities\n\n;The 14 largest cities by population as per the 2011 census\n\n* Kathmandu (Pop.: 975,453)\n* Pokhara (Pop.: 255,465)\n* Lalitpur (Pop.: 220,802)\n* Biratnagar (Pop.: 201,125)\n* Bharatpur (Pop.: 143,836)\n* Birganj (Pop.: 135,904)\n* Butwal (Pop.: 118,462)\n* Dharan (Pop.: 116,181)\n* Bhim Datta (Pop.: 104,599)\n* Dhangadhi (Pop.: 101,970)\n* Janakpur (Pop.: 97,776)\n* Hetauda (Pop.:84,671)\n* Madhyapur Thimi (Pop.: 83,036)\n* Bhaktapur (Pop.: 81,748)\n* Ghorahi, Dang (Pop.:62,938)\n\nCulture\n\nFolklore is an integral part of Nepali society. Traditional stories are rooted in the reality of day-to-day life, tales of love, affection and battles as well as demons and ghosts and thus reflect local lifestyles, cultures and beliefs. Many Nepali folktales are enacted through the medium of dance and music.\n\nMost houses in the rural lowlands of Nepal are made up of a tight bamboo framework and walls of a mud and cow-dung mix. These dwellings remain cool in summer and retain warmth in winter. Houses in the hills are usually made of unbaked bricks with thatch or tile roofing. At high elevations construction changes to stone masonry and slate may be used on roofs.\n\nNepal's flag is the only national flag in the world that is not rectangular in shape. The constitution of Nepal contains instructions for a geometric construction of the flag. According to its official description, the red in the flag stands for victory in war or courage, and is also the colour of the rhododendron, the national flower of Nepal. Red also stands for aggression. The flag's blue border signifies peace. The curved moon on the flag is a symbol of the peaceful and calm nature of Nepali, while the sun represents the aggressiveness of Nepali warriors.\n\nHolidays and festivals\n\nThe Nepali year begins in 1st of Baisakh in official Hindu Calendar of the country, the Bikram Sambat which falls in mid-April and is divided into 12 months. Saturday is the official weekly holiday. Main annual holidays include the National Day, celebrated on the birthday of the king (28 December), Prithvi Jayanti (11 January), Martyr's Day (18 February), and a mix of Hindu and Buddhist festivals such as dashain in autumn, tihar in mid autumn and Chhath in late autumn. . During Swanti, the Newars perform the Mha Puja ceremony to celebrate New Year's Day of the lunar calendar Nepal Sambat. Most of the festivals in Nepal are Hindu.\n\nCuisine\n\nThe staple Nepali meal is dal bhat. Dal is a lentil soup, and is served over bhat (boiled rice), with tarkari (curried vegetables) together with achar (pickles) or chutni (spicy condiment made from fresh ingredients). It consists of non-vegetarian as well as vegetarian items. Mustard oil is a common cooking medium and a host of spices, including cumin, coriander, black pepper, sesame seeds, turmeric, garlic, ginger, methi (fenugreek), bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, chilies and mustard seeds are used in cooking. Momo is a type of steamed dumpling with meat or vegetable fillings, and is a popular fast food in many regions of Nepal.\n\nSports\n\nAssociation football is the most popular sport in Nepal and was first played during the Rana dynasty in 1921. The one and only international stadium in the country is the Dasarath Rangasala Stadium where the national team plays its home matches. \n\nCricket has been gaining popularity since the last decade. Since the establishment of the national team, Nepal has played its home matches on the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground. The national team has since won the 2012 ICC World Cricket League Division Four and the 2013 ICC World Cricket League Division Three simultaneously hence qualifying for 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier. They also qualified for the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh. On 28 June 2014, the ICC awarded T20I status to Nepal, who took part and performed exceptionally well in the 2014 ICC World Twenty20. Nepal had already played three T20I matches before gaining the status, as ICC had earlier announced that all matches at the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 would have T20I status. Nepal won the 2014 ICC World Cricket League Division Three held in Malaysia and qualified for the 2015 ICC World Cricket League Division Two. \n\nNepal finished fourth in the 2015 ICC World Cricket League Division Two in Namibia and qualified for the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship. But Nepal failed to secure promotion to Division One and qualification to 2015–17 ICC Intercontinental Cup after finishing third in the round-robin stage. Basanta Regmi became the first bowler to take 100 wickets in the World Cricket League. He achieved this feat after taking 2 wickets against Netherlands in the tournament. \n\nGallery\n\nFile:Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square..jpg|Holi festival celebrations in Nepal\nFile:Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu.jpg|Pashupatinath Temple \nFile:Nepali National Cricket team.JPG|Nepal cricket team\nFile:Kathmandu-21.JPG|Musicians playing devotional songs \nFile:Rani mahal.jpg|One of the Rana palaces of Nepal\nFile:Culinária tradicional do Nepal.jpg|Urban Newari cuisine\nFile:Plateful of Momo in Nepal.jpg|Tibetan momos in Nepal" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "World_Diabetes_Day.txt", "Hormone.txt" ], "title": [ "World Diabetes Day", "Hormone" ], "wiki_context": [ "World Diabetes Day is the primary global awareness campaign of the diabetes world and is held on November 14 each year. It was introduced in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization in response to the alarming rise of diabetes around the world. World Diabetes Day is a campaign that features a new theme chosen by the International Diabetes Federation each year to address issues facing the global diabetes community. While the campaigns last the whole year, the day itself marks the birthday of Frederick Banting who, along with Charles Best and John James Rickard Macleod, first conceived the idea which led to the discovery of insulin in 1922. \n\nEach year, World Diabetes Day is centred on a theme related to diabetes. Topics covered have included diabetes and human rights, diabetes and lifestyle, diabetes and obesity, diabetes in the disadvantaged and the vulnerable, diabetes in children and adolescents. People with diabetes get to take a day off work or school on this day and talking about Diabetes. \n\nWorld Diabetes Day is celebrated worldwide by the over 230 member associations of the International Diabetes Federation in more than 160 countries and territories, all Member States of the United Nations, as well as by other associations and organizations, companies, healthcare professionals and people living with diabetes and their families.\n\nThe global diabetes community including International Diabetes Federation member associations, diabetes organizations, NGOs, health departments, civil society, individuals and companies develop an extensive range of activities, tailored to a variety of groups. Activities organized each year include:\n\n* Radio and television programmes\n* Sports events\n* Free screenings for diabetes and its complications\n* Public information meetings\n* Poster and leaflet campaigns\n* Diabetes workshops and exhibitions\n* Press conferences\n* Newspaper and magazine articles\n* Events for children and adolescents\n* Monument lightings\n* Human blue circles\n* Walks\n* Runs\n* Cycle Race\n* Political Events\n\nLogo \n\nThe World Diabetes Day logo is a [http://www.idf.org/bluecircle blue circle] - the global symbol for diabetes. The logo was adopted in 2007 to mark the passage of the United Nations World Diabetes Day Resolution (61/225). The significance of the blue circle symbol is overwhelmingly positive. Across cultures, the circle symbolizes life and health. The colour blue reflects the sky that unites all nations and is the colour of the United Nations flag. The blue circle signifies the unity of the global diabetes community in response to the diabetes pandemic.", "A hormone (from the Greek participle “”) is any member of a class of signaling molecules produced by glands in multicellular organisms that are transported by the circulatory system to target distant organs to regulate physiology and behaviour. Hormones have diverse chemical structures, mainly of 3 classes: eicosanoids, steroids, and amino acid derivatives (amines, peptides, and proteins). The glands that secrete hormones comprise the endocrine signaling system. The term hormone is sometimes extended to include chemicals produced by cells that affect the same cell (autocrine or intracrine signalling) or nearby cells (paracrine signalling).\n\nHormones are used to communicate between organs and tissues for physiological regulation and behavioral activities, such as digestion, metabolism, respiration, tissue function, sensory perception, sleep, excretion, lactation, stress, growth and development, movement, reproduction, and mood. Hormones affect distant cells by binding to specific receptor proteins in the target cell resulting in a change in cell function. When a hormone binds to the receptor, it results in the activation of a signal transduction pathway. This may lead to cell type-specific responses that include rapid non-genomic effects or slower genomic responses where the hormones acting through their receptors activate gene transcription resulting in increased expression of target proteins. Amino acid–based hormones (amines and peptide or protein hormones) are water-soluble and act on the surface of target cells via second messengers; steroid hormones, being lipid-soluble, move through the plasma membranes of target cells (both cytoplasmic and nuclear) to act within their nuclei.\n\nHormone secretion may occur in many tissues. Endocrine glands are the cardinal example, but specialized cells in various other organs also secrete hormones. Hormone secretion occurs in response to specific biochemical signals from a wide range of regulatory systems. For instance, serum calcium concentration affects parathyroid hormone synthesis; blood sugar (serum glucose concentration) affects insulin synthesis; and because the outputs of the stomach and exocrine pancreas (the amounts of gastric juice and pancreatic juice) become the input of the small intestine, the small intestine secretes hormones to stimulate or inhibit the stomach and pancreas based on how busy it is. Regulation of hormone synthesis of gonadal hormones, adrenocortical hormones, and thyroid hormones is often dependent on complex sets of direct influence and feedback interactions involving the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA), -gonadal (HPG), and -thyroid (HPT) axes.\n\nUpon secretion, certain hormones, including protein hormones and catecholamines, are water-soluble and are thus readily transported through the circulatory system. Other hormones, including steroid and thyroid hormones, are lipid-soluble; to allow for their widespread distribution, these hormones must bond to carrier plasma glycoproteins (e.g., thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG)) to form ligand-protein complexes. Some hormones are completely active when released into the bloodstream (as is the case for insulin and growth hormones), while others are prohormones that must be activated in specific cells through a series of activation steps that are commonly highly regulated. The endocrine system secretes hormones directly into the bloodstream typically into fenestrated capillaries, whereas the exocrine system secretes its hormones indirectly using ducts. Hormones with paracrine function diffuse through the interstitial spaces to nearby target tissue.\n\nOverview \n\nHormonal signaling involves the following steps:\n# Biosynthesis of a particular hormone in a particular tissue\n# Storage and secretion of the hormone\n# Transport of the hormone to the target cell(s)\n# Recognition of the hormone by an associated cell membrane or intracellular receptor protein\n# Relay and amplification of the received hormonal signal via a signal transduction process: This then leads to a cellular response. The reaction of the target cells may then be recognized by the original hormone-producing cells, leading to a down-regulation in hormone production. This is an example of a homeostatic negative feedback loop.\n# Breakdown of the hormone.\n\nHormone cells are typically of a specialized cell type, residing within a particular endocrine gland, such as the thyroid gland, ovaries, and testes. Hormones exit their cell of origin via exocytosis or another means of membrane transport. The hierarchical model is an oversimplification of the hormonal signaling process. Cellular recipients of a particular hormonal signal may be one of several cell types that reside within a number of different tissues, as is the case for insulin, which triggers a diverse range of systemic physiological effects. Different tissue types may also respond differently to the same hormonal signal.\n\nRegulation \n\nThe rate of hormone biosynthesis and secretion is often regulated by a homeostatic negative feedback control mechanism. Such a mechanism depends on factors that influence the metabolism and excretion of hormones. Thus, higher hormone concentration alone cannot trigger the negative feedback mechanism. Negative feedback must be triggered by overproduction of an \"effect\" of the hormone.\n\nHormone secretion can be stimulated and inhibited by:\n* Other hormones (stimulating- or releasing -hormones)\n* Plasma concentrations of ions or nutrients, as well as binding globulins\n* Neurons and mental activity\n* Environmental changes, e.g., of light or temperature\n\nOne special group of hormones is the tropic hormones that stimulate the hormone production of other endocrine glands. For example, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) causes growth and increased activity of another endocrine gland, the thyroid, which increases output of thyroid hormones.\n\nTo release active hormones quickly into the circulation, hormone biosynthetic cells may produce and store biologically inactive hormones in the form of pre- or prohormones. These can then be quickly converted into their active hormone form in response to a particular stimulus.\n\nEicosanoids are considered to act as local hormones.\n\nReceptors \n\n Most hormones initiate a cellular response by initially binding to either cell membrane associated or intracellular receptors. A cell may have several different receptor types that recognize the same hormone but activate different signal transduction pathways, or a cell may have several different receptors that recognize different hormones and activate the same biochemical pathway.\n\nReceptors for most peptide as well as many eicosanoid hormones are embedded in the plasma membrane at the surface of the cell and the majority of these receptors belong to the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) class of seven alpha helix transmembrane proteins. The interaction of hormone and receptor typically triggers a cascade of secondary effects within the cytoplasm of the cell, often involving phosphorylation or dephosphorylation of various other cytoplasmic proteins, changes in ion channel permeability, or increased concentrations of intracellular molecules that may act as secondary messengers (e.g., cyclic AMP). Some protein hormones also interact with intracellular receptors located in the cytoplasm or nucleus by an intracrine mechanism.\n\nFor steroid or thyroid hormones, their receptors are located inside the cell within the cytoplasm of the target cell. These receptors belong to the nuclear receptor family of ligand-activated transcription factors. To bind their receptors, these hormones must first cross the cell membrane. They can do so because they are lipid-soluble. The combined hormone-receptor complex then moves across the nuclear membrane into the nucleus of the cell, where it binds to specific DNA sequences, regulating the expression of certain genes, and thereby increasing the levels of the proteins encoded by these genes. However, it has been shown that not all steroid receptors are located inside the cell. Some are associated with the plasma membrane.\n\nEffects \n\nHormones have the following effects on the body:\n\n* stimulation or inhibition of growth\n* wake-sleep cycle and other circadian rhythms\n* mood swings\n* induction or suppression of apoptosis (programmed cell death)\n* activation or inhibition of the immune system\n* regulation of metabolism\n* preparation of the body for mating, fighting, fleeing, and other activity\n* preparation of the body for a new phase of life, such as puberty, parenting, and menopause\n* control of the reproductive cycle\n* hunger cravings\n* sexual arousal\n\nA hormone may also regulate the production and release of other hormones. Hormone signals control the internal environment of the body through homeostasis.\n\nChemical classes \n\nAs hormones are defined functionally, not structurally, they may have diverse chemical structures. Hormones occur in multicellular organisms (plants, animals, fungi, brown algae and red algae). These compounds occur also in unicellular organisms, and may act as signaling molecules, but there is no consensus if, in this case, they can be called hormones.\n\nAnimal \n\nVertebrate hormones fall into four main chemical classes:\n\n* Amino acid derived – Examples include melatonin and thyroxine.\n* Peptides, polypeptides and proteins. – Small peptide hormones include TRH and vasopressin. Peptides composed of scores or hundreds of amino acids are referred to as proteins. Examples of protein hormones include insulin and growth hormone. More complex protein hormones bear carbohydrate side-chains and are called glycoprotein hormones. Luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone and thyroid-stimulating hormone are examples of glycoprotein hormones.\n* Eicosanoids – hormones derive from lipids such as arachidonic acid, lipoxins and prostaglandins.\n* Steroid – Examples of steroid hormones include the sex hormones estradiol and testosterone as well as the stress hormone cortisol.\n\nCompared with vertebrate, insects and crustaceans possess a number of structurally unusual hormones such as the juvenile hormone, a sesquiterpenoid. \n\nPlant \n\nPlant hormones include abscisic acid, auxin, cytokinin, ethylene, and gibberellin.\n\nTherapeutic use \n\nMany hormones and their structural and functional analogs are used as medication. The most commonly prescribed hormones are estrogens and progestogens (as methods of hormonal contraception and as HRT), thyroxine (as levothyroxine, for hypothyroidism) and steroids (for autoimmune diseases and several respiratory disorders). Insulin is used by many diabetics. Local preparations for use in otolaryngology often contain pharmacologic equivalents of adrenaline, while steroid and vitamin D creams are used extensively in dermatological practice.\n\nA \"pharmacologic dose\" or \"supraphysiological dose\" of a hormone is a medical usage referring to an amount of a hormone far greater than naturally occurs in a healthy body. The effects of pharmacologic doses of hormones may be different from responses to naturally occurring amounts and may be therapeutically useful, though not without potentially adverse side effects. An example is the ability of pharmacologic doses of glucocorticoids to suppress inflammation.\n\nHormone-behavior interactions \n\nAt the neurological level, behavior can be inferred based on: hormone concentrations; hormone-release patterns; the numbers and locations of hormone receptors; and the efficiency of hormone receptors for those involved in gene transcription. Not only do hormones influence behavior, but also behavior and the environment influence hormones. Thus, a feedback loop is formed. For example, behavior can affect hormones, which in turn can affect behavior, which in turn can affect hormones, and so on.\n\nThree broad stages of reasoning may be used when determining hormone-behavior interactions:\n* The frequency of occurrence of a hormonally dependent behavior should correspond to that of its hormonal source\n* A hormonally dependent behavior is not expected if the hormonal source (or its types of action) is non-existent\n* The reintroduction of a missing behaviorally dependent hormonal source (or its types of action) is expected to bring back the absent behavior\n\nComparison with neurotransmitters \n\nThere are various clear distinctions between hormones and neurotransmitters:\n* A hormone can perform functions over a larger spatial and temporal scale than can a neurotransmitter.\n* Hormonal signals can travel virtually anywhere in the circulatory system, whereas neural signals are restricted to pre-existing nerve tracts\n* Assuming the travel distance is equivalent, neural signals can be transmitted much more quickly (in the range of milliseconds) than can hormonal signals (in the range of seconds, minutes, or hours). Neural signals can be sent at speeds up to 100 meters per second.\n* Neural signalling is an all-or-nothing (digital) action, whereas hormonal signalling is an action that can be continuously variable as dependent upon hormone concentration\n\nDiscovery\n\nThe discovery of hormones and endocrine signaling occurred during studies of how the digestive system regulates its activities, as explained at Secretin § Discovery." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Plate_armour.txt", "Armour.txt", "Greave.txt" ], "title": [ "Plate armour", "Armour", "Greave" ], "wiki_context": [ "Plate armour is a historical type of personal body armour made from iron or steel plates, culminating in the iconic suit of armour entirely encasing the wearer. While there are early predecessors such as the Roman-era lorica segmentata, full plate armour developed in Europe during the Late Middle Ages, especially in the context of the Hundred Years' War, from the coat of plates worn over mail suits during the 13th century.\n\nIn Europe, plate armour reached its peak in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The full suit of armour is thus a feature of the very end of the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance period. \nIts popular association with the \"medieval knight\" is due to the specialised jousting armour which developed in the 16th century.\n\nFull suits of Gothic plate armour were worn on the battlefields of the Burgundian and Italian Wars. The most heavily armoured troops of the period were heavy cavalry such as the gendarmes and early cuirassiers, but the infantry troops of the Swiss mercenaries and the landsknechts also took to wearing lighter suits of \"three quarters\" munition armour, leaving the lower legs unprotected. \n\nThe use of plate armour declined in the 17th century, but it remained common both among the nobility and for the cuirassiers throughout the European wars of religion. After 1650, plate armour was mostly reduced to the simple breastplate (cuirass) worn by cuirassiers. This was due to the development of the flintlock musket, which could penetrate armour at a considerable distance.\nFor infantry, the breastplate gained renewed importance with the development of shrapnel in the late Napoleonic wars. \nThe use of steel plates sewn into flak jackets dates to World War II, replaced by more modern materials such as fibre-reinforced plastic since the 1950s.\n\nEarly history \n\nPartial plate armour, which protected the chest and the lower limbs, was used by the ancient Greeks (muscle cuirass) and Romans (lorica segmentata), but it fell into disuse after the collapse of the Roman Empire because of the cost and work involved in producing a piece of metal plate or cuirass. Parthian and Sassanian heavy cavalry units known as Clibanarii used cuirasses and small, overlapping plates in the manner of the manica for the protection of arms and legs.\n\nSingle plates of metal armour were again used from the late 13th century on, to protect joints and shins, and these were worn over a mail hauberk. Gradually the number of plate components of medieval armour increased, protecting further areas of the body, and in barding those of a cavalryman's horse. Armourers developed skills in articulating the lames or individual plates for parts of the body that needed to be flexible, and in fitting armour to the individual wearer like a tailor. The cost of a full suit of high quality fitted armour, as opposed to the cheaper munition armour (equivalent of ready-to-wear) was enormous, and inevitably restricted to the wealthy who were seriously committed to either soldiering or jousting. The rest of an army wore inconsistent mixtures of pieces, with maille still playing an important part.\n\nLate Middle Ages \n\nBy about 1420, complete suits of plate armour had been developed. A full suit of plate armour would have consisted of a helmet, a gorget (or bevor), pauldrons , besagews, rondels, couters, vambraces, gauntlets, a cuirass (back and breastplate) with a fauld, tassets and a culet, a mail skirt, cuisses, poleyns, greaves, and sabatons. The very fullest sets, known as garnitures, more often made for jousting than war, included pieces of exchange, alternate pieces suiting different purposes, so that the suit could be configured for a range of different uses, for example fighting on foot or on horse.\n\nA complete suit of plate armour made from well-tempered steel would weigh around 15–25 kg(33-55 pounds). The wearer remained highly agile and could jump, run and otherwise move freely as the weight of the armour was spread evenly throughout the body. The armour was articulated and covered a man's entire body completely from neck to toe. In the 15th and 16th centuries, large bodies of men-at-arms numbering thousands or even more than ten thousand men (as many as 60% of an army) were fighting on foot wearing full plate next to archers and crossbowmen. This was commonly seen in the Western European armies especially of France and England during the Hundred Years War, the Wars of the Roses or the Italian Wars.\n\nEuropean leaders in armouring techniques were northern Italians, especially from Milan, and southern Germans, who had somewhat different styles. But styles were diffused around Europe, often by the movement of armourers; the Renaissance Greenwich armour was made by a royal workshop near London that had imported Italian, Flemish and (mostly) German craftsmen, though it soon developed its own unique style. Ottoman Turkey also made wide use of plate armour but incorporated large amounts of mail into their armour, which was widely used by shock troops such as the Janissary Corps.\n\nEffect on weapon development \n\nPlate armour was virtually invulnerable to sword slashes. It also protected the wearer well against spear or pike thrusts and provided decent defense against blunt trauma.\n\nThe evolution of plate armour also triggered developments in the design of offensive weapons. While this armour was effective against cuts or blows, their weak points could be exploited by long tapered swords or other weapons designed for the purpose, such as pollaxes and halberds. The effect of arrows and bolts is still a point of contention in regards to plate armour. The evolution of the 14th-century plate armour also triggered the development of various polearms. They were designed to deliver a strong impact and concentrate energy on a small area and cause damage through the plate. Maces, war hammers and the hammer-heads of pollaxes (poleaxes) were used to inflict blunt trauma through armour.\n\nFluted plate was not only decorative, but also reinforced the plate against bending under slashing or blunt impact. This offsets against the tendency for flutes to catch piercing blows. In armoured techniques taught in the German school of swordsmanship, the attacker concentrates on these \"weak spots\", resulting in a fighting style very different from unarmoured sword-fighting. Because of this weakness most warriors wore a mail shirt (haubergeon or hauberk) beneath their plate armour (or coat-of-plates). Later, full mail shirts were replaced with mail patches, called gussets, sewn onto a gambeson or arming jacket. Further protection for plate armour was the use of small round plates called besagews that covered the armpit area and couters and poleyns with \"wings\" to protect the inside of the joint.\n\nRenaissance \n\nGerman so-called Maximilian armour of the early 16th century is a style using heavy fluting and some decorative etching, as opposed to the plainer finish on 15th-century white armour. The shapes include influence from Italian styles. This era also saw the use of closed helms, as opposed to the 15th-century-style sallets and barbutes. During the early 16th century the helmet and neckguard design was reformed to produce the so-called Nürnberg armour, many of them masterpieces of workmanship and design. \n\nAs firearms became better and more common on the battlefield the utility of full armour gradually declined, and full suits became restricted to those made for jousting (see below) which continued to develop. The decoration of fine armour greatly increased in the period, using a whole range of techniques, and further greatly increasing the cost. Elaborately decorated plate armour for royalty and the very wealthy was being produced. Highly decorated armour is often called parade armour, a somewhat misleading term as such armour might well be worn on active military service. Steel plate armour for Henry II of France made in 1555 is covered with meticulous embossing, which has been subjected to blueing, silvering and gilding. \n\nSuch work required armourers to either collaborate with artists or have artistic skill of their own; another alternative was to take designs from ornament prints and other prints, as was often done. Daniel Hopfer was an etcher of armour by training, who developed etching as a form of printmaking. Other artists such as Hans Holbein the Younger produced designs for armour. The Milanese armourer Filippo Negroli, from a leading dynasty of armourers, was the most famous modeller of figurative relief decoration on armour.\n\nA partial exception to the declining protection offered by armour came in the Age of Discovery as Europeans encountered the natives of parts of the world still without firearms. The Spanish Conquistadors found armour extremely practical and (for both horses and men) intimidating to the Amerindians, and in the early North American Colonial period some pieces of armour, especially breastplates and helmets, continued to be worn.\n\nInfantry \n\nReduced plate armour, typically consisting of a breastplate, a burgonet, morion or cabasset and gauntlets, however, also became popular among 16th-century mercenaries and there are many references to so-called munition armour being ordered for infantrymen at a fraction of the cost of full plate armour. This mass-produced armour was often heavier and made of lower quality metal than fine armour for commanders. \n\nJousting \n\nSpecialised jousting armour produced in the late 15th to 16th century was heavier, and could weigh as much as 50 kg (110 pounds), as it was not intended for free combat, it did not need to permit free movement, the only limiting factor being the maximum weight that could be carried by a warhorse of the period.\n\nThe medieval joust has its origins in the military tactics of heavy cavalry during the High Middle Ages. These became obsolete during the 14th century, and since the 15th century, jousting had become a sport (hastilude) without direct relevance to warfare.\nDuring the 1490s, emperor Maximilian I invested a lot of effort into perfecting the sport, for which he received his nickname of \"The Last Knight\".\nRennen and Stechen were two sportive forms of the joust developed during the 15th century and practiced throughout the 16th century. The armours used for these two respective styles of the joust was known as Rennzeug and Stechzeug, respectively.\nThe Stechzeug in particular developed into extremely heavy armour which completely inhibited the movement of the rider, in its latest forms resembling an armour-shaped cabin integrated into the horse armour more than a functional suit of armour.\nSuch forms of sportive equipment during the final phase of the joust in 16th-century Germany gave rise to modern misconceptions about the heaviness or clumsiness of \"medieval armour\", as notably popularised by Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. \nThe extremely heavy helmets of the Stechzeug are explained by the fact that the aim was to detach the crest of the opponent's helmet, resulting in frequent full impact of the lance to the helmet.\n\nBy contrast the Rennen was a type of joust with lighter contact. Here, the aim was to hit the opponent's shield.\nThe specialised Rennzeug was developed on the request of Maximilian, who desired a return to a more agile form of joust compared to the heavily armoured \"full contact\" Stechen. In the Rennzeug, the shield was attached to the armour with a mechanism of springs and would detach itself upon contact.\n\nFile:Stechzeug of Maximilian I by Wendelin Boeheim.jpg| Stechzeug; note that the parts protecting the lower body and the legs were incorporated as part of the horse armour (not shown).\nFile:Rennzeug by Wendelin Boeheim.jpg| Rennzeug\nFile:HJRK B 75, A 79 - Kolbenturnierhelm, 1480-85, and arms, 1486.jpg| Armour designed for the Kolbenturnier, dated to the 1480s. The Kolbenturnier was a late form of the tournament, unlike the joust played with two teams using wooden clubs (Kolben) to hit opponents' helmet crests.\n\nEarly Modern period \n\nPlate armour was widely used by most armies until the end of the 17th century for both foot and mounted troops such as the cuirassiers, dragoons, demi-lancers and Polish hussars.\nThe infantry armour of the 16th century developed into the Savoyard type of three-quarters armour by 1600.\n\nFull plate armour was expensive to produce and remained therefore restricted to the upper strata of society; lavishly decorated suits of armour remained the fashion with 18th-century nobles and generals long after they had ceased to be militarily useful on the battlefield due to the advent of inexpensive muskets.\n\nThe development of powerful rifled firearms made all but the finest and heaviest armour obsolete. The increasing power and availability of firearms and the nature of large, state-supported infantry led to more portions of plate armour being cast off in favour of cheaper, more mobile troops. Leg protection was the first part to go, replaced by tall leather boots. By the beginning of the 18th century, only field marshals, commanders and royalty remained in full armour on the battlefield, more as a sign of rank than for practical considerations. It remained fashionable for monarchs to be portrayed in armour during the first half of the 18th century (late Baroque period), but even this tradition became obsolete. Thus, a portrait of Frederick the Great in 1739 still shows him in armour, while a later painting showing him as a commander in the Seven Years' War (1760s) depicts him without armour.\n\nBody armour remained in use with cuirassiers throughout the 19th century and into the early phase of World War I. The cuirass represents the final stage of the tradition of plate armour descended from the late medieval period. Meanwhile, makeshift steel armour against shrapnel and early forms of ballistic vests began to be developed from the mid 19th century.\n\nJapan \n\nIn Kofun period Japan, during the 4th and 5th centuries, very advanced iron plate cuirasses called tanko and helmets were made. Plate armour was used in Japan during the Nara period (646-793), both plate and lamellar armours have been found in burial mounds and haniwa (ancient clay figures) have been found depicting warriors wearing full armour.\n\nIn Japan the warfare of the Sengoku period (15th and 16th centuries) required large quantities of armour to be produced for the ever growing armies of foot soldiers (ashigaru). Simple munition-quality chest armours (dō) and helmets (kabuto) were mass-produced.\n\nIn 1543, the Portuguese brought matchlock firearms (tanegashima) to Japan. The Japanese started to manufacture the Portuguese acquired matchlocks and the use of these firearms in warfare caused the gradual decline in the use of the centuries-old lamellar armour that the samurai were known for; the Japanese armour makers started to use solid iron plates in their armour designs which were based on European armours, and eventually plate armour became the standard for samurai warriors. The new style Japanese plate armours were called tosei gusoku (new armours) in order to differentiate from the old style lamellar armours. Japanese armour makers designed bulletproof plate armours called tameshi gusoku or (bullet tested), which allowed soldiers to continue wearing armour despite the heavy use of firearms in the late 1500s. \n\nIn the 1600s warfare in Japan came to an end but the samurai continued to use plate armour until the end of the samurai era in the 1860s, with the known last use of samurai armour occurring in 1877 during the Satsuma rebellion. \n\nModern body armour \n\nThe cavalry armour of Napoleon, and the French, German, and British empires (heavy cavalry known as cuirassiers) were actively used through the 19th century right up to the first year of World War I, when French cuirassiers went to meet the enemy in armour outside of Paris.\n\nBody armour made a brief reappearance in the American Civil War with mixed success. During the war both sides experimented with shrapnel armour and some soldiers used their own but dedicated ballistic armour such as the American Brewster Body Shield, although not widely produced.\nIn 1916 General Adrian of the French army provided an abdominal shield which was light in weight (two pounds) and easy to wear. \nA number of British officers recognised that many casualties could be avoided if effective armour were available. . \n\nThe first usage of the term \"flak jacket\" refers to the armour originally developed by the Wilkinson Sword company during World War II to help protect Royal Air Force (RAF) air personnel from the flying debris and shrapnel.The Red Army also made use of ballistic steel body armour, typically chestplates, for combat engineers and assault infantry. \n\nAfter World War II, steel plates were soon replaced by vests made from synthetic fibre, in the 1950s made of either boron carbide, silicon carbide, or aluminium oxide. They were issued to the crew of low-flying aircraft, such as the UH-1 and UC-123, during the Vietnam War. The synthetic fibre Kevlar was introduced in 1971, and most ballistic vests since the 1970s are based on kevlar, optionally with the addition of trauma plates to reduce the risk of blunt trauma injury. Such plates may be made of ceramic, metal (steel or titanium) or synthetic materials.", "Armour (spelled armor in the US) is a protective covering that is used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an object, individual, or vehicle by direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentially dangerous environment or action (e.g., cycling, construction sites, etc.). Personal armour is used to protect soldiers and war animals. Vehicle armour is used on warships and armoured fighting vehicles.\n\nA second use of the term armour describes armoured forces, armoured weapons, and their role in combat. After the evolution of armoured warfare, mechanised infantry and their weapons came to be referred to collectively as \"armour\".\n\nEtymology\n\nThe word \"armour\" began to appear in the Middle Ages as a derivative of Old French. It is dated from 1297 as a \"mail, defensive covering worn in combat\". The word originates from the Old French armure, itself derived from the Latin armatura meaning \"arms and/or equipment\", with the root armare meaning \"arms or gear\". \n\nPersonal\n\nArmour has been used throughout recorded history. It has been made from a variety of materials, beginning with rudimentary leather protection and evolving through mail and metal plate into today's modern composites. For much of military history the manufacture of metal personal armour has dominated the technology and employment of armour. Armour drove the development of many important technologies of the Ancient World, including wood lamination, mining, metal refining, vehicle manufacture, leather processing, and later decorative metal working. Its production was influential in the industrial revolution, and furthered commercial development of metallurgy and engineering. Armour was the single most influential factor in the development of firearms, which in turn revolutionised warfare.\n\nHistory\n\nSignificant factors in the development of armour include the economic and technological necessities of its production. For instance, plate armour first appeared in Medieval Europe when water-powered trip hammers made the formation of plates faster and cheaper. Also, modern militaries usually do not equip their forces with the best armour available because it would be prohibitively expensive. At times the development of armour has paralleled the development of increasingly effective weaponry on the battlefield, with armourers seeking to create better protection without sacrificing mobility.\n\nWell-known armour types in European history include the lorica hamata, lorica squamata, and the lorica segmentata of the Roman legions, the mail hauberk of the early medieval age, and the full steel plate harness worn by later medieval and renaissance knights, and breast and back plates worn by heavy cavalry in several European countries until the first year of World War I (1914–15). The samurai warriors of feudal Japan utilised many types of armour for hundreds of years up to the 19th century.\n\nEarly\n\nCuirasses and helmets were manufactured in Japan as early as the 4th century. Tankō, worn by foot soldiers and keikō, worn by horsemen were both pre-samurai types of early Japanese armour constructed from iron plates connected together by leather thongs. Japanese lamellar armour (keiko) passed through Korea and reached Japan around the 5th century. These early Japanese lamellar armours took the form of a sleeveless jacket and a helmet. \n\nArmour did not always cover all of the body; sometimes no more than a helmet and leg plates were worn. The rest of the body was generally protected by means of a large shield. Examples of armies equipping their troops in this fashion were the Aztecs (13th to 15th century CE). \n\nIn East Asia many types of armour were commonly used at different times by various cultures including, scale armour, lamellar armour, laminar armour, plated mail, mail, plate armour and brigandine. Around the dynastic Tang, Song, and early Ming Period, cuirasses and plates (mingguangjia) were also used, with more elaborate versions for officers in war. The Chinese, during that time used partial plates for \"important\" body parts instead of covering their whole body since too much plate armour hinders their martial arts movement. The other body parts were covered in cloth, leather, lamellar, and/or Mountain pattern. In pre-Qin dynasty times, leather armour was made out of various animals, with more exotic ones such as the rhinoceros.\n\nMail, sometimes called \"chainmail\", made of interlocking iron rings is believed to have first appeared some time after 300 BC. Its invention is credited to the Celts, the Romans were thought to have adopted their design. \n\nGradually, small additional plates or discs of iron were added to the mail to protect vulnerable areas. Hardened leather and splinted construction were used for arm and leg pieces. The coat of plates was developed, an armour made of large plates sewn inside a textile or leather coat.\n\nEarly plate in Italy, and elsewhere in the 13th–15th century, were made of iron. Iron armour could be carburised or case hardened to give a surface of harder steel. Plate armour became cheaper than mail by the 15th century as it required much less labour and labour had become much more expensive after the Black Death, though it did require larger furnaces to produce larger blooms. Mail continued to be used to protect those joints which could not be adequately protected by plate, such as the armpit, crook of the elbow and groin. Another advantage of plate was that a lance rest could be fitted to the breast plate. \n\nThe small skull cap evolved into a bigger true helmet, the bascinet, as it was lengthened downward to protect the back of the neck and the sides of the head. Additionally, several new forms of fully enclosed helmets were introduced in the late 14th century.\n\nProbably the most recognised style of armour in the World became the plate armour associated with the knights of the European Late Middle Ages, but continuing to the early 17th century Age of Enlightenment in all European countries.\n\nBy about 1400 the full harness of plate armour had been developed in armouries of Lombardy. Heavy cavalry dominated the battlefield for centuries in part because of their armour.\n\nIn the early 15th century, advances in weaponry allowed infantry to defeat armoured knights on the battlefield. The quality of the metal used in armour deteriorated as armies became bigger and armour was made thicker, necessitating breeding of larger cavalry horses. If during the 14–15th centuries armour seldom weighed more than 15 kg, then by the late 16th century it weighed 25 kg. The increasing weight and thickness of late 16th century armour therefore gave substantial resistance.\n\nIn the early years of low velocity firearms, full suits of armour, or breast plates actually stopped bullets fired from a modest distance. Crossbow bolts, if still used, would seldom penetrate good plate, nor would any bullet unless fired from close range. In effect, rather than making plate armour obsolete, the use of firearms stimulated the development of plate armour into its later stages. For most of that period, it allowed horsemen to fight while being the targets of defending arquebuseers without being easily killed. Full suits of armour were actually worn by generals and princely commanders right up to the second decade of the 18th century. It was the only way they could be mounted and survey the overall battlefield with safety from distant musket fire.\n\nThe horse was afforded protection from lances and infantry weapons by steel plate barding. This gave the horse protection and enhanced the visual impression of a mounted knight. Late in the era, elaborate barding was used in parade armour.\n\nLater\n\nGradually, starting in the mid-16th century, one plate element after another was discarded to save weight for foot soldiers.\n\nBack and breast plates continued to be used throughout the entire period of the 18th century and through Napoleonic times, in many European (heavy) cavalry units, until the early 20th century. From their introduction, muskets could pierce plate armour, so cavalry had to be far more mindful of the fire. In Japan armour continued to be used until the end of the samurai era, with the last major fighting in which armour was used happening in 1868. Samurai armour had one last short lived use in 1877 during the Satsuma Rebellion. \n\nThough the age of the knight was over, armour continued to be used in many capacities. Soldiers in the American Civil War bought iron and steel vests from peddlers (both sides had considered but rejected body armour for standard issue). The effectiveness of the vests varied widely—some successfully deflected bullets and saved lives, but others were poorly made and resulted in tragedy for the soldiers. In any case the vests were abandoned by many soldiers due to their weight on long marches as well as the stigma they got for being cowards from their fellow troops. \n\nAt the start of World War I, thousands of the French Cuirassiers rode out to engage the German Cavalry. By that period, the shiny armour plate was covered in dark paint and a canvas wrap covered their elaborate Napoleonic style helmets. Their armour was meant to protect only against sabres and light lances. The cavalry had to beware of high velocity rifles and machine guns, unlike the foot soldiers, who at least had a trench to protect them.\n\nPresent\n\nToday, ballistic vests, also known as flak jackets, made of ballistic cloth (e.g. kevlar, dyneema, twaron, spectra etc.) and ceramic or metal plates are common among police forces, security staff, corrections officers and some branches of the military.\n\nThe US Army has adopted Interceptor body armour, which uses Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts (E-S.A.P.I) in the chest, sides and back of the armour. Each plate is rated to stop a range of ammunition including 3 hits from a 7.62×51 NATO AP round at a range of 10 m. Dragon Skin body armour is another ballistic vest which is currently in testing with mixed results.\n\nFile:GayaironarmorFINAL.JPG|Early Korean armour of Gaya, its nickname as the kingdom of Steel. Iron helmet and cuirass. 5th century. National Museum of Korea.\nFile:Ancient German armour helmet.jpg|Medieval Germanic helmet.\nFile:Medieval horse armour.jpg|Medieval horse armour on display at Museum of Islamic Art, Doha in Qatar.\nFile:Maximilienne-p1000557.jpg|Plate armour\nFile:January 20 riot cops D.C..jpg|Riot police with body protection against blows\n\nOther types \n\nThe first modern production technology for armour plating was used by navies in the construction of the Ironclad warship, reaching its pinnacle of development with the battleship. The first tanks were produced during World War I. Aerial armour has been used to protect pilots and aircraft systems since the First World War.\n\nIn modern ground forces' usage, the meaning of armour has expanded to include the role of troops in combat. After the evolution of armoured warfare, mechanised infantry were mounted in armoured fighting vehicles and replaced light infantry in many situations. In modern armoured warfare, armoured units equipped with tanks and infantry fighting vehicles serve the historic role of both the battle cavalry, light cavalry and dragoons, and belong to the armoured branch.\n\nHistory \n\nShips \n\nThe first ironclad battleship, with iron armour over a wooden hull, La Gloire, was launched by the French Navy in 1859 prompting the British Royal Navy to build a counter. The following year they launched HMS Warrior, which was twice the size and had iron armour over an iron hull. After the first battle between two ironclads took place in 1862 during the American Civil War, it became clear that the ironclad had replaced the unarmoured line-of-battle ship as the most powerful warship afloat. \n\nIronclads were designed for several roles, including as high seas battleships, coastal defence ships, and long-range cruisers. The rapid evolution of warship design in the late 19th century transformed the ironclad from a wooden-hulled vessel which carried sails to supplement its steam engines into the steel-built, turreted battleships and cruisers familiar in the 20th century. This change was pushed forward by the development of heavier naval guns (the ironclads of the 1880s carried some of the heaviest guns ever mounted at sea), more sophisticated steam engines, and advances in metallurgy which made steel shipbuilding possible.\n\nThe rapid pace of change in the ironclad period meant that many ships were obsolete as soon as they were complete, and that naval tactics were in a state of flux. Many ironclads were built to make use of the ram or the torpedo, which a number of naval designers considered the crucial weapons of naval combat. There is no clear end to the ironclad period, but towards the end of the 1890s the term ironclad dropped out of use. New ships were increasingly constructed to a standard pattern and designated battleships or armoured cruisers.\n\nTrains \n\nArmoured trains saw use during the 19th century in the American Civil War (1861–1865), the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the First and Second Boer Wars (1880–81 and 1899–1902),the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921); the First (1914–1918) and Second World Wars (1939–1945) and the First Indochina War (1946–1954). The most intensive use of armoured trains was during the Russian Civil War (1918–1920).\n\nArmoured cars saw use during World wars 1 and 2.\n\nDuring the Second Boer War on 15 November 1899, Winston Churchill, then a war-correspondent, was travelling on board an armoured train when it was ambushed by Boer commandos. Churchill and many of the train's garrison were captured, though many others escaped, including wounded placed on the train's engine.\n\nArmoured fighting vehicles \n\nAncient siege engines were usually protected by wooden armour, often covered with wet hides or thin metal to prevent being easily burned.\n\nMedieval war wagons were horse-drawn wagons that were similarly armoured. These contained guns or crossbowmen that could fire through gun-slits.\n\nThe first modern AFVs were armoured cars, developed circa 1900. These started as ordinary wheeled motor-cars protected by iron shields, typically mounting a machine gun. \n\nDuring World War I, the stalemate of trench warfare during on the Western Front spurred the development of the tank. It was envisioned as an armoured machine that could advance under fire from enemy rifles and machine guns, and respond with its own heavy guns. It utilized caterpillar tracks to cross ground broken up by shellfire and trenches.\n\nAircraft \n\nWith the development of effective anti-aircraft artillery in the period before the Second World War, military pilots, once the \"knights of the air\" during the First World War, became far more vulnerable to ground fire. As a response armour plating was added to aircraft to protect aircrew and vulnerable areas such as fuel tanks and engine.\n\nPresent \n\nTank armour has progressed from the Second World War armour forms, now incorporating not only harder composites, but also reactive armour designed to defeat shaped charges. As a result of this, the main battle tank (MBT) conceived in the Cold War era can survive multiple RPG strikes with minimal effect on the crew or the operation of the vehicle. The light tanks that were the last descendants of the light cavalry during the Second World War have almost completely disappeared from the world's militaries due to increased lethality of the weapons available to the vehicle-mounted infantry.\n\nThe armoured personnel carrier (APC) was devised during World War I. It allows the safe and rapid movement of infantry in a combat zone, minimising casualties and maximising mobility. APCs are fundamentally different from the previously used armoured half-tracks in that they offer a higher level of protection from artillery burst fragments, and greater mobility in more terrain types. The basic APC design was substantially expanded to an Infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) when properties of an armoured personnel carrier and a light tank were combined in one vehicle.\n\nNaval armour has fundamentally changed from the Second World War doctrine of thicker plating to defend against shells, bombs and torpedoes. Passive defence naval armour is limited to kevlar or steel (either single layer or as spaced armour) protecting particularly vital areas from the effects of nearby impacts. Since ships cannot carry enough armour to completely prevent penetration by anti-ship missiles, they depend more on destroying an incoming missile before it hits, or causing it to miss its target.\n\nAlthough the role of the ground attack aircraft significantly diminished after the Korean War, it re-emerged during the Vietnam War, and in the recognition of this, the US Air Force authorised the design and production of what became the A-10 dedicated anti-armour and ground-attack aircraft that first saw action in the Gulf War.", "A greave (from the Old French greve \"shin, shin armour\" from the Arabic jaurab, meaning stocking ) is a piece of armour that protects the leg.\n\nDescription\n\nThe primary purpose of greaves is to protect the tibia from attack. The tibia is a bone very close to the skin, and is therefore extremely vulnerable to just about any kind of attack. Furthermore, a successful attack on the shin results in that leg being rendered useless, greatly hampering one's ability to maneuver in any way. Greaves were used to counteract this. Greaves usually consisted of a metal exterior with an inner padding of felt. The felt padding was particularly important because, without it, any blow would transfer directly from the metal plating to the shin, rendering the piece of armour almost useless.\n\nHistory\n\nAncient Greece and Rome\n\nDuring Greek antiquity, greaves were mentioned in many texts, including Hesiod’s Shield of Heracles, Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid. In the Illiad, the Greek forces are commonly referred to as \"well-greaved Acheans\" (euknēmidas Achaious). While these are primarily mythological texts, they still dealt with warfare and the fact that greaves were mentioned is evidence that they were indeed in use. There are also non-fictional testimonies of their use among Roman light infantry (or hastati) from Polybius up to Vegetius. These greaves are thought to have been mass-produced by the Romans using presses on sheets of metal and then attaching lining, usually leather or cloth. While it is generally assumed that greaves were always worn in pairs, there is evidence that many wore just a single greave on the left or right leg. Many skeletons have been found buried with only a single greave, including gladiators and soldiers. People may have worn a single greave as a sign of status, as opposed to any practical use.\n\nMedieval Europe\n\nGreaves were common until around the ninth century, when they largely disappeared. There is not much evidence of their use until the second quarter of the thirteenth century. There were a few references to the use of greaves before then, most notably the Bible’s Goliath and the Trinity College Apocalypse, but the lack of other evidence suggests that they were uncommon at the time. Almost all greaves used at this time are known as “Demi-greaves”, or greaves that only protected the shin. Early in the fourteenth century, many illustrations were found showing “closed greaves”, or greaves that protected the entire leg. Closed greaves are made of two plates joined on the outside by hinges and fastening with buckles and straps on the inside.\n\nFeudal Japan\n\nJapanese greaves, known as suneate, were first introduced during the eleventh century, during the late Heian period. The earliest suneate consisted of three plates of metal covering the shin. By the Kamakura period (1186 - 1333), suneate became a standard part of Japanese armor. Around the Muromachi period (1334 – 1572), suneate eventually became a splint mounted on a piece of fabric with mail in between the metal splint and fabric, not unlike European greaves. This is the most common form of suneate, termed shino-suneate, and saw continued use throughout the Momoyama period (1573 – 1602). Sometimes, cavalrymen used the older three-plate greaves, known as tsutsu-suneate. Like its European counterparts, most suneate contain leather padding on the interior to reduce the impact of blows and to reduce chafing.\n\nGallery\n\nFile:Greek - Left Greave - Walters 542336 - Three Quarter Left.jpg|Left greave of a Greek Hoplite. This example has elaborate decoration in repoussé (a technique in which metal is impressed from the rear to form a raised design), including a lion's face over the knee and lines emphasizing the calf muscles. Tiny holes lining the top and bottom edges secured a fabric lining and leather straps.\nFile:Sepoltura principesca di agighiol, paramento in argento, 350-300 ac. ca. 01.JPG|Thracian greave found in Romania\nFile:Sepoltura principesca di agighiol, paramento in argento, 350-300 ac. ca. 02.JPG|Thracian greave found in Romania\nFile:Suneate 1.JPG|Japanese samurai greaves, or suneate. The knee area has hexagonal iron plates called kikko sewn inside the cloth." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Miso.txt", "Tofu.txt", "Soy_sauce.txt", "Legume.txt" ], "title": [ "Miso", "Tofu", "Soy sauce", "Legume" ], "wiki_context": [ "is a traditional Japanese seasoning produced by fermenting soybeans with salt and the fungus Aspergillus oryzae, known in Japanese as , and sometimes rice, barley, or other ingredients. The result is a thick paste used for sauces and spreads, pickling vegetables or meats, and mixing with dashi soup stock to serve as miso soup called , a Japanese culinary staple. High in protein and rich in vitamins and minerals, miso played an important nutritional role in feudal Japan. Miso is still widely used in Japan, both in traditional and modern cooking, and has been gaining worldwide interest.\n\nTypically, miso is salty, but its flavor and aroma depend on various factors in the ingredients and fermentation process. Different varieties of miso have been described as salty, sweet, earthy, fruity, and savory. The traditional Chinese analogue of miso is known as dòujiàng (豆酱).\n\nHistory\n\nThe origin of the miso of Japan is not completely clear. \n*Grain and fish misos had been manufactured in Japan since the Neolithic era (Jōmon period (14,000–300 BC)). These are called \"jōmon miso\" and are similar to the early fish and soy-based sauces produced throughout East Asia.\n*This miso predecessor originated in China during the third century BC or earlier. Hishio and other fermented soy-based foods likely were introduced to Japan at the same time as Buddhism in the sixth century AD. This fermented food was called \"shi\".\n \nIn the Kamakura era (1192–1333), a common meal was made up of a bowl of rice, some dried fish, a serving of miso, and a fresh vegetable. Until the Muromachi era (1337 to 1573), miso was made without grinding the soybeans, somewhat like nattō. In the Muromachi era, Buddhist monks discovered that soybeans could be ground into a paste, spawning new cooking methods using miso to flavor other foods. In medieval times, the word temaemiso, meaning home-made miso, appeared. Miso production is a relatively simple process, so home-made versions spread throughout Japan. Miso was used as military provisions during the Sengoku era and making miso was an important economic activity for daimyos of that era.\n\nDuring the Edo period (1603–1868), miso was also called hishio (醤) and kuki (豆支) and various types of miso that fit with each local climate and culture emerged throughout Japan.\n\nThese days, miso is produced industrially in large quantities and traditional home-made miso has become a rarity. In recent years, many new types of miso have appeared. For example, ones with added soup stocks or calcium, or reduced salt for health, etc. are available.\n\nFlavor\n\nThe taste, aroma, texture, and appearance of miso all vary by region and season. Other important variables that contribute to the flavor of a particular miso include temperature, duration of fermentation, salt content, variety of kōji, and fermenting vessel. The most common flavor categories of miso are:\n*Shiromiso, \"white miso\"\n*Akamiso, \"red miso\"\n*Awasemiso, \"mixed miso\"\n\nAlthough white and red (shiromiso and akamiso) are the most common types of misos available, different varieties may be preferred in particular regions of Japan. In the eastern Kantō region that includes Tokyo, the darker brownish akamiso is popular while in the western Kansai region encompassing Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe the lighter shiromiso is preferred.\n\nIngredients\n\nThe ingredients used to produce miso may include any mix of soybeans, barley, rice, buckwheat, millet, rye, wheat, hemp seed, and cycad, among others. Lately, producers in other countries have also begun selling miso made from chickpeas, corn, azuki beans, amaranth, and quinoa. Fermentation time ranges from as little as five days to several years. The wide variety of Japanese miso is difficult to classify, but is commonly done by grain type, color, taste, and background.\n*mugi (麦): barley\n*tsubu (粒): whole wheat/barley\n*genmai (玄米): brown rice\n*moromi (醪): chunky, healthy (kōji is unblended)\n*nanban (南蛮): mixed with hot chili pepper for dipping sauce\n*taima (大麻): hemp seed\n*sobamugi (蕎麦): buckwheat\n*hadakamugi (裸麦): rye\n*nari (蘇鉄): made from cycad pulp, Buddhist temple diet\n*gokoku (五穀): \"five-grain\": soy, wheat, barley, proso millet, and foxtail millet\n\nMany regions have their own specific variation on the miso standard. For example, the soybeans used in Sendai miso are much more coarsely mashed than in normal soy miso.\n\nMiso made with rice such as shinshu and shiro are called kome miso.\n\nTypes\n\nTypes of miso are divided by their main ingredients.\n\n*Kome miso (米味噌) or \"rice miso\" can be yellow, yellowish white, red, etc. Whitish miso is made from boiled soybeans, and reddish miso is made from steamed soybeans. Kome miso is consumed more in eastern Japan and the Hokuriku and Kinki areas.\n*Mugi miso (麦味噌) or \"barley miso\" is a whitish miso which is produced in Kyushu, western Chugoku, and Shikoku areas. Another reddish mugi miso is produced in the northern Kanto area. Mugi miso has a peculiar smell.\n*Mame miso (豆味噌) or \"soybean miso\" is a darker, more reddish brown than kome miso. This is not so sweet as some other varieties, but has some astringency and good umami(旨味). This miso requires a long maturing term. Mame miso is consumed mostly in Aichi prefecture, part of Gifu prefecture, and part of Mie prefecture. Soybean (grain-free) miso is also labeled hatcho miso. \n*Chougou (調合) or 'Awase' (合わせ) miso, or \"mixed miso\" comes in many types, because it is a mixture or compound of other varieties of miso. This may improve the weak points of each type of miso. For example, mame miso is very salty, but when combined with kome miso the finished product has a mild taste.\n*Akamiso (赤味噌) or red miso is aged, sometimes for more than one year. Therefore, due to the Maillard reaction, the color changes gradually from white to red or black, thus giving it the name red miso. Characteristics of the flavor are saltiness and some astringency with umami. It is often a much stronger-tasting miso. Factors in the depth of color are the formula of the soybeans and the quantity used. Generally, steamed soybeans are more deeply colored than boiled soybeans.\n*Shiromiso (白味噌) or white miso is the most widely produced miso, made in many regions of the country. Its main ingredients are rice, barley, and a small quantity of soybeans. If a greater quantity of soybeans were added, the miso would be red or brown. Compared with red miso, white miso has a very short fermentation time. The taste is sweet, and the umami is soft or light (compared to red miso).\n\nFermentation \n\nMiso's unique properties and flavour profile can be attributed to the compounds produced through the fermentation process. Miso, depending on the variety, consists a starter culture called Koji, soybeans, and usually a grain (either rice, barley, or rye). The miso goes through a two step process; first creating the koji, and second the koji is combined with the other components and the mixture is left to be enzymatic digested, fermented and aged.\n\nCreating koji \n\nKoji is produced by introducing the mould, Aspergillus oryzae onto steamed brown rice. This mould culture comes from dried A. oryzae spores called 'tane-koji' or 'starter koji' and is isolated from plant matter (usually rice) and cultivated. In the past, the natural presence of A. oryzae spores was relied upon to create koji, but because of the difficulty of producing the culture, tane-koji is added almost exclusively in both industrial and traditional production of miso. Tane-koji is produced much in the same way as koji, but also has a small portion of wood ash added to the mixture which gives important nutrients to the fungus as well as promotes sporulation.\n\nA. oryzae is an aerobic fungus and is the most active fermenting agents in Koji as it produces amylolytic, and proteolytic enzymes which are essential to creating the final miso product. Amyloytic enzymes such as amylase aid in the breakdown of starch in the grains to sugar and dextrin, while proteolytic enzymes such as protease catalyze the breakdown of proteins into smaller peptides or amino acids. These both aid in the enzymatic digestion of the mixture of rice and soybeans. Depending on the strain of A. oryzae, enzymatic composition varies thereby changing the characteristics of the final miso product. For example, the strain used to create the sweeter white miso would likely produce a higher content of amylolytic enzymes, while comparatively a soybean miso might have a higher content of proteolytic enzyme.\n\nTo create optimal conditions for enzymatic production and the growth of A. oryzae, the koji's environment must be carefully regulated. Temperature, humidity and oxygen content, are all important factors in not only maximizing mould growth and enzyme production, but to prevent other harmful bacteria from producing. Once the koji has reached a desirable flavour profile it is usually mixed with salt to prevent further fermentation. \n\nAlthough other strains of fungi have been used to produce Koji, A. oryzae does not produce aflatoxin (a highly toxic and carcinogenic mycotoxin); this coupled with its other properties make it most desirable to isolate.\n\nStorage and preparation\n\nMiso typically comes as a paste in a sealed container requiring refrigeration after opening. Natural miso is a living food containing many beneficial microorganisms such as Tetragenococcus halophilus which can be killed by overcooking. For this reason, the miso should be added to soups or other foods being prepared just before they are removed from the heat. Using miso without any cooking may be even better. Outside Japan, a popular practice is to only add miso to foods that have cooled to preserve kōjikin cultures in miso. Nonetheless, miso and soy foods play a large role in the Japanese diet, and many cooked miso dishes are popular.\n\nUsage\n\nMiso is a part of many Japanese-style meals. It most commonly appears as the main ingredient of miso soup, which is eaten daily by much of the Japanese population. The pairing of plain rice and miso soup is considered a fundamental unit of Japanese cuisine. This pairing is the basis of a traditional Japanese breakfast.\n\nMiso is used in many other types of soup and soup-like dishes, including some kinds of ramen, udon, nabe, and imoni. Generally, such dishes have the title miso prefixed to their name (for example, miso-udon), and have a heavier, earthier flavor and aroma compared to other Japanese soups that are not miso-based.\n\nMany traditional confections use a sweet, thick miso glaze, such as mochidango. Miso-glazed treats are strongly associated with Japanese festivals, although they are available year-round at supermarkets. The consistency of miso glaze ranges from thick and taffy-like to thin and drippy.\n\nSoy miso is used to make a type of pickle called misozuke. These pickles are typically made from cucumber, daikon, hakusai (Chinese cabbage), or eggplant, and are sweeter and less salty than the standard Japanese salt pickle.\n\nOther foods with miso as an ingredient include:\n* dengaku (sweetened miso used for grilling)\n* yakimochi (charcoal-grilled mochi covered in miso)\n* miso-braised vegetables or mushrooms\n* marinades: fish or chicken can be marinated in miso and sake overnight to be grilled.\n* corn on the cob in Japan is often coated with shiro miso, wrapped in foil and grilled.\n* sauces: sauces like misoyaki (a variant on teriyaki) \n* dips: used as a dip to eat with vegetables (e.g. cucumbers, daikon, carrots, etc.)\n* side dish: miso is often eaten not only as a condiment, but also as a side dish. Mixed or cooked miso with spices and/or vegetables is called okazu-miso (おかず味噌), often eaten along with hot rice or spread over onigiri.\n\nNutrition and health\n\nClaims that miso is high in vitamin B12 have been contradicted in some studies. \n\nSome experts suggest that miso is a source of Lactobacillus acidophilus. Miso is relatively high in salt which can contribute to increased blood pressure in the small percentage of the population with sodium-sensitive prehypertension or hypertension.", "Tofu, also known as bean curd, is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is a component in East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu that has been processed in some way. Tofu is bought or made to be soft, firm, or extra firm. Tofu has a subtle flavor and can be used in savory and sweet dishes. It is often seasoned or marinated to suit the dish.\n\nTofu making is first recorded in Han dynasty China some 2,000 years ago.[http://www.soya.be/history-of-tofu.php History of Tofu] Chinese legend ascribes its invention to prince Liu An (179122BC). Tofu and its production technique were introduced into Korea and then Japan during the Nara period (710794). Some scholars believe tofu arrived in Vietnam during the 10th and 11th century. It spread into other parts of Southeast Asia as well. This spread probably coincided with the spread of Buddhism because it is an important source of protein in the vegetarian diet of East Asian Buddhism. Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty described a method of making tofu in the Compendium of Materia Medica. \n\nTofu has a low calorie count and relatively large amounts of protein. It is high in iron, and depending on the coagulants used in manufacturing (e.g. calcium chloride, calcium sulfate, magnesium sulfate), it can have higher calcium or magnesium content.\n\nThe term tofu by extension can be used in similarly textured curdled dishes that do not use soy products at all, such as \"almond tofu\" (almond jelly), (egg), (sesame), or peanut tofu (Chinese luòhuāshēng dòufu and Okinawan ).\n\nEtymology \n\nThe English term comes from Japanese tōfu (), borrowed from the original Chinese equivalent ( or ) transcribed tou4-fu3 (Wade-Giles) or dòufu (pinyin), literally \"bean\" (豆) + \"curdled\" or \"fermented\" (腐). \n\nA reference to the word \"towfu\" exists in a letter dated 1770 from English merchant James Flint to United States statesman and scientist Benjamin Franklin. This is believed to be the first documented usage of the word in English. \n\nThe term \"bean curd(s)\" for tofu has been used in the United States since at least 1840. It is not frequently used, however, in the United Kingdom, Australia or New Zealand. \n\nProduction \n\nTofu is made by coagulating soy milk and pressing the resulting curds. Although pre-made soy milk may be used, some tofu producers begin by making their own soy milk, which is produced by soaking, grinding, boiling and straining dried (or, less commonly, fresh) soybeans. \n\nCoagulation of the protein and oil (emulsion) suspended in the boiled soy milk is the most important step in the production of tofu. This process is accomplished with the aid of coagulants. Two types of coagulants (salts and acids) are used commercially., [http://www.fao.org/docrep/t0532e/t0532e10.htm#9.5 section 9.5]\n\nSalt coagulants \n\n* Calcium sulfate (gypsum): The traditional and most widely used coagulant to produce Chinese-style tofu. It produces a tofu that is tender but slightly brittle in texture. The coagulant itself has no perceivable taste. Use of this coagulant also makes a tofu that is rich in calcium. As such, many tofu manufacturers choose to use this coagulant to be able to market their tofu as a good source of dietary calcium. \n* Chloride-type Nigari salts or Lushui ( Traditional: 鹵水, 滷水; Simplified: 卤水, lǔshuǐ) - Magnesium chloride and calcium chloride: Both of these salts have a high solubility in water and affect soy protein in the same way, whereas gypsum is only very slightly soluble in water and acts differently in soy protein precipitation, the basis for tofu formation. These are the coagulants used to make tofu with a smooth and tender texture. In Japan, a white powder called nigari, which consists primarily of magnesium chloride, is produced from seawater after the sodium chloride is removed and the water evaporated. Depending on its production method, nigari/Lushui may also contain small quantities of magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt), potassium chloride, calcium chloride, and trace amounts of other naturally occurring salts. Although the term nigari is derived from nigai, the Japanese word for \"bitter,\" neither nigari nor pure magnesium chloride imparts a perceivable taste to the finished tofu. Calcium chloride is a common coagulant for tofu in North America.. Fresh clean sea water itself can also be used as a coagulant. \n\nAcid coagulants \n\n* Glucono delta-lactone (GDL): A naturally occurring organic acid also used in cheese making, which produces a very fine textured tofu that is almost jelly-like. This coagulant is used especially for \"silken\" and softer tofus, and confers an almost imperceptible sour taste to the finished product.. Commonly used together with calcium sulfate to give soft tofu a smooth tender texture.\n* Other edible acids: Though they can affect the taste of the tofu more, and vary in efficacy and texture, acids such as acetic acid (vinegar) and citric acid (such as lemon juice), can also be used to coagulate soy milk and produce tofu. \n\nEnzyme coagulants \n\n* Among enzymes that have been shown to produce tofu are papain, and alkaline and neutral proteases from microorganisms. In the case of papain, the enzyme to substrate ratio, by weight, was held constant at 1:400. An aliquot of 1% crude papain was added to \"uncooked\" soy milk at room temperature and heated to 90 –. Papain, moreover, has been studied as a gelling agent to produce \"instant tofu\" from soy protein isolate and soy glycinin (11S) protein. \n\nContemporary tofu manufacturers may choose to use one or more of these coagulants, since they each play a role in producing a desired texture in the finished tofu. Different textures result from different pore sizes and other microscopic features in tofu produced using each coagulant. The coagulant mixture is dissolved into water, and the solution is then stirred into boiled soy milk until the mixture curdles into a soft gel.\n\nThe curds are processed differently depending on the form of tofu that is being manufactured. For soft silken tofu (; nèn dòufu) or tofu flower (, dòuhuā) the soy milk is curdled directly in the tofu's selling package. For standard firm Asian tofu, the soy curd is cut and strained of excess liquid using cheese cloth or muslin and then lightly pressed to produce a soft cake. Firmer tofus, such as Asian dry tofu () or Western types of tofu, are further pressed to remove even more liquid. In Vietnam, the curd is strained and molded in a square mold and the end product is called đậu khuôn (molded bean) or đậu phụ (one of the Vietnamese ways to pronounce the Chinese dòufu). The tofu curds are allowed to cool and become firm. The finished tofu can then be cut into pieces, flavored or further processed.\n\nAlthough tartness is sometimes desired in dessert tofu, the acid used in flavoring is usually not the primary coagulant since it is not desirable to the flavor or texture of the resulting tofu to add it in a sufficiently high concentration so as to induce coagulation. A sour taste in tofu and a slight cloudiness in its storing liquid is also usually an indication of bacterial growth and, hence, spoilage.\n\nVarieties \n\nThere is a wide variety of tofu available in both Western and Eastern markets. Despite the large variety, tofu products can be split into two main categories: fresh tofu, which is produced directly from soy milk, and processed tofu, which is produced from fresh tofu. Tofu production also creates important side products which are often used in various cuisines.\n\nFresh tofu \n\nDepending on the amount of water that is extracted from the tofu curds, fresh tofu can be divided into three main varieties. Fresh tofu is usually sold completely immersed in water to maintain its moisture content.\n\nSoft or silken tofu \n\nSoft/silken tofu ( or , nèn dòufu or huá dòufu, in Chinese, lit. \"soft tofu\" or \"smooth tofu\"; , kinugoshi tōfu in Japanese, lit. \"silk-filtered tofu\"; , , sundubu in Korean, lit. \"pure tofu\") is undrained, unpressed tofu that contains the highest moisture content of all fresh tofus.. Silken tofu is produced by coagulating soy milk without curdling it. Silken tofu is available in several consistencies, including \"soft\" and \"firm\", but all silken tofu is more delicate than regular firm tofu (pressed tofu) and has different culinary uses. In Japan and Korea, traditional soft tofu is made with seawater. Silken tofu is a versatile, reliable substitute for dairy and eggs, especially for smoothies and baked desserts. \n\nDouhua (, dòuhuā or , dòufuhuā in Chinese), or tofu brain ( or , dòufunaǒ in Chinese) is often eaten as a dessert, but sometimes salty pickles or hot sauce are added instead. This is a type of soft tofu with an even higher moisture content. Because it is very difficult to pick up with chopsticks, it is generally eaten with a spoon. With the addition of flavorings such as finely chopped spring onions, dried shrimp, soy sauce, chilli sauce, douhua is a popular breakfast dish across China. In Malaysia, douhua is usually served warm with white or dark (palm) sugar syrup, or served cold with longans.\n\nSome variation exists among soft tofus. Black douhua (, hēidòuhuā) is a type of silken tofu made from black soybeans, which is usually made into dòuhuā () rather than firm or dry tofu. The texture of black bean tofu is slightly more gelatinous than regular douhua and the color is greyish in tone. This type of tofu is eaten for the earthy \"black bean taste.\" Edamame tofu is a Japanese variety of kinugoshi tōfu made from edamame (fresh green soybeans); it is pale green in color and often studded with whole edamame.\n\nFirm tofu \n\nFirm tofu (called lǎo dòufu in Chinese; , momen-dōfu in Japanese, lit. \"cotton tofu\"; , dandanhan dubu in Korean): Although drained and pressed, this form of fresh tofu still contains a great amount of moisture. It has the firmness of raw meat but bounces back readily when pressed. The texture of the inside of the tofu is similar to that of a firm custard. The skin of this form of tofu has the pattern of the muslin used to drain it and is slightly more resilient to damage than its inside. It can be picked up easily with chopsticks., Volume IV, The History of Traditional Non-Fermented Soyfoods, Chapter 36: \n\nIn some places in Japan, a very firm type of momen-dōfu is eaten, called ishi-dōfu (石豆腐; literally stone tofu) in parts of Ishikawa, or iwa-dōfu (岩豆腐; literally rock tofu) in Gokayama in the Toyama prefecture and in Iya in the prefecture of Tokushima. Due to their firmness, some of these types of tofu can be tied by rope and carried. These types of firm tofu are produced with seawater instead of nigari (magnesium chloride), or using concentrated soy milk. Some of them are squeezed of excess moisture using heavy weights. These products are produced in areas where travelling is inconvenient, such as remote islands, mountain villages, heavy snowfall areas, and so on.\n\nExtra firm tofu \n\nDòu gān (, literally \"dry tofu\" in Chinese) is an extra firm variety of tofu where a large amount of liquid has been pressed out of the tofu. Dòu gān contains the least amount of moisture of all fresh tofu and has the firmness of fully cooked meat and a somewhat rubbery feel similar to that of paneer. When sliced thinly, this tofu can be crumbled easily. The skin of this form of tofu has the pattern of the muslin used to drain and press it. Western firm tofu is milled and reformed after the pressing and sometimes lacks the skin with its cloth patterning.\nOne variety of dried tofu is pressed especially flat and sliced into long strings with a cross section smaller than 2 mm × 2 mm. Shredded dried tofu (, dòugānsī in Chinese, or simply , gānsī), which looks like loose cooked noodles, can be served cold, stir-fried, or similar in style to Japanese aburaage. \n\nProcessed tofu \n\nMany forms of processed tofu exist, due to the varied ways in which fresh tofu can be used. Some of these techniques probably originate from the need to preserve tofu before the days of refrigeration, or to increase its shelf life and longevity. Other production techniques are employed to create tofus with unique textures and flavors.. Volume V, The History of Traditional Fermented Soyfoods, Chapter 44: \n\nFermented \n\n* Pickled tofu ( in Chinese, pinyin: dòufurǔ, lit. \"tofu dairy,\" or fŭrŭ; chao in Vietnamese): Also called \"preserved tofu\" or \"fermented tofu,\" this food consists of cubes of dried tofu that have been allowed to fully air-dry under hay and slowly ferment from aerial bacteria. The dry fermented tofu is then soaked in salt water, Chinese wine, vinegar, and minced chiles, or a unique mixture of whole rice, bean paste, and soybeans. In the case of red pickled tofu ( in Chinese, Pinyin: hóng dòufurǔ), red yeast rice (cultivated with Monascus purpureus) is added for color. And in Japan, pickled tofu with miso paste is called \"tofu no misodzuke,\" which is a traditional preserved food in Kumamoto. In Okinawa, there is a pickled and fermented tofu called \"tofuyo\"(豆腐餻). It is made from \"Shima-doufu\" (an Okinawan variety of large and firm tofu). It is fermented, and matured with koji mold, red koji mold, and awamori.\n* Stinky tofu ( in Chinese, Pinyin: chòudòufu): A soft tofu that has been fermented in a unique vegetable and fish brine. The blocks of tofu smell strongly of certain pungent cheeses, or actually rotten foods. Despite its strong odor, the flavor and texture of stinky tofu is appreciated by aficionados, who describe it as delightful. The texture of this tofu is similar to the soft Asian tofu from which it is made. The rind that stinky tofu develops from frying is said to be especially crisp, and is usually served with soy sauce, sweet sauce, or hot sauce. \n\nDried tofu \n\nTwo kinds of dried tofu are produced in Japan. They are usually rehydrated (by being soaked in water) prior to consumption. In their dehydrated state they do not require refrigeration.\n* Koya tofu (also known as shimidofu) is made using nigari.\n* Kori tofu (literally \"frozen tofu\") is freeze-dried. \n\nFried \n\n* With the exception of the softest tofus, all forms of tofu can be fried. Thin and soft varieties of tofu are deep fried in oil until they are light and airy in their core 豆泡 dòupào, 豆腐泡 dòufupào, 油豆腐 yóudòufu, or 豆卜 dòubǔ in Chinese, literally \"bean bubble,\" describing the shape of the fried tofu as a bubble.\n* Tofus such as firm Asian and dòu gān (Chinese dry tofu), with their lower moisture content, are cut into bite-sized cubes or triangles and deep fried until they develop a golden-brown, crispy surface (炸豆腐 in Chinese, zhádòufu, lit. \"fried tofu\"). These may be eaten on their own or with a light sauce, or further cooked in liquids; they are also added to hot pot dishes or included as part of the vegetarian dish called luohan zhai. This deep fried tofu is also called Atsuage (厚揚げ) or Namaage (生揚げ) in Japan. The thinner variety is called Aburaage (油揚げ) which develops a tofu pouch when fried that is often used for Inari-sushi.\n\nFrozen \n\n* Thousand layer tofu (千葉豆腐, qiānyè dòufu, literally \"thousand layer tofu,\" or 凍豆腐 dòngdòufu, 冰豆腐 bīngdòufu in Chinese, both meaning \"frozen tofu\"): By freezing tofu, the large ice crystals that develop within the tofu result in the formation of large cavities that appear to be layered. The frozen tofu takes on a yellowish hue in the freezing process. Thousand layer tofu is commonly made at home from Asian soft tofu though it is also commercially sold as a specialty in parts of Taiwan. This tofu is defrosted, and sometimes pressed to remove moisture, prior to use.\n\n* Koya-dofu (kōya-dōfu, 高野豆腐 in Japanese): The name comes from Mount Koya, a center of Japanese Buddhism famed for its shōjin ryōri, or traditional Buddhist vegetarian cuisine. It is sold in freeze-dried blocks or cubes in Japanese markets. Since it is dried, it can be preserved for long term. It must be soaked in water before eating, and is typically simmered in dashi, sake or mirin and soy sauce. In shōjin ryōri, vegetarian kombu dashi, made from seaweed, is used. When prepared in the usual manner, it has a spongy texture and mild sweet and savory flavor (the taste and flavor depend on what soup or cooking stock it was simmered in). A similar form of freeze-dried tofu, in smaller pieces, is found in instant soups (such as miso soup), in which the toppings are freeze-dried and stored in sealed pouches.\n\nByproducts of tofu production \n\nTofu production creates some edible byproducts. Food products are made from the protein-oil film, or \"skin,\" which forms over the surface of boiling soy milk in an open shallow pan. The leftover solids from pressing soy milk are called okara.\n\nTofu skin \n\nTofu skin is produced through the boiling of soy milk, in an open shallow pan, thus producing a film or skin composed primarily of a soy protein-lipid complex on the liquid surface. The films are collected and dried into yellowish sheets known as soy milk skin (, fǔpí in Chinese; , yuba in Japanese). Its approximate composition is : 50–55% protein, 24–26% lipids (fat), 12% carbohydrate, 3% ash, and 9% moisture. \n\nThe skin can also be bunched up to stick form and dried into something known as \"tofu bamboo\" (, fǔ zhú in Chinese; phù trúc in Vietnamese; kusatake, Japanese), or myriad other forms. Since tofu skin has a soft yet rubbery texture, it is folded or shaped into different forms and cooked further to imitate meat in vegan cuisine.\n\nSome factories dedicate production to tofu skin and other soy membrane products.\n\nOkara\n\nOkara (from the Japanese, , okara; known as , xuěhuācài, in Chinese, lit. \"snowflake vegetable\"; , dòufuzhā, also Chinese, lit. \"tofu sediment/residue\"; and , kongbiji, in Korean), is a tofu by-product, sometimes known in the west as \"soy pulp\" or \"tofu lees\", consisting of the fiber, protein, and starch left over when soy milk has been extracted from ground soaked soybeans. Although it is mainly used as animal feed in most tofu producing cultures, it is sometimes used in Japanese and Korean cuisines, such as in the Korean stew kongbiji jjigae (). It is also an ingredient for vegetarian burgers produced in many western nations.\n\nNon-tofu \"tofus\"\n\nDue to their Asian origins and their textures, many food items are called \"tofu\" even though their production processes are not technically similar. For instance, many sweet almond tofus are actually gelatinous desserts hardened using agar or gelatin. As well, some foods such as Burmese tofu are not coagulated from the \"milk\" of the legume but rather set in a manner similar to soft polenta, Korean muk, or the jidou liangfen of Yunnan province of Southwest China.\n\nNon-tofu sweets\n\nThe \"almond tofu\" (Chinese: xìngrén dòufu; Japanese: annindōfu) is a milky white and gelatinous resembling tofu, but does not use soy products or soy milk and is hardened with agar. A similar dessert made with coconut milk or mango juices might occasionally be referred to as \"coconut tofu\" or \"mango tofu\", though such names are also given to hot dishes that use soy tofu and coconut or mango in the recipe.\n\nEgg tofu \n\n (Japanese: , , tamagodōfu) (Chinese: , dàn dòufu; often called , rìbĕn dòufu, lit. \"Japan bean curd\") is the main type of savory flavored tofu. Whole beaten eggs are combined with dashi, poured into molds, and steamed in a steamer (cf. chawanmushi). The tofu has a pale golden color that can be attributed to the addition of egg and, occasionally, food coloring. This tofu has a fuller texture and flavor than silken tofu, which can be attributed to the presence of egg fat and protein. Plain \"dried tofu\" can be flavored by stewing in soysauce () to make soy-sauce tofu. It is quite common to see tofu sold in market in this soy-sauce stewed form.\n\nSesame tofu\n\nThe is made by grinding sesame into a smooth paste, combining with liquid and kudzu starch, and heating until curdling occurs. It is often served chilled as hiyayakko.\n\nPeanut tofu\n\nIn Okinawa, Japan, the is made in a process similar to the sesame tofu. A peanut milk (made by crushing raw peanuts, adding water and straining) is combined with starch (usually sweet potato starch known locally as umukuji　or ) and heating until curdling occurs.\n\nThe Chinese equivalent is the luòhuāshēng dòufu.\n\nBurmese tofu \n\nBurmese tofu (to hpu in Burmese) is a type of legume product made from besan (chana dal) flour; the Shan variety uses yellow split pea flour instead. Both types are yellow in color and generally found only in Myanmar, though the Burman variety is also available in some overseas restaurants serving Burmese cuisine. \n\nBurmese tofu may be fried as fritters cut in rectangular or triangular shapes. Rice tofu, called hsan to hpu (or hsan ta hpo in Shan regions) is made from rice flour (called hsan hmont or mont hmont) and is white in color, with the same consistency as yellow Burmese tofu when set. It is eaten as a salad in the same manner as yellow tofu.\n\nPreparation \n\nTofu has very little flavor or smell on its own. Consequently, tofu can be prepared either in savory or sweet dishes, acting as a bland background for presenting the flavors of the other ingredients used. As a method of flavoring it is often marinated in soy sauce, chilis, sesame oil, etc.\n\nEastern methods \n\nIn Asian cooking, tofu is eaten in myriad ways, including raw, stewed, stir-fried, in soup, cooked in sauce, or stuffed with fillings. The idea of using tofu as a meat substitute is not common in East Asia. Many Chinese tofu dishes such as jiācháng dòufu (家常豆腐) and mápó dòufú (麻婆豆腐) include meat.\n\nLightly flavored \n\nIn Japan, a common lunch in the summer months is hiyayakko (), silken or firm Asian tofu served with freshly grated ginger, green onions, or katsuobushi shavings with soy sauce. In the winter, tofu is frequently eaten as \"yudofu,\" which is simmered in a claypot with some vegetables (ex:chinese cabbage, green onion etc.) using konbu dashi.\n\nIn Chinese cuisine, Dòuhuā () is served with toppings such as boiled peanuts, azuki beans, cooked oatmeal, tapioca, mung beans and a syrup flavored with ginger or almond. During the summer, \"dòuhuā\" is served with crushed ice; in the winter, it is served warm..\nAnd also, in many parts of China, fresh tofu is similarly eaten with soy sauce or further flavored with katsuobushi shavings, century eggs ( pídàn), and sesame seed oil.\n\nIn Korean cuisine, dubu gui () consists of pan fried cubes of firm tofu, seasoned with soy sauce, garlic, and other ingredients. Cubes of cold, uncooked firm tofu seasoned with soy sauce, scallions, and ginger, prepared in a manner similar to the Japanese hiyayakko, are also enjoyed. The popular bar food, or anju (), called dubu kimchi (), features boiled, firm tofu served in rectangular slices around the edges of a plate with pan fried, sautéed or freshly mixed kimchi () in the middle.\n\nIn the Philippines, the sweet delicacy taho is made of fresh tofu with brown sugar syrup and sago. The Singaporean version of taho or douhua is called tofufa. Warm soft tofu is served in \"slices\" (due to being scooped using a flat spoon from a wooden bucket) in a bowl with either pandan-flavored sugar syrup or palm sugar syrup.\n\nIn Vietnam, dòuhuā is pronounced đậu hủ. This variety of soft tofu is made and carried around in an earthenware jar. It is served by being scooped into a bowl with a very shallow and flat spoon, and eaten with either powdered sugar and lime juice or with a ginger-flavored syrup. It is generally eaten hot, even during summer.\n\nFried \n\nA common cooking technique in many parts of East and Southeast Asia involves deep frying tofu in vegetable oil, sunflower oil, or canola oil with varied results. In Indonesia, it is usually fried in palm oil. Although tofu is often sold preprocessed into fried items, pre-fried tofu is seldom eaten directly and requires additional cooking. Depending on the type of tofu used, the texture of deep fried tofu may range from crispy on the outside and custardy on the inside, to puffed up like a plain doughnut. The former is usually eaten plain in Chinese cuisine with garlic soy sauce, while the latter is either stuffed with fish paste to make Yong Tau Foo or cooked in soups. In Taiwan, fried tofu is made into a dish called \"A-gei\", which consists of a fried aburage tofu package stuffed with noodles and capped with surimi.\n\nIn Japan, cubes of lightly coated and fried tofu topped with a kombu dashi-based sauce are called agedashi-dofu (). Soft tofu that has been thinly sliced and deep fried, known as aburage in Japan and yubu () in Korea, is commonly blanched, seasoned with soy sauce and mirin and served in dishes such as kitsune udon. Aburage is sometimes also cut open to form a pocket and stuffed with sushi rice; this dish is called inarizushi () and is also popular in Korea, where it is called yubu chobap (). In Indonesia, tofu is called tahu, and the popular fried tofu is tahu goreng, tahu isi and tahu sumedang.\n\nSoups, stews, and braised dishes \n\nA spicy Sichuan preparation using firm Asian tofu is mápó dòufu (). This involves braised tofu in a beef, chili, and a fermented bean paste sauce. A vegetarian version is known as málà dòufu () .\n\nDried tofu is usually not eaten raw but first stewed in a mixture of soy sauce and spices. Some types of dried tofu are pre-seasoned with special blends of spices, so that the tofu may either be called \"five spice tofu\" ( wǔxiāng dòufu) or \"soy sauce stewed tofu\" ( lǔshuǐ dòufu). Dried tofu is typically served thinly sliced with chopped green onions or with slices of meat for added flavor. Most dried tofu is sold after it has been fried or pre-stewed by tofu vendors.\n\nSoft tofu can also be broken up or mashed and mixed with raw ingredients prior to being cooked. For example, Japanese ganmodoki is a mixture of chopped vegetables and mashed tofu. The mixture is bound together with starch and deep fried. Chinese families sometimes make a steamed meatloaf or meatball dish from equal parts of coarsely mashed tofu and ground pork. In India, tofu is also used as a low fat replacement for paneer providing the same texture with similar taste.\n\nTofu bamboos are often used in lamb stew or in a dessert soup. Tofu skins are often used as wrappers in dim sum. Freeze-dried tofu and frozen tofu are rehydrated and enjoyed in savory soups. These products are often taken along on camping trips since a small bag of these dried tofu can provide protein for many days.\n\nJapanese 'miso soup', stocks with miso paste, is frequently made with tofu.\n\nIn Korean cuisine, soft tofu, called sundubu (순두부), is used to make a thick stew called sundubu jjigae (). Firm, diced tofu often features in the staple stews doenjang jjigae () and kimchi jjigae ().\n\nSmoked\n\nAt Qufu, the home town of Confucius, smoked tofu is a popular dish.\n\nBacem \n\nBacem is a method of cooking tofu originating from Java, Indonesia. The tofu is boiled in coconut water, mixed with lengkuas (galangal), Indonesian bay leaves, coriander, shallot, garlic, tamarind and palm sugar. After the spicy coconut water has completely evaporated, the tofu is fried until it is golden brown. The result is sweet, spicy, and crisp. This cooked tofu variant is commonly known as tahu bacem in Indonesian. Tahu bacem is commonly prepared along with tempeh and chicken.\n\nAs flavoring \n\nPickled tofu is commonly used in small amounts together with its soaking liquid to flavor stir-fried or braised vegetable dishes (particularly leafy green vegetables like water spinach). It is often eaten directly as a condiment with rice or congee.\n\nWestern methods \n\nGenerally, the firmer styles of tofu are used for kebabs, mock meats, and dishes requiring a consistency that holds together, while the softer styles can be used for desserts, soups, shakes, and sauces.\n\nFirm western tofu can be barbecued since they will hold together on a barbecue grill. These types of tofu are usually marinated overnight as the marinade does not easily penetrate the entire block of tofu (techniques to increase penetration of marinades are stabbing repeatedly with a fork or freezing and thawing prior to marinating). Grated firm western tofu is sometimes used in conjunction with TVP as a meat substitute. Softer tofus are sometimes used as a dairy-free or low-calorie filler. Silken tofu may be used to replace cheese in certain dishes (such as lasagna).\n\nTofu has also been fused into other cuisines in the west, for instance used in Indian-style curries.\n\nTofu and soy protein can be industrially processed to match the textures and flavors to the likes of cheese, pudding, eggs, bacon, etc. Tofu's texture can also be altered by freezing, pureeing, and cooking. In the Americas, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, tofu is frequently associated with vegetarianism and veganism as it is a source of non-animal protein.\n\nHistory \n\nThree theories of origin \n\nThe most commonly held of the three theories of tofu's origin maintains that tofu was invented in northern China around 164 BC by Lord Liu An, a Han Dynasty prince. Although this is possible, the paucity of concrete information about this period makes it difficult to conclusively determine whether Liu An invented the method for making tofu. Furthermore, in Chinese history, important inventions were often attributed to important leaders and figures of the time. In 1960, a stone mural unearthed from an Eastern Han dynasty tomb provided support for the theory of Han origin of tofu, however some scholars maintained that the tofu in Han dynasty was rudimentary, and lacked the firmness and taste of real tofu. \n\nAnother theory states that the production method for tofu was discovered accidentally when a slurry of boiled, ground soybeans was mixed with impure sea salt. Such sea salt would probably have contained calcium and magnesium salts, allowing the soy mixture to curdle and produce a tofu-like gel. Korean sundubu (soft tofu) and Okinawan tofu is still produced in a similar manner, traditionally using seawater as a coagulant. This may have possibly been the way that tofu was discovered, since soy milk has been eaten as a savory soup in ancient as well as modern times. Its technical plausibility notwithstanding, there is little evidence to prove or disprove that tofu production originated in this way.\n\nThe last group of theories maintains that the ancient Chinese learned the method for the curdling of soy milk by emulating the milk curdling techniques of the Mongolians or East Indians. For, despite their advancement, no technology or knowledge of culturing and processing milk products existed within ancient Chinese society. (They did not seek such technology, probably because of the Confucian taboo on fermented dairy products and other so-called \"barbarian foodstuffs\".) The primary evidence for this theory lies with the etymological similarity between the Chinese term for Mongolian fermented milk (rufu, which literally means \"milk curdled\") and the term doufu (\"beans curdled\") or tofu. Although intriguing and possible, there is no evidence to substantiate this theory beyond the point of academic speculation.\n\nIn Asia\n\nThe theory that tofu was invented by Lord Liu An of Huainan in about 164 BC (early Han dynasty) has steadily lost favor among most scholars in China and abroad since the 1970s. The claim concerning Liu An was first made by Zhu Xi during the Song dynasty (960-1127 AD) - roughly 1,000 years after the supposed invention.\n\nThe theory that tofu-making is shown in a mural incised on a stone slab in Han Tomb No. 1, at Da-hu-ting, Mixian, Henan province attracted much attention after about 1990. Yet it's too debatable because (1) no step of cooking the soy puree is shown in the mural, and (2) when Chinese food historians tried to make tofu without cooking the puree, the result was a tiny amount of unpalatable material. \n\nThus, while there are many theories regarding tofu's origins, historical information is scarce enough as to relegate the status of most theories to either speculation or legend. Like the origins of cheese and butter, the exact origin of tofu production may never be known or proven. The historical era starts in the year 965 AD (early Song dynasty) with the Qing Yilu by Tao Ku.\n\nWhat is known is that tofu production is an ancient technique. Tofu was widely consumed in ancient China, and techniques for its production and preparation were eventually spread to many other parts of Asia.\n\nIts development likely preceded Liu An, as tofu is known to have been a commonly produced and consumed food item in China by the 2nd century BC. Although the varieties of tofu produced in ancient times may not have been identical to those of today, descriptions from writings and poetry of the Song and Yuan Dynasty show that the production technique for tofu had already been standardized by then, to the extent that they would be similar to tofu of contemporary times.\n\nIn China, tofu is traditionally used as a food offering when visiting the graves of deceased relatives. It is claimed that the spirits (or ghosts) have long lost their chins and jaws, and that only tofu is soft enough for them to eat. Before refrigeration was available in China, tofu was often only sold during the winter time, due to the tofu not spoiling in the colder weather. During the warmer months, any leftover tofu would be spoiled if left for more than a day. Chinese war hero Guan Yu used to be a tofu maker before he enlisted in the army. Chinese martial arts expert and hero, Yim Wing-chun, was a celebrated tofu maker in her village. (Tofu as such plays a part in the 1994 movie about her life, Wing Chun.)\n\nTofu and its production technique were subsequently introduced into Korea and then Japan in the Nara period (late 8th century) as well as other parts of East Asia. The earliest document of tofu in Japan shows that the dish was served as an offering at the Kasuga Shrine in Nara in 1183. The book Tofu Hyakuchin ( Dòufu Bǎizhēn), published in the Edo period, lists 100 recipes for cooking tofu.\n\nThe rise in acceptance of tofu likely coincided with that of Buddhism as it is an important source of proteins in the religion's vegetarian diet. Since then, tofu has become a staple in many countries, including Vietnam, Thailand, and Korea, with subtle regional variations in production methods, texture, flavor, and usage.\n\nIn Southeast Asia, tofu was introduced to the region by Chinese immigrants from sea-faring Fujian province, evident from the fact that many countries in Southeast Asia refer to tofu by the Min Nan Chinese pronunciations for either soft and firm tofu, or \"tāu-hū\" and \"tāu-goan\" respectively. In Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, tofu is widely available and used in many local dishes. Tofu is called tahu in Indonesia, Indonesian dishes such as, tahu sumbat, taoge tahu, asinan, siomay and some curries, are often add slices of tofu as ingredients. In addition, tahu goreng, tahu isi and tahu sumedang are the popular fried tofu snacks. Tofu is called tauhu in Malaysia and Singapore. The Malaysian and Singaporean Indians use tofu in their cuisine such as Indian mee goreng, rojak pasembor. The strait peranakan cuisine often uses tofu, such as mee kari Penang, and laksa. The makers of tofu in these countries were originally the Chinese but tofu now is made by non-Chinese as well. Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines are major producers of tofu and have plants located within many municipalities. However, Singapore imports its tofu from its neighboring country, Malaysia.\n\nTofu in the Philippines is essential to the daily diet, as taho, widely eaten as breakfast, or tokwa (a dry fried variation), which is a staple or alternative to meat in main meals, and in numerous regional dishes. Tofu was introduced to the archipelago in the 10th to 13th centuries by Song Chinese mariners and merchants, along with many different foods which had become staples of the Philippine diet. The use and production of tofu were first limited to urban centers with influential Chinese minorities, such as Cebu or Tondo, but were quickly spread to even remote native villages and islands, long before the Spanish arrival in the 17th century.\n\nIn the West \n\nBenjamin Franklin was the first American to mention tofu in a 1770 letter to John Bartram. Franklin, who discovered it during a trip to London, included a few soybeans and referred to it as \"cheese\" from China. The first tofu company in the United States was established in 1878. In 1908 Li Yuying, a Chinese anarchist and a vegetarian with a French degree in agriculture and biology, opened a soy factory, the Usine de la Caséo-Sojaïne, which was the world's first soy dairy and the first factory in France to manufacture and sell beancurd. However tofu was not well known to most Westerners before the middle of the 20th century. With increased cultural contact between the West and East Asia and growing interest in vegetarianism, knowledge of tofu has become widespread. Numerous types of pre-flavored tofu can be found in many supermarket chains throughout the West. It is also used by many vegans and vegetarians as a means to gain protein without the consumption of meat products.\n\nNutrition and health information \n\nTraditional Chinese medicine claims\n\nTofu is considered a cool agent in Traditional Chinese medicine. It is claimed to invigorate the spleen, replenish qi, moisture and cool off Yang vacuity, and to detoxify the body. However, there is no scientific evidence supporting neither such claims, nor their implied notions.\n\nFunctions\n\nIn Chinese traditional medicine, tofu is suitable for those who are weak, malnourished, deficient in blood and qi; is suitable for old, slim or otherwise; suitable for those with high fat content in blood, high cholesterol, overweight, and with hardened blood vessels; suitable for people with diabetes; for mothers with low breast milk supply; for children and young adults; for those with inflamed respiratory tract, with phlegm, coughing and asthma. Tofu is also suited for people of old age; it is recommended to eat with liquor, since tofu contains cysteine, which can speed up the detoxification of alcohol in the body, and lessen the harm done to the liver, protecting the liver. \n\nProtein \n\nTofu is relatively high in protein, about 10.7% for firm tofu and 5.3% for soft \"silken\" tofu with about 5% and 2% fat respectively as a percentage of weight. \n\nIn 1995, a report from the University of Kentucky, financed by Solae, concluded that soy protein is correlated with significant decreases in serum cholesterol, Low Density Lipoprotein LDL (″bad cholesterol″) and triglyceride concentrations. However, High Density Lipoprotein HDL (″good cholesterol″) did not increase. Soy phytoestrogens (isoflavones: genistein and daidzein) absorbed onto the soy protein were suggested as the agent reducing serum cholesterol levels. On the basis of this research, PTI, in 1998, filed a petition with Food and Drug Administration for a health claim that soy protein may reduce cholesterol and the risk of heart disease.\n\nThe FDA granted this health claim for soy: \"25 grams of soy protein a day, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease.\" For reference, 100 grams of firm tofu coagulated with calcium sulfate contains 8.19 grams of soy protein. In January 2006, an American Heart Association review (in the journal Circulation) of a decade-long study of soy protein benefits showed only a minimal decrease in cholesterol levels, but it compared favorably against animal protein sources. \n\nAllergies \n\nBecause it is made of soy, individuals with allergies, particularly those allergic to legumes, should not consume tofu.", "Soy sauce (also called soya sauce) is a condiment made from a fermented paste of boiled soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds. It originated in China in the 2nd century AD and spread throughout East and Southeast Asia where it is used in cooking and as a condiment. \n\nHistory \n\nSoy sauce originated in China sometime between the 3rd and 5th century from a meat-based fermented sauce named jiang (). Its use later spread to East and Southeast Asia. Like many salty condiments, soy sauce was originally a way to salt, historically an expensive commodity. In ancient China, fermented fish with salt was used as a condiment in which soybeans were included during the fermentation process. Eventually, this was replaced and the recipe for soy sauce, (), using soybeans as the principal ingredient, with fermented fish-based sauces developing separately into fish sauce. \n\nRecords of the Dutch East India Company list soy sauce as a commodity in 1737, when seventy-five large barrels were shipped from Dejima, Japan, to Batavia (present-day Jakarta) on the island of Java. Thirty-five barrels from that shipment were then shipped to the Netherlands. In the 18th century, diplomat and scholar Isaac Titsingh published accounts of brewing soy sauce. Although earlier descriptions of soy sauce had been disseminated in the West, his was among the earliest to focus specifically on the brewing of the Japanese version. By the mid-19th century, Japanese soy sauce gradually disappeared from the European market, and the condiment became synonymous with the Chinese product. Europeans were unable to make soy sauce because they did not understand the function of Aspergillus oryzae, the fungus used in its brewing.Tanaka, p. 7. Soy sauce made from ingredients such as Portobello mushrooms were disseminated in European cookbooks during the late 18th century. A Swedish recipe for \"Soija\" was published in the 1770 edition of Cajsa Warg's Hjelpreda i Hushållningen för Unga Fruentimber and was flavored with allspice and mace. \n\nThe 19th century Sinologist Samuel Wells Williams wrote that in China, the best soy sauce is \"made by boiling beans soft, adding an equal quantity of wheat or barley, and leaving the mass to ferment; a portion of salt and three times as much water are afterwards put in, and the whole compound left for two or three months when the liquid is pressed and strained\". \n\nProduction \n\nSoy sauce is made either by fermentation or by hydrolysis. Some commercial sauces have both fermented and chemical sauces.\n\nVariation is usually achieved as the result of different methods and durations of fermentation, different ratios of water, salt, and fermented soy, or through the addition of other ingredients.\n\nTraditional \n\nTraditional soy sauces are made by mixing soybeans and grain with mold cultures such as Aspergillus oryzae and other related microorganisms and yeasts (the resulting mixture is called \"koji\" in Japan; the term \"koji\" is used both for the mixture of soybeans, wheat, and mold as well as for the mold itself). Historically, the mixture was fermented naturally in large urns and under the sun, which was believed to contribute extra flavors. Today, the mixture is placed in a temperature and humidity controlled incubation chamber. \n\nTraditional soy sauces take months to make:\n#Soaking and cooking: The soybeans are soaked in water and boiled until cooked. Wheat is roasted, crushed.\n#Koji culturing: An equal amount of boiled soybeans and roasted wheat are mixed to form a grain mixture. A culture of Aspergillus spore is added to the grain mixture and mixed or the mixture is allowed to gather spores from the environment itself. The cultures include:\n#* Aspergillus: a genus of fungus that is used for fermenting various ingredients (the cultures are called koji in Japanese). Three species are used for brewing soy sauce:\n#** A. oryzae: Strains with high proteolytic capacity are used for brewing soy sauce. \n#** A. sojae: This fungus also has a high proteolytic capacity.\n#** A. tamari: This fungus is used for brewing tamari, a variety of soy sauce.\n#* Saccharomyces cerevisiae: the yeasts in the culture convert some of the sugars to ethanol which can undergo secondary reactions to make other flavor compounds\n#*Other microbes contained in the culture:\n#** Bacillus spp. (genus): This organism is likely to grow soy sauce ingredients, bring to generate odors and ammonia.\n#** Lactobacillus species: This organism makes a lactic acid that increases the acidity in the feed.\n#Brewing: The cultured grain mixture is mixed into a specific amount of salt brine for wet fermentation or with coarse salt for dry fermentation and left to brew. Over time, the Aspergillus mold on the soy and wheat break down the grain proteins into free amino acid and protein fragments and starches into simple sugars. This amino-glycosidic reaction gives soy sauce its dark brown color. Lactic acid bacteria ferments the sugars into lactic acid and yeast makes ethanol, which through aging and secondary fermentation makes numerous flavor compounds typical of soy sauce.\n#Pressing: The fully fermented grain slurry is placed into cloth-lined containers and pressed to separate the solids from the liquid soy sauce. The isolated solids are used as fertilizer or fed to animals while the liquid soy sauce is processed further.\n#Pasteurization: The raw soy sauce is heated to eliminate any active yeasts and molds remaining in the soy sauce and can be filtered to remove any fine particulates\n#Storage: The soy sauce can be aged or directly bottled and sold.\n\nAcid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein \n\nSome brands of soy sauce are made from acid-hydrolyzed soy protein instead of brewed with a traditional culture. This takes about three days. Although they have a different flavor, aroma, and texture when compared to brewed soy sauces, they have a longer shelf life and are usually made for this reason. The clear plastic packets of dark sauce common with Chinese-style take-out food typically use a hydrolyzed vegetable protein formula. Some higher-quality hydrolyzed vegetable protein products with no added salt, sugar or colorings are sold as low-sodium soy sauce alternatives called \"liquid aminos\" in health food stores, similar to the way salt substitutes are used. These products are, however, not necessarily low in sodium.\n\nTypes \n\nSoy sauce is widely used as an important flavoring and has been integrated into the traditional cuisines of many East Asian and Southeast Asian cultures. Despite their rather similar appearance, soy sauces made in different cultures and regions are different in taste, consistency, fragrance and saltiness. Soy sauce retains its quality longer when kept away from direct sunlight .\n\nChinese \n\nChinese soy sauces (Mandarin Chinese: jiàng yóu/Cantonese: jeong yau () or chǐ yóu/si yau ()) are primarily made from soybeans, with relatively low amounts of other grains. Chinese soy sauce can be roughly split into two classes: brewed or blended.\n\nMost Chinese food take-out soy sauce (also called soya sauce) in the United States is not really soy sauce; it is not fermented, but is a combination of ingredients, depending on the manufacturer, including corn syrup, water, salt, caramel color, vegetable protein, and sodium benzoate.\n\nBrewed \n\nSoy sauce that has been brewed directly from a fermentation process using wheat, soybeans, salt, and water without additional additives.\n\n*Light or fresh soy sauce ( shēng chōu or jiàng qīng): is a thin (low viscosity), opaque, lighter brown soy sauce, brewed by first culturing steamed wheat and soybeans with Aspergillus, and then letting the mixture ferment in brine. It is the main soy sauce used for seasoning, since it is saltier, has less noticeable color, and also adds a distinct flavor.\n**Tóu chōu (): A light soy sauce made from the first pressing of the soybeans, this can be loosely translated as \"first soy sauce\" or referred to as premium light soy sauce. Tóu chōu is sold at a premium because, like extra virgin olive oil, the flavor of the first pressing is considered superior. Due to its delicate flavor it is used primarily for seasoning light dishes and for dipping.\n**Shuāng huáng (): A light soy sauce that is double-fermented by using the light soy sauce from another batch to take the place of brine for a second brewing. This adds further complexity to the flavor of the light soy sauce. Due to its complex flavor this soy sauce is used primarily for dipping.\n*Yìn yóu (): A darker soy sauce brewed primarily in Taiwan by culturing only steamed soybeans with Aspergillus and mixing the cultured soybeans with coarse rock salt before undergoing prolonged dry fermentation. The flavor of this soy sauce is complex and rich and is used for dipping or in red cooking. For the former use, yìn yóu can be thickened with starch to make a thick soy sauce.\n\nBlended \n\nAdditives with sweet or umami (savory) tastes are sometimes added to a finished brewed soy sauce to modify its taste and texture.\n\n*Dark and old soy sauce ( lǎo chōu), a darker and slightly thicker soy sauce made from light soy sauce. This soy sauce is made through prolonged aging and may contain added caramel color and/or molasses to give it its distinctive appearance. This variety is mainly used during cooking, since its flavor develops during heating. It has a richer, slightly sweeter, and less salty flavor than light soy sauce. Dark soy sauce is partly used to add color and flavor to a dish after cooking, but, as stated above, is more often used during the cooking process, rather than after.\n**Mushroom dark soy ( cǎogū lǎochōu): In the finishing and aging process of making dark soy sauce, the broth of Volvariella volvacea is mixed into the soy sauce and is then exposed to the sun to make this type of dark soy. The added broth gives this soy sauce a richer flavor than plain dark soy sauce. \n**Thick soy sauce ( jiàng yóu gāo), is a dark soy sauce that has been thickened with starch and sugar and occasionally flavored with certain spices and MSG. This sauce is often used as a dipping sauce or finishing sauce and poured on food as a flavorful addition. However, due to its sweetness and caramelized flavors from its production process the sauce is also used in red cooking.\n*Shrimp soy sauce ( Xiā zǐ jiàngyóu): Fresh soy sauce is simmered with fresh shrimp and finished with sugar, baijiu (type of distilled liquor, 白酒), and spices. A specialty of Suzhou.\n\nJapanese \n\nBuddhist monks from China introduced soy sauce into Japan in the 7th century, where it is known as . \n\nShōyu is traditionally divided into five main categories depending on differences in their ingredients and method of production. Most, but not all Japanese soy sauces include wheat as a primary ingredient, which tends to give them a slightly sweeter taste than their Chinese counterparts. They also tend towards an alcoholic sherry-like flavor, sometimes enhanced by the addition of small amounts of alcohol as a natural preservative. The widely varying flavors of these soy sauces are not always interchangeable, some recipes only call for one type or the other, much as a white wine cannot replace a red's flavor or beef stock does not make the same results as fish stock.\n\nSome soy sauces made in the Japanese way or styled after them contain about 50% wheat.\n\nVarieties \n\n* : Originating in the Kantō region, its usage eventually spread all over Japan. Over 80% of the Japanese domestic soy sauce production is of koikuchi, and can be considered the typical Japanese soy sauce. It is made from roughly equal quantities of soybean and wheat. This variety is also called kijōyu () or namashōyu () when it is not pasteurized.\n* : Particularly popular in the Kansai region of Japan, it is both saltier and lighter in color than koikuchi. The lighter color arises from the use of amazake, a sweet liquid made from fermented rice, that is used in its production.\n* : Made mainly in the Chūbu region of Japan, tamari is darker in appearance and richer in flavor than koikuchi. It contains little or no wheat. Wheat-free tamari can be used by people with gluten intolerance. It is the \"original\" Japanese soy sauce, as its recipe is closest to the soy sauce originally introduced to Japan from China. Technically, this variety is known as miso-damari (), as this is the liquid that runs off miso as it matures. The Japanese word tamari is derived from the verb that signifies \"to accumulate\", referring to the fact that tamari was traditionally a liquid byproduct made during the fermentation of miso (type of seasoning). Japan is the leading producer of tamari.\n* : In contrast to tamari soy sauce, shiro soy sauce uses mostly wheat and very little soybean, lending it a light appearance and sweet taste. It is more commonly used in the Kansai region to highlight the appearances of food, for example sashimi.\n* : This variety substitutes previously made koikuchi for the brine normally used in the process. Consequently, it is much darker and more strongly flavored. This type is also known as kanro shōyu () or \"sweet soy sauce\".\n\nNewer varieties of Japanese soy sauce include: \n\n* : This version contains 50% less salt than regular soy sauce for consumers concerned about heart disease.\n* : This version contains 20% less salt than regular soy sauce.\n\nAll of these varieties are sold in the marketplace in three different grades according to how they were made:\n\n* : Contains 100% genuine fermented product\n* : Contains genuine fermented shōyu mash mixed with 30–50% of chemical or enzymatic hydrolysate of plant protein\n* : Contains Honjōzō or Kongō-jōzō shōyu mixed with 30–50% of chemical or enzymatic hydrolysate of plant protein\n\nAll the varieties and grades may be sold according to three official levels of quality: \n\n* : Standard grade, contains more than 1.2% total nitrogen\n* : Upper grade, contains more than 1.35% of total nitrogen\n* : Special grade, contains more than 1.5% of total nitrogen\n\nSoy sauce is also commonly known as shoyu, and less commonly shōyu, in Hawaii and Brazil.\n\nIndonesian \n\nIn Indonesia, soy sauce is known as kecap (old spelling: ketjap), which is a catch-all term for fermented sauces, and cognate to the English word \"ketchup\". The most popular type of soy sauce in Indonesian cuisine is kecap manis or sweet soy sauce. The term kecap is also used to describe other non soy-based sauces, such as kecap ikan (fish sauce) and kecap inggris (literally \"English kecap\",worcestershire sauce). Three common varieties of soy-based kecap exist in Indonesian cuisine, used either as ingredients or condiments:\n\n*Kecap manis : Sweetened soy sauce, which has a thick syrupy consistency and a unique, pronounced, sweet somewhat treacle-like flavor due to generous addition of palm sugar. Regular soy with brown sugar and a trace of molasses added can substitute. It is by far, the most popular type of soy sauce employed in Indonesian cuisine, accounts for an estimated 90 percent of the nation's total soy sauce production. Kecap manis is an important sauce in Indonesian signature dishes, such as nasi goreng, mie goreng, satay, tongseng and semur. Sambal kecap for example is type of sambal dipping sauce of kecap manis with sliced chili, tomato and shallot, a popular dipping sauce for sate kambing (goat meat satay) and ikan bakar (grilled fish/seafood). Since soy sauce is of Chinese origin, kecap asin is also an important seasoning in Chinese Indonesian cuisine.\n*Kecap manis sedang : Medium sweet soy sauce, which has a less thick consistency, is less sweet and has a saltier taste than kecap manis.\n*Kecap asin : Salty soy sauce, which is very similar to regular soy sauce, but usually somewhat thicker and has a stronger flavor; it can be replaced by light Chinese soy sauce in some recipes. Salty soy sauce was first introduced into Indonesia by Hokkien people so its taste resembles that of Chinese soy sauce. Hakka soy sauce made from black beans is very salty and large productions are mainly made in Bangka Belitung Islands.\n\nKorean \n\nKorean soy sauce, (called Joseon ganjang, 조선간장, in Korean) is a byproduct of the production of doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste), so Bacillus subtilis is used for fermentation. It is mainly used in making soups, seasoning, and dip sauce. Joseon ganjang, thin and dark brown in color, is made entirely of soy and brine, and has a saltiness that varies according to the maker. Wide scale use of Joseon ganjang has been somewhat superseded by cheaper factory-made Japanese style soy sauce, called waeganjang (hangul: 왜간장/倭간醬). According to the 2001 national food consumption survey in Korea, traditional fermented ganjang comprised only 1.4% of soy sauce purchases. \n\nBurmese \n\nBurmese soy sauce production is dated back to the Bagan era in the 9th and 10th century. Scripts written in praise of pe ngan byar yay (, literally \"bean fish sauce\") were found. Production increased during the Konbaung dynasty, circa 1700, when there was bolstered migration of ethnic groups from the north to boost and modify the production of silk in Amarapura. Thick soy sauce is called kya nyo (, from Chinese jiàngyóu.\n\nFilipino \n\nIn the Philippines, soy sauce is called toyò in the native languages, and is a broad term used for both the Japanese shōyu and Chinese jiàngyóu. Philippine soy sauce is usually a combination of soybeans, wheat, salt, and caramel color. It is thinner in texture and has a saltier taste than its Southeast Asian counterparts, similar to Japanese variety.\n\nToyò is used as a marinade, an ingredient in cooked dishes, and most often as a table condiment, usually alongside other sauces such as fish sauce (patís) and sugar cane vinegar (sukà). It is often mixed and served with the juice of the calamansi (× Citrofortunella microcarpa; also called calamondin, limonsito). The combination is known as toyomansî, which can be comparable to the Japanese ponzu sauce (soy sauce with yuzu). Toyò is also a main ingredient in Philippine adobo, one of the more famous dishes of Filipino cuisine.\n\nHawaiian \n\nSoy sauce is a very popular condiment and marinade for many dishes in the Hawaiian cuisine. Aloha shoyu is soy sauce made in the Islands. \n\nMalaysian and Singaporean \n\nMalays from Malaysia, using the Malay dialect similar to Indonesian, use the word kicap for soy sauce. Kicap is traditionally of two types: kicap lemak (lit \"fat/rich soy sauce\") and kicap cair. Kicap lemak is similar to Indonesian kecap manis but with very much less sugar while kicap cair is the Malaysian equivalent of kecap asin.\n\nTaiwanese \n\nThe history of soy sauce making in Taiwan can be traced back to southeastern China, in the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong. Taiwanese soy sauce is known for its black bean variant, known as black bean soy sauce (黑豆蔭油), which takes longer to make (about 6 months). Most major soy sauce makers in Taiwan make soy sauce from soybeans and wheat. Some make black bean soy sauce. \n\nVietnamese \n\nIn Vietnam, Chinese-style soy sauce is called xì dầu (derived from the Cantonese name 豉油) or nước tương. The term \"soy sauce\" could also imply other condiments and soy bean paste with thick consistency known as tương. Both are used mostly as a seasoning or dipping sauce for a number of dishes. Vietnamese cuisine itself favors fish sauce in cooking but nước tương has a clear presence in vegetarian cooking.\n\nNutrition \n\nA study by the National University of Singapore showed that Chinese dark soy sauce contains 10 times the antioxidants of red wine, and can help prevent cardiovascular diseases. Soy sauce is rich in lactic acid bacteria and of excellent anti-allergic potential. \n\nSoy sauce does not contain the level of isoflavones associated with other soy products such as tofu or edamame. It can also be very salty, having a salt content of between 14–18%. Low-sodium soy sauces are made, but it is difficult to make soy sauce without using some quantity of salt as an antimicrobial agent. \n\n100ml of soy sauce contains the following nutritional information according to the USDA:\n* Calories : 60\n* Fat: 0.1 g\n* Carbohydrates: 5.57 g\n* Fibers: 0.8 g\n* Protein: 10.51 g\n* Sodium: 6 g\n\n \n\nCarcinogens \n\nSoy sauce may contain ethyl carbamate, a Group 2A carcinogen. \n\nIn 2001 the United Kingdom Food Standards Agency found in testing various soy sauces manufactured in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Thailand (made from hydrolyzed soy protein, rather than being naturally fermented) that 22% of tested samples, contained a chemical carcinogen named 3-MCPD (3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol) at levels considerably higher than those deemed safe by the EU. About two-thirds of these samples also contained a second carcinogenic chemical named 1,3-DCP (1,3-dichloropropane-2-ol) which experts advise should not be present at any levels in food. Both chemicals have the potential to cause cancer and the Agency recommended that the affected products be withdrawn from shelves and avoided. 3-MCPD and 1,3-DCP. The same carcinogens were found in soy sauces manufactured in Vietnam, causing a food scare in 2007. \n\nIn Canada, the Canadian Cancer Society writes, \"Health Canada has concluded that there is no health risk to Canadians from use of available soy and oyster sauces. Because continuous lifetime exposure to high levels of 3-MCPD could pose a health risk, Health Canada has established 1.0 part per million (ppm) as a guideline for importers of these sauces, in order to reduce Canadians' long-term exposure to this chemical. This is considered to be a very safe level.\" \n\nAllergies \n\nMost varieties of soy sauce contain wheat, to which some people have a medical intolerance. However, some naturally brewed soy sauces made with wheat may be tolerated by people with a specific intolerance to gluten because gluten is not detectable in the finished product. Japanese tamari soy sauce is traditionally wheat-free, and some tamari available commercially today is wheat- and gluten-free.", "A legume ( or) is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for their grain seed called pulse, for livestock forage and silage, and as soil-enhancing green manure. Well-known legumes include alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, soybeans, peanuts, and tamarind.\n\nA legume fruit is a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces (opens along a seam) on two sides. A common name for this type of fruit is a pod, although the term \"pod\" is also applied to a few other fruit types, such as that of vanilla (a capsule) and of radish (a silique).\n\nLegumes are notable in that most of them have symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in structures called root nodules. For that reason, they play a key role in crop rotation.\n\nTerminology\n\nThe term \"pulse\", as used by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is reserved for crops harvested solely for the dry seed. This excludes green beans and green peas, which are considered vegetable crops. Also excluded are seeds that are mainly grown for oil extraction (oilseeds like soybeans and peanuts), and seeds which are used exclusively for sowing forage (clovers, alfalfa). However, in common usage, these distinctions are not always clearly made, and many of the varieties used for dried pulses are also used for green vegetables, with their beans in pods while young.\n\nSome Fabaceae, such as Scotch broom and other Genisteae, are leguminous but are usually not called legumes by farmers, who tend to restrict that term to food crops.\n\nUses\n\nFarmed legumes can belong to many agricultural classes, including forage, grain, blooms, pharmaceutical/industrial, fallow/green manure, and timber species. Most commercially farmed species fill two or more roles simultaneously, depending upon their degree of maturity when harvested.\n\nHuman consumption\n\nGrain legumes are cultivated for their seeds. The seeds are used for human and animal consumption or for the production of oils for industrial uses. Grain legumes include beans, lentils, lupins, peas, and peanuts. \n\nNutritional value\n\nLegumes are a significant source of protein, dietary fiber, carbohydrates and dietary minerals; for example, a 100 gram serving of cooked chickpeas contains 18% of the Daily Value (DV) for protein, 30% DV for dietary fiber, 43% DV for folate and 52% DV for manganese. Like other plant-based foods, pulses contain no cholesterol and little fat or sodium.\n\nLegumes are also an excellent source of resistant starch which is broken down by bacteria in the large intestine to produce short-chain fatty acids used by intestinal cells for food energy. \n\nPreliminary studies in humans include the potential for regular consumption of legumes in a vegetarian diet to affect metabolic syndrome. There is evidence that a portion of pulses (roughly one cup daily) in a diet may help lower blood pressure and reduce LDL cholesterol levels, though there is a concern about the quality of the supporting data. \n\nClassification \n\nFAO recognizes 11 primary pulses.\n\n# Dry beans (Phaseolus spp. including several species now in Vigna)\n#* Kidney bean, navy bean, pinto bean, haricot bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)\n#* Lima bean, butter bean (Phaseolus lunatus)\n#* Adzuki bean, azuki bean (Vigna angularis)\n#* Mung bean, golden gram, green gram (Vigna radiata)\n#* Black gram, urad (Vigna mungo)\n#* Scarlet runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus)\n#* Ricebean (Vigna umbellata)\n#* Moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia)\n#* Tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius)\n# Dry broad beans (Vicia faba)\n#* Horse bean (Vicia faba equina)\n#* Broad bean (Vicia faba)\n#* Field bean (Vicia faba)\n# Dry peas (Pisum spp.)\n#* Garden pea (Pisum sativum var. sativum)\n#* Protein pea (Pisum sativum var. arvense)\n# Chickpea, garbanzo, Bengal gram (Cicer arietinum)\n# Dry cowpea, black-eyed pea, blackeye bean (Vigna unguiculata )\n# Pigeon pea, Arhar/Toor, cajan pea, Congo bean, gandules (Cajanus cajan)\n# Lentil (Lens culinaris)\n# Bambara groundnut, earth pea (Vigna subterranea)\n# Vetch, common vetch (Vicia sativa)\n# Lupins (Lupinus spp.)\n# Minor pulses, including:\n#* Lablab, hyacinth bean (Lablab purpureus)\n#* Jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis), sword bean (Canavalia gladiata)\n#* Winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus)\n#* Velvet bean, cowitch (Mucuna pruriens var. utilis)\n#* Yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus)\n\nForage\n\nForage legumes are of two broad types. Some, like alfalfa, clover, vetch (Vicia), stylo (Stylosanthes), or Arachis, are sown in pasture and grazed by livestock. Other forage legumes such as Leucaena or Albizia are woody shrub or tree species that are either broken down by livestock or regularly cut by humans to provide livestock feed.\n\nOther uses\n\nLegume species grown for their flowers include lupins, which are farmed commercially for their blooms as well as being popular in gardens worldwide. Industrially farmed legumes include Indigofera and Acacia species, which are cultivated for dye and natural gum production, respectively. Fallow/green manure legume species are cultivated to be tilled back into the soil in order to exploit the high levels of captured atmospheric nitrogen found in the roots of most legumes. Numerous legumes farmed for this purpose include Leucaena, Cyamopsis, and Sesbania species. Various legume species are farmed for timber production worldwide, including numerous Acacia species and Castanospermum australe.\n\nLegume trees like the locust trees (Gleditsia, Robinia) or the Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus) can be used in permaculture food forests. Other legume trees like laburnum and the woody climbing vine wisteria are poisonous.\n\nNitrogen fixation \n\nMany legumes contain symbiotic bacteria called Rhizobia within root nodules of their root systems. (Plants belonging to the genus Styphnolobium are one exception to this rule.) These bacteria have the special ability of fixing nitrogen from atmospheric, molecular nitrogen (N2) into ammonia (NH3). The chemical reaction is:\nN2 + 8H+ + 8e- → 2NH3 + H2\nAmmonia is then converted to another form, ammonium (NH4+), usable by (some) plants by the following reaction:\nNH3 + H+ → NH4+\nThis arrangement means that the root nodules are sources of nitrogen for legumes, making them relatively rich in plant proteins. All proteins contain nitrogenous amino acids. Nitrogen is therefore a necessary ingredient in the production of proteins. Hence, legumes are among the best sources of plant protein.\n\nWhen a legume plant dies in the field, for example following the harvest, all of its remaining nitrogen, incorporated into amino acids inside the remaining plant parts, is released back into the soil. In the soil, the amino acids are converted to nitrate (NO3−), making the nitrogen available to other plants, thereby serving as fertilizer for future crops. \n\nIn many traditional and organic farming practices, crop rotation involving legumes is common. By alternating between legumes and nonlegumes, sometimes planting nonlegumes two times in a row and then a legume, the field usually receives a sufficient amount of nitrogenous compounds to produce a good result, even when the crop is nonleguminous. Legumes are sometimes referred to as \"green manure\".\n\nHistory \n\nArchaeologists have discovered traces of pulse production around Ravi River (Punjab), the seat of the Indus Valley Civilisation, dating circa 3300 BC. Meanwhile, evidence of lentil cultivation has also been found in Egyptian pyramids and dry pea seeds have been discovered in a Swiss village that are believed to date back to the Stone Age. Archaeological evidence suggests that these peas must have been grown in the eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamia regions at least 5,000 years ago and in Britain as early as the 11th century.Mat Chaudhry Green Gold: Value-added pulses Quantum Media ISBN 1-61364-696-8\n\nWorld economy \n\nIndia is the world's largest producer and the largest consumer of pulses. Pakistan, Canada, Myanmar, Australia and the United States, in that order, are significant exporters and are India's most significant suppliers. The global pulse market is estimated at 60 million tonnes.\n\nInternational Year of Pulses \n\nThe International Year of Pulses 2016 (IYP 2016) was declared by the Sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has been nominated to facilitate the implementation of IYP 2016 in collaboration with governments, relevant organizations, non-governmental organizations and other relevant stakeholders. Its aim is to heighten public awareness of the nutritional benefits of pulses as part of sustainable food production aimed towards food security and nutrition. IYP 2016 will create an opportunity to encourage connections throughout the food chain that would better utilize pulse-based proteins, further global production of pulses, better utilize crop rotations and address challenges in the global trade of pulses." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Reflexology.txt" ], "title": [ "Reflexology" ], "wiki_context": [ "Reflexology is an alternative medicine involving application of pressure to the feet and hands with specific thumb, finger, and hand techniques without the use of oil or lotion. It is based on a system of zones and reflex areas that purportedly reflect an image of the body on the feet and hands, with the premise that such work effects a physical change to the body. \n \nThere is no convincing evidence that reflexology is effective for any medical condition. \n\nMedical uses\n\nReviews from 2009 and 2011 have not found evidence sufficient to support the use of reflexology for any medical condition. A 2009 systematic review of randomized controlled trials concludes: \"The best evidence available to date does not demonstrate convincingly that reflexology is an effective treatment for any medical condition.\"\n\nIn 2015 the Australian Government's Department of Health published the results of a review of alternative therapies that sought to determine if any were suitable for being covered by health insurance; reflexology was one of 17 therapies evaluated for which no clear evidence of effectiveness was found.\n\nThere is no consensus among reflexologists on how reflexology is supposed to work; a unifying theme is the idea that areas on the foot correspond to areas of the body, and that by manipulating these one can improve health through one's qi. Reflexologists divide the body into ten equal vertical zones, five on the right and five on the left.\nConcerns have been raised by medical professionals that treating potentially serious illnesses with reflexology, which has no proven efficacy, could delay the seeking of appropriate medical treatment.\n\nMechanism \n\nThe Cochrane Collaboration defines reflexology as follows:\n\n\"Reflexology is gentle manipulation or pressing on certain parts of the foot to produce an effect elsewhere in the body.\" \n\nReflexologists posit that the blockage of an energy field, invisible life force, or Qi, can prevent healing. Another tenet of reflexology is the belief that practitioners can relieve stress and pain in other parts of the body through the manipulation of the feet. One claimed explanation is that the pressure received in the feet may send signals that 'balance' the nervous system or release chemicals such as endorphins that reduce stress and pain. These hypotheses are rejected by the medical community, who cite a lack of scientific evidence and the well-tested germ theory of disease.\n\nReflexology's claim to manipulate energy (Qi) has been highly controversial, as there is no scientific evidence for the existence of life energy (Qi), 'energy balance', 'crystalline structures,' or 'pathways' in the body. \n\nIn Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial, Simon Singh states that if indeed the hands and feet \"reflect\" the internal organs, reflexology might be expected to explain how such \"reflection\" was derived from the process of Darwinian natural selection; but Singh says that no argument or evidence has been adduced. \n\nRegulation\n\nIn the United Kingdom, reflexology is coordinated on a voluntary basis by the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC). Registrants are required to meet Standards of Proficiency outlined by Profession Specific Boards, as CNHC is voluntary anyone practising can describe themselves as reflexologists. When the CNHC began admitting reflexologists, a skeptic searched for and found 14 of them claiming efficacy on illnesses. Once pointed out, the CNHC had the claims retracted as it conflicted with the UK's Advertising Standards Authority code. \n\nIn Canada, reflexology is not regulated in any province and the expenses incurred are not eligible as medical claims for income taxes. RAC, the Reflexology Association of Canada, has reflexology therapists in all provinces, but there are various other associations in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.\n\nReflexology is one of the most used alternative therapies in Denmark. A national survey from 2005 showed that 21.4% of the Danish population had used reflexology at some point in life and 6.1% had used reflexology within the previous year. A study from Norway showed that 5.6% of the Norwegian population in 2007 had used reflexology within the last 12 months. \n\nHistory\n\nPractices resembling reflexology may have existed in previous historical periods. Similar practices have been documented in the histories of China and Egypt. Reflexology was introduced to the United States in 1913 by William H. Fitzgerald, M.D. (1872–1942), an ear, nose, and throat specialist, and Edwin F. Bowers. Fitzgerald claimed that applying pressure had an anesthetic effect on other areas of the body. It was modified in the 1930s and 1940s by Eunice D. Ingham (1889–1974), a nurse and physiotherapist. Ingham claimed that the feet and hands were especially sensitive, and mapped the entire body into \"reflexes\" on the feet renaming \"zone therapy\" to reflexology. \"Modern reflexologists use Ingham's methods, or similar techniques developed by the reflexologist Laura Norman.\"" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "The_Watchtower.txt", "Jehovah's_Witnesses.txt" ], "title": [ "The Watchtower", "Jehovah's Witnesses" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom is an illustrated religious magazine, published monthly in 274 languages by Jehovah's Witnesses via the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. Along with its companion magazine, Awake!, Jehovah's Witnesses distribute The Watchtower—Public Edition in their door-to-door ministry. \n\nThe Watchtower—Public Edition is the most widely circulated magazine in the world, with an average print run of approximately 59 million copies bimonthly, as of 2016. The Watchtower—Study Edition is used at congregation meetings, with an average monthly print run of around 15 million. \n\nHistory \n\nThe publication was started by Charles Taze Russell on July 1, 1879 under the title Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence. According to its first issue, the magazine's purpose was to draw attention to Russell's belief that people of the time were \"living 'in the last days' 'the day of the Lord'—'the end' of the Gospel age,\" and that \"the dawn of the 'new' age, are facts not only discernible by the close student of the Word, led by the spirit, but the outward signs recognizable by the world bear the same testimony.\" \n\nIn 1908 the name was changed to The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence. In 1920, the Watch Tower Society reprinted all issues from 1879–1919 in seven volumes, known as the Watchtower Reprints, which have since been reprinted by various Bible Student groups. On 15 October 1931, the magazine was renamed The Watchtower and Herald of Christ's Presence; in January 1939, The Watchtower and Herald of Christ's Kingdom; from March 1939 until the present, its full name has been The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom. \n\nPurpose\n\nThe stated purpose of The Watchtower is to draw attention to the kingdom of God, which Jehovah's Witnesses believe is a real government that will soon replace all earthly governments. According to the magazine's mission statement: \nTHIS MAGAZINE, The Watchtower, honors Jehovah God, the Ruler of the universe. It comforts people with the good news that God's heavenly Kingdom will soon end all wickedness and transform the earth into a paradise. It promotes faith in Jesus Christ, who died so that we might gain everlasting life and who is now ruling as King of God's Kingdom. This magazine has been published continuously since 1879 and is nonpolitical. It adheres to the Bible as its authority.\n\nContent \n\nThe Watchtower is the primary means of disseminating Jehovah's Witness beliefs, and includes articles relating to biblical prophecies, Christian conduct and morals, and the history of religion and the Bible.\n\nPreviously, each issue of the Watchtower contained study articles and other regular features and was distributed to the general public. In 2008, content was divided into a Public Edition distributed to non-Witnesses and a Study Edition, which contains \"pointed information prepared especially for Jehovah's Witnesses\". The latter is generally distributed only to members but is made available to members of the public attending the study of The Watchtower at congregation meetings. \n\nPublic Edition\n\nThe Public Edition of The Watchtower contains biblical articles relating to a theme shown on the cover. In January 2013, The Watchtower—Public Edition was reduced from 32 to 16 pages, with greater focus on the official Jehovah's Witnesses website. As of the January 2016 issue, the Public Edition is published every two months.\n\nStudy Edition\n\nThe Study Edition contains study articles written for the Watchtower Study, as well as other intra-organizational information directed to current and prospective members. \n\nCongregations of Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide discuss the same article each week at the Watchtower Study. At this meeting, each paragraph is read aloud by a designated reader, after which the conductor asks the question printed at the bottom of the page for that paragraph; members of the congregation are then called upon to answer the questions based on the printed information. They are encouraged to put the information in their own words and to \"draw attention to scripture application, supporting arguments, or practical application of the material.\" \n\nAuthorship \n\nThe Writing Committee of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses oversees the research, editing, and development of the articles. The articles are mostly submitted by writing committees from worldwide branch offices, which are then checked by editors and translated into the languages of publication; all involved are volunteers. Women are permitted to write articles that are not of a doctrinal nature. The names of the authors (except in first-person life stories), and other publishing staff are not provided. Articles are produced under the authority and supervision of the Governing Body, and are considered the official teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses.The Watchtower, March 1, 1987, page 15, \"Each article in both The Watchtower and Awake! and every page, including the artwork, is scrutinized by selected members of the Governing Body before it is printed.\"\n\nDistribution \n\nThe magazine is printed in nineteen countries; about 25% of the total is printed at one of the organization's printeries in Georgetown, Ontario, Canada.\n\nAs of January 2016, each issue of the Public Edition has an average print run of approximately 59 million copies—the highest magazine circulation in the world. The monthly print run of the Study Edition is not stated in the English edition; the Russian edition states a print run of 15,252,000.\n\nThe magazine is distributed by Jehovah's Witnesses in the course of their house-to-house ministry. They are also distributed by approaching people in public places, given informally to acquaintances and professionals, or left as reading material in places such as bus terminals and laundromats. \n\nAccessibility\n\nIn addition to printed editions, The Watchtower has been published in other forms. Since 1997, Jehovah's Witnesses' official web sites have carried articles formatted for the Internet,\"Good News on the Internet\", Our Kingdom Ministry, November 1997, page 3, \"Our Internet Web site has the address http://www.watchtower.org and contains a selection of tracts, brochures, and Watchtower and Awake! articles.\" (In September 2012, the official website changed to http://www.jw.org.) and began hosting digital downloads in 2008. Specific accessibility efforts include:\n* Braille: In 1976, The Watchtower became available in Grade II English Braille.\n* Audio: In 1988, articles from The Watchtower were recorded on audio cassette, and later on audio CD; audio cassettes are no longer produced. From 2004 until 2009, The Watchtower was released on CD in MP3 format; digital files are now available for download in MP3 and AAC/M4B formats. As of September 2013, digital files for The Watchtower—Simplified Edition are also available for download in these formats.\n* Sign language: Since 2004 The Watchtower has been made available monthly in American Sign Language on DVD, and has since been made available in more than 20 sign languages.\n* Simplified Edition: In July 2011, the The Watchtower—Study Edition was published in simplified English on a trial basis. From the January 2013 issue, the Simplified Edition is also available in other languages. \n* Digital formats. As of 2010, study articles from The Watchtower—Study Edition have been made available as PDF files. PDF files of the public edition of The Watchtower have been available for download since August 1, 2010, and the complete study edition is available as of the February 15, 2011 issue. It has since been made available in various other digital formats, including MOBI and Rich Text Format.\n\nCost\n\nUntil March 1990, The Watchtower was available for a small charge that varied over time and in different countries. For example, in the United States, the suggested donation per issue was $0.05 in 1950, gradually increasing to $0.25 in 1989. On January 17, 1990, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against Jimmy Swaggart that sales of religious literature were subject to taxation, which introduced ambiguity into the formerly tax-free practice of suggesting a specific amount in exchange for the magazines. The Watch Tower Society supported Swaggart in the case, arguing that the perceived sale of religious literature should be exempt from taxation. \n\nFrom March 1, 1990, the journals were made available at no cost, on a freewill donation basis in the United States, with the stated purpose of simplifying their Bible educational work and distinguishing themselves from those who commercialize religion. An article in May 1990 issue of Our Kingdom Ministry—a newsletter provided to members—stated that \"there are growing pressures against all religious elements\" and went on to say that their main concern was to move ahead in the worldwide preaching work, \"without hindrance.\"\n\nThe sale of Jehovah's Witnesses' literature was gradually phased out in other countries, and The Watchtower has been distributed free of charge worldwide since January 2000, its printing being funded by voluntary donations from Jehovah's Witnesses and members of the public.", "Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity.Sources for descriptors:• Millenarian: • Restorationist: • Christian: • Denomination: The group claims a worldwide membership of more than 8.2 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance figures of more than 15 million, and an annual Memorial attendance of more than 19.9 million. Jehovah's Witnesses are directed by the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, a group of elders in Brooklyn, New York, which establishes all doctrines based on its interpretations of the Bible. They prefer to use their own translation, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, although their literature occasionally quotes and cites other translations. They believe that the destruction of the present world system at Armageddon is imminent, and that the establishment of God's kingdom over the earth is the only solution for all problems faced by humanity. \n\nThe group emerged from the Bible Student movement, founded in the late 1870s by Charles Taze Russell with the formation of Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society, with significant organizational and doctrinal changes under the leadership of Joseph Franklin Rutherford. The name Jehovah's witnesses was adopted in 1931 to distinguish themselves from other Bible Student groups and symbolize a break with the legacy of Russell's traditions.\n\nJehovah's Witnesses are best known for their door-to-door preaching, distributing literature such as The Watchtower and Awake!, and refusing military service and blood transfusions. They consider use of the name Jehovah vital for proper worship. They reject Trinitarianism, inherent immortality of the soul, and hellfire, which they consider to be unscriptural doctrines. They do not observe Christmas, Easter, birthdays or other holidays and customs they consider to have pagan origins incompatible with Christianity. Adherents commonly refer to their body of beliefs as \"the truth\" and consider themselves to be \"in the truth\". They consider secular society to be morally corrupt and under the influence of Satan, and most limit their social interaction with non-Witnesses. Congregational disciplinary actions include disfellowshipping, their term for formal expulsion and shunning. Baptized individuals who formally leave are considered disassociated and are also shunned. Disfellowshipped and disassociated individuals may eventually be reinstated if deemed repentant. \n\nThe religion's position regarding conscientious objection to military service and refusal to salute national flags has brought it into conflict with some governments. Consequently, some Jehovah's Witnesses have been persecuted and their activities are banned or restricted in some countries. Persistent legal challenges by Jehovah's Witnesses have influenced legislation related to civil rights in several countries. \n\nThe organization has attracted criticism over issues surrounding biblical translation, doctrines, handling of sexual abuse cases, and alleged coercion of its members. The claims are rejected by the religion's leaders, and some have been disputed by courts and religious scholars.\n\nHistory\n\nBackground (1870–1916)\n\nIn 1870, Charles Taze Russell and others formed a group in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to study the Bible. During the course of his ministry, Russell disputed many beliefs of mainstream Christianity including immortality of the soul, hellfire, predestination, the fleshly return of Jesus Christ, the Trinity, and the burning up of the world. In 1876, Russell met Nelson H. Barbour; later that year they jointly produced the book Three Worlds, which combined restitutionist views with end time prophecy. The book taught that God's dealings with humanity were divided dispensationally, each ending with a \"harvest,\" that Christ had returned as an invisible spirit being in 1874 inaugurating the \"harvest of the Gospel age,\" and that 1914 would mark the end of a 2520-year period called \"the Gentile Times,\" at which time world society would be replaced by the full establishment of God's kingdom on earth. Beginning in 1878 Russell and Barbour jointly edited a religious journal, Herald of the Morning. In June 1879 the two split over doctrinal differences, and in July, Russell began publishing the magazine Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, stating that its purpose was to demonstrate that the world was in \"the last days,\" and that a new age of earthly and human restitution under the reign of Christ was imminent. \n\nFrom 1879, Watch Tower supporters gathered as autonomous congregations to study the Bible topically. Thirty congregations were founded, and during 1879 and 1880, Russell visited each to provide the format he recommended for conducting meetings. As congregations continued to form during Russell's ministry, they each remained self-administrative, functioning under the congregationalist style of church governance. In 1881, Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society was presided over by William Henry Conley, and in 1884, Charles Taze Russell incorporated the society as a non-profit business to distribute tracts and Bibles. By about 1900, Russell had organized thousands of part- and full-time colporteurs, and was appointing foreign missionaries and establishing branch offices. By the 1910s, Russell's organization maintained nearly a hundred \"pilgrims,\" or traveling preachers. Russell engaged in significant global publishing efforts during his ministry, and by 1912, he was the most distributed Christian author in the United States. \n\nRussell moved the Watch Tower Society's headquarters to Brooklyn, New York, in 1909, combining printing and corporate offices with a house of worship; volunteers were housed in a nearby residence he named Bethel. He identified the religious movement as \"Bible Students,\" and more formally as the International Bible Students Association. By 1910, about 50,000 people worldwide were associated with the movement and congregations re-elected him annually as their \"pastor.\" Russell died October 31, 1916, at the age of 64 while returning from a ministerial speaking tour. \n\nReorganization (1917–1942)\n\nIn January 1917, the Watch Tower Society's legal representative, Joseph Franklin Rutherford, was elected as its next president. His election was disputed, and members of the Board of Directors accused him of acting in an autocratic and secretive manner. The divisions between his supporters and opponents triggered a major turnover of members over the next decade. In June 1917, he released The Finished Mystery as a seventh volume of Russell's Studies in the Scriptures series. The book, published as the posthumous work of Russell, was a compilation of his commentaries on the Bible books of Ezekiel and Revelation, plus numerous additions by Bible Students Clayton Woodworth and George Fisher. It strongly criticized Catholic and Protestant clergy and Christian involvement in the Great War. As a result, Watch Tower Society directors were jailed for sedition under the Espionage Act in 1918 and members were subjected to mob violence; the directors were released in March 1919 and charges against them were dropped in 1920. \n\nRutherford centralized organizational control of the Watch Tower Society. In 1919, he instituted the appointment of a director in each congregation, and a year later all members were instructed to report their weekly preaching activity to the Brooklyn headquarters. At an international convention held at Cedar Point, Ohio, in September 1922, a new emphasis was made on house-to-house preaching. Significant changes in doctrine and administration were regularly introduced during Rutherford's twenty-five years as president, including the 1920 announcement that the Jewish patriarchs (such as Abraham and Isaac) would be resurrected in 1925, marking the beginning of Christ's thousand-year Kingdom. Disappointed by the changes, tens of thousands of defections occurred during the first half of Rutherford's tenure, leading to the formation of several Bible Student organizations independent of the Watch Tower Society, most of which still exist. By mid-1919, as many as one in seven of Russell-era Bible Students had ceased their association with the Society, and as many as two-thirds by the end of the 1920s. \n\nOn July 26, 1931, at a convention in Columbus, Ohio, Rutherford introduced the new name—Jehovah's witnesses—based on Isaiah 43:10: \"Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen\"—which was adopted by resolution. The name was chosen to distinguish his group of Bible Students from other independent groups that had severed ties with the Society, as well as symbolize the instigation of new outlooks and the promotion of fresh evangelizing methods. In 1932, Rutherford eliminated the system of locally elected elders and in 1938, introduced what he called a \"theocratic\" (literally, God-ruled) organizational system, under which appointments in congregations worldwide were made from the Brooklyn headquarters.\n\nFrom 1932, it was taught that the \"little flock\" of 144,000 would not be the only people to survive Armageddon. Rutherford explained that in addition to the 144,000 \"anointed\" who would be resurrected—or transferred at death—to live in heaven to rule over earth with Christ, a separate class of members, the \"great multitude,\" would live in a paradise restored on earth; from 1935, new converts to the movement were considered part of that class. By the mid-1930s, the timing of the beginning of Christ's presence (Greek: parousía), his enthronement as king, and the start of the \"last days\" were each moved to 1914. \n\nAs their interpretations of the Bible developed, Witness publications decreed that saluting national flags is a form of idolatry, which led to a new outbreak of mob violence and government opposition in the United States, Canada, Germany, and other countries. \n\nWorldwide membership of Jehovah's Witnesses reached 113,624 in 5,323 congregations by the time of Rutherford's death in January 1942. \n\nContinued development (1942–present)\n\nNathan Knorr was appointed as third president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in 1942. Knorr commissioned a new translation of the Bible, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, the full version of which was released in 1961. He organized large international assemblies, instituted new training programs for members, and expanded missionary activity and branch offices throughout the world. Knorr's presidency was also marked by an increasing use of explicit instructions guiding Witnesses in their lifestyle and conduct, and a greater use of congregational judicial procedures to enforce a strict moral code. \n\nFrom 1966, Witness publications and convention talks built anticipation of the possibility that Christ's thousand-year reign might begin in late 1975 or shortly thereafter. The number of baptisms increased significantly, from about 59,000 in 1966 to more than 297,000 in 1974. By 1975, the number of active members exceeded two million. Membership declined during the late 1970s after expectations for 1975 were proved wrong. Watch Tower Society literature did not state dogmatically that 1975 would definitely mark the end, but in 1980 the Watch Tower Society admitted its responsibility in building up hope regarding that year. \n\nThe offices of elder and ministerial servant were restored to Witness congregations in 1972, with appointments made from headquarters (and later, also by branch committees). It was announced that, starting in September 2014, appointments would be made by traveling overseers. In a major organizational overhaul in 1976, the power of the Watch Tower Society president was diminished, with authority for doctrinal and organizational decisions passed to the Governing Body. Since Knorr's death in 1977, the position of president has been occupied by Frederick Franz (1977–1992) and Milton Henschel (1992–2000), both members of the Governing Body, and since 2000 by Don A. Adams, not a member of the Governing Body. In 1995, Jehovah's Witnesses abandoned the idea that Armageddon must occur during the lives of the generation that was alive in 1914 and in 2013 changed their teaching on the \"generation\". \n\nOrganization\n\nJehovah's Witnesses are organized hierarchically, in what the leadership calls a \"theocratic organization\", reflecting their belief that it is God's \"visible organization\" on earth. The organization is led by the Governing Body—an all-male group that varies in size, but since early 2014 has comprised seven members,Twelve members as of September 2005 (See The Watchtower, March 15, 2006, page 26)Schroeder died March 8, 2006. (See The Watchtower, September 15, 2006, page 31)Sydlik died April 18, 2006. (See The Watchtower, January 1, 2007, page 8)Barber died April 8, 2007. (See The Watchtower, October 15, 2007, page 31)Jaracz died June 9, 2010. (See The Watchtower, November 15, 2010, page 23)Barr died December 4, 2010. (See The Watchtower, May 15, 2011, page 6)Sanderson appointed September 1, 2012. (See The Watchtower, July 15, 2013, page 26)Pierce died March 20, 2014. (See The Watchtower, December 15, 2014, page 3) all of whom profess to be of the \"anointed\" class with a hope of heavenly life—based in the Watch Tower Society's Brooklyn headquarters. There is no election for membership; new members are selected by the existing body. Until late 2012, the Governing Body described itself as the representative and \"spokesman\" for God's \"faithful and discreet slave class\" (approximately 10,000 self-professed \"anointed\" Jehovah's Witnesses). At the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Watch Tower Society, the \"faithful and discreet slave\" was defined as referring to the Governing Body only. The Governing Body directs several committees that are responsible for administrative functions, including publishing, assembly programs and evangelizing activities. It appoints all branch committee members and traveling overseers, after they have been recommended by local branches, with traveling overseers supervising circuits of congregations within their jurisdictions. Traveling overseers appoint local elders and ministerial servants, and while branch offices may appoint regional committees for matters such as Kingdom Hall construction or disaster relief. \n\nEach congregation has a body of appointed unpaid male elders and ministerial servants. Elders maintain general responsibility for congregational governance, setting meeting times, selecting speakers and conducting meetings, directing the public preaching work, and creating \"judicial committees\" to investigate and decide disciplinary action for cases involving sexual misconduct or doctrinal breaches. New elders are appointed by a traveling overseer after recommendation by the existing body of elders. Ministerial servants—appointed in a similar manner to elders—fulfill clerical and attendant duties, but may also teach and conduct meetings. Witnesses do not use elder as a title to signify a formal clergy-laity division, though elders may employ ecclesiastical privilege such as confession of sins. \n\nBaptism is a requirement for being considered a member of Jehovah's Witnesses. Jehovah's Witnesses do not practice infant baptism, and previous baptisms performed by other denominations are not considered valid. Individuals undergoing baptism must affirm publicly that dedication and baptism identify them \"as one of Jehovah's Witnesses in association with God's spirit-directed organization,\" though Witness publications say baptism symbolizes personal dedication to God and not \"to a man, work or organization.\" Their literature emphasizes the need for members to be obedient and loyal to Jehovah and to \"his organization,\" Raymond Franz (In Search of Christian Freedom, 2007, p.449) cites various Watch Tower Society publications that stress loyalty and obedience to the organization, including: \"Following Faithful Shepherds with Life in View\", The Watchtower, October 1, 1967, page 591, \"Make haste to identify the visible theocratic organization of God that represents his king, Jesus Christ. It is essential for life. Doing so, be complete in accepting its every aspect.\"; The Watchtower, September 1, 2006, pg 15, \"Have we formed a loyal attachment to the organization that Jehovah is using today?\"; \"Your Reminders Are What I Am Fond Of\", The Watchtower, June 15, 2006, pg 26, \"We too should remain faithful to Jehovah and to his organization regardless of injustices we suffer and regardless of what others do.\"; \"Are You Prepared for Survival?\", The Watchtower, May 15, 2006, pg 22, \"Just as Noah and his God-fearing family were preserved in the ark, survival of individuals today depends on their faith and their loyal association with the earthly part of Jehovah’s universal organization.\"; Worship The Only True God (Watch Tower Society, 2002), pg 134, \"Jehovah is guiding us today by means of his visible organization under Christ. Our attitude toward this arrangement demonstrates how we feel about the issue of sovereignty ... By being loyal to Jehovah’s organization, we show that Jehovah is our God and that we are united in worship of him.\" stating that individuals must remain part of it to receive God's favor and to survive Armageddon. \n\nPublishing\n\nThe organization publishes a significant amount of literature as part of its evangelism activities. The Watch Tower Society has produced over 200 million copies of the Bible in whole or part in over 120 languages. The Watchtower and Awake! are the most widely distributed magazines in the world. Translation of Witness publications is done by over 2000 volunteers worldwide, producing literature in over 760 languages. \n\nFunding\n\nMuch of their funding is provided by donations, primarily from members. There is no tithing or collection. In 2001 Newsday listed the Watch Tower Society as one of New York's forty richest corporations, with revenues exceeding $950 million. The organization reported for the same year that it \"spent over 70.9 million dollars in caring for special pioneers, missionaries, and traveling overseers in their field service assignments.\" \n\nBeliefs\n\nSources of doctrine\n\nJehovah's Witnesses believe their religion is a restoration of first-century Christianity. Doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses are established by the Governing Body, which assumes responsibility for interpreting and applying scripture. The Governing Body does not issue any single, comprehensive \"statement of faith\", but prefers to express its doctrinal position in a variety of ways through publications published by the Watch Tower Society. Their publications teach that doctrinal changes and refinements result from a process of progressive revelation, in which God gradually reveals his will and purpose, and that such enlightenment or \"new light\" results from the application of reason and study, the guidance of the holy spirit, and direction from Jesus Christ and angels. The Society also teaches that members of the Governing Body are helped by the holy spirit to discern \"deep truths\", which are then considered by the entire Governing Body before it makes doctrinal decisions. The religion's leadership, while disclaiming divine inspiration and infallibility, is said to provide \"divine guidance\" through its teachings described as \"based on God's Word thus ... not from men, but from Jehovah.\" \n\nThe entire Protestant canon of scripture is considered the inspired, inerrant word of God. Jehovah's Witnesses consider the Bible to be scientifically and historically accurate and reliable and interpret much of it literally, but accept parts of it as symbolic. They consider the Bible to be the final authority for all their beliefs, although sociologist Andrew Holden's ethnographic study of the religion concluded that pronouncements of the Governing Body, through Watch Tower Society publications, carry almost as much weight as the Bible. Regular personal Bible reading is frequently recommended; Witnesses are discouraged from formulating doctrines and \"private ideas\" reached through Bible research independent of Watch Tower Society publications, and are cautioned against reading other religious literature. Adherents are told to have \"complete confidence\" in the leadership, avoid skepticism about what is taught in the Watch Tower Society's literature, and \"not advocate or insist on personal opinions or harbor private ideas when it comes to Bible understanding.\" The religion makes no provision for members to criticize or contribute to official teachings and all Witnesses must abide by its doctrines and organizational requirements. \n\nJehovah and Jesus Christ\n\nJehovah's Witnesses emphasize use of the name Jehovah—a representation of God's name based on the Tetragrammaton. They believe that Jehovah is the only true God, the creator of all things, and the \"Universal Sovereign\". They believe that all worship should be directed toward him, and that he is not part of a Trinity; consequently, the religion places more emphasis on God than on Christ. They believe that the holy spirit is God's applied power or \"active force\", rather than a person. \n\nJehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus is God's only direct creation, that everything else was created through Christ by means of God's power, and that the initial unassisted act of creation uniquely identifies Jesus as God's \"only-begotten Son\". Jesus served as a redeemer and a ransom sacrifice to pay for the sins of humanity. They believe Jesus died on a single upright post rather than the traditional cross. They believe that references in the Bible to the Archangel Michael, Abaddon (Apollyon), and the Word all refer to Jesus. Jesus is considered to be the only intercessor and high priest between God and humanity, and appointed by God as the king and judge of his kingdom. His role as a mediator (referred to in 1 Timothy 2:5) is applied to the 'anointed' class, though the 'other sheep' are said to also benefit from the arrangement. \n\nSatan\n\nJehovah's Witnesses believe that Satan was originally a perfect angel who developed feelings of self-importance and craved worship. Satan influenced Adam and Eve to disobey God, and humanity subsequently became participants in a challenge involving the competing claims of Jehovah and Satan to universal sovereignty. Other angels who sided with Satan became demons.\n\nJehovah's Witnesses teach that Satan and his demons were cast down to earth from heaven after October 1, 1914, at which point the end times began. Witnesses believe that Satan is the ruler of the current world order, that human society is influenced and misled by Satan and his demons, and that they are a cause of human suffering. They also believe that human governments are controlled by Satan, but that he does not directly control each human ruler. \n\nLife after death\n\nJehovah's Witnesses believe death is a state of non-existence with no consciousness. There is no Hell of fiery torment; Hades and Sheol are understood to refer to the condition of death, termed the common grave. Jehovah's Witnesses consider the soul to be a life or a living body that can die. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that humanity is in a sinful state, from which release is only possible by means of Jesus' shed blood as a ransom, or atonement, for the sins of humankind. \n\nWitnesses believe that a \"little flock\" go to heaven, but that the hope for life after death for the majority of \"other sheep\" involves being resurrected by God to a cleansed earth after Armageddon. They interpret Revelation 14:1–5 to mean that the number of Christians going to heaven is limited to exactly 144,000, who will rule with Jesus as kings and priests over earth. They believe that baptism as one of Jehovah's Witnesses is vital for salvation and that only they meet scriptural requirements for surviving Armageddon, but that God is the final judge.\"Remaining Organized for Survival Into the Millennium\", The Watchtower, September 1, 1989, page 19, \"Only Jehovah's Witnesses, those of the anointed remnant and the 'great crowd,'as a united organization under the protection of the Supreme Organizer, have any Scriptural hope of surviving the impending end of this doomed system dominated by Satan the Devil.\" During Christ's millennial reign, most people who died prior to Armageddon will be resurrected with the prospect of living forever; they will be taught the proper way to worship God to prepare them for their final test at the end of the millennium. \n\nGod's kingdom\n\nJehovah's Witnesses believe that God's kingdom is a literal government in heaven, ruled by Jesus Christ and 144,000 \"spirit-anointed\" Christians drawn from the earth, which they associate with Jesus' reference to a \"new covenant\". The kingdom is viewed as the means by which God will accomplish his original purpose for the earth, transforming it into a paradise without sickness or death. It is said to have been the focal point of Jesus' ministry on earth. They believe the kingdom was established in heaven in 1914, and that Jehovah's Witnesses serve as representatives of the kingdom on earth. \n\nEschatology\n\nA central teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses is that the current world era, or \"system of things\", entered the \"last days\" in 1914 and faces imminent destruction through intervention by God and Jesus Christ, leading to deliverance for those who worship God acceptably. They consider all other present-day religions to be false, identifying them with \"Babylon the Great\", or the \"harlot\", of Revelation 17, and believe that they will soon be destroyed by the United Nations, which they believe is represented in scripture by the scarlet-colored wild beast of Revelation chapter 17. This development will mark the beginning of the \"great tribulation\". Satan will subsequently attack Jehovah's Witnesses, an action that will prompt God to begin the war of Armageddon, during which all forms of government and all people not counted as Christ's \"sheep\", or true followers, will be destroyed. After Armageddon, God will extend his heavenly kingdom to include earth, which will be transformed into a paradise similar to the Garden of Eden. Most of those who had died before God's intervention will gradually be resurrected during \"judgment day\" lasting for one thousand years. This judgment will be based on their actions after resurrection rather than past deeds. At the end of the thousand years, Christ will hand all authority back to God. Then a final test will take place when Satan is released to mislead perfect mankind. Those who fail will be destroyed, along with Satan and his demons. The end result will be a fully tested, glorified human race. \n\nJehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus Christ began to rule in heaven as king of God's kingdom in October 1914, and that Satan was subsequently ousted from heaven to the earth, resulting in \"woe\" to humanity. They believe that Jesus rules invisibly, from heaven, perceived only as a series of \"signs\". They base this belief on a rendering of the Greek word parousia—usually translated as \"coming\" when referring to Christ—as \"presence\". They believe Jesus' presence includes an unknown period beginning with his inauguration as king in heaven in 1914, and ending when he comes to bring a final judgment against humans on earth. They thus depart from the mainstream Christian belief that the \"second coming\" of Matthew 24 refers to a single moment of arrival on earth to judge humans. \n\nPractices\n\nWorship\n\nMeetings for worship and study are held at Kingdom Halls, which are typically functional in character, and do not contain religious symbols. Witnesses are assigned to a congregation in whose \"territory\" they usually reside and attend weekly services they refer to as \"meetings\" as scheduled by congregation elders. The meetings are largely devoted to study of Watch Tower Society literature and the Bible. The format of the meetings is established by the religion's headquarters, and the subject matter for most meetings is the same worldwide. Congregations meet for two sessions each week comprising five distinct meetings that total about three-and-a-half hours, typically gathering mid-week (three meetings) and on the weekend (two meetings). Prior to 2009, congregations met three times each week; these meetings were condensed, with the intention that members dedicate an evening for \"family worship\". Gatherings are opened and closed with kingdom songs (hymns) and brief prayers. Twice each year, Witnesses from a number of congregations that form a \"circuit\" gather for a one-day assembly. Larger groups of congregations meet once a year for a three-day \"regional convention\", usually at rented stadiums or auditoriums. Their most important and solemn event is the commemoration of the \"Lord's Evening Meal\", or \"Memorial of Christ's Death\" on the date of the Jewish Passover. \n\nEvangelism\n\nJehovah's Witnesses are perhaps best known for their efforts to spread their beliefs, most notably by visiting people from house to house, distributing literature published by the Watch Tower Society in 700 languages. The objective is to start a regular \"Bible study\" with any person who is not already a member, with the intention that the student be baptized as a member of the group; Witnesses are advised to consider discontinuing Bible studies with students who show no interest in becoming members. Witnesses are taught they are under a biblical command to engage in public preaching. They are instructed to devote as much time as possible to their ministry and are required to submit an individual monthly \"Field Service Report\". Baptized members who fail to report a month of preaching are termed \"irregular\" and may be counseled by elders; those who do not submit reports for six consecutive months are termed \"inactive\". \n\nEthics and morality\n\nAll sexual relations outside of marriage are grounds for expulsion if the individual is not deemed repentant; homosexual activity is considered a serious sin, and same-sex marriages are forbidden. Abortion is considered murder. Suicide is considered to be \"self-murder\" and a sin against God. Modesty in dress and grooming is frequently emphasized. Gambling, drunkenness, illegal drugs, and tobacco use are forbidden. Drinking of alcoholic beverages is permitted in moderation.\n\nThe family structure is patriarchal. The husband is considered to have authority on family decisions, but is encouraged to solicit his wife's thoughts and feelings, as well as those of his children. Marriages are required to be monogamous and legally registered. Marrying a non-believer, or endorsing such a union, is strongly discouraged and carries religious sanctions. \n\nDivorce is discouraged, and remarriage is forbidden unless a divorce is obtained on the grounds of adultery, which they refer to as \"a scriptural divorce\". If a divorce is obtained for any other reason, remarriage is considered adulterous unless the prior spouse has died or is since considered to have committed sexual immorality. Extreme physical abuse, willful non-support of one's family, and what the religion terms \"absolute endangerment of spirituality\" are considered grounds for legal separation. \n\nDisciplinary action\n\nFormal discipline is administered by congregation elders. When a baptized member is accused of committing a serious sin—usually cases of sexual misconduct or charges of apostasy for disputing Jehovah's Witness doctrines —a judicial committee is formed to determine guilt, provide help and possibly administer discipline. Disfellowshipping, a form of shunning, is the strongest form of discipline, administered to an offender deemed unrepentant. Contact with disfellowshipped individuals is limited to direct family members living in the same home, and with congregation elders who may invite disfellowshipped persons to apply for reinstatement; formal business dealings may continue if contractually or financially obliged. Witnesses are taught that avoiding social and spiritual interaction with disfellowshipped individuals keeps the congregation free from immoral influence and that \"losing precious fellowship with loved ones may help [the shunned individual] to come 'to his senses,' see the seriousness of his wrong, and take steps to return to Jehovah.\" The practice of shunning may also serve to deter other members from dissident behavior. Members who disassociate (formally resign) are described in Watch Tower Society literature as wicked and are also shunned. Expelled individuals may eventually be reinstated to the congregation if deemed repentant by elders in the congregation in which the disfellowshipping was enforced. Reproof is a lesser form of discipline given formally by a judicial committee to a baptized Witness who is considered repentant of serious sin; the reproved person temporarily loses conspicuous privileges of service, but suffers no restriction of social or spiritual fellowship. Marking, a curtailing of social but not spiritual fellowship, is practiced if a baptized member persists in a course of action regarded as a violation of Bible principles but not a serious sin.A common example given is a baptized Witness who dates a non-Witness; see The Watchtower, July 15, 1999, p. 30.\n\nSeparateness\n\nJehovah's Witnesses believe that the Bible condemns the mixing of religions, on the basis that there can only be one truth from God, and therefore reject interfaith and ecumenical movements. They believe that only their religion represents true Christianity, and that other religions fail to meet all the requirements set by God and will soon be destroyed. Jehovah's Witnesses are taught that it is vital to remain \"separate from the world.\" The Witnesses' literature defines the \"world\" as \"the mass of mankind apart from Jehovah's approved servants\" and teach that it is morally contaminated and ruled by Satan. Witnesses are taught that association with \"worldly\" people presents a \"danger\" to their faith, and are instructed to minimize social contact with non-members to better maintain their own standards of morality. \n\nJehovah's Witnesses believe their highest allegiance belongs to God's kingdom, which is viewed as an actual government in heaven, with Christ as king. They remain politically neutral, do not seek public office, and are discouraged from voting, though individual members may participate in uncontroversial community improvement issues. Although they do not take part in politics, they respect the authority of the governments under which they live. They do not celebrate religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter, nor do they observe birthdays, nationalistic holidays, or other celebrations they consider to honor people other than Jesus. They feel that these and many other customs have pagan origins or reflect a nationalistic or political spirit. Their position is that these traditional holidays reflect Satan's control over the world. Witnesses are told that spontaneous giving at other times can help their children to not feel deprived of birthdays or other celebrations. \n\nThey do not work in industries associated with the military, do not serve in the armed services, and refuse national military service, which in some countries may result in their arrest and imprisonment. They do not salute or pledge allegiance to flags or sing national anthems or patriotic songs. Jehovah's Witnesses see themselves as a worldwide brotherhood that transcends national boundaries and ethnic loyalties. Sociologist Ronald Lawson has suggested the religion's intellectual and organizational isolation, coupled with the intense indoctrination of adherents, rigid internal discipline and considerable persecution, has contributed to the consistency of its sense of urgency in its apocalyptic message. \n\nRejection of blood transfusions\n\nJehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions, which they consider a violation of God's law based on their interpretation of Acts 15:28, 29 and other scriptures. Since 1961 the willing acceptance of a blood transfusion by an unrepentant member has been grounds for expulsion from the religion. Members are directed to refuse blood transfusions, even in \"a life-or-death situation\". Jehovah's Witnesses accept non-blood alternatives and other medical procedures in lieu of blood transfusions, and their literature provides information about non-blood medical procedures. \n\nThough Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept blood transfusions of whole blood, they may accept some blood plasma fractions at their own discretion. The Watch Tower Society provides pre-formatted durable power of attorney documents prohibiting major blood components, in which members can specify which allowable fractions and treatments they will personally accept. Jehovah's Witnesses have established Hospital Liaison Committees as a cooperative arrangement between individual Jehovah's Witnesses and medical professionals and hospitals. \n\nDemographics\n\nJehovah's Witnesses have an active presence in most countries, but do not form a large part of the population of any country.\n\nAs of August 2015, Jehovah's Witnesses report an average of 8.2 million publishers—the term they use for members actively involved in preaching—in 118,016 congregations. In 2015, these reports indicated over 1.93 billion hours spent in preaching and \"Bible study\" activity. Since the mid-1990s, the number of peak publishers has increased from 4.5 million to 8.2 million. In the same year, they conducted \"Bible studies\" with over 9.7 million individuals, including those conducted by Witness parents with their children. Jehovah's Witnesses estimate their current worldwide growth rate to be 1.5% per year.\n\nThe official published membership statistics, such as those mentioned above, include only those who submit reports for their personal ministry; official statistics do not include inactive and disfellowshipped individuals or others who might attend their meetings. As a result, only about half of those who self-identified as Jehovah's Witnesses in independent demographic studies are considered active by the faith itself. The 2008 US Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey found a low retention rate among members of the religion: about 37% of people raised in the religion continued to identify themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses. \n\nSociological analysis\n\nSociologist James A. Beckford, in his 1975 study of Jehovah's Witnesses, classified the religion's organizational structure as Totalizing, characterized by an assertive leadership, specific and narrow objectives, control over competing demands on members' time and energy, and control over the quality of new members. Other characteristics of the classification include likelihood of friction with secular authorities, reluctance to co-operate with other religious organizations, a high rate of membership turnover, a low rate of doctrinal change, and strict uniformity of beliefs among members. Beckford identified the religion's chief characteristics as historicism (identifying historical events as relating to the outworking of God's purpose), absolutism (conviction that Jehovah's Witness leaders dispense absolute truth), activism (capacity to motivate members to perform missionary tasks), rationalism (conviction that Witness doctrines have a rational basis devoid of mystery), authoritarianism (rigid presentation of regulations without the opportunity for criticism) and world indifference (rejection of certain secular requirements and medical treatments). \n\nSociologist Bryan R. Wilson, in his consideration of five religions including Jehovah's Witnesses, noted that each of the religions: \n# \"exists in a state of tension with the wider society;\"\n# \"imposes tests of merit on would-be members;\"\n# \"exercises stern discipline, regulating the declared beliefs and the life habits of members and prescribing and operating sanctions for those who deviate, including the possibility of expulsion;\"\n# \"demands sustained and total commitment from its members, and the subordination, and perhaps even the exclusion of all other interests.\"\n\nA sociological comparative study by the Pew Research Center found that Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States ranked highest in statistics for getting no further than high school graduation, belief in God, importance of religion in one's life, frequency of religious attendance, frequency of prayers, frequency of Bible reading outside of religious services, belief their prayers are answered, belief that their religion can only be interpreted one way, belief that theirs is the only one true faith leading to eternal life, opposition to abortion, and opposition to homosexuality. In the study, Jehovah's Witnesses ranked lowest in statistics for having earned a graduate degree and interest in politics. \n\nOpposition\n\nControversy surrounding various beliefs, doctrines and practices of Jehovah's Witnesses has led to opposition from local governments, communities, and religious groups. Religious commentator Ken Jubber wrote that \"Viewed globally, this persecution has been so persistent and of such intensity that it would not be inaccurate to regard Jehovah's Witnesses as the most persecuted group of Christians of the twentieth century.\" \n\nPersecution\n\nPolitical and religious animosity against Jehovah's Witnesses has at times led to mob action and government oppression in various countries. Their doctrine of political neutrality and their refusal to serve in the military has led to imprisonment of members who refused conscription during World War II and at other times where national service has been compulsory. In 1933, there were approximately 20,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany, of whom about 10,000 were later imprisoned. Of those, 2000 were sent to Nazi concentration camps, where they were identified by purple triangles; as many as 1200 died, including 250 who were executed. Shulman, William L. A State of Terror: Germany 1933–1939. Bayside, New York: Holocaust Resource Center and Archives. In Canada, Jehovah's Witnesses were interned in camps along with political dissidents and people of Chinese and Japanese descent. In the former Soviet Union, about 9,300 Jehovah's Witnesses were deported to Siberia as part of Operation North in April 1951.Валерий Пасат .\"Трудные страницы истории Молдовы (1940–1950)\". Москва: Изд. Terra, 1994 Their religious activities are currently banned or restricted in some countries, including China, Vietnam and some Islamic states. \n\nAuthors including William Whalen, Shawn Francis Peters and former Witnesses Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, Alan Rogerson and William Schnell have claimed the arrests and mob violence in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s were the consequence of what appeared to be a deliberate course of provocation of authorities and other religions by Jehovah’s Witnesses. Whalen, Harrison and Schnell have suggested Rutherford invited and cultivated opposition for publicity purposes in a bid to attract dispossessed members of society, and to convince members that persecution from the outside world was evidence of the truth of their struggle to serve God.Claims that Jehovah's Witnesses chose a deliberate course of martyrdom are contained in:Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, Visions of Glory, 1978, chapter 6. Watch Tower Society literature of the period directed that Witnesses should \"never seek a controversy\" nor resist arrest, but also advised members not to co-operate with police officers or courts that ordered them to stop preaching, and to prefer jail rather than pay fines. \n\nLegal challenges\n\nSeveral cases involving Jehovah's Witnesses have been heard by Supreme Courts throughout the world. The cases generally relate to their right to practice their religion, displays of patriotism and military service, and blood transfusions. \n\nIn the United States, their persistent legal challenges prompted a series of state and federal court rulings that reinforced judicial protections for civil liberties. Among the rights strengthened by Witness court victories in the United States are the protection of religious conduct from federal and state interference, the right to abstain from patriotic rituals and military service, the right of patients to refuse medical treatment, and the right to engage in public discourse. Similar cases in their favor have been heard in Canada. \n\nCriticism and controversy\n\nJehovah's Witnesses have attracted criticism over issues surrounding their Bible translation, doctrines, their handling of sexual abuse cases, and alleged coercion of members. Many of the claims are denied by Jehovah's Witnesses and some have also been disputed by religious scholars.\n\nFree speech and thought\n\nDoctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses are established by the Governing Body. The religion does not tolerate dissent over doctrines and practices; members who openly disagree with the religion's teachings are expelled and shunned. Witness publications strongly discourage followers from questioning doctrine and counsel received from the Governing Body, reasoning that it is to be trusted as part of \"God's organization\". It also warns members to \"avoid independent thinking\", claiming such thinking \"was introduced by Satan the Devil\" and would \"cause division\". Those who openly disagree with official teachings are condemned as \"apostates\" who are \"mentally diseased\". \n\nFormer members Heather and Gary Botting compare the cultural paradigms of the religion to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four, and Alan Rogerson describes the religion's leadership as totalitarian. Other critics charge that by disparaging individual decision-making, the religion's leaders cultivate a system of unquestioning obedience in which Witnesses abrogate all responsibility and rights over their personal lives. Critics also accuse the religion's leaders of exercising \"intellectual dominance\" over Witnesses, controlling information and creating \"mental isolation\", which former Governing Body member Raymond Franz argued were all elements of mind control. \n\nJehovah's Witness publications state that consensus of faith aids unity, and deny that unity restricts individuality or imagination. Historian James Irvin Lichti has rejected the description of the religion as \"totalitarian\". \n\nSociologist Rodney Stark states that Jehovah's Witness leaders are \"not always very democratic\" and that members \"are expected to conform to rather strict standards,\" but adds that \"enforcement tends to be very informal, sustained by the close bonds of friendship within the group\", and that Jehovah's Witnesses see themselves as \"part of the power structure rather than subject to it.\" Sociologist Andrew Holden states that most members who join millenarian movements such as Jehovah's Witnesses have made an informed choice. However, he also states that defectors \"are seldom allowed a dignified exit\", and describes the administration as autocratic. \n\nNew World Translation\n\nSome Bible scholars including Bruce M. Metzger, former Professor and Bible editor at Princeton Theological Seminary, have said that the translation of certain texts in its New World Translation of the Bible is biased in favor of Witness practices and doctrines. The Bible editor Harold H. Rowley criticized the pre-release edition of the first volume (Genesis to Ruth) published in 1953 as \"a shining example of how the Bible should not be translated.\" \n\nOn the other hand, in his study on nine of \"the Bibles most widely in use in the English-speaking world\", Bible scholar Jason BeDuhn, Professor of Religious Studies at the Northern Arizona University, wrote: “The NW [New World Translation] emerges as the most accurate of the translations compared.” Although the general public and many Bible scholars assume that the differences in the New World Translation are the result of religious bias on the part of its translators, BeDuhn stated: “Most of the differences are due to the greater accuracy of the NW as a literal, conservative translation of the original expressions of the New Testament writers.” He added however that the insertion of the name Jehovah in the New Testament \"violate[s] accuracy in favor of denominationally preferred expressions for God\". \n\nFailed predictions\n\nWatch Tower Society publications have claimed that God has used Jehovah's Witnesses (and formerly, the International Bible Students) to declare his will and has provided advance knowledge about Armageddon and the establishment of God's kingdom. Some publications also claimed that God has used Jehovah's Witnesses and the International Bible Students as a modern-day prophet.Raymond Franz cites numerous examples. In Crisis of Conscience, 2002, pg. 173, he quotes from \"They Shall Know That a Prophet Was Among Them\", (The Watchtower, April 1, 1972,) which states that God had raised Jehovah's Witnesses as a prophet \"to warn (people) of dangers and declare things to come\" He also cites \"Identifying the Right Kind of Messenger\" (The Watchtower, May 1, 1997, page 8) which identifies the Witnesses as his \"true messengers ... by making the messages he delivers through them come true\", in contrast to \"false messengers\", whose predictions fail. In In Search of Christian Freedom, 2007, he quotes The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah—How? (1971, pg 70, 292) which describes Witnesses as the modern Ezekiel class, \"a genuine prophet within our generation\". The Watch Tower book noted: \"Concerning the message faithfully delivered by the Ezekiel class, Jehovah positively states that it 'must come true' ... those who wait undecided until it does 'come true' will also have to know that a prophet himself had proved to be in the midst of them.\" He also cites \"Execution of the Great Harlot Nears\", (The Watchtower, October 15, 1980, pg 17) which claims God gives the Witnesses \"special knowledge that others do not have ... advance knowledge about this system's end\". Jehovah's Witnesses' publications have made various predictions about world events they believe were prophesied in the Bible.The Watchtower, Jan. 15, 1959, pp. 39–41 Failed predictions have led to the alteration or abandonment of some doctrines. Some failed predictions had been presented as \"beyond doubt\" or \"approved by God\". \n\nThe Watch Tower Society rejects accusations that it is a false prophet, stating that its teachings are not inspired or infallible, and that it has not claimed its predictions were \"the words of Jehovah.\" George D. Chryssides has suggested that with the exception of statements about 1914, 1925 and 1975, the changing views and dates of the Jehovah's Witnesses are largely attributable to changed understandings of biblical chronology than to failed predictions. Chryssides further states, \"it is therefore simplistic and naïve to view the Witnesses as a group that continues to set a single end-date that fails and then devise a new one, as many counter-cultists do.\" However, sociologist Andrew Holden states that since the foundation of the movement around 140 years ago, \"Witnesses have maintained that we are living on the precipice of the end of time.\" \n\nHandling of sexual abuse cases\n\nJehovah's Witnesses have been accused of having policies and culture that help to conceal cases of sexual abuse within the organization. The religion has been criticized for its \"two witness rule\" for church discipline, based on its application of scriptures at Deuteronomy 19:15 and Matthew 18:15-17, which requires sexual abuse to be substantiated by secondary evidence if the accused person denies any wrongdoing. In cases where corroboration is lacking, the Watch Tower Society's instruction is that \"the elders will leave the matter in Jehovah's hands\". A former member of the church’s headquarters staff, Barbara Anderson, says the policy effectively requires that there be another witness to an act of molestation, \"which is an impossibility\". Anderson says the policies \"protect pedophiles rather than protect the children.\" Jehovah's Witnesses maintain that they have a strong policy to protect children, adding that the best way to protect children is by educating parents; they also state that they do not sponsor activities that separate children from parents. \n\nThe religion's failure to report abuse allegations to authorities has also been criticized. The Watch Tower Society's policy is that elders inform authorities when required by law to do so, but otherwise leave that action up to the victim and his or her family. The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that of 1006 alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse identified by the Jehovah's Witnesses within their organization since 1950, \"not one was reported by the church to secular authorities.\" William Bowen, a former Jehovah's Witness elder who established the Silentlambs organization to assist sex abuse victims within the religion, has claimed Witness leaders discourage followers from reporting incidents of sexual misconduct to authorities, and other critics claim the organization is reluctant to alert authorities in order to protect its \"crime-free\" reputation. In court cases in the United Kingdom and the United States the Watch Tower Society has been found to have been negligent in its failure to protect children from known sex offenders within the congregation and the Society has settled other child abuse lawsuits out of court, reportedly paying as much as $780,000 to one plaintiff without admitting wrongdoing." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Westboro_Baptist_Church.txt" ], "title": [ "Westboro Baptist Church" ], "wiki_context": [ "Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is a Baptist church which is known for its hate speech, especially against LGBT people (homophobia), Catholics (anti-Catholicism), Muslims (Islamophobia), Jews (religious antisemitism), American soldiers and politicians. The church is widely known as a hate group and is monitored as such by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The church has been involved in actions against gay people since at least 1991, when it sought a crackdown on homosexual activity at Gage Park six blocks northwest of the church. In addition to conducting anti-gay protests at military funerals, the organization pickets celebrity funerals and public events. Protests have also been held against Jews and Catholics, and some protests have included WBC members stomping on the American flag and/or flying the flag upside down on a flagpole. The church also has made statements such as, \"thank God for dead soldiers,\" \"God blew up the troops,\" \"thank God for 9/11,\" and \"God hates America.\" \n\nThe church is headquartered in a residential neighborhood on the west side of Topeka about 3 mi west of the Kansas State Capitol. Its first public service was held on the afternoon of November 27, 1955. The church was headed by Fred Phelps before his death in March 2014, though church representatives said the church had had no defined leader for some time before his death. The church consists primarily of members of Phelps's extended family, and in 2011, the church stated that it had about 40 members.\n\nThe WBC is not affiliated with any Baptist denomination, although it describes itself as Primitive Baptist and following the Five points of Calvinism. The Baptist World Alliance and the Southern Baptist Convention (the two largest Baptist denominations) have both denounced the WBC over the years. In addition, other mainstream Christian denominations, such as the Methodist Church, Baptist Church, various churches in the Reformed tradition, and Evangelical Alliance have condemned the actions of the independent Westboro Baptist Church. \n\nHistory\n\nWestboro Baptist Church originated as a branch of the East Side Baptist Church, established in 1931 on the east side of Topeka. In 1954, East Side hired Fred Phelps as an associate pastor, and then promoted him to pastor of their new church plant, Westboro Baptist, which opened in 1955 on the west side of Topeka. Soon after Westboro was established, Phelps broke ties with East Side Baptist.\n\nWestboro Baptist began picketing Gage Park in Topeka in 1991, saying it was a den of anonymous homosexual activity. Soon, their protests had spread throughout the city, and within three years the church was traveling across the country. Phelps explained in 1994 that he considered the negative reaction to the picketing to be proof of his righteousness. \n\nOn August 20, 1995, a pipe bomb exploded outside the home of Shirley Phelps-Roper, the daughter of Fred Phelps. The blast damaged an SUV, a fence, and part of the house, but no one was injured. In 1996, two men were arrested for the bombing, and both admitted to causing the blast. They had believed that Phelps-Roper's house was that of the pastor, and wanted to retaliate against Westboro's anti-gay protests at Washburn University. One of the bombers was fined $1,751 and was sentenced to 16 days in prison plus 100 hours of community service. \n\nFred Phelps died of natural causes shortly before midnight on March 19, 2014. His daughter Shirley said that a funeral for her father would not be held because Westboro does not \"worship the dead\".\n\nProtest activities\n\nWBC pickets approximately six locations every day, including many in Topeka and some events farther afield. On Sundays, up to 15 churches may receive pickets. By their own count, WBC has picketed in all 50 U.S. states. \n\nThe group carries out daily picketing in Topeka and travels nationally to picket the funerals of gay victims of murder, gay-bashing or people who have died from complications related to AIDS; other events related or peripherally related to homosexuality; Kansas City Chiefs football games; and live pop concerts. As of March 2009 the church claims to have participated in over 41,000 protests in over 650 cities since 1991. One of Westboro's followers estimated that the church spends $250,000 a year on picketing. \n\nThe pickets have resulted in several lawsuits. In 1995, Phelps Sr.'s eldest grandson, Benjamin Phelps, was convicted of assault and disorderly conduct after spitting upon the face of a passerby during a picket. In the 1990s the church won a series of lawsuits against the City of Topeka and Shawnee County for efforts taken to prevent or hinder WBC picketing, and was awarded approximately $200,000 in attorney's fees and costs associated with the litigation. In 2004, Phelps Sr.'s daughter Margie Phelps and Margie's son Jacob were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct and failure to obey after disregarding a police officer's order during an attempted protest. In response to pickets at funerals, Kansas passed a law prohibiting picketing at such events. In the autumn of 2007, the father of a Marine whose funeral was picketed by the WBC was awarded $5 million in damages. The award was later overturned on appeal by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in Snyder v. Phelps. In June 2007 Shirley Phelps-Roper was arrested in Nebraska and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The arrest resulted from her allowing her ten-year-old son to step on the American flag during the demonstration, which is illegal under Nebraska law. The defense contended that the child's actions were protected speech, and that the state law is unconstitutional. The prosecution claimed the demonstration was not intended as political speech, but as an incitement to violence, and that Phelps-Roper's conduct might also constitute child abuse. Prosecutors later dropped charges against Phelps-Roper. \n\nOn two occasions, the church accepted offers for radio air time in exchange for canceling an announced protest. \n\nAnti-gay picketing\n\nWhile being filmed by documentary maker Louis Theroux, they picketed a local appliance store because it sold Swedish vacuum cleaners, which the church viewed as being supportive of gay people because of Swedish prosecution of Åke Green, a pastor critical of homosexuality. \n\nThe church has picketed or threatened to picket the productions of The Laramie Project, a play based on the murder of Matthew Shepard (whose funeral they also picketed). \n\nOn January 25, 2004, Phelps picketed five churches (three Catholic and two Episcopalian) and the Federal Courthouse for what he said was their part in legitimizing same-sex marriages in Iowa. A community response was to hold counter-protests and a multifaith service in the municipal auditorium. On January 15, 2006, Westboro members protested a memorial for Sago Mine disaster victims, claiming that the mining accident was God's revenge against America for its tolerance of homosexuality. \n\nThe Westboro Baptist Church celebrated the 2016 terrorist attack on an Orlando gay night club that resulted in forty-nine people murdered and fifty-three others wounded. \n\nFuneral pickets\n\nThe group came into the national spotlight in 1998, when it was featured on CNN for picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young man from Laramie, Wyoming who was beaten to death by two men, allegedly because of his homosexuality. Since then, the church has attracted attention for many more actual and planned funeral pickets. \n\nIn July 2005, the Westboro Baptist Church declared its intention to picket the memorial service of Carrie French in Boise, Idaho. French, 19, was killed on June 5 in Kirkuk, Iraq, where she served as an ammunition specialist with the 116th Brigade Combat Team's 145th Support Battalion. Phelps Sr. said, \"Our attitude toward what's happening with the war is the Lord is punishing this evil nation for abandoning all moral imperatives that are worth a dime.\" \n\nIn 2006, Westboro picketed with banners saying \"God hates fags\" and \"Thank God for dead soldiers\" at the Westminster, Maryland, funeral of Matthew Snyder, a U.S. Marine who was also killed in Iraq. Ruling on a subsequent lawsuit filed by Snyder's father, Albert Snyder, the U.S. Supreme Court decided, 8–1 in Snyder v. Phelps, that Westboro's actions constituted protected free speech. \n\nOn February 2, 2008, the group picketed during the funeral of former The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints president Gordon B. Hinckley in Salt Lake City, Utah, displaying picket signs accusing him of being a \"lying false prophet\" and \"leading millions of people astray\". The organization also criticized Hinckley for being too accepting of gay people, accusing him of having an ambiguous voice about homosexuality rather than taking a firm stand against it. Police had difficulty determining whether the demonstration met the guidelines of protected free speech. \n\nWestboro picketed the funeral of recording artist Michael Jackson after his death on June 25, 2009. Members of Westboro have also recorded a song titled \"God Hates the World\", an adaptation of Jackson's charity single \"We Are the World\". \n\nIn May 2010, Westboro picketed the funeral of heavy metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio in Los Angeles, saying that they believed the singer worshipped Satan. Dio's widow urged attendees to ignore the protest, saying \"Ronnie hates prejudice and violence. We need to turn the other cheek on these people that only know how to hate someone they didn't know. We only know how to love someone we know.\" \n\nIn January 2011, Westboro announced that they would picket the funeral of Christina Green, a 9-year-old victim of the 2011 Tucson shooting in which Representative Gabrielle Giffords was also (non-fatally) shot. In response, the Arizona legislature passed an emergency bill to ban protests within 300 ft of a funeral service, and Tucson residents made plans to shield the funeral from protesters. The church canceled plans to hold a protest during the memorial at the University of Arizona in exchange for air time on radio talk shows. According to university officials, between 700 and 1,200 students amassed to counter four WBC picketers who appeared at the campus after the event. Jael Phelps explained to Louis Theroux in her America's Most Hated Family in Crisis interview that she and the other members of the WBC picketed at the funeral of a Muslim man's wife simply because the man had witnessed and scolded them for intentionally burning a copy of the Quran in public a week earlier. \n\nOn October 5, 2011, Fred Phelps' daughter, Margie, announced via her Twitter account that the church would be picketing Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs' funeral. CBS News and The Washington Post noted the irony in the fact that Margie used an iPhone to create the tweet. \n\nThe church announced on December 16, 2012, that it would be picketing at the funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. \n\nOn April 15, 2013, the church posted a press release to its Twitter account in which it thanked God for that day's Boston Marathon bombings, and announced its plan to \"picket the funeral of those killed\". Pointing out that the federal government is classifying the bombings as a terrorist attack, yet is being unclear about whether it is of a \"domestic or foreign nature\", the release went on to claim to answer the question with, \"Here's a hint — GOD SENT THE BOMBS! How many more terrifying ways will you have the LORD injure and kill your fellow countrymen because you insist on nation-dooming filthy fag marriage?!\" By early the next morning, nearly 4,000 people had signed a We the People petition on the White House website asking for the banning of such demonstrations by the church at victims' funerals. Additionally, a posting that same day on a Twitter account affiliated with the hacktivist group Anonymous hinted that Church leaders would be targeted if they made good on their threat to picket the funerals. \n\nOn May 20, 2013, the church tweeted praising God for the 2013 Moore tornado and that they would protest the funerals of the victims. \n\nMembers of the group intended to picket the March 2015 funeral of actor Leonard Nimoy but were unable to find the location. \n\nOn June 18, 2016, members of the church picketed after the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting that resulted in 50 deaths at a nightclub frequented by members of the Orlando LGBT community, but around 200 people blocked view of the picketing. \n\nProtests against Jewish institutions\n\nIn 1996 Phelps led a protest at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., proclaiming:\n\nWBC was present at a 2002 Holocaust memorial dedication in Topeka, proclaiming \"God Hates Reform Judaism\". \n\nOn May 8, 2009, members of the church protested at three Jewish sites in Washington, D.C., including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) offices, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the city's largest synagogue. Margie Phelps, daughter of Pastor Fred Phelps, led the protest, holding signs stating that \"God Hates Israel\", \"Jews Killed Jesus\", \"America Is Doomed\", \"Israel Is Doomed\", and \"ADL Jew Bullies\". The protest was apparently part of a series of upcoming protests which the church has planned at Jewish institutions in Omaha, St. Louis, South Florida and Providence. The group reportedly posted a list of the upcoming protests' locations and dates, along with the statement \"Jews Killed the Lord Jesus.\"[http://jta.org/news/article/2009/05/12/1005095/militant-anti-gay-church-turns-its-sights-on-jews Militant anti-gay church turns its sights on Jews] by Eric Fingerhut, Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), May 12, 2009.\n\nIn an interview, Margie Phelps said that her church was targeting the American Jewish community because church members had \"testified\" to Gentiles for 19 years that \"America is doomed\" and that \"Now it's too late. We're done with them.\" She also claimed that Jews were \"one of the loudest voices\" in favor of homosexuality and abortion, and that \"[Jews] claim to be God's chosen people. Do you think that God is going to wink at that forever?\" Phelps concluded by stating, in an apparent reference to the Book of Revelation, that all the nations of the world would soon march on Israel, and that they would be led by President Barack Obama, whom she called the \"Antichrist\".\n\nOther protest activities\n\nOn January 26, 2008, WBC traveled to Jacksonville, North Carolina, home of Camp Lejeune, to protest the United States Marine Corps in the wake of the murder of Maria Lauterbach. Five women protested, stomping on the American flag and shouting slogans such as \"1,2,3,4, God Hates the Marine Corps\".\n\nOn May 14, 2008, two days after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake which claimed the lives of at least 70,000 people, WBC issued a press release thanking God for the heavy loss of life in China, and praying \"for many more earthquakes to kill many more thousands of impudent and ungrateful Chinese\". \n\nMost anti-abortion activists avoided the funeral of OB/GYN Dr. George Tiller, assassinated on May 31, 2009. Held at the Wichita College Hill United Methodist Church, it was attended by 900 mourners. However, 17 members from Westboro picketed, kept at a 500-foot distance by police. The WBC protesters held signs that read \"God sent the shooter\", \"Abortion is bloody murder\", and \"Baby Killer in Hell\". \n\nOn May 29, 2011, the WBC intended to protest in Joplin, Missouri, at the memorial service for the victims of the May 22, 2011, tornado that leveled large portions of that town. Those intending to protest the memorial service or President Obama's speech given there, or both, were refused entry into the venue by hundreds of local and regional residents, including a large group of bikers from the Patriot Guard Riders. \n\nOn May 30, 2011, the WBC was present at Arlington National Cemetery's Memorial Day services as part of their \"Thank God for Dead Soldiers\" campaign. A counter protest included members of the Ku Klux Klan. \n\nEleven-year-old brain tumor victim Harry Moseley raised £500,000 for charity but Marge Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church criticized his family for not teaching him to \"obey God\". This comment within a few hours of the boy's death caused great distress to the bereaved. \n\nThe WBC announced its intent to protest on December 19, 2012, at funerals of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The online hacktivist group Anonymous and several other groups responded by organizing a human wall to shield the victims' families. The WBC then left the area without engaging in any protests. \n\nNo-shows\n\nThe church has occasionally issued press releases threatening to picket sensitive events such as funerals and memorials without following through. Examples include the funerals of Elizabeth Taylor, Joe Paterno, Roy Tisdale, Charlie and Braden Powell, Steve Jobs, Whitney Houston, Robert H. Schuller, Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman, Robin Williams, and victims of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse. Margie Phelps later claimed over Twitter to have protested Houston's funeral and uploaded an image showing WBC protestors there. However, Star-Ledger reporters later stated that no WBC protestors had been present, leading to allegations of photo manipulation. \n\nChurch views\n\nThe Westboro Baptist Church considers membership in most other religious groups, such as the Roman Catholic Church or Islam, as akin to devil worship, and states these other churches to be \"Satanic frauds preaching Arminian lies\". The church defines itself as \"Old School (or, Primitive) Baptist\" and sees itself as defending the Five Points of Calvinism: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. Rebecca Barrett-Fox, a professor at Arkansas State University who completed a dissertation on Westboro Baptist, has labelled it as \"hyper-Calvinist\". \n\nProtesting\n\nIn the BBC documentary The Most Hated Family in America, filmmaker Louis Theroux questioned Shirley Phelps-Roper as to whether she had considered that Westboro's technique of protests were more likely to \"put people off the Word of Jesus Christ and the Bible\". In response, Phelps-Roper said, \"You think our job is to win souls to Christ. All we do, by getting in their face and putting these signs in front of them and these plain words, is make what's already in their heart come out of their mouth.\" Later in the documentary, Phelps-Roper agrees that the $200,000 the church annually spends to fly to funerals to protest was money spent to spread \"God's hate\".\n\nHomosexuality\n\nThe church is noted for its anti-homosexual rhetoric and runs numerous web sites such as GodHatesFags.com, GodHatesAmerica.com, and others expressing condemnation of homosexuality.\n\nThe group bases its work on the belief expressed by its best known slogan and the address of its primary web site, God Hates Fags, asserting that every tragedy in the world is linked to homosexuality—specifically society's increasing tolerance and acceptance of the so-called homosexual agenda. The group maintains that God hates those who engage in homosexual activity above all other kinds of \"sinners\" and that homosexuality should be a capital crime. \n\nTheir views on homosexuality are partially based on teachings found in the Old Testament, specifically Leviticus [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?searchLeviticus+18%3A22&version\nKJV 18:22] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?searchLeviticus+20%3A13&version\nKJV 20:13], which they interpret to mean that homosexual behavior is detestable, and that homosexuals should be put to death.\n\nReligions\n\nCatholicism\n\nThe Westboro Baptist Church refers to Catholic priests as \"vampires\" and \"Draculas\" and accuses Catholic priests of sucking semen out of male children's genitals like vampires suck blood from their victims. In addition, WBC called Pope Benedict XVI such epithets as \"The Godfather of Pedophiles\" and the \"Pervert Pope\". In April 2008 the WBC protested against Pope Benedict XVI during a papal visit in New York City.\n\n The WBC launched a website called Priests Rape Boys in which they criticize the Roman Catholic Church because of the Catholic sex abuse scandal, saying, \"Every time any person gives any amount of money to the Catholic Church, that person is paying the salary of pedophile rapists.\"\n\nThe WBC describes the Roman Catholic Church as \"the largest, most well-funded and organized pedophile group in the history of man\" and goes on to say that, \"There are over 1 billion Catholics in the world—that's one out of every six people alive today—and every single one of them will split Hell wide open when they die—period. And there is nothing they can do about it.\" The WBC also criticizes Catholicism, as it does Eastern Orthodoxy, for venerating the Virgin Mary, the Saints, relics, and icons; they accuse the Catholic Church of committing idolatry.\n\nProtestantism\n\nThough the main purpose of the Priests Rape Boys website is to criticize Catholicism, the WBC also criticizes several mainline Protestant churches on the website, including Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Anglicans, and Baptists. The WBC states that\n\nEastern Orthodoxy\n\nThe WBC claims that Orthodox Christians are indistinguishable from Roman Catholics. The WBC criticizes the Eastern Orthodox Church's use of icons, claiming that they constitute idolatry. The WBC also criticizes veneration of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, saying, \"There is no scripture that supports bowing down to kiss images ... or praying to Mary! She was a human being, who God predestinated to bring forth the Lord Jesus Christ, and to raise him.\" \n\nOriental Orthodoxy\n\nThe WBC claims that Ethiopian Orthodoxy is \"grounded in a big, fat lie\" and is \"a strange co-mingling of Jewish and pagan rituals\". WBC also claims that because the Orthodox churches are in full communion with one another, they are not \"true New Testament churches\", since WBC claims that a true church must be \"independent, local, autonomous, and without any formal affiliation with other churches\". The WBC also condemns the teaching of theosis or glorification in Orthodox Christianity, saying \"Stop glorifying the creature!\" \n\nIslam\n\nIn response to a Newsweek article alleging that American soldiers flushed copies of the Qur'an down the toilet at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Fred Phelps released this statement: \n\nIn relation to the Iraq War, a WBC flyer says \"America bombed our church with an IED made by fag students... In His retaliatory rage God is killing Americans with Muslim IEDs: 'Saying, Touch not my anointed, and do my prophets no harm.' 1 Chron 16:22.\" \n\nIn the 2011 documentary America's Most Hated Family in Crisis by Louis Theroux, Jael Phelps said in an interview that she and the other members of the WBC tauntingly and publicly burned a copy of the Quran while being scolded by a Muslim man, calling it an \"idolatrous piece of trash\" and that they were giving it the \"proper respect that it deserves\" by doing so. They picketed the funeral of the Muslim man's wife the following week. Jael Phelps said that the wife's death was partly due to her Muslim husband having spoken out against the WBC, and therefore rejecting God and bringing his \"righteous judgement\" down upon him. She also commented that \"all those angry little Muslims can just shut their mouths.\" \n\nHinduism\n\nThe WBC maintains a God Hates India webpage where they state \"80% of India's population claim to practice Hinduism. Nuff said. A country full of idolatry inevitably results in a nation full of fags and fag-enablers, because that's what happens when you depart from the Living God!\" \n\nThe WBC then admonishes Hindus to convert to Christianity saying: \"If you would STOP worshipping false gods, being a fag would not be a complex matter. Stop going a whoring after other gods and start serving the Living God in truth!\"\n\nJudaism\n\nIn the section about Jews, the WBC FAQ states:\n\nThey also blame the Jews for killing Christ, citing 1 Thessalonians 2:14–15 as justification.\n\nIn 1996, Phelps began a campaign called \"Topeka's Baptist Holocaust\", whereby he attempted to draw attention to attacks perpetrated against WBC picketers, saying that they were not random but organized attacks orchestrated by Jews and homosexuals. Phelps announced, \"Jews killed Christ\", and \"Fag Jew Nazis are worse than ordinary Nazis. They've had more experience. The First Holocaust was a Jewish Holocaust against Christians. The latest Holocaust is by Topeka Jews against Westboro Baptist Church.\"\n\nIn another statement, he said \"Topeka Jews today stir up Kansas tyrants in persecuting Westboro Baptists. They whine about the Nazi Holocaust, while they perpetrate the Topeka Holocaust.\"\n\nA March 25, 2006 flier regarding a Jewish adversary of Phelps uses the phrase \"bloody Jew\" four times and the phrase \"evil Jew\" more than once every 12 sentences. The Anti-Defamation League has criticized the church and Phelps, and keeps a sampling of WBC's fliers regarding Judaism on their website. \n\nThe WBC has described the Holocaust as God's punishment on Jews. \n\nRacism\n\nThe church's founder, Fred Phelps, was a veteran of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.Lauerman, Kerry (March/April 1999). [http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1999/03/man-who-loves-hate \"The Man Who Loves To Hate\"]. Mother Jones. The Church's disapproval of racism and the use of physical violence by groups such as neo-Nazis and the KKK is stated on its website. The site's FAQ page states, \"[W]e don't believe in physical violence of any kind, and the Scripture doesn't support racism. ... The only true Nazis in this world are fags.\" \n\nThe Church has previously condemned particular nations, such as Italy, which it described as a nation of \"mobster-breeding perverts\" and Australia, which it describes as the \"land of the sodomite damned\". \n\nWestboro announced its intent to picket the funeral of Nelson Mandela, the hero of the anti-apartheid movement, claiming that he was going to hell for committing adultery by re-marrying after his divorce. They also condemned the Dutch Reformed Church for having promoted apartheid. \n\nBarack Obama\n\nThe Westboro Baptist Church believes that Barack Obama is the Antichrist and that he forms an unholy trinity with Satan and former Pope Benedict XVI, whom they believe is the False Prophet. \n\nMargie Phelps, daughter of pastor Fred Phelps and attorney for WBC, said in an interview with Fox News that Obama is \"absolutely\" going to Hell and that he is \"most likely the Beast spoken of in the Revelation\". She also said Obama's presidency is a sign of the Apocalypse. \n\nResponses\n\nLaws limiting funeral protests\n\nIn response to the protests conducted by Westboro members at Indiana funerals, a bill was introduced in the Indiana General Assembly that would make it a felony to protest within 500 ft of a funeral. The bill provides penalties of up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine for those found to be in violation of the law. Shortly before this bill was signed members of the church had threatened to protest in Kokomo, Indiana, at a funeral service that was being held for a soldier who was killed in Iraq. On January 11, 2006, the bill unanimously (11–0) passed a committee vote, and while members of the church had traveled to Kokomo to protest, they were not seen during or after the funeral service. On May 23, 2006, the state of Michigan banned any intentional disruption of funerals within 500 ft of the ceremony. Violating the statute would be a felony, punishable by up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine for the first offense and up to four years in prison and a $10,000 fine for a subsequent offense. \n\nOn May 17, 2006, the state of Illinois enacted Senate Bill 1144, the \"Let Them Rest In Peace Act\", to shield grieving military families from protests during funerals and memorial services of fallen military service members. A first-time violation of the Act is a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine and a Class 4 felony for a second or subsequent offense, which is punishable by one to three years in state prison and a fine of up to $25,000. \n\nOn May 29, 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act (), prohibiting protests within 300 ft of the entrance of any cemetery under control of the National Cemetery Administration from 60 minutes before to 60 minutes after a funeral. Penalties for violating the act are up to $100,000 in fines and up to one year imprisonment. The bill garnered overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress with a 408–3 vote in the House, with 21 not voting, and a unanimous vote in the Senate.\n\nOn January 11, 2011, the state of Arizona held an emergency legislative session to pass a bill barring protests within 300 ft of a funeral and within an hour from its beginning or end. The bill was swiftly signed into law ahead of the January 12 funeral of those killed in the 2011 Tucson shooting. \n\nOn August 2, 2012, Congress passed a bill that included restrictions on demonstrators at military funerals, which became law four days later when signed by President Obama. The bill says that for 2 hours before until 2 hours after the funeral service demonstrators must stay at least 300 ft away from the boundary of the funeral location and away from the residence of grieving family members. \n\nSupreme Court case\n\nOn March 10, 2006, WBC picketed the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew A. Snyder in Westminister, Maryland. The picket was held in a location cordoned off by the police, approximately 1000 ft from the Church, for about 30 minutes before the funeral began. On June 5, 2006, the Snyder family sued for defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The lawsuit named Albert Snyder, Matthew Snyder's father, as plaintiff and Fred W. Phelps, Sr.; Westboro Baptist Church, Inc.; Rebekah Phelps-Davis; and Shirley Phelps-Roper as defendants, alleging that they were responsible for publishing defamatory information about the Snyder family on the Internet, including statements that Albert and his wife had \"raised [Matthew] for the devil\" and taught him \"to defy his Creator, to divorce, and to commit adultery\". Other statements denounced them for raising their son Catholic. Snyder further complained the defendants had intruded upon and staged protests at his son's funeral. The claims of invasion of privacy and defamation arising from comments posted about Snyder on the Westboro website were dismissed on First Amendment grounds, but the case proceeded to trial on the remaining three counts. At the trial, Albert Snyder testified:\n\nIn his instructions to the jury, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett stated that the First Amendment protection of free speech has limits, including vulgar, offensive and shocking statements, and that the jury must decide \"whether the defendant's actions would be highly offensive to a reasonable person, whether they were extreme and outrageous and whether these actions were so offensive and shocking as to not be entitled to First Amendment protection\". See also Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, a case where certain personal slurs and obscene utterances by an individual were found unworthy of First Amendment protection, due to the potential for violence resulting from their utterance.\n\nOn October 31, 2007, WBC, Fred Phelps and his two daughters, Shirley Phelps-Roper and Rebecca Phelps-Davis, were found liable for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A federal jury awarded Snyder $2.9 million in compensatory damages, then later added a decision to award $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and an additional $2 million for causing emotional distress (a total of $10,900,000). The organization said it would not change its message because of the verdict. WBC said that it was thankful for the verdict, but also unsuccessfully sought a mistrial (based on alleged prejudicial statements made by the judge and violations of the gag order by the plaintiff's attorney) and also filed an appeal.\n\nOn February 4, 2008, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett upheld the ruling, but reduced the punitive damages from $8 million to $2.1 million, bringing the total judgment to $5 million. Liens were ordered on church buildings and Phelps' law office in an attempt to ensure that the damages would be paid. \n\nOn September 24, 2009, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of Westboro Baptist Church and reversed the lower court's award. It found their picket near the funeral is protected speech because it involves \"matters of public concern, including the issues of homosexuals in the military, the sex-abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, and the political and moral conduct of the United States and its citizens\", and did not violate the privacy of the service member's family. On March 30, 2010, the appeals court ordered Albert Snyder to pay the church's court costs of over $16,000, a move that Snyder's attorney's referred to as \"adding insult to injury\". The decision led to nationwide support for Snyder, with over 3,000 promises for donations to help offset the cost; political commentator Bill O'Reilly offered to pay the entire amount of the costs on March 30. The American Legion has also raised $17,000 to help pay Snyder's court costs. \n\nOn March 8, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Snyder v. Phelps, (Docket No. 09-751, March 8, 2010). On May 28, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, joined by 42 other Senators, filed an amicus brief in support of Snyder with the Supreme Court. On June 1, Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six filed a separate brief supporting Snyder. This brief was joined by the Attorneys General of 47 other states and the District of Columbia, with Maine and Virginia being the two exceptions. Several news and civil rights organizations filed amicus briefs in support of Phelps, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and twenty one other media organizations. \n\nIn an 8–1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Phelps on March 2, 2011. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion stating: \"What Westboro said, in the whole context of how and where it chose to say it, is entitled to 'special protection' under the First Amendment and that protection cannot be overcome by a jury finding that the picketing was outrageous.\" Justice Samuel Alito, the lone dissenter, said Snyder wanted only to \"bury his son in peace\". Instead, Alito said, the protesters \"brutally attacked\" Matthew Snyder to attract public attention. \"Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case,\" he said. \n\nOther legal responses\n\nOn July 14, 2006, Mundy Township, Michigan billed the WBC for $5,000. The Westboro church had informed township authorities on June 28 that a protest was planned at the Swartz Funeral Home. The bill to the church ensued, according to the local police chief, because the congregation failed to keep a verbal contract for security. Fred Phelps' daughter claimed that the Holy Ghost had informed them not to fly to Michigan even though they had already purchased airline tickets. Security at the Webb funeral was high; 15 fire trucks were involved, as well as numerous police officers from nearby jurisdictions. The township has now stated that it will not pursue the matter.\n\nCanadian entry ban\n\nIn August 2008, Canadian officials learned of the WBC's intent to stage a protest at the funeral of Tim McLean, a Winnipeg resident killed on a bus. The protests intended to convey the message that the man's murder was God's response to Canadian laws permitting abortion, homosexuality, divorce and remarriage. In response, Canadian officials barred the church's members from entering the country. \n\nUK entry ban\n\nIn February 2009, British news sources discovered that WBC had announced on their website that they intended to picket a youth production of The Laramie Project to be held at Central Studio, Queen Mary's College in the town of Basingstoke, Hampshire, on February 20, 2009. This would have been their first ever picket in the United Kingdom. \n\nOn the lead-up to the picket, a number of MPs, lobby groups and LGBT groups appealed to the British Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, requesting these individuals be blocked from entering the UK, on the basis that WBC would be inciting hatred towards LGBT people. On February 18, 2009, two days before the intended picket date, the Home Office announced that Fred Phelps and Shirley Phelps-Roper would be specifically excluded from entering the UK for having \"engaged in unacceptable behaviour by inciting hatred against a number of communities\", and that \"other church members could also be flagged and stopped if they tried to enter Britain\". \n\nAn alliance of six British religious groups (the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Evangelical Alliance UK, Faithworks, Methodist Church of Great Britain, United Reformed Church and Bible Society-funded thinktank Theos) made a joint statement on February 19, 2009 in support of the government's decision and condemning the activities of the Westboro Baptist Church saying, \"We do not share [Westboro's] hatred of lesbian and gay people. We believe that God loves all, irrespective of sexual orientation, and we unreservedly stand against their message of hate toward those communities.\" \n\nCounter protests\n\nCounter protests are often organized to be held at sites that Westboro Baptist pickets. In some cases, counter protesters have lined up and turned their backs on the Westboro Baptist pickets.\n\nIn 1999, inspired by the murder of Matthew Shepard the previous year, Michael Moore organized a protest against homophobia for his television show The Awful Truth. He toured states with anti-sodomy laws in the \"Sodomobile\", a pink bus filled with gay men and women. At one point, they visited the Westboro Church compound and got out to meet Fred Phelps, at which time Moore introduced the Sodomobile to him.Schultz, Emily. [https://books.google.com/books?id\nBBWpWyX6Vd0C&pgPA159&lpg\nPA159&dqsodomobile+phelps&source\nweb&otsVfqOjY4lYK&sig\nvGtlgU9wPCNnTJywTdB96GqugaY \"Michael Moore: A Biography\"]. \n\nTwo days after the September 11 attacks in 2001, a 19-year-old man named Jared Dailey stood on the street corner facing the church holding up a plywood sign that said \"Not today, Fred\". Within two days, 86 people joined him, waving American flags and anti-hate signs. \n\nDuring a picket in Seaford, Delaware on May 21, 2006, one person broke through police lines and assaulted WBC members who fled into a police van. Five people faced criminal charges. \n\nEarly in the morning of August 2, 2008, someone set fire to a garage near the Westboro Baptist Church, causing an estimated $10,000 in damages. \n\nOn December 12, 2008, the group picketed a production of The Laramie Project at the Boston Center for the Arts. Local activists held a Phelps-A-Thon in response. Supporters pledged online to donate for every minute WBC protested. The event raised over $4,600 for an LGBT-rights project, Driving Equality. \n\nIn March 2010, a Richmond, Virginia, ad-hoc group formed to create a counter protest to an planned Westboro Baptist Church visit protesting against Jewish and LGBT organizations. Pennies In Protest took pledges for each minute of the WBC protest. The funds (approx. $14,000) were then donated to those same Jewish and LGBT organizations that WBC was protesting. \n\nOn November 30, 2010, disabled Army veteran Ryan Newell was arrested in his parked SUV outside the Wichita, Kansas, city hall while members of WBC were in a meeting inside. Guns and ammunition were found in the back of the SUV, and Newell was charged with weapons violations and felony conspiracy to commit aggravated battery. On June 23, 2011, Newell pleaded guilty to impersonating a law enforcement officer and was sentenced to two years of probation. Newell received public support for his actions, and fundraisers and websites were created by the public to help in his defense. \n\nOn December 11, 2010, the day of the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards, a group called Line of Love planned to have about 200 protesters on the north side of West Edenton Street in Raleigh, North Carolina, while 10 Westboro members picketed on the south side of the street, two blocks away from the funeral. Westboro members who disagreed with Edwards' tolerance for gays were \"promoting awareness of the dangers of homosexuality\", Line of Love gave its goal as \"promoting proper respect for funerals\". \n\nOn February 24, 2011, hacktivists successfully took Westboro Baptist Church's websites down. The church claims this was the work of Anonymous, but the group denied responsibility, instead identifying The Jester as the culprit. During a live TV confrontation on The David Pakman Show between Shirley Phelps-Roper and Topiary of LulzSec, Phelps-Roper stated that Anonymous could not \"stop God's message\". In response, Topiary and an accomplice seized control of one of Westboro's subdomains during the confrontation. \n\nOn September 16, 2011, when Westboro members picketed a Foo Fighters concert in Kansas City, Missouri, the band appeared on a truck float in front of the protesters. Dressed in homoerotic outfits, they performed their country-parody song \"Keep It Clean\" – which contained many homosexual references and overtones – from their \"Hot Buns\" viral video; midway though the song, lead singer Dave Grohl made a speech calling for equality and tolerance. The band uploaded a video of the impromptu performance the next day on their YouTube channel. \n\nAfter Westboro announced plans to picket funerals of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting on December 14, 2012, hacktivists from Anonymous executed a distributed denial of service attack (DDOS) on the Westboro's website, GodHatesFags.com, stating: \"We will continuously DDOS until they are forced to put their inbred church tithes to use to pay for bandwidth.\" Anonymous also simultaneously released a Westboro membership list, with the personal contact information for most Westboro members. \n\nOn July 14, 2013, members of The Satanic Temple performed a publicity stunt featuring a \"pink mass\" ritual over the grave of the mother of Fred Phelps. The group that staged the stunt said that the \"mass\" would turn the dead woman into a posthumous lesbian. \n\nA satirical Facebook page about God raised $80,000 from fans to post a billboard in Topeka that says \"God Loves Gays\", which debuted on September 8, 2014. \n\nOn June 18, 2016, around 200 people blocked the view of picketing by members of the church that occurred after the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting that resulted in 50 deaths at a nightclub frequented by members of the Orlando LGBT community.\n\nOn July 2016, players of Pokémon Go turned the church into a \"gym\" led by a pink Clefairy named \"Love is Love\". Members of the church responded by branding the Pokémon a sodomite. \n\nPatriot Guard Riders\n\nThe Patriot Guard Riders is a motorcyclist group composed mostly of veterans who attend the funerals of members of the U.S. Armed Forces at the invitation of the deceased's family. The group was initially formed to shelter and protect the funerals from protesters from the WBC. \n\nParodies\n\nA slogan commonly invoked at the counter protests is \"God hates figs\". Parodying the WBC all-capitals \"God hates fags\" signs, the counter-protest signs often invoke a passage in the Biblical book of Matthew to justify the claim about God and his feelings about figs. The signs have been noted at counter-protests at the University of Chicago; in Spartanburg, South Carolina; and in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as well as at the non-WBC-themed Rally to Restore Sanity. The use of the signs has been invoked as a sign of sanity by the ACLU and others.\n\nDocumentation given out at various counter-protests cite biblical verses in which Jesus says that none should eat the fruit of a fig tree (), in which Jesus causes a fig tree to wither (), and in which God promises, as a punishment, to make someone like bad figs (). These are genuine citations, but are not the sole mentions of figs in the Bible.\n\nOther sites and organizations have parodied the slogans of the Westboro Baptist Church, including God Hates Fred Phelps, God Hates Bags, and God Hates Shrimp. The Cooper family in Kevin Smith's 2011 film Red State was reportedly inspired by the Westboro Baptist Church. \n\nCriticism\n\nA number of Phelps' critics have suggested that the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church are merely a ploy to receive attention and publicity above all else, though the Phelpses themselves deny this claim. Counter-protesting against the group, they suggest, gives them attention and incentive that they do not deserve; and a more effective response against Phelps would be to ignore his family and congregation completely. WBC, through the closely related Phelps Chartered law firm, has collected fees under the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Award Act of 1976 when their protests have been unlawfully disrupted. \n\nKatherine Weber of The Christian Post states that \"Westboro is considered an extremist group by most mainstream Christian churches and secular groups, and is well known for its aggressive protesting style.\" The Methodist Church, Baptist Church, Reformed Church, and Evangelical Church \"have issued a joint statement repudiating the actions of Westboro Baptist Church,\" stating that:\n\nA frequent critic of the WBC is political commentator Bill O'Reilly, who regularly calls the church \"evil and despicable\". Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has also criticized the church. \n\nThe Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes the Westboro Baptist Church as \"virulently homophobic\", saying its anti-homosexual rhetoric is often a cover for anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, racism, and anti-Catholicism. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has added the Westboro Baptist Church to its list of hate groups. Jerry Falwell referred to Phelps as \"a first-class nut\". WBC picketed Falwell's funeral service on May 22, 2007. \n\nIn response to WBC's announcement that they would picket the vigil for victims of the December 14, 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, several petitions to the White House (using the We the People system) have been submitted, calling on the President to legally recognize WBC as a hate group, revoke its tax exemption for religious organizations, and to ban protests at funerals and memorial services. One petition, backed by the hacktivist group Anonymous, was submitted the day of the shootings, and reached more than 75,000 signatures within two days. \n\nRapper Mac Lethal uploaded a video titled \"Beatbox + iPhone + Guitar + Fast Rap = Win By Mac Lethal\" on December 18, 2012 that took inspiration from the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church and the media after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Some of the lyrics include: \n\nAnd I might suck at guitar\nbut at least I've never protested a dead soldier's funeral,\nand I might be losing my hair, but at least I've never judged a woman for thinking another woman is beautiful,\nand sometimes, I mean sometimes,\nI might even text message while I drive,\nbut I've never thanked God when a precious 5 year old child was shot, and died....\n\nIn 2013, Christian rock band Five Iron Frenzy recorded a song entitled \"God Hates Flags\" condemning the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church and similar organizations, including such lyrics as \"If God is love you got it wrong waving all your placards and flags\". \n\nNathan Phelps, estranged son of Fred Phelps, claims he never had a relationship with his abusive father when he was growing up and that the Westboro Baptist Church is an organization for his father to \"vent his rage and anger.\" He alleges that, in addition to hurting others, his father used to physically abuse his wife and children by beating them with his fists and with the handle of a mattock to the point of bleeding. Phelps' brother Mark has supported and repeated Nathan's claims of physical abuse by their father. Since 2004, over 20 members of the church, mostly family members, have left the church and his family. \n\nIn March 2014, Nathan posted on Facebook that his father was in a hospice in Topeka and was near death. Furthermore, Nathan also stated that he learned that Fred was excommunicated from the Westboro Baptist Church in August 2013, for reasons that are unclear. These assertions were later reaffirmed by Mark Phelps. Nathan has previously predicted the Westboro Baptist Church may fall into a leadership crisis and theological crisis when Fred dies, because he is the binding figure and because their beliefs hold that they are immortal, which will be disproved with the death of a member. WBC spokesperson Steve Drain denied that Fred Sr. was on the verge of death and refused to confirm the reported excommunication. Fred Sr. died three days later.\n\nMark Phelps left Westboro Baptist Church in 1973 and began \"formal healing therapy in 1988 and worked toward healing and restoration, overcoming the horrible pain and fear from the 19 years of living with\" his father. Mark Phelps, who was baptized in another local church in 1994, further states: \"If I had to take my family to court and convict them of being followers of Christ, I am not sure where I would find the evidence.\" \n\nLauren Drain, another former member of the Westboro Baptist Church, released an autobiography titled Banished in March 2013. She characterizes children, like herself, as being brainwashed into their belief system and describes consequences of questioning their belief system, such as her banishment. \n\nDocumentary media coverage\n\nIn 2001, Sundance Channel aired the film A Union in Wait, a documentary about same-sex marriage directed by Ryan Butler. Phelps and members of Westboro Baptist Church appeared in the film after Phelps picketed Wake Forest Baptist Church at Wake Forest University over a proposed same-sex union ceremony.\n\nIn 2005, the British satellite company British Sky Broadcasting produced an investigative piece using hidden cameras, which included footage of two of Phelps' granddaughters, Libby and Jael. In the testimonial, Libby and Jael explain that they hope and pray that no one outside of Westboro becomes \"elect\", because they want everyone else in the world to die horribly and burn in Hell, and that even if they did not believe their actions were dictated by God, they would still do and enjoy them anyway. The interview was not part of the hidden camera segment, and although much of the footage was taken without the knowledge or permission of Westboro, the church maintains a link to the entire report on its website.\n\nOn April 1, 2007, the British television channel BBC Two broadcast Louis Theroux's The Most Hated Family in America. Theroux has presented a number of documentaries about unusual or unconventional people and groups in the UK, the US and elsewhere. A follow-up documentary by Theroux, America's Most Hated Family in Crisis, was broadcast in the UK on April 3, 2011. Theroux reported that Westboro was in a state of \"crisis\" and documented the departure of several young members. Since then, two more prominent members have left the church. \n\nThe website godhatesfags.com was prominently featured in The Jeremy Kyle Show, a talk show aired on the ITV network in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2007. Shirley Phelps-Roper and her daughters had been invited to express their beliefs live via satellite. On the show, Kyle criticized the Phelps for their beliefs and referred to the Phelps' children as \"completely and utterly brainwashed\", and to Phelps-Roper herself as \"deranged\". \n\nIn the June 21, 2007, Channel 4 documentary Keith Allen Will Burn in Hell, starring Keith Allen, on which Phelps-Roper and some of her children agreed to appear, Phelps-Roper admitted on camera that her oldest son, Samuel, was born out of wedlock. Allen declared Phelps-Roper's vocal condemnation of strangers having sexual congress outside of marriage to be hypocritical as she was guilty of the same thing.\n\nFunding\n\nWBC's travel expenses exceed $200,000 annually. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Westboro is funded entirely by its congregation and accepts no outside donations. The church has received money from lawsuits and legal fees. For example, they sued the city of Topeka several times in the 1990s. WBC received $16,500, and is pursuing another $100,000, in legal fees for a case won in court. The WBC is considered a nonprofit organization by the federal government, and is therefore exempt from paying taxes. \n\nPhelps Chartered Law Firm\n\nFred Phelps founded the Phelps Chartered Law Firm in 1964, which has since been used to sue communities that are targets of Westboro's protests.Hagerty, B.B. (2011, March 2). [http://www.npr.org/2011/03/02/134198937/a-peek-inside-the-westboro-baptist-church A Peek Inside the Westboro Baptist Church]. NPR. All five of the law firm's attorneys are Phelps' children, and eleven of his thirteen children are lawyers.Stone, A. (2011, May 3). [http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/03/fred-phelps-daughters-may-misread-bible-but-they-know-the-law/ Fred Phelps' Daughters May Misread Bible but They Know the Law]. AOL News. Because the firm represents Westboro Baptist Church in its lawsuits, it can use money from cases it wins to further fund the church.Southern Poverty Law Center. [http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/westboro-baptist-church Intelligence Files: Westboro Baptist Church]. Though the firm is often successful, as observed by the SPLC, \"One local lawyer, Pedro Irigonegaray, came up with a novel way to battle the Phelpses. When Phelps Chartered, alleging 'emotional damage,' sued someone who had filed a criminal complaint against a WBC member, Irigonegaray's team requested court approval to have a psychiatrist evaluate Phelps family members to determine the alleged damage. The Phelps firm settled without delay.\"Southern Poverty Law Center. [http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2001/spring/a-city-held-hostage?page=0,0 Topeka: A City Bulled into Submission by the Westboro Baptist Church]. Intelligence Report, Spring 2001, Issue Number: 101." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search", "Search" ], "filename": [ "People_for_the_Ethical_Treatment_of_Animals.txt", "Taraji_P._Henson.txt", "Pamela_Anderson.txt" ], "title": [ "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals", "Taraji P. Henson", "Pamela Anderson" ], "wiki_context": [ "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; stylized PeTA) is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. A nonprofit corporation with 300 employees, it claims that it has 3 million members and supporters and is the largest animal rights group in the world. Its slogan is \"animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way.\" \n\nFounded in March 1980, by Newkirk and fellow animal rights activist Alex Pacheco, the organization first caught the public's attention in the summer of 1981 during what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys case, a widely publicized dispute about experiments conducted on 17 macaque monkeys inside the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. The case lasted ten years, involved the only police raid on an animal laboratory in the United States, triggered an amendment in 1985, to that country's Animal Welfare Act, and established PETA as an internationally known organization.Schwartz, Jeffrey M. and Begley, Sharon. The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force, Regan Books, 2002, p. 161ff.\n*Pacheco, Alex and Francione, Anna. [http://www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-m/pacheco01.htm The Silver Spring Monkeys], in Peter Singer (ed.) In Defense of Animals, Basil Blackwell 1985, pp. 135–147. Today it focuses on four core issues—opposition to factory farming, fur farming, animal testing, and animals in entertainment. It also campaigns against eating meat, fishing, the killing of animals regarded as pests, the keeping of chained backyard dogs, cock fighting, dog fighting, and bullfighting.[http://www.peta.org/about/index.asp \"PETA's mission statement\"], PETA, accessed July 3, 2010.\n\nThe group has been the focus of controversy, both inside and outside the animal rights movement. Newkirk and, formerly, Pacheco are seen as the leading exporters of animal rights to the more traditional animal-protection groups in the United States, but sections of the movement nonetheless say that PETA is not radical enough—law professor Gary Francione lists the group among what he calls \"the new welfarists\", arguing that its work with industries to achieve reform, which continues in the tradition of Henry Spira, makes it an animal welfare group, not an animal rights group. Newkirk told Salon in 2001 that PETA works toward the ideal but tries in the meantime to provide carrot-and-stick incentives.Brandt, Peter. [http://www.salon.com/people/conv/2001/04/30/newkirk \"PETA's Ingrid Newkirk\"], Salon, April 30, 2001. The full quote:\"What I say to myself all the time is that we have our heads in the clouds looking for Utopia, but we have our feet firmly planted on the ground dealing with reality. We make no bones about the fact that we want an end to all cruelty to animals. But I think the meat industry and the leather industry and the experimenters understand, especially if we're fighting them, that we will back off if they move society and their industry a step forward. We're not going to stop everything overnight, so while we work for the ideal we certainly wish to provide the carrot-and-stick incentives to move along toward that goal.\"Animals are going to die by the millions today in all sorts of ugly ways for all sorts of ridiculous, insupportable reasons. If one animal who is lying in a battery egg farm cage could have the extra room to stretch her wing today because of something you've done, I think she would choose to have that happen.\" There has also been criticism from feminists within the movement about the use of scantily clad women in PETA's anti-fur campaigns and others, but as Norm Phelps notes, \"Newkirk has been consistent in her response. No one, she says, is being exploited. Everyone ... is an uncoerced volunteer. Sexual attraction is a fact of life, and if it can advance the animals' cause, she makes no apologies for using it.\" Also, Phelps notes that some activists believe that the group's media stunts trivialize animal rights, but he qualifies this by saying, \"it's hard to argue with success and PETA is far and away the most successful cutting-edge animal rights organization in the world.\" Newkirk's view is that PETA has a duty to be \"press sluts\". She argues, \"It is our obligation. We would be worthless if we were just polite and didn't make any waves.\" \n\nHistory\n\nIngrid Newkirk\n\nNewkirk was born in England in 1949, and raised in Hertfordshire and later New Delhi, India, where her father—a navigational engineer—was stationed. Newkirk, now an atheist, was educated in a convent, the only British girl there. She moved to the United States as a teenager, first studying to become a stockbroker but after taking some abandoned kittens to an animal shelter in 1969, and being appalled by the conditions that she found there, chose a career in animal protection instead. She became an animal-protection officer for Montgomery County and then the District of Columbia's first woman poundmaster. By 1976, she was head of the animal-disease-control division of D.C.'s Commission on Public Health and in 1980, was among those named as \"Washingtonians of the Year.\" She told Michael Specter of The New Yorker that working for the shelters left her shocked at the way the animals were treated:\n\nI went to the front office all the time, and I would say, \"John is kicking the dogs and putting them into freezers.\" Or I would say, \"They are stepping on the animals, crushing them like grapes, and they don't care.\" In the end, I would go to work early, before anyone got there, and I would just kill the animals myself. Because I couldn't stand to let them go through that. I must have killed a thousand of them, sometimes dozens every day. Some of those people would take pleasure in making them suffer. Driving home every night, I would cry just thinking about it. And I just felt, to my bones, this cannot be right.Specter, Michael. [http://www.michaelspecter.com/2003/04/the-extremist/ \"The Extremist: The woman behind the most successful radical group in America\"], The New Yorker, April 4, 2003.\n\nIn 1980, she divorced Steve Newkirk, whom she had married when she was 19, and the same year met Alex Pacheco, a political major at George Washington University. Pacheco had studied for the priesthood, then worked as a crew member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's first ship. He volunteered at the shelter where she worked, and they fell in love and began living together, although as Kathy Snow Guillermo writes, they were very different—Newkirk was older and more practical, whereas Pacheco could barely look after himself.Guillermo, Kathy Snow. Monkey Business. National Press Books, 1993, p. 18. Newkirk read Peter Singer's influential book, Animal Liberation (1975), and in March 1980, she persuaded Pacheco to join her in forming People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, at that point just \"five people in a basement\", as Newkirk described it. They were mostly students and members of the local vegetarian society, but the group included a friend of Pacheco's from the UK, Kim Stallwood, a British activist who went on to become the national organizer of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection. Pacheco was reluctant at first. \"It just didn't sound great to me\", he told The Los Angeles Times in 1992. \"I had been active in Europe ... and I thought there were just too many formalities. I thought we should just do things ourselves. But she made a convincing case that Washington needed a vehicle for animals because the current organizations were too conservative.\" \n\nSilver Spring monkeys\n\nThe group first came to public attention in 1981 during the Silver Spring monkeys case, a dispute about experiments conducted by researcher Edward Taub on 17 macaque monkeys inside the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. The case led to the first police raid in the United States on an animal laboratory, triggered an amendment in 1985 to the United States Animal Welfare Act, and became the first animal-testing case to be appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which upheld a Louisiana State Court ruling that denied PETA's request for custody of the monkeys. \n\nPacheco had taken a job in May 1981 inside a primate research laboratory at the Institute, intending to gain firsthand experience of working inside an animal laboratory. Taub had been cutting sensory ganglia that supplied nerves to the monkeys' fingers, hands, arms, and legs—a process called \"deafferentation\"—so that the monkeys could not feel them; some of the monkeys had had their entire spinal columns deafferented. He then used restraint, electric shock, and withholding of food and water to force the monkeys to use the deafferented parts of their bodies. The research led in part to the discovery of neuroplasticity and a new therapy for stroke victims called constraint-induced movement therapy. \n\nPacheco went to the laboratory at night, taking photographs that showed the monkeys living in what the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research's ILAR Journal called filthy conditions. He passed his photographs to the police, who raided the lab and arrested Taub. Taub was convicted of six counts of animal cruelty, the first such conviction in the United States of an animal researcher; the conviction was overturned on appeal.Schwartz, Jeffrey M. and Begley, Sharon. The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force, Regan Books, 2002, p. 161. Norm Phelps writes that the case followed the highly publicized campaign of Henry Spira in 1976 against experiments on cats being performed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and Spira's subsequent campaign in April 1980 against the Draize test. These and the Silver Spring monkey case jointly put animal rights on the agenda in the United States. \n\nThe ten-year battle for custody of the monkeys—described by The Washington Post as a vicious mud fight, during which both sides accused the other of lies and distortion— transformed PETA into a national, then international, movement. By February 1991, it claimed over 350,000 members, a paid staff of over 100, and an annual budget of over $7 million. \n\nLocations\n\nPETA was based in Rockville, Maryland, until 1996, when it moved to Norfolk, Virginia. It opened a Los Angeles division in 2006 and also has offices in Washington, D.C., and Oakland, California. In addition, PETA has international affiliates in the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Germany, India, Australia, and the Asia-Pacific region. \n\nPhilosophy and activism\n\nProfile\n\nPETA is an animal rights organization and, as such, it rejects speciesism and also opposes the use and abuse of animals in any way, as food, clothing, entertainment, or research subjects. One oft-cited quote of Newkirk's is: \"When it comes to feelings like hunger, pain, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.\" PETA lobbies government agencies to impose fines and/or confiscate animals when animal-welfare legislation has been violated, promotes a vegan lifestyle, tries to reform practices on factory farms and in slaughterhouses, sends undercover investigators into animal-research laboratories, farms, and circuses, initiates media campaigns against particular companies or practices, helps to find sanctuaries for animals formerly used by circuses and zoos, and initiates lawsuits against companies that refuse to change their practices., PETA, accessed June 22, 2015. The group has been criticized by a few animal rights advocates for its willingness to work with industries that use animals for the purpose of effecting gradual change. Newkirk rejects this criticism and has said the group exists to hold the radical line. \n\nThe group has 3 million members and supporters, it received donations of over $50 million for the year ending July 31, 2014, and its website was receiving 4 million hits a month as of November 2008. Over 88 percent of its operating budget was spent on its programs in 2013-2014, 10 percent on membership development, and 1 percent on management and general operations. Ten percent of its staff earned under $30,000 and 43 percent over $40,000, and Newkirk made just over $40,000. \n\nPacheco left the group in 1999. Its current leadership, in addition to Newkirk, includes Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman, Senior Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo, Senior Vice President of Communications Lisa Lange, Senior Vice President of Media Campaigns Dan Mathews, and Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. Its honorary directors include Pamela Anderson, James Cromwell, Chrissie Hynde, Bill Maher, and, until his death in 2015, Sam Simon. \n\nCampaigns and consumer boycotts\n\nThe organization is known for its aggressive media campaigns, combined with a solid base of celebrity support—in addition to its honorary directors, Paul McCartney, Alicia Silverstone, Eva Mendes, Charlize Theron, Ellen DeGeneres, and many, many others have appeared in PETA ads. Every week, Newkirk holds what The New Yorker calls a war council, with two dozen of her top strategists gathered at a square table in the PETA conference room, with no suggestion considered too outrageous. PETA also gives an annual prize, called the Proggy Award (for \"progress\"), to individuals or organizations dedicated to animal welfare or who distinguish themselves through their efforts within the area of animal welfare. \n\nMany of the campaigns have focused on large corporations. Fast food companies such as KFC, Wendy's, and Burger King have been targeted. In the animal-testing industry, PETA's consumer boycotts have focused on Avon, Benetton, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Chesebrough-Pond's, Dow Chemical, General Motors, and others. The group's modus operandi includes buying shares in target companies such as McDonald's and Kraft Foods in order to exert influence. The campaigns have delivered results for PETA. McDonald's and Wendy's introduced vegetarian options after PETA targeted them; Petco stopped selling some exotic pets; and Polo Ralph Lauren said it would no longer use fur. Avon, Estée Lauder, Benetton, and Tonka Toy Co. all stopped testing products on animals, the Pentagon stopped shooting pigs and goats in wounds tests, and a slaughterhouse in Texas was closed down.\n\nAs part of its anti-fur action, PETA members have infiltrated hundreds of fashion shows in the U.S. and Europe and one in China, throwing red paint on the catwalks and unfurling banners. Celebrities and supermodels have posed naked for the group's \"I'd Rather Go Naked than Wear Fur\" campaign—some men, but mostly women—triggering criticism from feminist animal rights advocates. The New Yorker writes that PETA activists have crawled through the streets of Paris wearing leg-hold traps and thrown around money soaked in fake blood at the International Fur Fair. They sometimes engage in pie-throwing—in January 2010, Canadian MP Gerry Byrne compared them to terrorists for throwing a tofu cream pie at Canada's fishery minister Gail Shea in protest of the seal slaughter, a comment Newkirk called a silly chest-beating exercise. \"The thing is, we make them gawk,\" she told Satya magazine, \"maybe like a traffic accident that you have to look at.\" \n\nPETA has also objected to the practice of mulesing (removing strips of wool-bearing skin from around the buttocks of a sheep). In October 2004, PETA launched a boycott against the Australian wool industry, leading some clothing retailers to ban products using Australian wool from their stores. In response, the Australian wool industry sued PETA, arguing among other things that mulesing prevents flystrike, a very painful disease that can affect sheep. A settlement was reached, and PETA agreed to stop the boycott, while the wool industry agreed to seek alternatives to mulesing. \n\nIn 2011, PETA named five orcas as plaintiffs and sued SeaWorld over the animals' enslavement, seeking their protection under the Thirteenth Amendment. A federal judge heard the case and dismissed it in early 2012. In August 2014, SeaWorld announced it was building new orca tanks that would almost double the size of the existing ones to provide more space for its whales. PETA responded that a \"larger prison is still a prison.\" In 2016, SeaWorld admitted that it had been sending its employees to pose as activists to spy on PETA. Following an investigation by an outside law firm, SeaWorld's Board of Directors directed management to end the practice. \n\nPatricia de Leon worked with PETA in 2011 to reduce support for bullfighting among Hispanic people. \n\nSome campaigns have been particularly controversial. Newkirk was criticized in 2003 for sending a letter to PLO leader Yasser Arafat asking him to keep animals out of the conflict, after a donkey was blown up during an attack in Jerusalem. The group's 2003 \"Holocaust on your Plate\" exhibition—eight 60 sqft panels juxtaposing images of Holocaust victims with animal carcasses and animals being transported to slaughter—was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League, which said, \"the effort by Peta to compare the deliberate systematic murder of millions of Jews to the issue of animal rights is abhorrent\" and \"[r]ather than deepen our revulsion against what the Nazis did to the Jews, the project will undermine the struggle to understand the Holocaust and to find a way to make sure such catastrophes never happen again.\" In July 2010, the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that PETA's campaign was not protected by free speech laws and banned it within Germany as an offense against human dignity. The exhibit, however, had been funded by an anonymous Jewish philanthropistTeather, David. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/animalrights/story/0,11917,906289,00.html \"'Holocaust on a plate' angers US Jews\"], The Guardian, March 3, 2003. and created by Matt Prescott, who lost several relatives in the Holocaust. Prescott said: \"The very same mindset that made the Holocaust possible—that we can do anything we want to those we decide are 'different or inferior'—is what allows us to commit atrocities against animals every single day. ... The fact is, all animals feel pain, fear and loneliness. We're asking people to recognize that what Jews and others went through in the Holocaust is what animals go through every day in factory farms.\" And analogies between animal rights and the Holocaust had been initiated by the prominent Jewish author Isaac Bashevis Singer. In 2005, the NAACP criticized the \"Are Animals the New Slaves?\" exhibit, which showed images of African-American slaves, Native Americans, child laborers, and women, alongside chained elephants and slaughtered cows. \n\nPETA's \"It's still going on\" campaign features newspaper ads comparing widely publicized murder-cannibalization cases to the deaths of animals in slaughterhouses. The campaign has attracted significant media attention, controversy and generated angry responses from the victims' family members. Ads were released in 1991 describing the deaths of the victims of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, in 2002 describing the deaths of the victims of serial killer Robert William Pickton, and in 2008 describing the murder of Tim McLean. In several cases, newspapers have refused to run the ads.\n\nThe group has also been criticized for aiming its message at young people. \"Your Mommy Kills Animals\" features a cartoon of a woman attacking a rabbit with a knife. To reduce milk consumption, it created the \"Got Beer?\" campaign, a parody of the dairy industry's series of Got Milk? ads, which featured celebrities with milk \"mustaches\" on their upper lips. When the mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2000, PETA ran a photograph of him with a white mustache and the words \"Got prostate cancer?\" to illustrate their claim that dairy products contribute to cancer, an ad that caused an outcry in the United States. After PETA placed ads in school newspapers linking milk to acne, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and strokes, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and college officials complained it encouraged underage drinking; the British Advertising Standards Authority asked that the ads be discontinued after complaints from interest groups such as The National Farmers' Unions. \n\nIn August 2011, it was announced that PETA will be launching a soft pornography website in the .xxx domain. PETA spokesperson Lindsay Rajt told the Huffington Post, \"We try to use absolutely every outlet to stick up for animals,\" adding that \"We are careful about what we do and wouldn't use nudity or some of our flashier tactics if we didn't know they worked.\" PETA also used nudity in its \"Veggie Love\" ad which it prepared for the Super Bowl only to have it banned by the network. PETA's work has drawn the ire of some feminists who argue that the organization sacrifices women's rights to press its agenda. Lindsay Beyerstein criticized PETA saying \"They're the ones drawing disturbing analogies between pornography, misogyny and animal cruelty.\" \n\nOther campaigns are less confrontational and more humorous. In 2008, it launched the \"Save the Sea Kittens\" campaign to change the name of fish to \"sea kittens\" to give them a positive image, and it regularly asks towns to adopt a new name. It campaigned in 1996 for a new name for Fishkill, New York, and in April 2003 offered free veggie burgers to Hamburg, New York, if it would call itself Veggieburg. \n\nPETA sometimes issues isolated statements or press releases, commenting on current events. After Lady Gaga wore a dress made of meat in 2010, PETA issued a statement objecting to the dress. After a fisherman in Florida was bitten by a shark in 2011, PETA proposed an advertisement showing a shark biting a human, with the caption \"Payback Is Hell, Go Vegan\". The proposed ad drew criticism from relatives of the injured fisherman. After Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer admitted that he had killed Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe in 2015, PETA's president, Newkirk, issued a statement on behalf of PETA in which she said: \"Hunting is a coward's pastime. If, as has been reported, this dentist and his guides lured Cecil out of the park with food so as to shoot him on private property, because shooting him in the park would have been illegal, he needs to be extradited, charged, and, preferably, hanged.\" \n\nUndercover work\n\nPETA sends its staff undercover into research laboratories, factory farms, and circuses to document the treatment of animals. Investigators may spend many months as employees of a facility, making copies of documents and wearing hidden cameras.Rosenberg, Howard. [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/61591719.html?dids\n61591719:61591719&FMTABS&FMTS\nABS:FT&typecurrent&date\nMar+22%2C+1992&authorHOWARD+ROSENBERG&pub\nLos+Angeles+Times+%28pre-1997+Fulltext%29&descFIGHTING+TOOTH+%26+CLAW+INGRID+NEWKIRK%27S+COMBATIVE+STYLE+AND+HEADLINE-GRABBING+STUNTS+HAVE+SHAKEN+UP+THE+ANIMAL-RIGHTS+MOVEMENT&pqatl\ngoogle \"Fighting tooth and claw\"], The Los Angeles Times, March 22, 1992. By 2007, it had conducted 75 such investigations.Galkin, Matthew. \"I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA\", HBO, 2007. It has also produced videos based on material collected during ALF raids. Some undercover efforts have led to lawsuits or government action against companies and universities. PETA itself faced legal action in April 2007 after the owners of a chinchilla ranch in Michigan complained about an undercover inquiry there, but the judge ruled in PETA's favor that undercover investigations can be legitimate. \n\nOne notable case led to a 26-minute film that PETA produced in 1984, Unnecessary Fuss. The film was based on 60 hours of researchers' footage obtained by the ALF during a raid on the University of Pennsylvania's head injury clinic. The footage showed researchers laughing at baboons as they inflicted brain damage on them with a hydraulic device intended to simulate whiplash. Laboratory animal veterinarian Larry Carbone writes that the researchers openly discussed how one baboon was awake before the head injury, despite protocols being in place for anesthesia. The ensuing publicity led to the suspension of funds from the university, the firing of its chief veterinarian, the closure of the lab, and a period of probation for the university. \n\nIn 1990, two PETA activists posed as employees of Carolina Biological, where they took pictures and video footage inside the company, alleging that cats were being mistreated. Following the release of PETA's tapes, the USDA conducted its own inspection and subsequently charged the company with seven violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Four years later, an administrative judge ruled that Carolina Biological had not committed any violations. \n\nIn 1990, Bobby Berosini, a Las Vegas entertainer, lost his wildlife license as well as (on appeal) a later lawsuit against PETA, after the group broadcast an undercover film of him slapping and punching orangutans in 1989. In 1997, a PETA investigation inside Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a contract animal-testing company, produced film of staff in the UK beating dogs, and what appeared to be abuse of monkeys in the company's New Jersey facility. After the video footage aired on British television in 1999, a group of activists set up Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty to close HLS down, a campaign that continues. \n\nIn 1999, a North Carolina grand jury handed down indictments against pig-farm workers on Belcross Farm in Camden County, the first indictments for animal cruelty on a factory farm in the United States, after a three-month PETA investigation produced film of the workers beating the animals. In 2004, PETA published the results of an eight-month undercover investigation in a West Virginia Pilgrim's Pride slaughterhouse that supplies chickens to KFC. The New York Times reported the investigation as showing workers stomping on live chickens, throwing dozens against a wall, tearing the head off a chicken to write graffiti, strangling one with a latex glove, and squeezing birds until they exploded. Yum Brands, owner of KFC, called the video appalling and threatened to stop purchasing from Pilgrim's Pride if no changes were made. Pilgrim's Pride subsequently fired 11 employees and introduced an anti-cruelty pledge for workers to sign. \n\nIn 2004 and 2005, PETA shot footage inside Covance, an animal-testing company in the U.S. and Europe, that appeared to show monkeys being mistreated in the company's facility in Vienna, Virginia. According to The Washington Post, PETA said an employee of the group filmed primates there being choked, hit, and denied medical attention when badly injured.Buske, Jennifer. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080103886.html \"PETA Urges Withdrawal Of Support for Drug-Test Lab\"], The Washington Post, August 3, 2008. After PETA sent the video and a 253-page complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Covance was fined $8,720 for 16 citations, three of which involved lab monkeys; the other citations involved administrative issues and equipment. The company said none of the issues were pervasive or endemic and that it had taken corrective action. In 2005, Covance initiated a lawsuit charging PETA with fraud, violation of employee contract, and conspiracy to harm the company's business but did not proceed with it.\n\nPETA also goes undercover into circuses. In 2006, it filmed trainers at Carson & Barnes Circus—including Tim Frisco, the animal-care director—striking elephants while shouting at them. The Washington Post writes that the video shows Frisco shouting, \"Make 'em scream!\". A company spokesperson dismissed PETA's concerns as \"Utopian philosophical ideology\" but said the circus would no longer use electric prods. \n\nPETA investigated angora rabbit farms in China in 2013. As CBS News reported of the resulting video footage, \"In the video, the rabbits' high-pitched screams can be heard as farmers rip out their wool until the animal is bald. The rabbits are then thrown back into their cage and appear to be stunned and in shock.\" PETA claimed that 90 percent of the world's angora comes from China, and retailers that carry angora did not initially comment to CBS. Over the next two years, though, because of the investigation, more than 70 retailers, including H&M, Topshop, and Inditex (the world's largest retailer), discontinued their use of angora. Inditex donated its angora products, valued at $878,000, to Syrian refugees. \n\nBetween 2012 and 2014, PETA investigated sheep shearing sheds used by the wool industry in Australia and the U.S., uncovering \"evidence of widespread animal abuse.\" In Australia, the group \"sent three undercover investigators to 19 different sheep shearing sheds run by nine different contractors in three states.\" As NBC News reported, \"PETA charges that in Australia, workers for seven contractors kicked, stomped or stood on animals' heads necks and hind limbs, while workers for eight contractors punched or struck sheep with clippers. One worker allegedly beat a lamb over the head with a hammer. Workers for five contractors allegedly threw sheep and or slammed their heads and bodies against floors.\" PETA also sent an investigator to \"25 ranches in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Nebraska\" and subsequently \"asked local authorities in two Colorado counties to file criminal charges against a specific shearer because of alleged acts of abuse witnessed at two ranches.\" Moffat County Sheriff Tim Jantz called the video evidence \"highly concerning\" and launched an investigation. \n\nIn 2014, PETA conducted an undercover investigation of the horse-racing industry, filming seven hours of footage that, as The New York Times reported, \"showed mistreatment of the horses to be widespread and cavalier.\" Noted trainer Steve Asmussen and his top assistant trainer, Scott Blasi, were accused \"of subjecting their horses to cruel and injurious treatments, administering drugs to them for nontherapeutic purposes, and having one of their jockeys use an electrical device to shock horses into running faster.\" The newspaper noted that this investigation \"was PETA's first significant step into advocacy in the horse racing world.\" In November 2015, as a result of PETA's investigation, Asmussen was fined $10,000 by the New York State Gaming Commission. Robert Williams, executive director of the commission, said, \"We recognize PETA for playing a role in bringing about changes necessary to make thoroughbred racing safer and fairer for all.\" By contrast, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, which also received PETA's allegations, found that Asmussen did not violate any of its rules. Asmussen remains under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor for allegedly violating the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. \n\nAlso in 2014, PETA investigated China's dog leather trade in the province of Jiangsu. As the Daily Mirror reported, \"PETA has obtained footage showing workers grabbing terrified dogs with a metal noose, clubbing them then slitting their throats. ... The video footage is too graphic to be shown here and is very distressing to watch.\" The newspaper also noted that \"this is the first time that the production of Chinese dog leather has been captured on camera.\" PETA claimed that \"[p]roducts made from dog leather are exported throughout the world to be sold to unsuspecting customers.\" \n\nIn 2015, as The Washington Post reported, PETA investigated Sweet Stem Farm, a pig farm that supplies meat to Whole Foods. The resulting video footage \"featured images of pigs, some allegedly sick and not given appropriate care, crowded into hot pens and roughly handled by employees,\" contradicting both the farm's own video self-portrait and Whole Foods' claims about \"humane meat\" (a term that PETA maintains is an oxymoron). The Post notes that \"[i]n the wake of the PETA investigation, Whole Foods has removed the Sweet Stem video from its Web site.\" PETA has subsequently filed a class-action lawsuit against Whole Foods, \"alleging that the chain's claims about animal welfare amount to a 'sham.'\" \n\nOther recent PETA investigations have focused on crocodile and alligator farms in Texas and Zimbabwe, a monkey breeding facility in Florida, pigeon racing in Taiwan, ostrich slaughterhouses and tanneries in South Africa, and a dairy farm in North Carolina, where cows were \"wading knee deep through thousands of gallons of their own manure.\" \n\nAg-gag laws\n\nVarious states, including Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Utah, have passed so-called \"ag-gag\" laws in order to prevent PETA and other groups from conducting undercover investigations of operations that use animals. But PETA and a coalition of animal-welfare groups brought a lawsuit, \"citing First Amendment protections for free speech,\" against Idaho that overturned the state's \"ag-gag\" law in August 2015, setting a precedent that may help overturn these laws in other states. PETA, ALDF, and other groups are also currently suing the states of Utah and North Carolina. \"Ag-gag\" laws have been heavily promoted by the conservative think tank the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). \n\nEuthanizing shelter animals\n\nPETA opposes the no-kill movement,Interlandi, Jeneen. [http://www.newsweek.com/2008/04/27/peta-and-euthanasia.html \"PETA and Euthanasia: Even among animal lovers, killing unwanted pets is a divisive issue.\"] Newsweek, April 28, 2008. and, according to its most recent filing with The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), euthanized 81 percent of the animals that ended up at its shelter. According to VDACS, PETA took 3,017 animals into its shelters in 2014, of which 2,455 were euthanized, 162 were adopted, 353 were released to other shelters, and 6 were reclaimed by their original owners. The group justifies its euthanasia policies toward animals who are not adopted by saying that it takes in feral cat colonies with diseases such as feline AIDS and leukemia, stray dogs, litters of parvo-infected puppies, and backyard dogs and says that it would be unrealistic to follow a no-kill policy in such instances. PETA offers free euthanasia services to counties that kill unwanted animals via gassing or shooting—the group recommends the use of an intravenous injection of sodium pentobarbital if administered by a trained professional and for severely ill or dying animals when euthanasia at a veterinarian is unaffordable. The group recommends not breeding pit bulls and supports euthanasia in certain situations for animals in shelters: for example, for those living for long periods in cramped cages. \n\nPETA's operation of an animal shelter has drawn criticism. In 2008, industry lobby group, the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) formally petitioned VDACS, requesting official reclassification of PETA as a slaughterhouse. CCF said in a press release that \"(a)n official report filed by PETA itself shows that the animal rights group put to death nearly every dog, cat, and other pet it took in for adoption in 2006.\" A spokesperson for the VDACS said that it had considered changing PETA's status from \"shelter\" to \"euthanasia clinic\", citing PETA's willingness to handle animals that other shelters would not. \n\nPETA has promoted legal initiatives to enforce existing euthanasia laws. In 1990, Georgia's Humane Euthanasia Act became one of the first laws in the nation to mandate intravenous injection of sodium pentobarbital as the prescribed method for euthanizing cats and dogs in Georgia animal shelters. Prior to that time, gas chambers and other means were commonly employed. Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin was tasked with licensing the shelters and enforcing the new law, through the Department's Animal Protection Division. However, Commissioner Irvin failed to abide by the terms of the law, and instead continued to license gas chambers. PETA contacted the author of the original legislation, and in March 2007, the Georgia Department of Agriculture and Commissioner Irvin were sued by former State Representative Chesley V. Morton. The Fulton County Superior Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, validating the terms of the Humane Euthanasia Act, with an injunction prohibiting the Department from issuing licenses to shelters using gas chambers in violation of the Act. When the Department continued to license a gas chamber in Cobb County, a second court action was brought, which resulted in the Department being held in contempt. \n\nLegal proceedings \n\nTwo PETA employees were acquitted in 2007 of animal cruelty after at least 80 euthanized animals were left in dumpsters in a shopping center in Ahoskie over the course of a month in 2005; the two employees were seen leaving behind 18 dead animals, and 13 more were found inside their van. The animals had been euthanized after being removed from shelters in Northampton and Bertie counties. A Bertie County Deputy Sheriff stated the two employees assured the Bertie Animal Shelter \"they were picking up the dogs to take them back to Norfolk where they would find them good homes\". During the trial, Daphna Nachminovitch, the supervisor of PETA's Community Animal Project, said PETA began euthanizing animals in some rural North Carolina shelters after it found the shelters killing animals in ways PETA considers inhumane, including by shooting them. She also stated that the dumping of animals did not follow PETA policy. \n\nIn November 2014 a resident of Accomack County, Virginia produced video evidence that two intruders in a van marked with a PETA logo had entered his property and stolen his dog, which was then killed. He reported the theft and killing to the police, who identified and charged two PETA workers, but the charges were later dropped by the commonwealth attorney on the grounds that it was not possible to prove criminal intent. The state later determined that PETA violated state law by failing to ensure that the animal was properly identified and failing to keep the dog alive for five days before killing it. Citing a “severity of this lapse in judgment,” the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services issued PETA a violation and imposed a $500 fine. \n\nVideo games\n\nPETA has also produced various Flash games showcasing its campaigns, including parodies of Cooking Mama, Super Mario Bros., Super Meat Boy, and Pokémon, in order to spread its message on animal welfare, vegetarianism and veganism.\n\nOne of the group's first notable satirical games, called Super Chick Sisters, parodying Super Mario Bros, was released on December 2007, in order to spread its idea of Kentucky Fried Cruelty. Within the game, KFC and especially Colonel Sanders is portrayed as evil and self-serving. The sequel, New Super Chick Sisters, featuring McDonalds and Ronald McDonald as the villain, was released on December 2009, in criticism of how McDonald's McNuggets were made. PETA claims that McDonald's chickens have been treated poorly and said, \"There is a less cruel method of slaughter available today that would eliminate these abuses, yet McDonald's refuses to require its U.S. and Canadian suppliers to switch to it.\"\n\nIn November 2011, another satirical game was released featuring a skinned tanuki chasing Mario to reclaim its fur from him. This was widely criticized as \"absurd and unresearched\" by the gaming community, prompting PETA to explain that it was a tongue-in-cheek effort to draw attention to the real-life issue of tanuki being skinned alive. \n\nNot all critical response to the games has been unfavorable. Fahey opined that New Super Chick Sisters \"manages to be a rather capable little platformer despite its heavy-handed message.\" Nikole Zivalich of G4TV called Super Tofu Boy \"actually a pretty good time waster\" and, as she is a vegetarian, claimed to be \"on Team Tofu.\" Overall, Mike Splechta from GameZone stated that \"some are a little less flattering than others, but they do tend to get their point across.\" He also called Cage Fight \"kickass\", praising its gameplay and chiptune soundtrack, and encouraged readers to play it. \n\nIn some cases, the creators of the original games have responded to PETA's parodies. Such responses included Super Meat Boy developer Team Meat to add Tofu Boy as a playable character in a Super Meat Boy update, Majesco responding to Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals about the false information about the game characters' behaviour, and Nintendo criticizing abuse of its intellectual property with PETA's Pokémon Black & Blue game. \n\nPerson of the year\n\nEach year, PETA selects a \"Person of the Year\" who has helped advance the cause of animal rights. In 2015, as Time magazine reported, the group selected Pope Francis, who took his name from the patron saint of animals, St. Francis of Assisi. Ingrid Newkirk noted, \"With more than a billion Catholics worldwide, Pope Francis' animal-friendly teachings have a massive audience.\" Previous PETA persons of the year include Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Russell Simmons, and Ricky Gervais. \n\nPositions\n\nDirect action and the ALF\n\nNewkirk is outspoken in her support of direct action, writing that no movement for social change has ever succeeded without what she calls the militarism component: \"Thinkers may prepare revolutions,\" she wrote of the ALF in 2004, \"but bandits must carry them out.\"Newkirk, Ingrid. \"The ALF: Who, Why, and What?\", Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? Reflections on the Liberation of Animals. Best, Steven & Nocella, Anthony J (eds). Lantern 2004, p. 341./\n\nIn 2004 The Observer described what it called a network of relationships between apparently unconnected animal rights groups on both sides of the Atlantic, writing that, with assets of $6.5 million, and with the PETA Foundation holding further assets of $15 million, PETA funds a number of activists and groups—some with links to militant groups, including the ALF, which the FBI has named as a domestic terrorist threat. American writer Don Liddick writes that PETA gave $1,500 to the Earth Liberation Front in 2001—Newkirk said the donation was a mistake, and that the money had been intended for public education about destruction of habitat, but Liddick writes that it went to the legal defense of Craig Rosebraugh, an ELF spokesman. That same year, according to The Observer, PETA gave a $5,000 grant to American animal rights activist Josh Harper, an advocate of arson. \n\nAccording to Liddick, PETA has substantial links with Native American ALF activist Rod Coronado. He alleges that two Federal Express packages were sent to an address in Bethesda, Maryland, before and after a 1992 fire at Michigan State University that Coronado was convicted of setting, reportedly as part of \"Operation Bite Back\", a series of ALF attacks on American animal testing facilities in the 1990s. The first package was picked up by a PETA employee, Maria Blanton, and the second intercepted by the authorities, who identified the handwriting as Coronado's. Liddick writes that the package contained documents removed from the university and a videotape of one of the perpetrators. When they searched Blanton's home, police found some of the paraphernalia of animal liberation raids, including code names for Coronado and Alex Pacheco—PETA's co-founder—burglary tools, two-way radios, and fake identification. Liddick also writes that PETA gave Coronado $45,000 for his legal bills and another $25,000 to his father.For details of the Federal Express packages, the other evidence, and the payment to Coronado, see Liddick, Don. Eco-Terrorism. Greenwood Publishing Company, 2006, pp. 50, 52.\n*For Coronado's conviction and Operation Bite Back, see , Arkangel, 2006, accessed June 30, 2010.\n\nNewkirk is a strong supporter of direct action that removes animals from laboratories and other facilities—she told The Los Angeles Times in 1992 that when she hears of anyone walking into a lab and walking out with animals, her heart sings. Newkirk commented to the Chronicle of Higher Education in 1999, \"When you see the resistance to basic humane treatment and to the acknowledgment of animals' social needs, I find it small wonder that the laboratories aren't all burning to the ground. If I had more guts, I'd light a match.\" \n\nIn an interview for Wikinews in 2007, she said she had been asked by other animal protection groups to condemn illegal acts. \"And I won't do it, because if it were my animal I'd be happy.\" But she added that she does not support arson. \"I would rather that these buildings weren't standing, and so I think at some level I understand. I just don't like the idea of that, but maybe that's wishy-washy of me, because I don't want those buildings standing if they hurt anyone ... Why would you preserve [a building] just so someone can make a profit by continuing to hurt and kill individuals who feel every bit as much as we do?\"Shankbone, David. \"Interview with Ingrid Newkirk\", Wikinews, November 13, 2007. Also see Shankbone, David. \"Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder of PETA, on animal rights and the film about her life\", Wikinews, November 20, 2007.\n\nNeutering, backyard dogs, working animals, and pets\n\nPETA runs several programs though its Community Animal Project for cats and dogs in poorer areas of Virginia, near its headquarters. In 2014 the group sterilized 10,950 cats and dogs, including 851 pit bulls and 584 feral cats, at a discounted rate or free of charge. PETA also shelters neglected dogs and cats who are ill and injured, pursues cruelty cases, and sets up doghouses with straw bedding for dogs chained outside all winter. It supplied 340 doghouses, 1,000 bales of straw, and 2,500 dog toys in 2013. The group urges population control through neutering and adoption from shelters and campaigns against organizations such as the American Kennel Club that promote the selection of purebred breeds. \n\nPETA takes the following position on dogs and cats:\n\nIn a perfect world, animals would be free to live their lives to the fullest, raising their young and following their natural instincts in their native environments. Domesticated dogs and cats, however, cannot live 'free' in our concrete jungles, so we are responsible for their care. People with the time, money, love, and patience to make a lifetime commitment to an animal can make an enormous difference by adopting an animal from a shelter or rescuing an animal from a perilous life on the streets.\" \n\nNewkirk has stated that she doesn't use the word \"pet,\" preferring the term \"companion animal,\" and described PETA's vision:\n\nFor one thing, we would no longer allow breeding. People could not create different breeds. There would be no pet shops. If people had companion animals in their homes, those animals would have to be refugees from the animal shelters and the streets. You would have a protective relationship with them just as you would with an orphaned child. But as the surplus of cats and dogs (artificially engineered by centuries of forced breeding) declined, eventually companion animals would be phased out, and we would return to a more symbiotic relationship — enjoyment at a distance. \n\nPETA writes that millions of dogs spend their lives chained outside in all weather conditions or locked up in chain-link pens and wire cages in puppy mills, and that even in good homes animals are often not well cared for. They would like to see the population of dogs and cats reduced through spaying and neutering, and for people never to purchase animals from pet shops or breeders, but to adopt them from shelters instead.[http://www.peta.org/campaigns/ar-petaonpets.asp Animal Rights Uncompromised: PETA on 'Pets'], PETA, accessed June 27, 2010. PETA supports hearing dog programs where animals are taken from shelters and placed in appropriate homes, but does not endorse seeing-eye-dog programs because, according to one of their Vice Presidents, \"the dogs are bred as if there are no equally intelligent dogs literally dying for homes in shelters.\" PETA also opposes the keeping of fish in aquarium tanks, suggesting that people view computer videos of fish instead. \n\nAnimal testing\n\nPETA opposes animal testing—whether toxicity testing, basic or applied research, or for education and training—on both moral and practical grounds. Newkirk told Vogue magazine in 1989 that even if it resulted in a cure for AIDS, PETA would oppose it. The group also believes that it is wasteful, unreliable, and irrelevant to human health, because artificially induced diseases in animals are not identical to human diseases. They say that animal experiments are frequently redundant and lack accountability, oversight, and regulation. They promote alternatives, including embryonic stem cell research and in vitro cell research. PETA employees have themselves volunteered for human testing of vaccines; Scott Van Valkenburg, the group's Director of Major Gifts, said in 1999 that he had volunteered for human testing of HIV vaccines. \n\nClothing\n\nPETA opposes the use of animals for producing clothing made with fur, leather, wool, or silk. It also opposes the use of down from birds and the use of silk from silkworms or spiders. The group notes on its website: \"Every year, millions of animals are killed for the clothing industry—all in the name of fashion. Whether the clothes come from Chinese fur farms, Indian slaughterhouses, or the Australian outback, an immeasurable amount of suffering goes into every fur-trimmed jacket, leather belt, and wool sweater.\" The group's ongoing campaigns against the use of animals for clothing include \"Ink, Not Mink,\" which highlights images of celebrities with tattoos, including Brandon Flowers of the San Diego Chargers and many others. \n\nAutism and dairy products controversy\n\nAccording to ScienceBasedMedicine.org, PETA has \"a history of (as the old saying goes) using science as a drunk uses a lamppost – for support rather than illumination. In that way they are typical of ideological groups. They have an agenda, they are very open about their beliefs, and they marshal whatever arguments they can in order to promote their point of view.\"\n\nPETA that \"scientific studies have shown that many autistic kids improve dramatically when put on a diet free of dairy foods.\" \n\nStudies such as these have been around for decades and are mainly centered around the concept that behavioral differences between people with autism and neurotypicals may be observed through a gluten-free diet. According to ScienceBasedMedicine.org:\nBehavior in children, especially those with the challenge of autism, can be unpredictable. Unpredictable and variable symptoms lend themselves to confirmation bias, with a strong tendency to lead to the anecdotal experience that whatever is being looked for is real. For example, many parents believe that sugar makes their children hyperactive, when this is simply not true. [...] The evidence for any effect on behavior is weak and likely not real. There is also no credible evidence to suggest that casein plays a causal role in autism. The evidence is overwhelming that autism is a genetic disorder. [...] This is clearly, in my opinion, a campaign of fear mongering based upon a gross distortion of the scientific evidence. The purpose is to advocate for a vegan diet, which fits their ideological agenda. They are likely aware that it is easier to spread fears than to reassure with a careful analysis of the scientific evidence.\n\nEven though the website cites studies, these studies are outdated, vague, relied on a very small sample size of children, were single-blind tests (which can be heavily influenced by an experimenter's bias), and conflated correlation with causation. The billboards put up by PETA promoting this research have also been considered offensive by many autistic individuals. \n\nWildlife conservation personalities\n\nPETA is critical of television personalities they call self-professed wildlife warriors, arguing that while a conservationist message is getting across, some of the actions are harmful to animals, such as invading animals' homes, netting them, subjecting them to stressful environments, and wrestling with them—often involving young animals the group says should be with their mothers. In 2006 when Steve Irwin died, PETA's vice-president Dan Mathews said Irwin had made a career out of antagonizing frightened wild animals.Walls, Jeannette (2006). [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14626178/ \"PETA sheds no crocodile tears for Steve Irwin\"], MSNBC, September 11, 2006. Australian Member of Parliament Bruce Scott said PETA should apologize to Irwin's family and the rest of Australia. \n\nPETA Asia-Pacific\n\nPETA Asia-Pacific was founded by Ingrid Newkirk in Hong Kong in 2005 to support animal rights programs and campaigns in Asia. Jason Baker, a former staff member of PETA who was involved in setting up PETA India and PETA Australia, is PETA Asia Pacific's first director. Its offices are in Hong Kong and Manila. It works through public education, animal cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns. Its campaigns cover countries including China, Japan, Malaysia, and South Korea. \n\nVegetarian/vegan/factory farming\n\nPETA Asia-Pacific promotes vegetarian and vegan diets through three specific campaigns: education about the benefits of a vegetarian diet, demonstrations and celebrity involvement against fast food outlets, and undercover investigations of animals used for live transport and traditional religious slaughter. The organization has also used the PETA Lettuce Ladies in local demonstrations. PETA Asia-Pacific regularly demonstrates against KFC outlets to promote better treatment of chickens used by the company. \n\nAnti-fur\n\nPETA Asia-Pacific supports the PETA campaign \"I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur,\" in which celebrities appear nude to express their opposition to wearing fur. The group also stages anti-fur events to publicize their opposition to fur. PETA Asia-Pacific has been involved in several undercover investigations of fur farms in China. \n\nAnimals used for entertainment\n\nThe group regularly protests the use of animals in entertainment, including circuses. These demonstrations are specific to the area, including anti-bull riding, not keeping wild animals in chains, and stopping human–animal wrestling matches. \n\nOther campaigns\n\nPETA Asia Pacific also coordinates protests against other uses of animals which it believes are abusive, such as improving the treatment of rats, and it advocates for improvements for companion animals. In 2016, PETA Asia Pacific shocked customers with a fake pop-up shop in Bangkok called The Leather Work, which seemed to specialize in \"luxury\" leather bags, shoes, and other clothing and accessories. Inside the items, though, were what appeared to be the gory flesh, sinews, beating hearts, and blood of animals slaughtered for such items. According to the Asian Correspondent, the stunt caused shoppers to jump back and gasp in horror. PETA claims \"to have found workers in crocodile farms 'sawing open reptile's necks while the animals are still alive'\" and that \"snakes and lizards are cruelly 'nailed to trees' or 'decapitated' before being 'skinned alive.'\" \n\nPETA India\n\nPETA India, based in Mumbai, was founded in January 2000. According to the group's website, it focuses principally on \"investigative work, public education efforts, research, animal rescues, legislative work, special events, celebrity involvement and national media coverage.\" \n\nThe group has launched investigations of jallikattu events, circuses that use animals in performances, and filthy horse stables in Mumbai, among others. The investigation of 16 circuses in India over a nine-month period \"revealed that animals used in circuses were subjected to chronic confinement, physical abuse, and psychological torment\" and also led the Animal Welfare Board of India to \"ban registration of elephants for performance in view of the cruelties and abuse suffered by them.\" \n\nIn 2015, with support from celebrities such as Paul McCartney and Pamela Anderson, PETA India rescued a 14-year-old male elephant named Sunder, who had been kept captive in chains \"at a temple in the Kolhapur district of Maharashtra for seven years.\" Sunder was transferred to Bannerghatta Biological Park, a forested sanctuary, where he can roam freely in the company of other elephants. \n\nIndian celebrities who have collaborated with PETA India include Shahid Kapoor, Hema Malini, and Raveena Tandon, among many others. \n\nAnimal Rahat\n\nPETA India is affiliated with Animal Rahat (\"Rahat\" means \"relief\"), a nonprofit organization that \"was created to make a difference in the lives of working bullocks, donkeys, ponies, horses, and other animals.\" It's located in the sugar-mill district of Sangli, India, and is dedicated to providing \"free aid to bullocks who work in sugar mills, donkeys who are used in the brick kilns, horses who pull carts, and other working animals\" as well as helping \"animals' owners, who are often too poor to afford the sustenance necessary to maintain animals' health and strength, pay for veterinary care in times of illness and injury, or give their animals time for rest and recuperation.\" The group, which began its work in 2011, \"has worked to ensure that over 7,000 bullocks primarily employed in Maharashtra's sugar factories were replaced by mini-tractors.\" \n\nOther international affiliates\n\nPETA also has affiliates in the U.K., France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia. \n\nDomain name disputes\n\n \nIn February 1995, a parody website calling itself \"People Eating Tasty Animals\" registered the domain name \"peta.org\". PETA sued, claiming trademark violation, and won the suit in 2001. While still engaged in legal proceedings over \"peta.org\", PETA themselves registered the domains \"ringlingbrothers.com\" and \"voguemagazine.com\", using the sites to accuse Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and Vogue of animal cruelty. PETA later surrendered the domains under threat of similar legal action over trademark infringement.Richtel, Matt. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res\n9B00E1DB1238F93BA15756C0A96E958260&sec&spon\n&pagewanted=all \"You Can't Always Judge a Domain by Its Name\"], New York Times, May 28, 1998. \n\nPosition within the animal rights movement\n\nRobert Garner of the University of Leicester writes that Newkirk and Pacheco are the leading exporters of animal rights to the more moderate groups in the United States—both members of an animal rights elite that he argues has shaken up the animal rights movement, setting up new groups and radicalizing old ones.Garner, Robert. Animals, politics, and morality. Manchester University Press, 1993; this edition 2004, p. 70.\n\nPhilanthropedia says of the group: \"A very controversial organization, PETA is known for bringing into public view the plight of animals of many different kinds. They have brought many issues to the front of people's consciousness about inhumane treatment of animals even though many experts find their marketing and communication tactics a bit extreme at times.\" The site's summary of expert opinion on the organization's strengths is as follows: \"PETA is highly visible, consistent, and well organized. According to experts, they are very tightly focused on their mission and they are able to generate media attention to the cause.\" \n\nSpecific experts consulted by Philanthropedia, including academics and senior staff members of other nonprofits, made the following observations about the group's position within the animal rights movement:\n\n* \"PETA is not afraid to tackle ANY kind of animal abuse issue. They often start working on something well in advance of other organizations, take the 'heat' for others for years while educating people about the thing they're exposing. Then eventually, once a critical mass understands about the issue, it becomes 'mainstream'. I've seen this happen on a number of issues over the years, including fur, vegetarianism, animal research, wool, leather, etc.\"\n* \"Students name PETA more than any other organization concerning which group influenced them to make positive personal changes and also be activists.\"\n* \"PETA regularly convinces companies to replace their animal testing with non-animal alternatives as well as helping animals who are found living in cruel conditions in the pet and other industries. Their high profile campaigns result in many people becoming vegetarian and vegan.\"\n* \"They have brought many issues to the front of people's consciousness about inhumane treatment of animals even though sometimes the way it is done is a little overboard. They have moved the bar from what was considered unthinkable 25 years ago (e.g., humane treatment of laboratory animals) to being considered normal and expected.\"\n* \"I don't think one can talk about the animal movement without mentioning PETA. They put the issue ON the map. Whether agreeing or disagreeing with their tactics, [there] is no denying that they are probably one of, if not the, most-well known animal group. And if taken outside the animal movement, that they are a well-known 'brand' in general. That is an amazing impact for a so-called 'fringe' issue.\"\n* \"Without PETA, the number of people who have even HEARD of animal rights/welfare/protection would be reduced by at least half, in my best guestimate.\" \n\nDespite the group's successes, there has been criticism of PETA from both the conservative and radical ends of the animal rights movement. Michael Specter writes that it provides for groups such as the Humane Society of the United States the same dynamic that Malcolm X provided for Martin Luther King, or Andrea Dworkin for Gloria Steinem—someone radical to alienate the mainstream and make moderate voices more appealing. The failure to condemn the Animal Liberation Front triggers complaints from the conservatives, while the more radical activists say the group has lost touch with its grassroots, is soft on the idea of animal rights, and that it should stop the media stunts, the pie-throwing, and the used of nudity. \"It's hard enough trying to get people to take animal rights seriously without PETA out there acting like a bunch of jerks,\" one activist told writer Norm Phelps. However, Phelps continued: \"But it's hard to argue with success, and PETA is far and away the most successful cutting-edge animal rights organization in the world, in terms of both membership and spreading the animal rights message to the public at large.\"Phelps, Norm. [https://books.google.com/books?idzrncZO5bmAgC&printsec\nfrontcover&dq%22It%27s+hard+enough+trying+to+get+people+to+take+animal+rights+seriously+without+PETA+out+there+acting+like+a+bunch+of+jerks,%22+one+activist+told+writer+Norm+Phelps&hl\nen&saX&ved\n0CCMQ6AEwAWoVChMI4vK02YPhyAIVi9YeCh07Dwnz#vonepage&q\nPETA&f=false The longest struggle: animal advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA\"]. Lantern Books, 2007, p. 242.\n\nThe ads featuring barely clad or naked women have been criticized by some feminist animal rights advocates. When Ronald Reagan's daughter Patti Davis posed naked for Playboy, donating half her $100,000 fee to PETA, the group issued a press release saying Davis \"turns the other cheek in an eye-opening spread,\" then announced she had been photographed naked with Hugh Hefner's dog for an anti-fur ad. In 1995, PETA formed a partnership with Playboy to promote human organ donation, with the caption \"Some People Need You Inside Them\" on a photograph of Hefner's wife. The long-standing campaign, \"I'd rather go naked than wear fur,\" in which celebrities and supermodels strip for the camera, generated particular concern. \n\nNewkirk has replied to the criticism that no one is being exploited, the women taking part are volunteers, and if sexual attraction advances the cause of animals, she is unapologetic. Asked in 2007 how she feels when criticized from within the movement, she said: \"Somebody has to push the envelope. If you say something that someone already agrees with, then what's the point, and so we make some more conservative animal protection organizations uncomfortable; they don't want to be associated with us because it will be embarrassing for them, and I understand that. Our own members write to us sometimes and say, 'Oh why did you do this? I don't want anyone to know I'm a PETA member.'\"\n\nGary Francione, professor of law at Rutgers School of Law-Newark, argues that PETA is not an animal rights group—and further that there is no animal rights movement in the United States—because of their willingness to work with industries that use animals to achieve incremental change. This makes them an animal welfare group, in Francione's view: what he calls the new welfarists. A proponent of abolitionism, Francione argues that PETA is trivializing the movement with what he calls the \"Three Stooges\" theory of animal rights, making the public think progress is underway when the changes are only cosmetic. \n\nHowever, like Francione, PETA describes itself as abolitionist. Newkirk told an animal rights conference in 2002 that PETA's goal remains animal liberation: \"Reforms move a society very importantly from A to B, from B to C, from C to D. It's very hard to take a nation or a world that is built on seeing animals as nothing more than hamburgers, handbags, cheap burglar alarms, tools for research, and move them from A to Z ...\"Newkirk, Ingrid. [http://vimeo.com/7246561 \"PETA president speaks up for animals\"], at 25:44 mins, Animal rights convention, June 30, 2002, accessed June 28, 2010.\n\nFrancione has also criticized PETA for having caused grassroots animal rights groups to close, groups that he argues were essential for the survival of the animal rights movement, which rejects the centrality of corporate animal charities. Francione writes that PETA initially set up independent chapters around the United States, but closed them in favor of a top-down, centralized organization, which not only consolidated decision-making power, but centralized donations too. Now, local animal rights donations go to PETA, rather than to a local group. Some members of the animal-rights movement have responded that Francione's position with respect to groups engaged in actual fieldwork is unnecessarily divisive and hurts animal advocacy.", "Taraji Penda Henson ( ; born September 11, 1970) is an American actress and singer. She studied acting at Howard University and began her Hollywood career in guest-roles on several television shows before making her breakthrough in Baby Boy (2001). In 2005, she starred in Hustle & Flow and played Queenie in David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), for which she received an Academy Award nomination. In 2010, she appeared in the comedy Date Night and co-starred in the remake of The Karate Kid. In 2012, Henson was in the large ensemble cast film Think Like A Man and reprised her role in its sequel.\n\nHenson has also had an extensive career in television, having been a regular cast member on series such as The Division, Boston Legal and Eli Stone. From 2011 to 2013, she co-starred as Detective Jocelyn Carter in the CBS drama Person of Interest. As of 2015, she stars as Cookie Lyon on the Fox drama series Empire, for which she won a Critics' Choice Award and a Golden Globe Award, and nominated for an Emmy Award. In 2016, Time named Henson one of the 100 most influential people in the world on the annual Time 100 list. \n\nEarly life and education\n\nHenson was born in southeast Washington, D.C., the daughter of Bernice Gordon, a corporate manager at Woodward & Lothrop, and Boris Lawrence Henson, a janitor and metal fabricator. Her first and middle names are of Swahili origin, \"Taraji\" meaning hope and \"Penda\" meaning love. \nAccording to a mitochondrial DNA analysis, her matrilineal lineage can be traced to the Masa people of Cameroon. She says that North Pole explorer Matthew Henson is \"the brother of my great-great grandfather.\" \n\nHenson graduated from Oxon Hill High School in Oxon Hill, Maryland, in 1988. She then attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University where she studied electrical engineering before transferring to Howard University to study drama. To pay for college, she worked mornings as a secretary at The Pentagon and evenings as a singing-dancing waitress on a dinner-cruise ship, the Spirit of Washington. \n\nCareer\n\nFilm\n\nHenson's breakthrough role was in the 2001 comedy drama film Baby Boy which she portrayed Yvette, alongside singer Tyrese Gibson. \n\nIn 2005, Henson was in the independent film Hustle & Flow as Shug, the love interest of Terrence Howard, who portrayed the male lead DJay. The film was nominated for two Academy awards, winning one. In 2008, she appeared opposite Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Henson plays the role of Queenie, Benjamin's mother, in a performance that led to an Academy award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She noted in an interview that, \"Queenie is the embodiment of unconditional love.\" \n\nHenson was in Tyler Perry films The Family That Preys in 2008 and I Can Do Bad All By Myself in 2009. \nIn 2010, she appeared in the remake of The Karate Kid alongside Jaden Smith. The film was a commercial success. \n\nIn 2011, she starred as Tiffany Rubin in the Lifetime Movie Network film Taken from Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story. The film was based on true events of the life of a New York woman Tiffany Rubin, whose son Kobe was abducted by his biological father to South Korea. Determined to bring her son back home, she is helped by an organization for lost children which his headed by Mark Miller, portrayed by Terry O'Quinn, and with a plan they are able bring her son back home. Henson's portrayal as Tiffany Rubin received positive reviews which earned her several award nominations including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. \n\nIn 2012, Henson was in the large ensemble cast film Think Like A Man, which was based on Steve Harvey's 2009 book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. Henson reprised her role in the film's sequel Think Like a Man Too, which was released in June 2014. \n\nTelevision\n\nHenson has guest-starred on several television shows, such as the WB Television Network's Smart Guy, playing the role of Mo'Nique (1997–98); the Fox series House in 2005; and CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in 2006. She also starred on an episode of Sister, Sister.\n\nHenson has also been a cast member on several television shows, including Lifetime Television's The Division and ABC's Boston Legal for one season. Her recurring appearances in television include the character Angela Scott on ABC's Eli Stone in December 2008. In 2011, Henson was cast in the CBS crime-suspense series Person of Interest. In the Person of Interest November 20, 2013 episode \"The Crossing\", after co-starring for two and a half years, Henson's character Carter was killed as part of the series' new storyline direction. \n\nIn February 2014, several months after her last episode of Person of Interest aired on CBS, Henson was hired by Fox to star in the new TV series pilot Empire, a musical drama set in the hip hop recording industry. Henson plays Cookie Lyon opposite former Hustle & Flow costar Terrence Howard. Fox ordered the pilot to series in May 2014 and the TV series debuted on January 7, 2015 with positive reviews from critics and wide commercial success. Her work as Cookie Lyon gave her widespread recognition and critical acclaim. In July 2015, Henson was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and she submitted show's Pilot for Emmy voting. In January 2016, Henson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for Empire becoming only the third African American actress to take home the award after Gail Fisher (1972) and Regina Taylor (1992). \n\nOther work\n\nHenson made her singing debut in Hustle & Flow; she provided the vocals for the Three 6 Mafia track \"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp\". The song won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2006, giving Three 6 Mafia the distinction of becoming the first African American hip-hop act to win in that category. Henson performed the song at the live Oscar ceremony on March 5, 2006, with the group. Additionally, she performed the song \"In My Daughter's Eyes\" on the 2006 charity album Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars. \n\nHenson has made several appearances in music videos and television. For example, she starred in the rapper Common's music video \"Testify\" in 2005 as the wife of a soon to be convicted murderer. She also appeared in Tyrese Gibson's music video Stay as his love interest. \n\nOn March 16, 2015, she was a guest co-host on Live! with Kelly and Michael filling in for regular co-host Kelly Ripa. \n\nPersonal life\n\nHenson became pregnant during her junior year of college, and gave birth in 1994 to her son, Marcel Johnson. His father, her high-school sweetheart William Lamar Johnson, was murdered in 2003. \n\nControversy\n\nIn 2014 Henson said her son had been racially profiled by police and that his car had been illegally searched during a traffic stop that October 18 in Glendale, California. A video obtained by the Los Angeles Times showed Johnson had driven through a lighted crosswalk while a pedestrian was crossing, given verbal consent to search his vehicle, and admitted to smoking marijuana two hours before driving. Hashish oil and marijuana were found inside his car. Forty minutes after the video was made public, Henson said in an Instagram message, \"I would like to publicly apologize to the officer and the Glendale Police Department. A mother's job is not easy and neither is a police officer's.\" \n\nActivism\n\nA supporter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Henson in January 2011 appeared nude in an ad for the I'd Rather Be Naked Than Wear Fur campaign. \n\nHenson joined PETA again for a 2013 campaign stating \"Be an Angel for Animals\". In the ad Henson poses with her family dog Uncle Willie. The ad highlights the issue that, \"Chained dogs suffer day in and day out. They are cold, hungry, thirsty, vulnerable, and lonely. Keep them inside, where it's safe and warm.\" \n\nIn February 2015, Henson posed in an ad for the NOH8 Campaign, which supports the LGBT community. \n\nFilmography\n\nFilm\n\nTelevision\n\nAwards and nominations", "Pamela Denise Anderson (born July 1, 1967) is a Canadian-American actress. In addition to her acting career, she is also a model, producer, author, activist and a former showgirl, known for her roles on the television series Home Improvement, Baywatch and V.I.P.. She was chosen as a Playmate of the Month for Playboy magazine in February 1990. For a time, she was known as Pamela Anderson Lee (or Pamela Lee) after marrying Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee. Anderson is a member of the animal rights movement and has conducted campaigns condemning the commercial fur industry and promoting veganism through the animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). In 2006, she was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. \n\nShe maintains dual Canadian and American citizenship. \n\nEarly life\n\nAnderson was born in Ladysmith, British Columbia, the daughter of Barry, a furnace repairman, and Carol (née Grosco) Anderson, a waitress. Her great-grandfather, Juho Hyytiäinen, was Finnish, a native of Saarijärvi, and left the Grand Duchy of Finland (which was a part of the Russian Empire at the time) in 1908. He changed his name to Anderson when he arrived as an immigrant. Anderson also has Russian ancestry on her mother's side. \n\nAnderson got some press coverage right after her birth as the country's \"Centennial Baby\", having been the first baby born on July 1, 1967, the 100th anniversary of Canada's official founding via the Constitution Act, 1867. \n\nAnderson suffered frequent sexual abuse as a child, a fact she would not reveal publicly until 2014: she was molested by a female babysitter from ages 6 to 10, raped by a 25-year-old man when she was twelve, and gang-raped by her boyfriend and six of his friends when she was 14. She also revealed that her father, though \"loving\", had been an alcoholic.\n\nAnderson attended Highland Secondary School in Comox, British Columbia. During high school, she played on the volleyball team. She graduated in 1985. In 1988, Anderson moved to Vancouver and worked as a fitness instructor.\n\nCareer\n\nDiscovery\n\nIn 1989, Anderson attended a BC Lions Canadian Football League game at the BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, where she was featured on the Jumbotron while wearing a Labatt's Beer T-shirt. The brewing company hired Anderson briefly as a spokesmodel. Inspired by that event, her then-boyfriend Dan Ilicic produced a poster of her image, entitled the Blue Zone Girl. \n\nPlayboy magazine career\n\nAnderson appeared as the cover girl on Playboy magazine's October 1989 issue. She moved to Los Angeles to further pursue a modeling career. Playboy subsequently chose her as Playmate of the Month in their February 1990 issue, in which she appeared in the centerfold photo. Anderson then elected to have breast implant surgery, increasing her bust size to 34D. She famously increased her bust size again, to 34DD, several years later. Anderson has since appeared in Playboy several times in the 1990s and the 2000s.\n\nAnderson's Playboy career spans twenty-two years, and she has appeared on more Playboy covers than any other model. She has also made appearances in the publication's newsstand specials. Anderson wrote the foreword in the Playboy coffee table book Playboy's Greatest Covers.\n\nAnderson was the last to pose nude in Playboy, on the magazine's January/February 2016 cover. \n\nActing and modeling\n\nAfter she moved to Los Angeles, she won a minor role as Lisa, the original \"Tool Time girl\", on the television sitcom, Home Improvement. She left the show after two seasons and won the role of C. J. Parker on Baywatch, whom she played for five seasons between 1992 and 1997 making her one of the longest serving cast members. This has been one of her best known roles to date and has gained her a lot of popularity from international viewers. She later reprised her role to return in a reunion movie, Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding in 2003 and also to star in commercials for DirecTV in 2007. Anderson was still modeling for Outdoor Life and appearing on the cover of the magazine each year. In 1993, Anderson appeared in a music video \"Can't Have Your Cake\" by Vince Neil to promote his first solo album Exposed.\n\nIn 1994, she was cast in her first starring film role, in Raw Justice, also known as Good Cop, Bad Cop, costarring with Stacy Keach, David Keith and Robert Hays. Under the alternate title, the film won the Bronze Award at the Worldfest-Charleston in the category for dramatic theatrical films.\n\nIn 1996, she appeared in Barb Wire playing Barbara Rose Kopetski, which was later claimed by some sources to be Anderson's real name, although it is not. The movie, a thinly veiled futuristic remake of Casablanca, was not a commercial success. In April 1997, she guest-hosted Saturday Night Live. She appeared on one of two covers for the September issue of Playboy.\n\nIn September 1998, Anderson starred as Vallery Irons in the Sony Pictures Entertainment syndicated show V.I.P. created by J. F. Lawton. Blending action and humor in a fast-paced adventure series, with Anderson often poking fun at her tabloid image, the show explored the exciting and sometimes treacherous lives of the rich and famous. The series lasted through a successful four-year run. In 1999, she appeared as a man-eating giantess in the music video for \"Miserable\" by California alternative rock band Lit. She appeared on The Nanny as Fran's rival, Heather Biblow. Also in 1999, she had her breast implants surgically removed.\n\nIn early 2004, Anderson returned to the spotlight. In May, she appeared naked on the cover of Playboy magazine. It was the first time she had appeared naked on any magazine cover. Later, she posed naked for Stuff and GQ magazines. Anderson also graced the cover of the fashion magazine Elle Canada.\n\nAnderson became a naturalized citizen of the United States on May 12, 2004, while retaining her Canadian citizenship. She has lived in Southern California since 1989.\n\nIn 2004, she released the book Star, co-written by Eric Shaw Quinn, about a teenager trying to become famous. After this, she began touring the United States, signing autographs for fans at Wal-Mart stores nationwide. Her second book, the sequel Star Struck, released in 2005, is a thinly veiled look at her life with Tommy Lee and the trials of celebrity life. In April 2005, Anderson starred in a new Fox sitcom Stacked as Skyler Dayton, a party girl who goes to work at a bookstore. It was canceled on May 18, 2006, after two seasons, although some episodes were never aired. On August 14, 2005, Comedy Central created the Roast of Pamela Anderson to honor the sex symbol for the past decade.\n\nIn December 2005, NBC cut off a video of Anderson pole dancing on Elton John's \"The Red Piano\". NBC said that the footage was inappropriate for prime time. The video was shown on huge screens during the event, while John played \"The Bitch is Back\". In March 2006, it was announced that Anderson would receive a star on Canada's Walk of Fame thanks to her many years as a model and actress. She is only the second model to receive a star. In April 2006, Anderson hosted Canada's Juno Awards, becoming the first non-singer and model to do so.\n\nShe was referenced in the 2006 mockumentary, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, as the title character becomes obsessed with her, and plans to abduct and marry her. She appears as herself at a book signing at the end of the film, confronted by Borat in a staged botched abduction. \n\nShe performed on February 13–14, 2008 in a Valentine's Day striptease act at the Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris. Anderson then starred in Pam: Girl on the Loose, which debuted on August 3, 2008 on E! in the United States.\n\nIn December 2009, Anderson guest-starred as Genie of the Lamp in the pantomime Aladdin at the New Wimbledon Theatre in Wimbledon, south-west London, England. Anderson took over the role from comedian Ruby Wax, with former EastEnders actress Anita Dobson and comedian Paul O'Grady also booked for the role. In 2010, she appeared in the short film The Commuter directed by the McHenry Brothers and shot entirely on the Nokia N8 smartphone as promotion for the phone in the UK. Anderson was featured in a beach-themed editorial, shot by Mario Testino for Brazilian Vogues June 2013 \"Body Issue\". \n\nPro wrestling\n\n* During an appearance at the World Wrestling Federation's Royal Rumble in 1995, Anderson promised that she would accompany the winner of the Royal Rumble to WrestleMania. Anderson returned for her appearance at the World Wrestling Federation's WrestleMania XI on April 2, but as the guest valet for WWF World Heavyweight Champion Diesel and not the Royal Rumble winner, his opponent Shawn Michaels; Michaels ended up being accompanied to the ring by Jenny McCarthy. After pinning Michaels, Diesel left with both Anderson and McCarthy.\n* In anticipation of her appearance at the Royal Rumble, several skits were produced featuring wrestlers fawning over Anderson. One commercial featured Anderson coming home and checking her answering machine. As Anderson strips down behind a curtain, messages from wrestlers such as Shawn Michaels, Diesel, and Doink the Clown can be heard.\n* At the 2006 Canada's Walk of Fame induction ceremony, Anderson shared a kiss with WWE diva and fellow Canadian Trish Stratus.\n* She appeared on former Pro Wrestling commentator Mark Madden's Pittsburgh-based sports talk radio show in October 2006.\n\nReality Shows\n\nOn July 9, 2008, Anderson entered the Australian Big Brother house for a three-day visit. This was Anderson's first foray into reality television. In November 2010, Anderson appeared on season 4 of Bigg Boss, the Indian version of the Big Brother television franchise. She stayed as a guest in the house for three days for a reported sum of Rs. 2.5 crores (approx US$ 550,000). Furthering her involvement in the franchise, In September 2011, Anderson took part in the 12th season of Big Brother in the United Kingdom. On September 9, 2012, it was officially announced that she will enter the House in Bulgaria on September 16, taking part in the fourth season of VIP Brother, which is the celebrity spin-off of Big Brother in Bulgaria. \n\nOn Day 12 for the Promi Big Brother (season 1) in Germany, she entered the house, as a Special Guest Star on the final day. David Hasselhoff, a former Baywatch co-star, was a contestant in Day 1 to Day 5.\n\nDancing with the Stars\n\nAnderson was a contestant on the tenth season of Dancing with the Stars, partnered with professional dancer Damian Whitewood. The season premiered on March 22, 2010, and after seven weeks, Anderson was eliminated. She also took part in the 15th season all-star edition in 2012 with Tristan MacManus. Anderson and MacManus were eliminated in the first week of competition. \n\nIn 2011, she appeared on the Argentinian version of Dancing with the Stars, entitled Bailando por un sueño (Bailando 2011). She once again danced with Whitewood. She withdrew from the competition after the fourth round. \n\nDancing on Ice\n\nIn 2013, Anderson appeared on season 8 of the British reality TV show Dancing on Ice, partnered with former winner Matt Evers. They became the first couple on that season to be voted off by the judges due to a few stumbles. \n\nCauses\n\nAnimal rights\n\nOne of Anderson's campaigns as a member of PETA has been against the use of fur. In 1999, Anderson received the first Linda McCartney Memorial Award for animal rights protectors, in recognition of her campaign. In 2003, Anderson stripped down for PETA's \"I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur\" advertising campaign. On June 28, 2006, Anderson posed naked with other protesters on a window display of the Stella McCartney boutique in London, England. It was a PETA gala event before the PETA Humanitarian Awards. Anderson went inside the boutique and said she would take her clothes off if the event raised enough money for PETA, which it did. She campaigned against Kentucky Fried Chicken. In 2001, Anderson released a letter in support of PETA's campaign against Kentucky Fried Chicken, stating \"What KFC does to 750 million chickens each year is not civilized or acceptable.\" She later made a video about KFC's treatment of chickens. In January 2006, Anderson requested that the Governor of Kentucky remove a bust of Colonel Sanders, the founder of KFC, from display but her request was refused even when she offered her own bust in exchange. In February 2006, Anderson decided to boycott the Kentucky Derby because of its support for Kentucky Fried Chicken.\n\nShe has also campaigned against seal hunting in Canada. In March 2006, Anderson asked to speak to Prime Minister Stephen Harper about the annual seal hunt but was refused. In May 2006, she petitioned individuals on the street for their opinion on the Canadian Seal Hunt. In December 2009, Anderson, photographed in a T-shirt with a drawn picture of a seal pup on it, was featured in a new ad campaign for PETA. She appears next to the headline \"Save the Seals\" in the ad and urges the public to help end \"Canada's annual seal slaughter.\" She joined forces with the organization again in a campaign for the boycott of fruit-juice maker POM. The \"Pom Horrible Campaign\" has resulted in the company halting animal tests.\n\nAnderson became the center of controversy when she posed in a bikini nearly nude for a PETA ad that was banned in Montreal, Quebec, on grounds that the ad was sexist. Anderson retorted saying, \"In a city that is known for its exotic dancing and for being progressive and edgy, how sad that a woman would be banned from using her own body in a political protest over the suffering of cows and chickens. In some parts of the world, women are forced to cover their whole bodies with burqas – is that next? I didn't think that Canada would be so puritanical.\" \n\nShe became a company spokesperson for FrogAds, Inc. in March 2012. In February 2014, she stripped for a Valentine’s Day-themed ad for PETA, urging dog lovers to cuddle up with their pets during winter. In July 2015, Anderson wrote an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking to prevent the passage of the cargo vessel Winter Bay with over 1,700 tons of fin whale meat through the Northeast Passage to Japan. \n\nAnderson has actively campaigned for environmental conservation group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, has served on the Sea Shepherd Board of Directors and is a spokesperson for the group. She has travelled with the organisation in support of campaigns such as Operation Sleppid Grindini, which monitors the activities of fishermen in the Faroe Islands as part of the traditional pilot whale drive hunt, an even known as the Grindadrap. She is a close friend of Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson.\n\nAIDS, cannabis, and other activism\n\nIn March 2005, Anderson became a spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics's MAC AIDS Fund, which helped people affected by AIDS and HIV. After becoming the official spokesmodel, Anderson raised money during events in Toronto, Tokyo, Dublin, and Athens. Anderson became the celebrity spokesperson for the American Liver Foundation, and served as the Grand Marshal of the SOS motorcycle ride fundraiser.\n\nShe wrote an open letter to President Barack Obama urging the legalization of cannabis. \n\nShe has also shown support to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. \n\nPersonal life\n\nRelationships\n\nAnderson married Tommy Lee, drummer of Mötley Crüe, on February 19, 1995, after knowing him for about 96 hours, or 4 days. They wed on a beach, with Anderson in a bikini. Anderson's mother did not know, and learned of the marriage from People magazine. During this time, she was known professionally as Pamela Anderson Lee. Together they have two sons, Brandon Thomas Lee and Dylan Jagger Lee. Dylan Jagger Lee was named for Anderson's great grandfather, Dale Jagger Grosco who fought in World War II. The couple divorced in 1998. Although divorced, the couple reunited briefly upon Lee's release from prison but eventually split again in 2001. They reconciled and split again in 2008. \n\nIn March 2002, Anderson publicly stated that she had contracted hepatitis C from Lee (supposedly from sharing tattoo needles), and began writing a regular column for Jane magazine. In October 2003, Anderson jokingly said on Howard Stern's radio show that she does not expect to live more than 10 or 15 years, but this was misconstrued and taken seriously by many websites and tabloids. As of 2015, Anderson was cured of hepatitis C. \n\nAfter the 1998 divorce, Anderson became engaged to the model Marcus Schenkenberg; they broke up in 2001. She then became engaged to the singer Kid Rock (Robert J. Ritchie); she broke up with him in 2003. On July 18, 2006, it was announced that she would marry Kid Rock on July 29, 2006, on a yacht near Saint-Tropez, France. \"Feels like I've been stuck in a time warp,\" said Anderson in her blog entry. \"Not able to let go of MY family picture ... it's been sad and lonely and frustrating ... I've raised my kids alone in hope of a miracle. Well my miracle came and went. And came back and back because he knew that I'd wake up one day and realize that I was waiting for nothing.\" \"I'm moving on,\" she declared. \"I feel like I'm finally free ... I'm in love.\" There was extensive unconfirmed media speculation that the marriage was pregnancy-related, but the theory was based only on Anderson's representative's refusal to comment on the question. \n\nOn November 10, 2006, it was announced that Anderson had miscarried while in Vancouver shooting a new film, Blonde and Blonder. Seventeen days later, on November 27, 2006, Anderson filed for divorce in Los Angeles County Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences. Some news reports have suggested that Kid Rock's outrage during a screening of Borat, in which Anderson plays a cameo role, led to the filing for divorce two weeks later. \n\nIn September 2007, Anderson told talk show host Ellen DeGeneres that she was engaged. On September 29, Anderson and film producer Rick Salomon applied for a marriage license in Las Vegas. On October 6, 2007, Anderson married Salomon in a small wedding ceremony at The Mirage, between her two nightly appearances at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Hans Klok's magic show. The couple separated on December 13, and on February 22, 2008, Anderson requested through the courts that the marriage be annulled, citing fraud. \n\nIn February 2007, Anderson said that she still often had sex with Lee since their divorce. In mid-2008 Lee said that they were going to try again to make things work together. \n\nIn October 2013, Anderson said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she and Salomon were \"friends with benefits\". In January 2014, she announced that she had remarried Salomon on an unspecified date. Anderson filed for divorce from Salomon in February 2015. The divorce was finalized on April 29, 2015. \n\nSex tapes controversy\n\nA sex tape of Anderson and Tommy Lee on their honeymoon was stolen from their home in 1995 and made a huge stir on the Internet. Anderson sued the video distribution company, Internet Entertainment Group. Ultimately, the Lees entered into a confidential settlement agreement with IEG. Thereafter, the company began making the tape available to subscribers to its web sites again, resulting in triple the normal traffic on the sites. \n\nAnother tape, which was made before the Tommy Lee tape, involving Anderson and musician Bret Michaels from Poison, was later announced, and an abridged version of less than 60 seconds appeared on the internet. Frames of the video first appeared in Penthouse magazine in March 1998. The tape was successfully blocked by Michaels, but a four-minute sex tape is still available on the Internet.\n\nVeganism\n\nAnderson is a vegan, an advocate for animal rights, and an active member of the animal protection organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), taking part in several campaigns for animal rights. She became a vegetarian in her early teens when she saw her father cleaning an animal he had hunted. She is also an active member of Sea Shepherd, and a close friend of Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson.\n\nFilmography\n\nFilm\n\nTelevision\n\nIn popular culture\n\nSam Newman's House is a pop architecture building constructed in 2003 in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia, which features a large image of Anderson's face. Sam Newman commissioned local architect Cassandra Fahey to design the building, and used the image with Anderson's permission. Permits were issued retroactively when it became a major local landmark and won the award for Best New Residential Building in the RAIA Victorian Architecture Awards. \n\nShe went named most powerful Canadian in Hollywood." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Superman_in_film.txt", "Henry_Cavill.txt" ], "title": [ "Superman in film", "Henry Cavill" ], "wiki_context": [ "The fictional character Superman, an American comic book superhero in DC Comics publications, has appeared in movies almost since his inception. He debuted in cinemas in a series of animated shorts beginning in 1941, and then starred in two movie serials in 1948 and 1950. An independent studio, Lippert Pictures, released the first Superman feature film, Superman and the Mole Men, starring George Reeves, in 1951.\n\nIlya and Alexander Salkind and Pierre Spengler purchased the Superman film rights in 1974. After numerous scripts, Richard Donner was hired to direct the film, filming Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980) simultaneously. Donner had already shot eighty percent of Superman II with Christopher Reeve before it was decided to finish shooting the first film. The Salkinds fired Donner after Supermans release, and commissioned Richard Lester as the director to finish Superman II. Lester also returned for Superman III (1983), and the Salkinds further produced the 1984 spin-off Supergirl before selling the rights to Cannon Films, resulting in the critically panned Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). Ilya Salkind commissioned a fifth Superman script before Warner Bros. acquired the rights entirely in 1993.\n\nOver the course of eleven years Warner Bros. would develop and then cancel Tim Burton's Superman Lives, which would have starred Nicolas Cage, Wolfgang Petersen's Batman vs. Superman, and the J. J. Abrams scripted Superman: Flyby, which went between directors Joseph \"McG\" Nichols and Brett Ratner. The studio hired Bryan Singer to take over the franchise in 2004, releasing Superman Returns in 2006, which starred newcomer Brandon Routh. Donner's director's cut for Superman II was also released that year. Despite positive reviews, Warner Bros. was disappointed with the financial performance of Superman Returns, and canceled Singer's proposed sequel. The studio nearly went in production of a Justice League film with George Miller directing and D. J. Cotrona as Superman, but it was shelved in 2008 and the film series was rebooted in 2013 with Man of Steel, directed by Zack Snyder and produced by Christopher Nolan. Henry Cavill reprised the role of Superman in 2016 with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.\n\nFilms\n\nEarly films and serials\n\nParamount cartoon shorts\n\nSuperman first appeared in cinemas in a series of 17 theatrical animated shorts from between 1941 and 1943. They were released by Paramount Pictures. Of those seventeen, nine were produced by Fleischer Studios and further eight by its successor, Famous Studios.\n\nFilm serials\n\nThe first appearances of Superman in live-action film were in two serials for Columbia Pictures: Superman in 1948 and Atom Man vs. Superman in 1950, both starring Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill.\n\nSuperman and the Mole Men (1951)\n\nSuperman and the Mole Men is a 1951 superhero film starring George Reeves as Superman and Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane. The film was produced by Barney Sarecky and directed by Lee Sholem with the original screenplay by Richard Fielding (a pseudonym for Robert Maxwell and Whitney Ellsworth). Shot on a low budget, it served as a trial run for the syndicated TV series Adventures of Superman, for which it became a pilot two-part episode titled \"The Unknown People\". \n\nChristopher Reeve series (1978–1987)\n\nSuperman (1978)\n\nIn 1973, producer Ilya Salkind convinced his father Alexander to buy the rights to Superman. They hired Mario Puzo to pen a two-film script, and negotiated with Steven Spielberg to direct, though Alexander Salkind rejected him as Jaws went over budget. Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman signed on to play Jor-El and Lex Luthor respectively, and Guy Hamilton was hired to direct. However, Brando was faced with an obscenity lawsuit in Italy over Last Tango in Paris, and Hamilton was unable to shoot in England as he had violated his tax payments. The Salkinds hired Richard Donner to direct the film. Donner hired Tom Mankiewicz to polish the script, giving it a serious feel with Christ-like overtones. \n\nChristopher Reeve was cast as Superman, having initially failed to impress the Salkinds before bulking up. Brando meanwhile, despite spending less than two weeks on the shoot, and not even reading the script until then, earned $3.7 million up front, plus 11.75% of the gross profits from the film. The film was a success both critically and commercially, being released during the Christmas season of 1978; it did not have much competition, leading the producers to believe that this was one factor in the film's success. \n\nSuperman II (1980)\n\nShooting of the two films was marred by Donner's bad relationship with the Salkinds, with Richard Lester acting as mediator. With the film going over-budget, the filmmakers decided to temporarily cease production of II and move that film's climax into the first film. Despite Supermans success, Donner did not return to finish Superman II, and it was completed with Lester, who gave the film a more tongue-in-cheek tone. The Salkinds also cut Brando for financial reasons, while John Williams quit as composer due to turning his attention to other projects. Superman II was another financial and critical success, despite stiff competition with Raiders of the Lost Ark in the same year. In 2006, after receiving many requests for his own version of Superman II, Richard Donner and producer Michael Thau produced their own cut of the film and released it on November 28, 2006. The new version of the film received positive response from critics and the stars of the original film.\n\nSuperman III (1983)\n\nFor the third installment, Ilya Salkind wrote a treatment that expanded the film's scope to a cosmic scale, introducing the villains Brainiac and Mr. Mxyzptlk, as well as Supergirl. The original outline featured a father-daughter relationship between Brainiac and Supergirl, and a romance between Superman and Supergirl, even though the two are cousins in the comics. Warner Bros. rejected it and created their own Superman III film that co-starred Richard Pryor as computer wizard Gus Gorman, who under the manipulation of a millionaire magnate, creates a form of Kryptonite that turns the Man of Steel into an evil self. The retooled script pared Brainiac down into the film's evil \"ultimate computer\". Despite the film's success, fans were disappointed with the film, in particular with Pryor's performance diluting the serious tone of the previous films, as well as controversy over the depiction of the evil Superman.\nSalkind's rejected proposal was later released online in 2007.\n\nSupergirl (1984)\n\nUpon gaining the rights for the film Superman, Alexander Salkind and his son, Ilya Salkind, also purchased the rights to the character of Superman's cousin Supergirl. Supergirl was released in 1984 as a spin-off of the Reeve films; Reeve was slated to have a cameo but he ultimately backed out of the production. It stars Helen Slater in her first motion picture in the title role, while Faye Dunaway (who received top billing) played the primary villain, Selena; the film also featured Marc McClure reprising his role as Jimmy Olsen. Even though the film performed poorly at the box office, Helen Slater was nominated for a Saturn Award. \n\nSuperman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)\n\nCannon Films picked up an option for a fourth Superman/Reeve film, with Reeve reprising the role due to his interest in the film's topic regarding nuclear weapons. However, Cannon decided to cut the budget of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace from $35 million to $15 million, with poor special effects and heavy re-editing leading to the film's poor reception. Warner Bros. decided to give the franchise a break following the negative reception of the last two Superman films.\n\nAbandoned and cancelled projects\n\nSuperman V\n\nBefore the failure of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Cannon Films considered producing a fifth film with Albert Pyun as director. Cannon's bankruptcy resulted in the film rights reverting to Ilya and Alexander Salkind. Ilya Salkind wrote the story for Superman V (also known as Superman: The New Movie) with Superboy writers Cary Bates and Mark Jones in the early-1990s. The story had Superman dying and resurrecting in the shrunken, bottled Krypton city of Kandor. The premise of Superman's death and rebirth coincidentally predated \"The Death of Superman\". Salkind, Bates and Jones developed two drafts of the script, with Christopher Reeve set to reprise the title role.\n\nSuperman Reborn\n\nWith the success of \"The Death of Superman\" comic book storyline, Warner Bros. purchased the film rights of Superman from the Salkinds in early 1993, handing the project to producer Jon Peters. The studio did not want to use Superman: The New Movie, and Peters hired Jonathan Lemkin to write a new script. Warner Bros. instructed Lemkin to write the new Superman film for mainstream audiences, a style for the MTV Generation of the 1990s. The additional family film approach would add to Superman's toyetic appeal, similar to Batman Forever. Major toy companies insisted on seeing Lemkin's screenplay before the deadline of the 1993 American International Toy Fair.\n\nLemkin's script, titled Superman Reborn, featured Lois Lane and Clark Kent with relationship troubles, and Superman's battle with Doomsday. When Superman professes his love to Lois, his life force jumps between them, just as he dies, giving Lois a virgin birth. Their child, who grows 21-years-old in three weeks, becomes the resurrected Superman and saves the world. Warner Bros. did not like the script because of the similar underlying themes with Bruce Wayne's obligations of heroism found in Batman Forever.\n\nPeters hired Gregory Poirier to rewrite the script. Poirer's December 1995 script had Brainiac creating Doomsday, infused with \"Kryptonite blood\". Superman has romance problems with Lois Lane and visits a psychiatrist before he is killed by Doomsday. An alien named Cadmus, a victim of Brainiac, steals his corpse. Superman is resurrected and teams with Cadmus to defeat Brainiac. Powerless, Superman wears a robotic suit that mimics his old powers until he can learn to use his powers again on his own, which, according to the script, are a mental discipline called \"Phin-yar\", a concept similar to The Force. Other villains included Parasite and Silver Banshee. Poirier's script impressed Warner Bros., but Kevin Smith was hired to rewrite. Smith thought Poirier's script did not respect the Superman mythos properly, and referred to it in An Evening with Kevin Smith as being \"like the Batman TV show version of a Superman movie; very campy.\"\n\nSuperman Lives\n\nKevin Smith pitched Peters his story outline in August 1996, and was allowed to write the screenplay under certain conditions: Peters wanted Superman to wear an all-black suit, and also did not want Superman to fly, arguing that Superman would \"look like an overgrown Boy Scout.\" Smith wrote Superman flying as \"a red-and-blue blur in flight, creating a sonic boom every time he flew.\" Peters also wanted Superman to fight a giant spider for the climactic showdown. Smith accepted the terms, realizing that he was being hired to execute a preordained idea. Smith was also forced to write a scene involving Brainiac fighting a polar bear at the Fortress of Solitude, as Peters felt there were not enough action scenes in the first draft. The Star Wars 20th anniversary re-release in theaters also prompted Peters to commission a \"space dog\" that Brainiac could present to Luthor purely for merchandising appeal and toy sales. Peters also insisted that Brainiac's robot assistant L-Ron was to be voiced by Dwight Ewell, calling the character, \"a gay R2-D2 with attitude.\"\n\nSmith's draft, now titled Superman Lives, had Brainiac sending Doomsday to kill Superman, as well as blocking out the sun to make Superman powerless, as Superman is fueled by sunlight. Brainiac teams up with Lex Luthor, but Superman is resurrected by a Kryptonian robot, the Eradicator. Brainiac wishes to possess the Eradicator and its technology. Powerless, the resurrected Superman is sheathed in a robotic suit formed from the Eradicator itself until his powers return, courtesy of sunbeams, and defeats Brainiac. Smith's casting choices included Ben Affleck as Clark Kent/Superman, Linda Fiorentino as Lois Lane, Jack Nicholson as Lex Luthor, Famke Janssen as Mercy, John Mahoney as Perry White, David Hyde Pierce as the Eradicator, Jason Lee as Brainiac and Jason Mewes as Jimmy Olsen. \n\nRobert Rodriguez was offered the chance to direct, but turned down the offer due to his commitment on The Faculty, despite liking Smith's script. Smith originally suggested Tim Burton to direct his script, and Burton signed on with a pay-or-play contract of $5 million. Warner Bros. originally planned on a theatrical release date for summer 1998, the 60th anniversary of the character's debut in Action Comics. Nicolas Cage, a comic book fan, signed on as Superman with a $20 million pay-or-play contract, believing he could \"re-conceive the character.\" Peters felt Cage could \"convince audiences he [Superman] came from outer space.\" Burton explained Cage's casting would be \"the first time you would believe that nobody could recognize Clark Kent as Superman, he [Cage] could physically change his persona.\" Kevin Spacey was approached for the role of Lex Luthor, while Christopher Walken was Burton's choice for Brainiac, a role also considered for Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman. Sandra Bullock, Courteney Cox and Julianne Moore had been approached for Lois Lane, while Chris Rock was cast as Jimmy Olsen. Michael Keaton confirmed his involvement, but when asked if he would be reprising his role as Batman from Burton's Batman films, he would only reply, \"Not exactly.\" Industrial Light & Magic was set for work on special effects.\n\nFilming was originally set to begin in early 1998. In June 1997, Superman Lives entered pre-production, with an art department employed under production designer Rick Heinrichs. Burton hired Wesley Strick to rewrite Smith's script. Smith was disappointed, stating, \"The studio was happy with what I was doing. Then Tim Burton got involved, and when he signed his pay-or-play deal, he turned around and said he wanted to do his version of Superman. So who is Warner Bros. going back to? The guy who made Clerks, or the guy who made them half a billion dollars on Batman?\" When Strick read Smith's script, he was annoyed with the fact that \"Superman was accompanied/shadowed by someone/something called the Eradicator.\" He also felt that \"Brainiac's evil plot of launching a disk in space to block out the sun and make Superman powerless was reminiscent of an episode of The Simpsons, with Mr. Burns doing the Brainiac role.\" However, after reading The Death and Return of Superman, Strick was able to understand some of the elements of Smith's script. Strick's rewrite featured Superman as an existentialist, thinking of himself to be an outsider on Earth. Superman is threatened by Brainiac and Lex Luthor, who later amalgamate into \"Lexiac,\" described by Strick as \"a schizo/scary mega-villain.\" Superman is later resurrected by the power of 'K,' a natural force representing the spirit of Krypton, as he defeats Lexiac.\n\nArt designer Sylvain Despretz claimed the art department was assigned to create something that had little or nothing to do with the Superman comic book, and also explained that Peters \"would bring kids in, who would rate the drawings on the wall as if they were evaluating the toy possibilities. It was basically a toy show!\" Peters saw a cover of National Geographic, containing a picture of a skull, going to art department workers, telling them he wanted the design for Brainiac's space ship to have the same image. Burton gave Despretz a concept drawing for Brainiac, which Despretz claims was \"a cone with a round ball on top, and something that looked like an emaciated skull inside. Imagine you take Merlin's hat, and you stick a fish bowl on top, with a skull in it.\" Concept artist Rolf Mohr said in an interview he designed a suit for the Eradicator for a planned scene in which it transforms into a flying vehicle. \n\nBurton chose Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as his primary filming location for Metropolis, while sound stages were reserved but start dates for filming were pushed back. A minor piece of the Krypton set was constructed but then destroyed, and Cage had even attended a costume fitting. The studio was also considering changing the title Superman Lives back to Superman Reborn. Deeming Wesley Strick's script too expensive, Warner Bros. enlisted the help of Dan Gilroy to rewrite it into something more economically feasible. Gilroy lowered the $190 million budget set by Strick's draft to $100 million. However, the studio was still less willing to fast track production, due to financial reasons with other film properties, having Gilroy turn in two drafts. Ultimately, Warner Bros. chose to put the film on hold in April 1998, and Burton left to direct Sleepy Hollow. At this point in production, $30 million was spent, with nothing to show for it. Burton, citing various differences with Peters and the studio, said, \"I basically wasted a year. A year is a long time to be working with somebody that you don't really want to be working with.\" \n\nDisappointed by the lack of progress on the film's production, aspiring screenwriter/comic book fan Alex Ford was able to have a script of his (titled Superman: The Man of Steel) accepted at the studio's offices in September 1998. Ford pitched his idea for a film series consisting of seven installments, and his approach impressed Warner Bros. and Peters, though he was later given a farewell due to creative differences. Ford said, \"I can tell you they don't know much about comics. Their audience isn't you and me who pay $7.00. It's for the parents who spend $60 on toys and lunchboxes. It is a business, and what's more important, the $150 million at the box office or the $600 million in merchandising?\"\n\nWith Gilroy's script, Peters offered the director's position to Ralph Zondag, Michael Bay, Shekhar Kapur and Martin Campbell though they all turned down the offer. Brett Ratner turned down the option in favor of The Family Man. Simon West and Stephen Norrington were reportedly top contenders as well. In June 1999, William Wisher, Jr. was hired to write a new script, and Cage assisted on story elements. Cage dropped out of the project in June 2000, while Wisher turned in a new script in August 2000, reported to have contained similar elements with The Matrix. In October 2000, veteran comic book creator Keith Giffen pitched a 17-page story treatment with Lobo as the antagonist, but the studio did not proceed. Oliver Stone was then approached to direct Wisher's script, but declined, while in April 2001, Paul Attanasio was hired to start on a new script, earning a salary of $1.7 million. Peters offered Will Smith the role of Superman, but the actor turned it down over ethnicity concerns. The film's backstory was covered in the 2015 documentary film The Death of \"Superman Lives\": What Happened?. \n\nBatman vs. Superman (2001–2002)\n\nAlthough it was widely reported that McG had become attached to Attanasio's script, in February 2002, J. J. Abrams was hired to write a new screenplay. It would ignore \"The Death of Superman\" storyline, and instead, it would reboot the film series with an origin story, going under the title of Superman: Flyby. The project had gone as far as being greenlit, but McG dropped out in favor of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. The studio approached Wolfgang Petersen to direct Abrams' script; however, in August 2001, Andrew Kevin Walker pitched Warner Bros. an idea titled Batman vs. Superman, attaching Petersen as director. Abrams' script was put on hold, while Akiva Goldsman was hired to rewrite Walker's draft which was codenamed Asylum.\n\nGoldsman's draft, dated June 21, 2002, introduced Bruce Wayne attempting to shake all of the demons in his life after his five-year retirement from crimefighting. Dick Grayson, Alfred Pennyworth, and Commissioner Gordon are all dead. Meanwhile, Clark Kent is down on his luck and in despair after his divorce from Lois Lane. Clark serves as Bruce's best man at his wedding to the beautiful and lovely Elizabeth Miller. After Elizabeth is killed by the Joker at the honeymoon, Bruce is forced to don the Batsuit once more, tangling a plot which involves Lex Luthor, while Clark begins a romance with Lana Lang in Smallville and tries to pull Bruce back. In return, Bruce blames Clark for her death, and the two go against one another. Part of the script took place in Smallville, where Clark goes into exile with Lana Lang. However, Lex Luthor is held to be responsible for the entire plot of Batman and Superman destroying each other. The two decide to team up and stop Luthor. Christian Bale, who was being considered for the lead in Darren Aronofsky's Batman: Year one adaptation at the time, was simultaneously approached by Peterson for the Superman role. Peterson confirmed in a 2010 interview the only other actor he approached for Superman was Josh Hartnett. Warner Bros. canceled development to focus on individual Superman and Batman projects after Abrams submitted another draft for Superman: Flyby. Christopher Nolan would later cast Bale as Batman the following year in Batman Begins. In the opening scene of I Am Legend, a large banner displays the Superman symbol within the Batman symbol in Times Square. It is meant as an in-joke by writer Akiva Goldsman, who wrote scripts for Batman vs. Superman and I Am Legend. \n\nSuperman: Flyby\n\nTurning in his script in July 2002, J. J. Abrams' Superman: Flyby was an origin story that included Krypton besieged by a civil war between Jor-El and his corrupt brother, Kata-Zor. Before Kata-Zor sentences Jor-El to prison, Kal-El is launched to Earth to fulfill a prophecy. Adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent, he forms a romance with Lois Lane in the Daily Planet. However, Lois is more concerned with exposing Lex Luthor, written as a government agent obsessed with UFO phenomena. Clark reveals himself to the world as Superman, bringing Kata-Zor's son, Ty-Zor, and three other Kryptonians to Earth. Superman is defeated and killed, and visits Jor-El (who committed suicide on Krypton while in prison) in Kryptonian heaven. Resurrected, he returns to Earth and defeats the four Kryptonians. The script ends with Superman flying off to Krypton in a spaceship.\n\nBrett Ratner was hired to direct in September 2002, originally expressing an interest in casting an unknown for the lead role, while filming was to start sometime in late 2003. Christopher Reeve joined as project consultant, citing Tom Welling, who portrayed the teenage Clark Kent in Smallville, as an ideal candidate. Reeve added \"the character is more important than the actor who plays him, because it is an enduring mythology. It definitely should be an unknown.\" Ratner approached Josh Hartnett, Jude Law, Paul Walker and Brendan Fraser for Superman, but conceded that finding a famous actor for the title role had proven difficult because of contractual obligations to appear in sequels. \"No star wants to sign that, but as much as I've told Jude and Josh my vision for the movie, I've warned them of the consequences of being Superman. They'll live this character for 10 years because I'm telling one story over three movies and plan to direct all three if the first is as successful as everyone suspects.\" Hartnett in particular was offered $100 million for a three-picture deal. Walker explained that \"I could have made a gazillion dollars on that franchise. I could probably have bought my own fleet of jets or my own island. You know what? I don't need it.\" Fraser turned it down out of fear of typecasting. David Boreanaz, Victor Webster and Ashton Kutcher auditioned, along with Keri Russell as Lois Lane, but Kutcher decided not to pursue the role, citing scheduling conflicts with That '70s Show, the Superman curse and fear of typecasting, while Boreanaz had to back out due to obligations with Angel. James Marsden stated in a 2006 interview that at one point he was approached by Ratner. Although it was never formally announced, Matt Bomer confirmed he was in the running for the lead role, being Ratner's preferred choice at the time. Bomer would later voice the character in the 2013 animated film Superman: Unbound. Amy Adams had also auditioned for Lois Lane, and would eventually win the role eight years later when she was cast in Man of Steel. \n\nSuperman: Flyby was being met with a budget exceeding $200 million, not including money spent on Superman Reborn, Superman Lives, and Batman vs. Superman, but Warner Bros. was still adamant for a summer 2004 release date. Christopher Walken was in negotiations for Perry White, while Ratner wanted to cast Anthony Hopkins as Jor-El, and Ralph Fiennes as Lex Luthor, two of his cast members in Red Dragon. Joel Edgerton turned down a chance to audition as Superman in favor of the villain Ty-Zor, before Ratner dropped out of the project in March 2003, blaming casting delays, and aggressive feuds with producer Jon Peters. \n\nMcG returned as director in 2003, while Fraser continued to express interest, but had fears of typecasting. ESC Entertainment was hired for visual effects work, with Kim Libreri as visual effects supervisor and Stan Winston designing a certain \"prototype suit\". McG approached Shia LaBeouf for Jimmy Olsen, with an interest to cast an unknown for Superman, Scarlett Johansson as Lois Lane and Johnny Depp for Lex Luthor. The director confirmed in a 2012 interview that Robert Downey, Jr. had been cast as Lex Luthor. Neal H. Moritz and Gilbert Adler were set to produce the film. McG also commissioned Josh Schwartz to rewrite the Abrams script. He wanted to shoot in Canada, which would have cost $25 million more than WB's preferred Australian locale. McG also shot test footage with several candidates, including Jason Behr, Henry Cavill, Jared Padalecki, and Michael Cassidy before leaving, blaming budgetary concerns and filming locations. He opted to shoot in New York City and Canada, but Warner Bros. wanted Sydney, Australia. McG felt \"it was inappropriate to try to capture the heart of America on another continent.\" He later admitted it was his fear of flying. Abrams lobbied for the chance to direct his script, but Warner Bros. replaced McG with Bryan Singer in July 2004, resulting in Superman Returns. \n\nIn August 2013, Geoff Johns mentioned that Warner Bros was considering turning unproduced scripts and screenplays into original animated films and had expressed interest in making a animated adaptation of the Flyby screenplay. \n\nSuperman Returns (2006)\n\nFollowing the departure of Ratner and McG, Bryan Singer, who was said to be a childhood fan of Richard Donner's film, was approached by Warner Bros. He accepted, abandoning two films already in pre-production, X-Men: The Last Stand (which, coincidentally, would come to be directed by Ratner) and a remake of Logan's Run. The film uses the events of Superman and, to less of a degree, Superman II as backstory, while completely ignoring the events of Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Singer's story tells of Superman's return to Earth following a five-year search for survivors of Krypton. He discovers that in his absence Lois Lane has given birth to a son and become engaged. Singer chose to follow Donner's lead by casting relatively unknown Brandon Routh as Superman, who resembled Christopher Reeve somewhat, and more high profile actors in supporting roles, such as Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Singer brought his entire crew from X2 to work on the film. Via digitally-enhanced archive footage, the late Marlon Brando appeared in the film as Jor-El. Superman Returns received positive reviews and grossed approximately $391 million worldwide.\n\nIn February 2006, four months before the release of Superman Returns, Warner Bros. announced a summer 2009 theatrical release date for a sequel, with Bryan Singer returning as director. Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, Sam Huntington, Frank Langella, and Tristan Lake Leabu were expected to reprise their roles, however, with the release of Superman Returns in July 2006, Warner Bros. was hesitant on moving forward with development. Warner Bros. President Alan F. Horn explained that Superman Returns was a very successful film, but that it \"should have done $500 million worldwide. We should have had perhaps a little more action to satisfy the young male crowd.\" Singer reacted incredulously to the studio complaints, saying, \"That movie made $400 million! I don't know what constitutes under-performing these days ...\" Filming was supposed to start in March 2008; no screenplay was ever written, but Singer would have titled it Man of Steel, with an interest in Darkseid as the main villain. Singer stressed that it would have been more action-packed than Superman Returns. while writer Michael Dougherty was interested in using Brainiac. \"In my mind, if the Kryptonians really were a space-faring race ... it would only make sense that there would've been colonies and off-planet missions ... other Kryptonians making their way to Earth seemed like a pretty big one. It wouldn't necessarily be evil right off the bat. That's too easy and cliché ... I think it'd be interesting to see how these other Kryptonians show up, land and have all these powers and [have to learn] how to adapt to them.\" \n\nWarner Bros. commissioned husband and wife duo Michele and Kieran Mulroney to write a script for a Justice League film in February 2007, halting development for the Superman Returns sequel. The Justice League script was submitted to Warner Bros. the following June, which prompted the studio to immediately fast track production. Singer went on to film Valkyrie the following month, and George Miller signed to direct Justice League: Mortal in September 2007. The script would have featured a different Superman in a separate continuity from Singer's film; Routh was not approached to reprise his role for Justice League: Mortal, which ended up going to D. J. Cotrona. The film nearly went into production in March 2008, but the Australian Film Commission denied Warner Bros. their 40 percent tax rebate and Catrona's options eventually expired. With Justice League: Mortal canceled, Singer renewed his interest in the Superman sequel that same month, stating that it was in early development. Paul Levitz, president of DC Comics, still expected Routh to reprise the title role, but Routh's contract for a sequel expired in 2009. \"Superman Returns didn't quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to,\" Warner Bros. President of Production Jeff Robinov admitted in August 2008. \"It didn't position the character the way he needed to be positioned. Had Superman worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009. Now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.\" \n\nDC Extended Universe\n\nMan of Steel (2013)\n\nIn June 2008, Warner Bros. took pitches from comic book writers, screenwriters and directors on how to restart the Superman film series. During story discussions for The Dark Knight Rises in 2008, David S. Goyer, aware that Warner Bros. was planning a Superman reboot, told Christopher Nolan his idea on how to present Superman in a modern context. Impressed with Goyer's concept, Nolan pitched the idea to the studio in February 2010, who hired Nolan to produce and Goyer to write based on the financial and critical success of The Dark Knight. Nolan admired Singer's work on Superman Returns for its connection to Richard Donner's version, and previously used the 1978 film as casting inspiration for Batman Begins. Zack Snyder was hired as the film's director in October 2010. Principal photography started in August 2011 in West Chicago, Illinois, before moving to Vancouver and Plano, Illinois. The film stars Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Michael Shannon as General Zod, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, and Russell Crowe as Jor-El.\n\nBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)\n\nDavid S. Goyer and Zack Snyder are set to write and direct a sequel to Man of Steel, respectively. Christopher Nolan is also expected to return as producer, albeit in a lesser role than he had in the first film. On June 16, 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported that the studio is possibly planning to release the sequel in 2014. Warner Bros. announced that Superman and Batman will unite in a new film which will be the follow-up to Man of Steel, set for release in 2015. Goyer stated at the Superman 75th Anniversary Panel at 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International, that Batman and Superman would face off, and titles under consideration are Superman Vs Batman and Batman Vs Superman. On August 22, 2013, it was announced that Ben Affleck was cast as Batman. On December 4, 2013, it was reported that Gal Gadot was cast as Wonder Woman. \n\nOn January 17, 2014, it was announced that the film had been delayed from its original July 17, 2015 release date to March 25, 2016, in order to give the filmmakers \"time to realize fully their vision, given the complex visual nature of the story\". On January 31, 2014, Jesse Eisenberg and Jeremy Irons were cast as Lex Luthor and Alfred Pennyworth, respectively. In an official press release, Snyder described the casting of Eisenberg as Luthor by stating, \"Having Jesse in the role allows us to explore that interesting dynamic, and also take the character in some new and unexpected directions.\" \n\nJustice League (2017)\n\nShortly after filming had finished for Man of Steel, Warner Bros hired Will Beall to script a new Justice League film in June 2012. With the release of Man of Steel in June 2013, Goyer was hired to write a new Justice League script, with the Beall draft being scrapped. In April 2014, it was announced that Zack Snyder would also be directing Goyer's Justice League script. Warner Bros. was reportedly courting Chris Terrio to rewrite Justice League the following July, after having been impressed with his rewrite of Batman v Superman. In October 2014, Warner Bros. announced the film would be released in two parts as the fifth and ninth installments of the shared universe, with Part One releasing in 2017, and Part Two in 2019. Snyder will direct both films with Henry Cavill set to reprise his role as Superman. \n\nUntitled Man of Steel sequel (TBA)\n\nIn October 2014, a Man of Steel sequel was announced with an intended release between 2016 and 2020. In August 2015, Jon Schnepp revealed to DC Movie News on the Popcorn Network that the studio are rumored to have George Miller as the director for the sequel. On June 2016, Russel Crowe confimed that a Man of Steel trilogy was originally planned before it was scrapped due the announcement of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice \n\nCharacters\n\nRecurring characters\n\n Marc McClure reprised his role as Jimmy Olsen for Supergirl.\n\n The corpse of the now-deceased General Zod also appears in the film in a crucial role, however, Michael Shannon did not film any scenes for the film and his corpse was created using the physique of fitness model Greg Plitt and a head-shot of Shannon. \n\nNon-recurring characters\n\nSuperman\n*1st Elder – Trevor Howard\n*2nd Elder – Harry Andrews\n*Vond-Ah – Maria Schell\n\nSuperman II\n*Sheriff – Clifton James\n\nSuperman III\n*Gus Gorman – Richard Pryor\n*Lorelei – Pamela Stephenson\n*Ross Webster – Robert Vaughn\n*Vera Webster – Annie Ross\n\nSuperman IV\n*David Warfield – Sam Wanamaker\n*Harry Howler – William Hootkins\n*Jean Pierre Dubois – Jim Broadbent\n*Lacy Warfield – Mariel Hemingway\n*Lenny Luthor – Jon Cryer\n*Nuclear Man – Mark Pillow\n\nSuperman Returns\n*Jason White – Tristan Lake Leabu\n*Kitty Kowalski – Parker Posey\n*Richard White – James Marsden\n*Stanford – Kal Penn\n\nMan of Steel\n*Colonel Nathan Hardy – Christopher Meloni\n*Dr. Emil Hamilton – Richard Schiff\n*Faora – Antje Traue\n*Tor-An – Richard Cetrone\n*Henry Ackerdson – Tahmoh Penikett\n*Sergeant Sedowsky – Alessandro Juliani\n*Steve Lombard – Michael Kelly\n*Whitney Fordman – Robert Gerdisch\n\nBatman v Superman\n*June Finch – Holly Hunter\n*Mercy Graves – Tao Okamoto\n\nReception\n\nBox office performance\n\n indicates that the film in the series is currently playing\n\nCritical and public response\n\nFranchise collections \n\nThe initial four Superman films were released previously on VHS, and throughout the film series' history, three box sets of the films have been released by Warner Bros. The first occurred on May 1, 2001, when The Complete Superman Collection was released both on DVD and VHS, containing that year's DVD/home video releases of Superman, Superman II, Superman III, and Superman IV. The set was valued at US$49.99 for the DVD release and US$29.99 for the VHS release, and received positive reviews. \n\nThe four Christopher Reeve films were again released on November 28, 2006, in new DVD releases to coincide with Superman Returns, also released in that year. Superman was released in a four-disc 'special edition' similar to Superman II, which was released in a two-disc special edition. Both Superman III and IV were released in single disc 'deluxe editions', and all four releases were available together in The Christopher Reeve Superman Collection, an 8-disc set that was valued at US$79.92. Like the 2001 set before it, The Christopher Reeve Superman Collection received positive reviews. \n\nAlso on November 28, 2006, a 14-disc DVD box set titled Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition was released, containing Superman, Superman II, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, Superman III, Superman IV, Superman Returns, and Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman, among other releases. All contents of the set were housed within a tin case. The set was valued at US$99.92, and received extremely positive reviews when first released. However, after only a day on the market, Warner Bros. announced that there were two errors discovered within the set. The first was that the 2.0 audio track on Superman, was instead the 5.1 audio track already on the disc. The second was that the Superman III disc was not the 2006 deluxe edition as advertised, but the 2001 release instead. The set was soon recalled, and Warner Bros. offered a toll-free number to replace the faulty discs for people who had already purchased the set. Due to popular demand, a corrected set was released and Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition returned to store shelves on May 29, 2007. \n\nOn October 14, 2008, another Christopher Reeve Superman film collection was released, entitled Superman: 4 Film Favorites, containing all four films, but with far less bonus material than previous sets. The collection was a 2-disc DVD-18 set that included the first disc of both special editions from the 2006 release and both deluxe editions.\n\nOn April 1, 2011, it was announced that the entire Superman anthology would be making its way to Blu-ray for the first time. The anthology box set was released on June 7, 2011.", "Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill (; born 5 May 1983) is a British actor. Cavill began his career starring as Albert Mondego in the 2002 film adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. He later appeared in minor and supporting roles in television shows such as BBC's The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Midsomer Murders and The Tudors, then transitioned to mainstream Hollywood films such as Tristan & Isolde, Stardust and Immortals.\n\nCavill starred as Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk in the 2007–2010 Showtime television series The Tudors; and in 2008 became the official spokesperson for the Dunhill fragrance collection for men. \n\nCavill gained further prominence and international fame playing the titular superhero Superman in the 2013 reboot film Man of Steel, the highest-grossing Superman film of all time. He reprised the role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, his highest grossing film to date. In 2015, he costarred with Armie Hammer in the spy film The Man from U.N.C.L.E.\n\nEarly life\n\nCavill was born the fourth of five boys on Jersey in the Channel Islands, a Crown dependency of the United Kingdom. His mother, Marianne (Dalgliesh), was a secretary in a bank, and his father, Colin Cavill, was a stockbroker. His father is English, and his mother is of Irish, Scottish, and English descent. He was educated at St Michael's Preparatory School in Saint Saviour, Jersey, before attending Stowe School in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. \n\nCareer\n\nCavill began his film career with a role in Laguna (2001) and the following year in Kevin Reynolds' 2002 adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. He continued with appearances in BBC's The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2002), the television film Goodbye, Mr. Chips (2002), and the television series Midsomer Murders (2003). In 2003, he had a supporting role in I Capture the Castle, followed by Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005), Red Riding Hood (2006) and Tristan & Isolde (2006). He had a minor role in Matthew Vaughn's adaptation of Stardust (2007).\n\nFrom 2007 to 2010, Cavill had a leading role in Showtime's television series, The Tudors, as Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. The series was well-received: it was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2007 and won an Emmy in 2008. Cavill gave the show credit for bolstering his career: \"It's done the most for me to date. [...] Now that there's an audience somewhere in America that's aware of who I am, I have more sell-ability, because of The Tudors.\" Entertainment Weekly named him the \"Most Dashing Duke\" and praised his work on The Tudors for displaying \"charm, depth and a killer bod\". \n\nCavill had been set to play Superman in McG's 2004 film, Superman: Flyby. However, McG pulled out of the project and direction was taken over by director Bryan Singer, who recast Brandon Routh as the lead in Superman Returns. Cavill was also the cause of a write-in effort from fans to see him cast as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). The role eventually went to Robert Pattinson. Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight series, was outspokenly in favour of Cavill playing the character of Edward Cullen in the Twilight film, calling him her \"perfect Edward\". However, by the time production of the film began, Cavill was too old to play the character, and again the role went to Pattinson.\n\nIn 2005, Cavill was a final choice for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale. The producers and director Martin Campbell were torn between him and Daniel Craig; reportedly Campbell supported Cavill but the producers preferred an older Bond. Craig ultimately landed the role. Despite reports that he was a contender for Batman in Batman Begins, Cavill confirmed that he never auditioned for, nor was offered, the role.\n\nIn early 2008, Cavill became the face of Dunhill fragrances. The television ad featured a suited-up Cavill walking through the Union Jack, before mounting a helicopter. A second television ad featured Cavill driving a car through a deserted London at night, and meeting with a young woman. He starred in director Joel Schumacher's horror film, Blood Creek (2008), and in 2009, he had a minor role in Woody Allen's comedy film, Whatever Works. \n\nCavill played the lead role of Theseus in Tarsem Singh's mythological film, Immortals, released 11 November 2011. In 2012, Cavill starred, alongside Bruce Willis, in The Cold Light of Day.\n\nOn 30 January 2011, it was announced that Cavill had been cast in the role of Clark Kent/Superman in director Zack Snyder's Man of Steel. Snyder called Cavill \"the perfect choice to don the cape and S shield.\" Entertainment media applauded Henry Cavill on his road to success. On being chosen for the role, Cavill commented, \"In the pantheon of superheroes, Superman is the most recognized and revered character of all time, and I am honoured to be a part of his return to the big screen.\" Cavill reprised the role of Superman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a 2016 sequel which featured a crossover with Batman and Wonder Woman. Cavill will reprise the role of Superman for the upcoming Justice League film.\n\nCavill has expressed interest in taking over the role of James Bond when Daniel Craig gives it up. He co-starred with Armie Hammer in the film version of spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., after Tom Cruise had to drop out to work on the fifth Mission: Impossible film. \n\nHe appeared at the San Diego Comic-Con in disguise to surprise the cast of the Suicide Squad. \n\nIn the media\n\nIn December 2013, Cavill was named \"World's Sexiest Man\" by British Glamour magazine. The same year, Empire magazine placed him third on their list of \"The 100 Sexiest Movie Stars 2013\". \n\nIn August 2014, Cavill took part in an Ice Bucket Challenge in support of the ALS Association, where he was soaked with six large buckets of water (doing the challenge in his full Superman costume). \n\nCharity work\n\nCavill is a spokesman for the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, and an ambassador for The Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund. He launched the running phase of the Royal Marines 1664 Challenge and took part in The Gibraltar Rock Run 2014. \n\nFilmography\n\nFilm \n\nTelevision \n\nAwards and nominations" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Sega.txt", "Sonic_the_Hedgehog_(character).txt" ], "title": [ "Sega", "Sonic the Hedgehog (character)" ], "wiki_context": [ ", originally short for Service Games and officially styled as SEGA, is a Japanese multinational video game developer and publisher headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with multiple offices around the world. Sega developed and manufactured numerous home video game consoles from 1983 to 2001, but the financial losses incurred from their Dreamcast console caused the company to restructure itself in 2001, and focus on providing software as a third-party developer from then on. Nonetheless, Sega remains the world's most prolific arcade producer, with over 500 games in over 70 franchises on more than 20 different arcade system boards since 1981.\n\nSega, along with their sub-studios, are known for their multi-million selling game franchises including Sonic the Hedgehog, Virtua Fighter, Phantasy Star, Yakuza, and Total War, amongst others. Sega's head offices are located in Ōta, Tokyo. Sega's North American division, Sega of America, is headquartered in Irvine, California, having moved there from San Francisco in 2015. Sega's European division, Sega Europe, is headquartered in Brentford, London.\n\nHistory\n\nCompany origins (1940–1982)\n\nIn 1940, American businessmen Martin Bromley, Irving Bromberg, and James Humpert formed a company called Standard Games in Honolulu, Hawaii, to provide coin-operated amusement machines; mostly slot machines to military bases located which they saw as a potential market since due to the onset of World War II, the number of men stationed at the military bases had increased and they would have needed something to pass their spare time. After the war, the company changed its name to Service Games due to military focus and seeing Japan which was under Allied occupation as a potential market, started exporting slot machines there to the U.S. military bases. In 1951, when the government of United States started outlawing slot machines, the company moved its base to Tokyo, Japan. There the company provided coin-operated slot machines to U.S. bases in Japan and changed its name again to Service Games of Japan in 1952. Soon, the company also started providing the slot machines for the Japanese public and the company's focus shifted from the U.S. military bases to the Japanese public. \n\nDavid Rosen, an American officer in the United States Air Force stationed in Japan, launched a two-minute photo booth business in Tokyo in 1954. This company eventually became Rosen Enterprises, and in 1957, began importing coin-operated games to Japan. On June 3, 1960, Standard Games was renamed Sega Corporation, an acronym of Service Games. By 1965, Rosen Enterprises grew to a chain of over 200 arcades, with Service Games its only competitor. Rosen then orchestrated a merger between Rosen Enterprises and Service Games, who by then had their own factory facilities, becoming chief executive of the new company, Sega Enterprises, which derived its name from Service Games.\n\nWithin a year, Sega began the transition from importer to manufacturer, with the release of the Rosen designed submarine simulator game, Periscope. The game sported light and sound effects considered innovative for that time, eventually becoming quite successful in Japan. It was soon exported to both Europe and the United States, becoming the first arcade game in the US to cost 25 cents per play.\n\nIn 1969, Rosen sold Sega to American conglomerate Gulf and Western Industries, although he remained as CEO following the sale. Under Rosen's leadership, Sega continued to grow and prosper, and in 1972, Gulf and Western made Sega Enterprises a subsidiary, taking the company's stock public.\n\nGolden age of arcade games (1978–1983)\n\nSega prospered heavily from the arcade gaming boom of the late 1970s, with revenues climbing to over  million by 1979. In 1982, Sega's revenues surpassed $214 million. That year they introduced the first game with isometric graphics, Zaxxon, the industry's first stereoscopic 3D game, SubRoc 3D, and the first laserdisc video game, Astron Belt. Astron Belt wasn't released in the U.S. until 1983, after Dragon's Lair.\n\nOther notable games from Sega during this period are Head On (1979), Monaco GP (1979), Carnival (1980), Turbo (1981), Space Fury (1981), Astro Blaster (1981), and Pengo (1982).\n\nEntry into the home console market (1982–1989)\n\nIn 1983-4, Sega published Atari 2600 versions of some of its arcade games and also Tapper from Bally/Midway. Carnival, Space Fury, Turbo, and Zaxxon were licensed to Coleco as launch titles for the ColecoVision console in 1982. Some of these and other titles were licensed to different companies for 8-bit computer versions. The Atari 8-bit computer port of Zaxxon is from Datasoft, for example, while the Commodore 64 port is from Synapse.\n\nAn overabundance of games in 1983 led to the video game crash, causing Sega's revenues to drop to $136 million. Sega then designed and released its first home video game console, the SG-1000 for the third generation of home consoles. Despite this, G&W sold the U.S. assets of Sega Enterprises that same year to pinball manufacturer Bally Manufacturing, and in January 1984, Rosen resigned his post with the company.\n\nThe Japanese assets of Sega were purchased for $38 million by a group of investors led by Rosen, Robert Deith, and Hayao Nakayama, a Japanese businessman who owned Esco Boueki (Esco Trading) an arcade game distribution company that had been acquired by Rosen in 1979. Nakayama became the new CEO of Sega, Robert Deith chairman of the board, and Rosen became head of its subsidiary in the United States. In 1984, the multibillion-dollar Japanese conglomerate CSK bought Sega, renamed it to Sega Enterprises, headquartered it in Japan, and two years later, shares of its stock were being traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. David Rosen's friend, Isao Okawa, the chairman of CSK, became chairman of Sega.\n\nSega also released the Sega Master System and the first game featuring Alex Kidd, who would be Sega's unofficial mascot until he was replaced by Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991. While the Master System was technically superior to the NES, it failed to capture market share in North America and Japan due to highly aggressive strategies by Nintendo and ineffective marketing by Tonka, who marketed the console on behalf of SEGA in the United States. However, the Master System was highly successful in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil with games still being sold well into the 1990s alongside the Mega Drive and Nintendo's NES and SNES.\n\nIn the mid-1980s, Sega released Hang-On and After Burner, arcade titles that make use of hydraulic cabinet functionality and force feedback control. Sega also released the 360-degree rotating machine R-360. For arcade system boards, Sega released the System series and the Super Scaler series. UFO Catcher was introduced in 1985 and is Japan's most commonly installed claw crane game. Sega was also one of the first to introduce medal games with World Bingo and World Derby in the 1980s, a sub-industry within Japanese arcades up to its current day.\n\nExpansion and mainstream success (1989–2001)\n\nWith the introduction of the Sega Genesis in North America in 1989, Sega of America launched an anti-Nintendo campaign to carry the momentum to the new generation of games, with its slogan \"Genesis does what Nintendon't.\" This was initially implemented by Sega of America President Michael Katz. When Nintendo launched its Super Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in August 1991, Sega changed its slogan to \"Welcome to the next level.\"\n\nThe same year, Sega of America's leadership passed from Katz to Tom Kalinske, who further escalated the \"console war\" that was developing. As a preemptive strike against the release of the SNES, Sega re-branded itself with a new game and mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. This shift led to a wider success for the Genesis and would eventually propel Sega to 65% of the market in North America for a brief time. Simultaneously, after much delay, Sega released the Sega CD in Japan in 1991 and in North America in 1992 as a hardware add-on to the Genesis, greatly reducing space limitations on their games. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was also released in 1992 for the Genesis, and became the most successful game Sega ever produced, selling over six million copies in total. During this period, local North American development also increased with the establishments of Sega Technical Institute in 1990, Sega Midwest Studio in 1992, Sega Multimedia Studio in 1993, and the acquisition of Interactive Designs in 1992.\n\nIn 1990, Sega launched the Game Gear to compete against Nintendo's Game Boy. However, due to issues with its short battery life, lack of original titles, and weak support from Sega, the Game Gear was unable to surpass the Game Boy, selling approximately 11 million units. The Game Gear was succeeded by the Sega Nomad in 1995, and discontinued in 1997.\n\nIn 1992, Sega introduced the Model series of arcade hardware, which saw the release of Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racing, which laid the foundation for 3D racing and fighting games. In 1994, Sega released the Sega 32X in an attempt to upgrade the Genesis to the standards of more advanced systems at the time. It sold well initially, but had problems with lack of software and hype about the upcoming Sega Saturn and Sony's PlayStation. Within a year, it was in the bargain bins of many stores.\n\nOn November 22, 1994, Sega launched the Sega Saturn in Japan. It utilized two 32-bit processors. However, poor sales in the West led to the console being abandoned by 1998. The lack of strong titles based on established Genesis franchises, along with its high price in comparison to the Sony PlayStation, were among the reasons for the console's failure. Notable titles in Japan include Sakura Wars, Panzer Dragoon, and arcade ports such as The House of the Dead, Virtua Fighter 2 and Sega Rally Championship. Sega made forays in the PC market with the establishment of SegaSoft in 1995, which was tasked in creating original PC titles.\n\nThe mid-1990s also saw Sega making efforts to expand beyond its image as a strictly kids-oriented, family entertainment company, by publishing a number of games with extreme violence and sexual themes, and introducing the \"Deep Water\" label to mark games with mature content. \n\nIn December 1994, Sega Channel, a subscription gaming service delivered by local cable companies affiliated with Time Warner Cable, was launched in the United States, through which subscribers received a special cartridge adapter that connected to the cable connection. At its peak, the Sega Channel had approximately 250,000 subscribers. Various technical issues began disrupting the service in late 1997, eventually leading to the Sega Channel being discontinued worldwide in 1998.\n\nOn November 27, 1998, Sega launched the Dreamcast in Japan. The console was competitively priced, partly due to the use of off-the-shelf components, but it also featured technology that allowed for more technically impressive games than its direct competitors, the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. An analog 56k modem was also included, allowing for online multiplayer. It featured titles such as the action-puzzle title ChuChu Rocket!, Phantasy Star Online, the first console-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Quake III Arena and Alien Front Online, the first console game with online voice chat. The Dreamcast's launch in Japan was a failure; launching with a small library of software and in the shadow of the upcoming PlayStation 2, the system would gain little ground, despite several successful games in the region.\n\nAfter closures of all their former American developers in 1995, and the closure of the PC SegaSoft division, Sega invested in the American Visual Concepts and the French No Cliché, although the latter was closed in 2001. The Dreamcast's western launch in 1999 was accompanied by a large amount of both first-party and third-party software and an aggressive marketing campaign. In contrast to the Japanese launch, the Western launch earned the distinction of the \"most successful hardware launch in history,\" selling a then-unprecedented 500,000 consoles in its first week in North America. Sega was able to hold onto this momentum in the US almost until the launch of Sony's PlayStation 2. The Dreamcast is home to several innovative and critically acclaimed games, including one of the first cel-shaded titles, Jet Set Radio (Jet Grind Radio in North America); Seaman, a game involving communication with a fish-type creature via microphone; Samba de Amigo, a rhythm game involving the use of maracas, and Shenmue, a large-scope adventure game with freeform gameplay and a detailed in-game city. Sega also produced the NAOMI series, which were the last arcade boards built uniquely rather than being based on existing consoles and PC architecture.\n\nIn late 1999, Sega Enterprises chairman Isao Okawa spoke at an Okawa Foundation meeting, saying that Sega's focus in the future would shift from hardware to software, but adding that they were still fully behind the Dreamcast. On November 1, 2000, Sega changed its company name from Sega Enterprises to Sega Corporation.\n\nShift to third-party software development (2001–2005)\n\nOn January 23, 2001, a story ran in Nihon Keizai Shimbun claiming that Sega would cease production of the Dreamcast and develop software for other platforms in the future. After initial denial, Sega Japan then put out a press release confirming they were considering producing software for the PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance as part of their \"New Management Policy\". Subsequently on January 31, 2001, Sega of America officially announced they were becoming a third-party software publisher. The company has since developed into a third-party publisher that oversees games that launch on game consoles produced by other companies, many of their former rivals, the first of which was a port of ChuChu Rocket! to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. On March 31, 2001, the Dreamcast was discontinued.\n\nBy March 31, 2002, Sega had five consecutive fiscal years of net losses. To help with Sega's debt, CSK founder Isao Okawa, before his death in 2001, gave the company a $692 million private donation, and talked to Microsoft about a sale or merger with their Xbox division, but those talks failed. Discussions also took place with Namco, Bandai, Electronic Arts and again with Microsoft. In August 2003, Sammy, one of the biggest pachinko and pachislot manufacturing companies, bought the outstanding 22% of shares that CSK had, and Sammy chairman Hajime Satomi became CEO of Sega. In the same year, Hajime Satomi stated that Sega's activity will focus on their profitable arcade business as opposed to their loss-incurring home software development sector. After the decline of the global arcade industry around the 21st century, Sega introduced several novel concepts tailored to the Japanese market. Derby Owners Club was the first large-scale satellite arcade machine with IC cards for data storage. Trading card game machines were introduced, with titles such as World Club Champion Football for general audiences and Mushiking: King of the Beetles for young children. Sega also introduced internet functionality in arcades with Virtua Fighter 4 in 2001, and further enchanced it with ALL.Net, introduced in 2004.\n\nDuring mid-2004, Sammy bought a controlling share in Sega Corporation at a cost of $1.1 billion, creating the new company Sega Sammy Holdings, an entertainment conglomerate. Since then, Sega and Sammy became subsidiaries of the aforementioned holding company, with both companies operating independently, while the executive departments merged.\n\nContinued expansion and acquisitions (2005–2013)\n\nIn 2005, Sega sold its major western studio Visual Concepts to Take-Two Interactive, and purchased UK-based developer Creative Assembly, known for its Total War series. In the same year, the Sega Racing Studio was also formed by former Codemasters employees. In 2006, Sega Europe purchased Sports Interactive, known for its Football Manager series. Sega of America purchased Secret Level in 2006, which was renamed to Sega Studio San Francisco in 2008. In early 2008, Sega announced that they would re-establish an Australian presence, as a subsidiary of Sega of Europe, with a development studio branded as Sega Studio Australia. In the same year, Sega launched a subscription based flash website called \"PlaySEGA\" which played emulated versions of Sega Genesis as well original web-based flash games. It was subsequently shut down due to low subscription numbers. In 2013, following THQ's bankruptcy, Sega bought Relic Entertainment, known for its Company of Heroes series. Sega has also collaborated with many western studios such as Bizarre Creations, Backbone Entertainment, Monolith, Sumo Digital, Kuju Entertainment, Obsidian Entertainment and Gearbox Software. In 2008, Sega announced the closure of Sega Racing Studio, although the studio was later acquired by Codemasters. Closures of Sega Studio San Francisco and Sega Studio Australia followed in 2010 and 2012, respectively.\n\nThe Sonic the Hedgehog series continued to be internationally recognized, having sold 150 million in total, although the critical reception of games in the series has been mixed. In 2007, Sega and Nintendo teamed up using Sega's acquired Olympic Games license, to create the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series, which has sold over 20 million in total. In the console and handheld business, Sega found success in Japan with the Yakuza and Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA series of games, amongst others primarily aimed at the Japanese market. In Japan, Sega distributes titles from smaller Japanese game developers and localizations of western titles. In 2013, Index Corporation was purchased by Sega Sammy after going bankrupt. After the buyout, Sega officially split Index, making Atlus, the video game developer and publisher, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sega. Atlus is known for its Megami Tensei and Persona series of role-playing games.\n\nFor amusement arcades, Sega's most successful games continued to be based on network and card systems. Games of this type include Sangokushi Taisen and Border Break. Arcade machine sales incurred higher profits than their console, portable, and PC games on a year-to-year basis until 2014.\n\nIn 2004, the GameWorks chain of arcades became owned by Sega, until the chain was sold off in 2011. In 2009, Sega Republic, an indoor theme park in Dubai, opened to the public. In 2010, Sega began providing the 3D imaging for Hatsune Miku's holographic concerts. In 2013, in co-operation with BBC Earth, Sega opened the first interactive nature simulation museum, Orbi Yokohama in Yokohama, Japan.\n\nCompany reshuffling and digital market focus (2013–present)\n\nDue to the decline of packaged game sales both domestically and outside Japan in the 2010s, Sega began layoffs and reduction of their Western businesses, such as Sega shutting down five offices based in Europe and Australia on July 1, 2012. This was done in order to focus on the digital game market, such as PC and mobile devices. The amount of SKU gradually shrunk from 84 in 2005 to 32 in 2014. Because of the shrinking arcade business in Japan, development personnel would also be relocated to the digital game area. Sega gradually reduced its arcade centers from 450 facilities in 2005, to around 200 in 2015.\n\nIn the mobile market, Sega released its first app on the iTunes Store with a version of Super Monkey Ball in 2008. Since then, the strategies for Asian and Western markets have become independent. The Western line-up consisted of emulations of games and pay-to-play apps, which were eventually overshadowed by more social and free-to-play games, eventually leading to 19 of the older mobile games being pulled due to quality concerns in May 2015. Beginning in 2012, Sega also began acquiring studios for mobile development, with studios such as Hardlight, Three Rings Design, and Demiurge Studios becoming fully owned subsidiaries.\n\nIn the 2010s, Sega established operational firms for each of their businesses, in order to streamline operations. In 2012, Sega established Sega Networks for its mobile games; and although separate at first, it merged with Sega Corporation in 2015. Sega Games was structured as a \"Consumer Online Company\" promoting cross-play between multiple devices, while Sega Networks focuses on developing games for mobile devices. In 2012, Sega Entertainment was established for Sega's amusement facility business, and in 2015, Sega Interactive was established for the arcade game business. These new divisions would replace the former Sega Corporation, and the new Sega Holdings would consolidate all entertainment companies from the Sega Sammy group, which became effective April 1, 2015. \n\nApril 2015 also saw Haruki Satomi, grandson of Hajime Satomi, take office as President and CEO of Sega Games Co, Ltd. In January 2015, Sega of America announced their relocation from San Francisco to Irvine, California, which was completed by early summer. Due to this, Sega of America did not have their own booth at E3 2015. \n\nOther products and services\n\nSega is involved in the merchandising of their own intellectual properties, such as Sonic the Hedgehog and The House of the Dead, as well as unaffiliated anime and manga franchises such as Bleach, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Initial D.\n\nIn 2003, Sega had plans of broadening its franchises to Hollywood co-operating with John Woo, but plans fell through. In 2015, Sega, together with advertising agency Hakuhodo, established Stories LLC, in which they are tasked in creating various television shows and films based on forty video games by Sega. Currently, Sega owns TMS Entertainment, who had business relationships with Sega dating back to 1992. Marza Animation Planet spun off Sega's internal CGI production.\n\nSega Toys was founded when Yonezawa Toys, Japan's largest post-war toy manufacturer, was merged into Sega in 1994. It was briefly known as Sega-Yonezawa until the Yonezawa name was dropped entirely in April 1998. Since the early 2000s Sega Toys has become a mostly separate entity from Sega with its own management structure and goals, with some occasional collaboration between the two; Sega and Sega Toys produce the UFO Catcher prize games jointly, where Sega manufactures the arcade equipment, while Sega Toys produces the prizes . They have created toys for children's franchises such as Oshare Majo: Love and Berry, Mushiking: King of the Beetles, Lilpri, Bakugan, Jewelpet, Dinosaur King and Hero Bank. Products by Sega Toys released in the West include the Homestar and the iDog. Sega Toys also inherited the Sega Pico handheld system and produced software for the console.\n\nCompany executives\n\nSega Holdings\n\n*Hajime Satomi: Chairman and CEO (2015–present)\n*Naoya Tsurumi: Vice chairman of the board (2015–present)\n*Hideki Okamura: President and COO (2015–present)\n\nSega\n\n*Hayao Nakayama: Co-founder, president (1984–1998)\n*Shoichiro Irimajiri: President (1998–2000)\n*Isao Okawa: President (2000–2001)\n*Hideki Sato: President (2001-2003)\n*Hisao Oguchi: President (2003–2008)\n*Okitane Usui: President and COO (2008–2012)\n*Toshihiro Nagoshi: Director and CCO (2012–present)\n*Naoya Tsurumi: President and COO (2012–present)\n*Hideki Okamura: President and COO (2014–2015); Chairman (2015–present)\n*Haruki Satomi: President and CEO (2015–present)\n\nSega of America\n\n*David Rosen: Co-founder\n*Bruce Lowry: President (1986–1988)\n*Michael Katz: President (1989–1991)\n*Tom Kalinske: President (1991–1996)\n*Bernie Stolar: President (1996–1999)\n*Peter Moore: President (1999–2003)\n*Simon Jeffery: President (2003–2009)\n*Mike Hayes: President (2009–2012)\n*John Cheng: President and COO (2012–present)\n\nSega Europe\n\n*Robert Deith: Co-founder/chairman (1991–2001)\n*Naoya Tsurumi: CEO (2005–2009)\n*Mike Hayes: President (2009–2012)\n*Jürgen Post: President (2012–present)", ", trademarked Sonic The Hedgehog, is the title character and protagonist of the Sonic the Hedgehog series released by Sega, as well as numerous spin-off comics, five animated shows, and an animated OVA.\n\nSonic is a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog who has the ability to run at supersonic speeds and the ability to curl into a ball, primarily to attack enemies. Throughout the course of the video games, Sonic most commonly has to race through levels, collect power up rings and survive against a host of natural obstacles and minions to achieve his goal. While many individuals at Sega had a hand in Sonic's creation, programmer Yuji Naka and artist Naoto Ohshima are generally credited with the creation of the character. \n\nThe first game was released on June 23, 1991, to provide Sega with a mascot to rival Nintendo's flagship character Mario (see 1991 in video gaming). Since then, Sonic has become one of the world's best-known video game characters, with his series selling more than 80 million copies. In 2005, Sonic was one of the first game character inductees into the Walk of Game, alongside Mario and Link. \n\nOrigins and history\n\nWhile Sega was seeking a flagship series to compete with Nintendo's Mario series with a character to replace Alex Kidd as the company's mascot, several character designs were submitted by its Sega AM8 research and development department. Many results came forth from their experiments with character design, including an armadillo (who was later developed into Mighty the Armadillo), a dog, a Theodore Roosevelt look-alike in pajamas (who would later be the basis of Dr. Robotnik/Eggman's design), and a rabbit (who would use its extendable ears to collect objects, an aspect later incorporated in Ristar). \n\nEventually, Naoto Ohshima's spiky teal hedgehog, initially codenamed \"Mr. Needlemouse\", was chosen as the new mascot. Sonic's blue pigmentation was chosen to match Sega's cobalt blue logo, and his shoes evolved from a design inspired by Michael Jackson's boots with the addition of the color red, which was inspired by both Santa Claus and the contrast of those colors on Jackson's 1987 album Bad; his personality was based on Bill Clinton's \"Get it done\" attitude. \n\nThe origins of Sonic can be traced farther back to a tech demo created by Yuji Naka, who had developed an algorithm that allowed a sprite to move smoothly on a curve by determining its position with a dot matrix. Naka's original prototype was a platform game that involved a fast-moving character rolling in a ball through a long winding tube, and this concept was subsequently fleshed out with Oshima's character design and levels conceived by designer Hirokazu Yasuhara. \n\nSonic was created without the ability to swim because of a mistaken assumption by Yuji Naka that all hedgehogs could not do so. A group of fifteen people started working on the first Sonic the Hedgehog game, and renamed themselves Sonic Team. The game's soundtrack was composed by Masato Nakamura of the band Dreams Come True. Sega sponsored the group's \"Wonder 3\" tour, painting Sonic on the tour bus, distributing pamphlets advertising the game, and having footage of the game broadcast above stage prior to its release. The original concepts gave Sonic fangs and put him in a band with a human girlfriend named Madonna. However, a team from Sega of America, led by Madeline Schroeder, who calls herself \"Sonic's mother\", \"softened\" the character up for an American audience by removing those elements. This sparked a heated issue with Sonic Team. Naka later admitted that it was probably for the best.\n\nSonic's appearance varies greatly depending on the medium and the style in which he is drawn. In the video games, Sonic's original design by Oshima was short and round, with short quills, a round body, and no visible irises. Artwork featuring this design and drawn by Akira Watanabe was displayed on the package artwork for Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic's proportions would change for the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Mega Drive; Sonic's head to height ratio was changed from 1:2 to 1:2.5. For the 1998 release of Sonic Adventure, Sonic was redesigned by Yuji Uekawa as a character with longer legs and a less spherical body, longer and more drooping quills, and green-colored irises. For the 2006 game, Sonic was redesigned to make him look adult-like and taller to appeal to the next generation players. This was also done because Sonic would interact with humans more often and his design was supposed to fit. An alternative \"Werehog\" form was introduced in Sonic Unleashed, placing more emphasis on Sonic's melee skills rather than speed. Although Tetsu Katano acknoweldged the large negative fan response to the Werehog, he believes it could return in a future game. \n\nVoice portrayal\n\nDifferent actors have provided Sonic's voice in his game appearances. Sonic originally had a few voice samples in Sonic CD, with Keiko Utoku providing the voice. Sonic's first true voice actor was Takeshi Kusao for the arcade game SegaSonic the Hedgehog, with Junichi Kanemaru continually voicing the role beginning with the release of Sonic Adventure. In Sonic Unleashed, Sonic was voiced by Tomokazu Seki while in Werehog form. Sonic's first English voice actor was Jaleel White in the three animated series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) and Sonic Underground.\n\nSonic's first English game voice was provided by Ryan Drummond beginning with Sonic Adventure, a role he continued until 2004, when he was replaced by Jason Griffith, who previously voiced the character in the American dub of Sonic X. Griffith was later replaced by Roger Craig Smith, starting with Sonic Free Riders and Sonic Colors in November 2010. In an interview, Drummond states he was offered the chance by Sega to re-audition for the role of Sonic, but rejected the role since it required him to quit his talent union. \n\nAppearances\n\nSonic the Hedgehog series video games\n\nSonic's first appearance in video games was in the 1991 arcade racing game Rad Mobile, as an air freshener in one of the cars. Sonic's first major appearance was in the platform game Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, which also introduced his nemesis Dr. Robotnik. His two-tailed fox friend Tails joined him in the game's 1992 sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Sonic CD, released in 1993, introduced Sonic's self-appointed girlfriend Amy Rose and recurring robotic doppelgänger Metal Sonic as Sonic traveled through time to ensure a good future for the world. Sonic 3 and its direct sequel Sonic & Knuckles, both released in 1994, saw Sonic and Tails battle Robotnik again, with the additional threat of Knuckles, who is tricked by Robotnik into thinking Sonic is a threat. Sonic 4 (2010–2012) continues where the story of Sonic 3 left off, reducing Sonic to the only playable character and releasing in episodic installments. The second episode sees the return of both Tails as Sonic's sidekick and Metal Sonic as a recurring enemy.\n\nOther two-dimensional platformers starring Sonic include Sonic Chaos (1993), Sonic Triple Trouble (1994), Sonic Blast (1996), Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure (1999), Sonic Advance (2001), Sonic Advance 2 (2002), Sonic Advance 3 (2004), Sonic Rush (2005), Sonic Rush Adventure (2007), and Sonic Colors (DS) (2010), all in which were released for handheld consoles.\n\nSonic Adventure (1998) was Sonic Team's return to the character for a major game. It featured Sonic returning from vacation to find the city of Station Square under attack by a new foe named Chaos, under the control of Dr. Robotnik (now known as Dr. Eggman). It was also the first Sonic game to feature a complete voice-over. Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) placed Sonic on-the-run from the military (G.U.N.) after being mistaken for Shadow the Hedgehog. Sonic Heroes (2003) featured Sonic teaming up with Tails and Knuckles, along with other character teams like Team Rose and Chaotix, against the newly rebuilt Metal Sonic, who had betrayed his master with intentions of world domination. Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) features Sonic in the city of water, \"Soleanna,\" where he must rescue Princess Elise from Dr. Eggman while trying to avoid a new threat to his own life, Silver the Hedgehog. He is the only playable character in Sonic Unleashed (2008), in which he unwillingly gains a new personality, \"Sonic the Werehog,\" the result of Sonic being fused with Dark Gaia's power. He gains strength and flexibility in exchange for his speed, and new friends including a strange creature named Chip who helps him along the way. In Sonic Colors (2010), Eggman tries to harness the energy of alien beings known as \"Wisps\" for a mind-control beam. The anniversary title Sonic Generations (2011) features two playable incarnations of Sonic: the younger \"classic\" Sonic, whose gameplay is presented in a style reminiscent of the Mega Drive/Genesis titles, and present-day \"modern\" Sonic, who uses the gameplay style present in Unleashed and Colors, going through stages from past games to save their friends. Sonic Generations features various theme songs including modern and retro versions that are able to be selected from throughout Sonic's twenty-year history. In April 2013, Sega announced that Sonic Lost World would launch in October 2013 for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. \n\nSonic and the Secret Rings (2007) features Sonic in the storybook world of One Thousand and One Nights. A sequel, titled Sonic and the Black Knight (2009), continued the storybook theme, this time taking place within the realm of the Arthurian legend.\n\nSonic has also been featured in other games of many genres other than 2D and 3D platform games. These include Sonic Spinball, Sonic Labyrinth (1995), the racing games Sonic Drift (1994), Sonic Drift 2 (1995), Sonic R (1996), Sonic Riders (2006), Sonic Rivals (2006), Sonic Rivals 2 (2007), Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (2008), and Sonic Free Riders (2010), the fighting games Sonic the Fighters (1996) and Sonic Battle (2003), the mobile game Sonic Jump (2005), and the role-playing video game Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (2008).\n\nVideo games such as Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (1993), Knuckles' Chaotix (1995), Tails' Skypatrol (1995), Tails Adventure (1995), and Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) starred supporting characters of the Sonic series, although Sonic himself cameos in most of these titles.\n\nNon-Sonic games\n\nSonic has made many cameo appearances in different games, most notably in other Sega games, such as being a power-up in Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, walking around the main hallway in Phantasy Star Universe on the anniversary of his first game's release (June 23), and appearing in the 2008 remake of Samba de Amigo. He is also a playable character in Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams. Nintendo, Sega's rival, made reference to Sonic in Donkey Kong Country 2, by showing Sonic's shoes next to a trash can that reads \"No Hopers\" on the Cranky's Video Game Heroes screen. \n\nSonic has appeared in several crossover titles, including a playable appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008), and its sequel Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (2014). He appears in the crossover party game Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and in its sequels Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, and Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Sonic is also a playable character in all three Sega Superstars titles.\n\nIn June 2016, it was announced that Sonic would be a playable character in the second wave of characters coming to Lego Dimensions. \n\nAnimation\n\nThe first animated series, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, aired in 1993. It was a comical take on Sonic and Tails' adventures battling Robotnik, filled with slapstick humor and loosely based upon the plot of the games. Pierre De Celles, an animator who worked on Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, described the show as \"fun and humorous.\" Also premiering in 1993 was Sonic the Hedgehog. It was a more dramatic series which portrayed Sonic as a member of a band of Freedom Fighters that fight to free their world from the evil dictator, Dr. Robotnik. In 1996, two episodes of an OVA titled Sonic the Hedgehog were released in Japan. For the American release, the two episodes combined and released as Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie by ADV Films. \n\nA third series with a separate canon was released under the title Sonic Underground in 1999. It featured the introductions of Sonic's siblings, Sonia the Hedgehog and Manic the Hedgehog, and Sonic's mother, Queen Aleena, who must defeat Robotnik and rule Mobius as the \"Council of Four\". The show ran for one season in syndication on the Bohbot Kids Network block before it was cancelled.\n\nA new series titled Sonic X began airing in 2003. The 78-episode anime series detailed Sonic's struggle to protect the Chaos Emeralds from Eggman and new villains. Featuring a cross-world and interstellar journey, Sonic X depicted Sonic and his friend Chris Thorndyke in quests to save the world. Sonic: Night of the Werehog is a short film produced by Sega's VE Animation Studio, released to coincide with the release of Sonic Unleashed. In the film, Sonic and Chip enter a haunted house, and must deal with two ghosts trying to scare them.\n\nSonic makes multiple cameo appearances in the Disney film, Wreck-It Ralph. The most prominent scene involves Sonic giving a Public Service Announcement, and several brief appearances including the background and credits of the film. \n\nIn October 2013, Sega announced that a new animated series, titled Sonic Boom, would be produced. The show would feature fifty-two 11-minute episodes airing in fall 2014 on Cartoon Network in the US and Canal J and Gulli in France.\n\nOn June 10, 2014, a film based on the Sonic series was announced. It is being produced by Neal Moritz on his Original Film banner alongside Takeshi Ito and Mie Onishi, Toby Ascher is executive producing, written by Evan Susser and Van Robichaux and produced as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Marza Animation Planet. The film is expected to be a live-action and CGI hybrid. \n\nPrint media\n\nSonic's first comic appearance was in a promotional comic printed in Disney Adventures magazine (and also given away as a free pull-out with a copy of Mean Machines magazine), which established a backstory for the character involving the origin of his color and abilities and the transformation of kindly scientist Dr. Ovi Kintobor into the evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Numerous British publications, including \"Sega handbook\" Stay Sonic (1993), four novels published by Virgin Books (1993–1994) and the comic book Sonic the Comic (1993–2001), published by Fleetway Publications/Egmont Publishing, used this premise as their basis. \n\nThe American comics published by Archie Comics, Sonic the Hedgehog (1993–), Sonic X (2005–2008), and Sonic Universe (2009-) are based on the settings established by earlier animated TV series, the ABC \"SatAM\" cartoon, the Sonic X anime, and an expansion to the series, respectively. The former series is currently the second longest-running licensed comic series in the history of American comic books, second only to Marvel's Conan series (first issue released in 1970).\nIn France two comic books named \"Sonic Adventures\" were published by Sirène in 1994. Guinness World Records recognized Sonic comic as the longest-running comic based in a game. Archie Comics also released a twelve part crossover with Mega Man beginning in 2013. \n\nSonic has also been featured in two different manga. One series was simply called Sonic the Hedgehog, and featured a story about a normal boy named Nicky Parlouzer who can change into Sonic. The other series was a compilation of short stories and was separated into two volumes, the first being called Dash and Spin, and the other called Super Fast Sonic!!.\n\nCharacteristics\n\nAccording to various official materials from Sega, Sonic is described as a character who is \"like the wind\": a drifter who lives as he wants, and makes life a series of events and adventures. Sonic hates oppression and staunchly defends freedom. Although he is mostly quick-witted and easygoing, he has a short temper and is often impatient with slower things. Sonic is a habitual daredevil hedgehog who is honest, loyal to friends, keeps his promises, and dislikes tears. He took the young Tails under his wing like a little brother, and is uninterested in marital proposals from Amy Rose. In times of crisis, he focuses intensely on the challenge as if his personality had undergone an astonishing change.\n\nSonic is known as the world's fastest hedgehog. Sonic's greatest strength is his running speed, which is faster than the speed of sound. Many of his abilities are variations on the tendency for hedgehogs to roll into tight balls for protection with the addition of spinning his body. Since his introduction in 1991's Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic's primary offensive maneuver is the basic \"Spin Attack\" (or \"Sonic Spin Attack\"). Later games in the series expanded on this basic attack and two of these enhancements have become mainstays of his: the Spin Dash which was introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and involves Sonic spinning on the spot before blasting off at full speed, and the Homing Attack, officially introduced in Sonic Adventure, in which Sonic dashes toward a target in midair. Sonic's only weakness is that he cannot swim, sinking like a rock if plunged to a deep body of water. When the seven Chaos Emeralds are collected and used, Sonic transforms into \"Super Sonic\", a faster and invulnerable version of himself that can fly. In Super Sonic form, Sonic's eyes are red and his body yellow.\n\nReception and legacy\n\nAs Sega's mascot and one of the key reasons for the company's success during the 16-bit era of video game consoles, Sonic is one of the most famous video game characters in the world. In 1993, Sonic became the first video game character to have a balloon in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. In 1996, Sonic was also the first video game character to be seen in a Rose Parade. Sonic was one of the three game characters inducted on the inaugural Walk of Game class in 2005, along with former rivals Mario and Link (both from Nintendo). One of a class of genes involved in fruit fly embryonic development, called hedgehog genes, has been named \"sonic hedgehog\" after the character. He is also named in the song Abiura di me of the Italian rapper Caparezza.\n\nSonic has also been used as a symbol for Sega's various sponsorships. Between 1993 and 1997, Sega sponsored the JEF United Ichihara Chiba football team, during which period Sonic appeared in the team's uniform. During the 1993 Formula One championship, Sega sponsored the Williams Grand Prix team, which won the Constructors' Championship that year, as well as the team's lead driver, Alain Prost, winning the Drivers' Championship. Sonic was featured in the cars, helmets, and their rivals McLaren used to paint a squashed hedgehog after winning races over Williams. The 1993 European Grand Prix featured a Sonic balloon and Sonic billboards. In 1992, according to Sega of America marketing director Al Nilsen, Sonic was found to be more recognizable than Mickey Mouse in the six-to eleven-year-old demographic, based on the character's respective Q Scores, although this claim could not be confirmed by Q Score developer Marketing Evaluations, Inc. \n\nNintendo Power listed Sonic as their sixth favorite hero, stating that while he was originally Mario's nemesis, he seems at home on Nintendo platforms. They added that he has remained as one of gaming's greatest icons. In 2004, the character won a Golden Joystick Award for \"The Sun Ultimate Gaming Hero\". On October 21, 2008, out of 500 people, Sonic was voted the most popular video game character in the UK with a 24% vote while his old rival Mario came second with 21% of the vote. Then in late 2008, MSN held a poll of who's the most iconic video game character, Sonic was ranked #1 as the most iconic video game character of all in gaming while Mario and Lara Croft were voted less in second and in third respectively. In 2011, Empire ranked him as the 14th greatest video game character. And he was voted 10th out of the top 50 video game characters of all time in Guinness World Records 2011 Gamers' Edition. Sonic ranked ninth on GameDaily's Top 10 Smash Bros characters list. GameDaily also listed his \"next-generation stumble\" in their list of video game characters' worst moments, using his relationship with a human female as one of the worst parts of it. \n\nKen Balough, Sega's former associate brand manager, said that Sonic's appeal endured because the character is \"a gaming legend, first and foremost\" who originated \"from a series of games that defined a generation in gaming history, and his iconic personality was the epitome of speed in the early ‘90s, pushing the limits of what gamers knew and expected from high-speed action and platforming games.\" \n\nTheme songs\n\nThe Sonic the Hedgehog video games have featured several theme songs for the character. Most are performed by Crush 40, who have also performed many other songs produced for the franchise. The majority of them also serve as final boss themes as well where stated below.\n*Sonic CD: \"Sonic - You Can Do Anything\" - Keiko Utoku (JP/EU) / \"Sonic Boom\" (US) - Pastiche\n*Sonic Adventure: \"It Doesn't Matter\" / \"Open Your Heart\" - Crush 40. The latter serves as the main/final boss theme.\n*Sonic Adventure 2: \"It Doesn't Matter\" / \"Live and Learn\" - Crush 40. The latter serves as the main/final boss theme.\n*Sonic Heroes: \"We Can\" - Ted Poley, Tony Harnell. This theme is also shared with Tails and Knuckles, considering that this is also the Team Sonic theme.\n*Sonic the Hedgehog '06: \"His World\" - Zebrahead. This is one of the three character theme songs and 2 instrumental versions (one of which is used for the final boss theme) can be found in the game. Other remixes of this theme were done by Crush 40 and Bentley Jones.\n*Sonic and the Secret Rings: \"Seven Rings In Hand\" - Steve Conte. This theme is also played during the final battle of the game with Darkspine Sonic (A dark form of Super Sonic with seven world rings) Vs. Alf Laya Wa Laya (seven world rings transformation of Erazor Djinn)\n*Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity: \"Un-Gravitify\" - Kenichi Tokoi (music), runblebee (lyrics), and Cashell (vocals)\n*Super Smash Bros. Brawl: \"Live and Learn\" - Crush 40/ \"Sonic Boom\" - Pastiche/ \"Angel Island Theme\" (remake) (there were at least 2 more Sonic theme songs in this game)\n*Sonic Unleashed: \"Endless Possibility\" - Bowling For Soup. This theme also serves as the final boss theme (Perfect Dark Gaia) as an orchestral, instrumental theme.\n*Sonic and the Black Knight: \"Knight of the Wind\" - Crush 40. This theme also plays during the credits of the game's first ending.\n*Sonic Colors: \"Reach for the Stars\" - Cash Cash. This theme also serves as the final boss theme in the Terminal Velocity Zone as an orchestral, instrumental theme. A retro version can also be found when any color power is being activated in Game Land." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Orpiment.txt", "Chemical_element.txt", "Arsenic.txt" ], "title": [ "Orpiment", "Chemical element", "Arsenic" ], "wiki_context": [ "Orpiment is a deep orange-yellow colored arsenic sulfide mineral with formula . It is found in volcanic fumaroles, low temperature hydrothermal veins, and hot springs and is formed both by sublimation and as a byproduct of the decay of another arsenic mineral, realgar. It takes its name from the Latin auripigmentum (aurum − gold + pigmentum − pigment) because of its deep-yellow color.\n\nHistorical uses \n\nOrpiment was traded in the Roman Empire and was used as a medicine in China even though it is very toxic. It has been used as a fly poison and to tip arrows with poison. Because of its striking color, it was of interest to alchemists, both in China and the West, searching for a way to make gold.\n\nFor centuries, orpiment was ground down and used as a pigment in painting and for sealing wax, and is even used in Ancient China as a correction fluid. It was one of the few clear, bright-yellow pigments available to artists until the 19th Century. However, its extreme toxicity and incompatibility with other common pigments, including lead and copper-based substances such as verdigris and azurite, meant that its use as a pigment ended when cadmium yellows, chromium yellows and organic dye-based colors were introduced during the 19th Century.\n\nOrpiment, as the Latin Auripigmentum, is mentioned by Robert Hooke in Micrographia for the manufacture of small shot in the 17th century. \n\nContemporary uses \n\nOrpiment is used in the production of infrared-transmitting glass, oil cloth, linoleum, semiconductors, photoconductors, pigments, and fireworks. Mixed with two parts of slaked lime, orpiment is still commonly used in rural India as a depilatory. It is used in the tanning industry to remove hair from hides.\n\nPhysical and optical properties \n\nOrpiment is a common monoclinic arsenic sulfide mineral. It has a Mohs hardness of 1.5 to 2 and a specific gravity of 3.49. It melts at 300 °C to 325 °C. Optically it is biaxial (−) with refractive indices of a 2.4, b \n 2.81, g = 3.02.\n\nCrystal structure \n\nFile:Orpiment-unit-cell-3D-balls.png|Orpiment's unit cell\nFile:Orpiment-layer-3D-balls.png|Orpiment's crystal structure consists of sheets\nFile:Orpiment-layers-stacking-3D-balls.png|The sheets are stacked into layers\n\nGallery of orpiment specimens\n\n \t\nFile:Orpiment-Realgar-Quartz-154641.jpg|Orpiment and realgar on a vuggy, quartz matrix, Nishinomaki Mine, Gunma Prefecture, Japan. Size: 5.5 x 4.0 x 3.8 cm.\nFile:Orpiment-d06-185b.jpg|El'brusskiy arsenic mine, Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, Northern Caucasus Region, Russia. Size 5.8 x 3.5 x 1.7 cm.", "A chemical element or element is a species of atoms having the same number of protons in their atomic nuclei (i.e. the same atomic number, Z). There are 118 elements that have been identified, of which the first 94 occur naturally on Earth with the remaining 24 being synthetic elements. There are 80 elements that have at least one stable isotope and 38 that have exclusively radioactive isotopes, which decay over time into other elements. Iron is the most abundant element (by mass) making up Earth, while oxygen is the most common element in the crust of Earth. \n\nChemical elements constitute all of the ordinary matter of the universe. However astronomical observations suggest that ordinary observable matter is only approximately 15% of the matter in the universe: the remainder is dark matter, the composition of which is unknown, but it is not composed of chemical elements. \nThe two lightest elements, hydrogen and helium were mostly formed in the Big Bang and are the most common elements in the universe. The next three elements (lithium, beryllium and boron) were formed mostly by cosmic ray spallation, and are thus more rare than those that follow. Formation of elements with from six to twenty six protons occurred and continues to occur in main sequence stars via stellar nucleosynthesis. The high abundance of oxygen, silicon, and iron on Earth reflects their common production in such stars. Elements with greater than twenty-six protons are formed by supernova nucleosynthesis in supernovae, which, when they explode, blast these elements far into space as supernova remnants, where they may become incorporated into planets when they are formed. \n\nThe term \"element\" is used for a kind of atoms with a given number of protons (regardless of whether they are or they are not ionized or chemically bonded, e.g. hydrogen in water) as well as for a pure chemical substance consisting of a single element (e.g. hydrogen gas). For the second meaning, the terms \"elementary substance\" and \"simple substance\" have been suggested, but they have not gained much acceptance in the English-language chemical literature, whereas in some other languages their equivalent is widely used (e.g. French corps simple, Russian простое вещество). One element can form multiple substances different by their structure; they are called allotropes of the element.\n\nWhen different elements are chemically combined, with the atoms held together by chemical bonds, they form chemical compounds. Only a minority of elements are found uncombined as relatively pure minerals. Among the more common of such \"native elements\" are copper, silver, gold, carbon (as coal, graphite, or diamonds), and sulfur. All but a few of the most inert elements, such as noble gases and noble metals, are usually found on Earth in chemically combined form, as chemical compounds. While about 32 of the chemical elements occur on Earth in native uncombined forms, most of these occur as mixtures. For example, atmospheric air is primarily a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and argon, and native solid elements occur in alloys, such as that of iron and nickel.\n\nThe history of the discovery and use of the elements began with primitive human societies that found native elements like carbon, sulfur, copper and gold. Later civilizations extracted elemental copper, tin, lead and iron from their ores by smelting, using charcoal. Alchemists and chemists subsequently identified many more, with almost all of the naturally-occurring elements becoming known by 1900.\n\nThe properties of the chemical elements are summarized on the periodic table, which organizes the elements by increasing atomic number into rows (\"periods\") in which the columns (\"groups\") share recurring (\"periodic\") physical and chemical properties. Save for unstable radioactive elements with short half-lives, all of the elements are available industrially, most of them in high degrees of purity.\n\nDescription\n\nThe lightest chemical elements are hydrogen and helium, both created by Big Bang nucleosynthesis during the first 20 minutes of the universe in a ratio of around 3:1 by mass (or 12:1 by number of atoms), along with tiny traces of the next two elements, lithium and beryllium. Almost all other elements found in nature were made by various natural methods of nucleosynthesis. On Earth, small amounts of new atoms are naturally produced in nucleogenic reactions, or in cosmogenic processes, such as cosmic ray spallation. New atoms are also naturally produced on Earth as radiogenic daughter isotopes of ongoing radioactive decay processes such as alpha decay, beta decay, spontaneous fission, cluster decay, and other rarer modes of decay.\n\nOf the 94 naturally occurring elements, those with atomic numbers 1 through 82 each have at least one stable isotope (except for technetium, element 43 and promethium, element 61, which have no stable isotopes). Isotopes considered stable are those for which no radioactive decay has yet been observed. Elements with atomic numbers 83 through 94 are unstable to the point that radioactive decay of all isotopes can be detected. Some of these elements, notably bismuth (atomic number 83), thorium (atomic number 90), uranium (atomic number 92) and plutonium (atomic number 94), have one or more isotopes with half-lives long enough to survive as remnants of the explosive stellar nucleosynthesis that produced the heavy elements before the formation of our solar system. For example, at over 1.9 years, over a billion times longer than the current estimated age of the universe, bismuth-209 (atomic number 83) has the longest known alpha decay half-life of any naturally occurring element. The very heaviest elements (those beyond plutonium, element 94) undergo radioactive decay with half-lives so short that they are not found in nature and must be synthesized.\n\nAs of 2010, there are 118 known elements (in this context, \"known\" means observed well enough, even from just a few decay products, to have been differentiated from other elements). Of these 118 elements, 94 occur naturally on Earth. Six of these occur in extreme trace quantities: technetium, atomic number 43; promethium, number 61; astatine, number 85; francium, number 87; neptunium, number 93; and plutonium, number 94. These 94 elements have been detected in the universe at large, in the spectra of stars and also supernovae, where short-lived radioactive elements are newly being made. The first 94 elements have been detected directly on Earth as primordial nuclides present from the formation of the solar system, or as naturally-occurring fission or transmutation products of uranium and thorium.\n\nThe remaining 24 heavier elements, not found today either on Earth or in astronomical spectra, have been produced artificially: these are all radioactive, with very short half-lives; if any atoms of these elements were present at the formation of Earth, they are extremely likely, to the point of certainty, to have already decayed, and if present in novae, have been in quantities too small to have been noted. Technetium was the first purportedly non-naturally occurring element synthesized, in 1937, although trace amounts of technetium have since been found in nature (and also the element may have been discovered naturally in 1925). This pattern of artificial production and later natural discovery has been repeated with several other radioactive naturally-occurring rare elements. \n\nLists of the elements are available by name, by symbol, by atomic number, by density, by melting point, and by boiling point as well as ionization energies of the elements. The nuclides of stable and radioactive elements are also available as a list of nuclides, sorted by length of half-life for those that are unstable. One of the most convenient, and certainly the most traditional presentation of the elements, is in the form of the periodic table, which groups together elements with similar chemical properties (and usually also similar electronic structures).\n\nAtomic number\n\nThe atomic number of an element is equal to the number of protons in each atom, and defines the element. For example, all carbon atoms contain 6 protons in their atomic nucleus; so the atomic number of carbon is 6. Carbon atoms may have different numbers of neutrons; atoms of the same element having different numbers of neutrons are known as isotopes of the element. \n\nThe number of protons in the atomic nucleus also determines its electric charge, which in turn determines the number of electrons of the atom in its non-ionized state. The electrons are placed into atomic orbitals that determine the atom's various chemical properties. The number of neutrons in a nucleus usually has very little effect on an element's chemical properties (except in the case of hydrogen and deuterium). Thus, all carbon isotopes have nearly identical chemical properties because they all have six protons and six electrons, even though carbon atoms may, for example, have 6 or 8 neutrons. That is why the atomic number, rather than mass number or atomic weight, is considered the identifying characteristic of a chemical element.\n\nThe symbol for atomic number is Z.\n\nIsotopes\n\nIsotopes are atoms of the same element (that is, with the same number of protons in their atomic nucleus), but having different numbers of neutrons. Most (66 of 94) naturally occurring elements have more than one stable isotope. Thus, for example, there are three main isotopes of carbon. All carbon atoms have 6 protons in the nucleus, but they can have either 6, 7, or 8 neutrons. Since the mass numbers of these are 12, 13 and 14 respectively, the three isotopes of carbon are known as carbon-12, carbon-13, and carbon-14, often abbreviated to 12C, 13C, and 14C. Carbon in everyday life and in chemistry is a mixture of 12C (about 98.9%), 13C (about 1.1%) and about 1 atom per trillion of 14C.\n\nExcept in the case of the isotopes of hydrogen (which differ greatly from each other in relative mass—enough to cause chemical effects), the isotopes of a given element are chemically nearly indistinguishable.\n\nAll of the elements have some isotopes that are radioactive (radioisotopes), although not all of these radioisotopes occur naturally. The radioisotopes typically decay into other elements upon radiating an alpha or beta particle. If an element has isotopes that are not radioactive, these are termed \"stable\" isotopes. All of the known stable isotopes occur naturally (see primordial isotope). The many radioisotopes that are not found in nature have been characterized after being artificially made. Certain elements have no stable isotopes and are composed only of radioactive isotopes: specifically the elements without any stable isotopes are technetium (atomic number 43), promethium (atomic number 61), and all observed elements with atomic numbers greater than 82.\n\nOf the 80 elements with at least one stable isotope, 26 have only one single stable isotope. The mean number of stable isotopes for the 80 stable elements is 3.1 stable isotopes per element. The largest number of stable isotopes that occur for a single element is 10 (for tin, element 50).\n\nIsotopic mass and atomic mass\n\nThe mass number of an element, A, is the number of nucleons (protons and neutrons) in the atomic nucleus. Different isotopes of a given element are distinguished by their mass numbers, which are conventionally written as a superscript on the left hand side of the atomic symbol (e.g., 238U). The mass number is always a simple whole number and has units of \"nucleons.\" An example of a referral to a mass number is \"magnesium-24,\" which is an atom with 24 nucleons (12 protons and 12 neutrons).\n\nWhereas the mass number simply counts the total number of neutrons and protons and is thus a natural (or whole) number, the atomic mass of a single atom is a real number for the mass of a particular isotope of the element, the unit being u. In general, when expressed in u it differs in value slightly from the mass number for a given nuclide (or isotope) since the mass of the protons and neutrons is not exactly 1 u, since the electrons contribute a lesser share to the atomic mass as neutron number exceeds proton number, and (finally) because of the nuclear binding energy. For example, the atomic mass of chlorine-35 to five significant digits is 34.969 u and that of chlorine-37 is 36.966 u. However, the atomic mass in u of each isotope is quite close to its simple mass number (always within 1%). The only isotope whose atomic mass is exactly a natural number is 12C, which by definition has a mass of exactly 12, because u is defined as 1/12 of the mass of a free neutral carbon-12 atom in the ground state.\n\nThe relative atomic mass (historically and commonly also called \"atomic weight\") of an element is the average of the atomic masses of all the chemical element's isotopes as found in a particular environment, weighted by isotopic abundance, relative to the atomic mass unit (u). This number may be a fraction that is not close to a whole number, due to the averaging process. For example, the relative atomic mass of chlorine is 35.453 u, which differs greatly from a whole number due to being made of an average of 76% chlorine-35 and 24% chlorine-37. Whenever a relative atomic mass value differs by more than 1% from a whole number, it is due to this averaging effect resulting from significant amounts of more than one isotope being naturally present in the sample of the element in question.\n\nChemically pure and isotopically pure\n\nChemists and nuclear scientists have different definitions of a pure element. In chemistry, a pure element means a substance whose atoms all (or in practice almost all) have the same atomic number, or number of protons. Nuclear scientists, however, define a pure element as one that consists of only one stable isotope. \n\nFor example, a copper wire is 99.99% chemically pure if 99.99% of its atoms are copper, with 29 protons each. However it is not isotopically pure since ordinary copper consists of two stable isotopes, 69% 63Cu and 31% 65Cu, with different numbers of neutrons. However, a pure gold ingot would be both chemically and isotopically pure, since ordinary gold consists only of one isotope, 197Au.\n\nAllotropes\n\nAtoms of chemically pure elements may bond to each other chemically in more than one way, allowing the pure element to exist in multiple structures (spatial arrangements of atoms), known as allotropes, which differ in their properties. For example, carbon can be found as diamond, which has a tetrahedral structure around each carbon atom; graphite, which has layers of carbon atoms with a hexagonal structure stacked on top of each other; graphene, which is a single layer of graphite that is very strong; fullerenes, which have nearly spherical shapes; and carbon nanotubes, which are tubes with a hexagonal structure (even these may differ from each other in electrical properties). The ability of an element to exist in one of many structural forms is known as 'allotropy'.\n\nThe standard state, also known as reference state, of an element is defined as its thermodynamically most stable state at 1 bar at a given temperature (typically at 298.15 K). In thermochemistry, an element is defined to have an enthalpy of formation of zero in its standard state. For example, the reference state for carbon is graphite, because the structure of graphite is more stable than that of the other allotropes.\n\nProperties\n\nSeveral kinds of descriptive categorizations can be applied broadly to the elements, including consideration of their general physical and chemical properties, their states of matter under familiar conditions, their melting and boiling points, their densities, their crystal structures as solids, and their origins.\n\nGeneral properties\n\nSeveral terms are commonly used to characterize the general physical and chemical properties of the chemical elements. A first distinction is between metals, which readily conduct electricity, nonmetals, which do not, and a small group, (the metalloids), having intermediate properties and often behaving as semiconductors.\n\nA more refined classification is often shown in colored presentations of the periodic table. This system restricts the terms \"metal\" and \"nonmetal\" to only certain of the more broadly defined metals and nonmetals, adding additional terms for certain sets of the more broadly viewed metals and nonmetals. The version of this classification used in the periodic tables presented here includes: actinides, alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, halogens, lanthanides, transition metals, post-transition metals, metalloids, polyatomic nonmetals, diatomic nonmetals, and noble gases. In this system, the alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, and transition metals, as well as the lanthanides and the actinides, are special groups of the metals viewed in a broader sense. Similarly, the polyatomic nonmetals, diatomic nonmetals and the noble gases are nonmetals viewed in the broader sense. In some presentations, the halogens are not distinguished, with astatine identified as a metalloid and the others identified as nonmetals.\n\nStates of matter\n\nAnother commonly used basic distinction among the elements is their state of matter (phase), whether solid, liquid, or gas, at a selected standard temperature and pressure (STP). Most of the elements are solids at conventional temperatures and atmospheric pressure, while several are gases. Only bromine and mercury are liquids at 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) and normal atmospheric pressure; caesium and gallium are solids at that temperature, but melt at 28.4 °C (83.2 °F) and 29.8 °C (85.6 °F), respectively.\n\nMelting and boiling points\n\nMelting and boiling points, typically expressed in degrees Celsius at a pressure of one atmosphere, are commonly used in characterizing the various elements. While known for most elements, either or both of these measurements is still undetermined for some of the radioactive elements available in only tiny quantities. Since helium remains a liquid even at absolute zero at atmospheric pressure, it has only a boiling point, and not a melting point, in conventional presentations.\n\nDensities\n\nThe density at a selected standard temperature and pressure (STP) is frequently used in characterizing the elements. Density is often expressed in grams per cubic centimeter (g/cm3). Since several elements are gases at commonly encountered temperatures, their densities are usually stated for their gaseous forms; when liquefied or solidified, the gaseous elements have densities similar to those of the other elements.\n\nWhen an element has allotropes with different densities, one representative allotrope is typically selected in summary presentations, while densities for each allotrope can be stated where more detail is provided. For example, the three familiar allotropes of carbon (amorphous carbon, graphite, and diamond) have densities of 1.8–2.1, 2.267, and 3.515 g/cm3, respectively.\n\nCrystal structures\n\nThe elements studied to date as solid samples have eight kinds of crystal structures: cubic, body-centered cubic, face-centered cubic, hexagonal, monoclinic, orthorhombic, rhombohedral, and tetragonal. For some of the synthetically produced transuranic elements, available samples have been too small to determine crystal structures.\n\nOccurrence and origin on Earth\n\nChemical elements may also be categorized by their origin on Earth, with the first 94 considered naturally occurring, while those with atomic numbers beyond 94 have only been produced artificially as the synthetic products of man-made nuclear reactions.\n\nOf the 94 naturally occurring elements, 84 are considered primordial and either stable or weakly radioactive. The remaining 10 naturally occurring elements possess half lives too short for them to have been present at the beginning of the Solar System, and are therefore considered transient elements. (Plutonium is sometimes also considered a transient element because primordial plutonium has by now decayed to almost undetectable traces.) Of these 10 transient elements, 5 (polonium, radon, radium, actinium, and protactinium) are relatively common decay products of thorium, uranium, and plutonium. The remaining 5 transient elements (technetium, promethium, astatine, francium, and neptunium) occur only rarely, as products of rare decay modes or nuclear reaction processes involving uranium or other heavy elements.\n\nElements with atomic numbers 1 through 40 are all stable, while those with atomic numbers 41 through 82 (except technetium and promethium) are metastable. The half-lives of these metastable \"theoretical radionuclides\" are so long (at least 100 million times longer than the estimated age of the universe) that their radioactive decay has yet to be detected by experiment. Elements with atomic numbers 83 through 94 are unstable to the point that their radioactive decay can be detected. Four of these elements, bismuth (element 83), thorium (element 90), uranium (element 92), and plutonium (element 94), have one or more isotopes with half-lives long enough to survive as remnants of the explosive stellar nucleosynthesis that produced the heavy elements before the formation of our solar system. For example, at over 1.9 years, over a billion times longer than the current estimated age of the universe, bismuth-209 has the longest known alpha decay half-life of any naturally occurring element. The very heaviest elements (those beyond plutonium, element 94) undergo radioactive decay with short half-lives and do not occur in nature.\n\nThe periodic table\n\nThe properties of the chemical elements are often summarized using the periodic table, which powerfully and elegantly organizes the elements by increasing atomic number into rows (\"periods\") in which the columns (\"groups\") share recurring (\"periodic\") physical and chemical properties. The current standard table contains 118 confirmed elements as of 10 April 2010.\n\nAlthough earlier precursors to this presentation exist, its invention is generally credited to the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869, who intended the table to illustrate recurring trends in the properties of the elements. The layout of the table has been refined and extended over time as new elements have been discovered and new theoretical models have been developed to explain chemical behavior.\n\nUse of the periodic table is now ubiquitous within the academic discipline of chemistry, providing an extremely useful framework to classify, systematize and compare all the many different forms of chemical behavior. The table has also found wide application in physics, geology, biology, materials science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, nutrition, environmental health, and astronomy. Its principles are especially important in chemical engineering.\n\nNomenclature and symbols\n\nThe various chemical elements are formally identified by their unique atomic numbers, by their accepted names, and by their symbols.\n\nAtomic numbers\n\nThe known elements have atomic numbers from 1 through 118, conventionally presented as Arabic numerals. Since the elements can be uniquely sequenced by atomic number, conventionally from lowest to highest (as in a periodic table), sets of elements are sometimes specified by such notation as \"through\", \"beyond\", or \"from ... through\", as in \"through iron\", \"beyond uranium\", or \"from lanthanum through lutetium\". The terms \"light\" and \"heavy\" are sometimes also used informally to indicate relative atomic numbers (not densities), as in \"lighter than carbon\" or \"heavier than lead\", although technically the weight or mass of atoms of an element (their atomic weights or atomic masses) do not always increase monotonically with their atomic numbers.\n\nElement names\n\nThe naming of various substances now known as elements precedes the atomic theory of matter, as names were given locally by various cultures to various minerals, metals, compounds, alloys, mixtures, and other materials, although at the time it was not known which chemicals were elements and which compounds. As they were identified as elements, the existing names for anciently-known elements (e.g., gold, mercury, iron) were kept in most countries. National differences emerged over the names of elements either for convenience, linguistic niceties, or nationalism. For a few illustrative examples: German speakers use \"Wasserstoff\" (water substance) for \"hydrogen\", \"Sauerstoff\" (acid substance) for \"oxygen\" and \"Stickstoff\" (smothering substance) for \"nitrogen\", while English and some romance languages use \"sodium\" for \"natrium\" and \"potassium\" for \"kalium\", and the French, Italians, Greeks, Portuguese and Poles prefer \"azote/azot/azoto\" (from roots meaning \"no life\") for \"nitrogen\".\n\nFor purposes of international communication and trade, the official names of the chemical elements both ancient and more recently recognized are decided by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), which has decided on a sort of international English language, drawing on traditional English names even when an element's chemical symbol is based on a Latin or other traditional word, for example adopting \"gold\" rather than \"aurum\" as the name for the 79th element (Au). IUPAC prefers the British spellings \"aluminium\" and \"caesium\" over the U.S. spellings \"aluminum\" and \"cesium\", and the U.S. \"sulfur\" over the British \"sulphur\". However, elements that are practical to sell in bulk in many countries often still have locally used national names, and countries whose national language does not use the Latin alphabet are likely to use the IUPAC element names.\n\nAccording to IUPAC, chemical elements are not proper nouns in English; consequently, the full name of an element is not routinely capitalized in English, even if derived from a proper noun, as in californium and einsteinium. Isotope names of chemical elements are also uncapitalized if written out, e.g., carbon-12 or uranium-235. Chemical element symbols (such as Cf for californium and Es for einsteinium), are always capitalized (see below).\n\nIn the second half of the twentieth century, physics laboratories became able to produce nuclei of chemical elements with half-lives too short for an appreciable amount of them to exist at any time. These are also named by IUPAC, which generally adopts the name chosen by the discoverer. This practice can lead to the controversial question of which research group actually discovered an element, a question that delayed the naming of elements with atomic number of 104 and higher for a considerable amount of time. (See element naming controversy).\n\nPrecursors of such controversies involved the nationalistic namings of elements in the late 19th century. For example, lutetium was named in reference to Paris, France. The Germans were reluctant to relinquish naming rights to the French, often calling it cassiopeium. Similarly, the British discoverer of niobium originally named it columbium, in reference to the New World. It was used extensively as such by American publications prior to the international standardization.\n\nChemical symbols\n\nSpecific chemical elements\n\nBefore chemistry became a science, alchemists had designed arcane symbols for both metals and common compounds. These were however used as abbreviations in diagrams or procedures; there was no concept of atoms combining to form molecules. With his advances in the atomic theory of matter, John Dalton devised his own simpler symbols, based on circles, to depict molecules.\n\nThe current system of chemical notation was invented by Berzelius. In this typographical system, chemical symbols are not mere abbreviations—though each consists of letters of the Latin alphabet. They are intended as universal symbols for people of all languages and alphabets.\n\nThe first of these symbols were intended to be fully universal. Since Latin was the common language of science at that time, they were abbreviations based on the Latin names of metals. Cu comes from Cuprum, Fe comes from Ferrum, Ag from Argentum. The symbols were not followed by a period (full stop) as with abbreviations. Later chemical elements were also assigned unique chemical symbols, based on the name of the element, but not necessarily in English. For example, sodium has the chemical symbol 'Na' after the Latin natrium. The same applies to \"W\" (wolfram) for tungsten, \"Fe\" (ferrum) for iron, \"Hg\" (hydrargyrum) for mercury, \"Sn\" (stannum) for tin, \"K\" (kalium) for potassium, \"Au\" (aurum) for gold, \"Ag\" (argentum) for silver, \"Pb\" (plumbum) for lead, \"Cu\" (cuprum) for copper, and \"Sb\" (stibium) for antimony.\n\nChemical symbols are understood internationally when element names might require translation. There have sometimes been differences in the past. For example, Germans in the past have used \"J\" (for the alternate name Jod) for iodine, but now use \"I\" and \"Iod\".\n\nThe first letter of a chemical symbol is always capitalized, as in the preceding examples, and the subsequent letters, if any, are always lower case (small letters). Thus, the symbols for californium or einsteinium are Cf and Es.\n\nGeneral chemical symbols\n\nThere are also symbols in chemical equations for groups of chemical elements, for example in comparative formulas. These are often a single capital letter, and the letters are reserved and not used for names of specific elements. For example, an \"X\" indicates a variable group (usually a halogen) in a class of compounds, while \"R\" is a radical, meaning a compound structure such as a hydrocarbon chain. The letter \"Q\" is reserved for \"heat\" in a chemical reaction. \"Y\" is also often used as a general chemical symbol, although it is also the symbol of yttrium. \"Z\" is also frequently used as a general variable group. \"E\" is used in organic chemistry to denote an electron-withdrawing group. \"L\" is used to represent a general ligand in inorganic and organometallic chemistry. \"M\" is also often used in place of a general metal.\n\nAt least two additional, two-letter generic chemical symbols are also in informal usage, \"Ln\" for any lanthanide element and \"An\" for any actinide element. \"Rg\" was formerly used for any rare gas element, but the group of rare gases has now been renamed noble gases and the symbol \"Rg\" has now been assigned to the element roentgenium.\n\nIsotope symbols\n\nIsotopes are distinguished by the atomic mass number (total protons and neutrons) for a particular isotope of an element, with this number combined with the pertinent element's symbol. IUPAC prefers that isotope symbols be written in superscript notation when practical, for example 12C and 235U. However, other notations, such as carbon-12 and uranium-235, or C-12 and U-235, are also used.\n\nAs a special case, the three naturally occurring isotopes of the element hydrogen are often specified as H for 1H (protium), D for 2H (deuterium), and T for 3H (tritium). This convention is easier to use in chemical equations, replacing the need to write out the mass number for each atom. For example, the formula for heavy water may be written D2O instead of 2H2O.\n\nOrigin of the elements\n\nOnly about 4% of the total mass of the universe is made of atoms or ions, and thus represented by chemical elements. This fraction is about 15% of the total matter, with the remainder of the matter (85%) being dark matter. The nature of dark matter is unknown, but it is not composed of atoms of chemical elements because it contains no protons, neutrons, or electrons. (The remaining non-matter part of the mass of the universe is composed of the even more mysterious dark energy).\n\nThe universe's 94 naturally occurring chemical elements are thought to have been produced by at least four cosmic processes. Most of the hydrogen and helium in the universe was produced primordially in the first few minutes of the Big Bang. Three recurrently occurring later processes are thought to have produced the remaining elements. Stellar nucleosynthesis, an ongoing process, produces all elements from carbon through iron in atomic number, but little lithium, beryllium, or boron. Elements heavier in atomic number than iron, as heavy as uranium and plutonium, are produced by explosive nucleosynthesis in supernovas and other cataclysmic cosmic events. Cosmic ray spallation (fragmentation) of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen is important to the production of lithium, beryllium and boron.\n\nDuring the early phases of the Big Bang, nucleosynthesis of hydrogen nuclei resulted in the production of hydrogen-1 (protium, 1H) and helium-4 (4He), as well as a smaller amount of deuterium (2H) and very minuscule amounts (on the order of 10−10) of lithium and beryllium. Even smaller amounts of boron may have been produced in the Big Bang, since it has been observed in some very old stars, while carbon has not. It is generally agreed that no heavier elements than boron were produced in the Big Bang. As a result, the primordial abundance of atoms (or ions) consisted of roughly 75% 1H, 25% 4He, and 0.01% deuterium, with only tiny traces of lithium, beryllium, and perhaps boron. Subsequent enrichment of galactic halos occurred due to stellar nucleosynthesis and supernova nucleosynthesis. However, the element abundance in intergalactic space can still closely resemble primordial conditions, unless it has been enriched by some means.\n\nOn Earth (and elsewhere), trace amounts of various elements continue to be produced from other elements as products of natural transmutation processes. These include some produced by cosmic rays or other nuclear reactions (see cosmogenic and nucleogenic nuclides), and others produced as decay products of long-lived primordial nuclides. For example, trace (but detectable) amounts of carbon-14 (14C) are continually produced in the atmosphere by cosmic rays impacting nitrogen atoms, and argon-40 (40Ar) is continually produced by the decay of primordially occurring but unstable potassium-40 (40K). Also, three primordially occurring but radioactive actinides, thorium, uranium, and plutonium, decay through a series of recurrently produced but unstable radioactive elements such as radium and radon, which are transiently present in any sample of these metals or their ores or compounds. Three other radioactive elements, technetium, promethium, and neptunium, occur only incidentally in natural materials, produced as individual atoms by natural fission of the nuclei of various heavy elements or in other rare nuclear processes.\n\nHuman technology has produced various additional elements beyond these first 94, with those through atomic number 118 now known.\n\nAbundance\n\nThe following graph (note log scale) shows the abundance of elements in our solar system. The table shows the twelve most common elements in our galaxy (estimated spectroscopically), as measured in parts per million, by mass. Nearby galaxies that have evolved along similar lines have a corresponding enrichment of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. The more distant galaxies are being viewed as they appeared in the past, so their abundances of elements appear closer to the primordial mixture. As physical laws and processes appear common throughout the visible universe, however, scientist expect that these galaxies evolved elements in similar abundance.\n\nThe abundance of elements in the Solar System is in keeping with their origin from nucleosynthesis in the Big Bang and a number of progenitor supernova stars. Very abundant hydrogen and helium are products of the Big Bang, but the next three elements are rare since they had little time to form in the Big Bang and are not made in stars (they are, however, produced in small quantities by the breakup of heavier elements in interstellar dust, as a result of impact by cosmic rays). Beginning with carbon, elements are produced in stars by buildup from alpha particles (helium nuclei), resulting in an alternatingly larger abundance of elements with even atomic numbers (these are also more stable). In general, such elements up to iron are made in large stars in the process of becoming supernovas. Iron-56 is particularly common, since it is the most stable element that can easily be made from alpha particles (being a product of decay of radioactive nickel-56, ultimately made from 14 helium nuclei). Elements heavier than iron are made in energy-absorbing processes in large stars, and their abundance in the universe (and on Earth) generally decreases with their atomic number.\n\nThe abundance of the chemical elements on Earth varies from air to crust to ocean, and in various types of life. The abundance of elements in Earth's crust differs from that in the Solar system (as seen in the Sun and heavy planets like Jupiter) mainly in selective loss of the very lightest elements (hydrogen and helium) and also volatile neon, carbon (as hydrocarbons), nitrogen and sulfur, as a result of solar heating in the early formation of the solar system. Oxygen, the most abundant Earth element by mass, is retained on Earth by combination with silicon. Aluminum at 8% by mass is more common in the Earth's crust than in the universe and solar system, but the composition of the far more bulky mantle, which has magnesium and iron in place of aluminum (which occurs there only at 2% of mass) more closely mirrors the elemental composition of the solar system, save for the noted loss of volatile elements to space, and loss of iron which has migrated to the Earth's core.\n\nThe composition of the human body, by contrast, more closely follows the composition of seawater—save that the human body has additional stores of carbon and nitrogen necessary to form the proteins and nucleic acids, together with phosphorus in the nucleic acids and energy transfer molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that occurs in the cells of all living organisms. Certain kinds of organisms require particular additional elements, for example the magnesium in chlorophyll in green plants, the calcium in mollusc shells, or the iron in the hemoglobin in vertebrate animals' red blood cells.\n\nHistory\n\nEvolving definitions\n\nThe concept of an \"element\" as an undivisible substance has developed through three major historical phases: Classical definitions (such as those of the ancient Greeks), chemical definitions, and atomic definitions.\n\nClassical definitions\n\nAncient philosophy posited a set of classical elements to explain observed patterns in nature. These elements originally referred to earth, water, air and fire rather than the chemical elements of modern science.\n\nThe term 'elements' (stoicheia) was first used by the Greek philosopher Plato in about 360 BCE in his dialogue Timaeus, which includes a discussion of the composition of inorganic and organic bodies and is a speculative treatise on chemistry. Plato believed the elements introduced a century earlier by Empedocles were composed of small polyhedral forms: tetrahedron (fire), octahedron (air), icosahedron (water), and cube (earth). \n\nAristotle, c. 350 BCE, also used the term stoicheia and added a fifth element called aether, which formed the heavens. Aristotle defined an element as:\n\nChemical definitions\n\nIn 1661, Robert Boyle proposed his theory of corpuscularism which favoured the analysis of matter as constituted by irreducible units of matter (atoms) and, choosing to side with neither Aristotle's view of the four elements nor Paracelsus' view of three fundamental elements, left open the question of the number of elements. The first modern list of chemical elements was given in Antoine Lavoisier's 1789 Elements of Chemistry, which contained thirty-three elements, including light and caloric. By 1818, Jöns Jakob Berzelius had determined atomic weights for forty-five of the forty-nine then-accepted elements. Dmitri Mendeleev had sixty-six elements in his periodic table of 1869.\n\nFrom Boyle until the early 20th century, an element was defined as a pure substance that could not be decomposed into any simpler substance. Put another way, a chemical element cannot be transformed into other chemical elements by chemical processes. Elements during this time were generally distinguished by their atomic weights, a property measurable with fair accuracy by available analytical techniques.\n\nAtomic definitions\n\nThe 1913 discovery by English physicist Henry Moseley that the nuclear charge is the physical basis for an atom's atomic number, further refined when the nature of protons and neutrons became appreciated, eventually led to the current definition of an element based on atomic number (number of protons per atomic nucleus). The use of atomic numbers, rather than atomic weights, to distinguish elements has greater predictive value (since these numbers are integers), and also resolves some ambiguities in the chemistry-based view due to varying properties of isotopes and allotropes within the same element. Currently, IUPAC defines an element to exist if it has isotopes with a lifetime longer than the 10−14 seconds it takes the nucleus to form an electronic cloud. \n\nBy 1914, seventy-two elements were known, all naturally occurring. The remaining naturally occurring elements were discovered or isolated in subsequent decades, and various additional elements have also been produced synthetically, with much of that work pioneered by Glenn T. Seaborg. In 1955, element 101 was discovered and named mendelevium in honor of D.I. Mendeleev, the first to arrange the elements in a periodic manner. Most recently, the synthesis of element 118 was reported in October 2006, and the synthesis of element 117 was reported in April 2010. \n\nDiscovery and recognition of various elements\n\nTen materials familiar to various prehistoric cultures are now known to be chemical elements: Carbon, copper, gold, iron, lead, mercury, silver, sulfur, tin, and zinc. Three additional materials now accepted as elements, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth, were recognized as distinct substances prior to 1500 AD. Phosphorus, cobalt, and platinum were isolated before 1750.\n\nMost of the remaining naturally occurring chemical elements were identified and characterized by 1900, including:\n* Such now-familiar industrial materials as aluminium, silicon, nickel, chromium, magnesium, and tungsten\n* Reactive metals such as lithium, sodium, potassium, and calcium\n* The halogens fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine\n* Gases such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, helium, argon, and neon\n* Most of the rare-earth elements, including cerium, lanthanum, gadolinium, and neodymium.\n* The more common radioactive elements, including uranium, thorium, radium, and radon\n\nElements isolated or produced since 1900 include:\n* The three remaining undiscovered regularly occurring stable natural elements: hafnium, lutetium, and rhenium\n* Plutonium, which was first produced synthetically in 1940 by Glenn T. Seaborg, but is now also known from a few long-persisting natural occurrences\n* The three incidentally occurring natural elements (neptunium, promethium, and technetium), which were all first produced synthetically but later discovered in trace amounts in certain geological samples\n* Three scarce decay products of uranium or thorium, (astatine, francium, and protactinium), and\n* Various synthetic transuranic elements, beginning with americium and curium\n\nRecently discovered elements\n\nThe first transuranium element (element with atomic number greater than 92) discovered was neptunium in 1940. Since 1999 claims for the discovery of new elements have been considered by the IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working Party. As of January 2016, all 118 elements have been confirmed as discovered by IUPAC. The discovery of element 112 was acknowledged in 2009, and the name copernicium and the atomic symbol Cn were suggested for it. The name and symbol were officially endorsed by IUPAC on 19 February 2010. The heaviest element that is believed to have been synthesized to date is element 118, ununoctium, on 9 October 2006, by the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in Dubna, Russia. Element 117 was the latest element claimed to be discovered, in 2009. IUPAC officially recognized flerovium and livermorium, elements 114 and 116, in June 2011 and approved their names in May 2012. In December 2015, IUPAC recognized elements 113, 115, 117 and 118, and announced the elements' proposed final names on 8 June 2016. The names, nihonium (113, Nh), moscovium (115, Mc), tennessine (117, Ts), and oganesson (118, Og), are expected to be approved by the end of 2016. \n\nList of the 118 known chemical elements\n\nThe following sortable table includes the 118 known chemical elements, with the names linking to the Wikipedia articles on each.\n* Atomic number, name, and symbol all serve independently as unique identifiers.\n* Names are those accepted by IUPAC; provisional names for recently produced elements not yet formally named are in parentheses.\n* Group, period, and block refer to an element's position in the periodic table. Group numbers here show the currently accepted numbering; for older alternate numberings, see Group (periodic table).\n* State of matter (solid, liquid, or gas) applies at standard temperature and pressure conditions (STP).\n* Occurrence distinguishes naturally occurring elements, categorized as either primordial or transient (from decay), and additional synthetic elements that have been produced technologically, but are not known to occur naturally.\n* Description summarizes an element's properties using the broad categories commonly presented in periodic tables: Actinide, alkali metal, alkaline earth metal, lanthanide, post-transition metal, metalloid, noble gas, polyatomic or diatomic nonmetal, and transition metal.", "Arsenic is a chemical element with symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but only the gray form is important to industry.\n\nThe primary use of metallic arsenic is in alloys of lead (for example, in car batteries and ammunition). Arsenic is a common n-type dopant in semiconductor electronic devices, and the optoelectronic compound gallium arsenide is the second most commonly used semiconductor after doped silicon. Arsenic and its compounds, especially the trioxide, are used in the production of pesticides, treated wood products, herbicides, and insecticides. These applications are declining, however.\n\nA few species of bacteria are able to use arsenic compounds as respiratory metabolites. Trace quantities of arsenic are an essential dietary element in rats, hamsters, goats, chickens, and presumably many other species, including humans. However, arsenic poisoning occurs in multicellular life if quantities are larger than needed. Arsenic contamination of groundwater is a problem that affects millions of people across the world.\n\nCharacteristics \n\nPhysical characteristics \n\nThe three most common arsenic allotropes are metallic gray, yellow, and black arsenic, with gray being the most common. Gray arsenic (α-As, space group Rm No. 166) adopts a double-layered structure consisting of many interlocked, ruffled, six-membered rings. Because of weak bonding between the layers, gray arsenic is brittle and has a relatively low Mohs hardness of 3.5. Nearest and next-nearest neighbors form a distorted octahedral complex, with the three atoms in the same double-layer being slightly closer than the three atoms in the next. This relatively close packing leads to a high density of 5.73 g/cm3. Gray arsenic is a semimetal, but becomes a semiconductor with a bandgap of 1.2–1.4 eV if amorphized. Gray arsenic is also the most stable form. Yellow arsenic is soft and waxy, and somewhat similar to tetraphosphorus (). Both have four atoms arranged in a tetrahedral structure in which each atom is bound to each of the other three atoms by a single bond. This unstable allotrope, being molecular, is the most volatile, least dense, and most toxic. Solid yellow arsenic is produced by rapid cooling of arsenic vapor, . It is rapidly transformed into gray arsenic by light. The yellow form has a density of 1.97 g/cm3. Black arsenic is similar in structure to red phosphorus.\nBlack arsenic can also be formed by cooling vapor at around 100–220 °C. It is glassy and brittle. It is also a poor electrical conductor. \n\nIsotopes \n\nArsenic occurs in nature as a monoisotopic element, composed of one stable isotope, 75As. As of 2003, at least 33 radioisotopes have also been synthesized, ranging in atomic mass from 60 to 92. The most stable of these is 73As with a half-life of 80.30 days. All other isotopes have half-lives of under one day, with the exception of 71As (t1/265.30 hours), 72As (t1/2\n26.0 hours), 74As (t1/217.77 days), 76As (t1/2\n1.0942 days), and 77As (t1/2=38.83 hours). Isotopes that are lighter than the stable 75As tend to decay by β+ decay, and those that are heavier tend to decay by β− decay, with some exceptions.\n\nAt least 10 nuclear isomers have been described, ranging in atomic mass from 66 to 84. The most stable of arsenic's isomers is 68mAs with a half-life of 111 seconds.\n\nChemistry \n\nArsenic has a similar electronegativity and ionisation energies to its lighter congener phosphorus and as such readily forms covalent molecules with most of the nonmetals. Though stable in dry air, arsenic forms a golden-bronze tarnish upon exposure to humidity which eventually becomes a black surface layer.Greenwood and Earnshaw, pp. 552–4 When heated in air, arsenic oxidizes to arsenic trioxide; the fumes from this reaction have an odor resembling garlic. This odor can be detected on striking arsenide minerals such as arsenopyrite with a hammer. It burns in oxygen to form arsenic trioxide and arsenic pentoxide, which have the same structure as the more well-known phosphorus compounds, and in fluorine to give arsenic pentafluoride. Arsenic (and some arsenic compounds) sublimes upon heating at atmospheric pressure, converting directly to a gaseous form without an intervening liquid state at 887 K. The triple point is 3.63 MPa and 1090 K. Arsenic makes arsenic acid with concentrated nitric acid, arsenious acid with dilute nitric acid, and arsenic trioxide with concentrated sulfuric acid; however, it does not react with water, alkalis, or non-oxidising acids. Arsenic reacts with metals to form arsenides, though these are not ionic compounds containing the As3− ion as the formation of such an anion would be highly endothermic and even the group 1 arsenides have properties of intermetallic compounds. Like germanium, selenium, and bromine, which like arsenic succeed the 3d transition series, arsenic is much less stable in the group oxidation state of +5 than its vertical neighbors phosphorus and antimony, and hence arsenic pentoxide and arsenic acid are potent oxidisers.\n\nCompounds \n\nCompounds of arsenic resemble in some respects those of phosphorus which occupies the same group (column) of the periodic table. Arsenic is less commonly observed in the pentavalent state, however. The most common oxidation states for arsenic are: −3 in the arsenides, which are alloy-like intermetallic compounds, +3 in the arsenites, and +5 in the arsenates and most organoarsenic compounds. Arsenic also bonds readily to itself as seen in the square As ions in the mineral skutterudite. In the +3 oxidation state, arsenic is typically pyramidal owing to the influence of the lone pair of electrons.\n\nInorganic compounds \n\nOne of the simplest arsenic compound is the trihydride, the highly toxic, flammable, pyrophoric arsine (AsH3). This compound is generally regarded as stable, since at room temperature it decomposes only slowly. At temperatures of 250–300 °C decomposition to arsenic and hydrogen is rapid.Greenwood and Earnshaw, pp. 557–8 Several factors, such as humidity, presence of light and certain catalysts (namely aluminium) facilitate the rate of decomposition. It oxidises readily in air to form arsenic trioxide and water, and analogous reactions take place with sulfur and selenium instead of oxygen.\n\nArsenic forms colorless, odorless, crystalline oxides As2O3 (\"white arsenic\") and As2O5 which are hygroscopic and readily soluble in water to form acidic solutions. Arsenic(V) acid is a weak acid and the salts are called arsenates, the most common arsenic contamination of groundwater, and a problem that affects many people. Synthetic arsenates include Paris Green (copper(II) acetoarsenite), calcium arsenate, and lead hydrogen arsenate. These three have been used as agricultural insecticides and poisons.\n\nThe protonation steps between the arsenate and arsenic acid are similar to those between phosphate and phosphoric acid. Unlike phosphorous acid, arsenous acid is genuinely tribasic, with the formula As(OH)3.Greenwood and Earnshaw, pp. 572–8\n\nA broad variety of sulfur compounds of arsenic are known. Orpiment (As2S3) and realgar (As4S4) are somewhat abundant and were formerly used as painting pigments. In As4S10, arsenic has a formal oxidation state of +2 in As4S4 which features As-As bonds so that the total covalency of As is still 3. Both orpiment and realgar, as well as As4S3, have selenium analogs; although arsenic tellurides are not known, the anion As2Te− is known as a ligand in cobalt complexes.Greenwood and Earnshaw, pp. 578–83\n\nAll trihalides of arsenic(III) are well known except the astatide, which is unknown. Arsenic pentafluoride (AsF5) is the only important pentahalide, reflecting the lower stability of the +5 oxidation state; even so, it is a very strong fluorinating and oxidizing agent. (The pentachloride is stable only below −50 °C, at which temperature it decomposes to the trichloride, releasing chlorine gas.)\n\nAlloys \n\nArsenic is used as the group 5 element in the III-V semiconductors gallium arsenide, indium arsenide, and aluminium arsenide. The valence electron count of GaAs is the same as a pair of Si atoms, but the band structure is completely different which results distinct bulk properties. Other arsenic alloys include the II-V semiconductor cadmium arsenide. \n\nOrganoarsenic compounds \n\nA large variety of organoarsenic compounds are known. Several were developed as chemical warfare agents during World War I, including vesicants such as lewisite and vomiting agents such as adamsite. Cacodylic acid, which is of historic and practical interest, arises from the methylation of arsenic trioxide, a reaction that has no analogy in phosphorus chemistry. Indeed, cacodyl was the first organometallic compound known, and was named from the Greek κακωδἰα \"stink\" for its offensive odor; like all arsenic compounds, it is very poisonous.Greenwood, p. 584\n\nOccurrence and production \n\nArsenic comprises about 1.5 ppm (0.00015%) of the Earth's crust, and is the 53rd most abundant element. Typical background concentrations are as follows: Air −3; soil −1; freshwater −1; seawater −1. \n\nMinerals with the formula MAsS and MAs2 (M = Fe, Ni, Co) are the dominant commercial sources of arsenic, together with realgar (an arsenic sulfide mineral) and native arsenic. An illustrative mineral is arsenopyrite (FeAsS), which is structurally related to iron pyrite. Many minor As-containing minerals are known. Arsenic also occurs in various organic forms in the environment. \n\nIn 2014, China was the top producer of white arsenic with almost 70% world share, followed by Morocco, Russia, and Belgium, according to the British Geological Survey and the United States Geological Survey. Most arsenic refinement operations in the US and Europe have closed over environmental concerns. Arsenic is found of the smelter dust from copper, gold, and lead smelters, and is recovered primarily from copper refinement dust.\n\nOn roasting arsenopyrite in air, arsenic sublimes as arsenic(III) oxide leaving iron oxides, while roasting without air results in the production of metallic arsenic. Further purification from sulfur and other chalcogens is achieved by sublimation in vacuum, in a hydrogen atmosphere, or by distillation from molten lead-arsenic mixture. \n\nHistory \n\nThe word arsenic has its origin in the Syriac word ܠܐ ܙܐܦܢܝܐ (al) zarniqa, from the Persian word zarnikh, meaning \"yellow\" (literally \"gold-colored\") and hence \"(yellow) orpiment\". It was adopted into Greek as arsenikon (ἀρσενικόν), a form that is folk etymology, being the neuter form of the Greek word arsenikos (ἀρσενικός), meaning \"male\", \"virile\". The Greek word was adopted in Latin as arsenicum, which in French became arsenic, from which the English word arsenic is taken. Arsenic sulfides (orpiment, realgar) and oxides have been known and used since ancient times. Zosimos (circa 300 AD) describes roasting sandarach (realgar) to obtain cloud of arsenic (arsenic trioxide), which he then reduces to metallic arsenic. As the symptoms of arsenic poisoning were somewhat ill-defined, it was frequently used for murder until the advent of the Marsh test, a sensitive chemical test for its presence. (Another less sensitive but more general test is the Reinsch test.) Owing to its use by the ruling class to murder one another and its potency and discreetness, arsenic has been called the \"poison of kings\" and the \"king of poisons\". \n\nDuring the Bronze Age, arsenic was often included in bronze, which made the alloy harder (so-called \"arsenical bronze\"). \nAlbertus Magnus (Albert the Great, 1193–1280) is believed to have been the first to isolate the element from a compound in 1250, by heating soap together with arsenic trisulfide. In 1649, Johann Schröder published two ways of preparing arsenic. Crystals of elemental (native) arsenic are found in nature, although rare.\n\nCadet's fuming liquid (impure cacodyl), often claimed as the first synthetic organometallic compound, was synthesized in 1760 by Louis Claude Cadet de Gassicourt by the reaction of potassium acetate with arsenic trioxide. \n\nIn the Victorian era, \"arsenic\" (\"white arsenic\" or arsenic trioxide) was mixed with vinegar and chalk and eaten by women to improve the complexion of their faces, making their skin paler to show they did not work in the fields. Arsenic was also rubbed into the faces and arms of women to \"improve their complexion\". The accidental use of arsenic in the adulteration of foodstuffs led to the Bradford sweet poisoning in 1858, which resulted in around 20 deaths. \n\nTwo arsenic pigments have been widely used since their discovery – Paris Green and Scheele's Green. After the toxicity of arsenic became widely known, these chemicals were used less often as pigments and more often as insecticides. In the 1860s, an arsenic byproduct of dye production, London Purple was widely used. This was a solid mixture of arsenic trioxide, aniline, lime, and ferrous oxide, insoluble in water and very toxic by inhalation or ingestion But it was later replaced with Paris Green, another arsenic-based dye. With better understanding of the toxicology mechanism, two other compounds were used starting in the 1890s. Arsenite of lime and arsenate of lead were used widely as insecticides until the discovery of DDT in 1942. \n\nApplications \n\nAgricultural \n\nThe toxicity of arsenic to insects, bacteria, and fungi led to its use as a wood preservative. In the 1950s, a process of treating wood with chromated copper arsenate (also known as CCA or Tanalith) was invented, and for decades, this treatment was the most extensive industrial use of arsenic. An increased appreciation of the toxicity of arsenic led to a ban of CCA in consumer products in 2004, initiated by the European Union and United States. CCA remains in heavy use in other countries, however; e.g. Malaysian rubber plantations.\n\nArsenic was also used in various agricultural insecticides and poisons. For example, lead hydrogen arsenate was a common insecticide on fruit trees, but contact with the compound sometimes resulted in brain damage among those working the sprayers. In the second half of the 20th century, monosodium methyl arsenate (MSMA) and disodium methyl arsenate (DSMA) – less toxic organic forms of arsenic – have replaced lead arsenate in agriculture. With the exception of cotton farming, the use of the organic arsenicals was phased out until 2013. \n\nThe biogeochemistry of arsenic is complex and includes various adsorption and desorption processes. The toxicity of arsenic is connected to its solubility and is affected by pH. Arsenite (As3+) is more soluble than arsenate (As5+) and is more toxic; however, at a lower pH, arsenate becomes more mobile and toxic. It was found that addition of S, P, and FeOx to arsenite soil greatly reduces phytotoxicity of As .\n\nArsenic is used as a feed additive in poultry and swine production, in particular in the U.S. to increase weight gain, improve feed efficiency, and to prevent disease. An example is roxarsone, which had been used as a broiler starter by about 70% of U.S. broiler growers. The Poison-Free Poultry Act of 2009 proposed to ban the use of roxarsone in industrial swine and poultry production. Alpharma, a subsidiary of Pfizer Inc., which produces roxarsone, voluntarily suspended sales of the drug in response to studies showing elevated levels of inorganic arsenic, a carcinogen, in treated chickens. A successor to Alpharma, Zoetis, continues to sell nitarsone, primarily for use in turkeys.\n\nArsenic is intentionally added to the feed of chickens raised for human consumption. Organic arsenic compounds are less toxic than pure arsenic, and promote the growth of chickens. Under some conditions, the arsenic in chicken feed is converted to the toxic inorganic form. \n\nA 2006 study of the remains of the Australian racehorse, Phar Lap, determined that the 1932 death of the famous champion was caused by a massive overdose of arsenic. Sydney veterinarian Percy Sykes stated, \"In those days, arsenic was quite a common tonic, usually given in the form of a solution (Fowler's Solution) ... It was so common that I'd reckon 90 per cent of the horses had arsenic in their system.\" \n\nMedical use \n\nDuring the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, a number of arsenic compounds were used as medicines, including arsphenamine (by Paul Ehrlich) and arsenic trioxide (by Thomas Fowler). Arsphenamine, as well as neosalvarsan, was indicated for syphilis and trypanosomiasis, but has been superseded by modern antibiotics.\n\nArsenic trioxide has been used in a variety of ways over the past 500 years, most commonly in the treatment of cancer, but in medications as diverse as Fowler's solution in psoriasis. The US Food and Drug Administration in the year 2000 approved this compound for the treatment of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia that is resistant to all-trans retinoic acid. \n\nRecently, researchers have been locating tumors using arsenic-74 (a positron emitter). This isotope produces clearer PET scan images than the previous radioactive agent, iodine-124, because the body tends to transport iodine to the thyroid gland producing signal noise. \n\nIn subtoxic doses, soluble arsenic compounds act as stimulants, and were once popular in small doses as medicine by people in the mid-18th to 19th centuries. \n\nAlloys \n\nThe main use of metallic arsenic is in alloying with lead. Lead components in car batteries are strengthened by the presence of a very small percentage of arsenic. Dezincification of brass (a copper-zinc alloy) is greatly reduced by the addition of arsenic. \"Phosphorus Deoxidized Arsenical Copper\" with an arsenic content of 0.3% has an increased corrosion stability in certain environments. Gallium arsenide is an important semiconductor material, used in integrated circuits. Circuits made from GaAs are much faster (but also much more expensive) than those made from silicon. Unlike silicon, GaAs has a direct bandgap, and can be used in laser diodes and LEDs to convert electrical energy directly into light.\n\nMilitary \n\nAfter World War I, the United States built a stockpile of 20,000 tonnes of weaponized lewisite (ClCH=CHAsCl2), a vesicant (blister agent) and lung irritant. The stockpile was neutralized with bleach and dumped into the Gulf of Mexico after the 1950s. During the Vietnam War, the United States used Agent Blue, a mixture of sodium cacodylate and its acid form, as one of the rainbow herbicides to deprive North Vietnamese soldiers of foliage cover and rice. \n\nOther uses \n\n* Copper acetoarsenite was used as a green pigment known under many names, including Paris Green and Emerald Green. It caused numerous arsenic poisonings. Scheele's Green, a copper arsenate, was used in the 19th century as a coloring agent in sweets. \n* Arsenic is used in bronzing and pyrotechnics\n* As much as 2% of produced arsenic is used in lead alloys for lead shot and bullets. \n* Arsenic is added in small quantities to alpha-brass to make it dezincification-resistant. This grade of brass is used in plumbing fittings and other wet environments. \n* Arsenic is also used for taxonomic sample preservation.\n* Until recently, arsenic was used in optical glass. Modern glass manufacturers, under pressure from environmentalists, have ceased using both arsenic and lead. \n\nBiological role \n\nBacteria \n\nSome species of bacteria obtain their energy by oxidizing various fuels while reducing arsenate to arsenite. Under oxidative environmental conditions some bacteria oxidize arsenite to arsenate as fuel for their metabolism. The enzymes involved are known as arsenate reductases (Arr). \n\nIn 2008, bacteria were discovered that employ a version of photosynthesis in the absence of oxygen with arsenites as electron donors, producing arsenates (just as ordinary photosynthesis uses water as electron donor, producing molecular oxygen). Researchers conjecture that, over the course of history, these photosynthesizing organisms produced the arsenates that allowed the arsenate-reducing bacteria to thrive. One strain PHS-1 has been isolated and is related to the gammaproteobacterium Ectothiorhodospira shaposhnikovii. The mechanism is unknown, but an encoded Arr enzyme may function in reverse to its known homologues. \n\nAlthough the arsenate and phosphate anions are similar structurally, no evidence exists for the replacement of phosphate in ATP or nucleic acids by arsenic. \n\nEssential trace element in higher animals \n\nSome evidence indicates that arsenic is an essential trace mineral in birds (chickens), and in mammals (rats, hamsters, and goats). However, the biological function is not known. \n\nHeredity \n\nArsenic has been linked to epigenetic changes, heritable changes in gene expression that occur without changes in DNA sequence. These include DNA methylation, histone modification, and RNA interference. Toxic levels of arsenic cause significant DNA hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes p16 and p53, thus increasing risk of carcinogenesis. These epigenetic events have been studied in vitro using human kidney cells and in vivo using rat liver cells and peripheral blood leukocytes in humans. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is used to detect precise levels of intracellular arsenic and other arsenic bases involved in epigenetic modification of DNA. Studies investigating arsenic as an epigenetic factor be used to develop precise biomarkers of exposure and susceptibility.\n\nThe Chinese brake fern (Pteris vittata) hyperaccumulates arsenic from the soil into its leaves and has a proposed use in phytoremediation. \n\nBiomethylation \n\nInorganic arsenic and its compounds, upon entering the food chain, are progressively metabolized through a process of methylation. For example, the mold Scopulariopsis brevicaulis produces significant amounts of trimethylarsine if inorganic arsenic is present. The organic compound arsenobetaine is found in some marine foods such as fish and algae, and also in mushrooms in larger concentrations. The average person's intake is about 10–50 µg/day. Values about 1000 µg are not unusual following consumption of fish or mushrooms, but there is little danger in eating fish because this arsenic compound is nearly non-toxic. \n\nEnvironmental issues \n\nExposure \n\nNaturally occurring sources of human exposure include volcanic ash, weathering of minerals and ores, and mineralized groundwater. Arsenic is also found in food, water, soil, and air. Arsenic is absorbed by all plants, but is more concentrated in leafy vegetables, rice, apple and grape juice, and seafood. An additional route of exposure is inhalation of atmospheric gases and dusts. \n\nOccurrence in drinking water \n\nExtensive arsenic contamination of groundwater has led to widespread arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh and neighboring countries. It is estimated that approximately 57 million people in the Bengal basin are drinking groundwater with arsenic concentrations elevated above the World Health Organization's standard of 10 parts per billion (ppb). However, a study of cancer rates in Taiwan suggested that significant increases in cancer mortality appear only at levels above 150 ppb. The arsenic in the groundwater is of natural origin, and is released from the sediment into the groundwater, caused by the anoxic conditions of the subsurface. This groundwater was used after local and western NGOs and the Bangladeshi government undertook a massive shallow tube well drinking-water program in the late twentieth century. This program was designed to prevent drinking of bacteria-contaminated surface waters, but failed to test for arsenic in the groundwater. Many other countries and districts in Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam and Cambodia, have geological environments that produce groundwater with a high arsenic content. Arsenicosis was reported in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand in 1987, and the Chao Phraya River probably contains high levels of naturally occurring dissolved arsenic without being a public health problem because much of the public uses bottled water. \n\nIn the United States, arsenic is most commonly found in the ground waters of the southwest. Parts of New England, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas are also known to have significant concentrations of arsenic in ground water. Increased levels of skin cancer have been associated with arsenic exposure in Wisconsin, even at levels below the 10 part per billion drinking water standard. According to a recent film funded by the US Superfund, millions of private wells have unknown arsenic levels, and in some areas of the US, more than 20% of the wells may contain levels that exceed established limits. \n\nLow-level exposure to arsenic at concentrations of 100 parts per billion (i.e., above the 10 parts per billion drinking water standard) compromises the initial immune response to H1N1 or swine flu infection according to NIEHS-supported scientists. The study, conducted in laboratory mice, suggests that people exposed to arsenic in their drinking water may be at increased risk for more serious illness or death from the virus. \n\nSome Canadians are drinking water that contains inorganic arsenic. Private-dug–well waters are most at risk for containing inorganic arsenic. Preliminary well water analysis typically does not test for arsenic. Researchers at the Geological Survey of Canada have modeled relative variation in natural arsenic hazard potential for the province of New Brunswick. This study has important implications for potable water and health concerns relating to inorganic arsenic. \n\nEpidemiological evidence from Chile shows a dose-dependent connection between chronic arsenic exposure and various forms of cancer, in particular when other risk factors, such as cigarette smoking, are present. These effects have been demonstrated at contaminations less than 50 ppb. \n\nAnalyzing multiple epidemiological studies on inorganic arsenic exposure suggests a small but measurable increase in risk for bladder cancer at 10 ppb. According to Peter Ravenscroft of the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge, roughly 80 million people worldwide consume between 10 and 50 ppb arsenic in their drinking water. If they all consumed exactly 10 ppb arsenic in their drinking water, the previously cited multiple epidemiological study analysis would predict an additional 2,000 cases of bladder cancer alone. This represents a clear underestimate of the overall impact, since it does not include lung or skin cancer, and explicitly underestimates the exposure. Those exposed to levels of arsenic above the current WHO standard should weigh the costs and benefits of arsenic remediation.\n\nEarly (1973) evaluations of the processes for removing dissolved arsenic from drinking water demonstrated the efficacy of co-precipitation with either iron or aluminum oxides. In particular, iron as a coagulant was found to remove arsenic with an efficacy exceeding 90%. Several adsorptive media systems have been approved for use at point-of-service in a study funded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). A team of European and Indian scientists and engineers have set up six arsenic treatment plants in West Bengal based on in-situ remediation method (SAR Technology). This technology does not use any chemicals and arsenic is left in an insoluble form (+5 state) in the subterranean zone by recharging aerated water into the aquifer and developing an oxidation zone that supports arsenic oxidizing micro-organisms. This process does not produce any waste stream or sludge and is relatively cheap. \n\nAnother effective and inexpensive method to avoid arsenic contamination is to sink wells 500 feet or deeper to reach purer waters. A recent 2011 study funded by the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences' Superfund Research Program shows that deep sediments can remove arsenic and take it out of circulation. In this process, called adsorption, arsenic sticks to the surfaces of deep sediment particles and is naturally removed from the ground water. \n\nMagnetic separations of arsenic at very low magnetic field gradients with high-surface-area and monodisperse magnetite (Fe3O4) nanocrystals have been demonstrated in point-of-use water purification. Using the high specific surface area of Fe3O4 nanocrystals, the mass of waste associated with arsenic removal from water has been dramatically reduced.\n\nEpidemiological studies have suggested a correlation between chronic consumption of drinking water contaminated with arsenic and the incidence of all leading causes of mortality. The literature indicates that arsenic exposure is causative in the pathogenesis of diabetes. \n\nChaff-based filters have recently been shown to reduce the arsenic content of water to 3 µg/L. This may find applications in areas where the potable water is extracted from underground aquifers. \n\nSan Pedro de Atacama \n\nFor several centuries, the people of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile have been drinking water that is contaminated with arsenic, and some evidence suggests they have developed some immunity. \n\nRedox transformation of arsenic in natural waters \n\nArsenic is unique among the trace metalloids and oxyanion-forming trace metals (e.g. As, Se, Sb, Mo, V, Cr, U, Re). It is sensitive to mobilization at pH values typical of natural waters (pH 6.5–8.5) under both oxidizing and reducing conditions. Arsenic can occur in the environment in several oxidation states (−3, 0, +3 and +5), but in natural waters it is mostly found in inorganic forms as oxyanions of trivalent arsenite [As(III)] or pentavalent arsenate [As(V)]. Organic forms of arsenic are produced by biological activity, mostly in surface waters, but are rarely quantitatively important. Organic arsenic compounds may, however, occur where waters are significantly impacted by industrial pollution. \n\nArsenic may be solubilized by various processes. When pH is high, arsenic may be released from surface binding sites that lose their positive charge. When water level drops and sulfide minerals are exposed to air, arsenic trapped in sulfide minerals can be released into water. When organic carbon is present in water, bacteria are fed by directly reducing As(V) to As(III) or by reducing the element at the binding site, releasing inorganic arsenic. \n\nThe aquatic transformations of arsenic are affected by pH, reduction-oxidation potential, organic matter concentration and the concentrations and forms of other elements, especially iron and manganese. The main factors are pH and the redox potential. Generally, the main forms of arsenic under oxic conditions are H3AsO4, H2AsO4−, HAsO42−, and AsO43− at pH 2, 2–7, 7–11 and 11, respectively. Under reducing conditions, H3AsO4 is predominant at pH 2–9.\n\nOxidation and reduction affects the migration of arsenic in subsurface environments. Arsenite is the most stable soluble form of arsenic in reducing environments and arsenate, which is less mobile than arsenite, is dominant in oxidizing environments at neutral pH. Therefore, arsenic may be more mobile under reducing conditions. The reducing environment is also rich in organic matter which may enhance the solubility of arsenic compounds. As a result, the adsorption of arsenic is reduced and dissolved arsenic accumulates in groundwater. That is why the arsenic content is higher in reducing environments than in oxidizing environments. \n\nThe presence of sulfur is another factor that affects the transformation of arsenic in natural water. Arsenic can precipitate when metal sulfides form. In this way, arsenic is removed from the water and its mobility decreases. When oxygen is present, bacteria oxidize reduced sulfur to generate energy, potentially releasing bound arsenic.\n\nRedox reactions involving Fe also appear to be essential factors in the fate of arsenic in aquatic systems. The reduction of iron oxyhydroxides plays a key role in the release of arsenic to water. So arsenic can be enriched in water with elevated Fe concentrations. Under oxidizing conditions, arsenic can be mobilized from pyrite or iron oxides especially at elevated pH. Under reducing conditions, arsenic can be mobilized by reductive desorption or dissolution when associated with iron oxides. The reductive desorption occurs under two circumstances. One is when arsenate is reduced to arsenite which adsorbs to iron oxides less strongly. The other results from a change in the charge on the mineral surface which leads to the desorption of bound arsenic. \n\nSome species of bacteria catalyze redox transformations of arsenic. Dissimilatory arsenate-respiring prokaryotes (DARP) speed up the reduction of As(V) to As(III). DARP use As(V) as the electron acceptor of anaerobic respiration and obtain energy to survive. Other organic and inorganic substances can be oxidized in this process. Chemoautotrophic arsenite oxidizers (CAO) and heterotrophic arsenite oxidizers (HAO) convert As(III) into As(V). CAO combine the oxidation of As(III) with the reduction of oxygen or nitrate. They use obtained energy to fix produce organic carbon from CO2. HAO cannot obtain energy from As(III) oxidation. This process may be an arsenic detoxification mechanism for the bacteria. \n\nEquilibrium thermodynamic calculations predict that As(V) concentrations should be greater than As(III) concentrations in all but strongly reducing conditions, i.e. where SO42− reduction is occurring. However, abiotic redox reactions of arsenic are slow. Oxidation of As(III) by dissolved O2 is a particularly slow reaction. For example, Johnson and Pilson (1975) gave half-lives for the oxygenation of As(III) in seawater ranging from several months to a year. In other studies, As(V)/As(III) ratios were stable over periods of days or weeks during water sampling when no particular care was taken to prevent oxidation, again suggesting relatively slow oxidation rates. Cherry found from experimental studies that the As(V)/As(III) ratios were stable in anoxic solutions for up to 3 weeks but that gradual changes occurred over longer timescales. Sterile water samples have been observed to be less susceptible to speciation changes than non-sterile samples. Oremland found that the reduction of As(V) to As(III) in Mono Lake was rapidly catalyzed by bacteria with rate constants ranging from 0.02 to 0.3 day−1. \n\nWood preservation in the US \n\nAs of 2002, US-based industries consumed 19,600 metric tons of arsenic. Ninety percent of this was used for treatment of wood with chromated copper arsenate (CCA). In 2007, 50% of the 5,280 metric tons of consumption was still used for this purpose. In the United States, the voluntary phasing-out of arsenic in production of consumer products and residential and general consumer construction products began on 31 December 2003, and alternative chemicals are now used, such as Alkaline Copper Quaternary, borates, copper azole, cyproconazole, and propiconazole. \n\nAlthough discontinued, this application is also one of the most concern to the general public. The vast majority of older pressure-treated wood was treated with CCA. CCA lumber is still in widespread use in many countries, and was heavily used during the latter half of the 20th century as a structural and outdoor building material. Although the use of CCA lumber was banned in many areas after studies showed that arsenic could leach out of the wood into the surrounding soil (from playground equipment, for instance), a risk is also presented by the burning of older CCA timber. The direct or indirect ingestion of wood ash from burnt CCA lumber has caused fatalities in animals and serious poisonings in humans; the lethal human dose is approximately 20 grams of ash. Scrap CCA lumber from construction and demolition sites may be inadvertently used in commercial and domestic fires. Protocols for safe disposal of CCA lumber are not consistent throughout the world. Widespread landfill disposal of such timber raises some concern, but other studies have shown no arsenic contamination in the groundwater. \n\nMapping of industrial releases in the US \n\nOne tool that maps the location (and other information) of arsenic releases in the United State is TOXMAP. TOXMAP is a Geographic Information System (GIS) from the Division of Specialized Information Services of the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) funded by the US Federal Government. With marked-up maps of the United States, TOXMAP enables users to visually explore data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory and Superfund Basic Research Programs. TOXMAP's chemical and environmental health information is taken from NLM's Toxicology Data Network (TOXNET), PubMed, and from other authoritative sources.\n\nBioremediation \n\nPhysical, chemical, and biological methods have been used to remediate arsenic contaminated water. Bioremediation is said to be cost effective and environmentally friendly Bioremediation of ground water contaminated with arsenic aims to convert arsenite, the toxic form of arsenic to humans, to arsenate. Arsenate (+5 oxidation state) is the dominant form of arsenic in surface water, while arsenite (+3 oxidation state) is the dominant form in hypoxic to anoxic environments. Arsenite is more soluble and mobile than arsenate. Many species of bacteria can transform arsenite to arsenate in anoxic conditions by using arsenite as an electron donor. This is a useful method in ground water remediation. Another bioremediation strategy is to use plants that accumulate arsenic in their tissues via phytoremediation but the disposal of contaminated plant material needs to be considered.\n\nBioremediation requires careful evaluation and design in accordance with existing conditions. Some sites may require the addition of an electron acceptor while others require microbe supplementation (bioaugmentation). Regardless of the method used, only constant monitoring can prevent future contamination.\n\nToxicity and precautions \n\nArsenic and many of its compounds are especially potent poisons.\n\nClassification \n\nElemental arsenic and arsenic compounds are classified as \"toxic\" and \"dangerous for the environment\" in the European Union under directive 67/548/EEC.\n\nThe International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recognizes arsenic and arsenic compounds as group 1 carcinogens, and the EU lists arsenic trioxide, arsenic pentoxide, and arsenate salts as category 1 carcinogens.\n\nArsenic is known to cause arsenicosis when present in drinking water, \"the most common species being arsenate [; As(V)] and arsenite [H3AsO3; As(III)]\".\n\nLegal limits, food, and drink \n\nIn the United States since 2006, the maximum concentration in drinking water allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is 10 ppb and the FDA set the same standard in 2005 for bottled water. The Department of Environmental Protection for New Jersey set a drinking water limit of 5 ppb in 2006. The IDLH (immediately dangerous to life and health) value for arsenic metal and inorganic arsenic compounds is 5 mg/m3. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has set the permissible exposure limit (PEL) to a time-weighted average (TWA) of 0.01 mg/m3, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has set the recommended exposure limit (REL) to a 15-minute constant exposure of 0.002 mg/m3. The PEL for organic arsenic compounds is a TWA of 0.5 mg/m3. \n\nIn 2008, based on its ongoing testing of a wide variety of American foods for toxic chemicals, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration set the \"level of concern\" for inorganic arsenic apple and pear juices at 23 ppb, based on non-carcinogenic effects, and began blocking importation of products in excess of this level; it also required recalls for non-conforming domestic products. In 2011, the national Dr. Oz television show broadcast a program highlighting tests performed by an independent lab hired by the producers. Though the methodology was disputed (it did not distinguish between organic and inorganic arsenic) the tests showed levels of arsenic up to 36 ppb. In response, FDA tested the worst brand from the Dr. Oz show and found much lower levels. Ongoing testing found 95% of the apple juice samples were below the level of concern. Later testing by Consumer Reports showed inorganic arsenic at levels slightly above 10 ppb, and the organization urged parents to reduce consumption. In July 2013, on consideration of consumption by children, chronic exposure, and carcinogenic effect, the FDA established an \"action level\" of 10 ppb for apple juice, the same as the drinking water standard.\n\nConcern about arsenic in rice in Bangladesh was raised in 2002, but at the time only Australia had a legal limit for food (one milligram per kilogram). Concern was raised about people who were eating U.S. rice exceeding WHO standards for personal arsenic intake in 2005. In 2011, the People's Republic of China set a food standard of 150 ppb for arsenic. \n\nIn the United States in 2012, testing by separate groups of researchers at the Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth College (early in the year, focusing on urinary levels in children) and Consumer Reports (in November) found levels of arsenic in rice that resulted in calls for the FDA to set limits. The FDA released some testing results in September 2012, and as of July 2013, is still collecting data in support of a new potential regulation. It has not recommended any changes in consumer behavior. \n\nConsumer Reports recommended: \n# That the EPA and FDA eliminate arsenic-containing fertilizer, drugs, and pesticides in food production; \n# That the FDA establish a legal limit for food; \n# That industry change production practices to lower arsenic levels, especially in food for children; and \n# That consumers test home water supplies, eat a varied diet, and cook rice with excess water, then draining it off (reducing inorganic arsenic by about one third along with a slight reduction in vitamin content). \n# Evidence-based public health advocates also recommend that, given the lack of regulation or labeling for arsenic in the U.S., children should eat no more than 1.5 servings per week of rice and should not drink rice milk as part of their daily diet before age 5. They also offer recommendations for adults and infants on how to limit arsenic exposure from rice, drinking water, and fruit juice.\nA 2014 World Health Organization advisory conference was scheduled to consider limits of 200–300 ppb for rice.\n\nOccupational exposure limits \n\nEcotoxicity \n\nArsenic is bioaccumulative in many organisms, marine species in particular, but it does not appear to biomagnify significantly in food webs. In polluted areas, plant growth may be affected by root uptake of arsenate, which is a phosphate analog and therefore readily transported in plant tissues and cells. In polluted areas, uptake of the more toxic arsenite ion (found more particularly in reducing conditions) is likely in poorly-drained soils.\n\nToxicity in Animals \n\nBiological mechanism \n\nArsenic's toxicity comes from the affinity of arsenic(III) oxides for thiols. Thiols, in the form of cysteine residues and cofactors such as lipoic acid and coenzyme A, are situated at the active sites of many important enzymes.\n\nArsenic disrupts ATP production through several mechanisms. At the level of the citric acid cycle, arsenic inhibits lipoic acid, which is a cofactor for pyruvate dehydrogenase. By competing with phosphate, arsenate uncouples oxidative phosphorylation, thus inhibiting energy-linked reduction of NAD+, mitochondrial respiration and ATP synthesis. Hydrogen peroxide production is also increased, which, it is speculated, has potential to form reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress. These metabolic interferences lead to death from multi-system organ failure. The organ failure is presumed to be from necrotic cell death, not apoptosis, since energy reserves have been too depleted for apoptosis to occur.\n\nAlthough arsenic causes toxicity it can also play a protective role. \n\nExposure risks and remediation \n\nOccupational exposure and arsenic poisoning may occur in persons working in industries involving the use of inorganic arsenic and its compounds, such as wood preservation, glass production, nonferrous metal alloys, and electronic semiconductor manufacturing. Inorganic arsenic is also found in coke oven emissions associated with the smelter industry. \n\nThe conversion between As(III) and As(V) is a large factor in arsenic environmental contamination. According to Croal, Gralnick, Malasarn and Newman, \"[the] understanding [of] what stimulates As(III) oxidation and/or limits As(V) reduction is relevant for bioremediation of contaminated sites (Croal). The study of chemolithoautotrophic As(III) oxidizers and the heterotrophic As(V) reducers can help the understanding of the oxidation and/or reduction of arsenic. It has been proposed that As(III) which is more toxic than Arsenic (V) can be removed from the ground water using baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. \n\nTreatment \n\nTreatment of chronic arsenic poisoning is possible. British anti-lewisite (dimercaprol) is prescribed in doses of 5 mg/kg up to 300 mg every 4 hours for the first day, then every 6 hours for the second day, and finally every 8 hours for 8 additional days. However the USA's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) states that the long-term effects of arsenic exposure cannot be predicted. Blood, urine, hair, and nails may be tested for arsenic; however, these tests cannot foresee possible health outcomes from the exposure. Long-term exposure and consequent excretion through urine has been linked to bladder and kidney cancer in addition to cancer of the liver, prostate, skin, lungs, and nasal cavity." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "President_of_the_United_States.txt", "Sally_Hemings.txt", "Americans.txt" ], "title": [ "President of the United States", "Sally Hemings", "Americans" ], "wiki_context": [ "The President of the United States of America (POTUS) is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.\n\nThe President of the United States is considered one of the world's most powerful people, leading the world's only contemporary superpower. The role includes being the commander-in-chief of the world's most expensive military with the largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by real and nominal GDP. The office of the president holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad.\n\nArticle II of the U.S. Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The power includes execution of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The president is largely responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is enrolled. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States. Since the founding of the United States, the power of the president and the federal government has grown substantially. \n\nThe president is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term, and is one of only two nationally elected federal officers, the other being the Vice President of the United States. The Twenty-second Amendment, adopted in 1951, prohibits anyone from ever being elected to the presidency for a third full term. It also prohibits a person from being elected to the presidency more than once if that person previously had served as president, or acting president, for more than two years of another person's term as president. In all, 43 individuals have served 44 presidencies (counting Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms separately) spanning 56 full four-year terms. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th and current president. On November 6, 2012, he was re-elected and is currently serving the 57th term. The next presidential election is scheduled to take place on November 8, 2016; on January 20, 2017, the newly elected president will take office.\n\nOrigin\n\nIn 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, recognized the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British. Desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. As a central authority, Congress under the Articles was without any legislative power; it could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, nor any taxes or local commercial regulations enforceable upon citizens. This institutional design reflected the conception of how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress, while severally lodging the rest within their own respective state governments. Only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1, 1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them.\n\nIn 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak, their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another, witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed.\n\nFollowing the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, the Annapolis delegates called for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia.\n\nWhen the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rhode Island did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature. New York offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter. It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U.S. Constitution emerged.\n\nPowers and duties\n\nArticle I legislative role\n\nThe first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto. The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options:\n# Sign the legislation; the bill then becomes law.\n# Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections; the bill does not become law, unless each house of Congress votes to override the veto by a two-thirds vote.\n# Take no action. In this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation. After 10 days, not counting Sundays, two possible outcomes emerge:\n#* If Congress is still convened, the bill becomes law.\n#* If Congress has adjourned, thus preventing the return of the legislation, the bill does not become law. This latter outcome is known as the pocket veto.\n\nIn 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the president's veto power with the Line Item Veto Act. The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the president then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In Clinton v. City of New York, , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.\n\nArticle II executive powers\n\nWar and foreign affairs powers\n\nPerhaps the most important of all presidential powers is the command of the United States Armed Forces as its commander-in-chief. While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, the president has ultimate responsibility for direction and disposition of the military. The present-day operational command of the Armed Forces (belonging to the Department of Defense) is normally exercised through the Secretary of Defense, with assistance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the Combatant Commands, as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan (UCP). The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Alexander Hamilton explains this in Federalist No. 69: Congress, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual. Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation. While historically presidents initiated the process for going to war, critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1990.\n\nAlong with the armed forces, the president also directs U.S. foreign policy. Through the Department of State and the Department of Defense, the president is responsible for the protection of Americans abroad and of foreign nationals in the United States. The president decides whether to recognize new nations and new governments, and negotiates treaties with other nations, which become binding on the United States when approved by two-thirds vote of the Senate.\n\nAlthough not constitutionally provided, presidents also sometimes employ \"executive agreements\" in foreign relations. These agreements frequently regard administrative policy choices germane to executive power; for example, the extent to which either country presents an armed presence in a given area, how each country will enforce copyright treaties, or how each country will process foreign mail. However, the 20th century witnessed a vast expansion of the use of executive agreements, and critics have challenged the extent of that use as supplanting the treaty process and removing constitutionally prescribed checks and balances over the executive in foreign relations. Supporters counter that the agreements offer a pragmatic solution when the need for swift, secret, and/or concerted action arises.\n\nAdministrative powers\n\nThe president is the head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to \"take care that the laws be faithfully executed.\" The executive branch has over four million employees, including members of the military. \n\nPresidents make numerous executive branch appointments: an incoming president may make up to 6,000 before taking office and 8,000 more while serving. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers, are all appointed by a president with the \"advice and consent\" of a majority of the Senate. When the Senate is in recess for at least ten days, the president may make recess appointments. Recess appointments are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate.\n\nThe power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove purely executive officials at will. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute. \n\nThe president additionally possesses the ability to direct much of the executive branch through executive orders that are grounded in federal law or constitutionally granted executive power. Executive orders are reviewable by federal courts and can be superseded by federal legislation.\n\nTo manage the growing federal bureaucracy, Presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Within the Executive Office, the President's innermost layer of aides (and their assistants) are located in the White House Office.\n\nJuridical powers\n\nThe president also has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. However, these nominations do require Senate confirmation. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to U.S. district courts, presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of Senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves, as is often done just before the end of a presidential term, not without controversy.\n\nHistorically, two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties. George Washington first claimed privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution, or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege. When Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, , that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution. When President Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in Clinton v. Jones, , that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits. These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined. Additionally, federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees, but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president. \n\nThe state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security. Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in Totten v. United States , when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy. However, the privilege was not formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court until United States v. Reynolds , where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege. Before the September 11 attacks, use of the privilege had been rare, but increasing in frequency. Since 2001, the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation, thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims, as in the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions. \n\nLegislative facilitator\n\nThe Constitution's Ineligibility Clause prevents the President (and all other executive officers) from simultaneously being a member of Congress. Therefore, the president cannot directly introduce legislative proposals for consideration in Congress. However, the president can take an indirect role in shaping legislation, especially if the president's political party has a majority in one or both houses of Congress. For example, the president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress. The president can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally mandated, periodic reports to Congress. These reports may be either written or oral, but today are given as the State of the Union address, which often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year. Additionally, the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made.\n\nIn the 20th century critics began charging that too many legislative and budgetary powers have slid into the hands of presidents that should belong to Congress. As the head of the executive branch, presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress. One critic charged that presidents could appoint a \"virtual army of 'czars' – each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House.\" Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it. This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional. Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an \"increasingly swollen executive branch\" and \"the eclipse of Congress.\"\n\nAccording to Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution, the president may convene either or both houses of Congress. If both houses cannot agree on a date of adjournment, the president may appoint a date for Congress to adjourn.\n\nCeremonial roles\n\nAs head of state, the president can fulfill traditions established by previous presidents. William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., on the Washington Senators' Opening Day. Every president since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare. \n\nThe President of the United States has served as the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America since the founding of the organization. \n\nOther presidential traditions are associated with American holidays. Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children. Beginning in 1947 during the Harry S. Truman administration, every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual national thanksgiving turkey presentation held at the White House. Since 1989, when the custom of \"pardoning\" the turkey was formalized by George H. W. Bush, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life. \n\nPresidential traditions also involve the president's role as head of government. Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition. Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president. \n\nDuring a state visit by a foreign head of state, the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn, a custom begun by John F. Kennedy in 1961. This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening. \n\nThe modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as \"propagandized leadership\" which has a \"mesmerizing power surrounding the office.\" Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo-ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras. One critic wrote the image of John F. Kennedy was described as carefully framed \"in rich detail\" which \"drew on the power of myth\" regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions. As a result, some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents: voters expect a president to \"drive the economy, vanquish enemies, lead the free world, comfort tornado victims, heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit-card fees.\"\n\nCritics of presidency's evolution\n\nMost of the nation's Founding Fathers expected the Congress, which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution, to be the dominant branch of government; they did not expect a strong executive. However, presidential power has shifted over time, which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful, unchecked, unbalanced, and \"monarchist\" in nature. Critic Dana D. Nelson believes presidents over the past thirty years have worked towards \"undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies.\" She criticizes proponents of the unitary executive for expanding \"the many existing uncheckable executive powers – such as executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements – that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid, interference or consent from Congress.\" Activist Bill Wilson opined that the expanded presidency was \"the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule.\"\n\nSelection process\n\nEligibility\n\nArticle II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the following qualifications for holding the presidency:\n* be a natural-born citizen of the United States;Foreign-born American citizens who met the age and residency requirements at the time the Constitution was adopted were also eligible for the presidency. However, this allowance has since become obsolete.\n* be at least thirty-five years old;\n* be a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.\n\nThe Twelfth Amendment precludes anyone ineligible to being the president from becoming the vice president.\n\nA person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions:\n* Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no person can be elected president more than twice. The amendment also specifies that if any eligible person serves as president or acting president for more than two years of a term for which some other eligible person was elected president, the former can only be elected president once. Scholars disagree over whether a person precluded by the Twenty-second Amendment to being elected president is also precluded to being vice president. \n* Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, upon conviction in impeachment cases, the Senate has the option of disqualifying convicted individuals from holding federal office, including that of president. \n* Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, no person who swore an oath to support the Constitution, and later rebelled against the United States, can become president. However, this disqualification can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress.\n\nCampaigns and nomination\n\nThe modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's nominee for president. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. The most common previous profession by U.S. presidents is lawyer. \n\nNominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.\n\nElection and oath\n\nThe president is elected indirectly. A number of electors, collectively known as the Electoral College, officially select the president. On Election Day, voters in each of the states and the District of Columbia cast ballots for these electors. Each state is allocated a number of electors, equal to the size of its delegation in both Houses of Congress combined. Generally, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College.\n\nThe winning slate of electors meet at its state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, to vote. They then send a record of that vote to Congress. The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president—acting in that role's capacity as President of the Senate—and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which was elected at the same time as the president.\n\nPursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the president's term of office begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. This date, known as Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the four-year terms of both the president and the vice president. Before executing the powers of the office, a president is constitutionally required to take the presidential oath:\n\nAlthough not required, presidents have traditionally palmed a Bible while swearing the oath and have added, \"So help me God!\" to the end of the oath. Further, although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths, presidents are traditionally sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States.\n\nTenure and term limits\n\nThe term of office for president and vice president is four years. George Washington, the first president, set an unofficial precedent of serving only two terms, which subsequent presidents followed until 1940. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt, attempts at a third term were encouraged by supporters of Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt; neither of these attempts succeeded. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt declined to seek a third term, but allowed his political party to \"draft\" him as its presidential candidate and was subsequently elected to a third term. In 1941, the United States entered World War II, leading voters to elect Roosevelt to a fourth term in 1944. But Roosevelt died only 82 days after taking office for the fourth term on 12 April 1945.\n\nAfter the war, and in response to Roosevelt being elected to third and fourth terms, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted. The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than half of another president's term. Harry S. Truman, president when this amendment was adopted, was exempted from its limitations and briefly sought a third (a second full) term before withdrawing from the 1952 election.\n\nSince the amendment's adoption, four presidents have served two full terms: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Barack Obama has been elected to a second term, and will complete his term on 20 January 2017, if he does not die or resign before that date. Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush sought a second term, but were defeated. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before completing it. Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president under the amendment to be eligible to serve more than two terms in total, having served for only fourteen months following John F. Kennedy's assassination. However, Johnson withdrew from the 1968 Democratic Primary, surprising many Americans. Gerald Ford sought a full term, after serving out the last two years and five months of Nixon's second term, but was not elected.\n\nVacancy or disability\n\nVacancies in the office of President may arise under several possible circumstances: death, resignation and removal from office.\n\nArticle II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the House of Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for \"treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.\" Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 gives the Senate the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. The House has thus far impeached two presidents: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was subsequently convicted by the Senate; however, Johnson was acquitted by just one vote.\n\nUnder Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the president may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate stating the reasons for the transfer. The president resumes the discharge of the presidential powers and duties upon transmitting, to those two officials, a written declaration stating that resumption. This transfer of power may occur for any reason the president considers appropriate; in 2002 and again in 2007, President George W. Bush briefly transferred presidential authority to Vice President Dick Cheney. In both cases, this was done to accommodate a medical procedure which required Bush to be sedated; both times, Bush returned to duty later the same day. \n\nUnder Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the vice president, in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet, may transfer the presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate that the president is unable to discharge the presidential powers and duties. If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president; however, the president can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers and duties. If the vice president and Cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim.\n\nThe United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president, but does not regulate its form or the conditions for its validity. Pursuant to federal law, the only valid evidence of the president's resignation is a written instrument to that effect, signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. This has only occurred once, when Richard Nixon delivered a letter to Henry Kissinger to that effect.\n\nSection 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment states that the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death or resignation of the preceding president. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 provides that if the offices of President and Vice President are each either vacant or are held by a disabled person, the next officer in the presidential line of succession, the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president. The line then extends to the President pro tempore of the Senate, followed by every member of the Cabinet. These persons must fulfill all eligibility requirements of the office of President to be eligible to become acting president; ineligible individuals are skipped. There has never been a special election for the office of President.\n\nCompensation\n\nSince 2001, the president has earned a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001.\n\nThe White House in Washington, D.C., serves as the official place of residence for the president. As well as access to the White House staff, facilities available to the president include medical care, recreation, housekeeping, and security services. The government pays for state dinners and other official functions, but the president pays for personal, family and guest dry cleaning and food; the high food bill often amazes new residents. Naval Support Facility Thurmont, popularly known as Camp David, is a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the president and guests. Blair House, located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park, is a complex of four connected townhouses exceeding 70000 sqft of floor space which serves as the president's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed. \n\nFor ground travel, the president uses the presidential state car, which is an armored limousine built on a heavily modified Cadillac-based chassis.[http://www.secretservice.gov/press/GPA02-09_Limo.pdf New Presidential Limousine enters Secret Service Fleet] U.S. Secret Service Press Release (January 14, 2009) Retrieved on January 20, 2009. One of two identical Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified versions of Boeing 747-200B airliners, serve as long distance travel for the president and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board (although any U.S. Air Force aircraft the President is aboard is designated as \"Air Force One\" for the duration of the flight). In-country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes while overseas trips are handled with both, one primary and one backup. Any civilian aircraft the President is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight. The president also has access to a fleet of thirty-five U.S. Marine Corps helicopters of varying models, designated Marine One when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet. Flights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the President is actually aboard to any would-be threats.\n\nThe U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the sitting president and the first family. As part of their protection, presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition. \n\nFile:White House lawn (1).tif|The White House\n\nFile:Camp David 1959.jpg|Camp David\nFile:Blair House daylight.jpg|Blair House\nFile:GPA02-09 US SecretService press release 2009 Limousine Page 3 Image.jpg|State car\nFile:Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore.jpg|Air Force One\nFile:Marine One (1970).jpg|Marine One\n\nPost-presidency\n\nBeginning in 1959, all living former presidents were granted a pension, an office, and a staff. The pension has increased numerous times with Congressional approval. Retired presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries, which was $199,700 each year in 2012. Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions. The Former Presidents Act, as amended, also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges. Prior to 1997, all former presidents, their spouses, and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president's death. In 1997, Congress passed legislation limiting secret service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office. On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime secret service protection for him, George W. Bush, and all subsequent presidents. A spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for secret service protection.\n\nSome presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include William Howard Taft's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after World War II. Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected president again four years later in 1892. Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House: John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, serving there for seventeen years, and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875. John Tyler served in the provisional Congress of the Confederate States during the Civil War and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before that body first met.\n\nPresidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events. Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman. Jimmy Carter has become a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton has also worked as an informal ambassador, most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from North Korea. Clinton has also been active politically since his presidential term ended, working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his reelection campaign.\n\nFile:Carter 2k14.tif|Jimmy Carter39th (1977–81)\nFile:President George H. W.tif|George H. W. Bush41st (1989–93)\nFile:Clinton 2k15.tif|Bill Clinton42nd (1993–2001)\nFile:Bush 2k14.tif|George W. Bush43rd (2001–09)\n\nPresidential libraries\n\nSince Herbert Hoover, each president has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education, such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Texas A&M University and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin.\n\nAs many presidents live for many years after leaving office, several of them have personally overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries, some even making arrangements for their own burial at the site. Several presidential libraries therefore contain the graves of the president they document, such as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The graves are viewable by the general public visiting these libraries.\n\nTimeline of Presidents", "Sarah \"Sally\" Hemings ( 1773 – 1835) was an enslaved woman of mixed race owned by President Thomas Jefferson. She is believed to have had a long-term relationship and six children of record with him, of whom four survived to adulthood; and were given freedom by Jefferson. Hemings was the youngest of six siblings by the widowed planter John Wayles and his mixed-race slave Betty Hemings; Sally and her siblings were three-quarters European and half-siblings of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton.\n\nIn 1787, Hemings, aged 14, accompanied Jefferson's youngest daughter Mary (\"Polly\") to London and then to Paris, where the widowed Jefferson, aged 44 at the time, was serving as the United States Minister to France. Hemings spent two years there. It is believed by most historians that Jefferson began a sexual relationship with Hemings either in France or soon after their return to Monticello. Hemings was a slave in Jefferson's house until his death.\n\nThe historical question of whether Jefferson was the father of Hemings' children is known as the Jefferson–Hemings controversy. Following renewed historic analysis in the late 20th century and a 1998 DNA study that found a match between the Jefferson male line and a descendant of Hemings' last son, Eston Hemings, there is a near-consensus among historians that the widower Jefferson fathered her son Eston Hemings and probably all her children. A small number of historians, however, still disagree. \n\nHemings' children lived in Jefferson's house as slaves and were trained as artisans. Jefferson freed all of Hemings' surviving children: Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston, as they came of age (they were the only slave family freed by Jefferson). They were seven-eighths European in ancestry, and three of the four entered white society as adults. Descendants of those three identified as white. Hemings was \"given her time\", lived her last nine years freely with her two younger sons in Charlottesville, Virginia, and saw a grandchild born in the house her sons owned.\n\nEarly life\n\nSally Hemings was born about 1773 to Betty Hemings (1735–1807), a biracial slave. Her father was their master John Wayles (1715–1773). Her mother Betty was the daughter of Susanna, an enslaved African, and John Hemings, an English sea captain. Susanna and Betty Hemings were first held by Francis Eppes IV, where Susanna was referred to as Susanna Epps. John Hemings tried to buy them from Eppes, but the planter refused to give them up. The mother and daughter were inherited by Francis's daughter, Martha Eppes, who took them with her as personal servants upon her marriage to the planter John Wayles. His parents were Edward Wayles and Ellen Ashburner-Wayles, both of Lancaster, England.\n\nAfter Martha's death, Wayles married and was widowed twice more. Several sources assert that the widower John Wayles took his slave Betty Hemings as a concubine and had six children by her during the last 12 years of his life; the youngest of these was Sally Hemings. They were half-siblings to his daughters by his wives; his first child, Martha Wayles (named after her mother, John Wayles's first wife), married the young planter Thomas Jefferson. \n\nThe biracial children of Betty Hemings by Wayles were three-quarters European in ancestry and very fair-skinned. (They had a white maternal grandfather and two white paternal grandparents.) Since 1662 in Virginia slave law, children born to enslaved mothers were considered slaves under the principle of partus sequitur ventrem. Elizabeth and her children, including Sally Hemings, and all their children, were legally slaves, although the fathers were the white masters and the children were majority-white in ancestry.\n\nAfter Wayles died in 1773, his daughter Martha and Jefferson inherited the Hemings family among a total of 135 slaves from his estate, as well as 11,000 acres of land. The youngest Wayles-Hemings child was Sally, an infant that year and about 25 years younger than Martha. Scholars have noted that as the mixed-race Wayles-Hemings children grew up at Monticello, they were trained and given assignments as skilled artisans and domestic servants, at the top of the slave hierarchy. Betty Hemings' other children and their descendants, also mixed race, also had privileged assignments. None worked in the fields. \n\nHemingses in Paris\n\nIn 1784, the widower Thomas Jefferson was appointed the American envoy to France; he took his oldest daughter Martha (Patsy) with him to Paris, as well as some of his personal slaves. Among them was Sally's older brother James Hemings, who became trained as a chef in French cuisine. Jefferson left his two younger daughters in the care of friends in the US. After Lucy died of whooping cough in 1787, Jefferson sent for his surviving daughter, nine-year-old Maria (Polly) Jefferson, to live with him. The teenage slave Sally Hemings was chosen to accompany Polly to France after an older slave became pregnant and could not make the journey. Originally, Jefferson arranged for Polly to \"be in the care of her nurse, a black woman, to whom she is confided with safety\" [Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams, Dec. 21, 1786]. According to Abigail Adams, \"The old Nurse whom you expected to have attended her, was sick and unable to come. She has a Girl about 15 or 16 with her.\" [Letter from Abigail Adams to Thomas Jefferson, June 26, 1787].\n\nPolly and Sally landed in London, where they stayed with Abigail and John Adams from June 26 until July 10, 1787. Jefferson's associate, Mr. Petit, arranged transportation and escorted the girls to Paris. In a letter to Jefferson on June 27, 1787, Abigail wrote, \"The Girl who is with [Polly] is quite a child, and Captain Ramsey is of opinion will be of so little Service that he had better carry her back with him. But of this you will be a judge. She seems fond of the child and appears good naturd.\" On July 6, Abigail wrote to Jefferson, \"The Girl she has with her, wants more care than the child, and is wholy incapable of looking properly after her, without some superiour to direct her.\"\n\nSally Hemings remained in France for 26 months; slavery was abolished in that country after the Revolution in 1789. Jefferson paid wages to her and James while they were in Paris. He paid Sally Hemings the equivalent of $2 a month. In comparison, he paid his Parisian scullion $2.50 a month, and James Hemings $4 a month as chef in training. The French servants earned from $8 to $12 a month. Toward the end of their stay, James used his money to pay for a French tutor and learn the language. Sally Hemings also was learning French. There is no record of where she lived: it may have been with Jefferson and her brother in the Hôtel de Langeac on the Champs-Elysées, or at the convent Abbaye de Panthemont where the girls Maria and Martha were schooled. Whatever the weekday arrangements, Jefferson and his retinue spent weekends together at his villa. Jefferson purchased some fine clothing for Hemings, which suggests that she accompanied Martha as a lady's maid to formal events. \n\nUnder French law, both Sally and James could have petitioned for their freedom, as the 1789 revolutionary constitution in France abolished slavery in principle. Hemings had the legal right to remain in France as a free person; if she returned to Virginia with Jefferson, it would be as a slave. According to her son Madison's memoir, Hemings became pregnant by Jefferson in Paris. She was about 16 at the time. She agreed to return with him to the United States based on his promise to free their children when they reached the age of 21 years. Hemings' strong ties to her mother, siblings and extended family probably drew her back to Monticello.\n\nReturn to the United States\n\nIn 1789, Sally and James Hemings returned to the United States with Jefferson. He was 46 years old and seven years a widower. As shown by Jefferson's father-in-law, John Wayles, wealthy Virginia widowers frequently took enslaved women as concubines. Historian Joshua D. Rothman noted that it was not unusual for the time for Jefferson to choose to do so. White society simply expected these men to be discreet. \n\nAccording to Madison Hemings, Sally Hemings' first child died soon after her return from Paris. Those Jefferson records that have survived mutilation and purge note that Hemings had six children after her return to the US: \n\n* Harriet Hemings (I) (October 5, 1795 - December 7, 1797)\n* Beverley Hemings (possibly named William Beverley Hemings) (April 1, 1798 - after 1873)\n*unnamed daughter (or possibly named Thenia after Hemings' sister Thenia) (born in 1799 and died in infancy)[http://www.monticello.org/plantation/hemingscontro/hemings-jefferson_contro.html Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A Brief Account]. Monticello.org.\n* Harriet Hemings (II) (May 22, 1801 - after 1863)\n* Madison Hemings (possibly named James Madison Hemings) (January 19, 1805 – 1877)\n* Eston Hemings (possibly named Thomas Eston Hemings) (May 21, 1808 – 1856)\n\nJefferson recorded slave births in his Farm Book. Unlike his practice in recording births of other slaves, he did not note the father of Hemings' children. \n\nSally Hemings' documented duties at Monticello included being a nursemaid-companion, lady's maid, chambermaid, and seamstress. It is not known whether she was literate, and she left no known writings. She was described as very fair, with \"straight hair down her back\". Jefferson's grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, described her as \"light colored and decidedly good looking\". As an adult she may have lived in a room in Monticello's \"South Dependencies\", a wing of the mansion which was accessible to the main house through a covered passageway.[http://www.monticello.org/plantation/hemingscontro/appendixh.html Appendix H: Sally Hemings and Her Children]. Monticello.org.\n\nHemings never married. As a slave, she could not have a marriage recognized under Virginia law, but many slaves at Monticello are known to have taken partners in common-law marriages and had stable lives. (No such marriage for Hemings is noted in the records.) While Sally Hemings worked at Monticello, she had her children nearby. According to her son Madison, while young, the children \"were permitted to stay about the 'great house', and only required to do such light work as going on errands\". At the age of 14, each of the children began their training: the brothers with the plantation's skilled master of carpentry, and Harriet as a spinner and weaver. The three boys all learned to play the violin (Jefferson played the violin).\n\nIn 1822 at the age of 24, Beverley \"ran away\" from Monticello and was not pursued. His sister Harriet Hemings, 21, followed in the same year. The overseer Edmund Bacon said that he gave her $50 (US$ in dollars) and put her on a stagecoach to the North, presumably to join her brother. In his memoir, published posthumously, Bacon said Harriet was \"near white and very beautiful\", and that people said Jefferson freed her because she was his daughter. Madison Hemings said that Beverley and Harriet each entered white society in Washington, DC, and each married well.\n\nOf the hundreds of slaves he owned, in his lifetime Jefferson formally freed only two slaves: Hemings' older brothers Robert, who had to buy his freedom, and James Hemings (who was required to train his brother Peter for three years to get his freedom). He freed five slaves in his will - all males from the extended Hemings family, including Madison and Eston Hemings, his two \"natural\" children. Harriet was the only female slave he allowed to go free. In addition to manumission for the Hemings men in his will, he petitioned the legislature to allow them to stay in the state. No documentation has been found for Sally Hemings' emancipation.\n\nJefferson's married daughter Martha Randolph informally freed the elderly Hemings by giving her \"her time.\" As the historian Edmund S. Morgan has noted, \"Hemings herself was withheld from auction and freed at last by Jefferson's daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph, who was, of course, her niece.\" This informal freedom allowed Hemings to live in Virginia with her two youngest sons in nearby Charlottesville for the next nine years until her death. In the Albemarle County 1833 census, all three were recorded as free white persons. Jefferson inherited a great amount of wealth at a young age, but was bankrupt by the time he died. His entire estate, including his slaves, were sold to repay his debts. Hemings lived to see a grandchild born in a house that her sons owned. \n\nJefferson–Hemings controversy\n\nThe Jefferson–Hemings controversy is related to the question of whether, after Jefferson became a widower, he had an intimate relationship with Sally Hemings, resulting in his fathering her six children of record. The controversy dates from the 1790s. A relationship between Jefferson and Hemings was first reported in 1802, by one of Jefferson’s enemies, a political journalist named James T. Callender, after he noticed several light skinned slaves at Monticello. However, Jefferson never publicly denied this accusation. In the late 20th century, historians began reanalyzing the body of evidence. In 1997, Annette Gordon-Reed published a book, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, that analyzed the historiography of the controversy, demonstrating how historians since the 19th century had accepted early assumptions. They favored Jefferson family testimony while criticizing Hemings family testimony as \"oral history\", and failed to note all the facts. A consensus began to emerge after the results of a DNA analysis in 1998, which showed no match between the Carr male line, proposed for more than 150 years as the father(s), and the one Hemings descendant tested. It did show a match between the Jefferson male line and the Eston Hemings descendant. \n\nSince 1998 and the DNA study,E. A. Foster et al., \"[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v396/n6706/full/396027a0.html Jefferson fathered slave's last child]\", Nature 396 27–28 (5 November 1998) many historians have concluded that the widower Jefferson had an intimate, long relationship with Hemings, and fathered six children with her, four of whom survived to adulthood. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF), which runs Monticello, conducted an independent historic review in 2000, as did the National Genealogical Society in 2001; scholars concluded Jefferson was probably the father of all Hemings' children. In an article that appeared in Science, eight weeks after the DNA study, Eugene Foster, the lead co-author of the DNA study, is reported to have \"made it clear that the data establish only that Thomas Jefferson was one of several candidates for the paternity of Eston Hemings\".\n\nIn an interview in 2000, the historian Annette Gordon-Reed said of the change in historical scholarship about Jefferson and Hemings: \"Symbolically, it's tremendously important for people ... as a way of inclusion. Nathan Huggins said that the Sally Hemings story was a way of establishing black people's birthright to America.\"\n\nCritics, such as the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society (TJHS) Scholars Commission (2001), have argued against the TJF report and reached different conclusions about the DNA tests. All but one of the 13 scholars expressed considerable skepticism about the conclusions. The TJHS report suggested that Jefferson's younger brother Randolph Jefferson could have been the father, and that Hemings may have had multiple partners. Three of the Hemings children were given names from the Randolph family, relatives of Thomas Jefferson through his mother. Herbert Barger, the founder and current Director Emeritus of the TJHS and the husband of a Jefferson descendant, assisted Foster in the DNA study.\n\nIn 2012, the Smithsonian Institution and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation held a major exhibit at the National Museum of American History: Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: The Paradox of Liberty; it says that \"evidence strongly support[s] the conclusion that [Thomas] Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemings' children.\" \n\nDescendants\n\nIn 2008 Gordon-Reed published The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, which explored the extended family, including James and Sally's lives in France, Monticello and Philadelphia, during Thomas Jefferson's lifetime. She was not able to find much new information about Beverly or Harriet Hemings, who left Monticello as young adults and entered the white community, probably changing their names. More documentation reveals the lives of the younger sons Madison Hemings and Eston Hemings, and of their descendants, from Madison's memoir, a wide variety of historical records, and newspaper accounts.\n\nEventually three of Hemings' four surviving children, except for Madison, chose to identify as white adults in the North; they were seven-eighths European in ancestry and this was consistent with their appearance. In his memoir, Madison Hemings said both Beverley and Harriet married well in the white community in Washington, DC. Harriet was described by Edmund Bacon, the longtime Monticello overseer, as \"nearly as white as anybody, and very beautiful\". For some time Madison wrote to both his siblings, and learned of their marriages. He knew that Harriet had children and was living in Maryland, but gradually she and Beverly stopped responding to his letters and the siblings lost touch.\n\nBoth Madison and Eston Hemings married free women of color in Charlottesville. After their mother's death in 1835, they and their families moved to Chillicothe in the free state of Ohio. Census records classified them as \"mulatto\", at that time meaning mixed race. The census enumerator, usually a local person, classified individuals in part according to who their neighbors were and what was known of them. \n\nA high demand for slaves in the Deep South and passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 heightened the risk for free blacks of being kidnapped by slave catchers, as they needed little documentation to claim blacks as fugitives. Legally free people of color, Eston Hemings and his family moved to Madison, Wisconsin to be further away from slave catchers. There he changed his name to \"Eston H. Jefferson\" to acknowledge his paternity, and all the family adopted the surname. From then on the Jeffersons lived in the white community. \n\nMadison Hemings' family were the only Hemings descendants who continued to identify with the black community. They intermarried within the community of free people of color before the Civil War. Over time, some of their descendants are known to have passed into the white community, while many others have identified within the black community. \n\nBoth Eston and Madison achieved some success in life, were well respected by their contemporaries, and had children who repeated and built on their successes. They worked as carpenters, and Madison also had a small farm. Eston became a professional musician and bandleader, \"a master of the violin, and an accomplished 'caller' of dances\", who \"always officiated at the 'swell' entertainments of Chillicothe\". He was in demand across southern Ohio. A neighbor described him as, \"Quiet, unobtrusive, polite and decidedly intelligent, he was soon very well and favorably known to all classes of our citizens, for his personal appearance and gentlemanly manners attracted everybody's attention to him.\" \n\nGrandchildren and other descendants\n\nMadison's sons fought on the Union side in the Civil War. Thomas Eston Hemings enlisted in the United States Colored Troops (USCT); captured, he spent time at the Andersonville POW camp and died in a POW camp in Meridian, Mississippi. According to a Hemings descendant, his brother James attempted to cross Union lines and \"pass\" as a white man to enlist in the Confederate army to rescue him. Later, James Hemings was rumored to have moved to Colorado and perhaps passed into white society. Like some others in the family, he disappeared from the record and the rest of his biography remains unknown. \nA third son, William Hemings, enlisted in the regular Union Army as a white man. Madison's last known male-line descendant, William never married and was not known to have had children. He died in 1910 in a veterans' hospital.\n\nSome of Madison Hemings' children and grandchildren who remained in Ohio suffered from the limited opportunities for blacks at that time, working as laborers, servants or small farmers. They tended to marry within the mixed-race community in the region, who became established as people of education and property. \n\nMadison's daughter Ellen Wayles Hemings married Alexander Jackson Roberts, a graduate of Oberlin College. When their first son was young, they moved to Los Angeles, California, where the family and its descendants became leaders in the twentieth century. Their first son Frederick Madison Roberts (1879–1952) – Sally Hemings' and Jefferson's great-grandson – was the first person of known black ancestry elected to public office on the West Coast: he served for nearly 20 years in the California State Assembly from 1919 to 1934. Their second son William Giles Roberts was also a leader. Their descendants have had a strong tradition of college education and public service.[http://www.americanheritage.com/content/thomas-jefferson%E2%80%99s-unknown-grandchildren Fawn M. Brodie, Thomas Jefferson's Unknown Grandchildren: A Study in Historical Silences], American Heritage Magazine, Jun 1976, Vol. 27:Issue 6, accessed March 26, 2014\n\nEston's sons also enlisted in the Union Army, both as white men from Madison. His first son John Wayles Jefferson had red hair and gray eyes like his grandfather Jefferson. By the 1850s, John Jefferson in his 20s was proprietor of the American Hotel in Madison. At one time he operated it with his younger brother Beverley. He was commissioned as a Union officer during the Civil War, during which he was promoted to the rank of Colonel and served at the Battle of Vicksburg. He wrote letters about the war to the newspaper in Madison which were published.[http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wlhba/articleView.asp?pg\n1&id4558 Letter from J. W. Jefferson], Wisconsin State Historical Society After the war, John Jefferson returned to Wisconsin, where he wrote frequently for newspapers and published accounts about his war experiences. He later moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he became a successful and wealthy cotton broker. He never married or had known children,[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1976/6/1976_6_28.shtml Thomas Jefferson's unknown grandchildren] Fawn Brodie, American Heritage Magazine, October 1976Lewis, Jan. Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture. University of Virginia Press (1999), p. 169. and left a sizeable estate.\n\nEston's second son Beverley Jefferson also served in the regular Union Army. After operating the American Hotel with his brother John, he later separately operated the Capital Hotel. He also built a successful horse-drawn \"omnibus\" business. He and his wife Anna M. Smith had five sons, three of whom reached the professional class as a physician, attorney, and manager in the railroad industry. According to his 1908 obituary, Beverly Jefferson was \"a likeable character at the Wisconsin capital, and a familiar of statesmen for half a century\". His friend Augustus J. Munson wrote, \"Beverly Jefferson['s] death deserves more than a passing notice, as he was a grandson of Thomas Jefferson ... [He] was one of God's noblemen - gentle, kind, courteous, charitable.\" Beverley and Anna's great-grandson John Weeks Jefferson is the Eston Hemings descendant whose DNA was tested in 1998; it matched the Y-chromosome of the Thomas Jefferson male line. \n\nAs of 2007, there are known male-line descendants of Eston Hemings/Jefferson, and known female-line descendants of Madison Hemings' three daughters: Sarah, Harriet, and Ellen.", "Americans are citizens of the United States of America. The country is home to people of many different national origins. As a result, many Americans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizenship, allegiance and culture. Although citizens make up the majority of Americans, non-citizen residents, dual citizens, and expatriates may also claim an American identity. \n\nThe use in English of the term \"American\" to exclusively mean people of the United States developed from its original use to differentiate English people of the American colonies from English people of England despite its linguistic ambiguity in other senses of the word \"American\", which can also refer to people from the Americas in general. See Names for United States citizens.\n\nOverview\n\n \nThe majority of Americans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries, with the exception of the Native American population and people from Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands who became American through expansion of the country in the 19th century, and American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Northern Mariana Islands in the 20th century. \n \nDespite its multi-ethnic composition, the culture of the United States held in common by most Americans can also be referred to as mainstream American culture, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Northern and Western European colonists, settlers, and immigrants. It also includes influences of African-American culture. Westward expansion integrated the Creoles and Cajuns of Louisiana and the Hispanos of the Southwest and brought close contact with the culture of Mexico. Large-scale immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from Southern and Eastern Europe introduced a variety of elements. Immigration from Asia, Africa, and Latin America has also had impact. A cultural melting pot, or pluralistic salad bowl, describes the way in which generations of Americans have celebrated and exchanged distinctive cultural characteristics.\n\nIn addition to the United States, Americans and people of American descent can be found internationally. As many as seven million Americans are estimated to be living abroad, and make up the American diaspora. \n\nRacial and ethnic groups\n\nThe United States of America is a diverse country, racially, and ethnically. Six races are officially recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau for statistical purposes: White, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and people of two or more races. \"Some other race\" is also an option in the census and other surveys. \n\nThe United States Census Bureau also classifies Americans as \"Hispanic or Latino\" and \"Not Hispanic or Latino\", which identifies Hispanic and Latino Americans as a racially diverse ethnicity that comprises the largest minority group in the nation.\n\nWhite and European Americans\n\nPeople of European descent, or White Americans (also referred to as Caucasian Americans), constitute the majority of the 308 million people living in the United States, with 72.4% of the population in the 2010 United States Census. They are considered people who trace their ancestry to the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Of those reporting to be White American, 7,487,133 reported to be Multiracial; with largest combination being white and black. Additionally, there are 29,184,290 White Hispanics or Latinos. Non-Hispanic Whites are the majority in 46 states. There are four minority-majority states: California, Texas, New Mexico, and Hawaii. In addition, the District of Columbia has a non-white majority. The state with the highest percentage of non-Hispanic White Americans is Maine. \n\nThe largest continental ancestral group of Americans are that of Europeans who have origins in any of the original peoples of Europe. This includes people via African, North American, Caribbean, Central American or South American and Oceanian nations that have a large European diaspora. \n\nThe Spanish were the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now the United States.\nMartín de Argüelles born 1566, San Agustín, La Florida, was the first person of European descent born in what is now the United States. Twenty-one years later, Virginia Dare born 1587 Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina, was the first child born in the Thirteen Colonies to English parents.\n\nIn the 2014 American Community Survey, German Americans (14.4%), Irish Americans (10.4%), English Americans (7.6%) and Italian Americans (5.4%) were the four largest self-reported European ancestry groups in the United States forming 37.8% of the total population. However, the English-Americans and British-Americans demography is considered a serious under-count as the stock tend to self-report and identify as simply 'Americans' due to the length of time they have inhabited America. \n\nOverall, as the largest group, European Americans have the lowest poverty rate and the second highest educational attainment levels, median household income, and median personal income of any racial demographic in the nation.\n\nHispanic and Latino Americans\n\nHispanic or Latino Americans (of any race) constitute the largest ethnic minority in the United States. They form the second largest group after non-Hispanic Whites in the United States, comprising 16.3% of the population according to the 2010 United States Census.\n\nHispanic/Latino Americans are very racially diverse, and as a result form an ethnic category, rather than a race. \n\nPeople of Spanish or Hispanic descent have lived in what is now the United States since the founding of St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 by Pedro Menendez de Aviles. In the State of Texas, Spaniards first settled the region in the late 1600s and formed a unique cultural group known as Tejanos (Texanos).\n\nBlack and African Americans\n\nBlack and African Americans are citizens and residents of the United States with origins in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the Office of Management and Budget, the grouping includes individuals who self-identify as African American, as well as persons who emigrated from nations in the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. The grouping is thus based on geography, and may contradict or misrepresent an individual's self-identification since not all immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa are \"Black\". Among these racial outliers are persons from Cape Verde, Madagascar, various Arab states and Hamito-Semitic populations in East Africa and the Sahel, and the Afrikaners of Southern Africa.\n\nAfrican Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, and formerly as American Negroes) are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. According to the 2009 American Community Survey, there were 38,093,725 Black and African Americans in the United States, representing 12.4% of the population. In addition, there were 37,144,530 non-Hispanic blacks, which comprised 12.1% of the population. This number increased to 42 million according to the 2010 United States Census, when including Multiracial African Americans, making up 14% of the total U.S. population. Black and African Americans make up the second largest group in the United States, but the third largest group after White Americans and Hispanic or Latino Americans (of any race).[http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid\nDEC_10_SF1_QTP3&prodTypetable United States – QT-P3. Race, Combinations of Two Races, and Not Hispanic or Latino: 2000.] The majority of the population (55%) lives in the South; compared to the 2000 Census, there has also been a decrease of African Americans in the Northeast and Midwest.\n\nMost African Americans are the direct descendants of captives from West Africa, who survived the slavery era within the boundaries of the present United States. As an adjective, the term is usually spelled African-American. The first West African slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. The English settlers treated these captives as indentured servants and released them after a number of years. This practice was gradually replaced by the system of race-based slavery used in the Caribbean. All the American colonies had slavery, but it was usually the form of personal servants in the North (where 2% of the people were slaves), and field hands in plantations in the South (where 25% were slaves); by the beginning of the American Revolutionary War 1/5th of the total population was enslaved. During the revolution, some would serve in the Continental Army or Continental Navy, while others would serve the British Empire in Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, and other units. By 1804, the northern states (north of the Mason–Dixon line) had abolished slavery. However, slavery would persist in the southern states until the end of the American Civil War and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Following the end of the Reconstruction Era, which saw the first African American representation in Congress, African Americans became disenfranchised and subject to Jim Crow laws, legislation that would persist until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act due to the Civil Rights Movement. \n\nAccording to US Census Bureau data, very few African immigrants self-identify as African American. On average, less than 5% of African residents self-reported as \"African American\" or \"Afro-American\" on the 2000 US Census. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants (~95%) identified instead with their own respective ethnicities. Self-designation as \"African American\" or \"Afro-American\" was highest among individuals from West Africa (4%-9%), and lowest among individuals from Cape Verde, East Africa and Southern Africa (0%-4%). African immigrants may also experience conflict with African Americans. \n\nAsian Americans\n\nAnother significant population is the Asian American population, comprising 17.3 million in 2010, or 5.6% of the U.S. population. California is home to 5.6 million Asian Americans, the greatest number in any state. In Hawaii, Asian Americans make up the highest proportion of the population (57 percent). Asian Americans live across the country, yet are heavily urbanized, with significant populations in the Greater Los Angeles Area, New York metropolitan area, and the San Francisco Bay Area.\n\nThey are by no means a monolithic group. The largest sub-groups are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Cambodia, Mainland China, India, Japan, Korea, Laos, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Asians overall have higher income levels than all other racial groups in the United States, including whites, and the trend appears to be increasing in relation to those groups. Additionally, Asians have a higher education attainment level than all other racial groups in the United States. For better or worse, the group has been called a model minority. \n\nWhile Asian Americans have been in what is now the United States since before the Revolutionary War, relatively large waves of Chinese, Filipino, and Japanese immigration did not begin until the mid-to-late 19th century. Immigration and significant population growth continue to this day. Due to a number of factors, Asian Americans have been stereotyped as \"perpetual foreigners\". \n\nMiddle Easterners and North Africans\n\nSee also Luis de Torres, Estevanico, and Joachim Gans\n\nAccording to the American Jewish Archives and the Arab American National Museum, some of the first Middle Easterners and North Africans (viz. Jews and Berbers) arrived in the Americas between the late 15th and mid-16th centuries. Many were fleeing ethnic or ethnoreligious persecution during the Spanish Inquisition, and a few were also taken to the Americas as slaves.\n\nAccording to the Arab American Institute (AAI), countries of origin for Arab Americans include Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. \n\nIn 1909, the Superior Court and the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. ruled on a case that redefined Middle Easterners and their racial distinction. According to the Arab American Historical Foundation and the Los Angeles Herald, a case in which George Shishim a Lebanese policeman, arrested a \"white\" man, who claimed that because Shishim was Lebanese, he must not be racially \"white\", but rather \"Chinese-Mongolian\". Shishim, his attorneys, and the Syrian-Lebanese and Arab American communities rallied to prove that Lebanese, Syrians, and all Arabs and Middle Easterners were in fact \"white\" to both gain official citizenship in the United States, as well as avoid other exclusive and restrictive penalties of being labeled as Asian. One of Shishim's arguments appealed to the white justices' desire to connect to their revered religious figure, Jesus. Shishim said: \"If I am a Mongolian, then so was Jesus, because we came from the same land.\" As noted in the 1909 publication of the \"Proceedings of the Asiatic Exclusion League\", the presiding Judge Hutton concluded that Syrians had descended from Hebrews, who descended from \"the Semitic family of the 'Indo-Aryan race, but because the Mongol conquerors had killed the Syrian men, and interbred with the Syrian women, \"western nations have been unable to restore [the Syrians'] original characteristics\" (6). Shishim won and was granted citizenship, and Middle Easterners were thereafter legally considered \"white\" in the United States.\n\nHowever, in 1910, Congress passed a bill that defined \"Armenians, Assyrians, and Jews\" as \"Asiatics\", while still approving their claims to citizenship. This declaration, while not taking away their citizenship, affirmed the ethnic origins and identities of Armenians, Assyrians, and Jews as \"non-white\".\n\nOver the decades of the 20th century, as more Arab Americans, Jewish Americans and other ethnic groups settled in the United States, the racial discrimination they faced also increased. Due to the ruling in Shishim's case and the interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, United States citizens could not sue one another for discrimination if they belonged to \"the same race\". However, in 1987, after an Iraqi-American associate professor was refused tenure due to his Arab origins and a synagogue was spray-painted with anti-Semitic insignia, the Supreme Court ruled \"unanimously today that Arabs, Jews and members of other ethnic groups may sue under a post-Civil War law's broad prohibition against discrimination.\" Parallel with this ruling, many members of these groups, from Jews to North Africans to Arab Americans, did not consider themselves \"white\". \n\nAdditionally, as modern scientific data improved, more information on the true origins and ethnic distinctions emerged. For example, studies have shown that Jews share more genetic relativity to other Jews around the world than to the surrounding non-Jewish ethnic groups. Some studies have also suggested that other Middle Eastern (non-Jewish) ethnic groups remain one of the closest relations to Jews. \n\nThe United States Census Bureau is presently finalizing the ethnic classification of MENA populations. In 2012, prompted in part by post-9/11 discrimination, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee petitioned the Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency to designate the MENA populations as a minority/disadvantaged community. Following consultations with MENA organizations, the Census Bureau announced in 2014 that it would establish a new MENA ethnic category for populations from the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab world, separate from the \"white\" classification that these populations had previously sought in 1909. The expert groups, including some Jewish organizations, felt that the earlier \"white\" designation no longer accurately represents MENA identity, so they successfully lobbied for a distinct categorization. This process does not currently include ethnoreligious groups such as Jews or Sikhs, as the Bureau only tabulates these groups as followers of religions rather than members of ethnic groups.\n\nAs of December 2015, the sampling strata for the new MENA category includes the Census Bureau's working classification of 19 MENA groups, as well as Turkish, Sudanese, Djiboutian, Somali, Mauritanian, Armenian, Cypriot, Afghan, Azerbaijani and Georgian groups.\n\nAlthough tabulated, \"religious responses\" were reported as a single total and not differentiated, despite totaling 1,089,597 in 2000.\n\nIndependent organizations provide improved estimates of the total populations of races and ethnicities in the US using the raw data from the US Census and other surveys.\n\nFor example, although any respondents who self-identified as Jewish were included under the religious responses in the census, as Jews are an ethnoreligious group with culture and ethnicity intertwined, estimates from the Mandell L. Berman Institute and the North American Jewish Data Bank put the total population of Jews between 5.34 and 6.16 million in 2000 and around 6.54 million in 2010. Similarly, the Arab-American Institute estimated the population of Arab Americans at 3.7 million in 2012. \n\nThe majority of Arab Americans are Christian. Most Maronites tend to be of Lebanese, Syrian, or Cypriot extraction; the majority of Christians of Cypriot and Palestinian background are often Eastern Orthodox.\n\nEstimated African MENA populations in the United States:\n\n* Algerian American: 8,752 (2000 Census)\n* Canarian American: 45,000-75,000 (2000 statistics)\n* Djiboutian American: 300 (2000 Census )\n* Egyptian American: 190,078 (2010 census. In 2008 them were estimated in 800,000 - 2,000,000)\n* Libyan American: 9,000 (2010 Census)\n* Mauritanian American: 992 (2000 Census)\n* Moroccan American: 82,073 (2010 Census)\n* Somali American: 85,700 (2012 ACS)\n* Sudanese American: 42,249 (2010 Census)\n* Tunisian American: 4,735 (2000 Census)\n\nAmerican Indians and Alaska Natives\n\nAccording to the 2010 Census, there are 5.2 million people who are Native Americans or Alaska Native alone, or in combination with one or more races; they make up 1.7% of the total population. According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), an \"American Indian or Alaska Native\" is a person whose ancestry have origins in any of the original peoples of North, Central, or South America. 2.3 million individuals who are American Indian or Alaskan Native are multiracial; additionally the plurality of American Indians reside in the Western United States (40.7%). Collectively and historically this race has been known by several names; as of 1995, 50% of those who fall within the OMB definition prefer the term \"American Indian\", 37% prefer \"Native American\" and the remainder have no preference or prefer a different term altogether. \n\nNative Americans, whose ancestry is indigenous to the Americas, originally migrated to the two continents between 10,000-45,000 years ago. These Paleoamericans spread throughout the two continents and evolved into hundreds of distinct cultures during the pre-Columbian era. Following the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, the European colonization of the Americas began, with St. Augustine, Florida becoming the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States. From the 16th through the 19th centuries, the population of Native Americans declined in the following ways: epidemic diseases brought from Europe; genocide and warfare at the hands of European explorers and colonists, as well as between tribes; displacement from their lands; internal warfare, enslavement; and intermarriage. \n\nNative Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders\n\nAs defined by the United States Census Bureau and the Office of Management and Budget, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are \"persons having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands\". Previously called Asian Pacific American, along with Asian Americans beginning in 1976, this was changed in 1997. As of the 2010 United States Census there are 1.2 million who reside in the United States, and make up 0.4% of the nation's total population, of whom 56% are multiracial. 14% of the population have at least a bachelor's degree, and 15.1% live in poverty, below the poverty threshold. As compared to the 2000 United States Census this population grew by 40%; and 71% live in the West; of those over half (52%) live in either Hawaii or California, with no other states having populations greater than 100,000. The largest concentration of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, is Honolulu County in Hawaii, and Los Angeles County in the continental United States.\n\nTwo or more races\n\nThe United States has a growing multiracial identity movement. Multiracial Americans numbered 7.0 million in 2008, or 2.3% of the population; by the 2010 census the Multiracial increased to 9,009,073, or 2.9% of the total population. They can be any combination of races (White, Black or African American, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, \"some other race\") and ethnicities. The largest population of Multiracial Americans were those of White and African American descent, with a total of 1,834,212 self-identifying individuals. Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, is biracial with his mother being of English and Irish descent and his father being of Kenyan birth; however, Obama only self-identifies as being African American. \n\nSome other race\n\nAccording to the 2010 United States Census, 6.2% or 19,107,368 Americans chose to self-identify with the \"some other race\" category, the third most popular option. Also, 36.7% or 18,503,103 Hispanic/Latino Americans chose to identify as some other race as these Hispanic/Latinos may feel the U.S. Census does not describe their European and American Indian ancestry as they understand it to be. \nA significant portion of the Hispanic and Latino population self-identifies as Mestizo, particularly the Mexican and Central American community. Mestizo is not a racial category in the U.S. Census, but signifies someone who has both European and American Indian ancestry.\n\nNational personification\n\nA national personification is an anthropomorphism of a nation or its people; it can appear in both editorial cartoons and propaganda.\n\nUncle Sam is a national personification of the United States and sometimes more specifically of the American government, with the first usage of the term dating from the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly white man with white hair and a goatee beard, and dressed in clothing that recalls the design elements of the flag of the United States – for example, typically a top hat with red and white stripes and white stars on a blue band, and red and white striped trousers.\n\nColumbia is a poetic name for the Americas and the feminine personification of the United States of America, made famous by African-American poet Phillis Wheatley during the American Revolutionary War in 1776. It has inspired the names of many persons, places, objects, institutions, and companies in the Western Hemisphere and beyond, including the District of Columbia, the seat of government of the United States.\n\nLanguage\n\n \n\nEnglish is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2007, about 226 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language. Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least twenty-eight states. Both English and Hawaiian are official languages in Hawaii by state law. \n\nWhile neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French. Other states, such as California, mandate the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents. The latter include court forms. Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan and Chamorro are recognized by American Samoa and Guam, respectively; Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico.\n\nReligion\n\nReligion in the United States has a high adherence level compared to other developed countries, as well as a diversity in beliefs. The First Amendment to the country's Constitution prevents the Federal government from making any \"law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof\". The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted this as preventing the government from having any authority in religion. A majority of Americans report that religion plays a \"very important\" role in their lives, a proportion unusual among developed countries, although similar to the other nations of the Americas. Many faiths have flourished in the United States, including both later imports spanning the country's multicultural immigrant heritage, as well as those founded within the country; these have led the United States to become the most religiously diverse country in the world. \n\nThe majority of Americans (76%) are Christians, mostly within Protestant and Catholic denominations; these adherents constitute 51% and 25% of the population, respectively. Other religions include Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, which collectively make up about 4% to 5% of the adult population. Another 15% of the adult population identifies as having no religious belief or no religious affiliation. According to the American Religious Identification Survey, religious belief varies considerably across the country: 59% of Americans living in Western states (the \"Unchurched Belt\") report a belief in God, yet in the South (the \"Bible Belt\") the figure is as high as 86%. \n\nSeveral of the original Thirteen Colonies were established by settlers who wished to practice their own religion without discrimination: the Massachusetts Bay Colony was established by English Puritans, Pennsylvania by Irish and English Quakers, Maryland by English and Irish Catholics, and Virginia by English Anglicans. Although some individual states retained established religious confessions well into the 19th century, the United States was the first nation to have no official state-endorsed religion. Modeling the provisions concerning religion within the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the framers of the Constitution rejected any religious test for office, and the First Amendment specifically denied the federal government any power to enact any law respecting either an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise, thus protecting any religious organization, institution, or denomination from government interference. The decision was mainly influenced by European Rationalist and Protestant ideals, but was also a consequence of the pragmatic concerns of minority religious groups and small states that did not want to be under the power or influence of a national religion that did not represent them. \n\nFile:First Baptist Meetinghouse, Providence, RI.jpg|The First Baptist Church in America in Providence, Rhode Island.\nFile:Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.jpg|The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. is the largest Catholic church in the United States.\nFile:Salt Lake Temple, Utah - Sept 2004-2.jpg|Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah is the largest temple of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.\nFile:Touro Synagogue, Newport, RI.jpg|Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island is America's oldest surviving synagogue.\nFile:Islamic Center of America.jpg|The Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan is the largest mosque in North America.\nFile:Lightmatter Hsi Lai Temple 4.jpg|Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, California is one of the largest Buddhist temples in the Western Hemisphere.\nFile:Malibu Hindu Temple 11.jpg|Hindu Temple in Malibu, California.\n\nCulture\n\nThe American culture is primarily a Western culture, but is influenced by Native American, West African, Asian, Polynesian and Latino cultures.\n\nThe United States of America has its own unique social and cultural characteristics, such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine and folklore.\n\nIts chief early European influences came from English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish settlers of colonial America during British rule. British culture, due to colonial ties with Britain that spread the English language, legal system and other cultural inheritances, had a formative influence. Other important influences came from other parts of Europe, especially Germany, France, and Italy. \n\nOriginal elements also play a strong role, such as Jeffersonian democracy.[https://books.google.com/books?id\nnf22_zMVdqsC&dq \"Mr. Jefferson and the giant moose: natural history in early America\"], Lee Alan Dugatkin. University of Chicago Press, 2009. ISBN 0-226-16914-6, ISBN 978-0-226-16914-9. University of Chicago Press, 2009. Chapter x. Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia was perhaps the first influential domestic cultural critique by an American and a reactionary piece to the prevailing European consensus that America's domestic originality was degenerate. Prevalent ideas and ideals that evolved domestically, such as national holidays, uniquely American sports, military tradition, and innovations in the arts and entertainment give a strong sense of national pride among the population as a whole.\n\nAmerican culture includes both conservative and liberal elements, scientific and religious competitiveness, political structures, risk taking and free expression, materialist and moral elements. Despite certain consistent ideological principles (e.g. individualism, egalitarianism, faith in freedom and democracy), the American culture has a variety of expressions due to its geographical scale and demographic diversity.\n\nDiaspora\n\nAmericans have migrated to many places around the world, including Australia Britain, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and the Phillipines.\n\nA person born in Asia to one American and one Asian parent is called an Amerasian." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "William_Tell.txt" ], "title": [ "William Tell" ], "wiki_context": [ "William Tell (in the four languages of Switzerland: ; ; ; ) is a folk hero of Switzerland. His legend is recorded in a late 15th-century Swiss illustrated chronicle. It is set in the time of the original foundation of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the early 14th century. According to the legend, Tell—an expert marksman with the crossbow—assassinated Gessler, a tyrannical reeve of Habsburg Austria positioned in Altdorf, Uri.\n\nAlong with Arnold von Winkelried, Tell is a central figure in Swiss patriotism as it was constructed during the Restoration of the Confederacy after the Napoleonic era.\n\nThe legend \n\nSeveral accounts of the Tell legend exist. The earliest sources give an account of the apple shot, Tell's escape, and the ensuing rebellion. The assassination of Gessler is not mentioned in the Tellenlied but is already present in the White Book of Sarnen account.\n\nThe legend as told by Tschudi (ca. 1570) essentially follows the account in the White Book, but adds further detail, such as Tell's given name Wilhelm, his being from Bürglen, and the precise date of the apple-shot of 18 November 1307.\n\nWilliam Tell was known as a strong man, a mountain climber, and an expert shot with the crossbow. In his time, the Habsburg emperors of Austria were seeking to dominate Uri, and Tell became one of the conspirators of Werner Stauffacher, vowing to resist Habsburg rule. Gessler, the newly appointed Austrian Vogt of Altdorf, raised a pole under the village lindentree, hung his hat on top of it, and demanded that all the townsfolk bow before the hat. \n\nOn 18 November 1307, Tell visited Altdorf with his young son and passed by the hat, publicly refusing to bow to it, and was arrested. Gessler—intrigued by Tell's famed marksmanship but resentful of his defiance—devised a cruel punishment. Tell and his son were to be executed. However, he could redeem his life by shooting an apple off of his son, Robert's head in a single attempt. Tell split the apple with a bolt from his crossbow. \n\nGessler then noticed that Tell had removed two crossbow bolts from his quiver. Before releasing him, he asked why. Tell was reluctant to answer, but after Gessler promised he would not kill him, he replied that if he had killed his son, he would have killed Gessler with the second bolt. Gessler was furious and ordered Tell to be bound, saying that he had promised to spare his life, but instead would imprison him for the remainder of his life.\n\nTell was brought to Gessler's boat to be taken to the dungeon in the castle at Küssnacht. A storm broke on Lake Lucerne, and the guards were afraid that their boat would sink. They begged Gessler to remove Tell's shackles so he could take the helm and save them. Gessler gave in and Tell leapt from the boat at the rocky site, already known in the \"White Book\" as the \"Tellsplatte\" (\"Tell's slab\"). Since the 16th century the site has been marked by a memorial chapel.\n\nTell ran cross-country to Küssnacht. As Gessler arrived, Tell assassinated him with the second crossbow bolt along a stretch of the road cut through the rock between Immensee and Küssnacht, now known as the Hohle Gasse. \nTell's blow for liberty sparked a rebellion in which he played a leading part, leading to the formation of the Swiss Confederation. \n\nAccording to Tschudi, Tell fought again against Austria in the 1315 Battle of Morgarten. Tschudi also has an account of Tell's death in 1354, according to which he was killed trying to save a child from drowning in the Schächenbach river in Uri.\n\nEarliest mentions (15th century) \n\nThe first reference to William Tell appears in the White Book of Sarnen (German: Weisses Buch von Sarnen). This volume was written in c. 1474 by a country scribe named Hans Schreiber. It mentions the Rütli oath (German: Rütlischwur) and names Tell as one of the conspirators of the Rütli, whose heroic tyrannicide triggered the Burgenbruch rebellion. \n\nAn equally early account of Tell is found in the Tellenlied, a song composed in the 1470s, with its oldest extant manuscript copy dating to 1501. The song begins with the Tell legend, which it presents as the origin of the Confederacy, calling Tell the \"first confederate\". The narrative includes Tell's apple-shot, his preparation of a second arrow to shoot Gessler, and his escape, but it does not mention any assassination of Gessler.Rochus von Liliencron, Historische Volkslieder der Deutschen, vol. 2 (1866), no. 147, cited by Rochholz (1877), p. 187; c.f. Bergier, p. 70–71.\n\nThe text then enumerates the cantons of the Confederacy, and says was expanded with \"current events\" during the course of the Burgundy Wars, ending with the death of Charles the Bold in 1477.\n\nEarly Modern period \n\nChronicles \n\nFurther reference to William Tell is found in Petermann Etterlin's Chronicle of the Swiss Confederation (German: Kronika von der loblichen Eydtgenossenschaft). Etterlin's 1507 chronicle is the earliest printed version of the Tell story. \n\nAn account of William Tell's deeds is also given in the chronicle of Melchior Russ from Lucerne. This book, which its author dates to 1482, is an incoherent compilation of older writings, including the Song of the Founding of the Confederation, Conrad Justinger's Bernese Chronicle, and the Chronicle of the State of Bern (in German, Chronik der Stadt Bern). \n\nThe version of the legend compiled by Aegidius Tschudi from Glarus in his monumental Chronicon Helveticum (ca. 1570) became the major model for later writers dealing with William Tell. Not only did Tschudi's chronicle become the main source for Johannes von Müller's History of the Swiss Confederation (German: Geschichte Schweizerischer Eidgenossenschaft, 1780), it also served as a model for Friedrich Schiller's play William Tell (1804). Tschudi is known to have manipulated documents. \n\nPopular veneration \n\nA widespread veneration of Tell, including sight-seeing excursions to the scenes of his deeds, can be ascertained for the early 16th century.\nHeinrich Brennwald in the early 16th century mentions the chapel (Tellskapelle) on the site of Tell's leap from his captors' boat. Tschudi mentions a \"holy cottage\" (heilig hüslin) built on the site of Gessler's assassination.\n\nThe first recorded Tell play (Tellspiel), known as the Urner Tellspiel (\"Tell Play of Uri\"), was probably performed in the winter of either 1512 or 1513 in Altdorf.\n\nThe church of Bürglen had a bell dedicated to Tell from 1581, and a nearby chapel has a fresco dated to 1582 showing Tell's death in the Schächenbach. \n\nThe Three Tells \n\nThe Three Tells (die Drei Tellen, also die Drei Telle) were symbolic figures of the Swiss Peasant War of 1653. They expressed the hope of the subject population to repeat the success story of the rebellion against Habsburg in the early 14th century.\n\nBy the 18th century, the Drei Tellen had become associated with a sleeping hero legend. They were said to be asleep in a cave at the Rigi. The return of Tell in times of need was already foretold in the Tellenlied of 1653 and symbolically fulfilled in the impersonation of the Three Tells by costumed individuals, in one instance culminating in an actual assassination executed by these impersonators in historical costume.\n\nTell during the 16th century had become closely associated and eventually merged with the Rütlischwur legend, and the \"Three Tells\" represented the three conspirators or Eidgenossen Walter Fürst, Arnold von Melchtal and Werner Stauffacher.\n\nIn 1653, three men dressed in historical costume representing the Three Tells appeared in Schüpfheim. Other impersonations of the Three Tells also appeared in the Freie Ämter and in the Emmental.\n\nThe first impersonators of the Three Tells were Hans Zemp, Kaspar Unternährer of Schüpfheim and Ueli Dahinden of Hasle. They appeared at a number of important peasant conferences during the war, symbolizing the continuity of the present rebellion with the resistance movement against the Habsburg overlords at the origin of the Swiss Confederacy. Unternährer and Dahinden fled to the Entlebuch alps before the arrival of the troops of general Sebastian Peregrin Zwyers; Zemp escaped to the Alsace. After the suppression of the rebellion, the peasants voted for a tyrannicide, directly inspired by the Tell legend, attempting to kill the Lucerne Schultheiss Ulrich Dulliker.\n\nDahinden and Unternährer returned in their roles of Tells, joined by Hans Stadelmann replacing Zemp. In an ambush, they managed to injure Dulliker and killed a member of the Lucerne parliament, Caspar Studer. The assassination attempt—an exceptional act in the culture of the Old Swiss Confederacy—was widely recognized and welcomed among the peasant population, but its impact was not sufficient to rekindle the rebellion.\n\nEven though it did not have any direct political effect, its symbolic value was considerable, placing the Lucerne authorities in the role of the tyrant (Habsburg and Gessler) and the peasant population in that of the freedom fighters (Tell). The Three Tells after the deed went to mass, still wearing their costumes, without being molested. Dahinden and Unternährer were eventually killed in October 1653 by Lucerne troops under Colonel Alphons von Sonnenberg. In July 1654, Zemp betrayed his successor Stadelmann in exchange for pardon and Stadelmann was executed on 15 July 1654.\n\nThe Three Tells appear in a 1672 comedy by Johann Caspar Weissenbach.\nThe \"sleeping hero\" version of the Three Tells legend was published in Deutsche Sagen by the Brothers Grimm in 1816 ([http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/?id5&xid\n970&kapitel=300#gb_found no. 298]).\n\nReception 1789–1945 \n\nThroughout the long nineteenth century, and into the World War II period, Tell was perceived as a symbol of rebellion against tyranny both in Switzerland and in Europe.\n\nAntoine-Marin Lemierre wrote a play inspired by Tell in 1766 and revived it in 1786. The success of this work established the association of Tell as a fighter against tyranny with the history of the French Revolution.\n\nThe French revolutionary fascination with Tell was reflected in Switzerland with the establishment of the Helvetic Republic. Tell became, as it were, the mascot of the short-lived republic, his figure being featured on its official seal. The French Navy also had a Tonnant class ship of the line named Guillaume Tell, which was captured by the British Royal Navy in 1800.\n\nJohann Wolfgang von Goethe learned of the Tell saga during his travels through Switzerland between 1775 and 1795. He obtained a copy of Tschudi's chronicles and considered writing a play about Tell, but ultimately gave the idea to his friend Friedrich von Schiller, who in 1803–04 wrote the play Wilhelm Tell, first performed on March 17, 1804, in Weimar. Schiller's Tell is heavily inspired by the political events of the late 18th century, the French and American revolutions, in particular. Schiller's play was performed at Interlaken (the Tellspiele) in the summers of 1912 to 1914, 1931 to 1939 and every year since 1947. In 2004 it was first performed in Altdorf itself.\n\nGioachino Rossini used Schiller's play as the basis for his 1829 opera William Tell. The William Tell Overture is one of his best-known and most frequently imitated pieces of music; in the 20th Century, the \"coda\" of the Overture became the theme for the radio, television, and motion picture incarnations of The Lone Ranger, a fictional American Frontier hero.\n\nIn 1836 the first William Tell patterned playing cards were produced in Pest, Hungary. They were inspired by Schiller's play and made during tense relations with the ruling Habsburgs. The cards became popular throughout the Austrian Empire during the Revolution of 1848.\n\nIn 1858, the Swiss Colonization Society, a group of Swiss and German immigrants to the United States, founded its first (and only) planned city on the banks of the Ohio River in Perry County, Indiana. The town was originally dubbed Helvetia, but was quickly changed to Tell City to honor the legendary Swiss hero. The city became known for its manufacturing, especially of fine wood furniture. William Tell and symbols of an apple with an arrow through it are prominent in the town which includes a [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_William_Tell_and_his_son,_City_Hall,_Tell_City,_Indiana_(looking_to_the_east,_northeast).jpg bronze statue of Tell and his son], based on the one in Altdorf, Switzerland. The [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Silhouette_of_statue_of_William_Tell_and_his_son,_Tell_City,_Indiana_(looking_to_the_west,_southwest).jpg statue] was erected on a fountain in front of city hall in 1974. Tell City High School uses these symbols in its crest or logo, and the sports teams are called \"The Marksmen.\" The William Tell Overture is often played by the school's pep band at high school games. Each August since 1958, Tell City's centennial year, the town has held \"Schweizer Fest,\" a community festival of entertainment, stage productions, historical presentations, carnival rides, beer garden, sporting events and class reunions, to honor its Swiss-German heritage. Many of the activities occur on the grounds of City Hall and Main Street, at the feet of the Tell statue.\n\nJohn Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, was inspired by Tell. Lamenting the negative reaction to his action, Booth wrote in his journal on April 21, 1865 \"with every man's hand against me, I am here in despair. And why; For doing what Brutus was honored for and what made Tell a Hero. And yet I for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew am looked upon as a common cutthroat.\"\n\nFollowing a national competition, won by Richard Kissling, Altdorf in 1895 erected a monument to its hero. Kissling casts Tell as a peasant and man of the mountains, with strong features and muscular limbs. His powerful hand rests lovingly on the shoulder of little Walter, but the apple is not shown. The depiction is in marked contrast with that used by the Helvetic Republic, where Tell is shown as a landsknecht rather than a peasant, with a sword at his belt and a feathered hat, bending down to pick up his son who is still holding the apple.\n\nThe first film about Tell was made by French director Charles Pathé in 1900; only a short fragment survives.\nA version of the legend was retold in P.G. Wodehouse's William Tell Told Again (1904), written in prose and verse with characteristic Wodehousian flair.\n\nThe design of the Federal 5 francs coin issued from 1922 features the bust of a generic \"mountain shepherd\" designed by Paul Burkard, but due to a similarity of the bust with Kissling's statue, in spite of the missing beard, it was immediately widely identified as Tell.\n\nAdolf Hitler was enthusiastic about Schiller's play, quoting it in his Mein Kampf, and approving of a German/Swiss co-production of the play in which Hermann Göring's mistress Emmy Sonnemann appeared as Tell's wife. But on June 3, 1941, Hitler had the play banned. The reason for the ban is not known, but may been related to the failed assassination attempt in 1938 by young Swiss Maurice Bavaud (executed on May 14, 1941, and later dubbed \"a new William Tell\" by Rolf Hochhuth), or the subversive nature of the play. Hitler is reported to have exclaimed at a banquet in 1942: \"Why did Schiller have to immortalize that Swiss sniper!\"\n\nSalvador Dalí painted The Old Age of William Tell and William Tell and Gradiva in 1931, and The Enigma of William Tell in 1933.\n\nCharlie Chaplin parodies William Tell in his famous 1928 silent movie The Circus.\n\nMax Frisch in his \"William Tell for Schools\" deconstructed the legend, portraying the bailiff as a well-meaning administrator suffering from being placed in a barbaric back-corner of the empire, while Tell is a simpleton who stumbles into his adventure by a series of misunderstandings.\n\nSpanish playwright Alfonso Sastre re-worked the legend in 1955 in his \"Guillermo Tell tiene los ojos tristes\" (William Tell has sad eyes); it was not performed until the Franco regime in Spain ended.\n\nIn Schweizer Helden (Unlikely Heroes), a 2014 Swiss film directed by Peter Luisi, a group of immigrant asylum seekers perform a play of Wilhelm Tell. Schweizer Helden received the Prix du Public UBS award at the 2014 Locarno Film Festival.\n\nWilliam Tell lives on as a hero in popular culture. He is still a powerful identification figure, and according to a 2004 survey, 60% of the Swiss believe that he existed. \n\nHistoricity debate \n\nThe historicity of William Tell has been subject to debate. François Guillimann, a statesman of Fribourg and later historian and advisor of the Habsburg Emperor Rudolph II, wrote to Melchior Goldast in 1607: \"I followed popular belief by reporting certain details in my Swiss antiquities [published in 1598], but when I examine them closely the whole story seems to me to be pure fable.\"\n\nIn 1760, Simeon Uriel Freudenberger from Luzern anonymously published a tract arguing that the legend of Tell in all likelihood was based on the Danish saga of Palnatoki. A French edition of his book, written by Gottlieb Emmanuel von Haller (Guillaume Tell, Fable danoise), was burnt in Altdorf. \n\nThe skeptical view of Tell's existence remained very unpopular. Friedrich von Schiller used Tschudi's version as the basis for his play Wilhelm Tell in 1804, interpreting Tell as a glorified patriot assassin. This interpretation became very popular, especially in Switzerland, where the Tell figure was used in the early 19th century as a \"national hero\" and identification figure in the Helvetic Republic, and later in the beginnings of the Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, the modern democratic federal state that developed. When historian Joseph Eutych Kopp dared to question the legend in the 1830s, his effigy was burnt on the Rütli, a meadow above Lake Lucerne where—according to the legend—the oath was sworn that concluded the alliance between the founding cantons of the Swiss confederacy.\n\nHistorians continued to argue over the saga until well into the 20th century. In 1891 Wilhelm Öchsli published a scientific account of the founding of the confederacy (commissioned by the government for the celebration of the first National holiday of Switzerland on August 1, 1891), dismissing the story as fiction. Still, 50 years later in 1941, when Tell had again become a national identification figure, historian Karl Meyer tried to tie the saga's events to known places and events. Modern historians generally regard the saga to be fiction, since neither Tell's nor Gessler's existence can be proven. The legend also tells of a Burgenbruch, a coordinated uprising including the slighting of many forts; however, archeological evidence shows that many of these forts were abandoned and destroyed long before 1307–1308.\n\nA possible historical basis of the legend was suggested by Arnold Schärer in 1986. He identified a Wilhelm Gorkeit of Tellikon (modern Dällikon in the Canton of Zurich) as the real William Tell. \"Gorkeit\", he claimed, was a version of the surname Armbruster (crossbow maker). Historians were not convinced, but the theory was once referred to by Rudolf Keller, at the time president of the nationalistic right Swiss Democrats, on 1 August 2004 in Basel. \n\nComparative mythology \n\nThe Tell legend has been compared to a number of other myths or legends, specifically in Norse mythology, involving a magical marksman coming to the aid of a suppressed people under the sway of a tyrant.\nThe story of a great outlaw successfully shooting an apple from his child's head is an archetype present in the story of Egil in the Thidreks saga (associated with the god Ullr in Eddaic tradition) as well as in the stories of Adam Bell from England, Palnatoki from Denmark and a story from Holstein.\n\nSuch parallels were pointed out as early as 1760 by Gottlieb Emmanuel von Haller and the pastor Simeon Uriel Freudenberger in a short leaflet with the title William Tell, a Danish Fable (German: Der Wilhelm Tell, ein dänisches Mährgen). \n\nRochholz (1877) connects the similarity of the Tell legend to the stories of Egil and Palnatoki with the legends of a migration from Sweden to Switzerland during the Middle Ages. He also adduces parallels in folktales among the Finns and the Lapps (Sami). From pre-Christian Norse mythology, Rochholz compares Ullr, who bears the epithet of Boga-As (\"bow-god\"), Heimdall and also Odin himself, who according to the Gesta Danorum (Book 1, chapter 8.16) assisted Haddingus by shooting ten bolts from a crossbow in one shot, killing as many foes. Rochholz further compares Indo-European and oriental traditions and concludes (pp. 35–41) that the legend of the master marksman shooting an apple (or similar small target) was known outside the Germanic sphere (Germany, Scandinavia, England) and the adjacent regions (Finland and the Baltic) in India, Arabia, Persia and the Balkans (Serbia).\n\nThe Danish legend of Palnatoki, first attested in the twelfth-century Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus. is the earliest known parallel to the Tell legend. As with William Tell, Palnatoki is forced by the ruler, (in this case King Harald Bluetooth), to shoot an apple off his son's head as proof of his marksmanship. A striking similarity between William Tell and Palnatoki is that both heroes take more than one arrow out of their quiver. When asked why he pulled several arrows out of his quiver, Palnatoki, too, replies that if he had struck his son with the first arrow, he would have shot King Harald with the remaining two arrows." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Idaho.txt" ], "title": [ "Idaho" ], "wiki_context": [ "Idaho is a state in the northwestern region of the United States. Idaho is the 14th largest, the 39th most populous, and the 7th least densely populated of the 50 United States. The estimated population is 1,654,930 and the state has an area of 83569 sqmi. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called \"Idahoans\". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state.\n\nIdaho is a mountainous state with an area larger than that of all of New England. It borders the US states of Montana to the northeast, Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington and Oregon to the west. To the north, it shares a 45 mi (72 km) international border with the Canadian province of British Columbia, the shortest such land border of any state. The network of dams and locks on the Columbia River and Snake River make the city of Lewiston the farthest inland seaport on the Pacific coast of the contiguous United States.\n\nIdaho's nickname is the \"Gem State\", because nearly every known type of gemstone has been found there. In addition, Idaho is one of only two places in the world where star garnets can be found in any significant quantities, the other being India. Idaho is sometimes called the \"Potato State\" owing to its popular and widely distributed crop. The state motto is Esto Perpetua (Latin for \"Let it be forever\" or \"Let it endure forever\").\n\nEtymology\n\nThe exact origin of the name remains a mystery. In the early 1860s, when the United States Congress was considering organizing a new territory in the Rocky Mountains, eccentric lobbyist George M. Willing suggested the name \"Idaho\", which he claimed was derived from a Shoshone language term meaning \"the sun comes from the mountains\" or \"gem of the mountains\". Willing later claimed that he had simply invented the name. Congress ultimately decided to name the area Colorado Territory when it was created in February 1861. Thinking they would get a jump on the name, locals named a community in Colorado \"Idaho Springs\".\n\nHowever, the name \"Idaho\" did not fall into obscurity. The same year Congress created Colorado Territory, a county called Idaho County was created in eastern Washington Territory. The county was named after a steamship named Idaho, which was launched on the Columbia River in 1860. It is unclear whether the steamship was named before or after Willing's claim was revealed. Regardless, a portion of Washington Territory, including Idaho County, was used to create Idaho Territory in 1863. \n\nDespite this lack of evidence for the origin of the name, many textbooks well into the 20th century repeated as fact Willing's account that the name \"Idaho\" derived from the Shoshone term \"ee-da-how\".\n\nThe name \"Idaho\" may be derived from the Plains Apache word \"ídaahę́\", which means \"enemy.\" The Comanches used this word to refer to the Idaho Territory. \n\nA 1956 Idaho history textbook says:\"Idaho\" is a Shoshoni Indian exclamation. The word consists of three parts. The first is \"Ee\", which in English conveys the idea of \"coming down\". The second is \"dah\" which is the Shoshoni stem or root for both \"sun\" and \"mountain\". The third syllable, \"how\", denotes the exclamation and stands for the same thing in Shoshoni that the exclamation mark (!) does in the English language. The Shoshoni word is \"Ee-dah-how\", and the Indian thought thus conveyed when translated into English means, \"Behold! the sun coming down the mountain. \nAccording to local knowledge, the name Idaho originated from the Nez Perce language and stands for \"the Land of many Waters\", a kidney-shaped drainage area in north central Idaho in which a multitude of rivers come together. These rivers include the Snake, the Salmon, the Clearwater, North Fork Clearwater River, the Selway, and more. The famed steamboat was probably named 'Idaho' because it voyaged along the Columbia river to \"the Land of many Waters\".\n\nGeography\n\nIdaho borders six US states and one Canadian province. The states of Washington and Oregon are to the west, Nevada and Utah are to the south, and Montana and Wyoming are to the east. Idaho also shares a short border with the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north. The landscape is rugged with some of the largest unspoiled natural areas in the United States. For example, at 2.3 million acres (930,000 ha), the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area is the largest contiguous area of protected wilderness in the continental United States. Idaho is a Rocky Mountain state with abundant natural resources and scenic areas. The state has snow-capped mountain ranges, rapids, vast lakes and steep canyons. The waters of the Snake River rush through Hells Canyon, the deepest gorge in the United States. Shoshone Falls plunges down rugged cliffs from a height greater than that of Niagara Falls. The major rivers in Idaho are the Snake River, the Clark Fork/Pend Oreille River, the Clearwater River, and the Salmon River. Other significant rivers include the Coeur d'Alene River, the Spokane River, the Boise River, and the Payette River. The Salmon River empties into the Snake in Hells Canyon and forms the southern boundary of Nez Perce County on its north shore, of which Lewiston is the county seat. The Port of Lewiston, at the confluence of the Clearwater and the Snake Rivers is the farthest inland seaport on the West Coast at 465 river miles from the Pacific at Astoria, Oregon. \n\nIdaho's highest point is Borah Peak, 12662 ft, in the Lost River Range north of Mackay. Idaho's lowest point, 710 ft, is in Lewiston, where the Clearwater River joins the Snake River and continues into Washington. The Sawtooth Range is often considered Idaho's most famous mountain range. Other mountain ranges in Idaho include the Bitterroot Range, the White Cloud Mountains, the Lost River Range, the Clearwater Mountains, and the Salmon River Mountains.\n\nIdaho has two time zones, with the dividing line approximately midway between Canada and Nevada. Southern Idaho, including the Boise metropolitan area, Idaho Falls, Pocatello, and Twin Falls, are in the Mountain Time Zone. A legislative error ( §264) theoretically placed this region in the Central Time Zone, but this was corrected with a 2007 amendment. Areas north of the Salmon River, including Coeur d'Alene, Moscow, Lewiston, and Sandpoint, are in the Pacific Time Zone, which contains less than a quarter of the state's population and land area.\n\nClimate\n\nIdaho has much variation in its climate. Although the state's western border is located about from the Pacific Ocean, the maritime influence is still felt in Idaho, especially in the winter when cloud cover, humidity, and precipitation are at their maximum extent. This influence has a moderating effect in the winter where temperatures are not as low as would otherwise be expected for a northern state with predominantly high elevations. The maritime influence is least prominent in the eastern part of the state where the precipitation patterns are often reversed, with wetter summers and drier winters, and seasonal temperature differences more extreme, showing a more semi-arid continental climate.\n\nClimate in Idaho can be hot, although extended periods over 98 °F for the maximum temperature are rare, except for the lowest point in elevation, Lewiston, which correspondingly sees very little snow. Hot summer days are tempered by the low relative humidity and cooler evenings during summer months since, for most of the state, the highest diurnal difference in temperature is often in the summer. Winters can be cold, although extended periods of bitter cold weather below zero are unusual. This is what led the railroad tycoon Harriman family to develop the famous ski resort, Sun Valley. Idaho's all-time highest temperature of 118 F was recorded at Orofino on July 28, 1934; the all-time lowest temperature of was recorded at Island Park Dam on January 18, 1943.\n\nLakes/rivers\n\n* Alturas Lake\n* Brush Lake\n* Bear River\n* Bear Lake (Idaho-Utah)\n* Boise River\n* Clearwater River\n* Dawson Lake\n* Dierkes Lake\n* Hayden Lake\n* Henry's Lake\n* Hidden Lake\n* Kootenai River\n* Lake Cascade\n* Lake Cleveland\n* Lake Coeur d'Alene\n* Lake Lowell\n* Lake Walcott\n* Pend Oreille\n* Little Redfish Lake\n* Lucky Peak Lake\n* Moyie River\n* North Fork Clearwater River\n* Pac River\n* Payette Lake, (McCall)\n* Pettit Lake\n* Priest Lake\n* Perkins Lake\n* Portneuf River\n* Redfish Lake\n* River of No Return\n* Sawtooth Lake\n* Smith Lake\n* Snake River\n* Stanley Lake\n* Warm Lake\n* Williams Lake (Salmon)\n\nHistory\n\nHumans may have been present in the Idaho area as long as 14,500 years ago. Excavations at Wilson Butte Cave near Twin Falls in 1959 revealed evidence of human activity, including arrowheads, that rank among the oldest dated artifacts in North America. American Indian peoples predominant in the area included the Nez Percé in the north and the Northern and Western Shoshone in the south.\n\nAn early presence of French-Canadian trappers is visible in names and toponyms that have survived to this day: Nez Percé, Cœur d'Alène, Boisé, Payette, some preexisting the Lewis and Clark and Astorian expeditions which themselves included significant numbers of French and Métis guides recruited for their familiarity with the terrain.\n\nIdaho, as part of the Oregon Country, was claimed by both the United States and Great Britain until the United States gained undisputed jurisdiction in 1846. From 1843 to 1849, present-day Idaho was under the de facto jurisdiction of the Provisional Government of Oregon. When Oregon became a state, what is now Idaho was in what remained of the original Oregon Territory not part of the new state, and designated as the Washington Territory.\n\nBetween then and the creation of the Idaho Territory on March 4, 1863, at Lewiston, parts of the present-day state were included in the Oregon, Washington, and Dakota Territories. The new territory included present-day Idaho, Montana, and most of Wyoming. The Lewis and Clark expedition crossed Idaho in 1805 on the way to the Pacific and in 1806 on the return, largely following the Clearwater River both directions. The first non-indigenous settlement was Kullyspell House, established on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille for fur trading in 1809 by David Thompson of the North West Company. In 1812 Donald Mackenzie, working for the Pacific Fur Company at the time, established a post on the lower Clearwater River near present-day Lewiston. This post, known as \"MacKenzie's Post\" or \"Clearwater\", operated until the Pacific Fur Company was bought out by the North West Company in 1813, after which it was abandoned. The first attempts at organized communities, within the present borders of Idaho, were established in 1860. The first permanent, substantial incorporated community was Lewiston in 1861.\n\nAfter some tribulation as a territory, including the chaotic transfer of the territorial capital from Lewiston to Boise, disenfranchisement of Mormon polygamists upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1877, and a federal attempt to split the territory between Washington Territory which gained statehood in 1889, a year before Idaho, and the state of Nevada which had been a state since 1864, Idaho achieved statehood in 1890. The economy of the state, which had been primarily supported by metal mining, shifted towards agriculture, forest products and tourism.\n\nIdaho was one of the hardest hit of the Pacific Northwest states during the Great Depression. Prices plummeted for Idaho's major crops: in 1932 a bushel of potatoes brought only $.10 compared to $1.51 in 1919, while Idaho farmers saw their annual income of $686 in 1929 drop to $250 by 1932. \n\nIn recent years, Idaho has expanded its commercial base as a tourism and agricultural state to include science and technology industries. Science and technology have become the largest single economic center (over 25% of the state's total revenue) within the state and are greater than agriculture, forestry and mining combined. \n\nThe Idaho State Historical Society and numerous local historical societies and museums preserve and promote Idaho's cultural heritage.\n\nDemographics\n\nThe United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Idaho was 1,654,930 on July 1, 2015, a 5.57% increase since 2010. \n\nAt the 2010 Census,\n* 89.1% of the population was White American\n* 0.6% Black or African American\n* 1.4% American Indian and Alaska Native\n* 1.2% Asian American\n* 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander\n* 2.5% of two or more races.\n\n11.2% of Idaho's population was of Hispanic or Latino (they may be of any race). As of 2011, 27.2% of Idaho's children under the age of one belonged to racial or ethnic minority groups, meaning that they had at least one parent who was not non-Hispanic white. \n\nIdaho had an estimated population of 1,654,930 in 2015, which was an increase of 20,466, from the prior year and an increase of 87,348, or 5.57%, since 2010. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 58,884 people (that is 111,131 births minus 52,247 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 75,795 people into the state. There are large numbers of Americans of English and German ancestry in Idaho. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 14,522 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 61,273 people.\n\nThis made Idaho the sixth fastest-growing state after Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, and Utah. From 2004 to 2005, Idaho grew the third-fastest, surpassed only by Nevada and Arizona.\n\nNampa, about west of downtown Boise, became the state's second largest city in the late 1990s, passing Pocatello and Idaho Falls. Nampa's population was under 29, 000 in 1990 and grew to over 81, 000 by 2010. Located between Nampa and Boise, Meridian also experienced high growth, from under 10 000 residents in 1990 to over 75 000 in 2010 and is now Idaho's third largest city. Growth of 5% or more over the same period has also been observed in Caldwell, Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, and Twin Falls. \n\nFrom 1990 to 2010, Idaho's population increased by over 560 000 (55%).\n\nThe Boise Metropolitan Area (officially known as the Boise City-Nampa, ID Metropolitan Statistical Area) is Idaho's largest metropolitan area. Other metropolitan areas in order of size are Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Falls, Pocatello and Lewiston.\n\nAs of 2006, six official micropolitan statistical areas are based in Idaho. Twin Falls is the largest of these.\n\nThe center of population of Idaho is located in Custer County, in the town of Stanley. \n\nThe most common reported ancestries in the state are: German (18.9%), English (18.1%), Irish (10%), American (8.4%), Norwegian (3.6%), and Italian (3.5%).\n\nReligion\n\nAccording to a report produced by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, the self-identified religious affiliations of Idahoans over the age of 18 as of 2008 are: \n\nThe largest denominations by number of members in 2010 were The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 409 265; the Catholic Church with 123 400; the non-denominational Evangelical Protestant with 62 637; and the Assemblies of God with 22 183. \n\nEconomy\n\nGross state product for 2015 was $64.9 billion, and the per capita income based on 2015 GDP and 2015 population estimates was $39,100. \n\nIdaho is an important agricultural state, producing nearly one-third of the potatoes grown in the United States. All three varieties of wheat, dark northern spring, hard red, and soft white are grown in the state. Nez Perce County is considered a premier soft white growing locale.\n\nImportant industries in Idaho are food processing, lumber and wood products, machinery, chemical products, paper products, electronics manufacturing, silver and other mining, and tourism. The world's largest factory for barrel cheese, the raw product for processed cheese is located in Gooding, Idaho. It has a capacity of 120,000 metric tons per year of barrel cheese and belongs to the Glanbia group. The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is the largest Department of Energy facility in the country, and one of the most contaminated from years of nuclear weapons related processing and haphazard storage of chemical and radioactive waste. It contains every known type of nuclear waste and receives nearly one billion dollars annually from the DOE budget for cleaning up previous contamination, and managing storage of remaining above ground nuclear waste. INL is an important part of the eastern Idaho economy. Idaho also is home to three facilities of Anheuser-Busch which provide a large part of the malt for breweries located across the nation.\n\nLocally, a variety of industries are important. Outdoor recreation is a common example ranging from numerous snowmobile and downhill and cross-country ski areas in winter to the evolution of Lewiston as a retirement community based on mild winters, dry, year-round climate and one of the lowest median wind velocities anywhere, combined with the rivers for a wide variety of activities. Other examples would be ATK Corporation, which operates three ammunition and ammunition components plants in Lewiston. Two are sporting and one is defense contract. The Lewis-Clark valley has an additional independent ammunition components manufacturer and the Chipmunk rifle factory until it was purchased in 2007 by Keystone Sporting Arms and production was moved to Milton, Pennsylvania. Four of the world's six welded aluminum jet boat (for running river rapids) manufacturers are in the Lewiston-Clarkston, WAvalley. Wine grapes were grown between Kendrick and Juliaetta in the Idaho Panhandle by the French Rothschilds until Prohibition. In keeping with this, while there are no large wineries or breweries in Idaho, there are numerous and growing numbers of award winning boutique wineries and microbreweries in the northern part of the state.\n\nToday, the largest industry in Idaho is the science and technology sector. It accounts for over 25% of the state's total revenue and over 70% of the state's exports. Idaho's industrial economy is growing, with high-tech products leading the way. Since the late 1970s, Boise has emerged as a center for semiconductor manufacturing. Boise is the home of Micron Technology, the only U.S. manufacturer of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips. Micron at one time manufactured desktop computers, but with very limited success. Hewlett-Packard has operated a large plant in Boise since the 1970s, which is devoted primarily to LaserJet printers production. Clearwater Analytics is another rapidly growing investment accounting and reporting software firm headquartered in Boise, reporting on over $1 trillion in assets. ON Semiconductor, whose worldwide headquarters in Pocatello, is a widely recognized innovator in modern integrated mixed-signal semiconductor products, mixed-signal foundry services, and structured digital products. Coldwater Creek, a women's clothing retailer, is headquartered in Sandpoint. Sun Microsystems (now a part of Oracle Corporation) has two offices in Boise and a parts depot in Pocatello. Sun brings $4 million in annual salaries and over $300 million of revenue to the state each year.\n\nA number of Fortune 500 companies started in or trace their roots to Idaho, including Safeway in American Falls, Albertsons in Boise, JR Simplot across southern Idaho, and Potlatch Corp. in Lewiston. Zimmerly Air Transport in Lewiston-Clarkston was one of the five companies in the merger centered around Varney Air Lines of Pasco, Washington, which became United Airlines and subsequently Varney Air Group that became Continental Airlines.\n\nThe state personal income tax ranges from 1.6% to 7.8% in eight income brackets. Idahoans may apply for state tax credits for taxes paid to other states, as well as for donations to Idaho state educational entities and some nonprofit youth and rehabilitation facilities.\n\nThe state sales tax is 6% with a very limited, selective local option up to 6.5%. Sales tax applies to the sale, rental or lease of tangible personal property and some services. Food is taxed, but prescription drugs are not. Hotel, motel, and campground accommodations are taxed at a higher rate (7% to 11%). Some jurisdictions impose local option sales tax.\n\nThe sales tax was introduced at 3% in 1965, easily approved by voters, where it remained until 1983.\n\nIn 2014, Idaho emerged as the second most small business friendly state, ranking behind Utah, based on a study drawing upon data from over 12,000 small business owners. \n\nIdaho has a state gambling lottery which contributed $333.5 million in payments to all Idaho public schools and Idaho higher education from 1990 to 2006. \n\nEnergy \n\nThe energy landscape of Idaho is favorable to the development of renewable energy systems. The state is rich in renewable energy resources but has limited fossil fuel resources. The Snake River Plain and smaller river basins provide Idaho with some of the best hydroelectric power resources in the nation and its geologically active mountain areas have significant geothermal power and wind power potential. These realities have shaped much of the state's current energy landscape.\n\nMost of the energy consumed in Idaho is imported from other states. Imports account for more than 80% of total energy consumption, including all of Idaho's natural gas and petroleum supplies and more than half of its electricity. Of the electricity consumed in Idaho in 2005, 48% came from hydroelectricity, 42% was generated by burning coal and 9% was generated by burning natural gas. The remainder came from other renewable sources such as wind. \n\nThe state's numerous river basins allow hydroelectric power plants to provide 556,000 MWh, which amounts to about three-fourths of Idaho's electricity generated in the state. Washington State provides most of the natural gas used in Idaho through one of the two major pipeline systems supplying the state. Although the state relies on out-of-state sources for its entire natural gas supply, it uses natural gas-fired plants to generate 127,000 MWh, or about ten percent of its output. Coal-fired generation and the state's small array of wind turbines supplies the remainder of the state's electricity output. The state produces 739,000 MWh but still needs to import half of its electricity from out-of-state to meet demand. \n\nWhile Idaho's 515 trillion BTU total energy consumption is low compared with other states and represents just 0.5% of United States consumption, the state also has the nation's 11th smallest population, 1.5 million, so its per capita energy consumption of 352 million Btu is currently just above the national average of 333 million Btu. As the 13th‑largest state in terms of land area (83,570 sq. mi\n53,485,000ac), distance creates the additional problem of \"line loss\". When the length of an electrical transmission line is doubled, the resistance to an electric current passing through it is also doubled.\n\nIn addition, Idaho also has the 6th fastest growing population in the United States with the population expected to increase by 31% from 2008 to 2030. This projected increase in population will contribute to a 42% increase in demand by 2030, further straining Idaho's finite hydroelectric resources. \n\nIdaho has an upper-boundary estimate of development potential to generate 44,320 GWh/year from 18,076 MW of wind power, and 7,467,000 GWh/year from solar power using 2,061,000 MW of photovoltaics (PV), including 3,224 MW of rooftop photovoltaics, and 1,267,000 MW of concentrated solar power. \n\nTransportation\n\nThe Idaho Transportation Department is the government agency responsible for Idaho's transportation infrastructure, including operations and maintenance as well as planning for future needs. The agency is also responsible for overseeing the disbursement of federal, state, and grant funding for the transportation programs of the state.\n\nHighways\n\nIdaho is among the few states in the nation without a major freeway linking its two largest metropolitan areas, Boise in the south and Coeur d'Alene in the north. U.S. Route 95 (US-95) links the two ends of the state, but like many other highways in Idaho, it is badly in need of repair and upgrade. In 2007, the Idaho Transportation Department stated that the state's highway infrastructure faces a $200 million per year shortfall in maintenance and upgrades. I-84 is the main highway linking the southeast and southwest portions of the state, along with I-86 and I-15.\n\nMajor federal aid highways in Idaho:\n\nAirports\n\nMajor airports include the Boise Airport serving the southwest region of Idaho, and the Spokane International Airport (located in Spokane, Washington), which serves northern Idaho. Other airports with scheduled service are the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport serving the Palouse; the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Airport, serving the Lewis-Clark Valley and north central and west central Idaho; The Magic Valley Regional Airport in Twin Falls; the Idaho Falls Regional Airport; and the Pocatello Regional Airport.\n\nRailroads\n\nIdaho is served by three transcontinental railroads. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) connects the Idaho Panhandle with Seattle, Portland, and Spokane to the west, and Minneapolis and Chicago to the east. The BNSF travels through Kootenai, Bonner, and Boundary counties. The Union Pacific Railroad crosses North Idaho entering from Canada through Boundary and Bonner, and proceeding to Spokane. Canadian Pacific Railway uses Union Pacific Railroad tracks in North Idaho carrying products from Alberta to Spokane and Portland, Oregon. Amtrak's Empire Builder crosses northern Idaho, with its only stop being in Sandpoint. Montana Rail Link also operates between Billings, Montana and Sandpoint, Idaho.\n\nThe Union Pacific Railroad also crosses southern Idaho traveling between Portland, Oregon, Green River, Wyoming, and Ogden, Utah and serves Boise, Nampa, Twin Falls, and Pocatello. There has been a recent call to return Amtrak service to southern Idaho.\n\nPorts\n\nThe Port of Lewiston is the farthest inland Pacific port on the west coast. A series of dams and locks on the Snake River and Columbia River facilitate barge travel from Lewiston to Portland, where goods are loaded on ocean-going vessels.\n\nLaw and government\n\nState constitution\n\nThe constitution of Idaho is roughly modeled on the national constitution with several additions. The constitution defines the form and functions of the state government, and may be amended through plebiscite. Notably, the state constitution presently requires the state government to maintain a balanced budget. As result, Idaho has limited debt (construction bonds, etc.).\n\nIdaho Code\n\nAll of Idaho's state laws are contained in the Idaho Code. The code is amended through the Legislature with the approval of the governor. Idaho still operates under its original (1889) state constitution.\n\nState government\n\nThe constitution of Idaho provides for three branches of government: the executive, legislative and judicial branches. Idaho has a bicameral legislature, elected from 35 legislative districts, each represented by one senator and two representatives.\n\nSince 1946, statewide elected constitutional officers have been elected to four-year terms. They include: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Controller (Auditor before 1994), Treasurer, Attorney General, and Superintendent of Public Instruction.\n\nLast contested in 1966, Inspector of Mines was an original elected constitutional office. Afterward it was an appointed position and ultimately done away with entirely in 1974.\n\nIdaho's government has an alcohol monopoly.\n\nExecutive branch\n\nThe governor of Idaho serves a four-year term, and is elected during what is nationally referred to as midterm elections. As such, the governor is not elected in the same election year as the president of the United States. The current governor is Republican CL \"Butch\" Otter, who was elected in 2006, and re-elected in 2010 and 2014.\n\nLegislative branch\n\nIdaho's legislature is part-time. However, the session may be extended if necessary, and often is. Because of this, Idaho's legislators are considered \"citizen legislators\", meaning that their position as a legislator is not their main occupation.\n\nTerms for both the Senate and House of Representatives are two years. Legislative elections occur every even numbered year.\n\nThe Idaho Legislature has been continuously controlled by the Republican Party since the late 1950s, although Democratic legislators are routinely elected from Boise, Pocatello, Blaine County and the northern Panhandle.\n\nSee also List of Idaho senators and representatives\n\nJudicial branch\n\nThe highest court in Idaho is the Idaho Supreme Court. There is also an intermediate appellate court, the Idaho Court of Appeals, which hears cases assigned to it from the Supreme Court. The state's District Courts serve seven judicial districts. \n\nCounties\n\nIdaho is divided into political jurisdictions designated as counties. Since 1919 there are 44 counties in the state, ranging in size from 410 to 8 502 square miles (1 062 to 22 020 square kilometers).\n\nTotal Counties: 44. Total 2008 Population Est.: 1 523 816. Total Area: .\n\nThree counties were first designated as such by the Washington Territorial Legislature in 1861; they were subsequently redesignated as Idaho counties in 1864. The 1861 Nez Percé county has since been broken up into Nez Percé, Lewis, Boundary, Benewah, Latah, Kootenai, and Clearwater counties.\n\nIdaho license plates begin with a county designation based on the first letter of the county's name. Where a letter is at the beginning of more than one name, a number accompanies precedingly in alphabetical order. This reflects an anomalous coincidental situation wherein 10 counties begin with B, seven with C and four with L, which is 21 of the 44 counties.\n\nPolitics\n\nAfter the Civil War, many Midwestern and Southern Democrats moved to the Idaho Territory. As a result, the early territorial legislatures were solidly Democrat-controlled. In contrast, most of the territorial governors were appointed by Republican presidents and were Republicans themselves. This led to sometimes-bitter clashes between the two parties, including a range war with the Democrats backing the sheepherders and the Republicans the cattlemen. That ended with the \"Diamondfield\" Jack Davis murder trial. In the 1880s, Republicans became more prominent in local politics.\n\nIn 1864, Clinton DeWitt Smith removed the territorial seal and the state constitution from a locked safe, and took them to Boise. This effectively moved the capital from where they were stored (Lewiston, Idaho) to the current capital Boise, Idaho. \n\nSince statehood, the Republican Party has usually been the dominant party in Idaho, as there was a polar shift in social and political stance between the two parties, when the Democrats became more liberal and the Republicans more conservative. At one time, Idaho had two Democratic parties, one being the mainstream and the other called the Anti-Mormon Democrats, lasting into the early 20th century. In the 1890s and early 1900s, the Populist Party enjoyed prominence while the Democratic Party maintained a brief dominance in the 1930s during the Great Depression. Since World War II, most statewide elected officials have been Republicans. The last time the Democratic Party held a majority in either house of the state legislature was the House of Representatives in 1958 by one seat. However, Democrats did hold the governorship from 1971 to 1995, despite the state's Republican tilt.\n\nIdaho Congressional delegations have also been generally Republican since statehood. Several Idaho Democrats have had electoral success in the House over the years, but the Senate delegation has been a Republican stronghold for decades. Several Idaho Republicans, including current Senator Mike Crapo, have won reelection to the Senate, but only Frank Church has won reelection as a Democrat. Church was the last Idaho Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race, in 1974. Walt Minnick's 2008 win in the First Congressional District was the state's first Democratic Congressional victory in 16 years.\n\nIn modern times, Idaho has been a reliably Republican state in presidential politics as well. It has not supported a Democrat for president since 1964. Even in that election, Lyndon Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater in the state by fewer than two percentage points, compared to a landslide nationally. In 2004, Republican George W. Bush carried Idaho by a margin of 38 percentage points and with 68.4% of the vote, winning in 43 of 44 counties. Only Blaine County, which contains the Sun Valley ski resort, supported John Kerry, who owns a home in the area. In 2008 Barack Obama's 36.1 percent showing was the best for a Democratic presidential candidate in Idaho since 1976. However, Republican margins were narrower in 1992 and 1976.\n\nIn the 2006 elections, Republicans, led by gubernatorial candidate CL \"Butch\" Otter, won all the state's constitutional offices and retained both of the state's seats in the United States House of Representatives. However, Democrats picked up several seats in the Idaho Legislature, notably in the Boise area. \n\nRepublicans lost one of the House seats in 2008 to Minnick, but Republican Jim Risch retained Larry Craig's Senate seat for the GOP by a comfortable margin. Minnick lost his seat in the 2010 election to Republican State Rep. Raul Labrador.\n\nImportant cities and towns\n\n; Population > 100,000 (urbanized area)\n\n* Boise – state capital\n\n; Population > 50,000 (urbanized area)\n\n* Idaho Falls – location of the main offices of the Idaho National Laboratory\n* Nampa – home of Northwest Nazarene University\n* Pocatello – home of Idaho State University\n* Meridian – suburb of Boise, fastest growing city in Idaho\n\n; Population > 30,000 (urbanized area)\n\n* Caldwell – home of the College of Idaho\n* Coeur d'Alene – home of North Idaho College, major tourist hub\n* Lewiston – home of Lewis-Clark State College, inland port\n* Twin Falls – home of College of Southern Idaho, BASE jumping\n\n; Population > 10,000 (urbanized area)\n\n; Smaller towns and cities\n\nNational parks, reserves, monuments and historic sites\n\n*California National Historic Trail\n*City of Rocks National Reserve\n*Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve\n*Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument\n*Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail\n*Minidoka National Historic Site\n*Nez Perce National Historical Park\n*Oregon National Historic Trail\n*Yellowstone National Park\n*Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail\n\nNational recreation areas\n\n*Hells Canyon National Recreation Area\n*Sawtooth National Recreation Area\n\nNational wildlife refuges and Wilderness Areas\n\n*Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge\n*Camas National Wildlife Refuge\n*Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge\n*Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness Area\n*Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge\n*Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge\n*Minidoka National Wildlife Refuge\n\nNational conservation areas\n\n*Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area\n\nState parks\n\nEducation\n\nColleges and universities\n\nThe Idaho State Board of Education oversees three comprehensive universities. The University of Idaho in Moscow was the first university in the state (founded in 1889). It opened its doors in 1892 and is the land-grant institution and primary research university of the state. Idaho State University in Pocatello opened in 1901 as the Academy of Idaho, attained four-year status in 1947 and university status in 1963. Boise State University is the most recent school to attain university status in Idaho. The school opened in 1932 as Boise Junior College and became Boise State University in 1974. Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston is the only public, non-university 4-year college in Idaho. It opened as a normal school in 1893.\n\nIdaho has three regional community colleges: North Idaho College in Coeur d'Alene; College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls; and College of Western Idaho in Nampa, which opened in 2009. A public technical college, Eastern Idaho Technical College, operates in Idaho Falls.\n\nPrivate institutions in Idaho are Boise Bible College, affiliated with congregations of the Christian churches and churches of Christ; Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg, which is affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a sister college to Brigham Young University; The College of Idaho in Caldwell, which still maintains a loose affiliation with the Presbyterian Church; Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa; and New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, of reformed Christian theological background. McCall College is a non-affiliated 2-year private college in McCall, which was founded in 2011 and later opened in 2013. \n\nSports\n\nCentral Idaho is home to one of North America's oldest ski resorts, Sun Valley, where the world's first chairlift was installed in 1936. Other noted outdoor sites include Hells Canyon, the Salmon River, and its embarkation point of Riggins.\n\nBoise is the host to the largest 5 km run for women, the St. Luke's Women's Fitness Celebration.\n\nHigh school sports are overseen by the Idaho High School Activities Association (IHSAA).\n\nIn 2016, Meridian's Michael Slagowski ran 800 meters in 1:48.70. That is one of the 35 fastest 800 meter times ever run by a high school boy in the United States. Weeks later, he would become only the ninth high school boy to complete a mile in under 4 minutes, running 3:59.53.\n\nOfficial state emblems\n\n*State amphibian: Idaho Giant Salamander (Dicamptodon aterrimus) \n*State bird: mountain bluebird (Sialia currucoides) \n*State dance: square dance\n*State fish: cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii)\n*State flower: syringa (Philadelphus lewisii)\n*State fossil: Hagerman horse (Equus simplicidens)\n*State fruit: huckleberry\n*State gem: star garnet\n*State horse: Appaloosa\n*State motto: Esto perpetua (\"Let it be perpetual\") \n*State insect: monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)\n*State raptor: peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus)\n*State song: \"Here We Have Idaho\"\n*State tree: western white pine (Pinus monticola)\n*State vegetable: potato\n\nIdahoans\n\nIdaho in popular culture\n\nThe North America localization of the Yo-Kai Watch franchise takes place in a fictionalized version of Springdale, Idaho.\n\nRiver Phoenix and Keanu Reeves starred in the movie My Own Private Idaho, portions of which take place in Idaho.\n\nJudy Garland performed the elaborate song-and-dance routine \"Born in a Trunk in the Princess Theater in Pocatello, Idaho\" in the 1954 version of the film A Star is Born." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Hamilton_Tiger-Cats.txt", "Winnipeg_Blue_Bombers.txt", "Edmonton_Eskimos.txt", "BC_Lions.txt", "Vancouver.txt", "Grey_Cup.txt" ], "title": [ "Hamilton Tiger-Cats", "Winnipeg Blue Bombers", "Edmonton Eskimos", "BC Lions", "Vancouver", "Grey Cup" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1950 with the merger of the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Tim Hortons Field. \n\nSince the 1950 merger, the team has won the Grey Cup championship eight times, most recently in 1999. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats Football Club also recognizes all Grey Cups won by Hamilton-based teams as part of their history, which would bring their win total to 15 (the Hamilton Tigers with five, Hamilton Flying Wildcats with one and Hamilton Alerts also with one). However, the CFL does not recognize these wins under one franchise, rather as the individual franchises that won them. If one includes their historical lineage, Hamilton football clubs won league championships in every decade of the 20th century, a feat matched by only one other North American franchise in professional sports, the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings of the International League. Neither of these teams won a championship in the first decade of the 21st century.\n\nIn their first forty years of existence, the Tiger-Cats were a model franchise, qualifying for the playoffs in all but three of those years and winning seven Grey Cup championships. They are one of only six teams in the modern era to win the Grey Cup at home and were the first to accomplish this when they did it in 1972. However, since 1990, they have missed the playoffs on eleven occasions and have won just one Grey Cup in 1999. Their lowest moment came when they lost a Canadian Football League record 17 games in one season with just one win during their 2003 season. The franchise has started to return to prominence after qualifying for the post-season in four of the past five seasons, including a loss in the 101st Grey Cup and again in the 102nd Grey Cup.\n\nTeam facts \n\nFounded: 1950, a merger of the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats. \nFormerly known as: The Hamilton Tigers and Hamilton Wildcats.\nHelmet design: Black background with a leaping tiger\nUniform colours: Black, Gold and White\nHome stadium: Tim Hortons Field (2014–present), Alumni Stadium (interim) (2013), Ivor Wynne Stadium (1971–2012), renamed from Civic Stadium (1930-1971 with modifications done in 1954), Hamilton Amateur Athletic Association Grounds (1872–1949),\nCurrent Owner: Bob Young\nEastern regular season championships: 22—1950, 1952, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1970, 1972, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1998, 1999, 2014\nEastern Division championships: 19—1953, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1998, 1999, 2013, 2014\nGrey Cup championships: 8— 1953, 1957, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1972, 1986, 1999\nMain Rivals: Toronto Argonauts (see Labour Day Classic), Winnipeg Blue Bombers (met eight times in Grey Cup games, seven other times in playoffs)\n2015 Regular Season Record: 10 wins, 8 losses.\n\nOwnership \n\nThe owner/caretaker of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Football Club is businessman Bob Young, who purchased the club on October 7, 2003. He was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and graduated from Victoria College at the University of Toronto. His fortune was earned in the software industry and he is currently the owner and CEO of Lulu (company), a self-publishing web-site. \n\n, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Executive Committee consists of three people: Bob Young, Caretaker; Scott Mitchell, President; and Doug Rye, Executive Vice President.\n\nFranchise history \n\nAlthough the current Hamilton Tiger-Cats were only founded in 1950, football in Hamilton goes back much further than that. The history of Hamilton Tiger-Cats Football Club can be traced back to November 3, 1869 in a room above George Lee’s Fruit Store, when the Hamilton Football Club was formed. The Hamilton football club played their first game on December 18, 1869 against the 13th Battalion (now Royal Hamilton Light Infantry). In 1872, the Hamilton Football club began play at the Hamilton AAA Grounds and they became known as the Tigers in 1873. \n\nThe Hamilton Tigers began play in the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) in 1883 and won their first Canadian Dominion Football Championship in 1906 when the Tigers beat McGill University 29–3. The Tigers continued in the ORFU until 1907, when the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) was formed. The IRFU later became known as the Big Four and eventually, the IRFU became the East division of the modern CFL in the 1950s. The Tigers faced stiff local competition with the ORFU's Hamilton Alerts who, in 1912, won the City of Hamilton its first Grey Cup, the trophy that was now awarded to the Canadian Dominion Football Champions, by beating the Toronto Argonauts 11–4.\n\nIn the following season (1913), the Tigers won their first of five Grey Cups when they beat the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club by the lopsided margin of 44–2. The Alerts were refused entry into the ORFU in 1913 with many of its players opting to join the Tigers, while the Alerts gradually faded from existence. The Alerts gave way to a team under the name Hamilton Rowing Club from 1913–1915, who also played in the ORFU. 1914 saw the complete amalgamation of the Hamilton Alerts and the Hamilton Tigers and the football club continued playing under the name \"Tigers\". In 1915, in the final pre-war season, the Hamilton Tigers won their second Grey Cup.\n\nAfter over a decade-long drought, the Hamilton Tigers won the Grey Cup championship game in 1928, 1929 and 1932. The 1941 season saw the Tigers suspend play for the remainder of World War II. The Hamilton Tigers folded, largely because a number of players had gone into the armed services. It is believed by some that the failure of the Tigers is what caused the IRFU to be dissolved, and the Eastern Rugby Football Union (ERFU) to be formed. Because of the absence of the Tigers, a new club called the Hamilton Wildcats were formed to play in the ORFU in 1941. The Wildcats were given permission to use players from the Hamilton Tigers, but not the traditional black and yellow colors of the Tigers. In 1943, the Hamilton Flying Wildcats, stocked with Royal Canadian Air Force personnel, won the 31st Grey Cup.\n\nThings returned to normal in 1945 when the IRFU and the Hamilton Tigers resumed play while the Wildcats (no longer known as the Flying Wildcats) continued on in the ORFU. In 1948 the Hamilton Wildcats joined the IRFU to replace the Tigers who joined the Ontario Rugby Football Union. The Tigers and Wildcats switch of unions only lasted two years (1948–49) as both clubs struggled. At this time, the Tigers and Wildcats competed for fans, talent and bragging rights so vehemently that neither team could operate on a sound financial level. Consequently, The Tigers and Wildcats amalgamated in 1950 to form the Hamilton Tiger-Cats that would compete in the IRFU. Under the guidance of prominent and distinguished local leaders such as Ralph \"Super-Duper\" Cooper and F.M. Gibson, it was decided that the two teams should merge as one that would represent Hamilton. Cooper was named team president and Carl Voyles served as head coach and general manager. A contest was held among the fans to determine the colors for the newly formed football club; the result was a combination of the two clubs' colors: yellow, black, red, white and blue. Over the years, the colors have evolved to gold, black and white and remain to this day. In 1950, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats began playing in Ivor Wynne Stadium, until 2012 after which it was demolished and replaced with a new stadium on the same site, Tim Hortons Field, in 2014.\n\nA Steel Town dynasty (1950–1972) \n\nThe Ti-Cats had great success throughout the 1950s and 1960s, in the 1950s and 1960s the club appeared in ten Grey Cups. They finished first in the East thirteen times from 1950 to 1972. During that same time span, they appeared in eleven Grey Cup finals winning the championship six times. Players, such as Angelo Mosca, Bernie Faloney, Joe Zuger and Garney Henley became football icons in the Steel City. Beginning in 1957 under coach Jim Trimble (who left the team after the 1962 season), the Tiger-Cats played in every national final through 1967, except for those of 1960 and 1966, winning 4 Cups (1957, 1963, 1965 and 1967).\n\nThe Cats 1972 Grey Cup win, 13–10 over the Saskatchewan Roughriders, was led by two sensational rookies, Chuck Ealey who had an outstanding college career at the University of Toledo and Ian Sunter, an 18-year-old kicker who booted the deciding field goal that gave Hamilton the cup.\n\nDuring this era, the Tiger-Cats also became (and remain to this day) the only Canadian team to have ever defeated a current National Football League team; on August 8, 1961, they defeated the Buffalo Bills by a score of 38–21 (at the time, Buffalo was still a part of the American Football League). \n\nLate 20th century \n\nIn 1978, Toronto Maple Leafs owner, Harold Ballard assumed ownership of the Tiger Cats. Ballard claimed to be losing a million dollars a year.All Work and All Play: A Life in the Outrageous Sport, p.124, John Wiley and Sons Canada Ltd., Mississauga, ON, 2005, ISBN 0-470-83552-4 The Tiger-Cats contended on and off during the rest of the 1970s and 1980s, reaching the Grey Cup final in 1980 and winning the East Division by a mile in 1981 with an 11–4–1 record under head coach Frank Kush, but were stunned by the Ottawa Rough Riders, who finished a distant second at 5–11, in the East final. The Tabbies' defense was very stout, talented and hungry that decade, led by standouts Grover Covington, Ben Zambiasi, Howard Fields and Mitchell Price. They were complemented very well on offense with quarterbacks Tom Clements and Mike Kerrigan throwing to Rocky DiPietro and Tony Champion leading to three straight trips to the Grey Cup in 1984, 1985 and 1986, the latter resulting in winning the title over the Edmonton Eskimos by a score of 39–15. In 1986, Ballard publicly called the Tiger-Cats a bunch of overpaid losers. After the Tiger-Cats beat the Toronto Argonauts in the 1986 Eastern Final, Ballard said “You guys may still be overpaid, but after today, no one can call you losers.” A few days later, the Tiger-Cats won the 1986 Grey Cup by beating the Edmonton Eskimos 39–15; Ballard said it was worth every penny.\n\nHamilton businessman David Braley bought the team in 1989, and he would eventually sell the team to a community-based group in 1992 due to continued poor attendance. Hamilton returned to the Grey Cup in 1989, but were on the losing end of a 43–40 thriller to Saskatchewan.\n\nThe 1990s were marked by financial instability, and constant struggles on the field. Quarterback was a weak spot for the Ti-Cats, as the first half of the decade had names like Don McPherson, Damon Allen, Timm Rosenbach, Matt Dunigan, Lee Saltz and Todd Dillon taking their turns at the pivot. Despite the excellent play of Eastern All-Star Earl Winfield rewriting the team's record books for pass catching, Hamilton struggled to attract crowds to Ivor Wynne Stadium. It was not until 1998 with the arrival of head coach Ron Lancaster and the pitch-and-catch duo of Danny McManus and Darren Flutie plus the pass rush abilities of Joe Montford that led Hamilton back to the CFL's elite, reaching the Grey Cup finals in 1998 and winning the cup the following year. However, the Ti-Cats would then suffer a slow decline. In 2000, Hamilton finished 9-9, losing 4 of their last 5 games, as well as the East semifinal 24-22 to Winnipeg. \n\nEarly 21st century \n\nIn 2001, Hamilton finished 11-7, and lost to Winnipeg in the playoffs for a second straight season, 28-13. In 2002, Hamilton finished 7-11 and missed the playoffs. The team would reach their lowest ebb in 2003, having a not only franchise-worst season, but the worst record in CFL history, finishing 1-17, with only a 27-24 overtime victory in week 14 keeping the declawed Tiger-Cats from having an imperfect season.\n\nNative Hamiltonian Bob Young has owned the Tiger-Cats since 2004, and although the team had a resurgence in home attendance, corporate sponsorship plus a brand new \"Tiger Vision\" scoreboard at Ivor Wynne stadium, it struggled with its on-field performance. Last place finishes both in 2005 (5–13) and 2006 (4–14), resulted in an overhaul of the coaching staff for 2007. The moves still did not immediately help, as the team continued to lag in last place in 2007 and 2008 despite numerous apparent upgrades. In 2009, their fortunes turned around when they finished in second place in the East, qualifying for the playoffs for the first time in several years. However, they failed to win the Grey Cup, marking the 2000s as the first decade since the 1890s that Hamilton failed to win a national championship.\n\nOn August 31, 2011, the Tiger-Cats announced plans to close Ivor Wynne Stadium at the end of the 2012 season and begin play in the long planned Pan American Stadium in 2014. Throughout the 2013 season, they played their home games at Guelph University's stadium because the new stadium was still under construction. On November 24, 2013, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats lost to the Saskatchewan Roughriders 45-23 in the 101st Grey Cup at Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field. The game had star appeal as actor Tom Hanks attended with comedian Martin Short, a Hamilton native. Early in the third quarter, Hanks was shown replacing a Ti-cats toque with a Riders hat, drawing a loud roar from the crowd. In the last three seasons, the Grey Cup host city has won the championship game (BC Lions, Toronto Argonauts, and Saskatchewan Roughriders). After construction of the new stadium fell behind schedule in 2014, the team moved the first few games of its 2014 season to Ron Joyce Stadium.\n\nTim Hortons Field opened in time for the 2014 Labour Day Classic, which coincided with the Tiger-Cats going on a long run that propelled the team from 1—6 prior to that game to 9—9 (in a year when the East was particularly weak, this was enough to win the division) and two further playoff wins, propelling the team to its second straight Grey Cup appearance, which would also be its second straight Grey Cup loss as the Calgary Stampeders held off a late comeback effort from the Tiger-Cats to win 20–16. The team went undefeated at Tim Hortons Field in its inaugural season at the stadium.\n\nLogo \n\nThe Tiger-Cats logo for many decades was an exact reverse of the Princeton University Tigers athletic logo. The artwork for the original \"leaping tiger\" is claimed by Hamilton. Both logos have since been revised or replaced. The colours of the logo are black, yellow, and white.\n\nRivals \n\nSince 1873, the arch-rivals of the Tiger-Cats have been the Toronto Argonauts. The first meeting between the two teams took place on October 18, 1873 at the University of Toronto where the Argonauts defeated the Hamilton Football Club by a Goal and a Try to Nil. Hamilton and Toronto are merely 51 km apart along the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) highway and, for relatively brief periods of time, were the only CFL teams in Ontario as a result of the demise of the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1996 and the demise of the Ottawa Renegades in 2006, although Ottawa fielded a new team called the Ottawa RedBlacks in 2014. In the Labour Day Classic match-ups since 1948, Hamilton has been victorious 31 times to Toronto's 15. Since 1996, the two teams have played the Labour Day Classic each year at Hamilton's Ivor Wynne Stadium, with the 2011 season and the 2013 season being recent exceptions. In 2014 and 2015, the Labour Day Classic continued the tradition, with the game being held at Hamilton's new stadium, Tim Hortons Field. As has been the case for several years, the two teams then have a rematch the following week at Toronto's stadium, currently the Rogers Centre, but that will change next year (2016) when the Argonauts move to a different facility. There have been 17 playoff match-ups between the two teams, with Toronto being victorious 10 times to Hamilton's 7. On November 17, 2013, the Tiger-Cats defeated the Argonauts 36-24 in the East Division Final game, which gave Hamilton a Grey Cup berth. On November 15, 2015, the Tiger-Cats defeated the Argonauts 25-22, to advance to the East Division Final against the Ottawa RedBlacks. Other rivals consist of the Montreal Alouettes and the Ottawa Redblacks.\n\nBroadcasters \n\nCorus Radio Hamilton was the official radio broadcast rights holder for the Tiger-Cats and had been the official voice for CFL football in the Greater Hamilton Area for over 40 years. AM900 CHML, together with brother station Y108, offered coverage of all Tiger-Cats games, including pre-season games. Hamilton Tiger-Cats games broadcast on CHML were anchored by the announcers team of Rick Zamperin, John Salavantis, and Matt Holmes. Zamperin, CHML's sports director, became the play-by-play announcer in 2007 after six seasons as sideline reporter. Color commentator John Salavantis was a former football coach with the Tiger-Cats, Ottawa Rough Riders, Montreal Machine, and the Ottawa University Braves. CHML's Matt Holmes was the pre-game show host and sideline reporter. The post-game show, \"The Fifth Quarter\", was hosted by Ted Michaels.\n\nIn May 2015, the Tiger-Cats announced that, beginning this season, they would be leaving CHML for CKOC, where the team will operate a joint venture with TSN Radio. No announcing staff has yet been announced for the Tiger-Cats broadcasts. Through the 2015 season, former McMaster Marauders quarterback Marshall Ferguson offered sideline analysis of all Tiger-Cats games, along with a post-game show on TSN 1050. Ferguson was promoted to lead play-by-play announcer in 2016.\n\nTiger-Cats radio announcers \n\nPlayers and coaches of note \n\nRetired numbers \n\nThe Tiger-Cats have retired two jersey numbers in their franchise history, Bernie Faloney in 1999 and Angelo Mosca in 2015. \n\nCanadian Football Hall of Famers \n\n* Damon Allen\n* Harold Ballard\n* John Barrow\n* Paul Bennett\n* John Bonk\n* Dieter Brock\n* Less Browne\n* Tom Clements\n* Bernie Custis\n* Tommy Joe Coffey\n* Grover Covington\n* Rocky DiPietro\n* Matt Dunigan\n* Terry Evanshen\n* Bernie Faloney\n* Darren Flutie\n* Tony Gabriel\n* Jake Gaudaur\n\n* Ed George\n* Tommy Grant\n* Garney Henley\n* Jerry Keeling\n* Ellison Kelly\n* Ron Lancaster\n* Danny McManus\n* Joe Montford\n* Angelo Mosca\n* Ray Nettles\n* Peter Neumann\n* Hal Patterson\n* Ralph Sazio\n* Vince Scott\n* Don Sutherin\n* Terry Vaughn\n* Ben Zambiasi\n\nCurrent roster \n\nCurrent front office and coaching staff \n\nHead coaches \n\n*Carl Voyles (1950–1955)\n*Jim Trimble (1956–1962)\n*Ralph Sazio (1963–1967)\n*Joe Restic (1968–1970)\n*Al Dorow (1971)\n*Jerry Williams (1972–1975)\n*George Dickson (1976)\n*Bob Shaw (1976–1977)\n*Tom Dimitroff, Sr. (1978)\n*John Payne (1978–1980)\n*Frank Kush (1981)\n*Bud Riley (1982–1983)\n*Al Bruno (1983–1987)\n\n*Ted Schmitz (interim) (1987)\n*Al Bruno (1987–1990)\n*David Beckman (1990–1991)\n*John Gregory (1991–1994)\n*Don Sutherin (1994–1997)\n*Urban Bowman (interim) (1997)\n*Ron Lancaster (1998–2003)\n*Greg Marshall (2004–2006)\n*Ron Lancaster (interim) (2006)\n*Charlie Taaffe (2007–2008)\n*Marcel Bellefeuille (2008–2011)\n*George Cortez (2012)\n*Kent Austin (2013–present)\n\nGeneral managers \n\n*Carl M. Voyles (1950–1955)\n*Jake Gaudaur (1956–1967)\n*Ralph Sazio (1968–1975)\n*Bob Shaw (1976–1979)\n*Ralph Sazio (1979–1981)\n*Joe Zuger (1981–1992)\n*John Gregory (1993–1994)\n*Don Sutherin (1994–1996)\n*Neil Lumsden (1997–2000)\n\n*Ron Lancaster (2001–2003) – Director of Football Operations\n*Alan Ford (2003) – Interim GM From 23 August 2003 – End of 2003 CFL Season\n*Ron Lancaster (2004–2005)\n*Rob Katz (2005–2006)\n*Marcel Desjardins (2006–2007)\n*Bob O'Billovich (2008–2012)\n*Kent Austin (2013–2015)\n*Eric Tillman (2016–present)\n\nMascots \n\nT.C. and Stripes are the mascots for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.", "The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They are currently members of the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). They play their home games at Investors Group Field after many years of playing at the since demolished Canad Inns Stadium. Currently, the former CanadInns Stadium site is an abandoned Target store, and is being converted into Plaza at Polo Park.\n\nThe Blue Bombers were founded in 1930 as the Winnipeg Football Club, which remains the organization's legal name today. Since that time, they have won the league's Grey Cup championship 10 times, most recently in 1990. With 10 wins, they have the third-highest win total in the Grey Cup among active and defunct CFL teams. Though they are currently the team with the longest Grey Cup drought, no other CFL franchise has as many Grey Cup appearances as the Blue Bombers' current 25. The Blue Bombers were also the first team not located in Ontario or Quebec to win a championship.\n\nTeam facts\n\nFounded: 1930\nFormerly known as: Winnipegs 1930-1937\nHelmet design: Gold background, with a white \"W\" and blue trim\nUniform colours: Blue, gold with white accents\nPast uniform colours: Green and white 1930 to 1932\nNicknames: Bombers, Blue and Gold, Big Blue\nMascots: Buzz and Boomer\nFight Song: \"Bombers Victory March\" Credited to T.H Guild & J. Guild\nStadium: Osborne Stadium (1935–1952), Canad Inns Stadium (1953–2012, known as Winnipeg Stadium prior to 2000), Investors Group Field (2013–present)\nLocal radio: 680 CJOB\nMain rivals: Saskatchewan Roughriders (see Labour Day Classic and Banjo Bowl), Hamilton Tiger-Cats, a team they have played on numerous occasions for the Grey Cup, Toronto Argonauts, BC Lions, and other prairie city teams the Edmonton Eskimos and the Calgary Stampeders.\nWestern Division 1st place: 16—1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1947, 1950, 1952, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1972\nEast Division 1st Place: 7—1987, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2001, 2011\nWestern Division championships: 13—1936, 1939, 1941, 1947, 1950, 1952, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1972\nEastern Division championships: 7 — 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 2001, 2007, 2011\nGrey Cup Championships: 10—1935, 1939, 1941, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1984, 1988, 1990\nDivision history: Western Football Conference (1961–1979), West Division (1980–1986), East Division (1987–1994), North Division (1995), West Division (1996), East Division (1997–2001), West Division (2002–2005), East Division (2006–2013), West Division (2014–present)\n2015 regular season record: 5 wins, 13 losses, 0 ties\n\nTeam history\n\nBeginning\n\nThe first football team in Winnipeg was formed in 1879, and was called the Winnipeg Rugby Football Club. On June 10, 1930, they amalgamated with all the other teams in the Manitoba Rugby Football Union to create the Winnipeg Winnipegs Rugby Football Club, adopting the colours green and white. The Winnipegs played their first game against St. John's Rugby Club on June 13, 1930, when St. John's won by a score of 7–3. In 1932, the Winnipegs and St. John's merged into one team and adopted the colours blue and gold. \n\n1935 Grey Cup\n\nWestern teams had been to the Grey Cup game 10 times since 1909, but they had always gone home empty-handed. It was clear in those days that the East was much more powerful, outscoring their opponents 236–29 in these games. On December 7, 1935, the Bombers got their first shot at winning the 23rd Grey Cup. The game was being held in Hamilton, with the home-town Tigers being their opponents. It was a rainy day at Hamilton Amateur Athletic Association Grounds, with 6,405 fans in attendance.\n\nWinnipeg was up 5–0 before many fans had even reached their seats. Hamilton player Jack Craig let the opening kickoff bounce to the turf while a Winnipeg player promptly recovered the ball at the Hamilton 15-yard line. Winnipeg scored quickly on a Bob Fritz pass to Bud Marquardt to get the early lead. After scoring another touchdown on a Greg Kabat catch in the endzone, Winnipeg went into halftime up 12–4. Their lead was soon cut to three points in the second half after Hamilton scored a touchdown of their own, helped by a blocked kick that placed the ball on the Winnipeg 15-yard line.\n\nThen, after a Hamilton rouge, Winnipeg's RB/KR Fritz Hanson caught a punt, and after a few moves and a few missed tackles, was on his way to a 78-yard touchdown return, making the score 18–10. Hamilton would force a safety to bring themselves within six points, but failed to crack the endzone, getting as far as the Winnipeg four-yard line. The final score was Winnipeg 18, Hamilton 12. With that, Winnipeg had become the first team from Western Canada to win a Grey Cup. \n\nBlue Bombers\n\nIn 1935, before an exhibition game against North Dakota State (NDSU), Winnipeg Tribune sports writer Vince Leah decided to borrow from Grantland Rice, who labelled Joe Louis as \"The Brown Bomber\". He called the team the \"Blue Bombers of Western football\". Up to that point, the team had been called the \"Winnipegs\". From that day forward, the team has been known as the \"Winnipeg Blue Bombers\". In that same year, the Blue Bombers, Calgary Bronks, and Regina Roughriders formed the Western Interprovincial Football Union as the highest level of play in Western Canada.\n\nEarly days of glory\n\nFrom 1936 to 1949, the Bombers won the right to compete for the Grey Cup in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, and 1945. Of these appearances, Winnipeg won only twice, in 1939 over the Ottawa Rough Riders and again in their 1941 rematch.\n\nJack Jacobs era\n\nJack Jacobs, known as Indian Jack, was a Cree quarterback from Oklahoma. He came to the Bombers in 1950 after a successful career in the United States. He led the Bombers to two Grey Cup appearances, losing both. His exciting style of play and extreme talent increased ticket sales and overall awareness and popularity of the club. The revenue the Bombers were getting from their newfound popularity was enough to convince them to move from the small, outdated Osborne Stadium to the new Winnipeg Stadium (later known as Canad Inns Stadium). Jacobs was so well liked, the fans even referred to the new stadium as \"The House that Jack Built\". Jacobs retired in 1954 to become a talent scout for the team.\n\nIn 1951, Jack Jacobs became the first professional football quarterback to throw for over 3,000 yards in a season with 3,248. That year, he was also the first professional football quarterback to throw for at least 30 touchdowns, with 33. The next year he bested that mark with 34.\n\nGlory years and Bud Grant saga\n\nBud Grant joined the team in 1953 after a two-year stint with the Philadelphia Eagles, as one of numerous NFL players lured to Canada during the first part of the decade for then-better salaries. After a four-year career as a receiver, then at the time called an offensive end, he accepted the position of head coach of the Bombers in 1957. Grant went on to coach the team for the next 10 years before becoming the head coach of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings.\n\nIn 1956, Blue Bombers fans named Labatt's Pilsener Lager, which had a blue label, Labatt Blue, in honour of their team. \n\nDuring Grant's tenure as head coach, the Bombers welcomed the likes of Ken Ploen, Leo Lewis, Ernie Pitts, and Ed Kotowich to the team. The Bombers competed in six Grey Cup games during Grant's tenure, winning four (1958, 1959, 1961, and 1962). In 1961, the Bombers won 21–14 over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the first Grey Cup game to go into overtime. The Bombers and Ticats met again in the 1962 Grey Cup, with the game being postponed with 9:29 left in the fourth quarter due to zero visibility in the famous \"Fog Bowl\". The game resumed the next morning with the Bombers winning 28–27.\n\nDuring the second half of the 1960s, the Bombers' domination gave away to lean years, with four seasons of double digits in the loss column. The team bounced back in the early 1970s with the likes of quarterback Don Jonas, running-back Mack Herron, wide receivers Jim Thorpe, and Bob LaRose. The team finished first in the Western Conference in 1972, the first time it had done so since 1962. However, the Bombers came up short in the Western Final against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. In the game, the Bombers squandered a 13-point, third quarter lead en route to a heartbreaking 27–24 loss, with Saskatchewan kicker Jack Abendschan converting a short field goal attempt on the last play of the game to send the 'Riders to the 1972 Grey Cup against Hamilton. The 1972 season also marks the last time the team has finished first in the West. The team struggled for a few more seasons under coaches Jim Spavital and Bud Riley before Ray Jauch was brought in as head coach before the 1978 season. Under Jauch, the Bombers became one of the stronger teams in the West, but usually behind Jauch's former team, the powerhouse Edmonton Eskimos coached by Hugh Campbell.\n\nIn 1981, wide receiver Eugene Goodlow became the first CFL player to reach the century mark in receptions in a season. Goodlow caught 100 passes for 1,494 yards and 14 touchdowns. That season, the Bombers became one of the first teams to have three receivers with at least 1,000 yards in a season: Goodlow with 1,494, Joe Poplawski with 1,271, and Rick House with 1,102.\n\nCal Murphy era\n\nIn 1983, Cal Murphy was hired to be the new head coach of the Blue Bombers. Almost immediately, Murphy set the tone for his career with the Bombers by trading popular QB Dieter Brock to Hamilton in exchange for QB Tom Clements. Trading Brock turned out to be a wise decision, with Clements leading the Bombers to crushing victory in the 1984 Grey Cup, coincidentally over the Brock-led Tiger-Cats. This was Winnipeg's first Grey Cup in 22 years, and also their most recent appearance in the championship game as the Western representative. Murphy was named coach of the year in both 1983 and 1984.\n\nIn 1987, Murphy stepped down as head coach to become the team general manager, with assistant coach Mike Riley (son of former Winnipeg coach Bud Riley) taking over head-coaching duties. Then, just prior to the start of the 1987 season, the Montreal Alouettes folded. With the East Division suddenly down to three teams compared to five in the West, the league moved the Blue Bombers to the East to balance the divisions.\n\nUnder Riley, the Blue Bombers quickly made an impact in the East, winning Grey Cups over their former division rivals B.C. and Edmonton in 1988 and 1990 respectively and garnering Riley the coach of the year award both championship seasons. After Riley left, Darryl Rogers and Urban Bowman each led the team for a season until 1993, when Murphy took over head-coaching duties again. Murphy went on to lead the team to a total of five Grey Cup appearances, winning, as a coach in 1984, and as a GM, in 1988 and 1990. He left the club after the 1996 season, having spent 14 years with the team. Later, he would coach the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 1999.\n\nWinnipeg would play a total of eight consecutive seasons in the East before moving to the newly created North Division in 1995 during the CFL's expansion to the United States. With the end of the CFL's American experiment a year later, and the re-establishment of the Alouettes, the Blue Bombers would return to the re-constituted West Division. This arrangement would also last only one season, as Winnipeg returned to the East again for the 1997 season after the Ottawa Rough Riders ceased operations.\n\nReinebold years\n\nIn November 1996, Cal Murphy left the Blue Bombers' organization after 14 years. This was partly due to a 68–7 playoff thumping by the Edmonton Eskimos, and partly because the team had not had a winning record the previous two years, winning only seven games in 1995, and nine in 1996.\n\nJeff Reinebold was hired to replace Murphy as the team coach, and despite a huge amount of hype, and championship promises going into the 1997 season, he proved to be one of the least successful head coaches in team history. The Bombers won four games in 1997, and just three in 1998.\n\nThe few notable highlights from that era include:\n*Milt Stegall became an all-star in 1997, his first full year with the team, and scored what seemed like at least one long touchdown in every game.\n*A 43–12 drubbing of the eventual Western Division champion Saskatchewan Roughriders in the 1997 Labour Day Classic\n*In a dramatic win over the Roughriders at home in 1998, forgotten backup QB Troy Kopp led the second-half over-20-point comeback. This was the \"Guaranteed Win day\" that the club had been promoting all week, as well as the first win of the season, in week 11.\n\nThe few memorable players on the team during that time included linebacker K.D. Williams, safety Tom Europe, running back/returner Eric Blount, and Milt Stegall.\n\nMilt Stegall era\n\nMilt Stegall joined the Bombers in 1995 after a three-year career returning kicks and seeing spot duty at receiver with the Cincinnati Bengals. He played in the Bombers' final six games of the 1995 season, racking up 469 receiving yards. In 1997, Stegall set a new league record that still stands today for average gain per reception with 26.5 yards on 61 catches for 1616 yards, including 14 touchdowns. Following a brief return to the NFL, that saw him on the verge of making the Green Bay Packers if not for a serious knee injury at the end of training camp, Stegall remained the team's primary receiver.\n\nIn 1999, the Bombers acquired Khari Jones from the BC Lions. Together, Stegall and Jones brought the Bombers back to prominence, with Jones being the CFL's most outstanding player in 2001, and Stegall getting the honour in 2002. During the 2006 Grey Cup, Khari Jones and Milt Stegall were voted and honored as the best QB/WR combo in CFL history. Charles Roberts joined them in 2001, a year which the Bombers went to the Grey Cup, which they eventually lost to the Calgary Stampeders. The following season, Winnipeg returned to the West Division following the establishment of the Ottawa Renegades. The team was a powerhouse during this period, being one of the best teams in the league from 2001 until 2003.\n\nMidway through the 2004 season, Jones was traded to the Calgary Stampeders, with backup QB Kevin Glenn taking over the starting duties. Glenn led the team to two mediocre seasons after the trade. Prior to the 2006 season, the Renegades suspended operations and Winnipeg once again returned to the East Division.\n\nWith the offensive core of Stegall and Roberts still intact, Glenn led the Bombers back to respectability in 2006. The season included many highlights, but none as exciting at what is simply known as \"The Play\". On July 20, 2006, trailing the Edmonton Eskimos on the road 22–19, and facing third and long on their own 10 yardline with 4 sec left in the game, Milt Stegall caught a 100-yard TD pass from Kevin Glenn as time expired to win the game 25–22. It is considered by many as the greatest play in CFL history. Aided by the \"miracle\" catch, the Bombers ended up making their first playoff appearance in two years. Despite losing in the first round, optimism going into the 2007 was higher than ever.\n\nThe 2007 CFL season was in some ways the year of Milt Stegall: he broke the career CFL touchdown record and fell just short of overtaking the career receiving yards record held by Allen Pitts. The 2007 season would likely be Stegall's last, as he was 37 years old and had been contemplating retirement for the previous two seasons.\n\nThe 2007 Grey Cup game was played between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the first time the two prairie teams met for the championship. Winnipeg was defeated by the Saskatchewan Roughriders 23–19 in the Rogers Centre in Toronto. During the East division final win over the Toronto Argonauts, quarterback Kevin Glenn broke his arm and Winnipeg was left with an inexperienced rookie to take his place for the championship game. Back-up quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie — in his first CFL start — did not fare well and threw one touchdown pass, fumbled once and threw three interceptions to Saskatchewan cornerback James Johnson. Johnson was later declared the game MVP.\n\nOne of the picks was shown in the instant replay to have hit the ground before it was caught. Despite his rookie mistakes, Dinwiddie showed promise going into the 2008 season. He was released prior to the 2009 season.\n\nIt was announced on January 31, 2008 that Milt Stegall would be returning for one more year for the 2008 season. He signed a one-year contract for $200,000 on the basis of the fact his wife wanted to have their next child in Winnipeg, and the fact that they were in line to be a contender for the Grey Cup. He took a $50,000 pay cut, and started the season 159 yards away from breaking Allen Pitts' all-time receiving yards record.\n\nOther returning players who were free agents going into the 2008 season, including star DE Tom Canada, OL's Dan Goodspeed, and Matt Sheridan, signed for less money from the Bombers than other teams were prepared to pay them, in hopes of a Grey Cup run in '08. Tom Canada, in particular, reportedly turned down a much higher contract offer from the Montreal Alouettes, to come back to Winnipeg.\n\nThe Bombers made a surprise trade when they sent all-star running back Charles Roberts to B.C. for Joe Smith on September 2, 2008. Then on September 8, 2008, they traded all-star DE Tom Canada to Hamilton for Zeke Moreno. But on September 9, 2008, the trade was cancelled because Canada was injured and could not play for at least 10 weeks. So, since they could not trade Canada, they sent over Corey Mace and a first-round pick for Moreno.\n\nFollowing the 2008 season in which the Bombers were defeated in the division semifinals, Doug Berry (the head coach) was fired. Mike Kelly was chosen to replace him. At the end of the Cal Murphy era, Mike Kelly was the offensive coordinator and was passed over for the top job in favour of Jeff Reinebold. With Milt Stegall's early-season knee surgery and drop in production, it was once again speculated that Milt Stegall would retire.\n\nThe departure of Brendan Taman on January 13, 2009, was another sign that this era was coming to an end and a new one was beginning. On February 18, 2009, Milt Stegall did retire from the CFL which formally ended the Milt Stegall era.\n\nThe Revolving Door era \n\nThe return of Mike Kelly opened a new Cal Murphy era, and the board hoped to bring back Murphy's success. However, Kelly was fired by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Board of Directors on December 17, 2009, after one year of employment.\n\nPaul LaPolice was introduced as the 28th head coach in Blue Bombers history on February 5, 2010. The new coach emphasized the idea of \"team\" and playing for the uniform. He also made it a point to talk about fixing problems rather than making excuses. The new paradigm was tested in the 2010 season in which the team finished 4–14 and missed the playoffs for the second straight year. Nine of those games were lost by four points or fewer, while 10 were lost by a touchdown or less.\n\nThe 2011 season featured an almost completely unchanged team (save for a few losses to the NFL and a few gains from the draft). The Blue Bombers reversed their standings from last place in the east in 2010 to finishing in first place in the East division with a 10–8 record. The team success hinged on a league-leading defence dubbed Swaggerville, which led them to their first division title in 10 years. The team advanced to the 99th Grey Cup after defeating Hamilton in the Eastern Final. However, they lost to the favoured BC Lions by a score of 34–23.\n\nOn August 9, 2013, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers announced that CEO Garth Buchko stepped down and General Manager Joe Mack was fired. \n\nThe CFL returned to Ottawa in 2014 with the establishment of the Redblacks. Initially, the league planned to keep Winnipeg in the East, at least for the short term, due in part to the ongoing competitive dominance of the West. Despite this, Blue Bombers management lobbied heavily to return to the West Division immediately, and eventually the league relented. The Blue Bombers finished last place in their first season back in the West, with a 7–11 record.\n\nO'Shea and New Top Brass Era\n\nAfter being named the acting CEO in August 2013 Wade Miller was announced as the CEO and President of the Club on November 12, 2013. The shake up of the top brass in 2013 also led to Kyle Walters having to take over the acting GM duties, which were made officially his on November 26, 2013 when he was named the General Manager. \n\nOn December 4, 2013, Mike O'Shea was hired by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to become the team's 30th Head Coach in team history. \n\nCurrent personnel\n\nFootball operation staff\n\nRoster\n\nManagement\n\nHead coaches\n\n*Fred Ritter (1924–1929)\n*Jack Millidge (1930)\n*Pete Barnes (1931)\n*Carl Cronin (1932–1933)\n*Greg Kabat (1934)\n*Bob Fritz (1935–1937)\n*Reg Threlfall (1938–1944)\n*Bert Warwick (1945)\n*Jack West (1946–1948)\n*Frank Larson (1949–1950)\n*George Trafton (1951–1953)\n*Allie Sherman (1954–1956)\n*Bud Grant (1957–1966)\n*Joe Zaleski (1967–1969)\n*Jim Spavital (1970–1973)\n\n*Bud Riley (1974–1977)\n*Ray Jauch (1978–1982)\n*Cal Murphy (1983–1986)\n*Mike Riley (1987–1990)\n*Darryl Rogers (1991)\n*Urban Bowman (1992)\n*Cal Murphy (1993–1996)\n*Jeff Reinebold (1997–1998)\n*Dave Ritchie (1999–2004)\n*Jim Daley (2004–2005)\n*Doug Berry (2006–2008)\n*Mike Kelly (2009)\n*Paul LaPolice (2010–2012)\n*Tim Burke (2012–2013)\n*Mike O'Shea (2014–Present)\n\nGeneral managers\n\n*Joe Ryan (1931–1944)\n*Lou Adelman (1945)\n*Gord Bieber (1946–1947)\n*Bill Boivin (1955–1957)\n*Jim Ausley (1958–1964)\n*Bud Grant (1965–1966)\n*Joe Zaleski (1967)\n*Earl Lunsford (1968–1982)\n*Cal Murphy (1983–1996)\n*Jeff Reinebold (1997–1998)\n\n*Ken Bishop (1999)\n*Lyle Bauer (2000–2001)\n*Dave Ritchie (2002–2003)\n*Brendan Taman (2004–2008)\n*Mike Kelly (2009)\n*Joe Mack (2010–2013)\n*Kyle Walters (2013–present)\n\nStadium\n\nDuring the Blue Bombers' early years, the team played at Osborne Stadium, a small stadium near the Manitoba Legislative Buildings. The fast, passing-dominated play of Bombers quarterback Jack Jacobs dramatically increased attendance at games and precipitated the need for a new, larger stadium. Winnipeg Stadium was built in the West End of the city near Polo Park, and the Blue Bombers began play there in 1953. The stadium had significant changes over the years, including a renaming to Canad Inns Stadium.\n\nOver the years, various plans were proposed to relocate the stadium. In 2008, a plan was proposed to build a new stadium at the University of Manitoba, with both private and public funding.\nOn April 2, 2009, David Asper (a media mogul located out of Winnipeg associated with Canwest and Creswin Properties) inked a deal with all levels of governments to build a new 33,422-seat (expandable to 45,000) stadium at the University of Manitoba in southwest Winnipeg. This would serve as the home for the Blue Bombers, as well as the U of M Bisons. The deal included refurbishing the existing Bison Stadium for practice and training, as well as upgrading, expanding, and building new sports and fitness facilities. This project, once completed, would be the premiere sports training facility in Canada. The project would have received on-going funding from a retail development that Asper planned to build on the former CanadInns stadium site. As part of the deal, Creswin properties would take over ownership of the team in 2010. The new stadium and facilities would have been completed for the 2012 CFL season, with the retail development finished in 2013. On December 13, 2013, it was reported that Asper and Creswin Properties would no longer be included in the stadium project, which would continue with funding from the City of Winnipeg, Province of Manitoba, and Winnipeg Blue Bombers. \n\nOn May 2, 2012, the Blue Bombers announced that because of constructions delays, the stadium would not be ready until September, thus forcing the team to play four or five home games at Canad Inns Stadium to start the season. In June 2012, it was announced that the stadium would not open until the 2013 season. \n\nThe Blue Bombers played their first home game at Investors Group Field on June 27, 2013, losing 38–33 to the Montreal Alouettes. \n\nImage:Bomber Stadium.JPG|Canad Inns Stadium\nImage:CanadaInnsStadium.jpg|Canad Inns Stadium\nImage:BlueBombersgame.jpg|Blue Bombers game at Canad Inns Stadium with temporary seating set up in the endzone for the 2006 Grey Cup\nImage:Investors Group Field.png|Panoramic view of Investors Group Field\n\nPlayers of note\n\nCanadian Football Hall of Famers\n\n* Paul Bennett – inducted as a player in 2002\n* John Bonk – inducted as a player in 2008\n* Ralph \"Dieter\" Brock – inducted as a player in 1995\n* Less Browne – inducted as a player in 2002\n* Tom \"Citation\" Casey – inducted as a player in 1964\n* Arthur Chipman – inducted as a builder in 1969\n* Tom Clements – inducted as a player in 1994\n* Carl Cronin – inducted as a player in 1967\n* Andrew Currie – inducted as a builder in 1974\n* Matt Dunigan – inducted as a player in 2006\n* Bill Frank – inducted as a player in 2001\n* Harry Peter \"Bud\" Grant – inducted as a builder in 1983\n* Tommy Grant – inducted as a player in 1995\n* G. Sydney Halter – inducted as a builder in 1966\n* Frank Hannibal – inducted as a builder in 1963\n* Fritz Hanson – inducted as a player in 1963\n* John Helton – inducted as a player in 1985\n* Dick Huffman – inducted as a player in 1987\n* W.P. \"Billy\" Hughes – inducted as a builder in 1974\n* Jack Jacobs – inducted as a player in 1963\n* Eddie James – inducted as a player in 1963\n* Gerry James – inducted as a player in 1981\n* Greg Kabat – inducted as a player in 1996\n* Les Lear – inducted as a player in 1974\n* Leo \"Lincoln Locomotive\" Lewis – inducted as a player in 1973\n* Earl Lunsford – inducted as a player in 1983\n* Chester \"Ches\" McCance – inducted as a player in 1976\n* Cal Murphy – inducted as a builder in 2004\n* James Murphy – inducted as a player in 2000\n* Ken Ploen – inducted as a player in 1975\n* Joe Poplawski – inducted as a player in 1998\n* Russ \"The Wisconsin Wraith\" Rebholz – inducted as a player in 1963\n* Frank Rigney – inducted as a player in 1984\n* Joseph B. Ryan – inducted as a builder in 1968\n* Karl Slocomb – inducted as a builder in 1989\n* Art Stevenson – inducted as a player in 1969\n* Robert Porter \"Buddy\" Tinsley – inducted as a player in 1982\n* Chris Walby – inducted as a player in 2003\n* Bert Warwick – inducted as a builder in 1964\n\nAll-time 75th-Anniversary team\n\n* Greg Battle\n* Ralph \"Dieter\" Brock\n* Tom Clements\n* Herb Gray\n* Bob Cameron\n* Tom Casey\n* Fritz Hanson\n* Rick House\n* Jack Jacobs\n* Gerry James\n* Trevor Kennerd\n* Leo Lewis\n* James Murphy\n* Ken Ploen\n* Frank Rigney\n* Charles Roberts\n* Joe Poplawski\n* Willard Reaves\n* Milt Stegall\n* Chris Walby\n\nTeam members notable elsewhere\n\n*Ed Schultz, talk show host\n*Ben Hatskin, Winnipeg Jets owner; World Hockey Association chairman\n*Tommy Europe, The Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp host\n*Michael Coulson, appeared on American Gladiators", "The Edmonton Eskimos are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta, competing in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Eskimos play their home games at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium and are the third-youngest franchise in the CFL. The Eskimos were founded in 1949, although there were clubs with the name Edmonton Eskimos as early as 1895. The Eskimos are the most successful CFL franchise of the modern era (since 1954) having won the league's Grey Cup championship fourteen times, second overall only to the Toronto Argonauts who have won sixteen. This includes a three-peat between 1954 and 1956 and an unmatched five consecutive wins between 1978 and 1982, and most recently in 2015.\n\nThe Eskimos hold a North American professional sports record by qualifying for the playoffs for 34 consecutive years between 1972 and 2005. Edmonton has had the most regular season division championships in the modern era with 21, with their most recent coming in 2015. The team has a rivalry with the Calgary Stampeders and are one of the three community owned teams currently operating in the CFL.\n\nTeam facts \n\nFounded: 1949, although other teams named the Edmonton Eskimos existed 1895 to 1923 and 1929 to 1939\nFormerly known as: The \"Esquimaux\" 1897 to 1910\nHelmet design: Yellow background, with a gold \"EE\" on a green oval\nUniform colours: Green, gold and white\nPast uniform colours: Blue and white (1938 to 1939) and black and yellow (1907 to 1937)\nNicknames: Esks, Eskies, The Double-E\nMascots: Nanook and Punter\nFight Song: Eskimo Fight Song\nStadiums: Clarke Stadium (1949–1978) and The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium (1978–present)\nMain rivals: Calgary Stampeders (see battle of Alberta) and Montreal Alouettes (11 meetings in the Grey Cup, once in the East final).\nWestern Division 1st place: 23—, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and \nWestern Division Champions: 23—1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1960, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2015\nGrey Cup championships: 14—1954, 1955, 1956, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1993, 2003, 2005 and 2015\n2015 regular season record: 14 wins, 4 losses\n\nOwnership \n\nThe Edmonton Eskimos Football Club is one of three \"community owned\" teams in the CFL (owned by local shareholders). This was once the most common type of ownership in the CFL. In 2006 the Ottawa Sun reported that shares cost $10 each, but were not open to the general public and required the approval of the 80 existing shareholders. This contrasts with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, one of the other community owned teams in the CFL, who have offered shares to the public. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are the third community owned team.\n\nBoard of directors\n\nEdmonton Eskimos, Inc., is governed by a ten-member board of directors. The board consists of a chairman, treasurer, secretary six directors and an alternate governor. the board of directors included chairman Allan Sawin, treasurer Bruce Bentley, secretary John Moquin, director Diane Brickner, Chris Bruce, Terry O'Flynn, Harold Roozen, William Scott, Brad Sparrow and alternate governor Rick LeLacheur. The club's president and CEO is Len Rhodes, he is not currently a member of the board.\n\nHistory \n\nOrigins of the name\n\nThe story of team's name goes back to stories in the press from at least 1903 and possibly as far back as 1892, the first date of a \"rugby football\" game between Edmonton and Calgary. It is a legacy of the bitter rivalry between the cities of Edmonton and Calgary, the so-called Battle of Alberta. In the early years of sports competition between the cities, the press in each town used colourful nicknames to insult the rival team's home. Edmontonian writers called Calgary \"the cow camp\", \"horse country\", or \"the little village beside the Bow\". Likewise Calgary's responded with insults about Edmonton's northern latitude and frigid weather, calling the city's residents \"Esquimeaux\" (an archaic spelling of \"Eskimos\", referring to the indigenous people of the Canadian Arctic, modernly called Inuit). Despite the fact Edmonton is several thousand kilometres south of the Arctic, the name \"had the advantages of alliteration, neatness, uniqueness, and a certain amount of truth,\" and thus, according to historian of Edmonton Tony Cashman, \"it stuck.\" The name remained an unofficial nickname, however until the arrival in Edmonton of American baseball coach and sports promoter William Deacon White in 1907. White founded the Edmonton Eskimos baseball team in 1909, the football Eskimos in 1910, and Edmonton Eskimos hockey team in 1911. Of the three, only the football teams' name has survived.\n\nTeam history \n\nEdmonton played its first series of organized games with the formation of the Alberta Rugby Football Union in 1895. In 1897 the name Esquimaux was adopted. In 1910 the club was officially named the Edmonton Eskimos. Since 1978 the Eskimos have played their home games in The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium. They are one of the most successful teams in Canadian football history, having won the Grey Cup more than any other team except the Toronto Argonauts, and being the run-away leader in attendance for many years.\n\nThe team holds many impressive records, including five consecutive Grey Cup wins (1978–82) and 34 consecutive years in the playoffs (1972–2005); the latter is a record no other North American professional sports team has equalled. Former Eskimos have figured prominently in Alberta political life: past players include two former provincial premiers (Peter Lougheed and Donald Getty), a former mayor of Edmonton (Bill Smith), and a lieutenant-governor (Norman Kwong).\n\nDuring the glory years of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Edmonton Eskimos won five Grey Cup championships in a row (1978–82). Since Edmonton re-entered the CFL in 1949, only one other team—also Edmonton—has managed to win three championships in row (1954–56), let alone five. The achievements during the Eskimos dynasty were documented in the book, Decade of Excellence, with photographs by Bob Peterson.\n\nThe Eskimos also enjoy the largest average attendance in the league season after season.\n\nUniform \n\nThe current uniform colours, green and gold, were adopted when the Eskimos received uniforms from the University of Alberta Golden Bears football team, which was dormant due to a lack of competition in 1949. The colours have remained since that time, and the Golden Bears maintain them to this day as well.\n\nOverall, the jersey and colours have remained essentially the same over the years with only minor modifications. In 2001 the Eskimos introduced white pants to be worn with their away jerseys. In the 2005 CFL season all CFL teams switched to a Reebok designed template but the jerseys for the Eskimos stayed much the same. In that same year the Eskimos introduced an alternate jersey for the first time in the franchise's history. Green pants were also introduced at this time and have been worn with their home and away jerseys since then. The alternate gold jersey was last worn in 2007, as they mainly use their green jerseys. Along with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Winnipeg Blue Bombers, they were one of the few teams to alternate the pants and jersey combinations of their uniforms within a season.\n\nThe Eskimos had their jerseys remodelled for the 2012 season and brought back the green helmets that were worn for the Labour Day game and rematch in 2008. The green helmets were worn with the away jerseys and marked the first time in franchise history that a helmet other than gold was worn as a regular facet of the uniform. It was also the first time in franchise history that two different helmets were worn for home and away uniforms. The team also stopped alternating pant and jersey combinations during this season, using consistent home and away looks all year long. However, during the following season, on August 24, 2013, the Eskimos returned to the all-green combination of green helmets, jerseys, and pants that had not been worn since 2008. The Eskimos first wore their gold helmets with their away uniforms for a regular season game on October 19, 2014 and wore them again in the post-season on November 23, 2014 with matching gold pants. Gold helmets were worn with away uniforms in three of eight regular season games in 2015.\n\nWall of Honour \n\nThe Eskimos have a policy of honouring the players who have best represented the team on the field. The player's name, number and seasons played with the Eskimos are displayed on the edge of the concrete separating the upper and lower decks of The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium. The Eskimos keep the number in circulation rather than retire them from use.\n\nNumbers so honoured :\n\n† Honoured posthumously\n\nTeam song \n\nDuring the break between the 3rd and 4th quarter of each home game fans stand and sing the \"Edmonton Eskimos Fight Song\" to the tune \"Washington and Lee Swing\":\n\nWe're cheering fight, fight, fight on Eskimos\nWe're marching right, right, right on Eskimos\nWe're charging down the field for all to see\nand shouting rah, rah, rah, fight on to victory\nWe're fighting on till every game is won\nThe Green and Gold is bold and when we're done\nwe'll tell the world we're proud of Edmonton\nand the Edmonton Eskimos!\n\nCurrent roster\n\nCurrent coaching staff \n\nHead coaches \n\nCFL awards and trophies \n\nGrey Cup\n*1954, 1955, 1956, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1993, 2003, 2005, 2015\n\nN. J. Taylor Trophy\n*, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , \n\nGrey Cup MVP\n*Dave Fennell (DT): 1978, 1982\n*Tom Wilkinson (QB): 1978\n*Warren Moon (QB): 1980, 1982\n*Dale Potter (LB): 1980\n*Damon Allen (QB): 1987, 1993\n*Stewart Hill (DE): 1987\n*Jason Tucker (WR): 2003\n*Ricky Ray (QB): 2005\n*Mike Reilly (QB): 2015\n\nDick Suderman Trophy\n*Garry Lefebvre (DB): 1973\n*Dave Cutler (K): 1975\n*Angelo Santucci (RB): 1978\n*Dale Potter (LB): 1980\n*Neil Lumsden (RB): 1981\n*Dave Fennell (DT): 1982\n*Milson Jones (RB): 1987\n*Sean Fleming (P/K): 1993\n*Mike Maurer (FB): 2005\n*Shamawd Chambers (WR): 2015\n\nMost Outstanding Player Award\n*Billy Vessels (RB): \n*Jackie Parker (QB/RB): , , \n*Johnny Bright (RB): \n*George McGowan (WR): \n*Tom Wilkinson (QB): \n*Warren Moon (QB): \n*Tracy Ham (QB): \n\nMost Outstanding Canadian Award\n*Norman Kwong (RB): , \n*Dave Fennell (DT): \n*Blake Marshall (FB): \n*Leroy Blugh (DE): \n*Kamau Peterson (WR): \n*Jerome Messam (RB): \n\nMost Outstanding Defensive Player Award\n*Danny Kepley (LB): , , \n*Dave Fennell (DT): \n*James Parker (LB): \n*Danny Bass (LB): \n*Willie Pless (LB): , , , , \n*Elfrid Payton (DE): \n*J. C. Sherritt (LB): \n\nMost Outstanding Offensive Lineman Award\n*Charlie Turner (OT): \n*Michael Wilson (OT): , \n*Rod Connop (C): \n\nMost Outstanding Lineman Award\n*Roger Nelson (OT): \n*John LaGrone (DT): \n\nMost Outstanding Rookie Award\n*Brian Kelly (WR): \n*Shalon Baker (WR): \n*Dexter McCoil (LB): \n*Derel Walker (WR): \n\nAnnis Stukus Trophy\n*Ray Jauch: \n*Hugh Campbell: \n*Ron Lancaster: \n*Tom Higgins: \n\nTom Pate Memorial Award\n*David Boone (DE): \n*Hector Pothier (OT): \n*Rick Walters (SB): \n\nRogers Fans' Choice Award\n*Ricky Ray (QB): \n\nDefunct\n\nMascots \n\nPunter and Nanook are the mascots for the Edmonton Eskimos. They were introduced in 1997 and 2004.", "The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team competing in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Lions play their home games at BC Place in Downtown Vancouver.\n\nThe Lions played their first season in 1954, and have played every season since. As such, they are the oldest professional sports franchise in the city of Vancouver and in the province of British Columbia. They have appeared in the league's Grey Cup championship game 10 times, winning six of those games, with their most recent championship occurring in 2011.\n\nThe Lions were the first Western Canadian team to have won the Grey Cup at home, having done so in 1994 and 2011, before Saskatchewan won in 2013, while also becoming the only team to beat an American-based franchise in a championship game, a feat accomplished in 1994. The Lions currently have the longest active playoff streak, and are tied for the second-longest in CFL history, having made the playoffs for 19 straight seasons. \n\nTeam facts \n\nFounded: 1954\nName: the team is named for the Lions, a pair of mountain peaks overlooking the team's home city of Vancouver\nHelmet design: white background, with a black BC and a profile of an orange mountain lion's head\nUniform colours: orange and white with black accents\nNickname: Leos\nMascot: Leo the Lion\nFight song: \"Roar, You Lions, Roar\" composed by Dal Richards and His Orchestra\nStadiums: Empire Stadium (1954–1982), Empire Field (2010–2011) and BC Place Stadium (1983–2009, 2011–present)\nMain rivals: Montreal Alouettes (Labour Day Classic) and Saskatchewan Roughriders\nWestern Division 1st Place: 13—1963, 1964, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011, and 2012\nWestern Division championships: 10—1963, 1964, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1994, 2000, 2004, 2006, and 2011\nGrey Cup championships: 6—1964, 1985, 1994, 2000, 2006, and 2011\n2015 regular season record: 7 wins, 11 losses\n\nOwnership \n\nThe BC Lions Football Club is owned by businessman David Braley, who purchased the club in 1997. Braley was a member of the Canadian Senate. As of 2011, the BC Lions Football Club executive committee consisted of four people:\n*David Braley, owner and governor\n*Dennis Skulsky, president, CEO, and alternate governor\n*Wally Buono, general manager and vice president of football operations, alternate governor\n*George Chayka, vice president of business\n\nFranchise history \n\nOrigin of the Lions \n\nIn 1951, a group led by Ken Stauffer and Tiny Radar were inspired by Vancouver Sun columnist Andy Lytle's article to start a football team in Vancouver that would play in the West's top league of the time, the Western Interprovincial Football Union (an earlier team known as the Vancouver Grizzlies had played one season in the WIFU in 1941). The ownership group sent Radar and Orville Burke to represent them at the off-season WIFU meetings to initiate Vancouver’s bid for a team. The Burkes were told to return to the meetings the following year with a $25,000 good-faith bond if they could generate sufficient interest in the Vancouver area. The first meetings were held at the Arctic Club in November and a committee headed by Burke and Harry Spring of the Meraloma Rugby Club, set out to sell memberships at $20 each.\n\nThough Burke, Vic Spencer, and John Davidson offered the good-faith bond to the WIFU in 1952, the idea of having a Vancouver team was rejected when both Winnipeg and Saskatchewan voted against the idea of a fifth team. The group in Vancouver, however, did not give up their efforts to have a franchise in the WIFU.\n\nOn January 22, 1953, the first annual meeting of the club was held. In that meeting, Arthur E. Mercer was hired as the club's first president. Later in the year, Mercer, Bill Morgan, Bill Ralston, and Whit Matthews went back to the WlFU meetings. This time, they sold the idea of a fifth Western team, and Vancouver was granted a conditional franchise. They were required to provide a 15,000-seat stadium, sell at least 6,500 season tickets, and guarantee travel expenses for the visiting teams.\n\nAll the pieces began to fall into place when it was announced that Vancouver would host the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, and that it would mean the building of a new stadium – Empire Stadium, which seated 32,300 people. By Easter of 1953, Annis Stukus was then lured away from the Toronto Argonauts to return to the West to become the first public relations manager, general manager, and head coach of the franchise.\n\nNaming the team\n\nDuring the rest of 1953, a fan contest was held by all of the local media to pick the team's new name. The nickname was chosen because it represented a local landmark and legend of the area. The nickname of the team was based on the Lions, twin mountain peaks that can be seen toward the north of Vancouver. The twin mountain peaks name was based on legend that the mountains looked like two lions guarding the city. Through this landmark and legend, the \"Lions\" nickname became the winner in the fan contest to become the new name of the franchise.\n\nAfter the fan contest, the Vancouver label was revealed to not be part of the team name. Though the franchise was based in Vancouver and the \"Lions\" name was based on a local landmark and legend, Stukus decided to reject the idea of naming the team as the Vancouver Lions. Instead, he decided that the team should represent and embrace the entire province of British Columbia. In the end, Stukus introduced the team to the entire Canadian football world as the BC Lions.\n\nThe mountain lion has a strong connection to the name of the team, as it appears in the BC Lions' logo. The mountain lion (or cougar) had an influence on the name of the team because it is renowned for its speed, courage and strength and is carefully respected by British Columbia's citizens as a remarkable but dangerous predator. The new team also adopted the black and orange colours of the Meralomas.\n\nNotable seasons\n\nLeague annals show 13 Western Division regular season championships, 10 Western Division championships and six Grey Cup championships.\n\n1954–1960, the first seasons\n\nIn their 1954 inaugural season, Stukus sold football fever on the streets of Vancouver and put together a team that made history when they stepped on the field of Empire Stadium for their first home game, against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, on Saturday, August 28, 1954. In that game, fullback Byron (By) Bailey scored the first touchdown in franchise history in an 8–6 loss to the Blue Bombers. The Lions were only able to manage a 1–15–0 record in their inaugural season. The team recorded their first franchise win, against the Calgary Stampeders, on September 18, 1954, at Empire Stadium, with By Bailey scoring the winning touchdown in a 9–4 Lions' victory. On that night, the win caused the BC faithful to celebrate in the streets. However, celebrations like this were not common for Lions' fans during the 1950s.\n\nIn 1955, during their second year as a franchise, the Lions again failed to make the playoffs. Though a playoff appearance did not materialize, the team was still able to show signs of improvement, finishing with a 5–11–0 regular-season record. Despite this, Lions fans were surprised at the move of the team directors to ask Annis Stukus to step down as the team's head coach in October 1955. While fan reaction to his dismissal was loud and divided, Stukus still asked the fans to continue their support of the BC Lions. Annis Stukus' assistant Clem Crowe was later named as the new head coach for the upcoming 1956 season.\n\nIn the 1956 season, the Lions finished fourth in the West, posting a 6–10–0 record in Crowe's first season. Although this was a one-game improvement from the 1955 season, they were still not able to make the playoffs.\n\nAfter the 1956 season, Bill McMahan assumed the role as team president. One of his first duties involved him bringing back Kelowna native Herb Capozzi from the Montreal Alouettes and hiring him as the new general manager. However, BC continued to struggle on the field, finishing the 1957 season with a 4–11–1 record, missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year.\n\nA year later, the on-field performance went from bad to worse for the Lions as they opened the 1958 season with five straight losses. The team's on-field struggles caused Capozzi to fire Clem Crowe as the head coach and replace him with Danny Edwards, who returned after playing with the club during the 1957 season. The team was only able to manage three wins during the year, causing them to miss the playoffs once again. Although it was a season to forget, rookies Tom Hinton and Sonny Homer showed promising signs of being future football stars.\n\nDuring the off-season, Capozzi improved the team for the 1959 season in the following ways, first by hiring Wayne Robinson from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to become the new head coach, then bringing in a corps of veteran players to add more experience to the team. This was followed by the signing of rookie running back Willie \"The Wisp\" Fleming to the team, adding more youth to play alongside Hinton and Homer. Capozzi's moves proved successful in the end. In 1959, the Lions managed their first winning season with a 9–7–0 record and were able to make their first playoff appearance with a final-game triumph over the Calgary Stampeders at Empire Stadium. The Lions' first playoff appearance ended with two straight losses to the Edmonton Eskimos. However, the team's future looked bright heading into the 1960s.\n\nThe high hopes of the Lions heading into the 1960 season faded when the team finished with a disappointing 5–9–2 record, which again eliminated them from playoff contention. It was disappointing considering the team added rookie talents Steve Cotter, Lonnie Dennis, Jim Carphin, and Neal Beaumont to a team that had a strong core of veteran and young players from the previous season. The only positive for the Lions happened at the end of the season, when Beaumont won WIFU Outstanding Rookie of the Year honors, becoming the first Lions player to win a major CFL award.\n\n1961–1967, the Dave Skrien era\n\nThe Lions started the 1961 season by signing former Minnesota Golden Gopher Tom Brown to a contract, but the team continued performing poorly on the field. In September, the team made a major trade with the Calgary Stampeders, which was considered to be a major gamble. In the trade, the Lions got quarterback Joe Kapp in the deal in exchange, while four Lions' players were sent to the Stampeders. A week later, Wayne Robinson was relieved of his duties as head coach and was replaced by Assistant Coach Dave Skrien. The year ended with a dismal 1–13–2 record.\n\nIn 1962, Skrien made an immediate impact in his first full season as head coach. The Lions finished the season with a 7–9 record, but improvements were noticeable. After eight years of hard work, the Lions were on the verge of success for the first time.\n\n1963 Grey Cup finalists\n\nBefore the start of the 1963 season, new optimism was voiced at the chances that the Lions would not only make the playoffs, but also contend for the Grey Cup. With a veteran roster headlined by Joe Kapp and Willie Fleming, the Lions not only finished with their first winning record, but won their first-ever regular-season conference title with a 12–4 record. After a 2–1 series victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Western finals, the Lions lined up in the 51st Grey Cup game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, which was played at Empire Stadium—the first time a western team had hosted the Grey Cup. However, their momentum would be stalled as a series of injuries affected the team's performance in the championship game.\n\nIn the Grey Cup game, star running back Willie Fleming was injured after he received a late, out-of-bounds hit by Tiger-Cat defensive tackle Angelo Mosca. This proved to be a huge blow to the Lions' chances of victory. Hamilton won the Grey Cup with a 21–10 victory, but the following year, the Lions would get their revenge.\n\nAfter the season, Joe Kapp became the first BC Lion to receive the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the Western Conference and Tom Brown became the first Lion to win the CFL's Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award. In addition, Dave Skrien became the first Lions head coach to receive the Annis Stukus Trophy as Coach of the Year, and fullback/kicker Peter Kempf also became the second Lion to win the Dr. Beattie Martin Trophy for Rookie of the Year honours in the Western Conference.\n\n1964 Grey Cup champions\n \nAfter achieving an 11–2–3 regular season record in 1964, and defeating the Calgary Stampeders in a three-game series in the Western Conference finals, the Lions advanced to meet the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in a Grey Cup rematch at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium. In the rematch, BC got their revenge as Kapp, Ken Appleby, Willie Fleming, and Bill Munsey, who gave a two-touchdown, two-way starring effort, helped the Lions to their first Grey Cup victory. With the addition of two field goals and an extra touchdown by the field goal unit, the Lions won the Grey Cup for the first time in franchise history with a 34–24 victory. The win ended 11 years of waiting for the British Columbia faithful. At the end of the 1964 season, defensive lineman Tom Brown was named a CFL All-Star, a back-to-back Schenley award winner as CFL's Most Outstanding Lineman Award, and won the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy as the Most Valuable Player in the Western Conference. Joining Brown as All-Stars on defence were Mike Cacic, Dick Fouts, and Munsey. Joe Kapp and tackle Lonnie Dennis were named CFL All-Stars on offence.\n\nAny hopes of the BC Lions becoming a dynasty team after their Grey Cup championship season quickly disappeared in 1965, as the team started to recede back to the basement of the Western Conference. Before the beginning of the season, By Bailey left the team and the entire roster was starting to age as the Lions finished the season with a 6–9–1 regular season record. As a result, the team missed the playoffs one year after being on top of the CFL world. It was clear that head coach Dave Skrien would never again experience the same success as he achieved the previous two seasons.\n\nThe situation for the Lions went from bad to worse in the 1966 season, as the team would go on to post a 5–11 record that year. Due to the dreadful team performance, Herb Capozzi was fired as the Lions' General Manager after nine seasons as G.M. and just two years after taking the franchise to consecutive Grey Cup appearances. In addition, Willie Fleming and Tom Hinton decided to retire, and Joe Kapp left the team to continue his playing career in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings.\n\nIn the 1967 season, Denny Vietch became the new General Manager of the club. Denny Veitch's first move was to fire Skrien after the Lions lost their first three games of the season. Veitch named Jim Champion as head coach, but the Lions would end up finishing the season with a 3–12–1 record. The only two positives for the club were two rookies; wide receiver Jim Young and kicker Ted Gerela, who would end up winning the Dr. Beattie Martin Trophy as the Western Conference's Rookie of the Year.\n\n1968–1976, The coaching carousel\n\nFollowing Skrien's departure, the Lions went through five head coaches between 1968 and 1976 while only qualifying for the playoffs three times. Champion would remain as head coach in 1968 season, where CFL legend Jackie Parker was hired as an assistant coach for the Lions and even came out of retirement to suit up in a Lions uniform for eight games as the quarterback. However, the Lions finished the season with a 4–11–1 record, again missing the playoffs. Despite the poor record, seven of those games were lost by less than a touchdown, which showed some indication that the team was improving.\n\nEleven games into the 1969 season, after stumbling to a 1–10 record, Jim Champion was fired as head coach and replaced by assistant Jackie Parker. The Lions responded by winning four of their last five games, and with a 5–11 record took third place in the Western Division. The Lions made the playoffs, but were beaten in Calgary by the Stampeders in the semi-finals by a score of 35–21. Individually, Dave Easley won CFL and Western Division Rookie of the Year honours, and Jim Young was a Schenley finalist.\n\n In 1970, the first artificial turf in Canada was installed at Empire Stadium. Jim Young became the first Lion to win the Schenley Outstanding Canadian Award, but the team finished fourth place in the Western Division at 6–10, and missed the playoffs.\n\nThe 1971 season began with a major off-season restructuring that saw Head Coach Jackie Parker elevated to general manager, and replaced by former Saskatchewan coach Eagle Keys. Don Moorhead was recruited at quarterback, and a total of fifty-three different players put on a Lions uniform in a year of change, including movie and TV personality Carl Weathers, at linebacker. Running back Jim Evenson finished the season with 1,237 yards to lead the Western Division in rushing, and won the Eddie James Memorial Trophy. The Lions again finished the season at fourth place in the West Division with a 6–9–1 record, missing the playoffs for a second consecutive year. Parker became the first Lion player inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.\n\nIn 1972, the Lions added new players such as defensive back Rocky Long, running back Johnny Musso, linebacker Ray Nettles and centre Al Wilson, but finished fifth in their division with a 5–11 record. Jim Young won his second Schenley Award as Outstanding Canadian.\n\nThe Lions' fortunes improved during the 1973 season, as they posted a 5–9–2 record, good enough for a third-place finish in the Western Division and a playoff berth, the first in four years. The Lions lost in the semi-finals to the Saskatchewan Roughriders 33–13. Linebacker Ray Nettles won the CFL's Outstanding Defensive Player award.\n\nIn 1974, the Lions showed continued improvement in posting an 8–8 record, and again returned to the playoffs for the second straight year. They faced familiar foe Saskatchewan in the semi-finals, where they lost again, 24–14. Second-year running back Lou Harris replaced injured Johnny Musso to lead the Lions in both rushing and receiving, winning CFL All-Star honours in the process. Annis Stukus became the first Lion inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame as a builder.\n\nThe Lions began the 1975 season with a change at quarterback, as Eric Guthrie and Peter Liske platooned at the position, replacing Don Moorhead. They lost five of their first six games before a major change was announced in August. General manager Jackie Parker and head coach Eagle Keys were both dismissed, with Bob Ackles moving up from his assistant general manager post and Cal Murphy elevated to head coach. The Lions played .500 football the rest of the season, but finished in fifth place in their division with a 6–10 record.\n\nThe Lions' 1976 season concluded with a 5–9–2 fourth-place finish. Individually, John Sciarra became the second Lion to win the Schenley Award as the CFL's Most Outstanding Rookie, while Bill Baker won the Schenley Defensive Player award. Harry Spring became the second Lion inducted into the Hall of Fame as a builder. Rookies and local talents, linebacker Glen Jackson and punter and kicker Lui Passaglia were two other bright spots in an otherwise disappointing season.\n\n1977–1982, The Vic Rapp era\n\nA complete off-season overhaul in the coaching staff brought Edmonton assistant Vic Rapp in as the 10th head coach of the Lions as they opened their 1977 season. A revamped Leos lineup included rookies Leon Bright, John Blain, Ken Hinton, and quarterback Jerry Tagge, as well as several newly acquired veterans. The Lions last-minute heroics earned them the nickname, the \"Cardiac Kids.\" They finished with a 10–6 record, good enough for second place in the Western Division—the first time the Lions had finished with a winning record since the Grey Cup year of 1964. BC opened the playoffs with a 33–32 upset of the Winnipeg at home before being trounced 38–1 in Edmonton by the Eskimos in the Western Division final. Wide receiver Leon Bright captured the CFL's Most Outstanding Rookie award, and Al Wilson became the first Lion to win the CFL's Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman Award.\n\nIn 1978, the Lions finished the season at 7–7–2 and in fourth place in their division. Rookie running backs John Henry White and Larry Key provided a much improved rushing game, but depth was still the missing ingredient, as the Leos missed the playoffs. 1978 also saw the emergence of rookie quarterback Joe Paopao, the \"Throwin' Samoan.\"\n\nThe Lions' 1979 season began with Tagge at quarterback, but his season—and his career—were ended by a knee injury. Led by Joe Paopao, the Lions skidded down the stretch, losing five games in a row. Despite this, the team finished third in the Western Division with a 9–6–1 record, making the playoffs. In the semi-finals, the Lions were blasted 37–2 by the Calgary Stampeders. Jim Young retired at the end of the season, and Norm Fieldgate became the second Lions player to be inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Rising costs and an aging Empire Stadium cast a shadow over future prospects. To head off a crisis, the directors, led by past-president Jack Farley, developed a plan to sell stock and seek a strong partnership with a major corporate sponsor to keep operations viable while waiting for the construction of a new stadium in downtown Vancouver.\n\nThe Lions failed to make the playoffs in 1980, despite a winning record of 8–7–1. Off the field, the decision was made to begin construction of a new indoor stadium in downtown Vancouver.\n\nIn 1981, the Lions returned to the playoffs with a third place divisional finish and a 10–6 record. The team qualified for the playoffs on the final weekend of the season with a victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a driving rainstorm at Empire Stadium. The key play was a late fourth-quarter fumble by Saskatchewan fullback Greg Fieger at the Rider two-yard line which the Lions recovered. The Lions turned this into a touchdown two plays later to take the lead for good after Saskatchewan had led for most of the game up to that point. In the playoffs, the Lions again upset the Blue Bombers 15–11 in the semi-finals before losing 22–16 in the Western Division final to eventual Grey Cup champion Edmonton. Paopao and second-year quarterback Roy Dewalt had wide-out Ty Grey as their deep-threat receiver, while rookie defensive back Larry Crawford led the CFL in interceptions. The Labatt Brewing Company became the Lions' major sponsor in a marketing agreement that brought much needed financial stability to the team.\n\nStandout wide receiver \"Swervin'\" Mervyn Fernandez was among the rookies who joined the Lions in 1982, winning the Jackie Parker Trophy as the Western Division's most outstanding rookie. Despite a 9–7 record, the Lions finished fourth in their division and failed to make the playoffs. As in the previous four seasons, the Lions got off to a fast start only to stumble badly after Labor Day. In most cases after this point in the season, the Lions would lose crucial divisional games by a very large margin. Due to this disturbing trend, head coach Vic Rapp and his coaching staff were dismissed at the end of the season. Lions' running back great Willie \"The Wisp\" Fleming was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.\n\n1983–1987, The Don Matthews era\n\nIn January 1983, former Edmonton defensive coordinator Don Matthews was named BC's new head coach. The Lions also moved into BC Place Stadium, their new home stadium, which opened in June, 1983. The quarterback-receiver combination of Dewalt to Fernandez led the Lions' attack, while the defence set a new CFL record of 42 interceptions. The Lions finished 11–5 for the second-best record in team history and returned to first place for the first time since the 1964 season. They stormed into the playoffs, defeating Winnipeg in the Western Division finals, 39–21. The Western Division champions hosted the Toronto Argonauts in the 71st Grey Cup, ending a 19-year absence from the classic. BC Place fans watched the Argonauts defeat their hometown team in a taut, 18–17 contest.\n\nIn 1984, the Lions' biggest trade since the Joe Kapp deal brought CFL All-Star James \"Quick\" Parker to their defence from Edmonton. The Lions again finished first in the Western Division with a league leading 12–3–1 record, but the second straight first-place finish was dampened by the late season loss of quarterback Roy Dewalt to injury. In a repeat Western finals matchup at BC Place, Winnipeg triumphed 31–14 and went on to win their first Grey Cup since 1962. Average crowds in excess of 40,000 in each of the first two years at BC Place reversed the team's financial fortunes, with stockholders receiving early repayment. Lions greats Joe Kapp and linebacker Tom Brown were inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.\n\n1985 Grey Cup champions\n\nThe Lions' 1985 season began with much promise. Mervyn Fernandez shattered several team receiving records and second year receiver Jim Sandusky broke the 1,000 yard mark. Rookie defensive tackle Mike Gray was the most visible of several rookies. With depth and few injuries, the final season record of 13–3 was the best in team history, bringing the Lions their third consecutive first place divisional finish. The Lions avenged their prior year's playoff defeat by handling Winnipeg 42–22, despite the fact that the Blue Bombers had won both regular season meetings and wide receiver Fernandez was out with a leg injury. One week later, the same Lions line-up met Hamilton at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Twenty-one years of waiting ended with a 37–24 Grey Cup championship victory over the Tiger-Cats in the 73rd Grey Cup. Quarterback Roy Dewalt won the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player award on offence, while defensive end James \"Quick\" Parker took home the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player award on defence. Kicker Lui Passaglia was named the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Canadian. Don Matthews won his first CFL Coach of the Year award. Mervyn Fernandez became the first Lion to win the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award and defensive tackle Mike Gray won both the CFL's Most Outstanding Rookie award and the Jackie Parker Trophy. Linebacker Tyrone Crews won the first of two consecutive CFL Players Association Outstanding Community Service Awards. The CFL champions returned to Vancouver for a victory celebration that swept across the entire province.\n\nDefending their championship in 1986 proved even harder than winning it the year before, as the Lions battled the Eskimos, Blue Bombers, injuries, and the CFL's newly extended 18 game regular season. The Lions reached the halfway mark at 7–2 losing at Edmonton, and at home to Calgary. The Lions then ran their record to 9–2 before hitting a four-game losing streak, started by back to back losses to Edmonton. The Lions rebounded to win back to back games against Winnipeg to finish the season 12–6, and second in the Western Division. Under the new playoff format, the Lions met the Bombers for a third straight week, winning the Semi-Finals 21–14, before travelling to Edmonton for the Lions' first Western final road game in four years. The Lions lost their fourth game of the year to the Eskimos 41–5, ending the Lions' hopes of defending their title in front of a home crowd at BC Place. The 1985 Grey Cup title, the prospect of defending the title at home, and the excitement in the area generated from Expo 86 helped the Lions outdraw the Vancouver Canucks in total attendance in 1986, despite the fact the Lions had only nine regular season home games compared to the Canucks' 40. Off the field, the big news of the year was the departure of general manager Bob Ackles to the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, ending Ackles' 33-year association with the Lions (he would return in 2002). Ackles was replaced by former Montreal general manager Joe Galat in August, 1986.\n\nThe Lions began their 1987 campaign without the services of stand out wide receiver Mervyn Fernandez, who left during the offseason to join the Los Angeles Raiders. The season began with a four-game winning streak, but the team seemed to lose focus through the middle of the season, looking invincible in one game and lethargic the next. Entering the last half of the year, the Lions were still in contention for first place but not playing like a team driving for a title. When the team suffered a three-game losing streak, general manager Joe Galat fired Don Matthews, the winningest coach in Lions history with just four games to go. The Lions instantly responded to new coach Larry Donovan, winning the final four games including a thrilling come-from-behind 33–32 victory over Edmonton at Commonwealth Stadium that many observers called the CFL's greatest comeback ever. The win gave the Lions first place in the Western Division for the fourth time in five years with a 12–6 record. Home field advantage at BC Place in the Western final was not enough however, as the Lions fell to the eventual Grey Cup champion Eskimos, 31–7.\n\n1988–1992, The slide to mediocrity\n\nThe CFL's competition cap forced the Lions to start the 1988 season with 22 new faces in their lineup, one of which was star quarterback Matt Dunigan, acquired in a trade with Edmonton. Despite the large number of new players, the Lions jelled and finished the regular season with a 10–8 record. The Lions entered the playoffs with momentum and were touted as Grey Cup favourites. The Leos managed hard-earned playoff victories on the road at Saskatchewan, beating the Roughriders, 42–18 in the semi-final, before defeating the Eskimos in the Western Division final at Commonwealth Stadium, 37–19. That set the stage for the 76th Grey Cup Championship Game against the Blue Bombers, in front of a crowd in excess of 50,000 in unseasonably mild but windy conditions at Ottawa. The lead changed hands several times during the hard fought contest. The Leos drove to the Winnipeg seven-yard line in the final minutes only to have Matt Dunigan's pass deflected by two defenders and intercepted to snuff out the drive. The Bombers went on to win the Cup, 22–21.\n\nBuoyed by their Grey Cup appearance the previous season, the Lions entered the 1989 season with much optimism. However, the team opened the campaign with a loss to Edmonton in Commonwealth Stadium, followed by three more losses before coach Larry Donovan was fired and replaced by general manager Joe Galat. After dropping their fifth straight game to the Eskimos, the Lions put together a four-game winning streak, fuelling playoff hopes. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers shattered those hopes in back to back games, rolling over the Leos 53–34 in Winnipeg, and then edging the Lions 24–20 in an overtime contest in Vancouver. Prior to the Winnipeg home game, new owner Murray Pezim and his minority partners, ex-NFL all-star Mark Gastineau and his wife Brigitte Nielsen were introduced to the home fans. The Lions never did get back on track, finishing the year with a disappointing 7–11 record, and missing the playoffs for the first time since 1982. Bright spots included running back Darrell Wallace, who won the Western Division's Jackie Parker Trophy as Most Outstanding Rookie (Wallace was second in the CFL in total offensive yardage), and quarterback Matt Dunigan who won the CFL Players Association Outstanding Community Service Award.\n\nIn his first full season as owner, Pezim made big changes to the look of the team. The team ditched its predominantly orange and white uniform design to black with silver helmets and pants. Under new head coach Lary Kuharich and general manager Joe Kapp, the Lions generated a good deal of preseason hype in 1990 with the signings of West Virginia University quarterback Major Harris, who was fourth in 1989 Heisman Trophy balloting, and quarterback Doug Flutie. Minority owner Mark Gastineau even returned to active duty, but abandoned his disastrous comeback attempt early in the season. However, the publicity did not translate into on-field victories and turmoil plagued the team. Two coaches left early in the season amid controversy. The Lions tied their first game against Calgary in the dying seconds of the contest as Doug Flutie tossed a \"hail Mary\" pass to Ray Alexander in the end zone. The Lions kept close in every game, winning a tight one against Winnipeg at home on a last-second Passaglia field goal, while losing to Hamilton in the final seconds in the next contest. The eastern road trip to Ottawa and Toronto, during which the Lions lost both games, spelled the beginning of the end for the new coach and general manager. The following week, the Leos dropped another one to the Argos, 49–19, and one week after that, another former Lions great, Jim \"Dirty Thirty\" Young, was behind the bench as interim head coach. Bob O'Billovich took over as vice president of football operations and head coach on September 14, 1990, and promptly guided the team to a strong 34–4 victory over Hamilton. The Lions gained stability as the season wore on, and although they missed the playoffs, \"Obie's\" charges went 4–3 over the last seven games of the season, and their strong finish fuelled hopes for a much brighter 1991 season. Highlights of the year included Lui Passaglia's new professional football scoring record, as he booted his 2,238th point, finishing the year with 2,312 points. Lui also became the longest-playing Lion in history, appearing in a total of 236 games, overtaking Al Wilson's previous mark of 233 games.\n\nThe 1991 season opened with promise. Although the team dropped a 39–34 decision to Calgary at BC Place, the game was tight and the Lions were in the contest to the very end. It was a harbinger as Bob O'Billovich's young team with 12 rookies in the lineup, turned virtually every contest into a nail biter, playing in a CFL record six overtime contests, winning three and losing three. Behind the outstanding quarterbacking of Doug Flutie, the powerful running of rookie Jon Volpe, the receiving of rookie Matt Clark and veteran Ray Alexander, the Lions were capable of beating any team in the CFL. On August 1, 1991, the 2–1 Lions faced the undefeated Toronto Argonauts featuring Raghib \"the Rocket\" Ismail, at BC Place Stadium. A huge crowd of 53,527 was on hand. After falling behind 21–3 in the first quarter, the Lions battled back and took control of the game in the final quarter. Toronto managed to tie the game but in overtime, but an electrifying kickoff return for a touchdown by Raymond Ethridge and terrific play by the Lions' special teams spelled the difference. The Lions triumphed 52–41 in overtime. However, the following week, Calgary stopped the Leos, 34–30 in overtime. The Lions offence led the CFL in 11 different categories and the team was in a three-way battle with Calgary and Edmonton for first place in the Western Division, right down to the end of the season. In the last game, the Lions hosted the 2–15 Hamilton Tiger-Cats, needing a win to clinch first place. However, the Lions lost and finished third with an 11–7 record. In the Western semi-final in Calgary, the Leos took a commanding 31–15 lead by the end of the first half. Although the Lions had never lost a game all year when leading at the half, Calgary stormed back with an incredible third quarter, scoring four touchdowns, and holding off the Lions to win, 43–41. The disappointing loss was at least partially offset by the awarding of three Lions with outstanding player awards. Doug Flutie was named the CFL's Outstanding Player, Jon Volpe won the CFL's Outstanding Rookie award as well as the West Division's Jackie Parker Trophy and the Eddie James Memorial Trophy for leading the division in rushing. Offensive tackle Jim Mills became the CFL's Outstanding Offensive Lineman and the West Division's DeMarco-Becket Memorial Trophy award winner for the second consecutive year. Although quarterback Doug Flutie signed as a free agent with the Stampeders in the post-season, the acquisition of his replacement from Calgary, Danny Barrett, prior to training camp, brought hope of good things to come in 1992.\n\nThe Lions entered training camp in 1992 with high expectations. Despite the loss of Doug Flutie, two time Grey Cup finalist quarterback Danny Barrett was counted on to be an able replacement. In the season opener against Edmonton, however, Barrett struggled, eventually giving way to back-up Tony Kimbrough in the second half. The Eskimos went on to win, 37–26. The following week, the Lions' fortunes continued to spiral downward, this time, on the road, as the Toronto Argonauts crushed the Leos, 61–20. In the third game of the year against Doug Flutie and the Calgary Stampeders, Barrett, who had regained his starting job at quarterback, went down in the third quarter with a separated shoulder. Flutie then guided Calgary to a 37–19 win, and the Lions slid further downhill from there. The team lost eight straight before finally edging out Ottawa 33–27 on September 3, 1992, with Danny Barrett back at the helm. To add insult to injury, off-season and off-field problems emerged to swing focus from football to ownership, as Lions' owner Murray Pezim declared bankruptcy, and the CFL was forced to take over the team. Three weeks later, a new owner was found, as The Brick Furniture Store owner Bill Comrie purchased the Lions from the CFL on September 23, 1992. The team on the field did not respond to the newfound ownership stability, losing the final seven games of the year to finish the season with a disappointing 3–15 record. Head coach O'Billovich and his staff were fired at season's end, and on December 12, 1992, new General Manager Eric Tillman announced the hiring of Ottawa defensive coordinator Dave Ritchie, as the new head coach of the Lions.\n\n1993–1995, Tillman and Ritchie\n\nThe \"new\", 1993 edition of the BC Lions, under the guidance of head coach Dave Ritchie and general manager Eric Tillman signed a number of proven CFL veterans, including Danny McManus, James \"Wild\" West, Rob Smith, Less Browne, Tyrone Jones, and Sean Foudy. The team also added promising rookies, such as running back Cory Philpot, draft pick Tom Europe, and Derek Grier. A contract dispute with Jon Volpe kept him from training camp, but he was back in the fold by the second game of the season. The Lions struck quickly with wins over Saskatchewan and Toronto before grinding to a halt in Winnipeg after only three days rest between road games. However, the Leos would only lose two more games through July, August, and mid-September, cruising to an 8–3 record, the Lions' best start since 1987. Quarterback Danny Barrett broke the CFL's single-game passing yard record, completing 30 passes for 601 yards, eclipsing the previous mark of 586 yards set back in 1954 by Alouettes legend, Sam \"The Rifle\" Etcheverry. The Lions entered the September 18, 1993 game against Calgary in a battle for first place in the Western Division. However, Doug Flutie and the Stamps prevailed, 40–21. The Lions would go on to win only two of the next seven games, sliding to a 64–27 pounding against Sacramento in the regular season finale, for a 10–8 finish. Nevertheless, the Lions made the playoffs after a one-year absence, facing Calgary in the Western Division's semi-finals on November 14, 1993. Despite generating twice as much offence as the Stamps, the Leos could not score a touchdown and fell 17–9.\n\n1994 Grey Cup champions\n\nThe Lions entered the 1994 campaign with a new quarterback, Kent Austin, at the helm. Off-season trades with Ottawa provided offensive guard Denny Chronopoulos, defensive lineman Andrew Stewart, and rush linebacker Angelo Snipes. A group of young, unknown, and aggressive linebackers emerged at training camp, Henry Newby, Tyrone Chatman, and Virgil Robertson, while the secondary was strengthened with the additions of Charles Gordon and Enis Jackson. The Lions opened the season at B.C. Place and gave the fans a taste of things to come with a hard-fought 24–20 victory over Winnipeg. The Lions offensive power was amply demonstrated the following week with a 57–18 thumping of the Ottawa Rough Riders. By the end of August, 1994, the Lions were 7–1–0, and had broken several single-game offensive records, including a 67–15 point record win over Shreveport. The Leos' secondary was further bolstered by the signing of former NFL stars James Jefferson and Barry Wilburn. The team endured a dry spell at the season's midpoint, losing close games to Winnipeg, Edmonton, Saskatchewan, and Baltimore. A late season win over Las Vegas (45–7) and a close 24–23 loss to Calgary, gave the Lions new hope heading into the playoffs, as well as an 11–6–1 regular season finish. The team travelled to Edmonton for the Western Division Semi-Finals, where the Lions had only managed one playoff victory at Commonwealth Stadium. With just over four minutes left in the game, defensive back Charles Gordon's miraculous end-zone interception stopped the Eskimos in their tracks and gave new life to the Lions. Quarterback Kent Austin, replacing an injured Danny McManus who had started the game, mounted a Lions' drive which ate up the clock and the field. Lui Passaglia kicked the winning field goal with 30 seconds left to give the Lions a tough 24–23 come-from-behind victory. The following week, in one of the most memorable CFL games ever, the Lions and the Doug Flutie led Stampeders traded touchdowns and field goals all night at McMahon Stadium. In the swirling snow with two minutes left in the game, Calgary, who led by 5 points, set up to kick a field goal. Lions' wide receiver Ray Alexander leapt up and made an amazing block, giving the Lions renewed hope and decent field position. Danny McManus, who had replaced Kent Austin in the second half after Austin re-injured a separated shoulder, staged a furious last-minute drive, hitting receivers all the way down the field to the Stampeder's four-yard line. With Calgary leading 36–31, with four seconds left in the game, McManus found receiver Darren Flutie alone in the end zone to give the Lions their first playoff victory over Calgary in 30 years, and a berth in the Grey Cup against Baltimore at B.C. Place. The dramatics continued the following week in the 82nd Grey Cup. With 55,097 cheering fans looking on, the Lions and Stallions staged another thriller with both teams playing great football. Baltimore took a 17–10 lead at halftime, and extended their lead to 20–10 early in the third quarter. Lions' quarterback Danny McManus entered the game and staged a second-half rally. Seemingly stalled at the Baltimore 30 yard line, Lui Passaglia and Darren Flutie staged a fake field goal to gain a big first down, which changed the momentum of the game. McManus ran in from the two-yard line to tie the score at 20–20. After the teams traded field goals to make the score 23–23, McManus engineered another late-game drive to the Baltimore 37 yard line. Passaglia missed the field goal with just over one minute remaining, but the Lions' defence rose up to deny Baltimore and stop them cold within their own five-yard line. After a punt and a couple of runs to set up another field goal try, Passaglia converted a field goal with no time remaining on the clock to give the Lions an incredible 26–23 victory, the third Grey Cup championship in the team's history. Passaglia went on to win a well-deserved Grey Cup Most Valuable Canadian award for his heroics.\n\nThe 1995 season began with Grey Cup hero Danny McManus named as starting quarterback, replacing Kent Austin, who was traded to Toronto. Shelton Quarles was added to a strong linebacker corps. The season started with an exciting, late come-from-behind 37–34 victory over the Baltimore Stallions at BC Place. The Lions won their first three games before suffering a setback in Calgary. The Leos got back on track with a strong performance over Ottawa, and went on to a 7–1 record, challenging the Stampeders in the North Division. Injuries to key players during a three-game, 10-day road trip resulted in a late season swoon that the Lions could not recover from. A victory over Saskatchewan at B.C. Place in the regular season finale solidified 3rd place in the rugged Northern Division with a 10–8 record and a trip to Edmonton for the playoffs. The Lions' 1995 season came to an end with a 26–15 loss to the Eskimos in the semi-finals. Individually, Lions' running back Cory Philpot broke the CFL record for touchdowns in a season with 22, and won the Eddie James Memorial Trophy for the second year in a row as the Northern Division's leading rusher. Lui Passaglia ended the season with 3,160 career points. Jamie Taras won the DeMarco-Becket Memorial Trophy as the Northern Division's Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman.\n\n1996–2002, The Damon Allen era\n\n1996 was a season of turmoil for the Lions, both on and off the field. Former Lions' quarterback and fan favourite Joe Paopao returned to the team from the Edmonton Eskimos as the new head coach, replacing Dave Ritchie. On March 11, 1996, Lions' owner Bill Comrie announced that the club had been sold to a group of 10 local businessmen headed by Nelson Skalbania and Michael Jensen. The Lions held training camp at UBC with over a hundred players invited. Mike McCarthy arrived in Vancouver to become the Lions new VP of football operations. On the field, the Lions started the season with 18 new faces in the line-up, including heralded Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware at quarterback. The Lions started the season at 0–4, and quarterback Damon Allen was signed to replace Ware. As the team stumbled on the field, attendance plummeted. Stability in the front office proved short lived, as Skalbania and his ownership group lost control of the team, and the Lions (again) went into receivership. The bright spot of the season was an exciting and improbable, 35–11 victory over Doug Flutie and the Toronto Argonauts, in September, 1996. On October 31, 1996, Hamilton businessman David Braley announced his intention to buy the team. November 2, 1996 marked the end of the season as the Lions defeated Ottawa 35–24 in what was the Rough Riders' final game in club history.\n\nDavid Braley's ownership and a coaching change brought the Lions much needed stability as they entered the 1997 season, and some of that stability seemed to have translated to success on the field. Joe Paopao resigned prior to the season's start, and was replaced as head coach by Adam Rita. The Lions made the playoffs for the 20th time in their 43-year club history, despite an 8–10, fourth place divisional finish. The Leos' 1997 playoff appearance marked the first time in CFL history that a Western Conference team participated in an Eastern Conference semi-final, under a then in force, \"cross-over rule\" (where the fourth place team from one division qualified for the playoffs, as long as the team earned more points than the 3rd place team from the opposing division. Once so qualified, the fourth place team would then \"cross-over\" to the other division to play the second place team in the opposing division). The Lions thus faced Montreal in the Eastern semi-finals, eventually losing to the Alouettes, 45–35, in a spirited contest. Fullback Sean Millington was awarded the CFL's Outstanding Canadian Award at season's end, while linebacker B.J. Gallis won the Jackie Parker Trophy as the Western Division's top rookie.\n\nThe Lions started the 1998 season off on the wrong foot, losing their first three games, before finally beating Saskatchewan in week four. The defence held their own, but the offence struggled. The low point of the year occurred on August 9, 1998, when the eventual Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders came into B.C. Place and beat the hometown Leos 55–9. With a record of 3–6–0, head coach Adam Rita resigned, and was replaced by Greg Mohns. The no nonsense approach of Mohns seemed to spark the team, as the Lions embarked on a memorable, six-game winning streak (which the team had not done since 1986) heading into the playoffs. The Lions, who finished 9–9 on the year, lost in the semi-finals to Edmonton in heartbreaking fashion, but showed promise for the upcoming season. Kicker Lui Passaglia won the Dave Dryburgh Memorial Trophy as the top scorer in the Western Division.\n\nExpectations for the Lions were high as the 1999 season began, following the team's promising finish a year earlier, and with the announcement that the Grey Cup game would be played in Vancouver. Quality free agents such as slotback Don Blair and cornerback Eric Carter were brought in to add depth to an already impressive lineup, and with the likes of Robert Drummond and Jimmy “The Jet” Cunningham back in form following injury-plagued 1998 seasons, the Lions were primed for a successful season. The Lions started fast out of the gate, winning their first three games to set a new club record with nine straight regular season wins. The Lions either held sole possession of first place or were tied with Calgary throughout the season. The Lions ended the regular season with two straight wins, finishing first in the division with a 13–5 record, the Lions' best record since 1985, and the first divisional championship since 1987. the Lions' dream season came to a premature and heartbreaking end, as the Stamps beat the Lions 26–24 in the Lions' first home playoff game in 12 years. The Lions appeared to be driving toward a chance to kick a game-winning field goal in the last minute before Damon Allen fumbled the ball at mid-field, allowing the Stamps to kill off the remaining time. The Lions fielded three CFL All-Stars in 1999: slotback Jimmy Cunningham, centre Jamie Taras, and defensive tackle Johnny Scott. Linebacker Paul Lacoste was voted the CFL's top rookie, and was also awarded the Jackie Parker Trophy. Defensive end Daved Benefield was named the Western Division's top defensive player, while Jamie Taras won the DeMarco-Becket Memorial Trophy as the West's most outstanding offensive lineman, as well as the CFL Player's Association Outstanding Community Service Award.\n\n2000 Grey Cup champions\n\nThe Lions began the 2000 campaign with only one goal in mind: win the Grey Cup. Six months later, the Lions would fulfill that destiny, but the path to the 88th Grey Cup was one of the most adventurous, unpredictable, and memorable ever in CFL history. The year started well enough, with victories over Hamilton and Saskatchewan, but a 35–2 loss to Calgary began a four-game losing streak and a lot of finger-pointing. A win over the Toronto Argonauts halted the slide, but following the game, head coach Greg Mohns resigned to join the XFL. Long-time CFL coach Steve Buratto, who joined the club only two weeks earlier as a receivers coach, was promoted to the top job, and got instant results with a huge 51–4 win over the Argos in the second of back-to-back games. Despite a promising start, the Lions only won one of their next five games to sit at 5–9 on Thanksgiving. Nevertheless, the Lions came together when it counted the most, winning three of their last four heading into the playoffs, and the offence gelling to become the best in the CFL that season. Quarterback Damon Allen broke Ron Lancaster's CFL record for career passing yardage. Lui Passaglia played in a memorable, “Luv Ya Lui” night at his final game at B.C. Place, and also set a CFL record for single season field goal percentage. The Lions finished the year 8–10 and in third place in the Western Division, but were the team other teams did not want to face in the playoffs. A snarly defence started to show its grit, and the Lions roared confidently into Edmonton and emerged with a 34–32 Western semi-final victory, thanks to a Passaglia field goal on the final play. The Lions next faced Calgary in the Western finals, and the Lions steamrolled to a decisive 37–23 win. The Leos' Cinderella season came to a close on November 26, 2000, in the Grey Cup at McMahon Stadium in Calgary, as the Lions won their fourth championship in team history with a nail biting 28–26 victory over the Montreal Alouettes. Running back Robert Drummond won the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player award, while backfield teammate Sean Millington took home the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Canadian trophy. The Lions' triumph marked the first time a team with a sub-.500 regular season record won the Grey Cup, and it signalled a marvellous end to Lui Passaglia's outstanding, 25-year CFL career.\n\nExpectations were high for the CFL champion Lions in 2001, but the team ultimately never seemed to jell. Quarterback Damon Allen struggled, and the team hovered around the 0.500 mark all season. Finishing at 8–10, the Lions did make the playoffs, but were immediately bounced by Calgary in the Western Division semi-finals, 28–19. Matt Kellett became only the second full-time field goal kicker in 26 years, as he replaced the legendary Lui Passaglia. Rookie middle linebacker Barrin Simpson led the team in tackles and was named a first-team CFL All-Star, as well as the CFL's Rookie of the Year and Jackie Parker Trophy winner. Cornerback Eric Carter was also named to the CFL's 2001 All-Star team.\n\nBob Ackles returned to the Lions as president and CEO before the 2002 season, which saw the Lions finish at 10–8 for a third-place finish in the Western Division, and the return of Adam Rita as head coach. The Lions faced Winnipeg in the Western semi-finals, falling 30–3 to the Bombers. Individually, Eric Carter and Barrin Simpson repeated as CFL All-Stars, while slotback Jason Clermont won CFL's most outstanding rookie award, as well as the Western Division's Jackie Parker Trophy. Fullback Sean Millington won the Dr. Beattie Martin Trophy as the outstanding Canadian Western Division player, for the 3rd time. This would be the last season that Damon Allen would play for the Lions, as he finished as the franchise's all-time leader in passing yards, pass completions and passing touchdowns.\n\n2003–2011, The Wally Buono era\n\nThe 2003 season marked the beginning of a new era, as Wally Buono replaced Adam Rita as Head Coach and GM. The Lions also acquired former Stampeders and NFL QB Dave Dickenson through free agency, which prompted Lions QB Damon Allen to leave for the Toronto Argonauts. The Lions finished in a 3-way, 2nd place tie at 11–7 with Western Division foes, Winnipeg and Saskatchewan, and faced the Eastern Division's Toronto Argonauts by way of the CFL's \"cross-over rule.\" The Lions closed out the season with a 28–7 loss to the Argos in the Eastern Division semi-finals. Barrin Simpson appeared as a CFL All-Star for the 3rd year in a row, joined by newcomers Ray Jacobs on defence, and electrifying slotback Geroy Simon on offence. Wide receiver Frank Cutolo won the CFL and Western Division rookie of the year awards. Offensive tackle Steve Hardin won the CFL Player's Association Outstanding Community Service Award.\n\nThe 2004 season marked one of the Lions' best regular season records in club history. Going 13–5 and finishing 1st in the division, the Lions set a team record of 8 consecutive wins in a single season. In addition to club records, the season brought an array of individual performances to the forefront. Quarterback Casey Printers set a CFL record for highest single game completion average of 90.9% (completing 20 of 22 passing attempts) during an August, 2004 game against Hamilton. Outstanding slot back Geroy Simon tied three team records by catching four touchdown passes in the same game. After the conclusion of the regular season, Printers was named the CFL's Most Outstanding Player, while Jason Clermont won the Most Outstanding Canadian award. Printers and Simon joined 4-time All-Star linebacker Barrin Simpson as 2004 CFL All-Stars. The Lions, receiving a bye in the first round of the playoffs by virtue of their first place divisional finish, faced one of their biggest rivals, the Saskatchewan Roughriders. In a nail biting finish, the Lions defeated the Roughriders 27–25, in overtime. The Lions were then pitted against the Toronto Argonauts in the 92nd Grey Cup Championship, a rematch of the 2003 semi-finals. The Lions would not exact their revenge, losing 27–19. Jason Clermont won the Grey Cup Most Valuable Canadian award in the effort. The game was marked with controversy for the Lions, as Dave Dickenson got the start over Casey Printers, who had led the team through most of the season as Dickenson was injured.\n\nBefore and during the 2005 season there was controversy as to which quarterback should be the starter, Casey Printers or Dave Dickenson. Printers was the CFL's 2004 season Most Outstanding Player, but Dickenson was a veteran star destined for the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Many felt that both were deserving. In any event, the team ultimately chose to go with Dickenson, despite his having been somewhat injury prone. The Lions came out of the gate roaring. Led by Dickenson and an outstanding receiving corps, the team strung together 11 consecutive wins. The final game of the win streak came on September 17, 2005, when the Leos squeaked past the Montreal Alouettes by a score of 27–26 when Don Matthews elected to go for a two-point conversion rather than tie the game. The Lions bid for an undefeated season came to a halt the very next week on September 24, 2005, when the Edmonton Eskimos defeated the Lions 37–20 at Commonwealth Stadium. Dickenson sustained a season-ending concussion and Printers took over as starting QB. The Lions won only one of their remaining seven games of the regular season. On November 20, 2005, the Lions lost in the Western Finals to the eventual Grey Cup champion Eskimos at B.C. Place. The game ended with a controversial \"non-call\" on the last play of the game; as what would have been Printers' game winning pass to slotback Geroy Simon appeared to have been interfered with by a defending Eskimo, and was ruled incomplete. Defensive end Brent Johnson was named a 2005 CFL All-Star, and won the Outstanding Canadian Award.\n\n2006 Grey Cup champions\n\nThe 2006 season saw Casey Printers go off to the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs, however a new quarterback controversy of sorts threatened to develop. During the off-season 2005s third stringer, Buck Pierce won the back-up role and early season injuries to Dave Dickenson forced him into action. Pierce's best game as the starter was on October 6 against the Calgary Stampeders, where he threw 25 for 31 for 297 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. He began the game with one incomplete pass, and then hit his next 14.\n\nThe Lions in the off-season also acquired former Roughrider Paul McCallum to stabilize the kicking game which had not recovered from Lui Passaglia's retirement in 2000. After a sluggish 2–3 start in 2006, Coach Buono signalled that no starting job was safe by releasing runningback Antonio Warren and defensive back Sam Young. The team responded by winning the next six games. New running back Joe Smith ran for over 100 yards in his first game. Brent Johnson, Barron Miles, and Mark Washington led a dominant defence; 10 different defenders scored touchdowns on turnovers. They also held opposition offences to 17 points or less on 6 occasions. Receiver Geroy Simon dominated opposing defensive backs in a manner not seen since Mervyn Fernandez in the 1980s, and broke the club record for single season receiving yardage for the second straight year. The Lions clinched first place on October 6, earning a third straight bye into the Western Final at home, and tied a team record with a 13–5 mark for the season. 50,084 (league best for 2006) saw BC crush the Roughriders 45–18 in the West final. Looking fully recovered from earlier concussions, Dickenson went 27 for 37 with 3 TDs and no INTs. Paris Jackson made two circus catches for TDs, Jason Claremont bulled his way to 98 yards on 6 catches, Joe Smith scored twice and ran for 116 yards, McCallum was 5 for 5 in field goals, and the BC defence dominated Saskatchewan all afternoon.\n\nOn November 19, the BC Lions captured their first Grey Cup Championship since 2000 by defeating the Montreal Alouettes 25–14 at Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg. Dave Dickenson was named the Most Valuable Player of the game, while Paul McCallum was named the Most Valuable Canadian. In the post-game exuberance, the team snapped the Grey Cup off the lower base with the engraved names, but it was repaired the following Monday. The game is also noted for kicker Paul McCallum going 6 for 6 in field goals, making him a perfect 11 for 11 in the post season. Coach Buono also used all three quarterbacks in the game: Dickenson, Pierce and third-string Jarious Jackson all took snaps.\n\nThe record setting season was capped off with Buono's third CFL Coach of the Year Award. The Lions nearly swept the annual player awards, with Brent Johnson, Geroy Simon, Rob Murphy, Mark Washington, and Aaron Hunt (BC's sixth Outstanding Rookie in nine years) all taking home hardware.\n\nIn 2007 Offensive coordinator Jacques Chapdelaine left for the Edmonton Eskimos in the off-season, becoming their offensive coordinator and assistant head coach. The Lions' play-calling duties for the 2007 season would be handled by quarterbacks coach Steff Kruck, with play design by offensive line coach Dan Dorazio. Veteran linebacker Carl Kidd announced his retirement at the Grey Cup ring ceremony held just prior to training camp, while Bobby Singh was cut and soon picked up by the Calgary Stampeders. John Hufnagel guest-coached at training camp, having previously worked under Buono as offensive coordinator in Calgary in the 1990s. \n\n2007 proved to be one of the best seasons for the Lions, having set a new franchise record for the most regular season wins in club history. The season started off on a 5-game winning streak, including dominating wins over Edmonton (29–9) and Saskatchewan (42–12). However, the streak came to a hault on August 3, 2007, when the Leos suffered a 21–9 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The Lions had a little trouble getting back on track, as they suffered a loss to Winnipeg and a tie with Calgary. A 40–7 win over Toronto moved the Lions back into 1st place in the West Division, due to a Saskatchewan loss to Calgary. On September 22, 2007, the Lions battled their biggest foe, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, for the 1st place spot in the West Division. The Saskatchewan lead increased and decreased several times throughout the game. However, with Saskatchewan leading by 4, the Lions never gave up in the dying minutes of the game, and QB Jarious Jackson was able to find Geroy Simon in the endzone and pass the ball for a game winning 33 yard touchdown. The final result was an unexpected come-from-behind 37–34 victory for the Lions. The Lions went on to win all the rest of their games of the regular season and captured 1st place in the West Division for a fourth consecutive year. The Lions also finished with a regular season record of 14–3–1, The best in club history. The Lions felt confident heading into the Western Final, but their dreams of second consecutive Grey Cup title came to an end in a heartbreaking 26–17 loss to the eventual Grey Cup champions, the Saskatchewan Roughriders.\n\nJust before the 2008 season, the Lions' Josh Boden was cut due to being arrested. Also, Mark Washington became the secondary coach due to salary cap issues. Quarterback star Dave Dickenson was released in the final year of his contract of $400k/yr and was picked up by the Calgary Stampeders. Jacques Chapdelaine came back from the Edmonton Eskimos after being fired as offensive coordinator and assistant head coach in his one year with the club. Defensive coordinator Dave Ritchie retired after the 2007 season and Mike Benevides was promoted to his position. As well, director of player personnel Bob O'Billovich left to become general manager of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and former Saskatchewan Roughriders general manager Roy Shivers filled his position.\n\nThe season started off on low notes, both on and off the field. After losing their first two games to Calgary and Saskatchewan, the BC Lions and the entire CFL community was shocked to hear that Lions President and CEO Bobby Ackles had suffered a heart attack and died on July 6, 2008. The Lions held a memorial ceremony at the next home game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and would wear an orange paw on their helmets with BOB on the inside to commemorate Ackles.\n\nIn their first game of the season, against Calgary, starter Buck Pierce left the game with injury, meaning Jarious Jackson would take over as starter. After losing their next game to the Roughriders, the Lions won three straight, synonymous with Stefan Logan's debut with the Lions and Joe Smith sitting these games out. On July 25, Geroy Simon surpassed Jim \"Dirty 30\" Young as the Lions' all-time receiving yards leader, in a game against the Montreal Alouettes. After electing not to attend Bob Ackles' memorial, Joe Smith began to estrange himself from the organization and only played in four of the first nine games of the season. While also posting unimpressive numbers, the Lions saw fit to trade their former star running back to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for their former star running back, Charles Roberts on Sept 1, 2009. Shortly after, Roberts reached the 10,000 rushing yard mark for his career on Sept 13, 2009, against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in his first game as a Lion.\n\nAfter a Labour day loss to the Montreal Alouettes, the Lions won five straight under a healthy Buck Pierce. Since Buono had become head coach in 2003, the Lions had won at least four in a row each year, a streak that ended in 2009. The Lions finished the regular season with an 11–7 record, including a loss at Calgary in the last regular season game. After going 3–0–1 against Calgary in the previous season, the Lions were swept by Calgary for the first time since the 2000 season. After amassing 23 sacks, Cameron Wake won the Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award for the second consecutive year. In the playoffs, the Lions defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field 33–12, but lost, yet again, to the Calgary Stampeders, this time in the Western Final.\n\nThe 2009 season saw a team that would be decidedly different from the previous seasons' roster. While the coaching staff remained completely intact, the playing roster saw a number of notable players released or traded and some leaving for the NFL. Outstanding Defensive Player Cameron Wake signed with the Miami Dolphins, Team Rookie of the Year, Stefan Logan, signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Rob Murphy signed with the Toronto Argonauts and Jason Clermont and Charles Roberts were released. Otis Floyd and Tyrone Williams were later released and Jason Pottinger was traded to the Argonauts. They signed all-star linebacker Anton McKenzie, while trying to fill holes in their roster with their depth players from last year and new recruits from the US.\n\nThe season was notable for the team's use of five different quarterbacks – Buck Pierce started the year but gave way after injury to Jarious Jackson. When Jackson was injured, 3rd stringer Travis Lulay was pressed into action. Former Lion and league MVP Casey Printers then signed to the practice roster on October 8, and suited up as the third-string QB on October 9 in a game versus the Edmonton Eskimos. He then became the starting quarterback on October 24, in a 33–30 overtime loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. In the season finale on November 6 against Edmonton, Printers was knocked out of the game with a broken thumb. In the last regular season game 5th string quarterback Zac Champion played more than two quarters when Buck Pierce also went down.\n\nLosing to each of the other 3 Western teams in successive games meant BC finished fourth and last. However, Hamilton defeated Winnipeg in their last game of the season, enabling the Lions to cross-over to the Eastern Division's play-off format (ahead of both Winnipeg and Toronto). The Lions faced the Tiger-Cats in the Eastern semi-final in Hamilton on November 15 and won in overtime. The Lions then advanced the eastern final against the Montreal Alouettes, but lost 56–18.\n\nThe 2009–10 offseason saw the club lose even more veterans, many who were cut by Buono, and others who left for the NFL. Quarterback Buck Pierce was released on March 9, 2010 after the return of Casey Printers meant that the injury-prone Pierce was expendable. The Lions also released former Special Teams Player of the Year Ian Smart, linebacker Javier Glatt and defensive back Lavar Glover, each of whom played a major role in the Lions' 2006 Grey Cup win. The team also lost Rolly Lumbala and Ryan Grice-Mullen to the NFL's Miami Dolphins, while rookie phenom Martell Mallett signed with the Philadelphia Eagles. Despite this, the club signed a number of proven CFL players, including Davis Sanchez and Keron Williams from the Montreal Alouettes, Jamal Robertson from the Toronto Argonauts and exiled former Bomber Derick Armstrong.\n\nThe 2010 BC Lions played all of their home games at their former site at the Pacific National Exhibition grounds at Empire Field while BC Place Stadium had a retractable roof installed. The Lions also staged their training camp in Kamloops, BC – the first of three over the next three years – as a part of the club's desire to represent the entire province. \n\nThe season started out well for the Lions, with a win against Edmonton, but that success would be short lived as the Lions lost their next seven consecutive games. Quarterback Casey Printers suffered a knee injury in game 3 against the Montreal Alouettes, which forced backup quarterback Travis Lulay to start the next three games. After losing to Toronto and the previously winless Eskimos, Lulay was replaced by Jarious Jackson in the fourth quarter in the August 7, 2010, contest against Calgary after demonstrating poor play and inexperience.\n\nAfter the bye week, Printers returned and won three out of the five games he started, but due to his turnover-filled back-to-back performances, he was replaced with Lulay as the starter in Game 13 against Winnipeg, which the Lions won. After Lulay had a minor injury in the following game, again against Winnipeg, Printers came into the game to protect a 21-point lead. The Blue Bombers stormed back to tie the game and force overtime, which was decided by Printers' game-clinching interception. It was Casey's last game with the Lions as Buono released him soon after the game. Consequently, Lulay became the undisputed starting quarterback, finishing the season 4–5 as a starter. The Lions won their last three games to qualify for the playoffs after Edmonton lost their final game of the season, but lost in double overtime to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the West Semi-Final game.\n\n2011 Grey Cup champions\n\nThe 2011 BC Lions season marked what would be known as perhaps one of the greatest season turnarounds in CFL history. The Lions entered the 2011 campaign with a lot of question marks. The team had almost exactly the same coaching staff as they had the year before, which had been criticized by many fans the past season. The team also lost a few key players, most notably Emmanuel Arceneaux to the NFL. As well, the team opted to go with inexperienced third year pivot Travis Lulay to start at quarterback.\n\nDespite a questionable lineup, the Lions, as well as many fans and critics alike, believed that the team was good enough to win the Grey Cup, especially since the game was scheduled to be played in Vancouver at the newly renovated BC Place Stadium. However, the season started out with five straight losses which forced changes to be made. The Lions signed two notable CFL players; defensive back Tad Kornegay, who had just been released by Saskatchewan, and wide receiver Arland Bruce, who was acquired in a trade with Hamilton. The Lions got their first win of the season when they beat the Saskatchewan Roughriders 24–11 in week 6, but the following week, the Lions were swept by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for the first time in ten years. Now sitting at 1–6, many fans and critics started to doubt the Lions playoff hopes, but after a convincing 36–1 win over the Edmonton Eskimos, the Lions went on a remarkable 8-game winning streak, skyrocketing the Leos all the way to the top of a very competitive West Division. The Lions winning streak ended after a 42–10 loss to Hamilton in week 17, but after that, the Lions won their last two games of the season, which included a 43–1 clobbering of the two-time defending Grey Cup champions Montreal Alouettes in the regular season finale. After starting the season 0–5, the Lions rebounded to win 11 of their last 13 games to clinch 1st place in the West Division with an 11–7 record, as well as a bye in the first round of the playoffs and a home playoff game.\n\nIn the West Division Final, the Lions faced the Edmonton Eskimos, the same team that beat the Lions in the 2005 West Final, which denied the Lions a home game in the Grey Cup, since Vancouver hosted the Grey Cup that year. However, in 2011, a home game in the Grey Cup is what the Lions would get, as the Leos dominated the Eskimos 40–23 as the Lions advanced to the big game for the first time in five years. In the Grey Cup, the Lions were up against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for only the second time in Grey Cup history. Although Winnipeg won both regular season meetings with BC, the Lions would go on to beat the Bombers 34–23 in front of a home crowd to win their 6th Grey Cup championship in franchise history. Travis Lulay was named Grey Cup Most Valuable Player, while Winnipeg native Andrew Harris was named Most Valuable Canadian. With the Grey Cup win, the BC Lions became the first team to start a season 0–5 and win the Grey Cup.\n\nHead coach Wally Buono announced shortly after the Grey Cup that he would step down as head coach but will remain as vice president and general manager. The BC Lions were named The Canadian Press Team of the Year for 2011 in voting by sports editors and broadcasters across Canada. \n\n2012 and beyond\n\nDefensive coordinator Mike Benevides was promoted and announced as the team's new head coach on December 13, 2011. \nSeveral veteran players left the team or were released prior to the start of the 2012 season. Defensive back Tad Kornegay was released by the Lions while all-star linebacker Solomon Elimimian and defensive tackle Aaron Hunt signed with the Minnesota Vikings and the Montreal Alouettes, respectively. The Lions did, however, manage to resign veteran cornerbacks Dante Marsh and Ryan Phillips during the free-agency period, as well as all-star defensive back Lin-J Shell and cornerback Byron Parker.\n\nOn December 19, 2014, Jeff Tedford was named the 25th Head Coach in franchise history after Mike Benevides had been let go November 20th. The 2015 season saw the emergence of rookie quarterback Jonathan Jennings, who took over as the starter from Travis Lulay midway through the season. The 2015 season was the only one for Tedford, as he resigned after only one season where he led the lions to a 7-11 record, finishing third in the west and losing to Calgary in the playoffs. Upon Tedford's resignation, Wally Buono announced that he would return as head coach in 2016.\n\nCurrent roster \n\nCurrent coaching staff \n\nPlayers and builders of note \n\nRetired numbers \n\nThe BC Lions have the most retired numbers in the Canadian Football League with ten, tied with the Montreal Alouettes and Ottawa Redblacks for the most in the league.\n\nCanadian Football Hall of Fame\n\n \n\nBC Sports Hall of Fame \n\n \n\nBC Lions Wall of Fame \n \nLocated at Level 2 Inner Concourse between Sections 11 and 10 at BC Place Stadium.\n\n* 1954 Team\n* 1985 Team\n* 1994 Team\n* Ken Appleby\n* Byron (BY) Bailey\n* Neal Beaumont\n* John Blain\n* Tom Brown\n* Mike Cacic\n* Herb Capozzi\n* Jim Carphin\n* Roy Cavallin\n* Bill Clancy\n* Pat Claridge\n* Tyrone Crews\n* Lonnie Dennis\n* Roy Dewalt\n* Jack Farley\n* Mervyn Fernandez\n* Norm Fieldgate\n* Willie \"The Wisp\" Fleming\n* Dick Fouts\n* Lynn \"Lefty\" Hendrickson\n\n* Paul Higgins\n* Tom Hinton\n* Sonny Homer\n* Glen Jackson\n* Ron Jones\n* Joe Kapp\n* Don Mackenzie\n* Allan McEachern\n* Jim Mills\n* Mack Moore\n* Bill Munsey\n* Ray Nettles\n* Creighton O'Malley\n* Joe Paopao\n* James \"Quick\" Parker\n* Lui Passaglia\n* Vic Rapp\n* Dave Skrien\n* Vic Spencer\n* Annis Stukus\n* John Henry White\n* Al Wilson\n* Jim Young\n\nFootball operations history\n\nHead coaches \n\n* Annis Stukus (1954–1955)\n* Clem Crowe (1956–1958)\n* Danny Edwards (1958)\n* Wayne Robinson (1959–1961)\n* Dave Skrien (1961–1967)\n* Jim Champion (1967–1969)\n* Jackie Parker (1969–1970)\n* Eagle Keys (1971–1975)\n* Cal Murphy (1975–1976)\n* Vic Rapp (1977–1982)\n* Don Matthews (1983–1987)\n* Larry Donovan (1987–1989)\n* Joe Galat (1989)\n* Lary Kuharich (1990)\n* Jim Young (1990)\n* Bob O'Billovich (1990–1992)\n* Dave Ritchie (1993–1995)\n* Joe Paopao (1996)\n* Adam Rita (1997–1998)\n* Greg Mohns (1998–2000)\n* Steve Buratto (2000–2002)\n* Adam Rita (2002)\n* Wally Buono (2003–2011)\n* Mike Benevides (2012–2014)\n* Jeff Tedford (2015–2016)\n* Wally Buono (2016-present)\n\nGeneral managers \n\n* Phil Webb (1954–1956)\n* Herb Capozzi (1957–1966)\n* Denny Veitch (1967–1970)\n* Jackie Parker (1971–1975)\n* Bob Ackles (1975–1985)\n* Joe Galat (1986–1989)\n* Joe Kapp (1990)\n* Jim Young (1990)\n* Bob O'Billovich (1990–1992)\n* Eric Tillman (1993–1994)\n* Dave Ritchie (1995)\n* George Chayka (1996)\n* Adam Rita (1997–2002)\n* Wally Buono (2003–Present)\n\nOwners\n\n* Community Ownership (1954–1989)\n* Murray Pezim (1990–1992)\n* Canadian Football League (1992)\n* Bill Comrie (1993–1996)\n* Nelson Skalbania (1996)\n* David Braley (1997–present)\n\nTeam presidents\n\n* Arthur E. Mercer (1953)\n* Don Mackenzie (1954–1956)\n* Bill McMahan (1957)\n* Harry Spring (1958–1959)\n* Ralph Henderson (1960–1961)\n* C. B. Delbridge (1962–1964)\n* Alan Eyre (1965–1966)\n* Allen McEachern (1967–1969)\n* Ian Barclay (1970)\n* Wes Munsie (1970–1974)\n* Bill McEwen (1975)\n* Doug Johnston (1975–1976)\n* Jack Farley (1977–1978)\n* Paul Higgins (1979–1982)\n* Ron Jones (1983–1985)\n* Grant MacLaren (1986)\n* Charles Walker (1986–1987)\n* James O’Leary Hogan (1988)\n* Norm Fieldgate (1989)\n* Joe Kapp (1990)\n* Frank Gigliotti (1991–1992)\n* Bill Comrie (1993)\n* Peter Classon (1994)\n* Doug Bodie (1995)\n* Michael P. McCarthy (1996)\n* Glen Ringdal (1997–2001)\n* Bob Ackles (2002–2008)\n* Dennis Skulsky (2008–present)\n\n50th Anniversary Dream Team \n\nSelected by fan balloting in 2003\n\nOffence \n\n* QB—Doug Flutie—1990–1991—34 games\n* RB—Willie Fleming—1959–1966—124 games\n* FB—Sean Millington—1991–1997 and 2000–2002—148 games\n* SB—Darren Flutie—1991–1995—73 games\n* TE—Harry Holt—1978–1982—54 games\n* WR—Mervyn Fernandez—1982–1986 and 1994—83 games\n* WR—Jim Young—1967–1979—197 games\n* C—Al Wilson—1972–1986—233 games\n* OG—Tom Hinton—1958–1966—136 games\n* OG—Jamie Taras—1987–2002—265 games\n* OT—John Blain—1977–1987—174 games\n* OT—Jim Mills—1986–1993, 1995—129 games\n\nDefence \n\n* DT—Mike Cacic—1957–1958 and 1960–1967—117 games\n* DT—Rick Klassen—1981–1987 and 1990—142 games\n* DE—James Parker—1984–1989—87 games\n* DE—Nick Hebeler—1979–1985—86 games\n* LB—Glen Jackson—1976–1987—192 games\n* LB—Tom Brown—1961–1967—97 games\n* LB—Norm Fieldgate—1954–1967—223 games\n* CB—Joe Fourqurean—1973–1981—122 games\n* CB—Eric Carter—1999–2003—86 games\n* DB—Larry Crawford—1981–1989—130 games\n* DB—Andre Francis—1986–1988 and 1992–1993—76 games\n* S—Bill Munsey—1963–1967—76 games\n\nSpecial teams \n\n* P/K—Lui Passaglia—1976–2000—408 games\n* KR—Leon Bright—1977–1980—56 games\n\nCoach \n\nDon Matthews—1983–1987\n\nRecent regular season and playoff results \n\nSeason-by-season records \n\nThe Wally Buono era \n\nLegend:F Points For, A \n Points Against\n\nRadio \n\nThe BC Lions Radio Network consist of 15 Radio Stations: CKST Vancouver Flagship Station (TSN Radio 1040 AM); CFAX Victoria (1070 AM); CKFR Kelowna (1150 AM); CHNL Kamloops (610 AM); CJNL Merritt (1230 AM); CINL Ashcroft/Cache Creek (1340 AM); CHNL-1 Clearwater (1400 AM); CHNL-FM Sorrento/Shuswap (107.1 FM); CHNL Logan Lake (106.7 FM); CHNL Blue River/Valemount; CFNR Terrace/Thornhill (92.1 FM); CFNR \tKitimat/Nass Valley/Queen Charlotte Islands (96.1 FM); CFNR Prince Rupert (98.1 FM).\n\nMascot \n\nLeo the Lion is the mascot for the BC Lions.", "Vancouver (, or), officially the City of Vancouver, is the most populous city in the Canadian province of British Columbia.\n\nThe 2011 census recorded 603,502 people in the city, making it the eighth largest Canadian municipality. The Greater Vancouver area of around 2.4 million inhabitants is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country, the second largest city on the United States–Canada border, and the most populous in Western Canada.\nVancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada; 52% of its residents have a first language other than English. Vancouver is classed as a Beta global city. The City of Vancouver encompasses a land area of about 114 square km, giving it a population density of about 5,249 people per square km (13,590 per square mi). Vancouver is the most densely populated Canadian municipality with over 250,000 residents, and the fourth most densely populated such city in North America behind New York City, San Francisco, \nand Mexico City.\n\nThe original settlement, named Gastown, grew up on clearcuts on the west edge of the Hastings Mill logging sawmill's property, where a makeshift tavern had been set up on a plank between two stumps and the proprietor, Gassy Jack, persuaded the curious millworkers to build him a tavern, on 1 July 1867. From that first enterprise, other stores and some hotels quickly appeared along the waterfront to the west. Gastown became formally laid out as a registered townsite dubbed Granville, B.I. (\"B.I\" standing for \"Burrard Inlet\"). As part of the land and political deal whereby the area of the townsite was made the railhead of the CPR, it was renamed \"Vancouver\" and incorporated shortly thereafter as a city, in 1886. By 1887, the transcontinental railway was extended to the city to take advantage of its large natural seaport, which soon became a vital link in a trade route between the Orient, Eastern Canada, and Europe.\n\n \n, Port Metro Vancouver is the third largest port by tonnage in the Americas (displacing New York), 27th in the world, the busiest and largest in Canada, and the most diversified port in North America. \nWhile forestry remains its largest industry, Vancouver is well known as an urban centre surrounded by nature, making tourism its second-largest industry. \nMajor film production studios in Vancouver and Burnaby have turned Greater Vancouver and nearby areas into one of the largest film production centres in North America, \nearning it the film industry nickname, Hollywood North. \n\nVancouver is consistently named as one of the top five worldwide cities for livability and quality of life, \nand the Economist Intelligence Unit acknowledged it as the first city to rank among the top-ten of the world's most liveable cities \nfor five consecutive years. \nVancouver has hosted many international conferences and events, including the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, UN Habitat I, Expo 86, the World Police and Fire Games in 1989 and 2009; and the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics which were held in Vancouver and Whistler, a resort community 125 km north of the city. In 2014, following thirty years in California, the annual TED conference made Vancouver its indefinite home. Several matches of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup were played in Vancouver, including the final at BC Place Stadium. \n\nHistory\n\nIndigenous people\n\nArchaeological records indicate the presence of Aboriginal people in the Vancouver area from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. \n\nThe city is located in the traditional territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tseil-Waututh (Burrard) peoples of the Coast Salish group. \nThey had villages in various parts of present-day Vancouver, such as Stanley Park, False Creek, Kitsilano, Point Grey and near the mouth of the Fraser River.\n\nExploration and contact\n\nEuropeans became acquainted with the area of the future Vancouver when José María Narváez of Spain explored the coast of present-day Point Grey and parts of Burrard Inlet in 1791 – although one author contends that Francis Drake may have visited the area in 1579. \nThe city takes its name from George Vancouver, who explored the inner harbour of Burrard Inlet in 1792 and gave various places British names. \n\nThe explorer and North West Company trader Simon Fraser and his crew became the first known Europeans to set foot on the site of the present-day city. In 1808, they travelled from the east down the Fraser River, perhaps as far as Point Grey. \n\nEarly growth\n\nThe Fraser Gold Rush of 1858 brought over 25,000 men, mainly from California, to nearby New Westminster (founded 14 February 1859) on the Fraser River, on their way to the Fraser Canyon, bypassing what would become Vancouver. \nVancouver is among British Columbia's youngest cities; \nthe first European settlement in what is now Vancouver was not until 1862 at McLeery's Farm on the Fraser River, just east of the ancient village of Musqueam in what is now Marpole. A sawmill established at Moodyville (now the City of North Vancouver) in 1863, began the city's long relationship with logging. It was quickly followed by mills owned by Captain Edward Stamp on the south shore of the inlet. Stamp, who had begun logging in the Port Alberni area, first attempted to run a mill at Brockton Point, but difficult currents and reefs forced the relocation of the operation in 1867 to a point near the foot of Dunlevy Street. This mill, known as the Hastings Mill, became the nucleus around which Vancouver formed. The mill's central role in the city waned after the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in the 1880s. It nevertheless remained important to the local economy until it closed in the 1920s. \n\nThe settlement which came to be called Gastown grew up quickly around the original makeshift tavern established by \"Gassy\" Jack Deighton in 1867 on the edge of the Hastings Mill property. \nIn 1870, the colonial government surveyed the settlement and laid out a townsite, renamed \"Granville\" in honour of the then-British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Granville. This site, with its natural harbour, was selected in 1884 \nas the terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway, to the disappointment of Port Moody, New Westminster and Victoria, all of which had vied to be the railhead. A railway was among the inducements for British Columbia to join the Confederation in 1871, but the Pacific Scandal and arguments over the use of Chinese labour delayed construction until the 1880s. \n\nIncorporation\n\nThe City of Vancouver was incorporated on 6 April 1886, the same year that the first transcontinental train arrived. CPR president William Van Horne arrived in Port Moody to establish the CPR terminus recommended by Henry John Cambie, and gave the city its name in honour of George Vancouver. The Great Vancouver Fire on 13 June 1886, razed the entire city. The Vancouver Fire Department was established that year and the city quickly rebuilt. Vancouver's population grew from a settlement of 1,000 people in 1881 to over 20,000 by the turn of the century and 100,000 by 1911. \n\nVancouver merchants outfitted prospectors bound for the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898. One of those merchants, Charles Woodward, had opened the first Woodward's store at Abbott and Cordova Streets in 1892 and, along with Spencer's and the Hudson's Bay department stores, formed the core of the city's retail sector for decades. \n\nThe economy of early Vancouver was dominated by large companies such as the CPR, which fuelled economic activity and led to the rapid development of the new city; in fact the CPR was the main real estate owner and housing developer in the city. While some manufacturing did develop, including the establishment of the British Columbia Sugar Refinery by Benjamin Tingley Rogers in 1890, natural resources became the basis for Vancouver's economy. The resource sector was initially based on logging and later on exports moving through the seaport, where commercial traffic constituted the largest economic sector in Vancouver by the 1930s. \n\nTwentieth century\n\nThe dominance of the economy by big business was accompanied by an often militant labour movement. The first major sympathy strike was in 1903 when railway employees struck against the CPR for union recognition. Labour leader Frank Rogers was killed by CPR police while picketing at the docks, becoming the movement's first martyr in British Columbia. The rise of industrial tensions throughout the province led to Canada's first general strike in 1918, at the Cumberland coal mines on Vancouver Island. Following a lull in the 1920s, the strike wave peaked in 1935 when unemployed men flooded the city to protest conditions in the relief camps run by the military in remote areas throughout the province. After two tense months of daily and disruptive protesting, the relief camp strikers decided to take their grievances to the federal government and embarked on the On-to-Ottawa Trek, but their protest was put down by force. The workers were arrested near Mission and interned in work camps for the duration of the Depression. \n\nOther social movements, such as the first-wave feminist, moral reform, and temperance movements were also instrumental in Vancouver's development. Mary Ellen Smith, a Vancouver suffragist and prohibitionist, became the first woman elected to a provincial legislature in Canada in 1918. Alcohol prohibition began in the First World War and lasted until 1921, when the provincial government established control over alcohol sales, a practice still in place today. Canada's first drug law came about following an inquiry conducted by the federal Minister of Labour and future Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King. King was sent to investigate damages claims resulting from a riot when the Asiatic Exclusion League led a rampage through Chinatown and Japantown. Two of the claimants were opium manufacturers, and after further investigation, King found that white women were reportedly frequenting opium dens as well as Chinese men. A federal law banning the manufacture, sale, and importation of opium for non-medicinal purposes was soon passed based on these revelations. These riots, and the formation of the Asiatic Exclusion League, also act as signs of a growing fear and mistrust towards the Japanese living in Vancouver and throughout B.C. These fears were exacerbated by the attack on Pearl Harbor leading to the eventual internment or deportation of all Japanese-Canadians living in the city and the province. After the war, these Japanese-Canadian men and women were not allowed to return to cities like Vancouver causing areas, like the aforementioned Japantown, to cease to be ethnically Japanese areas as the communities never revived. \n\nAmalgamation with Point Grey and South Vancouver gave the city its final boundaries not long before it became the third-largest metropolis in the country. As of 1 January 1929, the population of the enlarged Vancouver was 228,193. \n\nGeography\n\nLocated on the Burrard Peninsula, Vancouver lies between Burrard Inlet to the north and the Fraser River to the south. The Strait of Georgia, to the west, is shielded from the Pacific Ocean by Vancouver Island. The city has an area of 114 km2, including both flat and hilly ground, and is in the Pacific Time Zone (UTC−8) and the Pacific Maritime Ecozone. \nUntil the city's naming in 1885, \"Vancouver\" referred to Vancouver Island, and it remains a common misconception that the city is located on the island. \nThe island and the city are both named after Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver (as is the city of Vancouver, Washington in the United States).\n\nVancouver has one of the largest urban parks in North America, Stanley Park, which covers . The North Shore Mountains dominate the cityscape, and on a clear day, scenic vistas include the snow-capped volcano Mount Baker in the state of Washington to the southeast, Vancouver Island across the Strait of Georgia to the west and southwest, and Bowen Island to the northwest. \n\nEcology\n\nThe vegetation in the Vancouver area was originally temperate rain forest, consisting of conifers with scattered pockets of maple and alder, and large areas of swampland (even in upland areas, due to poor drainage). \nThe conifers were a typical coastal British Columbia mix of Douglas fir, Western red cedar and Western Hemlock. \nThe area is thought to have had the largest trees of these species on the British Columbia Coast. Only in Elliott Bay, Seattle did the size of trees rival those of Burrard Inlet and English Bay. The largest trees in Vancouver's old-growth forest were in the Gastown area, where the first logging occurred, and on the southern slopes of False Creek and English Bay, especially around Jericho Beach. The forest in Stanley Park was logged between the 1860s and 1880s, and evidence of old-fashioned logging techniques such as springboard notches can still be seen there. \n\nMany plants and trees growing throughout Vancouver and the Lower Mainland were imported from other parts of the continent and from points across the Pacific. Examples include the monkey puzzle tree, the Japanese Maple, and various flowering exotics, such as magnolias, azaleas, and rhododendrons. Some species imported from harsher climates in Eastern Canada or Europe have grown to immense sizes. The native Douglas Maple can also attain a tremendous size. Many of the city's streets are lined with flowering varieties of Japanese cherry trees donated from the 1930s onward by the government of Japan. These flower for several weeks in early spring each year, an occasion celebrated by the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival. Other streets are lined with flowering chestnut, horse chestnut and other decorative shade trees. \n\nClimate\n\nVancouver is one of Canada's warmest cities in the winter. Vancouver's climate is temperate by Canadian standards and is usually classified as oceanic or marine west coast, which under the Köppen climate classification system is classified as Cfb. While during summer months the inland temperatures are significantly higher, Vancouver has the coolest summer average high of all major Canadian metropolitan areas. The summer months are typically dry, with an average of only one in five days during July and August receiving precipitation. In contrast, precipitation falls during nearly half the days from November through March. \n\nVancouver is also one of the wettest Canadian cities; however, precipitation varies throughout the metropolitan area. Annual precipitation as measured at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond averages , compared with 1588 mm in the downtown area and 2044 mm in North Vancouver. The daily maximum averages 22 °C in July and August, with highs rarely reaching 30 °C.\n\nThe highest temperature ever recorded at the airport was set on 30 July 2009, and the highest temperature ever recorded within the city of Vancouver was occurring first on 31 July 1965, again on 8 August 1981, and finally on 29 May 1983. \n\nOn average, snow falls on eleven days per year, with three days receiving 6 cm or more. Average yearly snowfall is but typically does not remain on the ground for long.\n\nWinters in Greater Vancouver are the fourth mildest of Canadian cities after nearby Victoria, Nanaimo and Duncan, all on Vancouver Island. \nVancouver's growing season averages 237 days, from 18 March until 10 November. Vancouver's 1981–2010 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone ranges from 8A to 9A depending on elevation and proximity to water. \n\nCityscape\n\nUrban planning\n\n, Vancouver is the most densely populated city in Canada. Urban planning in Vancouver is characterized by high-rise residential and mixed-use development in urban centres, as an alternative to sprawl. As part of the larger Metro Vancouver region, it is influenced by the policy direction of livability as illustrated in Metro Vancouver's Regional Growth Strategy.\n\nVancouver has been ranked one of the most livable cities in the world for more than a decade. , Vancouver has been ranked as having the 4th highest quality of living of any city on Earth. In contrast, according to Forbes, Vancouver had the 6th most overpriced real estate market in the world and was second-highest in North America after Los Angeles in 2007. Vancouver has also been ranked among Canada's most expensive cities in which to live. Sales in February 2016 were 56.3% higher than the 10 year average for the month. Forbes has also ranked Vancouver as the tenth cleanest city in the world. \n\nVancouver's characteristic approach to urban planning originated in the late 1950s, when city planners began to encourage the building of high-rise residential towers in Vancouver's West End, subject to strict requirements for setbacks and open space to protect sight lines and preserve green space. The success of these dense but liveable neighbourhoods led to the redevelopment of urban industrial sites, such as North False Creek and Coal Harbour, beginning in the mid-1980s. The result is a compact urban core that has gained international recognition for its \"high amenity and 'livable' development\". More recently, the city has been debating \"ecodensity\"—ways in which \"density, design, and land use can contribute to environmental sustainability, affordability, and livability\". \n\nVancouver is also considered to have the worst traffic in Canada due to a wide variety of issues such as old small bridges and a lack of highways within the city limits. \n\nArchitecture\n\nThe Vancouver Art Gallery is housed downtown in the neoclassical former courthouse built in 1906. The courthouse building was designed by Francis Rattenbury, who also designed the British Columbia Parliament Buildings and the Empress Hotel in Victoria, and the lavishly decorated second Hotel Vancouver. \nThe 556-room Hotel Vancouver, opened in 1939 and the third by that name, is across the street with its copper roof. The Gothic-style Christ Church Cathedral, across from the hotel, opened in 1894 and was declared a heritage building in 1976.\n\nThere are several modern buildings in the downtown area, including the Harbour Centre, the Vancouver Law Courts and surrounding plaza known as Robson Square (designed by Arthur Erickson) and the Vancouver Library Square (designed by Moshe Safdie and DA Architects), reminiscent of the Colosseum in Rome, and the recently completed Woodward's building Redevelopment (designed by Henriquez Partners Architects).\nThe original BC Hydro headquarters building (designed by Ron Thom and Ned Pratt) at Nelson and Burrard Streets is a modernist high-rise, now converted into the Electra condominia. Also notable is the \"concrete waffle\" of the MacMillan Bloedel building on the north-east corner of the Georgia and Thurlow intersection.\n\nA prominent addition to the city's landscape is the giant tent-frame Canada Place (designed by Zeidler Roberts Partnership Partnership, MCMP & DA Architects), the former Canada Pavilion from the 1986 World Exposition, which includes part of the Convention Centre, the Pan-Pacific Hotel, and a cruise ship terminal. Two modern buildings that define the southern skyline away from the downtown area are City Hall and the Centennial Pavilion of Vancouver General Hospital, both designed by Townley and Matheson in 1936 and 1958 respectively. \n\nA collection of Edwardian buildings in the city's old downtown core were, in their day, the tallest commercial buildings in the British Empire. These were, in succession, the Carter-Cotton Building (former home of The Vancouver Province newspaper), the Dominion Building (1907) and the Sun Tower (1911), the former two at Cambie and Hastings Streets and the latter at Beatty and Pender Streets.\nThe Sun Tower's cupola was finally exceeded as the Empire's tallest commercial building by the elaborate Art Deco Marine Building in the 1920s. The Marine Building is known for its elaborate ceramic tile facings and brass-gilt doors and elevators, which make it a favourite location for movie shoots. Topping the list of tallest buildings in Vancouver is Living Shangri-La at 201 m and 62 storeys. The second-tallest building in Vancouver is the Private Residences at Hotel Georgia, at 156 m. Third is One Wall Centre at 150 m and 48 storeys, followed closely by the Shaw Tower at 149 m.\n\nDemographics\n\nThe 2011 census recorded more than 603,000 people in the city, making it the eighth largest among Canadian cities. More specifically, Vancouver is the fourth largest in Western Canada after Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg. The metropolitan area referred to as Greater Vancouver, with more than 2.4 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country and the most populous in Western Canada. The larger Lower Mainland-Southwest economic region (which includes also the Squamish-Lillooet, Fraser Valley, and Sunshine Coast Regional District) has a population of over 2.93 million. \nWith 5,249 people per square km (13,590 per sq mi), the City of Vancouver is the most densely populated of Canadian municipalities having more than 5,000 residents.\nApproximately 74 percent of the people living in Metro Vancouver live outside the city.\n\nVancouver has been called a \"city of neighbourhoods\", each with a distinct character and ethnic mix. People of English, Scottish, and Irish origins were historically the largest ethnic groups in the city, and elements of British society and culture are still visible in some areas, particularly South Granville and Kerrisdale. Germans are the next-largest European ethnic group in Vancouver and were a leading force in the city's society and economy until the rise of anti-German sentiment with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Today the Chinese are the largest visible ethnic group in the city, with a diverse Chinese-speaking community, and several languages, including Cantonese and Mandarin. Neighbourhoods with distinct ethnic commercial areas include the Chinatown, Punjabi Market, Little Italy, Greektown, and (formerly) Japantown.\n\nSince the 1980s, immigration has drastically increased, making the city more ethnically and linguistically diverse; 52% do not speak English as their first language.\n 48.9% have neither English nor French as their first language.\n\nAlmost 30% of the city's inhabitants are of Chinese heritage. In the 1980s, an influx of immigrants from Hong Kong in anticipation of the transfer of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to China, combined with an increase in immigrants from mainland China and previous immigrants from Taiwan, established in Vancouver one of the highest concentrations of ethnic Chinese residents in North America. This arrival of Asian immigrants continued a tradition of immigration from around the world that had established Vancouver as the second-most popular destination for immigrants in Canada after Toronto. Other significant Asian ethnic groups in Vancouver are South Asian (mostly Punjabi) usually referred to as Indo-Canadian (5.7%), Filipino (5.0%), Japanese (1.7%), Korean (1.5%), as well as sizeable communities of Vietnamese, Indonesians, and Cambodians. Despite increases in Latin American immigration to Vancouver in the 1980s and 90s, recent immigration has been comparatively low, and African immigration has been similarly stagnant (3.6% and 3.3% of total immigrant population, respectively). The black population of Vancouver is rather scant in comparison to other Canadian major cities, making up 0.9% of the city. The neighbourhood of Strathcona was the core of the city's Jewish community. Hogan's Alley, a small area adjacent to Chinatown, just off Main Street at Prior, was once home to a significant black community. In 1981, less than 7% of the population belonged to a visible minority group. By 2008, this proportion had grown to 51%. \n\nPrior to the Hong Kong diaspora of the 1990s, the largest non-British ethnic groups in the city were Irish and German, followed by Scandinavian, Italian, Ukrainian and Chinese. From the mid-1950s until the 1980s, many Portuguese immigrants came to Vancouver and the city had the third-largest Portuguese population in Canada in 2001. Eastern Europeans, including Yugoslavs, Russians, Czechs, Poles, Romanians and Hungarians began immigrating after the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe after World War II. Greek immigration increased in the late 1960s and early 70s, with most settling in the Kitsilano area. Vancouver also has a significant aboriginal community of about 11,000 people. \n\nVancouver has a large gay community focused on the West End neighbourhood lining a certain stretch of Davie Street, recently officially designated as Davie Village, though the gay community is omnipresent throughout West End and Yaletown areas. Vancouver is host to one of the country's largest annual gay pride parades. \n\nEconomy\n\nWith its location on the Pacific Rim and at the western terminus of Canada's transcontinental highway and rail routes, Vancouver is one of the nation's largest industrial centres. Port Metro Vancouver, Canada's largest and most diversified port, does more than C$172 billion in trade with over 160 different trading economies annually. Port activities generate $9.7 billion in gross domestic product and $20.3 billion in economic output. Vancouver is also the headquarters of forest product and mining companies. In recent years, Vancouver has become a centre for software development, biotechnology, aerospace, video game development, animation studios and television production and film industry. The city's strong focus on lifestyle and health culture also makes it a hub for many lifestyle-brands with Lululemon, Kit and Ace, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Herschel Supply Co., Reigning Champ, and Nature's Path Organic Foods all founded and headquartered in Vancouver.\n\nVancouver's scenic location makes it a major tourist destination. Many visit to see the city's gardens, Stanley Park, Queen Elizabeth Park, VanDusen Botanical Garden and the mountains, ocean, forest and parklands which surround the city. Each year over a million people pass through Vancouver on cruise ship vacations, often bound for Alaska.\n\nVancouver is the most stressed in the spectrum of affordability of housing in Canada. In 2012, Vancouver was ranked by Demographia as the second most unaffordable in the world, rated as even more severely unaffordable in 2012 than in 2011. The city has adopted various strategies to reduce housing costs, including cooperative housing, legalized secondary suites, increased density and smart growth. As of April 2010, the average two-level home in Vancouver sold for a record high of $987,500, compared with the Canadian average of $365,141. \n\nSince the 1990s, development of high-rise condominia in the downtown peninsula has been financed, in part, by an inflow of capital from Hong Kong immigrants due to the former colony's 1997 handover to China. Such development has clustered in the Yaletown and Coal Harbour districts and around many of the SkyTrain stations to the east of the downtown. The city's selection to co-host the 2010 Winter Olympics was also a major influence on economic development. Concern was expressed that Vancouver's increasing homelessness problem would be exacerbated by the Olympics because owners of single room occupancy hotels, which house many of the city's lowest income residents, converted their properties to attract higher income residents and tourists. Another significant international event held in Vancouver, the 1986 World Exposition, received over 20 million visitors and added $3.7 billion to the Canadian economy. Some still-standing Vancouver landmarks, including the SkyTrain public transit system and Canada Place, were built as part of the exposition.\n\nGovernment\n\nVancouver, unlike other British Columbia municipalities, is incorporated under the Vancouver Charter. The legislation, passed in 1953, supersedes the Vancouver Incorporation Act, 1921 and grants the city more and different powers than other communities possess under BC's Municipalities Act.\n\nThe civic government was dominated by the centre-right Non-Partisan Association (NPA) since World War II, albeit with some significant centre-left interludes until 2008. The NPA fractured over the issue of drug policy in 2002, facilitating a landslide victory for the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) on a harm reduction platform. Subsequently, North America's only legal safe injection site was opened for the significant number of intravenous heroin users in the city. \n\nVancouver is governed by the eleven-member Vancouver City Council, a nine-member School Board, and a seven-member Park Board, all of whom serve three-year terms. Unusually for a city of Vancouver's size, all municipal elections are on an at-large basis. Historically, in all levels of government, the more affluent west side of Vancouver has voted along conservative or liberal lines while the eastern side of the city has voted along left-wing lines. This was reaffirmed with the results of the 2005 provincial election and the 2006 federal election.\n\nThough polarized, a political consensus has emerged in Vancouver around a number of issues. Protection of urban parks, a focus on the development of rapid transit as opposed to a freeway system, a harm-reduction approach to illegal drug use, and a general concern about community-based development are examples of policies that have come to have broad support across the political spectrum in Vancouver.\n\nIn the 2008 Municipal Election campaign, NPA incumbent mayor Sam Sullivan was ousted as mayoral candidate by the party in a close vote, which instated Peter Ladner as the new mayoral candidate for the NPA. Gregor Robertson, a former MLA for Vancouver-Fairview and head of Happy Planet, was the mayoral candidate for Vision Vancouver, the other main contender. Vision Vancouver candidate Gregor Robertson defeated Ladner by a considerable margin, nearing 20,000 votes. The balance of power was significantly shifted to Vision Vancouver, which held seven of the 10 spots for councillor. Of the remaining three, COPE received two and the NPA one. For park commissioner, four spots went to Vision Vancouver, one to the Green Party, one to COPE, and one to NPA. For school trustee, there were four Vision Vancouver seats, three COPE seats, and two NPA seats. \n\nRegional government\n\nVancouver is a member municipality of Metro Vancouver, a regional government. In total there are 22 municipalities, one electoral area and one treaty First Nation comprising Metro Vancouver, the regional government whose seat is in Burnaby. While each member of Metro Vancouver has its own separate local governing body, Metro Vancouver oversees common services and planning functions within the area such as providing drinking water; operating sewage and solid waste handling; maintaining regional parks; overseeing air quality, greenhouse gases and ecological health; and providing a strategy for regional growth and land use.\n\nProvincial and federal representation\n\nIn the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Vancouver is represented by 11 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). As of January 2016, there are four seats held by the BC Liberal Party and seven by the BC New Democratic Party. \n\nIn the House of Commons of Canada, Vancouver is represented by six Members of Parliament. In the most recent 2015 federal election, the Liberals retained two (Vancouver Quadra and Vancouver Centre) seats and gained another two, while the NDP held on to the two seats, (Vancouver East and Vancouver Kingsway), they held at dissolution while the Conservatives were shut out of the city.\n\nCurrently, two Cabinet Minister hail from the city. Jody Wilson-Raybould is the Attorney General of Canada, while Harjit Sajjan is the Minister of National Defence.\n\nPolicing and crime\n\nVancouver operates the Vancouver Police Department, with a strength of 1,174 sworn members and an operating budget of $149 million in 2005. Over 16% of the city's budget was spent on police protection in 2005. \n\nThe Vancouver Police Department's operational divisions include a bicycle squad, a marine squad, and a dog squad. It also has a mounted squad, used primarily to patrol Stanley Park and occasionally the Downtown Eastside and West End, as well as for crowd control. The police work in conjunction with civilian and volunteer run Community Police Centres. In 2006, the police department established its own Counter Terrorism Unit. In 2005, a new transit police force, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Police Service (now South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service), was established with full police powers.\n\nAlthough it is illegal, Vancouver police generally do not arrest people for possessing small amounts of marijuana. In 2000 the Vancouver Police Department established a specialized drug squad, \"Growbusters\", to carry out an aggressive campaign against the city's estimated 4,000 hydroponic marijuana growing operations (or grow-ops) in residential areas. As with other law enforcement campaigns targeting marijuana this initiative has been sharply criticized. \n\n, Vancouver had the seventh highest crime rate, dropping 3 spots since 2005, among Canada's 27 census metropolitan areas. However, as with other Canadian cities, the overall crime rate has been falling \"dramatically\". Vancouver's property crime rate is particularly high, ranking among the highest for major North American cities. But even property crime dropped 10.5% between 2004 and 2005. For 2006, Metro Vancouver had the highest rate of gun-related violent crime of any major metropolitan region in Canada, with 45.3 violent offences involving guns for every 100,000 people in Metro Vancouver, above the national average of 27.5. A series of gang-related incidents in early 2009 escalated into what police have dubbed a gang war. Vancouver plays host to special events such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, the Clinton-Yeltsin Summit, or the Symphony of Fire fireworks show that require significant policing. The 1994 Stanley Cup riot overwhelmed police and injured as many as 200 people. A second riot took place following the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals. \n\nMilitary\n\nJericho Beach in Vancouver is the location of the headquarters of 39 Canadian Brigade Group of the Canadian Army. Local primary reserve units include The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own), based at the Seaforth Armoury and the Beatty Street Drill Hall, respectively, and the 15th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery. The Naval Reserve Unit is based on Deadman's Island in Stanley Park. RCAF Station Jericho Beach, the first air base in Western Canada, was taken over by the Canadian Army in 1947 when sea planes were replaced by long-range aircraft. Most of the base facilities were transferred to the City of Vancouver in 1969 and the area renamed \"Jericho Park\". \n\nEducation\n\nThe Vancouver School Board enrolls more than 110,000 students in its elementary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions, making it the second-largest school district in the province. The district administers about 74 elementary schools, 17 elementary annexes, 18 secondary schools, 7 adult education centres, 2 Vancouver Learn Network schools, which include 18 French immersion, a Mandarin bilingual, a fine arts, gifted, and Montessori schools. The Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique operates three Francophone schools in that city: the primary schools école Rose-des-vents and école Anne-Hébert as well as the école secondaire Jules-Verne. More than 46 independent schools of a wide variety are also eligible for partial provincial funding and educate approximately 10% of pupils in the city. \n\nThere are five public universities in the Greater Vancouver area, the largest being the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU), with a combined enrolment of more than 90,000 undergraduates, graduates, and professional students in 2008. \nUBC consistently ranks among the 40 best universities in the world, and is among the 20 best public universities. \nSFU consistently ranks as the top comprehensive university in Canada and is among the 200 best universities in the world. \nUBC's main campus is located on the University Endowment Lands on Point Grey, the tip of Burrard Peninsula, with the city-proper adjacent to the east. SFU's main campus is in Burnaby. Both also maintain campuses in Downtown Vancouver and Surrey.\nThe other public universities in the metropolitan area around Vancouver are Capilano University in North Vancouver, the Emily Carr University of Art and Design on Granville Island in Vancouver, and Kwantlen Polytechnic University with four campuses all outside the city proper. Six private institutions also operate in the region: Trinity Western University in Langley, and University Canada West, NYIT Canada, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Columbia College, and Sprott Shaw College, all in Vancouver.\n\nVancouver Community College and Langara College are publicly funded college-level institutions in Vancouver, as is Douglas College with three campuses outside the city. The British Columbia Institute of Technology in Burnaby provides polytechnic education. These are augmented by private institutions and other colleges in the surrounding areas of Metro Vancouver that provide career, trade, and university-transfer programs, while the Vancouver Film School provides one-year programs in film production and video game design. \n\nInternational students and English as a Second Language (ESL) students have been significant in the enrolment of these public and private institutions. For the 2008–2009 school year, 53% of Vancouver School Board's students spoke a language other than English at home.\n\nArts and culture\n\nTheatre, dance and film\n\nProminent theatre companies in Vancouver include the Arts Club Theatre Company on Granville Island, and Bard on the Beach. Smaller companies include Touchstone Theatre, and Studio 58. The Cultch, The Firehall Arts Centre, United Players, and The Pacific and Metro Theatres, all run continuous theatre seasons. Theatre Under the Stars produces shows in the summer at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park. Annual festivals that are held in Vancouver include the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in January and the Vancouver Fringe Festival in September.\n\nThe Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company operated for fifty years, ending in March 2012. \n\nThe Scotiabank Dance Centre, a converted bank building on the corner of Davie and Granville, functions as a gathering place and performance venue for Vancouver-based dancers and choreographers. Dances for a Small Stage is a semi-annual dance festival.\n\nThe Vancouver International Film Festival, which runs for two weeks each September, shows over 350 films and is one of the larger film festivals in North America. The Vancouver International Film Centre venue, the Vancity Theatre, runs independent non-commercial films throughout the rest of the year, as do the Pacific Cinémathèque, and the Rio theatres.\n\nFilms set in Vancouver\n\nVancouver has become a major film location, known as Hollywood North, as it has stood in for several US cities. However, it has started to appear as itself in several major films and TV series. Among major feature films set in the city and its surroundings are the 1989 US romantic comedy-drama Cousins, starring Ted Danson and Isabella Rossellini, the 1994 US thriller Intersection, starring Richard Gere and Sharon Stone, the 2007 Canadian ghost thriller They Wait, starring Terry Chen and Jaime King and the acclaimed Canadian 'mockumentary' Hard Core Logo, and was named the second best Canadian film of the last 15 years, in a 2001 poll of 200 industry voters, performed by Playback. Many TV shows have also been filmed in Vancouver, such as Supernatural, The 100, Arrow, The Flash, UnREAL and The X-Files.\n\nLibraries and museums\n\nLibraries in Vancouver include the Vancouver Public Library with its main branch at Library Square, designed by Moshe Safdie. The central branch contains 1.5 million volumes. Altogether there are twenty-two branches containing 2.25 million volumes. The Vancouver Tool Library is Canada's original tool lending library.\n\nThe Vancouver Art Gallery has a permanent collection of nearly 10,000 items and is the home of a significant number of works by Emily Carr. However, little or none of the permanent collection is ever on view. Downtown is also home to the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver). The CAG showcases temporary exhibitions by up-and-coming Vancouver artists.\n\nIn the Kitsilano district are the Vancouver Maritime Museum, the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre, and the Vancouver Museum, the largest civic museum in Canada. The Museum of Anthropology at UBC is a leading museum of Pacific Northwest Coast First Nations culture. A more interactive museum is Science World at the head of False Creek. The city also features a diverse collection of Public Art.\n\nVisual art\n\nThe Vancouver School of conceptual photography (often referred to as photoconceptualism) is a term applied to a grouping of artists from Vancouver who achieved international recognition starting in the 1980s. No formal \"school\" exists and the grouping remains both informal and often controversial even among the artists themselves, who often resist the term. Artists associated with the term include Jeff Wall, Ian Wallace, Ken Lum, Roy Arden, Stan Douglas and Rodney Graham. \n\nMusic and nightlife\n\nMusical contributions from Vancouver include performers of classical, folk and popular music. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is the professional orchestra based in the city. The Vancouver Opera is a major opera company in the city, and City Opera of Vancouver is the city's professional chamber opera company.\nThe city is home to a number of Canadian composers including Rodney Sharman, Jeffrey Ryan, and Jocelyn Morlock.\n\nThe city produced a number of notable punk rock bands, including D.O.A. Other early Vancouver punk bands included the Subhumans, the Young Canadians, the Pointed Sticks, and UJ3RK5. \nWhen alternative rock became popular in the 1990s, several Vancouver groups rose to prominence, including 54-40, Odds, Moist, the Matthew Good Band, Sons of Freedom and Econoline Crush. Recent successful Vancouver bands include Gob, Marianas Trench, Theory of a Deadman and Stabilo. Today, Vancouver is home to a number of popular independent bands such as The New Pornographers, Japandroids, Grimes, Destroyer, In Medias Res, Tegan and Sara, and independent labels including Nettwerk and Mint. Vancouver also produced influential metal band Strapping Young Lad and pioneering electro-industrial bands Skinny Puppy, Numb and Front Line Assembly; the latter's Bill Leeb is better known for founding ambient pop super-group Delerium. Other popular musical artists who made their mark from Vancouver include Carly Rae Jepsen, Bryan Adams, Sarah McLachlan, Heart, Prism, Trooper, Chilliwack, Payolas, Moev, Images in Vogue, Michael Bublé, Stef Lang and Spirit of the West. \n\nLarger musical performances are usually held at venues such as Rogers Arena, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, BC Place Stadium or the Pacific Coliseum, while smaller acts are held at places such as the Commodore Ballroom, the Orpheum Theatre and the Vogue Theatre. The Vancouver Folk Music Festival and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival showcase music in their respective genres from around the world.\nVancouver's Hong Kong Chinese population has produced several Cantopop stars across the Hong Kong entertainment industry. Similarly, various Indo-Canadian artists and actors have a profile in Bollywood or other aspects of India's entertainment industry.\n\nVancouver has a vibrant nightlife scene, whether it be food and dining, or bars and nightclubs. The Granville Entertainment District has the city's highest concentration of bars and nightclubs with closing times of 3am, in addition to various after-hours clubs open until late morning on weekends. The street can attract large crowds on weekends and is closed to traffic on such nights. Gastown is also a popular area for nightlife with many upscale restaurants and nightclubs, as well as the Davie Village which is centre to the city's LGBT community.\n\nMedia\n\nVancouver is a film and television production centre. Nicknamed Hollywood North, a distinction it shares with Toronto, the city has been used as a film making location for nearly a century, beginning with the Edison Manufacturing Company. In 2008 more than 260 productions were filmed in Vancouver. In 2011 Vancouver slipped to fourth place overall at 1.19 billion, although the region still leads Canada in foreign production. \n\nA wide mix of local, national, and international newspapers are distributed in the city. The two major English-language daily newspapers are The Vancouver Sun and The Province. Also, there are two national newspapers distributed in the city, including The Globe and Mail, which began publication of a \"national edition\" in B.C. in 1983 and recently expanded to include a three-page B.C. news section, and the National Post which centres on national news. Other local newspapers include 24H (a local free daily), the Vancouver franchise of the national free daily Metro, the twice-a-week Vancouver Courier, and the independent newspaper The Georgia Straight. Three Chinese language daily newspapers, Ming Pao, Sing Tao and World Journal cater to the city's large Cantonese and Mandarin speaking population. A number of other local and international papers serve other multicultural groups in the Lower Mainland.\n\nSome of the local television stations include CBC, Citytv, CTV and Global BC. OMNI British Columbia produces daily newscasts in Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi and Korean, and weekly newscasts in Tagalog, as well as programs aimed at other cultural groups. Fairchild Group also has two television stations: Fairchild TV and Talentvision, serving Cantonese and Mandarin speaking audiences respectively.\n\nRadio stations with news departments include CBC Radio One, CKNW and News 1130. The Franco-Columbian community is served by Radio-Canada outlets CBUFT channel 26 (Télévision de Radio-Canada), CBUF-FM 97.7 (Première Chaîne) and CBUX-FM 90.9 (Espace musique). The multilingual South Asian community is served by Spice Radio on 1200 AM established in 2014. \n\nMedia dominance is a frequently discussed issue in Vancouver as newspapers The Vancouver Sun, The Province, the Vancouver Courier and other local newspapers such as the Surrey Now, the Burnaby Now and the Richmond News, are all owned by Postmedia Network. The concentration of media ownership has spurred alternatives, making Vancouver a center for independent online media including The Tyee, the Vancouver Observer, and NowPublic., as well as hyperlocal online media, like Vancouver Is Awesome, which provide coverage of community events and local arts and culture.\n\nTransportation\n\n \nVancouver's streetcar system began on 28 June 1890, and ran from the (first) Granville Street Bridge to Westminster Avenue (now Main Street and Kingsway). Less than a year later, the Westminster and Vancouver Tramway Company began operating Canada's first interurban line between the two cities (extended to Chilliwack in 1910). Another line (1902), the Vancouver and Lulu Island Railway, was leased by the Canadian Pacific Railway to the British Columbia Electric Railway in 1905 and ran from the Granville Street Bridge to Steveston via Kerrisdale, which encouraged residential neighbourhoods outside the central core to develop. From 1897 the British Columbia Electric Railway (BCER) became the company that operated the urban and interurban rail system, until 1958, when its last vestiges were dismantled in favour of \"trackless\" trolley and gasoline/diesel buses; in that same year the BCER became the core of the newly created, publicly owned BC Hydro. Vancouver currently has the second-largest trolleybus fleet in North America, after San Francisco. \n\nSuccessive city councils in the 1970s and 1980s prohibited the construction of freeways as part of a long term plan. As a result, the only major freeway within city limits is Highway 1, which passes through the north-eastern corner of the city. While the number of cars in Vancouver proper has been steadily rising with population growth, the rate of car ownership and the average distance driven by daily commuters have fallen since the early 1990s. Vancouver is the only major Canadian city with these trends. Despite the fact that the journey time per vehicle has increased by one-third and growing traffic mass, there are 7% fewer cars making trips into the downtown core. In 2012, Vancouver had the worst traffic congestion in Canada and the second highest in North America, behind Los Angeles. , Vancouver now has the worst traffic congestion in North America. Residents have been more inclined to live in areas closer to their interests, or use more energy-efficient means of travel, such as mass transit and cycling. This is, in part, the result of a push by city planners for a solution to traffic problems and pro-environment campaigns. Transportation demand management policies have imposed restrictions on drivers making it more difficult and expensive to commute while introducing more benefits for non-drivers.\n\nTransLink is responsible for roads and public transportation within Metro Vancouver (in succession to B.C. Transit, which had taken over the transit functions of B.C. Hydro). It provides a bus service, including the B-Line rapid bus service, a foot passenger and bicycle ferry service (known as SeaBus), an automated rapid transit service called SkyTrain, and West Coast Express commuter rail. Vancouver's SkyTrain system is currently running on three lines, the Millennium Line, the Expo Line and the Canada Line.\n\nChanges are being made to the regional transportation network as part of Translink's 10-Year Transportation Plan. The recently completed Canada Line, opened on 17 August 2009, connects Vancouver International Airport and the neighbouring city of Richmond with the existing SkyTrain system. The Evergreen Line is planned to link the cities of Coquitlam and Port Moody with the SkyTrain system by summer 2016. There are also plans to extend the SkyTrain Millennium Line west to UBC as a subway under Broadway and capacity upgrades and an extension to the Expo Line. Several road projects will be completed within the next few years, including a replacement for the Port Mann Bridge, as part of the Provincial Government's Gateway Program.\n\nOther modes of transport add to the diversity of options available in Vancouver. Inter-city passenger rail service is operated from Pacific Central Station by Via Rail to points east, Amtrak Cascades to Seattle and Portland, and Rocky Mountaineer rail tour routes. Small passenger ferries operating in False Creek provide commuter service to Granville Island, Downtown Vancouver and Kitsilano. Vancouver has a city-wide network of bicycle lanes and routes, which supports an active population of cyclists year-round. Cycling has become Vancouver's fastest-growing mode of transportation. \n\nVancouver is served by Vancouver International Airport (YVR), located on Sea Island in the city of Richmond, immediately south of Vancouver. Vancouver's airport is Canada's second-busiest airport, and the second-largest gateway on the west coast of North America for international passengers. HeliJet and float plane companies operate scheduled air service from Vancouver harbour and YVR south terminal. The city is also served by two BC Ferry terminals. One is to the northwest at Horseshoe Bay (in West Vancouver), and the other is to the south, at Tsawwassen (in Delta). \n\nSports and recreation\n\nThe mild climate of the city and proximity to ocean, mountains, rivers and lakes make the area a popular destination for outdoor recreation. Vancouver has over 1298 ha of parks, of which, Stanley Park, at 404 ha, is the largest. The city has several large beaches, many adjacent to one another, extending from the shoreline of Stanley Park around False Creek to the south side of English Bay, from Kitsilano to the University Endowment Lands, (which also has beaches that are not part of the city proper). The 18 km of beaches include Second and Third Beaches in Stanley Park, English Bay (First Beach), Sunset, Kitsilano Beach, Jericho, Locarno, Spanish Banks, Spanish Banks Extension, Spanish Banks West, and Wreck Beach. There is also a freshwater beach at Trout Lake in John Hendry Park. The coastline provides for many types of water sport, and the city is a popular destination for boating enthusiasts. \n\nWithin a 20- to 30-minute drive from downtown Vancouver are the North Shore Mountains, with three ski areas: Cypress Mountain, Grouse Mountain, and Mount Seymour. Mountain bikers have created world-renowned trails across the North Shore. The Capilano River, Lynn Creek and Seymour River, also on the North Shore, provide opportunities to whitewater enthusiasts during periods of rain and spring melt, though the canyons of those rivers are more utilized for hiking and swimming than whitewater. \n\nRunning races include the Vancouver Sun Run (a 10 km race) every April; the Vancouver Marathon, held every May; and the Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon held every June. The Grouse Grind is a climb up Grouse Mountain open throughout the summer and fall months, including the annual Grouse Grind Mountain Run. Hiking trails include the Baden-Powell Trail, an arduous 42 km long hike from West Vancouver's Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove in the District of North Vancouver. \n\nVancouver is also home to notable cycling races. Most summers since 1973, the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix has been held on the cobblestone streets of Gastown. This race and the UBC Grand Prix are part of BC Superweek, an annual series of professional cycling races in Metro Vancouver.\n\nIn 2009, Metro Vancouver hosted the World Police and Fire Games. Swangard Stadium, in the neighbouring city of Burnaby, hosted games for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. \n\nVancouver, along with Whistler and Richmond, was the host city for the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2010 Winter Paralympics. On 12 June 2010, it played host to Ultimate Fighting Championship 115 (UFC 115) which was the fourth UFC event to be held in Canada (and the first outside Montreal).\n\nIn 2011, Vancouver hosted the Grey Cup, the Canadian Football League (CFL) championship game which is awarded every year to a different city which has a CFL team. The BC Titans of the International Basketball League played their inaugural season in 2009, with home games at the Langley Event Centre. Vancouver is a centre for the fast-growing sport of Ultimate. During the summer of 2008 Vancouver hosted the World Ultimate Championships. \n\nIn 2015, Vancouver was one of six venues for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup and hosted the Final game between the United States and Japan.\n\nVancouver has an adult obesity rate of 12% compared to the Canadian average of 23%. 51.8% of Vancouverites are overweight, making it the fourth thinnest city in Canada after Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax. \n\nCurrent professional teams\n\nTwin towns – Sister cities\n\nThe City of Vancouver was one of the first cities in Canada to enter into an international sister cities arrangement. Special arrangements for cultural, social and economic benefits have been created with these sister cities. \n\nSustainability\n\nThe city of Vancouver has taken a number of steps to become a sustainable city. Ninety-three percent of the electricity used in Vancouver is generated using sustainable resources such as hydroelectric power. The city is also actively working towards becoming a greener city. The City of Vancouver has crafted an action plan of goals it has set to meet by 2020, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, encouraging the growth of green jobs and businesses, requiring green construction, and reducing waste. \n\nGreenest City Initiative\n\nWith the goal of becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020, the city's action plan outlines the following 10 discrete goals within three key categories (carbon, waste, ecosystem): \n# Green Economy: double the number of green jobs and businesses with green operations\n# Climate Leadership: require all new buildings built after 2020 to be carbon neutral\n# Green buildings: reduce CO2 emissions in existing buildings\n# Green transportation: reduce driving and increase foot, bicycle, and public transit traffic\n# Zero waste: reduce solid waste going to landfills\n# Access to nature: increase accessibility of green parks, greenways, and other green space\n# Lighter footprint: reduce consumption and ecological footprint\n# Clean water: increase water quality and reduce water consumption\n# Clean air: increase air quality, measured against Metro Vancouver and World Health Organization guidelines\n# Local food: increase amount of locally grown food\n\nIn December 2013, the city announced a proposal for a Zero Waste Innovation Centre that focuses on sustainable waste handling and energy recovery, potentially through the use of waste gassification technology. Vancouver was recognized as the fourth greenest city in the world according to the 2014 Global Green Economy Index.\n\nNotable people", "The Grey Cup is the name of both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing Canadian football. It is contested between the winners of the CFL's East and West Divisional playoffs and is one of Canadian television's largest annual sporting events. The Toronto Argonauts have 16 championships, more than any other team. The latest, the 103rd Grey Cup, took place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on November 29, 2015, when the Edmonton Eskimos defeated the Ottawa Redblacks 26–20.\n\nThe trophy was commissioned in 1909 by the Earl Grey, then Canada's governor general, who originally hoped to donate it for the country's senior amateur hockey championship. After the Allan Cup was later donated for that purpose, Grey instead made his trophy available as the \"Canadian Dominion Football Championship\" (national championship) of Canadian football. The trophy has a silver chalice attached to a large base on which the names of all winning teams, players and executives are engraved. The Grey Cup has been broken on several occasions, stolen twice and held for ransom. It survived a 1947 fire that destroyed numerous artifacts housed in the same building.\n\nThe Grey Cup was first won by the University of Toronto Varsity Blues. Play was suspended from 1916 to 1918 due to the First World War and in 1919 due to a rules dispute. The game has typically been contested in an east versus west format since the 1920s. Traditionally held on a Sunday at the end of November, the Grey Cup has been played in inclement weather at times, including the 1950 \"Mud Bowl,\" in which a player reportedly came close to drowning in a puddle, then the 1962 \"Fog Bowl,\" when the final nine minutes of the game had to be postponed to the following day due to a heavy fog, and the 1977 \"Ice Bowl,\" contested on the frozen-over artificial turf at Montreal's Olympic Stadium. The Edmonton Eskimos formed the Grey Cup's longest dynasty, winning five consecutive championships from 1978 to 1982. Competition for the trophy has been exclusively between Canadian teams, except for a three-year period from 1993 to 1995, when an expansion of the CFL south into the United States resulted in the Baltimore Stallions winning the 1995 championship and taking the Grey Cup south of the border for the first time.\n\nHistory\n\nCreation and early years (1909–1921)\n\nWhile the Stanley Cup was created in 1893 as the Canadian amateur hockey championship, professional teams were openly competing for the trophy by 1907. Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey, the Governor General of Canada, planned to donate a new trophy to serve as the senior amateur championship; however, Sir Montague Allan donated the Allan Cup before he could finalize his plans. Grey instead offered an award to the Dominion amateur rugby football championship beginning in 1909. He initially failed to follow through on his offer; the trophy was not ordered until two weeks prior to the first championship game. \n\nThe first Grey Cup game was held on December 4, 1909, between two Toronto clubs: the University of Toronto Varsity Blues defeated the Parkdale Canoe Club 26–6 before 3,800 fans. The trophy was not ready for presentation following the game, and the Varsity Blues did not receive it until March 1910. They retained the trophy in the following two years, defeating the Hamilton Tigers in 1910 and the Toronto Argonauts in 1911. The University of Toronto failed to reach the 1912 Grey Cup, which was won by the Hamilton Alerts over the Argonauts. The Varsity Blues refused to hand over the trophy on the belief they could keep it until they were defeated in a title game. They kept the trophy until 1914 when they were defeated by the Argonauts, who made the trophy available to subsequent champions. \n\nCanada's participation in the First World War resulted in the cancellation of the championship from 1916 to 1918, during which time the Cup was forgotten. Montreal Gazette writer Bob Dunn claimed that the trophy was later rediscovered as \"one of the family heirlooms\" of an employee of the Toronto trust company where it had been sent for storage. The Grey Cup game was also cancelled in 1919 due to a lack of interest from the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and the intercollegiate unions, along with rules conflicts between the Canadian Rugby Union (CRU) and the western union. Competition finally resumed in 1920 with the 8th Grey Cup game, won 16–3 by the Varsity Blues over the Argonauts. It was the University of Toronto's fourth, and final, championship. \n\nWestern competition (1922–1932)\n\nCompetition for the Grey Cup was limited to member unions of the CRU, the champions of which petitioned the league body for the right to challenge for the national championship. The Western Canada Rugby Football Union joined in 1921, allowing the Edmonton Eskimos to challenge. Facing the Argonauts in the 9th Grey Cup, the Eskimos became the first western team – and the first from outside Toronto or Hamilton – to compete for the trophy. The Argonauts entered the game with an undefeated record, having outscored their opposition 226 to 55 during the season. They dominated Edmonton, recording the first shutout in Grey Cup history with a 23–0 victory. Multi-sport star Lionel Conacher was Toronto's top player, scoring 15 of his team's points before leaving the game after the third quarter to join his hockey team for their game. Edmonton challenged for the trophy again in 1922, but lost 13–1 to their eastern opposition, the Queen's University Golden Gaels. For Queen's, it was the first of three consecutive titles. \n\nWestern teams continued to vie for the trophy, but were consistently outclassed for several years. Eastern teams and critics felt the quality of the western game was inferior to theirs, and when Queen's defeated the Regina Rugby Club 54–0 in the 1923 final, the critics felt they deliberately ran up the score to prove that point. Regina was western Canada's dominant team, appearing in the Grey Cup on six occasions between 1928 and 1934, but lost to their eastern opponents each time. Regina helped revolutionize Canadian football in 1929, however, as they attempted the first forward pass in Grey Cup history. The Winnipeg 'Pegs (now the Blue Bombers) became the first western Grey Cup champion in 1935 when they defeated the Hamilton Tigers, 18–12. While the Grey Cup was slow to achieve national popularity, the advent of the east versus west format helped make the game the nation's largest sporting event. \n\nCanadian Football League (1933–1956)\n\nAs the quality of senior football improved, university teams realized they were no longer able to compete on equal footing and withdrew from competition for the Grey Cup in 1933. By 1938, only three unions continued to compete under the banner of the CRU: the IRFU and the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) in the east, and the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU) in the west. The CRU experimented with a two-game, total points series to determine the champion in 1940. The Ottawa Rough Riders won both games against Toronto's Balmy Beach, 8–2 and 12–5. The Grey Cup returned to its one-game format the following year. \n\nBoth the IRFU and WIFU suspended operations in 1942 due to the Second World War. Grey Cup play was expected to be suspended along with the unions; however, the military felt the game and sport would serve as a morale booster and organized teams at bases across the country. For the following three years, Grey Cup competition was limited to military teams, and in the 1942 Grey Cup, the Toronto RCAF Hurricanes defeated the Winnipeg RCAF Bombers 8–5 to become the first non-civilian team to win the national championship. Two years later, the St. Hyacinthe–Donnacona Navy defeated the Hamilton Flying Wildcats, 7–6; no Grey Cup championship since then has featured two eastern teams. The conclusion of the war led to the reformation of civilian teams; the IRFU resumed play in 1945, and the WIFU the following year.\n\nA push by the sport's organizers to adopt an increasingly professional attitude dominated the post-war period: poor field conditions, previously accepted as part of the game, resulted in numerous complaints against the CRU following the 1949 and 1950 Grey Cups. Field conditions at Toronto's Varsity Stadium were so poor in 1950 that the game has since gained infamy as the \"Mud Bowl\". Deep ruts in the field and poor weather in the days leading up to the game resulted in a sloppy field covered in large puddles of water. The game also gained notoriety for the near drowning of Winnipeg's Buddy Tinsley, who was found face down in a large puddle, apparently unconscious. Tinsley later said that he had not lost consciousness, but his leg had gone numb from a hard hit to a preexisting injury. Toronto won the game 13–0, the last time a team has been shut out in a Grey Cup game.\n\nThe ORFU, the last purely amateur union competing for the Grey Cup, withdrew from Cup competition in 1954. Although the IRFU and WIFU champions had faced each other in the Grey Cup final since 1945, the ORFU's withdrawal left the IRFU and WIFU unchallenged as Canada's top football unions. The Eskimos faced the Montreal Alouettes in three consecutive Grey Cups in the mid-1950s, winning all three. Edmonton's third title in 1956 ended in bizarre fashion: after Jackie Parker scored a touchdown late in the game that gave Edmonton a 50–27 lead, fans swarmed the field in celebration. Once officials cleared the field, they discovered that the game ball had disappeared into the crowd. Unable to find another, officials declared the game over. Edmonton was unable to attempt the conversion on their final touchdown. The game also marked the end of the amateur era as the top teams completed their transition to professional organizations.\n\nAs the 1950s wore on, the IRFU and WIFU distanced themselves from the CRU, forming the Canadian Football Council in 1956 to administer the game at the professional level. Two years later, on January 18, 1958, the CFC withdrew from the CRU and reorganized as the Canadian Football League (CFL). The new league formally assumed control of the Grey Cup from the CRU. \n\nFog Bowl (1957–1969)\n\nIn the CFL's initial seasons, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats were the league's dominant team, appearing in nine Grey Cups and winning four titles between 1957 and 1967. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers opposed Hamilton on six of those occasions, winning four titles. The two teams were involved in a series of bizarre incidents, the first occurring during the 1957 Grey Cup. Toronto-based lawyer and fan David Humphrey had talked his way past stadium security and had been allowed to watch the game from the sidelines. Ten minutes into the fourth quarter, Hamilton's Ray Bawel intercepted a pass and it appeared he would return the ball for a touchdown when Humphrey stuck his leg out and tripped Bawel as he ran up the sideline. Unsure how to handle the situation as there was no rule designed to cover it, referee Paul Dojack invented one on the spot. He placed the ball half the distance to the Winnipeg goal line from the point Bawel was tripped. The incident did not affect the final score, as Hamilton won 32–7. The league also created a new rule during the 1961 Grey Cup as it was the first in history to end regulation time in a tie: CFL Commissioner Sid Halter determined the teams would play an overtime period that consisted of two five-minute halves. That rule remained the CFL standard into the 2000s. Winnipeg scored the lone touchdown in the overtime to defeat Hamilton 21–14. \n\nWinnipeg and Hamilton met again in 1962, the 50th Grey Cup, immortalized as the \"Fog Bowl\". The game was held at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium, and began on Saturday, December 1, 1962. The fog rolled in early in the second quarter and became increasingly dense as the game progressed. By the fourth quarter, the players were unable to see the sideline markers and the fans unable to see the play. The players were unable to see the ball in the air – kick returners listened for the sound of the ball hitting the ground – and the action was largely invisible to the television audience. With nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds remaining in the game and Winnipeg holding onto a 28–27 lead, officials made the unprecedented decision to suspend play until the next day. Though the league feared that continuing fog on the morning of December 2 would force the complete abandonment of the game, it lifted in time for the contest to resume. Around 15,000 of the original 32,655 spectators watched Winnipeg win the Grey Cup without further scoring by either team. It was the first title game completed on a Sunday; the Grey Cup moved from its traditional Saturday start to Sunday in 1969. \n\nEskimos' dynasty (1970–1988)\n\nThe Montreal Alouettes' 1970 Grey Cup championship, an upset win over the favoured Calgary Stampeders, served as a morale booster for the city of Montreal, which was reeling in the aftermath of the October Crisis. The 1970s belonged to the Edmonton Eskimos, however, as they ended the decade as one of the most dominant teams in CFL history, reaching the Grey Cup nine times between 1973 and 1982. The team competed in three consecutive finals early in the decade, losing to Ottawa in 1973 and Montreal in 1974, before winning the franchise's fourth championship in 1975. The 1975 championship was held in Calgary and was the first Grey Cup played on the Canadian Prairies. A young woman infamously streaked across the field during the national anthem despite frigid temperatures well below freezing. The only time the Eskimos did not reach the Grey Cup final during this span was in 1976, when the Saskatchewan Roughriders met the Ottawa Rough Riders. Both teams would fight a see-saw battle, which was decided in the dying seconds of the game when Ottawa quarterback Tom Clements threw to Tony Gabriel, which stood out as the winning touchdown, 23-20. The 1977 Grey Cup was the first held at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, contested by the home town Alouettes and the Eskimos in front of a record crowd of 68,318. The game became known as the \"Ice Bowl\", as low temperatures froze snow on the field that had been melted by groundskeepers with salt, making the artificial turf extremely slippery. The Alouettes adapted to the field conditions by affixing staples to the soles of their shoes, improving their traction, and won the game by a 41–6 score.\n\nUpset at losing the 1977 game under poor weather conditions, the Eskimos hoped for a rematch with Montreal in 1978. Both teams reached the final game, which Edmonton won 20–13. It was the first of five consecutive championships, a streak that remains unmatched in the history of the Grey Cup. The Eskimos' dynasty dominated the league, losing a total of only six games during the three seasons from 1979 to 1981. The 1981 Grey Cup was expected to be yet another easy win for Edmonton, who posted a 14–1–1 record during the season and were considered overwhelming favourites against the 5–11 Ottawa Rough Riders. The first half did not go as Edmonton hoped, though, as Ottawa emerged with a 20–1 lead. Quarterback Warren Moon led the Eskimos back in the second half, and with the game tied at 23, Dave Cutler kicked the game-winning field goal with just three seconds remaining. \n\nEdmonton's championship run came to an end in 1983 when they failed to reach the final; the Argonauts defeated the BC Lions to win the championship. Despite Toronto's win, the CFL felt that the overall quality of play in the East Division had deteriorated compared to that of the West. In 1986, it altered the playoff format to allow the first non-playoff team in one division to take the last playoff spot, but stay in their division if they had a better record. The consequences of the new rules were felt immediately, as the league gave a playoff spot to the Stampeders having a better record than the Alouettes, and decided the East Division Final would be a 2-game-total-point Final between the Toronto Argonauts and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who finished first and second, respectively. The crossover, if necessary, would begin in 1987. In financial difficulty, the loss of the playoff spot was disastrous for Montreal, which ceased operations one year later. Reduced to eight teams, the CFL shifted Winnipeg to the East Division, making the 1988 Grey Cup between the Blue Bombers and Lions the first championship game between two western Canadian teams. \n\nCFL USA (1989–1995)\n\nThe 1989 Grey Cup is considered one of the finest games in Canadian football history: The Saskatchewan Roughriders defeated the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 43–40 in the highest scoring Grey Cup game of all-time. Saskatchewan kicker Dave Ridgway's last-second field goal won the game and made him a legend in the prairie province. \n\nDeclining interest in the CFL during the 1990s left the league in financial difficulty. Hoping to restore the league's credibility with fans, a new ownership group featuring Bruce McNall, hockey player Wayne Gretzky and actor John Candy purchased the Toronto Argonauts in 1991 and lured American college standout Rocket Ismail to Canada with a four-year, $26.2 million contract which made him the highest paid player in football history at that time. The Argonauts reached the 1991 Grey Cup and defeated the Calgary Stampeders 36–21. With 261 all-purpose yards on the game, including a then-Grey Cup record 87-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, Ismael was named Grey Cup Most Valuable Player. \n\nThe potential for the league to enter the American market was discussed in 1987 when operators of the defunct United States Football League approached the CFL about merging the two leagues. The league showed little interest at the time, but as it continued its decline, the CFL reevaluated its position. In 1992, the CFL announced that it would expand into the United States. The Sacramento Gold Miners joined the league and became the first American team eligible to win the Grey Cup. The league added three additional American teams in 1994 and two in 1995 (with one team folding), but the initiative failed in most markets, and by 1996, the CFL again operated exclusively within Canada. \n\nThe lone successful American market was in Baltimore, home to the Stallions. The team averaged over 35,000 fans per game in its inaugural season, nearly double that of Toronto or Hamilton. They matched that success on the field by becoming the first American team to play in the Grey Cup. The BC Lions kept the Grey Cup in Canada with a 26–23 victory in the 1994 final. Baltimore returned to the title game one year later and became the only American team to win the trophy by defeating the Calgary Stampeders, 37–20. The relocation of the National Football League's Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in 1996 caused the Stallions to seek a new city to avoid direct competition with an NFL team. The team moved to Montreal, forming the current incarnation of the Alouettes franchise and ending the CFL's excursion into the United States. \n\nRenaissance (1996–present)\n\nThe league approached the 1996 Grey Cup in dire financial straits: the American expansion had been a failure, the 120-year-old Ottawa Rough Riders franchise ceased operations at the conclusion of the regular season, and out of the eight remaining teams, seven had lost money and two required direct assistance from the league to stay afloat. The Edmonton Eskimos could not afford to bring their players' families to the championship game. The Toronto Star echoed fears spoken by fans and media across the country when it asked if the 1996 championship, won by Toronto over Edmonton, would be the final Grey Cup.\n\nWhile the league struggled, the Grey Cup game itself retained its popularity and remained a national institution. The strength of the contest allowed the league to endure its challenges. The CFL survived into 1997 and was buoyed by a new television deal with The Sports Network which, along with the launch of its popular Friday Night Football program, has been credited with saving the league. That year's Grey Cup, held in Edmonton and won by Toronto, drew nearly 22,000 more fans than the previous year. The CFL restored its reputation over time, enjoying new popularity into the 2000s such that it no longer had to rely on an exciting Grey Cup final to achieve stability for the next season.\n\nIn 2000, the 8–10 BC Lions made history when they defeated the Montreal Alouettes, 28–26, becoming the first team in history to win the Grey Cup with a losing record in the regular season. In the game, 25-year veteran Lui Passaglia ended the longest career in CFL history by kicking what was ultimately the game-winning field goal. The Calgary Stampeders matched the Lions' feat the next year by becoming the second 8–10 team to win the Grey Cup, defeating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers by a 27–19 score in front of 65,255 fans, the second largest crowd in the game's history. \n\nThe 2005 Grey Cup was the second overtime game in Grey Cup history, and the first one using the league's shootout overtime format (introduced in 2000). Both the Eskimos and Alouettes scored touchdowns on their first possessions, while Edmonton scored a field goal in its second and held Montreal scoreless to win the game by a 38–35 score. The game was played in the middle of a stretch of eight Grey Cup appearances by the Alouettes between 2000 and 2010. In 2009, they defeated the Roughriders in dramatic fashion: placekicker Damon Duval missed a last-second field goal attempt that appeared to give Saskatchewan the victory. However, the Riders were penalized for having too many men on the field, allowing Duval a second opportunity. His second attempt was successful, giving Montreal a 28–27 victory. \n\nThe 100th Grey Cup game was played on November 25, 2012 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto between the Toronto Argonauts and the Calgary Stampeders. The Toronto Argonauts won the Grey Cup with a score of 35–22. \n\nAs per a new title sponsorship deal with Shaw Communications announced in May 2015, the event will henceforth be known as the Grey Cup presented by Shaw.\n\nThe 104th Grey Cup game will be played at BMO Field in Toronto, which became the new home of the Argonauts beginning in the 2016 season. After being promised the 102nd Grey Cup game as an incentive to rejoin the league, the 105th Grey Cup game will be played at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa in 2017, as part of celebrations to mark 150 years of Confederation. \n\nTrophy\n\nThe trophy was commissioned in 1909 at a cost of $48. The chalice is made of sterling silver and stands 33 cm tall. Its original base was made of wood, with silver shields listing each championship year and winning team's name, beginning with the University of Toronto Varsity Blues. The players of the 1915 championship Hamilton team, apparently as revenge for Toronto's refusal to relinquish the trophy in 1912 and 1913, added a shield for the 1908 Tigers team to give the appearance that their organization had won the first Grey Cup. \n\nA 1947 fire destroyed the clubhouse of the Toronto Argonaut Rowing Club and damaged the Grey Cup. Many other trophies and artifacts in the clubhouse melted or were damaged beyond repair but the Grey Cup survived by catching onto a nail when the shelf upon which it sat collapsed. The trophy has been broken on six other occasions: in 1978, when it was dropped by celebrating Edmonton Eskimos players; in 1987, when an Eskimos' player sat on it; in 1993, when Edmonton's Blake Dermott head-butted it; in 2006, when the trophy broke away from its base as the BC Lions celebrated their victory; in 2012 when one of the handles broke off as the Toronto Argonauts celebrated; and finally in 2014 when trophy broke from its base again by the Calgary Stampeders after their win. The CFL commissioned a replica of the trophy in 2008. \n\nThe Grey Cup has been stolen on two occasions: it disappeared for three days in 1967 when it was taken from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as a prank, and in December 1969 it was stolen from the offices of the Ottawa Rough Riders at Lansdowne Park. The thieves attempted to ransom the trophy, but the CFL refused to pay and made plans to replace it with a duplicate. An anonymous phone call led to the trophy's recovery two months later in a locker at Toronto's Royal York Hotel. The thieves were never found. \n\nThe current design of the Grey Cup's base was introduced in 1987. The base stands 84 cm high and is made of black-lacquered aluminum with silver plates engraved with the names of each winning team's players and executives since 1909. The trophy, one of Canada's best known symbols, will run out of room for new additions following the 2012 Grey Cup. The league has announced that the base will be redesigned but will remain similar in shape to its current design. \n\nMembers of the winning teams are allowed time to celebrate with the trophy in their own fashion, often taking it to their home towns or tours in locations across Canada. The board of directors for the Canadian Football Hall of Fame act as the Grey Cup's trustees and control its rental for events. The trophy is accompanied by a designated representative of the Hall of Fame at all times. \n\nGrey Cup festival\n\nEach year, the host city organizes numerous events as part of the annual Grey Cup festival. Gala concerts, parties, and fan festivals are held in the days leading up to the championship game. The CFL hands out its annual awards during the festival, and an annual Grey Cup parade is held. Historically, the festival also featured the \"Miss Grey Cup\" beauty pageant. The game itself includes a halftime show, often featuring performances by well-known Canadian musical acts such as Nickelback, who performed at the 2011 game. \n\nNicknamed Canada's \"Grand National Drunk\", the Grey Cup party originated in the 1948 championship when hundreds of Calgary Stampeders fans descended on Toronto for their team's first appearance in the game. Bringing chuckwagons and horses, the fans organized a pancake breakfast – a staple of the Calgary Stampede – for bewildered Torontonians. According to historian Hugh Dempsey, \"The Grey Cup was just another game until Calgary went down to Toronto with chuckwagons and everything and turned it into an event.\" The Stampeders won the game on the strength of the \"sleeper play\", a touchdown scored by Norm Hill after he hid himself from the Ottawa defence by lying down on the sidelines, as if asleep. He received the pass from quarterback Keith Spaith while still on his back. The victory completed the only undefeated season in the history of Canadian professional football. The boisterous celebrations that followed the win gave rise to the legend of Calgary alderman and future mayor Don Mackay riding his horse into the lobby of the Royal York Hotel. This event was repeated in the 2012 Grey Cup game in Toronto to much of the delight of the fans of both teams. The Calgary Grey Cup Committee maintains the tradition of organizing a pancake breakfast at each year's championship. \n\nA 2012 survey found that Canadians consider the Grey Cup to be the most important annual event to attend. Fans of all teams converge at the game venue, including some who have attended 60 or more Grey Cups. The influx of people from across the country is estimated to have an economic impact of over $120 million for the region hosting the championship game.\n\nChampions\n\nThe Toronto Argonauts have won the most Grey Cup championships (16), followed by the Edmonton Eskimos (14) and Winnipeg Blue Bombers (10). The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have made the most Grey Cup appearances (24). Since the Canadian Football League began in 1958, The Eskimos have won the most Grey Cup Championships (11) and have made the most Grey Cup appearances (19). The Saskatchewan Roughriders have the most losses in Grey Cup play (15), including five consecutive losses between 1928 and 1932. The defending champions are the Edmonton Eskimos, who won the 103rd Grey Cup in 2015. Six teams in CFL history have won the Grey Cup at home, the 2013 Saskatchewan Roughriders, the 2012 Toronto Argonauts, the 2011 BC Lions, the 1994 BC Lions, the 1977 Montreal Alouettes, and 1972 Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The Blue Bombers were the losing team in 2011, extending Winnipeg's championship drought to 21 seasons, the longest active streak in the CFL. \n\nIndividually, three players have won seven Grey Cups: Jack Wedley (Toronto, Montreal Navy), Bill Stevenson (Edmonton) and Hank Ilesic (Edmonton, Toronto). Ilesic is one of seven players to appear in nine Grey Cup games. Among quarterbacks, Anthony Calvillo appeared in a record eight games, winning three. Five coaches share the record for Grey Cup championships at five: Wally Buono (the CFL's all-time leader in wins), Don Matthews, Frank Clair, Hugh Campbell and Lew Hayman. \n\nTwo individual awards are handed out following each game. The Most Valuable Player award is given to the top performer in the Grey Cup. Between 1974 and 1990, the league named both offensive and defensive most valuable players. Three people have been named MVP on three occasions: Doug Flutie, Damon Allen and Sonny Wade. The Dick Suderman Trophy is given to the most valuable Canadian. It is named in honour of Dick Suderman, who died of a brain hemorrhage in 1972 while an active player for the Edmonton Eskimos. Dave Sapunjis and Don Sweet have each won the award three times.\n\nHost cities\n\nThe city of Toronto has hosted the most Grey Cup games with 47, including 30 of the first 45 games played. The first game was held on December 4, 1909, at Rosedale Field. Hamilton and Ottawa hosted several early games while Sarnia and Kingston each hosted one as the game's early years were dominated by teams in southern Ontario. The Grey Cup game and champion first left the province in 1931, when Montreal hosted the event and the Montreal AAA Winged Wheelers won the 19th Grey Cup. The game did not leave central Canada until 1955 when the 43rd Grey Cup was played in Vancouver. That contest achieved what was at the time an all-time Canadian football attendance record of 39,491. It was the first of 16 games hosted by the British Columbia city, second among all host cities.\n\nVancouver's attendance record stood until 1976, when 53,389 fans attended the 64th Grey Cup in Toronto. The four highest attended Grey Cup games have been held at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, with an all-time record of 68,318 set in 1977. The 100th Grey Cup was hosted by Toronto in 2012. Regina hosted its third championship game in 2013, with a win by the hometown Saskatchewan Roughriders 45-23 over the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Vancouver hosted the 102nd Grey Cup in 2014. \n\nBroadcasting\n\nThe Grey Cup game was first broadcast on radio in 1928. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) carried radio coverage of the game for 51 years until 1986, when a network of private broadcasters took over. \n\nCanadian television was in its infancy in 1952 when Toronto's CBLT paid $7,500 for the rights to carry the first televised broadcast of a Grey Cup game. Within two years, it was estimated that 80 percent of the nation's 900,000 television sets were tuned into the game, even though the first national telecast did not occur until 1957. The Grey Cup continues to be one of Canada's most-viewed sporting events. The 1962 \"Fog Bowl\" game was the first Grey Cup to be broadcast on American television.\n\nThe CBC carried the first national telecasts exclusively, but the CTV Television Network purchased rights to the 1962 game. The move sparked concern across Canada as the newly formed network was not yet available in many parts of the country. The debate over whether an \"event of national interest\" should be broadcast by the publicly funded CBC or private broadcasters reached the floor of Parliament as members of the federal government weighed in. It was decided that both networks would carry the game. The two networks continued with the simulcast arrangement until 1986 when CTV ceased its coverage. \n\nThe CFL operated the Canadian Football Network, a coalition of private broadcasters that shared league games and the Grey Cup with the CBC, from 1987 to 1990. CBC then broadcast the championship game alone until 2007, when the CFL sold exclusive rights to all games, including the Grey Cup, to specialty channel The Sports Network (TSN) and its French-language sister station Réseau des sports (RDS), a deal that was criticized by Canadians without cable access. Nonetheless, TSN and RDS achieved a record audience for the 2009 Grey Cup, with 6.1 million Canadians watching the game in its entirety, and over 14 million viewing at least part of the contest. Viewership has declined in recent years, and in 2014, about 33%, of Canadians watched at least some of the game, peaking at 5.1 million viewers in the fourth quarter." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "George_W._Bush.txt", "Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States.txt" ], "title": [ "George W. Bush", "Supreme Court of the United States" ], "wiki_context": [ "George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. The eldest son of Barbara and George H. W. Bush, he was born in New Haven, Connecticut. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, he worked in oil businesses. He married Laura Welch in 1977 and ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives shortly thereafter. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election. He was elected president in 2000 after a close and controversial election against Al Gore, becoming the fourth president to be elected while receiving fewer popular votes nationwide than an opponent. He is the second president to have been the son of a former president, the first having been John Quincy Adams. He is also the brother of Jeb Bush, a former Governor of Florida and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 presidential election.\n\nEight months into Bush's first term as president, the September 11 terrorist attacks occurred. Bush responded with what became known as the Bush Doctrine: launching a \"War on Terror\", an international military campaign which included the war in Afghanistan, in 2001, and the Iraq War, in 2003. He also promoted policies on the economy, health care, education, social security reform, and amending the Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage. He signed into law broad tax cuts, the Patriot Act, the No Child Left Behind Act, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, Medicare prescription drug benefits for seniors, and funding for the AIDS relief program known as PEPFAR. His tenure saw national debates on immigration, Social Security, electronic surveillance, and torture.\n\nBush successfully ran for re-election against Democratic Senator John Kerry in 2004, in another relatively close election. After his re-election, Bush received increasingly heated criticism from across the political spectrum Baker, Kevin, for his handling of the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, and other challenges. Amid this criticism, the Democratic Party regained control of Congress in the 2006 elections. In December 2007, the United States entered its longest post-World War II recession, often referred to as the \"Great Recession\", prompting the Bush administration to obtain congressional passage of multiple economic programs intended to preserve the country's financial system. Nationally, Bush was both one of the most popular and unpopular presidents in history, having received the highest recorded presidential approval ratings in the wake of the September 11 attacks, as well as one of the lowest approval ratings during the 2008 financial crisis. He was met with public protests during visits to the United Kingdom. \n\nBush left office in 2009, returning to Texas where he purchased a home in suburban Dallas. He is currently a public speaker, and has written a memoir, Decision Points. His presidential library was opened in 2013. His presidency has been ranked among the worst in surveys of presidential scholars published in the late 2000s and 2010s. \n\nChildhood to mid-life\n\nEarly life and education\n\nGeorge Walker Bush was born on July 6, 1946, at Grace-New Haven Hospital (now Yale–New Haven Hospital) in New Haven, Connecticut, as the first child of George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Pierce. He was raised in Midland and Houston, Texas, with four siblings, Jeb, Neil, Marvin and Dorothy. Another younger sister, Robin, died from leukemia at the age of three in 1953. His grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U.S. Senator from Connecticut. His father, George H.W. Bush, was Ronald Reagan's Vice President from 1981 to 1989 and the 41st U.S. President from 1989 to 1993. Bush has English and some German ancestry, along with more distant Dutch, Welsh, Irish, French, and Scottish roots. \n\nBush attended public schools in Midland, Texas, until the family moved to Houston after he had completed seventh grade. He then went to The Kinkaid School, a prep school in Houston for two years. \n\nBush attended high school at the Phillips Academy, a boarding school (then all-male) in Andover, Massachusetts, where he played baseball, and during his senior year, was the head cheerleader. He attended Yale University from 1964 to 1968, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History. During this time, he was a cheerleader and a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon, serving as the president of the fraternity during his senior year. Bush became a member of the Skull and Bones society as a senior. Bush was a rugby union player and was on Yale's 1st XV. He characterized himself as an average student. His GPA during his first three years at Yale was 77, and he had a similar average under a nonnumeric rating system in his final year. \n\nBeginning in the fall of 1973, Bush attended the Harvard Business School, where he earned an M.B.A. degree. He is the only U.S. President to have earned an M.B.A. \n\nTexas Air National Guard\n\nIn May 1968, Bush was commissioned into the Texas Air National Guard. After two years of active-duty service while training, he was assigned to Houston, flying Convair F-102s with the 147th Reconnaissance Wing out of the Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base. Critics, including former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, have alleged that Bush was favorably treated due to his father's political standing as a member of the House of Representatives, citing his selection as a pilot despite his low pilot aptitude test scores and his irregular attendance. In June 2005, the United States Department of Defense released all the records of Bush's Texas Air National Guard service, which remain in its official archives.\n\nIn late 1972 and early 1973, he drilled with the 187th Fighter Wing of the Alabama Air National Guard, having moved to Montgomery, Alabama, to work on the unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Winton M. Blount. In 1972, Bush was suspended from flying for failure to take a scheduled physical exam. He was honorably discharged from the Air Force Reserve on November 21, 1974. \n\nMarriage, family, and personal life\n\nAt a backyard barbecue in 1977, friends introduced him to Laura Lane Welch, a school teacher and librarian. Bush proposed to her after a three-month courtship, and they married on November 5 of that year. The couple settled in Midland, Texas. Bush left his family's Episcopal Church to join his wife's United Methodist Church. On November 25, 1981, Laura Bush gave birth to fraternal twin daughters, Barbara Pierce Bush and Jenna Welch Bush; they graduated from high school in 2000 and from Yale University and the University of Texas at Austin, respectively, in 2004.\n\nPrior to his marriage, Bush had multiple episodes of alcohol abuse. In one instance, on September 4, 1976, he was arrested near his family's summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine, for driving under the influence of alcohol. He pleaded guilty, was fined $150, and had his Maine driver's license briefly suspended.\nBush says his wife has had a stabilizing effect on his life, and attributes to her influence his 1986 decision to give up alcohol. While Governor of Texas, Bush said of his wife, \"I saw an elegant, beautiful woman who turned out not only to be elegant and beautiful, but very smart and willing to put up with my rough edges, and I must confess has smoothed them off over time.\"\n\nBush has been an avid reader throughout his adult life, preferring biographies and histories. During his time as president, Bush read the Bible daily. He also read 14 Lincoln biographies and, during the last three years of his presidency, he reportedly read 186 books. Walt Harrington, a journalist, recalls seeing \"books by John Fowles, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, and Gore Vidal lying about, as well as biographies of Willa Cather and Queen Victoria\" in his home when Bush was a Texas oilman. Other hobbies include cigar smoking and golf. Since leaving the White House, Bush has also taken up oil painting. \n\nHis first granddaughter, Margaret Laura \"Mila\" Hager, was born to his daughter Jenna Bush on April 14, 2013. She is named after her two grandmothers. \n\nEarly career\n\nIn 1978, Bush ran for the House of Representatives from Texas's 19th congressional district. His opponent, Kent Hance, portrayed him as out of touch with rural Texans. Bush lost the election by 6,000 votes (6 percent) of the 103,000 votes cast. He returned to the oil industry and began a series of small, independent oil exploration companies. He created Arbusto Energy, and later changed the name to Bush Exploration. In 1984, his company merged with the larger Spectrum 7, and Bush became chairman. The company was hurt by decreased oil prices, and it folded into HKN, Inc. Bush served on the board of directors for HKN. Questions of possible insider trading involving HKN arose, but the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) investigation concluded that the information Bush had at the time of his stock sale was not sufficient to constitute insider trading. \n\nBush moved his family to Washington, D.C. in 1988 to work on his father's campaign for the U.S. presidency. He served as a campaign adviser and liaison to the media; he assisted his father by campaigning across the country. Returning to Texas after the successful campaign, he purchased a share in the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in April 1989, where he served as managing general partner for five years. He actively led the team's projects and regularly attended its games, often choosing to sit in the open stands with fans. Bush's sale of his shares in the Rangers in 1998 brought him over $15 million from his initial $800,000 investment. \n\nIn December 1991, Bush was one of seven people named by his father to run his father's 1992 Presidential re-election campaign as \"campaign advisor\". The previous month, his father asked him to tell White House chief of staff John H. Sununu that he should resign. \n\nGovernor of Texas (1995–2000)\n\nAs Bush's brother, Jeb, sought the governorship of Florida, Bush declared his candidacy for the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election. His campaign focused on four themes: welfare reform, tort reform, crime reduction, and education improvement. Bush's campaign advisers were Karen Hughes, Joe Allbaugh, and Karl Rove. \n\nAfter easily winning the Republican primary, Bush faced popular Democratic incumbent Governor Ann Richards. In the course of the campaign, Bush pledged to sign a bill allowing Texans to obtain permits to carry concealed weapons. Richards had vetoed the bill, but Bush signed it after he became governor. According to The Atlantic Monthly, the race \"featured a rumor that she was a lesbian, along with a rare instance of such a tactic's making it into the public record – when a regional chairman of the Bush campaign allowed himself, perhaps inadvertently, to be quoted criticizing Richards for 'appointing avowed homosexual activists' to state jobs\". The Atlantic, and others, connected the lesbian rumor to Karl Rove, but Rove denied being involved. Bush won the general election with 53.5 percent against Richards' 45.9 percent.;\n\nBush used a budget surplus to push through Texas's largest tax-cut, $2 billion. He extended government funding for organizations providing education of the dangers of alcohol and drug use and abuse, and helping to reduce domestic violence. Critics contended that during his tenure, Texas ranked near the bottom in environmental evaluations. Supporters pointed to his efforts to raise the salaries of teachers and improve educational test scores.\n\nIn 1999, Bush signed a state law obliging electric retailers to buy a certain amount of energy from renewable sources (RPS),[http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess\n76R&BillSB7 SB7] [http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/76R/billtext/html/SB00007I.htm Law text]Texas Legislature Online, May 1999. Retrieved September 24, 2011. which helped Texas eventually become the leading producer of wind powered electricity in the U.S. \n\nIn 1998, Bush won re-election with a record 69 percent of the vote. He became the first governor in Texas history to be elected to two consecutive four-year terms. For most of Texas history, governors served two-year terms; a constitutional amendment extended those terms to four years starting in 1975. In his second term, Bush promoted faith-based organizations and enjoyed high approval ratings. He proclaimed June 10, 2000 to be Jesus Day in Texas, a day on which he \"urge[d] all Texans to answer the call to serve those in need\". \n\nThroughout Bush's first term, national attention focused on him as a potential future presidential candidate. Following his re-election, speculation soared. Within a year, he decided to seek the 2000 Republican presidential nomination.\n\nPresidential campaigns\n\n2000 presidential candidacy\n\nPrimary\n\nIn June 1999, while Governor of Texas, Bush announced his candidacy for President of the United States. With no incumbent running, Bush entered a large field of candidates for the Republican Party presidential nomination consisting of John McCain, Alan Keyes, Steve Forbes, Gary Bauer, Orrin Hatch, Elizabeth Dole, Dan Quayle, Pat Buchanan, Lamar Alexander, John Kasich, and Bob Smith.\n\nBush portrayed himself as a compassionate conservative, implying he was more centrist than other Republicans. He campaigned on a platform that included bringing integrity and honor back to the White House, increasing the size of the United States Armed Forces, cutting taxes, improving education, and aiding minorities. By early 2000, the race had centered on Bush and McCain.\n\nBush won the Iowa caucuses, but, although he was heavily favored to win the New Hampshire primary, he trailed McCain by 19 percent and lost that primary. Despite this, Bush regained momentum and, according to political observers, effectively became the front runner after the South Carolina primary, which according to The Boston Globe made history for his campaign's negativity; The New York Times described it as a smear campaign. \n\nGeneral election\n\nOn July 25, 2000, Bush surprised some observers by asking Dick Cheney, a former White House Chief of Staff, U.S. Representative, and Secretary of Defense, to be his running mate. Cheney was then serving as head of Bush's Vice-Presidential search committee. Soon after, Bush and Cheney were officially nominated by the Republican Party at the 2000 Republican National Convention.\n\nBush continued to campaign across the country and touted his record as Governor of Texas. Bush's campaign criticized his Democratic opponent, incumbent Vice President Al Gore, over gun control and taxation. \n\nWhen the election returns came in on November 7, Bush won 29 states, including Florida. The closeness of the Florida outcome led to a recount. The initial recount also went to Bush, but the outcome was tied up in courts for a month until reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. On December 9, in the controversial Bush v. Gore ruling, the Court reversed a Florida Supreme Court decision ordering a third count, and stopped an ordered statewide hand recount based on the argument that the use of different standards among Florida's counties violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The machine recount showed that Bush had won the Florida vote by a margin of 537 votes out of six million cast. Although he received 543,895 fewer individual votes than Gore nationwide, Bush won the election, receiving 271 electoral votes to Gore's 266 (Gore's statewide victories had electoral votes tallying 267; however, one of Gore's pledged electors abstained, rendering the official tally at 266). Bush was the first person to win an American presidential election with fewer national votes than another candidate since Benjamin Harrison in 1888.\n\n2004 presidential candidacy\n\nIn 2004, Bush commanded broad support in the Republican Party and did not encounter a primary challenge. He appointed Ken Mehlman as campaign manager, with a political strategy devised by Karl Rove. Bush and the Republican platform included a strong commitment to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, support for the USA PATRIOT Act, a renewed shift in policy for constitutional amendments banning abortion and same-sex marriage, reforming Social Security to create private investment accounts, creation of an ownership society, and opposing mandatory carbon emissions controls. Bush also called for the implementation of a guest worker program for immigrants, which was criticized by conservatives. \n\nThe Bush campaign advertised across the U.S. against Democratic candidates, including Bush's emerging opponent, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. Kerry and other Democrats attacked Bush on the Iraq War, and accused him of failing to stimulate the economy and job growth. The Bush campaign portrayed Kerry as a staunch liberal who would raise taxes and increase the size of government. The Bush campaign continuously criticized Kerry's seemingly contradictory statements on the war in Iraq, and argued that Kerry lacked the decisiveness and vision necessary for success in the War on Terror.\n\nIn the election, Bush carried 31 of 50 states, receiving a total of 286 electoral votes. He won an absolute majority of the popular vote (50.7 percent to his opponent's 48.3 percent). The previous President to win an absolute majority of the popular vote was Bush's father in the 1988 election. Additionally, it was the first time since Herbert Hoover's election in 1928 that a Republican president was elected alongside re-elected Republican majorities in both Houses of Congress.\n\nPresidency (2001–09)\n\nThough Bush originally outlined an ambitious domestic agenda, his priorities were significantly altered following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Wars were waged in Afghanistan and Iraq with significant domestic debates regarding immigration, healthcare, Social Security, economic policy, and treatment of terrorist detainees. Over an eight-year period, Bush's once-high approval ratings steadily declined, while his disapproval numbers increased significantly. In 2007, the United States entered the longest post-World War II recession. \n\nDomestic policy\n\nEconomic policy\n\nBush took office during a period of economic recession in the wake of the bursting of the Dot-com bubble. The terrorist attacks also impacted the economy. The Bush administration increased federal government spending from $1.789 trillion to $2.983 trillion (60 percent) while revenues increased from $2.025 trillion to $2.524 trillion (from 2000 to 2008). Individual income tax revenues increased by 14 percent, corporate tax revenues by 50 percent, customs and duties by 40 percent. Discretionary defense spending was increased by 107 percent, discretionary domestic spending by 62 percent, Medicare spending by 131 percent, social security by 51 percent, and income security spending by 130 percent. Cyclically adjusted, revenues rose by 35 percent and spending by 65 percent. \n\nThe increase in spending was more than under any predecessor since Lyndon B. Johnson. The number of economic regulation governmental workers increased by 91,196.\n\nThe surplus in fiscal year 2000 was $237 billion—the third consecutive surplus and the largest surplus ever.Office of Management! and Budget; National Economic Council, September 27, 2000 In 2001, Bush's budget estimated that there would be a $5.6 trillion surplus over the next ten years. Facing congressional opposition, Bush held townhall style meetings across the U.S. in order to increase public support for his plan for a $1.35 trillion tax cut program—one of the largest tax cuts in U.S. history. Bush argued that unspent government funds should be returned to taxpayers, saying \"the surplus is not the government's money. The surplus is the people's money.\" Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned of a recession and Bush stated that a tax cut would stimulate the economy and create jobs. Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill, opposed some of the tax cuts on the basis that they would contribute to budget deficits and undermine Social Security. O'Neill disputes the claim, made in Bush's book Decision Points, that he never openly disagreed with him on planned tax cuts. By 2003, the economy showed signs of improvement, though job growth remained stagnant. Another tax cut program was passed that year.\n\nDuring the 2001 to 2008 years, GDP grew at an average annual rate of 2.125 percent, less than for past business cycles. \n\nBush entered office with the Dow Jones Industrial Average at 10,587, and the average peaked in October 2007 at over 14,000. When Bush left office, the average was at 7,949, one of the lowest levels of his presidency. \n\nUnemployment originally rose from 4.2 percent in January 2001 to 6.3 percent in June 2003, but subsequently dropped to 4.5 percent as of July 2007. Adjusted for inflation, median household income dropped by $1,175 between 2000 and 2007, while Professor Ken Homa of Georgetown University has noted that \"Median real after-tax household income went up 2%\". The poverty rate increased from 11.3 percent in 2000 to 12.3 percent in 2006 after peaking at 12.7 percent in 2004. By October 2008, due to increases in spending, the national debt had risen to $11.3 trillion, an increase of over 100 percent from 2000 when the debt was only $5.6 trillion. Most debt was accumulated as a result of what became known as the \"Bush tax cuts\" and increased national security spending. In March 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama said when he voted against raising the debt ceiling: \"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.\" By the end of Bush's presidency, unemployment climbed to 7.2 percent. \n\nIn December 2007, the United States entered the longest post–World War II recession, which included a housing market correction, a subprime mortgage crisis, soaring oil prices, and a declining dollar value. In February, 63,000 jobs were lost, a five-year record. To aid with the situation, Bush signed a $170 billion economic stimulus package which was intended to improve the economic situation by sending tax rebate checks to many Americans and providing tax breaks for struggling businesses. The Bush administration pushed for significantly increased regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2003, and after two years, the regulations passed the House but died in the Senate. Many Republican senators, as well as influential members of the Bush Administration, feared that the agency created by these regulations would merely be mimicking the private sector's risky practices. In September 2008, the crisis became much more serious beginning with the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac followed by the collapse of Lehman Brothers and a federal bailout of American International Group for $85 billion. \n\nMany economists and world governments determined that the situation became the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Additional regulation over the housing market would have been beneficial, according to former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Bush, meanwhile, proposed a financial rescue plan to buy back a large portion of the U.S. mortgage market. Vince Reinhardt, a former Federal Reserve economist now at the American Enterprise Institute, said \"it would have helped for the Bush administration to empower the folks at Treasury and the Federal Reserve and the comptroller of the currency and the FDIC to look at these issues more closely\", and additionally, that it would have helped \"for Congress to have held hearings\".\n\nIn November 2008, over 500,000 jobs were lost, which marked the largest loss of jobs in the United States in 34 years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in the last four months of 2008, 1.9 million jobs were lost. By the end of 2008, the U.S. had lost a total of 2.6 million jobs. \n\nEducation and health\n\nBush undertook a number of educational priorities, such as increasing the funding for the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health in his first years of office, and creating education programs to strengthen the grounding in science and mathematics for American high school students. Funding for the NIH was cut in 2006, the first such cut in 36 years, due to rising inflation. \n\nOne of the administration's early major initiatives was the No Child Left Behind Act, which aimed to measure and close the gap between rich and poor student performance, provide options to parents with students in low-performing schools, and target more federal funding to low-income schools. This landmark education initiative passed with broad bipartisan support, including that of Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. It was signed into law by Bush in early 2002. Many contend that the initiative has been successful, as cited by the fact that students in the U.S. have performed significantly better on state reading and math tests since Bush signed \"No Child Left Behind\" into law. Critics argue that it is underfunded and that NCLBA's focus on \"high-stakes testing\" and quantitative outcomes is counterproductive. \n\nAfter being re-elected, Bush signed into law a Medicare drug benefit program that, according to Jan Crawford, resulted in \"the greatest expansion in America's welfare state in forty years;\" the bill's costs approached $7 trillion. In 2007, Bush opposed and vetoed State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) legislation, which was added by the Democrats onto a war funding bill and passed by Congress. The SCHIP legislation would have significantly expanded federally funded health care benefits and plans to children of some low-income families from about six million to ten million children. It was to be funded by an increase in the cigarette tax. Bush viewed the legislation as a move toward socialized health care, and asserted that the program could benefit families making as much as $83,000 per year who did not need the help. \n\nSocial services and social security\n\nFollowing Republican efforts to pass the Medicare Act of 2003, Bush signed the bill, which included major changes to the Medicare program by providing beneficiaries with some assistance in paying for prescription drugs, while relying on private insurance for the delivery of benefits. The retired persons lobby group AARP worked with the Bush Administration on the program and gave their endorsement. Bush said the law, estimated to cost $400 billion over the first ten years, would give the elderly \"better choices and more control over their health care\". \n\nBush began his second term by outlining a major initiative to reform Social Security, which was facing record deficit projections beginning in 2005. Bush made it the centerpiece of his domestic agenda despite opposition from some in the U.S. Congress. In his 2005 State of the Union Address, Bush discussed the potential impending bankruptcy of the program and outlined his new program, which included partial privatization of the system, personal Social Security accounts, and options to permit Americans to divert a portion of their Social Security tax (FICA) into secured investments. Democrats opposed the proposal to partially privatize the system.\n\nBush embarked on a 60-day national tour, campaigning for his initiative in media events known as \"Conversations on Social Security\", in an attempt to gain public support. Nevertheless, public support for the proposal declined and the House Republican leadership decided not to put Social Security reform on the priority list for the remainder of their 2005 legislative agenda. The proposal's legislative prospects were further diminished by the political fallout from Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005. After the Democrats gained control of both houses of Congress as a result of the 2006 midterm elections, there was no prospect of further congressional action on the Bush proposal for the remainder of his term in office.\n\nEnvironmental policies\n\nUpon taking office in 2001, Bush stated his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol, an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which seeks to impose mandatory targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, citing that the treaty exempted 80 percent of the world's population and would have cost tens of billions of dollars per year. He also cited that the Senate had voted 95–0 in 1997 on a resolution expressing its disapproval of the protocol.\n\nIn May 2001, Bush signed an executive order to create an inter-agency task force to streamline energy projects,Bush, George W. [http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/oeprod/DocumentsandMedia/Executive_Order_13212.pdf Executive Order 13212 – Actions To Expedite Energy-Related Projects] United States Department of Energy, May 18, 2001. [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid\n61397#axzz1YsGHfHdk Amendment]. Retrieved September 24, 2011. and later signed two other executive orders to tackle environmental issues. \n\nIn 2002, Bush announced the Clear Skies Act of 2003, aimed at amending the Clean Air Act to reduce air pollution through the use of emissions trading programs. Many experts argued that this legislation would have weakened the original legislation by allowing higher emission rates of pollutants than were previously legal. The initiative was introduced to Congress, but failed to make it out of committee.\n\nLater in 2006, Bush declared the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a national monument, creating the largest marine reserve to date. The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument comprises 84 million acres (340,000 km2) and is home to 7,000 species of fish, birds, and other marine animals, many of which are specific to only those islands. The move was hailed by conservationists for \"its foresight and leadership in protecting this incredible area\". \n\nBush has said that he believes that global warming is real and has noted that it is a serious problem, but he asserted there is a \"debate over whether it's man-made or naturally caused\". The Bush Administration's stance on global warming remained controversial in the scientific and environmental communities. Critics have alleged that the administration misinformed the public and did not do enough to reduce carbon emissions and deter global warming. \n\nEnergy policies\n\nIn his 2006 State of the Union Address, Bush declared, \"America is addicted to oil\" and announced his Advanced Energy Initiative to increase energy development research. \n\nIn his 2007 State of the Union Address, Bush renewed his pledge to work toward diminished reliance on foreign oil by reducing fossil fuel consumption and increasing alternative fuel production. Amid high gasoline prices in 2008, Bush lifted a ban on offshore drilling. However, the move was largely symbolic as there is still a federal law banning offshore drilling. Bush said, \"This means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil reserves is action from the U.S. Congress.\" Bush had said in June 2008, \"In the long run, the solution is to reduce demand for oil by promoting alternative energy technologies. My administration has worked with Congress to invest in gas-saving technologies like advanced batteries and hydrogen fuel cells... In the short run, the American economy will continue to rely largely on oil. And that means we need to increase supply, especially here at home. So my administration has repeatedly called on Congress to expand domestic oil production.\" \n\nIn his 2008 State of the Union Address, Bush announced that the U.S. would commit $2 billion over the next three years to a new international fund to promote clean energy technologies and fight climate change, saying, \"Along with contributions from other countries, this fund will increase and accelerate the deployment of all forms of cleaner, more efficient technologies in developing nations like India and China, and help leverage substantial private-sector capital by making clean energy projects more financially attractive.\" He also announced plans to reaffirm the United States' commitment to work with major economies, and, through the UN, to complete an international agreement that will slow, stop, and eventually reverse the growth of greenhouse gases; he stated, \"This agreement will be effective only if it includes commitments by every major economy and gives none a free ride.\" \n\nStem cell research and first veto\n\nFederal funding for medical research involving the creation or destruction of human embryos through the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health has been forbidden by law since the passage in 1995 of the Dickey-Wicker Amendment by Congress and the signature of President Bill Clinton. Bush has said that he supports adult stem cell research and has supported federal legislation that finances adult stem cell research. However, Bush did not support embryonic stem cell research. On August 9, 2001, Bush signed an executive order lifting the ban on federal funding for the 71 existing \"lines\" of stem cells, but the ability of these existing lines to provide an adequate medium for testing has been questioned. Testing can be done on only 12 of the original lines, and all approved lines have been cultured in contact with mouse cells, which creates safety issues that complicate development and approval of therapies from these lines. On July 19, 2006, Bush used his veto power for the first time in his presidency to veto the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. The bill would have repealed the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, thereby permitting federal money to be used for research where stem cells are derived from the destruction of an embryo. \n\nGenetic Nondiscrimination\n\nOn May 21, 2008 President George W. Bush signed into law the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). The bill aims to protect Americans against discrimination based on their genetic information when it comes to health insurance and employment. The issue had been debated for 13 years before becoming law. It is designed to protect citizens while not hindering genetic research.\n\nImmigration\n\nNearly 8 million immigrants came to the United States from 2000 to 2005, more than in any other five-year period in the nation's history. Almost half entered illegally. In 2006, Bush urged Congress to allow more than 12 million illegal immigrants to work in the United States with the creation of a \"temporary guest-worker program\". Bush also urged Congress to provide additional funds for border security and committed to deploying 6,000 National Guard troops to the Mexico–United States border. From May to June 2007, Bush strongly supported the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, which was written by a bipartisan group of Senators with the active participation of the Bush administration. The bill envisioned a legalization program for illegal immigrants, with an eventual path to citizenship; establishing a guest worker program; a series of border and work site enforcement measures; a reform of the green card application process and the introduction of a point-based \"merit\" system for green cards; elimination of \"chain migration\" and of the Diversity Immigrant Visa; and other measures. Bush argued that the lack of legal status denies the protections of U.S. laws to millions of people who face dangers of poverty and exploitation, and penalizes employers despite a demand for immigrant labor. Bush contended that the proposed bill did not amount to amnesty. \n\nA heated public debate followed, which resulted in a substantial rift within the Republican Party, most conservatives opposed it because of its legalization or amnesty provisions. The bill was eventually defeated in the Senate on June 28, 2007, when a cloture motion failed on a 46–53 vote. Bush expressed disappointment upon the defeat of one of his signature domestic initiatives. The Bush administration later proposed a series of immigration enforcement measures that do not require a change in law. \n\nOn September 19, 2010, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Bush offered to accept 100,000 Palestinian refugees as American citizens if a permanent settlement had been reached between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. \n\nHurricane Katrina\n\nHurricane Katrina, one of the most damaging natural disasters in U.S. history, struck early in Bush's second term. Katrina formed in late August during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and devastated much of the north-central Gulf Coast of the United States, particularly New Orleans. \n\nBush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana on August 27, and in Mississippi and Alabama the following day; he authorized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to manage the disaster, but his announcement failed to spur these agencies to action. The eye of the hurricane made landfall on August 29, and New Orleans began to flood due to levee breaches; later that day, Bush declared that a major disaster existed in Louisiana, officially authorizing FEMA to start using federal funds to assist in the recovery effort.\n\nOn August 30, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff declared it \"an incident of national significance\", triggering the first use of the newly created National Response Plan. Three days later, on September 2, National Guard troops first entered the city of New Orleans. The same day, Bush toured parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and declared that the success of the recovery effort up to that point was \"not enough\".\n\nAs the disaster in New Orleans intensified, critics charged that Bush was misrepresenting his administration's role in what they saw as a flawed response. Leaders attacked Bush for having appointed apparently incompetent leaders to positions of power at FEMA, notably Michael D. Brown; it was also argued that the federal response was limited as a result of the Iraq War and Bush himself did not act upon warnings of floods. Bush responded to mounting criticism by accepting full responsibility for the federal government's failures in its handling of the emergency. It has been argued that with Katrina, Bush passed a political tipping point from which he would not recover. \n\nMidterm dismissal of U.S. attorneys\n\nDuring Bush's second term, a controversy arose over the Justice Department's midterm dismissal of seven United States Attorneys. The White House maintained that the U.S. attorneys were fired for poor performance. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales later resigned over the issue, along with other senior members of the Justice Department. The House Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas for advisers Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten to testify regarding this matter, but Bush directed Miers and Bolten to not comply with those subpoenas, invoking his right of executive privilege. Bush maintained that all of his advisers were protected under a broad executive privilege protection to receive candid advice. The Justice Department determined that the President's order was legal. \n\nAlthough Congressional investigations focused on whether the Justice Department and the White House were using the U.S. Attorney positions for political advantage, no official findings have been released. On March 10, 2008, the Congress filed a federal lawsuit to enforce their issued subpoenas. On July 31, 2008, a United States district court judge ruled that Bush's top advisers were not immune from Congressional subpoenas. \n\nIn all, twelve Justice Department officials resigned rather than testify under oath before Congress. They included Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his chief of staff Kyle Sampson, Gonzales' liaison to the White House Monica Goodling, aide to the president Karl Rove and his senior aide Sara Taylor. In addition, legal counsel to the president Harriet Miers and deputy chief of staff to the president Joshua Bolten were both found in contempt of Congress.\n\nIn 2010, the Justice Department investigator concluded that though political considerations did play a part in as many as four of the attorney firings, the firings were \"inappropriately political\", but not criminal. According to the prosecutors, there was insufficient evidence to pursue prosecution for any criminal offense. \n\nForeign policy\n\nIn July 2001, Bush visited Pope John Paul II at Castel Gandolfo. \n\nDuring his Presidential campaign, Bush's foreign policy platform included support for stronger economic and political relationship with Latin America, especially Mexico, and a reduction of involvement in \"nation-building\" and other small-scale military engagements. The administration pursued a national missile defense. Bush was an advocate of China's entry into the World Trade Organization. \n\nIn his 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush referred to an axis of evil including Iraq, Iran and North Korea. After the September 11 attacks on New York, Bush launched the War on Terror, in which the United States military and a small international coalition invaded Afghanistan. In 2003, Bush then launched the invasion of Iraq, searching for Weapons of Mass Destruction, which he described as being part of the War on Terrorism. Those invasions led to the toppling of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the removal of Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.\n\nBush began his second term with an emphasis on improving strained relations with European nations. He appointed long-time adviser Karen Hughes to oversee a global public relations campaign. Bush lauded the pro-democracy struggles in Georgia and Ukraine.\n\nIn March 2006, a visit to India led to renewed ties between the two countries, reversing decades of U.S. policy. The visit focused particularly on areas of nuclear energy and counter-terrorism cooperation, discussions that would lead eventually to the India–United States Civil Nuclear Agreement. \n\nThis is in stark contrast to the stance taken by his predecessor, Clinton, whose approach and response to India after the 1998 nuclear tests was that of sanctions and hectoring. The relationship between India and the United States was one that dramatically improved during Bush's tenure. \n\nMidway through Bush's second term, it was questioned whether Bush was retreating from his freedom and democracy agenda, highlighted in policy changes toward some oil-rich former Soviet republics in central Asia. \n\nIn an address before both Houses of Congress on September 20, 2001, Bush thanked the nations of the world for their support following the September 11 attacks. He specifically thanked UK Prime Minister Tony Blair for traveling to Washington to show \"unity of purpose with America\", and said \"America has no truer friend than Great Britain.\" \n\nSeptember 11 attacks\n\nThe September 11 terrorist attacks were a major turning point in Bush's presidency. That evening, he addressed the nation from the Oval Office, promising a strong response to the attacks. He also emphasized the need for the nation to come together and comfort the families of the victims. On September 14, he visited Ground Zero, meeting with Mayor Rudy Giuliani, firefighters, police officers, and volunteers. Bush addressed the gathering via a megaphone while standing on a heap of rubble, to much applause: \"I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.\" \n\nIn a September 20 speech, Bush condemned Osama bin Laden and his organization Al-Qaeda, and issued an ultimatum to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, where bin Laden was operating, to \"hand over the terrorists, or ... share in their fate\". \n\nWar on Terrorism\n\nAfter September 11, Bush announced a global War on Terror. The Afghan Taliban regime was not forthcoming with Osama bin Laden, so Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban regime. In his January 29, 2002 State of the Union Address, he asserted that an \"axis of evil\" consisting of North Korea, Iran, and Iraq was \"arming to threaten the peace of the world\" and \"pose[d] a grave and growing danger\". The Bush Administration asserted both a right and the intention to wage preemptive war, or preventive war. This became the basis for the Bush Doctrine which weakened the unprecedented levels of international and domestic support for the United States which had followed the September 11 attacks. \n\nDissent and criticism of Bush's leadership in the War on Terror increased as the war in Iraq continued. In 2006, a National Intelligence Estimate concluded that the Iraq War had become the \"cause célèbre for jihadists\". \n\nAfghanistan invasion\n\nOn October 7, 2001, U.S. and British forces initiated bombing campaigns that led to the arrival of Northern Alliance troops in Kabul on November 13. The main goals of the war were to defeat the Taliban, drive al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan, and capture key al-Qaeda leaders. In December 2001, the Pentagon reported that the Taliban had been defeated, but cautioned that the war would go on to continue weakening Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders. Later that month the UN had installed the Afghan Transitional Administration chaired by Hamid Karzai. In 2002, based on UNICEF figures, Nicholas Kristof reported that \"our invasion of Afghanistan may end up saving one million lives over the next decade\" as the result of improved healthcare and greater access to humanitarian aid. \n\nEfforts to kill or capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden failed as he escaped a battle in December 2001 in the mountainous region of Tora Bora, which the Bush Administration later acknowledged to have resulted from a failure to commit enough U.S. ground troops. It was not until May 2011, two years after Bush left office, that bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces. Bin Laden's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, remains at large.\n\nDespite the initial success in driving the Taliban from power in Kabul, by early 2003 the Taliban was regrouping, amassing new funds and recruits. The 2005 failure of Operation Red Wings showed that the Taliban had returned. In 2006, the Taliban insurgency appeared larger, fiercer and better organized than expected, with large-scale allied offensives such as Operation Mountain Thrust attaining limited success. As a result, Bush commissioned 3,500 additional troops to the country in March 2007. \n\nIraq invasion\n\nBeginning with his January 29, 2002 State of the Union address, Bush began publicly focusing attention on Iraq, which he labeled as part of an \"axis of evil\" allied with terrorists and posing \"a grave and growing danger\" to U.S. interests through possession of weapons of mass destruction. \n\nIn the latter half of 2002, CIA reports contained assertions of Saddam Hussein's intent of reconstituting nuclear weapons programs, not properly accounting for Iraqi biological and chemical weapons, and that some Iraqi missiles had a range greater than allowed by the UN sanctions. Contentions that the Bush Administration manipulated or exaggerated the threat and evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities would eventually become a major point of criticism for the president. \n\nIn late 2002 and early 2003, Bush urged the United Nations to enforce Iraqi disarmament mandates, precipitating a diplomatic crisis. In November 2002, Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei led UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, but were advised by the U.S. to depart the country four days prior to the U.S. invasion, despite their requests for more time to complete their tasks. The U.S. initially sought a UN Security Council resolution authorizing the use of military force but dropped the bid for UN approval due to vigorous opposition from several countries. \n\nMore than 20 nations (most notably the United Kingdom), designated the \"coalition of the willing\" joined the United States in invading Iraq. They launched the invasion on March 20, 2003. The Iraqi military was quickly defeated. The capital, Baghdad, fell on April 9, 2003. On May 1, Bush declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq. The initial success of U.S. operations increased his popularity, but the U.S. and allied forces faced a growing insurgency led by sectarian groups; Bush's \"Mission Accomplished\" speech was later criticized as premature. From 2004 until 2007, the situation in Iraq deteriorated further, with some observers arguing that there was a full-scale civil war in Iraq. Bush's policies met with criticism, including demands domestically to set a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq. The 2006 report of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, led by James Baker, concluded that the situation in Iraq was \"grave and deteriorating\". While Bush admitted that there were strategic mistakes made in regards to the stability of Iraq, he maintained he would not change the overall Iraq strategy. \n\nIn January 2005, free, democratic elections were held in Iraq for the first time in 50 years. According to Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie, \"This is the greatest day in the history of this country.\" Bush praised the event as well, saying that the Iraqis \"have taken rightful control of their country's destiny\". This led to the election of Jalal Talabani as President and Nouri al-Maliki as Prime Minister of Iraq. A referendum to approve a constitution in Iraq was held in October 2005, supported by most Shiites and many Kurds. \n\nOn January 10, 2007, Bush announced a surge of 21,500 more troops for Iraq, as well as a job program for Iraqis, more reconstruction proposals, and $1.2 billion for these programs. On May 1, 2007, Bush used his second-ever veto to reject a bill setting a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, saying the debate over the conflict was \"understandable\" but insisting that a continued U.S. presence there was crucial. \n\nIn March 2008, Bush praised the Iraqi government's \"bold decision\" to launch the Battle of Basra against the Mahdi Army, calling it \"a defining moment in the history of a free Iraq\". He said he would carefully weigh recommendations from his commanding General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker about how to proceed after the end of the military buildup in the summer of 2008. He also praised the Iraqis' legislative achievements, including a pension law, a revised de-Baathification law, a new budget, an amnesty law, and a provincial powers measure that, he said, set the stage for the Iraqi elections. By July 2008, American troop deaths had reached their lowest number since the war began, and due to increased stability in Iraq, Bush announced the withdrawal of additional American forces.\n\nSurveillance\n\nFollowing the events of September 11, Bush issued an executive order authorizing the President's Surveillance Program which included allowing the NSA to monitor communications between suspected terrorists outside the U.S and parties within the U.S. without obtaining a warrant as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. As of 2009, the other provisions of the program remained highly classified. Once the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel questioned its original legal opinion that FISA did not apply in a time of war, the program was subsequently re-authorized by the President on the basis that the warrant requirements of FISA were implicitly superseded by the subsequent passage of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists. The program proved to be controversial, as critics of the administration, as well as organizations such as the American Bar Association, argued that it was illegal. In August 2006, a U.S. district court judge ruled that the NSA electronic surveillance program was unconstitutional, but on July 6, 2007, that ruling was vacated by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing. On January 17, 2007, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales informed U.S. Senate leaders that the program would not be reauthorized by the President, but would be subjected to judicial oversight. Later in 2007, the NSA launched a replacement for the program, referred to as PRISM, that was subject to the oversight of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. This program was not publicly revealed until reports by The Washington Post and The Guardian emerged in June 2013.\n\nInterrogation policies\n\nBush authorized the CIA to use waterboarding as one of several enhanced interrogation techniques. Between 2002 and 2003 the CIA considered certain enhanced interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, to be legal based on a secret Justice Department legal opinion arguing that terror detainees were not protected by the Geneva Conventions' ban on torture and Vice President Cheney said enhanced interrogation including waterboarding was not torture or illegal. The CIA had exercised the technique on certain key terrorist suspects under authority given to it in the Bybee Memo from the Attorney General, though that memo was later withdrawn. While not permitted by the U.S. Army Field Manuals which assert \"that harsh interrogation tactics elicit unreliable information\", the Bush administration believed these enhanced interrogations \"provided critical information\" to preserve American lives. Critics, such as former CIA officer Bob Baer, have stated that information was suspect, \"you can get anyone to confess to anything if the torture's bad enough.\" \n\nOn October 17, 2006, Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, a law enacted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, , which allows the U.S. government to prosecute unlawful enemy combatants by military commission rather than a standard trial. The law also denies them access to habeas corpus and bars the torture of detainees, but allows the president to determine what constitutes torture.\n\nOn March 8, 2008, Bush vetoed H.R. 2082, a bill that would have expanded congressional oversight over the intelligence community and banned the use of waterboarding as well as other forms of interrogation not permitted under the United States Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations, saying that \"the bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the War on Terror\". In April 2009, the ACLU sued and won release of the secret memos that had authorized the Bush administration's interrogation tactics. One memo detailed specific interrogation tactics including a footnote that described waterboarding as torture as well as that the form of waterboarding used by the CIA was far more intense than authorized by the Justice Department. \n\nNorth Korea condemnation\n\nBush publicly condemned Kim Jong-il of North Korea, naming North Korea one of three states in an \"axis of evil\", and saying that \"the United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons.\" Within months, \"both countries had walked away from their respective commitments under the U.S.–DPRK Agreed Framework of October 1994.\" North Korea's October 9, 2006, detonation of a nuclear device further complicated Bush's foreign policy, which centered for both terms of his presidency on \"[preventing] the terrorists and regimes who seek chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons from threatening the United States and the world\". Bush condemned North Korea's position, reaffirmed his commitment to \"a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula\", and stated that \"transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States\", for which North Korea would be held accountable. On May 7, 2007, North Korea agreed to shut down its nuclear reactors immediately pending the release of frozen funds held in a foreign bank account. This was a result of a series of three-way talks initiated by the United States and including China. On September 2, 2007, North Korea agreed to disclose and dismantle all of its nuclear programs by the end of 2007. By May 2009, North Korea had restarted its nuclear program and threatened to attack South Korea. \n\nOn June 22, 2010, \"While South Korea prospers, the people of North Korea have suffered profoundly,\" he said, adding that, \"communism had resulted in dire poverty, mass starvation and brutal suppression.\n\"In recent years,\" he went on to say, \"the suffering has been compounded by the leader who wasted North Korea's precious few resources on personal luxuries and nuclear weapons programs.\" \n\nSyria sanctions\n\nBush expanded economic sanctions on Syria. In early 2007, the Treasury Department, acting on a June 2005 executive order, froze American bank accounts of Syria's Higher Institute of Applied Science and Technology, Electronics Institute, and National Standards and Calibration Laboratory. Bush's order prohibits Americans from doing business with these institutions suspected of helping spread weapons of mass destruction and being supportive of terrorism. Under separate executive orders signed by Bush in 2004 and later 2007, the Treasury Department froze the assets of two Lebanese and two Syrians, accusing them of activities to \"undermine the legitimate political process in Lebanon\" in November 2007. Those designated included: Assaad Halim Hardan, a member of Lebanon's parliament and current leader of the Syrian Socialist National Party; Wi'am Wahhab, a former member of Lebanon's government (Minister of the Environment) under Prime Minister Omar Karami (2004–2005); Hafiz Makhluf, a colonel and senior official in the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate and a cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad; and Muhammad Nasif Khayrbik, identified as a close adviser to Assad. \n\nAfrica\n\nBush initiated the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief Program (PEPFAR). The U.S. government has spent some $44 billion on the project since 2003 (a figure that includes $7 billion contributed to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, a multilateral organization), saving an estimated 5 million lives. According to The New York Times correspondent Peter Baker, \"Bush did more to stop AIDS and more to help Africa than any president before or since.\"\n\nAssassination attempt\n\nOn May 10, 2005, Vladimir Arutyunian, a native Georgian who was born to a family of ethnic Armenians, threw a live hand grenade toward a podium where Bush was speaking at Freedom Square in Tbilisi, Georgia. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was seated nearby. It landed in the crowd about 65 ft from the podium after hitting a girl, but it did not detonate. Arutyunian was arrested in July 2005, confessed, was convicted and was given a life sentence in January 2006. \n\nOther issues\n\nBush withdrew U.S. support for several international agreements, including the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) with Russia. He also signed the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty with Russia.\n\nBush emphasized a careful approach to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians; he denounced Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat for his support of violence, but sponsored dialogues between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Bush supported Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, and lauded the democratic elections held in Palestine after Arafat's death.\n\nBush also expressed U.S. support for the defense of Taiwan following the stand-off in April 2001 with the People's Republic of China over the Hainan Island incident, when an EP-3E Aries II surveillance aircraft collided with a People's Liberation Army Air Force jet, leading to the detention of U.S. personnel. From 2003 to 2004, Bush authorized U.S. military intervention in Haiti and Liberia to protect U.S. interests. Bush condemned the militia attacks Darfur and denounced the killings in Sudan as genocide. Bush said that an international peacekeeping presence was critical in Darfur, but opposed referring the situation to the International Criminal Court.\n\nIn the State of the Union address in January 2003, Bush outlined a five-year strategy for global emergency AIDS relief, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Bush announced $15 billion for this effort which directly supported life-saving antiretroviral treatment for more than 3.2 million men, women and children worldwide. \n\nOn June 10, 2007, Bush met with Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha and became the first president to visit Albania. Bush has voiced his support for the independence of Kosovo. Bush opposed South Ossetia's independence. On August 15, 2008, Bush said of Russia's invasion of the country of Georgia: \"Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century.\" \n\nBush opened the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utha. Departing from previous practice, he stood among a group of U.S. athletes rather than from a ceremonial stand or box, saying: \"On behalf of a proud, determined, and grateful nation, I declare open the Games of Salt Lake City, celebrating the Olympic Winter Games.\" In 2008, in the course of a good-will trip to Asia, he attended the Summer Olympics in Beijing. \n\nBush twice invoked Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, which allows a President to temporarily transfer the powers and duties of his office to the Vice President who then becomes Acting President. On June 29, 2002, Bush underwent a colonoscopy and chose to invoke Section 3 of the amendment, making Vice President Dick Cheney the Acting President. The medical procedure began at 7:09 a.m. EDT and ended at 7:29 a.m. EDT. Bush woke up twenty minutes later, but did not resume his presidential powers and duties until 9:24 a.m. EDT after the president's doctor, Richard Tubb, conducted an overall examination. Tubb said he recommended the additional time to make sure the sedative had no after effects. On July 21, 2007, Bush again invoked Section 3 in response to having to undergo a colonoscopy, again making Vice President Cheney the Acting President. Bush invoked Section 3 at 7:16 a.m. EDT. He reclaimed his powers at 9:21 a.m. EDT. In both cases, Bush specifically cited Section 3 when he transferred the Presidential powers to the Vice President and when he reclaimed those powers. \n\nJudicial appointments\n\nSupreme Court\n\nFollowing the announcement of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement on July 1, 2005, Bush nominated John Roberts to succeed her. On September 5, following the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, this nomination was withdrawn and Bush instead nominated Roberts for Chief Justice to succeed Rehnquist. Roberts was confirmed by the Senate as the 17th Chief Justice on September 29, 2005.\n\nOn October 3, 2005, Bush nominated long time White House Counsel Harriet Miers for O'Connor's position. After facing significant opposition from both parties, who found her to be ill-prepared and uninformed on the law, Miers asked that her name be withdrawn on October 27. Four days later, on October 31, Bush nominated federal appellate judge Samuel Alito. Alito was confirmed as the 110th Supreme Court Justice on January 31, 2006. \n\nOther courts\n\nIn addition to his two Supreme Court appointments, Bush appointed 61 judges to the United States courts of appeals and 261 judges to the United States district courts. Each of these numbers, along with his total of 324 judicial appointments, is third in American history, behind both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Bush experienced a number of judicial appointment controversies. Debate during one confirmation session lasted \"39 stupefying hours\" according to The New York Times. On August 3, 2001, the Senate did not consent to keep existing nominations in status quo, returning 40 judicial nominations, and 164 total nominations. \n\nAt the outset, Judicature magazine noted that the \"Senate Democrats were gearing up for the approaching confirmation hearings\" before the first set of nominees were sent to the Senate. It then cites The New York Times as saying \"Senate Democrats have pledged they will not automatically vote to confirm Mr. Bush's judicial nominees and will subject them to intense scrutiny.\" \n\nThe Senate confirmed only 8 out of 60 judicial nominations by October 2001. In February 2003, the Democrats successfully filibustered the nomination of Miguel Estrada. \n\nPublic image and perception\n\nDomestic\n\nImage\n\nBush's upbringing in West Texas, his accent, his vacations on his Texas ranch, and his penchant for country metaphors contribute to his folksy, American cowboy image. \"I think people look at him and think John Wayne,\" said Piers Morgan, editor of the British Daily Mirror. It has been suggested that Bush's accent was an active choice, as a way of distinguishing himself from Northeastern intellectuals and anchoring himself to his Texas roots. Both supporters and detractors have pointed to his country persona as reasons for their support or criticism.\n\nBush has been parodied by the media, comedians, and other politicians. Detractors tended to cite linguistic errors made by Bush during his public speeches, which are colloquially referred to as Bushisms. Some pundits labeled Bush \"the worst president ever\". \nIn contrast to his father, who was perceived as having troubles with an overarching unifying theme, Bush embraced larger visions and was seen as a man of larger ideas and associated huge risks. Tony Blair wrote in 2010 that the caricature of Bush as being dumb is \"ludicrous\" and that Bush is \"very smart\". In an interview with Playboy, New York Times columnist David Brooks said George W. Bush \"was 60 IQ points smarter in private than he was in public. He doesn't want anybody to think he's smarter than they are, so puts on a Texas act.\"\n\nJob approval\n\nBush began his presidency with approval ratings near 50 percent. After the September 11 attacks, Bush gained an approval rating of 90 percent, maintaining 80 to 90 percent approval for four months after the attacks. It remained over 50 percent during most of his first term and then fell to as low as 19 percent in his second term. \n\nIn 2000 and again in 2004, Time magazine named George W. Bush as its Person of the Year, a title awarded to someone who the editors believe \"has done the most to influence the events of the year\". In May 2004, Gallup reported that 89 percent of the Republican electorate approved of Bush. However, the support waned due mostly to a minority of Republicans' frustration with him on issues of spending, illegal immigration, and Middle Eastern affairs. \n\nWithin the United States armed forces, according to an unscientific survey, the president was strongly supported in the 2004 presidential elections. While 73 percent of military personnel said that they would vote for Bush, 18 percent preferred his Democratic rival, John Kerry. According to Peter Feaver, a Duke University political scientist who has studied the political leanings of the U.S. military, members of the armed services supported Bush because they found him more likely than Kerry to complete the War in Iraq.\n\nBush's approval rating went below the 50 percent mark in AP-Ipsos polling in December 2004. Thereafter, his approval ratings and approval of his handling of domestic and foreign policy issues steadily dropped. Bush received heavy criticism for his handling of the Iraq War, his response to Hurricane Katrina and to the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse, NSA warrantless surveillance, the Plame affair, and Guantanamo Bay detention camp controversies. There were calls for Bush's impeachment, though most polls showed a plurality of Americans would not support such an action. The arguments offered for impeachment usually centered on the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy, the Bush administration's justification for the war in Iraq, and alleged violations of the Geneva Conventions. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who had run against Bush during the 2004 presidential campaign, introduced 35 articles of impeachment on the floor of the House of Representatives against Bush on June 9, 2008, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) declared that impeachment was \"off the table\". \n\nPolls conducted in 2006 showed an average of 37 percent approval ratings for Bush, the lowest for any second-term president at that point of his term since Harry S. Truman in March 1951 (when Truman's approval rating was 28 percent), which contributed to what Bush called the \"thumping\" of the Republican Party in the 2006 mid-term elections. Throughout most of 2007, Bush's approval rating hovered in the mid-thirties; the average for his entire second term was 37 percent, according to Gallup. \n\nBy the beginning of 2008, his final year in office, Bush's approval rating had dropped to a low of just 19 percent, largely from the loss of support among Republicans. Commenting on his low poll numbers and accusations of being \"the worst president,\" Bush would say, \"I make decisions on what I think is right for the United States based upon principles. I frankly don't give a damn about the polls.\" \n\nIn the spring of that year, Bush's disapproval ratings reached the highest ever recorded for any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup poll, with 69 percent of those polled in April 2008 disapproving of the job Bush was doing as president and 28 percent approving—although the majority (66 percent) of Republicans still approved of his job performance.\n\nIn polls conducted in the fall, just before the 2008 election, his approval ratings remained at record lows of 19 to 20 percent, while his disapproval ratings ranged from 67 percent to as high as 75 percent. In polling conducted January 9–11, 2009, his final job approval rating by Gallup was 34 percent, which placed him on par with Jimmy Carter and Harry S. Truman, the other presidents whose final Gallup ratings measured in the low 30s (Richard Nixon's final Gallup approval rating was even lower, at 24 percent). According to a CBS News/New York Times poll conducted January 11–15, 2009, Bush's final approval rating in office was 22 percent, the lowest in American history.\n\nForeign perceptions\n\nBush was criticized internationally and targeted by the global anti-war and anti-globalization campaigns for his administration's foreign policy. Views of him within the international community—even in France, a close ally of the United States—were more negative than those of most previous American presidents in history. \n\nBush was described as having especially close personal relationships with Tony Blair of Great Britain and Vicente Fox of Mexico, although formal relations were sometimes strained. Other leaders, such as Afghan president Hamid Karzai, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, openly criticized the president. Later in Bush's presidency, tensions arose between him and Vladimir Putin, which led to a cooling of their relationship.\n\nIn 2006, most respondents in 18 of 21 countries surveyed around the world were found to hold an unfavorable opinion of Bush. Respondents indicated that they judged his administration as negative for world security. In 2007, the Pew Global Attitudes Project reported that during the Bush presidency, attitudes towards the United States, and towards Americans, became less favorable around the world. \n\nA March 2007 survey of Arab opinion conducted by Zogby International and the University of Maryland found that Bush was the most disliked leader in the Arab world. \n\nThe Pew Research Center's 2007 Global Attitudes poll found that out of 47 countries, in only nine countries did most respondents express \"a lot of confidence\" or \"some confidence\" in Bush: Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Israel, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, and Uganda. \n\nDuring a June 2007 visit to the predominantly Muslim Albania, Bush was greeted enthusiastically. Albania has a population of 2.8 million, has troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and the country's government is highly supportive of American foreign policy. A huge image of the President was hung in the middle of the capital city of Tirana flanked by Albanian and American flags while a local street was named after him. A shirt-sleeved statue of Bush was unveiled in Fushë-Krujë, a few kilometers northwest of Tirana. The Bush administration's support for the independence of Albanian-majority Kosovo, while endearing him to the Albanians, has troubled U.S. relations with Serbia, leading to the February 2008 torching of the U.S. embassy in Belgrade. \n\nAcknowledgments and dedications\n\nOn May 7, 2005, during an official state visit to Latvia, Bush was awarded the Order of the Three Stars presented to him by President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga. A few places outside the United States bear Bush's name. In 2005, the Tbilisi City Council voted to rename a street in honor of the U.S. president. Previously known as Melaani Drive, the street links the Georgian capital's airport with the city center and was used by Bush's motorcade during his visit four months earlier. A street in Tirana, formerly known as Rruga Puntorët e Rilendjes, situated directly outside the Albanian Parliament, was renamed after Bush a few days before he made the first-ever visit by an American president to Albania in June 2007. In Jerusalem, a small plaza with a monument bearing his name is also dedicated to Bush. \n\nIn 2012, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves awarded Bush the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana for his work in expanding NATO. \n\nCriticism\n\nThe Bush Presidency has been ranked among the worst in surveys of presidential scholars published in the late 2000s and 2010s.\n\nAfter his re-election in 2004, Bush received increasingly heated criticism from across the political spectrum for his handling of the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, and other challenges. Amid this criticism, the Democratic Party regained control of Congress in the 2006 elections. In December 2007, the United States entered its longest post-World War II recession, often referred to as the \"Great Recession\", prompting the Bush administration to obtain congressional passage of multiple economic programs intended to preserve the country's financial system. Nationally, Bush was both one of the most popular and unpopular presidents in history, having received the highest recorded presidential approval ratings in the wake of the September 11 attacks, as well as one of the lowest approval ratings during the 2008 financial crisis.\n\nPost-presidency\n\nResidence (since 2009)\n\nFollowing the inauguration of Barack Obama, Bush and his family flew from Andrews Air Force Base to a homecoming celebration in Midland, Texas, following which they returned to their ranch in Crawford, Texas. They bought a home in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, where they settled down. \n\nHe makes regular appearances at various events throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth area, most notably when he conducted the opening coin toss at the Dallas Cowboys first game in the team's new stadium in Arlington and an April 2009 visit to a Texas Rangers game, where he thanked the people of Dallas for helping him settle in and was met with a standing ovation. He also attended every home playoff game for the Texas Rangers 2010 season and, accompanied by his father, threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington for Game 4 of the 2010 World Series on October 31, 2010. \n\nOn August 6, 2013, Bush was successfully treated for a coronary artery blockage with a stent. The blockage had been found during an annual medical examination. \n\nIn reaction to the 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers, Bush stated: \"Laura and I are heartbroken by the heinous acts of violence in our city last night. Murdering the innocent is always evil, never more so than when the lives taken belong to those who protect our families and communities.\" \n\nPublications and appearances\n\nSince leaving office, Bush has kept a relatively low profile though he has made public appearances, most notably after the release of his memoirs in 2010 and for the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in 2011. In March 2009, he delivered his first post-presidency speech in Calgary, Alberta, appeared via video on The Colbert Report during which he praised U.S. troops for earning a \"special place in American history,\" and attended the funeral of Senator Ted Kennedy. Bush made his debut as a motivational speaker on October 26 at the \"Get Motivated\" seminar in Dallas. In the aftermath of the Fort Hood shooting that took place on November 5, 2009, in Texas, the Bushes paid an undisclosed visit to the survivors and victims' families the day following the shooting, having contacted the base commander requesting that the visit be private and not involve press coverage. \n\nBush released his memoirs, Decision Points, on November 9, 2010. During a pre-release appearance promoting the book, Bush said he considered his biggest accomplishment to be keeping \"the country safe amid a real danger\", and his greatest failure to be his inability to secure the passage of Social Security reform. He also made news defending his administration's enhanced interrogation techniques, specifically the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, saying, \"I'd do it again to save lives.\" \n\nIn 2012, he wrote the foreword of The 4% Solution: Unleashing the Economic Growth America Needs, an economics book published by the George W. Bush Presidential Center. He also presented the book at the Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas. \n\nBush appeared on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on November 19, 2013, along with the former First Lady, Laura Bush. When asked by Leno why he does not comment publicly about the Obama administration, Bush said, \"I don't think it's good for the country to have a former president criticize his successor.\" Despite this statement, on Saturday, April 25, 2015, Bush criticized President Barack Obama at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. Bush criticized Obama's handling of Iran, specifically with respect to sanctions and a nuclear deal, saying: \"You think the Middle East is chaotic now? Imagine what it looks like for our grandchildren. That's how Americans should view the deal.\" Bush also attacked Obama's withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011, calling it a \"strategic blunder\", borrowing a term that had been used by South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. \n\nAlongside the 2014 United States–Africa Leaders Summit, Bush, Michelle Obama, the State Department, and the George W. Bush Institute hosted a daylong forum on education and health with the spouses of the African leaders attending the summit. Bush urged African leaders to avoid discriminatory laws that make the treatment of HIV/AIDS more difficult. \n\nBush has spoken in favor of increased global participation of women in politics and societal matters in foreign countries. \n\nOn November 2, 2014, Bush spoke at an event to 200 business and civic leaders at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum to raise awareness for the upcoming Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. \n\nBush published a biography of his father, George Bush, called 41: A Portrait of My Father. It was released on November 11, 2014. \n\nIn an interview published by Israel Hayom magazine on June 12, 2015, Bush said that \"boots on the ground\" would be needed in order to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). He added that people had said during his Presidency that he should withdraw American troops from Iraq, but he chose the opposite, sending 30,000 more troops in order to defeat Al Qaeda in Iraq, and that Al Qaeda in Iraq was defeated. Bush was also asked about Iran but declined to answer, stating that any answer he gives would be interpreted as undermining President Barack Obama.\n\nBush declined to endorse the 2016 Republican nominee Donald Trump and he didn't attend the 2016 Republican National Convention that formally nominated Trump. On the eve of Trump's nomination, it was reported that Bush had privately expressed concern about the current direction of the Republican Party and told a group of his former aides and advisors, \"I'm worried that I will be the last Republican president.\" \n\nCollaborations\n\nIn January 2010, at President Obama's request, Bush and Bill Clinton established the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund to raise contributions for relief and recovery efforts following the 2010 Haiti earthquake earlier that month. \n\nOn May 2, 2011, President Obama called Bush, who was at a restaurant with his wife, to inform him that Osama bin Laden had been killed. The Bushes joined the Obamas in New York City to mark the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. At the Ground Zero memorial, Bush read a letter that President Abraham Lincoln wrote to a widow who lost five sons during the Civil War. \n\nVisual art\n\nAfter serving as president, Bush began painting as a hobby. Subjects have included dogs and still life. He has also painted self-portraits and portraits of world leaders, including Vladimir Putin and Tony Blair. \n\nHis paintings have been met with a middling reception from art critics. Bill Arning, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, called his portraits \"thickly painted in what I would call 'high-amateur' mode\" and wrote, \"I would say they need to be less based on photographic reproduction. You can tell when someone is taking a found photograph and making a painting out of it [...] I think he'd be well advised to work from other, multiple photographic sources or the real person to get a little bit more liveliness going on.\" \n\nLegacy\n\nGeorge W. Bush's legacy remains a contested one. Supporters credit Bush's counterterrorism policies with preventing another major terrorist attack from occurring in the US after 9/11 and also praise individual policies such as the Medicare prescription drug benefit and the AIDS relief program known as PEPFAR. Critics often point to his handling of the Iraq War, specifically the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, that were the main rationale behind the initial invasion—as well as his handling of tax policy, Hurricane Katrina and the 2008 financial crisis as proof that George W. Bush was unfit to be president. \n\nSeveral historians and commentators hold the view that Bush was one of the most consequential presidents in American history. Princeton University scholar Julian Zelizer described Bush's presidency as a \"transformative\" one, and said that \"some people hate him, some people love him, but I do think he'll have a much more substantive perception as time goes on\". Bryon Williams of The Huffington Post referred to Bush as \"the most noteworthy president since FDR\" and said that the Patriot Act \"increased authority of the executive branch at the expense of judicial opinions about when searches and seizures are reasonable\" as evidence. Bush's administration presided over the largest tax cuts since the Reagan administration, and his homeland security reforms proved to be the most significant expansion of the federal government since the Great Society. Much of these policies have endured in the administration of Bush's Democratic successor, Barack Obama. \n\nAmong the public, his reputation has improved somewhat since his presidency ended in 2009. In February 2012, Gallup reported that \"Americans still rate George W. Bush among the worst presidents, though their views have become more positive in the three years since he left office.\" Gallup had earlier noted that Bush's favorability ratings in public opinion surveys had begun to rise a year after he had left office, from 40 percent in January 2009 and 35 percent in March 2009, to 45 percent in July 2010, a period during which he had remained largely out of the news. Other pollsters have noted similar trends of slight improvement in Bush's personal favorability since the end of his presidency. In April 2013, Bush's approval rating stood at 47 percent approval and 50 percent disapproval in a poll jointly conducted for The Washington Post and ABC, his highest approval rating since December 2005. Bush had achieved notable gains among seniors, non-college whites, and moderate and conservative Democrats since leaving office, although majorities disapproved of his handling of the economy (53 percent) and the Iraq War (57 percent). His 47 percent approval rating was equal to that of President Obama's in the same polling period. A CNN poll conducted that same month found that 55 percent of Americans said Bush's presidency had been a failure, with 80 percent of Republican calling it a success, but only 43 percent of independents calling it a success and nearly 90 percent of Democrats calling it a failure. \n\nWhile President Bush's approval rating among the public has seen an improvement, the most recent survey of the opinions of historians, political scientists, and Presidential scholars, conducted in 2010 by the Siena Research Institute, ranked him 39th out of 43 Presidents. The survey respondents gave President Bush low ratings on his handling of the U.S. economy, communication, ability to compromise, foreign policy accomplishments, and intelligence.", "The Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes colloquially known as \"SCOTUS\" ) is the highest federal court of the United States. Established pursuant to Article III of the United States Constitution in 1789, it has ultimate (and largely discretionary) appellate jurisdiction over all federal courts and over state court cases involving issues of federal law, plus original jurisdiction over a small range of cases. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the final interpreter of federal constitutional law, although it may only act within the context of a case in which it has jurisdiction.\n\nThe Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight associate justices who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, or are removed after impeachment (though no justice has ever been removed). In modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the highest profile cases often expose ideological beliefs that track with those philosophical or political categories. The Court meets in the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.\n\nHistory\n\nThe ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789. Its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the only court specifically established by the Constitution, and all the others were created by Congress. Congress is also responsible for conferring the title \"justice\" upon the associate justices, who have been known to scold lawyers for instead using the term \"judge\", which is the term used by the Constitution. \n\nThe Court first convened on February 2, 1790, by which time five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session: \"[T]he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street, a few steps from Federal Hall. Symbolically, the moment was pregnant with promise for the republic, this birth of a new national institution whose future power, admittedly, still existed only in the mind's eye of a few farsighted Americans. Impressively bewigged and swathed in their robes of office, Chief Justice Jay and three associate justices— William Cushing of Massachusetts, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, and John Blair of Virginia— sat augustly before a throng of spectators and waited for something to happen. Nothing did. They had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, and everyone went home.\" \n\nThe sixth member (James Iredell) was not confirmed until May 12, 1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was also made by two-thirds (voting four to two). However, Congress has always allowed less than the Court's full membership to make decisions, starting with a quorum of four judges in 1789. \n\nEarliest beginnings to Marshall\n\nUnder Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth (1789–1801), the Court heard few cases; its first decision was West v. Barnes (1791), a case involving a procedural issue. The Court lacked a home of its own and had little prestige, a situation not helped by the highest-profile case of the era, Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), which was reversed within two years by the adoption of the Eleventh Amendment. \n\nThe Court's power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court (1801–1835). Under Marshall, the Court established the power of judicial review over acts of Congress, including specifying itself as the supreme expositor of the Constitution (Marbury v. Madison) and made several important constitutional rulings giving shape and substance to the balance of power between the federal government and the states (prominently, Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden).\n\nThe Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshall's tenure, although beyond the Court's control, the impeachment and acquittal of Justice Samuel Chase in 1804–1805 helped cement the principle of judicial independence.\n\nFrom Taney to Taft\n\nThe Taney Court (1836–1864) made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Sill, which held that while Congress may not limit the subjects the Supreme Court may hear, it may limit the jurisdiction of the lower federal courts to prevent them from hearing cases dealing with certain subjects. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts (1864–1910) interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution and developed the doctrine of substantive due process (Lochner v. New York; Adair v. United States).\n\nUnder the White and Taft Courts (1910–1930), the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment had incorporated some guarantees of the Bill of Rights against the states (Gitlow v. New York),\ngrappled with the new antitrust statutes (Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States), upheld the constitutionality of military conscription (Selective Draft Law Cases) and brought the substantive due process doctrine to its first apogee (Adkins v. Children's Hospital).\n\nThe New Deal era\n\nDuring the Hughes, Stone, and Vinson Courts (1930–1953), the Court gained its own accommodation in 1935 and changed its interpretation of the Constitution, giving a broader reading to the powers of the federal government to facilitate President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal (most prominently West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, Wickard v. Filburn, United States v. Darby and United States v. Butler). During World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens (Korematsu v. United States) and the mandatory pledge of allegiance (Minersville School District v. Gobitis). Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated (West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette), and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend.\n\nWarren and Burger\n\nThe Warren Court (1953–1969) dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection (Brown v. Board of Education, Bolling v. Sharpe and Green v. County School Bd.) and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote (Reynolds v. Sims). It created a general right to privacy (Griswold v. Connecticut), limited the role of religion in public school (most prominently Engel v. Vitale and Abington School District v. Schempp), incorporated most guarantees of the Bill of Rights against the States—prominently Mapp v. Ohio (the exclusionary rule) and Gideon v. Wainwright (right to appointed counsel),—and required that criminal suspects be apprised of all these rights by police (Miranda v. Arizona); At the same time, however, the Court limited defamation suits by public figures (New York Times v. Sullivan) and supplied the government with an unbroken run of antitrust victories. \n\nThe Burger Court (1969–1986) expanded Griswolds right to privacy to strike down abortion laws (Roe v. Wade), but divided deeply on affirmative action (Regents of the University of California v. Bakke) and campaign finance regulation (Buckley v. Valeo), and dithered on the death penalty, ruling first that most applications were defective (Furman v. Georgia), then that the death penalty itself was not unconstitutional (Gregg v. Georgia). \n\nRehnquist and Roberts\n\nThe Rehnquist Court (1986–2005) was noted for its revival of judicial enforcement of federalism, emphasizing the limits of the Constitution's affirmative grants of power (United States v. Lopez) and the force of its restrictions on those powers (Seminole Tribe v. Florida, City of Boerne v. Flores). It struck down single-sex state schools as a violation of equal protection (United States v. Virginia), laws against sodomy as violations of substantive due process (Lawrence v. Texas), and the line item veto (Clinton v. New York), but upheld school vouchers (Zelman v. Simmons-Harris) and reaffirmed Roes restrictions on abortion laws (Planned Parenthood v. Casey). The Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, which ended the electoral recount during the presidential election of 2000, was controversial.\n\nThe Roberts Court (2005–present) is regarded by some as more conservative than the Rehnquist Court. Some of its major rulings have concerned federal preemption (Wyeth v. Levine), civil procedure (Twombly-Iqbal), abortion (Gonzales v. Carhart), climate change (Massachusetts v. EPA), same-sex marriage (United States v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges), and the Bill of Rights, prominently Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (First Amendment), Heller-McDonald (Second Amendment), and Baze v. Rees (Eighth Amendment).\n\nComposition\n\nSize of the Court\n\nArticle III of the United States Constitution leaves it to Congress to fix the number of justices. The Judiciary Act of 1789 called for the appointment of six justices, and as the nation's boundaries grew, Congress added justices to correspond with the growing number of judicial circuits: seven in 1807, nine in 1837, and ten in 1863.\n\nIn 1866, at the behest of Chief Justice Chase, Congress passed an act providing that the next three justices to retire would not be replaced, which would thin the bench to seven justices by attrition. Consequently, one seat was removed in 1866 and a second in 1867. In 1869, however, the Circuit Judges Act returned the number of justices to nine, where it has since remained.\n\nPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to expand the Court in 1937. His proposal envisioned appointment of one additional justice for each incumbent justice who reached the age of 70 years 6 months and refused retirement, up to a maximum bench of 15 justices. The proposal was ostensibly to ease the burden of the docket on elderly judges, but the actual purpose was widely understood as an effort to pack the Court with justices who would support Roosevelt's New Deal. The plan, usually called the \"Court-packing Plan\", failed in Congress. Nevertheless, the Court's balance began to shift within months when Justice van Devanter retired and was replaced by Senator Hugo Black. By the end of 1941, Roosevelt had appointed seven justices and elevated Harlan Fiske Stone to Chief Justice. \n\nAppointment and confirmation\n\nThe U.S. Constitution states that the President \"shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Judges of the Supreme Court.\" Most presidents nominate candidates who broadly share their ideological views, although a justice's decisions may end up being contrary to a president's expectations. Because the Constitution sets no qualifications for service as a justice, a president may nominate anyone to serve, subject to Senate confirmation.\n\nIn modern times, the confirmation process has attracted considerable attention from the press and advocacy groups, which lobby senators to confirm or to reject a nominee depending on whether their track record aligns with the group's views. The Senate Judiciary Committee conducts hearings and votes on whether the nomination should go to the full Senate with a positive, negative or neutral report. The committee's practice of personally interviewing nominees is relatively recent. The first nominee to appear before the committee was Harlan Fiske Stone in 1925, who sought to quell concerns about his links to Wall Street, and the modern practice of questioning began with John Marshall Harlan II in 1955. Once the committee reports out the nomination, the full Senate considers it. Rejections are relatively uncommon; the Senate has explicitly rejected twelve Supreme Court nominees, most recently Robert Bork in 1987.\n\nNevertheless, not every nominee has received a floor vote in the Senate. Although Senate rules do not necessarily allow a negative vote in committee to block a nomination, a nominee may be filibustered once debate has begun in the full Senate. No nomination for associate justice has ever been filibustered, but President Lyndon Johnson's nomination of sitting Associate Justice Abe Fortas to succeed Earl Warren as Chief Justice was successfully filibustered in 1968. A president may also withdraw a nomination before the actual confirmation vote occurs, typically because it is clear that the Senate will reject the nominee, most recently Harriet Miers in 2006.\n\nOnce the Senate confirms a nomination, the president must prepare and sign a commission, to which the Seal of the Department of Justice must be affixed, before the new justice can take office. The seniority of an associate justice is based on the commissioning date, not the confirmation or swearing-in date. \n\nBefore 1981, the approval process of justices was usually rapid. From the Truman through Nixon administrations, justices were typically approved within one month. From the Reagan administration to the present, however, the process has taken much longer. Some believe this is because Congress sees justices as playing a more political role than in the past. According to the Congressional Research Service, the average number of days from nomination to final Senate vote since 1975 is 67 days (2.2 months), while the median is 71 days (or 2.3 months). \n\nRecess appointments\n\nWhen the Senate is in recess, a president may make temporary appointments to fill vacancies. Recess appointees hold office only until the end of the next Senate session (less than two years). The Senate must confirm the nominee for them to continue serving; of the two chief justices and six associate justices who have received recess appointments, only Chief Justice John Rutledge was not subsequently confirmed. \n\nNo president since Dwight D. Eisenhower has made a recess appointment to the Court, and the practice has become rare and controversial even in lower federal courts. In 1960, after Eisenhower had made three such appointments, the Senate passed a \"sense of the Senate\" resolution that recess appointments to the Court should only be made in \"unusual circumstances.\" Such resolutions are not legally binding but are an expression of Congress's views in the hope of guiding executive action. \n\nTenure\n\nThe Constitution provides that justices \"shall hold their offices during good behavior\" (unless appointed during a Senate recess). The term \"good behavior\" is understood to mean justices may serve for the remainder of their lives, unless they are impeached and convicted by Congress, resign or retire. Only one justice has been impeached by the House of Representatives (Samuel Chase, March 1804), but he was acquitted in the Senate (March 1805). Moves to impeach sitting justices have occurred more recently (for example, William O. Douglas was the subject of hearings twice, in 1953 and again in 1970; and Abe Fortas resigned while hearings were being organized), but they did not reach a vote in the House. No mechanism exists for removing a justice who is permanently incapacitated by illness or injury, but unable (or unwilling) to resign. \n\nBecause justices have indefinite tenure, timing of vacancies can be unpredictable. Sometimes vacancies arise in quick succession, as in the early 1970s when Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. and William Rehnquist were nominated to replace Hugo Black and John Marshall Harlan II, who retired within a week of each other. Sometimes a great length of time passes between nominations, such as the eleven years between Stephen Breyer's nomination in 1994 to succeed Harry Blackmun and the nomination of John Roberts in 2005 to fill the seat of Sandra Day O'Connor (though Roberts' nomination was withdrawn and resubmitted for the role of Chief Justice after Rehnquist died).\n\nDespite the variability, all but four presidents have been able to appoint at least one justice. William Henry Harrison died a month after taking office, though his successor (John Tyler) made an appointment during that presidential term. Likewise, Zachary Taylor died early in his term, but his successor (Millard Fillmore) also made a Supreme Court nomination before the end of that term. Andrew Johnson, who became president after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, was denied the opportunity to appoint a justice by a reduction in the size of the Court. Jimmy Carter is the only president to complete at least one term in office without making any appointments to the Court.\n\nThree presidents have appointed justices who collectively served more than 100 years: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. \n\nMembership\n\nCurrent justices\n\nThe court currently has eight justices and one vacancy after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia on February 13, 2016. \n\nVacancy and pending nomination \n\nCourt demographics\n\nThe Court currently has five male and three female justices. One justice is African American, one is Latina, and the remaining six are non-Hispanic white; five justices are Roman Catholics, and three are Jewish. The average age is . Every current justice has an Ivy League background. Four justices are from the state of New York, two from California, one from New Jersey, and one from Georgia.\n\nIn the 19th century, every justice was a man of European descent (usually Northern European), and almost always Protestant. Concerns about diversity focused on geography, to represent all regions of the country, rather than religious, ethnic, or gender diversity.\n\nMost justices have been Protestants, including 35 Episcopalians, 19 Presbyterians, 10 Unitarians, 5 Methodists, and 3 Baptists. The first Catholic justice was Roger Taney in 1836, and 1916 saw the appointment of the first Jewish justice, Louis Brandeis. Several Catholic and Jewish justices have since been appointed, and in recent years the situation has reversed: after the retirement of Justice Stevens in 2010, the Court is without a Protestant for the first time.\n\nRacial, ethnic, and gender diversity began to increase in the late 20th century. Thurgood Marshall became the first African American justice in 1967. Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female justice in 1981. Antonin Scalia became the first Italian-American to serve on the Court in 1986. Marshall was succeeded by African American Clarence Thomas in 1991. O'Connor was joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993. After O'Connor's retirement Ginsburg was joined in 2009 by Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina justice, and in 2010 by Elena Kagan, for a total of four female justices in the Court's history.\n\nRetired justices\n\nThere are currently three living retired justices of the Supreme Court of the United States: John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, and David Souter. As retired justices, they no longer participate in the work of the Supreme Court, but may be designated for temporary assignments to sit on lower federal courts, usually the United States Courts of Appeals. Such assignments are formally made by the Chief Justice, on request of the Chief Judge of the lower court and with the consent of the retired Justice. In recent years, Justice O'Connor has sat with several Courts of Appeals around the country, and Justice Souter has frequently sat on the First Circuit, the court of which he was briefly a member before joining the Supreme Court.\n\nThe status of a retired Justice is analogous to that of a Circuit or District Judge who has taken senior status, and eligibility of a Supreme Court Justice to assume retired status (rather than simply resign from the bench) is governed by the same age and service criteria.\n\nJustices sometimes strategically plan their decisions to leave the bench, with personal, institutional, and partisan factors playing a role. The fear of mental decline and death often motivates justices to step down. The desire to maximize the Court's strength and legitimacy through one retirement at a time, when the Court is in recess, and during non-presidential election years suggests a concern for institutional health. Finally, especially in recent decades, many justices have timed their departure to coincide with a philosophically compatible president holding office, to ensure that a like-minded successor would be appointed. \n\nSeniority and seating\n\nMany of the internal operations of the Court are organized by the seniority of the justices; the Chief Justice is considered the most senior member of the Court, regardless of the length of his or her service. The Associate Justices are then ranked by the length of their service.\n\nDuring Court sessions, the justices sit according to seniority, with the Chief Justice in the center, and the Associate Justices on alternating sides, with the most senior Associate Justice on the Chief Justice's immediate right, and the most junior Associate Justice seated on the left farthest away from the Chief Justice. Therefore, the current court sits as follows from left to right, from the perspective of those facing the Court: Kagan, Alito, Ginsburg, Kennedy (most senior Associate Justice), Roberts (Chief Justice), Thomas, Breyer, Sotomayor. The final seat is reserved for the next appointee, who will be the most junior member. In the official yearly Court photograph, justices are arranged similarly, with the five most senior members sitting in the front row in the same order as they would sit during Court sessions (The most recent photograph, prior to Scalia's death, included Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Ginsburg), and the four most junior justices standing behind them, again in the same order as they would sit during Court sessions (Sotomayor, Breyer, Alito, Kagan).\n\nIn the justices' private conferences, the current practice is for them to speak and vote in order of seniority from the Chief Justice first to the most junior Associate Justice last. The most junior Associate Justice in these conferences is charged with any menial tasks the justices may require as they convene alone, such as answering the door of their conference room, serving coffee, and transmitting the orders of the Court to the court's clerk. \nJustice Joseph Story served the longest as the junior justice, from February 3, 1812, to September 1, 1823, for a total of 4,228 days. Justice Stephen Breyer follows close behind, with 4,199 days when Samuel Alito joined the court on January 31, 2006. \n\nSalary\n\nFor the years 2009 through 2012, associate justices were paid $213,900 and the chief justice $223,500. Article III, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution prohibits Congress from reducing the pay for incumbent justices. Once a justice meets age and service requirements, the justice may retire. Judicial pensions are based on the normal formula for federal employees, but a justice's pension will never be less than their salary at time of retirement. (The same procedure applies to judges of other federal courts.)\n\nJudicial leanings\n\nAlthough justices are nominated by the President in power, justices do not represent or receive official endorsements from political parties, as is accepted practice in the legislative and executive branches. Jurists are, however, informally categorized in legal and political circles as being judicial conservatives, moderates, or liberals. Such leanings, however, generally refer to legal outlook rather than a political or legislative one. The nominations of justices are endorsed by individual politicians in the legislative branch who vote their approval or disapproval of the nominated justice.\n\nFollowing the death of Antonin Scalia in February 2016, the Court consists of four justices appointed by Republican presidents and four appointed by Democratic presidents. It is popularly accepted that Chief Justice Roberts and justices Thomas and Alito (appointed by Republican presidents) comprise the Court's conservative wing. Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan (appointed by Democratic presidents) comprise the Court's liberal wing. Justice Kennedy (appointed by President Reagan) is generally considered \"a conservative who has occasionally voted with liberals\", and up until Justice Scalia's death, was often the swing vote that determined the outcome of cases divided between the conservative and liberal wings.See also SCOTUSblog's Stat Pack: \n\nTom Goldstein argued in an article in SCOTUSblog in 2010, that the popular view of the Supreme Court as sharply divided along ideological lines and each side pushing an agenda at every turn is \"in significant part a caricature designed to fit certain preconceptions.\" He pointed out that in the 2009 term, almost half the cases were decided unanimously, and only about 20% were decided by a 5-to-4 vote. Barely one in ten cases involved the narrow liberal/conservative divide (fewer if the cases where Sotomayor recused herself are not included). He also pointed to several cases that defied the popular conception of the ideological lines of the Court. \nGoldstein further argued that the large number of pro-criminal-defendant summary dismissals (usually cases where the justices decide that the lower courts significantly misapplied precedent and reverse the case without briefing or argument) were an illustration that the conservative justices had not been aggressively ideological. Likewise, Goldstein stated that the critique that the liberal justices are more likely to invalidate acts of Congress, show inadequate deference to the political process, and be disrespectful of precedent, also lacked merit: Thomas has most often called for overruling prior precedent (even if long standing) that he views as having been wrongly decided, and during the 2009 term Scalia and Thomas voted most often to invalidate legislation.\n\nAccording to statistics compiled by SCOTUSblog, in the twelve terms from 2000 to 2011, an average of 19 of the opinions on major issues (22%) were decided by a 5–4 vote, with an average of 70% of those split opinions decided by a Court divided along the traditionally perceived ideological lines (about 15% of all opinions issued). Over that period, the conservative bloc has been in the majority about 62% of the time that the Court has divided along ideological lines, which represents about 44% of all the 5–4 decisions.\n\nIn the October 2010 term, the Court decided 86 cases, including 75 signed opinions and 5 summary reversals (where the Court reverses a lower court without arguments and without issuing an opinion on the case). Four were decided with unsigned opinions, two cases affirmed by an equally divided Court, and two cases were dismissed as improvidently granted. Justice Kagan recused herself from 26 of the cases due to her prior role as United States Solicitor General. Of the 80 cases, 38 (about 48%, the highest percentage since the October 2005 term) were decided unanimously (9–0 or 8–0), and 16 decisions were made by a 5–4 vote (about 20%, compared to 18% in the October 2009 term, and 29% in the October 2008 term). However, in fourteen of the sixteen 5–4 decisions, the Court divided along the traditional ideological lines (with Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan on the liberal side, and Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito on the conservative, and Kennedy providing the \"swing vote\"). This represents 87% of those 16 cases, the highest rate in the past 10 years. The conservative bloc, joined by Kennedy, formed the majority in 63% of the 5–4 decisions, the highest cohesion rate of that bloc in the Roberts court. \n\nIn the October 2011 term, the Court decided 75 cases. Of these, 33 (about 44%) were decided unanimously, and 15 (about 20%, the same percentage as in the previous term) were decided by a vote of 5–4. Of the latter 15, the Court divided along the perceived ideological lines 10 times, with Justice Kennedy siding with the conservative justices (Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito) five times, and with the liberal justices (Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan) five times. \n\nIn the October 2012 term, the Court decided 78 cases. Five of them were decided in unsigned opinions. 38 out of the 78 decisions (representing 49% of the decisions) were unanimous in judgement, with 24 decisions being completely unanimous (a single opinion with every justice that participated joining it). This was the largest percentage of unanimous decisions that the Court had in ten years, since the October 2002 term (when 51% of the decisions handed down were unanimous). The Court split 5-4 in 23 cases (29% of the total); of these, 16 broke down along the traditionally perceived ideological lines, with Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito on one side, Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan on the other, and Justice Kennedy holding the balance. Of these 16 cases, Justice Kennedy sided with the conservatives on 10 cases, and with the liberals on 6. Three cases were decided by an interesting alignment of justices, with Chief Justice Roberts joined by Justices Kennedy, Thomas, Breyer and Alito in the majority, with Justices Scalia, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan in the minority. The greatest agreement between justices was between Ginsburg and Kagan, who agreed on 72 of the 75 cases in which both voted; the lowest agreement between justices was between Ginsburg and Alito, who agreed only on 45 out of 77 cases in which they both participated.\nJustice Kennedy was in the majority of 5-4 decisions on 20 out of the 24 cases, and in 71 of the 78 cases of the term, in line with his position as the \"swing vote\" of the Court.\n\nFacilities\n\nThe Supreme Court first met on February 1, 1790, at the Merchants' Exchange Building in New York City. When Philadelphia became the capital, the Court met briefly in Independence Hall before settling in Old City Hall from 1791 until 1800. After the government moved to Washington, D.C., the Court occupied various spaces in the United States Capitol building until 1935, when it moved into its own purpose-built home. The four-story building was designed by Cass Gilbert in a classical style sympathetic to the surrounding buildings of the Capitol and Library of Congress, and is clad in marble. The building includes the courtroom, justices' chambers, an extensive law library, various meeting spaces, and auxiliary services including a gymnasium. The Supreme Court building is within the ambit of the Architect of the Capitol, but maintains its own police force separate from the Capitol Police.\n\nLocated across the street from the United States Capitol at One First Street NE and Maryland Avenue, the building is open to the public from 9 am to 4:30 pm weekdays but closed on weekends and holidays. Visitors may not tour the actual courtroom unaccompanied. There is a cafeteria, a gift shop, exhibits, and a half-hour informational film. When the Court is not in session, lectures about the courtroom are held hourly from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm and reservations are not necessary. When the Court is in session the public may attend oral arguments, which are held twice each morning (and sometimes afternoons) on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays in two-week intervals from October through late April, with breaks during December and February. Visitors are seated on a first-come first-served basis. One estimate is there are about 250 seats available. The number of open seats varies from case to case; for important cases, some visitors arrive the day before and wait through the night. From mid-May until the end of June, the court releases orders and opinions beginning at 10 am, and these 15 to 30-minute sessions are open to the public on a similar basis. Supreme Court Police are available to answer questions.\n\nJurisdiction\n\nSection 2 of Article Three of the United States Constitution outlines the jurisdiction of the federal courts of the United States:\n\nThe jurisdiction of the federal courts was further limited by the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, which forbade federal courts from hearing cases \"commenced or prosecuted against [a State] by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.\" However, states may waive this immunity, and Congress may abrogate the states' immunity in certain circumstances (see Sovereign immunity). In addition to constitutional constraints, Congress is authorized by Article III to regulate the court's appellate jurisdiction. The federal courts may hear cases only if one or more of the following conditions are met:\n\n# If there is diversity of citizenship (meaning, the parties are citizens of different states or countries, including foreign states), and the amount of damages exceeds $75,000. \n# If the case presents a federal question, meaning that it involves a claim or issue \"arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States\", assuming that the question is not constitutionally committed to another branch of government. \n# If the United States federal government (including the Post Office) is a party in the case. \n\nExercise of this power can become controversial (see jurisdiction stripping). For example, , as amended by the Detainee Treatment Act, provides that \"No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.\"\n\nThe Constitution specifies that the Supreme Court may exercise original jurisdiction in cases affecting ambassadors and other diplomats, and in cases in which a state is a party. In all other cases, however, the Court has only appellate jurisdiction. It considers cases based on its original jurisdiction very rarely; almost all cases are brought to the Supreme Court on appeal. In practice, the only original jurisdiction cases heard by the Court are disputes between two or more states.\n\nThe power of the Supreme Court to consider appeals from state courts, rather than just federal courts, was created by the Judiciary Act of 1789 and upheld early in the Court's history, by its rulings in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816) and Cohens v. Virginia (1821). The Supreme Court is the only federal court that has jurisdiction over direct appeals from state court decisions, although there are several devices that permit so-called \"collateral review\" of state cases.\n\nSince Article Three of the United States Constitution stipulates that federal courts may only entertain \"cases\" or \"controversies\", the Supreme Court avoids deciding cases that are moot and does not render advisory opinions, as the supreme courts of some states may do. For example, in DeFunis v. Odegaard, , the Court dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a law school affirmative action policy because the plaintiff student had graduated since he began the lawsuit, and a decision from the Court on his claim would not be able to redress any injury he had suffered. The mootness exception is not absolute. If an issue is \"capable of repetition yet evading review\", the Court will address it even though the party before the Court would not himself be made whole by a favorable result. In Roe v. Wade, , and other abortion cases, the Court addresses the merits of claims pressed by pregnant women seeking abortions even if they are no longer pregnant because it takes longer than the typical human gestation period to appeal a case through the lower courts to the Supreme Court.\n\nJustices as Circuit Justices\n\nThe United States is divided into thirteen circuit courts of appeals, each of which is assigned a \"circuit justice\" from the Supreme Court. Although this concept has been in continuous existence throughout the history of the republic, its meaning has changed through time.\n\nUnder the Judiciary Act of 1789, each justice was required to \"ride circuit\", or to travel within the assigned circuit and consider cases alongside local judges. This practice encountered opposition from many justices, who cited the difficulty of travel. Moreover, there was a potential for a conflict of interest on the Court if a justice had previously decided the same case while riding circuit. Circuit riding was abolished in 1891.\n\nToday, the circuit justice for each circuit is responsible for dealing with certain types of applications that, under the Court's rules, may be addressed by a single justice. These include applications for emergency stays (including stays of execution in death-penalty cases) and injunctions pursuant to the All Writs Act arising from cases within that circuit, as well as routine requests such as requests for extensions of time. In the past, circuit justices also sometimes ruled on motions for bail in criminal cases, writs of habeas corpus, and applications for writs of error granting permission to appeal. Ordinarily, a justice will resolve such an application by simply endorsing it \"granted\" or \"denied\" or entering a standard form of order. However, the justice may elect to write an opinion—referred to as an in-chambers opinion—in such matters if he or she wishes.\n\nA circuit justice may sit as a judge on the Court of Appeals of that circuit, but over the past hundred years, this has rarely occurred. A circuit justice sitting with the Court of Appeals has seniority over the chief judge of the circuit.\n\nThe chief justice has traditionally been assigned to the District of Columbia Circuit, the Fourth Circuit (which includes Maryland and Virginia, the states surrounding the District of Columbia), and since it was established, the Federal Circuit. Each associate justice is assigned to one or two judicial circuits.\n\nAs of February 25, 2016, the allotment of the justices among the circuits is: \n\nFour of the current justices are assigned to circuits on which they previously sat as circuit judges: Chief Justice Roberts (D.C. Circuit), Justice Breyer (First Circuit), Justice Alito (Third Circuit), and Justice Kennedy (Ninth Circuit).\n\nProcess\n\nA term of the Supreme Court commences on the first Monday of each October, and continues until June or early July of the following year. Each term consists of alternating periods of approximately two weeks known as \"sittings\" and \"recesses.\" Justices hear cases and deliver rulings during sittings; they discuss cases and write opinions during recesses.\n\nCase selection\n\nNearly all cases come before the court by way of petitions for writs of certiorari, commonly referred to as \"cert.\" The Court may review any case in the federal courts of appeals \"by writ of certiorari granted upon the petition of any party to any civil or criminal case.\" The Court may only review \"final judgments rendered by the highest court of a state in which a decision could be had\" if those judgments involve a question of federal statutory or constitutional law. The party that appealed to the Court is the petitioner and the non-mover is the respondent. All case names before the Court are styled petitioner v. respondent, regardless of which party initiated the lawsuit in the trial court. For example, criminal prosecutions are brought in the name of the state and against an individual, as in State of Arizona v. Ernesto Miranda. If the defendant is convicted, and his conviction then is affirmed on appeal in the state supreme court, when he petitions for cert the name of the case becomes Miranda v. Arizona.\n\nThere are situations where the Court has original jurisdiction, such as when two states have a dispute against each other, or when there is a dispute between the United States and a state. In such instances, a case is filed with the Supreme Court directly. Examples of such cases include United States v. Texas, a case to determine whether a parcel of land belonged to the United States or to Texas, and Virginia v. Tennessee, a case turning on whether an incorrectly drawn boundary between two states can be changed by a state court, and whether the setting of the correct boundary requires Congressional approval. Although it has not happened since 1794 in the case of Georgia v. Brailsford, parties in an action at law in which the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction may request that a jury determine issues of fact. Two other original jurisdiction cases involve colonial era borders and rights under navigable waters in New Jersey v. Delaware, and water rights between riparian states upstream of navigable waters in Kansas v. Colorado.\n\nA cert petition is voted on at a session of the court called a conference. A conference is a private meeting of the nine Justices by themselves; the public and the Justices' clerks are excluded. If four Justices vote to grant the petition, the case proceeds to the briefing stage; otherwise, the case ends. Except in death penalty cases and other cases in which the Court orders briefing from the respondent, the respondent may, but is not required to, file a response to the cert petition.\n\nThe court grants a petition for cert only for \"compelling reasons\", spelled out in the court's Rule 10. Such reasons include:\n* Resolving a conflict in the interpretation of a federal law or a provision of the federal Constitution\n* Correcting an egregious departure from the accepted and usual course of judicial proceedings\n* Resolving an important question of federal law, or to expressly review a decision of a lower court that conflicts directly with a previous decision of the Court.\nWhen a conflict of interpretations arises from differing interpretations of the same law or constitutional provision issued by different federal circuit courts of appeals, lawyers call this situation a \"circuit split.\" If the court votes to deny a cert petition, as it does in the vast majority of such petitions that come before it, it does so typically without comment. A denial of a cert petition is not a judgment on the merits of a case, and the decision of the lower court stands as the final ruling in the case.\n\nTo manage the high volume of cert petitions received by the Court each year (of the more than 7,000 petitions the Court receives each year, it will usually request briefing and hear oral argument in 100 or fewer), the Court employs an internal case management tool known as the \"cert pool.\" Currently, all justices except for Justice Alito participate in the cert pool. \n\nOral argument\n\nWhen the Court grants a cert petition, the case is set for oral argument. Both parties will file briefs on the merits of the case, as distinct from the reasons they may have argued for granting or denying the cert petition. With the consent of the parties or approval of the Court, amici curiae, or \"friends of the court\", may also file briefs. The Court holds two-week oral argument sessions each month from October through April. Each side has thirty minutes to present its argument (the Court may choose to give more time, though this is rare), and during that time, the Justices may interrupt the advocate and ask questions. The petitioner gives the first presentation, and may reserve some time to rebut the respondent's arguments after the respondent has concluded. Amici curiae may also present oral argument on behalf of one party if that party agrees. The Court advises counsel to assume that the Justices are familiar with and have read the briefs filed in a case.\n\nSupreme Court bar\n\nIn order to plead before the court, an attorney must first be admitted to the court's bar. Approximately 4,000 lawyers join the bar each year. The bar contains an estimated 230,000 members. In reality, pleading is limited to several hundred attorneys. The rest join for a one-time fee of $200, earning the court about $750,000 annually. Attorneys can be admitted as either individuals or as groups. The group admission is held before the current justices of the Supreme Court, wherein the Chief Justice approves a motion to admit the new attorneys. Lawyers commonly apply for the cosmetic value of a certificate to display in their office or on their resume. They also receive access to better seating if they wish to attend an oral argument. Members of the Supreme Court Bar are also granted access to the collections of the Supreme Court Library. \n\nDecision\n\nAt the conclusion of oral argument, the case is submitted for decision. Cases are decided by majority vote of the Justices. It is the Court's practice to issue decisions in all cases argued in a particular Term by the end of that Term. Within that Term, however, the Court is under no obligation to release a decision within any set time after oral argument. At the conclusion of oral argument, the Justices retire to another conference at which the preliminary votes are tallied, and the most senior Justice in the majority assigns the initial draft of the Court's opinion to a Justice on his or her side. Drafts of the Court's opinion, as well as any concurring or dissenting opinions, circulate among the Justices until the Court is prepared to announce the judgment in a particular case.\n\nIt is possible that, through recusals or vacancies, the Court divides evenly on a case. If that occurs, then the decision of the court below is affirmed, but does not establish binding precedent. In effect, it results in a return to the status quo ante. For a case to be heard, there must be a quorum of at least six justices. If a quorum is not available to hear a case and a majority of qualified justices believes that the case cannot be heard and determined in the next term, then the judgment of the court below is affirmed as if the Court had been evenly divided. For cases brought to the Supreme Court by direct appeal from a United States District Court, the Chief Justice may order the case remanded to the appropriate U.S. Court of Appeals for a final decision there. This has only occurred once in U.S. history, in the case of United States v. Alcoa (1945). \n\nPublished opinions\n\nThe Court's opinions are published in three stages. First, a slip opinion is made available on the Court's web site and through other outlets. Next, several opinions and lists of the court's orders are bound together in paperback form, called a preliminary print of United States Reports, the official series of books in which the final version of the Court's opinions appears. About a year after the preliminary prints are issued, a final bound volume of U.S. Reports is issued. The individual volumes of U.S. Reports are numbered so that users may cite this set of reports—or a competing version published by another commercial legal publisher but containing parallel citations—to allow those who read their pleadings and other briefs to find the cases quickly and easily.\n\n, there are:\n* 557 final bound volumes of U.S. Reports, covering cases through the end of October Term 2008, which ended on October 2, 2009. \n* 4 volumes' worth of soft-cover preliminary prints (volumes 558–561), covering cases for October Term 2009\n* 12 volumes' worth of opinions available in slip opinion form (volumes 562–573)\n\n, the U.S. Reports have published a total of 30,161 Supreme Court opinions, covering the decisions handed down from February 1790 to March 2012. This figure does not reflect the number of cases the Court has taken up, as several cases can be addressed by a single opinion (see, for example, Parents v. Seattle, where Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education was also decided in the same opinion; by a similar logic, Miranda v. Arizona actually decided not only Miranda but also three other cases: Vignera v. New York, Westover v. United States, and California v. Stewart). A more unusual example is The Telephone Cases, which comprise a single set of interlinked opinions that take up the entire 126th volume of the U.S. Reports.\n\nOpinions are also collected and published in two unofficial, parallel reporters: Supreme Court Reporter, published by West (now a part of Thomson Reuters), and United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition (simply known as Lawyers' Edition), published by LexisNexis. In court documents, legal periodicals, and other legal media, case citations generally contain the cites from each of the three reporters; for example, the citation to Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is presented as Citizens United v. Federal Election Com'n, 585 U.S. 50, 130 S. Ct. 876, 175 L. Ed. 2d 753 (2010), with \"S. Ct.\" representing the Supreme Court Reporter, and \"L. Ed.\" representing the Lawyers' Edition. \n\nCitations to published opinions\n\nLawyers use an abbreviated format to cite cases, in the form \" U.S. , ()\", where is the volume number, is the page number on which the opinion begins, and is the year in which the case was decided. Optionally, is used to \"pinpoint\" to a specific page number within the opinion. For instance, the citation for Roe v. Wade is 410 U.S. 113 (1973), which means the case was decided in 1973 and appears on page 113 of volume 410 of U.S. Reports. For opinions or orders that have not yet been published in the preliminary print, the volume and page numbers may be replaced with \"___\".\n\nInstitutional powers and constraints\n\nThe Federal court system and the judicial authority to interpret the Constitution received little attention in the debates over the drafting and ratification of the Constitution. The power of judicial review, in fact, is nowhere mentioned in it. Over the ensuing years, the question of whether the power of judicial review was even intended by the drafters of the Constitution was quickly frustrated by the lack of evidence bearing on the question either way. Nevertheless, the power of judiciary to overturn laws and executive actions it determines are unlawful or unconstitutional is a well-established precedent. Many of the Founding Fathers accepted the notion of judicial review; in Federalist No. 78, Alexander Hamilton wrote: \"A Constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as a fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning, as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body. If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between the two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of course, to be preferred; or, in other words, the Constitution ought to be preferred to the statute.\"\n\nThe Supreme Court firmly established its power to declare laws unconstitutional in Marbury v. Madison (1803), consummating the American system of checks and balances. In explaining the power of judicial review, Chief Justice John Marshall stated that the authority to interpret the law was the particular province of the courts, part of the duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. His contention was not that the Court had privileged insight into constitutional requirements, but that it was the constitutional duty of the judiciary, as well as the other branches of government, to read and obey the dictates of the Constitution. \n\nSince the founding of the republic, there has been a tension between the practice of judicial review and the democratic ideals of egalitarianism, self-government, self-determination and freedom of conscience. At one pole are those who view the Federal Judiciary and especially the Supreme Court as being \"the most separated and least checked of all branches of government.\" Indeed, federal judges and justices on the Supreme Court are not required to stand for election by virtue of their tenure \"during good behavior\", and their pay may \"not be diminished\" while they hold their position (Section 1 of Article Three). Though subject to the process of impeachment, only one Justice has ever been impeached and no Supreme Court Justice has been removed from office. At the other pole are those who view the judiciary as the least dangerous branch, with little ability to resist the exhortations of the other branches of government. The Supreme Court, it is noted, cannot directly enforce its rulings; instead, it relies on respect for the Constitution and for the law for adherence to its judgments. One notable instance of nonacquiescence came in 1832, when the state of Georgia ignored the Supreme Court's decision in Worcester v. Georgia. President Andrew Jackson, who sided with the Georgia courts, is supposed to have remarked, \"John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!\"; however, this alleged quotation has been disputed. Some state governments in the South also resisted the desegregation of public schools after the 1954 judgment Brown v. Board of Education. More recently, many feared that President Nixon would refuse to comply with the Court's order in United States v. Nixon (1974) to surrender the Watergate tapes. Nixon, however, ultimately complied with the Supreme Court's ruling.\n\nSupreme Court decisions can be (and have been) purposefully overturned by constitutional amendment, which has happened on five occasions:\n*Chisholm v. Georgia (1793) – overturned by the Eleventh Amendment (1795)\n*Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) – overturned by the Thirteenth Amendment (1865) and the Fourteenth Amendment (1868)\n*Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895) – overturned by the Sixteenth Amendment (1913)\n*Minor v. Happersett (1875) – overturned by the Nineteenth Amendment (1920)\n*Oregon v. Mitchell (1970) – overturned by the Twenty-sixth Amendment (1971)\n\nWhen the Court rules on matters involving the interpretation of laws rather than of the Constitution, simple legislative action can reverse the decisions (for example, in 2009 Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter act, superseding the limitations given in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in 2007). Also, the Supreme Court is not immune from political and institutional consideration: lower federal courts and state courts sometimes resist doctrinal innovations, as do law enforcement officials. \n\nIn addition, the other two branches can restrain the Court through other mechanisms. Congress can increase the number of justices, giving the President power to influence future decisions by appointments (as in Roosevelt's Court Packing Plan discussed above). Congress can pass legislation that restricts the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and other federal courts over certain topics and cases: this is suggested by language in Section 2 of Article Three, where the appellate jurisdiction is granted \"with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.\" The Court sanctioned such congressional action in the Reconstruction case ex parte McCardle (1869), though it rejected Congress' power to dictate how particular cases must be decided in United States v. Klein (1871).\n\nOn the other hand, through its power of judicial review, the Supreme Court has defined the scope and nature of the powers and separation between the legislative and executive branches of the federal government; for example, in United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (1936), Dames & Moore v. Regan (1981), and notably in Goldwater v. Carter (1979), (where it effectively gave the Presidency the power to terminate ratified treaties without the consent of Congress or the Senate). The Court's decisions can also impose limitations on the scope of Executive authority, as in Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935), the Steel Seizure Case (1952), and United States v. Nixon (1974).\n\nLaw clerks\n\nEach Supreme Court justice hires several law clerks to review petitions for writ of certiorari, research them, prepare bench memorandums, and draft opinions. Associate justices are allowed four clerks. The chief justice is allowed five clerks, but Chief Justice Rehnquist hired only three per year, and Chief Justice Roberts usually hires only four. Generally, law clerks serve a term of one to two years.\n\nThe first law clerk was hired by Associate Justice Horace Gray in 1882. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and Louis Brandeis were the first Supreme Court justices to use recent law school graduates as clerks, rather than hiring a \"stenographer-secretary\". Most law clerks are recent law school graduates.\n\nThe first female clerk was Lucile Lomen, hired in 1944 by Justice William O. Douglas. The first African-American, William T. Coleman, Jr., was hired in 1948 by Justice Felix Frankfurter. A disproportionately large number of law clerks have obtained law degrees from elite law schools, especially Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago, Columbia, and Stanford. From 1882 to 1940, 62% of law clerks were graduates of Harvard Law School. Those chosen to be Supreme Court law clerks usually have graduated in the top of their law school class and were often an editor of the law review or a member of the moot court board. In recent times, clerking previously for a judge in a federal circuit court has been a prerequisite to clerking for a Supreme Court justice.\n\nSix Supreme Court justices previously clerked for other justices: Byron White clerked for Frederick M. Vinson, John Paul Stevens clerked for Wiley Rutledge, Stephen Breyer clerked for Arthur Goldberg, William H. Rehnquist clerked for Robert H. Jackson, John G. Roberts, Jr. clerked for William H. Rehnquist, and Elena Kagan clerked for Thurgood Marshall. Many of the justices have also clerked in the federal Courts of Appeals. Justice Samuel Alito clerked for Judge Leonard I. Garth of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and Elena Kagan clerked for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.\n\nPoliticization of the Court\n\nClerks hired by each of the justices of the Supreme Court are often given considerable leeway in the opinions they draft. \"Supreme Court clerkship appeared to be a nonpartisan institution from the 1940s into the 1980s\", according to a study published in 2009 by the law review of Vanderbilt University Law School. \"As law has moved closer to mere politics, political affiliations have naturally and predictably become proxies for the different political agendas that have been pressed in and through the courts\", former federal court of appeals judge J. Michael Luttig said. David J. Garrow, professor of history at the University of Cambridge, stated that the Court had thus begun to mirror the political branches of government. \"We are getting a composition of the clerk workforce that is getting to be like the House of Representatives\", Professor Garrow said. \"Each side is putting forward only ideological purists.\"\n\nAccording to the Vanderbilt Law Review study, this politicized hiring trend reinforces the impression that the Supreme Court is \"a superlegislature responding to ideological arguments rather than a legal institution responding to concerns grounded in the rule of law.\"\n\nA poll conducted in June 2012 by The New York Times and CBS News showed that just 44 percent of Americans approve of the job the Supreme Court is doing. Three-quarters said the justices' decisions are sometimes influenced by their political or personal views. \n\nCriticism\n\nThe court has been the object of criticisms on a range of issues. Among them:\n\n* Judicial activism: The Supreme Court has been criticized for not keeping within Constitutional bounds by engaging in judicial activism, rather than merely interpreting law and exercising judicial restraint. Claims of judicial activism are not confined to any particular ideology. An often cited example of conservative judicial activism is the 1905 decision in Lochner v. New York, which has been criticized by many prominent thinkers, including Robert Bork, Justice Antonin Scalia, and Chief Justice John Roberts. An often cited example of liberal judicial activism is Roe v. Wade (1973), which legalized abortion in part on the basis of the \"right to privacy\" expressed in the Fourteenth Amendment, a reasoning that some critics argued was circuitous. Legal scholars, justices, and presidential candidates have criticized the Roe decision. The progressive Brown v. Board of Education decision has been criticized by conservatives such as Patrick Buchanan and former presidential contender Barry Goldwater. More recently, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission was criticized for changing the long-standing view that the first amendment did not apply to the corporation. Lincoln warned, referring to the Dred Scott decision, that if government policy became \"irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court...the people will have ceased to be their own rulers.\" Former justice Thurgood Marshall justified judicial activism with these words: \"You do what you think is right and let the law catch up.\" During different historical periods, the Court has leaned in different directions. Critics from both sides complain that activist-judges abandon the Constitution and substitute their own views instead. Critics include writers such as Andrew Napolitano, Phyllis Schlafly, Mark R. Levin, Mark I. Sutherland, and James MacGregor Burns. Past presidents from both parties have attacked judicial activism, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. Failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork wrote: \"What judges have wrought is a coup d'état, – slow-moving and genteel, but a coup d'état nonetheless.\" Senator Al Franken quipped that when politicians talk about judicial activism, \"their definition of an activist judge is one who votes differently than they would like.\" One law professor claimed in a 1978 article that the Supreme Court is in some respects \"certainly a legislative body.\"\n* Failing to protect individual rights: Court decisions have been criticized for failing to protect individual rights: the Dred Scott (1857) decision upheld slavery; Plessy v Ferguson (1896) upheld segregation under the doctrine of separate but equal; Kelo v. City of New London (2005) was criticized by prominent politicians, including New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, as undermining property rights. A student criticized a 1988 ruling that allowed school officials \"to block publication of a student article in the high school newspaper.\" Some critics suggest the 2009 bench with a conservative majority has \"become increasingly hostile to voters\" by siding with Indiana's voter identification laws which tend to \"disenfranchise large numbers of people without driver's licenses, especially poor and minority voters\", according to one report. Senator Al Franken criticized the Court for \"eroding individual rights.\" However, others argue that the Court is too protective of some individual rights, particularly those of people accused of crimes or in detention. For example, Chief Justice Warren Burger was an outspoken critic of the exclusionary rule, and Justice Scalia criticized the Court's decision in Boumediene v. Bush for being too protective of the rights of Guantanamo detainees, on the grounds that habeas corpus was \"limited\" to sovereign territory.\n* Supreme Court has too much power: This criticism is related to complaints about judicial activism. George Will wrote that the Court has an \"increasingly central role in American governance.\" It was criticized for intervening in bankruptcy proceedings regarding ailing carmaker Chrysler Corporation in 2009. A reporter wrote that \"Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's intervention in the Chrysler bankruptcy\" left open the \"possibility of further judicial review\" but argued overall that the intervention was a proper use of Supreme Court power to check the executive branch. Warren E. Burger, before becoming Chief Justice, argued that since the Supreme Court has such \"unreviewable power\" it is likely to \"self-indulge itself\" and unlikely to \"engage in dispassionate analysis\". Larry Sabato wrote \"excessive authority has accrued to the federal courts, especially the Supreme Court.\"\n* Courts are poor check on executive power: British constitutional scholar Adam Tomkins sees flaws in the American system of having courts (and specifically the Supreme Court) act as checks on the Executive and Legislative branches; he argues that because the courts must wait, sometimes for years, for cases to wend their way through the system, their ability to restrain the other two branches is severely weakened. In contrast, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany for example, can directly declare a law unconstitutional upon request.\n* Federal versus state power: There has been debate throughout American history about the boundary between federal and state power. While Framers such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton argued in The Federalist Papers that their then-proposed Constitution would not infringe on the power of state governments, others argue that expansive federal power is good and consistent with the Framers' wishes. The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution explicitly grants \"powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.\" The Supreme Court has been criticized for giving the federal government too much power to interfere with state authority. One criticism is that it has allowed the federal government to misuse the Commerce Clause by upholding regulations and legislation which have little to do with interstate commerce, but that were enacted under the guise of regulating interstate commerce; and by voiding state legislation for allegedly interfering with interstate commerce. For example, the Commerce Clause was used by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the Endangered Species Act, thus protecting six endemic species of insect near Austin, Texas, despite the fact that the insects had no commercial value and did not travel across state lines; the Supreme Court let that ruling stand without comment in 2005. Chief Justice John Marshall asserted Congress's power over interstate commerce was \"complete in itself, may be exercised to its utmost extent, and acknowledges no limitations, other than are prescribed in the Constitution.\" Justice Alito said congressional authority under the Commerce Clause is \"quite broad.\" Modern day theorist Robert B. Reich suggests debate over the Commerce Clause continues today. Advocates of states' rights such as constitutional scholar Kevin Gutzman have also criticized the Court, saying it has misused the Fourteenth Amendment to undermine state authority. Justice Brandeis, in arguing for allowing the states to operate without federal interference, suggested that states should be laboratories of democracy. One critic wrote \"the great majority of Supreme Court rulings of unconstitutionality involve state, not federal, law.\" However, others see the Fourteenth Amendment as a positive force that extends \"protection of those rights and guarantees to the state level.\"\n* Secretive proceedings: The Court has been criticized for keeping its deliberations hidden from public view. According to a review of Jeffrey Toobin's expose The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court; \"Its inner workings are difficult for reporters to cover, like a closed \"cartel\", only revealing itself through \"public events and printed releases, with nothing about its inner workings\". The reviewer writes: \"few (reporters) dig deeply into court affairs. It all works very neatly; the only ones hurt are the American people, who know little about nine individuals with enormous power over their lives.\" Larry Sabato complains about the Court's \"insularity.\" A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll conducted in 2010 found that 61% of American voters agreed that televising Court hearings would \"be good for democracy\", and 50% of voters stated they would watch Court proceedings if they were televised. In recent years, many justices have appeared on television, written books, and made public statements to journalists. In a 2009 interview on C-SPAN, journalists Joan Biskupic (of USA Today) and Lyle Denniston (of SCOTUSblog) argued that the Court is a \"very open\" institution, with only the justices' private conferences being inaccessible to others. In October 2010, the Court began the practice of posting on its website recordings and transcripts of oral arguments on the Friday after they take place.\n* Judicial interference in political disputes: Some Court decisions have been criticized for injecting the Court into the political arena, and deciding questions that are the purview of the other two branches of government. The Bush v. Gore decision, in which the Supreme Court intervened in the 2000 presidential election and effectively chose George W. Bush over Al Gore, has been criticized extensively, particularly by liberals. Another example are Court decisions on apportionment and re-districting: in Baker v. Carr, the court decided it could rule on apportionment questions; Justice Frankfurter in a \"scathing dissent\" argued against the court wading into so-called political questions.\n* Not choosing enough cases to review: Senator Arlen Specter said the Court should \"decide more cases\". On the other hand, although Justice Scalia acknowledged in a 2009 interview that the number of cases that the Court hears now is smaller today than when he first joined the Supreme Court, he also stated that he has not changed his standards for deciding whether to review a case, nor does he believe his colleagues have changed their standards. He attributed the high volume of cases in the late 1980s, at least in part, to an earlier flurry of new federal legislation that was making its way through the courts.\n* Lifetime tenure: Critic Larry Sabato wrote: \"The insularity of lifetime tenure, combined with the appointments of relatively young attorneys who give long service on the bench, produces senior judges representing the views of past generations better than views of the current day.\" Sanford Levinson has been critical of justices who stayed in office despite medical deterioration based on longevity. James MacGregor Burns stated lifelong tenure has \"produced a critical time lag, with the Supreme Court institutionally almost always behind the times.\" Proposals to solve these problems include term limits for justices, as proposed by Levinson and Sabato as well as a mandatory retirement age proposed by Richard Epstein, among others. However, others suggest lifetime tenure brings substantial benefits, such as impartiality and freedom from political pressure. Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 78 wrote \"nothing can contribute so much to its firmness and independence as permanency in office.\"\n* Accepting gifts: The 21st century has seen increased scrutiny of justices accepting expensive gifts and travel. All of the members of the Roberts Court have accepted travel or gifts. In 2012, Justice Sonia Sotomayor received $1.9 million in advances from her publisher Knopf Doubleday. Justice Scalia and others took dozens of expensive trips to exotic locations paid for by private donors. Private events sponsored by partisan groups that are attended by both the justices and those who have an interest in their decisions have raised concerns about access and inappropriate communications. Stephen Spaulding, the legal director at Common Cause, said, \"There are fair questions raised by some of these trips about their commitment to being impartial.\"" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Tacoma,_Washington.txt" ], "title": [ "Tacoma, Washington" ], "wiki_context": [ "Tacoma (, ) is a mid-sized urban port city in and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, 32 mi southwest of Seattle, 31 mi northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and 58 mi northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to the 2010 census. Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third largest in the state. Tacoma also serves as the center of business activity for the South Sound region, which has a population of around 1 million people.\n\nTacoma adopted its name after the nearby Mount Rainier, originally called Takhoma or Tahoma. It is locally known as the \"City of Destiny\" because the area was chosen to be the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the late 19th century. The decision of the railroad was influenced by Tacoma's neighboring deep-water harbor, Commencement Bay. By connecting the bay with the railroad, Tacoma's motto became \"When rails meet sails.\" Today, Commencement Bay serves the Port of Tacoma, a center of international trade on the Pacific Coast and Washington State's largest port.\n\nLike most central cities, Tacoma suffered a prolonged decline in the mid-20th century as a result of suburbanization and divestment. Since the 1990s, developments in the downtown core include the University of Washington Tacoma; Tacoma Link, the first modern electric light rail service in the state; the state's highest density of art and history museums; and a restored urban waterfront, the Thea Foss Waterway. Neighborhoods such as the 6th Avenue District have become revitalized.\n\nTacoma-Pierce County has been named one of the most livable areas in the United States. In 2006, Tacoma was listed as one of the \"most walkable\" cities in the country. That same year, the women's magazine Self named Tacoma the \"Most Sexually Healthy City\" in the United States.[http://www.soundpolitics.com/archives/007548.html Sound Politics: Garbage In, Garbage Out] In contrast, Tacoma was also ranked as the \"most stressed-out\" city in the country in a 2004 survey. \n\nTacoma gained notoriety in 1940 for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which earned the nickname \"Galloping Gertie\".\n\nHistory\n\nThe city of Tacoma and surrounding areas were inhabited for thousands of years by American Indians, predominantly the Puyallup people, who lived in settlements on the delta.\n\nIn 1852, a Swede named Nicolas Delin constructed a sawmill powered by water on a creek near the head of Commencement Bay, but the small settlement that grew up around it was abandoned during the Indian War of 1855–56. In 1864, pioneer and postmaster Job Carr, a Civil War veteran and land speculator who hoped to profit from the selection of Commencement Bay as the terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad, built a cabin (a [http://www.jobcarrmuseum.org/ replica] of Job Carr's cabin, which also served as Tacoma's first post office, was erected in \"Old Town\" in 2000 near the original site), and later sold most of his claim to developer Morton M. McCarver (1807–1875), who named his project Tacoma City, derived from the indigenous name for the mountain.\n\nTacoma was incorporated on November 12, 1875, following the merger of Old Tacoma and New Tacoma on January 7, 1884. Its hopes to be the \"City of Destiny\" were stimulated by selection in 1873 as the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, thanks to lobbying by McCarver, future mayor John Wilson Sprague, and others. The transcontinental link was effected in 1887, but the railroad built its depot on \"New Tacoma\", two miles (3 km) south of the Carr-McCarver development. The two communities grew together and joined. The population grew from 1,098 in 1880 to 36,006 in 1890. Rudyard Kipling visited Tacoma in 1889 and said it was \"literally staggering under a boom of the boomiest\". \n\nGeorge Francis Train was a resident for a few years in the late 19th century. In 1890, he staged a global circumnavigation starting and ending in Tacoma to promote the city. A plaque in downtown Tacoma marks the start and finish line.\n\nIn November 1885, white citizens led by then-mayor Jacob Weisbach expelled several hundred Chinese residents peacefully living in the city. As described by the account prepared by the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation, on the morning of November 3, 1885, \"several hundred men, led by the mayor and other city officials, evicted the Chinese from their homes, corralled them at 7th Street and Pacific Avenue, marched them to the railway station at Lakeview and forced them aboard the morning train to Portland, Oregon. The next day two Chinese settlements were burned to the ground.\"\n\nThe discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1898 led Tacoma's prominence in the region to be eclipsed by the booming development of Seattle.\n\n20th century\n\nA major tragedy marred the end of the 19th century, when a streetcar accident resulted in significant loss of life on July 4, 1900.\n\nFrom May to August 1907, the city was the site of a smelter workers' strike organized by Local 545 of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), with the goal of a fifty-cent per day pay raise. The strike was strongly opposed by the local business community, and the smelter owners threatened to blacklist organizers and union officials. The IWW opposed this move by trying to persuade inbound workers to avoid Tacoma for the duration of the strike. By August, the strike had ended without meeting its demands. \n\nTacoma was briefly (1915–22) a major destination for big-time automobile racing, with one of the nation's top-rated racing venues located just outside the city limits, at the site of today's Clover Park Technical College.\n\nThe Great Depression\n\nThe 1929 crash of the Stock Market crash, also known as the Great Depression, was only the first event in a series of bad misfortunes to hit Tacoma in the winter of 1929–30. One of the coldest winters on record, Tacoma experienced mass power outages and eventually the shut down of major power supply dams, leaving the city without sufficient power and heat. During the 30-day power shortage in the winter of 1929 and 1930, Tacoma was provided with electricity from the engines of the aircraft carrier . \n\nA power grid failure paired with a newly rewritten city constitution put in to place in order to keep political power away from a single entity such as the railroad, created a stand still in the ability to further the local economy. Local businesses felt the pinch as the sudden stop of loans limited progression of expansion and renewal funds for maintenance leading to foreclosures. Families all over the city experience the fallout of economic depression growing the problem of \"where\" and \"how\" breadwinners were going to find the food that their families needed to survive. Local makeshift inner shanty town politics began to develop as the occupants needed some form of leadership to keep the peace. \n\nTacoma's own Hooverville\n\nAt the intersection of Dock Street EXD and East D Street in the train yard, a shantytown became the solution to the growing scar of the depression. Tacoma's Hooverville grew in 1924 as the homeless community moved onto the waterfront as a place to settle. The population boomed in November 1930 through early 1931 as families from the neighboring McKinley and Hill Top areas fell victim to eviction notices and the inability to find steady work.\n\nCollecting scraps of metal and wood from local lumber stores and recycling centers, families began building shanties (shacks) in order to supply a roof over their heads. Alcohol and suicide became a common event in the Hooverville that eventually gave it its nickname of \"Hollywood\", because of the Hollywood-style crimes and events taking place in the camp. \nIt would not be until 1956 when the last occupant of \"Hollywood\" was evicted and the police used fire to level the grounds and make room for industrial growth. \n\nTimeline events of Tacoma's Hooverville \"Hollywood on the Tide Flats\"\n\n*7/28/1924 – Tacoma starts feeling the coming pinch of the economical crises.\n*11/12/1927 – Tacoma's Hooverville is coined \"Hollywood\" due to the \"Hollywood\" type crimes coming from the camp.\n*4/22/1932 – 5/11/1934 – Tacoma's Hooverville breaks out in a rash of problems stemming from alcohol and suicides.\n*3/10/1937 – Tacoma holds a committee to assess the \"Real Social Problem\" in regards to the Shantytown.\n*4/9/1940 – After the eviction notices fail to evacuate the Hooverville, the local police department burns down \"Hollywood\", their first attempt.\n*7/27/1956 – The last occupant of \"Hollywood\" is removed and the police, for a second time, burn down the remains and flatten the area for industrial growth.\n\n(Time line constructed from following sources: Tacoma News Tribune (1940–74) and The Tacoma Daily Ledger (1924–40) \n\nIn 1935, Tacoma received national attention when George Weyerhaeuser, the nine-year-old son of prominent lumber industry executive J.P. Weyerhaeuser, was kidnapped while walking home from school. FBI agents from Portland handled the case, in which payment of a ransom of $200,000 secured release of the victim. Four persons were apprehended and convicted. The last to be released was paroled from McNeil Island in 1963. George Weyerhaeuser went on to become chairman of the Board of the Weyerhaeuser Company.\n\nIn 1951, an investigation by a state legislative committee revealed widespread corruption in Tacoma's government, which had been organized commission-style since 1910. Voters approved a mayor and city-manager system in 1952.\n\nTacoma was featured prominently in the garage rock sound of the mid-1960s with bands including The Wailers and The Sonics. The surf rock band The Ventures were also from Tacoma.\n\nDowntown Tacoma experienced a long decline through the mid-20th century. Harold Moss, later the city's mayor, characterized late 1970s Tacoma as looking \"bombed out\" like \"downtown Beirut\" (a reference to the Lebanese Civil War that occurred at that time); \"Streets were abandoned, storefronts were abandoned and City Hall was the headstone and Union Station the footstone\" on the grave of downtown. \n\nThis picture began to change somewhere around 1990. Among the projects associated with the downtown renaissance were the federal courthouse in the former Union Station (1991); the Washington State History Museum (1996), echoing the architecture of Union Station; the adaptation of a group of century-old brick warehouses into the University of Washington Tacoma campus; the numerous privately financed renovation projects near that UW Tacoma campus; the Museum of Glass (2002); the Tacoma Art Museum (2003); and the region's first light-rail line (2003). \n\nThe first local referendums in the U.S. on computerized voting occurred in Tacoma in 1982 and 1987. On both occasions, voters rejected 3-1 the computer voting systems that local officials sought to purchase. The campaigns, organized by Eleanora Ballasiotes, a conservative Republican, focused on the vulnerabilities of computers to fraud. \n\nIn 1998, Tacoma installed a high-speed fiber optic network throughout the community. The municipally owned power company, Tacoma Power, wired the city.\n\n21st century\n\nTacoma's Hilltop neighborhood started struggling with crime in the 1980s and early 1990s. Due to its high crime rate, Washington residents nicknamed the city \"Tacompton\", in reference to Compton, California. The beginning of the 21st Century has seen a marked reduction in crime, as neighborhoods have enacted community policing and other policies. Bill Baarsma (mayor from 2002–2010) is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a bi-partisan group with a stated goal of \"making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets.\" The coalition was co-chaired by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.\n\nIn 2004, Tacoma was ranked among the top 30 Most Livable Communities in an annual survey conducted by the Partners for Livable Communities. In 2009 Tacoma elected its second African-American mayor, Marilyn Strickland.\n\nDowntown revival\n\nBeginning in the early 1990s, city residents and planners have taken steps to revitalize Tacoma, particularly its downtown. The University of Washington established a branch campus in Tacoma in 1990. The same year, Union Station (Tacoma) was restored. The Museum of Glass opened in downtown Tacoma in 2002, showing glass art from the region and around the world. It includes a glassblowing studio and is connected to the rest of the Museum District by the Bridge of Glass, which features works by Tacoma native glass artist Dale Chihuly.\n\nTacoma's downtown Cultural District is the site of the Washington State History Museum (1996) and the Tacoma Art Museum (2003). America's Car Museum was completed in late 2011 and resides near the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma.\nThe glass and steel Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center opened in November 2004. \n\nThe Theatre District of downtown Tacoma is anchored by the Pantages Theater (first opened in 1918). The Broadway Center for the Performing Arts[http://www.broadwaycenter.org Broadway Center For the Performing Arts] manages the Pantages, the Rialto Theater, and the Theatre on the Square, as well as Tacoma Little Theatre. Other attractions include the Grand Cinema and the Temple Theatre.\n\nGeography\n\nTacoma is at (47.241371, -122.459389). Its elevation is 381 ft.\n\nAccording to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.\n\nTacoma straddles the neighboring Commencement Bay with several smaller cities surrounding it. Large areas of Tacoma have excellent views of Mt. Rainier. In the event of a major eruption of Mount Rainier, portions of Tacoma's industrial area are at risk from lahars.\n\nThe city is located several miles north of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, formerly known separately as Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base.\n\nClimate\n\nAccording to the Köppen climate classification, Tacoma lies has a Mediterranean Oceanic climate (Köppen Csb).\n\nSurrounding cities\n\nDemographics\n\nAs of 2000 the median income for a household in the city was $37,879, and the median income for a family was $45,567. Males had a median income of $35,820, versus $27,697 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,130. About 11.4% of families and 15.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.6% of those under the age of 18 and 10.9% of those 65 and older.\n\n2010 census\n\nAs of the census of 2010, there were 198,397 people, 78,541 households, and 45,716 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 81,102 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 64.9% White (60.5% Non-Hispanic White ), 12.2% African American, 8.2% Asian (2.1% Vietnamese, 1.6% Cambodian, 1.3% Korean, 1.3% Filipino, 0.4% Chinese, 0.4% Japanese, 0.2% Indian, 0.2% Laotian, 0.1% Thai), 1.8% Native American, 1.2% Pacific Islander (0.7% Samoan, 0.2% Guamanian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian), and 8.1% were from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 11.3% of the population (8.1% Mexican, 1.1% Puerto Rican).\n\nThere were 78,541 households of which 31.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.8% were married couples living together, 14.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 41.8% were non-families. 32.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.10.\n\nThe median age in the city was 35.1 years. 23% of residents were under the age of 18; 10.9% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 29.6% were from 25 to 44; 25.3% were from 45 to 64; and 11.3% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.4% male and 50.6% female.\n\nGovernment\n\nThe government of the city of Tacoma operates under a council-manager system. The city council consists of an elected mayor (Marilyn Strickland) and eight elected council members, five from individual city council districts and three others from the city at-large. All serve four-year terms and are elected in odd-numbered years. The council adopts and amends city laws, approves a two-year budget, establishes city policy, appoints citizens to boards and commissions, and performs other actions. The council also meets in \"standing committees\", which break down the council's work into more defined areas, such as \"Environment & Public Works\", \"Neighborhoods & Housing\", and \"Public Safety, Human Services & Education\". The council meets as a whole most Tuesdays at 5:00 p.m. in the council chambers at 747 Market St. Meetings are open to the public and provide for public input..\n\nNormal day-to-day operations of the city government are administered by Tacoma's city manager, who is appointed by the city council.Tacoma's City Manager, T.C. Broadnax, was appointed to the office in January 2012. \n\nCommerce and industry\n\nTacoma is the home of several international companies including staffing company True Blue Inc. (formerly Labor Ready), lumber company Simpson and the food companies Roman Meal and Brown and Haley.\n\nFrank C. Mars founded Mars, Incorporated in 1911 in Tacoma.\n\nBeginning in the 1930s, Tacoma became known for the \"Tacoma Aroma\", a distinctive, acrid odor produced by paper manufacturing on the industrial tide flats. In the late 1990s, Simpson Tacoma Kraft reduced total sulfur emissions by 90%. This largely eliminated the problem; where once the aroma was ever-present, it is now only noticeable occasionally downtown, primarily when the wind is coming from the east.\n\nU.S. Oil and Refining operates an oil refinery on the tide flats in the Port of Tacoma. Built in Tacoma in 1952, it currently refines 39,000 barrels of petroleum per day.\n\nThe Tacoma Mall is the largest shopping center in Tacoma. It is owned by Simon Property Group. Anchor tenants include JC Penney, Sears, Macy's, and Nordstrom.\n\nAn economic setback for the city occurred in September 2009 when Russell Investments, which has been located in downtown Tacoma since its inception in 1936, announced it was moving its headquarters to Seattle along with several hundred white collar jobs. \n\nHospitals in Tacoma are operated by MultiCare Health System and Franciscan Health System. Hospitals include MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital, Mary Bridge Children's Hospital, MultiCare Allenmore Hospital and St. Joseph Medical Center.\n\nTop employers\n\nAccording to Tacoma's 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in Pierce County are:\n\nTransportation\n\nTacoma's system of transportation is based primarily on the automobile. The majority of the city has a system of gridded streets oriented in relation to A Street (one block east of Pacific Avenue) and 6th Avenue or Division Avenue, both beginning in downtown Tacoma. Within the city, and with a few exceptions, east-to-west streets are numbered and north-to-south streets are given a name or a letter. Some east-to-west streets are also given names, such as S. Center St. and N. Westgate Blvd. Streets are generally labeled \"North\", \"South\", \"East\", or \"North East\" according to their relationship with 6th Avenue or Division Avenue (west of 'Division Ave' '6th Avenue' is the lowest-numbered street, making it the dividing street between \"North\" and \"South\"), 'A' Street (which is the dividing line between \"East\" and \"South\"), or 1st Street NE (which is the dividing line between \"East\" and \"North East\"). This can lead to confusion, as most named streets intersect streets of the same number in both north and south Tacoma. For example, the intersection of South 11th Street and South Union Avenue is just ten blocks south of North 11th Street and North Union Avenue.\n\nTo the east of the Thea Foss waterway and 'A' Street, streets are similarly divided into \"East\" and \"Northeast\", with 1st Street NE being in-line with the Pierce-King county line. \"North East\" covers a small wedge of Tacoma and unincorporated Pierce County (around Browns Point and Dash Point) lying on the hill across the tideflats from downtown. Tacoma does have some major roads which do not seem to follow any naming rules. These roads include Schuster Pkwy, Pacific Ave, Puyallup Ave, Tacoma Mall Blvd, Marine View Dr (SR 509), and Northshore Pkwy. Tacoma also has some major roads which appear to change names in different areas (most notable are Tyler St/Stevens St, Oakes St/Pine St/Cedar St/Alder St, and S. 72nd St/S. 74th St). These major arterials actually shift over to align with other roads, which causes them to have the name changed.\n\nThis numeric system extends to the furthest reaches of unincorporated Pierce County (with roads outside of the city carrying \"East\", \"West\", \"North West\", and \"South West\", except on the Key Peninsula, which retains the north-south streets but chooses the Pierce-Kitsap county line as the zero point for east-west streets. Key Peninsula's roads also carry a \"KP N\" or \"KP S\" designation at the end of the street name.\n\nIn portions of the city dating back to the Tacoma Streetcar Period (1888–1938), denser mixed use business districts exist alongside single family homes. Twelve such districts have active, city-recognized business associations and hold \"small town\"-style parades and other festivals. The Proctor District, Tacoma, Old Town, Dome, 6th Avenue, Stadium, Lincoln Business District, and South Tacoma Business Districts are some of the more prominent and popular of these and coordinate their efforts to redevelop urban villages through the [http://www.tacomabusinessdistricts.com Cross District Association of Tacoma]. In newer portions of the city to the west and south, residential culs-de-sac, four-lane collector roads and indoor shopping centers are more commonplace.\n\nRoads and highways\n\nSeven highways end in or pass through Tacoma: I-5, I-705, SR 7, SR 16, SR 163, SR 167, and SR 509. \n\nThe dominant intercity transportation link between Tacoma and other parts of the Puget Sound is Interstate 5, which links Tacoma with Seattle to the north and Portland, Oregon, to the south. State Route 16 runs along a concrete viaduct through Tacoma's Nalley Valley, connecting Interstate 5 with Central and West Tacoma, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and the Kitsap Peninsula. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport lies 22 mi north, in the city of SeaTac.\n\nPublic transportation\n\nPublic transportation in Tacoma includes buses, commuter rail, light rail, and ferries. Public bus service is provided by Pierce Transit, which serves Tacoma and Pierce County. Pierce Transit operates a total of 43 bus routes (5 of which through Sound Transit), using mostly buses powered by compressed natural gas. Bus service operates at 30-60 minute frequencies daily, while three heavily ridden \"trunk\" routes are mostly served every 20 minutes on weekdays and every half hour to an hour on weekends as of October 2, 2011\n\nSound Transit, the regional transit authority, provides weekday Sounder Commuter Rail service and daily express bus service to and from Seattle. Sound Transit has also established Tacoma Link light rail, a free electric streetcar line linking Tacoma Dome Station with the University of Washington, Tacoma, Tacoma's Museum District, and the Theater District. Expansion of the city's rail transit system is currently in planning stages by the city of Tacoma and Sound Transit. The line will be extended north along Commerce St/Stadium Way and then west along Division Ave. It will then turn south along Martin Luther King Jr Way and end near South 19th Street.\n\nThe Washington State Ferries system, which has a dock at Point Defiance, provides ferry access to Tahlequah at the southern tip of Vashon Island.\n\nGreyhound intercity bus service is accessible via Tacoma Dome Station.\n\nAmtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Tacoma from a station on Puyallup Avenue, one block east of the Tacoma Dome Station. The Cascades trains, operating as far north as Vancouver, British Columbia and as far south as Eugene, Oregon, serve Tacoma several times daily in both directions. The long-distance Coast Starlight operates daily between Seattle and Los Angeles via the San Francisco Bay Area.\n\nPublic utilities\n\nTacoma's relationship with public utilities extends back to 1893. At that time the city was undergoing a boom in population, causing it to exceed the available amount of fresh water supplied by Charles B. Wright's Tacoma Light & Water Company. In response to both this demand and a growing desire to have local public control over the utility system, the city council put up a public vote to acquire and expand the private utility. The measure passed on July 1, 1893, with 3,195 in favor of acquiring the utility system and 1,956 voting against. Since then, Tacoma Public Utilities (TPU) has grown from a small water and light utility to be the largest department in the city's government, employing about 1,200 people.\n\nTacoma Power, a division of TPU, provides residents of Tacoma and several bordering municipalities with electrical power generated by eight hydroelectric dams located on the Skokomish River and elsewhere. Environmentalists, fishermen, and the Skokomish Indian Tribe have criticized TPU's operation of Cushman Dam on the North Fork of the Skokomish River; the tribe's $6 billion claim was denied by the U.S. Supreme court in January 2006. The capacity of Tacoma's hydroelectric system as of 2004 was 713,000 kilowatts, or about 50% of the demand made up by TPU's customers (the rest is purchased from other utilities). According to TPU, hydroelectricity provides about 87% of Tacoma's power; coal 3%; natural gas 1%; nuclear 9%; and biomass and wind at less than 1%. Tacoma Power also operates the Click! Network, a municipally owned cable television and internet service. The residential cost per kilowatt hour of electricity is just over 6 cents.\n\nTacoma Water provides customers in its service area with water from the Green River Watershed. As of 2004, Tacoma Water provided water services to 93,903 customers. The average annual cost for residential supply was $257.84.\n\nTacoma Rail, initially a municipally owned street railway line running to the tideflats, was converted to a common-carrier rail switching utility. Tacoma Rail is self-supporting and employs over 90 people.\n\nIn addition to municipal garbage collection, Tacoma offers commingled recycling services for paper, cardboard, plastics, and metals.\n\nParks\n\nParks and recreation services in and around Tacoma are governed by Metro Parks Tacoma, a municipal corporation established as a separate entity from the city government in 1907. Metro Parks maintains over fifty parks and open spaces in Tacoma.[http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=8 Metro Parks Tacoma]\n\nPoint Defiance Park, one of the largest urban parks in the country (at 700 acres), is located in Tacoma.[http://wsm.wsu.edu/s/index.php?id211 On the waterfront :: Winter 2008 :: Washington State Magazine] Scenic Five-Mile Drive allows access to many of the park's attractions, such as Owen Beach, Camp Six, Fort Nisqually, and the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. There are many historic structures within the park, including the Pagoda, which was originally built as a streetcar waiting room. It was restored in 1988 and now serves as a rental facility for weddings and private parties.[http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id\n62 Metro Parks Tacoma] The Pagoda was nearly destroyed by fire on August 15, 2011. Repair work began immediately after the fire and continued until January 2013, at which time the Pagoda was reopened for public use.\n\nRuston Way is a waterfront area along Commencement Bay north of downtown Tacoma that hosts several public parks connected by a multi-use trail and interspersed with restaurants and other businesses. Public parks along Ruston Way include Jack Hyde Park, Old Town Dock, Hamilton Park, Dickman Mill Park, Les Davis Pier, Marine Park, and Cummings Park.[http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=19 Metro Parks Tacoma] The trail is popular with walkers, runners, cyclists, and other recreationalists. There are several beaches along Ruston Way with public access, some of which are also popular for scuba diving.\n\nAnother large park in Tacoma is Wapato Park, which has a lake and walking trails that circle the lake. Wapato is located in the south end of Tacoma, at Sheridan and 72nd St.\n\nTitlow Beach, located at the end of 6th Avenue, is a popular scuba diving area.\n\nWright Park, located near downtown, is a large, English-style park designed in the late 19th century by Edward Otto Schwagerl and Ebenezer Rhys Roberts. It contains Wright Park Arboretum and the W. W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory. This beautiful historic park is also the home of local festivals such as Ethnic Fest, Out in the Park (Tacoma's Pride festival ), and the Tacoma Hempfest (Tacoma's annual gathering advocating decriminalization of marijuana).\n\nJefferson Park in North Tacoma is the location of a new sprayground, an area designed to be a safe and unique play area where water is sprayed from structures or ground sprays and then drained away before it can accumulate.\n\nFrost Park in downtown Tacoma is often utilized for sidewalk chalk contests.\n\nIn response to the Tacoma area's growing dog population, dog parks have become a natural addition to the city. Rogers Off-Leash Dog Park is a metro public park established in 1949 Tacoma. [http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=26 The park's homepage]\n\nArchitecture\n\nTacoma includes several landmarks and was home to some prolific architects, including Everett Phipps Babcock, Frederick Heath, Ambrose J. Russell, and Silas E. Nelsen.\n\nTwo suspension bridges currently span a narrow section of the Salish Sea called the Tacoma Narrows. The Tacoma Narrows Bridges link Tacoma to Gig Harbor and the Kitsap Peninsula. The failure of the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which was the third longest suspension bridge in the world, is a famous case study in architecture textbooks.\n\nHistoric landmarks\n\nTacoma has many properties that are listed on the City of Tacoma Register of Historic Places, the Washington State Heritage Register, and the National Register of Historic Places.\n\nThe city of Tacoma has an active municipal historic preservation program, which includes 165 individual City Landmarks and over 1,000 historic properties included within five locally regulated historic overlay zones.\n\nEngine House No. 9 is a fire station built in 1907. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Currently, the building houses a pub that brews its own beer.\n\nStadium High School and the Stadium Bowl, part of the Tacoma School District, provided a setting for the movie 10 Things I Hate About You starring Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles.\n\nFireboat No. 1 was built in 1929 for the Port of Tacoma by the Coastline Shipbuilding Company. After 54 years of service in waterfront fire protection, harbor security patrols, search and rescue missions, and water pollution control, Fireboat No. 1 was put up on a permanent dry berth at a public beach near Tacoma's Old Town neighborhood. She is one of only five fireboats designated as a National Historic Landmark. Visitors are able to walk around her exterior, but her interior is closed to the public.\n\nWilliam Ross Rust House is a home in Colonial/Classic Revival style built in 1905 by Ambrose J. Russell (architect) and Charles Miller (contractor).\n\nMurray Morgan Bridge is a 1911 steel lift bridge across the Thea Foss Waterway; it closed in 2007 to all automobile traffic due to its deteriorating condition but was reopened in February 2013 to all traffic following a substantial rehabilitation.\n\nOther notable buildings include the National Realty Building, Lincoln High School (Tacoma, Washington), Rhodes House (Tacoma), Pythian Temple (Tacoma, Washington), Perkins Building, Tacoma Dome, Rhodesleigh, and Engine House No. 9 (Tacoma, Washington). The famous Luzon Building and Nihon Go Gakko (Tacoma) school house have been demolished, and the MV Kalakala was scrapped in early 2015. University of Puget Sound, Cushman Dam No. 1, Cushman Dam No. 2, Rialto Theater (Tacoma, Washington), and Tacoma Union Station are also noteworthy.\n\nEducation\n\nTacoma's main public school district is Tacoma Public Schools. The district contains 36 elementary schools, eleven middle schools, five high schools, one alternative high school, a Science and Math Institute (SAMI), and one school of the arts (SOTA).\nHenry Foss High School operates an International Baccalaureate program. Sheridan Elementary School operated three foreign language immersion programs (Spanish, French, and Japanese). Mount Tahoma High School opened a brand new building in South Tacoma in the fall of 2004. Stadium High School and Wilson High School were remodeled/refurbished and reopened in September 2006.\n\nTacoma School of the Arts, opened in 2001, is an arts-focused high school that serves as a national model for educational innovation. SOTA is a public school, part of the Tacoma Public Schools and is one of the first schools in the nation to implement standards based instruction, as well as influence the design of many schools in the nation. SOTA is located in multiple venues around Downtown Tacoma and uses Community Museums and Universities for instructional space. The Science and math institute partners with SOTA, sharing administrators and class space. SAMI and SOTA are the only schools in Tacoma to offer University of Washington in the Classroom college credit options from the University of Washington. Lincoln High School reopened in the fall of 2007 after a $75 million renovation and expansion. \n\nThe area also has numerous private schools, including the Annie Wright School, Bellarmine Preparatory School, Life Christian Academy, Charles Wright Academy and Seabury School. Tacoma's Covenant High School is associated with Faith Presbyterian Church. \n\nTacoma's institutions of higher learning include the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma Community College, City University of Seattle-Tacoma, Bates Technical College, The Evergreen State College Tacoma Campus, Corban University School of Ministry/Tacoma Campus, and University of Washington Tacoma. Pacific Lutheran University is located in Parkland, just south of the city; nearby Lakewood is the home of Clover Park Technical College and Pierce College.\n\nCultural attractions\n\n* The Museum of Glass boasts an iconic structure standing near the Thea Foss Waterway; the steel cone of the hot shop is one of the most recognizable structures in the city.\n* America's Car Museum opened in June 2012 and displays 300 vehicles in various exhibits on vintage to modern automobiles. The museum pays respects to Harold LeMay's collection, one of the world's largest, with a permanent display entitled \"Lucky's Garage\". The rest of Harold LeMay's collection can be viewed at the Marymount Event Center, home of the LeMay Family Collection Foundation.\n* Tacoma Art Museum was founded in 1935 and reopened in 2003 in a new building on Pacific Avenue in Tacoma – now one of three organizations forming the \"museum district\" (others are Museum of Glass and Washington State History Museum). It is considered a model for mid-sized regional museums.\n* The Broadway Center for the Performing Arts is home to three theaters, two of which are on the National Register of Historic Places. Performing within the three theaters are several performing arts organizations, including the Tacoma Opera, Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, Northwest Sinfionetta, Tacoma City Ballet, Tacoma Concert Band, Tacoma Philharmonic, Tacoma Youth Symphony, Theatre Northwest, and Puget Sound Revels, one of ten Revels organizations nationwide.\n\n* The Tacoma Film Festival takes place annually at the Grand Cinema. \n* Tacoma is home to the first ever legal marijuana farmers market. \n* The downtown Tacoma farmers' market runs every Thursday, from May through September, in the Theatre District. There are also seasonal farmers markets in the Proctor District (along Sixth Avenue), and in South Tacoma. \n* Tacoma hosts part of the annual four-part Daffodil Parade, which takes place every April in Tacoma, Puyallup, Sumner, and Orting.\n* Shakespeare in the Parking Lot celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2014. Its motto is \"taking the fear out of Shakespeare\". They offer both educational opportunities and inspired theater in and around Tacoma.\n* Fort Nisqually is a prominent local attraction featuring historical reenactments. The Tacoma Police Department is the site of a public memorial for officers, dominated by the sculptures \"Memories in Blue\" and \"For All They Gave\", by James Kelsey.\n\nMass media\n\nThe city's major daily newspaper is The News Tribune, a subsidiary of McClatchy Newspapers since 1986. Its circulation is about 85,000 (100,000 on Sundays), making it the third-largest newspaper in the state of Washington. A daily newspaper has been in circulation in Tacoma since 1883. Between 1907 and 1918, four dailies were published: The Tacoma Ledger, The News, The Tacoma Tribune, and The Tacoma Times.\n\nTacoma receives Seattle-area TV and radio stations.\n\nTacoma is home to KBTC Public Television, a PBS member station serving viewers throughout western Washington. KBTC is housed at the former home of long-time Tacoma broadcaster, KSTW. The property was purchased from KSTW when that station moved to Renton in 2001. It broadcasts on digital channel 27, (28.1, 28.2, MHz Worldview, and 28.3, TVW). KBTC Public Television is a service of Bates Technical College.\n\nLocal papers include the Tacoma Weekly, the legal paper Tacoma Daily Index, the South Sound alternative newsweekly Weekly Volcano and the military publication the Fort Lewis Ranger. \n\nSports\n\nThe city has struggled to keep a minor league hockey franchise. The Tacoma Rockets of the WHL were lost to relocation and moved to Kelowna, British Columbia. The Tacoma Sabercats of the former West Coast Hockey League closed their doors due to financial woes. The Tacoma Dome still hosts traveling sports and other events, such as pro wrestling, figure skating tours, and the Harlem Globetrotters. At one point, the Tacoma Dome was home to a professional indoor soccer team, the Tacoma Stars. For the 1994–95 season, the Seattle SuperSonics played in the Tacoma Dome while the Seattle Center Coliseum was renovated (and renamed KeyArena). The Tacoma Dome also hosted the 1988 and 1989 Women's NCAA Final Four. Tacoma is home to the all-female flat track roller derby league Dockyard Derby Dames, which fields an away team.[http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogs/vulture/50252181-56/shakers-derby-salt-roller.html.csp Utah Local News – Salt Lake City News, Sports, Archive – The Salt Lake Tribune]\n\nNotable Tacomans\n\nNeighborhoods\n\n* Central Tacoma\n** Hilltop (shared with Downtown)\n** Delong Park\n** The Wedge\n** McCarver (shared with New Tacoma/Downtown)\n** Bryant\n** College Heights\n* New Tacoma\n** Downtown Tacoma\n*** St. Helens Neighborhood\n*** Theater District\n*** Central Business District\n*** Warehouse/Brewery District\n*** Foss Waterway\n*** The McCarver Neighborhood (shared with Central Tacoma/Hilltop)\n*** Stadium District (shared with North Tacoma)\n*** Dome District\n* Nalley Valley\n* Port of Tacoma\n* East Tacoma\n** McKinley Hill\n** Salishan\n** Hillsdale\n** Swan Creek\n** Strawberry Hill\n* North Tacoma\n** North Slope\n** Old Tacoma\n** Proctor District\n** Prospect Hill\n** Ruston (separately incorporated)\n** Ruston Way\n** [http://on6thave.com Sixth Ave District], Tacoma, Washington\n** Skyline\n** Stadium District (shared with Downtown)\n** Westgate (shared with West Tacoma)\n** Yakima Hill\n* Northeast Tacoma\n** Browns Point (unincorporated)\n** Crescent Heights\n* South End\n** Fern Hill\n** Lincoln International District\n** Wapato\n** Stewart Heights\n** Larchmont\n* South Tacoma\n** Edison\n** South Park\n** Manitou\n** Oakland/Madrona\n** Tacoma Mall\n* West Tacoma\n** Highlands\n** Narrows\n** Titlow\n** Salmon Beach\n** Westgate (shared with North Tacoma)\n\nSister cities" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Cereal.txt", "Maize.txt", "Wheat.txt" ], "title": [ "Cereal", "Maize", "Wheat" ], "wiki_context": [ "A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more food energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore staple crops. Some plants often referred to as cereals, like buckwheat and quinoa, are considered instead pseudocereals, since they are not grasses, however they are still considered grains.\n\nIn their natural form (as in whole grain), they are a rich source of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, oils, and protein. When refined by the removal of the bran and germ, the remaining endosperm is mostly carbohydrate. In some developing nations, grain in the form of rice, wheat, millet, or maize constitutes a majority of daily sustenance. In developed nations, cereal consumption is moderate and varied but still substantial.\n\nThe word cereal derives from Ceres, the name of the Roman goddess of harvest and agriculture.\n\nHistory\n\nNeolithic\n\nAgriculture allowed for the support of an increased population, leading to larger societies and eventually the development of cities. It also created the need for greater organization of political power (and the creation of social stratification), as decisions had to be made regarding labor and harvest allocation and access rights to water and land. Agriculture bred immobility, as populations settled down for long periods of time, which led to the accumulation of material goods. \n\nEarly Neolithic villages show evidence of the ability to process grain, and the Near East is the ancient home of the ancestors of wheat, barley and peas. There is evidence of the cultivation of figs in the Jordan Valley as long as 11,300 years ago, and cereal (grain) production in Syria approximately 9,000 years ago. During the same period, farmers in China began to farm rice and millet, using man-made floods and fires as part of their cultivation regimen. Fiber crops were domesticated as early as food crops, with China domesticating hemp, cotton being developed independently in Africa and South America, and the Near East domesticating flax. The use of soil amendments, including manure, fish, compost and ashes, appears to have begun early, and developed independently in several areas of the world, including Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley and Eastern Asia.\n\nThe first cereal grains were domesticated by early primitive humans. About 8,000 years ago, they were domesticated by ancient farming communities in the Fertile Crescent region. Emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, and barley were three of the so-called Neolithic founder crops in the development of agriculture. Around the same time, millets and rices were starting to become domesticated in east Asia. Sorghum and millets were also being domesticated in sub-Saharan West Africa.\n\nProduction\n\nThe following table shows the annual production of cereals in 1961, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 ranked by 2013 production. \n\nMaize, wheat, and rice together accounted for 89% of all cereal production worldwide in 2012, and 43% of all food calories in 2009, while the production of oats and triticale have drastically fallen from their 1960s levels.\nOther grains that are important in some places, but that have little production globally (and are not included in FAO statistics), include:\n* Teff, an ancient grain that is a staple in Ethiopia. It is high in fiber and protein. Its flour is often used to make injera. It can also be eaten as a warm breakfast cereal similar to farina with a chocolate or nutty flavor. Its flour and whole grain products can usually be found in natural foods stores.\n* Wild rice, grown in small amounts in North America.\n* Amaranth, an ancient pseudocereal, formerly a staple crop of the Aztec Empire and now widely grown in Africa.\n* Kañiwa, close relative of quinoa.\n\nSeveral other species of wheat have also been domesticated, some very early in the history of agriculture:\n* Spelt, a close relative of common wheat.\n* Einkorn, a wheat species with a single grain.\n* Emmer, one of the first crops domesticated in the Fertile Crescent.\n* Durum, the only tetraploid species of wheat currently cultivated, used to make semolina.\n* Kamut, an ancient relative of durum with an unknown history.\n\nIn 2013 global cereal production reached a record 2,521 million tonnes. A slight dip to 2,498 million tonnes was forecast for 2014 by the FAO in July 2014.\n\nFarming\n\nWhile each individual species has its own peculiarities, the cultivation of all cereal crops is similar. Most are annual plants; consequently one planting yields one harvest. Wheat, rye, triticale, oats, barley, and spelt are the \"cool-season\" cereals. These are hardy plants that grow well in moderate weather and cease to grow in hot weather (approximately 30 °C, but this varies by species and variety). The \"warm-season\" cereals are tender and prefer hot weather. Barley and rye are the hardiest cereals, able to overwinter in the subarctic and Siberia. Many cool-season cereals are grown in the tropics. However, some are only grown in cooler highlands, where it may be possible to grow multiple crops in a year.\n\nFor a few decades, there has also been increasing interest in perennial grain plants. This interest developed due to advantages in erosion control, reduced need of fertiliser, and potential lowered costs to the farmer. Though research is still in early stages, The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas has been able to create a few cultivars that produce a fairly good crop yield. \n\nPlanting\n\nThe warm-season cereals are grown in tropical lowlands year-round and in temperate climates during the frost-free season. Rice is commonly grown in flooded fields, though some strains are grown on dry land. Other warm climate cereals, such as sorghum, are adapted to arid conditions.\n\nCool-season cereals are well-adapted to temperate climates. Most varieties of a particular species are either winter or spring types. Winter varieties are sown in the autumn, germinate and grow vegetatively, then become dormant during winter. They resume growing in the springtime and mature in late spring or early summer. This cultivation system makes optimal use of water and frees the land for another crop early in the growing season.\n\nWinter varieties do not flower until springtime because they require vernalization: exposure to low temperatures for a genetically determined length of time. Where winters are too warm for vernalization or exceed the hardiness of the crop (which varies by species and variety), farmers grow spring varieties. Spring cereals are planted in early springtime and mature later that same summer, without vernalization. Spring cereals typically require more irrigation and yield less than winter cereals.\n\nPeriod\n\nOnce the cereal plants have grown their seeds, they have completed their life cycle. The plants die and become brown and dry. As soon as the parent plants and their seed kernels are reasonably dry, harvest can begin.\n\nIn developed countries, cereal crops are universally machine-harvested, typically using a combine harvester, which cuts, threshes, and winnows the grain during a single pass across the field. In developing countries, a variety of harvesting methods are in use, depending on the cost of labor, from combines to hand tools such as the scythe or grain cradle.\n\nIf a crop is harvested during wet weather, the grain may not dry adequately in the field to prevent spoilage during its storage. In this case, the grain is sent to a dehydrating facility, where artificial heat dries it.\n\nIn North America, farmers commonly deliver their newly harvested grain to a grain elevator, a large storage facility that consolidates the crops of many farmers. The farmer may sell the grain at the time of delivery or maintain ownership of a share of grain in the pool for later sale. Storage facilities should be protected from small grain pests, rodents and birds.\n\nNutritional facts\n\nSome grains are deficient in the essential amino acid lysine. That is why many vegetarian cultures, in order to get a balanced diet, combine their diet of grains with legumes. Many legumes, on the other hand, are deficient in the essential amino acid methionine, which grains contain. Thus, a combination of legumes with grains forms a well-balanced diet for vegetarians. Common examples of such combinations are dal (lentils) with rice by South Indians and Bengalis, dal with wheat in Pakistan and North India, and beans with corn tortillas, tofu with rice, and peanut butter with wheat bread (as sandwiches) in several other cultures, including Americans.Vogel, Steven (2003). Prime Mover – A Natural History of Muscle. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., USA, p. 301. ISBN 039332463X. The amount of crude protein found in grain is measured as the grain crude protein concentration. \n\nStandardization\n\nThe ISO has published a series of standards regarding cereal products which are covered by ICS 67.060.", "Maize ( ; Zea mays subsp. mays, from after Taíno mahiz), also known as corn, is a large grain plant first domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The six major types of corn are dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, flour corn, and sweet corn. \n\nThe leafy stalk of the plant produces separate pollen and ovuliferous inflorescences or ears, which are fruits, yielding kernels (often erroneously called seeds). Maize kernels are often used in cooking as a starch.\n\nHistory\n\nMost historians believe maize was domesticated in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico. Recent research modified this view somewhat; scholars now indicate the adjacent Balsas River Valley of south-central Mexico as the center of domestication. \n\nThe Olmec and Mayans cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica, cooked, ground or processed through nixtamalization. Beginning about 2500 BC, the crop spread through much of the Americas. The region developed a trade network based on surplus and varieties of maize crops.\n\nNevertheless, recent data indicates that the spread of maize took place even earlier. According to Piperno,\n\n\"A large corpus of data indicates that it [maize] was dispersed into lower Central America by 7600 BP [5600 BC] and had moved into the inter-Andean valleys of Colombia between 7000 and 6000 BP [5000-4000 BC].\"\n\nSince then, even earlier dates have been published. \n\nAfter European contact with the Americas in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, explorers and traders carried maize back to Europe and introduced it to other countries. Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates. Sugar-rich varieties called sweet corn are usually grown for human consumption as kernels, while field corn varieties are used for animal feed, various corn-based human food uses (including grinding into cornmeal or masa, pressing into corn oil, and fermentation and distillation into alcoholic beverages like bourbon whiskey), and as chemical feedstocks.\n\nAn influential 2002 study by Matsuoka et al. has demonstrated that, rather than the multiple independent domestications model, all maize arose from a single domestication in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago. The study also demonstrated that the oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Later, maize spread from this region over the Americas along two major paths. This is consistent with a model based on the archaeological record suggesting that maize diversified in the highlands of Mexico before spreading to the lowlands. \n\nBefore they were domesticated, maize plants only grew small, 25 mm long corn cobs, and only one per plant. Many centuries of artificial selection by the indigenous people of the Americas resulted in the development of maize plants capable of growing several cobs per plant that were usually several centimetres/inches long each. \n\nMaize is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, with 332 million metric tons grown annually in the United States alone. Approximately 40% of the crop—130 million tons—is used for corn ethanol. Genetically modified maize made up 85% of the maize planted in the United States in 2009.[http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/agri_biotechnology/gmo_planting/341.genetically_modified_maize_global_area_under_cultivation.html Genetically modified plants: Global Cultivation Area Maize] GMO Compass, March 29, 2010, retrieved August 10, 2010\n\nNames\n\nThe word maize derives from the Spanish form of the indigenous Taíno word for the plant, mahiz. It is known by other names around the world.\n\nThe word \"corn\" outside North America, Australia, and New Zealand refers to any cereal crop, its meaning understood to vary geographically to refer to the local staple. In the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, corn primarily means maize; this usage started as a shortening of \"Indian corn\".[http://oed.com/view/Entry/41586 \"corn\"]. Oxford English Dictionary, online edition. 2012. Accessed June 7, 2012. \"Indian corn\" primarily means maize (the staple grain of indigenous Americans), but can refer more specifically to multicolored \"flint corn\" used for decoration. \n\nIn places outside North America, Australia, and New Zealand, corn often refers to maize in culinary contexts. The narrower meaning is usually indicated by some additional word, as in sweet corn, sweetcorn, corn on the cob, baby corn, the puffed confection known as popcorn and the breakfast cereal known as corn flakes.\n\nIn Southern Africa, maize is commonly called mielie (Afrikaans) or mealie (English),[http://oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/115421 \"mealie\"], Oxford English Dictionary, online edition, 2012. Accessed June 7, 2012. words derived from the Portuguese word for maize, milho. \n\nMaize is preferred in formal, scientific, and international usage because it refers specifically to this one grain, unlike corn, which has a complex variety of meanings that vary by context and geographic region. Maize is used by agricultural bodies and research institutes such as the FAO and CSIRO. National agricultural and industry associations often include the word maize in their name even in English-speaking countries where the local, informal word is something other than maize; for example, the Maize Association of Australia, the Indian Maize Development Association, the Kenya Maize Consortium and Maize Breeders Network, the National Maize Association of Nigeria, the Zimbabwe Seed Maize Association. However, in commodities trading, corn consistently refers to maize and not other grains.\n\nStructure and physiology\n\nThe maize plant is often 3 m in height, though some natural strains can grow 12 m. The stem is commonly composed of 20 internodes of 18 cm length. A leaf, which grows from each node, is generally 9 cm in width and 120 cm in length.\n\nEars develop above a few of the leaves in the midsection of the plant, between the stem and leaf sheath, elongating by ~3 mm/day, to a length of 18 cm with 60 cm being the maximum alleged in the subspecies. They are female inflorescences, tightly enveloped by several layers of ear leaves commonly called husks. Certain varieties of maize have been bred to produce many additional developed ears. These are the source of the \"baby corn\" used as a vegetable in Asian cuisine.\n\nThe apex of the stem ends in the tassel, an inflorescence of male flowers. When the tassel is mature and conditions are suitably warm and dry, anthers on the tassel dehisce and release pollen. Maize pollen is anemophilous (dispersed by wind), and because of its large settling velocity, most pollen falls within a few meters of the tassel.\n\nElongated stigmas, called silks, emerge from the whorl of husk leaves at the end of the ear. They are often pale yellow and 18 cm in length, like tufts of hair in appearance. At the end of each is a carpel, which may develop into a \"kernel\" if fertilized by a pollen grain. The pericarp of the fruit is fused with the seed coat referred to as \"caryopsis\", typical of the grasses, and the entire kernel is often referred to as the \"seed\". The cob is close to a multiple fruit in structure, except that the individual fruits (the kernels) never fuse into a single mass. The grains are about the size of peas, and adhere in regular rows around a white, pithy substance, which forms the ear- maximum size of kernel in subspecies is reputedly . An ear commonly holds 600 kernels. They are of various colors: blackish, bluish-gray, purple, green, red, white and yellow. When ground into flour, maize yields more flour with much less bran than wheat does. It lacks the protein gluten of wheat and, therefore, makes baked goods with poor rising capability. A genetic variant that accumulates more sugar and less starch in the ear is consumed as a vegetable and is called sweet corn. Young ears can be consumed raw, with the cob and silk, but as the plant matures (usually during the summer months), the cob becomes tougher and the silk dries to inedibility. By the end of the growing season, the kernels dry out and become difficult to chew without cooking them tender first in boiling water.\n\nFile:Cornsilk 7091.jpg|Female inflorescence, with young silk\nFile:Corn blooming.jpg|mature silk\nFile:GreenCorn.JPG|Stalks, ears, and silk\nFile:Männliche Blüte einer Maispflanze 2009-08-19.JPG|Male flowers\nFile:ZeaMays.jpg|Full-grown maize plants\nFile:Klip kukuruza uzgojen u Međimurju (Croatia).JPG|Mature maize ear on a stalk\n\nPlanting density affects multiple aspects of maize. Modern farming techniques in developed countries usually rely on dense planting, which produces one ear per stalk. Stands of silage maize are yet denser, and achieve a lower percentage of ears and more plant matter.\n\nMaize is a facultative short-day plant and flowers in a certain number of growing degree days > 10 °C in the environment to which it is adapted. The magnitude of the influence that long nights have on the number of days that must pass before maize flowers is genetically prescribed and regulated by the phytochrome system. Photoperiodicity can be eccentric in tropical cultivars such that the long days characteristic of higher latitudes allow the plants to grow so tall that they do not have enough time to produce seed before being killed by frost. These attributes, however, may prove useful in using tropical maize for biofuels. \n\nImmature maize shoots accumulate a powerful antibiotic substance, 2,4-dihydroxy-7-methoxy-1,4-benzoxazin-3-one (DIMBOA). DIMBOA is a member of a group of hydroxamic acids (also known as benzoxazinoids) that serve as a natural defense against a wide range of pests, including insects, pathogenic fungi and bacteria. DIMBOA is also found in related grasses, particularly wheat. A maize mutant (bx) lacking DIMBOA is highly susceptible to attack by aphids and fungi. DIMBOA is also responsible for the relative resistance of immature maize to the European corn borer (family Crambidae). As maize matures, DIMBOA levels and resistance to the corn borer decline.\n\nBecause of its shallow roots, maize is susceptible to droughts, intolerant of nutrient-deficient soils, and prone to be uprooted by severe winds. \n\nFile:Ab food 06.jpg|Maize kernels\nFile:Maize plant diagram.svg|Maize plant diagram\nFile:Aa maize ear irregular 01.jpg|Ear of maize with irregular rows of seeds\n\nWhile yellow maizes derive their color from lutein and zeaxanthin, in red-colored maizes, the kernel coloration is due to anthocyanins and phlobaphenes. These latter substances are synthesized in the flavonoids synthetic pathway from polymerisation of flavan-4-ols by the expression of maize pericarp color1 (p1) gene which encodes an R2R3 myb-like transcriptional activator of the A1 gene encoding for the dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (reducing dihydroflavonols into flavan-4-ols) while another gene (Suppressor of Pericarp Pigmentation 1 or SPP1) acts as a suppressor. The p1 gene encodes an Myb-homologous transcriptional activator of genes required for biosynthesis of red phlobaphene pigments, while the P1-wr allele specifies colorless kernel pericarp and red cobs, and unstable factor for orange1 (Ufo1) modifies P1-wr expression to confer pigmentation in kernel pericarp, as well as vegetative tissues, which normally do not accumulate significant amounts of phlobaphene pigments. The maize P gene encodes a Myb homolog that recognizes the sequence CCT/AACC, in sharp contrast with the C/TAACGG bound by vertebrate Myb proteins. \n\nAbnormal flowers\n\nSometimes in maize, inflorescences are found containing both male and female flowers, or hermaphrodite flowers. \n\nGenetics\n\nMany forms of maize are used for food, sometimes classified as various subspecies related to the amount of starch each has:\n\n* Flour corn: Zea mays var. amylacea\n* Popcorn: Zea mays var. everta\n* Dent corn : Zea mays var. indentata\n* Flint corn: Zea mays var. indurata\n* Sweet corn: Zea mays var. saccharata and Zea mays var. rugosa\n* Waxy corn: Zea mays var. ceratina\n* Amylomaize: Zea mays\n* Pod corn: Zea mays var. tunicata Larrañaga ex A. St. Hil.\n* Striped maize: Zea mays var. japonica\n\nThis system has been replaced (though not entirely displaced) over the last 60 years by multivariable classifications based on ever more data. Agronomic data were supplemented by botanical traits for a robust initial classification, then genetic, cytological, protein and DNA evidence was added. Now, the categories are forms (little used), races, racial complexes, and recently branches.\n\nMaize is a diploid with 20 chromosomes (n=10). The combined length of the chromosomes is 1500 cM. Some of the maize chromosomes have what are known as \"chromosomal knobs\": highly repetitive heterochromatic domains that stain darkly. Individual knobs are polymorphic among strains of both maize and teosinte.\n\nBarbara McClintock used these knob markers to validate her transposon theory of \"jumping genes\", for which she won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Maize is still an important model organism for genetics and developmental biology today. \n\nThe Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center, funded by the USDA Agricultural Research Service and located in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a stock center of maize mutants. The total collection has nearly 80,000 samples. The bulk of the collection consists of several hundred named genes, plus additional gene combinations and other heritable variants. There are about 1000 chromosomal aberrations (e.g., translocations and inversions) and stocks with abnormal chromosome numbers (e.g., tetraploids). Genetic data describing the maize mutant stocks as well as myriad other data about maize genetics can be accessed at [http://maizegdb.org/ MaizeGDB], the Maize Genetics and Genomics Database. \n\nIn 2005, the US National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) formed a consortium to sequence the B73 maize genome. The resulting DNA sequence data was deposited immediately into GenBank, a public repository for genome-sequence data. Sequences and genome annotations have also been made available throughout the project's lifetime at the project's official site. \n\nPrimary sequencing of the maize genome was completed in 2008. On November 20, 2009, the consortium published results of its sequencing effort in Science. The genome, 85% of which is composed of transposons, was found to contain 32,540 genes (By comparison, the human genome contains about 2.9 billion bases and 26,000 genes). Much of the maize genome has been duplicated and reshuffled by helitrons—group of rolling circle transposons. \n\nAccording to a genetic study by Embrapa, corn cultivation was introduced in South America from Mexico, in two great waves: the first, 5000 years ago, spread through the Andes; the second, about 2000 years ago, through the lowlands of South America. \n\nBreeding\n\nMaize reproduces sexually each year. This randomly selects half the genes from a given plant to propagate to the next generation, meaning that desirable traits found in the crop (like high yield or good nutrition) can be lost in subsequent generations unless certain techniques are used.\n\nMaize breeding in prehistory resulted in large plants producing large ears. Modern breeding began with individuals who selected highly productive varieties in their fields and then sold seed to other farmers. James L. Reid was one of the earliest and most successful developing Reid's Yellow Dent in the 1860s. These early efforts were based on mass selection. Later breeding efforts included ear to row selection, (C. G. Hopkins ca. 1896), hybrids made from selected inbred lines (G. H. Shull, 1909), and the highly successful double cross hybrids using 4 inbred lines (D. F. Jones ca. 1918, 1922). University supported breeding programs were especially important in developing and introducing modern hybrids. (Ref Jugenheimer Hybrid Maize Breeding and Seed Production pub. 1958) by the 1930s, companies such as Pioneer devoted to production of hybrid maize had begun to influence long term development. Internationally important seed banks such as International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the US bank at Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign maintain germplasm important for future crop development.\n\nSince the 1940s the best strains of maize have been first-generation hybrids made from inbred strains that have been optimized for specific traits, such as yield, nutrition, drought, pest and disease tolerance. Both conventional cross-breeding and genetic modification have succeeded in increasing output and reducing the need for cropland, pesticides, water and fertilizer.\n\nGlobal maize program\n\nCIMMYT operates a conventional breeding program to provide optimized strains. The program began in the 1980s. Hybrid seeds are distributed in Africa by the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project.\n\nGenetic modification\n\nGenetically modified (GM) maize is one of the 25 GM crops grown commercially in 2011. Grown since 1997 in the United States and Canada, 86% of the US maize crop was genetically modified in 2010 and 32% of the worldwide maize crop was GM in 2011. As of 2011, Herbicide-tolerant maize varieties are grown in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, El Salvador, the EU, Honduras, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, the Russian Federation, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, and USA, and insect-resistant corn is grown in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, the EU, Honduras, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Romania, Russian Federation, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, USA, and Uruguay. \n\nIn September 2000, up to $50 million worth of food products were recalled due to contamination with Starlink genetically modified corn, which had been approved only for animal consumption and had not been approved for human consumption, and was subsequently withdrawn from the market. \n\nOrigin\n\nMaize is the domesticated variant of teosinte. The two plants have dissimilar appearance, maize having a single tall stalk with multiple leaves and teosinte being a short, bushy plant. The difference between the two is largely controlled by differences in just two genes.\n\nSeveral theories had been proposed about the specific origin of maize in Mesoamerica: \n# It is a direct domestication of a Mexican annual teosinte, Zea mays ssp. parviglumis, native to the Balsas River valley in south-eastern Mexico, with up to 12% of its genetic material obtained from Zea mays ssp. mexicana through introgression. This theory was further confirmed by the 2002 study of Matsuoka et al.\n# It has been derived from hybridization between a small domesticated maize (a slightly changed form of a wild maize) and a teosinte of section Luxuriantes, either Z. luxurians or Z. diploperennis.\n# It has undergone two or more domestications either of a wild maize or of a teosinte. (The term \"teosinte\" describes all species and subspecies in the genus Zea, excluding Zea mays ssp. mays.)\n# It has evolved from a hybridization of Z. diploperennis by Tripsacum dactyloides.\nIn the late 1930s, Paul Mangelsdorf suggested that domesticated maize was the result of a hybridization event between an unknown wild maize and a species of Tripsacum, a related genus. This theory about the origin of maize has been refuted by modern genetic testing, which refutes Mangelsdorf's model and the fourth listed above.\n\nThe teosinte origin theory was proposed by the Russian botanist Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov in 1931 and the later American Nobel Prize-winner George Beadle in 1932. It is supported experimentally and by recent studies of the plants' genomes. Teosinte and maize are able to cross-breed and produce fertile offspring. A number of questions remain concerning the species, among them:\n# how the immense diversity of the species of sect. Zea originated,\n# how the tiny archaeological specimens of 3500–2700 BC could have been selected from a teosinte, and\n# how domestication could have proceeded without leaving remains of teosinte or maize with teosintoid traits earlier than the earliest known until recently, dating from ca. 1100 BC.\n\nThe domestication of maize is of particular interest to researchers—archaeologists, geneticists, ethnobotanists, geographers, etc. The process is thought by some to have started 7,500 to 12,000 years ago. Research from the 1950s to 1970s originally focused on the hypothesis that maize domestication occurred in the highlands between the states of Oaxaca and Jalisco, because the oldest archaeological remains of maize known at the time were found there.\n\nConnection with 'parviglumis' subspecies\n\nGenetic studies led by John Doebley identified Zea mays ssp. parviglumis, native to the Balsas River valley in Mexico's southwestern highlands, and also known as Balsas teosinte, as being the crop wild relative teosinte genetically most similar to modern maize. This has been confirmed by further more recent studies, which refined this hypothesis somewhat. Archaeobotanical studies published in 2009 now point to the middle part of the Balsas River valley as the more likely location of early domestication; this river is not very long, so these locations are not very distant. Stone milling tools with maize residue have been found in an 8,700-years old layer of deposits in a cave not far from Iguala, Guerrero. \n\nAlso, Doebley was part of the team that is credited with first finding, back in 2002, that maize had been domesticated only once, about 9000 years ago, and then spread throughout the Americas. \n\nA primitive corn was being grown in southern Mexico, Central America, and northern South America 7,000 years ago. Archaeological remains of early maize ears, found at Guila Naquitz Cave in the Oaxaca Valley, date back roughly 6,250 years; the oldest ears from caves near Tehuacan, Puebla, date ca. 3,450 BC.\n\nMaize pollen dated to 7300 cal B.P. from San Andres, Tabasco, on the Caribbean coast has also been recovered.\n\nAs maize was introduced to new cultures, new uses were developed and new varieties selected to better serve in those preparations. Maize was the staple food, or a major staple – along with squash, Andean region potato, quinoa, beans, and amaranth – of most pre-Columbian North American, Mesoamerican, South American, and Caribbean cultures. The Mesoamerican civilization, in particular, was deeply interrelated with maize. Its traditions and rituals involved all aspects of maize cultivation – from the planting to the food preparation. Maize formed the Mesoamerican people's identity.\n\nIt is unknown what precipitated its domestication, because the edible portion of the wild variety is too small and hard to obtain to be eaten directly, as each kernel is enclosed in a very hard bivalve shell. It is possible that, early on, teosinte may have been gathered as preferred feed for domestic animals.\n\nAlso, back in 1939, George Beadle demonstrated that the kernels of teosinte are readily \"popped\" for human consumption, like modern popcorn. Some have argued it would have taken too many generations of selective breeding to produce large, compressed ears for efficient cultivation. However, studies of the hybrids readily made by intercrossing teosinte and modern maize suggest this objection is not well founded.\n\nSpreading to the north\n\nAround 2500 BC, maize began to spread to the north; it was first cultivated in what is now the United States at several sites in New Mexico and Arizona, about 2100 BC. \n\nDuring the first millennium AD, maize cultivation spread more widely in the areas north. In particular, the large-scale adoption of maize agriculture and consumption in eastern North America took place about A.D. 900. Native Americans cleared large forest and grassland areas for the new crop. \n\nIn 2005, research by the USDA Forest Service suggested that the rise in maize cultivation 500 to 1,000 years ago in what is now the southeastern United States corresponded with a decline of freshwater mussels, which are very sensitive to environmental changes. \n\nProduction\n\nMethods\n\nBecause it is cold-intolerant, in the temperate zones maize must be planted in the spring. Its root system is generally shallow, so the plant is dependent on soil moisture. As a C4 plant (a plant that uses C4 carbon fixation), maize is a considerably more water-efficient crop than C3 plants (plants that use C3 carbon fixation) like the small grains, alfalfa and soybeans. Maize is most sensitive to drought at the time of silk emergence, when the flowers are ready for pollination. In the United States, a good harvest was traditionally predicted if the maize were \"knee-high by the Fourth of July\", although modern hybrids generally exceed this growth rate. Maize used for silage is harvested while the plant is green and the fruit immature. Sweet corn is harvested in the \"milk stage\", after pollination but before starch has formed, between late summer and early to mid-autumn. Field maize is left in the field very late in the autumn to thoroughly dry the grain, and may, in fact, sometimes not be harvested until winter or even early spring. The importance of sufficient soil moisture is shown in many parts of Africa, where periodic drought regularly causes maize crop failure and consequent famine. Although it is grown mainly in wet, hot climates, it has been said to thrive in cold, hot, dry or wet conditions, meaning that it is an extremely versatile crop. \n\nMaize was planted by the Native Americans in hills, in a complex system known to some as the Three Sisters. Maize provided support for beans, and the beans provided nitrogen derived from nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria which live on the roots of beans and other legumes; and squashes provided ground cover to stop weeds and inhibit evaporation by providing shade over the soil. This method was replaced by single species hill planting where each hill 60 – apart was planted with three or four seeds, a method still used by home gardeners. A later technique was \"checked maize\", where hills were placed 40 in apart in each direction, allowing cultivators to run through the field in two directions. In more arid lands, this was altered and seeds were planted in the bottom of 10 – deep furrows to collect water. Modern technique plants maize in rows which allows for cultivation while the plant is young, although the hill technique is still used in the maize fields of some Native American reservations. When maize is planted in rows, it also allows for planting of other crops between these rows to make more efficient use of land space. \n\nIn North America, fields are often planted in a two-crop rotation with a nitrogen-fixing crop, often alfalfa in cooler climates and soybeans in regions with longer summers. Sometimes a third crop, winter wheat, is added to the rotation.\n\nMany of the maize varieties grown in the United States and Canada are hybrids. Often the varieties have been genetically modified to tolerate glyphosate or to provide protection against natural pests. Glyphosate is an herbicide which kills all plants except those with genetic tolerance. This genetic tolerance is very rarely found in nature.\n\nIn midwestern United States, low-till or no-till farming techniques are usually used. In low-till, fields are covered once, maybe twice, with a tillage implement either ahead of crop planting or after the previous harvest. The fields are planted and fertilized. Weeds are controlled through the use of herbicides, and no cultivation tillage is done during the growing season. This technique reduces moisture evaporation from the soil, and thus provides more moisture for the crop.\nThe technologies mentioned in the previous paragraph enable low-till and no-till farming. Weeds compete with the crop for moisture and nutrients, making them undesirable.\n\nBefore World War II, most maize in North America was harvested by hand. This involves a large numbers of workers and associated social events (husking or shucking bees). Some one- and two-row mechanical pickers were in use, but the maize combine was not adopted until after the War. By hand or mechanical picker, the entire ear is harvested, which then requires a separate operation of a maize sheller to remove the kernels from the ear. Whole ears of maize were often stored in corn cribs, and these whole ears are a sufficient form for some livestock feeding use. Few modern farms store maize in this manner. Most harvest the grain from the field and store it in bins. The combine with a corn head (with points and snap rolls instead of a reel) does not cut the stalk; it simply pulls the stalk down. The stalk continues downward and is crumpled into a mangled pile on the ground. The ear of maize is too large to pass between slots in a plate as the snap rolls pull the stalk away, leaving only the ear and husk to enter the machinery. The combine separates out the husk and the cob, keeping only the kernels.\n\nFor storing grain in bins, the moisture of the grain must be sufficiently low to avoid spoiling. If the moisture content of the harvested grain is too high, grain dryers are used to reduce the moisture content by blowing heated air through the grain. This can require large amounts of energy in the form of combustible gases (propane or natural gas) and electricity to power the blowers. \n\nQuantity\n\nMaize is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain. The United States produces 40% of the world's harvest; other top producing countries include China, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, India, France and Argentina. Worldwide production was 817 million tonnes in 2009—more than rice (678 million tonnes) or wheat (682 million tonnes). In 2009, over 159 million hectares (390 million acres) of maize were planted worldwide, with a yield of over 5 tonnes per hectare (80 bu/acre). Production can be significantly higher in certain regions of the world; 2009 forecasts for production in Iowa were 11614 kg/ha (185 bu/acre). \nThere is conflicting evidence to support the hypothesis that maize yield potential has increased over the past few decades. This suggests that changes in yield potential are associated with leaf angle, lodging resistance, tolerance of high plant density, disease/pest tolerance, and other agronomic traits rather than increase of yield potential per individual plant. \n\nUnited States\n\nIn 2010, the maize planted area for all purposes in the US was estimated at 35 million hectares (87.9 million acres), following an increasing trend since 2008. About 14% of the harvested corn area is irrigated. \n\nPests\n\nInsects\n\n* African armyworm (Spodoptera exempta)\n* Common armyworm (Pseudaletia unipuncta)\n* Common earwig (Forficula auricularia)\n* Corn delphacid (Peregrinus maidis)\n* Corn leaf aphid (Rhopalosiphum maidis)\n* Corn rootworms (Diabrotica spp) including Western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte), Northern corn rootworm (D. barberi) and Southern corn rootworm (D. undecimpunctata howardi)\n* Corn silkfly (Euxesta stigmatias)\n* European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) (ECB)\n* Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda)\n* Corn earworm/Cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa zea)\n* Lesser cornstalk borer (Elasmopalpus lignosellus)\n* Maize weevil (Sitophilus zeamais)\n* Northern armyworm, Oriental armyworm or Rice ear-cutting caterpillar (Mythimna separata)\n* Southwestern corn borer (Diatraea grandiosella)\n* Stalk borer (Papaipema nebris)\n\nThe susceptibility of maize to the European corn borer and corn rootworms, and the resulting large crop losses which are estimated at a billion dollars worldwide for each pest, led to the development of transgenics expressing the Bacillus thuringiensis toxin. \"Bt maize\" is widely grown in the United States and has been approved for release in Europe.\n\nDiseases\n\n* Rust\n* Corn smut or common smut (Ustilago maydis): a fungal disease, known in Mexico as huitlacoche, which is prized by some as a gourmet delicacy in itself\n* Northern corn leaf blight [http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/BP/BP-84-W.pdf (Purdue Extension site)] [https://www.pioneer.com/home/site/us/agronomy/crop-management/corn-insect-disease/northern-leaf-blight (Pioneer site)]\n* Southern corn leaf blight\n* Maize dwarf mosaic virus\n* Maize streak virus\n* Stewart's Wilt (Pantoea stewartii)\n* Goss's Wilt (Clavibacter michiganensis)\n* Grey leaf spot\n* Mal de Río Cuarto virus (MRCV)\n* Stalk rot\n* Ear rot\n\nUses\n\nHuman food\n\nMaize and cornmeal (ground dried maize) constitute a staple food in many regions of the world.\n\nMaize is central to Mexican food. Virtually every dish in Mexican cuisine uses maize. In the form of grain or cornmeal, maize is the main ingredient of tortillas, tamales, pozole, atole and all the dishes based on them, like tacos, quesadillas, chilaquiles, enchiladas, tostadas and many more. In Mexico even a fungus of maize, known as huitlacoche is considered a delicacy.\n\nIntroduced into Africa by the Portuguese in the 16th century, maize has become Africa's most important staple food crop. Maize meal is made into a thick porridge in many cultures: from the polenta of Italy, the angu of Brazil, the mămăligă of Romania, to cornmeal mush in the US (and hominy grits in the South) or the food called mealie pap in South Africa and sadza, nshima and ugali in other parts of Africa. Maize meal is also used as a replacement for wheat flour, to make cornbread and other baked products. Masa (cornmeal treated with limewater) is the main ingredient for tortillas, atole and many other dishes of Central American food.\n\nPopcorn consists of kernels of certain varieties that explode when heated, forming fluffy pieces that are eaten as a snack. Roasted dried maize ears with semihardened kernels, coated with a seasoning mixture of fried chopped spring onions with salt added to the oil, is a popular snack food in Vietnam. Cancha, which are roasted maize chulpe kernels, are a very popular snack food in Peru, and also appears in traditional Peruvian ceviche. An unleavened bread called makki di roti is a popular bread eaten in the Punjab region of India and Pakistan.\n\nChicha and chicha morada (purple chicha) are drinks typically made from particular types of maize. The first one is fermented and alcoholic, the second is a soft drink commonly drunk in Peru.\n\nCorn flakes are a common breakfast cereal in North America and the United Kingdom, and found in many other countries all over the world.\n\nMaize can also be prepared as hominy, in which the kernels are soaked with lye in a process called nixtamalization; or grits, which are coarsely ground hominy. These are commonly eaten in the Southeastern United States, foods handed down from Native Americans, who called the dish sagamite.\n\nThe Brazilian dessert canjica is made by boiling maize kernels in sweetened milk.\nMaize can also be harvested and consumed in the unripe state, when the kernels are fully grown but still soft. Unripe maize must usually be cooked to become palatable; this may be done by simply boiling or roasting the whole ears and eating the kernels right off the cob. Sweet corn, a genetic variety that is high in sugars and low in starch, is usually consumed in the unripe state. Such corn on the cob is a common dish in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Cyprus, some parts of South America, and the Balkans, but virtually unheard of in some European countries. Corn on the cob was hawked on the streets of early 19th-century New York City by poor, barefoot \"Hot Corn Girls\", who were thus the precursors of hot dog carts, churro wagons, and fruit stands seen on the streets of big cities today. The cooked, unripe kernels may also be shaved off the cob and served as a vegetable in side dishes, salads, garnishes, etc. Alternatively, the raw unripe kernels may also be grated off the cobs and processed into a variety of cooked dishes, such as maize purée, tamales, pamonhas, curau, cakes, ice creams, etc.\n\nMaize is a major source of starch. Cornstarch (maize flour) is a major ingredient in home cooking and in many industrialized food products. Maize is also a major source of cooking oil (corn oil) and of maize gluten. Maize starch can be hydrolyzed and enzymatically treated to produce syrups, particularly high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener; and also fermented and distilled to produce grain alcohol. Grain alcohol from maize is traditionally the source of Bourbon whiskey. Maize is sometimes used as the starch source for beer. Within the United States, the usage of maize for human consumption constitutes about 1/40th of the amount grown in the country. In the United States and Canada, maize is mostly grown to feed livestock, as forage, silage (made by fermentation of chopped green cornstalks), or grain. Maize meal is also a significant ingredient of some commercial animal food products, such as dog food.\n\nNutritional value\n\nIn a 100-gram serving, maize kernels provide 86 calories and are a good source (10-19% of the Daily Value) of the B vitamins, thiamin, niacin, pantothenic acid (B5) and folate (right table for raw, uncooked kernels, USDA Nutrient Database). In moderate amounts, they also supply dietary fiber and the essential minerals, magnesium and phosphorus whereas other nutrients are in low amounts (see table on right).\n\nChemicals\n\nStarch from maize can also be made into plastics, fabrics, adhesives, and many other chemical products.\n\nThe corn steep liquor, a plentiful watery byproduct of maize wet milling process, is widely used in the biochemical industry and research as a culture medium to grow many kinds of microorganisms.\n\nChrysanthemin is found in purple corn and is used as a food coloring.\n\nBio-fuel\n\n\"Feed maize\" is being used increasingly for heating; specialized corn stoves (similar to wood stoves) are available and use either feed maize or wood pellets to generate heat. Maize cobs are also used as a biomass fuel source. Maize is relatively cheap and home-heating furnaces have been developed which use maize kernels as a fuel. They feature a large hopper that feeds the uniformly sized maize kernels (or wood pellets or cherry pits) into the fire.\n\nMaize is increasingly used as a feedstock for the production of ethanol fuel. Ethanol is mixed with gasoline to decrease the amount of pollutants emitted when used to fuel motor vehicles. High fuel prices in mid-2007 led to higher demand for ethanol, which in turn led to higher prices paid to farmers for maize. This led to the 2007 harvest being one of the most profitable maize crops in modern history for farmers. Because of the relationship between fuel and maize, prices paid for the crop now tend to track the price of oil. \n\nThe price of food is affected to a certain degree by the use of maize for biofuel production. The cost of transportation, production, and marketing are a large portion (80%) of the price of food in the United States. Higher energy costs affect these costs, especially transportation. The increase in food prices the consumer has been seeing is mainly due to the higher energy cost. The effect of biofuel production on other food crop prices is indirect. Use of maize for biofuel production increases the demand, and therefore price of maize. This, in turn, results in farm acreage being diverted from other food crops to maize production. This reduces the supply of the other food crops and increases their prices. \n\nMaize is widely used in Germany as a feedstock for biogas plants. Here the maize is harvested, shredded then placed in silage clamps from which it is fed into the biogas plants. This process makes use of the whole plant rather than simply using the kernels as in the production of fuel ethanol.\n\nA biomass gasification power plant in Strem near Güssing, Burgenland, Austria, began in 2005. Research is being done to make diesel out of the biogas by the Fischer Tropsch method.\n\nIncreasingly, ethanol is being used at low concentrations (10% or less) as an additive in gasoline (gasohol) for motor fuels to increase the octane rating, lower pollutants, and reduce petroleum use (what is nowadays also known as \"biofuels\" and has been generating an intense debate regarding the human beings' necessity of new sources of energy, on the one hand, and the need to maintain, in regions such as Latin America, the food habits and culture which has been the essence of civilizations such as the one originated in Mesoamerica; the entry, January 2008, of maize among the commercial agreements of NAFTA has increased this debate, considering the bad labor conditions of workers in the fields, and mainly the fact that NAFTA \"opened the doors to the import of maize from the United States, where the farmers who grow it receive multimillion dollar subsidies and other government supports. (...) According to OXFAM UK, after NAFTA went into effect, the price of maize in Mexico fell 70% between 1994 and 2001. The number of farm jobs dropped as well: from 8.1 million in 1993 to 6.8 million in 2002. Many of those who found themselves without work were small-scale maize growers.\"). However, introduction in the northern latitudes of the US of [http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news4169.html tropical maize for biofuels], and not for human or animal consumption, may potentially alleviate this.\n\nAs a result of the US federal government announcing its production target of 35 e9USgal of biofuels by 2017, ethanol production will grow to 7 e9USgal by 2010, up from 4.5 billion in 2006, boosting ethanol's share of maize demand in the US from 22.6 percent to 36.1 percent.[http://www1.ibisworld.com/pressrelease/pressrelease.aspx?prid=115 IBISWorld]\n\nOrnamental and other uses\n\nSome forms of the plant are occasionally grown for ornamental use in the garden. For this purpose, variegated and colored leaf forms as well as those with colorful ears are used.\n\nCorncobs can be hollowed out and treated to make inexpensive smoking pipes, first manufactured in the United States in 1869.\n\nAn unusual use for maize is to create a \"corn maze\" (or \"maize maze\") as a tourist attraction. The idea of a maize maze was introduced by the American Maze Company who created a maze in Pennsylvania in 1993. Traditional mazes are most commonly grown using yew hedges, but these take several years to mature. The rapid growth of a field of maize allows a maze to be laid out using GPS at the start of a growing season and for the maize to grow tall enough to obstruct a visitor's line of sight by the start of the summer. In Canada and the US, these are popular in many farming communities.\n\nMaize kernels can be used in place of sand in a sandboxlike enclosure for children's play.\n\nStigmas from female maize flowers, popularly called corn silk, are sold as herbal supplements.\n\nMaize is used as a fish bait, called \"dough balls\". It is particularly popular in Europe for coarse fishing.\n\nAdditionally, feed corn is sometimes used by hunters to bait animals such as deer or wild hogs.\n\nFodder\n\nMaize produces a greater quantity of biomass than other cereal plants, which is used for fodder. Digestibility and palatability are higher when ensiled and fermented, rather than dried.\n\nCommodity\n\nMaize is bought and sold by investors and price speculators as a tradable commodity using corn futures contracts. These \"futures\" are traded on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) under ticker symbol C. They are delivered every year in March, May, July, September, and December. \n\nUnited States usage breakdown\n\nThe breakdown of usage of the 12.1-billion-bushel (307-million-tonne) 2008 US maize crop was as follows, according to the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates Report by the USDA. \n\nIn the US since 2009/2010, maize feedstock use for ethanol production has somewhat exceeded direct use for livestock feed; maize use for fuel ethanol was 5,130 million bushels (130 million tonnes) in the 2013/2014 marketing year. \n\nA fraction of the maize feedstock dry matter used for ethanol production is usefully recovered as DDGS (dried distillers grains with solubles). In the 2010/2011 marketing year, about 29.1 million tonnes of DDGS were fed to US livestock and poultry.Hoffman, L. and A. Baker. 2011. Estimating the substitution of distillers'grains for corn and soybean meal in the U.S. feed complex. United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. FDS-11-l-01. 62 pp. Because starch utilization in fermentation for ethanol production leaves other grain constituents more concentrated in the residue, the feed value per kg of DDGS, with regard to ruminant-metabolizable energy and protein, exceeds that of the grain. Feed value for monogastric animals, such as swine and poultry, is somewhat lower than for ruminants.\n\nComparison to other staple foods\n\nThe following table shows the nutrient content of maize and major staple foods in a raw harvested form. Raw forms are not edible and cannot be digested. These must be sprouted, or prepared and cooked for human consumption. In sprouted or cooked form, the relative nutritional and anti-nutritional contents of each of these staples are different from that of raw form of these staples reported in the table below.\n\nHazards\n\nPellagra\n\nWhen maize was first introduced into farming systems other than those used by traditional native-American peoples, it was generally welcomed with enthusiasm for its productivity. However, a widespread problem of malnutrition soon arose wherever maize was introduced as a staple food. This was a mystery, since these types of malnutrition were not normally seen among the indigenous Americans, for whom maize was the principal staple food.\n\nIt was eventually discovered that the indigenous Americans had learned to soak maize in alkali-water—made with ashes and lime (calcium oxide) since at least 1200–1500 BC by Mesoamericans and North Americans—which liberates the B-vitamin niacin, the lack of which was the underlying cause of the condition known as pellagra. \n\nMaize was introduced into the diet of nonindigenous Americans without the necessary cultural knowledge acquired over thousands of years in the Americas. In the late 19th century, pellagra reached epidemic proportions in parts of the southern US, as medical researchers debated two theories for its origin: the deficiency theory (which was eventually shown to be true) said that pellagra was due to a deficiency of some nutrient, and the germ theory said that pellagra was caused by a germ transmitted by stable flies. A third theory, promoted by the eugenicist Charles Davenport, held that people only contracted pellagra if they were susceptible to it due to certain \"constitutional, inheritable\" traits of the affected individual. \n\nOnce alkali processing and dietary variety were understood and applied, pellagra disappeared in the developed world. The development of high lysine maize and the promotion of a more balanced diet have also contributed to its demise. Pellagra still exists today in food-poor areas and refugee camps where people survive on donated maize. \n\nAllergy\n\nMaize contains lipid transfer protein, an indigestible protein that survives cooking. This protein has been linked to a rare and understudied allergy to maize in humans. The allergic reaction can cause skin rash, swelling or itching of mucous membranes, diarrhea, vomiting, asthma and, in severe cases, anaphylaxis. It is unclear how common this allergy is in the general population.\n\nArt\n\nMaize has been an essential crop in the Andes since the pre-Columbian era. The Moche culture from Northern Peru made ceramics from earth, water, and fire. This pottery was a sacred substance, formed in significant shapes and used to represent important themes. Maize represented anthropomorphically as well as naturally. \n\nIn the United States, maize ears along with tobacco leaves are carved into the capitals of columns in the United States Capitol building. Maize itself is sometimes used for temporary architectural detailing when the intent is to celebrate the fall season, local agricultural productivity and culture. Bundles of dried maize stalks are often displayed often along with pumpkins, gourds and straw in autumnal displays outside homes and businesses. A well-known example of architectural use is the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, which uses cobs and ears of colored maize to implement a mural design that is recycled annually.\n\nA maize stalk with two ripe ears is depicted on the reverse of the Croatian 1 lipa coin, minted since 1993.", "Wheat (Triticum spp.) is a cereal grain, (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis) originally from the Levant region of the Near East but now cultivated worldwide. In 2013, world production of wheat was 713 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize (1,016 million tons) and rice (745 million tons). Wheat was the second most-produced cereal in 2009; world production in that year was 682 million tons, after maize (817 million tons), and with rice as a close third (679 million tons).\n\nThis grain is grown on more land area than any other commercial food. World trade in wheat is greater than for all other crops combined. Globally, wheat is the leading source of vegetable protein in human food, having a higher protein content than the other major cereals maize (corn) and rice. In terms of total production tonnages used for food, it is currently second to rice as the main human food crop and ahead of maize, after allowing for maize's more extensive use in animal feeds. The archaeological record suggests that this first occurred in the regions known as the Fertile Crescent.\n\nOrigin\n\n Cultivation and repeated harvesting and sowing of the grains of wild grasses led to the creation of domestic strains, as mutant forms ('sports') of wheat were preferentially chosen by farmers. In domesticated wheat, grains are larger, and the seeds (inside the spikelets) remain attached to the ear by a toughened rachis during harvesting. In wild strains, a more fragile rachis allows the ear to easily shatter and disperse the spikelets. Selection for these traits by farmers might not have been deliberately intended, but simply have occurred because these traits made gathering the seeds easier; nevertheless such 'incidental' selection was an important part of crop domestication. As the traits that improve wheat as a food source also involve the loss of the plant's natural seed dispersal mechanisms, highly domesticated strains of wheat cannot survive in the wild.\n\nCultivation of wheat began to spread beyond the Fertile Crescent after about 8000 BCE. Jared Diamond traces the spread of cultivated emmer wheat starting in the Fertile Crescent sometime before 8800 BCE. Archaeological analysis of wild emmer indicates that it was first cultivated in the southern Levant with finds dating back as far as 9600 BCE. Genetic analysis of wild einkorn wheat suggests that it was first grown in the Karacadag Mountains in southeastern Turkey. Dated archeological remains of einkorn wheat in settlement sites near this region, including those at Abu Hureyra in Syria, suggest the domestication of einkorn near the Karacadag Mountain Range. With the anomalous exception of two grains from Iraq ed-Dubb, the earliest carbon-14 date for einkorn wheat remains at Abu Hureyra is 7800 to 7500 years BCE. \n\nRemains of harvested emmer from several sites near the Karacadag Range have been dated to between 8600 (at Cayonu) and 8400 BCE (Abu Hureyra), that is, in the Neolithic period. With the exception of Iraq ed-Dubb, the earliest carbon-14 dated remains of domesticated emmer wheat were found in the earliest levels of Tell Aswad, in the Damascus basin, near Mount Hermon in Syria. These remains were dated by Willem van Zeist and his assistant Johanna Bakker-Heeres to 8800 BCE. They also concluded that the settlers of Tell Aswad did not develop this form of emmer themselves, but brought the domesticated grains with them from an as yet unidentified location elsewhere. \n\nThe cultivation of emmer reached Greece, Cyprus and India by 6500 BCE, Egypt shortly after 6000 BCE, and Germany and Spain by 5000 BCE. \"The early Egyptians were developers of bread and the use of the oven and developed baking into one of the first large-scale food production industries.\" By 3000 BCE, wheat had reached the British Isles and Scandinavia. A millennium later it reached China. The first identifiable bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) with sufficient gluten for yeasted breads has been identified using DNA analysis in samples from a granary dating to approximately 1350 BCE at Assiros in Greek Macedonia. \n\nFrom Asia, wheat continued to spread throughout Europe. In the British Isles, wheat straw (thatch) was used for roofing in the Bronze Age, and was in common use until the late 19th century.\n \n\nFarming techniques\n\nTechnological advances in soil preparation and seed placement at planting time, use of crop rotation and fertilizers to improve plant growth, and advances in harvesting methods have all combined to promote wheat as a viable crop. Agricultural cultivation using horse collar leveraged plows (at about 3000 BCE) was one of the first innovations that increased productivity. Much later, when the use of seed drills replaced broadcasting sowing of seed in the 18th century, another great increase in productivity occurred.\n\nYields of pure wheat per unit area increased as methods of crop rotation were applied to long cultivated land, and the use of fertilizers became widespread. Improved agricultural husbandry has more recently included threshing machines and reaping machines (the 'combine harvester'), tractor-drawn cultivators and planters, and better varieties (see Green Revolution and Norin 10 wheat). Great expansion of wheat production occurred as new arable land was farmed in the Americas and Australia in the 19th and 20th centuries.\n\nGenetics\n\nWheat genetics is more complicated than that of most other domesticated species. Some wheat species are diploid, with two sets of chromosomes, but many are stable polyploids, with four sets of chromosomes (tetraploid) or six (hexaploid).Hancock, James F. (2004) Plant Evolution and the Origin of Crop Species. CABI Publishing. ISBN 0-85199-685-X.\n* Einkorn wheat (T. monococcum) is diploid (AA, two complements of seven chromosomes, 2n14).\n* Most tetraploid wheats (e.g. emmer and durum wheat) are derived from wild emmer, T. dicoccoides. Wild emmer is itself the result of a hybridization between two diploid wild grasses, T. urartu and a wild goatgrass such as Aegilops searsii or Ae. speltoides. The unknown grass has never been identified among now surviving wild grasses, but the closest living relative is Aegilops speltoides. The hybridization that formed wild emmer (AABB) occurred in the wild, long before domestication, and was driven by natural selection.\n* Hexaploid wheats evolved in farmers' fields. Either domesticated emmer or durum wheat hybridized with yet another wild diploid grass (Aegilops tauschii) to make the hexaploid wheats, spelt wheat and bread wheat. These have three sets of paired chromosomes, three times as many as in diploid wheat.\n\nThe presence of certain versions of wheat genes has been important for crop yields. Apart from mutant versions of genes selected in antiquity during domestication, there has been more recent deliberate selection of alleles that affect growth characteristics. Genes for the 'dwarfing' trait, first used by Japanese wheat breeders to produce short-stalked wheat, have had a huge effect on wheat yields world-wide, and were major factors in the success of the Green Revolution in Mexico and Asia, an initiative led by Norman Borlaug. Dwarfing genes enable the carbon that is fixed in the plant during photosynthesis to be diverted towards seed production, and they also help prevent the problem of lodging. 'Lodging' occurs when an ear stalk falls over in the wind and rots on the ground, and heavy nitrogenous fertilization of wheat makes the grass grow taller and become more susceptible to this problem. By 1997, 81% of the developing world's wheat area was planted to semi-dwarf wheats, giving both increased yields and better response to nitrogenous fertilizer.\n\nWild grasses in the genus Triticum and related genera, and grasses such as rye have been a source of many disease-resistance traits for cultivated wheat breeding since the 1930s. \n\nHeterosis, or hybrid vigor (as in the familiar F1 hybrids of maize), occurs in common (hexaploid) wheat, but it is difficult to produce seed of hybrid cultivars on a commercial scale (as is done with maize) because wheat flowers are perfect and normally self-pollinate. Commercial hybrid wheat seed has been produced using chemical hybridizing agents; these chemicals selectively interfere with pollen development, or naturally occurring cytoplasmic male sterility systems. Hybrid wheat has been a limited commercial success in Europe (particularly France), the United States and South Africa. F1 hybrid wheat cultivars should not be confused with the standard method of breeding inbred wheat cultivars by crossing two lines using hand emasculation, then selfing or inbreeding the progeny many (ten or more) generations before release selections are identified to be released as a variety or cultivar.\n\nSynthetic hexaploids made by crossing the wild goatgrass wheat ancestor Aegilops tauschii and various durum wheats are now being deployed, and these increase the genetic diversity of cultivated wheats. \n\nStomata (or leaf pores) are involved in both uptake of carbon dioxide gas from the atmosphere and water vapor losses from the leaf due to water transpiration. Basic physiological investigation of these gas exchange processes has yielded valuable carbon isotope based methods that are used for breeding wheat varieties with improved water-use efficiency. These varieties can improve crop productivity in rain-fed dry-land wheat farms. \n\nIn 2010, a team of UK scientists funded by BBSRC announced they had decoded the wheat genome for the first time (95% of the genome of a variety of wheat known as Chinese Spring line 42). This genome was released in a basic format for scientists and plant breeders to use but was not a fully annotated sequence which was reported in some of the media. \n\nOn 29 November 2012, an essentially complete gene set of bread wheat has been published. Random shotgun libraries of total DNA and cDNA from the T. aestivum cv. Chinese Spring (CS42) were sequenced in Roche 454 pyrosequencer using GS FLX Titanium and GS FLX+ platforms to generate 85 Gb of sequence (220 million reads), equivalent to 5X genome coverage and identified between 94,000 and 96,000 genes.\n\nThis sequence data provides direct access to about 96,000 genes, relying on orthologous gene sets from\nother cereals. and represents an essential step towards a systematic understanding of biology and engineering the cereal crop for valuable traits. Its implications in cereal genetics and breeding includes the examination of genome variation, association mapping using natural populations, performing wide crosses and alien introgression, studying the expression and nucleotide polymorphism in transcriptomes, analyzing population genetics and evolutionary biology, and studying the epigenetic modifications. Moreover, the availability of large-scale genetic markers generated through NGS technology will facilitate trait mapping and make marker-assisted breeding much feasible. \n\nMoreover, the data not only facilitate in deciphering the complex phenomena such as heterosis and epigenetics, it may also enable breeders to predict which fragment of a chromosome is derived from which parent in the progeny line, thereby recognizing crossover events occurring in every progeny line and inserting markers on genetic and physical maps without ambiguity. In due course, this will assist in introducing specific chromosomal segments from one cultivar to another. Besides, the researchers had identified diverse classes of genes participating in energy production, metabolism and growth that were probably linked with crop yield, which can now be utilized for the development of transgenic wheat. Thus whole genome sequence of wheat and the availability of thousands of SNPs will inevitably permit the breeders to stride towards identifying novel traits, providing biological knowledge and empowering biodiversity-based breeding.\n\nPlant breeding\n\nIn traditional agricultural systems wheat populations often consist of landraces, informal farmer-maintained populations that often maintain high levels of morphological diversity. Although landraces of wheat are no longer grown in Europe and North America, they continue to be important elsewhere. The origins of formal wheat breeding lie in the nineteenth century, when single line varieties were created through selection of seed from a single plant noted to have desired properties. Modern wheat breeding developed in the first years of the twentieth century and was closely linked to the development of Mendelian genetics. The standard method of breeding inbred wheat cultivars is by crossing two lines using hand emasculation, then selfing or inbreeding the progeny. Selections are identified (shown to have the genes responsible for the varietal differences) ten or more generations before release as a variety or cultivar.\n\nThe major breeding objectives include high grain yield, good quality, disease and insect resistance and tolerance to abiotic stresses, including mineral, moisture and heat tolerance. The major diseases in temperate environments include the following, arranged in a rough order of their significance from cooler to warmer climates: eyespot, Stagonospora nodorum blotch (also known as glume blotch), yellow or stripe rust, powdery mildew, Septoria tritici blotch (sometimes known as leaf blotch), brown or leaf rust, Fusarium head blight, tan spot and stem rust. In tropical areas, spot blotch (also known as Helminthosporium leaf blight) is also important.\n\nWheat has also been the subject of mutation breeding, with the use of gamma, x-rays, ultraviolet light, and sometimes harsh chemicals. The varieties of wheat created through these methods are in the hundreds (going as far back as 1960), more of them being created in higher populated countries such as China. Bread wheat with high grain iron and zinc content was developed through gamma radiation breeding. \n\nHybrid wheat\n\nBecause wheat self-pollinates, creating hybrid varieties is extremely labor-intensive; the high cost of hybrid wheat seed relative to its moderate benefits have kept farmers from adopting them widely despite nearly 90 years of effort. F1 hybrid wheat cultivars should not be confused with wheat cultivars deriving from standard plant breeding. Heterosis or hybrid vigor (as in the familiar F1 hybrids of maize) occurs in common (hexaploid) wheat, but it is difficult to produce seed of hybrid cultivars on a commercial scale as is done with maize because wheat flowers are perfect in the botanical sense, meaning they have both male and female parts, and normally self-pollinate.Bajaj, Y. P. S. (1990) Wheat. Springer. pp. 161-63. ISBN 3-540-51809-6. Commercial hybrid wheat seed has been produced using chemical hybridizing agents, plant growth regulators that selectively interfere with pollen development, or naturally occurring cytoplasmic male sterility systems. Hybrid wheat has been a limited commercial success in Europe (particularly France), the United States and South Africa. \n\nHulled versus free-threshing wheat\n\n The four wild species of wheat, along with the domesticated varieties einkorn,Potts, D. T. (1996) Mesopotamia Civilization: The Material Foundations Cornell University Press. p. 62. ISBN 0-8014-3339-8. emmer and spelt, have hulls. This more primitive morphology (in evolutionary terms) consists of toughened glumes that tightly enclose the grains, and (in domesticated wheats) a semi-brittle rachis that breaks easily on threshing. The result is that when threshed, the wheat ear breaks up into spikelets. To obtain the grain, further processing, such as milling or pounding, is needed to remove the hulls or husks. In contrast, in free-threshing (or naked) forms such as durum wheat and common wheat, the glumes are fragile and the rachis tough. On threshing, the chaff breaks up, releasing the grains. Hulled wheats are often stored as spikelets because the toughened glumes give good protection against pests of stored grain.\n\nNaming\n\nThere are many botanical classification systems used for wheat species, discussed in a separate article on wheat taxonomy. The name of a wheat species from one information source may not be the name of a wheat species in another.\n\nWithin a species, wheat cultivars are further classified by wheat breeders and farmers in terms of:\n\n* Growing season, such as winter wheat vs. spring wheat.Bridgwater, W. & Beatrice Aldrich. (1966) The Columbia-Viking Desk Encyclopedia. Columbia University. p. 1959.\n* Protein content. Bread wheat protein content ranges from 10% in some soft wheats with high starch contents, to 15% in hard wheats.\n* The quality of the wheat protein gluten. This protein can determine the suitability of a wheat to a particular dish. A strong and elastic gluten present in bread wheats enables dough to trap carbon dioxide during leavening, but elastic gluten interferes with the rolling of pasta into thin sheets. The gluten protein in durum wheats used for pasta is strong but not elastic.\n* Grain color (red, white or amber). Many wheat varieties are reddish-brown due to phenolic compounds present in the bran layer which are transformed to pigments by browning enzymes. White wheats have a lower content of phenolics and browning enzymes, and are generally less astringent in taste than red wheats. The yellowish color of durum wheat and semolina flour made from it is due to a carotenoid pigment called lutein, which can be oxidized to a colorless form by enzymes present in the grain.\n\nMajor cultivated species of wheat\n\nHexaploid species\n*Common wheat or bread wheat (T. aestivum) – A hexaploid species that is the most widely cultivated in the world.\n*Spelt (T. spelta) – Another hexaploid species cultivated in limited quantities. Spelt is sometimes considered a subspecies of the closely related species common wheat (T. aestivum), in which case its botanical name is considered to be Triticum aestivum subsp. spelta.\nTetraploid species\n*Durum (T. durum) – The only tetraploid form of wheat widely used today, and the second most widely cultivated wheat.\n*Emmer (T. dicoccon) – A tetraploid species, cultivated in ancient times but no longer in widespread use.\n*Khorasan (Triticum turgidum ssp. turanicum also called Triticum turanicum) is a tetraploid wheat species.[2] It is an ancient grain type; Khorasan refers to a historical region in modern-day Afghanistan and the northeast of Iran. This grain is twice the size of modern-day wheat and is known for its rich nutty flavor.[3]\nDiploid species\n*Einkorn (T. monococcum) – A diploid species with wild and cultivated variants. Domesticated at the same time as emmer wheat, but never reached the same importance.\n\nClasses used in the United States:\n\n*Durum – Very hard, translucent, light-colored grain used to make semolina flour for pasta & bulghur; high in protein, specifically, gluten protein.\n*Hard Red Spring – Hard, brownish, high-protein wheat used for bread and hard baked goods. Bread Flour and high-gluten flours are commonly made from hard red spring wheat. It is primarily traded at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange.\n*Hard Red Winter – Hard, brownish, mellow high-protein wheat used for bread, hard baked goods and as an adjunct in other flours to increase protein in pastry flour for pie crusts. Some brands of unbleached all-purpose flours are commonly made from hard red winter wheat alone. It is primarily traded on the Kansas City Board of Trade. One variety is known as \"turkey red wheat\", and was brought to Kansas by Mennonite immigrants from Russia. \n*Soft Red Winter – Soft, low-protein wheat used for cakes, pie crusts, biscuits, and muffins. Cake flour, pastry flour, and some self-rising flours with baking powder and salt added, for example, are made from soft red winter wheat. It is primarily traded on the Chicago Board of Trade.\n*Hard White – Hard, light-colored, opaque, chalky, medium-protein wheat planted in dry, temperate areas. Used for bread and brewing.\n*Soft White – Soft, light-colored, very low protein wheat grown in temperate moist areas. Used for pie crusts and pastry. Pastry flour, for example, is sometimes made from soft white winter wheat.\n\nRed wheats may need bleaching; therefore, white wheats usually command higher prices than red wheats on the commodities market.\n\nAs a food\n\nRaw wheat can be ground into flour or, using hard durum wheat only, can be ground into semolina; germinated and dried creating malt; crushed or cut into cracked wheat; parboiled (or steamed), dried, crushed and de-branned into bulgur also known as groats. If the raw wheat is broken into parts at the mill, as is usually done, the outer husk or bran can be used several ways. Wheat is a major ingredient in such foods as bread, porridge, crackers, biscuits, Muesli, pancakes, pies, pastries, cakes, cookies, muffins, rolls, doughnuts, gravy, boza (a fermented beverage), and breakfast cereals (e.g., Wheatena, Cream of Wheat, Shredded Wheat, and Wheaties).\n\nNutrition\n\nIn 100 grams, wheat provides 327 calories and is an excellent source (more than 19% of the Daily Value, DV) of multiple essential nutrients, such as protein, dietary fiber, manganese, phosphorus and niacin (table). Several B vitamins and other dietary minerals are in significant content (table). Wheat is 13% water, 71% carbohydrates, 1.5% fat and 13% protein (table).\n\n100 g of hard red winter wheat contain about of protein, of total fat, 71 g of carbohydrate (by difference), of dietary fiber, and of iron (17% of the daily requirement); the same weight of hard red spring wheat contains about of protein, of total fat, 68 g of carbohydrate (by difference), of dietary fiber, and of iron (20% of the daily requirement).[http://www.ars.usda.gov/ba/bhnrc/ndl USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference], Release 25 (2012)\n\nWorldwide consumption\n\nWheat is grown on more than 218000000 ha, larger than for any other crop. World trade in wheat is greater than for all other crops combined. With rice, wheat is the world's most favored staple food. It is a major diet component because of the wheat plant's agronomic adaptability with the ability to grow from near arctic regions to equator, from sea level to plains of Tibet, approximately 4000 m above sea level. In addition to agronomic adaptability, wheat offers ease of grain storage and ease of converting grain into flour for making edible, palatable, interesting and satisfying foods. Wheat is the most important source of carbohydrate in a majority of countries.\n\nWheat protein is easily digested by nearly 99% of the human population (all but those with gluten-related disorders), as is its starch. With a small amount of animal or legume protein added, a wheat-based meal is highly nutritious. \n\nThe most common forms of wheat are white and red wheat. However, other natural forms of wheat exist. Other commercially minor but nutritionally promising species of naturally evolved wheat species include black, yellow and blue wheat. \n\nHealth concerns\n\nCoeliac disease affects 1-2% of the general population, but most cases remain unrecognized, undiagnosed and untreated.\n\nWhile coeliac disease is caused by a reaction to wheat proteins, it is not the same as a wheat allergy. Other diseases triggered by gluten consumption are non-celiac gluten sensitivity, (estimated in one study to affect the general population in a wide range from 0.5% to 13%), gluten ataxia and dermatitis herpetiformis.\n\nComparison of wheat with other major staple foods\n\nThe following table shows the nutrient content of wheat and other major staple foods in a raw form. \n\nRaw forms of these staples, however, are not edible and cannot be digested. These must be sprouted, or prepared and cooked as appropriate for human consumption. In sprouted or cooked form, the relative nutritional and anti-nutritional contents of each of these grains is remarkably different from that of raw form of these grains reported in this table.\n\nIn cooked form, the nutrition value for each staple depends on the cooking method (for example: baking, boiling, steaming, frying, etc.).\n\nCommercial use\n\nHarvested wheat grain that enters trade is classified according to grain properties for the purposes of the commodity markets. Wheat buyers use these to decide which wheat to buy, as each class has special uses, and producers use them to decide which classes of wheat will be most profitable to cultivate.\n\nWheat is widely cultivated as a cash crop because it produces a good yield per unit area, grows well in a temperate climate even with a moderately short growing season, and yields a versatile, high-quality flour that is widely used in baking. Most breads are made with wheat flour, including many breads named for the other grains they contain, for example, most rye and oat breads. The popularity of foods made from wheat flour creates a large demand for the grain, even in economies with significant food surpluses.\n\nIn recent years, low international wheat prices have often encouraged farmers in the United States to change to more profitable crops. In 1998, the price at harvest was $2.68 per bushel. USDA report revealed that in 1998, average operating costs were $1.43 per bushel and total costs were $3.97 per bushel. In that study, farm wheat yields averaged 41.7 bushels per acre (2.2435 metric ton/hectare), and typical total wheat production value was $31,900 per farm, with total farm production value (including other crops) of $173,681 per farm, plus $17,402 in government payments. There were significant profitability differences between low- and high-cost farms, mainly due to crop yield differences, location, and farm size.\n\nIn 2007 there was a dramatic rise in the price of wheat due to freezes and flooding in the Northern Hemisphere and a drought in Australia. Wheat futures in September, 2007 for December and March delivery had risen above $9.00 a bushel, prices never seen before. There were complaints in Italy about the high price of pasta.\n\nProduction and consumption\n\nIn 2011, global per capita wheat consumption was 65 kg, with the highest per capita consumption of 210 kg found in Azerbaijan. In 1997, global wheat consumption was 101 kg per capita, with the highest consumption 623 kg per capita in Denmark, but most of this (81%) was for animal feed. Wheat is the primary food staple in North Africa and the Middle East, and is growing in popularity in Asia. Unlike rice, wheat production is more widespread globally though China's share is almost one-sixth of the world.\n\n\"There is a little increase in yearly crop yield comparison to the year 1990. The reason for this is not in development of sowing area, but the slow and successive increasing of the average yield. Average 2.5 tons wheat was produced on one hectare crop land in the world in the first half of 1990s, however this value was about 3 tons in 2009. In the world per capita wheat producing area continuously decreased between 1990 and 2009 considering the change of world population. There was no significant change in wheat producing area in this period. However, due to the improvement of average yields there is some fluctuation in each year considering the per capita production, but there is no considerable decline. In 1990 per capita production was 111.98 kg/capita/year, while it was already 100.62 kg/capita/year in 2009. The decline is evident and the per capita production level of the year 1990 can not be feasible simultaneously with the growth of world population in spite of the increased average yields. In the whole period the lowest per capita production was in 2006.\" \n\nIn the 20th century, global wheat output expanded by about 5-fold, but until about 1955 most of this reflected increases in wheat crop area, with lesser (about 20%) increases in crop yields per unit area. After 1955 however, there was a ten-fold increase in the rate of wheat yield improvement per year, and this became the major factor allowing global wheat production to increase. Thus technological innovation and scientific crop management with synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, irrigation and wheat breeding were the main drivers of wheat output growth in the second half of the century. There were some significant decreases in wheat crop area, for instance in North America. \n\nBetter seed storage and germination ability (and hence a smaller requirement to retain harvested crop for next year's seed) is another 20th century technological innovation. In Medieval England, farmers saved one-quarter of their wheat harvest as seed for the next crop, leaving only three-quarters for food and feed consumption. By 1999, the global average seed use of wheat was about 6% of output.\n\nSeveral factors are currently slowing the rate of global expansion of wheat production: population growth rates are falling while wheat yields continue to rise, and the better economic profitability of other crops such as soybeans and maize, linked with investment in modern genetic technologies, has promoted shifts to other crops.\n\nFarming systems\n\nIn the Punjab region of India and Pakistan, as well as North China, irrigation has been a major contributor to increased grain output. More widely over the last 40 years, a massive increase in fertilizer use together with the increased availability of semi-dwarf varieties in developing countries, has greatly increased yields per hectare. In developing countries, use of (mainly nitrogenous) fertilizer increased 25-fold in this period. However, farming systems rely on much more than fertilizer and breeding to improve productivity. A good illustration of this is Australian wheat growing in the southern winter cropping zone, where, despite low rainfall (300 mm), wheat cropping is successful even with relatively little use of nitrogenous fertilizer. This is achieved by 'rotation cropping' (traditionally called the ley system) with leguminous pastures and, in the last decade, including a canola crop in the rotations has boosted wheat yields by a further 25%. In these low rainfall areas, better use of available soil-water (and better control of soil erosion) is achieved by retaining the stubble after harvesting and by minimizing tillage. \n\nIn 2009, the most productive farms for wheat were in France producing 7.45 metric tonnes per hectare (although French production has low protein content and requires blending with higher protein wheat to meet the specifications required in some countries). The five largest producers of wheat in 2009 were China (115 million metric tonnes), India (81 MMT), Russian Federation (62 MMT), United States (60 MMT) and France (38 MMT). The wheat farm productivity in India and Russia were about 35% of the wheat farm productivity in France. China's farm productivity for wheat, in 2009, was about double that of Russia.\n\nIn addition to gaps in farming system technology and knowledge, some large wheat grain producing countries have significant losses after harvest at the farm and because of poor roads, inadequate storage technologies, inefficient supply chains and farmers' inability to bring the produce into retail markets dominated by small shopkeepers. Various studies in India, for example, have concluded that about 10% of total wheat production is lost at farm level, another 10% is lost because of poor storage and road networks, and additional amounts lost at the retail level. One study claims that if these post-harvest wheat grain losses could be eliminated with better infrastructure and retail network, in India alone enough food would be saved every year to feed 70 to 100 million people over a year. \n\nFutures contracts\n\nWheat futures are traded on the Chicago Board of Trade, Kansas City Board of Trade, and Minneapolis Grain Exchange, and have delivery dates in March (H), May (K), July (N), September (U), and December (Z). \n\nGeographical variation\n\nThere are substantial differences in wheat farming, trading, policy, sector growth, and wheat uses in different regions of the world. In the EU and Canada for instance, there is significant addition of wheat to animal feeds, but less so in the United States.\n\nThe biggest wheat producer in 2010 was EU-27, followed by China, India, United States and Russian Federation.\n\nThe largest exporters of wheat in 2009 were, in order of exported quantities: United States, EU-27, Canada, Russian Federation, Australia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Upon the results of 2011, Ukraine became the world's sixth wheat exporter as well. The largest importers of wheat in 2009 were, in order of imported quantities: Egypt, EU-27, Brazil, Indonesia, Algeria and Japan. EU-27 was on both export and import list, because EU countries such as Italy and Spain imported wheat, while other EU-27 countries exported their harvest. The Black Sea region – which includes Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Ukraine – is amongst the most promising area for grain exporters; it possess significant production potential in terms of both wheat yield and area increases. The Black Sea region is also located close to the traditional grain importers in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.\n\nIn the rapidly developing countries of Asia, westernization of diets associated with increasing prosperity is leading to growth in per capita demand for wheat at the expense of the other food staples.\n\nIn the past, there has been significant governmental intervention in wheat markets, such as price supports in the US and farm payments in the EU. In the EU these subsidies have encouraged heavy use of fertilizer inputs with resulting high crop yields. In Australia and Argentina direct government subsidies are much lower. \n\nWorld's most productive wheat farms and farmers\n\nThe average annual world farm yield for wheat was 3.3 tonnes per hectare (330 grams per square meter), in 2013.\n\nNew Zealand wheat farms were the most productive in 2013, with a nationwide average of 9.1 tonnes per hectare. Ireland was a close second.\n\nVarious regions of the world hold wheat production yield contests every year. Yields above 12 tonnes per hectare are routinely achieved in many parts of the world. Chris Dennison of Oamaru, New Zealand, set a world record for wheat yield in 2003 at 15.015 tonnes per hectare (223 bushels/acre). In 2010, this record was surpassed by another New Zealand farmer, Michael Solari, with 15.636 tonnes per hectare (232.64 bushels/acre) at Otama, Gore. \n\nAgronomy\n\nCrop development\n\nWheat normally needs between 110 and 130 days between sowing and harvest, depending upon climate, seed type, and soil conditions (winter wheat lies dormant during a winter freeze). Optimal crop management requires that the farmer have a detailed understanding of each stage of development in the growing plants. In particular, spring fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, and growth regulators are typically applied only at specific stages of plant development. For example, it is currently recommended that the second application of nitrogen is best done when the ear (not visible at this stage) is about 1 cm in size (Z31 on Zadoks scale). Knowledge of stages is also important to identify periods of higher risk from the climate. For example, pollen formation from the mother cell, and the stages between anthesis and maturity are susceptible to high temperatures, and this adverse effect is made worse by water stress. Farmers also benefit from knowing when the 'flag leaf' (last leaf) appears, as this leaf represents about 75% of photosynthesis reactions during the grain filling period, and so should be preserved from disease or insect attacks to ensure a good yield.\n\nSeveral systems exist to identify crop stages, with the Feekes and Zadoks scales being the most widely used. Each scale is a standard system which describes successive stages reached by the crop during the agricultural season.\n\nDiseases\n\nThere are many wheat diseases, mainly caused by fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Plant breeding to develop new disease-resistant varieties, and sound crop management practices are important for preventing disease. Fungicides, used to prevent the significant crop losses from fungal disease, can be a significant variable cost in wheat production. Estimates of the amount of wheat production lost owing to plant diseases vary between 10–25% in Missouri. A wide range of organisms infect wheat, of which the most important are viruses and fungi. \n\nThe main wheat-disease categories are:\n*Seed-borne diseases: these include seed-borne scab, seed-borne Stagonospora (previously known as Septoria), common bunt (stinking smut), and loose smut. These are managed with fungicides.\n*Leaf- and head- blight diseases: Powdery mildew, leaf rust, Septoria tritici leaf blotch, Stagonospora (Septoria) nodorum leaf and glume blotch, and Fusarium head scab. \n*Crown and root rot diseases: Two of the more important of these are 'take-all' and Cephalosporium stripe. Both of these diseases are soil borne.\n*Stem rust diseases: Caused by basidiomycete fungi e.g. Ug99\n*Viral diseases: Wheat spindle streak mosaic (yellow mosaic) and barley yellow dwarf are the two most common viral diseases. Control can be achieved by using resistant varieties.\n\nPests\n\nWheat is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species including the flame, rustic shoulder-knot, setaceous Hebrew character and turnip moth.\nEarly in the season, many species of birds, including the long-tailed widowbird, and rodents feed upon wheat crops. These animals can cause significant damage to a crop by digging up and eating newly planted seeds or young plants. They can also damage the crop late in the season by eating the grain from the mature spike. Recent post-harvest losses in cereals amount to billions of dollars per year in the United States alone, and damage to wheat by various borers, beetles and weevils is no exception. Rodents can also cause major losses during storage, and in major grain growing regions, field mice numbers can sometimes build up explosively to plague proportions because of the ready availability of food. To reduce the amount of wheat lost to post-harvest pests, Agricultural Research Service scientists have developed an \"insect-o-graph,\" which can detect insects in wheat that are not visible to the naked eye. The device uses electrical signals to detect the insects as the wheat is being milled. The new technology is so precise that it can detect 5-10 infested seeds out of 300,000 good ones. Tracking insect infestations in stored grain is critical for food safety as well as for the marketing value of the crop." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Hannibal,_Missouri.txt", "M*A*S*H_(TV_series).txt" ], "title": [ "Hannibal, Missouri", "M*A*S*H (TV series)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Hannibal is a city in Marion and Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is located at the intersection of Interstate 72 and U.S. Routes 24, 36, and 61, approximately 100 mi northwest of St. Louis. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population was 17,606, making it the largest city in Marion County, although it is not the county seat. It is also the principal city of the Hannibal, Missouri micropolitan area, which consists of both counties.\n\nHistory and landmarks\n\nThe community is best known as the boyhood home of author Samuel Langhorne Clemens (aka Mark Twain) and as the setting of his The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with numerous historical sites related to Mark Twain and sites depicted in his fiction. Hannibal draws both American and international tourists. The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum marked its 100th anniversary in 2012 and has hosted visitors from all fifty states and some sixty countries. Most Hannibal residents enjoy the visitors, and the town at large benefits from tourism revenue. \n\nThe site of Hannibal was previously occupied by early settlers and Native American tribes. It was laid out as a town in 1819 by Moses Bates, and named from Hannibal Creek (now known as Bear Creek). The name is ultimately derived from the hero of ancient Carthage, Hannibal. Although the city initially grew slowly to a population of only 30 by 1830, access to the Mississippi river and railroad transportation fueled growth to 2,020 by 1850. The town of South Hannibal was annexed to it in 1843. Hannibal had gained \"city\" status by 1845. The city served as a bustling regional marketing center for livestock and grain as well as other products produced locally, such as cement and shoes, throughout the remainder of the 19th century and on to the present time. \n\nCement for the Empire State Building and Panama Canal was created at the Atlas Portland Cement Company in the nearby unincorporated company town of Ilasco. \n\nHannibal was Missouri's third largest city when the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was organized in 1846 in the offices of John M. Clemens (Mark Twain's father). It connected to the state's then second largest city (St. Joseph, Missouri) and was the furthest west railroad before the Transcontinental Railroad and was used to deliver mail to the Pony Express.\n\nThe town has other distinctions as well. In the Broadway musical Damn Yankees, Hannibal was the hometown of the protagonist’s assumed persona (Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, MO). In television, Hannibal was the hometown of Col. Sherman T. Potter (portrayed by actor Harry Morgan) on the long-running comedy series, M*A*S*H. Hannibal was also the birthplace of singer and actor Cliff Edwards (\"Ukulele Ike\") and 'The Unsinkable Molly' Brown. Other natives include inventor Bill Lear and NBA basketball coach Cotton Fitzsimmons. The Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse was constructed in 1933 and has been lit at three separate times by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President John F. Kennedy, and President Bill Clinton. Rockcliffe Mansion sits upon a knoll in Hannibal, is listed on the National Register of Historic places.\n\nIn 2011, the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum released a star-studded CD that tells Mark Twain's life in spoken word and song: Mark Twain: Words & Music. Several songs were written especially for the project and feature Hannibal, including \"Huck Finn Blues\" sung by Brad Paisley and \"Run Mississippi\" sung by Rhonda Vincent. Other artists include Jimmy Buffett as Huckleberry Finn, Clint Eastwood as Twain, and Garrison Keillor as the narrator for the project. \n\nGeography\n\nHannibal is located next to the Mississippi River. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and is water.\n\nClimate\n\nHannibal's climate is characterized as being humid continental, with cold, snowy winters, and hot, humid summers.\n\nDemographics\n\nThe Hannibal Micropolitan Statistical Area is composed of Marion and Ralls counties.\n\n2010 census\n\nAs of the census of 2010, there were 17,916 people, 7,117 households, and 4,400 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 8,021 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 88.8% White, 7.1% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.5% from other races, and 2.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.8% of the population.\n\nThere were 7,117 households of which 31.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.2% were married couples living together, 14.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.2% had a male householder with no wife present, and 38.2% were non-families. 31.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 13% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 2.96.\n\nThe median age in the city was 37.3 years. 23.5% of residents were under the age of 18; 11.2% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 24.4% were from 25 to 44; 26% were from 45 to 64; and 14.9% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 47.5% male and 52.5% female.\n\n2000 census\n\nAs of the census of 2000, there were 17,757 people, 7,017 households, and 4,554 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,215.3 people per square mile (469.3/km²). There were 7,886 housing units at an average density of 539.7/sq mi (208.4/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 90.61% White, 6.57% African American, 0.35% Native American, 0.35% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 0.25% from other races, and 1.79% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.13% of the population. 25.9% were of American, 23.8% German, 10.9% Irish and 10.0% English ancestry according to Census 2000.\n\nThere were 7,017 households out of which 32.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.0% were married couples living together, 13.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.1% were non-families. 30.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.98.\n\nIn the city the population was spread out with 25.8% under the age of 18, 10.5% from 18 to 24, 26.3% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 16.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 86.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.8 males.\n\nThe median income for a household in the city was $29,892, and the median income for a family was $37,264. Males had a median income of $30,677 versus $20,828 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,902. About 11.3% of families and 14.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.2% of those under age 18 and 10.8% of those age 65 or over.\n\nEconomy\n\nHannibal is emerging as a viable business destination due to its low taxes, local resources, and its close proximity to major highways and cities. A thriving artist community has emerged in large part due to its central location between the East and West coasts and stable real estate prices. The General Mills plant was originally built by the Underwood Company because of its founder's appreciation for Mark Twain and his desire to do some good for Twain's hometown. Since then, businesses have enjoyed the many benefits afforded by the community. The Hannibal Regional Hospital and related healthcare facilities account for a large source of the city's revenue. Major manufacturers include BASF Chemical Corporation (Formally American Cyanamid), General Mills and Watlow Electric Manufacturing Company. The Swiss Colony maintains a data call center in Hannibal. \n\nBecause Hannibal is a Certified Local Government, residents and business owners can take advantage of federal and state tax credits, grants, and other funding sources. \n\nGovernment\n\nHannibal has a Home Rule Charter form of government. Public services include police, fire, parks and recreation, public works, streets, inspections, tourism, library and airport. There is a municipal court, and the Marion County Courthouse is located in Hannibal with a second courthouse located in nearby Palmyra, Missouri.\n\nEducation\n\nHannibal High School was founded in 1896. \n\nHannibal-LaGrange University is a four-year, Christian liberal arts University accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Founded in 1858 in LaGrange, Missouri, the campus moved downriver to Hannibal in 1928. Dr. Anthony Allen was elected the 17th president of Hannibal-LaGrange University in 2012.\n\nMoberly Area Community College (MACC-Hannibal Area Higher Education Center) is a two-year community college established in 1999. The MACC-Hannibal Campus is located on Shinn Lane near the hospital.\n\nMedia\n\nThe city is served by the Hannibal Courier-Post newspaper, printed daily on Tuesday through Saturday. KHQA is a television station licensed to Hannibal and located in Quincy, Illinois. Radio stations licensed to Hannibal include KGRC 92.9 FM, KHBL 96.9 FM, KHMO 1070 AM and KJIR 91.7 FM.\n\nTransportation\n\nInterstate 72 was extended into Hannibal across the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge in 2000. Interstate 72 extends west to the intersection with U.S. Route 61. Future plans call for extending Interstate 72 west along U.S. Route 36 to Cameron, MO giving Hannibal an east-west link connecting Kansas City to Springfield, IL. U.S. Route 61 connects to Saint Louis to the south and is part of the Avenue of the Saints corridor that links to Saint Paul, MN.\n\nHannibal Regional Airport, (formerly Hannibal Municipal Airport) was named William P. Lear Field in 2003 in honor of Lear who grew up in Hannibal and invented the Lear Jet. The airport is located 4 mi west of the southern area and has one runway 4,400' x 100'.\n\nFreight railroad tracks link Hannibal in all directions: Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) tracks lead north to the Quad Cities and south to Saint Louis. Norfolk Southern (NS) tracks lead west to Kansas City and east to Springfield, IL.http://www.modot.org/othertransportation/rail/documents/rail_freight_101807.pdf | MoDOT Freight Railroad Map\n\nNotable people\n\n* Jake Beckley, major league baseball player \n* James Carroll Beckwith, painter\n* Margaret Brown, passenger on the RMS Titanic, the \"unsinkable Molly Brown\"\n* Blanche Bruce, politician\n* Robert Coontz, admiral\n* Helen Cornelius, country music singer and songwriter\n* Cliff Edwards, the voice of Disney’s Jiminy Cricket\n* Lester Gaba, sculptor, writer and retail display designer\n* Clarence Earl Gideon, convict responsible for landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling\n* Robert V. Hogg, statistician, educator, and co-author of classic math-stat textbook\n* James Kauffman, author, educator\n* Harry Richard Landis, one of the last surviving World War I veterans, born near Hannibal\n* William P Lear, inventor of car radio and manufacturer of the Learjet\n* Warren H. Orr, Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court\n* George Poage, athlete from 1904 Olympics\n* Ron Powers, author\n* Benjamin Prentiss, Civil War officer\n* Scott Sanders, baseball player\n* Larry Thompson, Deputy Attorney General of the United States under President George W. Bush\n* Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens), author\n* John Wingate, broadcaster, writer, and communications consultant\n\nFictional characters\n\n* Allison (Liberty Maid) from Josh and S.A.M., a 1993 film about two runaway boys fleeing to Canada.\n* Joe Hardy, from the 1950s stage and film musical Damn Yankees. One of the songs in the musical is titled \"Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo\".\n* Joyce Palmieri from the movie Kindergarten Cop.\n* Sherman T. Potter, a character in the TV series M*A*S*H.\n*Nick Dunne, the protagonist in Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, and David Fincher's film adaptation of the same name.\n* Many of the characters from Mark Twain's fiction (primarily The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) were from the fictional town of St. Petersburg, which is supposed to parallel Hannibal.\n\nAttractions\n\n*The Huck Finn Freedom Center:\n*Cameron Cave\n*Hannibal Cavemen - Prospect League baseball team. Plays at historic renovated Clemens Field downtown. Summer only.\n*Hannibal Rocks Offroad Park\n*John Garth’s Woodside Mansion[http://www.rootsweb.com/~morchs/sept2005.pdf Ralls County Historical]\n*Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum Properties\n*Mark Twain Cave - The cave that inspired Twain's tale of a lost Tom & Becky.\n*Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse - The only lighthouse built inland features a panoramic view of Hannibal and the Mississippi River. 244 steps to the top.\n*Mark Twain Riverboat \n*Molly Brown Birthplace & Museum - Home of RMS Titanic survivor.\n*Riverview Park - 465 acre of wooded land and scenic views of the Riverfront.\n*Rockcliffe Mansion - Around the start of the 20th century mansion.\n*Sawyer’s Creek Fun Park - Amusement complex on the riverfront.\n*Lover's Leap\n*Tom & Becky Appearances - Local children are chosen to portray the famous literary couple in local appearances and in downtown Hannibal every Saturday and Sunday from March to October.\n*Tom Sawyer Days - Fence painting contest, frog jumping contest, mud volleyball, local arts and crafts and 4th of July fireworks display from Lover's Leap.\n\nGallery\n\nImage:Becky Thatcher House in Hannibal.jpg|The home of the girl who inspired Becky Thatcher.\nImage:Mississippi from Cardiff Hill in Hannibal.jpg|The Mississippi River viewed from Cardiff Hill in Hannibal.\nImage:J M Clemens-Justice of the Peace.jpg|The office of John Clemens, Mark Twain's father, who was the Justice of the Peace.", "M*A*S*H is an American television series developed by Larry Gelbart, adapted from the 1970 feature film MASH (which was itself based on the 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, by Richard Hooker). The series, which was produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for CBS, follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the \"4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital\" in Uijeongbu, South Korea during the Korean War. The show's title sequence features an instrumental-only version of \"Suicide Is Painless\", the theme song from the original film. The show was created after an attempt to film the original book's sequel, M*A*S*H Goes to Maine, failed. The television series is the best-known version of the M*A*S*H works, and one of the highest-rated shows in U.S. television history.\n\nThe series premiered in the U.S. on September 17, 1972, and ended on February 28, 1983, with the finale, \"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen\", becoming the most-watched and highest-rated single television episode in U.S. television history at the time, with a record-breaking 125 million viewers (60.2 rating and 77 share), according to the New York Times. It had struggled in its first season and was at risk of being cancelled. Season two of M*A*S*H placed it in a better time slot (airing after the popular All in the Family); the show became one of the top 10 programs of the year and stayed in the top 20 programs for the rest of its run. It is still broadcast in syndication on various television stations. The series, which depicted events occurring during a three-year military conflict, spanned 256 episodes and lasted 11 seasons. The Korean conflict lasted 1,128 days, meaning each episode of the series would have averaged almost four and a half days of real time. Many of the stories in the early seasons are based on tales told by real MASH surgeons who were interviewed by the production team. Like the movie, the series was as much an allegory about the Vietnam War (still in progress when the show began) as it was about the Korean War. \n\nThe episodes \"Abyssinia, Henry\" and \"The Interview\" were ranked number 20 and number 80, respectively, on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time in 1997. In 2002, M*A*S*H was ranked number 25 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked it as the fifth-best written TV series ever and TV Guide ranked it as the eighth-greatest show of all time.\n\nSynopsis\n\nM*A*S*H aired weekly on CBS, with most episodes being a half-hour in length. The series is usually categorized as a situation comedy, though it is also described as a \"dark comedy\" or a \"dramedy\" because of the dramatic subject material often presented. The show was an ensemble piece revolving around key personnel in a United States Army Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) in the Korean War (1950–1953). (The asterisks in the name are not part of military nomenclature and were creatively introduced in the novel and used in only the posters for the movie version, not the actual movie.) The \"4077th MASH\" was one of several surgical units in Korea. As the show developed, the writing took on more of a moralistic tone. Richard Hooker, who wrote the book on which the television and film versions were based, noted that Hawkeye's character was far more liberal in the show than on the page (in one of the MASH books, Hawkeye makes reference to \"kicking the bejesus out of lefties just to stay in shape\"). While the show is traditionally viewed as a comedy, many episodes were of a more serious tone. Airing on network primetime while the Vietnam War was still going on, the show was forced to walk the fine line of commenting on that war while at the same time not seeming to protest against it. For this reason, the show's discourse, under the cover of comedy, often questioned, mocked, and grappled with America's role in the Cold War. Episodes were both plot- and character-driven, with several episodes being narrated by one of the show's characters as the contents of a letter home. The show's tone could move from silly to sobering from one episode to the next, with dramatic tension often occurring between the civilian draftees of 4077th — Hawkeye, Trapper John, and B.J. Hunnicutt, for example — who are forced to leave their homes to tend the wounded and dying of the war, and the \"regular Army\" characters, such as Margaret Houlihan and Colonel Potter, who tend to represent ideas of patriotism and duty (though Houlihan and Potter could represent the other perspective at times, as well). Other characters, such as Col. Blake, Maj. Winchester, and Cpl. Klinger, help demonstrate various American civilian attitudes toward army life, while guest characters played by such actors as Eldon Quick, Herb Voland, Mary Wickes, and Tim O'Connor also help further the show's discussion of America's place as Cold War warmaker and peacemaker.\n\nCharacters\n\nM*A*S*H maintained a relatively constant ensemble cast, with four characters — Hawkeye, Father Mulcahy, Margaret Houlihan, and Max Klinger — on the show for all 11 seasons. Several other main characters departed or joined the program midway through its run. Also, numerous guest actors and recurring characters were used. The writers found creating so many names difficult, and used names from elsewhere; for example, characters on the seventh season were named after the 1978 Los Angeles Dodgers. \n\n*Note: Character appearances include double-length episodes as two appearances, making 260 in total.\n\nRecurring characters\n\n* Nurse Kealani Kellye, a recurring character in the 4077th (appearing in 164 episodes), was played by Kellye Nakahara. A warm character, she had more to say than the other nurses. She is often seen dancing with Radar, and later, Charles. The first name \"Kealani\" was never used in the series. On several occasions, David Ogden Stiers and Loretta Swit have referred to her as \"Nurse Nakahara\" and \"Lieutenant Nakahara\", respectively.\n* Jeff Maxwell appeared as the bumbling Pvt. Igor Straminsky in 75 episodes. In his earlier appearances, he was the camp cook's aide, complaining that, despite not cooking the food (SSG Pernelli was the cook, not revealed until season 9 as described below), he still had to listen to everyone's gripes about it. He was often the target of Hawkeye's wrath because of the terrible food, and the recipient of his \"river of liver and ocean of fish\" rant in \"Adam's Ribs\". His bumbling even gained the ire of Father Mulcahy, when he creamed the fresh corn Mulcahy grew in \"A War for All Seasons\". In at least two episodes, he was called a sergeant by Major Burns. In another episode, Burns asks his name and he replies \"Maxwell,\" the actor's actual surname. Burns then replies with that name.\n* Roy Goldman appeared in 35 episodes as Corpsman Roy Goldman.\n* Odessa Cleveland appeared in 29 episodes as Lt. Ginger Bayliss, one of the nurses.\n* Patricia Stevens appeared in 15 episodes, primarily as Nurse Baker (also as Nurse Mitchell, Nurse Stevens, Nurse Brown and Nurse Able)\n* Rita Wilson appeared in two episodes as Nurse Lacey.\n* Johnny Haymer played Staff Sgt. Zelmo Zale, supply sergeant for the 4077th, in 20 episodes. He made his first appearance in the season-2 episode \"For Want of a Boot\", and his final appearance in the season-8 episode \"Good-Bye, Radar\". Zale's name is mentioned for the final time in \"Yessir, That's Our Baby\".\n* G. W. Bailey played the perpetually lazy Staff Sgt. Luther Rizzo, who headed the camp motor pool, in 14 episodes.\n* Enid Kent played Nurse Peggy Bigelow in 14 episodes. She was quite often the target of Hawkeye's flirtations. In \"They Call the Wind Korea\", she gets injured by a falling water tower and is treated by the 4077th. In \"Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen\", when various members of the 4077th announce postwar plans, she blandly recounts her days as a nurse both in World War II and in Korea and simply says, \"I've had it.\"\n* Dr. Sidney Freedman, Major, a psychiatrist, was played by Allan Arbus, who appeared 12 times. In his first appearance, his name was Dr. Milton Freedman, but was subsequently changed. Dr. Freedman played a major role in the two-hour final episode.\n* Colonel Flagg, a paranoid and jingoistic counterintelligence officer prone to using aliases, was played by Edward Winter. He appeared six times (and the actor appeared once as a very similar intelligence officer named Halloran).\n* Marcia Strassman played nurse Margie Cutler six times during the show's first season. Her last appearance was in the episode \"Ceasefire\".\n* Herb Voland appeared seven times as Henry Blake's commander, Brigadier General Crandall Clayton.\n* G. Wood appeared three times as Brigadier General Hammond, the same role he played in the movie.\n* Robert Gooden appeared three times as Private Lorenzo Boone.\n* Robert F. Simon appeared three times as Major General Mitchell.\n* Loudon Wainwright III appeared three times as Captain Calvin Spalding, who was usually seen playing his guitar and singing.\n* Eldon Quick appeared three times as two nearly identical characters, Capt. Sloan and Capt. Pratt, officers who were dedicated to paperwork and bureaucracy.\n* Sergeant (later Pvt) Jack Scully, played by Joshua Bryant, appeared in three episodes as a love interest of Margaret Houlihan.\n* Pat Morita appeared twice as Capt. Sam Pak of the Republic of Korea Army.\n* Karen Philipp (singer with Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, 1967–70) appeared twice as Lt. Maria 'Dish' Schneider during the first season.\n* Sorrell Booke appeared twice as Brigadier General Bradley Barker. Booke was an actual Korean War veteran.\n* Robert Symonds appeared twice as Col/Lt Col. Horace Baldwin.\n* Robert Alda, Alan Alda's father, appeared twice as Maj. Borelli, a visiting surgeon.\n* Catherine Bergstrom appeared twice as Peg Hunnicutt, B.J.'s wife, back in the U.S.\n* Lt. Col. Donald Penobscot appeared twice (played by two different actors), In \"Margaret's Marriage\" (#5.24), Penobscot was played by Beeson Carrol, and was her fiancé at the time (they were married during the episode). In \"The M*A*S*H* Olympics\" (#6.10), he appears as her husband, he takes part in a M*A*S*H Olympics; he is played by Mike Henry.\n* Staff Sgt. \"Sparky\" Pryor, a friend of Radar and Klinger, was the telephone operator usually called by the 4077th MASH. He was seen only once, played by Dennis Fimple, in Tuttle (season 1, episode 15), but was sometimes faintly heard on the phone when he yelled.\n* Sal Viscuso and Todd Susman played the camp's anonymous public address system announcer throughout the series. This character (who is never seen on camera) broke the fourth wall only twice, in the episodes \"Pilot (M*A*S*H)\" (1.1) and \"Welcome to Korea\" (4.1), both times while introducing the regular cast members. Both Viscuso and Susman appeared onscreen as other characters in at least one episode each.\n*Eileen Saki appeared in seven episodes as Rosie, the owner and head bartender at Rosie's Bar, which was frequented by the regular characters. Her first appearance on the show, however, was as the madam of a brothel which was occupying a much-needed hut in the episode \"Bug Out\". Rosie had previously been played by Shizuko Hoshi (in \"Mad Dogs and Servicemen\") and Frances Fong (in \"Bug Out\" and \"Fallen Idol\") before Saki assumed the role.\n* Timothy Brown appeared as Capt. Oliver Harmon 'Spearchucker' Jones in six season-1 episodes as a captain who lived with Pierce, Burns, and McIntyre in the \"Swamp\".\n* Val Bisoglio appeared in three episodes as Staff Sergeant Salvatore Pernelli, the actual mess cook for the 4077th. His first appearance was in season 9's \"The Life You Save\", followed by two appearances in season 10, \"Twas the Day After Christmas\" and \"A Holy Mess\".\n* Nurse Shari appeared in 15 episodes during the last four seasons, played by Shari Saba. \n* John Orchard played Ugly John, an anesthesiologist, and later \"Muldoon\" in \"Rosie's Pub\".\n\nCharacter timeline\n\nImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:25\nPlotArea = left:220 bottom:80 top:10 right:10\nAlignbars = justify\nPeriod = from:1 till:12\nTimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:y\n\nColors =\n id:regular value:blue legend:Regular\n id:recurring value:green legend:Recurring\n id:background value:red legend:Background\n id:lines value:black\n id:bars value:gray(0.95)\n\nLegend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:3\n\nBackgroundColors = bars:bars\nScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1\nScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1\n\nBarData=\n bar:Pierce text:\"Benjamin Franklin 'Hawkeye' Pierce\"\n bar:Houlihan text:\"Margaret 'Hot Lips' Houlihan\"\n bar:Klinger text:\"Maxwell Q. Klinger\"\n bar:Mulcahy text:\"John Patrick Francis Mulcahy\"\n bar:McIntyre text:\"John Francis Xavier 'Trapper John' McIntyre\"\n bar:Blake text:\"Henry Braymore Blake\"\n bar:Burns text:\"Franklin Marion 'Frank' Burns\"\n bar:Radar text:\"Walter Eugene 'Radar' O’Reilly\"\n bar:Jones\t text:\"Oliver Harmon 'Spearchucker' Jones\"\n bar:Hunnicutt text:\"B. J. Hunnicutt\"\n bar:Potter\t text:\"Sherman Tecumseh Potter\"\n bar:Winchester text:\"Charles Emerson Winchester III\"\n bar:Kellye\t text:\"Nurse Kellye\"\n bar:Straminsky text:\"Igor Straminsky\"\n bar:Rizzo\t text:\"Luther Rizzo\"\n\nPlotData=\n width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)\n bar:Pierce from:1 till:end color:regular\n bar:Houlihan from:1 till:end color:regular\n bar:Klinger from:1 till:4 color:recurring\n bar:Klinger from:4 till:end color:regular\n bar:Mulcahy from:1 till:5 color:recurring\n bar:Mulcahy from:5 till:end color:regular\n bar:McIntyre from:1 till:4 color:regular\n bar:Blake from:1 till:4 color:regular\n bar:Burns from:1 till:6 color:regular\n bar:Radar from:1 till:8.2 color:regular\n bar:Jones\t from:1\t till:1.45 color:recurring\n bar:Hunnicutt from:4 till:end color:regular\n bar:Potter from:4.08 till:end color:regular\n bar:Winchester from:6 till:end color:regular\n bar:Kellye from:1 till:3.5 color:background\n bar:Kellye from:3.5 till:end color:recurring\n bar:Straminsky from:2 till:end color:recurring\n bar:Rizzo\t from:8.45 till:end color:recurring\n\nActors with multiple roles\n\nSeveral guest stars made appearances as multiple characters:\n*Hamilton Camp appeared twice, first as the insane Cpl. \"Boots\" Miller in \"Major Topper\" (episode 6.25), and again as a film distributor named Frankenheimer in \"The Moon is Not Blue\" (11.8).\n*Dennis Dugan appeared twice, as O.R. orderly Pvt. McShane in 3.20, \"Love and Marriage\", and again in 11.11, \"Strange Bedfellows\", as Col. Potter's philandering son-in-law, Robert \"Bob\" Wilson.\n*Gary Burghoff was the only actor to ever appear simultaneously on the show with himself. He played Radar O'Reilly throughout the show, and in episode 4.15 \"Mail Call... Again\", he watched a home movie sent to him in Korea in which he played his own mother. Father Mulcahy remarks, \"Radar certainly bears a striking resemblance to his mother!\"\n*Tim O'Connor appeared as wounded artillery officer Col. Spiker in \"Of Moose and Men\" (4.12), and as visiting surgeon Norm Traeger in \"Operation Friendship\" (9.10). Both characters were noticeably at odds with Hawkeye.\n*Dick O'Neill appeared three times (each time in a different U.S. service branch): as Navy Rear Admiral Cox, as Army Brigadier General Prescott, and as Marine Colonel Pitts.\n*Harry Morgan played both the 4077th's second beloved C.O. (Col. Sherman T. Potter) and the mentally unstable Major Gen. Bartford Hamilton Steele in the show's third season, in the episode \"The General Flipped at Dawn\". This last character was a reprise of his role as Major Pott in the 1966 movie, What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?\n*Soon-Tek Oh appeared five times: twice as a North Korean POW (in 4.7, \"The Bus\", and 8.10, \"The Yalu Brick Road\"); once as a North Korean doctor (5.10, \"The Korean Surgeon\"); once as O.R. orderly Mr. Kwang (3.20, \"Love and Marriage\"); and once as a South Korean interpreter who poses as a North Korean POW (11.3, \"Foreign Affairs\").\n*Philip Ahn appeared three times: episodes 4.19 (\"Hawkeye\"), 5.13 (\"Exorcism\"), and 6.9 (\"Change Day\"). Like Soon-Tek Oh, Ahn was one of the few Korean actors to play a Korean on M*A*S*H; most of the other \"Korean\" characters were played by either Japanese, Chinese, or Vietnamese ethnic actors. Ironically, Ahn played Japanese villains in World War II movies and Chinese characters on Bonanza and Kung Fu.\n*Robert Karnes appeared twice: once as a colonel in 4.1 (\"Welcome to Korea\") and as a general in 6.4 (\"Last Laugh\").\n*Clyde Kusatsu appeared four times: twice as a Korean bartender in the Officers' Club, once as a Chinese-American soldier, and once as a Japanese-American surgeon.\n*Robert Ito played a hood who works for the black market in 1.2, \"To Market, To Market\", and a North Korean soldier disguised as a South Korean looking for supplies, in 5.10, \"The Korean Surgeon\".\n*Keye Luke appeared three times. In “Patent 4077” (6.17), he played Mr. Shin, a local jewelry maker hired by the surgeons to make a new surgical clamp; in “A Night at Rosie’s” (7.24), he played Cho Kim, who ran a crooked craps game in the back room at Rosie’s Bar; and in “Death Takes a Holiday” (9.5), he played the headmaster of a local orphanage.\n*Mako appeared four times, once as a Chinese doctor (3.2, \"Rainbow Bridge\"), once as a South Korean doctor (5.11, \"Hawkeye Get Your Gun\"), once as a South Korean officer (8.3, \"Guerilla My Dreams\"), and once as a North Korean soldier (9.1, \"The Best of Enemies\").\n*Jerry Fujikawa appeared as crooked Korean matchmaker Dr. Pak in \"Love and Marriage\", as Trapper John's tailor in 3.3, \"Officer of the Day\", as an acupuncturist named Wu in 8.24, \"Back Pay\", as the Uijeongbu chief of police in \"Rally Round the Flagg, Boys\", and as \"Whiplash Wang\" in \"Deal Me Out\".\n*John Orchard starred as Australian anesthetist Ugly John in the first season, and later appeared in 8.13 as disgruntled and drunken Australian MP Muldoon, who has an arrangement with Rosie the barkeeper: he takes bribes (in the form of liquor in his \"coffee\" mug) to \"look the other way.\" Orchard was actually English, so adopted an Australian accent and some Australian colloquialisms for his persona. He also normally wore an Australian-style \"slouch\" hat.\n*Richard Lee Sung appeared 10 times as a local Korean who often had merchandise (and in one case, real estate) he wished to sell to the hospital staff; he once sold a backwards-running watch to Major Burns and he also tried to help Corporal Klinger lose his money in a game of craps in A Night at Rosie's.\n*Jack Soo, known for his role as Barney Millers Sgt. Nick Yemana, appeared twice, once as black-market boss Charlie Lee, with whom Hawkeye and Trapper made a trade for supplies in \"To Market, To Market\" (1.2), and in \"Payday\" (3.22) as a peddler who sold Frank two sets of pearls: one real, the other fake.\n*Ted Gehring appeared twice: in 2.12, as moronic Supply Officer Major Morris, who refuses to let the MASH doctors have a badly needed incubator, and in 7.6, as corrupt supply NCO Sgt. Rhoden.\n*Eldon Quick appeared three times, once as a finance officer and twice as Captain Sloan.\n*Edward Winter appeared as an intelligence officer named \"Halloran\" in 2.13, and in six episodes as Colonel Flagg (although Halloran may have been one of Flagg's numerous and often mid-episode-changing aliases). Given a comment he makes to Sidney Freedman about the two playing poker together (a reference to Winter's appearance as Halloran) this seems to be likely.\n*Shizuko Hoshi appeared four times: once as \"Rosie\" of \"Rosie's Bar\" in episode 3.13, \"Mad Dogs and Servicemen\"; and three times as the mother in different Korean families in \"Hawkeye\" (4.18), \"B.J. Papa San\" (7.16), and \"Private Finance\" (8.8).\n* John Fujioka, who played the uncredited role of a Japanese golf pro in the movie, appeared three times in the series. The first time was in \"Dear Ma\" (1975) as Colonel Kim, the second time was in \"The Tooth Shall Set You Free\" (1982) as Duc Phon Jong, and the last time, he played a peasant in \"Picture This\" (1982).\n* Stuart Margolin appeared twice, first as psychiatrist Capt. Phillip Sherman in season 1's \"Bananas, Crackers and Nuts\" (1.07), and again as plastic surgeon Major Stanley \"Stosh\" Robbins in season 2's \"Operation Noselift\" (2.18).\n* Oliver Clark appeared twice. In \"38 Across\" (5.16), he played the part of Hawkeye's crossword-loving friend Lt. Tippy Brooks. In \"Mail Call Three\" (6.21), he played the part of 'the other' Captain Ben Pierce.\n* Jeanne Schulherr appeared in season 3's \"There Is Nothing Like a Nurse\" as Frank Burns's wife, Louise (in a home movie), and in two other season-3 episodes as an unnamed nurse.\n* Charles Frank appeared in season 5 as Capt. Hathaway in \"Dear Sigmund\", a pilot who admitted to not knowing the victims of his bombings from his plane, and appeared in season 6 as Lieutenant Martinson in \"What's Up, Doc?\", a troubled Yale graduate who finds himself in the infantry and holds Maj. Winchester Hostage at gunpoint.\n* Kevin Hagen appeared twice. In \"Some 38th Parallels\" (4.20, 1976), he played the part of Colonel Coner, on whom Hawkeye drops garbage from an airborne helicopter. In \"Peace On Us\" (7.2, 1978), he played the part of red-haired Major Goss, sent to warn Hawkeye to stay away from the peace talks.\n* Yuki Shimoda appeared three times. In \"The Price\" (7.18, 1979), he played the part of Cho Pak, a farmer who was a former Korean cavalry officer who steals Col. Potter's horse Sophie only because he is dying and wants one final chance to remember his military days. In \"Yessir, That's Our Baby\" (8.15), he plays a Korean consular officer who advises Hawkeye and B.J. that to allow an abandoned Amerasian infant to live in Korea would result in dire consequences. And, in \"Oh, How We Danced\" (9.14, which aired almost two months before his death in 1981), he plays the grandfather of a child patient of the 4077th who is a skilled harmonica player.\n* James Carroll appeared twice, as an orderly in \"Bug Out\" and as a jeep driver who brought Major Winchester to the 4077th in \"Fade Out, Fade In\".\n\nCharacter names\n\n*Throughout the series, Klinger frequently introduces himself by his full name, Maxwell Q. Klinger, but never says what the Q. stands for.\n*B.J.'s real name is the subject of an episode's secondary plot line. Hawkeye goes to extreme lengths to learn what \"B.J.\" stands for, but all official paperwork concerning his friend indicates that B.J. really is his first name. Toward the end of the episode, B.J. (in explaining who gave him his name) says, \"My mother, Bea Hunnicut, and my father, Jay Hunnicut.\" A recurring joke in that episode is that upon being asked what B.J. stands for, B.J. merely replies, \"Anything you want.\"\n*Frank Burns had four different middle names during his time on the show: W. (on the punching bag in \"Requiem for a Lightweight\"), D., X., and Marion.\n*Radar's first name is stated as Walter, and once (in \"Fade Out, Fade In\"), he introduces himself by his full name to Charles Emerson Winchester III as \"Walter Eugene O'Reilly\". The book says his name is J. Robespierre, and his first name is not revealed in the film.\n*In the finale (\"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen\"), Father Mulcahy tells Klinger that his full name is Francis John Patrick Mulcahy, in case Klinger might want to name any of his children after him. Also, in the eighth-season episode \"Nurse Doctor\", he gives his full name as Francis John Patrick Mulcahy. Yet, in all other episodes, his name was John Patrick Francis Mulcahy, and he just wanted others to call him by his confirmation name, Francis.\n\nNotable actors and actor information\n\n*Antony Alda, Alan Alda's half-brother, appeared in one episode (\"Lend a Hand\") as Corporal Jarvis alongside both his brother and father (Robert).\n*Robert Alda, Alan Alda's father, had guest appearances in two episodes, \"The Consultant\" and \"Lend a Hand\", the latter written by Alda himself. According to Alda, \"Lend a Hand\" was his way of reconciling with his father. He was always giving suggestions to Robert for their vaudeville act, and in \"Lend a Hand\", Robert's character was always giving Hawkeye suggestions. It was Robert's idea for the doctors to cooperate as \"Dr. Right\" and \"Dr. Left\" at the end of that episode, signifying both a reconciliation of their characters, and in real life, as well.\n*While most of the characters from the movie carried over to the series, only four actors appeared in both: Gary Burghoff (Radar O'Reilly) and G. Wood (General Hammond) reprised their movie roles in the series, though Wood appeared in only three episodes. Timothy Brown (credited as \"Tim Brown\") played \"Cpl. Judson\" in the movie and \"Spearchucker Jones\" in the series. Corey Fischer played Capt. Bandini in the film and was the guitar-playing dentist \"Cardozo\" in the episode \"Five O'Clock Charlie\".\n*Two of the cast members, Jamie Farr (Klinger) and Alan Alda (Hawkeye Pierce), served in the U.S. Army in Korea in the 1950s after the Korean War, Alda as a junior officer, Farr as enlisted. The dog tags Farr wears on the show are his actual dog tags. Farr served as part of a USO tour with Red Skelton. Furthermore, Wayne Rogers served as a Naval Reserve officer in the mid-1950s after the end of Korean War, and Mike Farrell (B.J. Hunnicut) served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a younger man from 1957-1960.\n*Gary Burghoff's left hand is slightly deformed, with three smaller than normal fingers and slight syndactyly between the fourth and fifth digits, and he took great pains to hide or de-emphasize it during filming. He did this by always holding something (like a clipboard) or keeping that hand in his pocket. Burghoff later commented that his (Radar's) deformity would have made it impossible for him to be involved in active service. The deformity can be clearly seen at the very beginning of the pilot episode, when he is holding the football just before announcing the arrival of choppers. It is also visible at the end of \"Images\" (season 6, episode 9), when he is trying to lift weights.\n*Most of the M*A*S*H main cast guest-starred on Murder, She Wrote (with the exceptions of Alan Alda, McLean Stevenson, and Gary Burghoff). Wayne Rogers made five appearances as roguish private investigator Charlie Garrat. David Ogden Stiers appeared three times as a Civil War-infused college lecturer and once as a classical music radio host. G.W. Bailey appeared twice as a New York City police officer. Larry Linville made two appearances as a police officer who was sure that Jessica was in the CIA. Harry Morgan appeared once in a cleverly cut episode that mixed with the 1949 film Strange Bargain in which Morgan had starred. William Christopher made an appearance as a murderous bird watcher. Jamie Farr appeared in two episodes, once as a hopeful new publisher for Jessica Fletcher, and again with Loretta Swit (she played a modern artist framed for murder). Mike Farrell appeared as a Senate hopeful.\n*Through the series, several actresses play characters named Nurse Able or Nurse Baker, with widely varying personalities/roles. The characters' names were based on the old military phonetic alphabet.\n*Sorrell Booke guest-starred as Brigadier General Barker in the episodes \"Requiem for a Lightweight\" and \"Chief Surgeon Who?\". Booke was a Korean War veteran who achieved greater fame as Boss Hogg in the Dukes of Hazzard television series.\n*Ron Howard guest-starred as Marine Private Walter Peterson in the episode \"Sometimes You Hear the Bullet\". He is discovered to be underage and using his brother Wendell's identification, having come to Korea to impress his girlfriend. Hawkeye first gives the young soldier some sage advice about women, and then essentially lets him decide for himself whether he wants to go back to the States or stay in Korea. After losing his best friend Tommy Gillis, Hawkeye immediately reports the young soldier to the MPs, sending him back to America and to safety - with the Purple Heart Frank Burns put in for after his back pain.\n*Leslie Nielsen guest-starred as Colonel Buzz Brighton in the episode \"The Ringbanger\". Because of his high casualty record, Hawkeye and Trapper try to get him sent back to America by convincing him that he is insane.\n*Sal Viscuso is often credited as the sole PA announcer for the television series and even the film. Though he did serve as the voice of the PA announcer for a time, Todd Susman had the longest tenure. Neither actor's voice was heard in the film. Both actors appeared as other characters in various episodes.\n*Art LaFleur appeared in one episode in season 9 (\"Father’s Day\") as an MP looking for the person(s) responsible for a stolen side of beef.\n*Patrick Swayze appeared in one episode (\"Blood Brothers\") as Gary Sturgis, an injured soldier with a broken arm who is diagnosed with leukemia.\n*John Ritter was in one episode (\"Deal Me Out\") early in his career, as a \"shellshocked\" soldier.\n\n*Football player Alex Karras was in one episode (\"Springtime\") serving as Hawkeye's bodyguard after the doctor saves his life.\n* Bruno Kirby (When Harry Met Sally, City Slickers) played Boone in the first episode. He can be seen tossing a football with Radar, and later helping to carry a drugged-out Major Frank Burns to a bed in post-op.\n* Richard Herd appears in the season-9 episode called \"Back Pay\".\n* Laurence Fishburne (CSI, The Matrix) appeared in the season-10 episode \"The Tooth Shall Set You Free\", in which Hawkeye and B.J. encounter a racist commander who is sending his African-American soldiers into dangerous duty. He also appeared in an episode of Trapper John, M.D. (the year before appearing on M*A*S*H). His Matrix costar, Joe Pantoliano, also appeared both on M*A*S*H and Trapper John, M.D. He appeared in the M*A*S*H episode \"Identity Crisis\" (also season 10), about a soldier (Pantoliano) who had stolen a fallen friend's identity, as well as his discharge papers, to get out of the fighting.\n*Pat Morita, who was famous for his role as Matsuo \"Arnold\" Takahashi on Happy Days and as Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid franchise, played Captain Sam Pak in season two's episode \"Deal Me Out\" (also with John Ritter) and again in season two's \"The Chosen People\".\n* Shelley Long played in the 1980 episode \"Bottle Fatigue\", as one of Hawkeye's would-be lady friends. She later played alongside Ted Danson in the hit television comedy Cheers as Diane Chambers.\n* George Wendt played in the 1982 episode \"Trick or Treatment\" as Private La Roche, a Marine treated by Charles Winchester because he had a pool ball stuck in his mouth. He later played alongside Ted Danson and Shelley Long in Cheers.\n* Pat Hingle played in the 1980 episode \"April Fools\" as Colonel Daniel Webster Tucker.\n* Ed Begley, Jr., played in the 1979 episode \"Too Many Cooks\" as Private Paul Conway, a clumsy infantry soldier who turns out to be a gifted chef.\n* Blythe Danner played a nurse transferred to the 4077th, who happened to be Hawkeye's old college sweetheart, in the season-4 episode \"The More I See You\". Her presence stirs up old feelings between the two of them.\n* Teri Garr played a nurse in the - episode \"The Sniper\".\n* Susan Saint James guest-starred in the season-8 episode \"War Co-Respondent\".\n* Andrew Dice Clay played drunken Marine Cpl. Hrabosky in the season-11 episode \"Trick or Treatment\".\n* George Lindsey played Captain Roy Dupree in the season-6 episode \"Temporary Duty\". Lindsey had previously appeared on The Andy Griffith Show as Goober Pyle.\n* George Morgan played Father Mulcahy in the pilot episode, but was immediately replaced for all other episodes by William Christopher.\n\nChanges\n\nCharacter developments\n\nSpearchucker Jones\n\nDuring the first season, Hawkeye's, Trapper's, and Frank's bunkmate was an African-American character called Spearchucker Jones, played by actor Timothy Brown. (Brown appeared in the film version as a corporal, while neurosurgeon Dr. Oliver Harmon \"Spearchucker\" Jones was played by former NFL player Fred Williamson.) The character disappeared after the episode \"Germ Warfare\" because, at the time, no record existed of African-American doctors serving in Korea during the Korean War. According to the memoirs of Harold Secor, a doctor working at the 8055th MASH unit, on which M*A*S*H is based, at least one African-American doctor did serve in Korea during the Korean War. \n\nFather Francis Mulcahy\n\nChaplain of the 4077 unit, Father Mulcahy plays the piano and likes to feel needed. He is a fairly good amateur boxer and poker player, and at one stage takes up jogging. A recurring storyline throughout the series has him visiting and bringing supplies to local orphanages. An episode in season 7, \"Dear Sis\", is filmed from his point of view, as he struggles with feeling useless at the 4077th. William Christopher plays Mulcahy, replacing actor George Morgan, who played Father Mulcahy in the pilot episode. Dago Red, Mulcahy's nickname from the book and film, was shortened to \"Red\" for television and used by Trapper John in the pilot episode and by Hawkeye in \"Dear Dad\" and was dropped. Starting in season 4, Colonel Potter started calling Mulcahy \"padre\", and that nickname kept for the rest of the series, even mentioning it once in the series finale \"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen\". Mulcahy was promoted to captain in the episode \"Captain's Outrageous\" after several attempts in previous seasons. Before the promotion, he was a first lieutenant.\n\nHenry Blake\n\nBy season 3 (1974–1975), McLean Stevenson had begun chafing at what he considered to be a supporting role to Alan Alda and Wayne Rogers. Midway through the season, he informed the producers that he wanted to leave M*A*S*H. With ample time to prepare a \"Goodbye, Henry\" show, it was decided that Henry Blake would be discharged and sent home for the season-3 finale, which aired on Tuesday, March 18, 1975. In the final scene of his last episode (\"Abyssinia, Henry\"), Radar tearfully reports that Henry's plane has been shot down over the Sea of Japan, and no survivors were found among the wreckage. This part of the script was kept secret from the cast. The producers wanted the reaction to be as much as a surprise as possible. Originally, the episode was written with Henry making it home, but the writers wanted to show that it was war and people may not make it home.\n\nTrapper John McIntyre\n\nWayne Rogers (Trapper John McIntyre) was planning to return for season 4, but abruptly withdrew over a disagreement about his contract. Rogers had a dislike of having a supporting role for Alda, and had been threatening to leave since season 1. His departure was unexpected and, unlike that of McLean Stevenson, no onscreen farewell was used. Rogers felt his character was never given any real importance and that all the focus was on Alda's character, Hawkeye Pierce.\n\nRogers's replacement, Mike Farrell, was hastily recruited during the 1975 summer production hiatus. In the season's first episode, \"Welcome to Korea\", Hawkeye is informed by Radar that Trapper was discharged while Hawkeye was on leave, and B.J. Hunnicutt is Trapper's replacement. Trapper was described by Radar as being so jubilant over his release that \"he got drunk for two days, took off all his clothes, and ran naked through the mess tent with no clothes on.\" He made Radar promise to give Hawkeye a kiss as a final farewell message.\n\nActor Pernell Roberts later played a middle-aged Trapper in the seven-year run of Trapper John, M.D.\n\nSherman T. Potter\n\nIn the third episode of the fourth season, \"Change of Command\", Col. Sherman T. Potter arrives at the unit to assume command, replacing Frank Burns, who had taken over as commander after Blake's departure (season 3, episode 24). Harry Morgan, who played Potter, had previously guest-starred in the first episode of season 3, \"The General Flipped at Dawn\", as General Hamilton Steele.\n\nColonel Potter is a regular Army man, having served in both World War I and World War II, first in the cavalry and later as a doctor. He is passionate about horses, and keeps an old US Cavalry issue McClellan saddle in his office, which is later put to use when he acquires a horse, when Radar gives one to him for his wedding anniversary, after B.J. and Hawkeye are unable to catch it. This horse, which remained with Col. Potter until the end of the series, was referred to as a colt (Potter remarks, \"He can't be more than four years old\") in its first appearance, after which it is named \"Sophie\" and referred to as a mare. In his spare time, Potter also enjoys painting.\n\nMargaret Houlihan\n\nWhen Margaret Houlihan became engaged to a fellow officer, Lt. Col. Donald Penobscot, she had a falling-out with Frank; she became much friendlier toward Hawkeye and B.J., and her subordinate nurses. She later married Penobscot, but the union did not last long. The \"Hot Lips\" nickname was rarely used to describe her after about the midway point in the series. Loretta Swit wanted to leave the series in the eighth season to pursue other acting roles (most notably the part of Christine Cagney on Cagney & Lacey), but the producers refused to let her out of her contract. Swit originated the Cagney role in the made-for-TV movie that served as that pilot of the series.\n\nFrank Burns\n\nLarry Linville noted that his \"Frank Burns\" character was easier to make light of after head comedy writer Larry Gelbart departed after season 4 and Frank and Margaret parted ways in season 5. After season 4, Linville realized that he had taken Frank Burns as far as he could, and he decided that since he had signed a five-year contract, he would leave the series after season 5. During the first episode of season 6, \"Fade Out, Fade In\", Burns (off camera) suffers a nervous breakdown due to Margaret's marriage and is held for psychiatric evaluation. Hawkeye offered a toast to Frank's departure, pausing only a moment, then stating \"Goodbye, Ferret Face.\" In an unexpected twist, Burns is transferred to an Indiana Veterans Administration hospital, near his home in Fort Wayne, and is promoted to lieutenant colonel — in a sense, Frank's parting shot at Hawkeye. Unlike McLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers, Linville had no regrets about leaving the series, saying, \"I felt I had done everything possible with the character.\" Linville was not alone when he left; Executive Producer Gene Reynolds left after the production of season 5, and Burt Metcalfe and star Alan Alda took over the producing responsibilities. During season 6, Alda and Metcalfe even consulted Reynolds once a week, mainly to obtain help with their jobs as executive producers. These two men remained as executive producers for the remaining six seasons, as Reynolds was credited as a creative consultant along with Alan Alda.\n\nCharles Emerson Winchester III\n\nCharles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers) was brought in as an antagonist of sorts to the other surgeons, but his relationship with them was not as acrimonious, although he was a more able foil. Unlike Frank Burns, Winchester did not care for the Army. His resentment stemmed, in part, from the fact that he was transferred from Tokyo General Hospital to the 4077th due, in part, to a cribbage debt owed to him by his commanding officer, Lt. Col. Horace Baldwin. What set him apart from Burns as an antagonist for Hawkeye and B.J. was that Winchester was clearly an excellent, technically superior surgeon, although his work sometimes suffered from his excessive perfectionism when rapid \"meatball surgery\" was called for. As with many new MASH surgeons, Winchester took some time to wrap his head around the fact that faster, less precise work saved lives that more elegant, slower work might cost.\n\nWinchester was respected by the others professionally, but at the same time, as a Boston blue blood, he was also snobbish, as when he stated in the scrub room, \"I do one thing at a time, I do it very well, and then I move on,\" which drove much of his conflict with the other characters. Still, the show's writers occasionally allowed Winchester's humanity to shine through, such as in his dealings with a young concert pianist who had partially lost the use of his right hand, the protection of a stuttering soldier from the bullying of other soldiers (it is revealed later that Winchester's sister stutters), his keeping a vigil with Hawkeye when Hawkeye's father went into surgery back in the States (\"Sons and Bowlers\"), his willingness to be officer of the day for Hawkeye when Hawkeye was offered three days in Seoul, giving blood to a patient even though he already donated blood five days earlier, or his continuing a family tradition of anonymously giving Christmas treats to an orphanage. Winchester subjects himself to condemnation after realizing that \"it is sadly inappropriate to offer dessert to a child who has had no meal.\" Isolating himself, he is saved by Klinger's own gift of understanding. Klinger scrapes together a Christmas dinner for Charles, with the provision that the source of the gift remain anonymous (Klinger had overheard Winchester's argument with the manager of the orphanage). For the final moment of the episode (\"Death Takes a Holiday\"), the two are simply friends as Charles says, \"Thank you, Max,\" and Klinger replies, \"Merry Christmas, Charles.\" As well, in the series finale \"Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen\", Charles comes across a group of Chinese musicians who surrender to him. When Charles takes them back to the camp as prisoners of war and later listens to his record of Mozart's Quintet in A major for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581, the musicians attempt to play the piece of music. Charles, ever the perfectionist, cannot stand to hear them play the piece incorrectly (and is impressed that they can even attempt to play the music after only hearing it once) and spends the next week conducting them on how to play the piece properly. During this time, Charles is forced to use the little patience that he rarely shows. When the Chinese musicians are taken off to a prisoner of war camp in a prisoner exchange to Charles' dismay and protest, their final goodbye to Charles is the Mozart piece played correctly. Later, one of the musicians returns to the camp mortally wounded on a Jeep. When Charles inquires as to where the other musicians are, it's revealed that the truck the musicians were on was ambushed and that there were no other survivors. In a combination of shock and disbelief, Charles returns to The Swamp to listen to the Mozart record, but removes the record and smashes it in anger. Later still on the final night that everyone at the M*A*S*H is together, Charles says that before the war, music was a stress reliever to him, but because of the Chinese musicians and their fate, music will forever be a reminder of the horrors of war.\n\nRadar O'Reilly\n\nGary Burghoff (Walter \"Radar\" O'Reilly), one of only two cast members of the original 1970 film to play the same character in the TV series, had been growing restless in his role since at least season 4. With each successive year, he appeared in fewer episodes; and by season 7, Radar is in barely half of the shows. Burghoff planned to leave at the end of the seventh season (in 1979), but was convinced by producers Alda and Metcalfe to wait until the beginning of season 8, when they filmed a two-part farewell episode, \"Good Bye, Radar\" (originally intended to be the seventh season's finale), as well as a few short scenes that were inserted into episodes preceding it (Radar is shown having a horrible R & R in Tokyo). The final nod to Radar came in the penultimate episode of the series, \"As Time Goes By\", when his iconic teddy bear (though it was a different bear than was used throughout the show) was included in a time capsule of the 4077th initiated by Margaret, which Hawkeye says is a symbol of those who \"came as boys and went home as men.\"\n\nMax Klinger\n\nMax Klinger also grew away from the cross-dressing reputation that overshadowed him. He dropped his section 8 pursuit when taking over for Radar as company clerk. Both Jamie Farr and the producers felt that there was more to Klinger than a chiffon dress, and tried to develop the character more fully. In the role of company clerk, Klinger's personality turned more to the \"wheeler-dealer\" aspects developed in the streets of (Farr's actual hometown) Toledo, Ohio, using those skills to aid the 4077th. Farr stayed throughout the rest of the series. Klinger was later promoted from corporal to sergeant (he and Father Mulcahy were the only two characters to be promoted on-screen in the entire series, Frank Burns received his promotion off-screen after having left the series). In the final episode, Klinger is, ironically, the only character who announces that he is staying in Korea. He wants to help his wife, Soon Lee, find her parents. (He and Soon Lee marry at the end of the episode). When Klinger announces that he is staying in Korea, Hawkeye says, \"You don't have to act crazy now. We're all getting out!\" However, in the short-lived spin-off, AfterMASH, it becomes clear that soon after the end of the war, Klinger, with new wife Soon Lee (Rosalind Chao) returned to the United States. After Soon Lee was subjected to discrimination in Toledo the Klingers moved to River Bend, Missouri and Max got a job like that he had as the 4077th's company clerk for Chief of Staff Dr. Sherman Potter, now head of the General Pershing VA Hospital there.\n\nChange in tone\n\nWhile the series remained popular through these changes, it eventually began to run out of creative steam. Korean War doctors regularly contacted producers with experiences that they thought might make for a good storyline, only to learn the idea had previously been used. Harry Morgan admitted that he felt \"the cracks were starting to show\" by season 9 (1980–1981). Alda wished to make season 10 (1981-1982) M*A*S*Hs last, but was persuaded by CBS to produce a slightly shortened 11th season, coupled with a farewell movie finale, because CBS refused to let the show go away so easily. In the end, season 11 had 15 episodes (although six had been filmed during season 10 and held over) and a 2-1/2 hour movie, which was treated as five episodes and were filmed before the nine remaining episodes. The final episode ever produced was the penultimate episode \"As Time Goes By\". The series finale movie, titled \"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen\", became the most-watched television broadcast in history, tallying a total of 125 million viewers.\n\nProduction\n\nSet location\n\nThe 4077th consisted of two separate sets. An outdoor set in the mountains near Malibu, California (Calabasas, Los Angeles County, California) was used for most exterior and tent scenes for every season. This was the same set used to shoot the movie. The indoor set, on a sound stage at Fox Studios in Century City, was used for the indoor scenes for the run of the series. Later, after the indoor set was renovated to permit many of the \"outdoor\" scenes to be filmed there, both sets were used for exterior shooting as script requirements dictated (e.g., night scenes were far easier to film on the sound stage, but scenes at the chopper pad required using the ranch).\n\nJust as the series was wrapping production, a brush fire destroyed most of the outdoor set on October 9, 1982. The fire was written into the final episode as a forest fire caused by enemy incendiary bombs that forced the 4077th to bug out.\n\nThe Malibu location is today known as Malibu Creek State Park. Formerly called the Century Ranch and owned by 20th Century Fox Studios until the 1980s, the site today is returning to a natural state, and is marked by a rusted Jeep and an ambulance used in the show. Through the 1990s, the area was occasionally used for television commercial production.\n\nOn February 23, 2008, series stars Mike Farrell, Loretta Swit and William Christopher (along with producers Gene Reynolds and Burt Metcalfe and M*A*S*H director Charles S. Dubin) reunited at the set to celebrate its partial restoration. The rebuilt signpost is now displayed on weekends, along with tent markers and maps and photos of the set. The state park is open to the public. It was also the location where the film How Green Was My Valley (1941) and the Planet of the Apes television series (1974) were filmed, among other productions.\n\nSmithsonian exhibit\n\nThe exhibit M*A*S*H: Binding Up the Wounds was at the National Museum of American History from July 30, 1983 through February 3, 1985. The exhibit was extremely popular drawing more than 17,000 in a single week, a record for any Smithsonian display. \n\nOn exhibit were The Swamp and Operating Room sets, one of the show’s 14 Emmy Awards, early drafts of the pilot script, costumes from the show and other memorabilia. Sets were decorated with props from the show including the iconic signpost, Hawkeye's still and Major Winchester's Webcor tape recorder and phonograph. The exhibit also encouraged visitors to compare the show to real Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals of the Korean and the Vietnam Wars.\n \n\nRadar's teddy bear was originally found at the ranch set was never on display at the Smithsonian. Following completion of production, the prop was kept by the show's set designer. It was sold several times including to Burghoff himself. It was sold at auction on July 29, 2005 for $11,800, it sold again on March 27, 2015 for $14,307.50 after 19 bids. \n\nContent\n\nM*A*S*H was the first American network series to use the phrase \"son of a bitch\" (in the 8th-season episode \"Guerilla My Dreams\"), and brief partial nudity occurred in the series (notably Gary Burghoff's buttocks in \"The Sniper\" and Hawkeye in one of the \"Dear Dad\" episodes). A different innovation was the show's producers' not wanting a laugh track, as the network did. They compromised by omitting laughter entirely in the operating room. The DVD releases of the series allow viewers to select an audio version with no laugh track.\n\nIn his blog, writer Ken Levine revealed that on one occasion, when the cast offered too many nitpicking \"notes\" on a script, his writing partner and he changed the script to a \"cold show\"—one set during the frigid Korean winter. The cast then had to stand around barrel fires in parkas at the Malibu ranch when the temperatures neared 100 F. Levine says, \"This happened maybe twice, and we never got a ticky-tack note again.\"\n\nJackie Cooper wrote that Alan Alda, whom Cooper directed in several episodes during the first two seasons, concealed a lot of hostility beneath the surface, and the two of them barely spoke to each other by the time Cooper’s tenure on the show ended. \n\nCharacter information\n\nThroughout the run of the series, any \"generic\" nurses (those who had a line or two, but were minor supporting characters otherwise) were generally given the names \"Nurse Able\", \"Nurse Baker\", or \"Nurse Charlie\". During the Korean War, the letters A, B, and C in the phonetic alphabet were Able, Baker, and Charlie (since then, the standard has been updated; A and B are now Alpha and Bravo). In later seasons, it became more common for a real character name to be created, especially as several of the nurse actresses became semiregulars. For example, Kellye Nakahara played both \"Able\" and \"Charlie\" characters in season 3 before becoming the semiregular \"Nurse Kellye\"; however, Judy Farrell (at the time, Mike Farrell's wife) played Nurse Able in eight episodes, including the series finale.\n\nBy the time the series ended, three of the regulars had been promoted. Klinger (Jamie Farr) went from corporal to sergeant, and Father Mulcahy (William Christopher) from lieutenant to captain. Frank Burns (Larry Linville) was promoted from major to lieutenant colonel off screen when he was shipped back to the U.S. following Margaret's marriage. (Farr and Christopher also saw their names move from the closing credits of the show to the opening credits.) Radar O'Reilly was fraudulently \"promoted\" for a short time (through a semi-intentional machination of Hawkeye and B.J.) to second lieutenant, but discovered he disliked officers' duties and asked them to \"bust\" him back to corporal.\n\nMike Farrell asked that his character's daughter's name be Erin, after his real-life daughter (the character's name was originally going to be Melissa). When B.J. spoke on the telephone on-camera, Erin or his then-wife Judy were on the other end.\n\nCharacter injuries\n\nThree MASH 4077 staff members suffered fatalities on the show: Lieutenant Colonel Blake, when the plane taking him back to the States was shot down over the Sea of Japan; an ambulance driver, O'Donnell, in a traffic accident; and a nurse, Millie Carpenter, by a land mine. \"Capt. Tuttle\", an imaginary person made up by Hawkeye to provide money for Sister Teresa's orphanage, was said to have died when he jumped from a helicopter without a parachute; Hawkeye gave him an ironic eulogy.\n\nAmong those wounded were Hawkeye Pierce (\"Hawkeye\", \"Out of Sight, Out of Mind\", \"Comrades in Arms [Part I]\", \"Good-Bye, Radar [Part I]\", and \"Lend a Hand\"), Radar O'Reilly (\"Fallen Idol\"), B.J. Hunnicutt (\"The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan\" and \"Operation Friendship\"), Max Klinger (\"It Happened One Night\", \"Baby, It's Cold Outside\", and \"Operation Friendship\"), Father Mulcahy (\"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen\" and \"Bombed\"), and Sherman Potter (\"Dear Ma\"). Henry Blake was injured four times: once by a disgruntled chopper pilot (\"Cowboy\"), once by friendly fire (\"The Army-Navy Game\"), and in season 3, episode 15 (\"Bombed\"), Henry is injured when he is blown up while in the latrine. (The gag of Blake being caught in an exploding latrine is also in the episode \"Cowboy\".) Henry is also injured when the latrine catches fire. Father Mulcahy is given a concussion on two separate occasions - first in the episode \"Bombed\", where he is in the latrine stall next to Blake when it is blown up; and again in \"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen\" when he is knocked out by mortar fire which strikes close by him; he also suffers severe hearing loss as a result of this incident. Frank Burns is twice awarded Purple Hearts for spurious injuries: throwing his back out after he gave Margaret a dip and could not move - which was later covered up with a story that he slipped on the way to the showers (\"Sometimes You Hear the Bullet\", 1.17), and getting an egg-shell fragment in the eye (\"The Kids\", 4.8). Burns' Purple Heart medals were then given to more deserving people: a GI who was admitted with appendicitis and a Korean newborn infant who was hit by a bullet in utero.\n\nAt least three permanent 4077 personnel suffered emotional breakdowns: Hawkeye Pierce (\"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen\"), B.J. Hunnicutt (\"Period of Adjustment\"), and Frank Burns (\"Fade Out, Fade In\").\n\nVehicles\n\nThe helicopters used on the series were model H-13 Sioux (military designation and nickname of the Bell 47 civilian model). As in the film, some care seems to have been taken to use the correct model of the long-lived Bell 47 series. In the opening credits and many of the episodes, Korean War-vintage H-13Ds and Es (Bell 47D-1s) were used complete with period-correct external litters. A later (1954–73) 47G occasionally made an appearance. The helicopters are similar in appearance (with the later \"G\" models having larger two-piece fuel tanks, a slightly revised cabin, and other changes) with differences noticeable only to a serious helicopter fan. In the pilot episode, a later Bell 47J (production began in 1957) was shown flying Henry Blake to Seoul, en route to a meeting with General Hammond in Tokyo. A Sud Aviation Allouette II helicopter was also shown transporting Henry Blake to the 4077th in the episode \"Henry, Please Come Home\".\n\nThe Jeeps used were 1953 military M38 or civil CJ2A Willys Jeeps and also World War II Ford GPWs and Willys MB's. Two episodes featured the M38A1 Jeep, one of which was stolen from a General by Radar and Hawkeye after their Jeep was stolen. Two of the ambulances were WC-54 Dodges and one was a WC-27. A WC-54 ambulance remains at the site and was burned in the Malibu fires on October 9, 1982, while a second WC-27 survives at a South El Monte museum without any markings. The bus used to transport the wounded was a 1954 Ford model. In the last season, an M43 ambulance from the Korean War era also was used in conjunction with the WC-54s and WC-27.\n\nFile:Mashdodge.jpg|Burned Dodge ambulance at Malibu Creek State Park\nFile:Mashjeep.jpg|Burned Jeep (most likely an M38) at Malibu Creek State Park\n\nLaugh track\n\nSeries creators Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds wanted M*A*S*H broadcast without a laugh track (\"Just like the actual Korean War\", he remarked dryly). Though CBS initially rejected the idea, a compromise was reached that allowed for omitting the laughter during operating room scenes if desired. Seasons 1–5 utilized a more invasive laugh track; a more subdued audience was employed for Seasons 6-11 when the series shifted from sitcom to comedy-drama with the departure of Gelbart and Reynolds. Several episodes (\"O.R.\", \"The Bus\", \"\"Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?\", \"The Interview\", \"Point of View\" and \"Dreams\" among them) omitted the laugh track altogether; as did almost all of Season 11, including the 135-minute series finale, \"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen\". The laugh track is also omitted from some international and syndicated airings of the show; on one occasion during an airing in the UK, the laugh track was accidentally left on, and viewers expressed their displeasure, an apology from the network for the \"technical difficulty\" was later released. UK DVD critics speak poorly of the laugh track, stating \"canned laughter is intrusive at the best of times, but with a programme like M*A*S*H, it's downright unbearable.\" \n\nOn all released DVDs, both in Region 1 (including the U.S. and Canada) and Region 2 (Europe, including the UK), an option is given to watch the show with or without the laugh track. \n\n\"They're a lie,\" said Gelbart in a 1992 interview. \"You're telling an engineer when to push a button to produce a laugh from people who don't exist. It's just so dishonest. The biggest shows when we were on the air were All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show both of which were taped before a live studio audience where laughter made sense,\" continued Gelbart. \"But our show was a film show – supposedly shot in the middle of Korea. So the question I always asked the network was, 'Who are these laughing people? Where did they come from?'\" Gelbart persuaded CBS to test the show in private screenings with and without the laugh track. The results showed no measurable difference in the audience's enjoyment. \"So you know what they said?\" Gelbart said. \"'Since there's no difference, let's leave it alone!' The people who defend laugh tracks have no sense of humor.\" Gelbart summed up the situation by saying, \"I always thought it cheapened the show. The network got their way. They were paying for dinner.\"\n\nBroadcast history\n\nNOTE: Dates are for first-run airings.\n*Sunday at 8:00-8:30 PM on CBS: September 17, 1972—March 25, 1973\n*Saturday at 8:30-9:00 PM on CBS: September 15, 1973—March 2, 1974\n*Tuesday at 8:30-9:00 PM on CBS: September 10, 1974—March 18, 1975\n*Friday at 8:30-9:00 PM on CBS: September 12—November 28, 1975\n*Tuesday at 9:00-9:30 PM on CBS: December 2, 1975—January 24, 1978\n*Monday at 9:00-9:30 PM on CBS: January 30, 1978—February 28, 1983\n\nThe show also aired in daytime reruns from September 1978-September 1979 on CBS at 3:30 pm (ET).\n\nEpisodes\n\nFinal episode: \"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen\"\n\n\"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen\" was the final episode of M*A*S*H. Special television sets were placed in PX parking lots, auditoriums, and dayrooms of the U.S. Army in Korea so that military personnel could watch that episode, in spite of 14 hours' time zone difference with the east coast of the U.S. The episode aired on February 28, 1983, and was 2½ hours long. The episode got a Nielsen rating of 60.2 and 77 share and according to a New York Times article from 1983, the final episode of M*A*S*H had 125 million viewers.\n\nWhen the M*A*S*H finale aired in 1983, 83.3 million homes in the United States had televisions, compared to almost 115 million in February 2010. \n\n\"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen\" broke the record for the highest percentage of homes with television sets to watch a television series. Stories persist that the episode was seen by so many people that the New York City Sanitation/Public Works Department reported the plumbing systems broke down in some parts of the city from so many New Yorkers waiting until the end to use the toilet. Articles copied into Alan Alda's book The Last Days of M*A*S*H include interviews with New York City Sanitation workers citing the spike in water use on that night. According to the interviews at 11:03 pm, EST New York City public works noted the highest water usage at one given time in the City's history. They attributed this to the fact that in the three minutes after the finale ended, around 77% of the people of New York City flushed their toilets. These stories have all since been identified as part of an urban legend dating back to the days of the Amos and Andy radio program in the 1930s. \n\nSpinoffs and specials\n\nM*A*S*H had two spin-off shows. The short-lived AfterMASH (1983–85) inherited the parent show's Monday night time slot and featured several of its characters reunited in a Midwestern hospital after the war. The more successful Trapper John, M.D. (1979–86) took place nearly three decades after the events of M*A*S*H and depicted Trapper John McIntyre as chief of surgery at a San Francisco hospital. In an unpurchased television pilot, W*A*L*T*E*R (1984), Walter \"Radar\" O’Reilly joins the St. Louis police force after his farm fails following his return to the U.S.\n\nA documentary special titled Making M*A*S*H, narrated by Mary Tyler Moore and taking viewers behind the production of the season 8 episodes \"Old Soldiers\" and \"Lend a Hand\", was produced for PBS in 1981. The special was later included in the syndicated rerun package, with new narration by producer Michael Hirsch. \n\nTwo retrospective specials were produced to commemorate the show's 20th and 30th anniversaries. Memories of M*A*S*H, hosted by Shelley Long and featuring clips from the series and interviews with cast members, was aired by CBS on November 25, 1991. A 30th Anniversary Reunion special, in which the surviving cast members and producers gathered to reminisce, aired on the Fox network on May 17, 2002. The two-hour broadcast was hosted by Mike Farrell, who also got to interact with the actor he replaced, Wayne Rogers; previously filmed interviews with McLean Stevenson and Larry Linville (who had died in 1996 and 2000, respectively) were featured, as well. The two specials are included as bonuses on the Collector's Edition DVD of \"Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen\". Also included is \"M*A*S*H: Television's Serious Sitcom\", a 2002 episode of the A&E cable channel's Biography program that detailed the history of the show.\n\nIn the late 1980s, the cast had a partial reunion in a series of commercials for IBM personal computers. All of the front-billed regulars (with the two exceptions of Farrell and Stevenson) appeared in the spots over time.\n\nReview\n\nSeason ratings\n\nAs a top-20 series, M*A*S*H has an average rating of 24.6.\n\nAwards\n\nM*A*S*H was nominated for over 100 Emmy Awards during its 11-year run, winning 14:\n\n*1974 — Outstanding Comedy Series – M*A*S*H; Larry Gelbart, Gene Reynolds (Producers)\n*1974 — Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Alan Alda\n*1974 — Best Directing in Comedy – Jackie Cooper: \"Carry On, Hawkeye\"\n*1974 — Actor of the Year, Series – Alan Alda\n*1975 — Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series – Gene Reynolds: \"O.R.\"\n*1976 — Outstanding Film Editing for Entertainment Programming – Fred W. Berger and Stanford Tischler: \"Welcome to Korea\"\n*1976 — Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series – Gene Reynolds: \"Welcome to Korea\"\n*1977 — Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series – Alan Alda: \"Dear Sigmund\"\n*1977 — Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series – Gary Burghoff\n*1979 — Outstanding Writing in a Comedy-Variety or Music Series – Alan Alda: \"Inga\"\n*1980 — Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series – Loretta Swit\n*1980 — Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series – Harry Morgan\n*1982 — Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Alan Alda\n*1982 — Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series – Loretta Swit\n\nThe show won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series (Musical or Comedy) in 1981. Alan Alda won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series (Musical or Comedy) six times: in 1975, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1983. McLean Stevenson won the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series in 1974.\n\nThe series earned the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Comedy Series seven times: 1973 (Gene Reynolds), 1974 (Reynolds), 1975 (Hy Averbeck), 1976 (Averbeck), 1977 (Alan Alda), 1982 (Alda), 1983 (Alda).\n\nThe show was honored with a Peabody Award in 1976 \"for the depth of its humor and the manner in which comedy is used to lift the spirit and, as well, to offer a profound statement on the nature of war.\" M*A*S*H was cited as \"an example of television of high purpose that reveals in universal terms a time and place with such affecting clarity.\" \n\nWriters for the show received several Humanitas Prize nominations, with Larry Gelbart winning in 1976, Alan Alda winning in 1980, and the team of David Pollock and Elias Davis winning twice in 1982 and 1983.\n\nThe series received 28 Writers Guild of America Award nominations - 26 for Episodic Comedy and two for Episodic Drama. Seven episodes won for Episodic Comedy in 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, and 1981.\n\nHome media\n\n20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has released all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H on DVD in Region 1 and Region 2.\n\nOn January 20, 2015, it was announced that the first five seasons of M*A*S*H would be available on Netflix's instant streaming service beginning February 1, 2015. This marked the first time the series was made available on an internet platform. As of July 1, 2015, all 11 seasons were available; syndicated versions of hour-long episodes were utilized for streaming, splitting these shows into two parts. In contrast to the DVD sets, the Netflix streams did not have an option for disabling the laugh track on the soundtrack. On April 1, 2016, M*A*S*H was removed from Netflix due to its contract to stream the series expiring." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "Search" ], "filename": [ "Baskin-Robbins.txt" ], "title": [ "Baskin-Robbins" ], "wiki_context": [ "Baskin-Robbins is the world's largest chain of ice cream specialty shops and is based in Canton, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1945 by Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins in Glendale, California.\n\nThe company is known for its \"31 flavors\" slogan, with the idea that a customer could have a different flavor every day of any month. The slogan came from the Carson-Roberts advertising agency (which later merged into Ogilvy & Mather) in 1953. Baskin and Robbins believed that people should be able to sample flavors until they found one they wanted to buy, hence their famous small pink spoons. The company has introduced more than 1,000 flavors since 1945.\n\nHistory\n\nBaskin-Robbins was founded in 1945 by brothers-in-law Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins from the merging of their respective ice cream parlors, in Glendale, California. It claims to be the world's largest chain of ice cream specialty stores, with 7,300 locations, including nearly 2,500 shops in the United States and over 4,800 located internationally as of December 28, 2013. Baskin-Robbins sells ice cream in nearly 50 countries. The company has been headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts since 2004 after moving from Randolph, Massachusetts. \n\nThe Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlors started as separate ventures of Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins, who owned Burton's Ice Cream Shop (opened in 1945) and Snowbird Ice Cream (opened in 1946), respectively. Snowbird Ice Cream offered 21 flavors, a novel concept at that time. When the separate companies merged in 1953, the number of flavors was expanded to 31 flavors.\n\nBy 1948, Burt and Irv had opened six stores. The first franchise covering the sale of ice cream was executed May 20, 1948 for the store at 1130 South Adams in Glendale (Store #1). In 1949, the company’s production facility opened in Burbank. Burt and Irv made the decision to sell the stores to the managers. In 1953, Baskin-Robbins hired Carson-Roberts Advertising who recommended adoption of the number 31 as well as the pink (cherry) and brown (chocolate) polka dots and typeface that were reminiscent of the circus. The first store that adopted the new 31 look was 804 North Glendale Ave. in Glendale, California in March 1953. Between 1949 and 1962, the corporate firm was Huntington Ice Cream Company. The name succeeded The Baskin-Robbins Partnership and was eventually changed back to Baskin-Robbins, Inc. on November 26, 1962. In the 1970s, the chain went international, opening stores in Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Australia. Baskin-Robbins also was the first to introduce ice cream cakes to the public. \nBaskin-Robbins often still incorporates 31 in its promotions despite offering more flavors. For example, in Malaysia this includes giving 31% off their hand-packed ice cream on the 31st of a month, which invariably causes queues at their outlets.\n\nBaskin-Robbins was owned by its founders until it was acquired in 1967 (just prior to Burt Baskin's death) by the United Brands Company (United Fruit). In 1972, the company went public for the only time in its history when United Brands sold 17% in an IPO. A year later, British food company J. Lyons and Co. purchased Baskin-Robbins from United Brands and all public stock. J. Lyons then merged with Allied Breweries, becoming Allied-Lyons in 1978. Allied-Lyons then merged with Pedro Domecq S.A. in 1994, becoming Allied Domecq. Baskin-Robbins and Dunkin' Donuts comprise Dunkin' Brands, Inc. Dunkin' Brands was part of Allied Domecq until its purchase in 2006 by a group of private equity firms - Bain Capital, Thomas Lee, and The Carlyle Group. \n\nIn 2008, Baskin-Robbins launched its first full menu of better-for-you frozen treats called \"BRight Choices\" and removed all artificial trans fats from its ice cream. BRight Choices provides a variety of options for guests looking for a lighter treat. \n\nIrv Robbins died at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California on May 5, 2008, at age 90. \n\nThe franchise model created by Burt and Irv decades ago is still used by Baskin-Robbins today. Baskin-Robbins is nearly 100% franchised, with each owner holding a stake in the business' success, while product development and merchandising are handled at Dunkin' Brands' headquarters in Canton, Massachusetts.\n\nWhile Baskin-Robbins struggled in the early years of the 2000s to retain business with competitors such as frozen yogurt shops, 2013 saw a turnaround in the company's fortunes, with four new U.S. stores opened. An additional five to ten shops were planned to open in 2014, however, Baskin Robbins ultimately surpassed that goal with a grand total of 17 net new openings throughout 2014, and continued growth of the brand with 15 new stores opened in 2015. Many new Baskin' Robbins shops are co-branded with Dunkin' Donuts, including California's first co-branded location of the two in San Diego, which opened in March 2014.\n\nIn 2014, Baskin-Robbins also began selling its ice cream for the first time in supermarkets nationwide. \n\nInternational\n\nBaskin-Robbins has more than 7,300 shop locations in nearly 50 countries outside the U.S., including locations in: Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Colombia, Curaçao, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Georgia, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ireland,\nJapan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Nepal, Oman, Panama, the Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, St. Maarten, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Vietnam and Yemen.\n\nBaskin-Robbins’ international locations feature flavors of ice cream popular to the tastes of each country, such as Red Bean, Green Tea, Litchi Gold, Black Currant, Cantaloupe, and Coconut Grove." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Animation.txt", "Timon_and_Pumbaa.txt", "Meerkat.txt", "The_Lion_King.txt" ], "title": [ "Animation", "Timon and Pumbaa", "Meerkat", "The Lion King" ], "wiki_context": [ "Animation is the process of making the illusion of motion and change by means of the rapid display of a sequence of static images that minimally differ from each other. The illusion—as in motion pictures in general—is thought to rely on the phi phenomenon. Animators are artists who specialize in the creation of animation.\n\nAnimation can be recorded with either analogue media, a flip book, motion picture film, video tape, digital media, including formats with animated GIF, Flash animation and digital video. To display animation, a digital camera, computer, or projector are used along with new technologies that are produced.\n\nAnimation creation methods include the traditional animation creation method and those involving stop motion animation of two and three-dimensional objects, paper cutouts, puppets and clay figures. Images are displayed in a rapid succession, usually 24, 25, 30, or 60 frames per second.\n\nHistory \n\nEarly examples of attempts to capture the phenomenon of motion into a still drawing can be found in paleolithic cave paintings, where animals are often depicted with multiple legs in superimposed positions, clearly attempting to convey the perception of motion.\n\nAn earthen goblet discovered at the site of the 5,200-year-old Shahr-e Sūkhté (Burnt City) in southeastern Iran, depicts what could possibly be the world's oldest example of animation. The artifact bears five sequential images depicting a Persian Desert Ibex jumping up to eat the leaves of a tree. \n\nAncient Chinese records contain several mentions of devices that were said to \"give an impression of movement\" to human or animal figures, these accounts are unclear and may only refer to the actual movement of the figures through space.\n\nIn the 19th century, the phenakistoscope (1832), zoetrope (1834) and praxinoscope (1877) were introduced. A thaumatrope (1824) is a simple toy with a small disk with different pictures on each side; a bird in a cage, and is attached to two pieces of strings. The phenakistoscope was invented simultaneously by Belgian Joseph Plateau and Austrian Simon von Stampfer in 1831. The phenakistoscope consists of a disk with a series of images, drawn on radi evenly space around the center of the disk. \n\nJohn Barnes Linnett patented the first flip book in 1868 as the kineograph. The common flip book were early animation devices that produced an illusion of movement from a series of sequential drawings, animation did not develop further until the advent of motion picture film and cinematography in the 1890s.\n\nThe cinématographe was a projector, printer, and camera in one machine that allowed moving pictures to be shown successfully on a screen which was invented by history's earliest film makers, Auguste and Louis Lumière, in 1894. The first animated projection (screening) was created in France, by Charles-Émile Reynaud, who was a French science teacher. Reynaud created the Praxinoscope in 1877 and the Théâtre Optique in December 1888. On 28 October 1892, he projected the first animation in public, Pauvre Pierrot, at the Musée Grévin in Paris. This film is also notable as the first known instance of film perforations being used. His films were not photographed, they were drawn directly onto the transparent strip. In 1900, more than 500,000 people had attended these screenings.\n\nThe first film that was recorded on standard picture film and included animated sequences was the 1900 Enchanted Drawing, which was followed by the first entirely animated film - the 1906 Humorous Phases of Funny Faces by J. Stuart Blackton, who, because of that, is considered the father of American animation.\n\nIn Europe, the French artist, Émile Cohl, created the first animated film using what came to be known as traditional animation creation methods - the 1908 Fantasmagorie. The film largely consisted of a stick figure moving about and encountering all manner of morphing objects, a wine bottle that transforms into a flower. There were also sections of live action in which the animator's hands would enter the scene. The film was created by drawing each frame on paper and then shooting each frame onto negative film, which gave the picture a blackboard look.\n\nThe author of the first puppet-animated film (The Beautiful Lukanida (1912)) was the Russian-born (ethnically Polish) director Wladyslaw Starewicz, known as Ladislas Starevich. \n\nMore detailed hand-drawn animation, requiring a team of animators drawing each frame manually with detailed backgrounds and characters, were those directed by Winsor McCay, a successful newspaper cartoonist, including the 1911 Little Nemo, the 1914 Gertie the Dinosaur, and the 1918 The Sinking of the Lusitania.\n\nDuring the 1910s, the production of animated short films, typically referred to as \"cartoons\", became an industry of its own and cartoon shorts were produced for showing in movie theaters. The most successful producer at the time was John Randolph Bray, who, along with animator Earl Hurd, patented the cel animation process which dominated the animation industry for the rest of the decade.\n\nEl Apóstol (Spanish: \"The Apostle\") was a 1917 Argentine animated film utilizing cutout animation, and the world's first animated feature film. Unfortunately, a fire that destroyed producer Federico Valle's film studio incinerated the only known copy of El Apóstol, and it is now considered a lost film.\n\nIn 1958, Hanna-Barbara released Huckleberry Hound, the first half hour television program to feature only in animation. Terrytoons released Tom Terrific that same year. Television significantly decreased public attention to the animated shorts being shown in theaters.\n\nComputer animation has become popular since Toy Story (1995), the first feature-length animated film completely made using this technique.\n\nIn 2008, the animation market was worth US$68.4 billion. Animation as an art and industry continues to thrive as of the mid-2010s, because well-made animated projects can find audiences across borders and in all four quadrants. Animated feature-length films returned the highest gross margins (around 52%) of all film genres in the 2004–2013 timeframe. \n\nTechniques \n\nTraditional animation \n\nTraditional animation (also called cel animation or hand-drawn animation) was the process used for most animated films of the 20th century. The individual frames of a traditionally animated film are photographs of drawings, first drawn on paper. To create the illusion of movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before it. The animators' drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent acetate sheets called cels, which are filled in with paints in assigned colors or tones on the side opposite the line drawings. The completed character cels are photographed one-by-one against a painted background by a rostrum camera onto motion picture film.\n\nThe traditional cel animation process became obsolete by the beginning of the 21st century. Today, animators' drawings and the backgrounds are either scanned into or drawn directly into a computer system. Various software programs are used to color the drawings and simulate camera movement and effects. The final animated piece is output to one of several delivery media, including traditional 35 mm film and newer media with digital video. The \"look\" of traditional cel animation is still preserved, and the character animators' work has remained essentially the same over the past 70 years. Some animation producers have used the term \"tradigital\" (a play on the words \"traditional\" and \"digital\") to describe cel animation which makes extensive use of computer technologies.\n\nExamples of traditionally animated feature films include Pinocchio (United States, 1940), Animal Farm (United Kingdom, 1954), and The Illusionist (British-French, 2010). Traditionally animated films which were produced with the aid of computer technology include The Lion King (US, 1994), The Prince of Egypt (US, 1998), Akira (Japan, 1988), Spirited Away (Japan, 2001), The Triplets of Belleville (France, 2003), and The Secret of Kells (Irish-French-Belgian, 2009).\n\n* Full animation refers to the process of producing high-quality traditionally animated films that regularly use detailed drawings and plausible movement, having a smooth animation. Fully animated films can be made in a variety of styles, from more realistically animated works those produced by the Walt Disney studio (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King) to the more 'cartoon' styles of the Warner Bros. animation studio. Many of the Disney animated features are examples of full animation, as are non-Disney works, The Secret of NIMH (US, 1982), The Iron Giant (US, 1999), and Nocturna (Spain, 2007).\n* Limited animation involves the use of less detailed or more stylized drawings and methods of movement usually a choppy or \"skippy\" movement animation. Pioneered by the artists at the American studio United Productions of America, limited animation can be used as a method of stylized artistic expression, as in Gerald McBoing-Boing (US, 1951), Yellow Submarine (UK, 1968), and certain anime produced in Japan. Its primary use, however, has been in producing cost-effective animated content for media for television (the work of Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, and other TV animation studios) and later the Internet (web cartoons).\n* Rotoscoping is a technique patented by Max Fleischer in 1917 where animators trace live-action movement, frame by frame. The source film can be directly copied from actors' outlines into animated drawings, as in The Lord of the Rings (US, 1978), or used in a stylized and expressive manner, as in Waking Life (US, 2001) and A Scanner Darkly (US, 2006). Some other examples are: Fire and Ice (US, 1983), Heavy Metal (1981), and Aku no Hana (2013).\n* Live-action/animation is a technique combining hand-drawn characters into live action shots or live action actors into animated shots. One of the earlier uses was in Koko the Clown when Koko was drawn over live action footage. Other examples include Who Framed Roger Rabbit (US, 1988), Space Jam (US, 1996) and Osmosis Jones (US, 2001).\n\nStop motion animation \n\nStop-motion animation is used to describe animation created by physically manipulating real-world objects and photographing them one frame of film at a time to create the illusion of movement. There are many different types of stop-motion animation, usually named after the medium used to create the animation. Computer software is widely available to create this type of animation; however, traditional stop motion animation is usually less expensive and time-consuming to produce than current computer animation.\n\n* Puppet animation typically involves stop-motion puppet figures interacting in a constructed environment, in contrast to real-world interaction in model animation. The puppets generally have an armature inside of them to keep them still and steady to constrain their motion to particular joints. Examples include The Tale of the Fox (France, 1937), The Nightmare Before Christmas (US, 1993), Corpse Bride (US, 2005), Coraline (US, 2009), the films of Jiří Trnka and the adult animated sketch-comedy television series Robot Chicken (US, 2005–present).\n** Puppetoon, created using techniques developed by George Pal, are puppet-animated films which typically use a different version of a puppet for different frames, rather than simply manipulating one existing puppet.\n\n* Clay animation, or Plasticine animation (often called claymation, which, however, is a trademarked name), uses figures made of clay or a similar malleable material to create stop-motion animation. The figures may have an armature or wire frame inside, similar to the related puppet animation (below), that can be manipulated to pose the figures. Alternatively, the figures may be made entirely of clay, in the films of Bruce Bickford, where clay creatures morph into a variety of different shapes. Examples of clay-animated works include The Gumby Show (US, 1957–1967) Morph shorts (UK, 1977–2000), Wallace and Gromit shorts (UK, as of 1989), Jan Švankmajer's Dimensions of Dialogue (Czechoslovakia, 1982), The Trap Door (UK, 1984). Films include Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Chicken Run and The Adventures of Mark Twain.\n** Strata-cut animation, Strata-cut animation is most commonly a form of clay animation in which a long bread-like \"loaf\" of clay, internally packed tight and loaded with varying imagery, is sliced into thin sheets, with the animation camera taking a frame of the end of the loaf for each cut, eventually revealing the movement of the internal images within.\n* Cutout animation is a type of stop-motion animation produced by moving two-dimensional pieces of material paper or cloth. Examples include Terry Gilliam's animated sequences from Monty Python's Flying Circus (UK, 1969–1974); Fantastic Planet (France/Czechoslovakia, 1973) ; Tale of Tales (Russia, 1979), The pilot episode of the adult television sitcom series (and sometimes in episodes) of South Park (US, 1997) and the music video Live for the moment, from Verona Riots band (produced by Alberto Serrano and Nívola Uyá, Spain 2014).\n** Silhouette animation is a variant of cutout animation in which the characters are backlit and only visible as silhouettes. Examples include The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Weimar Republic, 1926) and Princes et princesses (France, 2000).\n* Model animation refers to stop-motion animation created to interact with and exist as a part of a live-action world. Intercutting, matte effects, and split screens are often employed to blend stop-motion characters or objects with live actors and settings. Examples include the work of Ray Harryhausen, as seen in films, Jason and the Argonauts (1963), and the work of Willis H. O'Brien on films, King Kong (1933).\n** Go motion is a variant of model animation that uses various techniques to create motion blur between frames of film, which is not present in traditional stop-motion. The technique was invented by Industrial Light & Magic and Phil Tippett to create special effects scenes for the film The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Another example is the dragon named \"Vermithrax\" from Dragonslayer (1981 film).\n* Object animation refers to the use of regular inanimate objects in stop-motion animation, as opposed to specially created items.\n** Graphic animation uses non-drawn flat visual graphic material (photographs, newspaper clippings, magazines, etc.), which are sometimes manipulated frame-by-frame to create movement. At other times, the graphics remain stationary, while the stop-motion camera is moved to create on-screen action.\n** Brickfilm A subgenre of object animation involving using Lego or other similar brick toys to make an animation. These have had a recent boost in popularity with the advent of video sharing sites, YouTube and the availability of cheap cameras and animation software. \n* Pixilation involves the use of live humans as stop motion characters. This allows for a number of surreal effects, including disappearances and reappearances, allowing people to appear to slide across the ground, and other effects. Examples of pixilation include The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb and Angry Kid shorts.\n\nComputer animation \n\nComputer animation encompasses a variety of techniques, the unifying factor being that the animation is created digitally on a computer. 2D animation techniques tend to focus on image manipulation while 3D techniques usually build virtual worlds in which characters and objects move and interact. 3D animation can create images that seem real to the viewer.\n\n2D animation \n\n2D animation figures are created or edited on the computer using 2D bitmap graphics or created and edited using 2D vector graphics. This includes automated computerized versions of traditional animation techniques, interpolated morphing, onion skinning and interpolated rotoscoping.\n\n2D animation has many applications, including analog computer animation, Flash animation and PowerPoint animation. Cinemagraphs are still photographs in the form of an animated GIF file of which part is animated.\n\nFinal line advection animation is a technique used in 2d animation, to give artists and animators more influence and control over the final product as everything is done within the same department. Speaking about using this approach in Paperman, John Kahrs said that \"Our animators can change things, actually erase away the CG underlayer if they want, and change the profile of the arm.\" \n\n3D animation \n\n3D animation is digitally modeled and manipulated by an animator. The animator usually starts by creating a 3D polygon mesh to manipulate. A mesh typically includes many vertices that are connected by edges and faces, which give the visual appearance of form to a 3D object or 3D environment. Sometimes, the mesh is given an internal digital skeletal structure called an armature that can be used to control the mesh by weighting the vertices. This process is called rigging and can be used in conjunction with keyframes to create movement.\n\nOther techniques can be applied, mathematical functions (e.g., gravity, particle simulations), simulated fur or hair, and effects, fire and water simulations. These techniques fall under the category of 3D dynamics.\n\n3D terms \n\n* Cel-shaded animation is used to mimic traditional animation using computer software. Shading looks stark, with less blending of colors. Examples include, Skyland (2007, France), The Iron Giant (1999, United States), Futurama (Fox, 1999) Appleseed Ex Machina (2007, Japan), The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002, Japan)\n* Machinima – Films created by screen capturing in video games and virtual worlds.\n* Motion capture is used when live-action actors wear special suits that allow computers to copy their movements into CG characters. Examples include Polar Express (2004, US), Beowulf (2007, US), A Christmas Carol (2009, US), The Adventures of Tintin (film) (2011, US) kochadiiyan (2014, India).\n* Photo-realistic animation is used primarily for animation that attempts to resemble real life, using advanced rendering that mimics in detail skin, plants, water, fire, clouds, etc. Examples include Up (2009, US), How to Train Your Dragon (2010, US), Ice Age (2002, US).\n\nMechanical animation \n\n* Animatronics is the use of mechatronics to create machines which seem animate rather than robotic.\n** Audio-Animatronics and Autonomatronics is a form of robotics animation, combined with 3-D animation, created by Walt Disney Imagineering for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks move and make noise (generally a recorded speech or song). They are fixed to whatever supports them. They can sit and stand, and they cannot walk. An Audio-Animatron is different from an android-type robot in that it uses prerecorded movements and sounds, rather than responding to external stimuli. In 2009, Disney created an interactive version of the technology called Autonomatronics. \n** Linear Animation Generator is a form of animation by using static picture frames installed in a tunnel or a shaft. The animation illusion is created by putting the viewer in a linear motion, parallel to the installed picture frames. The concept and the technical solution, were invented in 2007 by Mihai Girlovan in Romania.\n* Chuckimation is a type of animation created by the makers of the television series Action League Now! in which characters/props are thrown, or chucked from off camera or wiggled around to simulate talking by unseen hands. \n* Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance animation that involves the manipulation of puppets. It is very ancient, and is believed to have originated 3000 years BC. Puppetry takes many forms, they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects. Puppetry is used in almost all human societies both as entertainment – in performance – and ceremonially in rituals, celebrations and carnivals. Most puppetry involves storytelling.\n\n* Zoetrope is a device that produces the illusion of motion from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words ζωή (zoē), meaning \"alive, active\", and τρόπος (tropos), meaning \"turn\", with \"zoetrope\" taken to mean \"active turn\" or \"wheel of life\".\n\nOther animation styles, techniques and approaches \n\n* Hydrotechnics: a technique that includes lights, water, fire, fog, and lasers, with high-definition projections on mist screens.\n* Drawn on film animation: a technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock, for example by Norman McLaren, Len Lye and Stan Brakhage.\n* Paint-on-glass animation: a technique for making animated films by manipulating slow drying oil paints on sheets of glass, for example by Aleksandr Petrov.\n* Erasure animation: a technique using traditional 2D media, photographed over time as the artist manipulates the image. For example, William Kentridge is famous for his charcoal erasure films, and Piotr Dumała for his auteur technique of animating scratches on plaster.\n* Pinscreen animation: makes use of a screen filled with movable pins that can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows. The technique has been used to create animated films with a range of textural effects difficult to achieve with traditional cel animation.\n* Sand animation: sand is moved around on a back- or front-lighted piece of glass to create each frame for an animated film. This creates an interesting effect when animated because of the light contrast.\n* Flip book: a flip book (sometimes, especially in British English, called a flick book) is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change. Flip books are often illustrated books for children, they also be geared towards adults and employ a series of photographs rather than drawings. Flip books are not always separate books, they appear as an added feature in ordinary books or magazines, often in the page corners. Software packages and websites are also available that convert digital video files into custom-made flip books.\n* Character animation\n* Multi-sketching\n* Special effects animation\n\nProduction\n\nThe creation of non-trivial animation works (i.e., longer than a few seconds) has developed as a form of filmmaking, with certain unique aspects. One thing live-action and animated feature-length films do have in common is that they are both extremely labor-intensive and have high production costs.\n\nThe most important difference is that once a film is in the production phase, the marginal cost of one more shot is higher for animated films than live-action films. It is relatively easy for a director to ask for one more take during principal photography of a live-action film, but every take on an animated film must be manually rendered by animators (although the task of rendering slightly different takes has been made less tedious by modern computer animation). It is pointless for a studio to pay the salaries of dozens of animators to spend weeks creating a visually dazzling five-minute scene, if that scene fails to effectively advance the plot of the film. Thus, animation studios starting with Disney began the practice in the 1930s of maintaining story departments where storyboard artists develop every single scene through storyboards, then handing the film over to the animators only after the production team is satisfied that all the scenes will make sense as a whole. While live-action films are now also storyboarded, they enjoy more latitude to depart from storyboards (i.e., real-time improvisation).\n\nAnother problem unique to animation is the necessity of ensuring that the style of an animated film is consistent from start to finish, even as films have grown longer and teams have grown larger. Animators, like all artists, necessarily have their own individual styles, but must subordinate their individuality in a consistent way to whatever style was selected for a particular film.\n Since the early 1980s, feature-length animated films have been created by teams of about 500 to 600 people, of whom 50 to 70 are animators. It is relatively easy for two or three artists to match each other's styles; it is harder to keep dozens of artists synchronized with one another.\n\nThis problem is usually solved by having a separate group of visual development artists develop an overall look and palette for each film before animation begins. Character designers on the visual development team draw model sheets to show how each character should look like with different facial expressions, posed in different positions, and viewed from different angles. On traditionally animated projects, maquettes were often sculpted to further help the animators see how characters would look from different angles.\n\nUnlike live-action films, animated films were traditionally developed beyond the synopsis stage through the storyboard format; the storyboard artists would then receive credit for writing the film. In the early 1960s, animation studios began hiring professional screenwriters to write screenplays (while also continuing to use story departments) and screenplays had become commonplace for animated films by the late 1980s.\n\nCriticism\n\nCriticism of animation has become a domineering force in media and cinema since its inception. With its popularity, a large amount of criticism has arisen, especially animated feature-length films. Many concerns of cultural representation, psychological effects on children have been brought up around the animation industry, which has remained rather politically unchanged and stagnant since its inception into mainstream culture.\n\nCertain under-representation of women has been criticized in animation films and the industry.\n\nAwards\n\nAs with any other form of media, animation too has instituted awards for excellence in the field. The original awards for animation were presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for animated shorts from the year 1932, during the 5th Academy Awards function. The first winner of the Academy Award was the short Flowers and Trees, a production by Walt Disney Productions. The Academy Award for a feature-length animated motion picture was only instituted for the year 2001, and awarded during the 74th Academy Awards in 2002. It was won by the film Shrek, produced by DreamWorks and Pacific Data Images. Disney/Pixar have produced the most films either to win or be nominated for the award. The list of both awards can be obtained here:\n*Academy Award for Best Animated Feature\n*Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film\n\nSeveral other countries have instituted an award for best animated feature film as part of their national film awards: Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Animation (since 2008), BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film (since 2006), César Award for Best Animated Film (since 2011), Golden Rooster Award for Best Animation (since 1981), Goya Award for Best Animated Film (since 1989), Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year (since 2007), National Film Award for Best Animated Film (since 2006). Also since 2007, the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Animated Feature Film has been awarded at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Since 2009, the European Film Awards have awarded the European Film Award for Best Animated Film.\n \nThe Annie Award is another award presented for excellence in the field of animation. Unlike the Academy Awards, the Annie Awards are only received for achievements in the field of animation and not for any other field of technical and artistic endeavor. They were re-organized in 1992 to create a new field for Best Animated feature. The 1990s winners were dominated by Walt Disney, however newer studios, led by Pixar & DreamWorks, have now begun to consistently vie for this award. The list of awardees is as follows: \n*Annie Award for Best Animated Feature\n*Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject\n*Annie Award for Best Animated Television Production", "Timon and Pumbaa are an animated meerkat and warthog duo introduced in Disney's popular 1994 animated film The Lion King. Timon was portrayed through his many appearances by Nathan Lane (in all three films and early episodes of the show), Max Casella (the original actor in The Lion King Broadway musical), Kevin Schon (in certain episodes of the show), Quinton Flynn (in certain episodes of the show), Bruce Lanoil in the Wild About Safety shorts and Kingdom Hearts II, while Pumbaa is voiced by Ernie Sabella (in all of his animated speaking appearances), and was portrayed by Tom Alan Robbins in the original cast of the Broadway musical. Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella first came to audition for the roles of the hyenas, but when the producers saw how well they worked together they decided to cast them as Timon and Pumbaa. Lyricist Tim Rice however was pulling for Rik Mayall (for Timon) and Adrian Edmondson (for Pumbaa) to play the roles, as he got the idea for the lyrics to \"Hakuna Matata\" by watching their show Bottom.\n\nAs with many characters in Lion King, Pumbaa's name derives from the East African language Swahili. In Swahili, pumbaa (v.) means \"to be foolish, silly, weakminded, careless, negligent\". Timon is one of the few characters whose name has no meaning in Swahili; Timon is an historical Greek name, taken to mean \"he who respects\". Timon's name may also possibly derive from Shakespeare's tragedy Timon of Athens, another Shakespeare reference in a film which derives its plot from Hamlet.\n\nTimon is a wise-cracking and self-absorbed meerkat who is known for claiming Pumbaa's ideas as his own, while Pumbaa has flatulence issues. However, Pumbaa is also a fierce warrior, charging into battle like a battering ram, and taking great offense if anyone who's not his friend calls him a pig, at which point he exclaims \"They call me Mister pig!\"—a reference to Sidney Poitier's line \"They call me Mister Tibbs!\" from the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night. Unlike real meerkats, Timon can walk on his hind legs, while in real life, meerkats walk on all four legs and can only stand on their hind ones.\n\nAppearances\n\nThe Lion King\n\nBased on the characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Hamlet, Timon and Pumbaa are played by Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella. Timon was animated and created by Michael Surrey. They made their first appearances in the 1994 film when they shooed away the vultures that swarmed around young Simba, who had collapsed from heat exhaustion. Timon and Pumbaa then took the collapsed lion cub back to a small pool, where they splashed water on him to wake him up. After Simba is awakened by the two, they introduce themselves and welcome Simba to stay with them and follow their hakuna matata philosophy. At first, Simba is confused about Timon and Pumbaa's lifestyle, but it is explained to him in the song \"Hakuna Matata\".\n\nMany years later, while out on a musical walk with Timon, Pumbaa is distracted by a bug, which he follows into the jungle. The bug leads him right to a hungry lioness prowling around, who then tries to hunt down Pumbaa. She chases the warthog until Simba springs into action, and the two lions engage in conflict. When the lioness pins Simba, he recognizes her as Nala, his childhood playmate. They are happy to be together, but Timon is jealous after they leave for a night of romance. He and Pumbaa start singing the song \"Can You Feel The Love Tonight?\" and are joined by Simba and Nala on their night out. Still, the two help Simba defeat Scar and gain his rightful place as the king of the Pride Lands, most notably when they create a hula distraction to lure away Scar's hyenas. Pumbaa single-handedly drives off Shenzi, Banzai and Ed. They also stand on top of Pride Rock along with Simba and Nala when Rafiki presents Simba and Nala's newborn cub to the animals of the Pride Lands.\n\nThe Lion King II: Simba's Pride\n\nIt is unclear whether Timon and Pumbaa have taken up residence at Pride Rock, or just make frequent visits. They serve as aides to Simba, and are often called upon to keep an eye on his adventurous daughter Kiara so in a way replacing Zazu's role as babysitters. Despite being bumbling, Simba trusts them to look after Kiara, and does not blame them when Kiara runs off as Kiara is known to do just that. When Kiara goes on her first hunt, they are hired to make sure she won't get hurt. Enraged, she escapes from the Pridelands to hunt outside the boundary. Timon and Pumbaa also teach Kovu how to have fun after he forgets due to years of indoctrination in hatred. When Kovu's pride, the Outsiders, turn on Simba and ambush him, Timon is on Simba's side automatically, not even wanting to hear his argument. They later assist in the battle against Kovu's vengeful mother Zira, and her pride of exiled lions, but get chased off and cornered by a group, until Timon threatens to use Pumbaa's tail as a gun and use his gas on them causing them to flee in fear. Despite being slightly cowardly, they are willing to fight for what is right. When Simba tries to make peace with Zira after realizing that both prides \"were one\", he uses the same advice Timon and Pumbaa gave him when he was a cub (put the past behind you) showing how much he had learned from his old friends.\n\nThe Lion King 1½\n\nTimon and Pumbaa are the main characters in this followup, and are revealed to have passed by and caused some key events in the first film before their first appearance. Timon, his mother Ma and Uncle Max were part of a group of meerkats who lived on the savannah, but he was unable to do any job properly, and almost led to the meerkat being eaten by the hyenas Shenzi, Banzai and Ed (Pumbaa was revealed to have blocked out part of the scene by sitting on the remote). Feeling depressed, he received counsel from Rafiki, who taught him the \"Hakuna Matata\" philosophy and told him to \"look beyond what you see.\" Timon took this literally, and set off to find the ultimate paradise. Along the way, he first encountered Pumbaa, and the two became friends. On the way to find paradise, they passed by the presentation of Simba (it turns out that Pumbaa accidentally passed some gas and the smell made a few animals collapse, causing the other animals to think they were bowing and later they all bowed) and Mufasa was very puzzled at seeing this and his majordomo Zazu then tells him they are bowing to his son; Simba, Nala, and animals singing \"I Just Can't Wait To Be King\" (it was Timon who hit an elephant's leg with a stick, causing the tower of animals to collapse); the elephant graveyard by running from Mufasa who was on the way to save Simba and Nala from the hyenas (\"I see carnivores\"); the hyenas marching to \"Be Prepared\" (\"something tells me this ain't the traveling company of Riverdance\"); and the wildebeest stampede (\"Shall we run for our lives?\" \"Oh yes, let's.\"). Finally, they reach a beautiful oasis and are enjoying life until they find a collapsed Simba. After rescuing Simba, Timon and Pumbaa find themselves with their hands full trying to keep up with the mischievous cub. Simba quickly adopts both Timon and Pumbaa as surrogate fathers.\n\nThe film also shows more of Simba's life with Timon and Pumbaa before Nala came along, stating that Simba had beaten Timon in nearly every bug-eating contest they had done with one another. Timon and Pumbaa, afraid that Nala would take away their friend, attempted to spoil Simba and Nala's date by letting out bees, a spider, and tripping the two (explaining why they fell down the hill in the first film), but all failed. Later on, they see Simba and Nala quarrelling. They also mistake the appearance of Mufasa's ghost as bad weather (\"I think the storm is coming to a head\"). After they realize Simba has gone back to take his rightful place as king, it is revealed that Pumbaa had set off to help Simba before Timon, who was indifferent and reluctant. Timon eventually came to his senses thanks to Rafiki's continued advice, and quickly followed, after which Rafiki says, \"My work here is done.\" After providing their hula distraction (shown in the first film. This apparently was Timon's fault because before he did the dance, he asked Simba what his (Simba) plan was to get past the hyenas, Simba replying \"Live bait.\" When Timon realizes he and Pumbaa were the live bait, he sarcastically asked Simba \"What do you want me to do? Dress in drag and do the hula?\". A few seconds later, the hyenas wake up and see Timon in a hula skirt, a flower, and a flower necklace and Pumbaa like a cooked pig), the two run into Ma and Uncle Max, who had been searching for Timon ever since he left the meerkat colony. Later on during the fight, they defeated the hyenas by digging a massive tunnel network, sending the hyenas down Pride Rock where they get to take revenge on Scar who had betrayed them. This scene explains what happened to Timon and Pumbaa while Simba is fighting Scar. After Scar is killed in the first film and this film, Timon and Pumbaa show up alive and unharmed against the hyenas that chased them, suggesting to audiences that they have either outsmarted or beat up the hyenas in the first film. At the end, Timon takes his entire meerkat colony to live in the oasis, free from threats.\n\nDespite the appearance of Timon's mother, Ma (who was also given reference in at least one episode of Timon and Pumbaa) and his Uncle Max (believed to be his great uncle due to his age-which may be premature-and the fact that Ma also calls him 'Uncle' Max), Timon's father is never mentioned. However, in deleted scenes, Timon's father is an active character, though he was apparently replaced by Uncle Max.\n\nThe Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa\n\nTimon and Pumbaa starred in their own animated television series which focuses on their lives. The duo is seen having misadventures in the jungle and they are also seen visiting different places around the world, such as the United States, Spain, and France. This series also reveals their last names: Timon's is revealed to be Berkowitz while Pumbaa's is revealed to be Smith.\n\nIt is notable that a pre-existing storyline of how Timon met Pumbaa appeared in this series. This would make the series and The Lion King 1½ independent continuities.\n\nThe Lion Guard\n\nTimon and Pumbaa appear with several of the film's other characters in the Disney Junior series The Lion Guard, which centers around Simba's son, Kion. In this series, Timon and Pumbaa are adoptive uncles of a young honey badger named Bunga, who is one of the members of the Lion Guard. When Bunga was an infant, he encountered Timon and Pumbaa singing \"Utamu.\" Instantly smitten, Bunga had begun following them around. Pumbaa wanted to keep Bunga, but Timon didn't want to raise anymore kids since he and Pumbaa have already done so with Simba, but the two friends see that the honey badger wants to be with them as well. Before he accepted Bunga, Timon instructed the honey badger to climb a tree and fetch them some Utamu grubs. When Bunga had succeeded and given the grubs to Timon, the meerkat had allowed him to stay, and the three have lived together ever since.\n\nOther appearances\n\nTimon and Pumbaa made regular appearances in the animated television series Disney's House of Mouse (2001–2002) as guests and also appeared in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse. An occasional running gag in the show involved Timon trying to eat Jiminy Cricket, only to be stopped by Pumbaa.\nThe two have made cameos in other Disney films. In Aladdin and the King of Thieves, the Genie turns into Pumbaa in a scene saying, \"Hakuna Matata\"[http://disney.wretch.cc/Joke/aatkot.htm] (he also states that he had an \"out-of-movie experience\"). Timon appears briefly in the Virtual Magic Carpet Ride game included on disc 2 of the 2004 Aladdin Platinum Edition DVD. In Enchanted, Pip accidentally transforms himself momentarily into Pumbaa in the DVD extra \"Pip's Predicament: A Pop-Up Adventure\". Pumbaa also makes a cameo appearance in the \"Good Neighbor Cruella\" episode of 101 Dalmatians: The Series, as well as making a cameo appearance in Tangled.\n\nThey also appear on the packaging of the Kellogg's cereal \"Chocolate Mud & Bugs\".\n\nA toy Pumbaa briefly appears in the music video to Steps's version of Tragedy in the bedroom of band member H.\n\nIn The Jungle Book 2, Timon and Pumbaa can briefly be seen dancing during the song \"W-I-L-D\" until Baloo bounces them off with his backside.\n\nKingdom Hearts\n\nThey reprise their roles from The Lion King in the 2006 video game Kingdom Hearts II. They charge in to battle the hyenas, and are saved by the game's main protagonists Sora, Donald Duck, and Goofy. After Simba's coronation, they fear that Simba will forget them and let the other lions eat them, though Sora assures them that Simba will never forget them. Pumbaa later shows his bravery by standing between a pregnant Nala and Scar's \"ghost\". Ernie Sabella reprises his role as Pumbaa, while Timon is voiced by Bruce Lanoil. Coincidentally, Quinton Flynn also had a role in the game, providing the voice for Axel of Organization XIII.\n\nWalt Disney Parks and Resorts\n\nTimon also appears at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as a meetable character. Pumbaa also appears on certain floats in certain parades or shows. Timon and Pumbaa are also the mascots used at Disney World to help kids and parents understand safety issues in the Disney parks and resorts. They are also featured on the [http://www.disney.com/safety Disney Safety website] which was created in conjunction with Animax Entertainment. Timon and Pumbaa were also main characters in Legend of the Lion King, a former Fantasyland attraction in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, which retold the story of the film using fully articulated puppets. The two also make cameo appearances in the Hong Kong Disneyland and the Disneyland versions of It's a Small World. They appeared along with Simba in the 1995 film Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable, an edutainment film at Epcot's Land Pavilion. Timon and Pumbaa both feature in Festival of the Lion King at Animal Kingdom.\n\nEducational shorts\n\nIn 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2013, Disney Educational Productions and Underwriters Laboratories coproduced an educational film series called Wild About Safety: Safety Smart with Timon and Pumbaa, where Pumbaa educated Timon on how to stay safe. Ernie Sabella reprised his role as Pumbaa, while Timon was voiced by Bruce Lanoil. Each installment was approximately 11 minutes long. They are all animated in the style of the 1994 TV show.\nThe following titles were produced:\n* Wild About Safety: Safety Smart At Home!\n* Wild About Safety: Safety Smart Healthy and Fit!\n* Wild About Safety: Safety Smart About Fire!\n* Wild About Safety: Safety Smart Goes Green!\n* Wild About Safety: Safety Smart In The Water!\n* Wild About Safety: Safety Smart Online!\n* Wild About Safety: Safety Smart Honest & Real!\n* Wild About Safety: Safety Smart On The Go!\n\nPromotion\n\nA balloonicle themed Timon and Pumbaa debuted at the 2016 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.", "The meerkat or suricate (Suricata suricatta) is a small carnivoran belonging to the mongoose family (Herpestidae). It is the only member of the genus Suricata. Meerkats live in all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, in much of the Namib Desert in Namibia and southwestern Angola, and in South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a \"mob\", \"gang\" or \"clan\". A meerkat clan often contains about 20 meerkats, but some super-families have 50 or more members. In captivity, meerkats have an average life span of 12–14 years, and about half this in the wild.\n\nEtymology\n\n\"Meerkat\" is a loanword from Afrikaans. The name has a Dutch origin, but by misidentification. In Dutch, meerkat means the guenon, a monkey of the Cercopithecus genus. The word meerkat is Dutch for \"sea cat\", but although the suricata is a feliform, it is not of the cat family; the word possibly started as a Dutch adaptation of a derivative of Sanskrit markaṭa मर्कट = \"ape\", perhaps in Africa via an Indian sailor on board a Dutch East India Company ship. \n\nAnatomy\n\nThe meerkat is a small diurnal herpestid (mongoose) weighing on average about . Its long slender body and limbs give it a body length of 35 to and an added tail length of around 25 cm. The meerkat uses its tail to balance when standing upright, as well as for signaling. Its face tapers, coming to a point at the nose, which is brown. The eyes always have black patches around them, and they have small black crescent-shaped ears. Like cats, meerkats have binocular vision, their eyes being on the front of their faces. \n\nAt the end of each of a meerkat's \"fingers\" is a claw used for digging burrows and digging for prey. Claws are also used with muscular hindlegs to help climb trees. Meerkats have four toes on each foot and long slender limbs. The coat is usually peppered gray, tan, or brown with silver. They have short parallel stripes across their backs, extending from the base of the tail to the shoulders. The patterns of stripes are unique to each meerkat. The underside of the meerkat has no markings, but the belly has a patch which is only sparsely covered with hair and shows the black skin underneath. The meerkat uses this area to absorb heat while standing on its rear legs, usually early in the morning after cold desert nights.\n\nDiet and foraging behaviour\n\nMeerkats are primarily insectivores, but also eat other animals (lizards, snakes, scorpions, spiders, eggs, small mammals, millipedes, centipedes and, more rarely, small birds), plants and fungi (the desert truffle Kalaharituber pfeilii ). Meerkats are immune to certain types of venom, including the very strong venom of the scorpions of the Kalahari Desert, unlike humans. \n\nMeerkats forage in a group with one \"sentry\" on guard watching for predators while the others search for food. Sentry duty is usually approximately an hour long. A meerkat can dig through a quantity of sand equal to its own weight in just seconds. Baby meerkats do not start foraging for food until they are about 1 month old, and do so by following an older member of the group who acts as the pup's tutor. The meerkat standing guard makes peeping sounds when all is well. \n\nPredators\n\nThe martial eagles, tawny eagles and jackals are the meerkats main predators. Meerkats sometimes die of snakebite in confrontations with snakes (puff adders and Cape cobras). \n\nReproduction\n\nMeerkats become sexually mature at about two years of age and can have one to four pups in a litter, with three pups being the most common litter size. Meerkats are iteroparous and can reproduce any time of the year. The pups are allowed to leave the burrow at two to three weeks old.\n\nThere is no precopulatory display; the male may fight with the female until she submits to him and copulation begins. Gestation lasts approximately 11 weeks and the young are born within the underground burrow and are altricial (undeveloped). The young's ears open at about 10 days of age, and their eyes at 10–14 days. They are weaned around 49 to 63 days.\n\nUsually, the alpha pair reserves the right to mate and normally kills any young not its own, to ensure that its offspring has the best chance of survival. The dominant couple may also evict, or kick out the mothers of the offending offspring. New meerkat groups are often formed by evicted females joining a group of males. \n\nFemales appear to be able to discriminate the odour of their kin from the odour of their non-kin. Kin recognition is a useful ability that facilitates cooperation among relatives and the avoidance of inbreeding. When mating does occur between meerkat relatives, it often results in negative fitness consequences or inbreeding depression. Inbreeding depression was evident for a variety of traits: pup mass at emergence from the natal burrow, hind-foot length, growth until independence and juvenile survival. These negative effects are likely due to the increased homozygosity that arises from inbreeding and the consequent expression of deleterious recessive mutations. The avoidance of inbreeding and the promotion of outcrossing allow the masking of deleterious recessive mutations. (Also see Complementation (genetics).)\n\nBehavior\n\nMeerkats are small burrowing animals, living in large underground networks with multiple entrances which they leave only during the day, except to avoid the heat of the afternoon. They are very social, living in colonies. Animals in the same group groom each other regularly. The alpha pair often scent-mark subordinates of the group to express their authority. There may be up to 30 meerkats in a group.\n\nTo look out for predators, one or more meerkats stand sentry, to warn others of approaching dangers. When a predator is spotted, the meerkat performing as sentry gives a warning bark or whistle, and other members of the group will run and hide in one of the many holes they have spread across their territory. \n\nMeerkats also babysit the young in the group. Females that have never produced offspring of their own often lactate to feed the alpha pair's young. They also protect the young from threats, often endangering their own lives. On warning of danger, the babysitter takes the young underground to safety and is prepared to defend them if the danger follows. \n\nMeerkats are also known to share their burrow with the yellow mongoose and ground squirrel.\n\nLike many species, meerkat young learn by observing and mimicking adult behaviour, though adults also engage in active instruction. For example, meerkat adults teach their pups how to eat a venomous scorpion: they will remove the stinger and help the pup learn how to handle the creature. \n\nDespite this altruistic behaviour, meerkats sometimes kill young members of their group. Subordinate meerkats have been seen killing the offspring of more senior members in order to improve their own offspring's position. \n\nVocalization\n\nMeerkat calls may carry specific meanings, with particular calls indicating the type of predator and the urgency of the situation. In addition to alarm calls, meerkats also make panic calls, recruitment calls, and moving calls. They chirrup, trill, growl, or bark, depending on the circumstances. Meerkats make different alarm calls depending upon whether they see an aerial or a terrestrial predator. Moreover, acoustic characteristics of the call will change with the urgency of the potential predatory episode. Therefore, six different predatory alarm calls with six different meanings have been identified: aerial predator with low, medium, and high urgency; and terrestrial predator with low, medium, and high urgency. Meerkats respond differently after hearing a terrestrial predator alarm call than after hearing an aerial predator alarm call. For example, upon hearing a high-urgency terrestrial predator alarm call, meerkats are most likely to seek shelter and scan the area. On the other hand, upon hearing a high-urgency aerial predator alarm call, meerkats are most likely to crouch down. On many occasions under these circumstances, they also look towards the sky. \n\nSubspecies\n\nThere are three subspecies of meerkat:\n*Suricata suricatta siricata\n*Suricata suricatta iona\n*Suricata suricatta majoriae\n\nDomestication\n\nMeerkats make poor pets. They can be aggressive especially toward guests and may bite. They will scent-mark their owner and the house (their \"territory\"). \n\nPopular culture\n\n* Meerkat Manor, a British television program.\n* The advertising campaign, Compare the Meerkat, is popular in the UK and Australia.\n* Timon from The Lion King franchise is a meerkat.\n* In the book Life of Pi and its film adaptation, the floating island is inhabited by tens of thousands of meerkats, in an environment and grouping unlike real meerkats.\n* Billy from the film Animals United is a meerkat.", "The Lion King is a 1994 American animated epic musical film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. The story takes place in a kingdom of lions in Africa, and was influenced by William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The film was produced during a period known as the Disney Renaissance. The Lion King was directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, produced by Don Hahn, and has a screenplay credited to Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts and Linda Woolverton. Its original songs were written by composer Elton John and lyricist Tim Rice, and original scores were written by Hans Zimmer. The film features an ensemble voice cast that includes Matthew Broderick, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Moira Kelly, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Rowan Atkinson, Robert Guillaume, Madge Sinclair, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin, and Jim Cummings.\n\nThe Lion King tells the story of Simba, a young lion who is to succeed his father, Mufasa, as King of the Pride Lands; however, after Simba's uncle Scar murders Mufasa, Simba is manipulated into thinking he was responsible, and flees into exile. Upon maturation living with two wastrels, Simba is given some valuable perspective from his childhood friend, Nala, and his shaman, Rafiki, before returning to challenge Scar to end his tyranny and take his place in the Circle of Life as the rightful King.\n\nDevelopment of The Lion King began in 1988 during a meeting between Jeffrey Katzenberg, Roy E. Disney and Peter Schneider while promoting Oliver & Company in Europe. Thomas Disch wrote a film treatment, and Woolverton developed the first scripts while George Scribner was signed on as director, being later joined by Allers. Production began in 1991 concurrently with Pocahontas, which wound up attracting most of Disney's top animators. Some time after the staff traveled to Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya to research on the film's setting and animals, Scribner left production disagreeing with the decision to turn the film into a musical, and was replaced by Minkoff. When Hahn joined the project, he was dissatisfied with the script and the story was promptly rewritten. Nearly 20 minutes of animation sequences were produced at Disney-MGM Studios in Florida. Computer animation was also used in several scenes, most notably in the wildebeest stampede sequence.\n\nThe Lion King was released on June 15, 1994, to a positive reaction from critics, who praised the film for its music, story and animation; it finished its theatrical run as the highest-grossing release of 1994 and the second highest-grossing film of all time. The Lion King garnered two Academy Awards for its achievement in music and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. The film has led to many derived works, such as a Broadway adaptation; two direct-to-video follow-ups—the sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998) and the prequel/parallel The Lion King 1½ (2004)—two television series, Timon and Pumbaa and The Lion Guard, and a 3D re-release in 2011.\n\nPlot\n\nIn the Pride Lands of Africa, a lion rules over the animals as king. The birth of King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi's son Simba creates envy and resentment in Mufasa's younger brother, Scar, who knows his nephew now replaces him as heir to the throne. After Simba has grown into a young cub, Mufasa gives him a tour of the Pride Lands, teaching him the responsibilities of being a king and the Circle of Life. Later that day, Scar tricks Simba and his best friend Nala into exploring a forbidden elephant graveyard, despite the protests of Mufasa's hornbill majordomo Zazu. At the graveyard, three spotted hyenas named Shenzi, Banzai and Ed attack the cubs before Mufasa, alerted by Zazu, rescues them and forgives Simba for his actions. That night, the hyenas, who are allied with Scar, plot with him to kill Mufasa and Simba.\n\nThe next day Scar lures Simba to a gorge and tells him to wait there while he gets Mufasa. On Scar's orders, the hyenas stampede a large herd of wildebeest into the gorge. Mufasa rescues Simba, but as Mufasa tries to climb up the gorge's walls, Scar throws him back into the stampede, where he is trampled to death. After Simba finds Mufasa's body, Scar convinces him he was responsible for his father's death and advises Simba to flee the kingdom. As Simba leaves, Scar orders Shenzi, Banzai and Ed to kill the cub, but Simba escapes. That night, Scar announces to the pride that both Mufasa and Simba were killed in the stampede and steps forward as the new king, allowing a pack of hyenas to live in the Pride Lands.\n\nAfter running far away, Simba collapses from exhaustion in a desert. Timon and Pumbaa, a meerkat and a warthog, find him and nurse him back to health. Simba subsequently grows up with them in the jungle, living a carefree life with his friends under the motto \"hakuna matata\" (\"no worries\" in Swahili). When he is a young adult, Simba rescues Timon and Pumbaa from a hungry lioness, who turns out to be Nala. She and Simba reunite and fall in love. Nala urges Simba to return home, telling him the Pride Lands have become a wasteland with not enough food and water. Feeling guilty over his father's death, Simba refuses and storms off, leaving Nala disappointed and angry. As Simba exits the jungle, he encounters Mufasa's mandrill friend and advisor, Rafiki. Rafiki tells Simba that Mufasa is \"alive\" and takes him to a pond. There Simba is visited by the ghost of Mufasa in the sky, who tells him he must take his rightful place as the king of the Pride Lands. Simba realizes he can no longer run from his past and goes home. Nala, Timon, and Pumbaa join him, and agree to help him fight.\n\nAt the Pride Lands, Simba sees Scar hit Sarabi and confronts him, but Scar taunts Simba over his \"part\" in Mufasa's death. However, when Scar pushes Simba to the edge of Pride Rock, he reveals that he killed Mufasa. Enraged, Simba roars back up and forces Scar to reveal the truth to the pride. Timon, Pumbaa, Rafiki, Zazu, and the lionesses fend off the hyenas while Scar, attempting to escape, is cornered by Simba at the top of Pride Rock. Scar begs Simba for mercy, insisting that he is family and placing the blame on the hyenas. Simba no longer believes Scar, but spares his life on the grounds of forever leaving the Pride Lands. Scar appears to comply, but then attacks his nephew. After a fierce fight, Simba throws his uncle off Pride Rock. Scar survives the fall, but is attacked and eaten alive by the hyenas, who overheard his attempt to betray them.\n\nWith Scar and the hyenas gone, Simba ascends to the top of Pride Rock and takes over the kingdom as the rain falls again. Sometime later, with Pride Rock restored to its former glory, Simba looks down happily at his kingdom with Nala, Timon, and Pumbaa by his side; Rafiki presents Simba and Nala's newborn cub to the inhabitants of the Pride Lands, and the Circle of Life continues.\n\nVoice cast\n\n*Matthew Broderick as Simba, son of Mufasa and Sarabi, who grows up to become King of the Pride Lands. Joseph Williams provided adult Simba's singing voice. Mark Henn and Ruben A. Aquino respectively served as the supervising animators for young and adult Simba.\n**Jonathan Taylor Thomas voiced young Simba, while Jason Weaver provided the cub's singing voice.\n*James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Simba's father, King of the Pride Lands as the film begins. Tony Fucile served as the supervising animator for Mufasa.\n*Jeremy Irons as Scar, Mufasa's younger brother and Simba's uncle, who usurps the throne. Andreas Deja served as the supervising animator for Scar.\n*Moira Kelly as Nala, Simba's best friend and later his wife. Sally Dworsky provided her singing voice. Aaron Blaise and Anthony de Rosa respectively served as the supervising animators for young and adult Nala.\n**Niketa Calame provided the voice of young Nala while Laura Williams provided her singing voice.\n*Nathan Lane as Timon, a wise-cracking and self-absorbed yet somewhat loyal meerkat who becomes one of Simba's best friends and adoptive parents. Michael Surrey served as his supervising animator.\n*Ernie Sabella as Pumbaa, a naïve warthog who suffers from flatulence and is Timon's best friend and also becomes one of Simba's best friends and adoptive parents. Tony Bancroft served as his supervising animator.\n*Robert Guillaume as Rafiki, a wise old mandrill (although, while counseling Simba, he jokes that \"you are a baboon, and I am not\") who serves as shaman of the Pride Lands and presents newborn cubs of the King and Queen to the animals of the Pride Lands. James Baxter served as the supervising animator for Rafiki.\n*Rowan Atkinson as Zazu, a hornbill who serves as the king's majordomo (or \"Mufasa's little stooge\", as Shenzi calls him). Ellen Woodbury served as the supervising animator for Zazu.\n*Madge Sinclair as Sarabi, Mufasa's mate, Simba's mother, and the leader of the lioness hunting party. Russ Edmonds served as the supervising animator for Sarabi.\n*The three hyenas who serve Scar were animated by Alex Kupershmidt and David Burgess.\n**Whoopi Goldberg as Shenzi, the sassy and short-tempered female leader of the trio.\n** Cheech Marin as Banzai, an aggressive and hot-headed hyena prone to complaining and acting on impulse.\n** Jim Cummings as Ed, a dim-witted hyena who does not talk, only communicating through laughter. Cummings also voiced a gopher that talks with Zazu and replaced Irons as Scar in certain lines of \"Be Prepared\" after Irons blew his voice. \n*Zoe Leader as Sarafina, Nala's mother, who is shown briefly talking to Simba's mother, Sarabi.\n\nProduction\n\nDevelopment\n\nThe idea for The Lion King was conceived in late 1988 during a conversation between Jeffrey Katzenberg, Roy E. Disney and Peter Schneider on a plane to Europe to promote Oliver & Company. During the conversation, the topic of a story set in Africa came up, and Katzenberg immediately jumped at the idea. The idea was then developed by Walt Disney Feature Animation's vice president for creative affairs Charlie Fink. Katzenberg decided to add elements involving coming of age and death, and ideas from personal life experiences, such as some of his trials in his bumpy road in politics, saying about the film, \"It is a little bit about myself.\" In November of that year Thomas Disch (author of The Brave Little Toaster) wrote a treatment entitled King of the Kalahari, and afterwards Linda Woolverton spent a year writing drafts of the script, which was titled King of the Beasts and then King of the Jungle. The original version of the film was very different from the final film. The plot was centered in a battle being between lions and baboons with Scar being the leader of the baboons, Rafiki being a cheetah, and Timon and Pumbaa being Simba's childhood friends. Simba would also not leave the kingdom, but become a \"lazy, slovenly, horrible character\" due to manipulations from Scar, so Simba could be overthrown after coming of age. By 1990, producer Thomas Schumacher, who had just completed The Rescuers Down Under, decided to attach himself to the project \"because lions are cool\". Schumacher likened the script for King of the Jungle to \"an animated National Geographic special\".\n\nOliver & Company director George Scribner was the initial director of the film, being later joined by Roger Allers, who was the lead story man on Beauty and the Beast in October 1991. Allers brought with him Brenda Chapman, who would become the head of story. Afterwards, several of the lead crew members, including Allers, Scribner, Hahn, Chapman, and production designer Chris Sanders, took a trip to Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya, in order to study and gain an appreciation of the environment for the film. After six months of story development work Scribner decided to leave the project, as he clashed with Allers and the producers on their decision to turn the film into a musical, as Scribner's intention was of making a documentary-like film more focused on natural aspects. Rob Minkoff replaced Scribner, and producer Don Hahn joined the production as Schumacher became only an executive producer due to Disney promoting him to Vice President of Development for Feature Animation. Hahn found the script unfocused and lacking a clear theme, and after establishing the main theme as \"leaving childhood and facing up to the realities of the world\", asked for a final retool. Allers, Minkoff, Chapman and Hahn then rewrote the story across two weeks of meetings with directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, who had just finished Beauty and the Beast. The script also had its title changed from King of the Jungle to The Lion King, as the setting was not the jungle but the savannah.\n\nThe Lion King was the first Disney animated feature to be an original story, rather than being based on an already-existing work. The filmmakers have said that the story of The Lion King was inspired by the lives of Joseph and Moses from the Bible and William Shakespeare's Hamlet. During the summer of 1992, the team was joined by screenwriter Irene Mecchi, with a second screenwriter, Jonathan Roberts, joining a few months later. Mecchi and Roberts took charge of the revision process, fixing unresolved emotional issues in the script and adding comic business for Pumbaa, Timon and the hyenas. Lyricist Tim Rice worked closely with the writing team, flying to California at least once a month, as his songs needed to work in the narrative continuity. Rice's lyrics – which were reworked up to the production's end – were even pinned to the storyboards during development. Rewrites were frequent, with animator Andreas Deja saying that completed scenes would be delivered only for the response to be that parts needed to be reanimated due to dialog changes.\n\nCasting\n\nThe voice actors were chosen for how they fit and could add to the characters – for instance, James Earl Jones was cast because the directors found his voice \"powerful\" and similar to a lion's roar. Jones commented that during the years of production, Mufasa \"became more and more of a dopey dad instead of [a] grand king\".\n\nNathan Lane originally auditioned for Zazu, and Ernie Sabella, for one of the hyenas. Upon meeting each other at the recording studio, the actors, who at the time both co-starred in Guys and Dolls, were asked to record together as hyenas. The directors laughed at their performance and decided to cast them as Timon and Pumbaa. For the hyenas, the original intention was to reunite Cheech & Chong, but while Cheech Marin accepted to play Banzai, Tommy Chong was unavailable. Thus his role was changed into a female hyena, Shenzi, who was voiced by Whoopi Goldberg.\n\nMatthew Broderick was cast as adult Simba early during production, and during the three years of voice acting only recorded with another actor once, and only discovered Moira Kelly voiced Nala at the premiere. Jeremy Irons had at first refused the role due to not being comfortable going from the dramatic performance as Claus von Bülow in Reversal of Fortune to a comedic role. But once he came in, Irons' performance even inspired the writers to incorporate more of his acting as von Bülow — even adding one of that character's lines, \"You have no idea\" - and animator Andreas Deja to watch both Reversal of Fortune and Damage to pick up Irons' facial traits and tics. \n\nAnimation\n\nThe development of The Lion King started concurrently with Pocahontas, which most of the animators of Walt Disney Feature Animation decided to work on instead, believing it would be the more prestigious and successful of the two. The story artists also did not have much faith in the project, with Chapman declaring she was reluctant to accept the job \"because the story wasn't very good\", and writer Burny Mattinson saying to co-worker Joe Ranft about the film that \"I don't know who is going to want to watch that one.\" Most of the leading animators were either doing their first major work supervising a character, or had much interest in animating an animal. Thirteen of these supervising animators, both in California and Florida, were responsible for establishing the personalities and setting the tone for the film's main characters. The animation leads for the main characters included Mark Henn on young Simba, Ruben A. Aquino on adult Simba, Andreas Deja on Scar, Aaron Blaise on young Nala, Anthony DeRosa on adult Nala, and Tony Fucile on Mufasa. Nearly 20 minutes of the film, including the \"I Just Can't Wait to Be King\" sequence, were animated at the Disney-MGM Studios facility. Ultimately, more than 600 artists, animators and technicians contributed to The Lion King over the course of its production. Weeks before the film was to be released, production was affected by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which shut off the studio and required the animators to finish their work from home. \n\nThe character animators studied real-life animals for reference, as was done for the 1942 Disney film Bambi. Jim Fowler, renowned wildlife expert, visited the studios on several occasions with an assortment of lions and other savannah inhabitants to discuss behavior and help the animators give their drawings an authentic feel. The animators also studied various animal movements in natural settings at the Miami MetroZoo under guidance from wildlife expert Ron Magill. The Pride Lands are modeled on the Kenyan national park visited by the crew. Varied focal lengths and lenses were employed to differ from the habitual portrayal of Africa in documentaries – which employ telephoto lenses to shoot the wildlife from a distance. The epic feel drew inspiration from concept studies by artist Hans Bacher – which, following Scribner's request for realism, tried to depict effects such as lens flare – and the works of painters Charles Marion Russell, Frederic Remington and Maxfield Parrish. Since the characters were not anthropomorphized, all the animators had to learn to draw four-legged animals, and the story and character development was done through usage of longer shots following the characters.\n\nThe use of computers helped the filmmakers present their vision in new ways. For the \"wildebeest stampede\" sequence, several distinct wildebeest characters were created in a 3D computer program, multiplied into hundreds, cel shaded to look like drawn animation, and given randomized paths down a mountainside to simulate the real, unpredictable movement of a herd. Five specially trained animators and technicians spent more than two years creating the two-and-a-half minute stampede sequence. Other usages of computer animation were done through CAPS, which helped simulate camera movements such as tracking shots, and was employed on the coloring, lighting and particle effects.\n\nMusic\n\nLyricist Tim Rice, who was working with composer Alan Menken on songs for Aladdin, was invited to write the songs, and accepted on the condition of finding a composing partner. As Menken was unavailable, the producers accepted Rice's suggestion of Elton John, after Rice's invitation of ABBA fell through due to Benny Andersson being busy with the musical Kristina från Duvemåla. John expressed an interest in writing \"ultra-pop songs that kids would like; then adults can go and see those movies and get just as much pleasure out of them\", mentioning a possible influence of The Jungle Book, where he felt the \"music was so funny and appealed to kids and adults\". \n\nJohn and Rice wrote five original songs for this film (\"Circle of Life\", \"I Just Can't Wait to Be King\", \"Be Prepared\", \"Hakuna Matata\" and \"Can You Feel the Love Tonight\") with the singer's performance of \"Can You Feel the Love Tonight\" playing over the end credits. The IMAX and DVD releases added another song, \"The Morning Report\", which was based on a song discarded during development that eventually got featured in the live musical version of The Lion King. The film's score was composed by Hans Zimmer, who was hired based on his work in two films in African settings, The Power of One and A World Apart, and supplemented the score with traditional African music and choir elements arranged by Lebo M. Zimmer's partners Mark Mancina and Jay Rifkin helped with arrangements and song production. \n\nThe film's original motion picture soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records on July 13, 1994. It was the fourth-best-selling album of the year on the Billboard 200 and the top-selling soundtrack. It is the only soundtrack for an animated film to be certified Diamond (10× platinum) by the Recording Industry Association of America. Zimmer's complete instrumental score for the film was never originally given a full release by Disney, until the soundtrack's commemorative 20th anniversary re-release in 2014. The Lion King also inspired the 1995 release Rhythm of the Pride Lands, with eight songs by Zimmer, Mancina, and Lebo M. \n\nThe use of the song \"The Lion Sleeps Tonight\" in a scene with Timon and Pumbaa has led to disputes between Disney and the family of South African Solomon Linda, who composed the song (originally titled \"Mbube\") in 1939. In July 2004, the family filed suit, seeking $1.6 million in royalties from Disney. In February 2006, Linda's heirs reached a legal settlement with Abilene Music, who held the worldwide rights and had licensed the song to Disney for an undisclosed amount of money. \n\nRelease\n\nFor The Lion Kings first film trailer, Disney opted to feature a single scene, the entire opening sequence with the song \"Circle of Life\". Buena Vista Pictures Distribution president Dick Cook said the decision was made for such an approach because \"we were all so taken by the beauty and majesty of this piece that we felt like it was probably one of the best four minutes of film that we've seen\", and Don Hahn added that \"Circle of Life\" worked as a trailer as it \"came off so strong, and so good, and ended with such a bang\". The trailer was released in November 1993, accompanying The Three Musketeers in theaters, as only a third of The Lion King had been completed. Audience reaction was enthusiastic, causing Hahn to have some initial concerns as he became afraid of not living up to the expectations raised by the preview. Prior to the film's release, Disney did 11 test screenings.\n\nUpon release, The Lion King was accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign which included tie-ins with Burger King, Mattel, Kodak, Nestlé and Payless ShoeSource, and various merchandise, accounting 186 licensed products. In 1994, Disney earned approximately $1 billion with products based on the film, with $214 million for Lion King toys during Christmas 1994 alone. \n\nHome media\n\nThe Lion King was first released on VHS and laserdisc in the United States on March 3, 1995, under Disney's \"Masterpiece Collection\" video series. The VHS tape contained a special preview for Walt Disney Pictures' then-upcoming animated film Pocahontas, in which the title character (voiced by Judy Kuhn) sings the musical number \"Colors of the Wind\". In addition, Deluxe Editions of both formats were released. The VHS Deluxe Edition included the film, an exclusive lithograph of Rafiki and Simba (in some editions), a commemorative \"Circle of Life\" epigraph, six concept art lithographs, another tape with the half-hour TV show The Making of The Lion King, and a certificate of authenticity. The CAV laserdisc Deluxe Edition also contained the film, six concept art lithographs and The Making of The Lion King, and added storyboards, character design artwork, concept art, rough animation, and a directors' commentary that the VHS edition did not have, on a total of four double sided discs. The VHS tape quickly became the best-selling videotape of all time: 4.5 million tapes were sold on the first day and ultimately sales totaled more than 30 million before these home video versions went into moratorium in 1997. \n\nOn October 7, 2003, the film was re-released on VHS and released on DVD for the first time, titled The Lion King: Platinum Edition, as part of Disney's Platinum Edition line of animated classic DVDs. The DVD release featured two versions of the film on the first disc, a remastered version created for the 2002 IMAX release and an edited version of the IMAX release purporting to be the original 1994 theatrical version. A second disc, with bonus features, was also included in the DVD release. The film's soundtrack was provided both in its original Dolby 5.1 track and in a new Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix, making this one of the first Disney DVDs so equipped. By means of seamless branching, the film could be viewed either with or without a newly created scene – a short conversation in the film replaced with a complete song (\"The Morning Report\"). A Special Collector's Gift Set was also released, containing the DVD set, five exclusive lithographed character portraits (new sketches created and signed by the original character animators), and an introductory book entitled The Journey. The Platinum Edition of The Lion King featured changes made to the film during its IMAX re-release, including re-drawn crocodiles in the \"I Just Can't Wait to Be King\" sequence as well as other alterations. More than two million copies of the Platinum Edition DVD and VHS units were sold on the first day of release. A DVD boxed set of the three The Lion King films (in two-disc Special Edition formats) was released on December 6, 2004. In January 2005, the film, along with the sequels, went back into moratorium. \n\nWalt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the Diamond Edition of The Lion King on October 4, 2011. This marks the time that the film has been released in high-definition Blu-ray and on Blu-ray 3D. The initial release was produced in three different packages: a two-disc version with Blu-ray and DVD; a four-disc version with Blu-ray, DVD, Blu-ray 3D, and digital copy; and an eight-disc box set that also includes the sequels The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride and The Lion King 1½. A standalone single-disc DVD release also followed on November 15, 2011. The Diamond Edition topped the Blu-ray charts with over 1.5 million copies sold. The film sold 3.83 million Blu-ray units in total, leading to a $101.14 million income. \n\nReception\n\nBox office\n\nThe Lion King earned $422,783,777 in North America and an $545,700,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $968,483,777. It is currently the 29th highest-grossing film, the sixth highest-grossing animated film of all time worldwide and the third highest-grossing film of Walt Disney Animation Studios (behind Frozen and Zootopia). The film was also the highest-grossing motion picture of 1994 worldwide. After its initial run, having earned $763.4 million, it ranked as the second-highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, behind Jurassic Park . It held the record for the highest-grossing animated feature film (in North America, outside North America, and worldwide) until it was surpassed by the computer animated Finding Nemo (2003), Shrek 2 (2004), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), and Toy Story 3 (2010) prior to the 2011 re-release. With the earnings of the 3D run, The Lion King surpassed all the aforementioned films but Toy Story 3 to rank as the second-highest-grossing animated film worldwide—later downgraded to sixth after Frozen (2013), Minions (2015), and Zootopia (2016)—and it remains the highest-grossing hand-drawn animated film. It is also the biggest animated movie of the last 50 years in terms of estimated attendance. \n\nOriginal theatrical run\n\nThe Lion King had a limited release in North America on June 15, 1994, playing in only two theaters, El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles and Radio City Music Hall in New York City. It still earned $1,586,753 across the weekend of June 17–19, standing at the tenth place of the box office ranking. The average of $793,377 per theater stands as the largest ever achieved during a weekend. The wide release followed on June 24, 1994, in 2,550 screens. The digital surround sound of the film led many of those theaters to implement Dolby Laboratories' newest sound systems. The Lion King grossed $40.9 million – which at the time was the fourth biggest opening weekend earning ever and the highest sum for a Disney film  – to top the weekend box office. It also earned a rare \"A+\" rating from CinemaScore. By the end of its theatrical run, in spring 1995, it had earned $312,855,561, being the second-highest-grossing 1994 film in North America behind Forrest Gump. Outside North America, it earned $455.8 million during its initial run, for a worldwide total of $768.6 million. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 74 million tickets in the US in its initial theatrical run. \n\nRe-releases\n\nIMAX and large-format\n\nThe film was re-issued on December 25, 2002 for IMAX and large-format theaters. Don Hahn explained that eight years after The Lion King got its original release, \"there was a whole new generation of kids who haven't really seen it, particularly on the big screen.\" Given the film had already been digitally archived during production, the restoration process was easier, while also providing many scenes with enhancements that covered up original deficiencies. An enhanced sound mix was also provided, to as Hahn explained, \"make the audience feel like they're in the middle of the movie.\" On its first weekend, The Lion King made $2.7 million from 66 locations, a $27,664 per theater average. This run ended with $15,686,215 on May 30, 2003. \n\n3D conversion\n\nIn 2011, The Lion King was converted to 3D for a two-week limited theatrical re-issue and subsequent 3D Blu-ray release. The film opened at the number one spot on Friday, September 16, 2011 with $8.9 million and finished the weekend with $30.2 million, ranking number one at the box office. This made The Lion King the first re-issue release to earn the number-one slot at the American weekend box office since the re-issue of Return of the Jedi in March 1997. The film also achieved the fourth-highest September opening weekend of all time. It held off very well on its second weekend, again earning first place at the box office with a 27 percent decline to $21.9 million. Most box-office observers had expected the film to fall about 50 percent in its second weekend and were also expecting Moneyball to be at first place. \n\nAfter its initial box-office success, many theaters decided to continue to show the film for more than two weeks, even though its 3D Blu-ray release was scheduled for two-and-a-half weeks after its theatrical release. In North America, the 3D re-release ended its run in theaters on January 12, 2012 with a gross $94,242,001. Outside North America, it earned $83,400,000. The successful 3D re-release of The Lion King made Disney and Pixar plan 3D theatrical re-releases of Beauty and the Beast, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., and The Little Mermaid during 2012 and 2013. However, none of the re-releases of the first three films achieved the enormous success of The Lion King 3D and theatrical re-release of the The Little Mermaid was ultimately cancelled. In 2012, Ray Subers of Box Office Mojo wrote that the reason why the 3D version of The Lion King succeeded was because, \"the notion of a 3D re-release was still fresh and exciting, and The Lion King (3D) felt timely given the movie's imminent Blu-ray release. Audiences have been hit with three 3D re-releases in the year since, meaning the novelty value has definitely worn off.\" \n\nCritical response \n\nThe Lion King was released to critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 91%, based on 113 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3 out of 10. It also ranked 56th on their \"Top 100 Animation Movies\". The site's critical consensus reads, \"Emotionally stirring, richly drawn, and beautifully animated, The Lion King stands tall within Disney's pantheon of classic family films.\" On Metacritic, the film has a score of 83 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating \"universal acclaim\". CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare \"A+\" grade.\n\nRoger Ebert gave it 3 1/2 out of 4-stars and called the film \"a superbly drawn animated feature\" and, in his print review wrote, \"The saga of Simba, which in its deeply buried origins owes something to Greek tragedy and certainly to Hamlet, is a learning experience as well as an entertainment.\" On the television program Siskel & Ebert, the film was praised but received a mixed reaction when compared to previous Disney films. Ebert and his partner Gene Siskel both gave the film a \"Thumbs Up\" but Siskel said that it was not as good as earlier films such as Beauty and the Beast and was \"a good film, not a great one\". Hal Hinson of The Washington Post called it \"an impressive, almost daunting achievement\" and felt that the film was \"spectacular in a manner that has nearly become commonplace with Disney's feature-length animations\", but was less enthusiastic toward the end of his review saying, \"Shakespearean in tone, epic in scope, it seems more appropriate for grown-ups than for kids. If truth be told, even for adults it is downright strange.\" \n\nOwen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly praised the film, writing that it \"has the resonance to stand not just as a terrific cartoon but as an emotionally pungent movie\". \nRolling Stone film critic Peter Travers praised the film and felt that it was \"a hugely entertaining blend of music, fun and eye-popping thrills, though it doesn't lack for heart\". James Berardinelli from ReelViews praised the film saying, \"With each new animated release, Disney seems to be expanding its already-broad horizons a little more. The Lion King is the most mature (in more than one sense) of these films, and there clearly has been a conscious effort to please adults as much as children. Happily, for those of us who generally stay far away from 'cartoons', they have succeeded.\" \n\nSome reviewers still had problems with the film's narrative. The staff of TV Guide wrote that while The Lion King was technically proficient and entertaining, it \"offers a less memorable song score than did the previous hits, and a hasty, unsatisfying dramatic resolution.\" The New Yorkers Terrence Rafferty considered that despite the good animation, the story felt like \"manipulat[ing] our responses at will\", as \"Between traumas, the movie serves up soothingly banal musical numbers and silly, rambunctious comedy\". \n\nAccolades\n\nThe Lion King received four Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. The film would go on to win two Golden Globes; for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Original Score, as well as two Academy Awards, for Best Original Score (Hans Zimmer) and Best Original Song with \"Can You Feel the Love Tonight\" by Elton John and Tim Rice. The songs \"Circle of Life\" and \"Hakuna Matata\" were also nominated. \"Can You Feel the Love Tonight\" also won the Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance. The Lion King also won Annie Awards for Best Animated Feature, Best Achievement in Voice Acting (for Jeremy Irons) and Best Individual Achievement for Story Contribution in the Field of Animation. \n\nAt the Saturn Awards, the film was nominated in two categories, Best Fantasy Film and Best Performance by a Younger Actor although it did not win in either category. The film also received two nominations at the British Academy Film Awards, for Best Sound as well as the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music although it lost in both categories to Speed and Backbeat respectively. The film received two BMI Film & TV Awards for Film Music and Most Performed Song with \"Can You Feel the Love Tonight.\" At the 1995 MTV Movie Awards the film received nominations for Best Villain and Best Song, though it lost in both categories. The Lion King won the Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie at the 1995 Kids' Choice Awards. \n\nIn 2008, The Lion King was ranked as the 319th greatest film ever made by Empire magazine, and in June 2011, TIME named it one of \"The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films\". In June 2008, the American Film Institute listed The Lion King as the fourth best film in the animation genre in its AFI's 10 Top 10 list, having previously put \"Hakuna Matata\" as 99th on its AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs ranking. \n\nControversies\n\nCertain elements of the film were considered to bear a resemblance to a 1960s Japanese anime television show, Jungle Emperor (known as Kimba the White Lion in the United States), with characters having similar analogues, and various individual scenes being similar in composition to the show. Matthew Broderick believed initially that he was in fact working on an American version of Kimba, since he was familiar with the Japanese original. However The Lion King director, Roger Allers, claimed he was unfamiliar with the show: Co-director Rob Minkoff also claimed he was unfamiliar with it \"I know for a fact that [\"Kimba\"] has never been discussed as long as I've been on the project... In my experience, if Disney becomes aware of anything like that, they say you will not do it. People are claiming copyright infringement all the time.\" He also stated that whenever a story is based in Africa, it is \"not unusual to have characters like a baboon, a bird or hyenas.\" Yoshihiro Shimizu, of Tezuka Productions, which created Kimba the White Lion, has refuted rumours that the studio was paid hush money by Disney but explains that they rejected urges from within the industry to sue because, \"we're a small, weak company. It wouldn't be worth it anyway ... Disney's lawyers are among the top twenty in the world!\" \n\nProtests were raised against one scene where it appears as if the word \"SEX\" might have been embedded into the dust flying in the sky when Simba flops down, which conservative activist Donald Wildmon asserted was a subliminal message intended to promote sexual promiscuity. One of the animators, Tom Sito, has stated that the letters spell \"SFX\" (a common abbreviation for \"special effects\"), not with an \"E\" instead of the \"F\", and were intended as an innocent \"signature\" created by the effects animation team. \n\nHyena biologists protested against the animal's portrayal: one hyena researcher sued Disney studios for defamation of character, and another—who had organized the animators' visit to the University of California's Field Station for Behavioural Research, where they would observe and sketch captive hyenas— included boycotting The Lion King among the ways it would help preserve hyenas in the wild. The hyenas have also been interpreted to represent an anti-immigrant allegory, where the hyenas would be black and Latino ethnic communities. The film has also been criticised for advancing a fascist narrative in its portrayal of the lion kingdom and the circle of life where \"only the strong and the beautiful triumph, and the powerless survive only by serving the strong.\" \n\nLegacy\n\nSequels and spin-offs\n\nThe first Lion King-related animated projects involved the characters of Timon and Pumbaa. First the duo starred in the animated short \"Stand by Me\", featuring Timon singing the eponymous song, which was released in 1995 accompanying the theatrical release of Tom and Huck. Then the duo received their own animated show, The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa, which ran for three seasons and 85 episodes between 1995 and 1999. Ernie Sabella continued to voice Pumbaa, while Timon was voiced by Quinton Flynn and Kevin Schon in addition to Nathan Lane. \n\nDisney released two direct-to-video films related to The Lion King. The first was sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, issued in 1998 on VHS. The film centers around Simba and Nala's daughter, Kiara, who falls in love with Kovu, a male lion who was raised in a pride of Scar's followers, the Outsiders. 2004 saw the release of another Lion King film on DVD, The Lion King 1½. It is a prequel in showing how Timon and Pumbaa met each other, and also a parallel in that it also depicts what the characters were retconned to have done during the events of the original movie. \n\nIn June 2014, it was announced that a new TV series based on the film would be released called The Lion Guard, featuring Kion, the second-born cub of Simba and Nala. It was first broadcast on Disney Channel as a television film titled The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar in November 2015 before airing as a series on Disney Junior in January 2016. \n\nVideo games\n\nAlong with the film release, three different video games based on The Lion King were released by Virgin Interactive in December 1994. The main title was developed by Westwood Studios, and published for PC and Amiga computers and the consoles SNES and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. Dark Technologies created the Game Boy version, while Syrox Developments handled the Master System and Game Gear version. The film and sequel Simba's Pride later inspired another game, Torus Games' The Lion King: Simba's Mighty Adventure (2000) for the Game Boy Color and PlayStation. Timon and Pumbaa also appeared in Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games, a 1995 PC game collection of puzzle games by 7th Level, later ported to the SNES by Tiertex. \n\nThe Square Enix series Kingdom Hearts features Simba as a recurring summon, as well as a playable in the Lion King world, known as Pride Lands, in Kingdom Hearts II. There the plotline is loosely related to the later part of the original film, with all of the main characters except Zazu and Sarabi. The Lion King also provides one of the worlds featured in the 2011 action-adventure game Disney Universe, and Simba was featured in the Nintendo DS title Disney Friends (2008). \n\nStage adaptations\n\nWalt Disney Theatrical produced a musical stage adaptation of the same name, which premiered in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1997, and later opened on Broadway in October 1997 at the New Amsterdam Theatre. The Lion King musical was directed by Julie Taymor and featured songs from both the movie and Rhythm of the Pride Lands, along with three new compositions by Elton John and Tim Rice. Mark Mancina did the musical arrangements and new orchestral tracks. The musical became one of the most successful in Broadway history, winning six Tony Awards including Best Musical, and despite moving to the Minskoff Theatre in 2006, is still running to this day in New York, becoming the third longest-running show and highest grossing Broadway production in history. The show's financial success led to adaptations all over the world. \n\nThe Lion King inspired two attractions retelling the story of the film at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. The first, \"The Legend of the Lion King\", featured a recreation of the film through life size puppets of its characters, and ran from 1994 to 2002 at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. Another that is still running is the live-action 30-minute musical revue of the movie, \"Festival of the Lion King\", which incorporates the musical numbers into gymnastic routines with live actors, along with animatronic puppets of Simba and Pumba and a costumed actor as Timon. The attraction opened in April 1998 at Disney World's Animal Kingdom, and in September 2005 in Hong Kong Disneyland's Adventureland. A similar version under the name \"The Legend of the Lion King\" was featured in Disneyland Paris from 2004 to 2009." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Alloy.txt", "Carbon.txt" ], "title": [ "Alloy", "Carbon" ], "wiki_context": [ "An alloy is a mixture of metals or a mixture of a metal and another element. Alloys are defined by metallic bonding character. An alloy may be a solid solution of metal elements (a single phase) or a mixture of metallic phases (two or more solutions). Intermetallic compounds are alloys with a defined stoichiometry and crystal structure. Zintl phases are also sometimes considered alloys depending on bond types (see also: Van Arkel-Ketelaar triangle for information on classifying bonding in binary compounds).\n\nAlloys are used in a wide variety of applications. In some cases, a combination of metals may reduce the overall cost of the material while preserving important properties. In other cases, the combination of metals imparts synergistic properties to the constituent metal elements such as corrosion resistance or mechanical strength. Examples of alloys are steel, solder, brass, pewter, duralumin, phosphor bronze and amalgams.\n\nThe alloy constituents are usually measured by mass. Alloys are usually classified as substitutional or interstitial alloys, depending on the atomic arrangement that forms the alloy. They can be further classified as homogeneous (consisting of a single phase), or heterogeneous (consisting of two or more phases) or intermetallic.\n\nIntroduction\n\nAn alloy is a mixture of either pure or fairly pure chemical elements, which forms an impure substance (admixture) that retains the characteristics of a metal. An alloy is distinct from an impure metal, such as wrought iron, in that, with an alloy, the added impurities are usually desirable and will typically have some useful benefit. Alloys are made by mixing two or more elements; at least one of which being a metal. This is usually called the primary metal or the base metal, and the name of this metal may also be the name of the alloy. The other constituents may or may not be metals but, when mixed with the molten base, they will be soluble, dissolving into the mixture.\n\nWhen the alloy cools and solidifies (crystallizes), its mechanical properties will often be quite different from those of its individual constituents. A metal that is normally very soft and malleable, such as aluminium, can be altered by alloying it with another soft metal, like copper. Although both metals are very soft and ductile, the resulting aluminium alloy will be much harder and stronger. Adding a small amount of non-metallic carbon to iron produces an alloy called steel. Due to its very-high strength and toughness (which is much higher than pure iron), and its ability to be greatly altered by heat treatment, steel is one of the most common alloys in modern use. By adding chromium to steel, its resistance to corrosion can be enhanced, creating stainless steel, while adding silicon will alter its electrical characteristics, producing silicon steel.\n\nAlthough the elements usually must be soluble in the liquid state, they may not always be soluble in the solid state. If the metals remain soluble when solid, the alloy forms a solid solution, becoming a homogeneous structure consisting of identical crystals, called a phase. If the mixture cools and the constituents become insoluble, they may separate to form two or more different types of crystals, creating a heterogeneous microstructure of different phases. However, in other alloys, the insoluble elements may not separate until after crystallization occurs. These alloys are called intermetallic alloys because, if cooled very quickly, they first crystallize as a homogeneous phase, but they are supersaturated with the secondary constituents. As time passes, the atoms of these supersaturated alloys separate within the crystals, forming intermetallic phases that serve to reinforce the crystals internally.\n\nSome alloys occur naturally, such as electrum, which is an alloy that is native to Earth, consisting of silver and gold. Meteorites are sometimes made of naturally occurring alloys of iron and nickel, but are not native to the Earth. One of the first alloys made by humans was bronze, which is made by mixing the metals tin and copper. Bronze was an extremely useful alloy to the ancients, because it is much stronger and harder than either of its components. Steel was another common alloy. However, in ancient times, it could only be created as an accidental byproduct from the heating of iron ore in fires (smelting) during the manufacture of iron. Other ancient alloys include pewter, brass and pig iron. In the modern age, steel can be created in many forms. Carbon steel can be made by varying only the carbon content, producing soft alloys like mild steel or hard alloys like spring steel. Alloy steels can be made by adding other elements, such as molybdenum, vanadium or nickel, resulting in alloys such as high-speed steel or tool steel. Small amounts of manganese are usually alloyed with most modern-steels because of its ability to remove unwanted impurities, like phosphorus, sulfur and oxygen, which can have detrimental effects on the alloy. However, most alloys were not created until the 1900s, such as various aluminium, titanium, nickel, and magnesium alloys. Some modern superalloys, such as incoloy, inconel, and hastelloy, may consist of a multitude of different components.\n\nTerminology\n\nThe term alloy is used to describe a mixture of atoms in which the primary constituent is a metal. The primary metal is called the base, the matrix, or the solvent. The secondary constituents are often called solutes. If there is a mixture of only two types of atoms, not counting impurities, such as a copper-nickel alloy, then it is called a binary alloy. If there are three types of atoms forming the mixture, such as iron, nickel and chromium, then it is called a ternary alloy. An alloy with four constituents is a quaternary alloy, while a five-part alloy is termed a quinary alloy. Because the percentage of each constituent can be varied, with any mixture the entire range of possible variations is called a system. In this respect, all of the various forms of an alloy containing only two constituents, like iron and carbon, is called a binary system, while all of the alloy combinations possible with a ternary alloy, such as alloys of iron, carbon and chromium, is called a ternary system. \n\nAlthough an alloy is technically an impure metal, when referring to alloys, the term \"impurities\" usually denotes those elements which are not desired. These impurities are often found in the base metals or the solutes, but they may also be introduced during the alloying process. For instance, sulfur is a common impurity in steel. Sulfur combines readily with iron to form iron sulfide, which is very brittle, creating weak spots in the steel. Lithium, sodium and calcium are common impurities in aluminium alloys, which can have adverse effects on the structural integrity of castings. Conversely, otherwise pure-metals that simply contain unwanted impurities are often called \"impure metals\" and are not usually referred to as alloys. Oxygen, present in the air, readily combines with most metals to form metal oxides; especially at higher temperatures encountered during alloying. Great care is often taken during the alloying process to remove excess impurities, using fluxes, chemical additives, or other methods of extractive metallurgy. \n\nIn practice, some alloys are used so predominantly with respect to their base metals that the name of the primary constituent is also used as the name of the alloy. For example, 14 karat gold is an alloy of gold with other elements. Similarly, the silver used in jewelry and the aluminium used as a structural building material are also alloys.\n\nThe term \"alloy\" is sometimes used in everyday speech as a synonym for a particular alloy. For example, automobile wheels made of an aluminium alloy are commonly referred to as simply \"alloy wheels\", although in point of fact steels and most other metals in practical use are also alloys. Steel is such a common alloy that many items made from it, like wheels, barrels, or girders, are simply referred to by the name of the item, assuming it is made of steel. When made from other materials, they are typically specified as such, (i.e.: \"bronze wheel\", \"plastic barrel\", or \"wood girder\").\n\nTheory\n\nAlloying a metal is done by combining it with one or more other metals or non-metals that often enhance its properties. For example, steel is stronger than iron, its primary element. The electrical and thermal conductivity of alloys is usually lower than that of the pure metals. The physical properties, such as density, reactivity, Young's modulus of an alloy may not differ greatly from those of its elements, but engineering properties such as tensile strength and shear strength may be substantially different from those of the constituent materials. This is sometimes a result of the sizes of the atoms in the alloy, because larger atoms exert a compressive force on neighboring atoms, and smaller atoms exert a tensile force on their neighbors, helping the alloy resist deformation. Sometimes alloys may exhibit marked differences in behavior even when small amounts of one element are present. For example, impurities in semiconducting ferromagnetic alloys lead to different properties, as first predicted by White, Hogan, Suhl, Tian Abrie and Nakamura. \nSome alloys are made by melting and mixing two or more metals. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, was the first alloy discovered, during the prehistoric period now known as the bronze age; it was harder than pure copper and originally used to make tools and weapons, but was later superseded by metals and alloys with better properties. In later times bronze has been used for ornaments, bells, statues, and bearings. Brass is an alloy made from copper and zinc.\n\nUnlike pure metals, most alloys do not have a single melting point, but a melting range in which the material is a mixture of solid and liquid phases. The temperature at which melting begins is called the solidus, and the temperature when melting is just complete is called the liquidus. However, for many alloys there is a particular proportion of constituents (in some cases more than one)—either a eutectic mixture or a peritectic composition—which gives the alloy a unique melting point.\n\nHeat-treatable alloys\n\nAlloys are often made to alter the mechanical properties of the base metal, to induce hardness, toughness, ductility, or other desired properties. Most metals and alloys can be work hardened by creating defects in their crystal structure. These defects are created during plastic deformation, such as hammering or bending, and are permanent unless the metal is recrystallized. However, some alloys can also have their properties altered by heat treatment. Nearly all metals can be softened by annealing, which recrystallizes the alloy and repairs the defects, but not as many can be hardened by controlled heating and cooling. Many alloys of aluminium, copper, magnesium, titanium, and nickel can be strengthened to some degree by some method of heat treatment, but few respond to this to the same degree that steel does.\n\nAt a certain temperature, (usually between 1500 F and 1600 F, depending on carbon content), the base metal of steel undergoes a change in the arrangement of the atoms in its crystal matrix, called allotropy. This allows the small carbon atoms to enter the interstices of the iron crystal, diffusing into the iron matrix. When this happens, the carbon atoms are said to be in solution, or mixed with the iron, forming a single, homogeneous, crystalline phase called austenite. If the steel is cooled slowly, the iron will gradually change into its low temperature allotrope. When this happens the carbon atoms will no longer be soluble with the iron, and will be forced to precipitate out of solution, nucleating into the spaces between the crystals. The steel then becomes heterogeneous, being formed of two phases; the carbon (carbide) phase cementite, and ferrite. This type of heat treatment produces steel that is rather soft and bendable. However, if the steel is cooled quickly the carbon atoms will not have time to precipitate. When rapidly cooled, a diffusionless (martensite) transformation occurs, in which the carbon atoms become trapped in solution. This causes the iron crystals to deform intrinsically when the crystal structure tries to change to its low temperature state, making it very hard and brittle.\n\nConversely, most heat-treatable alloys are precipitation hardening alloys, which produce the opposite effects that steel does. When heated to form a solution and then cooled quickly, these alloys become much softer than normal, during the diffusionless transformation, and then harden as they age. The solutes in these alloys will precipitate over time, forming intermetallic phases, which are difficult to discern from the base metal. Unlike steel, in which the solid solution separates to form different crystal phases, precipitation hardening alloys separate to form different phases within the same crystal. These intermetallic alloys appear homogeneous in crystal structure, but tend to behave heterogeneous, becoming hard and somewhat brittle.\n\nSubstitutional and interstitial alloys\n\nWhen a molten metal is mixed with another substance, there are two mechanisms that can cause an alloy to form, called atom exchange and the interstitial mechanism. The relative size of each element in the mix plays a primary role in determining which mechanism will occur. When the atoms are relatively similar in size, the atom exchange method usually happens, where some of the atoms composing the metallic crystals are substituted with atoms of the other constituent. This is called a substitutional alloy. Examples of substitutional alloys include bronze and brass, in which some of the copper atoms are substituted with either tin or zinc atoms. With the interstitial mechanism, one atom is usually much smaller than the other, so cannot successfully replace an atom in the crystals of the base metal. The smaller atoms become trapped in the spaces between the atoms in the crystal matrix, called the interstices. This is referred to as an interstitial alloy. Steel is an example of an interstitial alloy, because the very small carbon atoms fit into interstices of the iron matrix. Stainless steel is an example of a combination of interstitial and substitutional alloys, because the carbon atoms fit into the interstices, but some of the iron atoms are replaced with nickel and chromium atoms. \n\nHistory and examples\n\nMeteoric iron\n\nThe use of alloys by humans started with the use of meteoric iron, a naturally occurring alloy of nickel and iron. It is the main constituent of iron meteorites which occasionally fall down on Earth from outer space. As no metallurgic processes were used to separate iron from nickel, the alloy was used as it was. Meteoric iron could be forged from a red heat to make objects such as tools, weapons, and nails. In many cultures it was shaped by cold hammering into knives and arrowheads. They were often used as anvils. Meteoric iron was very rare and valuable, and difficult for ancient people to work. \n\nBronze and brass\n\nIron is usually found as iron ore on Earth, except for one deposit of native iron in Greenland, which was used by the Inuit people. Native copper, however, was found worldwide, along with silver, gold and platinum, which were also used to make tools, jewelry, and other objects since Neolithic times. Copper was the hardest of these metals, and the most widely distributed. It became one of the most important metals to the ancients. Eventually, humans learned to smelt metals such as copper and tin from ore, and, around 2500 BC, began alloying the two metals to form bronze, which is much harder than its ingredients. Tin was rare, however, being found mostly in Great Britain. In the Middle East, people began alloying copper with zinc to form brass. Ancient civilizations took into account the mixture and the various properties it produced, such as hardness, toughness and melting point, under various conditions of temperature and work hardening, developing much of the information contained in modern alloy phase diagrams. Arrowheads from the Chinese Qin dynasty (around 200 BC) were often constructed with a hard bronze-head, but a softer bronze-tang, combining the alloys to prevent both dulling and breaking during use. \n\nAmalgams\n\nMercury has been smelted from cinnabar for thousands of years. Mercury dissolves many metals, such as gold, silver, and tin, to form amalgams (an alloy in a soft paste, or liquid form at ambient temperature). Amalgams have been used since 200 BC in China for plating objects with precious metals, called gilding, such as armor and mirrors. The ancient Romans often used mercury-tin amalgams for gilding their armor. The amalgam was applied as a paste and then heated until the mercury vaporized, leaving the gold, silver, or tin behind. Mercury was often used in mining, to extract precious metals like gold and silver from their ores. \n\nPrecious-metal alloys\n\nMany ancient civilizations alloyed metals for purely aesthetic purposes. In ancient Egypt and Mycenae, gold was often alloyed with copper to produce red-gold, or iron to produce a bright burgundy-gold. Gold was often found alloyed with silver or other metals to produce various types of colored gold. These metals were also used to strengthen each other, for more practical purposes. Copper was often added to silver to make sterling silver, increasing its strength for use in dishes, silverware, and other practical items. Quite often, precious metals were alloyed with less valuable substances as a means to deceive buyers. Around 250 BC, Archimedes was commissioned by the king to find a way to check the purity of the gold in a crown, leading to the famous bath-house shouting of \"Eureka!\" upon the discovery of Archimedes' principle. \n\nPewter\n\nThe term pewter covers a variety of alloys consisting primarily of tin. As a pure metal, tin was much too soft to be used for any practical purpose. However, in the Bronze age, tin was a rare metal and, in many parts of Europe and the Mediterranean, was often valued higher than gold. To make jewelry, forks and spoons, or other objects from tin, it was usually alloyed with other metals to increase its strength and hardness. These metals were typically lead, antimony, bismuth or copper. These solutes sometimes were added individually in varying amounts, or added together, making a wide variety of things, ranging from practical items, like dishes, surgical tools, candlesticks or funnels, to decorative items such as ear rings and hair clips.\n\nThe earliest examples of pewter come from ancient Egypt, around 1450 BC. The use of pewter was widespread across Europe, from France to Norway and Britain (where most of the ancient tin was mined) to the Near East. The alloy was also used in China and the Far East, arriving in Japan around 800 AD, where it was used for making objects like ceremonial vessels, tea canisters, or chalices used in shinto shrines. \n\nSteel and pig iron\n\nThe first known smelting of iron began in Anatolia, around 1800 BC. Called the bloomery process, it produced very soft but ductile wrought iron. By 800 BC, iron-making technology had spread to Europe, arriving in Japan around 700 AD. Pig iron, a very hard but brittle alloy of iron and carbon, was being produced in China as early as 1200 BC, but did not arrive in Europe until the Middle Ages. Pig iron has a lower melting point than iron, and was used for making cast-iron. However, these metals found little practical use until the introduction of crucible steel around 300 BC. These steels were of poor quality, and the introduction of pattern welding, around the 1st century AD, sought to balance the extreme properties of the alloys by laminating them, to create a tougher metal. Around 700 AD, the Japanese began folding bloomery-steel and cast-iron in alternating layers to increase the strength of their swords, using clay fluxes to remove slag and impurities. This method of Japanese swordsmithing produced one of the purest steel-alloys of the early Middle Ages.Smith, Cyril (1960) History of metallography. MIT Press. pp. 2–4. ISBN 0-262-69120-5.\n\nWhile the use of iron started to become more widespread around 1200 BC, mainly because of interruptions in the trade routes for tin, the metal is much softer than bronze. However, very small amounts of steel, (an alloy of iron and around 1% carbon), was always a byproduct of the bloomery process. The ability to modify the hardness of steel by heat treatment had been known since 1100 BC, and the rare material was valued for the manufacture of tools and weapons. Because the ancients could not produce temperatures high enough to melt iron fully, the production of steel in decent quantities did not occur until the introduction of blister steel during the Middle Ages. This method introduced carbon by heating wrought iron in charcoal for long periods of time, but the penetration of carbon was not very deep, so the alloy was not homogeneous. In 1740, Benjamin Huntsman began melting blister steel in a crucible to even out the carbon content, creating the first process for the mass production of tool steel. Huntsman's process was used for manufacturing tool steel until the early 1900s. \n\nWith the introduction of the blast furnace to Europe in the Middle Ages, pig iron was able to be produced in much higher volumes than wrought iron. Because pig iron could be melted, people began to develop processes of reducing the carbon in the liquid pig iron to create steel. Puddling was introduced during the 1700s, where molten pig iron was stirred while exposed to the air, to remove the carbon by oxidation. In 1858, Sir Henry Bessemer developed a process of steel-making by blowing hot air through liquid pig iron to reduce the carbon content. The Bessemer process was able to produce the first large scale manufacture of steel. Once the Bessemer process began to gain widespread use, other alloys of steel began to follow. Mangalloy, an alloy of steel and manganese exhibiting extreme hardness and toughness, was one of the first alloy steels, and was created by Robert Hadfield in 1882. \n\nPrecipitation-hardening alloys\n\nIn 1906, precipitation hardening alloys were discovered by Alfred Wilm. Precipitation hardening alloys, such as certain alloys of aluminium, titanium, and copper, are heat-treatable alloys that soften when quenched (cooled quickly), and then harden over time. After quenching a ternary alloy of aluminium, copper, and magnesium, Wilm discovered that the alloy increased in hardness when left to age at room temperature. Although an explanation for the phenomenon was not provided until 1919, duralumin was one of the first \"age hardening\" alloys to be used, and was soon followed by many others. Because they often exhibit a combination of high strength and low weight, these alloys became widely used in many forms of industry, including the construction of modern aircraft.", "Carbon (from \"coal\") is a chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. On the periodic table, it is the first (row 2) of six elements in column (group) 14, which have in common the composition of their outer electron shell. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. Three isotopes occur naturally, C and C being stable while C is radioactive, decaying with a half-life of about 5,730 years. Carbon is one of the few elements known since antiquity.\n\nCarbon is the 15th most abundant element in the Earth's crust, and the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. Carbon's abundance, its unique diversity of organic compounds, and its unusual ability to form polymers at the temperatures commonly encountered on Earth enables this element to serve as a common element of all known life. It is the second most abundant element in the human body by mass (about 18.5%) after oxygen. \n\nThe atoms of carbon can be bonded together in different ways, termed allotropes of carbon. The best known are graphite, diamond, and amorphous carbon. The physical properties of carbon vary widely with the allotropic form. For example, graphite is opaque and black while diamond is highly transparent. Graphite is soft enough to form a streak on paper (hence its name, from the Greek verb \"γράφειν\" which means \"to write\"), while diamond is the hardest naturally-occurring material known. Graphite is a good electrical conductor while diamond has a low electrical conductivity. Under normal conditions, diamond, carbon nanotubes, and graphene have the highest thermal conductivities of all known materials. All carbon allotropes are solids under normal conditions, with graphite being the most thermodynamically stable form. They are chemically resistant and require high temperature to react even with oxygen.\n\nThe most common oxidation state of carbon in inorganic compounds is +4, while +2 is found in carbon monoxide and transition metal carbonyl complexes. The largest sources of inorganic carbon are limestones, dolomites and carbon dioxide, but significant quantities occur in organic deposits of coal, peat, oil, and methane clathrates. Carbon forms a vast number of compounds, more than any other element, with almost ten million compounds described to date, and yet that number is but a fraction of the number of theoretically possible compounds under standard conditions.\n\nCharacteristics\n\nThe allotropes of carbon (see below) includes graphite, one of the softest known substances, and diamond, the hardest naturally occurring substance. It bonds readily with other small atoms including other carbon atoms, and is capable of forming multiple stable covalent bonds with such atoms. Carbon is known to form almost ten million different compounds, a large majority of all chemical compounds. Carbon also has the highest sublimation point of all elements. At atmospheric pressure it has no melting point as its triple point is at 10.8 ± 0.2 MPa and 4,600 ± 300 K (~4,330 °C or 7,820 °F), so it sublimes at about 3,900 K. \n\nCarbon sublimes in a carbon arc which has a temperature of about 5,800 K (5,530 °C; 9,980 °F). Thus, irrespective of its allotropic form, carbon remains solid at higher temperatures than the highest melting point metals such as tungsten or rhenium. Although thermodynamically prone to oxidation, carbon resists oxidation more effectively than elements such as iron and copper that are weaker reducing agents at room temperature.\n\nCarbon compounds form the basis of all known life on Earth, and the carbon-nitrogen cycle provides some of the energy produced by the Sun and other stars. Although it forms an extraordinary variety of compounds, most forms of carbon are comparatively unreactive under normal conditions. At standard temperature and pressure, it resists all but the strongest oxidizers. It does not react with sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, chlorine or any alkalis. At elevated temperatures, carbon reacts with oxygen to form carbon oxides, and will rob oxygen from metal oxides to leave the elemental metal. This exothermic reaction is used in the iron and steel industry to smelt iron and to control the carbon content of steel:\n\n+ 4 C → 3 Fe + 4 CO\n\nwith sulfur to form carbon disulfide and with steam in the coal-gas reaction:\nC + HO → CO + H.\nCarbon combines with some metals at high temperatures to form metallic carbides, such as the iron carbide cementite in steel, and tungsten carbide, widely used as an abrasive and for making hard tips for cutting tools.\n\nAs of 2009, graphene appears to be the strongest material ever tested. The process of separating it from graphite will require some further technological development before it is economical for industrial processes. \n\nThe system of carbon allotropes spans a range of extremes:\n\nAllotropes\n\nAtomic carbon is a very short-lived species and, therefore, carbon is stabilized in various multi-atomic structures with different molecular configurations called allotropes. The three relatively well-known allotropes of carbon are amorphous carbon, graphite, and diamond. Once considered exotic, fullerenes are nowadays commonly synthesized and used in research; they include buckyballs, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanobuds and nanofibers. Several other exotic allotropes have also been discovered, such as lonsdaleite (questionable), glassy carbon, carbon nanofoam and linear acetylenic carbon (carbyne).\n\nThe amorphous form is an assortment of carbon atoms in a non-crystalline, irregular, glassy state, which is essentially graphite but not held in a crystalline macrostructure. It is present as a powder, and is the main constituent of substances such as charcoal, lampblack (soot) and activated carbon. At normal pressures, carbon takes the form of graphite, in which each atom is bonded trigonally to three others in a plane composed of fused hexagonal rings, just like those in aromatic hydrocarbons. The resulting network is 2-dimensional, and the resulting flat sheets are stacked and loosely bonded through weak van der Waals forces. This gives graphite its softness and its cleaving properties (the sheets slip easily past one another). Because of the delocalization of one of the outer electrons of each atom to form a π-cloud, graphite conducts electricity, but only in the plane of each covalently bonded sheet. This results in a lower bulk electrical conductivity for carbon than for most metals. The delocalization also accounts for the energetic stability of graphite over diamond at room temperature.\n\nAt very high pressures, carbon forms the more compact allotrope, diamond, having nearly twice the density of graphite. Here, each atom is bonded tetrahedrally to four others, forming a 3-dimensional network of puckered six-membered rings of atoms. Diamond has the same cubic structure as silicon and germanium, and because of the strength of the carbon-carbon bonds, it is the hardest naturally occurring substance measured by resistance to scratching. Contrary to the popular belief that \"diamonds are forever\", they are thermodynamically unstable under normal conditions and transform into graphite. Due to a high activation energy barrier, the transition into graphite is so slow at normal temperature that it is unnoticeable. Under some conditions, carbon crystallizes as lonsdaleite, a hexagonal crystal lattice with all atoms covalently bonded and properties similar to those of diamond.\n\nFullerenes are a synthetic crystalline formation with a graphite-like structure, but in place of hexagons, fullerenes are formed of pentagons (or even heptagons) of carbon atoms. The missing (or additional) atoms warp the sheets into spheres, ellipses, or cylinders. The properties of fullerenes (split into buckyballs, buckytubes, and nanobuds) have not yet been fully analyzed and represent an intense area of research in nanomaterials. The names \"fullerene\" and \"buckyball\" are given after Richard Buckminster Fuller, popularizer of geodesic domes, which resemble the structure of fullerenes. The buckyballs are fairly large molecules formed completely of carbon bonded trigonally, forming spheroids (the best-known and simplest is the soccerball-shaped C buckminsterfullerene). Carbon nanotubes are structurally similar to buckyballs, except that each atom is bonded trigonally in a curved sheet that forms a hollow cylinder. Nanobuds were first reported in 2007 and are hybrid bucky tube/buckyball materials (buckyballs are covalently bonded to the outer wall of a nanotube) that combine the properties of both in a single structure.\n\nOf the other discovered allotropes, carbon nanofoam is a ferromagnetic allotrope discovered in 1997. It consists of a low-density cluster-assembly of carbon atoms strung together in a loose three-dimensional web, in which the atoms are bonded trigonally in six- and seven-membered rings. It is among the lightest known solids, with a density of about 2 kg/m. Similarly, glassy carbon contains a high proportion of closed porosity, but contrary to normal graphite, the graphitic layers are not stacked like pages in a book, but have a more random arrangement. Linear acetylenic carbon has the chemical structure -(C:::C)-. Carbon in this modification is linear with sp orbital hybridization, and is a polymer with alternating single and triple bonds. This carbyne is of considerable interest to nanotechnology as its Young's modulus is forty times that of the hardest known material – diamond. \n\nIn 2015, a team at the North Carolina State University announced the development of another allotrope they have dubbed Q-carbon, created by a high energy low duration laser pulse on amorphous carbon dust. Q-carbon is reported to exhibit ferromagetism, fluorescence, and a hardness superior to diamonds. \n\nOccurrence\n\nCarbon is the fourth most abundant chemical element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. Carbon is abundant in the Sun, stars, comets, and in the atmospheres of most planets. Some meteorites contain microscopic diamonds that were formed when the solar system was still a protoplanetary disk. Microscopic diamonds may also be formed by the intense pressure and high temperature at the sites of meteorite impacts. \n\nIn 2014 NASA announced a [http://www.astrochem.org/pahdb/ greatly upgraded database] for tracking polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the universe. More than 20% of the carbon in the universe may be associated with PAHs, complex compounds of carbon and hydrogen without oxygen. These compounds figure in the PAH world hypothesis where they are hypothesized to have a role in abiogenesis and formation of life. PAHs seem to have been formed \"a couple of billion years\" after the Big Bang, are widespread throughout the universe, and are associated with new stars and exoplanets. \n\nIt has been estimated that the solid earth as a whole contains 730 ppm of carbon, with 2000 ppm in the core and 120 ppm in the combined mantle and crust. Since the mass of the earth is , this would imply 4360 million gigatonnes of carbon. This is much more than the amount of carbon in the oceans or atmosphere (below).\n\nIn combination with oxygen in carbon dioxide, carbon is found in the Earth's atmosphere (approximately 810 gigatonnes of carbon) and dissolved in all water bodies (approximately 36,000 gigatonnes of carbon). Around 1,900 gigatonnes of carbon are present in the biosphere. Hydrocarbons (such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas) contain carbon as well. Coal \"reserves\" (not \"resources\") amount to around 900 gigatonnes with perhaps 18 000 Gt of resources. Oil reserves are around 150 gigatonnes. Proven sources of natural gas are about 175 10 cubic metres (containing about 105 gigatonnes of carbon), but studies estimate another 900 10 cubic metres of \"unconventional\" deposits such as shale gas, representing about 540 gigatonnes of carbon. \n\nCarbon is also found in methane hydrates in polar regions and under the seas. Various estimates put this carbon between 500, 2500 Gt, or 3000 Gt. \n\nIn the past, quantities of hydrocarbons were greater. According to one source, in the period from 1751 to 2008 about 347 gigatonnes of carbon were released as carbon dioxide to the atmosphere from burning of fossil fuels. Another source puts the amount added to the atmosphere for the period since 1750 at 879 Gt, and the total going to the atmosphere, sea, and land (such as peat bogs) at almost 2000 Gt. \n\nCarbon is a constituent (about 12% by mass) of the very large masses of carbonate rock (limestone, dolomite, marble and so on). Coal is very rich in carbon (anthracite contains 92–98%) and is the largest commercial source of mineral carbon, accounting for 4,000 gigatonnes or 80% of fossil fuel. \n\nAs for individual carbon allotropes, graphite is found in large quantities in the United States (mostly in New York and Texas), Russia, Mexico, Greenland, and India. Natural diamonds occur in the rock kimberlite, found in ancient volcanic \"necks\", or \"pipes\". Most diamond deposits are in Africa, notably in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, the Republic of the Congo, and Sierra Leone. Diamond deposits have also been found in Arkansas, Canada, the Russian Arctic, Brazil, and in Northern and Western Australia. Diamonds are now also being recovered from the ocean floor off the Cape of Good Hope. Diamonds are found naturally, but about 30% of all industrial diamonds used in the U.S. are now manufactured.\n\nCarbon-14 is formed in upper layers of the troposphere and the stratosphere at altitudes of 9–15 km by a reaction that is precipitated by cosmic rays. Thermal neutrons are produced that collide with the nuclei of nitrogen-14, forming carbon-14 and a proton.\n\nCarbon-rich asteroids are relatively preponderant in the outer parts of the asteroid belt in our solar system. These asteroids have not yet been directly sampled by scientists. The asteroids can be used in hypothetical space-based carbon mining, which may be possible in the future, but is currently technologically impossible. \n\nIsotopes\n\nIsotopes of carbon are atomic nuclei that contain six protons plus a number of neutrons (varying from 2 to 16). Carbon has two stable, naturally occurring isotopes. The isotope carbon-12 (C) forms 98.93% of the carbon on Earth, while carbon-13 (C) forms the remaining 1.07%. The concentration of C is further increased in biological materials because biochemical reactions discriminate against C. In 1961, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) adopted the isotope carbon-12 as the basis for atomic weights. Identification of carbon in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments is done with the isotope C.\n\nCarbon-14 (C) is a naturally occurring radioisotope, created in the upper atmosphere (lower stratosphere and upper troposphere) by interaction of nitrogen with cosmic rays. It is found in trace amounts on Earth of up to 1 part per trillion (0.0000000001%), mostly confined to the atmosphere and superficial deposits, particularly of peat and other organic materials. This isotope decays by 0.158 MeV β emission. Because of its relatively short half-life of 5730 years, C is virtually absent in ancient rocks. The amount of C in the atmosphere and in living organisms is almost constant, but decreases predictably in their bodies after death. This principle is used in radiocarbon dating, invented in 1949, which has been used extensively to determine the age of carbonaceous materials with ages up to about 40,000 years. \n\nThere are 15 known isotopes of carbon and the shortest-lived of these is C which decays through proton emission and alpha decay and has a half-life of 1.98739x10 s. The exotic C exhibits a nuclear halo, which means its radius is appreciably larger than would be expected if the nucleus were a sphere of constant density. \n\nFormation in stars\n\nFormation of the carbon atomic nucleus requires a nearly simultaneous triple collision of alpha particles (helium nuclei) within the core of a giant or supergiant star which is known as the triple-alpha process, as the products of further nuclear fusion reactions of helium with hydrogen or another helium nucleus produce lithium-5 and beryllium-8 respectively, both of which are highly unstable and decay almost instantly back into smaller nuclei. This happens in conditions of temperatures over 100 megakelvin and helium concentration that the rapid expansion and cooling of the early universe prohibited, and therefore no significant carbon was created during the Big Bang.\n\nAccording to current physical cosmology theory, carbon is formed in the interiors of stars in the horizontal branch by the collision and transformation of three helium nuclei. When those stars die as supernova, the carbon is scattered into space as dust. This dust becomes component material for the formation of second or third-generation star systems with accreted planets. The Solar System is one such star system with an abundance of carbon, enabling the existence of life as we know it.\n\nThe CNO cycle is an additional fusion mechanisms that powers stars, wherein carbon operates as a catalyst.\n\nRotational transitions of various isotopic forms of carbon monoxide (for example, CO, CO, and CO) are detectable in the submillimeter wavelength range, and are used in the study of newly forming stars in molecular clouds. \n\nCarbon cycle\n\nUnder terrestrial conditions, conversion of one element to another is very rare. Therefore, the amount of carbon on Earth is effectively constant. Thus, processes that use carbon must obtain it from somewhere and dispose of it somewhere else. The paths of carbon in the environment form the carbon cycle. For example, photosynthetic plants draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (or seawater) and build it into biomass, as in the Calvin cycle, a process of carbon fixation. Some of this biomass is eaten by animals, while some carbon is exhaled by animals as carbon dioxide. The carbon cycle is considerably more complicated than this short loop; for example, some carbon dioxide is dissolved in the oceans; if bacteria do not consume it, dead plant or animal matter may become petroleum or coal, which releases carbon when burned. \n\nCompounds\n\nOrganic compounds\n\nCarbon can form very long chains of interconnecting C-C bonds, a property that is called catenation. Carbon-carbon bonds are strong and stable. Through catenation, carbon forms a countless number of compounds. A tally of unique compounds shows that more contain carbon that those that do not. A similar claim can be made for hydrogen because most organic compounds also contain hydrogen.\n\nThe simplest form of an organic molecule is the hydrocarbon—a large family of organic molecules that are composed of hydrogen atoms bonded to a chain of carbon atoms. Chain length, side chains and functional groups all affect the properties of organic molecules.\n\nCarbon occurs in all known organic life and is the basis of organic chemistry. When united with hydrogen, it forms various hydrocarbons that are important to industry as refrigerants, lubricants, solvents, as chemical feedstock for the manufacture of plastics and petrochemicals, and as fossil fuels.\n\nWhen combined with oxygen and hydrogen, carbon can form many groups of important biological compounds including sugars, lignans, chitins, alcohols, fats, and aromatic esters, carotenoids and terpenes. With nitrogen it forms alkaloids, and with the addition of sulfur also it forms antibiotics, amino acids, and rubber products. With the addition of phosphorus to these other elements, it forms DNA and RNA, the chemical-code carriers of life, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the most important energy-transfer molecule in all living cells.\n\nInorganic compounds\n\nCommonly carbon-containing compounds which are associated with minerals or which do not contain hydrogen or fluorine, are treated separately from classical organic compounds; the definition is not rigid (see reference articles above). Among these are the simple oxides of carbon. The most prominent oxide is carbon dioxide (). This was once the principal constituent of the paleoatmosphere, but is a minor component of the Earth's atmosphere today. Dissolved in water, it forms carbonic acid (), but as most compounds with multiple single-bonded oxygens on a single carbon it is unstable. Through this intermediate, though, resonance-stabilized carbonate ions are produced. Some important minerals are carbonates, notably calcite. Carbon disulfide () is similar.\n\nThe other common oxide is carbon monoxide (CO). It is formed by incomplete combustion, and is a colorless, odorless gas. The molecules each contain a triple bond and are fairly polar, resulting in a tendency to bind permanently to hemoglobin molecules, displacing oxygen, which has a lower binding affinity. Cyanide (CN), has a similar structure, but behaves much like a halide ion (pseudohalogen). For example, it can form the nitride cyanogen molecule ((CN)), similar to diatomic halides. Other uncommon oxides are carbon suboxide (), the unstable dicarbon monoxide (CO), carbon trioxide (CO), cyclopentanepentone (CO) cyclohexanehexone (CO), and mellitic anhydride (CO).\n\nWith reactive metals, such as tungsten, carbon forms either carbides (C), or acetylides () to form alloys with high melting points. These anions are also associated with methane and acetylene, both very weak acids. With an electronegativity of 2.5, carbon prefers to form covalent bonds. A few carbides are covalent lattices, like carborundum (SiC), which resembles diamond.\n\nOrganometallic compounds\n\nOrganometallic compounds by definition contain at least one carbon-metal bond. A wide range of such compounds exist; major classes include simple alkyl-metal compounds (for example, tetraethyllead), η-alkene compounds (for example, Zeise's salt), and η-allyl compounds (for example, allylpalladium chloride dimer); metallocenes containing cyclopentadienyl ligands (for example, ferrocene); and transition metal carbene complexes. Many metal carbonyls exist (for example, tetracarbonylnickel); some workers consider the carbon monoxide ligand to be purely inorganic, and not organometallic.\n\nWhile carbon is understood to exclusively form four bonds, an interesting compound containing an octahedral hexacoordinated carbon atom has been reported. The cation of the compound is [(PhPAu)C]. This phenomenon has been attributed to the aurophilicity of the gold ligands. \n\nHistory and etymology\n\nThe English name carbon comes from the Latin carbo for coal and charcoal, whence also comes the French charbon, meaning charcoal. In German, Dutch and Danish, the names for carbon are Kohlenstoff, koolstof and kulstof respectively, all literally meaning coal-substance.\n\nCarbon was discovered in prehistory and was known in the forms of soot and charcoal to the earliest human civilizations. Diamonds were known probably as early as 2500 BCE in China, while carbon in the form of charcoal was made around Roman times by the same chemistry as it is today, by heating wood in a pyramid covered with clay to exclude air. \n\nIn 1722, René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur demonstrated that iron was transformed into steel through the absorption of some substance, now known to be carbon. In 1772, Antoine Lavoisier showed that diamonds are a form of carbon; when he burned samples of charcoal and diamond and found that neither produced any water and that both released the same amount of carbon dioxide per gram.\nIn 1779, Carl Wilhelm Scheele showed that graphite, which had been thought of as a form of lead, was instead identical with charcoal but with a small admixture of iron, and that it gave \"aerial acid\" (his name for carbon dioxide) when oxidized with nitric acid. In 1786, the French scientists Claude Louis Berthollet, Gaspard Monge and C. A. Vandermonde confirmed that graphite was mostly carbon by oxidizing it in oxygen in much the same way Lavoisier had done with diamond. Some iron again was left, which the French scientists thought was necessary to the graphite structure. In their publication they proposed the name carbone (Latin carbonum) for the element in graphite which was given off as a gas upon burning graphite. Antoine Lavoisier then listed carbon as an element in his 1789 textbook. \n\nA new allotrope of carbon, fullerene, that was discovered in 1985 includes nanostructured forms such as buckyballs and nanotubes. Their discoverers – Robert Curl, Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley – received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996. The resulting renewed interest in new forms lead to the discovery of further exotic allotropes, including glassy carbon, and the realization that \"amorphous carbon\" is not strictly amorphous. \n\nProduction\n\nGraphite\n\nCommercially viable natural deposits of graphite occur in many parts of the world, but the most important sources economically are in China, India, Brazil and North Korea. Graphite deposits are of metamorphic origin, found in association with quartz, mica and feldspars in schists, gneisses and metamorphosed sandstones and limestone as lenses or veins, sometimes of a metre or more in thickness. Deposits of graphite in Borrowdale, Cumberland, England were at first of sufficient size and purity that, until the 19th century, pencils were made simply by sawing blocks of natural graphite into strips before encasing the strips in wood. Today, smaller deposits of graphite are obtained by crushing the parent rock and floating the lighter graphite out on water.[http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/graphite USGS Minerals Yearbook: Graphite, 2009] and Graphite: Mineral Commodity Summaries 2011\n\nThere are three types of natural graphite—amorphous, flake or crystalline flake, and vein or lump. Amorphous graphite is the lowest quality and most abundant. Contrary to science, in industry \"amorphous\" refers to very small crystal size rather than complete lack of crystal structure. Amorphous is used for lower value graphite products and is the lowest priced graphite. Large amorphous graphite deposits are found in China, Europe, Mexico and the United States. Flake graphite is less common and of higher quality than amorphous; it occurs as separate plates that crystallized in metamorphic rock. Flake graphite can be four times the price of amorphous. Good quality flakes can be processed into expandable graphite for many uses, such as flame retardants. The foremost deposits are found in Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany and Madagascar. Vein or lump graphite is the rarest, most valuable, and highest quality type of natural graphite. It occurs in veins along intrusive contacts in solid lumps, and it is only commercially mined in Sri Lanka.\n\nAccording to the USGS, world production of natural graphite was 1.1 million tonnes in 2010, to which China contributed 800,000 t, India 130,000 t, Brazil 76,000 t, North Korea 30,000 t and Canada 25,000 t. No natural graphite was reported mined in the United States, but 118,000 t of synthetic graphite with an estimated value of $998 million was produced in 2009.\n\nDiamond\n\nThe diamond supply chain is controlled by a limited number of powerful businesses, and is also highly concentrated in a small number of locations around the world (see figure).\n\nOnly a very small fraction of the diamond ore consists of actual diamonds. The ore is crushed, during which care has to be taken in order to prevent larger diamonds from being destroyed in this process and subsequently the particles are sorted by density. Today, diamonds are located in the diamond-rich density fraction with the help of X-ray fluorescence, after which the final sorting steps are done by hand. Before the use of X-rays became commonplace, the separation was done with grease belts; diamonds have a stronger tendency to stick to grease than the other minerals in the ore. \n\nHistorically diamonds were known to be found only in alluvial deposits in southern India. discussion on Alluvial diamonds in India and elsewhere as well as earliest finds India led the world in diamond production from the time of their discovery in approximately the 9th century BCE Ball was a Geologist in British service. Chapter I, Page 1 to the mid-18th century AD, but the commercial potential of these sources had been exhausted by the late 18th century and at that time India was eclipsed by Brazil where the first non-Indian diamonds were found in 1725. \n\nDiamond production of primary deposits (kimberlites and lamproites) only started in the 1870s after the discovery of the Diamond fields in South Africa. Production has increased over time and now an accumulated total of 4.5 billion carats have been mined since that date. About 20% of that amount has been mined in the last 5 years alone, and during the last ten years 9 new mines have started production while 4 more are waiting to be opened soon. Most of these mines are located in Canada, Zimbabwe, Angola, and one in Russia.\n\nIn the United States, diamonds have been found in Arkansas, Colorado and Montana. In 2004, a startling discovery of a microscopic diamond in the United States led to the January 2008 bulk-sampling of kimberlite pipes in a remote part of Montana. \n\nToday, most commercially viable diamond deposits are in Russia, Botswana, Australia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2005, Russia produced almost one-fifth of the global diamond output, reports the British Geological Survey. Australia has the richest diamantiferous pipe with production reaching peak levels of 42 MT per year in the 1990s. There are also commercial deposits being actively mined in the Northwest Territories of Canada, Siberia (mostly in Yakutia territory; for example, Mir pipe and Udachnaya pipe), Brazil, and in Northern and Western Australia.\n\nApplications\n\nCarbon is essential to all known living systems, and without it life as we know it could not exist (see alternative biochemistry). The major economic use of carbon other than food and wood is in the form of hydrocarbons, most notably the fossil fuel methane gas and crude oil (petroleum). Crude oil is distilled in refineries by the petrochemical industry to produce gasoline, kerosene, and other products. Cellulose is a natural, carbon-containing polymer produced by plants in the form of wood, cotton, linen, and hemp. Cellulose is used primarily for maintaining structure in plants. Commercially valuable carbon polymers of animal origin include wool, cashmere and silk. Plastics are made from synthetic carbon polymers, often with oxygen and nitrogen atoms included at regular intervals in the main polymer chain. The raw materials for many of these synthetic substances come from crude oil.\n\nThe uses of carbon and its compounds are extremely varied. It can form alloys with iron, of which the most common is carbon steel. Graphite is combined with clays to form the 'lead' used in pencils used for writing and drawing. It is also used as a lubricant and a pigment, as a molding material in glass manufacture, in electrodes for dry batteries and in electroplating and electroforming, in brushes for electric motors and as a neutron moderator in nuclear reactors.\n\nCharcoal is used as a drawing material in artwork, barbecue grilling, iron smelting, and in many other applications. Wood, coal and oil are used as fuel for production of energy and heating. Gem quality diamond is used in jewelry, and industrial diamonds are used in drilling, cutting and polishing tools for machining metals and stone. Plastics are made from fossil hydrocarbons, and carbon fiber, made by pyrolysis of synthetic polyester fibers is used to reinforce plastics to form advanced, lightweight composite materials.\n\nCarbon fiber is made by pyrolysis of extruded and stretched filaments of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and other organic substances. The crystallographic structure and mechanical properties of the fiber depend on the type of starting material, and on the subsequent processing. Carbon fibers made from PAN have structure resembling narrow filaments of graphite, but thermal processing may re-order the structure into a continuous rolled sheet. The result is fibers with higher specific tensile strength than steel. \n\nCarbon black is used as the black pigment in printing ink, artist's oil paint and water colours, carbon paper, automotive finishes, India ink and laser printer toner. Carbon black is also used as a filler in rubber products such as tyres and in plastic compounds. Activated charcoal is used as an absorbent and adsorbent in filter material in applications as diverse as gas masks, water purification, and kitchen extractor hoods, and in medicine to absorb toxins, poisons, or gases from the digestive system. Carbon is used in chemical reduction at high temperatures. Coke is used to reduce iron ore into iron (smelting). Case hardening of steel is achieved by heating finished steel components in carbon powder. Carbides of silicon, tungsten, boron and titanium, are among the hardest known materials, and are used as abrasives in cutting and grinding tools. Carbon compounds make up most of the materials used in clothing, such as natural and synthetic textiles and leather, and almost all of the interior surfaces in the built environment other than glass, stone and metal.\n\nDiamonds\n\nThe diamond industry falls into two categories: one dealing with gem-grade diamonds and the other, with industrial-grade diamonds. While a large trade in both types of diamonds exists, the two markets act in dramatically different ways.\n\nUnlike precious metals such as gold or platinum, gem diamonds do not trade as a commodity: there is a substantial mark-up in the sale of diamonds, and there is not a very active market for resale of diamonds.\n\nIndustrial diamonds are valued mostly for their hardness and heat conductivity, with the gemological qualities of clarity and color being mostly irrelevant. About 80% of mined diamonds (equal to about 100 million carats or 20 tonnes annually) are unsuitable for use as gemstones are relegated for industrial use (known as bort). synthetic diamonds, invented in the 1950s, found almost immediate industrial applications; 3 billion carats (600 tonnes) of synthetic diamond is produced annually. \n\nThe dominant industrial use of diamond is in cutting, drilling, grinding, and polishing. Most of these applications do not require large diamonds; in fact, most diamonds of gem-quality except for their small size can be used industrially. Diamonds are embedded in drill tips or saw blades, or ground into a powder for use in grinding and polishing applications. Specialized applications include use in laboratories as containment for high pressure experiments (see diamond anvil cell), high-performance bearings, and limited use in specialized windows. With the continuing advances in the production of synthetic diamonds, new applications are becoming feasible. Garnering much excitement is the possible use of diamond as a semiconductor suitable for microchips, and because of its exceptional heat conductance property, as a heat sink in electronics. \n\nPrecautions\n\nPure carbon has extremely low toxicity to humans and can be handled and even ingested safely in the form of graphite or charcoal. It is resistant to dissolution or chemical attack, even in the acidic contents of the digestive tract. Consequently, once it enters into the body's tissues it is likely to remain there indefinitely. Carbon black was probably one of the first pigments to be used for tattooing, and Ötzi the Iceman was found to have carbon tattoos that survived during his life and for 5200 years after his death. Inhalation of coal dust or soot (carbon black) in large quantities can be dangerous, irritating lung tissues and causing the congestive lung disease, coalworker's pneumoconiosis. Diamond dust used as an abrasive can harmful if ingested or inhaled. Microparticles of carbon are produced in diesel engine exhaust fumes, and may accumulate in the lungs. In these examples, the harm may result from contaminants (e.g., organic chemicals, heavy metals) rather than from the carbon itself.\n\nCarbon generally has low toxicity to life on Earth; but carbon nanoparticles are deadly to Drosophila. \n\nCarbon may burn vigorously and brightly in the presence of air at high temperatures. Large accumulations of coal, which have remained inert for hundreds of millions of years in the absence of oxygen, may spontaneously combust when exposed to air in coal mine waste tips, ship cargo holds and coal bunkers, and storage dumps.\n\nIn nuclear applications where graphite is used as a neutron moderator, accumulation of Wigner energy followed by a sudden, spontaneous release may occur. Annealing to at least 250 °C can release the energy safely, although in the Windscale fire the procedure went wrong, causing other reactor materials to combust.\n\nThe great variety of carbon compounds include such lethal poisons as tetrodotoxin, the lectin ricin from seeds of the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, cyanide (CN), and carbon monoxide; and such essentials to life as glucose and protein.\n\nBonding to carbon" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Rye.txt", "Pumpernickel.txt" ], "title": [ "Rye", "Pumpernickel" ], "wiki_context": [ "Rye (Secale cereale) is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) and is closely related to barley (genus Hordeum) and wheat (Triticum). Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, crisp bread, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder. It can also be eaten whole, either as boiled rye berries or by being rolled, similar to rolled oats.\n\nRye is a cereal grain and should not be confused with ryegrass, which is used for lawns, pasture, and hay for livestock.\n\nHistory \n\nRye is one of a number of species that grow wild in central and eastern Turkey and in adjacent areas. Domesticated rye occurs in small quantities at a number of Neolithic sites in (Asia Minor) Turkey, such as PPNB Can Hasan III, but is otherwise absent from the archaeological record until the Bronze Age of central Europe, c. 1800–1500 BCE. It is possible that rye traveled west from (Asia Minor) Turkey as a minor admixture in wheat (possibly as a result of Vavilovian mimicry), and was only later cultivated in its own right. Although archeological evidence of this grain has been found in Roman contexts along the Rhine, Danube, and in Ireland and Britain, Pliny the Elder was dismissive of rye, writing that it \"is a very poor food and only serves to avert starvation\" and spelt is mixed into it \"to mitigate its bitter taste, and even then is most unpleasant to the stomach\". \n\nSince the Middle Ages people have cultivated rye widely in Central and Eastern Europe. It serves as the main bread cereal in most areas east of the French-German border and north of Hungary. In Southern Europe, it was cultivated on marginal lands.\n\nClaims of much earlier cultivation of rye, at the Epipalaeolithic site of Tell Abu Hureyra in the Euphrates valley of northern Syria remain controversial. Critics point to inconsistencies in the radiocarbon dates, and identifications based solely on grain, rather than on chaff. \n\nAgronomy \n\nWinter rye is any breed of rye planted in the fall to provide ground cover for the winter. It grows during warmer days of the winter when sunlight temporarily warms the plant above freezing, even while there is general snow cover. It can be used to prevent the growth of winter-hardy weeds, and can either be harvested as a bonus crop or tilled directly into the ground in spring to provide more organic matter for the next summer's crop. It is sometimes used in winter gardens and is a common nurse crop.\n\nThe nematode Ditylenchus dipsaci, leaf beetle, fruit fly, gout fly, cereal chafer, dart moth, cereal bug, Hessian fly, and rustic shoulder knot are among insects which can seriously affect rye health. \n\nProduction and consumption statistics \n\n]\n\nRye is grown primarily in Eastern, Central and Northern Europe. The main rye belt stretches from northern Germany through Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia into central and northern Russia. Rye is also grown in North America (Canada and the United States), in South America (Argentina, Brazil and Chile), in Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), in Turkey, in Kazakhstan and in northern China.\n\nProduction levels of rye have fallen in most of the producing nations, as of 2012. For instance, production of rye in Russia fell from 13.9 million metric tons (Mt) in 1992 to 2.1 Mt in 2012. Corresponding figures for other countries are as follows: Poland – falling from 5.9 Mt in 1992 to 2.9 Mt in 2005; Germany – 3.3 Mt to 3.9 Mt; Belarus – 3.1 Mt to 1.1 Mt; China – 1.7 Mt to 0.7 Mt. Most rye is consumed locally or exported only to neighboring countries, rather than being shipped worldwide.\n\nDiseases \n\nRye is highly susceptible to the ergot fungus. Consumption of ergot-infected rye by humans and animals results in a serious medical condition known as ergotism. Ergotism can cause both physical and mental harm, including convulsions, miscarriage, necrosis of digits, hallucinations and death. Historically, damp northern countries that have depended on rye as a staple crop were subject to periodic epidemics of this condition. There have been \"occurrence[s] of ergotism with periods where there were high incidents of people persecuted for being witches. Emphasis was placed on the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts in 1692, where there was a sudden rise in the number of people accused of being witches, but earlier examples were taken from Europe, as well.\" \n\nUses \n\nRye bread, including pumpernickel, is a widely eaten food in Northern and Eastern Europe. Rye is also used to make crisp bread. Rye flour is high in gliadin but low in glutenin. It therefore has a lower gluten content than wheat flour. It also contains a higher proportion of soluble fiber. Alkylresorcinols are phenolic lipids present in high amounts in the bran layer (e.g. pericarp, testa and aleurone layers) of wheat and rye (0.1–0.3% of dry weight). \n\nRye grain is used to make alcoholic drinks, like rye whiskey and rye beer. Other uses of rye grain include kvass and an herbal medicine known as rye extract. Rye straw is used as livestock bedding, as a cover crop and green manure for soil amendment, and to make crafts such as corn dollies.\n\nCultivation \n\nRye grows well in much poorer soils than those necessary for most cereal grains. Thus, it is an especially valuable crop in regions where the soil has sand or peat. Rye plants withstand cold better than other small grains do. Rye will survive with snow cover that would otherwise result in winter-kill for winter wheat. Most farmers grow winter ryes, which are planted and begin to grow in autumn. In spring, the plants develop and produce their crop.\n\nFall-planted rye shows fast growth. By the summer solstice, plants reach their maximum height of about a 120 cm (4 ft) while spring-planted wheat has only recently germinated. Vigorous growth suppresses even the most noxious weed competitors and rye can be grown without application of herbicides.\n\nRye is a common, unwanted invader of winter wheat fields. If allowed to grow and mature, it may cause substantially reduced prices (docking) for harvested wheat. \n\nEnvironment variability \n\nAs previously addressed, Secale cereale can survive through many climates and in many environments. Researchers have pinpointed certain proteins that are responsible for the antifreeze properties, which are proteins that help the organism remain alive in subzero environments. This species' capability occurs in a different manner from the antifreeze property of some fish and insects that also have antifreeze characteristic. Specifically, the leaves of winter S. cereale produce various polypeptides that possess the antifreeze capability which are different than the antifreeze polypeptides produced by fish and insects. In addition to these survival capabilities under high stress circumstances, S. cereale is known to improve the soil caliber in the gentle paddies in which it lives; however, there has been evidence to suggest that its biomass has increased greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, methane is released during its cultivation. Moreover, this research also suggests that the biomass of this plant changes at different stages of growth, so it can be minimized by selecting a specific growth stage in which it is harvested. The methane production of S. cereale was heightened during the pre-maturing stage of development. However, during the flowering stage of the plant the methane was the least significant amount. This information is good to know because the flowering stage would also be the most opportune time of an increased nutritional value of the plant as well. In this way, the unfavorable effects of S. cereale on the environment can be diminished. In conclusion, S. cereale can be used in varying environments.\n\nDiversity and uses \n\nAlong with Secale cereale's relationship and impact on the environment, it is also a valuable species because of its expansive diversity and uses. In northern Portugal, fourteen different populations of S. cereale were analyzed in order to better understand their differences. It was discovered that the storage proteins are very diverse and possess a lot of overall genetic variation as well, which is useful information to know because scientists can use its diversity in breeding to produce the most efficient cultivar of S. cereale, or rye. Moreover, the beneficial characteristics of S. cereale can also be used to improve certain characteristics of other useful plants, like wheat. The pollination abilities of wheat were vastly improved when there was cross-pollination with S. cereale. The addition of the rye chromosome 4R increased the size of the wheat anther along with increasing the number of pollen grains present. Along with improved wheat, the optimal characteristics of S. cereale can also be combined with another perennial rye, specifically S. montanum Guss, in order to produce S. cereanum, which has the beneficial characteristics of each. The hybrid rye (S. cereanum) can be grown in all environments, even with less than favorable soil and protects some soils from erosion. In addition, the plant mixture has improved forage and is known to contain digestible fiber and protein. Information about the diversity and S. cereanum’s ability to cross fertilize with other species is useful information for scientists to know as they attempt to come up with various plant species that will be able to feed humanity in the future without leaving a negative footprint on the environment.\n\nHarvesting \n\nThe harvesting of rye is similar to that of wheat. It is usually done with combine harvesters, which cut the plants, thresh and winnow the grain, and either gather the straw onto wagons or release it to the field as soil amendment. The resultant grain is stored in local silos or transported to regional grain elevators and combined with other lots for storage and distant shipment. Before the era of mechanised agriculture, rye harvesting was a manual task performed with scythes or sickles. The cut rye was often shocked for drying or storage, and the threshing was done by manually beating the seed heads against a floor or other object.\n\nHealth concerns \n\nLike wheat, barley, and their hybrids and derivatives, rye contains gluten, which makes it an unsuitable grain for consumption by people with gluten-related disorders, such as celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity, and wheat allergy, among others. Nevertheless, some wheat allergy patients can tolerate rye or barley. \n\nErgotism is an illness that can result from eating rye and other grains infected by ergot fungi. Although it is no longer a common illness because of modern food safety efforts, it was common before the 20th century, and it can still happen today if food safety vigilance breaks down.", "Pumpernickel (;) is a typically heavy, slightly sweet rye bread traditionally made with coarsely ground rye.\n\nIt is often made with a combination of rye flour and whole rye berries. At one time it was traditional peasant fare, but largely during the 20th century various forms became popular through delicatessens and supermarkets.\n\nEurope\n\nPumpernickel has been long associated with the Westphalia region of Germany, first referred to in print in 1450. Although it is not known whether this and other early references refer to precisely the bread that came to be known as Pumpernickel, Westphalian pumpernickel is distinguished by use of coarse rye flour—rye meal and a very long baking period, which gives the bread its characteristic dark color. Like most traditional all-rye breads, pumpernickel is traditionally made with an acidic sourdough starter, which preserves dough structure by counteracting highly active rye amylases. That method is sometimes augmented or replaced in commercial baking by adding citric acid or lactic acid along with commercial yeast. \n\nTraditional German Pumpernickel contains no coloring agents, instead relying on the Maillard reaction to produce its characteristic deep brown color, sweet, dark chocolate, coffee flavor, and earthy aroma. To achieve this, loaves are baked in long narrow lidded pans 16 to 24 hours in a low-temperature (about 250°F or 120°C), steam-filled oven. Like the French pain de mie, Westphalian pumpernickel has little or no crust. It is very similar to rye Vollkornbrot, a dense rye bread with large amounts of whole grains added.\n\nWhile true Pumpernickel is produced primarily in Germany, versions are popular in the Netherlands, under the name Roggebrood, where it has been a common part of the diet for centuries., and in Denmark where \"Rugbrød\" is a staple. German pumpernickel is often sold sliced in small packets in supermarkets, where it may be paired with caviar, smoked salmon, sturgeon, and other expensive products on an hors d'oeuvres tray.\n\nNorth America\n\nA separate pumpernickel tradition has developed in North America, where colouring and flavouring agents such as molasses, coffee, and cocoa powder are added to approximate the shades and taste of traditional German pumpernickel. Bakers there often add wheat flour to provide gluten structure and increase rising and commercial yeast to quicken the rise compared to a traditional sourdough. As a result, and for economic reasons, they tend to eschew the long, slow baking characteristic of German pumpernickel, resulting in a loaf that but for colour otherwise resembles commercial North American rye bread.\n\nEtymology\n\nThe philologist Johann Christoph Adelung states that the word has an origin in the Germanic vernacular where pumpern was a New High German synonym for being flatulent, and Nickel was a form of the name Nicholas, commonly associated with a goblin or devil (e.g. \"Old Nick\", a familiar name for Satan), or more generally for a malevolent spirit or demon. Hence, pumpernickel misread as the \"devil's fart\" when it actually means \"Devil's food\", a definition accepted by the Snopes International Language Database, the publisher Random House, and by some English language dictionaries, including the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The American Heritage Dictionary adds \"so named from being hard to digest\". A variant of this explanation is also given by the German etymological dictionary \"Kluge\" that says the word pumpernickel is older than its usage for the particular type of bread, and may have been used as a mocking name for a person of unrefined manners (\"farting nick\") first. The change of meaning may have been caused by its use as a mocking expression for the (in the eyes of outsiders) unrefined rye bread produced by the Westphalian population.\n\nThe Oxford English Dictionary does not commit to any particular etymology for the word. It suggests it may mean a lout or booby, but also says \"origin uncertain\". The OED currently states the first use in English was in 1756.\n\nA false folk etymology involves Napoleon, who, while invading Germany, asked for bread and was served dark Westphalian rye bread. According to the folktale, Napoleon declared that this was not suitable bread for himself, the emperor, but was bread (pain) for Nickel (or Nicole), his horse: \"C'est du pain pour Nickel/Nicole!\" In a variation of the same basic story, Napoleon declared that the bread was no good for him, but was only good (bon) for his horse: \"C'est bon pour Nickel!\" The name \"Nickel\" is not confirmed for any of Napoleon's many horses; still, given the number of horses used, this remains a possibility. This folk etymology grew from a \"witty interpretation\", proposed by seventeenth-century satirist Johann Balthasar Schupp, that the bread was only good for \"Nicol\", a nickname for a weak or puny horse. \n\nInfluences \n\nThe name of former Argentinean hamburger restaurant chain Pumper Nic is derived from pumpernickel." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Dave_Thomas_(businessman).txt" ], "title": [ "Dave Thomas (businessman)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Rex David \"Dave\" Thomas (July 2, 1932 - January 8, 2002) was an American businessperson and philanthropist. Thomas was the founder and chief executive officer of Wendy's, a fast-food restaurant chain specializing in hamburgers. He is also known for appearing in more than 800 commercial advertisements for the chain from 1989 to 2002, more than any other company founder in television history. \n\nEarly life\n\nThomas was born on July 2, 1932 in Atlantic City, New Jersey to a young unmarried woman he never knew. He was adopted at six weeks by Rex and Auleva Thomas, and as an adult became a well-known advocate for adoption, founding the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. After his adoptive mother's death when he was 5, his father moved around the country seeking work. Thomas spent some of his early childhood near Kalamazoo, Michigan with his grandmother, Minnie Sinclair, who he credited with teaching him the importance of service and treating others well and with respect, lessons that helped him in his future business life. \n\nAt 12, Thomas had his first job at Regas Restaurant, a fine dining restaurant in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, then lost it in a dispute with his boss; decades later, Regas Restaurant installed a large autographed poster-photo of Thomas just inside their entrance until the business closed down December 31, 2010. He vowed never to lose another job. Moving with his father, by 15 he was working in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the Hobby House Restaurant owned by the Clauss family. When his father prepared to move again, Dave decided to stay in Fort Wayne, dropping out of high school to work full-time at the restaurant. Thomas, who considered ending his schooling the greatest mistake of his life, did not graduate from high school until 1993, when he obtained a GED. \n\nHe subsequently became an education advocate and founded the Dave Thomas Education Center in Coconut Creek, Florida, which offers GED classes to young adults. \n\nU.S. Army\n\nAt the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, rather than waiting for the draft, he volunteered for the U.S. Army to have some choice in assignments. Having food production and service experience, Thomas requested the Cook's and Baker's School at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was sent to Germany as a mess sergeant and was responsible for the daily meals of 2000 soldiers, rising to the rank of staff sergeant. After his discharge in 1953, Thomas returned to Fort Wayne and the Hobby House.\n\nFast food career\n\nKentucky Fried Chicken\n\nIn the mid-1950s, Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Col. Harland Sanders came to Fort Wayne to find restaurateurs with established businesses in order to try to sell KFC franchises to them. At first, Thomas, who was the head cook at a restaurant, and the Clausses declined Sanders' offer, but Sanders persisted and the Clauss family franchised their restaurant with KFC and later also owned many other KFC franchises in the Midwest. During this time, Thomas worked with Sanders on many projects to make KFC more profitable and to give it brand recognition. Among other things Thomas suggested to Sanders, that were implemented, was that KFC reduce the number of items on the menu and focus on a signature dish. Thomas also suggested Sanders make commercials that he appear in himself. Thomas was sent by the Clauss family in the mid-1960s to help turn around four failing KFC stores they owned in Columbus, Ohio.\n\nBy 1968 Thomas had increased sales in the four fried chicken restaurants so much that he sold his share in them back to Sanders for more than $1.5 million. This experience would prove invaluable to Thomas when he began Wendy's about a year later.\n\nArthur Treacher's\n\nAfter serving as a regional director for Kentucky Fried Chicken, Thomas became part of the investor group which founded Arthur Treacher's. His involvement with the new restaurant lasted less than a year before he went on to found Wendy's. \n\nWendy's\n\nThomas opened his first Wendy's in Columbus, Ohio, November 15, 1969. (This original restaurant remained operational until March 2, 2007, when it was closed due to lagging sales.) Thomas named the restaurant after his eight-year-old daughter Melinda Lou, whose nickname was \"Wendy\", stemming from the child's inability to say her own name at a young age. According to Bio TV, Dave claims himself that people nicknamed his daughter \"Wenda. Not Wendy, but Wenda. 'I'm going to call it Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers'.\" \n\nIn 1982, Thomas resigned from his day-to-day operations at Wendy's. However, by 1985, several company business decisions, including an awkward new breakfast menu and loss in brand awareness due to fizzled marketing efforts, caused the company's new president to urge Thomas back into a more active role with Wendy's. Thomas began to visit franchises and espouse his hardworking, so-called \"mop-bucket attitude.\" In 1989, he took on a significant role as the TV spokesperson in a series of commercials for the brand. Thomas was not a natural actor, and initially, his performances were criticized as stiff and ineffective by advertising critics. \n\nBy 1990, after efforts by Wendy's agency, Backer Spielvolgel Bates, to get humor into the campaign, a decision was made to portray Thomas in a more self-deprecating and folksy manner, which proved much more popular with test audiences. Consumer brand awareness of Wendy's eventually regained levels it had not achieved since octogenarian Clara Peller's wildly popular \"Where's the beef?\" campaign of 1984.\n\nWith his natural self-effacing style and his relaxed manner, Thomas quickly became a household name. A company survey during the 1990s, a decade during which Thomas starred in every Wendy's commercial that aired, found that 90% of Americans knew who Thomas was. After more than 800 commercials, it was clear that Thomas played a major role in Wendy's status as the country's third most popular burger restaurant.\n\nIn 1994, Thomas made a cameo appearance as himself in Bionic Ever After?, a reunion TV movie based upon The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.\n\nPersonal life\n\nThomas had four children besides Melinda: three daughters, Pam, Lori and Molly, and a son, Kenny. Though Kenny died in 2013, Dave's daughters still continue to own and run multiple Wendy's locations. Thomas founded the chain Sisters Chicken and Biscuits in 1978, named in reference to his other 3 daughters. \n\nHonors and memberships\n\nThomas, realizing that his success as a high school dropout might convince other teenagers to quit school (something he later claimed was a mistake), became a student at Coconut Creek High School. He earned a GED in 1993. Thomas was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1999.\n\nThomas was an honorary Kentucky colonel, as was former boss Colonel Sanders. \n\nThomas was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003.\n\nDeath\n\nThomas had been battling Carcinoid Cancer (AKA Neuroendocrine Tumor) since the 1990s, the disease had metastasized to his liver. He died on January 8, 2002 at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the age of 69. Thomas was buried in Union Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio. At the time of his death, there were more than 6,000 Wendy's restaurants operating in North America." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "FIFA.txt" ], "title": [ "FIFA" ], "wiki_context": [ "The (FIFA; English: International Federation of Association Football) is the governing body of association football, futsal and beach soccer. FIFA is responsible for the organisation of football's major international tournaments, notably the World Cup which commenced in 1930 and the Women's World Cup which commenced in 1991.\n\nFIFA was founded in 1904 to oversee international competition among the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, its membership now comprises 211 national associations. Member countries must each also be members of one of the six regional confederations into which the world is divided: Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America and the Caribbean, Oceania and South America.\n\nAlthough FIFA doesn't control the rules of football (that being the responsibility of the International Football Association Board), it is responsible for both the organization of a number of tournaments and their promotion, which generate revenue from sponsorship. In 2013 FIFA had revenues of over 1.3 billion U.S. dollars, for a net profit of 72 million, and had cash reserves of over 1.4 billion U.S. dollars. \n\nReports by investigative journalists have linked FIFA leadership with corruption, bribery, and vote-rigging pursuant to the election of FIFA President Sepp Blatter and the organization's decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively. These allegations led to the indictments of nine high-ranking FIFA officials and five corporate executives by the U.S. Department of Justice on charges including racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering. On 27 May 2015 several of these officials were arrested by Swiss authorities, who were launching a simultaneous but separate criminal investigation into how the organization awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Those among these officials who were also indicted in the U.S. are expected to be extradited to face charges there as well. \n\nHistory\n\nThe need for a single body to oversee association football became apparent at the beginning of the 20th century with the increasing popularity of international fixtures. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded in the rear of the headquarters of the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques at the Rue Saint Honoré 229 in Paris on 21 May 1904. The French name and acronym are used even outside French-speaking countries. The founding members were the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain (represented by Madrid Football Club; the Spanish federation was not created until 1913), Sweden and Switzerland. Also, that same day, the German Association declared its intention of affiliating through a telegram.\n\nThe first president of FIFA was Robert Guérin. Guérin was replaced in 1906 by Daniel Burley Woolfall from England, by then a member of the association. The first tournament FIFA staged, the association football competition for the 1908 Olympics in London was more successful than its Olympic predecessors, despite the presence of professional footballers, contrary to the founding principles of FIFA.\n\nMembership of FIFA expanded beyond Europe with the application of South Africa in 1909, Argentina in 1912, Canada and Chile in 1913, and the United States in 1914. \n\nDuring World War I, with many players sent off to war and the possibility of travel for international fixtures severely limited, the organisation's survival was in doubt. Post-war, following the death of Woolfall, the organisation was run by Dutchman Carl Hirschmann. It was saved from extinction, but at the cost of the withdrawal of the Home Nations (of the United Kingdom), who cited an unwillingness to participate in international competitions with their recent World War enemies. The Home Nations later resumed their membership.\n\nThe FIFA collection is held by the National Football Museum at Urbis in Manchester, England. The first World Cup in the world was in 1930 in Montevideo, Uruguay.\n\nStructure \n\nLaws and governance \n\nFIFA is headquartered in Zürich, and is an association established under the Law of Switzerland.\n\nFIFA's supreme body is the FIFA Congress, an assembly made up of representatives from each affiliated member association. Each national football association has one vote, regardless of its size or footballing strength. The Congress assembles in ordinary session once every year, and extraordinary sessions have been held once a year since 1998. The congress makes decisions relating to FIFA's governing statutes and their method of implementation and application. Only the Congress can pass changes to FIFA's statutes. The congress approves the annual report, and decides on the acceptance of new national associations and holds elections. Congress elects the President of FIFA, its General Secretary, and the other members of the FIFA Council on the year following the FIFA World Cup. \n\nFIFA's Executive Committee, chaired by the President, is the main decision-making body of the organisation in the intervals of Congress. The Executive Committee is composed of 24 people: the President, 8 Vice Presidents, and 15 members. The Executive Committee is the body that decides which country will host the World Cup.\n\nThe President and General Secretary are the main officeholders of FIFA, and are in charge of its daily administration, carried out by the General Secretariat, with its staff of approximately 280 members. \nGianni Infantino is the current president, appointed on 26 February 2016 at the Extraordinary FIFA Congress. The former president, Sepp Blatter is suspended pending a corruption investigation. \nFIFA's worldwide organisational structure also consists of several other bodies, under authority of the Executive Committee or created by Congress as standing committees. Among those bodies are the FIFA Emergency Committee, the FIFA Ethics Committee, the Finance Committee, the Disciplinary Committee, and the Referees Committee.\n\nThe FIFA Emergency Committee deals with all matters requiring immediate settlement in the time frame between the regular meetings of the FIFA Executive Committee. \nThe Emergency Committee consists of the FIFA President as well as one member from each confederation. Emergency Committee decisions made are immediately put into legal effect, although they need to be ratified at the next Executive Committee meeting. \n\nAdministrative cost \n\nFIFA publishes its results according to IFRS. The total compensation for the management committee in 2011 was 30 million for 35 people. Blatter, the only full-time person on the committee, earned approximately two million Swiss francs, 1.2 million in salary and the rest in bonuses. A report in London's Sunday Times in June 2014 said the members of the committee had their salaries doubled from $100,000 to $200,000 during the year. The report also said leaked documents had indicated $4.4 million in secret bonuses had been paid to the committee members following the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. \n\nSix confederations and 211 national associations \n\nBesides its worldwide institutions there are six confederations recognised by FIFA which oversee the game in the different continents and regions of the world. National associations, and not the continental confederations, are members of FIFA. The continental confederations are provided for in FIFA's statutes, and membership of a confederation is a prerequisite to FIFA membership.\n\nAsian Football Confederation (AFC; 46 members)\n::Australia has been a member of the AFC since 2006\nConfederation of African Football (CAF; 54 members)\nConfederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF; 35 members)\n::French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname are CONCACAF members although they are in South America. The French Guiana team is a member of CONCACAF but not of FIFA.\nConfederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL; 10 members)\nOceania Football Confederation (OFC; 11 members)\nUnion of European Football Associations (UEFA; 55 members)\n::Teams representing the nations of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey are UEFA members, although the majority or entirety of their territory is outside of continental Europe. Monaco and the Vatican City are not members of UEFA or FIFA.\n\nIn total, FIFA recognises 211 national associations and their associated men's national teams as well as 129 women's national teams; see the list of national football teams and their respective country codes. FIFA has more member states than the UN as FIFA recognises 23 non-sovereign entities as distinct nations, such as the four Home Nations within the United Kingdom and politically disputed territories such as Palestine. \n\nThe FIFA Working Committee of Small Nations has categorized potential FIFA members into three categories:\n#Independent states not in FIFA (Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Monaco, Niue, Palau, Tuvalu)\n#Non-independent territories (Aaland Islands, Guadeloupe, Greenland, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Martinique, Northern Mariana Islands, Réunion, Sint Maarten, Zanzibar)\n#Politically sensitive areas (Abkhazia, Crimea, Northern Cyprus, South Ossetia). \n\nThe FIFA World Rankings are updated monthly and rank each team based on their performance in international competitions, qualifiers, and friendly matches. There is also a world ranking for women's football, updated four times a year.\n\nRecognitions and awards \n\nFIFA holds an annual awards ceremony which recognises both individual and team achievements in international association football. Individually, the top men's player is awarded the FIFA Ballon d'Or and the top women's player is named FIFA World Player of the Year; the latter title was also awarded to the men's player prior to its 2010 merger with France Footballs Ballon d'Or. At the Ballon d'Or banquet, the FIFA Puskás Award, FIFA/FIFPro Best XI, FIFA Fair Play Award, and FIFA Presidential Award are also awarded.\n\nIn 1994 FIFA published the FIFA World Cup All-Time Team. In 2000 FIFA published the results of an Internet poll, declaring Real Madrid to be the FIFA Club of the Century. In 2002 FIFA announced the FIFA Dream Team, an all-time all-star team chosen by fans in a poll.\n\nAs part of its centennial celebrations in 2004, FIFA organised a \"Match of the Century\" between France and Brazil.\n\nGovernance and game development \n\nThe laws that govern football, known officially as the Laws of the Game, are not solely the responsibility of FIFA; they are maintained by a body called the International Football Association Board (IFAB). FIFA has members on its board (four representatives); the other four are provided by the football associations of the United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, who jointly established IFAB in 1882 and are recognised for the creation and history of the game. Changes to the Laws of the Game must be agreed by at least six of the eight delegates.\n\nFIFA commits itself to constantly improving the sport of football. The FIFA Statutes form the overarching document guiding FIFA's governing system. The governing system is divided into separate bodies that have the appropriate powers to create a system of checks and balances. It consists of four general bodies: the congress, the executive committee, the general secretariat, and standing and ad-hoc committees. \n\nDiscipline of national associations \n\nFIFA frequently takes active roles in the running of the sport and developing the game around the world. One of its sanctions is to suspend teams and associated members from international competition when a government interferes in the running of FIFA's associate member organisations or if the associate is not functioning properly.\n\nA 2007 FIFA ruling that a player can be registered with a maximum of three clubs, and appear in official matches for a maximum of two, in a year measured from 1 July to 30 June has led to controversy, especially in those countries whose seasons cross that date barrier, as in the case of two former Ireland internationals. As a direct result of this controversy, FIFA modified this ruling the following year to accommodate transfers between leagues with out-of-phase seasons.\n\nVideo replay \n\nFIFA does not permit video evidence during matches, although it is permitted for subsequent sanctions. The 1970 meeting of the International Football Association Board \"agreed to request the television authorities to refrain from any slow-motion play-back which reflected, or might reflect, adversely on any decision of the referee\". In 2008, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said: \"Let it be as it is and let's leave [football] with errors. The television companies will have the right to say [the referee] was right or wrong, but still the referee makes the decision – a man, not a machine.\" \n\nIt has been said that instant replay is needed given the difficulty of tracking the activities of 22 players on such a large field, and it has been proposed that instant replay be used in penalty incidents, fouls which lead to bookings or red cards and whether the ball has crossed the goal line, since those events are more likely than others to be game-changing. \n\nCritics point out that instant replay is already in use in other sports, including rugby union, cricket, American football, Canadian football, basketball, baseball, tennis, and ice hockey.Laws of the game and rulings regarding the use of video replay in other sports:\n*\n*[http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/content/story/362178.html Trial Playing Condition – Review of Umpiring Decisions]\n*[http://www.nfl.com/history/chronology/1981-1990 NFL History by Decade]\n*[http://wayback.archive.org/web/20110501061812/http://tsn.ca/cfl/news_story/?ID168675&hubname\ncfl CFL Board of Governors approves instant replay]\n*\n*[http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd20080826&content_id\n3370520&vkeypr_mlb&fext\n.jsp&c_id=mlb MLB to launch limited instant replay on Thursday, 28 August]\n*[http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3096923 GMs vote 25–5 to use replay to aid home run decisions]\n*\n*http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=26326 As one notable proponent of video replay, Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz has been quoted as saying that the \"credibility of the game\" is at stake.\n\nAn incident during a second-round game in the 2010 FIFA World Cup between England and Germany, where a shot by Englishman Frank Lampard, which would have leveled the scores at 2–2 in a match that ultimately ended in a 4–1 German victory, crossed the line but was not seen to do so by the match officials, led FIFA officials to declare that they will re-examine the use of goal-line technology. \n\nAnthem \n\nSince the 1994 FIFA World Cup, like the UEFA Champions League, FIFA has adopted an anthem composed by the German composer Franz Lambert. It has been recently re-arranged and produced by Rob May and Simon Hill. The FIFA Anthem is played at the beginning of official FIFA sanctioned matches and tournaments such as international friendlies, the FIFA World Cup, FIFA Women's World Cup, FIFA U-20 World Cup, FIFA U-17 World Cup, Football at the Summer Olympics, FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, FIFA Women's U-17 World Cup, FIFA Futsal World Cup, FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup and FIFA Club World Cup. \n\nSince 2007, FIFA has also required most of its broadcast partners to use short sequences including the anthem at the beginning and end of FIFA event coverage, as well as for break bumpers, to help promote FIFA's sponsors. This emulates practices long used by some other international football events such as the UEFA Champions League. Exceptions may be made for specific events; for example, an original piece of African music was used for bumpers during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.\n\nSponsors \n\n* Adidas \n* Coca-Cola \n* Gazprom\n* Hyundai/Kia Motors \n* Visa \n* Wanda Group \n\nCorruption and legislative interference \n\nIn May 2006 British investigative reporter Andrew Jennings' book Foul! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals (Harper Collins) caused controversy within the football world by detailing an alleged international cash-for-contracts scandal following the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure (ISL), and revealed how some football officials have been urged to secretly repay the sweeteners they received. The book also alleged that vote-rigging had occurred in the fight for Sepp Blatter's continued control of FIFA.\n\nShortly after the release of Foul! a BBC television exposé by Jennings and BBC producer Roger Corke for the BBC news programme Panorama was broadcast. In this hour-long programme, screened on 11 June 2006, Jennings and the Panorama team agree that Sepp Blatter was being investigated by Swiss police over his role in a secret deal to repay more than £1m worth of bribes pocketed by football officials. Lord Triesman, the former chairman of the English Football Association, described FIFA as an organization that \"behaves like a mafia family\", highlighting the association's \"decades-long traditions of bribes, bungs and corruption\". \n\nAll testimonies offered in the Panorama exposé were provided through a disguised voice, appearance, or both, save one; Mel Brennan, formerly a lecturer at Towson University in the United States (and from 2001 to 2003 Head of Special Projects for CONCACAF, a liaison to the e-FIFA project and a 2002 FIFA World Cup delegate), became the first high-level football insider to go public with substantial allegations of greed, corruption, nonfeasance and malfeasance by CONCACAF and FIFA leadership. During the Panorama exposé, Brennan—the highest-level African-American in the history of world football governance—joined Jennings, Trinidadian journalist Lisana Liburd and many others in exposing allegedly inappropriate allocations of money at CONCACAF, and drew connections between ostensible CONCACAF criminality and similar behaviours at FIFA. Since then, and in the light of fresh allegations of bribery and corruption and opaque action by FIFA in late 2010, both Jennings and Brennan remain highly critical of FIFA, with Brennan calling directly for an alternative to FIFA to be considered by the stakeholders of the sport throughout the world. \n\nIn a further Panorama documentary broadcast on BBC One on 29 November 2010, Jennings alleged that three senior FIFA officials, Nicolas Leoz, Issa Hayatou and Ricardo Teixeira, had been paid huge bribes by FIFA's marketing partner ISL between 1989 and 1999, which FIFA had failed to investigate. He claimed they appeared on a list of 175 bribes paid by ISL, totalling about $100 million. A former ISL executive said that there were suspicions within ISL that the company was only awarded the marketing contract for successive World Cups by paying bribes to FIFA officials. The programme also alleged that another current official, Jack Warner, has been repeatedly involved in reselling World Cup tickets to touts; Sepp Blatter said that FIFA had not investigated the allegation because it had not been told about it via 'official channels'.\n\nThe programme also criticized FIFA for allegedly requiring World Cup host bidding nations to agree to implement special laws for the World Cup, including blanket tax exemption for FIFA and sponsors, and limitation of workers' rights. It alleged that governments of bidding nations are required to keep the details of the required laws confidential during the bidding process; but that they were revealed by the Dutch government, which refused to agree to them, as a result of which it was told by FIFA that its bid could be adversely affected. According to the programme, following Jennings' earlier investigations he was banned from all FIFA press conferences, for reasons he says have not been made clear; and the accused officials failed to answer questions about his latest allegations, either verbally or by letter.\n\nBritish Prime Minister David Cameron and Andy Anson, head of England's World Cup bid, criticized the timing of the broadcast, three days before FIFA's decision on the host for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, on the grounds that it might damage England's bid; the voters included officials accused by the programme. \n\nIn June 2011, it came to light that the IOC had started inquiry proceedings against FIFA honorary president João Havelange into claims of bribery. The BBC Panorama programme alleged that the Brazilian accepted a $1 million 'bung' in 1997 from ISL. The Olympic governing body said \"the IOC takes all allegations of corruption very seriously and we would always ask for any evidence of wrongdoing involving any IOC members to be passed to our ethics commission\". \n\nIn a 2014 interview, American sports writer Dave Zirin said greed, corruption, nonfeasance and malfeasance are endemic to FIFA leadership, and that FIFA should be abolished for the good of the game. He said that currently FIFA is in charge of both monitoring corruption in football matches, and marketing and selling the sport, but that two \"separate\" organizational bodies are needed: an organizational body that monitors corruption and match-fixing and the like, and an organization that's responsible for marketing and sponsorships and selling the sport. Zirin said the idea of having a single organization that's responsible for both seems highly ineffective and detrimental to the sport. \n\nGuilty pleas\n\nBetween 2013 and 2015 four individuals, and two sports television rights corporations pleaded guilty to United States financial misconduct charges. The pleas of Chuck Blazer, José Hawilla, Daryan Warner, Darrell Warner, Traffic Group and Traffic Sports USA were unsealed in May 2015. In another 2015 case, Singapore also imposed a 6-year \"harshest sentence ever received for match-fixing\" on match-fixer Eric Ding who had bribed three Lebanese FIFA football officials with prostitutes as an inducement to fix future matches that they would officiate, as well as perverting the course of justice. \n\nIndictments and arrests\n\nFourteen FIFA officials and marketing executives were indicted by the United States Department of Justice in May 2015. The officials were arrested in Switzerland and are in the process of extradition to the US. Specific charges (brought under the RICO act) include wire fraud, racketeering, and money laundering. \n\n\"Swiss authorities say they have also opened a separate criminal investigation into FIFA's operations pertaining to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids\". \n\nFIFA’s top officials were arrested at a hotel in Switzerland on suspicion of receiving bribes totalling $100m (£65m). The US Department of Justice stated that nine FIFA officials and four executives of sports management companies were arrested and accused of over $150m in bribes. The UK Shadow Home Secretary and Labour Member of Parliament, Andy Burnham, stated in May 2015 that England should boycott the 2018 World Cup against corruption in FIFA and military aggression by Russia. \n\n2018 and 2022 World Cup bids \n\nFIFA's choice to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar has been widely criticised by media. It has been alleged that some FIFA inside sources insist that the Russian kickbacks of cash and gifts given to FIFA executive members were enough to secure the Russian 2018 bid weeks before the result was announced. Sepp Blatter was widely criticised in the media for giving a warning about the \"evils of the media\" in a speech to FIFA executive committee members shortly before they voted on the hosting of the 2018 World Cup, a reference to The Sunday Times exposés and the Panorama investigation. \n\nTwo members of FIFA's executive committee were banned from all football-related activity in November 2010 for allegedly offering to sell their votes to undercover newspaper reporters. In early May 2011, a British parliamentary inquiry into why England failed to secure the 2018 finals was told by member of parliament, Damian Collins, that there was evidence from the Sunday Times newspaper that Issa Hayatou of Cameroon and Jacques Anouma of Ivory Coast were paid by Qatar. Qatar has categorically denied the allegations, as have Hayatou and Anouma. \n\nFIFA President Blatter said, as of 23 May 2011, that the British newspaper The Sunday Times has agreed to bring its whistle-blowing source to meet senior FIFA officials, who will decide whether to order a new investigation into alleged World Cup bidding corruption. \"[The Sunday Times] are happy, they agreed that they will bring this whistleblower here to Zürich and then we will have a discussion, an investigation of this\", Blatter said.\n\nSpecifically, the whistleblower claims that FIFA executive committee members Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma were paid $1.5 million to vote for Qatar. The emirate's bid beat the United States in a final round of voting last December. Blatter did not rule out reopening the 2022 vote if corruption could be proved, but urged taking the matter \"step by step\". The FIFA president said his organization is \"anxiously awaiting\" more evidence before asking its ethics committee to examine allegations made in Britain's parliament in early May 2011.\n\nHayatou, who is from Cameroon, leads the Confederation of African Football and is a FIFA vice president. Anouma is president of Ivorian Football Federation. The whistleblower said Qatar agreed to pay a third African voter, Amos Adamu, for his support. The Nigerian was later suspended from voting after a FIFA ethics court ruled he solicited bribes from undercover Sunday Times reporters posing as lobbyists. Blatter said the newspaper and its whistleblower would meet with FIFA secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, and legal director, Marco Villiger.\n\nAllegations against FIFA officials have also been made to the UK Parliament by David Triesman, the former head of England's bid and the English Football Association. Triesman told the lawmakers that four long-standing FIFA executive committee members—Jack Warner, Nicolas Leoz, Ricardo Teixeira and Worawi Makudi—engaged in \"improper and unethical\" conduct in the 2018 bidding, which was won by Russia. All six FIFA voters have denied wrongdoing. \n\nOn 28 September 2015, Sepp Blatter suggested that the 2018 World Cup being awarded to Russia was planned before the voting, and that the 2022 World Cup would have then been awarded to the United States. However, this plan changed after the election ballot, and the 2022 World Cup was awarded to Qatar instead of the U.S. \n\n2011 FIFA presidential election \n\nFIFA announced on 25 May 2011 that it had opened the investigation to examine the conduct of four officials—Mohamed Bin Hammam and Jack Warner, along with Caribbean Football Union (CFU) officials Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester—in relation to claims made by executive committee member, Chuck Blazer. Blazer, who is the general secretary of the CONCACAF federation, has alleged that violations were committed under the FIFA code of ethics during a meeting organized by Bin Hammam and Warner on 10 and 11 May—the same time Lord Triesman had accused Warner of demanding money for a World Cup 2018 vote—in relation to the 2011 FIFA presidential election, in which Bin Hammam, who also played a key role in the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid, allegedly offered financial incentives for votes cast in his favour during the presidential election. As a result of the investigation both Bin Hammam and Warner were suspended. Warner reacted to his suspension by questioning Blatter's conduct and adding that FIFA secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, had told him via e-mail that Qatar had bought the 2022 World Cup. Valcke subsequently issued a statement denying he had suggested it was bribery, saying instead that the country had \"used its financial muscle to lobby for support\". Qatar officials denied any impropriety. Bin Hammam also responded by writing to FIFA, protesting unfair treatment in suspension by the FIFA Ethics Committee and FIFA administration. \n\nFurther evidence emerged of alleged corruption. On 30 May 2011, Fred Lunn, vice-president of the Bahamas Football Association, said that he was given $40,000 in cash as an incitement to vote for FIFA presidential candidate, Mohamed bin Hammam. In addition, on 11 June 2011 Louis Giskus, president of the Surinamese Football Association, alleged that he was given $40,000 in cash for \"development projects\" as an incentive to vote for Bin Hammam. \n\nResponse to allegations \n\nAfter being re-elected as President of FIFA Sepp Blatter responded to the allegations by promising to reform FIFA in wake of the bribery scandal, with Danny Jordaan, CEO of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, saying there is great expectation for reform. Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is being tipped for a role on the newly proposed 'Solutions Committee', and former Netherlands national football team player Johan Cruyff is also being linked with a role. \n\nUEFA secretary general Gianni Infantino said he hopes for \"concrete\" measures to be taken by the world game's authority. Saying that \"the UEFA executive committee has taken note of the will of FIFA to take concrete and effective measures for good governance ... [and is] following the situation closely.\" \n\nIOC president Jacques Rogge commented on the situation by saying that he believes FIFA \"can emerge stronger\" from its worst ever crisis, stating that \"I will not point a finger and lecture ... I am sure FIFA can emerge stronger and from within\". \n\nSeveral of FIFA's partners and sponsors have raised concerns about the allegations of corruption, including Coca-Cola, Adidas, Emirates and Visa. Coca-Cola raised concerns by saying \"the current allegations being raised are distressing and bad for the sport\"; with Adidas saying \"the negative tenor of the public debate around Fifa at the moment is neither good for football nor for Fifa and its partners\"; moreover Emirates raised its concerns by saying \"we hope that these issues will be resolved as soon as possible\"; and Visa adding \"the current situation is clearly not good for the game and we ask that Fifa take all necessary steps to resolve the concerns that have been raised.\"\n\nAustralian Sports Minister Mark Arbib said it was clear FIFA needed to change, saying \"there is no doubt there needs to be reform of FIFA. This is something that we're hearing worldwide\", with Australian Senator Nick Xenophon accusing FIFA of \"scamming\" the country out of the A$46 million (US$35 million) it spent on the Australia 2022 FIFA World Cup bid, saying that \"until the investigation into FIFA has been completed, Australia must hold off spending any more taxpayers' money on any future World Cup bids.\" \n\nTheo Zwanziger, President of the German Football Association, also called on FIFA to re-examine the awarding of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to Qatar. \n\nTransparency International, which had called on FIFA to postpone the election pending a full independent investigation, renewed its call on FIFA to change its governance structure. \n\nMoreover, former Argentine football player Diego Maradona was critical of FIFA in light of the corruption scandal, comparing members of the board to dinosaurs. He said \"Fifa is a big museum. They are dinosaurs who do not want to relinquish power. It's always going to be the same.\" In October 2011, Dick Pound criticized the organization, saying, \"FIFA has fallen far short of a credible demonstration that it recognizes the many problems it faces, that it has the will to solve them, that it is willing to be transparent about what it is doing and what it finds, and that its conduct in the future will be such that the public can be confident in the governance of the sport.\" \n\nFIFA structured tournaments \n\nMen's tournaments \n\n* FIFA World Cup\n* FIFA Confederations Cup\n* Men's Olympic Football Tournament\n* FIFA U-20 World Cup\n* FIFA U-17 World Cup\n* Boys' Youth Olympic Football Tournament (U-15)\n* FIFA Club World Cup\n* FIFA Futsal World Cup\n* FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup\n* Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup\n\nWomen's tournaments \n\n* FIFA Women's World Cup\n* Women's Olympic Football Tournament\n* FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup\n* FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup\n* Girls' Youth Olympic Football Tournament (U-15)\n* FIFA Women's Club World Cup (proposed)\n\nOther tournaments \n\n*FIFA Interactive World Cup\n\nCurrent title holders" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Boxing.txt" ], "title": [ "Boxing" ], "wiki_context": [ "Boxing is a martial art and combat sport in which two people wearing protective gloves throw punches at each other for a predetermined set of time in a boxing ring.\n\nAmateur boxing is both an Olympic and Commonwealth sport and is a common fixture in most international games—it also has its own World Championships. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of one- to three-minute intervals called rounds. The result is decided when an opponent is deemed incapable to continue by a referee, is disqualified for breaking a rule, resigns by throwing in a towel, or is pronounced the winner or loser based on the judges' scorecards at the end of the contest. In the event that both fighters gain equal scores from the judges, the fight is considered a draw (professional boxing). In Olympic boxing, due to the fact that a winner must be declared, in the case of a draw - the judges use technical criteria to choose the most deserving winner of the bout.\n\nWhile people have fought in hand-to-hand combat since before the dawn of history, the origin of boxing as an organized sport may be its acceptance by the ancient Greeks as an Olympic game in BC 688. Boxing evolved from 16th- and 18th-century prizefights, largely in Great Britain, to the forerunner of modern boxing in the mid-19th century, again initially in Great Britain and later in the United States.\n\nHistory\n\nAncient history\n\nSee also Ancient Greek boxing\n\nThe earliest known depiction of boxing comes from a Sumerian relief in Iraq from the 3rd millennium BCE Later depictions from the 2nd millennium BC are found in reliefs from the Mesopotamian nations of Assyria and Babylonia, and in Hittite art from Asia Minor. The earliest evidence for fist fighting with any kind of gloves can be found on Minoan Crete (c.1650–1400 BCE), and on Sardinia, if we consider the boxing statues of Prama mountains (c. 2000–1000 BC).\n\nBoxing was a popular spectator sport in Ancient Rome. In order for the fighters to protect themselves against their opponents they wrapped leather thongs around their fists. Eventually harder leather was used and the thong soon became a weapon. The Romans even introduced metal studs to the thongs to make the cestus which then led to a more sinister weapon called the myrmex ('limb piercer'). Fighting events were held at Roman Amphitheatres. The Roman form of boxing was often a fight until death to please the spectators who gathered at such events. However, especially in later times, purchased slaves and trained combat performers were valuable commodities, and their lives were not given up without due consideration. Often slaves were used against one another in a circle marked on the floor. This is where the term ring came from. In AD 393, during the Roman gladiator period, boxing was abolished due to excessive brutality. It was not until the late 17th century that boxing re-surfaced in London.\n\nEarly London prize ring rules\n\nRecords of Classical boxing activity disappeared after the fall of the Western Roman Empire when the wearing of weapons became common once again and interest in fighting with the fists waned. However, there are detailed records of various fist-fighting sports that were maintained in different cities and provinces of Italy between the 12th and 17th centuries. There was also a sport in ancient Rus called Kulachniy Boy or \"Fist Fighting\".\n\nAs the wearing of swords became less common, there was renewed interest in fencing with the fists. The sport would later resurface in England during the early 16th century in the form of bare-knuckle boxing sometimes referred to as prizefighting. The first documented account of a bare-knuckle fight in England appeared in 1681 in the London Protestant Mercury, and the first English bare-knuckle champion was James Figg in 1719. This is also the time when the word \"boxing\" first came to be used. It should be noted, that this earliest form of modern boxing was very different. Contests in Mr. Figg's time, in addition to fist fighting, also contained fencing and cudgeling. On 6 January 1681, the first recorded boxing match took place in Britain when Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle (and later Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica) engineered a bout between his butler and his butcher with the latter winning the prize.\n\nEarly fighting had no written rules. There were no weight divisions or round limits, and no referee. In general, it was extremely chaotic. An early article on boxing was published in Nottingham, 1713, by Sir Thomas Parkyns, a successful Wrestler from Bunny, Nottinghamshire, who had practised the techniques he described. The article, a single page in his manual of wrestling and fencing, Progymnasmata: The inn-play, or Cornish-hugg wrestler, described a system of headbutting, punching, eye-gouging, chokes, and hard throws, not recognized in boxing today. \n\nThe first boxing rules, called the Broughton's rules, were introduced by champion Jack Broughton in 1743 to protect fighters in the ring where deaths sometimes occurred. Under these rules, if a man went down and could not continue after a count of 30 seconds, the fight was over. Hitting a downed fighter and grasping below the waist were prohibited. Broughton encouraged the use of 'mufflers', a form of padded bandage or mitten, to be used in 'jousting' or sparring sessions in training, and in exhibition matches.\n\nThese rules did allow the fighters an advantage not enjoyed by today's boxers; they permitted the fighter to drop to one knee to begin a 30-second count at any time. Thus a fighter realizing he was in trouble had an opportunity to recover. However, this was considered \"unmanly\" and was frequently disallowed by additional rules negotiated by the Seconds of the Boxers. Intentionally going down in modern boxing will cause the recovering fighter to lose points in the scoring system. Furthermore, as the contestants did not have heavy leather gloves and wristwraps to protect their hands, they used different punching technique to preserve their hands, because the head was a common target to hit full out. Almost all period manuals have powerful straight punches with the whole body behind them to the face (including forehead) as the basic blows. \n\nMarquess of Queensberry rules (1867)\n\nIn 1867, the Marquess of Queensberry rules were drafted by John Chambers for amateur championships held at Lillie Bridge in London for Lightweights, Middleweights and Heavyweights. The rules were published under the patronage of the Marquess of Queensberry, whose name has always been associated with them.\n\nThere were twelve rules in all, and they specified that fights should be \"a fair stand-up boxing match\" in a 24-foot-square or similar ring. Rounds were three minutes with one-minute rest intervals between rounds. Each fighter was given a ten-second count if he was knocked down, and wrestling was banned.\nThe introduction of gloves of \"fair-size\" also changed the nature of the bouts. An average pair of boxing gloves resembles a bloated pair of mittens and are laced up around the wrists. \nThe gloves can be used to block an opponent's blows. As a result of their introduction, bouts became longer and more strategic with greater importance attached to defensive maneuvers such as slipping, bobbing, countering and angling. Because less defensive emphasis was placed on the use of the forearms and more on the gloves, the classical forearms outwards, torso leaning back stance of the bare knuckle boxer was modified to a more modern stance in which the torso is tilted forward and the hands are held closer to the face.\n\nLate 19th and early 20th centuries\n\nThrough the late nineteenth century, the martial art of boxing or prizefighting was primarily a sport of dubious legitimacy. Outlawed in England and much of the United States, prizefights were often held at gambling venues and broken up by police. Brawling and wrestling tactics continued, and riots at prizefights were common occurrences. Still, throughout this period, there arose some notable bare knuckle champions who developed fairly sophisticated fighting tactics.\n\nThe English case of R v. Coney in 1882 found that a bare-knuckle fight was an assault occasioning actual bodily harm, despite the consent of the participants. This marked the end of widespread public bare-knuckle contests in England.\n\nThe first world heavyweight champion under the Queensberry Rules was \"Gentleman Jim\" Corbett, who defeated John L. Sullivan in 1892 at the Pelican Athletic Club in New Orleans. \n\nThe first instance of film censorship in the United States occurred in 1897 when several states banned the showing of prize fighting films from the state of Nevada, where it was legal at the time.\n\nThroughout the early twentieth century, boxers struggled to achieve legitimacy. They were aided by the influence of promoters like Tex Rickard and the popularity of great champions such as John L. Sullivan.\n\nRules\n\nThe Marquess of Queensberry rules have been the general rules governing modern boxing since their publication in 1867.\n\nA boxing match typically consists of a determined number of three-minute rounds, a total of up to 9 to 12 rounds. A minute is typically spent between each round with the fighters in their assigned corners receiving advice and attention from their coach and staff. The fight is controlled by a referee who works within the ring to judge and control the conduct of the fighters, rule on their ability to fight safely, count knocked-down fighters, and rule on fouls.\n\nUp to three judges are typically present at ringside to score the bout and assign points to the boxers, based on punches that connect, defense, knockdowns, and other, more subjective, measures. Because of the open-ended style of boxing judging, many fights have controversial results, in which one or both fighters believe they have been \"robbed\" or unfairly denied a victory. Each fighter has an assigned corner of the ring, where his or her coach, as well as one or more \"seconds\" may administer to the fighter at the beginning of the fight and between rounds. Each boxer enters into the ring from their assigned corners at the beginning of each round and must cease fighting and return to their corner at the signaled end of each round.\n\nA bout in which the predetermined number of rounds passes is decided by the judges, and is said to \"go the distance\". The fighter with the higher score at the end of the fight is ruled the winner. With three judges, unanimous and split decisions are possible, as are draws. A boxer may win the bout before a decision is reached through a knock-out ; such bouts are said to have ended \"inside the distance\". If a fighter is knocked down during the fight, determined by whether the boxer touches the canvas floor of the ring with any part of their body other than the feet as a result of the opponent's punch and not a slip, as determined by the referee, the referee begins counting until the fighter returns to his or her feet and can continue.\n\nShould the referee count to ten, then the knocked-down boxer is ruled \"knocked out\" (whether unconscious or not) and the other boxer is ruled the winner by knockout (KO). A \"technical knock-out\" (TKO) is possible as well, and is ruled by the referee, fight doctor, or a fighter's corner if a fighter is unable to safely continue to fight, based upon injuries or being judged unable to effectively defend themselves. Many jurisdictions and sanctioning agencies also have a \"three-knockdown rule\", in which three knockdowns in a given round result in a TKO. A TKO is considered a knockout in a fighter's record. A \"standing eight\" count rule may also be in effect. This gives the referee the right to step in and administer a count of eight to a fighter that he feels may be in danger, even if no knockdown has taken place. After counting the referee will observe the fighter, and decide if he is fit to continue. For scoring purposes, a standing eight count is treated as a knockdown.\n\nIn general, boxers are prohibited from hitting below the belt, holding, tripping, pushing, biting, or spitting. The boxer's shorts are raised so the opponent is not allowed to hit to the groin area with intent to cause pain or injury. Failure to abide by the former may result in a foul. They also are prohibited from kicking, head-butting, or hitting with any part of the arm other than the knuckles of a closed fist (including hitting with the elbow, shoulder or forearm, as well as with open gloves, the wrist, the inside, back or side of the hand). They are prohibited as well from hitting the back, back of the neck or head (called a \"rabbit-punch\") or the kidneys. They are prohibited from holding the ropes for support when punching, holding an opponent while punching, or ducking below the belt of their opponent (dropping below the waist of your opponent, no matter the distance between).\n\nIf a \"clinch\" – a defensive move in which a boxer wraps his or her opponents arms and holds on to create a pause – is broken by the referee, each fighter must take a full step back before punching again (alternatively, the referee may direct the fighters to \"punch out\" of the clinch). When a boxer is knocked down, the other boxer must immediately cease fighting and move to the furthest neutral corner of the ring until the referee has either ruled a knockout or called for the fight to continue.\n\nViolations of these rules may be ruled \"fouls\" by the referee, who may issue warnings, deduct points, or disqualify an offending boxer, causing an automatic loss, depending on the seriousness and intentionality of the foul. An intentional foul that causes injury that prevents a fight from continuing usually causes the boxer who committed it to be disqualified. A fighter who suffers an accidental low-blow may be given up to five minutes to recover, after which they may be ruled knocked out if they are unable to continue. Accidental fouls that cause injury ending a bout may lead to a \"no contest\" result, or else cause the fight to go to a decision if enough rounds (typically four or more, or at least three in a four-round fight) have passed.\n\nUnheard of these days, but common during the early 20th Century in North America, a \"newspaper decision (NWS)\" might be made after a no decision bout had ended. A \"no decision\" bout occurred when, by law or by pre-arrangement of the fighters, if both boxers were still standing at the fight's conclusion and there was no knockout, no official decision was rendered and neither boxer was declared the winner. But this did not prevent the pool of ringside newspaper reporters from declaring a consensus result among themselves and printing a newspaper decision in their publications. Officially, however, a \"no decision\" bout resulted in neither boxer winning or losing. Boxing historians sometimes use these unofficial newspaper decisions in compiling fight records for illustrative purposes only. Often, media outlets covering a match will personally score the match, and post their scores as an independent sentence in their report.\n\nProfessional vs. amateur boxing\n\nThroughout the 17th to 19th centuries, boxing bouts were motivated by money, as the fighters competed for prize money, promoters controlled the gate, and spectators bet on the result. The modern Olympic movement revived interest in amateur sports, and amateur boxing became an Olympic sport in 1908. In their current form, Olympic and other amateur bouts are typically limited to three or four rounds, scoring is computed by points based on the number of clean blows landed, regardless of impact, and fighters wear protective headgear, reducing the number of injuries, knockdowns, and knockouts. Currently scoring blows in amateur boxing are subjectively counted by ringside judges, but the Australian Institute for Sport has demonstrated a prototype of an Automated Boxing Scoring System, which introduces scoring objectivity, improves safety, and arguably makes the sport more interesting to spectators. Professional boxing remains by far the most popular form of the sport globally, though amateur boxing is dominant in Cuba and some former Soviet republics. For most fighters, an amateur career, especially at the Olympics, serves to develop skills and gain experience in preparation for a professional career.\n\nAmateur boxing\n\nAmateur boxing may be found at the collegiate level, at the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games, and in many other venues sanctioned by amateur boxing associations. Amateur boxing has a point scoring system that measures the number of clean blows landed rather than physical damage. Bouts consist of three rounds of three minutes in the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, and three rounds of three minutes in a national ABA (Amateur Boxing Association) bout, each with a one-minute interval between rounds.\n\nCompetitors wear protective headgear and gloves with a white strip or circle across the knuckle. There are cases however, where white ended gloves are not required but any solid color may be worn. The white end just is a way to make it easier for judges to score clean hits. Each competitor must have their hands properly wrapped, pre-fight, for added protection on their hands and for added cushion under the gloves. Gloves worn by the fighters must be twelve ounces in weight unless, the fighters weigh under 165 pounds, thus allowing them to wear 10 ounce gloves. A punch is considered a scoring punch only when the boxers connect with the white portion of the gloves. Each punch that lands cleanly on the head or torso with sufficient force is awarded a point. A referee monitors the fight to ensure that competitors use only legal blows. A belt worn over the torso represents the lower limit of punches – any boxer repeatedly landing low blows below the belt is disqualified. Referees also ensure that the boxers don't use holding tactics to prevent the opponent from swinging. If this occurs, the referee separates the opponents and orders them to continue boxing. Repeated holding can result in a boxer being penalized or ultimately disqualified. Referees will stop the bout if a boxer is seriously injured, if one boxer is significantly dominating the other or if the score is severely imbalanced. Amateur bouts which end this way may be noted as \"RSC\" (referee stopped contest) with notations for an outclassed opponent (RSCO), outscored opponent (RSCOS), injury (RSCI) or head injury (RSCH).\n\nProfessional boxing\n\nProfessional bouts are usually much longer than amateur bouts, typically ranging from ten to twelve rounds, though four-round fights are common for less experienced fighters or club fighters. There are also some two- and three-round professional bouts, especially in Australia. Through the early twentieth century, it was common for fights to have unlimited rounds, ending only when one fighter quit, benefiting high-energy fighters like Jack Dempsey. Fifteen rounds remained the internationally recognized limit for championship fights for most of the twentieth century until the early 1980s, when the death of boxer Duk Koo Kim eventually prompted the World Boxing Council and other organizations sanctioning professional boxing to reduce the limit to twelve rounds.\n\nHeadgear is not permitted in professional bouts, and boxers are generally allowed to take much more damage before a fight is halted. At any time, the referee may stop the contest if he believes that one participant cannot defend himself due to injury. In that case, the other participant is awarded a technical knockout win. A technical knockout would also be awarded if a fighter lands a punch that opens a cut on the opponent, and the opponent is later deemed not fit to continue by a doctor because of the cut. For this reason, fighters often employ cutmen, whose job is to treat cuts between rounds so that the boxer is able to continue despite the cut. If a boxer simply quits fighting, or if his corner stops the fight, then the winning boxer is also awarded a technical knockout victory. In contrast with amateur boxing, professional male boxers have to be bare-chested. \n\nBoxing styles\n\nDefinition of style\n\n\"Style\" is often defined as the strategic approach a fighter takes during a bout. No two fighters' styles are alike, as it is determined by that individual's physical and mental attributes. Three main styles exist in boxing: outside fighter (\"boxer\"), brawler (or \"slugger\"), and Inside fighter (\"swarmer\"). These styles may be divided into several special subgroups, such as counter puncher, etc. The main philosophy of the styles is, that each style has an advantage over one, but disadvantage over the other one. It follows the rock-paper-scissors scenario - boxer beats brawler, brawler beats swarmer, and swarmer beats boxer. \n\nBoxer/out-fighter\n\nA classic \"boxer\" or stylist (also known as an \"out-fighter\") seeks to maintain distance between himself and his opponent, fighting with faster, longer range punches, most notably the jab, and gradually wearing his opponent down. Due to this reliance on weaker punches, out-fighters tend to win by point decisions rather than by knockout, though some out-fighters have notable knockout records. They are often regarded as the best boxing strategists due to their ability to control the pace of the fight and lead their opponent, methodically wearing him down and exhibiting more skill and finesse than a brawler. Out-fighters need reach, hand speed, reflexes, and footwork.\n\nNotable out-fighters include Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Joe Calzaghe Wilfredo Gómez, \nSalvador Sanchez, Cecilia Brækhus, Gene Tunney, Ezzard Charles, Willie Pep, Meldrick Taylor, Ricardo Lopez, Floyd Mayweather, Roy Jones, Jr., Sugar Ray Leonard, Miguel Vazquez, Sergio \"Maravilla\" Martínez, Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir Klitschko, and Guillermo Rigondeaux. This style was also used by fictional boxer Apollo Creed.\n\nBoxer-puncher\n\nA boxer-puncher is a well-rounded boxer who is able to fight at close range with a combination of technique and power, often with the ability to knock opponents out with a combination and in some instances a single shot. Their movement and tactics are similar to that of an out-fighter (although they are generally not as mobile as an out-fighter), but instead of winning by decision, they tend to wear their opponents down using combinations and then move in to score the knockout. A boxer must be well rounded to be effective using this style.\n\nNotable boxer-punchers include Muhammad Ali, Wladimir Klitschko, Lennox Lewis, Joe Louis, Wilfredo Gómez, Oscar de la Hoya, Archie Moore, Miguel Cotto, Nonito Donaire, Sam Langford, Henry Armstrong, Sugar Ray Robinson, Tony Zale, Carlos Monzón, Alexis Argüello, Erik Morales, Terry Norris, Marco Antonio Barrera, Naseem Hamed and Thomas Hearns.\n\nCounter puncher\n\nCounter punchers are slippery, defensive style fighters who often rely on their opponent's mistakes in order to gain the advantage, whether it be on the score cards or more preferably a knockout. They use their well-rounded defense to avoid or block shots and then immediately catch the opponent off guard with a well placed and timed punch. A fight with a skilled counter-puncher can turn into a war of attrition, where each shot landed is a battle in itself. Thus, fighting against counter punchers requires constant feinting and the ability to avoid telegraphing one's attacks. To be truly successful using this style they must have good reflexes, a high level of prediction and awareness, pinpoint accuracy and speed, both in striking and in footwork.\n\nNotable counter punchers include Muhammad Ali, Vitali Klitschko, Evander Holyfield, Max Schmeling, Chris Byrd, Jim Corbett, Jack Johnson, Bernard Hopkins, Laszlo Papp, Jerry Quarry, Anselmo Moreno, James Toney, Marvin Hagler, Juan Manuel Márquez, Humberto Soto, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Roger Mayweather, Pernell Whitaker, Sergio Gabriel Martinez and Guillermo Rigondeaux.\n\nCounter punchers usually wear their opponents down by causing them to miss their punches. The more the opponent misses, the faster they tire, and the psychological effects of being unable to land a hit will start to sink in. The counter puncher often tries to outplay their opponent entirely, not just in a physical sense, but also in a mental and emotional sense. This style can be incredibly difficult, especially against seasoned fighters, but winning a fight without getting hit is often worth the pay-off. They usually try to stay away from the center of the ring, in order to outmaneuver and chip away at their opponents. A large advantage in counter-hitting is the forward momentum of the attacker, which drives them further into your return strike. As such, knockouts are more common than one would expect from a defensive style.\n\nBrawler/slugger\n\nA brawler is a fighter who generally lacks finesse and footwork in the ring, but makes up for it through sheer punching power. Mainly Irish, Irish-American, Puerto Rican, Mexican, and Mexican-American boxers popularized this style. Many brawlers tend to lack mobility, preferring a less mobile, more stable platform and have difficulty pursuing fighters who are fast on their feet. They may also have a tendency to ignore combination punching in favor of continuous beat-downs with one hand and by throwing slower, more powerful single punches (such as hooks and uppercuts). Their slowness and predictable punching pattern (single punches with obvious leads) often leaves them open to counter punches, so successful brawlers must be able to absorb substantial amounts of punishment. However, not all brawler/slugger fighters are not mobile; some can move around and switch styles if needed but still have the brawler/slugger style such as Wilfredo Gómez, Prince Naseem Hamed and Danny García.\n\nA brawler's most important assets are power and chin (the ability to absorb punishment while remaining able to continue boxing). Examples of this style include George Foreman, Rocky Marciano, Julio Cesar Chavez, Roberto Duran, Danny García, Wilfredo Gómez, Sonny Liston, John L. Sullivan, Max Baer, Prince Naseem Hamed, Ray Mancini, David Tua, Arturo Gatti, Micky Ward, Brandon Ríos, Ruslan Provodnikov, Michael Katsidis, James Kirkland, Marcos Maidana, Jake Lamotta, Manny Pacquiao, and Ireland's John Duddy. This style of boxing was also used by fictional boxers Rocky Balboa and James \"Clubber\" Lang.\n\nBrawlers tend to be more predictable and easy to hit but usually fare well enough against other fighting styles because they train to take punches very well. They often have a higher chance than other fighting styles to score a knockout against their opponents because they focus on landing big, powerful hits, instead of smaller, faster attacks. Oftentimes they place focus on training on their upper body instead of their entire body, to increase power and endurance. They also aim to intimidate their opponents because of their power, stature and ability to take a punch.\n\nSwarmer/in-fighter\n\nIn-fighters/swarmers (sometimes called \"pressure fighters\") attempt to stay close to an opponent, throwing intense flurries and combinations of hooks and uppercuts. A successful in-fighter often needs a good \"chin\" because swarming usually involves being hit with many jabs before they can maneuver inside where they are more effective. In-fighters operate best at close range because they are generally shorter and have less reach than their opponents and thus are more effective at a short distance where the longer arms of their opponents make punching awkward. However, several fighters tall for their division have been relatively adept at in-fighting as well as out-fighting.\n\nThe essence of a swarmer is non-stop aggression. Many short in-fighters utilize their stature to their advantage, employing a bob-and-weave defense by bending at the waist to slip underneath or to the sides of incoming punches. Unlike blocking, causing an opponent to miss a punch disrupts his balance, permits forward movement past the opponent's extended arm and keeps the hands free to counter. A distinct advantage that in-fighters have is when throwing uppercuts where they can channel their entire bodyweight behind the punch; Mike Tyson was famous for throwing devastating uppercuts. Marvin Hagler was known for his hard \"chin\", punching power, body attack and the stalking of his opponents. Some in-fighters, like Mike Tyson, have been known for being notoriously hard to hit. The key to a swarmer is aggression, endurance, chin, and bobbing-and-weaving.\n\nNotable in-fighters include Julio César Chávez, Miguel Cotto, Joe Frazier, Danny García, Mike Tyson, Manny Pacquiao, Saúl Álvarez, Rocky Marciano, Jack Dempsey, Wayne McCullough, Gerry Penalosa, Harry Greb, David Tua, Ricky Hatton and Gennady Golovkin.\n\nCombinations of styles\n\nAll fighters have primary skills with which they feel most comfortable, but truly elite fighters are often able to incorporate auxiliary styles when presented with a particular challenge. For example, an out-fighter will sometimes plant his feet and counter punch, or a slugger may have the stamina to pressure fight with his power punches.\n\nStyle matchups\n\nThere is a generally accepted rule of thumb about the success each of these boxing styles has against the others. In general, an in-fighter has an advantage over an out-fighter, an out-fighter has an advantage over a brawler, and a brawler has an advantage over an in-fighter; these form a cycle with each style being stronger relative to one, and weaker relative to another, with none dominating, as in rock-paper-scissors. Naturally, many other factors, such as the skill level and training of the combatants, determine the outcome of a fight, but the widely held belief in this relationship among the styles is embodied in the cliché amongst boxing fans and writers that \"styles make fights.\"\n\nBrawlers tend to overcome swarmers or in-fighters because, in trying to get close to the slugger, the in-fighter will invariably have to walk straight into the guns of the much harder-hitting brawler, so, unless the former has a very good chin and the latter's stamina is poor, the brawler's superior power will carry the day. A famous example of this type of match-up advantage would be George Foreman's knockout victory over Joe Frazier in their original bout \"The Sunshine Showdown\".\n\nAlthough in-fighters struggle against heavy sluggers, they typically enjoy more success against out-fighters or boxers. Out-fighters prefer a slower fight, with some distance between themselves and the opponent. The in-fighter tries to close that gap and unleash furious flurries. On the inside, the out-fighter loses a lot of his combat effectiveness, because he cannot throw the hard punches. The in-fighter is generally successful in this case, due to his intensity in advancing on his opponent and his good agility, which makes him difficult to evade. For example, the swarming Joe Frazier, though easily dominated by the slugger George Foreman, was able to create many more problems for the boxer Muhammad Ali in their three fights. Joe Louis, after retirement, admitted that he hated being crowded, and that swarmers like untied/undefeated champ Rocky Marciano would have caused him style problems even in his prime.\n\nThe boxer or out-fighter tends to be most successful against a brawler, whose slow speed (both hand and foot) and poor technique makes him an easy target to hit for the faster out-fighter. The out-fighter's main concern is to stay alert, as the brawler only needs to land one good punch to finish the fight. If the out-fighter can avoid those power punches, he can often wear the brawler down with fast jabs, tiring him out. If he is successful enough, he may even apply extra pressure in the later rounds in an attempt to achieve a knockout. Most classic boxers, such as Muhammad Ali, enjoyed their best successes against sluggers.\n\nAn example of a style matchup was the historical fight of Julio César Chávez, a swarmer or in-fighter, against Meldrick Taylor, the boxer or out-fighter (see Julio César Chávez vs. Meldrick Taylor). The match was nicknamed \"Thunder Meets Lightning\" as an allusion to punching power of Chávez and blinding speed of Taylor. Chávez was the epitome of the \"Mexican\" style of boxing. Taylor's hand and foot speed and boxing abilities gave him the early advantage, allowing him to begin building a large lead on points. Chávez remained relentless in his pursuit of Taylor and due to his greater punching power Chávez slowly punished Taylor. Coming into the later rounds, Taylor was bleeding from the mouth, his entire face was swollen, the bones around his eye socket had been broken, he had swallowed a considerable amount of his own blood, and as he grew tired, Taylor was increasingly forced into exchanging blows with Chávez, which only gave Chávez a greater chance to cause damage. While there was little doubt that Taylor had solidly won the first three quarters of the fight, the question at hand was whether he would survive the final quarter. Going into the final round, Taylor held a secure lead on the scorecards of two of the three judges. Chávez would have to knock Taylor out to claim a victory, whereas Taylor merely needed to stay away from the Mexican legend. However, Taylor did not stay away, but continued to trade blows with Chávez. As he did so, Taylor showed signs of extreme exhaustion, and every tick of the clock brought Taylor closer to victory unless Chávez could knock him out.\nWith about a minute left in the round, Chávez hit Taylor squarely with several hard punches and stayed on the attack, continuing to hit Taylor with well-placed shots. Finally, with about 25 seconds to go, Chávez landed a hard right hand that caused Taylor to stagger forward towards a corner, forcing Chávez back ahead of him. Suddenly Chávez stepped around Taylor, positioning him so that Taylor was trapped in the corner, with no way to escape from Chávez' desperate final flurry. Chávez then nailed Taylor with a tremendous right hand that dropped the younger man. By using the ring ropes to pull himself up, Taylor managed to return to his feet and was given the mandatory 8-count. Referee Richard Steele asked Taylor twice if he was able to continue fighting, but Taylor failed to answer. Steele then concluded that Taylor was unfit to continue and signaled that he was ending the fight, resulting in a TKO victory for Chávez with only two seconds to go in the bout.\n\nEquipment\n\nSince boxing involves forceful, repetitive punching, precautions must be taken to prevent damage to bones in the hand. Most trainers do not allow boxers to train and spar without wrist wraps and boxing gloves. Hand wraps are used to secure the bones in the hand, and the gloves are used to protect the hands from blunt injury, allowing boxers to throw punches with more force than if they did not utilize them. Gloves have been required in competition since the late nineteenth century, though modern boxing gloves are much heavier than those worn by early twentieth-century fighters. Prior to a bout, both boxers agree upon the weight of gloves to be used in the bout, with the understanding that lighter gloves allow heavy punchers to inflict more damage. The brand of gloves can also affect the impact of punches, so this too is usually stipulated before a bout. Both sides are allowed to inspect the wraps and gloves of the opponent to help ensure both are within agreed upon specifications and no tampering has taken place.\n\nA mouth guard is important to protect the teeth and gums from injury, and to cushion the jaw, resulting in a decreased chance of knockout. Both fighters must wear soft soled shoes to reduce the damage from accidental (or intentional) stepping on feet. While older boxing boots more commonly resembled those of a professional wrestler, modern boxing shoes and boots tend to be quite similar to their amateur wrestling counterparts.\n\nBoxers practice their skills on two basic types of punching bags. A small, tear-drop-shaped \"speed bag\" is used to hone reflexes and repetitive punching skills, while a large cylindrical \"heavy bag\" filled with sand, a synthetic substitute, or water is used to practice power punching and body blows. In addition to these distinctive pieces of equipment, boxers also utilize sport-nonspecific training equipment to build strength, speed, agility, and stamina. Common training equipment includes free weights, rowing machines, jump rope, and medicine balls.\n\nBoxing matches typically take place in a boxing ring, a raised platform surrounded by ropes attached to posts rising in each corner. The term \"ring\" has come to be used as a metaphor for many aspects of prize fighting in general.\n\nTechnique\n\nStance\n\nThe modern boxing stance differs substantially from the typical boxing stances of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The modern stance has a more upright vertical-armed guard, as opposed to the more horizontal, knuckles-facing-forward guard adopted by early 20th century hook users such as Jack Johnson.\n\nFile:attitude_droite1.jpg|Upright stance\nFile:attitude_semi-enroulée1.jpg|Semi-crouch\nFile:attitude_enroulée1.jpg|Full crouch\n\nIn a fully upright stance, the boxer stands with the legs shoulder-width apart and the rear foot a half-step in front of the lead man. Right-handed or orthodox boxers lead with the left foot and fist (for most penetration power). Both feet are parallel, and the right heel is off the ground. The lead (left) fist is held vertically about six inches in front of the face at eye level. The rear (right) fist is held beside the chin and the elbow tucked against the ribcage to protect the body. The chin is tucked into the chest to avoid punches to the jaw which commonly cause knock-outs and is often kept slightly off-center. Wrists are slightly bent to avoid damage when punching and the elbows are kept tucked in to protect the ribcage. Some boxers fight from a crouch, leaning forward and keeping their feet closer together. The stance described is considered the \"textbook\" stance and fighters are encouraged to change it around once it's been mastered as a base. Case in point, many fast fighters have their hands down and have almost exaggerated footwork, while brawlers or bully fighters tend to slowly stalk their opponents.\n\nLeft-handed or southpaw fighters use a mirror image of the orthodox stance, which can create problems for orthodox fighters unaccustomed to receiving jabs, hooks, or crosses from the opposite side. The southpaw stance, conversely, is vulnerable to a straight right hand.\n\nNorth American fighters tend to favor a more balanced stance, facing the opponent almost squarely, while many European fighters stand with their torso turned more to the side. The positioning of the hands may also vary, as some fighters prefer to have both hands raised in front of the face, risking exposure to body shots.\n\nModern boxers can sometimes be seen tapping their cheeks or foreheads with their fists in order to remind themselves to keep their hands up (which becomes difficult during long bouts). Boxers are taught to push off with their feet in order to move effectively. Forward motion involves lifting the lead leg and pushing with the rear leg. Rearward motion involves lifting the rear leg and pushing with the lead leg. During lateral motion the leg in the direction of the movement moves first while the opposite leg provides the force needed to move the body.\n\nPunches\n\nThere are four basic punches in boxing: the jab, cross, hook and uppercut. Any punch other than a jab is considered a power punch. If a boxer is right-handed (orthodox), his left hand is the lead hand and his right hand is the rear hand. For a left-handed boxer or southpaw, the hand positions are reversed. For clarity, the following discussion will assume a right-handed boxer.\n\nFile:jab7.jpg|Jab\nFile:Drop3.jpg|Cross - in counter-punch with a looping\nFile:crochet1.jpg|Hook\nFile:uppercut2.jpg|Uppercut\n\n* Jab – A quick, straight punch thrown with the lead hand from the guard position. The jab is accompanied by a small, clockwise rotation of the torso and hips, while the fist rotates 90 degrees, becoming horizontal upon impact. As the punch reaches full extension, the lead shoulder can be brought up to guard the chin. The rear hand remains next to the face to guard the jaw. After making contact with the target, the lead hand is retracted quickly to resume a guard position in front of the face.\n** The jab is recognized as the most important punch in a boxer's arsenal because it provides a fair amount of its own cover and it leaves the least amount of space for a counter punch from the opponent. It has the longest reach of any punch and does not require commitment or large weight transfers. Due to its relatively weak power, the jab is often used as a tool to gauge distances, probe an opponent's defenses, harass an opponent, and set up heavier, more powerful punches. A half-step may be added, moving the entire body into the punch, for additional power. Some notable boxers who have been able to develop relative power in their jabs and use it to punish or 'wear down' their opponents to some effect include Larry Holmes and Wladimir Klitschko.\n* Cross – A powerful, straight punch thrown with the rear hand. From the guard position, the rear hand is thrown from the chin, crossing the body and traveling towards the target in a straight line. The rear shoulder is thrust forward and finishes just touching the outside of the chin. At the same time, the lead hand is retracted and tucked against the face to protect the inside of the chin. For additional power, the torso and hips are rotated counter-clockwise as the cross is thrown. A measure of an ideally extended cross is that the shoulder of the striking arm, the knee of the front leg and the ball of the front foot are on the same vertical plane. \n** Weight is also transferred from the rear foot to the lead foot, resulting in the rear heel turning outwards as it acts as a fulcrum for the transfer of weight. Body rotation and the sudden weight transfer is what gives the cross its power. Like the jab, a half-step forward may be added. After the cross is thrown, the hand is retracted quickly and the guard position resumed. It can be used to counter punch a jab, aiming for the opponent's head (or a counter to a cross aimed at the body) or to set up a hook. The cross is also called a \"straight\" or \"right\", especially if it does not cross the opponent's outstretched jab.\n* Hook – A semi-circular punch thrown with the lead hand to the side of the opponent's head. From the guard position, the elbow is drawn back with a horizontal fist (knuckles pointing forward) and the elbow bent. The rear hand is tucked firmly against the jaw to protect the chin. The torso and hips are rotated clockwise, propelling the fist through a tight, clockwise arc across the front of the body and connecting with the target.\n** At the same time, the lead foot pivots clockwise, turning the left heel outwards. Upon contact, the hook's circular path ends abruptly and the lead hand is pulled quickly back into the guard position. A hook may also target the lower body and this technique is sometimes called the \"rip\" to distinguish it from the conventional hook to the head. The hook may also be thrown with the rear hand. Notable left hookers include Joe Frazier , Roy Jones Jr. and Mike Tyson.\n\n* Uppercut – A vertical, rising punch thrown with the rear hand. From the guard position, the torso shifts slightly to the right, the rear hand drops below the level of the opponent's chest and the knees are bent slightly. From this position, the rear hand is thrust upwards in a rising arc towards the opponent's chin or torso.\n** At the same time, the knees push upwards quickly and the torso and hips rotate anti-clockwise and the rear heel turns outward, mimicking the body movement of the cross. The strategic utility of the uppercut depends on its ability to \"lift\" the opponent's body, setting it off-balance for successive attacks. The right uppercut followed by a left hook is a deadly combination employing the uppercut to lift the opponent's chin into a vulnerable position, then the hook to knock the opponent out.\n\nThese different punch types can be thrown in rapid succession to form combinations or \"combos.\" The most common is the jab and cross combination, nicknamed the \"one-two combo.\" This is usually an effective combination, because the jab blocks the opponent's view of the cross, making it easier to land cleanly and forcefully.\n\nA large, swinging circular punch starting from a cocked-back position with the arm at a longer extension than the hook and all of the fighter's weight behind it is sometimes referred to as a \"roundhouse,\" \"haymaker,\" or sucker-punch. Relying on body weight and centripetal force within a wide arc, the roundhouse can be a powerful blow, but it is often a wild and uncontrolled punch that leaves the fighter delivering it off balance and with an open guard.\n\nWide, looping punches have the further disadvantage of taking more time to deliver, giving the opponent ample warning to react and counter. For this reason, the haymaker or roundhouse is not a conventional punch, and is regarded by trainers as a mark of poor technique or desperation. Sometimes it has been used, because of its immense potential power, to finish off an already staggering opponent who seems unable or unlikely to take advantage of the poor position it leaves the puncher in.\n\nAnother unconventional punch is the rarely used bolo punch, in which the opponent swings an arm out several times in a wide arc, usually as a distraction, before delivering with either that or the other arm.\n\nAn illegal punch to the back of the head or neck is known as a rabbit punch.\n\nDefense\n\nThere are several basic maneuvers a boxer can use in order to evade or block punches, depicted and discussed below.\n\nFile:slip1.jpg|Slipping\nFile:slip2.jpg|Bobbing\nFile:blocage1.jpg|Blocking (with the arms)\nFile:protection passive1.jpg|Cover-Up (with the gloves)\nFile:neutraliser1.jpg|Clinching\nFile:pas de retrait.jpg|Footwork\nFile:retrait2.jpg|Pulling away\n\n* Slip – Slipping rotates the body slightly so that an incoming punch passes harmlessly next to the head. As the opponent's punch arrives, the boxer sharply rotates the hips and shoulders. This turns the chin sideways and allows the punch to \"slip\" past. Muhammad Ali was famous for extremely fast and close slips, as was an early Mike Tyson.\n* Sway or fade – To anticipate a punch and move the upper body or head back so that it misses or has its force appreciably lessened. Also called \"rolling with the punch\" or \" Riding The Punch\".\n* Duck or break – To drop down with the back straight so that a punch aimed at the head glances or misses entirely.\n* Bob and weave – Bobbing moves the head laterally and beneath an incoming punch. As the opponent's punch arrives, the boxer bends the legs quickly and simultaneously shifts the body either slightly right or left. Once the punch has been evaded, the boxer \"weaves\" back to an upright position, emerging on either the outside or inside of the opponent's still-extended arm. To move outside the opponent's extended arm is called \"bobbing to the outside\". To move inside the opponent's extended arm is called \"bobbing to the inside\". Joe Frazier, Jack Dempsey, Mike Tyson and Rocky Marciano were masters of bobbing and weaving.\n* Parry/block – Parrying or blocking uses the boxer's shoulder, hands or arms as defensive tools to protect against incoming attacks. A block generally receives a punch while a parry tends to deflect it. A \"palm\", \"catch\", or \"cuff\" is a defense which intentionally takes the incoming punch on the palm portion of the defender's glove.\n* The cover-up – Covering up is the last opportunity (other than rolling with a punch) to avoid an incoming strike to an unprotected face or body. Generally speaking, the hands are held high to protect the head and chin and the forearms are tucked against the torso to impede body shots. When protecting the body, the boxer rotates the hips and lets incoming punches \"roll\" off the guard. To protect the head, the boxer presses both fists against the front of the face with the forearms parallel and facing outwards. This type of guard is weak against attacks from below.\n* The clinch – Clinching is a form of trapping or a rough form of grappling and occurs when the distance between both fighters has closed and straight punches cannot be employed. In this situation, the boxer attempts to hold or \"tie up\" the opponent's hands so he is unable to throw hooks or uppercuts. To perform a clinch, the boxer loops both hands around the outside of the opponent's shoulders, scooping back under the forearms to grasp the opponent's arms tightly against his own body. In this position, the opponent's arms are pinned and cannot be used to attack. Clinching is a temporary match state and is quickly dissipated by the referee. Clinching is technically against the rules, and in amateur fights points are deducted fairly quickly for it. It is unlikely, however, to see points deducted for a clinch in professional boxing.\n\nLess common strategies\n\n* The \"rope-a-dope\" strategy : Used by Muhammad Ali in his 1974 \"the Rumble in the Jungle\" bout against George Foreman, the rope-a-dope method involves lying back against the ropes, covering up defensively as much as possible and allowing the opponent to attempt numerous punches. The back-leaning posture, which does not cause the defending boxer to become as unbalanced as he would during normal backward movement, also maximizes the distance of the defender's head from his opponent, increasing the probability that punches will miss their intended target. Weathering the blows that do land, the defender lures the opponent into expending energy while conserving his/her own. If successful, the attacking opponent will eventually tire, creating defensive flaws which the boxer can exploit. In modern boxing, the rope-a-dope is generally discouraged since most opponents are not fooled by it and few boxers possess the physical toughness to withstand a prolonged, unanswered assault. Recently, however, eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao skillfully used the strategy to gauge the power of welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto in November 2009. Pacquiao followed up the rope-a-dope gambit with a withering knockdown.\n* Bolo punch : Occasionally seen in Olympic boxing, the bolo is an arm punch which owes its power to the shortening of a circular arc rather than to transference of body weight; it tends to have more of an effect due to the surprise of the odd angle it lands at rather than the actual power of the punch. This is more of a gimmick than a technical maneuver; this punch is not taught, being on the same plane in boxing technicality as is the Ali shuffle. Nevertheless, a few professional boxers have used the bolo-punch to great effect, including former welterweight champions Sugar Ray Leonard, and Kid Gavilan. Middleweight champion Ceferino Garcia is regarded as the inventor of the bolo punch.\n\nFile:contre_bolo1.jpg| Bolo punch\nFile:drop1.jpg| Overhand (overcut)\n\n* Overhand right : The overhand right is a punch not found in every boxer's arsenal. Unlike the right cross, which has a trajectory parallel to the ground, the overhand right has a looping circular arc as it is thrown over the shoulder with the palm facing away from the boxer. It is especially popular with smaller stature boxers trying to reach taller opponents. Boxers who have used this punch consistently and effectively include former heavyweight champions Rocky Marciano and Tim Witherspoon, as well as MMA champions Chuck Liddell and Fedor Emelianenko. The overhand right has become a popular weapon in other tournaments that involve fist striking.\n* Check hook : A check hook is employed to prevent aggressive boxers from lunging in. There are two parts to the check hook. The first part consists of a regular hook. The second, trickier part involves the footwork. As the opponent lunges in, the boxer should throw the hook and pivot on his left foot and swing his right foot 180 degrees around. If executed correctly, the aggressive boxer will lunge in and sail harmlessly past his opponent like a bull missing a matador. This is rarely seen in professional boxing as it requires a great disparity in skill level to execute. Technically speaking it has been said that there is no such thing as a check hook and that it is simply a hook applied to an opponent that has lurched forward and past his opponent who simply hooks him on the way past. Others have argued that the check hook exists but is an illegal punch due to it being a pivot punch which is illegal in the sport. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. employed the use of a check hook against Ricky Hatton, which sent Hatton flying head first into the corner post and being knocked down.\n\nRing corner\n\nIn boxing, each fighter is given a corner of the ring where he rests in between rounds for 1 minute and where his trainers stand. Typically, three men stand in the corner besides the boxer himself; these are the trainer, the assistant trainer and the cutman. The trainer and assistant typically give advice to the boxer on what he is doing wrong as well as encouraging him if he is losing. The cutman is a cutaneous doctor responsible for keeping the boxer's face and eyes free of cuts and blood. This is of particular importance because many fights are stopped because of cuts that threaten the boxer's eyes.\n\nIn addition, the corner is responsible for stopping the fight if they feel their fighter is in grave danger of permanent injury. The corner will occasionally throw in a white towel to signify a boxer's surrender (the idiomatic phrase \"to throw in the towel\", meaning to give up, derives from this practice). This can be seen in the fight between Diego Corrales and Floyd Mayweather. In that fight, Corrales' corner surrendered despite Corrales' steadfast refusal.\n\nMedical concerns\n\nKnocking a person unconscious or even causing concussion may cause permanent brain damage. There is no clear division between the force required to knock a person out and the force likely to kill a person. Since 1980, more than 200 amateur boxers, professional boxers and Toughman fighters have died due to ring or training injuries. In 1983, editorials in the Journal of the American Medical Association called for a ban on boxing. The editor, Dr. George Lundberg, called boxing an \"obscenity\" that \"should not be sanctioned by any civilized society.\" Since then, the British, Canadian and Australian Medical Associations have called for bans on boxing.\n\nSupporters of the ban state that boxing is the only sport where hurting the other athlete is the goal. Dr. Bill O'Neill, boxing spokesman for the British Medical Association, has supported the BMA's proposed ban on boxing: \"It is the only sport where the intention is to inflict serious injury on your opponent, and we feel that we must have a total ban on boxing.\" Opponents respond that such a position is misguided opinion, stating that amateur boxing is scored solely according to total connecting blows with no award for \"injury\". They observe that many skilled professional boxers have had rewarding careers without inflicting injury on opponents by accumulating scoring blows and avoiding punches winning rounds scored 10-9 by the 10-point must system, and they note that there are many other sports where concussions are much more prevalent. \n\nIn 2007, one study of amateur boxers showed that protective headgear did not prevent brain damage, and another found that amateur boxers faced a high risk of brain damage. The Gothenburg study analyzed temporary levels of neurofiliment light in cerebral spinal fluid which they conclude is evidence of damage, even though the levels soon subside. More comprehensive studies of neurologiocal function on larger samples performed by Johns Hopkins University and accident rates analyzed by National Safety Council show amateur boxing is a comparatively safe sport.\n\nIn 1997, the American Association of Professional Ringside Physicians was established to create medical protocols through research and education to prevent injuries in boxing. \n\nProfessional boxing is forbidden in Iceland, Iran, Saudi Arabia and North Korea. It was banned in Sweden until 2007 when the ban was lifted but strict restrictions, including four three-minute rounds for fights, were imposed. It was banned in Albania from 1965 till the fall of Communism in 1991; it is now legal there. Norway legalized professional boxing in December 2014.\n\nBoxing Hall of Fame\n\nThe sport of boxing has two internationally recognized boxing halls of fame; the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) and the World Boxing Hall of Fame (WBHF), with the IBHOF being the more widely recognized boxing hall of fame. In 2013, The Boxing Hall of Fame Las Vegas opened in Las Vegas, NV founded by Steve Lott, former assistant manager for Mike Tyson \n\nThe WBHF was founded by Everett L. Sanders in 1980. Since its inception the WBHOF has never had a permanent location or museum, which has allowed the more recent IBHOF to garner more publicity and prestige. Among the notable names in the WBHF are Ricardo \"Finito\" Lopez, Gabriel \"Flash\" Elorde, Michael Carbajal, Khaosai Galaxy, Henry Armstrong, Jack Johnson, Roberto Durán, George Foreman, Ceferino Garcia and Salvador Sanchez. Boxing's International Hall of Fame was inspired by a tribute an American town held for two local heroes in 1982. The town, Canastota, New York, (which is about 15 mi east of Syracuse, via the New York State Thruway), honored former world welterweight/middleweight champion Carmen Basilio and his nephew, former world welterweight champion Billy Backus. The people of Canastota raised money for the tribute which inspired the idea of creating an official, annual hall of fame for notable boxers.\n\nThe International Boxing Hall of Fame opened in Canastota in 1989. The first inductees in 1990 included Jack Johnson, Benny Leonard, Jack Dempsey, Henry Armstrong, Sugar Ray Robinson, Archie Moore, and Muhammad Ali. Other world-class figures include Salvador Sanchez, Jose Napoles, Roberto \"Manos de Piedra\" Durán, Ricardo Lopez, Gabriel \"Flash\" Elorde, Vicente Saldivar, Ismael Laguna, Eusebio Pedroza, Carlos Monzón, Azumah Nelson, Rocky Marciano, Pipino Cuevas and Ken Buchanan. The Hall of Fame's induction ceremony is held every June as part of a four-day event. The fans who come to Canastota for the Induction Weekend are treated to a number of events, including scheduled autograph sessions, boxing exhibitions, a parade featuring past and present inductees, and the induction ceremony itself.\n\nThe Boxing Hall of Fame Las Vegas features the $75 million ESPN Classic Sports fight film and tape library and radio broadcast collection. The collection includes the fights of all the great champions including: Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Joe Frazier, Rocky Marciano and Sugar Ray Robinson. It is this exclusive fight film library that will separate the Boxing Hall of Fame Las Vegas from the other halls of fame which do not have rights to any video of their sports. The inaugural inductees included Muhammad Ali, Henry Armstrong, Tony Canzoneri, Ezzard Charles, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., Jack Dempsey, Roberto Duran, Joe Louis, and Sugar Ray Robinson \n\nGoverning and sanctioning bodies\n\n; Governing Bodies\n* British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC)\n* European Boxing Union\n* Nevada State Athletic Commission\n\n; Major Sanctioning Bodies\n* International Boxing Federation (IBF)\n* World Boxing Association (WBA)\n* World Boxing Council (WBC)\n* World Boxing Organization (WBO)\n\n;Amateur\n* International Boxing Association (AIBA; now also professional)\n\nBoxer rankings\n\nThere are various organizations and websites, that rank boxers in both weight class and pound-for-pound manner.\n* BoxRec ([http://boxrec.com/ratings.php ratings])\n* The Ring ([http://ringtv.craveonline.com/ratings ratings])\n* ESPN ([http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/columns/story?columnistrafael_dan&id\n6402207 ratings])\n* Transnational Boxing Rankings Board ([http://www.tbrb.org/all-rankings/ ratings])" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "Search", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Meow_Mix.txt", "List_of_Saturday_Night_Live_commercial_parodies.txt" ], "title": [ "Meow Mix", "List of Saturday Night Live commercial parodies" ], "wiki_context": [ "Meow Mix is a variety of dry and wet cat food known for its advertising jingle. It is a product of The J.M. Smucker Company as of March 23, 2015. Meow Mix was introduced in 1974 and sells many flavors too. It also is known for selling Alley Cat dry cat food. Their current slogan is \"It's all about the mix\".\n\nCompany background\n\nThe Meow Mix Company operates from a 200000 sqft facility in Decatur, Alabama and produces Alley Cat brand cat food products. Originally a product of Ralston Purina, Meow Mix was divested for antitrust reasons in the early 2000s. The brand was acquired by Del Monte Foods in May, 2006. Their most famous slogan is, “Tastes so good, cats ask for it by name.”\nThe company was acquired by The Cypress Group, a New York-based private equity firm in a $425 million leveraged buyout in 2003. Three years later, Del Monte Foods acquired the company for $705 million. The company had also been owned by J.W. Childs Associates which acquired the business in 2001 for $160 million. On March 23, 2015, parent company Big Heart Pet Brands was acquired by The J.M. Smucker Company. \n\nJingles\n\n\"The Meow Mix Theme\" was written by Shelley Palmer in 1970 and performed by a singing cat. The theme's lyrics is 'Meow meow meow meow' repeated multiple times, with various cats moving their mouths and captions on the bottom as if the cats were verbally speaking. The idea came from Ron Travisano, at the advertising agency of Della Femina Travisano and Partners, who had the account with Ralston Purina in 1974. Travisano put together film footage with editor Jay Gold, looping images of a cat to make it look like it was singing. The music was then composed by Tom McFaul of the jingle house Lucas/McFaul, one of the major jingle-composing houses at the time. Working from Travisano's film, McFaul wrote and produced music to fit, with the actual meowing performed by professional singer Linda November. \n\nTravisano then came up with the idea of adding English subtitles, along with a bouncing ball pointing out the words. \n\nProducts\n\nThe brand includes a variety of dry cat foods, wet foods, and treats, including the new Meow-Mix Tender Centers cat food.\n\nMeow Mix House\n\nMeow Mix House was a reality TV show created by Meow Mix in the format of Survivor. Ten cats rescued from animal shelters nationwide (including the ASPCA in New York, Touched by an Animal in Chicago, and Kitten Rescue in Los Angeles) competed for a grand prize — an executive-level position with the Meow Mix Company. These three-minute reality TV segments aired on Animal Planet for ten consecutive weeks, beginning on June 16, 2006. The cats were viewable full-time via webcam and were adopted as they were voted off of the show, receiving a year’s supply of Meow Mix as a consolation prize. Weekly contest winners for areas such as “Best Purr” and “Greatest Post Climber” were decided by a panel of judges. Two winners were chosen — one through professional judges, and a second by TV viewers. The company stated that the winner received the title of Meow Mix’s “feline vice president of research,” as well as becoming part of a new family. A second corporate position was provided to the cat voted most popular by viewers. It was possible that they would do a second season.\n\nMiami’s Cisco won the top prize of VP of R&D at Meow Mix, and Ellis from Portland won the title of viewers’ choice winner.\n\nVarieties\n\nMeow Mix comes in many varieties, including Meow Mix Original Choice, Meow Mix Seafood Selections, Meow Mix Indoor Formula, Meow Mix Tender Centers and (Now discontinued) Meow Mix Market Select.\n\nIngredients\n\nNote: ingredient list for Meow Mix Original Choice Dry Cat Food\n\nGround Yellow Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Soybean Meal, Beef Tallow Preserved with Mixed-Tocopherols (Source of Vitamin E), Turkey By-Product Meal, Salmon Meal, Oceanfish Meal, Brewers Dried Yeast, Phosphoric Acid, Animal Digest, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Tetra Sodium Pyrophosphate, Calcium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Added Color (Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 2 and other colors), Salt, Taurine, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, L-alanine, Niacin, Vitamin Supplements", "The following is a partial list of Saturday Night Live commercial parodies. On Saturday Night Live (SNL), a parody advertisement is commonly shown after the host's opening monologue. Many of the parodies were produced by James Signorelli. Fast food, beer, feminine hygiene products, toys, medications, financial institutions, and automobiles have been frequent targets.\n\nThe commercial parodies have even targeted the SNL producers. A self-parody commercial featured \"The Best of the First 20 Minutes\", a parody of Broadway Video's series of SNL compilation videos. It offered a compilation of bits from the Cameron Diaz/Smashing Pumpkins September 1998 episode before that episode had even finished.\n\nIn 1991, Kevin Nealon and Victoria Jackson hosted a clip show featuring many commercials entitled Saturday Night Live Goes Commercial. In early 1999, Will Ferrell hosted a follow-up special. In late 2005 and in March 2009, the special was updated, featuring commercials created since the airing of the original special.\n\n# \n\n* 16 and Pregnant Spinoffs – A November 2010 ad finds MTV cashing in with spinoffs inspired by 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom, such as My Super Sweet 16 and Pregnant, America's Best Pregnant Dance Crew, Wild n Out with a Special Guest: A Baby, an edition of Cribs that feature baby cribs, and I'm Snooki and Pregnant. At the end, the MTV logo comes on with MTV: Maternity Television. (In an odd case of satirical prophecy, Snooki announced to US Magazine in March 2012 that yes, she was pregnant and engaged.) \n* 24-Hour Energy for Dating Actresses: A once-daily energy supplement for men who have to deal with their amateur actress girlfriends (whether it's tolerating their musical-obsessed friends, their attempts at speaking in a foreign accent, their emotional breakdowns when they get rejected, seeing them in off-Broadway shows with younger, sexier actors, or their mediocre acting in local commercials). A female version for women who have to deal with hack stand-up comic boyfriends who always need to perform whenever people are around is also available (24-Hour Energy for Dating Stand-Up Comics).\n\nA \n\n* Abilify for Candidates - \"Because not everyone can be President,\" this version of the atypical antipsychotic is specially formulated for candidates in the 2016 race for the presidency, among them Rick Santorum (Taran Killam) and Mike Huckabee (Bobby Moynihan). \n* Academy of Better Careers – spokesman Wendell Craig pitches a program for people to find jobs as stand-by operators. \n* Action Cats – a parody of action-figure toys featuring plastic armor and weapons for live cats. \n* Adobe – A car that is very affordable (sticker price: $179) but very unsafe, as it is made entirely of clay and \"combines German engineering and Mexican know-how!\" \n* Adopt John Belushi for Christmas – Candice Bergen sells people on letting John Belushi stay at their place for the holidays. \n* Al Sharpton's Casa De Sushi – Similar to Donald Trump's House of Wings or Derek Jeter's Taco Hole, Al Sharpton (as himself) opens a Japanese restaurant even though Sharpton himself hates the food and only admits to opening the restaurant so he can pay for his political campaign. \n* Almost Pizza - Parody of the DiGiorno's pizza commercials in which the pizza itself is molecularly unstable (it shatters like glass, then regroups and crawls on the floor). \n* AM Ale – An alcoholic beverage for the morning because \"you can't wait till afternoon\". \n* Amazin Lazer - A consumer grade laser gun for cleaning up yard waste or for use in potential criminal acts. \n* The Amazing Alexander – A 1986 ad promotes a Broadway theatre performance by a popular stage hypnotist (portrayed in performance still shots by Jon Lovitz). Audience members in the ad give the show unanimous praise—the same platitude, in fact, delivered in a hypnotic trance (\"Terrific. I loved it. Much better than CATS. I'm going to see it again and again.\"). \n* Amazon Mother's Day – Three guys (played by Jason Sudeikis, Bill Hader, and Taran Killam) try to surprise the women in their lives on Mother's Day (played by Kristen Wiig, Vanessa Bayer, and Nasim Pedrad) with typical gifts (such as breakfast in bed, bath items, and a new washer), only to find them masturbating to the erotic best-seller Fifty Shades of Grey (Wiig's character uses a vibrating muscle massager—which the daughter mistakes for a microphone, Bayer's character uses a detachable showerhead and a yellow dishwashing glove, and Pedrad's character leans against a shaky washer with a picture of Joel McHale on top of it). The commercial then advertises the Kindle for moms who want to read 50 Shades of Grey without their husbands knowing. \n* America's Turning Gay – Combines parodies of 7 Up's \"America's Turning 7-Up\" advertisement campaign and Dr. Pepper's \"Be a Pepper\" ad campaign where small-town residents celebrate the sudden realization that they're homosexual. \n* America's Worst Moments – Spokesman Chris Parnell pitches a commemorative plate collection featuring America's most shocking and embarrassing moments in politics and pop culture. \n* American Cancer Society – Season six public service commercial where a spokeswoman (Gail Matthius) promises to discuss breast cancer and perform a self-exam on herself in an honest and open manner, but the promise is broken when the spokeswoman is shown with a striker bar covering her chest and explains the details of her self-exam in euphemisms. \n* American Dope Growers Union – Laraine Newman (and several SNL castmembers and writers) support American-grown marijuana and the farmers who grow it. \n* American Taser – A series of people—a pitchman (Chris Parnell), a police officer (Jason Sudeikis), a second pitchman (Darrell Hammond), a sexual predator (Seth Meyers), a businesswoman (Amy Poehler), an angry wife (Rachel Dratch), the angry wife's husband (Will Forte), a black man (Kenan Thompson), a racist nightwatchman (Bill Hader), a militant black man (Finesse Mitchell), a Star Trek geek (Andy Samberg), and a third pitchman (host Jason Lee) each demonstrate the latest models of tasers by shocking each other until the last person (Lee) shocks himself. \n* ...and More – Tina-Tina Chenuse (Jenny Slate) promotes her stores that stock personalized novelties. The skits have 3 elements: Tina-Tina introducing herself, \"Hi-lo, I'm Tina-Tina Chenuse\", the store names always end with \"and More\" (e.g. \"Car Horns and More\"), and Tina-Tina always exclaims \"Oh my God\" somewhere in the sketch. \n* And So This Is Hanukkah – promo for celebrity-packed Hanukkah special for those who know very little about the holiday \n* Angora Bouquet – tranquilizer-laced facial cleanser that \"washes your brain as well as your face\". \n* Angry Dog – dog food that turns any dog into a mindless killing machine. A picture of Michael Vick is on the package. \n* Annuale – medicine that causes women to have one period a year, making them extremely violent (Tina Fey's office worker character is shown going after co-workers Bill Hader and Andy Samberg with a pink axe, while Amy Poehler's character is shown kicking a man, played by Fred Armisen in the groin and punching him in the face), greedy (Casey Wilson's character is shown shoveling an entire birthday cake in her mouth at a child's party), and sexually frustrated (Kristen Wiig's character is shown French kissing a dog as it licks her face) due to an excessive stream of hormones. \n* Ass Don't Smell – personal hygiene spray intended to keep one's buttocks smelling fresh and clean; a parody of feminine hygiene sprays. \n* Autoscent – features Gilda Radner smiling as she crouches near a tailpipe. \n* Autumn's Eve Pumpkin Spice Douche: The feminine hygiene product that has the warm scent of fall.\n* Autumn Fizz – \"The Carbonated Douche\". \n\nB \n\n* Baba Wawa Talks to Herself – TV special promo where Baba Wawa (Gilda Radner) interviews herself. \n* BabySpanx - Foundation garments used to slim down baby fat on infants. \"I would never spank a baby, but I sure as hell would SPANX one!\" \n* Bad Idea Jeans – a commercial featuring scenes of people discussing what can be considered \"bad ideas\" (for example, \"Normally I wear protection, but then I thought, 'When am I gonna make it back to Haiti?'\"). After each scene, white text on a black background reads \"BAD IDEA\". Each scene also zooms in on each person wearing said jeans. \n* Bad Seed – a venomous, near-hysterical Nancy Reagan (Terry Sweeney) debunks rumors that her daughter Patti's novel Home Front is based on real life, and pitches her own book that she co-wrote with Stephen King. \n* Balz-Off – a medication that makes men more sensitive to women by killing off their testosterone levels. \n* Banshee – a collection of 1970s-style speakers that serve in your place when you can't be there-or won't be there-at a funeral. \n* Barkley's Bank – Former NBA player Charles Barkley has opened a bank in which he takes people's money and gambles with it in the hopes of either doubling their money or losing it all. \n* Bathroom Monkey – a housewife (Janeane Garofalo) uses a disposable simian slave that keeps your bathroom clean. \n* Berkeley Collection (Up Against The Wallpaper) – Jerry Rubin sells wallpaper with popular protest slogans from the 1960s and 1970s, from angry, anti-establishment protests to protests calling for peace and love. \n* The Best of T.T. and Mario – a CD collection featuring the raunchy song stylings of a 1970s-era Peaches-and-Herb-type singing duo (Maya Rudolph and Kenan Thompson). \n* Bierhoff House of German Coats - German entrepreneurs (Fred Armisen and episode host Ben Affleck) sell bright orange winter coats to German tourists vacationing in New York City. \n* Big Brawn Feminine Napkins – large, rough-looking menstruation pads. The ad, a parody of Brawny paper towels (with a jingle that parodies the song \"Big Bad John\"), features 50 ft lumberjack Will Ferrell aiding a regular-sized Molly Shannon in need in her bathroom—after tearing the roof from her house. \n* Big Red – a toy Viking figure that spins around, spraying red liquid from the horns of a stereotypical Viking helmet (absurdist parody of water sprinkler-type toys). Furthermore, the liquid is revealed to be hazardous, as evidenced by the thick utility gloves included in the package included to clean up the resulting mess. \n* Bio-Flex – parody of exercise equipment commercials where Will Ferrell is attacked by a half-man/half-monkey creature, which is considered a workout. \n* The Bitchslap Method – an informercial featuring a self-help video course that teaches troubled married couples to bitch-slap their spouses into submission. \n* Blaine Hotel – a bumper during Weekend Update in which Don Pardo announces that guests of Saturday Night Live stay at the Blaine Hotel, but is usually followed by a Weekend Update report about yet another grisly murder at the Blaine. \n* Booty Bidness – rapper Ludacris (as himself) pitches a new line of women's businesswear with racy phrases on them, such as \"Porn Star\", \"Bi-Curious\", \"Tasty\" (written on the rear end of a skirt), and \"Nympho\". \n* Bosley – a new procedure for hair transplants, but borrowing pubic hair. \n* Brew Dude – a hat that dispenses beer for the college student who would rather party than study. \n* Broadview Security – a parody of the actual Broadview Security commercials that infer that women living alone in large houses are the most likely to be victimized by any man she meets (including male family members, androgynous singer k.d. lang, and two kids using a trenchcoat to pose as an adult). \n* Buddweiser Light – a parody of the Bud Light \"Bring Out Your Best\" ad campaign, featuring Robin Williams and Joe Piscopo as two ice hockey players at a faceoff. The payoff comes during the voiceover, when Piscopo says of Williams, \"He ain't so bad. I don't know why my wife ran off with him.\" The two men drop gloves and fight as soon as the puck is dropped. The ad ends with Williams and Piscopo sitting on the ice and sharing a beer with gap-toothed smiles. \n* Buffy the Vampire Slayer – a promo for The WB series announces that with Seinfeld leaving the air, Buffy Summers would be moving to New York and her show would become a Buffy/Seinfeld hybrid. (\"A show about nothing... and vampires!\") \n* Bug-Off – Rather than simply killing a cockroach, this bug trap painfully tortures them and \"gives them a lot to think about\". The trap supposedly creates a signal that encourages the cockroach to enter, then adhesive glue holds the bug fast (much like a rat trap). Then, three tweezers stretch the legs in opposite directions til they snap off. Then a white-hot metal coil comes down and burns off the bug's reproductive glands of as well as making a sizable hole. Then the bug is beat senseless by its own dismembered legs. Finally, two pieces of cotton stuffed into the cockroach's orifices as food is dangled in front of it. Two kids are seen peering gleefully through a patented \"viewing window\". \n* Buh-Weet Sings – All grown up, Buckwheat (Eddie Murphy) from Our Gang (known also as The Little Rascals) has recorded a compilation of songs sung in his own and very personal style, such as \"Fee Tines a Mady\", \"Una Panoonah Banka\", \"Wookin' Pa Nub\" and, in a dedication to his friend Alfalfa, \"Barbah ob Dabill\". \n* Burger Master – a fast food restaurant where people can get their burgers done any way they want—no matter how weird or disgusting the requests. \n\nC \n\n* C.E.O Dreamboats – a magazine with famous businessmen as objects of desire for teenyboppers. \n* Calvin Klein Cream Pies – in a parody of Andie MacDowell's Calvin Klein Jeans commercials, Julia Louis-Dreyfus portrays MacDowell as an annoying model who gets hit in the face with a custard pie after one of her shallow, rambling stories. \n* Calvin Klein Jeans – a plus-sized Elizabeth Taylor (Joan Rivers) models CK Jeans, rambles on about her movie career, and snacks on some nearby food in this parody \n* Calvin Klein Underwear – CK spokesperson Justin Bieber (Kate McKinnon) appears in a trio of 2015 ads; though Justin says, \"I'm a big boy now\", he behaves immaturely, poses and preens for the camera, and leaves the female model appearing with him unimpressed. \n* Canis Cologne for Dogs – parody of a Calvin Klein fragrance ad. \n* Caribbean Essence Bath Oil – foaming, scented bath enhancer that causes a West Indian man (Tracy Morgan) to pop up during the bath and carry his bathers across a beach. \n* Carl Weathers for Governor – Following in the footsteps of his Predator co-stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse \"The Body\" Ventura, Carl Weathers promotes himself to be the next governor in any state that will take him. \n* Carter 'N Sons BBQ – A commercial for a barbecue pork restaurant produced in 2002 but aired seven years later, with disclaimers stating that the restaurant's \"Swine Fever\" marketing tagline is in no way connected to the then-recent swine flu (H1N1 virus) pandemic. \n* The Chameleon XLE – a luxury car on the inside, a dilapidated wreck on the outside—the better to deter the high risk of theft that accompanies luxury cars. The car features a simulated transmission fluid leak, mismatched hubcaps (and one exposed wheel painted school bus yellow), coat hanger antenna... and a supple leather-and-wood interior. \n* Chantix – A commercial of a product to quit smoking, with a list of side effects that are worse than nicotine addiction itself (\"If you notice changes in behavior such as a powerful, overwhelming desire to kill the person you love most, call your doctor right away.\"). \n* cheapkids.net – a website dedicated to the sale of shoddy items for babies and toddlers for irresponsible parents. \n* Chess for Girls! – a parody of the marketing of children's toys based on gender, this chess set (unrelated to the chess game in general) features pieces with Barbie doll-style bodies and chess piece heads, an accompanying dollhouse, beachwear, minivan, bubble blower, and so on. The tag line: \"A classic game of strategy and wits... and bubbles!\" \n* Chewable Pampers – A line of Pampers diapers which contain flavor crystals that, once the diaper is soiled, turns into an edible treat. \n* Chia Head – a parody of both the Chia Pet and Minoxidil; men with bald or receding hairlines use this product to give them nice green hair just like a Chia Pet. (\"Not to be used in salads!\") \n* Chris Rock's White Person's Guide to Surviving The Apollo – Chris Rock, a veteran of Harlem's famed Apollo Theater, promotes his video that gives tips to aspiring white comedians and singers on how to win over the Apollo's vociferously critical audiences. Siobhan Fallon and guest host Rob Morrow appear in before-and-after footage. \n* Cialis Turnt - Taran Killam demonstrates the effects of \"the only pill that combats your erectile dysfunction while giving you that unbeatable hip-hop sensation of 'getting turnt'\". Users are shown dancing wildly to music exclaiming \"Everybody get turnt!\" that resembles Lil Jon's song Turn Down for What. \n* Citizens for a Better America – Dr. Swen Gazzara (Gilbert Gottfried) proves the value of hard work in America by asking Ronald Reagan to personally give him a \"hum job\". \n* Clear-Rite – An \"invisible\" retainer that, it turns out, is just superglue applied directly to the teeth. The twist at the end of this commercial is that it's not actually a commercial. \n* Clearasil – Appearing in SNL's Sprockets skit, which parodied German pop culture, a young woman uses Clearasil (or, in a strong German accent, \"Clärasil\") to get rid of her pimples and impress her new boyfriend. The English word \"pimples\", however, is confused in the sketch with \"pimplen\", a strong German slang word with the same meaning as the English \"fuck\" (in the sexual sense). As a result, the commercial tagline, \"mach das pimplen kaput\", means Clearasil will destroy your sex life. \n* Closet Organizer – A man in a blue Spandex suit (Will Forte) is hired to organize anything in a closet that someone throws in. \n* Clovin Hind Jeans – a parody of Calvin Klein Jeans commercials by Richard Avedon which featured numerous supermodels of the day. \n* Cluckin' Chicken – a fast-food restaurant's animated mascot (voiced by Adam Sandler), when asked why he tastes so good, gleefully describes the process by which he is killed, decapitated and eviscerated, then flame-broiled (then, displaying a schematic chart, describes how he is consumed, digested, and eventually eliminated through defecation). \n* CNN Pregnancy Test – just like its namesake network, this home pregnancy test delivers \"relentless breaking news\" alerts to a couple waiting (impatiently) to see if they're expecting a baby. \n* Coldcock Malt Liquor – Tim Meadows appears in this parody of Billy Dee Williams' ads for Colt 45; with each sip from a tall can of this beverage, an animated fist arises from the can's label to whack the drinker upside the jaw. Ellen Cleghorne (\"I ain't afraid of no can of beer!\") and Chris Rock also appear. \n* Colon Blow – In a parody of high-fiber cereal ads (notably Total and its \"how many bowls\" campaign), an off-screen voice tells cereal eater Phil Hartman he will need 30,000 bowls of his usual cereal to equal the fiber content in a single bowl of Colon Blow. (Also promoted is Super Colon Blow, with fiber content equal to that of 2.5 million bowls of Hartman's regular cereal.) When the large numbers are quoted, a pyramid of the same number of bowls elevates Hartman into the ionosphere. \n* Colonel Belmont's Old Fashioned Horse Glue – Will Ferrell stars as Langford T. Belmont, a man whose family has been in the horse glue business for generations. It is a parody of commercials that try to appeal to old-fashioned values and tradition. \n* Compulsion – a \"Calvin Kleen\" disinfectant, a parody of Obsession perfume and featuring an obsessive compulsive spokesmodel (played by Jan Hooks). \n* Cookie Dough Sport – parody of Gatorade sports drink for athletes wherein Gatorade is replaced with cookie dough i.e. being poured over a winning coach or gulped down after a hard work out. \n* Corn Chip Nail Tips – Maya Rudolph and Tracy Morgan appear in this parody of \"hip\" potato chip commercials, promoting corn chips that double as false fingernails. \n* Count Chocula Silver – Count Chocula (Jimmy Fallon) promotes a newer version of his cereal made for the tastes of middle-aged people. \n* Cracklin' Oat Flakes (Now with Ecstasy) – Will Ferrell wakes up to find that he has run out of his normal cereal, Cracklin' Oat Flakes. His wife then offers Cracklin' Oat Flakes, Now with Ecstasy. After one bowl, Ferrell creeps out his coworkers, makes out with Chris Parnell, then runs half-naked through the streets until he's seen in bed with a pacifier in his mouth and playing with a glowstick. \n* Creeley's Soup – a sketch in which Gilda Radner, playing a child eating her soup, is annoyed by the announcer, who tells her that he will give her various things in exchange for her soup. She says \"no\" until she finally becomes frustrated and tells him, \"No! Leave me alone! I'm eating!\" The announcer then proceeds to tell her to take the little pieces of corn and shove them up into her nose. She asks why, and the reply is, \"Because the Soup Man says so\". She complies. After pouring the bowl of soup all over her nose (because according to the announcer \"there's nothing better for a stuffy nose than nice hot soup\"), the slogan for \"Creeley's Soup\" appears on the screen as the announcer intones: \"Creeley's Soup – The Child Handler\". \n* The Crests and Troughs of Vernon Hawley, Jr. – featuring John Larroquette, the ad promotes an album about a Country-Western singer's bouts with alcoholism. \n* Crystal Gravy – parody of the clear consumer products fad of the mid-1990s, specifically Crystal Pepsi commercials. Julia Sweeney enjoys a drumstick dipped in clear gravy straight from the jar, while Kevin Nealon gleefully splashes his face in the clear, gooey liquid. \n\nD \n\n* Daft Punk Commercial – a short teaser based on the release of a new Daft Punk album. Due to recent rumors and a presumed new album cover, it made imageboards go crazy\n* Dallas: The Home Game – Charles Rocket pitches a home board game for dysfunctional families who can now act out their issues the same way the Ewings do on the prime time soap opera Dallas. \n* Damn It, My Mom is on Facebook – a computer application that bowdlerizes teenagers' photographed wild antics and rebellious opinions from their mothers who have added them as friends on Facebook. \n* Darnette Disposable Toilet – the toilet that you throw away after only one use. It takes just as many steps to install and remove as a regular toilet and costs $169.95. \n* Daveheart – movie trailer to a Braveheart sequel focusing on William Wallace's cowardly brother, Dave Wallace (Gerard Butler). \n* Dell Stator's 99-cent Toad Ranch – \"Home of the World Famous Dell Stator Toad Pit and the Dell Stator Patented Broiling Method, where we can guarantee you the best 99-cent toad steak you'll ever eat!\" \n* Derek Jeter's Taco Hole – Derek Jeter pitches a taco restaurant in Nutley, New Jersey, with a jingle sung to the Beach Boys song \"Kokomo\". \n* Dillon Edwards Investments – a conservative financial company advertises in a deadpan tone that they are finally on the Internet, with the only domain name left by the time they got around to it: \"clownpenis.fart\". \n* Disco Meltdown – season six parody ad for a hip, new dance club in the reactor core of a nuclear power plant. \n* Dissing Your Dog – Will Ferrell sells a dog training video for passive aggressive dog owners. \n* Donald Trump's House of Wings – his own chicken wing restaurant, featuring Donald Trump as himself, Horatio Sanz as David Crosby, and four other castmembers (Seth Meyers, Kenan Thompson, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph) as singing employees in chicken costumes. The jingle is set to \"Jump (For My Love)\". \n* Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford – Pitchman Chris Parnell promotes a book about money management to a clueless couple (Amy Poehler and host Steve Martin). \n* Dopenhagen and Happy Daze – David Carradine plays a cowboy who likes to get high on marijuana he can chew instead of smoke. Parody of Copenhagen chewing tobacco. \n* Dr. Porkenheimer's Boner Juice – parody of erectile dysfunction treatments (particularly Levitra), complete with the warning \"If you experience an erection lasting longer than twenty-four hours, call up your friends and brag about it.\" Levitra's slogan \"strong and lasting\" is replaced by \"thick and sturdy\". \n* Dr. Uncle Jimmy's Smokehouse and Outpatient Surgical Facility – a shady clinic that offers semi-professional surgery and mediocre barbecue cuisine. \n* Dropping the L.B.'s With Missy E – Missy Elliott (Tracy Morgan) pitches a workout video featuring her impossible-to-imitate dance moves. \n* Duncan Hines Brownie Husband – a brownie treat shaped like a life-sized man, designed specifically for the single woman. \n* DynaCorp – an announcer (voice of Chris Parnell) confuses Jessica Simpson with food products similar to Chicken of the Sea-brand tuna. The ad parodies Simpson's remark on the MTV reality show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, where she asked Nick Lachey if Chicken of the Sea was tuna or chicken. \n* Dyson Toilet – Parody of Dyson vacuum cleaner ads. \n\nE \n\n* Ed McMahon's School of Laughing — a school that trains people who want to make money by performing on laugh tracks. \n* Einstein Express — an express courier service that handles late-arriving packages by literally sending them back in time to the desired arrival date. The slogan: \"When it absolutely, positively has to be there the day before yesterday\". \n* Elián! The Cuban Boy — promo for a Disney-produced Broadway musical about Elián González (the real-life young boy turned over to his father in Cuba after resistance from relatives in Florida), with Christopher Walken as Fidel Castro. \n* Empire – a promo parody of the FOX television series, which pokes fun on not having a non-African American cast member.\n* \"Energy for a Gullible America\" — parodies Exxon's \"Energy for a Strong America\" campaign. Don Pardo is the voiceover announcer for a spot decrying high production costs for elaborate oil-company commercials and offering this as an excuse for high energy prices. \n* The Englehart Five — The German quintet's new album has Helga Englehart (guest host Eva Longoria) and her brothers Rolf, Fritz, and Juergen (played respectively by Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, and Seth Meyers) singing songs about their brother Klaus' (Will Forte) death in a hunting accident with Rolf, who is now on trial for murder. \n* Epoxy-Dent — A 1978 ad for \"the strongest denture cream permitted by law\". To prove its strength, a user bites down on a wood bar, which is lifted by a helicopter (\"The Epoxy-Dent Chopper Test!\"). \n* Estro-maxx – Going through a sex change is easier with Estro-maxx, a once-a-day pill that gives you all the hormones you need. \n* EternaRest Coffin Mattresses — casket padding that outlasts the corpse. \n* Eych! — \"Eych! It's the only hairball remover that cats ask for by name.\" A spoof of Meow Mix, but instead the cats cough in an exceedingly funny manner. \n* Excedrin RT — Queen Latifah plays a businesswoman who takes an aspirin to combat \"racial tension\" headaches (the \"RT\" in the product name) brought on by interns asking questions about the stereotypical behavior of black people. \n* Exclusive Connections — Paris Hilton promotes a sex chat line catering to nerds who are interested in science fiction and fantasy movies. \n* EZ Date — Parody of eHarmony and other matchmaking websites. All of the matches are alluded to be between prostitute and client. \n\nF \n\n* FX-70 Cheese Slicer – Candice Bergen pitches a Polaroid camera that dispenses cheese slices. \n* Fear Factor, Jr. – season 29 fake promo for the latest installment of the NBC reality show Fear Factor; Joe Rogan (Fred Armisen) coerces children to perform dangerous and disgusting stunts, as on the regular Fear Factor. Rob Riggle (who wouldn't be an official cast member until season 30) has a brief appearance as the father of a child who has to eat maggot-ridden eggs Benedict or watch his parents divorce. \n* Federline – Kevin Federline (Ashton Kutcher) pitches his new line of underwear to extricate himself from the shadow of his wife Britney Spears; shot in black-and-white, similar in style to early Calvin Klein commercials. \n* Felina Cat Food – In a parody of onsite supermarket taste-test commercials, a TV pitchman dupes a housewife into eating tuna casserole made from cat food. \n* First CityWide Change Bank – in a parody of banking service commercials, two ads promote a bank that only makes change (e.g. \"you come to us with 16 quarters, 8 dimes, and 4 nickels, we can give you a 5 dollar bill\"). How does First CityWide make money doing this? As one service rep says it, \"The answer is simple: Volume\". \n* Flex – deodorant laced with steroids that provoke its users to behave like animals. \n* Fresh Squeezed– Bob Uecker's new drink made from pureed baseballs. \n* Frozen Mexican Dinner – A spoof of anti-constipation products and frozen dinners focuses on a musician who doesn't feel well during his band's practice session, believing he's constipated. A band mate introduces him to Frozen Mexican Dinner, a frozen dinner with medicine to fight constipation. \n* Fruit Loops – poet Maya Angelou (David Alan Grier) extols the virtues of the Kellogg's cereal in her typical flowery, emotional, hyperbolic prose. \n* The Fruiting – a movie trailer spoof for a horror flick where citrus fruits attack a family living in a haunted mansion. \n\nG \n\n* Gandhi and the Bandit – movie trailer spoof for Smokey and the Bandit. \n* Gangsta Bitch Barbie – new Barbie doll perpetuates stereotypes of black people living in the ghetto (the doll comes with Jolly Ranchers, a pack of Newports, and a restraining order against her boyfriend, Tupac Ken). Parodies use of hip hop culture in advertisement. \n* Galactic Prophylactic – prophylactics made with a steel core for extra durability. Parodies the Ron Popeil infomercials. \n* Gary Busey Motorcycle Helmet – following Gary Busey's near-fatal helmetless motorcycle crash, this clip features Phil Hartman as Busey endorsing a new line of protective headgear. On top of the helmet is an enormous foam rubber \"helmet protector\", and also mentioned a \"helmet protector protector\", which was too large to be shown. \n* Gary Hart – An ad pointing out that no matter what one does, \"You can't get him out of your mind.\" The ad references the Gary Hart scandal of the late 1980s. \n* Gas Right – A parody of Breathe-Right commercials. A giant strip that covers one's butt cheeks, eliminating the fart sound.\n* Gaystrogen – a parody of the Estroven hormone drug; for men over 45 suffering from \"queer loss\". \n* Gidget Goes to Shock Therapy – A psychiatrist (Jane Curtin) interrupts a sketch featuring three women acting like little girls to report that they all suffer from a mental disorder that makes them act childish. \n* Girls Gone Wild—Katrina – Doug Stanhope (Jason Sudeikis) videotapes college girls stranded in the flooded city of New Orleans and offers them fresh water and beads in exchange for them flashing their breasts and \"going wild\". \n* The Goombahs – Cashing in on HBO's successful franchise The Sopranos, Showtime creates its own show about a Mafia boss and his family. \n* Grable and Lombard – movie trailer spoof about the lesbian wedding of Betty Grable and Carole Lombard. \n* Graffiti: Say No – Rudolph Giuliani cracks down on graffiti artists defacing the city by adding insults next to their handiwork.\n* Grayson Moorhead Securities – lampoons brokerage companies projecting a tradition of competence and trustworthiness, where the founding principles include making a list of clients, investing in white-owned businesses, and keeping the list in a safe place. \n* Green & Fazio – A spoof of law commercials. Green and Fazio will help with lawsuits for bystanders, near-collisions and nuisance lawsuits, plus harassing defendants to settle. \n* Grimaldi's Classic Creations – a crying baby-Jesus figurine that screams 24 hours a day from Christmas Day to Three Kings Day (January 6). (Nancy Walls, David Koechner) \n* Gun City – a \"Crazy Eddie\"-type pitchman (Joe Piscopo) offers guns as Christmas presents. \n\nH \n\n* Hamburger Helper Anti-Bacterial - Chris Parnell pitches Hamburger Helper Anti-Bacterial, containing Tristanex, a power anti-bacterial agent, to grocery shoppers Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer who are unsure of how safe to eat the days-old hamburger meat in their refrigerator is. His cooking demonstration reveals the product's acrid smell, which means it's working, and that germ volume is \"almost cut in half\", by 37.99%. \n* Handi-Off – a topical treatment used for removal of excess fingers. (\"Also try new 'Toe-Riffic!'\") \n* Happy Fun Ball – a seemingly simple children's toy with dozens of disclaimers for absurdly dangerous health hazards and life-threatening properties, notably among them \"Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball\" and \"Happy Fun Ball may stick to certain types of skin.\" \n* Harley's Bristol Cream – a parody of Harvey's Bristol Cream, in which Gilda Radner uses the phone to find dates and then calls out to people on the street via opening the window. \n* Have a Nice Day – a trailer for a horror movie where smiley faces haunt potential murder victims. \n* Headz Up – An iPhone text-based app that clues people to their surroundings and keeps them out of danger while their eyes are glued to their tech devices.\n* Hedley and Wyche: The British Toothpaste – spoofs the stereotype that the British, by and large, have poorly maintained teeth by showing them using a toothpaste sweetened with sugar. Mike Myers, Phil Hartman, Kevin Nealon, and Chris Farley starred in this parody. \n* Hey, You – Gilda Radner appears in this sketch about a perfume for women in search of a one-night stand. \n* Helmsley Spook House – Leona Helmsley (played by Nora Dunn) creates a haunted house with the same style, class, and obedient workers as her hotels. \n* Herbal Essences Shampoo – A shampoo that when applied causes the person to react in a sexual manner. \n* HiberNol – parody of NyQuil ads featuring a cold medicine designed to knock a person out for the entire cold and flu season. Phil Hartman appears as the onscreen announcer. \"From the makers of Coma-Dose!\" \n* Hire The Incompetent – a temp agency that offers unskilled workers for hire; first appearance of Gilda Radner's recurring character Roseanne Roseannadanna. \n* Holding Your Own Boobs Magazine – ad for a magazine featuring male and female celebrities cupping their breasts; spoofs the numerous copy-cat magazine covers that re-created Janet Jackson's famous 1993 Rolling Stone cover. Features Sarah Michelle Gellar and Will Ferrell. \n* Home Security Decoy – mannequins posing as criminals already breaking into a house to trick real thieves into thinking it's already being robbed. \n* Homocil – a special drug that helps reduce the stress of parents whose male children express homosexual tendencies. The tag line: \"Because it's your problem, not theirs.\" \n* How to Order Sushi Like a CEO – a pompous executive (Matt Dillon) promotes a book on how to order at sushi restaurants, all the while patronizing a sushi restaurant waitress (Maya Rudolph). \n* Huggies Thong – useless diapers shaped like thongs; parodies the increasing phenomenon of the sexualization of young children, and parents who allow their children to dress in risqué, revealing clothing more suited for adults. \n\nI \n\n* Infiniti Toilets — Mike Myers in a toilet ad (same style as the Jonathan Pryce Infiniti J30 commercials). \n* Interbank — A husband and wife (Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon) extol the aforementioned bank that sends black ops to find your stolen travelers checks. \n* I Know Why The Caged Bird Laughs — Promo for a new TV show featuring Maya Angelou (played by Maya Rudolph) pulling pranks on her circle of celebrity friends; the pranks include putting a pie on Morgan Freeman's (Jay Pharoah) chair, taking the bottom out of Dr. Cornel West's (Kenan Thompson) suitcase, and interrupting Stephen King's (Bill Hader) book signing to tell him that his car has been towed. \n* iPhone — Fred Armisen plays a man who uses his iPhone to keep his relationship with his pregnant wife separate from his affair with a French-Canadian woman whom he loves more. (In the NBC rebroadcasts, this was replaced with another iPhone ad, this time with Jason Sudeikis as a man who uses his iPhone to elude the police. )\n*i-Sleep Pro — From The Sharper Image comes this ambient sleep aid that has settings for \"white noise\" and \"black noise\"; the latter includes thumping bass music, dialogue from Tyler Perry sitcoms and the movie Friday, domestic arguments, and an old woman complaining about her foot pain (Jay Pharoah provides voice work for the device). \n* I Was Not a Sucker for Saturday Night — Laraine Newman (as her recurring character Sherry) pitches a book about her risqué encounters with the male writers of Saturday Night Live. \n\nJ \n\n* J.J. Casuals – Jack Johnson (Andy Samberg) promotes shoes shaped like bare feet for those who are as casual as he is. \n* Jamitol – parody of Geritol in which a husband (Chevy Chase) extols the virtues of the multivitamin that has kept his wife (Michael O'Donoghue) working to the point of exhaustion. \"My wife. I think I'll stuff her!\" \n* Jam Hawkers – carries the Smucker's slogan (\"With a name like Smucker's, it has to be good!\") to absurd extremes, promoting jams that taste so good that the manufacturers dare to give them horrible and disturbing names. Most members of the first-season cast appear as spokesmen, each trying to outdo the other on the \"best\" jam in the following order: \n** Jane Curtin – Fluckers: \"It's got to be good!\"\n** Chevy Chase – Nose Hair: \"You can imagine how good it must be... mm–mm!\"\n** Dan Aykroyd – Death Camp: \"Just look for the barbed wire on the label!\"\n** John Belushi – Dog Vomit & Monkey Pus: \"This stuff has got to be terrific!\"\n** Chevy Chase – Painful Rectal Itch: \"The taste? (kisses fingers)\"\n** Dan Aykroyd – Mangled Baby Ducks: \"Great jam! Beautiful jam!\"\n** John Belushi – 10,000 Nuns and Orphans (Jane: \"What's so bad about that? John: They were all eaten by rats!\") \"Oh so good!\"\n** Garrett Morris then brings in a jar that's \"So disgusting you can't say it on television!\"\n* Jar Glove – In a parody of the black-and-white dramatizations of someone struggling to perform an everyday task without the use of the product being sold, a housewife (Kristen Wiig) accidentally kills her husband (Jason Sudeikis), resists arrest, is sentenced, goes to prison, plots and executes an escape, and hides out from prison guards—all because she struggled with opening the lid on a jar without benefit of the Jar Glove. \n* Javis Homer Security System – a commercial that begins as a diaper ad featuring a man (Will Ferrell) reminiscing about the first time he changed his baby's diaper. The baby's mother (Ana Gasteyer) enters the room, yelling, \"Who the hell are you?!\" and the man makes a frantic escape out the window while the mother cries and holds her baby in fear. \n* Jenson Mint – phony dollars and coins for rich people who want homeless panhandlers to leave them alone once and for all. \n* Jewess Jeans – Gilda Radner models these jeans in this parody of Jordache jeans (and, to a lesser extent, Levy's rye bread). The tag line advises that \"no one has to be Jewish\" to wear Jewess (\"but it wouldn't hurt\", Radner adds). \n* Jiffy Express – When you forgot your package had to be at its destination yesterday, Jiffy says \"We'll take the package... AND the blame\" by back-dating packages and simulating shipping delays. \n* Jiffy Pop Air Bag – Eat popcorn while you're waiting for the ambulance to arrive. \n* Jogger Motel – A parody of the commercials for Black Flag Roach Motel roach traps. Its tagline read, \"Joggers jog in, but they don't jog out\". \n* Joe Dude, Joe Hetero, Joe Caucasian, and Joe Not-a-Rapist – promos for Fox reality shows based on Joe Millionaire, where a bachelor tricks female contestants into thinking he (or in the case of \"Joe Dude\", she) is male, heterosexual, white, or not a rapist.\n* Jon Hamm's John Ham – the actor promotes ham you can eat while sitting on the toilet, complete with a dispenser similar to that of toilet paper. \n\nK \n\n* K-Put Price-Is-Rite Stamp Gun — a price-stamp gun that allows shoppers to freely alter the prices of various goods (particularly groceries) in their own favor. \n* Kannon AE-1 — a camera \"so simple, so advanced, even Stevie Wonder (as himself) can use it!\" Spoof of Canon AE-1 SLR. \n* Kate & Ali — a series of promos for a spoof of Kate & Allie—only instead of two divorced women, it's screen legend Katharine Hepburn (Martin Short) sharing a domicile with boxing great Muhammad Ali (Billy Crystal). \n* KCF Shredders — Lampoons fast food industry's marketing to kids, in this case with lettuce. \"Now with How Stella Got Her Groove Back action figures!\" \n* Kotex Classic — a very large sanitary napkin which includes a belt, and is clearly visible under a woman's clothing, very much like the sanitary napkins worn by women and girls of the 1950s. \n\nL \n\n* Lansford Brothers & Associates: Hangmen-At-Law – Businessman brothers (Will Forte and Bill Hader) offer professional Texas-style lynchings. \n* \"Law & Order: Parking Violations Unit\" – parody of the numerous \"Law & Order\" spinoffs that were premiering at the time. It featured Steven Hill reprising his Law & Order role as Adam Schiff, District Attorney of New York County. \n* Lemon Glow – an ex-biker chick (Molly Shannon) wistfully recalls her drugs-and-sex days while cleaning the middle-class home she's conned herself into. \n* Leland-Meyers Home Headache Test (HHt) – Home test designed to determine if one is really having a headache or not, requiring the tester to \"draw a moderate amount\" of one's own blood, place a drop on the test strip, and wait two hours. If the spot turns blue, you have a headache! Parody of home pregnancy tests featuring Kevin Nealon & Janeane Garofalo. \n* Lexon Paradox – Two automotive design teams produced two completely opposite cars (e.g., one was the most expensive car ever, the other the cheapest; one was the safest, the other designed to throw flaming victims hundreds of feet in a crash). In the end, the two were combined to create The Paradox. \n* Liberty Medical – Wilford Brimley (John Goodman) pitches Liberty Medical Supplies delivery company. He begins by explaining how, with \"dye-a-beetuss\", he has to take extra care of his health, but continually qualifies, and admits to exaggerations, until by the end, he's described hiding a \"food boner\" over a delivery of $200 worth of pork ribs to his house, never having moved fast enough to sweat, and the fact that he may not even have diabetes—his doctor \"just thinks I look like the kinda guy who would have it\". \n* Lil' Poundcake – A parody from season 37, of a doll that gives HPV vaccination shots to little girls.\n* Lincoln Financial — Three spoofs of the investment company's \"Get to know the future you\" campaign, specifically an ad in which an airline passenger meets the future version of himself. In Ad #1, a man (Jason Sudeikis) has oral sex with his future self; in Ad #2, another man (Bill Hader) is told by his future self that he's going to gain weight, go bankrupt, fly to Hawaii, and kill himself (but not before making out with him); Ad #3 finds another man (guest Ben Stiller) mistaking a female passenger (Abby Elliott) for his transgender future self. \n* Lincoln MKC – guest host Jim Carrey lampoons Matthew McConaughey's exisential pitchwork for Lincoln's crossover utility vehicle in this trio of ads. McConaughey gets so lost in his deep thoughts, he drives right through an Allstate commercial parody, hitting Allstate pitchman Dennis Haysbert (Keenan Thompson) in the process. Carrey would later reprise that spoof in the Celebrity Jeopardy sketch in SNL's 40th Anniversary Special. \n* Little Brothers – An ad similar in vein to Peyton Manning's \"United Way\" commercial; here, Manning's younger brother Eli is ambassador of a mentoring program for young boys who need a strong, male role model in their lives — and someone to beat up their mean older brothers (one of which, played by Andy Samberg, is locked in the trunk of a car and mistakenly referred to as \"Peyton\"). The commercial ends with the tag line \"Little Brothers: Because the time of reckoning is now at hand\", followed by Eli and his young charges laughing maniacally. \n* Litter Critters – Cheri Oteri appears in this sketch about a kit that allows children to take their cat's fecal waste and mold it into fun figurines. \"♪♫ When you hear a scratch, here comes a batch — It's time for Litter Critters! ♪♫\" \n* Little Chocolate Donuts — \"decathlon champion John Belushi\" promotes \"The Donuts of Champions\" in this parody of Bruce Jenners Wheaties ads. \n* Long White Beard – \"Let 'em know you've been waiting.\" Featured various cast members and actors wearing obviously fake, long, white beards in situations where someone has kept them waiting. \n* The Looker – Penny Marshall (Fred Armisen) stars in a new crime drama as a police interrogator who gets suspects to sign confessions simply by staring at them for long periods of time. \n* Loose Bear – a hallucinogenic laxative that makes you dream you're being chased by a hungry bear, thus \"scaring the crap out of you\". \n* Lori Davis Hair Spray Exciting Hold – Listed in the SNL sketch records as \"Focus on Beauty II\", this infomercial spoof promotes an environmentally conscious hair spray with no alcohol in it, featuring guest host Christina Applegate as Cher, Chris Farley as Lori Davis, and Phil Hartman as \"Brad in the Lab\". \n* The Love Toilet – Victoria Jackson & Kevin Nealon share the most intimate moment of them all... on a single-based toilet with two seats, placed so that the seated users can face each other. \"Because when you're in love, even five minutes apart can seem like an eternity.\" \n* The Lung Brush – used every night by heavy smoker Chris Farley to remove quarts of tar from his lungs before going to bed with wife Victoria Jackson (\"Did you forget to brush?\"). Former NFL quarterback Ken Stabler makes a celebrity endorsement cameo. \n* Lux 420 SL – the car for the insane; designed by such notables as Nostradamus and featuring an in-console sink for compulsive hand-washing, along with enough trunk space to hold copious vials of one's own urine. Also featured the jingle: \"There's a radio in my fingernail...CAR!!\" \n\nM \n\n* Magic Mouth – a device which is inserted into the rectum and converts flatulence into \"polished expressions\" (e.g. \"Did you see Charlie Rose last night?\"). \n* MartinSheen – a hair spray which consisted of guest Martin Sheen sipping water from a paper cup and spitting it on Jane Curtin's hair as she pitched the product, pausing occasionally to nod in agreement with her statements (e.g. \"MartinSheen is eco-friendly. You wouldn't dream of hurting the environment, would you?\"). \n* Mary-Kate & Ashley Perfume – The perfume that fits your mood, whether you're an Ashley or a Mary-Kate. A female voice-over whispers \"Ashley\" to one activity and \"Mary-Kate\" to one in contrast. \n* Maybelline For Men – Finally, cosmetics for guys. \n* McIntosh Jr. – an elementary-school cafeteria parody of early Macintosh computer ads. \"McIntosh Jr.: The Power to Crush the Other Kids!\" \n* McIntosh Post-It Notes (sic) – parody of the Apple Newton MessagePad. \n* Me-Harmony.com – a 2005 parody of eHarmony promotes a matchmaking website for narcissists. Various SNL castmembers have dual roles as both the happy Me-Harmony client and, in drag, their perfect mate. The ad also promotes its sister service, the gay matchmaking site He-Harmony.com. \n* Mel's Char Palace – Mel (Dan Aykroyd), with help from a saw-wielding \"Mrs. Mel\" (Gilda Radner), promotes his steakhouse on \"Route 17, Paramus\" where you select your own steer, cuts and portions (\"You stun it, you cut it, you charbroil it\"). \n* Mercury Mistress – A spoof of luxury-car ads, this ad promotes \"a car so sexy, you'll just want to have sex with it\" (because a rubber vagina is hidden behind its license plate). \n* Metrocard – a credit card ad starring Roseanne Barr as a sassy customer service representative and Phil Hartman as a business traveler in need of assistance. Says Barr: \"Yeah, like I've got nothing better to do than to sit around and listen to him bitch!\" \n* Michael Phelps Diet – Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps shows his \"eat whatever you want, and as much as you want\" diet which is almost certainly fatal to anyone who isn't an Olympic athlete because of its high caloric count (12,000 calories, which is the actual number of calories Michael Phelps was required to eat while training). Jared Fogle appears, stating \"this diet sucks a foot long\". \n* Middle American Van Lines – A moving company that moves families instead of their belongings. \n* The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders – a trailer for a home invasion slasher movie as directed by Wes Anderson, starring Owen Wilson (Edward Norton), Gwyneth Paltrow (Noël Wells), Danny Glover (Jay Pharoah), Tilda Swinton (Kate McKinnon), Anjelica Huston [misspelled as \"Angelica\" in its premiere; the online version and all TV reruns fix the spelling mistake] (Cecily Strong), Jason Schwartzmann (Kyle Mooney), Adrien Brody (Mike O'Brien), a stop-motion mouse, and Alec Baldwin (appearing as himself) as the narrator.\n* Milsford Spring Water – Tom Bodett narrates as a bottled water's unusually \"rich history\" is re-enacted: Rather than share a spring with neighboring Dunbee, the town of Milsford brutally destroys Dunbee and most of its residents — \"over 107... days ago. You probably heard about it on the TV\". \n* Mom Celebrity Translator – A handheld electronic device that allows young'uns to decipher what well-known celebrity their unhip mothers are trying to describe to them. \n* Mom Jeans – Available (fictitiously) at J. C. Penney, these jeans fit Mom just the way she likes it! \"She'll love the 9-inch zipper and casual front pleats!\" The tagline: \"I'm not a woman anymore. I'm a mom!\" \n* Mostly Garbage Dog Food – Dog lover Jason Sudeikis gets his priorities straight by serving bagged garbage to his canine pal as a money-saving measure because of current economic issues. \n\nN \n\n* Navy Adventure (Port of Call: Bayonne, New Jersey) – Instead of training and missions, this spot featured the sailors doing other things, such as cleaning toilets, peeling potatoes, and doing laundry. The tag line: \"It's not just a job; it's $96.78 a week!\" \n* NBC: Our Age Is Showing – self-parody of NBC's 1981–1982 ad campaign \"Our Pride Is Showing\". \n* NCI – A long-distance phone company that will do anything to be your phone company, including murdering people.\n* Nebulzitol (No-Balls-At-All) – what to give your husband when he's got March Madness \n* Nerf Crotchbat – a parody of Nerf's glut of products and seemingly desperate straits where new product ideas are concerned; an off-scale baseball bat made from nerf material. Chris Farley and Rob Schneider, with a group of children, are bored. Suddenly, Farley gleefully announces, \"CROTCH BAT!!\" The bats appear and the group wields them, repeatedly striking each other in the genitals while typical commercial theme music plays. Also advertised is \"Nerf Crotch Missile\" and \"Nerf Nerf\", a formless plasmatic blob of Nerf foam material. \n* Network Battle of the T's & A's – parody of both 1970s television specials featuring stars from the three major American TV networks (Battle of the Network Stars) and of the trend of \"T & A\" (\"tits and ass\") programming featuring suggestively clad women. \n* Neutrogena Coin Slot Moisturizer – parody of various Neutrogena ads for specialized moisturizing products. Featured host Lindsay Lohan and feature player Kristen Wiig as young women in low-rise jeans. Premise is that since new fashions increasingly leave your coin slot exposed to sun and wind, a special moisturizer is required to keep it soft and supple. \n* New Shimmer — Gilda Radner and Dan Aykroyd play a couple having an argument over whether New Shimmer is a floor wax or a dessert topping (\"It's a dessert topping, YOU COW!\"); Chevy Chase (as a product demonstrator) steps in and demonstrates to the couple (and the audience) that \"New Shimmer is a floor wax and a dessert topping!\" \n* Nicotrel – a parody of smoking-cessation products featuring Dwayne \"The Rock\" Johnson as ex-Army soldier Nick Cotrell, who beats up a wimpy husband (played by Chris Parnell) to get him to quit smoking. At the end of the sketch, other wrestlers (including Mick Foley, Paul \"Big Show\" Wight, and Paul \"Triple H\" Levesque) join in the action. \n* Nikey Turkey – Featuring Chris Rock, this parody offers the perfect Thanksgiving solution to a small turkey for a large gathering: \"Pump it up!\" \n* Nike Air Force – features cast members Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Will Forte, Kenan Thompson, Andy Samberg, and Jason Sudeikis playing basketball and messing up, which ends with Samberg getting injured. Sketch called Air Force One.\n* \"No, Bruce! Let Me Finish!\" The Best of Celebrity Tirades – Following the real-life incident in which he mercilessly berated a movie-production crew member for simply moving a lighting rack, Christian Bale (played by host Bradley Cooper), in an attempt to take some heat off of himself, hawks a DVD of footage featuring other celebrities, such as George Foreman (Kenan Thompson), Joan Cusack (Abby Elliott), Mad Moneys Jim Cramer (Darrell Hammond), and Nathan Lane (Bobby Moynihan) screaming at crew members for their perceived incompetence, with all proceeds going to Bale's legal defense fund. \n* North American Savings – A savings bank that claims to keep one's money safe by making virtually no loans at all, \"rejecting 97% of all loan applications\".\n* Nuva Bling — a parody on the Nuva Ring birth control commercials, in which it also doubles as a jewelry accessory (placed around the vaginal area) for women who are not trying to get pregnant while enjoying the night out, and can be customized. The only drawback is they also complain that it hurts as well, as evidenced by the testimonials from the users. \n\nO \n\n* Old Glory Insurance – a parody of older celebrities (such as Wilford Brimley and Alex Trebek) promoting insurance for senior citizens. Sam Waterston, in a deadpan performance as \"Paid Spokesperson\", touts the advantages of the only life insurance company to provide full coverage against the leading killer of the elderly: attacks from robots that feed on the medications the elderly often use. \n* Only Bangkok – parody of Las Vegas's \"What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas\" commercials, shown in three parts. In part one, Ben Affleck (playing himself) sells his wife (played by Amy Poehler) to two burly mob members after losing a bet during a Russian Roulette match. In part two, a businessman (Seth Meyers) calls his friend for the number of a Dutch man who can help him remove a Thai hooker who ended up dead after he had sex with her. In the final part, Seth's businessman character is back and on the phone with the Dutchman about the removal of a dead prostitute—but this time the prostitute is a male! Also joining the businessman is Affleck in a pink robe, earrings, and wearing make-up (who asks the Dutchman [played by Darrell Hammond] if he's interested in buying panda meat) and a paranoid Kelly Ripa (in a cameo appearance) wielding a meat cleaver and exhorting the businessman to cut the prostitute up and put the remains in a bag. \n* Oops I Crapped My Pants – a brand of adult diapers, a parody of Depends, and a play on the use of statements as product names (e.g. \"I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!\"). \n\nP \n\n* Pan Am – thanks to good security and low fares, it's a good time to fly because of their best offer: Fly to Brussels, Rome or London, you get to keep the plane you flew on. \n* Paxil—Second-Term Strength: An anti-depressant made especially for Barack Obama (Jay Pharoah) as he tries to deal with his second term as President and all of the scandals and failures (such as the Benghazi scandal, the IRS scandal, General Petraeus's sex scandal, and Obamacare). Also available in Republican Strength for John Boehner (Taran Killam).\n* Pennzoil – endorsed by poet Maya Angelou (David Alan Grier) with typically flowery, emotional, hyperbolic prose. \n* Pepto-Bismol Ice – Nasim Pedrad appears in this sketch about the famous pink antacid in malt liquor form. \n* Petchow Rat Poison – parody of misleading labels, Hank Petchow's brand of rat poison looks like dog food, is packaged in a 25 lb. bag with \"PetChow\" in large print, has a large photo of Petchow's dog, and the words \"rat poison\" in very fine print. \n* Philadelphia – a line of action figures along with a video game (which is actually footage from the Sega Genesis port of Galaxy Force II) based on the 1993 film of the same name. \n* Phone Company – Features Lily Tomlin as a grouchy, apathetic operator who relates the goings-on and imperfections of her company. \"We don't care. We don't have to. We're the Phone Company.\" Sketch called Ernestine. \n* The Players-With-Yourself Club – Telly Savalas (Phil Hartman) promotes a discount card for chronic masturbators. \n* Pre-Chewed Charlie's – a steakhouse for people with dentures, where the waiters come to your table and chew your food for you. \n* Preparation H – Skateboarding dudes, including Jimmy Fallon, plug Preparation H in urban slang (\"I'm about ta drop an H-BOMB on dis rizzoid!\"). \n* Punk'd Barely Legal: Ashton Kutcher (played by host Justin Timberlake) releases a DVD of his Punk'd pranks that were never shown on TV due to legal issues, such as Fred Durst (Jeff Richards) getting mugged, Christina Aguilera (Maya Rudolph) suffering from morning sickness after Kutcher steals her birth control pills, and 50 Cent (Finesse Mitchell) shooting Dax Shepard (Will Forte) dressed as a vampire (which, to Kutcher, is a \"double punk\" because Dax didn't know he was going to get shot and 50 Cent didn't know the vampire was Dax). \n* Puppy Uppers and Doggie Downers – Gilda Radner complains to Laraine Newman that her dog Sparky has no energy, so Newman recommends Puppy Uppers. Later, when the dog is hyperactive (and quite a bit smaller), Radner complains that \"Sparky's perked up a little too much\", so Newman recommends dosing him with Doggie Downers. \n\nQ \n\n* Quarry — Jane Curtin appears in this sketch about \"the only [breakfast] cereal that's pure 100% rocks and pebbles\", parodying the glut of \"natural\", earthy, and crunchy (deafeningly, in this case) granola-based cereals popular in the mid-1970s. The tag line: \"Better tastin', 'cause it's mined\". \n\nR \n\n* RAD 3000 — a smoke detector that plays songs of the 1980s. \n* ReaganCo. — Charles Rocket demonstrates how you can show your patriotism by way of Ronald Reagan wallpaper, cosmetics, and bathroom tiles. \n* Royal Deluxe II — 1970s car commercial parody that demonstrates the smoothness of the car's ride by having a mohel perform a circumcision in the back seat while the car is driven at forty miles per hour on a bumpy road. \n* Rubik's Grenade — Rubik's Cube parody; \"May be the last puzzle you'll never solve\". \n* Russell & Tate Law Firm — parody of \"ambulance-chasing\" legal-services commercials, an ad for a law firm whose partners are two intimidating black men with extensive \"resumés\" who repeatedly pledge to \"git your money\". \n\nS \n\n* Salon — Features David Spade as a \"flamboyant\" beauty salon operator pitching a hairspray that is activated by saying \"salon\" repeatedly (in the exaggerated French manner, with a sibilant 'S' and the accent on the first syllable). He teaches Victoria Jackson how to say it \"properly\". \n* Schmitt's Gay — in this spoof of beer companies' targeting of specific demographics, two housesitters (Chris Farley & Adam Sandler) are discouraged at the filthy condition of the backyard pool. When the water is turned on, however, it magically transforms into a sparkling clean pool filled with attractive, and presumably gay, men wearing bikini swim trunks, whom the housesitters merrily cavort with. \n* Settl - As its name implies, this mobile dating app is aimed at women willing to settle for dates and relationships with, as one user puts it, \"normal guys with characteristics I am now willing to overlook.\" \n* Shirt in a Can — Tim Meadows spills something on his shirt, so he sprays on this product. \n* Short & Curly — The shampoo men use to keep their pubic hairs clean and shiny. Also promoted is Short, Dark, Curly, and Lovely, \"but that, my friends, is strictly for the brothers\". \n* Sofa King — furniture store ad featuring a family of apparent Middle Eastern origins with thick accents. Everything in the ad is promoted with the adjective \"Sofa King\" (as in, \"It's Sofa King comfortable!\"), but the accents make it sound like \"so fucking\". \n* Speed — Veteran SNL writer Anne Beatts makes a rare on-screen appearance as a housewife able to happily multi-task, thanks to Speed, the diet pill you don't have to be overweight to use. Obtainable from your doctor, your neighbor's doctor, your college roommate's doctor, etc. \n* Spitzer and Associates — Following his resignation due to the sex scandal involving his money laundering and dalliances with high-priced call girls, Eliot Spitzer (Bill Hader) is now opening a private practice dealing with embarrassing sex-related issues. Sketch called \"Spitzer Cold Open.\" \n* Spud Beer — \"Filled with the full, rich flavor of potatoes\", this beer is \"brewed for people who can't taste the difference\", in this case an electroshock subject (writer Alan Zweibel). The end tagline: \"Spud! The beer that made Boise famous!\" \n* Steve Martin's All-Natural Penis Beauty Cream (New Formula) — a parody of the celebrity infomercial boom. \n* Sub Shack — a parody of the Subway Jared Fogle ad campaign, with customers of the fast-food restaurant gaining weight rather than losing it. \n* Super Bass-O-Matic '76 — This parody of Ronco ads features Dan Aykroyd pureeing raw fish in a blender, as well as Laraine Newman delivering the happy pitch line, \"Wow, that's terrific bass.\" \n* Suppressex — an anti-arousal medicine taken to prevent erections from occurring at inopportune moments. \n* Swiffer Sleepers — parody of Swiffer ads with children's blanket sleepers designed to pick up dust and dirt as they crawl. \n* Swiftamine – a medication designed to fight bouts of vertigo caused by enjoyment of Taylor Swift's music. \n* Swill — Bill Murray extols the qualities of this putrid mineral water \"dredged from Lake Erie\", the packaging of which looks nearly identical to Perrier. A highlight is the slow pouring of Swill from the bottle, set to the refrain of Carly Simon's \"Anticipation\", a song used to promote another slow-pouring food item at the time, Heinz Ketchup. \n\nT \n\n* Taco Town – a restaurant parody of Taco Bell, advertising a new taco with layer after layer of outer crust, finished with a Chicago-style pizza and blueberry pancake, and \"deep fried to perfection\". Andy Samberg says of the product, \"Pizza? Now that's what I call a taco!\" \n* Tech-Pack – A man (Jason Sudeikis) shows a harried woman (Kristen Wiig) at the airport a new wearable pouch system that can hold and activate all electronics (mp3 players, PDAs, cellphones, etc.) with a joystick, but scares other passengers because of its uncanny resemblance to a suicide belt. \n* Teddy Bear Holding a Heart – a spoof of a De Beers commercial, where a guy gives his sweetheart a teddy bear holding a heart for Valentine's Day, the gift available practically everywhere. \n* Texxon – An image ad shown during \"network newsbreaks\", including those following the Buckwheat assassination, ostensibly touting the philanthropic efforts of that petroleum company; they successively degenerate into thinly veiled threats of dire consequences if various legislation under consideration doesn't go the company's way, supposedly forcing it to scale back efforts to assist the needy: \"Texxon. Do what we say, and nobody gets hurt.\" \n* That's Not Yogurt! – spoof of \"I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!\" ads and the TCBY frozen-yogurt chain. (The latter's acronymic name was originally supposed to stand for \"This Can't Be Yogurt!\" but was later revised to stand for \"The Country's Best Yogurt\".) After eating the product, a couple (Victoria Jackson and Kevin Nealon) becomes very concerned about what the mysterious product actually is, but the coy announcer refuses to tell them. \"From the makers of Those Aren't Olives!\" \n* Three-Legged Jeans – \"And hey, not any dumber than acid-washed!\" The chorus of the reggae-tinged theme music features the catchphrases \"Three at last\" and \"A leg and a leg and a leg\" sung together. \n* Tim and Meat's One-Stop Rocky Horror Shop – Tim Curry and Meat Loaf (both appearing as themselves) are proprietors of a store with props and costumes based on and to wear and use for midnight screenings of the 1975 cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. \n* Tortumatic – the ultimate way to show others that you can take pain. Charles Rocket demonstrates it, getting punched repeatedly by a number of boxing gloves, and slamming his hand with a mallet. \n* Totino's Pizza Rolls - Vanessa Bayer, reprising her dutiful housewife role from the \"Totino's Super Bowl Activity Pack\" ad of one year earlier (see below), serves Pizza Rolls to \"my hungry guys\" (guest host Larry David among them) watching and reacting to the big game in unison. Something is seriously amiss, however, when she discovers the guys are shouting at a blank TV screen, only to turn around all at once — and revealing icy stares with solid black eyes — when she grabs a pair of scissors for self-defense. The punch line: The ad is actually a promotion for the recently revived series The X-Files. \n* Totino's Super Bowl Activity Pack – while the husband (guest host J.K. Simmons) and his buddies watch the big game and chow down on Totino's Pizza Rolls in the living room, the wife (Vanessa Bayer) can keep herself occupied in the kitchen with this set of games and toys specifically made \"for grown women ages 5 and up\" (e.g. puzzles, play money, miniature top). \n* Tressant Suprème – Kelly Ripa spoofs the numerous hair coloring ads in which she has appeared. In this parody, Ripa prefers Tressant Suprème because it contains \"just a little bit of crack cocaine\", thus explaining her well-known \"peppy\" persona. \n* Trilocaine – a scalp-itch medication with extremely disturbing side effects. \"90% of users experience an instantaneous and horrifying sleep paralysis containing a bleak vision of mortality.\" \n* Triopenin – arthritis medication in a bottle that's virtually impossible to open. \n* Triple Trac Razor – a razor with three blades because the consumer is gullible enough to believe what he sees on TV commercials (this was written in the years before razors had progressed past two blades). \n* Turlington's Lower Back Tattoo Remover – a product that, \"when applied once every hour for 72 straight hours\", slowly burns away unwanted lower back tattoos. \"That tingling means it's working!\" Tagline: \"Because it won't be cool forever\". \n* Tylenol B.M. – a laxative product shown to cause you to defecate while you sleep. \n\nU \n\n* Uncle Jemima's Pure Mash Liquor – A not-so-subtle barb at products that perpetuate racial stereotypes, specifically Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben's, and also referencing Uncle Remus as shown in scenes similar to those in Disney's animated film Song of the South. \n* Under Underground Rock Festival – A series of commercials which poke fun at the crazy promotions at alternative concerts, crazy special guests, as well as the extremes people will go to defy conformity. Done in the style of Gathering of the Juggalos infomercials. \n* United Way with Peyton Manning – Manning (as himself) appears in this 2007 spoof of self-serving philanthropic public-service ads by popular athletes. Documentary-style, Manning is shown \"mentoring\" children; what ensues is Manning physically and verbally abusing the kids during a football game (hitting kids in the back of the head with a football and sending one of them to sit in a Port-A-Let for messing up a play), and afterwards teaching his charges how to break into an SUV, exploiting a little girl to get a date with an attractive woman, showing kids a tabloid magazine featuring Angelina Jolie, drinking beer in front of them, and admitting that he would kill anyone who snitches on him. \n* Urban Sleepy Boy 2000 – Tim Kazurinsky A weapon that detects and destroys cars when their alarms go off, enabling the weapon's owner to get a good night's sleep. \n* Urigro – parody of male enhancement medications; a pill that gives its male users an absurdly long and strong stream of urine. \n* UPS – starring Bill Hader as ad man/actor Andy Azula, making fun of the prevalence of Azula's ad campaign as well as his hairstyle. \n* Uvula Public Service Spot – Chevy Chase as a physician urging Gilda Radner and the audience to take proper care of the uvula, without ever saying what the uvula actually is. (It is a small piece of flesh that hangs down from the rear portion of the soft palate and requires little, if any, maintenance.) \n\nV \n\n* Valtrex – A husband repeatedly affirms his fidelity to his wife during a commercial for a pill that treats genital herpes. \n* Veritas Ultrasound HD – Instead of a tiny monitor, the ultrasound is displayed on a widescreen HD television. It even has options to display a football helmet on the fetus (for dads-to-be missing a Sunday football because they're accompanying the wife to see the ultrasound). \n\nW \n\n* Wade Blasingame: Not the ballplayer, the Attorney-at-Law – the lawyer (Will Ferrell) people call to sue dogs. Ad features Chris Parnell acting like a dog. \n* We're Just Friends – Short shorts for men (Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg) whose close friendship is often mistaken for a gay relationship \n* Where You're Going – parody of 1980s Michelob commercials in which Jon Lovitz, Randy Quaid, Damon Wayans, Anthony Michael Hall and others are shown celebrating their latest conquests in the business world and living the good life, until the end of the commercial where they all burn in Hell for living spiritually bankrupt, avaricious lives. \n* Wilson Trap Doors – office trap doors that effectively do away with unwanted guests, clients or employees. \n* Wilson Countersink Flanges and Dorry Flanges – Phil Hartman narrates this commercial for technically complex industrial supplies (with Chris Farley and Rob Schneider). \n* Woomba – a self-operating electronic feminine hygiene product that knows when women should use it, whether they want to or not; a parody of the Roomba automatic vacuum system. \n* Wrangler Open Fly Jeans – Finally, jeans with no fly so that your parts are always camera-ready, as pitched by Brett Favre (played by Jason Sudeikis) \n\nY \n\n* Yard-a-Pult – A product created to launch unwanted trash/deceased pets/etc. over your fence rather than going to the time and expense of disposing of them properly. \n* Yum Bubble Genital Herpes Gum – A fruit-flavored bubble gum that controls genital herpes. \n\nZ \n\n*Z-Shirt – Its name sums up what the product is: A 1990s-style neon shirt with a \"Z\" on the front. (\"This ain't no t-shirt, it's a Z-Shirt!\") The comedy comes when the shirt-wearer's buddy (guest host Kevin Hart) goes through the alphabet and asks, \"Wait, I'm confused. Is it an A-Shirt?\" \"Is it a B-Shirt?\" etc. \n\nNotes" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Desperate_Housewives.txt", "Wisteria_Lane.txt" ], "title": [ "Desperate Housewives", "Wisteria Lane" ], "wiki_context": [ "Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama and mystery series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. It originally aired for eight seasons on ABC from October 3, 2004 to May 13, 2012. Executive producer Cherry served as showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season included Bob Daily, George W. Perkins, John Pardee, Joey Murphy, David Grossman, and Larry Shaw.\n\nSet on Wisteria Lane, a street in the fictional town of Fairview in the fictional Eagle State, Desperate Housewives followed the lives of a group of women as seen through the eyes of their late friend and neighbor who committed suicide in the pilot episode. The storyline covers thirteen years of the women's lives over eight seasons, set between the years 2004–2008, and later 2013–2017 (the story arc included a five-year passage of time, as well as flashbacks ranging from the 1980s to the 2020s). They worked through domestic struggles and family life, while facing the secrets, crimes and mysteries hidden behind the doors of their—on the surface—beautiful and seemingly perfect suburban neighborhood.\n\nThe series featured an ensemble cast, headed by Teri Hatcher as Susan Mayer, Felicity Huffman as Lynette Scavo, Marcia Cross as Bree Van de Kamp, and Eva Longoria as Gabrielle Solis. Brenda Strong narrated the series as the late Mary Alice Young, appearing sporadically in flashbacks or dream sequences. \n\nDesperate Housewives was well received by viewers and critics alike. It won multiple Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards. From the 2004–05 through the 2008–09 television seasons, its first five seasons were rated amongst the top ten most watched series. In 2007, it was reported to be the most popular show in its demographic worldwide, with an audience of approximately 120 million and was also reported as the third most watched television series in a study of ratings in 20 countries. In 2012, it remained as the most-watched comedy series internationally based on data from Eurodata TV Worldwide, which measured ratings across five continents; it has held this position since 2006.[http://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000446/2006 Monte-Carlo TV Festival (2006)] Moreover, it was the third-highest revenue earning series for 2010, with US$2.74 million per half hour. The show placed #56 on Entertainment Weekly \"New TV Classics\" list. \n\nIn 2011, it was confirmed that Desperate Housewives would conclude after its eighth season. It aired its series finale in May 2012. By the end of the series, it had surpassed Charmed as the longest running hour-long television series featuring all female leads by two episodes.\n\nProduction\n\nThe idea for the series was conceived as Marc Cherry and his mother were watching a news report on Andrea Yates. Prior to Desperate Housewives, Cherry was best known for producing and writing episodes of Touchstone Television's hit comedy series The Golden Girls and its successor, The Golden Palace. In addition, he had created or co-created three sitcoms: The 5 Mrs. Buchanans, The Crew and Some of My Best Friends, none of which lasted longer than a year. Cherry had difficulty in getting any television network interested in his new series; HBO, CBS, NBC, Fox, Showtime, and Lifetime all turned the show down. Finally, two new executives at ABC, Lloyd Braun and Susan Lyne, chose to greenlight it, reportedly after The O.C. on Fox premiered in 2003 and showed that a soap opera could succeed in prime time. Shortly thereafter, Disney had both Braun and Lyne fired, following their approval of another new drama series: Lost. \n\nThe ABC executives were not initially satisfied with the name of the new show, suggesting Wisteria Lane and The Secret Lives of Housewives instead. However, on October 23, 2003, Desperate Housewives was announced by ABC, presented as a prime time soap opera created by Charles Pratt, Jr. of Melrose Place fame, and Marc Cherry, who declared the new show to be a mix of Knots Landing and American Beauty with a little bit of Twin Peaks. While Cherry continued his work on the show, Pratt was credited as executive producer for the pilot episode only, remaining linked to the show as a consulting producer during the first two seasons.\n\nOn May 18, 2004, ABC announced the 2004–2005 lineup, with Desperate Housewives in the Sunday at 9:00–10:00 p.m. ET slot, which it held all through the run of the show. After only three episodes, on October 20, 2004, ABC announced that Desperate Housewives, along with Lost, had been picked up for a full season. A couple of weeks later after Housewives premiered the owners of NBC called to see who had passed on the series due to its ratings success.\n\nDesperate Housewives was produced by creator Marc Cherry (Cherry Productions), Austin Bagley and, since 2007, ABC Studios. From 2004 to 2007, Desperate Housewives was produced in association with Touchstone Television.\n\nProduction crew\n\nCherry, Tom Spezialy and Michael Edelstein served as executive producers for the first two seasons on the show. Spezialy, who also served as a staff writer, left his previous position as writer and executive producer for Dead Like Me to join the crew on Desperate Housewives. He had also worked as writer and co-executive producer on several shows, among them Ed, Jack and Jill, and Parker Lewis Can't Lose, while Edelstein had been the executive producer of Threat Matrix and Hope & Faith.\n\nSecond season conflicts arose among the executive producers. Subsequent to this, Edelstein left the show mid-season, and by the season's end, so did Spezialy. For the third year, Cherry was joined by award-winning writer and producer Joe Keenan—of Frasier fame—and television movie producer George W. Perkins, who had been a crew member of Desperate Housewives since the show's conception. Although receiving praise for his work on the show, Keenan chose to leave Desperate Housewives after one season to pursue other projects. Replacing him as executive producer for the fourth season of the show was Bob Daily, who had joined the crew as a writer and co-executive producer during the third season. Daily's previous work include writing for the animated series Rugrats, as for Frasier. Also joining Cherry, Perkins and Daily for the fourth season were John Pardee and Joey Murphy, who had been with the series since the beginning. Both had also worked on Cherry's previous show The Crew in 1995, as well as on the sitcom Cybill.\n\nIn the first four seasons, Larry Shaw and David Grossman have been the most prolific directors, together directing more than half of the episodes.\n\nFilming\n\nDesperate Housewives was filmed on Panavision 35 mm cameras (except for the final season, which was shot digitally on the Arri Alexa). It was broadcast in standard and 16:9 widescreen high definition, though it was framed for the 4:3 aspect ratio until the final season.\n\nThe set for Wisteria Lane, consisting mainly of facades but also of some proper houses, was located on the Universal Studios Hollywood back lot. It was referred to by film crews as Colonial Street, and has been used for several motion pictures and television shows since the mid-1940s. Notable productions that were filmed here include: So Goes My Love, Leave it to Beaver, The 'Burbs, Providence, Deep Impact, Bedtime for Bonzo, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Gremlins, The Munsters, Psycho, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For the second season of Desperate Housewives, the street went through some heavy changes. Among the most noticeable of these changes was the removal of a church facade and a mansion in order to make room for Edie's house and a park. \n\nInterior sets were built on sound stages at Universal Studios Hollywood, some of which were duplicated in some form on the Wisteria Lane back lot for filming when conditions required it. \n\nFilming for the series ended April 26, 2012.\n\nOpening sequence\n\nThe initial idea for the show opening sequence was Cherry's. After asking sixteen companies to come up with suggestions for how best to realize it, the producers finally hired Hollywood-based yU+co to provide the final version. According to the yU+co's official website, the idea behind the sequence is, \"to evoke the show's quirky spirit and playful flouting of women's traditional role in society.\" The images featured are taken from eight pieces of art, portraying domesticity and male–female relations through the ages. \n\nThe music for the opening is composed by Danny Elfman, and has been awarded both a Primetime Emmy Award and the BMI TV Music Award. In 2005 it was included on the album Music from and Inspired by Desperate Housewives. When an episode runs long, only the first sequence (the falling apple) is kept. From the episode \"Now You Know\" onwards, only the main chorus of the theme is heard, which is the falling apple scene, and the photograph of the four lead actresses, crediting Marc Cherry as creator.\n\nMusic\n\nIn addition to the theme composed by Danny Elfman, the series underscore music, composed by Steve Jablonsky since the second episode of the first season, defines the overall sound of the show by creating a musical counterpoint to the writing style. The score is electronic-based, but every scoring session incorporates a live string ensemble. Jablonsky incorporates recurring themes for events and characters into the score.[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0558699/ \"Desperate Housewives\" Ah, But Underneath (2004)] Hollywood Records produced the first soundtrack album, Music from and Inspired by Desperate Housewives distributed by Universal Records. Several of those songs have been used in subsequent seasons.\n\nHousewivess unique style combined with the heavy dialogue and a quick-fire writing style limits the amount of popular music used within the series. The series' music supervisor, David Sibley, works closely with the producers to integrate these musical needs into the show. In addition to featured performances by central characters such as Susan Mayer singing along with Rose Royce's \"Car Wash\" and Lynette's rendition of \"Boogie Shoes\", several characters have been accomplished musicians, such as Betty Applewhite (a concert pianist) and Dylan Mayfair (a prodigy cellist).\n\nLater seasons\n\nIn August 2009, Marc Cherry said that Desperate Housewives would be on television for a few more years, stating that the series still \"has a lot of life left in it.\" He told The Wrap: He went on to explain that he felt the program had been revitalized by the five-year leap forward for season five, saying: \"Yes, I think it worked well. It was a way to start fresh and let everyone start from scratch in a way\".\n\nIn October 2009, Cherry signed a two-year deal with ABC that could keep Desperate Housewives on the air until 2013. \nThe stars of Desperate Housewives finalized new deals to make way for Season 8, and signed at the price of $12 million. \n\nOriginally, Marc Cherry hinted that Desperate Housewives would end in 2013 and in April 2011, Eva Longoria confirmed that there would definitely be an eighth season and expressed hopes for a ninth. Desperate Housewives was officially renewed by ABC on May 17, 2011 for an eighth season.\n\nFinal season\n\nIn August 2011, it was confirmed that Season 8 of Desperate Housewives would be the final season. Eva Longoria commented about the end of Desperate Housewives on her Twitter account: \n\nMarc Cherry, the show's creator, made a cameo as a mover in the last scene of the final episode.\n\nSeries synopses and episodes\n\nThe first season premiered on October 3, 2004, and introduces the four central characters of the show: Susan Mayer, Lynette Scavo, Bree Van de Kamp and Gabrielle Solis, as well as their families and neighbors on Wisteria Lane. The main mystery of the season is the unexpected suicide of Mary Alice Young, and the involvement of her husband Paul Young (Mark Moses) and their son Zach (Cody Kasch) in the events leading up to it. Susan fights Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan) for the affection of new neighbor Mike Delfino (James Denton), Lynette struggles to cope with her demanding children, Bree fights to save her marriage to Rex Van de Kamp (Steven Culp), and Gabrielle tries to prevent her husband Carlos Solis (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) from discovering that she is having an affair with their gardener, John Rowland (Jesse Metcalfe).\n\nThe second season premiered on September 25, 2005, and its central mystery is that of new neighbor Betty Applewhite (Alfre Woodard), who moved onto Wisteria Lane in the middle of the night. Throughout the season, Bree tries to cope with being a widow, unknowingly begins dating the man who poisoned her husband, fights alcoholism, and is unable to prevent the gap between her and her son Andrew Van de Kamp (Shawn Pyfrom) from growing to extremes. Susan's love life becomes even more complicated as her ex-husband Karl Mayer (Richard Burgi) is engaged to Edie and is also started to incline towards Susan. Lynette goes back to her career in advertising while her husband Tom Scavo (Doug Savant) becomes a stay-at-home father, and Gabrielle decides to be faithful to Carlos, and begins preparations to have a child. Paul is framed and sent to jail not for the murder he committed in the previous season, but for a fake one.\n\nThe third season premiered on September 24, 2006. In the third season, Bree marries Orson Hodge (Kyle MacLachlan), whose past and involvement with a recently discovered dead body becomes the main mystery of the season. Meanwhile, Lynette has to adjust to the arrival of Tom's previously unknown daughter to the home. The Scavos also experience tension as Tom wants to start a pizzeria. Gabrielle goes through a rough divorce, but finally finds new love in Fairview's new mayor. After being run over by Orson in the previous season finale, Mike falls into coma and suffers from amnesia when he wakes up. Edie sees her chance to make her move on Mike, and her family relations are explored throughout the season. Susan loses hope that Mike's memory will return and in the process moves on to a handsome Englishman whose wife is also in a coma, while her daughter Julie Mayer (Andrea Bowen) starts dating Edie's nephew. Elderly neighbor Karen McCluskey (Kathryn Joosten) hides something in her freezer. A shooting at the local grocery store leaves two characters dead and changes everyone's lives forever.\n\nThe fourth season premiered on September 30, 2007, and its main mystery revolves around new neighbor Katherine Mayfair (Dana Delany) and her family, who return to Wisteria Lane after twelve years away. Lynette battles cancer; the newlywed – but unhappy – Gabrielle starts an affair with her ex-husband Carlos; Susan and Mike enjoy life as a married couple and learn that they are expecting a child; Bree fakes a pregnancy and plans to raise her teenage daughter's illegitimate child as her own; and Edie schemes to hold on to her new love, Carlos. A gay couple from Chicago – Lee McDermott (Kevin Rahm) and Bob Hunter (Tuc Watkins) – become residents of Wisteria Lane. A tornado threatens to destroy everything, and everyone, that the housewives hold dear. In the closing minute the characters and their story have flashed forward by five years.\n\nThe fifth season premiered on September 28, 2008, with the time period jumping five years after the previous season, with some flashbacks to events which happened between the two periods. The season mystery revolves around Edie's new husband, Dave Williams (Neal McDonough), who is looking for revenge on someone on Wisteria Lane (later revealed to be Mike). Susan deals with being a single mother and having a new romance with her painter, while Mike starts dating Katherine. Lynette and Tom learn that their now teenage son is having an affair with a married woman whose husband's nightclub burns down with all of Wisteria Lane's neighbors inside. Gabrielle struggles with Carlos' blindness, two young daughters, and a financial crisis. Bree and Orson have marriage problems because Bree has become too focused on her career as a successful cookbook writer and caterer. Edie dies of electrocution after a car crash, before she can expose Dave moments after she discovers his secret.\n\nThe sixth season premiered on Sunday, September 27, 2009, at 9pm. The main mystery of this season is surrounding new neighbor Angie Bolen (Drea de Matteo) and her family. The first half of the season consists of Julie being strangled by an unknown person, the conflict between Gabrielle and her niece Ana Solis (Maiara Walsh), Lynette's attempt to sue her new boss Carlos, Katherine's eventual breakdown at losing Mike to Susan, and Bree's affair with Karl, which ends tragically when Karl's hired plane crashes into a building with the two of them and Orson inside. The second half of the season focuses on Katherine experimenting with her sexuality, Lynette inviting the Fairview strangler to stay with them before discovering the truth, the conflict between Bree and a son of Rex whom he had before meeting Bree, and the solving of the Bolen mystery.\n\nThe seventh season premiered on September 26, 2010, and its main mystery is Paul's return to Wisteria Lane with a new wife and with plans of punishing the residents for shunning him during his incarceration, while an old nemesis of his still plans to get her own revenge on him. Lynette's best friend from college Renee Perry (Vanessa Williams) moves to the lane and stirs things up among the other housewives. Gabrielle and Carlos learn an unsettling fact about their daughter Juanita Solis (Madison De La Garza), which ultimately takes them back to Gabrielle's home town of Las Colinas. A now divorced Bree starts dating her contractor, and reveals the truth about the death of Carlos' mother, consequently ending the friendship between the Solis family and Bree. Due to financial problems, Susan and her family have moved off the lane, and Susan is forced to earn money by untraditional means. Following a major riot on the lane, Susan is put on the waiting list for a vital organ donation. Lynette persuades Tom to take an exciting new job, which leads to unprecedented problems in their marriage.\n\nThe eighth and final season premiered on Sunday, September 25, 2011. The main mystery of the season is the death of Gabrielle's perverted stepfather Alejandro Perez (Tony Plana) at Carlos' hands, and its cover-up by the four housewives, which occurred in the previous season finale. After the murder, Bree receives a blackmail letter from an unknown person similar to the one Mary Alice had received in the 1st season. Due to her relationship with detective Chuck Vance (Jonathan Cake), Bree becomes the main character affected by the cover-up of Alejandro's murder, and is eventually accused of killing Alejandro herself. A new neighbor, Ben Faulkner (Charles Mesure), moves into the lane, attracting Renee along the way. Ben is going through severe financial problems, and resorts to a dangerous and unruly loan shark to bail him out. Mike meddles in the business of Ben's loan shark in an attempt to protect Renee, but he pays the ultimate price. During the first half of the season, Susan struggles with the guilt of her involvement in the Alejandro case, and during the second half, she tries to deal with both Julie's unexpected pregnancy and Mike's death. Following the cover-up of Alejandro's murder, Carlos develops an alcohol problem, but Gabrielle persuades him to recover in rehab, which eventually results in Gabrielle and Carlos switching house roles. Tom moves out of the family home, and Lynette struggles to come to terms with how quickly Tom seems to have moved on, until she accepts that she is still in love with him, and decides she will try to win him back. Mrs. McCluskey receives worrying news about her health and decides to end it all, but Bree manages to convince her otherwise.\n\nThe two-hour series finale, which aired on Sunday, May 13, 2012, featured the conclusion of Bree's court case. To bring the series to a conclusion, there was a wedding, a birth, and a death, and the future of the four main housewives was revealed.\n\nMain cast\n\nDuring its premiere season the show featured thirteen starring actors, all credited in the opening sequence. For the show's second year, several actors, mainly child and teenage ones, who had guest starred during the first season, were promoted to series regulars without having their names included in the opening sequence. Instead they were billed as \"also starring\" during the first minutes of each episode, together with episode guest stars. This practice continued for season three, four and five.\n\nReception\n\nUS Ratings\n\nPremiere year\n\nThe show was the biggest success of the 2004–2005 television season, being well received by both critics and viewers. The pilot episode had 21.3 million viewers making it the best new drama for the year, the highest rated show of the week, and the best performance by a pilot for ABC, since Spin City in 1996. \n\nAlong with Lost and Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives was credited to have turned around ABC's declining fortunes. Many critics agreed with Cherry's initial comparison to the popular black comedy film American Beauty, while its themes and appeal to female viewers were compared to those of the award winning TV show Sex and the City, and its mysteries were said to resemble those of David Lynch's classic TV series Twin Peaks. In its first review, USA Today proclaimed the show to be \"refreshingly original, bracingly adult and thoroughly delightful\" and naming it to be \"sort of Knots Landing meets The Golden Girls by way of Twin Peaks\". \n\nFollowing the initial success of the show, the term \"desperate housewives\" became a cultural phenomenon. This warranted \"real-life desperate housewives\" features in TV shows, including The Dr. Phil Show, and in magazines. Among the more prominent names to declare themselves fans of the show were Oprah Winfrey, who also dedicated an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show to her visit at the film set; and the former First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush, who, in a comedic speech during a dinner with White House Correspondents' Association on April 30, 2005, stated, \"Ladies and gentlemen, I am a desperate housewife\", referring to the show. \n\nThe show ended up being the fourth most watched in the United States during the 2004–2005 season, with 23.7 million viewers each week. The first season finale was watched by 30.62 million American viewers becoming the most watched episode of the series. \n\nLater years\n\nFor its second year, the show still maintained its ratings – with 22.2 million viewers, it reclaimed its position as the number four most watched show. The second season's premiere was watched by 28.4 million viewers. The episode drew in the second largest audience for the series in its history. However, several critics started to notice a declining quality of the show's script, and USA Todays Robert Bianco suggested that the part of the show getting \"less good\" was that showrunner Cherry had left much of the series writing in the hands of others. Midway through the season executive producer Michael Edenstein left the show due to conflicts with Cherry and in May 2006, just a couple of weeks prior to the second season finale, so did Tom Spezialy. After the end of the season, Cherry agreed that the second year's script had been weaker and also agreed that it had been a mistake to let go too much of the show. He now stated that he was back full-time, claiming that both he and the writing staff had learned from their mistakes. \n\nThe critics generally agreed on the improved quality for the third year, but the overall ratings fell notably from previous seasons. Due to complications from her pregnancy Marcia Cross was put on bed rest. After filming one episode from her own personal bedroom she was forced to take maternity leave with eight episodes of season three still remaining. It was predicted that the ratings would be down by over 25% since the premiere year. However, for the last three episodes of the season, the rating turned somewhat, and the season ended up with 17.5 million viewers, falling from number four to number ten on the list of most watched shows. While Cross' departure allowed for the much-underused Edie to have more story, fans noticed a decline in the stories during Cross' departure. Stories such as Lynette's emotional affair with restaurant manager Rick, proved unpopular. Furthermore, Susan's contrived triangle with Ian and Mike seemed tiresome to many viewers, particularly in an episode where Susan is lost in the woods. Notable, however, was that the show's rating among viewers age 18–24 increased from the previous season. \n\nFor its fourth season, the series proved to have staying power. The series averaged 18.2 million viewers. Ratings peaked in Episode 9 where 20.6 million viewers tuned in to see the heavily marketed tornado episode. The show once again moved back into the top 5 highest rated programs in the 2007–2008 season, being the #1 ABC drama and beating popular medical drama Grey's Anatomy after falling behind it for the first time in the third season. It also became for the first time the #1 scripted show, beating CSI. Although ratings were down for the fifth season, along with every scripted series on television, Desperate Housewives was still the most watched scripted series on ABC, consistently beating the other ABC flagship shows, Lost and Grey's Anatomy, although the latter is still number one in the 18–49 demographic, followed by Housewives.\n\nSimilar to the fifth season, ratings were down for the sixth season because of heavy competition in many airings, but the show still managed to remain the second most watched scripted show on ABC and the eleventh most watched scripted show of all broadcast television. The series continued to hit lower ratings, because of competition like the 67th Golden Globe Awards, 2010 Grammy Awards, 2010 Winter Olympics, and the new CBS reality series Undercover Boss. Nevertheless, the sixth season managed to finish in the top twenty overall, both in total viewers and 18-49 demographic audiences. Among scripted shows, it still ranked in the top 10, in both categories. \n\nThe seventh season premiered on September 26, 2010 and averaged 11.85 million viewers. The season saw new lows for the series reaching for the first time below 10 million viewers, and saw lows of 2.7 in the 18-49 demographic. For the first half of the season, ratings started strong averaging 12.3 million viewers and 3.9 in the 18-49 demographic which is similar to the second half of the sixth season. However, ratings declined in the second half of the season, after two contiguous episodes had to compete against the 68th Golden Globe Awards and then the 2011 Grammy Awards. The show failed to recover to viewer levels hit in the first half of the season, and continued to receive 9 - 10 million viewers and 2.7 - 3.1 in the 18-49 demographic. This was the first time in its history that Desperate Housewives would not place in the 20 most watched shows of the season, although it would place in the 20 most watched scripted shows.\n\nSeason 8 continued to see declines in the show's ratings. The season premiered to 9.93 million viewers and a 3.2 in the demo making it the least watched season premiere in the show's history. The season began with ratings similar to those of the latter half of season 7, averaging 8–9 million viewers, and between a 2.8 to 3.0 in the 18-49 demographic. However, after the mid-season finale the ratings returned lower, hitting the 7 million viewer mark and a 2.2-2.5 in the demo. Season 8 also saw the lowest ratings in the show's eight-year run. Opposite the 2012 Grammy Awards, which featured a tribute to the recently deceased Whitney Houston, and the mid season premiere of The Walking Dead on AMC, the show fell to a 1.8 rating in adults 18-49 and 6.4 million viewers. However unlike season 7, the show's ratings slightly recovered after the series low and leveled around the 8 million viewer mark and a 2.6 in the demo. Despite the series lows, the season finale was able to go out on a season high in the ratings and the highest rated episode in over a year and a half, since March 2011 with \"Searching\". The series finale titled \"Finishing the Hat\" aired May 13, 2012 was viewed by 11.12 million viewers and a 3.2 in the demo. Despite the lows in the ratings the show managed to remain in the Top 25 watched shows in the 18-49 demographic, placing at 25th. However, the show dropped out of the Top 30 most watched shows in total viewers, coming in at 35th place. No other series has shown success in the timeslot since Housewives left the air in 2012.\n\nIn 2006, the American cable network Bravo launched their reality series, The Real Housewives of..., in the footsteps of the \"real life desperate housewives\" phenomenon. That program has taken place in areas such as Orange County, California, Atlanta, and two series within the New York-Tri-State Region, within the City itself and the New Jersey suburbs. According to a survey of twenty countries conducted in 2006 by Informa Telecoms and Media, Desperate Housewives was the third most viewed TV show in the world, after fellow American series CSI: Miami and Lost. During a fund raising auction for the British child charity ChildLine in December 2006, a walk-on part in Desperate Housewives had the highest bid, £17,000, beating Daniel Craig's James Bond tuxedo from Casino Royale. \n\nIn Autumn 2013, North Korea allegedly executed 80 people for watching banned South Korean soap operas, Desperate Housewives being the most common soap opera. Desperate Housewives was being secretly watched using mp3 players, hard drives, and DVDs. \n\nIn September 2015, Desperate Housewives ranked at number 100 on The Hollywood Reporters \"Hollywood's 100 Favorite TV Shows\", as determined by TV industry professionals. \n\nAwards and nominations\n\nFor its premiere season, the show was awarded six Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. The nominations of all of the leading actresses except Eva Longoria for both the Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award received some media interest. While Longoria seemingly wasn't bothered, stating for the press that \"I'm new. I just arrived. I didn't expect at all to be in the minds of the Academy\", Marc Cherry regarded them being left out as a \"horrendous error\". In the end, the Primetime Emmy Award went to Felicity Huffman, while Teri Hatcher received the Golden Globe Award, as well as the Screen Actors Guild Award.\n\nThe show's second Golden Globe Award for its first year was for Best TV Series – Musical or Comedy, while the other Primetime Emmy Awards went to Kathryn Joosten for her guest role as Karen McCluskey (beating, among others, fellow cast member Lupe Ontiveros), Charles McDougall for his direction of the pilot episode, Danny Elfman's theme music, the picture editing of the pilot, and the casting of the series. The entire cast was awarded the Screen Actors Guild Award, and Nicollette Sheridan was nominated the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries, or Television Film.\n\nIn 2006, the show continued to receive several nominations. It was awarded with yet another Golden Globe Award for Best TV Series – Musical or Comedy, and all the four leading women received Golden Globe Award nominations, although none of them won. The cast ensemble was awarded with another Screen Actors Guild Award, as was Felicity Huffman. Primetime Emmy Award nominations included, among others, guest actress Shirley Knight and supporting actress Alfre Woodard, although none of the resulted in an actual award. It was nominated for the Pioneer Award at the BAFTAs but lost to Doctor Who, which at the time was recently revamped.\n\nThe show did continue to be nominated in 2007 – Felicity Huffman was granted an Primetime Emmy Award nomination for the second time, and guest actresses Laurie Metcalf and Dixie Carter also received Primetime Emmy Award nominations. The show, along with actresses Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman, received Golden Globe Award nominations, and Huffman and the cast ensemble were also nominated for the Screen Actors Guild. None of the Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, or Screen Actors Guild Award nominations resulted in any actual awards.\n\n2008 yielded the least nominations with none at the Golden Globe Awards and only the cast being nominated at the Screen Actors Guild Award. The show was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards, including acting nods towards Polly Bergen and Kathryn Joosten for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. Joosten won the show's seventh Primetime Emmy Award and first since its debut year.\n\nNominations continued to decline in later years. Notable nominations included nods towards Beau Bridges and Kathryn Joosten in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Additionally, Brenda Strong received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 2011, a notable feat for a category usually dominated by animated series. Also in 2011, Vanessa L. Williams won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series and a Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. Strong and Joosten received Primetime Emmy Award nominations again in 2012 and Williams won an NAACP Image Award as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the show's eight and final season.\n\nOther notable awards include the 2005 People's Choice Award for Favorite New Television Drama, the Future Classic Award at the 2005 TV Land Awards, the 2006 TP de Oro for Best Foreign Series, and the Golden Nymph at the 2007 Monte-Carlo TV Festival, among others. \n\nForeign productions and translations\n\nOn February 26, 2007, The Walt Disney Company announced that four South American versions of the show were about to begin production: one for Argentina, one for Colombia, one for Brazil and one for Ecuador. Later on, the Colombian and Ecuadorean productions merged, leaving three Latin American shows:\n\nThe Argentine version, called Amas de Casa Desesperadas, began being broadcast in 2006. The first year proved successful enough for a second season to begin production.[http://www.canal13.com.ar/micrositios/amas.resena.html Amas de casa desesperadas Official Canal 13 Website] , Retrieved August 3, 2007 The first season of the version for Colombia (RCN TV) and Ecuador (Teleamazonas), also titled Amas de Casa Desesperadas, began being broadcast in Ecuador on May 2007, and is broadcast five days a week.[http://www.teleamazonas.com/amasdecasa.htm Amas de casa desesperadas Official Teleamazonas Website] , Retrieved August 3, 2007 The Brazilian version, Donas de Casa Desesperadas began being broadcast on RedeTV! in August 2007. Its Turkish version called \"Umutsuz Ev Kadınları\" has been airing on Kanal D in Turkey since 2011. \n\nIn addition, a second US version is being developed for the Spanish television network Univision. Just as the two previous Spanish versions, it is to be named Amas de Casa Desesperadas, and the production began in July 2007. \n\nOn autumn 2013, the Disney Media Distribution and the Nigerian television network, EbonyLife TV, announced that they were producing an African version of Desperate Housewives. The series is titled \"Desperate Housewives Africa\" and it is to premiere summer 2014 on EbonyLife TV.\n\nInternet ratings\n\nIn its first public release of online individual TV program rankings, The Nielsen Company announced that the series had 723,000 unique viewers in December 2008. Desperate Housewives was the seventh most-pirated television show of 2009. \n\nOther media and merchandise\n\nDVD releases\n\nGames\n\nIn 2005, UK company Re:creation published Desperate Housewives Dirty Laundry Game, a board game based on season three of Desperate Housewives.[http://www.recreationplc.com/Tradecat_2006/Trade%20Catalogue.pdf Re:Creation 2007 Product Catalogue, page 15] , Retrieved August 3, 2007 Players attempt to guess their opponents' secrets by answering trivia questions, while keeping clues to their own secrets concealed.\n\n2006 saw the release of two video games: Buena Vista Games released the sim computer game Desperate Housewives: The Game, featuring an original storyline spanning 12 episodes. The game is set on Wisteria Lane, but the player does not play as any of the housewives, although they frequently appear.\n\nA couple of months later, Gameloft released a mobile game based on the series. \"The inspiration for Gameloft's take on Desperate Housewives comes from the most unlikely place, too – the original Mario Party on the Nintendo 64.\" \n\nSoundtrack and literature\n\nIn September 2005, Hollywood Records released a CD (distributed by Universal Music), Music from and Inspired by Desperate Housewives, featuring music inspired by the series, as well as sound clips taken from the first season of the show. The songs included have been described as promoting \"girl power\", and among the artists appearing – all being female – were LeAnn Rimes, Gloria Estefan and Shania Twain. Controversially, no originally composed music from the show is included on the CD.\n\nTwo books have been officially released within the Desperate Housewives franchise. In September 2005 ABC's sister company Hyperion Books released Desperate Housewives: Behind Closed Doors (ISBN 978-1-4013-0826-1), a companion to the first season of the show, written by the production team behind the series. One year later, in October 2006, Hyperion published The Desperate Housewives Cookbook – Juicy Dishes and Saucy Bits (ISBN 978-1-4013-0277-1). In addition, official wall calendars, featuring shots taken from the series, were published by Andrews McMeel Publishing for 2006, 2007 and 2008. \n\nFour unauthorized books written from different points of view were released in 2006. Delicious Housewives, A Novel of Erotica, by International best-selling author Tamarias Tyree (ISBN 978-0-930865-79-5), from RSVP Press, is an erotic parody of the popular TV series featuring the housewives' sexual misadventures which eventually lead them to an appearance on the Jerry Springer Show ...\nReading 'Desperate Housewives': Beyond the White Picket Fence (ISBN 978-1-84511-220-2), from I.B. Tauris, is an academic look at the show by film studies lecturers Janet McCabe and Kim Akassm, Welcome to Wisteria Lane: On America's Favorite Desperate Housewives (ISBN 978-1-932100-79-2), published by BenBella Books, consists of seventeen essays written from a feminist perspective, and in Chalice Press' Not-so-desperate: Fantasy, Fact And Faith on Wisteria Lane (ISBN 0-8272-2513-X) author Shawnthea Monroe is giving a Christian interpretation of the show. Also, following the \"real life desperate housewives\" phenomenon, several books have been released dealing with life strategies for contemporary women.\n\nFashion dolls\n\nIn December 2006, it was announced that the characters of Bree, Gabrielle, Edie, Susan and Lynette were to be made into 16 in tall fashion dolls, produced by Madame Alexander. In 2007, they were released in a limited edition of 300 pieces each. A perfume was also released, named Forbidden Fruit. \n\nAnother Desperate Housewife commercials\n\nIn conjunction with season six, Marc Cherry was commissioned to write eight \"mini-episodes\" entitled Another Desperate Housewife. The episodes were written after the previous season's extensive product placement proved unpopular with the fans. The mini-episodes were written to advertise mobile phone company Sprint and involve just three characters. The two main characters are Stephanie (played by Rebecca Staab) and Lance (played by David Chisum) who have moved into the former house of Edie Britt after her death. The third character, Elsa, was Stephanie's friend. It is eventually revealed that Lance and Elsa have been having an affair. Stephanie finds out and tells Lance to break it off. Elsa suggests killing Stephanie, but Lance gets a text message indicating he's seeing another woman and a furious Elsa shoots him. In truth, Stephanie had sent the message herself. The final mini-episode has Elsa being arrested and Stephanie attracted to a handsome policeman at the scene. Each episode ends with a Mary Alice-like narration saying things such as \"This is suspicion on the Now Network\" or \"This is betrayal on the Now Network.\" \n\nAsk Desperate Housewives\n\nFor the sixth season of the series, ABC created \"Ask Desperate Housewives\" to promote their website abc.go.com. It was presented and sponsored by Sprint, and it was hosted by series creator, Marc Cherry. In each special, Marc Cherry and an actress/actor of the series would answer questions that fans submitted to abc.go.com.\n\nSocial media\n\nLike many TV shows, Desperate Housewives is present on popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It is the second most 'liked' ABC show on Facebook, with 12 million 'likes', which exceeds that of other popular ABC shows such as Modern Family, Once Upon A Time, Dancing with the Stars, and Lost. On Facebook, the show can be found under the title \"Desperate Housewives\" with a blue check mark to confirm that it is the official page. On Twitter, Desperate Housewives is listed as \"desperateABC\" and has more than 200,000 followers; again, a blue check mark is present as confirmation that it is official page. Desperate Housewives' official website is abc.go.com/desperatehousewives, but entering desperatehousewives.com will also locate the page. The website features character bios, quizzes, and episode descriptions. When Desperate Housewives was on the air the last five episodes would be available on the show's site or on the ABC Player App (now known as 'Watch ABC').", "Wisteria Lane is the name of a fictional street at the center of U.S. television drama series Desperate Housewives. Desperate Housewives story lines primarily center on the residents of the street. The set for Wisteria Lane is located inside Universal Studios Hollywood, and is actually named Colonial Street, an area that has been used for many motion pictures and television shows. Other film and television productions in which Colonial Street has featured include the original Leave It to Beaver series, Gremlins, The 'Burbs, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. \n\nProduction\n\nIn 2005, for the second season of Desperate Housewives, the street went through some heavy changes. During the first season only one part of the street had been seen on the show – the cul-de-sac at the end of the street, known as 'Circle Drive' among film crews, had been left out. Now the majority of the buildings and façades in this part of the street were either heavily remodeled or removed. Among the most noticeable changes were the removals of a church façade, seen on Murder, She Wrote, in order to make room for Edie's house, \nand of the so-called Colonial Mansion, which was replaced by a park. In the film Beethoven's 3rd (2000) the street can clearly be seen with the shops and the Church still in place around 'Circle Drive'. The shot begins in circle drive at the shops then Mrs McCluskey's, Lynette's, Katherine's, Bree's, Susan's, Mary Alice's, Betty's and Gaby's are also in shot. The shot then continues into Gaby's driveway and then down the rest of the street.\n\nCurrently Colonial Street – including Circle Drive – has sixteen main buildings, with three of them located outside the Desperate Housewives filming area. The house closest to the settings, located next to what's called 4348 Wisteria Lane within the show, is being used by guards to stop any unauthorized access to \"Wisteria Lane\". \n\nLots \n\nThe following overview is based upon details and maps given within the show as well as Universal Studios' official website - see below for further details.\n\nNo. 4347\n\nNo. 4347 (commonly known as The Greenberg House) is a house situated on Wisteria Lane, in the town Fairview. Ida Greenberg resides there in seasons 1-4. After Ida Greenberg's death in season 4, the house was temporarily occupied by Karen McCluskey. Since season 6 it has been occupied by Mitzi Kinsky.\n\nNo. 4348\n\nNo. 4348 (commonly called the Kemper house) is a house situated on Wisteria Lane in the town of Fairview. Rose Kemper resides there from pre series-season 5. In season 5 she goes to live in a nursing home and it is unknown who currently resides there.\n\nNo. 4349\n\nNo. 4349 (commonly known as The Solis House) is a house situated on Wisteria Lane, in the town of Fairview. They moved in during the summer of 2003, Gabrielle Solis and Carlos Solis have owned the house. They move out a year after the series ends.\n\nNo. 4350\n\nNo. 4350 (commonly known as The Old Huber House) is a house situated on Wisteria Lane, in the town of Fairview. In season one, the home was owned by Martha Huber who had owned the house years earlier as well. After her house burned down, Edie Britt resided with Martha Huber until her new house was re-built. When Paul Young murders her, her sister Felicia Tilman moves in. Felicia stays in the house until the end of season two, where she frames Paul, for her own 'murder'.\n\nBree Van de Kamp buys the house for her son Andrew Van de Kamp and his partner Alex Cominis in season five. They are still shown living there in season seven. But in the middle of the season, Alex moves out because of Andrew's alcoholic problems. By the second half of season eight, Andrew has to move out since he lost his job so he moves back in with Bree.\n\nNo. 4351\n\nNo. 4351 (commonly known as The Old Applewhite House) is a house situated on Wisteria Lane, in the town of Fairview.\n\nThe house where Betty Applewhite lived during the second season was strictly avoided by the Desperate Housewives filming crew during season one. This was because it was considered to be too recognizable since being the main setting of The Munsters. Following the decision to introduce the Applewhites, and having them living in the Munster home, the house was completely remodeled.\n\n4351 Wisteria Lane has been owned by Bob Hunter and Lee McDermott since Season 4. In season 7 Lee sells his house to Paul Young. He most likely got it back after Paul went back to prison.\n\nNo. 4352\n\nNo. 4352 (commonly known as Mary Alice's house) is a house situated on Wisteria Lane, in the town of Fairview. In season five the house has been painted green and the archway and the beginning of the house has been removed. The Youngs moved in the house in 1990.\n\nIn season one, Mary Alice Young kills herself and leaves the house to be maintained by her husband Paul Young and her son Zachary Young. The two remain in the house until season two, when Paul is arrested for the apparent murder of Felicia Tilman, and Zach inherits his grandfathers fortune. The house is then put on the market by Edie Britt, who sells it to Arthur Shepherd. Art moves out after his sister's death and the Lane finding out he is a pedophile.\n\nIn season five, the house is bought by Edie and Dave Williams who rents the house out to Mike Delfino. Mike stays in the house until he moves into Katherine Mayfair's house.\n\nIn season six, the Bolen family moves in. The family stay in the house until the end of the season, where Angie Bolen and Nick Bolen move to Atlanta, and their son Danny Bolen goes to New York.\n\nIn season seven, the house is reclaimed by Paul Young who lives across the road in Susan's house. Towards the end of season seven, Paul Young confesses about Martha Huber's murder and as of season eight, the resident of 4352 is unknown.\n\nNo. 4353\n\nNo. 4353 (commonly known as Susan's house) is a house situated on Wisteria Lane, in the town of Fairview. Since the show's beginning Susan Myer has owned the house. Paul Young rented the house throughout the seventh season, with his new wife Beth Young, until Beth kills herself, and Paul soon lets Susan and Mike move back in.\n\nThe Myers moved into the house in 1992. Before season one, Susan lived in the house with her husband Karl Myer, they divorced and throughout the first four seasons, Susan lived with her daughter Julie Mayer. Her off-and-on relationship meant that Mike Delfino often stayed. At the end of season three, Susan and Mike married, so Mike became a permanent resident.\n\nThey remained together in season four. At the end of season four, Julie moved out to go to college, and Susan gave birth to Maynard James Delfino. In season five, Susan and Mike divorced, and Susan started seeing Jackson Braddock. Jackson wanted to move in, but Susan did not allow him to. At the end of season five, Susan and Mike remarried and live in 4353 for season 6.\n\nAt the end of season six, Susan and Mike move to an apartment and rent out their house due to financial troubles; unknown to them, Paul Young moves in with his wife Beth. In season seven, Paul finds out the truth about Beth and he throws her out.\n\nIn the end of season seven, Mike, Susan and MJ all move back into 4353, when Paul Young is arrested for murder. In season eight, Mike is murdered by a loan shark. Susan decides to sell her house at the end of the series to a couple named Jennifer and Steve, who are hiding a secret.\n\nNo. 4354\n\nNo. 4354 (commonly known as the Van de Kamp house) is a house situated on Wisteria Lane, in the town of Fairview. Bree Van de Kamp has been the sole owner since her husband Rex Van de Kamp's death. Together in this house, they raised their children, Andrew Van de Kamp and Danielle Van de Kamp. They moved into the house in 1994.\n\nIn season three, Bree remarries to Orson Hodge and he becomes a permanent resident in the house. Gloria Hodge, Orson's mother also moves in, a few episodes later and remains until she is kicked out by Bree.\n\nIn season four, Danielle gives birth to Benjamin Hodge and he stays in Bree's care until season five. With this, both Andrew and Danielle move out as well. Also at the end of season four, Orson goes to jail for Bree and stays there for three years. When he is released, he returns to the home.\n\nIn season five Bree's garage has been reconverted into her and Katherine's test kitchen. The ground floor contains the kitchen and the top floor contains their offices.\n\nAt the close of season six, Orson moves out after asking for a divorce. In season seven Bree's contractor boyfriend Keith moves in with her. But when Keith finds out he has a son the relationship starts to crumble, He tries to get Bree to move to Florida but it ends up in only him leaving. In season eight, Andrew moves back in due to financial reasons.\n\nThree years after the series end, in year 2020, Bree and her former lawyer/new husband, Trip Weston, move off the lane to Kentucky.\n\nNo. 4355\n\nNo. 4355 (commonly known as the Scavo house) is a house situated on Wisteria Lane, in the town of Fairview. Since the beginning Lynette Scavo and Tom Scavo have owned the house. They moved into the house in 1997, living there with their five children, Preston Scavo, Porter Scavo, Parker Scavo, Penny Scavo, Paige Scavo, and Kayla Huttington Scavo. Kayla lives in the house full-time for the middle of season three and all of season four. In season seven, Porter and Preston move out. By the end of season seven, Lynette and Tom decide to separate and divorce after a long fight between the two. In season eight Tom moves out and the twins, Porter and Preston, move back in temporarily. Tom moves back in during the two part finale as they reconcile. They move out four weeks later to New York City where they live in a penthouse overlooking Central Park.\n\nNo. 4356\n\nNo. 4356; commonly known as the Simms House (before season one), The Delfino House (first three seasons), Mayfair House (season four to season six), the Graham House (first half of season seven) and then The Tilman House (middle of season seven to end of season seven); is a house situated on Wisteria Lane, in the town of Fairview. It is assumed that Katherine Mayfair sold the house to Emma Graham (Dana Glover), and then she sold it to Paul in season 7. Felicia Tilman was the owner of the house after inheriting it from her daughter, Beth. Ben Faulkner moved into the house at the start of season eight. It is not known whether Ben still lives in this house or if he moved in with his new wife Renee.\n\nNo. 4358\n\nNo. 4358 (commonly known as the McCluskey house) is a house situated on Wisteria Lane, in the town of Fairview. Since the show's beginning Karen McCluskey has owned the house. She is one of the oldest residents on the lane and has lived there for 35 years. After the tornado in \"Something's Coming\", Karen's home was completely destroyed. A replacement blue house has been constructed in time for the fifth season. This house has a working 2nd floor.\n\nIn season six, Karen starts a relationship with Roy Bender and he moves in. They marry in between the end of season six and beginning of season seven. Not wanting to return to Bree, Orson Hodge had arranged to stay with them, but Bree took him back.\n\nKaren dies in the series finale so the house is only occupied by Roy Bender, her widower.\n\nNo. 4362\n\nNo. 4362 (commonly known as Edie Britt's house) is a house situated on Wisteria Lane, in the town of Fairview. The house was primarily owned by Edie Britt until her death in season five. She moved onto the Lane sometime in the early year 2003. The original house was burned down by Susan Myer in the pilot episode. The house was rebuilt for season two in 2005.\n\nAs of the beginning of season seven, the house was rented by Renee Perry, a college friend of Lynette's. It is not known whether Renee still lives in this house or if she moved in with her new husband Ben. For unknown reasons, in episodes \"Sorry Grateful\" and \"Finishing the Hat\" the numbers on the door of Renee's house were changed to 4359. It is currently unknown why or when this change happened.\n\nResidents\n\nThese are the current known residents of Wisteria Lane, covering episodes (1.01—5.24). Note that no residents 4348 (Drew House) and 4360 Wisteria Lane have been mentioned, although an unnamed woman, played by an uncredited actress, is seen living in no. 4360 in episode 4.02. Also in Season 2, there is a black haired woman living here. In Season 3, there is a blonde haired cheating housewife here. Also, in Season 3, Mrs McClusky is seen reporting a man washing his pet Pig on the lawn of 4360. Most likely neighborhood big mouth Mona Clark lives here, although in Season 5 she is shown living at the Corner House.\n\nChanges\n\nBefore the large changes to the set after Season One, 4360 and 4362 Wisteria Lane, as well as the park, situated around the cul-de-sac, were not shown.\n\nWhere 4360 Wisteria Lane was built, was formerly store façades and a school façade. At 4362, Edie Britt's home, was originally a church façade that was removed. That church was seen in Murder, She Wrote (1984) as \"Cabot Cove's community church\". Where the park is now (see map), was previously a relatively larger home, \"Colonial Mansion.\" In season 1 Susan Mayer burns down Edie Britt's house and there are changes to the kitchen and exterior.\n\nBefore the start of Season 4, Mike's old house is completely remodeled. The walls around the staircase have been torn down to open up the ground floor completely. Both the upstairs and downstairs are re-wallpapered with bright reds and pastel colors.\n\nAfter the tornado in \"Something's Coming\", Karen McCluskey's home was completely destroyed. A replacement blue house has been constructed in time for the fifth season. This house has a working 2nd floor. In addition to this, the former residence of Mary Alice Young has been painted green and the archway and the beginning of the house has been removed. Bree's garage has been reconverted into her and Katherine's test kitchen. The ground floor contains the kitchen and the top floor contains their offices. Also in season five 4350, the former home of Martha Huber and Felicia Tilman has been painted a pale yellow - green color however by the time of season six it has been restored to its original color, green.\n\nIt is revealed during \"Color and Light\" (Season 2) that Mona Clark lived at number 4360. But in season 5 and 6 we can see that she lived in 4348. She was, however, strictly a background character and was even credited at Mother #2, until her death in the Season 6 episode \"If...\".\n\nOfficial maps\n\n1989-1996 Colonial Street map\n\nThe official website of Universal Studios Hollywood presents a map of Colonial Street, as it looked between 1989 and 1996. Besides the changes made during the first year of Desperate Housewives, the main difference between this map and the current look of the street is that the houses known in Desperate Housewives as 4352 Wisteria Lane and 4354 Wisteria Lane (Mary Alice's and Bree's houses) replaced two older buildings in 1996.\n\nMike's map\n\nIn episode two of Desperate Housewives, \"Ah, But Underneath\", a map of the street and details about its residents is seen in one of Mike's lockers. This map confirms the location of Susan's, Lynette's, Gabrielle's, Bree's, Mary Alice's, Mike's and Martha Huber's houses, as well as the existence of one house between Susan's and Gabrielle's, one house beyond Gabrielle's and one house beyond Mike's. However, it does not cover the part of the street that include the house on the far side of Martha Huber's house, nor the buildings around the cul-de-sac, which wasn't included in the show's setting at the time. With two exceptions, all ten houses have the same number as otherwise stated in the series.\n\nThere are some differences between Mike's map and the established version:\n*Although most house numbers are the same as otherwise stated, there are two exceptions: The house between Susan's and Gabrielle's houses (later known as the Applewhite house) is noted as 4354, and Bree's house is said to be 4359. Generally these houses are shown to be 4351 and 4354 Wisteria Lane, respectively, with Mike's map being the only exception.\n*The residents of the house between the houses of Gabrielle and of Susan are said to be Trent and Debra Nelson, although the Mullins is mentioned in the dialogue earlier in the same episode. This is the only time the Nelson's names has occurred in the series.\n*The resident of 4347 Wisteria Lane is not said to be Ida Greenberg - this character is not introduced until episode five, \"Come In, Stranger\". Instead there are two other names noted, but too blurry to be read properly. However, Morris, their last name, is readable. Also, one of them seems to be named Gary, and they're 42 and 38 years old respectively.\n*Also to be noted is that Lynette's daughter Penny is called Daisy on the map.\n\nIn addition, although the camera briefly passes by 4358 Wisteria Lane - the house that (starting with episode 14, \"Love is in the Air\") would be known as Karen McCluskey's home - it turns away before any names are shown.\n\n\"Behind Closed Doors\" map\n\nA map of Wisteria Lane is also included in the official season one companion book, Desperate Housewives: Behind Closed Doors, published in 2005. This map does not show the house numbers but confirms the existence and location of most Wisteria Lane houses to appear on the show. The exceptions are the three buildings beyond Karen McCluskey's house, which were not added to the shows filming location until season two. Also - while most of the houses on the map are labeled \"The Scavo House\", \"The Young House\" etc., the houses now known as the McCluskey house, the Greenberg house and 4348 Wisteria Lane, are left without any description." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Cleveland.txt" ], "title": [ "Cleveland" ], "wiki_context": [ "Cleveland ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 mi west of the Pennsylvania border. It was founded in 1796 near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, and became a manufacturing center owing to its location on the lake shore, as well as being connected to numerous canals and railroad lines. Cleveland's economy has diversified sectors that include manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, and biomedical. Cleveland is also home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.\n\nAs of the 2013 Census Estimate, the city proper had a total population of 390,113, making Cleveland the 48th largest city in the United States, and the second largest city in Ohio after Columbus. Greater Cleveland, the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, ranked 29th largest in the United States, and second largest in Ohio after Cincinnati with 2,064,725 people in 2013. Cleveland is part of the larger Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH Combined Statistical Area, which in 2013 had a population of 3,501,538, and ranked as the country's 15th largest CSA. Residents of Cleveland are called \"Clevelanders\". Cleveland has many nicknames, the oldest of which in contemporary use being \"The Forest City\". \n\nHistory\n\nCleveland obtained its name on July 22, 1796 when surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company laid out Connecticut's Western Reserve into townships and a capital city they named \"Cleaveland\" after their leader, General Moses Cleaveland. Cleaveland oversaw the plan for what would become the modern downtown area, centered on Public Square, before returning home, never again to visit Ohio. The first settler in Cleaveland was Lorenzo Carter, who built a cabin on the banks of the Cuyahoga River. The Village of Cleaveland was incorporated on December 23, 1814. In spite of the nearby swampy lowlands and harsh winters, its waterfront location proved to be an advantage. The area began rapid growth after the 1832 completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal. This key link between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes connected the city to the Atlantic Ocean via the Erie Canal and later via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River. Growth continued with added railroad links. Cleveland incorporated as a city in 1836.\n\nIn 1836, the city, then located only on the eastern banks of the Cuyahoga River, nearly erupted into open warfare with neighboring Ohio City over a bridge connecting the two. Ohio City remained an independent municipality until its annexation by Cleveland in 1854.\n\nThe city's prime geographic location as transportation hub on the Great Lakes has played an important role in its development as a commercial center. Cleveland serves as a destination point for iron ore shipped from Minnesota, along with coal transported by rail. In 1870, John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in Cleveland, and moved its headquarters to New York City in 1885. Cleveland emerged in the early 20th Century as an important American manufacturing center, which included automotive companies such as Peerless, People's, Jordan, Chandler, and Winton, maker of the first car driven across the U.S. Other manufacturers located in Cleveland produced steam-powered cars, which included White and Gaeth, as well as the electric car company Baker. Because of the significant growth, Cleveland was known as the \"Sixth City\" during this period. \n\nBy 1920, due in large part to the city's economic prosperity, Cleveland became the nation's fifth largest city. The city counted Progressive Era politicians such as the populist Mayor Tom L. Johnson among its leaders. Many prominent Clevelanders from this era are buried in the historic Lake View Cemetery, including President James A. Garfield, and John D. Rockefeller.\n\nIn commemoration of the centennial of Cleveland's incorporation as a city, the Great Lakes Exposition debuted in June 1936 along the Lake Erie shore north of downtown. Conceived as a way to energize a city after the Great Depression, it drew four million visitors in its first season, and seven million by the end of its second and final season in September 1937. The exposition was housed on grounds that are now used by the Great Lakes Science Center, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Burke Lakefront Airport, among others. \nFollowing World War II, the city experienced a prosperous economy. In sports, the Indians won the 1948 World Series and the Browns dominated professional football in the 1950s. Businesses proclaimed that Cleveland was the \"best location in the nation\". In 1940, non-Hispanic whites represented 90.2% of Cleveland's population. The city's population reached its peak of 914,808, and in 1949 Cleveland was named an All-America City for the first time. By the 1960s, the economy slowed, and residents sought new housing in the suburbs, reflecting the national trends of urban flight and suburban growth. \n\nIn the 1950s and 1960s, social and racial unrest occurred in Cleveland, resulting in the Hough Riots from July 18 to 23, 1966 and the Glenville Shootout from July 23 to 25, 1968. In November 1967, Cleveland became the first major American city to elect a black mayor, Carl Stokes (who served from 1968 to 1971).\n\nSuburbanization changed the city in the late 1960s and 1970s, when financial difficulties and a notorious 1969 fire on the Cuyahoga River challenged the city. This, along with the city's struggling professional sports teams, drew negative national press. As a result, Cleveland was often derided as \"The Mistake on the Lake\". \n\nIn December 1978, Cleveland became the first major American city to enter into a financial default on federal loans since the Great Depression.\nBy the beginning of the 1980s, several factors, including changes in international free trade policies, inflation and the Savings and Loans Crisis contributed to the recession that impacted cities like Cleveland. While unemployment during the period peaked in 1983, Cleveland's rate of 13.8% was higher than the national average due to the closure of several production centers. \n\nThe metropolitan area began a gradual economic recovery under mayors George Voinovich and Michael R. White. Redevelopment within the city limits has been strongest in the downtown area near the Gateway Sports and Entertainment Complex—consisting of Progressive Field and Quicken Loans Arena—and near North Coast Harbor, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, FirstEnergy Stadium, and the Great Lakes Science Center. Cleveland has been hailed by local media as the \"Comeback City\", while economic development of the inner-city neighborhoods and improvement of the school systems are municipal priorities. In 1999, Cleveland was identified as an emerging global city. \n\nIn the 21st century, the city has improved infrastructure, is more diversified, and has invested in the arts. Cleveland is generally considered an example of revitalization. The city's goals include additional neighborhood revitalization and increased funding for public education. In 2009, it was announced that Cleveland was chosen to host the 2014 Gay Games, the fourth city in the United States to host this international event. On July 8, 2014, it was announced that Cleveland was chosen to be the host city of the 2016 Republican National Convention. \n\nGeography\n\nTopography\n\nAccording to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. \nThe shore of Lake Erie is 569 ft above sea level; however, the city lies on a series of irregular bluffs lying roughly perpendicular to the lake. In Cleveland these bluffs are cut principally by the Cuyahoga River, Big Creek, and Euclid Creek. The land rises quickly from the lakeshore. Public Square, less than inland, sits at an elevation of 650 ft, and Hopkins Airport, 5 mi inland from the lake, is at an elevation of 791 ft. \n\nCityscape\n\nArchitecture\n\nCleveland's downtown architecture is diverse. Many of the city's government and civic buildings, including City Hall, the Cuyahoga County Courthouse, the Cleveland Public Library, and Public Auditorium, are clustered around an open mall and share a common neoclassical architecture. Built in the early 20th century, they are the result of the 1903 Group Plan, and constitute one of the most complete examples of City Beautiful design in the United States. The Terminal Tower, dedicated in 1930, was the tallest building in North America outside New York City until 1964 and the tallest in the city until 1991. It is a prototypical Beaux-Arts skyscraper. The two newer skyscrapers on Public Square, Key Tower (currently the tallest building in Ohio) and the 200 Public Square, combine elements of Art Deco architecture with postmodern designs. Another of Cleveland's architectural treasures is The Arcade (sometimes called the Old Arcade), a five-story arcade built in 1890 and renovated in 2001 as a Hyatt Regency Hotel. Cleveland's landmark ecclesiastical architecture includes the historic Old Stone Church in downtown Cleveland and the onion domed St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Tremont, along with myriad ethnically inspired Roman Catholic churches. Running east from Public Square through University Circle is Euclid Avenue, which was known for its prestige and elegance. In the late 1880s, writer Bayard Taylor described it as \"the most beautiful street in the world\". Known as \"Millionaire's Row\", Euclid Avenue was world-renowned as the home of such internationally known names as Rockefeller, Hanna, and Hay. \n\nNeighborhoods\n\nDowntown Cleveland is centered on Public Square and includes a wide range of diversified districts. Downtown Cleveland is home to the traditional Financial District and Civic Center, as well as the distinct Cleveland Theater District, which is home to Playhouse Square Center. Mixed-use neighborhoods such as the Flats and the Warehouse District are occupied by industrial and office buildings as well as restaurants and bars. The number of downtown housing units in the form of condominiums, lofts, and apartments has been on the increase since 2000. Recent developments include the revival of the Flats, the Euclid Corridor Project, and the developments along East 4th Street. \nCleveland residents geographically define themselves in terms of whether they live on the east or west side of the Cuyahoga River. The east side includes the neighborhoods of Buckeye-Shaker, Central, Collinwood, Corlett, Euclid-Green, Fairfax, Forest Hills, Glenville, Payne/Goodrich-Kirtland Park, Hough, Kinsman, Lee Harvard/Seville-Miles, Mount Pleasant, Nottingham, St. Clair-Superior, Union-Miles Park, University Circle, Little Italy, and Woodland Hills. The west side includes the neighborhoods of Brooklyn Centre, Clark-Fulton, Detroit-Shoreway, Cudell, Edgewater, Ohio City, Tremont, Old Brooklyn, Stockyards, West Boulevard, and the four neighborhoods colloquially known as West Park: Kamm's Corners, Jefferson, Puritas-Longmead, and Riverside. Three neighborhoods in the Cuyahoga Valley are sometimes referred to as the south side: Industrial Valley/Duck Island, Slavic Village (North and South Broadway), and Tremont.\n\nSeveral inner-city neighborhoods have begun to gentrify in recent years. Areas on both the west side (Ohio City, Tremont, Detroit-Shoreway, and Edgewater) and the east side (Collinwood, Hough, Fairfax, and Little Italy) have been successful in attracting increasing numbers of creative class members, which in turn is spurring new residential development. Furthermore, a live-work zoning overlay for the city's near east side has facilitated the transformation of old industrial buildings into loft spaces for artists. \n\nSuburbs\n\nCleveland's older, inner-ring suburbs include Bedford, Bedford Heights, Brook Park, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights, Cleveland Heights, Cuyahoga Heights, East Cleveland, Euclid, Fairview Park, Garfield Heights, Lakewood, Linndale, Maple Heights, Newburgh Heights, Parma, Parma Heights, Shaker Heights, Solon, South Euclid, University Heights, and Warrensville Heights. Many are members of the Northeast Ohio First Suburbs Consortium. \n\nClimate\n\nTypical of the Great Lakes region, Cleveland exhibits a continental climate with four distinct seasons, which lies in the humid continental (Köppen Dfa) zone. Summers are warm to hot and humid while winters are cold and snowy. The Lake Erie shoreline is very close to due east-west from the mouth of the Cuyahoga west to Sandusky, but at the mouth of the Cuyahoga it turns sharply northeast. This feature is the principal contributor to the lake effect snow that is typical in Cleveland (especially on the city's East Side) from mid-November until the surface of Lake Erie freezes, usually in late January or early February. The lake effect also causes a relative differential in geographical snowfall totals across the city: while Hopkins Airport, on the city's far West Side, has only reached 100 in of snowfall in a season three times since record-keeping for snow began in 1893, seasonal totals approaching or exceeding 100 in are not uncommon as the city ascends into the Heights on the east, where the region known as the 'Snow Belt' begins. Extending from the city's East Side and its suburbs, the Snow Belt reaches up the Lake Erie shore as far as Buffalo. \n\nThe all-time record high in Cleveland of 104 °F was established on June 25, 1988, and the all-time record low of was set on January 19, 1994. On average, July is the warmest month with a mean temperature of , and January, with a mean temperature of , is the coldest. Normal yearly precipitation based on the 30-year average from 1981 to 2010 is . The least precipitation occurs on the western side and directly along the lake, and the most occurs in the eastern suburbs. Parts of Geauga County to the east receive over 44 in}} of liquid precipitation annually. Frequent thunderstorms are also common in Cleveland especially during spring and early summer." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Port_Said.txt" ], "title": [ "Port Said" ], "wiki_context": [ "Port Said ( ', the first syllable has its pronunciation from French; unurbanized local pronunciation:) is a city that lies in north east Egypt extending about 30 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal, with an approximate population of 603,787 (2010). The city was established in 1859 during the building of the Suez Canal.\n\nPort Said has been ranked the second among the Egyptian cities according to the Human Development Index in 2009 and 2010, the economic base of the city is fishing and industries, like chemicals, processed food, and cigarettes. Port Said is also an important harbour for exports of Egyptian products like cotton and rice, but also a fueling station for ships that pass through the Suez Canal. It thrives on being a duty-free port, as well as a tourist resort especially during summer. It is home to the Lighthouse of Port Said (the first building in the world built from reinforced concrete).\n\nThere are numerous old houses with grand balconies on all floors, giving the city a distinctive look. Port Said's twin city is Port Fuad, which lies on the eastern bank of the canal. The two cities coexist, to the extent that there is hardly any town centre in Port Fuad. The cities are connected by free ferries running all through the day, and together they form a metropolitan area with over a million residents that extends both on the African and the Asian sides of the Suez Canal. The only other metropolitan area in the world that also spans two continents is Istanbul.\n\nPort Said acted as a global city since its establishment and flourished particularly during the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century when it was inhabited by various nationalities and religions. Most of them were from Mediterranean countries, and they coexisted in tolerance, forming a cosmopolitan community. Referring to this fact Rudyard Kipling once said \"If you truly wish to find someone you have known and who travels, there are two points on the globe you have but to sit and wait, sooner or later your man will come there: the docks of London and Port Said\". \n\nEtymology\n\nThe name of Port Said first appeared in 1855, It was chosen by an International committee composed of Great Britain, France, the Russian Empire, Austria, Spain and Piedmont. It is a compound name which composed of two parts: Port (marine harbour) and Said (the name of the ruler of Egypt at that time), who granted Ferdinand de Lesseps the concession to dig the Suez Canal.\n\nHistory\n\nPort Said was founded by Sa'id of Egypt on Easter Monday, April 25, 1859, when Ferdinand de Lesseps gave the first symbolic swing of the pickaxe to signal the beginning of construction. The first problem encountered was the difficulty for ships to drop anchor nearby. Luckily, a single rocky outcrop flush with the shoreline was discovered a few hundred meters away. Equipped with a wooden wharf, it served as a mooring berth for the boats. Soon after, a wooden jetty was built, connecting the departure islet, as it quickly became known, to the beach. This rock could be considered the heart of the developing city, and it was on this highly symbolic site, forty years later, that a monument to de Lesseps was erected.\n\nThere were no local resources here. Everything Port Said needed had to be imported: wood, stone, supplies, machinery, equipment, housing, food and even water. Giant water storage containers were erected to supply fresh water until the Sweet Water Canal could be completed. One of the most pressing problems was the lack of stone. Early buildings were often imported in kit form and made great use of wood. A newly developed technique was used to construct the jetties called conglomerate concrete or \"Beton Coignet\", which was named after its inventor Francois Coignet. Artificial blocks of concrete were sunk into the sea to be the foundations of the jetties. Still more innovative was the use of the same concrete for the lighthouse of Port Said, the only original building still standing in Port Said.\nIn 1859 the first 150 laborers camped in tents around a wooden shed. A year later, the number of inhabitants had risen to 2000 — with the European contingent housed in wooden bungalows imported from northern Europe. By 1869, when the canal opened, the permanent population had reached 10,000. The European district, clustered around the waterfront, was separated from the Arab district, Gemalia, 400 m to the west, by a wide strip of sandy beach where a tongue of Lake Manzala reached towards the sea. This inlet soon dried out and was replaced by buildings, over time there was no division between the European and Arab quarters.\n\nAt the start of the twentieth century, two things happened to change Port Said: in 1902, Egyptian cotton from Mataria started to be exported via Port Said; and in 1904 a standard gauge railway opened to Cairo. The result was to attract a large commercial community and to raise its social status. In particular a sizable Greek community grew up.\nFollowing the end of the World War I, the directors of the Suez Canal Company decided to create a new city on the Asian bank, building 300 houses for its labourers and functionaries. Port Fouad was designed by the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The houses follow the French model. The new city was founded in December 1926.\n\nSince its foundation people of all nationalities and religions had been moving to the city and each community brought in its own customs, cuisine, religion and architecture. By the late 1920s the population numbered over 100,000 people. In the 1930s for example there were elegant public buildings designed by Italian architects. The old Arab Quarter was swallowed up into the thriving city. Port Said by now was a thriving, bustling international port with a multi-national population: Jewish merchants, Egyptian shopkeepers, Greek photographers, Italian architects, Swiss hoteliers, Maltese administrators, Scottish engineers, French bankers and diplomats from all around the world. All lived and worked alongside the large local Egyptian community. And always passing through were international travelers to and from Africa, India and the Far East. Intermarriage between French, Italian and Maltese was particularly common, resulting in a local Latin and Catholic community like those of Alexandria and Cairo. French was the common language of the European and non-Arab population, and often the first language of children born to parents from different communities. Italian was also widely spoken and was the mother tongue of part of the Maltese community, since the ancestors of the latter had come to Egypt before the Anglicization of Malta in the 1920s. Multilingualism was a characteristic of the foreign population of Port Said, with most people continuing to speak community languages as well as the common French.\n\nSince its establishment Port Said played a significant role in Egyptian history. The British entered Egypt through the city in 1882, starting their occupation of Egypt. In 1936 a treaty was signed between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Egypt called the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936. It stipulated the British pledge to withdraw all their troops from Egypt, except those necessary to protect the Suez Canal and its surroundings. Following World War II, Egypt denounced the Treaty of 1936, leading to skirmishes with British troops guarding the Canal in 1951.\n\nThe Egyptian Revolution of 1952 occurred. Then in 1956, President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company. The nationalisation escalated tension with Britain and France, who colluded with Israel to invade Egypt, the invasion known in Egypt as the tripartite aggression or the Suez Crisis. The main battles occurred in Port Said, which played a historic role in the Suez Crisis. The withdrawal of the last soldier of foreign troops was on the 23rd of December 1956. Since then, this day was chosen as Port Said's national day. It is widely celebrated annually in Port Said. The French-speaking European community had begun to emigrate to Europe, Australia, South Africa and elsewhere in 1946 and most of the remainder left Egypt in the wake of the Suez Crisis, paralleling the contemporary exodus of French-speaking Europeans from Tunisia.\n\nAfter the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, also called the Six-Day War, the Suez Canal was closed by an Egyptian blockade until 5 June 1975, and the residents of Port Said were evacuated by the Egyptian government to prepare for the Yom Kippur War (1973).\nThe city was re-inhabited after the war and the reopening of the Canal. In 1976, Port Said was declared a duty-free port, attracting people from all over Egypt. Now the population of the city is 603,787.\n\nGeography\n\nClimate\n\nPort Said has a hot desert climate (BWh) according to Köppen climate classification, but blowing winds from the Mediterranean Sea greatly moderates the temperatures, typical to the northern coast of Egypt, making its summers moderately hot and humid while its winters mild and moderately wet when sleet and hail are also common, yet less common than in Alexandria because Port Said is drier. January and February are the coolest months while the hottest are July and August.\n\nThe highest record temperature was 44 C, recorded on June 20, 1988, while the lowest record temperature was 0 C, recorded on December 25, 1979. \n\nPort Said, Kosseir, Ras El Bar, Baltim, Damietta and Alexandria have the least temperature variation in Egypt, additionally, Mersa Matruh and Port Said have the coolest summer days of any other cities or resorts, although not significantly cooler than other northern coastal places.\n\nModern city\n\nDistricts\n\nModern Port Said is divided into six districts:\n* Al-Ganoub District:\n* Al-Zohour District:\n* Al-Dawahy District:\n* Al-Sharq District:\n* Al-Manakh District:\n* Al-Arab District:\n\nThere is also Port Fouad city under the jurisdiction of the Port Said governorate forming metropolitan Port Said.\n\nSquares\n\n* Mansheya Square, in Al-Sharq district\n* Al-Shohda Square, in Al-Sharq district\n* AL-Mohafza Square (The governorate Square), in Al-Sharq district\n* AL-Sayed Metwaly Square (formerly Al-Estad Square), in Al-Manakh district\n* Volgograd Square, in Al-Manakh district\n* Bizerte Square, in Al-Zohour district\n* Haye Al-Zohour Square, in Al-Zohour district\n* AL-Horeya garden Square, in Port Fouad city\n\nRecreational\n\n* Ferial Garden\n* The History Garden\n* Montaza Gardens\n* Al-Amal Garden\n* Al-Farama Garden\n* AL-Horeya Garden\n* Saad Zaghlul Garden\n* Restaurants Complex\n\nPort Said city image gallery\n\nFile:PortSaidEgypt2 byDanielCsorfoly.JPG|Port Said coastline\nFile:A unique house of Port Said.JPG|The unique type of houses in Port Said making use of arches\nFile:Port said eglise cophete.jpg|Port Said (postcard around 1915)\nFile:Port Said.jpg|Modern Port Said at night\nFile:Port Said Suez Canal.jpg|Tourist jetty in Port Said\nFile:Port Said, Monument of Lesseps (n.d.) - front - TIMEA.jpg|Monument of Lesseps\nFile:Mosque-port said-egypt.jpg|Mosque in Port Said\n\nFile:Egypt-IMG 0960.jpg|Old lighthouse of Port Said\nFile:PORT-SAÏD. BUREAUX DE LA COMPAGNIE DU CANAL DE SUEZ (n.d.) - front - TIMEA.jpg|Building of Suez Canal Authority in Port Said \nFile:PORT SAID. RUE DU COMMERCE. (n.d.) - front - TIMEA.jpg|The commerce street \nFile:PORT SAÏD -- The French Cathedral and Kitchner Street (n.d.) - front - TIMEA.jpg|The Latin Cathedral in Port Said built in 1934\n\nEducation\n\nColleges and universities\n\nPort Said has a number of higher education institutions. Port Said University is a public university that follows the Egyptian system of higher education. The most notable faculties of the university are the faculty of engineering and the faculty of science. In addition, the Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport is a semi-private educational institution that offers courses for high school, undergraduate level students, postgraduate. It is considered the most reputable university in Egypt after the AUC American University in Cairo because of its worldwide recognition from (board of engineers at UK & ABET in USA). Sadat Academy for Management Sciences is an Egyptian Public Academy under the authorization of the Ministry of higher education.\n\nSchools\n\nPort Said contains about 349 schools in all different educational stages between governmental, experimental, private language schools beside French historical schools.\n\nTransport\n\nPort\n\nThe Port of Port Said is the 28th-busiest seaport for container transport, the second-busiest in the Arab world (narrowly behind the port of Salalah in Oman), and the busiest container seaport in Egypt, with 3,470,000 TEU transported in 2009. It is divided into:\n* Port Said Port\n* East Port Said Port\n\nThe port is bordered, seaward, by an imaginary line from the western breakwater boundary till the eastern breakwater end. And from the Suez Canal area, it is bordered by an imaginary line extending transversely from the southern bank of the Canal connected to Manzala Lake, and the railways arcade livestock.\n\nNavigation channels\n\n; Main channel\n* Length: 8 km\n* Depth: \n\n; East verge channel\n* Length: \n* Depth: \n\nApproach area\n\nTwo breakwaters protect the port entrance channel: the western breakwater is about long, and the eastern breakwater is approximately .\n\nDwelling area\n\nThe Suez Canal dwelling area is situated between latitudes 31° 21' N and 31° 25' N and longitudes 32° 16.2°' E and 32° 20.6' E. where vessels awaiting to accede Port Said port stay whether to join the North convoy to transit the Suez Canal to carry out stevedoring operations or to be supplied with provisions and bunkers. The dwelling area is divided into two sections:\nThe Northern Area is allocated for vessels with deep drafts. The Southern Area is for all vessel types.\n\nAirports\n\nPort Said is served by Port Said Airport located about 6 km away from city centre.\n\nThe airport was reopened in February 2011 after being modernised to be fit for international flights. Scheduled flights from the airport ceased in 1996. \n\nHighways\n\nThere are three main highways that connect Port Said to other cities in Egypt:\n* International coastal road - a 257 km east-west highway that connects Port Said to Alexandria along the Mediterranean coast\n* Desert Road - a 215 km north-south route via Al Ismaileya - Port Saeed and Masr - Al Ismaileya Desert Road from Port Said to Cairo\n* International Coastal Road - a 53 km east-west highway from Port Said - Damietta\n\nTrain\n\nThe Port Said train station is on Mustafa Kamal Street and was built around 1904 when the Egyptian Railway Authority extended service in the region. \n\nThere are frequent train services from Cairo, Alexandria and other main Egyptian cities to Port Said. The travel time between Cairo and Port Said is about four hours while the Alexandria - Port Said route can be covered in about six hours. Intercity passenger service is operated by Egyptian National Railways. Tickets can be reserved online using the Egyptian National Railways website. \n\nFerry\n\nPort Said is linked by the Ferry to its twin city Port Fouad which is considered the Asian part of this Afro-Asian governorate \"Port Said\" on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal, the ferry is used to cross the Canal between the two cities holding both people and cars as well for free, the time between the two cities across the canal by using the ferry doesn't exceed 10 minutes.\n\nOther means of public transport\n\nPublic buses are operated by Port Said Governorate's Agency for Public Passenger Transport. Private Transport also are available referred to as Micro Buses (14 seat minibus).Saloon car Taxicabs are comfort white and blue with reasonable price. Earlier trolleybus existed in city.\n\nCulture\n\nLibraries\n\nMisr Public Library in Port Said was inaugurated in 2004 near the beach to serve the people of the city. The total area of the library about 12500 m and it is surrounded by a garden and a cafeteria to serve the visitors. The library is divided into halls for children, adults, training center, a distinct hall for seminars and a hall for audio-visual materials. \nThe library at the time of its inauguration reached about 14,000 books and was supplied by encyclopedias and modern references. \n\nTheaters\n\n*Port Said Opera House, is underconstruction where Classical Music, Arabic Music, Opera and Ballet will be performed.\n\nMuseums\n\n* Port Said National Museum is located on Palestine street in front of the tourist jetty, near the centre of the city. It contains about 9000 artifacts that narrate the story of Port Said and Egypt.\n* Port Said Military Museum was inaugurated in 1964. It is located in 23 July street, It narrates the story of the Egyptian resistance in Port Said for the tripartite aggression during the Suez Crisis in 1956, the wars of 1967 and 1973, and it also contains a hall that narrates the genesis of the city and the Suez Canal.\n* Museum of Modern Art in Egypt.\n\nSports\n\nThe main sport that interests Port Saidis is football, as is the case in the rest of Egypt and Africa, meanwhile Port Saidis are known by their enthusiasm in supporting their popular team Al-Masry Club.\n\nPort Said Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Port Said, Egypt. It is currently used mostly for football matches, and was used for the 1997 FIFA U-17 World Championship, 2006 African Cup of Nations, 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup held in Egypt. The stadium was built in 1954. It holds 17,988 people. Port Said Stadium riot took place there 2012.\n\nThe second most popular sport in Port Said is Handball, the city has a club called Port Said Club that won many local and African tournaments during the nineties.\n\nPort Said Hall is an Indoor Hall in Port Said that hosts competitions of Handball, Basketball and Volleyball, and was used for the 1999 World Men's Handball Championship held in Egypt. It holds 5000 people.\n\nHockey and other sports are practiced on a lower scale.\n\nTourism\n\nPort Said is a main summer resort and tourist attraction, due to its public and private beaches, cosmopolitan heritage, Museums and duty-free port, beside the other landmarks like the Lighthouse of Port Said, Port Said Martyrs Memorial that has the shape of the Pharaonic ancient obelisks and the building of the Suez Canal Authority headquarter in Port Said, also Tennis island situated in lake Manzaleh is a destination that attracts tourists to enjoy visiting this ancient Islamic city which was demolished during the crusades.\n\nAshtoum el-Gamil is a national park and Natural Protected area \nLocation:\n7 km west of Port Said on \"Port Said-Damietta\" coastal road (The Lake Manzalah is in connection with the Mediterranean through Ashtoum El Gamil .In front of the mouth of the Lake is located Tanees Island. All the area is a very important place for birds.) Area: 180 km2\nType: Nature Reserve\nYear of establishment: 1988\nObjective: Conservation of migratory birds\nManagement: The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA).\n\nRead more: http://www.touregypt.net/parks/Ashtum.htm#ixzz3lYzEXZvw\n \n\nNotable natives\n\n* Abdulrahman Fawzi, (former Egyptian player in Al-Masry, participated in the World Cup 1934)\n* Abdel Rahman Shokry, (Egyptian poet)\n* Amr Diab, (Egyptian singer and composer and best-selling Arab recording artist)\n* El-Sayed El-Dhizui, (former Egyptian player in Al-Masry and one of the top scorers in the Egyptian Premier League)\n* George Isaac, Egyptian activist\n* Hans Dijkstal, (Dutch politician \"former Deputy Prime Minister\")\n* Ibrahim El Batout, (Egyptian director)\n* Kamal Darwish, (the current president of Zamalek SC)\n* Mohamed Shawky, (professional football player with Al-Ahly)\n* Mohamed Zidan, (professional football player with Borussia Dortmund)\n* Mosaad Nour, (former Egyptian player in Al-Masry Club \"the historic star of the team\")\n\nInternational relations\n\nTwin towns — sister cities\n\nPort Said is twinned with:\n* Volgograd, Russia (1962)\n* Bizerte, Tunisia (1977)" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "Search" ], "filename": [ "Piano.txt" ], "title": [ "Piano" ], "wiki_context": [ "The piano is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands. Invented in about 1700 (the exact date is uncertain), the piano is widely employed in classical, jazz, traditional and popular music for solo and ensemble performances, accompaniment, and for composing and rehearsal. Although the piano is not portable and is often expensive, its versatility, wide range, ability to play chords, ability to play louder or softer, the large number of musicians trained in playing it and its ubiquity in performance venues and rehearsal spaces have made it one of the Western world's most familiar musical instruments.\n\nAn acoustic piano usually has a protective wooden case surrounding the soundboard and metal strings, and a row of 88 black and white keys (52 white keys for the note of the C Major scale and 36 shorter black keys, which are higher than the white keys, for the \"accidental\" notes, which are the sharp and flat notes needed to play in all 12 keys). The strings are sounded when the keys are pressed or struck, and silenced by a damper when the keys are released. The notes can be sustained, even when the keys are released, by the use of pedals at the base of the instrument. Unlike two of the major keyboard instruments that preceded the piano, the pipe organ and the harpsichord, the weight or force with which a performer presses or strikes the keys changes the dynamics and tone of the instrument.\n\nPressing one or more keys on the piano's keyboard causes a padded hammer (often padded with firm felt) to strike the strings. The hammer rebounds from the strings, and the strings continue to vibrate at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies by more efficiently coupling the acoustic energy to the air. When the key is released, a damper stops the strings' vibration, ending the sound. Although an acoustic piano has strings, it is usually classified as a percussion instrument rather than as a stringed instrument, because the strings are struck rather than plucked (as with a harpsichord or spinet); in the Hornbostel-Sachs system of instrument classification, pianos are considered chordophones. With technological advances, Electric pianos (1929), electronic (1970s), and digital pianos (1980s) have also been developed. The electric piano became a popular instrument in the 1960s and 1970s genres of jazz fusion and rock music.\n\nThe word piano is a shortened form of pianoforte, the Italian term for the instrument, which in turn derives from gravicembalo col piano e forte and fortepiano. The Italian musical terms piano and forte indicate \"soft\" and \"loud\" respectively, in this context referring to the variations in volume produced in response to a pianist's touch on the keys: the greater the velocity of a key press, the greater the force of the hammer hitting the strings, and the louder the sound of the note produced.\n\nHistory\n\nThe piano was founded on earlier technological innovations in keyboard instruments. The first string instruments with struck strings were the hammered dulcimers, which were used since the Middle Ages in Europe. During the Middle Ages, there were several attempts at creating stringed keyboard instruments with struck strings. By the 17th century, the mechanisms of keyboard instruments such as the clavichord and the harpsichord were well developed. In a clavichord, the strings are struck by tangents, while in a harpsichord, they are mechanically plucked by quills when the performer depresses the key. Centuries of work on the mechanism of the harpsichord in particular had shown the most effective ways to construct the case, soundboard, bridge, and mechanical action for a keyboard intended to sound strings.\n\nInvention\n\nThe invention of the modern piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731) of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, as the Keeper of the Instruments; he was an expert harpsichord maker, and was well acquainted with the body of knowledge on stringed keyboard instruments. It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700; another document of doubtful authenticity indicates a date of 1698. The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s. \n\nCristofori named the instrument un cimbalo di cipresso di piano e forte (\"a keyboard of cypress with soft and loud\"), abbreviated over time as pianoforte, fortepiano, and simply, piano. While the clavichord allowed expressive control of volume and sustain, it was too quiet for large performances. The harpsichord produced a sufficiently loud sound, but offered little expressive control over each note. A harpsichord could not produce a variety of dynamic levels from the same keyboard during a musical passage (although a harpischord with two manuals could be used to alternate between two different stops, which could include a louder stop and a quieter stop. The piano offered the best features of both instruments, combining the ability to play loudly with dynamic control that permitted a range of dynamics, including soft playing.\n\nCristofori's great success was solving, with no prior example, the fundamental mechanical problem of designing a stringed keyboard instrument in which the notes are struck by a hammer. The hammer must strike the string, but not remain in contact with it, because this would damp the sound. Moreover, the hammer must return to its rest position without bouncing violently, and it must return to a position in which it is ready to play almost immediately after its key is depressed so the player can repeat the same note rapidly. Cristofori's piano action was a model for the many approaches to piano actions that followed. Cristofori's early instruments were made with thin strings, and were much quieter than the modern piano, but much louder and with more sustain in comparison to the clavichord—the only previous keyboard instrument capable of dynamic nuance via the weight or force with which the keyboard is played.\n\nEarly fortepiano\n\nCristofori's new instrument remained relatively unknown until an Italian writer, Scipione Maffei, wrote an enthusiastic article about it in 1711, including a diagram of the mechanism, that was translated into German and widely distributed. Most of the next generation of piano builders started their work based on reading the article. One of these builders was Gottfried Silbermann, better known as an organ builder. Silbermann's pianos were virtually direct copies of Cristofori's, with one important addition: Silbermann invented the forerunner of the modern sustain pedal, which lifts all the dampers from the strings simultaneously. This allows the pianist to sustain the notes that she has depressed even after her fingers are no longer pressing down the keys. This innovation enabled pianists to, for example, play a loud chord with both hands in the lower register of the instrument, sustain the chord with the sustain pedal, and then, with the chord continuing to sound, relocate their hands to a different register of the keyboard in preparation for a subsequent section.\n\nSilbermann showed Johann Sebastian Bach one of his early instruments in the 1730s, but Bach did not like it at that time, claiming that the higher notes were too soft to allow a full dynamic range. Although this earned him some animosity from Silbermann, the criticism was apparently heeded. Bach did approve of a later instrument he saw in 1747, and even served as an agent in selling Silbermann's pianos. \"Instrument: piano et forte genandt\"–a reference to the instrument's ability to play soft and loud–was an expression that Bach used to help sell the instrument when he was acting as Silbermann's agent in 1749. \n\nPiano-making flourished during the late 18th century in the Viennese school, which included Johann Andreas Stein (who worked in Augsburg, Germany) and the Viennese makers Nannette Streicher (daughter of Stein) and Anton Walter. Viennese-style pianos were built with wood frames, two strings per note, and leather-covered hammers. Some of these Viennese pianos had the opposite coloring of modern-day pianos; the natural keys were black and the accidental keys white. It was for such instruments that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his concertos and sonatas, and replicas of them are built in the 2000s for use in authentic-instrument performance of his music. The pianos of Mozart's day had a softer, more ethereal tone than 2000-era pianos or English pianos, with less sustaining power. The term fortepiano has in modern times come to be used to distinguish these early instruments (and modern re-creations of them) from later pianos.\n\nModern piano\n\nIn the period from about 1790 to 1860, the Mozart-era piano underwent tremendous changes that led to the modern form of the instrument. This revolution was in response to a preference by composers and pianists for a more powerful, sustained piano sound, and made possible by the ongoing Industrial Revolution with resources such as high-quality piano wire for strings, and precision casting for the production of massive iron frames that could withstand the tremendous tension of the strings. Over time, the tonal range of the piano was also increased from the five octaves of Mozart's day to the seven octave (or more) range found on modern pianos.\n\nEarly technological progress in the late 1700s owed much to the firm of Broadwood. John Broadwood joined with another Scot, Robert Stodart, and a Dutchman, Americus Backers, to design a piano in the harpsichord case—the origin of the \"grand\". They achieved this in about 1777. They quickly gained a reputation for the splendour and powerful tone of their instruments, with Broadwood constructing pianos that were progressively larger, louder, and more robustly constructed. They sent pianos to both Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, and were the first firm to build pianos with a range of more than five octaves: five octaves and a fifth (interval) during the 1790s, six octaves by 1810 (Beethoven used the extra notes in his later works), and seven octaves by 1820. The Viennese makers similarly followed these trends; however the two schools used different piano actions: Broadwoods used a more robust action, whereas Viennese instruments were more sensitive.\n\nBy the 1820s, the center of piano innovation had shifted to Paris, where the Pleyel firm manufactured pianos used by Frédéric Chopin and the Érard firm manufactured those used by Franz Liszt. In 1821, Sébastien Érard invented the double escapement action, which incorporated a repetition lever (also called the balancier) that permitted repeating a note even if the key had not yet risen to its maximum vertical position. This facilitated rapid playing of repeated notes, a musical device exploited by Liszt. When the invention became public, as revised by Henri Herz, the double escapement action gradually became standard in grand pianos, and is still incorporated into all grand pianos currently produced in the 2000s.\n\nOther improvements of the mechanism included the use of felt hammer coverings instead of layered leather or cotton. Felt, which was first introduced by Jean-Henri Pape in 1826, was a more consistent material, permitting wider dynamic ranges as hammer weights and string tension increased. The sostenuto pedal (see below), invented in 1844 by Jean-Louis Boisselot and copied by the Steinway firm in 1874, allowed a wider range of effects.\n\nOne innovation that helped create the powerful sound of the modern piano was the use of a strong, cast iron frame. Also called the \"plate\", the iron frame sits atop the soundboard, and serves as the primary bulwark against the force of string tension that can exceed 20 tons in a modern grand. The single piece cast iron frame was patented in 1825 in Boston by Alpheus Babcock, combining the metal hitch pin plate (1821, claimed by Broadwood on behalf of Samuel Hervé) and resisting bars (Thom and Allen, 1820, but also claimed by Broadwood and Érard). Babcock later worked for the Chickering & Mackays firm who patented the first full iron frame for grand pianos in 1843. Composite forged metal frames were preferred by many European makers until the American system was fully adopted by the early 20th century.\n\nThe increased structural integrity of the iron frame allowed the use of thicker, tenser, and more numerous strings. In 1834, the Webster & Horsfal firm of Birmingham brought out a form of piano wire made from cast steel; according to Dolge it was \"so superior to the iron wire that the English firm soon had a monopoly.\" But a better steel wire was soon created in 1840 by the Viennese firm of Martin Miller, and a period of innovation and intense competition ensued, with rival brands of piano wire being tested against one another at international competitions, leading ultimately to the modern form of piano wire. \n\nOther important advances included changes to the way the piano is strung, such as the use of a \"choir\" of three strings rather than two for all but the lowest notes, and the implementation of an over-strung scale, in which the strings are placed in two separate planes, each with its own bridge height. (This is also called cross-stringing. Whereas earlier instruments' bass strings were a mere continuation of a single string plane, over-stringing placed the bass bridge behind and to the treble side of the tenor bridge area. This crossed the strings, with the bass strings in the higher plane.) This permitted a much narrower cabinet at the \"nose\" end of the piano, and optimized the transition from unwound tenor strings to the iron or copper-wrapped bass strings. Over-stringing was invented by Pape during the 1820s, and first patented for use in grand pianos in the United States by Henry Steinway, Jr. in 1859.\n\nSome piano makers developed schemes to enhance the tone of each note. Julius Blüthner developed Aliquot stringing in 1893 as well as Pascal Taskin (1788), and Collard & Collard (1821). These systems were used to strengthen the tone of the highest register of notes on the piano, which up till this time were viewed as being too weak-sounding. Each used more distinctly ringing, undamped vibrations of sympathetically vibrating strings to add to the tone, except the Blüthner Aliquot stringing, which uses an additional fourth string in the upper two treble sections. While the hitchpins of these separately suspended Aliquot strings are raised slightly above the level of the usual tri-choir strings, they are not struck by the hammers but rather are damped by attachments of the usual dampers. Eager to copy these effects, Theodore Steinway invented duplex scaling, which used short lengths of non-speaking wire bridged by the \"aliquot\" throughout much of upper the range of the piano, always in locations that caused them to vibrate sympathetically in conformity with their respective overtones—typically in doubled octaves and twelfths.\n\nThe mechanical action structure of the upright piano was invented in London, England in 1826 by Robert Wornum, and upright models became the most popular model. Upright pianos took less space than a grand piano, and as such they were a better size for use in private homes for domestic music-making and practice.\n\nVariations in shape and design\n\nSome early pianos had shapes and designs that are no longer in use. The square piano (not truly square, but rectangular) was cross strung at an extremely acute angle above the hammers, with the keyboard set along the long side. This design is attributed to Gottfried Silbermann or Christian Ernst Friderici on the continent, and Johannes Zumpe or Harman Vietor in England, and it was improved by changes first introduced by Guillaume-Lebrecht Petzold in France and Alpheus Babcock in the United States. Square pianos were built in great numbers through the 1840s in Europe and the 1890s in the United States, and saw the most visible change of any type of piano: the iron-framed, over-strung squares manufactured by Steinway & Sons were more than two-and-a-half times the size of Zumpe's wood-framed instruments from a century before. Their overwhelming popularity was due to inexpensive construction and price, although their tone and performance were limited by narrow soundboards, simple actions and string spacing that made proper hammer alignment difficult.\n\nThe tall, vertically strung upright grand was arranged like a grand set on end, with the soundboard and bridges above the keys, and tuning pins below them. The term was later revived by many manufacturers for advertising purposes. \"Giraffe pianos\", \"pyramid pianos\" and \"lyre pianos\" were arranged in a somewhat similar fashion, using evocatively shaped cases.\n\nThe very tall cabinet piano was introduced about 1805 and was built through the 1840s. It had strings arranged vertically on a continuous frame with bridges extended nearly to the floor, behind the keyboard and very large sticker action. The short cottage upright or pianino with vertical stringing, made popular by Robert Wornum around 1815, was built into the 20th century. They are informally called birdcage pianos because of their prominent damper mechanism. The oblique upright, popularized in France by Roller & Blanchet during the late 1820s, was diagonally strung throughout its compass. The tiny spinet upright was manufactured from the mid-1930s until recent times. The low position of the hammers required the use of a \"drop action\" to preserve a reasonable keyboard height.\n\nModern upright and grand pianos attained their present, 2000-era forms by the end of the 19th century. While improvements have been made in manufacturing processes, and many individual details of the instrument continue to receive attention, the 19th century was the era of the most dramatic innovations and modifications of the instrument.\n\nTypes\n\nModern acoustic pianos have two basic configurations, the grand piano and the upright piano, with various styles of each. There are also specialized and novelty pianos, electric pianos based on electromechanical designs, electronic pianos that synthesize piano-like tones using oscillators, and digital pianos using digital samples of acoustic piano sounds.\n\nGrand\n\nIn grand pianos, the frame and strings are horizontal, with the strings extending away from the keyboard. The action lies beneath the strings, and uses gravity as its means of return to a state of rest.\n\nThere are many sizes of grand piano. A rough generalization distinguishes the concert grand (between 2.2 and 3 meters long, about –3 m) from the parlor grand or boudoir grand (1.7 to 2.2 meters long, about –) and the smaller baby grand (around ).\n\nAll else being equal, longer pianos with longer strings have larger, richer sound and lower inharmonicity of the strings. Inharmonicity is the degree to which the frequencies of overtones (known as partials or harmonics) sound sharp relative to whole multiples of the fundamental frequency. This results from the piano's considerable string stiffness; as a struck string decays its harmonics vibrate, not from their termination, but from a point very slightly toward the center (or more flexible part) of the string. The higher the partial, the further sharp it runs. Pianos with shorter and thicker string (i.e., small pianos with short string scales) have more inharmonicity. The greater the inharmonicity, the more the ear perceives it as harshness of tone.\n\nInharmonicity requires that octaves be stretched, or tuned to a lower octave's corresponding sharp overtone rather than to a theoretically correct octave. If octaves are not stretched, single octaves sound in tune, but double—and notably triple—octaves are unacceptably narrow. Stretching a small piano's octaves to match its inherent inharmonicity level creates an imbalance among all the instrument's intervallic relationships, not just its octaves. In a concert grand, however, the octave \"stretch\" retains harmonic balance, even when aligning treble notes to a harmonic produced from three octaves below. This lets close and widespread octaves sound pure, and produces virtually beatless perfect fifths. This gives the concert grand a brilliant, singing and sustaining tone quality—one of the principal reasons that full-size grands are used in the concert hall. Smaller grands satisfy the space and cost needs of domestic use.\n\nUpright (vertical)\n\nUpright pianos, also called vertical pianos, are more compact because the frame and strings are vertical. Upright pianos are widely used in elementary schools, high schools, music conservatories and university music programs as rehearsal and practice instruments and they are popular models for in-home purchase. The hammers move horizontally, and return to their resting position via springs, which are susceptible to degradation. Upright pianos with unusually tall frames and long strings are sometimes called upright grand pianos. Some authors classify modern pianos according to their height and to modifications of the action that are necessary to accommodate the height.\n* Studio pianos are around 42 to 45 inches (106 to 114 cm) tall. This is the shortest cabinet that can accommodate a full-sized action located above the keyboard.\n* Console pianos have a compact action (shorter hammers), and are a few inches shorter than studio models.\n* The top of a spinet model barely rises above the keyboard. The action is located below, operated by vertical wires that are attached to the backs of the keys.\n* Anything taller than a studio piano is called an upright.\n\nSpecialized\n\nThe toy piano, introduced in the 19th century, is a small piano-like instrument, that generally uses round metal rods to produce sound, rather than strings. The US Library of Congress recognizes the toy piano as a unique instrument with the subject designation, Toy Piano Scores: M175 T69.\n\nIn 1863, Henri Fourneaux invented the player piano, which plays itself from a piano roll. A machine perforates a performance recording into rolls of paper, and the player piano replays the performance using pneumatic devices. Modern equivalents of the player piano include the Bösendorfer CEUS, Yamaha Disklavier and QRS Pianomation, using solenoids and MIDI rather than pneumatics and rolls.\n\nA silent piano is an acoustic piano having an option to silence the strings by means of an interposing hammer bar. They are designed for private silent practice.\n\nEdward Ryley invented the transposing piano in 1801. It has a lever under the keyboard as to move the keyboard relative to the strings so a pianist can play in a familiar key while the music sounds in a different key.\n\nThe minipiano, an instrument patented by the Brasted brothers of the Eavestaff Ltd. piano company, was patented in 1934. This instrument has a braceless back, and a soundboard positioned below the keys—meaning that long metal rods pulled on the levers to make the hammers strike the strings. The first model, known as the Pianette, was unique in that the tuning pins extended through the instrument, so it could be tuned at the front.\n\nThe prepared piano, present in some contemporary art music, is a piano with objects placed inside it to alter its sound, or has had its mechanism changed in some other way. The scores for music for prepared piano specify the modifications, for example instructing the pianist to insert pieces of rubber, paper, metal screws, or washers in between the strings. These either mute the strings or alter their timbre. A harpsichord-like sound can be produced by placing or dangling small metal buttons in front of the hammer.\n\nIn 1954 a German company exhibited a wire-less piano at the Spring Fair in Frankfurt, Germany that sold for $238. The wires were replaced by metal bars of different alloys that replicated the standard wires when played. A similar concept is used in the electric-acoustic Rhodes piano.\n\nElectric, electronic, and digital\n\nThe first electric pianos from the late 1920s used metal strings with a magnetic pickup, an amplifier and a loudspeaker. The electric pianos that became most popular in pop and rock music in the 1960s and 1970s, such as the Fender Rhodes use metal tines in place of strings and use electromagnetic pickups similar to those on an electric guitar. The resulting electrical, analogue signal can then be amplified with a keyboard amplifier or electronically manipulated with effects units. Electric pianos are rarely used in classical music, where the main usage of them is as inexpensive rehearsal or practice instruments in music schools. However, electric pianos, particularly the Fender Rhodes, became important instruments in funk, jazz fusion and some rock music genres.\n\nElectronic pianos are non-acoustic; they do not have strings, tines or hammers, but are a type of synthesizer that simulates or imitates piano sounds using oscillators that synthesize the sound of an acoustic piano. \n\nDigital pianos are also non-acoustic and do not have strings or hammers but use digital sampling technology to accurately reproduce the acoustic sound of each piano note. Digital pianos can include sustain pedals, weighted keys, multiple voice options (e.g., sampled or synthesized imitations of electric piano, Hammond organ, violin, etc.), and MIDI interfaces. MIDI inputs and outputs allow a digital piano to be connected to other electronic instruments or musical devices. For example, a digital piano's MIDI out signal could be connected by a patch cord to a synth module, which would allow the performer to use the keyboard of the digital piano to play modern synthesizer sounds. Early digital pianos tended to lack a full set of pedals but the synthesis software of later models such as the Yamaha Clavinova series synthesised the sympathetic vibration of the other strings (such as when the sustain pedal is depressed) and full pedal sets can now be replicated. The processing power of digital pianos has enabled highly realistic pianos using multi-gigabyte piano sample sets with as many as ninety recordings, each lasting many seconds, for each key under different conditions (e.g., there are samples of each note being struck softly, loudly, with a sharp attack, etc.). Additional samples emulate sympathetic resonance of the strings when the sustain pedal is depressed, key release, the drop of the dampers, and simulations of techniques such as re-pedalling.\n\nDigital, MIDI-equipped, pianos can output a stream of MIDI data, or record and play via a CD ROM or USB flash drive using MIDI format files, similar in concept to a pianola. The MIDI file records the physics of a note rather than its resulting sound and recreates the sounds from its physical properties (e.g., which note was struck and with what velocity). Computer based software, such as Modartt's 2006 Pianoteq, can be used to manipulate the MIDI stream in real time or subsequently to edit it. This type of software may use no samples but synthesize a sound based on aspects of the physics that went into the creation of a played note.\n\nConstruction and components\n\nPianos can have upwards of 12,000 individual parts, supporting six functional features: keyboard, hammers, dampers, bridge, soundboard, and strings. \n\nMany parts of a piano are made of materials selected for strength and longevity. This is especially true of the outer rim. It is most commonly made of hardwood, typically hard maple or beech, and its massiveness serves as an essentially immobile object from which the flexible soundboard can best vibrate. According to Harold A. Conklin, the purpose of a sturdy rim is so that, \"... the vibrational energy will stay as much as possible in the soundboard instead of dissipating uselessly in the case parts, which are inefficient radiators of sound.\"\n\nHardwood rims are commonly made by laminating thin, hence flexible, strips of hardwood, bending them to the desired shape immediately after the application of glue. The bent plywood system was developed by C.F. Theodore Steinway in 1880 to reduce manufacturing time and costs. Previously, the rim was constructed from several pieces of solid wood, joined and veneered, and this method continued to be used in Europe well into the 20th century. A modern exception, Bösendorfer, the Austrian manufacturer of high-quality pianos, constructs their inner rims from solid spruce, the same wood that the soundboard is made from, which is notched to allow it to bend; rather than isolating the rim from vibration, their \"resonance case principle\" allows the framework to more freely resonate with the soundboard, creating additional coloration and complexity of the overall sound. \n\nThe thick wooden posts on the underside (grands) or back (uprights) of the piano stabilize the rim structure, and are made of softwood for stability. The requirement of structural strength, fulfilled by stout hardwood and thick metal, makes a piano heavy. Even a small upright can weigh 136 kg (300 lb), and the Steinway concert grand (Model D) weighs 480 kg (990 lb). The largest piano available on the general market, the Fazioli F308, weighs 570 kg (1257 lb). \n\nThe pinblock, which holds the tuning pins in place, is another area where toughness is important. It is made of hardwood (typically hard maple or beech), and is laminated for strength, stability and longevity. Piano strings (also called piano wire), which must endure years of extreme tension and hard blows, are made of high carbon steel. They are manufactured to vary as little as possible in diameter, since all deviations from uniformity introduce tonal distortion. The bass strings of a piano are made of a steel core wrapped with copper wire, to increase their mass whilst retaining flexibility. If all strings throughout the piano's compass were individual (monochord), the massive bass strings would overpower the upper ranges. Makers compensate for this with the use of double (bichord) strings in the tenor and triple (trichord) strings throughout the treble.\n\nThe plate (harp), or metal frame, of a piano is usually made of cast iron. A massive plate is advantageous. Since the strings vibrate from the plate at both ends, an insufficiently massive plate would absorb too much of the vibrational energy that should go through the bridge to the soundboard. While some manufacturers use cast steel in their plates, most prefer cast iron. Cast iron is easy to cast and machine, has flexibility sufficient for piano use, is much more resistant to deformation than steel, and is especially tolerant of compression. Plate casting is an art, since dimensions are crucial and the iron shrinks about one percent during cooling.\n\nIncluding an extremely large piece of metal in a piano is potentially an aesthetic handicap. Piano makers overcome this by polishing, painting, and decorating the plate. Plates often include the manufacturer's ornamental medallion. In an effort to make pianos lighter, Alcoa worked with Winter and Company piano manufacturers to make pianos using an aluminum plate during the 1940s. Aluminum piano plates were not widely accepted, and were discontinued.\n\nThe numerous parts of a piano action are generally made from hardwood, such as maple, beech, and hornbeam, however, since World War II, makers have also incorporated plastics. Early plastics used in some pianos in the late 1940s and 1950s, proved disastrous when they lost strength after a few decades of use. Beginning in 1961, the New York branch of the Steinway firm incorporated Teflon, a synthetic material developed by DuPont, for some parts of its Permafree grand action in place of cloth bushings, but abandoned the experiment in 1982 due to excessive friction and a \"clicking\" that developed over time; Teflon is \"humidity stable\" whereas the wood adjacent to the Teflon swells and shrinks with humidity changes, causing problems. More recently, the Kawai firm built pianos with action parts made of more modern materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastic, and the piano parts manufacturer Wessell, Nickel and Gross has launched a new line of carefully engineered composite parts. Thus far these parts have performed reasonably, but it will take decades to know if they equal the longevity of wood.\n\nIn all but the poorest pianos the soundboard is made of solid spruce (that is, spruce boards glued together along the side grain). Spruce's high ratio of strength to weight minimizes acoustic impedance while offering strength sufficient to withstand the downward force of the strings. The best piano makers use quarter-sawn, defect-free spruce of close annular grain, carefully seasoning it over a long period before fabricating the soundboards. This is the identical material that is used in quality acoustic guitar soundboards. Cheap pianos often have plywood soundboards. \n\nKeyboard\n\nIn the early years of piano construction, keys were commonly made from sugar pine. Today they are usually made of spruce or basswood. Spruce is typically used in high-quality pianos. Black keys were traditionally made of ebony, and the white keys were covered with strips of ivory. However, since ivory-yielding species are now endangered and protected by treaty, makers use plastics almost exclusively. Also, ivory tends to chip more easily than plastic. Legal ivory can still be obtained in limited quantities. The Yamaha firm invented a plastic called Ivorite that they claim mimics the look and feel of ivory. It has since been imitated by other makers.\n\nAlmost every modern piano has 52 white keys and 36 black keys for a total of 88 keys (seven octaves plus a minor third, from A0 to C8). Many older pianos only have 85 keys (seven octaves from A0 to A7). Some piano manufacturers extend the range further in one or both directions.\n\nSome Bösendorfer pianos, for example, extend the normal range down to F0, and one of their models has 97 keys reaches a bottom C0 for a full eight octave range. These extra keys are sometimes hidden under a small hinged lid that can cover the keys to prevent visual disorientation for pianists unfamiliar with the extra keys, or the colors of the extra white keys are reversed (black instead of white).\n\nThe extra keys are added primarily for increased resonance from the associated strings; that is, they vibrate sympathetically with other strings whenever the damper pedal is depressed and thus give a fuller tone. Only a very small number of works composed for piano actually use these notes. More recently, the Stuart and Sons company has also manufactured extended-range pianos, with the first 102 key piano. On their instruments, the frequency range extends from C0 to F8, which is the widest practical range for the acoustic piano. The extra keys are the same as the other keys in appearance.\n\nSmall studio upright acoustical pianos with only 65 keys have been manufactured for use by roving pianists. Known as gig pianos and still containing a cast iron harp (frame), these are comparatively lightweight and can be easily transported to and from engagements by only two people. As their harp is longer than that of a spinet or console piano, they have a stronger bass sound that to some pianists is well worth the trade-off in range that a reduced key-set offers.\n\nThe toy piano manufacturer Schoenhut started manufacturing both grands and uprights with only 44 or 49 keys, and shorter distance between the keyboard and the pedals. These pianos are true pianos with action and strings. The pianos were introduced to their product line in response to numerous requests in favor of it.\n\nThere is a rare variants of piano that has double keyboards called the Emánuel Moór Pianoforte. It was invented by Hungarian composer and pianist, Emánuel Moór (19 February 1863 – 20 October 1931). It consisted of two keyboards lying one above each other. The lower keyboard has the usual 88 keys and the upper keyboard has 76 keys. When pressing the upper keyboard the internal mechanism pulls down the corresponding key on the lower keyboard, but an octave higher. This lets a pianist reach two octaves with one hand, impossible on a conventional piano. Due to its double keyboard musical work that were originally created for double-manual Harpsichord such as Goldberg Variations by Bach become much easier to play, since playing on a conventional single keyboard piano involve complex and hand-tangling cross-hand movements. The design also featured a special fourth pedal that coupled the lower and upper keyboard, so when playing on the lower keyboard the note one octave higher also played. Only about 60 Emánuel Moór Pianoforte were made, mostly manufactured by Bösendorfer. Other piano manufactures such as Bechstein, Chickering, and Steinway & Sons had also manufactured a few. \n\nPianos have been built with alternative keyboard systems, e.g., the Jankó keyboard.\n\nPedals\n\nPianos have had pedals, or some close equivalent, since the earliest days. (In the 18th century, some pianos used levers pressed upward by the player's knee instead of pedals.) Most grand pianos in the US have three pedals: the soft pedal (una corda), sostenuto, and sustain pedal (from left to right, respectively), while in Europe, the standard is two pedals: the soft pedal and the sustain pedal. Most modern upright pianos also have three pedals: soft pedal, practice pedal and sustain pedal, though older or cheaper models may lack the practice pedal. In Europe the standard for upright pianos is two pedals: the soft and the sustain pedals.\n\nThe sustain pedal (or, damper pedal) is often simply called \"the pedal\", since it is the most frequently used. It is placed as the rightmost pedal in the group. It lifts the dampers from all keys, sustaining all played notes. In addition, it alters the overall tone by allowing all strings, including those not directly played, to reverberate.\n\nThe soft pedal or una corda pedal is placed leftmost in the row of pedals. In grand pianos it shifts the entire action/keyboard assembly to the right (a very few instruments have shifted left) so that the hammers hit two of the three strings for each note. In the earliest pianos whose unisons were bichords rather than trichords, the action shifted so that hammers hit a single string, hence the name una corda, or 'one string'. The effect is to soften the note as well as change the tone. In uprights this action is not possible; instead the pedal moves the hammers closer to the strings, allowing the hammers to strike with less kinetic energy. This produces a slightly softer sound, but no change in timbre.\n\nOn grand pianos, the middle pedal is a sostenuto pedal. This pedal keeps raised any damper already raised at the moment the pedal is depressed. This makes it possible to sustain selected notes (by depressing the sostenuto pedal before those notes are released) while the player's hands are free to play additional notes (which aren't sustained). This can be useful for musical passages with pedal points and other otherwise tricky or impossible situations.\n\nOn many upright pianos, the middle pedal is called the \"practice\" or celeste pedal. This drops a piece of felt between the hammers and strings, greatly muting the sounds. This pedal can be shifted while depressed, into a \"locking\" position.\n\nThere are also non-standard variants. On some pianos (grands and verticals), the middle pedal can be a bass sustain pedal: that is, when it is depressed, the dampers lift off the strings only in the bass section. Players use this pedal to sustain a single bass note or chord over many measures, while playing the melody in the treble section. On the Stuart and Sons piano as well as the largest Fazioli piano, there is a fourth pedal to the left of the principal three. This fourth pedal works in the same way as the soft pedal of an upright piano, moving the hammers closer to the strings.\n\nThe rare transposing piano (an example of which was owned by Irving Berlin) has a middle pedal that functions as a clutch that disengages the keyboard from the mechanism, so the player can move the keyboard to the left or right with a lever. This shifts the entire piano action so the pianist can play music written in one key so that it sounds in a different key.\n\nSome piano companies have included extra pedals other than the standard two or three. Crown and Schubert Piano Co. produced a four-pedal piano. Fazioli currently offers a fourth pedal that provides a second soft pedal, that works by bringing the keys closer to the strings.\n\nWing and Son of New York offered a five-pedal piano from approximately 1893 through the 1920s. There is no mention of the company past the 1930s. Labeled left to right, the pedals are Mandolin, Orchestra, Expression, Soft, and Forte (Sustain). The Orchestral pedal produced a sound similar to a tremolo feel by bouncing a set of small beads dangling against the strings, enabling the piano to mimic a mandolin, guitar, banjo, zither and harp, thus the name Orchestral. The Mandolin pedal used a similar approach, lowering a set of felt strips with metal rings in between the hammers and the strings ( aka rinky-tink effect). This extended the life of the hammers when the Orch pedal was used, a good idea for practicing, and created an echo-like sound that mimicked playing in an orchestral hall. \n\nThe pedalier piano, or pedal piano, is a rare type of piano that includes a pedalboard so players can user their feet to play bass register notes, as on an organ. There are two types of pedal piano. On one, the pedal board is an integral part of the instrument, using the same strings and mechanism as the manual keyboard. The other, rarer type, consists of two independent pianos (each with separate mechanics and strings) placed one above the other—one for the hands and one for the feet. This was developed primarily as a practice instrument for organists, though there is a small repertoire written specifically for the instrument.\n\nMechanics\n\nWhen the key is struck, a chain reaction occurs to produce the sound. First, the key raises the wippen, which forces the jack against the hammer roller (or knuckle). The hammer roller then lifts the lever carrying the hammer. The key also raises the damper; and immediately after the hammer strikes the wire it falls back, allowing the wire to resonate. When the key is released the damper falls back onto the strings, stopping the wire from vibrating. The vibrating piano strings themselves are not very loud, but their vibrations are transmitted to a large soundboard that moves air and thus converts the energy to sound.\nThe irregular shape and off-center placement of the bridge ensure that the soundboard vibrates strongly at all frequencies. (See Piano action for a diagram and detailed description of piano parts.)\n\nThere are three factors that influence the pitch of a vibrating wire.\n* Length: All other factors the same, the shorter the wire, the higher the pitch.\n* Mass per unit length: All other factors the same, the thinner the wire, the higher the pitch.\n* Tension: All other factors the same, the tighter the wire, the higher the pitch.\n\nA vibrating wire subdivides itself into many parts vibrating at the same time. Each part produces a pitch of its own, called a partial. A vibrating string has one fundamental and a series of partials. The most pure combination of two pitches is when one is double the frequency of the other. \n\nFor a repeating wave, the velocity equals the wavelength times the frequency ,\n\nOn the piano string, waves reflect from both ends. The superposition of reflecting waves results in a standing wave pattern, but only for wavelengths , where is the length of the string. Therefore, the only frequencies produced on a single string are . Timbre is largely determined by the content of these harmonics. Different instruments have different harmonic content for the same pitch. A real string vibrates at harmonics that are not perfect multiples of the fundamental. This results in a little inharmonicity, which gives richness to the tone but causes significant tuning challenges throughout the compass of the instrument.\n\nStriking the piano key with greater velocity increases the amplitude of the waves and therefore the volume. From pianissimo (pp) to fortissimo (ff) the hammer velocity changes by almost a factor of a hundred. The hammer contact time with the string shortens from 4 ms at pp to less than 2 ms at ff. If two wires adjusted to the same pitch are struck at the same time, the sound produced by one reinforces the other, and a louder combined sound of shorter duration is produced. If one wire vibrates out of synchronization with the other, they subtract from each other and produce a softer tone of longer duration. \n\nMaintenance\n\nPianos are heavy yet delicate instruments. Over the years, professional piano movers have developed special techniques for transporting both grands and uprights, which prevent damage to the case and to the piano's mechanics. Pianos need regular tuning to keep them on pitch. The hammers of pianos are voiced to compensate for gradual hardening, and other parts also need periodic regulation. Aged and worn pianos can be rebuilt or reconditioned. Often, by replacing a great number of their parts, and adjusting them, they can perform as well as new pianos.\n\nTuning\n\nPiano tuning involves adjusting the tensions of the piano's strings, thereby aligning the intervals among their tones so that the instrument is in tune. While guitar and violin players tune their own instruments, a pianist usually hires a piano tuner, a specialized technician, to tune their piano. The piano tuner uses special tools. The meaning of the term in tune in the context of piano tuning is not simply a particular fixed set of pitches. Fine piano tuning carefully assesses the interaction among all notes of the chromatic scale, different for every piano, and thus requires slightly different pitches from any theoretical standard. Pianos are usually tuned to a modified version of the system called equal temperament (see Piano key frequencies for the theoretical piano tuning). In all systems of tuning, each pitch is derived from its relationship to a chosen fixed pitch, usually the internationally recognized standard concert pitch of A4 (the A above middle C). The term A440 refers to a widely accepted frequency of this pitch - 440 Hz.\n\nThe relationship between two pitches, called an interval, is the ratio of their absolute frequencies. Two different intervals are perceived as the same when the pairs of pitches involved share the same frequency ratio. The easiest intervals to identify, and the easiest intervals to tune, are those that are just, meaning they have a simple whole-number ratio. The term temperament refers to a tuning system that tempers the just intervals (usually the perfect fifth, which has the ratio 3:2) to satisfy another mathematical property; in equal temperament, a fifth is tempered by narrowing it slightly, achieved by flattening its upper pitch slightly, or raising its lower pitch slightly. A temperament system is also known as a set of bearings.\n\nTempering an interval causes it to beat, which is a fluctuation in perceived sound intensity due to interference between close (but unequal) pitches. The rate of beating is equal to the frequency differences of any harmonics that are present for both pitches and that coincide or nearly coincide.\n\nPlaying and technique\n\nAs with any other musical instrument, the piano may be played from written music, by ear, or through improvisation. Piano technique evolved during the transition from harpsichord and clavichord to fortepiano playing, and continued through the development of the modern piano. Changes in musical styles and audience preferences, as well as the emergence of virtuoso performers contributed to this evolution, and to the growth of distinct approaches or schools of piano playing. Although technique is often viewed as only the physical execution of a musical idea, many pedagogues and performers stress the interrelatedness of the physical and mental or emotional aspects of piano playing. \n\nWell-known approaches to piano technique include those by Dorothy Taubman, Edna Golandsky, Fred Karpoff, Charles-Louis Hanon and Otto Ortmann.\n\nPerformance styles\n\nMany classical music composers, including Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, composed for the fortepiano, a rather different instrument than the modern piano. Even composers of the Romantic movement, like Liszt, Chopin, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, and Johannes Brahms, wrote for pianos substantially different from modern pianos. Contemporary musicians may adjust their interpretation of historical compositions to account for sound quality differences between old and new instruments.\n\nStarting in Beethoven's later career, the fortepiano evolved into the modern piano as we know it today. Modern pianos were in wide use by the late 19th century. They featured an octave range larger than the earlier fortepiano instrument, adding around 30 more keys to the instrument. Factory mass production of upright pianos made them more affordable for a larger number of people. They appeared in music halls and pubs during the 19th century, providing entertainment through a piano soloist, or in combination with a small band. Pianists began accompanying singers or dancers performing on stage, or patrons dancing on a dance floor.\n\nDuring the 19th century, American musicians playing for working-class audiences in small pubs and bars, particularly African-American composers, developed new musical genres based on the modern piano. Ragtime music, popularized by composers such as Scott Joplin, reached a broader audience by 1900. The popularity of ragtime music was quickly succeeded by Jazz piano. New techniques and rhythms were invented for the piano, including ostinato for boogie-woogie, and Shearing voicing. George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue broke new musical ground by combining American jazz piano with symphonic sounds. Comping, a technique for accompanying jazz vocalists on piano, was exemplified by Duke Ellington's technique. Honky-tonk music, featuring yet another style of piano rhythm, became popular during the same era. Bebop techniques grew out of jazz, with leading composers such as Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. In the late 20th century, Bill Evans composed pieces combining classical techniques with his jazz experimentation. Herbie Hancock was one of the first jazz pianists to find mainstream popularity working with newer urban music techniques.\n\nPianos have also been used prominently in rock and roll by entertainers such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake & Palmer), Elton John, Ben Folds, Billy Joel, Nicky Hopkins, and Tori Amos, to name a few.\n\nModernist styles of music have also appealed to composers writing for the modern grand piano, including John Cage and Philip Glass.\n\nRole\n\nThe piano is a crucial instrument in Western classical music, jazz, blues, rock, folk music, film and television scoring, and many other Western musical genres. A large number of composers are proficient pianists because the piano keyboard offers an effective means of experimenting with complex melodic and harmonic interplay. The piano is an essential tool in music education in universities and colleges, and most classrooms and practice rooms have a piano. Pianos are used to help teach music theory, music history and music appreciation classes. Many conductors are trained in piano, because it allows them to play parts of the symphonies they are conducting (using a piano reduction or doing a reduction from the full score), so that they can develop their interpretation." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Tintin_(character).txt" ], "title": [ "Tintin (character)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Tintin is the fictional hero of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. He is a reporter and adventurer who travels around the world with his dog Snowy. The character was created in 1929 and introduced in ', a weekly youth supplement to the Belgian newspaper '. He appears as a young man, around 14 to 19 years old with a round face and quiff hairstyle. Tintin has a sharp intellect, can defend himself, and is honest, decent, compassionate, and kind. Through his investigative reporting, quick-thinking, and all-around good nature, Tintin is always able to solve the mystery and complete the adventure.\n\nUnlike more colourful characters that he encounters, Tintin's personality is neutral, which allows the reader to not merely follow the adventures but assume Tintin's position within the story. Combined with Hergé's signature ' (\"clear line\") style, this helps the reader \"safely enter a sensually stimulating world.\"\n\nTintin's creator died in 1983, yet his creation remains a popular literary figure, even featured in a 2011 Hollywood movie. Tintin has been criticised for his controversial attitudes to race and other factors, been honoured by others for his \"tremendous spirit\", and has prompted a few to devote their careers to his study. General Charles de Gaulle \"considered Tintin his only international rival.\"\n\nHistory\n\nOrigins\n\nHergé biographer Pierre Assouline noted that \"Tintin had a prehistory\", being influenced by a variety of sources that Hergé had encountered throughout his life. Hergé noted that during his early schooling in the midst of World War I, when German armies occupied Belgium, he had drawn pictures in the margins of his school workbooks of an unnamed young man battling ' (a slang term for the Germans). He later commented that these drawings depicted a brave and adventurous character using his intelligence and ingenuity against opponents, but none of these early drawings survive.\n\nHergé was also influenced by the physical appearance and mannerisms of his younger brother Paul, who had a round face and a quiff hairstyle. In search of adventure, Paul later joined the army, receiving jeers from fellow officers when the source of Hergé's visual inspiration became obvious. Hergé later stated that in his youth, \"I watched him a lot; he entertained me and fascinated me... It makes sense that Tintin took on his character, gestures, poses. He had a way of moving and a physical presence that must have inspired me without my knowing it. His gestures stayed in my mind. I copied them clumsily, without meaning to or even knowing I was doing it; it was he whom I was drawing. This is especially striking in the first drawings of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.\"\n\nIn 1898, Benjamin Rabier and Fred Isly published an illustrated story titled Tintin-Lutin (\"Tintin the Goblin\"), in which they featured a small goblin boy named Tintin, who had a rounded face and quiff. Hergé claimed that Rabier's manner of drawing animals had influenced him, although he swore that he was unaware of the existence of Tintin-Lutin until one of his readers informed him of the similarity in 1970.\nHergé would also have been aware of the activities of a number of popular journalists who were well known in Belgium, most notably Joseph Kessel and Albert Londres, who may have been an influence on the development of Tintin. Another potential influence was Palle Huld, a 15-year-old Danish Boy Scout travelling the world.\n\nA few years after Hergé discovered the joys of Scouting,\nhe became the unofficial artist for his Scout troop and drew a Boy Scout character for the national magazine '. This young man, whom he named Totor, travelled the globe and righted wrongs, all without ruffling his Scout honour. As was the format for European comics at the time, the early drawings of Totor merely illustrated the story; the text that appeared below the drawings is what propelled the action. Totor had been very much in Hergé's mind; its new comics character would be, Hergé himself later said, \"the little brother of Totor ... keeping the spirit of a Boy Scout.\" Assouline would describe Totor as \"a sort of trial run\" for Tintin, while Harry Thompson noted that that in several years he would \"metamorphose\" into Tintin.\n\nHergé had seen the new style of American comics and was ready to try it. Tintin's new comic would be a strip cartoon with dialogue in speech bubbles and drawings that carried the story. Young reporter Tintin would have the investigative acumen of Londres, the travelling abilities of Huld, and the high moral standing of Totor; the Boy Scout traveling reporter that Hergé would have liked to have been.\n\nEarly development\n\nTintin appeared after Hergé got his first job working at the Catholic newspaper (\"The Twentieth Century\"), where his director challenged him to create a new serialised comic for its Thursday supplement for young readers, (\"The Little Twentieth\").\n\nIn the edition of 30 December 1928 of the satirical weekly newspaper , Hergé had included two cartoon gags with word balloons, in which he depicted a boy and a little white dog. Abbe Wallez thought that these characters could be developed further, and asked Hergé to use characters like these for an adventure that could be serialised in . Hergé agreed, creating The Adventures of Tintin as a result. Images of Tintin and Snowy first appeared in the youth supplement on 4 January 1929, in an advert for the upcoming series. However, Hergé would later insist that Tintin would only be \"born\" on 10 January 1929, when Tintin in the Land of the Soviets began to be serialised in .\nTintin was given plus fours for trousers because Hergé sometimes wore them.\nTintin did not have his quiff from the first installment, instead this only developed somewhat later, in what became page 8 of the printed volume, as Tintin is depicted getting into a car that drives off at high speeds, forcing the formation of his quiff. Tintin in the Land of the Soviets would also feature Tintin writing a report on his activities in the Soviet Union to send back to Belgium; the only time in the entire series that he is actually seen reporting.\n\nHergé later admitted that he did not take Tintin seriously in the early Adventures, explaining simply that he \"put the character to the test\" and that Tintin was simply created \"as a joke between friends, forgotten the next day.\"\nHergé biographer Benoît Peeters noted that throughout the early Adventures, Tintin was \"supremely Belgian\" in his characteristics, a view echoed by biographer Pierre Assouline, who deemed all of the protagonists of the early Adventures \"very Belgian\". Hergé himself commented: \"my early works are books by a young Belgian filled with the prejudices and ideas of a Catholic, they are books that could have been written by any Belgian in my situation. They are not very intelligent, I know, and do me no honour: they are 'Belgian' books.\" Peeters deemed the early Tintin to be \"a Sartre-esque character\", an \"existentialist before the term had been coined\", having \"no surname, no family, hardly anything of a face, and the mere semblance of a career.\" Ultimately, he deemed him nothing but a \"narrative vehicle\" for the story, being an otherwise incoherent character.\n\nLater development\n\nCharacterisation \n\nDescription \n\nHergé created Tintin as an ethnically white Belgian who was a native of Brussels, aged 14 - 15 years old. Assouline deemed Tintin to be middle-class, which he considered one of the few traits that the character had in common with Hergé. In his first appearance, Tintin is dressed in a long travelling coat and hat, a few pages later adopting his familiar plus fours, check suit, black socks, and Eton collar. (Hergé remembers a Canadian student at his college who was teased for wearing plus fours and Argyll socks; certainly an inspiration.) At first, the famous quiff is plastered to Tintin's forehead, but after a particularly vigorous car chase, his quiff is out and remains so. By the time he arrives in Chicago for his third adventure, both Hergé and his readers feel they know Tintin well, and he was to change little in either appearance or dress. Hergé was once asked by interviewer Numa Sadoul how the character Tintin developed; he replied, \"He practically did not evolve. Graphically, he remained an outline. Look at his features: his face is a sketch, a formula.\" This view was echoed by Assouline, who commented that graphically, Tintin was \"as uncomplicated as the story line\".\n\nHergé never explained why he chose Tintin as the character's name. He had previously made use of alliteration with the name of his previous character, Totor. Michael Farr speculated that Hergé had adopted it from Rabier's Tintin le lutin, although Hergé insisted that he did not learn of this book until 1970. Farr commented that \"Tintin\" was probably the character's surname, as other characters, such as his landlady, occasionally refer to him as Mr. Tintin (as printed on his doorbell). Conversely, Assouline asserted that it could not be his surname, because he lacked a family. He thought that Hergé had adopted it because \"it sounded heroic, clear, and cheerful\" as well as being \"easy to remember\".\n\nTintin's age is never specified. Throughout the Adventures, published over 50 years, he remained youthful. In 1970, Hergé commented that \"For me, Tintin hasn't aged. What age do I give him? I don't know ... 17? In my judgement, he was 14 or 15 when I created him, Boy Scout, and he has practically not moved on. Suppose he put on 3 or 4 years in 40 years ... Good, work out an average, 15 and 4 equals 19.\"\n\nThe image of Tintin—a round-faced young man running with a white fox terrier by his side—is easily one of the most recognisable visual icons of the twentieth century.\n\nOccupation \n\nFrom Tintin's first adventure, he lives the life of a campaigning reporter. He is sent to the Soviet Union, where he writes his editor a dispatch. He travels to the Belgian Congo, where he engages in photojournalism. When he travels to China in The Blue Lotus, the Shanghai News features the front-page headline, \"Tintin's Own Story\". In The Broken Ear, with notebook in hand, Tintin questions the director of the Museum of Ethnography over a recent theft. Sometimes Tintin is the one being interviewed, such as when a radio reporter presses him for details, \"In your own words.\" But aside from a few examples, Tintin is never actually seen consulting with his editor or delivering a story.\n\nAs his adventures continue, Tintin is less often seen reporting and is more often seen as a detective, pursuing his investigative journalism from his apartment at No. 26 Labrador Road. Other characters refer to him as Sherlock Holmes, as he has a sharp intellect, an eye for detail, and powers of deduction. Like Holmes, he is occasionally a master of disguise, and in Rastapopoulos even has an archenemy.\n\nTintin's occupation drifts further in later adventures, abandoning all pretence of reporting news and instead making it in his role of explorer. Clearly unencumbered with financial preoccupations, after Red Rackham's Treasure he is ensconced as a permanent house guest in the stately Marlinspike Hall with retired mariner Captain Haddock and the scientist Professor Calculus. Tintin occupies all of his time with his friends, exploring the bottom of the sea, the tops of the mountains, and the surface of the Moon (sixteen years before astronaut Neil Armstrong). Through it all, Tintin finds himself cast in the role of international social crusader, sticking up for the underdog and looking after those less fortunate than himself.\n\nSkills and abilities \n\nFrom the first volume onward, Hergé depicted Tintin as being adept at driving or fixing any mechanical vehicle that he comes across, including cars, motorcycles, aeroplanes, and tanks. Given the opportunity, Tintin is at ease driving any automobile, has driven a moon tank, and is comfortable with every aspect of aviation. He is also a skilled radio operator with knowledge of Morse code. He packs a solid punch to a villain's jaw when necessary, demonstrates impressive swimming skills, and is a crack shot. He proves himself a capable engineer and scientist during his adventure to the Moon. He is also an excellent athlete, in outstanding condition, able to walk, run, and swim long distances. Hergé summarized Tintin's abilities thusly: \"a hero without fear or reproach.\" More than anything else, Tintin is a quick thinker and an effective diplomat. He is simply an all-rounder, good at almost everything, which is what Hergé himself would have liked to be.\n\nPersonality \n\nTintin's personality evolved as Hergé wrote the series. Peeters related that in the early Adventures, Tintin's personality was \"incoherent\", in that he was \"[s]ometimes foolish and sometimes omniscient, pious to the point of mockery and then unacceptably aggressive\", ultimately just serving as a \"narrative vehicle\" for Hergé's plots. Hergé biographer Pierre Assouline noted that in the early Adventures, Tintin showed \"little sympathy for humanity\". Assouline described the character as \"obviously celibate, excessively virtuous, chivalrous, brave, a defender of the weak and oppressed, never looks for trouble but always finds it; he is resourceful, takes chances, is discreet, and is a nonsmoker.\"\n\nMichael Farr deemed Tintin to be an intrepid young man of high moral standing, with whom his audience can identify. His rather neutral personality permits a balanced reflection of the evil, folly, and foolhardiness that surrounds him, allowing the reader to assume Tintin's position within the story rather than merely following the adventures of a strong protagonist. Tintin's iconic representation enhances this aspect, with comics expert Scott McCloud noting that the combination of Tintin's iconic, neutral personality and Hergé's \"unusually realistic\", signature ' (\"clear line\") style \"allows the reader to mask themselves in a character and safely enter a sensually stimulating world.\"\n\nTo the other characters, Tintin is honest, decent, compassionate, and kind. He is also modest and self-effacing, which Hergé also was, and is the most loyal of friends, which Hergé strove to be. The reporter may occasionally become too tipsy before facing the firing squad (in The Broken Ear) or too angry when informing Captain Haddock that he nearly cost them their lives (in Explorers on the Moon). However, as Michael Farr observed, Tintin has \"tremendous spirit\" and, in Tintin in Tibet, was appropriately given the name Great Heart. By turns, Tintin is innocent, politically crusading, escapist, and finally cynical. If he had perhaps too much of the goody-goody about him, at least he was not priggish; Hergé admitting as much, saying, \"If Tintin is a moralist, he's a moralist who doesn't take things too seriously, so humour is never far away from his stories.\" It is this sense of humour that makes the appeal of Tintin truly international.\n\nReception \n\nThe Adventures of Tintin was one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, and it remains popular today. By the time of the centenary of Hergé's birth in 2007, Tintin had been published in more than 70 languages with sales of more than 200 million copies.\n\nLiterary criticism \n\nThe study of Tintin has become the life work of many literary critics, observers sometimes referring to this study as \"Tintinology\". A prominent literary critic of Tintin is Philippe Goddin, \"Belgium's leading authority on Hergé\", author of numerous books on the subject, including Hergé and Tintin, Reporters and the biography '. In 1983, Benoît Peeters published ', subsequently published in English as Tintin and the World of Hergé in 1988. The reporter Michael Farr brought Tintin literary criticism to the English language with works such as Tintin, 60 Years of Adventure (1989), Tintin: The Complete Companion (2001), Tintin & Co. (2007) and The Adventures of Hergé (2007), as had English screenwriter Harry Thompson, the author of Tintin: Hergé and his Creation (1991).\n\nControversy \n\nTintin's earliest stories naively depicted controversial images, with Tintin engaging in racial stereotypes, animal cruelty, violence, colonialism, including ethnocentric caricatured portrayals of non-Europeans. Later, Hergé made corrections to Tintin's actions, for example, replacing Tintin's dynamiting of a rhinoceros with an incident in which the rhino accidentally discharges Tintin's rifle, and called his earlier actions \"a transgression of my youth.\"\n\nLegacy \n\nAs observed by Michael Farr, \"Hergé created a hero who embodied human qualities and virtues but no faults. The Adventures of Tintin mirror the past century while Tintin himself provides a beacon of excellence for the future.\" Harry Thompson said Tintin is \"almost featureless, ageless, sexless, and did not appear to be burdened with a personality. Yet this very anonymity remains the key to Tintin's gigantic international success. With so little to mark him out, anybody from Curaçao to Coventry can identify with him and live out his adventures. Millions have done so, both adults and children, including the likes of Steven Spielberg, Andy Warhol, Wim Wenders, Françoise Sagan, Harold Macmillan and General Charles de Gaulle, who considered Tintin his only international rival.\"\n\nOn 3 March 1983, when Hergé died at 76, several leading French and Belgian newspapers devoted their front pages to the news, some illustrating it with a panel of Snowy grieving over his master's unconscious body.\n\nStatues and commemorative murals of Tintin \n\n* The Grand Sablon / Grote Zavel, Brussels, Belgium contains a life sized bronze statue of Tintin and his fox terrier, Snowy just outside [http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g188644-d2351600-Reviews-Comics_Cafe-Brussels.html Comics cafe]. \n* A mural on a building at Rue de l'Etuve / Stoofstraat recreates a scene of Tintin and Captain Haddock coming down a building fire escape from The Calculus Affair.\n* The South station in Brussels contains a huge reproduction of a panel from Tintin in America.\n* The Le Lombard building in Central Brussels (Near the South railway station) two giant heads of Tintin and Snowy on the roof. These are lit up with neon lights at night. Lombard was the editor of the Journal de Tintin. \n* The Stockel / Stokkel subway station in Brussels has huge panels with scenes from Tintin comic books painted as murals. \n* The [http://www.ccu.be Uccle cultural center] (Rue Ruge)in Belgium has a life size statue of Tintin and Snowy. The statue was sculpted by Nat Neujeun and commissioned by Raymond Leblanc, the publisher of Le Petit Vingtieme. \n* Floral Street in Covent Garden (United Kingdom) contains a shop called [http://thetintinshop.uk.com/ The Tintin shop], containing Tintin memorabilia. \n* A restaurant on Zuidstraat, Brussels is named [http://www.lotusbleu.biz Le Lotus Bleu] (after the original French name of the Tintin comic The Blue Lotus)\n* One of the high speed trains of Thalys is covered with images from Tintin comic books.\n* The Hergé museum in Brussels contains numerous memorabilia from Remi's works with respect to Tintin\n* Brussel's Comic Strip Center contains a 1952 bust of Tintin by the artist Nat Neujean\n\nAdaptations \n\nTintin has appeared in real-life events staged by publishers for publicity stunts. Tintin's first live appearance was at the Gare du Nord station in Brussels on 8 May 1930, towards the end publication of the first adventure, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. Fifteen-year-old Lucien Pepermans dressed to play the part and travelled with Hergé to the station by train. They were expecting only a handful of readers but instead found themselves mobbed by a whole horde of fans.\nFourteen-year-old Henri Dendoncker appeared as Tintin returning from Tintin in the Congo.\nOthers have played Tintin returning from the adventures Tintin in America and The Blue Lotus.\n\nActress Jane Rubens was the first to play Tintin on stage in April 1941. The plays, written by Jacques Van Melkebeke, included Tintin in India: The Mystery of the Blue Diamond and '. She was later replaced by 11-year-old Roland Ravez, who also lent his voice to recordings of the Cigars of the Pharaoh and The Blue Lotus. Jean-Pierre Talbot played Tintin in two live-action movie adaptations: Tintin and the Golden Fleece (1961) and Tintin and the Blue Oranges (1964). Canadian actor Colin O'Meara voiced Tintin in the 1991 The Adventures of Tintin animated TV series, which originally aired on HBO and subsequently on Nickelodeon. At the same time, actor Richard Pearce provided the voice of Tintin for a radio drama series of Tintin created by the BBC, which also starred Andrew Sachs as Snowy. In 2005, English actor Russell Tovey played the role at the London Barbican Theatre for a Young Vic adaptation of Tintin in Tibet.\n\nShortly before Hergé's death in 1983, he came to admire the work of Steven Spielberg; whom he felt was the only director who could successfully bring his Tintin to the big screen. The result was the 2011 motion capture feature film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, which merges plots from several Tintin books.\n\nTintin filmography \n\n; Feature films\n* 1961 : Tintin and the Golden Fleece (Tintin et le Mystère de la Toison d'or) by Jean-Jacques Vierne\n* 1964 : Tintin and the Blue Oranges (Tintin et les Oranges bleues) by Philippe Condroyer\n\n; Animated films\n* 1947 : The Crab with the Golden Claws (Le Crabe aux pinces d'or) by Claude Misonne\n* 1964 : L'Affaire Tournesol by Ray Goossens\n* 1969 : Tintin et la SGM by Raymond Leblanc\n* 1969 : Tintin and the Temple of the Sun (Tintin et le Temple du Soleil) by Raymond Leblanc \n* 1972 : Tintin and the Lake of Sharks (Tintin et le lac aux requins) by Raymond Leblanc\n* 2011 : The Adventures of Tintin (Les Aventures de Tintin: Le Secret de La Licorne) by Steven Spielberg\n* Les Aventures de Tintin : Le Temple du Soleil by Peter Jackson\n\n; Television series\n* 1957-1961 : Hergé's Adventures of Tintin (animated series) \n* 1992 : The Adventures of Tintin (animated series with 21 episodes)(3 seasons with 13 episode each)" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Sound_film.txt", "Steamboat_Willie.txt", "Mickey_Mouse.txt" ], "title": [ "Sound film", "Steamboat Willie", "Mickey Mouse" ], "wiki_context": [ "A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before sound motion pictures were made commercially practical. Reliable synchronization was difficult to achieve with the early sound-on-disc systems, and amplification and recording quality were also inadequate. Innovations in sound-on-film led to the first commercial screening of short motion pictures using the technology, which took place in 1923.\n\nThe primary steps in the commercialization of sound cinema were taken in the mid- to late 1920s. At first, the sound films incorporating synchronized dialogue—known as \"talking pictures\", or \"talkies\"—were exclusively shorts; the earliest feature-length movies with recorded sound included only music and effects. The first feature film originally presented as a talkie was The Jazz Singer, released in October 1927. A major hit, it was made with Vitaphone, which was at the time the leading brand of sound-on-disc technology. Sound-on-film, however, would soon become the standard for talking pictures.\n\nBy the early 1930s, the talkies were a global phenomenon. In the United States, they helped secure Hollywood's position as one of the world's most powerful cultural/commercial systems (see Cinema of the United States). In Europe (and, to a lesser degree, elsewhere), the new development was treated with suspicion by many filmmakers and critics, who worried that a focus on dialogue would subvert the unique aesthetic virtues of soundless cinema. In Japan, where the popular film tradition integrated silent movie and live vocal performance, talking pictures were slow to take root. In India, sound was the transformative element that led to the rapid expansion of the nation's film industry.\n\nHistory \n\nEarly steps \n\nThe idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as the concept of cinema itself. On February 27, 1888, a couple of days after photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge gave a lecture not far from the laboratory of Thomas Edison, the two inventors privately met. Muybridge later claimed that on this occasion, six years before the first commercial motion picture exhibition, he proposed a scheme for sound cinema that would combine his image-casting zoopraxiscope with Edison's recorded-sound technology. No agreement was reached, but within a year Edison commissioned the development of the Kinetoscope, essentially a \"peep-show\" system, as a visual complement to his cylinder phonograph. The two devices were brought together as the Kinetophone in 1895, but individual, cabinet viewing of motion pictures was soon to be outmoded by successes in film projection. In 1899, a projected sound-film system known as Cinemacrophonograph or Phonorama, based primarily on the work of Swiss-born inventor François Dussaud, was exhibited in Paris; similar to the Kinetophone, the system required individual use of earphones. An improved cylinder-based system, Phono-Cinéma-Théâtre, was developed by Clément-Maurice Gratioulet and Henri Lioret of France, allowing short films of theater, opera, and ballet excerpts to be presented at the Paris Exposition in 1900. These appear to be the first publicly exhibited films with projection of both image and recorded sound. Phonorama and yet another sound-film system—Théâtroscope—were also presented at the Exposition. \n\nThree major problems persisted, leading to motion pictures and sound recording largely taking separate paths for a generation. The primary issue was synchronization: pictures and sound were recorded and played back by separate devices, which were difficult to start and maintain in tandem.Sound engineer Mark Ulano, in [http://www.filmsound.org/ulano/talkies2.htm \"The Movies Are Born a Child of the Phonograph\"] (part 2 of his essay \"Moving Pictures That Talk\"), describes the Phono-Cinéma-Théâtre version of synchronized sound cinema:\n\nThis system used an operator adjusted non-linkage form of primitive synchronization. The scenes to be shown were first filmed, and then the performers recorded their dialogue or songs on the Lioretograph (usually a Le Éclat concert cylinder format phonograph) trying to match tempo with the projected filmed performance. In showing the films, synchronization of sorts was achieved by adjusting the hand cranked film projector's speed to match the phonograph. the projectionist was equipped with a telephone through which he listened to the phonograph which was located in the orchestra pit.\n Sufficient playback volume was also hard to achieve. While motion picture projectors soon allowed film to be shown to large theater audiences, audio technology before the development of electric amplification could not project satisfactorily to fill large spaces. Finally, there was the challenge of recording fidelity. The primitive systems of the era produced sound of very low quality unless the performers were stationed directly in front of the cumbersome recording devices (acoustical horns, for the most part), imposing severe limits on the sort of films that could be created with live-recorded sound. \n\nCinematic innovators attempted to cope with the fundamental synchronization problem in a variety of ways. An increasing number of motion picture systems relied on gramophone records—known as sound-on-disc technology; the records themselves were often referred to as \"Berliner discs\", after one of the primary inventors in the field, German-American Emile Berliner. In 1902, Léon Gaumont demonstrated his sound-on-disc Chronophone, involving an electrical connection he had recently patented, to the French Photographic Society. Four years later, Gaumont introduced the Elgéphone, a compressed-air amplification system based on the Auxetophone, developed by British inventors Horace Short and Charles Parsons. Despite\nhigh expectations, Gaumont's sound innovations had only limited commercial success—though improvements, they still did not satisfactorily address the three basic issues with sound film and were expensive as well. For some years, American inventor E. E. Norton's Cameraphone was the primary competitor to the Gaumont system (sources differ on whether the Cameraphone was disc- or cylinder-based); it ultimately failed for many of the same reasons that held back the Chronophone.Altman (2005), pp. 158–65; Altman (1995).\n\nIn 1913, Edison introduced a new cylinder-based synch-sound apparatus known, just like his 1895 system, as the Kinetophone; instead of films being shown to individual viewers in the Kinetoscope cabinet, they were now projected onto a screen. The phonograph was connected by an intricate arrangement of pulleys to the film projector, allowing—under ideal conditions—for synchronization. However, conditions were rarely ideal, and the new, improved Kinetophone was retired after little more than a year. By the mid-1910s, the groundswell in commercial sound motion picture exhibition had subsided. Beginning in 1914, The Photo-Drama of Creation, promoting Jehovah's Witnesses' conception of mankind's genesis, was screened around the United States: eight hours worth of projected visuals involving both slides and live action were synchronized with separately recorded lectures and musical performances played back on phonograph. \n\nMeanwhile, innovations continued on another significant front. In 1907, French-born, London-based Eugene Lauste—who had worked at Edison's lab between 1886 and 1892—was awarded the first patent for sound-on-film technology, involving the transformation of sound into light waves that are photographically recorded direct onto celluloid. As described by historian Scott Eyman,\n\nIt was a double system, that is, the sound was on a different piece of film from the picture.... In essence, the sound was captured by a microphone and translated into light waves via a light valve, a thin ribbon of sensitive metal over a tiny slit. The sound reaching this ribbon would be converted into light by the shivering of the diaphragm, focusing the resulting light waves through the slit, where it would be photographed on the side of the film, on a strip about a tenth of an inch wide. \n\nThough sound-on-film would eventually become the universal standard for synchronized sound cinema, Lauste never successfully exploited his innovations, which came to an effective dead end. In 1914, Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt was granted German patent 309,536 for his sound-on-film work; that same year, he apparently demonstrated a film made with the process to an audience of scientists in Berlin. Hungarian engineer Denes Mihaly submitted his sound-on-film Projectofon concept to the Royal Hungarian Patent Court in 1918; the patent award was published four years later. Whether sound was captured on cylinder, disc, or film, none of the available technology was adequate for big-league commercial purposes, and for many years the heads of the major Hollywood film studios saw little benefit in producing sound motion pictures. \n\nCrucial innovations \n\nA number of technological developments contributed to making sound cinema commercially viable by the late 1920s. Two involved contrasting approaches to synchronized sound reproduction, or playback:\n\nAdvanced sound-on-film \n\nIn 1919, American inventor Lee De Forest was awarded several patents that would lead to the first optical sound-on-film technology with commercial application. In De Forest's system, the sound track was photographically recorded onto the side of the strip of motion picture film to create a composite, or \"married\", print. If proper synchronization of sound and picture was achieved in recording, it could be absolutely counted on in playback. Over the next four years, he improved his system with the help of equipment and patents licensed from another American inventor in the field, Theodore Case. \n\nAt the University of Illinois, Polish-born research engineer Joseph Tykociński-Tykociner was working independently on a similar process. On June 9, 1922, he gave the first reported U.S. demonstration of a sound-on-film motion picture to members of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. As with Lauste and Tigerstedt, Tykociner's system would never be taken advantage of commercially; however, De Forest's soon would.\n\nOn April 15, 1923, at New York City's Rivoli Theater, came the first commercial screening of motion pictures with sound-on-film, the future standard: a set of shorts under the banner of De Forest Phonofilms, accompanying a silent feature. That June, De Forest entered into an extended legal battle with an employee, Freeman Harrison Owens, for title to one of the crucial Phonofilm patents. Although De Forest ultimately won the case in the courts, Owens is today recognized as a central innovator in the field. The following year, De Forest's studio released the first commercial dramatic film shot as a talking picture—the two-reeler Love's Old Sweet Song, directed by J. Searle Dawley and featuring Una Merkel. However, phonofilm's stock in trade was not original dramas but celebrity documentaries, popular music acts, and comedy performances. President Calvin Coolidge, opera singer Abbie Mitchell, and vaudeville stars such as Phil Baker, Ben Bernie, Eddie Cantor and Oscar Levant appeared in the firm's pictures. Hollywood remained suspicious, even fearful, of the new technology. As Photoplay editor James Quirk put it in March 1924, \"Talking pictures are perfected, says Dr. Lee De Forest. So is castor oil.\" De Forest's process continued to be used through 1927 in the United States for dozens of short Phonofilms; in the UK it was employed a few years longer for both shorts and features by British Sound Film Productions, a subsidiary of British Talking Pictures, which purchased the primary Phonofilm assets. By the end of 1930, the Phonofilm business would be liquidated. \n\nIn Europe, others were also working on the development of sound-on-film. In 1919, the same year that DeForest received his first patents in the field, three German inventors patented the Tri-Ergon sound system. On September 17, 1922, the Tri-Ergon group gave a public screening of sound-on-film productions—including a dramatic talkie, Der Brandstifter (The Arsonist) —before an invited audience at the Alhambra Kino in Berlin. By the end of the decade, Tri-Ergon would be the dominant European sound system. In 1923, two Danish engineers, Axel Petersen and Arnold Poulsen, patented a system that recorded sound on a separate filmstrip running parallel with the image reel. Gaumont licensed the technology and briefly put it to commercial use under the name Cinéphone. \n\nDomestic competition, however, eclipsed Phonofilm. By September 1925, De Forest and Case's working arrangement had fallen through. The following July, Case joined Fox Film, Hollywood's third largest studio, to found the Fox-Case Corporation. The system developed by Case and his assistant, Earl Sponable, given the name Movietone, thus became the first viable sound-on-film technology controlled by a Hollywood movie studio. The following year, Fox purchased the North American rights to the Tri-Ergon system, though the company found it inferior to Movietone and virtually impossible to integrate the two different systems to advantage. In 1927, as well, Fox retained the services of Freeman Owens, who had particular expertise in constructing cameras for synch-sound film. \n\nAdvanced sound-on-disc \n\nParallel with improvements in sound-on-film technology, a number of companies were making progress with systems that recorded movie sound on phonograph discs. In sound-on-disc technology from the era, a phonograph turntable is connected by a mechanical interlock to a specially modified film projector, allowing for synchronization. In 1921, the Photokinema sound-on-disc system developed by Orlando Kellum was employed to add synchronized sound sequences to D. W. Griffith's failed silent film Dream Street. A love song, performed by star Ralph Graves, was recorded, as was a sequence of live vocal effects. Apparently, dialogue scenes were also recorded, but the results were unsatisfactory and the film was never publicly screened incorporating them. On May 1, 1921, Dream Street was re-released, with love song added, at New York City's Town Hall theater, qualifying it—however haphazardly—as the first feature-length film with a live-recorded vocal sequence. There would be no others for more than six years.\n\nIn 1925, Sam Warner of Warner Bros., then a small Hollywood studio with big ambitions, saw a demonstration of the Western Electric sound-on-disc system and was sufficiently impressed to persuade his brothers to agree to experiment with using this system at New York's Vitagraph Studios, which they had recently purchased. The tests were convincing to the Warner Brothers, if not to the executives of some other picture companies who witnessed them. Consequently, in April 1926 the Western Electric Company entered into a contract with Warner Brothers and W. J. Rich, a financier, giving them an exclusive license for recording and reproducing sound pictures under the Western Electric system. To exploit this license the Vitaphone Corporation was organized with Samuel L. Warner as its president. \nVitaphone, as this system was now called, was publicly introduced on August 6, 1926, with the premiere of the nearly three-hour-long Don Juan; the first feature-length movie to employ a synchronized sound system of any type throughout, its soundtrack contained a musical score and added sound effects, but no recorded dialogue—in other words, it had been staged and shot as a silent film. Accompanying Don Juan, however, were eight shorts of musical performances, mostly classical, as well as a four-minute filmed introduction by Will H. Hays, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, all with live-recorded sound. These were the first true sound films exhibited by a Hollywood studio. Warner Bros.' The Better 'Ole, technically similar to Don Juan, followed in October. \n\nSound-on-film would ultimately win out over sound-on-disc because of a number of fundamental technical advantages:\n* Synchronization: no interlock system was completely reliable, and sound could fall out of synch due to disc skipping or minute changes in film speed, requiring constant supervision and frequent manual adjustment\n* Editing: discs could not be directly edited, severely limiting the ability to make alterations in their accompanying films after the original release cut\n* Distribution: phonograph discs added expense and complication to film distribution\n* Wear and tear: the physical process of playing the discs degraded them, requiring their replacement after approximately twenty screenings \n\nNonetheless, in the early years, sound-on-disc had the edge over sound-on-film in two substantial ways:\n* Production and capital cost: it was generally less expensive to record sound onto disc than onto film and the exhibition systems—turntable/interlock/projector—were cheaper to manufacture than the complex image-and-audio-pattern-reading projectors required by sound-on-film\n* Audio quality: phonograph discs, Vitaphone's in particular, had superior dynamic range to most sound-on-film processes of the day, at least during the first few playings; while sound-on-film tended to have better frequency response, this was outweighed by greater distortion and noise \n\nAs sound-on-film technology improved, both of these disadvantages were overcome.\n\nThe third crucial set of innovations marked a major step forward in both the live recording of sound and its effective playback:\n\nFidelity electronic recording and amplification \n\nIn 1913, Western Electric, the manufacturing division of AT&T, acquired the rights to the de Forest audion, the forerunner of the triode vacuum tube. Over the next few years they developed it into a predictable and reliable device that made electronic amplification possible for the first time. Western Electric then branched-out into developing uses for the vacuum tube including public address systems and an electrical recording system for the recording industry. Beginning in 1922, the research branch of Western Electric began working intensively on recording technology for both sound-on-disc and sound-on film synchronised sound systems for motion-pictures.\n\nThe engineers working on the sound-on-disc system were able to draw on expertise that Western Electric already had in electrical disc recording and were thus able to make faster initial progress. The main change required was to increase the playing time of the disc so that it could match that of a standard 1000 ft reel of 35 mm film. The chosen design used a disc measuring 16 in rotating at 33 1/3 rpm. This could play for 11 minutes, the running time of 1000 ft of film at 90 ft/min (24 frames/s). Because of the larger diameter the minimum groove velocity of 70 ft/min (14 inches or 356 mm/s) was only slightly less than that of a standard 10-inch 78 rpm commercial disc.\nIn 1925, the company publicly introduced a greatly improved system of electronic audio, including sensitive condenser microphones and rubber-line recorders (named after the use of a rubber damping band for recording with better frequency response onto a wax master disk ). That May, the company licensed entrepreneur Walter J. Rich to exploit the system for commercial motion pictures; he founded Vitagraph, in which Warner Bros. acquired a half interest, just one month later. In April 1926, Warners signed a contract with AT&T for exclusive use of its film sound technology for the redubbed Vitaphone operation, leading to the production of Don Juan and its accompanying shorts over the following months. During the period when Vitaphone had exclusive access to the patents, the fidelity of recordings made for Warners films was markedly superior to those made for the company's sound-on-film competitors. Meanwhile, Bell Labs—the new name for the AT&T research operation—was working at a furious pace on sophisticated sound amplification technology that would allow recordings to be played back over loudspeakers at theater-filling volume. The new moving-coil speaker system was installed in New York's Warners Theatre at the end of July and its patent submission, for what Western Electric called the No. 555 Receiver, was filed on August 4, just two days before the premiere of Don Juan. \n\nLate in the year, AT&T/Western Electric created a licensing division, Electrical Research Products Inc. (ERPI), to handle rights to the company's film-related audio technology. Vitaphone still had legal exclusivity, but having lapsed in its royalty payments, effective control of the rights was in ERPI's hands. On December 31, 1926, Warners granted Fox-Case a sublicense for the use of the Western Electric system; in exchange for the sublicense, both Warners and ERPI received a share of Fox's related revenues. The patents of all three concerns were cross-licensed. Superior recording and amplification technology was now available to two Hollywood studios, pursuing two very different methods of sound reproduction. The new year would finally see the emergence of sound cinema as a significant commercial medium.\n\nTriumph of the \"talkies\" \n\nIn February 1927, an agreement was signed by five leading Hollywood movie companies: Famous Players Lasky (soon to be part of Paramount), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Universal, First National, and Cecil B. DeMille's small but prestigious Producers Distributing Corporation (PDC). The five studios agreed to collectively select just one provider for sound conversion. The alliance then sat back and waited to see what sort of results the forerunners came up with. In May, Warner Bros. sold back its exclusivity rights to ERPI (along with the Fox-Case sublicense) and signed a new royalty contract similar to Fox's for use of Western Electric technology. As Fox and Warners pressed forward with sound cinema in different directions, both technologically and commercially—Fox with newsreels and then scored dramas, Warners with talking features—so did ERPI, which sought to corner the market by signing up the five allied studios. \n\nThe big sound film sensations of the year all took advantage of preexisting celebrity. On May 20, 1927, at New York's Roxy Theater, Fox Movietone presented a sound film of the takeoff of Charles Lindbergh's celebrated flight to Paris, recorded earlier that day. In June, a Fox sound newsreel depicting his return welcomes in New York and Washington, D.C., was shown. These were the two most acclaimed sound motion pictures to date. In May, as well, Fox had released the first Hollywood fiction film with synchronized dialogue: the short They're Coming to Get Me, starring comedian Chic Sale. After rereleasing a few silent feature hits, such as Seventh Heaven, with recorded music, Fox came out with its first original Movietone feature on September 23: Sunrise, by acclaimed German director F. W. Murnau. As with Don Juan, the film's soundtrack consisted of a musical score and sound effects (including, in a couple of crowd scenes, \"wild\", nonspecific vocals). \n\nThen, on October 6, 1927, Warner Bros.' The Jazz Singer premiered. It was a smash box office success for the mid-level studio, earning a total of $2.625 million in the United States and abroad, almost a million dollars more than the previous record for a Warners film. Produced with the Vitaphone system, most of the film does not contain live-recorded audio, relying, like Sunrise and Don Juan, on a score and effects. When the movie's star, Al Jolson, sings, however, the film shifts to sound recorded on the set, including both his musical performances and two scenes with ad-libbed speech—one of Jolson's character, Jakie Rabinowitz (Jack Robin), addressing a cabaret audience; the other an exchange between him and his mother. The \"natural\" sounds of the settings were also audible. Though the success of The Jazz Singer was due largely to Jolson, already established as one of America's biggest music stars, and its limited use of synchronized sound hardly qualified it as an innovative sound film (let alone the \"first\"), the movie's profits were proof enough to the industry that the technology was worth investing in. \n\nThe development of commercial sound cinema had proceeded in fits and starts before The Jazz Singer, and the film's success did not change things overnight. Not until May 1928 did the group of four big studios (PDC had dropped out of the alliance), along with United Artists and others, sign with ERPI for conversion of production facilities and theaters for sound film. Initially, all ERPI-wired theaters were made Vitaphone-compatible; most were equipped to project Movietone reels as well. However, even with access to both technologies, most of the Hollywood companies remained slow to produce talking features of their own. No studio besides Warner Bros. released even a part-talking feature until the low-budget-oriented Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) premiered The Perfect Crime on June 17, 1928, eight months after The Jazz Singer. FBO had come under the effective control of a Western Electric competitor, General Electric's RCA division, which was looking to market its new sound-on-film system, Photophone. Unlike Fox-Case's Movietone and De Forest's Phonofilm, which were variable-density systems, Photophone was a variable-area system—a refinement in the way the audio signal was inscribed on film that would ultimately become the standard. (In both sorts of systems, a specially-designed lamp, whose exposure to the film is determined by the audio input, is used to record sound photographically as a series of minuscule lines. In a variable-density process, the lines are of varying darkness; in a variable-area process, the lines are of varying width.) By October, the FBO-RCA alliance would lead to the creation of Hollywood's newest major studio, RKO Pictures.\n\nMeanwhile, Warner Bros. had released three more talkies, all profitable, if not at the level of The Jazz Singer: In March, Tenderloin appeared; it was billed by Warners as the first feature in which characters spoke their parts, though only 15 of its 88 minutes had dialogue. Glorious Betsy followed in April, and The Lion and the Mouse (31 minutes of dialogue) in May. On July 6, 1928, the first all-talking feature, Lights of New York, premiered. The film cost Warner Bros. only $23,000 to produce, but grossed $1.252 million, a record rate of return surpassing 5,000%. In September, the studio released another Al Jolson part-talking picture, The Singing Fool, which more than doubled The Jazz Singers earnings record for a Warners movie. This second Jolson screen smash demonstrated the movie musical's ability to turn a song into a national hit: inside of nine months, the Jolson number \"Sonny Boy\" had racked up 2 million record and 1.25 million sheet music sales. September 1928 also saw the release of Paul Terry's Dinner Time, among the first animated cartoons produced with synchronized sound. Soon after he saw it, Walt Disney released his first sound picture, the Mickey Mouse short Steamboat Willie. \n\nOver the course of 1928, as Warner Bros. began to rake in huge profits due to the popularity of its sound films, the other studios quickened the pace of their conversion to the new technology. Paramount, the industry leader, put out its first talkie in late September, Beggars of Life; though it had just a few lines of dialogue, it demonstrated the studio's recognition of the new medium's power. Interference, Paramount's first all-talker, debuted in November. The process known as \"goat glanding\" briefly became widespread: soundtracks, sometimes including a smatter of post-dubbed dialogue or song, were added to movies that had been shot, and in some cases released, as silents. A few minutes of singing could qualify such a newly endowed film as a \"musical.\" (Griffith's Dream Street had essentially been a \"goat gland.\") Expectations swiftly changed, and the sound \"fad\" of 1927 became standard procedure by 1929. In February 1929, sixteen months after The Jazz Singers debut, Columbia Pictures became the last of the eight studios that would be known as \"majors\" during Hollywood's Golden Age to release its first part-talking feature, Lone Wolf's Daughter. In late May, the first all-color, all-talking feature, Warner Bros.' On with the Show!, premiered. \n\nYet most American movie theaters, especially outside of urban areas, were still not equipped for sound: while the number of sound cinemas grew from 100 to 800 between 1928 and 1929, they were still vastly outnumbered by silent theaters, which had actually grown in number as well, from 22,204 to 22,544. The studios, in parallel, were still not entirely convinced of the talkies' universal appeal—through mid-1930, the majority of Hollywood movies were produced in dual versions, silent as well as talking. Though few in the industry predicted it, silent film as a viable commercial medium in the United States would soon be little more than a memory. Points West, a Hoot Gibson Western released by Universal Pictures in August 1929, was the last purely silent mainstream feature put out by a major Hollywood studio. \n\nTransition: Europe \n\nThe Jazz Singer had its European sound premiere at the Piccadilly Theatre in London on September 27, 1928. According to film historian Rachael Low, \"Many in the industry realized at once that a change to sound production was inevitable.\" On January 16, 1929, the first European feature film with a synchronized vocal performance and recorded score premiered: the German production Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madame (I Kiss Your Hand, Madame). Dialogueless, it contains only a few songs performed by Richard Tauber. The movie was made with the sound-on-film system controlled by the German-Dutch firm Tobis, corporate heirs to the Tri-Ergon concern. With an eye toward commanding the emerging European market for sound film, Tobis entered into a compact with its chief competitor, Klangfilm, a joint subsidiary of Germany's two leading electrical manufacturers. Early in 1929, Tobis and Klangfilm began comarketing their recording and playback technologies. As ERPI began to wire theaters around Europe, Tobis-Klangfilm claimed that the Western Electric system infringed on the Tri-Ergon patents, stalling the introduction of American technology in many places. Just as RCA had entered the movie business to maximize its recording system's value, Tobis also established its own production operations. \n\nDuring 1929, most of the major European filmmaking countries began joining Hollywood in the changeover to sound. Many of the trend-setting European talkies were shot abroad as production companies leased studios while their own were being converted or as they deliberately targeted markets speaking different languages. One of Europe's first two feature-length dramatic talkies was created in still a different sort of twist on multinational moviemaking: The Crimson Circle was a coproduction between director Friedrich Zelnik's Efzet-Film company and British Sound Film Productions (BSFP). In 1928, the film had been released as the silent Der Rote Kreis in Germany, where it was shot; English dialogue was apparently dubbed in much later using the De Forest Phonofilm process controlled by BSFP's corporate parent. It was given a British trade screening in March 1929, as was a part-talking film made entirely in the UK: The Clue of the New Pin, a British Lion production using the sound-on-disc British Photophone system. In May, Black Waters, a British and Dominions Film Corporation promoted as the first UK all-talker, received its initial trade screening; it had been shot completely in Hollywood with a Western Electric sound-on-film system. None of these pictures made much impact. \n\nThe first successful European dramatic talkie was the all-British Blackmail. Directed by twenty-nine-year-old Alfred Hitchcock, the movie had its London debut June 21, 1929. Originally shot as a silent, Blackmail was restaged to include dialogue sequences, along with a score and sound effects, before its premiere. A British International Pictures (BIP) production, it was recorded on RCA Photophone, General Electric having bought a share of AEG so they could access the Tobis-Klangfilm markets. Blackmail was a substantial hit; critical response was also positive—notorious curmudgeon Hugh Castle, for example, called it \"perhaps the most intelligent mixture of sound and silence we have yet seen.\" \n\nOn August 23, the modest-sized Austrian film industry came out with a talkie: G’schichten aus der Steiermark (Stories from Styria), an Eagle Film–Ottoton Film production. On September 30, the first entirely German-made feature-length dramatic talkie, Das Land ohne Frauen (Land Without Women), premiered. A Tobis Filmkunst production, about one-quarter of the movie contained dialogue, which was strictly segregated from the special effects and music. The response was underwhelming. Sweden's first talkie, Konstgjorda Svensson (Artificial Svensson), premiered on October 14. Eight days later, Aubert Franco-Film came out with Le Collier de la reine (The Queen's Necklace), shot at the Épinay studio near Paris. Conceived as a silent film, it was given a Tobis-recorded score and a single talking sequence—the first dialogue scene in a French feature. On October 31, Les Trois masques debuted; a Pathé-Natan film, it is generally regarded as the initial French feature talkie, though it was shot, like Blackmail, at the Elstree studio, just outside London. The production company had contracted with RCA Photophone and Britain then had the nearest facility with the system. The Braunberger-Richebé talkie La Route est belle, also shot at Elstree, followed a few weeks later. \n\nBefore the Paris studios were fully sound-equipped—a process that stretched well into 1930—a number of other early French talkies were shot in Germany. The first all-talking German feature, Atlantik, had premiered in Berlin on October 28. Yet another Elstree-made movie, it was rather less German at heart than Les Trois masques and La Route est belle were French; a BIP production with a British scenarist and German director, it was also shot in English as Atlantic. The entirely German Aafa-Film production It's You I Have Loved (Dich hab ich geliebt) opened three-and-a-half weeks later. It was not \"Germany's First Talking Film\", as the marketing had it, but it was the first to be released in the United States. \n\nIn 1930, the first Polish talkies premiered, using sound-on-disc systems: Moralność pani Dulskiej (The Morality of Mrs. Dulska) in March and the all-talking Niebezpieczny romans (Dangerous Love Affair) in October. In Italy, whose once vibrant film industry had become moribund by the late 1920s, the first talkie, La Canzone dell'amore (The Song of Love), also came out in October; within two years, Italian cinema would be enjoying a revival. The first movie spoken in Czech debuted in 1930 as well, Tonka Šibenice (Tonka of the Gallows). Several European nations with minor positions in the field also produced their first talking pictures—Belgium (in French), Denmark, Greece, and Romania. The Soviet Union's robust film industry came out with its first sound features in December 1930: Dziga Vertov's nonfiction Entuziazm had an experimental, dialogueless soundtrack; Abram Room's documentary Plan velikikh rabot (The Plan of the Great Works) had music and spoken voiceovers. Both were made with locally developed sound-on-film systems, two of the two hundred or so movie sound systems then available somewhere in the world. In June 1931, the Nikolai Ekk drama Putevka v zhizn (The Road to Life or A Start in Life), premiered as the Soviet Union's first true talking picture. \n\nThroughout much of Europe, conversion of exhibition venues lagged well behind production capacity, requiring talkies to be produced in parallel silent versions or simply shown without sound in many places. While the pace of conversion was relatively swift in Britain—with over 60 percent of theaters equipped for sound by the end of 1930, similar to the U.S. figure—in France, by contrast, more than half of theaters nationwide were still projecting in silence by late 1932. According to scholar Colin G. Crisp, \"Anxiety about resuscitating the flow of silent films was frequently expressed in the [French] industrial press, and a large section of the industry still saw the silent as a viable artistic and commercial prospect till about 1935.\" The situation was particularly acute in the Soviet Union; as of May 1933, fewer than one out of every hundred film projectors in the country was as yet equipped for sound. \n\nTransition: Asia \n\nDuring the 1920s and 1930s, Japan was one of the world's two largest producers of motion pictures, along with the United States. Though the country's film industry was among the first to produce both sound and talking features, the full changeover to sound proceeded much more slowly than in the West. It appears that the first Japanese sound film, Reimai (Dawn), was made in 1926 with the De Forest Phonofilm system. Using the sound-on-disc Minatoki system, the leading Nikkatsu studio produced a pair of talkies in 1929: Taii no musume (The Captain's Daughter) and Furusato (Hometown), the latter directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. The rival Shochiku studio began the successful production of sound-on-film talkies in 1931 using a variable-density process called Tsuchibashi. Two years later, however, more than 80 percent of movies made in the country were still silents.Freiberg (1987), p. 76. Two of the country's leading directors, Mikio Naruse and Yasujiro Ozu, did not make their first sound films until 1935 and 1936, respectively. As late as 1938, over a third of all movies produced in Japan were shot without dialogue.\n\nThe enduring popularity of the silent medium in Japanese cinema owed in great part to the tradition of the benshi, a live narrator who performed as accompaniment to a film screening. As director Akira Kurosawa later described, the benshi \"not only recounted the plot of the films, they enhanced the emotional content by performing the voices and sound effects and providing evocative descriptions of events and images on the screen.... The most popular narrators were stars in their own right, solely responsible for the patronage of a particular theatre.\" Film historian Mariann Lewinsky argues,\n\nThe end of silent film in the West and in Japan was imposed by the industry and the market, not by any inner need or natural evolution.... Silent cinema was a highly pleasurable and fully mature form. It didn't lack anything, least in Japan, where there was always the human voice doing the dialogues and the commentary. Sound films were not better, just more economical. As a cinema owner you didn't have to pay the wages of musicians and benshi any more. And a good benshi was a star demanding star payment. \n\nBy the same token, the viability of the benshi system facilitated a gradual transition to sound—allowing the studios to spread out the capital costs of conversion and their directors and technical crews time to become familiar with the new technology. \n\nThe Mandarin-language Gēnǚ hóng mǔdān (, Singsong Girl Red Peony), starring Butterfly Wu, premiered as China's first feature talkie in 1930. By February of that year, production was apparently completed on a sound version of The Devil's Playground, arguably qualifying it as the first Australian talking motion picture; however, the May press screening of Commonwealth Film Contest prizewinner Fellers is the first verifiable public exhibition of an Australian talkie. In September 1930, a song performed by Indian star Sulochana, excerpted from the silent feature Madhuri (1928), was released as a synchronized-sound short, the country's first. The following year, Ardeshir Irani directed the first Indian talking feature, the Hindi-Urdu Alam Ara, and produced Kalidas, primarily in Tamil with some Telugu. Nineteen-thirty-one also saw the first Bengali-language film, Jamai Sasthi, and the first movie fully spoken in Telugu, Bhakta Prahlada. In 1932, Ayodhyecha Raja became the first movie in which Marathi was spoken to be released (though Sant Tukaram was the first to go through the official censorship process); the first Gujarati-language film, Narsimha Mehta, and all-Tamil talkie, Kalava, debuted as well. The next year, Ardeshir Irani produced the first Persian-language talkie, Dukhtar-e-loor. Also in 1933, the first Cantonese-language films were produced in Hong Kong—Sha zai dongfang (The Idiot's Wedding Night) and Liang xing (Conscience); within two years, the local film industry had fully converted to sound. Korea, where pyonsa (or byun-sa) held a role and status similar to that of the Japanese benshi, in 1935 became the last country with a significant film industry to produce its first talking picture: Chunhyangjeon (/) is based on the seventeenth-century pansori folktale \"Chunhyangga\", of which as many as fifteen film versions have been made through 2009. \n\nConsequences \n\nTechnology \n\nIn the short term, the introduction of live sound recording caused major difficulties in production. Cameras were noisy, so a soundproofed cabinet was used in many of the earliest talkies to isolate the loud equipment from the actors, at the expense of a drastic reduction in the ability to move the camera. For a time, multiple-camera shooting was used to compensate for the loss of mobility and innovative studio technicians could often find ways to liberate the camera for particular shots. The necessity of staying within range of still microphones meant that actors also often had to limit their movements unnaturally. Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), from First National Pictures (which Warner Bros. had taken control of thanks to its profitable adventure into sound), gives a behind-the-scenes look at some of the techniques involved in shooting early talkies. Several of the fundamental problems caused by the transition to sound were soon solved with new camera casings, known as \"blimps\", designed to suppress noise and boom microphones that could be held just out of frame and moved with the actors. In 1931, a major improvement in playback fidelity was introduced: three-way speaker systems in which sound was separated into low, medium, and high frequencies and sent respectively to a large bass \"woofer\", a midrange driver, and a treble \"tweeter.\" \n\nThere were consequences, as well, for other technological aspects of the cinema. Proper recording and playback of sound required exact standardization of camera and projector speed. Before sound, 16 frames per second (fps) was the supposed norm, but practice varied widely. Cameras were often undercranked or overcranked to improve exposures or for dramatic effect. Projectors were commonly run too fast to shorten running time and squeeze in extra shows. Variable frame rate, however, made sound unlistenable, and a new, strict standard of 24 fps was soon established. Sound also forced the abandonment of the noisy arc lights used for filming in studio interiors. The switch to quiet incandescent illumination in turn required a switch to more expensive film stock. The sensitivity of the new panchromatic film delivered superior image tonal quality and gave directors the freedom to shoot scenes at lower light levels than was previously practical.\n\nAs David Bordwell describes, technological improvements continued at a swift pace: \"Between 1932 and 1935, [Western Electric and RCA] created directional microphones, increased the frequency range of film recording, reduced ground noise ... and extended the volume range.\" These technical advances often meant new aesthetic opportunities: \"Increasing the fidelity of recording ... heightened the dramatic possibilities of vocal timbre, pitch, and loudness.\" Another basic problem—famously spoofed in the 1952 film Singin' in the Rain—was that some silent-era actors simply did not have attractive voices; though this issue was frequently overstated, there were related concerns about general vocal quality and the casting of performers for their dramatic skills in roles also requiring singing talent beyond their own. By 1935, rerecording of vocals by the original or different actors in postproduction, a process known as \"looping\", had become practical. The ultraviolet recording system introduced by RCA in 1936 improved the reproduction of sibilants and high notes. \n\nWith Hollywood's wholesale adoption of the talkies, the competition between the two fundamental approaches to sound-film production was soon resolved. Over the course of 1930–31, the only major players using sound-on-disc, Warner Bros. and First National, changed over to sound-on-film recording. Vitaphone's dominating presence in sound-equipped theaters, however, meant that for years to come all of the Hollywood studios pressed and distributed sound-on-disc versions of their films alongside the sound-on-film prints. Fox Movietone soon followed Vitaphone into disuse as a recording and reproduction method, leaving two major American systems: the variable-area RCA Photophone and Western Electric's own variable-density process, a substantial improvement on the cross-licensed Movietone. Under RCA's instigation, the two parent companies made their projection equipment compatible, meaning films shot with one system could be screened in theaters equipped for the other. This left one big issue—the Tobis-Klangfilm challenge. In May 1930, Western Electric won an Austrian lawsuit that voided protection for certain Tri-Ergon patents, helping bring Tobis-Klangfilm to the negotiating table. The following month an accord was reached on patent cross-licensing, full playback compatibility, and the division of the world into three parts for the provision of equipment. As a contemporary report describes:\n\nTobis-Klangfilm has the exclusive rights to provide equipment for: Germany, Danzig, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Holland, the Dutch Indies, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Finland. The Americans have the exclusive rights for the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Russia. All other countries, among them Italy, France, and England, are open to both parties. \n\nThe agreement did not resolve all the patent disputes, and further negotiations were undertaken and concords signed over the course of the 1930s. During these years, as well, the American studios began abandoning the Western Electric system for RCA Photophone's variable-area approach—by the end of 1936, only Paramount, MGM, and United Artists still had contracts with ERPI. \n\nLabor \n\nWhile the introduction of sound led to a boom in the motion picture industry, it had an adverse effect on the employability of a host of Hollywood actors of the time. Suddenly those without stage experience were regarded as suspect by the studios; as suggested above, those whose heavy accents or otherwise discordant voices had previously been concealed were particularly at risk. The career of major silent star Norma Talmadge effectively came to an end in this way. The celebrated German actor Emil Jannings returned to Europe. Moviegoers found John Gilbert's voice an awkward match with his swashbuckling persona, and his star also faded. Audiences now seemed to perceive certain silent-era stars as old-fashioned, even those who had the talent to succeed in the sound era. The career of Harold Lloyd, one of the top screen comedians of the 1920s, declined precipitously. Lillian Gish departed, back to the stage, and other leading figures soon left acting entirely: Colleen Moore, Gloria Swanson, and Hollywood's most famous performing couple, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. As actress Louise Brooks suggested, there were other issues as well:\n\nStudio heads, now forced into unprecedented decisions, decided to begin with the actors, the least palatable, the most vulnerable part of movie production. It was such a splendid opportunity, anyhow, for breaking contracts, cutting salaries, and taming the stars.... Me, they gave the salary treatment. I could stay on without the raise my contract called for, or quit, [Paramount studio chief B. P.] Schulberg said, using the questionable dodge of whether I'd be good for the talkies. Questionable, I say, because I spoke decent English in a decent voice and came from the theater. So without hesitation I quit. \n\nSimilarly, Clara Bow's speaking voice was sometimes blamed for the demise of her Hollywood career, though the real issues involved her clashes with studio executives and what film historian David Thomson describes as the \"backlash of bourgeois hypocrisy\" against a lifestyle that would have been unremarkable for a male star. Buster Keaton was eager to explore the new medium, but when his studio, MGM, made the changeover to sound, he was quickly stripped of creative control. Though a number of Keaton's early talkies made impressive profits, they were artistically dismal. \n\nSeveral of the new medium's biggest attractions came from vaudeville and the musical theater, where performers such as Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Jeanette MacDonald, and the Marx Brothers were accustomed to the demands of both dialogue and song. James Cagney and Joan Blondell, who had teamed on Broadway, were brought west together by Warner Bros. in 1930. A few actors were major stars during both the silent and the sound eras: Richard Barthelmess, Clive Brook, Bebe Daniels, Norma Shearer, the comedy team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, and the incomparable Charlie Chaplin, whose City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) employed sound almost exclusively for music and effects. Janet Gaynor became a top star with the synch-sound but dialogueless Seventh Heaven and Sunrise, as did Joan Crawford with the technologically similar Our Dancing Daughters (1928). Greta Garbo was the one non–native English speaker to retain Hollywood stardom on both sides of the great sound divide. The new emphasis on speech also caused producers to hire many novelists, journalists, and playwrights with experience writing good dialogue. Among those who became Hollywood scriptwriters during the 1930s were Nathanael West, William Faulkner, Robert Sherwood, Aldous Huxley, and Dorothy Parker. \n\nAs talking pictures emerged, with their prerecorded musical tracks, an increasing number of moviehouse orchestra musicians found themselves out of work. More than just their position as film accompanists was usurped; according to historian Preston J. Hubbard, \"During the 1920s live musical performances at first-run theaters became an exceedingly important aspect of the American cinema.\" With the coming of the talkies, those featured performances—usually staged as preludes—were largely eliminated as well. The American Federation of Musicians took out newspaper advertisements protesting the replacement of live musicians with mechanical playing devices. One 1929 ad that appeared in the Pittsburgh Press features an image of a can labeled \"Canned Music / Big Noise Brand / Guaranteed to Produce No Intellectual or Emotional Reaction Whatever\" and reads in part:\n\nCanned Music on Trial\nThis is the case of Art vs. Mechanical Music in theatres. The defendant stands accused in front of the American people of attempted corruption of musical appreciation and discouragement of musical education. Theatres in many cities are offering synchronised mechanical music as a substitute for Real Music. If the theatre-going public accepts this vitiation of its entertainment program a deplorable decline in the Art of Music is inevitable. Musical authorities know that the soul of the Art is lost in mechanisation. It cannot be otherwise because the quality of music is dependent on the mood of the artist, upon the human contact, without which the essence of intellectual stimulation and emotional rapture is lost. The text of the ad continues:\n\nIs Music Worth Saving? No great volume of evidence is required to answer this question. Music is a well-nigh universally beloved art. From the beginning of history, men have turned to musical expression to lighten the burdens of life, to make them happier. Aborigines, lowest in the scale of savagery, chant their song to tribal gods and play upon pipes and shark-skin drums. Musical development has kept pace with good taste and ethics throughout the ages, and has influenced the gentler nature of man more powerfully perhaps than any other factor. Has it remained for the Great Age of Science to snub the Art by setting up in its place a pale and feeble shadow of itself?\n\nBy the following year, a reported 22,000 U.S. moviehouse musicians had lost their jobs. \n\nCommerce \n\nIn September 1926, Jack L. Warner, head of Warner Bros., was quoted to the effect that talking pictures would never be viable: \"They fail to take into account the international language of the silent pictures, and the unconscious share of each onlooker in creating the play, the action, the plot, and the imagined dialogue for himself.\" Much to his company's benefit, he would be proven very wrong—between the 1927–28 and 1928–29 fiscal years, Warners' profits surged from $2 million to $14 million. Sound film, in fact, was a clear boon to all the major players in the industry. During that same twelve-month span, Paramount's profits rose by $7 million, Fox's by $3.5 million, and Loew's/MGM's by $3 million. RKO, which hadn't even existed in September 1928 and whose parent production company, FBO, was in the Hollywood minor leagues, by the end of 1929 was established as one of America's leading entertainment businesses. Fueling the boom was the emergence of an important new cinematic genre made possible by sound: the musical. Over sixty Hollywood musicals were released in 1929, and more than eighty the following year. \n\nEven as the Wall Street crash of October 1929 helped plunge the United States and ultimately the global economy into depression, the popularity of the talkies at first seemed to keep Hollywood immune. The 1929–30 exhibition season was even better for the motion picture industry than the previous, with ticket sales and overall profits hitting new highs. Reality finally struck later in 1930, but sound had clearly secured Hollywood's position as one of the most important industrial fields, both commercially and culturally, in the United States. In 1929, film box-office receipts comprised 16.6 percent of total spending by Americans on recreation; by 1931, the figure had reached 21.8 percent. The motion picture business would command similar figures for the next decade and a half. Hollywood ruled on the larger stage, as well. The American movie industry—already the world's most powerful—set an export record in 1929 that, by the applied measure of total feet of exposed film, was 27 percent higher than the year before. Concerns that language differences would hamper U.S. film exports turned out to be largely unfounded. In fact, the expense of sound conversion was a major obstacle to many overseas producers, relatively undercapitalized by Hollywood standards. The production of multiple versions of export-bound talkies in different languages (known as \"Foreign Language Version\"), as well as the production of the cheaper \"International Sound Version\", a common approach at first, largely ceased by mid-1931, replaced by post-dubbing and subtitling. Despite trade restrictions imposed in most foreign markets, by 1937, American films commanded about 70 percent of screen time around the globe. \n\nJust as the leading Hollywood studios gained from sound in relation to their foreign competitors, they did the same at home. As historian Richard B. Jewell describes, \"The sound revolution crushed many small film companies and producers who were unable to meet the financial demands of sound conversion.\" The combination of sound and the Great Depression led to a wholesale shakeout in the business, resulting in the hierarchy of the Big Five integrated companies (MGM, Paramount, Fox, Warners, RKO) and the three smaller studios also called \"majors\" (Columbia, Universal, United Artists) that would predominate through the 1950s. Historian Thomas Schatz describes the ancillary effects:\n\nBecause the studios were forced to streamline operations and rely on their own resources, their individual house styles and corporate personalities came into much sharper focus. Thus the watershed period from the coming of sound into the early Depression saw the studio system finally coalesce, with the individual studios coming to terms with their own identities and their respective positions within the industry. \n\nThe other country in which sound cinema had an immediate major commercial impact was India. As one distributor of the period said, \"With the coming of the talkies, the Indian motion picture came into its own as a definite and distinctive piece of creation. This was achieved by music.\" From its earliest days, Indian sound cinema has been defined by the musical—Alam Ara featured seven songs; a year later, Indrasabha would feature seventy. While the European film industries fought an endless battle against the popularity and economic muscle of Hollywood, ten years after the debut of Alam Ara, over 90 percent of the films showing on Indian screens were made within the country. \n\nMost of India's early talkies were shot in Bombay, which remains the leading production center, but sound filmmaking soon spread across the multilingual nation. Within just a few weeks of Alam Aras March 1931 premiere, the Calcutta-based Madan Pictures had released both the Hindi Shirin Farhad and the Bengali Jamai Sasthi. The Hindustani Heer Ranjha was produced in Lahore, Punjab, the following year. In 1934, Sati Sulochana, the first Kannada talking picture to be released, was shot in Kolhapur, Maharashtra; Srinivasa Kalyanam became the first Tamil talkie actually shot in Tamil Nadu. Once the first talkie features appeared, the conversion to full sound production happened as rapidly in India as it did in the United States. Already by 1932, the majority of feature productions were in sound; two years later, 164 of the 172 Indian feature films were talking pictures. Since 1934, with the sole exception of 1952, India has been among the top three movie-producing countries in the world every single year. \n\nAesthetic quality \n\nIn the first, 1930 edition of his global survey The Film Till Now, British cinema pundit Paul Rotha declared, \"A film in which the speech and sound effects are perfectly synchronised and coincide with their visual image on the screen is absolutely contrary to the aims of cinema. It is a degenerate and misguided attempt to destroy the real use of the film and cannot be accepted as coming within the true boundaries of the cinema.\" Such opinions were not rare among those who cared about cinema as an art form; Alfred Hitchcock, though he directed the first commercially successful talkie produced in Europe, held that \"the silent pictures were the purest form of cinema\" and scoffed at many early sound films as delivering little beside \"photographs of people talking\". In Germany, Max Reinhardt, stage producer and movie director, expressed the belief that the talkies, \"bringing to the screen stage plays ... tend to make this independent art a subsidiary of the theater and really make it only a substitute for the theater instead of an art in itself ... like reproductions of paintings.\" \n\nIn the opinion of many film historians and aficionados, both at the time and subsequently, silent film had reached an aesthetic peak by the late 1920s and the early years of sound cinema delivered little that was comparable to the best of the silents. For instance, despite fading into relative obscurity once its era had passed, silent cinema is represented by eleven films in Time Outs Centenary of Cinema Top One Hundred poll, held in 1995. The first year in which sound film production predominated over silent film—not only in the United States, but also in the West as a whole—was 1929; yet the years 1929 through 1933 are represented by three dialogueless pictures (Pandora's Box [1929], Zemlya [1930], City Lights [1931]) and zero talkies in the Time Out poll. (City Lights, like Sunrise, was released with a recorded score and sound effects, but is now customarily referred to by historians and industry professionals as a \"silent\"—spoken dialogue regarded as the crucial distinguishing factor between silent and sound dramatic cinema.) The earliest sound film to place is the French L'Atalante (1934), directed by Jean Vigo; the earliest Hollywood sound film to qualify is Bringing Up Baby (1938), directed by Howard Hawks. \n\nThe first sound feature film to receive near-universal critical approbation was Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel); premiering on April 1, 1930, it was directed by Josef von Sternberg in both German and English versions for Berlin's UFA studio. The first American talkie to be widely honored was All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Lewis Milestone, which premiered April 21. The other internationally acclaimed sound drama of the year was Westfront 1918, directed by G. W. Pabst for Nero-Film of Berlin. Historian Anton Kaes points to it as an example of \"the new verisimilitude [that] rendered silent cinema's former emphasis on the hypnotic gaze and the symbolism of light and shadow, as well as its preference for allegorical characters, anachronistic.\"Kaes (2009), p. 212. Cultural historians consider the French L'Âge d'Or, directed by Luis Buñuel, which appeared late in 1930, to be of great aesthetic import; at the time, its erotic, blasphemous, anti-bourgeois content caused a scandal. Swiftly banned by Paris police chief Jean Chiappe, it was unavailable for fifty years. The earliest sound movie now acknowledged by most film historians as a masterpiece is Nero-Film's M, directed by Fritz Lang, which premiered May 11, 1931. As described by Roger Ebert, \"Many early talkies felt they had to talk all the time, but Lang allows his camera to prowl through the streets and dives, providing a rat's-eye view.\" \n\nCinematic form \n\n\"Talking film is as little needed as a singing book.\" Such was the blunt proclamation of critic Viktor Shklovsky, one of the leaders of the Russian formalist movement, in 1927. While some regarded sound as irreconcilable with film art, others saw it as opening a new field of creative opportunity. The following year, a group of Soviet filmmakers, including Sergei Eisenstein, proclaimed that the use of image and sound in juxtaposition, the so-called contrapuntal method, would raise the cinema to \"...unprecedented power and cultural height. Such a method for constructing the sound-film will not confine it to a national market, as must happen with the photographing of plays, but will give a greater possibility than ever before for the circulation throughout the world of a filmically expressed idea.\" So far as one segment of the audience was concerned, however, the introduction of sound brought a virtual end to such circulation: Elizabeth C. Hamilton writes, \"Silent films offered people who were deaf a rare opportunity to participate in a public discourse, cinema, on equal terms with hearing people. The emergence of sound film effectively separated deaf from hearing audience members once again.\" \n\nOn March 12, 1929, the first feature-length talking picture made in Germany had its premiere. The inaugural Tobis Filmkunst production, it was not a drama, but a documentary sponsored by a shipping line: Melodie der Welt (Melody of the World), directed by Walter Ruttmann. This was also perhaps the first feature film anywhere to significantly explore the artistic possibilities of joining the motion picture with recorded sound. As described by scholar William Moritz, the movie is \"intricate, dynamic, fast-paced ... juxtapos[ing] similar cultural habits from countries around the world, with a superb orchestral score ... and many synchronized sound effects.\" Composer Lou Lichtveld was among a number of contemporary artists struck by the film: \"Melodie der Welt became the first important sound documentary, the first in which musical and unmusical sounds were composed into a single unit and in which image and sound are controlled by one and the same impulse.\" Melodie der Welt was a direct influence on the industrial film Philips Radio (1931), directed by Dutch avant-garde filmmaker Joris Ivens and scored by Lichtveld, who described its audiovisual aims:\n\nTo render the half-musical impressions of factory sounds in a complex audio world that moved from absolute music to the purely documentary noises of nature. In this film every intermediate stage can be found: such as the movement of the machine interpreted by the music, the noises of the machine dominating the musical background, the music itself is the documentary, and those scenes where the pure sound of the machine goes solo. \n\nMany similar experiments were pursued by Dziga Vertov in his 1931 Entuziazm and by Chaplin in Modern Times, a half-decade later.\n\nA few innovative commercial directors immediately saw the ways in which sound could be employed as an integral part of cinematic storytelling, beyond the obvious function of recording speech. In Blackmail, Hitchcock manipulated the reproduction of a character's monologue so the word \"knife\" would leap out from a blurry stream of sound, reflecting the subjective impression of the protagonist, who is desperate to conceal her involvement in a fatal stabbing. In his first film, the Paramount Applause (1929), Rouben Mamoulian created the illusion of acoustic depth by varying the volume of ambient sound in proportion to the distance of shots. At a certain point, Mamoulian wanted the audience to hear one character singing at the same time as another prays; according to the director, \"They said we couldn't record the two things—the song and the prayer—on one mike and one channel. So I said to the sound man, 'Why not use two mikes and two channels and combine the two tracks in printing?'\" Such methods would eventually become standard procedure in popular filmmaking.\n\nOne of the first commercial films to take full advantage of the new opportunities provided by recorded sound was Le Million, directed by René Clair and produced by Tobis's French division. Premiering in Paris in April 1931 and New York a month later, the picture was both a critical and popular success. A musical comedy with a barebones plot, it is memorable for its formal accomplishments, in particular, its emphatically artificial treatment of sound. As described by scholar Donald Crafton,\n\nLe Million never lets us forget that the acoustic component is as much a construction as the whitewashed sets. [It] replaced dialogue with actors singing and talking in rhyming couplets. Clair created teasing confusions between on- and off-screen sound. He also experimented with asynchronous audio tricks, as in the famous scene in which a chase after a coat is synched to the cheers of an invisible football (or rugby) crowd. \n\nThese and similar techniques became part of the vocabulary of the sound comedy film, though as special effects and \"color\", not as the basis for the kind of comprehensive, non-naturalistic design achieved by Clair. Outside of the comedic field, the sort of bold play with sound exemplified by Melodie der Welt and Le Million would be pursued very rarely in commercial production. Hollywood, in particular, incorporated sound into a reliable system of genre-based moviemaking, in which the formal possibilities of the new medium were subordinated to the traditional goals of star affirmation and straightforward storytelling. As accurately predicted in 1928 by Frank Woods, secretary of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, \"The talking pictures of the future will follow the general line of treatment heretofore developed by the silent drama.... The talking scenes will require different handling, but the general construction of the story will be much the same.\"", "Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black-and-white by Walt Disney Studios and was released by Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the debut of Mickey Mouse and his girlfriend Minnie, although both the characters appeared several months earlier in a test screening of Plane Crazy. Steamboat Willie was the third of Mickey's films to be produced, but was the first to be distributed because Walt Disney, having seen The Jazz Singer, had committed himself to producing the first fully synchronized sound cartoon. \n\nSteamboat Willie is especially notable for being the first Disney cartoon with synchronized sound, including character sounds and a musical score. Disney understood from early on that synchronized sound was the future of film. It was the first cartoon to feature a fully post-produced soundtrack which distinguished it from earlier sound cartoons such as Inkwell Studios' Song Car-Tunes (1924–1927) and Van Beuren Studios' Dinner Time (1928). Steamboat Willie became the most popular cartoon of its day.[http://www.screensavour.net/2008/08/steamboat-willie-1928.html Steamboat Willie (1929)] at Screen Savour\n\nMusic for Steamboat Willie was arranged by Wilfred Jackson and Bert Lewis, and included the songs \"Steamboat Bill,\" a composition popularized by baritone Arthur Collins during the 1910s, and \"Turkey in the Straw\" , a composition popularized within minstrelsy during the 19th century. The title of the film is a parody of the Buster Keaton film Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928), itself a reference to the song by Collins. Walt Disney performed all of the voices in the film, although there is little intelligible dialogue.The only spoken words are when Pete mutters \"Get down there!\" and several times the parrot says \"Help! Man overboard!\" and \"Hope you don't feel hurt, big boy!\" - see [http://www.mouseplanet.com/8238/Plane_Crazy_About_Mickey_Mouse here]\n\nWhile the film has received some criticism, it has also received wide critical acclaim, not only for introducing one of the world's most popular cartoon characters, but for its technical innovation. In 1994 members of the animation field voted Steamboat Willie 13th in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons, which listed the greatest cartoons of all time. In 1998 the film was selected for preservation in the United States' National Film Registry for being deemed \"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.\"\n\nSynopsis\n\nMickey Mouse pilots a river steamboat, suggesting that he himself is the captain. He cheerfully whistles \"Steamboat Bill\" and sounds the boat's three whistles. Soon the real captain appears and angrily orders Mickey off the bridge. Mickey blows a raspberry at Pete, and then Pete attempts to kick him but Mickey rushes away in time and Pete kicks himself in the rear accidentally. Mickey rushes down the stairs, slips on a bar of soap on the boat's deck and lands in a bucket of water. A parrot makes fun of him, and Mickey throws the bucket at it.\n\nPete, who has been watching the whole thing, pilots the steamboat himself. He bites off some chewing tobacco and spits into the wind. The spit flies backward and rings the boat's bell. Amused by this Pete spits again, but it hits him in the face, making him fuss.\n\nThe steamboat makes a stop at \"Podunk Landing\" to pick up a cargo of various livestock. Just as they set off again, Minnie appears, running to catch the boat before it leaves. Mickey does not see her in time, but she runs after the boat along the shore and Mickey takes her on board using the cargo crane.\n\nLanding on deck, Minnie accidentally drops a guitar and some sheet music for the song \"Turkey in the Straw\" which are eaten by a goat. The two mice use the goat's body as a phonograph which they play by turning its tail like a crank. Mickey uses various objects on the boat as percussion accompaniment and \"plays\" the animals like musical instruments. This ends with them using a Clarabelle cow's teeth to play the song as a xylophone. \n\nFinally an angry Captain Pete appears and puts Mickey to work peeling potatoes. In the potato bin, another parrot appears in the port hole and makes fun of him again. The mouse throws a peeled potato at him, knocking him into the river below. The film ends with Mickey laughing.\n\nBackground\n\nAccording to Roy O. Disney, Walt Disney was inspired to create a sound cartoon after watching The Jazz Singer (1927). Disney had intended for Mickey Mouse to be the new star character to replace Oswald the Lucky Rabbit after he lost the rights to the character to Charles Mintz. However, the first two Mickey Mouse films produced, silent versions of Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho, had failed to impress audiences and gain a distributor. Disney believed that adding sound to a cartoon would greatly increase its appeal.\n\nSteamboat Willie was not the first cartoon with synchronized sound. Starting in May 1924 and continuing through September 1926, Dave and Max Fleischer's Inkwell Studios produced 19 sound cartoons, part of the Song Car-Tunes series, using the Phonofilm sound-on-film process. However, the Song Car-Tunes failed to keep the sound fully synchronized, while Steamboat Willie was produced using a click track to keep his musicians on the beat. As little as one month before Steamboat Willie was released, Paul Terry released Dinner Time which also used a soundtrack, but Dinner Time was not a financial success.\n\nIn June 1927, producer Pat Powers made an unsuccessful takeover bid for Lee DeForest's Phonofilm Corporation. In the aftermath, Powers hired a former DeForest technician, William Garrity, to produce a cloned version of the Phonofilm system, which Powers dubbed \"Powers Cinephone\". By then, DeForest was in too weak a financial position to mount a legal challenge against Powers for patent infringement. Powers convinced Disney to use Cinephone for Steamboat Willie; their business relationship lasted until 1930, when Powers and Disney had a falling-out over money and Powers hired away Disney's lead animator, Ub Iwerks.\n\nProduction\n\nThe production of Steamboat Willie took place between July and September 1928 with an estimated budget of $4,986. There was initially some doubt among the animators that a sound cartoon would appear believable enough, so before a soundtrack was produced, Disney arranged for a screening of the film to a test audience with live sound to accompany it. This screening took place on July 29 with Steamboat Willie only partly finished. The audience sat in a room adjoining Walt's office. Roy placed the movie projector outdoors and the film was projected through a window so that the sound of the projector would not interfere with the live sound. Ub Iwerks set up a bedsheet behind the movie screen behind which he placed a microphone connected to speakers where the audience would sit. The live sound was produced from behind the bedsheet. Wilfred Jackson played the music on a mouth organ, Ub Iwerks banged on pots and pans for the percussion segment, and Johnny Cannon provided sound effects with various devices, including slide whistles and spittoons for bells. Walt himself provided what little dialogue there was to the film, mostly grunts, laughs, and squawks. After several practices, they were ready for the audience, which consisted of Disney employees and their wives.\n\nThe response of the audience was extremely positive, and it gave Walt the confidence to move forward and complete the film. He said later in recalling this first viewing, \"The effect on our little audience was nothing less than electric. They responded almost instinctively to this union of sound and motion. I thought they were kidding me. So they put me in the audience and ran the action again. It was terrible, but it was wonderful! And it was something new!\" Iwerks said, \"I've never been so thrilled in my life. Nothing since has ever equaled it.\" \n\nWalt traveled to New York City to hire a company to produce the sound system. He eventually settled on Pat Powers's Cinephone system, created by Powers using an updated version of Lee De Forest's Phonofilm system without giving De Forest any credit, a decision he would later regret.\n\nThe music in the final soundtrack was performed by the Green Brothers Novelty Band and was conducted by Carl Edouarde. The brothers Joe and Lew Green from the band also assisted in timing the music to the film. The first attempt to synchronize the recording with the film, done on September 15, 1928, was a disaster. Disney had to sell his Moon roadster in order to finance a second recording. This was a success with the addition of a filmed bouncing ball to keep the tempo. \n\nRelease and reception\n\nSteamboat Willie premiered at Universal's Colony Theater in New York City on November 18, 1928. The film was distributed by Celebrity Productions and its initial run lasted two weeks. Disney was paid $500 a week which was considered a large amount at the time. It played ahead of the independent feature film Gang War. Steamboat Willie was an immediate hit while Gang War is all but forgotten today.\n\nThe success of Steamboat Willie not only led to international fame for Walt Disney, but for Mickey as well. On November 21, Variety magazine published a review which read in part \"Not the first animated cartoon to be synchronized with sound effects, but the first to attract favorable attention. [Steamboat Willie] represents a high order of cartoon ingenuity, cleverly combined with sound effects. The union brought laughs galore. Giggles came so fast at the Colony [Theater] they were stumbling over each other.\"\n\nThe response led to the two previous Mickey films being reproduced as sound cartoons and given wide theatrical releases.\n\nCopyright status\n\nThe film has been the center of a variety of controversies regarding copyright. The copyright of the film has been extended by an act of the United States Congress. However, recent evidence suggests that the film may be in the public domain owing to technicalities related to the original copyright notice.\n\nThe film has been the center of some attention regarding the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act passed in the United States. Steamboat Willie has been close to entering the public domain in the U.S. several times. Each time, copyright protection has been extended. It could have entered public domain in four different years: first in 1956, renewed to 1984, then to 2003 by the Copyright Act of 1976, and finally to the current public domain date of 2023 by the Copyright Term Extension Act (also known pejoratively as the \"Mickey Mouse Protection Act\") of 1998. The U.S. copyright on Steamboat Willie will be in effect through 2023 unless there is another extension of the law.\n\nIt has been claimed that these extensions were a response by Congress to extensive lobbying by The Walt Disney Company.\n\nIn the 1990s, former Disney researcher Gregory S. Brown determined that the film was likely in U.S. public domain already due to errors in the original copyright formulation. In particular, the original film's copyright notice had two additional names between Disney and the copyright statement. Thus, under the rules of the Copyright Act of 1909, all copyright claims would be null. Arizona State University professor Dennis Karjala suggested that one of his law school students look into Brown's claim as a class project. Lauren Vanpelt took up the challenge and produced a paper agreeing with Brown's claim. She posted her project on the Internet in 1999. Disney later threatened to sue a Georgetown University law student who wrote a paper confirming Brown's claims, alleging that publishing the paper could be slander of title. \n\nIn other media\n\nSteamboat Willie themed levels are featured in the video games Mickey Mania (1994), Kingdom Hearts II (2005), and Epic Mickey (2010). Furthermore, in Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (2012), a \"Steamboat Willie\" outfit can be obtained for Mickey.\n\nThe fourth season episode of The Simpsons, \"Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie\" features a short but nearly frame-for-frame parody of the opening scene of Steamboat Willie.\n\nIn the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan, set in 1944, a German POW tries to win the sympathy of his American captors by mentioning Steamboat Willie, even mimicking the sound of the boat whistle from the film. The unnamed character appears in the credits as \"Steamboat Willie\".\n\nIn the 2000 Mickey Mouse cartoon April Fools' Day, Mickey and Mortimer get sent to the President's office to claim a million dollars. But Mortimer pretends to be Mickey and he is shown acting in Steamboat Willie.\n\nIn the Goofy cartoon How to Be a Waiter (1999), Goofy is shown an example of a movie, and Steamboat Willie is shown. But in that short, Willie is a shortened version titled Steamboat Goofy.\n\nThe opening scene was parodied towards the end of Aladdin and the King of Thieves. Genie, having been swallowed by the giant turtle which carried the Vanishing Isle upon its back, came back out of the turtle's mouth in the steamboat from this film and was even in Mickey's form, whistling Turkey in the Straw.\n\nIn a 2008 movie of the TV series Futurama called The Beast with a Billion Backs the opening is a parody of Steamboat Willie.\n\nThe beginning of series 2 of the TV series Alexei Sayle's Stuff (1989) shows a black and white animation entitled Steamboat Fatty, a parody of Steamboat Willie.\n\nIn the Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl anime, one of the episodes \"Steamboat Willies!\", is a play on the title.\n\nSince the release of Meet the Robinsons (2007), the scene of Mickey at the wheel of the steamboat whistling \"Steamboat Bill\" has been used for Walt Disney Animation Studios' production logo. A modification was used for Tangled to mark that film as the 50th in their Classics line, the text saying \"50th Animated Motion Picture\" with the Mickey scene in the \"0\". An 8-bit version of the logo was used for Wreck-It Ralph, and in Frozen, Mickey's whistling was muted to allow the film's opening song, \"Vuelie\", to play out over the logo, breaking tradition Disney Logo.\n\nThis cartoon was featured in Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse.\n\nThe Australian Perth Mint releases a 1 kg Gold coin in honour of Steamboat Willie. The AU$5000 coin will sell for AU$69,700 as an official Disney licensed product. \n\nThe upcoming second season of Transformers: Robots in Disguise, this episode would be the two part episode \"Steamboat Willows\".\n\nHonors\n\nSteamboat Willie was inducted to the National Film Registry in 1998.\n\nRelease history\n\n*1928 July – First test screening\n*1928 November – Original theatrical release\n*1972 – The Mouse Factory, episode #33: \"Tugboats\" (TV)\n*1984 – \"Cartoon Classics: Limited Gold Editions: Mickey\" (VHS)\n*1990s – Mickey's Mouse Tracks, episode #45 (TV)\n*1997 – Ink & Paint Club, episode #2 \"Mickey Landmarks\" (TV)\n*1998 – The Spirit of Mickey (VHS)\n*2001 – \"The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story\" (VHS)\n*2002 – \"Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White\" (DVD)\n*2005 – \"Vintage Mickey\" (DVD)\n*2007 – \"Walt Disney Treasures: The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit\" (DVD)\n*2009 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Blu-ray)\n*2009 – YouTube ()\n*Ongoing – Main Street Cinema at Disneyland and Walt Disney World", "Mickey Mouse is a funny animal cartoon character and the official mascot of The Walt Disney Company. He was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at the Walt Disney Studios in 1928. An anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves, Mickey has become one of the world's most recognizable characters.\n\nMickey first was seen in a single test screening (Plane Crazy). Mickey officially debuted in the short film Steamboat Willie (1928), one of the first sound cartoons. He went on to appear in over 130 films, including The Band Concert (1935), Brave Little Tailor (1938), and Fantasia (1940). Mickey appeared primarily in short films, but also occasionally in feature-length films. Ten of Mickey's cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which, Lend a Paw, won the award in 1942. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.\n\nBeginning in 1930, Mickey has also been featured extensively as a comic strip character. His self-titled newspaper strip, drawn primarily by Floyd Gottfredson, ran for 45 years. Mickey has also appeared in comic books and in television series such as The Mickey Mouse Club (1955–1996) and others. He also appears in other media such as video games as well as merchandising, and is a meetable character at the Disney parks.\n\nMickey generally appears alongside his girlfriend Minnie Mouse, his pet dog Pluto, his friends Donald Duck, and Goofy, and his nemesis Pete, among others (see Mickey Mouse universe). Though originally characterized as a mischievous antihero, Mickey was rebranded over time as an everyman, usually seen as a flawed, but adventurous hero. In 2009, Disney began to rebrand the character again by putting less emphasis on his pleasant, cheerful side and reintroducing the more mischievous and adventurous sides of his personality, beginning with the video game Epic Mickey. \n\nOrigin\n\nMickey Mouse was created as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, an earlier cartoon character created by the Disney studio for Charles Mintz, a film producer who distributed product through Universal Studios. In the spring of 1928, with the series going strong, Disney asked Mintz for an increase in the budget. But Mintz instead demanded that Walt take a 20 percent budget cut, and as leverage, he reminded Disney that Universal owned the character, and revealed that he had already signed most of Disney's current employees to his new contract. Angrily, Disney refused the deal and returned to produce the final Oswald cartoons he contractually owed Mintz. Disney was dismayed at the betrayal by his staff, but determined to restart from scratch. The new Disney Studio initially consisted of animator Ub Iwerks and a loyal apprentice artist, Les Clark, who together with Wilfred Jackson were among the few who remained loyal to Walt. One lesson Disney learned from the experience was to thereafter always make sure that he owned all rights to the characters produced by his company.\n\nIn the spring of 1928, Disney asked Ub Iwerks to start drawing up new character ideas. Iwerks tried sketches of various animals, such as dogs and cats, but none of these appealed to Disney. A female cow and male horse were also rejected. They would later turn up as Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar. A male frog was also rejected. It would later show up in Iwerks' own Flip the Frog series. Walt Disney got the inspiration for Mickey Mouse from a tame mouse at his desk at Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1925, Hugh Harman drew some sketches of mice around a photograph of Walt Disney. These inspired Ub Iwerks to create a new mouse character for Disney. \"Mortimer Mouse\" had been Disney's original name for the character before his wife, Lillian, convinced him to change it, and ultimately Mickey Mouse came to be. The actor Mickey Rooney claimed that, during his Mickey McGuire days, he met cartoonist Walt Disney at the Warner Brothers studio, and that Disney was inspired to name Mickey Mouse after him. This claim however has been debunked by Disney historian Jim Korkis, since at the time of Mickey Mouse's development, Disney Studios had been located on Hyperion Avenue for several years, and Walt Disney never kept an office or other working space at Warner Brothers, having no professional relationship with Warner Brothers, as the Alice Comedies and Oswald cartoons were distributed by Universal. \n\nDesign\n\nThroughout the earlier years, Mickey's design bore heavy resemblance to Oswald, save for the ears, nose and tail. Ub Iwerks designed Mickey's body out of circles in order to make the character simple to animate. Disney employees John Hench and Marc Davis believed that this design was part of Mickey's success as it made him more dynamic and appealing to audiences. Mickey's circular design is most noticeable in his ears, which in traditional animation, always appear circular no matter which way Mickey faces. This made Mickey easily recognizable to audiences and made his ears an unofficial personal trademark. Even today, the rudimentary symbol is often used to represent Mickey (see Hidden Mickey). This later created a dilemma for toy creators who had to recreate a three-dimensional Mickey. In animation in the 1940s Mickey's ears were animated in a more realistic perspective.\n\nIn 1938, animator Fred Moore redesigned Mickey's body away from its circular design to a pear-shape design. Colleague Ward Kimball praised Moore for being the first animator to break from Mickey's \"rubber hose, round circle\" design. Although Moore himself was nervous at first about changing Mickey, Walt Disney liked the new design and told Moore \"that's the way I want Mickey to be drawn from now on.\"\n\nEach of Mickey's hands has only three fingers and a thumb. Disney said that this was both an artistic and financial decision, explaining \"Artistically five digits are too many for a mouse. His hand would look like a bunch of bananas. Financially, not having an extra finger in each of 45,000 drawings that make up a six and one half minute short has saved the Studio millions.\" In the film The Opry House (1929), Mickey was first given white gloves as a way of contrasting his naturally black hands against his black body. The use of white gloves would prove to be an influential design for cartoon characters, particularly with later Disney characters, but also with non-Disney characters such as Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, and Mario.\n\nMickey's eyes, as drawn in Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho, were large and white with black outlines. In Steamboat Willie the bottom portion of the black outlines were removed, although the upper edges still contrasted with his head. Mickey's eyes were later re-imagined as only consisting of the small black dots which were originally his pupils, while what were the upper edges of his eyes became a hairline. This is evident only when Mickey blinks. Fred Moore later redesigned the eyes to be small white eyes with pupils and gave his face a Caucasian skin tone instead of plain white. This new Mickey first appeared in 1938 on the cover of a party program, and in animation the following year with the release of The Pointer. Mickey is sometimes given eyebrows as seen in The Simple Things (1953) and in the comic strip, although he does not have eyebrows in his most recent appearances.\n\nBesides Mickey's gloves and shoes, he typically wears only a pair of shorts with two large buttons in the front. Before Mickey was seen regularly in color animation, Mickey's shorts were either red, or a dull blue-green. With the advent of Mickey's color films, the shorts were always red. When Mickey is not wearing his red shorts, he is often still wearing red clothing such as a red bandmaster coat (The Band Concert, The Mickey Mouse Club), red overalls (Clock Cleaners, Boat Builders), a red cloak (Fantasia, Fun and Fancy Free), a red coat (Squatter's Rights, Mickey's Christmas Carol), or a red shirt (Mickey Down Under, The Simple Things).\n\nAnimation history\n\nDebut (1928)\n\nDisney had Ub Iwerks secretly begin animating a new cartoon while still under contract with Universal. The cartoon was co-directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. Iwerks was the main animator for the short, and reportedly spent six weeks working on it. In fact, Iwerks was the main animator for every Disney short released in 1928 and 1929. Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising also assisted Disney during those years. They had already signed their contracts with Charles Mintz, but he was still in the process of forming his new studio and so for the time being they were still employed by Disney. This short would be the last they animated under this somewhat awkward situation. \n\nMickey was first seen in a test screening of the cartoon short Plane Crazy, on May 15, 1928, but it failed to impress the audience and to add insult to injury, Walt could not find a distributor. Though understandably disappointed, Walt went on to produce a second Mickey short, The Gallopin' Gaucho, which was also not released for lack of a distributor. \n\nSteamboat Willie was first released on November 18, 1928, in New York. It was co-directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. Iwerks again served as the head animator, assisted by Johnny Cannon, Les Clark, Wilfred Jackson and Dick Lundy. This short was intended as a parody of Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jr., first released on May 12 of the same year. Although it was the third Mickey cartoon produced, it was the first to find a distributor, and thus is considered by The Disney Company as Mickey's debut. Willie featured changes to Mickey's appearance (in particular, simplifying his eyes to large dots) that established his look for later cartoons and in numerous Walt Disney films. \n\nThe cartoon was not the first cartoon to feature a soundtrack connected to the action. Fleischer Studios, headed by brothers Dave and Max Fleischer, had already released a number of sound cartoons using the DeForest system in the mid-1920s. However, these cartoons did not keep the sound synchronized throughout the film. For Willie, Disney had the sound recorded with a click track that kept the musicians on the beat. This precise timing is apparent during the \"Turkey in the Straw\" sequence, when Mickey's actions exactly match the accompanying instruments. Animation historians have long debated who had served as the composer for the film's original music. This role has been variously attributed to Wilfred Jackson, Carl Stalling and Bert Lewis, but identification remains uncertain. Walt Disney himself was voice actor for both Mickey and Minnie, and would remain the source of Mickey's voice through 1946 for theatrical cartoons. Jimmy MacDonald took over the role in 1946, but Walt provided Mickey's voice again from 1955 to 1959 for The Mickey Mouse Club television series on ABC.\n\nAudiences at the time of Steamboat Willies release were reportedly impressed by the use of sound for comedic purposes. Sound films or \"talkies\" were still considered innovative. The first feature-length movie with dialogue sequences, The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson, was released on October 6, 1927. Within a year of its success, most United States movie theaters had installed sound film equipment. Walt Disney apparently intended to take advantage of this new trend and, arguably, managed to succeed. Most other cartoon studios were still producing silent products and so were unable to effectively act as competition to Disney. As a result Mickey would soon become the most prominent animated character of the time. Walt Disney soon worked on adding sound to both Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho (which had originally been silent releases) and their new release added to Mickey's success and popularity. A fourth Mickey short, The Barn Dance, was also put into production; however, Mickey does not actually speak until The Karnival Kid in 1929 when his first spoken words were \"Hot dogs, Hot dogs!\" After Steamboat Willie was released, Mickey became a close competitor to Felix the Cat, and his popularity would grow as he was continuously featured in sound cartoons. By 1929, Felix would lose popularity among theater audiences, and Pat Sullivan decided to produce all future Felix cartoons in sound as a result. Unfortunately, audiences did not respond well to Felix's transition to sound and by 1930, Felix had faded from the screen. \n\nBlack and white films (1929–1935)\n\nIn Mickey's early films he was often characterized not as a hero, but as an ineffective young suitor to Minnie Mouse. The Barn Dance (March 14, 1929) is the first time in which Mickey is turned down by Minnie in favor of Pete.\n\nThe Opry House (March 28, 1929) was the first time in which Mickey wore his white gloves. Mickey wears them in almost all of his subsequent appearances and many other characters followed suit. Supposedly one reason for adding the white gloves was to allow audiences to distinguish the characters' hands when they appeared against their bodies, as both were black. The three lines on the back of Mickey's gloves represent darts in the gloves' fabric extending from between the digits of the hand, typical of glove design of the era.\n\nWhen the Cat's Away (April 18, 1929), essentially a remake of the Alice Comedy, \"Alice Rattled by Rats\", was an unusual appearance for Mickey. Although Mickey and Minnie still maintained their anthropomorphic characteristics, they were depicted as the size of regular mice and living with a community many other mice as pests in a home. Mickey and Minnie would later appear the size of regular humans in their own setting. In appearances with real humans, Mickey has been shown to be about two to three feet high. The next Mickey short was also unusual. The Barnyard Battle (April 25, 1929) was the only film to depict Mickey as a soldier and also the first to place him in combat. The Karnival Kid (1929) was the first time Mickey spoke. Before this he had only whistled, laughed, and grunted. His first words were \"Hot dogs! Hot dogs!\" said while trying to sell hot dogs at a carnival. Mickey's Follies (1929) introduced the song \"Minnie's Yoo-Hoo\" which would become the theme song for Mickey Mouse films for the next several years. The \"Minnie's Yoo-Hoo\" song sequence was also later reused with different background animation as its own special short shown only at the commencement of 1930s theater-based Mickey Mouse Clubs. Mickey's dog Pluto first appeared as Mickey's pet in The Moose Hunt (1931) after previously appearing as Minnie's dog \"Rover\" in The Picnic (1930).\n\nThe Cactus Kid (April 11, 1930) was the last film to be animated by Ub Iwerks at Disney. Shortly before the release of the film, Iwerks left to start his own studio, bankrolled by Disney's then-distributor Pat Powers. Powers and Disney had a falling out over money due Disney from the distribution deal. It was in response to losing the right to distribute Disney's cartoons that Powers made the deal with Iwerks, who had long harbored a desire to head his own studio. The departure is considered a turning point in Mickey's career, as well as that of Walt Disney. Walt lost the man who served as his closest colleague and confidant since 1919. Mickey lost the man responsible for his original design and for the direction and/or animation of several of the shorts released till this point. Advertising for the early Mickey Mouse cartoons credited them as \"A Walt Disney Comic, drawn by Ub Iwerks\". Later Disney Company reissues of the early cartoons tend to credit Walt Disney alone.\n\nDisney and his remaining staff continued the production of the Mickey series, and he was able to eventually find a number of animators to replace Iwerks. As the Great Depression progressed and Felix the Cat faded from the movie screen, Mickey's popularity would rise, and by 1932 The Mickey Mouse Club would have one million members. At the 5th Academy Awards in 1932, Mickey received his first Academy Award nomination, received for Mickey's Orphans (1931). Walt Disney also received an honorary Academy Award for the creation of Mickey Mouse. Despite being eclipsed by the Silly Symphonies short the Three Little Pigs in 1933, Mickey still maintained great popularity among theater audiences too, until 1935, when polls showed that Popeye was more popular than Mickey. By 1934, Mickey merchandise had earned $600,000.00 a year. In 1935, Disney began to phase out the Mickey Mouse Clubs, due to administration problems. \n\nAbout this time, story artists at Disney were finding it increasingly difficult to write material for Mickey. As he had developed into a role model for children, they were limited in the types of gags they could make. This led to Mickey taking more of a secondary role in some of his next films allowing for more emphasis on other characters. In Orphan's Benefit (August 11, 1934) Mickey first appeared with Donald Duck who had been introduced earlier that year in the Silly Symphonies series. The tempestuous duck would provide Disney with seemingly endless story ideas and would remain a recurring character in Mickey's cartoons.\n\nColor films (1935–1953)\n\nMickey first appeared animated in color in Parade of the Award Nominees in 1932, however the film strip was created for the 5th Academy Awards ceremony and was not released to the public. Mickey's official first color film came in 1935 with The Band Concert. The Technicolor film process was used in the film production. Here Mickey conducted the William Tell Overture, but the band is swept up by a tornado. It is said that conductor Arturo Toscanini so loved this short that, upon first seeing it, he asked the projectionist to run it again. In 1994, The Band Concert was voted the third-greatest cartoon of all time in a poll of animation professionals. By colorizing and partially redesigning Mickey, Walt would put Mickey back on top once again, and Mickey would reach popularity he never reached before as audiences now gave him more appeal. Also in 1935, Walt would receive a special award from the League of Nations for creating Mickey.\n\nHowever, by 1938, the more manic Donald Duck would surpass the passive Mickey, resulting in a redesign of the mouse between 1938 and 1940 that put Mickey at the peak of his popularity. The second half of the 1930s saw the character Goofy reintroduced as a series regular. Together, Mickey, Donald Duck, and Goofy would go on several adventures together. Several of the films by the comic trio are some of Mickey's most critically acclaimed films, including Mickey's Fire Brigade (1935), Moose Hunters (1937), Clock Cleaners (1937), Lonesome Ghosts (1937), Boat Builders (1938), and Mickey's Trailer (1938). Also during this era, Mickey would star in Brave Little Tailor (1938), an adaptation of The Valiant Little Tailor, which was nominated for an Academy Award.\n\nMickey was redesigned by animator Fred Moore which was first seen in The Pointer (1939). Instead of having solid black eyes, Mickey was given white eyes with pupils, a Caucasian skin colored face, and a pear-shaped body. In the 40's, he changed once more in The Little Whirlwind, where he used his trademark pants for the last time in decades, lost his tail, got more realistic ears that changed with perspective and a different body anatomy. But this change would only last for a short period of time before returning to the one in \"The Pointer\", with the exception of his pants. In his final theatrical cartoons in the 1950s, he was given eyebrows, which were removed in the more recent cartoons.\n\nIn 1940 Mickey appeared in his first feature-length film, Fantasia. His screen role as The Sorcerer's Apprentice, set to the symphonic poem of the same name by Paul Dukas, is perhaps the most famous segment of the film and one of Mickey's most iconic roles. The segment features no dialogue at all, only the music. The apprentice (Mickey), not willing to do his chores, puts on the sorcerer's magic hat after the sorcerer goes to bed and casts a spell on a broom, which causes the broom to come to life and perform the most tiring chore—filling up a deep well using two buckets of water. When the well eventually overflows, Mickey finds himself unable to control the broom, leading to a near-flood. After the segment ends, Mickey is seen in silhouette shaking hands with Leopold Stokowski, who conducts all the music heard in Fantasia. Mickey has often been pictured in the red robe and blue sorcerer's hat in merchandising. It was also featured into the climax of Fantasmic!, an attraction at the Disney theme parks.\n\nAfter 1940, Mickey's popularity would decline until his 1955 re-emergence as a daily children's television personality. Despite this, the character continued to appear regularly in animated shorts until 1943 (winning his only competitive Academy Award—with canine companion Pluto—for a short subject, Lend a Paw) and again from 1946 to 1952.\n\nThe last regular installment of the Mickey Mouse film series came in 1953 with The Simple Things in which Mickey and Pluto go fishing and are pestered by a flock of seagulls.\n\nTelevision and later films\n\nIn the 1950s, Mickey became more known for his appearances on television, particularly with The Mickey Mouse Club. Many of his theatrical cartoon shorts were rereleased on television series such as Ink & Paint Club, various forms of the Walt Disney anthology television series, and on home video. Mickey returned to theatrical animation in 1983 with Mickey's Christmas Carol, an adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in which Mickey played Bob Cratchit. This was followed up in 1990 with The Prince and the Pauper.\n\nThroughout the decades, Mickey Mouse competed with Warner Bros.' Bugs Bunny for animated popularity. But in 1988, in a historic moment in motion picture history, the two rivals finally shared screen time in the Robert Zemeckis Disney/Amblin film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Disney and Warner signed an agreement stating that each character had exactly the same amount of screen time in the scene, right down to the frame.\n\nSimilar to his animated inclusion into a live-action film on Roger Rabbit, Mickey made a featured cameo appearance in the 1990 television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World where he met Kermit the Frog. The two are established in the story as having been old friends. The Muppets have otherwise spoofed and referenced Mickey over a dozen times since the 1970s. Eventually, The Muppets were purchased by the Walt Disney Company in 2004.\n\nMickey appeared on several animated logos for Walt Disney Home Entertainment, starting with the \"Neon Mickey\" logo and then to the \"Sorcerer Mickey\" logos used for regular and Classics release titles.\n\nHis most recent theatrical cartoon short was 2013's Get a Horse! which was preceded by 1995's Runaway Brain, while from 1999 to 2004, he appeared in direct-to-video features like Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers and the computer-animated Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas.\n\nMany television series have centered on Mickey, such as the ABC shows Mickey Mouse Works (1999—2000), Disney's House of Mouse (2001—2003) and Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006–present). Prior to all these, Mickey was also featured as an unseen character in the Bonkers episode \"You Oughta Be In Toons\".\n\nMickey has recently been announced to star in two films. One is being based on the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort, while the other is a film idea pitched by Walt Disney Animation Studios veteran Burny Mattinson centering on Mickey, Donald and Goofy. \n\nSince June 28, 2013, Disney Channel has been airing new 3-minute Mickey Mouse shorts. In these new shorts, Mickey has a more modern appearance, but his appearance is also very close to his original 1928 look. \n\nVoice actors\n\nA large part of Mickey's screen persona is his famously shy, falsetto voice. From 1928 onward, Mickey was voiced by Walt Disney himself, a task in which Disney took great personal pride. However, by 1946, Disney was becoming too busy with running the studio to do regular voice work which meant he could not do Mickey's voice anymore. It is also speculated that his cigarette habit had damaged his voice over the years. During the recording of the Mickey and the Beanstalk section of Fun and Fancy Free, Mickey's voice was handed over to veteran Disney musician and actor Jimmy MacDonald. (Both Disney's and MacDonald's voices can be heard on the final soundtrack.) MacDonald voiced Mickey in the remainder of the theatrical shorts, and for various television and publicity projects up until his retirement in the mid-1970s, although Walt voiced Mickey again for the introductions to the original 1955—1959 run of The Mickey Mouse Club TV series and the \"Fourth Anniversary Show\" episode of the Disneyland TV series aired on September 11, 1958. Composer Carl W. Stalling was the very first person to provide lines for Mickey in the 1929 short The Karnival Kid. Clarence Nash voiced Mickey in the 1934 Disney short, The Dognapper; around the time when it was filmed, Walt was traveling in Europe and was unavailable to record his lines for Mickey for the short. Stan Freberg voiced Mickey in the Freberg-produced record Mickey Mouse's Birthday Party. Alan Young voiced Mickey in the Disneyland record album An Adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol, Performed by The Walt Disney Players in 1974, which it would be the first and only time that Alan Young voices him. \n\nThe 1983 short film Mickey's Christmas Carol marked the theatrical debut of the late Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse, who was the voice of Mickey until his death in 2009. Allwine once recounted something MacDonald had told him about voicing Mickey: \"The main piece of advice that Jim gave me about Mickey helped me keep things in perspective. He said, 'Just remember kid, you’re only filling in for the boss.' And that’s the way he treated doing Mickey for years and years. From Walt, and now from Jimmy.\" Allwine would eventually marry Russi Taylor, the voice of Minnie Mouse since 1986. Les Perkins did the voice of Mickey in two TV specials \"Down and Out with Donald Duck\" and \"DTV Valentine\" in the mid-1980s. Peter Renaday voiced Mickey in the 1980s Disney albums Yankee Doodle Mickey and Mickey Mouse Splashdance.[http://bjbear71.com/Disney/DR6b.html A Disney Discography][http://www.startedbyamouse.com/features/CharacterRecords.shtml Character Records by Steve Burns - StartedByAMouse.com Features Section] He also provided his voice for The Talking Mickey Mouse toy in 1986. \n\nBret Iwan, a former Hallmark greeting card artist, is the current voice of Mickey. His early recordings in 2009 included work for the Disney Cruise Line, Mickey toys, Theme Parks, and also the Disney on Ice: Celebrations! ice show. His first video game voice-over of Mickey Mouse can be found on Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, a video game for PlayStation Portable. He has also voiced the character in the next games for the Kingdom Hearts series. Iwan also does the vocal effects of Mickey in the games Epic Mickey and Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two as well as the remake of Castle of Illusion. Despite Iwan being Mickey's primary voice actor, the character's voice is provided by Chris Diamantopoulos in the 2013 animated series, as the producers were looking for a retro voice to match the vintage look of the series. \n\nMickey in comics\n\nMickey first appeared in comics after he had appeared in 15 commercially successful animated shorts and was easily recognized by the public. Walt Disney was approached by King Features Syndicate with the offer to license Mickey and his supporting characters for use in a comic strip. Disney accepted and Mickey made his first comic strip appearance on January 13, 1930. The comical plot was credited to Disney himself, art to Ub Iwerks and inking to Win Smith. The first week or so of the strip featured a loose adaptation of \"Plane Crazy\". Minnie soon became the first addition to the cast. The strips first released between January 13, 1930, and March 31, 1930, has been occasionally reprinted in comic book form under the collective title \"Lost on a Desert Island\". Animation historian Jim Korkis notes \"After the eighteenth strip, Iwerks left and his inker, Win Smith, continued drawing the gag-a-day format...\" \n\nIn early 1930, after Iwerks' departure, Disney was at first content to continue scripting the Mickey Mouse comic strip, assigning the art to Win Smith. However, Disney's focus had always been in animation and Smith was soon assigned with the scripting as well. Smith was apparently discontent at the prospect of having to script, draw, and ink a series by himself as evidenced by his sudden resignation.\n\nDisney then searched for a replacement among the remaining staff of the Studio. He selected Floyd Gottfredson, a recently hired employee. At the time Gottfredson was reportedly eager to work in animation and somewhat reluctant to accept his new assignment. Disney had to assure him the assignment was only temporary and that he would eventually return to animation. Gottfredson accepted and ended up holding this \"temporary\" assignment from May 5, 1930, to November 15, 1975.\n\nWalt Disney's last script for the strip appeared May 17, 1930. Gottfredson's first task was to finish the storyline Disney had started on April 1, 1930. The storyline was completed on September 20, 1930, and later reprinted in comic book form as Mickey Mouse in Death Valley. This early adventure expanded the cast of the strip which to this point only included Mickey and Minnie. Among the characters who had their first comic strip appearances in this story were Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar and Black Pete as well as the debuts of corrupted lawyer Sylvester Shyster and Minnie's uncle Mortimer Mouse. The Death Valley narrative was followed by Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers, first printed between September 22 and December 26, 1930, which introduced Marcus Mouse and his wife as Minnie's parents.\n\nStarting with these two early comic strip stories, Mickey's versions in animation and comics are considered to have diverged from each other. While Disney and his cartoon shorts would continue to focus on comedy, the comic strip effectively combined comedy and adventure. This adventurous version of Mickey would continue to appear in comic strips and later comic books throughout the 20th and into the 21st century.\n\nFloyd Gottfredson left his mark with stories such as Mickey Mouse Joins the Foreign Legion (1936) and The Gleam (1942). He also created the Phantom Blot, Eega Beeva, Morty and Ferdie, Captain Churchmouse, and Butch. Besides Gottfredson artists for the strip over the years included Roman Arambula, Rick Hoover, Manuel Gonzales, Carson Van Osten, Jim Engel, Bill Wright, Ted Thwailes and Daan Jippes; writers included Ted Osborne, Merrill De Maris, Bill Walsh, Dick Shaw, Roy Williams, Del Connell, and Floyd Norman.\n\nThe next artist to leave his mark on the character was Paul Murry in Dell Comics. His first Mickey tale appeared in 1950 but Mickey did not become a speciality until Murry's first serial for Walt Disney's Comics and Stories in 1953 (\"The Last Resort\"). In the same period Romano Scarpa in Italy for the magazine Topolino began to revitalize Mickey in stories that brought back the Phantom Blot and Eega Beeva along with new creations such as the Atomo Bleep-Bleep. While the stories at Western Publishing during the Silver Age emphasized Mickey as a detective in the style of Sherlock Holmes, in the modern era several editors and creators have consciously undertaken to depict a more vigorous Mickey in the mold of the classic Gottfredson adventures. This renaissance has been spearheaded by Byron Erickson, David Gerstein, Noel Van Horn, Michael T. Gilbert and César Ferioli.\n\nIn Europe, Mickey Mouse became the main attraction of a number of comics magazines, the most famous being Topolino in Italy from 1932 on, Le Journal de Mickey in France from 1934 on, Don Miki in Spain and the Greek Miky Maous.\n\nMickey was the main character for the series MM Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine, published in Italy from 1999 to 2001.\n\nIn 2006, he appeared in the Italian fantasy comic saga Wizards of Mickey.\n\nIn 1958, Mickey Mouse was introduced to the Arab world through another comic book called “Sameer”. Mickey Mouse became so popular in Egypt that he got a comic book with his name. Mickey’s comics in Egypt are licensed by Disney and were published since 1959 by “Dar Al-Hilal” and they were a big hit, but unfortunately Dar Al-Hilal stopped the publication in 2003 because of problems with Disney, luckily the comics were re-released by \"Nahdat Masr\" in 2004 and the first issues were sold out in less than 8 hours. \n\nMerchandising\n\nSince his early years Mickey Mouse has been licensed by Disney to appear on many different kinds of merchandise. Mickey was produced as plush toys and figurines, and Mickey's image has graced almost everything from T-shirts to lunch boxes. Largely responsible for Disney merchandising in the 1930s was Kay Kamen (d. 1949) who was called a \"stickler for quality.\" Kamen was recognized by The Walt Disney Company as having a significant part in Mickey's rise to stardom and was named a Disney Legend in 1998. At the time of his 80th anniversary celebration in 2008, Time declared Mickey Mouse one of the world's most recognized characters, even when compared against Santa Claus. Disney officials have stated that 98% of children aged 3–11 around the world are at least aware of the character.\n\nMickey was most famously featured on wrist watches and alarm clocks, typically utilizing his hands as the actual hands on the face of the clock. The first Mickey Mouse watches were manufactured in 1933 by the Ingersoll Watch Company. The seconds were indicated by a turning disk below Mickey. The first Mickey watch was sold at the Century of Progress in Chicago, 1933 for $3.75. Mickey Mouse watches have been sold by other companies and designers throughout the years, including Timex, Elgin, Helbros, Bradley, Lorus, and Gérald Genta The fictional character Robert Langdon from Dan Brown's novels was said to wear a Mickey Mouse watch as a reminder \"to stay young at heart.\" \n\nIn 1989, Milton Bradley released the electronic-talking game titled Mickey Says, with three modes featuring Mickey Mouse as its host. Mickey also appeared in other toys and games, including the Worlds of Wonder-released The Talking Mickey Mouse.\n\nFisher-Price has recently produced a line of talking animatronic Mickey dolls including \"Dance Star Mickey\" (2010) and \"Rock Star Mickey\" (2011). \n\nIn total, approximately 40% of Disney's revenues for consumer products are derived from Mickey Mouse merchandise, with revenues peaking in 1997.\n\nMickey at the Disney parks\n\nAs the official Walt Disney mascot, Mickey has played a central role in the Disney parks since the opening of Disneyland in 1955. As with other characters, Mickey is often portrayed by a non-speaking costumed actor. In this form he has participated in ceremonies and countless parades. A popular activity with guests is getting to meet and pose for photographs with the mouse. As of the presidency of Barack Obama (who jokingly referred to him as \"a world leader who has bigger ears than me\") Mickey has met every U.S. President since Harry Truman, with the exception of Lyndon B. Johnson. \n\nMickey also features in several specific attractions at the Disney parks. Mickey's Toontown (Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland) is a themed land which is a recreation of Mickey's neighborhood. Buildings are built in a cartoon style and guests can visit Mickey or Minnie's houses, Donald Duck's boat, or Goofy's garage. This is a common place to meet the characters. \n\nMickey's PhilharMagic (Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland) is a 4D film which features Mickey in the familiar role of symphony conductor. At Main Street Cinema several of Mickey's short films are shown on a rotating basis; the sixth film is always Steamboat Willie. Mickey plays a central role in Fantasmic! (Disneyland Resort, Disney's Hollywood Studios) a live nighttime show which famously features Mickey in his role as the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Mickey was also a central character in the now defunct Mickey Mouse Revue (Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland) which was an indoor show featuring animatronic characters. Mickey's face currently graces the Mickey's Fun Wheel at Disney California Adventure Park, where a figure of him also stands on top of Silly Symphony Swings.\n\nIn addition to Mickey's overt presence in the parks, numerous images of him are also subtly included in sometimes unexpected places. This phenomenon is known as \"Hidden Mickey\", involving hidden images in Disney films, theme parks and merchandise.\n\nMickey in video games\n\nLike many popular characters, Mickey has starred in many video games, including Mickey Mousecapade on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse, Mickey's Ultimate Challenge, and Disney's Magical Quest on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse on the Mega Drive/Genesis, Mickey Mouse: Magic Wands! on the Game Boy, and many others. In the 2000s, the Disney's Magical Quest series were ported to the Game Boy Advance, while Mickey made his sixth generation era debut in Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse, a Nintendo GameCube title aimed at younger audiences. Mickey plays a major role in the Kingdom Hearts series, as the king of Disney Castle and aide to the protagonist, Sora. King Mickey wields the Keyblade, a weapon in the form of a key that has the power to open any lock and combat darkness. Epic Mickey, featuring a darker version of the Disney universe, was released in 2010 for the Wii. The game is part of an effort by The Walt Disney Company to re-brand the Mickey Mouse character by moving away from his current squeaky clean image and reintroducing the mischievous side of his personality.\n\nAwards and honors\n\nMickey Mouse has received ten nominations for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. These are Mickey's Orphans (1931), Building a Building (1933), Brave Little Tailor (1938), The Pointer (1939), Lend a Paw (1941), Squatter's Rights (1946), Mickey and the Seal (1948), Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), Runaway Brain (1995), and Get a Horse! (2013). Among these, Lend a Paw was the only film to actually win the award. Additionally, in 1932 Walt Disney received an honorary Academy Award in recognition of Mickey's creation and popularity.\n\nIn 1994, four of Mickey's cartoons were included in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons which listed the greatest cartoons of all time as voted by members of the animation field. The films were The Band Concert (#3), Steamboat Willie (#13), Brave Little Tailor (#26), and Clock Cleaners (#27).\n\nOn November 18, 1978, in honor of his 50th anniversary, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star is located on 6925 Hollywood Blvd.\n\nMelbourne (Australia) runs the annual Moomba festival street procession and appointed Mickey Mouse as their King of Moomba (1977). Although immensely popular with children, there was controversy with the appointment: some Melburnians wanted a 'home-grown' choice, e.g. Blinky Bill; when it was revealed that Patricia O'Carroll (from Disneyland's Disney on Parade show) was performing the mouse, Australian newspapers reported \"Mickey Mouse is really a girl!\"\n\nMickey was the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day 2005. He was the first cartoon character to receive the honor, and only the second fictional character after Kermit the Frog in 1996.\n\nSocial impact\n\nUse in politics\n\nIn the United States, protest votes are often made in order to indicate dissatisfaction with the slate of candidates presented on a particular ballot, or to highlight the inadequacies of a particular voting procedure. Since most states' electoral systems do not provide for blank balloting or a choice of \"None of the Above\", most protest votes take the form of a clearly non-serious candidate's name entered as a write-in vote. Mickey Mouse is often selected for this purpose. As an election supervisor in Georgia observed, \"If [Mickey Mouse] doesn’t get votes in our election, it’s a bad election.\" The earliest known mention of Mickey Mouse as a write-in candidate dates back to the 1932 New York City mayoral elections. \n\nMickey Mouse's name has also been known to appear fraudulently on voter registration lists, most recently in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election. \n\nPejorative use of Mickey's name\n\n\"Mickey Mouse\" is a slang expression meaning small-time, amateurish or trivial. In the UK and Ireland, it also means poor quality or counterfeit. However, in parts of Australia it can mean excellent or very good (rhyming slang for \"grouse\"). Examples of the former two of the three usages include the following.\n* During World War II, the Motor Minesweepers used by the British Royal Naval Patrol Service were unofficially known as \"Mickey Mouses.\"\n* In The Godfather Part II, Fredo's justification of betraying Michael is that his orders in the family usually were \"Send Fredo off to do this, send Fredo off to do that! Let Fredo take care of some Mickey Mouse night club somewhere!\" as opposed to more meaningful tasks.\n* In an early episode of the 1978–82 sitcom Mork & Mindy, Mork stated that Pluto was \"a Mickey Mouse planet,\" referring to the future dwarf planet having the same name as Mickey's pet dog Pluto. Actually, the planet was named shortly before the dog was.\n* In 1984, just after an ice hockey game in which Wayne Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers beat the New Jersey Devils 13–4, Gretzky was quoted as saying to a reporter, \"Well, it's time they got their act together, they're ruining the whole league. They had better stop running a Mickey Mouse organization and put somebody on the ice\". Reacting to Gretzky's comment, Devils fans wore Mickey Mouse apparel when the Oilers returned to New Jersey. \n* In the 1993 Warner Bros. film Demolition Man, as Sylvester Stallone's character is fighting the malfunctioning AI of his out-of-control police car, he shouts for the system to \"Brake! Brake! Brake now, you Mickey Mouse piece of shit!\" \n* In the 1996 Warner Bros. film Space Jam, Bugs Bunny derogatorily comments on Daffy Duck's idea for the name of their basketball team, asking: \"What kind of Mickey Mouse organization would name a team 'The Ducks?'\" (This also referenced the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, a NHL team that was then owned by Disney, as well as the Disney-made \"The Mighty Ducks\" movie franchise. This was referencing the Disney/Warner Brothers rivalry.)\n* In the United States armed forces, actions that look good but have little or no practical use (such as the specific manner of making beds in basic training or the polishing of brass fittings on board ship) are commonly referred to as \"Mickey Mouse work.\"\n* In schools a \"Mickey Mouse course,\" \"Mickey Mouse major,\" or \"Mickey Mouse degree\" is a class, college major, or degree where very little effort is necessary in order to attain a good grade (especially an A) and/or one where the subject matter of such a class is not of any importance in the labor market. \n* Musicians often refer to a film score that directly follows each action on screen as Mickey Mousing (also mickey-mousing and mickeymousing). \n* Software company Microsoft has been derogatorily called \"Mickeysoft\". \n* In the beginning of the 1980s, then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once called the European Parliament a \"Mickey Mouse parliament\", meaning a discussion club without influence. \n* In the British sitcom Red Dwarf, in the episode \"Quarantine\", after the team's substandard equipment nearly cost them their lives, Lister pointed out, \"We're a real Mickey Mouse operation, aren't we?\" The Cat replied, \"Mickey Mouse? We ain't even Betty Boop!\"\n* The combined road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway used for the F1 U.S. Grand Prix has been described by Jacques Villeneuve and other competitors as \"Mickey Mouse\" due to its slow uninteresting corners, and lack of challenging corners.\n\nParodies and criticism\n\nMickey Mouse's global fame has made him both a symbol of The Walt Disney Company and of the United States itself. For this reason Mickey has been used frequently in anti-American satire, such as the infamous underground cartoon \"Mickey Mouse in Vietnam\". There have been numerous parodies of Mickey Mouse, such as the Mad Magazine parody \"Mickey Rodent\" by Will Elder in which the mouse walks around unshaven and jails Donald Duck out of jealousy over the duck's larger popularity. The grotesque Rat Fink character was created by Ed \"Big Daddy\" Roth over his hatred of Mickey Mouse. In The Simpsons Movie, Bart Simpson puts a black bra on his head to mimic Mickey Mouse and says: \"I'm the mascot of an evil corporation!\" On the Comedy Central series South Park, Mickey is depicted as the sadistic, greedy, foul-mouthed boss of The Walt Disney Company, only interested in money. He also appears briefly with Donald Duck in the comic Squeak the Mouse by the Italian cartoonist Massimo Mattioli.\n\nIn an episode of \"Full Frontal Nerdity,\" by Aaron Williams, Mickey is shown as desperately trying to unload Miramax. \n\nIn Bored of the Rings, Mickey Mouse is satirized as Dickey Dragon.\n\nLegal issues\n\nLike all major Disney characters, Mickey Mouse is not only copyrighted, but also trademarked, which lasts in perpetuity as long as it continues to be used commercially by its owner. So, whether or not a particular Disney cartoon goes into the public domain, the characters themselves may not be used as trademarks without authorization.\n\nBecause of the Copyright Term Extension Act of the United States (sometimes called the 'Mickey Mouse Protection Act' because of extensive lobbying by the Disney corporation) and similar legislation within the European Union and other jurisdictions where copyright terms have been extended, works such as the early Mickey Mouse cartoons will remain under copyright until at least 2023. However, some copyright scholars argue that Disney's copyright on the earliest version of the character may be invalid due to ambiguity in the copyright notice for Steamboat Willie. \n\nThe Walt Disney Company has become well known for protecting its trademark on the Mickey Mouse character—whose likeness is closely associated with the company—with particular zeal. In 1989, Disney threatened legal action against three daycare centers in Florida for having Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters painted on their walls. The characters were removed, and rival Universal Studios replaced them with Universal cartoon characters. \n\nWalt Disney Productions v. Air Pirates\n\nIn 1971, a group of underground cartoonists calling themselves the Air Pirates, after a group of villains from early Mickey Mouse films, produced a comic called Air Pirates Funnies. In the first issue, cartoonist Dan O'Neill depicted Mickey and Minnie Mouse engaging in explicit sexual behavior and consuming drugs. As O'Neill explained, \"The air pirates were…some sort of bizarre concept to steal the air, pirate the air, steal the media….Since we were cartoonists, the logical thing was Disney.\" Rather than change the appearance or name of the character, which O'Neill felt would dilute the parody, the mouse depicted in Air Pirates Funnies looks like and is named \"Mickey Mouse\". Disney sued for copyright infringement, and after a series of appeals, O'Neill eventually lost and was ordered to pay Disney $1.9 million. The outcome of the case remains controversial among free-speech advocates. New York Law School professor Edward Samuels said, \"[The Air Pirates] set parody back twenty years.\" \n\nCensorship\n\nIn 1930, The German Board of Film Censors prohibited showing a Mickey Mouse film, The Barnyard Battle (1929). The cartoon, pitting the mouse as a kepi-wearing World War I soldier against cat enemies in German helmets, was felt to negatively portray the Germans. It was claimed that the film would \"reawaken the latest anti-German feeling existing abroad since the War\". \n\nThe Barnyard Battle incident did not reflect wider anti-Mickey sentiment in Germany in 1930. But after coming to power several years later, the later Nazi regime unambiguously propagandized against Disney. A mid-1930s Nazi German newspaper article read:\n\n\"Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever revealed...Healthy emotions tell every independent young man and every honorable youth that the dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal...Away with Jewish brutalization of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika Cross!\" \n\nArt Spiegelman used this quote on the opening page of the second volume of his graphic novel Maus.\n\nThe 1935 Romanian authorities banned Mickey Mouse films from cinemas after they feared that children would be \"scared to see a ten-foot mouse in the movie theatre\". In 1938, based on the Ministry of Popular Culture's recommendation that a reform was necessary \"to raise children in the firm and imperialist spirit of the Fascist revolution,\" the Italian Government banned foreign children's literature except Mickey; Disney characters were exempted from the decree for the \"acknowledged artistic merit\" of Disney's work. Actually Mussolini's children were fond of Mickey Mouse, so they managed to delay his ban as long as possible. In 1942, after Italy declared war on the US, fascism forced the Italian publishers to suddenly stop printing any Disney stories. Mickey's stories were replaced by the adventures of Tuffolino, a new human character created by Federico Pedrocchi (script) and Pier Lorenzo De Vita (art). After the downfall of Italy's fascist government, the ban was removed.\n\nFilmography\n\nMickey has been announced to star in two films. One is a live-action/CGI hybrid film based on the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort,Graser, Marc. [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118027299 \"Jon Favreau enters Disney's 'Magic Kingdom'\"], Variety, November 10, 2010. [http://www.webcitation.org/5v00gTWGB WebCitation archive]. while the other is a film idea pitched by Walt Disney Animation Studios veteran Burny Mattinson centering on Mickey, Donald and Goofy.\n\nSelected short films\n\n* Steamboat Willie (1928)\n* Plane Crazy (1929)\n* The Karnival Kid (1929)\n* Mickey's Orphans (1931)\n* Building a Building (1933)\n* The Mad Doctor (1933)\n* The Band Concert (1935)\n\n* Thru the Mirror (1936)\n* Clock Cleaners (1937)\n* Lonesome Ghosts (1937)\n* Brave Little Tailor (1938)\n* The Pointer (1939)\n* The Nifty Nineties (1941)\n* Lend a Paw (1941)\n\n* Symphony Hour (1942)\n* Squatter's Rights (1946)\n* Mickey and the Seal (1948)\n* The Simple Things (1953)\n* Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)\n* Runaway Brain (1995)\n* Get a Horse! (2013)\n\nFull length films\n\n* Hollywood Party (cameo, 1934)\n* Fantasia (1940)\n* Fun and Fancy Free (1947)\n* Who Framed Roger Rabbit (cameo, 1988)\n* A Goofy Movie (cameo, 1995)\n* Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999)\n* Fantasia 2000 (1999)\n* Mickey's House of Villains (2002)\n* Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004)\n* Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (2004)\n\nTelevision series\n\n* The Mickey Mouse Club (1955–1959; 1977–1979; 1989–1994)\n* Mickey Mouse Works (1999–2000)\n* Disney's House of Mouse (2001–2003)\n* Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006–present)\n* Mickey Mouse (2013–present)\n* Mickey and the Roadster Racers (2017)" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Simple_machine.txt", "Lever.txt" ], "title": [ "Simple machine", "Lever" ], "wiki_context": [ "A simple machine is a mechanical device that changes the direction or magnitude of a force. In general, they can be defined as the simplest mechanisms that use mechanical advantage (also called leverage) to multiply force. Usually the term refers to the six classical simple machines which were defined by Renaissance scientists: \n*Lever\n*Wheel and axle\n*Pulley\n*Inclined plane\n*Wedge\n*Screw \nA simple machine uses a single applied force to do work against a single load force. Ignoring friction losses, the work done on the load is equal to the work done by the applied force. The machine can increase the amount of the output force, at the cost of a proportional decrease in the distance moved by the load. The ratio of the output to the applied force is called the mechanical advantage.\n\nSimple machines can be regarded as the elementary \"building blocks\" of which all more complicated machines (sometimes called \"compound machines\" ) are composed. For example, wheels, levers, and pulleys are all used in the mechanism of a bicycle. The mechanical advantage of a compound machine is just the product of the mechanical advantages of the simple machines of which it is composed.\n\nAlthough they continue to be of great importance in mechanics and applied science, modern mechanics has moved beyond the view of the simple machines as the ultimate building blocks of which all machines are composed, which arose in the Renaissance as a neoclassical amplification of ancient Greek texts on technology. The great variety and sophistication of modern machine linkages, which arose during the Industrial Revolution, is inadequately described by these six simple categories. As a result, various post-Renaissance authors have compiled expanded lists of \"simple machines\", often using terms like basic machines, compound machines, or machine elements to distinguish them from the classical simple machines above. By the late 1800s, Franz Reuleaux had identified hundreds of machine elements, calling them simple machines. Models of these devices may be found at Cornell University's Kinematic Models for Design (KMODDL) website. \n\nHistory\n\nThe idea of a simple machine originated with the Greek philosopher Archimedes around the 3rd century BC, who studied the Archimedean simple machines: lever, pulley, and screw. He discovered the principle of mechanical advantage in the lever. Archimedes' famous remark with regard to the lever: \"Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth.\" () expresses his realization that there was no limit to the amount of force amplification that could be achieved by using mechanical advantage. Later Greek philosophers defined the classic five simple machines (excluding the inclined plane) and were able to roughly calculate their mechanical advantage. For example, Heron of Alexandria (ca. 10–75 AD) in his work Mechanics lists five mechanisms that can \"set a load in motion\"; lever, windlass, pulley, wedge, and screw, and describes their fabrication and uses. However the Greeks' understanding was limited to the statics of simple machines; the balance of forces, and did not include dynamics; the tradeoff between force and distance, or the concept of work.\n\nDuring the Renaissance the dynamics of the Mechanical Powers, as the simple machines were called, began to be studied from the standpoint of how far they could lift a load, in addition to the force they could apply, leading eventually to the new concept of mechanical work. In 1586 Flemish engineer Simon Stevin derived the mechanical advantage of the inclined plane, and it was included with the other simple machines. The complete dynamic theory of simple machines was worked out by Italian scientist Galileo Galilei in 1600 in Le Meccaniche (On Mechanics), in which he showed the underlying mathematical similarity of the machines. He was the first to understand that simple machines do not create energy, only transform it.\n\nThe classic rules of sliding friction in machines were discovered by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), but remained unpublished in his notebooks. They were rediscovered by Guillaume Amontons (1699) and were further developed by Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1785). \n\nFrictionless analysis\n\nAlthough each machine works differently mechanically, the way they function is similar mathematically. In each machine, a force F_\\text{in}\\, is applied to the device at one point, and it does work moving a load, F_\\text{out}\\, at another point. Although some machines only change the direction of the force, such as a stationary pulley, most machines multiply the magnitude of the force by a factor, the mechanical advantage \n\\mathrm{MA} = F_\\text{out}/F_\\text{in}\\, \nthat can be calculated from the machine's geometry and friction.\n\nSimple machines do not contain a source of energy, so they cannot do more work than they receive from the input force. A simple machine with no friction or elasticity is called an ideal machine. Due to conservation of energy, in an ideal simple machine, the power output (rate of energy output) at any time P_\\text{out}\\, is equal to the power input P_\\text{in}\\,\nP_\\text{out} = P_\\text{in}\\!\nThe power output equals the velocity of the load v_\\text{out}\\, multiplied by the load force P_\\text{out} F_\\text{out} v_\\text{out}\\!. Similarly the power input from the applied force is equal to the velocity of the input point v_\\text{in}\\, multiplied by the applied force P_\\text{in} \n F_\\text{in} v_\\text{in}\\!.\nTherefore,\nF_\\text{out}v_\\text{out} = F_\\text{in}v_\\text{in}\\,\nTherefore, the mechanical advantage of a frictionless machine is equal to the velocity ratio, the ratio of input velocity to output velocity\n = {v_\\text{in} \\over v_\\text{out}}\\,\n|cellpadding = 0\n|border = 1\n|border colour = black\n|background colour = transparent\n}} \nThe velocity ratio of the machine is also equal to the ratio of the distance the output point moves to the corresponding distance the input point moves\n{v_\\text{out} \\over v_\\text{in}} = {d_\\text{out} \\over d_\\text{in}}\\,\nThis can be calculated from the geometry of the machine. For example, the velocity ratio of the lever is equal to the ratio of its lever arms.\n\nThe mechanical advantage can be greater or less than one: \n*If \\mathrm{MA} > 1\\, the output force is greater than the input, the machine acts as a force amplifier, but the distance moved by the load d_\\text{out}\\, is less than the distance moved by the input force d_\\text{in}\\,. \n*If \\mathrm{MA} the output force is less than the input, but the distance moved by the load is greater than the distance moved by the input force.\n\nIn the screw, which uses rotational motion, the input force should be replaced by the torque, and the velocity by the angular velocity the shaft is turned.\n\nFriction and efficiency\n\nAll real machines have friction, which causes some of the input power to be dissipated as heat. If P_\\text{fric}\\, is the power lost to friction, from conservation of energy \nP_\\text{in} = P_\\text{out} + P_\\text{fric}\\,\nThe efficiency \\eta \\, of a machine is a number between 0 and 1 defined as the ratio of power out to the power in, and is a measure of the energy losses\n\\eta \\equiv {P_\\text{out} \\over P_\\text{in}} \\,\nP_\\text{out} = \\eta P_\\text{in} \\, \nAs above, the power is equal to the product of force and velocity, so\nF_\\text{out} v_\\text{out} = \\eta F_\\text{in} v_\\text{in}\\, \nTherefore,\n = \\eta {v_\\text{in} \\over v_\\text{out}} \\,\n}}\nSo in non-ideal machines, the mechanical advantage is always less than the velocity ratio by the product with the efficiency η. So a machine that includes friction will not be able to move as large a load as a corresponding ideal machine using the same input force.\n\nCompound machines\n\nA compound machine is a machine formed from a set of simple machines connected in series with the output force of one providing the input force to the next. For example, a bench vise consists of a lever (the vise's handle) in series with a screw, and a simple gear train consists of a number of gears (wheels and axles) connected in series.\n\nThe mechanical advantage of a compound machine is the ratio of the output force exerted by the last machine in the series divided by the input force applied to the first machine, that is\n\\mathrm{MA}_\\text{compound} = {F_\\text{outN} \\over F_\\text{in1}} \\,\n\nBecause the output force of each machine is the input of the next, F_\\text{out1} F_\\text{in2}, \\; F_\\text{out2} \n F_\\text{in3}, \\ldots \\; F_\\text{outK} = F_\\text{inK+1}, this mechanical advantage is also given by\n\\mathrm{MA}_\\text{compound} = {F_\\text{out1} \\over F_\\text{in1}} {F_\\text{out2} \\over F_\\text{in2}} {F_\\text{out3} \\over F_\\text{in3}}\\ldots {F_\\text{outN} \\over F_\\text{inN}} \\,\nThus, the mechanical advantage of the compound machine is equal to the product of the mechanical advantages of the series of simple machines that form it\n\\mathrm{MA}_\\text{compound} = \\mathrm{MA}_1 \\mathrm{MA}_2 \\ldots \\mathrm{MA}_\\text{N} \\,\n\nSimilarly, the efficiency of a compound machine is also the product of the efficiencies of the series of simple machines that form it\n\\eta_\\text{compound} = \\eta_1 \\eta_2 \\ldots \\; \\eta_\\text{N}.\\,\n\nSelf-locking machines\n\nIn many simple machines, if the load force Fout on the machine is high enough in relation to the input force Fin, the machine will move backwards, with the load force doing work on the input force. So these machines can be used in either direction, with the driving force applied to either input point. For example, if the load force on a lever is high enough, the lever will move backwards, moving the input arm backwards against the input force. These are called \"reversible\", \"non-locking\" or \"overhauling\" machines, and the backward motion is called \"overhauling\". However, in some machines, if the frictional forces are high enough, no amount of load force can move it backwards, even if the input force is zero. This is called a \"self-locking\", \"nonreversible\", or \"non-overhauling\" machine. These machines can only be set in motion by a force at the input, and when the input force is removed will remain motionless, \"locked\" by friction at whatever position they were left.\n\nSelf-locking occurs mainly in those machines with large areas of sliding contact between moving parts: the screw, inclined plane, and wedge:\n*The most common example is a screw. In most screws, applying torque to the shaft can cause it to turn, moving the shaft linearly to do work against a load, but no amount of axial load force against the shaft will cause it to turn backwards.\n*In an inclined plane, a load can be pulled up the plane by a sideways input force, but if the plane is not too steep and there is enough friction between load and plane, when the input force is removed the load will remain motionless and will not slide down the plane, regardless of its weight.\n*A wedge can be driven into a block of wood by force on the end, such as from hitting it with a sledge hammer, forcing the sides apart, but no amount of compression force from the wood walls will cause it to pop back out of the block.\n \nA machine will be self-locking if and only if its efficiency η is below 50%:\n\n\\eta \\equiv \\frac {F_{out}/F_{in} }{d_{in}/d_{out} } \n\nWhether a machine is self-locking depends on both the friction forces (coefficient of static friction) between its parts, and the distance ratio din/dout (ideal mechanical advantage). If both the friction and ideal mechanical advantage are high enough, it will self-lock.\n\nProof\n\nWhen a machine moves in the forward direction from point 1 to point 2, with the input force doing work on a load force, from conservation of energy the input work W_\\text{1,2} \\, is equal to the sum of the work done on the load force W_\\text{load} \\, and the work lost to friction W_\\text{fric} \\,\nW_\\text{1,2} = W_\\text{load} + W_\\text{fric} \\qquad \\qquad (1)\\,\nIf the efficiency is below 50%\n\\eta = W_\\text{load}/W_\\text{1,2} \n2W_\\text{load} \nFrom (1)\n2W_\\text{load} \nW_\\text{load} \n\nWhen the machine moves backward from point 2 to point 1 with the load force doing work on the input force, the work lost to friction W_\\text{fric} \\, is the same\nW_\\text{load} = W_\\text{2,1} + W_\\text{fric} \\,\nSo the output work is\nW_\\text{2,1} = W_\\text{load} - W_\\text{fric} \nThus the machine self-locks, because the work dissipated in friction is greater than the work done by the load force moving it backwards even with no input force\n\nModern machine theory\n\nKinematic chains\n\nSimple machines are elementary examples of kinematic chains that are used to model mechanical systems ranging from the steam engine to robot manipulators. The bearings that form the fulcrum of a lever and that allow the wheel and axle and pulleys to rotate are examples of a kinematic pair called a hinged joint. Similarly, the flat surface of an inclined plane and wedge are examples of the kinematic pair called a sliding joint. The screw is usually identified as its own kinematic pair called a helical joint.\n\nTwo levers, or cranks, are combined into a planar four-bar linkage by attaching a link that connects the output of one crank to the input of another. Additional links can be attached to form a six-bar linkage or in series to form a robot.\n\nClassification of machines\n\nThe identification of simple machines arises from a desire for a systematic method to invent new machines. Therefore, an important concern is how simple machines are combined to make more complex machines. One approach is to attach simple machines in series to obtain compound machines.\n\nHowever, a more successful strategy was identified by Franz Reuleaux, who collected and studied over 800 elementary machines. He realized that a lever, pulley, and wheel and axle are in essence the same device: a body rotating about a hinge. Similarly, an inclined plane, wedge, and screw are a block sliding on a flat surface. \n\nThis realization shows that it is the joints, or the connections that provide movement, that are the primary elements of a machine. Starting with four types of joints, the revolute joint, sliding joint, cam joint and gear joint, and related connections such as cables and belts, it is possible to understand a machine as an assembly of solid parts that connect these joints.", "A lever ( or) is a machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or fulcrum. A lever is a rigid body capable of rotating on a point on itself. On the basis of the location of fulcrum, load and effort, the lever is divided into three types. It is one of the six simple machines identified by Renaissance scientists. A lever amplifies an input force to provide a greater output force, which is said to provide leverage. The ratio of the output force to the input force is the mechanical advantage of the lever.\n\nEtymology\n\nThe word \"lever\" entered English about 1300 from Old French, in which the word was levier. This sprang from the stem of the verb lever, meaning \"to raise\". The verb, in turn, goes back to the Latin levare, itself from the adjective levis, meaning \"light\" (as in \"not heavy\"). The word's ultimate origin is the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) stem legwh-, meaning \"light\", \"easy\" or \"nimble\", among other things. The PIE stem also gave rise to the English word \"light\". \nEarly use\n\nThe earliest remaining writings regarding levers date from the 3rd century BC and were provided by Archimedes. 'Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the Earth with it' is a remark of Archimedes who formally stated the correct mathematical principle of levers (quoted by Pappus of Alexandria). The distance required to do this might be exemplified in astronomical terms as the approximate distance to the Circinus galaxy (roughly 3.6 times the distance to the Andromeda Galaxy) - about 9 million light years. \n\nIt is assumed that in ancient Egypt, constructors used the lever to move and uplift obelisks weighing more than 100 tons. \n\nForce and levers\n\nA lever is a beam connected to ground by a hinge, or pivot, called a fulcrum. The ideal lever does not dissipate or store energy, which means there is no friction in the hinge or bending in the beam. In this case, the power into the lever equals the power out, and the ratio of output to input force is given by the ratio of the distances from the fulcrum to the points of application of these forces. This is known as the law of the lever.\n\nThe mechanical advantage of a lever can be determined by considering the balance of moments or torque, T, about the fulcrum.\n\nT_{1} F_{1}a,\\! T_{2} \n F_{2}b\\! \n\nwhere F1 is the input force to the lever and F2 is the output force. The distances a and b are the perpendicular distances between the forces and the fulcrum.\n\nSince the moments of torque must be balanced, T_{1} T_{2} \\! . So, F_{1}a \n F_{2}b \\!.\n\nThe mechanical advantage of the lever is the ratio of output force to input force,\n\nMA \\frac{F_{2}}{F_{1}} \n \\frac{a}{b}.\\!\n\nThis relationship shows that the mechanical advantage can be computed from ratio of the distances from the fulcrum to where the input and output forces are applied to the lever, assuming no losses due to friction, flexibility or wear.\n\nClasses of levers\n\nLevers are classified by the relative positions of the fulcrum, effort and resistance (or load). It is common to call the input force the effort and the output force the load or the resistance. This allows the identification of three classes of levers by the relative locations of the fulcrum, the resistance and the effort: \n*: Fulcrum in the middle: the effort is applied on one side of the fulcrum and the resistance (or load) on the other side, for example, a seesaw, a crowbar or a pair of scissors. Mechanical advantage may be greater than, less than, or equal to 1.\n*: Resistance (or load) in the middle: the effort is applied on one side of the resistance and the fulcrum is located on the other side, for example, a wheelbarrow, a nutcracker, a bottle opener or the brake pedal of a car. Mechanical advantage is always greater than 1.\n*: Effort in the middle: the resistance (or load) is on one side of the effort and the fulcrum is located on the other side, for example, a pair of tweezers or the human mandible. Mechanical advantage is always less than 1.\nThese cases are described by the mnemonic fre 123 where the fulcrum is in the middle for the 1st class lever, the resistance is in the middle for the 2nd class lever, and the effort is in the middle for the 3rd class lever.\n\nLaw of the lever\n\nThe lever is a movable bar that pivots on a fulcrum attached to a fixed point. The lever operates by applying forces at different distances from the fulcrum, or a pivot.\n\nAssuming the lever does not dissipate or store energy, the power into the lever must equal the power out of the lever. As the lever rotates around the fulcrum, points farther from this pivot move faster than points closer to the pivot. Therefore, a force applied to a point farther from the pivot must be less than the force located at a point closer in, because power is the product of force and velocity. \n\nIf a and b are distances from the fulcrum to points A and B and the force FA applied to A is the input and the force FB applied at B is the output, the ratio of the velocities of points A and B is given by a/b, so we have the ratio of the output force to the input force, or mechanical advantage, is given by\nMA \\frac{F_B}{F_A} \n \\frac{a}{b}.\n\nThis is the law of the lever, which was proven by Archimedes using geometric reasoning. It shows that if the distance a from the fulcrum to where the input force is applied (point A) is greater than the distance b from fulcrum to where the output force is applied (point B), then the lever amplifies the input force. On the other hand, if the distance a from the fulcrum to the input force is less than the distance b from the fulcrum to the output force, then the lever reduces the input force.\n\nThe use of velocity in the static analysis of a lever is an application of the principle of virtual work.\n\nVirtual work and the law of the lever \n\nA lever is modeled as a rigid bar connected to a ground frame by a hinged joint called a fulcrum. The lever is operated by applying an input force FA at a point A located by the coordinate vector rA on the bar. The lever then exerts an output force FB at the point B located by rB. The rotation of the lever about the fulcrum P is defined by the rotation angle θ in radians.\n\nLet the coordinate vector of the point P that defines the fulcrum be rP, and introduce the lengths \n a |\\mathbf{r}_A - \\mathbf{r}_P|, \\quad b \n |\\mathbf{r}_B - \\mathbf{r}_P|, \nwhich are the distances from the fulcrum to the input point A and to the output point B, respectively.\n\nNow introduce the unit vectors eA and eB from the fulcrum to the point A and B, so\n \\mathbf{r}_A - \\mathbf{r}_P a\\mathbf{e}_A, \\quad \\mathbf{r}_B - \\mathbf{r}_P \n b\\mathbf{e}_B.\nThe velocity of the points A and B are obtained as\n \\mathbf{v}_A \\dot{\\theta} a \\mathbf{e}_A^\\perp, \\quad \\mathbf{v}_B \n \\dot{\\theta} b \\mathbf{e}_B^\\perp,\nwhere eA⊥ and eB⊥ are unit vectors perpendicular to eA and eB, respectively.\n\nThe angle θ is the generalized coordinate that defines the configuration of the lever, and the generalized force associated with this coordinate is given by\n F_\\theta \\mathbf{F}_A \\cdot \\frac{\\partial\\mathbf{v}_A}{\\partial\\dot{\\theta}} - \\mathbf{F}_B \\cdot \\frac{\\partial\\mathbf{v}_B}{\\partial\\dot{\\theta}}\n a(\\mathbf{F}_A \\cdot \\mathbf{e}_A^\\perp) - b(\\mathbf{F}_B \\cdot \\mathbf{e}_B^\\perp) = a F_A - b F_B ,\nwhere FA and FB are components of the forces that are perpendicular to the radial segments PA and PB. The principle of virtual work states that at equilibrium the generalized force is zero, that is\n F_\\theta a F_A - b F_B \n 0. \\,\\!\n\nThus, the ratio of the output force FB to the input force FA is obtained as\n MA \\frac{F_B}{F_A} \n \\frac{a}{b},\nwhich is the mechanical advantage of the lever.\n\nThis equation shows that if the distance a from the fulcrum to the point A where the input force is applied is greater than the distance b from fulcrum to the point B where the output force is applied, then the lever amplifies the input force. If the opposite is true that the distance from the fulcrum to the input point A is less than from the fulcrum to the output point B, then the lever reduces the magnitude of the input force." ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "Levers", "First-class lever", "Third-class lever", "Fulcrum (mechanics)", "Fulcrum (lever)", "Lever", "Second-class lever" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "first class lever", "fulcrum mechanics", "levers", "lever", "second class lever", "third class lever", "fulcrum lever" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "lever", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "Lever" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "In_the_Kingdom_of_the_Blind.txt", "Eye-D.txt" ], "title": [ "In the Kingdom of the Blind", "Eye-D" ], "wiki_context": [ "\"In the Kingdom of the Blind\" is an episode from the fifth season of the science fiction television series Babylon 5. The title alludes to a Latin proverb quoted by Erasmus: \"In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king\". \n\nSynopsis\n\nLondo returns to Centauri Prime. Trying to speak with the regent proves beyond difficult, but G'Kar proves a useful ally and bodyguard.\n\nByron and his telepaths threaten the Interstellar Alliance. The situation spirals out of control rapidly when violence erupts.\n\nAn unknown enemy has been attacking shipping lanes of several of the Interstellar Alliance.\n\nArc significance\n\n* Tensions between the telepaths and the Interstellar Alliance start to escalate.", "Frank Nitzinsky (born 14 October 1974), better known by his stage name, Eye-D, is a Dutch drum & bass producer and DJ based in Goes, The Netherlands. He is one-half of hardcore duo, The Outside Agency, alongside DJ Hidden.\n\nHistory\n\nEye-D has been an active drum & bass and hardcore DJ/producer since 1991. His professional musical career began with a hardcore release on Mokum Records in 1996. His first drum & bass releases were issued by Kultbox Records in 1998. \n\nMusic\n\nEye-D's musical style is best characterized by its hardcore influences. He has released drum & bass music on record labels such as PRSPCT Recordings, Lost Soul Recordings, Evol Intent Recordings, Black Sun Empire Recordings and Ruff-Teck Records. He has collaborated with artists such as SPL, Black Sun Empire, Counterstrike, and Evol Intent. Eye-D collaborates very frequently with DJ Hidden with whom he forms The Outside Agency. Since the release of The Outside Agency's first EP on Black Monolith Records in 2001, the 'Eye-D' moniker has been limited to his drum & bass material. \n\nDJ performances\n\nEye-D regularly performs at musical events internationally, both as Eye-D and as part of The Outside Agency. In the Netherlands, Eye-D and DJ Hidden are frequent guests at underground club nights PRSPCT and Smackdown. \n\nDiscography\n\nThe following is a list drum & bass releases by Eye-D. For hardcore releases, see the [http://www.discogs.com/artist/Outside+Agency,+The The Outside Agency on Discogs.com].\n\nSingles & EPs\n\n* 1998: We Eat Tulips for Breakfast EP on Kultbox Records\n* 1999: Down from the Waist Up (Slipgevaar / Eye Design) on Ghetto Safari\n* 1999: Evil Eye / Enemies on Def Wish Records\n* 1999: Sabor Natural de Coco (Armalyte / 640K) (with Kid Entropy) on Black Monolith Breaks\n* 2000: Uridium on Ruff-Teck Records\n* 2000: Wireless (with Kid Entropy) / Unicorn MF on Piruh Recordings\n* 2001: Hidden Bassline on Piruh Recordings\n* 2002: Metric (with Atomly) on Fear Records\n* 2003: 707 on Semiconscious Media\n* 2003: Unicorn MF (Black Sun Empire Remix) on Citrus Recordings\n* 2004: James Brown / Station on Ruff-Teck Records\n* 2005: Eye-D & Kid Entropy – 640K (DJ Hidden Remix) on Soothsayer Recordings\n* 2006: Motherfucking Skulls (with Counterstrike) on PRSPCT Recordings\n* 2007: Joshua's War (with DJ Hidden) on PRSPCT Recordings\n* 2007: The Grind (with Counterstrike) on PRSPCT Recordings\n* 2008: Caffeine Overdose '97 (with Squee) on Independenza Recordings\n* 2008: Domino / Brimstone on PRSPCT Recordings\n* 2008: Time War / Rock & Roll (with Evol Intent) on Evol Intent Recordings\n* 2009: Circuitry (with Squee) on PRSPCT Recordings\n* 2009: Milkshake / Brainfreeze (with Black Sun Empire) on Black Sun Empire Recordings\n* 2010: Masters of Rave (with SPL) on Hollow Point\n* 2010: Kings of the Universe EP (with SPL) on Lost Soul Recordings\n* 2012: Incoming (with SPL) on Hollow Point\n* 2013: Mission Statement on PRSPCT Recordings\n\nAlbums\n\n* 2011: Peer to Peer Pressure (with DJ Hidden) on PRSPCT Recordings\n\nRemixes\n\n* 2002: Theeq – A15E (Eye-D Remix) on Low Res Records\n* 2003: Black Sun Empire – Skin Deep (Eye-D Remix) on Citrus Recordings\n* 2004: Murder Was the Case – Murder Was the Case (Eye-D Remix) on Murder / Eupholus Records\n* 2005: Ancronix – Shadow Force (Eye-D Remix) on Soothsayer Recordings\n* 2005: Bombardier – Syn (Eye-D Remix) on Low Res Records\n* 2005: Kid Entropy – So Far (Eye-D Remix) on Citrus Recordings\n* 2006: Aggroman – The Dark Side of the Moon (DJ Hidden & Eye-D Remix) on Aural Carnage\n* 2009: DJ Hidden – The Narrators (Eye-D Remix) on Ad Noiseam" ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "King", "King (title)", "Cyning", "Monarchs", "Ha-Melech", "Hamelech", "המלך", "Ha-Melekh", "Hamelekh", "Cyng", "Ha Melekh", "KING", "King regnant", "Monarch", "Ha Melech" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "king title", "ha melech", "hamelekh", "cyning", "cyng", "ha melekh", "king regnant", "king", "המלך", "monarchs", "hamelech", "monarch" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "king", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "King" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Crossing_the_Rubicon.txt", "Point_of_no_return.txt", "Jeep.txt", "Rubicon.txt" ], "title": [ "Crossing the Rubicon", "Point of no return", "Jeep", "Rubicon" ], "wiki_context": [ "The idiom \"Crossing the Rubicon\" means to pass a point of no return, and refers to Julius Caesar's army's crossing of the Rubicon River (in the north of Italy ) in 49 BC, which was considered an act of insurrection and treason. Julius Caesar uttered the famous phrase \"alea iacta est\"—the die is cast—as his army marched through the shallow river.\n\nHistory\n\nDuring the Roman republic, the river Rubicon marked the boundary between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul to the north-east and Italy proper (controlled directly by Rome and its socii (allies) to the south. On the north-western side, the border was marked by the river Arno, a much wider and more important waterway, which flows westward from the Apennine Mountains (its source is not far from Rubicon's source) into the Tyrrhenian Sea.\n\nGovernors of Roman provinces were appointed promagistrates with imperium (roughly, \"right to command\") in their province(s). The governor would then serve as the general of the Roman army within the territory of his province(s). Roman law specified that only the elected magistrates (consuls and praetors) could hold imperium within Italy. Any promagistrate who entered Italy at the head of his troops forfeited his imperium and was therefore no longer legally allowed to command troops.\n\nExercising imperium when forbidden by the law was a capital offence. Furthermore, obeying the commands of a general who did not legally possess imperium was a capital offence. If a general entered Italy whilst exercising command of an army, both the general and his soldiers became outlaws and were automatically condemned to death. Generals were thus obliged to disband their armies before entering Italy.\n\nJulius Caesar\n\nIn 49 BC, perhaps on January 10, G. Julius Caesar led a single legion, Legio XIII Gemina, south over the Rubicon from Cisalpine Gaul to Italy to make his way to Rome. In doing so, he (deliberately) broke the law on imperium and made armed conflict inevitable. Suetonius depicts Caesar as undecided as he approached the river, and attributes the crossing to a supernatural apparition. It was reported that Caesar dined with Sallust, Hirtius, Oppius, Lucius Balbus and Sulpicus Rufus on the night after his famous crossing into Italy January 10.[20]\n\nAccording to Suetonius, Caesar uttered the famous phrase ālea iacta est (\"the die has been cast\"). The phrase \"crossing the Rubicon\" has survived to refer to any individual or group committing itself irrevocably to a risky or revolutionary course of action, similar to the modern phrase \"passing the point of no return\". Caesar's decision for swift action forced Pompey, the lawful consuls (C. Claudius Marcellus and L. Cornelius Lentulus Crus), and a large part of the Roman Senate to flee Rome in fear. Caesar's subsequent victory in Caesar's Civil War ensured that punishment for the infraction would never be rendered.\n\nLocation, confusion and resolution\n\nAfter Caesar's crossing, the Rubicon was a geographical feature of note until about 42 BC, when Octavian merged the Province of Gallia Cisalpina into Italia and the river ceased to be the extreme northern border of Italy. The decision robbed the Rubicon of its importance, and the name gradually disappeared from the local toponymy.\n\nAfter the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and during the first centuries of the Middle Ages, the coastal plain between Ravenna and Rimini was flooded many times. The Rubicon, like other small rivers of the region, often changed its course during this period. For this reason, and to supply fields with water after the revival of agriculture in the late Middle Ages, during the 14th and 15th centuries, hydraulic works were built to prevent other floods and to regulate streams. As a result of this work, these rivers started to flow in straight courses, as they do today.\n\nWith the revival of interest in the topography of ancient Roman Italy during the 15th century, the matter of identifying the Rubicon in the contemporary landscape became a topic of debate among Renaissance humanists. To support the claim of the Pisciatello, a spurious inscription forbidding the passage of an army in the name of the Roman people and Senate, the so-called Sanctio, was placed by a bridge on that river. The Quattrocento humanist Flavio Biondo was deceived by it; the actual inscription is conserved in the Museo Archeologico, Cesena. As the centuries went by, several rivers of the Adriatic coast between Ravenna and Rimini have at times been said to correspond to the ancient Rubicon.\n\nThe Via Aemilia (National Road № 9) still follows its original Roman course as it runs between hills and plain; it would have been the obvious course to follow as it was the only major Roman road east of the Apennine Mountains leading to and from the Po Valley. Attempts to deduce the original course of the Rubicon can be made only by studying written documents and other archaeological evidence such as Roman milestones, which indicate the distance between the ancient river and the nearest Roman towns.\n\nThe starting point of a Roman road (a kind of \"mile zero\"), from which distances were counted, was always the crossing between the Cardo and the Decumanus, the two principal streets in every Roman town, running north-south and east-west respectively. In a section of the Tabula Peutingeriana, an ancient document showing the network of Roman roads, a river in north-eastern Italy labeled \"fl. Rubicū\" is shown at a position 12 Roman miles (18 km) north of Rimini along the coastline; 18 km is the distance between Rimini and a place called \"Ad Confluentes\", drawn west of the Rubicon, on the Via Aemilia. However, the riverbed shape which is observed today in Pisciatello and Rubicone river, well below Roman age soil layers, is likely to indicate that any possible course modification of rivers could have occurred only very close to the coastline, and therefore only slight.\n\nFurthermore, the features of today's Rubicone river (North-South course, orthogonal to the Emilia road) and Emilia road itself (a straight reach before and after the crossing, and a turn just passing by San Giovanni in Compito, so marking a possible administrative boundary) are common to typical geographical oriented limits of Roman age, being this a clue of actual identification of today Rubicone with Fiumicino. \n\nIn 1933, after various efforts spanning centuries, the Fiumicino, crossing the town of Savignano di Romagna (now Savignano sul Rubicone), was officially identified as the former Rubicon. The final proof confirming this theory came only in 1991, when three Italian scholars (Pignotti, Ravagli, and Donati), after a comparison between the Tabula Peutingeriana and other ancient sources (including Cicero), showed that the distance from Rome to the Rubicon river was 200 Roman miles. Key elements of their work are:\n* The locality of San Giovanni in Compito (now a western quarter of Savignano) has to be identified with the old Ad Confluentes (compito means \"road junction\" and it is synonymous with confluentes)\n* The distance between Ad Confluentes and Rome, according to the Tabula Peutingeriana, is 201 Roman miles\n* The distance from today's San Giovanni in Compito and the Fiumicino river is 1 Roman mile (1.48 km)\n\nPresent\n\nToday there is very little evidence of Caesar’s historical passage. Savignano sul Rubicone is an industrial town and the river has become one of the most polluted in the Emilia-Romagna region. Exploitation of underground waters along the upper course of the Rubicon has reduced its flow—it was a minor river even during Roman times (“parvi Rubiconis ad undas” as Lucan said, roughly translated \"to the waves of [the] tiny Rubicon\")—and has since lost its natural route, except in its upper course between low and woody hills.\n\nNotes", "The point of no return (PONR) is the point beyond which one must continue on one's current course of action because turning back is physically impossible, prohibitively expensive, or dangerous. A particular irreversible action (e.g., setting off an explosion or signing a contract) can be a point of no return, but the point of no return can also be a calculated point during a continuous action (such as in aviation).\n\nOrigins and spread of the expression \n\nThe term PNR—\"point of no return,\" more often referred to by pilots as the \"Radius of Action formula\" — originated, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, as a technical term in air navigation to refer to the point on a flight at which, due to fuel consumption, a plane is no longer capable of returning to the airfield from which it took off.\n\nThe first major metaphorical use of the term in popular culture was in the 1947 novel Point of No Return by John P. Marquand. It inspired a 1951 Broadway play of the same name by Paul Osborn. The novel and play concern a pivotal period in the life of a New York City banker. In the course of the story, the character faces two \"point of no return\" realities: First, that his quest for a big promotion will mean either triumph or a dead end to his career, and second, that he can never go back to the small-town life he abandoned as a young man.\n\nRelated expressions\n\nThere are a number of phrases with similar or related meaning:\n\nThe Point of Safe Return (PSR) is the last point on a route at which it is possible to return to the departure airfield with the required fuel reserves still available in the tanks. Continuing past the PSR, one is now committed to landing at your destination.\n\n*\"Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached.\" This statement appears in Betrachtungen über Sünde, Leid, Hoffnung und den wahren Weg (\"Reflections on Sin, Suffering, Hope and the True Way\") by Franz Kafka.\n*\"Crossing the Rubicon\" is a metaphor for deliberately proceeding past a point of no return. The phrase originates with Julius Caesar's seizure of power in the Roman Republic in 49 BC. Roman generals were strictly forbidden from bringing their troops into the home territory of the Republic in Italy. On 10 January, Caesar led his army across the Rubicon River, crossing from the province of Cisalpine Gaul into Italy. After this, if he did not triumph, he would be executed. Therefore, the term \"the Rubicon\" is used as a synonym to the \"point of no return\".\n*\"Alea iacta est\" (\"The die is cast\"), which is reportedly what Caesar said at the crossing of the Rubicon. This metaphor comes from gambling with dice: once the die or dice have been thrown, all bets are irrevocable, even before the dice have come to rest.\n\nThe following expressions also express the idea of a point of no return.\n\n*Burn one's bridges This expression is derived from the idea of burning down a bridge after crossing it during a military campaign, leaving no choice but to continue the march. Figuratively, it means to commit oneself to a particular course of action by making an alternative course impossible. It is most often used in reference to deliberately alienating persons or institutions whose cooperation is required for some action. For instance, \"On my last day at my old job, I told my boss what I really think about the company. I guess I burned my bridges.\"\n*Burn one's boats. This is a variation of \"burning one's bridges\", and alludes to certain famous incidents where a commander, having landed in a hostile country, ordered his men to destroy their ships, so that they would have to conquer the country or be killed.\n**One such incident was in 711 AD, when Muslim forces invaded the Iberian Peninsula. The commander, Tariq ibn Ziyad, ordered his ships to be burned.\n**Another such incident was in 1519 AD, during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Hernán Cortés, the Spanish commander, scuttled his ships, so that his men would have to conquer or die.\n**A third such incident occurred after the Bounty mutineers reached Pitcairn Island.\n**Two similar stratagems were used during the Chu–Han Contention (206–202 BCE); these have led to Chinese idioms, elaborated below.\n**Also mentioned in the Roman myth of Aeneas, who burned his boats after conquering territory in Italy. \n**Similar incidence was recorded in Burmese history. In the Battle of Naung Yo during the attack on Pegu (Prome) in 1540, the Burmese Prince Bayinnaung ( general and brother-in-law of Burmese King Tabinshwehti) faced a superior force of Mons on the other side of a river. After crossing the river on a Pontoon bridge (rafts in another version) Bayinnaung ordered the bridge to be destroyed. This action was taken to spur his troops forward in battle and provide a clear signal that there would be no retreat. \n*\"Break the kettles and sink the boats (破釜沉舟)\". This is an ancient Chinese saying, which refers to Xiang Yu's order at the Battle of Julu (207 BC); by fording a river and destroying all means of re-crossing it, he committed his army to a struggle to the end with the Qin and eventually achieved victory.\n* \"Fighting a battle with one's back facing a river\" (背水一戰). A similar saying from the same period, which originated in Han Xin's order at the Battle of Jingxing (204 BCE)\n*Fait accompli (\"accomplished deed\", from the verb \"faire\", to do), a term of French origin denoting an irreversible deed, a done deal.", "Jeep is a brand of American automobiles that is a division of FCA US LLC (formerly Chrysler Group, LLC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The former Chrysler Corporation acquired the Jeep brand, along with the remaining assets of its owner American Motors, in 1987. The division is headquartered in Toledo, Ohio. Jeep's current product range consists solely of sport utility vehicles and off-road vehicles, but has also included pickup trucks in the past.\n\nThe original Jeep was the prototype Bantam BRC. Willys MB Jeeps went into production in 1941 specifically for the military, arguably making them the oldest four-wheel drive mass-production vehicles now known as SUVs. The Jeep became the primary light 4-wheel-drive vehicle of the United States Army and the Allies during World War II, as well as the postwar period. The term became common worldwide in the wake of the war. Doug Stewart notes: \n\nThe first civilian models were produced in 1945. It inspired a number of other light utility vehicles, such as the Land Rover. Many Jeep variants serving similar military and civilian roles have since been designed in other nations.\n\nDevelopment\n\nBantam Reconnaissance Car\n\nWhen it became obvious that the United States was eventually going to become involved in the war raging in Europe, the U.S. Army contacted 135 companies asking for working prototypes of a four-wheel-drive reconnaissance car. Only two companies responded to the request: American Bantam Car Company and Willys-Overland. The Army had set what seemed like an impossible deadline of 49 days to supply a working prototype. Willys asked for more time, but was refused. The bankrupt American Bantam Car Company had no engineering staff left on the payroll and solicited Karl Probst, a talented freelance designer from Detroit. After turning down Bantam's initial request, Probst responded to an Army request and commenced work, initially without salary, on July 17, 1940.\n\nProbst laid out full plans for the Bantam prototype, known as the BRC or Bantam Reconnaissance Car, in just two days, working up a cost estimate the next. Bantam's bid was submitted, complete with blueprints, on July 22. While much of the vehicle could be assembled from off-the-shelf automotive parts, custom four-wheel drivetrain components were to be supplied by Spicer. The hand-built prototype was completed in Butler, Pennsylvania, and driven to Camp Holabird, Maryland, for Army testing September 21. The vehicle met all the Army's criteria except engine torque.\n\nWillys MA and Ford GP\n\nThe Army felt that the Bantam company was too small to supply the number of vehicles it needed, so it supplied the Bantam design to Willys and Ford, who were encouraged to make their own changes and modifications. The resulting Ford \"Pygmy\" and Willys \"Quad\" prototypes looked very similar to the Bantam BRC prototype, and Spicer supplied very similar four-wheel drivetrain components to all three manufacturers. \n\nFifteen hundred of each of the three models (Bantam BRC-40, Ford GP, and Willys MA) were built and extensively field-tested. Delmar \"Barney\" Roos, Willys-Overland's chief engineer, made design changes to meet a revised weight specification (a maximum of 1275 lb, including oil and water). He was thus able to use the powerful but comparatively heavy Willys \"Go Devil\" engine, and win the initial production contract. The Willys version of the car would become the standardized Jeep design, designated the model MB and was built at their plant in Toledo, Ohio. The familiar pressed-metal Jeep grille was actually a Ford design feature and incorporated in the final design by the Army.\n\nSince the War Department required a large number of vehicles to be manufactured in a relatively short time, Willys-Overland granted the United States Government a non-exclusive license to allow another company to manufacture vehicles using Willys' specifications. The Army chose Ford as the second supplier, building Jeeps to the Willys' design. Willys supplied Ford with a complete set of plans and specifications. American Bantam, the creators of the first Jeep, built approximately 2700 of them to the BRC-40 design, but then spent the rest of the war building heavy-duty trailers for the Army.\n\nOrigin of the name\n\nMany explanations of the origin of the word jeep have proven difficult to verify. The most widely held theory is that the military designation GP (for Government Purposes or General Purpose) was slurred into the word Jeep in the same way that the contemporary HMMWV (for High-Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle) has become known as the Humvee. Joe Frazer, Willys-Overland President from 1939 to 1944, claimed to have coined the word jeep by slurring the initials G.P. There are no contemporaneous uses of \"GP\" before later attempts to create a \"backronym.\"\n\nA more detailed view, popularized by R. Lee Ermey on his television series Mail Call, disputes this \"slurred GP\" origin, saying that the vehicle was designed for specific duties, and was never referred to as \"General Purpose\" and it is highly unlikely that the average jeep-driving GI would have been familiar with this designation. The Ford GPW abbreviation actually meant G for government use, P to designate its 80 in wheelbase and W to indicate its Willys-Overland designed engine. Ermey suggests that soldiers at the time were so impressed with the new vehicles that they informally named it after Eugene the Jeep, a character in the Popeye comic strip and cartoons created by E. C. Segar, as early as mid-March 1936. Eugene the Jeep was Popeye's \"jungle pet\" and was \"small, able to move between dimensions and could solve seemingly impossible problems.\" \n\nThe word jeep, however, was used as early as 1914 by US Army mechanics assigned to test new vehicles. In 1937, tractors which were supplied by Minneapolis Moline to the US Army were called jeeps. A precursor of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was also referred to as the jeep.\n\nWords of the Fighting Forces by Clinton A. Sanders, a dictionary of military slang, published in 1942, in the library at The Pentagon gives this definition:\n\nJeep: A four-wheel drive vehicle of one-half- to one-and-one-half-ton capacity for reconnaissance or other army duty. A term applied to the bantam-cars, and occasionally to other motor vehicles (U.S.A.) in the Air Corps, the Link Trainer; in the armored forces, the ½-ton command vehicle. Also referred to as \"any small plane, helicopter, or gadget.\"\n\nThis definition is supported by the use of the term \"jeep carrier\" to refer to the Navy's small escort carriers.\n\nEarly in 1941, Willys-Overland demonstrated the vehicle's off-road capability by having it drive up the steps of the United States Capitol, driven by Willys test driver Irving \"Red\" Haussman, who had recently heard soldiers at Fort Holabird calling it a \"jeep.\" When asked by syndicated columnist Katharine Hillyer for the Washington Daily News (or by a bystander, according to another account) what it was called, Irving answered, \"It's a jeep.\"\n\nKatharine Hillyer's article was published nationally on February 19, 1941, and included a picture of the vehicle with the caption:\n\nLAWMAKERS TAKE A RIDE- With Senator Meade, of New York, at the wheel, and Representative Thomas, of New Jersey, sitting beside him, one of the Army's new scout cars, known as \"jeeps\" or \"quads\", climbs up the Capitol steps in a demonstration yesterday. Soldiers in the rear seat for gunners were unperturbed.\n\nAlthough the term was also military slang for vehicles that were untried or untested, this exposure caused all other jeep references to fade, leaving the 4x4 with the name.\n\nThe original trademark brand-name application was filed in February 1943 by Willys-Overland. It is also used as a generic term as the lowercase \"jeep\" for vehicles inspired by the Jeep that are suitable for use on rough terrain. \n\nWorld War II Jeeps\n\nFinal production version Jeeps built by Willys-Overland were the Model MB, while those built by Ford were the Model GPW (Ggovernment vehicle, P designated the 80\" wheelbase, and W \n the Willys engine design). There were subtle differences between the two. The versions produced by Ford had every component (including bolt heads) marked with an \"F\". Willys also followed the Ford pattern by stamping its name into some body parts, but stopped this in 1942. The cost per vehicle trended upwards as the war continued from the price under the first contract from Willys at US$648.74 (Ford's was $782.59 per unit). Willys-Overland and Ford, under the direction of Charles E. Sorensen (Vice-President of Ford during World War II), produced about 640,000 Jeeps towards the war effort, which accounted for approximately 18% of all the wheeled military vehicles built in the U.S. during the war. \n\nJeeps were used by every service of the U.S. military. An average of 145 were supplied to every Army infantry regiment. Jeeps were used for many purposes, including cable laying, saw milling, as firefighting pumpers, field ambulances, tractors and, with suitable wheels, would even run on railway tracks. An amphibious jeep, the model GPA, or \"seep\" (Sea Jeep) was built for Ford in modest numbers but it could not be considered a huge success—it was neither a good off-road vehicle nor a good boat. As part of the war effort, nearly 30% of all Jeep production was supplied to Great Britain and to the Soviet Red Army.\n\nPost-war military Jeeps\n\nThe Jeep has been widely imitated around the world, including in France by Delahaye and by Hotchkiss et Cie (after 1954, Hotchkiss manufactured Jeeps under license from Willys), and in Japan by Mitsubishi Motors and Toyota. The utilitarian good looks of the original Jeep have been hailed by industrial designers and museum curators alike. The Museum of Modern Art described the Jeep as a masterpiece of functionalist design, and has periodically exhibited the Jeep as part of its collection. Ernie Pyle called the Jeep, along with the Coleman G.I. Pocket Stove, \"the two most important pieces of noncombat equipment ever developed.\" Jeeps became even more famous following the war, as they became available on the surplus market. Some ads claimed to offer \"Jeeps still in the factory crate.\" This legend persisted for decades, despite the fact that Jeeps were never shipped from the factory in crates (although Ford did \"knock down\" Jeeps for easier shipping, which may have perpetuated the myth ).\n\nThe Jeepney is a unique type of taxi or bus created in the Philippines. The first Jeepneys were military-surplus MBs and GPWs, left behind in the war-ravaged country following World War II and Filipino independence. Jeepneys were built from Jeeps by lengthening and widening the rear \"tub\" of the vehicle, allowing them to carry more passengers. Over the years, Jeepneys have become the most ubiquitous symbol of the modern Philippines, even as they have been decorated in more elaborate and flamboyant styles by their owners. Most Jeepneys today are scratch-built by local manufacturers, using different powertrains. Some are even constructed from stainless steel.\n\nIn the United States military, the Jeep has been supplanted by a number of vehicles (e.g. Ford's M151 MUTT) of which the latest is the Humvee.\n\nThe CJ-V35/U\n\nAfter World War II, Jeep began to experiment with new designs, including a model that could drive under water. On February 1, 1950, contract N8ss-2660 was approved for 1,000 units \"especially adapted for general reconnaissance or command communications\" and \"constructed for short period underwater operation such as encountered in landing and fording operations.\" The engine was modified with a snorkel system so that the engine could properly breathe under water. \n\nThe M715\n\nIn 1965, Jeep developed the M715 1.25-ton army truck, a militarized version of the civilian J-series Jeep truck, which served extensively in the Vietnam War. It had heavier full-floating axles and a foldable, vertical, flat windshield. Today, it serves other countries, and is still being produced by Kia under license.\n\nThe CJ (\"Civilian Jeep\") series began in 1945 with the CJ-2A, followed by the CJ-3B in 1953. These early Jeeps are commonly referred to as \"flatfenders\" because their front fenders were flat across the front, the same as their military precedents, the Willys MB and identical Ford GPW models. The CJ-4 exists only as a 1951 prototype, and is the \"missing\" link between the flat-fendered CJ-2A and CJ-3B and the round-fendered CJ-5 first introduced in 1955.\n\nThe Jeep brand\n\nThe brand has gone through many owners, starting with Willys, which produced the first Civilian Jeep (CJ) in 1945. As the only company that continually produced Jeep vehicles after the war, in June 1950 Willys-Overland was granted the privilege of owning the name \"Jeep\" as a registered trademark. Willys was sold to Kaiser Motors in 1953, which became Kaiser-Jeep in 1963. American Motors Corporation (AMC) purchased Kaiser's money-losing Jeep operations in 1970. The utility vehicles complemented AMC's passenger car business by sharing components, achieving volume efficiencies, as well as capitalizing on Jeep's international and government markets.\n\nThe French automaker Renault began investing in AMC in 1979. However, by 1987, the automobile markets had changed and even Renault itself was experiencing financial troubles. At the same time, Chrysler Corporation wanted to capture the Jeep brand, as well as other assets of AMC. Chrysler bought out AMC in 1987, shortly after the Jeep CJ-7 was replaced with the AMC-designed Jeep Wrangler or YJ. Chrysler merged with Daimler-Benz in 1998 to form DaimlerChrysler. DaimlerChrysler eventually sold most of their interest in Chrysler to a private equity company in 2007. Chrysler and the Jeep division operated under Chrysler Group LLC, until December 15, 2014, when the name was changed to FCA US LLC.\n\nJeeps have been built under licence by various manufacturers around the world, including Mahindra in India, EBRO in Spain, and several in South America. Mitsubishi built more than 30 different Jeep models in Japan between 1953 and 1998. Most of them were based on the CJ-3B model of the original Willys-Kaiser design. \n\nToledo, Ohio has been the headquarters of the Jeep brand since its inception, and the city has always been proud of this heritage. Although no longer produced in the same Toledo Complex as the World War II originals, two streets in the vicinity of the old plant are named Willys Parkway and Jeep Parkway. The Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Cherokee are built in the city currently, in separate facilities, not far from the site of the original Willys-Overland plant.\n\nAmerican Motors set up the first automobile-manufacturing joint venture in the People's Republic of China on January 15, 1984. The result was Beijing Jeep Corporation, Ltd., in partnership with Beijing Automobile Industry Corporation, to produce the Jeep Cherokee (XJ) in Beijing. Manufacture continued after Chrysler's buyout of AMC. This joint venture is now part of DaimlerChrysler and DaimlerChrysler China Invest Corporation. The original 1984 XJ model was updated and called the \"Jeep 2500\" toward the end of its production that ended after 2005. \n\nA division of FCA US LLC, the most recent successor company to the Jeep brand, now holds trademark status on the name \"Jeep\" and the distinctive 7-slot front grille design. The original 9-slot grille associated with all World War II jeeps was designed by Ford for their GPW, and because it weighed less than the original \"Slat Grille\" of Willys (an arrangement of flat bars), was incorporated into the \"standardized jeep\" design.\n\nThe history of the HMMWV (Humvee) has ties with Jeep. In 1971, Jeep's Defense and Government Products Division was turned into AM General, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Motors Corporation, which also owned Jeep. In 1979, while still owned by American Motors, AM General began the first steps toward designing the Humvee. AM General also continued manufacturing the two-wheel-drive DJ, which Jeep created in 1953. The General Motors Hummer and Chrysler Jeep have been waging battle in U.S. courts over the right to use seven slots in their respective radiator grilles. Chrysler Jeep claims it has the exclusive rights to use the seven vertical slits since it is the sole remaining assignee of the various companies since Willys gave their postwar jeeps seven slots instead of Ford's nine-slot design for the Jeep.\n\nOff-road abilities\n\nJeep advertising has always emphasized the vehicle's off-road capabilities. Today, the Wrangler is one of the few remaining four-wheel-drive vehicles with solid front and rear axles. These axles are known for their durability, strength, and articulation. New Wranglers come with a Dana 44 rear differential and a Dana 30 front differential. The upgraded Rubicon model of the JK Wrangler is equipped with electronically activated locking differentials, Dana 44 axles front and rear with 4.10 gears, a 4:1 transfer case, electronic sway bar disconnect and heavy duty suspension.\n\nAnother benefit of solid axle vehicles is they tend to be easier and cheaper to \"lift\" with aftermarket suspension systems. This increases the distance between the axle and chassis of the vehicle. By increasing this distance, larger tires can be installed, which will increase the ground clearance, allowing it to traverse even larger and more difficult obstacles. In addition to higher ground clearance, many owners aim to increase suspension articulation or \"flex\" to give their Jeeps greatly improved off-road capabilities. Good suspension articulation keeps all four wheels in contact with the ground and maintains traction.\n\nUseful features of the smaller Jeeps are their short wheelbases, narrow frames, and ample approach, breakover, and departure angles, allowing them to fit into places where full-size four-wheel drives have difficulty.\n\nOwnership\n\n* 1944–1953: Willys-Overland\n* 1953–1964: Kaiser-Jeep (calling themselves \"Willys Motors\")\n* 1964–1970: Kaiser-Jeep\n* 1970–1987: AMC (w/ Renault controlling production in 1986)\n* 1987–1998: Chrysler\n* 1998–2007: DaimlerChrysler AG\n* 2007–2009: Chrysler LLC\n* 2009–2013: Chrysler Group LLC - Fiat Group Automobiles\n* 2014–present: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles\n\nJeep model list\n\nHistorical and military models\n\n* 1940 Bantam Pilot—Prototype\n* 1940 Bantam BRC-60—Prototype\n* 1940 Willys Quad—Prototype\n* 1940 Ford Pygmy—Prototype\n* 1940 Budd Ford—Prototype\n* 1941 Ford GP\n* 1941 Willys MA\n* 1941 Bantam BRC-40\n* 1941-1944 Willys MT \"Super Jeep\"—Prototype\n* 1942 Willys MB (slat grille)\n* 1942–1945 Willys MB (stamped grille)\n* 1942–1945 Ford GPW\n* 1942–1943 Ford GPA\n* 1943 Willys WAC \"Jeeplet\"—Prototype\n* 1944 Willys MLW-1—Prototype (never finished)\n* 1944 Willys MLW-2—Prototype\n* 1946–1965 Willys Jeep Wagon\n* 1947–1965 Willys Jeep Truck\n* 1948–1950 VJ—Willys Jeepster\n* 1950 X-98—Prototype\n* 1953 BC Bobcat—Prototype\n\n* 1950–1952 M38 (MC)\n* 1952–1957 M38A1 (MD)\n** M170 Ambulance\n* 1952–1957 M38A1C\n* 1955 M38A1D\n* 1958-1960 Willys Super Mule-Prototype\n* 1959–1982 M151\n** 1960–1964 M151\n*** M718 Ambulance\n** 1964–1970 M151A1\n** M151A1C Weapons Platform\n** 1970–1982 M151A2\n*** M718A1 Ambulance\n*** M825 Weapons Platform\n* 1960–1968 Jeep M606\n* 1956–1965 Jeep Forward Control (Military Variations)\n** M676\n** M677\n** M678\n** M679\n* 1967–1969 Kaiser Jeep M715—based upon the civilian Jeep Gladiator\n\nJeep Forward Control, Jeep Jeepster, & Jeep FJ\n\n* 1948–1950 Willys VJ Jeepster \n* 1948–1949 VJ2 Jeepster \n* 1949–1951 VJ3 Jeepster \n* 1949 Alcoa Aluminum-bodied Jeepster Coupe (prototype) \n* 1962 The Brazilian Jeepster (prototype) \n* Jeepster Safari (concept) \n\n(Forward Control Jeep)\n* 1956–1965 Jeep Forward Control\n** FC-150\n** FC-160—Spain, India\n** FC-170\n** M676\n** M677\n** M678\n** M679\n\n(Fleetvan Jeep)\n* 1961–1975 Fleetvan\n** FJ-3\n** FJ-3A\n** FJ-6\n** FJ-6A\n** FJ-8\n** FJ-9\n\n(Commando)\n* 1966–1971 C101—Jeepster Commando\n** Hurst Jeepster (only 100 produced)\n** Hurst Half Cab\n** Revival Jeepster\n** Commando convertible\n** open body roadster\n* 1972–1973 C104—Jeep Commando\n** Commando Half Cab\n\nJeep CJ\n\n(Civilian Jeep)\n\n* 1944 CJ-1\n* 1944–1945 CJ-2\n* 1945–1949 CJ-2A\n* 1949–1953 CJ-3A \n* 1950 CJ-V35\n* 1950 CJ-4—Prototype\n* 1950 CJ-4M—Prototype\n* 1950 CJ-4MA—Prototypes\n* 1953–1968 CJ-3B\n* 1954–1983 CJ-5\n** 1961–1963 Tuxedo Park Mark III\n** 1969 Camper\n** 1969 462\n** 1970 Renegade I\n** 1971 Renegade II\n** 1972–1983 Renegade Models\n** 1973 Super Jeep\n** 1977–1979 Golden Eagle\n** 1977 Golden Eagle California Edition (available only through California AMC Dealerships)\n** 1980 Golden Hawk\n** 1979 Silver Anniversary CJ-5 Limited Edition (estimated 1,000 built)\n* 1955–1975 CJ-6\n* 1955–1968 CJ-3B Long—Spain\n* 1960–1977 Jeep Rural—Brazil\n* 1964–1967 CJ-5A/CJ-6A Tuxedo Park\n* 1976–1986 CJ-7\n** 1982 Jamboree Limited Edition (2500 units)\n* 1979 CJ-5 Silver Anniversary Limited Edition (estimated 1,000 built)\n* 1981–1985 CJ-8 Scrambler\n* 1981–1985 CJ-10\n\nJeep DJ\n\n(Dispatcher Jeep)\n* 1955 USAF DJ\n* 1955–1964 DJ-3A\n** Surrey Gala Package\n* 1965–1975 DJ-5\n* 1965–1973 DJ-6\n* 1967–1975 DJ-5A\n* 1970–1972 DJ-5B\n* 1973–1974 DJ-5C\n* 1975–1976 DJ-5D\n* 1976 DJ-5E Electruck\n* 1977–1978 DJ-5F\n* 1979 DJ-5G\n* 1982 DJ-5L\n\nJeep SJ\n\n(Full Size Jeep)\n\n* 1963–1983 SJ Wagoneer\n* 1963–1986 J-Series\n** Jeep Gladiator\n** Pioneer\n** Jeep Honcho\n** 1977–1979 Jeep Golden Eagle\n** 1980–1989 Laredo\n** 10-4\n* 1966–1969 SJ Super Wagoneer\n* 1967–1969 Kaiser Jeep M715- based upon the civilian Jeep Gladiator\n* 1974–1983 SJ Cherokee\n** S\n** 1978–1983 Limited\n** Classic\n** 1976–1983 Chief\n** sport\n** Pioneer\n** 1980–1983 Laredo\n** 1977–1979 Golden Eagle\n* 1984–1991 SJ Jeep Grand Wagoneer\n** 1991 Final Edition\n\nJeep Cherokee (XJ)\n\n* 1984–2001 XJ Cherokee\n** 1984–2001 Base \"SE\"\n** 1984–1988 Chief\n** 1984–1990 Pioneer\n** 1985–1992 Laredo\n** 1987–1992/1998-2001 Limited\n** 1988–2001 Sport\n** 1991–1992 Briarwood\n** 1993–1997 Country\n** 1996–2001 Classic\n** 2000 Freedom\n** 2001 60th Anniversary Edition\n* 1984–1990 XJ Wagoneer\n** 1984–1985 Broughwood\n** 1984–1990 Limited\n\nJeep Comanche\n\n(Metric Ton Jeep Comanche)\n* 1986–1992 MJ Comanche\n** 1986 Custom\n** 1986 X\n** 1986 XLS\n** 1987–1992 Base SE\n** 1987–1990 Chief\n** 1987–1992 Laredo\n** 1987–1990 Pioneer\n** 1987–1992 SporTruck\n** 1987–1992 Eliminator\n\nJeep Wrangler\n\n(Jeep Wrangler)\n\n* 1987–1995 Wrangler YJ\n** 1991–1993 Renegade\n** 1988–1995 Wrangler Long—Venezuela\n** 1995 Wrangler Rio Grande\n\n* 1997–2006 Wrangler TJ\n** 2002 TJ Se, X, Sport, Sahara models\n** 2003 TJ Rubicon, Rubicon Tomb Raider Edition, Sahara, Sport, X, Se models, Freedom Edition\n** 2004–2006 TJ Long Wheel Base (LJ) Unlimited(15\" Longer than a standard TJ) Rubicon, Sport, X, Se models\n** 2004–2005 Willys Edition (2004–1997 made, 2005–2001 made)\n** 2004 Columbia Edition\n** 2005 Rubicon Sahara Unlimited TJ LWB (LJ) (1000 made)\n** 2006 Golden Eagle Edition, 65 Year Anniversary Edition (1,675 Black 65th Anniversary Editions made)\n\n* 2007–2009 Wrangler JK\n** 2007–2009 JK Rubicon, Sahara, X\n** 2010 JK Rubicon, Sahara, Mountain, Islander, Sport\n** 2011 Oscar Mike Military Edition (200 made) \n** 2011 Mojave Edition\n** 2011 Call of Duty: Black Ops Edition\n** 2011 70th Anniversary Edition\n** 2013 Rubicon 10th Anniversary Edition\n** 2014 Willys Wheeler Edition\n\nZJ, WJ, and WK models\n\n(Jeep Grand Cherokee)\n\n* 1993–1998 ZJ Grand Cherokee\n** 1993–1995 Base SE\n** 1993–1998 Laredo\n** 1993–1998 Limited\n** 1995–1997 Orvis \"Limited Edition\"\n** 1997–1998 TSi\n** 1998 5.9 Limited\n* 1993 ZJ Jeep Grand Wagoneer\n* 1999–2004 WJ Grand Cherokee\n** 2002–2003 Sport\n** 2002–2004 Special edition\n** 2002–2004 Overland\n** 2004 Columbia Edition\n* Jeep Grand Cherokee: Five-passenger family-oriented SUV\n** WK: Grand Cherokee, 2005–2010 (\"WK\" is the designator for the 2005–2010 Grand Cherokee, marks the beginning of the -K designation compared to the -J designation)\n\nXK models\n\n* 2006–2010 Jeep Commander\n** 2006 Base\n** 2007–2010 Sport\n** 2006–2010 Limited\n** 2007–2009 Overland\n\nKJ models\n\n* 2002–2007 Jeep Liberty (Jeep Cherokee in Europe)\n** Sport\n** Limited\n** Renegade\n** 2003 Freedom Edition\n** 2004–05 Rocky Mountain Edition\n** 2004 Columbia Edition\n** 2006 65th Anniversary Edition\n** 2007 Latitude Edition(replaced Renegade)\n\nCurrent models\n\nThe Jeep brand currently produces five models, but 9 vehicles are under the brand name or use the Jeep logo:\n*Jeep Renegade BU: Subcompact Sport Utility Vehicle\n*Jeep Wrangler\n**JK: Standard wheelbase Compact Sport utility vehicle, 2-door version\n**TJL:Compact pickup truck, 2-door version;Produced by AAV. A similar version is produced by AEV as the AEV Brute, but with the Jeep logo. \n**Brute Double Cab:Compact pickup truck, 4-door version;Produced by American Expedition Vehicles\n**JK Unlimited: Long wheelbase Mid-Size sport utility vehicle, 4-door version\n**J8: Mid-Size military sport utility vehicle;Produced by AIL, AAV, and AEV.\n*Jeep Grand Cherokee: Mid-size sport utility vehicle\n*Jeep Compass: Compact sport utility vehicle\n*Jeep Patriot: Compact sport utility vehicle\n*Jeep Cherokee KL: Mid-size sport utility vehicle\n\nFuture models\n\n*Jeep Wagoneer Full-Size SUV\n\nConcept vehicles\n\n* 1952 CJ Coiler: Experimental design for an all independent suspension\n* 1958 DJ-3A Pickup: Prototype pickup truck version of the DJ-3A\n* 1958 Jeep Creep: Prototype utility vehicle\n* 1959 Jeep J-100 Malibu and Berkeley: Later developed into the Wagoneer\n* 1960 Jeep Wide-Trac: Concept for developing a low-cost vehicle for third-world countries\n* 1963 Jeep XM-200: J200 based concept for developing a low-cost vehicle for third-world countries\n* 1965 Jeep/Renault Model H: A light 4x4 prototype based on the Renault 16\n* 1966 FWD Concept Jeepvair: Similar to the Model H but with a Chevrolet Corvair powertrain\n* 1970 XJ001\n* 1970 XJ002\n* 1971 Jeep Cowboy: A design study using AMC's \"compact\" automobile platform \n* 1977 Jeep II\n* 1979 Jeep Jeepster II\n* 1986 Cherokee Targa: A two-door Cherokee convertible (later revised as Jeep Freedom show car)\n* 1987 Comanche Thunderchief: This vehicle was put into production later as the Comanche Eliminator\n* 1989 Jeep Concept 1: Evolved into the ZJ Grand Cherokee\n* 1989 Jeep Rubicon Wrangler: This vehicle was later put in production\n* 1990 Jeep JJ: Essentially what would later be called the Icon\n* 1990 Jeep Freedom: A revised Cherokee Targa\n* 1991 Jeep Wagoneer 2000: A design study be the next generation Wagoneer, but was not put into production\n* 1993 Jeep Ecco\n* 1997 Jeep Cherokee Casablanca: A special edition of Cherokee, never produced\n* 1997 Jeep Wrangler Ultimate Rescue: A tuned version of a regular TJ Wrangler developed for SEMA show\n* 1997 Fender Jeep Wrangler\n* 1997 Jeep Dakar: A fused version of a XJ Cherokee and TJ Wrangler\n* 1997 Jeep Icon: A design study for the next-generation Wrangler\n* 1999 Jeep Journey\n* 1999 Jeep Jeepster Concept\n* 2000 Jeep Cherokee Total Exposure\n* 2000 Jeep Varsity: Subsequently put into production as the Compass\n* 2000 Jeep Commander Concept: Subsequently put into production as the XK\n* 2000 Jeep Willys\n* 2001 Jeep Willys2\n* 2002 Jeep Wrangler Tabasco\n* 2002 Jeep Wrangler Patriot: A special decal package for the Wrangler X/Sport\n* 2002 Jeep Wrangler Mountain Biker\n* 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee (WJ) Concierge\n* 2004 Jeep Treo\n* 2004 Jeep Rescue\n* 2004 Jeep Liberator CRD\n* 2005 Jeep Hurricane: The 4-wheel steering system allows the vehicle to have both a zero turning circle, and \"crab\" sideways. Its engine was later put in the Grand Cherokee (WK) SRT-8\n* 2005 Jeep Gladiator Concept\n* 2005 Jeep Aggressor (the Rezo)\n* 2007 Jeep Trailhawk\n* 2008 Jeep Renegade\n* 2010 Jeep J8\n* 2010 Jeep Nukizer: Design study inspired by the Military Kaiser M-715\n* 2011 Jeep Wrangler JK-8 Independence: taking cues from the 1980s Scrambler CJ-8\n* 2011 Jeep Wrangler Pork Chop\n* 2011 Jeep Compass Canyon: uses a 2 1/8 inch lift\n* 2011 Jeep Cherokee Overland\n* 2012 Jeep Mighty FC: inspired by the 1956 to 1965 Forward Control vehicles Jeep sold\n* 2012 Jeep J-12 Concept: recalling the 1962-1971 Gladiator pickups\n* 2013 Jeep Wrangler Mopar Recon\n* 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk EcoDiesel\n* 2013 Jeep Wrangler Stitch\n* 2013 Jeep Wrangler Flattop: featuring a one-piece, windowless hardtop\n* 2014 Jeep Wrangler Level Red\n* 2014 Jeep Cherokee Dakar\n* 2014 Jeep Wrangler MOJO\n* 2015 Jeep Chief\n* 2015 Jeep Wrangler Africa\n* 2015 Jeep Wrangler Red Rock Responder\n* 2015 Jeep Staff Car: a tribute to Jeep's military history starting with WWII\n\nJeeps around the world\n\nJeeps have been built and/or assembled around the world by various companies. \n* Argentina – IKA Jeeps 1956–current; now owned by Chrysler \n* Australia – Willys Motors Australia – 1940s–1980s \n* Brazil – Willys Overland do Brasil, purchased by Ford to become Ford do Brasil – 1957–1985 and the Troller T4 is a fiberglass bodied Jeep version built in Brazil. Troller was purchased by Ford do Brasil in 2007.\n* Burma/Myanmar – Two Burmese companies produce unlicensed copies of jeeps; Myanmar Jeeps and Chin Dwin Star Jeeps.\n* Canada – Kaiser Jeep – 1959–1969 \n* China – Beijing Jeep Corporation – 1983 to 2009 as Beijing-Benz DaimlerChrysler Automotive. Fiat-Chrysler plans to re-open Jeep production in China through joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group (GAIG). \n* Colombia – Willys Colombia – at least until 1999 \n* Egypt – Arab Organization for Industrialization subsidiary Arab American Vehicles based in Cairo produces the Jeep Cherokee; the open-top, Wrangler-based Jeep AAV TJL.\n* France – Hotchkiss and Auverland – 1952–1962 \n* India – Mahindra & Mahindra Limited – 1960s-current \n* Iran – Pars Khodro, ShahBaaz, Sahra, and Ahoo – ShahBaaz based on DJ series, Sahra based on Jeep Wrangler and CJ series, and Ahoo based on Wagoneer\n* Israel – Automotive Industries which produces the AIL Storm (Sufa) series of Jeep Wrangler-derivatives\n* Italy – 1950s \n* Japan – Mitsubishi Jeeps – 1953–1998 \n* Korea – Asia Motors, Ltd, Dong A Motors (SsangYong Motor Company) and Kia. (don't use Jeep name) – 1980s-current \n* Mexico – VAM Jeeps – 1946–1987 \n* Netherlands –NEKAF-JEEP Nederlandse Kaiser-Frazer – 1954-1990s \n* Philippines – Jeepneys; MD Juan Willys MB.; \"E-jeepneys\" or minibuses, LSV (low-speed vehicles) which uses electricity. \n* Portugal – Bravia Sarl – 1960s to 1980s This Lisbon company assembled a number of Kaiser Jeep M-201 models from several Spanish EBRO and VIASA parts built to order for the USAF airfields & the US Army based at the time in Portugal, of the 500 vehicles made, most had American running gear. \n* Spain – Vehículos Industriales y Agrícolas, S.A (VIASA), absorbed by Ebro trucks, and later sold to Nissan – 1960-1990s \n* Turkey – Tuzla – 1954-1970s \n* Venezuela- Valencia Carabobo 1962–2011, 1962 Tejerias Edo Aragua Willys de Venezuela, S.A, 1979–2011 Ensambladora Carabobo C.A Valencia Edo Carabobo\n\nJeep apparel and sponsorships\n\nJeep is also a brand of apparel of outdoor lifestyle sold under license. It is reported that there are between 600 and 1,500 such outlets in China, vastly outnumbering the number of Jeep auto dealers in the country. \n\nIn April 2012 Jeep signed a shirt sponsorship deal worth €35m ($45m) with Italian football club Juventus. \n\nIn August 2014 Jeep signed a sponsorship deal with Greek football club AEK Athens F.C..", "The Rubicon (Latin: Rŭ́bĭcō, Italian: Rubicone) is both the name of a shallow river in northeastern Italy, just south of Ravenna, and the name historically given to a river that was famously crossed by Julius Caesar in 49 B.C. While it has not been proven, historians generally agree that the two rivers are indeed one and the same; this was not always the case.\n\nThe modern-day river runs around 80 kilometers, from the Apennine Mountains to the Adriatic Sea through the southern Emilia-Romagna region, between the towns of Rimini and Cesena. The Latin word ' comes from the adjective ', meaning \"red\". The river was so named because its waters are colored red by mud deposits.\n\nHistory\n\nDuring the Roman republic, the river Rubicon marked the boundary between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul to the north-east and Italy proper (controlled directly by Rome and its socii (allies)) to the south. On the north-western side, the border was marked by the river Arno, a much wider and more important waterway, which flows westward from the Apennine Mountains (its source is not far from Rubicon's source) into the Tyrrhenian Sea.\n\nGovernors of Roman provinces were appointed promagistrates with imperium (roughly, \"right to command\") in their province(s). The governor would then serve as the general of the Roman army within the territory of his province(s). Roman law specified that only the elected magistrates (consuls and praetors) could hold imperium within Italy. Any promagistrate who entered Italy at the head of his troops forfeited his imperium and was therefore no longer legally allowed to command troops.\n\nExercising imperium when forbidden by the law was a capital offense. Furthermore, obeying the commands of a general who did not legally possess imperium was also a capital offense. If a general entered Italy while exercising command of an army, both the general and his soldiers became outlaws and were automatically condemned to death. Generals were thus obliged to disband their armies before entering Italy.\n\nJulius Caesar\n\nIn 49 B.C., perhaps on January 10, C. Julius Caesar led a single legion, Legio XIII Gemina, south over the Rubicon from Cisalpine Gaul to Italy to make his way to Rome. In doing so, he (deliberately) broke the law on imperium and made armed conflict inevitable. Suetonius depicts Caesar as undecided as he approached the river, and attributes the crossing to a supernatural apparition. It was reported that Caesar dined with Sallust, Hirtius, Oppius, Lucius Balbus and Sulpicus Rufus on the night after his famous crossing into Italy January 10.\n\nAccording to Suetonius, Caesar uttered the famous phrase ālea iacta est (\"the die has been cast\"). The phrase \"crossing the Rubicon\" has survived to refer to any individual or group committing itself irrevocably to a risky or revolutionary course of action, similar to the modern phrase \"passing the point of no return.\" Caesar's decision for swift action forced Pompey, the lawful consuls (C. Claudius Marcellus and L. Cornelius Lentulus Crus), and a large part of the Roman Senate to flee Rome in fear. Caesar's subsequent victory in Caesar's civil war ensured that punishment for the infraction would never be rendered. This took place during the time of the Roman Republic.\n\nLocation, confusion and resolution\n\nAfter Caesar's crossing, the Rubicon was a geographical feature of note until about 42 B.C., when Octavian merged the Province of Gallia Cisalpina into Italia and the river ceased to be the extreme northern border of Italy. The decision robbed the Rubicon of its importance, and the name gradually disappeared from the local toponymy.\n\nAfter the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and during the first centuries of the Middle Ages, the coastal plain between Ravenna and Rimini was flooded many times. The Rubicon, like other small rivers of the region, often changed its course during this period. For this reason, and to supply fields with water after the revival of agriculture in the late Middle Ages, during the 14th and 15th centuries, hydraulic works were built to prevent other floods and to regulate streams. As a result of this work, these rivers started to flow in straight courses, as they do today.\n\nWith the revival of interest in the topography of ancient Roman Italy during the 15th century, the matter of identifying the Rubicon in the contemporary landscape became a topic of debate among Renaissance humanists. To support the claim of the Pisciatello, a spurious inscription forbidding the passage of an army in the name of the Roman people and Senate, the so-called Sanctio, was placed by a bridge on that river. The Quattrocento humanist Flavio Biondo was deceived by it; the actual inscription is conserved in the Museo Archeologico, Cesena. As the centuries went by, several rivers of the Adriatic coast between Ravenna and Rimini have at times been said to correspond to the ancient Rubicon.\n\nThe Via Aemilia (National Road № 9) still follows its original Roman course as it runs between hills and plain; it would have been the obvious course to follow as it was the only major Roman road east of the Apennine Mountains leading to and from the Po Valley. Attempts to deduce the original course of the Rubicon can be made only by studying written documents and other archaeological evidence such as Roman milestones, which indicate the distance between the ancient river and the nearest Roman towns.\n\nThe starting point of a Roman road (some kind of \"mile zero\"), from which distances were counted, was always the crossing between the Cardo and the Decumanus, the two principal streets in every Roman town, running north-south and east-west respectively. In a section of the Tabula Peutingeriana, an ancient document showing the network of Roman roads, a river in north-eastern Italy labeled \"fl. Rubicū\" is shown at a position 12 Roman miles (18 km) north of Rimini along the coastline; 18 km is the distance between Rimini and a place called \"Ad Confluentes,\" drawn west of the Rubicon, on the Via Aemilia. However, the river-bed shape observed in Pisciatello and the Rubicone river in the present day, well below Roman age soil layers, is likely to indicate that any possible course modification of rivers could have occurred only very close to the coastline, and therefore only slight.\n\nFurthermore, the features of the present-day Rubicone river (North-South course, orthogonal to the Emilia road) and the Emilia road itself (a straight reach before and after the crossing, and a turn just passing by San Giovanni in Compito, so marking a possible administrative boundary) are common to typical geographical oriented limits of Roman age, being what made this a clue of actual identification of the present-day Rubicone River with Fiumicino. \n\nIn 1933, after various efforts that spanned centuries, the Fiumicino, which crossed the town of Savignano di Romagna (now Savignano sul Rubicone), was officially identified as the former Rubicon. The final proof confirming this theory came only in 1991, when three Italian scholars (Pignotti, Ravagli, and Donati), after a comparison between the Tabula Peutingeriana and other ancient sources, (including Cicero), showed that the distance from Rome to the Rubicon River was 200 Roman miles. Key elements of their work are:\n* The locality of San Giovanni in Compito (now a western quarter of Savignano) has to be identified with the old Ad Confluentes. (compitum means \"road junction,\" and is synonymous with confluentes.)\n* The distance between Ad Confluentes and Rome, according to the Tabula Peutingeriana, is 201 Roman miles.\n* The distance from today's San Giovanni in Compito and the Fiumicino river is 1 Roman mile (1.48 km).\n\nPresent\n\n \n\nToday there is very little evidence of Caesar’s historical passage. Savignano sul Rubicone is an industrial town and the river has become one of the most polluted in the Emilia-Romagna region. Exploitation of underground waters along the upper course of the Rubicon has reduced its flow—it was a minor river even during Roman times (“parvi Rubiconis ad undas” as Lucan said, roughly translated \"to the waves of [the] tiny Rubicon\")—and has since lost its natural route, except in its upper course between low and woody hills.\n\nNotes" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "The_Wizard_of_Oz_(1939_film).txt" ], "title": [ "The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical comedy-drama fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the most well-known and commercially successful adaptation based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. The film stars Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale. The co-stars are Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Frank Morgan, Billie Burke, and Margaret Hamilton, with Charley Grapewin, Pat Walshe and Clara Blandick, Terry the dog (billed as Toto), and the Singer Midgets as the Munchkins. \n\nNotable for its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score, and unusual characters, over the years, it has become an icon of American popular culture. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but lost to Gone with the Wind. It did win in two other categories, including Best Original Song for \"Over the Rainbow\" and Best Original Score by Herbert Stothart. However, the film was a box office disappointment on its initial release, earning only $3,017,000 on a $2,777,000 budget, despite receiving largely positive reviews. It was MGM's most expensive production at that time, and did not completely recoup the studio's investment and turn a profit until theatrical re-releases starting in 1949. \n\nThe 1956 broadcast television premiere of the film on CBS reintroduced the film to the wider public and eventually made the presentation an annual tradition, making it one of the best known films in movie history. The film was named the most-viewed motion picture on television syndication by the Library of Congress, which also included the film in its National Film Registry in its inaugural year in 1989. Designation on the registry calls for efforts to preserve it for being \"culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant\". It is also one of the few films on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. \n\nThe Wizard of Oz is often ranked on best-movie lists in critics' and public polls. It is the source of many quotes referenced in modern popular culture. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming (who left production to take over direction on the troubled Gone with the Wind production). Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but uncredited contributions were made by others. The songs were written by Edgar \"Yip\" Harburg (lyrics) and Harold Arlen (music). The musical score and the incidental music were composed by Herbert Stothart, who won an Academy Award for his work.\n\nPlot\n\nThe film starts in sepia-toned Kansas. Dorothy Gale lives with her dog Toto on the farm of her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Dorothy gets in trouble with a mean neighbor, Miss Almira Gulch, when Toto bites her. However, Dorothy's family and the farmhands are all too busy to pay attention to her. Miss Gulch arrives with permission from the sheriff to have Toto euthanized. She takes him away, but he escapes and returns to Dorothy, who then decides to run away from home.\n\nThey meet Professor Marvel, a phony but kindly fortune teller, who realizes Dorothy has run away and tricks her via his crystal ball into believing that Aunt Em is ill so that she must return home. She races home just as a powerful tornado strikes. Unable to get into her family's storm cellar, she seeks safety in her bedroom. A wind-blown window sash hits her in the head, knocking her out. She begins dreaming. The house is picked up and sent spinning in the air by the twister. Inside the storm outside the window, she awakens and sees an elderly lady in a chair, several farm animals, two men rowing a boat, and Miss Gulch (still pedaling her bicycle), who transforms into a cackling witch flying on a broomstick.\n\nThe farmhouse crashes in Munchkinland in the Land of Oz, where the film changes to Technicolor. Glinda the Good Witch of the North and the Munchkins welcome her as their heroine, as the house has landed on and killed the Wicked Witch of the East, leaving only her stocking feet exposed. The Wicked Witch of the West, arrives to claim her sister's ruby slippers, but Glinda transports them onto Dorothy's feet first. The Wicked Witch of the West swears revenge on Dorothy for her sister's death. Glinda tells Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, where the Wizard of Oz might be able to help her get back home.\n\nOn her way, Dorothy meets and befriends the Scarecrow, who wants a brain, the Tin Woodman, who desires a heart, and the Cowardly Lion, who is in need of courage. Dorothy invites each of them to accompany her. After encountering the Witch, who attempts to stop them, they finally reach the Emerald City. Inside, after being initially rejected, they are permitted to see the Wizard (who appears as a large head surrounded by fire). He agrees to grant their wishes when they bring him the Witch of the West's broomstick.\n\nOn their journey to the Witch's castle, the group passes through the Haunted Forest, while the Witch views their progress through a crystal ball. She sends her winged monkeys to ambush the four; they capture Dorothy and Toto. At the castle, the Witch receives a magical shock when she tries to get the slippers off Dorothy, then remembers that Dorothy must first be killed. Toto escapes and leads her friends to the castle. After ambushing three Winkie guards, they march inside wearing the stolen uniforms and free her, but the Witch and her guards chase them across the battlements and finally surround them. When the Witch sets fire to the Scarecrow, Dorothy puts out the flames with a bucket of water; the Witch is splashed and melts away. The guards rejoice that she is dead and give Dorothy the charred broomstick in gratitude.\n\nBack at the Emerald City, the Wizard delays granting their requests. Then Toto pulls back a curtain and exposes the \"Wizard\" as a normal middle-aged man who has been projecting the fearsome image; he denies Dorothy's accusation that he is a bad man, but admits to being a humbug. He then gives the Scarecrow a diploma, the Lion a medal, and the Tin Man a ticking heart-shaped watch, granting their wishes and convincing them that they have received what they sought. He then prepares to launch his hot air balloon to take Dorothy home, but Toto chases a cat, Dorothy follows, and the balloon leaves without them. Glinda arrives and tells her that she can still return home by tapping her heels together three times and repeating, \"There's no place like home\". After bidding a tearful goodbye to her friends, Dorothy taps her heels together and awakens from her dream, surrounded by her family, the farmhands, Professor Marvel, and Toto.\n\nCast\n\n* Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale\n* Frank Morgan as Professor Marvel / The Wizard / Doorman / Cabbie / Guard / Doctor\n* Ray Bolger as Hunk / Scarecrow\n* Jack Haley as Hickory / Tin Man\n* Bert Lahr as Zeke / Cowardly Lion\n* Billie Burke as Glinda the Good Witch of the North\n* Margaret Hamilton as Miss Almira Gulch / The Wicked Witch of the West\n* Clara Blandick as Aunt Em\n* Charley Grapewin as Uncle Henry\n* Pat Walshe as Nikko (the Winged Monkey King)\n* Terry as Toto\n* Mitchell Lewis as the Winkie Guard Captain (credited only in the IMAX version)\n\nMunchkins\n\n* Charlie Becker as Munchkin Mayor \n* Meinhardt Raabe as Munchkin Coroner\n* Jakob \"Jackie\" Gerlich as Lollipop Guild/Munchkin\n* Jerry Maren as Lollipop Guild/Munchkin\n* Billy Curtis as Braggart Munchkin\n* Harry Monty as Soldier/Winged Monkey\n* Mickey Carroll as Fiddler/Town Crier/Soldier\n* Karl Slover as Lead trumpeter/Soldier/\"Sleepyhead\"/Villager\n* Olga C. Nardone as the Littlest Lullaby League\n* Margaret Pellegrini as \"Sleepyhead\"\n* Ruth Duccini as a Munchkin Villager\n* The Doll Family as Munchkin Villagers\n* The Singer Midgets as the Munchkins\n\nProduction\n\nDevelopment and preproduction\n\nDevelopment of the film started when Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs showed that films adapted from popular children's stories and fairytale folklore could be successful. In January 1938, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the rights to the hugely popular novel from Samuel Goldwyn, who had toyed with the idea of making the film as a vehicle for Eddie Cantor, who was under contract to the Goldwyn studios and whom Goldwyn wanted to cast as the Scarecrow.\n\nThe script went through a number of writers and revisions before the final shooting. Originally, Mervyn LeRoy's assistant William H. Cannon submitted a brief four-page outline. Because recent fantasy films had not fared well at the box office, he recommended that the magical elements of the story be toned down or eliminated. In his outline, the Scarecrow was a man so stupid that the only way he could get employment was to dress up as a scarecrow and scare away crows in a cornfield, and the Tin Woodman was a hardened criminal so heartless he was sentenced to be placed in a tin suit for eternity. The torture of being encased in the suit had softened him and made him gentle and kind. His vision was similar to Larry Semon's 1925 film adaptation of the story, in which the magical element is absent.\n\nAfter that, LeRoy hired screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz to work on a script. Despite Mankiewicz's notorious reputation at that time for being an alcoholic, he soon delivered a 17-page draft of the Kansas scenes, and a few weeks later, he handed in a further 56 pages. Noel Langley and poet Ogden Nash were also hired to write separate versions of the story. None of the three writers involved knew anyone else was working on a script, but it was not an uncommon procedure. Nash soon delivered a four-page outline, Langley turned in a 43-page treatment and a full film script. He turned in three more, this time incorporating the songs that had been written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. No sooner had he completed it than Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf submitted a script and were brought on board to touch up the writing. They would be responsible for making sure the story stayed true to the Baum book. However, producer Arthur Freed was unhappy with their work and reassigned it to Langley. During filming, Victor Fleming and John Lee Mahin revised the script further, adding and cutting some scenes. In addition, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr are known to have written some of their own dialogue for the Kansas sequence.\n\nThe final draft of the script was completed on October 8, 1938, following numerous rewrites. All in all, it was a mish-mash of many creative minds, but Langley, Ryerson, and Woolf got the film credits. Along with the contributors already mentioned, others who assisted with the adaptation without receiving official credit include: Irving Brecher, Herbert Fields, Arthur Freed, Yip Harburg, Samuel Hoffenstein, Jack Mintz, Sid Silvers, Richard Thorpe, George Cukor, and King Vidor.\n\nIn addition, songwriter Harburg's son (and biographer) Ernie Harburg reported: \n\nThe original producers thought that a 1939 audience was too sophisticated to accept Oz as a straight-ahead fantasy; therefore, it was reconceived as a lengthy, elaborate dream sequence. Because of a perceived need to attract a youthful audience through appealing to modern fads and styles, the score originally featured a song called \"The Jitterbug\", and the script originally featured a scene with a series of musical contests. A spoiled, selfish princess in Oz had outlawed all forms of music except classical and operetta, and went up against Dorothy in a singing contest in which her swing style enchanted listeners and won the grand prize. This part was initially written for Betty Jaynes. The plan was later dropped.\n\nAnother scene, which was removed before final script approval and never filmed, was a concluding scene back in Kansas after Dorothy's return. Hunk (the Kansan counterpart to the Scarecrow) is leaving for agricultural college and extracts a promise from Dorothy to write to him. The implication of the scene is that romance will eventually develop between the two, which also may have been intended as an explanation for Dorothy's partiality for the Scarecrow over her other two companions. This plot idea was never totally dropped, but is especially noticeable in the final script when Dorothy, just before she is to leave Oz, tells the Scarecrow, \"I think I'll miss you most of all.\" \n\nIn his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Baum describes Kansas as being \"in shades of gray\". Further, Dorothy lived inside a farmhouse which had its paint blistered and washed away by the weather, giving it an air of grayness. The house and property were situated in the middle of a sweeping prairie where the grass was burnt gray by harsh sun. Aunt Em and Uncle Henry were \"gray with age\". Effectively, the use of monochrome sepia tones for the Kansas sequences was a stylistic choice that evoked the dull and gray countryside. Much attention was given to the use of color in the production, with the MGM production crew favoring some hues over others. Consequently, it took the studio's art department almost a week to settle on the final shade of yellow used for the yellow brick road. \n\nCasting\n\nMervyn LeRoy had always insisted that he wanted to cast Judy Garland to play Dorothy from the start; however, evidence suggests that negotiations occurred early in preproduction for Shirley Temple to be cast as Dorothy, on loan from 20th Century Fox. A persistent rumor also existed that Fox, in turn, promised Clark Gable and Jean Harlow as a loan from MGM. The tale is almost certainly untrue, as Harlow died in 1937, before MGM had even purchased the rights to the story. Despite this, the story appears in many film biographies (including Temple's own autobiography). The documentary The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic states that Mervyn LeRoy was under pressure to cast Temple, then the most popular child star, but at an unofficial audition, MGM musical mainstay Roger Edens listened to her sing and felt that an actress with a different style was needed. Newsreel footage is included in which Temple wisecracks, \"There's no place like home\", suggesting that she was being considered for the part at that time. A possibility is that this consideration did indeed take place, but that Gable and Harlow were not part of the proposed deal.\n\nActress Deanna Durbin, who was under contract to Universal Studios, was also considered for the part of Dorothy. Durbin, at the time, far exceeded Garland in film experience and fan base and both had co-starred in a 1936 two-reeler titled Every Sunday. The film was most notable for exhibiting Durbin's operatic style of singing against Garland's jazzier style. Durbin was possibly passed over once it was decided to bring on Betty Jaynes, also an operatic singer, to rival Garland's jazz in the aforementioned discarded subplot of the film.\n\nRay Bolger was originally cast as the Tin Man and Buddy Ebsen was to play the Scarecrow. Bolger, however, longed to play the Scarecrow, as his childhood idol Fred Stone had done on stage in 1902; with that very performance, Stone had inspired him to become a vaudevillian in the first place. Now unhappy with his role as the Tin Man (reportedly claiming, \"I'm not a tin performer; I'm fluid\"), Bolger convinced producer Mervyn LeRoy to recast him in the part he so desired. Ebsen did not object; after going over the basics of the Scarecrow's distinctive gait with Bolger (as a professional dancer, Ebsen had been cast because the studio was confident he would be up to the task of replicating the famous \"wobbly-walk\" of Stone's Scarecrow), he recorded all of his songs, went through all the rehearsals as the Tin Man, and began filming with the rest of the cast. \n\nBert Lahr was signed for the Cowardly Lion on July 25, 1938; the next month, Charles Grapewin was cast as Uncle Henry on August 12.\n\nW. C. Fields was originally chosen for the role of the Wizard, a role turned down by Ed Wynn as he thought the part was too small, but the studio ran out of patience after protracted haggling over Fields' fee; instead, another contract player, Frank Morgan, was cast on September 22.\n\nGale Sondergaard was originally cast as the Wicked Witch. She became unhappy when the witch's persona shifted from sly and glamorous (thought to emulate the wicked queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) into the familiar \"ugly hag\". She turned down the role and was replaced on October 10, 1938, just three days before filming started, by MGM contract player Margaret Hamilton. Sondergaard said in an interview for a bonus feature on the DVD that she had no regrets about turning down the part, and would go on to play a glamorous villain in Fox's version of Maurice Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird in 1940; that same year, Margaret Hamilton played a role remarkably similar to the Wicked Witch in the Judy Garland film Babes in Arms.\n\nAccording to Aljean Harmetz, when the wardrobe department was looking for a coat for Frank Morgan, they decided that they wanted a once-elegant coat that had \"gone to seed\". They went to a second-hand shop and purchased a whole rack of coats, from which Morgan, the head of the wardrobe department, and director Fleming chose one they thought had the perfect appearance of shabby gentility. One day, while he was on set wearing the coat, Morgan allegedly turned out one of the pockets and discovered a label indicating that the coat had once belonged to Oz author L. Frank Baum. Mary Mayer, a unit publicist for the film, contacted the tailor and Baum's widow, who both verified that the coat had indeed once belonged to the writer. After filming was completed, the coat was presented to Mrs. Baum. Baum biographer Michael Patrick Hearn disbelieves the story, it having been refuted by members of the Baum family, who never saw the coat or knew of the story, as well as by Margaret Hamilton, who considered it a concocted studio rumor. \n\nFilming\n\nRichard Thorpe as director\n\nFilming commenced October 13, 1938, on the MGM lot in Culver City, California, under the direction of Richard Thorpe (replacing original director Norman Taurog, who filmed only a few early Technicolor tests and was then reassigned). Thorpe initially shot about two weeks of footage (9 days, total) involving Dorothy's first encounter with the Scarecrow, as well as a number of sequences in the Wicked Witch's castle, such as Dorothy's rescue (which, though unreleased, comprises the only footage of Buddy Ebsen's Tin Man).\n\nAccording to most sources, 10 days into the shoot, Ebsen suffered a reaction to the aluminum powder makeup he wore; the powder he breathed in daily as it was applied had coated his lungs. Ebsen was hospitalized in critical condition, and subsequently was forced to leave the project; in a later interview (included on the 2005 DVD release of The Wizard of Oz), Ebsen recalled the studio heads initially disbelieving that he was seriously ill, realizing the extent of the actor's condition only when they showed up in the hospital as he was convalescing in an iron lung. Ebsen's sudden medical departure caused the film to shut down while a new actor was found to fill the part. No full footage of Ebsen as the Tin Man has ever been released – only photographs taken during filming and test photos of different makeup styles remain. MGM did not publicize the reasons for Ebsen's departure until decades later, in a promotional documentary about the film. His replacement, Jack Haley, simply assumed he had been fired. Author and screen-writer George MacDonald Fraser offers an alternative story, told to him by Burt Lancaster's producing partner Jim Hill, that Ebsen had refused to be painted silver and was fired. \n\nGeorge Cukor's brief stint\n\nProducer Mervyn LeRoy, after reviewing the footage and feeling Thorpe was rushing the production, adversely affecting the actors' performances, had Thorpe replaced. During reorganization on the production, George Cukor temporarily took over, under LeRoy's guidance. Initially, the studio had made Garland wear a blond wig and heavy \"baby-doll\" makeup, and she played Dorothy in an exaggerated fashion; now, Cukor changed Judy Garland's and Margaret Hamilton's makeup and costumes, and told Garland to \"be herself\". This meant that all the scenes Garland and Hamilton had already completed had to be discarded and refilmed. Cukor also suggested that the studio cast Jack Haley, on loan from 20th Century Fox, as the Tin Man. To keep down on production costs, Haley only rerecorded \"If I Only Had a Heart\" and solo lines during \"The Jitterbug\" and \"If I Only Had the Nerve\"; as such, Ebsen's voice can still be heard in the remaining songs featuring the Tin Man in group vocals. The makeup used for Haley was quietly changed to an aluminum paste, with a layer of clown white greasepaint underneath to protect his skin; although it did not have the same dire effect on Haley, he did at one point suffer an eye infection from it.\n\nIn addition, Ray Bolger's original recording of \"If I Only Had a Brain\" had been far more sedate compared to the version heard in the film; during this time, Cukor and LeRoy decided that a more energetic rendition would better suit Dorothy's initial meeting with the Scarecrow (initially, it was to contrast with his lively manner in Thorpe's footage), and was rerecorded as such. At first thought to be lost for over seven decades, a recording of this original version was rediscovered in 2009.[http://www.thejudyroom.com/news-oz.html#brain The Wizard of Oz 70th Anniversary News] \n\nVictor Fleming, the main director\n\nCukor did not actually shoot any scenes for the film, merely acting as something of a \"creative advisor\" to the troubled production, and, because of his prior commitment to direct Gone with the Wind, he left on November 3, 1938, when Victor Fleming assumed the directorial responsibility. As director, Fleming chose not to shift the film from Cukor's creative realignment, as producer LeRoy had already pronounced his satisfaction with the new course the film was taking.\n\nProduction on the bulk of the Technicolor sequences was a long and cumbersome process that ran for over six months, from October 1938 to March 1939. Most of the actors worked six days a week and had to arrive at the studio as early as 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, to be fitted with makeup and costumes, and would not leave until 7:00 or 8:00 at night. Cumbersome makeup and costumes were made even more uncomfortable by the daylight-bright lighting the early Technicolor process required, which could heat the set to over 100 °F (38 °C). According to Ray Bolger, most of the Oz principals were banned from eating in the studio's commissary due to their costumes. Margaret Hamilton's witch makeup meant that she could not eat solid food, so she practically lived on a liquid diet during filming of the Oz sequences. Additionally, it took upwards of 12 takes to have Dorothy's dog Toto run alongside the actors as they skipped down the yellow brick road.\n\nAll of the Oz sequences were filmed in three-strip Technicolor. The opening and closing credits, as well as the Kansas sequences, were filmed in black and white and colored in a sepia-tone process. Sepia-toned film was also used in the scene where Aunt Em appears in the Wicked Witch's crystal ball.\n\nThe massive shoot also proved to be somewhat chaotic. This was most evident when trying to put together the Munchkinland sequences. MGM talent scouts searched the country far and wide to come up with over a hundred little people who would make up the citizens of Munchkinland; this meant that most of the film's Oz sequences would have to already be shot before work on the Munchkinland sequence could begin. According to Munchkin actor Jerry Maren, the little people were each paid over $125 a week for their performances. Munchkin Meinhardt Raabe, who played the coroner, revealed in the 1990 documentary The Making of the Wizard of Oz that the MGM costume and wardrobe department, under the direction of designer Adrian, had to design over 100 costumes for the Munchkin sequences. They then had to photograph and catalog each Munchkin in his or her costume so that they could correctly apply the same costume and makeup each day of production.\n\nFilming proved to be dangerous at times. Margaret Hamilton was severely burned in the Munchkinland scene. A concealed elevator was supposed to take her down while a bit of fire and smoke erupted to dramatize and conceal her exit. The first take ran like clockwork; however, in the DVD commentary, Hamilton states, \"I had to stand on this dual elevator, that went down slowly or went down fast, and in this case it dropped out from under me, it left my feet and I followed it.\" The fire and smoke then erupted. However, for the second take, the timing was off, and Hamilton was exposed to the flames. The grease in her copper-based makeup caught fire and had to be completely and quickly removed before the ensuing second-degree burns on her hands and face could be treated. After spending six weeks in the hospital convalescing, she returned to filming.\n\nKing Vidor's finishing work as director\n\nOn February 12, 1939, Victor Fleming hastily replaced George Cukor in directing Gone with the Wind; the next day, King Vidor was assigned as director by the studio to finish the filming of The Wizard of Oz (mainly the sepia-toned Kansas sequences, including Judy Garland's singing of \"Over the Rainbow\" and the tornado). In later years, when the film became firmly established as a classic, Vidor chose not to take public credit for his contribution until after the death of his friend Fleming in 1949.\n\nPostproduction\n\nPrincipal photography concluded with the Kansas sequences on March 16, 1939; nonetheless, reshoots and pick-up shots were filmed throughout April and May and into June, under the direction of producer LeRoy. After the deletion of the \"Over the Rainbow\" reprise during subsequent test screenings in early June, Judy Garland had to be brought back one more time to reshoot the \"Auntie Em, I'm frightened!\" scene without the song; the footage of Clara Blandick's Auntie Em, as shot by Vidor, had already been set aside for rear-projection work, and was simply reused. After Margaret Hamilton's torturous experience with the Munchkinland elevator, she refused to do the pick-ups for the scene in which she flies on a broomstick that billows smoke, so LeRoy chose to have stand-in Betty Danko perform the scene, instead; as a result, Danko was severely injured doing the scene due to a malfunction in the smoke mechanism. \n\nAt this point, the film began a long arduous postproduction. Herbert Stothart had to compose the film's background score, while A. Arnold Gillespie had to perfect the various special effects that the film required, including many of the rear projection shots. The MGM art department also had to create the various matte paintings for the background of many of the scenes.\n\nOne significant innovation planned for the film was the use of stencil printing for the transition to Technicolor. Each frame was to be hand-tinted to maintain the sepia tone; however, because this was too expensive and labor-intensive, it was abandoned and MGM used a simpler and less expensive variation of the process. During the reshoots in May, the inside of the farm house was painted sepia, and when Dorothy opens the door, it is not Garland, but her stand-in, Bobbie Koshay, wearing a sepia gingham dress, who then backs out of frame; once the camera moves through the door, Garland steps back into frame in her bright blue gingham dress (as noted in DVD extras), and the sepia-painted door briefly tints her with the same color before she emerges from the house's shadow, into the bright glare of the Technicolor lighting. This also meant that the reshoots provided the first proper shot of Munchkinland; if one looks carefully, the brief cut to Dorothy looking around outside the house bisects a single long shot, from the inside of the doorway to the pan-around that finally ends in a reverse-angle as the ruins of the house are seen behind Dorothy as she comes to a stop at the foot of the small bridge.\n\nTest screenings of the film began on June 5, 1939. Oz initially was running nearly two hours long. LeRoy and Fleming knew that at least a quarter of an hour needed to be deleted to get the film down to a manageable running time, the average film in 1939 running just about 90 minutes. Three sneak previews in Santa Barbara, Pomona, and San Luis Obispo, California, helped guide LeRoy and Fleming in the cutting. Among the many cuts was \"The Jitterbug\" number, the Scarecrow's elaborate dance sequence following \"If I Only Had a Brain\", a reprise of \"Over the Rainbow\" and \"Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead\", and a number of smaller dialogue sequences. This left the final, mostly serious portion of the film with no songs, only the dramatic underscoring.\n\nOne song that was almost deleted was \"Over the Rainbow\". MGM had felt that it made the Kansas sequence too long, as well as being far over the heads of the target audience of children. The studio also thought that it was degrading for Judy Garland to sing in a barnyard. Producer Mervyn LeRoy, uncredited associate producer Arthur Freed, and director Victor Fleming fought to keep it in, and they all eventually won. The song went on to win the Academy Award for Best Song of the Year, and came to be identified so strongly with Garland herself that she made it her theme song. In 2004, the song was ranked no. 1 by the American Film Institute on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs list.\n\nAfter the preview in San Luis Obispo in early July, The Wizard of Oz was officially released in August 1939 at its current 101-minute running time.\n\nRelease\n\nThe film's first sneak preview was held in San Bernardino, California. \nThe film was previewed in three test markets: on August 11, 1939, at Kenosha, Wisconsin and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, on August 12.\n\nThe Hollywood premiere was on August 15, 1939, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The New York City premiere, held at Loew's Capitol Theatre on August 17, 1939, was followed by a live performance with Judy Garland and her frequent film co-star Mickey Rooney. They continued to perform there after each screening for a week, extended in Rooney's case for a second week and in Garland's to three (with Oz co-stars Ray Bolger and Bert Lahr replacing Rooney for the third and final week). The movie opened nationally on August 25, 1939.\n\nBox office\n\nAccording to MGM records, during the film's initial release, it earned $2,048,000 in the US and Canada and $969,000 in other countries throughout the world, resulting total earnings of $3,017,000. While these were considerable earnings, the high production cost, in association with various distribution and other costs, meant the movie initially recorded a loss of $1,145,000 for the studio. It did not show what MGM considered a profit until a 1949 rerelease earned an additional $1.5 million (about $ million today). However, for all the risks and cost that MGM undertook to produce The Wizard of Oz, the picture was considered at least more successful than anyone thought it would be. According to Christopher Finch, author of the Judy Garland biography Rainbow: The Stormy Life Of Judy Garland, \"Fantasy is always a risk at the box office. The Wizard of Oz had been enormously successful as a book, and it had also been a major stage hit, but previous attempts to bring it the screen had been dismal failures.\" Finch also writes that after the success of The Wizard of Oz, Garland signed a new contract with MGM giving her a substantial increase in salary, making her one of the top-ten box office stars in the United States. \n\nReception\n\nThe Wizard of Oz film received much acclaim upon its release. Frank Nugent considered the film a \"delightful piece of wonder-working which had the youngsters' eyes shining and brought a quietly amused gleam to the wiser ones of the oldsters. Not since Disney's Snow White has anything quite so fantastic succeeded half so well.\" Nugent had issues with some of the film's special effects, writing, \"with the best of will and ingenuity, they cannot make a Munchkin or a Flying Monkey that will not still suggest, however vaguely, a Singer's Midget in a Jack Dawn masquerade. Nor can they, without a few betraying jolts and split-screen overlappings, bring down from the sky the great soap bubble in which the Good Witch rides and roll it smoothly into place.\" According to Nugent, \"Judy Garland's Dorothy is a pert and fresh-faced miss with the wonder-lit eyes of a believer in fairy tales, but the Baum fantasy is at its best when the Scarecrow, the Woodman, and the Lion are on the move.\"\n\nWriting in Variety, John C. Flinn predicted that the film was \"likely to perform some record-breaking feats of box-office magic,\" noting, \"Some of the scenic passages are so beautiful in design and composition as to stir audiences by their sheer unfoldment.\" He also called Garland \"an appealing figure\" and the musical numbers \"gay and bright.\" \n\nHarrison's Reports wrote, \"Even though some persons are not interested in pictures of this type, it is possible that they will be eager to see this picture just for its technical treatment. The performances are good, and the incidental music is of considerable aid. Pictures of this caliber bring credit to the industry.\" \n\n\"Leo the Lion is privileged to herald this one with his deepest roar - the one that comes from way down - for seldom if indeed ever has the screen been so successful in its approach to fantasy and extravaganza through flesh-and-blood,\" wrote Film Daily, adding that this \"handsomely mounted fairy story in Technicolor, with its wealth of humor and homespun philosophy, its stimulus to the imagination, its procession of unforgettable settings, its studding of merry tunes should click solidly at the box-office.\" \n\nNot all reviews were positive. Some moviegoers felt that a 16-year-old Judy Garland was slightly too old to play the little girl who Baum originally intended his Dorothy to be. Russell Maloney of The New Yorker wrote that the film displayed \"no trace of imagination, good taste, or ingenuity\" and declared it \"a stinkeroo,\" while Otis Ferguson of The New Republic wrote, \"It has dwarfs, music, Technicolor, freak characters, and Judy Garland. It can't be expected to have a sense of humor, as well - and as for the light touch of fantasy, it weighs like a pound of fruitcake soaking wet.\" \n\nThe Wizard of Oz placed seventh on Film Dailys year-end nationwide poll of 542 critics naming the best films of 1939. \n\nRoger Ebert chose it as one of his Great Films, writing that \"The Wizard of Oz has a wonderful surface of comedy and music, special effects and excitement, but we still watch it six decades later because its underlying story penetrates straight to the deepest insecurities of childhood, stirs them and then reassures them.\"\n\nWriter Salman Rushdie acknowledged The Wizard of Oz was my very first literary influence\" in his 2002 musings about the film. He has written: \"When I first saw The Wizard of Oz, it made a writer of me.\" His first short story, written at the age of 10, was titled \"Over the Rainbow\".\n\nIn a 2009 retrospective article about The Wizard of Oz, San Francisco Chronicle film critic and author Mick LaSalle declared that the film's \"entire Munchkinland sequence, from Dorothy's arrival in Oz to her departure on the yellow brick road, has to be one of the greatest in cinema history – a masterpiece of set design, costuming, choreography, music, lyrics, storytelling, and sheer imagination.\" \n\nOn the film-critic aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of 105 critics gave the film a positive review, with the critics consensus: \"An absolute masterpiece whose groundbreaking visuals and deft storytelling are still every bit as resonant, The Wizard of Oz is a must-see film for young and old.\". At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the movie received the maximum score of 100, based on four reviews, indicating \"[u]niversal acclaim\". \n\nDifferences from the novel\n\nSeveral significant changes were made to the story told in Baum's original novel when making The Wizard of Oz. Many details within the plot are omitted or altered, while many of the situations and perils that Dorothy encountered and experienced in the novel are not at all mentioned nor seen in the feature film. The Land of Oz and Dorothy's time there are all real in the book, not just an elaborate dream caused from unconsciousness. According to Baum, Oz is just an undiscovered continent that is hidden and surrounded by a harsh desert (officially called the Deadly Desert in later Oz books) that is much too dangerous to successfully cross, thus keeping the realm and its inhabitants safe from global discovery and unwanted invasion. In the book, on Dorothy's first night in Oz, she and Toto attend a lavish banquet at the local estate of a wealthy Munchkin man named Boq who is celebrating the death of the Wicked Witch of the East with his closest friends and five fiddlers. In the movie, a celebration is thrown upon Dorothy's arrival, but with all the Munchkin citizens of Munchkinland instead. In the book, the Tin Man, (mostly referred to as the Tin Woodman by Baum) has a rather tragic backstory, while in the movie, his backstory is never revealed in detail. The characters of the Good Witch of the North (who has no name in the book), Glinda the Good Witch of the South, and the Queen of the Field Mice who helps to rescue the Cowardly Lion from the deadly poppies are merged into one omniscient character, instead: Glinda the Good Witch of the North, who saves the entire group from the Wicked Witch's curse on the poppies, while the original Witch of the North and the Mouse Queen's roles are eliminated. To take advantage of the new vivid Technicolor process, Dorothy's charmed Silver Shoes were changed to magic ruby slippers for the movie. Due to time constraints, a number of incidents from the book—such as encountering the flesh-eating Kalidah beast while halfway on the yellow brick road; the adventures that take place towards the end of the novel while traveling in the country of the southern Quadlings; the enclave of Dainty China Country; the hill of the Hammer-Heads; and the Cowardly Lion officially becoming the King of the beasts after killing a giant, monstrous spider terrorizing the animals of the forest—were completely cut from the script. Also in the novel, upon arriving to the Emerald City, Dorothy and her companions are forced to wear green-tinted spectacles by the Guardian of the Gates before entering to protect their eyes from being blinded by the brightness and glory of the city's beauty and brilliance. The wizard also appears to each member of Dorothy's group separately in different forms each day and asks each of them individually to kill the Wicked Witch of the West, whereas in the movie he appears to them all at the same time as a giant, green head levitating above a throne (only one of the many forms he took in the book) and asks them to bring back the Wicked Witch's broomstick to prove themselves worthy of his assistance regarding their request. When the Wicked Witch of the West's character is introduced, no mention is made of her having greenish skin or owning a crystal ball. Instead, she has only one eye, yet Baum says it is as powerful as a telescope, enabling the witch to see what was happening all throughout her western kingdom in Ozs Winkie Country. \n\nRoughly 40 identifiable major differences exist between the original book and the MGM movie interpretation. \n\nRe-releases\n\nAlthough the 1949 re-issue used sepia tone, as in the original release, beginning with the 1955 re-issue, and continuing until the film's 50th anniversary VHS release in 1989, these opening Kansas sequences were shown in black and white instead of the sepia tone as originally printed. (This includes television showings.) \n\nThe MGM \"Children's Matinees\" series rereleased the film twice, in both 1970 and 1971. It was for this release that the film received a G rating from the MPAA.\n\nFor the film's upcoming 60th anniversary, it was given a \"Special Edition\" rerelease in the fall of 1998, digitally restored and with remastered audio.\n\nIn 2002, the film had a very limited rerelease in U.S. theaters. \n\nOn September 23, 2009, The Wizard of Oz was rereleased in select theaters for a one-night-only event in honor of the film's 70th anniversary and as a promotion for various new disc releases later in the month. An encore of this event was released in theaters on November 17, 2009. \n\nAn IMAX 3D theatrical rerelease played at 300 theaters in North America for one week only beginning September 20, 2013, as part of the film's 75th anniversary. Warner Bros. spent $25 million on advertising. The studio hosted a premiere of the film's first IMAX 3D release on September 15, 2013, from the newly remodeled TCL Chinese Theatre (formerly Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the site of the Hollywood premiere of the original film) in Hollywood. The film was the first to play at the new theater and served as the grand opening of Hollywood's first 3D IMAX screen. The film was also shown as a special presentation at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. \n\nIn 2013, in preparation for its IMAX 3-D release, The Wizard of Oz was submitted again to the MPAA for re-classification. According to MPAA rules, a film that has been altered in any way from its original version must be submitted for re-classification, as the 3-D conversion fell within that guideline. Surprisingly, the 3-D version received a PG rating for \"Some scary moments\", although no change was made to the film's original story content. The 2-D version of The Wizard of Oz still retains its G rating. \n\nThe film was rereleased on January 11 and 14, 2015, as part of the \"TCM Presents\" series by Turner Classic Movies. \n\nTelevision\n\nThe film was first shown on television on November 3, 1956, by CBS, as the last installment of the Ford Star Jubilee. \n\nHome media\n\nThe Wizard of Oz was among the first videocassettes (on both VHS and Betamax format for the 1980 release) by MGM/CBS Home Video in 1980; all current home video releases are by Warner Home Video (via current rights holder Turner Entertainment). The first LaserDisc release of The Wizard of Oz was in 1982, with two versions of a second (one from Turner and one from The Criterion Collection with a commentary track) for the 50th-anniversary release in 1989, a third in 1991, a fourth in 1993, a fifth in 1995, and a sixth and final LaserDisc release on September 11, 1996. \n\nPrior to the wide-home-video release in 1980, The Wizard of Oz was also released multiple times for the home-video commercial market (on a limited scale) on Super 8 film (8 mm format) during the 1970s. These releases include an edited English version (roughly 10 minutes, and roughly 20 minutes), as well as edited Spanish versions of the classic. Also, a full commercial release of The Wizard of Oz was made on Super 8 (on multiple reels) that came out in the 1970s, as well, for the commercial market. \n\nIn addition to VHS (and later, LaserDisc), the classic has been released multiple times during the 1980s on the Betamax format, beginning in 1980 simultaneously with the VHS release. \n \nThe movie was released for the first and only time on the CED format in 1982 by MGM/UA Home Video. \n\nOutside of the North American and European markets, The Wizard of Oz has also been released multiple times on the Video CD format since the 1990s in Asia. \n\nThe first DVD release of the film was on March 26, 1997, by MGM/Turner and contained no special features or supplements. It was rereleased by Warner Bros. for its 60th anniversary on October 19, 1999, with its soundtrack presented in a new 5.1 surround sound mix. The monochrome-to-color transition was more smoothly accomplished by digitally keeping the inside of the house in monochrome while Dorothy and the reveal of Munchkinland are in color. The DVD also contained a behind-the-scenes documentary, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic, produced in 1990 and hosted by Angela Lansbury, which was originally shown on television immediately after the 1990 telecast of The Wizard of Oz; it had been featured in the 1993 \"Ultimate Oz\" LaserDisc release. Out-takes, the deleted \"Jitterbug\" musical number, clips of pre-1939 Oz adaptations, trailers, newsreels, and a portrait gallery were also included, as well as two radio programs of the era publicizing the film.\n\nIn 2005, two DVD editions were released, both featuring a newly restored version of the film with audio commentary and an isolated music and effects track. One of the two DVD releases was a \"Two-Disc Special Edition\", featuring production documentaries, trailers, various outtakes, newsreels, radio shows and still galleries. The other set, a \"Three-Disc Collector's Edition\", included these features, as well as the digitally restored 80th-anniversary edition of the 1925 feature-length silent film version of The Wizard of Oz, other silent Oz movies, and a 1933 animated short version.\n\nThe Wizard of Oz was released on Blu-ray on September 29, 2009, for the film's 70th anniversary in a four-disc \"Ultimate Collector's Edition\", including all the bonus features from the 2005 Collector's Edition DVD, new bonus features about Victor Fleming and the surviving Munchkins, the telefilm The Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story, and the miniseries MGM: When the Lion Roars. For this edition, Warner commissioned a new transfer at 8K resolution from the original film negatives. The restoration job was given to Prime Focus World. This restored version also features a lossless 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio track. A DVD version was also released as a Two-Disc Special Edition and a Five-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition.\n\nOn December 1, 2009, three Blu-ray discs of the Ultimate Collector's Edition were repackaged as a less expensive \"Emerald Edition\", with an Emerald Edition four-disc DVD arriving the following week. A single-disc Blu-ray, containing the restored movie and all the extra features of the two-disc Special Edition DVD, also became available on March 16, 2010.\n\nIn 2013, the film was rereleased on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and UltraViolet for the 90th anniversary of Warner Bros. and as part of the film's 75th anniversary. \n\nAlso, multiple special editions were released in celebration of the 75th anniversary in 2013, exclusively by both Best Buy (a SteelBook of the 3D Blu-ray) and another version that came with a keepsake lunch bag released by Target stores. \n\nMusic\n\nThe Wizard of Oz is widely noted for its musical selections and soundtrack. The music was composed by Harold Arlen, and the lyrics were written by Yip Harburg, both of whom won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for \"Over the Rainbow\". The song was ranked first in two lists: the AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs and the Recording Industry Association of America's \"365 Songs of the Century\".\n\nMGM composer Herbert Stothart, a well-known Hollywood composer and songwriter, won the Academy Award for Best Original Score in recognition of his original score for The Wizard of Oz. \n\nGeorgie Stoll was associate conductor and screen credit was given to George Bassman, Murray Cutter, Ken Darby, and Paul Marquardt for orchestral and vocal arrangements. (As usual, Roger Edens was also heavily involved as an unbilled musical associate to Freed.)\n\nThe song \"The Jitterbug\", written in a swing style, was intended for the sequence in which the four are journeying to the castle of the Wicked Witch. Due to time constraints, the song was cut from the final theatrical version. The film footage for the song has been lost, although silent home film footage of rehearsals for the number has survived. The sound recording for the song, however, is intact and was included in the two-CD Rhino Records deluxe edition of the film soundtrack, as well as on the VHS and DVD editions of the film. A reference to \"The Jitterbug\" remains in the film: the Witch remarks to her flying monkeys that they should have no trouble apprehending Dorothy and her friends because \"I've sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them.\"\n\nAnother musical number cut before release occurred right after the Wicked Witch of the West was melted and before Dorothy and her friends returned to the Wizard. This was a reprise of \"Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead\" (blended with \"We're Off to See the Wizard\" and \"The Merry Old Land of Oz\") with the lyrics altered to \"Hail! Hail! The Witch is Dead!\" This started with the Witch's guard saying \"Hail to Dorothy! The Wicked Witch is dead!\" and dissolved to a huge celebration of the citizens of Emerald City singing the song as they accompany Dorothy and her friends to see the Wizard. Today, the film of this scene is also lost and only a few stills survive, along with a few seconds of footage used on several reissue trailers. The entire audio still exists and is included on the two-CD Rhino Record deluxe edition of the film soundtrack. \n\nIn addition, a brief reprise of \"Over the Rainbow\" was intended to be sung by Garland while Dorothy is trapped in the Witch's castle, but it was cut because it was considered too emotionally intense. The original soundtrack recording still exists, however, and was included as an extra in all VHS and DVD releases from 1993-onwards. \n\nThe songs were recorded in the studio's scoring stage before filming. Several of the recordings were completed while Buddy Ebsen was still with the cast. Therefore, while Ebsen had to be dropped from the cast due to illness from the aluminum powder makeup, his singing voice remained in the soundtrack (as noted in the notes for the CD Deluxe Edition). In the group vocals of \"We're Off to See the Wizard\", his voice can be heard. Jack Haley spoke with a distinct Boston accent, thus did not pronounce the r in wizard. By contrast, Ebsen was a Midwesterner, like Judy Garland, and pronounced it. Haley rerecorded Ebsen's solo parts later.\n\nSong list\n\n* \"Over the Rainbow\" – Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale\n* Munchkinland Sequence:\n** \"Come Out ...\" – Billie Burke as Glinda, and the Munchkins\n** \"It Really Was No Miracle\" – Judy Garland as Dorothy, Billy Bletcher, and the Munchkins\n** \"We Thank You Very Sweetly\" – Frank Cucksey and Joseph Koziel\n** \"Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead\" – Billie Burke as Glinda (speaking) and the Munchkins\n** \"As Mayor of the Munchkin City\"\n** \"As Coroner, I Must Aver\"\n** \"Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead\" (Reprise) – The Munchkins\n** \"The Lullaby League\"\n** \"The Lollipop Guild\"\n** \"We Welcome You to Munchkinland\" – The Munchkins\n* \"Follow the Yellow Brick Road/You're Off to See the Wizard\" – Judy Garland as Dorothy, and the Munchkins\n* \"If I Only Had a Brain\" – Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, and Judy Garland as Dorothy\n* \"We're Off to See the Wizard\" – Judy Garland as Dorothy, and Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow\n* \"If I Only Had a Heart\" – Jack Haley as the Tin Man\n* \"If I Only Had a Heart\" - Buddy Ebsen as the Tin Man (original recording) \n* \"We're Off to See the Wizard\" (Reprise 1) – Judy Garland as Dorothy, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, and Buddy Ebsen as the Tin Man\n* \"If I Only Had the Nerve\" – Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion, Jack Haley as the Tin Man, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, and Judy Garland as Dorothy\n* \"We're Off to See the Wizard\" (Reprise 2) – Judy Garland as Dorothy, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, Buddy Ebsen as the Tin Man, and Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion\n* \"Optimistic Voices\" – MGM Studio Chorus\n* \"The Merry Old Land of Oz\" – Frank Morgan as Cabby, Judy Garland as Dorothy, Ray Bolger as Scarecrow, Jack Haley as the Tin Man, Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion, and the Emerald City townspeople \n* \"If I Were King of the Forest\" – Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion, Judy Garland as Dorothy, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, and Jack Haley as the Tin Man\n* \"The Jitterbug\" – Although this song was removed from the final film, it is still available on some extended edition CDs. \n\nAn arranged version of Modest Mussorgsky's \"Night on Bald Mountain\" is played during the scene where the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion rescue Dorothy from the Wicked Witch of the West's castle.\n\nExcerpts from Robert Schumann's \"The Happy Farmer\" are heard at several points in the film, the first being when Toto runs away from Miss Gulch.\n\nAwards and honors\n\nAcademy Awards\n\n*Best Song – E. Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen for \"Over The Rainbow\" \n*Best Original Score – Herbert Stothart\n*A special Academy Juvenile Award for \"Best Performances by a Juvenile\" – Judy Garland (The award was also for her work in Babes in Arms.)\n*Best Picture nomination (lost to Gone with the Wind, Directed by Victor Fleming as well)\n*Best Art Direction nomination – Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning\n*Best Cinematography (Color) nomination – Harold Rosson\n*Best Special Effects nomination – A. Arnold Gillespie and Douglas Shearer\n\nAmerican Film Institute lists\n\nThe American Film Institute (AFI) has compiled various lists which include this film or elements thereof.\n\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – No. 6\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – No. 43\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:\n** Wicked Witch of the West – No. 4 villain\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:\n** \"Over the Rainbow\" – No. 1\n** \"Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead\" – No. 82\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:\n** \"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.\" (Dorothy Gale) – No. 4\n** \"There's no place like home.\" (Dorothy) – No. 23\n** \"I'll get you, my pretty – and your little dog, too!\" (Wicked Witch of the West) – No. 99\n* AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals – No. 3\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – No. 26\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – No. 10\n* AFI's 10 Top 10 – No. 1 Fantasy film \n\nOther honors\n\n* 1999: Rolling Stones 100 Maverick Movies – No. 20. \n* 1999: Entertainment Weeklys 100 Greatest Films – No. 32. \n* 2000: The Village Voices 100 Best Films of the 20th Century – No. 14. \n* 2002: Sight & Sounds Greatest Film Poll of Directors – No. 41. \n* 2005: Total Films 100 Greatest Films – No. 83. \n* 2005: ranked among the top ten of the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14. \n* 2007: Total Films 23 Weirdest Films – No. 1. \n* 2007: The Observer ranked the film's songs and music at the top of its list of 50 greatest film soundtracks. \n\nSequels and reinterpretations\n\nThe Wizard of Oz was dramatized as a one-hour radio play on Lux Radio Theatre, which was broadcast on December 25, 1950, with Judy Garland reprising her earlier role. In 1964, a one-hour animated cartoon, also called Return to Oz, was shown as an afternoon weekend special on NBC. An official 1974 sequel, the animated Journey Back to Oz starring Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland, was produced to commemorate the original film's 35th anniversary. \n\nIn 1975, the stage show The Wiz premiered on Broadway. It was an African American version of The Wizard of Oz reworked for the stage. It starred Stephanie Mills and other Broadway stars and earned Tony awards. The play's financing was handled by actor Geoffrey Holder. The play inspired revivals after it left the stage and an unsuccessful motion picture made in 1978, starring Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow.\n\nIn 1985, Walt Disney Productions released the live action fantasy film Return to Oz, which starred (and introduced) Fairuza Balk as a young Dorothy Gale. Based loosley on The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904) and Ozma of Oz (1907), it fared rather poorly with critics who were unfamiliar with the Oz books and wasn't successful in the box office, although it has since become a popular cult film, with many considering it a more loyal and faithful adaptation of what L. Frank Baum envisioned. \n\nIn 1995, Gregory Maguire published the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which was adapted into the Broadway musical Wicked. The story describes the life of the Wicked Witch and other events prior to Dorothy's arrival.\n\nFor the film's 56th anniversary, a 1987 stage show also titled The Wizard of Oz was based upon the 1939 film and the book by L. Frank Baum. It toured from 1995 to 2012, except for 2004.\n\nIn 2005, The Muppets Studio produced The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, a television film for ABC, starring Ashanti as Dorothy, Jeffrey Tambor as the Wizard, David Alan Grier as Uncle Henry, and Queen Latifah as Aunt Em. Kermit the Frog portrayed the Scarecrow, Gonzo portrayed the Tin Thing (Tin Man), Fozzie Bear portrayed the Lion, and Miss Piggy portrayed all the Witches of the West, East, North, and South.\n\nIn 2007, Syfy released the miniseries Tin Man, a science fiction continuation starring Zooey Deschanel as DG.\n\nAndrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice wrote a musical based on the film, which is also titled The Wizard of Oz. The musical opened in 2011 at the West Ends London Palladium. It features all of the songs from the film plus new songs written by Lloyd Webber and Rice. Lloyd Webber also found Danielle Hope to play Dorothy on the reality show, Over the Rainbow. Another production of the musical opened in December 2012 at the Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto. A reality TV show, also titled Over the Rainbow, found a Canadian girl, Danielle Wade, to play the role of Dorothy. The Canadian production then began a North American tour in September 2013. \n\nAn animated film called Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz was released in 2011 by Warner Home Video, incorporating Tom and Jerry into the story as Dorothy's \"protectors\". A sequel titled Tom and Jerry: Back to Oz was released on DVD on June 21, 2016. \n\nWriter-director Hugh Gross's independent film After the Wizard, produced in 2010, relates events after those of the film. It was released to DVD on August 7, 2012.\n\nIn 2013, Walt Disney Pictures released a spiritual prequel titled, Oz the Great and Powerful. It was directed by Sam Raimi, and starred James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle Williams. It was the second film based on Baum's Oz series to be produced by Disney, after Return to Oz. The film was a commercial success and received a mixed critical reception. \n\nA musical animated film, Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return was released on May 9, 2014. \n\nCultural impact\n\nRegarding the original Baum storybook, it has been said that \"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is America's greatest and best-loved home grown fairytale. The first totally American fantasy for children, it is one of the most-read children's books ... and despite its many particularly American attributes, including a wizard from Omaha, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has universal appeal.\" \n\nThe film also has been deemed \"culturally significant\" by the United States Library of Congress, which selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1989. In June 2007, the film was listed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. The film placed at number 86 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. In 1977, Aljean Harmetz wrote The Making of The Wizard of Oz, a detailed description of the creation of the film based on interviews and research; it was updated in 1989. \n\nQuotes from the film such as, \"I'm melting! I'm melting!\", \"We're not in Kansas anymore\", \"I'll get you, my pretty. And your little dog too\" and \"There's no place like home\" can be heard in numerous films such as Field of Dreams, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Spaceballs, The Matrix, Terminator Salvation, Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Avatar, Twister, and many others. as well as in numerous television shows, and have become common phrases.\n\nIn 2010, FremantleMedia produced a Wizard of Oz-themed Halloween episode of The Price Is Right. The show aired on October 29 (a Friday) since Halloween fell on a Sunday that year. \n\nWhen Ray Bolger, the last survivor of the major players, died in 1987, Chicago Tribune artist Dick Locher portrayed the Scarecrow running over the rainbow to catch up with the other characters. \n\nThe band Twisted Sister featured a robotic voice singing \"The Lollipop Guild\" as a hidden track on the bonus disc on the 25th anniversary reissue of their 1984 album, Stay Hungry. \n\nThe second stanza of the 2013 single by Bridgit Mendler titled Hurricane contains the lines, \"That's what Dorothy was afraid of. The sneaky tornado\" and \"There's no place like home\" in reference to The Wizard of Oz. \n\nIn 2016, the online college, University of Phoenix, adapted the Scarecrow's song, \"If I Only Had a Brain,\" for its television advertisements. \n\nLater, on July 19, 2016, then-presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton compared the 2016 Republican National Convention to the movie, claiming that \"when you pull back the curtain, it was just Donald Trump with nothing to offer to the American people.\" \n\nRuby slippers\n\nBecause of their iconic stature, the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz are now among the most treasured and valuable film memorabilia in movie history. The silver slippers that Dorothy wore in the book series were changed to ruby to take advantage of the new Technicolor process. Adrian, MGM's chief costume designer, was responsible for the final design. A number of pairs were made, though no one knows exactly how many.\n\nAfter filming, the shoes were stored among the studio's extensive collection of costumes and faded from attention. They were found in the basement of MGM's wardrobe department during preparations for a mammoth auction in 1970. One pair was the highlight of the auction, going for a then unheard of $15,000 to an anonymous buyer, who apparently donated them to the Smithsonian Institution in 1979. Four other pairs are known to exist; one sold for $666,000 at auction in 2000. A pair was stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and remains missing. \n\nAnother, differently styled pair not used in the film was sold at auction with the rest of her collections by owner actress Debbie Reynolds for $510,000 (not including the buyer's premium) in June 2011. \n\nUrban legend\n\nAn urban legend claimed that, in the film, a small figure can be seen hanging by the neck from a rope connected to a prop tree and swinging back and forth in the left background, while Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man are singing \"We're Off to See the Wizard\" and skipping down the yellow brick road into the distance. This was first globally recognized when the film had its first release on home video. One of the explanations is that it was simply a bird which was being used in the background of the scene for decoration, due to the scene being filmed at a California zoo. Another explanation is that a lot of the actors were treated very badly on set and one of the dwarf actors committed suicide in which he hung himself on set due to depression from losing the love of his life. It is said that before the hanging figure appears, if you look closely you can see a small person wearing black walking strangely in the background. In the 1998 remastered version of the film, in the same scene, it clearly shows that there is a medium sized bird in the background, but with a comparison to the scene in the original version, it is not a small figure hanging from a rope connected to one of the prop trees, and it is not in the same position. Most people believed that the object in question is actually a bird borrowed from the Los Angeles Zoo, most likely a crane or an emu, one of several placed on the indoor set to give it a more realistic feel, but to this day what was really there, whether a bird, a dwarf actor hanging, or something else, is uncertain. \n\nImpact upon LGBT culture\n\nThe Wizard of Oz has been identified as being of importance to the LGBT community, in part due to Judy Garland's starring role.Conner & Sparks (1998), p. 349 \n\nAttempts have been made to determine the film's impact on LGBT-identified persons: Editors Corey K. Creekmur and Alexander Doty, in their introduction to Out in Culture: Gay, Lesbian and Queer Essays on Popular Culture (1995, Duke University Press), write that the film's gay resonance and interpretations depends entirely upon camp.Green (1997), p. 404 Some have attempted a more serious interpretation of the film: for example, Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol and Spirit: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Lore quotes therapist Robert Hopcke as saying that the dreary reality of Kansas implies the presence of homophobia and is contrasted with the colorful and accepting land of Oz;\" they state that when shown in gay venues, the film is \"transformed into a rite celebrating acceptance and community.\" Queer theorists have drawn parallels between LGBT people and characters in the film, specifically pointing to the characters' double lives and Dorothy's longing \"for a world in which her inner desires can be expressed freely and fully.\"" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Toxicodendron_radicans.txt", "Urushiol.txt", "Itch.txt", "List_of_poisonous_plants.txt" ], "title": [ "Toxicodendron radicans", "Urushiol", "Itch", "List of poisonous plants" ], "wiki_context": [ "Toxicodendron radicans, commonly known as eastern poison ivy or poison ivy, is a poisonous Asian and North American flowering plant that is well known for causing an itching, irritating, and sometimes painful rash in most people who touch it, caused by urushiol, a clear liquid compound in the plant's sap. The species is variable in its appearance and habit, and despite its common name it is not a true ivy (Hedera). Toxicodendron radicans is commonly eaten by many animals, and the seeds are consumed by birds, but poison ivy is most often thought of as an unwelcome weed.\n\nDescription \n\nThere are numerous subspecies and/or varieties of T. radicans, which can be found growing in any of the following forms; all of which have woody stems:\n\n* as a climbing vine that grows on trees or some other support\n* as a shrub up to tall\n* as a trailing vine that is 10 – tall\n\n;Subspecies and varieties \n*Toxicodendron radicans subsp. eximum (Greene) Gillis\n*Toxicodendron radicans subsp. hispidum (Engl.) Gillis\n*Toxicodendron radicans subsp. negundo (Greene) Gillis \n*Toxicodendron radicans var. negundo (Greene) Reveal\n*Toxicodendron radicans var. pubens (Engelm. ex S. Watson) Reveal\n*Toxicodendron radicans subsp. radicans\n*Toxicodendron radicans var. radicans\n*Toxicodendron radicans subsp. rydbergii (Small ex Rydb.) Á. Löve & D. Löve\n*Toxicodendron radicans var. rydbergii (Small ex Rydb.) Erskine \n*Toxicodendron radicans subsp. verrucosum (Scheele) Gillis\n\nThe deciduous leaves of T. radicans are trifoliate with three almond-shaped leaflets.USDA Fire Effects Information System: [http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/toxspp/introductory.html SPECIES: Toxicodendron radicans, T. rydbergii] Leaf color ranges from light green (usually the younger leaves) to dark green (mature leaves), turning bright red in fall; though other sources say leaves are reddish when expanding, turn green through maturity, then back to red, orange, or yellow in the fall. The leaflets of mature leaves are somewhat shiny. The leaflets are 3 - long, rarely up to 30 cm. Each leaflet has a few or no teeth along its edge, and the leaf surface is smooth. Leaflet clusters are alternate on the vine, and the plant has no thorns. Vines growing on the trunk of a tree become firmly attached through numerous aerial rootlets. The vines develop adventitious roots, or the plant can spread from rhizomes or root crowns. The milky sap of poison ivy darkens after exposure to the air.\n\nThe urushiol compound in poison ivy is not meant as a defensive measure; rather, it helps the plant to retain water. It is frequently eaten by animals such as deer and bears.\n\nToxicodendron radicans spreads either vegetatively or sexually. It is dioecious; flowering occurs from May to July. The yellowish- or greenish-white flowers are typically inconspicuous and are located in clusters up to 8 cm above the leaves. The berry-like fruit, a drupe, mature by August to November with a grayish-white colour. Fruits are a favorite winter food of some birds and other animals. Seeds are spread mainly by animals and remain viable after passing through the digestive tract.\n\nDistribution and habitat \n\nToxicodendron radicans grows throughout much of North America, including the Canadian Maritime provinces, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and all U.S. states east of the Rocky Mountains, as well as in the mountainous areas of Mexico up to around 1500 m. Caquistle or caxuistle is the Nahuatl term for the species. It is normally found in wooded areas, especially along edge areas where the tree line breaks and allows sunshine to filter through. It also grows in exposed rocky areas, open fields and disturbed areas.\n\nIt may grow as a forest understory plant, although it is only somewhat shade-tolerant. The plant is extremely common in suburban and exurban areas of New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and southeastern United States. The similar species T. diversilobum (western poison oak) and T. rydbergii (western poison ivy) are found in western North America.\n\nToxicodendron radicans rarely grows at altitudes above 1500 m, although the altitude limit varies in different locations. The plants can grow as a shrub up to about tall, as a groundcover 10 - high, or as a climbing vine on various supports. Older vines on substantial supports send out lateral branches that may be mistaken for tree limbs at first glance.\n\nIt grows in a wide variety of soil types, and soil pH from 6.0 (acidic) to 7.9 (moderately alkaline). It is not particularly sensitive to soil moisture, although it does not grow in desert or arid conditions. It can grow in areas subject to seasonal flooding or brackish water.\n\nIt is more common now than when Europeans first arrived in North America. The development of real estate adjacent to wild, undeveloped land has engendered \"edge effects\", enabling poison ivy to form vast, lush colonies in these areas. It is listed as a noxious weed in the US states of Minnesota and Michigan and in the Canadian province of Ontario.\n\nOutside North America, T. radicans is also found in the temperate parts of Asia, in Japan, Taiwan, the Russian islands of Sakhalin and the Kuriles, and in parts of China. \n\nA study by researchers at the University of Georgia found that poison ivy is particularly sensitive to carbon dioxide levels, greatly benefiting from higher concentrations in the atmosphere. Poison ivy's growth and potency has already doubled since the 1960s, and it could double again once carbon dioxide levels reach 560 ppm.\n\nAids to identification \n\nThe following four characteristics are sufficient to identify poison ivy in most situations: (a) clusters of three leaflets, (b) alternate leaf arrangement, (c) lack of thorns, and (d) each group of three leaflets grows on its own stem, which connects to the main vine.\n\nThe appearance of poison ivy can vary greatly between environments, and even within a single area. Identification by experienced people is often made difficult by leaf damage, the plant's leafless condition during winter, and unusual growth forms due to environmental or genetic factors.\n\nVarious mnemonic rhymes describe the characteristic appearance of poison ivy: \n\n# \"Leaflets three; let it be\" is the best known and most useful cautionary rhyme. It applies to poison oak, as well as to poison ivy, but other, non-harmful plants have similar leaves. \n# \"Hairy vine, no friend of mine. \"\n# \"Berries white, run in fright\" and \"Berries white, danger in sight. \" \n\nEffects on the body \n\nUrushiol-induced contact dermatitis is the allergic reaction caused by poison ivy. In extreme cases, a reaction can progress to anaphylaxis. Around 15% to 30% of people have no allergic reaction to urushiol, but most people will have a greater reaction with repeated or more concentrated exposure. \n\nOver 350,000 people are affected by poison ivy annually in the United States. \n\nThe pentadecylcatechols of the oleoresin within the sap of poison ivy and related plants causes the allergic reaction; the plants produce a mixture of pentadecylcatechols, which collectively is called urushiol. After injury, the sap leaks to the surface of the plant where the urushiol becomes a blackish lacquer after contact with oxygen. \n\nUrushiol binds to the skin on contact, where it causes severe itching that develops into reddish inflammation or non-coloured bumps, and then blistering. These lesions may be treated with Calamine lotion, Burow's solution compresses, dedicated commercial poison ivy itch creams, or baths to relieve discomfort, though recent studies have shown some traditional medicines to be ineffective. Over-the-counter products to ease itching—or simply oatmeal baths and baking soda—are now recommended by dermatologists for the treatment of poison ivy. \nA plant-based remedy cited to counter urushiol-induced contact dermatitis is jewelweed, and a Jewelweed mash made from the living plant was effective in reducing poison ivy dermatitis, supporting ethnobotanical use, while jewelweed extracts had no positive effect in clinical studies. Others argue that prevention of lesions is easy if one practices effective washing, using plain soap, scrubbing with a washcloth, and rinsing three times within two to eight hours of exposure. \n\nThe oozing fluids released by scratching blisters do not spread the poison. The fluid in the blisters is produced by the body and it is not urushiol itself. The appearance of a spreading rash indicates that some areas received more of the poison and reacted sooner than other areas or that contamination is still occurring from contact with objects to which the original poison was spread. Those affected can unknowingly spread the urushiol inside the house, on phones, door knobs, couches, counters, desks, and so on, thus in fact repeatedly coming into contact with poison ivy and extending the length of time of the rash. If this has happened, wipe down the surfaces with bleach or a commercial urushiol removal agent. The blisters and oozing result from blood vessels that develop gaps and leak fluid through the skin; if the skin is cooled, the vessels constrict and leak less. If poison ivy is burned and the smoke then inhaled, this rash will appear on the lining of the lungs, causing extreme pain and possibly fatal respiratory difficulty. If poison ivy is eaten, the mucus lining of the mouth and digestive tract can be damaged. A poison ivy rash usually develops within a week of exposure and can last anywhere from one to four weeks, depending on severity and treatment. In rare cases, poison ivy reactions may require hospitalization. \n\nUrushiol oil can remain active for several years, so handling dead leaves or vines can cause a reaction. In addition, oil transferred from the plant to other objects (such as pet fur) can cause the rash if it comes into contact with the skin. Clothing, tools, and other objects that have been exposed to the oil should be washed to prevent further transmission.\n\nPeople who are sensitive to poison ivy can also experience a similar rash from mangoes. Mangoes are in the same family (Anacardiaceae) as poison ivy; the sap of the mango tree and skin of mangoes has a chemical compound similar to urushiol. A related allergenic compound is present in the raw shells of cashews. Similar reactions have been reported occasionally from contact with the related Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica) and Japanese lacquer tree. These other plants are also in the Anacardiaceae family.\n\nTreatment of poison ivy rash \n\nImmediate washing with soap and cold water or rubbing alcohol may help prevent a reaction. Hot water should not be used, as it causes one's pores to open up and admit the oils from the plant. During a reaction, calamine lotion or diphenhydramine may help mitigate symptoms. Corticosteroids, either applied to the skin or taken by mouth, may be appropriate in extreme cases. An astringent containing aluminum acetate (such as Burow's solution) may also provide relief and soothe the uncomfortable symptoms of the rash. \n\nSimilar-looking plants \n\n* Virgin's bower (Clematis virginiana) (also known as Devil's Darning Needles, Devil's Hair, Love Vine, Traveller's Joy, Virginia Virgin's Bower, Wild Hops, and Woodbine; syn. Clematis virginiana L. var. missouriensis (Rydb.) Palmer & Steyermark [1]) is a vine of the Ranunculaceae family native to the United States. This plant is a vine that can climb up to 10–20 ft tall. It grows on the edges of the woods, moist slopes, and fence rows and in thickets and streambanks. It produces white, fragrant flowers about an inch in diameter between July and September.\n* Box-elder (Acer negundo) saplings have leaves that can look very similar to those of poison ivy, although the symmetry of the plant itself is very different. While box-elders often have five or seven leaflets, three leaflets are also common, especially on smaller saplings. The two can be differentiated by observing the placement of the leaves where the leaf stalk meets the main branch (where the three leaflets are attached). Poison ivy has alternate leaves, which means the three-leaflet leaves alternate along the main branch. The maple (which the box-elder is a species of) has opposite leaves; another leaf stalk directly on the opposite side is characteristic of box-elder.\n* Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) vines can look like poison ivy. The younger leaves can consist of three leaflets but have a few more serrations along the leaf edge, and the leaf surface is somewhat wrinkled. However, most Virginia creeper leaves have five leaflets. Virginia creeper and poison ivy very often grow together, even on the same tree. Even those who do not get an allergic reaction to poison ivy may be allergic to the oxalate crystals in Virginia creeper sap.\n* Western poison oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) leaflets also come in threes on the end of a stem, but each leaflet is shaped somewhat like an oak leaf. Western poison oak grows only in the western United States and Canada, although many people will refer to poison ivy as poison oak. This is because poison ivy will grow in either the ivy-like form or the brushy oak-like form depending on the moisture and brightness of its environment. The ivy form likes shady areas with only a little sun, tends to climb the trunks of trees, and can spread rapidly along the ground.\n*Poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) has compound leaves with 7–15 leaflets. Poison sumac never has only three leaflets.\n* Kudzu (Pueraria lobata) is a non-toxic edible vine that scrambles extensively over lower vegetation or grows high into trees. Kudzu is an invasive species in the southern United States. Like poison ivy, it has three leaflets, but the leaflets are bigger than those of poison ivy and are pubescent underneath with hairy margins.\n* Blackberries and raspberries (Rubus spp.) can resemble poison ivy, with which they may share territory; however, blackberries and raspberries almost always have thorns on their stems, whereas poison ivy stems are smooth. Also, the three-leaflet pattern of some blackberry and raspberry leaves changes as the plant grows: Leaves produced later in the season have five leaflets rather than three. Blackberries and raspberries have many fine teeth along the leaf edge, the top surface of their leaves is very wrinkled where the veins are, and the bottom of the leaves is light minty-greenish white. Poison ivy is all green. The stem of poison ivy is brown and cylindrical, while blackberry and raspberry stems can be green, can be squared in cross-section, and can have prickles. Raspberries and blackberries are never truly vines; that is, they do not attach to trees to support their stems.\n* The thick vines of riverbank grape (Vitis riparia), with no rootlets visible, differ from the vines of poison ivy, which have so many rootlets that the stem going up a tree looks furry. Riverbank grape vines are purplish in colour, tend to hang away from their support trees, and have shreddy bark; poison ivy vines are brown, attached to their support trees, and do not have shreddy bark.\n* Fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica) has a very similar appearance to poison ivy. While both species have three leaflets, the center leaflet of poison ivy is on a long stalk, while the center leaflet of fragrant sumac does not have an obvious stalk. When crushed, fragrant sumac leaves have a fragrance similar to citrus while poison ivy has little or no distinct fragrance. Fragrant sumac produces flowers before the leaves in the spring, while poison ivy produces flowers after the leaves emerge. Flowers and fruits of fragrant sumac are at the end of the stem, but occur along the middle of the stem of poison ivy. Fragrant sumac fruit ripens to a deep reddish color and is covered with tiny hairs while poison ivy fruit is smooth and ripens to a whitish color.\n* Hoptree (Ptelea trifoliata) has leaves that are remarkably similar. It is, however, a much larger plant so confusion is unlikely for any but the smallest specimens. The flowers and seeds are also easily distinguished from those of poison ivy.\n\nSimilar allergenic plants \n\n*Toxicodendron rydbergii (Western poison ivy)\n*Smodingium argutum (African poison ivy)\n*Toxicodendron pubescens (Poison oak – Eastern)\n*Toxicodendron diversilobum (Poison oak – Western)\n*Toxicodendron vernix (Poison sumac)\n*Gluta spp (Rengas tree)\n*Toxicodendron vernicifluum (Japanese lacquer tree)", "Urushiol is an oily organic allergen found in plants of the family Anacardiaceae, especially Toxicodendron spp. (e.g., poison oak, Lacquer Tree, poison ivy, poison sumac) and also in parts of the mango tree . \n\nIn sensitive individuals, urushiol can cause an allergic skin rash on contact, known as urushiol-induced contact dermatitis.\n\nThe name urushiol is derived from the Japanese word for the lacquer tree, . The oxidation and polymerization of urushiol in the tree's sap in the presence of moisture allows it to form a hard lacquer, which is used to produce traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese lacquerware.\n\nCharacteristics \n\nUrushiol is a pale-yellow liquid with a specific gravity of 0.968 and a boiling point of 200 C. It is soluble in alcohol, ether, and benzene. \nUrushiol is a mixture of several closely related organic compounds. Each consists of a catechol substituted with an alkyl chain that has 15 or 17 carbon atoms. The alkyl group may be saturated or unsaturated. The exact composition of the mixture varies, depending on the plant source. Whereas western poison oak urushiol contains chiefly catechols with C17 side-chains, poison ivy and poison sumac contain mostly catechols with C15 side-chains. The likelihood and severity of allergic reaction to urushiol is dependent on the degree of unsaturation of the alkyl chain. Less than half of the general population experience a reaction with the saturated urushiol alone, but over 90% do so with urushiol that contains at least two degrees of unsaturation (double bonds). Longer side chains tend to produce a stronger reaction.McGovern Tomas, Barkley Theodore (1998) \"Review Botanical Dermatology\", International Journal of Dermatology, vol 37, pp 321-334 \n\nBefore the urushiol has been absorbed by the skin, it can be removed with soap and water. However, time is of the essence, as 50% of the urushiol can be absorbed within 10 minutes. Once urushiol has penetrated into the skin, attempting to remove it with water is ineffective. Once absorbed by the skin it is recognized by the immune system's dendritic cells, otherwise called Langerhans cells. These cells then migrate to the lymph nodes, where they present the urushiol to T-lymphocytes and thus recruit them to the skin. Once in the skin, the T-lymphocytes cause pathology through the production of cytokines and cytotoxic damage to the skin. \n\nUrushiol is an oleoresin contained within the sap of poison ivy and related plants, and after injury to the plant, or late in the fall, the sap leaks to the surface of the plant, where under certain temperature and humidity conditions the urushiol becomes a blackish lacquer after being in contact with oxygen. \n\nMechanism of action \n\nDermatitis is mediated by an induced immune response. Urushiol acts as a hapten, leading to a Type IV hypersensitive reaction.", "Itch (also known as pruritus) is a sensation that causes the desire or reflex to scratch. Itch has resisted many attempts to classify it as any one type of sensory experience. Modern science has shown that itch has many similarities to pain, and while both are unpleasant sensory experiences, their behavioral response patterns are different. Pain creates a withdrawal reflex, whereas itch leads to a scratch reflex.\n\nUnmyelinated nerve fibers for itch and pain both originate in the skin; however, information for them is conveyed centrally in two distinct systems that both use the same nerve bundle and spinothalamic tract. \n\nSigns and symptoms\n\nPain and itch have very different behavioral response patterns. Pain evokes a withdrawal reflex, which leads to retraction and therefore a reaction trying to protect an endangered part of the body. Itch in contrast creates a scratch reflex, which draws one to the affected skin site. Itch generates stimulus of a foreign object underneath or upon the skin and also the urge to remove it. For example, responding to a local itch sensation is an effective way to remove insects from one's skin.\n\nScratching has traditionally been regarded as a way to relieve oneself by reducing the annoying itch sensation. However, there are hedonic aspects of scratching, as one would find noxious scratching highly pleasurable. This can be problematic with chronic itch patients, such as ones with atopic dermatitis, who may scratch affected spots until they no longer produce a pleasant or painful sensation, instead of when the itch sensation disappears. It has been hypothesized that motivational aspects of scratching include the frontal brain areas of reward and decision making. These aspects might therefore contribute to the compulsive nature of itch and scratching.\n\nContagious itch\n\nEvents of \"contagious itch\" are very common occurrences. Even a discussion on the topic of itch can give one the desire to scratch. Itch is likely to be more than a localized phenomenon in the place we scratch. Results from a study showed that itching and scratching were induced purely by visual stimuli in a public lecture on itching. The sensation of pain can also be induced in a similar fashion, often by listening to a description of an injury.\n\nThere is little detailed data on central activation for contagious itching, but it is hypothesized that a human mirror neuron system exists in which we imitate certain motor actions when we view others performing the same action. A similar phenomenon in which mirror neurons are used to explain the cause is contagious yawning.\n\nPain inhibition by itching\n\nThe sensation of itch can be reduced by many painful sensations. Studies done in the last decade have shown that itch can be inhibited by many other forms of painful stimuli, such as noxious heat, physical rubbing/scratching, noxious chemicals, and electric shock.\n\nCauses\n\nInfections\n\n*Allergic reaction to contact with specific chemicals, such as urushiol, derived from poison ivy or poison oak, or Balsam of Peru, found in many foods and fragrances. Certain allergens may be diagnosed in a patch test. \n*Body louse, found in substandard living conditions\n*Cutaneous larva migrans, a skin disease\n*Head lice, if limited to the neck and scalp\n*Herpes, a viral disease\n*Insect bites, such as those from mosquitos or chiggers\n*Photodermatitis – sunlight reacts with chemicals in the skin, leading to the formation of irritant metabolites\n*Pubic lice, if limited to the genital area\n*Scabies, especially when several other persons in close contact also itch\n*Shaving, which may irritate the skin\n*Swimmer's itch, a short-term immune reaction\n*Varicella – i.e. chickenpox, prevalent among young children and highly contagious\n\nEnvironmental and allergic\n\n*Urticaria (also called hives) usually causes itching\n\nSkin disorders\n\n* Dandruff – an unusually large amount of flaking is associated with this sensation\n* Punctate palmoplantar keratoderma, a group of disorders characterized by abnormal thickening of the palms and soles\n* Scab healing, scar growth, and the development or emergence of moles, pimples, and ingrown hairs from below the epidermis\n* Skin conditions (such as psoriasis, eczema, sunburn, athlete's foot, and hidradenitis suppurativa). Most are of an inflammatory nature.\n* Xerosis – dry skin, the most common cause, frequently seen in the winter and also associated with older age, frequent bathing in hot showers or baths, and high-temperature and low-humidity environments\n\nMedical disorders\n\n* Diabetes mellitus, a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar\n* Hyperparathyroidism, overactivity of the parathyroid glands resulting in excess production of parathyroid hormone (PTH) \n* Iron deficiency anemia, a common anemia (low red blood cell or hemoglobin levels)\n* Jaundice and cholestasis – bilirubin is a skin irritant at high concentrations\n* Malignancy or internal cancer, such as lymphoma or Hodgkin's disease \n* Menopause, or changes in hormonal balances associated with aging\n* Polycythemia, which can cause generalized itching due to increased histamines\n* Thyroid illness\n* Uraemia – the itching sensation this causes is known as uremic pruritus\n* Psychiatric disease (\"psychogenic itch\", as may be seen in delusional parasitosis)\n\nMedication\n\n* Drugs (such as opioids) that activate histamine (H1) receptors or trigger histamine release\n* Chloroquine, a drug\n\nRelated to pregnancy\n\n* Gestational pemphigoid, a dermatosis of pregnancy\n* Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, a medical condition in which cholestasis occurs\n* Pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy (PUPPP), a chronic hives-like rash\n\nMechanism\n\nItch can originate in the peripheral nervous system (dermal or neuropathic) or in the central nervous system (neuropathic, neurogenic, or psychogenic). \n\nDermal/pruritoceptive\n\nItch originating in the skin is known as pruritoceptive, and can be induced by a variety of stimuli, including mechanical, chemical, thermal, and electrical stimulation. The primary afferent neurons responsible for histamine-induced itch are unmyelinated C-fibres.\n\nTwo major classes of human C-fibre nociceptors exist: mechano-responsive nociceptors and mechano-insensitive nociceptors. Mechano-responsive nociceptors have been shown in studies to respond to mostly pain, and mechano-insensitive receptors respond mostly to itch induced by histamine. However, it does not explain mechanically induced itch or when itch is produced without a flare reaction which involves no histamine. Therefore, it is possible that pruritoceptive nerve fibres have different classes of fibres, which is unclear in current research.\n\nStudies have been done to show that itch receptors are found only on the top two skin layers, the epidermis and the epidermal/dermal transition layers. Shelley and Arthur had verified the depth by injecting individual itch powder spicules (Mucuna pruriens), and found that maximal sensitivity was found at the basal cell layer or the innermost layer of the epidermis. Surgical removal of those skin layers removed the ability for a patient to perceive itch. Itch is never felt in muscle or joints, which strongly suggests that deep tissue probably does not contain itch signaling apparatuses.\n\nSensitivity to pruritic stimuli is evenly distributed across the skin, and has a clear spot distribution with similar density to that of pain. The different substances that elicit itch upon intracutaneous injection (injection within the skin) elicit only pain when injected subcutaneously (beneath the skin).\n\nItch is readily abolished in skin areas treated with nociceptor excitotoxin capsaicin, but remains unchanged in skin areas which were rendered touch-insensitive by pretreatment with saponins, an anti-inflammatory agent. Although experimentally induced itch can still be perceived under a complete A-fiber conduction block, it is significantly diminished. Overall, itch sensation is mediated by A-delta and C nociceptors located in the uppermost layer of the skin. \n\nNeuropathic\n\nNeuropathic itch can originate at any point along the afferent pathway as a result of damage of the nervous system. They could include diseases or disorders in the central nervous system or peripheral nervous system. Examples of neuropathic itch in origin are notalgia paresthetica, brachioradial pruritus, brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, peripheral neuropathy, and nerve irritation. \n\nNeurogenic\n\nNeurogenic itch, which is itch induced centrally but with no neural damage, is mostly associated with increased accumulation of exogenous opioids and possibly synthetic opioids.\n\nPsychogenic\n\nItch is also associated with some symptoms of psychiatric disorders such as tactile hallucinations, delusions of parasitosis, or obsessive-compulsive disorders (as in OCD-related neurotic scratching).\n\nPeripheral sensitization\n\nInflammatory mediators—such as bradykinin, serotonin (5-HT) and prostaglandins—released during a painful or pruritic inflammatory condition not only activate pruriceptors but also cause acute sensitization of the nociceptors. In addition, expression of neuro growth factors (NGF) can cause structural changes in nociceptors, such as sprouting. NGF is high in injured or inflamed tissue. Increased NGF is also found in atopic dermatitis, a hereditary and non-contagious skin disease with chronic inflammation. NGF is known to up-regulate neuropeptides, especially substance P. Substance P has been found to have an important role in inducing pain; however, there is no confirmation that substance P directly causes acute sensitization. Instead, substance P may contribute to itch by increasing neuronal sensitization and may affect release of mast cells, which contain many granules rich in histamine, during long-term interaction.\n\nCentral sensitization\n\nNoxious input to the spinal cord is known to produce central sensitization, which consists of allodynia, exaggeration of pain, and punctuate hyperalgesia, extreme sensitivity to pain. Two types of mechanical hyperalgesia can occur: 1) touch that is normally painless in the uninjured surroundings of a cut or tear can trigger painful sensations (touch-evoked hyperalgesia), and 2) a slightly painful pin prick stimulation is perceived as more painful around a focused area of inflammation (punctuate hyperalgesia). Touch-evoked hyperalgesia requires continuous firing of primary afferent nociceptors, and punctuate hyperalgesia does not require continuous firing which means it can persist for hours after a trauma and can be stronger than normally experienced. In addition, it was found that patients with neuropathic pain, histamine ionophoresis resulted in a sensation of burning pain rather than itch, which would be induced in normal healthy patients. This shows that there is spinal hypersensitivity to C-fiber input in chronic pain.\n\nTreatment\n\nA variety of over-the-counter and prescription anti-itch drugs are available. Some plant products have been found to be effective anti-pruritics, others not. Non-chemical remedies include cooling, warming, soft stimulation.\n\nTopical antipruritics in the form of creams and sprays are often available over-the-counter. Oral anti-itch drugs also exist and are usually prescription drugs. The active ingredients usually belong to the following classes:\n\n* Antihistamines, such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl)\n* Corticosteroids, such as hydrocortisone topical cream; see topical steroid\n* Counterirritants, such as mint oil, menthol, or camphor \n* Crotamiton (trade name Eurax) is an antipruritic agent available as a cream or lotion, often used to treat scabies. Its mechanism of action remains unknown.\n* Local anesthetics, such as benzocaine topical cream (Lanacane)\n\nPhototherapy is helpful for severe itching, especially if caused by renal failure. The common type of light used is UVB.\n\nSometimes scratching relieves isolated itches, hence the existence of devices such as the back scratcher. Often, however, scratching can intensify itching and even cause further damage to the skin, dubbed the \"itch-scratch-itch cycle.\"\n\nThe mainstay of therapy for dry skin is maintaining adequate skin moisture and topical emollients.\n\nEpidemiology\n\nApproximately 280 million people globally, 4% of the population, have difficulty with itchiness. This is comparable to the 2-3% of the population suffering from psoriasis.", "Plants cannot move to escape their predators, so they must have other means of protecting themselves from herbivorous animals. Some plants have physical defenses such as thorns, spines and prickles, but by far the most common type of protection is chemical. Over millennia, through the process of natural selection, plants have evolved the means to produce a vast and complicated array of chemical compounds in order to deter herbivores. Tannin, for example, is a defensive compound that emerged relatively early in the evolutionary history of plants, while more complex molecules such as polyacetylenes are found in younger groups of plants such as the Asterales. Many of the known plant defense compounds primarily defend against consumption by insects, though other animals, including humans, that consume such plants may also experience negative effects, ranging from mild discomfort to death.\n\nMany of these poisonous compounds also have important medicinal benefits. The varieties of phytochemical defenses in plants are so numerous that many questions about them remain unanswered, including:\n\n# Which plants have which types of defense?\n# Which herbivores, specifically, are the plants defended against?\n# What chemical structures and mechanisms of toxicity are involved in the compounds that provide defense?\n# What are the potential medical uses of these compounds?\n\nThese questions and others constitute an active area of research in modern botany, with important implications for understanding plant evolution and for medical science.\n\nBelow is an extensive, if incomplete, list of plants containing poisonous parts that pose a serious risk of illness, injury, or death to humans or animals. There is significant overlap between plants considered poisonous and those with psychotropic properties, some of which are toxic enough to present serious health risks at recreational doses. It is also important to remember that there is a distinction between plants that are poisonous because they naturally produce dangerous phytochemicals, and those that may become dangerous for other reasons, including but not limited to infection by bacterial, viral, or fungal parasites, the uptake of toxic compounds through contaminated soil or groundwater, and/or the ordinary processes of decay after the plant has died; this list deals exclusively with the former. Many plants, such as peanuts, also produce compounds that are only dangerous to people who have developed an allergic reaction to them, and with a few exceptions, those plants are not included on this list (see list of allergens instead). Human fatalities caused by poisonous plants – especially resulting from accidental ingestion – are rare in the United States. \n\nPoisonous food plants \n\nMany plants commonly used as food possess toxic parts, are toxic unless processed, or are toxic at certain stages of their lives. Some only pose a serious threat to certain animals (such as cats, dogs, or livestock) or certain types of people (such as infants, the elderly, or individuals with pathological vulnerabilities). Most of these food plants are safe for the average adult to eat in modest quantities. Notable examples include:\n\n* Apple (Malus domestica). Seeds are mildly poisonous, containing a small amount of amygdalin, a cyanogenic glycoside. The quantity contained is usually not enough to be dangerous to humans, but it is possible to ingest enough seeds to provide a fatal dose.\n* Cassava (Manihot esculenta). Roots and leaves contain two cyanogenic glycosides, linamarin and lotaustralin. These are decomposed by linamarase, a naturally occurring enzyme in cassava, liberating hydrogen cyanide . Cassava varieties are often categorized as either sweet or bitter, respectively signifying the absence or presence of toxic levels of cyanogenic glycosides. The 'sweet' cultivars can produce as little as 20 milligrams of cyanide per kilogram of fresh roots, whereas bitter ones may produce more than 50 times as much (1 g/kg). Cassavas grown during drought are especially high in these toxins. A dose of 40 mg of pure cassava cyanogenic glycoside is sufficient to kill a cow. It can also cause severe calcific pancreatitis in humans, leading to chronic pancreatitis. Processing (soaking, cooking, fermentation, etc.) of cassava root is necessary to remove the toxins and avoid getting sick. In the tropics, where cassava farming is a major industry, \"Chronic, low-level cyanide exposure is associated with the development of goiter and with tropical ataxic neuropathy, a nerve-damaging disorder that renders a person unsteady and uncoordinated. Severe cyanide poisoning, particularly during famines, is associated with outbreaks of a debilitating, irreversible paralytic disorder called konzo and, in some cases, death. The incidence of konzo and tropical ataxic neuropathy can be as high as 3 percent in some areas.\" For some smaller-rooted sweet varieties, cooking is sufficient to eliminate all toxicity. The cyanide is carried away in the processing water and the amounts produced in domestic consumption are too small to have environmental impact. The larger-rooted, bitter varieties used for production of flour or starch must be processed to remove the cyanogenic glycosides. Industrial production of cassava flour, even at the cottage level, may generate enough cyanide and cyanogenic glycosides in the effluvia to have a severe environmental impact.\n* Cherry (Prunus cerasus), as well as other Prunus species such as peach (Prunus persica), plum (Prunus domestica), almond (Prunus dulcis), and apricot (Prunus armeniaca). Leaves and seeds contain amygdalin, a cyanogenic glycoside.\n* Grape (Vitis spp.). Potentially toxic to dogs, although the precise mechanism is not fully understood. See grape and raisin toxicity in dogs.\n* Indian pea (Lathyrus sativus). A legume grown in Asia and East Africa as an insurance crop for use during famines. Like other grain legumes, L. sativus produces a high-protein seed. The seeds contain variable amounts of β-N-Oxalyl-L-α,β-diaminopropionic acid or ODAP, a neurotoxic amino acid. ODAP causes wasting and paralysis if eaten over a long period, and is considered the cause of the disease neurolathyrism, a neurodegenerative disease that causes paralysis of the lower body and emaciation of gluteal muscle (buttocks). The disease has been seen to occur after famines in Europe (France, Spain, Germany), North Africa and South Asia, and is still prevalent in Eritrea, Ethiopia and parts of Afghanistan when Lathyrus seed is the exclusive or main source of nutrients for extended periods.\n* Kidney bean or common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). The toxic compound phytohaemagglutinin, a lectin, is present in many varieties of common bean but is especially concentrated in red kidney beans. The lectin has a number of effects on cell metabolism; it induces mitosis, and affects the cell membrane in regard to transport and permeability to proteins. It agglutinates most mammalian red blood cell types. Consumption of as few as four or five raw kidney beans may be sufficient to trigger symptoms, which include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Onset is from 1 to 3 hours after consumption of improperly prepared beans, and symptoms typically resolve within a few hours. Phytohaemagglutinin can be deactivated by cooking beans at 100 °C for ten minutes, which is required to degrade the toxin and is much shorter than the hours required to fully cook the beans themselves. For dry beans the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also recommends an initial soak of at least 5 hours in water, after which the soaking water should be discarded. However, lower cooking temperatures may have the paradoxical effect of potentiating the toxic effect of haemagglutinin. Beans cooked at 80 °C are reported to be up to five times as toxic as raw beans. Outbreaks of poisoning have been associated with the use of slow cookers, the low cooking temperatures of which may be unable to degrade the toxin.\n* Lima bean or butter bean (Phaseolus lunatus). Raw beans contain dangerous amounts of linamarin, a cyanogenic glycoside.\n* Lupin. Some varieties have edible seeds. Sweet lupines have less and bitter lupines more of the toxic alkaloids lupinine and sparteine.\n* Lemon, as well as lime, orange and other citrus fruits are known to contain aromatic oils and compounds of Psoralen which is toxic to dogs, cats, and some animals. The acid is found all over the entire plant. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, depression and photosensitivity.\n* Mango tree. Mango peel and sap contain urushiol, the allergen in poison ivy and poison sumac that can cause urushiol-induced contact dermatitis in susceptible people. Cross-reactions between mango contact allergens and urushiol have been observed. Those with a history of poison ivy or poison oak contact dermatitis may be most at risk for such an allergic reaction. Urushiol is also present in mango leaves and stems. During mango's primary ripening season, it is the most common source of plant dermatitis in Hawaii.\n* Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans). Contains myristicin, a naturally occurring insecticide and acaricide with possible neurotoxic effects on neuroblastoma cells. It has psychoactive properties at doses much higher than used in cooking. Raw nutmeg produces anticholinergic-like symptoms, attributed to myristicin and elemicin. The intoxicating effects of myristicin can lead to a physical state somewhere between waking and dreaming; euphoria is reported and nausea is often experienced. Users also report bloodshot eyes and memory disturbances. Myristicin is also known to induce hallucinogenic effects, such as visual distortions. Nutmeg intoxication has an extremely long delay before peak is reached, sometimes taking up to seven hours, and effects can be felt for 24 hours, with lingering effects lasting up to 72 hours. \n* Onions and garlic. Many members of the Allium genus contain thiosulphate, which in high doses is toxic to dogs, cats and some types of livestock. Cats are more sensitive to Allium.\n* Potato (Solanum tuberosum). Potatoes contain toxic compounds known as glycoalkaloids, of which the most prevalent are solanine and chaconine. Solanine is also found in other members of the Solanaceae plant family, which includes Atropa belladonna (\"deadly nightshade\") and Hyoscyamus niger (\"henbane\") (see entries below). The concentration of glycoalkaloid in wild potatoes is sufficient to produce toxic effects in humans. The toxin affects the nervous system, causing headaches, diarrhea and intense digestive disturbances, cramps, weakness and confusion, and in severe cases coma and death. Poisoning from cultivated potatoes occurs very rarely, however, as toxic compounds in the potato plant are generally concentrated in the green portions of the plant and in the fruits, and cultivated varieties contain smaller concentrations than wild plants. Cooking at high temperatures (over 170 °C or 340 °F) also partly destroys the toxin. However, exposure to light, physical damage, and age can increase glycoalkaloid content within the tuber, the highest concentrations occurring just underneath the skin. Tubers that are exposed to light turn green from chlorophyll synthesis, thus giving a visual clue as to areas of the tuber that may have become more toxic; however, this does not provide a definitive guide, as greening and glycoalkaloid accumulation can occur independently of each other. Some varieties of potato contain greater glycoalkaloid concentrations than others; breeders developing new varieties test for this, and sometimes have to discard an otherwise promising cultivar. Breeders try to keep solanine levels below 200 mg/kg (200 ppmw). However, when these commercial varieties turn green, even they can approach concentrations of solanine of 1000 mg/kg (1000 ppmw). The U.S. National Toxicology Program suggests that the average American consume no more than 12.5 mg/day of solanine from potatoes (the toxic dose is actually several times this, depending on body weight).\n* Rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum). The leaf stalks (petioles) are edible, but the leaves themselves contain notable quantities of oxalic acid, which is a nephrotoxic and corrosive acid present in many plants. Symptoms of poisoning include kidney disorders, convulsions and coma, though it is rarely fatal. The (median lethal dose) for pure oxalic acid in rats is about 375 mg/kg body weight, or about 25 grams for a 65 kg (~140 lb) human. Although the oxalic acid content of rhubarb leaves can vary, a typical value is about 0.5%, so almost 5 kg of the extremely sour leaves would have to be consumed to reach the . Cooking the leaves with soda can make them more poisonous by producing soluble oxalates. However, the leaves are believed to also contain an additional, unidentified toxin, which might be an anthraquinone glycoside (also known as senna glycosides). In the edible leaf stalks, the concentration of oxalic acid is much lower, contributing only about 2–2.5% of the total acidity, which is dominated by malic acid. This means that even the raw stalks may not be hazardous (though they are generally thought to be in the US). However, the tart taste of the raw stalks is so strong as to be unpalatable to most consumers.\n* Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Like many other members of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), tomato leaves and stems contain solanine that is toxic if ingested, causing digestive upset and nervous excitement. Use of tomato leaves as an herbal tea (infusion) has been responsible for at least one death. Leaves, stems, and green unripe fruit of the tomato plant also contain small amounts of the poisonous alkaloid tomatine, although levels are generally too small to be dangerous. Ripe tomatoes do not contain any detectable tomatine. Tomato plants can be toxic to dogs if they eat large amounts of the fruit, or chew plant material. \n\nOther poisonous plants \n\nCountless other plants not commonly used as food are also poisonous, and care should be taken to avoid accidentally contacting or ingesting them:\n\n* Abrus precatorius (known commonly as jequirity, crab's eye, rosary pea, John Crow bead, precatory bean, Indian licorice, akar saga, giddee giddee, jumbie bead, ruti, and weather plant). The attractive seeds (usually about the size of a ladybug, glossy red with one black dot) contain abrin, a ribosome-inactivating protein related to ricin, and very potent. Symptoms of poisoning include nausea, vomiting, convulsions, liver failure, and death, usually after several days. Ingesting a single seed can kill an adult human. The seeds have been used as beads in jewelry, which is dangerous; inhaled dust is toxic and pinpricks can be fatal. The seeds are unfortunately attractive to children.\n* Aconitum genus (several species, commonly called aconite, wolfsbane and monkshood). All parts are poisonous. The poison is an alkaloid called aconitine, which disables nerves, lowers blood pressure, and can stop the heart. Even casual skin contact should be avoided; symptoms include numbness, tingling, and cardiac irregularity. It has been used as poison for bullets (by German forces during World War II), as a bait and arrow poison (ancient Greece), and to poison water supplies (reports from ancient Asia). If ingested, it usually causes burning, tingling, and numbness in the mouth, followed by vomiting and nervous excitement. It is usually a quick-acting poison, and has been used in the past for killing wolves (hence one of the common names).\n* Actaea pachypoda (also known as doll's eyes or white baneberry). All parts are poisonous, especially the berries, the consumption of which has a sedative effect on cardiac muscle tissue and can cause cardiac arrest.\n* Adenium obesum (also known as sabi star, kudu or desert-rose). The plant exudes a highly toxic sap which is used by the Meridian High and Hadza in Tanzania to coat arrow-tips for hunting.\n* Aesculus hippocastanum (commonly known as horse-chestnut). All parts of the plant are poisonous, causing nausea, muscle twitches, and sometimes paralysis.\n* Agave genus. The juice of a number of species causes acute contact dermatitis, with blistering lasting several weeks and recurring itching for several years thereafter.\n* Ageratina altissima (commonly known as white snakeroot). All parts are poisonous, causing nausea and vomiting. Often fatal. Milk from cattle that have eaten white snakeroot can sicken, or kill, humans (milk sickness).\n* Agrostemma githago (commonly known as corn cockle). Contains the saponins githagin and agrostemmic acid. All parts of the plant are reported to be poisonous and may produce chronic or acute, potentially fatal poisoning, although it has been used in folk medicine to treat a range of ills, from parasites to cancer. There are no known recent clinical studies of corn cockle which provide a basis for dosage recommendations, however doses higher than 3 g (of seeds) are considered toxic. \n* Aquilegia genus (several species commonly known as columbine). Seeds and roots contain cardiogenic toxins which cause both severe gastroenteritis and heart palpitations if consumed. The flowers of various species were consumed in moderation by Native Americans as a condiment with other fresh greens, and are reported to be very sweet, and safe if consumed in small quantities. Native Americans also used very small amounts of the root as an effective treatment for ulcers. However, medical use of this plant is difficult due to its high toxicity; columbine poisonings are easily fatal. \n* Areca catechu (commonly known as betel nut palm and pinyang). The nut contains an alkaloid related to nicotine which is addictive. It produces a mild high, some stimulation, and lots of red saliva, which cannot be swallowed as it causes nausea. Withdrawal causes headache and sweats. Use is correlated with mouth cancer, and to a lesser extent asthma and heart disease.\n\n* Arum maculatum (commonly known as cuckoo-pint, lords and ladies, jack-in-the-pulpit, wake robin, wild arum, devils and angels, cows and bulls, Adam and Eve, bobbins and starch-root). All parts of the plant can produce allergic reactions. The bright red berries contain oxalates of saponins and can cause skin, mouth and throat irritation, resulting in swelling, burning pain, breathing difficulties and stomach upset. One of the most common causes of plant poisoning.\n* Asparagus genus (several species including Asparagus officinalis and Asparagus densiflorus). Though asparagus plants cultivated for food are typically harvested before they reach reproductive maturity, the berries of the mature plant are poisonous, containing furostanol and spirostanol saponins. Rapid ingestion of more than five to seven ripe berries can induce abdominal pain and vomiting. Sulfur compounds in the young shoots are also considered at least partially responsible for mild skin reactions in some people who handle the plant. \n* Atropa belladonna (commonly known as deadly nightshade, belladonna, devil's cherry and dwale, an Anglo-Saxon term meaning \"stupifying drink\"). One of the most toxic plants found in the Western hemisphere, all parts of the plant contain tropane alkaloids - as do those of its equally deadly sister species A.baetica, A.pallidiflora and A.acuminata.The active agents are atropine, hyoscine (scopolamine), and hyoscyamine, which have anticholinergic properties. The symptoms of poisoning include dilated pupils, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, tachycardia, loss of balance, staggering, headache, rash, flushing, dry mouth and throat, slurred speech, urinary retention, constipation, confusion, hallucinations, delirium, and convulsions. The root of the plant is generally the most toxic part, though this can vary from one specimen to another. Ingestion of a single leaf of the plant can be fatal to an adult. Casual contact with the leaves can cause skin pustules. The berries pose the greatest danger to children because they look attractive and have a somewhat sweet taste. The consumption of two to five berries by children and ten to twenty berries by adults can be lethal. In 2009, a case of A. belladonna being mistaken for blueberries, with six berries ingested by an adult woman, was documented to result in severe anticholinergic syndrome. The plant's deadly symptoms are caused by atropine's disruption of the parasympathetic nervous system's ability to regulate involuntary activities such as sweating, breathing, and heart rate. The antidote for atropine poisoning is physostigmine or pilocarpine. A. belladonna is also toxic to many domestic animals, causing narcosis and paralysis. However, cattle and rabbits eat the plant seemingly without any harmful effects. In humans its anticholinergic properties will cause the disruption of cognitive capacities like memory and learning. \n* Brugmansia genus (commonly known as angel's trumpet). All parts of all plants in this genus contain the tropane alkaloids scopolamine and atropine; often fatal. These plants are closely related to and were once grouped with members of the Datura genus, which contain the same deadly alkaloids.\n* Caladium genus (commonly known as angel wings, elephant ear and heart of Jesus). All parts of all plants in this genus are poisonous. Symptoms are generally irritation, pain, and swelling of tissues. If the mouth or tongue swell, breathing may be fatally blocked.\n* Cerbera odollam (commonly known as the suicide tree). The seeds contain cerberin, a potent toxin related to digoxin. The poison blocks the calcium ion channels in heart muscle, causing disruption of the heart beat. This is typically fatal and can result from ingesting a single seed. Cerberin is difficult to detect in autopsies and its taste can be masked with strong spices, such as a curry. It is often used in homicide and suicide in India; Kerala's suicide rate is about three times the Indian average. In 2004, a team led by Yvan Gaillard of the Laboratory of Analytical Toxicology in La Voulte-sur-Rhône, France, documented more than 500 cases of fatal Cerbera poisoning between 1989 and 1999 in Kerala. They said \"To the best of our knowledge, no plant in the world is responsible for as many deaths by suicide as the odollam tree.' A related species is Cerbera tanghin the seeds of which are known as tanghin poison nut and have been used as an 'ordeal poison'.\n* Chelidonium majus (also known as greater celandine). The whole plant is toxic in moderate doses as it contains a range of isoquinoline alkaloids, but there are claimed to be therapeutic uses when used at the correct dosage. The main alkaloid present in the herb and root is coptisine, with berberine, chelidonine, sanguinarine and chelerythrine also present. Sanguinarine is particularly toxic with an of only 18 mg per kg body weight. The effect of the fresh herb is analgesic, cholagogic, antimicrobial and oncostatic, with action as a central nervous system sedative. In animal tests, Chelidonium majus is shown to be cytostatic. Early studies showed that the latex causes contact dermatitis and eye irritation. Stains on skin of the fingers are sometimes reported to cause eye irritation after rubbing the eyes or handling contact lenses. The characteristic latex also contains proteolytic enzymes and the phytocystatin chelidostatin, a cysteine protease inhibitor. \n* Cicuta genus (commonly known as water hemlock, cowbane, wild carrot, snakeweed, poison parsnip, false parsley, children's bane and death-of-man). The root, when freshly pulled out of the ground, is extremely poisonous and contains the toxin cicutoxin, a central nervous system stimulant that induces seizures. When dried, the poisonous effect is reduced. The most common species is C. maculata; one of the species found in the Western USA, C. douglasii, often found in pastures and swamps, has especially thick stems and very large and sturdy flowers which are sometimes harvested for flower displays. This is inadvisable as the sap is also toxic.\n* Cleistanthus collinus.\n* Colchicum autumnale (commonly known as autumn crocus and meadow saffron). The bulbs contain colchicine. Colchicine poisoning has been compared to arsenic poisoning; symptoms typically start 2 to 5 hours after a toxic dose has been ingested but may take up to 24 hours to appear, and include burning in the mouth and throat, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and kidney failure. Onset of multiple-system organ failure may occur within 24 to 72 hours. This includes hypovolemic shock due to extreme vascular damage and fluid loss through the GI tract, which may result in death. Additionally, sufferers may experience kidney damage resulting in low urine output and bloody urine, low white blood cell counts (persisting for several days), anemia, muscular weakness, and respiratory failure. Recovery may begin within 6 to 8 days. There is no specific antidote for colchicine, although various treatments do exist. Despite dosing issues concerning its toxicity, colchicine is prescribed in the treatment of gout, familial Mediterranean fever, pericarditis and Behçet's disease. It is also being investigated for its use as an anti-cancer drug.\n\n* Conium maculatum (commonly known as hemlock, poison hemlock, spotted parsley, spotted cowbane, bad-man's oatmeal, poison snakeweed and beaver poison). All parts of the plant contain the alkaloid coniine which causes stomach pains, vomiting, and progressive paralysis of the central nervous system; can be fatal. Not to be confused with hemlock trees (Tsuga spp.), which, while not edible, are not nearly as toxic as the herbaceous plant.\n* Consolida subgenus (commonly known as larkspur). Young plants and seeds are poisonous, causing nausea, muscle twitches, and paralysis; often fatal. Other plants in the parent Delphinium genus are also poisonous and commonly called larkspur.\n* Convallaria majalis (commonly known as lily of the valley). Contains 38 different cardiac glycosides.\n* Coriaria myrtifolia (commonly known as redoul). A Mediterranean plant containing the toxin coriamyrtin, ingestion of which produces digestive, neurological and respiratory problems. The poisonous fruits superficially resemble blackberries and may mistakenly be eaten as such. Can be fatal in children.\n* Cytisus scoparius (commonly known as broom or common broom). Contains toxic alkaloids that depress the heart and nervous system. The alkaloid sparteine is a class 1a antiarrhythmic agent, a sodium channel blocker. It is not FDA approved for human use as an antiarrhythmic agent, and it is not included in the Vaughn Williams classification of antiarrhythmic drugs.\n* Daphne genus. The berries (either red or yellow) are poisonous, causing burns to mouth and digestive tract, followed by coma; often fatal.\n\n* Datura genus (several species commonly known as jimson weed, thorn apple, stinkweed, Jamestown weed, angel's trumpets, moonflower, and sacred datura). Containing the tropane alkaloids scopolamine, hyoscyamine, and atropine, all parts of these plants are poisonous, especially the seeds and flowers. Ingestion causes abnormal thirst, hyperthermia, severe delirium and incoherence, visual distortions, bizarre and possibly violent behavior, memory loss, coma, and often death; it is a significant poison to grazing livestock in North America. Datura has been used as an entheogenic drug by the indigenous peoples of the Americas and others for centuries, though the extreme variability in a given plant's toxicity depending on its age and growing environment make such usage an exceptionally hazardous practice; the difference between a recreational dose and a lethal dose is minuscule, and incorrect dosage often results in death. For this same reason, Datura has also been a popular poison for suicide and murder, particularly in parts of Europe and India. Reports of recreational usage are overwhelmingly negative; the majority of those who describe their use of Datura find their experiences extremely unpleasant and often physically dangerous. \n* Deathcamas. Various genera in the Melanthieae family have species whose common names include \"deathcamas\", including Amianthium, Anticlea, Stenanthium, Toxicoscordion and Zigadenus. All parts of these plants are toxic, due to the presence of alkaloids. Grazing animals, such as sheep and cattle, may be affected and human fatalities have occurred., in \n* Delphinium genus (also known as larkspur). Contains the alkaloid delsoline. Young plants and seeds are poisonous, causing nausea, muscle twitches, paralysis, and often death.\n* Dendrocnide moroides (also known as stinging tree and gympie gympie). Capable of inflicting a painful sting when touched. The stinging may last for several days and is exacerbated by touching, rubbing, and cold temperatures; can be fatal.\n* Dicentra cucullaria (also known as bleeding heart and Dutchman's breeches). Leaves and roots are poisonous and cause convulsions and other nervous symptoms.\n* Dichapetalum cymosum (also known as gifblaar). Well known as a livestock poison in South Africa, this plant contains the metabolic poison fluoroacetic acid.\n* Dieffenbachia genus (commonly known as dumbcane). All parts are poisonous; the culprits are needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate called raphides, which can cause intense burning, reddening of the skin, irritation, and immobility of the tongue, mouth, and throat if ingested. Swelling can be severe enough to block breathing, leading to death, though this is rare; in most cases, symptoms are mild and can be successfully treated with basic analgesics, antihistamines, or charcoal.\n\n* Digitalis purpurea (commonly known as foxglove). The leaves, seeds, and flowers are poisonous, containing cardiac or other steroid glycosides. These cause irregular heartbeat, general digestive upset, and confusion; can be fatal.\n* Euonymus europaeus (commonly known as spindle, European spindle or spindle tree). The fruit is poisonous, containing amongst other substances, the alkaloids theobromine and caffeine, as well as an extremely bitter terpene. Poisonings are more common in young children, who are enticed by the brightly coloured fruits. Ingestion can result in liver and kidney damage and even death. There are many other species of Euonymus, many of which are also poisonous.\n* Excoecaria agallocha (commonly known as milky mangrove, blind-your-eye mangrove and river poison tree). Contact with latex can cause skin irritation and blistering; eye contact can cause temporary blindness.\n* Gelsemium sempervirens (commonly known as yellow jessamine). All parts are poisonous, causing nausea and vomiting. Often fatal. It is possible to become ill from ingesting honey made from jessamine nectar.\n* Hedera helix (also known as common ivy). The leaves and berries are poisonous, causing stomach pains, labored breathing, and possible coma.\n* Helleborus niger (also known as Christmas rose). Contains protoanemonin, or ranunculin, which has an acrid taste and can cause burning of the eyes, mouth and throat, oral ulceration, gastroenteritis and hematemesis. \n* Heracleum mantegazzianum (also known as giant hogweed). The sap is phototoxic, causing phytophotodermatitis (severe skin inflammations) when affected skin is exposed to sunlight or to UV rays. Initially the skin becomes red and starts itching. Then blisters form as the reaction continues over 48 hours. They form black or purplish scars, which can last several years. Hospitalization may become necessary. Presence of minute amounts of sap in the eyes can lead to temporary or even permanent blindness.\n* Heracleum sosnowskyi (commonly known as Sosnowsky's Hogweed). Plant has toxic sap and causes skin inflammation on contact.\n* Hippomane mancinella (commonly known as manchineel). All parts of this tree, including the fruit, contain toxic phorbol esters typical of the Euphorbiaceae plant family. Specifically the tree contains 12-deoxy-5-hydroxyphorbol-6gamma, 7alpha-oxide, hippomanins, mancinellin, sapogenin, phloracetophenone-2, 4-dimethylether is present in the leaves, while the fruits possess physostigmine. Contact with the milky white latex produces strong allergic dermatitis. Standing beneath the tree during rain will cause blistering of the skin from even slight contact with this liquid (even a small drop of rain with the milky substance in it will cause the skin to blister). Burning tree parts may cause blindness if the smoke reaches the eyes. The fruit can also be fatal if eaten. Many trees carry a warning sign, while others have been marked with a red \"X\" on the trunk to indicate danger. In the French Antilles the trees are often marked with a painted red band a few feet above the ground. The Caribs used the latex of this tree to poison their arrows and would tie captives to the trunk of the tree, ensuring a slow and painful death. A poultice of arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea) was used by the Arawaks and Taíno as an antidote against such arrow poisons. The Caribs were also known to poison the water supply of their enemies with the leaves. Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León was struck by an arrow that had been poisoned with manchineel sap during battle with the Calusa in Florida, dying shortly thereafter. \n* Hyacinthus orientalis (commonly known as hyacinth). The bulbs are poisonous, causing nausea, vomiting, gasping, convulsions, and possibly death. Even handling the bulbs can cause skin irritation.\n* Hyoscyamus niger (commonly known as henbane). Seeds and foliage contain hyoscyamine, scopolamine and other tropane alkaloids. Can produce dilated pupils, hallucinations, increased heart rate, convulsions, vomiting, hypertension and ataxia.\n* Ilex aquifolium (commonly known as European holly). The berries cause gastroenteritis, resulting in nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.\n* Jacobaea vulgaris (commonly known as ragwort). Contains many different alkaloids, including jacobine, jaconine, jacozine, otosenine, retrorsine, seneciphylline, senecionine, and senkirkine. Poisonous to livestock and hence of concern to people who keep horses and cattle. Horses do not normally eat fresh ragwort due to its bitter taste, however it loses this taste when dried, and becomes dangerous in hay. The result, if sufficient quantity is consumed, can be irreversible cirrhosis of the liver. Signs that a horse has been poisoned include yellow mucus membranes, depression, and lack of coordination. The danger is that the toxin can have a cumulative effect; the alkaloid does not actually accumulate in the liver but a breakdown product can damage DNA and progressively kills cells. Jacobaea vulgaris is also theoretically poisonous to humans, although poisoning is unlikely as it is distasteful and not used as a food. However, some sensitive individuals can suffer from an allergic skin reaction after handling the plant because, like many members of the Compositae family, it contains sesquiterpine lactones (which are different from the pyrrolizidine alkaloids responsible for the toxic effects), which can cause compositae dermatitis.\n* Kalanchoe delagoensis (commonly known as mother of millions). Contains bufadienolide cardiac glycosides which can cause cardiac poisoning, particularly in grazing animals. During 1997, 125 head of cattle died after eating mother-of-millions on a travelling stock reserve near Moree, New South Wales, Australia. \n\n* Kalmia latifolia (commonly known as mountain laurel). Contains andromedotoxin and arbutin. The green parts of the plant, flowers, twigs, and pollen are all toxic, and symptoms of toxicity begin to appear about 6 hours following ingestion. Poisoning produces anorexia, repeated swallowing, profuse salivation, depression, uncoordination, vomiting, frequent defecation, watering of the eyes, irregular or difficult breathing, weakness, cardiac distress, convulsions, coma, and eventually death. Autopsy will show gastrointestinal irritation and hemorrhage.\n* Laburnum genus. All parts of the plant and especially the seeds are poisonous and can be lethal if consumed in excess. The main toxin is cytisine, a nicotinic receptor agonist. Symptoms of poisoning may include intense sleepiness, vomiting, excitement, staggering, convulsive movements, slight frothing at the mouth, unequally dilated pupils, coma and death. In some cases, diarrhea is very severe and at times the convulsions are markedly tetanic.\n* Ligustrum genus (several species, commonly known as privet). Berries and leaves are poisonous. Berries contain syringin, which causes digestive disturbances and nervous symptoms; can be fatal. Privet is one of several plants which are poisonous to horses. Privet pollen is known to cause asthma and eczema in sufferers. It is banned from sale or cultivation in New Zealand due to the effects of its pollen on asthma sufferers.\n* Lilium genus (commonly known as lily). Most have an unidentified water-soluble toxin found in all parts of the plant. Extremely poisonous, yet attractive, to cats, causing acute renal failure; as few as two petals of the flowers can kill.\n* Lolium temulentum (commonly called darnel or poison ryegrass). The seeds and seed heads of this common garden weed may contain the alkaloids temuline and loliine. Some experts also point to the fungus ergot or fungi of the genus Endoconidium, both of which grow on the seed heads of rye grasses, as an additional source of toxicity. \n* Mandragora officinarum (commonly called mandrake).\n* Melianthus major (also called honeybush). All parts of the plant are toxic.\n* Menispermum genus (commonly known as moonseed). The fruits and seeds are poisonous, causing nausea and vomiting; often fatal.\n* Narcissus genus (various species and garden cultivars commonly known as daffodil). The bulbs are poisonous and cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea; can be fatal. Stems also cause headaches, vomiting, and blurred vision.\n\n* Nerium oleander (commonly known as oleander). All parts are toxic, the leaves and woody stems in particular. Contains nerioside, oleandroside, saponins and cardiac glycosides. Causes severe digestive upset, heart trouble and contact dermatitis. The smoke of burning oleander can cause reactions in the lungs, and can be fatal.\n* Oenanthe crocata (commonly known as hemlock water dropwort). Contains oenanthotoxin. The leaves may be eaten safely by livestock, but the stems and especially the carbohydrate-rich roots are much more poisonous. Animals familiar with eating the leaves may eat the roots when these are exposed during ditch clearance – one root is sufficient to kill a cow, and human fatalities are also known in these circumstances. Scientists at the University of Eastern Piedmont in Italy claimed to have identified this as the plant responsible for producing the sardonic grin, and it is the most-likely candidate for the \"sardonic herb,\" which was a neurotoxic plant used for the ritual killing of elderly people in Phoenician Sardinia. When these people were unable to support themselves, they were intoxicated with this herb and then dropped from a high rock or beaten to death. Criminals were also executed in this way. \n* Passiflora caerulea (also known as the blue passion flower or the common passion flower). The leaves contain cyanogenic glycoside, which breaks down into cyanide.\n* Peucedanum galbanum (commonly known as blister bush). All parts are poisonous, and contact causes painful blistering that is intensified with exposure to sunlight.\n* Physostigma venenosum (commonly known as calabar bean and also as ordeal beans due to their former use in trials by ordeal). The toxin in the seeds is the parasympathomimetic alkaloid physostigmine, a reversible cholinesterase inhibitor. Symptoms of poisoning include copious saliva, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia, dizziness, headache, stomach pain, sweating, dyspepsia and seizures., and can lead to cholinergic syndrome or \"SLUDGE syndrome\". Medicinal uses of physostigmine include the treatment of myasthenia gravis, glaucoma, Alzheimer's disease and delayed gastric emptying.\n* Plumeria genus (commonly known as frangipani). Contact with the milky latex may irritate eyes and skin.\n* Phoradendron genus (commonly known as American mistletoe; see also the related Viscum genus). Mistletoe is a common hemiparasite of trees and shrubs. Toxicity varies by species, but all parts of the plant, especially the leaves and berries, contain an array of dangerous chemicals, including proteins called phoratoxins and toxic alkaloids. Symptoms are very similar to those produced by Viscum species and may include acute gastrointestinal discomfort, diarrhea, weak pulse and/or slow heart rate, and even seizures; it is rarely lethal to adult humans, however, and many wild animals are adapted to eating its fruit.\n* Phytolacca genus (commonly known as pokeweed). Leaves, berries and roots contain phytolaccatoxin and phytolaccigenin. The toxicity of young leaves can be reduced with repeated boiling and draining. Ingestion of poisonous parts of the plant may cause severe stomach cramping, persistent diarrhea, nausea, vomiting (sometimes bloody), slow and difficult breathing, weakness, spasms, hypertension, severe convulsions, and death.\n* Podophyllum peltatum (commonly known as mayapple). Green portions of the plant, unripe fruit, and especially the rhizome contain the non-alkaloid toxin podophyllotoxin, which causes diarrhea and severe digestive upset.\n* Pteridium aquilinum (commonly known as bracken). Carcinogenic to humans and animals such as mice, rats, horses and cattle when ingested. The carcinogenic compound is ptaquiloside or PTQ, which can leach from the plant into the water supply, which may explain an increase in the incidence of gastric and oesophageal cancers in humans in bracken-rich areas. \n* Quercus genus (several species, commonly known as oak). The leaves and acorns of oak species are poisonous in large amounts to humans and livestock, including cattle, horses, sheep and goats, but not pigs. Poisoning is caused by the toxin tannic acid, which causes gastroenteritis, heart trouble, contact dermatitis and kidney damage. Symptoms of poisoning include lack of appetite, depression, constipation, diarrhea (which may contain blood), blood in urine, and colic; it is rarely fatal, however, and in fact after proper processing acorns are consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world.\n* Rhododendron genus (several species including those known as azalea). All parts are poisonous and cause nausea, vomiting, depression, breathing difficulties, and coma, though it is rarely fatal. The primary source of toxicity is a group of closely related compounds called grayanotoxins, which block sodium ion channels in cellular membranes and prevent electrical repolarization during action potentials. Honey made from the nectar of Rhododendron plants may contain dangerous concentrations of grayanotoxins, and has been historically used as a poison and in alcoholic drinks.\n* Rhus genus (certain species commonly known as African sumac). Formerly grouped with poison ivy and the rest of the Toxicodendron genus, all parts of this tree contain low levels of a highly irritating oil with urushiol. Skin reactions can include blisters and rashes. The oil spreads readily to clothes and back again, and has a very long life. Infections can follow scratching. As urushiol is not a poison but an allergen, it will not affect certain people. The smoke of burning Rhus lancia can cause reactions in the lungs, and can be fatal.\n\n* Ricinus communis (commonly known as castor oil plant, castor bean and Palma Christi). The seeds contain ricin, an extremely toxic and water-soluble ribosome-inactivating protein; it is also present in lower concentrations in other parts of the plant. Also present are ricinine, an alkaloid, and an irritant oil. According to the 2007 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, the castor oil plant is the most poisonous in the world, though its cousin abrin, found in the seeds of the jequirity plant, is arguably more lethal. Castor oil, long used as a laxative, muscle rub, and in cosmetics, is made from the seeds, but the ricin protein is denatured during processing. Because ricin can quickly and repeatedly inactivate hundreds of ribosomes in multiple cells, the in adults is only about 22 μg/kg when injected or inhaled; ingested ricin is much less toxic due to the digestive activity of peptidases, although a dose of 20 to 30 mg/kg, or about 4 to 8 seeds, can still cause death via this route. Reports of actual poisoning are relatively rare. If ingested, symptoms may be delayed by up to 36 hours but commonly begin within 2–4 hours. These include a burning sensation in the mouth and throat, abdominal pain, purging and bloody diarrhea. Within several days there is severe dehydration, a drop in blood pressure and a decrease in urine. Unless treated, death can be expected to occur within 3–5 days; if victims have not succumbed after this time, they often recover. Toxicity varies among animal species: 4 seeds will kill a rabbit, 5 a sheep, 6 an ox or horse, 7 a pig, and 11 a dog. Poisoning occurs when animals ingest broken seeds or break the seed by chewing; intact seeds may pass through the digestive tract without releasing the toxin. Ducks have shown substantial resistance to the seeds: it takes an average of 80 to kill them. \n* Robinia genus (also known as black locust and false acacia). All species produce toxic lectins. The poison is a complex mix of lectins with the highest concentration in the fruit and seed, followed by the root bark and the flower. There is little poison in the leaf. The lectins, generally called robin are less toxic than those of e.g. Abrus (abrin) or Ricinus (ricin), and in non-fatal cases the toxic effects tend to be temporary. \n* Sambucus genus (commonly known as elder or elderberry). The roots are considered poisonous and cause nausea and digestive upset.\n* Sanguinaria canadensis (commonly known as bloodroot). The rhizome contains morphine-like benzylisoquinoline alkaloids, primarily the toxin sanguinarine. Sanguinarine kills animal cells by blocking the action of Na+/K+-ATPase transmembrane proteins. As a result, applying S. canadensis to the skin may destroy tissue and lead to the formation of a large scab, called an eschar. Although applying escharotic agents, including S. canadensis, to the skin is sometimes suggested as a home treatment for skin cancer, these attempts can be severely disfiguring, as well as unsuccessful. Case reports have shown that in such instances tumor has recurred and/or metastasized. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the inclusion of sanguinarine in toothpastes as an antibacterial or anti-plaque agent, although it is believed that this use may cause leukoplakia, a premalignant oral lesion. The safe level of sanguinarine in such products is subject to regulation and debate. S. canadensis extracts have also been promoted by some supplement companies as a treatment or cure for cancer, but the FDA has listed some of these products among its \"187 Fake Cancer 'Cures' Consumers Should Avoid\". Bloodroot is a popular red natural dye used by Native American artists, especially among southeastern rivercane basketmakers. However, in spite of supposed curative properties and historical use by Native Americans as an emetic, due to its toxicity internal use is not advisable (sanguinarine has an of only 18 mg per kg body weight).\n* Solanum dulcamara (commonly known as bittersweet nightshade). All parts are poisonous, containing solanine and causing fatigue, paralysis, convulsions, and diarrhea. Rarely fatal. \n* Solanum nigrum (commonly known as black nightshade). All parts of the plant except the ripe fruit contain the toxic glycoalkaloid solanine. Solanine poisoning is primarily displayed by gastrointestinal and neurological disorders. Symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps, burning of the throat, cardiac dysrhythmia, headache and dizziness. In more severe cases, hallucinations, loss of sensation, paralysis, fever, jaundice, dilated pupils and hypothermia can result. In large quantities, solanine poisoning can be fatal.\n* Solanum pseudocapsicum (commonly known as Jerusalem cherry, Madeira winter cherry and winter cherry). All parts, especially the berries, are poisonous, causing nausea and vomiting. It is occasionally fatal, especially to children.\n* Sophora secundiflora (commonly known as mescal bean and Texas mountain laurel).\n* Strophanthus gratus. The ripe seeds of this African plant contain ouabain, a potent cardiac glycoside that, when sufficiently concentrated, can induce cardiac arrest by binding to and inhibiting the action of the sodium-potassium pump and thereby drastically slowing the contraction of cardiac muscle cells. It was once used medicinally in small doses to treat congestive heart failure and other heart conditions, but has largely been replaced by the structurally related digoxin. Extracts from Strophanthus gratus and the bark of Acokanthera species have long been used by Somali tribesmen to poison hunting arrows; if the concentration is high enough, an arrow poisoned with ouabain can kill an adult hippopotamus.\n* Strychnos nux-vomica (commonly known as the strychnine tree). The seeds usually contain about 1.5% strychnine, an extremely bitter and deadly alkaloid. This substance throws a human into intense muscle convulsions and usually kills within three hours. The bark of the tree may also contain brucine, another dangerous chemical.\n* Taxus baccata (commonly known as English yew, common yew and graveyard tree). Nearly all parts contain toxic taxanes (except the red, fleshy, and slightly sweet aril surrounding the toxic seeds). The seeds themselves are particularly toxic if chewed. Several people have committed suicide by ingesting leaves and seeds, including Catuvolcus, king of a tribe in what is now Belgium.\n\n* Toxicodendron genus: several species, including Toxicodendron radicans (commonly known as poison ivy), Toxicodendron diversilobum (commonly known as poison-oak), and Toxicodendron vernix (commonly known as poison sumac). All parts of these plants contain a highly irritating oil with urushiol. Skin reactions can include blisters and rashes. The oil spreads readily to clothes and back again, and has a very long life. Infections can follow scratching. Despite the common names, urushiol is actually not a poison but an allergen, and because of this it will not affect certain people. The smoke of burning poison ivy can cause reactions in the lungs, and can be fatal.\n* Urtica ferox (commonly known as ongaonga). Even the lightest touch can result in a painful sting that lasts several days.\n* Veratrum genus (commonly known as false hellebore and corn lily). Several species, containing highly toxic steroidal alkaloids (e.g. veratridine) that activate sodium ion channels and cause rapid cardiac failure and death if ingested. All parts of the plant are poisonous, with the root and rhizomes being the most toxic. Symptoms typically occur between 30 minutes and 4 hours after ingestion and include nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, numbness, headache, sweating, muscle weakness, bradycardia, hypotension, cardiac arrhythmia, and seizures. Treatment for poisoning includes gastrointestinal decontamination with activated charcoal followed by supportive care including fluid replacement, antiemetics for persistent nausea and vomiting, atropine for treatment of bradycardia, and vasopressors for the treatment of hypotension. Native Americans used the juice pressed from the roots to poison arrows before combat. The dried powdered root of this plant was also used as an insecticide. The plants' teratogenic properties and ability to induce severe birth defects were well known to Native Americans, although they also used minute amounts of the winter-harvested root (combined with Salvia dorii to potentiate its effects and reduce the toxicity of the herb) to treat cancerous tumors. The toxic steroidal alkaloids are produced only when the plants are in active growth, so herbalists and Native Americans who used this plant for medicinal purposes harvested the roots during the winter months when the levels of toxic constituents were at their lowest. The roots of V. nigrum and V. schindleri have been used in Chinese herbalism (where plants of this genus are known as \"li lu\" (藜蘆). Li lu is used internally as a powerful emetic of last resort, and topically to kill external parasites, treat tinea and scabies, and stop itching. However some herbalists refuse to prescribe li lu internally, citing the extreme difficulty in preparing a safe and effective dosage, and that death has occurred at a dosage of 0.6 grams. During the 1930s Veratrum extracts were investigated in the treatment of high blood pressure in humans. However patients often suffered side effects due to the narrow therapeutic index of these products. Due to its toxicity, the use of Veratrum as a treatment for high blood pressure in humans was discontinued.\n* Viscum genus (commonly known as European mistletoe; see also the related Phoradendron genus). Mistletoe is a common hemiparasite of trees and shrubs. Toxicity varies by species, but all parts of the plant, especially the leaves and berries, contain an array of toxic chemicals, including several different viscotoxins, the alkaloid tyramine, and a ribosome-inactivating lectin called viscumin. Symptoms may include acute gastrointestinal discomfort, diarrhea, weak pulse and/or slow heart rate, and even seizures; it is rarely lethal to adult humans, however, and many wild animals are adapted to eating its fruit. \n* Voacanga africana. The bark and seeds of this tropical tree contain a complex mixture of iboga alkaloids, including voacangine and voacamine. These compounds have been variously used as stimulants, psychedelic drugs, and poisons.\n* Xanthium genus (several species commonly known as cocklebur). The common cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium), a native of North America, can be poisonous to livestock, including horses, cattle, and sheep. Some domestic animals will avoid consuming the plant if other forage is present, but less discriminating animals, such as pigs, will consume the plants and then sicken and die. The seedlings and seeds are the most toxic parts of the plants. Symptoms usually occur within a few hours, producing unsteadiness and weakness, depression, nausea and vomiting, twisting of the neck muscles, rapid and weak pulse, difficulty breathing, and eventually death. Xanthium has also been used for its medicinal properties and for making yellow dye, as indicated by its name (Greek xanthos = 'yellow').\n* Zantedeschia genus (several species, also known as Lily of the Nile and Calla lily). All parts of these plants are toxic, containing calcium oxalate, which induces irritation and swelling of the mouth and throat, acute vomiting and diarrhea. Can be fatal." ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "Poison Ivy (plant)", "Poison ivy", "Poison Ivy", "Poison-ivy", "Toxicodendron radicans", "Rhus tox.", "Poison-Ivy", "Toxicodendron negundo", "Poisen Ivy", "Rhus toxicodendron", "Poison-Ivy (plant)", "Rhus eximia", "R. radicans", "Rhus intermedia", "Poison ivy (plant)", "Rhus verrucosa", "R. toxicodendron", "T. radicans", "Poison-ivy (plant)", "Rhus tox", "Rhus radicans", "Philostemon radicans" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "rhus tox", "rhus verrucosa", "poison ivy", "rhus radicans", "philostemon radicans", "r toxicodendron", "r radicans", "t radicans", "toxicodendron radicans", "rhus toxicodendron", "toxicodendron negundo", "rhus eximia", "poison ivy plant", "poisen ivy", "rhus intermedia" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "poison ivy", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "Poison Ivy" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Pharaoh.txt", "Steve_Martin.txt", "Nitty_Gritty_Dirt_Band.txt", "Tutankhamun.txt", "King_Tut_(song).txt" ], "title": [ "Pharaoh", "Steve Martin", "Nitty Gritty Dirt Band", "Tutankhamun", "King Tut (song)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Pharaoh (, or) is the common title of the monarchs of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty (c. 3150) until the Macedonian conquest in 305 BCE, although the actual term \"Pharaoh\" was not used contemporaneously for a ruler until circa 1200 BCE.\n\nEtymology\n\nThe word pharaoh ultimately was derived from a compound word represented as ', written with the two biliteral hieroglyphs ' \"house\" and ' \"column\". It was used only in larger phrases such as smr pr-aa 'Courtier of the High House', with specific reference to the buildings of the court or palace. From the twelfth dynasty onward, the word appears in a wish formula 'Great House, may it live, prosper, and be in health', but again only with reference to the royal palace and not the person.\n\nDuring the reign of Thutmose III (circa 1479–1425 BC) in the New Kingdom, after the foreign rule of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period, pharaoh became the form of address for a person who was king. \n\nThe earliest instance where pr-aa is used specifically to address the ruler is in a letter to Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), who reigned circa 1353–1336 BC, which is addressed to 'Pharaoh, all life, prosperity, and health!. During the eighteenth dynasty (16th to 14th centuries BC) the title pharaoh was employed as a reverential designation of the ruler. About the late twenty-first dynasty (10th century BC), however, instead of being used alone as before, it began to be added to the other titles before the ruler's name, and from the twenty-fifth dynasty (eighth to seventh centuries BC) it was, at least in ordinary usage, the only epithet prefixed to the royal appellative. \n\nFrom the nineteenth dynasty onward pr-ꜥꜣ on its own was used as regularly as hm.f, 'Majesty'. The term, therefore, evolved from a word specifically referring to a building to a respectful designation for the ruler, particularly by the twenty-second dynasty and twenty-third dynasty.\n\nFor instance, the first dated appearance of the title pharaoh being attached to a ruler's name occurs in Year 17 of Siamun on a fragment from the Karnak Priestly Annals. Here, an induction of an individual to the Amun priesthood is dated specifically to the reign of Pharaoh Siamun. This new practice was continued under his successor Psusennes II and the twenty-second dynasty kings. For instance, the Large Dakhla stela is specifically dated to Year 5 of king 'Pharaoh Shoshenk, beloved of Amun' whom all Egyptologists concur was Shoshenq I—the founder of the Twenty-second dynasty—including Alan Gardiner in his original 1933 publication of this stela. Shoshenq I was the second successor of Siamun. Meanwhile, the old custom of referring to the sovereign simply as pr-aa continued in traditional Egyptian narratives.\n\nBy this time, the Late Egyptian word is reconstructed to have been pronounced whence Herodotus derove the name of one of the Egyptian kings, Φερων. In the Bible, the title also occurs as פרעה; from that, Septuagint φαραώ pharaō and then Late Latin pharaō, both -n stem nouns. The Qur'an likewise spells it فرعون fir'awn with \"n\" (here, always referring to the one evil king in the Exodus story, by contrast to the good king Aziz in sura 12's Joseph story). English at first spelt it \"Pharao\", but the King James Bible revived \"Pharaoh\" with \"h\" from the Hebrew. Meanwhile in Egypt itself, evolved into Sahidic Coptic prro and then rro (by mistaking p- as the definite article prefix \"the\" from Ancient Egyptian pꜣ). \n\nRegalia\n\nScepters and staves\n\nScepters and staves were a general sign of authority in ancient Egypt. One of the earliest royal scepters was discovered in the tomb of Khasekhemwy in Abydos. Kings were also known to carry a staff, and Pharaoh Anedjib is shown on stone vessels carrying a so-called mks-staff. The scepter with the longest history seems to be the heqa-scepter, sometimes described as the shepherd's crook. The earliest examples of this piece of regalia dates to pre-dynastic times. A scepter was found in a tomb at Abydos that dates to the late Naqada period.\n\nAnother scepter associated with the king is the was-scepter. This is a long staff mounted with an animal head. The earliest known depictions of the was-scepter date to the first dynasty. The was-scepter is shown in the hands of both kings and deities.\n\nThe flail later was closely related to the heqa-scepter (the crook and flail), but in early representations the king was also depicted solely with the flail, as shown in a late pre-dynastic knife handle which is now in the Metropolitan museum, and on the Narmer Macehead. \n\nThe Uraeus\n\nThe earliest evidence we have of the use of the Uraeus—a rearing cobra—is from the reign of Den from the first dynasty. The cobra supposedly protected the pharaoh by spitting fire at its enemies.\n\nCrowns and headdresses\n\nThe red crown of Lower Egypt, the Deshret crown, dates back to pre-dynastic times. A red crown has been found on a pottery shard from Naqada, and later, king Narmer is shown wearing the red crown on both the Narmer macehead and the Narmer palette.\n\nThe white crown of Upper Egypt, the Hedjet crown, is shown on the Qustul incense burner which dates to the pre-dynastic period. Later, King Scorpion was depicted wearing the white crown, as was Narmer.\n\nThe combination of red and white crown into the double crown, or Pschent crown, is first documented in the middle of the first dynasty. The earliest depiction may date to the reign of Djet, and is otherwise surely attested during the reign of Den.\n\nKhat and nemes headdresses\n\nThe khat headdress consists of a kind of \"kerchief\" whose end is tied similarly to a ponytail. The earliest depictions of the khat headdress comes from the reign of Den, but is not found again until the reign of Djoser.\n\nThe Nemes headdress dates from the time of Djoser. The statue from his Serdab in Saqqara shows the king wearing the nemes headdress.\n\nPhysical evidence\n\nEgyptologist Bob Brier has noted that despite its widespread depiction in royal portraits, no ancient Egyptian crown ever has been discovered. Tutankhamun's tomb, discovered largely intact, did contain such regalia as his crook and flail, but no crown was found, however, among the funerary equipment. Diadems have been discovered. \n\nIt is presumed that crowns would have been believed to have magical properties. Brier's speculation is that crowns were religious or state items, so a dead pharaoh likely could not retain a crown as a personal possession. The crowns may have been passed along to the successor.\n\nTitles\n\nDuring the early dynastic period kings had as many as three titles. The Horus name is the oldest and dates to the late pre-dynastic period. The Nesw Bity name was added during the first dynasty. The Nebty name was first introduced toward the end of the first dynasty. The Golden falcon (bik-nbw) name is not well understood. The prenomen and nomen were introduced later and are traditionally enclosed in a cartouche. By the Middle Kingdom, the official titulary of the ruler consisted of five names; Horus, nebty, golden Horus, nomen, and prenomen for some rulers, only one or two of them may be known.\n\nNesu Bity name\n\nThe Nesu Bity name, also known as Prenomen, was one of the new developments from the reign of Den. The name would follow the glyphs for the \"Sedge and the Bee\". The title is usually translated as king of Upper and Lower Egypt. The nsw bity name may have been the birth name of the king. It was often the name by which kings were recorded in the later annals and king lists.\n\nHorus name\n\nThe Horus name was adopted by the king, when taking the throne. The name was written within a square frame representing the palace, named a serekh. The earliest known example of a serekh dates to the reign of king Ka, before the first dynasty. The Horus name of several early kings expresses a relationship with Horus. Aha refers to \"Horus the fighter\", Djer refers to \"Horus the strong\", etc. Later kings express ideals of kingship in their Horus names. Khasekhemwy refers to \"Horus: the two powers are at peace\", while Nebra refers to \"Horus, Lord of the Sun\".\n\nNebty name\n\nThe earliest example of a nebty name comes from the reign of king Aha from the first dynasty. The title links the king with the goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt Nekhbet and Wadjet. The title is preceded by the vulture (Nekhbet) and the cobra (Wadjet) standing on a basket (the neb sign).\n\nGolden Horus\n\nThe Golden Horus or Golden Falcon name was preceded by a falcon on a gold or nbw sign. The title may have represented the divine status of the king. The Horus associated with gold may be referring to the idea that the bodies of the deities were made of gold and the pyramids and obelisks are representations of (golden) sun-rays. The gold sign may also be a reference to Nubt, the city of Set. This would suggest that the iconography represents Horus conquering Set.\n\nNomen and prenomen\n\nThe prenomen and nomen were contained in a cartouche. The prenomen often followed the King of Upper and Lower Egypt (nsw bity) or Lord of the Two Lands (nebtawy) title. The prenomen often incorporated the name of Re. The nomen often followed the title Son of Re (sa-ra) or the title Lord of Appearances (neb-kha).", "Stephen Glenn \"Steve\" Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer and musician. Martin came to public notice in the 1960s as a writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and later as a frequent guest on The Tonight Show. In the 1970s, Martin performed his offbeat, absurdist comedy routines before packed houses on national tours. Since the 1980s, having branched away from stand-up comedy, Martin has become a successful actor, as well as an author, playwright, pianist and banjo player, eventually earning him an Emmy, Grammy and American Comedy awards, among other honors.\n\nIn 2004, Comedy Central ranked Martin at sixth place in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics. He was awarded an Honorary Academy Award at the Academy's 5th Annual Governors Awards in 2013. \n\nWhile he has played banjo since an early age, and included music in his comedy routines from the beginning of his professional career, he has increasingly dedicated his career to music since the 2000s, acting less and spending much of his professional life playing banjo, recording, and touring with various bluegrass acts, including Earl Scruggs, with whom he won a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance in 2002. He released his first solo music album, The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo, in 2009, for which he won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.\n\nEarly life\n\nMartin was born on August 14, 1945, in Waco, Texas, the son of Mary Lee (née Stewart; 1913–2002) and Glenn Vernon Martin (1914–1997), a real estate salesman and aspiring actor. Martin was raised in Inglewood, California, and then later in Garden Grove, California, in a Baptist family. Martin was a cheerleader of Garden Grove High School. One of his earliest memories is of seeing his father, as an extra, serving drinks onstage at the Call Board Theatre on Melrose Place. During World War II, in England, Martin's father had appeared in a production of Our Town with Raymond Massey. Expressing his affection through gifts of cars, bikes, etc., Martin's father was stern, and not emotionally open to his son. He was proud but critical, with Martin later recalling that in his teens his feelings for his father were mostly ones of hatred. Martin's first job was at Disneyland, selling guidebooks on weekends and full-time during the school's summer break. That lasted for three years (1955–58). During his free time he frequented the Main Street Magic shop, where tricks were demonstrated to potential customers. By 1960, he had mastered several of the tricks and illusions, and took a paying job at the Magic shop in Fantasyland in August. There he perfected his talents for magic, juggling, and creating balloon animals in the manner of mentor Wally Boag,Martin (2007) p18–19 frequently performing for tips. In his authorized biography, close friend Morris Walker suggests that Martin could \"be described most accurately as an agnostic [...] he rarely went to church and was never involved in organized religion of his own volition\". \n\nComedy\n\nAfter high school graduation, Martin attended Santa Ana College, taking classes in drama and English poetry. In his free time, he teamed up with friend and Garden Grove High School classmate Kathy Westmoreland to participate in comedies and other productions at the Bird Cage Theatre. He joined a comedy troupe at Knott's Berry Farm. Later, he met budding actress Stormie Sherk, and they developed comedy routines and became romantically involved. Sherk's influence caused Martin to apply to the California State University, Long Beach, for enrollment with a major in Philosophy. Stormie enrolled at UCLA, about an hour's drive north, and the distance eventually caused them to lead separate lives. \n\nInspired by his philosophy classes, Martin considered becoming a professor instead of an actor-comedian. His time at college changed his life. \"It changed what I believe and what I think about everything. I majored in philosophy. Something about non-sequiturs appealed to me. In philosophy, I started studying logic, and they were talking about cause and effect, and you start to realize, 'Hey, there is no cause and effect! There is no logic! There is no anything!' Then it gets real easy to write this stuff, because all you have to do is twist everything hard—you twist the punch line, you twist the non sequitur so hard away from the things that set it up\".Fong-Torres, Ben (1982) \"Steve Martin Sings: The Rolling Stone Interview\". Rolling Stone February 18, 1982. Issue 363 Martin recalls reading a treatise on comedy that led him to think \"What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it? What if I headed for a climax, but all I delivered was an anticlimax? What would the audience do with all that tension? Theoretically, it would have to come out sometime. But if I kept denying them the formality of a punch line, the audience would eventually pick their own place to laugh, essentially out of desperation.\" Martin periodically spoofed his philosophy studies in his 1970s stand-up act, comparing philosophy with studying geology. \"If you're studying geology, which is all facts, as soon as you get out of school you forget it all, but philosophy you remember just enough to screw you up for the rest of your life.\" \n\nIn 1967, Martin transferred to UCLA and switched his major to theater. While attending college, he appeared in an episode of The Dating Game. Martin began working local clubs at night, to mixed notices, and at twenty-one he dropped out of college. \n\nCareer\n\nEarly career: stand-up\n\nIn 1967, his former girlfriend Nina Goldblatt, a dancer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, helped Martin land a writing job with the show by submitting his work to head writer Mason Williams. Williams initially paid Martin out of his own pocket. Along with the other writers for the show, Martin won an Emmy Award in 1969, aged 23. He also wrote for John Denver (a neighbor of his in Aspen, Colorado, at one point), The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. Martin's first TV appearance was on The Steve Allen Show in 1969. He says: \"[I] appeared on The Virginia Graham Show, circa 1970. I looked grotesque. I had a hairdo like a helmet, which I blow-dried to a puffy bouffant, for reasons I no longer understand. I wore a frock coat and a silk shirt, and my delivery was mannered, slow and self-aware. I had absolutely no authority. After reviewing the show, I was depressed for a week.\" During these years his roommates included comedian Gary Mule Deer and singer/guitarist Michael Johnson. Martin opened for groups such as The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Carpenters, and Toto. He appeared at San Francisco's The Boarding House, among other venues. He continued to write, earning an Emmy nomination for his work on Van Dyke and Company in 1976.\n\nIn the mid-1970s, Martin made frequent appearances as a stand-up comedian on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson., and on The Gong Show, HBO's On Location, The Muppet Show, and NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL). SNL audience jumped by a million viewers when he made guest appearances, and he was one of the most successful SNL hosts. Martin appeared on 27 Saturday Night Live shows and he guest-hosted 15 times, bested only in number of presentations by host Alec Baldwin (who has hosted 16 times ). On the show, Martin popularized the air quotes gesture, which uses four fingers to make double quote marks in the air. While on the show Martin became close with several of the cast members, including Gilda Radner. Radner died of ovarian cancer on Saturday, May 20, 1989; a visibly shaken Martin hosted SNL that night, and featured footage of himself and Radner together in a 1978 sketch.\n\nIn the 1970s, his TV appearances led to the release of comedy albums that went platinum. The track \"Excuse Me\" on his first album, Let's Get Small, helped establish a national catch phrase. His next album, A Wild and Crazy Guy (1978), was an even bigger success, reaching the No. 2 spot on the U.S. sales chart, selling over a million copies. \"Just a wild and crazy guy\" became another of Martin's known catch phrases. The album featured a character based on a series of Saturday Night Live sketches where Martin and Dan Aykroyd played the Festrunk Brothers; Georgi and Yortuk (respectively) were bumbling Czechoslovak would-be playboys. The album ends with the song \"King Tut\", sung and written by Martin and backed by the \"Toot Uncommons\", members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. It was later released as a single, reaching No. 17 on the U.S. charts in 1978 and selling over a million copies. The song came out during the King Tut craze that accompanied the popular traveling exhibit of the Egyptian king's tomb artifacts. Both albums won Grammys for Best Comedy Recording in 1977 and 1978, respectively. Martin performed \"King Tut\" on the April 22, 1978 edition of SNL.\n\nDecades later, in 2012, the A.V. Club described Martin's unique style and its impact on audiences:\n\nOn his comedy albums, Martin's stand-up is self-referential and sometimes self-mocking. It mixes philosophical riffs with sudden spurts of \"happy feet\", banjo playing with balloon depictions of concepts like venereal disease, and the \"controversial\" kitten juggling (he is a master juggler) (the \"kittens\" were stuffed animals). His style is off-kilter and ironic, and sometimes pokes fun at stand-up comedy traditions, such as Martin opening his act (from A Wild and Crazy Guy) by saying, \"I think there's nothing better for a person to come up and do the same thing over and over for two weeks. This is what I enjoy, so I'm going to do the same thing over and over and over [...] I'm going to do the same joke over and over in the same show, it'll be like a new thing.\" Or: \"Hello, I'm Steve Martin, and I'll be out here in a minute.\" In one comedy routine, used on the Comedy Is Not Pretty! album, Martin claimed that his real name was \"Gern Blanston\". The riff took on a life of its own. There is a Gern Blanston website, and for a time a rock band took the moniker as their name. \n\nMartin suddenly stopped doing stand-up comedy in 1981 to concentrate on movies, and didn't return for 35 years. About this decision, he states, \"My act was conceptual. Once the concept was stated, and everybody understood it, it was done. [...] It was about coming to the end of the road. There was no way to live on in that persona. I had to take that fabulous luck of not being remembered as that, exclusively. You know, I didn't announce that I was stopping. I just stopped.\" \n\nIn 2016, Martin made a rare return to stand up comedy, opening for Jerry Seinfeld. He performed a 10-minute set before turning the stage over to Seinfeld. Later in 2016 he returned to stand up comedy, staging a national tour with Martin Short and the Steep Canyon Rangers.\n\nActing career\n\nBy the end of the 1970s, Martin had acquired the kind of following normally reserved for rock stars, with his tour appearances typically occurring at sold-out arenas filled with tens of thousands of screaming fans. But unknown to his audience, stand-up comedy was \"just an accident\" for him; his real goal was to get into film.\n\nMartin had a small role in the 1972 film Another Nice Mess. His first substantial film appearance was in a short titled The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977). The seven-minute-long film, also featuring Buck Henry and Teri Garr, was written by and starred Martin. The film was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Short Film, Live Action. He made his first substantial feature film appearance in the musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, where he sang The Beatles' \"Maxwell's Silver Hammer\". In 1979, Martin co-wrote and starred in The Jerk, directed by Carl Reiner. The movie was a huge success, grossing over $100 million on a budget of approximately $4 million. \n\nStanley Kubrick met with him to discuss the possibility of Martin starring in a screwball comedy version of Traumnovelle (Kubrick later changed his approach to the material, the result of which was 1999's Eyes Wide Shut). Martin was executive producer for Domestic Life, a prime-time television series starring friend Martin Mull, and a late-night series called Twilight Theater. It emboldened Martin to try his hand at his first serious film, Pennies from Heaven, based on the 1978 BBC serial by Dennis Potter. He was anxious to perform in the movie because of his desire to avoid being typecast. To prepare for that film, Martin took acting lessons from director Herbert Ross, and spent months learning how to tap dance. The film was a financial failure; Martin's comment at the time was \"I don't know what to blame, other than it's me and not a comedy.\" \n\nMartin was in three more Reiner-directed comedies after The Jerk: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid in 1982, The Man with Two Brains in 1983 and All of Me in 1984, his most critically acclaimed performance up to that point. \nIn 1986, Martin joined fellow Saturday Night Live veterans Martin Short and Chevy Chase in ¡Three Amigos!, directed by John Landis, and written by Martin, Lorne Michaels, and singer-songwriter Randy Newman. It was originally entitled The Three Caballeros and Martin was to be teamed with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. In 1986, Martin was in the movie musical film version of the hit Off-Broadway play Little Shop of Horrors (based on a famous B-movie), playing the sadistic dentist, Orin Scrivello. The film was the first of three films teaming Martin with Rick Moranis. In 1987, Martin joined comedian John Candy in the John Hughes movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles. That same year, Roxanne, the film adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac which Martin co-wrote, won him a Writers Guild of America Award. It also garnered recognition from Hollywood and the public that he was more than a comedian. In 1988, he performed in the Frank Oz film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a remake of Bedtime Story, alongside Michael Caine. Also in 1988, he appeared at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center in a revival of Waiting for Godot directed by Mike Nichols. He played Vladimir, with Robin Williams as Estragon and Bill Irwin as Lucky. \n\nMartin starred in the Ron Howard film Parenthood, with Moranis in 1989. He later re-teamed with Moranis in the Mafia comedy My Blue Heaven (1990). In 1991, Martin starred in and wrote L.A. Story, a romantic comedy, in which the female lead was played by his then-wife Victoria Tennant. Martin also appeared in Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon, in which he played the tightly wound Hollywood film producer, Davis, who was recovering from a traumatic robbery that left him injured, which was a more serious role for him. Martin also starred in a remake of the comedy Father of the Bride in 1991 (followed by a sequel in 1995), and in the 1992 comedy Housesitter, with Goldie Hawn and Dana Delany. In 1994, he starred in, A Simple Twist of Fate; a film adaptation of Silas Marner.\n\nIn David Mamet's 1997 thriller, The Spanish Prisoner, Martin played a darker role as a wealthy stranger who takes a suspicious interest in the work of a young businessman (Campbell Scott). He went on to star with Eddie Murphy in the 1999 comedy Bowfinger, which Martin also wrote. \n\nIn 1998, Martin guest starred with U2 in the 200th episode of The Simpsons titled \"Trash of the Titans\", providing the voice for sanitation commissioner Ray Patterson. In 1999, Martin and Hawn starred in a remake of the 1970 Neil Simon comedy, The Out-of-Towners. By 2003, Martin ranked fourth on the box office stars list, after starring in Bringing Down The House and Cheaper By The Dozen, each of which earned over $130 million at U.S. theaters. That same year, he also played the villainous Mr. Chairman in the animation/live action blend, Looney Tunes: Back in Action.\n\nIn 2005, Martin wrote and starred in Shopgirl, based on his own novella (2000), and starred in Cheaper by the Dozen 2. In 2006, he starred in the box office hit The Pink Panther, as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. He reprised the role in 2009's The Pink Panther 2. When combined, the two films grossed over $230 million at the box office. In Baby Mama (2008), Martin played the founder of a health food company, and in It's Complicated (2009), he played opposite Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin. In 2009, an article in The Guardian listed Martin as one of the best actors never to receive an Oscar nomination. In 2011, he appeared with Jack Black, Owen Wilson, and JoBeth Williams in the birdwatching comedy The Big Year. After a three-year hiatus, Martin returned in 2015 when he voiced a role in the animated film Home.\n\nWriting\n\nIn 1993, Martin wrote his first full-length play Picasso at the Lapin Agile. The first reading of the play took place in Beverly Hills, California, at Steve Martin's home, with Tom Hanks reading the role of Pablo Picasso and Chris Sarandon reading the role of Albert Einstein. Following this, the play opened at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois, and played from October 1993 to May 1994, then went on to run successfully in Los Angeles, New York City and several other US cities. In 2009, the school board in La Grande, Oregon, refused to allow the play to be performed after several parents complained about the content. In an open letter in the local Observer newspaper, Martin wrote \"I have heard that some in your community have characterized the play as 'people drinking in bars, and treating women as sex objects.' With apologies to William Shakespeare, this is like calling Hamlet a play about a castle [...] I will finance a non-profit, off-high school campus production [...] so that individuals, outside the jurisdiction of the school board but within the guarantees of freedom of expression provided by the Constitution of the United States can determine whether they will or will not see the play\". \n\nThroughout the 1990s, Martin wrote various pieces for The New Yorker. In 2002, he adapted the Carl Sternheim play The Underpants, which ran Off Broadway at Classic Stage Company, and in 2008 co-wrote and produced Traitor, starring Don Cheadle. He has also written the novellas Shopgirl (2000) and The Pleasure of My Company (2003), both more wry in tone than raucous. A story of a 28-year-old woman behind the glove counter at the Saks Fifth Avenue department store in Beverly Hills, Shopgirl was made into a film starring Martin and Claire Danes.[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998225,00.html But Seriously, Folks. Time article. October 16, 2000]. Retrieved August 14, 2010 The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2005 and was featured at the Chicago International Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival before going into limited release in the US. In 2007, he published a memoir, Born Standing Up, which Time magazine named as one of the Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2007, ranking it at 6, and praising it as \"a funny, moving, surprisingly frank memoir.\" In 2010, he published the novel An Object of Beauty.\n\nHosting\n\nMartin hosted the Academy Awards solo in 2001 and 2003, and with Alec Baldwin in 2010. In 2005, Martin co-hosted Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years, marking the park's anniversary. Disney continued to run the show until March 2009, which now plays in the lobby of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.\n\nMusic\n\nMartin first picked up the banjo when he was around 17 years of age. Martin has claimed in several interviews and in his memoir, Born Standing Up, that he used to take 33 rpm bluegrass records and slow them down to 16 rpm and tune his banjo down, so the notes would sound the same. Martin was able to pick out each note, and perfect his playing.\n\nMartin learned how to play the banjo with help from John McEuen, who later joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. McEuen's brother later managed Martin as well as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Martin did his stand-up routine opening for the band in the early 1970s. He had the band play on his hit song, \"King Tut\", being credited as \"The Toot Uncommons\" (as in Tutankhamun).\n\nThe banjo was a staple of Martin's 1970s stand-up career, and he periodically poked fun at his love for the instrument. On the Comedy Is Not Pretty! album he included an all-instrumental jam, titled \"Drop Thumb Medley\", and played the track on his 1979 concert tour. His final comedy album, The Steve Martin Brothers (1981), featured one side of Martin's typical stand-up material, with the other side featuring live performances of Steve playing banjo with a bluegrass band.\n\nIn 2001, he played banjo on Earl Scruggs's remake of \"Foggy Mountain Breakdown\". The recording was the winner of the Best Country Instrumental Performance category at the Grammy Awards of 2002. In 2008, Martin appeared with the band, In the Minds of the Living, during a show in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. \n\nIn 2009, Martin released his first all-music album, The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo with appearances from stars such as Dolly Parton. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in 2010. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band member John McEuen produced the album.\n\nMartin made his first appearance on The Grand Ole Opry on May 30, 2009. In the American Idol season eight finals, he performed alongside Michael Sarver and Megan Joy in the song \"Pretty Flowers\". In June, Martin played banjo along with the Steep Canyon Rangers on A Prairie Home Companion, and began a two-month U.S. tour with the Rangers in September, including appearances at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, Carnegie Hall and Benaroya Hall in Seattle. In November, they went on to play at the Royal Festival Hall in London with support from Mary Black. In 2010, Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers appeared at the New Orleans Jazzfest, Merlefest Bluegrass Festival in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, at Bonnaroo Music Festival, at the ROMP Bluegrass festival in Owensboro, Kentucky, at the Red Butte Garden Concert series and on the BBC's Later... with Jools Holland. Martin performed \"Jubilation Day\" with the Steep Canyon Rangers on The Colbert Report on March 21, 2011, on Conan on May 3, 2011, and on BBC's The One Show on July 6, 2011. Martin performed a song he wrote called \"Me and Paul Revere\" in addition to two other songs on the lawn of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, at the \"Capitol Fourth Celebration\" on July 4, 2011. In 2011, Martin also narrated and appeared in the PBS documentary \"Give me the Banjo\" chronicling the history of the banjo in America. \n\nLove Has Come For You, a collaboration album with Edie Brickell, was released in April 2013. The two made musical guest appearances on talk shows, such as The View and Late Show with David Letterman, to promote the album. \nThe title track won the Grammy Award for Best American Roots Song. \nStarting in May 2013, he is touring with the Steep Canyon Rangers and Edie Brickell throughout the United States. In 2015, Brickell and Martin released So Familiar as the second installment of their partnership. Inspired by Love has Come for You, Martin and Brickell collaborated on his first musical, Bright Star. It is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina in 1945-46, with flashbacks to 1923. The musical debuted on Broadway on March 24, 2016. \n\nSteve Martin Prize for Excellence \n\nIn 2010, Martin created the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass, an award established to reward artistry and bring greater visibility to bluegrass performers. The prize includes a USD$50,000 cash award, a bronze sculpture created by the artist Eric Fischl, and a chance to perform with Martin on Late Show with David Letterman. Recipients include Noam Pikelny of the Punch Brothers band (2010), Sammy Shelor of Lonesome River Band (2011), Mark Johnson (2012), Jens Kruger (2013), Eddie Adcock (2014), and Danny Barnes (2015).\n\nPersonal life\n\nMartin was romantically involved with actress and singer Bernadette Peters, his costar in the films The Jerk and Pennies from Heaven, during the 1970s and early 1980s. He married actress Victoria Tennant on November 20, 1986; they divorced in 1994. On July 28, 2007, after three years together, Martin married Anne Stringfield, a writer and former staffer for The New Yorker magazine. Former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey presided over the ceremony at Martin's Los Angeles home. Lorne Michaels, creator of Saturday Night Live, was best man. Several of the guests, including close friends Tom Hanks, Eugene Levy, comedian Carl Reiner, and magician/actor Ricky Jay were not informed that a wedding ceremony would take place. Instead, they were told they were invited to a party, and were surprised by the nuptials. At age 67, Martin became a father for the first time when Stringfield gave birth to a daughter in December 2012. \n\nMartin has been an avid art collector since 1968, when he bought a print by the Los Angeles artist Ed Ruscha. In the first public display of his collection, the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art presented a five-month exhibit of 28 works by Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, David Hockney, and Edward Hopper, among others, in 2001. In 2006, he sold Hopper's Hotel Window (1955) at Sotheby's for $26.8 million. In 2015, working with two other curators, he organized a show, \"The Idea of North: The Paintings of Lawren Harris\", to introduce Americans to Canadian painter and Group of Seven co-founder Lawren Harris. \n\nInvestigators at Berlin's state criminal police office (LKA) think that Martin was one victim of a German master art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi. In July 2004, Martin purchased what he believed to be a 1915 work by the German-Dutch painter Heinrich Campendonk, Landschaft mit Pferden (Landscape With Horses) from a Paris gallery for what should have been a bargain price of around €700,000 (around $850,000 at the time). Before the purchase an expert authenticated the work and identified the painter's signature on a label attached to the back. Fifteen months later Martin put the painting up for sale, and auction house Christie's disposed of it in February 2006, to a Swiss businesswoman for €500,000 – a loss of €200,000. Police believe the fake Campendonk originated from an invented art collection devised by a group of German swindlers caught in 2010. Skillfully forged paintings from this group were sold to French galleries like the one where Martin bought the forgery. \n\nMartin has tinnitus (ringing in the ears), which is a symptom of hearing loss. He got it while filming a pistol-shooting scene for the film Three Amigos in 1986. He has been quoted as saying, \"You just get used to it, or you go insane.\" \n\nAwards and nominations\n\nFilmography \n\nDiscography \n\nAlbums \n\nSingles \n\nMusic videos \n\nReleased stand-up shows\n\n* Steve Martin-Live! (1986, VHS)\n* Saturday Night Live: The Best Of Steve Martin (1998, DVD)\n* Steve Martin: The Television Stuff (2012, DVD; includes content of Steve Martin-Live! as well as his NBC specials and other television appearances)\n\nWritten works by Martin\n\n*The Jerk (1979) (Screenplay written with Carl Gottlieb)\n*Cruel Shoes (1979) (Essays)\n*Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays: Picasso at the Lapin Agile, the Zig-Zag Woman, Patter for the Floating Lady, WASP (1993) (Play)\n*L.A. Story and Roxanne: Two Screenplays (published together in 1987) (Screenplays)\n*Pure Drivel (1998) (Essays)\n*Bowfinger (1999) (Screenplay)\n*Eric Fischl : 1970–2000 (2000) (Afterword)\n*Modern Library Humor and Wit Series (2000) (Introduction and Series Editor)\n*Shopgirl (2000) (Novella)\n*Kindly Lent Their Owner: The Private Collection of Steve Martin (2001) (Art)\n*The Underpants: A Play (2002) (Play)\n*The Pleasure of My Company (2003) (Novel)\n*The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z (2007) (Children's Books illustrated by Roz Chast)\n*Born Standing Up (2007) (Memoir)\n*An Object of Beauty (2010) (Novel)\n*Late For School (2010) (Children's book)\n*The Ten, Make That Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten.: The Tweets of Steve Martin (February 21, 2012) (Collection)", "The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an American country-folk-rock band that has existed in various forms since its founding in Long Beach, California in 1966. The group's membership has had at least a dozen changes over the years, including a period from 1976 to 1981 when the band performed and recorded as the Dirt Band. Constant members since the early times are singer-guitarist Jeff Hanna and drummer Jimmie Fadden. Multi-instrumentalist John McEuen was with the band from 1966 to 1986 and returned during 2001. Keyboardist Bob Carpenter joined the band in 1977. The band is often cited as instrumental to the progression of contemporary country and roots music.\n\nThe band's successes include a cover version of Jerry Jeff Walker's \"Mr. Bojangles\". Albums include 1972's Will the Circle be Unbroken, featuring such traditional country artists as Mother Maybelle Carter, Earl Scruggs, Roy Acuff, Doc Watson, Merle Travis, and Jimmy Martin. A follow-up album based on the same concept, Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two was released in 1989, was certified gold, won two Grammy Awards and was named Album of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards.\n\nHistory\n\n1966–69\n\nNitty Gritty Dirt Band was founded around 1966 in Long Beach, California by singer-guitarist Jeff Hanna and singer-songwriter guitarist Bruce Kunkel who had performed as the New Coast Two and later the Illegitimate Jug Band. Trying, in the words of the band's website, to \"figure out how not to have to work for a living,\" Hanna and Kunkel joined informal jam sessions at McCabe's Guitar Shop. There they met several multi-instrumentalists: guitarist/washtub bassist Ralph Barr, guitarist-clarinetist Les Thompson, harmonicist and jug player Jimmie Fadden and guitarist-vocalist Jackson Browne. As Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the six men started as a jug band and adopted the burgeoning southern California folk rock musical style, playing in local clubs while wearing pinstripe suits and cowboy boots. Their first paying performance was at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, California. \n\nBrowne was in the band for only a few months before he left to concentrate on a solo career as a singer-songwriter. He was replaced by John McEuen on banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and steel guitar. McEuen's older brother, William, was the group's manager, and he helped the band get signed with Liberty Records, which released the group's debut album, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band during 1967. The band's first single, \"Buy for Me the Rain,\" was a Top 40 success, and the band gained exposure on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, as well as concerts with such disparate artists as Jack Benny and The Doors.\n\nA second album, Ricochet, was released later during the year and was less successful than their first. Kunkel wanted the band to \"go electric\", and include more original material. Bruce left the group to form WordSalad and Of The People. He was replaced by guitarist-fiddler Chris Darrow.\n\nBy 1968, the band adopted electrical instruments anyway, and added drums. The first electric album, Rare Junk, was a commercial failure, as was their next, Alive.\n\nThe band continued to gain publicity, mainly as a novelty act, making an appearance in the 1968 film, For Singles Only, and a cameo appearance in the 1969 musical western film, Paint Your Wagon, performing \"Hand Me Down That Can o' Beans\". The band also played Carnegie Hall as an opening act for Bill Cosby and played in a jam session with Dizzy Gillespie.\n\n1969–76\n\nThe group was inactive for a 6-month period after Paint Your Wagon, then reformed with Jimmy Ibbotson replacing Chris Darrow. With William McEuen as producer and a renegotiated contract that gave the band more artistic freedom, the band recorded and released Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy, issued in 1970. Embracing a straight, traditional country and bluegrass sound, the album included the group's best-known singles; a cover version of Jerry Jeff Walker's \"Mr. Bojangles\", Michael Nesmith's \"Some of Shelley's Blues\" and four Kenny Loggins songs including \"House at Pooh Corner\", the first recordings of Kenny's songs. Their version of \"Mr. Bojangles\" became the group's first hit, peaking at #9 on Billboard's all genre Hot 100 chart, with an unusual 36 weeks on the charts.\n\nThe next album, All The Good Times, released during early 1972, had a similar style.\n\nNitty Gritty Dirt Band next sought to solidify its reputation as a country band when band member John McEuen asked Earl Scruggs if he would record with the group. Earl's \"yes\" was followed the next week when John asked Doc Watson the same question, receiving the same answer of 'yes'. This set in motion the further addition of other artists, and with the help of Earl and Louise Scruggs, they set to traveling to Nashville, Tennessee and recording what was to become a triple album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken with Nashville stalwarts Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, and Jimmy Martin, country pioneer Mother Maybelle Carter, folk-blues guitarist Doc Watson, Merle Travis Norman Blake and others. The title is from the song, \"Will the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)\", as adapted by A. P. Carter, and reflects the album's theme of trying to tie together three generations of musicians: long-haired boys from California and older veterans of the middle American establishment. The track \"I Saw the Light\" with Acuff singing, was a success, and the album received two nominations for Grammy Award. Veteran fiddler Vassar Clements was introduced to a wider audience by the album and gave him a new career. The band also toured Japan twice soon after this period.\n\nAfter the next album Les Thompson left the group, making the band a foursome. Stars & Stripes Forever was a live album that mixed old successes such as \"Buy for Me the Rain\" and \"Mr. Bojangles\" with Circle collaborations (fiddler Vassar Clements was a guest performer) and long storytelling spoken-word monologues. A studio album, Dream, was also released.\n\nDuring July 1974, the band was among the headline acts at the Ozark Music Festival at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia, Missouri. Some estimates put the crowd at 350,000 people, which would make this one of the largest music events in history. At another concert, the band opened for the rock band Aerosmith.\n\n1976–81: \"The Dirt Band\"\n\nJimmy Ibbotson left the band at the end of 1976, leaving Fadden, Hanna, and McEuen to add John Cable and Jackie Clark, brought in on guitar and bass. In May 1977 the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band became the first American group allowed to tour Russia, Armenia, Georgia and Latvia - the Soviet Union. Playing 28 sold out concerts, and a televised appearance that is estimated to have been watched by 145 million people. In 1977, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band first appeared on the second season of the PBS music program Austin City Limits.\n\nAfter returning from Russia, the band released its first 'greatest successes' compilation, another now rare triple album Dirt, Silver & Gold, in 1978.\nAfter that release, the band shortened its name to The Dirt Band, and the group's sound became more pop and rock oriented. Saxophonist Al Garth, drummer Merel Bregante, and bassist Richard Hathaway were also added to the lineup in 1978 and Jeff Hanna became the group's producer for a few albums.\n\nKeyboardist Bob Carpenter (who would occasionally sit in with the band from 1975 on) contributed to their 1978 album The Dirt Band and joined the band permanently in 1979.\n\nAlbums during this period included The Dirt Band and An American Dream. The single \"American Dream\" with Linda Ronstadt reached No. 13 on the popular music charts. The band also appeared on Saturday Night Live in their own slot (performing the instrumental penned by John, \"White Russia'), and separately, billed as The Toot Uncommons, provided backing for Steve Martin on his million-selling novelty tune, \"King Tut.\" They also played on that hit recorded in Aspen earlier that year.\n\nIn 1980, Bregante left the group and drummer Mike Gardner replaced Bregante on stage with the group on tour, only to be succeeded by Vic Mastrianni in 1981. Al Garth moved on to Pure Prairie League and later the Eagles.\n\nThe albums Make a Little Magic and Jealousy were released in 1980 and 1981, with the single \"Make a Little Magic\" featuring Nicolette Larson reaching the Top 25 on the pop chart.\n\n1982–89: return to \"Nitty Gritty\"\n\nThe band returned to its original name and its country roots in 1982 with the lineup paring down to Hanna, Fadden, McEuen and Jimmy Ibbotson rejoining for recording sessions in Nashville, Tennessee for the album Let's Go, which yielded the success \"Dance Little Jean\" which was a Top 10 country hit. Carpenter rejoined the band in 1983 and the next album, 1984's Plain Dirt Fashion had the band's first No. 1 success, \"Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper's Dream)\".\n\nThere were two more No. 1's: \"Modern Day Romance\" (1985) and \"Fishin' in the Dark\" (1987). Other successful songs were \"Dance Little Jean\" (1983); \"I Love Only You\" (1984); \"High Horse\" (1985); \"Home Again in My Heart,\" \"Partners, Brothers and Friends\" and \"Stand a Little Rain\" (1986); \"Fire in the Sky,\" \"Baby's Got a Hold on Me\" and \"Oh What a Love\" (1987); \"Workin' Man (Nowhere to Go)\" and \"I've Been Lookin'\" (1988); and \"Down That Road Tonight\" and \"When it's Gone\" (1989).\n\nPerformances included the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and the inaugural Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. A 20-year anniversary concert at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado featured such guests as Ricky Skaggs, Emmylou Harris, Doc Watson, and John Prine.\n\nJohn McEuen left the band at the end of 1986, replaced by Bernie Leadon, formerly of the Eagles. He was with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1987 and 1988. The band's 19th album, Hold On featured the No. 1 singles \"Fishin' in the Dark\" and \"Baby's Got a Hold on Me.\" The band appeared on the Today Show and The Tonight Show in the same week, and toured Europe.\n\nDuring 1989, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band again returned to Nashville, to record Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two. Returnees from the first Circle included Earl Scruggs, Vassar Clements, and Roy Acuff. Johnny Cash and the Carter Family, Emmylou Harris, and Ricky Skaggs joined the sessions, as did John Prine, Levon Helm, John Denver, John Hiatt, Bruce Hornsby, and former Byrds Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman. This album won two Grammy Awards and was named Album of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards for Best Country Vocal Performance (duo or group) and the Country Music Association's Album of the Year Award in 1989.\n\n1990–2000\n\nAs a foursome of Hanna, Fadden, Ibbotson and Carpenter, the band again toured the former Soviet Union, as well as Canada, Europe, and Japan. A 25th anniversary concert was recorded on Live Two Five in Red Deer, Alberta, produced by T-Bone Burnett.\n\nDuring 1992, the band collaborated with Irish folk music's The Chieftains for the Grammy Award-winning Another Country. Other efforts included the album Acoustic, spotlighting their \"wooden\" sound, a duet with Karla Bonoff, \"You Believed in Me\" for the MCA Olympic compilation, One Voice, and a cover version of Buddy Holly's \"Maybe Baby\" for the Decca tribute album, Not Fade Away. The Christmas Album was released in 1997, followed by Bang! Bang! Bang! in 1999.\n\nDuring April 1992, they were the unwitting subject of one of George H. W. Bush's malapropisms when he referred to the group as the \"Nitty Ditty Nitty Gritty Great Bird\" at a country music awards ceremony in Nashville:\n\n\"I said to them there's another one that the Nitty Ditty Nitty Gritty Great Bird and it says if you want to see a rainbow you've got to stand a little rain.\" \n\nThis unusual phrasing was repeatedly used as an example of Bush's garbled syntax (notably, in Dave Barry's book Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway and in Barry's only non-audiobook album, A Totally Random Evening with Dave Barry), which in turn helped publicize the band.\n\n2000s\n\nJohn McEuen rejoined the band in 2001. During 2002, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band celebrated the 30th anniversary of their landmark Will the Circle Be Unbroken with a remastered CD reissue of the 1972 album and a new compilation, Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume III. An album of all-new material, Welcome to Woody Creek, was released in 2004. Jimmy Ibbotson again left the band that same year.\n\nAlso during 2004, country group Rascal Flatts released a cover of \"Bless the Broken Road,\" which the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band had recorded on Acoustic, from 1994. Songwriters Jeff Hanna, Marcus Hummon, and Bobby Boyd won a Grammy for Best Country Song for this work in 2005.\n\nDuring 2005 the band donated use of the song \"Soldier's Joy\" for the benefit album, Too Many Years to benefit Clear Path International's work with landmine survivors. Also in 2005, the band was recognized by the International Entertainment Buyers Association for 40 years of contributions to the music industry.\n\nIn 2009 the band released a new album, Speed of Life. Produced by George Massenburg and Jon Randall Stewart, Speed of Life is composed of a series of live, freewheeling studio recordings that purposefully avoid overproduction and demonstrate the band's collaborative spirit and spontaneity. Of the 13 tracks on Speed of Life, 11 are new songs penned by the band, and two are classic covers: Canned Heat's Woodstock hit \"Going Up the Country\" and Stealers Wheel's \"Stuck in the Middle\".\n\nFamily\n\nJeff Hanna and John McEuen's sons, Jaime Hanna and Jonathan McEuen, recorded for DreamWorks Records in 2005 as Hanna-McEuen. \n\nAwards and nominations\n\n*1984 — CMA Nomination for Instrumental Group of the Year\n*1985 — CMA Nomination for Instrumental Group of the Year; ACM Nomination for Vocal Group of the Year\n*1986 — CMA Nomination for Vocal Group of the Year\n*1988 — CMA Nomination for Vocal Group of the Year\n*1989 — CMA award for Album Of The Year; Grammy award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals; Grammy award for Best Bluegrass Recording; Grammy award for Co-producing Best Country Instrumental\n*2002 — Grammy nominations for Best Country Vocal Performance - Duo or Group and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals\n*2003 — CMA nomination for Vocal Event of the Year (NGDB with Johnny Cash); IBMA award for Best Recorded Event\n*2005 — Grammy award for Best Country Instrumental (NGDB with Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs, Jerry Douglas and Vassar Clements)\n\nBand lineups\n\nTimeline\n\nImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20\nPlotArea = left:120 bottom:60 top:15 right:0\nAlignbars = justify\nDateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy\nPeriod = from:01/01/1966 till:01/01/2013\nTimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy\nLegend = orientation:vertical position:bottom\nScaleMajor = increment:3 start:1967\nScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1967\n\nColors =\n id:members value:red legend:Members\n\nBarData =\n\n bar:Barr text:Ralph Barr\n bar:Browne text:Jackson Browne\n bar:Fadden text:Jimmie Fadden\n bar:Hanna text:Jeff Hanna\n bar:Kunkel text:Bruce Kunkel\n bar:Thompson text:Les Thompson\n bar:McEuen text:John McEuen\n bar:Darrow text:Chris Darrow\n bar:Ibbotson text:Jimmy Ibbotson\n bar:Cable text:John Cable\n bar:Clark text:Jackie Clark\n bar:Bregante text:Merel Bregante\n bar:Garth text:Al Garth\n bar:Hathaway text:Richard Hathaway\n bar:Carpenter text:Bob Carpenter\n bar:Gardner text:Michael Gardner\n bar:Mastrianni text:Vic Mastrianni\n bar:Savage text:Bryan Savage\n bar:Leadon text:Bernie Leadon\n\nPlotData=\n\n width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)\n\n bar:Barr from:05/01/1966 till:12/31/1968 color:members\n bar:Browne from:05/01/1966 till:08/31/1966 color:members\n bar:Hanna from:05/01/1966 till:end color:members\n bar:Fadden from:05/01/1966 till:end color:members\n bar:Kunkel from:05/01/1966 till:04/30/1967 color:members\n bar:Thompson from:05/01/1966 till:12/31/1973 color:members\n bar:McEuen from:09/01/1966 till:12/31/1986 color:members\n bar:McEuen from:01/01/2005 till:end color:members\n bar:Darrow from:05/01/1967 till:12/31/1968 color:members\n bar:Ibbotson from:01/01/1969 till:12/31/1975 color:members\n bar:Ibbotson from:01/01/1982 till:12/31/2004 color:members\n bar:Cable from:01/01/1976 till:04/30/1977 color:members\n bar:Clark from:01/01/1976 till:04/30/1977 color:members\n bar:Bregante from:05/01/1977 till:04/30/1980 color:members\n bar:Garth from:05/01/1977 till:04/30/1981 color:members\n bar:Hathaway from:05/01/1977 till:04/30/1982 color:members\n bar:Carpenter from:05/01/1979 till:04/30/1982 color:members\n bar:Carpenter from:05/01/1983 till:end color:members\n bar:Gardner from:05/01/1980 till:04/30/1981 color:members\n bar:Mastrianni from:05/01/1981 till:04/30/1982 color:members\n bar:Savage from:05/01/1981 till:04/30/1982 color:members\n bar:Leadon from:01/01/1987 till:04/30/1988 color:members\n\nDiscography", "Tutankhamun (; alternatively spelled with Tutenkh-, -amen, -amon) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (ruled c. 1332–1323 BC in the conventional chronology), during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom or sometimes the New Empire Period. He has since his discovery been colloquially referred to as King Tut. His original name, Tutankhaten, means \"Living Image of Aten\", while Tutankhamun means \"Living Image of Amun\". In hieroglyphs, the name Tutankhamun was typically written Amen-tut-ankh, because of a scribal custom that placed a divine name at the beginning of a phrase to show appropriate reverence. He is possibly also the Nibhurrereya of the Amarna letters, and likely the 18th dynasty king Rathotis who, according to Manetho, an ancient historian, had reigned for nine years—a figure that conforms with Flavius Josephus's version of Manetho's Epitome. \n\nThe 1922 discovery by Howard Carter and George Herbert of Tutankhamun's nearly intact tomb received worldwide press coverage. It sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamun's mask, now in the Egyptian Museum, remains the popular symbol. Exhibits of artifacts from his tomb have toured the world. In February 2010, the results of DNA tests confirmed that he was the son of Akhenaten (mummy KV55). His mother was Akhenaten's sister and wife (mummy KV35YL), whose name is unknown but whose remains are positively identified as \"The Younger Lady\" mummy found in KV35. The \"mysterious\" deaths of a few of those who excavated Tutankhamun's tomb has been popularly attributed to the curse of the pharaohs. \n\nLife\n\nTutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten (formerly Amenhotep IV) and one of Akhenaten's sisters, or possibly one of his cousins. As a prince, he was known as Tutankhaten. He ascended to the throne in 1333 BC, at the age of nine or ten, taking the throne name Nebkheperure. His wet nurse was a woman called Maia, known from her tomb at Saqqara. His teacher was most likely Sennedjem.\n\nWhen he became king, he married his half-sister, Ankhesenpaaten, who later changed her name to Ankhesenamun. They had two daughters, both stillborn. Computed tomography studies released in 2011 revealed that one daughter died at 5–6 months of pregnancy and the other at 9 months of pregnancy. No evidence was found in either mummy of congenital anomalies or an apparent cause of death. \n\nReign\n\nGiven his age, the king probably had very powerful advisers, presumably including General Horemheb (Grand Vizier Ay's possible son in law and successor) and Grand Vizier Ay (who succeeded Tutankhamun). Horemheb records that the king appointed him \"lord of the land\" as hereditary prince to maintain law. He also noted his ability to calm the young king when his temper flared. \n\nIn his third regnal year, under the influence of his advisors, Tutankhamun reversed several changes made during his father's reign. He ended the worship of the god Aten and restored the god Amun to supremacy. The ban on the cult of Amun was lifted and traditional privileges were restored to its priesthood. The capital was moved back to Thebes and the city of Akhetaten abandoned. This is when he changed his name to Tutankhamun, \"Living image of Amun\", reinforcing the restoration of Amun.\n\nAs part of his restoration, the king initiated building projects, in particular at Karnak in Thebes, where he dedicated a temple to Amun. Many monuments were erected, and an inscription on his tomb door declares the king had \"spent his life in fashioning the images of the gods\". The traditional festivals were now celebrated again, including those related to the Apis Bull, Horemakhet, and Opet. His restoration stela says:\n\nThe country was economically weak and in turmoil following the reign of Akhenaten. Diplomatic relations with other kingdoms had been neglected, and Tutankhamun sought to restore them, in particular with the Mitanni. Evidence of his success is suggested by the gifts from various countries found in his tomb. Despite his efforts for improved relations, battles with Nubians and Asiatics were recorded in his mortuary temple at Thebes. His tomb contained body armor and folding stools appropriate for military campaigns. However, given his youth and physical disabilities, which seemed to require the use of a cane in order to walk (he died c. age 19), historians speculate that he did not personally take part in these battles. \n\nHealth and appearance\n\nTutankhamun was slight of build, and was roughly 180 cm tall. He had large front incisors and an overbite characteristic of the Thutmosid royal line to which he belonged. Between September 2007 and October 2009, various mummies were subjected to detailed anthropological, radiological, and genetic studies as part of the King Tutankhamun Family Project. The research showed that Tutankhamun also had \"a slightly cleft palate\" and possibly a mild case of scoliosis, a medical condition in which the spine deviates to the side from the normal position. Examination of Tutankhamun's body has also revealed deformations in his left foot, caused by necrosis of bone tissue. The affliction may have forced Tutankhamun to walk with the use of a cane, many of which were found in his tomb. In DNA tests of Tutankhamun's mummy, scientists found DNA from the mosquito-borne parasites that cause malaria. This is currently the oldest known genetic proof of the disease. More than one strain of the malaria parasite was found, indicating that Tutankhamun contracted multiple malarial infections. According to National Geographic, \"The malaria would have weakened Tutankhamun's immune system and interfered with the healing of his foot. These factors, combined with the fracture in his left thighbone, which scientists had discovered in 2005, may have ultimately been what killed the young king.\"\n\nGenealogy\n\nIn 2008, a team began DNA research on Tutankhamun and the mummified remains of other members of his family. The results from the DNA samples finally put to rest questions about Tutankhamun's lineage, proving that his father was Akhenaten, but that his mother was not one of Akhenaten's known wives. His mother was one of his father's five sisters, although it is not known which one. The team was able to establish with a probability of better than 99.99 percent that Amenhotep III was the father of the individual in KV55, who was in turn the father of Tutankhamun. The young king's mother was found through the DNA testing of a mummy designated as 'The Younger Lady' (KV35YL), which was found lying beside Queen Tiye in the alcove of KV35. Her DNA proved that, like his father, she was a child of Amenhotep III and Tiye; thus, Tutankhamun's parents were brother and sister. Queen Tiye held much political influence at court and acted as an adviser to her son after the death of her husband. Some geneticists dispute these findings, however, and \"complain that the team used inappropriate analysis techniques.\" \n\nWhile the data are still incomplete, the study suggests that one of the mummified fetuses found in Tutankhamun's tomb is the daughter of Tutankhamun himself, and the other fetus is probably his child as well. So far, only partial data for the two female mummies from KV21 has been obtained. One of them, KV21A, may well be the infants' mother, and, thus, Tutankhamun's wife, Ankhesenamun. It is known from history that she was the daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and thus likely to be her husband's half-sister. One consequence of inbreeding can be children whose genetic defects do not allow them to be brought to term.\n\nA further autopsy and genetic evidence in 2014 re-confirmed the 2010 findings that Tutankhamun was the product of a brother-sister relationship. \n\nDeath\n\nThere are no surviving records of Tutankhamun's final days. What caused Tutankhamun's death has been the subject of considerable debate. Major studies have been conducted in an effort to establish the cause of death. There is some evidence, advanced by Harvard microbiologist Ralph Mitchell, that his burial may have been hurried. Mitchell reported that dark brown splotches on the decorated walls of Tutankhamun's burial chamber suggested that he had been entombed even before the paint had a chance to dry. \n\nAlthough there is some speculation that Tutankhamun was assassinated, the consensus is that his death was accidental. A CT scan taken in 2005 showed that he had suffered a compound left leg fracture shortly before his death, and that the leg had become infected. DNA analysis conducted in 2010 showed the presence of malaria in his system, leading to the belief that malaria and Köhler disease II combined led to his death. On 14 September 2012, ABC News presented a further theory about Tutankhamun's death, developed by lecturer and surgeon Dr. Hutan Ashrafian, who believed that temporal lobe epilepsy caused a fatal fall which also broke Tutankhamun's leg.\n\nIn June 2010, German scientists said they believed there was evidence that he had died of sickle cell disease. Other experts, however, rejected the hypothesis of homozygous sickle cell disease based on survival beyond the age of 5 and the location of the osteonecrosis, which is characteristic of Freiberg-Kohler syndrome rather than sickle-cell disease. Research conducted in 2005 by archaeologists, radiologists, and geneticists, who performed CT scans on the mummy, found that he was not killed by a blow to the head, as previously thought. New CT images discovered congenital flaws, which are more common among the children of incest. Siblings are more likely to pass on twin copies of harmful genes, which is why children of incest more commonly manifest genetic defects. It is suspected he also had a partially cleft palate, another congenital defect. \n\nVarious other diseases, invoked as possible explanations to his early demise, included Marfan syndrome, Wilson-Turner X-linked mental retardation syndrome, Fröhlich syndrome (adiposogenital dystrophy), Klinefelter syndrome, androgen insensitivity syndrome, aromatase excess syndrome in conjunction with sagittal craniosynostosis syndrome, Antley–Bixler syndrome or one of its variants, and temporal lobe epilepsy.\n\nA research team, consisting of Egyptian scientists Yehia Gad and Somaia Ismail from the National Research Centre in Cairo, conducted further CT scans under the direction of Ashraf Selim and Sahar Saleem of the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University. Three international experts served as consultants: Carsten Pusch of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany; Albert Zink of the EURAC-Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy; and Paul Gostner of the Central Hospital Bolzano. STR analysis based DNA fingerprinting analysis combined with the other techniques have rejected the hypothesis of gynecomastia and craniosynostoses (e.g., Antley-Bixler syndrome) or Marfan syndrome, but an accumulation of malformations in Tutankhamun's family was evident. Several pathologies including Köhler disease II were diagnosed in Tutankhamun; none alone would have caused death. Genetic testing for STEVOR, AMA1, or MSP1 genes specific for Plasmodium falciparum revealed indications of malaria tropica in 4 mummies, including Tutankhamun's. However, their exact contribution to the causality of his death still is highly debated.\n\nAs stated above, the team discovered DNA from several strains of a parasite proving he was infected with the most severe strain of malaria several times in his short life. Malaria can trigger circulatory shock or cause a fatal immune response in the body, either of which can lead to death. If Tutankhamun did suffer from a bone disease which was crippling, it may not have been fatal. \"Perhaps he struggled against other [congenital flaws] until a severe bout of malaria or a leg broken in an accident added one strain too many to a body that could no longer carry the load\", wrote Zahi Hawass, archeologist and head of Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquity involved in the research.\n\nA review of the medical findings to date found that he suffered from mild kyphoscoliosis, pes planus, hypophalangism of the right foot, bone necrosis of second and third metatarsal bones of the left foot, malaria, and a complex fracture of the right knee shortly before death.\n\nIn late 2013, Egyptologist Dr. Chris Naunton and scientists from the Cranfield Institute performed a \"virtual autopsy\" of Tutankhamun, revealing a pattern of injuries down one side of his body. Car-crash investigators then created computer simulations of chariot accidents. Naunton concluded that Tutankhamun was killed in a chariot crash: a chariot smashed into him while he was on his knees, shattering his ribs and pelvis. Naunton also referenced Howard Carter's records of the body having been burnt. Working with anthropologist Dr. Robert Connolly and forensic archaeologist Dr. Matthew Ponting, Naunton produced evidence that Tutankhamun's body was burnt while sealed inside his coffin. Embalming oils combined with oxygen and linen had caused a chemical reaction, creating temperatures of more than . Naunton said, \"The charring and possibility that a botched mummification led to the body spontaneously combusting shortly after burial was entirely unexpected.\" \n\nA further investigation, in 2014, revealed that it was unlikely he had been killed in a chariot accident. Scans found that all but one of his bone fractures, including those to his skull, had been inflicted after his death. The scans also showed that he had a partially clubbed foot and would have been unable to stand unaided, thus making it unlikely he ever rode in a chariot; this was supported by the presence of many walking sticks among the contents of his tomb. Instead, it is believed that genetic defects arising from his parents being siblings, complications from a broken leg and his suffering from malaria, together caused his death. \n\nAftermath\n\nWith the death of Tutankhamun and the two stillborn children buried with him, the Thutmoside family line came to an end. The Amarna letters indicate that Tutankhamun's wife, recently widowed, wrote to the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I, asking if she could marry one of his sons. The letters do not say how Tutankhamun died. In the message, Ankhesenamun says that she was very afraid, but would not take one of her own people as husband. However, the son was killed before reaching his new wife. Shortly afterward, Ay married Tutankhamun's widow and became Pharaoh as a war was fought between the two countries, and Egypt was left defeated. The fate of Ankhesenamun is not known, but she disappears from record and Ay's second wife Tey became Great Royal Wife. After Ay's death, Horemheb usurped the throne and instigated a campaign of damnatio memoriae against him. Tutankhamun's father Akhenaten, stepmother Nefertiti, his wife Ankhesenamun, half sisters and other family members were also included. Not even Tutankhamun was spared. His images and cartouches were also erased. Horemheb himself was left childless and willed the throne to Paramessu, who founded the Ramesside family line of pharaohs.\n\nSignificance\n\nTutankhamun was nine years old when he became Pharaoh, son of god Ra, and reigned for approximately ten years. In historical terms, Tutankhamun's significance stems from the fact that his reign was close to the apogee of Egypt as a world power and from his rejection of the radical religious innovations introduced by his predecessor and father, Akhenaten. Secondly, his tomb in the Valley of the Kings was discovered by Carter almost completely intact—the most complete ancient Egyptian royal tomb ever found. As Tutankhamun began his reign at such an early age, his vizier and eventual successor, Ay, was probably making most of the important political decisions during Tutankhamun's reign.\n\nKings were venerated after their deaths through mortuary cults and associated temples. Tutankhamun was one of the few kings worshiped in this manner during his lifetime. A stela discovered at Karnak and dedicated to Amun-Ra and Tutankhamun indicates that the king could be appealed to in his deified state for forgiveness and to free the petitioner from an ailment caused by sin. Temples of his cult were built as far away as in Kawa and Faras in Nubia. The title of the sister of the Viceroy of Kush included a reference to the deified king, indicative of the universality of his cult. \n\nTomb\n\nTutankhamun was buried in a tomb that was unusually small considering his status. His death may have occurred unexpectedly, before the completion of a grander royal tomb, so that his mummy was buried in a tomb intended for someone else. This would preserve the observance of the customary 70 days between death and burial. \n\nKing Tutankhamun's mummy still rests in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. On 4 November 2007, 85 years to the day after Carter's discovery, the 19-year-old pharaoh went on display in his underground tomb at Luxor, when the linen-wrapped mummy was removed from its golden sarcophagus to a climate-controlled glass box. The case was designed to prevent the heightened rate of decomposition caused by the humidity and warmth from tourists visiting the tomb. \n\nHis tomb was robbed at least twice in antiquity, but based on the items taken (including perishable oils and perfumes) and the evidence of restoration of the tomb after the intrusions, it seems clear that these robberies took place within several months at most of the initial burial.\n\nEventually, the location of the tomb was lost because it had come to be buried by stone chips from subsequent tombs, either dumped there or washed there by floods. In the years that followed, some huts for workers were built over the tomb entrance, clearly without anyone's knowing what lay beneath. When at the end of the 20th Dynasty the Valley of the Kings burial sites were systematically dismantled, Tutankhamun's tomb was overlooked, presumably because knowledge of it had been lost, and his name may have been forgotten.\n\nFor many years, rumors of a \"Curse of the Pharaohs\" (probably fueled by newspapers seeking sales at the time of the discovery ) persisted, emphasizing the early death of some of those who had entered the tomb. A study showed that of the 58 people who were present when the tomb and sarcophagus were opened, only eight died within a dozen years. All the others were still alive, including Howard Carter, who died of lymphoma in 1939 at the age of 64. The last survivor, American archaeologist J.O. Kinnaman, died in 1961, a full 39 years after the event. \n\nMeteorite dagger\n\nIn June 2016, a report emerged that attributed the dagger buried with Pharaoh Tutankhamun to an iron meteorite, with similar proportions of metals (iron, nickel and cobalt) to a meteorite discovered near and named after Kharga Oasis. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor shower. \n\n\"Early View (Online Version of Record published before inclusion in a printed issue)\".\n\nReuse of Neferneferuaten's funerary objects for Tutankhamun's burial\n\nAccording to Nicholas Reeves, almost 80% of Tutankhamun's burial equipment originated from the female pharaoh Neferneferuaten's funerary goods including his famous gold mask, middle coffin, canopic coffinettes, several of the gilded shrine panels, the shabti-figures, the boxes and chests, the royal jewelry, etc. \nIn 2015, Reeves published evidence showing that an earlier cartouche on Tutankhamun's famous gold mask read \"Ankheperure mery-Neferkheperure\" or (Ankheperure beloved of Akhenaten); therefore, the mask was originally made for Nefertiti, Akhenaten's chief queen, who used the royal name Ankheperure when she most likely assumed the throne after her husband's death. \n\nThis development implies that either Neferneferuaten (likely Nefertiti if she assumed the throne after Akhenaten's death) was deposed in a struggle for power, possibly deprived of a royal burial—and buried as a Queen—or that she was buried with a different set of king's funerary equipment—possibly Akhenaten's own funerary equipment by Tutankhamun's officials since Tutankhamun succeeded her as king. Neferneferuaten was likely succeeded by Tutankhamun based on the presence of her funerary goods in his tomb.\n\nLegacy\n\nIf Tutankhamun is the world's best known pharaoh, it is largely because his tomb is among the best preserved, and his image and associated artifacts the most-exhibited. As Jon Manchip White writes, in his foreword to the 1977 edition of Carter's The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun, \"The pharaoh who in life was one of the least esteemed of Egypt's Pharoahs has become in death the most renowned.\"\n\n5,398 items were found in the tomb, including a solid gold coffin, face mask, thrones, archery bows, a lotus chalice, food, wine, sandals, and fresh linen underwear. Howard Carter took 10 years to catalog the items. Recent analysis suggests a dagger recovered from the tomb had an iron blade made from a meteorite; study of artifacts of the time including other artifacts from Tutankhamun's tomb could provide valuable insights into metalworking technologies round the Mediterranean at the time. \n\nThe discoveries in the tomb were prominent news in the 1920s. Tutankhamen came to be called by a modern neologism, \"King Tut\". Ancient Egyptian references became common in popular culture, including Tin Pan Alley songs; the most popular of the latter was \"Old King Tut\" by Harry Von Tilzer from 1923, which was recorded by such prominent artists of the time as Jones & Hare and Sophie Tucker. \"King Tut\" became the name of products, businesses, and even the pet dog of U.S. President Herbert Hoover.\n\nRelics from Tutankhamun's tomb are among the most traveled artifacts in the world. They have been to many countries, but probably the best-known exhibition tour was The Treasures of Tutankhamun tour, which ran from 1972 to 1979. This exhibition was first shown in London at the British Museum from 30 March until 30 September 1972. More than 1.6 million visitors saw the exhibition, some queuing for up to eight hours. It was the most popular exhibition in the Museum's history. The exhibition moved on to many other countries, including the USA, USSR, Japan, France, Canada, and West Germany. The Metropolitan Museum of Art organized the U.S. exhibition, which ran from 17 November 1976 through 15 April 1979. More than eight million attended.\n\nIn 2004, the tour of Tutankhamun funerary objects entitled Tutankhamen: The Golden Hereafter, consisting of fifty artifacts from Tutankhamun's tomb and seventy funerary goods from other 18th Dynasty tombs, began in Basel, Switzerland and went on to Bonn, Germany, on the second leg of the tour. This European tour was organised by the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), and the Egyptian Museum in cooperation with the Antikenmuseum Basel and Sammlung Ludwig. Deutsche Telekom sponsored the Bonn exhibition. \n\nIn 2005, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, in partnership with Arts and Exhibitions International and the National Geographic Society, launched a tour of Tutankhamun treasures and other 18th Dynasty funerary objects, this time called Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs. It featured the same exhibits as Tutankhamen: The Golden Hereafter in a slightly different format. It was expected to draw more than three million people. \n\nThe exhibition started in Los Angeles, then moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Chicago and Philadelphia. The exhibition then moved to London before finally returning to Egypt in August 2008. An encore of the exhibition in the United States ran at the Dallas Museum of Art from October 2008 to May 2009. The tour continued to other U.S. cities. After Dallas the exhibition moved to the de Young Museum in San Francisco, followed by the Discovery Times Square Exposition in New York City. \n\nIn 2011, the exhibition visited Australia for the first time, opening at the Melbourne Museum in April for its only Australian stop before Egypt's treasures returned to Cairo in December 2011. \n\nThe exhibition included 80 exhibits from the reigns of Tutankhamun's immediate predecessors in the Eighteenth dynasty, such as Hatshepsut, whose trade policies greatly increased the wealth of that dynasty and enabled the lavish wealth of Tutankhamun's burial artifacts, as well as 50 from Tutankhamun's tomb. The exhibition does not include the gold mask that was a feature of the 1972–1979 tour, as the Egyptian government has determined that the mask is too fragile to withstand travel and will never again leave the country. \n\nA separate exhibition called Tutankhamun and the World of the Pharaohs began at the Ethnological Museum in Vienna from 9 March to 28 September 2008, showing a further 140 treasures. Renamed Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs, the exhibition toured the US and Canada from November 2008 to 6 January 2013. \n\nIn popular culture\n\nFilm \n\n* We Want Our Mummy (1939), a film in which The Three Stooges explore the tomb of the midget King Rutentuten (pronounced \"rootin'-tootin'\") and his Queen, Hotsy Totsy. \n* Mummy's Dummies (1948), a film in which The Three Stooges are crooked used-chariot salesmen who ultimately assist a different King Rootentootin (Vernon Dent) with a toothache.\n* La Reine Soleil (2007), an animated film by Philippe Leclerc which features Akhenaten, Tutankhaten (later Tutankhamun), Akhesa (Ankhesenepaten, later Ankhesenamun), Nefertiti, and Horemheb in a complex struggle pitting the priests of Amun against Akhenaten's intolerant monotheism.\n* For Transformers (2007), the Decepticon character Frenzy repeats the name, \"Tutankhamun.\"\n\nGames\n\n* The video game Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy (2003) features a fictional representation of Prince Tutankhamun, who is the victim of an unnamed magical ritual which results in almost instantaneous mummification and extraction of what appears to be his \"life force\". In the instruction manual, the Mummy is described as young, inexperienced and naive.\n* The arcade game Tutankham (1981) revolves around King Tutankhamun.\n\nLiterature\n\n* The novel Tutankhamun (2008) by novelist Nick Drake [not the musician] takes place during the reign of Tutankhamun and gives a possible explanation for his injury and death (and the aftermath) set amid a murder mystery.\n* The novel The Lost Queen of Egypt (1937) by novelist Lucile Morrison is about Ankhsenpaaten / Ankhesenamun, the wife of Tutankhamun. He is a major character, coming in about midway in the story. Here, his name is spelled as 'Tutankhamon.' It's strongly hinted that he was murdered.\n\nMusic\n\n* \"King Tut\" (1978), a whimsical song by (American comedian) \"Steve Martin and the Toot Uncommons\" (a backup group consisting of members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band).\n\nTelevision\n\n* King Tut, played by Victor Buono, was a villain on the Batman TV series which aired from 1966 to 1968. Mild-mannered Egyptologist William Omaha McElroy, after suffering a concussion, came to believe he was the reincarnation of Tutankhamun. His response to this knowledge was to embark upon a crime spree that required him to fight against the \"Caped Crusaders\", Batman and Robin.\n* The first episode of the 2005 BBC series Egypt: Rediscovering a Lost World focuses on the life and death of Tutankhamun and the serendipitous discovery of his tomb.\n* In the US documentary series, King Tut Unwrapped, Moroccan singer-actor, Faissal Oberon Azizi, portrayed Tutankhamun.\n* The Discovery Kids animated series Tutenstein stars a fictional mummy based on Tutankhamun, named Tutankhensetamun and nicknamed Tutenstein, in his afterlife. He is depicted as a lazy and spoiled 10-year-old mummy boy who must guard a magical artifact called the Scepter of Was from the evil Egyptian god Set.\n*Tut, a dramatized three part miniseries loosely based on the reign of Tutankhamun (portrayed by Avan Jogia), premiered on Spike in July 2015.\n*In the Japanese superhero series Kamen Rider Ghost, Tutankhamun is one of 15 famous historical figures' souls residing in mystical items called Eyecons, which can be used by the Kamen Riders to empower themselves. Soul of Tutankhamun is often used by Kamen Rider Specter to transform into a pharaoh-like form called Tutankhamun Damashii.\n\nNames\n\nAt the reintroduction of traditional religious practice, his name changed. It is transliterated as twt-ꜥnḫ-ỉmn ḥqꜣ-ỉwnw-šmꜥ, and according to modern Egyptological convention is written Tutankhamun Hekaiunushema, meaning \"Living image of Amun, ruler of Upper Heliopolis\". On his ascension to the throne, Tutankhamun took a praenomen. This is transliterated as nb-ḫprw-rꜥ, and, again, according to modern Egyptological convention is written Nebkheperure, meaning \"Lord of the forms of Re\". The name Nibhurrereya in the Amarna letters may be closer to how his praenomen was actually pronounced.\n\nAncestry", "\"King Tut\" is a novelty song performed by Steve Martin and the Toot Uncommons (actually members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band). It was released as a single in 1978, sold over a million copies, and reached number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Martin previewed the song in a live performance during the April 22, 1978 episode of Saturday Night Live. The song was also included on Martin's album A Wild and Crazy Guy.\n\n\"King Tut\" paid homage to Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun and presents a caricature of the sensational Treasures of Tutankhamun traveling exhibit that toured seven United States cities from 1976 to 1979. The exhibit attracted approximately eight million visitors. In the Saturday Night Live performance of \"King Tut,\" loyal subjects appease a joyful King Tut with kitchen appliances. An instrumental solo is delivered by saxophone player Lou Marini, who steps out of a sarcophagus—painted gold—to great laughter.\n\nIn the book Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, authors Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad write that the sketch was one of the most expensive productions the show had attempted up to that point. Martin had brought the song to the show and asked if he could perform it, not expecting the production that occurred—producer Lorne Michaels put everything behind it.\n\nMartin and the Steep Canyon Rangers recorded the song in a bluegrass version for their 2011 album, Rare Bird Alert.\n\nThe song is the subject of in-depth analysis in Melani McAlister's Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East, 1945–2000.\n\nIt is also referenced in a dialogue in the video game The Lost Vikings (1992) at the end of one of the Egyptian themed levels of the game. \n\nChicago radio superstation WLS-AM, which gave the song much airplay, ranked \"King Tut\" as the 11th biggest hit of 1978. It spent four weeks at the number-one position on their chart during the time the Tut exhibition was on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in downtown Chicago.\n\nChart performance\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Playing_card.txt", "Euchre.txt", "Joker_(playing_card).txt" ], "title": [ "Playing card", "Euchre", "Joker (playing card)" ], "wiki_context": [ "A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling.\n\nA complete set of cards is called a pack (UK English), deck (US English), or set (Universal), and the subset of cards held at one time by a player during a game is commonly called a hand. A pack of cards may be used for playing a variety of card games, with varying elements of skill and chance, some of which are played for money (e.g., poker and blackjack games at a casino). Playing cards are also used for illusions, cardistry, building card structures, cartomancy and memory sport.\n\nThe front (or \"face\") of each card carries markings that distinguish it from the other cards in the pack and determine its use under the rules of the game being played. The back of each card is identical for all cards in any particular pack to create an imperfect information scenario. Usually every card will be smooth; however, some packs have braille to allow blind people to read the card number and suit.\n\nDedicated deck card games have sets that are used only for a specific game. The cards described in this article are used for many games and share a common origin stemming from the standards set in Mamluk Egypt. These sets divide their cards into four suits each consisting of three face cards and numbered or \"pip\" cards.\n\nHistory\n\nEarly history\n\nThe scholarly consensus is that playing cards were invented in Imperial China. They first appeared as early as 9th century Tang China (618–907). The first reference to card games also dates from the 9th century, when the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang, written by Tang dynasty writer Su E, described Princess Tongchang, daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang, playing the \"leaf game\" in 868 with members of the Wei clan, the family of the princess' husband. The first known book on the \"leaf\" game was called the Yezi Gexi and was allegedly written by a Tang woman, and was commented on by Chinese writers of subsequent dynasties. The Song dynasty (960–1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) asserted that the \"leaf\" game existed at least since the mid-Tang dynasty and associated their invention with the simultaneous development of using sheets or pages instead of paper rolls as a writing medium. However, Ouyang claimed the \"leaves\" were pages of a book for a board game played with dice. In any case, Ouyang asserted that the rules for the game were lost by 1067.\n\nIt may be that the first pack of cards ever printed was a 32-card Chinese domino pack, in whose cards all 21 combinations of a pair of dice are depicted. According to the Gui Tian Lu (歸田錄), an 11th-century Chinese text redacted, domino cards were printed during the Tang dynasty, contemporary to the first printed books. There is difficulty distinguishing paper cards and gaming tiles in many early sources as the Chinese word pái (牌) is used to describe both. Playing cards are paper pái while tiles are called bone pái. Paper playing cards and the woodblocks to print them are unambiguously attested in 1294.\n\nWilliam Henry Wilkinson suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which were both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for, as in trading card games. As using paper money was inconvenient and risky, they were substituted by play money known as \"money-suited cards\". One of the earliest games in which we know the rules is Madiao, a trick-taking game, which dates to the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). 15th century scholar Lu Rong described it is as being played with 38 \"money-suited cards\" divided into four suits: 9 in coins, 9 in strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), 9 in myriads (of coins or of strings), and 11 in tens of myriads (a myriad is 10,000). The two latter suits had Water Margin characters instead of pips on them with Chinese ideograms to mark their rank and suit. The pips were copied directly from Chinese banknotes such as the Song's Jiaozi or the Yuan's Chao currencies. The suit of coins is in reverse order with 9 of coins being the lowest going up to 1 of coins as the high card. Inverted ranking is also found in the Vietnamese game of Tổ tôm and other games below.\n\nThe money-suited system is based on denominations of currency and not on the pips or pictures. This is why there is no tenth rank as that would create a new suit. A simplified deck is still in use by Hakka players, where every suit has just nine cards in progressive ranking, replacing pips and pictures with labels. Another type of modern deck keeps the traditional images but drops the highest suit (tens of myriads) and quadruplicate the rest. The designs on modern Mahjong tiles likely evolved from this pack.\n\nPersia and India\n\nIt is not known when playing cards arrived in Persia. They may have been acquired through trade in the Silk Road or brought by the Mongol conquerors in the 13th century. Persian cards, known as Ganjifeh or Ganjafa, have eight suits. Mughal conquerors brought these cards to India in the early 16th century where they are called Ganjifa. In India, current packs used for play have eight, ten, or twelve suits though as many as 32 suits once existed. The Indians also converted the original rectangular cards to circular ones. In Iran, the cards were superseded by As-Nas decks during the 19th century.\n\nDespite the wide variety of Ganjifa patterns, the suits show a uniformity of structure. Every suit contains twelve cards with the top two usually being the court cards of king and vizier and the bottom ten being pip cards. Half the suits use reverse ranking for their pip cards. There many different motifs for the suit pips but some include coins, clubs, jugs, and swords which resemble later Mamluk and Latin suits. Michael Dummett speculated that Ganjifa and Mamluk cards may have descended from an earlier deck which consisted of 48 cards divided into four suits each with ten pip cards and two court cards. \n\nEgypt\n\nBy the 11th century, playing cards were spreading throughout the Asian continent and later came into Egypt. The oldest surviving cards in the world are four fragments found in the Keir Collection and one in the Benaki Museum. They are dated to the 12th and 13th centuries (late Fatimid, Ayyubid, and early Mamluk periods). \n\nA near complete pack of Mamluk playing cards dating to the 15th century and of similar appearance to the fragments above was discovered by Leo Aryeh Mayer in the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, in 1939. It is not a complete set and is actually composed of three different packs, probably to replace missing cards. The Topkapı pack originally contained 52 cards comprising four suits: polo-sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten pip cards and three court cards, called malik (king), nā'ib malik (viceroy or deputy king), and thānī nā'ib (second or under-deputy). The thānī nā'ib is a non-existent title so it may not have been in the earliest versions; without this rank, the Mamluk suits would structurally be the same as a Ganjifa suit. In fact, the word \"Kanjifah\" appears in Arabic on the king of swords and is still used in parts of the Middle East to describe modern playing cards. Influence from further east can explain why the Mamluks, most of whom were Central Asian Turkic Kipchaks, called their cups tuman which means myriad in Turkic, Mongolian and Jurchen languages. Wilkinson postulated that the cups may have been derived from inverting the Chinese and Jurchen ideogram for myriad ().\n\nThe Mamluk court cards showed abstract designs or calligraphy not depicting persons possibly due to religious proscription in Sunni Islam, though they did bear the names of military officers. Nā'ib would be corrupted into naibi (Italian) and naipes (Spanish), the latter still in common usage. Panels on the pip cards in two suits show they had a reverse ranking, a feature found in Madiao, Ganjifa, and old European card games like Ombre, Tarot, and Maw. \n\nA fragment of two uncut sheets of Moorish-styled cards of a similar but plainer style were found in Spain and dated to the early 15th century. \n\nProduction of these cards did not outlive the fall of the Mamluks in the sixteenth century. The rules to play these games are lost but they are believed to be plain trick games without trumps. \n\nSpread across Europe and early design changes\n\nPlaying cards first entered Southern Europe in the 14th century, probably from Mamluk Egypt, using the Mamluk suits of cups, coins, swords, and polo-sticks, which are still used in traditional Latin decks. As polo was an obscure sport to Europeans then, the polo-sticks became batons or cudgels. Their presence is attested in Catalonia in 1371, 1377 in Switzerland, and 1380 in many locations including Florence and Paris. Wide use of playing cards in Europe can, with some certainty, be traced from 1377 onwards. \n\nA 1369 Paris ordinance does not mention cards, but its 1377 update does. In the account books of Johanna, Duchess of Brabant and Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxemburg, an entry dated May 14, 1379 reads: \"Given to Monsieur and Madame four peters, two forms, value eight and a half moutons, wherewith to buy a pack of cards\". In his book of accounts for 1392 or 1393, Charles or Charbot Poupart, treasurer of the household of Charles VI of France, records payment for the painting of three sets of cards. \n\nThe earliest cards were made by hand, like those designed for Charles VI; this was expensive. Printed woodcut decks appeared in the 15th century. The technique of printing woodcuts to decorate fabric was transferred to printing on paper around 1400 in Christian Europe, very shortly after the first recorded manufacture of paper there, while in Islamic Spain it was much older. The earliest dated European woodcut is 1418.\n\nFrom about 1418 to 1450 professional card makers in Ulm, Nuremberg, and Augsburg created printed decks. Playing cards even competed with devotional images as the most common uses for woodcuts in this period. Most early woodcuts of all types were coloured after printing, either by hand or, from about 1450 onwards, stencils. These 15th-century playing cards were probably painted. The Flemish Hunting Deck, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the oldest complete set of ordinary playing cards made in Europe from the fifteenth century. Hunting themed decks like the Stuttgart playing cards and the Ambraser Hofjagdspiel were produced in the Rhine basin during the 15th and 16th centuries. Producers of hunting decks include the Master of the Playing Cards who worked in Germany from the 1430s with the newly invented printmaking technique of engraving. Several other important engravers also made cards, including Master ES and Martin Schongauer. Engraving was much more expensive than woodcut, and engraved cards must have been relatively unusual.\n\nKarnöffel is the oldest card game with which the rules are recorded. It has a complicated \"elected suit\" that sometimes beat the other suits in certain circumstances. This may have preceded or inspired the creation of the tarot deck. The origins of the tarot pack are thought to be Italian, with the oldest surviving examples dating from the mid-15th century in Milan. It is generally thought that the tarot was invented between 1411 and 1425 by adding a fifth suit of cards known as trionfi (triumphs) to the Italian deck. These trionfi can beat any of the other four suits and is the origin of the word \"trump\". The tarot deck was never as popular as the standard decks, as it was more expensive, so lower classes preferred smaller decks. In many countries or regions, the regular 52 or 56 card deck shrank to 48, 40, 36, 32, or 24 cards. Instead of having a permanent trump suit like tarot, many trick-taking games starting with Triomphe simply use one or more of the four suits as trumps.\n\nAs cards spread from Italy to Germanic countries, the Latin suits were replaced with the suits of Leaves (or Shields), Hearts (or Roses), Bells, and Acorns, and a combination of Latin and Germanic suit pictures and names resulted in the French suits of trèfles (clovers), carreaux (tiles), cœurs (hearts), and piques (pikes) around 1480. The trèfle (clover) was probably derived from the acorn and the pique (pike) from the leaf of the German suits. The names \"pique\" and \"spade\", however, may have derived from the sword (spade) of the Italian suits. In England, the French suits were eventually used, although the earliest packs circulating may have had Latin suits. This may account to why the English called the clovers \"clubs\" and the pikes \"spades\".\n\nIn the late 14th century, Europeans changed the Mamluk court cards to represent European royalty and attendants. In a description from 1377, the earliest courts were originally a seated \"King\", an upper marshal that held his suit symbol up, and a lower marshal that held it down. The latter two correspond with the Ober and Unter cards found in German and Swiss playing cards. The Italians and Iberians replaced the Ober/Unter system with the \"Knight\" and \"Fante\" or \"Sota\" before 1390, perhaps to make the cards more visually distinguishable. In England, the lowest court card was called the \"Knave\" which originally meant male child (cf German Knabe), so in this context the character could represent the \"prince\", son to the King and Queen; the meaning servant developed later. Queens appeared sporadically in packs as early as 1377, especially in Germany. Although the Germans abandoned the Queen before the 1500s, the French permanently picked it up and placed it under the King. Packs of 56 cards containing in each suit a King, Queen, Knight, and Knave (as in tarot) were once common in the 15th century.\n\nCourt cards designed in the 16th century in the manufacturing centre of Rouen became the standard pattern in England, while the Parisian pattern became standard in France. Both the Parisian and Rouennais court cards were named after historical and mythological heroes and heroines. The Parisian names are still printed on cards in France while the Rouennais names were never used in England.\n\nDuring the mid 16th century, Portuguese traders introduced playing cards to Japan. The first indigenous Japanese deck was the Tenshō karuta named after the Tenshō period. It was a 48 card deck with the 10s missing like Iberian decks from that period. The Tokugawa shogunate banned these cards in the early 17th century forcing Japanese manufacturers to radically redesign their cards. As a result of Japan's isolationist Sakoku policy, karuta would develop separately from the rest of the world. Modern decks like hanafuda bear no resemblance to their Portuguese ancestor.\n\nLater design changes\n\nIn early games the kings were always the highest card in their suit. However, as early as the late 15th century special significance began to be placed on the nominally lowest card, now called the Ace, so that it sometimes became the highest card and the Two, or Deuce, the lowest. The term \"Ace\" itself comes from a dicing term in Anglo-Norman language, which is itself derived from the Latin as (the smallest unit of coinage). Another dicing term, trey (3), sometimes shows up in playing card games. Many governments used to raise revenue by imposing a stamp duty on playing cards. As the Ace card has the most blank space, it was usually chosen as the place to bear the stamp which proved the tax was paid. This led to elaborate designs of certain ace cards: the ace of spades in England, the ace of clubs in France, and the ace of diamonds in Russia.\n\nPacks with corner and edge indices (i.e. the value of the card printed at the corner(s) of the card) enabled players to hold their cards close together in a fan with one hand (instead of the two hands previously used). The first such pack known with Latin suits was printed by Infirerra and dated 1693, but this feature was commonly used only from the end of the 18th century. The first Anglo-American deck with this innovation was the Saladee's Patent, printed by Samuel Hart in 1864. In 1870, he and his cousins at Lawrence & Cohen followed up with the Squeezers, the first cards with indices that had a large diffusion. \n\nBefore this time, the lowest court card in an English pack was officially termed the Knave, but its abbreviation (\"Kn\") was too similar to the King (\"K\") and thus this term did not adapt well to indices. However, from the 17th century the Knave had often been termed the Jack, a term borrowed from the English Renaissance card game All Fours where the Knave of trumps has this name. All Fours was considered a game of the lower classes, so the use of the term Jack at one time was considered vulgar. The use of indices, however, encouraged a formal change from Knave to Jack in English language packs. Other languages faced similar problems when adding corner indices. In Latin languages both the King and Queen begin with the letter \"R\" while in Germanic and Slavic languages they begin with the letter \"K\". Like the equivalent chess piece, the Queen was called Dame, Dama or other variations which mean \"lady\". Scandinavian cards have kept the \"Kn\" for knaves.\n\nThis was followed by the innovation of reversible court cards. This invention is attributed to a French card maker of Agen in 1745. But the French government, which controlled the design of playing cards, prohibited the printing of cards with this innovation. In central Europe (Trappola cards) and Italy (Tarocco Bolognese) the innovation was adopted during the second half of the 18th century. In Great Britain the pack with reversible court cards was patented in 1799 by Edmund Ludlow and Ann Wilcox. The Anglo-American pack with this design was printed around 1802 by Thomas Wheeler. Reversible court cards meant that players had no need to turn upside-down court cards right side up. Before this, other players could often get a hint of what other players' hands contained by watching them reverse their cards. This innovation required abandoning some of the design elements of the earlier full-length courts.\n\nSharp corners wear out more quickly, and could possibly reveal the card's value, so they were replaced with rounded corners. Before the mid-19th century, British, American, and French players preferred blank backs. The need to hide wear and tear and to discourage writing on the back led cards to have designs, pictures, photos, or advertising on the reverse. \n\nDuring the nineteenth century, the evolution of Tarot packs for cartomancy and for gaming diverged after Etteilla created the first tarot deck dedicated to divination in 1791. The \"reading tarots\" based on the symbolic designs of the Tarot de Marseille (which were extensively modified to produce the widely known Rider-Waite deck) kept the older style of full-length character art, specific character meanings for the 21 trumps, and the use of the Latin suits (although most of the reading tarots in use today derive from the French Tarot de Marseille). On the other hand, \"playing tarots\", especially those of France and the Germanic regions, had by the end of the 19th century evolved into a form more resembling the modern playing card pack, with corner indices and easily identifiable number and court cards. The use of the traditional characters for the trumps was largely discarded in favor of more whimsical scenes. The Tarot Nouveau and Industrie und Glück are the most common examples of the current patterns of playing tarot. The Italian Tarocchi packs, however, have largely kept the traditional character identifications of each trump, as well as the Latin suits, though these packs are used almost exclusively for gaming. Tarocco Bolognese and Tarocco Piemontese are examples of Italian-suited playing tarot packs while the Tarocco Siciliano is the only one that uses Spanish pips.\n\nThe United States introduced the Joker into the deck. It was devised for the game of Euchre, which spread from Europe to America beginning shortly after the American Revolutionary War. In Euchre, the highest trump card is the Jack of the trump suit, called the right bower (from the German Bauer); the second-highest trump, the left bower, is the Jack of the suit of the same color as trumps. The joker was invented c. 1860 as a third trump, the imperial or best bower, which ranked higher than the other two bowers. The name of the card is believed to derive from juker, a variant name for Euchre. Beal, George (1975). Playing cards and their story. New York: Arco Publishing Comoany Inc. p. 58 The earliest reference to a Joker functioning as a wild card dates to 1875 with a variation of poker. \n\nModern manufacturing\n\nMost playing cards sold today are either made of card stock or plastic. Commercial grade polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was not available until the late 1920s and the first all PVC cards appeared in 1935. Contemporary plastic cards are increasingly made of polyvinyl chloride acetate (PVCA) or cellulose acetate. Plastic cards last longer and are more durable than paper cards but are more expensive. After World War II, paper cards were given a plastic coating to extend their lifetime.\n\nCards are printed on unique sheets that undergo a varnishing procedure in order to enhance the brightness and glow of the colours printed on the cards, as well as to increase their durability. Most printing today is done by offset printing or digital printing.\n\nIn today’s market, some high-quality products are available. There are some specific treatments on card surfaces, such as calender and linen finishing, that improve shuffling for either professional or domestic use.\n\nThe cards are printed on sheets, which are cut and arranged in bands (vertical stripes) before undergoing a cutting operation that cuts out the individual cards. After assembling the new decks, they pass through the corner-rounding process that will confer the final outline: the typical rectangular playing-card shape.\n\nFor most decks, the cards are assembled mechanically in an unvarying sequence, so their order must be randomized when play begins. Exceptions are decks destined for casinos which use pre-shuffled cards. Finally, each pack is wrapped in cellophane and inserted in its case, which may also be wrapped and sealed.\n\nModern deck formats\n\nContemporary playing cards are grouped into three broad categories based on the suits they use: French, Latin, and German. Latin suits are used in the closely related Spanish and Italian formats. The Swiss German suits are distinct enough to merit their subcategory. Excluding Jokers and Tarot trumps, the French 52-card deck preserves the number of cards in the original Mamluk deck, while Latin and German decks average fewer. Latin decks usually drop the higher-valued pip cards, while German decks drop the lower-valued ones.\n\nWithin suits, there are regional or national variations called \"standard patterns\" because they are in the public domain, allowing multiple card manufacturers to copy them. Pattern differences are most easily found in the face cards but the number of cards per deck, the use of numeric indices, or even minor shape and arrangement differences of the pips can be used to distinguish them. Some patterns have been around for hundreds of years. Jokers are not part of any pattern as they are a relatively recent invention and lack any standardized appearance so each publisher usually puts their own trademarked illustration into their decks. The wide variation of jokers has turned them into collectible items. Any card that bore the stamp duty like the ace of spades in England or the ace of clubs in France are also collectible as that is where the manufacturer's logo is usually placed.\n\nFrench suits\n\nFrench decks come in a variety of patterns and deck sizes. The 52-card deck is the most popular deck and includes 13 ranks of each suit with reversible \"court\" or face cards. Each suit includes an Ace, depicting a single symbol of its suit, a King, Queen, and Jack, each depicted with a symbol of their suit; and ranks two through ten, with each card depicting that number of pips of its suit. As well as these 52 cards, commercial packs often include between one and four jokers, most often two.\n\nThe piquet pack has all values from 2 through 6 in each suit removed for a total of 32 cards. It is popular in France, the Low Countries, Central Europe and Russia and is used to play Piquet, Belote, Bezique and Skat. 40 card French suited packs are common in northwest Italy; these remove the 8s through 10s like Latin suited decks. 24 card decks, removing 2s through 8s are also sold in Austria and Bavaria to play Schnapsen.\n\nThe 78 card Tarot Nouveau adds the Knight card between Queens and Jacks along with 21 numbered trumps and the unnumbered Fool.\n\nGerman suits\n\nA 32-card German suited set using the Saxon pattern\nIn the German pack, there are four colors, namely Acorns (Eichel), Leaves (Grün or Blatt), Hearts (Herz) and Bells (Schelle). In northern decks, the card ranks are Deuce (Daus or Ass), King (König), Over Knave (Ober), Under Knave (Unter), 10, 9, 8, and 7. Southern decks include the 6 for a total of 36 cards. 24 card \"Short\" Schafkopf and Schnapsen decks have no 6s, 7s, or 8s. 40-card decks with the 5s can be found in South Tyrol, Italy.\n\nSwiss German suits\n\nEastern parts of German-speaking Switzerland (east of the Brünig-Napf-Reuss line) use a variation of the German deck. It uses Roses (Rosen) instead of Hearts and Shields (Schilten) in place of Leaves. Also unlike the German deck, the 10 has been replaced by a Banner card which depicts a flag defaced by its suit symbol. Thus the only true pip cards are 6, 7, 8, and 9. The German Unter card is spelled Under to reflect the local Swiss dialect. They come in 36-card packs and are used to play the national game of Jass.\n\nA less common deck of 48 cards containing the 3s, 4s, and 5s is used to play Kaiserspiel, a variant of Karnöffel.\n\nLatin suits\n\nLatin decks consist of four suits: Swords, Clubs, Cups, and Coins. Spanish style clubs are knobbly cudgels while Italian style clubs are smooth batons. Italian style swords are curved while Spanish style swords are straight. The Portuguese pattern used Spanish pips but intersected their clubs and swords like in Italian suits. The only decks that use the Portuguese pattern in the present is the Sicilian Tarot and some Karuta packs.\n\nMost Italian and Spanish decks consist of 40 cards with each suit numbering 1 (or Ace) to 7 with three face cards of King, Knight, and Knave/Jack.\n\nItalian suits\n\nDespite the name, Italian suits normally refer to only suits found in northeastern Italy (essentially around the former Republic of Venice) while the rest of the country uses Spanish (Sardinia and the south), French (northwest), or German (South Tyrol) suits. They are most commonly found in packs of 40 cards but 52 card sets are also available. The Tarocco Piemontese and Tarocco Bolognese have 78 and 62 cards respectively. Unlike the French deck, some Italian cards do not have any numbers (or letters) identifying their value. The cards' value is determined by identifying the face card or counting the number of suit characters.\n\nSpanish suits\n\nThe cards (cartas or naipes in Spanish) are all numbered, but unlike in the standard French pack, the card numbered 10 is the first of the court cards (instead of a card depicting ten pips); so each suit has only twelve cards. Most Spanish games involve forty-card packs, with the 8s and 9s removed, similar to the standard Italian pack. Many Spanish decks have reintroduced cards representing 8 and 9 for a total of 48 cards though 40 card decks are still common. Certain packs include two \"comodines\" (jokers) as well. The box (la pinta) that goes around the edges of the card is used to distinguish the suit without showing all of your cards: The cups have one interruption, the swords two, the clubs three, and the coins none.\n\nAccessible playing cards\n\nPlaying cards have been adapted for use by the visually impaired by the inclusion of large-print and/or braille characters as part of the card. In addition to increasing the size of the suit symbol and the denomination text, large-print cards commonly reduce the visual complexity of the images for simpler identification. They may also omit the patterns of pips in favor of one large pip to identify suit. Some decks have larger indices, often for use in stud poker games, where being able to read cards from a distance is a benefit and hand sizes are small.\n\nOversize cards are also produced. These can assist with ease of handling and to allow for larger text. Some decks use four colors for the suits in order to make it easier to tell them apart: The most common set of four colors for poker is black spades, red hearts, blue diamonds and green clubs (♠♥♦♣). Another common color set is borrowed from the German suits and uses green spades (leaves) and yellow diamonds (bells) with red hearts and black clubs (♣♠♥♦).\n\nNo universal standards for braille playing cards exist. There are many national and producer variations. In most cases each card is marked with two braille characters in the same location as the normal corner markings. The two characters can appear in either vertical (one character below another) or horizontal (two characters side by side). In either case one character identifies the card suit and the other the card denomination. 1 for ace, 2 through 9 for the numbered cards, X (from Roman numerals) or the letter O for ten, J for jack, Q for queen, K for king. The suits are variously marked using D for diamond, S for spade, C or X for club and H or K for heart.\n\nSymbols in Unicode\n\nThe Unicode standard for text encoding on computers defines 8 characters for card suits in the Miscellaneous Symbols block, at U+2660–2667. Unicode 7.0 added a unified pack for French-suited Tarot Nouveau's trump cards and the 52 cards of the modern French pack, with 4 Knights, together with a character for \"Playing Card Back\" and black, red, and white jokers in the block U+1F0A0–1F0FF.", "Euchre or eucre is a trick-taking card game most commonly played with four people in two partnerships with a deck of 24, 25, or sometimes 32, standard playing cards. It is the game responsible for introducing the joker into modern packs; this was invented around 1860 to act as a top trump or best bower (from the German word Bauer, \"farmer\", denoting also the jack). It is believed to be closely related to the French game Écarté that was popularized in the United States by the Cornish and Pennsylvania Dutch, and to the seventeenth-century game of bad repute Loo. It may be sometimes referred to as Knock Euchre to distinguish it from Bid Euchre.\n\nOrigins\n\nEuchre appears to have been introduced into the United States by the early German settlers in the Midwest, and from that region gradually to have been disseminated throughout the nation. It has been more recently theorized that the game and its name derives from an eighteenth-century Alsatian card game named Juckerspiel, a derivative of Triomphe. Also, it may have been introduced by immigrants from Cornwall, UK, where it remains a popular game. It is also played in the neighboring county of Devon; one theory is that it was introduced by French or American prisoners of war imprisoned in Dartmoor prison during the early 19th century. Ombre is an ancestral form of Euchre. \n\nIn the United States the only teaching of the game, except a few paragraphs in the late American editions of Hoyle's Games, and of Bonn's New Hand-Book of Games, is contained in The Game of Euchre; with its Laws, 32mo., Philadelphia, 1850, pp. 32, attributed to a late learned jurist. \n\nThe game has declined in popularity since the 19th century, when it was widely regarded as the national card game, but it retains a strong following in some regions like the Midwest; especially the states of Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. In recent years, it has regained some popularity in the Eastern United States in the form of Bacon. It is played differently from region to region and even within regions. In Canada, the game is still very popular in Southern Ontario, and the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, Australia and New Zealand all have large followings of the game.\n\nDealing\n\nConventional euchre is a four-player trump game, wherein the players are paired to form two partnerships. Partners face each other from across the table so that the play of the cards in conventional clockwise order alternates between the two partnerships.\n\nConventional euchre uses a deck of 24 standard playing cards consisting of A, K, Q, J, 10, and 9 of each of the four suits. A 52-card deck can be used, omitting the cards from 2 to 8, or a Pinochle deck may be divided in half to form two euchre decks. Sometimes, a 32-card piquet or skat deck is used, which includes the 8s and 7s. \n\nEach player is dealt five cards (or seven if using the 32-card deck) in clockwise order in two rounds. The cards may be dealt in whatever pattern the dealer chooses, as long as all cards are dealt two at a time or three at a time.\n\nThe remaining four cards are called the kitty and are placed face down in front of the dealer toward the center on the table. The top card of the kitty is then turned face up, and bidding begins. (In the 25 card version of the game , if the \"Benny\" is turned up, the dealer calls a suit before anyone looks at their cards and picks it up. However some variations allow a normal bidding process to take place). The dealer asks each of the other players in turn if they would like the suit of the top card to be trump, which they indicate by saying \"pick it up\" or \"pass\" (knocking on the table is often substituted for vocalizing a pass). If the choice comes around to the dealer, the dealer can either pick the card up or flip it over. If the dealer acquires the top card (either by being ordered up or choosing to pick it up), the top card becomes part of the dealer's hand, who then discards a card to the kitty face down to return their hand to five cards. If no one orders up the top card and the dealer also chooses not to pick it up, each player is then given the opportunity, in turn, to call a different suit as trump. If no trump is selected, it is a misdeal, and the deal is passed clockwise (unless it was agreed upon to play stick the dealer, an option that involves forcing the dealer to choose a trump).\n\nWhen a suit is named trump, the jack in the suit of the same color as this trump suit becomes a powerful member of this trump suit. Then any card of that (expanded) suit outranks any card of a non-trump suit. The highest-ranking card in euchre is the Jack of the trump suit (called 'The Right Bower' or 'Right') then the other Jack of the same color, (called 'The Left Bower' or 'Left'). The cards are ranked, in descending order, J (of trump suit) J (same color as trump suit) A, K, Q, 10, and 9 of the trump suit.\n\nThe remaining cards rank in the usual order (the off-color jacks are not special) and the cards of those suits rank from high to low as A, K, Q, J, 10, and 9.\n\n;Example:\n\nAssume a hand is dealt and that spades are named as trump. In this event, the trump cards are as follows, from highest-ranking to lowest:\n# Jack of spades (right bower)\n# Jack of clubs (left bower)\n# Ace of spades\n# King of spades\n# Queen of spades\n# 10 of spades\n# 9 of spades\n\nHere, the jack of clubs becomes a spade during the playing of this hand. This expands the trump suit to the seven cards named above and reduces the suit of the same color (sometimes referred to as the next suit) by one card (the jack is loaned to the trump suit). The same principles are observed for whatever suit is named trump. Remembering this temporary transfer of the next suit's jack is one of the principal difficulties newcomers have with the game of euchre.\n\nOnce the above hand is finished, the jack of clubs ceases to be a spade and becomes a club again unless spades are again named as trump during the playing of the subsequent hand.\n\nDepending on regional or house rules, a player may steal the deal from the opposing team. To steal the deal, the partner of the previous dealer collects the cards, shuffles and deals as normal. If the opponent team does not notice that they have been skipped before dealing is finished then game play proceeds as normal. If the opponent team notices, they must say something which indicates this, and the deal is returned to the player who would normally deal next in the rotation. Normally there is no penalty for attempting to steal the deal, successful or not, and the next hand is dealt by the player to left of the player who stole the deal.\n\nPlay\n\nOverview, objective and scoring\n\nIn euchre, naming trumps is sometimes referred to as making, calling, or declaring trump. When naming a suit, a player asserts that his or her partnership intends to win the majority of tricks in the hand. A single point is scored when the bid succeeds, and two points are scored if the team that declared trump takes all five tricks. A failure of the calling partnership to win three tricks is referred to as being euchred, set or \"bumped\" and is penalized by giving the opposing partnership two points.\n\nA caller with exceptionally good cards can go alone, or take a loner hand, in which case he or she seeks to win all five tricks without a partner. The partner of a caller in a loner hand does not play, and if all five tricks are won by the caller the winning team scores 4 points. If only three or four of the tricks are taken while going alone, then only one point is scored. If euchred or set while playing alone, the opposing team still only receives 2 points.\n\nThe primary rule to remember when playing euchre is that one is never required to play the trump suit (unless that is the one that is led), but one is required to follow suit if possible to do so: if diamonds are led, a player with diamonds is required to play a diamond.\n\nCalling round (Naming trump)\n\nOnce the cards are dealt and the top card on the kitty is turned over, the upturned card's suit is offered as trump to the players in clockwise order beginning with the player to the left of the dealer (called the \"eldest\"). Team members are generally discouraged or explicitly forbidden to discuss their preferred choice(s) of trump, categorized as a part of the rules for no table talk. If a player wishes the proposed suit to be named trump, he orders up the card and the dealer adds that card to his hand. It is more advantageous to the dealer's team to select trump in this way, as the dealer necessarily gains one trump card. The dealer must then also discard a card face down from their hand in order to return his hand to a total of five cards. This discard is an important tactical decision, as the dealer can potentially create a \"void\" or \"short suit\" in their hand, where they lack any cards of a particular suit. That would allow them to play a trump card instead of being forced to follow that voided suit when it is led (see the later section on winning tricks and \"two-suited\" in Terminology). If the player instead opts to pass, the option proceeds to the player to the left until either a player orders the card up or all players have passed.\n\nIf all players pass, the top card is turned face down and that suit may no longer be chosen as trump. Trump selection proceeds clockwise beginning with the player to the left of the dealer where the player may name a suit different from that of the previous up-card as trump, or they may pass. No card is ordered up in this round. If all players pass again, it is declared a misdeal. The deal passes to the player on the previous dealer's left who reshuffles and deals a new hand. (A variation called \"Stick the Dealer\" is sometimes played, where the dealer is forced to call trumps in this situation).\n\nThe team that selects trump is known as the makers for the remainder of the hand, and the opposing team is known as the defenders. The makers must take at least three of the five tricks in the hand in order to avoid being euchred.\n\nWinning tricks\n\nThe player to the dealer's left begins play by leading any card of any suit. The player may lead with trump. Play continues in clockwise order; each player must follow suit if they have a card of the suit led. The left bower is considered a member of the trump suit and not a member of its native suit.\n\nThe player who played the highest card of the suit led wins the trick, unless trump is played, then the highest trump card wins the trick. Players who play neither the suit led nor trump cannot win the trick. The player that won the trick collects the played cards from the table and then leads the next trick.\n\nAfter all five tricks have been played, the hand is scored. The player to the left of the previous dealer then deals the next hand, and the deal moves clockwise around the table until one partnership scores 10 points and wins the game.\n\nGoing alone\n\nIf the player bidding (making trump) has an exceptionally good hand, the player making trump has the option of playing without his or her partner. If the bidder playing alone wins all five tricks in the hand, the team scores four points.\n\n\"Going alone\",Safire's political dictionary, p. 283, William Safire - Oxford University Press ISBN 978-0-19-534334-2American politicians have been either proud of themselves or critical of others for \"going it alone\" since about 1850, when card players began using this phrase to designate a player's decision to take in his tricks without the help of his partner. It may only be called by the person declaring trump, not their partner. \"going solo\", or \"playing a lone hand,\" is initiated at the time the bidder orders the upturned card on the kitty to the dealer or names a suit. The bidder signifies his or her desire to play alone by saying so after bidding. The bidder must make this call before play begins. During a loner, the bidder's partner discards his or her cards, and does not participate in play of the hand.\n\nThe odds of success of a loner bid depend on the lay of the cards and the inactive cards held by the bidder's partner. Nine cards out of twenty-four do not participate in play, making the hand less predictable than otherwise. A hand consisting of the top five cards of the trump suit is mathematically unbeatable from any position; this is sometimes referred to as a lay-down, as a player with such a hand may often simply lay all five cards on the table at once.\n\nScoring\n\nThe first team to score 10 (sometimes 5, 7, 11, or 15) points wins the game. Some players choose to play win by two where there is no winner until a team has more than 10 points and 2 points more than the other team. Winning a game 10-0 is known as skunking.\n\nScore keeping\n\nScores are kept by using two otherwise unused cards, typically the five cards, with each team using the fives of the same colour, though using the four and six cards is also common. Scoring begins using one card face up, covered by the other card face down. Upon winning points, the top card is moved to reveal the appropriate number of suit symbols on the bottom card. After all points are revealed on the lower card, the top card is flipped over, showing pips on both cards to indicate the score.\n\nA variation of score keeping in Western New York involves using the twos and threes of the same suit. Scoring starts with counting the symbols on the cards, for points 1-4; at 5, the cards are turned over and crossed. Crossing the cards indicates 5 points. Points 6-9 are counted similarly by counting the number of suit symbols showing and adding them to the 5, if cards are crossed.\n\nBetting\n\nWhen placing bets on a euchre game, betting takes place after the trump is determined, and before the first card is played on that trick. Betting can start with an ante or forced bet. The defenders can either check on the bid and bid nothing, thereby likely losing their ante, call the bid, or if they feel confident that they can euchre - raise the bid. Once a bet has been settled by a call on the bid, the trick plays out, with the winners of the bet adding that bet to their pot. After the game has been won, the winning team then splits the pot between the two winners and the game can end there, or variants can be played over multiple games.\n\nBetting in euchre can also be done on a per trick basis or a per point basis. At the end of the game, the losing team owes the winning team the difference in points based on the monetary value set per point.\n\nTable talking\n\nCommunicating with one's partner to influence their play, called table talk or cross-boarding, is considered cheating which should be emphasized to new players. This can include code words, secret gestures, or other forms of cooperative play in which one player can inform his partner what he holds in his hand or what the partner should play in a trick or call when choosing trump. Depending on house rules, table talk can result in replaying of a hand or awarding of a point to the team calling out the infraction.\n\nSome variations allow (or at least accept the inevitability of) the minor non-verbal communication in that a player may hesitate before passing on trump selection to signal to his partner that his cards are helpful to the offered trump, but are not sufficient to guarantee a win. Conversely, the player may pass quickly or blatantly to indicate their cards are very poor for the available trump choice (possibly indicating their partner should go alone if they select that trump). This adds an additional element of strategy in that players may bluff a quick pass or hesitation to trick their opponents into calling or declining the offered trump; however, this can naturally backfire by confusing the player's own teammate. Depending on the play group, couples or good friends may be purposely split on to opposing teams because of the perceived advantage they may have reading one another if teammates.\n\nReneging\n\nIf a player does not follow suit when he is able to (usually by playing a trump card instead), it is considered a renege and cheating, and the opposing team is rewarded two points if it is caught in later tricks of the same hand. However reneges can also be unintentional, where a player misreads some of his/her cards, most commonly by misinterpreting the left bower as being of its native suit, but are still callable by opponents as reneging. In some variants reneging when a player or his opponent is going alone may result in a penalty of four points in order to equalize the potential values of a hand.\nThe four point penalty for reneging should apply equally for the maker of trump and the opposing team.\n\nVariations\n\nEuchre is a game with a large number of variant versions. They include versions for two to nine players, as well as changes in cards used, bidding, play, and scoring.\n\nNo Trump: After the first round (once the kitty's top card has been turned down), \"No trump\" may be called. The first card played for each trick establishes that trick's suit, with normal deck order (ace high) taking precedence.\n\nStick The Dealer/Screw The Dealer: The dealer must call trump at the end of the second round and is unable to declare a misdeal.\n\nGoing Under/Bottoms/Farmer's Hand: A player having a hand with at least three 9 or 10 cards of any suit, can exchange three of these cards with the three unknown cards in the kitty. This must be performed before trump has been selected.\n\nRobson Rules: When a team wins all five tricks (normally or via alone hand), they may choose to reduce the opposing team's score (by 2 or 4, respectively) instead of adding to their own score. Additionally, if the dealer turns up a jack on the kitty, they may elect to go alone without seeing the rest of their hand. If all tricks are won via this \"blind loner\" hand, 5 points are awarded instead of the usual 4, but a failure to win all tricks earns the defenders 1 point. This rule set was named for 4-time Northern Michigan regional tournament runner-up champion James Robson.\n\nMany of these variations are specific to a particular region. In Australia and New Zealand, playing to 11 rather than 10 points is common. In south western England, Cornwall and Guernsey, variations with a joker as highest trump are played. In Ontario and parts of NZ and in the British version of the game, after the dealer turns up the top card on the kitty if the first player to the left passes and the dealer's partner would like to order up the dealer, the dealer's partner must play alone. \n\nNorthern New Mexico\n\nIf in the case of a \"Farmer's Hand\" or \"Ace No Face\", the player calling such a hand must wait to exchange their cards with those in the Kitty, until the \"Wall has Been Built\" (the Trump suit has been established).\n\nRobson Rules in effect, see above; the dealer has the option.\n\nA card has not been played till the hand has let go of said card, even if it has been shown.\n\nTerminology\n\nEuchre terminology varies greatly from region to region, and is highly colloquial. Some examples include:\n*Euchre/Getting \"Set\": Occurs when the opposing team wins more tricks than the team who called the suit.\n*Farmer's Hand/Poor Man's Hand/Bottom Hand: Certain weak hands (usually those containing no face cards, either three 10 cards or three 9 cards) are designated as \"farmer's hands\" or \"bottoms\". After inspecting the hand dealt, a player may call out \"farmer's hand\" and is then allowed to show the three cards in question and exchange them for the three unexposed cards in the kitty (also called \"going under\" or \"under the table\").\n* Ace No Face: Similar to \"farmers hand\". In ace no face the player must have one ace and all nines and tens in his hand. The player then call \"ace no face\" and exchange three of his cards for the bottom three (must be called before the first card of the beginning trick has been laid).\n* Euchre Bustle: Name for a tournament of Euchre (used in USA northern midwest).\n*Lay-Down: A hand that will automatically win all five tricks if played in the correct order; ex. a Dutchman (both bowers and Ace of trump) plus, the king and queen of that suit, any other two trump cards, or one more trump card and an off-trump ace (when that player has the lead). Also called a Loner, or Lone Wolf, because a player with such a hand will typically opt to go alone. May also refer to any set of cards that are often played simultaneously when the player knows he will win all the tricks he lays for. This however may only be done within the same suit without giving up a slight advantage to the other players.\n*Screw the Dealer or Stick the Dealer: An optional rule that states that if trump is failed to be called it must be called by the dealer, who is last to act. Mainly used as a method to speed up the game, as it eliminates throw-in hands.\n*Trump the Partner: Refers to a situation where the last player plays the card that wins a trick that his partner would have otherwise won. Usually refers to a situation where the partner has an Ace that follows suit and the player plays a trump card, but playing a higher trump or non-trump than the partner's qualifies. It is generally accepted strategy to throw a low off-suit card rather than a trump when the partner is guaranteed to win the trick otherwise.", "The Joker is a playing card found in most modern card decks, as an addition to the standard four suits (clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades). Originating in the United States during its civil war, the card is unique in that it lacks an industry-wide standard appearance. Created as a trump card for Euchre, it has since been adopted into many other card games where it may function as a wild card.\n\nOrigin\n\nIn the game of Euchre, the highest trump card is the Jack of the trump suit, called the right bower (from the German Bauer); the second-highest trump, the left bower, is the Jack of the suit of the same color as trumps. Beal, George. Playing cards and their story. 1975. New York: Arco Publishing Comoany Inc. p. 58 Around 1860, American Euchre players may have devised a higher trump, the \"Best Bower\", out of a blank card. \n\nSamuel Hart is credited with printing the first illustrated \"Best Bower\" card in 1863 with his \"Imperial Bower\". Best Bower-type jokers continued to be produced well into the 20th-century. Cards labelled \"Joker\" began appearing around the late 1860s with some depicting clowns and jesters. It is believed that the term \"Joker\" comes from Juker or Juckerspiel, the original German spelling of Euchre. One British manufacturer, Charles Goodall, was manufacturing packs with Jokers for the American market in 1871. The first joker for the domestic British market was sold in 1874. \n\nThe next game to use a joker was poker around 1875 where it functioned as a wild card. Packs with two jokers started to become the norm during the late 1940s for the game of Canasta. Since the 1950s, German and Austrian decks have included three jokers to play German rummy; in Poland the third joker is known as the blue joker. In Schleswig-Holstein, Zwicker decks come with six jokers. \n\nAppearance\n\nAs a recent introduction to the pack, jokers do not have any standardized appearance across the card manufacturing industry. Each company produces their own depictions of the card. The publishers of playing cards trademark their jokers, which have unique artwork that often reflect contemporary culture. Out of convention, jokers tend to be illustrated as jesters. There are usually two Jokers per deck, often noticeably different. For instance, the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC) prints their company's guarantee claim on only one. More common traits are the appearance of colored and black/non-colored Jokers. At times, the Jokers will each be colored to match the colors used for suits; there will be a red Joker, and a black Joker. In games where the jokers may need to be compared, the red, full-color, or larger-graphic Joker usually outranks the black, monochrome, or smaller-graphic one. If the joker colors are similar, the joker without a guarantee will outrank the guaranteed one. With the red and black jokers, the red one can alternately be counted as a heart/diamond and the black is used to substitute clubs/spades.\n\nMost decks simply use a stylized \"J\" or the word \"JOKER\" as the corner index. While most decks do not provide the Joker with an index symbol, of those that do, the most common index symbol is a solid five-pointed star or a star within a circle. The Unicode symbol utilizes a star. In the USPCC's Bicycle brand of playing cards, the Joker sometimes bears an S superimposed over a U as its index symbol, which is the company's trademark. \n\nIn Australia, the Joker in the Queen's Slipper brand of playing cards depicts a Kookaburra, a bird native to Australia with a call that famously resembles human laughter. In Australian games of 500, the Joker is often referred to colloquially as \"The Bird\". In Portugal, Litografia Maia has printed French decks where the Joker figure is substituted by a donkey head. It is intended to be used in Burro em pé (\"standing donkey\"). When Club Nintendo released the Platinum Playing Cards, Bowser appears as the Joker, a nod to his role as Mario's archenemy in the video games. \n\nLike sports trading cards, jokers are often prized by collectors. Many unusual jokers are available for purchase online while other collectible jokers are catalogued online for viewing. \n\nTarot and cartomancy\n\nThe Joker is often compared to \"(the) Fool\" in the Tarot deck. They share many similarities both in appearance and play function. In Central Europe, the Fool is the highest trump; elsewhere as an \"excuse\" that can be played at any time to avoid following suit but cannot win.\n\nPractitioners of cartomancy often include a Joker in the standard 52-card deck, with a meaning similar to the Fool card of Tarot. Sometimes the two Jokers are used: one approach is to identify the \"black\" Joker with the Fool and the \"red\" Joker with \"the Magician,\" also known as the Juggler, a card which is somewhat similar in interpretation and is considered the first step in the \"Fool's Journey.\"\n\nUse of the Joker in card games\n\nIn a standard deck, there are usually two Jokers. The Joker's use varies greatly. Many card games omit the card entirely; as a result, Jokers are often used as informal replacements for lost cards in a deck by simply noting the lost card's rank and suit on the joker. Other games, such as a 25-card variant of Euchre, make it one of the most important in the game. Often, the joker is a wild card, and thereby allowed to represent other existing cards. The term \"joker's wild\" originates from this practice, as does the game show of the same name. The Joker Is Wild is also the name of a 1957 film starring Frank Sinatra. \n\nThe Joker can be an extremely beneficial, or an extremely harmful, card. In Euchre it is often used to represent the highest trump. In poker, it is wild. However, in the children's game named Old Maid, a solitary joker represents the Maid, a card that is to be avoided.\n\nSpecific ranks\n\n* Euchre, 500: As the highest trump or \"top Bower\".\n* Canasta: The joker, like the deuce, is a wild card. However, the joker is worth 50 points in melding, as opposed to 20 for the deuce.\n* Gin Rummy: a wild card, able to be used as any necessary rank or suit to complete a meld. \n* Chase the Joker: An alternative version of Old Maid where the Joker card is used instead of the Ace.\n*War: In some variations, beats all other cards.\n*Pitch: A point card in some variations. Jokers usually are marked as \"High\" and \"Low\", one outranking the other.\n*Mighty: Second most-powerful card in the game, though it cannot be legally played on the first or last trick.\n*Daihinmin: a wild card, or a deuce (which ends the round and clears the discard pile).\n*Crazy Eights: a \"skip\" card, playable on top of any other card, that forces the next player to lose a turn.\n*Spades: uncommon, but can fulfill one of two roles. When playing with three or six players they are added to make the cards deal evenly (18 or 9 cards each, respectively). They are either \"junk\" cards playable anytime that cannot win a trick, or they count as the two highest trumps (the two Jokers must be differentiable; the \"big Joker\" outranks the \"little Joker\"). They also can be used in conjunction with teammates cards to create a pseudo-\"trump\", i.e. an Ace of Hearts and Joker played together would be counted as an Ace of Spades, inferior only to a natural Ace of Spades.\n*Double King Pede: As the lowest-ranked card, but worth 18 points. \n*Go Fish: When playing with 2 people, the joker pair is often used so you cannot have a tie. If you do not, you have 26 matches." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Video_rental_shop.txt", "Redbox.txt", "Netflix.txt" ], "title": [ "Video rental shop", "Redbox", "Netflix" ], "wiki_context": [ "A video rental shop/store is a physical business that rents home videos such as movies and prerecorded TV shows. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms agreed upon in a rental agreement or contract, which may be implied, explicit, or written. Many video rental stores also sell previously-viewed movies and/or new, unopened movies. In the 1980s, video rental stores rented VHS and Beta tape copies of movies, although most stores dropped Beta tapes when VHS won the format war. In the 2000s, video rental stores began renting DVDs, which eventually displaced VHS. In the 2010s, video rental stores added high-definition Blu-ray discs to their offerings. Video rentals are also offered in other business such as drugstores or convenience stores.\n\nThe widespread availability of video on demand on cable TV systems and VHS-by-mail services offered consumers a way of watching movies without having to leave their home. With the advent of the World Wide Web, Internet services such as Netflix have become increasingly popular since the mid–2000s. All of these new ways of watching movies have greatly reduced the demand for video rental shops.\n\nOverview\n\nTypically, a customer must sign up for an account with the shop and give a form of security such as a credit card number or driver's license. If the customer does not return the movie, the store can charge the cost of the movie to the customer's credit card. If items are returned late, the shop usually charges late fees, which typically accumulate day by day. Some shops have policies where instead of late fees, they will treat overdue items as a sale after a certain date, and charge a price equivalent to a standard sale of that object (with appropriate deductions for the rental fee already paid and for its pre-opened condition).\n\nWhile video rental stores primarily offer movies, many also rent recorded TV shows, music CDs or video game discs. Some video rental outlets use a kiosk or vending machine to dispense and collect rentals. Some video rental stores also sell snack items like microwave popcorn, chips, candy, chocolate and soda.\n\nIn 2010, a report indicated that in the United States and Canada, public libraries collectively loaned more DVDs than the online rental outlet Netflix. \n\nHistory\n\nThe world's oldest business that rents out copies of movies for private use was opened by Eckhard Baum in Kassel, West Germany in the summer of 1975. Baum collected movies on Super 8 film as a hobby and lent pieces of his collection to friends and acquaintances. Because they showed great interest in his films, he came up with the idea of renting out films as a sideline. Over the years, videotapes and optical discs were added to the range. Baum still operates the business as of September 2015 and was portrayed in the June 2006 documentary film “Eckis Welt” by Olaf Saumer. \n\nThe first professionally managed video rental store in the U.S. was opened by George Atkinson in December 1977 at 12011 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. After 20th Century Fox had made an agreement with Magnetic Video founder Andre Blay to license him 50 of their titles for sale directly to consumers, amongst them Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, M*A*S*H, Hello, Dolly!, Patton, The French Connection, The King And I and The Sound Of Music, Atkinson bought all the titles in both VHS and Beta formats, and offered them for rent. Such stores led to the creation of video rental chains such as West Coast Video, Blockbuster Video, and Rogers Video in the 1980s.\n\nBy mid-1985 the United States had 15,000 video rental stores, and many record, grocery, and drug stores also rented tapes. The press discussed the VCR \"and the viewing habits it has engendered — the Saturday night trip down to the tape rental store to pick out for a couple of bucks the movie you want to see when you want to see it\", Video rental stores had customers of all ages and were part of a fast-growing business. By 1987, for example, Pennsylvania had 537 stores that primarily dealt in renting videotapes, with annual spending per resident of $10.50. Six years after its founding, Philadelphia's West Coast Video had by 1989 come to operate more than 700 stores in the US, Canada, and Britain. Also in 1987, the revenue taken in from the home video market surpassed box office revenues for that year. \n\nTo cope with the videotape format war of the 1970s and 1980s, some stores initially stocked both VHS and Betamax cassettes, while others specialized in one format or the other. During the 1980s most stores eventually became all-VHS, contributing to the eventual demise of Beta. Rogers Video was the first chain to provide DVD rentals in Canada. Other chains and independent stores later transitioned to the newer format. Similarly, many stores now rent Blu-ray Disc movies after the high definition optical disc format war was finished. All stores continued to carry VHS only.\n\nThe widespread availability of video on demand on cable TV systems and VHS-by-mail services offered consumers a way of watching movies without having to leave their home. With the advent of the World Wide Web, Internet services such as Netflix have become increasingly popular since the mid–2000s. All of these new ways of watching movies have greatly reduced the demand for video rental shops.\n\nRental and copyright\n\nThe rental of books, CDs, tapes, and movies is covered by copyright law. Copyright owners sometimes put warning notices on the packaging of products such as VHS cassettes to deter copyright infringement. In some cases, the rights of consumers in Europe and the US are in fact significantly broader than described in such warnings.\n\nSelection\n\nThere would typically be a delay of several months between the time a movie was available for rental, and when the movie could be purchased by the consumer. In reality, the video was available, but priced for rental shops and film enthusiasts who wanted to own a copy of the film at the earliest opportunity. The pricing was between $70 and $130. This started changing with the advent of movie releases on DVD. Blockbuster refused to use the VHS strategy for DVD, so the studios began releasing DVDs at an initially lower price. During 2008, retailers would have the DVD version of a film available for sale the same day the VHS version was available for rent. This later changed, with release dates for VHS and DVD coinciding. In 2013, this also occurred when the Blu-ray Disc format was introduced as the successor to VHS and DVD. A movie will be available on VHS, Blu-ray and DVD on the same day.\n\nSecurity measures\n\nIn some rentals the boxes are on the shelves, but the actual media (VHS or video game disc) is kept behind the desk, therefore reducing any risks of theft (since the most someone can steal from the shelves is the box). The media is put into the box at the same time that the rent is signed. Or the case may be locked and can only be unlocked with a special instrument kept behind the video shop counter.\n\nIn some countries, a vending machine and a credit card are employed by the user to rent the VHS material. In such cases, the card would be charged a refundable fee to cover the physical media cost.\n\nCompanies\n\nActive\n\n* Civic Video (Australia, Canada, and Thailand)\n* Culture Convenience Club (Japan and Canada)\n* Family Video (United States and Canada)\n* Jumbo Video (Canada)\n** Microplay (Jumbo Video's game-focused stores)\n* Le SuperClub Vidéotron (Quebec City, Canada)\n* Video Ezy (Australia, Canada, and Thailand)\n* Xtra-vision (Northern Ireland and Canada)\n* Casa Video (United States)\n* Silver Screen Video (Canada and United States)\n* Starland Video (Fremantle, Australia, Canada, and United States)\n* Videoplex (Canada)\n\nDefunct\n\n* Blockbuster (51 Franchised Stores) (International)\n** GameRush (Blockbuster's game-focused stores)\n* Video City (Northern Ireland and Canada)\n* Movie Gallery (United States and Canada)\n** Hollywood Video (United States)\n** GameCrazy (Movie Gallery's game-focused stores)\n* Rogers Video (Canada)", "Redbox Automated Retail, LLC specializes in DVD, Blu-ray, and video game rentals via automated retail kiosks. As of the end of November 2012, Redbox had over 42,000 kiosks at more than 34,000 locations. \n\nRedbox kiosks feature the company's signature red color and are located at convenience stores, fast food restaurants, grocery stores, mass retailers, and pharmacies. The company announced in February 2012 the deployment of kiosks in Canada to test the Canadian market. In an email on February 5, 2015, Redbox announced they would be shutting down their Canadian operation citing low demand. The last day for rentals in Canada was February 13, 2015 and the last day for returns was March 5, 2015 when all Canadian machines were shut off and sent to various stores in the USA.\n\nRedbox had 47.8% market share of the physical rental market, as of Q1 2013, as stated by the NPD Group. \n\nHistory\n\nRedbox Automated Retail LLC was initially funded by McDonald's Corporation. In 2002, the company placed four automated convenience store kiosks that sold grocery items such as milk, eggs, and sandwiches as well as 11 DVD-rental kiosks in Washington Metropolitan Area locations. Redbox withdrew the grocery kiosks within a year, but the DVD-rental kiosks succeeded, and the company changed its focus to that market. In 2005, Coinstar bought 47 percent of the company for $32 million. In early 2008, Coinstar exercised an option to increase its share from 47% to 51%. In February 2009, Coinstar paid McDonald’s and other shareholders between $169 and $176 million for the remainder of the company. \n\nThe company surpassed Blockbuster in 2007 in number of U.S. locations, passed 100 million rentals in February 2008, and passed 1 billion rentals in September 2010. Competitors include Netflix and Blockbuster. In Q2 2011, kiosks accounted for 36 percent of the disc rental market, with 38 percent of that attributable to rent-by-mail services and 25 percent to traditional stores, according to the NPD Group. As of Q2 2011, 68 percent of the U.S. population lives within a five-minute drive of a Redbox kiosk. The numbers for Q2 2013 shows that the Redbox rentals had surpassed 50 percent of the total disc rentals in the country. \n\nMitch Lowe joined Redbox in 2003 after spending five years as a cofounder of Netflix. At Redbox, he started first as a consultant and then as VP of Purchasing & Operations. In 2005, he became the Chief Operating Officer of Redbox. Lowe had experimented in 1982 with a short-lived VHS movie vending company named Video Droid. Lowe was named President of Redbox in April 2009.\n\nIn July 2010, Redbox announced that they were beginning to rent Blu-ray movies at 13,000 kiosks nationwide, and Blu-ray Discs were available across the Redbox network by the fall of 2010. In October 2010, the company began testing video game rentals in Reno, Nevada; Orlando, Florida; Stevens Point, Wisconsin; Austin, Texas; Wilmington, North Carolina; and Corvallis, Oregon. In June 2011, Redbox launched video game rentals nationwide. Games for all major platforms are offered, including Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. \n\nIn February 2012, Redbox announced the purchase of former competitor Blockbuster Express (NCR) for $100 million. The acquisition included over 10,000 DVD kiosks, certain retailer contracts, and DVD inventory. As part of the agreement, Redbox entered a supplier arrangement of purchasing product and services from NCR. On June 27, 2012, Redbox sent an email to its customers announcing that it had completed the purchase of Blockbuster Express on June 23. \n\nIn 2012, Redbox's founder, Gregg Kaplan, exited Coinstar as president and COO of Redbox. Anne Saunders became the new president of Redbox. \n\nIn July 2013, Redbox announced its 3 billionth rental of a disc, counting both movies and games. \n\nOn October 7, 2013, Barry Rosenstein's hedge fund JANA Partners filed a 13D on shares of Outerwall (OUTR) and has disclosed a new 13.5% ownership stake in OUTR with 3,777,995 shares. The activist 13D filing includes that JANA expects to talk with management. In particular, they want to focus on \"a review of strategic alternatives including exploring a strategic transaction, selling or discontinuing certain businesses, or pursuing a sale.\" Rosenstein told \"Closing Bell\", about Redbox, the company is \"gushing with cash\". On December 9, 2013, Outerwall cut 8.5% of workforce. \n \nRedbox now offers Xbox One and PlayStation 4 games. \n\nRedbox Instant\n\nRedbox began internally testing a video streaming service, dubbed Redbox Instant, in July 2012. The service is a joint effort between Redbox and Verizon. On March 14, 2013 Redbox Instant by Verizon officially went public, offering customers a free 1-month trial of an $8/month unlimited streaming service that includes 4 disc rentals from kiosks ($1 more for Blu-ray). The service launched with 4,600 titles from movie companies such as EPIX, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Relativity, and Sony Pictures. According to early reports, Redbox Instant also planned to allow users to download content to mobile devices for offline viewing; titles could be either rented or purchased, in SD or HD quality, with rental customers having 30 days to begin viewing their title and 48 hours of unlimited views thereafter. \n\nIn June 2013, Sony made the official announcement at E3 that Redbox Instant would be available on the PlayStation 4 console, and it was released in late 2013. Android and iOS apps also enabled streaming content on mobile devices.\n\nRedbox Instant disabled sign-ups for new users in mid 2014 owing to a growing number of criminals using the website to verify stolen credit cards. In Q2 2014 earning call, Outerwall, Redbox's parent company, stated that they were \"not pleased\" with Redbox Instant subscription numbers. Finally on October 4, 2014, it was announced that Redbox Instant would be shutting down on October 7, only 19 months after its initial launch.\n\nKiosk design and operation\n\nRedbox began in 2004, using re-branded kiosks manufactured and operated by Silicon Valley-based DVDPlay, at 140 McDonald's restaurants in Denver and other test markets. In April 2005, Redbox phased out the DVDPlay-manufactured machines and contracted Solectron—a subsidiary of Flextronics, which also manufactures the Zune, Xbox and Xbox 360—to create and manufacture a custom kiosk design. The new kiosk was designed by Franz Kuehnrich at GetAMovie Inc. (which was bought by RedBox). It was innovative in that its carousel design not only decreased the number of robotic movements necessary to dispense and restock inventory, it also dramatically increased the number of discs (from 100 to 700+) that could be stored within a kiosk. In addition, the software, designed and developed by Enterprise Logic Systems, was also innovative that it allowed RedBox to remotely monitor and manage inventory at all kiosks throughout the country.\n\nThe company's typical self-service vending kiosk combines an interactive touch screen and sign. It uses a robotic disk array system containing a stacked carousel of DVDs and web-linked electronic communications. Kiosks can be located indoors or out and can hold more than 600 DVDs with 70–200 titles, updated weekly. The kiosks are built as modules, and in areas with higher sales figures, a second machine can be connected to the first one in order to offer a wider selection. The customer pays with a credit card or debit card. DVDs can be returned the next day to any of the company's kiosks; charges accrue up to 25 days, after which the customer then owns the DVD (without the original case) and rental charges cease. Customers can also reserve DVDs online, made possible by real-time inventory updates on the company's website. While customers can buy used DVDs from the kiosks (with unsold used DVDs returned to suppliers), Redbox estimates only 1% to 3% of the company's revenue comes from used-disc sales.\n\nA Redbox kiosk rents its average DVD 15 times at an average of $2 per transaction plus any applicable taxes.\n\nMovie studio lawsuits\n\nWith growing concern in 2009 that DVD kiosks might jeopardize movie studio income from DVD sales and rentals, three major movie studios, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and Universal Studios, separately refused to sell DVDs to Redbox until at least 28 days after their arrival in stores. Since Redbox’s business model relies upon new releases, and Fox and Warner Bros. represented 62 percent of home video rental revenue in 2008–09, analysts have said that this “windowing” of new releases by the three studios may make Redbox’s business model unviable. \n\nRedbox responded by filing lawsuits, first, against Universal in October 2008, then against 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. in August 2009. In these lawsuits, Redbox has asserted three claims against the studios: copyright misuse, tortious interference, and antitrust claims. In August 2009, the federal judge hearing the Universal case rejected the first two claims, but allowed the antitrust claim to continue. While the judge found sufficient merit in the antitrust claim to allow the case to continue, some independent observers doubted it could succeed, since Redbox \"must show that the studios worked together as a cartel... There is little evidence of an industrywide conspiracy.\" In October 2009, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. filed motions to dismiss Redbox's lawsuits against them, with Fox arguing that \"antitrust law does not require a seller to provide its product through the distribution channel that the buyer demands, on the date that the buyer demands, or at the price that the buyer demands,\" and Warner Bros. saying that \"This is precisely the type of routine business dispute, motivated solely by a merchant’s attempt to protect its profits rather than to protect competition, that the antitrust laws are not meant to address.\" \n\nOther major studios, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Lionsgate signed distribution deals with Redbox. The Walt Disney Company permits third-party distributors to sell to Redbox, but has not entered into a direct relationship with the company. Both sides of the studio lawsuits have pointed to these revenue-sharing deals to shore up their argument, with Redbox president Mitch Lowe saying, \"our growth can lead to theirs [the studios' growth]. For example, Redbox currently estimates we will pay more than a combined $1 billion over the next five years to Sony, Lionsgate and Paramount to purchase and then rent new-release DVDs to consumers,\" while Warner Bros. says the deals are proof that far from being shut out by Hollywood, \"Redbox’s business has thrived since its suit against Universal, underscored by lucrative distribution deals with Paramount Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and Lionsgate.\"\n\nRedbox entered into an agreement with Warner on February 16, 2010, followed by Universal and Fox on April 22, 2010. In the agreements, which settle Redbox's lawsuits, Redbox agreed to not make available for rental films from these studios until 28 days after their initial home-video releases. Redbox also improved their ability to make available Blu-ray Disc releases from the studio parties.", "Netflix Inc. (marketed and stylized as NETFLIX) is an American multinational entertainment company founded on August 29, 1997 in Scotts Valley, California by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. It specializes in and provides streaming media and video on demand both online and physically. Netflix recently added film and television production, as well as online distribution. It is currently headquartered in Los Gatos.\n\nIn 1998, about a year after Netflix's founding, the company grew by starting in the DVD by mail business. In 2007, Netflix expanded its business with the introduction of streaming media, while retaining the DVD and Blu-Ray rental service, with streaming made available to Canada in 2010. As of 2016, Netflix serves over 190 countries. In 2013, Netflix introduced itself into the film and television industry, with its first series being House of Cards debuting in the same year. It greatly expanded into film in 2015, and now offers its \"Netflix Original\" content through its online library of films and television. \n\nAs of July 2016, Netflix reported over 83 million subscribers worldwide, including more than 47 million in the U.S.\n\nHistory \n\nFounding and establishment \n\nNetflix was founded on August 29, 1997 in Scotts Valley, California by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings, both former employees at Pure Software. Randolph was a co-founder of MicroWarehouse, a computer mail order company; and was later employed by Borland International as vice president of marketing. Hastings, a former math teacher, had founded Pure Software, recently selling it for $700 million.\n\nHastings invested $2.5 million in startup cash for Netflix. Randolph initially had the idea to start a company that sold items over the Internet, but couldn't decide its objective. Netflix blossomed when Hastings forcibly paid $40 in fines after returning Apollo 13 well past deadline. \n\nNetflix was launched on April 14, 1998 with only 30 employees and 925 works available through the pay-per-rent model: 50¢US-per-rental via mail, late fees applied. \n\nMembership fee, acquisition for Blockbuster, growth start \n\nNetflix introduced the monthly subscription concept in September 1999, and then dropped the single-rental model in early 2000. Since that time, the company has built its reputation on the business model of flat-fee unlimited rentals without due dates, late fees, shipping and handling fees, or per title rental fees.\n\nIn 2000, Netflix offered acquisition to Blockbuster for $50 million; the company declined however. Netflix initiated an initial public offering (IPO) on May 29, 2002, selling 5.5 million shares of common stock at the price of US$15.00 per share. On June 14, 2002, the company sold an additional 825,000 shares of common stock at the same price. After incurring substantial losses during its first few years, Netflix posted its first profit during fiscal year 2003, earning US$6.5 million profit on revenues of US$272 million. In 2005, 35,000 different film titles were available, and Netflix shipped 1 million DVDs out every day. \n\nRandolph, a dominant producer and board member for Netflix, retired in 2004. \n\nVideo on demand introduction, declining DVD sales, global expansion \n\nNetflix developed and maintains an extensive personalized video-recommendation system based on ratings and reviews by its customers. On October 1, 2006, Netflix offered a $1,000,000 prize to the first developer of a video-recommendation algorithm that could beat its existing algorithm, Cinematch, at predicting customer ratings by more than 10%. \n\nIn February 2007, the company delivered its billionth DVD and began to move away from its original core business model of DVDs by introducing video on demand via the Internet. Netflix grew as DVD sales fell from 2006 to 2011. \n\nIn January 2013, Netflix reported that it had added two million U.S. customers during the fourth quarter of 2012 with a total of 27.1 million U.S. streaming customers, and 29.4 million total streaming customers. In addition, revenue was up 8% to $945 million for the same period. That number increased to 36.3 million subscribers (29.2 million in the U.S.) in April 2013. As of September 2013, for that year's third quarter report, Netflix reported its total of global streaming subscribers at 40.4 million (31.2 million in the U.S.). By the fourth quarter of 2013, Netflix reported 33.1 million U.S. subscribers. By September 2014, Netflix had subscribers in over 40 countries, with intentions of expanding their services in unreached countries. \n\nEarly Netflix Original content \n\nNetflix has played a prominent role in independent film distribution. Through the division Red Envelope Entertainment, Netflix licensed and distributed independent films such as Born into Brothels and Sherrybaby. As of late 2006, Red Envelope Entertainment also expanded into producing original content with filmmakers such as John Waters. Netflix closed Red Envelope Entertainment in 2008, in part to avoid competition with its studio partners. \n\nEntertainment dominance and presence, and continued growth \n\nNetflix has been one of the most successful dot-com ventures. A September 2002 article from The New York Times said that at the time, that Netflix mailed about 190,000 discs per day to its 670,000 monthly subscribers. The company's published subscriber count increased from one million in the fourth quarter of 2002 to around 5.6 million at the end of the third quarter of 2006, to 14 million in March 2010. Netflix's growth has been fueled by the fast spread of DVD players in households; as of 2004, nearly two-thirds of U.S. homes had a DVD player. Netflix capitalized on the success of the DVD and its rapid expansion into U.S. homes, integrating the potential of the Internet and e-commerce to provide services and catalogs that brick and mortar retailers could not compete with. Netflix also operates an online affiliate program which has helped to build online sales for DVD rentals. The company offers unlimited vacation time for salaried workers and allows employees to take any amount of their paychecks in stock options. \n\nBy 2010, Netflix's streaming business had grown so quickly that within months the company had shifted from the fastest-growing customer of the United States Postal Service's first-class service to larger Internet traffic sources in North America in the evening. In November, it began offering a from DVD rentals. On September 18, 2011, Netflix announced its intentions to rebrand and restructure its DVD home media rental service as an independent subsidiary called Qwikster, separating DVD rental and streaming services. Andy Rendich, a 12-year Netflix veteran, was to be CEO of Qwikster. Qwikster would carry video games whereas Netflix did not. However, in October 2011, Netflix announced that it would retain its DVD service under the name Netflix and would not, in fact, create Qwikster for that purpose. \n\nIn April 2011, Netflix had over 23 million subscribers in the United States and over 26 million worldwide. But on October 24, Netflix announced 800,000 unsubscribers in the U.S. during Q3 2011, and more losses were expected in Q4 2011. Albeit, Netflix's income jumped 63% for Q3 2011. Year-long, the total digital revenue for Netflix reached at least $1.5 billion. On January 26, 2012, Netflix added 610,000 subscribers in the U.S. by the end of the fourth quarter of 2011, totaling 24.4 million U.S. subscribers for this time period. \n\nIn April 2012, Netflix filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to form a political action committee (PAC) called FLIXPAC. Politico referred to the Los Gatos, California-based PAC as \"another political tool with which to aggressively press a pro-intellectual property, anti-video-piracy agenda.\" The hacktivist group Anonymous called for a boycott of Netflix following the news. Netflix spokesperson Joris Evers indicated that the PAC was not set up to support the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), tweeting that the intent was to \"engage on issues like net neutrality, bandwidth caps, UBB and VPPA.\" \n\nOn October 23, however, Netflix declined 88% in Q3 profits. \n\nContinued growth, server crash, stock and awards ceremony \n\nOn December 24, 2012, around 1:00 p.m ET, numerous Amazon Web Services servers crashed, affecting countless services including Netflix \"instant streaming\". It lasted more than 20 hours. \n\nIn February 2013, Netflix announced it would be hosting its own awards ceremony, The Flixies. On March 13, 2013, Netflix announced a Facebook implementation, letting U.S. subscribers access \"Watched by your friends\" and \"Friends' Favorites\" by agreeing. This was not legal until the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 was modified early-2013. \n\nRebranding and VPN blockage \n\nIn April 2014, Netflix approached 50 million global subscribers with a 32.3% video streaming market share in the United States. Netflix operated in a total of 41 countries around the world. In June 2014, Netflix unveiled a global rebrand: Major changes to Netflix included a new logo - which utilized a modern typeface and eliminated drop shadowing, and website UI. The change was controversial; some liked the new minimalist design, whereas others felt more comfortable with the old interface. In July 2014, Netflix surpassed 50 million global subscribers, with 36 million of them being in the United States. \n\nOn July 14, 2015, at the close of trading, Netflix did a 7-for-1 stock split by giving all shareholders an additional six shares of stock, effectively dropping the stock price to $100. \n\nIn January 2016, Netflix announced it would begin blocking virtual private networks, or VPN's. At the same time, Netflix reported 74.8 million subscribers and predicted it would add 6.1 million more by March 2016. Subscription growth has been fueled by its global expansion. \n\nServices \n\nOverall in a nutshell, Netflix is a monthly-subscription-based streaming media and DVD-by-mail service.\n\nInternet video streaming \n\nNetflix largely focuses on its streaming service, which gives compatible devices access to Netflix's online library, allowing an average individual to access it virtual . The two libraries differ markedly, with the disc library having more film titles available, while the streaming library has more Netflix original content. According to a 2013 report by Sandvine, Netflix is the biggest source of North American downstream web-traffic, at 32.3%, and registered 28.8% of aggregate traffic. \n\nWhen the streaming service first launched, Netflix's traditional rental-disc subscribers were given access at no additional charge. Subscribers were allowed approximately one hour of streaming per dollar spent on the monthly subscription (a $16.99 plan, for example, entitled the subscriber to 17 hours of streaming media).\n\nIn January 2008, however, Netflix lifted this restriction, at which point virtually all rental-disc subscribers became entitled to unlimited streaming at no additional cost (however, subscribers on the restricted plan of two DVDs per month ($4.99) remained limited to two hours of streaming per month). This change came in a response to the introduction of Hulu and to Apple's new video-rental services. Subsequently, as it became clear that the disc-rental and Internet streaming markets were distinct, Netflix split DVD rental subscriptions and streaming subscriptions into separate, standalone services, at which point the monthly caps on Internet streaming were lifted. Currently, Netflix's Internet video streaming subscription rates range from $7.99 to $11.99 a month, including a free one-month trial. On May 2016, all subscribers pay a minimum of $9.99 for a streaming subscription. \n\nUntil October 10, 2014, Netflix did not officially support Linux devices, though a Roku is supported, being able to connect it from a console or Blu-ray player to a Linux PC or monitor with an adapter. It is possible to run Windows and Netflix in a virtual machines like the Virtualbox or QEMU. In a TechRepublic interview in August 2010, Netflix's VP of Corporate Communications stated that Silverlight plugins for Linux, being Moonlight, don't support the PlayReady DRM system that Netflix requires for playback. Netflix does support Android, which uses a forked version of the kernel. There is an unofficial Netflix app based on Wine that allows users to watch Netflix's content on Linux effortlessly. Pipelight, an add-on for Firefox based on the Netflix-Desktop project, allows playback through Linux Native web browsers by connecting to the Wine-based Silverlight plugin. However, on October 10, 2014 the required DRM plugins became available for Chrome users running Ubuntu 12.04 or 14.04. Maximum HD resolution via Google Chrome is 720p.\n\nAccording to a Nielsen survey on July 2011, 42% of Netflix users use a standalone computer, 25% use the Wii, 14% by connecting computers to a television, 13% with a PlayStation 3 and 12% an Xbox 360. The selection of available titles is based upon the IP address, corresponding to the user's location mostly. However, it means that, for example, a user in Canada who accesses the Internet through a U.S.-based router-connection will see the U.S. selection.\n\nHistory \n\nOn October 1, 2008, Netflix announced a partnership with Starz to bring 2,500+ new films and shows to \"Watch Instantly\", under Starz Play. \n\nIn August 2010, Netflix reached a five-year deal worth nearly $1 billion to stream films from Paramount, Lionsgate and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The deal increased Netflix's annual spending fees, adding roughly $200 million per year. It spent $117 million in the first six months of 2010 on streaming, up from $31 million in 2009. \n\nOn July 12, 2011, Netflix announced that it would separate its existing subscription plans into two separate plans: one covering the streaming and the other DVD rental services. The cost for streaming would be $7.99 per month, while DVD rental would start at the same price. The announcement led to panned reception amongst Netflix's Facebook followers, who posted negative comments on its wall. Twitter comments spiked a negative \"Dear Netflix\" trend. The company defended its decision during its initial announcement of the change:\"Given the long life we think DVDs by mail will have, treating DVDs as a $2 add-on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs. Creating an unlimited-DVDs-by-mail plan (no streaming) at our lowest price ever, $7.99, does make sense and will ensure a long life for our DVDs-by-mail offering.\"In a reversal, Netflix announced in October that its streaming and DVD-rental plans would remain branded together. \n\nOn September 1, Starz announced it would remove its films from Netflix streaming on February 28. Since the agreement was strictly for streaming films, Netflix's DVD rentals were unaffected. Around the same time, Netflix announced that it would assume the pay-TV rights for DreamWorks Animation, with output rights then with HBO, in 2013.\n\nDisc rental \n\nIn the United States, the company provides a monthly flat-fee for DVD and Blu-ray rentals. A subscriber creates a rental queue, a list, of films to rent. The films are delivered individually via the United States Postal Service from regional warehouses. As of March 28, 2011, Netflix had 58 shipping locations throughout the U.S. The subscriber can keep the rented disc as long as desired, but there is a limit on the number of discs that each subscriber can have simultaneously via different tiers. To rent, the subscriber must reply the previous in a metered reply mail envelope. Upon receipt, Netflix ships the next available disc in the subscriber's rental queue.\n\nNetflix offers pricing tiers for DVD rental. Subscribers' accounts in active, current status offers plans with up to eight DVDs simultaneously. Gift subscriptions are available. On November 21, 2008, Netflix began offering subscribers Blu-Ray's for an additional fee. In addition, Netflix sold used discs, delivered and billed identically as rentals. This service was discontinued at the end of November. \n\nOn January 6, 2010, Netflix agreed with Warner Bros. to delay new release rentals 28 days prior to retail, in an attempt to help studios sell physical copies, with similar deals involving Universal and 20th Century Fox were reached on April 9. In 2011, Netflix split its service pricing, allowing more flexibility for customers. Currently, Netflix's disc rental memberships range from $7.99 to $19.99/m, including a free one-month trial and unlimited DVD exchanges.\n\nQwikster \n\nOn September 18, 2011, Hastings said in a Netflix blog post that the DVD rental service would be subsidized and renamed Qwikster, and the only major change would be separate websites. It was to also carry video games for an additional charge, something Netflix doesn't do. Subscribers who wanted DVDs would have to user a separate website.\n\nOn October 10, following negative customer reception, Hastings cancelled Qwikster, making the DVD-by-mail service remain with Netflix. \n\nProfiles \n\nIn June 2008, Netflix announced plans to eliminate its online subscriber profile feature. Profiles allow one subscriber account to contain multiple users (for example, a couple, two roommates, or parent and child) with separate DVD queues, ratings, recommendations, friend lists, reviews, and intra-site communications for each. Netflix contended that elimination of profiles would improve the customer experience. However, likely as a result of negative reviews and reaction by Netflix users, Netflix reversed its decision to remove profiles 11 days after the announcement. In announcing the reinstatement of profiles, Netflix defended its original decision, stating, \"Because of an ongoing desire to make our website easier to use, we believed taking a feature away that is only used by a very small minority would help us improve the site for everyone,\" then explained its reversal: \"Listening to our members, we realized that users of this feature often describe it as an essential part of their Netflix experience. Simplicity is only one virtue and it can certainly be outweighed by utility.\" \n\nReintroduction \n\nNetflix reinvigorated the \"Profiles\" feature on August 1, 2013 that permits accounts to accommodate up to five user profiles, associated either with individuals or thematic occasions. \"Profiles\" effectively divides the interest of each user, so that each will receive individualized suggestions and adding favorites individually. \"This is important\", according to Todd Yellin, Netflix's Vice President of Product Innovation, because, \"About 75 percent to 80 percent of what people watch on Netflix comes from what Netflix recommends, not from what people search for\". Moreover, Mike McGuire, a VP at Gartner, said: \"profiles will give Netflix even more detailed information about its subscribers and their viewing habits, allowing the company to make better decisions about what movies and TV shows to offer\". Additionally, profiles lets users link their individual Facebook accounts, and thus share individual watch ques and recommendations, since it's addition in March after lobbying Congress to change an outdated act. Neil Hunt, Netflix's Chief Product Officer, told CNNMoney: \"profiles are another way to stand out in the crowded streaming-video space\", and, \"The company said focus-group testing showed that profiles generate more viewing and more engagement\". \n\nHunt says Netflix may link profiles to specific devices, in time, so a subscriber can skip the step of launching a specific profile each time s/he logs into Netflix on a given device. \n\nCritics of the feature have noted:\n* New profiles are created as \"blank slates\", but viewing history prior to profile creations stays profile-wide. \n* People don't always watch Netflix alone, and media watched with viewing partner(s) – whose tastes might not reflect the owner(s) – affect recommendations made to that profile\n\nIn response to both concerns, however, users can refine future recommendations for a given profile by rating the shows watched and by their ongoing viewing habits.\n\nProducts \n\nNetflix revealed a prototype of the new device called \"The Switch\" at the 2015 World Maker Faire New York. \"The Switch\" allows Netflix users to turn off lights when connected to a smart home light system. It also connects to users' local networks to enable their servers to order takeout, and silence ones phone at the press of a button. Though the device hasn't been patented, Netflix released instructions on their website, on how to build it at home (DIY). The instructions cover both the electrical structure and the programming processes. \n\nIn May 2016, it created a new tool called FAST to determine how fast one's internet is. \n\nContent \n\nNetflix Originals \n\nA \"Netflix Original\" is content that is produced or co-produced, or in main fact, distributed by Netflix exclusively on their services.\n\nIn March 2011, Netflix began acquiring original content for its library, beginning with the hour-long political drama House of Cards, which debuted on February 2013. The series was produced by David Fincher, and stars Kevin Spacey. In late 2011, Netflix picked up two eight-episode seasons of Lilyhammer and a fourth season of the ex-Fox sitcom Arrested Development. Netflix releasedthe supernatural drama series Hemlock Grove in early 2013. \n\nIn February 2013, DreamWorks Animation and Netflix co-produced Turbo FAST, based on the movie Turbo, which premiered in July. In March 2013, Netflix announced it signed on The Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski to write and executive produce Sense8. It debuted on June 5, 2015.\n\nIn mid-2013, Netflix revealed that it holds the option to produce another season of Arrested Development, but a confirmed schedule was not released. \n\nOrange Is the New Black debuted on the streaming service in July 2013. It is Netflix's most-watched original series. \nHouse of Cards, Lilyhammer, Hemlock Grove and Orange Is the New Black were each renewed for an additional season, with scheduled 2014 returns. In February 2016, Orange is the New Black was renewed for a fifth, sixth and seventh season.\n\nIn November 2013, Netflix and Marvel Television announced a five-season deal to produce live action series' Marvel superhero-focused: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage. The deal involves the release of four 13-episode seasons that culminate in a mini-series called The Defenders. Daredevil premiered in 2015, as well as Jessica Jones, but the two remaining are still in-development. In addition to the Marvel deal, Disney announced that the television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars would release its sixth and final season on Netflix, as well as all five prior and the feature film. The new content was released on Netflix's streaming service on March 7, 2014.\n\nIn April 2014, Netflix signed Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz and his production firm The Hurwitz Company to a multi-year deal to create original projects for the service. On November 6, 2015, Master of None premiered, starring Aziz Ansari. The show was renewed for a second season in February 2016.\n\nOn July 15, 2016, Netflix debuted the science fiction supernatural drama Stranger Things. It was directed by Matt and Ross Duffer, and executive produced by Shawn Levy. It is perceived as a nostalgiac throwback to 80's television shows.\n\nAround this cycle, Netflix announced a new untitled, unscripted series about vine star Cameron Dallas ahead of Vidcon. \n\nFilm and television deals \n\nNetflix currently has exclusive \"pay TV\" deals with major and mini-major studios: \"Pay TV\" deals in essence give Netflix exclusive streaming rights but is not distinct from traditional pay TV terms. As of 2014, films cataloged in the United States include recent releases from Relativity Media - and subsidiary Rogue Pictures, as well as DreamWorks Animation titles, Open Road Films, which expired in 2016, at which Showtime will assume pay television rights, FilmDistrict, The Weinstein Company, Sony Pictures Animation, and the Walt Disney Studios catalog among others.\n\nEpix signed a five-year streaming deal with Netflix in which for the first two years, first-run as well as back catalog content from Epix was exclusive to Netflix (Epix films will come to Netflix 90 days after they premiere on Epix. The exclusivity clause ended on September 4, 2012, when Amazon signed a deal with Epix to distribute its rights to its Amazon Video streaming service. These include films from Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate. \n\nOn September 1, 2011, Starz ceased talks with Netflix to renew its deal. As a result, Starz's library of films and series were removed from the Netflix streaming service on February 28, 2012. Titles that are available on DVD were not affected and can be acquired from Netflix by this method. However, select films that have previously been seen on Starz continue to be available on Netflix under license from their respective television distributors. For instance, certain Revolution Studios are under license from Lionsgate and Debmar-Mercury. Netflix can negotiate to distribute animated films from Universal that HBO declines to acquire, such as The Lorax, ParaNorman, and Minions. \n\nNetflix's service also holds rights to back-catalog titles to films from among other distributors, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, and Walt Disney Studios. Netflix also holds current and back-catalog rights to television programs under license by Disney–ABC Television Group, DreamWorks Classics, Kino International, Warner Bros. Television, 20th Television, Hasbro Studios, Saban Brands and CBS Television Distribution. The streaming service also held current and back-catalog rights to television programs distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution, 20th Century Fox Television, Sony Pictures Television, as well as select shows from Warner Bros. Television. Netflix also previously held the rights to select titles from vintage re-distributor The Criterion Collection, but were pulled from the streaming library when Criterion titles were added to Hulu's library. \n\nOn August 23, 2012, Netflix and The Weinstein Company signed a multi-year output deal for RADiUS-TWC deals On December 4, 2012, Netflix and Disney announced an exclusive multi-year agreement for the first-run U.S. subscription television rights to Walt Disney Studios' animated and live-action films, which will be available on Netflix beginning in 2016 - which will assume rights from Starz. However, classics such as Dumbo, Pocahontas, and Alice in Wonderland will instantly be available. Direct-to-video releases were made available in 2013. \n\nOn January 14, 2013, Netflix signed an agreement with Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System and Warner Bros. Television to distribute Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. Animation, and Adult Swim, as well as TNT's Dallas beginning in March 2013. The programs rights came not long after Viacom's expired deal to allow Netflix access to stream programs from Nickelodeon and Nick Jr., previously assumed by Amazon Video. However, Cartoon Network's ratings dropped by 10% in households that had Netflix, so all of the shows, except some, were removed in March 2015. However, most were added to Hulu in May. \n\nIn Canada, Netflix has pay TV rights to films from Paramount, DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox, distributing eight months after release In 2015, it assumed pay TV rights to films from Disney. \n\nOpinion web blogger Felix Salmon wrote that by 2014, Netflix couldn't \"afford the content that its subscribers most want to watch\" and lost several contracts for streaming movies, to the point where, according to journalist Megan McArdle, \"its movie library is no longer actually a good substitute for a good movie rental place\".\n\nDevice support\n\nThis is a list of devices that are compatible with Netflix streaming services, including Blu-ray Disc players, tablet computers, mobile phones, high-definition television (HDTV) receivers, home theater systems, set-top boxes, and video game consoles\n\nSales and marketing \n\nNetflix's website attracted at least 194 million visitors annually, according to a Compete.com survey from 2008. This was about five times the number of visitors to Blockbuster's main website. \n\nDuring Q1 2011, sales and rentals of DVDs and Blu-ray's plunged about 20%, and the sell-through of packaged discs fell 19.99% to $2.07 billion, with more money spent on subscription than in-store rentals. \n\nIn July 2012, Netflix hired Kelly Bennett – former Warner Bros. Vice President of Interactive, Worldwide Marketing – to become its new Chief Marketing Officer. This also filled a vacancy at Netflix that had been empty for over six months when their previous CMO Leslie Kilgore left in January 2012. \n\nInternational expansion \n\nCompetitors \n\nNetflix's success was followed by the establishment of numerous other DVD rental companies, both in the United States and abroad. Walmart began an online rental service in October 2002 but left the market in May 2005. However, Walmart later acquired the rental service Vudu, in 2010. \n\nBlockbuster Video entered the U.S. online market in August 2004, with a US$19.95 monthly subscription service. This sparked a price war; Netflix had raised its popular three-disc plan from US$19.95 to US$21.99 just prior to Blockbuster's launch, but by October, Netflix reduced this fee to US$17.99. Blockbuster responded with rates as low as US$14.99 for a time, but, by August 2005, both companies settled at identical rates. On July 22, 2007, Netflix dropped the prices of its two most popular plans by US$1.00 in an effort to better compete with Blockbuster's online-only offerings. On October 4, 2012, Dish Network scrapped plans to make Blockbuster into a Netflix competitor. (Dish bought the ailing Blockbuster, LLC in 2011 and will continue to license the brand name to franchise locations, and keep its \"Blockbuster on Demand\" video streaming service open.) \n\nIn 2005, Netflix cited Amazon.com as a potential competitor, which until 2008, offered online video rentals in the United Kingdom and Germany. This arm of the business was eventually sold to LoveFilm; however, Amazon then bought LoveFilm in 2011. In addition, Amazon now streams movies and television shows through Amazon Video (formerly Amazon Video On Demand and LOVEFiLM Instant). \n\nRedbox is another competitor that uses a kiosk approach: Rather than mailing DVDs, customers pick up and return DVDs at self-service kiosks located in metropolitan areas. In September 2012, Coinstar, the owners of Redbox, announced plans to partner with Verizon to launch Redbox Instant by Verizon by late 2012. In early 2013, Redbox Instant by Verizon began a limited beta release of its service, which was described by critics as \"No netflix killer\" due to \"glitches [and] lackluster selection.\"\n\nCuriosityStream, a premium ad-free, subscription-based service launched in March 2015 similar to Netflix but offering strictly nonfiction content in the areas of science, technology, civilization and the human spirit, has been dubbed the \"new Netflix for non-fiction\". \n\nHulu Plus, like Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video, \"ink[s] their own deals for exclusive and original content\", requiring Netflix \"not only to continue to attract new subscribers, but also keep existing ones happy.\" \n\nNetflix and Blockbuster largely avoid offering pornography, but several \"adult video\" subscription services were inspired by Netflix, such as SugarDVD and WantedList. \n\nIn Australia, Netflix competes with several local streaming companies, most notably locally operated services Presto, Stan and Quickflix. In Scandinavia, Netflix competes with Viaplay, HBO Nordic and CMore Play. In Southeast Asia, Netflix competes with Astro On the Go, Sky on Demand, Singtel TV, HomeCable OnDemand, and iflix. In New Zealand, Netflix competes with local streaming companies including Television New Zealand (TVNZ), Mediaworks New Zealand, Sky Network Television, Lightbox, Neon and Quickflix. In Italy, Netflix competes with Infinity (Mediaset), Sky Online and TIMvision. In South Africa, Netflix competes with ShowMax. In the Middle East, Netflix competes with Starz Play Arabia. \n\nTime Warner \n\nIn a 2010 New York Times interview, Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes downplayed Netflix as a threat to more traditional media companies. Bewkes told the newspaper, \"It's a little bit like, is the Albanian army going to take over the world? I don't think so.\" At the same time, he recognized that the company's DVD service may have contributed to a decline in DVD sales, and regarding the industry's willingness to make special deals with Netflix in the future, he added \"this has been an era of experimentation, and I think it's coming to a close.\" Bewkes later refined his position, stating during a 2011 conference call that \"things like Netflix are welcome additions to the infrastructure. They can monetize value for companies like Warner that maybe there wasn't – in terms of efficiency for older product, wasn't as available before[…]Our view of Netflix has been very consistent. I've tried at times to be humorous about it, sometimes to make a point.\" \n\nAwards \n\nOn July 18, 2013, Netflix earned the first Primetime Emmy Award nominations for original online-only web television programs at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards. Three of its web series, Arrested Development, Hemlock Grove and House of Cards, earned a combined 14 nominations (nine for House of Cards, three for Arrested Development and two for Hemlock Grove). The House of Cards episode \"Chapter 1\" received four nominations for both the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards and 65th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, becoming the first webisode of a television series to receive a major Primetime Emmy Award nomination: David Fincher was nominated in the category of Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. \"Chapter 1\" joined Arrested Development \"Flight of the Phoenix\" and Hemlock Grove \"Children of the Night\" as the first webisodes to earn Creative Arts Emmy Award nomination, and with its win for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series, \"Chapter 1\" became the first webisode to be awarded an Emmy. Fincher's win for Directing for a Drama Series made the episode the first Primetime Emmy-awarded webisode. \n\nOn December 12, 2013, the network earned six Golden Globe Award nominations, including four for House of Cards. Among those nominations was Wright for Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for her portrayal of Claire Underwood, which she won at the 71st Golden Globe Awards on January 12. With the accolade, Wright became the first actress to win a Golden Globe for an online-only web television series. It also marked Netflix' first major acting award. House of Cards and Orange is the New Black also won Peabody Awards in 2013. \n\nOn July 10, 2014, Netflix received 31 Emmy nominations. Among other nominations, House of Cards received nominations for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series and Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series. Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright were nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Orange is the New Black was nominated in the comedy categories, earning nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series. Taylor Schilling, Kate Mulgrew and Uzo Aduba were respectively nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (the latter was for Aduba's recurring role in season one, as she was promoted to series regular for the show's second season). \n\nFinance and revenue \n\n2010 \n\nIn 2010, Netflix's stock price increased 219% to $175.70 and it added eight million subscribers, bringing its total to 20 million. Revenue jumped 29% to $2.16 billion and net income was up 39% to $161 million. \n\n2011 \n\nIn April 2011, Netflix was expected to earn $1.07 a share in the first quarter of 2011 on revenue of $705.7 million, a huge increase compared to the year-earlier profit of 59¢ on revenue of $493.7 million, according to a survey of 25 analysts polled by FactSet Research. \n\nAt their peak, in July 2011, Netflix shares were trading for $299. Following the customer dissatisfaction and resulting loss of subscribers after the announcements by CEO Hastings that streaming and DVD rental would be charged separately, leading to a higher price for customers who wanted both (on September 1), and that the DVD rental would be split off as the subsidiary Qwikster (on September 18), the share price fell steeply, to around $130. However, on October 10, 2011, plans to split the company were scrapped. The reason being that \"two websites would make things more difficult\", he stated on the Netflix blog. On November 22, Netflix's share tumbled, as share prices fell by as much as 7%. By December 2011, as a consequence of its decision to raise prices, Neflix had lost over 75% of its total value from the summer. Describing their business model as \"broken\", Wedbush downgraded Netflix's stock rating to \"underperform\", the equivalent of sell. \n\n2014 \n\nIn May 2014, Netflix increased the fee for UK subscribers by £1. The price increase took effect immediately for new subscribers, but will be delayed for two years for existing members. Netflix applied similar increases in the United States (an increase of $1) and the Eurozone (an increase of €1). According to Forbes, \"Netflix can add roughly $500 million in annual incremental revenues in the U.S. alone by 2017 with this move\" and \"roughly $200–250 million in incremental revenues from price changes in international markets\". However, Reuters' Felix Salmon is critical about Netflix's financial future, noting that \"any time that Netflix builds up a profit margin, the studios will simply raise their prices until that margin disappears\".\n\n2016 \n\nIn April 2016, Netflix announced it would be ending a loyalty rate in certain countries for subscribers who were continuously subscribed before price rises. Netflix will spend $5 billion on original content in 2016; this compares to a 2015 revenue of US$6.77 billion (2015).\n\nLegals and controversies \n\nUser information \n\nEffects and legacy \n\nThe rise of Netflix has affected the way audiences watch televised content. Netflix's CPO Neil Hunt believes that Netflix is a model for what television will look like in 2025. He points out that because the Internet allows users the freedom to watch shows at their own pace, an episode does not need cliffhangers to tease the audience to keep tuning in week after week, because they can just binge straight into the next episode. Netflix has allowed content creators to deviate from traditional formats that force 30 minute or 60 minute timeslots once a week, which it claims gives them an advantage over networks. Their model provides a platform that allows varying run times per episode based on a storyline, eliminates the need for a week to week recap, and does not have a fixed notion of what constitutes a \"season\". This flexibility also allows Netflix to nurture a show until it finds its audience, unlike traditional networks which will quickly cancel a show if it is unable to maintain steady ratings. \n\nNetflix has strayed from the traditional necessary production of a pilot episode in order to establish the characters and create arbitrary cliffhangers to prove to the network that the concept of the show will be successful. Kevin Spacey spoke at the Edinburgh International Television Festival about how the new Netflix model was effective for the production of House of Cards, \"Netflix was the only company that said, 'We believe in you. We've run our data, and it tells us our audience would watch this series.\" Though traditional networks are unwilling to risk millions of dollars on shows without first seeing a pilot, Spacey points out that in 2012, 113 pilots were made, 35 of those were chosen to go to air, 13 of those were renewed, and most of those are gone now. The total cost of this is somewhere between $300–$400 million, which makes Netflix's deal for House of Cards extremely cost effective. Netflix's subscription fee also eliminates the need for commercials, so they are free from needing to appease advertisers to fund their original content, a model similar to traditional pay television services such as HBO and Showtime.\n\nThe Netflix model has also affected viewers' expectations. According to a 2013 Nielsen survey, more than 60% of Americans said they binge-watch shows and nearly eight out of 10 Americans have used technology to watch their favorite shows on their own schedule. Netflix has successfully continued to release its original content by making the whole season available at once, acknowledging changing viewer habits. This allows audiences to watch episodes at a time of their choosing rather than having to watch just one episode a week at a specific scheduled time; this effectively gives its subscribers freedom and control over when to watch the next episode at their own pace. Netflix has capitalized on these habits by automatically playing the next episode in the series, removing the 15-second wait times of content on other streaming services. The structure that allows convenient viewing of episodes as well as the intent to provide content of quality comparable to some broadcast and cable television programs in effect, often results in the viewer being hooked into the program by the time the next episode starts. \n\nIn June 2016 Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky asserted that Netflix is part of the US government plot to influence the world culture, \"to enter every home, get into every television, and through that television, into the head of every person on earth\". This was part of his argument for the increase of funding of Russian cinema to pitch it against the dominance of the Hollywood." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Serenity_(film).txt" ], "title": [ "Serenity (film)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Serenity is a 2005 American space western film written and directed by Joss Whedon. It is a continuation of Whedon's short-lived 2002 Fox science fiction television series Firefly and stars the same cast, taking place after the events of the final episode. Set in 2517, Serenity is the story of the captain and crew of Serenity, a \"Firefly-class\" spaceship. The captain and first mate are veterans of the Unification War, having fought on the losing Independent side against the Alliance. Their lives of smuggling and cargo-running are interrupted by a psychic passenger who harbors a dangerous secret.\n\nThe film stars Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It was released in North America on September 30, 2005 by Universal Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews, and won several awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Prometheus Special Award and the Nebula Award for Best Script.\n\nPlot\n\nIn the 26th century, humanity has left an overpopulated Earth, colonizing a new solar system with many planets and moons. The central planets formed the Alliance and won a war against the outer planet Independents—those refusing to join the Alliance. River Tam is being coercively conditioned by Alliance scientists to be a psychic assassin. She is rescued by her brother Simon. During her training, River inadvertently read the minds of several officers and might have learned top government secrets. Consequently, a top Alliance agent known only as the Operative is tasked with recapturing her.\n\nThe siblings have found refuge aboard the transport spaceship Serenity, captained by smuggler and Independent war veteran Malcolm \"Mal\" Reynolds. Despite Simon's objections, Mal brings River on a bank robbery where they are attacked by the savage and cannibalistic Reavers. They escape, but Simon decides he and River will leave Serenity at the next port. Once there, however, a television commercial causes River to go berserk and attack numerous patrons of a bar, and Mal takes the siblings back aboard the ship. The crew contacts reclusive hacker Mr. Universe, who discovers within the commercial a subliminal message designed to trigger River's mental conditioning. He notes River whispered \"Miranda\" before attacking and warns them that someone else saw the footage.\n\nMal receives a call from Inara Serra, a former Serenity occupant, who invites him for a visit. Despite knowing it is a trap, Mal goes to rescue her. At Inara's place, the Operative confronts Mal, promising to let him go free if he turns over River. Mal refuses and escapes with Inara. River reveals that Miranda is a planet located beyond a region of space swarming with Reavers. The crew flies to the planet Haven to ponder their next move. They find Haven devastated and their old friend, Shepherd Book, is mortally wounded. The Operative contacts them, claiming responsibility for the killings. He promises to keep pursuing them and killing anyone who assists them until he captures River.\n\nDespite the crew's objection, Mal orders disguising Serenity as a Reaver ship and travels to Miranda. On the planet, the crew find all 30 million colonists dead. A distress beacon leads them to a recording by the last surviving member of an Alliance survey team. She explains that an experimental chemical designed to suppress aggression was added into Miranda's air. Most residents became so docile they stopped performing all activities of daily living and allowed themselves to die. A small portion of the population had the opposite reaction and became exceedingly aggressive and violent, turning into Reavers.\n\nMal contacts Mr. Universe who agrees to widely broadcast the recording. However, the Operative has got to him first. The Operative mortally wounds him, destroys most of his transmitting equipment and prepares an ambush on Mr. Universe's planet. Mal suspects a trap, but still must deliver the recording to the planet for it to be broadcast. On the way, they provoke the Reaver fleet into pursuing them. While the Reaver fleet clashes with the waiting Alliance fleet, Serenity crash lands near the broadcast tower. Wash, Serenity's pilot, is killed by Reavers after they crash land.\n\nThe crew make a last stand at the entrance against the Reavers to buy Mal time to broadcast the recording. Through a message recorded by Mr. Universe before his death, Mal learns of a backup transmitter. Sustaining heavy injuries, the crew retreats behind a set of blast doors that fail to properly close. A Reaver shoots through the opening and severely wounds Simon, prompting River to dive through the doors and close them as the Reavers drag her away. At the backup transmitter, Mal incapacitates the Operative and forces him to watch the broadcast recording. Mal returns to the crew, and the blast doors open to reveal that River has killed all the Reavers. Alliance troops reach the group, but the Operative orders them to stand down.\n\nThe Operative provides medical aid and resources to repair Serenity. The crew erects memorials for their fallen friends. Simon consummates his romantic relationship with mechanic Kaylee Frye. The Operative tells Mal the broadcast has weakened the Alliance government. While he will try to convince the Parliament that River and Simon are no longer threats, he cannot guarantee the Alliance will end their pursuit. Inara decides that she will remain with the crew, and Serenity takes off with River as Mal's co-pilot.\n\nCast\n\n* Nathan Fillion as Malcolm \"Mal\" Reynolds, a former sergeant (now captain of his privately owned ship) on the losing side of the Unification War, he struggles to survive free and independent of the Alliance.\n* Gina Torres as Zoe Washburne (née Alleyne): A former corporal who fought under Mal in the war, and Wash's wife. She is the second-in command of Serenity, and is fiercely loyal to Mal, whom she addresses as \"sir\".\n* Alan Tudyk as Hoban \"Wash\" Washburne: The pilot of the ship, and Zoe's husband. He often acts as a voice of reason on the ship.\n* Morena Baccarin as Inara Serra, a Companion who formerly rented one of Serenitys shuttles. In one of the Operative's traps, Mal is reunited with Inara at her training house, and the two escape back to Serenity.\n* Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb, a mercenary skilled with weapons, Jayne is often the \"main gun\" for jobs and is someone who can be depended on in a fight. Jayne acts and seems dumb most of the time, but may be smarter than he lets on. As Whedon states several times, he is the person that will ask the questions that no one else wants to. \n* Jewel Staite as Kaywinnet Lee \"Kaylee\" Frye: the ship's mechanic, has an intuitive, almost symbiotic, relationship with machines and is, consequently, something of a mechanical wizard. She is also notable for a persistently bright and sunny disposition, and her crush on Simon Tam.\n* Sean Maher as Simon Tam, River's loving older brother who helped rescue her from the Alliance. He and River are taken in by the crew of Serenity. A trauma surgeon before the rescue, he serves as a doctor to the crew. His life is defined by his sister's needs.\n* Summer Glau as River Tam, a 17-year-old psychic genius. She and her brother are taken in by the crew of Serenity after he rescues her from an Alliance Academy where she was subjected to medical experimentation and brainwashing. Foy suggests that the Alliance \"...prepares her to become an assassin and spy...\" The Alliance's pursuit of River acts as the film's motive. More abstractly the film is the \"story of Mal as told by River\". \n* Ron Glass as Shepherd Derrial Book, a shepherd, or preacher, with a mysterious past, Book was once a passenger on Serenity, but now resides on the planet Haven. Mal and the crew look to him for help.\n* Chiwetel Ejiofor as The Operative, a ruthless intelligence agent of the Alliance assigned to track down River and Simon. Although Ejiofor was on the top of the casting director's list for the role, the studio wanted someone better known. Whedon was eventually able to cast Ejiofor. \n* David Krumholtz as Mr. Universe, a \"techno-geek\" with good relations with the crew of Serenity, especially Wash, Mr. Universe lives with his \"love-bot\" wife and monitors incoming signals from around the universe.\n\nProduction\n\nDevelopment \n\nThe film is based on Firefly, a television series canceled by the Fox Broadcasting Company in December 2002, after 11 of its 14 produced episodes had aired. Attempts to have other networks acquire the show failed, and creator Joss Whedon started to sell it as a film. He had been working on a film script since the show's cancellation. Shortly after the cancellation, he contacted Barry Mendel, who was working with Universal Studios, and \"flat-out asked him\" for a way to continue the series as a film, including as a low-budget television film. Mendel introduced Whedon to then Universal executive Mary Parent. She had seen Firefly and immediately signed on to the project, even though Whedon had yet to create a story. Whedon remarked, In July 2003, Whedon said that though there was interest in the project, \"I won't know really until I finish a draft whether or not it's genuine.\" He felt that any film deal was contingent on keeping the show's original cast, though he later stated that retaining the cast was \"never an issue\" as Universal executives believed the cast suitable after watching every episode of the series. \n\nIn early September 2004, a film deal with Universal was publicly confirmed. Universal acquired the rights to Firefly shortly before the confirmation. Whedon felt that the strong sales of the Firefly DVD, which sold out in less than twenty-four hours after the pre-order announcement, \"definitely helped light a fire and make them [Universal] go, 'Okay, we've really got something here.' It definitely helped them just be comfortable with the decisions they were making, but they really had been supporting us for quite some time already.\" Whedon felt it was \"important people understand that the movie isn't the series\", and so the project was titled Serenity.\n\nWriting\n\nAfter Universal acquired the film rights from Fox, Whedon began writing the screenplay. His task was to explain the premise of a television series that few had seen without boring new viewers or longtime fans. He based his story on original story ideas for Fireflys un-filmed second season. Whedon's original script was 190 pages, and attempted to address all major plot points introduced in the series. After presenting the script to Barry Mendel under the title \"The Kitchen Sink\", Whedon and Mendel collaborated on cutting down the script to a size film-able under his budget constraints. All nine principal cast members from the television series were scheduled to return for the movie, but Glass and Tudyk could not commit to sequels, leading to the death of their characters in the second draft of the script. The tightened script and a budget Mendel and Whedon prepared were submitted to Universal on a Friday and on the following Monday morning, Stacey Snider, then head of Universal, called Mendel to officially greenlight the movie. \n\nUniversal planned to begin shooting in October 2003, but delays in finishing the script postponed the start of shooting to June 2004.\n\nFilming\n\nPrincipal photography for Serenity was originally estimated to require eighty days, lasting a typical twelve to fourteen hours each, with a budget of over $100 million. Unwilling to approve of such a large budget, Universal Studios wished to shoot abroad to minimize production costs. However, Whedon, reluctant to uproot his family, insisted that filming take place locally and maintained that it was possible for a local production to cost fewer days and less than half the expected budget. On March 2, 2004, the film was greenlit for production with a budget of under $40 million. At the project's completion, the film spent $39 million, considered low for a science fiction action film featuring heavy special effects. \n\nSerenity was filmed over a period of fifty ten-hour days, beginning June 3, 2004 and ending September 17, 2004. The film was primarily shot on Universal Studio sound stages with locations throughout Los Angeles. The sequence where the crew is pursued by Reavers after a bank robbery was filmed along the Templin Highway north of Santa Clarita. The shoot typically would have lasted thirty days, but the production completed filming the sequence in five days. Pyrotechnics were shot at Mystery Mesa, near Valencia, California over a period of three days rather than a typical two weeks. The scenes on the planet Miranda were filmed at Diamond Ranch High School in Pomona. \n\nThe production expected to save money by reusing the Serenity ship interior set from the Firefly television series. However, the set had been built in pieces as episodes called for new rooms on the ship. Using DVD images of the television series as a guide, the set was rebuilt over fourteen weeks on Universal Studios' Stage 12 by twenty-three supervised crews working independently but in coordination with one another.\n\nVisual effects\n\nAs the budget for the film was considerably smaller than for the TV series, practical special effects were used as much as possible: if a computer-generated imagery (CGI) composite was required, as many tangible sets and props as possible were constructed to minimize the use of computer effects. The most technically challenging scene was the mule skiff chase. For budgetary reasons, a gimbal and CGI, much like those used in the pod race in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, were quickly ruled out. Instead, the crew fashioned a trailer with a cantilevered arm attached to the \"hovercraft\" and shot the scene while riding up Templin Highway north of Santa Clarita. Zoic Studios, the company that produced the graphics for the series, had to perform a complete overhaul of their computer model of Serenity, as the television model would not stand up to the high-definition scrutiny of cinema screens (and high-definition video resolution). \n\nMusical score\n\nIn pre-production memos, Whedon described his vision for the score as \"spare, intimate, mournful and indefatigable\". Just as the landscape and speech drew from elements of the Western, he wished the same of the musical style and instrumentation. However, he did not want to step too far into Western clichés to \"cause justified derision\" and hoped the score would also draw from Chinese and other Asian musical elements. He wanted the musical elements \"mixed up, hidden, or it's as much a cliché as the western feel. We don't want to be too specific about culture or time. We want to be comfortable enough with the sounds not to let them take us out of the story, but not so comfortable that we begin to be told where the story is.\" Music was to draw heavily on what could be carried, and he highlighted four instruments: voice, percussion, woodwind, strings particularly guitar. He cautioned against vocal orchestration, believing there to be only two voices in Hollywood and wishing to avoid both, and advised moderation in woodwind, feeling wind instruments to be \"either too airy or too sophisticated\". \n\nUniversal Studios wanted a composer with experience scoring films, ruling out Firefly composer Greg Edmonson. Whedon first thought of Carter Burwell, of whom Whedon was a fan. However, Whedon later felt that Burwell was not the right choice because as the film changed, the needs of the score changed as well. Burwell found working on the project difficult as it required he work \"opposite\" to his usual approach. The production would have continued with Burwell, but his other obligations left him little time to compose an entirely new score for Serenity. Burwell was dropped from the project a few weeks before the scheduled February 2005 recording.\n\nDavid Newman was recommended by Universal's music executives when Whedon requested a composer capable of \"everything\" and \"quickly\". Whedon's instructions to Newman for the ship Serenity theme was something homemade and mournful, evoking the idea of pioneers who only had what they could carry. Whedon wished the theme to let viewers know they were now home. River Tam's theme was played on a uniquely shaped, square, antique piano that was slightly out of tune. The piano reminded Newman of River and composed a \"haunting, haunted, vaguely eastern and achingly unresolved\" theme that Whedon felt proved Newman's understanding of the film's musical needs. \n\nThe score was performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony under Newman's direction. The official soundtrack was released September 27, 2005. \n\nRelease\n\nSerenity had its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 22, 2005. The premiere sold out, and the festival arranged for two more screenings on August 24, which sold out in twenty-four hours, and in the \"Best of the Fest\" line-up on August 28. The film was theatrically released September 30, 2005.\n\nSerenity was originally released on traditional film prints. Because the original 2K digital intermediate scans were readily available, the film was chosen by Universal Pictures to test conversion to a Digital Cinema Distribution Master of the film and to \"test the workflow required to create a .\" Serenity became the first film to fully conform to Digital Cinema Initiatives specifications, marking \"a major milestone in the move toward all-digital projection\". \n\nMarketing\n\nIn April 2005, Universal launched a three-stage grassroots marketing campaign. A rough cut of the film was previewed in a total of thirty-five North American cities where the Firefly television series received the highest Nielsen ratings. The screenings did not bear the name of the film and relied on word-of-mouth within the fanbase for promotion. All screenings sold out in less than twenty-four hours, sometimes in as quickly as five minutes. The first screening was held May 5, 2005 in ten cities. The second screening on May 26 increased the number of cities to twenty. In the twenty-four hours following the announcement of the second screening, the Firefly fanbase launched trial and error efforts to uncover the theaters holding the screenings, leading the event to be sold out before the official listing was released. The third screening on June 23 was held in thirty-five cities. A final screening was held at Comic-Con International, followed by a panel with Whedon and the cast.\n\nSession 416 \n\nSession 416, also known as the R. Tam Sessions, are a series of five short videos anonymously released by Whedon through various websites and message boards as a form of viral marketing. The first video, bearing the title card \"R. Tam, Session 416, Second Excerpt\", was released on the iFilm website on August 16, 2005. By September 7, 2005, all five videos had been released. Though a representative from Universal Studios stated to have no knowledge of the videos' origin, the idea to launch an online viral marketing campaign came first from Universal executives. After they approached Whedon with the idea, he decided to use the format to explore events before either the film or the television series. The clips were filmed with a \"tiny\" crew in a single day shoot and are shot in grainy, low quality, black-and-white. They were later included on the Collector's Edition DVD.\n\nThe videos, sequenced out of chronological order, depict excerpts of counseling sessions between River Tam, played by Summer Glau, and her unnamed therapist, played by Whedon, while she is held at the Alliance Academy. They follow her change from shy and sweet child prodigy to the mentally unstable girl of the television series. \n\nHome media\n\nSerenity was released on Region 1 DVD, VHS, and UMD on December 20, 2005. The DVD ranked #3 in sales for the week ending December 25, 2005. Bonus features available on the DVD version audio commentary from Whedon, deleted scenes and outtakes, a short introduction by Whedon originally preluding the film at advance screenings, an easter egg on the creation of the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial, and three featurettes on the Firefly and Serenity universe, special effects, and the revival of the television series to film. Region 2 releases included an additional making-of featurette, and Region 4 releases included additional extended scenes, a tour of the set, a feature on cinematographer Jack Green, and a question and answer session with Whedon filmed after an advance screening in Australia. \n\nSerenity was released on HD DVD on April 18, 2006 and was the first Universal Studios film to be released on the format. In January 2007, it also became the first full resolution rip of an HD DVD release uploaded to the BitTorrent network after its title key was ripped from a software player and released online. \n\nA 2-disc Collector's Edition DVD was released for Region 1 on August 21, 2007. In addition to the special features featured on the Region 4, with exception of the question and answer session, the release included Session 416, a documentary on the film, and a second commentary with Whedon and actors Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau, and Ron Glass. The film was released on Blu-ray on December 30, 2008, adding to the special features a video version of the cast commentary, picture-in-picture visual commentary, a two databases of in-universe material, and a digital tour of Serenity. \n\nReception\n\nBox office\n\nDespite critical acclaim and high anticipation, Serenity performed poorly at the box office. Although several pundits predicted a #1 opening, the film opened at #2 in the United States, taking in $10.1 million on its first weekend, spending two weeks in the top ten, and closed on November 17, 2005 with a domestic box office gross of $25.5 million. Movie industry analyst Brandon Gray described Serenitys box office performance as \"like a below average genre picture\". \n\nSerenitys international box office results were mixed, with strong openings in the UK, Portugal and Russia, but poor results in Spain, Australia, France and Italy. United International Pictures canceled the film's theatrical release in at least seven countries, planning to release it directly to DVD instead. The box office income outside the United States was $13.3 million, with a worldwide total of $38.9 million. \n\nCritical reception\n\nSerenity received mostly positive reviews from film critics. On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 82% approval rating based on 179 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6 out of 10. The site's critical consensus states: \"Snappy dialogue and goofy characters make this Wild Wild West soap opera in space fun and adventurous.\" Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 74 based on reviews from 34 critics, indicating \"generally favorable reviews\". \n\nEbert and Roeper gave the film a \"Two Thumbs Up\" rating. Roger Ebert, in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film three out of four stars, commenting that it is \"made of dubious but energetic special effects, breathless velocity, much imagination, some sly verbal wit and a little political satire\". \"The movie plays like a critique of contemporary society\", he observed, also stating that in this way it was like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Peter Hartlaub in the The San Francisco Chronicle called it \"a triumph\", comparing its writing to the best Star Trek episodes, while Manohla Dargis of The New York Times described it as a modest but superior science fiction film. Science fiction author Orson Scott Card called Serenity \"the best science fiction film ever\", further stating \"If Ender's Game can't be this kind of movie, and this good a movie, then I want it never to be made. I'd rather just watch Serenity again.\" USA Today film critic Claudia Puig wrote that \"the characters are generally uninteresting and one-dimensional, and the futuristic Western-style plot grows tedious\" while Variety declared that the film \"bounces around to sometimes memorable effect but rarely soars\". \n\nAwards\n\nSerenity won several awards after its release. It won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form, the Nebula Award for Best Script, and the Prometheus Special Award. The film was also named film of the year by Film 2005 and FilmFocus, and it was determined by SFX magazine to be the best science fiction movie of all time in 2007. IGN Film awarded Serenity Best Sci-Fi, Best Story, and Best Trailer for the year, and it won second for Overall Best Movie after Batman Begins. The SyFy Genre Awards awarded it runner-up in the categories for Best Movie, Best Actor in a film (Nathan Fillion), and Best Actress in a film (Summer Glau), losing in all categories to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Serenity later ranked 383 on Empire magazine's 500 Greatest Films of All Time and 90 of the 301 Greatest Movies of All Time as voted by the magazine's readers. \n\nCultural impact \n\nNASA astronaut Steven Swanson, a fan of the show, took the Region 1 Firefly and Serenity DVDs with him on Space Shuttle Atlantis' STS-117 mission, which lifted off on Friday June 8, 2007. The DVDs will permanently reside on the International Space Station as a form of entertainment for the station's crews. \n\nOn February 20, 2009, NASA announced an online poll to name Node 3 of the International Space Station; NASA-suggested options included Earthrise, Legacy, Serenity, and Venture. At the March 20, 2009 poll close, 'Serenity' led those four choices with 70% of the vote, though the winner of the poll was 'Colbert', a reference to late night comedy show host Stephen Colbert. In the end, the poll was discarded and the node was eventually named 'Tranquility'. \n\nCharity screenings \n\nBeginning in January 2006, fans (with Universal's blessing) began organizing charity screenings of Serenity to benefit Equality Now, a human rights organization supported by Joss Whedon. By mid-June, 41 such screenings had been confirmed for cities in Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, and the United States, and as of June 19, 2006, there were 47 scheduled screenings. The project was referred to as \"Serenity Now/Equality Now\" on the official website, but was often referred to in shortened form as \"Serenity Now\", and was coordinated through [http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com/ \"Can't Stop The Serenity\"]. The name officially changed in 2007 to Can't Stop The Serenity (CSTS)\n\nThis has become a multi-venue event held each calendar year in various countries and cities and on various dates throughout the year. Funds raised by the events go to Equality Now (and other charities ).\n\nRelated works and merchandise\n\nUniversal Studios wished to do an animated prequel to the Serenity film. Whedon and Brett Matthews wrote a story for the feature, but Universal ultimately decided against the project. The story was rewritten into a three-issue comic book miniseries intended to bridge the gap between the television series and the film. Serenity: Those Left Behind was released from July through September 2005 by Dark Horse Comics. \n\nA novelization of the film was written by Keith DeCandido and published by Simon & Schuster under their Pocket Star imprint on August 30, 2005. Titan Publishing published Serenity: The Official Visual Companion on September 1, 2005, and Titan Magazines released a one-shot souvenir magazine. Margaret Weis Productions released the Serenity tabletop role-playing game based on the film on September 19, 2005. \n\nInkworks issued a 72-card trading card set, including autographed cards and cards with swatches of costumes used in the film, on September 21, 2005. The set won Diamond Comics' 2005 Non-Sports Card Product of the Year Gem Award. Diamond Select Toys released five six-inch action figures initially featuring Malcolm Reynolds, Jayne Cobb, and a Reaver, later adding River Tam, Inara Serra, and Zoe Washburne. The line was deemed to be \"disappointing\" with the figure of Malcolm Reynolds particularly singled out; both won MCWToys' silver award for Worst Line and Worst Male Figure under twelve inches for 2005. \n\nThemes and cultural allusions\n\nWhile the film depicts the Alliance as an all-powerful, authoritarian-style regime, Whedon is careful to point out that it is not so simple as that. \"The Alliance isn't some evil empire\", he explains, but rather a largely benevolent bureaucratic force. The Alliance's main problem is that it seeks to govern everyone, regardless of whether they desire to belong to the central government or not. What the crew of Serenity represent—specifically Mal and his lifestyle—is the idea that people should have the right to make their own decisions, even if those decisions are bad. \n\nThe Operative embodies the Alliance and is, as Whedon describes, the \"perfect product of what's wrong with the Alliance\". He is someone whose motives are to achieve a good end, a \"world without sin\". The Operative believes so strongly in this idea that he willingly compromises his humanity in furtherance of it—as he himself admits, he would have no place in this world. In contrast, Mal is, at the movie's beginning, a man who has lost all faith. By the end of the movie Mal has finally come to believe so strongly in something—individual liberty—that he becomes willing to lay down his life to preserve it. \n\nWhedon has said that the most important line spoken in the film is when Mal forces the Operative to watch the Miranda footage at the climax of the film, promising him: \"I'm going to show you a world without sin\". Whedon makes the point that a world without sin is a world without choice, and that choice is ultimately what defines humanity. According to Whedon, the planet \"Miranda\" was named for William Shakespeare's Miranda in The Tempest, who in Act V, scene I says: \"O brave new world, / That has such people in't!\" The Alliance had hoped that Miranda would be a new kind of world, filled with peaceful, happy people, and represents the \"inane optimism of the Alliance\". \n\nThe Fruity Oaty Bar commercial shown in the Maidenhead spaceport bar, which carried the subliminal message that triggered River Tam, is partially inspired by Mr. Sparkle, the mascot of a fictional brand of dish-washing detergent, who was featured in The Simpsons episode \"In Marge We Trust\". Whedon mentions in a DVD feature that when the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial was being designed, he constantly asked the animators to redesign it and make it even more bizarre than the previous design, until it arrived at the version presented on screen.\n\nSequel possibilities\n\nFans had hoped that if Serenity had been successful, it might lead either to sequel or a film trilogy. \n\nThe first major sequel rumor began on December 1, 2005, when IGN Filmforce reported that Universal had expressed an interest in making a Serenity television movie for broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel. It was expected that commissioning of a television sequel would be contingent on strong DVD sales of Serenity. In a January 2006 interview, Whedon doubted the chances of a sequel. On October 1, 2006, Whedon posted a comment to the Whedonesque.com website, debunking a rumor that he was working on a sequel. \n\nIn an interview at the 2007 Comic-Con, Whedon stated that he believes hope for a sequel rests in the sales of the Collector's Edition DVD. In an August 2007 interview with Amazon.com prior to the Collector's Edition DVD release, Whedon stated, \"It's still on my mind, I mean, but I don't know if mine is the only mind that it's on.\" He later said, \"You know, whether or not anybody who's involved would be available at that point—everybody's working, I'm happy to say—is a question, but whether I would want to do another one is not a question.\"" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search", "Search", "Search", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Automotive_industry.txt", "Marysville,_Ohio.txt", "Automotive_industry_in_Japan.txt", "Honda_Accord.txt", "Honda.txt", "Nissan.txt" ], "title": [ "Automotive industry", "Marysville, Ohio", "Automotive industry in Japan", "Honda Accord", "Honda", "Nissan" ], "wiki_context": [ "The automotive industry is a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. \nIt is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue. The automotive industry does not include industries dedicated to the maintenance of automobiles following delivery to the end-user, such as automobile repair shops and motor fuel filling stations.\n\nThe term automotive was created from Greek autos (self), and Latin motivus (of motion) to represent any form of self-powered vehicle. This term was proposed by SAE member Elmer Sperry. \n\nHistory\n\nThe automotive industry began in the 1890s with hundreds of manufacturers that pioneered the horseless carriage. For many decades, the United States led the world in total automobile production. In 1929 before the Great Depression, the world had 32,028,500 automobiles in use, and the U.S. automobile industry produced over 90% of them. At that time the U.S. had one car per 4.87 persons. After World War II, the U.S. produced about 75 percent of world's auto production. In 1980, the U.S. was overtaken by Japan and became world's leader again in 1994. In 2006, Japan narrowly passed the U.S. in production and held this rank until 2009, when China took the top spot with 13.8 million units. With 19.3 million units manufactured in 2012, China almost doubled the U.S. production, with 10.3 million units, while Japan was in third place with 9.9 million units. From 1970 (140 models) over 1998 (260 models) to 2012 (684 models), the number of automobile models in the U.S. has grown exponentially. \n\nSafety\n\nSafety is a state that implies to be protected from any risk, danger, damage or cause of injury. In the automotive industry, safety means that users, operators or manufacturers do not face any risk or danger coming from the motor vehicle or its spare parts. Safety for the automobiles themselves, implies that there is no risk of damage.\n\nSafety in the automotive industry is particularly important and therefore highly regulated. Automobiles and other motor vehicles have to comply with a certain number of norms and regulations, whether local or international, in order to be accepted on the market. The standard ISO 26262, is considered as one of the best practice framework for achieving automotive functional safety. \n\nIn case of safety issues, danger, product defect or faulty procedure during the manufacturing of the motor vehicle, the maker can request to return either a batch or the entire production run. This procedure is called product recall. Product recalls happen in every industry and can be production-related or stem from the raw material.\n\nProduct and operation tests and inspections at different stages of the value chain are made to avoid these product recalls by ensuring end-user security and safety and compliance with the automotive industry requirements. However, the automotive industry is still particularly concerned about product recalls, which cause considerable financial consequences.\n\nEconomy\n\nAround the world, there were about 806 million cars and light trucks on the road in 2007, consuming over 980 e9litres of gasoline and diesel fuel yearly. The automobile is a primary mode of transportation for many developed economies. The Detroit branch of Boston Consulting Group predicts that, by 2014, one-third of world demand will be in the four BRIC markets (Brazil, Russia, India and China). Meanwhile, in the developed countries, the automotive industry has slowed down. It is also expected that this trend will continue, especially as the younger generations of people (in highly urbanized countries) no longer want to own a car anymore, and prefer other modes of transport. Other potentially powerful automotive markets are Iran and Indonesia. \nEmerging auto markets already buy more cars than established markets. According to a J.D. Power study, emerging markets accounted for 51 percent of the global light-vehicle sales in 2010. The study, performed in 2010 expected this trend to accelerate. However, more recent reports (2012) confirmed the opposite; namely that the automotive industry was slowing down even in BRIC countries. In the United States, vehicle sales peaked in 2000, at 17.8 million units. \n\nWorld motor vehicle production\n\nBy year\n\n]\nBy country\n\nBy manufacturer\n\nRank of manufacturers by production in 2013\n\nOICA defines these entries as follows:\n* Passenger cars are motor vehicles with at least four wheels, used for the transport of passengers, and comprising no more than eight seats in addition to the driver's seat.\n* Light commercial vehicles (LCV) are motor vehicles with at least four wheels, used for the carriage of goods. Mass given in tons (metric tons) is used as a limit between light commercial vehicles and heavy trucks. This limit depends on national and professional definitions and varies between 3.5 and 7 tons. Minibuses, derived from light commercial vehicles, are used for the transport of passengers, comprising more than eight seats in addition to the driver's seat and having a maximum mass between 3.5 and 7 tons.\n* Heavy trucks (HCV) are vehicles intended for the carriage of goods. Maximum authorised mass is over the limit (ranging from 3.5 to 7 tons) of light commercial vehicles. They include tractor vehicles designed for towing semi-trailers.\n* Buses and coaches are used for the transport of passengers, comprising more than eight seats in addition to the driver's seat, and having a maximum mass over the limit (ranging from 3.5 to 7 tones) of light commercial vehicles.\n\nCompany relationships\n\nIt is common for automobile manufacturers to hold stakes in other automobile manufacturers. These ownerships can be explored under the detail for the individual companies.\n\nNotable current relationships include:\n* AB Volvo and Eicher Motors has a 50-50% joint venture called VE Commercial Vehicles. \n* Anadolu Group and Isuzu have a 50-50% joint venture called Anadolu Isuzu.\n* Beijing Automotive Group has a joint venture with Daimler called Beijing Benz, both companies hold a 50-50% stake. both companies also have a joint venture called Beijing Foton Daimler Automobile. BAG also has a joint venture with Hyundai called Beijing Hyundai, both companies hold a 50-50% stake. \n* BMW and Brilliance have a joint venture called BMW Brilliance. BMW owns a 50% stake, Brilliance owns a 40.5% stake, and the Shenyang municipal government owns a 9.5% stake. \n* Chang'an Automobile Group has three joint ventures, one with PSA Peugeot Citroen(CAPSA), both hold a 50-50% stake, one with Suzuki(Changan Suzuki), both hold a 50-50% stake, and one with Ford and Mazda(Changan Ford Mazda), CAG holds a 50% stake, Ford holds a 35% stake, and Mazda holds a 15% stake. Chang'an and Ford have a joint venture called Chang'an Ford Nanjing. Jiangling and Chang'an have a joint venture called Jiangxi Jiangling.\n* Chery has a joint venture with Tata Motors called Chery Jaguar Land Rover, both companies hold a 50-50% stake. Chery and Israel Corporation has a joint venture called Qoros, both companies hold a 50-50% stake.\n* Daimler AG holds a 20% stake in Eicher Motors, a 10.0% stake in KAMAZ, an 89.29% stake in Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation, a 6.75% stake in Tata Motors and a 3.1% in the Renault-Nissan Alliance, a 12% stake in Beijing Automotive Group, and an 85% stake in Master Motors. Daimler and BYD Auto have a joint venture called Denza, both companies hold a 50-50% stake. \n* Dongfeng Motor Corporation and Nissan have a 50-50% joint venture called Venucia, and another 50-50% joint venture called Dongfeng Motor Company. Dongfeng and PSA Group have a 50-50% joint venture called Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroen, a 50-50% joint venture with Honda called Dongfeng Honda, a joint venture with AB Volvo called Dongfeng Nissan-Diesel, a 50-50% joint venture with Renault named Dongfeng Renault in Wuhan, which was founded in the end of 2013\n* FCA holds a 90% stake in Ferrari, a 67% stake in Fiat Automobili Srbija and 37.8% of Tofaş with another 37.8% owned by Koç Holding.\n* Fiat Automobili Srbija owns a 54% stake in Zastava Trucks.\n* Fiat Industrial owns a 46% stake in Zastava Trucks.\n* Ford Motor Company holds a 3% stake in Mazda, a 12.1% share in Aston Martin, a 49% share in Jiangling Motors. Ford and Navistar International have a 50-50 joint venture called Blue Diamond Truck. Ford and Sollers JSC have a 50-50 joint venture called Ford Sollers. Both Ford and Koç Holding own a 41% stake in Ford Otosan. Ford and Lio Ho Group have a joint venture called Ford Lio Ho, Ford owns 70% and Lio Ho Group owns 30%.\n* FAW Group and GM has a 50-50 joint venture called FAW-GM, a 50-50 joint venture with Volkswagen Group called FAW-Volkswagen, and a 50-50 joint venture with Toyota called Sichuan FAW Toyota Motor and both companies also have another joint venture called Ranz. FAW Group owns 49% of Haima Automobile\n* Fujian Motors Group holds a 15% stake in King Long. FMG, China Motor, and Daimler has a joint venture called Fujian Benz. FMG, China Motor, and Mitsubishi Motors has a joint venture called Soueast, FMG holds a 50% stake, and both China Motor and Mitsubishi Motors holds an equal 25% stake.\n* Geely Automobile holds a 23% stake in The London Taxi Company. \n* General Motors holds a 20% stake in Industries Mécaniques Maghrébines. General Motors and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), and has two joint ventures in Shanghai General Motors and SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile. Both also hold an equal 50% stake in General Motors India Private Limited. And General Motors holds a 94% stake in GM Korea and SAIC Group holds a 6% stake. General Motors and UzAvtosanoat have a joint venture called GM Uzbekistan, UzAvtosanoat owns 75% and General Motors owns 25%. General Motors and UzAvtosanoat also have a joint venture called UzDaewooAvto both each hold a 50-50 stake. GM, AvtoVAZ, and EBRD have a joint venture called GM-AvtoVAZ, Both GM and AvtoVAZ owns 41.61% and EBRD owns 16.76%. \n* Hyundai Motor Group and Kibar Holding has a joint venture called Hyundai Assan Otomotiv, Hyundai Motor Group owns 70% and Kibar Holding owns 30%. \n* Isuzu and General Motors has a 50-50% joint venture called Isuzu Truck South Africa. Isuzu owns 10% of Industries Mécaniques Maghrébines. Isuzu, Sollers JSC, and Imperial Sojitz have a joint venture called Sollers-Isuzu, Sollers JSC owns66%, Isuzu owns 29%, and Imperial Sojitz owns 5%.\n* Mahindra & Mahindra and Navistar International has a joint venture called Mahindra Trucks and Buses Limited. Mahindra & Mahindra owns 51% and Navistar International owns 49%.\n* MAN SE holds a 17.01% voting stake in Scania. MAN and UzAvtosanoat have a joint venture called MAN Auto-Uzbekistan, UzAvtosanoat owns 51% and MAN owns 49%.\n* Marcopolo owns 19% of New Flyer Industries.\n* Navistar International and JAC has a joint venture called Anhui Jianghuai Navistar.\n* Nissan owns 43% of Nissan Shatai. \n* Porsche Automobil Holding SE has a 50.74% voting stake in Volkswagen Group. The Porsche automotive business is fully owned by the Volkswagen Group.\n* PSA Groupe and Toyota have a 50-50% joint venture called Toyota Peugeot Citroen Automobile Czech, and another joint venture with Chang'an called Chang'an PSA automobile.\n* Renault and Nissan Motors have an alliance( Renault-Nissan Alliance ) involving two global companies linked by cross-shareholding, with Renault holding 44.3% of Nissan shares, and Nissan holding 15% of (non-voting) Renault shares. The alliance holds a 3.1% share in Daimler AG.\n* Renault holds a 25% stake in AvtoVAZ and an 80.1% stake in Renault Samsung.\n* SAIPA holds a 51% stake in Pars Khodro.\n* Sollers JSC is involved in Joint ventures with Ford(Ford Sollers) and Mazda to produce cars.\n* Toyota holds a 51% stake in Daihatsu, 16.7% in Fuji Heavy Industries, parent company of Subaru, and a 10% stake in Tesla, .\n* Volkswagen Group holds a 37.73% stake in Scania (68.6% voting rights), a 53.7% stake in MAN SE (55.9% voting rights), and a 99.55% stake in the Audi Group. Volkswagen is integrating Scania, MAN and its own truck division into one division.\n* Paccar inc. has a 19% stake in Tatra.\n* Tata Motors also formed a joint venture with Fiat and gained access to Fiat's diesel engine technology. Tata Motors sells Fiat cars in India through a 50/50 joint venture Fiat Automobiles India Limited, and is looking to extend its relationship with Fiat and Iveco to other segments. Tata and Marcopolo have a Tata Marcopolo, Tata owns 51% and Marcopolo owns 49%. \n* ZAP owns 51% of Zhejiang Jonway.\n\nTop vehicle manufacturing groups by volume\n\nThe table below shows the world's largest motor vehicle manufacturing groups, along with the marques produced by each one. The table is ranked by 2013 production figures from the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA) for the parent group, and then alphabetically by marque. Joint ventures are not reflected in this table. Production figures of joint ventures are typically included in OICA rankings, which can become a source of controversy.\n\nCar makes and their parent companies\n\nThe table below lists most car makes and their parent companies.", "Marysville is a city in and the county seat of Union County, Ohio, United States. Marysville is part of the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area. The population was 22,094 at the 2010 census. This marks a 38.59% increase from 2000. \n\nMarysville's longtime slogan is \"Where the Grass is Greener\". \n\nIn December 2008, Marysville was designated as a \"Preserve America Community\" by the First Lady Laura Bush. \n\nHistory \n\nOrigins \n\nMarysville was originally part of Northwest Territory, and then became part of the Virginia Military District within that territory, and eventually became part of the state of Ohio. One of the original surveyors of the area was James Galloway, Jr., who first visited in 1805. Marysville was founded in 1819 by Samuel W. Cuthbertson, who named the town after his daughter Mary, along the small waterway of Mill Creek.\n\nCounty seat designation \n\nAfter the organization of the county by the Ohio Legislature, Marysville was designated as the seat of Union County. The first recorded meeting of the commissioners was in 1820. Between 1835 and 1840, a courthouse was constructed. Eventually, a new dedicated courthouse would be built in Marysville on January 27, 1883, which is also presently in use. \n\nIn 1849, a county infirmary was authorized. The first county jail was a log structure that sat on the south side of East Center street, in the rear of the courthouse. Eventually a new jail was authorized by the commissioners and built in the 1870s. In 1878 the county purchased a 10-ton safe for the treasury, that eventually was moved into courthouse. \n\nThe first county fair was held in 1847 in Marysville, in the public square. In 1852, the Agriculture Society moved the fair to the current location, on the north side of town. \n\nEarly development \n\nMarysville was originally laid out in 1820. The first permanent settlement was made by Abraham Amrine, of Swiss descent, in 1817, two miles north of the city. Today the main road leading to the high school is named Amrine-Mill Rd.\n\nIn 1824, the first post office was established. At this time, there were only four families in the village. In 1828, Marysville's first school was established in the east side of town using a log cabin as its building structure. By 1839, there were already three schools operating in the town. In 1843, the first high school was opened by Caroline Humphrey, and by 1850 there was a Board of Education making annual reports to the voters. \n\nIn 1837, the Ohio Gazetteer published that Marysville was a small post town consisting of a court house, a jail, forty-five dwelling houses, one tavern, three stores, one practicing physician, two attorneys and about 250 inhabitants. By 1846, Marysville had 360 inhabitants, three small dry goods stores, two churches (Presbyterian and Methodist), a private school, and a newspaper office. \n\nEarly Marysville businesses during this period included McClouds Drug Store on the south side of the square, the Cheap Cash Store, the American Hotel, the W.W. Woods store, and Hare and Hughes, a hat business located on the southwest corner of the square. Several locals ran personal unnamed businesses. The village was incorporated in 1840, with Otway Curry elected as the first mayor. \n\nLadders were first purchased for a fire department in 1845, and by 1865 the village had purchased the first fire engine. The commissioners petitioned for a fire house, but it would not be built until 1906, being a two level brick building. \n\nA census in 1859 showed that the village had 981 residents. By 1865, Marysville had six dry goods stores, one hardware store, nine or ten groceries, a mill, a woolen factory, and most of the trades and professions. It was growing steadily by this point. \n\nIn 1877, the town council decided to build a city hall on the southeast corner of Main and South. It would be completed in 1878, and house the council rooms, public library, fire department rooms, and city prison. An opera house would be constructed as well. In 1877, a fine building was erected on the eastside of town for education. It had ten rooms for educational purposes, other rooms for various purposes, and an exhibition hall on the upper floor. The Agassiz Scientific, Archaeological and Historical Society of Marysville was organized in 1879, and placed in the East school building, their museum was also placed in the same building. \n\nBy 1888, Marysville had earned itself the title of “the Shaded City” because of its tree-lined streets, and by 1890, its population increased to 2,832 residents. \n\nEarly manufacturing and banking \n\nMarysville's industrial roots can be traced back to many early companies. Among those were the Marysville Pearlash Factory, an ashery founded in 1848, which by 1874 was the largest in the United States. The first steam-grist mill was erected in 1856 by Saxton and Casil. In 1867, Miller & Snodgrass constructed a flour mill. In 1874, Marysville Butter Tub and Spoke Company was incorporated with $50,000. \n\nA wool company, Woodbury & Welsh, constructed a factory out of brick in the northeast part of town in 1864, and a brewery was built in 1866 on the east side. In 1868, O.M. Scotts and Company was organized. In 1871, the Marysville Cheese Manufacturing Company was built on the east side. Many carriage manufacturing companies operated in Marysville, including Bauer, Schepper & Devine in 1882, City Carriage Works in 1871, and L. E. Helium in 1874. \n\nIn 1875 Rice, Fleck & Co. opened a lumberyard. The Marysville Gas Light Company was incorporated in 1878 following almost a decade of the city using gasoline for lighting. The Bank of Marysville was opened in 1854, the Farmer's Bank of Union County in 1868 located on the southeast corner of the square, and the People's Bank in 1874. \n\nEarly culture \n\nIn 1827 the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized. In 1856 the church dedicated a new building on East Center street. The first 4 July celebrations were held in 1828. \n\nIn 1840, Otway Curry, a poet of national fame and resident of Marysville, wrote the \"Log Cabin Song.\" It would inspire the Log Cabin Campaign of William Henry Harrison, who would go on to win the Presidential election that year. \n\nThe Presbyterian Church was organized in the house of Stephen McClain on September 9, 1829. In 1866, a movement was started to construct a new church building; a new building was finally dedicated in 1870, located at the corner of Center and West Streets. The Congregational Church organized in 1864, with a building constructed on the northeast corner of West and South Street. \n\nThe Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, a Roman Catholic Church, was constructed in 1866 at Water Street near the railroad station. The German Lutheran Church organized in 1875, also operating their own school. \n\nModern development \n\nOver the next century, Marysville's population would double from its 1890 census. A new high school was built in the West neighborhood behind the courthouse, which would then become a middle school later when a new high school would be built on the north side. The most recent high school went up in the 1990s. At that time, the old high school became the new middle school, and the old middle school became county offices.\n\nIn 1948, Nestlé opened a research and development center in the West neighborhood. A new city hall would be constructed on the southeast side of Uptown, which housed the police department. Memorial Hospital of Union County located in the Medical district in 1952. Many other developments took place during this time, including the construction of the Union County Airport on the east side in 1967, as well as numerous manufacturing companies and small housing developments being constructed throughout the city. Timberview, an upscale residential section on the south side, would be constructed, and included a golf course. Greenwood Colony would also be built on the south side.\n\nIn 1977, Honda announced plans to construct a motorcycle assembly plant in Marysville and eventually opened manufacturing plants on the far west side of the town in 1982. This caused the expansion of the U.S. Route 33.\n\nPresident George H.W. Bush would visit in 1992 as part of his \"whistle stop train tour\" re-election campaign. \n\nHistoric architecture of Marysville \n\nFile:Frank_Lloyd_Wright_Prairie_Style_Marysville.jpg|Frank Lloyd Wright prairie style, West\nFile:Victorian Home Marysville.jpg|Queen Anne style, West\nFile:Victorian Style Home Marysville.jpg|Victorian style, East\nFile:Classical Home Marysville.jpg|Classical style, West\nFile:Cape Cod home in Marysville Ohio.jpg|Cape Cod style, West\nFile:Dutch Colonial Revival Bungalow in Marysville Ohio.jpg|Dutch Colonial Revival Bungalow, East\nFile:American Foursquare Home Marysville.jpg|American Foursquare style, West\nFile:Historic Home Marysville.jpg|French-influenced style, Edgewood\nFile:Dr. Henderson's House Marysville Ohio.jpg|Italianate Victorian style, East\nFile:Shingle style home Marysville Ohio1.jpg|Shingle style, West\nFile:Colonial Home in Marysville Ohio.jpg|Colonial style, West\nFile:Colonial Marysville.jpg|Italianate style, West(former home of U.S. Representative Cornelius Hamilton)\n\nGeography \n\nAccording to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.\n\nDemographics \n\nAs of 2000 the median income for a household in the city was $55,671. Males had a median income of $40,973 versus $27,427 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,812. About 4.0% of families and 5.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.3% of those under age 18 and 9.4% of those age 65 or over.\n\nThe median price for a home in Marysville was $168,100 according to Census 2010. \n\n2010 census\n\nAs of the census of 2010, there were 22,094 people, 7,314 households, and 5,050 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 7,969 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 90.4% White, 4.5% African American, 0.3% Native American, 2.3% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.6% from other races, and 1.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.8% of the population.\n\nThere were 7,314 households of which 41.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.1% were married couples living together, 11.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.4% had a male householder with no wife present, and 31.0% were non-families. 25.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.16.\n\nThe median age in the city was 33.1 years. 26.6% of residents were under the age of 18; 8.6% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 36.1% were from 25 to 44; 20.7% were from 45 to 64; and 8.1% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 42.8% male and 57.2% female.\n\nEconomy \n\nIndustrial and manufacturing \n\nMarysville is the headquarters for Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, the largest producer in the world of horticulture products. The company was founded in 1868 by Orlando Scott in Marysville, and has grown to have an $8 billion market. \n\nTwo Honda Motors plants are located in Marysville. The first production facilities opened by Honda in the United States were the Marysville Motorcycle Plant (1979) and the Marysville Auto Plant (1982), located about six miles (10 km) northwest of the city. The Marysville Auto Plant has been the leading producer of the Honda Accord since 1982. \n\nMarysville is also home to the corporate headquarters of Univenture, which manufactures and markets media packaging and a Parker Hannifin (formerly Denison Hydraulics) manufacturing facility. There is a regional Goodyear manufacturing facility, under the name of Veyance Technologies also located within city limits.\n\nResearch and development \n\nMarysville is home to several research and development operations. Nestlé, located on the west side of the city, has a Product Technology Center dedicated to ready-to-drink mixes. Scotts Miracle Gro also has their R&D operations located on their corporate campus on the eastside. The Transportation Research Center, a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to transportation research, is located a few miles from Marysville in East Liberty near the Honda manufacturing campus. A unit of Univenture, Algae Venture Systems, recently made a breakthrough by developing a process to produce algae as a cost-effective biofuel. \n\nAgriculture \n\nThe Marysville area is home to major agricultural operations. Several egg products manufacturers are located in the rural stretches around Marysville. Select Sires is a major biotech firm, specializing is animal reproduction services, which is located a few miles from Marysville. Many local, family operated farms surround the Marysville area. The Ohio State University operates an agricultural extension office in the northern part of the city.\n\nEducation \n\nMarysville is part of the Marysville Exempted Village Schools District.\n\nBesides the Marysville Exempted Village School district, there are other opportunities for education as well. The local church-affiliated St. John’s Lutheran School and Trinity Lutheran School both have curricula for students up through the middle school level, and the LEADS Head Start program is a preschool and childhood development program which, in their own words, “serves income eligible families with children ages three and four, including children with special needs.” \n\nSchools of Marysville \n\nFile:Bunsold Middle School Marysville Ohio.jpg|Bunsold Middle School, southern Union County\nFile:Marysville High School Ohio.jpg|Marysville High School, Academic district\nFile:Marysville Middle School.jpg|Marysville Middle School, Academic district(closed for renovations)\nFile:Trinity Lutheran Marysville.jpg|Trinity Lutheran parochial school, East\n\nInfrastructure \n\nTransportation \n\nAirport \n\nThe Union County Airport is located in Marysville. It sports a 4220 ft runway, complete passenger and freight air service, and can accommodate private and/or executive aircraft.\n\nU.S. 33 \n\nU.S. Route 33 is a four-lane controlled-access highway that runs through Marysville, connecting the city with major highways including Interstate 75 to the northwest, and the I-270 outerbelt to the southeast, which links with Interstates 70 and 71 in Columbus. Rt. 33 is considered one of the major transportation arteries in Ohio.\n\nIntermodal railyard \n\nThe city a rejected a proposal to locate an intermodal railyard within the city limits, which would have provided the city with a regional county transportation hub.\n\nUtilities \n\nWater and sewer \n\nThe City opened new sewer facilities and a water reservoir in 2009. Union county is currently the third fastest growing county in the state of Ohio. \n\nInflatable dam technology \n\nIn 2009, Marysville became the first city in Central Ohio to employ the use of inflatable dam technology, which was built on Mill Creek. The dam is part of the new water reservoir system. \n\nEnergy \n\nThe city of Marysville is serviced by Dayton Power and Light, with the surrounding area also served, depending on location, by Union Rural Electric and AEP Ohio.\n\nState prison\n\nMarysville is home to Ohio Reformatory for Women.\n\nHealthcare \n\nMarysville is home to numerous physicians' offices, and Memorial Health. The hospital recently underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation, bringing it into the modern era. Currently it is a 107-bed building, with a primary and emergency care center, and numerous other services including laboratory and imaging services. They also have long-term nursing care and an occupational health center.\n\nIn 2009, Memorial was named as one of the nation's most technologically improved centers by Health & Hospitals Network magazine. The Ohio State University Heart Center opened there in 2009. In 2014, Memorial opened the City Gate Medical Center located at 120 Coleman's Crossing Blvd. which houses sports medicine, physical therapy, orthopedics and sports medicine, urgent care and an imaging location. Marysville is home to several Chiropractic offices. Moving to the area in 2011 was Central Ohio Clinic of Chiropractic and Dr. Brett J. Blitzstein, Chiropractor and founder and developer of JMR, Joint and Muscle Restoration technique.\n\nMedia \n\nThe Marysville Journal-Tribune is the oldest newspaper establishment in the city, dating back to 1849. The Gaumer-Behrens family has owned the newspaper since 1904. Their electronic version has been awarded the \"Best Website In The State Award\" by the Associated Press. \n\nMarysville recently voted the Kelly Rippa vehicle \"Hope & Faith\" as the official TV show of the city. The complete series DVD collection has been entombed beneath the Plain City Historical Society Museum. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366025/)\n\nParks, fitness, and leisure \n\nThe Marysville area is host to a wide variety of parks, fitness, and leisure activities.\n\nParks and leisure \n\nThere are numerous parks, totaling over 300 acre. They include such features as walking and bike nature trails along Mill Creek, with trails at Aldersgate, Eljers, McCarthy, Mill Creek, Mill Valley South and Central, and Shwartzkopf parks. There is an amphitheater at the American Legion park, soccer and baseball fields at Eljer, Lewis, Mill Creek, and Mill Valley South and Central parks, lighted tennis courts at Eljer and Lewis parks, basketball courts at the American Legion and Aldersgate park with lighted courts at Eljer and Lewis parks, and a football field at Lewis park. There is fishing at Aldersgate, McCarthy, Mill Creek, Mill Valley Central, and Shwartzkopf parks. There is a nature preserve at MacIvor Woods. There is a Frisbee golf course, and a skateboard park at Eljer Park.\n\nThere are several horse farms and equine centers located in the Marysville area, as are several local golf clubs. The Piatt Castles, Covered Bridges of Union County, and the Big Darby Plains Scenic Byway are a short drive away.\n\nThe Scotts Miracle-Gro museum is located just south of the square in Uptown.\n\nThe Marysville Public Library is located on Plum Street near Uptown.\n\nFestivals \n\nMarysville is also host to several local festivals and downtown events throughout the year, such as:\n* Taste of Marysville\n* The Union County Fair (late July-early August)\n* Friday Nights Uptown (1 monthly:May–June–July–August)\n* Farmers Market Festival (August)\n* The All Ohio Balloon Festival (third week Aug)\n* Festifair (Saturday after Labor Day)\n* Covered Bridge Festival (September)\n* Legends of Marysville- Walking Tours (October)\n* Uptown Christmas Walk & Tree Lighting\n* Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation Ride and Run for kids\n\nSister city \n\n* Segovia, Spain, since 2001.\n* Yorii, Japan, since 2013. \n\nNotable people \n\n* Robert S. Beightler — military general, engineer, businessman, and contributor to the modern Interstate Highway System and Ohio Turnpike\n* Chase Blackburn — football player\n* Arthur E. Drumm — industrialist, inventor, industrial broom pioneer\n* Cornelia Cole Fairbanks — 2nd Lady of the United States, former President-General of the Daughters of the American Revolution\n* Charles Coleman Finlay — science fiction and fantasy author\n* James Hagedorn — Scotts Miracle-Gro CEO, co-Chairman of National Fund for the U.S. Botanic Garden, and Chairman of Farms for City Kids Foundation \n* Darren Hall — baseball player\n* Cornelius S. Hamilton — United States Congressman\n* John F. Kinney — jurist and politician\n* Natalia Laschenova — former Soviet Latvian gymnast, 1988 Olympic gold medalist \n* Preston B. Plumb — United States Senator\n* James Wallace Robinson — United States Congressman\n* Orlando Scott — founder of the O.M. Scott and Sons Company, later becoming the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company\n* Gary Shirk — football player\n* Thomas B. Ward — United States Congressman", "The Japanese automotive industry is one of the most prominent and largest industries in the world. Japan has been in the top three of the countries with most cars manufactured since the 1960s, surpassing Germany. The automotive industry in Japan rapidly increased from the 1970s to the 1990s (when it was oriented both for domestic use and worldwide export) and in the 1980s and 1990s, overtook the U.S. as the production leader with up to 13 million cars per year manufactured and significant exports. After massive ramp-up by China in the 2000s and fluctuating U.S. output, Japan is now currently the third largest automotive producer in the world with an annual production of 9.9 million automobiles in 2012. Japanese investments helped grow the auto industry in many countries throughout the last few decades.\n\nJapanese zaibatsu (business conglomerates) began building their first automobiles in the middle to late 1910s. The companies went about this by either designing their own trucks (the market for passenger vehicles in Japan at the time was small), or partnering with a European brand to produce and sell their cars in Japan under license. Such examples of this are Isuzu partnering with Wolseley Motors (UK), and the Mitsubishi Model A, which was based upon the Fiat Tipo 3. The demand for domestic trucks was greatly increased by the Japanese military buildup before World War II, causing many Japanese manufacturers to break out of their shells and design their own vehicles. In the 1970s Japan was the pioneer in robotics manufacturing of vehicles.\n\nThe country is home to a number of companies that produce cars, construction vehicles, motorcycles, ATVs, and engines. Japanese automotive manufacturers include Toyota, Honda, Daihatsu, Nissan, Suzuki, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Isuzu, Kawasaki, Yamaha, and Mitsuoka.\n\nCars designed in Japan have won the European Car of the Year, International Car of the Year, and World Car of the Year awards many times. Japanese manufactured and designed vehicles have had worldwide influence, and no longer have the stigma they had in the 1950s and 1960s when they first emerged internationally.\n\nHistory\n\nEarly years\n\nIn 1904, Torao Yamaha produced the first domestically manufactured bus, which was powered by a steam engine. In 1907, Komanosuke Uchiyama produced the Takuri, the first entirely Japanese-made gasoline engine car. The Kunisue Automobile Works built the Kunisue in 1910, and the following year manufactured the Tokyo in cooperation with Tokyo Motor Vehicles Ltd. In 1911, Kwaishinsha Motorcar Works was established and later began manufacturing a car called the DAT. In 1920, Jitsuyo Jidosha Seizo Co., founded by William R. Gorham, began building the Gorham and later the Lila. The company merged with Kwaishinsha in 1926 to form the DAT Automobile Manufacturing Co. (later to evolve into Nissan Motors). From 1924 to 1927, Hakuyosha Ironworks Ltd. built the Otomo. Toyota, a textile manufacturer, began building cars in 1936. Most early vehicles, however, were trucks produced under military subsidy.\n\nCars built in Japan before World War II tended to be based on European or American models. The 1917 Mitsubishi Model A was based on the Fiat A3-3 design. (This model was considered to be the first mass-produced car in Japan, with 22 units produced.) In the 1930s, Nissan Motors' cars were based on the Austin 7 and Graham-Paige designs, while the Toyota AA model was based on the Chrysler Airflow. Ohta built cars in the 1930s based on Ford models, while Chiyoda built a car resembling a 1935 Pontiac, and Sumida built a car similar to a LaSalle. \n\nThe Ford Motor Company of Japan was established in 1925 and a production plant was set up in Yokohama. General Motors established operations in Osaka in 1927. Chrysler also came to Japan and set up Kyoritsu Motors. Between 1925 and 1936, the United States Big Three automakers' Japanese subsidiaries produced a total of 208,967 vehicles, compared to the domestic producers total of 12,127 vehicles. In 1936, the Japanese government passed the Automobile Manufacturing Industry Law, which was intended to promote the domestic auto industry and reduce foreign competition; ironically, this stopped the groundbreaking of an integrated Ford plant in Yokohama, modeled on Dagenham in England and intended to serve the Asian market, that would have established Japan as a major exporter. Instead by 1939, the foreign manufacturers had been forced out of Japan. Vehicle production was shifted in the late 1930s to truck production due to the Second Sino-Japanese War. \n\nFor the first decade after World War II, auto production was limited, and until 1966 most production consisted of trucks (including three-wheeled vehicles). Thereafter passenger cars dominated the market. Japanese car designs also continued to imitate or be derived from European and American designs. Exports were very limited in the 1950s, adding up to only 3.1% of the total passenger car production of the decade. \n\n1960s to today\n\nDuring the 1960s, Japanese automakers launched a bevy of new kei cars in their domestic market; scooters and motorcycles remained dominant, with sales of 1.47 million in 1960 versus a mere 36,000 kei cars. These tiny automobiles usually featured very small engines (under 360cc, but were sometimes fitted with engines of up to 600cc for export) to keep taxes much lower than larger cars. The average person in Japan was now able to afford an automobile, which boosted sales dramatically and jumpstarted the auto industry toward becoming what it is today. The first of this new era, actually launched in 1958, was the Subaru 360. It was known as the \"Lady Beetle\", comparing its significance to the Volkswagen Beetle in Germany. Other significant models were the Suzuki Fronte, Mitsubishi Minica, Mazda Carol, and the Honda N360.\n\nThe keis were very minimalist motoring, however, much too small for most family car usage. The most popular economy car segment in the sixties was the 700-800 cc class, embodied by the Toyota Publica, Mitsubishi Colt 800, and the original Mazda Familia. By the end of the sixties, however, these (often two-stroke) cars were being replaced by full one-litre cars with four-stroke engines, a move which was spearheaded by Nissan's 1966 Sunny. All other manufacturers quickly followed suit, except for Toyota who equipped their Corolla with a 1.1 litre engine - the extra 100 cc were heavily touted in period advertising. These small family cars took a bigger and bigger share of an already expanding market. All vehicles sold in Japan were taxed yearly based on exterior dimensions and engine displacement. This was established by legislation passed in 1950 that established tax brackets on two classifications; dimension regulations and engine displacement. The taxes were a primary consideration as to which vehicles were selected by Japanese consumers, and guided manufacturers as to what type of vehicles the market would buy.\n\nExport expansion\n\nExports of passenger cars increased nearly twohundred-fold in the sixties compared to the previous decade, and were now up to 17.0 percent of the total production. This though, was still only the beginning. Rapidly increasing domestic demand and the expansion of Japanese car companies into foreign markets in the 1970s further accelerated growth. Effects of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo accelerated vehicle exports along with the exchange rate of the Japanese yen to the U.S. Dollar, UK Pound, and West German Deutsche Mark. Passenger car exports rose from 100,000 in 1965 to 1,827,000 in 1975. Automobile production in Japan continued to increase rapidly after the 1970s, as Mitsubishi (as Dodge vehicles) and Honda began selling their vehicles in the US. Even more brands came to America and abroad during the 1970s, and by the 1980s, the Japanese manufacturers were gaining a major foothold in the US and world markets.\n\nJapanese cars became popular with British buyers in the early 1970s, with Nissan's Datsun badged cars (the Nissan brand was not used on British registered models until 1983) proving especially popular and earning a reputation in Britain for their reliability and low running costs, although rust was a major problem. In the 1960s Japanese manufacturers began to compete head-on in the domestic market, model for model. This was exemplified by the \"CB-war\" between the Toyota Corona and Nissan's Bluebird. While this initially led to benefits for consumers, before soon R&D expenditures swelled. Towards the late 1980s and early 1990s Japanese automobile manufacturers had entered a stage of \"Hyper-design\" and \"Hyper-equipment\"; an arms race leading to less competitive products albeit produced in a highly efficient manner. \n\nWorld leader\n\nWith Japanese manufacturers producing very affordable, reliable, and popular cars throughout the 1990s, Japan became the largest car producing nation in the world in 2000. However, its market share has decreased slightly in recent years, particularly due to old and new competition from South Korea, China and India. Nevertheless, Japan's car industry continues to flourish, its market share has risen again, and in the first quarter of 2008 Toyota surpassed American General Motors to become the world's largest car manufacturer. Today, Japan is the third largest automobile market and, until China recently overtook them, was the largest car producer in the world. Still, automobile export remains one of the country's most profitable exports and is a cornerstone of recovery plan for the latest economic crisis.\n\nTimeline of the Japanese car industry\n\n*1907 - Hatsudoki Seizo Co., Ltd. established\n*1911 - Kwaishinsha Motorcar Works established\n*1917 - Mitsubishi Motors' 1st car\n*1918 - Isuzu's 1st car\n*1920-1925 - Gorham/Lila - auto production established (merged into Datsun)\n*1924-1927 - Otomo built at the Hakuyosha Ironworks in Tokyo\n*1931 - Mazda Mazdago - by Toyo Kogyo corp, later Mazda\n*1934-1957 - Ohta begins auto production\n*1936 - Toyota's 1st car (Toyota AA)\n*1952-1966 - Prince Motor Company (integrated into Nissan)\n*1953-1967 - Hino Motors starts auto production (merged into Toyota)\n*1954 - Subaru's 1st car (Subaru P-1)\n*1955 - Suzuki's 1st car (Suzulight)\n*1957 - Daihatsu's 1st car (Daihatsu Midget)\n*1963 - Honda's 1st production car (Honda S500)\n*1966 - One of the best selling cars of all time, the Toyota Corolla, is introduced; Nissan opens its first North American manufacturing facility in Cuernavaca, Mexico as Nissan Mexicana\n*1967 - Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) is founded\n*1967 - Mazda Cosmo 110S was one of the first two mass-produced cars with Wankel rotary engine\n*1980 - Japan surpassed the United States and became first in auto manufacturing; Nissan USA breaks ground for its Smyrna, Tennessee manufacturing plant\n*1981 - Voluntary Export Restraints from May limit exports to United States to 1.68 million cars per year; redundant by 1990 as production inside US displaces direct exports; similar policies in several EU countries \n*1982 - Honda Accord becomes the first Japanese car built in the United States at Honda's Marysville, Ohio manufacturing facility\n*1982 - Mitsuoka 1st car (BUBU shuttle 50)\n*1983 - Holden and Nissan form a joint venture in Australia; Nissan Sunny (Sentra) assembled at Nissan's Smryna, Tennessee facility\n*1984 - Toyota opens NUMMI, the first joint venture plant in the United States with General Motors\n*1986 - Acura is launched in the US by Honda\n*1988 - Daihatsu enters the US making it the first time all nine Japanese manufacturers are present; Toyota Camry becomes third Japanese car manufactured at Toyota's Erlanger, Kentucky assembly plant\n*1989 - Lexus is launched in the US by Toyota\n*1989 - Infiniti is launched in the US by Nissan\n*1989 - United Australian Automobile Industries (UAAI) founded in Australia as a joint venture between Toyota and Holden \n*1991 - Mazda HR-X was one of the first hydrogen (combined with Wankel rotary) car\n*1994 - Japan conceded to the United States back in auto manufacturing\n*1996 - UAAI joint venture dissolved\n*1997 - Toyota Prius was the first mass-produced hybrid car\n*2003 - Scion is launched by Toyota\n*2006 - Japan surpassed the United States and became first in auto manufacturing again\n*2008 - Toyota surpassed General Motors to become the world's largest car manufacturer\n*2009 - Japan was beat by China and became second in auto manufacturing\n*2010 - 2009–2010 Toyota vehicle recalls\n*2011 - Tohoku earthquake affects production.\n\nManufacturers production volumes\n\nThe following are vehicle production volumes for Japanese vehicle manufacturers, according to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA).", "The Honda Accord is a series of automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1976, best known for its four-door sedan variant, which has been one of the best-selling cars in the United States since 1989. The Accord nameplate has been applied to a variety of vehicles worldwide, including coupes, wagons, hatchbacks and a crossover.\n\nIn 1982, the Accord became the first car from a Japanese manufacturer to be produced in the United States when production commenced in Marysville, Ohio at Honda's Marysville Auto Plant. The Accord has achieved considerable success, especially in the United States, where it was the best-selling Japanese car for fifteen years (1982–97), topping its class in sales in 1991 and 2001, with around ten million vehicles sold. Numerous road tests, past and present, rate the Accord as one of the world's most reliable vehicles. The Accord has been on the Car and Driver 10Best list a record 30 times. \n\nSince initiation, Honda has offered several different car body styles and versions of the Accord, and often vehicles marketed under the Accord nameplate concurrently in different regions differ quite substantially. It debuted in 1976 as a compact hatchback, though this style only lasted through 1981, as the line-up was expanded to include a sedan, coupé, and wagon. By the Accord's sixth generation in the 1990s, it evolved into an intermediate vehicle, with one basic platform but with different bodies and proportions to increase its competitiveness against its rivals in different international markets. For the eighth generation of the Accord released for the North America market in 2007, Honda had again chosen to move the model further up-scale and increase its size. This pushed the Accord sedan from the upper limit of what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines as a mid-size car\nto just above the lower limit of a full-size car, with the coupe still rated as a mid-size car. The current ninth generation Accord for the North America market is again classified as a mid-size car, falls just short of full-size car classification with the combined interior space of 119 cuft.\n\nBackground\n\nAfter a period of developing idiosyncratic automobiles such as the Honda 1300 that met a lukewarm response in both Japan and North America, Honda considered pulling out of automobile manufacturing altogether by the early 1970s. However, Honda released a more conventional automobile in 1972 called the \"Civic\" which immediately reversed their flagging fortunes due to its economy, reliability and low cost in an era of rising fuel prices. Honda's CVCC technology, which would be later used in the Accord helped Honda meet emission standards of the 1970s and early 1980s without the added expense of a catalytic converter.\n\nBuoyed by their success with the Civic, Honda turned their sights to developing a larger companion model. For the new model, Honda chose the name \"Accord\", reflecting \"Honda's desire for accord and harmony between people, society and the automobile.\" \n\nSoichiro Honda was the owner of a 1969 Pontiac Firebird, to which the Accord's predecessor, the Honda 1300, bore a striking frontal resemblance. Initial planning done by Honda for what would become the Accord was for a sporty competitor in the pony car market, at roughly the size of a contemporary Ford Mustang, powered by a six-cylinder engine.\n\nWith the continuing fuel crisis and tighter emissions regulations surrounding the automotive market, Honda engineers changed their focus on the Accord as a Mustang competitor, and built upon the Civic's successful formula of economy, fuel efficiency and a front-wheel drive layout in a larger package. A December 1975 issue of Motor Trend Magazine had a drawing of a new Honda automobile which was similar in shape to the Volkswagen Scirocco but powered with a CVCC engine used in the Civic.\n\nIn 1989, the Accord was the first vehicle sold under an import brand to become the best-selling vehicle in the United States. \n\n First generation (1976–1981) \n\nThe first generation Honda Accord was launched on 7 May 1976 as a three-door hatchback with 68 hp, a wheelbase, and a weight of about 2,000 pounds. Japanese market cars claimed 80 PS JIS (similar to SAE Gross), while European and other export markets received a model without emissions control equipment; it claimed 80 PS as well but according to the stricter DIN norm. It was a platform expansion of the earlier Honda Civic at 4125 mm long. To comply with recently enacted emission regulations enacted in Japan, the engine was fitted with Honda's CVCC technology. The Accord sold well due to its moderate size and great fuel economy. It was one of the first Japanese sedans with features like cloth seats, a tachometer, intermittent wipers, and an AM/FM radio as standard equipment. In 1978 an LX version of the hatchback was added which came with air conditioning, a digital clock, and power steering. Until the Accord, and the closely related Prelude, power steering had not been available to cars under two litres. Japanese buyers were liable for slightly more annual road tax over the smaller Civic, which had a smaller engine.\n\nOn 14 October 1977 (a year later in the US market), a four-door sedan was added to the lineup, and power went to 72 hp when the 1599 cc EF1 engine was supplemented and in certain markets replaced by the 1751 cc an EK-1 unit. In 1980 the optional two-speed semi-automatic transmission of previous years became a three-speed fully automatic gearbox (a four-speed automatic transaxle was not used in the Accord until the 1983 model year). The North American versions had slightly redesigned bumper trim. Other changes included new grilles and taillamps and remote mirrors added on the four-door (chrome) and the LX (black plastic) models. The CVCC badges were deleted, but the CVCC induction system remained.\n\nIn North America, the 1981 model year only brought detail changes such as new fabrics and some new color combinations. Nivorno Beige (code No. Y-39) was replaced by Oslo Ivory (No. YR-43). Dark brown was discontinued, as was the bronze metallic. A bit later in 1981 an SE model was added for the first time, with Novillo leather seats and power windows. Base model hatchbacks, along with the four-door, LX, and SE four-door, all received the same smaller black plastic remote mirror. The instrument cluster was revised with mostly pictograms which replaced worded warning lights and gauge markings. The shifter was redesigned to have a stronger spring to prevent unintentional engagement of reverse, replacing the spring-loaded shift knob of the 1976 to 1980 model year cars. By 1981 power for the 1.8 was down to a claimed 68 hp in North America.\n\nSecond generation (1981–1985)\n\nDebuting on 22 September 1981 in Japan, Europe, and in North America, this generation of the Accord being produced in Japan, became the first to also be built in the U.S., at Honda's plant in Marysville, Ohio. Since its first year in the American market, it also became the best-selling Japanese nameplate in the U.S., holding that position for about 15 years. In Japan, a sister model called the Honda Vigor was launched simultaneously with the new Accord. This allowed Honda to sell the product at different sales channels called Honda Clio, which sold the Accord, and Honda Verno, that sold the Vigor.\n\nOn 24 May 1984, it was one of the first Japanese engineered vehicles to offer computer controlled, fuel-injection with one injector per cylinder, also known as multiple port fuel injection on the ES series 1.8 L engine, known as Honda's Programmed Fuel Injection, or PGM-FI.\n\nModernizing both the interior and exterior, the second generation Accord was mechanically very similar to the original, using the same 1751 cc EK-1 CVCC engine. Vehicles with a manual transmission and the CVCC carburator earned based on Japanese Government emissions tests using 10 different modes of scenario standards, and 110 PS, and 23 km/L with consistently maintained speeds at 60 km/h.\n\nVehicles with PGM-FI (ES3 series engine) earned based on Japanese Government emissions tests using 10 different modes of scenario standards, with 130 PS, and 22 km/L with consistently maintained speeds at 60 km/h. \n\nThis automobile included popular features of the time such as shag carpet, velour cabin trim, and chrome accents. An optional extra on the 1981 Accord was an Electro Gyrocator, the world's first automatic in-car navigation system. Models were available in Silver, Sky Blue, and Beige. The LX hatchback offered a digital clock and slightly higher fuel economy (due to its lighter weight).\n\nIn the United States, Federal lighting regulations required headlamps of sealed beam construction and standard size and shape on all vehicles, so Accords in North America were equipped with four rectangular headlamp units rather than the aerodynamic composite replaceable-bulb units used on Accords sold outside North America. Other Automotive lighting variations included amber front and red rear side marker lights and reflectors in North America, and headlamp washers and a red rear fog lamp for European markets. Japanese-market Accords were unique from all other markets in that they included adjustable ride height control and side view mirrors installed on the mid-forward fenders.\n\nIn 1983, Honda upgraded the automatic transmission to a four-speed, a major improvement over the earlier, three-speed transmission. The manual five-speed transmission remained unchanged. A new 192 km/h speedometer replaced the earlier 136 km/h unit. The Special Edition (SE) featured Novillo leather seating, power windows, power sunroof and door locks. Gray was added as a color option. A slightly modified EK-2 engine was introduced, replacing the earlier EK-1. Still carbureted.\n\nRefresh (1984–1985)\n\nBy 1983, the Accords sold in the eastern U.S. were produced at the new Marysville plant, with quality considered equal to those produced in Japan. In late 1983, for the 1984 model year, the Accord body was restyled with a slightly downward beveled nose; and, the slightly more powerful ES2 1829 cc CVCC powerplant was used, yielding 86 bhp. The redesign in late 1983 is often called the second series of the second generation. Honda integrated rear side marker lights and reflectors into the side of the tail light units. European Accords now included a side turn signal repeater just behind each front wheel well. The U.S. requirement for standardized headlamps was rescinded in late 1983, but North American Accords continued to use sealed beams until the 1989 fourth-generation models were released.\n\nThe LX offered velour upholstery, auto-reverse cassette stereo, air conditioning, cruise control, power brakes, power steering, power windows & power door locks (sedan only), a digital clock, roof pillar antenna, along with thick black belt moldings, integrated bumpers and flush plastic mock-alloy style wheels covers that resembled the trend-setting Audi 5000. Supplies were tight, as in the Eastern states, the wait was months for a Graphite Gray sedan, a then-popular color. The LX hatchback was the only 1984 version of the Accord to include dual side view mirrors.\n\nThe 1984 sedan was available in four exterior colors, Greek White and three metallic options: Columbus Gray, Regency Red (burgundy), and Stratos Blue (steel). The regular hatchback was available in Greek White, Dominican Red, and the metallic Stratos Blue. The 1984 LX hatchback came in three metallic colors only: Graphite Gray, Regency Red, and Copper Brown.\n\nIn 1985, the Special Edition returned as the SE-i, capitalizing on the final year of the second generation's production. A fuel-injected, 110 bhp non-CVCC ES3 engine was exclusive to this model. The moniker, SE-i, was adapted from the SE trim, but included the \"-i\" to signify the higher trim level's fuel-injected engine. This 12-valve, 1829 cc engine was the first non-CVCC engine used in an Accord, and was the same basic engine design used by Honda until 1989. Like the previous SE trim in 1983, the SE-i featured Novillo leather seating, power moonroof, bronze tinted glass, a premium sound system with cassette, and 13-inch alloy wheels. The level of luxury equipment on the SE-i was essentially items that were installed on the Honda Vigor VTL-i, that was only sold in Japan.\n\nAvailable options differed from market to market. The 1.8-liter engine, updated four-speed automatic transmission, and 'EX' trim level options were first made available in New Zealand during the 1984 model year refresh alongside the 1.6-liter 'LX' model.\n\nJapan generally received more options earlier than the rest of the world. In 1981, the Accord offered an adjustable ride height air suspension in the Japanese market. From 1983 in Japan and 1984 in Europe, the second generation Accord was available with anti-lock brakes (called ALB) as an option. This braking system was the first time that an Accord used four-wheel disc brakes. Fuel injection became available in 1984 in the Japan market with the earlier introduction of the ES3 engine in the SE-i. Models took a year to arrive in North American and European markets with less stringent emissions laws continuing, using carburetors throughout second generation production.\n\nThird generation (1985–1989)\n\nThe third generation Accord was introduced in Japan on 4 June 1985 and in Europe and North America later that year. It had a very striking exterior design styled by Toshi Oshika in 1983, that resonated well with buyers internationally. One notable feature was the hidden headlamps. Because this generation was also sold as the Honda Vigor, the Accord received the hidden headlamps. Honda's Japanese dealership channel called Honda Verno all had styling elements that helped identify products only available at Honda Verno. As a result, Japanese market Accords had a Honda Verno styling feature, but were sold at newly established Japanese dealerships Honda Clio with the all-new, luxury Honda Legend sedan, and international Accords were now visually aligned with the Prelude, the CR-X, and the new Integra. Accords of this generation for the European market did not have the concealled headlamps.\n\nAt its introduction in 1985, it won the Car of the Year Japan Award.\n\nThe third generation Accord became the first Honda to employ double wishbones at both the front and rear ends. While more expensive than competitors' MacPherson strut systems, this setup provided better stability and sharper handling for the vehicle. All had front sway bars and upper models had rear sway bars as well. Brakes were either small all-wheel discs with twin-piston calipers (only available on the Japanese-market 2.0-Si model), larger all-wheel discs with single piston calipers, or a front disc/rear drum system. ABS was available as an option on the 4-wheel disc brake models, though not in North America. Base model Accords rode on 13-inch steel wheels with hubcaps with more expensive models having the option of 14-inch alloy wheels.\n\nThe Accord's available engines varied depending on its market: Japan received the A18A, B18A, and B20A; Europe received the A16A1, A20A2, A20A4, B20A2, and B20A8; while North America received the A20A1 and A20A3. In Japan, the introduction of a 2.0 litre engine obligated Japanese drivers to pay a higher amount of annual road tax compared to the last two previous generations, pushing the Accord into the luxury category in Japan.\n\nThe Accord's trim levels ranged from spartan to luxurious. In the Japanese home market, the Accord was available with a full power package, heated mirrors (optional), a digital instrument cluster (optional), sunroof (optional), cruise control, and climate control (which was also optional). Some North European export models also had heated front seats and head light washers. North American and Australian Accords were not available with most of these options, presumably (and in the U.S. in particular) because Honda was seen as a builder of economy cars, and not to cannibalize sales from the recently introduced Acura line.\n\nThroughout the different markets, in addition to the sedan model the Accord was available with different bodystyles which included a three-door hatchback, a three-door shooting-brake called Accord Aerodeck, and a two-door coupé which was added in 1987 for the 1988 model year. The three-door hatchback was not available outside of US and Canada, where the Aerodeck was not marketed. The coupé, which was built exclusively in Honda's Marysville, Ohio factory, was \"reverse exported\" back to Japan where it was known as the US-Coupé CA6.\n\nAccord AeroDeck\n\nThe third-generation Accord was sold in Japan, Europe and New Zealand as a three-door hatchback with a flat roof over the rear seats, known in Europe as a shooting-brake. The bodystyle of a flat roof hatchback was also used on the third generation Honda Civic (third generation) subcompact, the second generation Honda City supermini and the first generation Honda Today kei car. The Honda CR-X was the only three-door hatchback that adopted a fastback, sloping rear hatch \"kammback\" appearance, demonstrating a performance car appearance identified with Honda Verno products during the mid-1980s.\n\nIn North America, the Accord Coupe was offered instead, and the popularity of the coupe showed to win out over the AeroDeck, and upon the coupe's introduction in Japan and Europe in 1987, the AeroDeck was cancelled due to lack of sales at the end of the generation's production. The \"Aerodeck\" name was reused on the Honda Civic 5-door stationwagon (estate), sold in the UK from 1996 to 2000. In parts of Continental Europe, the Accord 4-door station wagon (estate) was also called the Accord Aerodeck from 1990 until 2008, when the name of the estate was renamed the \"Accord Tourer\". The Aero Deck was only available in Japan at Honda Clio dealerships as a variation of the Accord.\n\nThe cargo handling abilities of the AeroDeck were ceded to the fourth generation Accord station wagon (estate) in 1990. The AeroDeck was unique to the Accord model line, as the AeroDeck was not available as a Honda Vigor, as the Accord and Vigor were mechanically identical. The AeroDeck returned an aerodynamic value of .34, and the 2600 mm wheelbase returned a spacious interior for both front and rear passengers, on par with a mid-size sedan. Unfortunately, the appearance was not well received in Japan, as the introduction of the Accord Coupe was more well liked. The appearance was more popular in the United Kingdom.\n\nThe Aerodeck was equipped with a four-wheel double wishbone suspension, which gave both a comfortable ride and cornering performance. In addition, speed-sensitive power steering is included, which gives the car easy turning assistance at speeds below 40 km/h during operation, such as parallel parking. Note that the top model in Japan \"2.0Si\" is to 4w-ALB (4-wheel ABS ) are standard equipment (with option to upgrade in other trim packages).\n\nVisibility from the driver's seat and passenger seat was better due to the lower instrument panel design of the front window and a large windshield. And switches are arranged efficiently and at the time was the driving position can be fine-tuned adjustments.\n\nBecause of the shape of the vehicle and the flat roof that continued to the rear of the vehicle, opening the rear hatch had some drawbacks in low clearance environments. The lower part of the hatch was not like one used on a station wagon that went all the way down to the rear bumper, so loading cargo into the back wasn't as convenient as a conventional station wagon with a one piece hatchback. The rear hatch also wrapped into the rear roof, similar to a gull wing door so that the rear glass was in two pieces, one for the back window, and another partially on the rear roof. When open, the hatch rose above the roof at a right angle, providing additional overhead clearance when the hatch was open.\n\nMoreover, because of the emphasis on aiding rear-seat passenger entry, a longer front door was installed, and because power windows were not installed on the lower trim packages \"LX\", \"LX-S\" and as such, the window regulator opening felt heavy.\n\nChassis code configurations\n\nFourth generation (1989–1993)\n\nThe 4th generation Accord, introduced on the \"CB\" chassis, was unveiled in 1989 for the 1990 model year. Although much larger than its predecessor the sedan's styling was evolutionary, featuring the same low slung design and wraparound rear window as the 3rd generation Accord. For the first time a 3-door hatchback was no longer available internationally.\n\nThis was one of the first U.S. production cars to feature optic reflectors with completely clear lenses on the headlamps. The styling reflected influences from the flagship Honda Legend (sold in North America as an Acura), as Japanese Accords were now sold at Honda Clio dealerships, where the Legend, and the Honda Inspire, were sold. The growing popularity of the Accord internationally was evident in the ever increasing dimensions, which now matched almost exactly with the first generation Legend introduced in 1986.\n\nFor this fourth generation Accord, Honda made significant engineering design improvements. All Accords sold in North America came with a completely new all aluminium 2.2-liter 16-valve electronic fuel-injected engine standard, replacing the previous 2.0-liter 12-valve model from the past generation. Also noteworthy, all Accords equipped with automatic transmissions used an electronically controlled rear engine mount to reduce low frequency noise and vibration. The mount contained two fluid filled chambers separated by a computer controlled valve. At low engine speeds, fluid is routed through the valve damping vibration. Above 850 rpm, fluid is routed around the valve making the engine mount stiffer.\n\nIn the U.S., the LX-i and SE-i designations were dropped, being replaced with the DX, LX, and EX trim levels. The Canadian Accord trim levels varied slightly from the U.S. models with LX, EX and EX-R roughly corresponding to the American DX, LX, and EX, respectively. Fourth generation Japanese-assembled EXi Accords sold in Australia offered the same 4-wheel steering technology as was available optionally on the U.S. Honda Prelude, but was not included on the New Zealand-assembled versions. The four-wheel steering system was also available on the Accord's Japanese platform mate, called the Honda Ascot FTBi. U.S. Accord Coupes were available in the same DX, LX, and EX trims as the U.S. Accord Sedan (LX, EX, and EX-R in Canada).\n\nA 125-horsepower (93 kW) 4-cylinder engine was offered in the DX and LX models (F22A1), while the 1990 and 1991 EX received a 130 hp (97 kW) version (F22A4). Cruise control was dropped from the DX sedan, with air conditioning remaining a dealer-installed option. The LX kept the same features as the previous generation including air conditioning, power windows, door locks, and mirrors. The 90–91 EX added 5 horsepower due to a different exhaust manifold design, slightly larger exhaust piping and a twin outlet muffler. 15-inch machined aluminum-alloy wheels, sunroof, upgraded upholstery, rear stabilizer bar and a high-power 4-speaker stereo cassette were standard on all EX models. Some models though rare were special ordered with an anti-lock braking system (at that time abbreviated as ALB, now all automakers refer to it as ABS). A redesigned manual transmission with a hydraulic clutch was standard equipment in all trims while an all-new electronically controlled 4-speed automatic transmission was optional for all models.\n\nSome new dealer-installed accessories were now offered including a single-disc in-dash CD player or trunk mounted 6-disc CD changer, stereo equalizer, fog lights, security system, rear wing spoiler, trunk lip spoiler, luggage rack, full and half nose mask, center armrest, window visors, sunroof visor, car cover, and a cockpit cover.\n\nBecause of tightening auto safety regulations from the NHTSA, all 1990 and 1991 Accords sold in the United States came equipped with motorized shoulder belts for front passengers to comply with passive restraint mandates. These semi-automatic restraints were a two component system; a motorized shoulder belt along with a non-integrated and manually operated seatbelt. The shoulder belts automatically raced around each window frame encircling both the driver and front seat passenger whenever the front door closed. The process reversed to release them when opened. The lap belts however, still required manual fastening.\n\nIn early 1990 for the 1991 model year, Honda unveiled the Accord wagon, manufactured at the Marysville, Ohio plant. The Ohio plant exported right-hand drive wagons and coupes to Europe and Japan, and in Europe the station wagon (estate) was called the \"Aerodeck\" (in reference to the 1985–1989 2-door vehicle). All station wagons sold outside the United States were afixed with a small badge on the \"C\" pillar denoting the vehicle was built at the Ohio facility. European and Japanese vehicles had options not available within the U.S. including automatic climate control systems, power seats and several other minor features. The Accord Wagons were available from November 1990, only in LX and EX trim in North America or just 2.2i in Japan. They had larger front brakes to compensate for the added weight and unlike other U.S. Accords, included a driver's side airbag as standard equipment. Other than a retractable tonneau cover in the rear cargo area and keyless entry on EX models, the wagons were equipped the same as their coupe and sedan counterparts. \n\nReturn of the SE (1991)\n\nHonda reintroduced the SE (previously SE-i) sedan for 1991. It returned to the lineup without the traditional Bose high powered audio system but with an AM/FM stereo cassette 4x20 watt EX audio system; leather-trimmed steering wheel, leather seats and door panels, a fuel-injected 140 hp engine, 4-speed automatic transmission, and ABS as standard equipment. For the first time, a manual transmission was not offered in the SE. Two colors were available: Solaris Silver Metallic with Graphite Black interior and Brittany Blue Metallic with Ivory interior. Unlike previous editions, the 1991 SE was not equipped with uniquely styled alloy wheels but instead carried the EX model wheels.\n\nUpdate (1991–1993)\n\nAccords received a minor facelift in 1991 for the 1992 model year. The SE trim was dropped again but left behind its 140 hp F22A6 engine for use in the EX models. This engine added 15 hp over the DX and LX trims and 10 hp over the 90–91 EX trim due to a further revised exhaust system. The system used the same EX-SE twin outlet muffler, a revised air intake tract, a revised camshaft and a revised intake manifold using IAB butterfly valves which open at 4600 rpm to increase air intake breathing at high rpm. It was similar in design to the 92–96 Prelude Si and VTEC models. For the 1992 and 1993 model years, the motorized shoulder belt system were replaced with a standard driver-side airbag and conventional shoulder/seatbelt arrangement for all but the center rear passenger. Anti-lock 4-wheel disc brakes became standard on the EX. The front and rear facias received a more rounded and updated look. Coupe and sedan models received a new grille, new headlights, amber parking lights, slightly thinner body side molding, updated wheel designs and for the first time, the EX coupe used wheels different from the EX sedan. The sedans received restyled shortened taillights with inverted amber turn signal and backup light positions. The coupe and wagon taillights though still resembled those from the 1990–1991 Accord. The coupe used the new revised inverted positioning of the signal and backup lights but the wagon taillights however remained the same as the 90–91 models. EX trim levels included a radio anti-theft function to deter stereo theft. A front driver's seat armrest was now standard on LX and EX models. Some dealer-installed accessories were dropped including the luggage rack, trunk-lip spoiler and cockpit cover. A gold finish kit was added.\n\n10th Anniversary Edition and return of the SE (1993)\n\nIn 1993, Honda introduced the 10th Anniversary Edition sedan to commemorate the 10th year of U.S. Accord production. The 10th Anniversary Edition was based on the Accord LX sedan but came equipped with several features not available in the LX trim. The upgrades included ABS, 4-wheel disc brakes, 15\" EX coupe six spoke alloy wheels, body colored side moldings, chin spoiler, and standard automatic transmission. Three colors were offered for the 10th Anniversary Edition: Frost White, Granada Black Pearl, and Arcadia Green Pearl. The 10th Anniversary models also included the same premium seat fabric found in EX models. The Frost White and Arcadia Green cars were paired with the same interior color as their LX/EX counterparts, Blue and Ivory, respectively. The Granada Black cars were paired with Gray interior, while the Granada Black EX had Ivory interior.\n\nThe SE returned in 1993 as both a sedan, and for the first time since the 1989 SE-i, as a coupe. The SE sedan featured standard dual front airbags; the first Accord to do so. An 8-button, 4-speaker Honda-Bose audio system, automatic transmission, leather trim, body colored bumper and body side moldings were standard. The SE coupe included a factory rear wing spoiler which differed slightly in design from the already available dealer installed accessory rear wing spoiler. In Canada, the SE came with heated front seats and heated side view mirrors. Both the sedan and coupe received distinctive 15-inch alloy wheels as well. All SE sedans during 1990–1991 and 1992–1993 were manufactured in Japan, while all SE coupes were produced in the U.S. The 1993 sedan was available in two colors: Cashmere Silver Metallic and Geneva Green Pearl, both with Ivory interior. The coupe was offered with two colors as well: Cashmere Silver Metallic and Atlantis Blue Pearl, both again with Ivory interior. Sadly, 1993 would be the swan song for the SE as an exclusive, high content, limited edition Accord model. Later generations would use a \"Special Edition\" designation rather than the previously used \"SE\" designation. These models were a combination of an Accord LX with several EX features similar to the 1993 10th Anniversary Edition LX.\n\nAt the end of the model life of the CB Accord, a \"pillared hardtop\" model called the Honda Ascot Innova was launched in Japan, based on the CB Accord chassis, but with a different, much more modern-styled body, taking cues from the 1992 Honda Prelude.\n\nHonda Ascot\n\nThe 4th generation Accord spawned a sister model in 1989 called the Honda Ascot which, while mechanically identical to the Accord, featured unique sedan bodywork, although it bore a resemblance to the Accord. The Ascot was sold through the Honda Primo network in Japan while the Accord was distributed through the Honda Clio network.\n\nHonda Vigor and Honda Inspire\n\nUnlike previous generations of the Honda Vigor, which were simply upmarket versions of the Accord, the 3rd-generation 'CB5' model was spun off as a model in its own right and was based on a different platform which featured a longitudinal engine layout compared to the transverse set-up of the Accord. A sister model to the Vigor, the Honda Inspire, was also unveiled in 1989 and, bar a different front grille, front and rear lights and bumpers, sported identical bodywork. The Vigor was available in the USA and Canada under the Acura brand.\n\nFifth generation (1993–1997)\n\nFor the first time in the model's history, Honda developed two distinct versions of the Accord when the 5th generation model was launched in 1993; one version for the European market and one for the North American and Japanese market. Honda and the Rover Group created the European Accord and the Rover 600, a reflection of the past success they had with the Honda Legend and the Rover 800. This generation Accord was also sold in Japan as the Isuzu Aska, while some Isuzu products were sold as Honda products there also.\n\nAt its introduction in 1993, it won the Car of the Year Japan Award for the second time.\n\nNorth America, Japan and Philippines\n\nThe 5th generation North American Accord was launched on 9 September 1993 and was based on the new 'CD' chassis. Larger than its predecessor, primarily to better suit the requirements of the North American market, the new model grew in width but shrunk in length, leaving it classified as a mid-size car in North America. It thus became too wide to fit within the favorable tax bracket in Japan, where its role was to be partially taken over by the slightly narrower second-generation Honda Ascot (sold at Honda Primo Japanese dealerships) and Honda Rafaga (sold at Honda Verno). Previous generations of the Accord sold in Japan were limited to a width dimension of 1695 mm while international models were slightly wider, however this generation no longer complied. The engines offered with the Accord also exceeded the maximum limit of 2000cc to remain in the favorable \"compact\" tax bracket. The installation of a 2.0 litre engine in Japanese models made buyers liable for more annual road tax over the smaller 1.8-litre engine, which affected sales.\n\nDevelopment began in September 1989, along with the design process in June 1990. The final design was selected by an early date of 18 December 1990 and frozen in by mid-1991. Design inconsistencies in early 1992, caused several alterations to be made until April 1992, when a secondary design freeze took place, ahead of scheduled 1993 production. Design patents were later filed in the United States on 16 December 1992 for the \"CD\". Production later began at Marysville assembly on 24 August 1993. \n\nHonda of Japan marketed four different size engines in the Japan-Spec Accord Sedan:1.8, 2.0, 2.2 VTEC and 2.2 DOHC VTEC. The Japanese-spec Accord models were marketed as the following: EF, EX, 2.0EX, 2.0EXL, 2.2VTE, 2.2VTL, 2.2VTS and SiR. All Accord versions were sold at Honda Clio locations in Japan.\n\nThe DX, LX and EX models remained the American trim lines while Canada retained the LX, EX and EX-R. The 5-speed manual transmission remained mostly unchanged, while the 4-speed automatic noted for its hard shifts, now included Honda's \"Grade-Logic\" shift program, which would prevent \"gear-hunting\" by holding the current gear while driving on a sloped incline. All Accord models received a more ergonomic interior with standard safety features such as dual airbags and reinforced side-impact beams. Exclusive to the EX was the F22B1 SOHC VTEC version of previous generation 2.2-liter 4-cylinder (making 145 hp up from 140 hp on the previous generation EX), anti-lock brakes (now an option for the LX), 4-wheel disc brakes, 15-inch alloy wheels, and a rear stabilizer bar. Leather was an option in the EX trim with leather equipped models now being referred to as EX-L. DX and LX models came equipped similarly to the previous generation and were fitted with a revised version of the previous generation's 2.2-liter non-VTEC 4-cylinder engine. This F22B2 engine was rated at 130 hp up from 125 hp the previous generation. The Accord was again named Motor Trend Import Car of the Year for 1994. The Accord coupe as in the previous generation looked almost exactly like the sedan, and was the last generation of the Accord to offer a wagon variant in North America until the introduction of the Accord Crosstour in 2009.\n\nIn 1994, the 1995 Accord debuted a V6 engine, the 2.7L C27 borrowed from the first generation Acura Legend, in the U.S. market. The V6 was offered in both the LX and EX versions of the sedan, LX models being referred to as LX-V6 and EX models as EX-V6. EX-V6 models came equipped similarly to the EX-L with leather seats being the only option in the EX-V6. Addition of the taller C27 engine required substantial alterations to the CD platform, with V6 models sporting a redesigned engine layout, taller front fenders, and a different hood than I4 models; however, these differences are difficult to spot without both models parked side-by-side. Both versions of the V6 received a dual-outlet exhaust, a 4-speed automatic transmission, 15-inch machined aluminum alloy wheels on the EX-V6 and 15-inch steel wheels with full covers on the LX-V6, and a slightly updated front grille (which would be later used in all 96–97 Accords). The Accord saw very few other changes for 1995 with the exception of a few different exterior and interior color combinations.\n\nIn 1995, the Accord underwent the usual mid-generation facelift for 1996. More rounded bumpers, a slightly modified front fascia (which was originally exclusive in the V6 models in 1995) with new signal lights and rear taillights gave the Accord a softer look. All Hondas now complied with the federal government's requirement of OBD II engine diagnostics though all three engine choices remained the same. In order to increase the Accord's competitiveness against its rivals in different international markets, Honda CEO Nobuhiko Kawamoto decided on one basic platform for the sixth-generation Accord, but with different bodies and proportions for local markets. In the U.S., the 1996 model lineup included the 25th Anniversary Edition, a model positioned between the DX and LX. The Special Edition trim package was introduced.\n\nFor the 1997 model year, Honda released the \"Special Edition\" version of the Accord (not to be confused with the SE). It was offered in three colors: Heather Mist Metallic, San Marino Red and Dark Currant Pearl. The Special Edition received a factory installed security system with keyless entry, single-disc CD player, body colored side molding, distinctive alloy wheels and a sunroof. It was offered in an automatic transmission only and was fitted with the same engine as the LX. Acclaimed for its handling, the 1996 Accord has been known as one of the best handling Japanese midsized sedans of all time, posting impressive lateral g figures of up to .89 g's.\n\nIn New Zealand, the 5th generation Accord was assembled at Honda's manufacturing site in Nelson and was released in March 1994. It was available in LXi, EXi and EXi-S trim levels. A facelift was released in December 1995, which coincided with the release of VTEC engines in the upper-spec models. Trim levels were LXi, VTi, and VTi-S. These were the first NZ-market Accords to have airbags – two in the VTi-S, one in the VTi.\n\nU.S. built coupe and wagon models of this generation were shipped to Europe with both left and right hand drive but there was no V6 option.\n\nThis generation of Accord is one of the most frequently stolen cars in the U.S. with the 1994 model being stolen more frequently than its siblings. The Acura Integra and Honda civic are also popular targets for car theft.\n\nHonda Accord SiR (1994–1997)\n\nHonda of Japan produced three high-performance models of the Accord for the Japanese domestic market referred to as the SiR, which was available for sale at Honda Clio dealerships in Japan. The sports car approach to the Accord SiR was aimed at aligning the Accord with the Honda Verno sports sedan that replaced the Vigor, called the Honda Saber a platform mate shared with the Honda Inspire. The compact sedan role the Accord previously filled was now relegated to the Honda Rafaga and Ascot. The Accord SiR models came equipped with the Japan-spec H22A DOHC VTEC engine instead of the F22B1 SOHC VTEC engine found in the EX. The Japan-spec H22A DOHC VTEC engine specs were 190 bhp at 6800 rpm; peak torque 152 lbft at 5500 rpm with a compression ratio of 10.6:1. The Japan-spec H22A DOHC VTEC engine was similar to the H22A1 engine found in the North America market used in the Prelude DOHC VTEC of the same era. \n\nThe Japan-built SiR sedan (94–97) was available with a 5-speed manual transmission as standard equipment or an optional \"Grade-Logic\" four-speed automatic transmission. The Honda of America-built (HAM) Accord SiR coupe and then the 1997 SiR wagon had the \"Grade-Logic\" four-speed automatic transmission as standard equipment (5-speed manual transmission were not available for these two models). It came with cloth sport seats styled similar to the Prelude or optional leather seats, both exclusive to the SiR. The SiR also had some power options found on the Accord EX. The Accord SiR coupe (94–97) and the Accord SiR wagon (1997) were exclusively available for the Japanese market. SiR chassis codes for the sedan were the CD6, the coupe-CD8 and the 1997 wagon-CF2 (production began on September 1996 for the 1997 SiR wagons which lasted for almost one year). The Accord SiR Coupe and the Accord SiR wagon (1997)which were exclusively built in the U.S.A at Honda's Marysville Ohio plant (HAM) but were marketed for Japan export only for this particular model was not offered in North America. \n\nThe Accord SiR Coupe and then Accord SiR wagon were built with the Japan-spec H22A DOHC VTEC powertrains which were shipped from Japan and were installed into the HAM-built Accord SiR models. The 1994–1997 \"CD\" Accord chassis was designed for the H22A DOHC VTEC powertrain to be installed; because the firewall was curved at the top to allow more space for the tilting backwards of the H22A DOHC VTEC engine near the middle of the firewall. The H22A DOHC VTEC engine was the most powerful inline four-cylinder engine Honda built for the Prelude and the Accord before the 1995 U.S.-spec V6 sedan. The Accord SiR suspension was improved with stiffer front sway bar(27.2mmXt4.0 mm), stiffer rear sway bar (16 mm), stiffer front coil springs and stiffer rear coil springs.\n\nFeatures for the 94–95 Accord SiR models (sedans and coupes) included the following items: cruise control, automatic climate control (Similar to the first generation Acura CL), Bose stereo system, 7,400 redline tachometer, optional electronic traction control and optional limited slip differential for automatic transmission, optional SRS and airbags, factory installed driving lights, optional factory installed \"pop up\" navigation radio head unit, sound insulation liner under front hood, black-housing headlamps, no side molding was available on the Accord SiR sedan, optional rear sunscreen, optional sunroof and power retractable outside mirrors. Features for the 96–97 Accord SiR models (sedans, coupes and wagons) included the same as above while adding; optional cruise control, rear window wiper on the sedan, optional leather interior and a colored side molding for the sedan as well.\n\nFile:Honda Accord wagon -- 04-10-2011.jpg|Accord Wagon LX (U.S.)\nFile:1996-1997 Accord SiR Wagon Rear (Imported Japanese Model) 2.JPG|1996 Accord SiR Wagon (Japan, US import)\nFile:1994-1995 Honda Accord coupe -- 03-21-2012.JPG|1994–1995 Accord coupé (U.S.A.)\nFile:1996-1997 Honda Accord coupe -- 03-21-2012.JPG|1996–1997 Accord coupé (U.S.A.)\nFile:Honda Accord (fifth generation, first facelift) (rear), Serdang.jpg|Fifth generation Accord (Malaysia/South East Asia)\n\nEuropean model\n\nThe 5th generation Accord for the European market was unveiled in 1993 and was not related directly to the North American 'CD' Accord. It was in fact the Japanese-market Honda Ascot Innova which was based on the previous 4th generation 'CB' Accord. It was the result of a joint effort with the Rover Group that provided Rover with the 600 series. The exterior was designed by Shigeo Ueno in 1990.\n\nIn 1996, the European Accord received a minor facelift and was given a new front end (new headlights, bumper, bonnet and grill) and slightly different taillights (see images). The styling of the facelifted Accord remained identical to the styling of the Ascot Innova (although the frameless doors were replaced with conventional items) and featured the design language first introduced on the 5th generation Honda Civic. The styling of the European Accord differed dramatically from the North American which featured a more conventional saloon styling compared to the European model's low slung, fastback inspired look which also incorporated rear quarter windows. The facelifted Accord was also equipped with two airbags as standard.\n\nHowever, the European Accord did not spawn an estate or coupe version, Honda instead opting to import the coupe and estate (Aerodeck) versions of the North American Accord.\n\nThe diesel model of the Accord was fitted with the direct injection Rover L-Series diesel engine, as also fitted in the Rover 600.\n\nRover 600\n\nAs part of the tie-up with the Rover Group the European Accord spawned Rover's replacement for the Austin Montego in 1993. Called the 600, the car shared its platform with the European Accord and, with the exception of the front doors, lower rear doors and windscreen, sported unique styling which dispensed with the rear quarter windows. The interior design of the 600 was very similar to the Accord's however, while the dashboard design was identical.\n\nSixth generation (1997–2002)\n\nFor the sixth generation, Honda split the Accord into three separate models, designed for the Japanese, North American, and European markets. However, the wagon was discontinued in North America while the coupe was discontinued in Japan. This generation also spawned two distinctively branded performance versions for European and Japanese domestic markets, dubbed Type R and Euro R, respectively.\n\nOn the origin of these models, it is rumored that with the advent of the sixth generation Accord, \"Honda England were let loose to build a car that would compete with Subaru and Mitsubishi's Evo. They came up with the Accord Type R, a lightened (around 1200 kg) track version with no sound deadening or luxuries\". Honda Japan followed suit in 2000, \"took the Accord Type R and developed the Accord Euro R (hence the 'Euro'pean tag)\" which has a similar chassis, suspension that is interchangeable with European model, same engine (slightly detuned for European Type R), and nearly identical interior trim.\n\nJapan\n\nThe Japanese models, introduced 4 September 1997, became narrower than the previous generation, returning to the favorable compact car tax bracket, except for Euro R and wagon, which were classified as the larger mid-sized classification. A nearly identical sister car, the Honda Torneo, replaced the previous Honda Ascot and the Honda Rafaga in Japan, which was sold at both Honda Verno and Honda Primo Japanese dealerships, while the Accord remained at Honda Clio locations. This was the last generation that was badge engineered as the Isuzu Aska.\n\nWhen the previous generation Accord grew in exterior dimensions, this reclassified the Accord as a midsized car in Japan. The second generation Honda Inspire was manufactured in two platforms, with the smaller G20A five-cylinder engine installed in a shorter and narrower sedan that complied with \"compact\" regulations. This effort reflected Honda's positioning of Honda Clio as a luxury car dealership that sold the luxury sedans Honda Legend and Honda Inspire, similar to their efforts in North America with the Acura brand. Honda continued to offer the Accord station wagon in Japan. All trim levels sold in Japan were available with Honda's newly created, internet-based telematics service called Internavi.\n\nPerformance models\n\nAccord/Torneo Euro R (CL1, 2000–2002)\n\nThe Euro R included a \"red top\" variation of H22A engine producing 220 PS at 7,200 rpm and 221 Nm at 6500 rpm, 5-speed T2W4 manual transmission with helical Torsen LSD, Recaro seats, leather-wrapped MOMO steering wheel, sports suspension, sports exhaust (including 4–2–1 stainless headers) and an aluminum-alloy gear shift knob. It was also fitted with a unique factory body kit that included flares and was available in some colors not available to other Accords (such as Milano Red). The Accord (sold at Honda Clio locations) and the Torneo (sold at Honda Verno and Primo locations) are the same car, aside from minor cosmetic differences in the exterior, most notably front of the car.\n\nThe 2002 model was named the Euro-Rx. This model came with a few slight modifications from the 2000/2001 model. These included factory rear privacy glass, a titanium gear knob, optional Red-checker interior (original gold-checker) and bronze coloured alloy wheels. The high-stop spoiler also became standard on all models. Honda also addressed two common issues that had become apparent. The ECU was upgraded to resolve the issue of cold-starts causing hesitation on acceleration and the gearbox syncros were upgraded to a higher quality alloy to lengthen their lifespan.\n\nAccord SiR-T (CF4, 1997–2000)\n\nThe SiR-T model included a 2.0L F20B engine rated 200 PS at 7200 rpm (180 PS automatic) and at 6600 rpm, 11.0.1 compression, 85 mm X 88 mm (Bore and Stroke) 7800 rpm redline. The H-series DOHC VTEC engines were limited to 7800 rpms. The F20B had a unique blue valve cover and like all the larger displacement Honda engines, the F20B was mounted with a tilt towards the driver. F20B engines could rev at higher rpms than H22As because it had a shorter stroke. The F20B had an 85 mm x 88 mm bore and stroke when compared to an H22A which had an 87 mm x 90.7 mm bore and stroke. The F20B was also classified as a low emissions engine.\n\nAccord SiR (CF4, 1997–2002)\n\nThe Accord SiR was based on the SiR-T, but used the S-Matic automatic transmission. The engine was rated at 180 PS but with better midrange characteristics. Moving the gear-stick over to the right allowed manual selection of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th gear using up and down shift actions just like the sequential gearboxes used on the JGTC NSX. When a particular gear is selected, the gear stays in position at all rpm. When pushed against the rev limiter, the engine would bounce against it just like a manual. However, the gear ratios for each gear were the same as the normal mode. The transmission still worked like a normal automatic transmission in all other operating modes.\n\nAccord Wagon SiR (CH9 FWD 1999–2001, CL2 AWD 2000–2001)\n\nThe SiR wagon model included the only 2.3-liter H23A DOHC VTEC H-series engine in the Honda line-up. The H23A engine was rated at 200 hp / 190 hp (AWD) at 6,800 rpm and torque of at 5,300 rpm, 10.6:1 compression, 87 mm X 95 mm bore and stroke, and a 7200 rpm redline which is slightly lower than other H-series VTEC engines from factory. The H23A also came with a blue valve cover and was the largest displacement of the H-series Honda engines. The H23A was mounted with a tilt towards the driver. The H23A had a longer stroke than the H22A. Specifications for the H23A were; 87 mm X 95 mm bore and stroke and H22A has 87 mm X bore and stroke. The H23A had better acceleration because the peak torque occurred sooner at lower rpm when compared to the H22A.\n\nAmericas, Australia, New Zealand and Philippines\n\nThe American Accord was only available in sedan and coupe form, becoming the largest Accord to date, sharing a platform with the Japan-market Honda Inspire/Acura TL. While previous generations of the Coupe were considered two-door versions of the sedan, the 1998 Coupe was the first to be given an exclusive front fascia, rear tail lights (which resemble those found on the NSX), wheels, and many other body panels, and was now marketed as a somewhat separate model, the \"Accord Coupe\", to set it away from the more family-oriented sedan version. It also allowed the Coupe, which was exported to other markets, to fit in more easily with the local Accord versions. The tail light appearance was duplicated on the Japanese market Honda Domani for the second generation of production. The coupe's design was styled by Don Herner and directed by lead designer Eric Schumaker into August 1995 in Torrance, CA. It was later scanned as a clay model and transferred to engineering in August 1995 at Honda R&D in Raymond, Ohio. It was developed by Honda engineer Laura Minor into production form until January 1996, being then developed into prototypes for testing. \n\nStarting with this generation, cabin air filters (also known as pollen filters) were installed as standard equipment and are located behind the glove compartment internationally.\n\nG development began in late 1993, with design work starting in 1994. A design for the sedan by Shinji Takashima and Toshihiko Shimizu was chosen in January 1995 and later frozen for production by the middle of 1995. Prototype test mules were tested from mid-1995 in CD Accord body panels, with full body prototypes being used from 1996. Design patents were filed on 8 March 1996, with development ending in March 1997. \n\nFor the 1998 model year, the sedan was offered in DX, LX, LX-V6, EX, and EX-V6 trims while the Accord Coupe was offered only in LX, LX-V6, EX, and EX-V6 trims. The DX model was fitted with a 2.3L I4 engine rated at 135 bhp, while the LX and EX included a 2.3L I4 VTEC engine rated at 150 bhp. All 4-cylinder models came with a 5-speed manual transmission standard, and with a four-speed automatic as optional equipment. The DX remained the value-oriented trim with no audio system, manual windows, manual locks, no cruise control, rear drum brakes, and 14-inch steel wheels. The DX Value Package added a radio-cassette player, air conditioning, and cruise control; this was known as the Accord DX in Canada where it was the base model of the lineup. The LX trim added power windows, power locks, door courtesy lights and 15-inch steel wheels; an SE (special edition) package available since 1999 added 15-inch alloy wheels. The EX trim added ABS, alloy wheels, keyless entry, rear disc brakes, and upgraded cloth. Leather seating, CD player, and power sunroof were factory installed options for the EX. All V6 sedan and coupe models received a new 3.0L V6 SOHC VTEC engine rated at 200 bhp and 195 lbft (from the Acura 3.0 CL), ABS and automatic transmission. Some dealer-installed options included: gold finish kit, gold finish exhaust tip(s), gold finish wheel center caps, 6-disc in-dash CD changer, tape deck, fog lights, wing spoiler, alarm system, sunroof visor, car cover and accessory chrome wheels.\n\nIn Australia, the 6th generation Accord went on sale in December 1997, and was initially imported from the USA. However, in 1999, the Accord became the first Honda in Australia to be imported from Thailand. In March 2001, the Accord received a facelift, while at the same time, the option of a manual transmission was dropped. New colour choices with the facelift included Naples Gold, Signet Silver, and Nighthawk Black, the first time that black was offered in an Australian market Accord.\n\nIn September 2000, both the American-market Accord sedan and coupe received a minor facelift. A new front fascia, rear bumper, side skirt alteration, new taillights and wheel designs freshened the Accord's look. The interior saw few changes with the exception of some fabric and audio configuration changes. The LX and LX-V6 now included a standard CD player, and the EX 4-cylinder now included a 6-disc in-dash CD changer with cassette player while the EX-V6 offered that stereo plus automatic climate control. All V6 models also included a traction control system that could be disabled by a switch, the first Accord to have such a system included. The Special Edition returned to the coupe and sedan models for its final model year, 2002. It included all the features of the LX, but added exclusive alloy wheels, keyless entry and a single CD/cassette radio. In the Philippines, only the sedan was available and offered in VTi and VTi-L trims. The VTi model was fitted with a 2.0L I4 VTEC engine rated at 152 bhp while the top VTi-L trim was fitted with a 2.3L I4 VTEC engine rated at 157 bhp. Both models are available with either a 5-speed manual transmission or a 4-speed automatic transmission.\n\nHonda made the decision to continue this generation of Accord an extra year. Previously, the Accord ran four years on a single body-style and facelift before being redesigned. The typical Accord generation cycle was a 2:4 trend, with a newly released model running for years 1 and 2 unaltered, then getting a facelift for years 3 and 4 before a major redesign. This generation would run a total of 5 years in a 3:5 trend, with the facelift occurring in year four. Accord sales remained steady despite the additional year.\n\nDespite the Accord's reputation for reliability, the V6 models were plagued by transmission failures and prompted class action lawsuits against the company (4-cylinder models were also affected, but not to the same extent). This caused Honda to extend the warranties for the 2000 through 2001 models to seven years or 109000 mi. 1998, 1999 and 2002 cars were considered for extended coverage on a case-by-case basis. No formal recall occurred. In Canada, recall letters were sent out to owners who fell within a certain VIN range; this warranty was later re-extended for some owners to seven years in length.\n\nBeginning in 1997, Accord keys were equipped with immobilizer microchips. In late 1998, the Accord was equipped with foldable mirrors. In 2001, the Special Edition was added and the DX Value-Package was re-introduced for 2002 models.\n\nThe 1998 Accord was also assembled in New Zealand at the very end of overall CKD car production due to the abolition of import tariffs on built cars which made local assembly uneconomic. 1,200 examples of the car (the mid-sized U.S. sedan version) were built before the Honda New Zealand factory was closed; the very first Honda-owned factory operation to be closed down) and the equipment (which included a paint shop acquired from Nissan when that automaker closed its Australian manufacturing unit in 1994) was shipped to other Honda assembly units, mainly in Asia. Small numbers of Accords were imported (right hand drive) from the U.S. before sourcing switched to Thailand once Accord assembly began there. The Thai factory continues to supply New Zealand with the latest generation Accord and now also ships that line and other Honda models to Australia and elsewhere in South East Asia.\n\nConcerns over airbag safety plague the Japanese automaker. The company announced it was recalling vehicles citing driver's airbags that deploy with too much force during collisions. Honda says 2,430 faulty airbags were installed as repairs to customer vehicles after a collision. But since the company cannot accurately track down which Honda received the flawed airbags, Honda broadened its search to include the 2001–2001 Accord. Since November 2008, Honda has recalled some 1.7 million of its cars for airbag concerns. At its last similar expanded recall in February 2010, Honda said the too-powerful airbags have been involved in 12 incidents, including one fatality. \n\nEurope\n\nThe European Accord, also made in Swindon, was different in its styling and was also shorter than the Japanese- and American-market Accords. It was available as a sedan and a 5-door hatchback (liftback), with the U.S.-imported coupe completing the range. It was a platform improvement of the previous generation \"European Accord\", a joint project with the Rover Group that created the Rover 600, as well as the Honda Ascot Innova. The design approval of the sixth generation Accord came in early 1995.\n\nThe standard Accord featured more items than the base models of similar cars (Ford Mondeo, Peugeot 406, Vauxhall Vectra, etc.) in its class. The basic S came with ABS, alarm, engine immobilizer, and air-conditioning, with the SE added the options of metallic paint, cruise control, climate control and later, satellite navigation. The 1998–1999 ES version came with all those features (except the satellite navigation optional), as well as a walnut and leather trimmed interior with heated front seats. This model was renamed as the SE Executive in late 1999.\n\nThe EU version had a minor facelift in 2001 including a revised grill, alloy wheels, bumpers and both rear and front lights. In 2001, the trim range was expanded with a Type-V; with leather trim as standard equipment, satellite navigation and a tiptronic automatic transmission as optional. The Sport model, which was as the SE, came with modified styling, spoiler, and a color-coded side skirt (as opposed to black plastic).\n\nOther engines included a 1.8 L F18B VTEC engine rated at 138 hp, a 2 L F20B6 VTEC engine rated at 145 hp, as well as a 1.6 which was the entry level engine not offered in the United Kingdom, it produces 85 kW. The Type-V model (2001–2003) included the F23Z5 VTEC engine, it was the largest engine that European 6th-gen Accord offered.\n\nThe Type-R, Type-V, and Sport trims can had a badge on the front grill and hood lid, though the pre-facelift models only signified Type-R on the front. The top of the range SE Executive only became identified as such in 2000 with a badge 'SE EXECUTIVE' on the hood lid. Walnut trim interior was also dropped for the SE Executive during the facelift, while a new climate control system was added.\n\nAccord Type R (CH1, 1998–2002)\n\nThe Accord Type R was a performance variant of the standard Accord, sold in European markets. Apart from a similar yet different body, the European Type R is largely identical to the Japanese CL1 Euro R, including the same \"red top\" H22A engine; however, in a H22A7 version (compared to H22A for Euro R) producing a lower output at 212 PS (compared to 220 PS for Euro R). The engine was mated to U2Q7 5-speed manual transmission with helical Torsen LSD. Recaro seats, leather-wrapped Momo steering wheel, stiffer suspension, dual exhaust (including 4–2–1 stainless headers), and an aluminum-alloy gear shift knob also came standard. Like the Euro R, the Type R was fitted with a factory body kit. Other differences from the standard model include hydraulic power steering on the Type R.\n\nThe R model was facelifted in 2001 with updates to the bumpers and fog lights, but removing the factory fitted bodykit. The electric radio aerial was also replaced, with a smaller \"Bee Sting\" style aerial situated at the rear of the roof line. The 5 speed gearbox was revised with stronger synchros in response to a number of failures on the earlier cars, and the exhaust was fitted with more subtle tips, angled downwards and unpolished in comparison to the pre-facelift's straight chrome tips. The interior and other parts stayed identical.\n\nSales of the Type R were low; for example, less than two thousand were sold in the UK alone.\n\nSeventh generation (2002–2007)\n\nThe seventh generation of the Accord was launched in 2002 (2003 model year in North America), and consists of two separate models; one for the Japanese and European markets, and the other for North America. However, both were in fact sold in many other markets, fueled by the popular Cog advertisement for the Accord.\nEuro R trim continued into this generation as performance model for Japanese market, making use of K20 engine producing 220 hp, however, European performance model was renamed Type S and used larger K24 engine tuned to produce 190 hp.\n\nJapan and Europe\n\nThe European and Japanese Accords were integrated on the previous Japanese Accord's chassis, but with a new body. No longer made in Swindon, those Accords were made in Japan, and came in both sedan and estate form.\n\nAt its introduction in 2003, it won the Car of the Year Japan Award for a record third time.\nIn Europe the car featured a 2.0 i-VTEC with 152BHP, a 2.4 i-VTEC with 187BHP, and an \"exceptional\" 2.2 i-CDTi turbo diesel engine with initially 138BHP and 340Nm of torque, while doing 51MPG on the EU combined cycle.\n\nThis model was sold in certain markets such as Fiji, Australia and New Zealand as the \"Accord Euro\" and in North America as the Acura TSX.\n\nAccord Euro R (CL7, 2002–2007)\n\nThe Honda Accord Euro R (CL7) was launched in October 2002. A lightened and more sports focused variant of the Japanese car the Accord Euro-R was powered by the K20A 2.0L DOHC i-VTEC engine with 220 horsepower and 21.0 kg-m (206 Nm @ 7000 rpm) of torque through a lightweight 6-speed manual transmission. The Accord Euro-R was available to the Japanese Domestic Market and Europe. Some features that distinguish it are the Recaro seats, the body kit, a MOMO steering wheel and a special metal gearknob found only in Honda's Type-R variants.\n\nNorth America\n\nThe North American Accord grew in size yet again, becoming a vastly different car than its Japanese and European counterpart. This generation was available in both coupe and sedan forms, while a hybrid model was introduced in early 2005. For 2006, it was significantly updated. This generation Accord was the first to use wheels with five lug nuts instead of the traditional four on 4-cylinder models. The 4-cylinder version came with 161 hp and 160 lbft (166 hp and 161 lbft for 2005–2007 models) K24A1 2397 cc 4 cyl engine mated to a 5-speed automatic or 5-speed manual. The 4-cylinder engine also utilized a timing chain instead of a timing belt. For 2003, Honda began to offer a more aggressive Accord Coupe, equipped with the 240 hp and 212 lbft (244 hp and 211 lbft for 2006–2007 models) J30A4 2997cc V6 mated to a 6-speed manual transmission borrowed from the Acura TL Type S (without a limited slip differential). This coupe came with 17-inch wheels (that varied between the 03-05 and 06-07 models), strut tower bar, perforated leather seating, carbon fiber dash pieces, and an upgraded 180 watt stereo system. Because of the ability to maintain activation of the VTEC system all the way through hard acceleration, the Accord EX V6 6-speed ran from 0–60 MPH in just 5.9 seconds according to Car and Driver, more than a second faster than the automatic version. For 2006, Honda offered this engine and transmission combination in the sedan, which only lasted through 2007.\n\nThis model was also sold in Japan as the Honda Inspire from 2003 to 2008. In China the model got the name Guangzhou-Honda Accord and was sold from 2003 up to December 2009.\n\nThe National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has crash test ratings of Accord of different model years: \n\nThe Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found 2003–04 Accords had the lowest fatality rates in the non-luxury midsize sedan class \n\nEighth generation (2008–2015)\n\nAccord in Japan and Europe and Spirior in China\n\nThe updated Accord for the Japanese and European markets went on sale in mid-2008. It is also sold as the Accord Euro in the Australia and New Zealand markets, and as the Acura TSX in North America. It is available as both a sedan and a station wagon. In the People's Republic of China, a version of the sedan is sold as the Spirior. Production started in August 2009 in China, by Dongfeng Honda.\n\nProduction ended at the end of February 2015 for Australia and New Zealand spec models.\nIt is expected there will be enough stock to last until the end of 2015.\n\nSales in Europe and Middle East is discontinued in 2015.\n\nIn Europe, the car maintained the 2.0 and 2.4 i-VTEC petrol (upped to 156 and 198BHP respectively), whilst a new 2.2 i-DTEC diesel engine provided 147BHP/350Nm in standard trim levels, and 177BHP/380Nm in Type-S sports trim level. This allowed the Accord to go 0–100 in 8.5 seconds, and still do 50MPG on the EU Combined cycle. \n\nAccord in North America and China and Inspire in Japan\n\nThe North American version of the Accord has a different body from its Japanese counterpart. This shape is sold as the Honda Inspire in Japan, and is not sold in Europe.\nIt was discontinued in Japan in September 2012. Larger than the previous model, the sedan is now classified as a full-size car by EPA standards. A coupe version is available, as well as a Crosstour fastback model, which was introduced in the US for the 2010 model year. Engines include a 2.4 Liter 4-cylinder rated at 177 bhp (132 kW) with 161 lbft for Lx-Se sedans and 190 bhp (142 kW) with 162 lbft for EX-Ex-l sedans and coupes; as well as a 3.5 Liter V6 rated at 272 bhp (203 kW) and 254 lbft.\n\nIn Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, this car which is assembled in Thailand, is sold as the Accord in left or right hand drive forms. In Malaysia, the Accord is locally assembled. In Hong Kong, this car is made in Japan and sold as the Accord, and in Taiwan, the Accord is locally assembled. In China, Guangqi Honda also makes this vehicle with 2.0L, 2.4L and 3.5L engines. Guangqi began making the Accord Crosstour in 2010.\n\nIn Malaysia, the eight generation incarnated as Proton Perdana and being used by the government officials. It is CKDed at Honda-DRB plant in HICOM Industrial Park Pegoh, Alor gajah, Melaka.\n\nNinth generation (2013–present)\n\nFor the ninth-generation Accord, Honda appointed Shoji Matsui, who served as an engineer on the Accord platform from 1985 to 1996 as lead project manager. It is the first Honda vehicle to be completely developed under the administration of Honda CEO Takanobu Ito.\n\nHonda revealed the Accord Coupe Concept at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. In August 2012, the company released initial details pertaining to the 2013 Accord sedan, and production versions of both the sedan and coupe were fully unveiled in early September 2012. The Accord sedan went on sale on 19 September 2012 in the United States, with the coupe following on 15 October. Corresponding release dates in Canada for the sedan and coupe models are 24 September 2012 and 1 November 2012, respectively. In February 2013, the Accord was scheduled to enter the Russian market. In June 2013, the Accord hybrid and plug-in hybrid were introduced to the Japanese market, with the discontinuation of the Honda Inspire, serving as Honda's large sedan and one level below the Honda Legend.\n\nThe ninth-generation Accord offers the following powertrains: A new direct injected \"Earth Dreams\" 2.4-liter 16-valve DOHC four-cylinder engine rated at 185 hp to 181 lbft of torque paired with either a six-speed manual or continuously variable transmission, an updated 3.5-liter 24-valve SOHC V6 mated either to a six-speed manual or automatic rated at 278 hp and 252 lbft, and a hybrid powertrain (named i-MMD) that integrates a 2.0 liter Atkinson Cycle gasoline engine with an electric motor and lithium-ion battery pack in North America. The Hybrid uses an electronic continuously variable transmission and is rated at 196 hp and 226 lbft. Both conventional and plug-in hybrid configurations are offered, both released in the U.S. market in the second half of 2013.\n\nTwo additional trim levels are added in North American markets, Sport and Touring. The Accord Sport Sedan is slotted between the LX and EX models and features a 2.4-liter 16-valve DOHC inline-four engine rated at to 182 lbft of torque, 18-inch wheels and wider tires, dual exhaust, a decklid spoiler, fog lights, leather-trimmed steering wheel and seats, exclusive carbon-fiber-style dash trim, and steering wheel mounted paddle shifters on models equipped with the continuously variable transmission. Starting in model year 2016, the Sport trim featured LED daytime running lights, upgraded LED fog lights, as well as the 19-inch alloy wheels, wider and lower profile (235/40 R19 96V) tires, and bigger front brake rotors found in the Accord Touring Sedan, the lineup's flagship. The Touring trim is available with either four cylinder or V6 engines in Canada; U.S. Touring models are equipped with the V6 engine exclusively.\n\nHonda has really focused on ride quality, responsiveness, and ride comfort with a completely redesigned front suspension. The simpler and more ubiquitous MacPherson strut design introduced in the Acura TLX has been carried over into the Accord. Replacing the class leading and highly refined double wishbone front suspension, in use since the second generation Accord. The rear suspension retains the independent multi-link suspension. The costlier design is now only available on the top-tier Acura RLX. The new front suspension helps shave weight and free up room in the engine compartment. In addition to the safety concerns of Honda's Advanced Compatibility Engineering, there is focus on body stiffness and dynamic handling response by improving structural rigidity around the front strut tower and lower control arm. All but the LX trim, features a strut bar, All trims receive upgraded shocks front and rear. The Touring trim now comes with more sophisticated double piston shocks called \"Amplitude Reactive Dampers\", that have been recently introduced on several Acura models. These are typically found in European luxury cars. \n\nThe Accord's body now utilizes 55.8% high strength steel, a total of 17.2% are either of 780, 980 or 1,500 MPa yield strength types which were not used in the previous generation. The Accord's previous steel front subframe has been replaced with an aluminum and steel component that weighs 14 lb less and is manufactured using friction stir welding (hybrid models use an all-aluminum subframe and hood). Overall the body weight sheds 55 lb . \n\nIn North America, the 2016 Accord, now features Front brake disc diameter varies from 11.1 in(LX only), 11.5 in, or 12.3 in (Sport / Touring) depending on model and trim, while the rear discs measure 11.1 inches in diameter.\n\nAll Accords come with standard an 8-inch 480 x 320 pixel WQVGA resolution LCD screen, single angle backup camera, Honda's i-MID system which includes Bluetooth hands free calling with SMS texting and streaming audio, USB connector, dual zone automatic climate control and alloy wheels. The available navigation system adds a 6-inch touchscreen and the 8-inch screen uses a higher 800 x 480 pixel resolution WVGA display. A tri-angle (normal, wide and top view) backup camera and wide angle passenger blind spot side view camera are also available. New safety features include an optional forward collision warning system, lane departure warning system and blind spot monitor. Highline models (EX, EX-L, and Touring grades) offer Smart Key, LED daytime running lamps, headlamps, and tail lamps; and an adaptive cruise control system. The 2016 Honda Accord will be the first mass-market car that will be equipped with Apple CarPlay & the second car to also be compatible with Android Auto.\n\nIn the Australian market, the 9th generation Accord went on sale in June 2013. It is available with either a 2.4 L 129 kW four-cylinder or 3.5 L 206 kW V6 engine. Unlike the North American market Accord, a CVT transmission is not offered. Instead, the four-cylinder uses a carryover five-speed automatic, while the V6 receives a new six-speed automatic. It continues to be imported from Thailand.\n\nIn China, the 9th generation Accord went on sale in September 2013, as a 2014 model. It is available with a choice of 2.0L or 2.4L 4-cylinder engines, or a new 3.0L V6 engine exclusive to the Chinese market. The V6 produces 192 kW (257 hp) and 297 Nm torque. Transmission choices include a CVT for both 4-cylinder engines, or 6-speed automatic for the V6; a manual transmission is not offered. The Chinese market Accord features a unique front grill and bumper, incorporating more chrome and smaller, circular front fog lights. The rear features a different bumper with trapezoidal, rather than circular, exhausts.\n\nIn the Philippines the ninth generation Accord was launched in 2014 available in two trims the 2.4 S and 3.5 SV. The 2.4 S variant is available only with five-speed automatic while the 3.5 SV is available with six-speed automatic. The 3.5 SV features a 3.5 SOHC V6 engine, dual exhaust, sunroof and different designed wheels. All models receives daytime running lights, reverse camera with dynamic guidelines, active cornering lights, rain sensing wipers, touch screen panel, ECO assist button and LED Head/Tail lamps.\n\nAccord Plug-in Hybrid\n\nThe production version of the 2014 Accord Plug-in hybrid was introduced at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show. The Accord PHEV pricing starts at and sales began in the U.S. in January 2013, with availability limited to California and New York. The Accord PHEV was introduced in Japan in June 2013 and it is available only for leasing, primarily to corporations and government agencies. , the Accord PHEV ranks as the third best selling plug-in hybrid in the Japanese market. A total of 1,030 units have been sold in the United States through May 2015. See section \"December 2014 Plug-in Hybrid Car Sales Numbers\" See section \"May 2015 Plug-in Hybrid Car Sales Numbers\" \n\nHonda unveiled the platform for a mid-size plug-in hybrid electric vehicle at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. The plug-in platform showcased Honda's next-generation two-motor hybrid system, which continuously moves through three different modes to maximize driving efficiency: all-electric, gasoline-electric and an engine direct-drive mode. The plug-in hybrid also uses regenerative braking to charge the battery. In all-electric mode, the vehicle uses a 6 kWh lithium-ion battery and a 120 kW electric motor. The all-electric mode achieves a range of approximately 10 to in city driving and a top speed of 62 mph. Fully recharging the battery will take 2 to 2.5 hours using a 120-volt outlet and 1 to 1.5 hours using a 240-volt outlet. Honda announced at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit that first US application of both a 2.4-liter direct-injected engine and two-motor plug-in hybrid system to be implemented on the Accord ninth generation, the 2013 Accord Plug-in Hybrid, with sales scheduled for late 2012 or early 2013. Production of the Accord Plug-in Hybrid began on 21 December 2012. \n\nIn September 2012 Honda announced that the 2014 model year Accord Plug-in Hybrid sedan will be built in Sayama, Japan. Honda also explained the plug-in will be available in a single highly equipped trim level based on the standard features of the Accord Touring. The 2014 Accord Plug-in Hybrid is scheduled for release in early 2013, and it will serve as the basis for the conventional hybrid version of the Accord Sedan that will go on sale by mid-2013. The production version will feature a 6.7 kWh lithium-ion battery pack to power a 124 kW electric motor mated with the new Earth Dreams i-VTEC 2.0-liter 4-cylinder Atkinson-cycle gasoline engine producing 137 hp (102 kW) at 6200 rpm, and together the total system output is 196 hp (146 kW), which surpasses that of the Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid (134 hp), Chevrolet Volt (149 hp) and future Ford Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid. \n\nHonda expected the 2014 Accord Plug-in Hybrid to deliver an all-electric range of up to 15 mi and a total driving range of more than 500 mi based on the U.S. EPA tests as determined by Honda. The carmaker also expected the fuel economy for the Accord Plug-in Hybrid to exceed 100 miles per gallon of gasoline equivalent (MPG-e) (2.4 L/100 km; 120 mpg-imp equivalent), and also expects it to receive an Enhanced AT-PZEV rating from the California Air Resources Board (CARB).\n\nThe official EPA ratings for the plug-in hybrid are 13 mi of all-electric range with a combined fuel economy rating of 115 miles per gallon of gasoline equivalent (MPG-e), the highest in its class. EPA ratings for operation in hybrid mode are 46 mpgUS in combined city/highway cycle, 47 mpgUS in city, and 46 mpgUS in highway driving. The 2014 Accord PHEV is the first car in the U.S. to meet the new LEV3/SULEV20 emissions standards, and will get single-occupant carpool access in California.\n\n;Discontinuation\nIn June 2015 Honda announced that the Accord Plug-in Hybrid will be discontinued after the 2015 model year, together with the Civic Hybrid and the natural gas-powered Honda Civic GX. This decision is due in part to Honda's ability to advance fuel economy through conventional engine technology. The company plans to launch of a new dedicated plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicle models after the introduction of Honda's next generation fuel cell vehicle in 2016. \n\nSafety\n\nInsurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)\n\nNHTSA\n\nAwards\n\n* Motor Trends \"Import Car of the Year\" for 1994. \n* Car and Drivers recipient of the 10 Best in recognition for 28 of the last 32 years. \n* Voted \"Car of the Year Japan\" in 1985, 1993 and 2002. \n* 2008 Drives \"Car of the Year\". \n* South African Car of the Year 2009 \n* The JB car pages awarded the 2008 – 2011 Accord a best-in-class 4 1/2 Star rating. \n* 2013 Canadian Car of the Year\n* 2014 Green Car of the Year. \n\nMotorsport\n\nThe Accord Euro R was used in the 2008 World Touring Car Championship season and the 2009 European Touring Car Cup, and won the 1996 Japanese Touring Car Championship season and the 1997 British Touring Car Championship season. The 3 Crowns Racing team were the champions of the 2004 Asian Touring Car Series, and Golden Motors won the 2007 Russian Touring Car Championship.\nDriver Matt Dooley posted an impressive 10 minutes 36 seconds on a 12-mile portion of NC-80, also known as The Devil's Whip, on 28 March 2013. The road was closed for the event.\n\nSales", "is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles and power equipment.\n\nHonda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than 14 million internal combustion engines each year. Honda became the second-largest Japanese automobile manufacturer in 2001. Honda was the eighth largest automobile manufacturer in the world behind General Motors, Volkswagen Group, Toyota, Hyundai Motor Group, Ford, Nissan, and PSA Peugeot Citroën in 2011. \n\nHonda was the first Japanese automobile manufacturer to release a dedicated luxury brand, Acura, in 1986. Aside from their core automobile and motorcycle businesses, Honda also manufactures garden equipment, marine engines, personal watercraft and power generators, and other products. Since 1986, Honda has been involved with artificial intelligence/robotics research and released their ASIMO robot in 2000. They have also ventured into aerospace with the establishment of GE Honda Aero Engines in 2004 and the Honda HA-420 HondaJet, which began production in 2012. Honda has three joint-ventures in China (Honda China, Dongfeng Honda, and Guangqi Honda).\n\nIn 2013, Honda invested about 5.7% (US$6.8 billion) of its revenues in research and development. Also in 2013, Honda became the first Japanese automaker to be a net exporter to the United States, exporting 108,705 Honda and Acura models, while importing only 88,357. \n\nHistory \n\nThroughout his life, Honda's founder, Soichiro Honda had an interest in automobiles. He worked as a mechanic at the Art Shokai garage, where he tuned cars and entered them in races. In 1937, with financing from his acquaintance Kato Shichirō, Honda founded Tōkai Seiki (Eastern Sea Precision Machine Company) to make piston rings working out of the Art Shokai garage. After initial failures, Tōkai Seiki won a contract to supply piston rings to Toyota, but lost the contract due to the poor quality of their products. After attending engineering school without graduating, and visiting factories around Japan to better understand Toyota's quality control processes, by 1941 Honda was able to mass-produce piston rings acceptable to Toyota, using an automated process that could employ even unskilled wartime laborers.\n\nTōkai Seiki was placed under control of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (called the Ministry of Munitions after 1943) at the start of World War II, and Soichiro Honda was demoted from president to senior managing director after Toyota took a 40% stake in the company. Honda also aided the war effort by assisting other companies in automating the production of military aircraft propellers. The relationships Honda cultivated with personnel at Toyota, Nakajima Aircraft Company and the Imperial Japanese Navy would be instrumental in the postwar period. A US B-29 bomber attack destroyed Tōkai Seiki's Yamashita plant in 1944, and the Itawa plant collapsed in the 1945 Mikawa earthquake, and Soichiro Honda sold the salvageable remains of the company to Toyota after the war for ¥450,000, and used the proceeds to found the Honda Technical Research Institute in October 1946. With a staff of 12 men working in a 16 m2 shack, they built and sold improvised motorized bicycles, using a supply of 500 two-stroke 50 cc Tohatsu war surplus radio generator engines. When the engines ran out, Honda began building their own copy of the Tohatsu engine, and supplying these to customers to attach their bicycles. This was the Honda A-Type, nicknamed the Bata Bata for the sound the engine made. In 1949, the Honda Technical Research Institute was liquidated for 1,000,000, or about 5,000 today; these funds were used to incorporate Honda Motor Co., Ltd. At about the same time Honda hired engineer Kihachiro Kawashima, and Takeo Fujisawa who provided indispensable business and marketing expertise to complement Soichiro Honda's technical bent. The close partnership between Soichiro Honda and Fujisawa lasted until they stepped down together in October 1973.\n\nThe first complete motorcycle, with both the frame and engine made by Honda, was the 1949 D-Type, the first Honda to go by the name Dream. Honda Motor Company grew in a short time to become the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles by 1964.\n\nThe first production automobile from Honda was the T360 mini pick-up truck, which went on sale in August 1963. Powered by a small 356-cc straight-4 gasoline engine, it was classified under the cheaper Kei car tax bracket. The first production car from Honda was the S500 sports car, which followed the T360 into production in October 1963. Its chain-driven rear wheels pointed to Honda's motorcycle origins. \n\nOver the next few decades, Honda worked to expand its product line and expanded operations and exports to numerous countries around the world. In 1986, Honda introduced the successful Acura brand to the American market in an attempt to gain ground in the luxury vehicle market. The year 1991 saw the introduction of the Honda NSX supercar, the first all-aluminum monocoque vehicle that incorporated a mid-engine V6 with variable-valve timing. \n\nCEO Tadashi Kume was succeeded by Nobuhiko Kawamoto in 1990. Kawamoto was selected over Shoichiro Irimajiri, who oversaw the successful establishment of Honda of America Manufacturing, Inc. in Marysville, Ohio. Both Kawamoto and Irimajiri shared a friendly rivalry within Honda, and Irimajiri would resign in 1992 due to health issues.\n\nFollowing the death of Soichiro Honda and the departure of Irimajiri, Honda found itself quickly being outpaced in product development by other Japanese automakers and was caught off-guard by the truck and sport utility vehicle boom of the 1990s, all which took a toll on the profitability of the company. Japanese media reported in 1992 and 1993 that Honda was at serious risk of an unwanted and hostile takeover by Mitsubishi Motors, who at the time was a larger automaker by volume and flush with profits from their successful Pajero and Diamante.\n\nKawamoto acted quickly to change Honda's corporate culture, rushing through market-driven product development that resulted in recreational vehicles such as the first generation Odyssey and the CR-V, and a refocusing away from some of the numerous sedans and coupes that were popular with Honda's engineers but not with the buying public. The most shocking change to Honda came when Kawamoto ended Honda's successful participation in Formula One after the 1992 season, citing costs in light of the takeover threat from Mitsubishi as well as the desire to create a more environmentally-friendly company image. \n\nLater, 1995 gave rise to the Honda Aircraft Company with the goal of producing jet aircraft under Honda's name. \n\nOn 23 February 2015, Honda announced that CEO and President Takanobu Ito would step down and be replaced by Takahiro Hachigo by June; additional retirements by senior managers and directors were expected. \n\nCorporate profile and divisions \n\nHonda is headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Their shares trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, as well as exchanges in Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kyoto, Fukuoka, London, Paris and Switzerland.\n\nThe company has assembly plants around the globe. These plants are located in China, the United States, Pakistan, Canada, England, Japan, Belgium, Brazil, México, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Taiwan, Perú and Argentina. As of July 2010, 89 percent of Honda and Acura vehicles sold in the United States were built in North American plants, up from 82.2 percent a year earlier. This shields profits from the yen's advance to a 15-year high against the dollar. \n\nHonda's Net Sales and Other Operating Revenue by Geographical Regions in 2007 \n\nAmerican Honda Motor Company is based in Torrance, California. Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) is Honda's motorcycle racing division. Honda Canada Inc. is headquartered in Markham, Ontario, their manufacturing division, Honda of Canada Manufacturing, is based in Alliston, Ontario. Honda has also created joint ventures around the world, such as Honda Siel Cars and Hero Honda Motorcycles in India, Guangzhou Honda and Dongfeng Honda in China, Boon Siew Honda in Malaysia and Honda Atlas in Pakistan.\n\nFollowing the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 Honda announced plans to halve production at its UK plants. The decision was made to put staff at the Swindon plant on a 2-day week until the end of May as the manufacturer struggled to source supplies from Japan. It's thought around 22,500 cars were produced during this period.\n\nLeadership \n\nProducts \n\nAutomobiles \n\nHonda's global lineup consists of the Fit, Civic, Accord, Insight, CR-V, CR-Z, Legend and two versions of the Odyssey, one for North America, and a smaller vehicle sold internationally. An early proponent of developing vehicles to cater to different needs and markets worldwide, Honda's lineup varies by country and may have vehicles exclusive to that region. A few examples are the latest Honda Odyssey minivan and the Ridgeline, Honda's first light-duty uni-body pickup truck. Both were designed and engineered primarily in North America and are produced there. Other example of exclusive models includes the Honda Civic five-door hatchback sold in Europe.\n\nHonda's automotive manufacturing ambitions can be traced back to 1963, with the Honda T360, a kei car truck built for the Japanese market. This was followed by the two-door roadster, the Honda S500 also introduced in 1963. In 1965, Honda built a two-door commercial delivery van, called the Honda L700. Honda's first four-door sedan was not the Accord, but the air-cooled, four-cylinder, gasoline-powered Honda 1300 in 1969. The Civic was a hatchback that gained wide popularity internationally, but it wasn't the first two-door hatchback built. That was the Honda N360, another Kei car that was adapted for international sale as the N600. The Civic, which appeared in 1972 and replaced the N600 also had a smaller sibling that replaced the air-cooled N360, called the Honda Life that was water-cooled.\n\nThe Honda Life represented Honda's efforts in competing in the kei car segment, offering sedan, delivery van and small pick-up platforms on a shared chassis. The Life StepVan had a novel approach that, while not initially a commercial success, appears to be an influence in vehicles with the front passengers sitting behind the engine, a large cargo area with a flat roof and a liftgate installed in back, and utilizing a transversely installed engine with a front-wheel-drive powertrain.\n\nAs Honda entered into automobile manufacturing in the late 1960s, where Japanese manufacturers such as Toyota and Nissan had been making cars since before WWII, it appears that Honda instilled a sense of doing things a little differently than its Japanese competitors. Its mainstay products, like the Accord and Civic (with the exception of its USA-market 1993–97 Passport which was part of a vehicle exchange program with Isuzu (part of the Subaru-Isuzu joint venture)), have always employed front-wheel-drive powertrain implementation, which is currently a long held Honda tradition. Honda also installed new technologies into their products, first as optional equipment, then later standard, like anti lock brakes, speed sensitive power steering, and multi-port fuel injection in the early 1980s. This desire to be the first to try new approaches is evident with the creation of the first Japanese luxury chain Acura, and was also evident with the all aluminum, mid-engined sports car, the Honda NSX, which also introduced variable valve timing technology, Honda calls VTEC.\n\nThe Civic is a line of compact cars developed and manufactured by Honda. In North America, the Civic is the second-longest continuously running nameplate from a Japanese manufacturer; only its perennial rival, the Toyota Corolla, introduced in 1968, has been in production longer. The Civic, along with the Accord and Prelude, comprised Honda's vehicles sold in North America until the 1990s, when the model lineup was expanded. Having gone through several generational changes, the Civic has become larger and more upmarket, and it currently slots between the Fit and Accord.\n\nHonda produces Civic hybrid, a hybrid electric vehicle that competes with the Toyota Prius, and also produces the Insight and CR-Z.\n\nIn 2008, Honda increased global production to meet demand for small cars and hybrids in the U.S. and emerging markets. The company shuffled U.S. production to keep factories busy and boost car output, while building fewer minivans and sport utility vehicles as light truck sales fell. \n\nIts first entrance into the pickup segment, the light duty Ridgeline, won Truck of the Year from Motor Trend magazine in 2006. Also in 2006, the redesigned Civic won Car of the Year from the magazine, giving Honda a rare double win of Motor Trend honors. Honda's 9th generation Civic also won the [http://www.pakwheels.com/awards/2014 Car of the Year] award based on a public survey held by [http://www.pakwheels.com PakWheels]\n\nIt is reported that Honda plans to increase hybrid sales in Japan to more than 20% of its total sales in fiscal year 2011, from 14.8% in previous year. \n\nFive of United States Environmental Protection Agency's top ten most fuel-efficient cars from 1984 to 2010 comes from Honda, more than any other automakers. The five models are: 2000–2006 Honda Insight (53 mpgus combined), 1986–1987 Honda Civic Coupe HF (46 mpgus combined), 1994–1995 Honda Civic hatchback VX (43 mpgus combined), 2006– Honda Civic Hybrid (42 mpgus combined), and 2010– Honda Insight (41 mpgus combined). The ACEEE has also rated the Civic GX as the greenest car in America for seven consecutive years. \n\nMotorcycles \n\nHonda is the largest motorcycle manufacturer in Japan and has been since it started production in 1955.\nAt its peak in 1982, Honda manufactured almost three million motorcycles annually. By 2006 this figure had reduced to around 550,000 but was still higher than its three domestic competitors.\n\nDuring the 1960s, when it was a small manufacturer, Honda broke out of the Japanese motorcycle market and began exporting to the U.S. Working with the advertising agency Grey Advertising, Honda created an innovative marketing campaign, using the slogan \"You meet the nicest people on a Honda.\" In contrast to the prevailing negative stereotypes of motorcyclists in America as tough, antisocial rebels, this campaign suggested that Honda motorcycles were made for the everyman. The campaign was hugely successful; the ads ran for three years, and by the end of 1963 alone, Honda had sold 90,000 motorcycles.\n\nTaking Honda's story as an archetype of the smaller manufacturer entering a new market already occupied by highly dominant competitors, the story of their market entry, and their subsequent huge success in the U.S. and around the world, has been the subject of some academic controversy. Competing explanations have been advanced to explain Honda's strategy and the reasons for their success. \n\nThe first of these explanations was put forward when, in 1975, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was commissioned by the UK government to write a report explaining why and how the British motorcycle industry had been out-competed by its Japanese competitors. The report concluded that the Japanese firms, including Honda, had sought a very high scale of production (they had made a large number of motorbikes) in order to benefit from economies of scale and learning curve effects. It blamed the decline of the British motorcycle industry on the failure of British managers to invest enough in their businesses to profit from economies of scale and scope. \n\nThe second explanation was offered in 1984 by Richard Pascale, who had interviewed the Honda executives responsible for the firm's entry into the U.S. market. As opposed to the tightly focused strategy of low cost and high scale that BCG accredited to Honda, Pascale found that their entry into the U.S. market was a story of \"miscalculation, serendipity, and organizational learning\" – in other words, Honda's success was due to the adaptability and hard work of its staff, rather than any long term strategy. For example, Honda's initial plan on entering the US was to compete in large motorcycles, around 300 cc. Honda's motorcycles in this class suffered performance and reliability problems when ridden the relatively long distances of the US highways. When the team found that the scooters they were using to get themselves around their U.S. base of San Francisco attracted positive interest from consumers that they fell back on selling the Super Cub instead.\n\nThe most recent school of thought on Honda's strategy was put forward by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad in 1989. Creating the concept of core competencies with Honda as an example, they argued that Honda's success was due to its focus on leadership in the technology of internal combustion engines. For example, the high power-to-weight ratio engines Honda produced for its racing bikes provided technology and expertise which was transferable into mopeds. Honda's entry into the U.S. motorcycle market during the 1960s is used as a case study for teaching introductory strategy at business schools worldwide. \n\nPower equipment \n\nProduction started in 1953 with H-type engine (prior to motorcycle). \nHonda power equipment reached record sales in 2007 with 6.4 million units. By 2010 (Fiscal year ended 31 March) this figure had decreased to 4,7 million units. Cumulative production of power products has exceeded 85 million units (as of September 2008). \n\nHonda power equipment includes:\n\nEngines \n\nHonda engines powered the entire 33-car starting field of the 2010 Indianapolis 500 and for the fifth consecutive race, there were no engine-related retirements during the running of the Memorial Day Classic. \n\nIn the 1980s Honda developed the GY6 engine for use in motor scooters. Although no longer manufactured by Honda it is still commonly used in many Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese light vehicles.\n\nHonda, despite being known as an engine company, has never built a V8 for passenger vehicles. In the late 1990s, the company resisted considerable pressure from its American dealers for a V8 engine (which would have seen use in top-of-the-line Honda SUVs and Acuras), with American Honda reportedly sending one dealer a shipment of V8 beverages to silence them. Honda considered starting V8 production in the mid-2000s for larger Acura sedans, a new version of the high end NSX sports car (which previously used DOHC V6 engines with VTEC to achieve its high power output) and possible future ventures into the American full-size truck and SUV segment for both the Acura and Honda brands, but this was cancelled in late 2008, with Honda citing environmental and worldwide economic conditions as reasons for the termination of this project. \n\nRobots \n\nASIMO is the part of Honda's [http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/history/history.html Research & Development robotics program]. It is the eleventh in a line of successive builds starting in 1986 with Honda E0 moving through the ensuing Honda E series and the Honda P series. Weighing 54 kilograms and standing 130 centimeters tall, ASIMO resembles a small astronaut wearing a backpack, and can walk on two feet in a manner resembling human locomotion, at up to 6 km/h. ASIMO is the world's only humanoid robot able to ascend and descend stairs independently. However, human motions such as climbing stairs are difficult to mimic with a machine, which ASIMO has demonstrated by taking two plunges off a staircase.\n\nHonda's robot ASIMO (see below) as an R&D project brings together expertise to create a robot that walks, dances and navigates steps.\n2010 marks the year Honda has developed a machine capable of reading a user's brainwaves to move ASIMO. The system uses a helmet covered with electroencephalography and near-infrared spectroscopy sensors that monitor electrical brainwaves and cerebral blood flow—signals that alter slightly during the human thought process. The user thinks of one of a limited number of gestures it wants from the robot, which has been fitted with a Brain Machine Interface. \n\nAircraft \n\nHonda has also pioneered new technology in its HA-420 HondaJet, manufactured by its subsidiary Honda Aircraft Company, which allows new levels of reduced drag, increased aerodynamics and fuel efficiency thus reducing operating costs.\n\nSolar cells \n\nHonda's solar cell subsidiary company Honda Soltec (Headquarters: Kikuchi-gun, Kumamoto; President and CEO: Akio Kazusa) started sales throughout Japan of thin-film solar cells for public and industrial use on 24 October 2008, after selling solar cells for residential use since October 2007. Honda announced in the end of October 2013 that Honda Soltec would cease the business operation except for support for existing customers in Spring 2014 and the subsidiary would be dissolved. \n\nMountain bikes \n\nHonda has also built a downhill racing bicycle known as the Honda RN-01. It is not available for sale to the public. The bike has a gearbox, which replaces the standard derailleur found on most bikes.\n\nHonda has hired several people to pilot the bike, among them Greg Minnaar. The team is known as Team G Cross Honda.\n\nATV \n\nHonda also builds all-terrain vehicles (ATV).\n450r\n400ex\n300ex\n250r\n\nMotorsports \n\nHonda has been active in motorsports, like Motorcycle Grand Prix, Superbike racing and others.\n\nAutomobile \n\nHonda entered Formula One as a constructor for the first time in the 1964 season at the German Grand Prix with Ronnie Bucknum at the wheel. 1965 saw the addition of Richie Ginther to the team, who scored Honda's first point at the Belgian Grand Prix, and Honda's first win at the Mexican Grand Prix. 1967 saw their next win at the Italian Grand Prix with John Surtees as their driver. In 1968, Jo Schlesser was killed in a Honda RA302 at the French Grand Prix. This racing tragedy, coupled with their commercial difficulties selling automobiles in the United States, prompted Honda to withdraw from all international motorsport that year.\n\nAfter a learning year in 1965, Honda-powered Brabhams dominated the 1966 French Formula Two championship in the hands of Jack Brabham and Denny Hulme. As there was no European Championship that season, this was the top F2 championship that year. In the early 1980s Honda returned to F2, supplying engines to Ron Tauranac's Ralt team. Tauranac had designed the Brabham cars for their earlier involvement. They were again extremely successful. In a related exercise, John Judd's Engine Developments company produced a turbo \"Brabham-Honda\" engine for use in IndyCar racing. It won only one race, in 1988 for Bobby Rahal at Pocono.\n\nHonda returned to Formula One in 1983, initially with another Formula Two partner, the Spirit team, before switching abruptly to Williams in 1984. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Honda powered cars won six consecutive Formula One Constructors Championships. WilliamsF1 won the crown in 1986 and 1987. Honda switched allegiance again in 1988. New partners Team McLaren won the title in 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991. Honda withdrew from Formula One at the end of 1992, although the related Mugen-Honda company maintained a presence up to the end of 1999, winning four races with Ligier and Jordan Grand Prix.\n\nHonda debuted in the CART IndyCar World Series as a works supplier in 1994. The engines were far from competitive at first, but after development, the company powered six consecutive drivers championships. In 2003, Honda transferred its effort to the rival IRL IndyCar Series with Ilmor as joint development until 2006. In 2004, Honda-powered cars overwhelmingly dominated the IndyCar Series, winning 14 of 16 IndyCar races, including the Indianapolis 500, and claimed the IndyCar Series Manufacturers' Championship, Drivers' Championship and Rookie of the Year titles. From 2006 to 2011, Honda was the lone engine supplier for the IndyCar Series, including the Indianapolis 500. In the 2006 Indianapolis 500, for the first time in Indianapolis 500 history, the race was run without a single engine problem. Since 2012, HPD has constructed turbocharged V-6 engines for its IndyCar effort.\n\nDuring 1998, Honda considered returning to Formula One with their own team. The project was aborted after the death of its technical director, Harvey Postlethwaite. Honda instead came back as an official engine supplier to British American Racing (BAR) and Jordan Grand Prix. Honda bought a stake in the BAR team in 2004 before buying the team outright at the end of 2005, becoming a constructor for the first time since the 1960s. Honda won the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix with driver Jenson Button.\n\nIt was announced on 5 December 2008, that Honda would be exiting Formula One with immediate effect due to the 2008 global economic crisis. The team was sold to former team principal Ross Brawn, renamed Brawn GP and subsequently Mercedes. \n\nHonda became an official works team in the British Touring Car Championship in 2010.\n\nHonda made an official announcement on 16 May 2013 that it will re-enter Formula One racing in 2015 as an engine supplier to the McLaren team. \n\nMotorcycles \n\nHonda Racing Corporation (HRC) was formed in 1982. The company combines participation in motorcycle races throughout the world with the development of high potential racing machines. Its racing activities are an important source for the creation of leading edge technologies used in the development of Honda motorcycles. HRC also contributes to the advancement of motorcycle sports through a range of activities that include sales of production racing motorcycles, support for satellite teams, and rider education programs.\n\nSoichiro Honda, being a race driver himself, could not stay out of international motorsport. In 1959, Honda entered five motorcycles into the Isle of Man TT race, the most prestigious motorcycle race in the world. While always having powerful engines, it took until 1961 for Honda to tune their chassis well enough to allow Mike Hailwood to claim their first Grand Prix victories in the 125 and 250 cc classes. Hailwood would later pick up their first Senior TT wins in 1966 and 1967. Honda's race bikes were known for their \"sleek & stylish design\" and exotic engine configurations, such as the 5-cylinder, 22,000 rpm, 125 cc bike and their 6-cylinder 250 cc and 297 cc bikes.\n\nIn 1979, Honda returned to Grand Prix motorcycle racing with the monocoque-framed, four-stroke NR500. The FIM rules limited engines to four cylinders, so the NR500 had non-circular, 'race-track', cylinders, each with 8 valves and two connecting rods, in order to provide sufficient valve area to compete with the dominant two-stroke racers. Unfortunately, it seemed Honda tried to accomplish too much at one time and the experiment failed. For the 1982 season, Honda debuted their first two-stroke race bike, the NS500 and in , Honda won their first 500 cc Grand Prix World Championship with Freddie Spencer. Since then, Honda has become a dominant marque in motorcycle Grand Prix racing, winning a plethora of top level titles with riders such as Mick Doohan and Valentino Rossi. Honda also head the number of wins at the Isle of Man TT having notched up 227 victories in the solo classes and Sidecar TT, including Ian Hutchinson's clean sweep at the 2010 races. The outright lap record on the Snaefell Mountain Course is also held by Honda, set at the 2015 TT by John McGuinness at an average speed of on a Honda CBR1000RR. \n\nIn the Motocross World Championship, Honda has claimed six world championships. In the World Enduro Championship, Honda has captured eight titles, most recently with Stefan Merriman in 2003 and with Mika Ahola from 2007 to 2010. In motorcycle trials, Honda has claimed three world championships with Belgian rider Eddy Lejeune.\n\nElectric and alternative fuel vehicles \n\nCompressed natural gas \n\nThe Honda Civic GX was for a long time the only purpose-built natural gas vehicle (NGV) commercially available in some parts of the U.S. The Honda Civic GX first appeared in 1998 as a factory-modified Civic LX that had been designed to run exclusively on compressed natural gas. The car looks and drives just like a contemporary Honda Civic LX, but does not run on gasoline. In 2001, the Civic GX was rated the cleanest-burning internal combustion engine in the world by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). \n\nFirst leased to the City of Los Angeles, in 2005, Honda started offering the GX directly to the public through factory trained dealers certified to service the GX. Before that, only fleets were eligible to purchase a new Civic GX. In 2006, the Civic GX was released in New York, making it the second state where the consumer is able to buy the car. \n\nIn June 2015, Honda announced its decision to phase out the commercialization of natural-gas powered vehicles to focus on the development of a new generation of electrified vehicles such as hybrids, plug-in electric cars and hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles. Since 2008, Honda has sold about 16,000 natural-gas vehicles, mainly to taxi and commercial fleets. \n\nFlexible-fuel \n\nHonda's Brazilian subsidiary launched flexible-fuel versions for the Honda Civic and Honda Fit in late 2006. As other Brazilian flex-fuel vehicles, these models run on any blend of hydrous ethanol (E100) and E20-E25 gasoline. Initially, and in order to test the market preferences, the carmaker decided to produce a limited share of the vehicles with flex-fuel engines, 33 percent of the Civic production and 28 percent of the Fit models. Also, the sale price for the flex-fuel version was higher than the respective gasoline versions, around US$1,000 premium for the Civic, and US$650 for the Fit, despite the fact that all other flex-fuel vehicles sold in Brazil had the same tag price as their gasoline versions. In July 2009, Honda launched in the Brazilian market its third flexible-fuel car, the Honda City. \n\nDuring the last two months of 2006, both flex-fuel models sold 2,427 cars against 8,546 gasoline-powered automobiles, jumping to 41,990 flex-fuel cars in 2007, and reaching 93,361 in 2008. Due to the success of the flex versions, by early 2009 a hundred percent of Honda's automobile production for the Brazilian market is now flexible-fuel, and only a small percentage of gasoline version is produced in Brazil for exports. \n\nIn March 2009, Honda launched in the Brazilian market the first flex-fuel motorcycle in the world. Produced by its Brazilian subsidiary Moto Honda da Amazônia, the CG 150 Titan Mix is sold for around US$2,700. \n\nHybrid electric \n\nIn late 1999, Honda launched the first commercial hybrid electric car sold in the U.S. market, the Honda Insight, just one month before the introduction of the Toyota Prius, and initially sold for US$20,000. The first-generation Insight was produced from 2000 to 2006 and had a fuel economy of 70 mpgus for the EPA's highway rating, the most fuel-efficient mass-produced car at the time. Total global sales for the Insight amounted to only around 18,000 vehicles. Cumulative global sales reached 100,000 hybrids in 2005 and 200,000 in 2007.\n\nHonda introduced the second-generation Insight in Japan in February 2009, and released it in other markets through 2009 and in the U.S. market in April 2009. At $19,800 as a five-door hatchback it will be the least expensive hybrid available in the U.S. \n\nSince 2002, Honda has also been selling the Honda Civic Hybrid (2003 model) in the U.S. market. It was followed by the Honda Accord Hybrid, offered in model years 2005 through 2007. Sales of the Honda CR-Z began in Japan in February 2010, becoming Honda's third hybrid electric car in the market. , Honda was producing around 200,000 hybrids a year in Japan. \n\nSales of the Fit Hybrid began in Japan in October 2010, at the time, the lowest price for a gasoline-hybrid electric vehicle sold in the country. The European version, called Honda Jazz Hybrid, was released in early 2011. During 2011 Honda launched three hybrid models available only in Japan, the Fit Shuttle Hybrid, Freed Hybrid and Freed Spike Hybrid.\n\nHonda's cumulative global hybrid sales passed the 1 million unit milestone at the end of September 2012, 12 years and 11 months after sales of the first generation Insight began in Japan November 1999. A total of 187,851 hybrids were sold worldwide in 2013, and 158,696 hybrids during the first six months of 2014. Honda sold 187,851 hybrids in 2013. Honda sold 158,696 hybrids during the first six months of 2014. , Honda has sold more than 1.35 million hybrids worldwide.\n\nHydrogen fuel cell \n\nIn Takanezawa, Japan, on 16 June 2008, Honda Motors produced the first assembly-line FCX Clarity, a hybrid hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. More efficient than a gas-electric hybrid vehicle, the FCX Clarity combines hydrogen and oxygen from ordinary air to generate electricity for an electric motor. In July 2014 Honda announced the end of production of the Honda FCX Clarity for the 2015 model.\n\nThe vehicle itself does not emit any pollutants and its only by products are heat and water. The FCX Clarity also has an advantage over gas-electric hybrids in that it does not use an internal combustion engine to propel itself. Like a gas-electric hybrid, it uses a lithium ion battery to assist the fuel cell during acceleration and capture energy through regenerative braking, thus improving fuel efficiency. The lack of hydrogen filling stations throughout developed countries will keep production volumes low. Honda will release the vehicle in groups of 150. California is the only U.S. market with infrastructure for fueling such a vehicle, though the number of stations is still limited. Building more stations is expensive, as the California Air Resources Board (CARB) granted $6.8 million for four H2 fueling stations, costing $1.7 million USD each. \n\nPlug-in electric vehicles \n\nThe all-electric Honda EV Plus was introduced in 1997 as a result of CARB's zero-emissions vehicle mandate and was available only for leasing in California. The EV plus was the first battery electric vehicle from a major automaker with non-lead–acid batteries The EV Plus had an all-electric range of 100 mi. Around 276 units were sold in the U.S. and production ended in 1999. See Appendix E: Table E.1, pp. 124\n\nThe all-electric Honda Fit EV was introduced in 2012 and has a range of . The all-electric car was launched in the U.S. to retail customers in July 2012 with initial availability limited to California and Oregon. Production is limited to only 1,100 units over the first three years. A total of 1,007 units have been leased in the U.S. through September 2014. See the section: December 2012 Plug-in Electric Car Sales Numbers The Fit EV was released in Japan through leasing to local government and corporate customers in August 2012. Availability in the Japanese market is limited to 200 units during its first two years. In July 2014 Honda announced the end of production of the Fit EV for the 2015 model.\n\nThe Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid was introduced in 2013 and has an all-electric range of Sales began in the U.S. in January 2013 and the plug-in hybrid is available only in California and New York. A total of 835 units have been sold in the U.S. through September 2014. The Accord PHEV was introduced in Japan in June 2013 and is available only for leasing, primarily to corporations and government agencies. \n\nMarketing \n\nJapan \n\nStarting in 1978, Honda in Japan decided to diversify its sales distribution channels, and created Honda Verno, which sold established products with a higher content of standard equipment and a more sporting nature. The establishment of Honda Verno coincided with its new sports compact, called the Honda Prelude. Later, the Honda Vigor, the Honda Ballade, and the Honda Quint were added to Honda Verno stores. This approach was implemented due to efforts in place by rival Japanese automakers Toyota and Nissan.\n\nAs sales progressed, Honda created two more sales channels, called Honda Clio in 1984, and Honda Primo in 1985. The Honda Clio chain sold products that were traditionally associated with Honda dealerships before 1978, like the Honda Accord, and Honda Primo sold the Honda Civic, kei cars, such as the Honda Today, superminis like the Honda Capa, along with other Honda products, such as farm equipment, lawn mowers, portable generators, marine equipment, plus motorcycles and scooters like the Honda Super Cub. A styling tradition was established when Honda Primo and Clio began operations, in that all Verno products had the rear license plate installed in the rear bumper, while Primo and Clio products had the rear license plate installed on the trunk lid or rear door for minivans.\n\nAs time progressed and sales began to diminish partly due to the collapse of the Japanese \"bubble economy\", \"supermini\" and \"kei\" vehicles that were specific to Honda Primo were \"badge engineered\" and sold at the other two sales channels, thereby providing smaller vehicles that sold better at both Honda Verno and Honda Clio locations. As of March 2006, the three sales chains were discontinued, with the establishment of Honda Cars dealerships. While the network was disbanded, some Japanese Honda dealerships still use the network names, offering all Japanese market Honda cars at all locations.\n\nHonda sells genuine accessories through a separate retail chain called Honda Access for both their motorcycle, scooter and automobile products. In cooperation with corporate \"keiretsu\" partner Pioneer, Honda sells an aftermarket line of audio and in-car navigation equipment that can be installed in any vehicle under the brand name Gathers, which is available at Honda Access locations as well as Japanese auto parts retailers, such as Autobacs. Buyers of used vehicles are directed to a specific Honda retail chain that sells only used vehicles called Honda Auto Terrace.\n\nIn the spring of 2012, Honda in Japan introduced [http://www.honda.co.jp/hondacars/smallstore/?from=HondaCars-footer Honda Cars Small Store] (Japanese) which is devoted to compact cars like the Honda Fit, and kei vehicles like the Honda N-One and Honda S660 roadster.\n\nDealership list \n\n*All cars sold at Honda Verno\nPrelude, Integra, CR-X, Vigor, Saber, Ballade, Quint, Crossroad, Element, NSX, HR-V, Mobilio Spike, S2000, CR-V, That's, MDX, Rafaga, Capa, and the Torneo\n\n*All cars sold at Honda Clio\nAccord, Legend, Inspire, Avancier, S-MX, Lagreat, Stepwgn, Elysion, Stream, Odyssey (int'l), Domani, Concerto, Accord Tourer, Logo, Fit, Insight, That's, Mobilio, and the City\n\n*All cars sold at Honda Primo\nCivic, Life, Acty, Vamos, Hobio, Ascot, Ascot Innova, Torneo, Civic Ferio, Freed, Mobilio, Orthia, Capa, Today, Z, and the Beat\n\nInternational efforts \n\nIn 2003, Honda released its Cog advertisement in the UK and on the Internet. To make the ad, the engineers at Honda constructed a Rube Goldberg Machine made entirely out of car parts from a Honda Accord Touring. To the chagrin of the engineers at Honda, all the parts were taken from two of only six hand-assembled pre-production models of the Accord. The advertisement depicted a single cog which sets off a chain of events that ends with the Honda Accord moving and Garrison Keillor speaking the tagline, \"Isn't it nice when things just... work?\" It took 606 takes to get it perfect. \n\nIn 2004, they produced the Grrr advert, usually immediately followed by a shortened version of the 2005 Impossible Dream advert.\n\nIn December 2005, Honda released The Impossible Dream a two-minute panoramic advertisement filmed in New Zealand, Japan and Argentina which illustrates the founder's dream to build performance vehicles. While singing the song \"Impossible Dream\", a man reaches for his racing helmet, leaves his trailer on a minibike, then rides a succession of vintage Honda vehicles: a motorcycle, then a car, then a powerboat, then goes over a waterfall only to reappear piloting a hot air balloon, with Garrison Keillor saying \"I couldn't have put it better myself\" as the song ends. The song is from the 1960s musical Man Of La Mancha, sung by Andy Williams.\n\nIn 2006, Honda released its Choir advertisement, for the UK and the internet. This had a 60-person choir who sang the car noises as film of the Honda Civic are shown.\n\nIn the mid to late 2000s in the United States, during model close-out sales for the current year before the start of the new model year, Honda's advertising has had an animated character known simply as Mr. Opportunity, voiced by Rob Paulsen. The casual looking man talked about various deals offered by Honda and ended with the phrase \"I'm Mr. Opportunity, and I'm knockin'\", followed by him \"knocking\" on the television screen or \"thumping\" the speaker at the end of radio ads. In addition, commercials for Honda's international hatchback, the Jazz, are parodies of well-known pop culture images such as Tetris and Thomas The Tank Engine.\n\nIn late 2006, Honda released an ad with ASIMO exploring a museum, looking at the exhibits with almost childlike wonderment (spreading out its arms in the aerospace exhibit, waving hello to an astronaut suit that resembles him, etc.), while Garrison Keillor ruminates on progress. It concludes with the tagline: \"More forwards please\".\n\nHonda also sponsored ITV's coverage of Formula One in the UK for 2007. However they had announced that they would not continue in 2008 due to the sponsorship price requested by ITV being too high.\n\nIn May 2007, focuses on their strengths in racing and the use of the Red H badge – a symbol of what is termed as \"Hondamentalism\". The campaign highlights the lengths that Honda engineers go to in order to get the most out of an engine, whether it is for bikes, cars, powerboats – even lawnmowers. Honda released its [http://www.honda.co.uk/hondamentalism/?campaignid=CM059600W01G Hondamentalism] campaign. In the TV spot, Garrison Keillor says, \"An engineer once said to build something great is like swimming in honey\", while Honda engineers in white suits walk and run towards a great light, battling strong winds and flying debris, holding on to anything that will keep them from being blown away. Finally one of the engineers walks towards a red light, his hand outstretched. A web address is shown for the Hondamentalism website. The digital campaign aims to show how visitors to the site share many of the Hondamentalist characteristics.\n\nAt the beginning of 2008, Honda released – the Problem Playground. The advert outlines Honda's environmental responsibility, demonstrating a hybrid engine, more efficient solar panels and the FCX Clarity, a hydrogen powered car. The 90 second advert has large scale puzzles, involving Rubik's Cubes, large shapes and a 3-dimensional puzzle.\n\nOn 29 May 2008, Honda, in partnership with Channel 4, broadcast a live advertisement. It showed skydivers jumping from an aeroplane over Spain and forming the letters H, O, N, D and A in mid-air. This live advertisement is generally agreed to be the first of its kind on British television. The advert lasted three minutes. \n\nIn 2009, American Honda released the Dream the Impossible documentary series, a collection of 5–8 minute web vignettes that focus on the core philosophies of Honda. Current short films include Failure: The Secret to Success, Kick Out the Ladder and Mobility 2088. They have Honda employees as well as Danica Patrick, Christopher Guest, Ben Bova, Chee Pearlman, Joe Johnston and Orson Scott Card. The film series plays at dreams.honda.com.\n\nSports \n\nIn Australia, Honda advertised heavily during most motor racing telecasts, and was the official sponsor of the 2006 FIA Formula 1 telecast on broadcaster channel \"Ten\". In fact, it was the only manufacturer involved in the 2006 Indy Racing League season. In a series of adverts promoting the history of Honda's racing heritage, Honda claimed it \"built\" cars that won 72 Formula 1 Grand Prix. Skeptics have accused Honda of interpreting its racing history rather liberally, saying that virtually all of the 72 victories were achieved by Honda powered (engined) machines, whereas the cars themselves were designed and built by Lotus F1, Williams F1, and McLaren F1 teams, respectively. However, former and current staff of the McLaren F1 team have reiterated that Honda contributed more than just engines and provided various chassis, tooling, and aerodynamic parts as well as funding.\n\nThe late F1 driver Ayrton Senna stated that Honda probably played the most significant role in his three world championships. He had immense respect for founder, Soichiro Honda, and had a good relationship with Nobuhiko Kawamoto, the chairman of Honda at that time. Senna once called Honda \"the greatest company in the world\".\n\nAs part of its marketing campaign, Honda is an official partner and sponsor of the National Hockey League, the Anaheim Ducks of the NHL, and the arena named after it: Honda Center. Honda also sponsors The Honda Classic golf tournament and is a sponsor of Major League Soccer. The \"Honda Player of the Year\" award is presented in United States soccer. The \"Honda Sports Award\" is given to the best female athlete in each of twelve college sports in the United States. One of the twelve Honda Sports Award winners is chosen to receive the Honda-Broderick Cup, as \"Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year.\"\n\nHonda will be sponsoring La Liga club Valencia CF starting from 2014–15 season. Valencia CF will carry Honda Cars Valencia insignia on their football kits. \n\nHonda has been a presenting sponsor of the Los Angeles Marathon since 2010 in a three-year sponsorship deal, with winners of the LA Marathon receiving a free Honda Accord. Since 1989, the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge has been a quizbowl tournament for Historically black colleges and universities.\n\nFacilities (partial list) \n\nMainstream models \n\nUS sales \n\nProduction numbers", ", usually shortened to Nissan ( or; Japanese:), is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan.\n\nSince 1999, Nissan has been part of the Renault–Nissan Alliance, a partnership between Nissan and French automaker Renault. As of 2013, Renault holds a 43.4% voting stake in Nissan, while Nissan holds a 15% non-voting stake in Renault. Carlos Ghosn serves as CEO of both companies.\n\nNissan Motor sells its cars under the Nissan, Infiniti, and Datsun brands with in-house performance tuning products labelled Nismo.\n\nNissan was the sixth largest automaker in the world behind Toyota, General Motors, Volkswagen Group, Hyundai Motor Group, and Ford in 2013. Taken together, the Renault–Nissan Alliance would be the world’s fourth largest automaker. Nissan is the leading Japanese brand in China, Russia and Mexico. \n\nHistory\n\nBeginnings of Datsun name from 1914\n\nMasujiro Hashimoto founded the Kwaishinsha Motor Car Works in 1911. In 1914, the company produced its first car, called DAT.\n\nThe new car's name was an acronym of the company's investors' surnames:\n* \n* \n* \n\nIt was renamed to Kwaishinsha Motorcar Co., Ltd. in 1918, and again to DAT Jidosha & Co., Ltd. (DAT Motorcar Co.) in 1925. DAT Motors built trucks in addition to the DAT and Datsun passenger cars. The vast majority of its output were trucks, due to an almost non- existent consumer market for passenger cars at the time. Beginning in 1918, the first DAT trucks were produced for the military market. At the same time, Jitsuyo Jidosha Co., Ltd. produced small trucks using parts, and materials imported from the United States. \n\nIn 1926 the Tokyo-based DAT Motors merged with the Osaka-based a.k.a. Jitsuyo Jidosha Seizo (established 1919 as a Kubota subsidiary) to become in Osaka until 1932. From 1923 to 1925, the company produced light cars and trucks under the name of Lila. \n\nIn 1931, DAT came out with a new smaller car, the first \"Datson\", meaning \"Son of DAT\". Later in 1933 after Nissan took control of DAT Motors, the last syllable of Datson was changed to \"sun\", because \"son\" also means \"loss\" (損) in Japanese, hence the name . \n\nIn 1933, the company name was Nipponized to and was moved to Yokohama.\n\nNissan name first used in 1930s\n\nIn 1928, Yoshisuke Aikawa founded the holding company Nihon Sangyo (日本産業 Japan Industries or Nihon Industries). The name 'Nissan' originated during the 1930s as an abbreviation used on the Tokyo stock market for Nihon Sangyo. This company was the famous Nissan \"Zaibatsu\" which included Tobata Casting and Hitachi. At this time Nissan controlled foundries and auto parts businesses, but Aikawa did not enter automobile manufacturing until 1933. \n\nThe zaibatsu eventually grew to include 74 firms, and became the fourth-largest in Japan during World War II. \n\nIn 1931, DAT Jidosha Seizo became affiliated with Tobata Casting, and was merged into Tobata Casting in 1933. As Tobata Casting was a Nissan company, this was the beginning of Nissan's automobile manufacturing. \n\nNissan Motor founded in 1934\n\nIn 1934, Aikawa separated the expanded automobile parts division of Tobata Casting and incorporated it as a new subsidiary, which he named . The shareholders of the new company however were not enthusiastic about the prospects of the automobile in Japan, so Aikawa bought out all the Tobata Casting shareholders (using capital from Nihon Industries) in June 1934. At this time, Nissan Motor effectively became owned by Nihon Sangyo and Hitachi. \n\nIn 1935, construction of its Yokohama plant was completed. 44 Datsuns were shipped to Asia, Central and South America. In 1935, the first car manufactured by an integrated assembly system rolled off the line at the Yokohama plant. Nissan built trucks, airplanes, and engines for the Japanese military. In 1937, the company's main plant was moved to the occupied Manchuria, and named Manchuria Heavy Industries Developing Co. \n\nIn 1940, first knockdown kits were shipped to Dowa Jidosha Kogyo (Dowa Automobile), one of MHID’s companies, for assembly. In 1944, the head office was moved to Nihonbashi, Tokyo, and the company name was changed to Nissan Heavy Industries, Ltd., which the company kept through 1949.\n\nNissan's early American connection\n\nDAT had inherited Kubota's chief designer, American engineer William R. Gorham. This, along with Aikawa's 1908 visit to Detroit, was to greatly affect Nissan's future. Although it had always been Aikawa's intention to use cutting-edge auto making technology from America, it was Gorham that carried out the plan. Most of the machinery and processes originally came from the United States. When Nissan started to assemble larger vehicles under the “Nissan” brand in 1937, much of the design plans and plant facilities were supplied by the Graham-Paige Company. Nissan also had a Graham license under which passenger cars, buses and trucks were made.\n\nIn David Halberstam's 1986 book The Reckoning, Halberstam states \"In terms of technology, Gorham was the founder of the Nissan Motor Company\" and that \"young Nissan engineers who had never met him spoke of him as a god and could describe in detail his years at the company and his many inventions.\"\n\nAustin Motor Company relations (1937–1960s)\n\nFrom 1934 Datsun began to build Austin 7s under licence. This operation became the greatest success of Austin's overseas licensing of its Seven and marked the beginning of Datsun's international success. \n\nIn 1952, Nissan entered into a legal agreement with Austin, for Nissan to assemble 2,000 Austins from imported partially assembled sets and sell them in Japan under the Austin trademark. The agreement called for Nissan to make all Austin parts locally within three years, a goal Nissan met. Nissan produced and marketed Austins for seven years. The agreement also gave Nissan rights to use Austin patents, which Nissan used in developing its own engines for its Datsun line of cars. In 1953, British-built Austins were assembled and sold, but by 1955, the Austin A50 – completely built by Nissan and featuring a new 1489 cc engine—was on the market in Japan. Nissan produced 20,855 Austins from 1953 to 1959. \n\nNissan leveraged the Austin patents to further develop their own modern engine designs past what the Austin's A- and B-family designs offered. The apex of the Austin-derived engines was the new design A series engine in 1966. In 1967, Nissan introduced its new highly advanced four cylinder overhead cam (OHC) Nissan L engine, which while similar to Mercedes-Benz OHC designs was a totally new engine designed by Nissan. This engine powered the new Datsun 510, which gained Nissan respect in the worldwide sedan market. Then, in 1969 Nissan introduced the Datsun 240Z sports car which used a six-cylinder variation of the L series engine. The 240Z was an immediate sensation and lifted Nissan to world class status in the automobile market. \n\n100 Day Strike of 1953\n\nDuring the Korean War, Nissan was a major vehicle producer for the U.S. Army. After the Korean War ended, significant levels of anti-communist sentiment existed in Japan. The union that organized Nissan's workforce was strong and militant. Nissan was in financial difficulties, and when wage negotiations came, the company took a hard line. Workers were locked out, and several hundred were fired. The Japanese government and the U.S. occupation forces arrested several union leaders. The union ran out of strike funds, and was defeated. A new labor union was formed, with Shioji Ichiro one of its leaders. Ichiro had studied at Harvard University on a U.S. government scholarship. He advanced an idea to trade wage cuts against saving 2,000 jobs. Ichiro's idea was made part of a new union contract that prioritized productivity. Between 1955 and 1973, Nissan \"expanded rapidly on the basis of technical advances supported - and often suggested - by the union.\" Ichiro became president of the Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers Unions and \"the most influential figure in the right wing of the Japanese labor movement.\"\n\nMerger with Prince Motor Company\n\nIn 1966, Nissan merged with the Prince Motor Company, bringing more upmarket cars, including the Skyline and Gloria, into its selection. The Prince name was eventually abandoned, and successive Skylines and Glorias bore the Nissan name. \"Prince,\" was used at the Japanese Nissan dealership \"Nissan Prince Shop\" until 1999, when \"Nissan Red Stage\" replaced it. Nissan Red Stage itself has been replaced as of 2007. The Skyline lives on as the G Series of Infiniti.\n\nMiss Fairlady\n\nTo capitalize the renewed investment during 1964 Summer Olympics, Nissan established the gallery on the second and third floors of the San-ai building, located in Ginza, Tokyo. To attract visitors, Nissan started using beautiful female showroom attendants where Nissan held a competition to choose five candidates as the first class of Nissan Miss Fairladys, modeled after \"Datsun Demonstrators\" from the 1930s who introduced cars. The Fairlady name was used as a link to the popular Broadway play My Fair Lady of the era. Miss Fairladys became the marketers of Datsun Fair Lady 1500. \n\nIn April 2008, 14 more Miss Fairlady candidates were added, for a total of 45 Nissan Miss Fairlady pageants (22 in Ginza, 8 in Sapporo, 7 in Nagoya, 7 in Fukuoka). \n\nIn April 2012, 7 more Miss Fairlady candidates were added, for a total of 48 Nissan Miss Fairlady pageants (26 in Ginza, 8 in Sapporo, 7 in Nagoya, 7 in Fukuoka). \n\nIn April 2013, 6 more Miss Fairlady candidates were added to Ginza showroom, for a total of 27 48th Ginza Nissan Miss Fairlady pageants. \n\nForeign expansion\n\nIn the 1950s, Nissan decided to expand into worldwide markets. Nissan management realized their Datsun small car line would fill an unmet need in markets such as Australia and the world's largest car market, the United States. They first showed cars at the 1958 Los Angeles Auto Show. The company formed a U.S. subsidiary, Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A., in 1960, headed by Yutaka Katayama. Nissan continued to improve their sedans with the latest technological advancements and chic Italianate styling in sporty cars such as the Datsun Fairlady roadsters, the race-winning 411 series, the Datsun 510 and the world-class Datsun 240Z. By 1970, Nissan had become one of the world's largest exporters of automobiles.\n\nIn the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, consumers worldwide (especially in the lucrative U.S. market) began turning to high-quality small economy cars. To meet the growing demand, the company built new factories in Mexico (Nissan Mexicana was established in the early 1960s and commenced manufacturing since 1966 at their Cuernavaca assembly facility, making it their first North American assembly plant), Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, United States (Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corporation USA was established in 1980) and South Africa. The \"Chicken Tax\" of 1964 placed a 25% tax on commercial vans imported to the United States. In response, Nissan, Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. began building plants in the U.S. in the early 1980s. Nissan's initial assembly plant, in Smyrna, Tennessee (which broke ground in 1980), at first built only trucks such as the 720 and Hardbody, but has since expanded to produce several car and SUV lines, including the Altima, Maxima, Xterra, Pathfinder and LEAF all-electric car. The addition of mass-market automobiles was in response to the 1981 Voluntary Export Restraints imposed by the U.S. Government. An engine plant in Decherd, Tennessee followed, most recently a second assembly plant was established in Canton, Mississippi. In 1970, Teocar was created, which was a Greek assembly plant created in cooperation with Theoharakis. It was situated in Volos, Greece and its geographical location was perfect as the city had a major port. The plant started production in 1980, assembling Datsun pick-up trucks and continued with the Nissan Cherry & Sunny vehicles. Until May 1995 170,000 vehicles were made, mainly for Greece.\n\nIn order to overcome export tariffs and delivery costs to its European customers, Nissan contemplated establishing a plant in Europe. Nissan tried to convert the Greek plant into one manufacturing cars for all European countries however due to issues with the Greek government not only did that not happen but the plant itself was closed. After an extensive review, Sunderland in the north east of England was chosen for its skilled workforce and its location near major ports. The plant was completed in 1986 as the subsidiary Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd. By 2007, it was producing 400,000 vehicles per year, landing it the title of the most productive plant in Europe.\n\nIn 2001, Nissan established a manufacturing plant in Brazil. In 2005, Nissan added operations in India, through its subsidiary Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd. With its global alliance partner, Renault, Nissan invested $990 million to set up a manufacturing facility in Chennai, catering to the Indian market as well as a base for exports of small cars to Europe. \nNissan entered the Middle East market in 1957 when it sold its first car in Saudi Arabia. Nissan sold nearly 520,000 new vehicles in China in 2009 in a joint venture with Dongfeng Motor. To meet increased production targets, Dongfeng-Nissan expanded its production base in Guangzhou, which would become Nissan's largest factory around the globe in terms of production capacity. Nissan also has moved and expanded its Nissan Americas Inc. headquarters, moving from Los Angeles to Franklin, Tennessee in the Nashville area. \n\nIn 2014, Nissan cars will be produced by Renault-Samsung in South Korea. This production will start with 80,000 Nissan Rogue/X-Trail produced by Renault-Samsung Busan factory in South Korea, instead of being produced by Nissan in Japan.\n\nRelationships with other car companies\n\n;Ford Motor Company\nIn Australia, between 1989 and 1992, Nissan Australia shared models with Ford Australia under a government-backed rationalisation scheme known as the Button Plan, with a version of the Nissan Pintara being sold as the Ford Corsair and a version of the Ford Falcon as the Nissan Ute. A variant of the Nissan Patrol was sold as the Ford Maverick during the 1988-94 model years.\n\nIn North America, Nissan partnered with Ford from 1993 to 2002 to market the Ohio built Mercury Villager and the Nissan Quest. The two minivans were virtually identical aside from cosmetic differences. In 2002, Nissan and Ford announced the discontinuation of the arrangement. \n\nIn Europe, Nissan and Ford Europe partnered to produce the Nissan Terrano II and the badge engineered Ford Maverick, a mid-size SUV produced at the Nissan Motor Ibérica S.A (NMISA) plant in Barcelona, Spain. The Maverick/Terrano II was a popular vehicle sold throughout Europe and Australasia. It was also sold in Japan as a captive import, with the Nissan model marketed as the Nissan Mistral.\n\n;Volkswagen\nNissan licensed the Volkswagen Santana. Production began in 1984, at Nissan's Zama, Kanagawa, and ended in May 1990.\n\n;Alfa Romeo\nFrom 1983 to 1987, Nissan cooperated with Alfa Romeo to build the Arna. The goal was for Alfa to compete in the family hatchback market segment, and for Nissan to establish a foothold in the European market. After Alfa Romeo's takeover by Fiat, both the car and cooperation were discontinued.\n\n;General Motors\nIn Europe, GM and Nissan co-operated on the Light Commercial vehicle the Nissan Primastar. The high roof version is built in the NMISA plant in Barcelona, Spain; while the low roof version is built at Vauxhall Motors/Opel's Luton plant in Bedfordshire, UK\n\nIn 2013, GM announced its intentions to rebadge the Nissan NV200 commercial van as the 2015 model year Chevrolet City Express, to be introduced by end of 2014. Holden, GM's Australian subsidiary, sold versions of the Nissan Pulsar as the Holden Astra between 1984 and 1989. \n\n;LDV\nLDV Group sold a badge engineered light commercial vehicle version of the Nissan Serena as the LDV Cub from 1996 to 2001. The Nissan equivalent was marketed as the Nissan Vannette Cargo.\n\nAlliance with Renault\n\nIn 1999, with Nissan facing severe financial difficulties, Nissan entered an alliance with Renault S.A. of France. \n\nSigned on 27 March 1999, the Renault-Nissan Alliance was the first of its kind involving a Japanese and French car manufacturer, each with its own distinct corporate culture and brand identity. In June 2001, Carlos Ghosn was named Chief Executive Officer of Nissan. In May 2005, Ghosn was named President of Renault. He was appointed President and CEO of Renault on 6 May 2009. Nissan's management is a trans-cultural, diverse team. \n\nThe Renault-Nissan Alliance has evolved over years to Renault holding 43.4% of Nissan shares, while Nissan holds 15% of Renault shares. The alliance itself is incorporated as the Renault-Nissan B.V., founded on 28 March 2002 under Dutch law. Renault-Nissan B.V. is equally owned by Renault and Nissan. \n\nUnder CEO Ghosn's \"Nissan Revival Plan\" (NRP), the company has rebounded in what many leading economists consider to be one of the most spectacular corporate turnarounds in history, catapulting Nissan to record profits and a dramatic revitalization of both its Nissan and Infiniti model line-ups. Ghosn has been recognized in Japan for the company's turnaround in the midst of an ailing Japanese economy. Ghosn and the Nissan turnaround were featured in Japanese manga and popular culture. His achievements in revitalizing Nissan were noted by the Japanese Government, which awarded him the Japan Medal with Blue Ribbon in 2004. \n\nOn 7 April 2010, Daimler AG exchanged a 3.9% share of its holdings for 3.9% from both Nissan and Renault. This triple alliance allows for the increased sharing of technology and development costs, encouraging global cooperation and mutual development. \n\nOn 12 December 2012, the Renault–Nissan Alliance formed a joint venture with Russian Technologies (Alliance Rostec Auto BV) with the aim of becoming the long-term controlling shareholder of AvtoVAZ, Russia’s largest car company and owner of the country's biggest selling brand, Lada. The takeover was completed in June 2014, and the two companies of the Renault-Nissan Alliance took a combined 67.1% stake of Alliance Rostec, which in turn acquired a 74.5% of AvtoVAZ, thereby giving Renault and Nissan indirect control over the Russian manufacturer. Ghosn was appointed Chairman of the Board of AvtoVAZ on 27 June 2013. \n\n \n\nTaken together, the Renault–Nissan Alliance sells one in ten cars worldwide, and would be the world's fourth largest automaker with 2013 sales of 8,266,098 units. \n\nOther alliances and joint ventures\n\n* In 2003, Nissan and Dongfeng Motor Corporation formed a 50:50 joint venture with the name Dongfeng Motor Co. Ltd (DFL). The company calls itself “China's first automotive joint venture enterprise with a complete series of trucks, buses, light commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles,” and “the largest joint-venture project of its scale.” \n* On 7 April 2010, Daimler AG exchanged a 3.1% share of its holdings for 3.1% from both Nissan and Renault. This triple alliance allows for the increased sharing of technology and development costs, encouraging global cooperation and mutual development.\n* On 12 December 2012, the Renault–Nissan Alliance formed a joint venture with Russian Technologies (Alliance Rostec Auto BV) with the aim of becoming the long-term controlling shareholder of AvtoVAZ, Russia’s largest car company and owner of the country's biggest selling brand, Lada. Carlos Ghosn was appointed Chairman of the Board of AvtoVAZ on 27 June 2013. \n* Nissan is in an alliance with Ashok Leyland in India, producing light commercial vehicles.\n* Together with Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan develops mini cars which are produced at Mitsubishi’s Mizushima plant in Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan. In May 2016 Nissan bought a controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors for an estimated 2 billion dollars.\n\nLeadership\n\nPresidents and chief executive officers of Nissan:\n*1933-1939: Yoshisuke Aikawa\n*1939-1942: Masasuke Murakami\n*1942-1944: Genshichi Asahara\n*1944-1945: Haruto Kudo\n*1945: Takeshi Murayama\n*1945-1947: Souji Yamamoto\n*1947-1951: Taichi Minoura\n*1951-1957: Genshichi Asahara\n*1957-1973: Katsuji Kawamata\n*1973-1977: Tadahiro Iwakoshi\n*1977-1985: Takashi Ishihara\n*1985-1992: Yutaka Kume\n*1992-1996: Yoshifume Tsuji\n*1996-2001: Yoshikazu Hanawa\n*2001–present: Carlos Ghosn\n\nBranding and corporate identity\n\nBrands \n\nNissan: Nissan's volume models are sold worldwide under the Nissan brand.\n\nDatsun: Until 1983, Nissan automobiles in most export markets were sold under the Datsun brand. In 1984 the Datsun brand was phased out and the Nissan brand was phased in. All cars in 1984 had both the Datsun and Nissan branding on them and in 1985 the Datsun name was completely dropped. In July 2013, Nissan announced the relaunch of Datsun as a brand targeted at emerging markets.\n\nInfiniti: Since 1989, Nissan has sold its luxury models under the Infiniti brand. 2012 Infiniti changed its headquarters to Hong Kong, where it is incorporated as Infiniti Global Limited. President is former BMW executive Roland Krueger. From 2014 on, Infiniti cars are being sold also in Japan. \n\nNismo: Nissan's in-house tuning shop is Nismo, short for \"Nissan Motorsport International Limited.\" Nismo is being re-positioned as Nissan's performance brand. \n\nCorporate identity\n\nFor many years, Nissan used a red wordmark for the company, and car \"badges\" for the \"Nissan\" and \"Infiniti\" brands. \n\nAt Nissan's 2013 earnings press conference in Yokohama, Nissan unveiled \"a new steel-blue logo that spells out—literally—the distinction between Nissan the company and Nissan the brand.\" Using a blue-gray color scheme, the new corporate logo did read NISSAN MOTOR COMPANY. Underneath were the \"badge\" logos for the Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun brands.\n\nLater in 2013, the Nissan \"Company\" logo changed to the Nissan \"Corporation\" logo. The latter is the currently used logo of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. \n\nSlogans\n\n* 世界の日産 (romaji: Sekai no Nissan, English: The world of Nissan; 1960s)\n* 人とくるまの調和をめざす 日産自動車 (romaji: Hito to kuruma no chōwa o mezasu Nissanjidōsha, English: Nissan aims at harmony between people and cars; 1970-1973)\n* 人とクルマの明日をめざす 日産自動車 (romaji: Hito to kuruma no ashita o mezasu Nissanjidōsha, English: Nissan aims at tomorrow's people and cars; 1974-1977)\n* 人とクルマの明日をめざす 技術の日産 (romaji: Hito to kuruma no ashita o mezasu gijutsu no Nissan, English: Nissan technology aims at tomorrow's people and cars; 1978-1981)\n* 世界に愛される 先進技術の日産 (romaji: Sekai ni aisareru senshin gijutsu no Nissan, English: The world loves Nissan advanced technology; 1983)\n* もう走り始めています 21世紀へ 先進技術の日産 (romaji: Mō hashiri hajimete imasu 21 seiki e senshin gijutsu no Nissan, English: Nissan advanced technology began in the 21st Century; 1983-1985)\n* Feel The Beat もっと楽しく感じるままに 技術の日産 (romaji: Feel The Beat motto tanoshiku kanjiru mama ni gijutsu no Nissan, English: Feel The Beat, more fun feel remains to the Nissan Technology; 1985-1991)\n* LIFE TOGETHER もっと楽しく感じるままに 技術の日産 (romaji: LIFE TOGETHER motto tanoshiku kanjiru mama ni gijutsu no Nissan, English: LIFE TOGETHER more fun feel remains to the Nissan Technology; 1991-1998)\n* もっと日産になる (romaji: Motto Nissan ni naru, English: There's more to Nissan; 1997-1998)\n* クルマのよろこびを日産 です (romaji: Kuruma no yorokobi o, Nissan desu, English: The joy in the car, it's Nissan; 1999-2000)\n* NISSAN, RENAISSANCE (2000-2001)\n* SHIFT_the future (2001-2008)\n* SHIFT_the way you move (2008-2012)\n* SHIFT_ (2012-2013)\n* Innovation that excites (2013-present)\n\nProducts\n\nAutomotive products\n\nMain articles: List of Nissan vehicles and List of Nissan engines.\nNissan has produced an extensive range of mainstream cars and trucks, initially for domestic consumption but exported around the world since the 1950s.\n\nIt also produced several memorable sports cars, including the Datsun Fairlady 1500, 1600 and 2000 Roadsters, the Z-car, an affordable sports car originally introduced in 1969; and the GT-R, a powerful all-wheel-drive sports coupe.\n\nIn 1985, Nissan created a tuning division, Nismo, for competition and performance development of such cars. One of Nismo's latest models is the 370Z Nismo.\n\nNissan also sells a range of kei cars, mainly as a joint venture with other Japanese manufacturers like Suzuki or Mitsubishi. Until 2013, Nissan rebadged kei cars built by other manufacturers. Beginning in 2013, Nissan and Mitsubishi shared the development of the Nissan DAYZ / Mitsubishi eK Wagon series. Nissan also has shared model development of Japanese domestic cars with other manufacturers, particularly Mazda, Subaru, Suzuki and Isuzu.\n\nIn China, Nissan produces cars in association with the Dongfeng Motor Group including the 2006 Nissan Livina Geniss, the first in a range of a new worldwide family of medium-sized car.\n\nIn 2010, Nissan created another tuning division,IPL, this time for their premium/luxury brand Infiniti.\n\nIn 2011, after Nissan released the Nissan NV-Series in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, Nissan created a commercial sub brand called Nissan Commercial Vehicles which focuses on commercial vans, pickup trucks, and fleet vehicles for the US, Canadian, and Mexican Markets. \n\nIn 2013, Nissan launched the Qashqai SUV in South Africa, along with their new motorsport Qashqai Car Games.\n\nJapan\n\nAs of 2007 in Japan, Nissan sells its products with internationally recognized \"Nissan\" signage, using a chrome circle with \"Nissan\" across the front.\n\nPreviously, Nissan used two dealership names called , , and , established in 1999 after the merger with Renault.\n\nNissan Red Stage was the result of combining an older sales channel of dealerships under the names , established in 1966 after the merger of Prince Motors by Nissan, which sold the Nissan Skyline, , which sold cars developed from the Nissan Sunny at its introduction in 1966, and , cars associated with the Nissan Cherry and established in 1970. The word \"satio\" is Latin, which means ample or sufficient.\n\nNissan Blue Stage was the result of combining older sales channels, called in 1955, then renamed \"Nissan Bluebird Store\" in 1966, selling Nissan's original post-war products called the Datsun Bluebird, Datsun Sports, Datsun Truck, Datsun Cabstar, and Nissan Cedric. was established in 1965, and offered luxury sedans like the Nissan Laurel and the Nissan President. In 1970, Nissan also set up a separate sales chain which sold used cars including auctions, called , which they still maintain.\n\nIn the early days of Nissan's dealership network, Japanese consumers were directed towards specific Nissan stores for cars that were of a specific size and pricepoint. Over time as sales progressed and the Japanese automotive industry became more prolific, vehicles that were dedicated to particular stores were badge engineered, given different names, and shared within the existing networks thereby selling the same platforms at different locations. The networks allowed Nissan to better compete with the network established earlier by Toyota at Japanese locations.\nStarting in 1960, another sales distribution channel was established that sold diesel products for commercial use, called Nissan Diesel until the diesel division was sold in 2007 to Volvo AB. To encourage retail sales, Nissan passenger vehicles that were installed with diesel engines, like the Cedric, were available at Nissan Diesel locations.\n\nAll cars sold at Nissan Blue Stage (1999–2005):\nFairlady Z, Serena, Cedric, Liberty, Cefiro, Laurel, President, Bluebird, Presage, Presea, Terrano, Leopard, Avenir, Nissan Truck, Safari, Hypermini, Caravan, Murano\n\nAll cars sold at Nissan Store (later Nissan Bluebird Store, Nissan Exhibition), Nissan Motor Store, (1955–1999):\nLiberta Villa, Bluebird, C80, Caball, Datsun Junior, Datsun Truck, Cabstar, Caravan, Civilian, Patrol, Datsun Sports, Leopard, Maxima, Fairlady Z, Gazelle, Terrano, Avenir, Cefiro, Laurel, Laurel Spirit, Prairie, Cedric, President\n\nAll cars sold at Nissan Red Stage (1999–2005):\nX-Trail. Teana, Cima, Sylphy, Crew, Skyline, Civilian, Silvia, Tino, Gloria, Pulsar, Sunny, R'nessa, Rasheen, Bassara, Primera, Mistral, Stagea, ADvan, Cube, Largo, Vanette, Clipper, Homy, Elgrand, Safari, Wingroad, Atlas, Murano\n\nAll cars sold at Nissan Prince Store, Nissan Satio Store, Nissan Cherry Store (1966–1999):\nCima, Gloria, Skyline, Primera, Auster, Stanza, Violet, Pulsar, Pulsar EXA, NX, Langley, Volkswagen Santana, Volkswagen Passat, 180SX, Safari, Mistral, Elgrand, Homy, Bassara, Largo, Serena, Stagea, Wingroad, Expert, AD van, Vanette, Clipper, Atlas, Homer(cabover truck), Cherry, Sunny, Lucino, Cherry Vanette, Be-1, Pao, Figaro, S-Cargo\n\nNissan has classified several vehicles as \"premium\" and select dealerships offer the \"Nissan Premium Factory\" catalog. Vehicles in this category are:\nSkyline, Fuga, Cima, Fairlady Z, Murano, and the Elgrand. \n\nTrucks\n\nNissan Cabstar (日産・キャブスター Nissan Kyabusutā) is the name used in Japan for two lines of pickup trucks and light commercial vehicles sold by Nissan and built by UD Nissan Diesel, a Volvo AB company and by Renault-Nissan Alliance for the European market. The name originated with the 1968 Datsun Cabstar, but this was gradually changed over to \"Nissan\" badging in the early 1980s. The lighter range (1-1.5 tons) replaced the earlier Cabstar and Homer, while the heavier Caball and Clipper were replaced by the 2-4 ton range Atlas (日産・アトラス Nissan Atorasu). The nameplate was first introduced in December 1981.The Cabstar is known also as the Nissan Cabstar, Renault Maxity and Samsung SV110 depending on the location. The range has been sold across the world. It shares its platform with the Nissan Caravan.\n\nJapan\n\nThe first Cabstar (A320) appeared in March 1968, as a replacement for the earlier Datsun Cablight. It is a cab-over engine truck and was available either as a truck, light van (glazed van), or as a \"route van\" (bus). It uses the 1189 cc Nissan D12 engine with 56 PS (41 kW). After some modifications and the new 1.3 liter J13 engine, with 67 PS (49 kW), in August 1970 the code became A321. The Cabstar underwent another facelift with an entirely new front clip in May 1973. The 1483 cc J15 engine became standard fitment at this time (PA321), with 77 PS (57 kW) at 5200 rpm. The Cabstar was placed just beneath the slightly bigger Homer range in Nissan's commercial vehicle lineup. It received a full makeover in January 1976, although the van models were not replaced.\n\nSecond generation\n\nThe F20 Nissan Homer, introduced in January 1976, was also sold as the Nissan Datsun Cabstar in Japan. Both ranges were sold with either a 1.5 (J15) or a 2.0 liter (H20) petrol inline-four or with the 2.2 liter SD22 diesel engine. The F20 received a desmogged engine range in September 1979 and with it a new chassis code, F21. Manufacturing of the heavier range (H40-series) Atlas began in December 1981, while the lighter series Atlas (F22) was introduced in February 1982 - this succeeded both the Homer and Cabstar ranges and the nameplate has not been used in the Japanese market since.\n\nEurope\n\nThe Atlas F22 was sold in Europe as the Nissan Cabstar and proved a popular truck in the UK market due to its reliability and ability to carry weight. From 1990 the range widened and was sold as the Cabstar E. Actually (2015) the Cabstar is manufactured in the NSIO (Nissan Spanish Industrial Operations) Plant in Ávila, Spain under the brand name of NT400.\n\nThe Nissan Titan was introduced in 2004, as a full-size pickup truck produced for the North American market, the truck shares the stretched Nissan F-Alpha platform with the Nissan Armada and Infiniti QX56 SUVs. It was listed by Edmunds.com as the best full-size truck. \n\nElectric vehicles\n\nNissan introduced its first battery electric vehicle, the Nissan Altra at the Los Angeles International Auto Show on 29 December 1997. Unveiled in 2009, the EV-11 prototype electric car was based on the Nissan Tiida (Versa in North America), with the conventional gasoline engine replaced with an all-electric drivetrain. \n\nIn 2010, Nissan introduced the Nissan LEAF as the first mass-market, all-electric vehicle launched globally. , the Nissan Leaf is the world's best selling highway-capable all-electric car ever. Global sales totaled 100,000 Leafs by mid January 2014, representing a 45% market share of worldwide pure electric vehicles sold since 2010. Global Leaf sales passed the 200,000 unit milestone in December 2015, and the Leaf still ranked as the best selling all-electric car in history. See editorial note. More than 200,000 Nissan Leafs have been sold worldwide.\n\nNissan's second all-electric vehicle, the Nissan e-NV200, was announced in November 2013. Series production at the Nissan Plan in Barcelona, Spain, begun on May 7, 2014. The e-NV200 commercial van is based on the Nissan Leaf. Nissan plans to launch two additional battery electric vehicles by March 2017. \n\nIn June 2016, Nissan announced it will introduce its first range extender car in Japan before March 2017. The series plug-in hybrid will use a new hybrid system, dubbed e-Power, which debuted with the Nissan Gripz concept crossover showcased at the September 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show. \n\nAutonomous cars\n\nIn August 2013 Nissan announced its plans to launch several driverless cars by 2020. The company is building a dedicated autonomous driving proving ground in Japan, to be completed in 2014. Nissan installed its autonomous car technology in a Nissan Leaf all-electric car for demonstration purposes. The car was demonstrated at Nissan 360 test drive event held in California in August 2013. In September 2013, the Leaf fitted with the prototype Advanced Driver Assistance System was granted a license plate that allows to drive it on Japanese public roads. The testing car will be used by Nissan engineers to evaluate how its in-house autonomous driving software performs in the real world. Time spent on public roads will help refine the car’s software for fully automated driving. The autonomous Leaf was demonstrated on public roads for the first time at a media event held in Japan in November 2013. The Leaf drove on the Sagami Expressway in Kanagawa prefecture, near Tokyo. Nissan vice chairman Toshiyuki Shiga and the prefecture’s Governor, Yuji Kuroiwa, rode in the car during the test. \n\nNon-automotive products\n\nNissan has also had a number of ventures outside the automotive industry, most notably the Tu–Ka mobile phone service (est. 1994), which was sold to DDI and Japan Telecom (both now merged into KDDI) in 1999. Nissan offers a subscription-based telematics service in select vehicles to drivers in Japan, called CarWings. Nissan also owns Nissan Marine, a joint venture with Tohatsu Corp that produces motors for smaller boats and other maritime equipment.\n\nNissan also built the M-V orbital rocket. \n\nMarketing activities\n\nNismo is the motorsports division of Nissan, founded in 1984. Nismo cars have participated in the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship, Super GT, IMSA GT Championship, World Sportscar Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship, British Touring Car Championship, Supercars Championship and Blancpain GT Series. Also, they were featured at the World Series by Nissan from 1998 to 2004.\n\nNissan sponsored the Los Angeles Open golf tournament from 1987 to 2007.\n\nBeginning in 2015, Nissan became the naming rights sponsor for Nissan Stadium, the home of the Tennessee Titans and Tennessee State University football teams in Nashville. Nissan also became the official sponsor of the Heisman Trophy and UEFA Champions League. \n\nGlobal sales figures\n\nManufacturing locations\n\nData extracted from Nissan's international corporate website. \n\n* Japan\n** Oppama, Yokosuka, Kanagawa (Oppama Plant & Research Center)\n** Kaminokawa, Tochigi (Tochigi Plant)\n** Kanda, Fukuoka (Nissan Motor Kyushu & Nissan Shatai Kyushu Plant )\n** Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa (Yokohama Engine Plant, Nissan's oldest factory)\n** Iwaki, Fukushima (Iwaki Engine Plant)\n** Hiratsuka, Kanagawa (Nissan Shatai Shonan Plant)\n** Nagoya, Aichi ([http://www.aichikikai.co.jp/english/index.html Aichi Machine Industry] Atsuta & Eitoku Plants)\n** Matsusaka, Mie (Aichi Machine Industry Matsusaka Plant)\n** Tsu, Mie (Aichi Machine Industry Tsu Plant)\n** Uji, Kyoto (Auto Works Kyoto)\n** Ageo, Saitama (Nissan Diesel Motor, currently owned by the Volvo Group)\n** Samukawa, Kanagawa ([http://www.nissan-kohki.jp/info/english.html Nissan Kohki])\n** Zama, Kanagawa (Assembly lines in the Zama Plant were closed in 1995, currently Global Production Engineering Center and storage unit for its historic models. Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC), a joint-venture between Nissan and NEC, produces lithium-ion batteries in Zama.)\n** Musashimurayama, Tokyo (Assembly lines at the Musashimurayama facility were closed in 2001, and the facility has been repurposed as the Carest Murayama Megamall. It was formerly operated by the Prince Motor Company until 1966 when they merged with Nissan) It is now a museum called Carest Murayama Megamall occupying a 213,252 square foot facility \n* China\n** Wuhan, Hubei (Dongfeng Motor Corporation joint venture)\n** Huadu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong (Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company)\n** Xiangyang, Hubei (Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd.) \n** Zhengzhou, Henan (Zhengzhou Nissan Automobile Co., Ltd.)\n** Dalian, Liaoning (Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company) \n* India\n** Oragadam, Chennai\n* Vietnam\n** Hanoi, Hanoi\n* Indonesia\n** Cikampek, West Java\n* Malaysia\n** Segambut, Kuala Lumpur\n** Serendah, Selangor\n* Philippines\n** Santa Rosa City, Laguna\n* Thailand\n** Bangna, Samutprakarn\n* Taiwan\n** Taipei, Taiwan\n* Mexico\n** Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes\n** Cuernavaca, Morelos\n* Brazil\n** São José dos Pinhais, Paraná (Renault-Nissan plant)\n** Resende, Rio de Janeiro \n* Morocco\n** Tangier (Under construction, Renault-Nissan plant)\n* Egypt\n** 6th of October City, Giza Governorate\n* Kenya\n** Thika, Kiambu County\n* South Africa\n** Rosslyn, Pretoria, Gauteng\n* Spain\n** Barcelona, Catalonia\n** Ávila, Castilla y León\n* United Kingdom\n** Washington, Sunderland, North East England\n* Russia\n** St. Petersburg, Russia\n* United States\n** Smyrna, Tennessee\n** Canton, Mississippi\n** Decherd, Tennessee\n* Australia\n** Dandenong, Victoria Nissan Casting Australia Pty. Ltd" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "The_Simpsons.txt", "Fox_Broadcasting_Company.txt" ], "title": [ "The Simpsons", "Fox Broadcasting Company" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of a working class lifestyle epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional town of Springfield and parodies American culture, society, television, and many aspects of the human condition. It's the 20th Century Fox debut in animation.\n\nThe family was conceived by Groening shortly before a solicitation for a series of animated shorts with the producer James L. Brooks. Groening created a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family, substituting Bart for his own name. The shorts became a part of The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. After a three-season run, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show and was an early hit for Fox, becoming the network's first series to land in the Top 30 ratings in a season (1989–90).\n\nSince its debut on December 17, 1989, the series has broadcast episodes. It will begin airing its 28th season in September 2016. The Simpsons is the longest-running American sitcom, the longest-running American animated program, and in 2009 it surpassed Gunsmoke as the longest-running American scripted primetime television series. The Simpsons Movie, a feature-length film, was released in theaters worldwide on July 27, 2007, and grossed over $527 million. On May 4, 2015, the series was officially renewed for seasons twenty-seven (2015–16) and twenty-eight (2016–17), consisting of 22 episodes each. \n\nThe Simpsons has received widespread critical acclaim, especially for the \"Golden Age\" of approximately its first ten seasons. Time magazine named it the 20th century's best television series, and The A.V. Club named it \"television's crowning achievement regardless of format\". On January 14, 2000, the Simpson family was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 31 Primetime Emmy Awards, 30 Annie Awards, and a Peabody Award. Homer's exclamatory catchphrase \"D'oh!\" has been adopted into the English language, while The Simpsons has influenced many adult-oriented animated sitcoms. Despite this, the show has also been criticized for what many perceive as a decline in quality over the years.\n\nPremise\n\nCharacters\n\nThe Simpsons are a family who live in a fictional \"Middle American\" town of Springfield. Homer, the father, works as a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, a position at odds with his careless, buffoonish personality. He is married to Marge Simpson, a stereotypical American housewife and mother. They have three children: Bart, a ten-year-old troublemaker; Lisa, a precocious eight-year-old activist; and Maggie, the baby of the family who rarely speaks, but communicates by sucking on a pacifier. Although the family is dysfunctional, many episodes examine their relationships and bonds with each other and they are often shown to care about one another. The family owns a dog, Santa's Little Helper, and a cat, Snowball V, renamed Snowball II in \"I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot\". Both pets have had starring roles in several episodes.\n\nThe show includes an array of quirky supporting characters: co-workers, teachers, family friends, extended relatives, townspeople and local celebrities. The creators originally intended many of these characters as one-time jokes or for fulfilling needed functions in the town. A number of them have gained expanded roles and subsequently starred in their own episodes. According to Matt Groening, the show adopted the concept of a large supporting cast from the comedy show SCTV. \n\nDespite the depiction of yearly milestones such as holidays or birthdays passing, the characters do not age between episodes (either physically or in stated age), and generally appear just as they did when the series began. The series uses a floating timeline in which episodes generally take place in the year the episode is produced even though the characters do not age. Flashbacks/forwards do occasionally depict the characters at other points in their lives, with the timeline of these depictions also generally floating relative to the year the episode is produced. In a nod to the non-aging aspect of the show, when asked during the Family Guy crossover episode \"The Simpsons Guy\" how long Nelson Muntz has been bullying him, Bart replies \"24 years.\"\n\nSetting\n\nThe Simpsons takes place in the fictional American town of Springfield in an unknown and impossible-to-determine U.S. state. The show is intentionally evasive in regard to Springfield's location. Springfield's geography, and that of its surroundings, contains coastlines, deserts, vast farmland, tall mountains, or whatever the story or joke requires. Groening has said that Springfield has much in common with Portland, Oregon, the city where he grew up. The name \"Springfield\" is a common one in America and appears in 22 states. Groening has said that he named it after Springfield, Oregon, and the fictitious Springfield which was the setting of the series Father Knows Best. He \"figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S. In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought, 'This will be cool; everyone will think it's their Springfield.' And they do.\" An astronomer and fan of the show, Phil Plait, noticed that The Simpsons could be set in Australia, because the moon in Springfield faces the wrong way to be an American location. It is drawn facing the right, as it would in the Southern Hemisphere. \n\nProduction\n\nDevelopment\n\nWhen producer James L. Brooks was working on the television variety show The Tracey Ullman Show, he decided to include small animated sketches before and after the commercial breaks. Having seen one of cartoonist Matt Groening's Life in Hell comic strips, Brooks asked Groening to pitch an idea for a series of animated shorts. Groening initially intended to present an animated version of his Life in Hell series. However, Groening later realized that animating Life in Hell would require the rescinding of publication rights for his life's work. He therefore chose another approach while waiting in the lobby of Brooks's office for the pitch meeting, hurriedly formulating his version of a dysfunctional family that became the Simpsons. He named the characters after his own family members, substituting \"Bart\" for his own name, adopting an anagram of the word \"brat\".\n\nThe Simpson family first appeared as shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. Groening submitted only basic sketches to the animators and assumed that the figures would be cleaned up in production. However, the animators merely re-traced his drawings, which led to the crude appearance of the characters in the initial shorts. The animation was produced domestically at Klasky Csupo, with Wes Archer, David Silverman, and Bill Kopp being animators for the first season. Colorist Gyorgyi Peluce was the person who decided to make the characters yellow.\n\nIn 1989, a team of production companies adapted The Simpsons into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The team included the Klasky Csupo animation house. Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content. Groening said his goal in creating the show was to offer the audience an alternative to what he called \"the mainstream trash\" that they were watching. The half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989, with \"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire\". \"Some Enchanted Evening\" was the first full-length episode produced, but it did not broadcast until May 1990, as the last episode of the first season, because of animation problems. In 1992, Tracey Ullman filed a lawsuit against Fox, claiming that her show was the source of the series' success. The suit said she should receive a share of the profits of The Simpsons —a claim rejected by the courts. \n\nExecutive producers and showrunners\n\nList of showrunners throughout the series' run:\n* Season 1–2: Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, & Sam Simon\n* Season 3–4: Al Jean & Mike Reiss\n* Season 5–6: David Mirkin\n* Season 7–8: Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein\n* Season 9–12: Mike Scully\n* Season 13–present: Al Jean\n\nMatt Groening and James L. Brooks have served as executive producers during the show's entire history, and also function as creative consultants. Sam Simon, described by former Simpsons director Brad Bird as \"the unsung hero\" of the show, served as creative supervisor for the first four seasons. He was constantly at odds with Groening, Brooks and the show's production company Gracie Films and left in 1993. Before leaving, he negotiated a deal that sees him receive a share of the profits every year, and an executive producer credit despite not having worked on the show since 1993, at least until his passing in 2015. A more involved position on the show is the showrunner, who acts as head writer and manages the show's production for an entire season. \n\nWriting\n\nThe first team of writers, assembled by Sam Simon, consisted of John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, George Meyer, Jeff Martin, Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky. Newer Simpsons writing teams typically consist of sixteen writers who propose episode ideas at the beginning of each December. The main writer of each episode writes the first draft. Group rewriting sessions develop final scripts by adding or removing jokes, inserting scenes, and calling for re-readings of lines by the show's vocal performers. Until 2004, George Meyer, who had developed the show since the first season, was active in these sessions. According to long-time writer Jon Vitti, Meyer usually invented the best lines in a given episode, even though other writers may receive script credits. Each episode takes six months to produce so the show rarely comments on current events. \n\nCredited with sixty episodes, John Swartzwelder is the most prolific writer on The Simpsons. One of the best-known former writers is Conan O'Brien, who contributed to several episodes in the early 1990s before replacing David Letterman as host of the talk show Late Night. English comedian Ricky Gervais wrote the episode \"Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife\", becoming the first celebrity to both write and guest star in an episode. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, writers of the film Superbad, wrote the episode \"Homer the Whopper\", with Rogen voicing a character in it. \n\nAt the end of 2007, the writers of The Simpsons went on strike together with the other members of the Writers Guild of America, East. The show's writers had joined the guild in 1998. \n\nVoice actors\n\nThe Simpsons has six main cast members: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer. Castellaneta voices Homer Simpson, Grampa Simpson, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby, Barney Gumble and other adult, male characters. Julie Kavner voices Marge Simpson and Patty and Selma, as well as several minor characters. Castellaneta and Kavner had been a part of The Tracey Ullman Show cast and were given the parts so that new actors would not be needed. Cartwright voices Bart Simpson, Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum and other children. Smith, the voice of Lisa Simpson, is the only cast member who regularly voices only one character, although she occasionally plays other episodic characters. The producers decided to hold casting for the roles of Bart and Lisa. Smith had initially been asked to audition for the role of Bart, but casting director Bonita Pietila believed her voice was too high, so she was given the role of Lisa instead. Cartwright was originally brought in to voice Lisa, but upon arriving at the audition, she found that Lisa was simply described as the \"middle child\" and at the time did not have much personality. Cartwright became more interested in the role of Bart, who was described as \"devious, underachieving, school-hating, irreverent, [and] clever\". Groening let her try out for the part instead, and upon hearing her read, gave her the job on the spot. Cartwright is the only one of the six main Simpsons cast members who had been professionally trained in voice acting prior to working on the show. Azaria and Shearer do not voice members of the title family, but play a majority of the male townspeople. Azaria, who has been a part of the Simpsons regular voice cast since the second season, voices recurring characters such as Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and Professor Frink. Shearer also provides voices for Mr. Burns, Mr. Smithers, Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy and Dr. Hibbert. Every main cast member has won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance. \n\nWith one exception, episode credits list only the voice actors, and not the characters they voice. Both Fox and the production crew wanted to keep their identities secret during the early seasons and, therefore, closed most of the recording sessions while refusing to publish photos of the recording artists. However, the network eventually revealed which roles each actor performed in the episode \"Old Money\", because the producers said the voice actors should receive credit for their work. In 2003, the cast appeared in an episode of Inside the Actors Studio, doing live performances of their characters' voices.\n\nThe six main actors were paid $30,000 per episode until 1998, when they were involved in a pay dispute with Fox. The company threatened to replace them with new actors, even going as far as preparing for casting of new voices, but series creator Groening supported the actors in their action. The issue was soon resolved and, from 1998 to 2004, they were paid $125,000 per episode. The show's revenue continued to rise through syndication and DVD sales, and in April 2004 the main cast stopped appearing for script readings, demanding they be paid $360,000 per episode. The strike was resolved a month later and their salaries were increased to something between $250,000 and $360,000 per episode. In 2008, production for the twentieth season was put on hold due to new contract negotiations with the voice actors, who wanted a \"healthy bump\" in salary to an amount close to $500,000 per episode. The negotiations were soon completed, and the actors' salary was raised to $400,000 per episode. Three years later, with Fox threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, the cast members accepted a 30 percent pay cut, down to just over $300,000 per episode. \n\nIn addition to the main cast, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Marcia Wallace, Maggie Roswell, and Russi Taylor voice supporting characters. From 1999 to 2002, Roswell's characters were voiced by Marcia Mitzman Gaven. Karl Wiedergott has also appeared in minor roles, but does not voice any recurring characters. Wiedergott left the show in 2010, and since then Chris Edgerly has appeared regularly to voice minor characters. Repeat \"special guest\" cast members include Albert Brooks, Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, Joe Mantegna, Maurice LaMarche, and Kelsey Grammer. Following Hartman's death in 1998, the characters he voiced (Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz) were retired; Wallace's character of Edna Krabappel was retired as well after her death in 2013.\n\nEpisodes will quite often feature guest voices from a wide range of professions, including actors, athletes, authors, bands, musicians and scientists. In the earlier seasons, most of the guest stars voiced characters, but eventually more started appearing as themselves. Tony Bennett was the first guest star to appear as himself, appearing briefly in the season two episode \"Dancin' Homer\". The Simpsons holds the world record for \"Most Guest Stars Featured in a Television Series\". \n\nThe Simpsons has been dubbed into several other languages, including Japanese, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. It is also one of the few programs dubbed in both standard French and Quebec French. The show has been broadcast in Arabic, but due to Islamic customs, numerous aspects of the show have been changed. For example, Homer drinks soda instead of beer and eats Egyptian beef sausages instead of hot dogs. Because of such changes, the Arabized version of the series met with a negative reaction from the lifelong Simpsons fans in the area. \n\nAnimation\n\nSeveral different U.S. and international studios animate The Simpsons. Throughout the run of the animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, the animation was produced domestically at Klasky Csupo. With the debut of the series, because of an increased workload, Fox subcontracted production to several international studios, located in South Korea. These are AKOM, Anivision, Rough Draft Studios, USAnimation, and Toonzone Entertainment. A subcontractor connection to the North Korean SEK Studio has been suspected but not confirmed. The production staff at the U.S. animation studio, Film Roman, draws storyboards, designs new characters, backgrounds, props and draws character and background layouts, which in turn become animatics to be screened for the writers at Gracie Films for any changes to be made before the work is shipped overseas. The overseas studios then draw the inbetweens, ink and paint, and render the animation to tape before it is shipped back to the United States to be delivered to Fox three to four months later. \n\nFor the first three seasons, Klasky Csupo animated The Simpsons in the United States. In 1992, the show's production company, Gracie Films, switched domestic production to Film Roman, who continue to animate the show as of 2012. In Season 14, production switched from traditional cel animation to digital ink and paint. The first episode to experiment with digital coloring was \"Radioactive Man\" in 1995. Animators used digital ink and paint during production of the season 12 episode \"Tennis the Menace\", but Gracie Films delayed the regular use of digital ink and paint until two seasons later. The already completed \"Tennis the Menace\" was broadcast as made. \n\nThe series began high-definition production in Season 20; the first episode, \"Take My Life, Please\", aired February 15, 2009. The move to HDTV included a new opening sequence. Matt Groening called it a complicated change because it affected the timing and composition of animation. \n\nThemes\n\nThe Simpsons uses the standard setup of a situational comedy, or sitcom, as its premise. The series centers on a family and their life in a typical American town, serving as a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle. However, because of its animated nature, The Simpsons scope is larger than that of a regular sitcom. The town of Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. By having Homer work in a nuclear power plant, the show can comment on the state of the environment. Through Bart and Lisa's days at Springfield Elementary School, the show's writers illustrate pressing or controversial issues in the field of education. The town features a vast array of media channels—from kids' television programming to local news, which enables the producers to make jokes about themselves and the entertainment industry.\n\nSome commentators say the show is political in nature and susceptible to a left-wing bias. Al Jean admitted in an interview that \"We [the show] are of liberal bent.\" The writers often evince an appreciation for liberal ideals, but the show makes jokes across the political spectrum. The show portrays government and large corporations as callous entities that take advantage of the common worker. Thus, the writers often portray authority figures in an unflattering or negative light. In The Simpsons, politicians are corrupt, ministers such as Reverend Lovejoy are indifferent to churchgoers, and the local police force is incompetent. Religion also figures as a recurring theme. In times of crisis, the family often turns to God, and the show has dealt with most of the major religions. \n\nHallmarks\n\nOpening sequence\n\nThe Simpsons' opening sequence is one of the show's most memorable hallmarks. The standard opening has gone through three iterations (a replacement of some shots at the start of the second season, and a brand new sequence when the show switched to high-definition in 2009). Each has the same basic sequence of events: The camera zooms through cumulus clouds, through the show's title towards the town of Springfield. The camera then follows the members of the family on their way home. Upon entering their house, the Simpsons settle down on their couch to watch television. The original opening was created by David Silverman, and was the first task he did when production began on the show. The series' distinctive theme song was composed by musician Danny Elfman in 1989, after Groening approached him requesting a retro style piece. This piece has been noted by Elfman as the most popular of his career. \n\nOne of the most distinctive aspects of the opening is that three of its elements change from episode to episode: Bart writes different things on the school chalkboard, Lisa plays different solos on her saxophone and different gags accompany the family as they enter their living room to sit on the couch.\n\nHalloween episodes\n\nThe special Halloween episode has become an annual tradition. \"Treehouse of Horror\" first broadcast in 1990 as part of season two and established the pattern of three separate, self-contained stories in each Halloween episode. These pieces usually involve the family in some horror, science fiction, or supernatural setting and often parody or pay homage to a famous piece of work in those genres. They always take place outside the normal continuity of the show. Although the Treehouse series is meant to be seen on Halloween, this changed by the 2000s, when new installments have premiered after Halloween due to Fox's current contract with Major League Baseball's World Series, however, as of 2011 every Treehouse of Horror episode has aired during the month of October.\n\nHumor\n\nThe show's humor turns on cultural references that cover a wide spectrum of society so that viewers from all generations can enjoy the show. Such references, for example, come from movies, television, music, literature, science, and history. The animators also regularly add jokes or sight gags into the show's background via humorous or incongruous bits of text in signs, newspapers, billboards, and elsewhere. The audience may often not notice the visual jokes in a single viewing. Some are so fleeting that they become apparent only by pausing a video recording of the show. Kristin Thompson argues that The Simpsons uses a \"flurry of cultural references, intentionally inconsistent characterization, and considerable self-reflexivity about television conventions and the status of the programme as a television show.\"\n\nOne of Bart's early hallmarks was his prank calls to Moe's Tavern owner Moe Szyslak in which Bart calls Moe and asks for a gag name. Moe tries to find that person in the bar, but soon realizes it is a prank call and angrily threatens Bart. These calls were apparently based on a series of prank calls known as the Tube Bar recordings, though Groening has denied any causal connection. \nMoe was based partly on Tube Bar owner Louis \"Red\" Deutsch, whose often profane responses inspired Moe's violent side. As the series progressed, it became more difficult for the writers to come up with a fake name and to write Moe's angry response, and the pranks were dropped as a regular joke during the fourth season. The Simpsons also often includes self-referential humor. The most common form is jokes about Fox Broadcasting. For example, the episode \"She Used to Be My Girl\" included a scene in which a Fox News Channel van drove down the street while displaying a large \"Bush Cheney 2004\" banner and playing Queen's \"We Are the Champions\", in reference to the 2004 U.S. presidential election and claims of conservative bias in Fox News. \n\nThe show uses catchphrases, and most of the primary and secondary characters have at least one each. Notable expressions include Homer's annoyed grunt \"D'oh!\", Mr. Burns' \"Excellent\" and Nelson Muntz's \"Ha-ha!\". Some of Bart's catchphrases, such as \"¡Ay, caramba!\", \"Don't have a cow, man!\" and \"Eat my shorts!\" appeared on T-shirts in the show's early days. However, Bart rarely used the latter two phrases until after they became popular through the merchandising. The use of many of these catchphrases has declined in recent seasons. The episode \"Bart Gets Famous\" mocks catchphrase-based humor, as Bart achieves fame on the Krusty the Clown Show solely for saying \"I didn't do it.\"\n\nInfluence and legacy\n\nIdioms\n\nA number of neologisms that originated on The Simpsons have entered popular vernacular. Mark Liberman, director of the Linguistic Data Consortium, remarked, \"The Simpsons has apparently taken over from Shakespeare and the Bible as our culture's greatest source of idioms, catchphrases and sundry other textual allusions.\" The most famous catchphrase is Homer's annoyed grunt: \"D'oh!\" So ubiquitous is the expression that it is now listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, but without the apostrophe. Dan Castellaneta says he borrowed the phrase from James Finlayson, an actor in many Laurel and Hardy comedies, who pronounced it in a more elongated and whining tone. The staff of The Simpsons told Castellaneta to shorten the noise, and it went on to become the well-known exclamation in the television series. \n\nGroundskeeper Willie's description of the French as \"cheese-eating surrender monkeys\" was used by National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg in 2003, after France's opposition to the proposed invasion of Iraq. The phrase quickly spread to other journalists. \"Cromulent\" and \"Embiggen\", words used in \"Lisa the Iconoclast\", have since appeared in the Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon, and scientific journals respectively. \"Kwyjibo\", a fake Scrabble word invented by Bart in \"Bart the Genius\", was used as one of the aliases of the creator of the Melissa worm. \"I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords\", was used by Kent Brockman in \"Deep Space Homer\" and has become a common phrase. Variants of Brockman's utterance are used to express obsequious submission. It has been used in media, such as New Scientist magazine. The dismissive term \"Meh\", believed to have been popularized by the show, entered the Collins English Dictionary in 2008. Other words credited as stemming from the show include \"yoink\" and \"craptacular\".\n\nThe Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations includes several quotations from the show. As well as \"cheese-eating surrender monkeys\", Homer's lines, \"Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is never try\", from \"Burns' Heir\" (season five, 1994) as well as \"Kids are the best, Apu. You can teach them to hate the things you hate. And they practically raise themselves, what with the Internet and all\", from \"Eight Misbehavin'\" (season 11, 1999), entered the dictionary in August 2007. \n\nTelevision\n\nThe Simpsons was the first successful animated program in American prime time since Wait Till Your Father Gets Home in the 1970s. During most of the 1980s, US pundits considered animated shows as appropriate only for children, and animating a show was too expensive to achieve a quality suitable for prime-time television. The Simpsons changed this perception. The use of Korean animation studios for tweening, coloring, and filming made the episodes cheaper. The success of The Simpsons and the lower production cost prompted US television networks to take chances on other animated series. This development led US producers to a 1990s boom in new, animated prime-time shows, such as South Park, Family Guy, King of the Hill, Futurama and The Critic. For Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, \"The Simpsons created an audience for prime-time animation that had not been there for many, many years ... As far as I'm concerned, they basically re-invented the wheel. They created what is in many ways—you could classify it as—a wholly new medium.\" \n\nThe Simpsons has had crossovers with four other shows. In the episode \"A Star Is Burns\", Marge invites Jay Sherman, the main character of The Critic, to be a judge for a film festival in Springfield. Matt Groening had his name removed from the episode since he had no involvement with The Critic. South Park later paid homage to The Simpsons with the episode \"Simpsons Already Did It\". In \"Simpsorama\", the Planet Express crew from Futurama come to Springfield in the present to prevent the Simpsons from destroying the future. In the Family Guy episode \"The Simpsons Guy\", the Griffins visit Springfield and meet the Simpsons. \n\nThe Simpsons has also influenced live-action shows like Malcolm in the Middle, which featured the use of sight gags and did not use a laugh track unlike most sitcoms. Malcolm in the Middle debuted January 9, 2000, in the time slot after The Simpsons. Ricky Gervais called The Simpsons an influence on The Office, and fellow British sitcom Spaced was, according to its director Edgar Wright, \"an attempt to do a live-action The Simpsons.\" In Georgia, the animated television sitcom The Samsonadzes, launched in November 2009, has been noted for its very strong resemblance with The Simpsons, which its creator Shalva Ramishvili has acknowledged. \n\nReception and achievements\n\nEarly success\n\nThe Simpsons was the Fox network's first television series to rank among a season's top 30 highest-rated shows. While later seasons would focus on Homer, Bart was the lead character in most of the first three seasons. In 1990, Bart quickly became one of the most popular characters on television in what was termed \"Bartmania\". He became the most prevalent Simpsons character on memorabilia, such as T-shirts. In the early 1990s, millions of T-shirts featuring Bart were sold; as many as one million were sold on some days. Believing Bart to be a bad role model, several American public schools banned T-shirts featuring Bart next to captions such as \"I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?\" and \"Underachiever ('And proud of it, man!')\". The Simpsons merchandise sold well and generated $2 billion in revenue during the first 14 months of sales. Because of his popularity, Bart was often the most promoted member of the Simpson family in advertisements for the show, even for episodes in which he was not involved in the main plot. \n\nDue to the show's success, over the summer of 1990 the Fox Network decided to switch The Simpsons time slot so that it would move from 8:00 p.m. ET on Sunday night to the same time on Thursday, where it would compete with The Cosby Show on NBC, the number one show at the time. Through the summer, several news outlets published stories about the supposed \"Bill vs. Bart\" rivalry. \"Bart Gets an F\" (season two, 1990) was the first episode to air against The Cosby Show, and it received a lower Nielsen ratings, tying for eighth behind The Cosby Show, which had an 18.5 rating. The rating is based on the number of household televisions that were tuned into the show, but Nielsen Media Research estimated that 33.6 million viewers watched the episode, making it the number one show in terms of actual viewers that week. At the time, it was the most watched episode in the history of the Fox Network, and it is still the highest rated episode in the history of The Simpsons. The show moved back to its Sunday slot in 1994 and has remained there ever since.\n\nThe Simpsons has been praised by many critics, being described as \"the most irreverent and unapologetic show on the air.\" In a 1990 review of the show, Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly described it as \"the American family at its most complicated, drawn as simple cartoons. It's this neat paradox that makes millions of people turn away from the three big networks on Sunday nights to concentrate on The Simpsons.\" Tucker would also describe the show as a \"pop-cultural phenomenon, a prime-time cartoon show that appeals to the entire family.\" \n\nRun length achievements\n\nOn February 9, 1997, The Simpsons surpassed The Flintstones with the episode \"The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show\" as the longest-running prime-time animated series in the United States. In 2004, The Simpsons replaced The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952 to 1966) as the longest-running sitcom (animated or live action) in the United States. In 2009, The Simpsons surpassed The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriets record of 435 episodes and is now recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's longest running sitcom (in terms of episode count). In October 2004, Scooby-Doo briefly overtook The Simpsons as the American animated show with the highest number of episodes. However, network executives in April 2005 again cancelled Scooby-Doo, which finished with 371 episodes, and The Simpsons reclaimed the title with 378 episodes at the end of their seventeenth season. In May 2007, The Simpsons reached their 400th episode at the end of the eighteenth season. While The Simpsons has the record for the number of episodes by an American animated show, other animated series have surpassed The Simpsons. For example, the Japanese anime series Sazae-san has over 7,000 episodes to its credit.\n\nIn 2009, Fox began a year-long celebration of the show titled \"Best. 20 Years. Ever.\" to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the premiere of The Simpsons. One of the first parts of the celebration is the \"Unleash Your Yellow\" contest in which entrants must design a poster for the show. The celebration ended on January 10, 2010 (almost 20 years after \"Bart the Genius\" aired on January 14, 1990), with The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special – In 3-D! On Ice!, a documentary special by documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock that examines the \"cultural phenomenon of The Simpsons\". \n\nAs of the twenty-first season (2009–2010), The Simpsons became the longest-running American scripted primetime television series, having surpassed Gunsmoke. However, Gunsmokes episode count of 635 episodes surpasses The Simpsons, which will not reach that mark until its approximate 29th season under normal programming schedules. However, since Gunsmoke was a full-hour series for its latter fourteen seasons, The Simpsons is the longest-running half-hour series in primetime television. In May 2015, Fox renewed the show up to the end of a 28th season.\n\nAwards and accolades\n\nThe Simpsons has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 31 Primetime Emmy Awards, 30 Annie Awards and a Peabody Award. In a 1999 issue celebrating the 20th century's greatest achievements in arts and entertainment, Time magazine named The Simpsons the century's best television series. In that same issue, Time included Bart Simpson in the Time 100, the publication's list of the century's 100 most influential people. Bart was the only fictional character on the list. On January 14, 2000, the Simpsons were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Also in 2000, Entertainment Weekly magazine TV critic Ken Tucker named The Simpsons the greatest television show of the 1990s. Furthermore, viewers of the UK television channel Channel 4 have voted The Simpsons at the top of two polls: 2001's 100 Greatest Kids' TV shows, and 2005's The 100 Greatest Cartoons, with Homer Simpson voted into first place in 2001's 100 Greatest TV Characters. Homer would also place ninth on Entertainment Weekly list of the \"50 Greatest TV icons\". In 2002, The Simpsons ranked #8 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and in 2007 it was included in Time list of the \"100 Best TV Shows of All Time\". In 2008 the show was placed in first on Entertainment Weekly \"Top 100 Shows of the Past 25 Years\". Empire named it the greatest TV show of all time. In 2010, Entertainment Weekly named Homer \"the greatest character of the last 20 years\", while in 2013 the Writers Guild of America listed The Simpsons as the 11th \"best written\" series in television history. In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Simpsons as the greatest TV cartoon of all time and the tenth greatest show of all time. \n\nCriticism and controversy\n\nBart's rebellious, bad boy nature, which frequently resulted in no punishment for his misbehavior, led some parents and conservatives to characterize him as a poor role model for children. In schools, educators claimed that Bart was a \"threat to learning\" because of his \"underachiever and proud of it\" attitude and negative attitude regarding his education. Others described him as \"egotistical, aggressive and mean-spirited\". In a 1991 interview, Bill Cosby described Bart as a bad role model for children, calling him \"angry, confused, frustrated\". In response, Matt Groening said, \"That sums up Bart, all right. Most people are in a struggle to be normal [and] he thinks normal is very boring, and does things that others just wished they dare do.\" On January 27, 1992, then-President George H. W. Bush said, \"We are going to keep on trying to strengthen the American family, to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons.\" The writers rushed out a tongue-in-cheek reply in the form of a short segment which aired three days later before a rerun of \"Stark Raving Dad\" in which Bart replied, \"Hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the Depression, too.\" \n\nVarious episodes of the show have generated controversy. The Simpsons visit Australia in \"Bart vs. Australia\" (season six, 1995) and Brazil in \"Blame It on Lisa\" (season 13, 2002) and both episodes generated controversy and negative reaction in the visited countries. In the latter case, Rio de Janeiro's tourist board – who claimed that the city was portrayed as having rampant street crime, kidnappings, slums, and monkey and rat infestations – went so far as to threaten Fox with legal action. Groening was a fierce and vocal critic of the episode \"A Star Is Burns\" (season six, 1995) which featured a crossover with The Critic. He felt that it was just an advertisement for The Critic, and that people would incorrectly associate the show with him. When he was unsuccessful in getting the episode pulled, he had his name removed from the credits and went public with his concerns, openly criticizing James L. Brooks and saying the episode \"violates the Simpsons' universe.\" In response, Brooks said, \"I am furious with Matt, ... he's allowed his opinion, but airing this publicly in the press is going too far. ... his behavior right now is rotten.\" \"The Principal and the Pauper\" (season nine, 1997) is one of the most controversial episodes of The Simpsons. Many fans and critics reacted negatively to the revelation that Seymour Skinner, a recurring character since the first season, was an impostor. The episode has been criticized by Groening and by Harry Shearer, who provides the voice of Skinner. In a 2001 interview, Shearer recalled that after reading the script, he told the writers, \"That's so wrong. You're taking something that an audience has built eight years or nine years of investment in and just tossed it in the trash can for no good reason, for a story we've done before with other characters. It's so arbitrary and gratuitous, and it's disrespectful to the audience.\" \n\nThe show has reportedly been taken off the air in several countries. China banned it from prime-time television in August 2006, \"in an effort to protect China's struggling animation studios.\" In 2008, Venezuela barred the show from airing on morning television as it was deemed \"unsuitable for children\". The same year, several Russian Pentecostal churches demanded that The Simpsons, South Park and some other Western cartoons be removed from broadcast schedules \"for propaganda of various vices\" and the broadcaster's license to be revoked. However, the court decision later dismissed this request. \n\nCriticism of declining quality\n\nCritics' reviews of early Simpsons episodes praised the show for its sassy humor, wit, realism, and intelligence. However, in the late 1990s, around the airing of seasons nine and ten, the tone and emphasis of the show began to change. Some critics started calling the show \"tired\". By 2000, some long-term fans had become disillusioned with the show, and pointed to its shift from character-driven plots to what they perceived as an overemphasis on zany antics. Jim Schembri of The Sydney Morning Herald attributed the decline in quality to an abandonment of character-driven storylines in favor of and overuse of celebrity cameo appearances and references to popular culture. Schembri wrote: \"The central tragedy of The Simpsons is that it has gone from commanding attention to merely being attention seeking. It began by proving that cartoon characters don't have to be caricatures; they can be invested with real emotions. Now the show has in essence fermented into a limp parody of itself. Memorable story arcs have been sacrificed for the sake of celebrity walk-ons and punchline-hungry dialogue.\" \n\nThe BBC noted \"the common consensus is that The Simpsons' golden era ended after season nine\", while Todd Leopold of CNN, in an article looking at its perceived decline, stated \"for many fans ... the glory days are long past.\" Similarly, Tyler Wilson of Coeur d'Alene Press has referred to seasons one to nine as the show's \"golden age\", and Ian Nathan of Empire described the show's classic era as being \"say, the first ten seasons.\" Jon Heacock of LucidWorks stated that \"for the first ten years [seasons], the show was consistently at the top of its game\", with \"so many moments, quotations, and references – both epic and obscure – that helped turn the Simpson family into the cultural icons that they remain to this day.\" \n\nMike Scully, who was showrunner during seasons nine through twelve, has been the subject of criticism. Chris Suellentrop of Slate wrote that \"under Scully's tenure, The Simpsons became, well, a cartoon. ... Episodes that once would have ended with Homer and Marge bicycling into the sunset now end with Homer blowing a tranquilizer dart into Marge's neck. The show's still funny, but it hasn't been touching in years.\" When asked in 2007 how the series' longevity is sustained, Scully joked: \"Lower your quality standards. Once you've done that you can go on forever.\" \n\nAl Jean, showrunner since season thirteen, has also been the subject of criticism, with some arguing that the show has continued to decline in quality under his tenure. Former writers have complained that under Jean, the show is \"on auto-pilot\", \"too sentimental\", and the episodes are \"just being cranked out.\" Some critics believe that the show has \"entered a steady decline under Jean and is no longer really funny.\" John Ortved, author of The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History, characterized the Jean era as \"toothless\", and criticized what he perceived as the show's increase in social and political commentary. Jean has responded to this criticism by saying: \"Well, it's possible that we've declined. But honestly, I've been here the whole time and I do remember in season two people saying, 'It's gone downhill.' If we'd listened to that then we would have stopped after episode 13. I'm glad we didn't.\" \n\nIn 2003, to celebrate the show's 300th episode \"Barting Over\", USA Today published a pair of Simpsons related articles: a top-ten episodes list chosen by the webmaster of The Simpsons Archive fansite, and a top-15 list by The Simpsons own writers. The most recent episode listed on the fan list was 1997's \"Homer's Phobia\"; the Simpsons' writers most recent choice was 2000's \"Behind the Laughter\". The series' ratings have also declined; while the first season enjoyed an average of 13.4 million viewing households per episode in the U.S., the twenty-first season had an average of 7.2 million viewers. \n\nIn 2004, Harry Shearer criticized what he perceived as the show's declining quality: \"I rate the last three seasons as among the worst, so Season Four looks very good to me now.\" In response, Dan Castellaneta stated \"I don't agree, ... I think Harry's issue is that the show isn't as grounded as it was in the first three or four seasons, that it's gotten crazy or a little more madcap. I think it organically changes to stay fresh.\" \n\nAuthor Douglas Coupland described claims of declining quality in the series as \"hogwash\", saying \"The Simpsons hasn't fumbled the ball in fourteen years, it's hardly likely to fumble it now.\" In an April 2006 interview, Matt Groening said, \"I honestly don't see any end in sight. I think it's possible that the show will become too financially cumbersome ... but right now, the show is creatively, I think, as good or better than it's ever been. The animation is incredibly detailed and imaginative, and the stories do things that we haven't done before. So creatively there's no reason to quit.\" \n\nIn 2016, popular culture writer Anna Leszkiewicz suggested that despite the fact that the Simpsons still holds cultural relevance, contemporary appeal is only for the first ten seasons, with recent Simpsons episodes only garnering mainstream attention when a favourite character from the golden era is killed off, or when new information and shock twists are given for old characters. \n\nOther media\n\nComic books\n\nNumerous Simpson-related comic books have been released over the years. So far, nine comic book series have been published by Bongo Comics since 1993. The first comic strips based on The Simpsons appeared in 1991 in the magazine Simpsons Illustrated, which was a companion magazine to the show. The comic strips were popular and a one-shot comic book titled Simpsons Comics and Stories, containing four different stories, was released in 1993 for the fans. The book was a success and due to this, the creator of The Simpsons, Matt Groening, and his companions Bill Morrison, Mike Rote, Steve Vance and Cindy Vance created the publishing company Bongo Comics. Issues of Simpsons Comics, Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror and Bart Simpson have been collected and reprinted in trade paperbacks in the United States by HarperCollins. \n\nFilm\n\n20th Century Fox, Gracie Films, and Film Roman produced The Simpsons Movie, an animated film that was released on July 27, 2007. The film was directed by long-time Simpsons producer David Silverman and written by a team of Simpsons writers comprising Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, Al Jean, George Meyer, Mike Reiss, John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, David Mirkin, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, and Ian Maxtone-Graham. Production of the film occurred alongside continued writing of the series despite long-time claims by those involved in the show that a film would enter production only after the series had concluded. There had been talk of a possible feature-length Simpsons film ever since the early seasons of the series. James L. Brooks originally thought that the story of the episode \"Kamp Krusty\" was suitable for a film, but he encountered difficulties in trying to expand the script to feature-length. For a long time, difficulties such as lack of a suitable story and an already fully engaged crew of writers delayed the project.\n\nMusic\n\nCollections of original music featured in the series have been released on the albums Songs in the Key of Springfield, Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons and The Simpsons: Testify. Several songs have been recorded with the purpose of a single or album release and have not been featured on the show. The album The Simpsons Sing the Blues was released in September 1990 and was a success, peaking at #3 on the Billboard 200 and becoming certified 2× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The first single from the album was the pop rap song \"Do the Bartman\", performed by Nancy Cartwright and released on November 20, 1990. The song was written by Michael Jackson, although he did not receive any credit. The Yellow Album was released in 1998, but received poor reception and did not chart in any country. \n\nThe Simpsons Ride\n\nIn 2007, it was officially announced that The Simpsons Ride, a simulator ride, would be implemented into the Universal Studios Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood. It officially opened May 15, 2008 in Florida and May 19, 2008, in Hollywood. In the ride, patrons are introduced to a cartoon theme park called Krustyland built by Krusty the Clown. However, Sideshow Bob is loose from prison to get revenge on Krusty and the Simpson family. It features more than 24 regular characters from The Simpsons and features the voices of the regular cast members, as well as Pamela Hayden, Russi Taylor and Kelsey Grammer. Harry Shearer did not participate in the ride, so none of his characters have vocal parts. \n\nVideo games\n\nNumerous video games based on the show have been produced. Some of the early games include Konami's arcade game The Simpsons (1991) and Acclaim Entertainment's The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants (1991). More modern games include The Simpsons: Road Rage (2001), The Simpsons: Hit & Run (2003) and The Simpsons Game (2007). Electronic Arts, which produced The Simpsons Game, has owned the exclusive rights to create video games based on the show since 2005. In 2010, they released a game called The Simpsons Arcade for iOS. Another EA-produced mobile game, Tapped Out, was released in 2012 for iOS users, then in 2013 for Android and Kindle users. Two Simpsons pinball machines have been produced: one that was available briefly after the first season, and another in 2007, both out of production. \n\nSyndication and streaming availability\n\nIn 2013 the cable television network FXX acquired exclusive cable and digital syndication rights for The Simpsons for a reported $750 million, a deal which broke the record for being the biggest off-network deal in television history. Original contracts had previously stated that syndication rights for The Simpsons would not be sold to cable until the series conclusion, at a time when cable syndication deals were highly rare. The series has been syndicated to local broadcast stations in nearly all markets throughout the United States since September 1993.[http://www.deadline.com/2013/11/fxx-lands-the-simpsons-in-the-biggest-off-network-deal-in-tv-history/#more-635800 FXX Lands 'The Simpsons' In Biggest Off-Network Deal In TV History] Deadline Hollywood, November 15, 2013\n\nFXX premiered The Simpsons on their network on August 21, 2014 by starting a twelve-day marathon which featured the first 552 episodes (every single episode that had already been released at the time) aired chronologically, including The Simpsons Movie, which FX Networks had already owned the rights to air. It was the longest continuous marathon in the history of television (until VH1 Classic aired a 433-hour, nineteen-day, marathon of Saturday Night Live in 2015; celebrating that program's 40th anniversary). The first day of the marathon was the highest rated broadcast day in the history of the network so far, the ratings more than tripled that those of regular prime time programming for FXX. Ratings during the first six nights of the marathon grew night after night, with the network ranking within the top 5 networks in basic cable each night. \n\nOn October 21, 2014, a digital service courtesy of the FXNOW app, called Simpsons World, launched. Simpsons World has every episode of the series accessible to authenticated FX subscribers, and is available on game consoles such as Xbox One, streaming devices such as Roku and Apple TV, and online via web browser. There was early criticism of both wrong aspect ratios for earlier episodes and the length of commercial breaks on the streaming service, but there are now fewer commercial breaks during individual episodes. Later it was announced that Simpsons World would now let users watch all of the SD episodes in their original format. \n\nMerchandise\n\nThe popularity of The Simpsons has made it a billion-dollar merchandising industry. The title family and supporting characters appear on everything from T-shirts to posters. The Simpsons has been used as a theme for special editions of well-known board games, including Clue, Scrabble, Monopoly, Operation, and The Game of Life, as well as the trivia games What Would Homer Do? and Simpsons Jeopardy!. Several card games such as trump cards and The Simpsons Trading Card Game have also been released. Many official or unofficial Simpsons books such as episode guides have been published. Many episodes of the show have been released on DVD and VHS over the years. When the first season DVD was released in 2001, it quickly became the best-selling television DVD in history, although it was later overtaken by the first season of Chappelle's Show. In particular, seasons one through seventeen have been released on DVD in the U.S. (Region 1), Europe (Region 2) and Australia/New Zealand/Latin America (Region 4). However, on April 19, 2015, Al Jean announced that the Season 17 DVD would be the last one ever produced, leaving the collection from Season 1 to 17, Season 20 (released out of schedule in 2009), with Seasons 18, 19, and 21 onwards unreleased. Jean also stated that the deleted scenes and commentary would try to be released to the Simpsons World app, and that they were pushing for Simpsons World to be expanded outside of the U.S.\n\nIn 2003, about 500 companies around the world were licensed to use Simpsons characters in their advertising. As a promotion for The Simpsons Movie, twelve 7-Eleven stores were transformed into Kwik-E-Marts and sold The Simpsons related products. These included \"Buzz Cola\", \"Krusty-O\" cereal, pink doughnuts with sprinkles, and \"Squishees\".\n\nIn 2008 consumers around the world spent $750 million on merchandise related to The Simpsons, with half of the amount originating from the United States. By 2009, 20th Century Fox had greatly increased merchandising efforts. On April 9, 2009, the United States Postal Service unveiled a series of five 44-cent stamps featuring Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, to commemorate the show's twentieth anniversary. The Simpsons is the first television series still in production to receive this recognition. The stamps, designed by Matt Groening, were made available for purchase on May 7, 2009. Approximately one billion were printed, but only 318 million were sold, costing the Postal Service $1.2 million. \n\nSimpsonwave\n\nFrinkiac", "The Fox Broadcasting Company (commonly referred to as Fox; stylized as FOX) is an American commercial broadcast television network that is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. The network is headquartered at the 20th Century Fox studio lot on Pico Boulevard in the Century City section of Los Angeles, with additional major offices and production facilities at the Fox Television Center in nearby West Los Angeles and the Fox Broadcasting Center in Yorkville, Manhattan, New York. It is the third largest major television network in the world based on total revenues, assets, and international coverage.\n\nLaunched on October 9, 1986 as a competitor to the Big Three television networks, ABC, NBC and CBS, Fox went on to become the most successful attempt at a fourth television network. It was the highest-rated broadcast network in the 18–49 demographic from 2004 to 2012, and earned the position as the most-watched American television network in total viewership during the 2007–08 season. \n\nFox and its affiliated companies operate many entertainment channels in international markets, although these do not necessarily air the same programming as the U.S. network. Most viewers in Canada have access to at least one U.S.-based Fox affiliate, either over-the-air or through a pay television provider, although Fox's National Football League telecasts and most of its prime time programming are subject to simultaneous substitution regulations for cable and satellite providers imposed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to protect rights held by domestically based networks.\n\nThe network is named after sister company 20th Century Fox, and indirectly for producer William Fox, who founded one of the movie studio's predecessors, Fox Film. Fox is a member of the North American Broadcasters Association and the National Association of Broadcasters\n\nHistory\n\nOrigins\n\n20th Century Fox had been involved in television production as early as the 1950s, producing several syndicated programs during this era. In November 1956, the studio purchased a 50% interest in the NTA Film Network, an early syndicator of films and television programs. Following the demise of the DuMont Television Network in August of that year after it became mired in severe financial problems, NTA was launched as a new \"fourth network\". 20th Century Fox would also produce original content for the NTA network. The film network effort would fail after a few years, but 20th Century Fox continued to dabble in television through its production arm, TCF Television Productions, producing series (such as Perry Mason) for the three major broadcast television networks (ABC, NBC and CBS).\n\n1980s: Establishment of the network\n\nFoundations\n\nThe Fox network's foundations were laid in March 1985 through News Corporation's $255 million purchase of a 50% interest in TCF Holdings, the parent company of the 20th Century Fox film studio. In May 1985, News Corporation, a media company owned by Australian publishing magnate Rupert Murdoch that had mainly served as a newspaper publisher at the time of the TCF Holdings deal, agreed to pay $2.55 billion to acquire independent television stations in six major U.S. cities from the John Kluge-run broadcasting company Metromedia: WNEW-TV (channel 5) in New York City, WTTG (channel 5) in Washington, D.C., KTTV (channel 11) in Los Angeles, KRIV (channel 26) in Houston, WFLD-TV (channel 32) in Chicago, and KRLD-TV (channel 33) in Dallas. A seventh station, ABC affiliate WCVB-TV (channel 5) in Boston, was part of the original transaction but was spun off to the Hearst Broadcasting subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation in a separate, concurrent deal as part of a right of first refusal related to that station's 1982 sale to Metromedia (Two years later, News Corporation acquired WXNE-TV (channel 25) in that market from the Christian Broadcasting Network and changed its call letters to WFXT).\n\nBeginning of the network\n\nIn October 1985, 20th Century Fox announced its intentions to form a fourth television network that would compete with ABC, CBS and NBC. The plans were to use the combination of the Fox studios and the former Metromedia stations to both produce and distribute programming. Organizational plans for the network were held off until the Metromedia acquisitions cleared regulatory hurdles. Then, in December 1985, Rupert Murdoch agreed to pay $325 million to acquire the remaining equity in TCF Holdings from his original partner, Marvin Davis. The purchase of the Metromedia stations was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in March 1986; the call letters of the New York City and Dallas outlets were subsequently changed respectively to WNYW and KDAF. These first six stations, then broadcasting to a combined reach of 22% of the nation's households, became known as the Fox Television Stations group. Except for KDAF (which was sold to Renaissance Broadcasting in 1995 and became a WB affiliate at the same time), all of the original owned-and-operated stations (\"O&Os\") are still part of the Fox network today. Like the core O&O group, Fox's affiliate body initially consisted of independent stations (a few of which had maintained affiliations with ABC, NBC, CBS and/or DuMont earlier in their existences). The local charter affiliate was, in most cases, that market's top-rated independent; however, Fox opted to affiliate with a second-tier independent station in markets where a more established independent declined the affiliation (such as Denver, Phoenix and St. Louis). Largely because of both these factors, Fox – in a situation very similar to what DuMont had experienced four decades before – had little choice but to affiliate with UHF stations in all except a few (mainly larger) markets where the network gained clearance. \n\nThe Fox Broadcasting Company launched at 11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time on October 9, 1986. Its inaugural program was a late-night talk show, The Late Show, which was hosted by comedian Joan Rivers. After a strong start, The Late Show quickly eroded in the ratings; it was never able to overtake NBC stalwart The Tonight Show – whose then-host Johnny Carson, upset over her becoming his late-night competitor, banned Rivers (a frequent Tonight guest and substitute host) from appearing on his show (Rivers would not appear on Tonight again until February 2014, seven months before her death, when Jimmy Fallon took over as its host). By early 1987, Rivers (and her then-husband Edgar Rosenberg, the show's original executive producer) quit The Late Show after disagreements with the network over the show's creative direction; the program then began to be hosted by a succession of guest hosts. After that point, some stations that affiliated with Fox in the weeks before the April 1987 launch of its prime time lineup (such as WCGV-TV (channel 24) in Milwaukee and WDRB-TV (channel 41) in Louisville) signed affiliation agreements with the network on the condition that they would not have to carry The Late Show due to the program's weak ratings.\n\nThe network expanded its programming into prime time on April 5, 1987, inaugurating its Sunday night lineup with the premieres of the sitcom Married... with Children and the sketch comedy series The Tracey Ullman Show. Fox added one new show per week over the next several weeks, with the drama 21 Jump Street, and comedies Mr. President and Duet completing its Sunday schedule. On July 11, the network rolled out its Saturday night schedule with the premiere of the supernatural drama series Werewolf, which began with a two-hour pilot movie event. Three other series were added to the Saturday lineup over the next three weeks: comedies The New Adventures of Beans Baxter, Karen's Song and Down and Out in Beverly Hills (the latter being an adaptation of the film of the same name). Both Karen's Song and Down and Out in Beverly Hills were canceled by the start of the 1987–88 television season, the network's first fall launch, and were replaced by the sitcoms Second Chance and Women in Prison.\n\nIn regards to its late night lineup, Fox had already decided to cancel The Late Show, and had a replacement series in development, The Wilton North Report, when the former series began a ratings resurgence under its final guest host, comedian Arsenio Hall. Wilton North lasted just a few weeks, however, and the network was unable to reach a deal with Hall to return as host when it hurriedly revived The Late Show in early 1988. The Late Show went back to featuring guest hosts, eventually selecting Ross Shafer as its permanent host, only for it to be canceled for good by October 1988, while Hall signed a deal with Paramount Television to develop his own syndicated late night talk show, The Arsenio Hall Show. Although it had modest successes in Married... with Children and The Tracy Ullman Show, several affiliates were disappointed with Fox's largely underperforming programming lineup during the network's first three years; KMSP-TV (channel 9) in Minneapolis-St. Paul and KPTV (channel 12) in Portland, Oregon, both owned at the time by Chris-Craft Television, disaffiliated from Fox in 1988 (with KITN (channel 29, now WFTC) and KPDX (channel 49) respectively replacing those stations as Fox affiliates), citing that the network's weaker program offerings were hampering viewership of their stronger syndicated slate.\n\nThe network added a third night of programming, on Mondays, at the start of the 1989–90 television season, a season that heralded the start of a turnaround for Fox. That season saw the debut of a midseason replacement series, The Simpsons, an animated series that originated as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show; ranked at a three-way tie for 29th place in the Nielsen ratings, it became a breakout hit and was the first Fox series to break the Top 30. The Simpsons, at 27 years as of 2016, is the longest-running American sitcom, the longest-running American animated program, and in 2009, it surpassed Gunsmoke as the longest-running American scripted primetime television series. That year, Fox also first introduced the documentary series Cops and crime-focused magazine program America's Most Wanted (the latter of which debuted as a half-hour series as part of the network's mainly comedy-based Sunday lineup for its first season, before expanding to an hour and moving to Fridays for the 1990–91 season). These two series, which would become staples on the network for just over two decades, would eventually be paired to form the nucleus of Fox's Saturday night schedule beginning in the 1994–95 season. Meanwhile, Married... with Children – which broke ground from other family sitcoms of the period as it centered on a dysfunctional lower-middle-class family, whose patriarch often openly loathed his failures and being saddled with a wife and two children – saw viewer interest substantially increase beginning in its third season after, in an ironic twist, Michigan homemaker Terry Rakolta lodged a boycott to force Fox to cancel the series after objecting to risque humor and sexual content featured in a 1989 episode. Married...s newfound success led it to become the network's longest-running live-action sitcom, airing for 11 seasons.\n\n1990s: Rise into mainstream success and beginnings of rivalry with the Big Three\n\nFox survived where DuMont and other attempts to start a fourth network had failed because it programmed just under the number of hours defined by the FCC to legally be considered a network. This allowed Fox to make revenue in ways forbidden to the established networks (for instance, it did not have to adhere to the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules that were in effect at the time), since during its first years it was considered to be merely a large group of stations. By comparison, DuMont was saddled by numerous regulatory barriers that hampered its potential to grow, most notably a ban on acquiring additional stations – during an era when the FCC had much tighter ownership limits for television stations (limiting broadcasters to a maximum of five stations nationwide) than it did when Fox launched – since its minority owner, Paramount Pictures owned two television stations (one of which had already disaffiliated from the network). Combined with the three television stations owned by network parent DuMont Laboratories, this put DuMont at the legal limit at the time. In addition, Murdoch was more than willing to open his wallet to get and keep programming and talent. DuMont, in contrast, operated on a shoestring budget and was unable to keep the programs and stars it had. \n\nMost of the other startup networks that launched in later years (such as The WB, UPN and The CW) followed Fox's model as well. Furthermore, DuMont operated during a time when the FCC did not require television manufacturers to include UHF capability. In order to see DuMont's UHF stations, most people had to buy an expensive converter. Even then, the picture quality was marginal at best. By the time Fox launched, cable allowed UHF stations to generally be on an equal footing with VHF stations. Clarke Ingram, who maintains a memorial website to the failed DuMont Television Network, has suggested that Fox is a revival or at least a linear descendant of DuMont, since Metromedia (originally known as Metropolitan Broadcasting at its founding) was spun off from DuMont and that company's television stations formed the nucleus of the Fox network. WNYW (originally known as WABD) and WTTG were two of the three original owned-and-operated stations of the DuMont network, and Fox remains based out of a facility in Manhattan which was formerly the base of DuMont's operations, the DuMont Tele-Centre, the current day Fox Television Center.\n\nAlthough Fox was growing rapidly as a network and had established itself as a presence, it was still not considered a major competitor to the established \"Big Three\" broadcast networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. From its launch, Fox had the advantage of offering programs intended to appeal toward a younger demographic – adults between 18 and 49 years of age – and that were edgier in content, whereas some programs that were carried by the \"Big Three\" networks attracted an older-skewing audience. Until the early 1990s, when Fox expanded its programming to additional nights and outside of prime time, most Fox stations were still essentially formatted as independent stations – filling their schedules with mainly first-run and acquired programming, and, during prime time, running either syndicated programs or, more commonly, movies on nights when the network did not provide programming. Few Fox stations carried local newscasts during the network's early years, unlike the owned-and-operated stations and affiliates of its established rivals. Those that did were mostly based in larger markets (including some of the network's O&Os) and retained newscasts that had aired for decades. Even then, these news operations were limited to one newscast per day, following the network's prime time lineup.\n\nAs Fox gradually headed towards carrying a full week's worth of programming in prime time – through the addition of programming on Thursday and Friday nights at the start of the 1990–91 season – the network's added offerings included the scheduling of The Simpsons opposite veteran NBC sitcom The Cosby Show as part of Fox's initial Thursday night lineup that fall (along with future hit Beverly Hills, 90210, which would become the network's longest-running drama, airing for ten seasons) after only a half-season of success on Sunday nights. The show performed well in its new Thursday slot, spending four seasons there and helping to launch Martin, another Fox comedy that became a hit when it debuted in September 1992. The Simpsons returned to Sunday nights in the fall of 1994, and has remained there ever since.\n\nThe sketch comedy series In Living Color, which debuted in April 1990, created many memorable characters and launched the careers of future movie stars Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, Damon Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans and Jennifer Lopez (the latter of whom was a member of the show's dance troupe, the \"Fly Girls\"). The series also gained international prominence after Fox aired a special live episode in January 1992 as an alternative to the halftime show during Super Bowl XXVI, which was broadcast on CBS, marking the start of Fox's rivalry with the \"Big Three\" networks while popularizing the counterprogramming strategy against the Super Bowl telecast.\n\nThe early and mid-1990s saw the debuts of several soap opera-style prime time dramas aimed at younger audiences that became quick hits, which, in addition to Beverly Hills, 90210, included its adult-focused spin-off Melrose Place (which initially had a mediocre ratings performance, before viewership rose significantly midway through its first season following Heather Locklear's addition to the cast) and family drama Party of Five. The early and mid-1990s also saw the network launch several series aimed at a black audience, which, in addition to Martin, included the sitcom Living Single and police procedural New York Undercover.\n\nLuring the NFL and affiliation switches\n\nFox would become a viable competitor to the \"Big Three\" when the network lured the partial broadcast television rights to the National Football League away from CBS. On December 18, 1993, Fox signed a contract with the NFL to televise regular season and playoff games from the National Football Conference (which had been airing its games on CBS since 1955, fifteen years before the formation of the NFC and the American Football Conference through the merger of the American Football League and the NFL), starting with the 1994 season. The initial four-year contract, which Fox bid $1.58 billion to obtain (considerably more than the $290 million that CBS reportedly offered to retain the conference rights), also included the exclusive U.S. television rights to Super Bowl XXXI in 1997. The network also lured Pat Summerall, John Madden, Dick Stockton, Matt Millen, James Brown and Terry Bradshaw (as well as many behind-the-scenes production personnel) from CBS Sports to staff its NFL coverage.\n\nShortly afterward, News Corporation began striking affiliation deals with, and later purchasing, more television station groups. On May 23, 1994, Fox agreed to purchase a 20% stake in New World Communications, a television and film production company controlled by investor Ronald Perelman that had just recently entered into broadcasting through its 1993 purchase of seven stations owned by SCI Television. As a result of Fox acquiring a 20% minority interest in the company, New World signed an agreement to switch the affiliations of twelve stations (eight CBS affiliates, three ABC affiliates – two of which were subsequently placed in a blind trust and then sold directly to Fox due to conflicts with FCC ownership rules – and one NBC affiliate) that it had either already owned outright or was in the process of acquiring from Citicasters and Argyle Communications at the time to Fox starting in September 1994 and continuing as existing affiliation contracts with their existing major network partners expired. \n\nThat summer, SF Broadcasting, a joint venture between Fox and Savoy Pictures that was founded in March 1994, purchased four stations from Burnham Broadcasting (three NBC affiliates and one ABC affiliate); through a separate agreement, those stations would also switch to Fox between September 1995 and January 1996 as existing affiliation agreements lapsed. These two deals were not the first instances in which a longtime \"Big Three\" station affiliated with Fox: the network scored its first major coup when it moved its Miami affiliation from charter affiliate WCIX (channel 6, which became a CBS owned-and-operated station, now WFOR-TV on channel 4) to NBC affiliate WSVN (channel 7) in January 1989, the result of a three-station affiliation swap spurred by NBC's purchase of longtime CBS affiliate WTVJ (channel 4, now on channel 6). Through the expansion of its news programming and a refocused emphasis on crime stories and sensationalistic reporting under news director Joel Cheatwood, that switch helped the perennial third-place WSVN become a strong competitor in the Miami market.\n\nThe NFC contract, in fact, was the impetus for the affiliation deal with New World and SF Broadcasting's purchase of the Burnham stations, as Fox sought to improve local coverage of its new NFL package by aligning the network with stations that had more established histories and advertiser value than its charter affiliates. The deals spurred a series of affiliation realignments between all four U.S. television networks involving individual stations and various broadcasting groups – such as those between CBS and Group W (whose corporate parent later bought the network in August 1995), and ABC and the E. W. Scripps Company (which owned several Fox affiliates that switched to either ABC or NBC as a result of the New World deal) – affecting 30 television markets between September 1994 and September 1996. The two deals also had the side benefit of increasing local news programming on the new Fox affiliates, mirroring the programming format adopted by WSVN upon that station's switch to the network (as well as expanding the number of news-producing stations in Fox's portfolio beyond mainly charter stations in certain large and mid-sized markets).\n\nWith significant market share for the first time ever and the rights to the NFL, Fox firmly established itself as the nation's fourth major network. Fox Television Stations would acquire New World outright on July 17, 1996 in a $2.48 billion stock purchase, making the latter's twelve Fox affiliates owned-and-operated stations of the network; the deal was completed on January 22, 1997. Later, in August 2000, Fox bought several stations owned by Chris-Craft Industries and its subsidiaries BHC Communications and United Television for $5.5 billion (most of these stations were UPN affiliates, although its Minneapolis station KMSP-TV would rejoin Fox in September 2002 as an owned-and-operated station). These purchases, for a time, made Fox Television Stations the largest owner of television stations in the U.S. (a title that has since been assumed by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the network's largest affiliate groups).\n\nEvolving programming\n\nFox completed its prime time expansion to all seven nights on January 19, 1993, with the launch of two additional nights of programming on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (The method of gradually adding nights to the programming schedule that began with the network's April 1987 prime time launch was replicated by The WB and UPN when those networks debuted in January 1995). September 1993 saw the heavy promotion and debut of a short-lived western series that incorporated science-fiction elements, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. However, it was the supernatural investigative drama that debuted immediately following it on Friday nights, The X-Files, that would find long-lasting success, and would become Fox's first series to crack Nielsen's year-end Top 20 most-watched network programs. After several other failed attempts at late night programming following the cancellation of The Late Show (most notably, the quick failure of The Chevy Chase Show in 1993), Fox finally found success in that time period with the debut of MADtv on October 14, 1995; the sketch comedy series became a solid competitor to NBC's Saturday Night Live for over a decade and was the network's most successful late night program as well as one of its most successful Saturday night shows, running for 14 seasons until its cancellation in 2009.\n\nAn attempt to make a larger effort to program Saturday nights by moving Married... with Children from its longtime Sunday slot and adding a new but short-lived sitcom (Love and Marriage) to the night at the beginning of the 1996–97 season backfired with the public, as it resulted in a brief cancellation of America's Most Wanted that was criticized by law enforcement and public officials, and was roundly rejected by viewers, which brought swift cancellation to the newer series. Married... quickly returned to Sundays (before moving again to Mondays two months later); both it and Martin would end their runs at the end of that season. The Saturday schedule was revised in November 1996, to feature one new and one encore episode of Cops, and the revived America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back. Cops and AMW remained the anchors of Fox's Saturday lineup, making it the most stable night in American broadcast television for over 14 years; both shows eventually were among the few first-run programs remaining on Saturday evenings across the four major networks after decreasing prime time viewership – as more people opted to engage in leisure activities away from home rather than watch television on that night of the week – led ABC, NBC and CBS to largely abandon first-run series on Saturdays (outside of newsmagazines, sports and burned off prime time shows that failed on other nights) in favor of reruns and movies by the mid-2000s. America's Most Wanted ended its 22-year run on Fox in June 2011, and was subsequently picked up by Lifetime (before being cancelled for good in 2013); Cops, in turn, would move its first-run episodes to Spike in 2013 after 23 seasons (ending its original run on Fox as the network's longest-running prime time program), leaving sports and repeats of reality and drama series as the only programs airing on Fox on Saturday evenings. \n\nBy the 1997–98 season, Fox had three shows in the Nielsen Top 20, The X-Files (which ranked 11th), King of the Hill (which ranked 15th) and The Simpsons (which ranked 18th). Building around its flagship animated comedy The Simpsons, Fox would experience relative success with animated series in prime time, beginning with the debut of the Mike Judge-produced King of the Hill in 1997. Family Guy (the first of three adult-oriented animated series from Seth MacFarlane to air on the network) and Futurama (from Simpsons creator Matt Groening) would make their debuts in 1999; however, they were canceled in 2002 and 2003 respectively. Due to strong DVD sales and highly rated cable reruns on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, Fox later decided to order new episodes of Family Guy, which began airing in 2005. Futurama would be revived with four direct-to-DVD films between 2007 and 2009 and would return as a first-run series on Comedy Central, where it ran from 2010 to 2013. Less successful efforts included The Critic, starring Saturday Night Live alumnus Jon Lovitz (which Fox picked up in 1994 after it was cancelled by ABC, only for the series to be cancelled again after its second season), and The PJs (which moved to The WB in 2000, after Fox cancelled that series after its second season). Other notable shows that debuted in the late 1990s included the quirky David E. Kelley-produced live-action dramedy Ally McBeal and period comedy That '70s Show, the latter of which became Fox's second-longest-running live-action sitcom, airing for eight seasons.\n\nThroughout the 1990s and into the next decade, Fox launched a slate of cable channels beginning with the 1994 debuts of general entertainment network FX and movie channel FXM: Movies from Fox (now FX Movie Channel), followed by the debut of Fox News Channel in August 1996. Its sports operations expanded with the acquisition of controlling interests in several regional sports networks (including the Prime Network and SportsChannel) between 1996 and 2000 to form Fox Sports Net (which launched in November 1996), its 2000 purchase of Speedvision (later Speed Channel, which was replaced in the United States by Fox Sports 1 in August 2013; however, it continues to exist in other North American and Caribbean countries as Fox Sports Racing), and the launches of Fox Sports World (later Fox Soccer, which was replaced by FXX in September 2013) and Fox Sports en Espanol (now Fox Deportes) in the early 2000s.\n\n2000s: Rise to ratings leadership, the American Idol effect, and fierce rivalry with CBS\n\nBy 2000, many staple Fox shows of the 1990s had ended their runs. During the late 1990s and carrying over into the early 2000s, Fox put much of its efforts into producing reality shows – many of which were considered to be sensationalistic and controversial in nature – such as Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?, Temptation Island, Married by America and Joe Millionaire (which became the first Fox program ever to crack the Nielsen Top 10), as well as video clip shows such as World's Wildest Police Videos and When Animals Attack!. After shedding most of these programs, Fox gradually filled its lineup with acclaimed dramas such as 24, The O.C., House and Bones, and comedies such as The Bernie Mac Show, Malcolm in the Middle and Arrested Development.\n\nAs the decade wore on, Fox began surpassing ABC and NBC in the ratings – first in age demographics, then in overall viewership – and placed second behind a resurgent CBS in total viewership beginning in 2002. Fox hit a major milestone in 2005 when it emerged as the most-watched U.S. broadcast network in the lucrative 18-49 demographic for the first time, largely boosted by the strength of the reality singing competition series American Idol. Regarded as the single most dominant program on 21st-century U.S. television, as well as the first Fox show to lead the Nielsen seasonal ratings, Idol had peak audiences of up to 38 million viewers during the 2003 season finale and double-season average audiences of around 31 million viewers in 2006 and 2007. Subsequently, it leapfrogged over Fox's Big Three competition to become the highest-rated U.S. television program overall starting with the 2003–04 season, becoming the first reality singing competition series in the country ever to reach first place in the seasonal ratings. \n\nIdol remains the most recent U.S. television program to date to lead the national prime time ratings and attract at least 30 million viewers for at least two television seasons. It also became the single most watched primetime television series of the 2000s by average, as well as the most recent program scheduled to have successfully established a graveyard slot on U.S. television since the end of NBC's Friends in 2004 and the subsequent decline of the network's previously dominant \"Must See TV\" Thursday timeblock. By 2005, reality television succeeded sitcoms as the most popular form of entertainment in the U.S. as a result of Fox's rise with Idol and NBC's network declines. House, which aired after Idol on Tuesday nights and had a successful run of summer repeats in 2005, became Fox's first prime time drama series (and the network's third program overall) to reach the Nielsen Top 10 in 2006.\n\nSince 2004, CBS and Fox, which ranked as the two most-watched broadcast networks in the U.S. during the 2000s, have tended to equal one another in demographic ratings among general viewership, with both networks winning certain demographics by narrow margins; however, while Fox has the youngest-skewing viewer base, CBS is consistently regarded to have the oldest audience demographics among the major broadcast networks. Fox hit a milestone in February 2005 by scoring its first-ever sweeps victory in total viewership and demographic ratings, boosted largely by its broadcast of Super Bowl XXXIX and the strengths of American Idol, 24, House and The O.C.\n\nDuring the 2004–2005 season, Fox ranked in first place among all broadcast networks in the 18–49 adult demographic for the first time in its history. Another milestone came by the conclusion of the 2007–08 season on May 21, 2008, shortly after the widely acclaimed seventh season finale of American Idol, when Fox became the highest-rated television network in the United States overall for the first time, attributed to the strengths of Super Bowl XLII and its NFL game coverages, Idol and House during that season; it also dominated the 18-49 demographic for the fourth consecutive season by the largest margin ever since the introduction of people meter technology for television audience measurement by Nielsen during the 1985–86 season, and is currently the only non-Big Three network to earn first place overall since the start of the Nielsen ratings in the 1950-51 season.\n\nIn the late 2000s, Fox launched a few series that proved to be powerful hits in different respects. In 2008, the supernatural mystery series Fringe debuted to high ratings and critical acclaim during its first season on Tuesdays; though its viewership declined through its run, the series developed a large loyal fanbase that turned the show into a cult favorite. In 2009, Glee premiered to average ratings when its pilot aired as a \"special preview\" episode in May (after the eighth season finale of American Idol), but earned positive reviews from critics. The show's ratings increased during its first two seasons, and was met with such media attention that it formed a large, loyal international fanbase. The cast of the series has been acknowledged by notable luminaries such as the President of the United States Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey, who have each asked the cast to perform live for various national events.\n\n2010s: Network's ratings collapse, and revamp in network programming\n\nAt the dawn of the 2010s, new comedies Raising Hope and New Girl gave Fox its first live-action comedy successes in years. The second season of Glee delivered that series' highest ratings during the 2010–11 season, with viewership peaking during its Super Bowl lead-out episode in February 2011. At the same time, Fox's live telecast of the Super Bowl XLV helped the network emerge as the first U.S. television network to earn an average single-night prime time audience of at least 100 million viewers. \n\nAmerican Idol lost its first place standing among all network prime time programs during the 2011–12 finale (falling to second that season behind NBC Sunday Night Football), ending the longest streak at #1 for a prime time broadcast network series in U.S. television history, through its eight-year ratings domination in both the Adults 18-49 demographic and total viewership. Idol also remained in the Nielsen Top 10 for eleven years from 2003 to 2013, and became the highest-rated non-sports prime time television program as well as the highest-rated reality series in the U.S. from 2003 to 2012; these records marked the longest Nielsen ratings streaks of any Fox program in these categories. The 2012 season finale of American Idol marked the end of the season-long 25th anniversary of the establishment of Fox network, helping it win in the 18-49 demographic for the eighth consecutive season, the longest such streak according to Nielsen measurement records.\n\nFox suffered a collapse in viewership during the 2012–13 season; American Idol and Glee suffered steep ratings declines, while the network as a whole fell to third place (suffering an overall decrease by 22%) in total viewership and to second place in the 18-49 demographic (where it remained ) by the end of the season. The decline in ratings continued into the 2013–14 season, with Fox placing fourth among the major networks in total viewership for the first time since 2001. Subsequently, on January 13, 2014, Fox announced that it would abandon its use of the standard concept of greenlighting shows through the initial order of pilot episodes during the designated \"pilot season\" (running from January through April), instead opting to pick up shows directly to series. \n\nFox scored renewed ratings successes with its live telecast of Super Bowl XLVIII in February 2014, and the lead-out programs that followed this event – New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Super Bowl XLVIII became the second highest-rated U.S. television program to date, with peak ratings of up to 167 million viewers during several portions of the Fox telecast. Later, in May 2014, Kevin Reilly announced that he would resign as chairman of Fox Entertainment. On July 15, 2014, corporate parent 21st Century Fox announced that it would merge the operations of the network and 20th Century Fox Television into the newly created Fox Television Group, with 20th Century Fox Television co-chairpersons Dana Walden and Gary Newman appointed to head the division. \n\nThe 2014–15 season saw hits in the freshmen dramas Gotham (based on the Batman mythos) and the Lee Daniels-produced Empire. Ratings for Empire, in particular, increased week-to-week throughout its first season, becoming the network's first successful American Idol lead-out since House, as well as the first American television program to consistently increase its episode-to-episode viewership during its first five weeks since the 1992 feat set by ABC's Roseanne. Empire ended its inaugural season as the first U.S. television show ever to increase its episodic viewership on a consistent basis throughout the course of a single season, as well as Fox's fourth program overall (and the first since the 2013 finale of American Idol) to enter the Nielsen Top 10 by the end of the 2014–15 season. \n\nThe 2015–16 season marked a notable turnaround for Fox, as it jumps ahead of ABC to third place in nationwide ratings (both in overall viewership and in the 18-49 demo) and posted several firsts for the network and on U.S. television. Its improvement was boosted by the transfer of the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants from NBC, as well as shows such as Grease: Live, Empire and the return of The X-Files after its most recent season ending in 2002. Grease: Live became the first live American TV musical special of the 21st century to be broadcast in front of a live studio audience (as well as the first ever live musical special aired by a non-Big Three network on primetime), while Empire and The X-Files ranked in the Nielsen Top 10 for the season, the first season with 2 Fox programs entering the top rankings since the American Idol-House duo of the 2007-2008 season (and the first ever season that Fox achieved such rankings without American Idol or any other reality television show from Fox in the Top 10). \n\n2016 also marked the series finale of American Idol after airing for fifteen seasons, ending an era of one of the most successful shows in U.S. television history. Although suffering from steep viewership declines in the early 2010s, American Idol aired its most watched episode during the series finale for the first time since the 2013 finale show. Fox is set to live broadcast the Super Bowl LI on February 2017, the first Super Bowl after its golden anniversary aired on CBS.\n\nProgramming\n\n, Fox currently provides 19 hours of regularly scheduled network programming each week. The network provides fifteen hours of prime time programming to its owned-and-operated and affiliated stations on Monday through Saturdays from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. and Sundays from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. (all times Eastern and Pacific). An hour of late night programming is also offered on Saturdays from 11:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, as part of the Animation Domination High-Def block (though scheduling for that hour varies depending on the market due to late local newscasts airing in the traditional 11:00/10:00 p.m. timeslot on some Fox stations). Weekend daytime programming consists of the paid programming block Weekend Marketplace (airing Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., although the block is not carried by all affiliates and, in some areas, is offered to another station in the market), and the hour-long Sunday morning political discussion show – and the network's only regular national news program – Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace (airing from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific, although the timeslot also varies by market due to local news or public affairs programming).\n\nSports programming is also provided; usually on weekends (albeit not every weekend year-round), and most commonly airing between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. or as late as 8:00 p.m. on Sundays (often airing for longer hours during football season, slightly less during NASCAR season); between 3:00 and 7:00 p.m. (during baseball and college football season) or as early as 12:00 p.m. (during college basketball season) on Saturday afternoons; and during prime time on certain Saturday evenings. The Saturday prime time block – if any sports programming is scheduled for a particular week on that night – currently varies between occasional UFC events, Major League Baseball, or NASCAR coverage in the late winter and early spring/summer, and college football coverage during the fall. Most of the network's prime time programming is produced by a production company owned by Fox's corporate parent 21st Century Fox, usually 20th Century Fox Television or Fox 21 Television Studios.\n\nAdult animation\n\nTypically every Sunday night during prime time (unless preempted, usually by sports telecasts), Fox airs a lineup incorporating original adult animation series. This block of adult cartoons became a staple of the network – airing under the brand Animation Domination from May 1, 2005, to September 14, 2014, when the network rebranded the block as Sunday Funday as a result of the re-incorporation of live-action comedy series on the Sunday night lineup after ten years (aside from occasional burn-offs of series aired on other nights during the 7:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific hour), although animated series remain an integral part of that night's schedule.\n\nThe first programs to air as part of the Animation Domination lineup were American Dad! (which also had its beginnings in the lineup, and moved to TBS in October 2014 ), Family Guy (which returned to the network after a four-year cancellation when Animation Domination began), The Simpsons (the longest-running cartoon on Fox, predating the lineup by 16 years), and King of the Hill (which also predated the lineup by eight years). Animated shows currently airing as part of the lineup include Family Guy, The Simpsons and Bob's Burgers. In addition to King of the Hill, series that have previously aired on the lineup have included Sit Down, Shut Up; Allen Gregory; Napoleon Dynamite; and The Cleveland Show.\n\nAn extension of the Sunday prime-time block called \"Animation Domination High-Def\" launched on Saturday late nights in July 2013 (marking the return of first-run programming in that time period since the 2010 cancellation of The Wanda Sykes Show), with ADHD Shorts, Axe Cop and High School USA!. Due to low ratings, Fox announced on April 17, 2014, that it would discontinue \"Animation Domination High-Def\"; although the block was slated to end on June 28, 2014, it continues to air on Fox as of October 2015 with reruns of its existing programs.\n\nChildren's programming\n\nFox began airing children's programming on September 8, 1990 with the debut of the Fox Children's Network (rebranded as the Fox Kids Network in 1991, and then to simply Fox Kids in 1998), a programming block that aired on Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons. Programming within the Fox Kids block consisted mainly of animated series, although it also featured some live-action series as part of the lineup. Shows featured in the block included Bobby's World, X-Men, Spider-Man, The Tick and Goosebumps; it also aired select shows from Warner Bros. Animation including the popular animated series Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and Batman: The Animated Series (Warner Bros. pulled Batman and Animaniacs from the Fox Kids lineup in September 1995, moving both shows, as well as Tiny Toons – which had already ended its run – to the newly launched Kids' WB block on The WB). Fox Kids' most successful series, however, was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (from eventual sister company and Fox Kids co-parent Saban Entertainment), which debuted in 1993 and became the block's flagship program until it moved to ABC and Toon Disney in 2002.\n\nIn October 2001, Fox sold its children's division, Saban Entertainment and Fox Family Worldwide (the parent subsidiary of cable network Fox Family Channel, now ABC Family) to The Walt Disney Company for $5.3 billion. The network relegated the Fox Kids block to Saturdays in January 2002 (turning over the two-hour timeslot held by the weekday block to its owned-and-operated and affiliated stations, rather than retaining the slots and filling them with adult-oriented daytime shows ); then on September 14, 2002, as part of a time-lease agreement with 4Kids Entertainment to program the remaining four-hour Saturday morning lineup, Fox Kids was replaced by a new children's program block called FoxBox (which was renamed 4Kids TV in February 2005).\n\nFox discontinued the 4Kids TV block on December 27, 2008, due to conflicts between the network and 4Kids Entertainment that were later settled, regarding 4Kids' failure to pay Fox for the programming lease rights, and the network's inability to fulfill a promise guaranteeing clearance on 90% of its stations and to get other stations to carry the block in certain markets where a Fox station declined it (an issue that plagued Fox's children's program blocks since the start of its affiliation deal with New World Communications). Fox had earlier announced, on November 23, that it would no longer carry children's programming in the time period, citing stiff competition from cable channels aimed at the demographic; the network instead turned over two of the four vacant Saturday morning hours to its affiliates to allow them to air local newscasts or educational programs purchased from the syndication market, while it retained the remaining two hours to run a network-managed paid programming block, Weekend Marketplace, which debuted on January 3, 2009. \n\nOn September 14, 2014, Xploration Station, a two-hour syndicated block produced by Steve Rotfeld Productions, began airing on Fox stations owned by several affiliate groups including Fox Television Stations and Tribune Broadcasting. The block, which complies with guidelines defined by the Children's Television Act, features programs focused on the STEM fields. Stations can choose to either carry Xploration Station or continue to air Weekend Marketplace (as the Sinclair Broadcast Group chose to do, since it already carries syndicated E/I programming purchased by the company across its Fox affiliates, although Sinclair plans to add the block on most of its Fox affiliates in September 2016).\n\nNews\n\nUnlike ABC, CBS and NBC, Fox does not currently air national news programs (morning, evening or overnight) or newsmagazines – choosing to focus solely on its prime time schedule, sports and other ancillary network programming. The absence of a national news program on the Fox network is despite the fact that its parent company, 21st Century Fox, owns Fox News Channel, which launched in August 1996 and is currently available on virtually all pay television providers within the United States. Fox News is not structured as a news division of the Fox network, and operates as a technically separate entity within 21st Century Fox through the company's Fox News Group subsidiary. However, it does produce some content that is carried by the broadcast network, which is usually separate from the news coverage aired by the cable channel; in particular, FNC anchor Shepard Smith anchors most prime time news presentations on the Fox network, especially during political news events (which are anchored by Bret Baier on Fox News Channel).\n\nSpecifically, the Fox network airs coverage of the State of the Union address, presidential debates, national election coverage, as well as live breaking news coverage currently branded as a \"Fox News Special Report\" (also branded as a \"Fox News Alert\" or sometimes a \"Fox News Red Alert\"); carriage of such special coverage of a breaking news story may vary from station to station, and is often limited to events that occur during the network's usual prime time block (for example, unlike the Big Three, Fox does not often provide coverage of major political convention speeches, which usually occur during the 10:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) hour during which most of its affiliates air local newscasts; however, the majority of Fox's owned-and-operated stations and affiliate groups do carry weekday breaking news briefs). The political discussion show Fox News Sunday also airs on the Fox network on Sunday mornings and is rebroadcast later in the day on FNC. Fox also operates an affiliate news service called Fox NewsEdge, which launched with Fox News Channel in 1996, and provides national and international news reports, and feature stories for Fox stations to use in their own local newscasts.\n\nFox first tried its hand at a national news program in prime time with the hour-long weekly newsmagazine The Reporters, which was produced by the same team behind the Fox Television Stations-distributed syndicated tabloid program A Current Affair; the program ran from 1988 to 1990, when it was cancelled due to low ratings. From 1987 until about 1990, Fox also aired news capsules that aired within its prime time schedule branded as Fox News Extra, which were produced at New York City O&O WNYW (Cora-Ann Mihalik, who anchored the newsbriefs, had at the time also co-anchored WNYW's weeknight 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. newscasts). Another failed attempt occurred in 1993, when Fox launched Front Page (which included among its five hosts, Ron Reagan and Josh Mankiewicz), in an attempt to capture a younger demographic for a newsmagazine program. \n\nThe network tried its hand at a newsmagazine again in 1998 with Fox Files, hosted by Fox News Channel anchors Catherine Crier and Jon Scott, as well as a team of correspondents; it lasted a little over a year before being cancelled. Its last attempt at a newsmagazine series occurred during the 2002–03 sweeps period, with The Pulse, hosted by Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith. On May 17, 2016, the network aired an interview special with Fox News primetime anchor Megyn Kelly, Megyn Kelly Presents.\n\nFox also attempted national morning programs, only the first of which aired on the network itself. Its first venture at such a program was Fox After Breakfast, an hour-long morning news and lifestyle show, hosted by Tom Bergeron and Laurie Hibberd, that ran on the network from 1996 to 1998 (Fox aired the program at 9:00 a.m. – as opposed to the 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. time slot that NBC, CBS and ABC air their national morning shows – in order to accommodate local morning newscasts that ran in the latter slot on some of its stations); the program originated as Breakfast Time in 1995 on sister cable channel FX. Fox tried again in 2002 with Good Day Live, a heavily entertainment-focused syndicated offshoot of Good Day L.A., a news/entertainment/lifestyle program that debuted in 1993 on Los Angeles owned-and-operated station KTTV; the national version of the program was cancelled in 2005. On January 22, 2007, Fox premiered The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet on its owned-and-operated stations; hosted by Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy (then-anchors of Fox News Channel's DaySide), the show was lighter in format and more entertainment-oriented, though its focus often changed when a major news story occurred. In February 2007, the program was syndicated to other stations including many affiliated with ABC, NBC and CBS in markets where it was not carried by a Fox or MyNetworkTV affiliate; The Morning Show was cancelled in June 2009. \n\nSports\n\nWhen the network launched, Fox management, having seen the critical role that sports programming – soccer events, in particular – had played in the growth of the British satellite service BSkyB, believed that sports – and specifically, professional football – would be the engine that would make Fox a major network the quickest. In 1987, after ABC initially hedged on renewing its contract to broadcast Monday Night Football, Fox made an offer to the National Football League to acquire the rights for the same amount that ABC had been paying, about $13 million per game at the time. However, partly due to the fact that Fox had not yet established itself as a major network, the NFL chose to renew its contract with ABC (where Monday Night Football remained until its move to sister cable channel ESPN in September 2006).\n\nSix years later, when the league entered contract negotiations with its television partners, Fox placed a $1.58 billion bid to obtain broadcast rights to the National Football Conference – covering four seasons of games, beginning with the 1994 NFL season. The NFL selected the Fox bid on December 18, 1993, stripping CBS of football telecasts for the first time since 1955. The event placed Fox on par with the \"Big Three\" television networks and ushered in an era of growth for the NFL. Fox's acquisition of the NFL rights also quickly led toward the network reaching an affiliation deal with New World Communications to change the affiliations of twelve of its stations to Fox (see above). The rights gave Fox many new viewers and a platform for advertising its other programs.\n\nWith a sports division now established with the arrival of the NFL, Fox acquired broadcast television rights to the National Hockey League (1994–99), Major League Baseball (since 1996) and NASCAR auto racing (since 2001, initially as part of a deal that also involved NBC and TNT). From 2007 to 2010, Fox aired college football games that were part of the Bowl Championship Series, except for the Rose Bowl, whose rights remained with ABC. The package also included the BCS National Championship Game, with the exception of the 2010 event (as that game was played at the Rose Bowl stadium).\n\nIn August 2011, Fox and mixed martial arts promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) reached a multi-year agreement, which included the rights to broadcast four live events in prime time or late night annually, marking the first time that the UFC aired its events on broadcast television. Its first UFC on Fox event, Velasquez vs. Dos Santos, aired on November 12, 2011. \n\nStations\n\n, Fox has 18 owned-and-operated stations, and current and pending affiliation agreements with 219 additional television stations encompassing 48 states, the District of Columbia and three U.S. possessions; through its Fox Television Stations subsidiary, Fox has the most owned-and-operated stations of the major American commercial broadcast networks. The network has a national reach of 95.15% of all households in the United States (or 297,314,557 Americans with at least one television set). Currently, New Jersey and Delaware are the only U.S. states where Fox does not have a locally licensed affiliate (the former is served by New York City O&O WNYW and Philadelphia O&O WTXF, while the latter is served by WTXF and Salisbury, Maryland affiliate WBOC-DT2).\n\nFox largely discontinued analog broadcasts on June 12, 2009 as part of the transition to digital television. As a newer broadcast network, Fox still has a number of low-power affiliates that broadcast in analog, covering markets like Youngstown, Ohio (WYFX-LD). In some markets, including both of the ones mentioned, these stations also maintain digital simulcasts on a subchannel of a co-owned/co-managed television station. Fox also maintains a sizeable number of subchannel-only affiliations in cities located outside of the 50 largest Nielsen-designated markets, that do not have enough full-power stations to support a standalone affiliation and/or have a low-power station as the only other option as an affiliate; the largest subchannel-only Fox affiliate by market size is WGGB-DT2 in Springfield, Massachusetts.\n\nCurrently outside of Fox's core O&O group, Tribune Broadcasting is Fox's largest affiliate group in terms of overall market reach, with fourteen stations (including some former Fox O&Os that were spun off in 2008 to Local TV, which Tribune later acquired in 2013, to finance former Fox parent News Corporation's purchase of The Wall Street Journal); the Sinclair Broadcast Group is the largest operator of Fox stations by numerical total, owning or providing services to 26 Fox-affiliated stations.\n\nFox previously distributed its programming in markets that did not have enough stations to support an affiliate via Foxnet, a cable channel acting as an alternate national feed for small and certain mid-sized U.S. markets (generally those within the bottom 110 Nielsen media markets) that launched in 1991 and operated until its shutdown on September 12, 2006; the channel featured a master schedule of programs acquired from the syndication market and some brokered programming to fill time slots not occupied by Fox network programming. The concept behind Foxnet served as the basis for The WB 100+ Station Group (launched in September 1998 as the cable-only feed of The WB) and The CW Plus (the immediate successor of The WB 100+, which launched in September 2006 as a cable-only/digital multicast feed of The CW), which both allow the customization of localized branding (which Foxnet did not allow its cable partners to do) in addition to allowing affiliates to sell local advertising.\n\nDifferences between Fox and the \"Big Three\" networks\n\nNetwork programming\n\nFox's programming schedule differs from the \"Big Three\" networks in several significant ways: the network airs its prime time programming for only two hours on Monday through Saturday evenings and three hours on Sundays, compared to the three hours on Monday through Saturdays (from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m.) and four hours on Sunday nights (from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time) programmed by the three longer-established networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. This scheduling is termed as \"common prime,\" referring to the programming of prime time content across all of the conventional broadcast networks during the early- and mid-evening hours, while the 10:00 p.m. (Eastern) hour is programmed only by the three older networks.\n\nFox has traditionally avoided programming the 10:00 p.m. hour, choosing to cede the time period to its local affiliates for them to program, many of which air local newscasts during that hour; however, some exceptions do exist for select special film presentations, which by virtue of their running time (depending on whether the film's original length, combined with commercial breaks that would be included in the television cut, would exceed a traditional two-hour broadcast timeslot) must spill over into the 10:00 p.m. hour, and overruns from live sports telecasts scheduled to air during prime time. However, the network did regularly schedule programming in the 10:00 p.m. hour on Sunday nights from September 1989 to September 1993 (when that specific time period was turned back over to its affiliates), although it never added programming at that hour on any other night. Fox's original reason for the reduced number of prime time hours was to avoid fulfilling FCC requirements in effect at the time to be considered a network, and to be free of resulting regulations, although these rules have since been relaxed.\n\nDespite being a major network, in addition to not carrying national morning and evening newscasts, Fox also does not air any network daytime programming (such as soap operas, game shows or talk shows). Because of this, the network's owned-and-operated stations and affiliates handle the responsibility of programming daytime hours with syndicated and/or locally produced programming (corporate sister 20th Television distributes several syndicated daytime programs carried by many Fox stations, such as Divorce Court and The Wendy Williams Show; Fox Television Stations also test markets certain series from 20th Television and other syndicators such as Warner Bros. Television Distribution that are proposed for national distribution on some of its stations). The network also does not carry network-supplied children's programming on Saturday mornings or late-night programming on Monday through Friday nights. Local affiliates either produce their own programming and/or run syndicated programs during these time periods. Because of the erratic scheduling of the network's sports programming, many Fox stations choose to run a mix of syndicated programming, infomercials and especially movies to fill weekend afternoon timeslots when a sports event is not scheduled to air.\n\nIn addition, from the network's inception, Fox has produced two versions of its program promotions for distribution to the network's stations: a standard version incorporating airtimes based on their broadcast in the Eastern/Central or Pacific/Mountain time zones, depending on the feed used by the station (as those seen during network commercial breaks), and versions with \"clean\" end tags to allow stations to include local airtime and station information through graphical insertion and verbal continuity by station promotional announcers during the program logo graphic or prime time menu. This practice – which differs from that long used by ABC, NBC and CBS, which only allow their stations to insert logos within their network promotions – was also later adopted by The WB and UPN (and their successors The CW, and to a lesser extent, MyNetworkTV) for use by their affiliated stations.\n\nNews programming\n\nWithin Fox's station body, the quantity of locally produced news programming varies considerably compared to the owned-and-operated and affiliated stations of ABC, NBC and CBS (which typically carry at least 4½ hours of local newscasts on weekdays and one hour on weekends, which are usually spread across morning, midday, early and/or late evening timeslots). At minimum, most Fox stations run a late-evening newscast following the network's prime time lineup (at 10:00 p.m. in the Eastern and Pacific, and 9:00 p.m. in the Central and Mountain Time Zones), which typically run 30 minutes to one hour in length; besides the fact that the network's stations have more latitude to air an earlier late-evening newscast since Fox does not program that hour, this stems from the fact that several of its charter stations were already airing prime time newscasts as independent stations prior to the network's launch (such as New York City O&O WNYW, which debuted its 10:00 p.m. newscast in March 1967). Most Fox stations also carry a weekday morning newscast of one to three hours in length at 7:00 a.m., as a local alternative to the national morning news programs provided by the \"Big Three\" networks (though mainly in the case of Fox stations that have a news operation and in a few cases, via simulcasts with ABC-, NBC- and CBS-affiliated stations that operate a Fox affiliate, this is often part of a morning news block that runs for four to six hours on average).\n\nFox has fewer stations that have an independent news operation than those of ABC, NBC and CBS; , 70 of Fox's 236 stations (including all 18 owned-and-operated stations) maintain in-house news departments (compared to roughly ⅝-⅞ of the stations of each of the three other major broadcast networks, whose newscasts are either produced in-house or in conjunction with another station). WJW (channel 8) in Cleveland (which was owned by the network from 1997 to 2008) and WXIN (channel 59) in Indianapolis have the highest weekly total of news programming hours among Fox's stations, at 65½ hours.\n\nMost Fox stations that run a news operation utilize a newscast-intensive scheduling format that is very similar to an ABC-, NBC- or CBS-affiliated station – which in many cases, may incorporate midday and/or early-evening newscasts, the latter of which is often extended by a half-hour to compete with the national evening newscasts provided by the \"Big Three\" networks; some Fox stations – except for those owned by Fox Television Stations (excluding WFLD in Chicago, the largest Fox station and only O&O of the network without an early-evening newscast) and most owned by Tribune Broadcasting – air their early-evening newscasts only on Monday through Friday nights, due to frequent sports event overruns into that daypart on weekends. The first Fox station to adopt such a scheduling format was WSVN in Miami; upon affiliating with the network in January 1989, WSVN retained its existing morning, midday and early evening newscasts, while moving its late newscast from 11:00 to 10:00 p.m. and expanding it to one hour (the station later relaunched an 11:00 p.m. newscast in 1995), and expanding its weekday morning newscast by two hours. This type of format was later adopted by the former major network stations that switched to Fox between 1994 and 1996, especially those affected by New World and Burnham Broadcasting affiliation deals. Many Fox stations with upstart news departments often do not run a full slate of newscasts initially, usually carrying only a prime time newscast at first, before gradually adding other newscasts over time.\n\nIn several markets (largely those ranked outside of the 50 largest Nielsen-designated television markets), production of the local Fox affiliate's newscasts is outsourced to an NBC, ABC or CBS station – either due to insufficient funds or studio space for a news department or in most cases, as a byproduct of the station being operated through a legal duopoly or a management agreement with a major network affiliate (such as with Esteem Broadcasting-owned WEMT (channel 39) in Greeneville, Tennessee, which has its newscasts produced by NBC affiliate WCYB-TV (channel 5) through a local marketing agreement with Bonten Media Group). Fox affiliates that outsource their news production to a major-network affiliate often carry a lesser amount of news programming than is possible with an affiliate with a standalone news department due to the contracting station's preference to avoid having the Fox station's newscasts compete against their own in common timeslots (differing from outsourcing agreements between two same-market ABC, CBS or NBC affiliates in certain areas, in which both stations may simulcast newscasts in the same timeslots). The lone exceptions to this rule currently are El Paso, Texas affiliate KFOX-TV (channel 14) and WXIN, which respectively began producing newscasts for their CBS-affiliated duopoly partners using resources from their existing news departments in September 2014 (when new sister stations KFOX and KDBC-TV (channel 4) consolidated their operations into a single facility) and January 2015 (when WXIN sister WTTV (channel 4) affiliated with CBS), with the Fox stations maintaining the same amount of news programming that they did beforehand. In Dayton, Ohio, Sinclair took the unusual step in August 2015 of branding its newscasts primarily as \"Fox 45 News\", establishing WRGT-TV as their primary branding station despite also owning ABC affiliate WKEF in a duopoly and the news operation previously originating with WKEF; newscasts air as \"Fox 45 News on ABC22\" on WKEF.\n\nWPGH-TV (channel 53) in Pittsburgh is the largest Fox station by Nielsen market ranking (at #23) that outsources its news programming; NBC affiliate WPXI (channel 11; owned by Cox Media Group) has produced the station's 10:00 p.m. newscast since 2006, when WPGH shut down its news department following the closure of owner Sinclair Broadcast Group's News Central division. A few Fox affiliates only air syndicated programming in time periods where newscasts would air on other major network stations. The largest Fox station by market size that does not carry news programming is WSYT (channel 68) in Syracuse, New York (which discontinued a 10:00 p.m. newscast produced by CBS affiliate WTVH (channel 5) in 2006); KRBK (channel 49) in Springfield, Missouri is the largest Fox station without full-scale newscasts (since the program debuted in 2013, it carries only a ten-minute newscast on weeknights, which was originally bookended by Fox and MyNetworkTV's respective prime time lineups until the latter service moved its affiliation to former Fox station KOZL-TV in September 2014).\n\nRelated services\n\nVideo-on-demand services\n\nFox maintains several video on demand venues for viewers to watch the network's programming, including a traditional VOD service called Fox on Demand, which is carried on most traditional cable and telco providers. Fox's parent company 21st Century Fox is also a part-owner of the streaming video service Hulu, and offers most of the network's programming through Hulu's website and mobile app, along with traditional streaming via the network's Full Episode portal on Fox.com.\n\nThe most recent episodes of the network's shows are usually made available on the Fox on Demand television service the day after their original broadcast. In addition, fast forwarding capabilities are disabled while viewing content (a commonality for video-on-demand television services provided by the U.S. broadcast networks) and the program's original advertisements that aired during the initial broadcast are included for a week after becoming available on the service, before being replaced by direct response advertising thereafter. Due to restrictions put in place by the network in January 2012 to encourage live or same-week DVR viewing via traditional and cable on demand methods, Hulu and Fox.com both impose an eight-day delay for most viewers to access the most recent episode of any Fox program, restricting day-after-air streaming of its shows on both services to subscribers of certain pay television providers (such as Dish Network and Verizon FiOS) using an ISP account through agreements made with Fox; however, Hulu offers newer episodes of Fox programs the day after their original broadcast to subscribers of its Hulu Plus service requiring only a user-determined login.\n\nFox HD\n\nFox began broadcasting its programming in 720p high definition on September 12, 2004, with that day's slate of NFC football games during week one of the 2004 NFL season. Until March 14, 2016, the network did not display an on-screen logo graphic on the bottom-right corner of the screen, outside of a ten-second sweep of a \"Fox HD\" promotional logo (which until the end of 2010, also featured a sponsor tag for DirecTV); instead a trigger in Fox's program delivery system at each station displayed the logo bug of an owned-and-operated or affiliate station in the right-hand corner of the 16:9 screen frame, which disappeared during commercial breaks (the station logo bug would still be triggered even if Fox programming was pre-empted locally due to breaking news, severe weather coverage or special programming, though some stations, such as WGGB-DT2 in Springfield, Massachusetts, did not display a logo or substitute only the \"FOX\" logo alone). However, network or affiliate bugs are not displayed during Fox Sports programming. During some high-profile or live programs such as American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, however, Fox forwent the affiliate's logo and displayed its network logo instead, mainly for promotional consideration due to fair use of clips from each series by other media outlets (such as news programs, talk shows, and review and satirical programs that rely on clip content); until 2014, the bug was placed in the 4:3 safe area. The Sunday political talk program Fox News Sunday displays the \"Fox HD\" logo at all times for both that reason and because of many stations airing the program on tape delay later in the morning. Beginning on March 14, 2016, the standard Fox logo with hashtag is now used on all programming, with the station bug flashed for a few moments at the start of a program or coming out of commercial, as is traditionally done with ABC, CBS and NBC stations. In addition, the Fox HD bug was discontinued, although it is still used on Fox News Sunday.\n\nOn some Fox programs, a hashtag rests above the affiliate's logo (for example, #newgirl or #bones) to provide viewers reference to the network's official Twitter search tag to find or start discussions during the program being broadcast. In April 2012, additional tags relating to plot points in a given episode (for instance, the #saturdaynightGLEEver tag for an April 2012 episode of Glee of that same title) began to also be promoted in this space to both add additional trending topics and spread out more conversations on Twitter. In cases where the Fox bug appears instead of the station's logo bug, the Twitter hashtag is directly above the Fox logo in the safe area.\n\nDuring the transitional period from analog to digital television, Fox was the only commercial television network in the U.S. to air programs in widescreen that were not available in HD (which were identified as being presented in \"Fox High Resolution Widescreen\" from 2001 to 2006). Prior to the launch of its HD feed, some sitcoms and drama series were presented in widescreen standard-definition, with reality, talk and game shows (American Idol being the first major exception, as it began to be presented in high definition in 2008) later being presented only in widescreen enhanced definition. The children's sports program This Week in Baseball began airing in widescreen in 2009, while Fox News Sunday converted to HD when Fox News Channel began operating from its new high-definition facilities in November 2008 (prior to Fox News Channel's conversion to a unified widescreen presentation on both its high-definition and standard-definition feeds in September 2010, it was the final Fox News program to structure its graphics and camera positions for the 4:3 safe area). MADtv was produced to air only in 4:3 until September 2008, likely due to a combination of stations tape-delaying the program and therefore being unable to offer it via the live network feed in 16:9, and the show's producers not making the switch to the format. The final Fox show to convert to HD was Family Guy beginning with its September 26, 2010, episode; all programming provided by Fox, except for the Weekend Marketplace block, is now broadcast in widescreen and in high definition .\n\nFox is unique among U.S. broadcasters as it distributes its HD feed over satellite to the network's affiliates as an MPEG transport stream intended to be delivered bit-for-bit for broadcast transmission. During network programming hours, local commercials are inserted over the feed using a transport stream splicer. Affiliates of most other networks decode compressed satellite network video feeds and then re-encode them for final over-the-air transmission.\n\nAfter Fox began broadcasting its sports programming with graphics optimized for 16:9 displays rather than the 4:3 safe area in late July 2010, the network asked cable and satellite providers to comply and use the #10 Active Format Description flag it now disseminates over Fox programming, which displays content natively broadcast in 16:9 in a letterboxed format suitable for 4:3 television screens to allow any optimized graphical elements to be displayed in full. Subsequently, a number of Fox O&Os and affiliates also began disseminating the AFD #10 flag over local news and syndicated programs that the stations broadcast in HD, and have incorporated graphical elements seen during local programs and on-air promos (as well as logo bugs) optimized for the letterboxed presentation.\n\nBranding\n\nStation standardization\n\nDuring the early 1990s, Fox began having its stations use a branding structure using a combination of the \"Fox\" name and the station's channel number, often followed by the licensed call letters (for instance, WNYW in New York City, WTTG in Washington, D.C. and WAGA-TV in Atlanta, Georgia, are all branded as \"Fox 5\"). By the mid-to-late 1990s, stations minimized their call letters to be just barely readable while still in compliance with FCC identification requirements. This marked the start of the trend for other networks to apply such naming schemes, especially at CBS, which uses the \"CBS Mandate\" on most of its owned-and-operated stations.\n\nThe branding scheme has varied in some markets, with some Fox stations using a city or regional name within the branding instead of the channel number (for example, Chicago owned-and-operated station WFLD branded as \"Fox Chicago\" from 1997 to 2012 and Philadelphia O&O WTXF-TV branded as \"Fox Philadelphia\" from 1995 to 2003); a few of the network's stations also minimized use of the \"Fox\" name, opting to use their call letters or a more generic branding (WSVN in Miami, which has branded as \"WSVN 7\" for general use and \"(Channel) 7 News\" for its newscasts since it joined the network in January 1989; KHON-TV (channel 2) in Honolulu, which changed its general branding from \"Fox 2\" to \"KHON 2\" in 2003; WDRB in Louisville, Kentucky, which dropped its \"Fox 41\" brand in favor of branding by its call letters in September 2011; and KVRR (channel 15) in Fargo, North Dakota, which dropped the generic \"Fox\" branding it used in part due to its network of repeater stations throughout eastern North Dakota in favor of branding by its calls in May 2015). Similarly, most of the stations that switched to Fox as a result of its 1994 affiliation deal with New World Communications retained their Big Three-era branding for general and/or news purposes (with a few exceptions such as WJW in Cleveland, which dropped its CBS-era \"TV8\" and \"Newscenter 8\" brands in 1995, in favor of \"Fox is ei8ht\" as a general brand and ei8ht is News as the title for its newscasts), before conforming to Fox's station branding conventions when Fox Television Stations acquired New World in 1997.\n\nA particularly unique situation was with KTVU (channel 2) in Oakland-San Francisco, which as a Fox affiliate under longtime owner Cox Enterprises, retained its perennial \"Channel 2\" brand (with limited references as \"Fox Channel 2\" by the early 1990s). In 1996, the station rebranded as \"KTVU Fox 2\" for general purposes (adding the Fox logo on the underside of the top line of its heritage \"Circle Laser 2\" logo as well), while retaining \"(KTVU) Channel 2 News\" as the branding for its newscasts. Fox Television Stations (which traded WFXT in Boston and WHBQ-TV (channel 13) in Memphis station to Cox in 2014, in exchange for KTVU and sister station KICU-TV) instituted the \"KTVU Fox 2\" branding full-time in February 2015, retaining the \"Circle Laser 2\" both within the group's standardized \"boxkite\" logo and in an alternate version (which would become the primary logo through its de-emphasis of the O&O standardization later that year) placed next to a prominent Fox wordmark. \n\nStarting in 2006, more standardization of the O&Os began to take place both on-air and online. All of the network's O&Os began adopting an on-air look more closely aligned with the Fox News Channel, which included a standardized red, white and blue boxkite-style logo augmented by red pillars (which rotated on-air, particularly in the logo bugs seen during newscasts). After News Corporation's acquisition of the social networking site Myspace (which it sold in June 2011 to a consortium that included singer Justin Timberlake among its backers), some Fox O&Os launched websites with identical layouts and similar URL domains under the \"MyFox\" scheme (such as MyFoxDC.com for WTTG). On-air usage of the FNC-inspired logos was reduced in August 2012 (when a new standardized graphics package was implemented, with wordmark bugs being used during newscasts and other programming), while several of the O&Os ceased using the \"MyFox\" domains in 2015.\n\nLogos\n\nThe first official logo introduced by Fox when the network inaugurated its programming in October 1986 was a three-square design containing the letters \"FBC\" (for \"Fox Broadcasting Company\"), which was used during the network's first six months in existence and was primarily featured as a network identification slide at the beginning of The Late Show with Joan Rivers. On April 5, 1987, when the network inaugurated its prime time programming, a more familiar logo based on 20th Century Fox's signature logo design was introduced, featuring just the capitalized \"FOX\" name alongside the familiar trademark searchlights and double-pane platform (Fox's owned-and-operated stations used a variant for station identifications from 1987 to 1989, which incorporated both an \"O\" and searchlight in negative space, the latter of which intersected the \"X\" and panes within the otherwise translucent yellow/gold logo; until as late as the mid-1990s, some Fox affiliates that did not license the regulation network logo used those that imitated the 20th Century Fox-inspired design in their station logos).\n\nIn September 1993, the familiar logo was given a more \"hip\" makeover, with the \"FOX\" wordmark overhauled into its current proprietary logotype and the angle changed, removing the tilting (the 1987 logo remained in use during the 1993–94 season in print advertisements featured in TV Guide and other television listings magazines). Starting with the introduction of this logo, the network began displaying an on-screen bug within its programs on the lower right-hand corner of the screen (initially for one minute at the start of each program segment or act, eventually being displayed throughout the program outside of commercial breaks, before reverting to the former display format regularly upon the 2009 digital transition). The \"O\" character also underwent a makeover, acquiring its trademark pillar-like bowl, which has since become a major focal point for the logo and Fox advertising in lieu of the searchlight motif.\n\nAnother revised logo was introduced for the 1995–96 television season, removing the searchlights, but retaining the two lower panes and adding a third pane atop the logotype. A variant of the original 1993 design was implemented in 1996, excluding the panes underneath the network name, but restoring the searchlights placed behind the \"F\" and \"X\" in the Fox wordmark.\n\nThe current version of the logo was introduced in 1999, removing the searchlights completely and switching the logo exclusively to a wordmark design. Despite this, the searchlight theme remains an integral part of 21st Century Fox's branding efforts; they are still incorporated into Fox News Channel's logo, and the universal station logo introduced in 2006 by Fox's owned-and-operated stations – which were retained by the seven former O&Os that Fox Television Stations sold in 2008 to Local TV and had spread to several Fox stations owned by Tribune Broadcasting (including those it acquired through the company's 2013 merger with Local TV; the logo introduced by the O&Os was modified for Tribune's Fox affiliates in 2012 to feature only one searchlight as part of the company's graphical standardizations for those stations) and certain other Fox affiliates not owned or operated by either company. The 1996–99 searchlight logo is still used within the logos of a small number of Fox affiliates; the searchlights continued to be featured in the logo of sister channel FX until a rebranding effort in 2008.\n\nControversy\n\nIndecency\n\nControversy surrounded the network in 2002 and 2003 over obscenities, expressed respectively by Cher and Nicole Richie, aired live during Fox's broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards on its affiliates in the Eastern and Central Time Zones despite the use of five-second audio delays; the indecent material was edited out when the program was broadcast in other time zones from the Mountain Time Zone westward. Both of the obscene instances were condemned by the Parents Television Council, and named by them among the worst instances on television from 2001 to 2004. PTC members filed tens of thousands of complaints to the Federal Communications Commission regarding the broadcasts. A subsequent apology made by Fox representatives was labeled a \"sham\" by PTC president L. Brent Bozell III, who argued that the network could have easily used an audio delay to edit out the obscene language. As the FCC was investigating the broadcasts, in 2004, Fox announced that it would begin extending live broadcast delays to five minutes from its standard five or ten seconds to more easily be able to edit out obscenities uttered over the air. In June 2007, in the case Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FCC could not issue indecency fines against Fox because it does not have the authority to fine broadcasters for fleeting expletives, such as in the case of the Billboard Awards. The FCC eventually decided to appeal the Second Circuit Court's finding. The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari and oral arguments in FCC v. Fox, et al., began November 4, 2008. \n\nThe Parents Television Council has also criticized many popular Fox shows for perceived indecent content, such as American Dad!, Arrested Development, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Hell's Kitchen, Married... with Children, Prison Break and That '70s Show. The Council sometimes has gone even as far as to file complaints with the Federal Communications Commission regarding indecent content within Fox programming, having done so for That '70s Show and Married by America, having successfully been able to get the FCC to fine the network nearly $1 million for its airing of the latter program. That fine was reduced to $91,000 in January 2009 after an appeal of the fine by Fox was granted as a result of its earlier discovery that the FCC originally claimed to have received 159 complaints regarding the content in Married by America; it later admitted to only receiving 90, which came from only 23 people. A study of the complaints by blogger Jeff Jarvis deduced that all but two were virtually identical to each other, meaning that the $1.2 million judgment was based on original complaints written by a total of only three people. \n\nIn addition, as of 2004, Fox programming has been chosen by the PTC for its weekly \"Worst TV Show of the Week\" feature more often than programming from any other broadcast network. \n\nInternational broadcasts\n\nCanada\n\nLike ABC, CBS and NBC, Fox programming is carried on cable, satellite and IPTV providers in Canada through affiliates and owned-and-operated stations of the network that are located within proximity to the Canada–United States border (such as KCPQ/Seattle, Washington; KAYU-TV/Spokane, Washington; KMSP-TV/Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota; WFFF-TV/Burlington, Vermont; WFXT/Boston, WJBK/Detroit and WUTV/Buffalo, New York), some of which may also be receivable over-the-air in parts of Canada depending on an individual station's signal coverage. Most programming is generally the same, aside from simultaneous substitutions imposed by the provider that results in the American station's signal being replaced with programming from a Canadian network (such as CTV, the Global Television Network or City) if both happen to air a particular program in the same time period – which is often done to protect the Canadian station's advertising revenue.\n\nMexico\n\nFox programming is available in Mexico through affiliates in markets located within proximity to the Mexico–United States border (such as KECY-TV/Yuma, Arizona-El Centro, California; KFOX-TV/El Paso, Texas, KUQI/Corpus Christi, Texas and KSWB-TV/San Diego), whose signals are readily receivable over-the-air in border areas of northern Mexico. XHRIO-TDT of Matamoros, Tamaulipas also broadcasts Fox programming on a digital subchannel as a simulcast of KFXV-LD in nearby McAllen, Texas.\n\nCaribbean\n\nIn the Caribbean, the Bahamas and Bermuda, Fox programming is available on many cable and satellite providers through either New York City owned-and-operated station WNYW or Miami affiliate WSVN. In addition, LKK Group owns Fox-affiliated stations in Puerto Rico (WSJX-LP in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, which became a Fox affiliate 2006) and the U.S. Virgin Islands (WVXF-DT2 in Charlotte Amalie, which affiliated with the network in 2014).\n\nAsia Pacific\n\nIndia\n\nFox programming is available in India through Sorensen Pacific Broadcasting-owned low-power affiliate KEQI-LP in Dededo (which affiliated with the network in 2004, and is relayed throughout the island via the second digital subchannel of Tamuning ABC affiliate KTGM). Programming is shown day and date on a one-day tape delay as Guam is located on the west side of the International Date Line (for example, the Sunday night lineup is carried on Monday evenings, and is advertised by the station as airing on the latter night in on-air promotions). Live programming, including breaking news coverage and sporting events, airs as scheduled; because of the time difference with the six U.S. time zones, live sports coverage (such as NFL games and NASCAR races) often air in the territory during the early morning hours.\n\nAmerican Samoa\n\nCable television providers on the island nation of American Samoa carry the network's programming via Honolulu, Hawaii affiliate KHON-TV.\n\nFederated States of Micronesia\n\nIn the Federated States of Micronesia, Fox programming is available on domestic cable providers via Honolulu affiliate KHON-TV.\n\nEurope\n\nBelgium (Flanders)\n\nA domestic version of Fox debuted in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, on October 1, 2015; the channel is currently only available on cable provider Telenet.\n\nBulgaria\n\nOn October 15, 2012, a domestic version of the network launched in Bulgaria. Fox Bulgaria is part of a collection of television networks distributed by Fox International Channels (which include entertainment channels Fox Life and Fox Crime, documentary channels National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo Wild, cooking channel 24KITCHEN, news channel Sky News and children's channel BabyTV).\n\nCroatia\n\nFox launched in Croatia on October 15, 2012. Operated by Fox International Channels Bulgaria, all of Fox's channels (Fox, Fox Life, Fox Crime, Fox Movies, 24Kitchen, NatGeo (both SD and HD), NatGeo Wild (also HD and SD) and BabyTV) carry programming identical to that available on its Serbian channels. Most of them, with the exception of Nat Geo HD and BabyTV, feature subtitled promos and program content. All of the channels, except for BabyTV, are broadcast in 16:9 widescreen, while Fox has plans to offer an HD feed.\n\nFinland\n\nFox International Channels Nordic started terrestrial broadcasts of a domestic version of Fox in Finland on April 16, 2012. \n\nGreece\n\nOn October 1, 2012, a regional version of FX serving Greece and Cyprus was rebranded as Fox. The channel is operated alongside Fox Life, Nat Geo (SD and HD), Nat Geo Wild (SD and HD), Nat Geo Adventure and Baby TV under the ownership of Fox International Channels Greece. In 2013, Adam Theiler, senior vice president of Fox International Channels Southeast Europe, announced that the company would launch a new channel dedicated to cooking with domestically produced programs; it also announced plans to produce documentaries catering to the Greek audience and launch HD feeds of the Greek versions of Fox and Fox Life.\n\nLatvia\n\nA domestic version of Fox debuted in Latvia on October 1, 2012.\n\nLithuania\n\nA domestic version of Fox debuted in Lithuania on October 1, 2012.\n\nNetherlands\n\nA domestic version of Fox launched in the Netherlands on August 19, 2013. The channel's schedule features a mix of American series (such as The Walking Dead and The Simpsons), as well as sports programs such as soccer and UFC events. Fox is available digitally on Ziggo and UPC Cablecom channel 11, KPN channel 14, and on CanalDigitaal on either channel 52 or 58. \n\nPoland\n\nA domestic version of Fox debuted in Poland on November 6, 2010. Currently (state on January 2016) following channels are available there: Fox / Fox HD, Fox Comedy / Fox Comedy HD, National Geographic Channel / National Geographic Channel HD, Nat Geo Wild / Nat Geo Wild HD, Nat Geo People / Nat Geo People HD and Baby TV.\n\nRussia\n\nA Russian version of the network, FOX Russia, debuted on October 1, 2012, replacing FOX Crime Russia. Fox International Channels also operates a regional versions of Fox Life, Baby TV, the National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo Wild.\n\nSerbia\n\nOn October 15, 2012, Fox International Channels launched FOX Serbia, a Serbian cable and satellite entertainment channel. Fox International Channels also distributes co-owned networks Fox Life, Fox Crime, Fox Movies, National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo Wild, 24KITCHEN, Sky News and BabyTV.\n\nSweden\n\nA domestic version of Fox debuted in Sweden on September 22, 2014.\n\nTurkey\n\nFox Turkey launched in Turkey on February 24, 2007.\n\nUK and Ireland\n\nOn January 11, 2013, Fox launched the United Kingdom and Ireland, as a rebranding of the domestic version of FX." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Tequila.txt", "Cointreau.txt", "Triple_sec.txt", "Lime_(fruit).txt" ], "title": [ "Tequila", "Cointreau", "Triple sec", "Lime (fruit)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Tequila (Spanish ) is a regional specific name for a distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, 65 km northwest of Guadalajara, and in the highlands (Los Altos) of the central western Mexican state of Jalisco. Although tequila is similar to mezcal, modern tequila differs somewhat in the method of its production, in the use of only blue agave plants, as well as in its regional specificity.\n\nThe red volcanic soil in the surrounding region is particularly well suited to the growing of the blue agave, and more than 300 million of the plants are harvested there each year. Agave tequila grows differently depending on the region. Blue agaves grown in the highlands Los Altos region are larger in size and sweeter in aroma and taste. Agaves harvested in the lowlands, on the other hand, have a more herbaceous fragrance and flavor. \n\nMexican laws state that tequila can only be produced in the state of Jalisco and limited municipalities in the states of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit, and Tamaulipas. Tequila is recognized as a Mexican designation of origin product in more than 40 countries. It is protected through NAFTA in Canada and the United States, through bilateral agreements with individual countries such as Japan and Israel, and has been a protected designation of origin product in the constituent countries of the European Union since 1997.\n\nTequila is most often made at a 38% alcohol content (76 U.S. proof) for domestic consumption, but can be produced between 31 and 55% alcohol content (62 and 110 U.S. proof). \n\nHistory\n\nEarly history\n\nTequila was first produced in the 16th century near the location of the city of Tequila, which was not officially established until 1666. The Aztec people had previously made a fermented beverage from the agave plant, long before the Spanish arrived in 1521. When the Spanish conquistadors ran out of their own brandy, they began to distill agave to produce one of North America's first indigenous distilled spirits. \n\nSome 80 years later, around 1600, Don Pedro Sánchez de Tagle, the Marquis of Altamira, began mass-producing tequila at the first factory in the territory of modern-day Jalisco. By 1608, the colonial governor of Nueva Galicia had begun to tax his products. Spain's King Carlos IV granted the Cuervo family the first license to commercially make tequila.\n\nDon Cenobio Sauza, founder of Sauza Tequila and Municipal President of the Village of Tequila from 1884–1885, was the first to export tequila to the United States, and shortened the name from \"Tequila Extract\" to just \"Tequila\" for the American markets. Don Cenobio's grandson Don Francisco Javier gained international attention for insisting that \"there cannot be tequila where there are no agaves!\" His efforts led to the practice that real tequila can come only from the State of Jalisco.\n\nRecent history \n\nAlthough some tequilas have remained as family-owned brands, most well-known tequila brands are owned by large multinational corporations. However, over 100 distilleries make over 900 brands of tequila in Mexico and over 2,000 brand names have been registered (2009 statistics). Due to this, each bottle of tequila contains a serial number (NOM) depicting in which distillery the tequila was produced. Because only so many distilleries are used, multiple brands of tequila come from the same location.\n\nIn 2003, Mexico issued a proposal that would require all Mexican-made tequila be bottled in Mexico before being exported to other countries.[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/25/national/main575069.shtml Tequila Sparks U.S.-Mexico Flap]. Associated Press. CBS News. 2003-09-25. The Mexican government said that bottling tequila in Mexico would guarantee its quality. Liquor companies in the United States said Mexico just wanted to create bottling jobs in their own country, and also claimed this rule would violate international trade agreements and was in discord with usual exporting practices worldwide.[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10896928/ Salt, tequila, trade agreement]. MSNBC News Services. MSNBC. 2006-01-17. The proposal might have resulted in the loss of jobs at plants in California, Arkansas, Missouri, and Kentucky, because Mexican tequila exported in bulk to the United States is bottled in those plants. On January 17, 2006, the United States and Mexico signed an agreement allowing the continued bulk import of tequila into the United States.[http://www.caltradereport.com/eWebPages/front-page-1137970345.html Viva Margarita! US, Mexico Ink New Tequila Agreement]. CalTrade Report. 2006-01-23. The agreement also created a \"tequila bottlers registry\" to identify approved bottlers of tequila and created an agency to monitor the registry.\n\nThe Tequila Regulatory Council of Mexico originally did not permit flavored tequila to carry the tequila name. In 2004, the Council decided to allow flavored tequila to be called tequila, with the exception of 100% agave tequila, which still cannot be flavored.\n\nA new Norma Oficial Mexicana (NOM) for tequila (NOM-006-SCFI-2005) was issued in 2006, and among other changes, introduced a category of tequila called extra añejo or \"ultra-aged\" which must be aged a minimum of three years. \n\nA one-liter bottle of limited-edition premium tequila was sold for $225,000 in July 2006 in Tequila, Jalisco, by the company Tequila Ley .925. The bottle which contained the tequila was a two-kilo display of platinum and gold. The manufacturer received a certificate from The Guinness World Records for the most expensive bottle of tequila spirit ever sold. \n\nIn June 2013, the ban on importation of premium (100% blue agave) tequila into China was lifted following a state visit to Mexico by President Xi Jinping. The entry of premium tequila into the country is expected to increase tequila exports by 20 percent within a decade (exports totaled 170 million liters in 2013). Ramon Gonzalez, director of the Consejo Regulador del Tequila, estimates that each of the top 16 producers of tequila had invested up to $3 million to enter the Chinese market. On 30 August 2013, the first 70,380 bottles of premium tequila from ten brands arrived in Shanghai. The arrival happened during an event held at the House of Roosevelt, a well-known club located on The Bund– an area with a long tradition of importing alcoholic beverages in China.\n\nProduction\n\nPlanting, tending, and harvesting the agave plant remains a manual effort, largely unchanged by modern farm machinery and relying on centuries-old know-how. The men who harvest it, the jimadores, have intimate knowledge of how the plants should be cultivated, passed down from generation to generation. \n\nBy regularly trimming any quiotes (a several-meter high stalk that grows from the center of the plant), the jimadores prevent the agave from flowering and dying early, allowing it to fully ripen. The jimadores must be able to tell when each plant is ready to be harvested, and using a special knife called a coa (with a circular blade on a long pole), carefully cut away the leaves from the piña (the succulent core of the plant). If harvested too late or too early, the piñas, which can average around 70 kg in the lowlands to 110 kg in the highlands, will not have the right amount of carbohydrates for fermentation. \n\nAfter harvesting, the piñas are transported to ovens where they are slowly baked to break down their complex fructans into simple fructoses. Then, the baked piñas are either shredded or mashed under a large stone wheel called a tahona. The pulp fiber, or bagazo, left behind is often reused as compost or animal feed, but can even be burnt as fuel or processed into paper. Some producers like to add a small amount of bagazo back into their fermentation tanks for a stronger agave flavor in the final product. \n\nThe extracted agave juice is then poured into either large wooden or stainless steel vats for several days to ferment, resulting in a wort, or mosto, with low alcohol content. This wort is then distilled once to produce what is called \"ordinario, and then a second time to produce clear \"silver\" tequila. A few producers distill the product a third time, but this removes much of the agave flavor from the tequila. From there, the tequila is either bottled as silver tequila, or it is pumped into wooden barrels to age, where it develops a mellower flavor and amber color. \n\nUsually, the differences in taste between tequila made from lowland and highland agave plants is noticeable. Plants grown in the highlands often yield sweeter and fruitier-tasting tequila, while lowland agaves give the tequila an earthier flavor. \n\nFermentation\n\nUnlike other tequila production steps, fermentation is one of the few steps out of the control of human beings. Fermentation is the conversion of sugars and carbohydrates to alcohol through yeast in aerobic conditions, meaning that oxygen is present during the process. Fermentation is also carried out in a non-aseptic environment which increases the bacterial activity of tequila. The participation of microorganisms from the environment (yeasts and bacteria) makes fermentation a spontaneous process which gives rise to many byproducts that contribute to the flavor and aroma of tequila.\n\nDuring the fermentation process, inoculum is added to the batch to speed the rate of fermentation. When inoculum is added, fermentation can take approximately 20 hours to 3 days. If inoculum is not added, fermentation could take up to 7 days. The rate of fermentation is a key factor in the quality and flavor of tequila produced. Worts fermented slowly are best because the amount of organoleptic compounds produced are greater. The alcohol content at the end of fermentation lies between 4-9%.\n\nOrganoleptic compounds\n\nOrganoleptic compounds enhance flavor and aroma. These include fusel oil, methanol, aldehydes, organic acids and esters. Production of isoamyl and isobutyl alcohols begins after the sugar level is lowered substantially and continues for several hours after the alcoholic fermentation ends. In contrast, ethanol production begins in the first hours of the fermentation and ends with logarithmic yeast growth. The alcohol content in tequila is affected by three factors. First the amount of isoamyl alcohol and isobutanol is the yeast strain. Second, the carbon:nitrogen ratio. The higher the ratio, the more alcohol produced. And third, the temperature of fermentation. The higher the temperature, the greater concentration of isobutyl and isoamyl alcohols produced. Although if temperatures are too high, this can cause the yeast to become less effective. Similarly, if the temperature is too low, the process occurs too slowly. This can become a large issue in Central Mexico, most precisely the city of Tequila, Jalisco, where most tequila is processed. The average annual temperatures in the city of Tequila can reach 31C. For this reason, tequila producers often use large stainless steel tanks for fermentation. The high molecular weight of alcohol compounds (fusel oil) is what contributes to hangovers.\n\nYeast\n\nOrganoleptic compounds are dependent on yeast. The role of yeast is to, through many enzymatic processes, turn sugars and carbohydrates into alcohol. There are two steps, first in aerobic conditions, yeast is doubled in colony size every four hours. This process goes on for 24-48 hours. Next, yeast turns acetaldehyde into ethyl alcohol which is known as one of the organoleptic compounds produced in fermentation.\n\nThe two main categories of yeast used in tequila are Commercial brewers yeast and yeast that comes from pre cultivated existing yeast that has been preserved. The use of either type of yeast can result in different end products of tequila.\n\nChemistry \n\nAlcohol content \n\nTequila is a distilled beverage that is made from the fermentation of the sugars found from the blue agave plant once it has been cooked, the main sugar being fructose. Through the fermentation process, many factors influence the higher alcohol content of tequila, which are molecules such as isobutyl alcohol and isoamyl alcohol, and ethanol. These parameters include, the type of yeast strain, the age of the agave plant itself, temperature, and the carbon/nitrogen ratio. However, the type of yeast strain used and the carbon/nitrogen factors have the biggest influence on the production of higher alcohols, this is not surprising as higher alcohol and ethanol production is an intrinsic property of the metabolism of each strain. The type of yeast most commonly found in tequila is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which contains many strains. For example, CF1 agaves, a type of yeast, produces much more ethanol than a strain of CF2, as the yeast's metabolism mechanisms differ from one another. This factor may be influenced from different agricultural practices that occur to cultivate the different yeasts strains. It was found that the higher the carbon/ nitrogen ratio, the higher the production of higher alcohols such as isobutyl alcohol and isoamyl alcohol. A high ratio imparts that there is less nitrogen in the fermentation process, which results in deamination reactions of amino acids, leading to the synthesis of higher alcohols. The Ehrlich pathway is the name for this process, where a-ceto acids are decarboxylated and transformed to aldehydes and to higher alcohols. The temperature of the fermentation process also greatly effects the alcohol content of the resulting product. For example, a study conducted by Pinal et al. found that cultivating two strains at a temperature of 35 degrees as compared to a temperature of 30 degrees produced more isoamyl alcohol. The higher temperature suggests that this is a much more optimal condition for the yeast to ferment the distilled beverage. Lastly the age of the agave plant itself, the older the plant the greater the alcohol production. It was show in a study that the concentration of amyl alcohol increased as the plant aged by a factor 30%. However, it is also found that there is a higher concentration of methanol found when using younger plants. This may be due to differences in agricultural practices that occur when taking care of plants of different ages.\n\nColor \n\nTequila comes in an abundant array of colors that ranges from a simple clear distilled beverage to a dark amber brown. The color of the tequila varies greatly on the aging process and the type of wood used for storage. The white version of tequila, known as silver tequila or blanco, is the product obtained without or very little additional aging process. As well, the spirit must contain between 38-55% alcohol content, which is fermented from a wort, which contains no less than 51% sugars from the agave plant. Consuming silver tequila provides for the purest form as little aging has occurred. What is known as gold, joven or oro tequila is simply silver tequila with the addition of a caramel color. Rested (reposado) or aged tequila (añejo) are aged in wooden containers. The aging process can last between two and 12 months and can create or enhance flavors and aromas. The aging process generally imparts a golden color.\n\nFlavor and aroma \n\nThere are more than 300 known compounds in tequila, many of which are produced during the fermentation process, the raw material used, and to a lesser degree, during the maturation. The components that make up tequila do not act individually to give tequila its distinctive flavor and aroma, but rather, depends on the interaction and quantity of each volatile compound. The volatile compounds responsible for the flavor and aroma profiles of the tequila are put into a category called organoleptic compounds and are known to increase in concentration with a slower fermentation process. The organoleptic compounds produced during fermentation include higher order alcohols, methanol, esters, carbonyls, terpenes, and furans.\n\nHigher order alcohols have a strong aroma, and the quantity present in each tequila depends on the carbon:nitrogen ratio and temperature during the cooking and fermentation processes. Some of the most common alcohols present other than ethanol are: isoamyl alcohol, isobutanol, and 1-propanol. Methanol is thought to be mainly generated through hydrolysis of methylated pectin which is naturally present in the agave plant, but there has been speculations that it is also partly produced from the enzymatic reactions of yeast strains containing pectin methyl esterase enzyme which break up the methoxyl group from the pectin. Nearly 50 different esters identified in tequila which together give rise to the fruit like flavors and smell. One of the most abundant esters is ethyl acetate which is synthesized during fermentation by the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, using alcohol transferase enzyme which links acetic acid to ethanol. In general, the longer the controlled fermentation period, the higher yield of esters produced. During the fermentation process, ethanol is oxidized and one of the main compounds produced are acetaldehydes, which adds the flavor necessary for the final product of tequila. The agave plant contains many terpenes such as vanillin and syringaldehydes which presents a strong and fruity or herbal aroma. It also contains eugenol which can deliver a hint of spicy flavor to the tequila. Since the production of tequila involves heating, Maillard browning reactions occur, and furans are produced during the thermal degradation of sugar. The most prominent furanic compounds include 2-furaldehyde and 5-methylfuraldehyde, which can contribute to the smoky flavor of tequila.\n\nVolatile compounds that contribute to the overall taste and aroma of tequila can be quantitatively assessed and evaluated by gas chromatography. Discrimination tests such as duo-trio and triangle tests are also used to evaluate the quality of the tequila.\n\nAging \n\nProcess \n\nIf silver or white tequila is the desired final product, distillation is the final process it undergoes. Rested (Reposado) or aged (Añejo) tequila must be maturated in 200-liter (or larger) white oak barrels for at least 2 months for the first, and 12 months for the last. There are, however, more than 50 different companies producing tequila in the mexican province of Jalisco, with different maturation times according to the variety of tequila and desired quality of the final product.\n\nAll companies producing tequila have their aging processes regulated and fiscalized by the Mexican government.\n\nChemistry \n\nThe maturation process causes four main chemical transformations to the tequila compounds: (1) decreasing of fusel oils by the char in barrels, which acts as an adsorbing agent. (2) extraction of complex wood constituents by tequila, yielding specific aroma and flavor to the final product. (3) reactions among the components of tequila, creating new chemical compounds and (4) oxidation of the original contents of tequila and of those extracted from wood. The final result of these changes are increased concentrations of acids, esters and aldehydes and a decrease in fuel oil concentration.\n\nReposado may be rested in oak barrels or casks as large as 20,000 liters (5,280 gallons), allowing for richer and more complex flavors. The preferred oak comes from the US, France, or Canada, and is usually white oak. Some companies char the wood to impart a smoky flavor, or use barrels previously used with different kinds of alcohol (e.g. whiskey or wine). Some reposados can also be aged in new wood barrels to achieve the same woody flavor and smoothness, but in less time. \n\nAñejos are often rested in barrels previously used to rest reposados. The barrels cannot be more than 600 liters (158 gallons), and most are in the 200-liter (52-gallon) range. Many of the barrels used are from whiskey distilleries in the US or Canada, and Jack Daniels barrels are especially popular. This treatment creates many of the aspects of the dark color and more complex flavors of the añejo tequila. After aging of at least one year, the añejo can be removed from the wood barrels and placed in stainless steel tanks to reduce the amount of evaporation that can occur in the barrels.\n\nThreats to quality\n\nTMA (tristeza y muerte de agave — \"agave depression and death\") is a blight that has reduced the production of the agave grown to produce tequila. This has resulted in lower production and higher prices throughout the early 21st century, and due to the long maturation of the plant, will likely continue to affect prices for years to come. \n\n\"Tequila worm\" misconception \n\nOnly certain mezcals, usually from the state of Oaxaca, are ever sold con gusano (with worm). They are added as a marketing gimmick and are not traditional. The tequila regulatory council does not allow gusanos or scorpions (which are sometimes also added to mezcals) to be included in tequila bottles. The worm is actually the larval form of the moth Hypopta agavis, which lives on the agave plant. Finding one in the plant during processing indicates an infestation and, correspondingly, a lower-quality product. However, this misconception continues, despite effort and marketing to represent tequila as a premium liquor—similar to the way Cognac is viewed in relation to other brandies. \n\nNorma Oficial Mexicana \n\nThe Norma Oficial Mexicana (NOM) applies to all processes and activities related to the supply of agave, production, bottling, marketing, information, and business practices linked to the distilled alcoholic beverage known as tequila. Tequila must be produced using agave of the species Tequilana Weber Blue variety, grown in the federal states and municipalities indicated in the Declaration.\n\nFurthermore, the NOM establishes the technical specifications and legal requirements for the protection of the Appellation of Origin of \"Tequila\" in accordance with the current General Declaration of Protection of the Appellation of Origin of \"Tequila\", the Law, the Industrial Property Law, the Federal Consumer Protection Law and other related legal provisions. \n\nAll authentic, regulated tequilas will have a NOM identifier on the bottle. The important laws since 1990 were NOM-006-SCFI-1993, the later update NOM-006-SCFI-1994, and the most recent revision in late 2005, NOM-006-SCFI-2005.\n\nThe number after NOM is the distillery number, assigned by the government. NOM does not indicate the location of the distillery, merely the parent company or, in the case where a company leases space in a plant, the physical plant where the tequila was manufactured.\n\nStorage condition \n\nUnlike wine that contains tannins which may change over time, even in a bottle if proper storage conditions are not met, spirituous liquors like tequila do not change much once they are bottled. Since tequila is a distilled liquor, it does not require strict storage conditions like wine does, and the same goes with most other distilled spirits such as whiskey, rum, or vodka. Furthermore, because the characteristics and certain quality (flavor, aroma, color, etc.) of the tequila are determined during the aging process inside wood barrels, the quality of the tequila should remain relatively constant after they are bottled. To maintain the quality of tequila, at least three conditions should be met: constant and moderate temperature (60 to 65 °F), no exposure to direct sunlight, and maintenance of proper seal of the bottle. Also, storage conditions will have more effect on the taste of aged tequila rather than the un-aged tequila. For instance, if stored in improper conditions, the dark and more complex flavors of the añejo tequila are more likely to be tainted than the blanco or the silver tequila.\n\nOnce the bottle is opened, the tequila will be subject to oxidation which will continue to happen even if no more oxygen is introduced. In addition, if the bottle has more room for air, the process of oxidation occurs faster on the liquor remaining inside the bottle. Therefore, it may be the best to consume the tequila within one or two years after opening. For the most part, the change in quality of tequila is due to extreme conditions of improper storage, not due to oxidation.\n\nTypes\n\nThe two basic categories of tequila are mixtos and 100% agave. Mixtos use no less than 51% agave, with other sugars making up the remainder. Mixtos use both glucose and fructose sugars.\n\nTequila is usually bottled in one of five categories:\n*Blanco (\"white\") or plata (\"silver\"): white spirit, unaged and bottled or stored immediately after distillation, or aged less than two months in stainless steel or neutral oak barrels\n*Joven (\"young\") or oro (\"gold\"): unaged silver tequila that may be flavored with caramel coloring, oak extract, glycerin, or sugar-based syrup. Could also be the result of blending silver tequila with aged or extra-aged tequila. \n*Reposado (\"rested\"): aged a minimum of two months, but less than a year in oak barrels of any size\n*Añejo (\"aged\" or \"vintage\"): aged a minimum of one year, but less than three years in small oak barrels\n*Extra Añejo (\"extra aged\" or \"ultra aged\"): aged a minimum of three years in oak barrels, this category was established in March 2006.\n\nWith 100% agave tequila, blanco or plata is harsher with the bold flavors of the distilled agave up front, while reposado and añejo are smoother, subtler, and more complex. As with other spirits aged in casks, tequila takes on the flavors of the wood, while the harshness of the alcohol mellows. The major flavor distinction with 100% agave tequila is the base ingredient, which is more vegetal than grain spirits (and often more complex).\n\nBrands \n\nThe Consejo Regulador del Tequila (Tequila Regulatory Council) reported 1377 registered brands from 150 producers for the year 2013. \n\nServing \n\nIn Mexico, the most traditional way to drink tequila is neat, without lime and salt. It is popular in some regions to drink fine tequila with a side of sangrita—a sweet, sour, and spicy drink typically made from orange juice, grenadine (or tomato juice), and hot chilli. Equal-sized shots of tequila and sangrita are sipped alternately, without salt or lime. Another popular drink in Mexico is the bandera (flag, in Spanish), named after the Flag of Mexico, it consists of three shot glasses, filled with lime juice (for the green), white tequila, and sangrita (for the red).\n\nOutside Mexico, a single shot of tequila is often served with salt and a slice of lime. This is called tequila cruda and is sometimes referred to as \"training wheels\", \"lick-sip-suck\", or \"lick-shoot-suck\" (referring to the way in which the combination of ingredients is imbibed). The drinkers moisten the back of their hands below the index finger (usually by licking) and pour on the salt. Then the salt is licked off the hand, the tequila is drunk, and the fruit slice is quickly bitten. Groups of drinkers often do this simultaneously. Drinking tequila in this way is often erroneously called a Tequila Slammer, which is in fact a mix of tequila and carbonated drink. Though the traditional Mexican shot is tequila by itself, lime is the fruit of choice when a chaser must be used. The salt is believed to lessen the \"burn\" of the tequila and the sour fruit balances and enhances the flavor. In Germany and some other countries, tequila oro (gold) is often consumed with cinnamon on a slice of orange after, while tequila blanco (white) is consumed with salt and lime. Finally, as with other popular liquors, a number of shot-related drinking games and \"stunt\" drinks are used, such as body shots.\n\nIf the bottle of tequila does not state on the label that it is manufactured from 100% blue agave (no sugars added), then, by default, that tequila is a mixto (manufactured from 51% blue agave). Some tequila distilleries label their tequila as \"made with blue agave\" or \"made from blue agave.\" However, the Tequila Regulatory Council has stated only tequilas distilled with 100% agave can be designated as \"100% agave\". \n\nSome distillers of lower-quality tequila have marketed their product to be served \"ice-cold chilled\" when used as a shot. Chilling any alcohol can be used to reduce the smell or flavors associated with a lower-quality product. Any alcoholic product, when served as a chilled shot, may be more palatable to the consumer.\n\nMany of the higher-quality, 100% agave tequilas do not impart significant alcohol burn, and drinking them with salt and lime is likely to remove much of the flavor. These tequilas are usually sipped from a snifter glass rather than a shot glass, and savoured instead of quickly gulped. Doing so allows the taster to detect subtler fragrances and flavors that would otherwise be missed. \n\nTequila glasses\n\nWhen served neat (without any additional ingredients), tequila is most often served in a narrow shot glass called a caballito (little horse, in Spanish), but can often be found in anything from a snifter to a tumbler.\n\nThe Consejo Regulador del Tequila approved an \"official tequila glass\" in 2002 called the Ouverture Tequila glass, made by Riedel. \n\nThe margarita glass, frequently rimmed with salt or sugar, is a staple for the entire genre of tequila-based mixed drinks, including the margarita.\n\nCocktails\n\nA variety of cocktails are made with tequila, including the margarita, a cocktail that helped make tequila popular in the United States. The traditional margarita uses tequila, Cointreau, and lime juice, though many variations exist. A popular cocktail in Mexico is the Paloma. Also, a number of martini variants involve tequila, and a large number of tequila drinks are made by adding fruit juice. These include the Tequila Sunrise and the Matador. Sodas and other carbonated drinks are a common mixer, as in the Tequila Slammer.\n\nU.S. regulation \n\nUnder U.S. law (27 CFR 5.22 (g)), Tequila cannot be sold in the U.S. at under 40% alcohol concentration (80 U.S. proof).\n\nCanadian regulation \n\nAccording to the Food and Drug Regulations in Canada:\n\n*Tequila is defined as an alcoholic beverage in the category of Liqueurs and Spirituous Cordials. \n*Listed in B.02.090, only spirits produced in accordance with the laws of Mexico for production of Tequila for consumption in Mexico can be labelled, packaged, sold or advertised as Tequila in Canada, although diluting the alcoholic strength of the Tequila with water after importation is allowed:\n\nOther uses\n\nIn 2008, Mexican scientists discovered a method to produce tiny, nanometer-sized synthetic diamonds from 80-proof (40% alcohol) tequila, which they said has the optimal range of water to ethanol for producing synthetic diamonds. This process involves heating the tequila to over 800 °C (1,400 °F) to break its molecular structure and be vaporized into gaseous hydrogen, carbon, and various simple molecules. The carbon molecules are then settled upon steel or silicon trays to form a thin and pure uniform layer. Inexpensive to produce, although far too small for use as jewels, the tiny diamonds were hoped to have numerous commercial and industrial applications such as in computer chips or cutting instruments.", "Cointreau is a brand of triple sec (an orange-flavoured liqueur) produced in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou, France. It is drunk as an apéritif and digestif, and is a component of several well-known cocktails. It was originally called \"Curaçao Blanco Triple Sec\". \n\nProduction\n\nCointreau Distillery was set up in 1849 by Adolphe Cointreau, a confectioner, and his brother Edouard-Jean Cointreau. Their first success was with the cherry liqueur guignolet, but they found success when they blended sweet and bitter orange peels and pure alcohol from sugar beets. The first bottles of Cointreau were sold in 1875. An estimated 13 million bottles are sold each year, in more than 150 countries. Ninety percent of production is exported. Cointreau & Cie SA was family-owned until 1990, when it merged with Rémy Martin to form Rémy Cointreau, now a publicly traded company. \n\nThe production methods and recipe are a family secret, but tours of the facility are open to the public. Photography is restricted in many areas to protect the production process from being copied.\n\nCointreau sources its bitter oranges from all over the world, usually Spain, Brazil, Haiti and Macedonia.\n\nCocktails\n\nIn addition to being consumed neat (or often on ice), Cointreau is used in many popular cocktails.\nSeveral recipes claiming to be the original margarita include Cointreau as does the IBA-approved recipe for the cosmopolitan.\n\nPublicity\n\nIn the 1980s, Ex Avirex LTD., now Cockpit USA, issued an A-2 limited edition leather flight jacket featuring Cointreau Original Margarita nose art on the back of the jacket. In early 2008, burlesque entertainer Dita Von Teese became the new face of Cointreau's \"Be Cointreauversial\" advertising and marketing campaign, a campaign created in 2003 by the New York advertising agency KraftWorks.", "Triple sec, originally Curaçao triple sec, is a variety of Curaçao liqueur, an orange-flavoured liqueur made from the dried peels of bitter and sweet orange. \n\nTriple sec may be consumed neat as a digestif or on the rocks, but is more typically used as an ingredient in a variety of cocktails such as the sangria, margarita, Kamikaze, White Lady, Long Island Iced Tea, Sidecar, Skittle Bomb, Corpse Reviver #2 and Cosmopolitan.\n\nHistory\n\nThe Combier distillery claims that triple sec was invented some time between 1834 and 1848 by Jean-Baptiste Combier in Saumur, France. However, Combier was more famous for its élixir Combier, which contained orange but also many other flavorings. \n\nAccording to Cointreau, its orange liqueur was created in 1849. \n\nTriple sec was certainly widely known by 1878; at the Exposition Universelle of 1878 in Paris, several distillers were offering \"Curaço triple sec\" as well as \"Curaço doux\".", "A lime (from French lime, from Arabic līma, from Persian līmū, \"lemon\") is a hybrid citrus fruit, which is typically round, lime green, 3 – in diameter, and containing acidic juice vesicles. There are several species of citrus trees whose fruits are called limes, including the Key lime (Citrus aurantifolia), Persian lime, kaffir lime, and desert lime. Limes are an excellent source of vitamin C, and are often used to accent the flavours of foods and beverages. They are grown year-round.\nPlants with fruit called \"limes\" have diverse genetic origins; limes do not form a monophyletic group.\n\nPlants known as \"lime\"\n\n*Australian limes (former Microcitrus and Eremocitrus)\n**Australian desert lime (Citrus glauca)\n**Australian finger lime (Citrus australasica)\n**Australian round lime (Citrus australis)\n**Blood lime (red finger lime x (sweet orange x mandarin) )\n*Kaffir lime (Citrus hystrix); also called a kieffer lime, makrut, or magrood; a papeda relative.\n*Key lime (Citrus aurantifolia=Citrus micrantha x Citrus medica ); also called Mexican, West Indian, or bartender's lime.\n*Musk lime (Citrofortunella mitis), a kumquat hybrid\n*Persian lime (Citrus x latifolia), also called Tahiti or Bearss lime. Developed in California, this is the commonplace lime. \n*Rangpur lime (Mandarin lime, lemandarin ), a mandarin orange – rough lemon hybrid\n*Spanish lime (Melicoccus bijugatus); also called mamoncillo, mamón, ginep, quenepa, or limoncillo); not a citrus.\n*Sweet lime etc. (Citrus limetta etc.); assorted citrus hybrids) including varieties called sweet lemon, sweet limetta or Mediterranean sweet lemon, lumia, Indian or Palestinian sweet lime.\n*Wild lime (Adelia ricinella); not a citrus.\n*Wild lime (Zanthoxylum fagara); not a citrus.\n*Limequat (lime × kumquat)\n\nThe tree species known in Britain as lime trees (Tilia sp.), called linden in other dialects of English, are broadleaf temperate plants, unrelated to the citrus fruits.\n\nHistory\n\nAlthough the precise origin is uncertain, limes are believed to have first grown in Indonesia or Southeast Asia, then were transported to the Mediterranean region and northern Africa around 1000. \n\nTo prevent scurvy during the 19th century, British sailors were issued a daily allowance of citrus, such as lemon, and later switched to lime. The use of citrus was initially a closely guarded military secret, as scurvy was a common scourge of various national navies, and the ability to remain at sea for lengthy periods without contracting the disorder was a huge benefit for the military. The British sailor thus acquired the nickname, \"Limey\" because of their usage of limes. \n\nUses\n\nLimes have higher contents of sugars and acids than do lemons.\n\nLime juice may be squeezed from fresh limes, or purchased in bottles in both unsweetened and sweetened varieties. Lime juice is used to make limeade, and as an ingredient (typically as sour mix) in many cocktails.\n\nLime pickles are an integral part of Indian cuisine. South Indian cuisine is heavily based on lime; having either lemon pickle or lime pickle is considered an essential of Onam Sadhya.\n\nIn cooking, lime is valued both for the acidity of its juice and the floral aroma of its zest. It is a common ingredient in authentic Mexican, Vietnamese and Thai dishes. It is also used for its pickling properties in ceviche. Some guacamole recipes call for lime juice.\n\nThe use of dried limes (called black lime or loomi) as a flavouring is typical of Persian cuisine and Iraqi cuisine, as well as in Gulf-style baharat (a spice mixture that is also called kabsa or kebsa).\n\nLime is an ingredient of many cuisines from India, and many varieties of pickles are made, e.g. sweetened lime pickle, salted pickle, and lime chutney.\n\nKey lime gives the character flavoring to the American dessert known as Key lime pie. In Australia, desert lime is used for making marmalade.\n\nLime is an ingredient in several highball cocktails, often based on gin, such as gin and tonic, the gimlet and the Rickey. Freshly squeezed lime juice is also considered a key ingredient in margaritas, although sometimes lemon juice is substituted.\n\nLime extracts and lime essential oils are frequently used in perfumes, cleaning products, and aromatherapy.\n\nHealth effects and research\n\nNutritional value\n\nAs compared to lemons, limes contain less vitamin C, but the amount is still an excellent source, providing 35% of the Daily Value per 100 g serving (right table). Limes are a good source of dietary fiber and contain numerous other nutrients in small quantities.\n\nPhytochemicals and research\n\nLime flesh and peel contain diverse phytochemicals, including polyphenols and terpenes, many of which are under basic research for their potential properties in humans. \n\nDermatitis\n\nWhen human skin is exposed to ultraviolet light after contact with lime peel or juice, a reaction known as phytophotodermatitis can occur, which can cause darkening of the skin, swelling or blistering. Bartenders handling limes and other citrus fruits when preparing cocktails may develop phytophotodermatitis due to the high concentration of furocoumarins and other phototoxic coumarins in limes. \nThe main coumarin in limes is limettin which has manifold higher content in peels than in pulp. Persian limes have a higher content of coumarins and potentially greater phototoxicity than do Key limes.\n\nProduction trends\n\nChina, India and Mexico, together having about 43% of the world's overall lemon and lime output, top the production list for 2012, followed by Argentina and Brazil (table below)." ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "Margerita", "Bob and Rita", "Margarita glass", "Frozen margarita", "Margarita (cocktail)", "Margaritas", "Margarita (drink)", "Upside Down Margarita", "Margarita" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "margarita drink", "frozen margarita", "bob and rita", "margerita", "margarita glass", "margaritas", "upside down margarita", "margarita", "margarita cocktail" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "margarita", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "Margarita" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Celeste_(frozen_pizza).txt" ], "title": [ "Celeste (frozen pizza)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Celeste is a brand of frozen pizza owned by Pinnacle Foods. It is widely referred to by its former name Mama Celeste. The brand's slogan is \"Abbondanza\", which means \"Abundance\" in Italian.\n\nBackground\n\nThe product was named after Celeste (née Luise) Lizio (1908-1988) who carried the nickname \"Mama Celeste\". She came to the United States from Italy with her husband, Anthony, in the 1920s. They settled on Chicago's West Side, where they opened their first restaurant in 1932. In 1962, the Lizios closed the restaurant and began selling pizzas to other restaurants. The Quaker Oats Company acquired the product in 1969. Celeste frozen pizza was one of the top selling brands in the 1970s but subsequently experienced declines. The Celeste brand was later acquired by Aurora Foods, and then Pinnacle Foods.\n\nAs of 2012, Pinnacle Foods marketed only frozen, microwavable \"Pizza For One\" varieties of Celeste pizzas. Distribution is now restricted to more regional markets. \n\nPopular culture\n\nFilm\n\n*In numerous 1980s movies, the pizza brand can be seen in background shots, such as Harry and the Hendersons (1987).\n*In Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991), Sue Ellen uses a Celeste pizza box to decide who gets a job.\n\nTelevision\n\n*In The Golden Girls episode \"The Triangle\" (1985), Sophia tells Rose a story of having been childhood friends in Italy with the woman who would go on to become Mama Celeste. Later in the episode, she yells, \"Abbondanza\" into the freezer and makes an obscene gesture.\n*In the Welcome Back Kotter episode \"Sweatmobile\" (1978; S4 E6), a nurse says to Vinnie's aunt, \"You must be Mrs. Barbarino\". The aunt replies, \"What do you think? I'm Mama Celeste?\"" ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "Pizza shop", "Pepperoni pizza", "Pizza places", "Pizza crust", "Pizza topping", "Pizze", "Italian Pie", "Pan pizza", "Pizza bread", "Kebabpizza", "Peetza", "Frozen pizza", "Pizza place", "Pizza Parlor", "Pizza parlors", "Stuffed crust pizza", "Marinara pizza", "Pizza puffs", "Pizaa", "Italian pizza", "Pizza puff", "Pizzas", "Pan Pizza", "Napoletana pizza", "Pizza Margherita", "🍕", "Hawaiian style", "Freezer pizza", "PIZZA", "Ninja Turtle Food", "Pizza dough", "Pizza Pie", "White pizza", "Anchovie pizza", "Pizza margherita", "Cheese pizza", "Grandma pizza", "Stuffed crust", "Pizza toppings", "Margherita (pizza)", "Pizza oven", "Pizza", "Pizzaria", "Piza", "Pizza pie", "Margherita pizza", "Pizza parlour" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "peetza", "pizza parlors", "pepperoni pizza", "pizzas", "pizza parlor", "pizza bread", "white pizza", "pizzaria", "ninja turtle food", "anchovie pizza", "pizze", "marinara pizza", "stuffed crust pizza", "pizza pie", "pizza puffs", "pizza parlour", "pizza crust", "pizza shop", "pan pizza", "italian pizza", "pizza toppings", "frozen pizza", "stuffed crust", "pizza places", "pizza", "napoletana pizza", "pizza margherita", "italian pie", "pizza place", "pizza topping", "pizza puff", "freezer pizza", "kebabpizza", "pizza dough", "cheese pizza", "pizaa", "piza", "🍕", "margherita pizza", "pizza oven", "grandma pizza", "hawaiian style" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "pizza", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "Pizza" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Breakfast_cereal.txt", "Pebbles_cereal.txt", "Grape-Nuts.txt", "Honey_Bunches_of_Oats.txt", "Raisin_Bran.txt" ], "title": [ "Breakfast cereal", "Pebbles cereal", "Grape-Nuts", "Honey Bunches of Oats", "Raisin Bran" ], "wiki_context": [ "Breakfast cereal (or just cereal) is a soup made from processed grains that is often eaten as the first meal of the day. It is eaten hot or cold, usually mixed with milk, yogurt, or fruit. Some companies promote their products for the health benefits from eating oat-based and high-fiber cereals. In America, cereals are often fortified with vitamins. A significant proportion of cold cereals are made with high sugar content. Many breakfast cereals are produced via extrusion.\n\nThe breakfast cereal industry has gross profit margins of 40-45%, 90% penetration in some markets, and steady and continued growth throughout its history. \n\nThe number of different types of breakfast cereals in the U.S. has grown from 160 (1970) to 340 (1998) to 4,945 (2012). \n\nHistory of cereal in North America\n\nPorridge was a traditional food in much of Northern Europe and Russia back to antiquity. Barley was a common grain used, though other grains and yellow peas could be used. In many modern cultures, porridge is still eaten as a breakfast dish.\n\nEarly America\n\nNorth American natives had found a way to make ground corn palatable, calling it \"grits,\" (from the Old English word \"grytt,\" meaning coarse meal), and \"hominy.\" While this became a staple in the southern U.S., grits never gained a hold in the northern states. \n\nFood reformers in the 19th century called for cutting back on excessive meat consumption at breakfast. They explored numerous vegetarian alternatives. Late in the century, the Seventh-day Adventists based in Michigan made these food reforms part of their religion, and indeed non-meat breakfasts were featured in their sanitariums and led to new breakfast cereals. \n\nCooked oatmeal\n\nFerdinand Schumacher, a German immigrant, began the cereals revolution in 1854 with a hand oats grinder in the back room of a small store in, Akron, Ohio. His German Mills American Oatmeal Company was the nation's first commercial oatmeal manufacturer. He marketed the product locally as a substitute for breakfast pork. Improved production technology (steel cutters, porcelain rollers, improved hullers), combined with an influx of German and Irish immigrants, quickly boosted sales and profits. In 1877, Schumacher adopted the Quaker symbol, the first registered trademark for a breakfast cereal. The acceptance of \"horse food\" for human consumption encouraged other entrepreneurs to enter the industry. Henry Parsons Crowell started operations in 1882, and John Robert Stuart in 1885. Crowell cut costs by consolidating every step of the processing—grading, cleaning, hulling, cutting, rolling, packaging, and shipping—in one factory operating at Ravenna, Ohio. Stuart operated mills in Chicago and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Stuart and Crowell combined in 1885 and initiated a price war. After a fire at his mill in Akron, Schumacher joined Stuart and Crowell to form the Consolidated Oatmeal Company. The American Cereal Company (Quaker Oats, but see below) created a cereal made from oats in 1877, manufacturing the product in Akron, Ohio. Separately, in 1888, a trust or holding company combined the nation's seven largest mills into the American Cereal Company using the Quaker Oats brand name. By 1900 technology, entrepreneurship, and the \"Man in Quaker Garb\"—a symbol of plain honesty and reliability—gave Quaker Oats a national market and annual sales of $10 million. \n\nEarly in the 20th century, the Quaker Oats Company (formed in 1901 to replace the American Cereal Company) jumped into the world market. Schumacher, the innovator; Stuart, the manager and financial leader and Crowell, the creative merchandiser, advertiser, and promoter, doubled sales every decade. Alexander Anderson's steam-pressure method of shooting rice from guns created Puffed rice and puffed wheat. Crowell's intensive advertising campaign in the 1920s and 1930s featured promotions with such celebrities as Babe Ruth, Max Baer, and Shirley Temple. Sponsorship of the popular \"Rin-Tin-Tin\" and \"Sergeant Preston of the Yukon\" radio shows aided the company's expansion during the depression. Meat rationing during World War II boosted annual sales to $90 million, and by 1956 sales topped $277 million. By 1964 the firm sold over 200 products, grossed over $500 million, and claimed that 8 million people ate Quaker Oats each day. Expansion included acquisition of Aunt Jemima Mills Company in 1926, which continues as a leading brand of pancake mixes and syrup, the sport drink Gatorade in 1983, and in 1986, the Golden Grain Company, producers of Rice-A-Roni canned lunch food. In 2001 Quaker Oats was itself bought out by the much larger PepsiCo. \n\nReady-to-eat (RTE)\n\nThe first cold breakfast cereal, Granula, was invented in the United States in 1863 by James Caleb Jackson, operator of Our Home on the Hillside which was later replaced by the Jackson Sanatorium in Dansville, New York. The cereal never became popular as the heavy bran and graham nuggets needed soaking overnight before they were tender enough to eat and were considered inconvenient. \n\nGeorge H. Hoyt created Wheatena circa 1879, during an era when retailers would typically buy cereal (the most popular being cracked wheat, oatmeal, and cerealine) in barrel lots, and scoop it out to sell by the pound to customers. Hoyt, who had found a distinctive process of preparing wheat for cereal, sold his cereal in boxes, offering consumers a more sanitary and consumer-friendly option. \n\nBattle Creek, Michigan\n\nPackaged breakfast cereals were considerably more convenient than a product that had to be cooked and as a result of this convenience (and clever marketing), they became popular. Battle Creek, Michigan was a center both of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and of innovation in the ready-to-eat cereal industry. And indeed, the church had a substantial impact on the development of cereal goods through the person of John Harvey Kellogg (1851-1943). Son of an Adventist factory owner in Battle Creek, Kellogg was encouraged by his church to train in medicine at Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City in 1875. After graduating, he became medical superintendent at the Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, established in 1866 by the Adventists to offer their natural remedies for illness. Many wealthy industrialists came to Kellogg's sanitarium for recuperation and rejuvenation. They were accustomed to breakfasts of ham, eggs, sausages, fried potatoes, hot biscuits, hotcakes, and coffee. In Battle Creek they found fresh air, exercise, rest, \"hydrotherapy\", a strict vegetarian diet, and abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and tea. To supplement the center's vegetarian regimen, Kellogg experimented with granola. Soon afterwards he began to experiment with wheat, resulting in a lighter, flakier product. In 1891 he acquired a patent and then in 1895 he launched the Cornflakes brand, which overnight captured a national market. Soon there were forty rival manufacturers in the Battle Creek area. His brother William K. Kellogg (1860-1951) worked for him for many years until, in 1906, he broke away, bought the rights to Cornflakes, and set up the Kellogg Toasted Corn Flake Company. William Kellogg discarded the health food concept, opting for heavy advertising and commercial taste appeal. Later, his signature on every package became the company trademark. \n\nThe second major innovator in the cereal industry was Charles W. Post, a salesman who was admitted to Kellogg's sanitarium as a patient in the late 1800s. While there, he grew deeply impressed with their all-grain diet. Upon his release, he began experimenting with grain products, beginning with an all-grain coffee substitute called Postum. In 1898 he introduced Grape-nuts, the concentrated cereal with a nutty flavor (containing neither grapes or nuts). Good business sense, determination, and powerful advertising produced a multimillion-dollar fortune for Post in a few years. After his death, his company acquired the Jell-O company in 1925, Baker's chocolate in 1927, Maxwell House coffee in 1928, and Birdseye frozen foods in 1929. In 1929, the company changed its name to General Foods. In 1985, Philip Morris Tobacco Company bought General Foods for $5.6 billion and merged it with its Kraft division. \n\nBecause of Kellogg and Post, the city of Battle Creek, Michigan is nicknamed the \"Cereal Capital of the World\". \n\n20th century\n\nIn 1902 Force wheat flakes became the first ready-to-eat breakfast cereal introduced into the United Kingdom. The cereal, and the Sunny Jim character, achieved wide success in Britain, at its peak in 1930 selling 12.5 million packages in one year.\n\nIn the 1930s, the first puffed cereal, Kix, went on the market. After World War II, the big breakfast cereal companies – now including General Mills, who entered the market in 1924 with Wheaties – increasingly started to target children. The flour was refined to remove fiber, which at the time was considered to undermine digestion and absorption of nutrients, and sugar was added to improve the flavor for children. The new breakfast cereals began to look starkly different from their ancestors. As one example, Kellogg's Sugar Smacks, created in 1953, had 56% sugar by weight. Different mascots were introduced, such as the Rice Krispies elves and later pop icons like Tony the Tiger and the Trix Rabbit.\n\nNational advertising and General Mills\n\nIn the 1920s, national advertising in magazines and radio broadcasts played a key role in the emergence of the fourth big cereal manufacturer, General Mills. In 1921, James Ford Bell, president of a Minneapolis wheat milling firm, began experimenting with rolled wheat flakes. After tempering, steaming, cracking wheat, and processing it with syrup, sugar, and salt, it was prepared in a pressure cooker for rolling and then dried in an electric oven. By 1925, Wheaties had become the \"Breakfast of Champions\". In 1928, four milling companies consolidated as the General Mills Company in Minneapolis. The new firm expanded packaged food sales with heavy advertising, including sponsorship of radio programs such as \"Skippy\", \"Jack Armstrong, The All-American Boy\", and baseball games. Jack Dempsey, Johnny Weissmuller, and others verified the \"Breakfast of Champions\" slogan. By 1941 Wheaties had won 12% percent of the cereal market. Experiments with the puffing process produced Kix, a puffed corn cereal, and Cheerios, a puffed oats cereal. Further product innovation and diversification brought total General Mills sales to over $500 million annually (18% in packaged foods) by the early 1950s. \n\nProcessing of grains\n\nProcessing is the modification of a grain or mixture of grains usually taking place in a facility remote from the location where the product is eaten. This distinguishes \"breakfast cereals\" from foods made from grains modified and cooked in the place where they are eaten.\n\nMuesli\n\nMuesli is a breakfast cereal based on uncooked rolled oats, fruit, and nuts. It was developed around 1900 by the Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner for patients in his hospital. It is available in a packaged dry form such as Alpen, or it can be made fresh.\n\nWarm cereals\n\nMost warm cereals can be classified as porridges, in that they consist of cereal grains which are soaked and/or boiled to soften them and make them palatable. Sweeteners, such as brown sugar, honey, or maple syrup, are often added either by the manufacturer, during cooking, or before eating.\n\nCanada\n\nCommon hot cereals in parts of Canada include oatmeal, Cream of Wheat and Red River cereal. These hot cereals are typically served with maple syrup or brown sugar and milk or cream. Yogurt is a popular addition to Red River cereal. Many Canadians also enjoy cereals common to the style pioneered and currently prevalent in the United States market.\n\nChina\n\nIn China, porridges such as rice congee, or those made with other ingredients (including corn meal or millet) are often eaten for breakfast.\n\nGreece\n\nIn Greece, cornmeal is poured into boiling milk to create a cereal of a thick consistency which is often served to young children.\n\nIreland\n\nIreland is known for its oatmeal. Arguably the most famous variety of these is steel-cut oatmeal. Oatmeal is very popular in Ireland, and is a common breakfast there. It is one of Ireland's major culinary exports, and is widely available throughout the world. Major brands include McCann's.\n\nRussia\n\nIn Russia, a breakfast is kasha, a porridge of buckwheat (, grechka), farina (, manka), or other grains. Kasha is found throughout much of Eastern Europe, including Poland and Croatia.\n\nSouth Africa\n\nPap is a porridge used in a variety of meals eaten throughout the day. In the Afrikaans culture of descendants of Dutch farmers and French Huguenots, it is usually sprinkled with sugar and then eaten with milk; it can be made to a very stiff consistency so that it forms – what could be described as – a softish lumpy crumble (called krummel-pap) or a more creamy porridge consistency (called slap-pap). It is generally made from maize (\"mielie\") meal and is sold under various brand names. Taystee Wheat is made into a creamy wheat-based porridge.\n\nPorridge brands unique to South Africa include Jungle Oats and Bokomo Maltabella (made from malted sorghum). \n\nIn other parts of Africa it is known as ugali, sadza, and banku or \"makkau\".\n\nUnited Kingdom\n\nScotland is famous for its consumption of oats. Scottish brands sold in the United Kingdom and elsewhere include Scott's Porage Oats and Stoats Porridge Bars. In Northern Ireland, the company White's has been milling oats in Tandragee since 1841. \n\nUnited States\n\nOatmeal is popular in the United States. Wheat-based cereals (Cream of Wheat, Malt-o-Meal, Wheatena, etc.) are widely available if less popular. Grits is a porridge of Native American origin made from corn (maize) which is popular in the South.\n\nGluten-free\n\nBreakfast cereal companies make gluten-free cereals which are free of any gluten-containing grains. These cereals are targeted for consumers who suffer from gluten-related disorders, as celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and wheat allergy, among others. Some companies that produce gluten-free cereals include Kellogg's, General Mills, Nature's Path and Arrowhead Mills.", "Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles are brands of breakfast cereal introduced by Post Foods in 1971 featuring characters from the animated series The Flintstones as spokestoons. Cocoa Pebbles contains chocolate-flavored crisp rice cereal bits, while Fruity Pebbles contains crisp rice cereal bits that come in a variety of fruit flavors with a sugar content of 9 grams per serving for Fruity Pebbles and 10 grams per serving for Cocoa Pebbles. It is the oldest cereal brand based on characters from a TV series or movie. \n\nProduct history\n\nFruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles Cereal were reintroductions of a low share of market Post children's cereal brand called Sugar Rice Krinkles. The Product Group Manager at the time, Larry Weiss, licensed use of The Flintstones for cereal from Hanna-Barbera in an attempt to reinvigorate the children's cereal business for Post Cereals. Prior to that time, character licensing had been used for promotion, but there had never been a brand created around a media character. The brand was marketed despite internal concern it would be a fad and not last more than a year. Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles were simultaneously introduced on the West Coast in 1969 and strong consumer demand led to national distribution. The brand has been one of the most consistent best sellers ever since. \n\nThe original working names for the companion cereals were Flint Chips and Rubble Stones, consistent with the appearance of the cereal and The Flintstone's Stone Age imagery. Frank Corey, Benton & Bowles' creative head for the Post Cereal business suggested the alternative names Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles, which were adopted. \n\nThe basic product retained the Sugar Rice Krinkles form, using the existing expander process and Battle Creek production facilities. The flavors, colors and other product formulations were carefully developed by Battle Creek product experts supported by marketing using the Linescale research technique. The objective was to create product characteristics which matched the expectations of both children and parents for what The Flintstones cereals should look and taste like. After many iterations, the Cocoa Pebbles formula was set and has remained largely unchanged over the years. Fruity Pebbles also remained essentially unchanged for decades. In recent years some additions and variations have been made to the Fruity Pebbles product formulation. The Canadian version came in the form of corn puffs in Pebble shapes.\n\nProduct evolution\n\nUnlike its sister cereal Cocoa Pebbles, Fruity Pebbles has undergone many formula changes, additions and variants. The cereal started out with three colors—orange, red, and yellow—and natural orange, lemon and tangerine flavors, but were later flavored in natural orange and artificial lemon and cherry. New colors were added over time: purple in 1980, green in 1984, \"Berry Blue\" in 1994, \"Incrediberry Purple\" in 1995 and \"Bedrock Berry Pink\" in 2005.\n\nVariants have included \"Half Sugar Fruity Pebbles,\" \"Dino Pebbles\" (late 1980s- early 1990s), \"Marshmallow Mania Pebbles,\" and \"Bamm-Bamm Pebbles.\" A berry cereal called \"Bamm-Bamm Berry Pebbles\" was released in 2007, featuring only berry flavors. The formula for both versions of Pebbles had a major addition in 2006: polydextrose became a key ingredient.. As of 2012, polydextrose was not listed as an ingredient in any Pebbles varieties.\n\nTelevision commercials\n\nThe earliest commercials produced by Post's ad agency D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles with cooperation from Hanna-Barbera featured the animated Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble (as voiced by Alan Reed and Mel Blanc, respectively) interacting cheerfully with live-action children, eating the cereal around a typical household breakfast table; others showed Fred and Barney enjoying the cereal with their wives around their Bedrock breakfast table or in other locales and situations in Bedrock. Commercials after about 1978 were entirely animated, and would have a typical skit and plot. Fred would be eating some Pebbles while Barney would want some as well; to that end, Barney would either disguise himself or distract Fred from his bowl of the cereal using various creative and increasingly outrageous means. While Fred was distracted, Barney would eat some Pebbles, but Fred would quickly discover Barney's lies, usually due to Barney's excitement at eating the cereal would cause his costume to be destroyed. Angry about his breakfast being stolen, he would normally exclaim, \"Barney! My Pebbles!\" Barney would then chuckle and deliver a comedic line while running away from the angry Fred, and Fred would give chase. \n\nA 1989 Christmas commercial had changed the theme in which Barney attempts to steal Fred's Pebbles by disguising himself as Santa Claus. However, his plot was foiled as the real Santa Claus was already inside the Flintstone house (and Fred serves him a bowl without question). Barney as the imposter Santa is immediately discovered by an annoyed Fred, until Santa reminds Fred this is the time of year to be sharing, to which Fred willingly serves Barney a bowl and remarks \"Happy Holidays, pal\".\n\nIn a similar Christmas commercial to the original one where Fred forgives Barney by urging of Santa, Barney tries to again steal the Pebbles by pretending to be Dickens' Ghost of Christmas Present (with both Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm as the Ghost of Christmas Past and Dino as the Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come) and saying that if Fred did not forfeit his cereal to Barney he would have a bad future. Fred agrees but soon realizes that Pebbles, Bamm-Bamm and Dino are helping Barney steal the cereal from him by the disguises and when shouting at Barney in anger Pebbles Flintstone reminds him that \"Santa is watching.\" This revelation instantly leads Fred to officially confirm to Barney that he can always have some Pebbles cereal when he wants to and no longer has to steal them.\n\nIn 2009, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm became more prominent in the commercials. The commercial launching Bamm-Bamm Berry Pebbles had a slight twist on the skit; when Fred said \"Barney! My Pebbles!\" Barney interrupted him and replied, \"My Bamm-Bamm Pebbles!\" happily as Bamm-Bamm carried his father away from the angry Fred. One of the most recent commercials featured Pebbles eating the Fruity Pebbles cereal along with Fred and Barney; Bamm-Bamm created a Barney-like distraction in the form of a giant fruit-loving robot, much to Pebbles' delight.\n\nFrom 2010 to 2012, the commercials for Pebbles cereal are produced (by ad agency Burns Group) using stop motion animation. They currently feature the tagline \"Rocks your whole mouth!\" in which 64 Pebbles pieces can be held over your whole tongue to rock your whole mouth. In these spots, Barney no longer tries to steal Fred's cereal, but does try to use a smaller amount than the cereal pieces Fred uses to cover his tongue; instead of his mouth being rocked as Fred's is (with Fred bobbing his head to a hip hop beat in enjoyment of the cereal's taste), Barney changes into different forms, such as a bird or elephant, unable to properly enjoy the cereal. Fred then responds to the mishap with a witty remark. Mr. Slate and a policeman have had the same thing happen to them as well.\n\nWWE professional wrestler John Cena is now officially endorsed by Fruity Pebbles as the result of references to the cereal made by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson over the course of 2011, where Rock nicknamed Cena (a bowl of) Fruity Pebbles based on his bright shirts. \n\nFrom 2012 to 2014, Pebbles commercials changed to a scene where two children, Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles, are doing kung-fu, then the box appears and a person says \"Flavors so intense it's part of this nutritious breakfast. It's Fruity Pebbles/Cocoa Pebbles/Fruity Pebbles Extreme!\"\n\nSince 2014, Pebbles commercials prompt viewers to take a side with either Team Cocoa or Team Fruity, and each individual advertisement includes a different child exemplifying their devoutness to one of the teams. Various celebrities, such as actress Bella Thorne, retired professional basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, and professional soccer player Alex Morgan have been chosen as mascots for either group, as well. Since then in its whole history The Flintstones characters have been retired.\n\nBox cover illustrations\n\nThe box covers for the various Pebbles boxes have been illustrated by commercial artist Seymour Schachter [Seymour Schachter Illustration] since 2006.\n\nLawsuit\n\nIn May 2010, a controversial commercial of Cocoa Pebbles led to a lawsuit by Hulk Hogan. In spring of 2010, a commercial where Barney and Fred face off against a wrestler named Hulk Boulder aired on TV. The commercial ended with Hulk Boulder getting smashed to pieces after losing the wrestling match. Hulk Hogan sued Post, saying they stole his image to promote Pebbles and that his image had been damaged by the commercials. He used the name Hulk Boulder early in his career until his name was changed to sound more Irish. The suit was settled in June of 2010 with a condition of not airing the commercial again.\n\nVarieties\n\nBedrock Blizzard\n\nFor the 1998 holiday season the Fruity and Cocoa flavors were altered and renamed \"Bedrock Blizzard.\" The limited edition cereal had two different flavors: the \"Fruity\" flavor had red and green frosting; the \"Cocoa\" flavor had white \"snow sprinkles.\" This cereal was replaced by Winter Fruity Pebbles in 2002.\n\nCinna-Crunch Pebbles\n\nIn 1998, Cinna-Crunch Pebbles were introduced. Unlike the other Pebbles which were crisp rice, Cinna-Crunch Pebbles were described as \"sweetened oat, corn and wheat cereal baked with a touch of real cinnamon.\" The box claimed that the cereal had the \"Best Cinnamon Sweet Taste In Bedrock\" and a \"Cinnamon Sweet Taste That Goes Crunch!\". Cinna-Crunch Pebbles was introduced as a Limited-Edition cereal and was only available for a limited time. They were discontinued in 2001. \n\nWinter Fruity Pebbles\n\nIn 2002, Winter Fruity Pebbles were introduced. This cereal had red and green Pebbles and was only sold for a short time.\n\nMarshmallow Mania Pebbles\n\nDebuting in 2005, Marshmallow Mania Pebbles were a combination of original Pebbles and marshmallows.\n\nIceBerry Pebbles\n\nIn 2006, IceBerry Pebbles were released for a limited time. The pieces were green, red, yellow, and orange. They were described on the box as \"sweetened rice cereal with artificial strawberry flavor.\"\n\nDino S'mores Pebbles\n\nIn 2008, the Dino S'mores were introduced. These had an object such as a bone, a marshmallow and a chocolate nugget. This was a limited edition, discontinued in 2009.\n\nCupcake Pebbles\n\nIn 2010, Post introduced a new cake batter flavor of pebbles called Cupcake Pebbles. The cereal is white with small rainbow sprinkles, and has the aroma of cupcakes. It was discontinued in 2011.\n\nMarshmallow Pebbles\n\nIn 2010, a new flavor of pebbles was released called Marshmallow Pebbles. The cereal contains rectangular vanilla-graham flavored shaped pebbles and marshmallows. In 2012, the formula for Marshmallow Pebbles changed to the typically shaped Pebbles cereal pieces; the flavor is a sweetened rice cereal rather than vanilla/graham. A new variety that arrived in 2012 features Wilma Flintstone on the box (as part of a \"Meet the Flintstones\" promotional campaign), and features sweetened orange, red, and white rice cereal pieces with white marshmallows that match the rock necklace that Wilma wears.\n\nPebbles Boulders\n\nIn 2011, Pebbles Boulders were introduced, being a limited edition only cereal, featuring two new flavors called \"Stone Age Caramel Apple\" and \"Chocolate Peanut Butter\".\n\nPebbles Treats\n\nIn 2011, a Pebbles snack bar called Pebbles Treats (a variant of rival Kellogg's Rice Krispies Treats) was released with flavors Fruity and Cocoa.\n\nIce Cream Pebbles\n\nIn the summer of 2015, Ice Cream Pebbles, a Rainbow Sherbet-flavored cereal, was launched.", "Grape-Nuts is a breakfast cereal developed in 1897 by C. W. Post, a former patient and later competitor of the 19th-century breakfast food innovator, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Despite the name, the cereal contains neither grapes nor nuts; it is made with wheat and barley. Post believed that glucose (which he called \"grape sugar\") formed in the baking process. This, combined with the nutty flavor of the cereal, is said to have inspired its name. Another explanation originates from employees at Post, who claim that the cereal got its name due to a resemblance to grape seeds, or grape \"nuts.\" The cereal originally prepared by C. W. Post when developing the product was a batter that came from the oven as a rigid sheet. He then broke the sheet into pieces and ran them through a coffee grinder to produce the \"nut\" sized kernels.\n\nMarketing\n\nGrape-Nuts was initially marketed as a natural cereal that could enhance health and vitality, and as a \"food for brain and nerve centres.\" Its lightweight and compact nature, nutritional value, and resistance to spoilage made it a popular food for exploration and expedition groups in the 1920s and 1930s. In World War II, Grape-Nuts was a component of the lightweight Jungle ration used by some U.S. and Allied Forces in wartime operations before 1944. \n\nA 1939 ad campaign by cartoonist Walter Hoban continued his Jerry on the Job comic strip in Woman's Day magazine and daily newspaper comics pages. General Foods also marketed Grape-Nuts through a comics-style advertising campaign (a trailblazer in this regard) featuring a character named Little Alby, who gained inordinate strength after consuming a bowl of Grape-Nuts. \n\nDuring the 1940s comic books from various companies featured one page comic strip ads starring Volto from Mars, a finned red helmet-clad alien superhero visiting Earth who, like all Martians, recharged his magnetic powers (his left hand repels, his right attracts) by eating \"cereal grains\", with him quickly developing a particular fondness for Grape-Nuts Flakes which he proclaimed \"the best I ever tasted!\" \n\nIn the 1960s, advertising promoted Grape-Nuts as the cereal that \"fills you up, not out\". Brand users, particularly mother/daughter look-alikes, were shown engaged in fitness activities such as tennis, horseback riding, skiing, and swimming. Also appearing during the \"fills you up, not out\" campaign were Andy Griffith and Don Knotts as the characters from \"The Andy Griffith Show,\" Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife.\n\nThis ad campaign produced one television commercial, which aired on television in 1968, that featured a catchphrase that became a target for numerous sketches and satires in media. Spanning the ensuing two decades and beyond, \"Oh no, Mrs. Burke! I thought you were Dale!\" was parodied on television variety show sketches, in the film The Kentucky Fried Movie and in many Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes, fans continue to discuss the origin of this \"riff\" and have even developed products that feature the text, \"I thought you were Dale.\"\n\nA subsequent ad campaign generated another catchphrase, as Euell Gibbons became the spokesperson for the brand, promoting Grape-Nuts as the \"Back to Nature Cereal\". The line \"Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible\" drew attention to the product from consumers, as well as from comedians.\n\nGrape-Nuts is credited as the first widespread product to use a coupon in sales promotion when C.W. Post Company offered a penny-off coupon to get people to try their cereal in the late 1890s.\n\nAt one time, Grape-Nuts was the seventh most popular cold breakfast cereal, but sales declined as Post was sold from one company to another. Circa 2005 it held less than 1% of the market. About this time the formula was changed: The husks from milled grain were ground into the flour and the cereal was pitched as \"whole grain,\" albeit at the cost of roughening the cereal's texture and detracting significantly from mouth feel. The addition of vitamins and minerals allowed it to qualify for food-stamp programs. \n\nIce cream\n\nGrape-Nut ice cream is a popular regional dish in the Canadian Maritimes, the Shenandoah Valley, Jamaica and New England, typically consumed by old people. One origin story is that it was created by chef Hannah Young at The Palms restaurant in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, in 1919. She created it when she ran out of fresh fruit to add to ice cream, and decided to throw in some cereal. It proved popular at the restaurant and the Scotsburn Dairy company began mass-producing the ice cream variety, and it sold across the region. Variations of ice cream with Grape Nuts are also called brown bread ice cream.", "Honey Bunches of Oats is a cold cereal by Post Holdings. Created by lifelong Post employee Vernon J. Herzing by mixing several Post's cereals together and having his daughter taste them, Honey Bunches of Oats was introduced to markets in 1989 after three years of development. The cereal is made up of three kinds of flakes and oat clusters baked with a hint of honey. It is marketed as a source of whole grain. Other varieties have almonds or fruits added into the mix. \n\nIngredients\n\nThe ingredients of the cereal are corn, whole grain wheat, sugar, whole grain rolled oats, brown sugar, vegetable oil (canola or sunflower oil), rice flour, wheat flour, malted barley flour, salt, rice, whey (from milk), honey, malted corn and barley syrup, caramel color, artificial flavor, annato extract (color) \n\nVarieties\n\nCurrent, past, and limited editions [http://www.postfoods.com/cereals/honey_bunches_of_oats/]:\n\n* Honey Roasted \n* Almonds \n* Peaches \n* Strawberries \n* Shaw\n* Raisin Medley \n* Vanilla Bunches\n* Bananas Bunches \n* Pecan Bunches\n* Apples and Cinnamon Bunches\n* Cinnamon Bunches\n* Real Chocolate Clusters\n* Vanilla Clusters\n* Fruit Blends Banana Blueberry \n* Fruit Blends Peach Raspberry \n* Fruit Blends Apple Strawberry (Debuted in January 2013) \n* Tropical Blends – Mango Coconut\n* Just Bunches Honey Roasted \n* Just Bunches Cinnamon\n* Just Bunches Caramel\n* Greek Honey Crunch (Debuted in January 2013)\n* Greek Mixed Berry\n* Granola – Honey Roasted\n* Granola – Raspberry\n* Granola – Cinnamon\n* Granola – Protein Chocolate\n* Morning Energy – Chocolatey Almond Crunch \n* Morning Energy – Cinnamon Crunch\n\nVitamins and minerals\n\nHoney Bunches of Oats contains iron, niacinamide, vitamin B6, vitamin A palmitate, riboflavin (vitamin B2), thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), zinc oxide (source of zinc), folic acid, vitamin B12, vitamin D. \n\nSlogans \n\n*\"Good things come in bunches\" (slogan at launch)\n*\"It's what's for breakfast\"\n*\"That's why they call it 'The Best of the Bunch'\"\n*\"One spoonful is all it takes\" (2007–2009)\n*\"Taste the joy in every spoonful\" (2009–present)\n*\"The magic's in the mix\"", "Raisin bran (sultana bran in some countries ) is a breakfast cereal manufactured by several companies under a variety of brand names, including Kellogg's Raisin Bran, General Mills' Total Raisin Bran and Post Foods' Post Raisin Bran.\n\nHistory\n\n\"Skinner's Raisin Bran\" was the first raisin bran brand on the market, introduced in the United States in 1926 by the Skinner Manufacturing Company.\n\nThe name \"Raisin Bran\" was at one time trademarked by Skinner, however in 1944 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found:\n\n:The name \"Raisin-BRAN\" could not be appropriated as a trade-mark, because: \"A name which is merely descriptive of the ingredients, qualities or characteristics of an article of trade cannot be appropriated as a trademark and the exclusive use of it afforded legal protection. The use of a similar name by another to truthfully describe his own product does not constitute a legal or moral wrong, even if its effect be to cause the public to mistake the origin or ownership of the product.\" [http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case\n5583365039982891976&hlen&as_sdt\n400006 Skinner v. Kellogg] 143 F.2d 895. August 4, 1944.\n\nHealth\n\nIn 1991, Kellogg's complained that WIC program guidelines did not allow for the purchase of Kellogg's Raisin Bran for containing too much sugar. \n\nKellogg's Sultana Bran received four and a half stars out of five on the Australian Government's health star ratings system." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Nazi_Germany.txt", "Nazism.txt", "Conspiracy_(criminal).txt", "Crime_against_peace.txt", "War_of_aggression.txt", "War_crime.txt", "Crimes_against_humanity.txt" ], "title": [ "Nazi Germany", "Nazism", "Conspiracy (criminal)", "Crime against peace", "War of aggression", "War crime", "Crimes against humanity" ], "wiki_context": [ "Nazi Germany, also known as the Third Reich (), was a period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when the country was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP). Under Hitler's rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist totalitarian state which controlled nearly all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich (\"German Reich\", \"German Empire\" or \"German Realm\") from 1933 to 1943 and Großdeutsches Reich (Greater German Reich) from 1943 to 1945. Nazi Germany ceased to exist after the Allied Forces defeated Germany in May 1945, ending World War II in Europe.\n\nHitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all political opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery and Presidency. A national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer (leader) of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitler's person, and his word became above all laws. The government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitler's favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen (high speed highways). The return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity.\n\nRacism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples (the Nordic race) were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, and were therefore viewed as the master race. Millions of Jews and others deemed undesirable were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitler's rule was ruthlessly suppressed. Members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned. Education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed. Recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, and Hitler's hypnotising oratory to control public opinion. The government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others.\n\nBeginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands, threatening war if they were not met. It seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939, launching World War II in Europe. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940 and threatened Great Britain. Reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, or shot. The regime's racial policies turned genocidal, culminating in the mass murder of Jews and other minorities in the Holocaust.\n\nFollowing the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943. Large-scale aerial bombing of Germany escalated in 1944, and the Axis powers were pushed back in Eastern and Southern Europe. Following the Allied invasion of France, Germany was conquered by the Soviet Union from the east and the other Allied powers from the west and capitulated within a year. Hitler's refusal to admit defeat led to massive destruction of German infrastructure and additional war-related deaths in the closing months of the war. The victorious Allies initiated a policy of denazification and put many of the surviving Nazi leadership on trial for war crimes at the Nuremberg trials.\n\nName \n\nThe official name of the state was Deutsches Reich (German Reich) from 1933 to 1943, and Großdeutsches Reich (Greater German Reich) from 1943 to 1945. The name Deutsches Reich is usually translated into English as \"German Empire\" or \"German Reich\".\n\nCommon English terms are \"Nazi Germany\" and \"Third Reich\". The latter, adopted by Nazi propaganda, was first used in a 1923 book by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck. The book counted the Holy Roman Empire (962–1806) as the first Reich and the German Empire (1871–1918) as the second. The Nazis used it to legitimize their regime as a successor state. After they seized power, Nazi propaganda retroactively referred to the Weimar Republic as the Zwischenreich (\"Interim Reich\").\n\nHistory \n\nBackground \n\nThe German economy suffered severe setbacks after the end of World War I, partly because of reparations payments required under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. The government printed money to make the payments and to repay the country's war debt; the resulting hyperinflation led to inflated prices for consumer goods, economic chaos, and food riots. When the government failed to make the reparations payments in January 1923, French troops occupied German industrial areas along the Ruhr. Widespread civil unrest followed.\n\nThe National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP; Nazi Party) was the renamed successor of the German Workers' Party founded in 1919, one of several far-right political parties active in Germany at the time. The party platform included removal of the Weimar Republic, rejection of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, radical antisemitism, and anti-Bolshevism. They promised a strong central government, increased Lebensraum (living space) for Germanic peoples, formation of a national community based on race, and racial cleansing via the active suppression of Jews, who would be stripped of their citizenship and civil rights. The Nazis proposed national and cultural renewal based upon the Völkisch movement.\n\nWhen the stock market in the United States crashed on 24 October 1929, the effect in Germany was dire. Millions were thrown out of work, and several major banks collapsed. Hitler and the NSDAP prepared to take advantage of the emergency to gain support for their party. They promised to strengthen the economy and provide jobs. Many voters decided the NSDAP was capable of restoring order, quelling civil unrest, and improving Germany's international reputation. After the federal election of 1932, the Nazis were the largest party in the Reichstag, holding 230 seats with 37.4 percent of the popular vote.\n\nNazi seizure of power \n\nAlthough the Nazis won the greatest share of the popular vote in the two Reichstag general elections of 1932, they did not have a majority, so Hitler led a short-lived coalition government formed by the NSDAP and the German National People's Party. Under pressure from politicians, industrialists, and the business community, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933. This event is known as the Machtergreifung (seizure of power). In the following months, the NSDAP used a process termed Gleichschaltung (co-ordination) to rapidly bring all aspects of life under control of the party. All civilian organisations, including agricultural groups, volunteer organisations, and sports clubs, had their leadership replaced with Nazi sympathisers or party members. By June 1933, virtually the only organisations not in the control of the NSDAP were the army and the churches.\n\nOn the night of 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building was set afire; Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch communist, was found guilty of starting the blaze. Hitler proclaimed that the arson marked the start of a communist uprising. Violent suppression of communists by the Sturmabteilung (SA) was undertaken all over the country, and four thousand members of the Communist Party of Germany were arrested. The Reichstag Fire Decree, imposed on 28 February 1933, rescinded most German civil liberties, including rights of assembly and freedom of the press. The decree also allowed the police to detain people indefinitely without charges or a court order. The legislation was accompanied by a propaganda blitz that led to public support for the measure.\n\nIn March 1933, the Enabling Act, an amendment to the Weimar Constitution, passed in the Reichstag by a vote of 444 to 94. This amendment allowed Hitler and his cabinet to pass laws—even laws that violated the constitution—without the consent of the president or the Reichstag. As the bill required a two-thirds majority to pass, the Nazis used the provisions of the Reichstag Fire Decree to keep several Social Democratic deputies from attending; the Communists had already been banned. On 10 May the government seized the assets of the Social Democrats; they were banned in June. The remaining political parties were dissolved, and on 14 July 1933, Germany became a de facto one-party state when the founding of new parties was made illegal. Further elections in November 1933, 1936, and 1938 were entirely Nazi-controlled and saw only the Nazis and a small number of independents elected. The regional state parliaments and the Reichsrat (federal upper house) were abolished in January 1934.\n\nThe Nazi regime abolished the symbols of the Weimar Republic, including the black, red, and gold tricolour flag, and adopted reworked imperial symbolism. The previous imperial black, white, and red tricolour was restored as one of Germany's two official flags; the second was the swastika flag of the NSDAP, which became the sole national flag in 1935. The NSDAP anthem \"Horst-Wessel-Lied\" (\"Horst Wessel Song\") became a second national anthem.\n\nIn this period, Germany was still in a dire economic situation; millions were unemployed and the balance of trade deficit was daunting. Hitler knew that reviving the economy was vital. In 1934, using deficit spending, public works projects were undertaken. A total of 1.7 million Germans were put to work on the projects in 1934 alone. Average wages both per hour and per week began to rise.\n\nThe demands of the SA for more political and military power caused anxiety among military, industrial, and political leaders. In response, Hitler purged the entire SA leadership in the Night of the Long Knives, which took place from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Hitler targeted Ernst Röhm and other SA leaders who, along with a number of Hitler's political adversaries (such as Gregor Strasser and former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher), were rounded up, arrested, and shot.\n\nOn 2 August 1934, President von Hindenburg died. The previous day, the cabinet had enacted the \"Law Concerning the Highest State Office of the Reich\", which stated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of president would be abolished and its powers merged with those of the chancellor. Hitler thus became head of state as well as head of government. He was formally named as Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor). Germany was now a totalitarian state with Hitler at its head. As head of state, Hitler became Supreme Commander of the armed forces. The new law altered the traditional loyalty oath of servicemen so that they affirmed loyalty to Hitler personally rather than the office of supreme commander or the state. On 19 August, the merger of the presidency with the chancellorship was approved by 90 percent of the electorate in a plebiscite.\n\nMost Germans were relieved that the conflicts and street fighting of the Weimar era had ended. They were deluged with propaganda orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels, who promised peace and plenty for all in a united, Marxist-free country without the constraints of the Versailles Treaty. The first Nazi concentration camp, initially for political prisoners, was opened at Dachau in 1933. Hundreds of camps of varying size and function were created by the end of the war. Upon seizing power, the Nazis took repressive measures against their political opposition and rapidly began the comprehensive marginalisation of persons they considered socially undesirable. Under the guise of combating the Communist threat, the National Socialists secured immense power. Above all, their campaign against Jews living in Germany gained momentum.\n\nBeginning in April 1933, scores of measures defining the status of Jews and their rights were instituted at the regional and national level. Initiatives and legal mandates against the Jews reached their culmination with the establishment of the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, stripping them of their basic rights. The Nazis would take from the Jews their wealth, their right to intermarry with non-Jews, and their right to occupy many fields of labour (such as practising law, medicine, or working as educators). They eventually declared them undesirable to remain among German citizens and society, which over time dehumanised the Jews; arguably, these actions desensitised Germans to the extent that it resulted in the Holocaust. Ethnic Germans who refused to ostracise Jews or who showed any signs of resistance to Nazi propaganda were placed under surveillance by the Gestapo, had their rights removed, or were sent to concentration camps. Everyone and everything was monitored in Nazi Germany. Inaugurating and legitimising power for the Nazis was thus accomplished by their initial revolutionary activities, then through the improvisation and manipulation of the legal mechanisms available, through the use of police powers by the Nazi Party (which allowed them to include and exclude from society whomever they chose), and finally by the expansion of authority for all state and federal institutions.\n\nMilitaristic foreign policy \n\nAs early as February 1933, Hitler announced that rearmament must be undertaken, albeit clandestinely at first, as to do so was in violation of the Versailles Treaty. A year later he told his military leaders that 1942 was the target date for going to war in the east. He pulled Germany out of the League of Nations in 1933, claiming its disarmament clauses were unfair, as they applied only to Germany. The Saarland, which had been placed under League of Nations supervision for 15 years at the end of World War I, voted in January 1935 to become part of Germany. In March 1935 Hitler announced that the Reichswehr would be increased to 550,000 men and that he was creating an air force. Britain agreed that the Germans would be allowed to build a naval fleet with the signing of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement on 18 June 1935.\n\nWhen the Italian invasion of Ethiopia led to only mild protests by the British and French governments, on 7 March 1936 Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht Heer ground forces to march 3,000 troops into the demilitarised zone in the Rhineland in violation of the Versailles Treaty; an additional 30,000 troops were on standby. As the territory was part of Germany, the British and French governments did not feel that attempting to enforce the treaty was worth the risk of war. In the one-party election held on 29 March, the NSDAP received 98.9 percent support. In 1936 Hitler signed an Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan and a non-aggression agreement with the Fascist Italy of Benito Mussolini, who was soon referring to a \"Rome-Berlin Axis\".\n\nHitler sent air and armoured units to assist General Francisco Franco and his Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, which broke out in July 1936. The Soviet Union sent a smaller force to assist the Republican government. Franco's Nationalists were victorious in 1939 and became an informal ally of Nazi Germany.\n\nAustria and Czechoslovakia \n\nIn February 1938, Hitler emphasised to Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg the need for Germany to secure its frontiers. Schuschnigg scheduled a plebiscite regarding Austrian independence for 13 March, but Hitler demanded that it be cancelled. On 11 March, Hitler sent an ultimatum to Schuschnigg demanding that he hand over all power to the Austrian NSDAP or face an invasion. The Wehrmacht entered Austria the next day, to be greeted with enthusiasm by the populace.\n\nThe Republic of Czechoslovakia was home to a substantial minority of Germans, who lived mostly in the Sudetenland. Under pressure from separatist groups within the Sudeten German Party, the Czechoslovak government offered economic concessions to the region. Hitler decided to incorporate not just the Sudetenland but the whole of Czechoslovakia into the Reich. The Nazis undertook a propaganda campaign to try to drum up support for an invasion. Top leaders of the armed forces were not in favour of the plan, as Germany was not yet ready for war. The crisis led to war preparations by the British, the Czechoslovaks, and France (Czechoslovakia's ally). Attempting to avoid war, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain arranged a series of meetings, the result of which was the Munich Agreement, signed on 29 September 1938. The Czechoslovak government was forced to accept the Sudetenland's annexation into Germany. Chamberlain was greeted with cheers when he landed in London bringing, he said, \"peace for our time.\" The agreement lasted six months before Hitler seized the rest of Czech territory in March 1939. A puppet state was created in Slovakia.\n\nAustrian and Czech foreign exchange reserves were soon seized by the Nazis, as were stockpiles of raw materials such as metals and completed goods such as weaponry and aircraft, which were shipped back to Germany. The Reichswerke Hermann Göring industrial conglomerate took control of steel and coal production facilities in both countries.\n\nPoland \n\nIn March 1939, Hitler demanded the return of the Free City of Danzig and the Polish Corridor, a strip of land that separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany. The British announced they would come to the aid of Poland if it was attacked. Hitler, believing the British would not actually take action, ordered an invasion plan should be readied for a target date of September 1939. On 23 May he described to his generals his overall plan of not only seizing the Polish Corridor but greatly expanding German territory eastward at the expense of Poland. He expected this time they would be met by force.\n\nThe Germans reaffirmed their alliance with Italy and signed non-aggression pacts with Denmark, Estonia, and Latvia. Trade links were formalised with Romania, Norway, and Sweden. Hitler's foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, arranged in negotiations with the Soviet Union a non-aggression pact, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which was signed in August 1939. The treaty also contained secret protocols dividing Poland and the Baltic states into German and Soviet spheres of influence.\n\nWorld War II \n\nForeign policy \n\nGermany's foreign policy during the war involved the creation of allied governments under direct or indirect control from Berlin. A main goal was obtaining soldiers from the senior allies, such as Italy and Hungary, and millions of workers and ample food supplies from subservient allies such as Vichy France. By the fall of 1942, there were 24 divisions from Romania on the Eastern Front, 10 from Italy, and 10 from Hungary. When a country was no longer dependable, Germany assumed full control, as it did with France in 1942, Italy in 1943, and Hungary in 1944. Although Japan was an official powerful ally, the relationship was distant and there was little co-ordination or co-operation. For example, Germany refused to share their formula for synthetic oil from coal until late in the war.\n\nOutbreak of war \n\nGermany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. World War II was under way. Poland fell quickly, as the Soviet Union attacked from the east on 17 September. Reinhard Heydrich, then head of the Gestapo, ordered on 21 September that Jews should be rounded up and concentrated into cities with good rail links. Initially the intention was to deport the Jews to points further east, or possibly to Madagascar. Using lists prepared ahead of time, some 65,000 Polish intelligentsia, noblemen, clergy, and teachers were killed by the end of 1939 in an attempt to destroy Poland's identity as a nation. The Soviet forces continued to attack, advancing into Finland in the Winter War, and German forces were involved in action at sea. But little other activity occurred until May, so the period became known as the \"Phoney War\".\n\nFrom the start of the war, a British blockade on shipments to Germany affected the Reich economy. The Germans were particularly dependent on foreign supplies of oil, coal, and grain. To safeguard Swedish iron ore shipments to Germany, Hitler ordered an attack on Norway, which took place on 9 April 1940. Much of the country was occupied by German troops by the end of April. Also on 9 April, the Germans invaded and occupied Denmark.\n\nConquest of Europe \n\nAgainst the judgement of many of his senior military officers, Hitler ordered an attack on France and the Low Countries, which began in May 1940. They quickly conquered Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium, and France surrendered on 22 June. The unexpectedly swift defeat of France resulted in an upswing in Hitler's popularity and a strong upsurge in war fever.\n\nIn spite of the provisions of the Hague Convention, industrial firms in the Netherlands, France, and Belgium were put to work producing war materiel for the occupying German military. Officials viewed this option as being preferable to their citizens being deported to the Reich as forced labour.\n\nThe Nazis seized from the French thousands of locomotives and rolling stock, stockpiles of weapons, and raw materials such as copper, tin, oil, and nickel. Financial demands were levied on the governments of the occupied countries as well; payments for occupation costs were received from France, Belgium, and Norway. Barriers to trade led to hoarding, black markets, and uncertainty about the future. Food supplies were precarious; production dropped in most areas of Europe, but not as much as during World War I. Greece experienced famine in the first year of occupation and the Netherlands in the last year of the war.\n\nHitler made peace overtures to the new British leader, Winston Churchill, and upon their rejection he ordered a series of aerial attacks on Royal Air Force airbases and radar stations. However, the German Luftwaffe failed to defeat the Royal Air Force in what became known as the Battle of Britain. By the end of October, Hitler realised the necessary air superiority for his planned invasion of Britain could not be achieved, and he ordered nightly air raids on British cities, including London, Plymouth, and Coventry.\n\nIn February 1941, the German Afrika Korps arrived in Libya to aid the Italians in the North African Campaign and attempt to contain Commonwealth forces stationed in Egypt. On 6 April, Germany launched the invasion of Yugoslavia and the battle of Greece. German efforts to secure oil included negotiating a supply from their new ally, Romania, who signed the Tripartite Pact in November 1940.\n\nOn 22 June 1941, contravening the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, 5.5 million Axis troops attacked the Soviet Union. In addition to Hitler's stated purpose of acquiring Lebensraum, this large-scale offensive (codenamed Operation Barbarossa) was intended to destroy the Soviet Union and seize its natural resources for subsequent aggression against the Western powers. The reaction among Germans was one of surprise and trepidation. Many were concerned about how much longer the war would drag on or suspected that Germany could not win a war fought on two fronts.\n\nThe invasion conquered a huge area, including the Baltic republics, Belarus, and West Ukraine. After the successful Battle of Smolensk, Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to halt its advance to Moscow and temporarily divert its Panzer groups to aid in the encirclement of Leningrad and Kiev. This pause provided the Red Army with an opportunity to mobilise fresh reserves. The Moscow offensive, which resumed in October 1941, ended disastrously in December. On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Four days later, Germany declared war on the United States.\n\nFood was in short supply in the conquered areas of the Soviet Union and Poland, with rations inadequate to meet nutritional needs. The retreating armies had burned the crops, and much of the remainder was sent back to the Reich. In Germany itself, food rations had to be cut in 1942. In his role as Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan, Hermann Göring demanded increased shipments of grain from France and fish from Norway. The 1942 harvest was a good one, and food supplies remained adequate in Western Europe.\n\nReichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce was an organisation set up to loot artwork and cultural material from Jewish collections, libraries, and museums throughout Europe. Some 26,000 railroad cars full of art treasures, furniture, and other looted items were sent back to Germany from France alone. In addition, soldiers looted or purchased goods such as produce and clothing—items which were becoming harder to obtain in Germany—for shipment back home.\n\nTurning point and collapse \n\nGermany, and Europe as a whole, was almost totally dependent on foreign oil imports. In an attempt to resolve the persistent shortage, Germany launched Fall Blau (Case Blue), an offensive against the Caucasian oilfields, in June 1942. The Red Army launched a counter-offensive on 19 November and encircled the Axis forces, who were trapped in Stalingrad on 23 November. Göring assured Hitler that the 6th Army could be supplied by air, but this turned out to be infeasible. Hitler's refusal to allow a retreat led to the deaths of 200,000 German and Romanian soldiers; of the 91,000 men who surrendered in the city on 31 January 1943, only 6,000 survivors returned to Germany after the war. Soviet forces continued to push the invaders westward after the failed German offensive at the Battle of Kursk, and by the end of 1943, the Germans had lost most of their territorial gains in the east.\n\nIn Egypt, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps were defeated by British forces under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery in October 1942. Allied forces landed in Sicily in July 1943, and in Italy in September. Meanwhile, American and British bomber fleets, based in Britain, began operations against Germany. In an effort to destroy German morale, many sorties were intentionally given civilian targets. Soon German aircraft production could not keep pace with losses, and without air cover, the Allied bombing campaign became even more devastating. By targeting oil refineries and factories, they crippled the German war effort by late 1944.\n\nOn 6 June 1944, American, British, and Canadian forces established a western front with the D-Day landings in Normandy. On 20 July 1944, Hitler narrowly survived a bomb attack. He ordered savage reprisals, resulting in 7,000 arrests and the execution of more than 4,900 people. The failed Ardennes Offensive (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was the last major German campaign of the war. Soviet forces entered Germany on 27 January. Hitler's refusal to admit defeat and his repeated insistence that the war be fought to the last man led to unnecessary death and destruction in the closing months of the war. Through his Justice Minister, Otto Georg Thierack, he ordered that anyone who was not prepared to fight should be summarily court-martialed. Thousands of people were put to death. In many areas, people looked for ways to surrender to the approaching Allies, in spite of exhortations of local leaders to continue the struggle. Hitler also ordered the intentional destruction of transport, bridges, industries, and other infrastructure—a scorched earth decree—but Armaments Minister Albert Speer was able to keep this order from being fully carried out.\n\nDuring the Battle of Berlin (16 April 1945 – 2 May 1945), Hitler and his staff lived in the underground Führerbunker, while the Red Army approached. On 30 April, when Soviet troops were one or two blocks away from the Reich Chancellery, Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in the Führerbunker. On 2 May General Helmuth Weidling unconditionally surrendered Berlin to Soviet General Vasily Chuikov. Hitler was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as Reich President and Goebbels as Reich Chancellor. Goebbels and his wife Magda committed suicide the next day, after murdering their six children. On 4–8 May 1945 most of the remaining German armed forces surrendered unconditionally. The German Instrument of Surrender was signed 7 May, marking the end of World War II in Europe.\n\nSuicide rates in Germany increased as the war drew to a close, particularly in areas where the Red Army was advancing. More than a thousand people (out of a population of around 16,000) committed suicide in Demmin on and around 1 May 1945 as the 65th Army of 2nd Belorussian Front first broke into a distillery and then rampaged through the town, committing mass rapes, arbitrarily executing civilians, and setting fire to buildings. High numbers of suicides took place in many other locations, including Neubrandenburg (600 dead), Stolp in Pommern (1,000 dead), and Berlin, where at least 7,057 people committed suicide in 1945.\n\nGerman casualties \n\nEstimates of the total German war dead range from 5.5 to 6.9 million persons. A study by German historian Rüdiger Overmans puts the number of German military dead and missing at 5.3 million, including 900,000 men conscripted from outside of Germany's 1937 borders, in Austria, and in east-central Europe. Overy estimated in 2014 that in all about 353,000 civilians were killed by British and American bombing of German cities. An additional 20,000 died in the land campaign. Some 22,000 citizens died during the Battle of Berlin. Other civilian deaths include 300,000 Germans (including Jews) who were victims of Nazi political, racial, and religious persecution, and 200,000 who were murdered in the Nazi euthanasia program. Political courts called Sondergerichte sentenced some 12,000 members of the German resistance to death, and civil courts sentenced an additional 40,000 Germans. Mass rapes of German women also took place.\n\nAt the end of the war, Europe had more than 40 million refugees, its economy had collapsed, and 70 percent of its industrial infrastructure was destroyed. Between twelve and fourteen million ethnic Germans fled or were expelled from east-central Europe to Germany. During the Cold War, the West German government estimated a death toll of 2.2 million civilians due to the flight and expulsion of Germans and through forced labour in the Soviet Union. This figure remained unchallenged until the 1990s, when some historians put the death toll at 500,000–600,000 confirmed deaths. In 2006 the German government reaffirmed its position that 2.0–2.5 million deaths occurred.\n\nGeography \n\nTerritorial changes \n\nAs a result of their defeat in World War I and the resulting Treaty of Versailles, Germany lost Alsace-Lorraine, Northern Schleswig, and Memel. The Saarland temporarily became a protectorate of France, under the condition that its residents would later decide by referendum which country to join. Poland became a separate nation and was given access to the sea by the creation of the Polish Corridor, which separated Prussia from the rest of Germany. Danzig was made a free city.\n\nGermany regained control of the Saarland via a referendum held in 1935 and annexed Austria in the Anschluss of 1938. The Munich Agreement of 1938 gave Germany control of the Sudetenland, and they seized the remainder of Czechoslovakia six months later. Under threat of invasion by sea, Lithuania surrendered the Memel district in March 1939.\n\nBetween 1939 and 1941, German forces invaded Poland, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the Soviet Union. Trieste, South Tyrol, and Istria were ceded to Germany by Mussolini in 1943. Two puppet districts were set up in the area, the Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral and the Operational Zone of the Alpine Foothills.\n\nOccupied territories \n\nSome of the conquered territories were immediately incorporated into Germany as part of Hitler's long-term goal of creating a Greater Germanic Reich. Several areas, such as Alsace-Lorraine, were placed under the authority of an adjacent Gau (regional district). Beyond the territories incorporated into Germany were the Reichskommissariate (Reich Commissariats), quasi-colonial regimes established in a number of occupied countries. Areas placed under German administration included the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Reichskommissariat Ostland (encompassing the Baltic states and Belarus), and Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Conquered areas of Belgium and France were placed under control of the Military Administration in Belgium and Northern France. Belgian Eupen-Malmedy, which had been part of German until 1919, was annexed directly. Part of Poland was immediately incorporated into the Reich, and the General Government was established in occupied central Poland. Hitler intended to eventually incorporate many of these areas into the Reich.\n\nThe governments of Denmark, Norway (Reichskommissariat Norwegen), and the Netherlands (Reichskommissariat Niederlande) were placed under civilian administrations staffed largely by natives.\n\nPost-war changes \n\nWith the issuance of the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945 and later creation of the Allied Control Council, the four Allied powers temporarily assumed governance of Germany. At the Potsdam Conference in August 1945, the Allies arranged for the Allied occupation and denazification of the country. Germany was split into four zones, each occupied by one of the Allied powers, who drew reparations from their zone. Since most of the industrial areas were in the western zones, the Soviet Union was transferred additional reparations. The Allied Control Council disestablished Prussia on 20 May 1947. Aid to Germany began arriving from the United States under the Marshall Plan in 1948. The occupation lasted until 1949, when the countries of East Germany and West Germany were created. Germany finalised her border with Poland by signing the Treaty of Warsaw (1970). Germany remained divided until 1990, when the Allies renounced all claims to German territory with the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, under which Germany also renounced claims to territories lost during World War II.\n\nPolitics \n\nIdeology \n\nThe NSDAP was a far-right political party which came into its own during the social and financial upheavals that occurred with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. While in prison after the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, which laid out his plan for transforming German society into one based on race. The ideology of Nazism brought together elements of antisemitism, racial hygiene, and eugenics, and combined them with pan-Germanism and territorial expansionism with the goal of obtaining more Lebensraum for the Germanic people. The regime attempted to obtain this new territory by attacking Poland and the Soviet Union, intending to deport or kill the Jews and Slavs living there, who were viewed as being inferior to the Aryan master race and part of a Jewish Bolshevik conspiracy. The Nazi regime believed that only Germany could defeat the forces of Bolshevism and save humanity from world domination by International Jewry. Others deemed life unworthy of life by the Nazis included the mentally and physically disabled, Romani people, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and social misfits.\n\nInfluenced by the Völkisch movement, the regime was against cultural modernism and supported the development of an extensive military at the expense of intellectualism. Creativity and art were stifled, except where they could serve as propaganda media. The party used symbols such as the Blood Flag and rituals such as the Nazi Party rallies to foster unity and bolster the regime's popularity.\n\nGovernment \n\nA law promulgated 30 January 1934 abolished the existing Länder (constituent states) of Germany and replaced them with new administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, the Gaue, headed by NSDAP leaders (Gauleiters), who effectively became the governor of their region. The change was never fully implemented, as the Länder were still used as administrative divisions for some government departments such as education. This led to a bureaucratic tangle of overlapping jurisdictions and responsibilities typical of the administrative style of the Nazi regime.\n\nJewish civil servants lost their jobs in 1933, except for those who had seen military service in World War I. Members of the NSDAP or party supporters were appointed in their place. As part of the process of Gleichschaltung, the Reich Local Government Law of 1935 abolished local elections. From that point forward, mayors were appointed by the Ministry of the Interior.\n\nHitler ruled Germany autocratically by asserting the Führerprinzip (leader principle), which called for absolute obedience of all subordinates. He viewed the government structure as a pyramid, with himself—the infallible leader—at the apex. Rank in the party was not determined by elections; positions were filled through appointment by those of higher rank. The party used propaganda to develop a cult of personality around Hitler. Historians such as Kershaw emphasise the psychological impact of Hitler's skill as an orator. Kressel writes, \"Overwhelmingly ... Germans speak with mystification of Hitler's 'hypnotic' appeal\". Roger Gill states, \"His moving speeches captured the minds and hearts of a vast number of the German people: he virtually hypnotized his audiences.\"\n\nTop officials reported to Hitler and followed his policies, but they had considerable autonomy. Officials were expected to \"work towards the Führer\" – to take the initiative in promoting policies and actions in line with his wishes and the goals of the NSDAP, without Hitler having to be involved in the day-to-day running of the country. The government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but rather a disorganised collection of factions led by members of the party elite who struggled to amass power and gain the Führer's favour. Hitler's leadership style was to give contradictory orders to his subordinates and to place them in positions where their duties and responsibilities overlapped. In this way he fostered distrust, competition, and infighting among his subordinates to consolidate and maximise his own power.\n\nLaw \n\nOn 20 August 1934, civil servants were required to swear an oath of unconditional obedience to Hitler; a similar oath had been required of members of the military several weeks prior. This law became the basis of the Führerprinzip, the concept that Hitler's word overrode all existing laws. Any acts that were sanctioned by Hitler—even murder—thus became legal. All legislation proposed by cabinet ministers had to be approved by the office of Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess, who also had a veto over top civil service appointments.\n\nMost of the judicial system and legal codes of the Weimar Republic remained in use during and after the Nazi era to deal with non-political crimes. The courts issued and carried out far more death sentences than before the Nazis took power. People who were convicted of three or more offences—even petty ones—could be deemed habitual offenders and jailed indefinitely. People such as prostitutes and pickpockets were judged to be inherently criminal and a threat to the racial community. Thousands were arrested and confined indefinitely without trial.\n\nAlthough the regular courts handled political cases and even issued death sentences for these cases, a new type of court, the Volksgerichtshof (People's Court), was established in 1934 to deal with politically important matters. This court handed out over 5,000 death sentences until its dissolution in 1945. The death penalty could be issued for offences such as being a communist, printing seditious leaflets, or even making jokes about Hitler or other top party officials. Nazi Germany employed three types of capital punishment; hanging, decapitation, and death by shooting. The Gestapo was in charge of investigative policing to enforce National Socialist ideology. They located and confined political offenders, Jews, and others deemed undesirable. Political offenders who were released from prison were often immediately re-arrested by the Gestapo and confined in a concentration camp.\n\nIn September 1935 the Nuremberg Laws were enacted. These laws initially prohibited sexual relations and marriages between Aryans and Jews and were later extended to include \"Gypsies, Negroes or their bastard offspring\". The law also forbade the employment of German women under the age of 45 as domestic servants in Jewish households. The Reich Citizenship Law stated that only those of \"German or related blood\" were eligible for citizenship. At the same time the Nazis used propaganda to promulgate the concept of Rassenschande (race defilement) to justify the need for a restrictive law. Thus Jews and other non-Aryans were stripped of their German citizenship. The wording of the law also potentially allowed the Nazis to deny citizenship to anyone who was not supportive enough of the regime. A supplementary decree issued in November defined as Jewish anyone with three Jewish grandparents, or two grandparents if the Jewish faith was followed.\n\nMilitary and paramilitary \n\nWehrmacht \n\nThe unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945 were called the Wehrmacht. This included the Heer (army), Kriegsmarine (navy), and the Luftwaffe (air force). From 2 August 1934, members of the armed forces were required to pledge an oath of unconditional obedience to Hitler personally. In contrast to the previous oath, which required allegiance to the constitution of the country and its lawful establishments, this new oath required members of the military to obey Hitler even if they were being ordered to do something illegal. Hitler decreed that the army would have to tolerate and even offer logistical support to the Einsatzgruppen—the mobile death squads responsible for millions of deaths in Eastern Europe—when it was tactically possible to do so. Members of the Wehrmacht also participated directly in the Holocaust by shooting civilians or undertaking genocide under the guise of anti-partisan operations. The party line was that the Jews were the instigators of the partisan struggle, and therefore needed to be eliminated. On 8 July 1941, Heydrich announced that all Jews were to be regarded as partisans, and gave the order for all male Jews between the ages of 15 and 45 to be shot.\n\nIn spite of efforts to prepare the country militarily, the economy could not sustain a lengthy war of attrition such as had occurred in World War I. A strategy was developed based on the tactic of Blitzkrieg (lightning war), which involved using quick coordinated assaults that avoided enemy strong points. Attacks began with artillery bombardment, followed by bombing and strafing runs. Next the tanks would attack and finally the infantry would move in to secure any ground that had been taken. Victories continued through mid-1940, but the failure to defeat Britain was the first major turning point in the war. The decision to attack the Soviet Union and the decisive defeat at Stalingrad led to the retreat of the German armies and the eventual loss of the war. The total number of soldiers who served in the Wehrmacht from 1935 to 1945 was around 18.2 million, of whom 5.3 million died.\n\nThe SA and SS \n\nThe Sturmabteilung (SA; Storm Detachment; Brownshirts), founded in 1921, was the first paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. Their initial assignment was to protect Nazi leaders at rallies and assemblies. They also took part in street battles against the forces of rival political parties and violent actions against Jews and others. By 1934, under Ernst Röhm's leadership, the SA had grown to over half a million members—4.5 million including reserves—at a time when the regular army was still limited to 100,000 men by the Versailles Treaty.\n\nRöhm hoped to assume command of the army and absorb it into the ranks of the SA. Hindenburg and Defence Minister Werner von Blomberg threatened to impose martial law if the alarming activities of the SA were not curtailed. Hitler also suspected that Röhm was plotting to depose him, so he ordered the deaths of Röhm and other political enemies. Up to 200 people were killed from 30 June to 2 July 1934 in an event that became known as the Night of the Long Knives. After this purge the SA was no longer a major force.\n\nInitially a force of a dozen men under the auspices of the SA, the Schutzstaffel (SS) grew to become one of the largest and most powerful groups in Nazi Germany. Led by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler from 1929, the SS had over a quarter million members by 1938 and continued to grow. Himmler envisioned the SS as being an elite group of guards, Hitler's last line of defence. The Waffen-SS, the military branch of the SS, became a de facto fourth branch of the Wehrmacht.\n\nIn 1931 Himmler organised an SS intelligence service which became known as the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service) under his deputy, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich. This organisation was tasked with locating and arresting communists and other political opponents. Himmler hoped it would eventually totally replace the existing police system. Himmler also established the beginnings of a parallel economy under the auspices of the SS Economy and Administration Head Office. This holding company owned housing corporations, factories, and publishing houses.\n\nFrom 1935 forward the SS was heavily involved in the persecution of Jews, who were rounded up into ghettos and concentration camps. With the outbreak of World War II, SS units called Einsatzgruppen followed the army into Poland and the Soviet Union, where from 1941 to 1945 they killed more than two million people, including 1.3 million Jews. The SS-Totenkopfverbände (death's head units) were in charge of the concentration camps and extermination camps, where millions more were killed.\n\nEconomy \n\nReich economics \n\nThe most pressing economic matter the Nazis initially faced was the 30 percent national unemployment rate. Economist Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, President of the Reichsbank and Minister of Economics, created in May 1933 a scheme for deficit financing. Capital projects were paid for with the issuance of promissory notes called Mefo bills. When the notes were presented for payment, the Reichsbank printed money to do so. While the national debt soared, Hitler and his economic team expected that the upcoming territorial expansion would provide the means of repaying the debt. Schacht's administration achieved a rapid decline in the unemployment rate, the largest of any country during the Great Depression.\n\nOn 17 October 1933, aviation pioneer Hugo Junkers, owner of the Junkers Aircraft Works, was arrested. Within a few days his company was expropriated by the regime. In concert with other aircraft manufacturers and under the direction of Aviation Minister Göring, production was immediately ramped up industry-wide. From a workforce of 3,200 people producing 100 units per year in 1932, the industry grew to employ a quarter of a million workers manufacturing over 10,000 technically advanced aircraft per year less than ten years later.\n\nAn elaborate bureaucracy was created to regulate German imports of raw materials and finished goods with the intention of eliminating foreign competition in the German marketplace and improving the nation's balance of payments. The Nazis encouraged the development of synthetic replacements for materials such as oil and textiles. As the market was experiencing a glut and prices for petroleum were low, in 1933 the Nazi government made a profit-sharing agreement with IG Farben, guaranteeing them a 5 percent return on capital invested in their synthetic oil plant at Leuna. Any profits in excess of that amount would be turned over to the Reich. By 1936, Farben regretted making the deal, as the excess profits by then being generated had to be given to the government.\n\nMajor public works projects financed with deficit spending included the construction of a network of Autobahns and providing funding for programmes initiated by the previous government for housing and agricultural improvements. To stimulate the construction industry, credit was offered to private businesses and subsidies were made available for home purchases and repairs. On the condition that the wife would leave the workforce, a loan of up to 1,000 Reichsmarks could be accessed by young couples of Aryan descent who intended to marry. The amount that had to be repaid was reduced by 25 percent for each child born. The caveat that the woman had to remain unemployed was dropped by 1937 due to a shortage of skilled labourers.\n\nHitler envisioned widespread car ownership as part of the new Germany. He arranged for designer Ferdinand Porsche to draw up plans for the KdF-wagen (Strength Through Joy car), intended to be an automobile that every German citizen could afford. A prototype was displayed at the International Motor Show in Berlin on 17 February 1939. With the outbreak of World War II, the factory was converted to produce military vehicles. No production models were sold until after the war, when the vehicle was renamed the Volkswagen (people's car).\n\nSix million people were unemployed when the Nazis took power in 1933, and by 1937 there were fewer than a million. This was in part due to the removal of women from the workforce. Real wages dropped by 25 percent between 1933 and 1938. Trade unions were abolished in May 1933 with the seizure of the funds and arrest of the leadership of the Social Democratic trade unions. A new organisation, the German Labour Front, was created and placed under NSDAP functionary Robert Ley. The average German worked 43 hours a week in 1933, and by 1939 this increased to 47 hours a week.\n\nBy early 1934 the focus shifted away from funding work creation schemes and toward rearmament. By 1935, military expenditures accounted for 73 percent of the government's purchases of goods and services. On 18 October 1936 Hitler named Göring as Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan, intended to speed up the rearmament programme. In addition to calling for the rapid construction of steel mills, synthetic rubber plants, and other factories, Göring instituted wage and price controls and restricted the issuance of stock dividends. Large expenditures were made on rearmament, in spite of growing deficits. With the introduction of compulsory military service in 1935, the Reichswehr, which had been limited to 100,000 by the terms of the Versailles Treaty, expanded to 750,000 on active service at the start of World War II, with a million more in the reserve. By January 1939, unemployment was down to 301,800, and it dropped to only 77,500 by September.\n\nWartime economy and forced labour \n\nThe Nazi war economy was a mixed economy that combined a free market with central planning; historian Richard Overy described it as being somewhere in between the command economy of the Soviet Union and the capitalist system of the United States.\n\nIn 1942, after the death of Armaments Minister Fritz Todt, Hitler appointed Albert Speer as his replacement. Speer improved production via streamlined organisation, the use of single-purpose machines operated by unskilled workers, rationalisation of production methods, and better co-ordination between the many different firms that made tens of thousands of components. Factories were relocated away from rail yards, which were bombing targets. By 1944, the war was consuming 75 percent of Germany's gross domestic product, compared to 60 percent in the Soviet Union and 55 percent in Britain.\n\nThe wartime economy relied heavily upon the large-scale employment of forced labourers. Germany imported and enslaved some 12 million people from 20 European countries to work in factories and on farms; approximately 75 percent were Eastern European. Many were casualties of Allied bombing, as they received poor air raid protection. Poor living conditions led to high rates of sickness, injury, and death, as well as sabotage and criminal activity.\n\nForeign workers brought into Germany were put into four different classifications; guest workers, military internees, civilian workers, and Eastern workers. Different regulations were placed upon the worker depending on their classification. To separate Germans and foreign workers, the Nazis issued a ban on sexual relations between Germans and foreign workers.\n\nWomen played an increasingly large role. By 1944 over a half million served as auxiliaries in the German armed forces, especially in anti-aircraft units of the Luftwaffe; a half million worked in civil aerial defence; and 400,000 were volunteer nurses. They also replaced men in the wartime economy, especially on farms and in small family-owned shops.\n\nVery heavy strategic bombing by the Allies targeted refineries producing synthetic oil and gasoline as well as the German transportation system, especially rail yards and canals. The armaments industry began to break down by September 1944. By November fuel coal was no longer reaching its destinations, and the production of new armaments was no longer possible. Overy argues that the bombing strained the German war economy and forced it to divert up to one-fourth of its manpower and industry into anti-aircraft resources, which very likely shortened the war.\n\nRacial policy \n\nRacism and antisemitism were basic tenets of the NSDAP and the Nazi regime. Nazi Germany's racial policy was based on their belief in the existence of a superior master race. The Nazis postulated the existence of a racial conflict between the Aryan master race and inferior races, particularly Jews, who were viewed as a mixed race that had infiltrated society and were responsible for the exploitation and repression of the Aryan race.\n\nPersecution of Jews \n\nDiscrimination against Jews began immediately after the seizure of power; following a month-long series of attacks by members of the SA on Jewish businesses, synagogues, and members of the legal profession, on 1 April 1933 Hitler declared a national boycott of Jewish businesses. The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, passed on 7 April, forced all non-Aryan civil servants to retire from the legal profession and civil service. Similar legislation soon deprived Jewish members of other professions of their right to practise. On 11 April a decree was promulgated that stated anyone who had even one Jewish parent or grandparent was considered non-Aryan. As part of the drive to remove Jewish influence from cultural life, members of the National Socialist Student League removed from libraries any books considered un-German, and a nationwide book burning was held on 10 May.\n\nViolence and economic pressure were used by the regime to encourage Jews to voluntarily leave the country. Jewish businesses were denied access to markets, forbidden to advertise in newspapers, and deprived of access to government contracts. Citizens were harassed and subjected to violent attacks. Many towns posted signs forbidding entry to Jews.\n\nIn November 1938, a young Jewish man requested an interview with the German ambassador in Paris. He met with a legation secretary, whom he shot and killed to protest his family's treatment in Germany. This incident provided the pretext for a pogrom the NSDAP incited against the Jews on 9 November 1938. Members of the SA damaged or destroyed synagogues and Jewish property throughout Germany. At least 91 German Jews were killed during this pogrom, later called Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. Further restrictions were imposed on Jews in the coming months – they were forbidden to own businesses or work in retail shops, drive cars, go to the cinema, visit the library, or own weapons. Jewish pupils were removed from schools. The Jewish community was fined one billion marks to pay for the damage caused by Kristallnacht and told that any money received via insurance claims would be confiscated. By 1939 around 250,000 of Germany's 437,000 Jews emigrated to the United States, Argentina, Great Britain, Palestine, and other countries. Many chose to stay in continental Europe. Emigrants to Palestine were allowed to transfer property there under the terms of the Haavara Agreement, but those moving to other countries had to leave virtually all their property behind, and it was seized by the government.\n\nPersecution of Roma and other groups \n\nLike the Jews, the Romani people were subjected to persecution from the early days of the regime. As a non-Aryan race, they were forbidden to marry people of German extraction. Romani were shipped to concentration camps starting in 1935 and were killed in large numbers. Action T4 was a programme of systematic murder of the physically and mentally handicapped and patients in psychiatric hospitals that mainly took place from 1939 to 1941 and continued until the end of the war. Initially the victims were shot by the Einsatzgruppen and others; in addition gas chambers and gas vans using carbon monoxide were used by early 1940. Under the provisions of a law promulgated 14 July 1933, the Nazi regime carried out the compulsory sterilisation of over 400,000 individuals labelled as having hereditary defects. More than half the people sterilised were those considered mentally deficient, which included not only people who scored poorly on intelligence tests, but those who deviated from expected standards of behaviour regarding thrift, sexual behaviour, and cleanliness. Mentally and physically ill people were also targeted. The majority of the victims came from disadvantaged groups such as prostitutes, the poor, the homeless, and criminals. Other groups persecuted and killed included Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, social misfits, and members of the political and religious opposition.\n\nThe Holocaust \n\nGermany's war in the East was based on Hitler's long-standing view that Jews were the great enemy of the German people and that Lebensraum was needed for Germany's expansion. Hitler focused his attention on Eastern Europe, aiming to defeat Poland, the Soviet Union and remove or kill the resident Jews and Slavs in the process. After the occupation of Poland, all Jews living in the General Government were confined to ghettos, and those who were physically fit were required to perform compulsory labour. In 1941 Hitler decided to destroy the Polish nation completely. He planned that within 10 to 20 years the section of Poland under German occupation would be cleared of ethnic Poles and resettled by German colonists. About 3.8 to 4 million Poles would remain as slaves, part of a slave labour force of 14 million the Nazis intended to create using citizens of conquered nations in the East.\n\nThe Generalplan Ost (General Plan for the East) called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered. To determine who should be killed, Himmler created the Volksliste, a system of classification of people deemed to be of German blood. He ordered that those of Germanic descent who refused to be classified as ethnic Germans should be deported to concentration camps, have their children taken away, or be assigned to forced labour. The plan also included the kidnapping of children deemed to have Aryan-Nordic traits, who were presumed to be of German descent. The goal was to implement Generalplan Ost after the conquest of the Soviet Union, but when the invasion failed, Hitler had to consider other options. One suggestion was a mass forced deportation of Jews to Poland, Palestine, or Madagascar.\n\nSomewhere around the time of the failed offensive against Moscow in December 1941, Hitler resolved that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated immediately. Plans for the total eradication of the Jewish population of Europe—eleven million people—were formalised at the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942. Some would be worked to death and the rest would be killed in the implementation of Die Endlösung der Judenfrage (the Final Solution of the Jewish question). Initially the victims were killed with gas vans or by Einsatzgruppen firing squads, but these methods proved impracticable for an operation of this scale. By 1941, killing centres at Auschwitz concentration camp, Sobibor, Treblinka, and other Nazi extermination camps replaced Einsatzgruppen as the primary method of mass killing. The total number of Jews murdered during the war is estimated at 5.5 to six million people, including over a million children. Twelve million people were put into forced labour.\n\nGerman citizens (despite much of the later denial) had access to information about what was happening, as soldiers returning from the occupied territories would report on what they had seen and done. Evans states that most German citizens disapproved of the genocide. Some Polish citizens tried to rescue or hide the remaining Jews, and members of the Polish underground got word to their government in exile in London as to what was happening.\n\nIn addition to eliminating Jews, the Nazis also planned to reduce the population of the conquered territories by 30 million people through starvation in an action called the Hunger Plan. Food supplies would be diverted to the German army and German civilians. Cities would be razed and the land allowed to return to forest or resettled by German colonists. Together, the Hunger Plan and Generalplan Ost would have led to the starvation of 80 million people in the Soviet Union. These partially fulfilled plans resulted in the democidal deaths of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war.\n\nOppression of ethnic Poles \n\nDuring the German occupation of Poland, 2.7 million ethnic Poles were killed by the Axis powers. Polish civilians were subject to forced labour in German industry, internment, wholesale expulsions to make way for German colonists and mass executions. The German authorities engaged in a systematic effort to destroy Polish culture and national identity. During operation AB-Aktion, many university professors and members of the Polish intelligentsia were arrested and executed, or transported to concentration camps. During the war, Poland lost an estimated 39 to 45 percent of its physicians and dentists, 26 to 57 percent of its lawyers, 15 to 30 percent of its teachers, 30 to 40 percent of its scientists and university professors, and 18 to 28 percent of its clergy. Further, 43 percent of Poland's educational and research institutions and 14 percent of its museums had been destroyed.\n\nMistreatment of Soviet POWs\n\nDuring the war between June 1941 and January 1942, the Axis powers killed an estimated 2.8 million Soviet prisoners of war. Many starved to death while being held in open-air pens at Auschwitz and elsewhere. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people during the war; less than nine million of these were combat deaths. One in four of the population were killed or wounded.\n\nSociety \n\nEducation \n\nAntisemitic legislation passed in 1933 led to the removal all of Jewish teachers, professors, and officials from the education system. Most teachers were required to belong to the Nationalsozialistischer Lehrerbund (National Socialist Teachers League; NSLB), and university professors were required to join the National Socialist German Lecturers. Teachers had to take an oath of loyalty and obedience to Hitler, and those who failed to show sufficient conformity to party ideals were often reported by students or fellow teachers and dismissed. Lack of funding for salaries led to many teachers leaving the profession. The average class size increased from 37 in 1927 to 43 in 1938 due to the resulting teacher shortage.\n\nFrequent and often contradictory directives were issued by Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick, Bernhard Rust of the Reichserziehungsministerium (Ministry of Education), and various other agencies regarding content of lessons and acceptable textbooks for use in primary and secondary schools. Books deemed unacceptable to the regime were removed from school libraries. Indoctrination in National Socialist thought was made compulsory in January 1934. Students selected as future members of the party elite were indoctrinated from the age of 12 at Adolf Hitler Schools for primary education and National Political Institutes of Education for secondary education. Detailed National Socialist indoctrination of future holders of elite military rank was undertaken at Order Castles.\n\nPrimary and secondary education focused on racial biology, population policy, culture, geography, and especially physical fitness. The curriculum in most subjects, including biology, geography, and even arithmetic, was altered to change the focus to race. Military education became the central component of physical education, and education in physics was oriented toward subjects with military applications, such as ballistics and aerodynamics. Students were required to watch all films prepared by the school division of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.\n\nAt universities, appointments to top posts were the subject of power struggles between the education ministry, the university boards, and the National Socialist German Students' League. In spite of pressure from the League and various government ministries, most university professors did not make changes to their lectures or syllabus during the Nazi period. This was especially true of universities located in predominately Catholic regions. Enrolment at German universities declined from 104,000 students in 1931 to 41,000 in 1939. But enrolment in medical schools rose sharply; Jewish doctors had been forced to leave the profession, so medical graduates had good job prospects. From 1934, university students were required to attend frequent and time-consuming military training sessions run by the SA. First-year students also had to serve six months in a labour camp for the Reichsarbeitsdienst (National Labour Service); an additional ten weeks service were required of second-year students.\n\nOppression of churches \n\nAbout 65 percent of the population of Germany was Protestant when the Nazis seized power in 1933. Under the Gleichschaltung process, Hitler attempted to create a unified Protestant Reich Church from Germany's 28 existing Protestant churches, with the ultimate goal of eradication of the churches in Germany. Ludwig Müller, a pro-Nazi, was installed as Reich Bishop, and the German Christians, a pro-Nazi pressure group, gained control of the new church. They objected to the Old Testament because of its Jewish origins, and demanded that converted Jews be barred from their church. Pastor Martin Niemöller responded with the formation of the Confessing Church, from which some clergymen opposed the Nazi regime. When in 1935 the Confessing Church synod protested the Nazi policy on religion, 700 of their pastors were arrested. Müller resigned and Hitler appointed Hanns Kerrl as Minister for Church Affairs, to continue efforts to control Protestantism. In 1936, a Confessing Church envoy protested to Hitler against the religious persecutions and human rights abuses. Hundreds more pastors were arrested. The church continued to resist, and by early 1937 Hitler abandoned his hope of uniting the Protestant churches. The Confessing Church was banned on 1 July 1937. Neimoller was arrested and confined, first in Sachsenhausen concentration camp and then at Dachau. Theological universities were closed and more pastors and theologians were arrested.\n\nPersecution of the Catholic Church in Germany followed the Nazi takeover. Hitler moved quickly to eliminate political catholicism, rounding up functionaries of the Catholic-aligned Bavarian People's Party and Catholic Centre Party, which, along with all other non-Nazi political parties, ceased to exist by July. The Reichskonkordat (Reich Concordat) treaty with the Vatican was signed in 1933, amid continuing harassment of the church in Germany. The treaty required the regime to honour the independence of Catholic institutions and prohibited clergy from involvement in politics. Hitler routinely disregarded the Concordat, closing all Catholic institutions whose functions were not strictly religious. Clergy, nuns, and lay leaders were targeted, with thousands of arrests over the ensuing years, often on trumped-up charges of currency smuggling or immorality. Several high profile Catholic lay leaders were targeted in the 1934 Night of the Long Knives assassinations. Most Catholic youth groups refused to dissolve themselves and Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach encouraged members to attack Catholic boys in the streets. Propaganda campaigns claimed the church was corrupt, restrictions were placed on public meetings, and Catholic publications faced censorship. Catholic schools were required to reduce religious instruction and crucifixes were removed from state buildings.\n\nPope Pius XI had the \"Mit brennender Sorge\" (\"With Burning Concern\") Encyclical smuggled into Germany for Passion Sunday 1937 and read from every pulpit. It denounced the systematic hostility of the regime toward the church. In response, Goebbels renewed the regime's crackdown and propaganda against Catholics. Enrolment in denominational schools dropped sharply, and by 1939 all such schools were disbanded or converted to public facilities. Later Catholic protests included the 22 March 1942 pastoral letter by the German bishops on \"The Struggle against Christianity and the Church\". About 30 percent of Catholic priests were disciplined by police during the Nazi era. A vast security network spied on the activities of clergy, and priests were frequently denounced, arrested, or sent to concentration camps – many to the dedicated clergy barracks at Dachau. In the areas of Poland annexed in 1940, the Nazis instigated a brutal suppression and systematic dismantling of the Catholic Church.\n\nHealth \n\nNazi Germany had a strong anti-tobacco movement. Pioneering research by Franz H. Müller in 1939 demonstrated a causal link between tobacco smoking and lung cancer. The Reich Health Office took measures to try to limit smoking, including producing lectures and pamphlets. Smoking was banned in many workplaces, on trains, and among on-duty members of the military. Government agencies also worked to control other carcinogenic substances such as asbestos and pesticides. As part of a general public health campaign, water supplies were cleaned up, lead and mercury were removed from consumer products, and women were urged to undergo regular screenings for breast cancer.\n\nGovernment-run health care insurance plans were available, but Jews were denied coverage starting in 1933. That same year, Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat government-insured patients. In 1937 Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat non-Jewish patients, and in 1938 their right to practice medicine was removed entirely.\n\nMedical experiments, many of them pseudoscientific, were performed on concentration camp inmates beginning in 1941. The most notorious doctor to perform medical experiments was SS-Hauptsturmführer Dr Josef Mengele, camp doctor at Auschwitz. Many of his victims died or were intentionally killed. Concentration camp inmates were made available for purchase by pharmaceutical companies for drug testing and other experiments.\n\nRole of women and family \n\nWomen were a cornerstone of Nazi social policy. The Nazis opposed the feminist movement, claiming that it was the creation of Jewish intellectuals, and instead advocated a patriarchal society in which the German woman would recognise that her \"world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home.\" Soon after the seizure of power, feminist groups were shut down or incorporated into the National Socialist Women's League. This organisation coordinated groups throughout the country to promote motherhood and household activities. Courses were offered on childrearing, sewing, and cooking. The League published the NS-Frauen-Warte, the only NSDAP-approved women's magazine in Nazi Germany. Despite some propaganda aspects, it was predominantly an ordinary woman's magazine.\n\nWomen were encouraged to leave the workforce, and the creation of large families by racially suitable women was promoted through a propaganda campaign. Women received a bronze award—known as the Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter (Cross of Honour of the German Mother)—for giving birth to four children, silver for six, and gold for eight or more. Large families received subsidies to help with their utilities, school fees, and household expenses. Though the measures led to increases in the birth rate, the number of families having four or more children declined by five percent between 1935 and 1940. Removing women from the workforce did not have the intended effect of freeing up jobs for men. Women were for the most part employed as domestic servants, weavers, or in the food and drink industries—jobs that were not of interest to men. Nazi philosophy prevented large numbers of women from being hired to work in munitions factories in the build-up to the war, so foreign labourers were brought in. After the war started, slave labourers were extensively used. In January 1943 Hitler signed a decree requiring all women under the age of fifty to report for work assignments to help the war effort. Thereafter, women were funnelled into agricultural and industrial jobs. By September 1944, 14.9 million women were working in munitions production.\n\nThe Nazi regime discouraged women from seeking higher education. Nazi leaders held conservative views about women and endorsed the idea that rational and theoretical work was alien to a woman's nature since they were considered inherently emotional and instinctive – as such, engaging in academics and careerism would only \"divert them from motherhood.\" The number of women allowed to enrol in universities dropped drastically, as a law passed in April 1933 limited the number of females admitted to university to ten percent of the number of male attendees. Female enrolment in secondary schools dropped from 437,000 in 1926 to 205,000 in 1937. The number of women enrolled in post-secondary schools dropped from 128,000 in 1933 to 51,000 in 1938. However, with the requirement that men be enlisted into the armed forces during the war, women comprised half of the enrolment in the post-secondary system by 1944.\n\nWomen were expected to be strong, healthy, and vital. The sturdy peasant woman who worked the land and bore strong children was considered ideal, and athletic women were praised for being tanned from working outdoors. Organisations were created for the indoctrination of Nazi values. From 25 March 1939, membership in the Hitler Youth became compulsory for all children over the age of ten. The Jungmädelbund (Young Girls League) section of the Hitler Youth was for girls age 10 to 14, and the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM; League of German Girls) was for young women age 14 to 18. The BDM's activities focused on physical education, with activities such as running, long jumping, somersaulting, tightrope walking, marching, and swimming.\n\nThe Nazi regime promoted a liberal code of conduct regarding sexual matters, and was sympathetic to women who bore children out of wedlock. Promiscuity increased as the war progressed, with unmarried soldiers often intimately involved with several women simultaneously. The same was the case for married women, who liaised with soldiers, civilians, or slave labourers. Sex was sometimes used as a commodity to obtain, for example, better work from a foreign labourer. Pamphlets enjoined German women to avoid sexual relations with foreign workers as a danger to their blood.\n\nWith Hitler's approval, Himmler intended that the new society of the Nazi regime should de-stigmatise illegitimate births, particularly of children fathered by members of the SS, who were vetted for racial purity. His hope was that each SS family would have between four and six children. The Lebensborn (Fountain of Life) association, founded by Himmler in 1935, created a series of maternity homes where single mothers could be accommodated during their pregnancies. Both parents were examined for racial suitability before acceptance. The resulting children were often adopted into SS families. The homes were also made available to the wives of SS and NSDAP members, who quickly filled over half the available spots.\n\nExisting laws banning abortion except for medical reasons were strictly enforced by the Nazi regime. The number of abortions declined from 35,000 per year at the start of the 1930s to fewer than 2,000 per year at the end of the decade. In 1935 a law was passed allowing abortions for eugenics reasons.\n\nEnvironmentalism \n\nNazi society had elements supportive of animal rights, and many people were fond of zoos and wildlife. The government took several measures to ensure the protection of animals and the environment. In 1933, the Nazis enacted a stringent animal-protection law that affected what was allowed for medical research. But the law was only loosely enforced. In spite of a ban on vivisection, the Ministry of the Interior readily handed out permits for experiments on animals.\n\nThe Reich Forestry Office, under Göring, enforced regulations that required foresters to plant a wide variety of trees to ensure suitable habitat for wildlife. A new Reich Animal Protection Act became law in 1933. The regime enacted the Reich Nature Protection Act in 1935 to protect the natural landscape from excessive economic development. The act allowed for the expropriation of privately owned land to create nature preserves and aided in long-range planning. Perfunctory efforts were made to curb air pollution, but little enforcement of existing legislation was undertaken once the war began.\n\nCulture \n\nThe regime promoted the concept of Volksgemeinschaft, a national German ethnic community. The goal was to build a classless society based on racial purity and the perceived need to prepare for warfare, conquest, and a struggle against Marxism. The German Labour Front founded the Kraft durch Freude (KdF; Strength Through Joy) organisation in 1933. In addition to taking control of tens of thousands of previously privately run recreational clubs, it offered highly regimented holidays and entertainment experiences such as cruises, vacation destinations, and concerts.\n\nThe Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture) was organised under the control of the Propaganda Ministry in September 1933. Sub-chambers were set up to control various aspects of cultural life, such as films, radio, newspapers, fine arts, music, theatre, and literature. All members of these professions were required to join their respective organisation. Jews and people considered politically unreliable were prevented from working in the arts, and many emigrated. Books and scripts had to be approved by the Propaganda Ministry prior to publication. Standards deteriorated as the regime sought to use cultural outlets exclusively as propaganda media.\n\nRadio became very popular in Germany during the 1930s, with over 70 percent of households owning a receiver by 1939, more than any other country. Radio station staffs were purged of leftists and others deemed undesirable by July 1933. Propaganda and speeches were typical radio fare immediately after the seizure of power, but as time went on Goebbels insisted that more music be played so that people would not turn to foreign broadcasters for entertainment.\n\nAs with other media, newspapers were controlled by the state, with the Reich Press Chamber shutting down or buying newspapers and publishing houses. By 1939 over two-thirds of the newspapers and magazines were directly owned by the Propaganda Ministry. The NSDAP daily newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter (Ethnic Observer), was edited by Alfred Rosenberg, author of The Myth of the Twentieth Century, a book of racial theories espousing Nordic superiority. Goebbels controlled the wire services and insisted that all newspapers in Germany should only publish content favourable to the regime. His propaganda ministry issued two dozen directives every week on exactly what news should be published and what angles to use; the typical newspaper followed the directives very closely. Newspaper readership plummeted, partly because of the decreased quality of the content, and partly because of the surge in popularity of radio.\n\nAuthors of books left the country in droves, and some wrote material highly critical of the regime while in exile. Goebbels recommended that the remaining authors should concentrate on books themed on Germanic myths and the concept of blood and soil. By the end of 1933 over a thousand books, most of them by Jewish authors or featuring Jewish characters, had been banned by the Nazi regime.\n\nHitler took a personal interest in architecture, and worked closely with state architects Paul Troost and Albert Speer to create public buildings in a neoclassical style based on Roman architecture. Speer constructed imposing structures such as the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg and a new Reich Chancellery building in Berlin. Hitler's plans for rebuilding Berlin included a gigantic dome based on the Pantheon in Rome and a triumphal arch more than double the height of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Neither of these structures were ever built.\n\nHitler felt that abstract, Dadaist, expressionist, and modern art were decadent, an opinion that became the basis for policy. Many art museum directors lost their posts in 1933 and were replaced by party members. Some 6,500 modern works of art were removed from museums and replaced with works chosen by a Nazi jury. Exhibitions of the rejected pieces, under titles such as \"Decadence in Art\", were launched in sixteen different cities by 1935. The Degenerate Art Exhibition, organised by Goebbels, ran in Munich from July to November 1937. The exhibition proved wildly popular, attracting over two million visitors.\n\nComposer Richard Strauss was appointed president of the Reichsmusikkammer (Reich Music Chamber) on its founding in November 1933. As was the case with other art forms, the Nazis ostracised musicians who were not deemed racially acceptable, and for the most part did not approve of music that was too modern or atonal. Jazz music was singled out as being especially inappropriate, and foreign musicians of this genre left the country or were expelled. Hitler favoured the music of Richard Wagner, especially pieces based on Germanic myths and heroic stories, and attended the Bayreuth Festival each year from 1933.\n\nMovies were popular in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, with admissions of over a billion people in 1942, 1943, and 1944. By 1934 German regulations restricting currency exports made it impossible for American film makers to take their profits back to America, so the major film studios closed their German branches. Exports of German films plummeted, as their heavily antisemitic content made them impossible to show in other countries. The two largest film companies, Universum Film AG and Tobis, were purchased by the Propaganda Ministry, which by 1939 was producing most German films. The productions were not always overtly propagandistic, but generally had a political subtext and followed party lines regarding themes and content. Scripts were pre-censored.\n\nLeni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1935), documenting the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, and Olympia (1938), covering the 1936 Summer Olympics, pioneered techniques of camera movement and editing that influenced later films. New techniques such as telephoto lenses and cameras mounted on tracks were employed. Both films remain controversial, as their aesthetic merit is inseparable from their propagandising of national socialist ideals.\n\nLegacy \n\nThe Allied powers organised war crimes trials, beginning with the Nuremberg trials, held from November 1945 to October 1946, of 23 top Nazi officials. They were charged with four counts—conspiracy to commit crimes, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity—in violation of international laws governing warfare. All but three of the defendants were found guilty; twelve were sentenced to death. The victorious Allies outlawed the NSDAP and its subsidiary organisations. The display or use of Nazi symbolism such as flags, swastikas, or greetings, is illegal in Germany and Austria, and other restrictions, mainly on public display, apply in various countries. See Swastika § Post-WWII stigmatization for details.\n\nNazi ideology and the actions taken by the regime are almost universally regarded as gravely immoral. Hitler, Nazism, and the Holocaust have become symbols of evil in the modern world. Interest in Nazi Germany continues in the media and the academic world. Historian Sir Richard J. Evans remarks that the era \"exerts an almost universal appeal because its murderous racism stands as a warning to the whole of humanity.\"\n\nThe Nazi era continues to inform how Germans view themselves and their country. Virtually every family suffered losses during the war or has a story to tell. For many years Germans kept quiet about their experiences and felt a sense of communal guilt, even if they were not directly involved in war crimes. Once study of Nazi Germany was introduced into the school curriculum starting in the 1970s, people began researching the experiences of their family members. Study of the era and a willingness to critically examine its mistakes has led to the development of a strong democracy in today's Germany, but with lingering undercurrents of antisemitism and neo-Nazi thought.", "National Socialism (), more commonly known as Nazism (), is the ideology and practice associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party and Nazi state – and, by extension, other far-right groups. Usually characterized as a form of fascism that incorporates scientific racism and antisemitism, Nazism developed out of the influences of Pan-Germanism, the Völkisch German nationalist movement, and the anti-communist Freikorps paramilitary groups that emerged during the Weimar Republic after German defeat in World War I.\n\nNazism subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism, identifying Germans as part of what Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race. It aimed to overcome social divisions and create a homogeneous society, or \"people's community\" based on national unity. The Nazis aimed to unite all Germans living in historically German territory, as well as gain additional lands for German expansion under the doctrine of Lebensraum, while excluding those deemed either to be community aliens or foreign peoples. The term \"National Socialism\" arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of \"socialism\", as an alternative to both international socialism and free market capitalism. Nazism rejected the Marxist concept of class struggle, opposed cosmopolitan internationalism, and sought to defend the private property and privately owned businesses of Aryans.\n\nThe Nazi Party was founded as the Pan-German nationalist and antisemitic German Workers' Party on 5 January 1919. By the early 1920s, Adolf Hitler assumed control of the organization and renamed it the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP) to broaden its appeal. The National Socialist Program, adopted in 1920, called for a united Greater Germany that would deny citizenship to Jews or those of Jewish descent, while also supporting land reform and the nationalization of some industries. In Mein Kampf, written in 1924, Hitler outlined the antisemitism and anti-communism at the heart of his political philosophy, as well as his disdain for parliamentary democracy and his belief in Germany’s right to territorial expansion.\n\nIn 1933, with the support of traditional conservative nationalists, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany and the Nazis gradually established a one-party state, under which Jews, political opponents and other \"undesirable\" elements were marginalized, with several millions eventually imprisoned and killed. Hitler purged the party’s more socially and economically radical factions in the mid-1934 Night of the Long Knives and, after the death of President Hindenburg, political power was concentrated in his hands, as Führer or \"leader\". Following the Holocaust and German defeat in World War II, only a few fringe racist groups, usually referred to as neo-Nazis, still describe themselves as following National Socialism.\n\nEtymology\n\nThe full name of Adolf Hitler's party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National-Socialist German Workers' Party; NSDAP). The shorthand Nazi was formed from the first two syllables of the German pronunciation of the word \"national\".\n\nThe term was in use before the rise of the NSDAP as a colloquial and derogatory word for a backwards peasant, characterizing an awkward and clumsy person. It derived from Ignaz, being a shortened version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria, the area from which the Nazis emerged. Opponents seized on this and shortened the first word of the party's name, Nationalsozialistische, to the dismissive \"Nazi\".\n\nThe NSDAP briefly adopted the Nazi designation, attempting to reappropriate the term, but soon gave up this effort and generally avoided it while in power. The use of \"Nazi Germany\", \"Nazi regime\", and so on was popularized by German exiles abroad. From them, the term spread into other languages and was eventually brought back to Germany after World War II. In English, Nazism is a common name for the ideology the party advocated; a rarer alternative spelling, though representing a common pronunciation, is Naziism.\n\nPosition in the political spectrum\n\nThe majority of scholars identify Nazism in practice as a form of far-right politics. Far-right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate over other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements. Adolf Hitler and other proponents officially portrayed Nazism as being neither left- nor right-wing, but syncretic. Hitler in Mein Kampf directly attacked both left-wing and right-wing politics in Germany, saying:\n\nToday our left-wing politicians in particular are constantly insisting that their craven-hearted and obsequious foreign policy necessarily results from the disarmament of Germany, whereas the truth is that this is the policy of traitors [...] But the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms.\n\nHitler, when asked whether he supported the \"bourgeois right-wing\", claimed that Nazism was not exclusively for any class, and indicated that it favoured neither the left nor the right, but preserved \"pure\" elements from both \"camps\", stating: \"From the camp of bourgeois tradition, it takes national resolve, and from the materialism of the Marxist dogma, living, creative Socialism\".\n\nThe Nazis were strongly influenced by the post–World War I far-right in Germany, which held common beliefs such as anti-Marxism, anti-liberalism, and antisemitism, along with nationalism, contempt towards the Treaty of Versailles, and condemnation of the Weimar Republic for signing the armistice in November 1918 that later led to their signing of the Treaty of Versailles. A major inspiration for the Nazis were the far-right nationalist Freikorps, paramilitary organisations that engaged in political violence after World War I. Initially, the post-World War I German far right was dominated by monarchists, but the younger generation, who were associated with Völkisch nationalism, were more radical and did not express any emphasis on the restoration of the German monarchy. This younger generation desired to dismantle the Weimar Republic and create a new radical and strong state based upon a martial ruling ethic that could revive the \"Spirit of 1914\" that was associated with German national unity (Volksgemeinschaft).\n\nThe Nazis, the far-right monarchist, reactionary German National People's Party (DNVP), and others, such as monarchist officers of the German Army and several prominent industrialists, formed an alliance in opposition to the Weimar Republic on 11 October 1931 in Bad Harzburg; officially known as the \"National Front\", but commonly referred to as the Harzburg Front. The Nazis stated the alliance was purely tactical and there remained substantial differences with the DNVP. The Nazis described the DNVP as a bourgeois party and called themselves an anti-bourgeois party. After the elections in 1932, the alliance broke after the DNVP lost many of its seats in the Reichstag. The Nazis denounced them as \"an insignificant heap of reactionaries\". The DNVP responded by denouncing the Nazis for their socialism, their street violence, and the \"economic experiments\" that would take place if the Nazis rose to power.\n\nKaiser Wilhelm II, who was pressured to abdicate the throne and flee into exile amidst an attempted communist revolution in Germany, initially supported the Nazi Party. His four sons, including Prince Eitel Friedrich and Prince Oskar, became members of the Nazi Party, in hopes that in exchange for their support, the Nazis would permit the restoration of the monarchy.\n\nThere were factions in the Nazi Party, both conservative and radical. The conservative Nazi Hermann Göring urged Hitler to conciliate with capitalists and reactionaries. Other prominent conservative Nazis included Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich.\n\nThe radical Nazi Joseph Goebbels hated capitalism, viewing it as having Jews at its core, and he stressed the need for the party to emphasise both a proletarian and national character. Those views were shared by Otto Strasser, who later left the Nazi Party in the belief that Hitler had betrayed the party's socialist goals by allegedly endorsing capitalism. Large segments of the Nazi Party staunchly supported its official socialist, revolutionary, and anti-capitalist positions and expected both a social and economic revolution upon the party's gaining power in 1933. Many of the million members of the Sturmabteilung (SA) were committed to the party's official socialist program. The leader of the SA, Ernst Röhm, pushed for a \"second revolution\" (the \"first revolution\" being the Nazis' seizure of power) that would entrench the party's official socialist program. Further, Röhm desired that the SA absorb the much smaller German Army into its ranks under his leadership.\n\nPrior to becoming an antisemite and a Nazi, Hitler had lived a Bohemian lifestyle as a wandering watercolour artist in Austria and southern Germany, though he maintained elements of it later in life. Hitler served in World War I. After the war, his battalion was absorbed by the Bavarian Soviet Republic from 1918 to 1919, where he was elected Deputy Battalion Representative. According to the historian Thomas Weber, Hitler attended the funeral of communist Kurt Eisner (a German Jew), wearing a black mourning armband on one arm and a red communist armband on the other, which he took as evidence that Hitler's political beliefs had not yet solidified. In Mein Kampf, Hitler never mentioned any service with the Bavarian Soviet Republic, and stated that he became an antisemite in 1913 in Vienna. This statement has been disputed with the contention he was not an antisemite at that time.\n\nHitler altered his political views in response to the Treaty of Versailles of June 1919, and it was then that he became an antisemitic, German nationalist. As a Nazi, Hitler had expressed opposition to capitalism, having regarded capitalism as having Jewish origins. He accused capitalism of holding nations ransom in the interests of a parasitic cosmopolitan rentier class.\n\nHitler took a pragmatic position between the conservative and radical factions of the Nazi Party, in that he accepted private property and allowed capitalist private enterprises to exist so long as they adhered to the goals of the Nazi state. However, if a capitalist private enterprise resisted Nazi goals, he sought to destroy it. Upon the Nazis achieving power, Röhm's SA began attacks against individuals deemed to be associated with conservative reaction, without Hitler's authorisation. Hitler considered Röhm's independent actions to be violating and threatening his leadership, as well as jeopardising the regime by alienating the conservative President Paul von Hindenburg and the conservative-oriented German Army. This resulted in Hitler purging Röhm and other radical members of the SA in what came to be known as the Night of the Long Knives.\n\nAlthough he opposed communist ideology, Hitler on numerous occasions publicly praised the Soviet Union's leader Joseph Stalin and Stalinism. Hitler commended Stalin for seeking to purify the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of Jewish influences, noting Stalin's purging of Jewish communists such as Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, and Karl Radek. While Hitler always intended to bring Germany into conflict against the Soviet Union to gain Lebensraum (living space), he supported a temporary strategic alliance between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to form a common anti-liberal front to crush liberal democracies, particularly France.\n\nOrigins\n\nVölkisch nationalism\n\nOne of the most significant ideological influences on the Nazis was the German nationalist Johann Gottlieb Fichte, whose works had served as inspiration to Hitler and other Nazi members, including Dietrich Eckart and Arnold Fanck. In Speeches to the German Nation (1808), written amid Napoleonic France's occupation of Berlin, Fichte called for a German national revolution against the French occupiers, making passionate public speeches, arming his students for battle against the French, and stressing the need for action by the German nation to free itself. Fichte's nationalism was populist and opposed to traditional elites, spoke of the need of a \"People's War\" (Volkskrieg), and put forth concepts similar to those the Nazis adopted. Fichte promoted German exceptionalism and stressed the need for the German nation to be purified (including purging the German language of French words, a policy that the Nazis undertook upon rising to power).\n\nAnother important figure in pre-Nazi völkisch thinking was Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl, whose work—Land und Leute (Land and People, written between 1857 and 1863)—collectively tied the organic German Volk to its native landscape and nature, a pairing which stood in stark opposition to the mechanical and materialistic civilization developing as a result of industrialization. Geographers Friedrich Ratzel and Karl Haushofer borrowed from Riehl’s work as did Nazi ideologues Alfred Rosenberg and Paul Schultze-Naumburg; both of whom employed some of Riehl’s philosophy in arguing that \"each nation-state was an organism that required a particular living space to survive\". Riehl’s influence is overtly discernible in the Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil) philosophy introduced by Oswald Spengler, which the Nazi agriculturalist Walther Darré and other prominent Nazis adopted. \n\nVölkisch nationalism denounced soulless materialism, individualism, and secularized urban industrial society, while advocating a \"superior\" society based on ethnic German \"folk\" culture and German \"blood\". It denounced foreigners and foreign ideas, and declared that Jews, Freemasons, and others were \"traitors to the nation\" and unworthy of inclusion. Völkisch nationalism saw the world in terms of natural law and romanticism; it viewed societies as organic, extolling the virtues of rural life, condemning the neglect of tradition and decay of morals, denounced the destruction of the natural environment, and condemned \"cosmopolitan\" cultures such as Jews and Romani.\n\nDuring the era of Imperial Germany, Völkisch nationalism was overshadowed by both Prussian patriotism and the federalist tradition of various states therein. The events of World War I, including the end of the Prussian monarchy in Germany, resulted in a surge of revolutionary Völkisch nationalism. The Nazis supported such revolutionary Völkisch nationalist policies and claimed that their ideology was influenced by the leadership and policies of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the founder of the German Empire. The Nazis declared that they were dedicated to continuing the process of creating a unified German nation state that Bismarck had begun and desired to achieve. While Hitler was supportive of Bismarck's creation of the German Empire, he was critical of Bismarck's moderate domestic policies. On the issue of Bismarck's support of a Kleindeutschland (\"Lesser Germany\", excluding Austria) versus the Pan-German Großdeutschland (\"Greater Germany\") of the Nazis, Hitler stated that Bismarck's attainment of Kleindeutschland was the \"highest achievement\" Bismarck could have achieved \"within the limits possible of that time\". In Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Hitler presented himself as a \"second Bismarck\".\n\nDuring his youth in Austria, Hitler was politically influenced by Austrian Pan-Germanist proponent Georg Ritter von Schönerer, who advocated radical German nationalism, antisemitism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Slavism, and anti-Habsburg views. From von Schönerer and his followers, Hitler adopted for the Nazi movement the Heil greeting, the Führer title, and the model of absolute party leadership. Hitler was also impressed with the populist antisemitism and anti-liberal bourgeois agitation of Karl Lueger, who as the mayor of Vienna during Hitler's time in the city used a rabble-rousing oratory style that appealed to the wider masses. Unlike von Schönerer, however, Lueger was not a German nationalist, but a pro-Catholic Habsburg supporter.\n\nRacial theories and antisemitism\n\nThe concept of the Aryan race, which the Nazis promoted, stems from racial theories asserting that Europeans are the descendants of Indo-Iranian settlers, people of ancient India and ancient Persia. Proponents of this theory based their assertion on the similarity of European words and their meaning to those of Indo-Iranian languages. Johann Gottfried Herder argued that the Germanic peoples held close racial connections with the ancient Indians and ancient Persians, who he claimed were advanced peoples possessing a great capacity for wisdom, nobility, restraint, and science. Contemporaries of Herder used the concept of the Aryan race to draw a distinction between what they deemed \"high and noble\" Aryan culture versus that of \"parasitic\" Semitic culture.\n\nNotions of white supremacy and Aryan racial superiority combined in the 19th century, with white supremacists maintaining that certain groups of white people were members of an Aryan \"master race\" that is superior to other races, and particularly superior to the Semitic race, which they associated with \"cultural sterility\". Arthur de Gobineau, a French racial theorist and aristocrat, blamed the fall of the ancien régime in France on racial degeneracy caused by racial intermixing, which he argued destroyed the purity of the Aryan race, a term which he reserved only for Germanic people. Gobineau's theories, which attracted a strong following in Germany, emphasised the existence of an irreconcilable polarity between Aryan (Germanic) and Jewish cultures.\n\nAryan mysticism claimed that Christianity originated in Aryan religious tradition and that Jews had usurped the legend from Aryans. Houston Stewart Chamberlain, an English proponent of racial theory, supported notions of Germanic supremacy and antisemitism in Germany. Chamberlain's work, The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899), praised Germanic peoples for their creativity and idealism while asserting that the Germanic spirit was threatened by a \"Jewish\" spirit of selfishness and materialism. Chamberlain used his thesis to promote monarchical conservatism while denouncing democracy, liberalism, and socialism. The book became popular, especially in Germany. Chamberlain stressed the need of a nation to maintain racial purity in order to prevent degeneration, and argued that racial intermingling with Jews should never be permitted. In 1923, Chamberlain met Hitler, whom he admired as a leader of the rebirth of the free spirit. Madison Grant's work The Passing of the Great Race (1916) advocated Nordicism and proposed using a eugenic program to preserve the Nordic race. After reading the book, Hitler called it \"my Bible\". \n\nIn Germany, the idea of Jews economically exploiting Germans became prominent upon the foundation of Germany due to the ascendance of many wealthy Jews into prominent positions upon the unification of Germany in 1871. Empirical evidence demonstrates that from 1871 to the early 20th century, German Jews were overrepresented in Germany's upper and middle classes while they were underrepresented in Germany's lower class, particularly in the fields of work of agricultural and industrial labour. German Jewish financiers and bankers played a key role in fostering Germany's economic growth from the 1871 to 1913, and such Jewish financiers and bankers benefited enormously from this boom. In 1908, amongst the twenty-nine wealthiest German families with aggregate fortunes of up to 55 million marks at the time, five were Jewish, and the Rothschilds were the second wealthiest German family. The predominance of Jews in Germany's banking, commerce, and industry sectors in this time period was very high with consideration to Jews being estimated to have accounted for 1 percent of the population of Germany. This overrepresentation of Jews in these areas created resentment by non-Jewish Germans during periods of economic crisis. The 1873 stock market crash and ensuing depression resulted in a spate of attacks on alleged Jewish economic dominance in Germany and increased antisemitism.\n\nAt this time period in the 1870s, German Völkisch nationalism began to adopt antisemitic and racist themes and was adopted by a number of radical right political movements.\n\nThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1912) was an antisemitic forgery created by the secret service of the Russian Empire, the Okhrana. Many antisemites believed it was real and the Protocol became widely popular after World War I. The Protocols claimed that there was a secret international Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. Hitler had been introduced to The Protocols by Alfred Rosenberg, and from 1920 onward, Hitler focused his attacks on claiming that Judaism and Marxism were directly connected, that Jews and Bolsheviks were one and the same, and that Marxism was a Jewish ideology. Hitler believed that The Protocols were authentic.\n\nRadical Antisemitism was promoted by prominent advocates of Völkisch nationalism, including Eugen Diederichs, Paul de Lagarde, and Julius Langbehn. De Lagarde called the Jews a \"bacillus, the carrier of decay ... who pollute every national culture ... and destroy all faith with their materialistic liberalism\", and he called for the extermination of the Jews. Langbehn called for a war of annihilation of the Jews; his genocidal policies were published by the Nazis and given to soldiers on the front during World War II. One antisemitic ideologue of the period, Friedrich Lange, even used the term \"national socialism\" to describe his own anti-capitalist take on the Völkisch nationalist template. \n\nJohann Gottlieb Fichte accused Jews in Germany of having been, and inevitably continuing to be, a \"state within a state\" that threatened German national unity. Fichte promoted two options to address this: the first was the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine to impel the Jews to leave Europe. The other option was violence against Jews, saying that the goal would be \"... to cut off all their heads in one night, and set new ones on their shoulders, which should not contain a single Jewish idea\".\n\nPrior to the Nazi ascension to power, Hitler often blamed moral degradation on Rassenschande (racial defilement), a way to assure his followers of his continuing antisemitism, which had been toned down for popular consumption. Prior to the induction of the Nuremberg Race Laws in 1935 by the Nazis, many German nationalists such as Roland Freisler strongly supported laws to ban Rassenschande between Aryans and Jews as racial treason. Even before the laws were officially passed, the Nazis banned sexual relations and marriages between party members and Jews. Party members found guilty of Rassenschande were heavily punished; some members were even sentenced to death. \n\nThe Nazis claimed that Bismarck was unable to complete German national unification because of Jewish infiltration of the German parliament, and that their abolition of parliament ended the obstacle to unification. Using the stab-in-the-back myth, the Nazis accused Jews—and other populaces it considered non-German—of possessing extra-national loyalties, thereby exacerbating German antisemitism about the Judenfrage (the Jewish Question), the far-right political canard popular when the ethnic Völkisch movement and their politics of Romantic nationalism for establishing a Großdeutschland were strong.\n\nNazism's racial policy positions may have developed from the views of important biologists of the 19th century, including French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, through Ernst Haeckel's idealist version of Lamarckism and the father of genetics, German botanist Gregor Mendel. However, Haeckel's works were later condemned and banned from bookshops and libraries by the Nazis as inappropriate for \"National-Socialist formation and education in the Third Reich\". This may have been because of his \"monist\" atheistic, materialist philosophy, which the Nazis disliked. Unlike Darwinian theory, Lamarckian theory officially ranked races in a hierarchy of evolution from apes while Darwinian theory did not grade races in a hierarchy of higher or lower evolution from apes, simply categorising humans as a whole of all as having progressed in evolution from apes. Many Lamarckians viewed \"lower\" races as having been exposed to debilitating conditions for too long for any significant \"improvement\" of their condition in the near future. Haeckel utilised Lamarckian theory to describe the existence of interracial struggle and put races on a hierarchy of evolution, ranging from being wholly human to subhuman.\n\nMendelian inheritance, or Mendelism, was supported by the Nazis, as well as by mainstream eugenics proponents at the time. The Mendelian theory of inheritance declared that genetic traits and attributes were passed from one generation to another. Proponents of eugenics used Mendelian inheritance theory to demonstrate the transfer of biological illness and impairments from parents to children, including mental disability; others also utilised Mendelian theory to demonstrate the inheritance of social traits, with racialists claiming a racial nature of certain general traits such as inventiveness or criminal behaviour.\n\nResponse to World War I and fascism\n\nDuring World War I, German sociologist Johann Plenge spoke of the rise of a \"National Socialism\" in Germany within what he termed the \"ideas of 1914\" that were a declaration of war against the \"ideas of 1789\" (the French Revolution). According to Plenge, the \"ideas of 1789\" that included rights of man, democracy, individualism and liberalism were being rejected in favour of \"the ideas of 1914\" that included \"German values\" of duty, discipline, law, and order. Plenge believed that ethnic solidarity (Volksgemeinschaft) would replace class division and that \"racial comrades\" would unite to create a socialist society in the struggle of \"proletarian\" Germany against \"capitalist\" Britain. He believed that the \"Spirit of 1914\" manifested itself in the concept of the \"People's League of National Socialism\". This National Socialism was a form of state socialism that rejected the \"idea of boundless freedom\" and promoted an economy that would serve the whole of Germany under the leadership of the state. This National Socialism was opposed to capitalism due to the components that were against \"the national interest\" of Germany, but insisted that National Socialism would strive for greater efficiency in the economy. Plenge advocated an authoritarian, rational ruling elite to develop National Socialism through a hierarchical technocratic state. Plenge's ideas formed the basis of Nazism.\n\nOswald Spengler, a German cultural philosopher, was a major influence on Nazism, although, after 1933, Spengler became alienated from Nazism and was later condemned by the Nazis for criticising Adolf Hitler. Spengler's conception of national socialism and a number of his political views were shared by the Nazis and the Conservative Revolutionary movement. Spengler's views were also popular amongst Italian Fascists, including Benito Mussolini.\n\nSpengler's book The Decline of the West (1918) written during the final months of World War I, addressed the claim of decadence of modern European civilisation, which he claimed was caused by atomising and irreligious individualization and cosmopolitanism. Spengler's major thesis was that a law of historical development of cultures existed involving a cycle of birth, maturity, ageing, and death when it reaches its final form of civilisation. Upon reaching the point of civilisation, a culture will lose its creative capacity and succumb to decadence until the emergence of \"barbarians\" creates a new epoch. Spengler considered the Western world as having succumbed to decadence of intellect, money, cosmopolitan urban life, irreligious life, atomised individualization, and was at the end of its biological and \"spiritual\" fertility. He believed that the \"young\" German nation as an imperial power would inherit the legacy of Ancient Rome, lead a restoration of value in \"blood\" and instinct, while the ideals of rationalism would be revealed as absurd.\n\nSpengler's notions of \"Prussian socialism\" as described in his book Preussentum und Sozialismus (\"Prussiandom and Socialism\", 1919), influenced Nazism and the Conservative Revolutionary movement. Spengler wrote: \"The meaning of socialism is that life is controlled not by the opposition between rich and poor, but by the rank that achievement and talent bestow. That is our freedom, freedom from the economic despotism of the individual.\" Spengler adopted the anti-English ideas addressed by Plenge and Sombart during World War I that condemned English liberalism and English parliamentarianism while advocating a national socialism that was free from Marxism and that would connect the individual to the state through corporatist organisation. Spengler claimed that socialistic Prussian characteristics existed across Germany, including creativity, discipline, concern for the greater good, productivity, and self-sacrifice. He prescribed war as a necessity, saying \"War is the eternal form of higher human existence and states exist for war: they are the expression of the will to war.\"\n\nSpengler's definition of socialism did not advocate a change to property relations. He denounced Marxism for seeking to train the proletariat to \"expropriate the expropriator\", the capitalist, and then to let them live a life of leisure on this expropriation. He claimed that \"Marxism is the capitalism of the working class\" and not true socialism. True socialism, according to Spengler, would be in the form of corporatism, stating that: \"local corporate bodies organised according to the importance of each occupation to the people as a whole; higher representation in stages up to a supreme council of the state; mandates revocable at any time; no organised parties, no professional politicians, no periodic elections\".\n\nWilhelm Stapel, an antisemitic German intellectual, utilized Spengler's thesis on the cultural confrontation between Jews as whom Spengler described as a Magian people versus Europeans as a Faustian people. Stapel described Jews as a landless nomadic people in pursuit of an international culture whereby they can integrate into Western civilisation. As such, Stapel claims that Jews have been attracted to \"international\" versions of socialism, pacifism, or capitalism because as a landless people the Jews have transgressed various national cultural boundaries.\n\nArthur Moeller van den Bruck was initially the dominant figure of the Conservative Revolutionaries influenced Nazism. He rejected reactionary conservatism, while proposing a new state, that he coined the \"Third Reich\", which would unite all classes under authoritarian rule. Van den Bruck advocated a combination of the nationalism of the right and the socialism of the left.\n\nFascism was a major influence on Nazism. The seizure of power by Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini in the March on Rome in 1922 drew admiration by Hitler, who less than a month later had begun to model himself and the Nazi Party upon Mussolini and the Fascists. Hitler presented the Nazis as a form of German fascism.\n\nIn November 1923, the Nazis attempted a \"March on Berlin\", modelled after the March on Rome, which resulted in the failed Beer Hall Putsch in Munich.\n\nHitler spoke of Nazism being indebted to the success of Fascism's rise to power in Italy. In a private conversation in 1941 he said \"the brown shirt would probably not have existed without the black shirt\", the \"brown shirt\" referring to the Nazi militia and the \"black shirt\" referring to the Fascist militia. He also said in regards to the 1920s \"If Mussolini had been outdistanced by Marxism, I don't know whether we could have succeeded in holding out. At that period National Socialism was a very fragile growth.\".\n\nOther Nazis—especially those at the time associated with the party's more radical wing such as Gregor Strasser, Joseph Goebbels, and Heinrich Himmler—rejected Italian Fascism, accusing it of being too conservative or capitalist. Alfred Rosenberg condemned Italian Fascism for being racially confused and having influences from philosemitism. Strasser criticised the policy of Führerprinzip as being created by Mussolini, and considered its presence in Nazism as a foreign imported idea. Throughout the relationship between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, a number of lower-ranking Nazis scornfully viewed fascism as a conservative movement that lacked a full revolutionary potential.\n\nIdeology\n\nNationalism and racialism\n\nGerman Nazism emphasised German nationalism, including both irredentism and expansionism. Nazism held racial theories based upon the belief of the existence of an Aryan master race that was superior to all other races. The Nazis emphasised the existence of racial conflict between the Aryan race and others—particularly Jews, whom the Nazis viewed as a mixed race that had infiltrated multiple societies, and was responsible for exploitation and repression of the Aryan race. The Nazis also categorized Slavs as Untermensch. \n\nIrredentism and expansionism\n\nThe German Nazi Party supported German irredentist claims to Austria, Alsace-Lorraine, the region now known as the Czech Republic, and the territory known since 1919 as the Polish Corridor. A major policy of the German Nazi Party was Lebensraum (\"living space\") for the German nation based on claims that Germany after World War I was facing an overpopulation crisis and that expansion was needed to end the country's overpopulation within existing confined territory, and provide resources necessary to its people's well-being. Since the 1920s, the Nazi Party publicly promoted the expansion of Germany into territories held by the Soviet Union. \n\nIn his early years as the Nazi leader, Hitler had claimed that he would be willing to accept friendly relations with Russia on the tactical condition that Russia agree to return to the borders established by the German–Russian peace agreement of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed by Vladimir Lenin of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic in 1918 which gave large territories held by Russia to German control in exchange for peace. Hitler in 1921 had commended the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as opening the possibility for restoration of relations between Germany and Russia, saying:\n\nHitler from 1921 to 1922 evoked rhetoric of both the achievement of Lebensraum involving the acceptance of a territorially reduced Russia as well as supporting Russian nationals in overthrowing the Bolshevik government and establishing a new Russian government. Hitler's attitudes changed by the end of 1922, in which he then supported an alliance of Germany with Britain to destroy Russia. Later Hitler declared how far he intended to expand Germany into Russia:\n\nPolicy for Lebensraum planned mass expansion of Germany eastwards to the Ural Mountains. Hitler planned for the \"surplus\" Russian population living west of the Urals to be deported to the east of the Urals. \n\nRacial theories\n\nNazism viewed what it called the Aryan race as the master race of the world - a race that was superior to all other races. The Nazi regarded the Aryan race as the same as the Nordic race. \n\nA Nazi era school textbook for German students entitled Heredity and Racial Biology for Students written by Jakob Graf described to students the Nazi conception of the Aryan race in a section titled \"The Aryan: The Creative Force in Human History\". Graf claimed that the original Aryans developed from Nordic peoples who invaded ancient India that resulted in the initial development of Aryan culture there that later spread to ancient Persia and claimed that the Aryan presence in Persia was what was responsible for its development into an empire. He claimed that ancient Greek culture was developed by Nordics due to paintings of the time showing Greeks who were tall, light-skinned, light-eyed, blond-haired people. He said that the Roman Empire was having been developed by the Italics who were related to the Celts who were a Nordic people. He regarded the vanishing of the Nordic component of the populations in Greece and Rome led to their downfall. The Renaissance was claimed to have developed in the Western Roman Empire because of the Germanic invasions that brought new Nordic blood to the Empire's lands, such as presence of Nordic blood in the Lombards (referred to as Longobards in the book); that remnants of the western Goths were responsible for the creation of the Spanish Empire; and that heritage of Franks, Goths, and Germanic peoples in France was what was responsible for its rise to be a major power. He claimed that the rise of the Russian Empire was due to its leadership by people of Norman descent. He described the rise of Anglo-Saxon societies in North America, South Africa, and Australia, as being the result of the Nordic heritage of Anglo-Saxons. He concluded these points by saying that \"Everywhere Nordic creative power has built mighty empires with high-minded ideas, and to this very day Aryan languages and cultural values are spread over a large part of the world, though the creative Nordic blood has long since vanished in many places.\".\n\nIn its racial categorisation, Nazism viewed what it called the Aryan race as the master race of the world—a race that was superior to all other races. It viewed Aryans as being in racial conflict with a mixed race people, the Jews, whom Nazis identified as a dangerous enemy of the Aryans. It also viewed a number of other peoples as dangerous to the well-being of the Aryan race. In order to preserve the perceived racial purity of the Aryan race, a set of race laws were introduced in 1935 which came to be known as the Nuremberg Laws. At first these laws only prevented sexual relations and marriages between Germans and Jews, but were later extended to the \"Gypsies, Negroes, and their bastard offspring\", who were described by the Nazis as people of \"alien blood\". Such relations between Aryans (cf. Aryan certificate) and non-Aryans were now punishable under the race laws as Rassenschande or \"race defilement\". After the war began, the race defilement law was extended to include all foreigners (non-Germans). At the bottom of the racial scale of non-Aryans were Jews, Romani,Slavs and blacks. To maintain the \"purity and strength\" of the Aryan race, the Nazis eventually sought to exterminate Jews, Romani, Slavs, and the physically and mentally disabled. Other groups deemed \"degenerate\" and \"asocial\" who were not targeted for extermination, but received exclusionary treatment by the Nazi state, included homosexuals, blacks, Jehovah's Witnesses, and political opponents. One of Hitler's ambitions at the start of the war was to exterminate, expel, or enslave most or all Slavs from central and eastern Europe in order to make living space for German settlers.\n\nIn Nazi Germany, the idea of creating a master race resulted in efforts to \"purify\" the Deutsche Volk through eugenics; its culmination was compulsory sterilization or involuntary euthanasia of physically or mentally disabled people. The name given after World War II for the euthanasia programme is Action T4. The ideological justification was Adolf Hitler's view of Sparta (11th century – 195 BC) as the original Völkisch state; he praised their dispassionate destruction of congenitally deformed infants in maintaining racial purity. Some non-Aryans enlisted in Nazi organisations like the Hitler Youth and the Wehrmacht, including Germans of African descent and Jewish descent. The Nazis began to implement \"racial hygiene\" policies as soon as they came to power. The July 1933 \"Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring\" prescribed compulsory sterilisation for people with a range of conditions thought to be hereditary, such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, Huntington's chorea, and \"imbecility\". Sterilisation was also mandated for chronic alcoholism and other forms of social deviance. An estimated 360,000 people were sterilised under this `law between 1933 and 1939. Although some Nazis suggested that the programme should be extended to people with physical disabilities, such ideas had to be expressed carefully, given that some Nazis had physical disabilities, one example being one of the most powerful figures of the regime, Joseph Goebbels, who had a deformed right leg. \n\nNazi racial theorist Hans F. K. Günther argued that European peoples were divided into five races: Nordic, Mediterranean, Dinaric, Alpine, and East Baltic. Günther applied a Nordicist conception that Nordics were the highest in the racial hierarchy. In his book Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes (1922) (\"Racial Science of the German People\"), Günther recognised Germans as being composed of all five races, but emphasised the strong Nordic heritage among them.Anne Maxwell. Picture Imperfect: Photography and Eugenics, 1870-1940. Eastbourne, England: UK; Portland, Oregon, USA: SUSSEX ACADEMIC PRESS, 2008, 2010. P. 150. Hitler read Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes, which influenced his racial policy. Gunther believed Slavs belonged to an \"East race\" and warned against Germans mixing with them \n\nThe Nazis described Jews as being racially mixed group of primarily Near Eastern and Oriental racial types. As such racial groups were concentrated outside of Europe, the Nazis claimed that Jews were \"racially alien\" to all European peoples and did not have deep racial roots in Europe.\n\nGünther empathised Jews' Near Eastern racial heritage. Günther identified the mass conversion of the Khazars to Judaism in the 8th century as creating the two major branches of the Jewish people, those of primarily Near Eastern racial heritage became the Ashkenazi Jews (that he called Eastern Jews) while those of primarily Oriental racial heritage became the Sephardic Jews (that he called Southern Jews). Günther claimed the Near Eastern type were commercially spirited and artful traders, that the type held strong psychological manipulation skills that aided them in trade. He claimed that the Near Eastern race had been \"bred not so much for the conquest and exploitation of nature as it was for the conquest and exploitation of people\". Günther described that European peoples had a racially motivated aversion to peoples of Near Eastern racial origin and their traits, and showed as evidence of this multiple examples of depictions of satanic figures with Near Eastern physiognomies in European art. \n\nHitler's conception of the Aryan Herrenvolk (\"Aryan master race\") excluded the vast majority of Slavs from central and eastern Europe (i.e., Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, etc.). They were regarded as a race of men not inclined to a higher form of civilization, which were under an instinctive force that reverted them back to nature. They also regarding the Slavs as having dangerous Jewish and Asiatic, that being Mongol, influences. The Nazis because of this declared Slavs to be Untermenschen (subhumans). Nazi anthropologists attempted to prove scientifically the historical admixture of the Slavs further East. Leading Nazi racial theorist, Hans Günther, regarded the Slavs as being primarily Nordic centuries ago but over time had mixed with non-Nordic types. There were exceptions for a small percentage of Slavs who were seen to be descended from German settlers and therefore fit to be Germanised and be considered part of the Aryan master race. Hitler described Slavs as \"a mass of born slaves who feel the need of a master\". The Nazi notion of Slavs being inferior served as legitimising their goal for creating Lebensraum for Germans and other Germanic people in eastern Europe, where millions of Germans and other Germanic settlers would be moved into conquered territories of Eastern Europe, while the original Slavic inhabitants were to be annihilated, removed, or enslaved. Nazi Germany's policy changed towards Slavs in response to military manpower shortages, in which it accepted Slavs to serve in its armed forces within occupied territories, in spite of them being considered subhuman. \n\nHitler declared that racial conflict against Jews was necessary to save Germany from suffering under them and dismissed concerns about such conflict being inhumane or an injustice:\n\nWe may be inhumane, but if we rescue Germany we have achieved the greatest deed in the world. We may work injustice, but if we rescue Germany then we have removed the greatest injustice in the world. We may be immoral, but if our people is rescued we have opened the way for morality.\n\nNazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels frequently employed antisemitic rhetoric to underline this view: \"The Jew is the enemy and destroyer of the purity of blood, the conscious destroyer of our race ... As socialists, we are opponents of the Jews, because we see, in the Hebrews, the incarnation of capitalism, of the misuse of the nation's goods.\" \n\nSocial class\n\nNazism rejected the Marxist concept of internationalist class struggle, but supported \"class struggle between nations\", and sought to resolve internal class struggle in the nation while it identified Germany as a proletarian nation fighting against plutocratic nations. \n\nIn 1922, Adolf Hitler discredited other nationalist and racialist political parties as disconnected from the mass populace, especially lower and working-class young people:\n\nThe Nazi Party had many working-class supporters and members, and a strong appeal to the middle class. The financial collapse of the white collar middle-class of the 1920s figures much in their strong support of Nazism. In the poor country that was the Weimar Republic of the early 1930s, the Nazi Party realised their socialist policies with food and shelter for the unemployed and the homeless—later recruited to the Brownshirt Sturmabteilung (SA – Storm Detachment).\n\nSex and gender\n\nNazi ideology advocated excluding women from political involvement and confining them to the spheres of \"Kinder, Küche, Kirche\" (Children, Kitchen, Church). Many women enthusiastically supported the regime but formed their own internal hierarchies. \n\nHitler's own opinion on the matter of women in Nazi Germany was that while other eras of German history experienced the development and liberation of the female mind, the National Socialist goal was essentially singular in that they wished for them to produce a child. Along this theme, Hitler once remarked of women, \"with every child that she brings into the world, she fights her battle for the nation. The man stands up for the Volk, exactly as the woman stands up for the family.\" Proto-natalist programs in Nazi Germany offered favourable loans and grants to encourage newlyweds with additional incentives for the birth of offspring. Contraception was discouraged for racially valuable women in Nazi Germany and abortion was forbidden through strict legal mandates, including prison sentences for those seeking them and for doctors performing them; whereas abortion for racially \"undesirable\" persons was encouraged. \n\nWhile unmarried until the very end of the regime, Hitler often made excuses about his busy life hindering any chance for marriage. Among National Socialist ideologues, marriage was valued not from moral considerations but because it provided an optimal breeding environment. Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, reportedly told a confidant that when he established the Lebensborn program, an organization to dramatically increase the birth rate of \"Aryan\" children through extramarital relations between women classified as racially pure and their male equals, he had only the purest male \"conception assistants\" in mind. \n\nSince the Nazis at the beginning of the war extended the Rassenschande (race defilement) law to all foreigners, pamphlets were issued to German women to avoid sexual relations with foreign workers brought to Germany and to view them as a danger to their blood. Although the law was punishable to both genders, German women were targeted more for having sexual relations with foreign forced labourers in Germany. The Nazis issued the Polish decrees on 8 March 1940 which set out regulations concerning the Polish forced labourers (Zivilarbeiter) brought to Germany during World War II. One of the regulations stated that any Pole \"who has sexual relations with a German man or woman, or approaches them in any other improper manner, will be punished by death\". \n\nAfter the decrees were enacted, Himmler stated:\n\nThe Nazis later issued similar regulations against the Eastern Workers (Ost-Arbeiters), including the death penalty for sexual relations with a German person. Heydrich issued a decree on 20 February 1942 that declared sexual intercourse between a German woman and a Russian worker or prisoner of war would result in the Russian man being punished by the death penalty. A further decree issued by Himmler on 7 December 1942 stated any \"unauthorized sexual intercourse\" would result in the death penalty. As the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour did not permit capital punishment for race defilement, special courts were convened to allow the death penalty for some cases. German women accused of race defilement were marched through the streets with her head shaven and a placard around her neck detailing her crime, those convicted were sent to a concentration camp. When Himmler reportedly asked Hitler what the punishment should be for German girls and German women who have been found guilty of race defilement with prisoners of war (POWs) he ordered \"every POW who has relations with a German girl or a German would be shot\" and the German woman should be publicly humiliated by \"having her hair shorn and being sent to a concentration camp\". \n\nThe League of German Girls was particularly regarded as instructing girls to avoid race defilement, which was treated with particular importance for young females. \n\nOpposition to homosexuality\n\nAfter the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler promoted Himmler and the SS, who then zealously suppressed homosexuality, saying: \"We must exterminate these people root and branch ... the homosexual must be eliminated.\" In 1936, Himmler established the \"Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung der Homosexualität und Abtreibung\" (\"Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion\"). The Nazi régime incarcerated some 100,000 homosexuals during the 1930s. As concentration camp prisoners, homosexual men were forced to wear pink triangle badges. Nazi ideology still viewed German gay men as part of the Aryan master race but attempted to force them into sexual and social conformity. Gay men who would not change or feign a change in their sexual orientation were sent to concentration camps under the \"Extermination Through Work\" campaign. \n\nReligion\n\nThe Nazi Party Programme of 1920 guaranteed freedom for all religious denominations not hostile to the State and endorsed Positive Christianity to combat “the Jewish-materialist spirit”. It was a modified version of Christianity which emphasised racial purity and nationalism. The Nazis were aided by theologians such as Ernst Bergmann. Bergmann, in his work, Die 25 Thesen der Deutschreligion (Twenty-five Points of the German Religion), held that the Old Testament and portions of the New Testament of the Bible were inaccurate. He claimed that Jesus was not a Jew but of Aryan origin, and that Adolf Hitler was the new messiah.\n\nHitler denounced the Old Testament as \"Satan's Bible\", and utilising components of the New Testament attempted to demonstrate that Jesus was Aryan and antisemitic, such as in John 8:44 where Hitler noted that Jesus is yelling at \"the Jews\", as well as Jesus saying to the Jews that \"your father is the devil\", and describing Jesus' whipping of the \"Children of the Devil\". Hitler claimed that the New Testament included distortions by Paul the Apostle, whom Hitler described as a \"mass-murderer turned saint\".\n\nThe Nazis utilised Protestant Martin Luther in their propaganda. They publicly displayed an original of Luther's On the Jews and their Lies during the annual Nuremberg rallies. The Nazis endorsed the pro-Nazi Protestant German Christians organisation.\n\nThe Nazis were initially highly hostile to Catholics because most Catholics supported the German Centre Party. Catholics opposed the Nazis' promotion of sterilisation of those deemed inferior, and the Catholic Church forbade its members to vote for the Nazis. In 1933, extensive Nazi violence occurred against Catholics due to their association with the Centre Party and their opposition to the Nazi regime's sterilisation laws. The Nazis demanded that Catholics declare their loyalty to the German state. In propaganda, the Nazis used elements of Germany's Catholic history, in particular the German Catholic Teutonic Knights and their campaigns in Eastern Europe. The Nazis identified them as \"sentinels\" in the East against \"Slavic chaos\", though beyond that symbolism the influence of the Teutonic Knights on Nazism was limited. Hitler also admitted that the Nazis' night rallies were inspired by the Catholic rituals he witnessed during his Catholic upbringing. The Nazis did seek official reconciliation with the Catholic Church and endorsed the creation of the pro-Nazi Catholic Kreuz und Adler organisation that supported a national Catholicism. On 20 July 1933, a concordat (Reichskonkordat) was signed between Nazi Germany and the Catholic Church; in exchange for acceptance of the Catholic Church in Germany, it required German Catholics to be loyal to the German state. The Catholic Church then ended its ban on members supporting the Nazi Party.\n\nHistorian Michael Burleigh claims that Nazism used Christianity for political purposes, but such use required that \"fundamental tenets were stripped out, but the remaining diffuse religious emotionality had its uses\". Burleigh claims that Nazism's conception of spirituality was \"self-consciously pagan and primitive\". However, historian Roger Griffin rejects the claim that Nazism was primarily pagan, noting that although there were some influential neo-paganists in the Nazi Party, such as Heinrich Himmler and Alfred Rosenberg, they represented a minority and their views did not influence Nazi ideology beyond its use for symbolism; it is noted that Hitler denounced Germanic paganism in Mein Kampf and condemned Rosenberg's and Himmler's paganism as \"nonsense\".\n\nEconomics\n\nGenerally speaking, Nazi theorists and politicians blamed Germany’s previous economic failures on political causes like the influence of Marxism on the workforce, the sinister and exploitative machinations of what they called international Jewry, and the vindictiveness of the western political leaders ‘war reparation’ demands. Instead of traditional economic incentives, the Nazis offered solutions of a political nature, such as the elimination of organized labour groups, rearmament (in contravention of the Versailles Treaty), and biological politics. Various work programs designed to establish full-employment for the German population were instituted once the Nazis seized full national power. Hitler encouraged nationally supported projects like the construction of the Autobahn, the introduction of an affordable people’s car (Volkswagen) and later, the Nazis bolstered the economy through the business and employment generated by military rearmament. Not only did the Nazis benefit early in the regime's existence from the first post-Depression economic upswing, their public works projects, job-procurement program, and subsidized home repair program reduced unemployment by as much as 40 percent in one year, a development which tempered the unfavourable psychological climate caused by the earlier economic crisis and encouraged Germans to march in step with the regime. \n\nTo protect the German people and currency from volatile market forces, the Nazis also promised social policies like a national labour service, state-provided health care, guaranteed pensions, and an agrarian settlement program. Agrarian policies were particularly important to the Nazis since they corresponded not just to the economy but to their geopolitical conception of Lebensraum as well. For Hitler, the acquisition of land and soil was requisite in moulding the German economy. To tie farmers to their land, selling agricultural land was prohibited. Farm ownership was nominally private, but business monopoly rights were granted to marketing boards to control production and prices with a quota system. \n\nThe Nazis sought to gain support of workers by declaring May Day, a day celebrated by organised labour, to be a paid holiday and held celebrations on 1 May 1933 to honour German workers. The Nazis stressed that Germany must honour its workers.Fritzsche 1998, p. 46. The regime believed that the only way to avoid a repeat of the disaster of 1918 was to secure workers' support for the German government. The Nazis wanted all Germans take part in the May Day celebrations in the hope that this would help break down class hostility between workers and burghers. Songs in praise of labour and workers were played by state radio throughout May Day as well as fireworks and an air show in Berlin. Hitler spoke of workers as patriots who had built Germany's industrial strength, had honourably served in the war and claimed that they had been oppressed under economic liberalism.Fritzsche 1998, p. 47. Berliner Morgenpost that had been strongly associated with the political left in the past praised the regime's May Day celebrations.\n\nThe Nazis continued social welfare policies initiated by the governments of the Weimar Republic and mobilised volunteers to assist those impoverished, \"racially-worthy\" Germans through the National Socialist People's Welfare organisation.Fritzsche 1998, p. 51. This organisation oversaw charitable activities, and became the largest civic organization in Nazi Germany. Successful efforts were made to get middle-class women involved in social work assisting large families. The Winter Relief campaigns acted as a ritual to generate public sympathy. Bonfires were made of school children's differently coloured caps as symbolic of the abolition of class differences. Large celebrations and symbolism were used extensively to encourage those engaged in physical labour on behalf of Germany, with leading National Socialists often praising the 'honour of labour', which fostered a sense of community (Gemeinschaft) for the German people and promoted solidarity towards the Nazi cause. \n \nHitler believed that private ownership was useful in that it encouraged creative competition and technical innovation, but insisted that it had to conform to national interests and be \"productive\" rather than \"parasitical\". Private property rights were conditional upon the economic mode of use; if it did not advance Nazi economic goals then the state could nationalise it. Although the Nazis privatised public properties and public services, they also increased economic state control. Under Nazi economics, free competition and self-regulating markets diminished; nevertheless, Hitler's social Darwinist beliefs made him reluctant to entirely disregard business competition and private property as economic engines.\n\nHitler primarily viewed the German economy as an instrument of power. Hitler believed the economy was not just about creating wealth and technical progress so as to improve the quality of life for a nation’s citizenry; economic success was paramount in that, it provided the means and material foundations necessary for military conquest. While economic progress generated by National Socialist programs had its role in appeasing the German people, the Nazis and Hitler in particular, did not believe that economic solutions alone were sufficient to thrust Germany onto the stage as a world power. Therefore, the Nazis sought first to secure a command economy through general economic revival accompanied by massive military spending for rearmament, especially later through the implementation of the Four Year Plan, which consolidated their rule and firmly secured a command relationship between the German arms industry and the National Socialist government. Between 1933 and 1939, military expenditures were upwards of 82 billion Reichsmarks and represented 23 percent of Germany's gross national product as the Nazis mobilized their people and economy for war. \n\nAnti-communism\n\nHistorians Ian Kershaw and Joachim Fest argue that in post-World War I Germany, the Nazis were one of many nationalist and fascist political parties contending for the leadership of Germany's anti-communist movement. The Nazis claimed that communism was dangerous to the well-being of nations because of its intention to dissolve private property, its support of class conflict, its aggression against the middle class, its hostility towards small business, and its atheism. Nazism rejected class conflict-based socialism and economic egalitarianism, favouring instead a stratified economy with social classes based on merit and talent, retaining private property, and the creation of national solidarity that transcends class distinction.\n\nDuring the 1920s, Hitler urged disparate Nazi factions to unite in opposition to Jewish Bolshevism. Hitler asserted that the \"three vices\" of \"Jewish Marxism\" were democracy, pacifism, and internationalism.\n\nIn 1930, Hitler said: \"Our adopted term 'Socialist' has nothing to do with Marxist Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true Socialism is not.\" In 1942, Hitler privately said: \"I absolutely insist on protecting private property ... we must encourage private initiative\".\n\nDuring the late 1930s and the 1940s, anti-communist regimes and groups that supported Nazism included the Falange in Spain; the Vichy regime and the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French) in France; and in Britain the Cliveden Set, Lord Halifax, the British Union of Fascists under Sir Oswald Mosley, and associates of Neville Chamberlain.\n\nAnti-capitalism\n\nThe Nazis argued that capitalism damages nations due to international finance, the economic dominance of big business, and Jewish influences. Nazi propaganda posters in working class districts emphasised anti-capitalism, such as one that said: \"The maintenance of a rotten industrial system has nothing to do with nationalism. I can love Germany and hate capitalism.\"\n\nAdolf Hitler, both in public and in private, expressed disdain for capitalism, arguing that it holds nations ransom in the interests of a parasitic cosmopolitan rentier class. He opposed free market capitalism's profit-seeking impulses and desired an economy in which community interests would be upheld.\n\nHitler distrusted capitalism for being unreliable due to its egotism, and he preferred a state-directed economy that is subordinated to the interests of the Volk.\n\nHitler told a party leader in 1934, \"The economic system of our day is the creation of the Jews.\" Hitler said to Benito Mussolini that capitalism had \"run its course\". Hitler also said that the business bourgeoisie \"know nothing except their profit. 'Fatherland' is only a word for them.\" Hitler was personally disgusted with the ruling bourgeois elites of Germany during the period of the Weimar Republic, who he referred to as \"cowardly shits\". \n\nIn Mein Kampf, Hitler effectively supported mercantilism, in the belief that economic resources from their respective territories should be seized by force; he believed that the policy of Lebensraum would provide Germany with such economically valuable territories. He argued that the only means to maintain economic security was to have direct control over resources rather than being forced to rely on world trade. He claimed that war to gain such resources was the only means to surpass the failing capitalist economic system.\n\nA number of other Nazis held strong revolutionary socialist and anti-capitalist beliefs, most prominently Ernst Röhm, the leader of the Sturmabteilung (SA). Röhm claimed that the Nazis' rise to power constituted a national revolution, but insisted that a socialist \"second revolution\" was required for Nazi ideology to be fulfilled. Röhm's SA began attacks against individuals deemed to be associated with conservative reaction. Hitler saw Röhm's independent actions as violating and possibly threatening his leadership, as well as jeopardising the regime by alienating the conservative President Paul von Hindenburg and the conservative-oriented German Army. This resulted in Hitler purging Röhm and other radical members of the SA.\n\nAnother radical Nazi, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels had stressed the socialist character of Nazism, and claimed in his diary in the 1920s that if he were to pick between Bolshevism and capitalism, he said \"in final analysis\", \"it would be better for us to go down with Bolshevism than live in eternal slavery under capitalism.\"\n\nTotalitarianism\n\nUnder Nazism, with its emphasis on the nation, individual needs were subordinate to those of the wider community. Hitler declared that \"every activity and every need of every individual will be regulated by the collectivity represented by the party\" and that \"there are no longer any free realms in which the individual belongs to himself\". Himmler justified the establishment of a repressive police state, in which the security forces could exercise power arbitrarily, as national security and order should take precedence over the needs of the individual. \n\nAccording to the famous philosopher and political theorist, Hannah Arendt, the allure of Nazism as a totalitarian ideology (with its attendant mobilization of the German population), resided within the construct of helping that society deal with the cognitive dissonance resultant from the tragic interruption of the First World War, the economic and material suffering consequent the Depression, and brought to order the revolutionary unrest occurring all around them. Instead of the plurality that existed in democratic or parliamentary states, Nazism as a totalitarian system promulgated 'clear' solutions to the historical problems faced by Germany, levied support by de-legitimizing the former government of Weimar, and provided a politico-biological pathway to a better future, one free from the uncertainty of the past. It was the atomized and disaffected masses that Hitler and the party elite pointed in a particular direction, and using clever propaganda to make them into ideological adherents, exploited in bringing Nazism to life. \n \nWhile the ideologues of Nazism, much like those of Stalinism, abhorred democratic or parliamentary governance as practiced in the U.S. or Britain, their differences are substantial. An epistemic crisis occurs when one tries to synthesize and contrast Nazism and Stalinism as two-sides of the same coin with their similarly tyrannical leaders, state-controlled economies, and repressive police structures; namely, since while they share a common thematic political construction, they are entirely inimical to one another in their worldviews and when more carefully analyzed against one another on a one-to-one level, an \"irreconcilable asymmetry\" results. \n\nPost-war Nazism\n\nFollowing Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II and the end of the Holocaust, overt expressions of support for Nazi ideas were prohibited in Germany and other European countries. Nonetheless, movements that self-identify as National Socialist or are described as adhering to National Socialism continue to exist on the fringes of politics in many western societies. Usually espousing a white supremacist ideology, many deliberately adopt the symbols of Nazi Germany.", "In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act must also have been undertaken in furtherance of that agreement, to constitute an offense. There is no limit on the number participating in the conspiracy and, in most countries, no requirement that any steps have been taken to put the plan into effect (compare attempts which require proximity to the full offence). For the purposes of concurrence, the actus reus is a continuing one and parties may join the plot later and incur joint liability and conspiracy can be charged where the co-conspirators have been acquitted or cannot be traced. Finally, repentance by one or more parties does not affect liability – unless, in some cases, it occurs before the parties have committed overt acts – but may reduce their sentence.\n\nEngland and Wales\n\nCommon law offence\n\nAt common law, the crime of conspiracy was capable of infinite growth, able to accommodate any new situation and to criminalize it if the level of threat to society was sufficiently great. The courts were therefore acting in the role of the legislature to create new offences and, following the Law Commission Report No. 76 on Conspiracy and Criminal Law Reform, the Criminal Law Act 1977 produced a statutory offence and abolished all the common law varieties of conspiracy, except two: that of conspiracy to defraud, and that of conspiracy to corrupt public morals or to outrage public decency.\n\nConspiracy to defraud\n\nSection 5(2) of the Criminal Law Act 1977 preserved the common law offence of conspiracy to defraud. \n\nConspiracy to defraud was defined in Scott v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis per Viscount Dilhorne: \n\nConspiracy to corrupt public morals or to outrage public decency\n\nSection 5(3) Criminal Law Act 1977 preserved the common law offence of conspiracy to corrupt public morals or of conspiracy to outrage public decency.\n\nConspiracy to corrupt public morals is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. \n\nConspiracy to outrage public decency is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. \n\nSection 5(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977 does not affect the common law offence of conspiracy if, and in so far as, it can be committed by entering into an agreement to engage in conduct which tends to corrupt public morals, or which outrages public decency, but which does not amount to or involve the commission of an offence if carried out by a single person otherwise than in pursuance of an agreement. \n\nOne authority maintains that conspiracy to \"corrupt public morals\" has no definitive case law, that it is unknown whether or not it is a substantive offence, and that it is unlikely that conspirators will be prosecuted for this offence. \n\nThese two offences cover situations where, for example, a publisher encourages immoral behavior through explicit content in a magazine or periodical, as in the 1970 case of Knuller (Publishing, Printing and Promotions) Ltd v Director of Public Prosecutions, which ultimately was decided in 1973 by the House of Lords.\n\nIn the 1991 case of R v Rowley, the defendant left notes in public places over a period of three weeks offering money and presents to boys with the intention of luring them for immoral purposes, but there was nothing lewd, obscene or disgusting in the notes, nor were they printed by a newsmagazine at the behest of Rowley, which would have invoked the element of conspiracy. The judge ruled that the jury was entitled to look at the purpose behind the notes in deciding whether they were lewd or disgusting. On appeal against conviction, it was held that an act outraging public decency required a deliberate act which was in itself lewd, obscene or disgusting, so Rowley’s motive in leaving the notes was irrelevant and, since there was nothing in the notes themselves capable of outraging public decency, the conviction was quashed.\n\nStatutory offence\n\nThis offence was created as a result of the Law Commission's recommendations in their Report, Conspiracy and Criminal Law Reform, 1976, Law Com No 76. This was part of the Commission's programme of codification of the criminal law. The eventual aim was to abolish all the remaining common law offences and replace them, where appropriate, with offences precisely defined by statute. The common law offences were seen as unacceptably vague and open to development by the courts in ways which might offend the principle of certainty. There was an additional problem that it could be a criminal conspiracy at common law to engage in conduct which was not in itself a criminal offence: see Law Com No 76, para 1.7. This was a major mischief at which the 1977 Act was aimed, although it retained the convenient concept of a common law conspiracy to defraud: see Law Com No 76, paras 1.9 and 1.16. Henceforward, according to the Law Commission, it would only be an offence to agree to engage in a course of conduct which was itself a criminal offence.\n\nSection 1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977 provides:\n\"...if a person agrees with any other person or persons that a course of conduct shall be pursued which, if the agreement is carried out in accordance with their intentions, either -\n:(a) will necessarily amount to or involve the commission of any offence or offences by one or more of the parties to the agreement, or\n:(b) would do so but for the existence of facts which render the commission of the offence or any of the offences impossible, [added by S.5 Criminal Attempts Act 1981]\nhe is guilty of conspiracy to commit the offence or offences in question.\"\n\nSection 1A (inserted by the Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Act 1998, s5) bans conspiracies part of which occurred in England and Wales to commit an act or the happening of some other event outside the United Kingdom which constitutes an offence under the law in force in that country or territory. Many conditions apply including that prosecutions need consent from the Attorney General.\n\nExceptions\n\n*Under section 2(1) the intended victim of the offence can not be guilty of conspiracy.\n*Under section 2(2) there can be no conspiracy where the only other person(s) to the agreement are:\n:(a) a spouse or civil partner; \n:(b) a person under the age of criminal responsibility; or\n:(c) an intended victim of that offence.\n\nMens rea\n\nThere must be an agreement between two or more persons. The mens rea of conspiracy is a separate issue from the mens rea required of the substantive crime.\n\nLord Bridge in R v Anderson - quoted in R v Hussain said: \n\nLord Bridge in R v Anderson also said:\n\nIt is not therefore necessary for any action to be taken in furtherance of the criminal purpose in order for a conspiracy offence to have been committed. This distinguishes a conspiracy from an attempt (which necessarily does involve a person doing an act) see Criminal Attempts Act 1981.\n\nThings said or done by one conspirator\n\nLord Steyn in R v Hayter said: \n\nHistory\n\nConspiracy to trespass\n\nHere, nine students, who were nationals of Sierra Leone, appealed their convictions for conspiracy to trespass, and unlawful assembly. These persons, together with others who did not appeal, conspired to occupy the London premises of the High Commissioner for Sierra Leone in order to publicize grievances against the government of that country. Upon their arrival at the Commission, they threatened the caretaker with an imitation firearm and locked him in a reception room with ten other members of the staff. The students then held a press conference on the telephone, but the caretaker was able to contact the police, who arrived, released the prisoners, and arrested the accused. In this case the Court felt that the public interest was clearly involved because of the statutory duty of the British Government to protect diplomatic premises. Lauton J. delivered the judgment of the Court of Appeal dismissing the appeal from conviction. See Kamara v Director of Public Prosecutions. \n\nConspiracy to corrupt public morals and conspiracy to outrage public decency\n\nThese offences were at one time tied up with prostitution and homosexual behaviour. After the war, due to the fame of several convicts, the Wolfenden report was commissioned by government, and was published in 1957. Thereupon came the publication of several books, both pro and contra the report. Of these books we can isolate two representatives: Lord Devlin wrote in favour of societal norms, or morals, while H. L. A. Hart wrote that the state could ill-regulate private conduct. In May 1965, Devlin is reported to have conceded defeat. \n\nThe Street Offences Act 1959 prohibited England's prostitutes from soliciting in the streets. One Shaw published a booklet containing prostitutes' names and addresses; each woman listed had paid Shaw for her advertisement. A 1962 majority in the House of Lords not only found the appellant guilty of a statutory offence (living on the earnings of prostitution), but also of the \"common law misdemeanour of conspiracy to corrupt public morals\".Shaw v. D.P.P. [1962] A.C. 220 (H.L.).\n\nIn the case of Knuller (Publishing, Printing and Promotions) Ltd v. D.P.P. which was decided 1973 in the House of Lords, the appellants were directors of a company which published a fortnightly magazine. On an inside page under a column headed \"Males\" advertisements were inserted inviting readers to meet the advertisers for the purpose of homosexual practices. The appellants were convicted on counts of \n#conspiracy to corrupt public morals, and\n#conspiracy to outrage public decency.\nThe appeal on count 1 was dismissed, while the appeal on count 2 was allowed because in the present case there had been a misdirection in relation to the meaning of \"decency\" and the offence of \"outrage\". The list of cases consulted in the ratio decidendi is lengthy, and the case of Shaw v. D.P.P. is a topic of furious discussion.\n\nConspiracy to effect a public mischief\n\nIn Withers v Director of Public Prosecutions, which reached the House of Lords in 1974, it was unanimously held that conspiracy to effect a public mischief was not a separate and distinct class of criminal conspiracy. This overruled earlier decisions to the contrary effect. The Law Commission published a consultation paper on this subject in 1975. \n\nConspiracy to murder\n\nThe offence of conspiracy to murder was created in statutory law by section 4 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861.\n\nNorthern Ireland\n\nCommon law offence\n\nSee conspiracy to defraud#Northern Ireland.\n\nStatutory offence\n\nSee [http://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisi/1983/1120/part/IV Part IV] of the Criminal Attempts and Conspiracy (Northern Ireland) Order 1983 (S.I. 1983/1120 (N.I. 13)).\n\nUnited States\n\nConspiracy has been defined in the United States as an agreement of two or more people to commit a crime, or to accomplish a legal end through illegal actions. A conspiracy does not need to have been planned in secret to meet the definition of the crime. One legal dictionary, law.com, provides this useful example on the application of conspiracy law to an everyday sales transaction tainted by corruption. It shows how the law can handle both the criminal and the civil need for justice:\n\nConspiracy law usually does not require proof of specific intent by the defendants to injure any specific person to establish an illegal agreement. Instead, usually the law requires only that the conspirators have agreed to engage in a certain illegal act.\n\nUnder most U.S. laws, for a person to be convicted of conspiracy, not only must he or she agree to commit a crime, but at least one of the conspirators must commit an overt act (the actus reus) in furtherance of the crime. However, in United States v. Shabani the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that this \"overt act\" element is not required under the federal drug conspiracy statute, 21 U.S.C. section 846.\n\nThe conspirators can be guilty even if they do not know the identity of the other members of the conspiracy. \n\nCalifornia criminal law is somewhat representative of other jurisdictions. A punishable conspiracy exists when at least two people form an agreement to commit a crime, and at least one of them does some act in furtherance to committing the crime. Each person is punishable in the same manner and to the same extent as is provided for the punishment of the crime itself. [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cacodes/pen/182-185.html]\n\nOne example of this is The Han Twins Murder Conspiracy case, where one twin sister attempted to hire two youths to have her twin sister killed.\n\nOne important feature of a conspiracy charge is that it relieves prosecutors of the need to prove the particular roles of conspirators. If two persons plot to kill another (and this can be proven), and the victim is indeed killed as a result of the actions of either conspirator, it is not necessary to prove with specificity which of the conspirators actually pulled the trigger. (Otherwise, both conspirators could conceivably handle the gun, leaving two sets of fingerprints and then demand acquittals for both, based on the fact that the prosecutor would be unable to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, which of the two conspirators was the triggerman). A conspiracy conviction requires proof that (a) the conspirators did indeed conspire to commit the crime, and (b) the crime was committed by an individual involved in the conspiracy. Proof of which individual it was is usually not necessary.\n\nIt is also an option for prosecutors, when bringing conspiracy charges, to decline to indict all members of the conspiracy (though the existence of all members may be mentioned in an indictment). Such unindicted co-conspirators are commonly found when the identities or whereabouts of members of a conspiracy are unknown, or when the prosecution is concerned only with a particular individual among the conspirators. This is common when the target of the indictment is an elected official or an organized crime leader, and the co-conspirators are persons of little or no public importance. More famously, President Richard Nixon was named as an unindicted co-conspirator by the Watergate special prosecutor, in an event leading up to his eventual resignation.\n\nConspiracy against rights\n\nThe United States has a federal statute dealing with conspiracies to deprive a citizen of rights secured by the U.S. Constitution. \n\nInternational law\n\nConspiracy law was used at the Nuremberg Trials for members of the Nazi leadership charged with participating in a \"conspiracy or common plan\" to commit international crimes. This was controversial because conspiracy was not a part of the European civil law tradition. Nonetheless, the crime of conspiracy continued in international criminal justice, and was incorporated into the international criminal laws against genocide.\n\nOf the Big Five, only the French Republic exclusively subscribed to the civil law; the USSR subscribed to the socialist law, the U.S. and the U.K. followed the common law; and the Republic of China did not have a cause of action at this particular proceeding. (In addition, both the civil and the customary law) were upheld. The jurisdiction of the International Military Tribunal was unique and extraordinary at its time, being a court convened under the law of nations and the laws and customs of war. It was the first of its sort in human history, and found several defendants not guilty.", "A crime against peace, in international law, refers to \"planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of wars of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing\". This definition of crimes against peace was first incorporated into the Nuremberg Principles and later included in the United Nations Charter. This definition would play a part in defining aggression as a crime against peace. It can also refer to the core international crimes set out in Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, (genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression) which adopted crimes negotiated previously in the Draft code of crimes against the peace and security of mankind.\n\nAn important exception to the foregoing are defensive military actions taken under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Such defensive actions are subject to immediate Security Council review, but do not require UN permission to be legal within international law. \"Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations.\" (UN Charter, Article 51) The Security Council will determine if the action is legally the \"right of individual or collective self-defence\", or it may appoint another UN organ to do this.\n\nDefinition\n\nNo legal authority exists for the definition of the terms \"territorial integrity\", \"political independence\" and \"sovereignty\". However, their face value would seem to disclose the following:\n\n* The \"territorial integrity\" rule means that it is a crime of aggression to use armed force with intent permanently to deprive a state of any part or parts of its territory, not excluding territories for the foreign affairs of which it is responsible;\n* The \"political independence\" rule means that it is a crime of aggression to use armed force with intent to deprive a state of the entirety of one or more of the prerequisites of statehood, namely: defined territory, permanent population, constitutionally independent government and the means of conducting relations with other States;\n* The \"sovereignty\" rule means that it is a crime of aggression to use armed force with intent to overthrow the government of a state or to impede its freedom to act unhindered, as it sees fit, throughout its jurisdiction.\n\nThis definition of the crime of aggression belongs to jus cogens, which is supreme in the hierarchy of international law and, therefore, it cannot be modified by, or give way to, any rule of international law but one of the same rank. An arguable example is any rule imposing a conflicting obligation to prevent, interdict or vindicate crimes which also belong to jus cogens, namely aggression itself, crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes, slavery, torture and piracy, so that a war waged consistent with the aim of repressing any of these crimes might not be illegal where the crime comes within the limit of proportionality relative to war and its characteristic effects.\n\nKellogg-Briand Pact\n\nIn 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, known as the General Treaty for the Renunciation of War, said:\n\nThe High Contracting Parties solemnly declare in the names of their respective peoples that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it, as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another.\n\nIf a nation does not register with the UN as recognizing the Kellogg-Briand Pact, even if the nation had signed it, the UN cannot hold a claimed violation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact to be a violation of international law (according to its own Charter, Article 102). The interpretation of Article 102 is reserved to the Security Council, so it is possible that a \"crime against peace\" might be found by the Security Council, regardless.\n\nNuremberg Principles\n\nIn 1945, the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal defined three categories of crimes, including crimes against peace. This definition was first used in Finland to prosecute the political leadership in the War-responsibility trials in Finland. The principles were later known as the Nuremberg Principles.\n\nIn 1950, the Nuremberg Tribunal defined Crimes against Peace (in Principle VI.a, submitted to the United Nations General Assembly) as\n\n(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances; \n(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).\n\n\"The legal basis for the jurisdiction of the court was that defined by the Instrument of Surrender of Germany, political authority for Germany had been transferred to the Allied Control Council, which having sovereign power over Germany could choose to punish violations of international law and the laws of war. Because the court was limited to violations of the laws of war, it did not have jurisdiction over crimes that took place before the outbreak of war on September 1, 1939\"\n\nFor committing this crime, the Nuremberg Tribunal sentenced a number of persons responsible for starting World War II. One consequence of this is that nations who are starting an armed conflict must now argue that they are either exercising the right of self-defense, the right of collective defense, or - it seems - the enforcement of the criminal law of jus cogens. It has made formal declaration of war uncommon after 1945.\n\nDuring the trial, the chief American prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson, stated:\n\nTo initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.\n\nAssociate Supreme Court Justice William Douglas charged that the Allies were guilty of \"substituting power for principle\" at Nuremberg. \"I thought at the time and still think that the Nuremberg trials were unprincipled.\", he wrote. \"Law was created ex post facto to suit the passion and clamor of the time.\" \n\nUnited Nations Charter\n\nThe first article of the United Nations Charter says:\n\nThe Purposes of the United Nations are:\n\n#To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;\n#To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;\n\nThe interdiction of aggressive war was confirmed and broadened by the United Nations' Charter, which states in article 2, paragraph 4 that\n\nAll Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations. \n\nArticle 33\n\nThe parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.\n\nThe Security Council shall, when it deems necessary, call upon the parties to settle their dispute by such means. \n\nArticle 39\n\nThe Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security.\n\nArticle 51\n\nNothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.\n\nU.S. laws of war\n\nThe U.S. Army's Law of Land Warfare (Field Manual 27-10) states:\n\n498. Crimes Under International Law\n\nAny person, whether a member of the armed forces or a civilian, who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable to punishment. Such offenses in connection with war comprise:\n\na. Crimes against peace.\nb. Crimes against humanity.\nc. War crimes.\n\nAlthough this manual recognizes the criminal responsibility of individuals for those offenses which may comprise any of the foregoing types of crimes, members of the armed forces will normally be concerned, only with those offenses constituting \"war crimes.\"[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/27-10/Ch8.htm#s2 FM 27-10 Chptr 8 Remedies for Violation of International Law; War Crimes] (emphasis added)\n\nVietnam's Criminal Code\n\nVietnam's Criminal Code calls this crime as the crime of \"Undermining peace, provoking aggressive wars\".\n\nChapter XXIV: CRIMES OF UNDERMINING PEACE, AGAINST HUMANITY AND WAR CRIMES\n\nArticle 341.- Undermining peace, provoking aggressive wars\n\n:Those who propagate and/or incite wars of aggression, or prepare, carry out or participate in wars of aggression against the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of another country, shall be sentenced to between twelve years and twenty years of imprisonment, life imprisonment or capital punishment.", "A war of aggression, sometimes also war of conquest, is a military conflict waged without the justification of self-defense, usually for territorial gain and subjugation. The phrase is distinctly modern and diametrically opposed to the prior legal international standard of \"might makes right\", under the medieval and pre-historic beliefs of right of conquest. Since the Korean War of the early 1950s, waging such a war of aggression is a crime under the customary international law. Possibly the first trial for waging aggressive war is that of the Sicilian king Conradin in 1268. \n\nWars without international legality (e.g. not out of self-defense nor sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council) can be considered wars of aggression; however, this alone usually does not constitute the definition of a war of aggression; certain wars may be unlawful but not aggressive (a war to settle a boundary dispute where the initiator has a reasonable claim, and limited aims, is one example).\n\nIn the judgment of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which followed World War II, \"War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.\" \nArticle 39 of the United Nations Charter provides that the UN Security Council shall determine the existence of any act of aggression and \"shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security\".\n\nThe Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court refers to the crime of aggression as one of the “most serious crimes of concern to the international community”, and provides that the crime falls within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). However, the Rome Statute stipulates that the ICC may not exercise its jurisdiction over the crime of aggression until such time as the states parties agree on a definition of the crime and set out the conditions under which it may be prosecuted. At the Review Conference in June 11, 2010 a total of 111 State Parties to the Court agreed by consensus to adopt a resolution accepting the definition of the crime and the conditions for the exercise of jurisdiction over this crime. The relevant amendments to the Statute, however has not been entered into force yet as of May 14, 2012.\n\nSources and definitions of the crime\n\nThe origin of the concept, Maguire argues, emerged from the debate on Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 that ended the First World War. It provided that \"Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.\" Maguire argues: \nOriginally President Wilson resisted the effort to brand Germany with war guilt, but French and British leaders forced him to compromise. Naming Germany an 'aggressor' introduced the concept into positive international law. \n\nThe Convention for the Definition of Aggression\n\nTwo Conventions for the Definition of Aggression were signed in London on 3 and 4 July 1933. The first was signed by Czechoslovakia, Romania, the Soviet Union, Turkey and Yugoslavia, and came into effect on 17 February 1934, when it was ratified by all of them but Turkey. The second was signed by Afghanistan (ratified 20 October 1933), Estonia (4 December), Latvia (4 December), Persia (16 November), Poland (16 October), Romania (16 October), the Soviet Union (16 October) and Turkey, which ratified both treaties on 23 March 1934. Finland acceded to the second convention on 31 January 1934. The second convention was the first to be registered with the League of Nations Treaty Series on 29 March 1934, while the first was registered on 26 April. As Lithuania refused to sign any treaty including Poland, she signed the definition of aggression in a separate pact with the Soviet Union on 5 July 1933, also in London, and exchanged ratifications on 14 December. It was registered in the Treaty Series on 16 April 1934.\n\nThe signatories of both treaties were also signatories of the Kellogg–Briand Pact prohibiting aggression, and were seeking an agreed definition of the latter. Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia were members of the Little Entente, and their signatures alarmed Bulgaria, since the definition of aggression clearly covered its support of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. Both treaties base their definition on the \"Politis Report\" of the Committee of Security Questions made 24 March 1933 to the Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments, in answer to a proposal of the Soviet delegation. The Greek politician Nikolaos Politis was behind the inclusion of \"support for armed bands\" as a form of aggression. Ratifications for both treaties were deposited in Moscow, as the convention was primarily the work of Maxim Litvinov, the Soviet signatory. The convention defined an act of aggression as follows:\n* Declaration of war upon another State.\n* Invasion by its armed forces, with or without a declaration of war, of the territory of another State.\n* Attack by its land, naval or air forces, with or without a declaration of war, on the territory, vessels or aircraft of another State.\n* Naval blockade of the coasts or ports of another State.\n* Provision of support to armed bands formed in its territory which have invaded the territory of another State, or refusal, notwithstanding the request of the invaded State, to take, in its own territory, all the measures in its power to deprive those bands of all assistance or protection.\n\nThe League prerogative under that convention to expel a League member found guilty of aggression was used by the League Assembly only once, against the Soviet government itself, on December 14, 1939, following the Soviet invasion of Finland. \n\n;Primary documents\n*[http://www.worldlii.org/cgi-bin/disp.pl/int/other/treaties/LNTSer/1934/75.html Text of the Convention of 3 July]\n*[http://www.worldlii.org/int/other/treaties/LNTSer/1934/102.html Text of the Convention of 4 July]\n*[http://www.worldlii.org/int/other/treaties/LNTSer/1934/95.html Text of the Convention of 5 July]\n\nThe Nuremberg Principles\n\nIn 1945, the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal defined three categories of crimes, including crimes against peace. This definition was first used by Finland to prosecute the political leadership in the war-responsibility trials in Finland. The principles were later known as the Nuremberg Principles.\n\nIn 1950, the Nuremberg Tribunal defined Crimes against Peace, in Principle VI, specifically Principle VI(a), submitted to the United Nations General Assembly, as: \n(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;\n(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).\n\nSee: Nuremberg Trials: \"The legal basis for the jurisdiction of the court was that defined by the Instrument of Surrender of Germany, political authority for Germany had been transferred to the Allied Control Council, which having sovereign power over Germany could choose to punish violations of international law and the laws of war. Because the court was limited to violations of the laws of war, it did not have jurisdiction over crimes that took place before the outbreak of war on September 1, 1939.\"\n\nFor committing this crime, the Nuremberg Tribunal sentenced a number of persons responsible for starting World War II. One consequence of this is that nations who are starting an armed conflict must now argue that they are either exercising the right of self-defense, the right of collective defense, or - it seems - the enforcement of the criminal law of jus cogens. It has made formal declaration of war uncommon after 1945.\n\nReading the Tribunal's final judgment in court, British alternate judge Norman Birkett said:\nThe charges in the Indictment that the defendants planned and waged aggressive wars are charges of the utmost gravity. War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world.\nTo initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.\n\nAssociate Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas charged that the Allies were guilty of \"substituting power for principle\" at Nuremberg. \"I thought at the time and still think that the Nuremberg trials were unprincipled.\", he wrote. \"Law was created ex post facto to suit the passion and clamor of the time.\" \n\nThe United Nations Charter\n\nThe relevant provisions of the Charter of the United Nations mentioned in the RSICC article 5.2 were framed to include the Nuremberg Principles. The specific principle is Principle VI.a \"Crimes against peace\", which was based on the provisions of the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal that was issued in 1945 and formed the basis for the post World War II war crime trials. The Charters provisions based on the Nuremberg Principle VI.a are:\n\n* Article 1:\n:The Purposes of the United Nations are:\n:#To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;\n:#To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;\n\n* Article 2, paragraph 4\n:All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.\n\n* Article 33\n:The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.\n\n:The Security Council shall, when it deems necessary, call upon the parties to settle their dispute by such means.\n\n* Article 39\n:The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security. \n\nThe Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Pact)\n\nThe Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, signed in Rio de Janeiro on September 2, 1947, included a clear definition of aggression. Article 9 stated:\n\n\"In addition to other acts which the Organ of Consultation may characterize as aggression, the following shall be considered as such:\n* a. Unprovoked armed attack by a State against the territory, the people, or the land, sea or air forces of another State;\n* b. Invasion, by the armed forces of a State, of the territory of an American State, through the trespassing of boundaries demarcated in accordance with a treaty, judicial decision, or arbitral award, or, in the absence of frontiers thus demarcated, invasion affecting a region which is under the effective jurisdiction of another State\". \n\nFurther discussions on defining aggression\n\nThe discussions on definition of aggression under the UN began in 1950, following the outbreak of the Korean War. As the western governments, headed by Washington, were in favor of defining the governments of North Korea and the People's Republic of China as aggressor states, the Soviet government proposed to formulate a new UN resolution defining aggression and based on the 1933 convention. As a result, on November 17, 1950, the General Assembly passed resolution 378, which referred the issue to be defined by the International Law Commission. The commission deliberated over this issue in its 1951 session and due to large disagreements among its members, decided \"that the only practical course was to aim at a general and abstract definition (of aggression)\". However, a tentative definition of aggression was adopted by the commission on June 4, 1951, which stated:\n\n\"Aggression is the use of force by a State or Government against another State or Government, in any manner, whatever the weapons used and whether openly or otherwise, for any reason or for any purpose other than individual or collective self-defence or in pursuance of a decision or recommendation by\na competent organ of the United Nations\". \n\nGeneral Assembly Resolution 3314\n\nOn December 14, 1974, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 3314, which defined the crime of aggression. This definition is not binding as such under international law, though it may reflect customary international law.\n\nThis definition makes a distinction between aggression (which \"gives rise to international responsibility\") and war of aggression (which is \"a crime against international peace\"). Acts of aggression are defined as armed invasions or attacks, bombardments, blockades, armed violations of territory, permitting other states to use one's own territory to perpetrate acts of aggression and the employment of armed irregulars or mercenaries to carry out acts of aggression. A war of aggression is a series of acts committed with a sustained intent. The definition's distinction between an act of aggression and a war of aggression make it clear that not every act of aggression would constitute a crime against peace; only war of aggression does. States would nonetheless be held responsible for acts of aggression.\n\nThe wording of the definition has been criticised by many commentators. Its clauses on the use of armed irregulars are notably vague, as it is unclear what level of \"involvement\" would entail state responsibility. It is also highly state-centric, in that it deems states to be the only actors liable for acts of aggression. Domestic or transnational insurgent groups, such as those that took part in the Sierra Leone Civil War and the Yugoslav Wars, were key players in their respective conflicts despite being non-state parties; they would not have come within the scope of the definition.\n\nThe Definition of Aggression also does not cover acts by international organisations. The two key military alliances at the time of the definition's adoption, NATO and the Warsaw Pact, were non-state parties and thus were outside the scope of the definition. Moreover, the definition does not deal with the responsibilities of individuals for acts of aggression. It is widely perceived as an insufficient basis on which to ground individual criminal prosecutions. \n\nWhile this Definition of Aggression has often been cited by opponents of conflicts such as the 1999 Kosovo War and the 2003 Iraq War, it has no binding force in international law. The doctrine of Nulla poena sine lege means that, in the absence of binding international law on the subject of aggression, no penalty exists for committing acts in contravention of the definition. It is only recently that heads of state have been indicted over acts committed in wartime, in the cases of Slobodan Milošević of Serbia and Charles Taylor of Liberia. However, both were charged with war crimes, i.e. violations of the laws of war, rather than with the broader offence of \"a crime against international peace\" as envisaged by the Definition of Aggression.\n\nThe definition is not binding on the Security Council. The United Nations Charter empowers the General Assembly to make recommendations to the United Nations Security Council but the Assembly may not dictate to the Council. The resolution accompanying the definition states that it is intended to provide guidance to the Security Council to aid it \"in determining, in accordance with the Charter, the existence of an act of aggression\". The Security Council may apply or disregard this guidance as it sees fit. Legal commentators argue that the Definition of Aggression has had \"no visible impact\" on the deliberations of the Security Council. \n\nRome Statute of the International Criminal Court\n\nThe Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court lists the crime of aggression as one of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community, and provides that the crime falls within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). However, Article 5.2 of the Rome Statute states that \"The Court shall exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression once a provision is adopted in accordance with articles 121 and 123 defining the crime and setting out the conditions under which the Court shall exercise jurisdiction with respect to this crime. Such a provision shall be consistent with the relevant provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.\" The Assembly of States Parties of the ICC adopted such a definition at the 2010 Kampala Review Conference.", "A war crime is an act that constitutes a serious violation of the law of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility. Examples of war crimes include intentionally killing civilians or prisoners, torture, destroying civilian property, taking hostages, perfidy, rape, using child soldiers, pillaging, declaring that no quarter will be given, and using weapons that cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering. \n\nThe concept of war crimes began to emerge during the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century when the body of customary international law applicable to warfare between sovereign states was codified. Such codification occurred at the national level, such as with the publication of the Lieber Code in the United States, and at the international level with the adoption of the treaties during the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. Moreover, trials in national courts during this period further helped clarify the law. Following the end of World War II, major developments in the law occurred. Numerous trials of Axis war criminals established the Nuremberg principles, such as notion that war crimes constituted crimes defined by international law. Additionally, the Geneva Conventions in 1949 defined new war crimes and established that states could exercise universal jurisdiction over such crimes. In the late 20th century and early 21st century, following the creation of several international courts, additional categories of war crimes applicable to armed conflicts other than those between states, such as civil wars. The United States and Israel are the only OECD countries that do not accept war crime jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its nationals, since they have not signed the Rome Statute. \n\nHistory\n\nEarly examples\n\nThe trial of Peter von Hagenbach by an ad hoc tribunal of the Holy Roman Empire in 1474, was the first \"international\" war crimes trial, and also of command responsibility. He was convicted and beheaded for crimes that \"he as a knight was deemed to have a duty to prevent\", although he had argued that he was only \"following orders\".\n\nIn 1654 a Major Connaught (Royalist) was tried at Chester Assizes and hanged for his part in the massacre of villagers in the church at the village of Boughton, Cheshire in 1643. Twelve villagers were smoked out, stripped naked and had their throats cut. He was hanged at the scene of the crime having been convicted of striking a blow to the head of John Fowler with an axe. \n\nIn 1865, Henry Wirz, a Confederate officer, was held accountable by a military tribunal and hanged for appalling conditions at Andersonville Prison where many U.S. prisoners of war died during the American Civil War.\n\nHague Conventions\n\nThe Hague Conventions were international treaties negotiated at the First and Second Peace Conferences at The Hague, Netherlands, in 1899 and 1907, respectively, and were, along with the Geneva Conventions, among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the nascent body of secular international law.\n\nGeneva Conventions\n\nThe Geneva Conventions are four related treaties adopted and continuously expanded from 1864 to 1949 that represent a legal basis and framework for the conduct of war under international law. Every single member state of the United Nations has currently ratified the conventions, which are universally accepted as customary international law, applicable to every situation of armed conflict in the world. However, the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions adopted in 1977 containing the most pertinent, detailed and virulent protections of international humanitarian law for persons and objects in modern warfare are still not ratified by a number of States continuously engaged in armed conflicts, namely the United States, Israel, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, and others. Accordingly, states retain different codes and values with regard to wartime conduct. Some signatories have routinely violated the Geneva Conventions in a way which either uses the ambiguities of law or political maneuvering to sidestep the laws' formalities and principles.\n\nThree conventions were revised and expanded with the fourth one added in 1949:\n* First Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field (Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field was adopted in 1864, significantly revised and replaced by the 1906 version, the 1929 version, and later the First Geneva Convention of 1949 ).\n* Second Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea (Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea was adopted in 1906, significantly revised and replaced by the Second Geneva Convention of 1949).\n* Third Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was adopted in 1929, significantly revised and replaced by the Third Geneva Convention of 1949).\n* Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (first adopted in 1949, based on parts of the 1907 Hague Convention IV).\n\nTwo Additional Protocols were adopted in 1977 with the third one added in 2005, completing and updating the Geneva Conventions:\n* Protocol I (1977) relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts.\n* Protocol II (1977) relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts.\n* Protocol III (2005) relating to the Adoption of an Additional Distinctive Emblem.\n\nLeipzig War Crimes Trial\n\nA small number of German military personnel of the First World War were tried in 1921 by the German Supreme Court for alleged war crimes.\n\nLondon Charter / Nuremberg Trials 1945 \n\nThe modern concept of war crime was further developed under the auspices of the Nuremberg Trials based on the definition in the London Charter that was published on August 8, 1945. (Also see Nuremberg Principles.) Along with war crimes the charter also defined crimes against peace and crimes against humanity, which are often committed during wars and in concert with war crimes.\n\nInternational Military Tribunal for the Far East 1946 \n\nAlso known as the Tokyo Trial, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal or simply as the Tribunal, it was convened on May 3, 1946 to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of crimes: \"Class A\" (crimes against peace), \"Class B\" (war crimes), and \"Class C\" (crimes against humanity), committed during World War II.\n\nInternational Criminal Court 2002 \n\nOn July 1, 2002, the International Criminal Court, a treaty-based court located in The Hague, came into being for the prosecution of war crimes committed on or after that date. Several nations, most notably the United States, China, Russia, and Israel, have criticized the court. The United States still participates as an observer. Article 12 of the Rome Statute provides jurisdiction over the citizens of non-contracting states in the event that they are accused of committing crimes in the territory of one of the state parties. \n\nWar crimes are defined in the statute that established the International Criminal Court, which includes:\n# Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, such as:\n## Willful killing, or causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health\n## Torture or inhumane treatment\n## Unlawful wanton destruction or appropriation of property\n## Forcing a prisoner of war to serve in the forces of a hostile power\n## Depriving a prisoner of war of a fair trial\n## Unlawful deportation, confinement or transfer\n## Taking hostages\n# The following acts as part of an international conflict:\n## Directing attacks against civilians\n## Directing attacks against humanitarian workers or UN peacekeepers\n## Killing a surrendered combatant\n## Misusing a flag of truce\n## Settlement of occupied territory\n## Deportation of inhabitants of occupied territory\n## Using poison weapons\n## Using civilians as shields\n## Using child soldiers\n## Firing upon a Combat Medic with clear insignia.\n# The following acts as part of a non-international conflict:\n## Murder, cruel or degrading treatment and torture\n## Directing attacks against civilians, humanitarian workers or UN peacekeepers\n## Taking hostages\n## Summary execution\n## Pillage\n## Rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution or forced pregnancy\n\nHowever the court only has jurisdiction over these crimes where they are \"part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes\". \n\nProminent indictees\n\nHeads of state and government\n\nTo date, the present and former heads of state and heads of government that have been charged with war crimes include:\n* German Großadmiral and President Karl Dönitz and Japanese Prime Ministers and Generals Hideki Tōjō and Kuniaki Koiso in the aftermath of World War II.\n* Former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević was brought to trial for alleged war crimes, but died in custody in 2006 before the trial could be concluded after more than 4 years of proceedings.\n* Former Liberian President Charles G. Taylor was also brought to The Hague charged with war crimes; his trial stretched from 2007 to March 2011. He was convicted in April 2012. \n* Former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadžić was arrested in Belgrade on July 18, 2008 and brought before Belgrade's War Crimes Court a few days after. He was extradited to the Netherlands, and is currently in The Hague, in the custody of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The trial began in 2010. On 24 March 2016, he was found guilty of genocide in Srebrenica, war crimes and crimes against humanity, 10 of the 11 charges in total, and sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment. \n\n* Omar al-Bashir, current head of state of Sudan, for actions in Darfur.\n* Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was indicted for allegedly ordering the killings of protesters and civilians during the 2011 Libyan civil war, however he was killed before he could stand trial in October 2011.\n\nOther prominent indictees\n\n* Yoshijirō Umezu, a general in the Imperial Japanese Army\n* Seishirō Itagaki, War minister of the Empire of Japan\n* Hermann Göring, Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe.\n* Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Adolf Eichmann—high-ranking members of the SS.\n* Wilhelm Keitel—Generalfeldmarschall, head of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht.\n* Erich Raeder—Großadmiral, Commander in Chief of the Kriegsmarine.\n* Albert Speer—Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany 1942–45.\n* William Calley-former U.S. Army officer found guilty of murder for his role in the My Lai Massacre\n* Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, more commonly known by his nickname \"Chemical Ali\", executed by post-Ba'athist Iraq for his leadership of the gassing of Kurdish villages during the Iran-Iraq War; also governor of illegally occupied Kuwait during the First Gulf War \n* Ratko Mladić, indicted for genocide amongst other violations of humanitarian law during the Bosnian War; he was captured in Serbia in May 2011 and has been extradited to face trial in The Hague, \n* Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, guerrilla group which used to operate in Uganda.\n\nDefinition\n\nWar crimes are serious violations of the rules of customary and treaty law concerning international humanitarian law that have become accepted as criminal offenses for which there is individual responsibility. \nColloquial definitions of war crime include violations of established protections of the laws of war, but also include failures to adhere to norms of procedure and rules of battle, such as attacking those displaying a peaceful flag of truce, or using that same flag as a ruse to mount an attack on enemy troops. The use of chemical and biological weapons in warfare are also prohibited by numerous chemical arms control agreements and the Biological Weapons Convention. Wearing enemy uniforms or civilian clothes to infiltrate enemy lines for espionage or sabotage missions is a legitimate ruse of war, though fighting in combat or assassinating individuals, even if they are military targets, behind enemy lines while so disguised is not, as it constitutes unlawful perfidy. Attacking enemy troops while they are being deployed by way of a parachute is not a war crime. However, Protocol I, Article 42 of the Geneva Conventions explicitly forbids attacking parachutists who eject from disabled aircraft and surrendering parachutists once landed. Article 30 of the 1907 Hague Convention IV - The Laws and Customs of War on Land explicitly prohibits belligerents to punish enemy spies without previous trial. War crimes also include such acts as mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians. War crimes are sometimes part of instances of mass murder and genocide though these crimes are more broadly covered under international humanitarian law described as crimes against humanity. In 2008, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 1820, which noted that \"rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide\"; see also war rape. In 2016 the International Criminal Court convicted someone of sexual violence for the first time; specifically, they added rape to a war crimes conviction of Congo Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo. \n\nWar crimes also included deliberate attacks on citizens and property of neutral states as they fall under the category of non-combatants, as at the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As the attack on Pearl Harbor happened without a declaration of war, without explicit warning, and went out of proportion, all military and civilian casualties at the harbor were officially non-combatants, the military were not ready for face up to the attack and the attack was declared by the Tokyo Trials to go beyond justification of military necessity and therefore constituted a war crime. \n\nWar crimes are significant in international humanitarian law because it is an area where international tribunals such as the Nuremberg Trials and Tokyo Trials have been convened. Recent examples are the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which were established by the UN Security Council acting under Chapter VIII of the UN Charter.\n\nUnder the Nuremberg Principles, war crimes are different from crimes against peace which is planning, preparing, initiating, or waging a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances.\nBecause the definition of a state of \"war\" may be debated, the term \"war crime\" itself has seen different usage under different systems of international and military law. It has some degree of application outside of what some may consider to be a state of \"war\", but in areas where conflicts persist enough to constitute social instability.\n\nThe legalities of war have sometimes been accused of containing favoritism toward the winners (\"Victor's justice\"), as some controversies have not been ruled as war crimes. Some examples include the Allies' destruction of Axis cities during World War II, such as the firebombing of Dresden, the Operation Meetinghouse raid on Tokyo (the most destructive single bombing raid in history) and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and the mass killing of Biharies by Kader Siddique and Mukti Bahini before or after victory of Bangladesh Liberation War in Bangladesh between 1971 and 1972.\n\nIn regard to the strategic bombing during World War II, it should be noticed that at the time, there was no international treaty or instrument protecting a civilian population specifically from attack by aircraft, therefore the aerial attacks on civilians were not officially war crimes. Because of this, the Allies at the trials in Nuremberg and Tokyo never prosecuted the Germans, including Luftwaffe commander-in-chief Hermann Göring, for the bombing raids on Warsaw, Rotterdam, and British cities during the Blitz as well as the indiscriminate attacks on Allied cities with V-1 flying bombs and V-2 rockets nor the Japanese for the aerial attacks on crowded Chinese cities. Although there are no treaties specific to aerial warfare, Protocol 1, Article 51 of the Geneva Conventions explicitly prohibits the bombardment of cities where civilian population might be concentrated regardless of any method. (see Aerial bombardment and international law).\n\nControversy aroused when the Allies re-designated German POWs (under the protection of the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War) as Disarmed Enemy Forces (allegedly unprotected by the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War), many of which then were used for forced labor such as clearing minefields. By December 1945, six months after the war had ended, it was estimated by French authorities that 2,000 German prisoners were still being killed or maimed each month in mine-clearing accidents. The wording of the 1949 Third Geneva Convention was intentionally altered from that of the 1929 convention so that soldiers who \"fall into the power\" following surrender or mass capitulation of an enemy are now protected as well as those taken prisoner in the course of fighting.", "Crimes against humanity are certain acts that are deliberately committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population or an identifiable part of a population. The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place at the Nuremberg Trials. Crimes against humanity have since been prosecuted by other international courts - such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Court, as well as in domestic prosecutions. The law of crimes against humanity has primarily developed through the evolution of customary international law. Crimes against humanity are not codified in an international convention, although there is currently an international effort to establish such a treaty, led by the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative.\n\nUnlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during peace or war. They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy (although the perpetrators need not identify themselves with this policy) or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority. Murder, massacres, dehumanization, extermination, human experimentation, extrajudicial punishments, death squads, forced disappearances, military use of children, kidnappings, unjust imprisonment, slavery, cannibalism, torture, rape, and political or racial repression may reach the threshold of crimes against humanity if they are part of a widespread or systematic practice.\n\nHistory of the term\n\nThe term \"crimes against humanity\" is potentially ambiguous because of the ambiguity of the word \"humanity\", which can mean humankind (all human beings collectively) or the value of humanness. The history of the term shows that the latter sense is intended. \n\nAbolition of the slave trade\n\nThere were several bilateral treaties in 1814 that foreshadowed the multilateral treaty of Final Act of the Congress of Vienna (1815) that used wording expressing condemnation of the slave trade using moral language. For example, the Treaty of Paris (1814) between Britain and France included the wording \"principles of natural justice\"; and the British and United States plenipotentiaries stated in the Treaty of Ghent (1814) that the slave trade violated the \"principles of humanity and justice\". \n\nThe multilateral Declaration of the Powers, on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, of 8 February 1815 (Which also formed ACT, No. XV. of the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna of the same year) included in its first sentence the concept of the \"principles of humanity and universal morality\" as justification for ending a trade that was \"odious in its continuance\". \n\nFirst use\n\nThe term \"crimes against humanity\" was used by George Washington Williams, in a pamphlet published in 1890, to describe the practices of Belgian King Leopold II's administration of the Congo. In treaty law, the term originated in the Second Hague Convention of 1899 preamble and was expanded in the Fourth Hague Convention of 1907 preamble and their respective regulations, which were concerned with the codification of new rules of international humanitarian law. The preamble of the two Conventions referenced the “laws of humanity” as an expression of underlying inarticulated humanistic values. The term is part of what is known as the Martens Clause.\n\nOn May 24, 1915, the Allied Powers, Britain, France, and Russia, jointly issued a statement explicitly charging for the first time ever another government of committing \"a crime against humanity\". An excerpt from this joint statement reads:\n\nAt the conclusion of the war, an international war crimes commission recommended the creation of a tribunal to try \"violations of the laws of humanity\". However, the US representative objected to references to \"law of humanity\" as being imprecise and insufficiently developed at that time and the concept was not pursued. \n\nNuremberg trials\n\nIn the aftermath of the Second World War, the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal was the decree that set down the laws and procedures by which the post-War Nuremberg trials were to be conducted. The drafters of this document were faced with the problem of how to respond to the Holocaust and grave crimes committed by the Nazi regime. A traditional understanding of war crimes gave no provision for crimes committed by a power on its own citizens. Therefore, Article 6 of the Charter was drafted to include not only traditional war crimes and crimes against peace, but in paragraph 6 (c) Crimes Against Humanity, defined as\n\nIn the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Trial of German Major War Criminals it was also stated:\n\nTokyo trials\n\nThe International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial, was convened to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of crimes: \"Class A\" (crimes against peace), \"Class B\" (war crimes), and \"Class C\" (crimes against humanity), committed during the Second World War.\n\nThe legal basis for the trial was established by the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (CIMTFE) that was proclaimed on 19 January 1946. The tribunal convened on May 3, 1946, and was adjourned on November 12, 1948.\n\nIn the Tokyo Trial, Crimes against Humanity (Class C) was not applied for any suspect. This was because the values of lives of Asian civilians were considered to be worth less than the lives of Caucasian or Jewish civilians. Prosecutions related to the Nanking Massacre were categorised as infringements upon the Laws of War. \n\nWar crimes charges against more junior personnel were dealt with separately, in other cities throughout Far East Asia, such as the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal and the Khabarovsk War Crimes Trials.\n\nA panel of eleven judges presided over the IMTFE, one each from victorious Allied powers (United States, Republic of China, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Provisional Government of the French Republic, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, British India, and the Philippines).\n\nTypes of crimes against humanity\n\nThe different types of crimes which may constitute crimes against humanity differs between definitions both internationally and on the domestic level. Isolated inhumane acts of a certain nature committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack may instead constitute grave infringements of human rights, or – depending on the circumstances – war crimes, but are not classified as crimes against humanity. \n\nApartheid\n\nThe systematic persecution of one racial group by another, such as occurred during the South African apartheid government, was recognized as a crime against humanity by the United Nations General Assembly in 1976. The Charter of the United Nations (Article 13, 14, 15) makes actions of the General Assembly advisory to the Security Council. In regard to apartheid in particular, the UN General Assembly has not made any findings, nor have apartheid-related trials for crimes against humanity been conducted.\n\nRape and sexual violence\n\nNeither the Nuremberg or Tokyo Charters contained an explicit provision recognizing sexual and gender-based crimes as war crimes or crimes against humanity, although Control Council Law No. 10 recognized rape as a crime against humanity. The statutes of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda both included rape as a crime against humanity. The ICC is the first international instrument expressly to include various forms of sexual and gender-based crimes including rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilisation, and other forms of sexual violence as both an underlying act of crimes against humanity and war crime committed in international and/or non-international armed conflicts. \n\nIn 2008, the U.N. Security Council adopted resolution 1820, which noted that “rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide”. \n\nLegal status of crimes against humanity in international law\n\nUnlike genocide and war crimes, which have been widely recognized and prohibited in international criminal law since the establishment of the Nuremberg principles, there has never been a comprehensive convention on crimes against humanity, even though such crimes are continuously perpetrated worldwide in numerous conflicts and crises. There are eleven international texts defining crimes against humanity, but they all differ slightly as to their definition of that crime and its legal elements. \n\nIn 2008, the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative was launched to address this gap in international law. The Initiative represents the first concerted effort to address the gap that exists in international criminal law by enumerating a comprehensive international convention on crimes against humanity. \n\nOn July 30, 2013, the United Nations International Law Commission voted to include the topic of crimes against humanity in its long-term program of work. In July 2014, the Commission moved this topic to its active programme of work based largely on a report submitted by Sean D. Murphy. Professor Sean D. Murphy, the United States’ Member on the United Nations’ International Law Commission, has been named the Special Rapporteur for Crimes Against Humanity. Sean D. Murphy attended the 2008 Experts' Meeting held by the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative prior to this appointment.\n\nThere is some debate on what the status of crimes against humanity under customary international law is. M. Cherif Bassiouni argues that crimes against humanity are part of jus cogens and as such constitute a non-derogable rule of international law.\n\nUnited Nations\n\nThe United Nations has been primarily responsible for the prosecution of crimes against humanity since it was chartered in 1948. \n\nAfter Nuremberg, there was no international court with jurisdiction over crimes against humanity for almost 50 years. Work continued on developing the definition of crimes against humanity at the United Nations, however. In 1947, the International Law Commission was charged by the United Nations General Assembly with the formulation of the principles of international law recognized and reinforced in the Nuremberg Charter and judgment, and with drafting a ‘code of offenses against the peace and security of mankind’. Completed fifty years later in 1996, the Draft Code defined crimes against humanity as various inhumane acts, i.e., \"murder, extermination, torture, enslavement, persecution on political, racial, religious or ethnic grounds, institutionalized discrimination, arbitrary deportation or forcible transfer of population, arbitrary imprisonment, rape, enforced prostitution and other inhuman acts committed in a systematic manner or on a large scale and instigated or directed by a Government or by any organization or group.\" This definition differs from the one used in Nuremberg, where the criminal acts were to have been committed “before or during the war”, thus establishing a nexus between crimes against humanity and armed conflict. \n\nA report on the 2008–09 Gaza War by Richard Goldstone accused Palestinian and Israeli forces of possibly committing a crime against humanity. In 2011, Goldstone said that he no longer believed that Israeli forces had targeted civilians or committed a crime against humanity. \n\nOn 21 March 2013, at its 22nd session, the United Nations Human Rights Council established the Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The Commission is mandated to investigate the systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, with a view to ensuring full accountability, in particular for violations which may amount to crimes against humanity. The Commission dealt with matters relating to crimes against humanity on the basis of definitions set out by customary international criminal law and in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The 2014 Report by the commission found \"the body of testimony and other information it received establishes that crimes against humanity have been committed in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, pursuant to policies established at the highest level of the State... These crimes against humanity entail extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation. The commission further finds that crimes against humanity are ongoing in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea because the policies, institutions and patterns of impunity that lie at their heart remain in place.\" Additionally, the commission found that crimes against humanity have been committed against starving populations, particularly during the 1990s, and are being committed against persons from other countries who were systematically abducted or denied repatriation, in order to gain labour and other skills for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.\n\nSecurity Council\n\nUN Security Council Resolution 1674, adopted by the United Nations Security Council on 28 April 2006, \"reaffirms the provisions of paragraphs 138 and 139 of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document regarding the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity\". The resolution commits the Council to action to protect civilians in armed conflict.\n\nIn 2008 the U.N. Security Council adopted resolution 1820, which noted that “rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide”.\n\nInternational courts and criminal tribunals\n\nAfter the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials of 1945-1946, the next international tribunal with jurisdiction over crimes against humanity was not established for another five decades. In response to atrocities committed in the 1990s, multiple ad hoc tribunals were established with jurisdiction over crimes against humanity. The statutes of the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugolavia and for Rwanda each contain different definitions of crimes against humanity. \n\nInternational Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia\n\nIn 1993, the UN Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), with jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute three international crimes which had taken place in the former Yugoslavia: genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Article 5 of the ICTY Statute states that \n\nThis definition of crimes against humanity revived the original ‘Nuremberg’ nexus with armed conflict, connecting crimes against humanity to both international and non-international armed conflict. It also expanded the list of criminal acts used in Nuremberg to include imprisonment, torture and rape. Cherif Bassiouni has argued that this definition was necessary as the conflict in the former Yugoslavia was considered to be a conflict of both an international and non-international nature. Therefore, this adjusted definition of crimes against humanity was necessary to afford the tribunal jurisdiction over this crime. \n\nInternational Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda\n\nThe UN Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 1994 following the Rwandan Genocide. Under the ICTR Statute, the link between crimes against humanity and an armed conflict of any kind was dropped. Rather, the requirement was added that the inhumane acts must be part of a “systematic or widespread attack against any civilian population on national, political, ethnic, racial or religious grounds.” Unlike the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, the conflict in Rwanda was deemed to be non-international, so crimes against humanity would likely not have been applicable if the nexus to armed conflict had been maintained.\n\nSpecial Court for Sierra Leone\n\nExtraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)\n\nInternational Criminal Court\n\nIn 2002, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in The Hague (Netherlands) and the Rome Statute provides for the ICC to have jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The definition of what is a \"crime against humanity\" for ICC proceedings has significantly broadened from its original legal definition or that used by the UN. Essentially, the Rome Statute employs the same definition of crimes against humanity that the ICTR Statute does, minus the requirement that the attack was carried out ‘on national, political, ethnic, racial or religious grounds’. In addition, the Rome Statute definition offers the most expansive list of specific criminal acts that may constitute crimes against humanity to date.\n\nArticle 7 of the treaty stated that:\n\nThe Rome Statute Explanatory Memorandum states that crimes against humanity\n\nTo fall under the Rome Statute, a crime against humanity which is defined in Article 7.1 must be \"part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population\". Article 7.2.a states \"For the purpose of paragraph 1: \"Attack directed against any civilian population means a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in paragraph 1 against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack.\" This means that an individual crime on its own, or even a number of such crimes, would not fall under the Rome Statute unless they were the result of a State policy or an organizational policy. This was confirmed by Luis Moreno Ocampo in an open letter publishing his conclusions about allegations of crimes committed during the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 which might fall under the ICC. In a section entitled \"Allegations concerning Genocide and Crimes against Humanity\" he states that \"the available information provided no reasonable indicator of the required elements for a crime against humanity,\" i.e. 'a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population'\". \n\nThe ICC can only prosecute crimes against humanity in situations under which it has jurisdiction. The ICC only has jurisdiction over crimes contained in its statute - genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity - which have been committed on the territory of a State party to the Rome Statute, when a non-party State refers a situation within its country to the court or when the United Nation Security Council refers a case to the ICC. In 2005 the UN referred to the ICC the situation in Darfur. This referral resulted in an indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in 2008.International Criminal Court, 14 July 2008. . Accessed 14 July 2008. When the ICC President reported to the UN regarding its progress handling these crimes against humanity case, Judge Phillipe Kirsch said \"The Court does not have the power to arrest these persons. That is the responsibility of States and other actors. Without arrests, there can be no trials. \n\nCouncil of Europe\n\nThe Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 30 April 2002 issued a recommendation to the member states, on the protection of women against violence. In the section \"Additional measures concerning violence in conflict and post-conflict situations\", states in paragraph 69 that member states should: \"penalize rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity as an intolerable violation of human rights, as crimes against humanity and, when committed in the context of an armed conflict, as war crimes;\" \n\nIn the Explanatory Memorandum on this recommendation when considering paragraph 69:\n\nThe Holodomor has been recognized as a crime against humanity by the European Parliament." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Seinfeld.txt" ], "title": [ "Seinfeld" ], "wiki_context": [ "Seinfeld is an American sitcom that originally ran for nine seasons on NBC, from 1989 to 1998. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself. Set predominantly in an apartment building in Manhattan's Upper West Side in New York City (although taped entirely in Los Angeles), the show features a handful of Jerry's friends and acquaintances, particularly best friend George Costanza (Jason Alexander), former girlfriend Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and neighbor across the hall Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards). It is often described as being \"a show about nothing\", as many of its episodes are about the minutiae of daily life.\n\nSeinfeld was produced by Castle Rock Entertainment. In syndication the series has been distributed by Sony Pictures Television since 2002. It was largely written by David and Seinfeld with script writers who included Larry Charles, Peter Mehlman, Gregg Kavet, Carol Leifer, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer, Steve Koren, Jennifer Crittenden, Tom Gammill, Max Pross, Dan O'Keefe, Charlie Rubin, Marjorie Gross, Alec Berg, Elaine Pope, and Spike Feresten.\n\nA favorite among critics, the series led the Nielsen ratings in seasons six and nine, and finished among the top two (with NBC's ER) every year from 1994 to 1998. In 2002, TV Guide named Seinfeld the greatest television program of all time. In 1997, the episodes \"The Boyfriend\" and \"The Parking Garage\" were respectively ranked numbers 4 and 33 on TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time, and in 2009, \"The Contest\" was ranked No. 1 on the same magazine's list of TV's Top 100 Episodes of All Time.\"TV's Top 100 Episodes of All Time and over 6.5 billion different people have watched an episode\" TV Guide; June 15, 2009; Pages 34-49 E! named it the \"number 1 reason the '90s ruled.\" In 2013, the Writers Guild of America named Seinfeld the No. 2 Best Written TV Series of All Time (second to The Sopranos). That same year, Entertainment Weekly named it the No. 3 best TV series of all time and TV Guide ranked it at No. 2. \n\nPremise\n\nCharacters\n\n;Main\n\n* Jerry Seinfeld – Jerry is a \"minor celeb\" stand-up comedian who is often depicted as \"the voice of reason\" amidst the general insanity generated by the people in his world. The in-show character is a slight germaphobe and neat freak, as well as an avid Superman, New York Mets and breakfast cereal fan. Jerry's apartment is the center of a world visited by his eccentric friends and a focus of the show. Plot lines often involve Jerry's social interactions and romantic relationships. He typically finds minor, pedantic reasons to break up with women, including a habit of eating peas one at a time, oversized \"man hands\" and an irritating laugh. Other plot lines involve his longtime enemy Newman and his overbearing relatives, whom he meets periodically.\n* Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) – Elaine is Jerry's ex-girlfriend and later friend. She is attractive and assertive, while also being playful, selfish and occasionally self-righteous. She sometimes has a tendency to be too honest with people (usually by losing her temper), which often gets her into trouble. She usually gets caught up in her boyfriends' quirks, eccentric employers' unusual behaviors and idiosyncrasies, and the maladjustment of total strangers. She tends to make poor choices in men she chooses to date and is often overly reactionary. First she works at Pendant Publishing with Mr. Lippman, is later hired as a personal assistant for Mr. Pitt, and later works for the J. Peterman catalogue as a glorified assistant. One of Elaine's trademark moves is her forceful shove while exclaiming \"Get Out!\" when she receives good, objectionable or surprising news. Another is her memorable \"Little Kicks\" dance move, which is described as a full body heave accompanied by a double-fisted \"thumbs-up\" and \"little kicks.\" She hates The English Patient, which is met with significant social disapproval. Elaine is popularly described as an amalgamation of David's and Seinfeld's girlfriends during their early days in New York as struggling comedians.\n* Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) – Kramer is Jerry's \"wacky neighbor.\" His trademarks include his humorous upright pompadour hairstyle, vintage clothes, and energetic sliding bursts through Jerry's apartment door. Kramer was heavily based on a neighbor of David's during his amateur comedic years in Manhattan. At times, he appears naïve, dense, and infantile, and at other times, insightful, experienced, and inexplicably influential; similarly, he is exaggeratedly successful, socially, with his charm and easygoing manner. This is seen in his infallible success with women and employers. He has been described as a \"hipster doofus.\" Although he never holds a steady job, he is rarely short of money and often invents wacky schemes that often work at first then eventually fail. Among these are coffee table books about coffee tables (for which he appeared on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee) and a bra for men called the Bro, also known as the Manssiere, with Frank Costanza. Kramer is longtime friends with Newman, and they work well together despite their differences. \n* George Costanza (Jason Alexander) – George is Jerry's best friend, and has been since high school. He is miserly, dishonest, petty and envious of others' achievements. He is depicted as a loser who is perpetually insecure about his capabilities. He complains and lies easily about his profession, relationships and almost everything else, which usually creates trouble for him later. He often uses the alias Art Vandelay when lying or concocting a cover story. Despite these shortcomings, George has a sense of loyalty to his friends and success in dating women and eventually secures a successful career as Assistant to the Traveling Secretary for the New York Yankees. During the run of the show, George and Jerry work with NBC to produce a pilot episode of a TV show called Jerry. During this time, he meets Susan Ross, who works for NBC. George has an on-and-off relationship with her, eventually getting engaged, until she dies at the end of season seven.\n\n;Recurring\n\nMany characters have made multiple appearances, like Jerry's nemesis Newman and his Uncle Leo. In addition to recurring characters, Seinfeld features numerous celebs who appear as themselves or girlfriends, boyfriends, bosses and other acquaintances. Many actors who made guest appearances became household names later in their careers, or were already well known.\n\nPlotlines\n\nMany Seinfeld episodes are based on the writers' real-life experiences, with the experiences re-interpreted for the characters' storyline. For example, George's storyline, \"The Revenge\", is based on Larry David's experience at Saturday Night Live. \"The Contest\" is also based on David's experiences. \"The Smelly Car\" storyline is based on Peter Mehlman's lawyer friend, who could not get a bad smell out of his car. \"The Strike\" is based on Dan O'Keefe's dad, who made up his own holiday—Festivus. Other stories take on a variety of turns. \"The Chinese Restaurant\" consists of George, Jerry and Elaine waiting for a table throughout the entire episode. \"The Boyfriend\", revolving around Keith Hernandez, extends through 2 episodes. \"The Betrayal\" is famous for using reverse chronology, and was inspired by a similar plot device in a Harold Pinter play, Betrayal. Some stories were inspired by headlines and rumors, as explained in the DVD features \"Notes About Nothing\", \"Inside Look\", and \"Audio Commentary.\" In \"The Maestro\", Kramer's lawsuit is roughly similar to the McDonald's coffee case. \"The Outing\" is based primarily on rumors that Larry Charles heard about Jerry Seinfeld's sexuality. \n\nThemes\n\nSeinfeld broke several conventions of mainstream TV. It's often described as being \"a show about nothing\". However, Seinfeld in 2014 stated \"the pitch for the show, the real pitch, when Larry and I went to NBC in 1988, was we want to show how a comedian gets his material. The show about nothing was just a joke in an episode many years later, and Larry and I to this day are surprised that it caught on as a way that people describe the show, because to us it's the opposite of that.\" \n\nIt became the first TV series since Monty Python's Flying Circus to be widely described as postmodern. Several elements of Seinfeld fit in with a postmodern interpretation. \n\nThe show is typically driven by humor interspersed with superficial conflict and characters with peculiar dispositions. Many episodes revolved around the characters' involvement in the lives of others with typically disastrous results. On the set, the notion that the characters should not develop or improve throughout the series was expressed as the \"no hugging, no learning\" rule. Unlike most sitcoms, there are no moments of pathos; the audience is never made to feel sorry for any of the characters. Even Susan's death elicits no genuine emotions from anybody in the show. \n\nThe characters are \"thirty-something singles with vague identities, no roots, and conscious indifference to morals.\" Usual conventions, like isolating the characters from the actors playing them and separating the characters' world from that of the actors and audience, were broken. One such example is the story arc where the characters promote a TV sitcom series named Jerry. The show within a show, Jerry, was much like Seinfeld in that it was \"about nothing\" and Seinfeld played himself. The fictional Jerry was launched in the season four finale, but unlike Seinfeld, it wasn't picked up as a series. Jerry is one of many examples of metafiction in the show. There are no fewer than twenty-two fictional movies featured, like Rochelle, Rochelle. \n\nCatchphrases\n\nMany terms were coined, popularized, or re-popularized in the series' run and have become part of popular culture. Notable catchphrases include \"Yada, yada, yada\", \"No soup for you\", \"These pretzels are making me thirsty\" and \"Not that there's anything wrong with that\".\n\nOther popular terms that made the transition into slang were created by, directed at or about secondary characters, including: \"Festivus\", \"spongeworthy\", \"double-dipping\", and \"re-gifter\".\n\nAs a body, the lexicon of Seinfeldian code words and recurring phrases that evolved around particular episodes is referred to as Seinlanguage, the title of Jerry Seinfeld's best-selling book on humor.\n\nMusic\n\nA signature of Seinfeld is its theme music. Composed by Jonathan Wolff, it consists of distinct solo sampled bass synthesizer riffs (played on a Korg M1 synthesizer) which open the show and connect the scenes, often accompanied by a \"percussion track\" composed of mouth noises, like pops and clicks. The bass synthesizer music eventually replaced the original music by Jep Epstein when it was played again after the first broadcast \"The Seinfeld Chronicles\". The show lacked a traditional title track and the riffs were played over the first moments of dialogue or action. They vary throughout each episode and are played in an improvised funk style. An additional musical theme with an ensemble, led by a synthesized mid-range brass instrument, ends each episode.\n\nIn \"The Note\", the first episode of season three, the bumper music featured a scatting female jazz singer who sang a phrase that sounded like \"easy to beat\". Jerry Seinfeld and executive producer Larry David both liked Wolff's additions, and three episodes were produced with this new style music. However, they had neglected to inform NBC and Castle Rock executives of the change, and when the season premiere aired, the executives were surprised and unimpressed, and requested that they return to the original style. The subsequent two episodes were redone, leaving this episode as the only one with additional music elements. In the commentary of \"The Note\", Julia Dreyfus facetiously suggests it was removed because the perceived lyric related closely to the low ratings at the time. \n\nIn the final three seasons, the bits were tweaked slightly with more frantic rhythms; a bass guitar was added in addition to the sampled bass from earlier seasons. Throughout the show, the main theme could be re-styled in different ways depending on the episode. For instance, in \"The Betrayal\", part of which takes place in India, the theme is heard played on a sitar.\n\nEpisodes\n\nSeinfeld stood out from family and group sitcoms of its time. None of the principal characters are related by family or work connections but remain distinctively close friends throughout the series. Its own creative personnel called it \"a show about nothing\".\n\nMany characters were based primarily on Seinfeld's and David's real-life acquaintances. Two prominent recurring characters were based on well-known people: Jacopo Peterman of the J. Peterman catalog (based on John Peterman), and George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees. Many characters were introduced as new writers got involved with Seinfeld. Other characters based on real people include the Soup Nazi and Jackie Chiles based on Johnnie Cochran. \n\nSeinfeld follows its own structure: a story thread is presented at the beginning of every episode, which involves the characters starting in their own situations. Rapid scene-shifts between plot lines bring the stories together. Even though it does not follow a pattern as other sitcoms, the character's story variously intertwines in each episode. Despite the separate plot strands, the narratives reveal the creators' \"consistent efforts to maintain the intimacy\" among the small cast of characters. \n\nThe show maintains a strong sense of continuity—characters and plots from past episodes are often referenced or expanded on. Occasionally, story arcs span multiple episodes and even entire seasons, the most memorable being season four, which revolved around the pilot pitch to NBC by Jerry and George. Another example is Jerry's girlfriend Vanessa, who appears in \"The Stake Out\" and he ends the relationship when things do not work out in \"The Stock Tip\". Other examples are Kramer getting his jacket back and Elaine heading the \"Peterman catalog\". Larry David, the head writer and executive producer for the first seven seasons, was praised for keeping a close eye on minor details and making sure the main characters' lives remained consistent and believable. Curb Your Enthusiasm—David's later comedy series— expanded on this idea by following a specific theme for all but one season in the series.\n\nA major difference between Seinfeld and sitcoms which preceded it is that the principal characters never learn from their mistakes. In effect, they are indifferent and even callous towards the outside world and sometimes one another. A mantra of the show's producers was: \"No hugging, no learning.\" Entertainment Weeklys TV critic Ken Tucker has described them as \"a group dynamic rooted in jealousy, rage, insecurity, despair, hopelessness, and a touching lack of faith in one's fellow human beings.\" This leads to very few happy endings, except at somebody else's expense. More often in every episode, situations resolve with characters getting a justly deserved comeuppance.\n\nSeasons 1–3\n\nThe show premiered as The Seinfeld Chronicles on July 5, 1989. After it aired, a pickup by NBC seemed unlikely and the show was offered to Fox, which declined to pick it up. Rick Ludwin, head of late night and special events for NBC, however, diverted money from his budget by canceling a Bob Hope television special, and the next 4 episodes were filmed. These episodes were highly rated as they followed Cheers on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m., and the series was finally picked up. At one point NBC considered airing these episodes on Saturdays at 10:30 p.m., but gave that slot to a short-lived sitcom called FM. The series was renamed Seinfeld after the failure of short-lived 1990 ABC series The Marshall Chronicles. After airing in the summer of 1990, NBC ordered thirteen more episodes. Larry David believed that he and Jerry Seinfeld had no more stories to tell, and advised Seinfeld to turn down the order, but Seinfeld agreed to the additional episodes. Season two was bumped off its scheduled premiere of January 16, 1991, due to the outbreak of the (Persian) Gulf War. It settled into a regular time slot on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. and eventually flipped with veteran series Night Court to 9:00. \n\nTV critics championed Seinfeld in its early seasons, even as it was slow to cultivate a substantial audience. For the first three seasons, Jerry's stand-up comedy act would bookend an episode, even functioning as cut scenes during the show. A few episodes set a benchmark for later seasons. \"The Deal\" establishes Jerry and Elaine's relationship by setting rules about sleeping together and remaining friends. \"The Parking Garage\" was the first episode shot with no audience for the episode, as well as not showing Jerry's apartment, after \"The Chinese Restaurant. \"The Keys\" contains a crossover to CBS show Murphy Brown, marking the first such cooperation between rival networks. \"The Busboy\" introduces George, Kramer and Elaine as having their own storylines for the first time. Although Castle Rock Entertainment's Glenn Padnick thought Jerry Seinfeld was too generous, showcasing his co-stars' comedic talent became a trademark throughout the series. \n\nLarry Charles wrote an episode for season two, \"The Bet\", where Elaine buys a gun from Kramer's friend. This episode wasn't filmed because the content was deemed unacceptable, and was replaced by the episode \"The Phone Message\". \"The Stranded\", aired in season three, was intended for season two. In the beginning of this episode, Jerry clears up the continuity error over George's real estate job. \n\nSeasons 4–5\n\nSeason four marked the sitcom's entry into the Nielsen ratings Top 30, coinciding with several popular episodes, like \"The Bubble Boy\", where George and the bubble boy are arguing over Trivial Pursuit, and \"The Junior Mint\" where Jerry and Kramer accidentally fumble a mint in the operating room. This was the first season to use a story arc where Jerry and George create their own sitcom, Jerry. Also at this time, the use of Jerry's stand-up act slowly declined, and the stand-up segment in the middle of Seinfeld episodes was cut.\n\nMuch publicity followed the controversial episode, \"The Contest\", an Emmy Award-winning episode written by co-creator Larry David, whose subject matter was considered inappropriate for prime time network TV. To circumvent this taboo, the word \"masturbation\" was never used in the script, instead substituted by a variety of oblique references. Midway through that season, Seinfeld was moved from its original 9:00 p.m. time slot on Wednesdays to 9:30 p.m. on Thursdays, following Cheers again, which gave the show even more popularity. Ratings also sparked the move, as Tim Allen's sitcom Home Improvement on ABC had aired at the same time and Improvement kept beating Seinfeld in the ratings. NBC moved the series after Ted Danson announced the end of Cheers and Seinfeld quickly surpassed the ratings of the 9:00 p.m. Cheers reruns that spring. The show won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1993, beating out its family-oriented, time-slot competitor Home Improvement, which was only in its second season on fellow network ABC.\n\nSeason five was an even bigger ratings-hit, consisting of popular episodes like \"The Puffy Shirt\" where Jerry feels embarrassed wearing the \"pirate\" shirt on The Today Show, \"The Non-Fat Yogurt\" featuring Rudy Giuliani, the Republican then-mayor-elect of New York, and \"The Opposite\" where George does the opposite of his instincts that lands him in the \"New York Yankees\" and Elaine leaves \"Pendant Publishing\" because of a comedy of errors that led to its demise. Another story arc has George returning to live with his parents. In the midst of the story arc, Kramer creates and promotes his coffee table book. The show was again nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, but lost to the Cheers spin-off Frasier, then in its first season. Seinfeld was nominated for the same award every year for the entire run but always lost to Frasier, which went on to win a record thirty-nine Emmy Awards.\n\nSeasons 6–7\n\nWith Season six, Andy Ackerman replaced Tom Cherones as director of the show. The series remained well-regarded and produced some of its most famous episodes, like \"The Beard\" where Jerry is put through a lie detector test, to make him admit that he watched Melrose Place, \"The Switch\", where Kramer's mom, Babs, revealed that his first name is Cosmo and \"The Understudy\" when Elaine meets J. Peterman for the first time. Story arcs used in this season were Elaine working as a personal assistant to her eccentric boss Justin Pitt, as well as George's parents' temporary separation. This was the first season where Seinfeld reached No. 1 in the Nielsen Ratings. The use of Jerry's stand-up act declined with the end stand-up segment no longer used as the storylines for all four characters grew denser.\n\nIn season seven, a story arc involved George getting engaged to his ex-girlfriend, Susan Ross, after the unsuccessful pilot Jerry. He spends most of the season regretting and trying to get out of the engagement. Along with the regular half-hour episodes, two notable one-hour episodes include \"The Cadillac\" where George plans to date award winning actor Marisa Tomei and \"The Bottle Deposit\" with Elaine and Sue Ellen participating in a bidding war to buy JFK's golf clubs in an auction. \n\nSeasons 8–9\n\nThe show's ratings were still going strong in its final two seasons. Larry David left at the end of season seven (although he continued to voice Steinbrenner), so Seinfeld assumed David's duties as showrunner, and, under the direction of a new writing staff, Seinfeld became a faster-paced show. The show no longer contained extracts of Jerry performing stand-up comedy (Jerry had no time or energy for this with his new roles), and storylines occasionally delved into fantasy and broad humor. For example, in \"The Bizarro Jerry\", Elaine is torn between exact opposites of her friends and Jerry dates a woman who has the now-famed \"man hands\". Some notable episodes from season eight include \"The Little Kicks\" showing Elaine's horrible dancing, and \"The Chicken Roaster\" which portrays the Kenny Rogers Roasters chicken restaurant which opened during that time. A story arc in this season involves Peterman going to Burma in \"The Foundation\" until he recovered from a nervous breakdown in \"The Money\", followed by Elaine writing Peterman's biography in \"The Van Buren Boys\" which leads to Kramer's parody of Kenny Kramer's Reality Tour seen in \"The Muffin Tops\". \n\nThe final season included episodes like \"The Merv Griffin Show\" where Kramer converts his apartment into a talk-show studio and plays the character of talk-show host, \"The Betrayal\" that follows in reverse chronology order of what happened to Sue Ellen's wedding in India, and \"The Frogger\", where George pushes a Frogger machine across the street. The last season included a story arc where Elaine has an on/off relationship with Puddy. Despite the enormous popularity and willingness from the cast to return for a tenth season, Seinfeld decided to end the show after season nine, in an effort to maintain quality and \"go out on top\". NBC offered him $110 million but he declined the offer.\n\nA major controversy caused in this final season was the accidental burning of a Puerto Rican flag by Kramer in \"The Puerto Rican Day\". This scene caused a furor among Puerto Ricans, and as a result, NBC showed this episode only once. However, Jerry Seinfeld defused the protestors by not letting this episode continue in syndication, as revealed in \"Inside Look\" on DVD. \n\nSeries finale\n\nAfter nine years on the air, NBC and Jerry Seinfeld announced on December 25, 1997, that the series would end production the following spring in 1998. The announcement made the front page of the major New York newspapers, including the New York Times. Jerry Seinfeld was featured on the cover of Time magazine's first issue of 1998. The series ended with a seventy-five-minute episode (cut to 60 minutes in syndication, in two parts) written by co-creator and ex-executive producer Larry David, which aired on May 14, 1998. Before the finale, a forty-five-minute retrospective clip show, \"The Chronicle\", was aired. The retrospective was expanded to an hour after the original airing and aired again on NBC as an hour-long episode, and has since aired in syndication.\n\nIt was the first episode since the finale of season seven, \"The Invitations\", to feature opening and closing stand-up comedy acts by Jerry Seinfeld. The finale was filmed before an audience of NBC executives and friends of the show. The press and public were shut out of the taping for the sake of keeping its plot secret, and those who attended the shoot of the final episode signed written \"vows of silence.\" The secrecy only seemed to increase speculation on how the series would end. The producers of the show tweaked the media about the hype, spreading a false rumor about Newman ending up in the hospital and Jerry and Elaine sitting in a chapel, presumably to marry. \n\nThe final episode enjoyed a historic audience, estimated at 76.3 million viewers (58% of all viewers that night) making it the fourth most watched regular series finale in U.S. TV history, behind M*A*S*H, Cheers and The Fugitive. However, the finale received mixed reviews from critics and fans of the show. The finale poked fun at the many rumors that were circulating, seeming to move into multiple supposed plots before settling on its true storyline—a lengthy trial where the gang is prosecuted for violating a \"Good Samaritan law\" and sentenced to prison terms.\n\nAccording to Forbes magazine, Jerry Seinfeld's earning from the show in 1998 was US$267 million, including syndication earnings. He refused NBC's offer of $5 million per episode, or over $100 million total, to continue the show into a tenth season. The offer NBC made to Seinfeld was over three times higher per episode than anyone on TV had ever been offered. Seinfeld told the network that he was not married and had no children, and wished to focus on his personal life. As reported in July 2007, he was the second-highest earner in the TV industry, earning at the time $60 million a year. The show became the first TV series to command over $1 million a minute for advertising–a mark previously attained only by the Super Bowl. According to Barry Meyer, chairman of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Seinfeld has made $2.7 billion through June 2010. \n\nProduction\n\nSeinfeld began as a twenty-three-minute pilot titled The Seinfeld Chronicles. Created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, developed by NBC executive Rick Ludwin, and produced by Castle Rock Entertainment, it was a mix of Seinfeld's stand-up comedy routines and idiosyncratic, conversational scenes focusing on mundane aspects of everyday life like laundry, the buttoning of the top button on one's shirt and the effort by men to properly interpret the intent of women spending the night in Seinfeld's apartment.Battaglio, Stephen (June 30, 2014). \"'Annoying' 'Disorienting' 'Boring': On Seinfeld's 25th anniversary an exclusive look at the memo that almost killed the show\". TV Guide. pp. 18-19.\n\nThe pilot was filmed at Stage 8 of Desilu Cahuenga studios, the same studio where The Dick Van Dyke Show was filmed (this was seen by the crew as a good omen), and was recorded at Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood. The pilot was first screened to a group of two dozen NBC executives in Burbank, California in early 1989. It didn't yield the explosion of laughter garnered by the pilots for the decade's previous NBC successes like The Cosby Show and The Golden Girls. Brandon Tartikoff, was not convinced that the show would work. A Jewish man from New York himself, Tartikoff characterized it as \"Too New York, too Jewish\". Test audiences were even harsher. NBC's practice at the time was to recruit 400 households by phone to ask them to evaluate pilots it aired on an unused channel on its cable system. An NBC research department memo summarized the pilot's performance among the respondents as \"Weak\", which Littlefield called \"a dagger to the heart\". Comments included, \"You can't get too excited about two guys going to the laundromat\"; \"Jerry's loser friend George isn't a forceful character\"; \"Jerry needs a stronger supporting cast\"; and \"Why are they interrupting the stand-up for these stupid stories?\" Seinfeld and David didn't see the memo for several years, but after they became aware of it, they hung it in a bathroom on the set. Seinfeld comments, \"We thought, if someone goes in to use this bathroom, this is something they should see. It fits that moment.\"\n\nWhen NBC announced its 1989–90 primetime schedule in May 1989, The Seinfeld Chronicles was not included, but supporters of the show didn't give up on it. The pilot first aired on July 5, 1989, and finished second in its time slot against the CBS police drama Jake and the Fatman, receiving a Nielsen rating of 10.9/19, meaning that the pilot was watched by 10.9% of American households, and that 19% of all TVs in use at the time were tuned into it. The ratings didn't exhibit regional skew that Tartikoff predicted, much to the encouragement of the show's supporters. Despite the poor test results, Ludwin cancelled one of the Bob Hope specials budgeted for that season so that the entertainment division had the money to order six more episodes of The Seinfeld Chronicles, which formed the rest of the show's first season, a move without which Chicago Tribune columnist Phil Rosenthal later stated there would be no Seinfeld. Although this was a very low order number for a new series (the smallest sitcom order in TV history), Castle Rock failed to find any other buyers when it shopped the show to other networks, and accepted the order. The show was renamed Seinfeld, but it wouldn't return to the airwaves until May 30, 1990, and it'd be another three years before it became a Top 5 ratings success. Preston Beckman, who was in charge of NBC's research department at the time, reminisced, \"The show was different. Nobody had seen anything like it. It wasn't unusual for poor-testing shows to get on the air, but it was very rare that they became hits.\"\n\nWhen it was first repeated on June 28, 1990, it received a rating of 13.9/26. These ratings were high enough to secure a second season. NBC research showed that the show was popular with young male adults, a demographic sought after by advertisers. This gave NBC an incentive to keep broadcasting the show. One DVD reviewer, Britt Gillette, wrote that \"this initial episode exhibits the flashes of brilliance that made Seinfeld a cultural phenomenon.\" \n\nHigh-definition versions\n\nThere are two high-definition versions of Seinfeld. The first is that of the network TV (non-syndicated) versions in the original aspect ratio of 4:3 that were downscaled for the DVD releases. Syndicated broadcast stations and the cable network TBS began airing the syndicated version of Seinfeld in HD. Unlike the version used for the DVD, Sony Pictures cropped the top and bottom parts of the frame, while restoring previously cropped images on the sides, from the 35 mm film source, to use the entire 16:9 frame. \n\nReception and legacy\n\nElizabeth Magnotta and Alexandra Strohl analyze the success of Seinfeld with recourse to the incongruity theory of humor: \"The Incongruity Theory claims that humor is created out of a violation of an expectation. For humor to result from this unexpected result, the event must have an appropriate emotional climate, the setting, characters, prior discourse, relationships of the characters, and the topic.\" Specifically, Magnotta and Strohl focus on \"The Marine Biologist\", where George is embroiled in yet another lie, and on \"The Red Dot\", where George tries to save a few dollars at Elaine's expense by giving her a marked-down cashmere sweater.\n\nNod Miller, of the University of East London, has discussed the self-referential qualities of the show:\n\nWilliam Irwin has edited an anthology of scholarly essays on philosophy in Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing. Some entries include \"The Jerry Problem and the Socratic Problem,\" \"George's Failed Zest for Happiness: An Aristotelian Analysis,\" \"Elaine's Moral Character,\" \"Kramer the 'Seducer',\" \"Making Something Out of Nothing: Seinfeld, Sophistry and the Tao,\" \"Seinfeld, Subjectivity, and Sartre,\" \"Mr. Peterman, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Me,\" and \"Minimally Decent Samaritans and Uncommon Law.\" \n\nU.S. television ratings\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nSeinfeld has received awards and nominations in various categories throughout the mid-1990s. It was awarded the Emmy for \"Outstanding Comedy Series\" in 1993, Golden Globe Award for \"Best TV-Series (Comedy)\" in 1994 and Screen Actors Guild Award for \"Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series\" in 1995, 1997 and 1998. Apart from these, the show was also nominated for an Emmy award from 1992 to 1998 for \"Outstanding Comedy series\", Golden Globe award from 1994 to 1998 for \"Best TV-Series (Comedy)\", and Screen Actors Guild Award for \"Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series\" from 1995 to 1998. \n\nTV Guide named it the greatest TV show of all time in 2002. and in 2013, they ranked it as the second greatest TV show.\n\nConsumer products\n\nA recurring feature of Seinfeld was its inclusion of specific products, especially candy, as plot points. These might be a central feature of a plot (e.g., Junior Mints, Twix, Jujyfruits, bite size Three Musketeers, Snickers, Nestlé Chunky, Oh Henry!, Drake's Coffee Cake and PEZ), or an association of candy with a guest character (e.g. Oh Henry! bars) or simply a conversational aside (e.g., Chuckles, Clark Bar, Twinkies). A large number of non-candy products were also featured throughout the series.\n\nThe show's creators claim that they weren't engaging in a product placement strategy for commercial gain. One motivation for the use of real-world products, quite unrelated to commercial considerations, is the comedy value of funny-sounding phrases and words. \"I knew I wanted Kramer to think of watching the operation like going to see a movie\", explained Seinfeld writer/producer Andy Robin in an interview published in the Hollywood Reporter. \"At first, I thought maybe a piece of popcorn falls into the patient. I ran that by my brother, and he said, 'No, Junior Mints are just funnier.'\" \n\nMany advertisers capitalized on the popularity of Seinfeld. American Express created a webisode where Jerry Seinfeld and an animated Superman (voiced by Patrick Warburton, who played the role of Puddy) starred in its commercial. The makers of the Today Sponge created the \"Spongeworthy\" game, on their website, inspired by \"The Sponge\". An advertisement featured Jason Alexander in a Chrysler commercial. In this, Alexander acts much like his character George, and his relationship with Lee Iacocca plays on his George's relationship with Steinbrenner. Similarly, Michael Richards was the focus of a series of advertisements for Vodafone which ran in Australia where he dressed and acted exactly like Kramer, including the trademark bumbling pratfalls.\n\nIn addition, the show occasionally incorporated fictional products like a Scotch brand called \"Hennigan's\" (a portmanteau of \"Hennessy\" and \"Brannigans\") and a canned meat product called \"Beef-a-reeno\" (a parody of \"Beef-a-roni\").\n\nHome video releases\n\nDVD releases\n\nSony Pictures Home Entertainment released all nine seasons of Seinfeld on DVD in Regions 1, 2 and 4 between 2004 and 2007. On November 6, 2007, Seinfeld: The Complete Series was released on DVD. The complete series set box set includes a 2007 \"roundtable\" reunion of the four main cast members and Larry David; only highlights of this were also included in the Season 9 set.\n\nStreaming on Hulu\n\nOn April 29, 2015, it was officially announced, during Hulu's \"Upfront\" presentation in New York, that all nine seasons of Seinfeld would be available for online streaming, via the video service, starting in June 2015. The news was first reported by Variety and Deadline, citing the deal at around $130 million to $180 million. On May 20, 2015, Hulu announced that every episode would be available, on June 24, 2015. \n\nAfter Seinfeld\n\nAnother scene\n\nOn the November 1, 2007, episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Seinfeld mentioned the possibility of shooting one last scene, after they leave jail. He mentioned that he was too busy to do it at the time, but didn't announce what the scene would entail, as its production isn't a certainty. \n\nIn commentary from the final season DVD, Seinfeld outlines that he and Jason Alexander spoke about this scene being in Monk's Cafe, with George saying \"That was brutal\" in reference to the foursome's stint in prison. \n\nThe Seinfeld \"curse\"\n\nLouis-Dreyfus, Alexander, and Richards have all tried to launch new sitcoms as title-role characters. Despite acclaim and even respectable ratings, almost every show was canceled quickly, usually within the first season. This gave rise to the term Seinfeld curse: the failure of a sitcom starring one of the three, despite the conventional wisdom that each person's Seinfeld popularity should almost guarantee a strong, built-in audience for the actor's new show. Shows specifically cited regarding the Seinfeld curse are Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Watching Ellie, Jason Alexander's Bob Patterson and Listen Up!, and Michael Richards' The Michael Richards Show. Larry David said of the curse, \"It's so completely idiotic. It's very hard to have a successful sitcom.\" \n\nThis phenomenon was mentioned throughout the second season of Larry David's HBO program Curb Your Enthusiasm. However, the Emmy award-winning success of Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the CBS sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine led many to believe that she had broken the curse. In her acceptance speech, Louis-Dreyfus held up her award and exclaimed, \"I'm not somebody who really believes in curses, but curse this, baby!\" The show was on the air for five seasons starting March 13, 2006 before its cancellation on May 18, 2010; the series produced enough episodes to air in reruns in syndication for several years, something the other shows didn't achieve. The Saturday Night Live episode guest-hosted by Louis-Dreyfus made references to the curse. Louis-Dreyfus went on to win four further Lead Actress in a Comedy Emmys for her acclaimed performance as Vice President Selina Meyer in HBO's comedy series Veep.\n\nCurb Your Enthusiasm\n\nEarly in March 2009, it was announced that the Seinfeld cast would reunite for season seven of Curb Your Enthusiasm. The cast first appeared in the third episode of the season, all playing their real life selves. The season-long story is that Larry David tries to initiate a Seinfeld reunion show as a ploy to get ex-wife, Cheryl, back. Along with the 4 main characters, some Seinfeld supporting actors like Wayne Knight, Estelle Harris and Steve Hytner appeared in the ninth episode at a table read for the reunion show. Though much dialogue in Curb Your Enthusiasm is improvised, the plot was scripted, and the Seinfeld special that aired within the show was scripted and directed by Seinfeld regular Andy Ackerman, making this the first time since Seinfeld went off the air that the central cast appeared together in a scripted show.\n\nComedians in Cars Getting Coffee\n\nJerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander and Wayne Knight, playing their respective Seinfeld characters, appeared in a spot presented during halftime of the 2014 Super Bowl on February 2. FOX came up with the idea of doing such a spot, due in part to the location being in New York that year. An uncut version appeared on Crackle.com immediately afterward, as an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee titled \"The Over-Cheer\". Although the spot was used to advertise Seinfeld's web series, it was not considered a commercial, as Sony, who produces the series, did not pay for it. Seinfeld has indicated that he thinks the webisode will probably be the last cast reunion, saying \"I have a feeling you've seen the final coda on that very unique experience.\" \n\nApart from the Super Bowl spot, Larry David, Michael Richards and Julia Louis-Dreyfus have appeared as guests on regular episodes of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Wyoming.txt" ], "title": [ "Wyoming" ], "wiki_context": [ "Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The state is with its 97,000-plus square miles the tenth largest by area, but having less than 600,000 people the least populous and the second least densely populated of the 50 united states. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. Cheyenne is the capital and the most populous city in Wyoming, with a population estimate of 62,448 in 2013.\n\nThe western two-thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High Plains. \n\nGeography\n\nLocation and size\n\nAs specified in the designating legislation for the Territory of Wyoming, Wyoming's borders are lines of latitude, 41°N and 45°N, and longitude, 104°3'W and 111°3'W (27° W and 34° W of the Washington Meridian), making the shape of the state a latitude-longitude quadrangle. Wyoming is one of only three states (along with Colorado and Utah) to have borders along only straight latitudinal and longitudinal lines, rather than being defined by natural landmarks. Due to surveying inaccuracies during the 19th century, Wyoming's legal border deviates from the true latitude and longitude lines by up to half of a mile (0.8 km) in some spots, especially in the mountainous region along the 45th parallel. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. It is the tenth largest state in the United States in total area, containing 97814 sqmi and is made up of 23 counties. From the north border to the south border it is 276 mi; and from the east to the west border is 365 mi at its south end and 342 mi at the north end.\n\nMountain ranges\n\nThe Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming. The state is a great plateau broken by many mountain ranges. Surface elevations range from the summit of Gannett Peak in the Wind River Mountain Range, at 13804 ft, to the Belle Fourche River valley in the state's northeast corner, at 3125 ft. In the northwest are the Absaroka, Owl Creek, Gros Ventre, Wind River and the Teton ranges. In the north central are the Big Horn Mountains; in the northeast, the Black Hills; and in the southern region the Laramie, Snowy and Sierra Madre ranges.\n\nThe Snowy Range in the south central part of the state is an extension of the Colorado Rockies in both geology and appearance. The Wind River Range in the west central part of the state is remote and includes more than 40 mountain peaks in excess of 13000 ft tall in addition to Gannett Peak, the highest peak in the state. The Big Horn Mountains in the north central portion are somewhat isolated from the bulk of the Rocky Mountains.\n\nThe Teton Range in the northwest extends for 50 mi, part of which is included in Grand Teton National Park. The park includes the Grand Teton, the second highest peak in the state.\n\nThe Continental Divide spans north-south across the central portion of the state. Rivers east of the divide drain into the Missouri River Basin and eventually the Gulf of Mexico. They are the North Platte, Wind, Big Horn and the Yellowstone rivers. The Snake River in northwest Wyoming eventually drains into the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, as does the Green River through the Colorado River Basin.\n\nThe Continental Divide forks in the south central part of the state in an area known as the Great Divide Basin where the waters that flow or precipitate into this area remain there and cannot flow to any ocean. Instead, because of the overall aridity of Wyoming, water in the Great Divide Basin simply sinks into the soil or evaporates.\n\nSeveral rivers begin in or flow through the state, including the Yellowstone River, Bighorn River, Green River, and the Snake River.\n\nIslands\n\nWyoming has 32 named islands, of which the majority are located in Jackson Lake and Yellowstone Lake within Yellowstone National Park in the northwest portion of the state. The Green River in the southwest also contains a number of islands.\n\nPublic lands\n\nMore than 48% of the land in Wyoming is owned by the U.S. government, leading Wyoming to rank sixth in the U.S. in total acres and fifth in percentage of a state's land owned by the federal government. This amounts to about 30099430 acre owned and managed by the U.S. government. The state government owns an additional 6% of all Wyoming lands, or another 3864800 acre.\n\nThe vast majority of this government land is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service in numerous national forests, a national grassland, and a number of vast swathes of public land, in addition to the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne.\n\nIn addition, Wyoming contains areas that are under the management of the National Park Service and other agencies. They include:\n\nNational parks\n\n* Yellowstone National Park\n* Grand Teton National Park\n\nRecreation areas\n* Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area\n* Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area (Forest Service-Ashley National Forest)\n\nNational monuments\n* Devils Tower National Monument\n* Fossil Butte National Monument\n\nNational historic trails and sites\n* California National Historic Trail\n* Independence Rock (Wyoming)\n* Fort Laramie National Historic Site\n* Medicine Wheel National Historic Site\n* Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail\n* National Register of Historic Places listings in Wyoming\n* Oregon National Historic Trail\n* Pony Express National Historic Trail\n\nNational parkways\n* John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway between Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park\n\nWildlife refuges and hatcheries\n* Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge\n* National Elk Refuge\n* Jackson National Fish Hatchery\n* Saratoga National Fish Hatchery\n\nClimate\n\nWyoming's climate is generally semi-arid and continental (Köppen climate classification BSk), and is drier and windier in comparison to most of the United States with greater temperature extremes. Much of this is due to the topography of the state. Summers in Wyoming are warm with July high temperatures averaging between 85 and in most of the state. With increasing elevation, however, this average drops rapidly with locations above 9000 ft averaging around 70 °F. Summer nights throughout the state are characterized by a rapid cooldown with even the hottest locations averaging in the 50 – range at night. In most of the state, most of the precipitation tends to fall in the late spring and early summer. Winters are cold, but are variable with periods of sometimes extreme cold interspersed between generally mild periods, with Chinook winds providing unusually warm temperatures in some locations. Wyoming is a dry state with much of the land receiving less than 10 in of rainfall per year. Precipitation depends on elevation with lower areas in the Big Horn Basin averaging 5 - (making the area nearly a true desert). The lower areas in the North and on the eastern plains typically average around 10 -, making the climate there semi-arid. Some mountain areas do receive a good amount of precipitation, 20 in or more, much of it as snow, sometimes 200 in or more annually. The state's highest recorded temperature is 114 F at Basin on July 12, 1900 and the lowest recorded temperature is at Riverside on February 9, 1933.\n\nThe number of thunderstorm days vary across the state with the southeastern plains of the state having the most days of thunderstorm activity. Thunderstorm activity in the state is highest during the late spring and early summer. The southeastern corner of the state is the most vulnerable part of the state to tornado activity. Moving away from that point and westwards, the incidence of tornadoes drops dramatically with the west part of the state showing little vulnerability. Tornadoes, where they occur, tend to be small and brief, unlike some of those that occur a little farther east.\n\nHistory\n\nSeveral Native American groups originally inhabited the region now known as Wyoming. The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone were but a few of the original inhabitants encountered when white explorers first entered the region. What is now southwestern Wyoming became a part of the Spanish Empire and later Mexican territory of Alta California, until it was ceded to the United States in 1848 at the end of the Mexican–American War. French-Canadian trappers from Québec and Montréal went into the state in the late 18th century, leaving French toponyms such as Téton, La Ramie, etc. John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, itself guided by French Canadian Toussaint Charbonneau and his young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, first described the region in 1807. At the time, his reports of the Yellowstone area were considered to be fictional. Robert Stuart and a party of five men returning from Astoria discovered South Pass in 1812. The Oregon Trail later followed that route. In 1850, Jim Bridger located what is now known as Bridger Pass, which the Union Pacific Railroad used in 1868—as did Interstate 80, 90 years later. Bridger also explored Yellowstone and filed reports on the region that, like those of Colter, were largely regarded as tall tales at the time.\n\nThe region had acquired the name Wyoming by 1865, when Representative James Mitchell Ashley of Ohio introduced a bill to Congress to provide a \"temporary government for the territory of Wyoming\". The territory was named after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, made famous by the 1809 poem Gertrude of Wyoming by Thomas Campbell, based on the Battle of Wyoming in the American Revolutionary War. The name ultimately derives from the Munsee word ', meaning \"at the big river flat.\" \n\nAfter the Union Pacific Railroad had reached the town of Cheyenne in 1867, the region's population began to grow steadily, and the federal government established the Wyoming Territory on July 25, 1868. Unlike mineral-rich Colorado, Wyoming lacked significant deposits of gold and silver, as well as Colorado's subsequent population boom. However, South Pass City did experience a short-lived boom after the Carissa Mine began producing gold in 1867. Furthermore, copper was mined in some areas between the Sierra Madre Mountains and the Snowy Range near Grand Encampment. \n\nOnce government-sponsored expeditions to the Yellowstone country began, reports by Colter and Bridger, previously believed to be apocryphal, were found to be true. This led to the creation of Yellowstone National Park, which became the world's first national park in 1872. Nearly all of Yellowstone National Park lies within the far northwestern borders of Wyoming.\n\nOn December 10, 1869, territorial Governor John Allen Campbell extended the right to vote to women, making Wyoming the first territory and then U.S. state to grant suffrage to women. In addition, Wyoming was also a pioneer in welcoming women into politics. Women first served on juries in Wyoming (Laramie in 1870); Wyoming had the first female court bailiff (Mary Atkinson, Laramie, in 1870); and the first female justice of the peace in the country (Esther Hobart Morris, South Pass City, in 1870). Also, in 1924, Wyoming became the first state to elect a female governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross, who took office in January 1925. Due to its civil-rights history, Wyoming's state nickname is \"The Equality State\", and the official state motto is \"Equal Rights\". \n\nWyoming's constitution included women's suffrage and a pioneering article on water rights. Congress admitted Wyoming into the Union as the 44th state on July 10, 1890.\n\nWyoming was the location of the Johnson County War of 1892, which erupted between competing groups of cattle ranchers. The passage of the federal Homestead Act led to an influx of small ranchers. A range war broke out when either or both of the groups chose violent conflict over commercial competition in the use of the public land.\n\nDemographics\n\nPopulation\n\nThe United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Wyoming was 586,107 on July 1, 2015, a 3.99% increase since the 2010 United States Census. The center of population of Wyoming is located in Natrona County. \n\nIn 2014, the United States Census Bureau estimated that the racial composition of the population was 92.7% White American (82.9 non-Hispanic white), 2.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.6% Black or African American, 1.0% Asian American, and 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.\n\nAccording to the 2010 census, the racial composition of the population was 90.7% White American, 0.8% Black or African American, 2.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% Asian American, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 2.2% from two or more races, and 3.0% from some other race. Ethnically, 8.9% of the total population was of Hispanic or Latino origin (they may be of any race) and 91.1% Non-Hispanic, with non-Hispanic whites constituting the largest non-Hispanic group at 85.9%. \n\nAs of 2015, Wyoming had an estimated population of 586,107, which was an increase of 1,954, or 0.29%, from the prior year and an increase of 22,481, or 3.99%, since the 2010 census. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 12,165 people (that is 33,704 births minus 21,539 deaths) and an increase from net migration of 4,035 people into the state. Immigration resulted in a net increase of 2,264 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 1,771 people. In 2004, the foreign-born population was 11,000 (2.2%). In 2005, total births in Wyoming numbered 7,231 (birth rate of 14.04 per thousand). Sparsely populated, Wyoming is the least populous state of the United States. Wyoming has the second-lowest population density, behind Alaska. It is one of only two states with a smaller population than the nation's capital, Washington, D.C. (the other state is Vermont).\n\nAccording to the 2000 census, the largest ancestry groups in Wyoming are: German (26.0%), English (16.0%), Irish (13.3%), Norwegian (4.3%), and Swedish (3.5%). \n\nAs of 2011, 24.9% of Wyoming's population younger than age 1 were minorities. \n\nLanguages\n\nIn 2010, 93.39% (474,343) of Wyomingites over the age of 5 spoke English as their primary language. 4.47% (22,722) spoke Spanish, 0.35% (1,771) spoke German, and 0.28% (1,434) spoke French. Other common non-English languages included Algonquian (0.18%), Russian (0.10%), Tagalog, and Greek (both 0.09%). \n\nIn 2007, the American Community Survey reported that 6.2% (30,419) of Wyoming's population over five years old spoke a language other than English at home. Of those, 68.1% were able to speak English very well, 16.0% spoke English well, 10.9% did not speak English well, and 5.0% did not speak English at all. \n\nReligion\n\nAccording to a 2013 Gallup Poll, the religious affiliations of the people of Wyoming were: 49% Protestants, 18% Catholics, 9% Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and less than 1% Jewish. \n\nA 2010 ARDA report recognized as the largest denominations in Wyoming the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) with 62,804 (11%), the Catholic Church with 61,222 (10.8%) and the Southern Baptist Convention with 15,812 adherents (2.8%). The same report counted 59,247 Evangelical Protestants (10.5%), 36,539 Mainline Protestants (6.5%), 785 Eastern Orthodox Christians; 281 Black Protestants, as well as 65,000 adhering to other traditions and 340,552 unclaimed. \n\nEconomy\n\nAccording to the 2012 U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis report, Wyoming's gross state product was $38.4 billion. As of 2014 the population was growing slightly with the most growth in tourist-oriented areas such as Teton County. Boom conditions in neighboring states such as North Dakota were drawing energy workers away. About half of Wyoming's counties showed population losses. The state makes active efforts through Wyoming Grown, an internet-based recruitment program, to find jobs for young people educated in Wyoming who have emigrated but may wish to return.\n\nAs of November 2015, the state's unemployment rate was 4.0%. \nThe composition of Wyoming's economy differs significantly from that of other states with most activity in tourism, agriculture, and energy extraction; and little in anything else.\n\nThe mineral extraction industry and travel and tourism sector are the main drivers behind Wyoming's economy. The federal government owns about 50% of its landmass, while 6% is controlled by the state. Total taxable values of mining production in Wyoming for 2001 was over $6.7 billion. The tourism industry accounts for over $2 billion in revenue for the state.\n\nIn 2002, more than six million people visited Wyoming's national parks and monuments. The key tourist attractions in Wyoming include Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Devils Tower National Monument, Independence Rock and Fossil Butte National Monument. Each year Yellowstone National Park, the world's first national park, receives three million visitors.\n\nHistorically, agriculture has been an important component of Wyoming's economy. Its overall importance to the performance of Wyoming's economy has waned. However, agriculture is still an essential part of Wyoming's culture and lifestyle. The main agricultural commodities produced in Wyoming include livestock (beef), hay, sugar beets, grain (wheat and barley), and wool. More than 91% of land in Wyoming is classified as rural.\n\nMineral and energy production\n\nWyoming's mineral commodities include coal, natural gas, coalbed methane, crude oil, uranium, and trona.\n* Coal: Wyoming produced 395.5 million short tons (358.8 million metric tons) of coal in 2004, greater than any other state. Wyoming possesses a reserve of 68.7 billion tons (62.3 billion metric tons) of coal. Major coal areas include the Powder River Basin and the Green River Basin\n* Coalbed methane (CBM): The boom for CBM began in the mid-1990s. CBM is characterized as methane gas that is extracted from Wyoming's coal bed seams. It is another means of natural gas production. There has been substantial CBM production in the Powder River Basin. In 2002, the CBM production yield was 327.5 billion cubic feet (9.3 km3).\n* Crude oil: Wyoming produced 53400000 oilbbl of crude oil in 2007. The state ranked 5th nationwide in oil production in 2007. Petroleum is most often used as a motor fuel, but it is also utilized in the manufacture of plastics, paints, and synthetic rubber.\n* Diamonds: The Kelsey Lake Diamond Mine, located in Colorado less than 1000 ft from the Wyoming border, produced gem quality diamonds for several years. The Wyoming craton, which hosts the kimberlite volcanic pipes that were mined, underlies most of Wyoming.\n* Natural gas: Wyoming produced 2,254 trillion cubic feet (63,83 trillion m3) of natural gas in 2007. The state ranked 2nd nationwide for natural gas production in 2007. The major markets for natural gas include industrial, commercial, and domestic heating.\n\n* Trona: Wyoming possesses the world's largest known reserve of trona, a mineral used for manufacturing glass, paper, soaps, baking soda, water softeners, and pharmaceuticals. In 2008 Wyoming produced 46 million short tons (41.7 million metric tons) of trona, 25% of the world's production.\n* Wind power: Because of Wyoming's geography and high-altitude, the potential for wind power in Wyoming is one of the highest of any state in the US. The Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project is the largest commercial wind generation facility under development in North America. Carbon County is home to the largest proposed wind farm in the US. However, construction plans have been halted because of proposed new taxes on wind power energy production. \n* Uranium: Although uranium mining in Wyoming is much less active than it was in previous decades, recent increases in the price of uranium have generated new interest in uranium prospecting and mining.\n\nTaxes\n\nUnlike most other states, Wyoming does not levy an individual or corporate income tax. In addition, Wyoming does not assess any tax on retirement income earned and received from another state. Wyoming has a state sales tax of 4%. Counties have the option of collecting an additional 1% tax for general revenue and a 1% tax for specific purposes, if approved by voters. Food for human consumption is not subject to sales tax. There also is a county lodging tax that varies from 2% to 5%. The state collects a use tax of 5% on items purchased elsewhere and brought into Wyoming.\nAll property tax is based on the assessed value of the property and Wyoming's Department of Revenue's Ad Valorem Tax Division supports, trains, and guides local government agencies in the uniform assessment, valuation and taxation of locally assessed property. \"Assessed value\" means taxable value; \"taxable value\" means a percent of the fair market value of property in a particular class. Statutes limit property tax increases. For county revenue, the property tax rate cannot exceed 12 mills (or 1.2%) of assessed value. For cities and towns, the rate is limited to 8 mills (0.8%). With very few exceptions, state law limits the property tax rate for all governmental purposes.\n\nPersonal property held for personal use is tax-exempt. Inventory if held for resale, pollution control equipment, cash, accounts receivable, stocks and bonds are also exempt. Other exemptions include property used for religious, educational, charitable, fraternal, benevolent and government purposes and improvements for handicapped access. Mine lands, underground mining equipment, and oil and gas extraction equipment are exempt from property tax but companies must pay a gross products tax on minerals and a severance tax on mineral production. \n\nWyoming does not collect inheritance taxes. Because of the phase-out of the federal estate tax credit, Wyoming's estate tax is not imposed on estates of persons who died in 2005. There is limited estate tax related to federal estate tax collection.\n\nIn 2008, the Tax Foundation ranked Wyoming as having the single most \"business friendly\" tax climate of all 50 states. Wyoming state and local governments in fiscal year 2007 collected $2.242 billion in taxes, levies, and royalties from the oil and gas industry. The state's mineral industry, including oil, gas, trona, and coal provided $1.3 billion in property taxes from 2006 mineral production. Wyoming receives more federal tax dollars per capita in aid than any other state except Alaska. The federal aid per capita in Wyoming is more than double the U.S. average. \n\nAs of 2016, Wyoming does not require the beneficial owners of LLCs to be disclosed in the filing, which creates an opportunity for a tax haven, according to Clark Stith of Clark Stith & Associates in Rock Springs, Wyoming, a former Republican candidate for Wyoming secretary of state. \n\nTransportation\n\nThe largest airport in Wyoming is Jackson Hole Airport, with over 500 employees. Three interstate highways and thirteen U.S. highways pass through Wyoming. In addition, the state is served by the Wyoming state highway system.\n\nInterstate 25 enters the state south of Cheyenne and runs north, intersecting Interstate 80 in Cheyenne. It passes through Casper and ends at Interstate 90 near Buffalo. Interstate 80 crosses the Utah border west of Evanston and runs east through the southern half of the state, passing through Cheyenne before entering Nebraska near Pine Bluffs. Interstate 90 comes into Wyoming near Parkman and cuts through the northern part of the state. It serves Gillette and enters South Dakota east of Sundance.\n\nU.S. Routes 14,16, and the eastern section of U.S. 20 all have their western terminus at the eastern entrance to Yellowstone National Park and pass through Cody. U.S. 14 travels eastward before joining I-90 at Gillette. U.S. 14 then follows I-90 to the South Dakota border. U.S. 16 and 20 split off of U.S. 14 at Greybull and U.S. 16 turns east at Worland while U.S. 20 continues south Shoshoni. U.S. Route 287 carries traffic from Fort Collins, Colorado into Laramie, Wyoming through a pass between the Laramie Mountains and the Medicine Bow Mountains, merges with US 30 and I-80 until it reaches Rawlins, where it continues north, passing Lander. Outside of Moran, U.S. 287 is part of a large interchange with U.S. Highways 26, 191, and 89, before continuing north to the southern entrance of Yellowstone. U.S. 287 continues north of Yellowstone, but the two sections are separated by the national park.\n\nOther U.S. highways that pass through the state are U.S. Highways are 18, 26, 30, 85, 87, 89, 189, 191, 212, and 287.\n\nWyoming is one of only two states (the other being South Dakota) in the 48 contiguous states not served by Amtrak. \n\nSee also: List of Wyoming railroads, List of airports in Wyoming, State highways in Wyoming.\n\nWind River Indian Reservation\n\nThe Wind River Indian Reservation is shared by the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes of Native Americans in the central western portion of the state near Lander. The reservation is home to 2,500 Eastern Shoshone and 5,000 Northern Arapaho. \n\nChief Washakie established the reservation in 1868 as the result of negotiations with the federal government in the Fort Bridger Treaty. However, the Northern Arapaho were forced onto the Shoshone reservation in 1876 by the federal government after the government failed to provide a promised separate reservation.\n\nToday the Wind River Indian Reservation is jointly owned, with each tribe having a 50% interest in the land, water, and other natural resources. The reservation is a sovereign, self-governed land with two independent governing bodies: the Eastern Shoshone Tribal Government and the Northern Arapaho Tribal Government. The Eastern Shoshone Business Council meets jointly with the Northern Arapaho Business Council as the Joint Business Council to decide matters that affect both tribes. Six elected council members from each tribe serve on the joint council.\n\nState law and government\n\nWyoming's Constitution established three branches of government: the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.\n\nThe Wyoming state legislature comprises a House of Representatives with 60 members and a Senate with 30 members.\n\nThe executive branch is headed by the governor and includes a secretary of state, auditor, treasurer and superintendent of public instruction. Wyoming does not have a lieutenant governor. Instead the secretary of state stands first in the line of succession.\n\nWyoming's sparse population warrants it only a single at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and hence only three votes in the Electoral College. Its low population renders Wyoming voters effectively more powerful in presidential elections than those in more populous states. For example, while Montana had a 2010 census population of 989,415 to Wyoming's 563,626, they both have the same number of electoral votes.\n\nWyoming is an alcoholic beverage control state.\n\nJudicial system\n\nWyoming's highest court is the Supreme Court of Wyoming, with five justices presiding over appeals from the state's lower courts. Wyoming is unusual in that it does not have an intermediate appellate court, like most states. This is largely attributable to the state's size and correspondingly lower caseload. Appeals from the state district courts go directly to the Wyoming Supreme Court. Wyoming also has state circuit courts (formerly county courts), of limited jurisdiction, which handle certain types of cases, such as civil claims with lower dollar amounts, misdemeanor criminal offenses, and felony arraignments. Circuit court judges also commonly hear small claims cases as well.\n\nBefore 1972, Wyoming judges were selected by popular vote on a nonpartisan ballot. This earlier system was criticized by the state bar who called for the adoption of the Missouri Plan, a system designed to balance judiciary independence with judiciary accountability. In 1972, an amendment to article 5 of the Wyoming Constitution, which incorporated a modified version of the plan, was adopted by the voters. Since the adoption of the amendment, all state court judges in Wyoming are nominated by the Judicial Nominating Commission and appointed by the Governor. They are then subject to a retention vote by the electorate after one year from appointment. \n\nPolitics\n\nWyoming's political history defies easy classification. The state was the first to grant women the right to vote and to elect a woman governor. On December 10, 1869, John Allen Campbell, the first Governor of the Wyoming Territory, approved the first law in United States history explicitly granting women the right to vote. This day was later commemorated as Wyoming Day. On November 5, 1889, voters approved the first constitution in the world granting full voting rights to women. \n\nWhile the state elected notable Democrats to federal office in the 1960s and 1970s, politics have become decidedly more conservative since the 1980s as the Republican Party came to dominate the state's congressional delegation. Today, Wyoming is represented in Washington by its two Senators, Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, and its one member of the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis. All three are Republicans. The state has not voted for a Democrat for president since 1964, one of only eight times since statehood. At present, there are only two relatively reliably Democratic counties: affluent Teton and college county Albany. In the 2004 presidential election, George W. Bush won his second-largest victory, with 69% of the vote. Former Vice President Dick Cheney is a Wyoming resident and represented the state in Congress from 1979 to 1989.\n\nRepublicans are no less dominant at the state level. They have held a majority in the state senate continuously since 1936 and in the state house since 1964. However, Democrats held the governorship for all but eight years between 1975 and 2011. Uniquely, Wyoming elected Democrat Nellie Tayloe Ross as the first woman in U.S. history to serve as state governor. She served from 1925 to 1927 after winning a special election after her husband, William Bradford Ross, unexpectedly died a little more than a year into his term. \n\nCounties\n\nThe state of Wyoming has 23 counties.\n\nWyoming license plates contain a number on the left that indicates the county where the vehicle is registered, ranked by an earlier census. Specifically, the numbers are representative of the property values of the counties in 1930. The county license plate numbers are as follows:\n\nCities and towns\n\nThe State of Wyoming has 99 incorporated municipalities.\n\nIn 2005, 50.6% of Wyomingites lived in one of the 13 most populous Wyoming municipalities.\n\nMetropolitan areas\n\nThe United States Census Bureau has defined two Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) and seven Micropolitan Statistical Areas (MiSA) for the State of Wyoming.\nIn 2008, 30.4% of Wyomingites lived in either of the Metropolitan Statistical Areas, and 73% lived in either a Metropolitan Statistical Area or a Micropolitan Statistical Area.\n\nEducation\n\nPublic education is directed by the state superintendent of public instruction, an elected state official. Educational policies are set by the State Board of Education, a nine-member board appointed by the governor. The constitution prohibits the state from establishing curriculum and text book selections; these are the prerogatives of local school boards. The Wyoming School for the Deaf was the only in-state school dedicated to supporting deaf students in Wyoming, but it closed in the summer of 2000.\n\nHigher education\n\nWyoming has one public four-year institution, the University of Wyoming in Laramie and one private four-year college, Wyoming Catholic College, in Lander, Wyoming. In addition, there are seven two-year community colleges spread through the state.\n\nBefore the passing of a new law in 2006, Wyoming had hosted unaccredited institutions, many of them suspected diploma mills. The 2006 law is forcing unaccredited institutions to make one of three choices: move out of Wyoming, close down, or apply for accreditation. The Oregon State Office of Degree Authorization predicts that in a few years the problem of diploma mills in Wyoming might be resolved. \n\nSports\n\nDue to its sparse population, the state of Wyoming lacks any major professional sports teams. Some of the most popular sports teams in the state are the University of Wyoming teams — particularly football and basketball. High school sports are governed by the Wyoming High School Activities Association, which sponsors 12 sports.\n\nRodeo is popular in Wyoming, and Casper has hosted the College National Finals Rodeo since 2001. Additionally, rugby has a strong tradition in Wyoming. \n\nState symbols\n\n* State bird: western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)\n* State coin: Sacagawea dollar\n* State dinosaur: Triceratops\n* State emblem: Bucking Horse and Rider\n* State fish: cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki)\n* State flag: Flag of the State of Wyoming\n* State flower: Wyoming Indian paintbrush (Castilleja linariifolia)\n* State fossil: Knightia\n* State gemstone: Wyoming nephrite jade\n* State grass: western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii)\n* State mammal: American bison (Bison bison)\n* State motto: Equal Rights\n* State nicknames: Equality State; Cowboy State; Big Wonderful Wyoming\n* State reptile: horned lizard (Phrynosoma douglassi brevirostre)\n* State seal: Great Seal of the State of Wyoming\n* State song: \"Wyoming\" by Charles E. Winter & George E. Knapp\n* State sport: rodeo\n* State tree: plains cottonwood (Populus sargentii)" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "President_of_the_United_States.txt", "Billy_Beer.txt" ], "title": [ "President of the United States", "Billy Beer" ], "wiki_context": [ "The President of the United States of America (POTUS) is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.\n\nThe President of the United States is considered one of the world's most powerful people, leading the world's only contemporary superpower. The role includes being the commander-in-chief of the world's most expensive military with the largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by real and nominal GDP. The office of the president holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad.\n\nArticle II of the U.S. Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The power includes execution of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The president is largely responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is enrolled. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States. Since the founding of the United States, the power of the president and the federal government has grown substantially. \n\nThe president is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term, and is one of only two nationally elected federal officers, the other being the Vice President of the United States. The Twenty-second Amendment, adopted in 1951, prohibits anyone from ever being elected to the presidency for a third full term. It also prohibits a person from being elected to the presidency more than once if that person previously had served as president, or acting president, for more than two years of another person's term as president. In all, 43 individuals have served 44 presidencies (counting Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms separately) spanning 56 full four-year terms. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th and current president. On November 6, 2012, he was re-elected and is currently serving the 57th term. The next presidential election is scheduled to take place on November 8, 2016; on January 20, 2017, the newly elected president will take office.\n\nOrigin\n\nIn 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, recognized the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British. Desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. As a central authority, Congress under the Articles was without any legislative power; it could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, nor any taxes or local commercial regulations enforceable upon citizens. This institutional design reflected the conception of how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress, while severally lodging the rest within their own respective state governments. Only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1, 1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them.\n\nIn 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak, their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another, witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed.\n\nFollowing the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, the Annapolis delegates called for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia.\n\nWhen the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rhode Island did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature. New York offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter. It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U.S. Constitution emerged.\n\nPowers and duties\n\nArticle I legislative role\n\nThe first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto. The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options:\n# Sign the legislation; the bill then becomes law.\n# Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections; the bill does not become law, unless each house of Congress votes to override the veto by a two-thirds vote.\n# Take no action. In this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation. After 10 days, not counting Sundays, two possible outcomes emerge:\n#* If Congress is still convened, the bill becomes law.\n#* If Congress has adjourned, thus preventing the return of the legislation, the bill does not become law. This latter outcome is known as the pocket veto.\n\nIn 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the president's veto power with the Line Item Veto Act. The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the president then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In Clinton v. City of New York, , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.\n\nArticle II executive powers\n\nWar and foreign affairs powers\n\nPerhaps the most important of all presidential powers is the command of the United States Armed Forces as its commander-in-chief. While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, the president has ultimate responsibility for direction and disposition of the military. The present-day operational command of the Armed Forces (belonging to the Department of Defense) is normally exercised through the Secretary of Defense, with assistance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the Combatant Commands, as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan (UCP). The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Alexander Hamilton explains this in Federalist No. 69: Congress, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual. Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation. While historically presidents initiated the process for going to war, critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1990.\n\nAlong with the armed forces, the president also directs U.S. foreign policy. Through the Department of State and the Department of Defense, the president is responsible for the protection of Americans abroad and of foreign nationals in the United States. The president decides whether to recognize new nations and new governments, and negotiates treaties with other nations, which become binding on the United States when approved by two-thirds vote of the Senate.\n\nAlthough not constitutionally provided, presidents also sometimes employ \"executive agreements\" in foreign relations. These agreements frequently regard administrative policy choices germane to executive power; for example, the extent to which either country presents an armed presence in a given area, how each country will enforce copyright treaties, or how each country will process foreign mail. However, the 20th century witnessed a vast expansion of the use of executive agreements, and critics have challenged the extent of that use as supplanting the treaty process and removing constitutionally prescribed checks and balances over the executive in foreign relations. Supporters counter that the agreements offer a pragmatic solution when the need for swift, secret, and/or concerted action arises.\n\nAdministrative powers\n\nThe president is the head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to \"take care that the laws be faithfully executed.\" The executive branch has over four million employees, including members of the military. \n\nPresidents make numerous executive branch appointments: an incoming president may make up to 6,000 before taking office and 8,000 more while serving. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers, are all appointed by a president with the \"advice and consent\" of a majority of the Senate. When the Senate is in recess for at least ten days, the president may make recess appointments. Recess appointments are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate.\n\nThe power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove purely executive officials at will. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute. \n\nThe president additionally possesses the ability to direct much of the executive branch through executive orders that are grounded in federal law or constitutionally granted executive power. Executive orders are reviewable by federal courts and can be superseded by federal legislation.\n\nTo manage the growing federal bureaucracy, Presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Within the Executive Office, the President's innermost layer of aides (and their assistants) are located in the White House Office.\n\nJuridical powers\n\nThe president also has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. However, these nominations do require Senate confirmation. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to U.S. district courts, presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of Senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves, as is often done just before the end of a presidential term, not without controversy.\n\nHistorically, two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties. George Washington first claimed privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution, or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege. When Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, , that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution. When President Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in Clinton v. Jones, , that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits. These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined. Additionally, federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees, but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president. \n\nThe state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security. Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in Totten v. United States , when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy. However, the privilege was not formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court until United States v. Reynolds , where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege. Before the September 11 attacks, use of the privilege had been rare, but increasing in frequency. Since 2001, the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation, thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims, as in the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions. \n\nLegislative facilitator\n\nThe Constitution's Ineligibility Clause prevents the President (and all other executive officers) from simultaneously being a member of Congress. Therefore, the president cannot directly introduce legislative proposals for consideration in Congress. However, the president can take an indirect role in shaping legislation, especially if the president's political party has a majority in one or both houses of Congress. For example, the president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress. The president can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally mandated, periodic reports to Congress. These reports may be either written or oral, but today are given as the State of the Union address, which often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year. Additionally, the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made.\n\nIn the 20th century critics began charging that too many legislative and budgetary powers have slid into the hands of presidents that should belong to Congress. As the head of the executive branch, presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress. One critic charged that presidents could appoint a \"virtual army of 'czars' – each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House.\" Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it. This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional. Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an \"increasingly swollen executive branch\" and \"the eclipse of Congress.\"\n\nAccording to Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution, the president may convene either or both houses of Congress. If both houses cannot agree on a date of adjournment, the president may appoint a date for Congress to adjourn.\n\nCeremonial roles\n\nAs head of state, the president can fulfill traditions established by previous presidents. William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., on the Washington Senators' Opening Day. Every president since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare. \n\nThe President of the United States has served as the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America since the founding of the organization. \n\nOther presidential traditions are associated with American holidays. Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children. Beginning in 1947 during the Harry S. Truman administration, every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual national thanksgiving turkey presentation held at the White House. Since 1989, when the custom of \"pardoning\" the turkey was formalized by George H. W. Bush, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life. \n\nPresidential traditions also involve the president's role as head of government. Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition. Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president. \n\nDuring a state visit by a foreign head of state, the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn, a custom begun by John F. Kennedy in 1961. This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening. \n\nThe modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as \"propagandized leadership\" which has a \"mesmerizing power surrounding the office.\" Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo-ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras. One critic wrote the image of John F. Kennedy was described as carefully framed \"in rich detail\" which \"drew on the power of myth\" regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions. As a result, some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents: voters expect a president to \"drive the economy, vanquish enemies, lead the free world, comfort tornado victims, heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit-card fees.\"\n\nCritics of presidency's evolution\n\nMost of the nation's Founding Fathers expected the Congress, which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution, to be the dominant branch of government; they did not expect a strong executive. However, presidential power has shifted over time, which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful, unchecked, unbalanced, and \"monarchist\" in nature. Critic Dana D. Nelson believes presidents over the past thirty years have worked towards \"undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies.\" She criticizes proponents of the unitary executive for expanding \"the many existing uncheckable executive powers – such as executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements – that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid, interference or consent from Congress.\" Activist Bill Wilson opined that the expanded presidency was \"the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule.\"\n\nSelection process\n\nEligibility\n\nArticle II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the following qualifications for holding the presidency:\n* be a natural-born citizen of the United States;Foreign-born American citizens who met the age and residency requirements at the time the Constitution was adopted were also eligible for the presidency. However, this allowance has since become obsolete.\n* be at least thirty-five years old;\n* be a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.\n\nThe Twelfth Amendment precludes anyone ineligible to being the president from becoming the vice president.\n\nA person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions:\n* Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no person can be elected president more than twice. The amendment also specifies that if any eligible person serves as president or acting president for more than two years of a term for which some other eligible person was elected president, the former can only be elected president once. Scholars disagree over whether a person precluded by the Twenty-second Amendment to being elected president is also precluded to being vice president. \n* Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, upon conviction in impeachment cases, the Senate has the option of disqualifying convicted individuals from holding federal office, including that of president. \n* Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, no person who swore an oath to support the Constitution, and later rebelled against the United States, can become president. However, this disqualification can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress.\n\nCampaigns and nomination\n\nThe modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's nominee for president. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. The most common previous profession by U.S. presidents is lawyer. \n\nNominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.\n\nElection and oath\n\nThe president is elected indirectly. A number of electors, collectively known as the Electoral College, officially select the president. On Election Day, voters in each of the states and the District of Columbia cast ballots for these electors. Each state is allocated a number of electors, equal to the size of its delegation in both Houses of Congress combined. Generally, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College.\n\nThe winning slate of electors meet at its state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, to vote. They then send a record of that vote to Congress. The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president—acting in that role's capacity as President of the Senate—and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which was elected at the same time as the president.\n\nPursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the president's term of office begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. This date, known as Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the four-year terms of both the president and the vice president. Before executing the powers of the office, a president is constitutionally required to take the presidential oath:\n\nAlthough not required, presidents have traditionally palmed a Bible while swearing the oath and have added, \"So help me God!\" to the end of the oath. Further, although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths, presidents are traditionally sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States.\n\nTenure and term limits\n\nThe term of office for president and vice president is four years. George Washington, the first president, set an unofficial precedent of serving only two terms, which subsequent presidents followed until 1940. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt, attempts at a third term were encouraged by supporters of Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt; neither of these attempts succeeded. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt declined to seek a third term, but allowed his political party to \"draft\" him as its presidential candidate and was subsequently elected to a third term. In 1941, the United States entered World War II, leading voters to elect Roosevelt to a fourth term in 1944. But Roosevelt died only 82 days after taking office for the fourth term on 12 April 1945.\n\nAfter the war, and in response to Roosevelt being elected to third and fourth terms, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted. The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than half of another president's term. Harry S. Truman, president when this amendment was adopted, was exempted from its limitations and briefly sought a third (a second full) term before withdrawing from the 1952 election.\n\nSince the amendment's adoption, four presidents have served two full terms: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Barack Obama has been elected to a second term, and will complete his term on 20 January 2017, if he does not die or resign before that date. Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush sought a second term, but were defeated. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before completing it. Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president under the amendment to be eligible to serve more than two terms in total, having served for only fourteen months following John F. Kennedy's assassination. However, Johnson withdrew from the 1968 Democratic Primary, surprising many Americans. Gerald Ford sought a full term, after serving out the last two years and five months of Nixon's second term, but was not elected.\n\nVacancy or disability\n\nVacancies in the office of President may arise under several possible circumstances: death, resignation and removal from office.\n\nArticle II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the House of Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for \"treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.\" Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 gives the Senate the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. The House has thus far impeached two presidents: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was subsequently convicted by the Senate; however, Johnson was acquitted by just one vote.\n\nUnder Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the president may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate stating the reasons for the transfer. The president resumes the discharge of the presidential powers and duties upon transmitting, to those two officials, a written declaration stating that resumption. This transfer of power may occur for any reason the president considers appropriate; in 2002 and again in 2007, President George W. Bush briefly transferred presidential authority to Vice President Dick Cheney. In both cases, this was done to accommodate a medical procedure which required Bush to be sedated; both times, Bush returned to duty later the same day. \n\nUnder Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the vice president, in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet, may transfer the presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate that the president is unable to discharge the presidential powers and duties. If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president; however, the president can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers and duties. If the vice president and Cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim.\n\nThe United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president, but does not regulate its form or the conditions for its validity. Pursuant to federal law, the only valid evidence of the president's resignation is a written instrument to that effect, signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. This has only occurred once, when Richard Nixon delivered a letter to Henry Kissinger to that effect.\n\nSection 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment states that the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death or resignation of the preceding president. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 provides that if the offices of President and Vice President are each either vacant or are held by a disabled person, the next officer in the presidential line of succession, the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president. The line then extends to the President pro tempore of the Senate, followed by every member of the Cabinet. These persons must fulfill all eligibility requirements of the office of President to be eligible to become acting president; ineligible individuals are skipped. There has never been a special election for the office of President.\n\nCompensation\n\nSince 2001, the president has earned a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001.\n\nThe White House in Washington, D.C., serves as the official place of residence for the president. As well as access to the White House staff, facilities available to the president include medical care, recreation, housekeeping, and security services. The government pays for state dinners and other official functions, but the president pays for personal, family and guest dry cleaning and food; the high food bill often amazes new residents. Naval Support Facility Thurmont, popularly known as Camp David, is a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the president and guests. Blair House, located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park, is a complex of four connected townhouses exceeding 70000 sqft of floor space which serves as the president's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed. \n\nFor ground travel, the president uses the presidential state car, which is an armored limousine built on a heavily modified Cadillac-based chassis.[http://www.secretservice.gov/press/GPA02-09_Limo.pdf New Presidential Limousine enters Secret Service Fleet] U.S. Secret Service Press Release (January 14, 2009) Retrieved on January 20, 2009. One of two identical Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified versions of Boeing 747-200B airliners, serve as long distance travel for the president and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board (although any U.S. Air Force aircraft the President is aboard is designated as \"Air Force One\" for the duration of the flight). In-country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes while overseas trips are handled with both, one primary and one backup. Any civilian aircraft the President is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight. The president also has access to a fleet of thirty-five U.S. Marine Corps helicopters of varying models, designated Marine One when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet. Flights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the President is actually aboard to any would-be threats.\n\nThe U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the sitting president and the first family. As part of their protection, presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition. \n\nFile:White House lawn (1).tif|The White House\n\nFile:Camp David 1959.jpg|Camp David\nFile:Blair House daylight.jpg|Blair House\nFile:GPA02-09 US SecretService press release 2009 Limousine Page 3 Image.jpg|State car\nFile:Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore.jpg|Air Force One\nFile:Marine One (1970).jpg|Marine One\n\nPost-presidency\n\nBeginning in 1959, all living former presidents were granted a pension, an office, and a staff. The pension has increased numerous times with Congressional approval. Retired presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries, which was $199,700 each year in 2012. Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions. The Former Presidents Act, as amended, also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges. Prior to 1997, all former presidents, their spouses, and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president's death. In 1997, Congress passed legislation limiting secret service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office. On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime secret service protection for him, George W. Bush, and all subsequent presidents. A spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for secret service protection.\n\nSome presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include William Howard Taft's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after World War II. Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected president again four years later in 1892. Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House: John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, serving there for seventeen years, and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875. John Tyler served in the provisional Congress of the Confederate States during the Civil War and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before that body first met.\n\nPresidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events. Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman. Jimmy Carter has become a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton has also worked as an informal ambassador, most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from North Korea. Clinton has also been active politically since his presidential term ended, working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his reelection campaign.\n\nFile:Carter 2k14.tif|Jimmy Carter39th (1977–81)\nFile:President George H. W.tif|George H. W. Bush41st (1989–93)\nFile:Clinton 2k15.tif|Bill Clinton42nd (1993–2001)\nFile:Bush 2k14.tif|George W. Bush43rd (2001–09)\n\nPresidential libraries\n\nSince Herbert Hoover, each president has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education, such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Texas A&M University and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin.\n\nAs many presidents live for many years after leaving office, several of them have personally overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries, some even making arrangements for their own burial at the site. Several presidential libraries therefore contain the graves of the president they document, such as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The graves are viewable by the general public visiting these libraries.\n\nTimeline of Presidents", "Billy Beer was a beer first made in the United States of America in July 1977, by the Falls City Brewing Company. It was promoted by Billy Carter, the younger brother of then-President Jimmy Carter. Then in October 1978, Falls City announced that it was closing its doors after less than a year of Carter's promotion. The beer was produced by Cold Spring Brewing, West End Brewing, and Pearl Brewing Company.\n\nEndorsement printed on beer cans\n\nWritten on each can were these words of endorsement, which were followed by Billy Carter's signature: \nBrewed expressly for and with the personal approval of one of AMERICA's all-time Great Beer Drinkers—Billy Carter.\nI had this beer brewed up just for me. I think it's the best I ever tasted. And I've tasted a lot. I think you'll like it, too.\n\nDespite Carter's promotion of Billy Beer, \"in private he drank Pabst\". \n\nAs a collectible\n\nAfter Billy Beer ceased production, advertisements appeared in newspapers offering to sell Billy Beer cans for several hundred to several thousands of dollars each, attempting to profit from their perceived rarity. However, since the cans were actually produced in the millions, the real value of a can ranged from 50 cents to one dollar in 1981. \n\nBilly Beer was also featured on an episode of the reality series Auction Kings, where an appraiser deemed a case of unopened Billy Beer to be worthless; however, at the featured auction, the case was sold for $100.\n\nThe hit television show The Simpsons featured Homer drinking a can of Billy Beer in the 1997 episode \"Lisa the Skeptic\"; after Bart tells him that the skeleton he is trying to hide is probably old enough already, he counters Bart's remark by introducing his Billy Beer stating that people said the same thing about the beer. After he drinks the beer, he says \"We elected the wrong Carter\". Also in the 1992 episode \"The Otto Show\", Homer excitedly finds a can\nof Billy Beer in the pocket of his old \"concert jacket\", and drinks it." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "South_Sea_Company.txt", "List_of_Dutch_inventions_and_discoveries.txt" ], "title": [ "South Sea Company", "List of Dutch inventions and discoveries" ], "wiki_context": [ "The South Sea Company (officially The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of fishing) was a British joint-stock company founded in 1711, created as a public-private partnership to consolidate and reduce the cost of national debt. The company was also granted a monopoly to trade with South America, hence its name. At the time it was created, Britain was involved in the War of the Spanish Succession and Spain controlled South America. There was no realistic prospect that trade would take place and the company never realised any significant profit from its monopoly. Company stock rose greatly in value as it expanded its operations dealing in government debt, peaking in 1720 before collapsing to little above its original flotation price; this became known as the South Sea Bubble.\n\nThe Bubble Act 1720 (6 Geo I, c 18), which forbade the creation of joint-stock companies without royal charter, was promoted by the South Sea company itself before its collapse.\n\nA considerable number of people were ruined by the share collapse, and the national economy greatly reduced as a result. The founders of the scheme engaged in insider trading, using their advance knowledge of when national debt was to be consolidated to make large profits from purchasing debt in advance. Huge bribes were given to politicians to support the Acts of Parliament necessary for the scheme. Company money was used to deal in its own shares, and selected individuals purchasing shares were given loans backed by those same shares to spend on purchasing more shares. The expectation of vast wealth from trade with South America was used to encourage the public to purchase shares, despite the limited likelihood this would ever happen. The only significant trade that did take place was in slaves, but the company failed to manage this profitably.\n\nA parliamentary enquiry was held after the crash to discover its causes. A number of politicians were disgraced, and people found to have profited unlawfully from the company had assets confiscated proportionate to their gains (most had already been rich men and remained comfortably rich). The company was restructured and continued to operate for more than a century after the Bubble. The headquarters were in Threadneedle Street at the centre of the financial district in London; today the Bank of England has headquarters on Threadneedle Street. At the time of these events the Bank of England also was a private company dealing in national debt, and the crash of its rival consolidated its position as banker to the British government. \nFoundation\n\nIn August 1710 Robert Harley was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in a government of commission. The government at this time had become reliant on the Bank of England. This was a privately owned company, chartered 16 years previously, which had obtained a monopoly as the lender to Westminster, in return for arranging and managing loans to the government. The government had become dissatisfied with the service it was receiving and Harley was actively seeking new ways to improve the national finances.\n\nA new Parliament met in November 1710 with a resolve to attend to national finances, which were suffering significantly from two simultaneous wars: the war with France, which was not to end until the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, and the Great Northern War, which was not to end until 1721. Harley came prepared, with detailed accounts of the situation of the national debt, which was customarily a piecemeal affair, with different government departments arranging their own loans as the need arose. He released the information steadily, continually adding new reports of debts incurred and scandalous expenditure, until in January 1711 the House of Commons agreed to appoint a committee to investigate the entire debt. The committee included Harley himself; the two Auditors of the Imprests, whose task was to investigate government spending; Harley's brother Edward; and Paul Foley, his brother-in-law. Also included were the Secretary of the Treasury, William Lowndes, who had had significant responsibility for reminting the entire debased British coinage in 1696; and John Aislabie who represented the October Club, a group of around 200 MPs who had agreed to vote together. \n\nHarley's first concern was to find £300,000 for the next quarter's pay for the British army operating in Europe under Marlborough. This was provided by a private consortium of Edward Gibbon, George Caswall and Hoare's Bank. The Bank of England had been operating a state lottery on behalf of the government, but this had not been particularly successful in 1710, and another had already begun in 1711. This too was performing poorly, so Harley granted authority to sell tickets to John Blunt, a director of the Hollow Sword Blade Company, which despite its name was an unofficial bank. With sales commencing on 3 March 1711, tickets had completely sold out by the 7th. This was the first truly successful English state lottery. \n\nThe success was shortly followed by another, larger, lottery, \"The Two Million Adventure\" or \"The Classis\", with tickets costing £100, a top prize of £20,000 and every ticket winning a prize of at least £10. Although prizes were advertised by their total amount, they were paid in the form of a fixed annuity over a period of years, so that the government effectively held the prize money as a loan until it was paid out to the winners. Marketing was handled by members of the Sword Blade syndicate, Gibbon selling £200,000 of tickets and earning £4,500 commission, and Blunt selling £993,000. Charles Blunt (a relative) was made Paymaster of the lottery with expenses of £5,000.\n\nConception of the Company\n\nThe national debt investigation had concluded that a total of £9,000,000 was owed, without any allocated income to pay it off. Edward Harley and John Blunt together had devised a scheme to consolidate this debt in much the same way that the Bank of England had consolidated previous debts, although the Bank still held the monopoly on operating as a bank. All holders of the debt would be required to surrender it to a new company, the South Sea Company, which in return would issue shares to the same amount. The government would pay the company £568,279 10s 0d (6% interest plus expenses) annually, which would be distributed as a dividend to shareholders. The company was also given a monopoly to trade with South America, a potentially lucrative enterprise, but one controlled by Spain, with whom Britain was at war. \n\nAt that time, when continental America was being explored and colonized, Europeans applied the term \"South Seas\" only to South America and surrounding waters, not to any other ocean. The concession both held out the potential for future profits and encouraged a desire for an end to the war, necessary if any profits were to be made. The original suggestion for the South Sea scheme has sometimes been credited to Daniel Defoe, but it is more likely the idea originated with William Paterson, one of the founders of the Bank of England and the Darien Scheme, the disastrous failure of which contributed to Scotland's agreement to unite with England in 1707. \n\nHarley was rewarded for the scheme by being created Earl of Oxford on 23 May 1711, and was promoted to Lord High Treasurer. With a more secure position, he began secret peace negotiations with France. Commercially, since the lotteries were discredited, some of the debt intended to be consolidated under the scheme was available in the open market before the scheme was announced, at a discounted rate of £55 per £100 nominal value. This allowed anyone with advance knowledge to buy debt cheap and sell at an immediate profit, and made it possible for Harley to bring further financial supporters into the scheme, such as James Bateman and Theodore Janssen. \n\nDaniel Defoe commented: \n\nUnless the Spaniards are to be divested of common sense, infatuate, and given up, abandoning their own commerce, throwing away the only valuable stake they have left in the world, and in short, bent on their own ruin, we cannot suggest that they will ever, on any consideration, or for any equivalent, part with so valuable, indeed so inestimable a jewel, as the exclusive trade to their own plantations.\n\nThe originators of the scheme knew that there was no money to invest in a trading venture, and no realistic expectation there would ever be a trade to exploit, but the potential for great wealth was widely publicised at every opportunity, so as to encourage interest in the scheme. The objective for the founders was to create a company which they could use to become wealthy, and which offered future scope for further government deals. \n\nFlotation\n\nThe Charter for the company was drawn up by Blunt, based on that of the Bank of England. Blunt was paid £3,846 for his services in setting up the company. Directors would be elected every three years while shareholders would meet twice a year. The company employed a Cashier, Secretary and Accountant. The Governor was intended to be an honorary position, and the position was later customarily held by the ruling monarch. The charter allowed the full court of directors to nominate a smaller committee to act on any matter on its behalf. Directors of the Bank of England and of the East India Company were disbarred from being a director of the South Sea Company. Any ship of more than 500 tons owned by the company was to have a Church of England clergyman on board.\n\nThe exchange of government debt for stock was to occur in five separate lots. The first two of these, totaling £2.75 million from about 200 large investors, had already been arranged before the company's charter was issued on 10 September 1711. The government itself exchanged £0.75 million of its own debt held by different departments (at this time, individual office holders were responsible for money in their charge, and were at liberty to invest it to their own advantage before it was required). Harley exchanged £8,000 of debt and was appointed Governor of the new company. Blunt, Caswall and Sawbridge together provided £65,000, Janssen £25,000 of his own plus £250,000 from a foreign consortium, Decker £49,000, Sir Ambrose Crawley £36,791. The company had a Sub-Governor, Bateman; a Deputy Governor, Ongley; and 30 ordinary directors. In total, nine of the directors were politicians, five were members of the Sword Blade consortium, and seven more were financial magnates who had been attracted to the scheme. \n\nThe company created a coat of arms with the motto A Gadibus usque ad Auroram (from Cadiz to the dawn) and rented a large house in the City as its headquarters. Seven sub-committees were created to handle its everyday business, the most important being the \"Committee for the affairs of the company\". The Sword Blade company was retained as their banker and on the strength of its new government connections issued notes in its own right, notwithstanding the Bank of England monopoly. The task of the Company Secretary was to oversee trading activities; the Accountant, Grigsby, was responsible for registering and issuing stock; and the Cashier, Robert Knight, acted as Blunt's personal assistant at a salary of £200 per year. \n\nThe slave trade\n\nThe War of the Spanish Succession did not end until March 1713, when the Treaty of Utrecht granted Britain an Asiento lasting 30 years to supply the Spanish colonies with 4,800 slaves per year. Britain was permitted to open offices in Buenos Aires, Caracas, Cartagena, Havana, Panama, Portobello and Vera Cruz to arrange the slave trade. One ship of no more than 500 tons could be sent to one of these places each year (the Navío de Permiso) with general trade goods. One quarter of the profits were to be reserved for the King of Spain. There was provision for two extra sailings at the start of the contract. The Asiento was granted in the name of Queen Anne and then contracted to the company. \n\nBy July the company had arranged contracts with the Royal African Company to supply the necessary African slaves to Jamaica. £10 was paid for a slave aged over 16, £8 for one under 16 but over 10. Two-thirds were to be male, and 90% adult. The company trans-shipped 1,230 slaves from Jamaica to America in the first year, plus any that might have been added (against standing instructions) by the ship's captains on their own behalf. On arrival of the first cargoes, the local authorities refused to accept the Asiento, which had still not been officially confirmed there by the Spanish authorities. The slaves were eventually sold at a loss in the West Indies. \n\nIn 1714 the government announced that a quarter of profits would be reserved for the Queen and a further 7.5% for a financial advisor, Manasseh Gilligan. Some Company board members refused to accept the contract on these terms, and the government was obliged to reverse its decision. \n\nDespite these setbacks, the company continued, having raised £200,000 to finance the operations. In 1714 2,680 slaves were carried, and for 1716–17, 13,000 more, but the trade continued to be unprofitable. An import duty of 33 pieces of eight was charged on each slave (although for this purpose some slaves might be counted only as a fraction of a slave, depending on quality). One of the extra trade ships was sent to Cartagena in 1714 carrying woollen goods, despite warnings that there was no market for them there, and they remained unsold for two years. \n\nChanges of management\n\nThe company was heavily dependent on the goodwill of government; when the government changed, so too did the company board. In 1714 one of the directors who had been sponsored by Harley, Arthur Moore, had attempted to send 60 tons of private goods on board the company ship. He was dismissed as a director, but the result was the beginning of Harley's fall from favour with the company. On 27 July 1714, Harley was replaced as Lord High Treasurer as a result of a disagreement that had broken out within the Tory faction in parliament. Queen Anne died on 1 August 1714; and at the election of directors in 1715 the Prince of Wales (the future King George II) was elected as Governor of the Company. The new King George I and the Prince of Wales both had significant holdings in the company, as did some prominent Whig politicians, including James Craggs the Elder, the Earl of Halifax and Sir Joseph Jekyll. James Craggs, as Postmaster General, was responsible for intercepting mail on behalf of the government to obtain political and financial information. All Tory politicians were removed from the board and replaced with businessmen. The Whigs Horatio Townshend, brother in law of Robert Walpole, and the Duke of Argyll were elected directors.\n\nThe new government led to a revival of the company's share value, which had fallen below its issue price. The previous government had failed to make the interest payments to the company for the last two years, owing more than £1 million. The new administration insisted the debt be written off, but allowed the company to issue new shares to stockholders to the value of the missed payments. At around £10 million, this now represented half the share capital issued in the entire country. In 1714 the company had 2,000 to 3,000 shareholders, more than either of its rivals. \n\nBy the time of the next directors' elections in 1718 politics had changed again, with a schism within the Whigs between Walpole's faction supporting the Prince of Wales and James Stanhope's supporting the King. Argyll and Townshend were dismissed as directors, as were surviving Tories Sir Richard Hoare and George Pitt, and King George I became Governor. Four MPs remained directors, as did six people holding government financial offices. The Sword Blade Company remained bankers to the South Sea, and indeed had flourished despite the company's dubious legal position. Blunt and Sawbridge remained South Sea directors, and they had been joined by Gibbon and Child. Caswall had retired as a South Sea director to concentrate on the Sword Blade business. In November 1718 Sub-Governor Bateman and Deputy Governor Shepheard both died. Leaving aside the honorary position of Governor, this left the company suddenly without its two most senior and experienced directors. They were replaced by Sir John Fellowes as Sub-Governor and Charles Joye as Deputy. \n\nWar\n\nIn 1718 war broke out with Spain once again. The company's assets in South America were seized, which the company claimed cost it £300,000. Any prospect of profit from trade, for which the company had purchased ships and had been planning its next ventures, disappeared. \n\nRefinancing government debt\n\nEvents in France now came to influence the future of the company. A Scottish economist and financier, John Law, exiled after killing a man in a duel, had travelled around Europe before settling in France. There he founded a bank, which in December 1718 became the Banque Royale, national bank of France, while Law himself was granted sweeping powers to control the economy of France, which operated largely by royal decree. Law's remarkable success was known in financial circles throughout Europe, and now came to inspire Blunt and his associates to make greater efforts to grow their own concerns. \n\nIn February 1719 Craggs explained to the House of Commons a new scheme for improving the national debt by converting the annuities issued after the 1710 lottery into South Sea stock. By Act of Parliament, the company was granted the right to issue £1,150 of new stock for every £100 per annum of annuity which was surrendered. The government would pay 5% per annum on the stock created, which would halve their annual bill. The conversion was voluntary, amounting to £2.5 million new stock if all converted. The company was to make an additional new loan to the government pro-rata up to £750,000, again at 5%. \n\nThe South Sea company presented the offer to the public in July 1719. In March there was an abortive attempt to restore the Old Pretender, James Edward Stuart, to the throne of Britain, with a small landing of troops in Scotland. They were defeated at the Battle of Glen Shiel on 10 June. The Sword Blade company spread a rumour that the Pretender had been captured, and the general euphoria encouraged the South Sea share price to rise from £100, where it had been in the spring, to £114. Annuitants were still paid out at the same money value of shares, the company keeping the profit from the rise in value before issuing. About two-thirds of the in-force annuities were exchanged.\n\nTrading more debt for equity\n\nThe 1719 scheme was a distinct success from the government's perspective, and they sought to repeat it. Negotiations took place between Aislabie and Craggs for the government and Blunt, Cashier Knight and his assistant and Caswell. Janssen, the Sub Governor and Deputy Governor were also consulted but negotiations remained secret from most of the company. News from France was of fortunes being made investing in Law's bank, whose shares had risen sharply. Money was moving around Europe, and other flotations threatened to soak up available capital (two insurance schemes in December 1719 each sought to raise £3 million). \n\nPlans were made for a new scheme to take over most of the unconsolidated national debt of Britain (£30,981,712) in exchange for company shares. Annuities were valued as a lump sum necessary to produce the annual income over the original term at an assumed interest of 5%, which favoured those with shorter terms still to run. The government agreed to pay the same amount to the company for all the fixed term repayable debt as it had been paying before, but after seven years the 5% interest rate would fall to 4% on both the new annuity debt and also that taken over previously. After the first year, the company was to give the government £3 million in four quarterly installments. New stock would be created at a face value equal to the debt, but the share price was still rising and sales of the remaining stock, i.e. the excess of the total market value of the stock over the amount of the debt, would be used to raise the government fee plus a profit for the company. The more the price rose in advance of conversion, the more the company would make. Before the scheme, payments were costing the government £1.5 million per year. \n\nIn summary, the total government debt in 1719 was £50 million:\n\n* £18.3m was held by three large corporations:\n** £3.4m by the Bank of England\n** £3.2m by the British East India Company\n** £11.7m by the South Sea Company\n* Privately held redeemable debt amounted to £16.5m\n* £15m consisted of irredeemable annuities, long-fixed-term annuities of 72–87 years, and short annuities of 22 years remaining to expiry.\n\nThe purpose of this conversion was similar to the old one: debt holders and annuitants might receive less return in total, but an illiquid investment was transformed into shares which could be readily traded. Shares backed by national debt were considered a safe investment and a convenient way to hold and move money: far easier and safer than metal coins. The only alternative safe asset, land, was much harder to sell and it was legally much more complex to transfer ownership.\n\nThe government received a cash payment and lower overall interest on the debt. Importantly, it also gained control over when the debt had to be repaid, which was not before seven years but then at its discretion. This avoided the risk that debt might become repayable at some future point just when the government needed to borrow more, and could be forced into paying higher interest rates. The payment to the government was to be used to buy in any debt not subscribed to the scheme, which although it helped the government also helped the company by removing possibly competing securities from the market, including large holdings by the Bank of England. \n\nCompany stock was now trading at £123, so the issue amounted to an injection of £5 million of new money into a booming economy just as interest rates were falling. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for Britain at this point was estimated as £64.4 million.[http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/budget_pie_ukgs.php?spanukgs302&year\n1717&view1&expand\n&unitsb&fy\n2010&state=UK#ukgs302]\n\nPublic announcement\n\nOn 21 January the plan was presented to the board of the South Sea Company, and on 22 January Chancellor of the Exchequer John Aislabie presented it to Parliament. The House was stunned into silence, but on recovering proposed that the Bank of England should be invited to make a better offer. In response, the South Sea increased its cash payment to £3.5 million, while the Bank proposed to undertake the conversion with a payment of £5.5 million and a fixed conversion price of £170 per £100 face value Bank stock. On 1 February, the company negotiators led by Blunt raised their offer to £4 million plus a proportion of £3.5 million depending on how much of the debt was converted. They also agreed that the interest rate would reduce after four years instead of seven, and agreed to sell on behalf of the government £1 million of Exchequer bills (formerly handled by the Bank). The House accepted the South Sea offer. Bank stock fell sharply. \n\nPerhaps the first sign of difficulty came when the South Sea Company announced that its Christmas 1719 dividend would be deferred for 12 months. The company now embarked on a show of gratitude to its friends. Select individuals were sold a parcel of company stock at the current price. The transactions were recorded by Knight in the names of intermediaries, but no payments were received and no stock issued - indeed the company had none to issue until the conversion of debt began. The individual received an option to sell his stock back to the company at any future date at whatever market price might then apply. Shares went to the Craggs: the Elder and the Younger; Lord Gower; Lord Lansdowne; and four other MPs. Lord Sunderland would gain £500 for every pound that stock rose; George I's mistress, their children and Countess Platen £120 per pound rise, Aislabie £200 per pound, Lord Stanhope £600 per pound. Others invested money, including the Treasurer to the Navy, Hampden, who invested £25,000 of government money on his own behalf. \n\nThe proposal was accepted in a slightly altered form in April 1720. Crucial in this conversion was the proportion of holders of irredeemable annuities who could be tempted to convert their securities at a high price for the new shares. (Holders of redeemable debt had effectively no other choice but to subscribe.) The South Sea Company could set the conversion price but could not diverge much from the market price of its shares. The company ultimately acquired 85% of the redeemables and 80% of the irredeemables.\n\nInflating the share price\n\nThe company then set to talking up its stock with \"the most extravagant rumours\" of the value of its potential trade in the New World; this was followed by a wave of \"speculating frenzy\". The share price had risen from the time the scheme was proposed: from £128 in January 1720, to £175 in February, £330 in March and, following the scheme's acceptance, £550 at the end of May.\n\nWhat may have supported the company's high multiples (its P/E ratio) was a fund of credit (known to the market) of £70 million available for commercial expansion which had been made available through substantial support, apparently, by Parliament and the King.\n\nShares in the company were \"sold\" to politicians at the current market price; however, rather than paying for the shares, these recipients simply held on to what shares they had been offered, with the option of selling them back to the company when and as they chose, receiving as \"profit\" the increase in market price. This method, while winning over the heads of government, the King's mistress, et al., also had the advantage of binding their interests to the interests of the Company: in order to secure their own profits, they had to help drive up the stock. Meanwhile, by publicising the names of their elite stockholders, the Company managed to clothe itself in an aura of legitimacy, which attracted and kept other buyers.\n\nBubble Act\n\nThe South Sea Company was by no means the only company seeking to raise money from investors in 1720. A large number of other joint-stock companies had been created making extravagant (sometimes fraudulent) claims about foreign or other ventures or bizarre schemes. Others represented potentially sound, although novel, schemes, such as for founding insurance companies. These were nicknamed \"Bubbles\". Some of the companies had no legal basis, while others, such as the Hollow Sword Blade company acting as the South Sea's banker, used existing chartered companies for purposes entirely different from their creation. The York Buildings Company was set up to provide water to London, but was purchased by Case Billingsley who used it to purchase confiscated Jacobite estates in Scotland, which then formed the assets of an insurance company. \n\nOn 22 February 1720 John Hungerford raised the question of bubble companies in the House of Commons, and persuaded the House to set up a committee, which he chaired, to investigate. He identified a number of companies which between them sought to raise £40 million in capital. The committee investigated the companies, establishing a principle that companies should not be operating outside the objects specified in their charters. A potential embarrassment for the South Sea was avoided when the question of the Hollow Sword Blade Company arose. Difficulty was avoided by flooding the committee with MPs who were supporters of the South Sea, and voting down the proposal to investigate the Hollow Sword by 75 to 25. (At this time, committees of the House were either 'Open' or 'secret'. A secret committee was one with a fixed set of members who could vote on its proceedings. By contrast, any MP could join in with an 'open' committee and vote on its proceedings.) Stanhope, who was a member of the committee, received £50,000 of the 'resaleable' South Sea stock from Sawbridge, a director of the Hollow Sword, at about this time. Hungerford had previously been expelled from the Commons for accepting a bribe. \n\nAmongst the bubble companies investigated were two supported by Lords Onslow and Chetwynd respectively, for insuring shipping. These were criticised heavily, and the questionable dealings of the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General in trying to obtain charters for the companies led to both being replaced. However, the schemes had the support of Walpole and Craggs, so that the larger part of the Bubble Act (which finally resulted in June 1720 from the committee's investigations) was devoted to creating charters for the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation and the London Assurance Corporation. The companies were required to pay £300,000 for the privilege. The Act required that a joint stock company could only be incorporated by Act of Parliament or Royal charter. The prohibition on unauthorised joint stock ventures was not repealed until 1825. \n\nThe passing of the Act gave a boost to the South Sea Company, its shares leaping to £890 in early June. This peak encouraged people to start to sell; to counterbalance this the company's directors ordered their agents to buy, which succeeded in propping the price up at around £750.\n\nTop reached\n\nThe price of the stock went up over the course of a single year from about £100 to almost £1000 per share. Its success caused a country-wide frenzy—herd behavior —as all types of people, from peasants to lords, developed a feverish interest in investing: in South Seas primarily, but in stocks generally. Among the many companies to go public in 1720 is—famously—one that advertised itself as \"a company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is\". \n\nThe price finally reached £1,000 in early August and the level of selling was such that the price started to fall, dropping back to £100 per share before the year was out, triggering bankruptcies amongst those who had bought on credit, and increasing selling, even short selling—selling borrowed shares in the hope of buying them back at a profit if the price fell.\n\nAlso, in August 1720 the first of the installment payments of the first and second money subscriptions on new issues of South Sea stock were due. Earlier in the year John Blunt had come up with an idea to prop up the share price: the company would lend people money to buy its shares. As a result, many shareholders could not pay for their shares except by selling them.\n\nFurthermore, a scramble for liquidity appeared internationally as \"bubbles\" were also ending in Amsterdam and Paris. The collapse coincided with the fall of the Mississippi Company of John Law in France. As a result, the price of South Sea shares began to decline.\n\nRecriminations\n\nBy the end of September the stock had fallen to £150. Company failures now extended to banks and goldsmiths as they could not collect loans made on the stock, and thousands of individuals were ruined, including many members of the aristocracy. With investors outraged, Parliament was recalled in December and an investigation began. Reporting in 1721, it revealed widespread fraud amongst the company directors and corruption in the Cabinet. Among those implicated were John Aislabie (the Chancellor of the Exchequer), James Craggs the Elder (the Postmaster General), James Craggs the Younger (the Southern Secretary), and even Lord Stanhope and Lord Sunderland (the heads of the Ministry). Craggs the Elder and Craggs the Younger both died in disgrace; the remainder were impeached for their corruption. The Commons found Aislabie guilty of the \"most notorious, dangerous and infamous corruption\", and he was imprisoned.\n\nThe newly appointed First Lord of the Treasury Robert Walpole was forced to introduce a series of measures to restore public confidence. Under the guidance of Walpole, Parliament attempted to deal with the financial crisis. The estates of the directors of the company were confiscated and used to relieve the suffering of the victims, and the stock of the South Sea Company was divided between the Bank of England and the East India Company. The crisis had significantly damaged the credibility of King George I and of the Whig Party.\n\nQuotations prompted by the collapse\n\nJoseph Spence wrote that Lord Radnor reported to him \"When Sir Isaac Newton was asked about the continuance of the rising of South Sea stock... He answered 'that he could not calculate the madness of people'.\" He is also quoted as stating, \"I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men\". Newton's niece Catherine Conduitt reported that he \"lost twenty thousand pounds. Of this, however, he never much liked to hear...\" This was a fortune at the time (equivalent to about £2.4 million in present-day terms ), but it is not clear whether it was a monetary loss or an opportunity cost loss.\n\nA trading company\n\nThe South Sea Company was created in 1711 to reduce the size of public debts, but was granted the commercial privilege of exclusive rights of trade to the Spanish Indies, based on the treaty of commerce signed by Britain and the Archduke Charles, candidate to the Spanish throne during the War of the Spanish Succession. Since Philip V became the King of Spain, Britain obtained at the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht the rights to the slave trade to the Spanish Indies (or Asiento) for 30 years. Those rights were previously held by the Compagnie de Guinée et de l'Assiente du Royaume de la France.\n\nThe South Sea Company board opposed taking on the slave trade that had showed little profitability when chartered companies had engaged in it, but it was the only legal type of commerce with the Spanish Colonies as they were a closed market. To increase the profitability, the Asiento contract included the right to send one yearly 500 ton ship to the fairs at Portobello and Veracruz loaded with duty-free merchandises, called the Navío de Permiso.\nThe Crown of England and the King of Spain were each entitled to 25% of the profits, according to the terms of the contract, that was a copy of the French Asiento contract, but Queen Anne soon renounced her share. The King of Spain did not receive any payments due to him, and this was one of the sources of contention between the Spanish Crown and the South Sea Company.\n\nAs was the case for previous holders of the Asiento, the Portuguese and the French, the profit was not in the slave trade but in the illegal contraband goods smuggled in the slave ships and in the annual ship. Those goods were sold at the Spanish colonies at a handsome price as they were in high demand and constituted unfair competition with taxed goods, proving an important drain on the Spanish Crown trade income.\nThe relationship between the South Sea Company and the Government of Spain was always bad, and worsened with time. The Company complained of searches and seizures of goods, lack of profitability, and confiscation of properties during the wars between Britain and Spain of 1718-1723 and 1727-1729, during which the operations of the Company were suspended. The Government of Spain complained of the illegal trade, failure of the company to present its accounts as stipulated by the contract, and non-payment of the King's share of the profits.\nThese claims were a major cause of deteriorating relations between the two countries in 1738; and although the Prime Minister Walpole opposed war, there was strong support for it from the King, the House of Commons, and a faction in his own Cabinet. Walpole was able to negotiate a treaty with the King of Spain at the Convention of Pardo in January 1739 that stipulated that Spain would pay British merchants £95,000 in compensation for captures and seized goods, while the South Sea Company would pay the Spanish Crown £68,000 in due proceeds from the Asiento. The South Sea Company refused to pay those proceeds and the King of Spain retained payment of the compensation until payment from the South Sea Company could be secured. The break up of relations between the South Sea Company and the Spanish Government was a prelude to the Guerra del Asiento, as the first Royal Navy fleets departed in July 1739 for the Caribbean, prior to the declaration of war, which lasted from October 1739 until 1748. This war is known as the War of Jenkins' Ear. \n\nSlave trade under the Asiento\n\nUnder the Treaty of Tordesillas, Spain was the only European power that could not establish factories in Africa to purchase slaves. The slaves for the Spanish America were provided by companies that were granted exclusive rights to their trade. This monopoly contract was called the slave Asiento. Between 1701 and 1713 the Asiento contract was granted to France. In 1711 Britain had created the South Sea Company to reduce debt and to trade with the Spanish America, but that commerce was illegal without a permit from Spain, and the only existing permit was the Asiento for the slave trade, so at the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 Britain obtained the transfer of the Asiento contract from French to British hands for the next 30 years.\nThe board of directors was reluctant to take on the slave trade that was not an object of the company and had shown little profitability when carried out by chartered companies, but they finally agreed on March 26, 1714. The Asiento set a sale quota of 4800 units of slaves per year. An adult male slave counted as one unit; females and children counted as fractions of a unit. Initially the slaves were provided by the Royal African Company.\n\nThe South Sea Company established slave reception factories at Cartagena, Colombia, Veracruz, Mexico, Panama, Portobello, Buenos Aires, La Havana and Santiago de Cuba, and slave deposits at Jamaica and Barbados. Despite problems with speculation, the South Sea Company was relatively successful at slave trading and meeting its quota (it was unusual for other, similarly chartered companies to fulfill their quotas). According to records compiled by David Eltis and others, during the course of 96 voyages in 25 years, the South Sea Company purchased 34,000 slaves, of whom 30,000 survived the voyage across the Atlantic. (Thus about 11% of the slaves died on the voyage: a relatively low mortality rate for the Middle Crossing. ) The company persisted with the slave trade through two wars with Spain and the calamitous 1720 commercial bubble. The company's trade in human slavery peaked during the 1725 trading year, five years after the bubble burst. Between 1715 and 1739, slave trading constituted the main legal commercial activity of the South Sea Company.\n\nThe annual ship\n\nThe slave Asiento contract of 1713 granted a permit to send one vessel of 500 tons per year, loaded with duty-free merchandise to be sold at the fairs of New Spain, Cartagena, and Portobello. This was an unprecedented concession that broke two centuries of strict exclusion of foreign merchants from the Spanish Empire. \n\nThe first ship to head for the Americas, the Royal Prince, was scheduled for 1714 but was delayed until August 1716. In consideration of the three annual ships missed since the date of the Asiento, the permitted tonnage of the next ten ships was raised to 650. Actually only seven annual ships sailed during the Asiento, the last one being the Royal Caroline in 1732. The company's failure to produce accounts for all the annual ships but the first one, and lack of payment of the proceeds to the Spanish Crown from the profits for all the annual ships, resulted in no more permits being granted to the Company's ships after the Royal Caroline trip of 1732-1734.\n\nIn contrast to the legitimate trade in slaves, the regular trade of the annual ships generated healthy returns, in some case profits were over 100%. Accounts for the voyage of the Royal Prince were not presented until 1733, following continuous demands by Spanish officials. They reported that profits of £43,607. Since the King of Spain was entitled to 25% of the profits, after deducting interest on a loan he claimed £8,678. The South Sea Company never paid the amount due for the first annual ship to the Spanish Crown, nor did it pay any amount for any of the other six trips.\n\nArctic whaling\n\nThe Greenland Company had been established by Act of Parliament in 1693 with the object of catching whales in the Arctic. The products of their \"whale-fishery\" were to be free of Customs and other duties. Partly due to maritime disruption caused by wars with France, the Greenland Company failed financially within a few years. In 1722 Henry Elking published a proposal, directed at the governors of the South Sea Company, that they should resume the \"Greenland Trade\" and send ships to catch whales in the Arctic. He made very detailed suggestions about how the ships should be crewed and equipped. \n\nThe British Parliament confirmed that a British Arctic \"whale-fishery\" would continue to benefit from freedom from Customs duties, and in 1724 the South Sea Company decided to commence whaling. They had 12 whale-ships built on the River Thames and these went to the Greenland seas in 1725. Further ships were built in later years, but the venture was not successful. There were hardly any experienced whalemen remaining in Britain, and the Company had to engage Dutch and Danish whalemen for the key posts aboard their ships: for instance all commanding officers and harpooners were hired from the North Frisian island of Föhr. Other costs were badly controlled and the catches remained disappointingly few, even though the Company was sending up to 25 ships to Davis Strait and the Greenland seas in some years. By 1732 the Company had accumulated a net loss of £177,782 from their eight years of Arctic whaling. \n\nThe South Sea Company directors appealed to the British government for further support. Parliament had passed an Act in 1732 that extended the duty-free concessions for a further nine years. In 1733 an Act was passed that also granted a government subsidy to British Arctic whalers, the first in a long series of such Acts that continued and modified the whaling subsidies throughout the 18th century. This, and the subsequent Acts, required the whalers to meet conditions regarding the crewing and equipping of the whale-ships that closely resembled the conditions suggested by Elking in 1722. \nIn spite of the extended duty-free concessions, and the prospect of real subsidies as well, the Court and Directors of the South Sea Company decided that they could not expect to make profits from Arctic whaling. They sent out no more whale-ships after the loss-making 1732 season.\n\nGovernment debt after the Seven Years' War\n\nThe company continued its trade (when not interrupted by war) until the end of the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). However, its main function was always managing government debt, rather than trading with the Spanish colonies. The South Sea Company continued its management of the part of the National Debt until it was disestablished in 1853, at which point the debt was reconsolidated. The debt was not paid off by World War I, at which point it was consolidated again, under terms that allowed the government to avoid paying down the principal.\n\nOfficers of the South Sea Company\n\nThe South Sea Company had a governor (generally an honorary position); a subgovernor; a deputy governor and 30 directors (reduced in 1753 to 21).", "The Netherlands, despite its comparatively modest size and population, had a considerable part in the making of the modern society. Rybczynski, Witold (1987). Home: A Short History of an Idea. According to Witold Rybczynski’s Home: A Short History of an Idea, private spaces in households are a Dutch seventeenth-century invention, despite their commonplace nature today. He has argued that home as we now know it came from the Dutch canal house of the seventeenth century. That, he said, was the first time that people identified living quarters as being precisely the residence of a man, a woman and their children. \"The feminization of the home in seventeenth century Holland was one of the most important events in the evolution of the domestic interior.\" This evolution took place in part due to Dutch law being \"explicit on contractual arrangements and on the civil rights of servants\". And, \"for the first time, the person who was in intimate contact with housework was also in a position to influence the arrangement and disposition of the house.\" Rybczynski (2007) discusses why we live in houses in the first place: \"To understand why we live in houses, it is necessary to go back several hundred years to Europe. Rural people have always lived in houses, but the typical medieval town dwelling, which combined living space and workplace, was occupied by a mixture of extended families, servants, and employees. This changed in seventeenth-century Holland. The Netherlands was Europe’s first republic, and the world’s first middle-class nation. Prosperity allowed extensive home ownership, republicanism discouraged the widespread use of servants, a love of children promoted the nuclear family, and Calvinism encouraged thrift and other domestic virtues. These circumstances, coupled with a particular affection for the private family home, brought about a cultural revolution... The idea of urban houses spread to the British Isles thanks to England's strong commercial and cultural links with the Netherlands.\"Tabor, Philip (2005). \"Striking Home: The Telematic Assault on Identity\". Published in Jonathan Hill, editor, Occupying Architecture: Between the Architect and the User. Philip Tabor states the contribution of 17th century Dutch houses as the foundation of houses today: \"As far as the idea of the home is concerned, the home of the home is the Netherlands. This idea's crystallization might be dated to the first three-quarters of the seventeenth century, when the Dutch Netherlands amassed the unprecedented and unrivalled accumulation of capital, and emptied their purses into domestic space.\" According to Jonathan Hill (Immaterial Architecture, 2006), compared to the large scaled houses in England and the Renaissance, the 17th Century Dutch house was smaller, and was only inhabited by up to four to five members. This was due to their embracing \"self-reliance\", in contrast to the dependence on servants, and a design for a lifestyle centered on the family. It was important for the Dutch to separate work from domesticity, as the home became an escape and a place of comfort. This way of living and the home has been noted as highly similar to the contemporary family and their dwellings. House layouts also incorporated the idea of the corridor as well as the importance of function and privacy. By the end of the 17th Century, the house layout was soon transformed to become employment-free, enforcing these ideas for the future. This came in favour for the industrial revolution, gaining large-scale factory production and workers. The house layout of the Dutch and its functions are still relevant today. The Netherlands and its people have made numerous seminal contributions to the world's civilization, especially in art, science, technology and engineering, economics and finance,During their Golden Age, the Dutch were responsible for three major institutional innovations in economic and financial history. The first major innovation was the foundation of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the world's first publicly traded company, in 1602. As the first listed company (the first company to be ever listed on an official stock exchange), the VOC was the first company to actually issue stock and bonds to the general public. Considered by many experts to be the world's first truly (modern) multinational corporation, the VOC was also the first permanently organized limited-liability joint-stock company, with a permanent capital base. The Dutch merchants were the pioneers in laying the basis for modern corporate governance. The VOC is often considered as the precursor of modern corporations, if not the first truly modern corporation. It was the VOC that invented the idea of investing in the company rather than in a specific venture governed by the company. With its pioneering features such as corporate identity (first globally-recognized corporate logo), entrepreneurial spirit, legal personhood, transnational (multinational) operational structure, high stable profitability, permanent capital (fixed capital stock), freely transferable shares and tradable securities, separation of ownership and management, and limited liability for both shareholders and managers, the VOC is generally considered a major institutional breakthrough and the model for the large-scale business enterprises that now dominate the global economy. The second major innovation was the creation of the world's first fully functioning financial market, with the birth of a fully fledged capital market. The Dutch were also the first to effectively use a fully-fledged capital market (including the bond market and the stock market) to finance companies (such as the VOC and the WIC). It was in seventeenth-century Amsterdam that the global securities market began to take on its modern form. In 1602 the Dutch East India Company (VOC) established an exchange in Amsterdam where VOC stock and bonds could be traded in a secondary market. The VOC undertook the world's first recorded IPO in the same year. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange (Amsterdamsche Beurs in Dutch) was also the world's first fully-fledged stock exchange. While the Italian city-states produced the first transferable government bonds, they didn't develop the other ingredient necessary to produce a fully fledged capital market: corporate shareholders. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) became the first company to offer shares of stock. The dividend averaged around 18% of capital over the course of the company's 200-year existence. Dutch investors were the first to trade their shares at a regular stock exchange. The buying and selling of these shares of stock in the VOC became the basis of the first stock market. It was in the Dutch Republic that the early techniques of stock-market manipulation were developed. The Dutch pioneered stock futures, stock options, short selling, bear raids, debt-equity swaps, and other speculative instruments. Amsterdam businessman Joseph de la Vega's Confusion of Confusions (1688) was the earliest book about stock trading. The third major innovation was the establishment of the Bank of Amsterdam (Amsterdamsche Wisselbank in Dutch) in 1609, which led to the introduction of the concept of bank money. The Bank of Amsterdam was arguably the world's first central bank. The Wisselbank's innovations helped lay the foundations for the birth and development of the central banking system that now plays a vital role in the world's economy. It occupied a central position in the financial world of its day, providing an effective, efficient and trusted system for national and international payments, and introduced the first ever international reserve currency, the bank guilder. Lucien Gillard (2004) calls it the European guilder (le florin européen), and Adam Smith devotes many pages to explaining how the bank guilder works (Smith 1776: 446-455). The model of the Wisselbank as a state bank was adapted throughout Europe, including the Bank of Sweden (1668) and the Bank of England (1694). cartography and geography, exploration and navigation, law and jurisprudence, thought and philosophy, medicine, and agriculture. Dutch-speaking people, in spite of their relatively small number, have a significant history of invention, innovation, discovery and exploration. The following list is composed of objects, (largely) unknown lands, breakthrough ideas/concepts, principles, phenomena, processes, methods, techniques, styles etc., that were discovered or invented (or pioneered) by people from the Netherlands and Dutch-speaking people from the former Southern Netherlands (Zuid-Nederlanders in Dutch). Until the fall of Antwerp (1585), the Dutch and Flemish were generally seen as one people.Frisians, specifically West Frisians, are an ethnic group; present in the North of the Netherlands; mainly concentrating in the Province of Friesland. Culturally, modern Frisians and the (Northern) Dutch are rather similar; the main and generally most important difference being that Frisians speak West Frisian, one of the three sub-branches of the Frisian languages, alongside Dutch. West Frisians in the general do not feel or see themselves as part of a larger group of Frisians, and, according to a 1970 inquiry, identify themselves more with the Dutch than with East or North Frisians. Because of centuries of cohabitation and active participation in Dutch society, as well as being bilingual, the Frisians are not treated as a separate group in Dutch official statistics.\n\nInventions and innovations\n\nArts and architecture \n\nMovements and styles \n\nDe Stijl (Neo-Plasticism) (1917) \n\nThe De Stijl school proposed simplicity and abstraction, both in architecture and painting, by using only straight horizontal and vertical lines and rectangular forms. Furthermore, their formal vocabulary was limited to the primary colours, red, yellow, and blue and the three primary values, black, white and grey. De Stijl's principal members were painters Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931), Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), Vilmos Huszár (1884–1960), and Bart van der Leck (1876–1958) and architects Gerrit Rietveld (1888–1964), Robert van 't Hoff (1888–1979) and J.J.P. Oud (1890–1963).\n\nArchitecture \n\nBrabantine Gothic architecture (14th century) \n\nBrabantine Gothic, occasionally called Brabantian Gothic, is a significant variant of Gothic architecture that is typical for the Low Countries. It surfaced in the first half of the 14th century at Saint Rumbold's Cathedral in the City of Mechelen. The Brabantine Gothic style originated with the advent of the Duchy of Brabant and spread across the Burgundian Netherlands.\n\nNetherlandish gabled architecture (15th-17th centuries) \n\n \n\nThe Dutch gable was a notable feature of the Dutch-Flemish Renaissance architecture (or Northern Mannerist architecture) that spread to northern Europe from the Low Countries, arriving in Britain during the latter part of the 16th century. Notable castles/buildings including Frederiksborg Castle, Rosenborg Castle, Kronborg Castle, Børsen, Riga's House of the Blackheads and Gdańsk's Green Gate were built in Dutch-Flemish Renaissance style with sweeping gables, sandstone decorations and copper-covered roofs. Later Dutch gables with flowing curves became absorbed into Baroque architecture. Examples of Dutch-gabled buildings can be found in historic cities across Europe such as Potsdam (Dutch Quarter), Friedrichstadt, Gdańsk and Gothenburg. The style spread beyond Europe, for example Barbados is well known for Dutch gables on its historic buildings. Dutch settlers in South Africa brought with them building styles from the Netherlands: Dutch gables, then adjusted to the Western Cape region where the style became known as Cape Dutch architecture. In the Americas and Northern Europe, the West End Collegiate Church (New York City, 1892), the Chicago Varnish Company Building (Chicago, 1895), Pont Street Dutch-style buildings (London, 1800s), Helsingør Station (Helsingør, 1891), and Gdańsk University of Technology's Main Building (Gdańsk, 1904) are typical examples of the Dutch Renaissance Revival (Neo-Renaissance) architecture in the late 19th century.\n\nNetherlandish Mannerist architecture (Antwerp Mannerism) (16th century) \n\nAntwerp Mannerism is the name given to the style of a largely anonymous group of painters from Antwerp in the beginning of the 16th century. The style bore no direct relation to Renaissance or Italian Mannerism, but the name suggests a peculiarity that was a reaction to the classic style of the early Netherlandish painting. Antwerp Mannerism may also be used to describe the style of architecture, which is loosely Mannerist, developed in Antwerp by about 1540, which was then influential all over Northern Europe. The Green Gate (Brama Zielona) in Gdańsk, Poland, is a building which is inspired by the Antwerp City Hall. It was built between 1568 and 1571 by Regnier van Amsterdam and Hans Kramer to serve as the formal residence of the Polish monarchs when visiting Gdańsk.\n\nCape Dutch architecture (1650s) \n\nCape Dutch architecture is an architectural style found in the Western Cape of South Africa. The style was prominent in the early days (17th century) of the Cape Colony, and the name derives from the fact that the initial settlers of the Cape were primarily Dutch. The style has roots in medieval Netherlands, Germany, France and Indonesia. Houses in this style have a distinctive and recognisable design, with a prominent feature being the grand, ornately rounded gables, reminiscent of features in townhouses of Amsterdam built in the Dutch style.\n\nAmsterdam School (Dutch Expressionist architecture) (1910s) \n\nThe Amsterdam School (Dutch: Amsterdamse School) flourished from 1910 through about 1930 in the Netherlands. The Amsterdam School movement is part of international Expressionist architecture, sometimes linked to German Brick Expressionism.\n\nRietveld Schröder House (De Stijl architecture) (1924) \n\nThe Rietveld Schröder House or Schröder House (Rietveld Schröderhuis in Dutch) in Utrecht was built in 1924 by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld. It became a listed monument in 1976 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. The Rietveld Schröder House constitutes both inside and outside a radical break with tradition, offering little distinction between interior and exterior space. The rectilinear lines and planes flow from outside to inside, with the same colour palette and surfaces. Inside is a dynamic, changeable open zone rather than a static accumulation of rooms. The house is one of the best known examples of De Stijl architecture and arguably the only true De Stijl building. \n\nVan Nelle Factory (1925–1931) \n\nThe Van Nelle factory was built between 1925 and 1931. Its most striking feature is its huge glass façades. The factory was designed on the premise that a modern, transparent and healthy working environment in green surroundings would be good both for production and for workers' welfare. The factory had a huge impact on the development of modern architecture in Europe and elsewhere. The Van Nelle Factory is a Dutch national monument (Rijksmonument) and since 2014 has the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Justification of Outstanding Universal Value was presented in 2013 to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.\n\nSuper Dutch (1990-present) \n\nAn architectural movement started by a generation of new architects during the 1990, among this generation of architects were OMA, MVRDV, UNStudio, Mecanoo, Meyer en Van Schooten and many more. They started with buildings, which became internationally known for their new and refreshing style. After which Super Dutch Architecture spread out across the globe.\n\nFurniture \n\nDutch door (17th century) \n\nThe Dutch door (also known as stable door or half door) is a type of door divided horizontally in such a fashion that the bottom half may remain shut while the top half opens. The initial purpose of this door was to keep animals out of farmhouses, while keeping children inside, yet allowing light and air to filter through the open top. This type of door was common in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century and appears in Dutch paintings of the period. They were commonly found in Dutch areas of New York and New Jersey (before the American Revolution) and in South Africa. \n\nRed and Blue Chair (1917) \n\nThe Red and Blue Chair was designed in 1917 by Gerrit Rietveld. It represents one of the first explorations by the De Stijl art movement in three dimensions. It features several Rietveld joints.\n\nZig-Zag Chair (1934) \n\nThe Zig-Zag Chair was designed by Rietveld in 1934. It is a minimalist design without legs, made by 4 flat wooden tiles that are merged in a Z-shape using Dovetail joints. It was designed for the Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht.\n\nVisual arts \n\nFoundations of modern oil painting (15th century) \n\nAlthough oil paint was first used for Buddhist paintings by Indian and Chinese painters sometime between the fifth and tenth centuries, it did not gain notoriety until the 15th century. Its practice may have migrated westward during the Middle Ages. Oil paint eventually became the principal medium used for creating artworks as its advantages became widely known. The transition began with Early Netherlandish painting in northern Europe, and by the height of the Renaissance oil painting techniques had almost completely replaced tempera paints in the majority of Europe. Early Netherlandish painting (Jan van Eyck in particular) in the 15th century was the first to make oil the default painting medium, and to explore the use of layers and glazes, followed by the rest of Northern Europe, and only then Italy. \n\nGlaze (painting technique) (15th century) \n\nGlazing is a technique employed by painters since the invention of modern oil painting. Early Netherlandish painters in the 15th century were the first to make oil the usual painting medium, and explore the use of layers and glazes, followed by the rest of Northern Europe, and only then Italy.\n\nProto-Realism (15th–17th centuries) \n\nTwo aspects of realism were rooted in at least two centuries of Dutch tradition: conspicuous textural imitation and a penchant for ordinary and exaggeratedly comic scenes. Two hundred years before the rise of literary realism, Dutch painters had already made an art of the everyday – pictures that served as a compelling model for the later novelists. By the mid-1800s, 17th-century Dutch painting figured virtually everywhere in the British and French fiction we esteem today as the vanguard of realism.\n\nProto-Surrealism (1470s–1510s) \n\nHieronymus Bosch is considered one of the prime examples of Pre-Surrealism. The surrealists relied most on his insights. In the 20th century, Bosch's paintings (e.g. The Garden of Earthly Delights, The Haywain, The Temptation of St. Anthony and The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things) were cited by the Surrealists as precursors to their own visions.\n\nModern still-life painting (16th–17th century) \n\nStill-life painting as an independent genre or specialty first flourished in the Netherlands in the last quarter of the 16th century, and the English term derives from stilleven: still life, which is a calque, while Romance languages (as well as Greek, Polish, Russian and Turkish) tend to use terms meaning dead nature.\n\nNaturalistic landscape painting (16th–17th century) \n\nThe term \"landscape\" derives from the Dutch word landschap, which originally meant \"region, tract of land\" but acquired the artistic connotation, \"a picture depicting scenery on land\" in the early 16th century. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the tradition of depicting pure landscapes declined and the landscape was seen only as a setting for religious and figural scenes. This tradition continued until the 16th century when artists began to view the landscape as a subject in its own right. The Dutch Golden Age painting of the 17th century saw the dramatic growth of landscape painting, in which many artists specialized, and the development of extremely subtle realist techniques for depicting light and weather.\n\nGenre painting (15th century) \n\nThe Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder chose peasants and their activities as the subject of many paintings. Genre painting flourished in Northern Europe in his wake. Adriaen van Ostade, David Teniers, Aelbert Cuyp, Jan Steen, Johannes Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch were among many painters specializing in genre subjects in the Netherlands during the 17th century. The generally small scale of these artists' paintings was appropriate for their display in the homes of middle class purchasers.\n\nMarine painting (17th century) \n\nMarine painting began in keeping with medieval Christian art tradition. Such works portrayed the sea only from a bird's eye view, and everything, even the waves, was organized and symmetrical. The viewpoint, symmetry and overall order of these early paintings underlined the organization of the heavenly cosmos from which the earth was viewed. Later Dutch artists such as Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom, Cornelius Claesz, Abraham Storck, Jan Porcellis, Simon de Vlieger, Willem van de Velde the Elder, Willem van de Velde the Younger and Ludolf Bakhuizen developed new methods for painting, often from a horizontal point of view, with a lower horizon and more focus on realism than symmetry. \n\nVanitas (17th century) \n\nThe term vanitas is most often associated with still life paintings that were popular in seventeenth-century Dutch art, produced by the artists such as Pieter Claesz. Common vanitas symbols included skulls (a reminder of the certainty of death); rotten fruit (decay); bubbles, (brevity of life and suddenness of death); smoke, watches, and hourglasses, (the brevity of life); and musical instruments (the brevity and ephemeral nature of life). Fruit, flowers and butterflies can be interpreted in the same way, while a peeled lemon, as well as the typical accompanying seafood was, like life, visually attractive but with a bitter flavor.\n\nCivil group portraiture (17th century) \n\nGroup portraits were produced in great numbers during the Baroque period, particularly in the Netherlands. Unlike in the rest of Europe, Dutch artists received no commissions from the Calvinist Church which had forbidden such images or from the aristocracy which was virtually non-existent. Instead, commissions came from civic and businesses associations. Dutch painter Frans Hals used fluid brush strokes of vivid color to enliven his group portraits, including those of the civil guard to which he belonged. Rembrandt benefitted greatly from such commissions and from the general appreciation of art by bourgeois clients, who supported portraiture as well as still-life and landscape painting. Notably, the world's first significant art and dealer markets flourished in Holland at that time.\n\nTronie (17th century) \n\nIn the 17th century, Dutch painters (especially Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Jan Lievens and Johannes Vermeer) began to create uncommissioned paintings called tronies that focused on the features and/or expressions of people who were not intended to be identifiable. They were conceived more for art's sake than to satisfy conventions. The tronie was a distinctive type of painting, combining elements of the portrait, history, and genre painting. This was usually a half-length of a single figure which concentrated on capturing an unusual mood or expression. The actual identity of the model was not supposed to be important, but they might represent a historical figure and be in exotic or historic costume. In contrast to portraits, \"tronies\" were painted for the open market. They differ from figurative paintings and religious figures in that they are not restricted to a moral or narrative context. It is, rather, much more an exploration of the spectrum of human physiognomy and expression and the reflection of conceptions of character that are intrinsic to psychology’s pre-history.\n\nRembrandt lighting (17th century) \n\nRembrandt lighting is a lighting technique that is used in studio portrait photography.\nIt can be achieved using one light and a reflector, or two lights, and is popular because\nit is capable of producing images which appear both natural and compelling with a minimum\nof equipment. Rembrandt lighting is characterized by an illuminated triangle under the eye\nof the subject, on the less illuminated side of the face. It is named for the Dutch painter\nRembrandt, who often used this type of lighting in his portrait paintings.\n\nMezzotint (1642) \n\nThe first known mezzotint was done in Amsterdam in 1642 by Utrecht-born German artist Ludwig von Siegen. He lived in Amsterdam from 1641 to about 1644, when he was supposedly influenced by Rembrandt. \n\nAquatint (1650s) \n\nThe painter and printmaker Jan van de Velde is often credited to be the inventor of the aquatint technique, in Amsterdam around 1650.\n\nPronkstilleven (1650s) \n\nPronkstilleven (pronk still life or ostentatious still life) is a type of banquet piece whose distinguishing feature is a quality of ostentation and splendor. These still lifes usually depict one or more especially precious objects. Although the term is a post-17th century invention, this type is characteristic of the second half of the seventeenth century. It was developed in the 1640s in Antwerp from where it spread quickly to the Dutch Republic. Flemish artists such as Frans Snyders and Adriaen van Utrecht started to paint still lifes that emphasized abundance by depicting a diversity of objects, fruits, flowers and dead game, often together with living people and animals. The style was soon adopted by artists from the Dutch Republic.[http://www.answers.com/topic/pronkstilleven Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms: Pronkstilleven] A leading Dutch representative was Jan Davidsz. de Heem, who spent a long period of his active career in Antwerp and was one of the founders of the style in Holland.[http://www.rkd.nl/rkddb/dispatcher.aspx?actionsearch&database\nChoiceArtists&searchpriref\n36842 Jan Davidsz. de Heem] at the Netherlands Institute for Art History \n Other leading representatives in the Dutch Republic were Abraham van Beyeren, Willem Claeszoon Heda and Willem Kalf.\n\nProto-Expressionism (1880s) \n\nVincent van Gogh's work is most often associated with Post-Impressionism, but his innovative style had a vast influence on 20th-century art and established what would later be known as Expressionism, also greatly influencing fauvism and early abstractionism. His impact on German and Austrian Expressionists was especially profound. \"Van Gogh was father to us all,\" the German Expressionist painter Max Pechstein proclaimed in 1901, when Van Gogh's vibrant oils were first shown in Germany and triggered the artistic reformation, a decade after his suicide in obscurity in France. In his final letter to Theo, Van Gogh stated that, as he had no children, he viewed his paintings as his progeny. Reflecting on this, the British art historian Simon Schama concluded that he \"did have a child of course, Expressionism, and many, many heirs.\"\n\nM. C. Escher's graphic arts (1920s–1960s) \n\nDutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher, usually referred to as M. C. Escher, is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. These feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture and tessellations. His special way of thinking and rich graphic work has had a continuous influence in science and art, as well as permeating popular culture. His ideas have been used in fields as diverse as psychology, philosophy, logic, crystallography and topology. His art is based on mathematical principles like tessellations, spherical geometry, the Möbius strip, unusual perspectives, visual paradoxes and illusions, different kinds of symmetries and impossible objects. Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter discusses the ideas of self-reference and strange loops, drawing on a wide range of artistic and scientific work, including Escher's art and the music of J. S. Bach, to illustrate ideas behind Gödel's incompleteness theorems.\n\nMiffy (Nijntje) (1955) \n\nMiffy (Nijntje) is a small female rabbit in a series of picture books drawn and written by Dutch artist Dick Bruna.\n\nMusic \n\nFranco-Flemish School (Netherlandish School) (15th-16th century) \n\nIn music, the Franco-Flemish School or more precisely the Netherlandish School refers to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition in the Burgundian Netherlands in the 15th and early 16th centuries, and to the composers who wrote it.\n\nVenetian School (Venetian polychoral style) (16th century) \n\nThe Venetian School of polychoral music was founded by the Netherlandish composer Adrian Willaert.\n\nHardcore (electronic dance music genre) (1990s) \n\nHardcore or hardcore techno is a subgenre of electronic dance music originating in Europe from the emergent raves in the 1990s. It was initially designed at Rotterdam in Netherlands, derived from techno. \n\n Hardstyle (electronic dance music genre) (1990s-2000s) \n\nHardstyle is an electronic dance genre mixing influences from hardtechno and hardcore. Hardstyle was influenced by gabber. Hardstyle has its origins in the Netherlands where artists like DJ Zany, Lady Dana, DJ Isaac, DJ Pavo, DJ Luna and The Prophet, who produced hardcore, started experimenting while playing their hardcore records.\n\nAgriculture \n\nHolstein Friesian cattle (2nd century BC) \n\nHolsteins or Holstein-Friesians are a breed of cattle known today as the world's highest-production dairy animals. Originating in Europe, Holstein-Friesians were bred in the two northern provinces of North Holland and Friesland, and Schleswig-Holstein in what became Germany. The animals were the regional cattle of the Frisians and the Saxons. The origins of the breed can be traced to the black cows and white cows of the Batavians and Frisians - migrant tribes who settled the coastal Rhine region more than two thousand years ago.\n\nBrussels sprout ( 13th century) \n\nForerunners to modern Brussels sprouts were likely cultivated in ancient Rome. Brussels sprouts as we now know them were grown possibly as early as the 13th century in the Low Countries (may have originated in Brussels). The first written reference dates to 1587. During the 16th century, they enjoyed a popularity in the Southern Netherlands that eventually spread throughout the cooler parts of Northern Europe.\n\nOrange-coloured carrot (16th century) \n\nThrough history, carrots weren’t always orange. They were black, purple, white, brown, red and yellow. Probably orange too, but this was not the dominant colour. Orange-coloured carrots appeared in the Netherlands in the 16th century. Dutch farmers in Hoorn bred the color. They succeeded by cross-breeding pale yellow with red carrots. It is more likely that Dutch horticulturists actually found an orange rooted mutant variety and then worked on its development through selective breeding to make the plant consistent. Through successive hybridisation the orange colour intensified. This was developed to become the dominant species across the world, a sweet orange.\n\nBelle de Boskoop (apple) (1856) \n\nBelle de Boskoop is an apple cultivar which, as its name suggests, originated in Boskoop, where it began as a chance seedling in 1856. There are many variants: Boskoop red, yellow or green. This rustic apple is firm, tart and fragrant. Greenish-gray tinged with red, the apple stands up well to cooking. Generally Boskoop varieties are very high in acid content and can contain more than four times the vitamin C of 'Granny Smith' or 'Golden Delicious'. \n\nKarmijn de Sonnaville (apple) (1949) \n\nKarmijn de Sonnaville is a variety of apple bred by Piet de Sonnaville, working in Wageningen in 1949. It is a cross of Cox's Orange Pippin and Jonathan, and was first grown commercially beginning in 1971. It is high both in sugars (including some sucrose) and acidity. It is a triploid, and hence needs good pollination, and can be difficult to grow. It also suffers from fruit russet, which can be severe. In Manhart’s book, “apples for the 21st century”, Karmijn de Sonnaville is tipped as a possible success for the future. Karmijn de Sonnaville is not widely grown in large quantities, but in Ireland, at The Apple Farm, 8 acre it is grown for fresh sale and juice-making, for which the variety is well suited.\n\nElstar (apple) (1950s) \n\nElstar apple is an apple cultivar that was first developed in the Netherlands in the 1950s by crossing Golden Delicious and Ingrid Marie apples. It quickly became popular, especially in Europe and was first introduced to America in 1972. It remains popular in Continental Europe. The Elstar is a medium-sized apple whose skin is mostly red with yellow showing. The flesh is white, and has a soft, crispy texture. It may be used for cooking and is especially good for making apple sauce. In general, however, it is used in desserts due to its sweet flavour.\n\nGroasis Waterboxx (2010) \n\nThe Groasis Waterboxx is a device designed to help grow trees in dry areas. It was developed by former flower exporter Pieter Hoff, and won Popular Science's \"Green Tech Best of What's New\" Innovation of the year award for 2010.\n\nCartography and geography \n\nMethod for determining longitude using a clock (1530) \n\nThe Dutch-Frisian geographer Gemma Frisius was the first to propose the use of a chronometer to determine longitude in 1530. In his book On the Principles of Astronomy and Cosmography (1530), Frisius explains for the first time how to use a very accurate clock to determine longitude. The problem was that in Frisius’ day, no clock was sufficiently precise to use his method. In 1761, the British clock-builder John Harrison constructed the first marine chronometer, which allowed the method developed by Frisius.\n\nTriangulation and the modern systematic use of triangulation networks (1533 & 1615) \n\nTriangulation had first emerged as a map-making method in the mid sixteenth century when the Dutch-Frisian mathematician Gemma Frisius set out the idea in his Libellus de locorum describendorum ratione (Booklet concerning a way of describing places). Dutch cartographer Jacob van Deventer was among the first to make systematic use of triangulation, the technique whose theory was described by Gemma Frisius in his 1533 book.\n\nThe modern systematic use of triangulation networks stems from the work of the Dutch mathematician Willebrord Snell (born Willebrord Snel van Royen), who in 1615 surveyed the distance from Alkmaar to Bergen op Zoom, approximately 70 miles (110 kilometres), using a chain of quadrangles containing 33 triangles in all – a feat celebrated in the title of his book Eratosthenes Batavus (The Dutch Eratosthenes), published in 1617.\n\nMercator projection (1569) \n\nThe Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection presented by the Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It became the standard map projection for nautical purposes because of its ability to represent lines of constant course, known as rhumb lines or loxodromes, as straight segments which conserve the angles with the meridians. \n\nFirst modern world atlas (1570) \n\nFlemish geographer and cartographer Abraham Ortelius generally recognized as the creator of the world's first modern atlas, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World). Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum is considered the first true atlas in the modern sense: a collection of uniform map sheets and sustaining text bound to form a book for which copper printing plates were specifically engraved. It is sometimes referred to as the summary of sixteenth-century cartography. \n\nFirst printed atlas of nautical charts (1584) \n\nThe first printed atlas of nautical charts (De Spieghel der Zeevaerdt or The Mirror of Navigation / The Mariner's Mirror) was produced by Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer in Leiden. This atlas was the first attempt to systematically codify nautical maps. This chart-book combined an atlas of nautical charts and sailing directions with instructions for navigation on the western and north-western coastal waters of Europe. It was the first of its kind in the history of maritime cartography, and was an immediate success. The English translation of Waghenaer's work was published in 1588 and became so popular that any volume of sea charts soon became known as a \"waggoner\", the Anglicized form of Waghenaer's surname. \n\nConcept of atlas (1595) \n\nGerardus Mercator was the first to coin the word atlas to describe a bound collection of maps through his own collection entitled \"Atlas sive Cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mvndi et fabricati figvra\". He coined this name after the Greek god who held the earth in his arms. \n\nFirst systematic charting of the far southern skies (southern constellations) (1595-97) \n\nThe Dutch Republic's explorers and cartographers like Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser, Frederick de Houtman, Petrus Plancius and Jodocus Hondius were the pioneers in first systematic charting/mapping of largely unknown southern hemisphere skies in the late 16th century.\n\nThe constellations around the South Pole were not observable from north of the equator, by Babylonians, Greeks, Chinese or Arabs. The modern constellations in this region were defined during the Age of Exploration, notably by Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman at the end of sixteenth century. These twelve Dutch-created southern constellations represented flora and fauna of the East Indies and Madagascar. They were depicted by Johann Bayer in his star atlas Uranometria of 1603. Several more were created by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in his star catalogue, published in 1756. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi introduced 23 asterisms of the southern sky based on the knowledge of western star charts. These asterisms have since been incorporated into the traditional Chinese star maps. Among the IAU's 88 modern constellations, there are 15 Dutch-created constellations (including Apus, Camelopardalis, Chamaeleon, Columba, Dorado, Grus, Hydrus, Indus, Monoceros, Musca, Pavo, Phoenix, Triangulum Australe, Tucana and Volans).\n\nContinental drift hypothesis (1596) \n\nThe speculation that continents might have 'drifted' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. The concept was independently and more fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912. Because Wegener's publications were widely available in German and English and because he adduced geological support for the idea, he is credited by most geologists as the first to recognize the possibility of continental drift. During the 1960s geophysical and geological evidence for seafloor spreading at mid-oceanic ridges established continental drift as the standard theory or continental origin and an ongoing global mechanism.\n\nChemicals and materials \n\nBow dye (1630) \n\nWhile making a coloured liquid for a thermometer, Cornelis Drebbel dropped a flask of Aqua regia on a tin window sill, and discovered that stannous chloride makes the color of carmine much brighter and more durable. Though Drebbel himself never made much from his work, his daughters Anna and Catharina and his sons-in-law Abraham and Johannes Sibertus Kuffler set up a successful dye works. One was set up in 1643 in Bow, London, and the resulting color was called bow dye.\n\nDyneema (1979) \n\nDutch chemical company DSM invented and patented the Dyneema in 1979. Dyneema fibres have been in commercial production since 1990 at their plant at Heerlen. These fibers are manufactured by means of a gel-spinning process that combines extreme strength with incredible softness. Dyneema fibres, based on ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), is used in many applications in markets such as life protection, shipping, fishing, offshore, sailing, medical and textiles.\n\nCommunication and multimedia \n\nCompact cassette (1962) \n\nIn 1962 Philips invented the compact audio cassette medium for audio storage, introducing it in Europe in August 1963 (at the Berlin Radio Show) and in the United States (under the Norelco brand) in November 1964, with the trademark name Compact Cassette. \n\nLaserdisc (1969) \n\nLaserdisc technology, using a transparent disc, was invented by David Paul Gregg in 1958 (and patented in 1961 and 1990). Video signal transducer, 1970. Disc-shaped member, 1990. By 1969, Philips developed a videodisc in reflective mode, which has great advantages over the transparent mode. MCA and Philips decided to join forces. They first publicly demonstrated the videodisc in 1972. Laserdisc entered the market in Atlanta, on 15 December 1978, two years after the VHS VCR and four years before the CD, which is based on Laserdisc technology. Philips produced the players and MCA made the discs.\n\nCompact disc (1979) \n\nThe compact disc was jointly developed by Philips (Joop Sinjou) and Sony (Toshitada Doi). In the early 1970s, Philips' researchers started experiments with \"audio-only\" optical discs, and at the end of the 1970s, Philips, Sony, and other companies presented prototypes of digital audio discs.\n\nBluetooth (1990s) \n\nBluetooth, a low-energy, peer-to-peer wireless technology was originally developed by Dutch electrical engineer Jaap Haartsen and Swedish engineer Sven Mattisson in the 1990s, working at Ericsson in Lund, Sweden. It became a global standard of short distance wireless connection.\n\nWi-fi (1990s) \n\nIn 1991, NCR Corporation/AT&T Corporation invented the precursor to 802.11 in Nieuwegein. Dutch electrical engineer Vic Hayes chaired IEEE 802.11 committee for 10 years, which was set up in 1990 to establish a wireless networking standard. He has been called the father of Wi-Fi (the brand name for products using IEEE 802.11 standards) for his work on IEEE 802.11 (802.11a & 802.11b) standard in 1997.\n\nDVD (1995) \n\nThe DVD optical disc storage format was invented and developed by Philips and Sony in 1995.\n\nAmbilight (2002) \n\nAmbilight, short for \"ambient lighting\", is a lighting system for televisions developed by Philips in 2002.\n\nBlu-ray (2006) \n\nPhilips and Sony in 1997 and 2006 respectively, launched the Blu-ray video recording/playback standard.\n\nComputer science and information technology \n\nDijkstra's algorithm (1956) \n\nDijkstra's algorithm, conceived by Dutch computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra in 1956 and published in 1959, is a graph search algorithm that solves the single-source shortest path problem for a graph with non-negative edge path costs, producing a shortest path tree. Dijkstra's algorithm is so powerful that it not only finds the shortest path from a chosen source to a given destination, it finds all of the shortest paths from the source to all destinations. This algorithm is often used in routing and as a subroutine in other graph algorithms.\n\nDijkstra's algorithm is considered as one of the most popular algorithms in computer science. It is also widely used in the fields of artificial intelligence, operational research/operations research, network routing, network analysis, and transportation engineering.\n\nFoundations of distributed computing (1960s) \n\nThrough his fundamental contributions Edsger Dijkstra helped shape the field of computer science. His groundbreaking contributions ranged from the engineering side of computer science to the theoretical one and covered several areas including compiler construction, operating systems, distributed systems, sequential and concurrent programming, software engineering, and graph algorithms. Many of his papers, often just a few pages long, are the source of whole new research areas. Several concepts that are now completely standard in computer science were first identified by Dijkstra and/or bear names coined by him. \n\nEdsger Dijkstra's foundational work on concurrency, semaphores, mutual exclusion, deadlock, finding shortest paths in graphs, fault-tolerance, self-stabilization, among many other contributions comprises many of the pillars upon which the field of distributed computing is built. The Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing (sponsored jointly by the ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing and the EATCS International Symposium on Distributed Computing) is given for outstanding papers on the principles of distributed computing, whose significance and impact on the theory and/or practice of distributed computing has been evident for at least a decade.\n\nFoundations of concurrent programming (1960s) \n\nThe academic study of concurrent programming (concurrent algorithms in particular) started in the 1960s, with Edsger Dijkstra (1965) credited with being the first paper in this field, identifying and solving mutual exclusion. A pioneer in the field of concurrent computing, Per Brinch Hansen considers Dijkstra's Cooperating Sequential Processes (1965) to be the first classic paper in concurrent programming. As Brinch Hansen notes: ‘Here Dijkstra lays the conceptual foundation for abstract concurrent programming.’ \n\nFoundations of software engineering (1960s) \n\nComputer programming in the 1950s to 1960s was not recognized as an academic discipline and unlike physics there were no theoretical concepts or coding systems. Dijkstra was one of the moving forces behind the acceptance of computer programming as a scientific discipline. In 1968, computer programming was in a state of crisis. Dijkstra was one of a small group of academics and industrial programmers who advocated a new programming style to improve the quality of programs. Dijkstra coined the phrase \"structured programming\" and during the 1970s this became the new programming orthodoxy. Mills, Harlan D. (1986). Structured Programming: Retrospect and Prospect. (IEEE Software 3(6): 58-66, November 1986). \"Edsger W. Dijkstra's 1969 \"Structured Programming\" article precipitated a decade of intense focus on programming techniques that has fundamentally altered human expectations and achievements in software development. Before this decade of intense focus, programming was regarded as a private, puzzle-solving activity of writing computer instructions to work as a program. After this decade, programming could be regarded as a public, mathematics-based activity of restructuring specifications into programs. Before, the challenge was in getting programs to run at all, and then in getting them further debugged to do the right things. After, programs could be expected to both run and do the right things with little or no debugging. Before, it was common wisdom that no sizable program could be error-free. After, many sizable programs have run a year or more with no errors detected. These expectations and achievements are not universal because of the inertia of industrial practices. But they are well-enough established to herald fundamental change in software development.\" As Bertrand Meyer remarked: \"The revolution in views of programming started by Dijkstra's iconoclasm led to a movement known as structured programming, which advocated a systematic, rational approach to program construction. Structured programming is the basis for all that has been done since in programming methodology, including object-oriented programming.\" \n \nDijkstra's ideas about structured programming helped lay the foundations for the birth and development of the professional discipline of software engineering, enabling programmers to organize and manage increasingly complex software projects. \n\nShunting-yard algorithm (1960) \n\nIn computer science, the shunting-yard algorithm is a method for parsing mathematical expressions specified in infix notation. It can be used to produce output in Reverse Polish notation (RPN) or as an abstract syntax tree (AST). The algorithm was invented by Edsger Dijkstra and named the \"shunting yard\" algorithm because its operation resembles that of a railroad shunting yard. Dijkstra first described the Shunting Yard Algorithm in the Mathematisch Centrum report.\n\nSchoonschip (early computer algebra system) (1963) \n\nIn 1963/64, during an extended stay at SLAC, Dutch theoretical physicist Martinus Veltman designed the computer program Schoonschip for symbolic manipulation of mathematical equations, which is now considered the very first computer algebra system.\n\nMutual exclusion (mutex) (1965) \n\nIn computer science, mutual exclusion refers to the requirement of ensuring that no two concurrent processes are in their critical section at the same time; it is a basic requirement in concurrency control, to prevent race conditions. The requirement of mutual exclusion was first identified and solved by Edsger W. Dijkstra in his seminal 1965 paper titled Solution of a problem in concurrent programming control, and is credited as the first topic in the study of concurrent algorithms.\n\nSemaphore (programming) (1965) \n\nThe semaphore concept was invented by Dijkstra in 1965 and the concept has found widespread use in a variety of operating systems.\n\nSleeping barber problem (1965) \n\nIn computer science, the sleeping barber problem is a classic inter-process communication and synchronization problem between multiple operating system processes. The problem is analogous to that of keeping a barber working when there are customers, resting when there are none and doing so in an orderly manner. The Sleeping Barber Problem was introduced by Edsger Dijkstra in 1965. \n\nBanker's algorithm (deadlock prevention algorithm) (1965) \n\nThe Banker's algorithm is a resource allocation and deadlock avoidance algorithm developed by Edsger Dijkstra that tests for safety by simulating the allocation of predetermined maximum possible amounts of all resources, and then makes an \"s-state\" check to test for possible deadlock conditions for all other pending activities, before deciding whether allocation should be allowed to continue. The algorithm was developed in the design process for the THE operating system and originally described (in Dutch) in EWD108. The name is by analogy with the way that bankers account for liquidity constraints.\n\nDining philosophers problem (1965) \n\nIn computer science, the dining philosophers problem is an example problem often used in concurrent algorithm design to illustrate synchronization issues and techniques for resolving them. It was originally formulated in 1965 by Edsger Dijkstra as a student exam exercise, presented in terms of computers competing for access to tape drive peripherals.\nSoon after, Tony Hoare gave the problem its present formulation. \n\nDekker's algorithm (1965) \n\nDekker's algorithm is the first known correct solution to the mutual exclusion problem in concurrent programming. Dijkstra attributed the solution to Dutch mathematician Theodorus Dekker in his manuscript on cooperating sequential processes. It allows two threads to share a single-use resource without conflict, using only shared memory for communication. Dekker's algorithm is the first published software-only, two-process mutual exclusion algorithm.\n\nTHE multiprogramming system (1968) \n\nThe THE multiprogramming system was a computer operating system designed by a team led by Edsger W. Dijkstra, described in monographs in 1965-66 and published in 1968. \n\nVan Wijngaarden grammar (1968) \n\nVan Wijngaarden grammar (also vW-grammar or W-grammar) is a two-level grammar that provides a technique to define potentially infinite context-free grammars in a finite number of rules. The formalism was invented by Adriaan van Wijngaarden to rigorously define some syntactic restrictions that previously had to be formulated in natural language, despite their formal content. Typical applications are the treatment of gender and number in natural language syntax and the well-definedness of identifiers in programming languages. The technique was used and developed in the definition of the programming language ALGOL 68. It is an example of the larger class of affix grammars.\n\nStructured programming (1968) \n\nIn 1968, computer programming was in a state of crisis. Dijkstra was one of a small group of academics and industrial programmers who advocated a new programming style to improve the quality of programs. Dijkstra coined the phrase \"structured programming\" and during the 1970s this became the new programming orthodoxy. Structured programming is often regarded as “goto-less programming”. But as Bertrand Meyer notes, “As the first book on the topic [Structured Programming by Dijkstra, Dahl, and Hoare] shows, structured programming is about much more than control structures and the goto. Its principal message is that programming should be considered a scientific discipline based on mathematical rigor.” As a programming paradigm, structured programming – especially in the 1970s and 1980s – significantly influenced the birth of many modern programming languages such as Pascal, C, Modula-2, and Ada. The Fortran 77 version which incorporates the concepts of structured programming, was released in 1978. The C++ language was a considerably extended and enhanced version of the popular structured programming language C (see also: list of C-based programming languages). Since C++ was developed from a more traditional structured language, it is a 'hybrid language', rather than a pure object-oriented programming language. \n\nEPROM (1971) \n\nAn EPROM or erasable programmable read only memory, is a type of memory chip that retains its data when its power supply is switched off. Development of the EPROM memory cell started with investigation of faulty integrated circuits where the gate connections of transistors had broken. Stored charge on these isolated gates changed their properties. The EPROM was invented by the Amsterdam-born Israeli electrical engineer Dov Frohman in 1971, who was awarded US patent 3660819 in 1972.\n\nSelf-stabilization (1974) \n\nSelf-stabilization is a concept of fault-tolerance in distributed computing. A distributed system that is self-stabilizing will end up in a correct state no matter what state it is initialized with. That correct state is reached after a finite number of execution steps. Many years after the seminal paper of Edsger Dijkstra in 1974, this concept remains important as it presents an important foundation for self-managing computer systems and fault-tolerant systems. Self-stabilization became its own area of study in distributed systems research, and Dijkstra set the stage for the next generation of computer scientists such as Leslie Lamport, Nancy Lynch, and Shlomi Dolev. As a result, Dijkstra's paper received the 2002 ACM PODC Influential-Paper Award (later renamed as Dijkstra Prize or Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing since 2003). \n\nPredicate transformer semantics (1975) \n\nPredicate transformer semantics were introduced by Dijkstra in his seminal paper \"Guarded commands, nondeterminacy and formal derivation of programs\".\n\nGuarded Command Language (1975) \n\nThe Guarded Command Language (GCL) is a language defined by Edsger Dijkstra for predicate transformer semantics. It combines programming concepts in a compact way, before the program is written in some practical programming language.\n\nVan Emde Boas tree (VEB tree) (1975) \n\nA Van Emde Boas tree (or Van Emde Boas priority queue, also known as a vEB tree, is a tree data structure which implements an associative array with m-bit integer keys. The vEB tree was invented by a team led by Dutch computer scientist Peter van Emde Boas in 1975. \n\nABC (programming language) (1980s) \n\nABC is an imperative general-purpose programming language and programming environment developed at CWI, Netherlands by Leo Geurts, Lambert Meertens, and Steven Pemberton. It is interactive, structured, high-level, and intended to be used instead of BASIC, Pascal, or AWK. It is not meant to be a systems-programming language but is intended for teaching or prototyping.\n\nThe language had a major influence on the design of the Python programming language (as a counterexample); Guido van Rossum, who developed Python, previously worked for several years on the ABC system in the early 1980s. \n\nDijkstra-Scholten algorithm (1980) \n\nThe Dijkstra–Scholten algorithm (named after Edsger W. Dijkstra and Carel S. Scholten) is an algorithm for detecting termination in a distributed system. The algorithm was proposed by Dijkstra and Scholten in 1980. \n\nSmoothsort (1981) \n\nSmoothsort is a comparison-based sorting algorithm. It is a variation of heapsort developed by Edsger Dijkstra in 1981. Like heapsort, smoothsort's upper bound is O(n log n). The advantage of smoothsort is that it comes closer to O(n) time if the input is already sorted to some degree, whereas heapsort averages O(n log n) regardless of the initial sorted state.\n\nAmsterdam Compiler Kit (1983) \n\nThe Amsterdam Compiler Kit (ACK) is a fast, lightweight and retargetable compiler suite and toolchain developed by Andrew Tanenbaum and Ceriel Jacobs at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. It is MINIX's native toolchain. The ACK was originally closed-source software (that allowed binaries to be distributed for MINIX as a special case), but in April 2003 it was released under an open source BSD license. It has frontends for programming languages C, Pascal, Modula-2, Occam, and BASIC. The ACK's notability stems from the fact that in the early 1980s it was one of the first portable compilation systems designed to support multiple source languages and target platforms. \n\nEight-to-fourteen modulation (1985) \n\nEFM (Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation) was invented by Dutch electrical engineer Kees A. Schouhamer Immink in 1985. EFM is a data encoding technique – formally, a channel code – used by CDs, laserdiscs and pre-Hi-MD MiniDiscs.\n\nMINIX (1987) \n\nMINIX (from \"mini-Unix\") is a Unix-like computer operating system based on a microkernel architecture. Early versions of MINIX were created by Andrew S. Tanenbaum for educational purposes. Starting with MINIX 3, the primary aim of development shifted from education to the creation of a highly reliable and self-healing microkernel OS. MINIX is now developed as open-source software. MINIX was first released in 1987, with its complete source code made available to universities for study in courses and research. It has been free and open source software since it was re-licensed under the BSD license in April 2000. Tanenbaum created MINIX at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam to exemplify the principles conveyed in his textbook, Operating Systems: Design and Implementation (1987), that Linus Torvalds described as \"the book that launched me to new heights\".\n\nAmoeba (operating system) (1989) \n\nAmoeba is a distributed operating system developed by Andrew S. Tanenbaum and others at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. The aim of the Amoeba project was to build a timesharing system that makes an entire network of computers appear to the user as a single machine. The Python programming language was originally developed for this platform.\n\nPython (programming language) (1989) \n\nPython is a widely used general-purpose, high-level programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability, and its syntax allows programmers to express concepts in fewer lines of code than would be possible in languages such as C++ or Java. The language provides constructs intended to enable clear programs on both a small and large scale. Python supports multiple programming paradigms, including object-oriented, imperative and functional programming or procedural styles. It features a dynamic type system and automatic memory management and has a large and comprehensive standard library.\n\nPython was conceived in the late 1980s and its implementation was started in December 1989 by Guido van Rossum at CWI in the Netherlands as a successor to the ABC language (itself inspired by SETL) capable of exception handling and interfacing with the Amoeba operating system. Van Rossum is Python's principal author, and his continuing central role in deciding the direction of Python is reflected in the title given to him by the Python community, benevolent dictator for life (BDFL).\n\nVim (text editor) (1991) \n\nVim is a text editor written by the Dutch free software programmer Bram Moolenaar and first released publicly in 1991. Based on the Vi editor common to Unix-like systems, Vim carefully separated the user interface from editing functions. This allowed it to be used both from a command line interface and as a standalone application in a graphical user interface.\n\nBlender (1995) \n\nBlender is a professional free and open-source 3D computer graphics software product used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, interactive 3D applications and video games. Blender's features include 3D modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, raster graphics editing, rigging and skinning, fluid and smoke simulation, particle simulation, soft body simulation, sculpting, animating, match moving, camera tracking, rendering, video editing and compositing. Alongside the modelling features it also has an integrated game engine. Blender has been successfully used in the media industry in several parts of the world including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.\n\nThe Dutch animation studio Neo Geo and Not a Number Technologies (NaN) developed Blender as an in-house application, with the primary author being Ton Roosendaal. The name Blender was inspired by a song by Yello, from the album Baby. \n\nEFMPlus (1995) \n\nEFMPlus is the channel code used in DVDs and SACDs, a more efficient successor to EFM used in CDs. It was created by Dutch electrical engineer Kees A. Schouhamer Immink, who also designed EFM. It is 6% less efficient than Toshiba's SD code, which resulted in a capacity of 4.7 gigabytes instead of SD's original 5 GB. The advantage of EFMPlus is its superior resilience against disc damage such as scratches and fingerprints.\n\nEconomics \n\nDutch East India Company \n\nThe Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC), founded in 1602, was the world’s first multinational, joint-stock, limited liability corporation - as well as its first government-backed trading cartel. It was the first company to issue shares of stock and what evolved into corporate bonds. The VOC was also the first company to actually issue stocks and bonds through a stock exchange. In 1602, the VOC issued shares that were made tradable on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. This invention enhanced the ability of joint-stock companies to attract capital from investors as they could now easily dispose their shares. The company was known throughout the world as the VOC thanks to its logo featuring those initials, which became the first global corporate brand. The company's monogram also became the first global logo. \n\nFirst megacorporation (1602) \n\nThe Dutch East India Company was arguably the first megacorporation, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, coin money and establish colonies. Many economic and political historians consider the Dutch East India Company as the most valuable, powerful and influential corporation in the world history.\n\nThe VOC existed for almost 200 years from its founding in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly over Dutch operations in Asia until its demise in 1796. During those two centuries (between 1602 and 1796), the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships, and netted for their efforts more than 2.5 million tons of Asian trade goods. By contrast, the rest of Europe combined sent only 882,412 people from 1500 to 1795, and the fleet of the English (later British) East India Company, the VOC's nearest competitor, was a distant second to its total traffic with 2,690 ships and a mere one-fifth the tonnage of goods carried by the VOC. The VOC enjoyed huge profits from its spice monopoly through most of the 17th century. \n\nDutch auction (17th century) \n\nA Dutch auction is also known as an open descending price auction. Named after the famous auctions of Dutch tulip bulbs in the 17th century, it is based on a pricing system devised by Nobel Prize–winning economist William Vickrey. In the traditional Dutch auction, the auctioneer begins with a high asking price which is lowered until some participant is willing to accept the auctioneer's price. The winning participant pays the last announced price. Dutch auction is also sometimes used to describe online auctions where several identical goods are sold simultaneously to an equal number of high bidders. In addition to cut flower sales in the Netherlands, Dutch auctions have also been used for perishable commodities such as fish and tobacco.\n\nFirst modern art market (17th century) \n\nThe Dutch Republic was the birthplace of the first modern art market (open art market or free art market). The seventeenth-century Dutch were the pioneering arts marketers, successfully combining art and commerce together as we would recognise it today. Until the 17th century, commissioning works of art was largely the preserve of the church, monarchs and aristocrats. The emergence of a powerful and wealthy middle class in Holland, though, produced a radical change in patronage as the new Dutch bourgeoisie bought art. For the first time, the direction of art was shaped by relatively broadly-based demand rather than religious dogma or royal whim, and the result was a market which today's dealers and collectors would find familiar. With the creation of the first large-scale open art market, prosperous Dutch merchants, artisans, and civil servants bought paintings and prints in unprecedented numbers. Foreign visitors were astonished that even modest members of Dutch society such as farmers and bakers owned multiple works of art.\n\nConcept of corporate governance (17th century) \n\nThe seventeenth-century Dutch businessmen were the pioneers in laying the basis for modern corporate governance. Isaac Le Maire, an Amsterdam businessman and a sizeable shareholder of the VOC, became the first recorded investor to actually consider the corporate governance's problems. In 1609, he complained of the VOC's shoddy corporate governance. On January 24, 1609, Le Maire filed a petition against the VOC, marking the first recorded expression of shareholder activism. In what is the first recorded corporate governance dispute, Le Maire formally charged that the directors (the VOC's board of directors – the Heeren XVII) sought to “retain another’s money for longer or use it ways other than the latter wishes” and petitioned for the liquidation of the VOC in accordance with standard business practice. \n\nThe first shareholder revolt happened in 1622, among Dutch East India Company (VOC) investors who complained that the company account books had been “smeared with bacon” so that they might be “eaten by dogs.” The investors demanded a “reeckeninge,” a proper financial audit. The 1622 campaign by the shareholders of the VOC is a testimony of genesis of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) in which shareholders staged protests by distributing pamphlets and complaining about management self enrichment and secrecy. \n\nModern concept of foreign direct investment (17th century) \n\nThe construction in 1619 of a train-oil factory on Smeerenburg in the Spitsbergen islands by the Noordsche Compagnie, and the acquisition in 1626 of Manhattan Island by the Dutch West India Company are referred to as the earliest cases of outward foreign direct investment (FDI) in Dutch and world history. Throughout the seventeenth century, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Dutch West India Company (GWIC/WIC) also began to create trading settlements around the globe. Their trading activities generated enormous wealth, making the Dutch Republic one of the most prosperous countries of that time. The Dutch Republic's extensive arms trade occasioned an episode in the industrial development of early-modern Sweden, where arms merchants like Louis de Geer and the Trip brothers, invested in iron mines and iron works, another early example of outward foreign direct investment.\n\nFirst modern market-oriented economy (17th century) \n\nIt was in the Dutch Republic that some important industries (economic sectors) such as shipbuilding, shipping, printing and publishing were developed on a large-scale export-driven model for the first time in history. The ship building district of Zaan, near Amsterdam, became the first industrialized area in the world, with around 900 industrial windmills at the end of the 17th century, but there were industrialized towns and cities on a smaller scale also. Other industries that saw significant growth were papermaking, sugar refining, printing, the linen industry (with spin-offs in vegetable oils, like flax and rape oil), and industries that used the cheap peat fuel, like brewing and ceramics (brickworks, pottery and clay-pipe making).\n\nThe Dutch shipbuilding industry was of modern dimensions, inclining strongly toward standardised, repetitive methods. It was highly mechanized and used many labor-saving devices-wind-powered sawmills, powered feeders for saw, block and tackles, great cranes to move heavy timbers-all of which increased productivity. Dutch shipbuilding benefited from various design innovations which increased carrying capacity and cut costs. \n\nFirst capitalist nation-state (foundations of modern capitalism) (17th century) \n\nEconomic historians consider the Netherlands as the first predominantly capitalist nation. The development of European capitalism began among the city-states of Italy, Flanders, and the Baltic. It spread to the European interstate system, eventually resulting in the world's first capitalist nation-state, the Dutch Republic of the seventeenth century. The Dutch were the first to develop capitalism on a nationwide scale (as opposed to earlier city states). They also played a pioneering role in the emergence of the capitalist world-system. Simon Schama aptly titled his work The Embarrassment of Riches, capturing the astonishing novelty and success of the commercial revolution in the Dutch Republic.\n\nWorld-systems theorists (including Immanuel Wallerstein and Giovanni Arrighi) often consider the economic primacy of the Dutch Republic in the 17th century as the first capitalist hegemony in world history (followed by hegemonies of the United Kingdom in the 19th century and the United States in the 20th century).\n\nFirst modern economic miracle (1585–1714) \n\nThe Dutch economic transition from a possession of the Holy Roman Empire in the 1590s to the foremost maritime and economic power in the world has been called the “Dutch Miracle” (or “Dutch Tiger”) by many economic historians, including K. W. Swart. Until the 18th century, the economy of the Dutch Republic was the most advanced and sophisticated ever seen in history. \nDuring their Golden Age, the provinces of the Northern Netherlands rose from almost total obscurity as the poor cousins of the industrious and heavily urbanised southern regions (Southern Netherlands) to become the world leader in economic success. \nThe Netherlands introduced many financial innovations that made it a major economic force — and Amsterdam became the world center for international finance. Its manufacturing towns grew so quickly that by the middle of the century the Netherlands had supplanted France as the leading industrial nation of the world.” \n\nDynamic macroeconomic model (1936) \n\nDutch economist Jan Tinbergen developed the first national comprehensive macroeconomic model, which he first built for the Netherlands and after World War II later applied to the United States and the United Kingdom.\n\nFairtrade certification (1988) \n\nThe concept of fair trade has been around for over 40 years, but a formal labelling scheme emerged only in the 1980s. At the initiative of Mexican coffee farmers, the world's first Fairtrade labeling organisation, Stichting Max Havelaar, was launched in the Netherlands on 15 November 1988 by Nico Roozen, Frans van der Hoff and Dutch ecumenical development agency Solidaridad. It was branded \"Max Havelaar\" after a fictional Dutch character who opposed the exploitation of coffee pickers in Dutch colonies.\n\nFinance \n\nConcept of bourse ( 13th century) \n\nAn exchange, or bourse, is a highly organized market where (especially) tradable securities, commodities, foreign exchange, futures, and options contracts are sold and bought. The term bourse is derived from the 13th-century inn named Huis ter Beurze in Bruges, Low Countries, where traders and foreign merchants from across Europe conducted business in the late medieval period. The building, which was established by Robert van der Buerze as a hostelry, had operated from 1285. Its managers became famous for offering judicious financial advice to the traders and merchants who frequented the building. This service became known as the \"Beurze Purse\" which is the basis of bourse, meaning an organised place of exchange.\n\nFoundations of stock market (1602) \n\nThe seventeenth-century Dutch merchants laid the foundations for modern stock market that now influences greatly the global economy. It was in the Dutch Republic that a fully-fledged stock market was established and developed for the first time in history. The Dutch merchants were also the pioneers in developing the basic techniques of stock trading. Although bond sales by municipalities and states can be traced to the thirteenth century, the origin of modern stock exchanges that specialize in creating and sustaining secondary markets in corporate securities goes back to the formation of the Dutch East India Company in the year 1602. Dutch investors were the first to trade their shares at a regular stock exchange. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange is considered the oldest in the world. It was established in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company for dealings in its printed stocks and bonds. Here, the Dutch also pioneered stock futures, stock options, short selling, debt-equity swaps, merchant banking, bonds, unit trusts and other speculative instruments. Unlike the competing companies, the VOC allowed anyone (including housemaids) to purchase stock in the trading at the fully operational Amsterdam Bourse. The practice of naked short selling was also invented in the Dutch Republic. In 1609, Isaac Le Maire, an Amsterdam merchant and a sizeable shareholder of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), became the first recorded short seller in history. The first recorded ban on short selling also took place in the Dutch Republic in the same year. In the early 17th century, Dutch merchants invented the common stock — that of the VOC. Also, the Dutch experienced the first recorded stock market crash in history, the Tulip Mania of 1636-1637. Since 1602, stock market trading has come a long way. But basically, the concept and principle of stock market trading is still upheld and is still being implemented up to now. \n\nFirst fully functioning (fully-fledged) financial market (17th century) \n\nThe Dutch Republic (Amsterdam in particular) was the birthplace of the world's first fully functioning financial market, with the birth of a fully fledged capital market. Capital markets for debt and equity shares are used to raise long-term funds. New stocks and bonds are sold in primary markets (including initial public offerings) and secondary markets (including stock exchanges). While the Italian city-states produced the first transferable municipal bonds, they didn't develop the other ingredient necessary to produce a fully fledged capital market: corporate shareholders. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) became the first company to offer shares of stock to the general public. Dutch investors were the first to trade their shares at a regular stock exchange. In 1602 the Dutch East India Company (VOC) established an exchange in Amsterdam where the VOC stocks and bonds could be traded in a secondary market. The buying and selling of the VOC's securities (including shares and bonds) became the basis of the first official stock market. The Dutch were also the first to use a fully-fledged capital market (including bond market and stock market) to finance companies (such as the VOC and the WIC). It was in seventeenth-century Amsterdam that the global securities market began to take on its modern form.\n\nFoundations of corporate finance (17th century) \n\nWhat is now known as corporate finance has its modern roots in financial management policies of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the 17th century and some basic aspects of modern corporate finance began to appear in financial activities of Dutch businessmen in the early 17th century.\n\nInitial public offering (1602) \n\nThe earliest form of a company which issued public shares was the publicani during the Roman Republic. In 1602, the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC) became the first modern company to issue shares to the public, thus launching the first modern initial public offering (IPO). The VOC held the first public offering of shares in history shortly after its founding. With this first recorded initial public offering (IPO), the VOC brought in 6,424,588 guilders and the company subsequently grew to become the first true transnational corporation in the world.\n\nInstitutional foundations of investment banking (17th century) \n\nThe Dutch were the pioneers in laying the basis for investment banking, allowing the risk of loans to be distributed among thousands of investors in the early seventeenth century. \n\nInstitutional foundations of central banking (first central bank) (1609) \n\nPrior to the 17th century most money was commodity money, typically gold or silver. However, promises to pay were widely circulated and accepted as value at least five hundred years earlier in both Europe and Asia. The Song Dynasty was the first to issue generally circulating paper currency, while the Yuan Dynasty was the first to use notes as the predominant circulating medium. In 1455, in an effort to control inflation, the succeeding Ming Dynasty ended the use of paper money and closed much of Chinese trade. The medieval European Knights Templar ran an early prototype of a central banking system, as their promises to pay were widely respected, and many regard their activities as having laid the basis for the modern banking system. As the first public bank to \"offer accounts not directly convertible to coin\", the Bank of Amsterdam (Amsterdamsche Wisselbank or literally Amsterdam Exchange Bank) established in 1609 is considered to be the precursor to modern central banks, if not the first true central bank. The Wisselbank's innovations helped lay the foundations for the birth and development of modern central banking systems. There were earlier banks, especially in the Italian city-states, but the Wisselbank, with its public backing, provided for a scale of operations and stability hitherto unmatched. Along with a number of subsidiary local banks, it performed many of modern-day central banking functions. The model of the Wisselbank as a state bank was adapted throughout Europe, including the Bank of Sweden (1668) and the Bank of England (1694). It occupied a central position in the financial world of its day, providing an effective, efficient and trusted system for national and international payments. The establishment of the Wisselbank led to the introduction of the concept of bank money — the bank guilder. Lucien Gillard (2004) calls it the European guilder (le florin européen), and Adam Smith devotes many pages to explaining how the bank guilder works (Smith 1776: 446-455). Considered by many experts to be the first internationally dominant reserve currency of modern times, the Dutch guilder was the dominant currency during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was just replaced by British pound sterling in the 19th century and the US dollar took the lead just after World War Two and has held it until this day. \n\nShort selling (1609) \n\nFinancial innovation in Amsterdam took many forms. In 1609, investors led by Isaac Le Maire formed history's first bear syndicate to engage in short selling, but their coordinated trading had only a modest impact in driving down share prices, which tended to be robust throughout the 17th century.\n\nConcept of dividend policy (1610) \n\nIn the first decades of the 17th century, the VOC was the first recorded company ever to pay regular dividends. To encourage investors to buy shares, a promise of an annual payment (called a dividend) was made. An investor would receive dividends instead interest and the investment was permanent in the form of shares in the company. Between 1600 and 1800 the Dutch East India Company (VOC) paid annual dividends worth around 18 percent of the value of the shares.\n\nFirst European banknote (1661) \n\nIn 1656, King Charles X Gustav of Sweden signed two charters creating two private banks under the directorship of Johan Palmstruch (though before having been ennobled he was called Johan Wittmacher or Hans Wittmacher), a Riga-born merchant of Dutch origin. Palmstruch modeled the banks on those of Amsterdam where he had become a burgher. The first real European banknote was issued in 1661 by the Stockholms Banco of Johan Palmstruch, a private bank under state charter (precursor to the Sveriges Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden).\n\nFirst book ever on stock trading (1688) \n\nJoseph de la Vega, also known as Joseph Penso de la Vega, was an Amsterdam trader from a Spanish Jewish family and a prolific writer as well as a successful businessman. His 1688 book Confusion de Confusiones (Confusion of Confusions) explained the workings of the city's stock market. It was the earliest book about stock trading, taking the form of a dialogue between a merchant, a shareholder and a philosopher. The book described a market that was sophisticated but also prone to excesses, and de la Vega offered advice to his readers on such topics as the unpredictability of market shifts and the importance of patience in investment. The book has been described as the first precursor of modern behavioural finance, with its descriptions of investor decision-making still reflected in the way some investors operate today, and in 2001 was still rated by the Financial Times as one of the ten best investment book ever written. \n\nConcept of technical analysis (1688) \n\nThe principles of technical analysis are derived from hundreds of years of financial market data. These principles in a raw form have been studied since the seventeenth century. Some aspects of technical analysis began to appear in Joseph de la Vega's accounts of the Dutch markets in the late 17th century. In Asia, technical analysis is said to be a method developed by Homma Munehisa during the early 18th century which evolved into the use of candlestick techniques, and is today a technical analysis charting tool. \n\nConcept of behavioral finance (1688) \n\nJosseph de la Vega was in 1688 the first person to give an account of irrational behaviour in financial markets. His 1688 book Confusion of Confusions, has been described as the first precursor of modern behavioural finance, with its descriptions of investor decision-making still reflected in the way some investors operate today.\n\nFirst modern model of a financial centre (17th century) \n\nBy the first decades of the 18th century, Amsterdam had become the world’s leading financial centre for more than a century, having developed a sophisticated financial system with central banking, fully-fledged capital markets, certain kinds of financial derivatives, and publicly traded multinational corporations. Amsterdam was the first modern model of an international (global) financial centre that now operated in several countries around the world.\n\nFoundations of modern financial system (17th century) \n\nIn the early 17th century, the Dutch revolutionized domestic and international finance by inventing common stock — that of the Dutch East India Company and founding a proto-central bank, the Wisselbank or Bank of Amsterdam. In 1609, the Dutch had already had a government bond market for some decades. Shortly thereafter, the Dutch Republic had in place, in one form or another, all of the key components of a modern financial system: formalized public credit, stable money, elements of a banking system, a central bank of sorts and securities markets. The Dutch Republic went on to become that century's leading economy. \n\nConcept of investment fund (1774) \n\nThe first investment fund has its roots back in 1774. A Dutch merchant named Adriaan van Ketwich formed a trust named Eendragt Maakt Magt. The name of Ketwich's fund translates to \"unity creates strength\". In response to the financial crisis of 1772-1773, Ketwich’s aim was to provide small investors an opportunity to diversify (Rouwenhorst & Goetzman, 2005). This investment scheme can be seen as the first near-mutual fund. In the years following, near-mutual funds evolved and become more diverse and complex.\n\nMutual fund (1774) \n\nThe first mutual funds were established in 1774 in the Netherlands. Amsterdam-based businessman Abraham van Ketwich (a.k.a. Adriaan van Ketwich) is often credited as the originator of the world's first mutual fund. The first mutual fund outside the Netherlands was the Foreign & Colonial Government Trust, which was established in London in 1868.\n\nFoods and drinks \n\nGibbing (14th century) \n\nGibbing is the process of preparing salt herring (or soused herring), in which the gills and part of the gullet are removed from the fish, eliminating any bitter taste. The liver and pancreas are left in the fish during the salt-curing process because they release enzymes essential for flavor. The fish is then cured in a barrel with one part salt to 20 herring. Today many variations and local preferences exist on this process. The process of gibbing was invented by Willem Beuckelszoon (aka Willem Beuckelsz, William Buckels or William Buckelsson), a 14th-century Zealand Fisherman. The invention of this fish preservation technique led to the Dutch becoming a seafaring power. This invention created an export industry for salt herring that was monopolized by the Dutch.\n\nDoughnut (17th century) \n\nMany people believe it was the Dutch who invented doughnuts. A Dutch snack made from potatoes had a round shape like a ball, but, like Gregory's dough balls, needed a little longer time when fried to cook the inside thoroughly. These potato-balls developed into doughnuts when the Dutch finally made them into ring-shapes reduce frying time.\n\nGin (jenever) (1650) \n\nGin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries (Juniperus communis). From its earliest origins in the Middle Ages, gin has evolved over the course of a millennium from a herbal medicine to an object of commerce in the spirits industry. Gin was developed on the basis of the older Jenever, and become widely popular in Great Britain when William III of Orange, leader of the Dutch Republic, occupied the British throne with his wife Mary. Today, the gin category is one of the most popular and widely distributed range of spirits, and is represented by products of various origins, styles, and flavour profiles that all revolve around juniper as a common ingredient.\n\nThe Dutch physician Franciscus Sylvius is often credited with the invention of gin in the mid 17th century, although the existence of genever is confirmed in Massinger's play The Duke of Milan (1623), when Dr. Sylvius would have been but nine years of age. It is further claimed that British soldiers who provided support in Antwerp against the Spanish in 1585, during the Eighty Years' War, were already drinking genever (jenever) for its calming effects before battle, from which the term Dutch Courage is believed to have originated. The earliest known written reference to genever appears in the 13th century encyclopaedic work Der Naturen Bloeme (Bruges), and the earliest printed genever recipe from 16th century work Een Constelijck Distileerboec (Antwerp). \n\nStroopwafel (1780s) \n\nA stroopwafel (also known as syrup waffle, treacle waffle or caramel waffle) is a waffle made from two thin layers of baked batter with a caramel-like syrup filling the middle. They were first made in Gouda in the 1780s. The traditional way to eat the stroopwafel is to place it atop of a drinking vessel with a hot beverage (coffee, tea or chocolate) inside that fits the diameter of the waffle. The heat from the rising steam warms the waffle and slightly softens the inside and makes the waffle soft on one side while still crispy on the other.\n\nCocoa powder (foundations of modern chocolate industry) (1828) \n\nIn 1815, Dutch chemist Coenraad Van Houten introduced alkaline salts to chocolate, which reduced its bitterness. In the 1820s, Casparus van Houten, Sr. patented an inexpensive method for pressing the fat from roasted cocoa beans. He created a press to remove about half the natural fat (cacao butter) from chocolate liquor, which made chocolate both cheaper to produce and more consistent in quality. This innovation introduced the modern era of chocolate. Van Houten developed the first cocoa powder producing machine in the Netherlands. Van Houten's machine – a hydraulic press – reduced the cocoa butter content by nearly half. This created a \"cake\" that could be pulverized into cocoa powder, which was to become the basis of all chocolate products. The press separated the greasy cocoa butter from cacao seeds, leaving a purer chocolate powder behind. This powder, much like the instant cocoa powder used today, was easier to stir into milk and water. As a result, another very important discovery was made: solid chocolate. By using cocoa powder and low amounts of cocoa butter, it was then possible to manufacture chocolate bar. The term \"chocolate\" then came to mean solid chocolate, rather than hot chocolate.\n\nDutch-process chocolate (1828) \n\nDutch-processed chocolate or Dutched chocolate is chocolate that has been treated with an alkalizing agent to modify its color and give it a milder taste compared to \"natural cocoa\" extracted with the Broma process. It forms the basis for much of modern chocolate, and is used in ice cream, hot cocoa, and baking. The Dutch process was developed in the early 19th century by Dutch chocolate maker Coenraad Johannes van Houten, whose father Casparus is responsible for the development of the method of removing fat from cacao beans by hydraulic press around 1828, forming the basis for cocoa powder.\n\nLaw and jurisprudence \n\nDoctrine of the Freedom of the Seas (foundations of the Law of the Sea/UNCLOS) (1609) \n\nIn 1609, Hugo Grotius, the Dutch jurist who is generally known as the father of modern international law, published his book Mare Liberum (The Free Sea), which first formulated the notion of freedom of the seas. He developed this idea into a legal principle. It is said to be 'the first, and classic, exposition of the doctrine of the freedom of the seas' which has been the essence and backbone of the modern law of the sea. It is generally assumed that Grotius first propounded the principle of freedom of the seas, although all countries in the Indian Ocean and other Asian seas accepted the right of unobstructed navigation long before Grotius wrote his De Jure Praedae (On the Law of Spoils) in the year of 1604. His work sparked a debate in the seventeenth century over whether states could exclude the vessels of other states from certain waters. Grotius won this debate, as freedom of the seas became a universally recognized legal principle, associated with concepts such as communication, trade and peace. Grotius's notion of the freedom of the seas would persist until the mid-twentieth century, and it continues to be applied even to this day for much of the high seas, though the application of the concept and the scope of its reach is changing.\n\nSecularized natural law (foundations of modern international law) (1625) \n\nThe publication of De jure belli ac pacis (On the Laws of War and Peace) by Hugo Grotius in 1625 had marked the emergence of international law as an 'autonomous legal science'. Grotius’s On the Law of War and Peace, published in 1625, is best known as the first systematic treatise on international law, but to thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it seemed to set a new agenda in moral and political philosophy across the board. Grotius developed pivotal treatises on freedom of the seas, the law of spoils, the laws of war and peace and he created an autonomous place for international law as its own discipline. Jean Barbeyrac’s Historical and Critical Account of the Science of Morality, attached to his translation of Samuel von Pufendorf’s Law of Nature and Nations in 1706, praised Grotius as “the first who broke the ice” of “the Scholastic Philosophy; which [had] spread itself all over Europe” (1749: 67, 66). Grotius' truly distinctive contribution to jurisprudence and philosophy of law (public international law or law of nations in particular) was that he secularized natural law. Grotius had divorced natural law from theology and religion by grounding it solely in the social nature and natural reason of man. When Grotius, considered by many to be the founder of modern natural law theory (or secular natural law), said that natural law would retain its validity 'even if God did not exist' (etiamsi daremus non esse Deum), he was making a clear break with the classical tradition of natural law. Adam Smith, in lectures delivered in 1762 on the subject of moral philosophy and the law of nations, said that: “Jurisprudence is that science which inquires into the general principles which ought to be the foundation of laws of all nations. Grotius seems to have been the first who attempted to give the world anything like a regular system of natural jurisprudence, and his treatise, 'On the Laws of War and Peace, ' with all its imperfections, is perhaps at this day the most complete work on this subject.” \n\nGrotian conception of international society (1625) \n\nThe Grotian conception of international society became the most distinctive characteristic of the internationalist (or rationalist) tradition in international relations. This is why it is also called the Grotian tradition. According to it international politics takes place within international society in which states are bound not only by rules of prudence or expediency but also of morality and law. Grotius was arguably not the first to formulate such a doctrine. However, he was first to clearly define the idea of one society of states, governed not by force or warfare but by laws and mutual agreement to enforce those laws. As many international law scholars noted, the spirit of the Peace of Westphalia (1648) was preceded with the thoughts and ideas of Grotius. Thomas Franck observed: ‘Since the Reformation, the Peace of Westphalia, and the writings of Hugo Grotius, there has been an explicit assumption that the international system is an association of sovereign states.’ As Hedley Bull declared: ‘The idea of international society which Grotius propounded was given concrete expression in the Peace of Westphalia’, affirming that ‘Grotius must be considered the intellectual father of this first general peace settlement of modern times’. \n\nCannon shot rule (1702) \n\nBy the end of the seventeenth century, support was growing for some limitation to the seaward extent of territorial waters. What emerged was the so-called \"cannon shot rule\", which acknowledged the idea that property rights could be acquired by physical occupation and in practice to the effective range of shore-based cannon: about three nautical miles. The rule was long associated with Cornelis van Bijnkershoek, a Dutch jurist who, especially in his De Dominio Maris Dissertatio (1702), advocated a middle ground between the extremes of Mare Liberum and John Selden's Mare Clausum, accepting both the freedom of states to navigate and exploit the resources of the high seas and a right of coastal states to assert wide-ranging rights in a limited marine territory.\n\nPermanent Court of Arbitration (1899) \n\nThe Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is an international organization based in The Hague in the Netherlands. The court was established in 1899 as one of the acts of the first Hague Peace Conference, which makes it the oldest global institution for international dispute resolution. Its creation is set out under Articles 20 to 29 of the 1899 Hague Convention for the pacific settlement of international disputes, which was a result of the first Hague Peace Conference. The most concrete achievement of the Conference was the establishment of the PCA as the first institutionalized global mechanism for the settlement of disputes between states. The PCA encourages the resolution of disputes that involve states, state entities, intergovernmental organizations, and private parties by assisting in the establishment of arbitration tribunals and facilitating their work. The court offers a wide range of services for the resolution of international disputes which the parties concerned have expressly agreed to submit for resolution under its auspices. Dutch-Jew legal scholar Tobias Asser's role in the creation of the PCA at the first Hague Peace Conference (1899) earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1911.\n\nInternational Opium Convention (1912) \n\nThe International Opium Convention, sometimes referred to as the Hague Convention of 1912, signed on 23 January 1912 at The Hague, was the first international drug control treaty and is the core of the international drug control system. The adoption of the Convention was a turning point in multilateralism, based on the recognition of the transnational nature of the drug problem and the principle of shared responsibility. \n\nMarriage equality (legalization of same-sex marriage) (2001) \n\nDenmark was the first state to recognize a legal relationship for same-sex couples, establishing \"registered partnerships\" very much like marriage in 1989. In 2001, the Netherlands became the first nation in the world to grant same-sex marriages. The first laws enabling same-sex marriage in modern times were enacted during the first decade of the 21st century. , sixteen countries (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark,Excluding the Faroe Islands and Greenland. France, Iceland, Netherlands,Excluding Aruba, Curaçao and St Maarten. New Zealand,Excluding Tokelau, Niue and the Cook Islands. Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom,Excluding Northern Ireland. The Scottish parliament has passed a bill that allows same-sex marriages to take place from October 2014. Uruguay) and several sub-national jurisdictions (parts of Mexico and the United States) allow same-sex couples to marry. Polls in various countries show that there is rising support for legally recognizing same-sex marriage across race, ethnicity, age, religion, political affiliation, and socioeconomic status.\n\nMeasurement \n\nPendulum clock (first high-precision clock) (1656) \n\n \nThe first mechanical clocks, employing the verge escapement mechanism with a foliot or balance wheel timekeeper, were invented in Europe at around the start of the 14th century, and became the standard timekeeping device until the pendulum clock was invented in 1656. The pendulum clock remained the most accurate timekeeper until the 1930s, when quartz oscillators were invented, followed by atomic clocks after World War 2. \n\nA pendulum clock uses a pendulum's arc to mark intervals of time. From their invention until about 1930, the most accurate clocks were pendulum clocks. Pendulum clocks cannot operate on vehicles or ships at sea, because the accelerations disrupt the pendulum's motion, causing inaccuracies. The pendulum clock was invented by Christian Huygens, based on the pendulum introduced by Galileo Galilei. Although Galileo studied the pendulum as early as 1582, he never actually constructed a clock based on that design. Christiaan Huygens invented pendulum clock in 1656 and patented the following year. He contracted the construction of his clock designs to clockmaker Salomon Coster, who actually built the clock.\n\nConcept of the standardization of the temperature scale (1665) \n\nVarious authors have credited the invention of the thermometer to Cornelis Drebbel, Robert Fludd, Galileo Galilei or Santorio Santorio. The thermometer was not a single invention, however, but a development. However, each inventor and each thermometer was unique—there was no standard scale. In 1665 Christiaan Huygens suggested using the melting and boiling points of water as standards. The Fahrenheit scale is now usually defined by two fixed points: the temperature at which water freezes into ice is defined as 32 degrees Fahrenheit (°F), and the boiling point of water is defined to be 212 °F, a 180 degree separation, as defined at sea level and standard atmospheric pressure. In 1742, Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius created a temperature scale which was the reverse of the scale now known by the name \"Celsius\": 0 represented the boiling point of water, while 100 represented the freezing point of water. From 1744 until 1954, 0 °C was defined as the freezing point of water and 100 °C was defined as the boiling point of water, both at a pressure of one standard atmosphere with mercury being the working material.\n\nSpiral-hairspring watch (first high-precision watch) (1675) \n\nThe invention of the mainspring in the early 15th century allowed portable clocks to be built, evolving into the first pocketwatches by the 17th century, but these were not very accurate until the balance spring was added to the balance wheel in the mid 17th century. Some dispute remains as to whether British scientist Robert Hooke (his was a straight spring) or Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens was the actual inventor of the balance spring. Huygens was clearly the first to successfully implement a spiral balance spring in a portable timekeeper. This is significant because up to that point the pendulum was the most reliable. This innovation increased watches' accuracy enormously, reducing error from perhaps several hours per day to perhaps 10 minutes per day, resulting in the addition of the minute hand to the face from around 1680 in Britain and 1700 in France.\n\nLike the invention of pendulum clock, Huygens' spiral hairspring (balance spring) system of portable timekeepers, helped lay the foundations for the modern watchmaking industry. The application of the spiral balance spring for watches ushered in a new era of accuracy for portable timekeepers, similar to that which the pendulum had introduced for clocks. From its invention in 1675 by Christiaan Huygens, the spiral hairspring (balance spring) system for portable timekeepers, still used in mechanical watchmaking industry today. \n\nMercury thermometer (first practical, accurate thermometer) (1714) \n\nVarious authors have credited the invention of the thermometer to Cornelis Drebbel, Robert Fludd, Galileo Galilei or Santorio Santorio. The thermometer was not a single invention, however, but a development. Though Galileo is often said to be the inventor of the thermometer, what he produced were thermoscopes. The difference between a thermoscope and a thermometer is that the latter has a scale. The first person to put a scale on a thermoscope is variously said to be Francesco Sagredo or Santorio Santorio in about 1611 to 1613.\n\nBefore there was the thermometer, there was the earlier and closely related thermoscope, best described as a thermometer without a temperature scale. A thermoscope only showed the differences in temperatures, for example, it could show something was getting hotter. However, the thermoscope did not measure all the data that a thermometer could, for example an exact temperature in degrees. What can be considered the first modern thermometer, the mercury thermometer with a standardized scale, was invented by German-Dutch scientist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (who had settled in Amsterdam in 1701) in 1714. Fahrenheit invented the first truly accurate thermometer using mercury instead of alcohol and water mixtures. He began constructing his own thermometers in 1714, and it was in these that he used mercury for the first time.\n\nFahrenheit scale (first standardized temperature scale) (1724) \n\nVarious authors have credited the invention of the thermometer to Cornelis Drebbel, Robert Fludd, Galileo Galilei or Santorio Santorio. The thermometer was not a single invention, however, but a development. However, each inventor and each thermometer was unique—there was no standard scale. In 1665 Christiaan Huygens suggested using the melting and boiling points of water as standards, and in 1694 Carlo Renaldini proposed using them as fixed points on a universal scale. In 1701 Isaac Newton proposed a scale of 12 degrees between the melting point of ice and body temperature. Finally in 1724 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit produced a temperature scale which now (slightly adjusted) bears his name. He could do this because he manufactured thermometers, using mercury (which has a high coefficient of expansion) for the first time and the quality of his production could provide a finer scale and greater reproducibility, leading to its general adoption. The Fahrenheit scale was the first widely used temperature scale. By the end of the 20th century, most countries used the Celsius scale rather than the Fahrenheit scale, though Canada retained it as a supplementary scale used alongside Celsius. Fahrenheit remains the official scale for Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Belize, the Bahamas, Palau and the United States and associated territories.\n\nSnellen chart (1862) \n\nThe Snellen chart is an eye chart used by eye care professionals and others to measure visual acuity. Snellen charts are named after Dutch ophthalmologist Hermann Snellen who developed the chart in 1862. Vision scientists now use a variation of this chart, designed by Ian Bailey and Jan Lovie.\n\nString galvanometer (1902) \n\nPrevious to the string galvanometer, scientists used a machine called the capillary electrometer to measure the heart's electrical activity, but this device was unable to produce results at a diagnostic level. Dutch physiologist Willem Einthoven developed the string galvanometer in the early 20th century, publishing the first registration of its use to record an electrocardiogram in a Festschrift book in 1902. The first human electrocardiogram was recorded in 1887, however only in 1901 was a quantifiable result obtained from the string galvanometer.\n\nSchilt photometer (1922) \n\nIn 1922, Dutch astronomer Jan Schilt invented the Schilt photometer, a device that measures the light output of stars and, indirectly, their distances.\n\nMedicine \n\nClinical electrocardiography (first diagnostic electrocardiogram) (1902) \n\nIn the 19th century it became clear that the heart generated electric currents. The first to systematically approach the heart from an electrical point-of-view was Augustus Waller, working in St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London. In 1911 he saw little clinical application for his work. The breakthrough came when Einthoven, working in Leiden, used his more sensitive string galvanometer, than the capillary electrometer that Waller used. Einthoven assigned the letters P, Q, R, S and T to the various deflections that it measured and described the electrocardiographic features of a number of cardiovascular disorders. He was awarded the 1924 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery. \n\nEinthoven's triangle (1902) \n\nEinthoven's triangle is an imaginary formation of three limb leads in a triangle used in electrocardiography, formed by the two shoulders and the pubis. The shape forms an inverted equilateral triangle with the heart at the center that produces zero potential when the voltages are summed. It is named after Willem Einthoven, who theorized its existence. \n\nFirst European blood bank (1940) \n\nWhen German bombers attacked The Hague in 1940 while Willem Johan Kolff was there, he organised the first blood bank in continental Europe. It was located in the Zuidwal hospital in The Hague. Eleven patients were given blood transfusions in The Hague, six of whom survived. Donated blood was also used for victims of the bombardment of Rotterdam, whither it was transported by civilian car. \n\nRotating drum dialysis machine (first practical artificial kidney) (1943) \n\nAn artificial kidney is a machine and its related devices which clean blood for patients who have an acute or chronic failure of their kidneys. The first artificial kidney was developed by Dutchman Willem Johan Kolff. The procedure of cleaning the blood by this means is called dialysis, a type of renal replacement therapy that is used to provide an artificial replacement for lost kidney function due to renal failure. It is a life support treatment and does not treat disease. \n\nArtificial heart (1957) \n\nOn 12 December 1957, Kolff implanted an artificial heart into a dog at Cleveland Clinic. The dog lived for 90 minutes. In 1967, Dr. Kolff left Cleveland Clinic to start the Division of Artificial Organs at the University of Utah and pursue his work on the artificial heart. Under his supervision, a team of surgeons, chemists, physicists and bioengineers developed an artificial heart and made it ready for industrial production. To help manage his many endeavors, Dr. Kolff assigned project managers. Each project was named after its manager. Graduate student Robert Jarvik was the project manager for the artificial heart, which was subsequently renamed the Jarvik-7. Based on lengthy animal trials, this first artificial heart was successfully implanted into the thorax of patient Barney Clark in December 1982. Clark survived 112 days with the device.\n\nMilitary \n\nModern model of sea power (1585–1688) \n\nThe Dutch Republic has been considered by many political and military historians as the first modern (global) sea power. The United Provinces of the Netherlands was the first state to possess the full triad of foreign commerce, forward bases and merchant and naval fleets. In the middle of the 17th century the Dutch navy was the most powerful navy in the world. The Dutch Republic had a commercial fleet that was larger than that of England, France, Germany, Portugal, and Spain combined. According to Walter Russell Mead, the “modern version of sea power was invented by the Dutch. The system of global trade, investment, and military power the Dutch built in the seventeenth century was the envy and the wonder of the world at the time, and many of its basic features were adopted by the British and the Americans in subsequent years.” When the Peter the Great determined to achieve sea power for Imperial Russia, he came to the Dutch Republic to learn about shipbuilding, seamanship and nautical sciences. During his stay in Holland (1697) the Tsar engaged, with the help of Russian and Dutch assistants, many skilled workers such as builders of locks, fortresses, shipwrights and seamen. They had to help him with his modernization of Russia. The best-known sailor who made the journey from the Dutch Republic to Russia was Norwegian-Dutch Cornelius Cruys. Cruys performed well in Russia and came be regarded as the architect of the Russian Navy. He became the first commander of the Russian Baltic Fleet and the vice admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy. Peter the Great designed his new capital on the model of Amsterdam and gave it a Dutch name, Sankt Pieter Burkh (later Germanized into Saint Peterburg). In St. Petersburg, there is an island which is still called Novaya Gollandiya (literally “New Holland”). The triangular man-made island took its name after a number of canals and shipbuilding facilities that rendered its appearance similar to Amsterdam. The Tsar chose to call his island “New Holland”, commemorating his enthusiasm for all things Dutch. \n\nHouse of Orange-Nassau's military reforms (1590s–17th century) \n\nThe early modern Military Revolution began with reforms inaugurated by Prince Maurice of Nassau with his cousins Count Willem Lodewijk of Nassau-Dillenburg and Count John VII of Nassau during the 1590s. Maurice developed a system of linear formations (linear tactics), discipline, drill and volley fire based on classical Roman methods that made his army more efficient and his command and control more effective. He also developed a 43-step drill for firing the musket that was included in an illustrated weapons manual by Jacob de Gheyn II in 1607 (Wapenhandelinghe or Exerise of Arms). This became known as the Dutch drill. It was widely read and emulated in the rest of Europe. Adopting and perfecting the techniques pioneered by Maurice of Nassau several decades earlier, Gustavus Adolphus repeatedly proved his techniques by defeating the armies of Spain (1630–1632), an empire with resources fantastically larger than Sweden's during the Thirty Years' War. Descartes served for a while in the army of the Dutch military leader Prince Maurice of Orange-Nassau, and developed a fascination for practical technology. Maurice' s military innovations had considerable influences on Descartes' system of philosophy. \n\nNorden bombsight (1920s) \n\nThe Norden bombsight was designed by Carl Norden, a Dutch engineer educated in Switzerland who emigrated to the U.S. in 1904. In 1920, he started work on the Norden bombsight for the United States Navy. The first bombsight was produced in 1927. It was essentially an analog computer, and bombardiers were trained in great secrecy on how to use it. The device was used to drop bombs accurately from an aircraft, supposedly accurate enough to hit a 100-foot circle from an altitude of 21,000 feet—but under actual combat situations, such an accuracy was never achieved.\n\nSubmarine snorkel (1939) \n\nA submarine snorkel is a device that allows a submarine to operate submerged while still taking in air from above the surface. It was invented by the Dutchman J.J. Wichers shortly before World War II and copied by the Germans during the war for use by U-Boats. Its common military name is snort.\n\nGoalkeeper CIWS (1975) \n\nGoalkeeper is a close-in weapon system (CIWS) still in use as of 2015. It is autonomous and completely automatic short-range defense of ships against highly maneuverable missiles, aircraft and fast maneuvering surface vessels. Once activated the system automatically performs the entire process from surveillance and detection to destruction, including selection of priority targets.\n\nMusical instruments \n\nMetronome (1812) \n\nThe first (mechanical) metronome was invented by Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel in Amsterdam in 1812, but named (patented) after Johann Maelzel, who took the idea and popularized it. \n\nFokker organ (1950) \n\nDutch musician-physicist Adriaan Fokker designed and had built keyboard instruments capable of playing microtonal scales via a generalized keyboard. The best-known of these is his 31-tone equal-tempered organ, which was installed in Teylers Museum in Haarlem in 1951. It is commonly called the Fokker organ.\n\nKraakdoos (1960s) \n\nThe Kraakdoos or Cracklebox is a custom-made battery-powered noise-making electronic device. It is a small box with six metal contacts on top, which when pressed by fingers generates unusual sounds and tones. The human body becomes a part of the circuit and determines the range of sounds possible – different players generate different results. The concept was first conceived by Michel Waisvisz and Geert Hamelberg in the 1960s, and developed further in the 1970s when Waisvisz joined the STEIM foundation in Amsterdam.\n\nMoodswinger (2006) \n\nThe Moodswinger is a twelve-string electric zither with an additional third bridge designed by Dutch luthier Yuri Landman. The rod functions as the third bridge and divides the strings into two sections to add overtones, creating a multiphonic sound.\n\nSpringtime (guitar) (2008) \n\nThe Springtime is an experimental electric guitar with seven strings and three outputs. Landman created the instrument in 2008.\n\nPhilosophy and social sciences \n\nNeostoicism (1580s) \n\nNeostoicism was a syncretic philosophical movement, joining Stoicism and Christianity. Neostoicism was founded by Dutch-Flemish humanist Justus Lipsius, who in 1584 presented its rules, expounded in his book De Constantia (On Constancy), as a dialogue between Lipsius and his friend Charles de Langhe. The eleven years (1579-1590) that Lipsius spent in Leiden (Leiden University) were the period of his greatest productivity. It was during this time that he wrote a series of works designed to revive ancient Stoicism in a form that would be compatible with Christianity. The most famous of these is De Constantia (1584). Neostoicism had a direct influence on many seventeenth and eighteenth-century writers including Montesquieu, Bossuet, Francis Bacon, Joseph Hall, Francisco de Quevedo and Juan de Vera y Figueroa.\n\nModern rationalism (1630s–1670s) \n\nThe rise of modern rationalism in the Dutch Republic, had a profound influence on the 17th-century philosophy. Descartes is often considered to be the first of the modern rationalists. Descartes himself had lived in the Dutch Republic for some twenty years (1628–1649) and served for a while in the army of the Dutch military leader Prince Maurice of Orange-Nassau. The Dutch Republic was the first country in which Descartes' rationalistic philosophy (Cartesianism) succeeded in replacing Aristotelianism as the academic orthodoxy. Fritz Berolzheimer considers Hugo Grotius the Descartes of legal philosophy and notes Grotian rationalism's influence on the 17th-century jurisprudence: \"As the Cartesian \"cogito ergo sum\" became the point of departure of rationalistic philosophy, so the establishment of government and law upon reason made Hugo Grotius the founder of an independent and purely rationalistic system of natural law.\" In the late 1650s Leiden was a place where one could study Cartesian philosophy. Sometime between 1656 and 1661 it appears that Spinoza did some formal study of philosophy at the University of Leiden. Philosophy of Spinoza (Spinozism) was an systematic answer to Descartes' famous dualist theory that the body and spirit are separate.\n\nModern pantheism (1670s) \n\nPantheism was popularized in the modern era as both a theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century Dutch Jew philosopher Baruch Spinoza, whose Ethics was an answer to Descartes' famous dualist theory that the body and spirit are separate. Spinoza is regarded as the chief source of modern pantheism. Spinoza held that the two are the same, and this monism is a fundamental quality of his philosophy. He was described as a \"God-intoxicated man,\" and used the word God to describe the unity of all substance. Although the term pantheism was not coined until after his death, Spinoza is regarded as its most celebrated advocate.\n\nEarly liberalism (foundations of liberalism) (17th century) \n\n\"European liberalism\", Isaiah Berlin wrote, \"wears the appearance of a single coherent movement, little altered during almost three centuries, founded upon relatively simple foundations, laid by Locke or Grotius or even Spinoza; stretching back to Erasmus and Montaigne...\" \n\nAs Bertrand Russell noted in his A History of Western Philosophy (1945): \"Descartes lived in Holland for twenty years (1629-49), except for a few brief visits to France and one to England, all on business. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of Holland in the seventeenth century, as the one country where there was freedom of speculation. Hobbes had to have his books printed there; Locke took refuge there during the five worst years of reaction in England before 1688; Bayle (of the Dictionary) found it necessary to live there; and Spinoza would hardly have been allowed to do his work in any other country.\" Russell described early liberalism in Europe: \"Early liberalism was a product of England and Holland, and had certain well-marked characteristics. It stood for religious toleration; it was Protestant, but of a latitudinarian rather than of a fanatical kind; it regarded the wars of religion as silly...\"\n\nAs Russell Shorto states: “Liberalism has many meanings, but in its classical sense it is a philosophy based on individual freedom. History has long taught that our modern sensibility comes from the eighteenth century Enlightenment. In recent decades, historians have seen the Dutch Enlightenment of the seventeenth century as the root of the wider Enlightenment. And at the center of this sits the city of Amsterdam.” Amsterdam, to Shorto, was not only the first city in Europe to develop the cultural and political foundations of what we now call liberalism—a society focused on the concerns and comforts of individuals, run by individuals acting together, and tolerant of religion, ethnicity, or other differences—but also an exporter of these beliefs to the rest of Europe and the New World. \n\nCartesianism (1630s–1640s) \n\nIf Descartes is still considered the father of modern philosophy, Dutch Republic can be called its cradle. Cartesianism is the name given to the philosophical doctrine of René Descartes. Descartes is often regarded as the first thinker to emphasize the use of reason to develop the natural sciences. Cartesianism had been controversial for several years before 1656. Descartes himself had lived in the Dutch Republic for some twenty years (1628–1649). Descartes served for a while in the army of the Dutch military leader Prince Maurice of Orange-Nassau, and developed a fascination for practical technology. In the 1630s, while staying in the Dutch city Deventer, Descartes worked on a text which became published as Traite' de l'Homme (1664). Throughout his writing, he used words such as clock, automaton, and self—moving machine as interchangeable constructs. He postulated an account of the physical world that was thoroughly materialistic. His mechanical view of nature replaced the organism model which had been popular since the Renaissance. His Discours de la méthode (1637) was originally published at Leiden, and his Principia philosophiae (1644) appeared from the presses at Amsterdam. In the 1630s and 1640s, Descartes's ideas gained a foothold at the Dutch universities. \n\nSpinozism (1660s–1670s) \n\nSpinozism is the monist philosophical system of the Dutch-Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza which defines \"God\" as a singular self-subsistent substance, with both matter and thought as its attributes.\n\nAffect (philosophy) (1670s) \n\nAffect (affectus or adfectus in Latin) is a concept used in the philosophy of Spinoza and elaborated by Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari that emphasizes bodily experience. The term \"affect\" is central to what became known as the \"affective turn\" in the humanities and social sciences.\n\nMandeville's paradox (1714) \n\nMandeville's paradox is named after Bernard Mandeville, who shows that actions which may be qualified as vicious with regard to individuals have benefits for society as a whole. This is already clear from the subtitle of his most famous work, The Fable of The Bees: ‘Private Vices, Publick Benefits’. He states that \"Fraud, Luxury, and Pride must live; Whilst we the Benefits receive.\") (The Fable of the Bees, ‘The Moral’).\n\nMathematical intuitionism (1907–1908) \n\nMathematical intuitionism was founded by the Dutch mathematician and philosopher Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer. In the philosophy of mathematics, intuitionism, or neointuitionism (opposed to preintuitionism), is an approach where mathematics is considered to be purely the result of the constructive mental activity of humans rather than the discovery of fundamental principles claimed to exist in an objective reality. That is, logic and mathematics are not considered analytic activities wherein deep properties of objective reality are revealed and applied, but are instead considered the application of internally consistent methods used to realize more complex mental constructs, regardless of their possible independent existence in an objective reality.\n\nReligion and ethics \n\nDevotio Moderna (1370s–1390s) \n\nDevotio Moderna, or Modern Devotion, was a movement for religious reform, calling for apostolic renewal through the rediscovery of genuine pious practices such as humility, obedience and simplicity of life. It began in the late fourteenth-century, largely through the work of Gerard Groote, and flourished in the Low Countries and Germany in the fifteenth century, but came to an end with the Protestant Reformation. Gerard Groote, father of the movement, founded the Brethren of the Common Life; after his death, disciples established a house of Augustinian Canons at Windesheim (near Zwolle, Overijssel). These two communities became the principal exponents of Devotio Moderna. Martin Luther studied under the Brethren of the Common Life at Magdeburg before going on to the University of Erfurt. Another famous member of the Brethren of the Common Life was Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.\n\nDevotio Moderna, an undogmatic form of piety which some historians have argued helped to pave the road for the Protestant Reformation, is most known today through its influence on Thomas à Kempis, the author of The Imitation of Christ a book which proved highly influential for centuries.\n\nMennonites (1536) \n\nThe Mennonites are a Christian group based around the church communities of Anabaptist denominations named after Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings, Simons articulated and formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders. The teachings of the Mennonites were founded on their belief in both the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ, which they held to with great conviction despite persecution by various Roman Catholic and Protestant states.\n\nDutch Reformed Church (1571) \n\nThe Dutch Reformed Church (in Dutch: Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk or NHK) was a Reformed Christian denomination. It developed during the Protestant Reformation, with its base in what became known as the Roman Catholic Church. It was founded in the 1570s and lasted until 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the Netherlands.\n\nArminianism (1620) \n\nArminianism is based on the theological ideas of Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as the Remonstrants. His teachings held to the five solae of the Reformation, but they were distinct from the particular teachings of Martin Luther, Zwingli, John Calvin, and other Protestant Reformers. Arminius (Jacobus Hermanszoon) was a student of Beza (successor of Calvin) at the Theological University of Geneva.\n\nMany Christian denominations have been influenced by Arminian views on the will of man being freed by grace prior to regeneration, notably the Baptists in the 16th century, the Methodists in the 18th century and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. John Wesley was influenced by Arminianism. Also, Arminianism was an important influence in Methodism, which developed out of the Wesleyan movement. Some assert that Universalists and Unitarians in the 18th and 19th centuries were theologically linked with Arminianism.\n\nFirst synagogue to be established in the (Americas) New World (1636) \n\nThe first synagogue of the New World, Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue, is founded in Recife, Brazil by the Dutch Jews. The Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue in Recife, Brazil, erected in 1636, was the first synagogue erected in the Americas. Its foundations have been recently discovered, and the 20th-century buildings on the site have been altered to resemble a 17th-century Dutch synagogue. \n\nJansenism (1640s) \n\nJansenism was a Catholic theological movement, primarily in France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. The movement originated from the posthumously published work (Augustinus) of the Dutch theologian Cornelius Jansen, who died in 1638. It was first popularized by Jansen's friend Abbot Jean Duvergier de Hauranne, of Saint-Cyran-en-Brenne Abbey, and after Duvergier's death in 1643, was led by Antoine Arnauld. Through the 17th and into the 18th centuries, Jansenism was a distinct movement within the Catholic Church. The theological centre of the movement was the convent of Port-Royal Abbey, Paris, which was a haven for writers including Duvergier, Arnauld, Pierre Nicole, Blaise Pascal, and Jean Racine.\n\nFirst Jewish congregation to be established in (the United States) North America (1654) \n\nCongregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in the City of New Amsterdam, was founded in 1654, the first Jewish congregation to be established in North America. Its founders were twenty-three Jews, mostly of Spanish and Portuguese origin, who had been living in Recife, Brazil. When the Portuguese defeated the Dutch for control of Recife, and brought with them the Inquisition, the Jews of that area left. Some returned to Amsterdam, where they had originated. Others went to places in the Caribbean such as St. Thomas, Jamaica, Surinam and Curaçao, where they founded sister Sephardic congregations. One group of twenty-three Jews, after a series of unexpected events, landed in New Amsterdam. After being initially rebuffed by anti-Semitic Governor Peter Stuyvesant, Jews were given official permission to settle in the colony in 1655. These pioneers fought for their rights and won permission to remain. This marks the founding of the Congregation Shearith Israel. \n\nScientific instruments \n\nMicroscope (compound microscope) (1590) \n\nIn 1590 the Dutchmen Hans and Zacharias Janssen (father and son) is sometimes claimed to have invented the first compound microscope. \n\nTelescope (optical telescope) (1608) \n\nIn 1608 Hans Lippershey, Zacharias Janssen and Jacob Metius created the first practical telescope. Crude telescopes and spyglasses may have been created much earlier, but Lippershey is believed to be the first to apply for a patent, which he failed to secure, after which he made it available for general use. A description of Lippershey's instrument quickly reached Galileo Galilei, who created a working unit in 1609, with which he made the observations found in his Sidereus Nuncius of 1610.\n\nAerial telescope (1656) \n\nAn aerial telescope is a type of very long focal length refracting telescope, built in the second half of the 17th century, that did not use a tube. Instead, the objective was mounted on a pole, tree, tower, building or other structure on a swivel ball-joint. The observer stood on the ground and held the eyepiece, which was connected to the objective by a string or connecting rod. By holding the string tight and maneuvering the eyepiece, the observer could aim the telescope at objects in the sky. The idea for this type of telescope may have originated in the late 17th century with the Dutch mathematician, astronomer and physicist Christiaan Huygens and his brother Constantijn Huygens, Jr.. \n\nHuygens eyepiece (first compound eyepiece) (1670s) \n\nHuygens eyepieces consist of two plano-convex lenses with the plane sides towards the eye separated by an air gap. The lenses are called the eye lens and the field lens. The focal plane is located between the two lenses. It was invented by Christiaan Huygens in the late 1660s and was the first compound (multi-lens) eyepiece. Huygens discovered that two air spaced lenses can be used to make an eyepiece with zero transverse chromatic aberration. These eyepieces work well with the very long focal length telescopes (in Huygens day they were used with single element long focal length non-achromatic refracting telescopes, including very long focal length aerial telescopes). This optical design is now considered obsolete since with today's shorter focal length telescopes the eyepiece suffers from short eye relief, high image distortion, chromatic aberration, and a very narrow apparent field of view. Since these eyepieces are cheap to make they can often be found on inexpensive telescopes and microscopes. Because Huygens eyepieces do not contain cement to hold the lens elements, telescope users sometimes use these eyepieces in the role of \"solar projection\", i.e. projecting an image of the Sun onto a screen. Other cemented eyepieces can be damaged by the intense, concentrated light of the Sun.\n\nVan Leeuwenhoek microscope (1670s) \n\nVan Leeuwenhoek created at least 25 microscopes, of differing types, of which only nine survive. His simple microscopes were made of silver or copper frames, holding hand-ground lenses. Those that have survived are capable of magnification up to 275 times. It is suspected that Van Leeuwenhoek possessed units that could magnify up to 500 times. Using his handcrafted microscopes, he was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms, which he originally referred to as animalcules, and which now referred to as micro-organisms or microbes. \n\nCycloidal pendulum (1673) \n\nThe cycloid pendulum was invented by Christiaan Huygens in 1673. Its purpose is to eliminate the lack of isochronism of the ordinary simple pendulum. This is achieved by making the mass point move on a cycloid instead of a circular arc. \n\nPyrometer (1739) \n\nThe pyrometer, invented by Pieter van Musschenbroek, is a temperature measuring device. A simple type uses a thermocouple placed either in a furnace or on the item to be measured. The voltage output of the thermocouple is read from a meter. Many different types of thermocouple are available, for measuring temperatures from −200 °C to above 1500 °C. \n\nLeyden jar (first practical capacitor) (1745–1746) \n\nA Leyden jar, or Leiden jar, is a device that \"stores\" static electricity between two electrodes on the inside and outside of a glass jar. It was the original form of a capacitor (originally known as a \"condenser\"). It was invented independently by German cleric Ewald Georg von Kleist on 11 October 1745 and by Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek of Leiden (Leyden) in 1745–1746. The invention was named for the city. The Leyden jar was used to conduct many early experiments in electricity, and its discovery was of fundamental importance in the study of electricity. Previously, researchers had to resort to insulated conductors of large dimensions to store a charge. The Leyden jar provided a much more compact alternative. Like many early electrical devices, there was no particular use for the Leyden jar at first, other than to allow scientists to do a greater variety of electrical experiments. Benjamin Franklin, for example, used a Leyden jar to store electricity from lightning in his famous kite experiment in 1752. By doing so he proved that lightning was really electricity.\n\nThe idea for the Leyden jar was discovered independently by two parties: German scientist and jurist Ewald Georg von Kleist, and Dutchmen Pieter van Musschenbroek and Andreas Cunaeus. These scientists developed the Leyden jar while working under a theory of electricity that saw electricity as a fluid, and hoped to develop the jar to \"capture\" this fluid. In 1744 von Kleist lined a glass jar with silver foil, and charged the foil with a friction machine. Kleist was convinced that a substantial electric charge could be collected when he received a significant shock from the device. The effects of this \"Kleistian jar\" were independently discovered around the same time by Dutch scientists Pieter van Musschenbroek and Cunaeus at the University of Leiden. Van Musschenbroek communicated on it with the French scientific community where it was called the Leyden jar. \n\nEisinga Planetarium (1781) \n\nThe Eisinga Planetarium (Royal Eise Eisinga Planetarium) was built by Eise Eisinga in his home in Franeker, Friesland. It took Eisinga seven years to build his planetarium, completing it in 1781. The orrery still exists and is the world's oldest working planetarium.\n\nKipp's apparatus (1860) \n\nKipp's apparatus, also called a Kipp generator, is designed for preparation of small volumes of gases. It was invented around 1860 by Dutch pharmacist Petrus Jacobus Kipp and widely used in chemical laboratories and for demonstrations in schools into the second half of the 20th century.\n\nPhase contrast microscope (1933) \n\nIn optical microscopy many objects such as cell parts in protozoans, bacteria and sperm tails are essentially fully transparent unless stained (and therefore killed). The difference in densities and composition within these objects however often gives rise to changes in the phase of light passing through them, hence they are sometimes called \"phase objects\". Using the phase-contrast technique makes these structures visible and allows the study of living specimens. This phase contrast technique proved to be such an advancement in microscopy that Dutch physicist Frits Zernike was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1953.\n\nMagnetic horn (1961) \n\nThe magnetic horn (also known as the Van der Meer horn) is a high-current, pulsed focusing device, invented by the Dutch physicist Simon van der Meer at CERN. It selects pions and focuses them into a sharp beam. Its original application was in the context of neutrino physics, where beams of pions have to be tightly focused. When the pions then decay into muons and neutrinos or antineutrinos, an equally well-focused neutrino beam is obtained. The muons were stopped in a wall of 3000 tons of iron and 1000 tons of concrete, leaving the neutrinos or antineutrinos to reach the Gargamelle bubble chamber.\n\nSports and games \n\nKolf (forerunner of modern golf) ( 13th century) \n\nA golf-like game (kolf in Dutch) is recorded as taking place on 26 February 1297, in a city called Loenen aan de Vecht, where the Dutch played a game with a stick and leather ball. The winner was whomever hit the ball with the least number of strokes into a target several hundred yards away. Some scholars argue that this game of putting a small ball in a hole in the ground using clubs was also played in 17th-century Netherlands and that this predates the game in Scotland.\n\nFigure skating (prototype) (15th–17th centuries) \n\nThe Dutch played a significant role in the history of ice skating (including speed skating and figure skating). The first feature of ice skating in a work of art was made in the 15th century. The picture, depicted Saint Lidwina, patron saint of ice skaters, falling on the ice. Another important aspect is a man seen in the background, who is skating on one leg. This means that his skates must have had sharp edges similar to those found on modern ice skates. Until the 17th century, ice skating was mostly used for transportation. Some of the Stuarts (including King Charles II of England) who had fled to the Dutch Republic during the Cromwell Royal reign later returned to Britain, bringing with them the new sport. Upon his return to England in 1658, the King brought two innovations in ice skating – a pair of iron skates and the Dutch roll. The Dutch roll was the first form of a gliding or skating motion made possible by the iron skate's two edges. However, speed skating was the focus of the Dutch, while the English developed modern figure skating.\n\nSpeed skating (15th–17th centuries) \n\nSpeed skating, which had developed in the Netherlands in the 17th century, was given a boost by the innovations in skate construction. Speed skating, or speedskating, is a competitive form of skating in which skaters race each other over a certain distance. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating and marathon speed skating. In the modern Olympic Games, long-track speed skating is usually referred to as just \"speed skating\", while short-track speed skating is known as \"short track\".\n\nYachting (sport sailing) (17th century) \n\nSailing, also known as yachting, is a sport in which competitors race from point to point, or around a race course, in sail-powered boats. Yachting refers to recreational sailing or boating, the specific act of sailing or using other water vessels for sporting purposes. The invention of sailing is prehistoric, but the racing of sailing boats is believed to have started in the Netherlands some time in the 17th century. While living in the Dutch Republic, King Charles II of England fell in love with sailing and in 1660, took home the Dutch gifted 66-foot yacht he called Mary. The sport's popularity spread across the British Isles. The world's first yacht club was founded in Cork, Ireland in 1720.\n\nInternational Skating Union (1892) \n\nThe International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen, Netherlands, in 1892, making it the oldest governing international winter sport federation and one of the oldest international sport federations.\n\nThe first official World Championships in Speed Skating (open to men only) directly under the auspices of the ISU were held in Amsterdam in 1893.\n\nKorfball (1902) \n\nKorfball (Korfbal in Dutch) is a mixed gender team sport, with similarities to netball and basketball. A team consists of eight players; four female and four male. A team also includes a coach. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1902 by Nico Broekhuysen.\n\nCruyff Turn (1974) \n\nThe Cruijff Turn (also known as Cruyff Turn), is a famous dribbling trick in football, was perfected by the Dutch football player Johan Cruijff for whom the evasive trick was named. To make this move, the player first looks to pass or cross the ball. However, instead of kicking it, he drags the ball behind his planted foot with the inside of his other foot, turns through 180 degrees and accelerates away. The trick was famously employed by Cruijff in the 1974 FIFA World Cup, first seen in the Dutch match against Sweden and soon widely copied.\n\nTotal Football (1970s) \n\nThe foundations for Total Football (Dutch: totaalvoetbal) were laid by Englishman Jack Reynolds who was the manager of AFC Ajax. Rinus Michels, who played under Reynolds, later became manager of Ajax and refined the concept into what is known today as \"Total Football\" (Totaalvoetbal in Dutch language), using it in his training for the Ajax Amsterdam squad and the Netherlands national football team in the 1970s. It was further refined by Stefan Kovacs after Michels left for FC Barcelona. Johan Cruyff was the system's most famous exponent. Due to Cruyff's style of play, he is still referred to as the total footballer. Its cornerstone was a focus on positional interchange. The invention of totaalvoetbal helped lay the foundations for the significant successes of Dutch football at both club and international level in the 1970s. During that decade, the Dutch football rose from almost total obscurity to become a powerhouse in world football. In an interview published in the 50th anniversary issue of World Soccer magazine, the captain of the Brazilian team that won the 1970 FIFA World Cup, Carlos Alberto, went on to say: “The only team I’ve seen that did things differently was Holland at the 1974 World Cup in Germany. Since then everything looks more or less the same to me…. Their ‘carousel’ style of play was amazing to watch and marvellous for the game.” \n\nTiki-taka (1990s) \n\nFC Barcelona and the Spanish national football team play a style of football known as Tiki-taka that has its roots in Total Football. Johan Cruyff founded Tiki-taka (commonly spelled tiqui-taca in Spanish) during his time as manager of FC Barcelona (1988–1996). The style was successfully adopted by the all-conquering Spain national football team (2008–2012) and Pep Guardiola's Barcelona team (2009–2011). Tiki-taka style differs from Total Football in that it focuses on ball movement rather than positional interchange.\n\nTechnology and engineering \n\nFirst pound lock in Europe (1373) \n\nThe Netherlands revived the construction of canals during the 13th–14th century that had generally been discontinued since the fall of the Roman Empire. They also contributed in the development of canal construction technology, such as introducing the first flash locks in Europe. The first pound lock in Europe was built by the Dutch in 1373 at Vreeswijk, where a canal from Utrecht joins the river Lek. \n\nThermostat (automatic temperature regulator) (1620s) \n\nAround the 1620s, Cornelis Drebbel developed an automatic temperature control system for a furnace, motivated by his belief that base metals could be turned to gold by holding them at a precise constant temperature for long periods of time. He also used this temperature regulator in an incubator for hatching chickens. \n\nFeedback control system (1620s) \n\nFeedback control has been used for centuries to regulate engineered systems. In the 17th century, Drebbel invented one of the earliest devices to use feedback, an chicken incubator that used a damper controlled by a thermostat to maintain a constant temperature.\n\nMagic lantern (first practical image projector; the forerunner of modern slide projector) (1659) \n\nThe magic lantern is an optical device, an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century. People have been projecting images using concave mirrors and pin-hole cameras (camera obscura) since Roman times. But glass lens technology wasn't sufficiently developed to make advanced optical devices (such as telescope and microscope) until the 17th century. With pinhole cameras and camera obscura it was only possible to project an image of actual scene, such as an image of the sun, on a surface. The magic lantern on the other hand could project a painted image on a surface, and marks the point where cameras and projectors became two different kinds of devices. There has been some debate about who the original inventor of the magic lantern is, but the most widely accepted theory is that Christiaan Huygens developed the original device in the late 1650s. However, other sources give credit to the German priest Athanasius Kircher. He describes a device such as the magic lantern in his book Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae. Huygens is credited because of his major innovation in lantern technology, which was the replacement of images etched on mirrors from earlier lanterns such as Kircher’s with images painted on glass. This is what paved the way for the use of colour and for double-layered slide projections (generally used to simulate movement).\n\nThe first allusion to a 'magic lantern' is by Huygens in the 1650s and he is generally credited with inventing it—though he didn't want to admit it, considering it frivolous. Huygens was the first to describe a fully functioning magic lantern, one he made, and wrote about it in a work in 1659. Huygens magic lantern has been described as the predecessor of today’s slide projector and the forerunner of the motion picture projector. Images were hand painted onto the glass slide until the mid-19th century when photographic slides were employed. Huygens introduced this curiosity to the Danish mathematician Thomas Walgenstein who realized its commercial value for entertainment and traveled through Europe—mostly France and Italy—demonstrating his machine to foreign princes and selling them replicas for their own amusement. The forerunner of the modern slide projector as well as moving pictures, magic lanterns retained their popularity for centuries and were also the first optical toy to be used for family entertainment in the home.\n\nFire hose (1673) \n\nIn Amsterdam, the Superintendent of the Fire Brigade, Jan van der Heyden, and his son Nicholaas took firefighting to its next step with the fashioning of the first fire hose in 1673.\n\nGunpowder engine (first practical rudimentary internal combustion piston engine) (1678-80) \n\nA gunpowder engine, also known as an explosion engine or Huygens' engine, is a type of internal combustion engine using gunpowder as its fuel. It was considered essentially as the first rudimentary internal combustion piston engine. The concept was first explored during the 17th century, most notably by the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens. In 1678 he outlined a gunpowder engine consisting of a vertical tube containing a piston. Gunpowder was inserted into the tube and lit through a small hole at the base, like a cannon. The expanding gasses would drive the piston up the tube until the reached a point near the top. Here, the piston uncovered holes in the tube that allowed any remaining hot gasses to escape. The weight of the piston and the vacuum formed by the cooling gasses in the now-closed cylinder drew the piston back into the tube, lifting a test mass to provide power. According to sources, a single example of this sort of engine was built in 1678 or 79 using a cannon as the cylinder. The cylinder was held down to a base where the gunpowder sat, making it a breech loading design. The gasses escaped via two leather tubes attached at the top of the barrel. When the piston reached them the gasses blew the tubes open, and when the pressure fell, gravity pulled the leather down causing the tubes droop to the side of the cylinder, sealing the holes. Huygens’ presented a paper on his invention in 1680, A New Motive Power by Means of Gunpowder and Air. By 1682, the device had successfully shown that a dram (1/16th of an ounce) of gunpowder, in a cylinder seven or eight feet high and fifteen or eighteen inches in diameter, could raise seven or eight boys (or about 1,100 pounds) into the air, who held the end of the rope. \n\nHollander beater (1680s) \n\nThe Hollander beater is a machine developed by the Dutch in 1680 to produce pulp from cellulose-containing plant fibers. It replaced stamp mills for preparing pulp because the Hollander could produce in one day the same quantity of pulp that a stamp mill could produce in eight.\n\nGas lighting (1783) \n\nIn 1783, Maastricht-born chemist Jan Pieter Minckelers used coal gas for lighting and developed the first form of gas lighting.\n\nMeat slicer (1898) \n\nA meat slicer, also called a slicing machine, deli slicer or simply a slicer, is a tool used in butcher shops and delicatessens to slice meats and cheeses. The first meat slicer was invented by Wilhelm van Berkel (Wilhelmus Adrianus van Berkel) in Rotterdam in 1898. Older models of meat slicer may be operated by crank, while newer ones generally use an electric motor. \n\nPentode (1926) \n\nA pentode is an electronic device having five active electrodes. The term most commonly applies to a three-grid vacuum tube (thermionic valve), which was invented by the Dutchman Bernhard D.H. Tellegen in 1926. \n\nPhilishave (1939) \n\nPhilishave was the brand name for electric shavers manufactured by the Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care unit of Philips (in the US, the Norelco name is used). The Philishave shaver was invented by Philips engineer Alexandre Horowitz, who used rotating cutters instead of the reciprocating cutters that had been used in previous electric shavers.\n\nGyrator (1948) \n\nA gyrator is a passive, linear, lossless, two-port electrical network element invented by Tellegen as a hypothetical fifth linear element after the resistor, capacitor, inductor and ideal transformer. \n\nTraffic enforcement camera (1958) \n\nDutch company Gatsometer BV, founded by the 1950s rally driver Maurice Gatsonides, invented the first traffic enforcement camera. Gatsonides wished to better monitor his speed around the corners of a race track and came up with the device in order to improve his time around the circuit. The company developed the first radar for use with road traffic and is the world's largest supplier of speed-monitoring camera systems. Because of this, in some countries speed cameras are sometimes referred to as \"Gatsos\". They are also sometimes referred to as \"photo radar\", even though many of them do not use radar.\n\nThe first systems introduced in the late 1960s used film cameras, replaced by digital cameras beginning in the late 1990s.\n\nVariomatic (1958) \n\nVariomatic is the stepless, fully automatic transmission of the Dutch car manufacturer DAF, originally developed by Hub van Doorne. The Variomatic was introduced in 1958 (DAF 600), the first automatic gear box made in the Netherlands. It continues in use in motorscooters. Variomatic was the first commercially successful continuously variable transmissions (CVT).\n\nRed light camera (1965) \n\nA Red light camera is a traffic enforcement camera that captures an image of a vehicle that enters an intersection against a red traffic light. By automatically photographing such vehicles, the camera produces evidence that assists authorities in their enforcement of traffic laws. The first red light camera system was introduced in 1965, using tubes stretched across the road to detect the violation and trigger the camera. One of the first developers of these red light camera systems was Dutch company Gatsometer BV.\n\nStochastic cooling (1968) \n\nStochastic cooling is a form of particle beam cooling. It is used in some particle accelerators and storage rings to control the emission of particle beams. This process uses the electrical signals that the individual charged particles generate in a feedback loop to reduce the tendency of individual particles to move away from other particles in the beam. This technique was invented and applied at the Intersecting Storage Rings, and later the Super Proton Synchrotron, at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland by Dutch physicist Simon van der Meer. By increasing the particle density to close to the required energy, this technique improved the beam quality and, inter alia, brought the discovery of W and Z bosons within reach.\n\nClap skate (1980) \n\nThe clap skate (also called clapskates, slap skates, slapskates) is a type of ice skate used in speed skating. Clap skates were developed at the Faculty of Human Movement Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam, led by Gerrit Jan van Ingen Schenau, although the idea is much older. van Ingen Schenau, who started work on a hinged speed skate in 1979, created his first prototype in 1980 and finished his PhD thesis on the subject in 1981 using the premise that a skater would benefit from extended movement keeping the blade on the ice, allowing the calf muscles more time to exert force.\n\nTransportation \n\nIce skate improvements (14th–15th centuries) \n\nIn the 14th century, the Dutch started using wooden platform skates with flat iron bottom runners. The skates were attached to the skater's shoes with leather straps and poles were used to propel the skater. Around 1500, the Dutch shifted to a narrow metal double edged blade, so the skater could now push and glide with his feet, eliminating the need for a pole.\n\nHerring Buss (15th century) \n\nA herring buss () was a type of seagoing fishing vessel, used by Dutch and Flemish herring fishermen in the 15th through early 19th centuries. The Buis was first adapted for use as a fishing vessel in the Netherlands, after the invention of gibbing made it possible to preserve herring at sea. This made longer voyages feasible, and hence enabled Dutch fishermen to follow the herring shoals far from the coasts. The first herring buss was probably built in Hoorn around 1415. The last one was built in Vlaardingen in 1841.\n\nYacht (1580s) \n\nOriginally defined as a light, fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries. Later, yachts came to be perceived as luxury, or recreational vessels.\n\nFluyt (16th century) \n\nFluyt, a type of sailing vessel originally designed as a dedicated cargo vessel. Originating from the Netherlands in the 16th century, the vessel was designed to facilitate transoceanic delivery with the maximum of space and crew efficiency. The inexpensive ship could be built in large numbers. This ship class was credited with enhancing Dutch competitiveness in international trade and was widely employed by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th and 18th centuries. The fluyt was a significant factor in the 17th century rise of the Dutch seaborne empire. \n\nWind-powered sawmill (1592) \n\nCornelis Corneliszoon was the inventor of the wind-powered sawmill. Prior to the invention of sawmills, boards were rived and planed, or more often sawn by two men with a whipsaw using saddleblocks to hold the log and a pit for the pitman who worked below and got the benefit of sawdust in his eyes. Sawing was slow and required strong and durable sawmen. The topsawer had to be the stronger of the two because the saw was pulled in turn by each man, and the lower had the advantage of gravity. The topsawyer also had to guide the saw to produce a plank of even thickness. This was often done by following a chalkline.\n\nEarly sawmills adapted the whipsaw to mechanical power, generally driven by a water wheel to speed up the process. The circular motion of the wheel was changed to back-and-forth motion of the saw blade by a pitman thus introducing a term used in many mechanical applications. A pitman is similar to a crankshaft used in reverse. A crankshaft converts back-and-forth motion to circular motion.\n\nGenerally only the saw was powered and the logs had to be loaded and moved by hand. An early improvement was the development of a movable carriage, also water powered, to steadily advance the log through the saw blade.\n\nSchooner (prototype) (17th century) \n\nA schooner is a type of sailing vessel with fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts, the foremast being no taller than the rear mast(s). Such vessels were first used by the Dutch in the 16th or 17th century (but may not have been called that at the time). Schooners first evolved from a variety of small two-masted gaff-rigged vessels used in the coast and estuaries of the Netherlands in the late 17th century. Most were working craft but some pleasure yachts with schooner rigs were built for wealthy merchants and Dutch nobility. Following arrival of the Dutch-born prince William III the Orange on the British throne, the British Royal Navy built a Royal yacht with a schooner rig in 1695, HMS Royal Transport. This vessel, captured in a detailed Admiralty model, is the earliest fully documented schooner. Royal Transport was quickly noted for its speed and ease of handling and mercantile vessels soon adopted the rig in Europe and in European colonies in North America. Schooners were immediately popular with colonial traders and fishermen in North America with the first documented reference to a schooner in America appearing in Boston port records in 1716. North American shipbuilders quickly developed a variety of schooner forms for trading, fishing and privateering. According to the language scholar Walter William Skeat, the term schooner comes from scoon, while the sch spelling comes from the later adoption of the Dutch spelling (\"schoener\"). Another study suggests that a Dutch expression praising ornate schooner yachts in the 17th century, \"een schoone Schip\", may have led to the term \"schooner\" being used by English speakers to describe the early versions of the schooner rig as it evolved in England and America. \n\nLand yacht (1600) \n\nThe Wind chariot or land yacht (Zeilwagen) was designed by Flemish-born mathematician & engineer Simon Stevin for Prince Maurice of Orange. Land yacht. It offered a carriage with sails, of which a little model was preserved in Scheveningen until 2012. Around the year 1600, Stevin, Maurice and twenty-six others used it on the beach between Scheveningen and Petten. The carriage was propelled solely by force of wind, and traveled faster than horse-drawn vehicles.\n\nFirst verified practical (navigable) submarine (1620) \n\nA replica of reduced scale of Drebbel's submarine built by the team of the TV-series \"Building the Impossible\" (2002).\nCornelius Drebbel was the inventor of the first navigable submarine, while working for the British Royal Navy. Using William Bourne's design from 1578, he manufactured a steerable submarine with a leather-covered wooden frame. Between 1620 and 1624 Drebbel successfully built and tested two more, successively larger vessels. The third model had 6 oars and could carry 16 passengers. This model was demonstrated to King James I and several thousand Londoners. The submarine stayed submerged for three hours and could travel from Westminster to Greenwich and back, cruising at a depth of from 12 to. This submarine was tested many times in the Thames, but never used in battle. \n\nIn 2002, the British boatbuilder Mark Edwards built a wooden submarine based on the original 17th-century version by Drebbel. This was shown in the BBC TV programme Building the Impossible in November 2002. It is a scale working model of the original and was built using tools and construction methods common in 17th century boat building and was successfully tested under water with two rowers at Dorney Lake, diving beneath the surface and being rowed underwater for 10 minutes. Legal considerations prevented its use on the River Thames itself.\n\nFirst ever car equipped with a six-cylinder engine, along with four-wheel drive (1903) \n\nSpyker is credited with building and racing the first ever four-wheel racing car in 1903. The first four-wheel-drive car, as well as hill-climb racer, with internal combustion engine, the Spyker 60 H.P., was presented in 1903 by Dutch brothers Jacobus and Hendrik-Jan Spijker of Amsterdam. The two-seat sports car, which was also the first ever car equipped with a six-cylinder engine, is now an exhibit in the Louwman Collection (the former Nationaal Automobiel Museum) at the Hague in The Netherlands. \n\nOthers\n\nFirst practical national anthem (Het Wilhelmus) (1574) \n\nWilhelmus van Nassouwe (Het Wilhelmus) is the national anthem of the Netherlands and is the oldest national anthem in the world. The anthem was first written down in 1574 (during the Dutch Revolt). The Japanese anthem, Kimigayo, has the oldest (9th century) lyrics, but a melody was only added in the late 19th century, making it a poem rather than an anthem for most of its lifespan. Although the Wilhelmus was not officially recognised as the Dutch national anthem until 1932, it has always been popular with parts of the Dutch population and resurfaced on several occasions in the course of Dutch history before gaining its present status.\n\nDiscoveries\n\nArchaeology\n\nJava Man (Homo erectus erectus) (1891) \n\nJava Man (Homo erectus erectus) is the name given to hominid fossils discovered in 1891 at Trinil – Ngawi Regency on the banks of the Solo River in East Java, Indonesia, one of the first known specimens of Homo erectus. Its discoverer, Dutch paleontologist Eugène Dubois, gave it the scientific name Pithecanthropus erectus, a name derived from Greek and Latin roots meaning upright ape-man.\n\nAstronomy \n\nColumba (constellation) (1592) \n\nColumba is a small, faint constellation named in the late sixteenth century. Its name is Latin for dove. It is located just south of Canis Major and Lepus. Columba was named by Dutch astronomer Petrus Plancius in 1592 in order to differentiate the 'unformed stars' of the large constellation Canis Major. Plancius first depicted Columba on the small celestial planispheres of his large wall map of 1592. It is also shown on his smaller world map of 1594 and on early Dutch celestial globes.\n\nNovaya Zemlya effect (1597) \n\nThe first person to record the Novaya Zemlya effect was Gerrit de Veer, a member of Willem Barentsz' ill-fated third expedition into the polar region. Novaya Zemlya, the archipelago where de Veer first observed the phenomenon, lends its name to the effect.\n\n12 southern constellations (1597–1598) \n\nPlancius defined 12 constellations created by Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. \n\n* Apus is a faint constellation in the southern sky, first defined in the late 16th century. Its name means \"no feet\" in Greek, and it represents a bird-of-paradise (once believed to lack feet). It first appeared on a 35 cm diameter celestial globe published in 1597 (or 1598) in Amsterdam by Plancius with Jodocus Hondius.\n* Chamaeleon is named after the chameleon, a kind of lizard.\n* Dorado is now one of the 88 modern constellations. Dorado has been represented historically as a dolphinfish and a swordfish.\n* Grus is Latin for the crane, a species of bird. The stars that form Grus were originally considered part of Piscis Austrinus (the southern fish).\n* Hydrus name means \"male water snake\".\n* Indus represents an Indian, a word that could refer at the time to any native of Asia or the Americas.\n* Musca is one of the minor southern constellations. It first appeared on a 35-cm diameter celestial globe published in 1597 (or 1598) in Amsterdam by Plancius and Hondius. The first depiction of this constellation in a celestial atlas was in Johann Bayer's Uranometria of 1603.\n* Pavo is Latin for peacock.\n* Phoenix is a minor southern constellation, named after the mythical phoenix. It was the largest of the twelve.\n* Triangulum Australe is Latin for \"the southern triangle\", which distinguishes it from Triangulum in the northern sky and is derived from the almost equilateral pattern of its three brightest stars. It was first depicted on a celestial globe as Triangulus Antarcticus by Plancius in 1589, and later with more accuracy and its current name by Johann Bayer in his 1603 Uranometria.\n* Tucana is Latin for the toucan, a South American bird.\n* Volans represents a flying fish; its name is a shortened form of its original name, Piscis Volans.\n\nCamelopardalis (constellation) (1612–1613) \n\nCamelopardalis was created by Plancius in 1613 to represent the animal Rebecca rode to marry Isaac in the Bible. One year later, Jakob Bartsch featured it in his atlas. Johannes Hevelius gave it the official name of \"Camelopardus\" or \"Camelopardalis\" because he saw the constellation's many faint stars as the spots of a giraffe.\n\nMonoceros (constellation) (1612–1613) \n\nMonoceros is a relatively modern creation. Its first certain appearance was on a globe created by Plancius in 1612 or 1613. It was later charted by Bartsch as Unicornus in his 1624 star chart.\n\nRings of Saturn (1655) \n\nIn 1655, Huygens became the first person to suggest that Saturn was surrounded by a ring, after Galileo's much less advanced telescope had failed to show rings. Galileo had reported the anomaly as possibly 3 planets instead of one.\n\nTitan (Saturn's moon) (1655) \n\nIn 1655, using a 50 power refracting telescope that he designed himself, Huygens discovered the first of Saturn's moons, Titan.\n\nKapteyn's Star (1897) \n\nKapteyn's Star is a class M1 red dwarf about 12.76 light years from Earth in the southern constellation Pictor, and the closest halo star to the Solar System. With a magnitude of nearly 9 it is visible through binoculars or a telescope. It had the highest proper motion of any star known until the discovery of Barnard's Star in 1916. Attention was first drawn to what is now known as Kapteyn's Star by the Dutch astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn, in 1897.\n\nDiscovery of evidence for galactic rotation (1904) \n\nIn 1904, studying the proper motions of stars, Dutch astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn reported that these were not random, as it was believed in that time; stars could be divided into two streams, moving in nearly opposite directions. It was later realized that Kapteyn's data had been the first evidence of the rotation of our Galaxy, which ultimately led to the finding of galactic rotation by Bertil Lindblad and Jan Oort.\n\nGalactic halo (1924) \n\nIn 1924, Dutch astronomer Jan Oort discovered the galactic halo, a group of stars orbiting the Milky Way but outside the main disk.\n\nOort constants (1927) \n\nThe Oort constants (discovered by Jan Oort) A and B are empirically derived parameters that characterize the local rotational properties of the Milky Way.\n\nEvidence of dark matter (1932) \n\nIn 1932, Dutch astronomer Jan Oort became the first person to discover evidence of dark matter. Oort proposed the substance after measuring the motions of nearby stars in the Milky Way relative to the galactic plane. He found that the mass of the galactic plane must be more than the mass of the material that can be seen. A year later (1933), Fritz Zwicky examined the dynamics of clusters of galaxies and found their movements similarly perplexing.\n\nDiscovery of methane in the atmosphere of Titan (1944) \n\nThe first formal proof of the existence of an atmosphere around Titan came in 1944, when Gerald Kuiper observed Titan with the new McDonald 82 in telescope and discovered spectral signatures on Titan at wavelengths longer than 0.6 μm (micrometers), among which he identified two absorption bands of methane at 6190 and 7250 Å (Kuiper1944). This discovery was significant not only because it requires a dense atmosphere with a significant fraction of methane, but also because the atmosphere needs to be chemically evolved, since methane requires hydrogen in the presence of carbon, and molecular and atomic hydrogen would have escaped from Titan's weak gravitational field since the formation of the solar system. \n\nDiscovery of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mars (1947) \n\nUsing infrared spectrometry, in 1947 the Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper detected carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere, a discovery of biological significance because it is a principal gas in the process of photosynthesis (see also: History of Mars observation). He was able to estimate that the amount of carbon dioxide over a given area of the surface is double that on the Earth.\n\nMiranda (Uranus's moon) (1948) \n\nMiranda is the smallest and innermost of Uranus's five major moons. It was discovered by Gerard Kuiper on 16 February 1948 at McDonald Observatory.\n\nNereid (Neptune's moon) (1949) \n\nNereid, also known as Neptune II, is the third-largest moon of Neptune and was its second moon to be discovered, on 1 May 1949, by Gerard Kuiper, on photographic plates taken with the 82-inch telescope at McDonald Observatory.\n\nOort cloud (1950) \n\nThe Oort cloud or Öpik–Oort cloud, named after Dutch astronomer Jan Oort and Estonian astronomer Ernst Öpik, is a spherical cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals believed to surround the Sun at a distance of up to . Further evidence for the existence of the Kuiper belt emerged from the study of comets. That comets have finite lifespans has been known for some time. As they approach the Sun, its heat causes their volatile surfaces to sublimate into space, gradually evaporating them. In order for comets to continue to be visible over the age of the Solar System, they must be replenished frequently. One such area of replenishment is the Oort cloud, a spherical swarm of comets extending beyond 50,000 AU from the Sun first hypothesised by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort in 1950. The Oort cloud is believed to be the point of origin of long-period comets, which are those, like Hale–Bopp, with orbits lasting thousands of years.\n\nKuiper belt (1951) \n\nThe Kuiper belt was named after Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper, regarded by many as the father of modern planetary science, though his role in hypothesising it has been heavily contested. In 1951, he proposed the existence of what is now called the Kuiper Belt, a disk-shaped region of minor planets outside the orbit of Neptune, which also is a source of short-period comets.\n\nBiology \n\nFoundations of modern reproductive biology (1660s –1670s) \n\nIn the 1660s and 1670s the Dutch Republic-based scientists (in particular Leiden University-based Jan Swammerdam and Nicolas Steno, and Delft-based Regnier de Graaf and Anton van Leeuwenhoek) made key discoveries about animal and human reproduction. Their research and discoveries contributed greatly to the modern understanding of the female mammalian reproductive system. Many authors see Regnier de Graaf as the founder of modern reproductive biology (Setchell, 1974). This is due essentially to his use of convergent scientific methods: meticulous dissections, clinical observations and critical analysis of the available literature (Ankumet al., 1996). \n\nFunction of the Fallopian tubes (1660s) \n\nDutch physician & anatomist Regnier de Graaf may have been the first to understand the reproductive function of the Fallopian tubes. He described the hydrosalpinx, linking its development to female infertility. de Graaf recognized pathologic conditions of the tubes. He was aware of tubal pregnancies, and he surmised that the mammalian egg traveled from the ovary to the uterus through the tube.\n\nDevelopment of ovarian follicles (1672) \n\nIn his De Mulierum Organis Generatione Inservientibus (1672), de Graaf provided the first thorough description of the female gonad and established that it produced the ovum. De Graaf used the terminology vesicle or egg (ovum) for what now called the ovarian follicle. Because the fluid-filled ovarian vesicles had been observed previously by others, including Andreas Vesalius and Falloppio, De Graaf did not claim their discovery. He noted that he was not the first to describe them, but to describe their development. De Graaf was the first to observe changes in the ovary before and after mating and describe the corpus luteum. From the observation of pregnancy in rabbits, he concluded that the follicle contained the oocyte. The mature stage of the ovarian follicle is called the Graafian follicle in his honour, although others, including Fallopius, had noticed it previously but failed to recognize its reproductive significance.\n\nFoundations of microbiology (discovery of microorganisms) (1670s) \n\nAntonie van Leeuwenhoek is often considered to be the father of microbiology. Robert Hooke is cited as the first to record microscopic observation of the fruiting bodies of molds, in 1665. However, the first observation of microbes using a microscope is generally credited to van Leeuwenhoek. In the 1670s, he observed and researched bacteria and other microorganisms, using a single-lens microscope of his own design. \n\nIn 1981 the British microscopist Brian J. Ford found that Leeuwenhoek's original specimens had survived in the collections of the Royal Society of London. They were found to be of high quality, and were all well preserved. Ford carried out observations with a range of microscopes, adding to our knowledge of Leeuwenhoek's work. \n\nPhotosynthesis (1779) \n\nPhotosynthesis is a fundamental biochemical process in which plants, algae, and some bacteria convert sunlight to chemical energy. The process was discovered by Jan Ingenhousz in 1779. The chemical energy is used to drive reactions such as the formation of sugars or the fixation of nitrogen into amino acids, the building blocks for protein synthesis. Ultimately, nearly all living things depend on energy produced from photosynthesis. It is also responsible for producing the oxygen that makes animal life possible. Organisms that produce energy through photosynthesis are called photoautotrophs. Plants are the most visible representatives of photoautotrophs, but bacteria and algae also employ the process.\n\nPlant respiration (1779) \n\nPlant respiration was also discovered by Ingenhousz in 1779.\n\nFoundations of virology (1898) \n\nMartinus Beijerinck is considered one of the founders of virology. In 1898, he published results on his filtration experiments, demonstrating that tobacco mosaic disease is caused by an infectious agent smaller than a bacterium. His results were in accordance with similar observations made by Dmitri Ivanovsky in 1892. Like Ivanovsky and Adolf Mayer, predecessor at Wageningen, Beijerinck could not culture the filterable infectious agent. He concluded that the agent can replicate and multiply in living plants. He named the new pathogen virus to indicate its non-bacterial nature. This discovery is considered to be the beginning of virology.\n\nChemistry of photosynthesis (1931) \n\nIn 1931, Cornelis van Niel made key discoveries explaining the chemistry of photosynthesis. By studying purple sulfur bacteria and green sulfur bacteria, he was the first scientist to demonstrate that photosynthesis is a light-dependent redox reaction, in which hydrogen reduces carbon dioxide. Expressed as:\n2 H2A + CO2 → 2A + CH2O + H2O\n\nwhere A is the electron acceptor. His discovery predicted that H2O is the hydrogen donor in green plant photosynthesis and is oxidized to O2. The chemical summation of photosynthesis was a milestone in the understanding of the chemistry of photosynthesis. This was later experimentally verified by Robert Hill.\n\nFoundations of modern ethology (Tinbergen's four questions) (1930s) \n\nMany naturalists have studied aspects of animal behaviour throughout history. Ethology has its scientific roots in the work of Charles Darwin and of American and German ornithologists of the late 19th and early 20th century, including Charles O. Whitman, Oskar Heinroth, and Wallace Craig. The modern discipline of ethology is generally considered to have begun during the 1930s with the work of Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and by Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch. \n\nTinbergen's four questions, named after Nikolaas Tinbergen, one of the founders of modern ethology, are complementary categories of explanations for behaviour. It suggests that an integrative understanding of behaviour must include both a proximate and ultimate (functional) analysis of behaviour, as well as an understanding of both phylogenetic/developmental history and the operation of current mechanisms. \n\nVroman effect (1975) \n\nThe Vroman effect, named after Leo Vroman, is exhibited by protein adsorption to a surface by blood serum proteins.\n\nChemistry \n\nConcept of gas (1600s) \n\nFlemish physician Jan Baptist van Helmont is sometimes considered the founder of pneumatic chemistry, coining the word gas and conducting experiments involving gases. Van Helmont had derived the word “gas” from the Dutch word geest, which means ghost or spirit.\n\nFoundations of stereochemistry (1874) \n\nDutch chemist Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff is generally considered to be one of the founders of the field of stereochemistry. In 1874, Van 't Hoff built on the work on isomers of German chemist Johannes Wislicenus, and showed that the four valencies of the carbon atom were probably directed in space toward the four corners of a regular tetrahedron, a model which explained how optical activity could be associated with an asymmetric carbon atom. He shares credit for this with the French chemist Joseph Le Bel, who independently came up with the same idea. Three months before his doctoral degree was awarded Van 't Hoff published this theory, which today is regarded as the foundation of stereochemistry, first in a Dutch pamphlet in the fall of 1874, and then in the following May in a small French book entitled La chimie dans l'espace. A German translation appeared in 1877, at a time when the only job Van 't Hoff could find was at the Veterinary School in Utrecht. In these early years his theory was largely ignored by the scientific community, and was sharply criticized by one prominent chemist, Hermann Kolbe. However, by about 1880 support for Van 't Hoff's theory by such important chemists as Johannes Wislicenus and Viktor Meyer brought recognition.\n\nFoundations of modern physical chemistry (1880s) \n\nJacobus van 't Hoff is also considered as one of the modern founders of the disciple of physical chemistry. The first scientific journal specifically in the field of physical chemistry was the German journal, Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie, founded in 1887 by Wilhelm Ostwald and Van 't Hoff. Together with Svante Arrhenius, these were the leading figures in physical chemistry in the late 19th century and early 20th century.\n\nVan 't Hoff equation (1884) \n\nThe Van 't Hoff equation in chemical thermodynamics relates the change in the equilibrium constant, Keq, of a chemical equilibrium to the change in temperature, T, given the standard enthalpy change, ΔHo, for the process. It was proposed by Dutch chemist Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff in 1884. The Van 't Hoff equation has been widely utilized to explore the changes in state functions in a thermodynamic system. The Van 't Hoff plot, which is derived from this equation, is especially effective in estimating the change in enthalpy, or total energy, and entropy, or amount of disorder, of a chemical reaction.\n\nVan 't Hoff factor (1884) \n\nThe van 't Hoff factor i is a measure of the effect of a solute upon colligative properties such as osmotic pressure, relative lowering in vapor pressure, elevation of boiling point and freezing point depression. The van 't Hoff factor is the ratio between the actual concentration of particles produced when the substance is dissolved, and the concentration of a substance as calculated from its mass.\n\nLobry de Bruyn–van Ekenstein transformation (1885) \n\nIn carbohydrate chemistry, the Lobry de Bruyn–van Ekenstein transformation is the base or acid-catalyzed transformation of an aldose into the ketose isomer or vice versa, with a tautomeric enediol as reaction intermediate. The transformation is relevant for the industrial production of certain ketoses and was discovered in 1885 by Cornelis Adriaan Lobry van Troostenburg de Bruyn and Willem Alberda van Ekenstein.\n\nPrins reaction (1919) \n\nThe Prins reaction is an organic reaction consisting of an electrophilic addition of an aldehyde or ketone to an alkene or alkyne followed by capture of a nucleophile. Dutch chemist Hendrik Jacobus Prins discovered two new organic reactions, both now carrying the name Prins reaction. The first was the addition of polyhalogen compounds to olefins, was found during Prins doctoral research, while the others, the acid-catalyzed addition of aldehydes to olefinic compounds, became of industrial relevance.\n\nHafnium (1923) \n\nDutch physicist Dirk Coster and Hungarian-Swedish chemist George de Hevesy co-discovered Hafnium (Hf) in 1923, by means of X-ray spectroscopic analysis of zirconium ore. Hafnium' is named after Hafnia', the Latin name for Copenhagen (Denmark), where it was discovered.\n\nCrystal bar process (1925) \n\nThe crystal bar process (also known as iodide process or the van Arkel–de Boer process) was developed by Dutch chemists Anton Eduard van Arkel and Jan Hendrik de Boer in 1925. It was the first industrial process for the commercial production of pure ductile metallic zirconium. It is used in the production of small quantities of ultra-pure titanium and zirconium.\n\nKoopmans' theorem (1934) \n\nKoopmans' theorem states that in closed-shell Hartree–Fock theory, the first ionization energy of a molecular system is equal to the negative of the orbital energy of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO). This theorem is named after Tjalling Koopmans, who published this result in 1934. \nKoopmans became a Nobel laureate in 1975, though neither in physics nor chemistry, but in economics.\n\nGenetics \n\nConcept of pangene/gene (1889) \n\nIn 1889, Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries published his book Intracellular Pangenesis, in which he postulated that different characters have different hereditary carriers, based on a modified version of Charles Darwin's theory of Pangenesis of 1868. He specifically postulated that inheritance of specific traits in organisms comes in particles. He called these units pangenes, a term shortened in 1909 to genes by Danish botanist Wilhelm Johannsen.\n\nRediscovery the laws of inheritance (1900) \n\n1900 marked the \"rediscovery of Mendelian genetics\". The significance of Gregor Mendel's work was not understood until early in the twentieth century, after his death, when his research was re-discovered by Hugo de Vries, Carl Correns and Erich von Tschermak, who were working on similar problems. They were unaware of Mendel's work. They worked independently on different plant hybrids, and came to Mendel's conclusions about the rules of inheritance.\n\nGeology \n\nBushveld Igneous Complex (1897) \n\nThe Bushveld Igneous Complex (or BIC) is a large, layered igneous intrusion within the Earth's crust that has been tilted and eroded and now outcrops around what appears to be the edge of a great geological basin, the Transvaal Basin. Located in South Africa, the BIC contains some of Earth's richest ore deposits. The complex contains the world's largest reserves of platinum group metals (PGMs), platinum, palladium, osmium, iridium, rhodium, and ruthenium, along with vast quantities of iron, tin, chromium, titanium and vanadium. The site was discovered around 1897 by Dutch geologist Gustaaf Molengraaff.\n\nMathematics \n\nAnalytic geometry (1637) \n\nDescartes (1596–1650) was born in France, but spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. As Bertrand Russell noted in his A History of Western Philosophy (1945): \"He lived in Holland for twenty years (1629–49), except for a few brief visits to France and one to England, all on business....\". In 1637, Descartes published his work on the methods of science, Discours de la méthode in Leiden. One of its three appendices was La Géométrie, in which he outlined a method to connect the expressions of algebra with the diagrams of geometry. It combined both algebra and geometry under one specialty — algebraic geometry, now called analytic geometry, which involves reducing geometry to a form of arithmetic and algebra and translating geometric shapes into algebraic equations.\n\nCartesian coordinate system (1637) \n\nDescartes' La Géométrie contains Descartes' first introduction of the Cartesian coordinate system.\n\nDifferential geometry of curves (concepts of the involute and evolute of a curve) (1673) \n\nChristiaan Huygens was the first to publish in 1673 (Horologium Oscillatorium) a specific method of determining the evolute and involute of a curve \n\nKorteweg–de Vries equation (1895) \n\nIn mathematics, the Korteweg–de Vries equation (KdV equation for short) is a mathematical model of waves on shallow water surfaces. It is particularly notable as the prototypical example of an exactly solvable model, that is, a non-linear partial differential equation whose solutions can be exactly and precisely specified. The equation is named for Diederik Korteweg and Gustav de Vries who, in 1895, proposed a mathematical model which allowed to predict the waves behaviour on shallow water surfaces. \n\nProof of the Brouwer fixed-point theorem (1911) \n\nBrouwer fixed-point theorem is a fixed-point theorem in topology, named after Dutchman Luitzen Brouwer, who proved it in 1911.\n\nProof of the hairy ball theorem (1912) \n\nThe hairy ball theorem of algebraic topology states that there is no nonvanishing continuous tangent vector field on even-dimensional n-spheres. The theorem was first stated by Henri Poincaré in the late 19th century. It was first proved in 1912 by Brouwer. \n\nDebye functions (1912) \n\nThe Debye functions are named in honor of Peter Debye, who came across this function (with n = 3) in 1912 when he analytically computed the heat capacity of what is now called the Debye model.\n\nKramers–Kronig relations (1927) \n\nThe Kramers–Kronig relations are bidirectional mathematical relations, connecting the real and imaginary parts of any complex function that is analytic in the upper half-plane. The relation is named in honor of Ralph Kronig and Hendrik Anthony Kramers. \n\nHeyting algebra (formalized intuitionistic logic) (1930) \n\nFormalized intuitionistic logic was originally developed by Arend Heyting to provide a formal basis for Luitzen Brouwer's programme of intuitionism. Arend Heyting introduced Heyting algebra (1930) to formalize intuitionistic logic. \n\nZernike polynomials (1934) \n\nIn mathematics, the Zernike polynomials are a sequence of polynomials that are orthogonal on the unit disk. Named after Frits Zernike, the Dutch optical physicist, and the inventor of phase contrast microscopy, they play an important role in beam optics.\n\nMinnaert function (1941) \n\nIn 1941, Marcel Minnaert invented the Minnaert function, which is used in optical measurements of celestial bodies. The Minnaert function is a photometric function used to interpret astronomical observations and remote sensing data for the Earth. \n\nMechanics \n\nProof of the law of equilibrium on an inclined plane (1586) \n\nIn 1586, Simon Stevin (Stevinus) derived the mechanical advantage of the inclined plane by an argument that used a string of beads. Stevin's proof of the law of equilibrium on an inclined plane, known as the \"Epitaph of Stevinus\".\n\nCentripetal force (1659) \n\nChristiaan Huygens stated what is now known as the second of Newton's laws of motion in a quadratic form.Ernst Mach, The Science of Mechanics (1919), e.g. p.143, p.172 and p.187 . In 1659 he derived the now standard formula for the centripetal force, exerted by an object describing a circular motion, for instance on the string to which it is attached. In modern notation:\n\nF_{c}=\\frac{m\\ v^2}{r}\n\nwith m the mass of the object, v the velocity and r the radius. The publication of the general formula for this force in 1673 was a significant step in studying orbits in astronomy. It enabled the transition from Kepler's third law of planetary motion, to the inverse square law of gravitation. \n\nCentrifugal force (1659) \n\nHuygens coined the term centrifugal force in his 1659 De Vi Centrifiga and wrote of it in his 1673 Horologium Oscillatorium on pendulums.\n\nFormula for the period of mathematical pendulum (1659) \n\nIn 1659, Christiaan Huygens was the first to derive the formula for the period of an ideal mathematical pendulum (with massless rod or cord and length much longer than its swing), in modern notation:\n\nT = 2 \\pi \\sqrt{\\frac{l}{g}}\n\nwith T the period, l the length of the pendulum and g the gravitational acceleration. By his study of the oscillation period of compound pendulums Huygens made pivotal contributions to the development of the concept of moment of inertia.\n\nTautochrone curve (isochrone curve) (1659) \n\nA tautochrone or isochrone curve is the curve for which the time taken by an object sliding without friction in uniform gravity to its lowest point is independent of its starting point. The curve is a cycloid, and the time is equal to π times the square root of the radius over the acceleration of gravity. Christiaan Huygens was the first to discover the tautochronous property (or isochronous property) of the cycloid. The tautochrone problem, the attempt to identify this curve, was solved by Christiaan Huygens in 1659. He proved geometrically in his Horologium Oscillatorium, originally published in 1673, that the curve was a cycloid. Huygens also proved that the time of descent is equal to the time a body takes to fall vertically the same distance as the diameter of the circle which generates the cycloid, multiplied by π⁄2. The tautochrone curve is the same as the brachistochrone curve for any given starting point. Johann Bernoulli posed the problem of the brachistochrone to the readers of Acta Eruditorum in June, 1696. He published his solution in the journal in May of the following year, and noted that the solution is the same curve as Huygens's tautochrone curve. \n\nCoupled oscillation (spontaneous synchronization) (1665) \n\nChristiaan Huygens observed that two pendulum clocks mounted next to each other on the same support often become synchronized, swinging in opposite directions. In 1665, he reported the results by letter to the Royal Society of London. It is referred to as \"an odd kind of sympathy\" in the Society's minutes. This may be the first published observation of what is now called coupled oscillations. In the 20th century, coupled oscillators took on great practical importance because of two discoveries: lasers, in which different atoms give off light waves that oscillate in unison, and superconductors, in which pairs of electrons oscillate in synchrony, allowing electricity to flow with almost no resistance. Coupled oscillators are even more ubiquitous in nature, showing up, for example, in the synchronized flashing of fireflies and chirping of crickets, and in the pacemaker cells that regulate heartbeats.\n\nMedicine \n\nFoundations of modern (human) anatomy (1543) \n\nFlemish anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy for the publication of the seven-volume De humani corporis fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body) in 1543.\n\nCrystals in gouty tophi (1679) \n\nIn 1679, van Leeuwenhoek used a microscopes to assess tophaceous material and found that gouty tophi consist of aggregates of needle-shaped crystals, and not globules of chalk as was previously believed.\n\nBoerhaave syndrome (1724) \n\nBoerhaave syndrome (also known as spontaneous esophageal perforation or esophageal rupture) refers to an esophageal rupture secondary to forceful vomiting. Originally described in 1724 by Dutch physician/botanist Hermann Boerhaave, it is a rare condition with high mortality. The syndrome was described after the case of a Dutch admiral, Baron Jan von Wassenaer, who died of the condition.\n\nFactor V Leiden (1994) \n\nFactor V Leiden is an inherited disorder of blood clotting. It is a variant of human factor V that causes a hypercoagulability disorder. It is named after the city Leiden, where it was first identified by R. Bertina, et al., in 1994.\n\nMicrobiology \n\nBlood cells (1658) \n\nIn 1658 Dutch naturalist Jan Swammerdam was the first person to observe red blood cells under a microscope and in 1695, microscopist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, also Dutch, was the first to draw an illustration of \"red corpuscles\", as they were called. No further blood cells were discovered until 1842 when the platelets were discovered.\n\nRed blood cells (1658) \n\nThe first person to observe and describe red blood cells was Dutch biologist Jan Swammerdam, who had used an early microscope to study the blood of a frog.\n\nMicro-organisms (1670s) \n\nA resident of Delft, Anton van Leeuwenhoek, used a high-power single-lens simple microscope to discover the world of micro-organisms. His simple microscopes were made of silver or copper frames, holding hand-ground lenses were capable of magnification up to 275 times. Using these he was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms, which he originally referred to as animalcules, and which now referred to as micro-organisms or microbes.\n\n*Infusoria (1674) - Infusoria is a collective term for minute aquatic creatures including ciliate, euglena, paramecium, protozoa and unicellular algae that exist in freshwater ponds. However, in formal classification microorganism called infusoria belongs to Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Protozoa, Class Ciliates (Infusoria). They were first discovered by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek.\n\n*Protozoa (1674) - In 1674, Van Leeuwenhoek was the first person to observe and describe protozoa.\n*Bacteria (1676) - The first bacteria were observed by van Leeuwenhoek in 1676 using his single-lens microscope. He described the creatures he saw as small creatures. The name bacterium was introduced much later, by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg in 1828, derived from the Greek word βακτηριον meaning \"small stick\". Because of the difficulty in describing individual bacteria and the importance of their discovery, the study of bacteria is generally that of the study of microbiology.\n*Sperm cells (1677) - Sperm cells were first observed by Anton van Leeuwenhoek in 1677. The term \"sperm\" refers to the male reproductive cells. A uniflagellar sperm cell that is motile is referred to as a \"spermatozoon\", whereas a non-motile sperm cell is referred to as a \"spermatium\".\n*Spermatozoa (1677) - A spermatozoon or spermatozoon (pl. spermatozoa), from the ancient Greek σπερμα (seed) and ζων (alive) and more commonly known as a sperm cell, is the haploid cell that is the male gamete. Sperm cells were first observed by a student of van Leeuwenhoek in 1677. Leeuwenhoek pictured sperm cells with great accuracy.\n\n*Giardia (1681) - Giardia is a genus of anaerobic flagellated protozoan parasites of the phylum Sarcomastigophora that colonise and reproduce in the small intestines of several vertebrates, causing giardiasis. Their life cycle alternates between an actively swimming trophozoite and an infective, resistant cyst. The trophozoite form of Giardia was first observed in 1681 by Van Leeuwenhoek during observation of his own stool. \n\nVolvox (1700)- Volvox is a genus of chlorophytes, a type of green algae. It forms spherical colonies of up to 50,000 cells. They live in a variety of freshwater habitats, and were first reported by Van Leeuwenhoek in 1700.\n\nBiological nitrogen fixation (1885) \n\nBiological nitrogen fixation was discovered by Martinus Beijerinck in 1885.\n\nRhizobium (1888) \n\nRhizobium is a genus of Gram-negative soil bacteria that fix nitrogen. Rhizobium forms an endosymbiotic nitrogen fixing association with roots of legumes and Parasponia. Martinus Beijerinck in the Netherlands was the first to isolate and cultivate a microorganism from the nodules of legumes in 1888. He named it Bacillus radicicola, which is now placed in Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology under the genus Rhizobium.\n\nSpirillum (first isolated sulfate-reducing bacteria) (1895) \n\nMartinus Beijerinck discovered the phenomenon of bacterial sulfate reduction, a form of anaerobic respiration. He learned that bacteria could use sulfate as a terminal electron acceptor, instead of oxygen. He isolated and described Spirillum desulfuricans (now called Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ), the first known sulfate-reducing bacterium.\n\nConcept of virus (1898) \n\nIn 1898 Beijerinck coined the term \"virus\" to indicate that the causal agent of tobacco mosaic disease was non-bacterial. Beijerinck discovered what is now known as the tobacco mosaic virus. He observed that the agent multiplied only in cells that were dividing and he called it a contagium vivum fluidum (contagious living fluid). Beijerinck's discovery is considered to be the beginning of virology. \n\nAzotobacter (1901) \n\nAzotobacter is a genus of usually motile, oval or spherical bacteria that form thick-walled cysts and may produce large quantities of capsular slime. They are aerobic, free-living soil microbes which play an important role in the nitrogen cycle in nature, binding atmospheric nitrogen, which is inaccessible to plants, and releasing it in the form of ammonium ions into the soil. Apart from being a model organism, it is used by humans for the production of biofertilizers, food additives, and some biopolymers. The first representative of the genus, Azotobacter chroococcum, was discovered and described in 1901 by the Dutch microbiologist and botanist Martinus Beijerinck.\n\nEnrichment culture (1904) \n\nBeijerinck is credited with developing the first enrichment culture, a fundamental method of studying microbes from the environment.\n\nPhysics \n\n31 equal temperament (1661) \n\nDivision of the octave into 31 steps arose naturally out of Renaissance music theory; the lesser diesis — the ratio of an octave to three major thirds, 128:125 or 41.06 cents — was approximately a fifth of a tone and a third of a semitone. In 1666, Lemme Rossi first proposed an equal temperament of this order. Shortly thereafter, having discovered it independently, scientist Christiaan Huygens wrote about it also. Since the standard system of tuning at that time was quarter-comma meantone, in which the fifth is tuned to 51/4, the appeal of this method was immediate, as the fifth of 31-et, at 696.77 cents, is only 0.19 cent wider than the fifth of quarter-comma meantone. Huygens not only realized this, he went farther and noted that 31-ET provides an excellent approximation of septimal, or 7-limit harmony. In the twentieth century, physicist, music theorist and composer Adriaan Fokker, after reading Huygens's work, led a revival of interest in this system of tuning which led to a number of compositions, particularly by Dutch composers. Fokker designed the Fokker organ, a 31-tone equal-tempered organ, which was installed in Teyler's Museum in Haarlem in 1951.\n\nFoundations of classical mechanics (1673) \n\nThrough his fundamental contributions Christiaan Huygens helped shape and lay the foundations of classical mechanics. His works cover all the fields of mechanics, from the invention of technical devices applicable to different machines to a purely rational knowledge of motion. Huygens published his results in a classic of the 17th-century mechanics, Horologium Oscillatorium (1673), that is regarded as one of the three most important work done in mechanics in the 17th century, the other two being Galileo Galilei’s Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences (1638) and Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687). It is Huygens' major work on pendulums and horology. As Domenico Bertoloni Meli (2006) notes, Horologium Oscillatorium was “a masterful combination of sophisticated mathematics and mechanics mixed with a range of practical applications culminating with a new clock aimed at resolving the vexing problem of longitude.” \n\nFoundations of physical optics / wave optics (wave theory of light) (1678) \n\nHuygens' groundbreaking research on the nature of light helped lay the foundations of modern optics (physical optics in particular). Huygens is remembered especially for his wave theory of light, which he first communicated in 1678 to France's Royal Académie des sciences and which he published in 1690 in his Treatise on light. His argument that light consists of waves now known as the Huygens–Fresnel principle, two centuries later became instrumental in the understanding of wave–particle duality. The interference experiments of Thomas Young vindicated Huygens' s wave theory in 1801. \n\nPolarization of light (1678) \n\nIn 1678, Huygens discovered the polarization of light by double refraction in calcite. \n\nHuygens' principle (concepts of the wavefront and wavelet) (1690) \n\n \nIn his Treatise on light, Huygens showed how Snell's law of sines could be explained by, or derived from, the wave nature of light, using the Huygens–Fresnel principle.\n\nBernoulli's principle (1738) \n\nBernoulli's principle was discovered by Dutch-Swiss mathematician and physicist Daniel Bernoulli and named after him. It states that for an inviscid flow, an increase in the speed of the fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in pressure or a decrease in the fluid's potential energy.\n\nBrownian motion (1785) \n\nIn 1785, Ingenhousz described the irregular movement of coal dust on the surface of alcohol and therefore has a claim as discoverer of what came to be known as Brownian motion.\n\nBuys Ballot's law (1857) \n\nThe law takes its name from Dutch meteorologist C. H. D. Buys Ballot, who published it in the Comptes Rendus, in November 1857. While William Ferrel first theorized this in 1856, Buys Ballot was the first to provide an empirical validation. The law states that in the Northern Hemisphere, if a person stands with his back to the wind, the low pressure area will be on his left, because wind travels counterclockwise around low pressure zones in that hemisphere. this is approximately true in the higher latitudes and is reversed in the Southern Hemisphere.\n\nFoundations of molecular physics (1873) \n\nSpearheaded by Mach and Ostwald, a strong philosophical current that denied the existence of molecules arose towards the end of the 19th century. The molecular existence was considered unproven and the molecular hypothesis unnecessary. At the time Van der Waals' thesis was written (1873), the molecular structure of fluids had not been accepted by most physicists, and liquid and vapor were often considered as chemically distinct. But Van der Waals's work affirmed the reality of molecules and allowed an assessment of their size and attractive strength. By comparing his equation of state with experimental data, Van der Waals was able to obtain estimates for the actual size of molecules and the strength of their mutual attraction. The effect of Van der Waals's work on molecular science in the 20th century was direct and fundamental, as is well recognized and documented, due in large part to books by John Rowlinson (1988), and by Kipnis and Yavelov (1996). By introducing parameters characterizing molecular size and attraction in constructing his equation of state, Van der Waals set the tone for molecular physics (molecular dynamics in particular) of the 20th century. That molecular aspects such as size, shape, attraction, and multipolar interactions should form the basis for mathematical formulations of the thermodynamic and transport properties of fluids is presently considered an axiom. \n\nVan der Waals equation of state (1873) \n\nIn 1873, J. D. van der Waals introduced the first equation of state derived by the assumption of a finite volume occupied by the constituent molecules. The Van der Waals equation is generally regarded as the first somewhat realistic equation of state (beyond the ideal gas law). Van der Waals noted the non-ideality of gases and attributed it to the existence of molecular or atomic interactions. His new formula revolutionized the study of equations of state, and was most famously continued via the Redlich-Kwong equation of state (1949) and the Soave modification of Redlich-Kwong. While the Van der Waals equation is definitely superior to the ideal gas law and does predict the formation of a liquid phase, the agreement with experimental data is limited for conditions where the liquid forms. Except at higher pressures, the real gases do not obey Van der Waals equation in all ranges of pressures and temperatures. Despite its limitations, the equation has historical importance, because it was the first attempt to model the behaviour of real gases.\n\nVan der Waals forces (1873) \n\nThe van der Waals forces are named after the scientist who first described them in 1873. Johannes Diderik van der Waals noted the non-ideality of gases and attributed it to the existence of molecular or atomic interactions. They are forces that develop between the atoms inside molecules and keep them together. The Van der Waals forces between molecules, much weaker than chemical bonds but present universally, play a fundamental role in fields as diverse as supramolecular chemistry, structural biology, polymer science, nanotechnology, surface science, and condensed matter physics. Elucidation of the nature of the Van der Waals forces between molecules has remained a scientific effort from Van der Waals's days to the present.\n\nVan der Waals radius (1873) \n\nThe Van der Waals radius, r, of an atom is the radius of an imaginary hard sphere which can be used to model the atom for many purposes. It is named after Johannes Diderik van der Waals, winner of the 1910 Nobel Prize in Physics, as he was the first to recognise that atoms were not simply points and to demonstrate the physical consequences of their size through the van der Waals equation of state.\n\nLaw of corresponding states (1880) \n\nThe law of corresponding states was first suggested and formulated by van der Waals in 1880. This showed that the van der Waals equation of state can be expressed as a simple function of the critical pressure, critical volume and critical temperature. This general form is applicable to all substances. The compound-specific constants a and b in the original equation are replaced by universal (compound-independent) quantities. It was this law that served as a guide during experiments which ultimately led to the liquefaction of hydrogen by James Dewar in 1898 and of helium by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in 1908.\n\nLorentz ether theory (1892) \n\nLorentz ether theory has its roots in Hendrik Lorentz's \"theory of electrons\", which was the final point in the development of the classical aether theories at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century. Lorentz's initial theory created in 1892 and 1895 was based on a completely motionless aether. Many aspects of Lorentz's theory were incorporated into special relativity with the works of Albert Einstein and Hermann Minkowski.\n\nLorentz force law (1892) \n\nIn 1892, Hendrik Lorentz derived the modern form of the formula for the electromagnetic force which includes the contributions to the total force from both the electric and the magnetic fields. In many textbook treatments of classical electromagnetism, the Lorentz force law is used as the definition of the electric and magnetic fields E and B.See, for example, Jackson p777-8. To be specific, the Lorentz force is understood to be the following empirical statement:\n\nThe electromagnetic force F on a test charge at a given point and time is a certain function of its charge q and velocity v, which can be parameterized by exactly two vectors E and B, in the functional form:\n\n:\\mathbf{F}=q(\\mathbf{E}+\\mathbf{v}\\times\\mathbf{B})\n\nAbraham–Lorentz force (1895) \n\nIn the physics of electromagnetism, the Abraham–Lorentz force (also Lorentz-Abraham force) is the recoil force on an accelerating charged particle caused by the particle emitting electromagnetic radiation. It is also called the radiation reaction force or the self force.\n\nLorentz transformation (1895) \n\nIn physics, the Lorentz transformation (or Lorentz transformations) is named after the Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz. It was the result of attempts by Lorentz and others to explain how the speed of light was observed to be independent of the reference frame, and to understand the symmetries of the laws of electromagnetism. The Lorentz transformation is in accordance with special relativity, but was derived before special relativity. Early approximations of the transformation were published by Lorentz in 1895. In 1905, Poincaré was the first to recognize that the transformation has the properties of a mathematical group, and named it after Lorentz.\n\nLorentz contraction (1895) \n\nIn physics, length contraction (more formally called Lorentz contraction or Lorentz–FitzGerald contraction after Hendrik Lorentz and George FitzGerald) is the phenomenon of a decrease in length measured by the observer, of an object which is traveling at any non-zero velocity relative to the observer. This contraction is usually only noticeable at a substantial fraction of the speed of light.\n\nLorentz factor (1895) \n\nThe Lorentz factor or Lorentz term is the factor by which time, length, and relativistic mass change for an object while that object is moving. It is an expression which appears in several equations in special relativity, and it arises from deriving the Lorentz transformations. The name originates from its earlier appearance in Lorentzian electrodynamics – named after the Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz. \n\nZeeman effect (1896) \n\nThe Zeeman effect, named after the Dutch physicist Pieter Zeeman, is the effect of splitting a spectral line into several components in the presence of a static magnetic field. It is analogous to the Stark effect, the splitting of a spectral line into several components in the presence of an electric field. Also similar to the Stark effect, transitions between different components have, in general, different intensities, with some being entirely forbidden (in the dipole approximation), as governed by the selection rules.\n\nSince the distance between the Zeeman sub-levels is a function of the magnetic field, this effect can be used to measure the magnetic field, e.g. that of the Sun and other stars or in laboratory plasmas.\nThe Zeeman effect is very important in applications such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, electron spin resonance spectroscopy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and Mössbauer spectroscopy. It may also be utilized to improve accuracy in atomic absorption spectroscopy.\n\nA theory about the magnetic sense of birds assumes that a protein in the retina is changed due to the Zeeman effect. \n\nWhen the spectral lines are absorption lines, the effect is called inverse Zeeman effect.\n\nLiquid helium (liquefaction of helium) (1908) \n\nHelium was first liquefied (liquid helium) on 10 July 1908, by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. With the production of liquid helium, it was said that “the coldest place on Earth” was in Leiden. \n\nSuperconductivity (1911) \n\nSuperconductivity, the ability of certain materials to conduct electricity with little or no resistance, was discovered by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. \n\nEinstein–de Haas effect (1910s) \n\nThe Einstein–de Haas effect or the Richardson effect (after Owen Willans Richardson), is a physical phenomenon delineated by Albert Einstein and Wander Johannes de Haas in the mid 1910s, that exposes a relationship between magnetism, angular momentum, and the spin of elementary particles.\n\nDebye model (1912) \n\nIn thermodynamics and solid state physics, the Debye model is a method developed by Peter Debye in 1912 for estimating the phonon contribution to the specific heat (heat capacity) in a solid. It treats the vibrations of the atomic lattice (heat) as phonons in a box, in contrast to the Einstein model, which treats the solid as many individual, non-interacting quantum harmonic oscillators. The Debye model correctly predicts the low temperature dependence of the heat capacity.\n\nDe Sitter precession (1916) \n\nThe geodetic effect (also known as geodetic precession, de Sitter precession or de Sitter effect) represents the effect of the curvature of spacetime, predicted by general relativity, on a vector carried along with an orbiting body. The geodetic effect was first predicted by Willem de Sitter in 1916, who provided relativistic corrections to the Earth–Moon system's motion.\n\nDe Sitter space and anti-de Sitter space (1920s) \n\nIn mathematics and physics, a de Sitter space is the analog in Minkowski space, or spacetime, of a sphere in ordinary, Euclidean space. The n-dimensional de Sitter space, denoted dSn, is the Lorentzian manifold analog of an n-sphere (with its canonical Riemannian metric); it is maximally symmetric, has constant positive curvature, and is simply connected for n at least 3. The de Sitter space, as well as the anti-de Sitter space is named after Willem de Sitter (1872–1934), professor of astronomy at Leiden University and director of the Leiden Observatory. Willem de Sitter and Albert Einstein worked in the 1920s in Leiden closely together on the spacetime structure of our universe. De Sitter space was discovered by Willem de Sitter, and, at the same time, independently by Tullio Levi-Civita.\n\nVan der Pol oscillator (1920) \n\nIn dynamical systems, a Van der Pol oscillator is a non-conservative oscillator with non-linear damping. It was originally proposed by Dutch physicist Balthasar van der Pol while he was working at Philips in 1920. Van der Pol studied a differential equation that describes the circuit of a vacuum tube. It has been used to model other phenomenon such as human heartbeats by colleague Jan van der Mark.\n\nKramers' opacity law (1923) \n\nKramers' opacity law describes the opacity of a medium in terms of the ambient density and temperature, assuming that the opacity is dominated by bound-free absorption (the absorption of light during ionization of a bound electron) or free-free absorption (the absorption of light when scattering a free ion, also called bremsstrahlung). It is often used to model radiative transfer, particularly in stellar atmospheres. The relation is named after the Dutch physicist Hendrik Kramers, who first derived the form in 1923. \n\nElectron spin (1925) \n\nIn 1925, Dutch physicists George Eugene Uhlenbeck and Samuel Goudsmit co-discovered the concept of electron spin, which posits an intrinsic angular momentum for all electrons.\n\nSolidification of helium (1926) \n\nIn 1926, Onnes' student, Dutch physicist Willem Hendrik Keesom, invented a method\nto freeze liquid helium and was the first person who was able to solidify the noble gas.\n\nEhrenfest theorem (1927) \n\nThe Ehrenfest theorem, named after the Austrian-born Dutch-Jew theoretical physicist Paul Ehrenfest at Leiden University.\n\nDe Haas–van Alphen effect (1930) \n\nThe de Haas–van Alphen effect, often abbreviated to dHvA, is a quantum mechanical effect in which the magnetic moment of a pure metal crystal oscillates as the intensity of an applied magnetic field B is increased. It was discovered in 1930 by Wander Johannes de Haas and his student P. M. van Alphen.\n\nShubnikov–de Haas effect (1930) \n\nThe Shubnikov–de Haas effect (ShdH) is named after Dutch physicist Wander Johannes de Haas and Russian physicist Lev Shubnikov.\n\nKramers degeneracy theorem (1930) \n\nIn quantum mechanics, the Kramers degeneracy theorem states that for every energy eigenstate of a time-reversal symmetric system with half-integer total spin, there is at least one more eigenstate with the same energy. It was first discovered in 1930 by H. A. Kramers as a consequence of the Breit equation.\n\nMinnaert resonance frequency (1933) \n\nIn 1933, Marcel Minnaert published a solution for the acoustic resonance frequency of a single bubble in water, the so-called Minnaert resonance. The Minnaert resonance or Minnaert frequency is the acoustic resonance frequency of a single bubble in an infinite domain of water (neglecting the effects of surface tension and viscous attenuation).\n\nCasimir effect (1948) \n\nIn quantum field theory, the Casimir effect and the Casimir–Polder force are physical forces arising from a quantized field. Dutch physicists Hendrik Casimir and Dirk Polder at Philips Research Labs proposed the existence of a force between two polarizable atoms and between such an atom and a conducting plate in 1947. After a conversation with Niels Bohr who suggested it had something to do with zero-point energy, Casimir alone formulated the theory predicting a force between neutral conducting plates in 1948; the former is called the Casimir–Polder force while the latter is the Casimir effect in the narrow sense.\n\nTellegen's theorem (1952) \n\nTellegen's theorem is one of the most powerful theorems in network theory. Most of the energy distribution theorems and extremum principles in network theory can be derived from it. It was published in 1952 by Bernard Tellegen. Fundamentally, Tellegen's theorem gives a simple relation between magnitudes that satisfy Kirchhoff's laws of electrical circuit theory.\n\nStochastic cooling (1970's) \n\nIn the early 1970s Simon van der Meer, a Dutch particle physicist at CERN, discovered this technique to concentrate proton and anti-proton beams, leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles. He won the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics together with Carlo Rubbia.\n\nRenormalization of gauge theories (1971) \n\nIn 1971, Gerardus 't Hooft, who was completing his PhD under the supervision of Dutch theoretical physicist Martinus Veltman, renormalized Yang–Mills theory. They showed that if the symmetries of Yang–Mills theory were to be realized in the spontaneously broken mode, referred to as the Higgs mechanism, then Yang–Mills theory can be renormalized. Renormalization of Yang–Mills theory is considered as a major achievement of twentieth century physics.\n\nHolographic principle (1993) \n\nThe holographic principle is a property of string theories and a supposed property of quantum gravity that states that the description of a volume of space can be thought of as encoded on a boundary to the region—preferably a light-like boundary like a gravitational horizon. In 1993, Dutch theoretical physicist Gerard 't Hooft proposed what is now known as the holographic principle. It was given a precise string-theory interpretation by Leonard Susskind who combined his ideas with previous ones of 't Hooft and Charles Thorn. \n\nExplorations \n\nVoyages of discovery \n\nOrange Islands (1594) \n\nDuring his first journey in 1594, Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz discovered the Orange Islands.\n\nSvalbard (1596) \n\nOn 10 June 1596, Barentsz and Dutchman Jacob van Heemskerk discovered Bear Island, a week before their discovery of Spitsbergen Island.\n\nThe first undisputedly to have discovered the archipelago is an expedition led by the Dutch mariner Willem Barentsz, who was looking for the Northern Sea Route to China.Arlov (1994): 9 He first spotted Bjørnøya on 10 June 1596 and the northwestern tip of Spitsbergen on 17 June. The sighting of the archipelago was included in the accounts and maps made by the expedition and Spitsbergen was quickly included by cartographers. The name Spitsbergen, meaning \"pointed mountains\" (from the Dutch spits – pointed, bergen – mountains), was at first applied to both the main island and the Svalbard archipelago as a whole.\n\nWinter surviving in the High Arctic (1596-1597) \n\nThe search for the Northern Sea Route in the 16th century led to its exploration. Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz reached the west coast of Novaya Zemlya in 1594, and in a subsequent expedition of 1596 rounded the Northern point and wintered on the Northeast coast. Willem Barents, Jacob van Heemskerck and their crew were blocked by the pack ice in the Kara Sea and forced to winter on the east coast of Novaya Zemlya. The wintering of the shipwrecked crew in the 'Saved House' was the first successful wintering of Europeans in the High Arctic. Twelve of the 17 men managed to survive the polar winter (De Veer, 1917). Barentsz died during the expedition, and may have been buried on the northern island. \n\nFalkland Islands/Sebald Islands (1600) \n\nIn 1600 the Dutch navigator Sebald de Weert made the first undisputed sighting of the Falkland Islands. It was on his homeward leg back to the Netherlands after having left the Straits of Magellan that Sebald De Weert noticed some unnamed and uncharted islands, at least islands that did not exist on his nautical charts. There he attempted to stop and replenish but was unable to land due to harsh conditions. The islands Sebald de Weert charted were a small group off the northwest coast of the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and are in fact part of the Falklands. De Weert then named these islands the “Sebald de Weert Islands” and the Falklands as a whole were known as the Sebald Islands until well into the 18th century.\n\nPennefather River, Northern Australia (1606) \n\nThe Dutch ship, Duyfken, led by Willem Janszoon, made the first documented European landing in Australia in 1606. Although a theory of Portuguese discovery in the 1520s exists, it lacks definitive evidence. Precedence of discovery has also been claimed for China, France,Credit for the discovery of Australia was given to Frenchman Binot Paulmier de Gonneville (1504) in Spain, India, and even Phoenicia. \n\nThe Janszoon voyage of 1605-6 led to the first undisputed sighting of Australia by a European was made on 26 February 1606. Dutch vessel Duyfken, captained by Janszoon, followed the coast of New Guinea, missed Torres Strait, and explored perhaps 350 km of western side of Cape York, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, believing the land was still part of New Guinea. The Dutch made one landing, but were promptly attacked by Maoris and subsequently abandoned further exploration. \n\nThe first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, and made landfall on 26 February at the Pennefather River near the modern town of Weipa on Cape York.Davison, Hirst and Macintyre, p. 233. The Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent \"New Holland\" during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement.\n\nFirst charting of Manhattan, New York (1609) \n\nThe area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape Indians. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of the king Francis I of France – was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, that the area was mapped.\n\nHudson Valley (1609) \n\nAt the time of the arrival of the first Europeans in the 17th century, the Hudson Valley was inhabited primarily by the Algonquian-speaking Mahican and Munsee Native American people, known collectively as River Indians. The first Dutch settlement was in the 1610s at Fort Nassau, a trading post (factorij) south of modern-day Albany, that traded European goods for beaver pelts. Fort Nassau was later replaced by Fort Orange. During the rest of the 17th century, the Hudson Valley formed the heart of the New Netherland colony operations, with the New Amsterdam settlement on Manhattan serving as a post for supplies and defense of the upriver operations.\n\nBrouwer Route (1610–1611) \n\nThe Brouwer Route was a route for sailing from the Cape of Good Hope to Java. The Route took ships south from the Cape into the Roaring Forties, then east across the Indian Ocean, before turning northwest for Java. Thus it took advantage of the strong westerly winds for which the Roaring Forties are named, greatly increasing travel speed. It was devised by Dutch sea explorer Hendrik Brouwer in 1611, and found to halve the duration of the journey from Europe to Java, compared to the previous Arab and Portuguese monsoon route, which involved following the coast of East Africa northwards, sailing through the Mozambique Channel and then across the Indian Ocean, sometimes via India. The Brouwer Route played a major role in the discovery of the west coast of Australia.\n\nJan Mayen Island (1614) \n\nAfter unconfirmed reports of Dutch discovery as early as 1611, the island was named after Dutchman Jan Jacobszoon May van Schellinkhout, who visited the island in July 1614. As locations of these islands were kept secret by the whalers, Jan Mayen got its current name only in 1620. \n\nHell Gate, Long Island Sound, Connecticut River and Fisher's Island (1614) \n\nThe name \"Hell Gate\" is a corruption of Dutch phrase Hellegat, which could mean either \"hell's hole\" or \"bright gate/passage\". It was originally applied to the entirety of the East River. The strait was described in the journals of Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, who is the first European known to have navigated the strait, during his 1614 voyage aboard the Onrust.\n\nThe first European to record the existence of Long Island Sound and the Connecticut River was Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, who entered it from the East River in 1614.\n\nFishers Island was called Munnawtawkit by the Native American Pequot nation. Block named it Visher's Island in 1614, after one of his companions. For the next 25 years, it remained a wilderness, visited occasionally by Dutch traders.\n\nStaten Island (Argentina), Cape Horn, Tonga, Hoorn Islands (1615) \n\nOn 25 December 1615, Dutch explorers Jacob le Maire and Willem Schouten aboard the Eendracht, discovered Staten Island, close to Cape Horn.\n\nOn 29 January 1616, they sighted land they called Cape Horn, after the city of Hoorn. Aboard the Eendracht was the crew of the recently wrecked ship called Hoorn.\n\nThey discovered Tonga on 21 April 1616 and the Hoorn Islands on 28 April 1616.\n\nThey discovered New Ireland around May–July 1616.\n\nThey discovered the Schouten Islands (also known as Biak Islands or Geelvink Islands) on 24 July 1616.\n\nThe Schouten Islands (also known as Eastern Schouten Islands or Le Maire Islands) of Papua New Guinea, were named after Schouten, who visited them in 1616.\n\nDirk Hartog Island (1616) \n\nHendrik Brouwer's discovery that sailing east from the Cape of Good Hope until land was sighted, and then sailing north along the west coast of Australia was a much quicker route than around the coast of the Indian Ocean made Dutch landfalls on the west coast inevitable. The first such landfall was in 1616, when Dirk Hartog landed at Cape Inscription on what is now known as Dirk Hartog Island, off the coast of Western Australia, and left behind an inscription on a pewter plate. In 1697 the Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh landed on the island and discovered Hartog's plate. He replaced it with one of his own, which included a copy of Hartog's inscription, and took the original plate home to Amsterdam, where it is still kept in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.\n\nHoutman Abrolhos (1619) \n\nThe first sighting of the Houtman Abrolhos by Europeans was by Dutch VOC ships Dordrecht and Amsterdam in 1619, three years after Hartog made the first authenticated sighting of what is now Western Australia, 13 years after the first authenticated voyage to Australia, that of the Duyfke] in 1606. Discovery of the islands was credited to Frederick de Houtman, Captain-General of the Dordrecht, as it was Houtman who later wrote of the discovery in a letter to Company directors.\n\nCarstensz Glacier, Carstensz Pyramid/Puncak Jaya (1623) \n\nThe first person to spot Carstensz Pyramid (or Puncak Jaya) is reported to be the Dutch navigator and explorer Jan Carstensz in 1623, for whom the mountain is named. Carstensz was the first (non-native) to sight the glaciers on the peak of the mountain on a rare clear day. The sighting went unverified for over two centuries, and Carstensz was ridiculed in Europe when he said he had seen snow and glaciers near the equator. The snowfield of Puncak Jaya was reached as early as 1909 by a Dutch explorer, Hendrik Albert Lorentz with six of his indigenous Dayak Kenyah porters recruited from the Apo Kayan in Borneo. The now highest Carstensz Pyramid summit was not climbed until 1962, by an expedition led by the Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer with three other expedition members – the New Zealand mountaineer Philip Temple, the Australian rock climber Russell Kippax, and the Dutch patrol officer Albertus (Bert) Huizenga.\n\nGulf of Carpentaria (Northern Australia) (1623) \n\nThe first known European explorer to visit the region was Dutch Willem Janszoon (also known as Willem Jansz) on his 1605–6 voyage. His fellow countryman, Jan Carstenszoon (also known as Jan Carstensz), visited in 1623 and named the gulf in honour of Pieter de Carpentier, at that time the Governor-General of Dutch East Indies. Abel Tasman explored the coast in 1644.\n\nStaaten River (Cape York Peninsula, Northern Australia) (1623) \n\nThe Staaten River is a river in the Cape York Peninsula, Australia that rises more than 200 km to the west of Cairns and empties into the Gulf of Carpentaria. The river was first named by Carstenszoon in 1623.\n\nArnhem Land and Groote Eylandt (Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Australia) (1623) \n\nIn 1623 Dutch East India Company captain Willem van Colster sailed into the Gulf of Carpentaria. Cape Arnhem is named after his ship, the Arnhem, which itself was named after the city of Arnhem.\n\nGroote Eylandt was first sighted the Arnhem. Only in 1644, when Abel Tasman arrived, was the island given a European name, Dutch for \"Large Island\" in an archaic spelling. The modern Dutch spelling is Groot Eiland.\n\nHermite Islands (1624) \n\nIn February 1624, Dutch admiral Jacques l'Hermite discovered the Hermite Islands at Cape Horn.\n\nSouthern Australia coast (1627) \n\nIn 1627, Dutch explorers François Thijssen and Pieter Nuyts discovered the south coast of Australia and charted about 1800 km of it between Cape Leeuwin and the Nuyts Archipelago. Garden 1977, p.8. François Thijssen, captain of the ship 't Gulden Zeepaert (The Golden Seahorse), sailed to the east as far as Ceduna in South Australia. The first known ship to have visited the area is the Leeuwin (\"Lioness\"), a Dutch vessel that charted some of the nearby coastline in 1622. The log of the Leeuwin has been lost, so very little is known of the voyage. However, the land discovered by the Leeuwin was recorded on a 1627 map by Hessel Gerritsz: Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht (\"Chart of the Land of Eendracht\"), which appears to show the coast between present-day Hamelin Bay and Point D’Entrecasteaux. Part of Thijssen's map shows the islands St Francis and St Peter, now known collectively with their respective groups as the Nuyts Archipelago. Thijssen's observations were included as soon as 1628 by the VOC cartographer Hessel Gerritsz in a chart of the Indies and New Holland. This voyage defined most of the southern coast of Australia and discouraged the notion that \"New Holland\", as it was then known, was linked to Antarctica.\n\nSt Francis Island (originally in Dutch: Eyland St. François) is an island on the south coast of South Australia near Ceduna. It is now part of the Nuyts Archipelago Wilderness Protection Area. It was one of the first parts of South Australia to be discovered and named by Europeans, along with St Peter Island. Thijssen named it after his patron saint, St. Francis.\n\nSt Peter Island is an island on the south coast of South Australia near Ceduna to the south of Denial Bay. It is the second largest island in South Australia at about 13 km long. It was named in 1627 by Thijssen after Pieter Nuyts' patron saint.\n\nWestern Australia (1629) \n\nThe Weibbe Hayes Stone Fort, remnants of improvised defensive walls and stone shelters built by Wiebbe Hayes and his men on the West Wallabi Island, are Australia's oldest known European structures, more than 150 years before expeditions to the Australian continent by James Cook and Arthur Phillip.\n\nTasmania and the surrounding islands) (1642) \n\nIn 1642, Abel Tasman sailed from Mauritius and on 24 November, sighted Tasmania. He named Tasmania Van Diemen's Land, after Anthony van Diemen, the Dutch East India Company's Governor General, who had commissioned his voyage. It was officially renamed Tasmania in honour of its first European discoverer on 1 January 1856. \n\nMaatsuyker Islands, a group of small islands that are the southernmost point of the Australian continent. were discovered and named by Tasman in 1642 after a Dutch official. The main islands of the group are De Witt Island (354 m), Maatsuyker Island (296 m), Flat Witch Island, Flat Top Island, Round Top Island, Walker Island, Needle Rocks and Mewstone.\n\nMaria Island was discovered and named in 1642 by Tasman after Maria van Diemen (née van Aelst), wife of Anthony. The island was known as Maria's Isle in the early 19th century.\n\nTasman's journal entry for 29 November 1642 records that he observed a rock which was similar to a rock named Pedra Branca off China, presumably referring to the Pedra Branca in the South China Sea.\n\nSchouten Island is a 28 km2 island in eastern Tasmania, Australia. It lies 1.6 kilometres south of Freycinet Peninsula and is a part of Freycinet National Park. In 1642, while surveying the south-west coast of Tasmania, Tasman named the island after Joost Schouten, a member of the Council of the Dutch East India Company.\n\nTasman also reached Storm Bay, a large bay in the south-east of Tasmania, Australia. It is the entrance to the Derwent River estuary and the port of Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania. It is bordered by Bruny Island to the west and the Tasman Peninsula to the east.\n\nNew Zealand and Fiji (1642) \n\nIn 1642, the first Europeans known to reach New Zealand were the crew of Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who arrived in his ships Heemskerck and Zeehaen. Tasman anchored at the northern end of the South Island in Golden Bay (he named it Murderers' Bay) in December 1642 and sailed northward to Tonga following a clash with local Māori. Tasman sketched sections of the two main islands' west coasts. Tasman called them Staten Landt, after the States General of the Netherlands, and that name appeared on his first maps of the country. In 1645 Dutch cartographers changed the name to Nova Zeelandia in Latin, from Nieuw Zeeland, after the Dutch province of Zeeland. It was subsequently Anglicised as New Zealand by British naval captain James Cook\n\nVarious claims have been made that New Zealand was reached by other non-Polynesian voyagers before Tasman, but these are not widely accepted. Peter Trickett, for example, argues in Beyond Capricorn that the Portuguese explorer Cristóvão de Mendonça reached New Zealand in the 1520s, and the Tamil bell discovered by missionary William Colenso has given rise to a number of theories,\n but historians generally believe the bell 'is not in itself proof of early Tamil contact with New Zealand'. \n\nIn 1643, still during the same expedition, Tasman discovered Fiji.\n\nTongatapu and Haʻapai (Tonga) (1643) \n\nTasman discovered Tongatapu and Haʻapai in 1643 commanding two ships, the Heemskerck and the Zeehaen commissioned by the Dutch East India Company. The expedition's goals were to chart the unknown southern and eastern seas and to find a possible passage through the South Pacific and Indian Ocean providing a faster route to Chile.\n\n Sakhalin (Cape Patience) (1643) \n\nThe first European known to visit Sakhalin was Martin Gerritz de Vries, who mapped Cape Patience and Cape Aniva on the island's east coast in 1643.\n\nKuril Islands (1643) \n\nIn the summer of 1643, the Castricum, under command of Martin Gerritz de Vries sailed by the southern Kuril Islands, visiting Kunashir, Iturup and Urup, which they named \"Company Island\" and claimed for the Netherlands.\n\nVries Strait or Miyabe Line is a strait between two main islands of the Kurils. It is located between the northeastern end of the island of Iturup and the southwestern headland of Urup Island, connecting the Sea of Okhotsk on the west with the Pacific Ocean on the east. The strait is named after de Vries, the first recorded European to explore the area.\n\nThe Gulf of Patience is a large body of water off the southeastern coast of Sakhalin, Russia, between the main body of Sakhalin Island in the west and Cape Patience in the east. It is part of the Sea of Okhotsk. The first Europeans to visit the bay sailed on Castricum. They named the gulf in memory of the fog that had to clear for them to continue their expedition.\n\nRottnest Island and Swan River (1696) \n\nThe first Europeans known to land on the Rottnest Island were 13 Dutch sailors including Abraham Leeman from the Waeckende Boey who landed near Bathurst Point on 19 March 1658 while their ship was nearby. The ship had sailed from Batavia in search of survivors of the missing Vergulde Draeck which was later found wrecked 80 km north near present-day Ledge Point. The island was given the name \"Rotte nest\" (meaning \"rat nest\" in the 17th century Dutch language) by Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh who spent six days exploring the island from 29 December 1696, mistaking the quokkas for giant rats. De Vlamingh led a fleet of three ships, De Geelvink, De Nijptang and Weseltje and anchored on the northern side of the island, near The Basin.\n\nOn 10 January 1697, de Vlamingh ventured up the Swan River. He and his crew are believed to have been the first Europeans to do so. He named the Swan River (Zwaanenrivier in Dutch) after the large numbers of black swans that he observed there.\n\nEaster Island and Samoa (1722) \n\nOn Easter Sunday, 5 April 1722, Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovered Easter Island. Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. The nearest inhabited land (50 residents) is Pitcairn Island 2075 km away, the nearest town with a population over 500 is Rikitea on island Mangareva 2606 km away, and the nearest continental point lies in central Chile, 3512 km away.\n\nThe name \"Easter Island\" was given by the island's first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered it on Easter Sunday (5 April ) 1722, while searching for Davis or David's island. Roggeveen named it Paasch-Eyland (18th century Dutch for \"Easter Island\").An English translation of the originally Dutch journal by Jacob Roggeveen, with additional significant information from the log by Cornelis Bouwman, was published in: Andrew Sharp (ed.), The Journal of Jacob Roggeveen (Oxford 1970). The island's official Spanish name, Isla de Pascua, also means \"Easter Island\".\n\nOn 13 June Roggeveen discovered the islands of Samoa.\n\nOrange River (1779) \n\nThe Orange River was named by Colonel Robert Gordon, commander of the Dutch East India Company garrison at Cape Town, on a trip to the interior in 1779.\n\nScientific explorations \n\nFirst systematic mapping of southern celestial hemisphere (1595–1597) \n\nIn 1595, Petrus Plancius, a key promoter to the East Indies expeditions, asked Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser, the chief pilot on the Hollandia, to make observations to fill in the blank area around the south celestial pole on European maps of the southern sky. Plancius had instructed Keyser to map the skies in the southern hemisphere, which were largely uncharted at the time. Keyser died in Java the following year but his catalogue of 135 stars, probably measured up with the help of explorer-colleague Frederick de Houtman, was delivered to Plancius, and then those stars were arranged into 12 new southern constellations, letting them be inscribed on a 35-cm celestial globe that was prepared in late 1597 (or early 1598). This globe was produced in collaboration with the Amsterdam cartographer Jodocus Hondius.\n\nPlancius's constellations (mostly referring to animals and subjects described in natural history books and travellers' journals of his day) are Apis the Bee (later changed to Musca by Lacaille), Apus the Bird of Paradise, Chamaeleon, Dorado the Goldfish (or Swordfish), Grus the Crane, Hydrus the Small Water Snake, Indus the Indian, Pavo the Peacock, Phoenix, Triangulum Australe the Southern Triangle, Tucana the Toucan, and Volans the Flying Fish. The acceptance of these new constellations was assured when Johann Bayer, a German astronomer, included them in his Uranometria of 1603, the leading star atlas of its day. These 12 southern constellations are still recognized today by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).\n\nFirst major scientific expedition to Brazil (1637–1644) \n\nWithin the thirty-year period the Dutch West India Company controlled the northeast region of Brazil (1624–1654), the seven-year governorship of Count Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen was marked by an intense ethnographic exploration. To that end, Johan Maurits brought from Europe with him a team of artists and scientists who lived in Recife between 1637 and 1644: painter Albert Eckhout (specializing in the human figure), painter Frans Post (landscape painter), natural historian Georg Marcgraf (who also produced drawings and prints), and the physician Willem Piso. Together with Georg Marcgraf, and originally published by Joannes de Laet, Piso wrote the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648), an important early western insight into Brazilian flora and fauna, also is the first scientific book about Brazil. Albert Eckhout, along with the landscape artist Frans Post, was one of two formally trained painters charged with recording the complexity of the local scene. The seven years Eckhout spent in Brazil constitute an invaluable contribution to the understanding of the European colonization of the New World. During his stay he created hundreds of oil sketches – mostly from life – of the local flora, fauna and people. These paintings by Eckhout and the landscapes by Post were among the Europeans' first, introductions to South America.\n\nFirst ethnographic descriptions of New Netherland and North American Indians (1641–1653) \n\nIn 1641, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the director of the Dutch West India Company, hired Adriaen van der Donck (1620–1655) to be his lawyer for his large, semi-independent estate, Rensselaerswijck, in New Netherland. Until 1645, van der Donck lived in the Upper Hudson River Valley, near Fort Orange (later Albany), where he learned about the Company's fur trade, the Mohawk and Mahican Indians who traded with Dutch, the agriculturist settlers, and the area's plants and animals. In 1649, after a serious disagreement with the new governor, Peter Stuyvesant, he returned to the Dutch Republic to petition Dutch government. In 1653, still in the Netherlands waiting for the government to decide his case, Adriaen van der Donck wrote a comprehensive description of the New Netherland's geography and native peoples based on material in his earlier Remonstrance. The book, Beschryvinge van Nieuw-Nederlant or A Description of New Netherland later published in 1655. This new book was well-crafted to the interests of his audience, consisting of an extensive description of American Indians and their customs, reports on the abundance of the area's agriculture and wealth of its natural resources. \n\nOthers \n\nFirst non-Asian first-hand account of Korea (1653–1666) \n\nJan Weltevree (1595-?) is regarded as the first naturalized Westerner to Korea. Weltevree was a Dutch sailor who arrived on the shores of an island off Joseon’s west coast in 1627 in a shipwreck. The Joseon Dynasty at that time maintained an isolation policy, so the captured foreigner could not leave the country. Weltevree took the name Bak Yeon (also Pak Yeon). He became an important government official and aided King Hyojong with his keen knowledge of modern weaponry. His adventures were recorded in the report by Dutch East India Company accountant Hendrik Hamel. \n\nDutch seafarer and VOC's bookkeeper Hendrick Hamel was the first westerner to experience first-hand and write about Korea in Joseon era (1392–1897). In 1653, Hamel and his men were shipwrecked on Jeju island, and they remained captives in Korea for more than a decade. The Joseon dynasty was often referred to as the \"Hermit Kingdom\" for its harsh isolationism and closed borders. The shipwrecked Dutchmen were given some freedom of movement, but were forbidden to leave the country. After thirteen years (1653–1666), Hamel and seven of his crewmates managed to escape to the VOC trading mission at Dejima (an artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki, Japan), and from there to the Netherlands. In 1666, three different publishers published his report (Journal van de Ongeluckige Voyage van 't Jacht de Sperwer or An account of the shipwreck of a Dutch vessel on the coast of the isle of Quelpaert together with the description of the kingdom of Corea), describing their improbable adventure and giving the first detailed and accurate description of Korea to the western world." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "Search" ], "filename": [ "Gold.txt" ], "title": [ "Gold" ], "wiki_context": [ "Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from ) and the atomic number 79. In its purest form, it is a bright, slightly reddish yellow, dense, soft, malleable and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements, and is solid under standard conditions. The metal therefore occurs often in free elemental (native) form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the native element silver (as electrum) and also naturally alloyed with copper and palladium. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium (gold tellurides).\n\nGold's atomic number of 79 makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally in the universe. It is thought to have been produced in supernova nucleosynthesis and from the collision of neutron stars and to have been present in the dust from which the Solar System formed. Because the Earth was molten when it was just formed, almost all of the gold present in the early Earth probably sank into the planetary core. Therefore, most of the gold that is present today in the Earth's crust and mantle is thought to have been delivered to Earth later, by asteroid impacts during the Late Heavy Bombardment, about 4 billion years ago.\n\nGold resists attack by individual acids, but aqua regia (literally \"royal water\", a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid) can dissolve it. The acid mixture causes the formation of a soluble tetrachloroaurate anion. It is insoluble in nitric acid, which dissolves silver and base metals, a property that has long been used to refine gold and to confirm the presence of gold in metallic objects, giving rise to the term acid test. Gold also dissolves in alkaline solutions of cyanide, which are used in mining and electroplating. Gold dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, but this is not a chemical reaction.\n\nGold is a precious metal used for coinage, jewelry, and other arts throughout recorded history. In the past, a gold standard was often implemented as a monetary policy within and between nations, but gold coins ceased to be minted as a circulating currency in the 1930s, and the world gold standard was abandoned for a fiat currency system after 1976. The historical value of gold was rooted in its relative rarity, easy handling and minting, easy smelting and fabrication, resistance to corrosion and other chemical reactions (nobility), and distinctive color.\n\nA total of 183,600 tonnes of gold is in existence above ground, as of 2014. This is equivalent to 9513 m3 of gold. The world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry. Gold's high malleability, ductility, resistance to corrosion and most other chemical reactions, and conductivity of electricity have led to its continued use in corrosion resistant electrical connectors in all types of computerized devices (its chief industrial use). Gold is also used in infrared shielding, colored-glass production, gold leafing, and tooth restoration. Certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatories in medicine.\n\nEtymology\n\n\"Gold\" is cognate with similar words in many Germanic languages, deriving via Proto-Germanic *gulþą from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (\"to shine, to gleam; to be yellow or green\"). \n\nThe symbol Au is from the , the Latin word for \"gold\". The Proto-Indo-European ancestor of aurum was *h₂é-h₂us-o-, meaning \"glow\". This word is derived from the same root (Proto-Indo-European *h₂u̯es- \"to dawn\") as *h₂éu̯sōs, the ancestor of the Latin word Aurora, \"dawn\". This etymological relationship is presumably behind the frequent claim in scientific publications that aurum meant \"shining dawn\".Christie, A and Brathwaite, R. (Last updated 2 November 2011) [http://web.archive.org/web/20130208092020/http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/pdf-library/minerals/publications/Commodity%20Reports/report14_gold.pdf Mineral Commodity Report 14 — Gold], Institute of geological and Nuclear sciences Ltd – Retrieved 7 June 2012\n\nCharacteristics\n\nGold is the most malleable of all metals; a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, and an ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be beaten thin enough to become transparent. The transmitted light appears greenish blue, because gold strongly reflects yellow and red. Such semi-transparent sheets also strongly reflect infrared light, making them useful as infrared (radiant heat) shields in visors of heat-resistant suits, and in sun-visors for spacesuits. Gold is a good conductor of heat and electricity and reflects infrared radiation strongly.\n\nIn addition, gold is very dense: it has a density of 19,300 kg/m3. By comparison, the density of lead is 11,340 kg/m3, and that of the densest element, osmium, is 22,588 ± 15 kg/m3. \n\nChemistry\n\nAlthough gold is the most noble of the noble metals, it still forms many diverse compounds. The oxidation state of gold in its compounds ranges from −1 to +5, but Au(I) and Au(III) dominate its chemistry. Au(I), referred to as the aurous ion, is the most common oxidation state with soft ligands such as thioethers, thiolates, and tertiary phosphines. Au(I) compounds are typically linear. A good example is Au(CN)2−, which is the soluble form of gold encountered in mining. The binary gold halides, such as AuCl, form zigzag polymeric chains, again featuring linear coordination at Au. Most drugs based on gold are Au(I) derivatives. \n\nAu(III) (auric) is a common oxidation state, and is illustrated by gold(III) chloride, Au2Cl6. The gold atom centers in Au(III) complexes, like other d8 compounds, are typically square planar, with chemical bonds that have both covalent and ionic character.\n\nGold does not react with oxygen at any temperature; similarly, it does not react with ozone. Gold is strongly attacked by fluorine at dull-red heat to form gold(III) fluoride.\n\nSome free halogens react with gold. Powdered gold reacts with chlorine at 180 °C to form AuCl3. Gold reacts with bromine at 140 °C to form gold(III) bromide, but reacts only very slowly with iodine to form the monoiodide.\n\nGold does not react with sulfur directly, but gold(III) sulfide can be made by passing hydrogen sulfide through a dilute solution of gold(III) chloride or chlorauric acid.\n\nGold readily dissolves in mercury at room temperature to form an amalgam, and forms alloys with many other metals at higher temperatures. These alloys can be produced to modify the hardness and other metallurgical properties, to control melting point or to create exotic colors.\n\nGold reacts with potassium, rubidium, caesium, or tetramethylammonium, to form the respective auride salts, containing the Au− ion. Caesium auride is perhaps the most famous.\n\nGold is unaffected by most acids. It does not react with hydrofluoric, hydrochloric, hydrobromic, hydriodic, sulfuric, or nitric acid. It does react with aqua regia, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, and with selenic acid. Aqua regia, a 1:3 mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, dissolves gold. Nitric acid oxidizes the metal to +3 ions, but only in minute amounts, typically undetectable in the pure acid because of the chemical equilibrium of the reaction. However, the ions are removed from the equilibrium by hydrochloric acid, forming AuCl4− ions, or chloroauric acid, thereby enabling further oxidation.\n\nGold is similarly unaffected by most bases. It does not react with aqueous, solid, or molten sodium or potassium hydroxide. It does however, react with sodium or potassium cyanide under alkaline conditions when oxygen is present to form soluble complexes.\n\nCommon oxidation states of gold include +1 (gold(I) or aurous compounds) and +3 (gold(III) or auric compounds). Gold ions in solution are readily reduced and precipitated as metal by adding any other metal as the reducing agent. The added metal is oxidized and dissolves, allowing the gold to be displaced from solution and be recovered as a solid precipitate.\n\nLess common oxidation states\n\nLess common oxidation states of gold include −1, +2, and +5.\n\nThe −1 oxidation state occurs in compounds containing the Au− anion, called aurides. Caesium auride (CsAu), for example, crystallizes in the caesium chloride motif. Other aurides include those of Rb+, K+, and tetramethylammonium (CH3)4N+.Holleman, A. F.; Wiberg, E. \"Inorganic Chemistry\" Academic Press: San Diego, 2001. ISBN 0-12-352651-5. Gold has the highest Pauling electronegativity of any metal, with a value of 2.54, making the auride anion relatively stable.\n\nGold(II) compounds are usually diamagnetic with Au–Au bonds such as [Au(CH2)2P(C6H5)2]2Cl2. The evaporation of a solution of in concentrated produces red crystals of gold(II) sulfate, Au2(SO4)2. Originally thought to be a mixed-valence compound, it has been shown to contain cations, analogous to the better-known mercury(I) ion, . A gold(II) complex, the tetraxenonogold(II) cation, which contains xenon as a ligand, occurs in [AuXe4](Sb2F11)2.\n\nGold pentafluoride, along with its derivative anion, , and its difluorine complex, gold heptafluoride, is the sole example of gold(V), the highest verified oxidation state. \n\nSome gold compounds exhibit aurophilic bonding, which describes the tendency of gold ions to interact at distances that are too long to be a conventional Au–Au bond but shorter than van der Waals bonding. The interaction is estimated to be comparable in strength to that of a hydrogen bond.\n\nMixed valence compounds\n\nWell-defined cluster compounds are numerous. In such cases, gold has a fractional oxidation state. A representative example is the octahedral species {Au(P(C6H5)3)}62+. Gold chalcogenides, such as gold sulfide, feature equal amounts of Au(I) and Au(III).\n\nColor\n\nWhereas most other pure metals are gray or silvery white, gold is slightly reddish yellow. This color is determined by the density of loosely bound (valence) electrons; those electrons oscillate as a collective \"plasma\" medium described in terms of a quasiparticle called a plasmon. The frequency of these oscillations lies in the ultraviolet range for most metals, but it falls into the visible range for gold due to subtle relativistic effects that affect the orbitals around gold atoms. Similar effects impart a golden hue to metallic caesium.\n\nCommon colored gold alloys such as rose gold can be created by the addition of various amounts of copper and silver, as indicated in the triangular diagram to the left. Alloys containing palladium or nickel are also important in commercial jewelry as these produce white gold alloys. Less commonly, addition of manganese, aluminium, iron, indium and other elements can produce more unusual colors of gold for various applications.\n\nIsotopes\n\nGold has only one stable isotope, , which is also its only naturally occurring isotope, so gold is both a mononuclidic and monoisotopic element. Thirty-six radioisotopes have been synthesized ranging in atomic mass from 169 to 205. The most stable of these is with a half-life of 186.1 days. The least stable is , which decays by proton emission with a half-life of 30 µs. Most of gold's radioisotopes with atomic masses below 197 decay by some combination of proton emission, α decay, and β+ decay. The exceptions are , which decays by electron capture, and , which decays most often by electron capture (93%) with a minor β− decay path (7%). All of gold's radioisotopes with atomic masses above 197 decay by β− decay. \n\nAt least 32 nuclear isomers have also been characterized, ranging in atomic mass from 170 to 200. Within that range, only , , , , and do not have isomers. Gold's most stable isomer is with a half-life of 2.27 days. Gold's least stable isomer is with a half-life of only 7 ns. has three decay paths: β+ decay, isomeric transition, and alpha decay. No other isomer or isotope of gold has three decay paths.\n\nModern applications\n\nThe world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry.\n\nJewelry\n\nBecause of the softness of pure (24k) gold, it is usually alloyed with base metals for use in jewelry, altering its hardness and ductility, melting point, color and other properties. Alloys with lower karat rating, typically 22k, 18k, 14k or 10k, contain higher percentages of copper or other base metals or silver or palladium in the alloy. Copper is the most commonly used base metal, yielding a redder color. \n\nEighteen-karat gold containing 25% copper is found in antique and Russian jewelry and has a distinct, though not dominant, copper cast, creating rose gold. Fourteen-karat gold-copper alloy is nearly identical in color to certain bronze alloys, and both may be used to produce police and other badges. Blue gold can be made by alloying with iron and purple gold can be made by alloying with aluminium, although rarely done except in specialized jewelry. Blue gold is more brittle and therefore more difficult to work with when making jewelry.\n\nFourteen- and eighteen-karat gold alloys with silver alone appear greenish-yellow and are referred to as green gold. White gold alloys can be made with palladium or nickel. White 18-karat gold containing 17.3% nickel, 5.5% zinc and 2.2% copper is silvery in appearance. Nickel is toxic, however, and its release from nickel white gold is controlled by legislation in Europe.\n\nAlternative white gold alloys are available based on palladium, silver and other white metals, but the palladium alloys are more expensive than those using nickel. High-karat white gold alloys are far more resistant to corrosion than are either pure silver or sterling silver. The Japanese craft of Mokume-gane exploits the color contrasts between laminated colored gold alloys to produce decorative wood-grain effects.\n\nBy 2014 the gold jewelry industry was escalating despite a dip in gold prices. Demand in the first quarter of 2014 pushed turnover to $23.7 billion according to a World Gold Council report.\n\nInvestment\n\nMany holders of gold store it in form of bullion coins or bars as a hedge against inflation or other economic disruptions. However, economist Martin Feldstein does not believe gold serves as a hedge against inflation or currency depreciation. \n\nThe ISO 4217 currency code of gold is XAU. \n\nModern bullion coins for investment or collector purposes do not require good mechanical wear properties; they are typically fine gold at 24k, although the American Gold Eagle and the British gold sovereign continue to be minted in 22k (0.92) metal in historical tradition, and the South African Krugerrand, first released in 1967, is also 22k (0.92). The special issue Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coin contains the highest purity gold of any bullion coin, at 99.999% or 0.99999, while the popular issue Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coin has a purity of 99.99%.\n\nSeveral other 99.99% pure gold coins are available. In 2006, the United States Mint began producing the American Buffalo gold bullion coin with a purity of 99.99%. The Australian Gold Kangaroos were first coined in 1986 as the Australian Gold Nugget but changed the reverse design in 1989. Other modern coins include the Austrian Vienna Philharmonic bullion coin and the Chinese Gold Panda.\n\nElectronics connectors\n\nOnly 10% of the world consumption of new gold produced goes to industry, but by far the most important industrial use for new gold is in fabrication of corrosion-free electrical connectors in computers and other electrical devices. For example, according to the World Gold council, a typical cell phone may contain 50 mg of gold, worth about 50 cents. But since nearly one billion cell phones are produced each year, a gold value of 50 cents in each phone adds to $500 million in gold from just this application. \n\nThough gold is attacked by free chlorine, its good conductivity and general resistance to oxidation and corrosion in other environments (including resistance to non-chlorinated acids) has led to its widespread industrial use in the electronic era as a thin-layer coating on electrical connectors, thereby ensuring good connection. For example, gold is used in the connectors of the more expensive electronics cables, such as audio, video and USB cables. The benefit of using gold over other connector metals such as tin in these applications has been debated; gold connectors are often criticized by audio-visual experts as unnecessary for most consumers and seen as simply a marketing ploy. However, the use of gold in other applications in electronic sliding contacts in highly humid or corrosive atmospheres, and in use for contacts with a very high failure cost (certain computers, communications equipment, spacecraft, jet aircraft engines) remains very common. \n\nBesides sliding electrical contacts, gold is also used in electrical contacts because of its resistance to corrosion, electrical conductivity, ductility and lack of toxicity. Switch contacts are generally subjected to more intense corrosion stress than are sliding contacts. Fine gold wires are used to connect semiconductor devices to their packages through a process known as wire bonding.\n\nThe concentration of free electrons in gold metal is 5.90×1022 cm−3. Gold is highly conductive to electricity, and has been used for electrical wiring in some high-energy applications (only silver and copper are more conductive per volume, but gold has the advantage of corrosion resistance). For example, gold electrical wires were used during some of the Manhattan Project's atomic experiments, but large high-current silver wires were used in the calutron isotope separator magnets in the project.\n\nNon-electronic industry\n\n* Gold solder is used for joining the components of gold jewelry by high-temperature hard soldering or brazing. If the work is to be of hallmarking quality, gold solder must match the carat weight of the work, and alloy formulas are manufactured in most industry-standard carat weights to color match yellow and white gold. Gold solder is usually made in at least three melting-point ranges referred to as Easy, Medium and Hard. By using the hard, high-melting point solder first, followed by solders with progressively lower melting points, goldsmiths can assemble complex items with several separate soldered joints.\n* Gold can be made into thread and used in embroidery.\n* Gold produces a deep, intense red color when used as a coloring agent in cranberry glass.\n* In photography, gold toners are used to shift the color of silver bromide black-and-white prints towards brown or blue tones, or to increase their stability. Used on sepia-toned prints, gold toners produce red tones. Kodak published formulas for several types of gold toners, which use gold as the chloride. \n* Gold is a good reflector of electromagnetic radiation such as infrared and visible light, as well as radio waves. It is used for the protective coatings on many artificial satellites, in infrared protective faceplates in thermal-protection suits and astronauts' helmets, and in electronic warfare planes such as the EA-6B Prowler.\n* Gold is used as the reflective layer on some high-end CDs.\n* Automobiles may use gold for heat shielding. McLaren uses gold foil in the engine compartment of its F1 model. \n* Gold can be manufactured so thin that it appears transparent. It is used in some aircraft cockpit windows for de-icing or anti-icing by passing electricity through it. The heat produced by the resistance of the gold is enough to deter ice from forming.\n\nCommercial chemistry\n\nGold is attacked by and dissolves in alkaline solutions of potassium or sodium cyanide, to form the salt gold cyanide—a technique that has been used in extracting metallic gold from ores in the cyanide process. Gold cyanide is the electrolyte used in commercial electroplating of gold onto base metals and electroforming.\n\nGold chloride (chloroauric acid) solutions are used to make colloidal gold by reduction with citrate or ascorbate ions. Gold chloride and gold oxide are used to make cranberry or red-colored glass, which, like colloidal gold suspensions, contains evenly sized spherical gold nanoparticles. \n\nMedicine\n\nMetallic and gold compounds have been used for medicinal purposes historically and are still in use. The apparent paradox of the actual toxicology of the substance suggests the possibility of serious gaps in the understanding of the action of gold in physiology. \n\nGold (usually as the metal) is perhaps the most anciently administered medicine (apparently by shamanic practitioners) and known to Dioscorides. In medieval times, gold was often seen as beneficial for the health, in the belief that something so rare and beautiful could not be anything but healthy. Even some modern esotericists and forms of alternative medicine assign metallic gold a healing power. \n\nIn the 19th century gold had a reputation as a \"nervine,\" a therapy for nervous disorders. Depression, epilepsy, migraine, and glandular problems such as amenorrhea and impotence were treated, and most notably alcoholism (Keeley, 1897). \n\nOnly salts and radioisotopes of gold are of pharmacological value, since elemental (metallic) gold is inert to all chemicals it encounters inside the body (i.e., ingested gold cannot be attacked by stomach acid). Some gold salts do have anti-inflammatory properties and at present two are still used as pharmaceuticals in the treatment of arthritis and other similar conditions in the US (sodium aurothiomalate and auranofin). These drugs have been explored as a means to help to reduce the pain and swelling of rheumatoid arthritis, and also (historically) against tuberculosis and some parasites. \n\nGold alloys are used in restorative dentistry, especially in tooth restorations, such as crowns and permanent bridges. The gold alloys' slight malleability facilitates the creation of a superior molar mating surface with other teeth and produces results that are generally more satisfactory than those produced by the creation of porcelain crowns. The use of gold crowns in more prominent teeth such as incisors is favored in some cultures and discouraged in others.\n\nColloidal gold preparations (suspensions of gold nanoparticles) in water are intensely red-colored, and can be made with tightly controlled particle sizes up to a few tens of nanometers across by reduction of gold chloride with citrate or ascorbate ions. Colloidal gold is used in research applications in medicine, biology and materials science. The technique of immunogold labeling exploits the ability of the gold particles to adsorb protein molecules onto their surfaces. Colloidal gold particles coated with specific antibodies can be used as probes for the presence and position of antigens on the surfaces of cells. In ultrathin sections of tissues viewed by electron microscopy, the immunogold labels appear as extremely dense round spots at the position of the antigen. \n\nGold, or alloys of gold and palladium, are applied as conductive coating to biological specimens and other non-conducting materials such as plastics and glass to be viewed in a scanning electron microscope. The coating, which is usually applied by sputtering with an argon plasma, has a triple role in this application. Gold's very high electrical conductivity drains electrical charge to earth, and its very high density provides stopping power for electrons in the electron beam, helping to limit the depth to which the electron beam penetrates the specimen. This improves definition of the position and topography of the specimen surface and increases the spatial resolution of the image. Gold also produces a high output of secondary electrons when irradiated by an electron beam, and these low-energy electrons are the most commonly used signal source used in the scanning electron microscope. \n\nThe isotope gold-198 (half-life 2.7 days) is used, in nuclear medicine, in some cancer treatments and for treating other diseases. \n\nFood and drink\n\n* Gold can be used in food and has the E number 175. In 2016, the European Food Safety Authority published an opinion on the re-evaluation of gold (E 175) as a food additive. Concerns included the possible presence of minute amounts of gold nanoparticles in the food additive, and that gold nanoparticles have been shown to be genotoxic in mammalian cells in vitro. \n* Gold leaf, flake or dust is used on and in some gourmet foods, notably sweets and drinks as decorative ingredient. Gold flake was used by the nobility in medieval Europe as a decoration in food and drinks, in the form of leaf, flakes or dust, either to demonstrate the host's wealth or in the belief that something that valuable and rare must be beneficial for one's health.\n* Danziger Goldwasser (German: Gold water of Danzig) or Goldwasser () is a traditional German herbal liqueur produced in what is today Gdańsk, Poland, and Schwabach, Germany, and contains flakes of gold leaf. There are also some expensive (~$1000) cocktails which contain flakes of gold leaf. However, since metallic gold is inert to all body chemistry, it has no taste, it provides no nutrition, and it leaves the body unaltered. \n* Vark is a foil composed of a pure metal that is sometimes gold, and is used for garnishing sweets in South Asian cuisine.\n\nMonetary exchange (historical) \n\nGold has been widely used throughout the world as money, for efficient indirect exchange (versus barter), and to store wealth in hoards. For exchange purposes, mints produce standardized gold bullion coins, bars and other units of fixed weight and purity.\n\nThe first known coins containing gold were struck in Lydia, Asia Minor, around 600 BC. The talent coin of gold in use during the periods of Grecian history both before and during the time of the life of Homer weighed between 8.42 and 8.75 grams. From an earlier preference in using silver, European economies re-established the minting of gold as coinage during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. \n\nBills (that mature into gold coin) and gold certificates (convertible into gold coin at the issuing bank) added to the circulating stock of gold standard money in most 19th century industrial economies.\nIn preparation for World War I the warring nations moved to fractional gold standards, inflating their currencies to finance the war effort. \nPost-war, the victorious countries, most notably Britain, gradually restored gold-convertibility, but international flows of gold via bills of exchange remained embargoed; international shipments were made exclusively for bilateral trades or to pay war reparations.\n\nAfter World War II gold was replaced by a system of nominally convertible currencies related by fixed exchange rates following the Bretton Woods system. Gold standards and the direct convertibility of currencies to gold have been abandoned by world governments, led in 1971 by the United States' refusal to redeem its dollars in gold. Fiat currency now fills most monetary roles. Switzerland was the last country to tie its currency to gold; it backed 40% of its value until the Swiss joined the International Monetary Fund in 1999. \n\nCentral banks continue to keep a portion of their liquid reserves as gold in some form, and metals exchanges such as the London Bullion Market Association still clear transactions denominated in gold, including future delivery contracts.\nToday, gold mining output is declining. \nWith the sharp growth of economies in the 20th century, and increasing foreign exchange, the world's gold reserves and their trading market have become a small fraction of all markets and fixed exchange rates of currencies to gold have been replaced by floating prices for gold and gold future contract.\nThough the gold stock grows by only 1 or 2% per year, very little metal is irretrievably consumed. Inventory above ground would satisfy many decades of industrial and even artisan uses at current prices.\n\nThe gold content of alloys is measured in carats (k). Pure gold is designated as 24k. English gold coins intended for circulation from 1526 into the 1930s were typically a standard 22k alloy called crown gold, for hardness (American gold coins for circulation after 1837 contained the slightly lower amount of 0.900 fine gold, or 21.6 kt). \n\nAlthough the prices of some platinum group metals can be much higher, gold has long been considered the most desirable of precious metals, and its value has been used as the standard for many currencies. Gold has been used as a symbol for purity, value, royalty, and particularly roles that combine these properties. Gold as a sign of wealth and prestige was ridiculed by Thomas More in his treatise Utopia. On that imaginary island, gold is so abundant that it is used to make chains for slaves, tableware, and lavatory seats. When ambassadors from other countries arrive, dressed in ostentatious gold jewels and badges, the Utopians mistake them for menial servants, paying homage instead to the most modestly dressed of their party.\n\nCultural history\n\nGold artifacts found at the Nahal Kana cave cemetery dated during the 1980s, showed these to be from within the Chalcolithic, and considered the earliest find from the Levant (Gopher et al. 1990). Gold artifacts in the Balkans also appear from the 4th millennium BC, such as those found in the Varna Necropolis near Lake Varna in Bulgaria, thought by one source (La Niece 2009) to be the earliest \"well-dated\" find of gold artifacts. Gold artifacts such as the golden hats and the Nebra disk appeared in Central Europe from the 2nd millennium BC Bronze Age.\n\nEgyptian hieroglyphs from as early as 2600 BC describe gold, which King Tushratta of the Mitanni claimed was \"more plentiful than dirt\" in Egypt. Egypt and especially Nubia had the resources to make them major gold-producing areas for much of history. One of the earliest known maps, known as the Turin Papyrus Map, shows the plan of a gold mine in Nubia together with indications of the local geology. The primitive working methods are described by both Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, and included fire-setting. Large mines were also present across the Red Sea in what is now Saudi Arabia.\n\nThe legend of the golden fleece may refer to the use of fleeces to trap gold dust from placer deposits in the ancient world. Gold is mentioned frequently in the Old Testament, starting with Genesis 2:11 (at Havilah), the story of The Golden Calf and many parts of the temple including the Menorah and the golden altar. In the New Testament, it is included with the gifts of the magi in the first chapters of Matthew. The Book of Revelation 21:21 describes the city of New Jerusalem as having streets \"made of pure gold, clear as crystal\". Exploitation of gold in the south-east corner of the Black Sea is said to date from the time of Midas, and this gold was important in the establishment of what is probably the world's earliest coinage in Lydia around 610 BC. From the 6th or 5th century BC, the Chu (state) circulated the Ying Yuan, one kind of square gold coin.\n\nIn Roman metallurgy, new methods for extracting gold on a large scale were developed by introducing hydraulic mining methods, especially in Hispania from 25 BC onwards and in Dacia from 106 AD onwards. One of their largest mines was at Las Medulas in León (Spain), where seven long aqueducts enabled them to sluice most of a large alluvial deposit. The mines at Roşia Montană in Transylvania were also very large, and until very recently, still mined by opencast methods. They also exploited smaller deposits in Britain, such as placer and hard-rock deposits at Dolaucothi. The various methods they used are well described by Pliny the Elder in his encyclopedia Naturalis Historia written towards the end of the first century AD.\n\nDuring Mansa Musa's (ruler of the Mali Empire from 1312 to 1337) hajj to Mecca in 1324, he passed through Cairo in July 1324, and was reportedly accompanied by a camel train that included thousands of people and nearly a hundred camels where he gave away so much gold that it depressed the price in Egypt for over a decade. A contemporary Arab historian remarked:\n\nThe European exploration of the Americas was fueled in no small part by reports of the gold ornaments displayed in great profusion by Native American peoples, especially in Mesoamerica, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. The Aztecs regarded gold as the product of the gods, calling it literally \"god excrement\" (teocuitlatl in Nahuatl), and after Moctezuma II was killed, most of this gold was shipped to Spain. However, for the indigenous peoples of North America gold was considered useless and they saw much greater value in other minerals which were directly related to their utility, such as obsidian, flint, and slate. Rumors of cities filled with gold fueled legends of El Dorado.\n\nGold played a role in western culture, as a cause for desire and of corruption, as told in children's fables such as Rumpelstiltskin, where the peasant's daughter turns hay into gold, in return for giving up her child when she becomes a princess; and the stealing of the hen that lays golden eggs in Jack and the Beanstalk.\n\nThe top prize at the Olympic games is the gold medal.\n\n75% of the presently accounted for gold has been extracted since 1910. It has been estimated that the currently known amount of gold internationally would form a single cube 20 m (66 ft) on a side (equivalent to 8,000 m3). \n\nOne main goal of the alchemists was to produce gold from other substances, such as lead — presumably by the interaction with a mythical substance called the philosopher's stone. Although they never succeeded in this attempt, the alchemists did promote an interest in systematically finding out what can be done with substances, and this laid the foundation for today's chemistry. Their symbol for gold was the circle with a point at its center (☉), which was also the astrological symbol and the ancient Chinese character for the Sun.\n\nGolden treasures have been rumored to be found at various locations, following tragedies such as the Jewish temple treasures in the Vatican, following the temple's destruction in 70 AD, a gold stash on the Titanic, the Nazi gold train – following World War II.\n\nThe Dome of the Rock on the Jerusalem temple site is covered with an ultra-thin golden glasure. The Sikh Golden temple, the Harmandir Sahib, is a building covered with gold. Similarly the Wat Phra Kaew emerald Buddhist temple (wat) in Thailand has ornamental gold-leafed statues and roofs. Some European king and queen's crowns were made of gold, and gold was used for the bridal crown since antiquity. An ancient Talmudic text circa 100 AD describes Rachel, wife of Rabbi Akiva, receiving a \"Jerusalem of Gold\" (diadem). A Greek burial crown made of gold was found in a grave circa 370 BC.\n\nOccurrence\n\nGold's atomic number of 79 makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. Traditionally, gold is thought to have formed by the R-process in supernova nucleosynthesis, but a relatively recent paper suggests that gold and other elements heavier than iron may also be produced in quantity by the collision of neutron stars. In both cases, satellite spectrometers only indirectly detect the resulting gold: \"we have no spectroscopic evidence that [such] elements have truly been produced.\" \n\nThese gold nucleogenesis theories hold that the resulting explosions scattered metal-containing dusts (including heavy elements such as gold) into the region of space in which they later condensed into our solar system and the Earth. Because the Earth was molten when it was just formed, almost all of the gold present on Earth sank into the core. Most of the gold that is present today in the Earth's crust and mantle is thought to have been delivered to Earth later, by asteroid impacts during the Late Heavy Bombardment. \n\nThe asteroid that formed Vredefort crater 2.020 billion years ago is often credited with seeding the Witwatersrand basin in South Africa with the richest gold deposits on earth. However, the gold-bearing Witwatersrand rocks were laid down between 700 and 950 million years before the Vredefort impact.McCarthy, T., Rubridge, B. (2005). ‘’The Story of Earth and Life.’’ p. 89–90, 102–107, 134–136. Struik Publishers, Cape TownNorman, N., Whitfield, G. (2006) ‘’Geological Journeys’’. p. 38–49, 60–61. Struik Publishers, Cape Town. These gold-bearing rocks had furthermore been covered by a thick layer of Ventersdorp lavas and the Transvaal Supergroup of rocks before the meteor struck. What the Vredefort impact achieved, however, was to distort the Witwatersrand basin in such a way that the gold-bearing rocks were brought to the present erosion surface in Johannesburg, on the Witwatersrand, just inside the rim of the original 300 km diameter crater caused by the meteor strike. The discovery of the deposit in 1886 launched the Witwatersrand Gold Rush. Some 22% of all the gold that is ascertained to exist today on Earth has been extracted from these Witwatersrand rocks.\n\nOn Earth, gold is found in ores in rock formed from the Precambrian time onward. It most often occurs as a native metal, typically in a metal solid solution with silver (i.e. as a gold silver alloy). Such alloys usually have a silver content of 8–10%. Electrum is elemental gold with more than 20% silver. Electrum's color runs from golden-silvery to silvery, dependent upon the silver content. The more silver, the lower the specific gravity.\n\nNative gold occurs as very small to microscopic particles embedded in rock, often together with quartz or sulfide minerals such as \"Fool's Gold\", which is a pyrite. These are called lode deposits. The metal in a native state is also found in the form of free flakes, grains or larger nuggets that have been eroded from rocks and end up in alluvial deposits called placer deposits. Such free gold is always richer at the surface of gold-bearing veins owing to the oxidation of accompanying minerals followed by weathering, and washing of the dust into streams and rivers, where it collects and can be welded by water action to form nuggets.\n\nGold sometimes occurs combined with tellurium as the minerals calaverite, krennerite, nagyagite, petzite and sylvanite (see telluride minerals), and as the rare bismuthide maldonite (Au2Bi) and antimonide aurostibite (AuSb2). Gold also occurs in rare alloys with copper, lead, and mercury: the minerals auricupride (Cu3Au), novodneprite (AuPb3) and weishanite ((Au, Ag)3Hg2).\n\nRecent research suggests that microbes can sometimes play an important role in forming gold deposits, transporting and precipitating gold to form grains and nuggets that collect in alluvial deposits. \n\nAnother recent study has claimed water in faults vaporizes during an earthquake, depositing gold. When an earthquake strikes, it moves along a fault. Water often lubricates faults, filling in fractures and jogs. About 6 miles (10 kilometers) below the surface, under incredible temperatures and pressures, the water carries high concentrations of carbon dioxide, silica, and gold. During an earthquake, the fault jog suddenly opens wider. The water inside the void instantly vaporizes, flashing to steam and forcing silica, which forms the mineral quartz, and gold out of the fluids and onto nearby surfaces. \n\nSeawater \n\nThe world's oceans contain gold. Measured concentrations of gold in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific are 50–150 femtomol/L or 10–30 parts per quadrillion (about 10–30 g/km3). In general, gold concentrations for south Atlantic and central Pacific samples are the same (~50 femtomol/L) but less certain. Mediterranean deep waters contain slightly higher concentrations of gold (100–150 femtomol/L) attributed to wind-blown dust and/or rivers. At 10 parts per quadrillion the Earth's oceans would hold 15,000 tonnes of gold. These figures are three orders of magnitude less than reported in the literature prior to 1988, indicating contamination problems with the earlier data.\n\nA number of people have claimed to be able to economically recover gold from sea water, but so far they have all been either mistaken or acted in an intentional deception. Prescott Jernegan ran a gold-from-seawater swindle in the United States in the 1890s. A British fraudster ran the same scam in England in the early 1900s. Fritz Haber (the German inventor of the Haber process) did research on the extraction of gold from sea water in an effort to help pay Germany's reparations following World War I. Based on the published values of 2 to 64 ppb of gold in seawater a commercially successful extraction seemed possible. After analysis of 4,000 water samples yielding an average of 0.004 ppb it became clear that the extraction would not be possible and he stopped the project. No commercially viable mechanism for performing gold extraction from sea water has yet been identified. Gold synthesis is not economically viable and is unlikely to become so in the foreseeable future.\n\nSpecimens of crystalline native gold\n\nFile:Native gold nuggets.jpg|Native gold nuggets\nFile:Gold-tt48a.jpg|\"Rope gold\" from Lena River, Sakha Republic, Russia. Size: 2.5×1.2×0.7 cm.\nFile:Gold-mz4b.jpg|Crystalline gold from Mina Zapata, Santa Elena de Uairen, Venezuela. Size: 3.7×1.1×0.4 cm.\nFile:Gold-37466.jpg|Gold leaf from Harvard Mine, Jamestown, California, USA. Size 9.3×3.2× >0.1 cm.\n\nProduction\n\n]\n\nThe World Gold Council states that as of the end of 2014, \"there were 183,600 tonnes of stocks in existence above ground\". This can be represented by a cube with an edge length of about 21 meters. At $1,075 per troy ounce, 183,600 metric tonnes of gold would have a value of $6.3 trillion.\n\nWorld production for 2014 totaled 2,990 tonnes, compared to 2,300 tonnes for 2008.\n\nMining\n\nSince the 1880s, South Africa has been the source for a large proportion of the world's gold supply, with about 50% of the presently accounted for gold having come from South Africa. Production in 1970 accounted for 79% of the world supply, producing about 1,480 tonnes. In 2007 China (with 276 tonnes) overtook South Africa as the world's largest gold producer, the first time since 1905 that South Africa has not been the largest. \n\nAs of 2013, China was the world's leading gold-mining country, followed in order by Australia, the United States, Russia, and Peru. South Africa, which had dominated world gold production for most of the 20th Century, had declined to sixth place. Other major producers are the Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Indonesia and Uzbekistan.\n\nIn South America, the controversial project Pascua Lama aims at exploitation of rich fields in the high mountains of Atacama Desert, at the border between Chile and Argentina.\n\nToday about one-quarter of the world gold output is estimated to originate from artisanal or small scale mining. \n\nThe city of Johannesburg located in South Africa was founded as a result of the Witwatersrand Gold Rush which resulted in the discovery of some of the largest natural gold deposits in recorded history. The gold fields are confined to the northern and north-western edges of the Witwatersrand basin, which is a 5–7 km thick layer of archean rocks located, in most places, deep under the Free State, Gauteng and surrounding provinces.Truswell, J.F. (1977). ‘’The Geological Evolution of South Africa’’. pp. 21–28. Purnell, Cape Town. These Witwatersrand rocks are exposed at the surface on the Witwatersrand, in and around Johannesburg, but also in isolated patches to the south-east and south-west of Johannesburg, as well as in an arc around the Vredefort Dome which lies close to the center of the Witwatersrand basin. From these surface exposures the basin dips extensively, requiring some of the mining to occur at depths of nearly 4000 m, making them, especially the Savuka and TauTona mines to the south-west of Johannesburg, the deepest mines on earth. The gold is found only in six areas where archean rivers from the north and north-west formed extensive pebbly braided river deltas before draining into the \"Witwatersrand sea\" where the rest of the Witwatersrand sediments were deposited.\n\nThe Second Boer War of 1899–1901 between the British Empire and the Afrikaner Boers was at least partly over the rights of miners and possession of the gold wealth in South Africa.\n\nProspecting\n\nDuring the 19th century, gold rushes occurred whenever large gold deposits were discovered. The first documented discovery of gold in the United States was at the Reed Gold Mine near Georgeville, North Carolina in 1803. The first major gold strike in the United States occurred in a small north Georgia town called Dahlonega. Further gold rushes occurred in California, Colorado, the Black Hills, Otago in New Zealand, Australia, Witwatersrand in South Africa, and the Klondike in Canada.\n\nBioremediation\n\nA sample of the fungus Aspergillus niger was found growing from gold mining solution; and was found to contain cyano metal complexes; such as gold, silver, copper iron and zinc. The fungus also plays a role in the solubilization of heavy metal sulfides. \n\nExtraction\n\nGold extraction is most economical in large, easily mined deposits. Ore grades as little as 0.5 mg/kg (0.5 parts per million, ppm) can be economical. Typical ore grades in open-pit mines are 1–5 mg/kg (1–5 ppm); ore grades in underground or hard rock mines are usually at least 3 mg/kg (3 ppm). Because ore grades of 30 mg/kg (30 ppm) are usually needed before gold is visible to the naked eye, in most gold mines the gold is invisible.\n\nThe average gold mining and extraction costs were about US$317/oz in 2007, but these can vary widely depending on mining type and ore quality; global mine production amounted to 2,471.1 tonnes. \n\nRefining\n\nAfter initial production, gold is often subsequently refined industrially by the Wohlwill process which is based on electrolysis or by the Miller process, that is chlorination in the melt. The Wohlwill process results in higher purity, but is more complex and is only applied in small-scale installations. Other methods of assaying and purifying smaller amounts of gold include parting and inquartation as well as cupellation, or refining methods based on the dissolution of gold in aqua regia. \n\nSynthesis from other elements\n\nGold was synthesized from mercury by neutron bombardment in 1941, but the isotopes of gold produced were all radioactive. In 1924, a Japanese physicist, Hantaro Nagaoka, accomplished the same feat. \n\nGold can currently be manufactured in a nuclear reactor by irradiation either of platinum or mercury.\n\nOnly the mercury isotope 196Hg, which occurs with a frequency of 0.15% in natural mercury, can be converted to gold by neutron capture, and following electron capture-decay into 197Au with slow neutrons. Other mercury isotopes are converted when irradiated with slow neutrons into one another, or formed mercury isotopes which beta decay into thallium.\n \nUsing fast neutrons, the mercury isotope 198Hg, which composes 9.97% of natural mercury, can be converted by splitting off a neutron and becoming 197Hg, which then disintegrates to stable gold. This reaction, however, possesses a smaller activation cross-section and is feasible only with un-moderated reactors.\n\nIt is also possible to eject several neutrons with very high energy into the other mercury isotopes in order to form 197Hg. However such high-energy neutrons can be produced only by particle accelerators.\n\nConsumption\n\nThe consumption of gold produced in the world is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry. \n\nAccording to World Gold Council, China is the world's largest single consumer of gold in 2013 and toppled India for the first time with Chinese consumption increasing by 32 percent in a year, while that of India only rose by 13 percent and world consumption rose by 21 percent. Unlike India where gold is used for mainly for jewellery, China uses gold for manufacturing and retail. \n\nPollution\n\nGold production is associated with contribution to hazardous pollution. \n\nLow-grade gold ore may contain less than one ppm gold metal; such ore is ground and mixed with sodium cyanide dissolve the gold. Cyanide is a highly poisonous chemical, which can kill living creatures when exposed in minute quantities. Many cyanide spills from gold mines have occurred in both developed and developing countries which killed aquatic life in long stretches of affected rivers. Environmentalists consider these events major environmental disasters. Thirty tons of used ore is dumped as waste for producing one troy ounce of gold.[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/24/international/24GOLD.html?pagewanted\n1&_r0 Behind gold's glitter, torn lands and pointed questions], New York Times, 24 October 2005 Gold ore dumps are the source of many heavy elements such as cadmium, lead, zinc, copper, arsenic, selenium and mercury. When sulfide bearing minerals in these ore dumps are exposed to air and water, the sulfide transforms into sulfuric acid which in turn dissolves these heavy metals facilitating their passage into surface water and ground water. This process is called acid mine drainage. These gold ore dumps are long term, highly hazardous wastes second only to nuclear waste dumps.\n\nIt was once common to use mercury to recover gold from ore, but today the use of mercury is largely limited to small-scale individual miners. Minute quantities of mercury compounds can reach water bodies, causing heavy metal contamination. Mercury can then enter into the human food chain in the form of methylmercury. Mercury poisoning in humans causes incurable brain function damage and severe retardation.\n\nGold extraction is also a highly energy intensive industry, extracting ore from deep mines and grinding the large quantity of ore for further chemical extraction requires nearly 25 kW·h of electricity per gram of gold produced. \n\nToxicity\n\nPure metallic (elemental) gold is non-toxic and non-irritating when ingested and is sometimes used as a food decoration in the form of gold leaf. Metallic gold is also a component of the alcoholic drinks Goldschläger, Gold Strike, and Goldwasser. Metallic gold is approved as a food additive in the EU (E175 in the Codex Alimentarius). Although the gold ion is toxic, the acceptance of metallic gold as a food additive is due to its relative chemical inertness, and resistance to being corroded or transformed into soluble salts (gold compounds) by any known chemical process which would be encountered in the human body.\n\nSoluble compounds (gold salts) such as gold chloride are toxic to the liver and kidneys. Common cyanide salts of gold such as potassium gold cyanide, used in gold electroplating, are toxic by virtue of both their cyanide and gold content. There are rare cases of lethal gold poisoning from potassium gold cyanide. Gold toxicity can be ameliorated with chelation therapy with an agent such as dimercaprol.\n\nGold metal was voted Allergen of the Year in 2001 by the American Contact Dermatitis Society. Gold contact allergies affect mostly women. Despite this, gold is a relatively non-potent contact allergen, in comparison with metals like nickel. \n\nPrice\n\nAs at December 2015, gold is valued at around US$39,000 per kilogram (US$1,200 per troy ounce).\n\nLike other precious metals, gold is measured by troy weight and by grams. When it is alloyed with other metals the term carat or karat is used to indicate the purity of gold present, with 24 carats being pure gold and lower ratings proportionally less. The purity of a gold bar or coin can also be expressed as a decimal figure ranging from 0 to 1, known as the millesimal fineness, such as 0.995 being very pure.\n\nHistory\n\nThe price of gold is determined through trading in the gold and derivatives markets, but a procedure known as the Gold Fixing in London, originating in September 1919, provides a daily benchmark price to the industry. The afternoon fixing was introduced in 1968 to provide a price when US markets are open. \n\nHistorically gold coinage was widely used as currency; when paper money was introduced, it typically was a receipt redeemable for gold coin or bullion. In a monetary system known as the gold standard, a certain weight of gold was given the name of a unit of currency. For a long period, the United States government set the value of the US dollar so that one troy ounce was equal to $20.67 ($664.56/kg), but in 1934 the dollar was devalued to $35.00 per troy ounce ($1125.27/kg). By 1961, it was becoming hard to maintain this price, and a pool of US and European banks agreed to manipulate the market to prevent further currency devaluation against increased gold demand. \n\nOn 17 March 1968, economic circumstances caused the collapse of the gold pool, and a two-tiered pricing scheme was established whereby gold was still used to settle international accounts at the old $35.00 per troy ounce ($1.13/g) but the price of gold on the private market was allowed to fluctuate; this two-tiered pricing system was abandoned in 1975 when the price of gold was left to find its free-market level. Central banks still hold historical gold reserves as a store of value although the level has generally been declining. The largest gold depository in the world is that of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank in New York, which holds about 3% of the gold known to exist and accounted for today, as does the similarly laden U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox.\nIn 2005 the World Gold Council estimated total global gold supply to be 3,859 tonnes and demand to be 3,754 tonnes, giving a surplus of 105 tonnes. \n\nSometime around 1970 the price began in trend to greatly increase, and between 1968 and 2000 the price of gold ranged widely, from a high of $850/oz ($27,300/kg) on 21 January 1980, to a low of $252.90/oz ($8,131/kg) on 21 June 1999 (London Gold Fixing). Prices increased rapidly from 2001, but the 1980 high was not exceeded until 3 January 2008 when a new maximum of $865.35 per troy ounce was set. Another record price was set on 17 March 2008 at $1023.50/oz ($32,900/kg).\n\nIn late 2009, gold markets experienced renewed momentum upwards due to increased demand and a weakening US dollar. On 2 December 2009, Gold reached a new high closing at $1,217.23. Gold further rallied hitting new highs in May 2010 after the European Union debt crisis prompted further purchase of gold as a safe asset. On 1 March 2011, gold hit a new all-time high of $1432.57, based on investor concerns regarding ongoing unrest in North Africa as well as in the Middle East. \n\nFrom April 2001 to August 2011, spot gold prices more than quintupled in value against the US dollar, hitting a new all-time high of $1,913.50 on 23 August 2011, prompting speculation that the long secular bear market had ended and a bull market had returned. However, the price then began a slow decline to the $1200-per-ounce range in late 2014 and 2015.\n\nSymbolism\n\nGreat human achievements are frequently rewarded with gold, in the form of gold medals, golden trophies and other decorations. Winners of athletic events and other graded competitions are usually awarded a gold medal. Many awards such as the Nobel Prize are made from gold as well. Other award statues and prizes are depicted in gold or are gold plated (such as the Academy Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, the Emmy Awards, the Palme d'Or, and the British Academy Film Awards).\n\nAristotle in his ethics used gold symbolism when referring to what is now commonly known as the golden mean. Similarly, gold is associated with perfect or divine principles, such as in the case of the golden ratio and the golden rule.\n\nGold is further associated with the wisdom of aging and fruition. The fiftieth wedding anniversary is golden. Our most valued or most successful latter years are sometimes considered \"golden years\". The height of a civilization is referred to as a \"golden age\".\n\nIn some forms of Christianity and Judaism, gold has been associated both with holiness and evil. In the Book of Exodus, the Golden Calf is a symbol of idolatry, while in the Book of Genesis, Abraham was said to be rich in gold and silver, and Moses was instructed to cover the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant with pure gold. In Byzantine iconography the halos of Christ, Mary and the Christian saints are often golden.\n\nAccording to Christopher Columbus, those who had something of gold were in possession of something of great value on Earth and a substance to even help souls to paradise. \n\nWedding rings have long been made of gold. It is long lasting and unaffected by the passage of time and may aid in the ring symbolism of eternal vows before God and the perfection the marriage signifies. In Orthodox Christian wedding ceremonies, the wedded couple is adorned with a golden crown (though some opt for wreaths, instead) during the ceremony, an amalgamation of symbolic rites.\n\nIn popular culture gold has many connotations but is most generally connected to terms such as good or great, such as in the phrases: \"has a heart of gold\", \"that's golden!\", \"golden moment\", \"then you're golden!\" and \"golden boy\". It remains a cultural symbol of wealth and through that, in many societies, success." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Washington_Huskies_football.txt", "Apple_Cup.txt" ], "title": [ "Washington Huskies football", "Apple Cup" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Washington Huskies football team represents the University of Washington in college football. Washington competes in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as a member of the North Division of the Pac-12 Conference. Washington has won 15 Pac-10 championships, seven Rose Bowls, and four national championships recognized by the NCAA. Washington's all-time record of 702-440-50 ranks 19th by all-time winning percentage and 22nd by all-time victories. The team has two of the nation's longest winning streaks, including an NCAA second-best of 40 wins in a row, holds the Division I-A unbeaten record at 64 consecutive games, and has had a total of twelve unbeaten seasons, including seven perfect seasons. Washington is one of four charter members of what became the Pac-12 Conference and one of only two schools with uninterrupted membership. From 1977 through 2003, Washington had 27 consecutive non-losing seasons—the most of any team in the Pac-12 and the 14th longest streak by an NCAA Division I-A team. Through the 2011 season, its 357 conference victories rank second in conference history. Husky Stadium, located on campus, has served as the home field for Washington since 1920. The team is currently coached by Chris Petersen.\n\nWashington is often referred to as one of the top Quarterback U's due to the long history of quarterbacks playing in the National Football League, including the second-most QB starts in NFL history. All but two of the last 19 starting quarterbacks dating back to 1970 have gone on to the NFL, the most recent being Jake Locker, drafted eighth overall by the Tennessee Titans in the 2011 NFL Draft.\n\nHistory \n\nOrigins\n\nFootball started at the University of Washington in 1889 under President Thomas Milton Gatch, two years before the school campus in downtown Seattle, Washington was relocated to its current location in the University District. The team's first game was played on November 28, 1889 in Seattle, resulting in a 0-20 defeat to the Eastern College Alumni before a crowd of 400 spectators. This represented the first collegiate football game in the Pacific Northwest.\n\nConference history\n\nWashington played its first 26 seasons of college football from 1889 to 1915 as an independent. In 1916, Washington and three others joined to create the Pacific Coast Conference which evolved into the modern day Pac-12 Conference. Membership includes the PCC (1916–1958), Athletic Association of Western Universities or AAWU (1959–1968), Pacific-8 (1969–1978), Pacific-10 (1979–2010), Pac-12 (2011–Present). The Pac-12 Conference claims the history of each of these preceding conferences as its own. Washington and Cal are the only founding and continuous members in each of these successive conferences.\n\nHead coaching history \n\n*Member of College Football Hall of Fame\n\nEarly history (1889–1907)\n\nTen different men served as Washington head coaches during the first 18 seasons. While still an independent, the team progressed from playing 1 to 2 games per season to 10 matches per season as the sport grew in popularity. The school initially used a variety of locations for its home field. Home attendance grew from a few hundred to a few thousand per home game, with on-campus Denny Field becoming home from 1895 onward. The 1900 team played in-state rival Washington State College to a 5–5 tie, in the first game in the annual contest later known as the Apple Cup.\n\nGil Dobie era (1908–1916)\n\nGil Dobie left North Dakota Agricultural and became Washington's head coach in 1908. Dobie coached for nine remarkable seasons at Washington, posting a 58–0–3 record. Dobie's career comprised virtually all of Washington's NCAA all-time longest 64-game unbeaten streak (outscoring opponents 1930 to 118) and included a 40-game winning streak, second longest in NCAA Division I-A/FBS history. In 1916, Washington and three other schools formed the Pacific Coast Conference, predecessor to the modern Pac-12 Conference. In Dobie's final season at Washington, his 1916 team won the PCC's inaugural conference championship. Dobie was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951 as a charter member.\n\nHunt-Savage-Allison era (1917–1920)\n\nAfter the Dobie era came to a close, Washington turned to a succession of coaches with mixed results. Claude J. Hunt (1917, 1919) went a cumulative 6–3–1 highlighted by the school's second PCC championship in 1919, Tony Savage (1918) 1–1, and Stub Allison (1920) 1–5.\n\nThe era concluded with the team's move from Denny Field to its permanent home field of Husky Stadium in 1920. Washington athletics adopted the initial nickname of Sun Dodgers in 1919 used until 1922, before becoming the Huskies from 1923 onward. \n\nEnoch Bagshaw era (1921–1929)\n\nEnoch Bagshaw graduated from Washington in 1907 as the school's first five-year letterman in football history. After leading Everett High School from 1909 to 1920, including consecutive national championships in 1919 and 1920, Bagshaw returned to Washington as the first former player turned head coach in 1921, ultimately overseeing the program's second period of sustained success.\n\nBagshaw's tenure was marked by 63–22–6 record and the school's first two Rose Bowl berths, resulting in a 14–14 tie against Navy in the 1924 Rose Bowl and a 19–20 loss to Alabama in the 1926 Rose Bowl. His 1925 team won the school's third PCC championship. Bagshaw left the program after his 1929 team had a losing season, only the second such season in his tenure. Bagshaw died the following year at the age of 46. \n\nJames Phelan era (1930–1941)\n\nJames Phelan succeeded Bagshaw for the 1930 season. The Notre Dame graduate guided the Huskies to a 65–37–8 record over 12 seasons. His 1936 team won the school's fourth PCC championship, but lost in the 1937 Rose Bowl to Pittsburgh 0–21. Phelan guided the Huskies to their first bowl game victory, beating Hawaii 53–13 in the 1938 Poi Bowl. In later years, he became the first former Husky head coach to also do so in professional football. Phelan was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1973. \n\nWelch-Odell-Cherberg-Royal era (1942–1956)\n\nFollowing Phelan, Washington fielded a succession of teams under four coaches without either great success, or failure. Washington participated in one bowl game and tallied no conference championships during this period with an overall record of 65–68–7.\n\nRalph Welch played at Purdue under head coach James Phelan, whom he followed to Washington to become an assistant coach in 1930. In 1942, Welch was promoted to succeed Phelan as Washington's head coach and served until 1947, compiling a record of 27–20–3. World War II limited both the 1943 and 1944 seasons of the PCC, reducing team participation from ten team down to just four. Welch's 1943 team accepted the school's third Rose Bowl bid, but lost to PCC champion USC 0–29 in the 1944 Rose Bowl. Welch's first five teams all fielded winning records, but final 1947 team did not.\n\nHoward Odell joined Washington in 1948 from Yale. In his five seasons from 1948 to 1952, he compiled a record of 23–25–2 with two winning seasons..\n\nJohn Cherberg, a Washington player and then assistant from 1946 to 1952, became head coach in 1953. He compiled a 10–18–2 record from 1953 to 1955, before being removed due to a payoff scandal. Cherberg went on to become Washington state's longest serving Lieutenant Governor, from 1957 until his death in 1989. \n\nDarrell Royal was retained and led the 1956 team to a 5–5 record, before leaving to coach the Texas Longhorns where he won three national championships, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983, and had the Longhorn's stadium renamed in his honor (Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium).\n\nJim Owens era (1957–1974)\n\nIn 1957, Jim Owens came to Washington after stints as an assistant with Paul \"Bear\" Bryant at Kentucky and Texas A&M. According to legend, after the 1956 season, when the Huskies were looking for a head coach, Bryant indicated to reporters that Owens \"will make a great coach for somebody some day.\" Over 18 seasons, Owens would compile a 99–82–6 record.\n\nAfter a pair of unremarkable initial seasons, Owens led his 1959, 1960, and 1963 teams to three AAWU championships and associated Rose Bowl berths: a 1960 Rose Bowl 44–8 win over Wisconsin, a 1961 Rose Bowl 17–7 win over Minnesota, and a 7–17 loss to Illinois in the 1964 Rose Bowl. The Helms Athletic Foundation named the 1960 team the national champions, the school's first such title in football.\n\nOwens' later teams would never match this level of success, partly owing to a conference prevention of a second bowl team representative until 1975. Owens concurrently served as the athletic director at Washington from 1960 to 1969. Owens resigned as head coach of the Huskies following the 1974 season, as the Pac-8's third winningest coach of all-time. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1982. \n\nDon James era (1975–1992)\n\nDon James came to Washington from Kent State. During his 18-year tenure, James' Huskies won four Rose Bowls and one Orange Bowl. His 1991 team shared the national championship with Miami. The Huskies won 22 consecutive games from 1990–1992. James' record with the Huskies was 153–57–2. James won national coach of the year honors in 1977, 1984 and 1991 and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997.\n\nDuring the 1992 season, it was revealed that several of James' Huskies players received improper benefits, most notably starting quarterback Billy Joe Hobert. Although James and his staff were not personally implicated in any NCAA violation, James became upset with the NCAA's sanctions against his team and resigned as head football coach on August 22, 1993.\n\nJim Lambright era (1993–1998)\n\nJim Lambright was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach following the sudden and surprising departure of James. Lambright led the Huskies to four bowl appearances in his six seasons. Despite these bowl appearances and a 44–25–1 overall record, Lambright was fired by athletic director Barbara Hedges after a 6–6 1998 season.\n\nNeuheisel-Gilbertson era (1999–2004)\n\nRick Neuheisel was hired away from Colorado to take over as the Huskies' head football coach. During his tenure, the Huskies went 33–16, highlighted by a victory in the Rose Bowl in January 2001 over Purdue. Purdue's quarterback Drew Brees was out-dueled by Washington's quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo in an exciting game. Neuheisel also led the Huskies to two berths in the Holiday Bowl and to the Sun Bowl during his four-year tenure.\n\nNeuheisel was fired in June 2003 after he admitted to taking part in a calcutta pool for the 2003 Men's NCAA basketball tournament. Neuheisel sued for wrongful termination, ultimately settling the case in March 2005 for $4.5 million, paid by the NCAA and Washington athletics department. \n\nKeith Gilbertson was promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach following Neuheisel's termination. Gilbertson's first season ended with a decent 6–6 record despite no bowl appearance. But a 1-10 season the next season ended in his firing. That 1–10 season is only Washington's second since the end of World War II. In two seasons, Gilbertson's record was 7–16.\n\nTyrone Willingham era (2005–2008)\n\nFormer Notre Dame head coach Tyrone Willingham was hired as the next head football coach of the Washington Huskies. Willingham's Huskies failed to post a winning record in any of Willingham's four seasons, the best being a 5-7 2006 season. Willingham's record at Washington is a dismal 11–37, the worst winning percentage (.229) of any head football coach in Washington Huskies football history. Willingham was fired after a winless 2008 season.\n\nSteve Sarkisian era (2009–2013)\n\nUSC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian was named the 23rd head football coach of the Washington Huskies following the firing of Willingham. Sarkisian, known as an offensive mind and quarterbacks coach, helped develop Jake Locker into an elite college quarterback. Sarkisian never won more than eight games in a single season despite only one losing season. Sarkisian departed after the 2013 season to return to USC as the head football coach. Sarkisian's record at Washington was 34–29.\n\nChris Petersen era (2014–present)\n\nWashington hired Chris Petersen as head football coach on December 6, 2013. Petersen previously spent eight seasons as the head coach at Boise State.\n\nAll-time record vs. Pac-12 opponents\n\nChampionships\n\nNational championships\n\nWashington claims 1960 and 1991 national championships, with the NCAA record book additionally recognizing the 1984 and 1990 seasons. Bill Libby selected Washington as the 1910 National Champion.\n\n1960 National champions\n\nThe 1960 team took an improbable road to the Rose Bowl and national championship. After suffering a 1-point setback to Navy in week three, the team reeled off eight straight league wins capped by a triumph over Associated Press #1 Minnesota in the Rose Bowl. Because the final Associated Press and United Press International polls were conducted after the final game of the regular season, Minnesota is the AP and UPI national champion for 1960. The postseason poll conducted by the Helms Athletic Foundation recognizes Washington as national champions.\n\n1984 National champions\n\nThe Huskies opened the 1984 college football season with a 9-0 record which included a 20-11 win at #4 Michigan in Michigan Stadium. While being ranked #1 in the AP poll, the Huskies dropped a 16-7 game to eventual Pac-10 champion USC, which cost Washington a chance at the Rose Bowl. The Huskies instead were invited to play in the Orange Bowl against the #2 Oklahoma Sooners. The game is famous for the Sooner Schooner incident. After Oklahoma kicked a field goal to take a 17-14 lead in the fourth quarter, a penalty was called on the Sooners which nullified the score. The Sooner Schooner driver, who didn’t see the flag, drove the wagon on the field and was immediately flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. The ensuing field goal attempt was blocked and led a momentum shift which saw Washington score two touchdowns in less than a minute en route to a 28-17 victory. Senior Jacque Robinson rushed for 135 yards and was named MVP, the first player in history to be named MVP of both the Orange and Rose Bowls.\n\nIn winning, the Huskies became the first team from the Pac-10 to play in and win the Orange Bowl. The Huskies finished the year ranked #2 in the polls, behind the WAC champion (13-0-0), 24-17 victors over the unranked Michigan Wolverines (6-5-0) in the Holiday Bowl. BYU's title was notable for being the only time since the inception of the AP poll that a team was awarded the national title without beating an opponent ranked in the top 25 at the season's end. The Huskies were given the opportunity to play BYU in the Holiday Bowl but chose a larger bowl payout over playing a higher ranked opponent in BYU which carried a 22-game win streak into the bowl season. The B (QPRS), FN, and NCF polls awarded the Huskies the national championship, while the school does not claim it.\n\n1990 National champions\n\nThe Huskies started out the season with two solid wins against San Jose State and Purdue, then welcomed 5th ranked USC and won 31-0. The next week they had a close loss to eventual AP national champion Colorado. After that loss, Washington went on to finish the season averaging over 40 points a game while only giving up 14. Also, during this time Washington would end up beating two more ranked teams on their way to the Rose Bowl. Yet, in the second to last game Washington lost to UCLA. Washington subsequently entered the Rose Bowl with a record of 9-2 looking for a victory over highly ranked Iowa. During the game, the Huskies won in dominating fashion with a final score of 46-34, displaying its trademark defense including a NCAA-best run-defense which allowed 66.8 yards per game. \n\nThe AP said that the University of Colorado was the National Champion along with the UPI choosing the only undefeated team Georgia Tech. Washington was ranked #5 in the AP poll, receiving no first place votes. The Rothman/FACT, active from 1968–2006, stated that the Washington Huskies were National Champions for 1990, sharing the honor with Colorado, Georgia Tech, and Miami. The school does not claim this championship.\n\n1991 National champions\n\nThe Huskies opened the 1991 season on the road, with a 42-7 victory over the Stanford Cardinal. Following a week off, Washington traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska for a showdown with #9 Nebraska. Trailing 21-9 late in the third quarter, Washington staged a rally, scoring 27 unanswered points to claim a 36-21 victory. The Husky offense, led by junior QB Billy Joe Hobert, gained a total of 618 yards. The 618 yards given up by the Cornhuskers was the most in 35 years. The following week saw the return of QB Mark Brunell, the 1991 Rose Bowl MVP who had suffered a knee injury in the spring, as the Huskies beat Kansas State 56-3, while holding the Wildcats to minus-17 yards on the ground. The Huskies followed with back-to-back shutouts of Arizona and Toledo. California was next and the Huskies traveled to Berkeley to face the #7 Golden Bears. Washington won a wild game that was decided on the final play when Walter Bailey broke up a pass on the goal line to preserve a 24-17 win for the Huskies. Oregon and Arizona State visited Husky Stadium next and each walked away with a loss. The Huskies went on their final road trip of the season, first to USC where they won in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the first time since 1980. Needing a victory to clinch a Rose Bowl berth, Washington rolled to a 58-6 win over Oregon State. The Washington State Cougars came to Seattle for the Apple Cup but were no match for the Huskies, as Washington won 56-21, setting up a showdown with Michigan in the Rose Bowl, held January 1, 1992.\n\nThe Husky defense, led by Lombardi Award and Outland Trophy winner Steve Emtman, held Michigan to only 205 total yards, limiting Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard to only one catch. The Husky offense, led by quarterbacks Mark Brunell and Billy Joe Hobert, racked up 404 yards of total offense in leading the Huskies to a 34-14 Rose Bowl victory. Hobert and Emtman shared MVP honors.\n\n*Steve Emtman (DT) and Mario Bailey (WR) were consensus All-American picks. Dave Hoffmann (LB) and Lincoln Kennedy (OT) were All-American selections.\n*Don James was voted Pac-10 and National Coach of the Year.\n*Steve Emtman was the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year and Mario Bailey was the Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year.\n*Mario Bailey (WR), Ed Cunningham (C), Steve Emtman (DT), Chico Fraley (LB), Dana Hall (CB), Dave Hoffmann (LB), Donald Jones (LB) and Lincoln Kennedy (OL) were First Team All Pac-10.\n*The Huskies led the NCAA in total defense for most of the year, allowing only 237.1 yards per game.\n\nThe Huskies were voted national champions by the USA Today/CNN Coaches Poll, while the Miami Hurricanes topped the AP Poll. The 1991 team averaged over 41 points per game, only once scoring fewer than 20 points, and held opponents to an average of less than 10 points per game, including two shutouts.\n\nConference championships\n\nWashington has captured a total of 15 conference championships; this includes 4 PCC, 3 AAWU, 1 Pac-8, and 7 Pac-10 championships, and at least one in every decade except the 1940s. Washington won the inaugural PCC championship in 1916. Washington's 15 championships rank third in league history, behind USC's 38 and UCLA's 17 as of 2013. The conference did not allow participation of a second bowl team beyond the conference champion, until 1975. \n\nRose Bowl championships\n\nWashington has been continuously affiliated with the Pac-12 Conference and its predecessors, which have contractually agreed to send a representative (typically the conference champion) to participate in the Rose Bowl. The Big Ten Conference was similarly contracted following World War II. This pairing made the Rose Bowl the most prestigious Bowl Game available to Pac-12 teams, prior to the BCS era.\n\nCurrent coaching staff\n\n* Chris Petersen - Head coach\n* Jonathan Smith - Offensive coordinator/Quarterbacks coach\n* Pete Kwiatkowski - Defensive coordinator\n* Jimmy Lake - Defensive backs coach/Co-Defensive coordinator\n* Chris Strausser - Associate Head coach/Offensive line coach\n* Bob Gregory - Assistant Head coach/Linebackers coach/Special Teams coordinator\n* Keith Bhonapha - Recruiting coordinator/Running backs coach\n* Bush Hamdan - Wide receivers coach/Passing game coordinator\n* Ikaika Malloe - Defensive line coach\n* Jordan Paopao - Tight ends coach\n* Tim Socha - Strength & conditioning coach\n \n\nBowl games\n\nThe Washington Huskies have a long history and tradition of playing in the Rose Bowl. The Huskies' 14 Rose Bowl appearances are second only to USC in the Pac-10 and third overall (behind USC with 30 and the Michigan Wolverines with 19). The Huskies' seven victories are also third behind USC (21) and Michigan (8). In addition, Washington is also in an elite group of only seven schools to make back-to-back-to-back appearances in the Rose Bowl, a feat they accomplished in 1990–1992. The other schools are Ohio State, Michigan, and Wisconsin from the Big 10 and California, Stanford and USC from the Pac-10. Washington has won at least one Rose Bowl game in every decade since the 1960s. The Pac-8 did not allow a second bowl team from the conference until 1975.\n\nMemorable games\n\n1975 Apple Cup\n\nIn the 1975 Apple Cup, Washington State led 27-14 with 3 minutes left in the game. WSU attempted a fourth-and-one conversion at the UW 14-yard line rather than a field goal. The resulting pass was intercepted by Al Burleson and returned 93 yards for a touchdown. After a WSU three-and-out, Warren Moon's tipped pass was caught by Spider Gaines for a 78-yard TD reception and a dramatic 28-27 Washington win. WSU Head Coach Jim Sweeney resigned a week later, leaving with a 26-59-1 record.\n\n1981 Apple Cup\n\nWhen 14th-ranked Washington State and 17th-ranked Washington met in the 1981 Apple Cup, it was billed as the biggest game in the series since the 1936 game when the winner traveled to the Rose Bowl. Washington's defense was the best in the league, while the Cougars ranked high in the offenseive categories. The outcome of the UCLA-USC game, which kicked off 40 minutes before the UW-WSU game, also had an impact on the game. The Huskies needed the Trojans to upset UCLA to clear the way for a Rose Bowl bid. With so much at stake, there was plenty of scoreboard watching by the frenzied Husky faithful.\n\nWith his team trailing 7-3 late in the second quarter, Husky quarterback Steve Pelluer fired a low pass towards wide-out Paul Skansi. Washington State cornerback Nate Brady looked as if he would smother the ball when Skansi dove over the defender for an amazing catch in the endzone.\n\nWashington State drove the ball 69 yards to open the second half and tie the score at 10. From that point the Huskies- behind the fine play of their offensive line- took control. Ron \"Cookie\" Jackson capped an 80-yard march by running 23 yards to put the Huskies ahead 17-10. Following a Cougar turnover, All-American kicker Chuck Nelson booted his second field goal of the game to increase the Huskies' lead to 10 points.\n\nThe fate of the Cougars was sealed when the score of the USC-UCLA game was announced- the Trojans had engineered an upset. The crowd went wild, Nelson added a field goal with less than three minutes to play, and the Huskies were off to the Rose Bowl.\n\n1990 - 'All I Saw Was Purple'\n\nHeading into the 1990 season, the winner of the USC-Washington game had gone to the Rose Bowl in 10 of the previous 13 seasons. The 1990 match would substantiate that trend.\nWashington's All-Centennial team was feted the night before and introduced at halftime of the game, while two members of the historic team- Hugh McElhenny and Nesby Glasgow- delivered inspirational talks to the team. On a bright, sunny day with the temperature reaching 92 degrees, the crowd of 72,617 eagerly awaited the contest.\nThey could not have imagined the outcome.\n\nFor just the third time in 23 seasons the Huskies shut out USC, handing the Trojans their worst conference defeat in 30 years. \"Student Body Right\" was held to only 28 rushing yards as the Husky defense dominated the line of scrimmage. Greg Lewis the Doak Walker Award winner as the nation's top running back gained 126 rushing yards and sophomore quarterback Mark Brunell threw for 197 yards as the Huskies rolled to a 24-0 halftime lead.\n\nThe Husky defense, led by All-American lineman Steve Emtman, stopped everything the Trojans attempted. The defense would hold USC to 163 total yards and seven first downs for the game. They would record three sacks and put so much pressure on Todd Marinovich that after the game, weary and beaten, he said famously: \"I just saw purple. That's all. No numbers, just purple\".\n\n1992 - 'A Night To Remember'\n\nPlaying in their first night game since 1985, Washington posted an impressive victory against 12th-ranked Nebraska that might have provided the loudest moment in the stadium's long and boisterous history.\n\nLate in the first quarter, Husky Punter John Werdel pinned Nebraska on its three yard-line. Crowd noise caused the Husker linemen to false start on consecutive plays, only adding to the frenzy of the crowd.\n\nWhen Nebraska quarterback Mike Grant dropped back to his own endzone to attempt a pass, everyone in the stands watched roverback Tommie Smith blitz Grant from his blindside and drop him for a safety. The deafening roar reverberating off the twin roofs literally had the stadium rocking. An ESPN sideline reporter armed with a noise meter reported that the clamor reached 133.6 decibels (ESPN).\n\nHolding a 9-7 lead, the Husky offense went into quick-strike mode at the close of the second quarter. Speedy running back Napoleon Kaufman ended an 80-yard drive with a 1-yard scoring run. Walter Bailey intercepted Grant after the kickoff, and the Huskies went for the kill. Quarterback Billy Joe Hobert threw a 24-yard scoring pass to a diving Joe Kralik to boost the lead to 23-7. Kicker Travis Hanson then boosted a pair of field goals in the second half to cinch a 29-14 win, and jump the Huskies to number one in the wire service polls the following week.\n\n1994 - The 'Whammy in Miami'\n\nThe 'Whammy in Miami' was a college football game played between the Huskies and the Miami Hurricanes on September 24, 1994 in Miami's Orange Bowl. The game was the first football contest between the two schools, but they did share a piece of football history. During the 1991 season, both teams finished the year with identical 12-0 records and both teams were crowned National Champions. The teams were unable to settle the championship on the field, as both teams were locked into their respective bowl games (Washington in the Rose and Miami in the Orange). As a result, both schools agreed to schedule the other for a series of games.\n\nEntering the game, the University of Miami had an NCAA record home winning streak of 58 games, was ranked 5th in the nation and had a 2-0 record. The Hurricanes had not lost at the Orange Bowl since 1985 and not to a team from outside of Florida since 1984. The Huskies on the other hand were 1-1, following a loss to USC and win over Ohio State. Odds makers placed the Huskies as a 14-point underdog. The Hurricanes appeared to be on their way to another home victory and proving the odds makers right in leading the Huskies 14-3 at halftime. After half-time the Huskies came out firing scoring 22 points in 5 minutes. Key plays included a 75-yard touchdown pass, 34-yard interception return, and a fumble recovery. The Huskies showed no signs of slowing down and dominated the second half on the way to the 38-20 victory. The upset made national headlines, including being the top story on ESPN's SportsCenter.\n\nThe final score was Washington 38, Miami 20.\n\n2001 Apple Cup\n\nEntering the Apple Cup, Washington State (ranked #9 and a 9-1 record), with a BCS bowl-berth and Pac-10 title on the line. The #16-ranked Huskies upset the Cougars by a score of 26-14, removing WSU from contention.\n\n2002 Apple Cup\n\nWith the game in Pullman, #3 Washington State entered the game poised for BCS National Championship game consideration, behind QB Jason Gesser. Gesser was injured by DT Terry \"Tank\" Johnson late in the game. The Cougars led 20-10 with less than 4 minutes left in the game, by Matt Kegel replacing Gesser. UW used a timely interception from freshman cornerback Nate Robinson to force Overtime. The teams traded FGs in the first two overtime periods, with John Anderson nailing a 3rd kick to start the third overtime period. In the Cougar's possession, Kegel was ruled by Gordon Riese to have thrown a backward pass which was knocked down and recovered by defensive end Kai Ellis, resulting in a fumble recovered by Washington to end the game. The Martin Stadium crowd erupted with some bottles being thrown by angry players and fans at celebrating players and fans. Then UW athletic director Barbara Hedges said at the time she \"feared for her life.\" \n\n2009 \"Miracle on Montlake\"\n\nEntering the game, the #3 Trojans had momentum and the national spotlight after their defeat of Ohio State in Columbus the week before. Washington, meanwhile, had just won its first game in 16 contests with a victory over Idaho.\n\nSouthern California opened the game with 10 unanswered points, marching down the field at ease. USC was playing without starting quarterback Matt Barkley, who had injured his shoulder the week before at Ohio State, but despite playing with back up QB Aaron Corp, the Trojans were able to lean on an experienced running game and veteran offensive line.\n\nWashington worked its way back into the game with a 4-yard TD run by quarterback Jake Locker, trimming the score to 10-7. Late in the second quarter, placekicker Erik Folk booted a 46-yard field goal to knot the score at 10. The Huskies defense continued to bolster the upset efforts as coordinator Nick Holt's unit plugged up the leaky holes on the line and dared Corp to beat them with his arm.\n\nAs the game entered the fourth quarter, the score remained tied. Both teams played cautiously, knowing a mistake would be critical. After swapping field goals, the Huskies took over with four minutes to play. It was this possession where the Huskies not only sealed their comeback, but Jake Locker announced himself to a nationwide audience. The quarterback coolly maneuvered his team down the field, converting on two key third downs, including a 3rd-and-15 from his team's own 28. On that play, Locker slung a throw across the sideline to Jermaine Kearse for 21 yards. The Huskies would eventually drive to the USC 4 before trotting out Folk for the coup de grace.\n\n2009 \"Immaculate Interception\"\n\nOn October 10, 2009 the Huskies hosted the Arizona Wildcats at home. The scoring went back and forth but going into the final 3 minutes the Huskies were down 33-28 when Nick Foles dropped back to pass. The pass deflected off of a sliding Wildcat receiver's foot and into the hands of Junior Linebacker Mason Foster who then returned the interception for a touchdown. The touchdown was upheld after video review. The Huskies would go on to successfully convert a 2-point conversion and hold off the Wildcats one more time for a 36-33 win.\n\n2010 \"Deja Vu\"\n\nOn September 19, 2009 the Washington Huskies knocked off the #3 USC Trojans at home, a win that catapulted them into the top 25. On October 2, 2010 the University of Washington Huskies were riding into the Grand Ol' Lady to face the #18 ranked USC Trojans, a place where they hadn't won since 1996 and also enduring a 13-game road losing streak. They hadn't won on the road since November 3, 2007 against Stanford. The Huskies had the lead for parts of all 4 quarters but never put the game away, including a play in which Jake Locker had the ball stripped out of the end-zone on what was a sure touchdown run. A week prior, Locker was 4-20 against a stifling Nebraska team, he completed 24 of 40 pass attempts for over 300 yards and also ran for 111 yards. Locker did leave the game for 1 play after a knee to helmet hit on a quarterback sneak. Keith Price, a redshirt freshman from Compton, California came in and promptly completed a touchdown pass putting the Huskies ahead 29-28. On the following possession the Trojans hit a field goal to take a 31-29 lead. The Huskies were unsuccessful on the ensuing drive and the Trojans took the ball down the field and with 2+ minutes left, missing a field goal off the right goal post. The Huskies final drive started with two incomplete passes and a near fumble, but on a fourth and 11 Jake Locker completed a pass to a leaping DeAndre Goodwin. The Huskies continued to push the ball down the field into field goal range in a similar situation to the previous year. With 3 seconds left, Erik Folk was kicking with the stage set for a dramatic Husky victory. Trojans coach Lane Kiffin called 2 timeouts, though his attempted icing failed and Erik Folk nailed the game-winning field goal as time expired and the Huskies won their first road game in three years.\n\nLogos and uniforms\n\nSince the 1970s, the Huskies have worn gold helmets with a purple block \"W\" on both sides. However, during Jim Lambright's tenure, the Huskies wore purple helmets with a gold \"W.\"\n\nDuring Jim Owens' tenure, he would award an outstanding defensive player the honor of wearing a purple helmet during the game. Rick Redman, an All-American linebacker in the 1960s, wore one. It was rather intimidating for the opposing quarterback to stand behind his center and see this lone purple-helmeted player staring him down before each play.\n\nIn 2004, the Huskies switched to a new style of uniforms that were worn up until the 2009 season.\n\nIn 2009, the Huskies' uniforms were changed to a new style. For the 2010 season, the Huskies' home jersey was altered to match the style of their away jerseys.\n\nOn November 18, 2010, in a home game (Senior Game) against UCLA, the Huskies used a \"black out\" theme, wearing all-black jerseys and pants while encouraging the entire crowd to dress in all-black as well. On the road for the Apple Cup, the Huskies wore the black pants with their normal white jersey. Again for the Holiday Bowl on December 30, 2010 the Huskies wore all black jerseys and pants.\n\nOn September 28, 2013, the Huskies debuted their metallic gold helmets. The helmets had the same design as the traditional \"W\" but with a metallic shined finish. They wore these helmets with purple tops and bottoms in a rain soaked match against the Arizona Wildcats.\n\nOn October 12, 2013 the first ever appearance of College Gameday also saw the Huskies debut matte black helmets. The helmets featured a purple \"W\" and two purple and gold stripes.\n\nOn April 18, 2014, Nike revealed new uniforms for the Huskies. These included gold, white, black, and chrome gold helmets; purple, white, and black jerseys; and purple, gold, white, and black pants.\n\nFuture Schedules\n\nAnnounced schedules as of September 15, 2015 \n\nFacilities\n\nAlaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium\n\nAlaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium is the home football stadium for the University of Washington Husky football team. Located on the university's campus in Seattle, WA and set next to Lake Washington, it is the largest stadium in the Pacific Northwest with a seating capacity of 72,500. Washington has led the modern Pac-10 Conference in game attendance 13 times, including nine consecutive seasons from 1989 to 1997.\n\nWith nearly 70 percent of the seats located between the end zones, covered by cantilevered metal roofs, Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium is one of the loudest stadiums in the country and is the loudest recorded stadium in college football. During the 1992 night game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, ESPN measured the noise level at 135 decibels, the loudest mark in NCAA history. \n\nIn 1968 the Huskies became the first major collegiate team to install an Astroturf field, following the lead of the Astrodome. \nAgain, prior to the 2000 season, the school was among the leaders adopting FieldTurf, trailing only Memorial Stadium's installation by one season. \n\nRenovation of Husky Stadium began on November 7, 2011 and games were moved to CenturyLink Field until the construction is completed in 2013.\n\nThe Huskies opened their $280 million renovated stadium on Saturday, August 31, 2013, they won a thrilling match 38-6 against the Boise State Broncos to welcome back their fans to \"the most scenic landscape in college football.\"\nIts U-shaped design was specifically oriented (18.167° south of due east) to minimize glare from the early afternoon sun in the athletes' eyes.[5] The open end overlooks scenic Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains, including Mount Rainier. Prior to the 2011-13 renovation, its total capacity of 72,500 made it the largest stadium in the Pacific Northwest and the 23rd largest in college football.\n\nDempsey Indoor\n\nThe Dempsey Indoor is an 80000 sqft facility opened in September 2001. The building is used as an indoor practice facility for Washington's football, softball, baseball and men's and women's soccer teams. \n\nNotable players\n\n* Fred Abel\n* Mario Bailey\n* Blair Bush\n* Donald Butler\n* Dennis Brown\n* Mark Bruener\n* Mark Brunell\n* Chris Chandler\n* Bruce Claridge\n* Corey Dillon\n* Steve Emtman\n* D'Marco Farr\n* Mason Foster\n* Nesby Glasgow\n* Dashon Goldson\n* Don Heinrich\n* Billy Joe Hobert\n* Ron Holmes\n* Brock Huard\n* Damon Huard\n\n* Michael Jackson\n* Jeff Jaeger\n* Jim Jones\n* Napoleon Kaufman\n* Jermaine Kearse\n* Lincoln Kennedy\n* Hau'oli Kikaha\n* Olin Kreutz\n* Greg Lewis\n* Jake Locker\n* Hugh McElhenny\n* Joel McHale\n* Lawyer Milloy\n* Warren Moon\n* Chuck Nelson\n* Pete Ohler\n* Benji Olson\n* Tony Parrish\n* Mark Pattison\n* Marcus Peters\n* Cody Pickett\n* Chris Polk\n\n* Keith Price\n* Rick Redman\n* David Richie\n* Reggie Rogers\n* Bishop Sankey\n* Bob Sapp\n* Bob Schloredt\n* Austin Seferian-Jenkins\n* Danny Shelton\n* Sonny Sixkiller\n* Jerramy Stevens\n* Daniel Te'o-Nesheim\n* Shaq Thompson\n* Desmond Trufant\n* Marques Tuiasosopo\n* Arnie Weinmeister\n* Reggie Williams\n* Tommie Smith\n\nIndividual award winners\n\nPlayers\n\n* Doak Walker Award\nGreg Lewis - 1990\n* John Mackey Award\nAustin Seferian-Jenkins - 2013\n* Lombardi Award\nSteve Emtman - 1991\n* Morris Trophy Offense\nBern Brostek - 1989\nLincoln Kennedy - 1991\nLincoln Kennedy - 1992\nBob Sapp - 1996\nOlin Kreutz - 1997\nChad Ward - 2000\n* Morris Trophy Defense\nFletcher Jenkins - 1981\nRon Holmes - 1984\nReggie Rogers - 1986\nSteve Emtman - 1990\nSteve Emtman - 1991\nD'Marco Farr - 1993\n* Outland Trophy\nSteve Emtman - 1991\n* Paul Hornung Award\nShaq Thompson - 2014\n\nCoach\n\n* Paul \"Bear\" Bryant Award\nDon James - 1991\n\nConsensus All-Americans\n\n20 different Washington players have been recognized as consensus All-Americans, by virtue of recording a majority of votes at their respective positions by the selectors. \n\n* 1925 – George Wilson\n* 1928 – Chuck Carroll\n* 1936 – Max Starcevich\n* 1940 – Rudy Mucha\n* 1941 – Ray Frankowski\n* 1963, 1964 – Rick Redman\n* 1966 – Tom Greenlee\n* 1968 – Al Worley\n* 1982 – Chuck Nelson †\n* 1984 – Ron Holmes\n\n* 1986 – Jeff Jaeger\n* 1986 – Reggie Rogers\n* 1991 – Steve Emtman †\n* 1991 – Mario Bailey\n* 1992 – Lincoln Kennedy †\n* 1995 – Lawyer Milloy †\n* 1996 – Benji Olson †\n* 1997 – Olin Kreutz\n* 2002 – Reggie Williams\n* 2014 – Hau'oli Kikaha †\n\n† Unanimous selection\n\nHeisman voting\n\nTop finishes of Washington players in voting for the Heisman Trophy.\n\nHall of Fame Huskies\n\nCollege Football Hall of Fame\n\n15 former Washington players and coaches have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, located in South Bend, Indiana.\n\nPro Football Hall of Fame\n\n3 former Washington players have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, located in Canton, Ohio.\n\nCanadian Football Hall of Fame\n\nAs of 2010, Warren Moon (Edmonton Eskimos 1978–83) is the only player to be a member of both the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame (NFL).\n\nRose Bowl Hall of Fame\n\nThe Rose Bowl has inducted seven Washington Huskies into the Rose Bowl Game Hall of Fame. Inductees by year:\n\nSeason awards", "The Apple Cup is an American college football rivalry between the University of Washington Huskies and Washington State University Cougars. Both are members of the North Division of the Pac-12 Conference.\n\nFirst played in 1900, it is traditionally the final game of the regular season and formerly took place on the Saturday preceding Thanksgiving. Since 1946, it has been held in odd years at Husky Stadium in Seattle (except 2011 at CenturyLink Field), and WSU has been the home team during even years, with games played in Pullman at Rogers Field (1946, 1948, 1954) and Martin Stadium (since 1982), with the other fifteen contests in Spokane at Joe Albi Stadium. With the extension of the college football regular season to 12 games in 2006, the game is often played at a later date. Since 2011, it has been held on the Friday after Thanksgiving, but was played a day later in 2014. First awarded in 1962, the Apple Cup trophy goes to the winner. The Huskies lead the series 70–32–6 ().\n\nSeries history\n\nFrom 1934 to 1961, the teams played for the \"Governor's Trophy\". The game was renamed the \"Apple Cup\" in 1962 because of Washington being a major producer of apples.\n\nWith the lengthening of the college football regular season schedule to 12 games in 2006, there was a movement to change the date of the game from the Saturday before Thanksgiving to the weekend following, which would have allowed a bye week during the season. In 2006, both teams played 12 straight weeks without a break, leaving the two teams noticeably fatigued. For the first time, the 2007 game was played the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It returned to the Saturday before Thanksgiving in 2008 in Pullman.\n\nThe media joked that the 2008 game in Pullman was the \"Crapple Cup\" and \"full of worms\", because WSU (1–10) hosted winless UW (0–11); the Cougars won, albeit in double overtime. The game returned to the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2009 in Seattle and the 2010 game was played on December 4 in Pullman. The 2011 game in Seattle on Saturday, November 26, was moved to CenturyLink Field to allow an early start on the renovation of Husky Stadium.\n\nFrom 1950 to 1980 (except for 1954), the WSU home games in the series were played at Joe Albi Stadium (Memorial Stadium until 1962) in Spokane. The Cougars won three of these sixteen games in Spokane (1958, 1968, 1972). In 1910, the WSU home game was played in Spokane's Recreation Park.\n\nThe first game was held in 1900 and resulted in a 5–5 tie; through the 2015 game, the Huskies lead the series 70–32–6.\n\nGame results\n\n^ The 2011 game was played at CenturyLink Field in Seattle.\n\nOvertime was introduced for Division I-A (FBS) in 1996 and has been used four times in the Apple Cup, all in Pullman.Each team has two overtime victories: UW in 1996 and 2002, WSU in 2008 and 2012.\nOT → Overtime (1996, 2012)\n2OT → Double Overtime (2008)\n3OT → Triple Overtime (2002)\nAfter a two-year hiatus in 1943 and 1944, two games were played in 1945.Prior to 1959, WSU was WSC.\n\nCoaching records\n\nSince 1945\nWashington\n\nWashington State\n\n* Last tie was in 1942, overtime began in 1996 in Division I-A\n* Two games were played in 1945" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "Search" ], "filename": [ "Doctor_Who.txt" ], "title": [ "Doctor Who" ], "wiki_context": [ "Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television programme produced by the BBC since 1963. The programme depicts the adventures of the Doctor, a Time Lord—a space and time-travelling humanoid alien. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-travelling space ship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Accompanied by companions, the Doctor combats a variety of foes, while working to save civilisations and help people in need.\n\nThe show is a significant part of British popular culture, and elsewhere it has become a cult television favourite. The show has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series. The programme originally ran from 1963 to 1989. There was an unsuccessful attempt to revive regular production in 1996 with a backdoor pilot, in the form of a television film. The programme was relaunched in 2005 by Russell T Davies, who was showrunner and head writer for the first five years of its revival, produced in-house by BBC Wales in Cardiff. The first series of the 21st century featured Christopher Eccleston in the title role and was produced by the BBC. Doctor Who also spawned spin-offs in multiple media, including Torchwood (2006–2011) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011), both created by Russell T Davies; K-9 (2009–2010); and a single pilot episode of K-9 and Company (1981). There also have been many spoofs and cultural references to the character in other media.\n\nTwelve actors have headlined the series as the Doctor. The transition from one actor to another is written into the plot of the show, as well as the differing approach to the role that each brings, under the concept of regeneration into a new incarnation. The show's premise is that this is a life process of Time Lords through which the character of the Doctor takes on a new body and, to some extent, new personality, which occurs after sustaining an injury which would be fatal to most other species. Each actor's portrayal differs, but they are all intended to be aspects of the same character and form part of the same storyline. The time-travelling nature of the plot means that, on occasion, different Doctors have met each other. Peter Capaldi took on the role after Matt Smith's exit in the 2013 Christmas special \"The Time of the Doctor\". \n\nPremise\n\nDoctor Who follows the adventures of the primary character, a rogue Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who simply goes by the name \"The Doctor\". He fled from Gallifrey in a stolen Mark I Type 40 TARDIS – \"Time and Relative Dimension in Space\" – time machine which allows him to travel across time and space. The TARDIS has a \"chameleon circuit\" which normally allows the machine to take on the appearance of local objects as a disguise. However, the Doctor's TARDIS remains fixed as a blue British Police box due to a malfunction in the chameleon circuit.\n\nThe Doctor rarely travels alone and often brings one or more companions to share these adventures. His companions are usually humans, as he has found a fascination with planet Earth. He often finds events that pique his curiosity as he tries to prevent evil forces from harming innocent people or changing history, using only his ingenuity and minimal resources, such as his versatile sonic screwdriver. As a Time Lord, the Doctor has the ability to regenerate when his body is mortally damaged, taking on a new appearance and personality. The Doctor has gained numerous reoccurring enemies during his travels, including the Daleks, the Cybermen, and the Master, another renegade Time Lord.\n\nHistory\n\nDoctor Who first appeared on BBC TV at 17:16:20 GMT, eighty seconds after the scheduled programme time, 5:15 pm, on Saturday, 23 November 1963. It was to be a regular weekly programme, each episode 25 minutes of transmission length. Discussions and plans for the programme had been in progress for a year. The head of drama, Canadian Sydney Newman, was mainly responsible for developing the programme, with the first format document for the series being written by Newman along with the head of the script department (later head of serials) Donald Wilson and staff writer C. E. Webber. Writer Anthony Coburn, story editor David Whitaker and initial producer Verity Lambert also heavily contributed to the development of the series. Newman is often given sole creator credit for the series. Some reference works such as The Complete Encyclopedia of Television Programs 1947–1979 by Vincent Terrace erroneously credit Terry Nation with creating Doctor Who, because of the way his name is credited in the two Peter Cushing films.Newman and Lambert's role in originating the series was recognised in the 2007 episode \"Human Nature\", in which the Doctor, in disguise as a human named John Smith, gives his parents' names as Sydney and Verity. The programme was originally intended to appeal to a family audience, as an educational programme using time travel as a means to explore scientific ideas and famous moments in history. On 31 July 1963 Whitaker commissioned Terry Nation to write a story under the title The Mutants. As originally written, the Daleks and Thals were the victims of an alien neutron bomb attack but Nation later dropped the aliens and made the Daleks the aggressors. When the script was presented to Newman and Wilson it was immediately rejected as the programme was not permitted to contain any \"bug-eyed monsters\". The first serial had been completed and the BBC believed it was crucial that the next one be a success, but The Mutants was the only script ready to go, so the show had little choice but to use it. According to producer Verity Lambert; \"We didn't have a lot of choice — we only had the Dalek serial to go ... We had a bit of a crisis of confidence because Donald [Wilson] was so adamant that we shouldn't make it. Had we had anything else ready we would have made that.\" Nation's script became the second Doctor Who serial – The Daleks (a.k.a. The Mutants). The serial introduced the eponymous aliens that would become the series' most popular monsters, and was responsible for the BBC's first merchandising boom. \n\nThe BBC drama department's serials division produced the programme for 26 seasons, broadcast on BBC 1. Falling viewing numbers, a decline in the public perception of the show and a less-prominent transmission slot saw production suspended in 1989 by Jonathan Powell, controller of BBC 1. Although (as series co-star Sophie Aldred reported in the documentary Doctor Who: More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS) it was effectively, if not formally, cancelled with the decision not to commission a planned 27th series of the show for transmission in 1990, the BBC repeatedly affirmed that the series would return.\n\nWhile in-house production had ceased, the BBC hoped to find an independent production company to relaunch the show. Philip Segal, a British expatriate who worked for Columbia Pictures' television arm in the United States, had approached the BBC about such a venture as early as July 1989, while the 26th series was still in production. Segal's negotiations eventually led to a Doctor Who television film, broadcast on the Fox Network in 1996 as a co-production between Fox, Universal Pictures, the BBC and BBC Worldwide. Although the film was successful in the UK (with 9.1 million viewers), it was less so in the United States and did not lead to a series.\n\nLicensed media such as novels and audio plays provided new stories, but as a television programme Doctor Who remained dormant until 2003. In September of that year, BBC Television announced the in-house production of a new series after several years of attempts by BBC Worldwide to find backing for a feature film version. The executive producers of the new incarnation of the series were writer Russell T Davies and BBC Cymru Wales head of drama Julie Gardner.\n\nDoctor Who finally returned with the episode \"Rose\" on BBC One on 26 March 2005. There have since been nine further series in 2006–2008 and 2010–2015, and Christmas Day specials every year since 2005. No full series was filmed in 2009, although four additional specials starring David Tennant were made. In 2010, Steven Moffat replaced Davies as head writer and executive producer. In January 2016, Moffat announced that he would step down after the 2017 finale, to be replaced by Chris Chibnall in 2018. In addition, Series 10 will debut in Spring 2017, with a Christmas special broadcast in 2016. \n\nThe 2005 version of Doctor Who is a direct plot continuation of the original 1963–1989 seriesThis is often emphasised in the accompanying making-of documentaries in the series Doctor Who Confidential, as well as in occasional flashbacks to images of earlier versions of the Doctor. and the 1996 telefilm. This is similar to the 1988 continuation of Mission Impossible, but differs from most other series relaunches which have either been reboots (for example, Battlestar Galactica and Bionic Woman) or set in the same universe as the original but in a different time period and with different characters (for example, Star Trek: The Next Generation and spin-offs).\n\nThe programme has been sold to many other countries worldwide (see Viewership).\n\nPublic consciousness\n\nIt has been claimed that the transmission of the first episode was delayed by ten minutes due to extended news coverage of the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy the previous day; whereas in fact it went out after a delay of eighty seconds. The BBC believed that many viewers had missed this introduction to a new series due to the coverage of the assassination, as well as a series of power blackouts across the country, and they broadcast it again on 30 November 1963, just before episode two. \n\nThe programme soon became a national institution in the United Kingdom, with a large following among the general viewing audience. Many renowned actors asked for or were offered guest-starring roles in various stories. \n\nWith popularity came controversy over the show's suitability for children. Morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse repeatedly complained to the BBC in the 1970s over what she saw as the show's frightening and gory content. John Nathan-Turner produced the series during the 1980s and was heard to say that he looked forward to Whitehouse's comments, as the show's ratings would increase soon after she had made them. \n\nThe phrase \"Hiding behind (or 'watching from behind') the sofa\" entered British pop culture, signifying in humour the stereotypical early-series behaviour of children who wanted to avoid seeing frightening parts of a television programme while remaining in the room to watch the remainder of it. The phrase retains this association with Doctor Who, to the point that in 1991 the Museum of the Moving Image in London named their exhibition celebrating the programme \"Behind the Sofa\". The electronic theme music too was perceived as eerie, novel, and frightening, at the time. A 2012 article placed this childhood juxtaposition of fear and thrill \"at the center of many people's relationship with the show\", and a 2011 online vote at Digital Spy deemed the series the \"scariest TV show of all time\". \n\nDuring Jon Pertwee's second series as the Doctor, in the serial Terror of the Autons (1971), images of murderous plastic dolls, daffodils killing unsuspecting victims, and blank-featured policemen marked the apex of the show's ability to frighten children. Other notable moments in that decade include a disembodied brain falling to the floor in The Brain of Morbius and the Doctor apparently being drowned by Chancellor Goth in The Deadly Assassin (both 1976). \n\nA BBC audience research survey conducted in 1972 found that, by their own definition of violence (\"any act[s] which may cause physical and/or psychological injury, hurt or death to persons, animals or property, whether intentional or accidental\") Doctor Who was the most violent of the drama programmes the corporation produced at the time. The same report found that 3% of the surveyed audience regarded the show as \"very unsuitable\" for family viewing. Responding to the findings of the survey in The Times newspaper, journalist Philip Howard maintained that, \"to compare the violence of Dr Who, sired by a horse-laugh out of a nightmare, with the more realistic violence of other television series, where actors who look like human beings bleed paint that looks like blood, is like comparing Monopoly with the property market in London: both are fantasies, but one is meant to be taken seriously.\"\n\nThe image of the TARDIS has become firmly linked to the show in the public's consciousness; BBC scriptwriter Anthony Coburn, who lived in the resort of Herne Bay, Kent, was one of the people who conceived the idea of a police box as a time machine. In 1996, the BBC applied for a trade mark to use the TARDIS' blue police box design in merchandising associated with Doctor Who. In 1998, the Metropolitan Police Authority filed an objection to the trade mark claim; but in 2002, the Patent Office ruled in favour of the BBC.\n\nThe programme's broad appeal attracts audiences of children and families as well as science fiction fans. \n\nThe 21st century revival of the programme has become the centrepiece of BBC One's Saturday schedule, and has, \"defined the channel\". Since its return, Doctor Who has consistently received high ratings, both in number of viewers and as measured by the Appreciation Index. In 2007, Caitlin Moran, television reviewer for The Times, wrote that Doctor Who is, \"quintessential to being British\". Director Steven Spielberg has commented that, \"the world would be a poorer place without Doctor Who\". \n\nOn 4 August 2013, a live programme titled Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor was broadcast on BBC One, during which the actor who was going to play the Twelfth Doctor was revealed. The show was simultaneously broadcast in the US and Australia. \n\nEpisodes\n\nDoctor Who originally ran for 26 seasons on BBC One, from 23 November 1963 until 6 December 1989. During the original run, each weekly episode formed part of a story (or \"serial\") — usually of four to six parts in earlier years and three to four in later years. Notable exceptions were: The Daleks' Master Plan, which aired in 12 episodes (plus an earlier one-episode teaser, \"Mission to the Unknown\", featuring none of the regular cast ); almost an entire season of seven-episode serials (season 7); the 10-episode serial The War Games;The War Games. Writers Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks, Director David Maloney, Producer Derrick Sherwin. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One, London. 19 April 1969 – 21 June 1969. and The Trial of a Time Lord, which ran for 14 episodes (albeit divided into three production codes and four narrative segments) during season 23.The Trial of a Time Lord. Writers Robert Holmes, Philip Martin and Pip and Jane Baker, Directors Nicholas Mallett, Ron Jones and Chris Clough, Producer John Nathan-Turner. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One, London. 6 September 1986 – 6 December 1986. Occasionally serials were loosely connected by a storyline, such as season 8 being devoted to the Doctor battling a rogue Time Lord called The Master, season 16's quest for The Key to Time, season 18's journey through E-Space and the theme of entropy, and season 20's Black Guardian Trilogy. \n\nThe programme was intended to be educational and for family viewing on the early Saturday evening schedule. Initially, it alternated stories set in the past, which were intended to teach younger audience members about history, with stories set either in the future or in outer space to teach them about science. This was also reflected in the Doctor's original companions, one of whom was a science teacher and another a history teacher.\n\nHowever, science fiction stories came to dominate the programme and the \"historicals\", which were not popular with the production team, were dropped after The Highlanders (1967). While the show continued to use historical settings, they were generally used as a backdrop for science fiction tales, with one exception: Black Orchid set in 1920s England.Black Orchid. Writer Terence Dudley, Director Ron Jones, Producer John Nathan-Turner. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One, London. 1 March 1982 – 2 March 1982.\n\nThe early stories were serial-like in nature, with the narrative of one story flowing into the next, and each episode having its own title, although produced as distinct stories with their own production codes. Following The Gunfighters (1966), however, each serial was given its own title, with the individual parts simply being assigned episode numbers.\n\nOf the programme's many writers, Robert Holmes was the most prolific, while Douglas Adams became the most well-known outside Doctor Who itself, due to the popularity of his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy works. \n\nThe serial format changed for the 2005 revival, with each series usually consisting of 13 45-minute, self-contained episodes (60 minutes with adverts, on overseas commercial channels), and an extended episode broadcast on Christmas Day. Each series includes several standalone and multi-part stories, linked with a loose story arc that resolves in the series finale. As in the early \"classic\" era, each episode, whether standalone or part of a larger story, has its own title. Occasionally, regular-series episodes will exceed the 45-minute run time; notably, the episodes \"Journey's End\" from 2008 and \"The Eleventh Hour\" from 2010 exceeded an hour in length.\n\n Doctor Who instalments have been televised since 1963, ranging between 25-minute episodes (the most common format), 45-minute episodes (for Resurrection of the Daleks in the 1984 series, a single season in 1985, and the revival), two feature-length productions (1983's The Five Doctors and the 1996 television film), eleven Christmas specials (most of 60 minutes' duration, one of 72 minutes), and four additional specials ranging from 60 to 75 minutes in 2009, 2010 and 2013. Four mini-episodes, running about eight minutes each, were also produced for the 1993, 2005 and 2007 Children in Need charity appeals, while another mini-episode was produced in 2008 for a Doctor Who-themed edition of The Proms. The 1993 2-part story, entitled Dimensions in Time, was made in collaboration with the cast of the BBC soap-opera EastEnders and was filmed partly on the EastEnders set. A two-part mini-episode was also produced for the 2011 edition of Comic Relief. Starting with the 2009 special \"Planet of the Dead\", the series was filmed in 1080i for HDTV, and broadcast simultaneously on BBC One and BBC HD.\n\nTo celebrate the 50th anniversary of the show, a special 3D episode, \"The Day of the Doctor\", was broadcast in 2013. In March 2013, it was announced that Tennant and Piper would be returning, and that the episode would have a limited cinematic release worldwide. \n\nIn April 2015, Steven Moffat confirmed that Doctor Who would run for at least another five years, extending the show until 2020. \n\nMissing episodes\n\nBetween about 1964 and 1973, large amounts of older material stored in the BBC's various video tape and film libraries were either destroyed,The tapes, based on a 405-line broadcast standard, were rendered obsolete when UK television changed to a 625-line signal in preparation for the soon-to-begin colour transmissions. wiped, or suffered from poor storage which led to severe deterioration from broadcast quality. This included many old episodes of Doctor Who, mostly stories featuring the first two Doctors: William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. In all, 97 of 253 episodes produced during the first six years of the programme are not held in the BBC's archives (most notably seasons 3, 4, & 5, from which 79 episodes are missing). In 1972, almost all episodes then made were known to exist at the BBC, while by 1978 the practice of wiping tapes and destroying \"spare\" film copies had been brought to a stop. \n\nNo 1960s episodes exist on their original videotapes (all surviving prints being film transfers), though some were transferred to film for editing before transmission, and exist in their broadcast form. \n\nSome episodes have been returned to the BBC from the archives of other countries who bought prints for broadcast, or by private individuals who acquired them by various means. Early colour videotape recordings made off-air by fans have also been retrieved, as well as excerpts filmed from the television screen onto 8 mm cine film and clips that were shown on other programmes. Audio versions of all of the lost episodes exist from home viewers who made tape recordings of the show. Short clips from every story with the exception of Marco Polo, \"Mission to the Unknown\" and The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve also exist.\n\nIn addition to these, there are off-screen photographs made by photographer John Cura, who was hired by various production personnel to document many of their programmes during the 1950s and 1960s, including Doctor Who. These have been used in fan reconstructions of the serials. These amateur reconstructions have been tolerated by the BBC, provided they are not sold for profit and are distributed as low-quality VHS copies. \n\nOne of the most sought-after lost episodes is part four of the last William Hartnell serial, The Tenth Planet (1966), which ends with the First Doctor transforming into the Second. The only portion of this in existence, barring a few poor-quality silent 8 mm clips, is the few seconds of the regeneration scene, as it was shown on the children's magazine show Blue Peter. With the approval of the BBC, efforts are now under way to restore as many of the episodes as possible from the extant material.\n\n\"Official\" reconstructions have also been released by the BBC on VHS, on MP3 CD-ROM, and as special features on DVD. The BBC, in conjunction with animation studio Cosgrove Hall, reconstructed the missing episodes 1 and 4 of The Invasion (1968), using remastered audio tracks and the comprehensive stage notes for the original filming, for the serial's DVD release in November 2006. The missing episodes of The Reign of Terror were animated by animation company Theta-Sigma, in collaboration with Big Finish, and became available for purchase in May 2013 through Amazon.com. Subsequent animations made in 2013 include The Tenth Planet, The Ice Warriors and The Moonbase.\n\nIn April 2006, Blue Peter launched a challenge to find missing Doctor Who episodes with the promise of a full-scale Dalek model as a reward. \n\nIn December 2011, it was announced that part 3 of Galaxy 4 and part 2 of The Underwater Menace had been returned to the BBC by a fan who had purchased them in the mid-1980s without realising that the BBC did not hold copies of them. \n\nOn 10 October 2013, the BBC announced that films of eleven episodes, including nine missing episodes, had been found in a Nigerian television relay station in Jos. Six of the eleven films discovered were the six-part serial The Enemy of the World, from which all but the third episode had been missing. The remaining films were from another six-part serial, The Web of Fear, and included the previously missing episodes 2, 4, 5, and 6. Episode 3 of The Web of Fear is still missing. \n\nCharacters\n\nThe Doctor\n\nThe character of the Doctor was initially shrouded in mystery. All that was known about him in the programme's early days was that he was an eccentric alien traveller of great intelligence who battled injustice while exploring time and space in an unreliable time machine, the \"TARDIS\" (an acronym for time and relative dimension(s) in space), which notably appears much larger on the inside than on the outside (a quality referred to as \"dimensional transcendentality\").When it became an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, the word \"TARDIS\" often came to be used to describe anything that appeared larger on the inside than its exterior implied. \n\nThe initially irascible and slightly sinister Doctor quickly mellowed into a more compassionate figure. It was eventually revealed that he had been on the run from his own people, the Time Lords of the planet Gallifrey.\n\nChanges of appearance\n\nProducers introduced the concept of regeneration to permit the recasting of the main character. This was first prompted by original star William Hartnell's poor health. The actual term \"regeneration\" was not initially conceived of until the Doctor's third on-screen regeneration however; Hartnell's Doctor had merely described undergoing a \"renewal,\" and the Second Doctor underwent a \"change of appearance\". The device has allowed for the recasting of the actor various times in the show's history, as well as the depiction of alternative Doctors either from the Doctor's relative past or future.\n\nThe serials The Deadly Assassin and Mawdryn Undead and the 1996 TV film would later establish that a Time Lord can only regenerate 12 times, for a total of 13 incarnations. This line became stuck in the public consciousness despite not often being repeated, and was recognised by producers of the show as a plot obstacle for when the show finally had to regenerate the Doctor a thirteenth time. The episode \"The Time of the Doctor\" depicted the Doctor acquiring a new cycle of regenerations, starting from the Twelfth Doctor, due to the Eleventh Doctor being the product of the Doctor's twelfth regeneration from his original set. \n\nIn addition to those actors who have headlined the series, others have portrayed versions of the Doctor in guest roles. Notably, in 2013, John Hurt guest-starred as a hitherto unknown incarnation of the Doctor known as the War Doctor in the run-up to the show's 50th anniversary special \"The Day of the Doctor\". He is shown in mini-episode \"The Night of the Doctor\" to have been retroactively inserted into the show's fictional chronology between McGann and Eccleston's Doctors, although his introduction was written so as not to disturb the established numerical naming of the Doctors. Another example is from the 1986 serial The Trial of a Time Lord, where Michael Jayston portrayed the Valeyard, who is described as an amalgamation of the darker sides of the Doctor's nature, somewhere between his twelfth and final incarnation.\n\nOn rare occasions, other actors have stood in for the lead. In The Five Doctors, Richard Hurndall played the First Doctor due to William Hartnell's death in 1975. In Time and the Rani, Sylvester McCoy briefly played the Sixth Doctor during the regeneration sequence, carrying on as the Seventh. For more information, see the list of actors who have played the Doctor. In other media, the Doctor has been played by various other actors, including Peter Cushing in two films.\n\nThe casting of a new Doctor has often inspired debate and speculation: in particular, the desirability or possibility of a new Doctor being played by a woman. In October 2010, The Sunday Telegraph revealed that the series' co-creator, Sydney Newman, had urged the BBC to recast the role of the Doctor as a female \"Time Lady\" during the ratings crisis of the late 1980s. \n\nMeetings of different incarnations\n\nThere have been instances of actors returning at later dates to reprise the role of their specific Doctor. In 1973's The Three Doctors, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton returned alongside Jon Pertwee. For 1983's The Five Doctors, Troughton and Pertwee returned to star with Peter Davison, and Tom Baker appeared in previously unseen footage from the uncompleted Shada episode. For this episode, Richard Hurndall replaced William Hartnell. Patrick Troughton again returned in 1985's The Two Doctors with Colin Baker. In 2007, Peter Davison returned in the Children in Need short \"Time Crash\" alongside David Tennant, and most recently in 2013's 50th anniversary special episode, \"The Day of the Doctor\", David Tennant's Tenth Doctor appeared alongside Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and John Hurt as the War Doctor, as well as brief footage from all of the previous actors. In addition, the Doctor has occasionally encountered himself in the form of his own incarnation, from the near future or past. The First Doctor encounters himself in the story The Space Museum (albeit frozen and as an exhibit), the Third Doctor encounters and interacts with himself in the story Day of the Daleks, the Fourth Doctor encounters and interacts with the future incarnation of himself (the 'Watcher') in the story Logopolis, the Ninth Doctor observes a former version of his current incarnation in \"Father's Day\", and the Eleventh Doctor briefly comes face to face with himself in \"The Big Bang\". In \"The Almost People\" the Doctor comes face-to-face with himself although it is found out that this incarnation is in fact just a flesh replica. In \"The Name of the Doctor\", the Eleventh Doctor meets an unknown incarnation of himself, whom he refers to as \"his secret\" and who is subsequently revealed to be the War Doctor.\n\nAdditionally, multiple Doctors have returned in new adventures together in audio dramas based on the series. Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy appeared together in the 1999 audio adventure The Sirens of Time. To celebrate the 40th anniversary in 2003, an audio drama titled Zagreus featuring Paul McGann, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Peter Davison was released with additional archive recordings of Jon Pertwee. Again in 2003, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy appeared together in the audio adventure Project: Lazarus. In 2010, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann came together again to star in the audio drama The Four Doctors.\n\nRevelations about the Doctor\n\nThroughout the programme's long history, there have been revelations about the Doctor that have raised additional questions. In The Brain of Morbius (1976), it was hinted that the First Doctor may not have been the first incarnation (although the other faces depicted may have been incarnations of the Time Lord Morbius). In subsequent stories the First Doctor was depicted as the earliest incarnation of the Doctor. In Mawdryn Undead (1983), the Fifth Doctor explicitly confirmed that he was then currently in his fifth incarnation. Later that same year, during 1983's 20th Anniversary special The Five Doctors, the First Doctor enquires as to the Fifth Doctor's regeneration; when the Fifth Doctor confirms \"Fourth\", the First Doctor excitedly replies \"Goodness me. So there are five of me now.\" In 2010, the Eleventh Doctor similarly calls himself \"the Eleventh\" in \"The Lodger\". In the 2013 episode \"The Time of the Doctor,\" the Eleventh Doctor clarified he was the product of the twelfth regeneration, due to a previous incarnation which he chose not to count and one other aborted regeneration. The name Eleventh is still used for this incarnation; the same episode depicts the prophesied \"Fall of the Eleventh\" which had been trailed throughout the series.\n\nDuring the Seventh Doctor's era, it was hinted that the Doctor was more than just an ordinary Time Lord. In the 1996 television film, the Eighth Doctor describes himself as being \"half human\". The BBC's FAQ for the programme notes that \"purists tend to disregard this\", instead focusing on his Gallifreyan heritage.\n\nThe programme's first serial, An Unearthly Child, shows that the Doctor has a granddaughter, Susan Foreman. In the 1967 serial, Tomb of the Cybermen, when Victoria Waterfield doubts the Doctor can remember his family because of, \"being so ancient\", the Doctor says that he can when he really wants to—\"The rest of the time they sleep in my mind\". The 2005 series reveals that the Ninth Doctor thought he was the last surviving Time Lord, and that his home planet had been destroyed; in \"The Empty Child\" (2005), Dr. Constantine states that, \"Before the war even began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither.\" The Doctor remarks in response, \"Yeah, I know the feeling.\" In \"Smith and Jones\" (2007), when asked if he had a brother, he replied, \"No, not any more.\" In both \"Fear Her\" (2006) and \"The Doctor's Daughter\" (2008), he states that he had, in the past, been a father.\n\nIn \"The Wedding of River Song\" (2011), it is implied that the Doctor's true name is a secret that must never be revealed; this is explored further in \"The Name of the Doctor\" (2013), when River Song speaking his name allows the Great Intelligence to enter his tomb, and in \"The Time of the Doctor\" (2013) where speaking his true name becomes the signal by which the Time Lords would know they can safely return to the universe, an event opposed by many species.\n\nCompanions\n\nThe companion figure – generally a human – has been a constant feature in Doctor Who since the programme's inception in 1963. One of the roles of the companion is to remind the Doctor of his \"moral duty\". The Doctor's first companions seen on screen were his granddaughter Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford) and her teachers Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) and Ian Chesterton (William Russell). These characters were intended to act as audience surrogates, through which the audience would discover information about the Doctor who was to act as a mysterious father figure. The only story from the original series in which the Doctor travels alone is The Deadly Assassin. Notable companions from the earlier series included Romana (Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward), a Time Lady; Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen); and Jo Grant (Katy Manning). Dramatically, these characters provide a figure with whom the audience can identify, and serve to further the story by requesting exposition from the Doctor and manufacturing peril for the Doctor to resolve. The Doctor regularly gains new companions and loses old ones; sometimes they return home or find new causes — or loves — on worlds they have visited. Some have died during the course of the series. Companions are usually human, or humanoid aliens.\n\nSince the 2005 revival, the Doctor generally travels with a primary female companion, who occupies a larger narrative role. Steven Moffat described the companion as the main character of the show, as the story begins anew with each companion and she undergoes more change than the Doctor. The primary companions of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors were Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) with Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) and Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) recurring as secondary companion figures. The Eleventh Doctor became the first to travel with a married couple, Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), whilst out-of-sync meetings with River Song (Alex Kingston) and Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) provided ongoing story arcs. The tenth series will introduce Pearl Mackie as Bill, the Doctor's newest traveling companion. \n\nSome companions have gone on to re-appear, either in the main series or in spin-offs. Sarah Jane Smith became the central character in The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–11) following a return to Doctor Who in 2006. Guest stars in the series included former companions Jo Grant, K9, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney). The character of Jack Harkness also served to launch a spin-off, Torchwood, (2006–2011) in which Martha Jones also appeared.\n\nAdversaries\n\nWhen Sydney Newman commissioned the series, he specifically did not want to perpetuate the cliché of the \"bug-eyed monster\" of science fiction. However, monsters were popular with audiences and so became a staple of Doctor Who almost from the beginning.\n\nWith the show's 2005 revival, executive producer Russell T Davies stated his intention to reintroduce classic icons of Doctor Who one step at a time: the Autons with the Nestene Consciousness and Daleks in series 1, Cybermen in series 2, the Macra and the Master in series 3, the Sontarans and Davros in series 4, and the Time Lords (Rassilon) in the 2009–10 Specials. Davies' successor, Steven Moffat, has continued the trend by reviving the Silurians in series 5, Cybermats in series 6, the Great Intelligence and the Ice Warriors in Series 7, and Zygons in the 50th Anniversary Special. Since its 2005 return, the series has also introduced new recurring aliens: Slitheen (Raxacoricofallapatorian), Ood, Judoon, Weeping Angels and the Silence.\n\nBesides infrequent appearances by the Ice Warriors, Ogrons, the Rani, and Black Guardian, three adversaries have become particularly iconic: the Daleks, the Cybermen, and the Master.\n\nDaleks\n\nThe Dalek race, which first appeared in the show's second serial in 1963, are Doctor Whos oldest villains. The Daleks are Kaleds from the planet Skaro, mutated by the scientist Davros and housed in mechanical armour shells for mobility. The actual creatures resemble octopi with large, pronounced brains. Their armour shells have a single eye-stalk, a sink-plunger-like device that serves the purpose of a hand, and a directed-energy weapon. Their main weakness is their eyestalk; attacks upon them using various weapons can blind a Dalek, making it go mad. Their chief role in the series plot, as they frequently remark in their instantly recognisable metallic voices, is to \"exterminate\" all non-Dalek beings. They even attack the Time Lords in the Time War, as shown during the 50th Anniversary of the show. They continue to be a recurring 'monster' within the Doctor Who franchise, their most recent appearances being in the 2015 episodes \"The Witch's Familiar\" and \"Hell Bent\". Davros has also been a recurring figure since his debut in Genesis of the Daleks, although played by several different actors.\n\nThe Daleks were created by writer Terry Nation (who intended them to be an allegory of the Nazis) and BBC designer Raymond Cusick. The Daleks' début in the programme's second serial, The Daleks (1963–64), made both the Daleks and Doctor Who very popular. A Dalek appeared on a postage stamp celebrating British popular culture in 1999, photographed by Lord Snowdon. In the new series, Daleks come in a range of colours; the colour denoting its role within the species. \n\nIn the 2012 episode \"Asylum of the Daleks\", many of the Dalek variants seen throughout the programme's history made an appearance. \n\nCybermen\n\nCybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids originating on Earth's twin planet Mondas that began to implant more and more artificial parts into their bodies. This led to the race becoming coldly logical and calculating cyborgs, with emotions usually only shown when naked aggression was called for. With the demise of Mondas, they acquired Telos as their new home planet. They continue to be a recurring 'monster' within the Doctor Who franchise.\n\nThe 2006 series introduced a totally new variation of Cybermen. These Cybus Cybermen were created in a parallel universe by the mad inventor John Lumic; he was attempting to preserve the humans by transplanting their brains into powerful metal bodies, sending them orders using a mobile phone network and inhibiting their emotions with an electronic chip.\n\nThe Master\n\nThe Master is the Doctor's archenemy, a renegade Time Lord who desires to rule the universe. Conceived as \"Professor Moriarty to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes\", the character first appeared in 1971. As with the Doctor, the role has been portrayed by several actors, since the Master is a Time Lord as well and able to regenerate; the first of these actors was Roger Delgado, who continued in the role until his death in 1973. The Master was briefly played by Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers until Anthony Ainley took over and continued to play the character until Doctor Who's hiatus in 1989. The Master returned in the 1996 television movie of Doctor Who, and was played by American actor Eric Roberts.\n\nFollowing the series revival in 2005, Derek Jacobi provided the character's re-introduction in the 2007 episode \"Utopia\". During that story the role was then assumed by John Simm who returned to the role multiple times through the Tenth Doctor's tenure. \nAs of the 2014 episode \"Dark Water,\" it was revealed that the Master had become a female incarnation or \"Time Lady,\" going by the name of \"Missy\" (short for Mistress, the feminine equivalent of \"Master\"). This incarnation is played by Michelle Gomez.\n\nMusic\n\nTheme music\n\nThe Doctor Who theme music was one of the first electronic music signature tunes for television, and after five decades remains one of the most easily recognised. It has been often called both memorable and frightening, priming the viewer for what was to follow. During the 1970s, the Radio Times, the BBC's own listings magazine, announced that a child's mother said the theme music terrified her son. The Radio Times was apologetic, but the theme music remained.\n\nThe original theme was composed by Ron Grainer and realised by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, with assistance from Dick Mills and was released as a single on Decca F 11837 in 1964. The various parts were built up using musique concrète techniques, by creating tape loops of an individually struck piano string and individual test oscillators and filters. The Derbyshire arrangement served, with minor edits, as the theme tune up to the end of season 17 (1979–80). It is regarded as a significant and innovative piece of electronic music, recorded well before the availability of commercial synthesisers or multitrack mixers. Each note was individually created by cutting, splicing, speeding up and slowing down segments of analogue tape containing recordings of a single plucked string, white noise, and the simple harmonic waveforms of test-tone oscillators, intended for calibrating equipment and rooms, not creating music. New techniques were invented to allow mixing of the music, as this was before the era of multitrack tape machines. On hearing the finished result, Grainer asked, \"Did I write that?\"\n\nA different arrangement was recorded by Peter Howell for season 18 (1980), which was in turn replaced by Dominic Glynn's arrangement for the season-long serial The Trial of a Time Lord in season 23 (1986). Keff McCulloch provided the new arrangement for the Seventh Doctor's era which lasted from season 24 (1987) until the series' suspension in 1989. American composer John Debney created a new arrangement of Ron Grainer's original theme for Doctor Who in 1996. For the return of the series in 2005, Murray Gold provided a new arrangement which featured samples from the 1963 original with further elements added; in the 2005 Christmas episode \"The Christmas Invasion\", Gold introduced a modified closing credits arrangement that was used up until the conclusion of the 2007 series.\n\nA new arrangement of the theme, once again by Gold, was introduced in the 2007 Christmas special episode, \"Voyage of the Damned\"; Gold returned as composer for the 2010 series. He was responsible for a new version of the theme which was reported to have had a hostile reception from some viewers. In 2011, the theme tune charted at number 228 of radio station Classic FM's Hall of Fame, a survey of classical music tastes. A revised version of Gold's 2010 arrangement had its debut over the opening titles of the 2012 Christmas special \"The Snowmen\", and a further revision of the arrangement was made for the 50th Anniversary special \"The Day of the Doctor\" in November 2013.\n\nVersions of the \"Doctor Who Theme\" have also been released as pop music over the years. In the early 1970s, Jon Pertwee, who had played the Third Doctor, recorded a version of the Doctor Who theme with spoken lyrics, titled, \"Who Is the Doctor\".Often mistitled \"I am the Doctor\" on YouTube uploads. Originally released as a 7\" vinyl single, plain sleeve, December 1972 on label Purple PUR III In 1978 a disco version of the theme was released in the UK, Denmark and Australia by the group Mankind, which reached number 24 in the UK charts. In 1988 the band The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (later known as The KLF) released the single \"Doctorin' the Tardis\" under the name The Timelords, which reached No. 1 in the UK and No. 2 in Australia; this version incorporated several other songs, including \"Rock and Roll Part 2\" by Gary Glitter (who recorded vocals for some of the CD-single remix versions of \"Doctorin' the Tardis\"). Others who have covered or reinterpreted the theme include Orbital, Pink Floyd, the Australian string ensemble Fourplay, New Zealand punk band Blam Blam Blam, The Pogues, Thin Lizzy, Dub Syndicate, and the comedians Bill Bailey and Mitch Benn. Both the theme and obsessive fans were satirised on The Chaser's War on Everything. The theme tune has also appeared on many compilation CDs, and has made its way into mobile-phone ringtones. Fans have also produced and distributed their own remixes of the theme. In January 2011 the Mankind version was released as a digital download on the album Gallifrey And Beyond.\n\nIncidental music\n\nMost of the innovative incidental music for Doctor Who has been specially commissioned from freelance composers, although in the early years some episodes also used stock music, as well as occasional excerpts from original recordings or cover versions of songs by popular music acts such as The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Since its 2005 return, the series has featured occasional use of excerpts of pop music from the 1970s to the 2000s.\n\nThe incidental music for the first Doctor Who adventure, An Unearthly Child, was written by Norman Kay. Many of the stories of the William Hartnell period were scored by electronic music pioneer Tristram Cary, whose Doctor Who credits include The Daleks, Marco Polo, The Daleks' Master Plan, The Gunfighters and The Mutants. Other composers in this early period included Richard Rodney Bennett, Carey Blyton and Geoffrey Burgon.\n\nThe most frequent musical contributor during the first 15 years was Dudley Simpson, who is also well known for his theme and incidental music for Blake's 7, and for his haunting theme music and score for the original 1970s version of The Tomorrow People. Simpson's first Doctor Who score was Planet of Giants (1964) and he went on to write music for many adventures of the 1960s and 1970s, including most of the stories of the Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker periods, ending with The Horns of Nimon (1979). He also made a cameo appearance in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (as a Music hall conductor).\n\nIn 1980 starting with the serial The Leisure Hive the task of creating incidental music was assigned to the Radiophonic Workshop. Paddy Kingsland and Peter Howell contributed many scores in this period and other contributors included Roger Limb, Malcolm Clarke and Jonathan Gibbs.\n\nThe Radiophonic Workshop was dropped after 1986's The Trial of a Time Lord series, and Keff McCulloch took over as the series' main composer until the end of its run, with Dominic Glynn and Mark Ayres also contributing scores.\n\nAll the incidental music for the 2005 revived series has been composed by Murray Gold and Ben Foster and has been performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales from the 2005 Christmas episode \"The Christmas Invasion\" onwards. A concert featuring the orchestra performing music from the first two series took place on 19 November 2006 to raise money for Children in Need. David Tennant hosted the event, introducing the different sections of the concert. Murray Gold and Russell T Davies answered questions during the interval and Daleks and Cybermen appeared whilst music from their stories was played. The concert aired on BBCi on Christmas Day 2006. A Doctor Who Prom was celebrated on 27 July 2008 in the Royal Albert Hall as part of the annual BBC Proms. The BBC Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic Choir performed Murray Gold's compositions for the series, conducted by Ben Foster, as well as a selection of classics based on the theme of space and time. The event was presented by Freema Agyeman and guest-presented by various other stars of the show with numerous monsters participating in the proceedings. It also featured the specially filmed mini-episode \"Music of the Spheres\", written by Russell T Davies and starring David Tennant. \n\nSix soundtrack releases have been released since 2005. The first featured tracks from the first two series, the second and third featured music from the third and fourth series respectively. The fourth was released on 4 October 2010 as a two disc special edition and contained music from the 2008–2010 specials (The Next Doctor to End of Time Part 2). The soundtrack for Series 5 was released on 8 November 2010. In February 2011, a soundtrack was released for the 2010 Christmas special: \"A Christmas Carol\", and in December 2011 the soundtrack for Series 6 was released, both by Silva Screen Records. \n\nIn 2013, a 50th-anniversary boxed set of audio CDs was released featuring music and sound effects from Doctor Who’s 50-year history. The celebration continued in 2016 with the release of Doctor Who: The 50th Anniversary Collection Four LP Box Set by New York City-based Spacelab9. The company pressed 1,000 copies of the set on “Metallic Silver” vinyl, dubbed the “Cyberman Edition”. \n\nLogo history\n\nBelow is a collection of current and past Doctor Who logos from the classic and current series. The different doctors have been named below the logos that have appeared during their tenure.\n\nThe original logo used for the First Doctor (and briefly for the Second Doctor) was reused in a slightly modified format for the 50th anniversary special \"The Day of the Doctor\" during the Eleventh Doctor's run. The logo used in the television movie featuring the Eighth Doctor was an updated version of the logo used for the Third Doctor. The logo from 1973–80 was used for the Third Doctor's final season and for the majority of the Fourth Doctor's tenure. The following logo, while most associated with the Fifth Doctor, was also used for the Fourth Doctor's final season. The logo used for the Ninth Doctor was slightly edited for the Tenth Doctor, but it retained the same general appearance. The logo used for the Eleventh Doctor had the \"DW\" TARDIS insignia placed to the right in 2012, but the same font remained, albeit with a slight edit to the texture every episode, with the texture relating to some aspect of the story. The logo for the Twelfth Doctor had the \"DW\" TARDIS insignia removed and the font was subtly altered, as well as made slightly larger. As of 2014, the logo used for the Third and Eighth Doctors is the primary logo used on all media and merchandise relating to past Doctors, and the current Doctor Who logo is used for all merchandise relating to the current Doctor.\n\nFile:Doctor_Who_logo_1963-1967.jpg|1963–67(First Doctor and Second Doctor)\nFile:Doctor_Who_logo_1967-1969.jpg|1967–69(Second Doctor)\nFile:Doctor_Who_logo_1970-1973,_1996.svg|1970–73(Third Doctor)\nFile:Doctor_Who_logo_1973-1980.svg|1973–80(Third Doctor and Fourth Doctor)\nFile:Doctor_Who_logo_1980-1984.svg|1980–84(Fourth Doctor and Fifth Doctor)\nFile:Doctor_Who_logo_1984-1986.svg|1984–86(Sixth Doctor)\nFile:Doctor_Who_logo_1987-1989.svg|1987–89(Seventh Doctor)\nFile:Doctor_Who_logo_1970-1973,_1996.svg|1996(Eighth Doctor)\nFile:Doctor Who logo 2005 (1).svg|2005–10(Ninth Doctor and Tenth Doctor)\nFile:Doctor_Who_logo_2010.svg|2010–11(Eleventh Doctor)\nFile:Doctor Who logo 2012 background.svg|2012–13(Eleventh Doctor)\nFile:Doctor Who logo 2014.jpg|2014–present(Twelfth Doctor)\n\nViewership\n\nUnited Kingdom\n\nPremiering the day after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the first episode of Doctor Who was repeated with the second episode the following week. Doctor Who has always appeared initially on the BBC's mainstream BBC One channel, where it is regarded as a family show, drawing audiences of many millions of viewers; episodes are now repeated on BBC Three. The programme's popularity has waxed and waned over the decades, with three notable periods of high ratings. The first of these was the \"Dalekmania\" period (circa 1964–1965), when the popularity of the Daleks regularly brought Doctor Who ratings of between 9 and 14 million, even for stories which did not feature them. The second was the late 1970s, when Tom Baker occasionally drew audiences of over 12 million.\n\nDuring the ITV network strike of 1979, viewership peaked at 16 million. Figures remained respectable into the 1980s, but fell noticeably after the programme's 23rd series was postponed in 1985 and the show was off the air for 18 months. Its late 1980s performance of three to five million viewers was seen as poor at the time and was, according to the BBC Board of Control, a leading cause of the programme's 1989 suspension. Some fans considered this disingenuous, since the programme was scheduled against the soap opera Coronation Street, the most popular show at the time. After the series' revival in 2005 (the third notable period of high ratings), it has consistently had high viewership levels for the evening on which the episode is broadcast.\n\nThe BBC One broadcast of \"Rose\", the first episode of the 2005 revival, drew an average audience of 10.81 million, third highest for BBC One that week and seventh across all channels. The current revival also garners the highest audience Appreciation Index of any drama on television. \n\nInternational\n\nDoctor Who has been broadcast internationally outside of the United Kingdom since 1964, a year after the show first aired. As of 1 January 2013, the modern series has been or is currently broadcast weekly in more than 50 countries.\n\nDoctor Who is one of the five top grossing titles for BBC Worldwide, the BBC's commercial arm. BBC Worldwide CEO John Smith has said that Doctor Who is one of a small number of \"Superbrands\" which Worldwide will promote heavily. \n\nOnly four episodes have ever had their premiere showings on channels other than BBC One. The 1983 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors had its début on 23 November (the actual date of the anniversary) on a number of PBS stations two days prior to its BBC One broadcast. The 1988 story Silver Nemesis was broadcast with all three episodes airing back to back on TVNZ in New Zealand in November, after the first episode had been shown in the UK but before the final two instalments had aired there. Finally, the 1996 television film premièred on 12 May 1996 on CITV in Edmonton, Canada, 15 days before the BBC One showing, and two days before it aired on Fox in the United States.\n\nOceania\n\nNew Zealand was the first country outside the United Kingdom to screen Doctor Who, beginning in September 1964, and continued to screen the series for many years, including the new series from 2005.\n\nIn Australia, the show has had a strong fan base since its inception, having been exclusively first run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) since January 1965. The ABC has periodically repeated episodes; of note were the weekly screenings of all available classic episodes starting in 2003, for the show's 40th anniversary, and the weekdaily screenings of all available revived episodes in 2013 for the show's 50th anniversary. The ABC broadcasts the modern series first run on ABC1, with repeats on ABC2. The ABC also provided partial funding for the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors in 1983. Repeats of both the classic and modern series have also been shown on subscription television channels BBC UKTV, SF and later on SyFy upon SF's closure.\n\nAmericas\n\nThe series also has a fan base in the United States, where it was shown in syndication from the 1970s to the 1990s, particularly on PBS stations.\n\nTVOntario picked up the show in 1976 beginning with The Three Doctors and aired each series (several years late) through to series 24 in 1991. From 1979 to 1981, TVO airings were bookended by science-fiction writer Judith Merril who would introduce the episode and then, after the episode concluded, try to place it in an educational context in keeping with TVO's status as an educational channel. Its airing of The Talons of Weng-Chiang was cancelled as a result of accusations that the story was racist; the story was later broadcast in the 1990s on cable station YTV. CBC began showing the series again in 2005. The series moved to the Canadian cable channel Space in 2009.\n\nFor the Canadian broadcast, Christopher Eccleston recorded special video introductions for each episode (including a trivia question as part of a viewer contest) and excerpts from the Doctor Who Confidential documentary were played over the closing credits; for the broadcast of \"The Christmas Invasion\" on 26 December 2005, Billie Piper recorded a special video introduction. CBC began airing series two on 9 October 2006 at 20:00 E/P (20:30 in Newfoundland and Labrador), shortly after that day's CFL double header on Thanksgiving in most of the country.\n\nSeries three began broadcasting on CBC on 18 June 2007 followed by the second Christmas special, \"The Runaway Bride\" at midnight, and the Sci Fi Channel began on 6 July 2007 starting with the second Christmas special at 8:00 pm E/P followed by the first episode. \n\nSeries four aired in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel (now known as Syfy), beginning in April 2008. It aired on CBC beginning 19 September 2008, although the CBC did not air the Voyage of the Damned special. The Canadian cable network Space broadcast \"The Next Doctor\" (in March 2009) and all subsequent series and specials. \n\nDVD and video\n\nA wide selection of serials are available from BBC Video on DVD, on sale in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States. Every fully extant serial has been released on VHS, and BBC Worldwide continues to regularly release serials on DVD. The 2005 series is also available in its entirety on UMD for the PlayStation Portable. Eight original series serials have been released on Laserdisc and many have also been released on Betamax tape and Video 2000. One episode of Doctor Who (The Infinite Quest) was released on VCD. Only the series from 2009 onwards are available on Blu-ray, except for the 1970 story Spearhead from Space, released in July 2013. Many early releases have been re-released as special editions, with more bonus features.\n\nAdaptations and other appearances\n\nDoctor Who films\n\nThere are two Doctor Who feature films: Dr. Who and the Daleks, released in 1965 and Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. in 1966. Both are retellings of existing television stories (specifically, the first two Dalek serials, The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth respectively) with a larger budget and alterations to the series concept.\n\nIn these films, Peter Cushing plays a human scientist named \"Dr. Who\", who travels with his granddaughter and niece and other companions in a time machine he has invented. The Cushing version of the character reappears in both comic strips and a short story, the latter attempting to reconcile the film continuity with that of the series.\n\nIn addition, several planned films were proposed, including a sequel, The Chase, loosely based on the original series story, for the Cushing Doctor, plus many attempted television movie and big screen productions to revive the original Doctor Who, after the original series was cancelled.\n\nPaul McGann starred in the only television film as the eighth incarnation of the Doctor. After the film, he continued the role in audio books and was confirmed as the eighth incarnation through flashback footage and a mini episode in the 2005 revival, effectively linking the two series and the television movie.\n\nIn 2011, David Yates announced that he had started work with the BBC on a Doctor Who film, a project that would take three or more years to complete. Yates indicated that the film would take a different approach to Doctor Who, although the current Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat stated later that any such film would not be a reboot of the series and a film should be made by the BBC team and star the current TV Doctor. \n\nSpin-offs\n\nDoctor Who has appeared on stage numerous times. In the early 1970s, Trevor Martin played the role in Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday. In the late 1980s, Jon Pertwee and Colin Baker both played the Doctor at different times during the run of a play titled Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure. For two performances, while Pertwee was ill, David Banks (better known for playing Cybermen) played the Doctor. Other original plays have been staged as amateur productions, with other actors playing the Doctor, while Terry Nation wrote The Curse of the Daleks, a stage play mounted in the late 1960s, but without the Doctor.\n\nA pilot episode (\"A Girl's Best Friend\") for a potential spinoff series, K-9 and Company, was aired in 1981 with Elisabeth Sladen reprising her role as companion Sarah Jane Smith and John Leeson as the voice of K9, but was not picked up as a regular series.\n\nConcept art for an animated Doctor Who series was produced by animation company Nelvana in the 1980s, but the series was not produced.\n\nFollowing the success of the 2005 series produced by Russell T Davies, the BBC commissioned Davies to produce a 13-part spin-off series titled Torchwood (an anagram of \"Doctor Who\"), set in modern-day Cardiff and investigating alien activities and crime. The series debuted on BBC Three on 22 October 2006. John Barrowman reprised his role of Jack Harkness from the 2005 series of Doctor Who. Two other actresses who appeared in Doctor Who also star in the series; Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper, who also played the similarly named servant girl Gwyneth in the 2005 Doctor Who episode \"The Unquiet Dead\", and Naoko Mori who reprised her role as Toshiko Sato first seen in \"Aliens of London\". A second series of Torchwood aired in 2008; for three episodes, the cast was joined by Freema Agyeman reprising her Doctor Who role of Martha Jones. A third series was broadcast from 6 to 10 July 2009, and consisted of a single five-part story called Children of Earth which was set largely in London. A fourth series, Torchwood: Miracle Day jointly produced by BBC Wales, BBC Worldwide and the American entertainment company Starz debuted in 2011. The series was predominantly set in the United States, though Wales remained part of the show's setting.\n\nThe Sarah Jane Adventures, starring Elisabeth Sladen who reprised her role as investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith, was developed by CBBC; a special aired on New Year's Day 2007 and a full series began on 24 September 2007. A second series followed in 2008, notable for (as noted above) featuring the return of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. A third in 2009 featured a crossover appearance from the main show by David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. In 2010, a further such appearance featured Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor alongside former companion actress Katy Manning reprising her role as Jo Grant. A final, three-story fifth series was transmitted in autumn 2011 – uncompleted due to the death of Elisabeth Sladen in early 2011.\n\nAn animated serial, The Infinite Quest, aired alongside the 2007 series of Doctor Who as part of the children's television series Totally Doctor Who. The serial featured the voices of series regulars David Tennant and Freema Agyeman but is not considered part of the 2007 series. A second animated serial, Dreamland, aired in six parts on the BBC Red Button service, and the official Doctor Who website in 2009. \n\nOn 1 October 2015, it was announced that a spinoff series titled Class will begin filming in April 2016, be broadcast later that year on BBC Three, and will run for eight 45 minute episodes. It will be written by Patrick Ness. On 8 January 2016 the series was picked up by BBC America. \n\nNumerous other spin-off series have been created not by the BBC but by the respective owners of the characters and concepts. Such spin-offs include the novel and audio drama series Faction Paradox, Iris Wildthyme and Bernice Summerfield; as well as the made-for-video series P.R.O.B.E.; the Australian-produced television series K-9, which aired a 26-episode first season on Disney XD; and the audio spin-off Counter-Measures. \n\nCharity episodes\n\nIn 1983, coinciding with the series' 20th anniversary, a charity special titled The Five Doctors was produced in aid of Children in Need, featuring three of the first five Doctors, a new actor to replace the deceased William Hartnell, and unused footage to represent Tom Baker. This was a full-length, 90-minute film, the longest single episode of Doctor Who produced to date (the television movie ran slightly longer on broadcast where it included commercial breaks). \n\nIn 1993, for the franchise's 30th anniversary, another charity special, titled Dimensions in Time was produced for Children in Need, featuring all of the surviving actors who played the Doctor and a number of previous companions. It also featured a crossover with the soap opera EastEnders, the action taking place in the latter's Albert Square location and around Greenwich. The special was one of several special 3D programmes the BBC produced at the time, using a 3D system that made use of the Pulfrich effect requiring glasses with one darkened lens; the picture would look normal to those viewers who watched without the glasses.\n\nIn 1999, another special, Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, was made for Comic Relief and later released on VHS. An affectionate parody of the television series, it was split into four segments, mimicking the traditional serial format, complete with cliffhangers, and running down the same corridor several times when being chased (the version released on video was split into only two episodes). In the story, the Doctor (Rowan Atkinson) encounters both the Master (Jonathan Pryce) and the Daleks. During the special the Doctor is forced to regenerate several times, with his subsequent incarnations played by, in order, Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley. The script was written by Steven Moffat, later to be head writer and executive producer to the revived series.\n\nSince the return of Doctor Who in 2005, the franchise has produced two original \"mini-episodes\" to support Children in Need. The first, aired in November 2005, was an untitled seven-minute scene which introduced David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. It was followed in November 2007 by \"Time Crash\", a 7-minute scene which featured the Tenth Doctor meeting the Fifth Doctor (played once again by Peter Davison).\n\nA set of two mini-episodes, titled \"Space\" and \"Time\" respectively, were produced to support Comic Relief. They were aired during the Comic Relief 2011 event. \n\nDuring 2011 Children in Need, an exclusively-filmed segment showed the Doctor addressing the viewer, attempting to persuade them to purchase items of his clothing, which were going up for auction for Children in Need. The 2012 edition of CiN featured the mini-episode The Great Detective.\n\nSpoofs and cultural references\n\nDoctor Who has been satirised and spoofed on many occasions by comedians including Spike Milligan (a Dalek invades his bathroom — Milligan, naked, hurls a soap sponge at it) and Lenny Henry. Jon Culshaw frequently impersonates the Fourth Doctor in the BBC Dead Ringers series. Doctor Who fandom has also been lampooned on programs such as Saturday Night Live, The Chaser's War on Everything, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Family Guy, American Dad!, Futurama, South Park,\nCommunity as Inspector Spacetime, The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory.\n\nThe Doctor in his fourth incarnation has been represented on several episodes of The Simpsons and Matt Groening's other animated series Futurama. \n\nThere have also been many references to Doctor Who in popular culture and other science fiction, including Star Trek: The Next Generation (\"The Neutral Zone\") and Leverage. In the Channel 4 series Queer as Folk (created by later Doctor Who executive producer Russell T. Davies), the character of Vince was portrayed as an avid Doctor Who fan, with references appearing many times throughout in the form of clips from the programme. In a similar manner, the character of Oliver on Coupling (created and written by current show runner Steven Moffat) is portrayed as a Doctor Who collector and enthusiast.\nReferences to Doctor Who have also appeared in the young adult fantasy novels Brisingr and High Wizardry, the video game Rock Band, the soap opera EastEnders, the Adult Swim comedy show Robot Chicken, the Family Guy episodes \"Blue Harvest\" and \"420\", and the game RuneScape. It has also be referenced in Destroy All Humans! 2, by civilians in the game's variation of England, and in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. \n\nDoctor Who has been a reference in several political cartoons, from a 1964 cartoon in the Daily Mail depicting Charles de Gaulle as a Dalek to a 2008 edition of This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow in which the Tenth Doctor informs an incredulous character from 2003 that the Democratic Party will nominate an African-American as its presidential candidate. \n\nThe word \"TARDIS\" is an entry in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary and the iOS dictionary.\n\nAs part of the 50th anniversary programmes, former Fifth Doctor Peter Davison created, wrote and co-starred in a parody The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot featuring cameos from several other former Doctors, companions and people involved in the programme. \n\nMuseums and exhibitions\n\nThere have been various exhibitions of Doctor Who in the United Kingdom, including the now closed exhibitions at:\n* Lands End (Cornwall)\n* Blackpool\n* Llangollen\n* Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow\n* Coventry Transport Museum, Coventry\n* Centre for Life, Newcastle upon Tyne\n* Melbourne, Australia (only international DW concert to be performed)\n* Kensington Olympia Two, London\n* Longleat, which ran for 30 years. \n\nThere is an exhibition open currently in Cardiff (the city where the series is filmed) \n\nMerchandise\n\nSince its beginnings, Doctor Who has generated hundreds of products related to the show, from toys and games to collectible picture cards and postage stamps. These include board games, card games, gamebooks, computer games, roleplaying games, action figures and a pinball game. Many games have been released that feature the Daleks, including Dalek computer games.\n\nAudios\n\nThe earliest Doctor Who-related audio release was a 21-minute narrated abridgement of the First Doctor television story The Chase released in 1966. Ten years later, the first original Doctor Who audio was released on LP record; Doctor Who and the Pescatons featuring the Fourth Doctor. The first commercially available audiobook was an abridged reading of the Fourth Doctor story State of Decay in 1981. In 1988, during a hiatus in the television show, Slipback, the first radio drama, was transmitted.\n\nSince 1999, Big Finish Productions has released several different series of Doctor Who audios on CD. The earliest of these featured the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors, with Paul McGann's Eight Doctor joining the line in 2001. Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor began appearing for Big Finish in 2012. Along with the main range, adventures of the First, Second and Third Doctors have been produced in both limited cast and full cast formats, as well as audiobooks. The 2013 series Destiny of the Doctor, produced as part of the series' 50th Anniversary celebrations, marked the first time Big Finish created stories (in this case audiobooks) featuring the Doctors from the revived show.\n\nIn addition to these main lines, both the BBC and Big Finish have produced original audio dramas and audiobooks based on spin-off material, such as Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures series.\n\nBooks\n\nDoctor Who books have been published from the mid-sixties through to the present day. From 1965 to 1991 the books published were primarily novelised adaptations of broadcast episodes; beginning in 1991 an extensive line of original fiction was launched, the Virgin New Adventures and Virgin Missing Adventures. Since the relaunch of the programme in 2005, a new range of novels have been published by BBC Books. Numerous non-fiction books about the series, including guidebooks and critical studies, have also been published, and a dedicated Doctor Who Magazine with newsstand circulation has been published regularly since 1979. This is published by Panini, as is the Doctor Who Adventures magazine for younger fans.\n\nSee also:\n* List of Doctor Who novelisations\n* Eighth Doctor Adventures\n* Past Doctor Adventures\n* New Series Adventures\n\nVideo games\n\nNumerous Doctor Who video games have been created from the mid-80s through to the present day. One of the recent ones is a match-3 game released in November 2013 for iOS, Android, Amazon App Store and Facebook called Doctor Who: Legacy. It has been constantly updated since its release and features all of the Doctors as playable characters as well as over 100 companions. \n\nAnother video game instalment is LEGO Dimensions – in which Doctor Who is one of the many \"Level Packs\" in the game. At the moment, the pack contains the Twelfth Doctor (who can reincarnate into the others), K9, the TARDIS and a Victorian London adventure level area. The game and pack released in November 2015.\n\nChronology and canonicity\n\nSince the creation of the Doctor Who character by BBC Television in the early 1960s, a myriad of stories have been published about Doctor Who, in different media: apart from the actual television episodes that continue to be produced by the BBC, there have also been novels, comics, short stories, audio books, radio plays, interactive video games, game books, webcasts, DVD extras, and even stage performances. In this respect it is noteworthy that the BBC takes no position on the canonicity of any of such stories, and producers of the show have expressed distaste for the idea. \n\nAwards\n\nThe show has received recognition as one of Britain's finest television programmes, winning the 2006 British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series and five consecutive (2005–2010) awards at the National Television Awards during Russell T Davies' tenure as executive producer. In 2011, Matt Smith became the first Doctor to be nominated for a BAFTA Television Award for Best Actor and in 2016, Michelle Gomez became the first female to receive a BAFTA nomination for the series, getting a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work as Missy. In 2013, the Peabody Awards honoured Doctor Who with an Institutional Peabody \"for evolving with technology and the times like nothing else in the known television universe.\" The programme is listed in Guinness World Records as the longest-running science fiction television show in the world, the \"most successful\" science fiction series of all time—based on its over-all broadcast ratings, DVD and book sales, and iTunes traffic— and for the largest ever simulcast of a TV drama with its 50th anniversary special. During its original run, it was recognised for its imaginative stories, creative low-budget special effects, and pioneering use of electronic music (originally produced by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop).\n\nIn 1975, Season 11 of the series won a Writers' Guild of Great Britain award for Best Writing in a Children's Serial. In 1996, BBC television held the \"Auntie Awards\" as the culmination of their \"TV60\" series, celebrating 60 years of BBC television broadcasting, where Doctor Who was voted as the \"Best Popular Drama\" the corporation had ever produced, ahead of such ratings heavyweights as EastEnders and Casualty. In 2000, Doctor Who was ranked third in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century, produced by the British Film Institute and voted on by industry professionals. In 2005, the series came first in a survey by SFX magazine of \"The Greatest UK Science Fiction and Fantasy Television Series Ever\". Also, in the 100 Greatest Kids' TV shows (a Channel 4 countdown in 2001), the 1963–1989 run was placed at number eight.\n\nThe revived series has received recognition from critics and the public, across various awards ceremonies. It won five BAFTA TV Awards, including Best Drama Series, the highest-profile and most prestigious British television award for which the series has ever been nominated. It was very popular at the BAFTA Cymru Awards, with 25 wins overall including Best Drama Series (twice), Best Screenplay/Screenwriter (thrice) and Best Actor. It was also nominated for 7 Saturn Awards, winning the only Best International Series in the ceremony's history. In 2009, Doctor Who was voted the 3rd greatest show of the 2000s by Channel 4, behind Top Gear and The Apprentice. The episode \"Vincent and the Doctor\" was shortlisted for a Mind Award at the 2010 Mind Mental Health Media Awards for its \"touching\" portrayal of Vincent van Gogh. \n\nIt has won the Short Form of the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, the oldest science fiction/fantasy award for films and series, six times (every year since 2006, except for 2009, 2013 and 2014). The winning episodes were \"The Empty Child\"/\"The Doctor Dances\" (2006), \"The Girl in the Fireplace\" (2007), \"Blink\" (2008), \"The Waters of Mars\" (2010), \"The Pandorica Opens\"/\"The Big Bang\" (2011), and \"The Doctor's Wife\" (2012). Doctor Who star Matt Smith won Best Actor in the 2012 National Television awards alongside Karen Gillan who won Best Actress. Doctor Who has been nominated for over 200 awards and has won over a hundred of them.\n\nAs a British series, the majority of its nominations and awards have been for national competitions such as the BAFTAs, but it has occasionally received nominations in mainstream American awards, most notably a nomination for \"Favorite Sci-Fi Show\" in the 2008 People's Choice Awards and the series has been nominated multiple times in the Spike Scream Awards, with Smith winning Best Science Fiction Actor in 2011. The Canadian Constellation Awards have also recognised the series." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Who_shot_J.R.?.txt" ], "title": [ "Who shot J.R.?" ], "wiki_context": [ "\"Who shot J.R.?\" is an advertising catchphrase that American network CBS created in 1980 to promote the television series Dallas. It referred to the mystery surrounding a murder attempt against the character J.R. Ewing in \"A House Divided\", the show's third-season finale, which was not resolved until a fourth-season episode that aired eight months later.\n\nPlot\n\nIn the final scene of the 1979–80 season, J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) hears a noise outside his office, walks out to the corridor to look, and is shot twice by an unseen assailant. The episode, titled \"A House Divided\", was broadcast on March 21, 1980 and was written by Loraine Despres and directed by Leonard Katzman. Viewers had to wait all summer to learn whether J.R. would survive, and which of his many enemies was responsible. \n\nUltimately, the person who pulled the trigger was revealed to be Kristin Shepard (Mary Crosby) in the \"Who Done It?\" episode which aired on November 21, 1980. Kristin was J.R.'s scheming sister-in-law and mistress, who shot him in a fit of anger. J.R. did not press charges, as Kristin claimed she was pregnant with his child as a result of their affair. \n\nProduction\n\nProduction for the 1980–81 season began in June 1980, but Hagman—who had begun the show in a secondary role but now was the star—refused to film the show without a raise. He returned to work ten days later with a new contract that paid him $100,000 per episode and royalties from J.R. Ewing merchandise. Viewers had to wait an additional two months to find out the answer to the famous question, however, as a strike by the Writers Guild of America began in July that delayed the production of most new network shows by eight weeks. During the delay, CBS showed early Dallas episodes featuring J.R. Ewing, helping the show's many new fans better understand his character.\n\nMarketing\n\nT-shirts printed with such references as \"Who Shot J.R.?\" and \"I Shot J.R.\" became common over the summer, the latter eventually being seen in the first episode of Irish sitcom Father Ted. Several media outlets held \"Who shot J.R.?\" contests. \n\nDuring the 1980 United States presidential election, the Republicans distributed campaign buttons that claimed \"A Democrat shot J.R.\", while Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter joked that he would have no problem financing his campaign if he knew who shot J.R. When Hagman was offered £100,000 during a British vacation for the identity of the shooter, he admitted that neither he nor anyone in the cast knew the answer. Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was among the millions worldwide intrigued by the mystery, and the crowd at the Royal Ascot yelled \"J.R.! J.R.!\" when Hagman arrived. Betting parlors worldwide took bets as to which one of the 10 or so principal characters had actually pulled the trigger. International oddsmakers created a set of odds for the possible culprits: \"Dusty Farlow (J.R.'s wife Sue Ellen's lover, who disappeared after a plane crash) is the 6 to 4 favorite, followed by Vaughn Leland (a banker J.R. swindled) and Kristin Shepard (J.R.'s mistress) at 4 to 1. Sue Ellen herself is a long shot at 25 to 1, as is J.R.'s long- suffering mother, Miss Ellie.\" \n\nComedy pop group The Barron Knights recorded We know who done it. Using the tune of Gary Numan's Cars, the song ended with a repetition of \"It was-\" as if, frustratingly, the record's needle stuck just before the culprit was named.\n\nLegacy\n\n\"Who Done It?\" was, at the time, the highest-rated television episode in U.S. history. It had a Nielsen rating of 53.3 and a 76% share, and it was estimated that 83 million people watched the episode, more than the number of voters in that year's presidential election. The previous record for a TV episode had been the 1967 finale for The Fugitive. \"Who Done It?\" now sits second on the list, beaten in 1983 by the final episode of M*A*S*H. In 2011, Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly named \"A House Divided\" number one of the seven most \"Unforgettable Cliff-Hangers\" of prime time dramatic television. The episode was also very popular outside the United States; a session of the Turkish parliament was suspended to allow legislators a chance to get home in time to view the conclusion of the cliffhanger. \n\nThe great success of this 1980 stunt helped popularize in the United States the practice of ending a television season with a cliffhanger. The episode also inspired a novelty record by radio personality Gary Burbank which hit the Billboard Top 100 in 1980. In addition, the episode is credited with helping CNN, which began airing in June 1980, to get off the ground.\n\nThe \"Who shot J.R.?\" storyline was spoofed in the February 21, 1981 episode of Saturday Night Live, which was guest-hosted by Dallas star Charlene Tilton. The episode, sometimes referred to as \"Who Shot C.R.?\", provided several cast members with various motivations to hate co-star Charles Rocket, who is shot in the episode. At the end of the episode, Rocket made the notorious ad-libbed comment \"I'd like to know who the fuck did it.\" \n\nIt was spoofed in an episodes of The Jeffersons (\"As Florence Turns\"), when Florence writes a soap opera based on caricatures of The Jeffersons characters.\n\n\"Who shot J.R.?\" was later spoofed in a 1995 The Simpsons episode entitled \"Who Shot Mr. Burns?\" which similarly provided many characters with motivation to kill Mr. Burns, and similarly ended on a cliffhanger.\n\nIn Larry Hagman's final episode of the 2012 sequel, Dallas, which aired on March 4, 2013, J.R. was shot again, this time fatally. In the 2013 Season 2 finale it was revealed that J.R. asked Steve \"Bum\" Jones to shoot him so his 'masterpiece' could play out, framing Cliff Barnes for his murder. The main reason he had himself killed was because doctors told J.R. that he had only days to live; he was dying from cancer. In his letter to Bobby he reveals all of this and that he wanted to die helping his family end the Ewing/Barnes feud once and for all. As J.R.'s son John Ross said \"The only person that could take down J.R.—was J.R.\"" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "The_Gambia.txt" ], "title": [ "The Gambia" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa mostly surrounded by Senegal with a short strip of its coastline bordered with the Atlantic Ocean at its western end. It is the smallest country on mainland Africa. \n\nThe Gambia is situated on either side of the Gambia River, the nation's namesake, which flows through the centre of the Gambia and empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Its area is 10689 km² with a population of 1,882,450 at the 15 April 2013 Census (provisional). Banjul is the Gambian capital, and the largest cities are Serekunda and Brikama.\n\nThe Gambia shares historical roots with many other West African nations in the slave trade, which was the key factor in the placing and keeping of a colony on the Gambia River, first by the Portuguese, during which era it was known as A Gâmbia; later, on 25 May 1765, the Gambia was made a part of the British colony when the government formally assumed control, establishing the Province of Senegambia. On 18 February 1965, the Gambia gained independence from the United Kingdom. Since gaining independence, the Gambia has had two leaders: the first was Dawda Jawara, who ruled from 1970 until 1994, when the current leader Yahya Jammeh seized power in a coup as a young army officer.Wiseman, John A., [https://books.google.com/books?id\njj4J-AXGDaQC&lpgPA456&ots\nJHubx1ooyv&dq%22yahya%20jammeh%22%20jawara%20coup%201994&pg\nPA456#vonepage&q\n%22yahya%20jammeh%22%20jawara%20coup%201994&f=false Africa South of the Sahara 2004 (33rd edition): The Gambia: Recent History], Europa Publications Ltd., 2004, page 456.\n\nThe Gambia's economy is dominated by farming, fishing, and especially tourism. About a third of the population lives below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day. \n\nEtymology \n\nThe name \"Gambia\" is derived from the Mandinka term Kambra/Kambaa, meaning Gambia river. According to several authoritiative sources, in English, the Gambia is one of only two countries whose self-standing short name begins with the word \"the\" (the other is the The Bahamas). \n\nHistory\n\nArab traders provided the first written accounts of the Gambia area in the ninth and tenth centuries. During the tenth century, Muslim merchants and scholars established communities in several West African commercial centres. Both groups established trans-Saharan trade routes, leading to a large trade in slaves, gold, ivory (exports) and manufactured goods (imports).\n\nBy the 11th or 12th century, the rulers of kingdoms such as Takrur (a monarchy centred on the Senegal River just to the north), ancient Ghana and Gao, had converted to Islam and had appointed Muslims who were literate in the Arabic language as courtiers. At the beginning of the 14th century, most of what is today called Gambia was part of the Mali Empire. The Portuguese reached this area by sea in the mid-15th century, and they began to dominate overseas trade.\n\nIn 1588, the claimant to the Portuguese throne, António, Prior of Crato, sold exclusive trade rights on the Gambia River to English merchants. Letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I confirmed the grant. In 1618, King James I of England granted a charter to an English company for trade with the Gambia and the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Between 1651 and 1661, some parts of the Gambia were under Courland's rule, and had been bought by Prince Jacob Kettler, who was a Polish-Lithuanian vassal.\n\nDuring the late 17th century and throughout the 18th century, the British Empire and the French Empire struggled continually for political and commercial supremacy in the regions of the Senegal River and the Gambia River. The British Empire occupied the Gambia when an expedition led by Augustus Keppel landed there—following the Capture of Senegal in 1758. The 1783 First Treaty of Versailles gave Great Britain possession of the Gambia River, but the French retained a tiny enclave at Albreda on the river's north bank. This was finally ceded to the United Kingdom in 1856.\n\nAs many as three million slaves may have been taken from this general region during the three centuries that the transatlantic slave trade operated. It is not known how many slaves were taken by intertribal wars or Muslim traders before the transatlantic slave trade began. Most of those taken were sold by other Africans to Europeans; others were prisoners of intertribal wars; some were victims sold because of unpaid debts; and others were simply victims of kidnapping. \n\nTraders initially sent slaves to Europe to work as servants until the market for labour expanded in the West Indies and North America in the 18th century. In 1807, the United Kingdom abolished the slave trade throughout its empire. It also tried, unsuccessfully, to end the slave trade in the Gambia. Slave ships intercepted by the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron in the Atlantic were also returned to the Gambia, with liberated slaves released on MacCarthy Island far up the Gambia River where they were expected to establish new lives.Patrick Webb. 1994. Guests of the Crown: Convicts and Liberated Slaves on McCarthy Island, The Gambia. Geographical Journal. 160 (2): 136–142. The British established the military post of Bathurst (now Banjul) in 1816.\n\nGambia Colony and Protectorate (1821–1965) \n\nIn the ensuing years, Banjul was at times under the jurisdiction of the British Governor-General in Sierra Leone. In 1888, The Gambia became a separate colony.\n\nAn agreement with the French Republic in 1889 established the present boundaries. The Gambia became a British Crown colony called British Gambia, divided for administrative purposes into the colony (city of Banjul and the surrounding area) and the protectorate (remainder of the territory). The Gambia received its own executive and legislative councils in 1901, and it gradually progressed toward self-government. Slavery was abolished in 1906 and following a brief conflict between the colonial forces and rebellious indigenous inhabitants British colonial authority was firmly established. \n\nDuring World War II, some soldiers fought with the Allies of World War II. Though these soldiers fought mostly in Burma, some died closer to home and a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery is in Fajara (close to Banjul). Banjul contained an airstrip for the US Army Air Forces and a port of call for Allied naval convoys.\n\nAfter World War II, the pace of constitutional reform increased. Following general elections in 1962, the United Kingdom granted full internal self-governance in the following year.\n\nIndependence (1965–) \n\nThe Gambia achieved independence on 18 February 1965, as a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth, with Elizabeth II as Queen of The Gambia, represented by the Governor-General. Shortly thereafter, the national government held a referendum proposing that the country become a republic. This referendum failed to receive the two-thirds majority required to amend the constitution, but the results won widespread attention abroad as testimony to The Gambia's observance of secret balloting, honest elections, civil rights, and liberties.\n\nOn 24 April 1970, The Gambia became a republic within the Commonwealth, following a second referendum. Prime Minister Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara assumed the office of President, an executive post, combining the offices of head of state and head of government.\n\nThe Gambia was led by President Sir Dawda Jawara, who was re-elected five times. The relative stability of the Jawara era was first shattered by an attempted coup on 29 July 1981, which followed a weakening of the economy and allegations of corruption against leading politicians. The coup attempt occurred while President Jawara was visiting London and was carried out by the leftist National Revolutionary Council, composed of Kukoi Samba Sanyang's Socialist and Revolutionary Labour Party (SRLP) and elements of the \"Field Force\" (a paramilitary force which constituted the bulk of the country's armed forces).\n\nPresident Jawara immediately requested military aid from Senegal, which deployed 400 troops to The Gambia on 31 July. By 6 August, some 2,700 Senegalese troops had been deployed, defeating the rebel force. Between 500 and 800 people were killed during the coup and the resulting violence.\n\nIn 1982, in the aftermath of the 1981 attempted coup, Senegal and The Gambia signed a treaty of confederation. The Senegambia Confederation aimed to combine the armed forces of the two states and to unify their economies and currencies. After just seven years, The Gambia permanently withdrew from the confederation in 1989.\n\nIn 1994, the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) deposed the Jawara government and banned opposition political activity. Lieutenant Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh, chairman of the AFPRC, became head of state. The then 29-year-old dictator remains president to this day. The AFPRC announced a transition plan for return to democratic civilian government. The Provisional Independent Electoral Commission (PIEC) was established in 1996 to conduct national elections. The PIEC was transformed to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in 1997 and became responsible for registration of voters and conduct of elections and referendums.\n\nIn late 2001 and early 2002, The Gambia completed a full cycle of presidential, legislative, and local elections, which foreign observers deemed free, fair, and transparent, albeit with some shortcomings. President Yahya Jammeh, who was elected to continue in the position he had assumed during the coup, took the oath of office again on 21 December 2001. Jammeh's Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) maintained its strong majority in the National Assembly, particularly after the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) boycotted the legislative elections, though it has participated in elections since.\n\nOn 2 October 2013, The Gambian interior minister announced that The Gambia would leave the Commonwealth of Nations with immediate effect, ending 48 years of membership of the organisation. The Gambian Government said it \"decided that The Gambia will never be a member of any neo-colonial institution and will never be a party to any institution that represents an extension of colonialism\". \n\nGeography\n\nThe Gambia is a very small and narrow country whose borders mirror the meandering Gambia River. It lies between latitudes 13 and 14°N, and longitudes 13 and 17°W.\n\nThe Gambia is less than wide at its widest point, with a total area of 11295 km2. About 1300 km2 (11.5%) of the Gambia's area is covered by water. It is the smallest country on the African mainland. In comparative terms, the Gambia has a total area slightly less than that of the island of Jamaica.\n\nSenegal surrounds the Gambia on three sides, with 80 km of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean marking its western extremity. \n\nThe present boundaries were defined in 1889 after an agreement between the United Kingdom and France. During the negotiations between the French and the British in Paris, the French initially gave the British around 320 km of the Gambia River to control. Starting with the placement of boundary markers in 1891, it took nearly 15 years after the Paris meetings to determine the final borders of the Gambia. The resulting series of straight lines and arcs gave the British control of areas about 16 km north and south of the Gambia River. \n\nClimate \n\nGambia has a tropical climate. A hot and rainy season normally lasts from June until November, but from then until May, cooler temperatures predominate, with less precipitation. The climate in the Gambia closely resembles that of neighbouring Senegal, of southern Mali, and of the northern part of Benin.\n\nPolitics\n\nFollowing independence in 1965, the Gambia conducted freely contested elections every five years. Each election was won by The People's Progressive Party (PPP), headed by Dawda Jawara. The PPP dominated Gambian politics for nearly 30 years. After spearheading the movement toward complete independence from Britain, the PPP was voted into power and was never seriously challenged by any opposition party. The last elections under the PPP regime were held in April 1992.\n\nIn 1994, following corruption allegations against the Jawara regime and widespread discontent in the army, a largely bloodless and successful coup d'état installed army Lieutenant Yahya Jammeh into power. Politicians from deposed President Jawara's PPP and other senior government officials were banned from participating in politics until July 2001. A presidential election took place in September 1996, in which Yahya Jammeh won 56% of the vote. The legislative elections held in January 1997 were dominated by the APRC, which captured 33 out of 45 seats.\n\nIn July 2001, the ban on Jawara-era political parties and politicians was lifted. Four registered opposition parties participated in 18 October 2001 presidential election, which the incumbent, President Yahya Jammeh, won with almost 53% of the votes. The APRC maintained its strong majority in the National Assembly in legislative elections held in January 2002, particularly after the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) boycotted the legislative elections.\n\nJammeh won the 2006 election handily after the opposition coalition, the National Alliance for Democracy and Development, splintered earlier in the year. The voting was generally regarded as free and fair, though events from the run-up raised criticism from some. A journalist from the state television station assigned to the chief opposition candidate, Ousainou Darboe, was arrested. Additionally, Jammeh said, \"I will develop the areas that vote for me, but if you don't vote for me, don't expect anything\". \n\nOn 21 and 22 March 2006, amid tensions preceding the 2006 presidential elections, an alleged planned military coup was uncovered. President Yahya Jammeh immediately returned from a trip to Mauritania, many army officials were arrested, and prominent army officials fled the country. Some believe the planned coup was fabricated by the President for his own purposes, but no proof has been found. \n\nFor their roles in an alleged 2009 coup plot, eight Gambians, including the former Chief of Defence Staff of the Gambian Armed Forces, a former head and deputy head of the National Intelligence Agency, and others were tried for treason, found guilty, and sentenced to death in July 2010. One of the convicted, a businessman, disappeared while in custody awaiting his appeal. Before that trial concluded, the former Chief of Defence Staff and the former Chief of the Gambia Naval Staff were charged with treason for their complicity in the failed 2006 coup. A key prosecution witness, serving a lengthy prison sentence for his role in the 2006 coup plot, received a presidential pardon, apparently in return for his testimony.\n\nThe 1970 constitution, which divided the government into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches, was suspended after the 1994 military coup. As part of the transition process, the AFPRC established the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) through decree in March 1995. In accordance with the timetable for the transition to a democratically elected government, the CRC drafted a new constitution for the Gambia, which was approved by referendum in August 1996. The constitution provides for a strong presidential government, a unicameral legislature, an independent judiciary, and the protection of human rights.\n\nIn November 2011, elections were held under conditions that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) characterised as \"not to be conducive for the conduct of free, fair and transparent polls\". These elections, which were not monitored by ECOWAS, returned Jammeh to another five-year term.\n\nOn 22 August 2012, the Gambia announced it would execute all death-row convicts, 42 men and two women, by September 2012. The country had not executed anyone in the past 30 years. Nine were executed in August 2012.\n\nIn December 2014, a failed coup attempt by American-Gambian dual citizens, including U.S. military veterans, was reported in the Gambia. \n\nOn 11 December 2015, President Jammeh declared The Gambia to be an Islamic republic, in what he said was designed to distance the country further from its colonial past. (13 December 2015) [http://www.euronews.com/2015/12/13/gambian-president-declares-country-islamic-republic/ \"Gambian president declares country Islamic republic\"]. Euronews. Retrieved 13 December 2015.Rifai, Ryan (12 December 2015) [http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/gambia-president-declares-islamic-statehood-151212153025585.html \"Gambia's president declares Islamic statehood\"]. Al-Jazeera. Retrieved 13 December 2015. The move was criticized by the opposition leader, who described it as unconstitutional. Nevertheless, media outlets in the state began referring to the country as the Islamic Republic of the Gambia. \n\nForeign relations \n\nThe Gambia followed a formal policy of nonalignment throughout most of former President Jawara's tenure. It maintained close relations with the United Kingdom, Senegal, and other African countries. The July 1994 coup strained the Gambia's relationship with Western powers, particularly the United States, which until 2002 suspended most nonhumanitarian assistance in accordance with Section 508 of the Foreign Assistance Act. Since 1995, President Jammeh has established diplomatic relations with several additional countries, including Libya (suspended in 2010), and Cuba. The People's Republic of China cut ties with the Gambia in 1995 after the latter established diplomatic links with Taiwan and reestablished in 2016. \n\nThe Gambia plays an active role in international affairs, especially West African and Islamic affairs, although its representation abroad is limited. As a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Gambia has played an active role in that organisation's efforts to resolve the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone and contributed troops to the community's ceasefire monitoring group (ECOMOG) in 1990 and (ECOMIL) in 2003.\n\nThe Gambia has also sought to mediate disputes in nearby Guinea-Bissau and the neighbouring Casamance region of Senegal. The government of the Gambia believes Senegal was complicit in the March 2006 failed coup attempt. This has put increasing strains on relations between the Gambia and its neighbour. The subsequent worsening of the human rights situation has placed increasing strains of US–Gambian relations.\n\nThe Gambia withdrew from the Commonwealth of Nations on 3 October 2013, the government stating it had \"decided that the Gambia will never be a member of any neo-colonial institution and will never be a party to any institution that represents an extension of colonialism\". \n\nMilitary \n\nThe Gambian Armed Forces consists of the Gambia National Army, Republican Guards comprising a well-trained and equipped Presidential Guards and the Special Forces, and the Navy, all under the authority of the Ministry of Defence (a ministerial portfolio held by Jammeh). Prior to the 1994 coup, the Gambian Armed Forces received technical assistance and training from the United States, United Kingdom, People's Republic of China, Nigeria, and Turkey. With the withdrawal of most of this aid, the Army has received renewed assistance from Turkey, Pakistan and others. A number of junior Gambian Army officers are regularly trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and sergeants from the Royal Gibraltar Regiment were observed training Gambian troops in Bakau in November 2010.\n\nThe Gambia allowed its military training arrangement with Libya to expire in 2002.\n\nMembers of the Gambian military participated in ECOMOG, the West African force deployed during the Liberian Civil War beginning in 1990. Gambian forces have subsequently participated in several other peacekeeping operations, including Bosnia, Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, and East Timor. The Gambia contributed 150 troops to Liberia in 2003 as part of the ECOMIL contingent. In 2004, the Gambia contributed a 196-man contingent to the African Union – United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur. Responsibilities for internal security and law enforcement rest with the Gambian police under the Inspector General of Police and the Secretary of State for the Interior. \n\nAlex Bellamy and Paul Williams classify the Gambia as a Tier 2 peacekeeping contributor, and the NYU Center on International Cooperation describes the Gambia as a regional leader in peacekeeping. \n\nAdministrative divisions\n\nThe Gambia is divided into eight local government areas, including the national capital, Banjul, which is classified as a city. The Divisions of the Gambia were created by the Independent Electoral Commission in accordance to Article 192 of the National Constitution. \n\nThe local government areas are further subdivided (2013) into 43 districts. Of these, Kanifing and Kombo Saint Mary (which shares Brikama as a capital with the Brikama Local Government Area) are effectively part of the Greater Banjul area. \n\nEconomy\n\n]\n\nThe Gambia has a liberal, market-based economy characterised by traditional subsistence agriculture, a historic reliance on groundnuts (peanuts) for export earnings, a re-export trade built up around its ocean port, low import duties, minimal administrative procedures, a fluctuating exchange rate with no exchange controls, and a significant tourism industry.\n\nThe World Bank pegs Gambian GDP for 2011 at US$898M; the International Monetary Fund puts it at US$977M for 2011.\n\nFrom 2006 to 2012, the Gambian economy grew annually at a pace of 5–6% of GDP. \n\nAgriculture accounts for roughly 30% of gross domestic product (GDP) and employs about 70% of the labour force. Within agriculture, peanut production accounts for 6.9% of GDP, other crops 8.3%, livestock 5.3%, fishing 1.8%, and forestry 0.5%. Industry accounts for about 8% of GDP and services around 58%. The limited amount of manufacturing is primarily agricultural-based (e.g., peanut processing, bakeries, a brewery, and a tannery). Other manufacturing activities include soap, soft drinks, and clothing.\n\nPreviously, the United Kingdom and other EU countries constituted the major Gambian domestic export markets. However, in recent years Senegal, the United States, and Japan have become significant trade partners of the Gambia. In Africa, Senegal represented the biggest trade partner of the Gambia in 2007, which is a defining contrast to previous years that had Guinea-Bissau and Ghana as equally important trade partners. Globally, Denmark, the United States, and China have become important source countries for Gambian imports. The UK, Germany, Ivory Coast, and the Netherlands also provide a fair share of Gambian imports. The Gambian trade deficit for 2007 was $331 million.\n\nAs of May 2009, 12 commercial banks were in the Gambia, including one Islamic bank. The oldest of these, Standard Chartered Bank, dates its presence back to the entry in 1894 of what shortly thereafter became Bank of British West Africa. In 2005, the Swiss-based banking group, International Commercial Bank, established a subsidiary and has now four branches in the country. In 2007, Nigeria's Access Bank established a subsidiary that now has four branches in the country, in addition to its head office; the bank has pledged to open four more.\n\nIn May 2009, the Lebanese Canadian Bank opened a subsidiary called Prime Bank. \n\nSerekunda market.jpg|Serekunda market\nFishing boat The Gambia.jpg|Brightly painted fishing boats are common in Bakau, the Gambia.\n\nSociety \n\nDemographics\n\nThe urbanization rate was 57.3%. Provisional figures from the 2003 census show that the gap between the urban and rural populations is narrowing as more areas are declared urban. While urban migration, development projects, and modernisation are bringing more Gambians into contact with Western habits and values, indigenous forms of dress and celebration and the traditional emphasis on the extended family remain integral parts of everyday life.\n\nThe UNDP's Human Development Report for 2010 ranks the Gambia 151st out of 169 countries on its Human Development Index, putting it in the 'Low Human Development' category. This index compares life expectancy, years of schooling, gross national income (GNI) per capita and some other factors.\n\nThe total fertility rate (TFR) was estimated at 3.98 children/woman in 2013. \n\nEthnic groups \n\nA variety of ethnic groups live in the Gambia, each preserving its own language and traditions. The Mandinka ethnicity is the largest, followed by the Fula, Wolof, Jola, Serahule, Serers, Karoninka, Manjago and the Bianunkas. The Krio people, locally known as Akus, constitute one of the smallest ethnic minorities in the Gambia. They are descendants of the Sierra Leone Creole people and have been traditionally concentrated in the capital.\n\nThe roughly 3,500 non-African residents include Europeans and families of Lebanese origin (0.23% of the total population). Most of the European minority is British, although many of the British left after independence.\n\nLanguages \n\nEnglish is the official language of the Gambia. Other languages are Mandinka, Wolof, Fula, Serer, Krio and other indigenous vernaculars. Due to the country's geographical setting, knowledge of French (an official language in much of West Africa) is relatively widespread.\n\nEducation\n\nThe constitution mandates free and compulsory primary education in the Gambia. Lack of resources and educational infrastructure has made implementation of this difficult.[http://www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2001/gambia.htm \"The Gambia\"]. 2001 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor (2002). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. In 1995, the gross primary enrollment rate was 77.1% and the net primary enrollment rate was 64.7% School fees long prevented many children from attending school, but in February 1998, President Jammeh ordered the termination of fees for the first six years of schooling. Girls make up about 52% of primary school students. The figure may be lower for girls in rural areas, where cultural factors and poverty prevent parents from sending girls to school. Approximately 20% of school-age children attend Quranic schools.\n\nHealth\n\nPublic expenditure was at 1.8% of the GDP in 2004, whereas private expenditure was at 5.0%. There were 11 physicians per 100,000 persons in the early 2000s. Life expectancy at birth was at 59.9 for females in 2005 and for males at 57.7.\n\nAccording to the World Health Organization in 2005, an estimated 78.3% of Gambian girls and women have suffered female genital mutilation. \n\nThe 2010 maternal mortality rate per 100,000 births for Gambia is 400. This is compared with 281.3 in 2008 and 628.5 in 1990. The under-5 mortality rate, per 1,000 births, is 106 and the neonatal mortality, as a percentage of under-5 mortality, is 31. In Gambia, the number of midwives per 1,000 live births is five and the lifetime risk of death for pregnant women is one in 49.\n \n\nIn October 2012, it was reported that the Gambia had made significant improvements in polio, measles immunisation, and the PCV-7 vaccine. \n\nThe Gambia was certified as polio-free in 2004. \"The Gambia EPI program is one of the best in the World Health Organization African Region,\" Thomas Sukwa, a representative of the WHO, said, according to the Foroyaa newspaper. \"It is indeed gratifying to note that the government of the Gambia remains committed to the global polio eradication initiative.\"\n\nAccording to Vaccine News Daily:\n\n* The Gambia is tied for third place in Africa for measles immunisation among one-year-old children.\n* The Gambia is tied for fourth place in the world for the DTP3 immunisation for one-year-old children.\n* The Gambia is ranked second in Africa for \"feverish children under the age of five who received antimalarial treatment, according to Trading Economics.\"\n\nA group called Power Up Gambia operates in the Gambia to provide solar power technology to health care facilities, ensuring greater access to electricity.\n\nRecently, Riders for Health, an international aid group focused on sub-Saharan countries in Africa, was noted for providing enough health-care vehicles for the entire country. Riders for Health manage and maintain vehicles for the government. The initiative addresses a major barrier to universal health care—transport—and allows health workers to visit three times as many villages every week. \n\nReligion\n\nArticle 25 of the constitution protects the rights of citizens to practice any religion that they choose. In December 2015, Reuters reported that the Gambia was declared to be an Islamic state by the country's president, Yahya Jammeh. Islam is the predominant religion, practised by 90% of the country's population. The majority of the Muslims in the Gambia adhere to Sunni laws and traditions.\n\nVirtually all commercial life in the Gambia comes to a standstill during major Muslim holidays, including Eid al-Adha and Eid ul-Fitr. Most Muslims in the Gambia follow the Maliki school of jurisprudence. Also, a Shiite Muslim community exists in the Gambia, mainly from Lebanese and other Arab-speaking immigrants to the region. \n\nThe Christian community represents about 8% of the population. Residing in the western and the southern parts of the Gambia, most of the Christian community identifies themselves as Roman Catholic. However, smaller Christian groups are present, such as Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and small evangelical denominations.\n\nThe remaining 2% of the population adheres to indigenous beliefs, such as the Serer religion. \nSerer religion encompasses cosmology and a belief in a supreme deity called Rog. Some of its religious festivals include the Xoy, Mbosseh, and Randou Rande. Each year, adherents to Serer religion make the annual pilgrimage to Sine in Senegal for the Xoy divination ceremony. Serer religion also has a rather significant imprint on Senegambian Muslim society in that all Senegambian Muslim festivals such as \"Tobaski\", \"Gamo\", \"Koriteh\" and \"Weri Kor\" are loanwords from the Serer religion as they were ancient Serer festivals. \n\nLike the Serers, the Jola people also have their own religious customs. One of the major religious ceremonies of the Jolas is the Boukout.\n\nDue to immigration from South Asia, Buddhists, Hindus and followers of the Bahá'í Faith are present.\n\nCulture\n\nAlthough the Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, its culture is the product of very diverse influences. The national borders outline a narrow strip on either side of the River Gambia, a body of water that has played a vital part in the nation's destiny and is known locally simply as \"the River.\" Without natural barriers, the Gambia has become home to most of the ethnic groups that are present throughout western Africa, especially those in Senegal.\n\nEuropeans also figure prominently in Gambian history because the River Gambia is navigable deep into the continent, a geographic feature that made this area one of the most profitable sites for the slave trade from the 15th through the 17th centuries. (It also made it strategic to the halt of this trade once it was outlawed in the 19th century.) Some of this history was popularised in the Alex Haley book and TV series Roots which was set in the Gambia.\n\nMusic \n\nThe music of the Gambia is closely linked musically with that of its neighbour, Senegal, which surrounds its inland frontiers completely. It fuses popular Western music and dance, with sabar, the traditional drumming and dance music of the Wolof and Serer people.\n\nCuisine \n\nThe cuisine of the Gambia includes peanuts, rice, fish, meat, onions, tomatoes, cassava, chili peppers and oysters from the River Gambia that are harvested by women.\n\nMedia\n\nCritics have accused the government of restricting free speech. A law passed in 2002 created a commission with the power to issue licenses and imprison journalists; in 2004, additional legislation allowed prison sentences for libel and slander and cancelled all print and broadcasting licenses, forcing media groups to re-register at five times the original cost.\n\n \n\nThree Gambian journalists have been arrested since the coup attempt. It has been suggested that they were imprisoned for criticising the government's economic policy, or for stating that a former interior minister and security chief was among the plotters. Newspaper editor Deyda Hydara was shot to death under unexplained circumstances, days after the 2004 legislation took effect.\n\nLicensing fees are high for newspapers and radio stations, and the only nationwide stations are tightly controlled by the government.\n\nReporters Without Borders has accused \"President Yahya Jammeh's police state\" of using murder, arson, unlawful arrest and death threats against journalists. \nIn December 2010 Musa Saidykhan, former editor of The Independent newspaper, was awarded US$200,000 by the ECOWAS Court in Abuja, Nigeria. The court found the Government of the Gambia guilty of torture while he was detained without trial at the National Intelligence Agency. Apparently he was suspected of knowing about the 2006 failed coup.\n\nSports\n\nAs in neighboring Senegal, the national and most popular sport in Gambia is wrestling. Association football and basketball are also popular. Football in the Gambia is administered by the Gambia Football Association, who are affiliated to both FIFA and CAF. The GFA runs league football in the Gambia, including top division GFA League First Division, as well as the Gambia national football team. Nicknamed The Scorpions, the national side have never qualified for either the FIFA World Cup or the Africa Cup of Nations finals at senior levels. The Gambia won two CAF U-17 championships one in 2005 when the country hosted, and 2009 in Algeria automatically qualifying for FIFA U-17 World Cup in Peru (2005) and Nigeria (2009) respectively. The U-20 also qualified for FIFA U-20 2007 in Canada. The female U-17 also competed in FIFA U-17 World Cup 2012 in Azerbaijan." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Chemical_element.txt", "Lithium.txt" ], "title": [ "Chemical element", "Lithium" ], "wiki_context": [ "A chemical element or element is a species of atoms having the same number of protons in their atomic nuclei (i.e. the same atomic number, Z). There are 118 elements that have been identified, of which the first 94 occur naturally on Earth with the remaining 24 being synthetic elements. There are 80 elements that have at least one stable isotope and 38 that have exclusively radioactive isotopes, which decay over time into other elements. Iron is the most abundant element (by mass) making up Earth, while oxygen is the most common element in the crust of Earth. \n\nChemical elements constitute all of the ordinary matter of the universe. However astronomical observations suggest that ordinary observable matter is only approximately 15% of the matter in the universe: the remainder is dark matter, the composition of which is unknown, but it is not composed of chemical elements. \nThe two lightest elements, hydrogen and helium were mostly formed in the Big Bang and are the most common elements in the universe. The next three elements (lithium, beryllium and boron) were formed mostly by cosmic ray spallation, and are thus more rare than those that follow. Formation of elements with from six to twenty six protons occurred and continues to occur in main sequence stars via stellar nucleosynthesis. The high abundance of oxygen, silicon, and iron on Earth reflects their common production in such stars. Elements with greater than twenty-six protons are formed by supernova nucleosynthesis in supernovae, which, when they explode, blast these elements far into space as supernova remnants, where they may become incorporated into planets when they are formed. \n\nThe term \"element\" is used for a kind of atoms with a given number of protons (regardless of whether they are or they are not ionized or chemically bonded, e.g. hydrogen in water) as well as for a pure chemical substance consisting of a single element (e.g. hydrogen gas). For the second meaning, the terms \"elementary substance\" and \"simple substance\" have been suggested, but they have not gained much acceptance in the English-language chemical literature, whereas in some other languages their equivalent is widely used (e.g. French corps simple, Russian простое вещество). One element can form multiple substances different by their structure; they are called allotropes of the element.\n\nWhen different elements are chemically combined, with the atoms held together by chemical bonds, they form chemical compounds. Only a minority of elements are found uncombined as relatively pure minerals. Among the more common of such \"native elements\" are copper, silver, gold, carbon (as coal, graphite, or diamonds), and sulfur. All but a few of the most inert elements, such as noble gases and noble metals, are usually found on Earth in chemically combined form, as chemical compounds. While about 32 of the chemical elements occur on Earth in native uncombined forms, most of these occur as mixtures. For example, atmospheric air is primarily a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and argon, and native solid elements occur in alloys, such as that of iron and nickel.\n\nThe history of the discovery and use of the elements began with primitive human societies that found native elements like carbon, sulfur, copper and gold. Later civilizations extracted elemental copper, tin, lead and iron from their ores by smelting, using charcoal. Alchemists and chemists subsequently identified many more, with almost all of the naturally-occurring elements becoming known by 1900.\n\nThe properties of the chemical elements are summarized on the periodic table, which organizes the elements by increasing atomic number into rows (\"periods\") in which the columns (\"groups\") share recurring (\"periodic\") physical and chemical properties. Save for unstable radioactive elements with short half-lives, all of the elements are available industrially, most of them in high degrees of purity.\n\nDescription\n\nThe lightest chemical elements are hydrogen and helium, both created by Big Bang nucleosynthesis during the first 20 minutes of the universe in a ratio of around 3:1 by mass (or 12:1 by number of atoms), along with tiny traces of the next two elements, lithium and beryllium. Almost all other elements found in nature were made by various natural methods of nucleosynthesis. On Earth, small amounts of new atoms are naturally produced in nucleogenic reactions, or in cosmogenic processes, such as cosmic ray spallation. New atoms are also naturally produced on Earth as radiogenic daughter isotopes of ongoing radioactive decay processes such as alpha decay, beta decay, spontaneous fission, cluster decay, and other rarer modes of decay.\n\nOf the 94 naturally occurring elements, those with atomic numbers 1 through 82 each have at least one stable isotope (except for technetium, element 43 and promethium, element 61, which have no stable isotopes). Isotopes considered stable are those for which no radioactive decay has yet been observed. Elements with atomic numbers 83 through 94 are unstable to the point that radioactive decay of all isotopes can be detected. Some of these elements, notably bismuth (atomic number 83), thorium (atomic number 90), uranium (atomic number 92) and plutonium (atomic number 94), have one or more isotopes with half-lives long enough to survive as remnants of the explosive stellar nucleosynthesis that produced the heavy elements before the formation of our solar system. For example, at over 1.9 years, over a billion times longer than the current estimated age of the universe, bismuth-209 (atomic number 83) has the longest known alpha decay half-life of any naturally occurring element. The very heaviest elements (those beyond plutonium, element 94) undergo radioactive decay with half-lives so short that they are not found in nature and must be synthesized.\n\nAs of 2010, there are 118 known elements (in this context, \"known\" means observed well enough, even from just a few decay products, to have been differentiated from other elements). Of these 118 elements, 94 occur naturally on Earth. Six of these occur in extreme trace quantities: technetium, atomic number 43; promethium, number 61; astatine, number 85; francium, number 87; neptunium, number 93; and plutonium, number 94. These 94 elements have been detected in the universe at large, in the spectra of stars and also supernovae, where short-lived radioactive elements are newly being made. The first 94 elements have been detected directly on Earth as primordial nuclides present from the formation of the solar system, or as naturally-occurring fission or transmutation products of uranium and thorium.\n\nThe remaining 24 heavier elements, not found today either on Earth or in astronomical spectra, have been produced artificially: these are all radioactive, with very short half-lives; if any atoms of these elements were present at the formation of Earth, they are extremely likely, to the point of certainty, to have already decayed, and if present in novae, have been in quantities too small to have been noted. Technetium was the first purportedly non-naturally occurring element synthesized, in 1937, although trace amounts of technetium have since been found in nature (and also the element may have been discovered naturally in 1925). This pattern of artificial production and later natural discovery has been repeated with several other radioactive naturally-occurring rare elements. \n\nLists of the elements are available by name, by symbol, by atomic number, by density, by melting point, and by boiling point as well as ionization energies of the elements. The nuclides of stable and radioactive elements are also available as a list of nuclides, sorted by length of half-life for those that are unstable. One of the most convenient, and certainly the most traditional presentation of the elements, is in the form of the periodic table, which groups together elements with similar chemical properties (and usually also similar electronic structures).\n\nAtomic number\n\nThe atomic number of an element is equal to the number of protons in each atom, and defines the element. For example, all carbon atoms contain 6 protons in their atomic nucleus; so the atomic number of carbon is 6. Carbon atoms may have different numbers of neutrons; atoms of the same element having different numbers of neutrons are known as isotopes of the element. \n\nThe number of protons in the atomic nucleus also determines its electric charge, which in turn determines the number of electrons of the atom in its non-ionized state. The electrons are placed into atomic orbitals that determine the atom's various chemical properties. The number of neutrons in a nucleus usually has very little effect on an element's chemical properties (except in the case of hydrogen and deuterium). Thus, all carbon isotopes have nearly identical chemical properties because they all have six protons and six electrons, even though carbon atoms may, for example, have 6 or 8 neutrons. That is why the atomic number, rather than mass number or atomic weight, is considered the identifying characteristic of a chemical element.\n\nThe symbol for atomic number is Z.\n\nIsotopes\n\nIsotopes are atoms of the same element (that is, with the same number of protons in their atomic nucleus), but having different numbers of neutrons. Most (66 of 94) naturally occurring elements have more than one stable isotope. Thus, for example, there are three main isotopes of carbon. All carbon atoms have 6 protons in the nucleus, but they can have either 6, 7, or 8 neutrons. Since the mass numbers of these are 12, 13 and 14 respectively, the three isotopes of carbon are known as carbon-12, carbon-13, and carbon-14, often abbreviated to 12C, 13C, and 14C. Carbon in everyday life and in chemistry is a mixture of 12C (about 98.9%), 13C (about 1.1%) and about 1 atom per trillion of 14C.\n\nExcept in the case of the isotopes of hydrogen (which differ greatly from each other in relative mass—enough to cause chemical effects), the isotopes of a given element are chemically nearly indistinguishable.\n\nAll of the elements have some isotopes that are radioactive (radioisotopes), although not all of these radioisotopes occur naturally. The radioisotopes typically decay into other elements upon radiating an alpha or beta particle. If an element has isotopes that are not radioactive, these are termed \"stable\" isotopes. All of the known stable isotopes occur naturally (see primordial isotope). The many radioisotopes that are not found in nature have been characterized after being artificially made. Certain elements have no stable isotopes and are composed only of radioactive isotopes: specifically the elements without any stable isotopes are technetium (atomic number 43), promethium (atomic number 61), and all observed elements with atomic numbers greater than 82.\n\nOf the 80 elements with at least one stable isotope, 26 have only one single stable isotope. The mean number of stable isotopes for the 80 stable elements is 3.1 stable isotopes per element. The largest number of stable isotopes that occur for a single element is 10 (for tin, element 50).\n\nIsotopic mass and atomic mass\n\nThe mass number of an element, A, is the number of nucleons (protons and neutrons) in the atomic nucleus. Different isotopes of a given element are distinguished by their mass numbers, which are conventionally written as a superscript on the left hand side of the atomic symbol (e.g., 238U). The mass number is always a simple whole number and has units of \"nucleons.\" An example of a referral to a mass number is \"magnesium-24,\" which is an atom with 24 nucleons (12 protons and 12 neutrons).\n\nWhereas the mass number simply counts the total number of neutrons and protons and is thus a natural (or whole) number, the atomic mass of a single atom is a real number for the mass of a particular isotope of the element, the unit being u. In general, when expressed in u it differs in value slightly from the mass number for a given nuclide (or isotope) since the mass of the protons and neutrons is not exactly 1 u, since the electrons contribute a lesser share to the atomic mass as neutron number exceeds proton number, and (finally) because of the nuclear binding energy. For example, the atomic mass of chlorine-35 to five significant digits is 34.969 u and that of chlorine-37 is 36.966 u. However, the atomic mass in u of each isotope is quite close to its simple mass number (always within 1%). The only isotope whose atomic mass is exactly a natural number is 12C, which by definition has a mass of exactly 12, because u is defined as 1/12 of the mass of a free neutral carbon-12 atom in the ground state.\n\nThe relative atomic mass (historically and commonly also called \"atomic weight\") of an element is the average of the atomic masses of all the chemical element's isotopes as found in a particular environment, weighted by isotopic abundance, relative to the atomic mass unit (u). This number may be a fraction that is not close to a whole number, due to the averaging process. For example, the relative atomic mass of chlorine is 35.453 u, which differs greatly from a whole number due to being made of an average of 76% chlorine-35 and 24% chlorine-37. Whenever a relative atomic mass value differs by more than 1% from a whole number, it is due to this averaging effect resulting from significant amounts of more than one isotope being naturally present in the sample of the element in question.\n\nChemically pure and isotopically pure\n\nChemists and nuclear scientists have different definitions of a pure element. In chemistry, a pure element means a substance whose atoms all (or in practice almost all) have the same atomic number, or number of protons. Nuclear scientists, however, define a pure element as one that consists of only one stable isotope. \n\nFor example, a copper wire is 99.99% chemically pure if 99.99% of its atoms are copper, with 29 protons each. However it is not isotopically pure since ordinary copper consists of two stable isotopes, 69% 63Cu and 31% 65Cu, with different numbers of neutrons. However, a pure gold ingot would be both chemically and isotopically pure, since ordinary gold consists only of one isotope, 197Au.\n\nAllotropes\n\nAtoms of chemically pure elements may bond to each other chemically in more than one way, allowing the pure element to exist in multiple structures (spatial arrangements of atoms), known as allotropes, which differ in their properties. For example, carbon can be found as diamond, which has a tetrahedral structure around each carbon atom; graphite, which has layers of carbon atoms with a hexagonal structure stacked on top of each other; graphene, which is a single layer of graphite that is very strong; fullerenes, which have nearly spherical shapes; and carbon nanotubes, which are tubes with a hexagonal structure (even these may differ from each other in electrical properties). The ability of an element to exist in one of many structural forms is known as 'allotropy'.\n\nThe standard state, also known as reference state, of an element is defined as its thermodynamically most stable state at 1 bar at a given temperature (typically at 298.15 K). In thermochemistry, an element is defined to have an enthalpy of formation of zero in its standard state. For example, the reference state for carbon is graphite, because the structure of graphite is more stable than that of the other allotropes.\n\nProperties\n\nSeveral kinds of descriptive categorizations can be applied broadly to the elements, including consideration of their general physical and chemical properties, their states of matter under familiar conditions, their melting and boiling points, their densities, their crystal structures as solids, and their origins.\n\nGeneral properties\n\nSeveral terms are commonly used to characterize the general physical and chemical properties of the chemical elements. A first distinction is between metals, which readily conduct electricity, nonmetals, which do not, and a small group, (the metalloids), having intermediate properties and often behaving as semiconductors.\n\nA more refined classification is often shown in colored presentations of the periodic table. This system restricts the terms \"metal\" and \"nonmetal\" to only certain of the more broadly defined metals and nonmetals, adding additional terms for certain sets of the more broadly viewed metals and nonmetals. The version of this classification used in the periodic tables presented here includes: actinides, alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, halogens, lanthanides, transition metals, post-transition metals, metalloids, polyatomic nonmetals, diatomic nonmetals, and noble gases. In this system, the alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, and transition metals, as well as the lanthanides and the actinides, are special groups of the metals viewed in a broader sense. Similarly, the polyatomic nonmetals, diatomic nonmetals and the noble gases are nonmetals viewed in the broader sense. In some presentations, the halogens are not distinguished, with astatine identified as a metalloid and the others identified as nonmetals.\n\nStates of matter\n\nAnother commonly used basic distinction among the elements is their state of matter (phase), whether solid, liquid, or gas, at a selected standard temperature and pressure (STP). Most of the elements are solids at conventional temperatures and atmospheric pressure, while several are gases. Only bromine and mercury are liquids at 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) and normal atmospheric pressure; caesium and gallium are solids at that temperature, but melt at 28.4 °C (83.2 °F) and 29.8 °C (85.6 °F), respectively.\n\nMelting and boiling points\n\nMelting and boiling points, typically expressed in degrees Celsius at a pressure of one atmosphere, are commonly used in characterizing the various elements. While known for most elements, either or both of these measurements is still undetermined for some of the radioactive elements available in only tiny quantities. Since helium remains a liquid even at absolute zero at atmospheric pressure, it has only a boiling point, and not a melting point, in conventional presentations.\n\nDensities\n\nThe density at a selected standard temperature and pressure (STP) is frequently used in characterizing the elements. Density is often expressed in grams per cubic centimeter (g/cm3). Since several elements are gases at commonly encountered temperatures, their densities are usually stated for their gaseous forms; when liquefied or solidified, the gaseous elements have densities similar to those of the other elements.\n\nWhen an element has allotropes with different densities, one representative allotrope is typically selected in summary presentations, while densities for each allotrope can be stated where more detail is provided. For example, the three familiar allotropes of carbon (amorphous carbon, graphite, and diamond) have densities of 1.8–2.1, 2.267, and 3.515 g/cm3, respectively.\n\nCrystal structures\n\nThe elements studied to date as solid samples have eight kinds of crystal structures: cubic, body-centered cubic, face-centered cubic, hexagonal, monoclinic, orthorhombic, rhombohedral, and tetragonal. For some of the synthetically produced transuranic elements, available samples have been too small to determine crystal structures.\n\nOccurrence and origin on Earth\n\nChemical elements may also be categorized by their origin on Earth, with the first 94 considered naturally occurring, while those with atomic numbers beyond 94 have only been produced artificially as the synthetic products of man-made nuclear reactions.\n\nOf the 94 naturally occurring elements, 84 are considered primordial and either stable or weakly radioactive. The remaining 10 naturally occurring elements possess half lives too short for them to have been present at the beginning of the Solar System, and are therefore considered transient elements. (Plutonium is sometimes also considered a transient element because primordial plutonium has by now decayed to almost undetectable traces.) Of these 10 transient elements, 5 (polonium, radon, radium, actinium, and protactinium) are relatively common decay products of thorium, uranium, and plutonium. The remaining 5 transient elements (technetium, promethium, astatine, francium, and neptunium) occur only rarely, as products of rare decay modes or nuclear reaction processes involving uranium or other heavy elements.\n\nElements with atomic numbers 1 through 40 are all stable, while those with atomic numbers 41 through 82 (except technetium and promethium) are metastable. The half-lives of these metastable \"theoretical radionuclides\" are so long (at least 100 million times longer than the estimated age of the universe) that their radioactive decay has yet to be detected by experiment. Elements with atomic numbers 83 through 94 are unstable to the point that their radioactive decay can be detected. Four of these elements, bismuth (element 83), thorium (element 90), uranium (element 92), and plutonium (element 94), have one or more isotopes with half-lives long enough to survive as remnants of the explosive stellar nucleosynthesis that produced the heavy elements before the formation of our solar system. For example, at over 1.9 years, over a billion times longer than the current estimated age of the universe, bismuth-209 has the longest known alpha decay half-life of any naturally occurring element. The very heaviest elements (those beyond plutonium, element 94) undergo radioactive decay with short half-lives and do not occur in nature.\n\nThe periodic table\n\nThe properties of the chemical elements are often summarized using the periodic table, which powerfully and elegantly organizes the elements by increasing atomic number into rows (\"periods\") in which the columns (\"groups\") share recurring (\"periodic\") physical and chemical properties. The current standard table contains 118 confirmed elements as of 10 April 2010.\n\nAlthough earlier precursors to this presentation exist, its invention is generally credited to the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869, who intended the table to illustrate recurring trends in the properties of the elements. The layout of the table has been refined and extended over time as new elements have been discovered and new theoretical models have been developed to explain chemical behavior.\n\nUse of the periodic table is now ubiquitous within the academic discipline of chemistry, providing an extremely useful framework to classify, systematize and compare all the many different forms of chemical behavior. The table has also found wide application in physics, geology, biology, materials science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, nutrition, environmental health, and astronomy. Its principles are especially important in chemical engineering.\n\nNomenclature and symbols\n\nThe various chemical elements are formally identified by their unique atomic numbers, by their accepted names, and by their symbols.\n\nAtomic numbers\n\nThe known elements have atomic numbers from 1 through 118, conventionally presented as Arabic numerals. Since the elements can be uniquely sequenced by atomic number, conventionally from lowest to highest (as in a periodic table), sets of elements are sometimes specified by such notation as \"through\", \"beyond\", or \"from ... through\", as in \"through iron\", \"beyond uranium\", or \"from lanthanum through lutetium\". The terms \"light\" and \"heavy\" are sometimes also used informally to indicate relative atomic numbers (not densities), as in \"lighter than carbon\" or \"heavier than lead\", although technically the weight or mass of atoms of an element (their atomic weights or atomic masses) do not always increase monotonically with their atomic numbers.\n\nElement names\n\nThe naming of various substances now known as elements precedes the atomic theory of matter, as names were given locally by various cultures to various minerals, metals, compounds, alloys, mixtures, and other materials, although at the time it was not known which chemicals were elements and which compounds. As they were identified as elements, the existing names for anciently-known elements (e.g., gold, mercury, iron) were kept in most countries. National differences emerged over the names of elements either for convenience, linguistic niceties, or nationalism. For a few illustrative examples: German speakers use \"Wasserstoff\" (water substance) for \"hydrogen\", \"Sauerstoff\" (acid substance) for \"oxygen\" and \"Stickstoff\" (smothering substance) for \"nitrogen\", while English and some romance languages use \"sodium\" for \"natrium\" and \"potassium\" for \"kalium\", and the French, Italians, Greeks, Portuguese and Poles prefer \"azote/azot/azoto\" (from roots meaning \"no life\") for \"nitrogen\".\n\nFor purposes of international communication and trade, the official names of the chemical elements both ancient and more recently recognized are decided by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), which has decided on a sort of international English language, drawing on traditional English names even when an element's chemical symbol is based on a Latin or other traditional word, for example adopting \"gold\" rather than \"aurum\" as the name for the 79th element (Au). IUPAC prefers the British spellings \"aluminium\" and \"caesium\" over the U.S. spellings \"aluminum\" and \"cesium\", and the U.S. \"sulfur\" over the British \"sulphur\". However, elements that are practical to sell in bulk in many countries often still have locally used national names, and countries whose national language does not use the Latin alphabet are likely to use the IUPAC element names.\n\nAccording to IUPAC, chemical elements are not proper nouns in English; consequently, the full name of an element is not routinely capitalized in English, even if derived from a proper noun, as in californium and einsteinium. Isotope names of chemical elements are also uncapitalized if written out, e.g., carbon-12 or uranium-235. Chemical element symbols (such as Cf for californium and Es for einsteinium), are always capitalized (see below).\n\nIn the second half of the twentieth century, physics laboratories became able to produce nuclei of chemical elements with half-lives too short for an appreciable amount of them to exist at any time. These are also named by IUPAC, which generally adopts the name chosen by the discoverer. This practice can lead to the controversial question of which research group actually discovered an element, a question that delayed the naming of elements with atomic number of 104 and higher for a considerable amount of time. (See element naming controversy).\n\nPrecursors of such controversies involved the nationalistic namings of elements in the late 19th century. For example, lutetium was named in reference to Paris, France. The Germans were reluctant to relinquish naming rights to the French, often calling it cassiopeium. Similarly, the British discoverer of niobium originally named it columbium, in reference to the New World. It was used extensively as such by American publications prior to the international standardization.\n\nChemical symbols\n\nSpecific chemical elements\n\nBefore chemistry became a science, alchemists had designed arcane symbols for both metals and common compounds. These were however used as abbreviations in diagrams or procedures; there was no concept of atoms combining to form molecules. With his advances in the atomic theory of matter, John Dalton devised his own simpler symbols, based on circles, to depict molecules.\n\nThe current system of chemical notation was invented by Berzelius. In this typographical system, chemical symbols are not mere abbreviations—though each consists of letters of the Latin alphabet. They are intended as universal symbols for people of all languages and alphabets.\n\nThe first of these symbols were intended to be fully universal. Since Latin was the common language of science at that time, they were abbreviations based on the Latin names of metals. Cu comes from Cuprum, Fe comes from Ferrum, Ag from Argentum. The symbols were not followed by a period (full stop) as with abbreviations. Later chemical elements were also assigned unique chemical symbols, based on the name of the element, but not necessarily in English. For example, sodium has the chemical symbol 'Na' after the Latin natrium. The same applies to \"W\" (wolfram) for tungsten, \"Fe\" (ferrum) for iron, \"Hg\" (hydrargyrum) for mercury, \"Sn\" (stannum) for tin, \"K\" (kalium) for potassium, \"Au\" (aurum) for gold, \"Ag\" (argentum) for silver, \"Pb\" (plumbum) for lead, \"Cu\" (cuprum) for copper, and \"Sb\" (stibium) for antimony.\n\nChemical symbols are understood internationally when element names might require translation. There have sometimes been differences in the past. For example, Germans in the past have used \"J\" (for the alternate name Jod) for iodine, but now use \"I\" and \"Iod\".\n\nThe first letter of a chemical symbol is always capitalized, as in the preceding examples, and the subsequent letters, if any, are always lower case (small letters). Thus, the symbols for californium or einsteinium are Cf and Es.\n\nGeneral chemical symbols\n\nThere are also symbols in chemical equations for groups of chemical elements, for example in comparative formulas. These are often a single capital letter, and the letters are reserved and not used for names of specific elements. For example, an \"X\" indicates a variable group (usually a halogen) in a class of compounds, while \"R\" is a radical, meaning a compound structure such as a hydrocarbon chain. The letter \"Q\" is reserved for \"heat\" in a chemical reaction. \"Y\" is also often used as a general chemical symbol, although it is also the symbol of yttrium. \"Z\" is also frequently used as a general variable group. \"E\" is used in organic chemistry to denote an electron-withdrawing group. \"L\" is used to represent a general ligand in inorganic and organometallic chemistry. \"M\" is also often used in place of a general metal.\n\nAt least two additional, two-letter generic chemical symbols are also in informal usage, \"Ln\" for any lanthanide element and \"An\" for any actinide element. \"Rg\" was formerly used for any rare gas element, but the group of rare gases has now been renamed noble gases and the symbol \"Rg\" has now been assigned to the element roentgenium.\n\nIsotope symbols\n\nIsotopes are distinguished by the atomic mass number (total protons and neutrons) for a particular isotope of an element, with this number combined with the pertinent element's symbol. IUPAC prefers that isotope symbols be written in superscript notation when practical, for example 12C and 235U. However, other notations, such as carbon-12 and uranium-235, or C-12 and U-235, are also used.\n\nAs a special case, the three naturally occurring isotopes of the element hydrogen are often specified as H for 1H (protium), D for 2H (deuterium), and T for 3H (tritium). This convention is easier to use in chemical equations, replacing the need to write out the mass number for each atom. For example, the formula for heavy water may be written D2O instead of 2H2O.\n\nOrigin of the elements\n\nOnly about 4% of the total mass of the universe is made of atoms or ions, and thus represented by chemical elements. This fraction is about 15% of the total matter, with the remainder of the matter (85%) being dark matter. The nature of dark matter is unknown, but it is not composed of atoms of chemical elements because it contains no protons, neutrons, or electrons. (The remaining non-matter part of the mass of the universe is composed of the even more mysterious dark energy).\n\nThe universe's 94 naturally occurring chemical elements are thought to have been produced by at least four cosmic processes. Most of the hydrogen and helium in the universe was produced primordially in the first few minutes of the Big Bang. Three recurrently occurring later processes are thought to have produced the remaining elements. Stellar nucleosynthesis, an ongoing process, produces all elements from carbon through iron in atomic number, but little lithium, beryllium, or boron. Elements heavier in atomic number than iron, as heavy as uranium and plutonium, are produced by explosive nucleosynthesis in supernovas and other cataclysmic cosmic events. Cosmic ray spallation (fragmentation) of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen is important to the production of lithium, beryllium and boron.\n\nDuring the early phases of the Big Bang, nucleosynthesis of hydrogen nuclei resulted in the production of hydrogen-1 (protium, 1H) and helium-4 (4He), as well as a smaller amount of deuterium (2H) and very minuscule amounts (on the order of 10−10) of lithium and beryllium. Even smaller amounts of boron may have been produced in the Big Bang, since it has been observed in some very old stars, while carbon has not. It is generally agreed that no heavier elements than boron were produced in the Big Bang. As a result, the primordial abundance of atoms (or ions) consisted of roughly 75% 1H, 25% 4He, and 0.01% deuterium, with only tiny traces of lithium, beryllium, and perhaps boron. Subsequent enrichment of galactic halos occurred due to stellar nucleosynthesis and supernova nucleosynthesis. However, the element abundance in intergalactic space can still closely resemble primordial conditions, unless it has been enriched by some means.\n\nOn Earth (and elsewhere), trace amounts of various elements continue to be produced from other elements as products of natural transmutation processes. These include some produced by cosmic rays or other nuclear reactions (see cosmogenic and nucleogenic nuclides), and others produced as decay products of long-lived primordial nuclides. For example, trace (but detectable) amounts of carbon-14 (14C) are continually produced in the atmosphere by cosmic rays impacting nitrogen atoms, and argon-40 (40Ar) is continually produced by the decay of primordially occurring but unstable potassium-40 (40K). Also, three primordially occurring but radioactive actinides, thorium, uranium, and plutonium, decay through a series of recurrently produced but unstable radioactive elements such as radium and radon, which are transiently present in any sample of these metals or their ores or compounds. Three other radioactive elements, technetium, promethium, and neptunium, occur only incidentally in natural materials, produced as individual atoms by natural fission of the nuclei of various heavy elements or in other rare nuclear processes.\n\nHuman technology has produced various additional elements beyond these first 94, with those through atomic number 118 now known.\n\nAbundance\n\nThe following graph (note log scale) shows the abundance of elements in our solar system. The table shows the twelve most common elements in our galaxy (estimated spectroscopically), as measured in parts per million, by mass. Nearby galaxies that have evolved along similar lines have a corresponding enrichment of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. The more distant galaxies are being viewed as they appeared in the past, so their abundances of elements appear closer to the primordial mixture. As physical laws and processes appear common throughout the visible universe, however, scientist expect that these galaxies evolved elements in similar abundance.\n\nThe abundance of elements in the Solar System is in keeping with their origin from nucleosynthesis in the Big Bang and a number of progenitor supernova stars. Very abundant hydrogen and helium are products of the Big Bang, but the next three elements are rare since they had little time to form in the Big Bang and are not made in stars (they are, however, produced in small quantities by the breakup of heavier elements in interstellar dust, as a result of impact by cosmic rays). Beginning with carbon, elements are produced in stars by buildup from alpha particles (helium nuclei), resulting in an alternatingly larger abundance of elements with even atomic numbers (these are also more stable). In general, such elements up to iron are made in large stars in the process of becoming supernovas. Iron-56 is particularly common, since it is the most stable element that can easily be made from alpha particles (being a product of decay of radioactive nickel-56, ultimately made from 14 helium nuclei). Elements heavier than iron are made in energy-absorbing processes in large stars, and their abundance in the universe (and on Earth) generally decreases with their atomic number.\n\nThe abundance of the chemical elements on Earth varies from air to crust to ocean, and in various types of life. The abundance of elements in Earth's crust differs from that in the Solar system (as seen in the Sun and heavy planets like Jupiter) mainly in selective loss of the very lightest elements (hydrogen and helium) and also volatile neon, carbon (as hydrocarbons), nitrogen and sulfur, as a result of solar heating in the early formation of the solar system. Oxygen, the most abundant Earth element by mass, is retained on Earth by combination with silicon. Aluminum at 8% by mass is more common in the Earth's crust than in the universe and solar system, but the composition of the far more bulky mantle, which has magnesium and iron in place of aluminum (which occurs there only at 2% of mass) more closely mirrors the elemental composition of the solar system, save for the noted loss of volatile elements to space, and loss of iron which has migrated to the Earth's core.\n\nThe composition of the human body, by contrast, more closely follows the composition of seawater—save that the human body has additional stores of carbon and nitrogen necessary to form the proteins and nucleic acids, together with phosphorus in the nucleic acids and energy transfer molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that occurs in the cells of all living organisms. Certain kinds of organisms require particular additional elements, for example the magnesium in chlorophyll in green plants, the calcium in mollusc shells, or the iron in the hemoglobin in vertebrate animals' red blood cells.\n\nHistory\n\nEvolving definitions\n\nThe concept of an \"element\" as an undivisible substance has developed through three major historical phases: Classical definitions (such as those of the ancient Greeks), chemical definitions, and atomic definitions.\n\nClassical definitions\n\nAncient philosophy posited a set of classical elements to explain observed patterns in nature. These elements originally referred to earth, water, air and fire rather than the chemical elements of modern science.\n\nThe term 'elements' (stoicheia) was first used by the Greek philosopher Plato in about 360 BCE in his dialogue Timaeus, which includes a discussion of the composition of inorganic and organic bodies and is a speculative treatise on chemistry. Plato believed the elements introduced a century earlier by Empedocles were composed of small polyhedral forms: tetrahedron (fire), octahedron (air), icosahedron (water), and cube (earth). \n\nAristotle, c. 350 BCE, also used the term stoicheia and added a fifth element called aether, which formed the heavens. Aristotle defined an element as:\n\nChemical definitions\n\nIn 1661, Robert Boyle proposed his theory of corpuscularism which favoured the analysis of matter as constituted by irreducible units of matter (atoms) and, choosing to side with neither Aristotle's view of the four elements nor Paracelsus' view of three fundamental elements, left open the question of the number of elements. The first modern list of chemical elements was given in Antoine Lavoisier's 1789 Elements of Chemistry, which contained thirty-three elements, including light and caloric. By 1818, Jöns Jakob Berzelius had determined atomic weights for forty-five of the forty-nine then-accepted elements. Dmitri Mendeleev had sixty-six elements in his periodic table of 1869.\n\nFrom Boyle until the early 20th century, an element was defined as a pure substance that could not be decomposed into any simpler substance. Put another way, a chemical element cannot be transformed into other chemical elements by chemical processes. Elements during this time were generally distinguished by their atomic weights, a property measurable with fair accuracy by available analytical techniques.\n\nAtomic definitions\n\nThe 1913 discovery by English physicist Henry Moseley that the nuclear charge is the physical basis for an atom's atomic number, further refined when the nature of protons and neutrons became appreciated, eventually led to the current definition of an element based on atomic number (number of protons per atomic nucleus). The use of atomic numbers, rather than atomic weights, to distinguish elements has greater predictive value (since these numbers are integers), and also resolves some ambiguities in the chemistry-based view due to varying properties of isotopes and allotropes within the same element. Currently, IUPAC defines an element to exist if it has isotopes with a lifetime longer than the 10−14 seconds it takes the nucleus to form an electronic cloud. \n\nBy 1914, seventy-two elements were known, all naturally occurring. The remaining naturally occurring elements were discovered or isolated in subsequent decades, and various additional elements have also been produced synthetically, with much of that work pioneered by Glenn T. Seaborg. In 1955, element 101 was discovered and named mendelevium in honor of D.I. Mendeleev, the first to arrange the elements in a periodic manner. Most recently, the synthesis of element 118 was reported in October 2006, and the synthesis of element 117 was reported in April 2010. \n\nDiscovery and recognition of various elements\n\nTen materials familiar to various prehistoric cultures are now known to be chemical elements: Carbon, copper, gold, iron, lead, mercury, silver, sulfur, tin, and zinc. Three additional materials now accepted as elements, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth, were recognized as distinct substances prior to 1500 AD. Phosphorus, cobalt, and platinum were isolated before 1750.\n\nMost of the remaining naturally occurring chemical elements were identified and characterized by 1900, including:\n* Such now-familiar industrial materials as aluminium, silicon, nickel, chromium, magnesium, and tungsten\n* Reactive metals such as lithium, sodium, potassium, and calcium\n* The halogens fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine\n* Gases such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, helium, argon, and neon\n* Most of the rare-earth elements, including cerium, lanthanum, gadolinium, and neodymium.\n* The more common radioactive elements, including uranium, thorium, radium, and radon\n\nElements isolated or produced since 1900 include:\n* The three remaining undiscovered regularly occurring stable natural elements: hafnium, lutetium, and rhenium\n* Plutonium, which was first produced synthetically in 1940 by Glenn T. Seaborg, but is now also known from a few long-persisting natural occurrences\n* The three incidentally occurring natural elements (neptunium, promethium, and technetium), which were all first produced synthetically but later discovered in trace amounts in certain geological samples\n* Three scarce decay products of uranium or thorium, (astatine, francium, and protactinium), and\n* Various synthetic transuranic elements, beginning with americium and curium\n\nRecently discovered elements\n\nThe first transuranium element (element with atomic number greater than 92) discovered was neptunium in 1940. Since 1999 claims for the discovery of new elements have been considered by the IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working Party. As of January 2016, all 118 elements have been confirmed as discovered by IUPAC. The discovery of element 112 was acknowledged in 2009, and the name copernicium and the atomic symbol Cn were suggested for it. The name and symbol were officially endorsed by IUPAC on 19 February 2010. The heaviest element that is believed to have been synthesized to date is element 118, ununoctium, on 9 October 2006, by the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in Dubna, Russia. Element 117 was the latest element claimed to be discovered, in 2009. IUPAC officially recognized flerovium and livermorium, elements 114 and 116, in June 2011 and approved their names in May 2012. In December 2015, IUPAC recognized elements 113, 115, 117 and 118, and announced the elements' proposed final names on 8 June 2016. The names, nihonium (113, Nh), moscovium (115, Mc), tennessine (117, Ts), and oganesson (118, Og), are expected to be approved by the end of 2016. \n\nList of the 118 known chemical elements\n\nThe following sortable table includes the 118 known chemical elements, with the names linking to the Wikipedia articles on each.\n* Atomic number, name, and symbol all serve independently as unique identifiers.\n* Names are those accepted by IUPAC; provisional names for recently produced elements not yet formally named are in parentheses.\n* Group, period, and block refer to an element's position in the periodic table. Group numbers here show the currently accepted numbering; for older alternate numberings, see Group (periodic table).\n* State of matter (solid, liquid, or gas) applies at standard temperature and pressure conditions (STP).\n* Occurrence distinguishes naturally occurring elements, categorized as either primordial or transient (from decay), and additional synthetic elements that have been produced technologically, but are not known to occur naturally.\n* Description summarizes an element's properties using the broad categories commonly presented in periodic tables: Actinide, alkali metal, alkaline earth metal, lanthanide, post-transition metal, metalloid, noble gas, polyatomic or diatomic nonmetal, and transition metal.", "Lithium (from , \"stone\") is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silver-white metal belonging to the alkali metal group of chemical elements. Under standard conditions, it is the lightest metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly reactive and flammable. For this reason, it is typically stored in mineral oil. When cut open, it exhibits a metallic luster, but contact with moist air corrodes the surface quickly to a dull silvery gray, then black tarnish. Because of its high reactivity, lithium never occurs freely in nature, and instead, appears only in compounds, which are usually ionic. Lithium occurs in a number of pegmatitic minerals, but due to its solubility as an ion, is present in ocean water and is commonly obtained from brines and clays. On a commercial scale, lithium is isolated electrolytically from a mixture of lithium chloride and potassium chloride.\n\nThe nucleus of the lithium atom verges on instability, since the two stable lithium isotopes found in nature have among the lowest binding energies per nucleon of all stable nuclides. Because of its relative nuclear instability, lithium is less common in the solar system than 25 of the first 32 chemical elements even though the nuclei are very light in atomic weight. For related reasons, lithium has important links to nuclear physics. The transmutation of lithium atoms to helium in 1932 was the first fully man-made nuclear reaction, and lithium-6 deuteride serves as a fusion fuel in staged thermonuclear weapons. \n\nLithium and its compounds have several industrial applications, including heat-resistant glass and ceramics, lithium grease lubricants, flux additives for iron, steel and aluminium production, lithium batteries, and lithium-ion batteries. These uses consume more than three quarters of lithium production.\n\nTrace amounts of lithium are present in all organisms. The element serves no apparent vital biological function, since animals and plants survive in good health without it, though non-vital functions have not been ruled out. The lithium ion Li+ administered as any of several lithium salts has proved to be useful as a mood-stabilizing drug in the treatment of bipolar disorder in humans.\n\nProperties\n\nAtomic and physical\n\nLike the other alkali metals, lithium has a single valence electron that is easily given up to form a cation. Because of this, lithium is a good conductor of heat and electricity as well as a highly reactive element, though it is the least reactive of the alkali metals. Lithium's low reactivity is due to the proximity of its valence electron to its nucleus (the remaining two electrons are in the 1s orbital, much lower in energy, and do not participate in chemical bonds).\n\nLithium metal is soft enough to be cut with a knife. When cut, it possesses a silvery-white color that quickly changes to gray as it oxidizes to lithium oxide. While it has one of the lowest melting points among all metals (180 °C), it has the highest melting and boiling points of the alkali metals. \n\nLithium has a very low density (0.534 g/cm3), comparable with pine wood. It is the least dense of all elements that are solids at room temperature; the next lightest solid element (potassium, at 0.862 g/cm3) is more than 60% denser. Furthermore, apart from helium and hydrogen, it is less dense than any liquid element, being only 2/3 as dense as liquid nitrogen (0.808 g/cm3). Lithium can float on the lightest hydrocarbon oils and is one of only three metals that can float on water, the other two being sodium and potassium.\n\nLithium's coefficient of thermal expansion is twice that of aluminium and almost four times that of iron. Lithium is superconductive below 400 μK at standard pressure and at higher temperatures (more than 9 K) at very high pressures (>20 GPa). At temperatures below 70 K, lithium, like sodium, undergoes diffusionless phase change transformations. At 4.2 K it has a rhombohedral crystal system (with a nine-layer repeat spacing); at higher temperatures it transforms to face-centered cubic and then body-centered cubic. At liquid-helium temperatures (4 K) the rhombohedral structure is prevalent. Multiple allotropic forms have been identified for lithium at high pressures. \n\nLithium has a mass specific heat capacity of 3.58 kilojoules per kilogram-kelvin, the highest of all solids. Because of this, lithium metal is often used in coolants for heat transfer applications.\n\nChemistry and compounds\n\nLithium reacts with water easily, but with noticeably less energy than other alkali metals. The reaction forms hydrogen gas and lithium hydroxide in aqueous solution. Because of its reactivity with water, lithium is usually stored in a hydrocarbon sealant, often petroleum jelly. Though the heavier alkali metals can be stored in more dense substances, such as mineral oil, lithium is not dense enough to be fully submerged in these liquids. In moist air, lithium rapidly tarnishes to form a black coating of lithium hydroxide (LiOH and LiOH·H2O), lithium nitride (Li3N) and lithium carbonate (Li2CO3, the result of a secondary reaction between LiOH and CO2).\n\nWhen placed over a flame, lithium compounds give off a striking crimson color, but when it burns strongly the flame becomes a brilliant silver. Lithium will ignite and burn in oxygen when exposed to water or water vapors. Lithium is flammable, and it is potentially explosive when exposed to air and especially to water, though less so than the other alkali metals. The lithium-water reaction at normal temperatures is brisk but nonviolent because the hydrogen produced does not ignite on its own. As with all alkali metals, lithium fires are difficult to extinguish, requiring dry powder fire extinguishers (Class D type). Lithium is the only metal which reacts with nitrogen under normal conditions. \n\nLithium has a diagonal relationship with magnesium, an element of similar atomic and ionic radius. Chemical resemblances between the two metals include the formation of a nitride by reaction with N2, the formation of an oxide () and peroxide () when burnt in O2, salts with similar solubilities, and thermal instability of the carbonates and nitrides. The metal reacts with hydrogen gas at high temperatures to produce lithium hydride (LiH). \n\nOther known binary compounds include halides (LiF, LiCl, LiBr, LiI), sulfide (lithium sulfide|), superoxide (Lithium superoxide|), and carbide (Lithium carbide|). Many other inorganic compounds are known in which lithium combines with anions to form salts: borates, amides, carbonate, nitrate, or borohydride (Lithium borohydride|). Lithium aluminium hydride () is commonly used as a reducing agent in organic synthesis.\n\nMultiple organolithium reagents are known in which there is a direct bond between carbon and lithium atoms, effectively creating a carbanion. These are extremely powerful bases and nucleophiles. In many of these organolithium compounds, the lithium ions tend to aggregate into high-symmetry clusters by themselves, which is relatively common for alkali cations. LiHe, a very weakly interacting van der Waals compound, has been detected at very low temperatures. \nIsotopes\n\nNaturally occurring lithium is composed of two stable isotopes, 6Li and 7Li, the latter being the more abundant (92.5% natural abundance). Both natural isotopes have anomalously low nuclear binding energy per nucleon (compared to the neighboring elements on the periodic table, helium and beryllium); lithium is the only low numbered element that can produce net energy through nuclear fission. The two lithium nuclei have lower binding energies per nucleon than any other stable nuclides other than deuterium and helium-3.:File:Binding energy curve - common isotopes.svg shows binding energies of stable nuclides graphically; the source of the data-set is given in the figure background. As a result of this, though very light in atomic weight, lithium is less common in the Solar System than 25 of the first 32 chemical elements. Seven radioisotopes have been characterized, the most stable being 8Li with a half-life of 838 ms and 9Li with a half-life of 178 ms. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are shorter than 8.6 ms. The shortest-lived isotope of lithium is 4Li, which decays through proton emission and has a half-life of 7.6 × 10−23 s.\n\n7Li is one of the primordial elements (or, more properly, primordial nuclides) produced in Big Bang nucleosynthesis. A small amount of both 6Li and 7Li are produced in stars, but are thought to be \"burned\" as fast as produced. Additional small amounts of lithium of both 6Li and 7Li may be generated from solar wind, cosmic rays hitting heavier atoms, and from early solar system 7Be and 10Be radioactive decay. While lithium is created in stars during stellar nucleosynthesis, it is further burned. 7Li can also be generated in carbon stars. \n\nLithium isotopes fractionate substantially during a wide variety of natural processes, including mineral formation (chemical precipitation), metabolism, and ion exchange. Lithium ions substitute for magnesium and iron in octahedral sites in clay minerals, where 6Li is preferred to 7Li, resulting in enrichment of the light isotope in processes of hyperfiltration and rock alteration. The exotic 11Li is known to exhibit a nuclear halo. The process known as laser isotope separation can be used to separate lithium isotopes, in particular 7Li from 6Li. \n\nNuclear weapons manufacture and other nuclear physics applications are a major source of artificial lithium fractionation, with the light isotope 6Li being retained by industry and military stockpiles to such an extent that it has caused slight but measurable change in the 6Li to 7Li ratios in natural sources, such as rivers. This has led to unusual uncertainty in the standardized atomic weight of lithium, since this quantity depends on the natural abundance ratios of these naturally-occurring stable lithium isotopes, as they are available in commercial lithium mineral sources.\n\nOccurrence\n\nAstronomical\n\nAccording to modern cosmological theory, lithium—in both stable isotopes (lithium-6 and lithium-7)—was one of the 3 elements synthesized in the Big Bang. Though the amount of lithium generated in Big Bang nucleosynthesis is dependent upon the number of photons per baryon, for accepted values the lithium abundance can be calculated, and there is a \"cosmological lithium discrepancy\" in the Universe: older stars seem to have less lithium than they should, and some younger stars have much more. The lack of lithium in older stars is apparently caused by the \"mixing\" of lithium into the interior of stars, where it is destroyed, while lithium is produced in younger stars. Though it transmutes into two atoms of helium due to collision with a proton at temperatures above 2.4 million degrees Celsius (most stars easily attain this temperature in their interiors), lithium is more abundant than current computations would predict in later-generation stars.\n\nThough it was one of the three first elements to be synthesized in the Big Bang, lithium, together with beryllium and boron are markedly less abundant than other elements. This is a result of the low temperature necessary to destroy lithium, and a lack of common processes to produce it.\n\nLithium is also found in brown dwarf substellar objects and certain anomalous orange stars. Because lithium is present in cooler, less-massive brown dwarfs, but is destroyed in hotter red dwarf stars, its presence in the stars' spectra can be used in the \"lithium test\" to differentiate the two, as both are smaller than the Sun. Certain orange stars can also contain a high concentration of lithium. Those orange stars found to have a higher than usual concentration of lithium (such as Centaurus X-4) orbit massive objects—neutron stars or black holes—whose gravity evidently pulls heavier lithium to the surface of a hydrogen-helium star, causing more lithium to be observed.\n\nTerrestrial\n\nAlthough lithium is widely distributed on Earth, it does not naturally occur in elemental form due to its high reactivity. The total lithium content of seawater is very large and is estimated as 230 billion tonnes, where the element exists at a relatively constant concentration of 0.14 to 0.25 parts per million (ppm), or 25 micromolar; higher concentrations approaching 7 ppm are found near hydrothermal vents.\n\nEstimates for the Earth's crustal content range from 20 to 70 ppm by weight. In keeping with its name, lithium forms a minor part of igneous rocks, with the largest concentrations in granites. Granitic pegmatites also provide the greatest abundance of lithium-containing minerals, with spodumene and petalite being the most commercially viable sources. Another significant mineral of lithium is lepidolite. A newer source for lithium is hectorite clay, the only active development of which is through the Western Lithium Corporation in the United States. At 20 mg lithium per kg of Earth's crust, lithium is the 25th most abundant element.\n\nAccording to the Handbook of Lithium and Natural Calcium, \"Lithium is a comparatively rare element, although it is found in many rocks and some brines, but always in very low concentrations. There are a fairly large number of both lithium mineral and brine deposits but only comparatively few of them are of actual or potential commercial value. Many are very small, others are too low in grade.\" \n\nThe US Geological Survey estimates that in 2010, Chile had the largest reserves by far (7.5 million tonnes) and the highest annual production (8,800 tonnes). One of the largest reserve bases[http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mcs/2011/mcsapp2011.pdf Apendixes]. By USGS definitions, the reserve base \"may encompass those parts of the resources that have a reasonable potential for becoming economically available within planning horizons beyond those that assume proven technology and current economics. The reserve base includes those resources that are currently economic (reserves), marginally economic (marginal reserves), and some of those that are currently subeconomic (subeconomic resources).\" of lithium is in the Salar de Uyuni area of Bolivia, which has 5.4 million tonnes. Other major suppliers include Australia, Argentina and China.\n\nIn June 2010, the New York Times reported that American geologists were conducting ground surveys on dry salt lakes in western Afghanistan believing that large deposits of lithium are located there. \"Pentagon officials said that their initial analysis at one location in Ghazni Province showed the potential for lithium deposits as large as those of Bolivia, which now has the world's largest known lithium reserves.\" These estimates are \"based principally on old data, which was gathered mainly by the Soviets during their occupation of Afghanistan from 1979–1989\". Stephen Peters, the head of the USGS's Afghanistan Minerals Project, said that he was unaware of USGS involvement in any new surveying for minerals in Afghanistan in the past two years. 'We are not aware of any discoveries of lithium,' he said.\" \n\nBiological\n\nLithium is found in trace amount in numerous plants, plankton, and invertebrates, at concentrations of 69 to 5,760 parts per billion (ppb). In vertebrates the concentration is slightly lower, and nearly all vertebrate tissue and body fluids contain lithium ranging from 21 to 763 ppb. Marine organisms tend to bioaccumulate lithium more than terrestrial organisms. Whether lithium has a physiological role in any of these organisms is unknown.\n\nHistory\n\nPetalite (LiAlSi4O10) was discovered in 1800 by the Brazilian chemist and statesman José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva in a mine on the island of Utö, Sweden. However, it was not until 1817 that Johan August Arfwedson, then working in the laboratory of the chemist Jöns Jakob Berzelius, detected the presence of a new element while analyzing petalite ore. This element formed compounds similar to those of sodium and potassium, though its carbonate and hydroxide were less soluble in water and more alkaline. Berzelius gave the alkaline material the name \"lithion/lithina\", from the Greek word λιθoς (transliterated as lithos, meaning \"stone\"), to reflect its discovery in a solid mineral, as opposed to potassium, which had been discovered in plant ashes, and sodium which was known partly for its high abundance in animal blood. He named the metal inside the material \"lithium\".\n\nArfwedson later showed that this same element was present in the minerals spodumene and lepidolite. In 1818, Christian Gmelin was the first to observe that lithium salts give a bright red color to flame. However, both Arfwedson and Gmelin tried and failed to isolate the pure element from its salts. It was not isolated until 1821, when William Thomas Brande obtained it by electrolysis of lithium oxide, a process that had previously been employed by the chemist Sir Humphry Davy to isolate the alkali metals potassium and sodium. Brande also described some pure salts of lithium, such as the chloride, and, estimating that lithia (lithium oxide) contained about 55% metal, estimated the atomic weight of lithium to be around 9.8 g/mol (modern value ~6.94 g/mol). In 1855, larger quantities of lithium were produced through the electrolysis of lithium chloride by Robert Bunsen and Augustus Matthiessen. The discovery of this procedure led to commercial production of lithium in 1923 by the German company Metallgesellschaft AG, which performed an electrolysis of a liquid mixture of lithium chloride and potassium chloride. \n\nThe production and use of lithium underwent several drastic changes in history. The first major application of lithium was in high-temperature lithium greases for aircraft engines and similar applications in World War II and shortly after. This use was supported by the fact that lithium-based soaps have a higher melting point than other alkali soaps, and are less corrosive than calcium based soaps. The small market for lithium soaps and lubricating greases was supported by several small mining operations mostly in the United States.\n\nThe demand for lithium increased dramatically during the Cold War with the production of nuclear fusion weapons. Both lithium-6 and lithium-7 produce tritium when irradiated by neutrons, and are thus useful for the production of tritium by itself, as well as a form of solid fusion fuel used inside hydrogen bombs in the form of lithium deuteride. The United States became the prime producer of lithium in the period between the late 1950s and the mid-1980s. At the end, the stockpile of lithium was roughly 42,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide. The stockpiled lithium was depleted in lithium-6 by 75%, which was enough to affect the measured atomic weight of lithium in many standardized chemicals, and even the atomic weight of lithium in some \"natural sources\" of lithium ion which had been \"contaminated\" by lithium salts discharged from isotope separation facilities, which had found its way into ground water. \n\nLithium was used to decrease the melting temperature of glass and to improve the melting behavior of aluminium oxide when using the Hall-Héroult process. These two uses dominated the market until the middle of the 1990s. After the end of the nuclear arms race, the demand for lithium decreased and the sale of Department of Energy stockpiles on the open market further reduced prices. But in the mid-1990s, several companies started to extract lithium from brine which proved to be a less expensive method than underground or even open-pit mining. Most of the mines closed or shifted their focus to other materials because only the ore from zoned pegmatites could be mined for a competitive price. For example, the US mines near Kings Mountain, North Carolina closed before the turn of the 21st century.\n\nThe development of lithium ion batteries increased the demand for lithium and became the dominant use in 2007. With the surge of lithium demand in batteries in the 2000s, new companies have expanded brine extraction efforts to meet the rising demand. \n\nProduction\n\nLithium production has greatly increased since the end of World War II. The metal is separated from other elements in igneous minerals. Lithium salts are extracted from water in mineral springs, brine pools and brine deposits. The metal is produced through electrolysis from a mixture of fused 55% lithium chloride and 45% potassium chloride at about 450 °C. In 1998 it was about (or 43 USD/lb). \n\nReserves \n\nWorldwide identified reserves in 2008 were estimated by the US Geological Survey (USGS) as 13 million tonnes, though it is difficult to accurately estimate the world's lithium reserves. \n\nDeposits are found in South America throughout the Andes mountain chain. Chile is the leading producer, followed by Argentina. Both countries recover lithium from brine pools. In the United States lithium is recovered from brine pools in Nevada. However, half the world's known reserves are located in Bolivia, along the central eastern slope of the Andes. In 2009, Bolivia negotiated with Japanese, French and Korean firms to begin extraction. According to USGS, Bolivia's Uyuni Desert has 5.4 million tonnes of lithium. A newly discovered deposit in Wyoming's Rock Springs Uplift is estimated at 228,000 tons. Additional deposits in the same formation were extrapolated to be as much as 18 million tons. \n\nOpinions differ about potential growth. A 2008 study concluded that \"realistically achievable lithium carbonate production will be sufficient for only a small fraction of future PHEV and EV global market requirements\", that \"demand from the portable electronics sector will absorb much of the planned production increases in the next decade\", and that \"mass production of lithium carbonate is not environmentally sound, it will cause irreparable ecological damage to ecosystems that should be protected and that LiIon propulsion is incompatible with the notion of the 'Green Car'\".\n\nHowever, according to a 2011 study conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, the currently estimated reserve base of lithium should not be a limiting factor for large-scale battery production for electric vehicles because an estimated 1 billion 40 kWh Li-based batteries could be built with current reserves - about 10 kg of lithium per car. Another 2011 study by researchers from the University of Michigan and Ford Motor Company found sufficient resources to support global demand until 2100, including the lithium required for the potential widespread transportation use. The study estimated global reserves at 39 million tons, and total demand for lithium during the 90-year period analyzed at 12–20 million tons, depending on the scenarios regarding economic growth and recycling rates. \n\nOn June 9, 2014, the Financialist stated that demand for lithium was growing at more than 12 percent a year; according to Credit Suisse, this rate exceeds projected availability by 25 percent. The publication compared the 2014 lithium situation with oil, whereby \"higher oil prices spurred investment in expensive deepwater and oil sands production techniques\"; that is, the price of lithium will continue to rise until more expensive production methods that can boost total output receive the attention of investors. \n\nPricing\n\nAfter the 2007 financial crisis, major suppliers such as Sociedad Química y Minera (SQM) dropped lithium carbonate pricing by 20%. Prices rose in 2012. A 2012 Business Week article outlined the oligopoly in the lithium space: \"SQM, controlled by billionaire Julio Ponce, is the second-largest, followed by Rockwood, which is backed by Henry Kravis’s KKR & Co., and Philadelphia-based FMC\". Global consumption may jump to 300,000 metric tons a year by 2020 from about 150,000 tons in 2012, to match demand for lithium batteries that has been growing at about 25 percent a year, outpacing the 4 percent to 5 percent overall gain in lithium. \n\nExtraction \n\nAs of 2015 most of the world's lithium production is in South America, where lithium-containing brine is extracted from underground pools and concentrated by solar evaporation. The standard extraction technique is to evaporate water from brine. Each batch takes from 18 to 24 months. \n\nUses \n\nCeramics and glass\n\nLithium oxide is widely used as a flux for processing silica, reducing the melting point and viscosity of the material and leading to glazes with improved physical properties including low coefficients of thermal expansion. Worldwide, this is the single largest use for lithium compounds. Glazes containing lithium oxides are used for ovenware. Lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) is generally used in this application because it converts to the oxide upon heating. \n\nElectrical and electronics\n\nLate in the 20th century, lithium became an important component of battery electrolytes and electrodes, because of its high electrode potential. Because of its low atomic mass, it has a high charge- and power-to-weight ratio. A typical lithium-ion battery can generate approximately 3 volts per cell, compared with 2.1 volts for lead-acid or 1.5 volts for zinc-carbon cells. Lithium-ion batteries, which are rechargeable and have a high energy density, should not be confused with lithium batteries, which are disposable (primary) batteries with lithium or its compounds as the anode. Other rechargeable batteries that use lithium include the lithium-ion polymer battery, lithium iron phosphate battery, and the nanowire battery.\n\nLubricating greases\n\nThe third most common use of lithium is in greases. Lithium hydroxide is a strong base and, when heated with a fat, produces a soap made of lithium stearate. Lithium soap has the ability to thicken oils, and it is used to manufacture all-purpose, high-temperature lubricating greases. \n\nMetallurgy\n\nLithium (e.g. as lithium carbonate) is used as an additive to continuous casting mould flux slags where it increases fluidity, a use which accounts for 5% of global lithium use (2011). Lithium compounds are also used as additives (fluxes) to foundry sand for iron casting to reduce veining. \n\nLithium (as lithium fluoride) is used as an additive to aluminium smelters (Hall–Héroult process), reducing melting temperature and increasing electrical resistance, a use which accounts for 3% of production (2011).\n\nWhen used as a flux for welding or soldering, metallic lithium promotes the fusing of metals during the process and eliminates the forming of oxides by absorbing impurities. Alloys of the metal with aluminium, cadmium, copper and manganese are used to make high-performance aircraft parts (see also Lithium-aluminium alloys). \n\nSilicon nano-welding \n\nLithium has been found effective in assisting the perfection of silicon nano-welds in electronic components for electric batteries and other devices. \n\nOther chemical and industrial uses\n\nPyrotechnics\n\nLithium compounds are used as pyrotechnic colorants and oxidizers in red fireworks and flares. \n\nAir purification\n\nLithium chloride and lithium bromide are hygroscopic and are used as desiccants for gas streams. Lithium hydroxide and lithium peroxide are the salts most used in confined areas, such as aboard spacecraft and submarines, for carbon dioxide removal and air purification. Lithium hydroxide absorbs carbon dioxide from the air by forming lithium carbonate, and is preferred over other alkaline hydroxides for its low weight.\n\nLithium peroxide (Li2O2) in presence of moisture not only reacts with carbon dioxide to form lithium carbonate, but also releases oxygen. The reaction is as follows:\n2 Li2O2 + 2 CO2 → 2 Li2CO3 + O2.\nSome of the aforementioned compounds, as well as lithium perchlorate, are used in oxygen candles that supply submarines with oxygen. These can also include small amounts of boron, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, titanium, manganese, and iron. \n\nOptics\n\nLithium fluoride, artificially grown as crystal, is clear and transparent and often used in specialist optics for IR, UV and VUV (vacuum UV) applications. It has one of the lowest refractive indexes and the farthest transmission range in the deep UV of most common materials. Finely divided lithium fluoride powder has been used for thermoluminescent radiation dosimetry (TLD): when a sample of such is exposed to radiation, it accumulates crystal defects which, when heated, resolve via a release of bluish light whose intensity is proportional to the absorbed dose, thus allowing this to be quantified. Lithium fluoride is sometimes used in focal lenses of telescopes. \n\nThe high non-linearity of lithium niobate also makes it useful in non-linear optics applications. It is used extensively in telecommunication products such as mobile phones and optical modulators, for such components as resonant crystals. Lithium applications are used in more than 60% of mobile phones. \n\nOrganic and polymer chemistry\n\nOrganolithium compounds are widely used in the production of polymer and fine-chemicals. In the polymer industry, which is the dominant consumer of these reagents, alkyl lithium compounds are catalysts/initiators. in anionic polymerization of unfunctionalized olefins. For the production of fine chemicals, organolithium compounds function as strong bases and as reagents for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds. Organolithium compounds are prepared from lithium metal and alkyl halides. \n\nMany other lithium compounds are used as reagents to prepare organic compounds. Some popular compounds include lithium aluminium hydride (LiAlH4), lithium triethylborohydride, n-Butyllithium and tert-butyllithium are commonly used as extremely strong bases called superbase.\n\nMilitary applications\n\nMetallic lithium and its complex hydrides, such as Li[AlH4], are used as high-energy additives to rocket propellants. Lithium aluminum hydride can also be used by itself as a solid fuel. \n\nThe Mark 50 torpedo stored chemical energy propulsion system (SCEPS) uses a small tank of sulfur hexafluoride gas, which is sprayed over a block of solid lithium. The reaction generates heat, creating steam to propel the torpedo in a closed Rankine cycle. \n\nLithium hydride containing lithium-6 is used in thermonuclear weapons, where it encases the core of the bomb. \n\nNuclear\n\nLithium-6 is valued as a source material for tritium production and as a neutron absorber in nuclear fusion. Natural lithium contains about 7.5% lithium-6 from which large amounts of lithium-6 have been produced by isotope separation for use in nuclear weapons. Lithium-7 gained interest for use in nuclear reactor coolants. \n\nLithium deuteride was the fusion fuel of choice in early versions of the hydrogen bomb. When bombarded by neutrons, both 6Li and 7Li produce tritium — this reaction, which was not fully understood when hydrogen bombs were first tested, was responsible for the runaway yield of the Castle Bravo nuclear test. Tritium fuses with deuterium in a fusion reaction that is relatively easy to achieve. Although details remain secret, lithium-6 deuteride apparently still plays a role in modern nuclear weapons as a fusion material. \n\nLithium fluoride, when highly enriched in the lithium-7 isotope, forms the basic constituent of the fluoride salt mixture LiF-BeF2 used in liquid fluoride nuclear reactors. Lithium fluoride is exceptionally chemically stable and LiF-BeF2 mixtures have low melting points. In addition, 7Li, Be, and F are among the few nuclides with low enough thermal neutron capture cross-sections not to poison the fission reactions inside a nuclear fission reactor.Beryllium and fluorine occur only as one isotope, 9Be and 19F respectively. These two, together with 7Li, as well as 2H, 11B, 15N, 209Bi, and the stable isotopes of C, and O, are the only nuclides with low enough thermal neutron capture cross sections aside from actinides to serve as major constituents of a molten salt breeder reactor fuel. \n\nIn conceptualized (hypothetical) nuclear fusion power plants, lithium will be used to produce tritium in magnetically confined reactors using deuterium and tritium as the fuel. Naturally occurring tritium is extremely rare, and must be synthetically produced by surrounding the reacting plasma with a 'blanket' containing lithium where neutrons from the deuterium-tritium reaction in the plasma will fission the lithium to produce more tritium:\n6Li + n → 4He + 3T.\n\nLithium is also used as a source for alpha particles, or helium nuclei. When 7Li is bombarded by accelerated protons 8Be is formed, which undergoes fission to form two alpha particles. This feat, called \"splitting the atom\" at the time, was the first fully man-made nuclear reaction. It was produced by Cockroft and Walton in 1932. \n\nIn 2013, the US Government Accountability Office said a shortage of lithium-7 critical to the operation of 65 out of 100 American nuclear reactors “places their ability to continue to provide electricity at some risk”. The problem stems from the decline of US nuclear infrastructure. The equipment needed to separate lithium-6 from lithium-7 is mostly a cold war leftover. The US shut down most of this machinery in 1963, when it had a huge surplus of separated lithium, mostly consumed during the twentieth century. The report said it would take five years and $10 million to $12 million to reestablish the ability to separate lithium-6 from lithium-7.\n\nReactors that use lithium-7 heat water under high pressure and transfer heat through heat exchangers that are prone to corrosion. The reactors use lithium to counteract the corrosive effects of boric acid, which is added to the water to absorb excess neutrons.\n\nMedicine\n\nLithium is useful in the treatment of bipolar disorder. Lithium salts may also be helpful for related diagnoses, such as schizoaffective disorder and cyclic major depression. The active part of these salts is the lithium ion Li+. They may increase the risk of developing Ebstein's cardiac anomaly in infants born to women who take lithium during the first trimester of pregnancy. \n\nLithium has also been researched as a possible treatment for cluster headaches. \n\nPrecautions\n\nLithium is corrosive and requires special handling to avoid skin contact. Breathing lithium dust or lithium compounds (which are often alkaline) initially irritate the nose and throat, while higher exposure can cause a buildup of fluid in the lungs, leading to pulmonary edema. The metal itself is a handling hazard because contact with moisture produces the caustic lithium hydroxide. Lithium is safely stored in non-reactive compounds such as naphtha. \n\nRegulation\n\nSome jurisdictions limit the sale of lithium batteries, which are the most readily available source of lithium for ordinary consumers. Lithium can be used to reduce pseudoephedrine and ephedrine to methamphetamine in the Birch reduction method, which employs solutions of alkali metals dissolved in anhydrous ammonia. \n\nCarriage and shipment of some kinds of lithium batteries may be prohibited aboard certain types of transportation (particularly aircraft) because of the ability of most types of lithium batteries to fully discharge very rapidly when short-circuited, leading to overheating and possible explosion in a process called thermal runaway. Most consumer lithium batteries have built-in thermal overload protection to prevent this type of incident, or are otherwise designed to limit short-circuit currents. Internal shorts from manufacturing defect or physical damage can lead to spontaneous thermal runaway." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "I_Yam_What_I_Yam.txt" ], "title": [ "I Yam What I Yam" ], "wiki_context": [ "I Yam What I Yam is a Popeye theatrical cartoon short, starring William \"Billy\" Costello as Popeye, Bonnie Poe as Olive Oyl and Charles Lawrence as Wimpy. It was released in 1933 and was the second cartoon in the Popeye the Sailor series of theatrical cartoons released by Paramount Pictures, lasting through 1957.\n\nPlot\n\nThe cartoon opens with Popeye, Olive Oyl and Wimpy riding on a small rowboat through a heavy rainstorm in the ocean. Popeye is standing up against the torrent of rain singing his theme song, while Olive is rowing the boat and Wimpy is sitting in the back, plucking fish out of the water and eating them whole. Popeye gets struck by lightning several times, and grabs the last thunderbolt and punches it into the water, where it sinks and screams for help. The nearby thunderclouds are frightened by this action and flee, changing the weather to a sunny, clear sky. The boat abruptly sprouts a few holes and sinks, and the trio land on a nearby island inhabited by unfriendly Native Americans. Popeye punches an outcropping of nearby trees to instantaneously build a log cabin, complete with indoor furniture, windows and a stone chimney with fire. Olive heads indoors, and Wimpy tells Popeye to fetch ducks for dinner before resting inside. While out, Popeye is intimidated by a tribal member who repeatedly tells him hello before punching Popeye, provoking Popeye into punching back at the tribal member. Another tribal member sneaks up from behind and whacks him with a club, shattering it to pieces and only annoying Popeye, who gives the Indian a \"twister punch.\" At the duck pond, Popeye finds more Native Americans shooting arrows at the ducks, missing them repeatedly. Popeye bends the remaining three arrows, goes toward the pond, and goes in it while the ducks go under the water. When Popeye walks out, he is seen with the ducks, quacking. To get the ducks, the Native Americans grab the arrows, which are bent, and shoot them. However, the arrows act like boomerangs, and hit the tribal members instead. Meanwhile, back at the cabin, Native Americans are closing in on the cabin. Olive Oyl blocks them by stretching her legs over the doors, while the tribal members try to invade. Olive screams for help. When Native Americans try to come out of the floorboards, Wimpy is sitting on a chair on the floorboards. The resulting gag depicts when the Indians stretch, Wimpy pours more food into his bowl. When the tribal members finally make it in, Wimpy is thrown out. To get even, Wimpy pulls back a cactus, releasing its thorns. However, Wimpy is met with arrows striking the cactus. Wimpy screams in fear, and runs to Popeye for help. While Popeye walks back to the log cabin, the ducks are seen following Popeye, attracted to the smoke from Popeye's corncob pipe. Wimpy tells Popeye the situation, and after seeing the ducks, he pulls out a fork and knife, sighing in pleasure. When the ducks see the fork and knife, they flee, with Wimpy chasing them from behind. Meanwhile, Olive Oyl is successfully fighting off dozens of the Indians piling into the cabin, still screaming for Popeye's help. Popeye arrives at the cabin, dodging a barrage of arrows and fighting off dozens of Indians, even grabbing an entire group of them and delivering a punch that transforms them into a pile of Indian Nickels. With the bulk of the Indians defeated, one last batch of them is left to deal with, who shoot Popeye full of arrows, which he is completely unharmed by. Popeye promptly pulls out a can spinach, eating both the vegetable and the can itself. He punches the row of remaining Native Americans, causing a domino effect. The final gag shows Popeye punching out the giant tribal chief, causing him to lose his outfit and become another type of Indian, Mahatma Gandhi. The cartoon ends with Popeye singing \"I'm Popeye the Sailor Man!\".\n\nNotes\n\nI Yam What I Yam is the second Popeye cartoon; the first entry, Popeye the Sailor, was released as a Betty Boop cartoon. \n\nThis is the first cartoon in which Bonnie Poe voices Olive Oyl.\n\nThis cartoon is available on DVD in the four-disc set Popeye the Sailor: 1933-1938, Volume 1.\n\nThis episode was shelved throughout most of North America, due to Native American stereotyping. This controversy was similar to the Pingu episode, Pingu and the Doll and some other cartoons." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "The_Hangover.txt" ], "title": [ "The Hangover" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Todd Phillips, co-produced with Daniel Goldberg and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. The film stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha, and Jeffrey Tambor. It tells the story of Phil Wenneck (Cooper), Stu Price (Helms), Alan Garner (Galifianakis) and Doug Billings (Bartha), who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party to celebrate Doug's impending marriage. However, Phil, Stu, and Alan wake up with Doug missing and no memory of the previous night's events, and must find the groom before the wedding can take place.\n\nLucas and Moore wrote the script after executive producer Chris Bender's friend disappeared and had a large bill after being sent to a strip club. After Lucas and Moore sold it to the studio for $2 million, Philips and Jeremy Garelick rewrote the script to include a tiger as well as a subplot involving a baby and a police cruiser, and also including boxer Mike Tyson. Filming took place in Nevada for 15 days, and during filming, the three main actors (Cooper, Helms, and Galifianakis) formed a real friendship.\n\nThe Hangover was released on June 5, 2009, and was a critical and commercial success. The film became the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2009, with a worldwide gross of over $467 million. The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and received multiple other accolades. It is the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2009 in the world, as well as the second highest-grossing R-rated comedy ever in the United States, surpassing a record previously held by Beverly Hills Cop for almost 25 years. Out of all R-rated films, it is the fifth-highest-grossing ever in the U.S., behind only The Passion of the Christ, The Matrix Reloaded, American Sniper and Deadpool.\n\nA sequel, The Hangover Part II, was released on May 26, 2011, and a third and final film, The Hangover Part III, was released on May 23, 2013. Both sequels were box office hits, but were met with more negative reception from critics.\n\nPlot\n\nTo celebrate his upcoming marriage to Tracy Garner, Doug Billings travels to Las Vegas with his best friends Phil Wenneck and Stu Price, and Tracy's brother Alan, in Doug's future father-in-law's vintage Mercedes-Benz. They spend the night at Caesars Palace, where they relax in the room before celebrating with a few drinks on the hotel rooftop. The next morning, Phil, Stu, and Alan awaken to find they have no memory of the previous night, and Doug is nowhere to be found. Stu is missing a tooth, their hotel suite is in a state of complete disarray, a tiger is in their bathroom, a chicken in their living room, and a baby is in the closet, whom they name \"Carlos\". They find Doug's mattress impaled on a statue outside of their hotel and when they ask for their Mercedes, the valet delivers an LVPD police cruiser. \n\nUsing clues to retrace their steps, the trio travel to a hospital where they discover they were drugged with Rohypnol (\"roofies\"), causing their memory loss, and that they came to the hospital from a chapel. At the chapel, they learn that Stu married a stripper named Jade, despite being in a long-term relationship with his girlfriend Melissa. Outside the chapel, the trio is attacked by gangsters saying they are looking for someone. They flee and visit Jade, discovering that she is the baby's mother, whose real name is Tyler. They are then arrested by the police for stealing the police cruiser. After being told that the Mercedes has been impounded, the trio is released when they unknowingly volunteer to be targets for a taser demonstration. While driving the Mercedes, they discover a naked Chinese man named Leslie Chow in the trunk. Chow jumps out of the trunk, beats the trio up with a crowbar and flees. Alan confesses that he drugged their drinks to ensure they had a good night, believing the drug to be ecstasy. \n\nReturning to their villa, they find the boxer Mike Tyson, who orders the trio to return the tiger to his mansion immediately. Stu drugs the tiger with the remaining Rohypnol, and they drive towards Tyson's home in the Mercedes. However, the tiger awakens and attacks them, clawing Phil on the neck and damaging the car's interior. After pushing the car the rest of the way to the mansion, Tyson shows the trio footage of them at his house to help them locate Doug. While driving, their car is intentionally t-boned by another vehicle. The passengers are revealed to be the gangsters from the chapel, and their boss Chow (the naked man from the trunk). Chow accuses the trio of kidnapping him and stealing $80,000 that was in his purse. As the trio denies this, Chow tells them he has Doug, and threatens to kill him if his money is not returned. Unable to find Chow's $80,000, Alan, with help from Stu and Jade, uses his knowledge of card counting to win $82,400 playing Blackjack. \n\nThey meet with Chow and exchange the money, only to find that \"Doug\" is the black drug dealer, who accidentally sold Alan the Roofies. With the wedding set to occur in 5 hours, Phil calls Tracy and tells her that they cannot find Doug. When \"Black Doug\" mentions that, \"If you take Roofies, you're more likely to end up on the floor than on the roof,\" Stu realizes where Doug is. The trio travels back to their hotel where they find a delirious and badly sunburned Doug on the roof. Stu, Phil, and Alan moved him there on his mattress the night before as a practical joke, but forgot where they left him. Doug's mattress had been thrown onto the statue by Doug, in an attempt to signal help. Before leaving, Stu makes arrangements to go on a date with Jade the following week. With less than four hours before the wedding and with no flights to L.A. available, the four race home. Along the way, Doug reveals he has possession of Chow's original $80,000. Despite their late arrival, Doug and Tracy are married, and Stu angrily breaks up with Melissa, having grown tired of her controlling attitude. As the reception ends, Alan finds Stu's digital camera containing photos of the events they cannot remember, and the four agree to look at the pictures together before deleting the evidence of their exploits. \n\nAll of them, with the exception of Alan, are deeply disturbed by the pictures, which are shown during the credits.\n\nCast\n\n* Bradley Cooper as Phil Wenneck, a teacher and the leader of the Wolfpack.\n* Ed Helms as Dr. Stu Price, a dentist who calls himself a doctor.\n* Zach Galifianakis as Alan Garner, Doug's socially inept, future brother-in-law. Alan suffers from ADHD and acts childish.\n* Heather Graham as Jade, a stripper and escort.\n* Justin Bartha as Doug Billings, the groom, who goes missing for most of the film. \n* Jeffrey Tambor as Sid Garner, Tracy's and Alan's father.\n* Sasha Barrese as Tracy Garner, the bride and Alan's sister\n* Gillian Vigman as Stephanie Wenneck, Phil's wife\n* Rachael Harris as Melissa, Stu's bossy, cheating girlfriend\n* Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow, a flamboyant Chinese gangster\n* Mike Epps as \"Black Doug\", a drug dealer who is mistaken for Doug\n* Rob Riggle as Officer Franklin\n* Cleo King as Officer Garden\n* Bryan Callen as Eddie Palermos \n* Ian Anthony Dale as Chow henchman #1\n* Michael Li as Chow henchman #2\n* Mike Tyson appears as himself; Tyson originally refused to appear in the film, but he changed his mind when he found out that Todd Phillips directed Old School, which Tyson liked. Tyson later said that working on the film convinced him to change his lifestyle. \n* Matt Walsh portrays Dr. Valsh. \n* Dan Finnerty plays a wedding singer at Doug and Tracy's wedding.\n\nCameos\n\nTodd Phillips, the film's director, appears as Mr. Creepy, who appears briefly in an elevator. Mike Vallely portrays Neeco, the high speed tuxedo delivery man. Las Vegas personalities Wayne Newton and Carrot Top appear as themselves in the photo slide show. \n\nProduction\n\nWriting\n\nThe plot of The Hangover was inspired by a real event that happened to Tripp Vinson, a producer and friend of executive producer Chris Bender. Vinson had gone missing from his own Las Vegas bachelor party, blacking out and waking up \"in a strip club being threatened with a very, very large bill [he] was supposed to pay\". \n\nJon Lucas and Scott Moore sold the original script of The Hangover to Warner Bros. for over $2 million. The story was about three friends who lose the groom at his Las Vegas bachelor party and then must retrace their steps to figure out what happened. \nIt was then rewritten by Jeremy Garelick and director Todd Phillips, who added additional elements such as Mike Tyson and his tiger, the baby, and the police cruiser. The Writers Guild of America, West disallowed their work to be credited due to the rules of its screenwriting credit system. \n\nCasting\n\nEd Helms, Zach Galifianakis, and Bradley Cooper were all casual acquaintances before The Hangover was filmed, which Helms said he believed helped in establishing a rapport and chemistry amongst their characters. Helms credited Phillips for \"bringing together three guys who are really different, but really appreciate each others' humor and sensibilities.\" Helms also said the fact that the story of the three characters growing closer and bonding informed the friendship between the three actors: \"As you spend 14 hours a day together for three months, you see a lot of sides of somebody. We went through the wringer together, and that shared experience really made us genuine buddies.\" \n\nLindsay Lohan was offered the role of Jade in the film. However, she turned it down, saying that the script \"had no potential.\" She later regretted making that decision. \n\nFilming\n\nOn a budget of $35 million, principal photography took place in Nevada for fifteen days. \n\nThe Hangover was mostly filmed on location at Caesars Palace, including the front desk, lobby, entrance drive, pools, corridors, elevators, and roof, but the suite damaged in the film was built on a soundstage. \n\nHelms said filming The Hangover was more physically demanding than any other role he had done, and that he lost eight pounds while making the film. He said the most difficult day of shooting was the scene when Mr. Chow rams his car and attacks the main characters, which Helms said required many takes and was very painful, such as when a few of the punches and kicks accidentally landed and when his knees and shins were hurt while being pulled out of a window. The missing tooth was not created with prosthetics or visual effects, but is naturally occurring: Helms never had an adult incisor grow, and got a dental implant as a teenager which was removed for filming. \n\nJeong stated that his jumping on Cooper's neck naked wasn't a part of the script, but rather improvisation on their part. It was added with Phillips' blessing. Jeong also stated that he had to receive his wife's permission to appear nude in the film. \n\nPhillips tried to convince the actors to allow him to use a real Taser until Warner Bros. lawyers intervened. \n\nRegarding the explicit shots in the final photo slide show in which his character is seen receiving fellatio in an elevator, Galifianakis confirmed that a prosthesis was used for the scene, and that he had been more embarrassed than anyone else during the creation of the shot. \"You would think that I wouldn't be the one who was embarrassed; I was extremely embarrassed. I really didn't even want it in there. I offered Todd's assistant a lot of money to convince him to take it out of the movie. I did. But it made it in there.\" \n\nThe scenes involving animals were filmed mostly with trained animals. Trainers and safety equipment were digitally removed from the final version. Some prop animals were used, such as when the tiger was hidden under a sheet and being moved on a baggage cart. Such efforts were given an \"Outstanding\" rating by the American Humane Association for the monitoring and treatment of the animals. \n\nMusic\n\nThe film's score was composed by Christophe Beck. The film featured 20 songs, consisting of music by Kanye West, Dyslexic Speedreaders, Danzig, The Donnas, Usher, Phil Collins, The Belle Stars, T.I., Wolfmother and The Dan Band, who tend to feature in Phillips' films as the inappropriate, bad-mouthed wedding band. The Dan Band also has a version of the 50 Cent hit single \"Candy Shop\". Pro-skater and punk musician Mike Vallely was invited with his band, Revolution Mother, to write a song for the film and also makes a cameo appearance as the high speed tuxedo delivery guy. \n\n\"Right Round\" by Flo Rida is played over the ending credits. \n The film uses the Kanye West song \"Can't Tell Me Nothing\" for which Zach Galifianakis made an alternative music video.\n\nTrack listing\n\n; Additional songs \n* \"Who Let the Dogs Out?\" – Baha Men\n* \"Right Round\" – Flo Rida ft. Ke$ha\n* \"Can't Tell Me Nothing\" – Kanye West\n* \"Live Your Life\" – T.I. featuring Rihanna\n* \"What Do You Say?\" – Mickey Avalon\n* \"Yeah!\" – Usher featuring Ludacris and Lil Jon\n* \"Joker & the Thief\" – Wolfmother\n\nRelease\n\nBox office\n\nThe Hangover was a financial success. , it had grossed $467,416,722, of which $277,322,503 was in Canada and the United States. It was tenth-highest-grossing film of 2009 in the world, the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2009 in the US and the highest-grossing R-rated comedy ever in the United States, surpassing a record previously held by Beverly Hills Cop for almost 25 years. \nOut of all R-rated films, it is the fifth-highest-grossing ever in the U.S., behind only The Passion of the Christ, The Matrix Reloaded, American Sniper and Deadpool. However, adjusted for inflation The Hangover earned less than half the total earned by Beverly Hills Cop and is out grossed by several comedies including Porky's. \n\nOn its first day of release in the US, the film drew $16,734,033 on approximately 4,500 screens at 3,269 sites, and exceeded the big budgeted Land of the Lost – the other major new release of the weekend – for first day's box office takings. \nAlthough initial studio projections had the Disney·Pixar film Up holding on to the number one slot for a second consecutive weekend, final revised figures, bolstered by a surprisingly strong Sunday showing, ultimately had The Hangover finishing first for the weekend, with $44,979,319 from 3,269 theaters, averaging $13,759 per venue, narrowly edging out Up for the top spot, and more than twice that of Land of the Lost, which finished third with $18.8 million. \nThe film exceeded Warner Bros.' expectations – which had anticipated it would finish third behind Up and Land of the Lost – benefiting from positive word-of-mouth and critical praise, and a generally negative buzz for Land of the Lost. It stayed at the number one position in its second weekend, grossing another $32,794,387, from 3,355 theaters for an average of $9,775 per venue, and bringing the 10-day amount to $104,768,489.\n\nHome media\n\nThe Hangover was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and UMD on December 15, 2009. There is a single disc theatrical version featuring both full and wide screen option (DVD only), as well as a wide screen two-disc unrated version of the film, also containing the theatrical version (DVD, Blu-ray, and UMD). The unrated version is approximately seven minutes longer than the theatrical version. The unrated version is on disc one and the theatrical version, digital copy, and the different features are on disc two. \nThe Hangover beat Inglourious Basterds and G-Force in first week DVD and Blu-ray sales, as well as rentals, selling more than 8.6 million units and making it the best selling comedy ever on DVD and Blu-ray, beating the previous record held by My Big Fat Greek Wedding. \n\nReception\n\nCritical response\n\nThe Hangover received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the film's comedic approach, although criticism was directed towards its excessive vulgarity. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 79% \"Certified Fresh\" rating based on 226 reviews, with an average score of 6.8 out of 10, with the critical consensus reading, \"With a clever script and hilarious interplay among the cast, The Hangover nails just the right tone of raunchy humor and the non-stop laughs overshadow any flaw\". \nOn Metacritic, which uses a normalized rating system, the film earned a score of 73 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating \"generally favorable reviews\". \n\nRoger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it three and a half stars out of four and praised the film for its funniness and comedic approach. A.O. Scott of The New York Times praised Cooper, Helms and Galifianakis for their performances in the film as well as Todd Phillips for its direction. Scott later went on to say that the film is \"safe as milk\". Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle also praised Phillips' direction. LaSalle also praised the film's comedic scenes and called it \"the funniest movie so far this year [2009]\". Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times praised the film for its perverseness. Sharkey also said that the film is \"filled with moments as softhearted as they are crude, as forgiving as unforgivable\". Although Joe Leydon of Variety criticized the film's trailers and TV-spots for its \"beer-and-boobs, party-hearty farce\", Leydon praised the film for its cleverness. \n\nConversely, Richard Corliss of Time said that \"virtually every joke [in the film] either is visible long before it arrives or extends way past its expiration date\" and added, \"Whatever the other critics say, this is a bromance so primitive it's practically Bro-Magnon.\" \nIn his review in the Baltimore Sun, Michael Sragow called the film a \"foul mesh of cheap cleverness and vulgarity\" Joe Neumaier of the Daily News gave the film out of 5 stars and noted, \"Amusing as it is, it never feels real. That may not seem like a big deal—a lot of funny movies play by their own rules—except that The Hangover keeps doubling-down on the outlandishness.\" \nFamily-oriented reviewers have harangued the film, noting that Galifianakis said he tried to forbid his own mother from seeing it and that he yells at parents of kids who tell him they like the film. \n\nCritics noted the weak character development, especially in its female characters. Critics also focused on misogyny and stereotyping, in particular the Asian gangster.\nEbert, despite his praise, stated, \"I won't go so far as to describe it as a character study\" but that the film is more than the sum of its parts – parts that may at first seem a little generic or clichéd,\n\n since many other films (such as Very Bad Things) have already explored the idea of a weekend in Vegas gone wrong. The film's premise has several similarities to Dude, Where's My Car? Both films are about \"a couple guys waking up after a night of getting trashed, only to find they are missing something important\", whose adventures include \"a trail of clues, a missing car, dubious encounters with strippers and wild animals, a brush with the law and gangs chasing them for something they don't realize they have\". \n\nAccolades\n\nOn January 17, 2010, The Hangover won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.\nIt was also named one of the top ten films of the year by the American Film Institute. \nThe film won \"Best Ensemble\" from the Detroit Film Critics Society. \nThe screenplay was nominated for a Writers Guild of America and BAFTA awards.\n\nCultural and economic impact\n\nBy depicting and celebrating Las Vegas as the \"ultimate guys' getaway,\" The Hangover had a major impact on Caesars Palace and Las Vegas. It was reported in 2013 that as of that year, guests continue to quote to Caesars staff two lines from the film's check-in scene: \"Did Caesar live here?\" and \"Do you know if the hotel is pager friendly?\" As a result of the film, Hangover-themed slot machines became popular at casinos throughout the Las Vegas Valley, the Caesars Palace gift shop sold tens of thousands of Hangover-related souvenirs, and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority received numerous inquiries from persons interested in recreating some of the film's most wild scenes, such as those involving a tiger.\n\nSequels\n\nPrincipal photography of The Hangover Part II began in October 2010, with Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, Zach Galifianakis and Ken Jeong returning. The film was released on May 26, 2011. \n\nFilming of The Hangover Part III began in September 2012 and was released on May 23, 2013." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "North_America.txt" ], "title": [ "North America" ], "wiki_context": [ "North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea.\n\nNorth America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers (9,540,000 square miles), about 16.5% of the earth's land area and about 4.8% of its total surface.\nNorth America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. \n\nIn 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7.5% of the world's population, if nearby islands (most notably the Caribbean) are included.\n\nNorth America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago (the beginning of the Archaic or Meso-Indian period). The Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries.\nThe Pre-Columbian era ended with the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery and the Early Modern period. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants. European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French and societies and states commonly reflect Western traditions.\n\nName\n\nThe Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a world map, in which he placed the word \"America\" on the continent of South America, in the middle of what is today Brazil. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio: \n\n (from Americus the discoverer ... as if it were the land of Americus, thus America).\n\nFor Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespucci's name (Americus Vespucius), but in its feminine form \"America\", following the examples of \"Europa\", \"Asia\" and \"Africa\".\n\nLater, other mapmakers extended the name America to the northern continent, In 1538, Gerard Mercator used America on his map of the world for all the Western Hemisphere. \n\nSome argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty and so a derivation from \"Amerigo Vespucci\" could be problematic. Ricardo Palma (1949) proposed a derivation from the \"Amerrique\" mountains of Central America—Vespucci was the first to discover South America and the Amerrique mountains of Central America, which connected his discoveries to those of Christopher Columbus.\n\nAlfred E. Hudd proposed a theory in 1908 that the continents are named after a Welsh merchant named Richard Amerike from Bristol, who is believed to have financed John Cabot's voyage of discovery from England to Newfoundland in 1497. A minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of 'Amairick'. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language.\n\nExtent\n\nThe term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States and Canada together. Alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico (as in the North American Free Trade Agreement), as well as offshore islands. The UN geoscheme for \"North America\" separates Mexico from the United States and Canada, placing it instead within its designated \"Central America\" region, while also treating the islands of the Caribbean separately from the US/Canada definition — the UN's \"North America\" definition still includes the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Greenland together with the US/Canada continental definition, with both insular entities being tectonically on the North American plate.\n\nIn Iran, and several Romance-language cultures, the cognates of North America usually designate a subcontinent of the Americas comprising Canada, the United States, and Mexico, and often Greenland, Saint Pierre et Miquelon, and Bermuda. \n\nNorth America has been historically referred to by other names. Spanish North America (New Spain) was often referred to as Northern America, and this was the first official name given to Mexico.\n\nRegions\n\nGeographically the North American continent has many regions and subregions. These include cultural, economic, and geographic regions. Economic regions included those formed by trade blocs, such as the North American Trade Agreement bloc and Central American Trade Agreement. Linguistically and culturally, the continent could be divided into Anglo-America and Latin America. Anglo-America includes most of Northern America, Belize, and Caribbean islands with English-speaking populations (though sub-national entities, such as Louisiana and Quebec, are Francophone in composition).\n\nThe southern North American continent is composed of two regions. These are Central America and the Caribbean. The north of the continent maintains recognized regions as well. In contrast to the common definition of \"North America\", that which encompasses the whole continent, the term \"North America\" is also used to refer to Canada, Mexico, the United States, and Greenland. \n\nThe term Northern America refers to the northern-most countries and territories of North America, Canada, the United States, Greenland, Bermuda, and St. Pierre and Miquelon. Although rarely used, the term Middle America—not to be confused with the Midwestern United States—groups the regions of Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico. \n\nThe largest countries of the continent, Canada and the United States, also contain well-defined and recognized regions. In the case of Canada these are the British Columbia Coast, Canadian Prairies, Central Canada, Atlantic Canada, and Northern Canada. These regions also contain many subregions. In the case of the United States – and in accordance with the US Census Bureau definitions – these regions are: New England, Mid-Atlantic, East North Central States, West North Central States, South Atlantic States, East South Central States, West South Central States, Mountain States, and Pacific States. Regions shared between both nations included the Great Lakes Region. Megalopolises have also formed between both nations in the case of the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes Megaregion.\n\nCountries, territories, and dependencies\n\nHistory\n\nGeologic history\n\nLaurentia is an ancient craton which forms the geologic core of North America; it formed between 1.5 and 1.0 billion years ago during the Proterozoic eon. The Canadian Shield is the largest exposure of this craton. From the Late Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic eras, North America was joined with the other modern-day continents as part of the supercontinent Pangaea, with Eurasia to its east. One of the results of the formation of Pangaea was the Appalachian Mountains, which formed some 480 million years ago, making it among the oldest mountain ranges in the world. When Pangaea began to rift around 200 million years ago, North America became part of Laurasia, before it separated from Eurasia as its own continent during the mid-Cretaceous period. The Rockies and other western mountain ranges began forming around this time from a period of mountain building called the Laramide orogeny, between 80 and 55 million years ago. The formation of the Isthmus of Panama that connected the continent to South America arguably occurred approximately 12 to 15 million years ago, and the Great Lakes (as well as many other northern freshwater lakes and rivers) were carved by receding glaciers about 10,000 years ago.\n\nNorth America is the source of much of what humanity knows about geologic time periods. The geographic area that would later become the United States has been the source of more varieties of dinosaurs than any other modern country. According to paleontologist Peter Dodson, this is primarily due to stratigraphy, climate and geography, human resources, and history. Much of the Mesozoic Era is represented by exposed outcrops in the many arid regions of the continent. The most significant Late Jurassic dinosaur-bearing fossil deposit in North America is the Morrison Formation of the western United States. \n\nPre-Columbian\n\nThe indigenous peoples of North America have many creation myths by which they assert that they have been present on the land since its creation. The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the exact dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion. The traditional theory has been that these early migrants moved into the Beringia land bridge between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska around 25,000 to 11,000 years ago. The few agreements achieved to date are the origin from Central Asia, with widespread habitation of the Americas during the end of the last glacial period, or more specifically what is known as the late glacial maximum, around 13,000 years before present. Some genetic research indicated secondary waves of migration occurred after the initial Paleo-Indian colonization, but prior to modern Inuit, Inupiat and Yupik expansions. \n\nBefore contact with Europeans, the natives of North America were divided into many different polities, from small bands of a few families to large empires. They lived in several \"culture areas\", which roughly correspond to geographic and biological zones and give a good indication of the main lifeway or occupation of the people who lived there (e.g., the bison hunters of the Great Plains, or the farmers of Mesoamerica). Native groups can also be classified by their language family (e.g., Athapascan or Uto-Aztecan). Peoples with similar languages did not always share the same material culture, nor were they always allies. Anthropologists think that the Inuit people of the high Arctic came to North America much later than other native groups, as evidenced by the disappearance of Dorset culture artifacts from the archaeological record, and their replacement by the Thule people.\n\nDuring the thousands of years of native habitation on the continent, cultures changed and shifted. One of the oldest cultures yet found is the Clovis culture of modern New Mexico. Later cultures include the Mississippian culture and related Mound building cultures, found in the Mississippi river valley and the Pueblo culture of what is now the Four Corners. The more southern cultural groups of North America were responsible for the domestication of many common crops now used around the world, such as tomatoes and squash. Perhaps most importantly they domesticated one of the world's major staples, maize (corn).\n\nThe earliest verifiable instance of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact by any European culture with the landmasses that geologically constitute the \"mainland\" of modern North America has been dated to the end of the 10th century CE - this site, situated at the northernmost extent of the island named Newfoundland, is known as L'Anse aux Meadows, where unmistakable evidence of Norse settlement was uncovered in the early 1960s. \n\nAs a result of the development of agriculture in the south, many important cultural advances were made there. For example, the Maya civilization developed a writing system, built huge pyramids and temples, had a complex calendar, and developed the concept of zero around 400 CE, a few hundred years after the Mesopotamians. The Mayan culture was still present in southern Mexico and Guatemala when the Spanish explorers arrived, but political dominance in the area had shifted to the Aztec Empire whose capital city Tenochtitlan was located further north in the Valley of Mexico. The Aztecs were conquered in 1521 by Hernán Cortés.Bernard Grunberg, \"La folle aventure d'Hernan Cortés\", in L'Histoire n°322, July–August 2007 \n\nColonial period\n\nDuring the Age of Discovery, Europeans explored and staked claims to various parts of North America. Upon their arrival in the \"New World\", the Native American population declined substantially, because of violent conflicts with the invaders and the introduction of European diseases to which the Native Americans lacked immunity. Native culture changed drastically and their affiliation with political and cultural groups also changed. Several linguistic groups died out, and others changed quite quickly. The names and cultures that Europeans recorded were not necessarily the same as the names they had used a few generations before, or the ones in use today.\n\nBritain, Spain, and France took over extensive territories in North America - and fought over them. In the late 18th century and beginning of the 19th, independence movements that sprung up across the continent, led to the creation of the modern countries in the area. The 13 British colonies on the North Atlantic coast declared independence in 1776, becoming the United States of America. Canada was formed from the unification of northern territories controlled by Britain and France. New Spain, a territory that stretched from modern-day southern US to Central America, declared independence in 1810, becoming the First Mexican Empire. In 1823 the former Captaincy General of Guatemala, then part of the Mexican Empire, became the first independent state in Central America, officially changing its name to the United Provinces of Central America.\n\nGeography\n\nNorth America occupies the northern portion of the landmass generally referred to as the New World, the Western Hemisphere, the Americas, or simply America (which, less commonly, is considered by some as a single continent The five rings of the Olympic flag represent the five inhabited, participating continents ([http://www.moscow2001.olympic.org/en/pdf/members_by_continent.pdf Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania]). with North America a subcontinent). North America's only land connection to South America is at the Isthmus of Panama. The continent is delimited on the southeast by most geographers at the Darién watershed along the Colombia-Panama border, placing all of Panama within North America. Alternatively, some geologists physiographically locate its southern limit at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico, with Central America extending southeastward to South America from this point. The Caribbean islands, or West Indies, are considered part of North America. The continental coastline is long and irregular. The Gulf of Mexico is the largest body of water indenting the continent, followed by Hudson Bay. Others include the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Gulf of California.\n\nBefore the Central American isthmus formed, the region had been underwater. The islands of the West Indies delineate a submerged former land bridge, which had connected North and South America via what are now Florida and Venezuela.\n\nThere are numerous islands off the continent's coasts; principally, the Arctic Archipelago, the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, the Greater and Lesser Antilles, the Aleutian Islands (some of which are in the Eastern Hemisphere proper), the Alexander Archipelago, the many thousand islands of the British Columbia Coast, and Newfoundland. Greenland, a self-governing Danish island, and the world's largest, is on the same tectonic plate (the North American Plate) and is part of North America geographically. In a geologic sense, Bermuda is not part of the Americas, but an oceanic island which was formed on the fissure of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge over 100 million years ago. The nearest landmass to it is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. However, Bermuda is often thought of as part of North America, especially given its historical, political and cultural ties to Virginia and other parts of the continent.\n\nThe vast majority of North America is on the North American Plate. Parts of western Mexico, including Baja California, and of California, including the cities of San Diego, Los Angeles, and Santa Cruz, lie on the eastern edge of the Pacific Plate, with the two plates meeting along the San Andreas fault. The southernmost portion of the continent and much of the West Indies lie on the Caribbean Plate, whereas the Juan de Fuca and Cocos plates border the North American Plate on its western frontier.\n\nThe continent can be divided into four great regions (each of which contains many subregions): the Great Plains stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Arctic; the geologically young, mountainous west, including the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, California and Alaska; the raised but relatively flat plateau of the Canadian Shield in the northeast; and the varied eastern region, which includes the Appalachian Mountains, the coastal plain along the Atlantic seaboard, and the Florida peninsula. Mexico, with its long plateaus and cordilleras, falls largely in the western region, although the eastern coastal plain does extend south along the Gulf.\n\nThe western mountains are split in the middle into the main range of the Rockies and the coast ranges in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, with the Great Basin—a lower area containing smaller ranges and low-lying deserts—in between. The highest peak is Denali in Alaska.\n\nThe [https://web.archive.org/web/20120722022527/http://egsc.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/booklets/elvadist/elvadist.html United States Geographical Survey (USGS)] states that the geographic center of North America is \"6 miles [10 km] west of Balta, Pierce County, North Dakota\" at about , about 15 mi from Rugby, North Dakota. The USGS further states that \"No marked or monumented point has been established by any government agency as the geographic center of either the 50 States, the conterminous United States, or the North American continent.\" Nonetheless, there is a field stone obelisk in Rugby claiming to mark the center. The North American continental pole of inaccessibility is located 1650 km from the nearest coastline, between Allen and Kyle, South Dakota at . \n\nGeology\n\nCanadian geology\n\nGeologically, Canada is one of the oldest regions in the world, with more than half of the region consisting of precambrian rocks that have been above sea level since the beginning of the Palaeozoic era. Canada's mineral resources are diverse and extensive. Across the Canadian Shield and in the north there are large iron, nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, and uranium reserves. Large diamond concentrations have been recently developed in the Arctic, making Canada one of the world's largest producers. Throughout the Shield there are many mining towns extracting these minerals. The largest, and best known, is Sudbury, Ontario. Sudbury is an exception to the normal process of forming minerals in the Shield since there is significant evidence that the Sudbury Basin is an ancient meteorite impact crater. The nearby, but less known Temagami Magnetic Anomaly has striking similarities to the Sudbury Basin. Its magnetic anomalies are very similar to the Sudbury Basin, and so it could be a second metal-rich impact crater. The Shield is also covered by vast boreal forests that support an important logging industry.\n\nUS geological provinces\n\nThe lower 48 US states can be divided into roughly five physiographic provinces:\n# The American cordillera.\n# The Canadian Shield. Northern portion of the upper midwestern United States.\n# The stable platform.\n# The coastal plain.\n# The Appalachian orogenic belt.\n\nThe geology of Alaska is typical of that of the cordillera, while the major islands of Hawaii consist of Neogene volcanics erupted over a hot spot.\n\nCentral American geology\n\nCentral America is geologically active with volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occurring from time to time. In 1976 Guatemala was hit by a major earthquake, killing 23,000 people; Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, was devastated by earthquakes in 1931 and 1972, the last one killing about 5,000 people; three earthquakes devastated El Salvador, one in 1986 and two in 2001; one earthquake devastated northern and central Costa Rica in 2009, killing at least 34 people; in Honduras a powerful earthquake killed seven people in 2009.\n\nVolcanic eruptions are common in the region. In 1968 the Arenal Volcano, in Costa Rica, erupted and killed 87 people. Fertile soils from weathered volcanic lavas have made it possible to sustain dense populations in the agriculturally productive highland areas.\n\nCentral America has many mountain ranges; the longest are the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, the Cordillera Isabelia, and the Cordillera de Talamanca. Between the mountain ranges lie fertile valleys that are suitable for the people; in fact, most of the population of Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala live in valleys. Valleys are also suitable for the production of coffee, beans, and other crops.\n\nClimate\n\nNorth America is a very large continent which surpasses the Arctic Circle, and the Tropic of Cancer.\nGreenland, along with the Canadian shield, is tundra with average temperatures ranging from between 10 to, but central Greenland is composed of a very large ice sheet. This tundra radiates throughout Canada, but its border ends near the Rocky Mountains (but still contains Alaska) and at the end of the Canadian Shield, near the Great Lakes.\nClimate west of the Cascades is described as being a temperate weather with average precipitation 20 in. \nClimate in coastal California is described to be Mediterranean, with average temperatures in cities like San Francisco ranging from between 57 to over the course of the year. \n\nStretching from the East Coast to eastern North Dakota, and stretching down to Kansas, is the continental-humid climate featuring hard seasons, with a large amount of annual precipitation, with places like New York City averaging 50 in. \nStarting at the southern border of the continental-humid climate and stretching to the Gulf of Mexico (whilst encompassing the eastern half of Texas) is the subtropical climate. This area has the wettest cities in the contiguous U.S. with annual precipitation reaching 67 in in Mobile, Alabama. \nStretching from the borders of the continental humid and subtropical climates, and going west to the Cascades Sierra Nevada, south to the southern tip of durango, north to the border with tundra climate, the steppe/desert climate is the driest climate in the U.S. \n\nEcology\n\nDemographics\n\nEconomically, Canada and the United States are the wealthiest and most developed nations in the continent, followed by Mexico, a newly industrialized country. The countries of Central America and the Caribbean are at various levels of economic and human development. For example, small Caribbean island-nations, such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Antigua and Barbuda, have a higher GDP (PPP) per capita than Mexico due to their smaller populations. Panama and Costa Rica have a significantly higher Human Development Index and GDP than the rest of the Central American nations. Additionally, despite Greenland's vast resources in oil and minerals, much of them remain untapped, and the island is economically dependent on fishing, tourism, and subsidies from Denmark. Nevertheless, the island is highly developed. \n\nDemographically, North America is ethnically diverse. Its three main groups are Caucasians, Mestizos and Blacks. There is a significant minority of Indigenous Americans and Asians among other less numerous groups.\n\nLanguages\n\nThe dominant languages in North America are English, Spanish, and French. Danish is prevalent in Greenland alongside Greenlandic, and Dutch is spoken side by side local languages in the Dutch Caribbean. The term Anglo-America is used to refer to the anglophone countries of the Americas: namely Canada (where English and French are co-official) and the United States, but also sometimes Belize and parts of the tropics, especially the Commonwealth Caribbean. Latin America refers to the other areas of the Americas (generally south of the United States) where the Romance languages, derived from Latin, of Spanish and Portuguese (but French speaking countries are not usually included) predominate: the other republics of Central America (but not always Belize), part of the Caribbean (not the Dutch-, English-, or French-speaking areas), Mexico, and most of South America (except Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana (France), and the Falkland Islands (UK)).\n\nThe French language has historically played a significant role in North America and now retains a distinctive presence in some regions. Canada is officially bilingual. French is the official language of the Province of Quebec, where 95% of the people speak it as either their first or second language, and it is co-official with English in the Province of New Brunswick. Other French-speaking locales include the Province of Ontario (the official language is English, but there are an estimated 600,000 Franco-Ontarians), the Province of Manitoba (co-official as de jure with English), the French West Indies and Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, as well as the US state of Louisiana, where French is also an official language. Haiti is included with this group based on historical association but Haitians speak both Creole and French. Similarly, French and French Antillean Creole is spoken in Saint Lucia and the Commonwealth of Dominica alongside English.\n\nReligions\n\nChristianity is the largest religion in the United States, Canada and Mexico according to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey, 77.4% of the population considered themselves Christians. Christianity also is the predominant religion in the 23 dependent territories in North America. The United States has the largest Christian population in the world, with nearly 247 million Christians (70%), although other countries have higher percentages of Christians among their populations. Mexico has the world's second largest number of Catholics, surpassed only by Brazil. \n\nAccording to the same study religiously unaffiliated (include agnostic and atheist) make up about 17.1% of the population of Canada and the United States. No religion make up about 22.8% of the United States population, and 23.9% of Canada total population. \n\nCanada, the United States and Mexico host communities of both Jews (6 million or about 1.8%), Buddhists (3.8 million or 1.1%) and Muslims (3.4 million or 1.0%). The biggest number of Jewish individuals can be found in the United States (5.4 million), Canada (375,000) and Mexico (67,476). The United States host the largest Muslim population in North America with 2.7 million or 0.9%, While Canada host about one million Muslim or 3.2% of the population. While in Mexico there were 3,700 Muslims in the country. In 2012, U-T San Diego estimated U.S. practitioners of Buddhism at 1.2 million people, of whom 40% are living in Southern California. \n\nThe predominant religion in Central America is Christianity (95.6%). Beginning with the Spanish colonization of Central America in the 16th century, Roman Catholicism became the most popular religion in the region until the first half of the 20th century. Since the 1960s, there has been an increase in other Christian groups, particularly Protestantism, as well as other religious organizations, and individuals identifying themselves as having no religion. Also Christianity is the predominant religion in the Caribbean (84.7%). Other religious groups in the region are Hinduism, Islam, Rastafari (in Jamaica), and Afro-American religions such as Santería and Vodou.\n\nPopulace\n\nThe most populous country in North America, is the United States with 318.4 million persons. The second largest country is Mexico with a population of 112,322,757. Canada is the third most populous country with 32,623,490. The majority of Caribbean island-nations have national populations under a million, though Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico (a territory of the United States), Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago each have populations higher than a million. Despite Greenland's massive size (2,166,000 km² or 836,297 mi²), it has the world's lowest population density at 0.03 pop./km² (0.08 pop./mi²) for a small population of 55,984. \n\nWhile the United States, Canada, and Mexico maintain the largest populations, large city populations are not restricted to those nations. There are also large cities in the Caribbean. The largest cities in North America, by far, are Mexico City and New York. These cities are the only cities on the continent to exceed eight million, and two of three in the Americas. Next in size are Los Angeles, Toronto, Chicago, Havana, Santo Domingo, and Montreal. Cities in the sunbelt regions of the United States, such as those in Southern California and Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Atlanta, and Las Vegas, are experiencing rapid growth. These causes included warm temperatures, retirement of Baby Boomers, large industry, and the influx of immigrants. Cities near the United States border, particularly in Mexico, are also experiencing large amounts of growth. Most notable is Tijuana, a city bordering San Diego that receives immigrants from all over Latin America and parts of Europe and Asia. Yet as cities grow in these warmer regions of North America, they are increasingly forced to deal with the major issue of water shortages. \n\nEight of the top ten metropolitan areas are located in the United States. These metropolitan areas all have a population of above 5.5 million and include the New York City metropolitan area, Los Angeles metropolitan area, Chicago metropolitan area, and the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Whilst the majority of the largest metropolitan areas are within the United States, Mexico is host to the largest metropolitan area by population in North America: Greater Mexico City. Canada also breaks into the top ten largest metropolitan areas with the Toronto metropolitan area having six million citizens. The proximity of cities to each other on the Canada–United States border and Mexico–United States border has led to the rise of international metropolitan areas. These urban agglomerations are observed at their largest and most productive in Detroit–Windsor and San Diego–Tijuana and experience large commercial, economic, and cultural activity. The metropolitan areas are responsible for millions of dollars of trade dependent on international freight. In Detroit-Windsor the Border Transportation Partnership study in 2004 concluded US$13 billion was dependent on the Detroit–Windsor international border crossing while in San Diego-Tijuana freight at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry was valued at US$20 billion. \n\nThe North America continent has also been witness to the growth of megapolitan areas. In the United States exists eleven megaregions that transcend international borders and comprise Canadian and Mexican metropolitan regions. These are the Arizona Sun Corridor, Cascadia, Florida, Front Range, Great Lakes Megaregion, Gulf Coast Megaregion, Northeast, Northern California, Piedmont Atlantic, Southern California, and the Texas Triangle. Canada and Mexico are also the home of megaregions. These include the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor, Golden Horseshoe – both of which are considered part of the Great Lakes Megaregion – and megalopolis of Central Mexico. Traditionally the largest megaregion has been considered the Boston-Washington, D.C. Corridor, or the Northeast, as the region is one massive contiguous area. Yet megaregion criterion have allowed the Great Lakes Megalopolis to maintain status as the most populated region, being home to 53,768,125 people in 2000.Regional Plan Association (2008). America 2050: An Infrastructure Vision for 21st Century America. New York, NY: Regional Plan Association.\n\nThe top ten largest North American metropolitan areas by population as of 2013, based on national census numbers from the United States of America, and census estimates from Canada and Mexico.\n\n‌†2011 Census figures.\n\nEconomy\n\nCanada, Mexico and the United States have significant and multifaceted economic systems. The United States has the largest economy of all three countries and in the world. In 2014, the US had an estimated per capita gross domestic product (PPP) of $54,980, and is the most technologically developed economy of the three. The United States' services sector comprises 76.7% of the country's GDP (estimated in 2010), industry comprises 22.2% and agriculture comprises 1.2%.\n\nCanada shows significant growth in the sectors of services, mining and manufacturing. Canada's per capita GDP (PPP) was estimated at $44,656 and it had the 11th largest GDP (nominal) in 2014. Canada's services sector comprises 78% of the country's GDP (estimated in 2010), industry comprises 20% and agriculture comprises 2%. Mexico has a per capita GDP (PPP) of $16,111 and as of 2014 is the 15th largest GDP (nominal) in the world. Being a newly industrialized country, Mexico maintains both modern and outdated industrial and agricultural facilities and operations. Its main sources of income are oil, industrial exports, manufactured goods, electronics, heavy industry, automobiles, construction, food, banking and financial services. \n\nThe North American economy is well defined and structured in three main economic areas. These areas are the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), and the Central American Common Market (CACM). Of these trade blocs, the United States takes part in two. In addition to the larger trade blocs there is the Canada-Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement among numerous other free trade relations, often between the larger, more developed countries and Central American and Caribbean countries.\n\nThe North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) forms one of the four largest trade blocs in the world. Its implementation in 1994 was designed for economic homogenization with hopes of eliminating barriers of trade and foreign investment between Canada, the United States and Mexico. While Canada and the United States already conducted the largest bilateral trade relationship – and to present day still do – in the world and Canada - United States trade relations already allowed trade without national taxes and tariffs, NAFTA allowed Mexico to experience a similar duty-free trade. The free trade agreement allowed for the elimination of tariffs that had previously been in place on United States-Mexico trade. Trade volume has steadily increased annually and in 2010, surface trade between the three NAFTA nations reached an all-time historical increase of 24.3% or US$791 billion. The NAFTA trade bloc GDP (PPP) is the world's largest with US$17.617 trillion. This is in part attributed to the fact that the economy of the United States is the world's largest national economy; the country had a nominal GDP of approximately $14.7 trillion in 2010. The countries of NAFTA are also some of each other's largest trade partners. The United States is the largest trade partner of Canada and Mexico; while Canada and Mexico are each other's third largest trade partners. \n\nThe Caribbean trade bloc – CARICOM – came into agreement in 1973 when it was signed by 15 Caribbean nations. As of 2000, CARICOM trade volume was US$96 billion. CARICOM also allowed for the creation of a common passport for associated nations. In the past decade the trade bloc focused largely on Free Trade Agreements and under the CARICOM Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) free trade agreements have been signed into effect.\n\nIntegration of Central American economies occurred under the signing of the Central American Common Market agreement in 1961; this was the first attempt to engage the nations of this area into stronger financial cooperation. Recent implementation of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) has left the future of the CACM unclear. The Central American Free Trade Agreement was signed by five Central American countries, the Dominican Republic, and the United States. The focal point of CAFTA is to create a free trade area similar to that of NAFTA. In addition to the United States, Canada also has relations in Central American trade blocs. Currently under proposal, the Canada – Central American Free Trade Agreement (CA4) would operate much the same as CAFTA with the United States does.\n\nThese nations also take part in inter-continental trade blocs. Mexico takes a part in the G3 Free Trade Agreement with Colombia and Venezuela and has a trade agreement with the EU. The United States has proposed and maintained trade agreements under the Transatlantic Free Trade Area between itself and the European Union; the US-Middle East Free Trade Area between numerous Middle Eastern nations and itself; and the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership between Southeast Asian nations, Australia, and New Zealand.\n\nTransport\n\nThe Pan-American Highway route in the Americas is the portion of a network of roads nearly in length which travels through the mainland nations. No definitive length of the Pan-American Highway exists because the US and Canadian governments have never officially defined any specific routes as being part of the Pan-American Highway, and Mexico officially has many branches connecting to the US border. However, the total length of the portion from Mexico to the northern extremity of the highway is roughly 16000 mi.\n\nThe First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States was built in the 1860s, linking the railroad network of the eastern US with California on the Pacific coast. Finished on 10 May 1869 at the famous Golden spike event at Promontory Summit, Utah, it created a nationwide mechanized transportation network that revolutionized the population and economy of the American West, catalyzing the transition from the wagon trains of previous decades to a modern transportation system. Although an accomplishment, it achieved the status of first transcontinental railroad by connecting myriad eastern US railroads to the Pacific and was not the largest single railroad system in the world. The Canadian Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) had, by 1867, already accumulated more than 2055 km of track by connecting Ontario with the Canadian Atlantic provinces west as far as Port Huron, Michigan, through Sarnia, Ontario.\n\nCommunications\n\nA shared telephone system known as the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) which is an integrated telephone numbering plan of 24 countries and territories: the United States and its territories, Canada, Bermuda, and 17 Caribbean nations.\n\nCulture\n\nCanada and the United States were both former British colonies. There is frequent cultural interplay between the United States and English-speaking Canada. Greenland shares some cultural ties with the indigenous people of Canada but is considered Nordic and has strong Danish ties due to centuries of colonization by Denmark. Spanish-speaking North America shares a common past as former Spanish colonies. In Mexico and the Central American countries where civilizations like the Maya developed, indigenous people preserve traditions across modern boundaries. Central American and Spanish-speaking Caribbean nations have historically had more in common due to geographical proximity.\n\nNorthern Mexico, particularly in the cities of Monterrey, Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and Mexicali, is strongly influenced by the culture and way of life of the United States. Of the aforementioned cities, Monterrey has been regarded as the most Americanized city in North America. Immigration to the United States and Canada remains a significant attribute of many nations close to the southern border of the US. The Anglophone Caribbean states have witnessed the decline of the British Empire and its influence on the region, and its replacement by the economic influence of Northern America. In the Anglophone Caribbean. This is partly due to the relatively small populations of the English-speaking Caribbean countries, and also because many of them now have more people living abroad than those remaining at home.\n\nSports\n\nThe following table shows the most prominent sports leagues in North America, in order of average revenue." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Dean_Martin.txt", "Sammy_Davis_Jr..txt", "Peter_Lawford.txt", "Joey_Bishop.txt", "Rat_Pack.txt" ], "title": [ "Dean Martin", "Sammy Davis Jr.", "Peter Lawford", "Joey Bishop", "Rat Pack" ], "wiki_context": [ "Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti, June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, comedian, and film producer. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed the \"King Of Cool\" for his seemingly effortless charisma and self-assurance. \n\nHe and Jerry Lewis were partners in the immensely popular comedy team Martin and Lewis. He was a member of the \"Rat Pack\" and a star in concert stage/nightclubs, recordings, motion pictures, and television. He was the host of the television variety program The Dean Martin Show (1965–1974) and The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast (1974–1985).\n\nMartin's relaxed, warbling crooning voice earned him dozens of hit singles including his signature songs \"Memories Are Made of This\", \"That's Amore\", \"Everybody Loves Somebody\", \"You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You\", \"Sway\", \"Volare\", and \"Ain't That a Kick in the Head?\".\n\nEarly life\n\nMartin was born on June 7, 1917 in Steubenville, Ohio, to an Italian father, Gaetano Alfonso Crocetti (1894–1967), and an Italian-American mother, Angela Crocetti (née Barra; 1899–1966). They were married in 1914. His father, who was a barber, was originally from Montesilvano, in Abruzzo, and his maternal grandparents' origins are believed to be also from Abruzzo even if it is not clearly known. Martin had an older brother named William Alfonso Crocetti (1916-1968). Martin's first language was an Abruzzese dialect of Italian, and he did not speak English until he started school at the age of 5. He attended Grant Elementary School in Steubenville where he was bullied for his broken English. He later took up the drums as a hobby as a teenager. Martin then dropped out of Steubenville High School in the 10th grade because he thought he was smarter than his teachers. He bootlegged liquor, served as a speakeasy croupier, was a blackjack dealer, worked in a steel mill and boxed as a welterweight.\n\nAt 15 he was a boxer who billed himself as \"Kid Crochet\". His prizefighting earned him a broken nose (later straightened), a scarred lip, many broken knuckles (a result of not being able to afford tape used to wrap boxers' hands), and a bruised body. Of his 12 bouts, he said: \"I won all but 11.\" For a time, he roomed with Sonny King, who, like Martin, was starting in show business and had little money. It is said that Martin and King held bare-knuckle matches in their apartment, fighting until one was knocked out; people paid to watch. Martin knocked out King in the first round of an amateur boxing match. Martin gave up boxing to work as a roulette stickman and croupier in an illegal casino behind a tobacco shop, where he had started as a stock boy. At the same time he sang with local bands, calling himself \"Dino Martini\" (after the Metropolitan Opera tenor, Nino Martini). He got his break working for the Ernie McKay Orchestra. He sang in a crooning style influenced by Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), among others. In the early 1940s, he started singing for bandleader Sammy Watkins, who suggested he change his name to Dean Martin. \n\nIn October 1941 Martin married Elizabeth (\"Betty\") Anne McDonald, they had four children, and the marriage ended in 1949. Martin worked for various bands throughout the early 1940s, mostly on looks and personality until he developed his own singing style. Martin flopped at the Riobamba, a nightclub in New York, when he followed Frank Sinatra in 1943, but it was the setting for their meeting. Martin was drafted into the United States Army in 1944 during World War II, serving a year in Akron, Ohio. He was reclassified as 4-F and discharged (possibly because of a double hernia, Jerry Lewis referred to the surgery Martin needed for this in his autobiography). By 1946, Martin was doing well, but he was little more than an East Coast nightclub singer with a common style, similar to that of Bing Crosby.\n\nCareer\n\nTeaming with Jerry Lewis\n\nMartin attracted the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures, but a Hollywood contract was not forthcoming. He met comic Jerry Lewis at the Glass Hat Club in New York, where both were performing. Martin and Lewis formed a fast friendship which led to their participation in each other's acts and the formation of a music-comedy team. Martin and Lewis's debut together occurred at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 24, 1946, and they were not well received. The owner, Skinny D'Amato, warned them that if they did not come up with a better act for their second show that night, they would be fired. Huddling in the alley behind the club, Lewis and Martin agreed to \"go for broke\", they divided their act between songs, skits, and ad-libbed material. Martin sang and Lewis dressed as a busboy, dropping plates and making a shambles of Martin's performance and the club's decorum until Lewis was chased from the room as Martin pelted him with breadrolls. \n\nThey did slapstick, reeled off old vaudeville jokes, and did whatever else popped into their heads. The audience laughed. This success led to a series of well-paying engagements on the Eastern seaboard, culminating in a run at New York's Copacabana. The act consisted of Lewis interrupting and heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, with the two ultimately chasing each other around the stage. The secret, both said, is that they ignored the audience and played to each other. The team made its TV debut on the first broadcast of CBS-TV network's The Ed Sullivan Show (then called \"The Toast Of The Town\") on June 20, 1948 with composers Rodgers and Hammerstein also appearing. A radio series began in 1949, the year Martin and Lewis signed with Paramount producer Hal B. Wallis as comedy relief for the movie My Friend Irma. Their agent, Abby Greshler, negotiated one of Hollywood's best deals: although they received only $75,000 between them for their films with Wallis, Martin and Lewis were free to do one outside film a year, which they would co-produce through their own York Productions.\n\nThey also controlled their club, record, radio and television appearances, and through these they earned millions of dollars. In Dean & Me, Lewis calls Martin one of the great comic geniuses of all time. But harsh comments from critics, as well as frustration with the similarity of Martin and Lewis movies, which producer Hal Wallis refused to change, led to Martin's dissatisfaction. He put less enthusiasm into the work, leading to escalating arguments with Lewis. Martin told his partner he was \"nothing to me but a dollar sign\". The act broke up in 1956, 10 years to the day from the first teaming. Martin's first solo film, Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), was a box office failure. He was still popular as a singer, but with rock and roll to the fore, the era of the pop crooner was waning.\n\nSolo career\n\nMartin wanted to become a real actor, known for more than slapstick comedy films. Though offered a fraction of his former salary to co-star in a war drama, The Young Lions (1958), his part would be with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift. Tony Randall already had the part, but talent agency MCA realized that with this film, Martin would become a triple threat: they could make money from his work in night clubs, films and records. Martin replaced Randall and the film turned out to be the beginning of Martin's comeback. Martin starred alongside Frank Sinatra for the first time in an acclaimed Vincente Minnelli drama, Some Came Running (1958). By the mid-1960s, Martin was a movie, recording, television and nightclub star, while Lewis' film career declined. Martin was acclaimed as Dude in Rio Bravo (1959), directed by Howard Hawks and also starring John Wayne and singer Ricky Nelson. He would team again with Wayne in The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), cast as brothers. In 1960, Martin was cast in the film version of the Judy Holliday stage musical comedy Bells Are Ringing. He won a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the 1960 film comedy Who Was That Lady? but continued to seek dramatic roles, portraying a Southern politician in 1961's Ada and starring in 1963's screen adaptation of an intense stage drama, Toys in the Attic, opposite Geraldine Page. \n\nHe and Sinatra teamed up for several more movies, the crime caper Ocean's 11, the musical Robin and the 7 Hoods and the western comedies Sergeants 3 and 4 for Texas, some featuring their so-called Rat Pack pals Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, as well as a romantic comedy, Marriage on the Rocks. Martin also co-starred with Shirley MacLaine in a number of films, including Some Came Running, Artists and Models, Career, All in a Night's Work and What a Way to Go! He played a satiric variation of his own womanizing persona as Las Vegas singer \"Dino\" in Billy Wilder's comedy Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) with Kim Novak, and he poked fun at his image in films such as the Matt Helm spy spoofs of the 1960s, in which he was a co-producer. In the third Matt Helm film The Ambushers (1967), Helm, about to be executed, receives a last cigarette and tells the provider, \"I'll remember you from the great beyond,\" continuing sotto voce, \"somewhere around Steubenville, I hope.\"\n\nAs a singer, Martin copied the styles of Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), Bing Crosby, and Perry Como until he developed his own and could hold his own in duets with Sinatra and Crosby. Like Sinatra, he could not read music, but he recorded more than 100 albums and 600 songs. His signature tune, \"Everybody Loves Somebody\", knocked the Beatles' \"A Hard Day's Night\" off number one in the United States in 1964. This was followed by \"The Door is Still Open to My Heart\", which reached number six that year. Elvis Presley was said to have been influenced by Martin, and patterned \"Love Me Tender\" after his style. Martin, like Elvis, was influenced by country music. By 1965, some of Martin's albums, such as Dean \"Tex\" Martin, The Hit Sound of Dean Martin, Welcome to My World and Gentle On My Mind, were composed of country and western songs by artists such as Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. Martin hosted country performers on his TV show and was named \"Man Of the Year\" by the Country Music Association in 1966. \n\nBut the image of Martin as a Vegas entertainer in a tuxedo has been an enduring one. \"Ain't That a Kick in the Head?\", a song Martin performed in Ocean's 11, did not become a hit at the time, but has enjoyed a revival in the media and pop culture. For three decades, Martin was among the most popular acts in Las Vegas. Martin sang and was one of the smoothest comics in the business, benefiting from the decade of comedy with Lewis. Martin's daughter, Gail, also sang in Vegas and on his TV show, co-hosting his summer replacement series on NBC. Daughter Deana and son Ricci are singers who continue to perform. Eldest son Craig was a producer on Martin's television show and daughter Claudia was an actress in films such as For Those Who Think Young. Though often thought of as a ladies' man, Martin spent a lot of time with his family; as second wife Jeanne put it, prior to the couple's divorce, \"He was home every night for dinner.\"\n\nThe Rat Pack\n\nAs Martin's solo career grew, he and Frank Sinatra became friends. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Martin and Sinatra, along with friends Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, and Sammy Davis, Jr. formed the Rat Pack, so-called after an earlier group of social friends, the Holmby Hills Rat Pack centered on Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, of which Sinatra had been a member (The Martin-Sinatra-Davis-Lawford-Bishop group referred to themselves as \"The Summit\" or \"The Clan\" and never as \"The Rat Pack\", although this has remained their identity in popular imagination). The men made films together, formed part of the Hollywood social scene, and were politically influential (through Lawford's marriage to Patricia Kennedy, sister of President John F. Kennedy).\n\nThe Rat Pack was legendary for its Las Vegas Strip performances. For example, the marquee at the Sands Hotel might read DEAN MARTIN—MAYBE FRANK—MAYBE SAMMY. Their appearances were valuable because the city would flood with wealthy gamblers. Their act (always in tuxedo) consisted of each singing individual numbers, duets and trios, along with seemingly improvised slapstick and chatter. In the socially charged 1960s, their jokes revolved around adult themes, such as Sinatra's womanizing and Martin's drinking, as well as Davis's race and religion. Sinatra and Martin supported the civil rights movement and refused to perform in clubs that would not allow African-American or Jewish performers. Posthumously, the Rat Pack has experienced a popular revival, inspiring the George Clooney/Brad Pitt \"Ocean's\" trilogy.\n\nThe Dean Martin Show\n\nIn 1965, Martin launched his weekly NBC comedy-variety series, The Dean Martin Show, which ran for 264 episodes until 1974. The show exploited his image as a carefree boozer. Martin capitalized on his laid-back persona of the half-drunk crooner, hitting on women with remarks that would get anyone else slapped, and making snappy if slurred remarks about fellow celebrities during his roasts. During an interview on the British TV documentary Wine, Women and Song, aired in 1983, he stated, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that he had someone record them on cassette tape so he could listen to them. His TV show was a success. The show's loose format featured quick-witted improvisation from Martin and his weekly guests. This prompted a battle between Martin and NBC censors, who insisted on more scrutiny of the content. The show was often in the Top Ten. Martin, appreciative of the show's producer, his friend Greg Garrison, made a handshake deal giving Garrison, a pioneer TV producer in the 1950s, 50% of the show. \n\nHowever, the validity of that ownership is the subject of a lawsuit brought by NBCUniversal. Despite Martin's reputation as a drinker – perpetuated via his vanity license plate \"DRUNKY\" – he masked his self-discipline. He was often the first to call it a night, and when not on tour or on a film location, liked to go home to see his wife and children. He borrowed the lovable-drunk shtick from Joe E. Lewis, but his convincing portrayals of heavy boozers in Some Came Running and Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo led to unsubstantiated claims of alcoholism. Martin starred in and co-produced four Matt Helm superspy comedy adventures during this time, as well as a number of Westerns. By the early 1970s, The Dean Martin Show was still earning solid ratings, and although he was no longer a Top 40 hitmaker, his record albums continued to sell. He found a way to make his passion for golf profitable by offering a signature line golf balls and the Dean Martin Tucson Open was an event on golf's PGA Tour from 1972–75. At his death, Martin was reportedly the single largest minority shareholder of RCA stock.\n\nNow comfortable financially, Martin began reducing his schedule. The final (1973–74) season of his variety show would be retooled into one of celebrity roasts, requiring less involvement. After the show's cancellation, NBC continued to air The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast format in a series of TV specials through 1984. In those 11 years, Martin and his panel of pals made fun of stars in this order: Ronald Reagan, Hugh Hefner, Ed McMahon, William Conrad, Kirk Douglas, Bette Davis, Barry Goldwater, Johnny Carson, Wilt Chamberlain, Hubert Humphrey, Carroll O'Connor, Monty Hall, Jack Klugman & Tony Randall, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Leo Durocher, Truman Capote, Don Rickles, Ralph Nader, Jack Benny, Redd Foxx, Bobby Riggs, George Washington, Dan Rowan & Dick Martin, Hank Aaron, Joe Namath, Bob Hope, Telly Savalas, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Sammy Davis, Jr., Michael Landon, Evel Knievel, Valerie Harper, Muhammad Ali, Dean Martin himself, Dennis Weaver, Joe Garagiola, Danny Thomas, Angie Dickinson, Gabe Kaplan, Ted Knight, Peter Marshall, Dan Haggerty, Frank Sinatra, Jack Klugman, Jimmy Stewart, George Burns, Betty White, Suzanne Somers, Joan Collins, Kent McCord, Martin Milner, and Mr. T.\n\nLater career\n\nFor nearly a decade, Martin had recorded as many as four albums a year for Reprise Records. That stopped in November 1974, when Martin recorded his final Reprise album, Once In A While, which was released in 1978. His last recordings were for Warner Brothers Records. An album titled The Nashville Sessions was released in 1983, from which he had a hit with \"(I Think That I Just Wrote) My First Country Song\", which was recorded with Conway Twitty and made a respectable showing on the country charts. A follow-up single, \"L.A. Is My Home\" / \"Drinking Champagne\", came in 1985. The 1975 film drama Mr. Ricco marked Martin's final starring role, in which he played a criminal defense lawyer. He played a featured role in the 1981 comedy The Cannonball Run and its sequel, both starring Burt Reynolds. In 1972, he filed for divorce from his second wife, Jeanne. A week later, his business partnership with the Riviera dissolved amid reports of the casino's refusal to agree to Martin's request to perform only once a night. He was taken by the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, where he was the featured performer on the hotel's opening night December 23, 1973, and also signed a three-picture deal with MGM Studios. Less than a month after his second marriage had dissolved, Martin married 26-year-old Catherine Hawn, on April 25, 1973. Hawn had been the receptionist at the chic Gene Shacrove hair salon in Beverly Hills. They divorced November 10, 1976. He was also briefly engaged to Gail Renshaw, Miss World–U.S.A. 1969.\n\nEventually, Martin reconciled with Jeanne, though they never remarried. He also made a public reconciliation with Lewis on the Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon in 1976. Frank Sinatra shocked Lewis by bringing Martin out on stage. As Martin and Lewis embraced, the audience cheered and the phones lit up, resulting in one of the telethon's most profitable years. Lewis reported the event was one of the three most memorable of his life. Lewis quipped, \"So, you working?\" Martin, playing drunk, replied that he was \"at the Meggum\" (meaning the MGM Grand). This, with the death of Martin's son Dean Paul Martin more than a decade later, helped bring the two men together. They maintained a quiet friendship, but only performed again once, in 1989, on Martin's 72nd birthday.\n\nPersonal life\n\nMartin was married three times. Subsequent to the divorce of his first wife, Elizabeth Anne \"Betty\" McDonald, Martin gained custody of their children; Betty lived out her life in quiet obscurity in San Francisco. They had four children; Craig Martin (born 1942), Claudia Martin (born March 16, 1944, died 2001 of breast cancer), Gail Martin (born 1945) and Deana Martin (born 1948). Martin's second wife was Jeanne Biegger, a former Orange Bowl queen from Coral Gables, Florida. Their marriage lasted 24 years (1949–1973) and had three children: Dean Paul Martin (November 17, 1951 – March 21, 1987;\njet fighter crash), Ricci Martin (born 1953) and Gina Martin (born 1956). Her marriage made Martin the father-in-law of the Beach Boys' Carl Wilson. Figure skater Dorothy Hamill and actress Olivia Hussey were his daughters-in-law during their marriages to Dean Paul Martin. Martin's third marriage to Catherine Hawn lasted three years. Martin initiated the divorce proceedings. Martin adopted Hawn's daughter, Sasha. Martin's uncle was Leonard Barr, who appeared in several of his shows. In the 1960s and early 1970s he lived at 363 Copa De Oro Road in Bel Air, Los Angeles, before selling it to Tom Jones for $500,000 in June 1976. \n\nLater years and end of career\n\nMartin returned to films briefly with appearances in the two star-laden, critically panned but commercially successful Cannonball Run movies. He also had a minor hit single with \"Since I Met You Baby\" and made his first music video, which appeared on MTV. The video was created by Martin's youngest son, Ricci. On March 21, 1987, Martin's son, actor Dean Paul Martin (formerly Dino of the 1960s \"teeny-bopper\" rock group Dino, Desi & Billy), died when his F-4 Phantom II jet fighter crashed while flying with the California Air National Guard. Later, a tour with Davis and Sinatra in 1988 sputtered. Martin, who responded best to a club audience, felt lost in the huge stadiums they were performing in at Sinatra's insistence, and he was not interested in drinking until dawn after performances. His final Vegas shows were at Bally's Hotel in 1990. There he had his final reunion with Jerry Lewis on his 72nd birthday. Martin's last two TV appearances involved tributes to his former Rat Pack members. On December 8, 1989, he joined stars in Sammy Davis Jr's 60th anniversary celebration, which aired a few weeks before Davis died from throat cancer. In December 1990, he congratulated Frank Sinatra on his 75th birthday special.\n\nDeath\n\nMartin, a heavy smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in September 1993, and was told he needed an operation to prolong his life, but Dean refused. He retired from public life in early 1995 and died of acute respiratory failure resulting from emphysema at his Beverly Hills home on December 25, 1995, Christmas Day at age 78. The lights of the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed in his honor. Martin is interred at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. His crypt features the epitaph \"Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime\", the name of his signature song.\n\nTributes and legacy\n\nIn 1996, Ohio Route 7 through Steubenville, was rededicated as Dean Martin Boulevard. Road signs bearing an Al Hirschfeld caricature of Martin's likeness designate the stretch with a historical marker bearing a small picture and brief biography in the Gazebo Park at Route 7 and North Fourth Street. An annual Dean Martin Festival celebration is held in Steubenville. Impersonators, friends and family, and entertainers, many of Italian ancestry, appear. In 2005, Clark County, Nevada, renamed a portion of Industrial Road as Dean Martin Drive. A similarly named street was dedicated in 2008 in Rancho Mirage, California. Martin's family was presented a gold record in 2004 for Dino: The Essential Dean Martin, his fastest-selling album, which also hit the iTunes Top 10. For the week ending December 23, 2006, the Dean Martin and Martina McBride duet of \"Baby, It's Cold Outside\" reached No. 7 on the R&R AC chart. It also went to No. 36 on the R&R Country chart – the last time Martin had a song this high in the charts was in 1965, with the song \"I Will,\" which reached No. 10 on the Pop chart.\n\nAn album of duets, Forever Cool, was released by Capitol/EMI in 2007. It features Martin's voice with Kevin Spacey, Shelby Lynne, Joss Stone, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Robbie Williams, McBride and others. His footprints were immortalized at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1964. Martin has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one at 6519 Hollywood Boulevard for movies; the second at 1617 Vine for recordings; and a third at 6651 Hollywood Boulevard for television. In February 2009, Martin was honored with a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Four of his surviving children, Gail, Deana, Ricci and Gina accepted it on his behalf.\n\nIn popular culture\n\nA number of Martin songs have been featured across popular culture for decades. Hits such as \"Ain't That a Kick in the Head\", \"Sway\", \"You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You\", \"That's Amore\", and Martin's signature song \"Everybody Loves Somebody\" have been in films (such as the Oscar-winning Logorama, A Bronx Tale, Casino, Goodfellas, Payback, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Sexy Beast, Moonstruck, Vegas Vacation, Swingers and Return to Me), television series (such as American Dad!, Friends, The Sopranos, and House MD), video games (such as The Godfather: The Game, The Godfather II, Fallout: New Vegas and Mafia II), and fashion shows (such as the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show). Danny Gans portrayed Martin in the 1992 CBS miniseries Sinatra. Martin was portrayed by Joe Mantegna in the 1998 HBO movie about Sinatra and Martin titled The Rat Pack. \n\nMantegna was nominated for both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the role. British actor Jeremy Northam portrayed the entertainer in the 2002 made-for-TV movie Martin and Lewis, alongside Will & Graces Sean Hayes as Jerry Lewis. Martin is the subject of Dean Martin's Wild Party and Dean Martin's Vegas Shindig, a pair of video slot machines found in many casinos. The games feature songs sung by Martin during the bonus feature and the count-up of a player's winnings. A compilation album called Amore! debuted at Number One on Billboard magazine's Top Pop Catalog Albums chart in its February 21, 2009, issue.\n\nDiscography\n\nFilmography", "Samuel George \"Sammy\" Davis ,Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American entertainer. Primarily a dancer and singer, he was also an actor of stage and screen, comedian, musician, and impressionist, noted for his impersonations of actors, musicians and other celebrities. At the age of three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father and Will Mastin as the Will Mastin Trio, which toured nationally. After military service, Davis returned to the trio. Davis became an overnight sensation following a nightclub performance at Ciro's (in West Hollywood) after the 1951 Academy Awards. With the trio, he became a recording artist. In 1954, he lost his left eye in a car accident, and several years later, he converted to Judaism. \n\nDavis's film career began as a child in 1933. In 1960, he appeared in the Rat Pack film, Ocean's 11. After a starring role on Broadway in 1956's Mr Wonderful, he returned to the stage in 1964's Golden Boy. In 1966 he had his own TV variety show, The Sammy Davis Jr. Show. Davis's career slowed in the late 1960s, but he had a hit record with \"The Candy Man\" in 1972 and became a star in Las Vegas, earning him the nickname \"Mister Show Business\". \n\nAs an African-American during the pre-Civil Rights era, Davis was a victim of racism throughout his life and was a large financial supporter of the Civil Rights movement. Davis had a complex relationship with the black community, and drew criticism after physically embracing President Richard Nixon in 1972. One day on a golf course with Jack Benny, he was asked what his handicap was. \"Handicap?\" he asked. \"Talk about handicap. I'm a one-eyed Negro Jew.\" This was to become a signature comment, recounted in his autobiography, and in countless articles. \n\nAfter reuniting with Sinatra and Dean Martin in 1987, Davis toured with them and Liza Minnelli internationally, before he died of throat cancer in 1990. He died in debt to the Internal Revenue Service, and his estate was the subject of legal battles. \n\nDavis was awarded the Spingarn Medal by the NAACP and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for his television performances. He was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1987, and in 2001, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.\n\nEarly life\n\nSamuel George Davis ,Jr. was born on December 8, 1925, in the Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City, the son of entertainer and stage performer, Sammy Davis Sr., an African-American entertainer, and Elvera Sanchez, a tap dancer of Afro-Cuban descent. During his lifetime, Davis stated that his mother was Puerto Rican and born in San Juan. However, in the 2003 biography In Black and White, author Wil Haygood writes that Davis's mother was born in New York City to parents of Cuban, Afro-Cuban, and African-American descent, and that Davis claimed he was Puerto Rican because he feared anti-Cuban backlash would hurt his record sales. \n\nDavis's parents were vaudeville dancers. As an infant, he was reared by his paternal grandmother. When he was three years old, his parents separated. His father, not wanting to lose custody of his son, took him on tour.\n\nDavis learned to dance from his father and his \"uncle\" Will Mastin, who led the dance troupe his father worked for. Davis joined the act as a child and they became the Will Mastin Trio. Throughout his career, Davis included the Will Mastin Trio in his billing. Mastin and his father shielded him from racism. Snubs were explained as jealousy, for instance. When Davis served in the United States Army during World War II, however, he was confronted by strong racial prejudice. He later said: \"Overnight the world looked different. It wasn't one color any more. I could see the protection I'd gotten all my life from my father and Will. I appreciated their loving hope that I'd never need to know about prejudice and hate, but they were wrong. It was as if I'd walked through a swinging door for eighteen years, a door which they had always secretly held open.\" At age 7 Davis played the title role in the film Rufus Jones for President, in which he sang and danced with Ethel Waters \nDavis lived for several years in Boston's South End, and reminisced years later about \"hoofing and singing\" at Izzy Ort's Bar & Grille. \n\nCareer\n\nDuring service in World War II, the Army assigned Davis to an integrated entertainment Special Services unit and he found that the spotlight lessened the prejudice. Even prejudiced white men admired and respected his performances. \"My talent was the weapon, the power, the way for me to fight. It was the one way I might hope to affect a man's thinking,\" he said. \n\nAfter his discharge, Davis rejoined the family dance act, which played at clubs around Portland, Oregon. He also recorded blues songs for Capitol Records in 1949, under the pseudonyms Shorty Muggins and Charlie Green. \n\nOn March 23, 1951, the Will Mastin Trio appeared at Ciro's as the opening act for headliner Janis Paige. They were only to perform for twenty minutes but the reaction from the celebrity-filled crowd was so enthusiastic, especially when Davis launched into his impressions, that they performed for nearly an hour, and Paige insisted the order of the show be flipped. \n\nHe began to achieve success on his own and was singled out for praise by critics, releasing several albums. This led to Davis being hired to sing the title track for the Universal Pictures film Six Bridges to Cross in 1954, and later to his starring role in the Broadway play Mr. Wonderful in 1956.\n\nIn 1959, Davis became a member of the famous Rat Pack, led by his friend Frank Sinatra, which included fellow performers Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford, a brother-in-law of John F. Kennedy. Initially, Sinatra called the gathering \"the Clan\", but Davis voiced his opposition, saying that it reminded people of the Ku Klux Klan. Sinatra renamed the group \"the Summit\", but the media referred to them as the Rat Pack, the name of its earlier incarnation led by Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The group made several movies together, including the original version of Ocean's 11 (1960), Sergeants 3 (1962), and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964), as well as many joint stage appearances in Las Vegas and elsewhere.\n\nDavis was a headliner at The Frontier Casino in Las Vegas, but he was required (as were all black performers in the 1950s) to lodge in a rooming house on the west side of the city, instead of in the hotels as his white colleagues did. No dressing rooms were provided for black performers, and they had to wait outside by the swimming pool between acts. Davis and other black artists could entertain, but could not stay at the hotels where they performed, gamble in the casinos, or dine or drink in the hotel restaurants and bars. Davis later refused to work at places which practiced racial segregation. \n\nIn 1964, Davis was starring in Golden Boy at night and shooting his own New York-based afternoon talk show during the day. When he could get a day off from the theater, he would be recording new songs in the studio, or performing live, often at charity benefits as far away as Miami, Chicago, and Las Vegas, or doing television variety specials in Los Angeles. Davis knew he was cheating his family of his company, but he could not help himself; as he later said, he was incapable of standing still.\n\nAlthough he was still a draw in Las Vegas, Davis's musical career had sputtered by the late 1960s, although he had a No. 11 hit (#1 on the Easy Listening singles chart) with \"I've Gotta Be Me\" in 1969. His effort to update his sound and reconnect with younger people resulted in his signing with the Motown record label. Though his deal with them to have his own label with the company fell through, Sammy had an unexpected #1 hit with \"The Candy Man\" after he signed with MGM Records in 1972. Although he did not particularly care for the song and was chagrined that he was now best known for it, Davis made the most of his opportunity and revitalized his career. Although he enjoyed no more Top 40 hits, he did enjoy popularity with his 1976 performance of the theme song from the Baretta television series, \"Baretta's Theme (Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow)\" (1975–1978), which was released as a single (20th Century Records 2282). He occasionally landed television and film parts, including cameo visits to the television shows The Rifleman on two different episodes, I Dream of Jeannie, All in the Family (during which he famously kisses Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) on the cheek) and, with wife Altovise Davis, on Charlie's Angels. In the 1970s, he appeared in commercials in Japan for Suntory whiskey.\n\nOn December 11, 1967, NBC broadcast a musical-variety special titled Movin' with Nancy. In addition to the Emmy Award-winning musical performances, the show is notable for Nancy Sinatra, daughter of Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis Jr. greeting each other with a kiss, one of the first black-white kisses in U.S. television history. \n\nDavis had a friendship with Elvis Presley in the late 1960s, as they both were top-draw acts in Vegas at the same time. Davis was in many ways just as reclusive during his hotel gigs as Elvis, holding parties mainly in his penthouse suite, and Elvis went to them occasionally. Davis sang a version of Presley's song \"In the Ghetto\" and made a cameo appearance in Presley's concert film Elvis: That's the Way It Is. One year later, he made a cameo appearance in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, but the scene was cut.\n\nIn Japan, Davis appeared in television commercials for coffee, and in the United States, he joined Sinatra and Martin in a radio commercial for a Chicago car dealership.\n\nOn May 27–28, 1973, Davis hosted (with Monte Hall) the first annual, twenty-hour Highway Safety Foundation telethon. Guests included Muhammad Ali, Paul Anka, Jack Barry, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Ray Charles, Dick Clark, Roy Clark, Howard Cosell, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Joe Franklin, Cliff Gorman, Richie Havens, Danny Kaye, Steve Leeds, Jerry Lewis, Hal Linden, Rich Little, Butterfly McQueen, Minnie Pearl, Boots Randolph, Tex Ritter, Phil Rizzuto, The Rockettes, Nipsey Russell, Sally Struthers, Mel Tillis, Ben Vereen, Lawrence Welk, and many more. It was a financial disaster. The total amount of pledges was $1.2 million. Actual pledges received were $525,000. \n\nDavis was a fan of daytime soap operas, particularly the shows produced by the American Broadcasting Company. This led to a cameo appearance on General Hospital and a recurring role as character Chip Warren on One Life to Live, for which he received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination in 1980. He was also a game show fan, appearing on the ABC version of Family Feud in 1979. He appeared on Tattletales with his third wife, Altovise Davis, in the 1970s. He made a cameo during an episode of the NBC version of Card Sharks in 1981.\n\nIn addition to American soaps, he was also a huge fan of the Australian show Prisoner: Cell Block H. Davis wanted to make an appearance in Prisoner, but the show ended (in 1986) before this could be arranged.\n\nDavis was an avid photographer who enjoyed shooting pictures of family and acquaintances. His body of work was detailed in a 2007 book by Burt Boyar, named Photo by Sammy Davis, Jr. \"Jerry [Lewis] gave me my first important camera, my first 35 millimeter, during the Ciro's period, early '50s,\" Boyar quotes Davis. \"And he hooked me.\" Davis used a medium format camera later on to capture images. Again quoting Davis, \"Nobody interrupts a man taking a picture to ask ... 'What's that nigger doin' here?'\" His catalog includes rare photos of his father dancing onstage as part of the Will Mastin Trio and intimate snapshots of close friends Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, James Dean, Nat \"King\" Cole, and Marilyn Monroe. His political affiliations also were represented, in his images of Robert Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. His most revealing work comes in photographs of wife May Britt and their three children, Tracey, Jeff and Mark.\n\nDavis was an enthusiastic shooter and gun owner. He participated in fast-draw competitions; Johnny Cash recalled that Sammy was said to be capable of drawing and firing a Colt Single Action Army revolver in less than a quarter of a second. Davis was skilled at fast and fancy gunspinning, and appeared on television variety shows showing off this skill. He appeared in Western films and as a guest star on several \"Golden Age\" television Westerns.\n\nPersonal life\n\nCar accident and conversion to Judaism\n\nDavis nearly died in an automobile accident on November 19, 1954, in San Bernardino, California, as he was making a return trip from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.[http://google.com/search?q\ncache:EwyGE84vj0EJ:www.sbsun.com/living/ci_10594121+Sammy+Davis+Jr+accident&hlen&ct\nclnk&cd5&gl\nus Sammy Davis Jr. Turns Near Tragedy into Triumph], San Bernardino Sun, September 28, 2008 In 1953, he had struck up a friendship with comedian and host Eddie Cantor, who gave him a mezuzah. Instead of putting it by his door, as a traditional blessing, Davis would wear it around his neck as a good luck charm. The only time he forgot it was the night of the accident. The accident occurred at a fork in U.S. Route 66 at Cajon Boulevard and Kendall Drive (). Davis lost his left eye to the bullet-shaped horn button (a standard feature in 1954 and 1955 Cadillacs) as a result. His friend, actor Jeff Chandler, said he would give one of his own eyes if it would keep Davis from total blindness. Davis wore an eye patch for at least six months following the accident. He was featured with the patch on the cover of his debut album and appeared on What's My Line? wearing the patch (March 13, 1955). Later, he was fitted for a glass eye, which he wore for the rest of his life.\n\nWhile in San Bernardino's Community Hospital, Cantor told him about the similarities between the Jewish and black cultures. Prompted by this conversation, Davis—who was born to a Catholic mother and Protestant father—began studying the history of Jews. He formally converted to Judaism several years later, in 1961. One passage from his readings (from the book A History of The Jews by Abram L. Sachar), describing the endurance of the Jewish people, intrigued him in particular: \"The Jews would not die. Three millennia of prophetic teaching had given them an unwavering spirit of resignation and had created in them a will to live which no disaster could crush.\" The accident marked a turning point in Davis's career, taking him from a well-known entertainer to a national celebrity.\n\nMarriages\n\nIn 1957, Davis was involved with Kim Novak, a young actress under contract to Columbia Pictures. The head of Columbia studio, Harry Cohn, was worried about the negative effect this would have on the studio because of the prevailing taboo against miscegenation. He called his friend, mobster John Roselli, who was asked to tell Davis that he had to stop the affair with Novak. Roselli arranged for Davis to be kidnapped for a few hours to throw a scare into him. His hastily arranged and soon-dissolved (after nine months) marriage to black dancer Loray White in 1958 was an attempt to quiet the controversy. In a 2014 BBC documentary, it was disclosed that Cohn arranged for Davis to be threatened with having his other eye put out or his leg broken if he did not marry a black woman within 48 hours. At his wedding celebration he became so inebriated that his friend, Arthur Silber, put him to bed. Upon checking later, Silber caught him holding a loaded pistol to his head. The marriage to Loray White was never consummated, Davis having offered to pay her $10,000 to enter into a sham marriage. \n\nIn 1960, Davis caused controversy again when he married white Swedish-born actress May Britt. Davis received hate mail while starring in the Broadway adaptation of Golden Boy during 1964–1966 (for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor). At the time Davis appeared in the play, interracial marriages were forbidden by law in 31 states (but were legal in New York), and only in 1967 were those laws ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States. Davis and Britt had one daughter Tracey and adopted two sons. Davis performed almost continuously and spent little time with his wife. They divorced in 1968, after Davis admitted to having had an affair with singer Lola Falana. That year, Davis started dating Altovise Gore, a dancer in Golden Boy. They were married on May 11, 1970, by the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Kathy McKee replaced Altovise in Davis's nightclub act. They adopted a son, Manny, in 1989. Davis and Altovise remained married until his death in 1990.\n\nPolitical beliefs\n\nDavis was a registered Democrat and supported John F. Kennedy's 1960 election campaign as well as Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 campaign.\n\nHowever, he became a close friend to President Richard Nixon and publicly endorsed him at the 1972 Republican National Convention. Davis also made a USO tour to South Vietnam at Nixon's request. Previously, Davis had won Nixon's respect with his participation in the Civil Rights Movement. Nixon invited Davis and his wife, Altovise, to sleep in the White House in 1973, the first time African Americans were invited to do so. The Davises spent the night in the Queens' Bedroom. \n\nDavis was a long-time donor to the Reverend Jesse Jackson's Operation PUSH organization. Jackson also performed Davis's wedding. \n\nCancer and death\n\nIn August 1989, doctors found a tumour in Davis' throat. Davis died in Beverly Hills, California, on May 16, 1990, aged 64, of complications from throat cancer. Earlier, when he was told that surgery (laryngectomy) offered him the best chance of survival, Davis replied he would rather keep his voice than have a part of his throat removed; he subsequently was treated with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. However, a few weeks prior to his death, his entire larynx was removed during surgery. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Garden of Honor, Lot 5774, Space 1 in Glendale, California, next to his father and Will Mastin. \n\nOn May 18, 1990, two days after Davis's death, the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip were darkened for ten minutes as a tribute to him. He was survived by his wife, his daughter, his sons, his sister, his mother, his grandmother, and two grandchildren.\n\nLegacy\n\nDavis was portrayed by Don Cheadle in the HBO film The Rat Pack, a television film about the group of entertainers. Cheadle won a Golden Globe Award for his performance.\n\nComedian Eddie Griffin has made his impersonation of Davis a major part of his act.\n\nOn later episodes of The Cosby Show, Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby) wore an \"SDjr\" pin as a tribute to Davis, who, in its 5th season, made a guest appearance in the episode \"No Way, Baby\".\n\nOn Saturday Night Live, Davis has been portrayed by Garrett Morris, Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal and Tim Meadows.\n\nDavis was portrayed on the popular sketch comedy show In Living Color by Tommy Davidson, notably a parody of the film Ghost, in which the ghost of Davis enlists the help of Whoopi Goldberg to communicate with his wife.\n\nDavid Raynr portrayed Davis in the miniseries Sinatra, a television film about the life of Frank Sinatra.\n\nDavis was portrayed by Keith Powell in an episode of 30 Rock entitled \"Subway Hero\".\n\nIn the 1993 film Wayne's World 2, Tim Meadows portrays Davis in the dream sequence with Michael A. Nickles as Jim Morrison.\n\nHe was portrayed by Paul Sharma in the 2003 West End production Rat Pack Confidential. \n\nIn September 2009, the musical Sammy: Once in a Lifetime premiered at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego with book, music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, and additional songs by Bricusse and Anthony Newley. The title role was played by Broadway Tony Award nominee Obba Babatundé.\n\nDavis was mentioned in British singer Amy Winehouse's album Back to Black on the song \"Me and Mr. Jones\". The lyrics are as follows: \"Aside from Sammy you're my best black Jew.\"\n\nA black and white portrait of Davis, drawn by Jim Blanchard, adorns the cover of avant-garde rock band Oxbow's second album King of the Jews.\n\nMidwest radio personality Kevin Matthews impersonated Sammy Davis Jr. many times on his radio show.\n\nComedian Jim Carrey has portrayed Davis on stage, in the film Copper Mountain, and in a stand-up routine.\n\nComedian Billy Crystal has portrayed Sammy Davis Jr. in his stand-up routine and at the Oscars.\n\n\"Sammy\" is a song dedicated to Davis on the 1997 Gwar album Carnival of Chaos.\n\nIn the novel and its film adaptation Everything Is Illuminated, the grandfather's seeing-eye dog is named \"Sammy Davis Jr. Jr\".\n\nActor Phaldut Sharma created the comedy webseries [I Gotta Be Me], following a frustrated soap-star as he performs as Sammy in a Rat Pack tribute show. \n\nDiscography\n\nHonors and awards\n\nGrammy Awards\n\nEmmy Awards\n\nOther honors\n\nFilmography\n\n* Rufus Jones for President (1933)\n* Seasoned Greetings (1933)\n* Sweet and Low (1947)\n* Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956)\n* Anna Lucasta (1959)\n* Porgy and Bess (1959)\n* Ocean's 11 (1960)\n* Pepe (1960)\n* Sergeants 3 (1962)\n* ' (1962)\n* Convicts 4 (1962)\n* Johnny Cool (1963)\n* Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964)\n* Nightmare in the Sun (1965)\n* The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World (1965, title song)\n* A Man Called Adam (1966)\n* Alice in Wonderland (or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?) (1966)\n* Salt and Pepper (1968)\n* The Fall (1969)\n\n* Sweet Charity (1969)\n* One More Time (1970)\n* Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970)\n* Diamonds Are Forever (1971; deleted scene)\n* Save the Children (1973)\n* Poor Devil (1973; unsold pilot of a TV series)\n* Gone with the West, also known outside the U.S. as Little Moon and Jud McGraw (1975)\n* Sammy Stops the World (1978)\n* The Cannonball Run (1981)\n* Heidi's Song (1982)\n* Cracking Up (1983)\n* Broadway Danny Rose (1984)\n* Cannonball Run II (1984)\n* Alice in Wonderland (1985)\n* That's Dancing! (1985)\n* Knights of the City (1986)\n* The Perils of P.K. (1986)\n* Moon over Parador (1988)\n* Tap (1989)\n* The Kid Who Loved Christmas (1990, last role)\n\nStage\n\n* Mr. Wonderful (1957), musical\n* Golden Boy (1964), musical – Tony Nomination for Best Actor in a Musical\n* Sammy (1974), special performance featuring Davis with the Nicholas Brothers\n* Stop the World – I Want to Get Off (1978) musical revival\n\nTV\n\n* General Electric Theater – \"The Patsy\" (1960) Season 8 Episode 21\n* Lawman – episode Blue Boss and Willie Shay\" (1961)\n* The Dick Powell Show\" - episode \"The Legend\" (1962)\n* Hennesey – episode \"Tight Quarters\" (1962)\n* The Rifleman – 2 episodes \"Two Ounces of Tin (#4.21)\" (February 19, 1962) and \"The Most Amazing Man (#5.9)\" (November 27, 1962)\n* 77 Sunset Strip – episode \"The Gang's All Here\" (1962)\n* Ben Casey – episode \"Allie\" (1963)\n* The Patty Duke Show – episode \"Will the Real Sammy Davis Please Hang Up?\" (1965)\n* The Wild Wild West – episode \"The Night of the Returning Dead\" (October 14, 1966)\n* Batman - \"The Clock King's Crazy Crimes\" (1966)\n* I Dream of Jeannie – episode \"The Greatest Entertainer in the World\" (1967)\n* The Mod Squad - episode \"Keep the Faith Baby\" (1969)\n* The Beverly Hillbillies - episode Manhattan Hillbilies (1969)\n* The Name of the Game – episode \"I Love You, Billy Baker\" (1970)\n* Here's Lucy (1970)\n* All in the Family – episode \"Sammy's Visit\" (1972)\n* The Carol Burnett Show (1975)\n* Charlie's Angels – episode \"Sammy Davis, Jr. Kidnap Caper\" (1977)\n* Sanford (TV series) – episodes \"Dinner and George's\"(cameo) and \"The Benefit\" (1980)\n* Archie Bunker's Place – episode \"The Return of Sammy\" (1980)\n* The Jeffersons episode \"What Makes Sammy Run?\" (1984)\n* Fantasy Island episode \"Mr. Bojangles and the Dancer/Deuces are Wild\" (1984)\n* Gimme a Break! – episode \"The Lookalike\" (1985)\n* Hunter – episode \"Ring of Honor\" (1989)\n* The Cosby Show – episode \"No Way, Baby\" (1989)", "Peter Sydney Ernest Lawford (born Peter Sydney Ernest Aylen; 7 September 1923 – 24 December 1984) was an English-born American actor. \n\nHe was a member of the \"Rat Pack\" and brother-in-law to President John F. Kennedy, and more noted in later years for his off-screen activities as a celebrity than for his acting. From the 1940s to the 1960s, he had a strong presence in popular culture and starred in a number of highly acclaimed films.\n\nEarly life\n\nBorn in London in 1923, he was the only child of Lieutenant General Sir Sydney Turing Barlow Lawford, KBE (1865-1953) and May Sommerville Bunny (1883-1972). At the time of Peter's birth, however, his mother was married to Dr. Capt. Ernest Vaughn Aylen, one of Sir Sydney's officers, while his father was married to Muriel Williams. At the time, May and Ernest Aylen were living apart. May confessed to Aylen that the child was not his, a revelation that resulted in a double divorce. Sir Sydney and May then wed in September 1924 after their divorces were finalised and when their son was one year old. \n\nLawford's family was connected to the English aristocracy through his uncle Ernest Lawford's wife (a daughter of the 14th Earl of Eglinton) as well as his aunt Ethel Turner Lawford (who married a son of the 1st Baron Avebury). His aunt Jessie Bruce Lawford, another of his father's sisters, was the second wife of the Hon Hartley Williams, senior puisne judge of the Supreme Court of the colony of Victoria, Australia. A relative, through his mother, was Australian artist Rupert Bunny.\n\nHe spent his early childhood in France, and owing to his family's travels, was never formally educated. Instead he was schooled by governesses and tutors and his education included tennis and ballet lessons. \"In the beginning,\" his mother observed, \"he had no homework. When he was older he had Spanish, German and music added to his studies. He read only selected books—English fairy stories, English and French classics; no crime stories. Having studied Peter for so long, I decided he was quite unfitted for any career except art, so I cut Latin, Algebra, high mathematics and substituted dramatics instead.\" Because of the widely varying national and religious backgrounds of his tutors, Lawford \"attended various services in churches, cathedrals, synagogues and for some time was an usher in a Christian Science Sunday School...\" Around 1930, aged seven, he made his acting debut in the English film Poor Old Bill.\n\nAt the age of 14, Lawford severely injured his right arm in an accident when it went through a glass door. The injury greatly compromised the use of his lower arm and hand with irreversible nerve damage, which he later learned to hide. The injury was judged to be serious enough to prevent his entrance into the armed forces, which his parents had planned. Instead, Lawford decided to pursue a career as an actor, a decision that resulted in one of his aunts refusing to leave him her considerable fortune, as originally planned. \n\nCareer\n\nFilms\n\nPrior to the Second World War, Lawford had gained a contract position with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. Once he signed with MGM, his mother insisted that studio head Louis B. Mayer pay her a salary as her son's personal assistant, which Mayer declined. Lady Lawford responded by claiming her son was \"a bummer\" and needed to be \"supervised\". When Lawford learned of his mother's actions, their relationship was reportedly never the same. \n\nLawford's first film role had been at age seven in the film Poor Old Bill. In 1938, he made his Hollywood debut in a minor part in the film Lord Jeff. \n \nHis first role in a major film production was in A Yank At Eton (1942), where he played a snobbish bully opposite Mickey Rooney. The film was a smash hit, and Lawford's performance was widely praised. Lawford made uncredited appearances as a pilot in Mrs. Miniver (1942) and as a sailor in Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943).\n\nMGM career\n\nIn June 1943 MGM signed Lawford to a long term contract. His first role under this was The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), in which he played a young soldier during the Second World War. MGM gave him another important role in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). Peter Lawford's first leading role came in Son of Lassie (1945) and he later won a Modern Screen magazine readers' poll as the most popular actor in Hollywood of 1946. His fan mail jumped to thousands of letters a week.\n\nWith actors such as Clark Gable and James Stewart away at war, Lawford was recognised as the romantic lead on the MGM lot. Lawford's busiest year as an actor was 1946, when two of his films opened within days of each other: Cluny Brown and Two Sisters From Boston. He also made his first comedy that same year: My Brother Talks To Horses (released in 1947). He appeared with Frank Sinatra for the first time in the musical It Happened in Brooklyn (1947). Lawford received rave reviews for his work in the film, while Sinatra's were lukewarm.\n\nLawford later admitted that the most terrifying experience of his career was the first musical number he performed in the musical Good News (1947). Using an American accent for his role, he won acclaim as a performer. He was given supporting roles in MGM films over the next few years, including On an Island with You (1948), Easter Parade (1948), Little Women (1949), Royal Wedding (1951), and You for Me (1952).\n\nPost-MGM\n\nLawford's first film after Metro released him and several other players from their contracts was the comedy It Should Happen to You, where he starred alongside Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon. In 1959, Frank Sinatra invited the Englishman to join the \"Rat Pack\" and also got him a role in Never So Few. The casino caper Ocean's 11 (1960) was a project Lawford first brought to Sinatra's attention. It became the first film to feature all five main \"Rat Pack\" members: Lawford, Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Joey Bishop.\n\nOther films included the acclaimed Israel-set drama Exodus (1960), The Longest Day (1962), a war film with a star-studded cast, and a role as a United States Senator in the political drama Advise & Consent (1962). He reunited with the Rat Pack for a western adventure, Sergeants 3.\n\nIn 1961, Lawford and his manager Milt Ebbins formed Chrislaw Productions which was named after Peter's son Christopher and produced the 1963 action film, Johnny Cool, starring Henry Silva and Elizabeth Montgomery. He went on to produce the 1965 Patty Duke film, Billie, as well as two films with Sammy Davis, Jr., Salt and Pepper and One More Time.\nLawford returned to MGM for They Only Kill Their Masters (1972) which reunited him with several former MGM contract players. His last role was as Montague Chippendale in the comedy Where Is Parsifal? (1983).\n\nTelevision\n\nLawford made his television debut in 1953 in a guest starring role on Ronald Reagan's anthology series, General Electric Theater. In 1954, he starred as a newspaper advice-to-the-lovelorn columnist named Bill Hastings in the short-lived NBC series Dear Phoebe with Marcia Henderson and Charles Lane. From 1957 to 1959, Lawford co-starred with Phyllis Kirk in The Thin Man, an NBC series from MGM based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett. He had a recurring role on The Doris Day Show from 1971–73, as the love interest to Day's character.\n\nHe guest starred on various television series including The Doris Day Show The Martha Raye Show, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Wild Wild West, The Virginian, Bewitched, The Patty Duke Show , The Love Boat, Fantasy Island and The Bob Cummings Show. Besides guest spots, he also guest-starred on variety shows such as The Judy Garland Show and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, and game shows What's My Line?, Password and Pyramid.\n\nPersonal life\n\nLawford was romantically linked to various Hollywood women, including Rita Hayworth, Ava Gardner, June Allyson, Dorothy Dandridge, Lucille Ball, Anne Baxter, Judy Garland, Judy Holliday and Lana Turner.\n\nIn her 2004 autobiography \"'Tis Herself\", Maureen O'Hara wrote that Lawford and Richard Boone were arrested in a gay brothel in Melbourne, Australia, while filming Kangaroo. The studio managed to prevent this from being reported by the press. \n\nHis first marriage, in 1954, was to socialite Patricia Helen Kennedy, sister of then-US Senator John F. Kennedy. They had four children: a son, actor and author Christopher Kennedy Lawford (born 1955), and daughters Sydney Maleia Lawford (born 1956), Victoria Francis Lawford (born 1958) and Robin Elizabeth Lawford (born 1961).\n\nLawford became an American citizen on 23 April 1960. He had prepared for this in time to vote for his brother-in-law in the upcoming presidential election. Lawford, along with other members of the \"Rat Pack\", helped campaign for Kennedy and the Democratic Party. Sinatra famously dubbed him \"Brother-in-Lawford\" at this time. Lawford and Patricia Kennedy divorced in February 1966. \n\nLawford was originally cast as Alan A. Dale in the film Robin and the 7 Hoods, but was replaced with Bing Crosby following a break in Sinatra's relationship with Lawford. The break stemmed from a scheduled visit to Sinatra's home by Lawford's brother-in-law, President Kennedy, during a 1963 West Coast trip. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who was long concerned about Sinatra's rumored ties with underworld figures, encouraged the President to change his plans and stay at Crosby's home, which (it was maintained) could provide better security for the President. The change came at the last minute, after Sinatra had made extensive arrangements for the promised and eagerly awaited presidential visit, including the construction of a helipad. Sinatra was furious, believing that Lawford had failed to intercede with the Kennedys on his behalf, and ostracized him from the Rat Pack. Sinatra and Lawford never spoke again, except when Sinatra called Lawford after his son Frank Sinatra Jr was kidnapped on December 8, 1963, and he needed the help of Lawfords brother in law Robert Kennedy, then Attorney General. Sinatra never endorsed another Democratic candidate. Ironically, Crosby, a staunch Republican, ended up cast in Lawford's role. \n\nLawford married his second wife, Mary Rowan, daughter of comedian Dan Rowan, in October 1971 when she was one day shy of 22 years of age; Lawford was 48. Rowan and Lawford separated two years later and divorced in January 1975. In June 1976, at age 52, he married aspiring actress Deborah Gould, 25, whom he had known for only three weeks. Lawford and Gould separated two months after marrying and divorced in 1977. During his separation from Gould, Lawford met 17-year-old Patricia Seaton, who became his fourth and final wife in July 1984, months before his death. \n\nDeath\n\nLawford died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve 1984, aged 61, from cardiac arrest. He had suffered from kidney and liver failure after years of substance abuse. His body was cremated, and his ashes were interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. Owing to a dispute between his widow and the cemetery, Lawford's ashes were removed and scattered into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California by his widow, Patricia Seaton Lawford, who invited the National Enquirer tabloid to photograph the event. \n\nFor his contribution to the television industry, Peter Lawford has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6920 Hollywood Blvd. [http://www.walkoffame.com/peter-lawford] A plaque bearing Lawford's name was erected at Westwood Village Memorial Park.[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?pagepv&GRid\n2959&PIpi=79458]\n\nFilmography\n\nRadio appearances", "Joseph Abraham Gottlieb (February 3, 1918 – October 17, 2007), known professionally as Joey Bishop, was an American entertainer who appeared on television as early as 1948 and eventually starred in his own weekly comedy series playing a talk show host, then later hosted a late night talk show. He later became a member of the \"Rat Pack\" with Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dean Martin.\n\nBiography\n\nBishop, youngest of five children, was born in The Bronx, a borough of New York City, the son of Anna (Siegel) and Jacob Gottlieb, Jewish Polish immigrants. His father was a bicycle repairman. Bishop was raised in South Philadelphia. In 1941, Bishop married Sylvia Ruzga, who died in 1999 from lung cancer. They had one son, Larry Bishop, a film director and actor. Drafted into the US Army in World War II, he rose to sergeant in the Special Services serving at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. \n\nCareer\n\nBishop began his career as part of a stand-up comedy act with his elder brother, Maury. He appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on May 28, 1950, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show on April 19, 1957 and many other variety programs in the early days of television. He guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson at least 175 times from 1971–76, more than anyone else until that time (Jay Leno and Joan Rivers later surpassed his record). He also frequently appeared on Steve Allen's and Jack Paar's previous versions of The Tonight Show.\n\nHe starred in a situation comedy titled The Joey Bishop Show, which premiered on September 20, 1961 and ran for four seasons, first on NBC and later CBS. Bishop played a talk show host named Joey Barnes. His wife was portrayed by Abby Dalton, who joined the cast in 1962.\n\nHe later hosted a 90-minute late-night talk show, also titled The Joey Bishop Show, that was launched by ABC on April 17, 1967 as competition to Carson's Tonight Show and ran until December 26, 1969. His sidekick was then-newcomer Regis Philbin.\n\nBishop was among the stars of the original Ocean's 11 film about military veterans who reunite in a plot to rob five Las Vegas casinos on New Year's Eve. He co-starred with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Peter Lawford of the so-called Rat Pack, although the five of them did not publicly acknowledge that name. During filming, the five entertainers performed together on stage in Vegas at the Sands Hotel. Bishop did only a little singing and dancing, but he told jokes and wrote most of the act's material. He later appeared with Sinatra, Martin, Davis and Lawford in the military adventure Sergeants 3, a loose remake of Gunga Din, and with Martin in the western comedy Texas Across the River, in which he portrayed an Indian.\n\nBishop was the only member of the Rat Pack to work with members of a younger group of actors dubbed the Brat Pack, appearing (as a ghost) in the 1990 film Betsy's Wedding with Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy.\n\nHis final appearance in a film was a non-speaking role in Mad Dog Time, written and directed by his son Larry. His character was named Gottlieb, which was Bishop's real surname.\n\nBishop was portrayed by Bobby Slayton in the 1998 HBO film The Rat Pack.\n\nDeath\n\nBishop died on October 17, 2007 at his home in Newport Beach, California. He was the longest-lived and the last surviving member of the Rat Pack.\n\nThe Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia posthumously inducted Bishop into their Hall of Fame in 2009. \n\nFilmography\n\n*The Deep Six (1958)\n*The Naked and the Dead (1958)\n*Onionhead (1958)\n*Ocean's 11 (1960)\n*Pepe (1960) (Cameo)\n*Sergeants 3 (1962)\n*Johnny Cool (1963)\n*Texas Across the River (1966)\n*A Guide for the Married Man (1967)\n*Who's Minding the Mint? (1967)\n*Valley of the Dolls (1967)\n*The Delta Force (1986)\n*Betsy's Wedding (1990)\n*Mad Dog Time (1996)\n\nTelevision work\n\n*The Polly Bergen Show (May 3, 1958) (guest star)\n*Richard Diamond, Private Detective as Joey Kirk in \"No Laughing Matter\" (1959)\n*The Frank Sinatra Timex Show: Welcome Home Elvis (May 12, 1960)\n*What's My Line? (1960–1966) (frequent panelist)\n*Make Room for Daddy (1961)\n*The Joey Bishop Show (1961–1965) situation comedy co-starring Abby Dalton, originally on NBC, then CBS\n*Password (1961–1967) (frequent guest)\n*Get Smart (September 23, 1967) (cameo guest)\n*The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962–1992) (frequent guest & substitute host)\n*The Hollywood Squares (1966–1981) (frequent panelist)\n*The Joey Bishop Show (1967–1969) late-night 90-minute talk show on ABC\n*Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (March 25, 1968/April 29, 1968/January 18, 1971)\n*Chico and the Man (1976)\n*The Jacksons Variety Show (July 7, 1976) special guest star\n*Celebrity Sweepstakes (1974–1977) (frequent panelist)\n*Match Game (1976) (panelist)\n*Liar's Club (1976–1978) (frequent panelist)\n*Break the Bank (1976–1977) (frequent panelist)\n*Murder She Wrote (1985)\n*Glory Years (1987)", "The Rat Pack was a group of actors originally centered on their leader, Humphrey Bogart, until his death in 1957. By the 1960s, it was the name used by the press and the general public to refer to a later variation of the group that called itself \"the Summit\" or \"the Clan,\" featuring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop; they appeared together on stage and in films in the early 1960s, including the movies Ocean's 11, Sergeants 3, and Robin and the 7 Hoods (in the last film, Bing Crosby replaced Lawford). Sinatra, Martin, and Davis were regarded as the group's lead members. \n\n1950s\n\nThe name \"The Rat Pack\" was first used to refer to a group of friends in New York. Several explanations have been offered for the famous name over the years. According to one version, the group's original \"Den Mother\", Lauren Bacall, after seeing her husband (Bogart) and his friends return from a night in Las Vegas, said words to the effect of \"You look like a goddamn rat pack.\" \"Rat Pack\" may also be a shortened version of \"Holmby Hills Rat Pack\", a reference to the home of Bogart and Bacall which served as a regular hangout.\n\nVisiting members included Errol Flynn, Nat King Cole, Mickey Rooney, Jerry Lewis and Cesar Romero.\n\nAccording to Stephen Bogart, the original members of the Holmby Hills Rat Pack were: Frank Sinatra (pack master), Judy Garland (first vice-president), Bacall (den mother), Sid Luft (cage master), Bogart (rat in charge of public relations), Swifty Lazar (recording secretary and treasurer), Nathaniel Benchley (historian), David Niven, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, George Cukor, Cary Grant, Rex Harrison, and Jimmy Van Heusen. In his autobiography The Moon's a Balloon, David Niven confirms that the Rat Pack originally included him but neither Sammy Davis, Jr. nor Dean Martin.\n\n1960s\n\nThe 1960s version of the group included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop. Marilyn Monroe, Angie Dickinson, Juliet Prowse, Buddy Greco, and Shirley MacLaine were often referred to as the \"Rat Pack Mascots\". Comedian Corbett Monica also worked as the frequent opening act for Frank Sinatra - later including Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. - and played Larry Corbett, manager and friend, to Joey Bishop’s character on “The Joey Bishop show” from 1963-1965. \n\nThe post-Bogart version of the group (Bogart died in 1957) was reportedly never called that name by any of its members – they called it the Summit or the Clan. \"The Rat Pack\" was a term used by journalists and outsiders, although it remains the lasting name for the group.\n\nOften, when one of the members was scheduled to give a performance, the rest of the Pack would show up for an impromptu show, causing much excitement among audiences, resulting in return visits. They sold out almost all of their appearances, and people would come pouring into Las Vegas, sometimes sleeping in cars and hotel lobbies when they could not find rooms, just to be part of the Rat Pack entertainment experience. The Rat Pack's appearances were of unprecedented value because the city would always become flooded with high rollers, wealthy gamblers who would routinely leave substantial fortunes in the casinos' coffers. The marquees of the hotels at which they were performing as individuals would read, for example, \"DEAN MARTIN - MAYBE FRANK - MAYBE SAMMY\" as seen on a Sands Hotel sign.\n\nPeter Lawford was a brother-in-law of President John F. Kennedy (dubbed \"Brother-in-Lawford\" by Sinatra), and Kennedy spent time with Sinatra and the others when he visited Las Vegas, during which members sometimes referred to the group as \"the Jack Pack\". Rat Pack members played a role in campaigning for Kennedy and the Democrats, appearing at the July 11, 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. Lawford had asked Sinatra if he would have Kennedy as a guest at his Palm Springs house in March 1962, and Sinatra went to great lengths (including the construction of a helipad) to accommodate the President. When Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy advised his brother to sever his ties to Sinatra because of the entertainer's association with Mafia figures such as Sam Giancana, the stay was cancelled. Kennedy instead chose to stay at rival Bing Crosby's estate, which further infuriated Sinatra. Lawford was blamed for this, and Sinatra \"never again had a good word for (him)\" from that point onwards. Lawford's role in the upcoming 4 for Texas was written out, and his part in Robin and the 7 Hoods was given to Bing Crosby.\n\nOn June 20, 1965, Sinatra, Martin, and Davis, with Johnny Carson as the emcee (substituting for Bishop, who was out with a bad back), performed their only televised concert together during the heyday of the Pack at the Kiel Opera House in St. Louis, a closed-circuit broadcast done as a fundraiser for Dismas House (the first halfway house for ex-convicts) and fed live to movie theatres across the country. Thirty years later Paul Brownstein tracked down a print of the \"lost\" show in a St. Louis closet after someone noticed mysterious cameras onstage during a CBS documentary on Sinatra which filmed part of the show. It has since been broadcast on Nick at Night (in 1998) as part of The Museum of Television & Radio Showcase series and released on DVD as part of the Ultimate Rat Pack Collection: Live & Swingin.\n\nFile:Frank Sinatra3, Pal Joey.JPG|Frank Sinatra (1957)\nFile:Dean Martin - publicity.JPG|Dean Martin (1960)\nFile:Dean Martin Frank Sinatra Dean Martin Show 1958.JPG|Martin and Sinatra (1958)\nFile:Sammy Davis Jr. performing 1966.JPG|Sammy Davis, Jr. (1966)\nFile:Peter Lawford in Royal Wedding.jpg|Peter Lawford (1951)\nFile:Joey Bishop Joey Bishop Show 1964.JPG|Joey Bishop (1964)\nFile:Studio publicity Shirley MacLaine.jpg|Shirley MacLaine (1960)\n\nLater years\n\nIn 1981, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr., appeared together in the film Cannonball Run, and were joined by Sinatra in the sequel Cannonball Run II. This would be the last time that the three would appear in a movie together (Shirley MacLaine also appears in the latter film).\n\nRevival\n\nIn December 1987, at Chasen's restaurant in Los Angeles, Sinatra, Davis, and Martin announced a 29-date tour, called Together Again, sponsored by HBO and American Express. At the press conference to announce the tour, Martin joked about calling the tour off, and Sinatra rebuked a reporter for using the term \"Rat Pack\", referring to it as \"that stupid phrase\". \n\nDean Martin's son, Dean Paul Martin, had died in a plane crash in March 1987 on the San Gorgonio Mountain in California, the same mountain where Sinatra's mother, Dolly, had been killed in a plane crash ten years earlier. Martin had since become increasingly dependent on alcohol and prescription drugs. Davis had hip replacement surgery two years previously, and been estranged from Sinatra because of Davis' use of cocaine. Davis was also experiencing severe financial difficulties, and was promised by Sinatra's people that he could earn between six and eight million dollars from the tour. \n\nMartin had not made a film or recorded since 1984, and Sinatra felt that the tour would be good for Martin, telling Davis, \"I think it would be great for Dean. Get him out. For that alone it would be worth doing\". Sinatra and Davis still performed regularly, yet had not recorded for several years. Both Sinatra and Martin had made their last film appearances together in 1984's Cannonball Run II, a film which also starred Davis. This marked the trio's first feature film appearance since 1964's Robin and the 7 Hoods. Martin expressed reservations about the tour, wondering whether they could draw as many people as they had in the past. After private rehearsals, at one of which Sinatra and Davis had complained about the lack of black musicians in the orchestra, the tour began at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena on March 13, 1988.\n\nTo a sold-out crowd of 14,500, Davis opened the show, followed by Martin and then Sinatra; after an interval, the three performed a medley of songs. During the show, Martin threw a lit cigarette at the audience. \n\nMartin withdrew from the tour after just five shows, with the official reason stated as being a flare-up of a kidney problem. Sinatra and Davis continued the tour under the title \"The Ultimate Event\" with Liza Minnelli replacing Martin as the third member of the trio. \n\nDavis's associate stated that Sinatra's people were skimming the top of the revenues from the concerts, as well as stuffing envelopes full of cash into suitcases after the performances. In August 1989, after Davis experienced throat pain, he was diagnosed with throat cancer which caused his death in May 1990. Davis was buried with a gold watch that Sinatra had given him at the conclusion of The Ultimate Event Tour. \n\nA 1989 performance of The Ultimate Event in Detroit was recorded and shown on Showtime the following year as a tribute to the recently deceased Davis. A review in The New York Times praised Davis's performance, describing him as \"pure, ebullient, unapologetic show business.\" \n\nReputation\n\nConcerning the group's reputation for womanizing and heavy drinking, Joey Bishop stated in a 1998 interview: \"I never saw Frank, Dean, Sammy or Peter drunk during performances. That was only a gag! And do you believe these guys had to chase broads? They had to chase 'em away!\" \n\nFilms\n\n* It Happened in Brooklyn (1947) (Frank Sinatra and Peter Lawford)\n* Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956) (Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. – cameo appearances)\n* Some Came Running (1958) (Sinatra and Dean Martin)\n* Never So Few (1959) (Sinatra, Lawford, and initially Davis, who was replaced by Steve McQueen)\n* Ocean's 11 (1960) (Sinatra, Martin, Davis, Lawford, Dickinson, Joey Bishop and cameo-Shirley MacLaine)\n* Pepe (1960) (Sinatra, Martin, Davis, Lawford, and Bishop – all cameos)\n* Sergeants 3 (1962) (Sinatra, Martin, Davis, Lawford, and Bishop)\n* The Road to Hong Kong (1962) (Sinatra and Martin – cameos)\n* Come Blow Your Horn (1963) (Sinatra; cameo by Martin)\n* Johnny Cool (1963) (Davis and Bishop; Peter Lawford, executive producer; Henry Silva of Ocean's 11 starred)\n* 4 for Texas (1963) (Sinatra and Martin)\n* Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) (Sinatra, Martin, Davis, and initially Lawford, who was replaced by Bing Crosby)\n* Marriage on the Rocks (1965) (Sinatra and Martin)\n* The Oscar (1966) (Sinatra uncredited, and Lawford)\n* A Man Called Adam (1966) (Davis and Lawford)\n* Texas Across the River (1966) (Martin and Bishop)\n* Salt and Pepper (1968) (Davis and Lawford)\n* One More Time (1970) (Davis and Lawford)\n* The Cannonball Run (1981) (Martin and Davis)\n* Cannonball Run II (1984) (Sinatra, Martin and Davis)\n\nArchival footage of Lawford and Sinatra were used in the 1974 compilation film That's Entertainment!.\n\nShirley MacLaine appeared in the 1958 film Some Came Running along with Sinatra and Martin. She had a major role (and Sinatra a cameo) in the 1956 Oscar-winning film Around the World in 80 Days. MacLaine played a Hindu princess who is rescued by, and falls in love with, original Rat Pack associate David Niven, and Sinatra had a non-speaking, non-singing role as a piano player in a saloon, whose identity is concealed from the viewer until he turns his face toward the camera during a scene featuring Marlene Dietrich and George Raft. MacLaine appeared alongside Sinatra in the 1960 film Can-Can. She also had an appearance in the 1960 film Ocean's 11 as a drunken woman. The 1984 film Cannonball Run II, with MacLaine, marked the final time members of the Rat Pack shared theatrical screen-time together." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "JFK_(film).txt", "Lee_Harvey_Oswald.txt" ], "title": [ "JFK (film)", "Lee Harvey Oswald" ], "wiki_context": [ "JFK is a 1991 American historical legal-conspiracy thriller film directed by Oliver Stone. It examines the events leading to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and alleged cover-up through the eyes of former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner).\n\nGarrison filed charges against New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones) for his alleged participation in a conspiracy to assassinate the President, for which Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman) was found responsible by a government investigation: the Warren Commission.\n\nThe film was adapted by Stone and Zachary Sklar from the books On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison and Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs. Stone described this account as a \"counter-myth\" to the Warren Commission's \"fictional myth.\"\n\nThe film became embroiled in controversy. Upon JFKs theatrical release, many major American newspapers ran editorials accusing Stone of taking liberties with historical facts, including the film's implication that President Lyndon B. Johnson was part of a coup d'état to kill Kennedy. After a slow start at the box office, the film gradually picked up momentum, earning over $205 million in worldwide gross. JFK was nominated for eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and won two for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing. It was the most successful of three films Stone made about the American Presidency, followed later by Nixon with Anthony Hopkins in the title role and W. with Josh Brolin as George W. Bush.\n\nPlot\n\nThe film opens with newsreel footage, including the farewell address in 1961 of outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower, warning about the build-up of the \"military-industrial complex\". This is followed by a summary of John F. Kennedy's years as president, emphasizing the events that, in Stone's thesis, would lead to his assassination. This builds to a reconstruction of the assassination on November 22, 1963. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison subsequently learns about potential links to the assassination in New Orleans. Garrison and his team investigate several possible conspirators, including private pilot David Ferrie (Joe Pesci), but are forced to let them go after their investigation is publicly rebuked by the federal government. Kennedy's suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is killed by Jack Ruby, and Garrison closes the investigation.\n\nThe investigation is reopened in 1966 after Garrison reads the Warren Report and notices what he believes to be multiple inaccuracies. Garrison and his staff interrogate several witnesses to the Kennedy assassination, and others involved with Oswald, Ruby, and Ferrie. One such witness is Willie O'Keefe (Kevin Bacon), a male prostitute serving five years in prison for soliciting, who reveals he witnessed Ferrie discussing a coup d'état. As well as briefly meeting Oswald, O'Keefe was romantically involved with a man called \"Clay Bertrand\". Jean Hill (Ellen McElduff), a teacher who says she witnessed shots fired from the grassy knoll, tells the investigators that Secret Service threatened her into saying three shots came from the book depository, revealing changes that were made to her testimony by the Warren Commission. Garrison's staff also test the single bullet theory by aiming an empty rifle from the window through which Oswald was alleged to have shot Kennedy. They conclude that Oswald was too poor a marksman to make the shots, indicating someone else, or multiple marksmen, were involved.\n\nGarrison meets a high-level figure in Washington D.C. who identifies himself as \"X\" (Donald Sutherland). He suggests a conspiracy at the highest levels of government, implicating members of the CIA, the Mafia, the military-industrial complex, Secret Service, FBI, and Kennedy's vice-president & then president Lyndon Baines Johnson as either co-conspirators or as having motives to cover up the truth of the assassination. X explains that the President was killed because he wanted to pull the United States out of the Vietnam War and dismantle the CIA. X encourages Garrison to keep digging and prosecute New Orleans based international businessman Clay Shaw for his alleged involvement. Upon interrogating Shaw, the businessman denies any knowledge of meeting Ferrie, O'Keefe or Oswald, but he is soon charged with conspiring to murder the President.\n\nSome of Garrison's staff begin to doubt his motives and disagree with his methods, so leave the investigation. Garrison's marriage is strained when his wife Liz (Sissy Spacek) complains that he is spending more time on the case than with his own family. After a sinister phone call is made to their daughter, Liz accuses Garrison of being selfish and attacking Shaw only because of his homosexuality. In addition, the media launches attacks on television and in newspapers attacking Garrison's character and criticizing the way his office is spending taxpayers' money. Some key witnesses become scared and refuse to testify while others, such as Ferrie, are killed in suspicious circumstances. Before his death, Ferrie tells Garrison that he believes people are after him, and reveals there was a conspiracy around Kennedy's death.\n\nThe trial of Clay Shaw takes place in 1969. Garrison presents the court with further evidence of multiple killers and dismissing the single bullet theory, and proposes a Dealey Plaza shots scenario involving three assassins who fired six total shots and framing Oswald for the murders of Kennedy and officer J. D. Tippit but the jury acquits Shaw after less than one hour of deliberation. The film reflects that members of that jury stated publicly that they believed there was a conspiracy behind the assassination, but not enough evidence to link Shaw to that conspiracy. Shaw died of lung cancer in 1974, but in 1979 Richard Helms testified that Clay Shaw had been a part-time contact of the Domestic Contacts Division of the CIA. The end credits claim that records related to the assassination will be released to the public in 2029.\n\nCast\n\n* Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison. For the role, Stone sent copies of the script to Costner, Mel Gibson, and Harrison Ford. Initially, Costner turned Stone down. However, the actor's agent, Michael Ovitz, was a big fan of the project and helped Stone convince the actor to take the role.Riordan 1996, p. 363. Before accepting the role, Costner conducted extensive research on Garrison, including meeting the man and his enemies. Two months after finally signing on to play Garrison in January 1991, his film Dances with Wolves won seven Academy Awards and so his presence greatly enhanced JFKs bankability in the studio's eyes. \n* Kevin Bacon as Willie O'Keefe, a composite character who testifies that Bertrand and Shaw are the same person and that he knew Ferrie, and had met Oswald.\n* Tommy Lee Jones as Clay Shaw / Clay Bertrand. A flamboyantly gay, chain-smoking, New Orleans businessman whom Garrison investigates to find a link between him and President Kennedy's assassination. Jones was originally considered for another role that was ultimately cut from the film and it was Stone who decided to cast him as Shaw. In preparation for the film, Jones interviewed Garrison on three different occasions and talked to others who had worked with Shaw and knew him.\n* Joe Pesci as David Ferrie. Stone originally wanted James Woods to play Ferrie, but Woods wanted to play Garrison. Stone also approached Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich, who both turned down the role.\n* Laurie Metcalf as New Orleans Assistant District Attorney Susie Cox\n* Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine who defected to the Soviet Union and later returned. He was arrested on suspicion of killing Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit. According to Oldman, very little was written about Oswald in the script. Stone gave him several plane tickets, a list of contacts and told him to do his own research. Oldman met with Oswald's wife, Marina, and her two daughters to prepare for the role.Salewicz 1998, p. 83.\n* Michael Rooker as New Orleans Assistant District Attorney Bill Broussard\n* Jay O. Sanders as Lou Ivon\n* Sissy Spacek as Liz Garrison, Jim Garrison's wife.\n* Beata Poźniak as Marina Oswald Porter. Oswald's wife. Poźniak studied 26 volumes of the Warren Report and spent time living with Marina Oswald. Since the script contained few lines for the Oswalds, Poźniak interviewed acquaintances of the Oswalds in order to improvise her scenes with Gary Oldman.\n* Jack Lemmon as Jack Martin, an American private investigator living in New Orleans. He worked with Guy Banister at Banister's private investigation office. He was the one who implicated Ferrie to Garrison about Kennedy's assassination.\n* Walter Matthau as Russell B. Long, an American politician who served in the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from Louisiana from 1948 until 1987. He inspires Garrison in 1966 to re-open the investigation of President Kennedy's assassination.\n* Donald Sutherland as X, a shadowy colonel in the U.S. Air Force, author, banker, and critic of U.S. foreign policy, especially the Central Intelligence Agency's activities. He advises Garrison about the U.S. government's involvement in President Kennedy's assassination. The character is loosely based on L. Fletcher Prouty.\n* Edward Asner as Guy Banister, a career member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a private investigator. He was an avid anti-communist, member of the Minutemen, the John Birch Society, Louisiana Committee on Un-American Activities, and publisher of the Louisiana Intelligence Digest.\n* Brian Doyle-Murray as Jack Ruby, an American nightclub operator from Dallas, Texas. He was convicted on March 14, 1964 for Oswald's murder on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was arrested for Kennedy's assassination.\n* John Candy as Dean Andrews Jr., an eccentric New Orleans lawyer who was allegedly contacted by Shaw to represent Oswald in the assassination case.\n* Sally Kirkland as Rose Cheramie, a Dallas prostitute who was allegedly beaten up by Jack Ruby's bodyguards. She's taken to a clinic where she pleads to the doctors that the Mafia is planning on killing President Kennedy.\n* Wayne Knight as Numa Bertel\n* Vincent D'Onofrio as Bill Newman, an eyewitness\n\nMany actors were willing to waive their normal fees because of the nature of the project and to lend their support. Martin Sheen provided the opening narration. The real Jim Garrison, a severe critic of the Warren Commission, played Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren himself, during the scene in which he questions Jack Ruby in a Dallas jail. Alleged assassination witness Beverly Oliver, who claims to be the \"Babushka Lady\" seen in the Zapruder film, also appeared in a cameo role inside Ruby's club. Sean Stone, Oliver Stone's son, plays a secondary role as Garrison's oldest son Jasper. Perry R. Russo, one of the sources for the fictional character \"Willie O'Keefe,\" appeared in a cameo role as \"angry bar patron.\"\n\nDutch investigative journalist Willem Oltmans, who worked as a reporter for Dutch TV broadcaster NOS in the 1960s, had established ties to Kennedy's closest circle of advisers. After Kennedy's assassination, Oltmans interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald's mother, Marguerite. Further investigation led him to Oswald's alleged CIA babysitter George de Mohrenschildt. According to Oltmans, de Mohrenschildt, who had ties to the CIA, was the assassination's architect. In 1977, de Mohrenschildt agreed to disclose information to Oltmans, but disappeared from their meeting place and was found dead in Florida a few weeks later. Intent on irony, Oltmans played de Mohrenschildt in the film. \n\nProduction\n\nZachary Sklar, a journalist and a professor of journalism at the Columbia School of Journalism, met Garrison in 1987 and helped him rewrite a manuscript that he was working on about Kennedy's assassination. He changed it from a scholarly book in the third person to \"a detective story – a whydunit\" in the first person. Sklar edited the book and it was published in 1988. While attending the Latin American Film Festival in Havana, Cuba, Stone met Sheridan Square Press publisher Ellen Ray on an elevator. She had published Jim Garrison's book On the Trail of the Assassins. Ray had gone to New Orleans and worked with Garrison in 1967. She gave Stone a copy of Garrison's book and told him to read it. He did and quickly bought the film rights with $250,000 of his own money to prevent talk going around the studios about projects he might be developing.Salewicz 1998, p. 80.\n\nKennedy's assassination had always had a profound effect on Stone: \"The Kennedy murder was one of the signal events of the postwar generation, my generation.\" Stone met Garrison and grilled him with a variety of questions for three hours. Garrison stood up to Stone's questioning and then got up and left. His pride and dignity impressed the director. Stone's impressions from their meeting were that Garrison \"made many mistakes. He trusted a lot of weirdos and followed a lot of fake leads. But he went out on a limb, way out. And he kept going, even when he knew he was facing long odds.\" \n\nStone was not interested in making a film about Garrison's life, but rather the story behind the conspiracy to kill Kennedy. He also bought the film rights to Jim Marrs' book Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy. One of the filmmaker's primary goals with JFK was to provide a rebuttal to the Warren Commission's report that he believed was \"a great myth. And in order to fight a myth, maybe you have to create another one, a counter-myth.\" Even though Marrs' book collected many theories, Stone was hungry for more and hired Jane Rusconi, a recent Yale University graduate, to lead a team of researchers and assemble as much information about the assassination as possible while the director completed post-production on Born on the Fourth of July. Stone read two dozen books on the assassination while Rusconi read between 100 and 200 books on the subject.\n\nBy December 1989, Stone began approaching studios to back his film. While in pre-production on The Doors, he met with three executives at Warner Bros. who wanted him to make a film about Howard Hughes. However, Warren Beatty owned the rights and so Stone pitched JFK. Studio president and Chief Operating Officer Terry Semel liked the idea. He had a reputation for making political and controversial films, including All the President's Men, The Parallax View and The Killing Fields. Stone made a handshake deal with Warner Bros. whereby the studio would get all the rights to the film and put up $20 million for the budget. The director did this so that the screenplay wouldn't be widely read and bid on, and he also knew that the material was potentially dangerous and wanted only one studio to finance it. Finally, Stone liked Semel's track record of producing political films.\n\nScreenplay\n\nWhen Stone set out to write the screenplay, he asked Sklar (who also edited Marrs' book) to co-write it with him and distill the Garrison and Marrs' books and Rusconi's research into a script that would resemble what he called \"a great detective movie.\" Stone told Sklar his vision of the film:\n Although he did employ ideas from Rashomon, his principal model for JFK was Z: \n Stone broke the film's structure down into four stories: Garrison investigating the New Orleans connection to the assassination; the research that revealed what Stone calls, \"Oswald legend: who he was and how to try to inculcate that\"; the recreation of the assassination at Dealey Plaza; and the information that the character of \"X\" imparts on Garrison, which Stone saw as the \"means by which we were able to move between New Orleans, local, into the wider story of Dealey Plaza.\"Salewicz 1998, pp. 82–83.\n\nSklar worked on the Garrison side of the story while Stone added the Oswald story, the events at Dealey Plaza and the \"Mr. X\" character. Sklar spent a year researching and writing a 550 triple-spaced page screenplay and then Stone rewrote it and condensed it closer to normal screenplay length. Stone and Sklar used composite characters, most notably the \"Mr. X\" character played by Donald Sutherland. This was a technique that would be criticized in the press. He was a mix of Richard Case Nagell and retired Air Force colonel Fletcher Prouty, another adviser for the film and who was a military liaison between the CIA and the Pentagon. Meeting Prouty was, for Stone, \"one of the most extraordinary afternoons I've ever spent. Pretty much like in the movie, he just started to talk.\"Salewicz 1998, pp. 80–81. According to Stone, \n\nThe screenplay's early drafts suggested a four and a half-hour film with a potential budget of $40 million – double what Stone had agreed to with Warner Bros. The director knew film mogul Arnon Milchan and met with him to help finance the film. Milchan was eager to work on the project and launch his new company, Regency Enterprises, with a high profile film like JFK. Milchan made a deal with Warner Bros. to put up the money for the film. Stone managed to pare down his initial revision, a 190-page draft, to a 156-page shooting script. \n\nThere were many advisers for the film, including Gerald Hemming, a former Marine who claimed involvement in various CIA activities, and Robert Groden, a self-proclaimed photographic expert and longtime JFK assassination researcher and author.Stone 2000, p. 590.\n\nPrincipal photography\n\nThe story revolves around Costner's Jim Garrison, with a large cast of well-known actors in supporting roles. Stone was inspired by the casting model of the documentary epic The Longest Day, which he had admired as a child: \"It was realistic, but it had a lot of stars ... the supporting cast provides a map of the American psyche: familiar, comfortable faces that walk you through a winding path in the dark woods.\"\n\nCinematographer Robert Richardson was a week and a half into shooting City of Hope for John Sayles when he got word that Stone was thinking about making JFK. By the time principal photography wrapped on City of Hope, Richardson was ready to make Stone's film. To prepare, Richardson read up on various JFK assassination books starting with On the Trail of the Assassins and Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy.\n\nThe original idea was to film the opening sequence in 1.33:1 aspect ratio in order to simulate the TV screens that were available at the time of the assassination, then transition to 1.85:1 when Garrison began his investigation, and finally switch to 2.35:1 for scenes occurring in 1968 and later. However, because of time constraints and logistics, Richardson was forced to abandon this approach.\n\nStone wanted to recreate the Kennedy assassination in Dealey Plaza. His producers had to pay the Dallas City Council a substantial amount of money to hire police to reroute traffic and close streets for three weeks. He only had ten days to shoot all of the footage he needed and so he used seven cameras (two 35 mm and five 16 mm) and 14 film stocks. Getting permission to shoot in the Texas School Book Depository was more difficult. They had to pay $50,000 to put someone in the window from which Oswald was supposed to have shot Kennedy. They were allowed to film in that location only between certain hours with only five people on the floor at one time: the camera crew, an actor and Stone. Co-producer Clayton Townsend has said that the hardest part was getting the permission to restore the building to the way it looked back in 1963. It took five months of negotiation.\n\nThe production spent $4 million to restore Dealey Plaza to 1963 conditions. Stone utilized a variety of film stocks. Richardson said, \"It depends whether you want to shoot in 35 or 16 or Super 8. In many cases the lighting has to be different.\" For certain shots in the film, Stone employed multiple camera crews shooting at once, using five cameras at the same time in different formats. Richardson said of Stone's style of direction, \"Oliver disdains convention, he tries to force you into things that are not classic. There's this constant need to stretch.\" This forced the cinematographer to use lighting in diverse positions and rely very little on classic lighting modes. The shoot lasted 79 days with filming finished five months before the release date.Salewicz 1998, p. 84.\n\nEditing\n\nJFK marked a fundamental change in the way that Stone constructed his films: a subjective lateral presentation of the plot, with the editing's rhythm carrying the story.Salewicz 1998, p. 85. Stone brought in Hank Corwin, an editor of commercials, to help edit the film. Stone chose him because his \"chaotic mind\" was \"totally alien to the film form.\" Stone remembers that Corwin irritated the more traditional editors working on the film because his \"concepts are very commercial sixty-seconds-get-your-attention-fragment-your-mind-make-you-rethink-it. But he had not developed the long form yet. And so a lot of his cuts were very chaotic.\" Stone employed extensive use of flashbacks within flashbacks for a specific effect. He said in an interview, Partially due to a setback that occurred during editing, that saw all the time codes disappear, JFK would be the last film that Stone edited on film stock before he switched to digital editing.\n\nYears after its release, Stone said of the film that it \"was the beginning of a new era for me in terms of film making because it's not just about a conspiracy to kill John Kennedy. It's also about the way we look at our recent history ... It shifts from black and white to color, and then back again, and views people from offbeat angles.\"\n\nMusic\n\nBecause of his enormous commitment to Steven Spielberg's Hook, which opened the same month as JFK, composer John Williams did not have time to compose a conventional score for the entire film. Instead he composed and conducted six musical sequences in full for JFK before he saw the film in its entirety. Soon after recording this music, he traveled to New Orleans where Stone was still shooting the film and saw approximately an hour's worth of edited footage and dailies. Williams remembers, \"I thought his handling of Lee Harvey Oswald was particularly strong, and I understood some of the atmosphere of the film – the sordid elements, the underside of New Orleans.\" Stone and his team then actually cut the film to fit Williams' music after the composer had scored and recorded musical cues in addition to the six he had done prior to seeing the film. For the motorcade sequence, Williams described the score he composed as \"strongly kinetic music, music of interlocking rhythmic disciplines.\" The composer remembered the moment he learned of Kennedy's assassination and it stuck with him for years. This was a significant factor in his deciding to work on the film. Williams said, \"This is a very resonant subject for people of my generation, and that's why I welcomed the opportunity to participate in this film.\"\n\nReception\n\nCritical reaction\n\nBased on 55 reviews collected from notable publications by popular review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an 84% \"fresh\" approval rating, with the consensus, \"As history, Oliver Stone's JFK is dubious, but as filmmaking it's electric, cramming a ton of information and excitement into its three-hour runtime and making great use of its outstanding cast.\" However, the film's production and release was subject to intense scrutiny and criticism. A few weeks after shooting had begun, on May 14, 1991, Jon Margolis wrote in the Chicago Tribune that JFK was \"an insult to the intelligence.\" Five days later, the Washington Post ran a scathing article by national security correspondent George Lardner titled, \"On the Set: Dallas in Wonderland\" that used the first draft of the JFK screenplay to blast it for \"the absurdities and palpable untruths in Garrison's book and Stone's rendition of it.\" The article pointed out that Garrison lost his case against Clay Shaw and that he inflated his case by trying to use Shaw's homosexual relationships to prove guilt by association. Stone responded to Lardner's article by hiring a public relations firm that specialized in political issues. Other critical articles soon followed. Anthony Lewis in the New York Times stated that the film \"tells us that our government cannot be trusted to give an honest account of a Presidential assassination.\" Washington Post columnist George Will called Stone \"a man of technical skill, scant education and negligible conscience.\"\n\nTIME magazine ran its own critique of the film-in-progress on June 10, 1991 and alleged that Stone was trying to suppress a rival JFK assassination film based on Don DeLillo's 1988 novel Libra. Stone rebutted these claims in a letter to the magazine. \nRichard Corliss, TIMEs film critic, wrote later on (Dec. 23, 1991): So, you want to know, who killed the President and connived in the cover-up? Everybody! High officials in the CIA, the FBI, the Dallas constabulary, all three armed services, Big Business and the White House. Everybody done it—everybody but Lee Harvey Oswald. Yet on the movie itself: Whatever one's suspicions about its use or abuse of the evidence, JFK is a knockout. Part history book, part comic book, the movie rushes toward judgment for three breathless hours, lassoing facts and factoids by the thousands, then bundling them together into an incendiary device that would frag any viewer's complacency. Stone's picture is, in both meanings of the word, sensational: it's tip-top tabloid journalism. In its bravura and breadth, JFK is seditiously enthralling; in its craft, wondrously complex. \n\nThe filmmaker ended up splitting his time between making his film, responding to criticism, and conducting a publicity campaign of his own that saw him \"omnipresent, from CBS Evening News, to Oprah.\" However, the Lardner Post piece stung the most because Lardner had stolen a copy of the script. Stone recalls, \"He had the first draft, and I went through probably six or seven drafts.\"\n\nUpon theatrical release, it polarized critics. The New York Times ran an article by Bernard Weinraub entitled, \"Hollywood Wonders If Warner Brothers let JFK Go Too Far.\" The article called for intervention by the studio, asking \"At what point does a studio exercise its leverage and blunt the highly charged message of a film maker like Oliver Stone?\" The newspaper also ran a review of the film by Vincent Canby who wrote, \"Mr. Stone's hyperbolic style of film making is familiar: lots of short, often hysterical scenes tumbling one after another, backed by a soundtrack that is layered, strudel-like, with noises, dialogue, music, more noises, more dialogue.\" Pat Dowell, veteran film critic for The Washingtonian, had her 34-word capsule review for the January issue rejected by her editor John Limpert on the grounds that he didn't want a positive review for a film he felt was \"preposterous\" associated with the magazine. Dowell resigned in protest.\n\nThe Miami Herald said about the controversy in its review, \"the focus on the trivialities of personality conveniently prevents us from having to confront the tough questions [Stone's] film raises.\" However, Roger Ebert praised the film in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, saying,\n Rita Kempley in the Washington Post wrote, \n\nOn Christmas Day, the Los Angeles Times ran a critical article entitled \"Suppression of the Facts Grants Stone a Broad Brush.\" New York Newsday followed suit the next day with two articles – \"The Blurred Vision of JFK\" and \"The Many Theories of a Jolly Green Giant.\" A few days later, the Chicago Sun-Times followed suit with \"Stone's Film Trashes Facts, Dishonors J.F.K.\" Jack Valenti, then president and chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America, denounced Stone's film in a seven-page statement. He wrote, \"In much the same way, young German boys and girls in 1941 were mesmerized by Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, in which Adolf Hitler was depicted as a newborn God. Both JFK and Triumph of the Will are equally a propaganda masterpiece and equally a hoax. Mr. Stone and Leni Riefenstahl have another genetic linkage: neither of them carried a disclaimer on their film that its contents were mostly pure fiction.\" Stone recalls in an interview, \"I can't even remember all the threats, there were so many of them.\"\n\nTIME magazine ranked it the fourth best film of 1991, while including it in Top 10 Historically Misleading Films. \nRoger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times went on to name Stone's film as the best film of the year and one of the top ten films of the decade, as well as one of The Great Movies. The Sydney Morning Herald named JFK as the best film of 1991. Entertainment Weekly ranked it the 5th Most Controversial Movie Ever.\n\nEbert's colleague Richard Roeper was less complimentary: \"One can admire Stone's filmmaking skills and the performances here while denouncing the utter crapola presented as 'evidence' of a conspiracy to murder.\" Roeper applauded the film's \"dazzling array of filmmaking techniques and a stellar roster of actors\" but criticized Stone's narrative: \"As a work of fantastical fiction, JFK is an interesting if overblown vision of a parallel universe. As a dramatic interpretation of events, it's journalistically bankrupt nonsense.\"\n\nHarry Connick Sr., the New Orleans district attorney who defeated Garrison in 1973, criticized Stone's view of the assassination: \"Stone was either unaware of the details and particulars of the Clay Shaw investigation and trial or, if he was aware, that didn't get in his way of what he perceived to be the way the case should have been.\" In his book Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a history of the assassination published 16 years after the film's release, Vincent Bugliosi devoted an entire chapter to Garrison's prosecution of Shaw and Stone's subsequent film. Bugliosi lists thirty-two separate \"lies and fabrications\" in Stone's film and describes the film as \"one continuous lie in which Stone couldn't find any level of deception and invention beyond which he was unwilling to go.\" David Wrone stated that \"80 percent of the film is in factual error\" and rejected the premise of a conspiracy involving the CIA and the so-called military-industrial complex as \"irrational.\" Warren Commission investigator David Belin called the film \"a big lie that would make Adolf Hitler proud\". \n\nBox office\n\nJFK was released in theaters on December 20, 1991. Box office started slow but picked up momentum and by the first week in January 1992, it had grossed over $50 million worldwide. Stone started to get support for his film. Warner Brothers executives pointed out that because of the film's long running time, it had fewer screenings. The studio undertook a $15 million marketing campaign promoting Stone's film.\n\nOn its first week of release, JFK tied with Beauty and the Beast for fifth place in the U.S. box office and its critics began to say it was a flop. However, JFK eventually earned over $200 million worldwide, and $70 million in the United States during its initial run. Garrison's estate subsequently sued Warner Bros. for a share of the film's profits, alleging a book-keeping practice known as \"Hollywood accounting.\" The lawsuit contends that JFK made in excess of $150 million worldwide but the studio claimed that the film did not earn any money under its \"net profits\" accounting formula. The suit also claims that Garrison's estate didn't receive any of the net profits income. He should have been paid more than $1 million.\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nJFK was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Tommy Lee Jones), Best Director (Oliver Stone), Best Original Score (John Williams), Best Sound (Michael Minkler, Gregg Landaker and Tod A. Maitland), Best Cinematography (Robert Richardson), Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay (Stone and Zachary Sklar). It won two awards, for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.\n\nStone was nominated for an award for Outstanding Directing by the Directors Guild of America but didn't win. He also won a Golden Globe for Best Director and in his acceptance speech, he said, \"A terrible lie was told to us 28 years ago. I hope that this film can be the first step in righting that wrong.\"\n\nEntertainment Weekly ranked JFK as one of the 25 \"Powerful Political Thrillers\".\n\nCultural impact\n\nIn 1992, the television show Seinfeld pastiched the \"Magic Bullet Theory\" featured in JFK in an episode (\"The Boyfriend\") wherein Kramer and Newman believe that they had been spat at by New York Met Keith Hernandez, who later reveals that there had been a second spitter, Roger McDowell. Wayne Knight, who plays Newman, is also in JFK as a member of Garrison's team. He would be one of the two men to model the shooting in court to prove the implausibility of the \"magic bullet,\" not unlike how Jerry disproves Newman and Kramer's theory of the \"magic loogie.\" In each case, Knight played the second victim in the sequence, John Connally and Newman, respectively.\n\nLegislative impact\n\nThe final report of the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) partially credited concern over the conclusions in JFK with the passage of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, also known as the JFK Act. \n\nThe ARRB stated that the film \"popularized a version of President Kennedy's assassination that featured U.S. government agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the military as conspirators.\" While describing the film as \"largely fictional\", the ARRB acknowledged Stone's point that official records were to be sealed from the public until 2029, and his suggestion that \"Americans could not trust official public conclusions when those conclusions had been made in secret.\" By ARRB law, all existing assassination-related documents will be made public by 2017.\n\nHome video\n\nJFK has been released on VHS, LaserDisc, and several times on DVD. The film's only version ever released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States is the 206-minute \"Director's Cut\". The theatrical cut has been released on DVD in only a few foreign territories, including the UK. In 2001, the \"Director's Cut\" was released as part of the Oliver Stone Collection box set with the film on one disc and supplemental material on the second. Stone contributed several extras to this edition, including an audio commentary, two multimedia essays, and 54 minutes' worth of deleted/extended scenes with optional commentary by Stone. In 2003, a two-DVD \"Special Edition\" was released with all of the extras on the 2001 edition in addition to a 90-minute documentary entitled, Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy.\n\nThe film was released on Blu-ray on November 11, 2008. The disc features many of the extras included on the previous DVD releases, including the Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy documentary.", "Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was an American sniper who assassinated President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. According to five U.S. government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1963), the Warren Commission (1964), the House Select Committee on Assassinations (1979), the Secret Service, and the Dallas Police Department. Oswald shot and killed Kennedy as Kennedy traveled by motorcade through Dealey Plaza in the city of Dallas, Texas.\n\nOswald was a former U.S. Marine who defected to the Soviet Union in October 1959. He lived in the Belarusian city of Minsk until June 1962, at which time he returned to the United States with his Russian wife, eventually settling in Dallas.\n\nFollowing Kennedy's assassination, Oswald was initially arrested for the murder of police officer J. D. Tippit, who was killed on a Dallas street approximately 45 minutes after President Kennedy was shot. Oswald was later charged with the murder of Kennedy; he denied shooting anybody, saying that he was a patsy. Two days later, while being transferred from police headquarters to the county jail, Oswald was shot and mortally wounded by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby in full view of television cameras broadcasting live.\n\nIn 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone in assassinating Kennedy, firing three shots. This conclusion was supported by previous investigations carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, and Dallas Police Department. Despite forensic, ballistic, and eyewitness evidence supporting the lone gunman theory, public opinion polls taken over the years have shown that most Americans believe that Oswald did not act alone, but conspired with others to kill the president, and the assassination has spawned numerous conspiracy theories. In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that Oswald fired the shots that killed Kennedy, but differed from previous investigations in concluding that \"scientific acoustical evidence establishes a high probability that two gunmen fired at President John F. Kennedy\". The House Select Committee's acoustical evidence has since been discredited. \n\nEarly life\n\nChildhood\n\nLee Harvey Oswald was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 18, 1939, to World War I veteran Robert Edward Lee Oswald, Sr. (March 4, 1896 – August 19, 1939) and Marguerite Frances Claverie (July 19, 1907 – January 17, 1981). Robert had died of a heart attack at age 43 two months prior to Lee's birth. Lee's elder brother Robert Jr. (born April 7, 1934) is also a former Marine. Through Marguerite's first marriage to Edward John Pic, Jr., Lee and Robert Jr. are the half-brothers of Air Force veteran John Edward Pic (January 17, 1932 – April 25, 2000). \n\nIn 1944, Marguerite moved the family from New Orleans to Dallas, Texas. Oswald entered the 1st grade in 1945 and over the next half-dozen years attended several different schools in the Dallas and Fort Worth areas through the 6th grade. Oswald took an IQ test in the 4th grade and scored 103; \"on achievement tests in [grades 4 to 6], he twice did best in reading and twice did worst in spelling.\"\n\nAs a child, Oswald was described by several people who knew him as withdrawn and temperamental. In August 1952, when Oswald was 12, his mother took him to New York City where they lived for a short time with Oswald's half-brother, John. Oswald and his mother were later asked to leave after an argument in which Oswald allegedly struck his mother and threatened John's wife with a pocket knife. \n\nOswald attended the 7th grade in The Bronx, New York, but was often truant, which led to a psychiatric assessment at a juvenile reformatory. The reformatory psychiatrist, Dr. Renatus Hartogs, described Oswald as immersed in a \"vivid fantasy life, turning around the topics of omnipotence and power, through which [Oswald] tries to compensate for his present shortcomings and frustrations.\" Dr. Hartogs detected a \"personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive-aggressive tendencies\" and recommended continued treatment. \n\nIn January 1954, Oswald's mother returned to New Orleans, taking Oswald with her. At the time, there was a question pending before a New York judge as to whether Oswald should be removed from the care of his mother to finish his schooling, \nalthough Oswald's behavior appeared to improve during his last months in New York. \n\nIn New Orleans, Oswald completed the 8th and 9th grades. He entered the 10th grade in 1955 but quit school after one month. After leaving school, Oswald worked for several months as an office clerk and messenger in New Orleans. In July 1956, Oswald's mother moved the family to Fort Worth, Texas, and Oswald re-enrolled in the 10th grade for the September session at Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth. A few weeks later in October, Oswald quit school at age 17 to join the Marines (see below); he never received a high school diploma.\n\nBy the age of 17, he had resided at 22 different locations and attended 12 different schools.\nThe schools were: \n* 1st grade: Benbrook Common School (Fort Worth, Texas), October 31, 1945\n* 1st grade (again): Covington Elementary School (Covington, Louisiana), Sep. 1946–Jan. 1947\n* 1st grade (end): Clayton Public School (Ft Worth, TX), Jan.–May 1947\n* 2nd grade: Clayton Public School (Ft Worth, TX), Sept. 1947\n* 2nd grade (end): Clark Elementary School (Ft Worth, TX), March 1948\n* 3rd grade: Arlington Heights Elementary School (Ft Worth, TX), Sept. 1948\n* 4th grade: Ridglea West Elementary School (since renamed Luella Merrett, Ft Worth), Sep. 1949\n* 5th grade: Ridglea West Elementary School (Ft Worth), Sep. 1950\n* 6th grade: Ridglea West Elementary School (Ft Worth), Sep. 1951\n* 7th grade: Trinity Evangelical Lutheran School (Bronx, NYC, NY), Aug. 1952\n* 7th grade: Public School 117 (Bronx, NY), Sep. 1952 (attended 17 of 64 days)\n* 7th grade (end): Public School 44 (Bronx, NY), March 23, 1953\n: Reformatory: Youth House (NYC, NY), April/May 1953.\n* 8th grade: Public School 44 (Bronx, NY), Sep 14, 1953\n* 8th grade (end): Beauregard Junior High School (New Orleans), Jan 13, 1954\n* 9th grade: Beauregard Junior High School (New Orleans), Sep. 1954–June 1955\n* 10th grade: Warren Easton High School (New Orleans), Sep.–Oct. 1955 (Warren appendix 13)\n: (tried to enlist in U.S. Marines using affidavit claiming age 17)\n: (worked as clerk/messenger in New Orleans, rather than school)\n* 10th grade (again): Arlington Heights High School (Ft Worth, TX), Sep.–Oct. 1956. Final withdrawal from high school, 10th grade. (Warren appendix 13)\n\nThough the young Oswald had trouble spelling and may have had a \"reading-spelling disability\", he read voraciously. By age 15, he claimed to be a Marxist, writing in his diary, \"I was looking for a key to my environment, and then I discovered socialist literature. I had to dig for my books in the back dusty shelves of libraries.\" At 16 he wrote to the Socialist Party of America for information on their Young People's Socialist League, saying he had been studying socialist principles for \"well over fifteen months.\" \nHowever, Edward Voebel, \"whom the Warren Commission had established was Oswald's closest friend during his teenage years in New Orleans..... said that reports that Oswald was already 'studying Communism' were a 'lot of baloney.' \" Voebel said that \"Oswald commonly read 'paperback trash.'\" \n\nAs a teenager, in 1955, Oswald attended Civil Air Patrol meetings in New Orleans. Oswald's fellow cadets recalled him attending C.A.P. meetings \"three or four\" times, or \"10 or 12 times\" over a one- or two-month period. \n\nMarine Corps\n\nOswald enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on October 24, 1956, just after his seventeenth birthday. Because he was underage, his brother Robert Jr. signed the forms as his guardian. Oswald also named his mother and his half-brother John as beneficiaries. Oswald idolized his older brother Robert Jr.; a photograph taken after Lee Harvey's arrest by Dallas police shows him wearing his brother's Marine Corps ring. \nJohn Pic (Oswald's half-brother) testified to the Warren Commission that Oswald's enlistment was motivated by wanting \"to get from out and under ... the yoke of oppression from my mother.\"\n\nOswald's enlistment papers record his vital statistics as 5 ft in height, 135 lb in weight, with hazel eyes and brown hair. His primary training was radar operation, a position requiring a security clearance. A May 1957 document states that he was \"granted final clearance to handle classified matter up to and including CONFIDENTIAL after careful check of local records had disclosed no derogatory data.\" \n\nAt Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, Oswald finished seventh in a class of thirty in the Aircraft Control and Warning Operator Course which \"included instruction in aircraft surveillance and the use of radar.\" He was given the military occupational specialty of Aviation Electronics Operator. On July 9, he reported to the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro then departed for Japan the following month, where he was assigned to Marine Air Control Squadron 1 near Tokyo.\n\nLike all Marines, Oswald was trained and tested in shooting and he scored 212 in December 1956, slightly above the requirements for the designation of sharpshooter. In May 1959 he scored 191, which reduced his rating to marksman. \n\nOswald was court-martialed after accidentally shooting himself in the elbow with an unauthorized .22 handgun, then court-martialed again for fighting with a sergeant who he thought was responsible for his punishment in the shooting matter. He was demoted from private first class to private and briefly imprisoned in the brig. He was later punished for a third incident: while on night-time sentry duty in the Philippines, he inexplicably fired his rifle into the jungle. \n\nSlightly built, Oswald was nicknamed Ozzie Rabbit after the cartoon character; he was also called Oswaldskovich because he espoused pro-Soviet sentiments. In November 1958, Oswald transferred back to El Toro where his unit's function \"was to serveil for aircraft, but basically to train both enlisted men and officers for later assignment overseas.\" An officer there said that Oswald was a \"very competent\" crew chief and was \"brighter than most people.\" \n\nWhile in the Marines, Oswald made an effort to teach himself rudimentary Russian. Although this was an unusual endeavor, in February 1959, he was invited to take a Marine proficiency exam in written and spoken Russian. His level at the time was rated \"poor.\" On September 11, 1959, he received a hardship discharge from active service, claiming his mother needed care, and was put on reserve. \n\nAdult life and early crimes\n\nDefection to the Soviet Union\n\nIn October 1959, just before turning 20, Oswald traveled to the Soviet Union, a trip he planned well in advance. Along with his self-taught Russian, he had saved $1,500 of his Marine Corps salary.Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 22, p. 705, CE 1385, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh22/html/WH_Vol22_0366a.htm Notes of interview of Lee Harvey Oswald conducted by Aline Mosby in Moscow in November 1959]. Oswald: \"When I was working in the middle of the night on guard duty, I would think how long it would be and how much money I would have to save. It would be like being out of prison. I saved about $1500.\" During Oswald's 2 years and 10 months of service in the Marine Corps he received $3,452.20, after all taxes, allotments and other deductions as well as his GED. Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 26, p. 709, CE 3099, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/contents/wc/contents_wh26.htm Certified military pay records for Lee Harvey Oswald for the period October 24, 1956, to September 11, 1959].\n\nOswald spent two days with his mother in Fort Worth, then embarked by ship from New Orleans on September 20 to Le Havre, France, and immediately proceeded to the United Kingdom. Arriving in Southampton on October 9, he told officials he had $700 and planned to remain in the United Kingdom for one week before proceeding to a school in Switzerland. However, on the same day, he flew to Helsinki, where he was issued a Soviet visa on October 14. Oswald left Helsinki by train on the following day, crossed the Soviet border at Vainikkala, and arrived in Moscow on October 16. His visa, valid only for a week, was due to expire on October 21.\n\nAlmost immediately after arriving, Oswald told his Intourist guide of his desire to become a Soviet citizen. When asked why by the various Soviet officials he encountered—all of whom, by Oswald's account, found his wish incomprehensible—he said that he was a communist, and gave what he described in his diary as \"vauge [sic] answers about 'Great Soviet Union'\".Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 16, p. 94, CE 24, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh16/html/WH_Vol16_0059b.htm Lee Harvey Oswald's \"Historic Diary\"], entries of October 16, 1959 to October 21, 1959. On October 21, the day his visa was due to expire, he was told that his citizenship application had been refused, and that he had to leave the Soviet Union that evening. Distraught, Oswald inflicted a minor but bloody wound to his left wrist in his hotel room bathtub soon before his Intourist guide was due to arrive to escort him from the country, according to his diary because he wished to kill himself in a way that would shock her. Delaying Oswald's departure because of his self-inflicted injury, the Soviets kept him in a Moscow hospital under psychiatric observation until October 28, 1959.Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 16, p. 95, CE 24, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh16/html/WH_Vol16_0060a.htm Lee Harvey Oswald's \"Historic Diary\"], entries of October 21, 1959 to October 28, 1959.\n\nAccording to Oswald, he met with four more Soviet officials that same day, who asked if he wanted to return to the United States; he insisted to them that he wanted to live in the Soviet Union as a Soviet national. When pressed for identification papers, he provided his Marine Corps discharge papers.Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 16, p. 96, CE 24, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh16/html/WH_Vol16_0060b.htm Lee Harvey Oswald's \"Historic Diary\"], entries of October 28, 1959 to October 31, 1959.\n\nOn October 31, Oswald appeared at the United States embassy in Moscow, declaring a desire to renounce his U.S. citizenship. \"I have made up my mind,\" he said; \"I'm through.\" He told the U.S. embassy interviewing officer, Richard Edward Snyder, that \"he had been a radar operator in the Marine Corps and that he had voluntarily stated to unnamed Soviet officials that as a Soviet citizen he would make known to them such information concerning the Marine Corps and his specialty as he possessed. He intimated that he might know something of special interest.\" \n(Such statements led to Oswald's hardship/honorable military reserve discharge being changed to undesirable.) \nThe Associated Press story of the defection of a former U.S. Marine to the Soviet Union was reported on the front pages of some newspapers in 1959.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id\nIrwyAAAAIBAJ&sjid4eoFAAAAIBAJ&pg\n3310,5481990&dqlee+oswald+russia&hl\nen \"Texas Marine Gives Up U.S. For Russia\"], The Miami News, October 31, 1959, p1\n\nThough Oswald had wanted to attend Moscow State University, he was sent to Minsk to work as a lathe operator at the Gorizont Electronics Factory, which produced radios, televisions, and military and space electronics. Stanislau Shushkevich, who later became independent Belarus's first head of state, was also engaged by Gorizont at the time, and was assigned to teach Oswald Russian. Oswald received a government-subsidized, fully furnished studio apartment in a prestigious building and an additional supplement to his factory pay—all in all, an idyllic existence by working-class Soviet standards, though he was kept under constant surveillance. \n\nFrom approximately June 1960 to February 1961, Oswald had a relationship with Ella German, a co-worker at the factory. He proposed marriage to her at the beginning of 1961 but she refused with the explanation that she did not love him and was afraid to marry an American. Some researchers believe that German's rejection of Oswald's marriage proposal may have had much to do with his disillusionment with life in the Soviet Union and his decision to return to the United States. \n\nOswald wrote in his diary in January 1961: \"I am starting to reconsider my desire about staying. The work is drab, the money I get has nowhere to be spent. No nightclubs or bowling alleys, no places of recreation except the trade union dances. I have had enough.\" Shortly afterwards, Oswald (who had never formally renounced his U.S. citizenship) wrote to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow requesting return of his American passport, and proposing to return to the U.S. if any charges against him would be dropped. \n\nIn March 1961, Oswald met Marina Nikolayevna Prusakova, a 19-year-old pharmacology student; they married less than six weeks later in April.Though later reports described her uncle, with whom she was living, as a colonel in the KGB, he was a lumber industry expert in the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) with a bureaucratic rank of Polkovnik. Priscilla Johnson McMillan, Marina and Lee, Harper & Row, 1977, pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-0-06-012953-8. \nThe Oswalds' first child, June, was born on February 15, 1962. On May 24, 1962, Oswald and Marina applied at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow for documents enabling her to immigrate to the U.S. and, on June 1, the U.S. Embassy gave Oswald a repatriation loan of $435.71.\nOswald, Marina, and their infant daughter left for the United States, where they received no attention from the press, much to Oswald's disappointment. \n\nDallas–Fort Worth\n\nThe Oswalds soon settled in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, where Lee's mother and brother lived. Lee began a manuscript on Soviet life, though he eventually gave up the project. The Oswalds also became acquainted with a number of anti-Communist Russian and East European émigrés in the area. In testimony to the Warren Commission, Alexander Kleinlerer said that the Russian émigrés sympathized with Marina, while merely tolerating Oswald, whom they regarded as rude and arrogant.Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 11, p. 123, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh11/html/WC_Vol11_0067a.htm Affidavit of Alexander Kleinlerer]: \"Anna Meller, Mrs. Hall, George Bouhe, and the deMohrenschildts, and all that group had pity for Marina and her child. None of us cared for Oswald because of his political philosophy, his criticism of the United States, his apparent lack of interest in anyone but himself, and because of his treatment of Marina.\"\n\nAlthough the Russian émigrés eventually abandoned Marina when she made no sign of leaving Lee, Oswald found an unlikely friend in 51-year-old Russian émigré George de Mohrenschildt, a well-educated petroleum geologist with international business connections. A native of Russia, Mohrenschildt later was to tell the Warren Commission that Oswald had a \"remarkable fluency in Russian.\" Marina, meanwhile, befriended Ruth Paine, a Quaker who was trying to learn Russian, and her husband Michael Paine, who worked for Bell Helicopter. \n\nIn July 1962, Oswald was hired by the Leslie Welding Company in Dallas; he disliked the work and quit after three months. In October, he was hired by the graphic-arts firm of Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall as a photoprint trainee. A fellow employee at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall testified that Oswald's rudeness at his new job was such that fights threatened to break out, and that he once saw Oswald reading a Russian-language publication. Warren Commission Hearings, Testimony of Dennis Hyman Ofstein: 'I would say he didn't get along with people and that several people had words with him at times about the way he barged around the plant, and one of the fellows back in the photosetter department almost got in a fight with him one day, and I believe it was Mr. Graef that stepped in and broke it up before it got started...' Oswald was fired during the first week of April 1963. \nSome have suggested that Oswald might have used equipment at the firm to forge identification documents. \n\nEdwin Walker assassination attempt\n\nIn March 1963, Oswald purchased a 6.5 mm caliber Carcano rifle by mail-order, using the alias \"A. Hidell\", as well as a .38 Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolver by the same method. On April 10, 1963, Oswald attempted to kill retired U.S. Major General Edwin Walker, firing that rifle at Walker through a window, from less than 100 ft away, as Walker sat at a desk in his Dallas home; the bullet struck the window-frame and Walker's only injuries were bullet fragments to the forearm. (The United States House Select Committee on Assassinations stated that the \"evidence strongly suggested\" that Oswald carried out the shooting.) \n\nGeneral Walker was an outspoken anti-communist, segregationist, and member of the John Birch Society. In 1961, Walker had been relieved of his command of the 24th Division of the U.S. Army in West Germany for distributing right-wing literature to his troops. Walker's later actions in opposition to racial integration at the University of Mississippi led to his arrest on insurrection, seditious conspiracy, and other charges. He was temporarily held in a mental institution on orders from President Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, but a grand jury refused to indict him. \n\nMarina Oswald testified that her husband told her that he traveled by bus to General Walker's house and shot at Walker with his rifle. She said that Oswald considered Walker to be the leader of a \"fascist organization.\" A note Oswald left for Marina on the night of the attempt, telling her what to do if he did not return, was not found until ten days after the Kennedy assassination. \n\nBefore the Kennedy assassination, Dallas police had no suspects in the Walker shooting, \nbut Oswald's involvement was suspected within hours of his arrest following the assassination. The Walker bullet was too damaged to run conclusive ballistics studies on it, but neutron activation analysis later showed that it was \"extremely likely\" that it was made by the same manufacturer and for the same rifle make as the two bullets which later struck Kennedy.United States House Select Committee on Assassinations,\n\n[http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/m_j_russ/hscaguin.htm Testimony of Dr. Vincent P. Guinn]:\nMr. WOLF. In your professional opinion, Dr. Guinn, is the fragment removed from General Walker's house a fragment from a WCC (Western Cartridge Company) Mannlicher–Carcano bullet?\nDr. GUINN. I would say that it is extremely likely that it is, because there are very few, very few other ammunitions that would be in this range. I don't know of any that are specifically this close as these numbers indicate, but somewhere near them there are a few others, but essentially this is in the range that is rather characteristic of WCC Mannlicher–Carcano bullet lead.\n\nGeorge de Mohrenschildt testified that he \"knew that Oswald disliked General Walker.\" Regarding this, de Mohrenschildt and his wife Jeanne recalled an incident that occurred the weekend following the Walker assassination attempt. The de Mohrenschildts testified that on April 14, 1963, just before Easter Sunday, they were visiting the Oswalds at their new apartment and had brought them a toy Easter bunny to give to their child. As Oswald's wife Marina was showing Jeanne around the apartment, they discovered Oswald's rifle standing upright, leaning against the wall inside a closet. Jeanne told George that Oswald had a rifle, and George joked to Oswald, \"Were you the one who took a pot-shot at General Walker?\" When asked about Oswald's reaction to this question, George de Mohrenschildt told the Warren Commission that Oswald \"smiled at that.\" When George's wife Jeanne was asked about Oswald's reaction, she said, \"I didn't notice anything\"; she continued, \"we started laughing our heads off, big joke, big George's joke.\" Jeanne de Mohrenschildt testified that this was the last time she or her husband ever saw the Oswalds. \n\nNew Orleans\n\nOswald returned to New Orleans on April 24, 1963. Marina's friend, Ruth Paine, drove her by car from Dallas to join Oswald in New Orleans the next month in May. On May 10, Oswald was hired by the Reily Coffee Company as a machinery greaser. He was fired in July \"because his work was not satisfactory and because he spent too much time loitering in Adrian Alba's garage next door, where he read rifle and hunting magazines.\" \n\nOn May 26, Oswald wrote to the New York City headquarters of the pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba Committee, proposing to rent \"a small office at my own expense for the purpose of forming a FPCC branch here in New Orleans.\" Three days later, the FPCC responded to Oswald's letter advising against opening a New Orleans office \"at least not ... at the very beginning.\" In a follow-up letter, Oswald replied, \"Against your advice, I have decided to take an office from the very beginning.\" \n\nOn May 29, Oswald ordered the following items from a local printer: 500 application forms, 300 membership cards, and 1,000 leaflets with the heading, \"Hands Off Cuba.\" According to Lee Oswald's wife Marina, Lee told her to sign the name \"A.J. Hidell\" as chapter president on his membership card.\n\nOn August 5 and 6, according to anti-Castro militant Carlos Bringuier, Oswald visited him at a store he owned in New Orleans. Bringuier was the New Orleans delegate for the anti-Castro organization Directorio Revolucionario Estudantil (DRE). Bringuier would later tell the Warren Commission that he believed Oswald's visits were an attempt by Oswald to infiltrate his group. On August 9, Oswald turned up in downtown New Orleans handing out pro-Castro leaflets. Bringuier confronted Oswald, claiming he was tipped off about Oswald's leafleting by a friend. A scuffle ensued and Oswald, Bringuier, and two of Bringuier's friends were arrested for disturbing the peace. Prior to leaving the police station, Oswald requested to speak with an FBI agent. Oswald stated that he was a member of the New Orleans branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee which he claimed had 35 members and was led by A. J. Hidell. In fact, Oswald was the branch's only member and it had never been chartered by the national organization.\n\nA week later, on August 16, Oswald again passed out Fair Play for Cuba leaflets with two hired helpers, this time in front of the International Trade Mart. The incident was filmed by WDSU, a local TV station. The next day, Oswald was interviewed by WDSU radio commentator William Stuckey, who probed Oswald's background. A few days later, Oswald accepted Stuckey's invitation to take part in a radio debate with Carlos Bringuier and Bringuier's associate Edward Scannell Butler, head of the right-wing Information Council of the Americas (INCA). \n\nMexico\n\nMarina's friend Ruth Paine transported Marina and her child by car from New Orleans to the Paine home in Irving, Texas, near Dallas, on September 23, 1963. Oswald stayed in New Orleans at least two more days to collect a $33 unemployment check. It is uncertain when he left New Orleans; he is next known to have boarded a bus in Houston on September 26—bound for the Mexican border, rather than Dallas—and to have told other bus passengers that he planned to travel to Cuba via Mexico. He arrived in Mexico City on September 27, where he applied for a transit visa at the Cuban Embassy, claiming he wanted to visit Cuba on his way to the Soviet Union. The Cuban embassy officials insisted Oswald would need Soviet approval, but he was unable to get prompt co-operation from the Soviet embassy.\n\nAfter five days of shuttling between consulates—that included a heated argument with an official at the Cuban consulate, impassioned pleas to KGB agents, and at least some CIA scrutiny —Oswald was told by a Cuban consular officer that he was disinclined to approve the visa, saying \"a person like [Oswald] in place of aiding the Cuban Revolution, was doing it harm.\" Later, on October 18, the Cuban embassy approved the visa, but by this time Oswald was back in the United States and had given up on his plans to visit Cuba and the Soviet Union. Still later, eleven days before the assassination of President Kennedy, Oswald wrote to the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C., saying, \"Had I been able to reach the Soviet Embassy in Havana, as planned, the embassy there would have had time to complete our business.\" \n\nWhile the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald had visited Mexico City and the Cuban and Soviet consulates, questions regarding whether someone posing as Oswald had appeared at the embassies were serious enough to be investigated by the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Later, the Committee agreed with the Warren Commission that Oswald had visited Mexico City and concluded that \"the majority of evidence tends to indicate\" that Oswald in fact visited the consulates, but the Committee could not rule out the possibility that someone else had used his name in visiting the consulates. \n\nReturn to Dallas\n\nOn October 2, 1963, Oswald left Mexico City by bus and arrived in Dallas the next day. Ruth Paine said that her neighbor told her, on October 14, that there was a job opening at the Texas School Book Depository, where her neighbor's brother, Wesley Frazier, worked. Mrs. Paine informed Oswald, who was interviewed at the Depository and was hired there on October 16 as a $1.25 an hour order filler. Oswald's supervisor, Roy S. Truly (1907-1985), said that Oswald \"did a good day's work\" and was an above-average employee. During the week, Oswald stayed in a Dallas rooming house (under the name \"O.H. Lee\"), but he spent his weekends with Marina at the Paine home in Irving. Oswald did not drive, but commuted to and from Dallas on Mondays and Fridays with his co-worker Wesley Frazier. On October 20, the Oswalds' second daughter, Audrey, was born.\n\nFBI agents twice visited the Paine home in early November, when Oswald was not present, and spoke to Mrs. Paine. Oswald visited the Dallas FBI office about 2 to 3 weeks before the assassination, asking to see Special Agent James P. Hosty. When he was told that Hosty was unavailable, Oswald left a note that, according to the receptionist, read: \"Let this be a warning. I will blow up the FBI and the Dallas Police Department if you don't stop bothering my wife\" [signed] \"Lee Harvey Oswald.\" The note allegedly contained some sort of threat, but accounts vary as to whether Oswald threatened to \"blow up the FBI\" or merely \"report this to higher authorities\". According to Hosty, the note said, \"If you have anything you want to learn about me, come talk to me directly. If you don't cease bothering my wife, I will take the appropriate action and report this to the proper authorities.\" Agent Hosty said that he destroyed Oswald's note on orders from his superior, Gordon Shanklin, after Oswald was named the suspect in the Kennedy assassination. \n\nJohn F. Kennedy and J. D. Tippit shootings\n\nIn the days before Kennedy's arrival, several newspapers described the route of the presidential motorcade as passing the Book Depository. On November 21 (a Thursday) Oswald asked Frazier for an unusual mid-week lift back to Irving, saying he had to pick up some curtain rods. The next morning (Friday) he returned to Dallas with Frazier; he left behind $170 and his wedding ring, but took with him a paper bag. Frazier reported that Oswald told him the bag contained curtain rods, The evidence demonstrated that the package actually contained the rifle used by Oswald in the assassination. \n\nOswald's co-worker, Charles Givens, testified to the Commission that he last saw Oswald on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) at approximately 11:55 a.m.—35 minutes before the assassination.Warren Commission Hearings, [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/givens1.htm Testimony of Charles Givens]. The Commission report stated that Oswald was not seen again \"until after the shooting.\" However, in an FBI report taken the day after the assassination, Givens said that the encounter took place at 11:30 a.m. and that he later saw Oswald reading a newspaper in the first floor domino room at 11:50 a.m. William Shelley, a foreman at the Depository, also testified that he saw Oswald on the first floor talking on the telephone between 11:45 and 11:50 a.m. Janitor Eddie Piper also testified that he spoke to Oswald on the first floor at 12:00 p.m. Another co-worker, Bonnie Ray Williams, was on the sixth floor of the Depository eating his lunch and was there until at least 12:10 p.m. He said that during that time he did not see Oswald, or anyone else, on the sixth floor and felt he was the only one up there. However, he also said that some boxes in the southeast corner may have prevented him from seeing deep into the \"sniper's nest.\" Carolyn Arnold, the secretary to the Vice President of the TSBD, informed the FBI that as she left the building to watch the motorcade, she caught a glimpse of a man whom she believed to be Oswald standing in the first floor hallway of the building just prior to the assassination. In 1978, Arnold told author Anthony Summers that the FBI report misquoted her, and that she \"clearly\" saw Oswald sitting in the second floor lunchroom at 12:15 p.m or slightly after. However, no other depository employee reported seeing Oswald on the second floor between 12 noon and 12:30 pm (e.g., [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh22/html/WH_Vol22_0351b.htm Mrs. Pauline Sanders], who left the second floor lunchroom at \"approximately 12:20 pm,\" did not see Oswald at all that day).\n\nAs Kennedy's motorcade passed through Dallas's Dealey Plaza at about 12:30 p.m. on November 22, Oswald fired three rifle shots from the sixth-floor, southeast corner window of the Book Depository, killing the President and seriously wounding Texas Governor John Connally. One shot apparently missed the presidential limousine entirely, another struck Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally, and another struck Kennedy in the head. Bystander James Tague received a minor facial injury from a small piece of curbstone that fragmented when struck by one of the bullets.\n\nHoward Brennan, a steamfitter who was sitting across the street from the Texas School Book Depository, notified police that as he watched the motorcade go by, he heard a shot come from above, and looked up to see a man with a rifle make another shot from a corner window on the sixth floor. He said he had seen the same man minutes earlier looking out the window. Brennan gave a description of the shooter, and Dallas police subsequently broadcast descriptions at 12:45 p.m., 12:48 p.m., and 12:55 p.m. After the second shot was fired, Brennan recalled, \"This man I saw previous was aiming for his last shot ... and maybe paused for another second as though to assure himself that he had hit his mark.\" \n\nAccording to the investigations, after the attack, Oswald hid and covered the rifle with boxes and descended using the rear stairwell. About ninety seconds after the shooting, in the second-floor lunchroom, Oswald encountered police officer Marrion Baker accompanied by Oswald's supervisor Roy Truly; Baker let Oswald pass after Truly identified him as an employee. According to Baker, Oswald did not appear to be nervous or out of breath. Truly said that Oswald appeared \"startled\" when Baker aimed his gun at him. Mrs. Robert Reid—clerical supervisor at the Depository, returning to her office within two minutes of the assassination—said that she saw Oswald who \"was very calm\" on the second floor with a Coke in his hands. As they walked past each other, Mrs. Reid said to Oswald, \"The President has been shot\" to which he mumbled something in response, but Reid did not understand him. Oswald is believed to have left the Depository through the front entrance just before police sealed it off. Oswald's supervisor, Roy Truly, later pointed out to officers that Oswald was the only employee that he was certain was missing. \n\nAt about 12:40 p.m., Oswald boarded a city bus but (probably due to heavy traffic) he requested a transfer from the bus driver and got off two blocks later. Oswald took a taxicab to his rooming house, at 1026 North Beckley Avenue, arriving at about 1:00 p.m. He entered through the front door and, according to his housekeeper Earlene Roberts, immediately went to his room, \"walking pretty fast\". Roberts said that Oswald left \"a very few minutes\" later, zipping up a jacket he was not wearing when he had entered earlier. As Oswald left, Roberts looked out of the window of her house and last saw him standing at the northbound Beckley Avenue bus stop in front of her house. \n\nThe Warren Commission concluded that at approximately 1:15 p.m., Dallas Patrolman J. D. Tippit drove up in his patrol car alongside Oswald—presumably because Oswald resembled the police broadcast description of the man seen by witness Howard Brennan firing shots at the presidential motorcade. Patrolman Tippit's encounter with Oswald occurred near the corner of East 10th Street and North Patton Avenue. This location is about nine-tenths of a mile (1.4 km) southeast of Oswald's rooming house—a distance that the Warren Commission concluded \"Oswald could have easily walked.\" Tippit pulled alongside Oswald and \"apparently exchanged words with [him] through the right front or vent window.\" \"Shortly after 1:15 p.m.\",The [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/dpdtapes/tapes2.htm first report of Tippit's shooting] was transmitted over Police Channel 1 some time between 1:16 and 1:19 p.m., as indicated by verbal time stamps made periodically by the dispatcher. Specifically, the first report began 1 minute 41 seconds after the 1:16 time stamp. Before that, witness Domingo Benavides could be heard unsuccessfully trying to use Tippit's police radio microphone, beginning at 1:16. Dale K. Myers, With Malice: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Murder of Officer J.D. Tippit, 1998, p. 384. ISBN 0-9662709-7-5. Tippit exited his car and was immediately struck and killed by four shots. \nNumerous witnesses heard the shots and saw Oswald flee the scene holding a revolver; nine positively identified him as the man who shot Tippit and fled.By the evening of November 22, five of them (Helen Markham, Barbara Jeanette Davis, Virginia Davis, Ted Callaway, Sam Guinyard) had identified Lee Harvey Oswald in police lineups as the man they saw. A sixth (William Scoggins) did so the next day. Three others (Harold Russell, Pat Patterson, Warren Reynolds) subsequently identified Oswald from a photograph. Two witnesses (Domingo Benavides, William Arthur Smith) testified that Oswald resembled the man they had seen. One witness (L.J. Lewis) felt he was too distant from the gunman to make a positive identification. Warren Commission Hearings, CE 1968, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh23/html/WH_Vol23_0425a.htm Location of Eyewitnesses to the Movements of Lee Harvey Oswald in the Vicinity of the Tippit Killing]. Four cartridge cases found at the scene were identified by expert witnesses before the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee as having been fired from the revolver later found in Oswald's possession, to the exclusion of all other weapons. However, the bullets taken from Tippit's body could not be positively identified as having been fired from Oswald's revolver as the bullets were too extensively damaged to make conclusive assessments.Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 3, pp. 466–473, [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh3/html/WC_Vol3_0237b.htm Testimony of Cortlandt Cunningham]. Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 3, p. 511, [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh3/html/WC_Vol3_0260a.htm Testimony of Joseph D. Nicol]. \n\nCapture\n\nShoe store manager Johnny Brewer testified that he saw Oswald \"ducking into\" the entrance alcove of his store. Suspicious of this activity, Brewer watched Oswald continue up the street and slip into the nearby Texas Theatre without paying. He alerted the theater's ticket clerk, who telephoned police at about 1:40 p.m.\n\nAs police arrived, the house lights were brought up and Brewer pointed out Oswald sitting near the rear of the theater. Police Officer Nick McDonald testified that he was the first to reach Oswald and that Oswald seemed ready to surrender saying, \"Well, it is all over now.\" However, Officer McDonald said that Oswald pulled out a pistol tucked into the front of his pants, then pointed the pistol at him, and pulled the trigger. McDonald stated that the pistol did not fire because the pistol's hammer came down on the webbing between the thumb and index finger of his hand as he grabbed for the pistol. McDonald also said that Oswald struck him, but that he struck back and Oswald was disarmed. As he was led from the theater, Oswald shouted he was a victim of police brutality.[http://www.jfk-online.com/mcdonald.html \"Oswald and Officer McDonald:The Arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald\"]. Retrieved June 21, 2011.\n\nAt about 2 p.m., Oswald arrived at the Police Department building, where he was questioned by Detective Jim Leavelle about the shooting of Officer Tippit. When Captain J. W. Fritz heard Oswald's name, he recognized it as that of the Book Depository employee who was reported missing and was already a suspect in the assassination. Oswald was formally arraigned for the murder of Officer Tippit at 7:10 p.m., and by the end of the night (shortly after 1:30 a.m.) he had been arraigned for the murder of President Kennedy as well. \n\nSoon after his capture Oswald encountered reporters in a hallway. Oswald declared, \"I didn't shoot anybody\" and, \"They've taken me in because of the fact that I lived in the Soviet Union. I'm just a patsy!\" Later, at an arranged press meeting, a reporter asked, \"Did you kill the President?\" and Oswald—who by that time had been advised of the charge of murdering Tippit, but had not yet been arraigned in Kennedy's death—answered, \"No, I have not been charged with that. In fact, nobody has said that to me yet. The first thing I heard about it was when the newspaper reporters in the hall asked me that question.\" As he was led from the room the question was called out, \"What did you do in Russia?\" and, \"How did you hurt your eye?\"; Oswald answered, \"A policeman hit me.\" \n\nPolice interrogation\n\nOswald was interrogated several times during his two days at Dallas Police Headquarters. He admitted that he went to his rooming house after leaving the book depository. He also admitted that he changed his clothes and armed himself with a .38 revolver before leaving his house to go to the theater. However, Oswald denied killing Kennedy and Tippit; denied owning a rifle; said two photographs of him holding a rifle and a pistol were fakes; denied telling his co-worker he wanted a ride to Irving to get curtain rods for his apartment (he said that the package contained his lunch); and denied carrying a long, bulky package to work the morning of the assassination. Oswald also denied knowing an \"A. J. Hidell\". Oswald was then shown a forged Selective Service System card bearing his photograph and the alias, \"Alek James Hidell\" that he had in his possession at the time of his arrest. Oswald refused to answer any questions concerning the card, saying \"...you have the card yourself and you know as much about it as I do.\" \n\nThe first interrogation of Oswald was conducted by FBI Special Agent James P. Hosty and Dallas Police Captain Will Fritz (chief of homicide) on Friday, November 22. Asked to account for himself at the time of the assassination, Oswald replied that he was eating his lunch in the first floor lounge (known as the \"domino room\"). He said that he then went to the second-floor lunchroom to buy a Coca-Cola from the soda machine there and was drinking it when he was encountered by Dallas motorcycle policeman (Marrion L. Baker). Oswald said that while he was in the domino room, he saw two \"Negro employees\" walking by, one he recognized as \"Junior\" and a shorter man whose name he could not recall. Junior Jarman and Harold Norman confirmed to the Warren Commission that they had \"walked through\" the domino room around noon during their lunch break. When asked if anyone else was in the domino room, Norman testified that somebody else was there, but he could not remember who it was. Jarman testified that Oswald was not in the domino room when he was there. \n\nDuring one of the interrogation sessions, Deputy-sheriff Roger D. Craig entered the room and noticed that the suspect had openly confessed before his interrogators that he had left the Texas School Book Depository building around the time of the shooting, and when Capt. Will Fritz tried to imply wrongdoing at Oswald’s sudden departure from the building, saying to him: “This man (i.e. deputy Craig) saw you leave,” Oswald quickly retorted with no sense of guilt, “I told you people I did.” Meaning, there was nothing to conceal, in Oswald’s view, at his departure from the building. When Oswald was asked about the car he had gotten into, he replied: “That station wagon belongs to Mrs. Paine. Don't try to drag her into this.” At one point in the investigation, according to Craig, Oswald said in utter dismay, “Everybody will know who I am now.” The Warren Commission report, however, made it appear as though it was said in a dramatic tone, writing instead: “NOW everybody will know who I am,” transposing the now. According to Craig, the real intonation was that of someone who had heretofore tried to conceal his identity as Deputy and that now it would be known to all; his reaction was that of dismay and disappointment at being exposed. \n\nDuring his last interrogation on November 24, according to postal inspector Harry Holmes, Oswald was again asked where he was at the time of the shooting. Holmes (who attended the interrogation at the invitation of Captain Will Fritz) said that Oswald replied that he was working on an upper floor when the shooting occurred, then went downstairs where he encountered Dallas motorcycle policeman (Marrion L. Baker). \n\nOswald asked for legal representation several times while being interrogated, as well as in encounters with reporters. But when H. Louis Nichols, President of the Dallas Bar Association met with him in his cell on Saturday, he declined their services, saying he wanted to be represented by John Abt, chief counsel to the Communist Party USA, or by lawyers associated with the American Civil Liberties Union. Both Oswald and Ruth Paine tried to reach Abt by telephone several times Saturday and Sunday, but Abt was away for the weekend. Oswald also declined his brother Robert's offer on Saturday to obtain a local attorney. \n\nDuring an interrogation with Captain Fritz, when asked, \"Are you a communist?\", he replied, \"No, I am not a communist. I am a Marxist.\" \n\nDeath\n\nOn Sunday, November 24, Oswald was being led through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters toward an armored car that was to take him to the nearby county jail. At 11:21 a.m. CST, Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby stepped from the crowd and shot Oswald in the abdomen. Oswald was taken unconscious by ambulance to Parkland Memorial Hospital—the same hospital where doctors tried to save President Kennedy's life two days earlier. Oswald died at 1:07 p.m. Oswald's death was announced on a TV news broadcast by Dallas police chief Jesse Curry.\n\nAn autopsy on Oswald was performed in the Office of the County Medical Examiner at 2:45 p.m. the same day. Announcing the results of the gross autopsy, Dallas County medical examiner Earl Rose said: \"The two things that we could determine were, first, that he died from a hemorrhage from a gunshot wound, and that otherwise he was a physically healthy male.\" Rose's examination found that Ruby's bullet entered Oswald's left side in the front part of the abdomen and caused damage to his spleen, stomach, aorta, vena cava, kidney, liver, diaphragm, and eleventh rib before coming to rest on his right side.\n\nA network television pool camera, there to cover the transfer, was broadcasting live; millions watching on NBC witnessed the shooting as it happened and on other networks within minutes afterward. In 1964, Robert H. Jackson of the Dallas Times Herald was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Photography for his photograph of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby. \n\nRuby's motive\n\nRuby later said he had been distraught over Kennedy's death and that his motive for killing Oswald was \"saving Mrs. Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial.\" Others have hypothesized that Ruby was part of a conspiracy. G. Robert Blakey, chief counsel \nfor the House Select Committee on Assassinations from 1977 to 1979, said: \"The most plausible explanation for the murder of Oswald by Jack Ruby was that Ruby had stalked him on behalf of organized crime, trying to reach him on at least three occasions in the forty-eight hours before he silenced him forever.\" \n\nBurial\n\nOswald was buried on November 25 in Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park in Fort Worth. Reporters present to report on the burial were asked by officials to act as pallbearers. A marker inscribed simply Oswald replaces the stolen original tombstone, which gave Oswald's full name, and birth and death dates. His mother was buried beside him in 1981. \n\nA claim that a look-alike Russian agent was buried in place of Oswald led to his exhumation on October 4, 1981. Dental records confirmed that it was Oswald's body in the grave and he was reburied in a new coffin due to water damage to the original.\n\nIn 2010, the Fort Worth funeral home that held Oswald's original coffin employed a Los Angeles auction house to sell it to an undisclosed bidder for $87,468. The sale was halted after Oswald's brother, Robert, learned of the transaction in a Texas newspaper and sued to reclaim the coffin. In January 2015, a district judge in Tarrant County, Texas ruled that the funeral home intentionally concealed the existence of the pine coffin from Robert Oswald who had originally purchased it and believed that it been discarded after the exhumation. The court ordered it returned to Oswald's brother, plus damages equal to the sale price. Robert Oswald's attorney stated that the coffin would likely be destroyed \"as soon as possible\".\n\nOfficial investigations\n\nWarren Commission\n\nThe Warren Commission, created by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination, concluded that Oswald acted alone in assassinating Kennedy (this view is known as the lone gunman theory). The Commission could not ascribe any one motive or group of motives to Oswald's actions:\n\nThe proceedings of the commission were closed, though not secret, and about 3% of its files have yet to be released to the public, which has continued to provoke speculation among researchers.\"Two misconceptions about the Warren Commission hearing need to be clarified...hearings were closed to the public unless the witness appearing before the Commission requested an open hearing. No witness except one...requested an open hearing...Second, although the hearings (except one) were conducted in private, they were not secret. In a secret hearing, the witness is instructed not to disclose his testimony to any third party, and the hearing testimony is not published for public consumption. The witnesses who appeared before the Commission were free to repeat what they said to anyone they pleased, and all of their testimony was subsequently published in the first fifteen volumes put out by the Warren Commission.\" (Bugliosi, p. 332)\n\nRamsey Clark Panel\n\nIn 1968, the Ramsey Clark Panel examined various photographs, X-ray films, documents, and other evidence, concluding that Kennedy was struck by two bullets fired from above and behind him, one of which traversed the base of the neck on the right side without striking bone, and the other of which entered the skull from behind and destroyed its right side. \n\nHouse Select Committee\n\nIn 1979, after a review of the evidence and of prior investigations, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) largely concurred with the Warren Commission and was preparing to issue a finding that Oswald had acted alone in killing Kennedy. However, late in the Committee's proceedings a dictabelt recording was introduced, purportedly recording sounds heard in Dealey Plaza before, during and after the shots were fired. After an analysis by the firm Bolt, Beranek and Newman appeared to indicate more than three gunshots, the HSCA revised its findings to assert a \"high probability that two gunmen fired\" at Kennedy and that Kennedy \"was probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy.\" Although the Committee was \"unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy,\" it made a number of further findings regarding the likelihood or unlikelihood that particular groups, named in the findings, were involved. Four of the twelve members of the HSCA dissented from this conclusion.\n\nThe acoustical evidence has since been discredited. Officer H.B. McLain, from whose motorcycle radio the HSCA acoustic experts said the Dictabelt evidence came, has repeatedly stated that he was not yet in Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination. McLain asked the Committee, \"‘If it was my radio on my motorcycle, why did it not record the revving up at high speed plus my siren when we immediately took off for Parkland Hospital?’” \n\nIn 1982, a panel of twelve scientists appointed by the National Academy of Sciences, including Nobel laureates Norman Ramsey and Luis Alvarez, unanimously concluded that the acoustic evidence submitted to the HSCA was \"seriously flawed\", was recorded after the President had been shot, and did not indicate additional gunshots. Their conclusions were later published in the journal Science. \n\nIn a 2001 article in the journal Science & Justice, D.B. Thomas wrote that the NAS investigation was itself flawed. He concluded with a 96.3 percent certainty that there were at least two gunmen firing at President Kennedy and that at least one shot came from the grassy knoll. In 2005, Thomas's conclusions were rebutted in the same journal. Ralph Linsker and several members of the original NAS team reanalyzed the timings of the recordings and reaffirmed the earlier conclusion of the NAS report that the alleged shot sounds were recorded approximately one minute after the assassination. In 2010, D.B. Thomas challenged in a book the 2005 Science & Justice article and restated his conclusion that there were at least two gunmen. \n\nOther investigations and dissenting theories\n\n \n\nSome critics have not accepted the conclusions of the Warren Commission and have proposed several other theories, such as that Oswald conspired with others, or was not involved at all and was framed.\n\nIn October 1981, with Marina's support, Oswald's grave was opened to test a theory propounded by writer Michael Eddowes: that during Oswald's stay in the Soviet Union he was replaced with a Soviet double; that it was this double, not Oswald, who killed Kennedy and who is buried in Oswald's grave; and that the exhumed remains would therefore not exhibit a surgical scar Oswald was known to carry. Dental records positively identified the exhumed corpse as Oswald's, and the scar was present.W. Tracy Parnell, [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/parnell/xindex.htm The Exhumation of Lee Harvey Oswald]. Contrary to reports, the skull of Oswald had been autopsied and this was also confirmed at the exhumation. W. Tracy Parnell, [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/parnell/dimaio.htm My Interview With Dr. Vincent J.M. Di Maio].\n\nPublic opinion\n\nA 2003 Gallup poll reported that 75% of Americans do not believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy. That same year an ABC News poll found that 70% of respondents suspected that the assassination involved more than one person. A 2004 Fox News poll found that 66% of Americans thought there had been a conspiracy while 74% thought there had been a cover-up. A Gallup Poll taken in mid-November 2013, showed 61% believed in a conspiracy, and only 30% thought Oswald acted alone. \n\nFictional trials\n\nSeveral films have fictionalized a trial of Oswald, depicting what may have happened had Ruby not killed Oswald. The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1964); The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1977); and On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald (1986) have fictionalized a trial of Oswald. In 1988, a 21-hour unscripted mock trial was held on television, argued by lawyers before a judge, with unscripted testimony from surviving witnesses to the events surrounding the assassination; the jury returned a verdict of guilty. In 1992 the American Bar Association conducted two mock Oswald trials. The first trial ended in a hung jury. In the second trial the jury acquitted Oswald.\n\nBackyard photos\n\nThe \"backyard photos\", taken by Marina Oswald probably around March 31, 1963 using a camera belonging to Oswald, show Oswald holding two Marxist newspapers—The Militant and The Worker—and a rifle, and wearing a pistol in a holster. Shown the pictures after his arrest, Oswald insisted they were forgeries, but Marina testified in 1964 that she had taken the photographs at Oswald's request— testimony she reaffirmed repeatedly over the decades.\n*[http://www.jfk-online.com/marinashaw2.html Testimony of Marina Oswald Porter], Trial of Clay Shaw, Criminal District Court, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, February 21, 1969.\n*United States House Select Committee on Assassinations, [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/jfkinfo4/jfk12/marinade.htm#maraug Deposition of Marina Oswald Porter] (1977):\nQ. I want to mark these two photographs. On the back of the first one, which I would ask be marked JFK committee exhibit No. 1, it says in the bottom right-hand corner copy from the National Archives, records group No. 272, under that it says CE-133B. I will ask that be marked JFK exhibit No. 1. (The above referred to photograph was marked JFK committee exhibit No. 1 for identification.)\nQ. New, this second picture that I will ask to be marked says copy from the National Archives, record group No. 272, CE-133. I would ask that this be marked JFK committee exhibit No. 2. (The above referred to photograph was marked JFK committee exhibit No. 2 for identification.)\nBy Mr. KLEIN:\nQ. I will show you those two photographs which are marked JFK exhibit No. 1 and exhibit No. 2, do you recognize those two photographs?\nA. I sure do. I have seen them many times.\nQ. What are they?\nA. That is the pictures that I took.\n*United States House Select Committee on Assassinations, Hearings, vol. 2 p. 239, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol2/html/HSCA_Vol2_0122a.htm Testimony of Marina Oswald Porter] (1978):\nMr. McDONALD. Mrs. Porter, I have got two exhibits to show you, if the clerk would procure them from the representatives of the National Archives. We have two photographs to show you. They are [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol6/html/HSCA_Vol6_0094a.htm Warren Commission Exhibits C-133-A and B], which have been given JFK Nos. F-378 and F-379. If the clerk would please hand them to you, and also if we could now have for display purposes JFK Exhibit F-179, which is a blowup of the two photographs placed in front of you. Mrs. Porter, do you recognize the photographs placed in front of you?\nMrs. PORTER. Yes, I do.\nMr. McDONALD. And how do you recognize them?\nMrs. PORTER. That is the photograph that I made of Lee on his persistent request of taking a picture of him dressed like that with rifle.\n*Marina Oswald Porter, interview with author Vincent Bugliosi and lawyer Jack Duffy, Dallas, Texas, November 30, 2000, reported in Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, p. 794.\nThese photos were labelled CE 133-A and CE 133-B. CE 133-A shows the rifle in Oswald's left hand and newspapers in front of his chest in the other, while the rifle is held with the right hand in CE 133-B. Oswald's mother testified that on the day after the assassination she and Marina destroyed another photograph with Oswald holding the rifle with both hands over his head, with \"To my daughter June\" written on it. \n\nThe HSCA obtained another first-generation print (from CE 133-A) on April 1, 1977, from the widow of George de Mohrenschildt. The words \"Hunter of fascists—ha ha ha!\" written in block Russian were on the back. Also in English were added in script: \"To my friend George, Lee Oswald, 5/IV/63 [April 5, 1963].\" Handwriting experts for the HSCA concluded the English inscription and signature were by Oswald. After two original photos, one negative and one first-generation copy had been found, the Senate Intelligence Committee located (in 1976) a third backyard photo (CE 133-C) showing Oswald with newspapers held away from his body in his right hand.\n\nThese photos, widely recognized as some of the most significant evidence against Oswald, have been subjected to rigorous analysis. Photographic experts consulted by the HSCA concluded they were genuine, answering twenty-one points raised by critics. Marina Oswald has always maintained she took the photos herself, and the 1963 de Mohrenschildt print bearing Oswald's signature clearly indicate they existed before the assassination. Nonetheless, some continue to contest their authenticity. In 2009, after digitally analyzing the photograph of Oswald holding the rifle and paper, computer scientist Hany Farid concluded that the photo \"almost certainly was not altered.\"" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Michael_Jackson.txt", "Death_of_Michael_Jackson.txt" ], "title": [ "Michael Jackson", "Death of Michael Jackson" ], "wiki_context": [ "Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor. Called the King of Pop, his contributions to music, dance and fashion along with his publicized personal life made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.\n\nThe eighth child of the Jackson family, Michael made his professional debut in 1964 with his elder brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5, and began his solo career in 1971. In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. His music videos, including those of \"Beat It\", \"Billie Jean\", and \"Thriller\" from his 1982 album Thriller, are credited with breaking racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. The popularity of these videos helped bring the television channel MTV to fame. Jackson's 1987 album Bad spawned the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles \"I Just Can't Stop Loving You\", \"Bad\", \"The Way You Make Me Feel\", \"Man in the Mirror\", and \"Dirty Diana\", becoming the first album to have five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. He continued to innovate with videos such as \"Black or White\" and \"Scream\" throughout the 1990s, and forged a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous artists of various music genres.\n\nThriller is the best-selling album of all time, with estimated sales of 65 million copies worldwide. Jackson's other albums, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and HIStory (1995), also rank among the world's best-selling albums. He is recognized as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time by Guinness World Records. Jackson is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, and was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Dance Hall of Fame as the only dancer from pop and rock music. His other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records, 13 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Legend Award, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 26 American Music Awards—more than any other artist—including the \"Artist of the Century\" and \"Artist of the 1980s\", 13 number-one singles in the United States during his solo career,—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era—and estimated sales of over 400 million records worldwide. Jackson has won hundreds of awards, making him the most awarded recording artist in the history of popular music. He became the first artist in history to have a top ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades when \"Love Never Felt So Good\" reached number nine on May 21, 2014. Jackson traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism, and, in 2000, the Guinness World Records recognized him for supporting 39 charities, more than any other entertainer. \n\nAspects of Jackson's personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated controversy. In 1993, he was accused of child sexual abuse, but the civil case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount and no formal charges were brought. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of further child sexual abuse allegations and several other charges after the jury found him not guilty on all counts. While preparing for his comeback concert series, This Is It, Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal physician, Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Jackson's death triggered a global outpouring of grief, and a live broadcast of his public memorial service was viewed around the world. Forbes ranks Jackson as the top-earning dead celebrity, a title held for a sixth consecutive year, with $115 million in earnings. \n\nLife and career\n\n1958–75: Early life and the Jackson 5\n\nMichael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958. He was the eighth of ten children in a working class African-American family living in a two-bedroom house on Jackson Street in Gary, Indiana, an industrial city and a part of the Chicago metropolitan area. His mother, Katherine Esther Scruse, was a devout Jehovah's Witness. She played clarinet and piano and once aspired to be a country-and-western performer, but worked part-time at Sears to support the family. Michael's father, Joseph Walter \"Joe\" Jackson, a former boxer, was a steelworker at U.S. Steel. Joe also performed on guitar with a local rhythm and blues band, the Falcons, to supplement the family's household income. Michael grew up with three sisters (Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet) and five brothers (Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy). A sixth brother, Marlon's twin Brandon, died shortly after birth. \n\nJackson had a troubled relationship with his father, Joe. In 2003, Joe acknowledged that he regularly whipped him as a boy. Joe was also said to have verbally abused his son, often saying that he had a \"fat nose\". Jackson stated that he was physically and emotionally abused during incessant rehearsals, though he credited his father's strict discipline with playing a large role in his success. In an interview with Martin Bashir for the 2003 documentary Living with Michael Jackson, Jackson recalled that Joe often sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as he and his siblings rehearsed, and that \"if you didn't do it the right way, he would tear you up, really get you.\" \n\nJackson's parents have disputed the longstanding allegations of abuse, with Katherine stating that while whipping is considered abuse today, it was a common way to discipline children at the time. Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon have also said that their father was not abusive and that the whippings, which were harder on Michael because he was younger, kept them disciplined and out of trouble. Speaking openly about his childhood in an interview with Oprah Winfrey broadcast in February 1993, Jackson acknowledged that his youth had been lonely and isolating. His deep dissatisfaction with his appearance, his nightmares and chronic sleep problems, his tendency to remain hyper-compliant, especially with his father, and to remain childlike throughout his adult life are consistent with the effects of the maltreatment he endured as a young child. \n\nIn 1964, Michael and Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers—a band formed by their father and which included brothers Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine—as backup musicians playing congas and tambourine. In 1965, Jackson began sharing lead vocals with his older brother Jermaine, and the group's name was changed to the Jackson 5. The following year, the group won a major local talent show with Jackson performing the dance to Robert Parker's 1965 hit \"Barefootin'\". From 1966 to 1968 the band toured the Midwest, frequently performing at a string of black clubs known as the \"chitlin' circuit\" as the opening act for artists such as Sam & Dave, the O'Jays, Gladys Knight, and Etta James. The Jackson 5 also performed at clubs and cocktail lounges, where striptease shows and other adult acts were featured, and at local auditoriums and high school dances. In August 1967, while touring the East coast, the group won a weekly amateur night concert at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. \n\nThe Jackson 5 recorded several songs, including \"Big Boy\" (1968), their first single, for Steeltown Records, a Gary, Indiana, record label, before signing with Motown in 1969. They left Gary in 1969 and relocated to the Los Angeles area, where they continued to record music for Motown. Rolling Stone later described the young Michael as \"a prodigy\" with \"overwhelming musical gifts\" who \"quickly emerged as the main draw and lead singer.\" The group set a chart record when its first four singles—\"I Want You Back\" (1969), \"ABC\" (1970), \"The Love You Save\" (1970), and \"I'll Be There\" (1970)—peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. In May 1971, the Jackson family moved into a large home on two-acre estate in Encino, California. During this period, Michael evolved from child performer into a teen idol. As Jackson began to emerge as a solo performer in the early 1970s, he maintained ties to the Jackson 5 and Motown. Between 1972, when his solo career began, and 1975, Michael released four solo studio albums with Motown: Got to Be There (1972), Ben (1972), Music & Me (1973), and Forever, Michael (1975). \"Got to Be There\" and \"Ben\", the title tracks from his first two solo albums, both became successful singles, as did a cover of Bobby Day's \"Rockin' Robin\". \n\nThe Jackson 5 were later described as \"a cutting-edge example of black crossover artists.\" Although the group's sales began to decline in 1973, and the band members chafed under Motown's refusal to allow them creative input, they achieved several top 40 hits, including the top five single \"Dancing Machine\" (1974), before leaving Motown in 1975. \n\n1975–81: Move to Epic and Off the Wall\n\nIn June 1975, the Jackson 5 signed with Epic Records, a subsidiary of CBS Records, and renamed themselves the Jacksons. Younger brother Randy formally joined the band around this time, while Jermaine chose to stay with Motown and pursue a solo career. The Jacksons continued to tour internationally, and released six more albums between 1976 and 1984. Michael, the group's lead songwriter during this time, wrote hits such as \"Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)\" (1979), \"This Place Hotel\" (1980), and \"Can You Feel It\" (1980).\n\nHis work in film began in 1978, when he starred as the Scarecrow in The Wiz, a musical directed by Sidney Lumet that also starred Diana Ross, Nipsey Russell, and Ted Ross. The film was a box-office failure. While working on the film Jackson met producer Quincy Jones, though this was not the first time they had met (they originally met when Michael was 12, at Sammy Davis Jr.'s house). Jones was arranging the film's musical score and agreed to produce Jackson's next solo album, Off the Wall. In 1979, Jackson broke his nose during a complex dance routine. His subsequent rhinoplasty was not a complete success; he complained of breathing difficulties that would affect his career. He was referred to Dr. Steven Hoefflin, who performed Jackson's second rhinoplasty and subsequent operations. \n\nOff the Wall (1979), which Jones and Jackson co-produced, established Jackson as a solo performer. The album helped Jackson transition from the bubblegum pop of his youth to the more complex sounds he would create as an adult. Songwriters for the album included Jackson, Rod Temperton, Stevie Wonder, and Paul McCartney. Off the Wall was the first solo album to generate four top 10 hits in the United States: \"Off the Wall\", \"She's Out of My Life\", and the chart-topping singles \"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough\" and \"Rock with You\". The album reached number three on the Billboard 200 and eventually sold over 20 million copies worldwide. In 1980, Jackson won three awards at the American Music Awards for his solo efforts: Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist, and Favorite Soul/R&B Single for \"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough\". He also won Billboard Year-End awards for Top Black Artist and Top Black Album, and a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for 1979 with \"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough\". In 1981 Jackson was the American Music Awards winner for Favorite Soul/R&B Album and Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist. Despite its commercial success, Jackson felt Off the Wall should have made a bigger impact, and was determined to exceed expectations with his next release. In 1980, he secured the highest royalty rate in the music industry: 37 percent of wholesale album profit. \n\nJackson recorded with Queen singer Freddie Mercury from 1981 to 1983, including a demo of \"State of Shock\", \"Victory\" and \"There Must Be More to Life Than This\". The recordings were intended for an album of duets but, according to Queen's then-manager Jim Beach, the relationship between the singers soured when Jackson insisted on bringing a llama into the recording studio. The collaborations were not officially released until 2014. Jackson went on to record the single \"State of Shock\" with Mick Jagger for the Jacksons' album Victory (1984). Mercury included the solo version of \"There Must Be More To Life Than This\" on his Mr. Bad Guy album (1985). \n\n1982–83: Thriller and Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever\n\nIn 1982, Jackson combined his interests in songwriting and film when he contributed the song \"Someone in the Dark\" to the storybook for the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The song, with Quincy Jones as its producer, won a Grammy for Best Recording for Children for 1983. \n\nMore success came with the release of his sixth album, Thriller, in late 1982. The album earned Jackson seven more Grammys and eight American Music Awards, including the Award of Merit, the youngest artist to win it. It was the best-selling album worldwide in 1983, and became the best-selling album of all time in the United States and the best-selling album of all time worldwide, selling an estimated copies. It topped the Billboard 200 chart for 37 weeks and was in the top 10 of the 200 for 80 consecutive weeks. It was the first album to have seven Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles, including \"Billie Jean\", \"Beat It\", and \"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'\". In December 2015, Thriller was certified for 30 million shipments by the RIAA, making it the only album to achieve that feat in the United States. Thriller won Jackson and Quincy Jones the Grammy award for Producer of the Year (Non-Classical) for 1983. It also won Album of the Year, with Jackson as the album's artist and Jones as its co-producer, and a Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, award for Jackson. \"Beat It\" won Record of the Year, with Jackson as artist and Jones as co-producer, and a Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, award for Jackson. \"Billie Jean\" won Jackson two Grammy awards, Best R&B Song, with Jackson as its songwriter, and Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male, as its artist. Thriller also won another Grammy for Best Engineered Recording – Non Classical in 1984, awarding Bruce Swedien for his work on the album. The AMA Awards for 1984 provided Jackson with an Award of Merit and AMAs for Favorite Male Artist, Soul/R&B, and Favorite Male Artist, Pop/Rock. \"Beat It\" won Jackson AMAs for Favorite Video, Soul/R&B, Favorite Video, Pop/Rock, and Favorite Single, Pop/Rock. Thriller won him AMAs for Favorite Album, Soul/R&B, and Favorite Album, Pop/Rock. \n\nIn addition to the album, Jackson released \"Thriller\", a 14-minute music video directed by John Landis, in 1983. It \"defined music videos and broke racial barriers\" on the Music Television Channel (MTV), a fledgling entertainment television channel at the time. In December 2009, the Library of Congress selected the \"Thriller\" music video for inclusion in the National Film Registry. It was one of 25 films named that year as \"works of enduring importance to American culture\" that would be \"preserved for all time.\" As of 2009, the zombie-themed \"Thriller\" is the only music video to have been inducted into the registry. \n\nJackson's attorney John Branca noted that Jackson had the highest royalty rate in the music industry at that point: approximately $2 for every album sold. He was also making record-breaking profits from sales of his recordings. The videocassette of the documentary The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller sold over 350,000 copies in a few months. The era saw the arrival of novelties such as dolls modeled after Michael Jackson, which appeared in stores in May 1984 at a price of $12. Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli writes that \"Thriller stopped selling like a leisure item—like a magazine, a toy, tickets to a hit movie—and started selling like a household staple.\" In 1985, The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Longform. Time described Jackson's influence at that point as \"star of records, radio, rock video. A one-man rescue team for the music business. A songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with the fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all boundaries of taste and style and color too\". The New York Times wrote that \"in the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and there is everybody else\". \n\nOn March 25, 1983, Jackson reunited with his brothers for a live performance taped at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium for Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, an NBC television special. The show aired on May 16, 1983, to an estimated audience of viewers, and featured the Jacksons and other Motown stars. The show is best remembered for Jackson's solo performance of \"Billie Jean\", which earned Jackson his first Emmy nomination. Wearing a distinctive black-sequined jacket and a golf glove decorated with rhinestones, he debuted his signature dance move, the moonwalk, which former Soul Train dancer and Shalamar member Jeffrey Daniel had taught him three years earlier. Jackson originally turned down the invitation to perform at the show, believing he had been doing too much television at the time; however, at the request of Berry Gordy, Jackson agreed to perform in exchange for time to do a solo performance. According to Rolling Stone reporter Mikal Gilmore, \"There are times when you know you are hearing or seeing something extraordinary...that came that night.\" Jackson's performance drew comparisons to Elvis Presley's and the Beatles' appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times later wrote: \"The moonwalk that he made famous is an apt metaphor for his dance style. How does he do it? As a technician, he is a great illusionist, a genuine mime. His ability to keep one leg straight as he glides while the other bends and seems to walk requires perfect timing.\" Berry Gordy said of the performance, \"from the first beat of Billie Jean, I was mesmerized, and when he did his iconic moonwalk, I was shocked, it was magic, Michael Jackson went into orbit, and never came down.\" \n\n1984–85: Pepsi, \"We Are the World\", and business career\n\nIn November 1983 Jackson and his brothers partnered with PepsiCo in a $5 million promotional deal that broke advertising industry records for a celebrity endorsement. The first Pepsi Cola campaign, which ran in the United States from 1983 to 1984 and launched its \"New Generation\" theme, included tour sponsorship, public relations events, and in-store displays. Jackson, who was actively involved in creating the iconic advertisement, suggested using his song, \"Billie Jean\", as its jingle with a revised chorus. According to a Billboard report in 2009, Brian J. Murphy, executive VP of branded management at TBA Global, said: \"You couldn't separate the tour from the endorsement from the licensing of the music, and then the integration of the music into the Pepsi fabric.\"\n\nOn January 27, 1984, Michael and other members of the Jacksons filmed a Pepsi commercial overseen by executive Phil Dusenberry, a BBDO ad agency executive, and Alan Pottasch, Pepsi's Worldwide Creative Director, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. During a simulated concert before a full house of fans, pyrotechnics accidentally set Jackson's hair on fire, causing second-degree burns to his scalp. Jackson underwent treatment to hide the scars and had his third rhinoplasty shortly thereafter. Pepsi settled out of court, and Jackson donated his $1.5 million settlement to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California. Its Michael Jackson Burn Center is named in his honor. Dusenberry later recounted the episode in his memoir, Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising. Jackson signed a second agreement with Pepsi in the late 1980s for a reported $10 million. The second campaign had a global reach of more than 20 countries and would provide financial support for Jackson's Bad album and 1987–88 world tour. Although Jackson had endorsements and advertising deals with other companies, such as LA Gear, Suzuki, and Sony, none were as significant as his deals with Pepsi, which later signed other music stars such as Britney Spears and Beyoncé to promote its products. \n\nJackson's humanitarian work was recognized on May 14, 1984, when he was invited to the White House to receive an award from President Ronald Reagan for his support of charities that helped people overcome alcohol and drug abuse, and in recognition of his support for the Ad Council's and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Drunk Driving Prevention campaign. Jackson donated the use of \"Beat It\" for the campaign's public service announcements. \n\nUnlike later albums, Thriller did not have an official tour, but the Victory Tour of 1984 headlined the Jacksons and showcased much of Jackson's new solo material to more than two million Americans. It was the last tour he would do with his brothers. Following controversy over the concert's ticket sales, Jackson held a press conference and announced that he would donate his share of the proceeds, an estimated , to charity. His charitable work and humanitarian awards continued with the release of \"We Are the World\" (1985), which he co-wrote with Lionel Richie. The song was recorded on January 28, 1985 and was released worldwide in March 1985 to aid the poor in the United States and Africa. The song earned $63 million for famine relief, and became one of the best-selling singles of all time, with 20 million copies sold. \"We Are the World\" won four Grammys for 1985, including Song of the Year going to Jackson and Richie as its co-songwriters. Although the American Music Award directors removed the charity song from the competition because they felt it would be inappropriate, the AMA show in 1986 concluded with a tribute to the song in honor of its first anniversary. The project's creators received two special AMA honors: one for the creation of the song and another for the USA for Africa idea. Jackson, Quincy Jones, and entertainment promoter Ken Kragan received special awards for their roles in the song's creation. \n\nJackson's financial interests in the music publishing business grew after Jackson collaborated with Paul McCartney in the early 1980s. He subsequently learned that McCartney was making approximately $40 million a year from other people's songs. By 1983, Jackson had begun investing in publishing rights to songs that others had written, but he was careful with his acquisitions, only bidding on a few of the dozens that were offered to him. Jackson's early acquisitions of music catalogs and song copyrights such as the Sly Stone collection included \"Everyday People\" (1968), Len Barry's \"1-2-3\" (1965), and Dion DiMucci's \"The Wanderer\" (1961) and \"Runaround Sue\" (1961); however, Jackson's most significant purchase came in 1985, when he acquired the publishing rights to ATV Music Publishing after months of negotiation. ATV had acquired the publishing rights to nearly 4000 songs, including the Northern Songs catalog that contained the majority of the Lennon–McCartney compositions recorded by the Beatles. \n\nIn 1984 Robert Holmes à Court, the wealthy Australian investor who owned ATV Music Publishing, announced he was putting the ATV catalog up for sale. In 1981, McCartney was offered the ATV music catalog for £20 million ($40 million). According to McCartney, he contacted Yoko Ono about making a joint purchase by splitting the cost at £10 million each, but Ono thought they could buy it for £5 million each. When they were unable to make a joint purchase, McCartney, who did not want to be the sole owner of the Beatles' songs, did not pursue an offer on his own. According to a negotiator for Holmes à Court in the 1984 sale, McCartney was given first right of refusal and declined to purchase. \n\nJackson was informed of the sale by his attorney, John Branca, in September 1984. An attorney for McCartney also assured Branca that McCartney was not interested in bidding. McCartney reportedly felt it was too expensive, but several other companies and investors were interested in bidding. Jackson submitted a bid of $46 million on November 20, 1984. His agents thought they had a deal several times, but encountered new bidders or new areas of debate. In May 1985, Jackson's team left talks after having spent more than $1 million and four months of due diligence work on the negotiations. In June 1985, Jackson and Branca learned that Charles Koppelman's and Marty Bandier's The Entertainment Company had made a tentative agreement with Holmes à Court to buy ATV Music for $50 million; however, in early August, Holmes à Court's team contacted Jackson and talks resumed. Jackson raised his bid to $47.5 million, which was accepted because he could close the deal more quickly, having already completed due diligence of ATV Music. Jackson also agreed to visit Holmes à Court in Australia, where he would appear on the Channel Seven Perth Telethon. Jackson's purchase of ATV Music was finalized on August 10, 1985.\n\n1986–90: Changing appearance, tabloids, Bad, films, autobiography, and Neverland\n\nJackson's skin had been a medium-brown color during his youth, but starting in the mid-1980s gradually grew paler. The change gained widespread media coverage, including rumors that he might have been bleaching his skin. According to J. Randy Taraborrelli's biography, in 1984, Jackson was diagnosed with vitiligo, which Taraborrelli noted may be a consequence of skin bleaching. He claimed Jackson was diagnosed with lupus. The vitiligo partially lightened his skin, and the lupus was in remission. Both illnesses made his skin sensitive to sunlight. The treatments Jackson used for his condition further lightened his skin tone, and with the application of pancake makeup to even out blotches he could appear pale. Jackson was also diagnosed with vitiligo in his autopsy, though not lupus. \n\nJackson claimed he had only two rhinoplasties and no other facial surgery, although at one point mentioned having a dimple created in his chin. He lost weight in the early 1980s because of a change in diet and a desire for \"a dancer's body\". Witnesses reported that he was often dizzy, and speculated he was suffering from anorexia nervosa. Periods of weight loss would become a recurring problem later in life. During the course of his treatment, Jackson made two close friends: his dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, and Klein's nurse Debbie Rowe. Rowe eventually became Jackson's second wife and the mother of his two eldest children. He also relied heavily on Klein for medical and business advice. \n\nJackson became the subject of increasingly sensational reports. In 1986, the tabloids ran a story claiming that Jackson slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to slow the aging process; he was pictured lying in a glass box. Although the claim was untrue, according to tabloid reports that are widely cited, Jackson had disseminated the fabricated story himself. When Jackson bought a chimpanzee named Bubbles from a laboratory, he was reported to be increasingly detached from reality. It was reported that Jackson had offered to buy the bones of Joseph Merrick (the \"Elephant Man\") and, although untrue, Jackson did not deny the story. Although he initially saw these stories as opportunities for publicity, he stopped leaking untruths to the press as they became more sensational. Consequently, the media began fabricating stories. These reports became embedded in the public consciousness, inspiring the nickname \"Wacko Jacko\", which Jackson came to despise. Responding to the gossip, Jackson remarked to Taraborrelli:\nWhy not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars? Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything you say, because you're a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, \"I'm an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight,\" people would say, \"Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He's cracked up. You can't believe a single word that comes out of his mouth.\" \n\nJackson collaborated with filmmakers George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola on the 17-minute 3D film Captain EO, which debuted in September 1986 at both the original Disneyland and at Epcot in Florida, and in March 1987 at Tokyo Disneyland. The $30 million movie was a popular attraction at all three parks. A Captain EO attraction was later featured at Euro Disneyland after that park opened in 1992. All four parks' Captain EO installations stayed open well into the 1990s: the Paris installation was the last to close, in 1998. The attraction would later return to Disneyland in 2010 after Jackson's death. In 1987, Jackson disassociated himself from the Jehovah's Witnesses, in response to their disapproval of the Thriller video. \n\nWith the industry expecting another major hit, Jackson's first album in five years, Bad (1987), was highly anticipated. The album produced seven successful singles in the U.S., five of which (\"I Just Can't Stop Loving You\", \"Bad\", \"The Way You Make Me Feel\", \"Man in the Mirror\", and \"Dirty Diana\") reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. This was a record for most number one Hot 100 singles from any one album, including Thriller. As of 2012, the album had sold between 30 and 45 million copies worldwide. Bruce Swedien and Humberto Gatica won one Grammy in 1988 for Best Engineered Recording – Non Classical and Michael Jackson won one Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form for \"Leave Me Alone\" in 1989. In the same year, Jackson won an Award of Achievement at the American Music Awards because Bad is the first album ever to generate five number one singles in the U.S., the first album to top in 25 countries, and the best-selling album worldwide in 1987 and 1988. In 1988, \"Bad\" won an American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Single. \n\nThe Bad World Tour began on September 12 that year, finishing on January 14, 1989. In Japan alone, the tour had 14 sellouts and drew 570,000 people, nearly tripling the previous record of 200,000 in a single tour. Jackson broke a Guinness World Record when 504,000 people attended seven sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium. He performed a total of 123 concerts to an audience of 4.4 million people. \n\nIn 1988, Jackson released his only autobiography, Moonwalk, which took four years to complete and sold 200,000 copies. He wrote about his childhood, the Jackson 5, and the abuse he had suffered. He also wrote about his changing facial appearance, attributing it to puberty, weight loss, a strict vegetarian diet, a change in hair style, and stage lighting. Moonwalk reached the top position on The New York Times best sellers' list. Jackson released a film, Moonwalker, which featured live footage and short films starring Jackson and Joe Pesci. Due to financial issues, the film was only released theatrically in Germany; in other markets it was released direct-to-video. It debuted at the top of the Billboard Top Music Video Cassette chart, staying there for 22 weeks. It was eventually knocked off the top spot by Michael Jackson: The Legend Continues. \n\nIn March 1988, Jackson purchased land near Santa Ynez, California, to build Neverland Ranch at a cost of $17 million. He installed several carnival rides on the 2700 acre property, including a Ferris wheel, carousel, menagerie, as well as a movie theater and a zoo. A security staff of 40 patrolled the grounds. In 2003, it was valued at approximately $100 million. In 1989, Jackson's annual earnings from album sales, endorsements, and concerts were estimated at $125 million for that year alone. Shortly afterwards, he became the first Westerner to appear in a television ad in the Soviet Union.\n\nJackson's success resulted in him being dubbed the \"King of Pop\". The nickname was popularized by Elizabeth Taylor when she presented him with the Soul Train Heritage Award in 1989, proclaiming him \"the true king of pop, rock and soul.\" President George H. W. Bush designated him the White House's \"Artist of the Decade\". From 1985 to 1990, he donated $455,000 to the United Negro College Fund, and all profits from his single \"Man in the Mirror\" went to charity. Jackson's live rendition of \"You Were There\" at Sammy Davis Jr.'s 60th birthday celebration won Jackson a second Emmy nomination.\n\n1991–93: Dangerous, Heal the World Foundation, and Super Bowl XXVII\n\nIn March 1991, Jackson renewed his contract with Sony for $65 million, a record-breaking deal at the time, displacing Neil Diamond's renewal contract with Columbia Records. In 1991, he released his eighth album, Dangerous, co-produced with Teddy Riley. Dangerous was certified seven times platinum in the U.S., and by 2008 had sold approximately 30 million copies worldwide. In the United States, the album's first single \"Black or White\" was its biggest hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and remaining there for seven weeks, with similar chart performances worldwide. The album's second single, \"Remember the Time\", spent eight weeks in the top five in the United States, peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. At the end of 1992, Dangerous was awarded the best-selling album of the year worldwide and \"Black or White\" was awarded best-selling single of the year worldwide at the Billboard Music Awards. Jackson also won an award as best-selling artist of the 1980s. In 1993, he performed the song at the Soul Train Music Awards in a chair, saying he had suffered an injury in rehearsals. In the UK and other parts of Europe, \"Heal the World\" was the album's most successful song; it sold 450,000 copies in the UK and spent five weeks at number two in 1992.\n\nJackson founded the Heal the World Foundation in 1992. The charity organization brought underprivileged children to Jackson's ranch to enjoy theme park rides that Jackson had built on the property. The foundation also sent millions of dollars around the globe to help children threatened by war, poverty, and disease. In the same year, Jackson published his second book, Dancing the Dream, a collection of poetry, revealing a more intimate side of his nature. While it was a commercial success, it received mostly negative reviews. In 2009, the book was republished by Doubleday and was more positively received by some critics in the wake of Jackson's death. The Dangerous World Tour grossed . The tour began on June 27, 1992, and finished on November 11, 1993. Jackson performed to 3.5 million people in 70 concerts. He sold the broadcast rights to his Dangerous world tour to HBO for $20 million, a record-breaking deal that still stands. \n\nFollowing the illness and death of AIDS spokesperson Ryan White, Jackson helped draw public attention to HIV/AIDS, something that was controversial at the time. He publicly pleaded with the Clinton Administration at Bill Clinton's Inaugural Gala to give more money to HIV/AIDS charities and research. In a high-profile visit to Africa, Jackson visited several countries, among them Gabon and Egypt. His first stop to Gabon was greeted with an enthusiastic reception of more than 100,000 people, some of them carrying signs that read, \"Welcome Home Michael.\" In his trip to Ivory Coast, Jackson was crowned \"King Sani\" by a tribal chief. He thanked the dignitaries in French and English, signed official documents formalizing his kingship, and sat on a golden throne while presiding over ceremonial dances.\n\nIn January 1993, Jackson performed at the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show in Pasadena, California. Because of a dwindling interest during halftime in the preceding years, the NFL decided to seek big-name talent that would keep ratings high, with Jackson selected for his universal appeal. It was the first Super Bowl whose half-time performance drew greater audience figures than the game itself. The performance began with Jackson catapulting onto the stage as fireworks went off behind him. As he landed on the canvas, he maintained a \"clenched fist, standing statue stance,\" dressed in a gold and black military outfit and sunglasses; he remained completely motionless for a minute and a half while the crowd cheered. He then slowly removed his sunglasses, threw them away, and performed four songs: \"Jam\", \"Billie Jean\", \"Black or White\", and \"Heal the World\". Jackson's Dangerous album rose 90 places up the album chart soon after. \n\nJackson gave a 90-minute interview to Oprah Winfrey on February 10, 1993, his second television interview since 1979. He grimaced when speaking of his childhood abuse at the hands of his father; he believed he had missed out on much of his childhood years, admitting that he often cried from loneliness. He denied tabloid rumors that he had bought the bones of the Elephant Man, slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, or bleached his skin, stating for the first time that he had vitiligo. Dangerous re-entered the album chart in the top 10, more than a year after its original release.\n\nIn February 1993, Jackson was given the \"Living Legend Award\" at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. \"Black or White\" was Grammy-nominated for best vocal performance. \"Jam\" gained two nominations: Best R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song. The Dangerous album won a Grammy for Best Engineered – Non Classical, awarding the work of Bruce Swedien and Teddy Riley. In the same year, Michael Jackson won three American Music Awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Album (Dangerous), Favorite Soul/R&B Single (\"Remember the Time\"), and was the first to win the International Artist Award of Excellence, for his global performances and humanitarian concerns. \n\nJackson agreed to produce the soundtrack for Sega's 1994 video game Sonic the Hedgehog 3 with collaborators Brad Buxer, Bobby Brooks, Darryl Ross, Geoff Grace, Doug Grigsby, and Cirocco Jones. Jackson left the project before completion and was never officially credited, allegedly due to his dissatisfaction with the Sega Genesis console's audio chip. \n\n1993–94: First child sexual abuse allegations and first marriage\n\nIn the summer of 1993, Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse by a 13-year-old boy named Jordan Chandler and his father, Evan Chandler, a dentist. The Chandler family demanded payment from Jackson, and the singer initially refused. Jordan Chandler eventually told the police that Jackson had sexually abused him. Evan Chandler was recorded discussing his intention to pursue charges, saying, \"If I go through with this, I win big-time. There's no way I lose. I will get everything I want and they will be destroyed forever..... Michael's career will be over.\" Jordan's mother was, however, adamant at the time that there had been no wrongdoing on Jackson's part. Jackson later used the recording to argue that he was the victim of a jealous father whose only goal was to extort money from the singer. In January 1994, after investigation on allegations of extortion against the singer by Chandler, deputy Los Angeles County district attorney Michael J. Montagna stated that Chandler would not be charged, due to lack of cooperation from Jackson's party and its willingness to negotiate with Chandler for several weeks, among other reasons. \n\nIn August 1993, Jackson's home was raided by the police who, according to court documents, found books and photographs in his bedroom featuring young boys with little or no clothing. Since the books were legal to purchase and own, the jury decided not to indict Jackson. In December 1993, Jackson was strip-searched. Jordan Chandler had reportedly given police a description of Jackson's intimate parts, and the strip search revealed that Jordan had correctly claimed Jackson had patchy-colored buttocks, short pubic hair, and pink and brown marked testicles. Reportedly, Jordan had also previously drawn accurate pictures of a dark spot on Jackson's penis only visible when his penis was lifted. Despite differing initial internal reports from prosecutors and investigators and later, with reports of jurors feeling otherwise that the photos did not match the description, the DA stated his belief in a sworn affidavit that the description was accurate, along with the sheriff's photographer stating the description was accurate. A 2004 motion filed by Jackson's defense asserted that Jackson was never criminally indicted by any grand jury and that his settlement admitted no wrongdoing and contained no evidence of criminal misconduct. \n\nThe investigation was inconclusive and no charges were filed. Jackson described the search in an emotional public statement, and proclaimed his innocence. On January 1, 1994, Jackson settled with the Chandlers out of court for $22 million. A Santa Barbara County grand jury and a Los Angeles County grand jury disbanded on May 2, 1994, without indicting Jackson, and the Chandlers stopped co-operating with the criminal investigation around July 6, 1994. The out-of-court settlement's documentation stated Jackson admitted no wrongdoing and no liability; the Chandlers and their family lawyer Larry Feldman signed it without contest. \n\nFeldman also stated \"nobody bought anybody's silence\". A decade after the fact, during the second round of child abuse allegations, Jackson's lawyers would file a memo stating that the 1994 settlement was done without his consent. A later disclosure by the FBI of investigation documents compiled over nearly 20 years led Jackson's attorney to suggest that no evidence of molestation or sexual impropriety from Jackson toward minors existed. According to reports the Department of Children and Family Services (Los Angeles County) had investigated Jackson beginning in 1993 with the Chandler allegation and again in 2003. Reports show the LAPD and DCFS did not find credible evidence of abuse or sexual misconduct. \n\nIn May 1994, Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. They had met in 1975, when a seven-year-old Presley attended one of Jackson's family engagements at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, and reconnected through a mutual friend. According to a friend of Presley's, \"their adult friendship began in November 1992 in L.A.\" They stayed in contact every day over the telephone. As the child molestation accusations became public, Jackson became dependent on Presley for emotional support; she was concerned about his faltering health and addiction to drugs. Presley explained, \"I believed he didn't do anything wrong and that he was wrongly accused and yes I started falling for him. I wanted to save him. I felt that I could do it.\" She eventually persuaded him to settle the civil case out of court and go into rehabilitation to recover.\n\nJackson proposed to Presley over the telephone towards the fall of 1993, saying, \"If I asked you to marry me, would you do it?\" They married in the Dominican Republic in secrecy, denying it for nearly two months afterwards. The marriage was, in her words, \"a married couple's life ... that was sexually active.\" The tabloid media speculated that the wedding was a ploy to prop up Jackson's public image. The marriage ended less than two years later with an amicable divorce settlement. In a 2010 interview with Oprah, Presley admitted that they had spent four more years after the divorce \"getting back together and breaking up\" until she decided to stop. \n\n1995–99: HIStory, second marriage, and fatherhood\n\nIn 1995, Jackson merged his ATV Music catalog with Sony's music publishing division, creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing. He retained ownership of half the company, earning $95 million up front as well as the rights to more songs. In June, he released the double album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. The first disc, HIStory Begins, is a 15-track greatest hits album (later reissued as Greatest Hits: HIStory, Volume I in 2001); the second disc, HIStory Continues, contains 13 original songs and 2 cover versions. The album debuted at number one on the charts and has been certified for seven million shipments in the US. It is the best-selling multiple-disc album of all-time, with 20 million copies (40 million units) sold worldwide. HIStory received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. \n\nThe first single released from the album was \"Scream/Childhood\". \"Scream\", a duet with Jackson's youngest sister Janet, protests the media, particularly for its treatment of him during the 1993 child abuse allegations. The single had the highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five, and received a Grammy nomination for \"Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals\". \"You Are Not Alone\" was the second single released from HIStory; it holds the Guinness World Record for the first song ever to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was seen as a major artistic and commercial success, receiving a Grammy nomination for \"Best Pop Vocal Performance\".\n\nIn late 1995, Jackson was rushed to a hospital after collapsing during rehearsals for a televised performance, caused by a stress-related panic attack. \"Earth Song\" was the third single released from HIStory, and topped the UK Singles Chart for six weeks over Christmas 1995; it sold a million copies, making it Jackson's most successful single in the UK. The track \"They Don't Care About Us\" became controversial when the Anti-Defamation League and other groups criticized its allegedly antisemitic lyrics. Jackson quickly released a revised version of the song without the offending lyrics. In 1996, Jackson won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form for \"Scream\" and an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist. \n\nHIStory was promoted with the successful HIStory World Tour, beginning on September 7, 1996, and ending on October 15, 1997. Jackson performed 82 concerts in five continents, 35 countries and 58 cities to over 4.5 million fans, and grossed a total of , becoming Jackson's most successful tour in terms of audience figures. During the tour, Jackson married his longtime friend Deborah Jeanne Rowe, a dermatology nurse, in an impromptu ceremony in Sydney, Australia. Rowe was approximately six months pregnant with the couple's first child at the time. Originally, Rowe and Jackson had no plans to marry, but Jackson's mother Katherine persuaded them to do so. Michael Joseph Jackson Jr (commonly known as Prince) was born on February 13, 1997; his sister Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson was born a year later on April 3, 1998. The couple divorced in 1999, and Jackson received full custody of the children. The divorce was relatively amicable, but a subsequent custody suit was not settled until 2006. \n\nIn 1997, Jackson released Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, which contained remixes of hit singles from HIStory and five new songs. Worldwide sales stand at copies, making it the best-selling remix album of all time. It reached number one in the UK, as did the title track. In the US, the album was certified platinum, but only reached number 24. Forbes placed Jackson's annual income at $35 million in 1996 and $20 million in 1997.\n\nThroughout June 1999, Jackson was involved in a number of charitable events. He joined Luciano Pavarotti for a benefit concert in Modena, Italy. The show was in support of the nonprofit organization War Child, and raised a million dollars for the refugees of Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia, and additional funds for the children of Guatemala. Later that month, Jackson organized a series of \"Michael Jackson & Friends\" benefit concerts in Germany and Korea. Other artists involved included Slash, The Scorpions, Boyz II Men, Luther Vandross, Mariah Carey, A. R. Rahman, Prabhu Deva Sundaram, Shobana, Andrea Bocelli, and Luciano Pavarotti. The proceeds went to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, the Red Cross and UNESCO. From August 1999 through 2000, he lived in New York City at 4 East 74th Street. \n\n2000–03: Label dispute and Invincible\n\nAt the turn of the century, Jackson won an American Music Award as Artist of the 1980s. Throughout 2000 and 2001, he worked with collaborators including Teddy Riley and Rodney Jerkins to produce his tenth solo album, Invincible, released in October 2001. The album cost to record, not including promotional expenditures. Invincible was Jackson's first full-length album in six years, and was the last album of original material he released in his lifetime. The release was preceded by a dispute between Jackson and his record label, Sony Music Entertainment. Jackson had expected the licenses to the masters of his albums to revert to him sometime in the early 2000s. Once he had the licenses, he would be able to promote the material however he pleased and keep all the profits; however, clauses in the contract set the revert date years into the future. Jackson discovered that the attorney who had represented him in the deal had also been representing Sony. Jackson was also concerned about the fact that for years, Sony had been pressuring him to sell his share in its music catalog venture. Jackson feared that Sony might have a conflict of interest, since if Jackson's career failed, he would have to sell his share of the catalog at a low price. Jackson sought an early exit from his contract.\n\nIn September 2001, two 30th Anniversary concerts were held at Madison Square Garden to mark Jackson's 30th year as a solo artist. Jackson appeared onstage alongside his brothers for the first time since 1984. The show also featured performances by Mýa, Usher, Whitney Houston, NSYNC, Destiny's Child, Monica, Luther Vandross, and Slash, among other artists. The second of the two shows took place the night before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. After 9/11, Jackson helped organize the United We Stand: What More Can I Give benefit concert at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. The concert took place on October 21, 2001, and included performances from dozens of major artists, including Jackson, who performed his song \"What More Can I Give\" as the finale. Due to contractual issues related to the earlier 30th Anniversary concerts, later edited into a two-hour TV special titled Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration broadcast in November 2001, Jackson's solo performances were omitted from the televised benefit concert, although he could still be seen singing background vocals.\n\nInvincible was released in October 2001 to much anticipation. It debuted at number one in 13 countries and went on to sell approximately 13 million copies worldwide. It received double-platinum certification in the U.S. However, sales for Invincible were lower than Jackson's previous releases, due in part to the record label dispute and the lack of promotion or tour, and its release at a bad time for the music industry in general. Invincible spawned three singles, \"You Rock My World\", \"Cry\", and \"Butterflies\", the latter without a music video. Jackson alleged in July 2002 that the-then Sony Music chairman Tommy Mottola was a \"devil\" and a \"racist\" who did not support his African-American artists, using them merely for his own personal gain. He charged that Mottola had called his colleague Irv Gotti a \"fat nigger\". Sony refused to renew Jackson's contract, and claimed that a promotional campaign had failed because Jackson refused to tour in the United States.\n\nIn 2002, Michael Jackson won his 22nd American Music Award for Artist of the Century. In the same year, his third child, Prince Michael Jackson II (nicknamed \"Blanket\") was born. The mother's identity was not announced, but Jackson said the child was the result of artificial insemination from a surrogate mother and his own sperm. On November 20 of that year, Jackson brought his infant son onto the balcony of his room at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin as fans stood below, holding him in his right arm, with a cloth loosely draped over the baby's face. The baby was briefly extended over a railing, four stories above ground level, prompting widespread criticism in the media. Jackson later apologized for the incident, calling it \"a terrible mistake\". In November 2003, Sony released Number Ones, a compilation of Jackson's hits on CD and DVD. In the U.S., the album was certified triple platinum by the RIAA; in the UK it was certified six times platinum for shipments of at least 1.2 million units. \n\n2003–05: Second child sexual abuse allegations and acquittal\n\nBeginning in May 2002, Jackson allowed a documentary film crew, led by British TV personality Martin Bashir, to follow him around nearly everywhere he went. Bashir's film crew was with Jackson during the \"baby-dangling incident\" in Berlin. The program was broadcast in March 2003 as Living with Michael Jackson. In a particularly controversial scene, Jackson was seen holding hands and discussing sleeping arrangements with a young boy. \n\nAs soon as the documentary aired, the Santa Barbara county attorney's office began a criminal investigation. After an initial probe from the LAPD and DCFS was conducted in February 2003, they had initially concluded that molestation allegations were \"unfounded\" at the time. After the young boy involved in the documentary and his mother had told investigators that Jackson had behaved improperly with the boy, Jackson was arrested in November 2003, and was charged with seven counts of child molestation and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent in relation to the 13-year-old boy shown in the film. Jackson denied the allegations, saying the sleepovers were not sexual in nature. The People v. Jackson trial began on January 31, 2005, in Santa Maria, California, and lasted five months, until the end of May. On June 13, 2005, Jackson was acquitted on all counts. After the trial, in a highly publicized relocation he moved to the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain, as a guest of Sheikh Abdullah. Bahrain was also where the family intended to send Jackson if he was convicted (though Jackson did not know about the plan), according to a statement by Jermaine Jackson printed in The Times of London in September 2011. \n\n2006–09: Closure of Neverland, final years, and This Is It\n\nIn March 2006, the main house at the Neverland Ranch was closed as a cost-cutting measure. There were numerous reports around that time that Jackson had been having financial problems. He had been delinquent on his repayments of a $270 million loan secured against his music-publishing holdings, even though those holdings were reportedly making him as much as a year. Bank of America sold the debt to Fortress Investments. Sony reportedly proposed a restructuring deal which would give them a future option to buy half of Jackson's stake in their jointly-owned publishing company, leaving Jackson with a 25% stake. Jackson agreed to a Sony-backed refinancing deal in April 2006, although the details were not made public. Jackson did not have a recording contract at the time. In early 2006, it was announced that Jackson had signed a contract with a Bahrain-based startup called Two Seas Records. However, nothing came of the deal, and the Two Seas CEO Guy Holmes later stated that the deal had never been finalized. \n\nThroughout 2006, Sony repackaged 20 singles from the 1980s and 1990s as the Michael Jackson: Visionary series, which subsequently became a box set. Most of those singles returned to the charts as a result. In September 2006, Jackson and his ex-wife Debbie Rowe confirmed reports that they had settled their long-running child custody suit. The terms were never made public. Jackson continued to be the custodial parent of the couple's two children. In October 2006, Fox News entertainment reporter Roger Friedman said that Jackson had been recording at a studio in rural Westmeath, Ireland. It was not known at the time what Jackson had working on, or who had paid for the sessions, since his publicist had recently issued a statement claiming that he had left Two Seas. \n\nIn November 2006, Jackson invited an Access Hollywood camera crew into the studio in Westmeath, and MSNBC reported that he was working on a new album, produced by will.i.am. Jackson performed at the World Music Awards in London on November 15, 2006, and accepted a Diamond Award for selling over records. He returned to the United States after Christmas 2006 to attend James Brown's funeral in Augusta, Georgia, where he gave one of the eulogies, saying that \"James Brown is my greatest inspiration.\" In the spring of 2007, Jackson and Sony teamed up to buy another music publishing company, Famous Music LLC, formerly owned by Viacom. This deal gave him the rights to songs by Eminem and Beck, among others. In March 2007, Jackson gave a brief interview to the Associated Press in Tokyo, where he said: \"I've been in the entertainment industry since I was 6 years old, and as Charles Dickens would say, 'It's been the best of times, the worst of times.' But I would not change my career ... While some have made deliberate attempts to hurt me, I take it in stride because I have a loving family, a strong faith and wonderful friends and fans who have, and continue, to support me.\" In March 2007, Jackson visited a U.S. Army post in Japan, Camp Zama, to greet over 3,000 U.S. troops and their families. The hosts presented Jackson with a Certificate of Appreciation. \n\nIn September 2007, Jackson was reportedly still working on his next album, but the work was never completed. In 2008, Jackson and Sony released Thriller 25 to mark the 25th anniversary of the original Thriller. This album featured the previously unreleased song \"For All Time\", an outtake from the original sessions, as well as remixes, where Jackson collaborated with younger artists who had been inspired by his work. Two of the remixes were released as singles with modest success: \"The Girl Is Mine 2008\" (with will.i.am) and \"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' 2008\" (with Akon). The first single was based on an early demo version, without Paul McCartney. The album was a commercial success. In anticipation of Jackson's 50th birthday, Sony BMG released a series of greatest hits albums, King of Pop. Slightly different versions were released in various countries, based on polls of local fans. King of Pop reached the top 10 in most countries where it was issued, and also sold well as an import in other countries (such as the United States). \n\nIn late 2008, Fortress Investments threatened to foreclose on Neverland Ranch, which Jackson used as collateral for loans running into many tens of millions of dollars. However, Fortress opted to sell Jackson's debts to Colony Capital LLC. In November, Jackson transferred Neverland Ranch's title to Sycamore Valley Ranch Company LLC, a joint venture between Jackson and Colony Capital LLC. The deal cleared Jackson's debt and reportedly earned him an additional . At the time of his death, Jackson still owned a stake of unknown size in Neverland/Sycamore Valley. In September 2008, Jackson entered negotiations with Julien's Auction House to display and auction a large collection of memorabilia amounting to approximately 1,390 lots. The auction was scheduled to take place between April 22 and 25. An exhibition of the lots opened as scheduled on April 14, but the actual auction was eventually cancelled at Jackson's request. \n\nIn March 2009, Jackson held a press conference at London's O2 Arena to announce a series of comeback concerts titled This Is It. The shows would be Jackson's first major series of concerts since the HIStory World Tour finished in 1997. Jackson suggested possible retirement after the shows, saying it would be his \"final curtain call\". The initial plan was for 10 concerts in London, followed by shows in Paris, New York City and Mumbai. Randy Phillips, president and chief executive of AEG Live, stated that the first 10 dates alone would earn the singer approximately £50 million. The London residency was increased to 50 dates after record-breaking ticket sales: over one million were sold in less than two hours. The concerts would have commenced on July 13, 2009, and finished on March 6, 2010. Jackson rehearsed in Los Angeles in the weeks leading up to the tour under the direction of choreographer Kenny Ortega. Most of these rehearsals took place at the Staples Center, owned by AEG. Less than three weeks before the first show was due to begin in London, with all concerts sold out, Jackson died after suffering cardiac arrest. Some time before his death, it was reported that he was starting a clothing line with Christian Audigier. \n\nJackson's first posthumous song released entirely by his estate was \"This Is It\", which he had co-written in the 1980s with Paul Anka. It was not on the setlists for the concerts, and the recording was based on an old demo tape. The surviving brothers reunited in the studio for the first time since 1989 to record backing vocals. On October 28, 2009, a documentary film about the rehearsals, Michael Jackson's This Is It, was released. Despite a limited two-week engagement, it became the highest-grossing documentary or concert film of all time, with earnings of more than worldwide. Jackson's estate received 90% of the profits. The film was accompanied by a compilation album of the same name. Two versions of \"This Is It\" appear on the album, which also featured original masters of Jackson's hits in the order in which they appear in the film, along with a bonus disc with previously unreleased versions of more Jackson hits and a spoken-word poem, \"Planet Earth\". At the 2009 American Music Awards, Jackson won four posthumous awards, two for him and two for his album Number Ones, bringing his total American Music Awards to 26. \n\nDeath and memorial\n\nOn June 25, 2009, Jackson fell unconscious while lying in bed at his rented mansion at 100 North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles. Attempts at resuscitating him by Conrad Murray, his personal physician, were unsuccessful. Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics received a 911 call at 12:22 pm (PDT, 19:22 UTC), arriving three minutes later. Jackson was reportedly not breathing and CPR was performed. Resuscitation efforts continued en route to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, and for more than an hour after arriving there at 1:13 pm (20:13 UTC). He was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm Pacific time (21:26 UTC). \n\nJackson's death triggered a global outpouring of grief. The news spread quickly online, causing websites to slow down and crash from user overload. Both TMZ and the Los Angeles Times suffered outages. Google initially believed that the millions of search requests meant their search engine was under DDoS attack, and blocked searches related to Michael Jackson for 30 minutes. Twitter reported a crash, as did Wikipedia at PDT (22:15 UTC). The Wikimedia Foundation reported nearly a million visitors to Jackson's biography within one hour, probably the most visitors in a one-hour period to any article in Wikipedia's history. AOL Instant Messenger collapsed for 40 minutes. AOL called it a \"seminal moment in internet history ... We've never seen anything like it in terms of scope or depth.\" Around 15% of Twitter posts (5,000 tweets per minute) reportedly mentioned Jackson after the news broke, compared to the 5% recalled as having mentioned the Iranian elections or the flu pandemic that had made headlines earlier in the year. Overall, web traffic ranged from 11% to at least 20% higher than normal. MTV and BET aired marathons of Jackson's music videos. Jackson specials aired on television stations around the world. The British soap opera EastEnders added a last-minute scene to the June 26 episode in which one character tells another about the news. MTV briefly returned to its original music video format to celebrate his work, airing hours of Jackson's music videos, accompanied by live news specials featuring reactions from MTV personalities and other celebrities. The temporary shift in MTV's programming culminated the following week in the channel's live coverage of Jackson's memorial service.\n\nJackson's memorial was held on July 7, 2009 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, preceded by a private family service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park's Hall of Liberty. Due to high demand, tickets to the memorial were distributed via lottery, and over 1.6 million fans applied for tickets during the two-day application period. 8,750 names were drawn at random, with each recipient receiving two tickets each. Jackson's casket was present during the memorial but no information was released about the final disposition of the body. The memorial service was one of the most watched events in streaming history, with an estimated U.S. audience of 31.1 million, an amount comparable to the estimated that watched the 2004 burial of former president Ronald Reagan, and the estimated Americans who watched the 1997 funeral for Princess Diana. \n\nMariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, John Mayer, Jennifer Hudson, Usher, Jermaine Jackson, and Shaheen Jafargholi performed at the event. Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson gave eulogies, while Queen Latifah read \"We Had Him\", a poem written for the occasion by Maya Angelou. The Reverend Al Sharpton received a standing ovation with cheers when he told Jackson's children: \"Wasn't nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it anyway.\" Jackson's 11-year-old daughter Paris Katherine, speaking publicly for the first time, wept as she told the crowd: \"Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine ... I just wanted to say I love him ... so much.\" Reverend Lucious Smith provided a closing prayer. \n\nAt the time of death, Jackson had been administered propofol, lorazepam, and midazolam, and the Los Angeles coroner decided to treat the death as a homicide. Law enforcement officials conducted a manslaughter investigation of his personal physician Conrad Murray, and charged him with involuntary manslaughter in Los Angeles on February 8, 2010. Jackson's body was entombed on September 3, 2009, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. \n\nOn June 25, 2010, the first anniversary of Jackson's death, fans traveled to Los Angeles to pay tribute. They visited Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, his family's home, and Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Many of the fans were carrying sunflowers and other tribute items to leave at the sites. Members of the Jackson family and close friends arrived to pay their respects. Katherine returned to Gary, Indiana to unveil a granite monument constructed in the front yard of the family home. The memorial continued with a candlelight vigil and a special performance of \"We Are the World\". On June 26, there was a protest march in front of the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division at the old Parker Center building and a petition with thousands of signatures demanding justice. The Jackson Family Foundation, in conjunction with Voiceplate, presented \"Forever Michael\", an event bringing together Jackson family members, celebrities, fans, supporters and the community to celebrate and honor his legacy. A portion of the proceeds were presented to some of Jackson's favorite charities. Katherine also introduced her new book \"Never Can Say Goodbye\". \n\nAftermath\n\nIn the 12 months after his death, Jackson sold more than 8.2 million albums in the United States and 35 million albums worldwide, making him the best-selling albums artist of 2009. He became the first artist to sell one million downloads in a week in music download history, with a record-breaking 2.6 million downloads of his songs. Three of his albums sold more than any new album, the first time a catalog album has ever scanned more sales than any new album. Jackson also became the first artist in history to have four of the top 20 best-selling albums in a single year in the United States. Following this surge in sales, Sony announced that they had extended their distribution rights for Jackson's material, which had been due to expire in 2015. On March 16, 2010, Sony Music Entertainment, spearheaded by its Columbia/Epic Label Group division, signed a new deal with the Jackson estate to extend their distribution rights to his back catalogue until at least 2017, and release ten new albums of previously unreleased material and new collections of released work. \n\nOn November 4, 2010, Sony announced the first postumous album, Michael, released on December 14, with the promotional single, \"Breaking News\", released to radio on November 8. Sony Music reportedly paid the Jackson estate for the deal, plus royalties, making it the most expensive music contract pertaining to a single artist in history. Video game developer Ubisoft announced a dancing-and-singing game featuring Michael Jackson for the 2010 holiday season, Michael Jackson: The Experience; it is among the first games to use Kinect and PlayStation Move, the motion-detecting camera systems for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 respectively. \n\nOn November 3, 2010, the theatrical performing company Cirque du Soleil announced that it would launch Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour in October 2011 in Montreal, while a permanent show will reside in Las Vegas. The 90-minute $57-million production will combine Jackson's music and choreography with the Cirque's artistry, dance and aerial displays involving 65 artists. The tour was written and directed by Jamie King and centers on Jackson's \"inspirational Giving Tree – the wellspring of creativity where his love of music and dance, fairy tale and magic, and the fragile beauty of nature are unlocked.\" On October 3, 2011, the accompanying compilation soundtrack album Immortal was announced to have over 40 Jackson's original recordings re-produced by Kevin Antunes. A second, larger and more theatrical Cirque show, Michael Jackson: One, designed for residency at the Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas, was announced on February 21, 2013. This show, also produced, written and directed by King, began its run on May 23, 2013 in a newly renovated theater to critical and commercial success. \n\nIn April 2011, billionaire businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, chairman of Fulham Football Club and Jackson's longtime friend, unveiled a statue of Michael Jackson outside the club's stadium, Craven Cottage. Fulham fans were bemused by the statue and failed to understand the relevance of Jackson to the club. Al Fayed defended the statue and told the fans to \"go to hell\" if they did not appreciate it. The statue was removed in September 2013 and moved to the National Football Museum in Manchester in May 2014. \n\nIn 2012, in an attempt to end public family feuding, Jackson's brother Jermaine Jackson retracted his signature on a public letter criticizing executors of Michael Jackson's estate and his mother's advisers concerning the legitimacy of his brother's will. T.J. Jackson, son of Tito Jackson, was given co-guardianship of Michael Jackson's children after false reports surfaced of Katherine Jackson going missing. \n\nOn May 16, 2013, choreographer Wade Robson alleged on The Today Show that Jackson \"performed sexual acts on me and forced me to perform sexual acts on him\" for 7 years, beginning when Robson was 7 years old. Robson had previously testified in defence of Jackson at the singer's 2005 child molestation trial. The attorney for Jackson's estate described Robson's claim as \"outrageous and pathetic\". The date for the hearing which will determine whether Robson can sue Jackson's estate was scheduled for June 2, 2014. In February 2014, the Internal Revenue Service reported that Jackson's estate owed $702 million, including $505 million in taxes and $197 million in penalties after they claimed the estate undervalued Jackson's fortune. \n\nOn March 31, 2014, Epic Records announced Xscape, an album of eight songs of unreleased material culled from past recording sessions. It was released on May 13, 2014. On May 12, 2014, another young man, Jimmy Safechuck, sued Jackson's estate, claiming Jackson sexually abused him \"from the age of 10 to about 14 or 15\" in the 1980s. During the 2014 Billboard Music Awards on May 18, a \"Pepper's ghost\" likeness of Jackson appeared, dancing to \"Slave to the Rhythm\", one of the tracks from Xscape. Later that year, Queen released three duets that Freddie Mercury had recorded with Jackson in the 1980s.\n\nJackson's earnings have exponentially increased following his sudden death in comparison to his final years alive. According to Forbes, he has been the top-earning dead celebrity each year since his death, with triple-digit millions per annum ($115 million in 2015). In December 2015, Jackson's album Thriller became the first album in the United States to surpass 30 million shipments, certifying it 30× platinum by the RIAA. Two months later, Billboard reported that the album was certified again at 32× platinum, surpassing 32 million shipments after Soundscan added streams and audio downloads to album certifications. \n\nArtistry\n\nInfluences\n\nJackson was influenced by musicians including Little Richard, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Diana Ross, Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis Jr., Gene Kelly, David Ruffin, the Isley Brothers, and the Bee Gees. According to choreographer David Winters, who met and befriended Jackson while choreographing the 1971 Diana Ross TV special Diana!, Jackson watched the musical West Side Story almost every week, and it was his favorite film; he paid tribute to it in \"Beat It\" and the \"Bad\" video. While Little Richard had a substantial influence on Jackson, James Brown was Jackson's greatest inspiration. In reference to Brown, Jackson declared: \"Ever since I was a small child, no more than like six years old, my mother would wake me no matter what time it was, if I was sleeping, no matter what I was doing, to watch the television to see the master at work. And when I saw him move, I was mesmerized. I had never seen a performer perform like James Brown, and right then and there I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life because of James Brown.\" \n\nThe young Jackson owed his vocal technique in large part to Diana Ross. Not only a mother figure to him, she was often observed in rehearsal as an accomplished performer. He later said: \"I got to know her well. She taught me so much. I used to just sit in the corner and watch the way she moved. She was art in motion. I studied the way she moved, the way she sang – just the way she was.\" He told her: \"I want to be just like you, Diana.\" She said: \"You just be yourself.\" Jackson owed part of his enduring style—especially his use of the oooh interjection—to Ross. From a young age, Jackson often punctuated his verses with a sudden exclamation of oooh. Diana Ross had used this effect on many of the songs recorded with the Supremes. \n\nMusical themes and genres\n\nJackson explored a variety of music genres, including pop, soul, rhythm and blues, funk, rock, disco, post-disco, dance-pop and new jack swing. Unlike many artists, Jackson did not write his songs on paper and instead dictated into a sound recorder. When composing music, he preferred to beatbox and imitate instruments vocally rather than use instruments. \n\n According to Steve Huey of AllMusic, Thriller refined the strengths of Off the Wall; the dance and rock tracks were more aggressive, while the pop tunes and ballads were softer and more soulful. Notable tracks included the ballads \"The Lady in My Life\", \"Human Nature\" and \"The Girl Is Mine\"; the funk pieces \"Billie Jean\" and \"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'\"; and the disco set \"Baby Be Mine\" and \"P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)\". With Thriller, Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone commented that Jackson developed his long association with the subliminal theme of paranoia and darker imagery. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted this is evident on the songs \"Billie Jean\" and \"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'\". In \"Billie Jean\", Jackson sings about an obsessive fan who alleges he has fathered a child of hers. In \"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'\" he argues against gossip and the media. \"Beat It\" decried gang violence in an homage to West Side Story, and was Jackson's first successful rock cross-over piece, according to Huey. He also observed that the title track \"Thriller\" began Jackson's interest with the theme of the supernatural, a topic he revisited in subsequent years. In 1985, Jackson co-wrote the charity anthem \"We Are the World\"; humanitarian themes later became a recurring theme in his lyrics and public persona.\n\nIn Bad, Jackson's concept of the predatory lover can be seen on the rock song \"Dirty Diana\". The lead single \"I Just Can't Stop Loving You\" is a traditional love ballad, while \"Man in the Mirror\" is an anthemic ballad of confession and resolution. \"Smooth Criminal\" was an evocation of bloody assault, rape and likely murder. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine states that Dangerous presents Jackson as a very paradoxical individual. He comments the album is more diverse than his previous Bad, as it appeals to an urban audience while also attracting the middle class with anthems like \"Heal the World\". The first half of the record is dedicated to new jack swing, including songs like \"Jam\" and \"Remember the Time\". The album is Jackson's first where social ills become a primary theme; \"Why You Wanna Trip on Me\", for example, protests against world hunger, AIDS, homelessness and drugs. Dangerous contains sexually charged efforts such as the multifaceted love song, \"In the Closet\". The title track continues the theme of the predatory lover and compulsive desire. The second half includes introspective, pop-gospel anthems such as \"Will You Be There\", \"Heal the World\" and \"Keep the Faith\"; these songs show Jackson opening up about various personal struggles and worries. In the ballad \"Gone Too Soon\", Jackson gives tribute to his friend Ryan White and the plight of those with AIDS. \n\nHIStory creates an atmosphere of paranoia. Its content focuses on the hardships and public struggles Jackson went through just prior to its production. In the new jack swing-funk-rock efforts \"Scream\" and \"Tabloid Junkie\", along with the R&B ballad \"You Are Not Alone\", Jackson retaliates against the injustice and isolation he feels, and directs much of his anger at the media. In the introspective ballad \"Stranger in Moscow\", Jackson laments over his \"fall from grace\", while songs like \"Earth Song\", \"Childhood\", \"Little Susie\" and \"Smile\" are all operatic pop pieces. In the track \"D.S.\", Jackson launched a verbal attack against Tom Sneddon. He describes Sneddon as an antisocial, white supremacist who wanted to \"get my ass, dead or alive\". Of the song, Sneddon said, \"I have not—shall we say—done him the honor of listening to it, but I've been told that it ends with the sound of a gunshot\". Invincible found Jackson working heavily with producer Rodney Jerkins. It is a record made up of urban soul like \"Cry\" and \"The Lost Children\", ballads such as \"Speechless\", \"Break of Dawn\", and \"Butterflies\" and mixes hip hop, pop, and R&B in \"2000 Watts\", \"Heartbreaker\" and \"Invincible\". \n\nVocal style\n\nJackson sang from childhood, and over time his voice and vocal style changed noticeably. Between 1971 and 1975, Jackson's voice descended from boy soprano to high tenor. His vocal range as an adult was F2-E6. Jackson first used a technique called the \"vocal hiccup\" in 1973, starting with the song \"It's Too Late to Change the Time\" from the Jackson 5's G.I.T.: Get It Together album. Jackson did not use the hiccup technique—somewhat like a gulping for air or gasping—fully until the recording of Off the Wall: it can be seen in full force in the \"Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)\" promotional video. With the arrival of Off the Wall in the late 1970s, Jackson's abilities as a vocalist were well regarded. At the time, Rolling Stone compared his vocals to the \"breathless, dreamy stutter\" of Stevie Wonder. Their analysis was also that \"Jackson's feathery-timbred tenor is extraordinarily beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that's used very daringly\". 1982 saw the release of Thriller, and Rolling Stone was of the opinion that Jackson was then singing in a \"fully adult voice\" that was \"tinged by sadness\".\n\nA distinctive deliberate mispronunciation of \"come on\", used frequently by Jackson, occasionally spelled \"c'mon\", \"cha'mone\", or \"shamone\", is also a staple in impressions and caricatures of him. The turn of the 1990s saw the release of the introspective album Dangerous. The New York Times noted that on some tracks, \"he gulps for breath, his voice quivers with anxiety or drops to a desperate whisper, hissing through clenched teeth\" and he had a \"wretched tone\". When singing of brotherhood or self-esteem the musician would return to \"smooth\" vocals. When commenting on Invincible, Rolling Stone were of the opinion that—at the age of 43—Jackson still performed \"exquisitely voiced rhythm tracks and vibrating vocal harmonies\". Nelson George wrote: \"The grace, the aggression, the growling, the natural boyishness, the falsetto, the smoothness—that combination of elements mark him as a major vocalist\". Cultural critic Joseph Vogel notes that Jackson had a \"distinctive styles is his ability to convey emotion without the use of language: there are his trademark gulps, grunts, gasps, cries, exclamations; he also frequently scats or twists and contorts words until they are barely discernible.\" Neil McCormick notes that Jackson's unorthodox singing style \"was original and utterly distinctive, from his almost ethereal falsetto to his soft, sweet mid-tones; his fluid, seamless control of often very fast moving series of notes; his percussive yet still melodic outbursts, ululations and interjections (from those spooky \"tee-hee-hees\" to grunts and wails). Unusually for someone coming from a black American soul tradition, he did not often sing straight, unadorned ballads, though when he did (from 'Ben' to 'She's Out of My Life') the effect was of a powerful simplicity and truth.\" \n\nConcerned about a transparent rendition of this identity, the sound engineer Bruce Swedien opted for some technical approaches and studio strategies aiming at keeping as truly as possible the singer's intimate and natural expressions: mikes, analogic recordings, special techniques elaborated to design vocal prisms, creation of natural acoustic spaces, conversion of stereophonic fields in tri-dimensional sound spaces playing with early reflections, plywood, Monstercable or Tubetraps. \n\nMusic videos and choreography\n\nJackson has been called the King of Music Videos. Steve Huey of AllMusic observed how Jackson transformed the music video into an art form and a promotional tool through complex story lines, dance routines, special effects and famous cameo appearances, simultaneously breaking down racial barriers. Before Thriller, Jackson struggled to receive coverage on MTV, allegedly because he was African American. Pressure from CBS Records persuaded MTV to start showing \"Billie Jean\" and later \"Beat It\", leading to a lengthy partnership with Jackson, also helping other black music artists gain recognition. MTV employees deny any racism in their coverage, or pressure to change their stance. MTV maintains that they played rock music, regardless of race. The popularity of his videos on MTV helped to put the relatively young channel \"on the map\"; MTV's focus shifted in favor of pop and R&B. His performance on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever changed the scope of live stage show; \"That Jackson lip-synced 'Billie Jean' is, in itself, not extraordinary, but the fact that it did not change the impact of the performance is extraordinary; whether the performance was live or lip-synced made no difference to the audience\" thus creating an era in which artists re-create the spectacle of music video imagery on stage. Short films like Thriller largely remained unique to Jackson, while the group dance sequence in \"Beat It\" has frequently been imitated. The choreography in Thriller has become a part of global pop culture, replicated everywhere from Indian films to prisons in the Philippines. The Thriller short film marked an increase in scale for music videos, and has been named the most successful music video ever by the Guinness World Records.\n\nIn the 19-minute music video for \"Bad\"—directed by Martin Scorsese—Jackson began using sexual imagery and choreography not previously seen in his work. He occasionally grabbed or touched his chest, torso and crotch. When asked by Oprah in the 1993 interview about why he grabbed his crotch, he replied, \"I think it happens subliminally\" and he described it as something that was not planned, but rather, as something that was compelled by the music. \"Bad\" garnered a mixed reception from both fans and critics; Time magazine described it as \"infamous\". The video also featured Wesley Snipes; in the future Jackson's videos would often feature famous cameo roles. For the \"Smooth Criminal\" video, Jackson experimented with an anti-gravity lean where the performer leans forward at a 45 degree angle, beyond the performer's center of gravity. To accomplish this move live, Jackson and designers developed a special shoe that locks the performer's feet to the stage, allowing them to lean forward. They were granted for the device. Although the music video for \"Leave Me Alone\" was not officially released in the US, in 1989 it was nominated for three Billboard Music Video Awards; the same year it won a Golden Lion Award for the quality of the special effects used in its production. In 1990, \"Leave Me Alone\" won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form.\n\nHe received the MTV Video Vanguard Award in 1988 and the MTV Video Vanguard Artist of the Decade Award in 1990 to celebrate his accomplishments in the art form in the 1980s; in 1991 the first award was renamed in his honor. \"Black or White\" was accompanied by a controversial music video, which, on November 14, 1991, simultaneously premiered in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million people, the largest viewing ever for a music video at that time. It featured scenes construed as having a sexual nature as well as depictions of violence. The offending scenes in the final half of the 14-minute version were edited out to prevent the video from being banned, and Jackson apologized. Along with Jackson, it featured Macaulay Culkin, Peggy Lipton, and George Wendt. It helped usher in morphing as an important technology in music videos. \n\n\"Remember the Time\" was an elaborate production, and became one of his longest videos at over nine minutes. Set in ancient Egypt, it featured groundbreaking visual effects and appearances by Eddie Murphy, Iman, and Magic Johnson, along with a distinct complex dance routine. The video for \"In the Closet\" was Jackson's most sexually provocative piece. It featured supermodel Naomi Campbell in a courtship dance with Jackson. The video was banned in South Africa because of its imagery.\n\nThe music video for \"Scream\", directed by Mark Romanek and production designer Tom Foden, is one of Jackson's most critically acclaimed. In 1995, it gained eleven MTV Video Music Award Nominations—more than any other music video—and won \"Best Dance Video\", \"Best Choreography\", and \"Best Art Direction\". The song and its accompanying video are a response to the backlash Jackson received from the media after being accused of child molestation in 1993. A year later, it won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form; shortly afterwards Guinness World Records listed it as the most expensive music video ever made, at a cost of $7 million. \n\n\"Earth Song\" was accompanied by an expensive and well-received music video, which gained a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video, Short Form in 1997. The video had an environmental theme, showing images of animal cruelty, deforestation, pollution and war. Using special effects, time is reversed so that life returns, wars end, and the forests re-grow. Released in 1997 and premiering at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, Michael Jackson's Ghosts was a short film written by Jackson and Stephen King and directed by Stan Winston. The video for Ghosts is over 38 minutes long and holds the Guinness World Record as the world's longest music video. \n\nLegacy and influence\n\nThe media has commonly referred to Jackson as the \"King of Pop\" because, throughout his career, he transformed the art of music videos and paved the way for modern pop music. For much of Jackson's career, he had an unparalleled worldwide influence over the younger generation through his musical and humanitarian contributions. His music and videos, such as Thriller, fostered racial diversity in MTV's roster and steered its focus from rock to pop music and R&B, shaping the channel into a form that proved enduring. Jackson's work continues to influence numerous artists of various music genres.\n\nAllMusic's Steve Huey describes Jackson as \"an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the skills to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility and loads of sheer star power\". BET described Jackson \"as quite simply the greatest entertainer of all time\" and someone who \"revolutionized the music video and brought dances like the moonwalk to the world. Jackson's sound, style, movement and legacy continues to inspire artists of all genres.\" \n\nIn 1984, TIME magazine's pop critic Jay Cocks wrote that \"Jackson is the biggest thing since the Beatles. He is the hottest single phenomenon since Elvis Presley. He just may be the most popular black singer ever.\" In 1990, Vanity Fair cited Jackson as the most popular artist in the history of show business. In 2003, Daily Telegraph writer Tom Utley described Jackson as \"extremely important\" and a \"genius\". In 2007, Jackson said: \"Music has been my outlet, my gift to all of the lovers in this world. Through it, my music, I know I will live forever.\" \n\nAt Jackson's memorial service on July 7, 2009, Motown founder Berry Gordy proclaimed Jackson \"the greatest entertainer that ever lived\". In a June 28, 2009 Baltimore Sun article titled \"7 Ways Michael Jackson Changed The World\", Jill Rosen wrote that Jackson's legacy was \"as enduring as it is multi-faceted\", influencing fields including sound, dance, fashion, music videos and celebrity. On December 19, 2014, the British Council of Cultural Relations named Jackson's life one of the 80 most important cultural moments of the 20th century. \n\nIn July 2009, the Lunar Republic Society, which promotes the exploration, settlement and development of the Moon, named a Moon crater after Jackson. In the same year, for Jackson's 51st birthday, Google dedicated their Google Doodle to him. In 2010, two university librarians found that Jackson's influence extended to academia, with references to Jackson in reports concerning music, popular culture, chemistry and an array of other topics. \n\nHonors and awards\n\nMichael Jackson was inducted onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1980 as member of the Jacksons and in 1984 as solo artist. Throughout his career he received numerous honors and awards, including the World Music Awards' Best-Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium, the American Music Award's Artist of the Century Award and the Bambi Pop Artist of the Millennium Award. He was a double-inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1997 and later as a solo artist in 2001. Jackson was also inducted in several other halls of fame, including Vocal Group Hall of Fame (as a Jackson 5 member) in 1999 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2010, Jackson was inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame as the first (and currently only) dancer from the world of pop and rock 'n' roll. In 2014, Jackson was inducted into the second class of inductees to the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame; his father Joe Jackson accepted on his behalf. \n\nHis awards include many Guinness World Records (eight in 2006 alone), including for the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time, 13 Grammy Awards (as well as the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award), 26 American Music Awards (including the \"Artist of the Century\" and \"Artist of the 1980s\"), —more than any artist—13 number-one singles in the US in his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era —and estimated sales of over 400 million records worldwide, which makes him one of the best-selling artists of all time. On December 29, 2009, the American Film Institute recognized Jackson's death as a \"moment of significance\" saying, \"Michael Jackson's sudden death in June at age 50 was notable for the worldwide outpouring of grief and the unprecedented global eulogy of his posthumous concert rehearsal movie This Is It.\" Michael Jackson also received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree from the United Negro College Fund and also an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Fisk University. \n\nEarnings and wealth\n\nIt is estimated that Michael Jackson earned about $750 million in his lifetime. Sales of his recordings through Sony's music unit earned him an estimated $300 million in royalties. He may have also earned an additional $400 million from concerts, music publishing (including his share of the Beatles catalog) endorsements, merchandising and music videos. Estimating how much of these earnings Jackson was able to personally pocket is difficult because one has to account for taxes, recording costs and production costs. \n\nThere have also been several detailed estimates of Jackson's net worth which range from negative $285 million to positive $350 million for the years 2002, 2003 and 2007.\n\nU.S. federal estate tax problems\n\nOn July 26, 2013, the executors of the Estate of Michael Jackson filed a petition in the United States Tax Court as a result of a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over U.S. federal estate taxes imposed on the value of Jackson's Estate at the time of his death. The executors of the Estate claim that the Estate was worth about $7 million. The IRS asserts that the Estate was worth over $1.1 billion, and that over $700 million in federal estate taxes (including penalties) are due. The parties have been ordered to submit a status report to the Court on settlement negotiations by November 2, 2015. \n\nDiscography\n\n*Got to Be There (1972)\n*Ben (1972)\n*Music & Me (1973)\n*Forever, Michael (1975)\n*Off the Wall (1979)\n*Thriller (1982)\n*Bad (1987)\n*Dangerous (1991)\n*HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995)\n*Invincible (2001)\n\nFilmography\n\n*The Wiz (1978)\n*Captain EO (1986)\n*Moonwalker (1988)\n*Michael Jackson's Ghosts (1997)\n*Men in Black II (2002)\n*Miss Cast Away and the Island Girls (2004)\n*Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009)\n*Bad 25 (2012)\n*Michael Jackson: The Last Photo Shoot (2014)\n*Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall (2016)\n\nTours\n\n*Bad (1987–89)\n*Dangerous World Tour (1992–93)\n*HIStory World Tour (1996–97)\n*MJ & Friends (1999)\n*This Is It (2009–10; cancelled)", "On June 25, 2009, Michael Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication at his home on North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. His personal physician, Conrad Murray, said he had found Jackson in his room, not breathing and with a barely detectable pulse, and that he administered CPR on Jackson to no avail. After a call was placed to 9-1-1 at 12:21 p.m., Jackson was treated by paramedics at the scene and was later pronounced dead at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. On the eve of Jackson's 51st birthday, the Los Angeles County Coroner concluded that his death was a homicide. Shortly before his death, Jackson had reportedly been administered propofol and two anti-anxiety benzodiazepines—lorazepam and midazolam—in his home. His personal physician was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011 and served a two-year prison sentence. \n\nJackson's death triggered an outpouring of reactions around the world, creating unprecedented surges of Internet traffic and causing sales of his music and that of the Jackson 5 to increase dramatically. Jackson had also intended to perform a series of comeback concerts to over one million people at London's O2 Arena from July 2009 to March 2010.Kreps, Daniel. [http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/03/12/michael-jacksons-this-is-it-tour-balloons-to-50-show-run-stretching-into-2010/ Michael Jackson's \"This Is It!\" Tour Balloons to 50-Show Run Stretching Into 2010], Rolling Stone, March 12, 2009. A public memorial service for Jackson was held on July 7, 2009, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where he had rehearsed for the London concerts the night before his death. The service was broadcast live around the world, attracting a global audience of up to one billion people.Bucci, Paul and Wood, Graeme. [http://www.vancouversun.com/Entertainment/Michael+Jackson+billion+people+estimated+watching+gold+plated+casket+memorial+service/1767503/story.html Michael Jackson RIP: One billion people estimated watching for gold-plated casket at memorial service]. The Vancouver Sun, July 7, 2009. In 2010, Sony Music Entertainment signed a US $250 million deal with Jackson's estate to retain distribution rights to his recordings up until 2017, and to release seven posthumous albums over the decade following his death. Jackson's death is ranked No. 1 on VH1/VH1 Classic's list of 100 Most Shocking Moments in Music. \n\nCircumstances\n\nJackson arrived for rehearsal at Staples Center around 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24, according to Ed Alonzo, a magician who was there. The singer jokingly complained of laryngitis and did not rehearse until 9 p.m. \"He looked great and had great energy,\" Alonzo added. The rehearsal went past midnight.Lee, Chris, and Ryan, Harriet. [http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-jackson-rehearsal27-2009jun27,0,4699249.story Michael Jackson's last rehearsal: just beaming with gladness], The Los Angeles Times, June 27, 2009. The next morning, Jackson did not come out of his bedroom.Lang, Anne, and Jones, Oliver. [http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20287787_20288368,00.html Attorney Defends Michael Jackson's Doctor], People, June 29, 2009. According to the attorney of Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal physician, Murray entered the room that afternoon and found Jackson in bed and not breathing. Jackson had a weak pulse, and his body was still warm. Murray tried to revive Jackson for five to 10 minutes, at which point he realized he needed to call for help. Murray stated that he was hindered because there was no landline in the house. Murray also stated that he could not use his cell phone to call 911 because he did not know the exact address. Murray stated that he also phoned security, but did not get any answer. Finally, Murray ran downstairs, yelled for help, and told a chef to bring security up to the room.Chernoff, Ed., The Situation Room, CNN, June 29, 2009. [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0906/29/sitroom.01.html Transcript] By the time security called 911, Murray's lawyer stated that at least 30 minutes had passed.\n\nStatements described Murray as someone using a non-standard CPR technique on Jackson. During the tape of the emergency call, released on June 26 one day after Jackson's death, the doctor was described as administering CPR on a bed, not on a hard surface such as a floor, which would be standard practice.Gumbel, Andrew. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/28/michael-jackson-doctor-lawyer Michael Jackson doctor hires lawyer as family hires pathologist], The Guardian, June 28, 2009.[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/michael-jackson/5654048/Michael-Jackson-transcript-of-911-call.html Michael Jackson: transcript of 911 call], The Telegraph, June 26, 2009. The doctor's attorney said that Murray placed one hand underneath Jackson and used the other hand for chest compression, where the standard practice is to use both hands for compression.Childs, Dan; Schlief, Michelle. [http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MichaelJackson/Story?id7960413&page\n1 Could Better CPR Have Saved Michael Jackson?], ABC News, June 30, 2009. A Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) spokesperson said the 911 call came in at 12:21:04 p.m. PST (19:21:04 UTC). Paramedics reached Jackson at 12:26 p.m. and found that he still was not breathing.Blankstein, Andrew, and Willon, Phil. [http://mobile.latimes.com/inf/infomo?view\npage8&feed:alatimes_1min&feed:c\ntopstories&feed:i47712153&nopaging\n1 Michael Jackson dead at 50], The Los Angeles Times, June 25, 2009.Rayner, Gordon and Singh, Anita. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/michael-jackson/5653140/Michael-Jackson-the-final-days-and-how-TMZ.com-scooped-the-world.html Michael Jackson: the final days and how TMZ.com scooped the world], The Telegraph, June 26, 2009.\n\nParamedics performed CPR for 42 minutes at the house.Ruda, Steve. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8120084.stm Paramedic on Jackson 911 call], BBC News, June 25, 2009. Murray's attorney stated that Jackson had a pulse when he was taken out of the house and put in the ambulance. An LAFD official gave a different account, stating that paramedics found Jackson in \"full cardiac arrest\", and that they did not observe a change in Jackson's status on the route to the hospital.Eckstein, Marc. [http://connect.jems.com/forum/topics/michael-jackson-ems-response Michael Jackson EMS Response Details Emerge], JEMS (Journal of Emergency Medical Services), June 26, 2009. LAFD transported Jackson to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. After the ambulance arrived at the hospital at approximately 1:14 p.m., a team of medical personnel attempted to resuscitate Jackson for more than an hour. They were unsuccessful, and Jackson was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. at the age of 50.McGevna, Allison. [http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2009/06/26/tape-released-michael-jackson-autopsy-way/ Tape of 911 Call Released as Michael Jackson Autopsy Under Way], Fox News, June 26, 2009.Harvey, Michael. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6580897.ece Fans mourn artist for whom it didn't matter if you were black or white], The Times, June 26, 2009.Tourtellotte, Bob. [http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE55O6AK20090626 King of Pop Michael Jackson is dead: official], Reuters, June 25, 2009.\n\nInvestigation\n\nAutopsies\n\nJackson's body was flown by helicopter to the Los Angeles Coroner's offices in Lincoln Heights, where a three-hour autopsy was performed the next day on behalf of the Los Angeles County Coroner by the chief medical examiner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran. Jackson's family arranged for a second autopsy, a practice that could yield expedited—albeit limited—results. After the preliminary autopsy was completed, Craig Harvey, chief investigator for the coroner's office, said there was no evidence of trauma or foul play. On August 28, the LA County Coroner made an official statement classifying that Jackson's death was a homicide. The county coroner stated that he died from the combination of drugs in his body, with the most significant drugs being the anesthetic propofol and the anxiolytic lorazepam. Less significant drugs found in Jackson's body were midazolam, diazepam, lidocaine, and ephedrine. The coroner is keeping the complete toxicology report private, as requested by the police and district attorney. On October 1, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported that the autopsy report revealed that Jackson was \"very healthy\" for his age and that his heart was strong. The document stated that Jackson's most significant health problem was his lungs were chronically inflamed, which however did not contribute to his death. His other major organs were normal and he had no atherosclerosis except for some slight plaque accumulation in the arteries in his leg. The autopsy stated that he weighed 136 pounds (62 kg) and was 5'9\" (175 cm) tall, which equates to a Body mass index of 20.1. Fox News said that this confirmed rumors that Jackson was emaciated, while the Associated Press stated that his weight was in the acceptable range. \n\nLaw enforcement agencies\n\nAlthough they did not immediately announce that they suspected foul play, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) began to investigate the unusual and high-profile case by the day after Jackson's death.Esposito, Richard. [http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/MichaelJackson/story?id\n7938599&page1 \"Police say Michael Jackson 'heavily addicted' to Oxycontin\"]. ABC News: June 26, 2009. By August 28, the LAPD had announced that the case would be referred to prosecutors who might file criminal charges. Because the LAPD did not secure Jackson's home and allowed the Jackson family access to it too before returning to remove certain items, the department raised concerns by some observers that the chain of custody had been broken.Deutsch, Linda and Thomas Watkins. [http://www.aolnews.com/story/los-angeles-police-under-scrutiny-in/554866 \"LAPD under scrutiny in Jackson death\"]. AOL News: July 3, 2009. The police maintained that they had followed protocol. On July 1, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) joined the LAPD in the investigation. Having the authority to investigate issues otherwise protected by doctor-patient confidentiality, the DEA could legally follow the entirety of what appeared to be the complex trail of prescription drugs supplied to Jackson.Griffin, Drew. Anderson Cooper 360°, CNN, July 1, 2009. [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0907/01/acd.02.html Transcript] California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced that his office was helping the LAPD and DEA to create a statewide database of all medical doctors and prescriptions filled. \n\nThe LAPD subpoenaed medical records from doctors who had treated Jackson. On July 9, William J. Bratton, then the Los Angeles Chief of Police, indicated that investigators were focusing on the possibility of homicide or accidental overdose, but had to wait for the full toxicology reports from the coroner.Bone, James. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6681404.ece Jackson death may have been 'homicide', says police chief], The Times, July 10, 2009. The Los Angeles Times quoted a senior law enforcement source as saying authorities may not pursue charges even if the coroner declares the case a homicide, because Jackson's well-documented drug abuse would make any prosecution difficult. Nonetheless, the source said prosecutors had not ruled out more serious charges \"all the way up to involuntary manslaughter\" if it were determined that Jackson's death was indeed caused by the drug propofol.Leonard, Jack, and Ryan, Harriet. [http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul/19/local/me-jackson-legal19 Murder charges in Michael Jackson case are unlikely, source says], Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2009.\n\nDrug-use allegations\n\nJackson was said to have used propofol, as well as alprazolam (an antianxiety agent), and sertraline (an antidepressant).James, Susan Donaldson. [http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MichaelJackson/story?id\n7938918&page1 Friend Says Michael Jackson Battled Demerol Addiction], ABC News, June 26, 2009. Other drugs named in connection with him included omeprazole, hydrocodone, paroxetine, carisoprodol, and hydromorphone.Crawford, Carly \"Michael Jackson injected just before death\" Herald Sun, June 28, 2009. Retrieved March 32, 2010. After his death, police found several drugs in his home, which included propofol. Some of these drugs had labels made out to Jackson under pseudonyms, while others were unlabeled. A 2004 police document prepared for the 2005 People v. Jackson child abuse trial alleged that Jackson was taking up to 40 alprazolam pills a night. Alprazolam was not found in his bloodstream at his time of death. Dr. A.J. Farshchian, Michael Jackson's friend and confidante, has claimed that Jackson was scared of drugs. \n\nDeepak Chopra, an internist, endocrinologist, and speaker about mind–body intervention who was a friend of Jackson's for 20 years, expressed concern that, despite presumably having access to a large arsenal of drugs, Jackson appears to have been given no naloxone, a drug used to counteract the effects of an opioid overdose. Chopra also criticized what he saw as \"enabling\" by some Hollywood doctors: \"This cult of drug-pushing doctors, with their co-dependent relationships with addicted celebrities, must be stopped. Let's hope that Michael's unnecessary death is the call for action.\"\n\nEugene Aksenoff, a Tokyo-based physician who had treated Jackson and his children on a few occasions, expressed concern about Jackson's use of and interest in various drugs. Aksenoff told The Japan Times that Jackson asked for stimulants so that he could get through some demanding performances. He said he refused to prescribe them. He recalled that the singer suffered chronic fatigue, fever, insomnia and other symptoms and took a large amount of drugs. He suspected one of the major factors causing Jackson these symptoms was excessive use of steroids or other skin-whitening medications.Matsutani, Minoru. [http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090716f1.html Tokyo doctor refused Jackson stimulants: Late 'King of Pop' asked for drugs in 2007], The Japan Times, July 16, 2009. According to the toxicological tests effectuated on Jackson's body, no addiction had been reported, and none of the experts called to testify at Murray's trial have identified the singer as a drug addict. Janet Jackson confirmed that the Jackson family tried to stage an intervention in early 2007, when Jackson was living in Las Vegas. Janet Jackson and some of her brothers allegedly traveled to his home, but were turned away by security guards who were ordered not to let them in. He was also rumored to have refused calls from his mother. \"If you tried to deal with him,\" one source told CNN, \"he would shut you out. You just wouldn't hear from him for long periods.\" The family denied that they had tried to intervene.\n\nPropofol\n\nOf all the drugs found in Jackson's home, the one that most concerned investigators was propofol (Diprivan), a powerful anesthetic administered intravenously in hospitals to induce and maintain anesthesia during surgery. Nicknamed \"milk of amnesia\" because of its opaque, milk-like appearance (and a play on the words \"milk of magnesia\"), the drug has been associated with cardiac arrest, but it still may be increasingly used off-label for anxiolytic and other medically unsubstantiated purposes. Several propofol bottles—some empty, some full—were found in Jackson's home.Glover, Scott et al. [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/07/investigation-into-michael-jacksons-death-looks-at-doctors.html Michael Jackson investigation focuses on doctors], Los Angeles Times, July 4, 2009.\n\nOn June 30, Cherilyn Lee, a nurse who had worked as Jackson's nutritionist, said that he had asked her in May to provide propofol to help him sleep, but she refused. He told her he had been given the drug before for persistent insomnia, and that a doctor had said it was safe. Lee said she received a telephone call from an aide to Jackson on June 21 to say that Jackson was ill, although she no longer worked for him. She reported overhearing Jackson complain that one side of his body was hot, the other side cold. She advised the aide to send Jackson to a hospital.\n\nArnold Klein told CNN that Jackson used an anesthesiologist to administer propofol to help him sleep while he was on tour in Germany. CNN said the anesthesiologist would \"take him down\" at night and \"bring him back up\" in the morning during the HIStory tour of 1996 and 1997.Duke, Alan and Ahmed, Saeed. [http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/07/09/jackson.wrap/index.html#cnnSTCVideo More associates link Jackson to prescription drugs], CNN, July 8, 2009.\n\nMedical professionals\n\nThe Los Angeles Times wrote that the DEA was focusing on at least five doctors who prescribed drugs to Jackson, trying to determine whether they had had a \"face to face\" relationship with him, and whether they had made legally required diagnoses. Fox News Channel published a list of nine doctors who they said were under investigation.[http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2009/07/15/doctors-treated-michael-jackson-investigation/ At Least Nine Doctors Who Treated Michael Jackson Under Investigation], Fox News Channel, July 15, 2009. The Sunday Times wrote that the police wanted to question 30 doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, including Arnold Klein. Klein said that he occasionally had given Jackson pethidine to sedate him, but had administered nothing stronger, and that he had turned his records over to the medical examiner.Klein, Arnold. Larry King Live, CNN, July 8, 2009. [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0907/08/lkl.01.html Transcript]\n\nPersonal physician\n\nCardiologist Conrad Murray joined Jackson's camp in May 2009 as part of Jackson's agreement with AEG Live, the promoter of his London concerts. Murray first met Jackson in Las Vegas when the doctor treated one of the singer's children. AEG Live said the singer insisted the company hire Murray to accompany him to England. During Murray's trial it emerged that AEG employed the doctor and that Jackson did not sign the contract for the above-cited employment either. \n\nMurray said through his attorney that he did not prescribe or administer pethidine or oxycodone to Jackson, but did not say what, if anything, he did prescribe or administer. Los Angeles police said the doctor spoke to officers immediately after Jackson's death, and during an extensive interview two days later. They stressed that they found \"no red flag\" and did not suspect foul play. On June 26, police towed away a car used by Murray, stating that it might contain medication or other evidence. The police released the car five days later.\n\nPolitician and minister Jesse Jackson, a friend of Michael Jackson's family, said that the family was concerned about Murray's role. \"They have good reason to be [...] he left the scene.\"Harris, Paul. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/27/michael-jackson-death-autopsy Michael Jackson's family 'ask for second autopsy'], The Observer, June 28, 2009. Over the next few weeks, law enforcement grew increasingly concerned about the doctor, and on July 22 detectives searched Murray's medical office and storage unit in Houston, removing items such as a computer and two hard drives, contact lists and a hospital suspension notice.[http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/07/23/jackson.doctor.search/index.html?irefhpmostpop Items taken from Michael Jackson's doctor's buildings listed], CNN, July 23, 2009. On the 27th, an anonymous source reported that Murray had administered propofol within 24 hours of Jackson's death. Murray's lawyers refused to comment on what they called \"rumors, innuendo or unnamed sources.\"CNN. [http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/07/28/michael.jackson/index.html Police search Jackson doctor's home, office]. CNN.: July 28, 2009. The following day, the ABC News program Nightline reported that investigators had searched Murray's home and office in Las Vegas, and that Murray had become the primary focus of the investigation.[http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/MichaelJackson/Story?id\n8192476&page1 Feds Raid Michael Jackson's Doctor Conrad Murray's Home and Office], Nightline, July 28, 2009 On August 11, a Las Vegas pharmacy was searched by investigators looking for evidence regarding Murray, according to an anonymous police source cited by The New York Times.Friess, Steve [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12jackson.html?_r1 New Raid in Inquiry on Jackson], The New York Times, August 11, 2009 Murray's lawyer advised patience until the toxicology results arrived, noting that \"things tend to shake out when all the facts are made known\". On February 8, 2010, Murray was charged with involuntary manslaughter by prosecutors in Los Angeles. Murray pleaded not guilty and was released after posting $75,000 (USD) bail. Shortly after, the California Medical Board issued an order preventing Murray from administering heavy sedatives. \n\nOn January 11, 2011, the judge from Murray's preliminary hearing determined that Murray should stand trial for involuntary manslaughter in the Jackson case. The judge also suspended Murray's license to practice medicine in California. The trial was originally to begin on March 24, but a delayed opening rescheduled it for May 9. Finally, the trial was rescheduled to September 8, with no further delays, as reported by CNN. The jury selection of Murray's trial began on September 8, 2011, in Los Angeles. The trial began on September 27, 2011. On November 7, 2011, Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and he was held without bail to await sentencing. On November 29, 2011, Murray received the maximum sentence of 4 years in prison. Murray was released on October 28, 2013, due to California prison overcrowding and good behavior. \n\nHealth\n\nStacy Brown, a biographer, said Jackson had become \"very frail, totally, totally underweight,\" and that his family had been worried about him. Another biographer, J. Randy Taraborrelli, who became friends with Jackson in the 1970s, said Jackson had suffered from an addiction to painkillers which went on and off for decades.\nArnold Klein, Jackson's dermatologist, confirmed that Jackson misused prescription drugs, and that Klein had diagnosed Jackson with vitiligo and lupus. Yet, Klein said, when he saw Jackson at his office three days before his death, the singer \"was in very good physical condition. He was dancing for my patients. He was very mentally aware when we saw him and he was in a very good mood.\"\n\nFamily and legal affairs\n\nJackson is survived by his three children, Prince Michael Joseph Jackson (b. 1997); Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson (b. 1998),\nborn during his marriage to his second wife, Debbie Rowe; and Prince Michael Jackson II, known as \"Blanket\", born in 2002 to a surrogate mother. He is also survived by his brothers, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Randy; sisters Rebbie, La Toya and Janet; and parents Joseph and Katherine. Katherine was granted temporary guardianship of Michael's three children on June 29, 2009.\n\nFamily reaction\n\nThe Jackson family released a collective statement following the death:\n\nLa Toya indicated that the family would file a lawsuit against anyone they believed responsible for her brother's death, as well as push for criminal charges. In 2009, she stated that Jackson might have been administered an ultimately lethal dose of drugs by \"a shadowy entourage\" of handlers and, in 2010, said that she believed her brother \"was murdered for his music catalogue.\" Shortly after Jackson's death, the family raised questions about the role of AEG Live, the This Is It concert promoter, in the last few weeks of his life. Joseph has since filed a complaint with the California Medical Board alleging that AEG Live was illegally practicing medicine by demanding that Murray get Jackson off various medications. The complaint also alleges that AEG Live failed to provide the resuscitation equipment and nurse which Murray had requested. AEG spokesman Michael Roth declined to comment on the complaint.\n\nAfter Murray pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charge, several members of the Jackson family said they felt he deserved a more severe charge. On June 25, 2010, Joseph filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Murray. The lawsuit alleges that Murray repeatedly lied to cover up his use of propofol, did not keep sufficient medical records and was negligent in his use of medications on Jackson. Murray's civil attorney, Charles Peckham, denied that Murray gave Jackson anything life-threatening. On August 15, 2012, Joseph dropped his wrongful death lawsuit against Murray. \n\nOn September 15, 2010, [http://www.psblaw.com/panish.html Panish Shea & Boyle LLP] also filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Michael Jackson's three children and his mother against the Anschutz Entertainment Group, Inc. (AEG) and its subsidiaries and principals (including Randy Phillips, Kenny Ortega, Paul Gongaware and Thimothy Leiweke). The suit alleges that AEG put their desire for profits from the This Is It concerts over the health and safety of Michael Jackson, ultimately causing his death\". Roth declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying that AEG had not seen it. \n\nOn November 7, 2011, Michael Jackson's family arrived at the courthouse in Los Angeles shortly after the jury announced they reached their verdict; they had found Murray guilty. Michael's father Joe Jackson simply told reporters \"Justice.\" LaToya Jackson tweeted that she was shaking uncontrollably when she heard the verdict, and continued to tweet her emotions throughout the day. \n\nEstate\n\nJackson's last will was filed by attorney John Branca at the Los Angeles County courthouse on July 1, 2009. Signed July 7, 2002, it names Branca and accountant John McClain as executors; they were confirmed as such by a Los Angeles judge on July 6, 2009. All assets are given to the (pre-existing) Michael Jackson Family Trust (amended March 22, 2002), the details of which have not been made public. The Associated Press reports that, in 2007, Jackson had a net worth of $236.6 million: $567.6 million in assets, which included Neverland Ranch and his 50% share of Sony/ATV Music Publishing' catalogue, and debts of $331 million.MacAskill, Ewen. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jul/01/michael-jackson-public-displayed-nerverland Jackson's body to be put on public display at Neverland], The Guardian, July 1, 2009. The guardianship of his three children is given to his mother, Katherine, or if she is unable or unwilling, to singer Diana Ross. The will states that Jackson's former wife Debbie Rowe was omitted intentionally. Jackson's will allocates 20% of his fortune as well as 20% of money made after death to unspecified charities. \n\nMedia reports suggested that settlement of Jackson's estate could last many years.Brown, David and Lewis, Leo. [http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6583010.ece Michael Jackson: finances will take years to unwind], The Times, June 27, 2009. The value of Sony/ATV Music Publishing is estimated by Ryan Schinman, chief of Platinum Rye, to be US$1.5 billion. Shinman's estimate makes Jackson's share of Sony/ATV worth US$750 million, from which Jackson would have had an annual income of US$80 million. Sony Corporation has not commented on whether it intends to buy Jackson's share of Sony/ATV from the Jackson estate. Jackson's creditors could force a distressed sale, which would act in Sony's favor since it would lower the sale price, but only if the trust set up by Jackson for his stake in Sony/ATV is revocable. A distressed sale would lower the value of Jackson's estate, and thus might not raise enough to cover the debts owed by the estate. \n\nTaxation of estate\n\nThe estate administrators and the IRS have estimated portions of the estate differently. The estate estimated that the value of Jackson's likeness is only $2,105; whereas the IRS estimated that the likeness to be worth $434.26 million. The estate estimated \"no worth in Jackson's interest in a trust that owns some songs of his and the Beatles, but the IRS valued it at $469 million.\" Also in dispute is the value of \"Jackson's share of the Jackson 5 master recordings rights, stocks and bonds, and various cars Jackson owned.\" The IRS proposed \"imposing $505 million in taxes plus an additional $197 million in penalties, including a gross valuation misstatement penalty.\" On July 26, 2013, the estate filed a U.S. Tax Court petition claiming \"the IRS overestimated the value of its assets, including Jackson's likeness, real estate, a Bentley, a Lloyds of London insurance policy, Jackson's share of MJJ Ventures Inc., and two trusts.\". Jackson estate attorney Paul Hoffman of Hoffman, Sabban & Watenmaker told Bloomberg News, \"The IRS is wrong.\" The case title is Estate of Michael J. Jackson v. IRS, 17152-13, U.S. Tax Court in Washington, DC.\n\nPublic reaction\n\nMedia and Internet coverage\n\nThe first reports that Jackson had suffered a cardiac arrest then that he had died came from the Los Angeles-based celebrity news website TMZ. Doctors at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center pronounced Jackson dead at 2:26 p.m. and 18 minutes later, TMZ published the following statement: \"Michael Jackson passed away today at the age of 50.\" The Los Angeles Times confirmed the report at 2:51 p.m. PDT (5:51 p.m. EDT). The news spread quickly online, allowing websites to slow down and crash from user overload. Both TMZ and the Los Angeles Times suffered outages.Rawlinson, Linnie and Nick Hunt. [http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/26/michael.jackson.internet/index.html Jackson Dies, almost takes Internet With Him], CNN, June 27, 2009. Google initially believed that the input from millions of people searching for \"Michael Jackson\" meant that the search engine was under attack. Twitter reported a crash, as did Wikipedia at 3:15 p.m. The Wikimedia Foundation reported nearly a million visitors to Jackson's biography within one hour, probably the most visitors in a one-hour period to any article in Wikipedia's history. The AOL Instant Messenger went down for 40 minutes. AOL called it a \"seminal moment in Internet history\", adding \"We've never seen anything like it in terms of scope or depth.\"Wood, Daniel B. [http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2009/0627/p25s09-usgn.html Outpouring over Michael Jackson unlike anything since Princess Di], Christian Science Monitor, June 27, 2009.\n\nAround 15% of Twitter posts (5,000 tweets per minute) reportedly mentioned Jackson after the news broke,Skok, David, [http://www.vancouversun.com/Entertainment/Internet+stretched+limit+fans+flock+Michael+Jackson+news/1736311/story.html Internet stretched to limit as fans flock for Michael Jackson news], The Vancouver Sun, June 26, 2009.Wortham, Jenna. [http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/michael-jackson-tops-the-charts-on-twitter/ Michael Jackson Tops the Charts on Twitter], The New York Times, June 25, 2009. compared to the 5% recalled as having mentioned the Iranian elections or the flu pandemic that had made headlines earlier in the year. Overall, web traffic ranged from 11 to at least 20% higher than normal. MTV and BET aired marathons of Jackson's music videos.Stelter, Brian. [http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/the-michael-jackson-channel/?scp\n2&sqMTV&st\ncse MTV's Jackson Marathon] The New York Times, June 26, 2009. Specials about Jackson aired on multiple television stations around the world. The British soap opera EastEnders added a last-minute scene, in which the character Denise Johnson discussed the news with Patrick Trueman, to the June 26 episode. Whilst all British newspapers printed pictures of Jackson in his youth or in his prime, The Sun (for the day after his death) was the only paper to show Jackson from 2009 at his frailest, and keeping to their regular promotion of 'Wacko Jacko.' The next day, The Sun fell into course with the rest of the newspapers and Jackson was the topic of every front-page headline in The Sun for about two weeks following his death. Magazines including Time published commemorative editions. A scene that had featured Jackson's sister La Toya was cut from the film Brüno out of respect toward Jackson's family. \n\nAccording to an analysis released by the Global Language Monitor, \"72 hours after his death, Jackson jumped to the No. 9 spot for the global print and electronic media. For Internet, blogs and social media, Jackson jumped to the No. 2, only trailing the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States. The results showed the growing disparity between the mainstream global media, and what is playing out for news on the Internet, and beyond\". Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of GLM, said the death of Michael Jackson had \"resulted in a global media event of the first order\" and \"the fact that he has broken into the top media of the 21st century\" was a \"testament to the global impact of the man and his music.\" Commentators around the globe made connections between Jackson's death and the problems they perceived with everything from the racial dichotomy that Jackson sang about, to the \"profoundly tragic figure\" of Michael Jackson —from American capitalism and globalization, to the fall of the music industry in the 1980s. \"Commentators around the world have absolutely flipped\", wrote Patrik Etschmayer of Switzerland's Nachrichten newspaper. Le Figaro columnist Yann Moix said that although Jackson, like his iconic Moonwalk, lived life in reverse, the world at his death shed \"identical and universal tears\". \n\nStatistics published by the Pew Research Center suggested that two out of three Americans believed the coverage of Jackson's death was excessive, while 3% felt it was insufficient. In the UK, the BBC received over 700 complaints from viewers who thought his death dominated the news. On June 29, American conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh said the coverage was a \"horrible disgrace\" and lent his support to activist-ministers Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who were fighting to stem the press's speculation about what caused the death. Other conservatives, including commentator Bill O'Reilly and Congressman Peter T. King, also disapproved the receiving of the media attention about Jackson's death. Meanwhile, Hugo Chávez, the President of Venezuela, called the pop star's death some \"lamentable news\",Associated Press (June 26, 2009). [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31561046/ \"Fans around the world mourn Michael Jackson\"]. MSNBC. Retrieved April 6, 2010. but criticized CNN for giving this news more coverage than they gave a coup d'état taking place in Honduras.El Universal, Mexico [http://worldmeets.us/eluniversal000038.shtml \"Hugo Chavez Scolds CNN for Coverage of Michael Jackson's Death\"]\n\nIn August 2009, there were reports that Jackson's family paid social media marketing company uSocial.net to increase the numbers of followers on Jackson's Twitter profile. According to the New York Daily News, uSocial was contracted to deliver 25,000 followers to the account. It was not specified whether the service was rendered before or after his death.\n\nGrief\n\nNews of Jackson's death triggered an outpouring of grief around the world. The circumstances and timing of his death were compared to those of Elvis Presley and John Lennon. Fans gathered outside the UCLA Medical Center, Neverland Ranch, his Holmby Hills home, the Hayvenhurst Jackson family home in Encino, the Apollo Theater in New York, and at Hitsville U.S.A., the old Motown headquarters in Detroit where Jackson's career began, now the Motown Museum. Streets around the hospital were blocked off, and across America people left offices and factories to watch the breaking news on television.Coleman, Mark. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/michael-jackson/5645517/Michael-Jackson-is-dead-fans-mourn-outside-hospital.html Michael Jackson is dead: fans mourn outside hospital], The Daily Telegraph, June 26, 2009. A small crowd, including the city's mayor, gathered outside his childhood home in Gary, where the flag on city hall was flown at half staff in his honor. Fans in Hollywood initially gathered around the Walk of Fame star of another Michael Jackson—unable to access the singer's star, which had been temporarily covered by equipment in place for the Brüno film premiere. Grieving fans and memorial tributes relocated from the talk radio host's star the next day. \n\nFrom Odessa to Brussels, and beyond, fans held their own memorial gatherings. U.S. President Barack Obama sent a letter of condolence to the Jackson family, and the House of Representatives observed a moment of silence. Obama later stated that Jackson \"will go down in history as one of our greatest entertainers\". Former South African President Nelson Mandela issued a message through his foundation saying Jackson's loss would be felt worldwide. \n\nIn Japan, where Jackson had somewhat of an idol status, the top government spokesman and other ministers expressed their condolences. Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Tsutomu Sato told reporters, \"I feel sad as I had watched him since he was a member of Jackson Five.\" \"Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada has credited him with building a generation with his music.\" \"'He was a superstar. It is an extremely tragic loss. But it is fantastic he was able to give so many dreams and so much hope to the people of the world,' said Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe.\" \n\nBritish Prime Minister Gordon Brown issue a brief statement on Jackson's death: \"This is very sad news for the millions of Michael Jackson fans in Britain and around the world.\" The Conservative opposition leader, David Cameron, said, \"I know Michael Jackson's fans in Britain and around the world will be sad today. Despite the controversies, he was a legendary entertainer.\" \n\nRussian fans gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Moscow to mourn. One told Russia's Novosti newspaper, \"This is so difficult! I'm hurt, very hurt! … For us, this is a very great loss. To us, he became a symbol of the spiritual world. It's hard to convey how great a loss this is.\" France's Minister Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, said, \"We all have a Michael Jackson within.\" Elizabeth Taylor, a long-time friend, said she can't imagine life without him.[http://www.usmagazine.com/celebritynews/news/elizabeth-taylor-i-loved-michael-with-all-my-soul-2009266 Elizabeth Taylor: \"I Loved Michael With All My Soul\"], US Magazine, June 26, 2009. Liza Minnelli told CBS, \"When the autopsy comes, all hell's going to break loose, so thank God we're celebrating him now.\"Gumbel, Andrew. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/26/michael-jackson-drugs-doctor-missing Police focus on doctor who was with Michael Jackson as he died], The Guardian, June 27, 2009. His sister La Toya claimed that his daughter said he was being overworked. La Toya is quoted as saying: \"She said, 'No, you don't understand. They kept working him and Daddy didn't want that, but they worked him constantly'. I felt so bad.\" \n\nTributes\n\nOn June 30, 2009, U2 while performing their first show of the U2 360 tour in Barcelona dedicated the song \"Angel of Harlem\" to Jackson. Bono sang verses from \"Man In The Mirror\" and \"Don't Stop Till You Get Enough\" at the end of the song.\nOn July 10, 2009, six thousand fans attended a musical tribute in Jackson's hometown of Gary, Indiana. Local performers staged a medley of his songs, and mayor Rudy Clay unveiled a seven-foot memorial to him. Jesse Jackson addressed the crowd, stating, \"This is where Michael learned to dance, where he learned to sing, where he learned to sacrifice.\" The Game, was among the first performers to release a tribute song: his single \"Better on the Other Side\" came out the day after Jackson's death. Produced by DJ Khalil, this song featured vocals by Diddy, Chris Brown, Polow da Don, Mario Winans, Usher, and Boyz II Men. A wide variety of other artists recorded musical tributes, such as 50 Cent, LL Cool J, Robbie Williams, Akon and guitarist Buckethead (whose song entitled \"The Homing Beacon\" was inspired by Jackson's 3-D film, Captain EO.) \n\nOn June 26, multiple artists, such as Pharrell Williams and Lily Allen, paid tribute to Jackson at the Glastonbury Festival. Performances included Allen wearing a single white glove (which was a signature look for Jackson) for her set on the Pyramid Stage, while The Streets performed a cover of \"Billie Jean\". Tributes to Jackson at the musical festival continued over the weekend from June 26 to June 28. On July 5, 2009. Madonna performed a tribute to Jackson during the second leg of the Sticky & Sweet Tour. While performing a medley of Jackson's songs, as a Jackson impersonator performed Jackson's signature moves, photos of Jackson were shown on screen behind them. After the performance, Madonna told the crowd, \"Let's give it up for one of the greatest artists the world has ever known\", leading to applause from the crowd. Beyonce Knowles dedicated her song \"Halo\" to Jackson during multiple concerts during her I Am... World Tour. Knowles, who cites Jackson as her biggest influence, has been referred to as Jackson's heir apparent, along with drawing continuous comparisons to him.\n\nArtists from the metal and hard rock community also paid homage to Jackson. Metallica paid tribute to Jackson during its encore at the Sonisphere Festival. Honoring Michael Jackson during its July 4 headlining appearance at the event, the band played a portion of 'Beat It' before easing into a riotous cover of Queen's 'Stone Cold Crazy'. Boston hard rockers Extreme performed a cover version of Jacksons's \"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin\" at the Midnight Rodeo in Amarillo, Texas. Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill, spoke about Jackson in an interview for an internet blog: \"He was an immense star, wasn't he? Let's face it. He's a worldwide superstar really and the grief that everybody's is showing, it doesn't surprise me at all. He was a very, very talented man.\" Members of the legendary metal band Black Sabbath released official statements regarding Jackson's death. Drummer Bill Ward: \"For those in heartache today, I wish you all wellness in healing. A great entertainer has died. I think those who experienced and heard his heart are more enlightened people for it than before. I believe you're all most fortunate to have connected to Michael Jackson.\" Bassist Geezer Butler: \"Saddened and shocked to hear of the passing of Michael Jackson. He truly was, and always will be, a true icon. 'Thriller' was one of the greatest pop masterpieces of all time. A sad day for our world. R.I.P.\" Legendary shock rocker, Alice Cooper released the following statement: \"Michael Jackson was easily as influential as James Brown, and that's saying a lot. We had Vincent Price in common. I used him first on 'Welcome To My Nightmare' in 1975, and he later used him on 'Thriller'. Nobody moved like Michael, he was truly the King of Pop.\" Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen, who worked with Jackson during the recording of Thriller, stated: \"I am really shocked; as I'm sure the world is, to hear the news. I had the pleasure of working with Michael on 'Beat It' back in '83 — one of my fondest memories in my career. Michael will be missed and may he rest in peace.\" Queen guitarist Brian May stated in his official website: \"Hard to know what to say — what to feel. I find myself wondering what might have happened on his tour... The number of dates in the U.K. that he had committed to was insane. I did have a feeling it was impossible, but I was so shocked to hear that he went so suddenly. Very sad. Of course, I still think of him as a boy — he used to come and see us (Queen) play when we were on tour in the States, and he and Freddie Mercury became close friends, close enough to record a couple of tracks together at Michael's house. Tracks which have never seen the light of day. Michael was the boy star of the Jackson Five, and always the most screamed at. I remember in their show, they tried very hard to make all the brothers equal in the presentation, but it was abundantly obvious that all most of the girl fans really wanted to see was little Michael. It was Michael who heard our track 'Another One Bites the Dust' when he came to see us on 'The Game' tour ... and told us we were mad if we didn't release it as a single.\" Former Guns n' Roses guitarist Slash, who played guitar on Jackson's single \"Give In to Me\" stated: \"Really sad news about Michael. He was a talent from on high.\" Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave performed a cover version of \"Billie Jean\" on June 27, 2009, at the Peace & Love festival in Borlänge, Sweden. Steve Vai and Andy Timmons of Danger Danger performed an instrumental version of \"Beat It\" at the Meinl Guitar Festival 2009 on June 27 in Gutenstetten, Germany. Former Skid Row frontman, Sebastian Bach commented: \"Another angel down... I am very sorry for my friend Jermaine's loss. I lived with Jermaine for three weeks last year (during the filming of the second season of CMT's hit series, 'Gone Country'), and we talked about his brother frequently. He said to me, 'When you cut up my brother, you're cutting up me'. I feel for the Jackson family, because I know all too well how they feel. Unfortunately.\" Geoff Tate of Queensrÿche stated: \"I grew up listening to Michael Jackson, watching him and his brothers perform on television. He made performing seem easy and inspired my generation with his music and his grace. He was one of a kind and will be missed but his music will live forever.\" Legendary Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen recorded \"Beat It\" with ex-Judas Priest/Iced Earth frontman Tim \"Ripper\" Owens on vocals. Guitarist Buckethead wrote a song entitled \"The Homing Beacon\", inspired by Jackson's 3-D film, Captain EO. Alternative metal band CKY performed \"Beat It\" for the duration of their \"Carver City\" Tour. In some instances, guitarist Chad I Ginsburg wore T-shirts depicting Jackson during the performances. \nPoison drummer Rikki Rockett commented: \"Michael Jackson — huge loss!!! The words genius and musical are used in the same sentence too often. Not in the case of Michael Jackson. His musical expression will never be topped and his inspiration will live forever. R.I.P.\" In October 2013, an all-star tribute album was released featuring current and former members of Iron Maiden, Kiss, Motörhead, Testament, Guns N' Roses, Fozzy, Quiet Riot, Dio, Whitesnake, Mr. Big, among others. \n\nJackson's sister La Toya released her song, \"Home\", on July 28 as a charity single in her brother's honor. All proceeds are being donated to one of Michael's favorite charities. BET's annual 2009 Awards Ceremony aired three days after Jackson's death, on June 28, 2009. It featured a tribute to the singer. Host Jamie Foxx said, \"We want to celebrate this black man. He belongs to us and we shared him with everybody else.\" The ceremony featured performances of several of Jackson's songs, including pieces from his time with The Jackson Five and those from his solo career. Joe Jackson and Al Sharpton were in the audience, and Janet Jackson spoke briefly on behalf of the family. The show was the most watched BET annual awards show in the awards shows history. A few days after Jackson's death, there were news reports to the effect that AEG Live, the promoter for Jackson's This Is It concerts, was preparing a tribute concert for September 2009. The show would reportedly follow the style arranged for the This Is It concerts. However, no details of any such concert have been announced.\n\nThe day after Jackson's death, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro announced that the city would erect a statue of the singer in the favela of Dona Marta. Jackson visited the community in 1996 and filmed a music video for \"They Don't Care About Us\" there. The mayor said that Jackson had helped make the community into \"a model for social development.\" Memorials were held all over the world, in places as diverse as Tokyo,Cobo, Leila.\n[http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/268216/michael-jackson-remains-a-global-phenomenon Michael Jackson Remains A Global Phenomenon], Billboard, July 2, 2009. Bucharest and Baku, Azerbaijan. In Midyat, Turkey, even a Salat al-Janazah (Islamic funeral prayer) was performed, and traditional funeral helva was cooked and distributed. \nThe music video for \"Do the Bartman\", a Simpsons song co-written by Jackson, was broadcast ahead of an episode rerun of The Simpsons on June 28. It featured a title card paying tribute to Jackson. The 1991 Simpsons episode that Jackson guest starred in under the name of John Jay Smith, \"Stark Raving Dad\", was broadcast on Fox on July 5. The episode had been broadcast on the Dutch Comedy Central the day after his death, and was dedicated to Jackson's memory. His 1978 film The Wiz (in which he co-starred alongside Diana Ross and Richard Pryor) was briefly re-released in a rare 35mm format and was shown at the Hollywood Theater in his honor. It was also re-released a week prior to the release of Michael Jackson's This Is It in select cities. Madonna opened the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards with a speech about Michael Jackson. Janet Jackson made an appearance at the VMAs to pay musical tribute to her late brother and honor his career. He was honored with a posthumous lifetime achievement award during the 52nd Grammy Awards on January 31, 2010. Jackson, who had an acting role in the 1978 film The Wiz, was featured in the 82nd annual Academy Awards ceremony's \"In Memoriam\" tribute. \n\nRecord sales\n\nJackson's record sales increased dramatically, eightyfold by June 29, according to HMV. Bill Carr of Amazon said the website sold out of all Jackson and Jackson 5 CDs within minutes of the news breaking, and that demand surpassed that for Elvis Presley and John Lennon after their sudden deaths. In Japan, six of his albums made SoundScan Japan's Top 200 Albums chart, and in Poland, Thriller 25 topped the national album chart and was replaced by King of Pop the following week. \n\nIn Australia, 15 of his albums occupied the ARIA top 100 as of July 5, four of them in the top ten, with three occupying the top three spots. He had 34 singles in the top 100 singles chart, including four in the top ten. Album sales were 62,015 for the previous week; singles tallied 107,821 units. In the second week, album sales rose from the previous week and tallied 88,650 copies. On July 12, four albums were in the top 10 with three occupying the top three spots. In New Zealand, Thriller 25 topped the chart. In Germany, King of Pop topped the album chart, and from June 28 to July 4, nine of his albums occupied the Top 20 of CAPIF in Argentina. \nIn Billboard's European Top 100 Albums, he made history with eight of his albums in the top ten positions. As of August 3, King of Pop has spent four weeks atop Billboard's European Top 100 Albums chart. The Collection also spent two weeks atop the same chart. \n\nIn the UK, on the Sunday following his death, his albums occupied 14 of the top 20 places on the Amazon.co.uk sales chart, with Off the Wall at the top. Number Ones reached the top of the UK Album Chart, and his studio albums occupied number two to number eight on the iTunes Music Store top albums. Six of his songs charted in the top 40: \"Man in the Mirror\" (11), \"Thriller\" (23), \"Billie Jean\" (25), \"Smooth Criminal\" (28)\", \"Beat It\" (30), and \"Earth Song\" (38). The following Sunday, 13 of Jackson's songs charted in the top 40, including \"Man in the Mirror\", which landed the number two spot. He broke Ruby Murray's 1955 record of five songs in the top 30. The Essential Michael Jackson topped the album chart, giving Jackson a second number one album in as many weeks. He had five of the top ten albums in the album chart. In third week sales, The Essential Michael Jackson retained the number one position and Jackson held three other positions within the top five. By August 3, Jackson had sold 2 million records and spent six consecutive weeks atop the album chart. He retained the top spot on the album chart for a seventh consecutive week. \n\nIn the U.S., Jackson broke three chart records on the first Billboard issue date that followed his death. The entire top nine positions on Billboards Top Pop Catalog Albums featured titles related to him. By the third week it would be the entire top 12 positions. Number Ones was the best-selling album of the week and topped the catalog chart with sales of 108,000, an increase of 2,340 percent. The Essential Michael Jackson (2) and Thriller (3) also sold over 100,000 units. The other titles on the chart are Off the Wall (4), Jackson Five's Ultimate Collection (5), Bad (6), Dangerous (7), HIStory: Past, Present and Future – Volume 1 (8) and Jackson's Ultimate Collection (9). Collectively, his solo albums sold 422,000 copies in the week following his death, 800,000 copies in the first full week, and 1.1 million copies in the following week of his memorial service. He also broke a record on the Top Digital Albums chart, with six of the top 10 slots, including the entire top four. On the Hot Digital Songs chart he placed a record of 25 songs on the 75-position list. In the U.S., Jackson became the first artist to sell over one million downloads in a week, with 2.6 million sales. \n\nBy August 5, Jackson had sold nearly 3.8 million albums and 7.6 million tracks in the U.S.. Number Ones was the best-selling album for six out of seven weeks that followed his death. By year's end in 2009, Jackson had become the best selling artist of the year selling 8.2 million albums in the U.S. He also became the first artist in history to have four of the top 20 best-selling albums in a single year in the U.S., nearly doubling the sales of his nearest competitor. Jackson was also the third best selling digital artist of 2009 in the U.S., selling approximately 12.35 million units. \nIn the 12 months that followed his death Jackson sold nine million albums in the U.S., and 35 million albums worldwide. His estate also generated revenues of one billion dollars. \n\nServices\n\nMemorial\n\nA private family service was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles, after a public memorial at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on July 7, where Jackson had rehearsed on June 24, the day before he died. The memorial service was organized by Jackson's concert promoter, AEG Live, who gave away 17,500 free tickets (even if AEG was initially out to sell them, but due to complaints had to desist) to fans worldwide through an online lottery that attracted over 1.2 million applicants in 24 hours, and over a half-billion hits to the webpage. The service was broadcast live around the world, and was believed to have been watched by up to 2.5 billion people. \n\nJackson's solid-bronze casket (which reportedly cost USD $25,000) was placed in front of the stage. Numerous celebrity guests attended the services. His brothers each wore a single, white, sparkling glove, while Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Lionel Richie, Jermaine Jackson and others sang his songs. Jackson's then 11-year-old daughter, Paris, broke down as she told the crowd, \"I just want to say, ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine ... and I just want to say I love him... so much.\" Marlon Jackson said, \"Maybe now, Michael, they will leave you alone.\"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8137700.stm Fans and family remember Jackson], BBC News, July 7, 2009.\n\nBurial\n\nAccording to reports, Jackson's burial was originally scheduled for August 29, 2009 (which would have been his 51st birthday). His service and burial was held at Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park on September 3, 2009. The burial was attended by his family members, first wife Lisa Marie Presley as well as his old friends Macaulay Culkin, Chris Tucker, Quincy Jones, Eddie Murphy and Elizabeth Taylor, amongst others. The service began with Jackson's three children placing a golden crown on his casket. \n\nJackson's funeral cost one million dollars. Cost for the funeral included; $590,000 for Jackson's crypt in Forest Lawn's Great Mausoleum, a vast granite and marble filled palazzo, guest invitations for $11,716. The bill for security, including the fleet of luxury cars that delivered Jackson's children, parents and siblings to the ceremony, came to $30,000; the florist's bill was $16,000; and the funeral planner was paid $15,000. Howard Weitzman, a lawyer for the estate executors noted that Jackson's family decided on the details of the ceremony, but said a lavish funeral fit the life Jackson lived, commenting, \"It was Michael Jackson. He was bigger than life when he was alive.\" \n\nJackson's remains are interred in the Holly Terrace section in the Great Mausoleum. The mausoleum is a secure facility that is not accessible to the general public or to the media, except on an extremely limited basis. The unmarked crypt, which is partially visible at the tinted entrance of the Holly Terrace mausoleum, is covered in flowers fans leave, which are placed by security guards outside the crypt. The family had considered burying Jackson at Neverland Ranch. However, some family members objected to the site, saying that the ranch had been tainted by the sexual abuse allegations. Also, the owners of the ranch would have had to go through a permitting process with county and state government before establishing a cemetery at the site. In July 2010, security was increased at the mausoleum due to vandalism by fans leaving messages such as \"Keep the dream alive\" and \"Miss you sweet angel\" in permanent ink." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "NRG_Stadium.txt" ], "title": [ "NRG Stadium" ], "wiki_context": [ "NRG Stadium (formerly Reliant Stadium) is a multi-purpose stadium, in Houston, Texas, United States. NRG Stadium has a seating capacity of 71,795, a total area of 1900000 sqft with a 97000 sqft playing surface.\n\nThe stadium is the home of the National Football League's Houston Texans, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the Texas Bowl, host to many international soccer matches for the USA National Soccer Team, and other events. The stadium served as the host facility for Super Bowl XXXVIII on February 1, 2004 and WrestleMania XXV on April 5, 2009.\n\nNRG Stadium is part of a collection of venues (including the Astrodome), which are collectively called NRG Park. The entire complex is named for NRG Energy under a 32-year, US$300 million naming rights deal in 2000.\n\nThe stadium was constructed at the cost of $352 million. NRG Stadium is the first facility in the NFL to have a retractable roof. \n\nNRG Stadium will host Super Bowl LI in 2017. It also hosted all 10 of the University Interscholastic League's Texas high school football championship games at the conclusion of the 2015 season.\n\nHistory\n\nThe Houston NFL Holdings group came to Populous (then HOK Sport) to begin the schematic design for the first-ever NFL retractable roof football stadium in 1997. The intention was to create a football stadium to replace the Astrodome that would operate like an open-air facility but have the intimacy and comfort of an indoor arena. With the design for football and the square footage requirements of the rodeo, the building was designed in the 1900000 sqft range. Groundbreaking for the stadium was on March 9, 2000 and the building was officially topped off in October 2001. The stadium opened on August 24, 2002, with a preseason game between the Miami Dolphins and Houston Texans which the Dolphins won 24–3. The stadium hosted its first regular season NFL football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Texans on September 8, 2002. Construction was completed in 30 months. The first rodeo was held in the stadium in February 2003.\n\nDuring a Texans preseason game on August 30, 2012, against the Minnesota Vikings, an intoxicated fan fell to his death from an escalator. \n\nOn March 19, 2014, the stadium was renamed NRG Stadium, after NRG Energy, the parent company of Reliant Energy. \n\nDuring the 2015 season, a permanent artificial surface was installed at NRG Stadium. The Texans had used a natural surface since the stadium opened, using a system of trays of sod similar to one used at Giants Stadium in its experiment with using a grass surface. In recent years, the stadium installed artificial turf to be used during high school and college games while keeping the grass for Texans games. After the Texans' home opener, complaints about the field conditions finally led to the installation of the artificial surface for Texans games.\n\nHurricane Ike damage\n\nOn the night of September 12–13, 2008 the stadium sustained damage from Hurricane Ike forcing the Houston Texans home opener scheduled for September 14 to be postponed. Part of the roof cladding came off, and there was wind and water damage to other sections of the stadium. There were also large pieces of debris inside the stadium from the hurricane and the stadium authority declared that the stadium did not suffer significant structural damage except for the roof and the Texans would be able to play all of their 8 home games at Reliant Stadium with the roof open.\n\nThe Texans home opener against the Baltimore Ravens was initially postponed one day from Sunday, September 14, 2008 to Monday, September 15, but when the extent of the damage from Hurricane Ike became known, the NFL rescheduled the Texans & Ravens game to week 10 (November 9, 2008), which was to have been the bye week for the Ravens and the Texans scheduled home game against the Cincinnati Bengals. That game was rescheduled to week 8 (October 26), which was to have been the bye week for both the Texans and Bengals. The Bengals bye week was moved from October 26 to November 9, originally scheduled for the Ravens. Both the Texans and Ravens took their unexpected bye week in week 2, the weekend Hurricane Ike hit East Texas and the Gulf Coast, despite the fact that both teams were preparing that whole week to play that game as scheduled.\n\nThe stadium reopened on October 5, 2008 when the Texans hosted the Indianapolis Colts and hosted three additional home games in October.\n\nThe stadium was repaired by Houston-based rope access inspection and construction firm Reel Group Americas on February 13, 2009.\n\nDesign and technology\n\nThe stadium was designed by the architectural firms of Hermes Reed Architects and Lockwood, Andrews and Newnam who were teamed to create the Houston Stadium Consultants (HSC). The architects of Populous (then HOK Sport) and the HSC worked together with engineers from Walter P Moore and Uni-Systems to design the stadium utilizing the principles of kinetic architecture. The facility offers a sense of transparency, with its fabric roof and expansive areas of glazing. At night, the building appears to glow from within. The extensive use of glass provides an open-air feel to the concourses, which are open to the field of play. NRG Stadium has over 7,000 club seats, 186 luxury suites, and multiple lounges and bars. The stadium can be configured to utilize a 125000 sqft space for meetings, specialty functions, exhibits, and concerts.\n\nOne of the most notable aspects of the design is the stadium's retractable, fabric roof. The roof mechanization consists of two large panels that split apart at the 50 yard line, lying over and above each end zone when fully retracted. 10 parallel, tri-chord trusses ride on two parallel rails, each supported by a large, 675 ft-long super-truss. Roof operation is controlled in the stadium press box via computer, containing live images of the travel path of each roof panel; plus, furnishing live feedback from all roof components throughout the operation. The roof panels can be opened or closed in as little as 7 minutes, moving at a speed of up to 35 ft-per-minute. \n\nOne bleacher section behind the north end zone, called the \"Bull Pen\", is the designated fan section for the hometeam. The fans in the Bull Pen interact directly with the action on the field, helping to create and implement fan traditions, songs, chants, and other elements of the game-day experience for spectators all over the stadium. Fans in the Bull Pen are encouraged to stand throughout the game, sing, cheer, and otherwise support the team in an enthusiastic manner. \n\nIn 2011, Reliant updated their logo and therefore had to update their signage all over the stadium. \n\nIn December 2012, it was announced that, in order to help bring the Super Bowl back to Houston, the stadium's end zone displays would be replaced with the largest digital displays in any professional sports venue. The video screens were revealed August 16, 2013 and are the second largest of their kind, at a total of 14,549 square feet of screens. This tops the previous record of AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. This has since been topped by the digital display boards located in EverBank Field, the home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, now home to the largest digital display boards in any stadium in the world. \n\nStadium usage\n\nSports\n\nAmerican football\n\nThe Houston Texans have played their home games at NRG Stadium (formerly Reliant Stadium) since their inception in 2002. The annual calendar consists of 8 regular season and 2 pre-season games, plus any playoff games the Texans host. The first game played was on August 24, 2002, in front of 69,432 in attendance as the Texans hosted the Miami Dolphins in their first preseason game. The first regular season game was played on September 8 of that year, where the expansion Texans defeated the Dallas Cowboys 19–10 in front of 69,604. The first Monday Night Football game in Texans history was held on December 1, 2008 at Reliant Stadium. Playing in front of a then franchise-record crowd of 70,809, the Texans defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 30–17. Since then that record crowd has been broken in the next 2 Texans home games of that season. Their December 7 home game against the Tennessee Titans saw a then record-crowd of 70,831 and the December 28 home finale against the Chicago Bears drew then a current franchise-crowd record of 70,838. That record was broken on November 23, 2009, when a record crowd of 71,153 were in attendance during the Texans second ever Monday Night Football game against Houston's former NFL team, the Tennessee Titans. The Texans home finale of the 2009 season against the New England Patriots on January 3, 2010 drew 71,029.\n\nReliant Stadium hosted Super Bowl XXXVIII on February 1, 2004 where the New England Patriots defeated the Carolina Panthers, 32–29 in front of 71,525 in attendance.\n\nIt will be the host for Super Bowl LI in 2017.\n\nReliant Stadium hosted the Texans' first playoff game in franchise history on January 7, 2012, with Houston defeating the Cincinnati Bengals 31–10 in an AFC Wild Card game, drawing 71,725, the largest crowd ever to see a Texans game at Reliant Stadium.\n\nRodeo\n\nThe Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (or RodeoHouston) is a co-tenant of NRG Stadium. \"The building is as much for the rodeo as it is for the National Football League\", according to Leroy Shafer who is assistant general manager of the rodeo's marketing department. The rodeo is held three weeks in March, each year. During this time NRG Stadium also hosts an event on the Xtreme Bulls tour, the bull riding-only tour that is part of the PRCA, who also hosts the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.\n\nThe stadium includes a service area level to house rodeo livestock. The bulls, broncs, steers and roping calves are housed in the north end of the stadium under the lower bowl. Loading and unloading dock space to support the rodeo is located on the north end of the stadium. During rodeo performances, rolling doors will separate the dock into two receiving areas to isolate the food and concession deliveries from the rodeo equipment and livestock deliveries. A 42 ft concert performance stage is located at the south end of the stadium during rodeo events and is moved into the center of the facility by a hydraulic drive system for rodeo concert performances.\n\nOn February 25, 2012, the PBR brought its premier bull riding tour, the Built Ford Tough Series, to Reliant Stadium for the first time ever. It was the first time that a PBR event was a part of RodeoHouston. In addition, it was their first event in Houston in 11 years, after having previously held an event at the Compaq Center annually between 1998 and 2001.\n\nCollege football\n\nCollege football's Texas Bowl and Texas Kickoff are annually hosted at the stadium. The first-ever edition of the Texas Bowl featured a game between Rutgers University and Kansas State University, with Rutgers winning, 37–10. The stadium hosted the Houston Bowl before the Texas Bowl's inception and also hosted both the 2002 and 2005 Big 12 Championship Games. The 2005 game featured Houston native Vince Young at quarterback for the University of Texas at Austin and led the Longhorns to a 70–3 rout of the University of Colorado in front of 71,107. In addition, the East–West Shrine Game was held there in 2007.\n\nA Bayou Classic game between Grambling State and Southern was held here in November 2005 due to Hurricane Katrina damage in their usual venue at the Superdome.\n\nThe University of Houston and Rice University have each played regular season home games at NRG Stadium in the past. The Bayou Bucket Classic was held there in 2004, and in 2011, the game was announced to be played at Reliant Stadium for the 2012 and 2013 seasons as well. \n\nThe stadium also hosts the \"Battle of the Piney Woods\" since 2010. It is one of the oldest football rivalries in Texas featuring Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin State University. The series was originally scheduled to run until 2013, before being extended to 2017, and finally in March 2015, was made the permanent home of the series.\n\nTexas Southern University and Prairie View A&M University each have played selected regular season home games at NRG Stadium as well.\n\nSoccer\n\nNRG Stadium hosts several international club matches each year. The games are generally held in the spring and summer before the NFL season starts. The stadium hosted CONCACAF Gold Cup matches in 2005 and 2007. The Gold Cup matches in 2007 included Round 1 matches, and a quarterfinal doubleheader match. The venue's attendance record was set during a preparation match between the Mexico national team and the U.S. men's soccer team.\n\nOn February 6, 2008, USA–Mexico was held at Reliant Stadium to a capacity crowd of 70,103. The previous USA vs. Mexico match in Reliant Stadium drew a sellout crowd of 69,582 fans on May 8, 2003 and is the largest home crowd for the U.S. men's national team this decade, until the USA played Mexico for a capacity crowd of 80,702 fans in Giants Stadium for the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final.\n\nOn January 25, 2012 Venezuela played a friendly match with Mexico, with Mexico winning 3–1.\n\nReliant Stadium also hosted the 2010 MLS All-Star Game as Manchester United won 5–2.\n\nOn May 31, 2013 Mexico played another friendly, with Nigeria, which ended in a 2–2 draw.\n\nIn June 2016, NRG stadium hosted two matches in the group stage and one semifinal in the Copa América Centenario.\n\nCollege basketball\n\nThe stadium has hosted the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament several times, including the 2008, 2010 & 2015 South Regional Finals, and the Final Four in 2011 & 2016.\n\nMotorsports\n \nFor the past five years NRG Stadium has played host to Monster Jam. Also, it has hosted a round of the AMA Supercross Championship since 2003, replacing the Astrodome which had been host since 1974. \n\nConcerts\n\n*On August 2, 2003, Metallica along with Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Mudvayne and Deftones played a concert in NRG Stadium during Metallica's Summer Sanitarium '03 tour. It was at this concert that Linkin Park shot some footage for their DVD Live in Texas.\n*On April 7, 2005, NRG Stadium played host to a tribute concert for the late Tejano-singer Selena called Selena ¡VIVE!, held on the 10th anniversary of her death. The concert was broadcast live on the Spanish-language television network Univision. The concert would earn a 35.9 Nielsen household rating making it the most watched Spanish language program in American television history. \n*Reliant Stadium played host to The Rolling Stones on January 25, 2003, during the band's 2002–2003 Licks Tour.\n*U2 performed at the stadium on October 14, 2009 during their U2 360° Tour.\n*On March 3, 2013 Demi Lovato performed her new single \"Heart Attack\" for the first time. It was a crowd of 62,224 fans that welcomed the Texas native star. \n*On August 22, 2014 One Direction performed at NRG Stadium for their Where We Are Tour.\n*On March 17, 2015 Ariana Grande performed at NRG Stadium for her world tour, The Honeymoon Tour, with a near-record crowd of more than 75,000. This concert was part of RodeoHouston.\n*On May 7, 2016, Beyoncé performed at NRG Stadium as part of her The Formation World Tour. \n\nHockey\n\n*On September 23, 2011 the Dallas Stars and the Phoenix Coyotes were scheduled to play a preseason game. This proposed game was later canceled citing costs to put ice in the stadium. \n\nOther events\n\nThe Offshore Technology Conference is held annually in NRG Center and utilizes the stadium for exhibits. In 2006, 59,236 were in attendance which was the largest convention in Houston in 2006 and the highest attendance for the event since 1982." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "On_the_Origin_of_Species.txt" ], "title": [ "On the Origin of Species" ], "wiki_context": [ "On the Origin of Species, published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. It presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. Darwin included evidence that he had gathered on the Beagle expedition in the 1830s and his subsequent findings from research, correspondence, and experimentation. \n\nVarious evolutionary ideas had already been proposed to explain new findings in biology. There was growing support for such ideas among dissident anatomists and the general public, but during the first half of the 19th century the English scientific establishment was closely tied to the Church of England, while science was part of natural theology. Ideas about the transmutation of species were controversial as they conflicted with the beliefs that species were unchanging parts of a designed hierarchy and that humans were unique, unrelated to other animals. The political and theological implications were intensely debated, but transmutation was not accepted by the scientific mainstream.\n\nThe book was written for non-specialist readers and attracted widespread interest upon its publication. As Darwin was an eminent scientist, his findings were taken seriously and the evidence he presented generated scientific, philosophical, and religious discussion. The debate over the book contributed to the campaign by T. H. Huxley and his fellow members of the X Club to secularise science by promoting scientific naturalism. Within two decades there was widespread scientific agreement that evolution, with a branching pattern of common descent, had occurred, but scientists were slow to give natural selection the significance that Darwin thought appropriate. During \"the eclipse of Darwinism\" from the 1880s to the 1930s, various other mechanisms of evolution were given more credit. With the development of the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930s and 1940s, Darwin's concept of evolutionary adaptation through natural selection became central to modern evolutionary theory, and it has now become the unifying concept of the life sciences.\n\nSummary of Darwin's theory\n\nDarwin's theory of evolution is based on key facts and the inferences drawn from them, which biologist Ernst Mayr summarised as follows: \n\n* Every species is fertile enough that if all offspring survived to reproduce the population would grow (fact).\n* Despite periodic fluctuations, populations remain roughly the same size (fact).\n* Resources such as food are limited and are relatively stable over time (fact).\n* A struggle for survival ensues (inference).\n* Individuals in a population vary significantly from one another (fact).\n* Much of this variation is heritable (fact).\n* Individuals less suited to the environment are less likely to survive and less likely to reproduce; individuals more suited to the environment are more likely to survive and more likely to reproduce and leave their heritable traits to future generations, which produces the process of natural selection (fact).\n* This slowly effected process results in populations changing to adapt to their environments, and ultimately, these variations accumulate over time to form new species (inference).\n\nBackground\n\nDevelopments before Darwin's theory\n\nIn later editions of the book, Darwin traced evolutionary ideas as far back as Aristotle; the text he cites is a summary by Aristotle of the ideas of the earlier Greek philosopher Empedocles. Early Christian Church Fathers and Medieval European scholars interpreted the Genesis creation narrative allegorically rather than as a literal historical account; organisms were described by their mythological and heraldic significance as well as by their physical form. Nature was widely believed to be unstable and capricious, with monstrous births from union between species, and spontaneous generation of life. \n\nThe Protestant Reformation inspired a literal interpretation of the Bible, with concepts of creation that conflicted with the findings of an emerging science seeking explanations congruent with the mechanical philosophy of René Descartes and the empiricism of the Baconian method. After the turmoil of the English Civil War, the Royal Society wanted to show that science did not threaten religious and political stability. John Ray developed an influential natural theology of rational order; in his taxonomy, species were static and fixed, their adaptation and complexity designed by God, and varieties showed minor differences caused by local conditions. In God's benevolent design, carnivores caused mercifully swift death, but the suffering caused by parasitism was a puzzling problem. The biological classification introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1735 also viewed species as fixed according to the divine plan. In 1766, Georges Buffon suggested that some similar species, such as horses and asses, or lions, tigers, and leopards, might be varieties descended from a common ancestor. The Ussher chronology of the 1650s had calculated creation at 4004 BC, but by the 1780s geologists assumed a much older world. Wernerians thought strata were deposits from shrinking seas, but James Hutton proposed a self-maintaining infinite cycle, anticipating uniformitarianism. \n\nCharles Darwin's grandfather Erasmus Darwin outlined a hypothesis of transmutation of species in the 1790s, and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck published a more developed theory in 1809. Both envisaged that spontaneous generation produced simple forms of life that progressively developed greater complexity, adapting to the environment by inheriting changes in adults caused by use or disuse. This process was later called Lamarckism. Lamarck thought there was an inherent progressive tendency driving organisms continuously towards greater complexity, in parallel but separate lineages with no extinction. Geoffroy contended that embryonic development recapitulated transformations of organisms in past eras when the environment acted on embryos, and that animal structures were determined by a constant plan as demonstrated by homologies. Georges Cuvier strongly disputed such ideas, holding that unrelated, fixed species showed similarities that reflected a design for functional needs. His palæontological work in the 1790s had established the reality of extinction, which he explained by local catastrophes, followed by repopulation of the affected areas by other species. \n\nIn Britain, William Paley's Natural Theology saw adaptation as evidence of beneficial \"design\" by the Creator acting through natural laws. All naturalists in the two English universities (Oxford and Cambridge) were Church of England clergymen, and science became a search for these laws. Geologists adapted catastrophism to show repeated worldwide annihilation and creation of new fixed species adapted to a changed environment, initially identifying the most recent catastrophe as the biblical flood. Some anatomists such as Robert Grant were influenced by Lamarck and Geoffroy, but most naturalists regarded their ideas of transmutation as a threat to divinely appointed social order. \n\nInception of Darwin's theory\n\nDarwin went to Edinburgh University in 1825 to study medicine. In his second year he neglected his medical studies for natural history and spent four months assisting Robert Grant's research into marine invertebrates. Grant revealed his enthusiasm for the transmutation of species, but Darwin rejected it. Starting in 1827, at Cambridge University, Darwin learnt science as natural theology from botanist John Stevens Henslow, and read Paley, John Herschel and Alexander von Humboldt. Filled with zeal for science, he studied catastrophist geology with Adam Sedgwick. \n\nIn December 1831, he joined the Beagle expedition as a gentleman naturalist and geologist. He read Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology and from the first stop ashore, at St. Jago, found Lyell's uniformitarianism a key to the geological history of landscapes. Darwin discovered fossils resembling huge armadillos, and noted the geographical distribution of modern species in hope of finding their \"centre of creation\". The three Fuegian missionaries the expedition returned to Tierra del Fuego were friendly and civilised, yet to Darwin their relatives on the island seemed \"miserable, degraded savages\", and he no longer saw an unbridgeable gap between humans and animals. As the Beagle neared England in 1836, he noted that species might not be fixed. \n\nRichard Owen showed that fossils of extinct species Darwin found in South America were allied to living species on the same continent. In March 1837, ornithologist John Gould announced that Darwin's rhea was a separate species from the previously described rhea (though their territories overlapped), that mockingbirds collected on the Galápagos Islands represented three separate species each unique to a particular island, and that several distinct birds from those islands were all classified as finches. Darwin began speculating, in a series of notebooks, on the possibility that \"one species does change into another\" to explain these findings, and around July sketched a genealogical branching of a single evolutionary tree, discarding Lamarck's independent lineages progressing to higher forms. Unconventionally, Darwin asked questions of fancy pigeon and animal breeders as well as established scientists. At the zoo he had his first sight of an ape, and was profoundly impressed by how human the orangutan seemed. \n\nIn late September 1838, he started reading Thomas Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population with its statistical argument that human populations, if unrestrained, breed beyond their means and struggle to survive. Darwin related this to the struggle for existence among wildlife and botanist de Candolle's \"warring of the species\" in plants; he immediately envisioned \"a force like a hundred thousand wedges\" pushing well-adapted variations into \"gaps in the economy of nature\", so that the survivors would pass on their form and abilities, and unfavourable variations would be destroyed. By December 1838, he had noted a similarity between the act of breeders selecting traits and a Malthusian Nature selecting among variants thrown up by \"chance\" so that \"every part of newly acquired structure is fully practical and perfected\". \n\nDarwin now had the framework of his theory of natural selection \"by which to work\", but he was fully occupied with his career as a geologist and held off writing a sketch of his theory until his book on The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs was completed in May 1842. \n\nFurther development\n\nDarwin continued to research and extensively revise his theory while focusing on his main work of publishing the scientific results of the Beagle voyage. He tentatively wrote of his ideas to Lyell in January 1842; then in June he roughed out a 35-page \"Pencil Sketch\" of his theory. Darwin began correspondence about his theorising with the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker in January 1844, and by July had rounded out his \"sketch\" into a 230-page \"Essay\", to be expanded with his research results and published if he died prematurely. \n\nIn November 1844, the anonymously published popular science book Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, written by Scottish journalist Robert Chambers, widened public interest in the concept of transmutation of species. Vestiges used evidence from the fossil record and embryology to support the claim that living things had progressed from the simple to the more complex over time. But it proposed a linear progression rather than the branching common descent theory behind Darwin's work in progress, and it ignored adaptation. Darwin read it soon after publication, and scorned its amateurish geology and zoology, but he carefully reviewed his own arguments after leading scientists, including Adam Sedgwick, attacked its morality and scientific errors. Vestiges had significant influence on public opinion, and the intense debate helped to pave the way for the acceptance of the more scientifically sophisticated Origin by moving evolutionary speculation into the mainstream. While few naturalists were willing to consider transmutation, Herbert Spencer became an active proponent of Lamarckism and progressive development in the 1850s. \n\nHooker was persuaded to take away a copy of the \"Essay\" in January 1847, and eventually sent a page of notes giving Darwin much needed feedback. Reminded of his lack of expertise in taxonomy, Darwin began an eight-year study of barnacles, becoming the leading expert on their classification. Using his theory, he discovered homologies showing that slightly changed body parts served different functions to meet new conditions, and he found an intermediate stage in the evolution of distinct sexes. \n\nDarwin's barnacle studies convinced him that variation arose constantly and not just in response to changed circumstances. In 1854, he completed the last part of his Beagle-related writing and began working full-time on evolution. His thinking changed from the view that species formed in isolated populations only, as on islands, to an emphasis on speciation without isolation; that is, he saw increasing specialisation within large stable populations as continuously exploiting new ecological niches. He conducted empirical research focusing on difficulties with his theory. He studied the developmental and anatomical differences between different breeds of many domestic animals, became actively involved in fancy pigeon breeding, and experimented (with the help of his son Francis) on ways that plant seeds and animals might disperse across oceans to colonise distant islands. By 1856, his theory was much more sophisticated, with a mass of supporting evidence. \n\nPublication\n\nEvents leading to publication\n\nAn 1855 paper on the \"introduction\" of species, written by Alfred Russel Wallace, claimed that patterns in the geographical distribution of living and fossil species could be explained if every new species always came into existence near an already existing, closely related species. Charles Lyell recognised the implications of Wallace's paper and its possible connection to Darwin's work, although Darwin did not, and in a letter written on 1–2 May 1856 Lyell urged Darwin to publish his theory to establish priority. Darwin was torn between the desire to set out a full and convincing account and the pressure to quickly produce a short paper. He met Lyell, and in correspondence with Joseph Dalton Hooker affirmed that he did not want to expose his ideas to review by an editor as would have been required to publish in an academic journal. He began a \"sketch\" account on 14 May 1856, and by July had decided to produce a full technical treatise on species. His theory including the principle of divergence was complete by 5 September 1857 when he sent Asa Gray a brief but detailed abstract of his ideas.\n\nDarwin was hard at work on his \"big book\" on Natural Selection, when on 18 June 1858 he received a parcel from Wallace, who stayed on the Maluku Islands (Ternate and Gilolo). It enclosed twenty pages describing an evolutionary mechanism, a response to Darwin's recent encouragement, with a request to send it on to Lyell if Darwin thought it worthwhile. The mechanism was similar to Darwin's own theory. Darwin wrote to Lyell that \"your words have come true with a vengeance, ... forestalled\" and he would \"of course, at once write and offer to send [it] to any journal\" that Wallace chose, adding that \"all my originality, whatever it may amount to, will be smashed\". Lyell and Hooker agreed that a joint publication putting together Wallace's pages with extracts from Darwin's 1844 Essay and his 1857 letter to Gray should be presented at the Linnean Society, and on 1 July 1858, the papers entitled On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection, by Wallace and Darwin respectively, were read out but drew little reaction. While Darwin considered Wallace's idea to be identical to his concept of natural selection, historians have pointed out differences. Darwin described natural selection as being analogous to the artificial selection practised by animal breeders, and emphasised competition between individuals; Wallace drew no comparison to selective breeding, and focused on ecological pressures that kept different varieties adapted to local conditions. Some historians have suggested that Wallace was actually discussing group selection rather than selection acting on individual variation. \n\nAfter the meeting, Darwin decided to write \"an abstract of my whole work\". He started work on 20 July 1858, while on holiday at Sandown, and wrote parts of it from memory. Lyell discussed arrangements with publisher John Murray III, of the publishing house John Murray, who responded immediately to Darwin's letter of 31 March 1859 with an agreement to publish the book without even seeing the manuscript, and an offer to Darwin of of the profits. (eventually Murray paid £180 to Darwin for the 1st edition and by Darwin's death in 1882 the book was in its 6th edition, earning Darwin nearly £3000. )\n\nChoice of title\n\nDarwin had initially decided to call his book An abstract of an Essay on the Origin of Species and Varieties Through natural selection, but with Murray's persuasion it was eventually changed to the snappier title: On the Origin of Species, with the title page adding by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.\n\nHere and elsewhere in the book, Darwin used the term \"races\" interchangeably with \"varieties\", with the meaning of varieties within a species. Thus, he discussed \"the several races, for instance, of the cabbage\" and \"the hereditary varieties or races of our domestic animals and plants\". There are very few references to human races, and Darwin avoided explaining this topic which was then controversial in debates over slavery and imperialism, but in Difficulties for the theory he indicated that the principle of sexual selection could also apply to \"the races of man\".\n\nTime taken to publish\n\nDarwin had his basic theory of natural selection \"by which to work\" by December 1838, yet almost twenty years later, when Wallace's letter arrived on 18 June 1858, Darwin was still not ready to publish his theory. It was long thought that Darwin avoided or delayed making his ideas public for personal reasons. Reasons suggested have included fear of religious persecution or social disgrace if his views were revealed, and concern about upsetting his clergymen naturalist friends or his pious wife Emma. Charles Darwin's illness caused repeated delays. His paper on Glen Roy had proved embarrassingly wrong, and he may have wanted to be sure he was correct. David Quammen has suggested all these factors may have contributed, and notes Darwin's large output of books and busy family life during that time. \n\nA more recent study by science historian John van Wyhe has determined that the idea that Darwin delayed publication only dates back to the 1940s, and Darwin's contemporaries thought the time he took was reasonable. Darwin always finished one book before starting another. While he was researching, he told many people about his interest in transmutation without causing outrage. He firmly intended to publish, but it was not until September 1854 that he could work on it full-time. His estimate that writing his \"big book\" would take five years was optimistic. \n\nPublication and subsequent editions\n\nOn the Origin of Species was first published on Thursday 24 November 1859, priced at fifteen shillings with a first printing of 1250 copies. The book had been offered to booksellers at Murray's autumn sale on Tuesday 22 November, and all available copies had been taken up immediately. In total, 1,250 copies were printed but after deducting presentation and review copies, and five for Stationers' Hall copyright, around 1,170 copies were available for sale. Significantly, 500 were taken by Mudie's Library, ensuring that the book promptly reached a large number of subscribers to the library. The second edition of 3,000 copies was quickly brought out on 7 January 1860, and incorporated numerous corrections as well as a response to religious objections by the addition of a new epigraph on page ii, a quotation from Charles Kingsley, and the phrase \"by the Creator\" added to the closing sentence. During Darwin's lifetime the book went through six editions, with cumulative changes and revisions to deal with counter-arguments raised. The third edition came out in 1861, with a number of sentences rewritten or added and an introductory appendix, An Historical Sketch of the Recent Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species, while the fourth in 1866 had further revisions. The fifth edition, published on 10 February 1869, incorporated more changes and for the first time included the phrase \"survival of the fittest\", which had been coined by the philosopher Herbert Spencer in his Principles of Biology (1864).\"This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called 'natural selection', or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.\" \n\nIn January 1871, George Jackson Mivart's On the Genesis of Species listed detailed arguments against natural selection, and claimed it included false metaphysics. Darwin made extensive revisions to the sixth edition of the Origin (this was the first edition in which he used the word \"evolution\" which had commonly been associated with embryological development, though all editions concluded with the word \"evolved\" ), and added a new chapter VII, Miscellaneous objections, to address Mivart's arguments.\n\nThe sixth edition was published by Murray on 19 February 1872 as The Origin of Species, with \"On\" dropped from the title. Darwin had told Murray of working men in Lancashire clubbing together to buy the 5th edition at fifteen shillings and wanted it made more widely available; the price was halved to 7s 6d by printing in a smaller font. It includes a glossary compiled by W.S. Dallas. Book sales increased from 60 to 250 per month.\n\nPublication outside Great Britain\n\nIn the United States, botanist Asa Gray an American colleague of Darwin negotiated with a Boston publisher for publication of an authorised American version, but learnt that two New York publishing firms were already planning to exploit the absence of international copyright to print Origin. Darwin was delighted by the popularity of the book, and asked Gray to keep any profits. Gray managed to negotiate a 5% royalty with Appleton's of New York, who got their edition out in mid January 1860, and the other two withdrew. In a May letter, Darwin mentioned a print run of 2,500 copies, but it is not clear if this referred to the first printing only as there were four that year. \n\nThe book was widely translated in Darwin's lifetime, but problems arose with translating concepts and metaphors, and some translations were biased by the translator's own agenda. Darwin distributed presentation copies in France and Germany, hoping that suitable applicants would come forward, as translators were expected to make their own arrangements with a local publisher. He welcomed the distinguished elderly naturalist and geologist Heinrich Georg Bronn, but the German translation published in 1860 imposed Bronn's own ideas, adding controversial themes that Darwin had deliberately omitted. Bronn translated \"favoured races\" as \"perfected races\", and added essays on issues including the origin of life, as well as a final chapter on religious implications partly inspired by Bronn's adherence to Naturphilosophie. In 1862, Bronn produced a second edition based on the third English edition and Darwin's suggested additions, but then died of a heart attack. Darwin corresponded closely with Julius Victor Carus, who published an improved translation in 1867. Darwin's attempts to find a translator in France fell through, and the translation by Clémence Royer published in 1862 added an introduction praising Darwin's ideas as an alternative to religious revelation and promoting ideas anticipating social Darwinism and eugenics, as well as numerous explanatory notes giving her own answers to doubts that Darwin expressed. Darwin corresponded with Royer about a second edition published in 1866 and a third in 1870, but he had difficulty getting her to remove her notes and was troubled by these editions. He remained unsatisfied until a translation by Edmond Barbier was published in 1876. A Dutch translation by Tiberius Cornelis Winkler was published in 1860. By 1864, additional translations had appeared in Italian and Russian. In Darwin's lifetime, Origin was published in Swedish in 1871, Danish in 1872, Polish in 1873, Hungarian in 1873–1874, Spanish in 1877 and Serbian in 1878. By 1977, it had appeared in an additional 18 languages.\n\nContent\n\nTitle pages and introduction\n\nPage ii contains quotations by William Whewell and Francis Bacon on the theology of natural laws, harmonising science and religion in accordance with Isaac Newton's belief in a rational God who established a law-abiding cosmos. In the second edition, Darwin added an epigraph from Joseph Butler affirming that God could work through scientific laws as much as through miracles, in a nod to the religious concerns of his oldest friends. The Introduction establishes Darwin's credentials as a naturalist and author, then refers to John Herschel's letter suggesting that the origin of species \"would be found to be a natural in contradistinction to a miraculous process\": \n\nWHEN on board HMS Beagle, as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species—that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers. \n\nDarwin refers specifically to the distribution of the species rheas, and to that of the Galápagos tortoises and mockingbirds. He mentions his years of work on his theory, and the arrival of Wallace at the same conclusion, which led him to \"publish this Abstract\" of his incomplete work. He outlines his ideas, and sets out the essence of his theory:\n\nAs many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form. \n\nStarting with the third edition, Darwin prefaced the introduction with a sketch of the historical development of evolutionary ideas. In that sketch he acknowledged that Patrick Matthew had, unknown to Wallace or himself, anticipated the concept of natural selection in an appendix to a book published in 1831; in the fourth edition he mentioned that William Charles Wells had done so as early as 1813. \n\nVariation under domestication and under nature\n\nChapter I covers animal husbandry and plant breeding, going back to ancient Egypt. Darwin discusses contemporary opinions on the origins of different breeds under cultivation to argue that many have been produced from common ancestors by selective breeding. As an illustration of artificial selection, he describes fancy pigeon breeding, noting that \"[t]he diversity of the breeds is something astonishing\", yet all were descended from one species of rock pigeon. Darwin saw two distinct kinds of variation: (1) rare abrupt changes he called \"sports\" or \"monstrosities\" (example: ancon sheep with short legs), and (2) ubiquitous small differences (example: slightly shorter or longer bill of pigeons).David Reznick (2009) The Origin Then and Now, Princeton University Press, p.49. Both types of hereditary changes can be used by breeders. However, for Darwin the small changes were most important in evolution.\n\nIn Chapter II, Darwin specifies that the distinction between species and varieties is arbitrary, with experts disagreeing and changing their decisions when new forms were found. He concludes that \"a well-marked variety may be justly called an incipient species\" and that \"species are only strongly marked and permanent varieties\". He argues for the ubiquity of variation in nature. Historians have noted that naturalists had long been aware that the individuals of a species differed from one another, but had generally considered such variations to be limited and unimportant deviations from the archetype of each species, that archetype being a fixed ideal in the mind of God. Darwin and Wallace made variation among individuals of the same species central to understanding the natural world.\n\nStruggle for existence, natural selection, and divergence\n\nIn Chapter III, Darwin asks how varieties \"which I have called incipient species\" become distinct species, and in answer introduces the key concept he calls \"natural selection\"; in the fifth edition he adds, \"But the expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer, of the Survival of the Fittest, is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient.\" \n\nOwing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relations to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring ... I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection, in order to mark its relation to man's power of selection.\n\nHe notes that both A. P. de Candolle and Charles Lyell had stated that all organisms are exposed to severe competition. Darwin emphasizes that he used the phrase \"struggle for existence\" in \"a large and metaphorical sense, including dependence of one being on another\"; he gives examples ranging from plants struggling against drought to plants competing for birds to eat their fruit and disseminate their seeds. He describes the struggle resulting from population growth: \"It is the doctrine of Malthus applied with manifold force to the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms.\" He discusses checks to such increase including complex ecological interdependencies, and notes that competition is most severe between closely related forms \"which fill nearly the same place in the economy of nature\". \n\nChapter IV details natural selection under the \"infinitely complex and close-fitting ... mutual relations of all organic beings to each other and to their physical conditions of life\". Darwin takes as an example a country where a change in conditions led to extinction of some species, immigration of others and, where suitable variations occurred, descendants of some species became adapted to new conditions. He remarks that the artificial selection practised by animal breeders frequently produced sharp divergence in character between breeds, and suggests that natural selection might do the same, saying:\n\nBut how, it may be asked, can any analogous principle apply in nature? I believe it can and does apply most efficiently, from the simple circumstance that the more diversified the descendants from any one species become in structure, constitution, and habits, by so much will they be better enabled to seize on many and widely diversified places in the polity of nature, and so be enabled to increase in numbers. \n\nHistorians have remarked that here Darwin anticipated the modern concept of an ecological niche. He did not suggest that every favourable variation must be selected, nor that the favoured animals were better or higher, but merely more adapted to their surroundings.\n\nDarwin proposes sexual selection, driven by competition between males for mates, to explain sexually dimorphic features such as lion manes, deer antlers, peacock tails, bird songs, and the bright plumage of some male birds. He analysed sexual selection more fully in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871). Natural selection was expected to work very slowly in forming new species, but given the effectiveness of artificial selection, he could \"see no limit to the amount of change, to the beauty and infinite complexity of the coadaptations between all organic beings, one with another and with their physical conditions of life, which may be effected in the long course of time by nature's power of selection\". Using a tree diagram and calculations, he indicates the \"divergence of character\" from original species into new species and genera. He describes branches falling off as extinction occurred, while new branches formed in \"the great Tree of life ... with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications\". \n\nVariation and heredity\n\nIn Darwin's time there was no agreed-upon model of heredity; in Chapter I Darwin admitted, \"The laws governing inheritance are quite unknown.\" He accepted a version of the inheritance of acquired characteristics (which after Darwin's death came to be called Lamarckism), and Chapter V discusses what he called the effects of use and disuse; he wrote that he thought \"there can be little doubt that use in our domestic animals strengthens and enlarges certain parts, and disuse diminishes them; and that such modifications are inherited\", and that this also applied in nature. Darwin stated that some changes that were commonly attributed to use and disuse, such as the loss of functional wings in some island dwelling insects, might be produced by natural selection. In later editions of Origin, Darwin expanded the role attributed to the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Darwin also admitted ignorance of the source of inheritable variations, but speculated they might be produced by environmental factors. However, one thing was clear: whatever the exact nature and causes of new variations, Darwin knew from observation and experiment that breeders were able to select such variations and produce huge differences in many generations of selection. The observation that selection works in domestic animals is not destroyed by lack of understanding of the underlying hereditary mechanism.\n\nBreeding of animals and plants showed related varieties varying in similar ways, or tending to revert to an ancestral form, and similar patterns of variation in distinct species were explained by Darwin as demonstrating common descent. He recounted how Lord Morton's mare apparently demonstrated telegony, offspring inheriting characteristics of a previous mate of the female parent, and accepted this process as increasing the variation available for natural selection. \n\nMore detail was given in Darwin's 1868 book on The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, which tried to explain heredity through his hypothesis of pangenesis. Although Darwin had privately questioned blending inheritance, he struggled with the theoretical difficulty that novel individual variations would tend to blend into a population. However, inherited variation could be seen, and Darwin's concept of selection working on a population with a range of small variations was workable. It was not until the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930s and 1940s that a model of heredity became completely integrated with a model of variation. This modern evolutionary synthesis had been dubbed Neo Darwinian Evolution because it encompasses Charles Darwin's theories of evolution with Gregor Mendel's theories of genetic inheritance. \n\nDifficulties for the theory\n\nChapter VI begins by saying the next three chapters will address possible objections to the theory, the first being that often no intermediate forms between closely related species are found, though the theory implies such forms must have existed. As Darwin noted, \"Firstly, why, if species have descended from other species by insensibly fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?\" Darwin attributed this to the competition between different forms, combined with the small number of individuals of intermediate forms, often leading to extinction of such forms. This difficulty can be referred to as the absence or rarity of transitional varieties in habitat space.\n\nAnother difficulty, related to the first one, is the absence or rarity of transitional varieties in time. Darwin commented that by the theory of natural selection \"innumerable transitional forms must have existed,\" and wondered \"why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?\" (for further discussion of these difficulties, see Speciation#Darwin's Dilemma and Bernstein et al. and Michod )\n\nThe chapter then deals with whether natural selection could produce complex specialised structures, and the behaviours to use them, when it would be difficult to imagine how intermediate forms could be functional. Darwin said:\n\nSecondly, is it possible that an animal having, for instance, the structure and habits of a bat, could have been formed by the modification of some animal with wholly different habits? Can we believe that natural selection could produce, on the one hand, organs of trifling importance, such as the tail of a giraffe, which serves as a fly-flapper, and, on the other hand, organs of such wonderful structure, as the eye, of which we hardly as yet fully understand the inimitable perfection? \n\nHis answer was that in many cases animals exist with intermediate structures that are functional. He presented flying squirrels, and flying lemurs as examples of how bats might have evolved from non-flying ancestors. He discussed various simple eyes found in invertebrates, starting with nothing more than an optic nerve coated with pigment, as examples of how the vertebrate eye could have evolved. Darwin concludes: \"If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case.\" \n\nIn a section on \"organs of little apparent importance\", Darwin discusses the difficulty of explaining various seemingly trivial traits with no evident adaptive function, and outlines some possibilities such as correlation with useful features. He accepts that we \"are profoundly ignorant of the causes producing slight and unimportant variations\" which distinguish domesticated breeds of animals,, Quote: \"We are profoundly ignorant of the causes producing slight and unimportant variations; and we are immediately made conscious of this by reflecting on the differences in the breeds of our domesticated animals in different countries\" and human races. He suggests that sexual selection might explain these variations:, Quote: \"… I gave, however, a tolerably clear sketch of this principle in the first edition of the 'Origin of Species,' and I there stated that it was applicable to man.\"\n\nI might have adduced for this same purpose the differences between the races of man, which are so strongly marked; I may add that some little light can apparently be thrown on the origin of these differences, chiefly through sexual selection of a particular kind, but without here entering on copious details my reasoning would appear frivolous. \n\nChapter VII (of the first edition) addresses the evolution of instincts. His examples included two he had investigated experimentally: slave-making ants and the construction of hexagonal cells by honey bees. Darwin noted that some species of slave-making ants were more dependent on slaves than others, and he observed that many ant species will collect and store the pupae of other species as food. He thought it reasonable that species with an extreme dependency on slave workers had evolved in incremental steps. He suggested that bees that make hexagonal cells evolved in steps from bees that made round cells, under pressure from natural selection to economise wax. Darwin concluded:\n\nFinally, it may not be a logical deduction, but to my imagination it is far more satisfactory to look at such instincts as the young cuckoo ejecting its foster-brothers, —ants making slaves, —the larvæ of ichneumonidæ feeding within the live bodies of caterpillars, —not as specially endowed or created instincts, but as small consequences of one general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die. \n\nChapter VIII addresses the idea that species had special characteristics that prevented hybrids from being fertile in order to preserve separately created species. Darwin said that, far from being constant, the difficulty in producing hybrids of related species, and the viability and fertility of the hybrids, varied greatly, especially among plants. Sometimes what were widely considered to be separate species produced fertile hybrid offspring freely, and in other cases what were considered to be mere varieties of the same species could only be crossed with difficulty. Darwin concluded: \"Finally, then, the facts briefly given in this chapter do not seem to me opposed to, but even rather to support the view, that there is no fundamental distinction between species and varieties.\" \n\nIn the sixth edition Darwin inserted a new chapter VII (renumbering the subsequent chapters) to respond to criticisms of earlier editions, including the objection that many features of organisms were not adaptive and could not have been produced by natural selection. He said some such features could have been by-products of adaptive changes to other features, and that often features seemed non-adaptive because their function was unknown, as shown by his book on Fertilisation of Orchids that explained how their elaborate structures facilitated pollination by insects. Much of the chapter responds to George Jackson Mivart's criticisms, including his claim that features such as baleen filters in whales, flatfish with both eyes on one side and the camouflage of stick insects could not have evolved through natural selection because intermediate stages would not have been adaptive. Darwin proposed scenarios for the incremental evolution of each feature. \n\nGeologic record\n\nChapter IX deals with the fact that the geologic record appears to show forms of life suddenly arising, without the innumerable transitional fossils expected from gradual changes. Darwin borrowed Charles Lyell's argument in Principles of Geology that the record is extremely imperfect as fossilisation is a very rare occurrence, spread over vast periods of time; since few areas had been geologically explored, there could only be fragmentary knowledge of geological formations, and fossil collections were very poor. Evolved local varieties which migrated into a wider area would seem to be the sudden appearance of a new species. Darwin did not expect to be able to reconstruct evolutionary history, but continuing discoveries gave him well founded hope that new finds would occasionally reveal transitional forms. To show that there had been enough time for natural selection to work slowly, he again cited Principles of Geology and other observations based on sedimentation and erosion, including an estimate that erosion of The Weald had taken 300 million years. The initial appearance of entire groups of well developed organisms in the oldest fossil-bearing layers, now known as the Cambrian explosion, posed a problem. Darwin had no doubt that earlier seas had swarmed with living creatures, but stated that he had no satisfactory explanation for the lack of fossils. Fossil evidence of pre-Cambrian life has since been found, extending the history of life back for billions of years. \n\nChapter X examines whether patterns in the fossil record are better explained by common descent and branching evolution through natural selection, than by the individual creation of fixed species. Darwin expected species to change slowly, but not at the same rate – some organisms such as Lingula were unchanged since the earliest fossils. The pace of natural selection would depend on variability and change in the environment. This distanced his theory from Lamarckian laws of inevitable progress. It has been argued that this anticipated the punctuated equilibrium hypothesis, but other scholars have preferred to emphasise Darwin's commitment to gradualism. He cited Richard Owen's findings that the earliest members of a class were a few simple and generalised species with characteristics intermediate between modern forms, and were followed by increasingly diverse and specialised forms, matching the branching of common descent from an ancestor. Patterns of extinction matched his theory, with related groups of species having a continued existence until extinction, then not reappearing. Recently extinct species were more similar to living species than those from earlier eras, and as he had seen in South America, and William Clift had shown in Australia, fossils from recent geological periods resembled species still living in the same area.\n\nGeographic distribution\n\nChapter XI deals with evidence from biogeography, starting with the observation that differences in flora and fauna from separate regions cannot be explained by environmental differences alone; South America, Africa, and Australia all have regions with similar climates at similar latitudes, but those regions have very different plants and animals. The species found in one area of a continent are more closely allied with species found in other regions of that same continent than to species found on other continents. Darwin noted that barriers to migration played an important role in the differences between the species of different regions. The coastal sea life of the Atlantic and Pacific sides of Central America had almost no species in common even though the Isthmus of Panama was only a few miles wide. His explanation was a combination of migration and descent with modification. He went on to say: \"On this principle of inheritance with modification, we can understand how it is that sections of genera, whole genera, and even families are confined to the same areas, as is so commonly and notoriously the case.\" Darwin explained how a volcanic island formed a few hundred miles from a continent might be colonised by a few species from that continent. These species would become modified over time, but would still be related to species found on the continent, and Darwin observed that this was a common pattern. Darwin discussed ways that species could be dispersed across oceans to colonise islands, many of which he had investigated experimentally. \n\nChapter XII continues the discussion of biogeography. After a brief discussion of freshwater species, it returns to oceanic islands and their peculiarities; for example on some islands roles played by mammals on continents were played by other animals such as flightless birds or reptiles. The summary of both chapters says:\n\n... I think all the grand leading facts of geographical distribution are explicable on the theory of migration (generally of the more dominant forms of life), together with subsequent modification and the multiplication of new forms. We can thus understand the high importance of barriers, whether of land or water, which separate our several zoological and botanical provinces. We can thus understand the localisation of sub-genera, genera, and families; and how it is that under different latitudes, for instance in South America, the inhabitants of the plains and mountains, of the forests, marshes, and deserts, are in so mysterious a manner linked together by affinity, and are likewise linked to the extinct beings which formerly inhabited the same continent ... On these same principles, we can understand, as I have endeavoured to show, why oceanic islands should have few inhabitants, but of these a great number should be endemic or peculiar; ... \n\nClassification, morphology, embryology, rudimentary organs\n\nChapter XIII starts by observing that classification depends on species being grouped together in a multilevel system of groups and sub groups based on varying degrees of resemblance. After discussing classification issues, Darwin concludes:\n\nAll the foregoing rules and aids and difficulties in classification are explained, if I do not greatly deceive myself, on the view that the natural system is founded on descent with modification; that the characters which naturalists consider as showing true affinity between any two or more species, are those which have been inherited from a common parent, and, in so far, all true classification is genealogical; that community of descent is the hidden bond which naturalists have been unconsciously seeking, ... \n\nDarwin discusses morphology, including the importance of homologous structures. He says, \"What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include the same bones, in the same relative positions?\" This made no sense under doctrines of independent creation of species, as even Richard Owen had admitted, but the \"explanation is manifest on the theory of the natural selection of successive slight modifications\" showing common descent. He notes that animals of the same class often have extremely similar embryos. Darwin discusses rudimentary organs, such as the wings of flightless birds and the rudiments of pelvis and leg bones found in some snakes. He remarks that some rudimentary organs, such as teeth in baleen whales, are found only in embryonic stages. These factors also supported his theory of descent with modification.\n\nConcluding remarks\n\nThe final chapter \"Recapitulation and Conclusion\" reviews points from earlier chapters, and Darwin concludes by hoping that his theory might produce revolutionary changes in many fields of natural history. He suggests that psychology will be put on a new foundation and implies the relevance of his theory to the first appearance of humanity with the sentence that \"Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.\", Quote: \"… this implies that man must be included with other organic beings in any general conclusion respecting his manner of appearance on this earth.\" Darwin ends with a passage that became well known and much quoted:\n\nIt is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us ... Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. \n\nAs discussed under religious attitudes, Darwin added the phrase \"by the Creator\" from the 1860 second edition onwards, so that the ultimate sentence began \"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one\".\n\nStructure and style\n\nNature and structure of Darwin's argument\n\nDarwin's aims were twofold: to show that species had not been separately created, and to show that natural selection had been the chief agent of change. He knew that his readers were already familiar with the concept of transmutation of species from Vestiges, and his introduction ridicules that work as failing to provide a viable mechanism. Therefore, the first four chapters lay out his case that selection in nature, caused by the struggle for existence, is analogous to the selection of variations under domestication, and that the accumulation of adaptive variations provides a scientifically testable mechanism for evolutionary speciation. \n\nLater chapters provide evidence that evolution has occurred, supporting the idea of branching, adaptive evolution without directly proving that selection is the mechanism. Darwin presents supporting facts drawn from many disciplines, showing that his theory could explain a myriad of observations from many fields of natural history that were inexplicable under the alternate concept that species had been individually created. The structure of Darwin's argument showed the influence of John Herschel, whose philosophy of science maintained that a mechanism could be called a vera causa (true cause) if three things could be demonstrated: its existence in nature, its ability to produce the effects of interest, and its ability to explain a wide range of observations. \n\nLiterary style\n\nThe Examiner review of 3 December 1859 commented, \"Much of Mr. Darwin's volume is what ordinary readers would call 'tough reading;' that is, writing which to comprehend requires concentrated attention and some preparation for the task. All, however, is by no means of this description, and many parts of the book abound in information, easy to comprehend and both instructive and entertaining.\" \n\nWhile the book was readable enough to sell, its dryness ensured that it was seen as aimed at specialist scientists and could not be dismissed as mere journalism or imaginative fiction. Unlike the still-popular Vestiges, it avoided the narrative style of the historical novel and cosmological speculation, though the closing sentence clearly hinted at cosmic progression. Darwin had long been immersed in the literary forms and practices of specialist science, and made effective use of his skills in structuring arguments. David Quammen has described the book as written in everyday language for a wide audience, but noted that Darwin's literary style was uneven: in some places he used convoluted sentences that are difficult to read, while in other places his writing was beautiful. Quammen advised that later editions were weakened by Darwin making concessions and adding details to address his critics, and recommended the first edition. James T. Costa said that because the book was an abstract produced in haste in response to Wallace's essay, it was more approachable than the big book on natural selection Darwin had been working on, which would have been encumbered by scholarly footnotes and much more technical detail. He added that some parts of Origin are dense, but other parts are almost lyrical, and the case studies and observations are presented in a narrative style unusual in serious scientific books, which broadened its audience. \n\nReception\n\nThe book aroused international interest and a widespread debate, with no sharp line between scientific issues and ideological, social and religious implications. Much of the initial reaction was hostile, but Darwin had to be taken seriously as a prominent and respected name in science. There was much less controversy than had greeted the 1844 publication Vestiges of Creation, which had been rejected by scientists, but had influenced a wide public readership into believing that nature and human society were governed by natural laws. The Origin of Species as a book of wide general interest became associated with ideas of social reform. Its proponents made full use of a surge in the publication of review journals, and it was given more popular attention than almost any other scientific work, though it failed to match the continuing sales of Vestiges. Darwin's book legitimised scientific discussion of evolutionary mechanisms, and the newly coined term Darwinism was used to cover the whole range of evolutionism, not just his own ideas. By the mid-1870s, evolutionism was triumphant.\n\nWhile Darwin had been somewhat coy about human origins, not identifying any explicit conclusion on the matter in his book, he had dropped enough hints about human’s animal ancestry for the inference to be made, and the first review claimed it made a creed of the \"men from monkeys\" idea from Vestiges. Human evolution became central to the debate and was strongly argued by Huxley who featured it in his popular \"working-men's lectures\". Darwin did not publish his own views on this until 1871. \n\nThe naturalism of natural selection conflicted with presumptions of purpose in nature and while this could be reconciled by theistic evolution, other mechanisms implying more progress or purpose were more acceptable. Herbert Spencer had already incorporated Lamarckism into his popular philosophy of progressive free market human society. He popularised the terms evolution and survival of the fittest, and many thought Spencer was central to evolutionary thinking. \n\nImpact on the scientific community\n\nScientific readers were already aware of arguments that species changed through processes that were subject to laws of nature, but the transmutational ideas of Lamarck and the vague \"law of development\" of Vestiges had not found scientific favour. Darwin presented natural selection as a scientifically testable mechanism while accepting that other mechanisms such as inheritance of acquired characters were possible. His strategy established that evolution through natural laws was worthy of scientific study, and by 1875, most scientists accepted that evolution occurred but few thought natural selection was significant. Darwin's scientific method was also disputed, with his proponents favouring the empiricism of John Stuart Mill's A System of Logic, while opponents held to the idealist school of William Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, in which investigation could begin with the intuitive truth that species were fixed objects created by design. Early support for Darwin's ideas came from the findings of field naturalists studying biogeography and ecology, including Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1860, and Asa Gray in 1862. Henry Walter Bates presented research in 1861 that explained insect mimicry using natural selection. Alfred Russel Wallace discussed evidence from his Malay archipelago research, including an 1864 paper with an evolutionary explanation for the Wallace line. \n\nEvolution had less obvious applications to anatomy and morphology, and at first had little impact on the research of the anatomist Thomas Henry Huxley. Despite this, Huxley strongly supported Darwin on evolution; though he called for experiments to show whether natural selection could form new species, and questioned if Darwin's gradualism was sufficient without sudden leaps to cause speciation. Huxley wanted science to be secular, without religious interference, and his article in the April 1860 Westminster Review promoted scientific naturalism over natural theology, praising Darwin for \"extending the domination of Science over regions of thought into which she has, as yet, hardly penetrated\" and coining the term \"Darwinism\" as part of his efforts to secularise and professionalise science. Huxley gained influence, and initiated the X Club, which used the journal Nature to promote evolution and naturalism, shaping much of late Victorian science. Later, the German morphologist Ernst Haeckel would convince Huxley that comparative anatomy and palaeontology could be used to reconstruct evolutionary genealogies. \n\nThe leading naturalist in Britain was the anatomist Richard Owen, an idealist who had shifted to the view in the 1850s that the history of life was the gradual unfolding of a divine plan. Owen's review of the Origin in the April 1860 Edinburgh Review bitterly attacked Huxley, Hooker and Darwin, but also signalled acceptance of a kind of evolution as a teleological plan in a continuous \"ordained becoming\", with new species appearing by natural birth. Others that rejected natural selection, but supported \"creation by birth\", included the Duke of Argyll who explained beauty in plumage by design. Since 1858, Huxley had emphasised anatomical similarities between apes and humans, contesting Owen's view that humans were a separate sub-class. Their disagreement over human origins came to the fore at the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting featuring the legendary 1860 Oxford evolution debate. In two years of acrimonious public dispute that Charles Kingsley satirised as the \"Great Hippocampus Question\" and parodied in The Water-Babies as the \"great hippopotamus test\", Huxley showed that Owen was incorrect in asserting that ape brains lacked a structure present in human brains. Others, including Charles Lyell and Alfred Russel Wallace, thought that humans shared a common ancestor with apes, but higher mental faculties could not have evolved through a purely material process. Darwin published his own explanation in the Descent of Man (1871). \n\nImpact outside Great Britain\n\nEvolutionary ideas, although not natural selection, were accepted by German biologists accustomed to ideas of homology in morphology from Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants and from their long tradition of comparative anatomy. Bronn's alterations in his German translation added to the misgivings of conservatives, but enthused political radicals. Ernst Haeckel was particularly ardent, aiming to synthesise Darwin's ideas with those of Lamarck and Goethe while still reflecting the spirit of Naturphilosophie. Their ambitious programme to reconstruct the evolutionary history of life was joined by Huxley and supported by discoveries in palaeontology. Haeckel used embryology extensively in his recapitulation theory, which embodied a progressive, almost linear model of evolution. Darwin was cautious about such histories, and had already noted that von Baer's laws of embryology supported his idea of complex branching. \n\nAsa Gray promoted and defended Origin against those American naturalists with an idealist approach, notably Louis Agassiz who viewed every species as a distinct fixed unit in the mind of the Creator, classifying as species what others considered merely varieties. Edward Drinker Cope and Alpheus Hyatt reconciled this view with evolutionism in a form of neo-Lamarckism involving recapitulation theory.\n\nFrench-speaking naturalists in several countries showed appreciation of the much modified French translation by Clémence Royer, but Darwin's ideas had little impact in France, where any scientists supporting evolutionary ideas opted for a form of Lamarckism. The intelligentsia in Russia had accepted the general phenomenon of evolution for several years before Darwin had published his theory, and scientists were quick to take it into account, although the Malthusian aspects were felt to be relatively unimportant. The political economy of struggle was criticised as a British stereotype by Karl Marx and by Leo Tolstoy, who had the character Levin in his novel Anna Karenina voice sharp criticism of the morality of Darwin's views.\n\nChallenges to natural selection\n\nThere were serious scientific objections to the process of natural selection as the key mechanism of evolution, including Karl von Nägeli's insistence that a trivial characteristic with no adaptive advantage could not be developed by selection. Darwin conceded that these could be linked to adaptive characteristics. His estimate that the age of the Earth allowed gradual evolution was disputed by William Thomson (later awarded the title Lord Kelvin), who calculated that it had cooled in less than 100 million years. Darwin accepted blending inheritance, but Fleeming Jenkin calculated that as it mixed traits, natural selection could not accumulate useful traits. Darwin tried to meet these objections in the 5th edition. Mivart supported directed evolution, and compiled scientific and religious objections to natural selection. In response, Darwin made considerable changes to the sixth edition. The problems of the age of the Earth and heredity were only resolved in the 20th century. \n\nBy the mid-1870s, most scientists accepted evolution, but relegated natural selection to a minor role as they believed evolution was purposeful and progressive. The range of evolutionary theories during \"the eclipse of Darwinism\" included forms of \"saltationism\" in which new species were thought to arise through \"jumps\" rather than gradual adaptation, forms of orthogenesis claiming that species had an inherent tendency to change in a particular direction, and forms of neo-Lamarckism in which inheritance of acquired characteristics led to progress. The minority view of August Weismann, that natural selection was the only mechanism, was called neo-Darwinism. It was thought that the rediscovery of Mendelian inheritance invalidated Darwin's views. \n\nImpact on economic and political debates\n\nWhile some, like Spencer, used analogy from natural selection as an argument against government intervention in the economy to benefit the poor, others, including Alfred Russel Wallace, argued that action was needed to correct social and economic inequities to level the playing field before natural selection could improve humanity further. Some political commentaries, including Walter Bagehot's Physics and Politics (1872), attempted to extend the idea of natural selection to competition between nations and between human races. Such ideas were incorporated into what was already an ongoing effort by some working in anthropology to provide scientific evidence for the superiority of Caucasians over non white races and justify European imperialism. Historians write that most such political and economic commentators had only a superficial understanding of Darwin's scientific theory, and were as strongly influenced by other concepts about social progress and evolution, such as the Lamarckian ideas of Spencer and Haeckel, as they were by Darwin's work. Darwin objected to his ideas being used to justify military aggression and unethical business practices as he believed morality was part of fitness in humans, and he opposed polygenism, the idea that human races were fundamentally distinct and did not share a recent common ancestry. \n\nReligious attitudes\n\nThe book produced a wide range of religious responses at a time of changing ideas and increasing secularisation. The issues raised were complex and there was a large middle ground. Developments in geology meant that there was little opposition based on a literal reading of Genesis, but defence of the argument from design and natural theology was central to debates over the book in the English-speaking world.\n\nNatural theology was not a unified doctrine, and while some such as Louis Agassiz were strongly opposed to the ideas in the book, others sought a reconciliation in which evolution was seen as purposeful. In the Church of England, some liberal clergymen interpreted natural selection as an instrument of God's design, with the cleric Charles Kingsley seeing it as \"just as noble a conception of Deity\". In the second edition of January 1860, Darwin quoted Kingsley as \"a celebrated cleric\", and added the phrase \"by the Creator\" to the closing sentence, which from then on read \"life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one\". While some commentators have taken this as a concession to religion that Darwin later regretted, Darwin's view at the time was of God creating life through the laws of nature, and even in the first edition there are several references to \"creation\". \n\nBaden Powell praised \"Mr Darwin's masterly volume [supporting] the grand principle of the self-evolving powers of nature\". In America, Asa Gray argued that evolution is the secondary effect, or modus operandi, of the first cause, design, and published a pamphlet defending the book in terms of theistic evolution, Natural Selection is not inconsistent with Natural Theology. Theistic evolution became a popular compromise, and St. George Jackson Mivart was among those accepting evolution but attacking Darwin's naturalistic mechanism. Eventually it was realised that supernatural intervention could not be a scientific explanation, and naturalistic mechanisms such as neo-Lamarckism were favoured over natural selection as being more compatible with purpose.\n\nEven though the book did not explicitly spell out Darwin’s beliefs about human origins, it had dropped a number of hints about human’s animal ancestry and quickly became central to the debate, as mental and moral qualities were seen as spiritual aspects of the immaterial soul, and it was believed that animals did not have spiritual qualities. This conflict could be reconciled by supposing there was some supernatural intervention on the path leading to humans, or viewing evolution as a purposeful and progressive ascent to mankind's position at the head of nature. While many conservative theologians accepted evolution, Charles Hodge argued in his 1874 critique \"What is Darwinism?\" that \"Darwinism\", defined narrowly as including rejection of design, was atheism though he accepted that Asa Gray did not reject design. Asa Gray responded that this charge misrepresented Darwin's text. By the early 20th century, four noted authors of The Fundamentals were explicitly open to the possibility that God created through evolution, but fundamentalism inspired the American creation–evolution controversy that began in the 1920s. Some conservative Roman Catholic writers and influential Jesuits opposed evolution in the late 19th and early 20th century, but other Catholic writers, starting with Mivart, pointed out that early Church Fathers had not interpreted Genesis literally in this area. The Vatican stated its official position in a 1950 papal encyclical, which held that evolution was not inconsistent with Catholic teaching. \n\nModern influence\n\nVarious alternative evolutionary mechanisms favoured during \"the eclipse of Darwinism\" became untenable as more was learned about inheritance and mutation. The full significance of natural selection was at last accepted in the 1930s and 1940s as part of the modern evolutionary synthesis. During that synthesis biologists and statisticians, including R. A. Fisher, Sewall Wright and J.B.S. Haldane, merged Darwinian selection with a statistical understanding of Mendelian genetics.\n\nModern evolutionary theory continues to develop. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, with its tree-like model of branching common descent, has become the unifying theory of the life sciences. The theory explains the diversity of living organisms and their adaptation to the environment. It makes sense of the geologic record, biogeography, parallels in embryonic development, biological homologies, vestigiality, cladistics, phylogenetics and other fields, with unrivalled explanatory power; it has also become essential to applied sciences such as medicine and agriculture. Despite the scientific consensus, a religion-based political controversy has developed over how evolution is taught in schools, especially in the United States. \n\nInterest in Darwin's writings continues, and scholars have generated an extensive literature, the Darwin Industry, about his life and work. The text of Origin itself has been subject to much analysis including a variorum, detailing the changes made in every edition, first published in 1959, and a concordance, an exhaustive external index published in 1981. Worldwide commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species and the bicentenary of Darwin's birth were scheduled for 2009. They celebrated the ideas which \"over the last 150 years have revolutionised our understanding of nature and our place within it\"." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Pauline_Phillips.txt", "Advice_column.txt", "Jeanne_Phillips.txt" ], "title": [ "Pauline Phillips", "Advice column", "Jeanne Phillips" ], "wiki_context": [ "Pauline Esther \"Popo\" Phillips (née Friedman; July 4, 1918 – January 16, 2013), also known as Abigail Van Buren, was an American advice columnist and radio show host who began the Dear Abby column in 1956. During her decades writing the column, it became the most widely-syndicated newspaper column in the world, syndicated in 1,400 newspapers with 110 million readers. \n\nFrom 1963 to 1975, Phillips also hosted a daily Dear Abby program on CBS Radio. TV anchorwoman Diane Sawyer calls her the \"pioneering queen of salty advice.\" \n\nEarly life\n\nPauline Esther Friedman, nicknamed \"Popo\", was born in Sioux City, Iowa to Russian Jewish immigrants, Rebecca (née Rushall) and Abraham B. Friedman, owner of a chain of movie theaters. She was the youngest of four sisters and grew up in Sioux City. Her identical twin, Esther Pauline Friedman, was columnist Ann Landers. Lederer had become Ann Landers in 1955, and inspired by her sister's example, Phillips soon followed suit by launching her own advice column.\n\nIn describing her family's emigration to America, Phillips says, \"My parents came with nothing. They all came with nothing.\" She adds that her parents never forgot first seeing the Statue of Liberty:\n\nHer sister, Esther, recalls their home life: \"My father was the sort of man people came to for advice. My mother couldn't turn away anyone with a hard-luck story. Our house was always full of guests.\" Phillips agrees, and understood that her parents had a clear effect on her own personality:\n\nThey are both alumnae of Central High School in Sioux City and Morningside College, where they both studied journalism and psychology, along with writing a joint gossip column for the college newspaper. They both played the violin. In July 1939, they were married in a double-wedding ceremony on July 2, two days before their 21st birthday [Source: Eppie: The Story of Ann Landers, by Margo Howard (her daughter), p. 45.]. She married Morton Phillips of Minneapolis, and had two children, a son, Edward Jay Phillips, and a daughter, Jeanne Phillips.\n\nCareer\n\nPauline's writing career that led to Dear Abby began in January 1956, when she was 37 and new to the greater San Francisco area. Sometime during this period she phoned the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and said she could write a better advice column than the one she had been reading in the newspaper. After hearing her modest credentials, editor Stanleigh \"Auk\" Arnold gave her some letters in need of answers and said to bring back her replies in a week; Phillips got her replies back to the Chronicle in an hour and half. In an interview with Larry King, she said she had no work experience, lacking even a social security number. The editor, however, asked if she were a professional writer. He said her writing was \"fabulous', and she was hired that day. \n\nShe went by the pen name Abigail Van Buren, after the Old Testament prophetess from the Book of Samuel: Then David said to Abigail ... ‘Blessed is your advice and blessed are you. \"Van Buren\" was used after the president, Martin Van Buren. \n\nPhillips says that because she applied for the columnist job without notifying her sister first, it created bad feelings between them for many years. Each wrote her own advice column, and as competing columnists, they sometimes clashed; in 1956, Phillips offered her column to the Sioux City Journal at a reduced price, provided the paper refused to print her sister's column. The sisters ostensibly reconciled in 1964, although some suggest the acrimony between them remained. In 1958, after only two years writing their columns, they became \"the most widely read and most quoted women in the world,\" according to Life magazine.Life magazine, April 7, 1958 pp. 102–112\n\nWriting style\n\nAlthough newspapers had included gossip and personal columnists for over a century, the two sisters added \"something special,\" writes Life, in that they were the first to publish letters and their replies covering a wide range of personal problems. From as many as 9,000 letters in a single week in their initial years, they responded with answers to people from all walks of life, including doctors, lawyers, and clergymen, as well as from pregnant teenagers, harassed husbands, unwed mothers, alcoholics, gays, and mistresses. Setting their column apart even more from columnists of earlier decades was their particular style of writing, replying with \"vaudeville punch lines\" yet always rooted in common sense. Phillips is described thusly by the New York Times:\n\nPhillips was considered liberal minded politically, yet personally conservative. She remained reluctant to advise unmarried couples to live together, for instance, until the 1990s, yet she adapted readily to social changes. One example:\n\nBoth Phillips and her sister were considered remarkable women soon after starting their careers, recognized for being bright and entertaining, and writing with \"an earthy wit, audacity and awesome self-confidence,\" often exemplified in Phillips' \"crackling one-liners.\"\n The editor of the Chicago Sun-Times described their skill as \"beyond mere shrewdness—a quality very close to genuine wisdom.\" Amy Dickinson, a syndicated advice columnist who styles her columns after Dear Abby, says that Phillips was a \"master\" in her ability to write with both \"genuine honesty\" and \"compassion,\" while at the same time being able to respond with \"tough love\" when needed: \n\nThe letters that Phillips and her sister each picked for publication were meant to give the public glimpses of \"the most intimate of human difficulties,\" which contributed to their immediate acceptance. Life magazine explains:\n\nPhillips stated that the most sensitive letters she received were never published, but were instead replied to individually. Sometimes she would write a brief note on the letter itself, letting one of her secretaries respond fully using her advice. If a person seemed suicidal from their letter, she would call them on the phone. As noted by Life:\n\nPublic relations\n\nAs part of their work both sisters engaged with other editors, publishers, and the general public whenever they could. \"Neither ever forgets a name,\" and they were uninhibited public speakers: they \"whirl around the country appearing on radio and television and—dressed like visiting movie actresses—holding thousands of housewives spellbound in speeches at theaters and auditoriums.\"\n\nPersonal life and beliefs\n\nLike her sister, Phillips was considered \"the embodiment of female orthodoxy.\" They made their husbands and families a high priority in their lives, feeling that \"marriage must be permanent, even when disturbed by masculine lunacy.\" Phillips typically spoke in glowing terms about her husband in public, calling him \"loveboat\" or smooching with him in restaurants. This attitude carried over into their columns in the late 1950s, with Phillips considering women who were unable to make their marriages work as \"faintly ridiculous.\" Her \"code of conduct\" was \"husband and children first.\" In her later years, she did not avoid suggesting divorce when a relationship became \"intolerable\", and considered how a bad marriage might affect children: \"When kids see parents fighting, or even sniping at each other, I think it is terribly damaging.\"\n\nBoth Phillips and her sister enjoyed socializing with celebrities, and because of their notoriety, celebrities liked being seen with either of them. Among Phillips' friends soon after she began her column were politicians, including Senators Hubert Humphrey and Herbert Lehman; and entertainers, including Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.\n\nThey also admired Bishop Fulton Sheen, whom they met when learning about Catholicism while studying about other religions. The bishop admired them both in return due to their ability to remain \"unawed\" and unaffected by the fame of others. Phillips, who was Jewish, commented: \"He's one of the greatest men I ever met, but he'll be a Jew before I'm a Catholic.\" Phillips and Bishop Sheen corresponded often and she recalls their letters:\n\nPhillips was an honorary member of Women in Communications, the American College of Psychiatrists, and the National Council of Jewish Women. She authored six books: Dear Abby, Dear Teenager, Dear Abby on Marriage, Where Were You When President Kennedy was Shot?, The Dear Abby Wedding Planner, and The Best of Dear Abby. The Dear Abby Show aired on the CBS Radio Network for 12 years. When asked near the end of her career whether her years of writing the column were a lot of work, she said, \"It's only work if you'd rather be doing something else.\" She felt that her career had been \"fulfilling, exciting and incredibly rewarding.\"\n\nFrom 1987 until her mother's retirement, her daughter Jeanne had been co-writing the column. In 2002, when Phillips suffered from the onset of Alzheimer's disease, Jeanne assumed all the writing responsibilities of Dear Abby, and after the family's announcement of Pauline's illness, assumed the pen name Abigail Van Buren. \n\nDeath\n\nPhillips died on January 16, 2013, at the age of 94, after having battled Alzheimer's disease for 11 years. She was survived by her husband of 73 years, Morton Phillips, daughter Jeanne Phillips, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Her son, Edward, died in 2011 at the age of 66.\n\nBibliography\n\nBooks about Dear Abby \n\n* (Children's book).\n* \n\nBooks by Abigail Van Buren \n\n* Dear Abby. Illustrated by Carl Rose. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, [1958].\n* Dear teen-ager. Illustrated by Roy Doty. [New York]: B. Geis Associates; distributed by Random House [1959].\n* Dear Abby on marriage. New York: McGraw-Hill, [1962].\n* The Best of Dear Abby. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1981. ISBN 0-8362-7907-7 ; 081613362X (lg. print.)\n* Dear Abby on planning your wedding. Andrews and McMeel, c1988. ISBN 0-8362-7943-3.\n* Where were you when President Kennedy was shot?: memories and tributes to a slain president as told to Dear Abby. Foreword by Pierre Salinger. Andrews and McMeel, c1993. ISBN 0-8362-6246-8.", "An advice column is a column traditionally presented in a magazine or newspaper, though it can also be delivered through other news media, such as the internet and broadcast news media. The advice column format is question and answer: a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response. The responses are written by an advice columnist (colloquially known in British English as an agony aunt, or agony uncle if the columnist is male). The image presented was originally of an older woman dispensing comforting advice and maternal wisdom, hence the name \"aunt\". An advice columnist can also be someone who gives advice to people who send in problems to the newspaper.\n\nSometimes the author is in fact a composite or a team: Marjorie Proops's name appeared (with photo) long after she retired. The nominal writer may be a pseudonym, or in effect a brand name; the accompanying picture may bear little resemblance to the actual author.\n\nThe term is beginning to fall into disuse, as the scope of personal advice has broadened to include sexual matters — pioneered by the likes of Dr. Ruth — as well as general lifestyle issues. The Athenian Mercury contained the first known advice column in 1690.\n\nExamples of advice columnist\n\nMany advice columns are now syndicated and appear in very few newspapers. Prominent American examples include Dear Abby, Ann Landers, Carolyn Hax's Tell Me About It, and Mallory Ortberg's Dear Prudence. Internet sites such as the Elder Wisdom Circle offer relationship advice to a broad audience; Dear Maggie offers sex advice to a predominantly Christian readership in Christianity Magazine, and Miriam's Advice Well offers advice to Jewish people in Philadelphia.\n\nMen as advice columnists are rarer than women in print, but men have been appearing more often online in both serious and comedic formats.\n\nTypical format\n\nQuestions are most often asked anonymously, with the signature assuming the problem that is being expressed. For example, someone who is asking about erratic behaviour in their partner may sign their letter \"Confused, Johannesburg\".\n\nOn the Internet, a greater variation on the signature theme is often seen: the person's signature may refer to the problem being expressed, but rather in a phrase which the 'agony aunt' abbreviates so as to spell an appropriate word. For instance, \"Confused About My Partner\" would become \"CAMP\". Dan Savage uses this method to comic effect in his Savage Love column.\n\nAdvice columns on the Internet\n\nAdvice columns on the internet provide ways to share one's interests and expertise. Anyone can be a columnist and create their own advice column. Users can post questions for columnists to answer. Users can also interact with the columnist and with each other to voice their opinions. E-mailing advisers is popular because readers can open up their personal problems without exposing their identity to the world. Popular e-mail advisers include Aunt Vera and Annie.\n\nEthical issues\n\nAdvice columns generally have limited capacity and are unable to answer all the requests they receive. They could potentially be criticised for raising the hopes of their correspondents for commercial gain. For this reason, Marjorie Proops regarded it as a professional duty to answer all the letters received, whether or not they were published.\n\nIn pop culture\n\nInevitably, the \"Agony Aunt\" has become the subject of fiction, often satirically or farcically. Versions of the form include:\n\n* An agony aunt whose own personal problems and issues are more bizarre than those of her correspondents. A notable example is the British TV sitcom Agony created by Anna Raeburn, starring Maureen Lipman as the agony aunt with an overbearing mother, an unreliable husband, neurotic gay neighbours, and a career in media surrounded by self-promoting bizarros. Anna Raeburn herself works as an agony aunt on radio call-in shows, much as the main character of the sitcom does.\n* Mrs. Mills deliberately gives terrible advice to her clients, and is a satire of an agony aunt.\n* Another classic example of the agony aunt in fiction appears in Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) by Nathanael West.\n* In Evelyn Waugh's novel The Loved One, a Mr. Slump dispenses advice (on one occasion, it is lethal) under the name Guru Brahmin.\n* , Chris Ayres cowrote \"Ask Dr. Ozzy\" with Ozzy Osbourne for The Sunday Times Magazine and Rolling Stone. The column features readers asking Ozzy personal and health questions, often resulting in a humorous response that includes the fact that Osbourne is not a real doctor and that the reader should consult a legitimate doctor instead.\n* In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, the Agony Aunts are elderly but violent enforcers for the Seamstress Guild, pausing in their pursuit of offenders only to shop for bargains at rummage sales.", "Jeanne Phillips (; born 1942), also known as Abigail Van Buren, is an American advice columnist who writes the advice column Dear Abby. She is the daughter of Pauline Esther \"Popo\" Phillips, who founded Dear Abby in 1956, and her husband, Morton Phillips.\n\nIn a Dear Abby column on December 12, 2000, Pauline introduced Jeanne as co-creator of Dear Abby. They began to share the byline Abigail Van Buren and both were pictured with the column. Jeanne officially assumed the mantle of Dear Abby in August 2002, when the Phillips family made the announcement that Pauline had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Jeanne continues to write under the pen name \"Abigail Van Buren\". \n\nJeanne Phillips' Dear Abby column is syndicated in about 1,400 newspapers in the U.S. with a combined circulation of more than 110 million. Dear Abbys website receives about 10,000 letters per week, seeking advice on a large variety of personal matters.\n\nDear Abby\n\nJeanne Phillips' history with Dear Abby\n\nJeanne Phillips began assisting her mother, Pauline Phillips, with the Dear Abby column at the age of 14 in order to earn an allowance. When Jeanne asked her mother for an allowance, Pauline answered, \"What are you going to do for it?\" Pauline then said that her Dear Abby column received a substantial amount of mail from teenagers and that Jeanne could reply to some of them. If Jeanne's responses were \"good\", her mother would use them in the column. If her responses were not good, Jeanne would rewrite them. Jeanne spent her allowance money on watching movies and plays. She went to San Francisco several times to see the play, Li'l Abner. \n\nIn the 1970s, Phillips helped her mother write over half of the columns for her nationally syndicated radio show on CBS News. In 1980, she became the radio show's column executive editor, and in 1987, she became its co-editor. Beginning in 1987, she worked with her mother on the nationally syndicated Dear Abby column. She began writing a majority of the columns since the early 1990s, though her mother did not publicly acknowledge her as the column's co-writer until 2000. Jeanne worked as the writer, while Pauline edited. While Pauline remained at home, Jeanne would manage the office and their paid staff. Mother and daughter were listed as the writers after a December 12, 2000, letter to readers. A photo of the two was affixed to each column. Beginning on July 22, 2002, Jeanne was attributed as the only writer of the column. Kathie Kerr, a spokeswoman for Universal Press Syndicate, the distributor of the column, said: \"Over the past couple of years, Pauline Phillips hasn't had any day-to-day activities with the column.\" \n\nEvery day, her column is read by 110 million people and syndicated in about 1,400 newspapers. Every week, she gets from 5,000 to 10,000 letters and emails asking her for advice. Reading and replying to the mail sometimes takes her more than eight hours a day. After crafting a response, Phillips sets it aside. A few days later, she reviews it to ensure that her feelings about the subject remain unchanged. When she is not knowledgeable about a subject, she consults experts from various fields, including \"medical, psychiatric, legal, ethical\", and religious. Phillips noted that the column touches on numerous topics, including \"organ donation, domestic violence, mental health, child safety, volunteerism, civility, alcohol abuse, inhalant abuse ... and the dangers of tobacco\". According to Pernell Watson of the Daily Press, Phillips will send an unprinted, confidential reply to readers who send a \"self-addressed, stamped envelope\".\n\nOn Valentine's Day in 2001, the Dear Abby radio show was honored with the 2,172nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Around 60 family members and friends took part in the 30-minute ceremony. Jeanne Phillips paid the $15,000 sponsorship fee for the star and its maintenance to honor her mother. The Dear Abby radio show lasted for 12 years. Jeanne wrote and produced Pauline's shows; Pauline was the host. \n\nStyle and support of gay marriage\n\nJeanne Phillips characterized her mother's style as \"softer\", while she herself \"[gets] to the root of the problem quickly\". Both Jeanne and Pauline have made gay marriage a topic in their column. In 1984, Pauline directed the parent of a gay child to Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). In 2007, her daughter openly announced her support of gay marriage. In the same year, she was given the \"Straight for Equality\" award by PFLAG.\n\nOperation Dear Abby\n\nDuring the Vietnam War, in 1967, Phillips' mother started Operation Dear Abby, through which holiday messages were sent to American soldiers. Phillips' mother was inspired to create this service when Billy Thompson, a sergeant, requested a letter from home for his Christmas present. \n\nWhen the 2001 anthrax attacks occurred, the operation was postponed. Jeanne Phillips collaborated with The Pentagon to create an Internet substitute. In 2003, the website received on average 20,000 to 30,000 messages every day. Prior to the Iraq War, the website received only 2,000 to 3,000 messages every day.\n\nThe messages are categorized by state and uniformed service but are not sent to specific individuals. Soldiers received the messages by either accessing them on OperationDearAbby.net or when their officers printed out the messages for distribution. \n\nInterviews and media\n\nPhillips has appeared on many television talk shows, including multiple appearances on CNN's Larry King Live. Many prestigious national organizations have acknowledged her for her advice and efforts to educate her readers on different topics including those related to health, safety, and acceptance of multiculturalism and diversity.\n\nOn December 1, 2005, Jeanne made her first live radio broadcast via Internet radio. In her press release regarding that broadcast, she said that she sometimes calls people who have written her since, in many cases, it is easier to advise people over the phone than through letters.\n\nPersonal life\n\nJeanne Phillips was born in Mount Morris, Illinois to Pauline Esther \"Popo\" Phillips, the founder of Dear Abby, and Morton Phillips in 1942. Her grandfather, Jay Phillips, was born in Russia in 1898 and immigrated to Wisconsin when he was two years old. When Jeanne was three years old, her family moved from Minnesota to Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Phillips went to elementary school in Hillsborough, California and attended Burlingame High School for two years. After her sophomore year she transferred to Crystal Springs Uplands School and attended the private school for one year. Shortly thereafter, her family moved back to Twin Cities in Minnesota so her father could take the helm of her feeble grandfather's liquor distribution business. For her senior year she attended Washburn High School in Minneapolis. Phillips enjoyed the school, saying, \"I loved it. I was never the most popular girl in the class. I never aspired to be. But I did make very nice friends.\" In college, she majored in English and anthropology, and studied anthropology at the University of Colorado and UCLA though she did not work in the field. She attempted interior design but ultimately decided it was unsatisfactory.\n\nPhillips' aunt, Esther Pauline \"Eppie\" Lederer—Pauline's twin sister and the final columnist of the Ask Ann Landers advice column—died in June 2002. In addition to penning a tribute column, Phillips read a poem about her aunt on Larry King Live. In an interview with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 2001, Lederer said: \"Jeanne has been working with her mother for 20 years, and it seems to be a perfect fit.\" Lederer's daughter, Margo Howard, wrote an advice column for 45 years until 2013. After Phillips' appearance on Larry King Live, her cousin Howard censured her. Phillips said: \"The term a lot of people have been using is feud. All I can say, and this is from my heart to yours, there's no feud on my part. I wish my cousin the best.\"\n\nPhillips married a \"brilliant, charming, talented\" man in the 1970s, a California lawyer, but the marriage was not successful. She planned to remain single but later fell in love again. In 2002, she married her second husband, a real estate agent named Walter Harris.\n\nEvery day, Phillips reads the letters sent to her Dear Abby column and pens her column in the afternoon. In the evenings, she either cooks or goes out to dinner with her husband. When asked who her Dear Abby was, Phillips replied that her husband is her \"primary support\" and her friends her \"secondary support\". \n\nShe has largely kept her personal life to herself, making only occasional references to it while advising people or during interviews. In comparison to her cousin, Margo Howard, Phillips has been called \"reserved\".\n\nPhillips had a brother, Edward \"Eddie\" Phillips, who was born in 1945 and died in 2011 of multiple myeloma. According to his obituary in the Star Tribune, Eddie was a \"liquor tycoon\", a \"gifted businessman\", and a philanthropist who \"enlarged a family tradition of generous giving\". He had four children: sons Dean, Tyler, and J.J., and a daughter Hutton; the latter two were twins.\n\nAccording to a 2002 interview, Phillips and her husband have no children. In 2002, the Phillips family revealed that Jeanne's mother, Pauline, had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Tim Johnson, a medical journalist for ABC News, wrote in February 2010 that Pauline resides with her husband, Morton, in Minnetonka, Minnesota and has caregivers. Pauline's son, Eddie, said: \n\nPauline Phillips died in 2013 at the age of 94. \n\nPhillips is Jewish. In her column, she writes holiday greetings to people of many religions and occasionally gives advice to people based on their religion." ] }

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