800 m). In the summer, they occupy estuaries and the waters of the continental shelf, and on occasion, they even swim up the rivers. A number of incidents have been reported where groups or individuals have been found hundreds or even thousands of kilometres from the ocean. One such example comes from 9 June 2006, when a young beluga carcass was found in the Tanana River near Fairbanks in central Alaska, nearly 1700 km from the nearest ocean habitat. Belugas sometimes follow migrating fish, leading Alaska state biologist Tom Seaton to speculate it had followed migrating salmon up the river at some point in the previous autumn.","Beluga whale\n\nThe rivers they most often travel up include: the Northern Dvina, the Mezen, the Pechora, the Ob and the Yenisei in Asia; the Yukon and the Kuskokwim in Alaska, and the Saint Lawrence in Canada. Spending time in a river has been shown to stimulate an animal's metabolism and facilitates the seasonal renewal of the epidermal layer. In addition, the rivers represent a safe haven for newborn calves where they will not be preyed upon by killer whales. Calves often return to the same estuary as their mother in the summer, meeting her sometimes even after becoming fully mature.","Beluga whale\n\nThe migration season is relatively predictable, as it is basically determined by the amount of daylight and not by other variable physical or biological factors, such as the condition of the sea ice. Vagrants may travel further south to areas such as Irish and Scottish waters, islands of Orkney and Hebrides, and to Japanese waters. There had been several vagrant individuals demonstrated seasonal residencies at Volcano Bay, and a unique whale were used to return annually to areas adjacent to Shibetsu in Nemuro Strait in the 2000s. On rarer occasions, individuals of vagrancy can reach the Korean Peninsula. A few other individuals have been confirmed to return to the coasts of Hokkaido, including brackish waters such as Lake Notoro.","Beluga whale\n\nSome populations are not migratory and certain resident groups will stay in well-defined areas, for example in Cook Inlet, the estuary of the Saint Lawrence River and Cumberland Sound. The population in Cook Inlet stays in the waters furthest inside the inlet during the summer and until the end of autumn, then during the winter, they disperse to the deeper water in the centre of the inlet, but without completely leaving it.","Beluga whale\n\nIn April, the animals that spend the winter in the centre and southwest of the Bering Sea move to the north coast of Alaska and the east coast of Russia. The populations living in the Ungava Bay and the eastern and western sides of Hudson Bay overwinter together beneath the sea ice in Hudson Strait. The populations of the White Sea, the Kara Sea and the Laptev Sea overwinter in the Barents Sea. In the spring, the groups separate and migrate to their respective summer sites.","Beluga whale\n\nHabitat","Beluga whale\n\nBelugas exploit a varied range of habitats; they are most commonly seen in shallow waters close to the coast, but they have also been reported to live for extended periods in deeper water, where they feed and give birth to their young.","Beluga whale\n\nIn coastal areas, they can be found in coves, fjords, canals, bays, and shallow waters in the Arctic Ocean that are continuously lit by sunlight. They are also often seen during the summer in river estuaries, where they feed, socialize, and give birth to young. These waters usually have a temperature between 8 and 10 °C. The mudflats of Cook Inlet in Alaska are a popular location for these animals to spend the first few months of summer. In the eastern Beaufort Sea, female belugas with their young and immature males prefer the open waters close to land; the adult males live in waters covered by ice near to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, while the younger males and females with slightly older young can be found nearer to the ice shelf. Generally, the use of different habitats in summer reflects differences in feeding habits, risk from predators, and reproductive factors for each of the subpopulations.","Beluga whale\n\nPopulation","Beluga whale\n\nThe global beluga population is made up of a number of subpopulations. The scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission recognises these 29 subpopulations:","Beluga whale\n\nThe estimate of population sizes is complicated because the boundaries for some of these groups overlap geographically or seasonally. The IUCN estimated the world beluga population in 2008 to be well in excess of 150,000.","Beluga whale\n\nThreats","Beluga whale\n\nHunting","Beluga whale\n\nThe native populations of the Canadian, Alaskan, and Russian Arctic regions hunt belugas for their meat, blubber, and skin. The cured skin is the only cetacean skin that is sufficiently thick to be used as leather. Belugas were easy prey for hunters due to their predictable migration patterns and the high population density in estuaries and surrounding coastal areas during the summer.","Beluga whale\n\nCommercial whaling by European and American whalers during the 18th and 19th centuries decreased beluga populations in the Canadian Arctic. The animals were hunted for their meat and blubber, while the Europeans used the oil from the melon as a lubricant for clocks, machinery, and lighting in lighthouses. Mineral oil replaced whale oil in the 1860s, but the hunting of these animals continued unabated. In 1863, the cured skin could be used to make horse harnesses, machine belts for saw mills, and shoelaces. These manufactured items ensured the hunting of belugas continued for the rest of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Between 1868 and 1911, Scottish and American whalers killed more than 20,000 belugas in Lancaster Sound and Davis Strait.","Beluga whale\n\nDuring the 1920s, fishermen in the Saint Lawrence River estuary considered belugas to be a threat to the fishing industry, as they eat large quantities of cod, salmon, tuna, and other fish caught by the local fishermen. The presence of belugas in the estuary was, therefore, considered to be undesirable; in 1928, the Government of Quebec offered a reward of 15 dollars for each dead beluga. The Quebec Department of Fisheries launched a study into the influence of these cetaceans on local fish populations in 1938. The unrestricted killing of belugas continued into the 1950s, when the supposed voracity of the belugas was found to be overestimated and did not adversely affect fish populations. L'Isle-aux-Coudres is the setting for the classic 1963 National Film Board of Canada documentary Pour la suite du monde, which depicts a one-off resurrection of the beluga hunt.","Beluga whale\n\nThe Arctic's native peoples still carry out subsistence hunting of belugas to obtain food and raw materials. This practice is a part of their culture, but doubts still remain whether the number of whales killed may be sustainable. The number of animals killed is about 200 to 550 in Alaska and around 1,000 in Canada. However, in areas such as Cook Inlet, Ungava Bay, and western Greenland, previous levels of commercial whaling have put the species in danger of extinction, and continued hunting by the native peoples may mean some populations will continue to decline. The Canadian sites are the focus of discussions between the local communities and the Canadian government, with the objective of permitting sustainable hunting that does not put the species at risk of extinction.","Beluga whale\n\nPredation","Beluga whale\n\nDuring the winter, belugas commonly become trapped in the ice without being able to escape to open water, which may be several kilometres away. Polar bears take particular advantage of these situations and are able to locate the belugas using their sense of smell. The bears swipe at the belugas and drag them onto the ice to eat them. They are able to capture large individuals in this way; in one documented incident, a bear weighing between 150 and 180 kg was able to capture an animal that weighed 935 kg.","Beluga whale\n\nKiller whales are able to capture both young and adult belugas. They live in all the seas of the world and share the same habitat as belugas in the sub-Arctic region. Attacks on belugas by killer whales have been reported in the waters of Greenland, Russia, Canada, and Alaska. A number of killings have been recorded in Cook Inlet, and experts are concerned the predation by killer whales will impede the recovery of this subpopulation, which has already been badly depleted by hunting. The killer whales arrive at the beginning of August, but the belugas are occasionally able to hear their presence and evade them. The groups near to or under the sea ice have a degree of protection, as the killer whale's large dorsal fin, up to 2 m in length, impedes their movement under the ice and does not allow them to get sufficiently close to the breathing holes in the ice.","Beluga whale\n\nContamination","Beluga whale\n\nThe beluga is considered an excellent sentinel species (indicator of environment health and changes), because it is long-lived, at the top of the food web, bears large amounts of fat and blubber, relatively well-studied for a cetacean, and still somewhat common.","Beluga whale\n\nHuman pollution can be a threat to belugas' health when they congregate in river estuaries. Chemical substances such as DDT and heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium have been found in individuals of the Saint Lawrence River population. Local beluga carcasses contain so many contaminants, they are treated as toxic waste. Levels of polychlorinated biphenyls between 240 and 800 ppm have been found in belugas' brains, liver and muscles, with the highest levels found in males. These levels are significantly greater than those found in Arctic populations. These substances have a proven adverse effect on these cetaceans, as they cause cancers, reproductive diseases, and the deterioration of the immune system, making individuals more susceptible to pneumonias, ulcers, cysts, tumours, and bacterial infections. Although the populations that inhabit the river estuaries run the greatest risk of contamination, high levels of zinc, cadmium, mercury, and selenium have also been found in the muscles, livers, and kidneys of animals that live in the open sea.","Beluga whale\n\nFrom a sample of 129 beluga adults from the Saint Lawrence River examined between 1983 and 1999, a total of 27% had suffered cancer. This is a higher percentage than that documented for other populations of this species and is much higher than for other cetaceans and for the majority of terrestrial mammals; in fact, the rate is only comparable to the levels found in humans and some domesticated animals. For example, the rate of intestinal cancer in the sample is much higher than for humans. This condition is thought to be directly related to environmental contamination, in this case by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and coincides with the high incidence of this disease in humans residing in the area. The prevalence of tumours suggests the contaminants identified in the animals that inhabit the estuary are having a direct carcinogenic effect or they are at least causing an immunological deterioration that is reducing the inhabitants' resistance to the disease.","Beluga whale\n\nIndirect human disturbance may also be a threat. While some populations tolerate small boats, most actively try to avoid ships. Whale-watching has become a booming activity in the St. Lawrence and Churchill River areas, and acoustic contamination from this activity appears to have an effect on belugas. For example, a correlation appears to exist between the passage of belugas across the mouth of the Saguenay River, which has decreased by 60%, and the increase in the use of recreational motorboats in the area. A dramatic decrease has also been recorded in the number of calls between animals (decreasing from 3.4 to 10.5 calls/min to 0 or","Beluga whale\n\nPapillomaviruses have been found in the stomachs of belugas in the Saint Lawrence River. Animals in this location have also been recorded as suffering infections caused by herpesviruses and in certain cases to be suffering from encephalitis caused by the protozoan Sarcocystis. Cases have been recorded of ciliate protozoa colonising the spiracle of certain individuals, but they not thought to be pathogens or at least they are not very harmful.","Beluga whale\n\nThe bacterium Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, which probably comes from eating infected fish, poses a threat to belugas kept in captivity, causing anorexia and dermal plaques and lesions that can lead to septicemia. This condition can cause death if it is not diagnosed and treated in time with antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin.","Beluga whale\n\nA study of infections caused by parasitic worms in a number of individuals of both sexes found the presence of larvae from a species from the Contracaecum genus in their stomachs and intestines, Anisakis simplex in their stomachs, Pharurus pallasii in their ear canals, Hadwenius seymouri in their intestines, and Leucasiella arctica in their rectums.","Beluga whale\n\nRelationship with humans","Beluga whale\n\nCaptivity","Beluga whale\n\nBelugas were among the first whale species to be kept in captivity. The first beluga was shown at Barnum's Museum in New York City in 1861. For most of the 20th century, Canada was the predominant source for belugas destined for exhibition. Until the early 1960s, they were taken from the St. Lawrence River estuary (famously captured in the film documentary Pour la suite du monde) and from 1967 from the Churchill River estuary. This continued until 1992, when the practice was banned. Since Canada ceased to be the supplier of these animals, Russia has become the largest provider. Individuals are caught in the Amur River delta and the far eastern seas of the country, and then are either transported domestically to aquaria in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Sochi, or exported to foreign nations, including Canada.","Beluga whale\n\nToday, it remains one of the few whale species kept at aquaria and marine parks across North America, Europe, and Asia. As of 2006, 30 belugas were in Canada and 28 in the United States, and 42 deaths in captivity had been reported up to that time. A single specimen can reportedly fetch up to US$100,000 on the market. The beluga's popularity with visitors reflects its attractive colour and its range of facial expressions. The latter is possible because while most cetacean \"smiles\" are fixed, the extra movement afforded by the beluga's unfused cervical vertebrae allows a greater range of apparent expression.","Beluga whale\n\nTo provide some enrichment while in captivity, aquaria train belugas to perform behaviors for the public and for medical exams, such as blood draws and ultrasound, provide toys, and allow the public to play recorded or live music.","Beluga whale\n\nMost belugas found in aquaria are caught in the wild, as captive-breeding programs have not had much success so far. For example, despite best efforts, as of 2010, only two male whales had been successfully used as stud animals in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums beluga population, Nanuq at SeaWorld San Diego and Naluark at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, USA. Nanuq has fathered 10 calves, five of which survived birth. Naluark at Shedd Aquarium has fathered four living offspring. Naluark has been relocated to Mystic Aquarium in the hope that he will breed with two of their females. The first beluga calf born in captivity in Europe was born in L'Oceanogràfic marine park in Valencia, Spain, in November 2006. However, the calf died 25 days later after suffering metabolic complications, infections, and not being able to feed properly.","Beluga whale\n\nBetween 1960 and 1992, the United States Navy carried out a program that included the study of marine mammals' abilities with echolocation, with the objective of improving the detection of underwater objects. The program started with dolphins, but a large number of belugas were also used from 1975 on. The program included training these mammals to carry equipment and material to divers working under water, the location of lost objects, surveillance of ships and submarines, and underwater monitoring using cameras held in their mouths. A similar program was implemented by the Russian Navy during the Cold War, in which belugas were also trained for antimining operations in Arctic waters.","Beluga whale\n\nIn 2009 during a free-diving competition in a tank of icy water in Harbin, China, a captive beluga brought a cramp-paralyzed diver from the bottom of the pool up to the surface by holding her foot in its mouth, saving the diver's life.","Beluga whale\n\nWhale watching","Beluga whale\n\nWhale watching has become an important activity in the recovery of the economies of towns in Hudson Bay near to the Saint Lawrence and Churchill Rivers. The best time to see belugas is during the summer, when they meet in large numbers in the estuaries of the rivers and in their summer habitats. The animals are easily seen due to their high numbers and their curiosity regarding the presence of humans.","Beluga whale\n\nHowever, the boats' presence poses a threat to the animals, as it distracts them from important activities such as feeding, social interaction and reproduction. In addition, the noise produced by the motors has an adverse effect on their auditory function and reduces their ability to detect their prey, communicate, and navigate. To protect these marine animals during whale-watching activities, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has published a “Guide for observing marine life”. The guide recommends boats carrying the whale watchers keep their distance from the cetaceans and it expressly prohibits chasing, harassing, obstructing, touching, or feeding them.","Beluga whale\n\nSome regular migrations do occur into Russian EEZ of Sea of Japan such as to Rudnaya Bay, where diving with wild belugas became a less-known but popular attraction.","Beluga whale\n\nHuman speech","Beluga whale\n\nMale belugas in captivity can mimic the pattern of human speech, several octaves lower than typical whale calls. It is not the first time a beluga has been known to sound human, and they often shout like children, in the wild. One captive beluga, after overhearing divers using an underwater communication system, caused one of the divers to surface by imitating their order to get out of the water. Subsequent recordings confirmed that the beluga had become skilled at imitating the patterns and frequency of human speech. After several years, this beluga ceased making these sounds.","Beluga whale\n\nConservation status","Beluga whale\n\nAs of 2008, the beluga is listed as \"near threatened\" by the IUCN due to uncertainty about threats to their numbers and the number of belugas over parts of its range (especially the Russian Arctic), and the expectation that if current conservation efforts cease, especially hunting management, the beluga population is likely to qualify for \"threatened\" status within five years. Prior to 2008, the beluga was listed as \"vulnerable\", a higher level of concern. IUCN cited the stability of the largest subpopulations and improved census methods that indicate a larger population than previously estimated.","Beluga whale\n\nSubpopulations are subject to differing levels of threat and warrant individual assessment. The nonmigratory Cook Inlet subpopulation is listed as \"Critically Endangered\" by the IUCN as of 2006 and is listed as Endangered under the Endangered Species Act as of October 2008. \nThis was due to overharvesting of belugas prior to 1998. The population has failed to recover, though the reported harvest has been small. The most recently published estimate as of May 2008 was 302 (CV=0.16) in 2006. In addition, the National Marine Fisheries Service indicated the 2007 aerial survey's point estimate was 375.","Beluga whale\n\nLegal protection","Beluga whale\n\nThe US Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 outlawing the persecution and hunting of all marine mammals within US coastal waters. The act has been amended a number of times to permit subsistence hunting by native peoples, temporary capture of restricted numbers for research, education and public display, and to decriminalise the accidental capture of individuals during fishing operations. The act also states that all whales in US territorial waters are under the jurisdiction of the National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of NOAA.","Beluga whale\n\nTo prevent hunting, belugas are protected under the 1986 International Moratorium on Commercial Whaling; however, hunting of small numbers of belugas is still allowed. Since it is very difficult to know the exact population of belugas because their habitats include inland waters away from the ocean, they easily come in contact with oil and gas development centres. To prevent whales from coming in contact with industrial waste, the Alaskan and Canadian governments are relocating sites where whales and waste come in contact.","Beluga whale\n\nThe beluga whale is listed on appendix II\"[http://www.cms.int/documents/appendix/Appendices_COP9_E.pdf Appendix II]\" of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). As amended by the Conference of the Parties in 1985, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2008. Effective: 5 March 2009. of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). It is listed on Appendix II as it has an unfavourable conservation status or would benefit significantly from international co-operation organised by tailored agreements. All toothed whales are protected under the CITES that was signed in 1973 to regulate the commercial exploitation of certain species.","Beluga whale\n\nThe isolated beluga population in the Saint Lawrence River has been legally protected since 1983. In 1988 Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Environment Canada, a governmental agency that supervises national parks, implemented the Saint Lawrence Action Plan with the aim of reducing industrial contamination by 90% by 1993; as of 1992, the emissions had been reduced by 59%.","Beluga whale\n\nCultural references","Beluga whale\n\nPour la suite du monde, is a Canadian documentary film released in 1963 about traditional beluga hunting carried out by the inhabitants of L'Isle-aux-Coudres on the Saint Lawrence River.","Beluga whale\n\nWhite Whale Records was an American record company that operated between 1965 and 1971 in Los Angeles, California, it was the record company of The Turtles. The company's logo was the silhouette of a beluga with the words \"White Whale\" above it.","Beluga whale\n\nThe children's singer Raffi released an album called Baby Beluga in 1980. The album starts with the sound of whales communicating, and includes songs representing the ocean and whales playing. The song \"Baby Beluga\" was composed after Raffi saw a recently born beluga calf in Vancouver Aquarium.","Beluga whale\n\nYamaha's Beluga motorcycle (Riva 80/CV80) which had an 80-cc engine was produced from 1981 until 1987 and sold throughout the world, particularly in Canada, the USA, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, and Japan.","Beluga whale\n\nThe Beluga class submarine (project 1710 Mackerel) was an experimental Russian submarine whose prototype operated until 1997, with the whole project being discontinued in the mid-2000s.","Beluga whale\n\nThe fuselage design of the Airbus Beluga, one of the world's biggest cargo planes, is very similar to that of a beluga; it was originally called the Super Transporter, but the nickname Beluga became more popular and was then officially adopted.","Beluga whale\n\nThe German company SkySails GmbH & Co. KG, a subsidiary of the Beluga Shipping group based in Hamburg, tested a new propulsion system for ships that involved a large wing similar to that used in paragliding and which has demonstrated a reduction in fuel use between 10% and 35%. The programme to prove the efficiency of the system was called Project Beluga, as it involved the ship MS Beluga Skysails. The company's insignia, a beluga's tailfin, was printed on the giant wing, which had a surface area of 160 m2.","Beluga whale\n\nA 2002 episode of science fiction series Dark Angel titled \"Dawg Day Afternoon\" claims that beluga whales are the result of a hybridisation between a humpback whale and a dolphin.","Beluga whale\n\nIn the Disney/Pixar film Finding Dory, the character Bailey is a beluga whale."],"string":"[\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), or cachalot, is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of genus Physeter, and one of three extant species in the sperm whale family, along with the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale of the genus Kogia.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nMature males average 16 m in length but some may reach , with the head representing up to one-third of the animal's length. Plunging to 2250 m, it is the second deepest diving mammal, following only the Cuvier's beaked whale. The sperm whale's clicking vocalization, a form of echolocation and communication, may be as loud as 230 decibels (re 1 µPa at 1 m) underwater. It has the largest brain of any animal on Earth, more than five times heavier than a human's. Sperm whales can live for more than 60 years.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sperm whale can be found anywhere in the open ocean. Females and young males live together in groups while mature males live solitary lives outside of the mating season. The females cooperate to protect and nurse their young. Females give birth every four to twenty years, and care for the calves for more than a decade. A mature sperm whale has few natural predators, although calves and weakened adults are sometimes killed by pods of orcas.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nFrom the early eighteenth century through the late 20th, the species was a prime target of whalers. The head of the whale contains a liquid wax called spermaceti, from which the whale derives its name. Spermaceti was used in lubricants, oil lamps, and candles. Ambergris, a waste product from its digestive system, is still used as a fixative in perfumes. Occasionally the sperm whale's great size allowed it to defend itself effectively against whalers. The species is now protected by a whaling moratorium, and is currently listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nTaxonomy and naming\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nEtymology\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe name sperm whale is a clip of spermaceti whale. Spermaceti, originally mistakenly identified as the whales' semen, is the semi-liquid, waxy substance found within the whale's head (see below). \\nThe sperm whale is also known as the \\\"cachalot\\\", which is thought to derive from the archaic French for \\\"tooth\\\" or \\\"big teeth\\\", as preserved for example in ' in the Gascon dialect (a word of either Romance or Basque origin). The etymological dictionary of Corominas says the origin is uncertain, but it suggests that it comes from the Vulgar Latin ', plural of ', \\\"sword hilt\\\". The word cachalot came to English via French from Spanish or Portuguese ', perhaps from Galician/Portuguese ', \\\"big head\\\". The term is retained in the Russian word for the animal, ('), as well as in many other languages.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe scientific genus name Physeter comes from Greek ' (), meaning \\\"blowpipe, blowhole (of a whale)\\\", or – as a pars pro toto – \\\"whale\\\".\\nThe specific name macrocephalus is Latinized from the Greek ' (, meaning \\\"big-headed\\\"), from ' (, \\\"large\\\") + ' (, \\\"head\\\").\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nIts synonymous specific name catodon means \\\"down-tooth\\\", from the Greek elements ' (\\\"below\\\") and ' (\\\"tooth\\\"); so named because it has visible teeth only in its lower jaw. (See: Teeth)\\nAnother synonym australasianus (\\\"Australasian\\\") was applied to sperm whales in the southern hemisphere.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nTaxonomy\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sperm whale belongs to the order Cetartiodactyla, the order containing all cetaceans and even-toed ungulates. It is a member of the unranked clade Cetacea, with all the whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and further classified into Odontoceti, containing all the toothed whales and dolphins. It is the sole extant species of its genus, Physeter, in the family Physeteridae. Two species of the related extant genus Kogia, the pygmy sperm whale Kogia breviceps and the dwarf sperm whale K. simus, are placed either in this family or in the family Kogiidae. In some taxonomic schemes the families Kogiidae and Physeteridae are combined as the superfamily Physeteroidea (see the separate entry on the sperm whale family).\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sperm whale is one of the species originally described by Linnaeus in 1758 in his eighteenth century work, Systema Naturae. He recognised four species in the genus Physeter. Experts soon realised that just one such species exists, although there has been debate about whether this should be named P. catodon or P. macrocephalus, two of the names used by Linnaeus. Both names are still used, although most recent authors now accept macrocephalus as the valid name, limiting catodons status to a lesser synonym.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nBiology\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nExternal appearance\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sperm whale is the largest toothed whale, with adult males measuring up to long and weighing up to 57000 kg. By contrast, the second largest toothed whale, Baird's Beaked Whale measures and weighs up to 15 ST. The Nantucket Whaling Museum has a -long jawbone. The museum claims that this individual was 80 ft long; the whale that sank the Essex (one of the incidents behind Moby-Dick) was claimed to be 85 ft. A similar size is reported from a jawbone from the British Natural History Museum. A 67-foot specimen is reported from a Soviet whaling fleet near the Kurile Islands in 1950. There is disagreement on the claims of adult males approaching or exceeding 80 ft in length.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nExtensive whaling may have decreased their size, as males were highly sought, primarily after World War II. Today, males do not usually exceed in length or 51000 kg in weight. Another view holds that exploitation by overwhaling had virtually no effect on the size of the bull sperm whales, and their size may have actually increased in current times on the basis of density dependent effects. Old males taken at Solander Islands were recorded to be extremely large and unusually rich in blubbers.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nIt is among the most sexually dimorphic of all cetaceans. At birth both sexes are about the same size, but mature males are typically 30% to 50% longer and three times as massive as females.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sperm whale's unique body is unlikely to be confused with any other species. The sperm whale's distinctive shape comes from its very large, block-shaped head, which can be one-quarter to one-third of the animal's length. The S-shaped blowhole is located very close to the front of the head and shifted to the whale's left. This gives rise to a distinctive bushy, forward-angled spray.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sperm whale's flukes (tail lobes) are triangular and very thick. Proportionally, they are larger than that of any other cetacean, and are very flexible. The whale lifts its flukes high out of the water as it begins a feeding dive. It has a series of ridges on the back's caudal third instead of a dorsal fin. The largest ridge was called the 'hump' by whalers, and can be mistaken for a dorsal fin because of its shape and size.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nIn contrast to the smooth skin of most large whales, its back skin is usually wrinkly and has been likened to a prune by whale-watching enthusiasts. Albinos have been reported.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSkeleton\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe ribs are bound to the spine by flexible cartilage, which allows the ribcage to collapse rather than snap under high pressure. While sperm whales are well adapted to diving, repeated dives to great depths have long-term effects. Bones show the same pitting that signals decompression sickness in humans. Older skeletons showed the most extensive pitting, whereas calves showed no damage. This damage may indicate that sperm whales are susceptible to decompression sickness, and sudden surfacing could be lethal to them.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nLike all cetaceans, the spine of the sperm whale has reduced zygapophysial joints, of which the remnants are modified and are positioned higher on the vertebral dorsal spinous process, hugging it laterally, to prevent extensive lateral bending and facilitate more dorso-ventral bending. These evolutionary modifications make the spine more flexible but weaker than the spines of terrestrial vertebrates.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nAs with other toothed whales, the skull of the sperm whale is asymmetrical so as to aid echolocation. Sound waves that strike the whale from different directions will not be channeled in the same way. Within the basin of the cranium, the openings of the bony narial tubes (from which the nasal passages spring) are skewed towards the left side of the skull.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nJaws and teeth\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sperm whale's lower jaw is very narrow and underslung. The sperm whale has 18 to 26 teeth on each side of its lower jaw which fit into sockets in the upper jaw. The teeth are cone-shaped and weigh up to 1 kg each. The teeth are functional, but do not appear to be necessary for capturing or eating squid, as well-fed animals have been found without teeth or even with deformed jaws. One hypothesis is that the teeth are used in aggression between males. Mature males often show scars which seem to be caused by the teeth. Rudimentary teeth are also present in the upper jaw, but these rarely emerge into the mouth. Analyzing the teeth is the preferred method for determining a whale's age. Like the age-rings in a tree, the teeth build distinct layers of cementum and dentine as they grow.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nBrain\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe brain is the largest known of any modern or extinct animal, weighing on average about , more than five times heavier than a human's, and has a volume of about 8,000 cm3. Although larger brains generally correlate with higher intelligence, it is not the only factor. Elephants and dolphins also have larger brains than humans.Whitehead, p. 323 The sperm whale has a lower encephalization quotient than many other whale and dolphin species, lower than that of non-human anthropoid apes, and much lower than humans'.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sperm whale's cerebrum is the largest in all mammalia, both in absolute and relative terms. The olfactory system is reduced, suggesting that the sperm whale has a poor sense of taste and smell. By contrast, the auditory system is enlarged. The pyramidal tract is poorly developed, reflecting the reduction of its limbs.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nBiological systems\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sperm whale respiratory system has adapted to cope with drastic pressure changes when diving. The flexible ribcage allows lung collapse, reducing nitrogen intake, and metabolism can decrease to conserve oxygen. Between dives, the sperm whale surfaces to breathe for about eight minutes before diving again. Odontoceti (toothed whales) breathe air at the surface through a single, S-shaped blowhole, which is extremely skewed to the left. Sperm whales spout (breathe) 3–5 times per minute at rest, increasing to 6–7 times per minute after a dive. The blow is a noisy, single stream that rises up to 2 m or more above the surface and points forward and left at a 45° angle. On average, females and juveniles blow every 12.5 seconds before dives, while large males blow every 17.5 seconds before dives. A sperm whale killed 160 km south of Durban, South Africa after a 1-hour, 50-minute dive was found with two dogfish (Scymnodon sp.), usually found at the sea floor, in its belly.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sperm whale has the longest intestinal system in the world, exceeding 300 m in larger specimens. Similar to ruminants the sperm whale has four stomachs. The first secretes no gastric juices and has very thick muscular walls to crush the food (since whales cannot chew) and resist the claw and sucker attacks of swallowed squid. The second stomach is larger and is where digestion takes place. Undigested squid beaks accumulate in the second stomach – as many as 18,000 have been found in some dissected specimens. Most squid beaks are vomited by the whale, but some occasionally make it to the hindgut. Such beaks precipitate the formation of ambergris.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nIn 1959, the heart of a 22 MT male taken by whalers was measured to be 116 kg, about 0.5% of its total mass. The circulatory system has a number of specific adaptations for the aquatic environment. The diameter of the aortic arch increases as it leaves the heart. This bulbous expansion acts as a windkessel, ensuring a steady blood flow as the heart rate slows during diving. The arteries that leave the aortic arch are positioned symmetrically. There is no costocervical artery. There is no direct connection between the internal carotid artery and the vessels of the brain. Their circulatory system has adapted to dive at great depths, as much as 2250 m. Myoglobin, which stores oxygen in muscle tissue, is much more abundant than in terrestrial animals. The blood has a high density of red blood cells, which contain oxygen-carrying haemoglobin. The oxygenated blood can be directed towards only the brain and other essential organs when oxygen levels deplete. The spermaceti organ may also play a role by adjusting buoyancy (see below). The arterial retia mirabilia are extraordinarily well-developed. The complex arterial retia mirabilia of the sperm whale are more extensive and larger than those of any other cetacean.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSenses\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSpermaceti organ and melon\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nAtop the whale's skull is positioned a large complex of organs filled with a liquid mixture of fats and waxes called spermaceti. The purpose of this complex is to generate powerful and focused clicking sounds, which the sperm whale uses for echolocation and communication.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe spermaceti organ is like a large barrel of spermaceti. Its surrounding wall, known as the case, is extremely tough and fibrous. The case can hold within it up to 1,900 litres of spermaceti. It is proportionately larger in males.Whitehead, p. 321 This oil is a mixture of triglycerides and wax esters. The proportion of wax esters in the spermaceti organ increases with the age of the whale: 38–51% in calves, 58–87% in adult females, and 71–94% in adult males.Perrin, p. 1164 The spermaceti at the core of the organ has a higher wax content than the outer areas. The speed of sound in spermaceti is 2,684 m/s (at 40 kHz, 36 °C), making it nearly twice as fast as in the oil in a dolphin's melon.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nBelow the spermaceti organ lies the \\\"junk\\\" which consists of compartments of spermaceti separated by cartilage. It is analogous to the melon found in other toothed whales. The structure of the junk redistributes physical stress across the skull and may have evolved to protect the head during ramming.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nRunning through the head are two air passages. The left passage runs alongside the spermaceti organ and goes directly to the blowhole, whilst the right passage runs underneath the spermaceti organ and passes air through a pair of phonic lips and into the distal sac at the very front of the nose. The distal sac is connected to the blowhole and the terminus of the left passage. When the whale is submerged, it can close the blowhole, and air that passes through the phonic lips can circulate back to the lungs. The sperm whale, unlike other odontocetes, has only one pair of phonic lips, whereas all other toothed whales have two, and it is located at the front of the nose instead of behind the melon.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nAt the posterior end of this spermaceti complex is the frontal sac, which covers the concave surface of the cranium. The posterior wall of the frontal sac is covered with fluid–filled knobs, which are about 4–13 mm in diameter and separated by narrow grooves. The anterior wall is smooth. The knobbly surface reflects sound waves that come through the spermaceti organ from the phonic lips. The grooves between the knobs trap a film of air that is consistent whatever the orientation or depth of the whale, making it an excellent sound mirror.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe spermaceti organs may also help adjust the whale's buoyancy. It is hypothesized that before the whale dives, cold water enters the organ, and it is likely that the blood vessels constrict, reducing blood flow, and, hence, temperature. The wax therefore solidifies and reduces in volume. The increase in specific density generates a down force of about 392 N and allows the whale to dive with less effort. During the hunt, oxygen consumption, together with blood vessel dilation, produces heat and melts the spermaceti, increasing its buoyancy and enabling easy surfacing. However, more recent work has found many problems with this theory including the lack of anatomical structures for the actual heat exchange.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nHerman Melville's fictional story Moby Dick suggests that the \\\"case\\\" containing the spermaceti serves as a battering ram for use in fights between males. Apart from a few famous instances such as the well-documented sinking of the ships Essex and Ann Alexander by attackers estimated to weigh only one-fifth as much as the ships, this hypothesis is not well supported in current scientific literature.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nFile:Sperm whale phonic lips (NASA).jpg|The phonic lips.\\nFile:Sperm whale exposed frontal sac.jpg|The frontal sac, exposed. Its surface is covered with fluid-filled knobs.\\nFile:Sperm whale frontal sac surface close-up.jpg|A piece of the posterior wall of the frontal sac. The grooves between the knobs trap a consistent film of air, making it an excellent sound mirror.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nEyes and vision\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sperm whale's eye does not differ greatly from those of other toothed whales except in size. It is the largest among the toothed whales, weighing about 170 g. It is overall ellipsoid in shape, compressed along the visual axis, measuring about 7×7×3 cm. The cornea is elliptical and the lens is spherical. The sclera is very hard and thick, roughly 1 cm anteriorly and 3 cm posteriorly. There are no ciliary muscles. The choroid is very thick and contains a fibrous tapetum lucidum. Like other toothed whales, the sperm whale can retract and protrude its eyes thanks to a 2-cm-thick retractor muscle attached around the eye at the equator.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nAccording to Fristrup and Harbison (2002), \\nsperm whales eyes afford good vision and sensitivity to light. They conjectured that sperm whales use vision to hunt squid, either by detecting silhouettes from below or by detecting bioluminescence. If sperm whales detect silhouettes, Fristrup and Harbison suggested that they hunt upside down, allowing them to use the forward parts of the ventral visual fields for binocular vision.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSleeping\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nFor some time researchers have been aware that pods of sperm whales may sleep for short periods, assuming a vertical position with their heads just below or at the surface. A 2008 study published in Current Biology recorded evidence that whales may sleep with both sides of the brain. It appears that some whales may fall into a deep sleep for about 7 percent of the time, most often between 6 p.m. and midnight.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nGenetics\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSperm whales have 21 pairs of chromosomes (2n=42). The genome of live whales can be examined by recovering shed skin.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nVocalization complex\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nMechanism\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nWhen echolocating, the sperm whale emits a directionally focused beam of broadband clicks. Clicks are generated by forcing air through a pair of phonic lips (also known as \\\"monkey lips\\\" or \\\"museau de singe\\\") at the front end of the nose, just below the blowhole. The sound then travels backwards along the length of the nose through the spermaceti organ. Most of the sound energy is then reflected off the frontal sac at the cranium and into the melon, whose lens-like structure focuses it. Some of the sound will reflect back into the spermaceti organ and back towards the front of the whale's nose, where it will be reflected through the spermaceti organ a third time. This back and forth reflection which happens on the scale of a few milliseconds creates a multi-pulse click structure. This multi-pulse click structure allows researchers to measure the whale's spermaceti organ using only the sound of its clicks. Because the interval between pulses of a sperm whale's click is related to the length of the sound producing organ, an individual whale's click is unique to that individual.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nHowever, if the whale matures and the size of the spermaceti organ increases, the tone of the whale's click will also change. The lower jaw is the primary reception path for the echoes. A continuous fat-filled canal transmits received sounds to the inner ear.Whitlow, W. \\\"Echolocation\\\", pp. 359–367 in Perrin\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe source of the air forced through the phonic lips is the right nasal passage. While the left nasal passage opens to the blow hole, the right nasal passage has evolved to supply air to the phonic lips. It is thought that the nostrils of the land-based ancestor of the sperm whale migrated through evolution to their current functions, the left nostril becoming the blowhole and the right nostril becoming the phonic lips.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nAir that passes through the phonic lips passes into the distal sac, then back down through the left nasal passage. This recycling of air allows the whale to continuously generate clicks for as long as it is submerged.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nTypes of vocalization\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nA creak is a rapid series of high-frequency clicks that sounds somewhat like a creaky door hinge. It is typically used when homing in on prey.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nA coda is a short pattern of 3 to 20 clicks that is used in social situations. They were once thought to be a way by which individuals identified themselves, but individuals have been observed producing multiple codas, and the same codas are used by multiple individuals.Whitehead, p. 141 However, each click contains a physical signature which suggests that clicks can be used to identify individuals. Geographically separate pods exhibit distinct dialects.Whitehead, p. 131 Large males are generally solitary and rarely produce codas. In breeding grounds, codas are almost entirely produced by adult females. Despite evidence that sperm whales share similar codas, it is still unknown whether sperm whales possess individually specific coda repertoires or whether individuals make codas at different rates.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSlow clicks are heard only in the presence of males (it is not certain whether females occasionally make them). Males make a lot of slow clicks in breeding grounds (74% of the time), both near the surface and at depth, which suggests they are primarily mating signals. Outside breeding grounds, slow clicks are rarely heard, and usually near the surface.Whitehead, p. 144\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nEcology\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nDistribution\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSperm whales are among the most cosmopolitan species. They prefer ice-free waters over 1000 m deep. Although both sexes range through temperate and tropical oceans and seas, only adult males populate higher latitudes.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThey are relatively abundant from the poles to the equator and are found in all the oceans. They inhabit the Mediterranean Sea, but not the Black Sea, while their presence in the Red Sea is uncertain. The shallow entrances to both the Black Sea and the Red Sea may account for their absence. The Black Sea's lower layers are also anoxic and contain high concentrations of sulphur compounds such as hydrogen sulphide.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nPopulations are denser close to continental shelves and canyons. Sperm whales are usually found in deep, off-shore waters, but may be seen closer to shore, in areas where the continental shelf is small and drops quickly to depths of 310 to. Coastal areas with significant sperm whale populations include the Azores and Dominica. In Asian waters, whales are also observed regularly in coastal waters in places such as Commander and Kuril Islands, Shiretoko Peninsula, off Kinkasan, vicinity to Tokyo Bay and Boso Peninsula to Izu and Izu Islands, Volcano Islands, Yakushima and Tokara Islands to Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, Northern Mariana Islands, and so forth. Historical catch records suggest there could have been smaller aggression grounds in the Sea of Japan as well.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nGrown males are known to enter surprisingly shallow bays to rest (whales will be in state of rest during these occasions). There are unique, coastal groups reported from various areas among the globe such as Scotland, Shiretoko Peninsula, off Kaikoura, in Davao Gulf. Such costal groups were more abundant in pre-whaling days.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nDiet\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSperm whales usually dive between 300 to, and sometimes 1 to, in search of food. Such dives can last more than an hour. They feed on several species, notably the giant squid, but also the colossal squid, octopuses, and fish like demersal rays, but their diet is mainly medium-sized squid. Some prey may be taken accidentally while eating other items. Most of what is known about deep sea squid has been learned from specimens in captured sperm whale stomachs, although more recent studies analysed feces. One study, carried out around the Galápagos, found that squid from the genera Histioteuthis (62%), Ancistrocheirus (16%), and Octopoteuthis (7%) weighing between 12 and were the most commonly taken. Battles between sperm whales and giant squid or colossal squid have never been observed by humans; however, white scars are believed to be caused by the large squid. One study published in 2010 collected evidence that suggests that female sperm whales may collaborate when hunting Humboldt squid. Tagging studies have shown that sperm whales hunt upside down at the bottom of their deep dives. It is suggested that the whales can see the squid silhouetted above them against the dim surface light.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nAn older study, examining whales captured by the New Zealand whaling fleet in the Cook Strait region, found a 1.69:1 ratio of squid to fish by weight. Sperm whales sometimes take sablefish and toothfish from long lines. Long-line fishing operations in the Gulf of Alaska complain that sperm whales take advantage of their fishing operations to eat desirable species straight off the line, sparing the whales the need to hunt. However, the amount of fish taken is very little compared to what the sperm whale needs per day. Video footage has been captured of a large male sperm whale \\\"bouncing\\\" a long line, to gain the fish. Sperm whales are believed to prey on the megamouth shark, a rare and large deep-sea species discovered in the 1970s. In one case, three sperm whales were observed attacking or playing with a megamouth.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sharp beak of a consumed squid lodged in the whale's intestine may lead to the production of ambergris, analogous to the production of pearls. The irritation of the intestines caused by squid beaks stimulates the secretion of this lubricant-like substance. Sperm whales are prodigious feeders and eat around 3% of their body weight per day. The total annual consumption of prey by sperm whales worldwide is estimated to be about 91 e6t. In comparison, human consumption of seafood is estimated to be 115 e6t.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSperm whales hunt through echolocation. Their clicks are among the most powerful sounds in the animal kingdom (see above). It has been hypothesised that it can stun prey with its clicks. Experimental studies attempting to duplicate this effect have been unable to replicate the supposed injuries, casting doubt on this idea.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nIt has been stated that sperm whales, as well as other large cetaceans, help fertilise the surface of the ocean by consuming nutrients in the depths and transporting those nutrients to the oceans' surface when they defecate, an effect known as the whale pump. This fertilises phytoplankton and other plants on the surface of the ocean and contributes to ocean productivity and the drawdown of atmospheric carbon.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nLife cycle\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSperm whales can live 70 years or more. They are a prime example of a species that has been K-selected, meaning their reproductive strategy is associated with stable environmental conditions and comprises a low birth rate, significant parental aid to offspring, slow maturation, and high longevity.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nHow they choose mates has not been definitively determined. Males will fight with each other over females, and males will mate with multiple females, making them polygynous, but they do not dominate the group like a harem.Whitehead, p. 276 Males do not provide paternal care to their offspring.Whitehead, p. 343\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nFemales become fertile at around 9 years of age.Whitehead, p. 122 The oldest pregnant female ever recorded was 41 years old.Whitehead, p. 123 Gestation requires 14 to 16 months, producing a single calf. Sexually mature females give birth once every 4 to 20 years (pregnancy rates were higher during the whaling era). Birth is a social event, as the mother and calf need others to protect them from predators. The other adults may jostle and bite the newborn in its first hours.Whitehead, p. 185\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nLactation proceeds for 19 to 42 months, but calves, rarely, may suckle up to 13 years. Like other whales, the sperm whale's milk has a higher fat content than that of terrestrial mammals: about 36%, compared to 4% in cow milk. This gives it a consistency similar to cottage cheese, which prevents it from dissolving in the water before the calf can eat it. It has an energy content of roughly 3,840 kcal/kg, compared to just 640 kcal/kg in cow milk. Calves may be allowed to suckle from females other than their mothers.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nMales become sexually mature at 18 years. Upon reaching sexual maturity, males move to higher latitudes, where the water is colder and feeding is more productive. Females remain at lower latitudes. Males reach their full size at about age 50.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSocial behaviour\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nRelations within the species\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nAdult males who are not breeding live solitary lives, whereas females and juvenile males live together in groups. The main driving force for the sexual segregation of adult sperm whales is scramble competition for mesopelagic squid.Whitehead, p. 347 Females and their young remain in groups, while mature males leave their \\\"natal unit\\\" somewhere between 4 and 21 years of age. Mature males sometimes form loose bachelor groups with other males of similar age and size. As males grow older, they typically live solitary lives. Mature males have beached themselves together, suggesting a degree of cooperation which is not yet fully understood. The whales rarely, if ever, leave their group.Whitehead, p. 232\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nA social unit is a group of sperm whales who live and travel together over a period of years. Individuals rarely, if ever, join or leave a social unit. There is a huge variance in the size of social units. They are most commonly between six and nine individuals in size but can have more than twenty.Whitehead, p. 233 Unlike orcas, sperm whales within a social unit show no significant tendency to associate with their genetic relatives.Whitehead, p. 235 Females and calves spend about three quarters of their time foraging and a quarter of their time socializing. Socializing usually takes place in the afternoon.Whitehead, p. 204\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nWhen sperm whales socialize, they emit complex patterns of clicks called codas. They will spend much of the time rubbing against each other. Tracking of diving whales suggests that groups engage in herding of prey, similar to bait balls created by other species, though the research needs to be confirmed by tracking the prey.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nRelations with other species\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe most common natural predator of sperm whales is the orca, but pilot whales and false killer whales sometimes harass them. Orcas prey on target groups of females with young, usually making an effort to extract and kill a calf. The adults will protect their calves or an injured adult by encircling them. They may face inwards with their tails out (the 'marguerite formation', named after the flower). The heavy and powerful tail of an adult whale can deliver lethal blows. Alternatively, they may face outwards (the 'heads-out formation'). Other than sperm whales, southern right whales had been observed to perform similar formations.Ponnampalam S.L., 2016, [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B682wgTUA8QiWHFYYmhBdWJWWm8/view No Danger in Sight? An Observation of Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in Marguerite Formation off Muscat, Sultanate of Oman] However, formations in non dangerous situations have been recorded as well. Early whalers exploited this behaviour, attracting a whole unit by injuring one of its members. If the orca pod is extremely large, its members may sometimes be able to kill adult female sperm whales. Solitary mature males are known to interfere and come to the aid of vulnerable groups nearby.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nIndividual large mature male sperm whales have no non-human predators, and are believed to be too large, powerful and aggressive to be threatened by orcas. In addition, male sperm whales have been observed to attack and intimidate orca pods. An incident was filmed from a long-line trawler: an orca pod was systematically taking fish caught on the trawler's long lines (as the lines were being pulled into the ship) when a male sperm whale appeared to repeatedly charge the orca pod in an attempt to drive them away; it was speculated by the film crew that the sperm whale was attempting to access the same fish. The orcas employed a tail outward and tail slapping defensive position against the bull sperm whale similar to that used by female sperm whales against attacking orcas.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSperm whales are not known for forging bonds with other species, but it was observed that a bottlenose dolphin with spinal deformity had been accepted into a pod of sperm whales. They are known to swim alongside other cetaceans such as humpback, fin, minke, pilot, and orca whales on occasion.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nEvolutionary history\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nFossil record\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nAlthough the fossil record is poor, several extinct genera have been assigned to the clade Physeteroidea, which includes the last common ancestor of the modern sperm whale, pygmy sperm whales, dwarf sperm whales, and extinct physeteroids. These fossils include Ferecetotherium, Idiorophus, Diaphorocetus, Aulophyseter, Orycterocetus, Scaldicetus, Placoziphius, Zygophyseter and Acrophyseter. Ferecetotherium, found in Azerbaijan and dated to the late Oligocene (about ), is the most primitive fossil that has been found which possesses sperm whale-specific features such as an asymmetric rostrum (\\\"beak\\\" or \\\"snout\\\"). Most sperm whale fossils date from the Miocene period, . Diaphorocetus, from Argentina, has been dated to the early Miocene. Fossil sperm whales from the Middle Miocene include Aulophyseter, Idiorophus and Orycterocetus, all of which were found on the west coast of the United States, and Scaldicetus, found in Europe and Japan. Orycterocetus fossils have also been found in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, in addition to the west coast of the United States. Placoziphius, found in Europe, and Acrophyseter, from Peru, are dated to the late Miocene.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nFossil sperm whales differ from modern sperm whales in tooth count and the shape of the face and jaws. For example, Scaldicetus had a tapered rostrum. Genera from the Oligocene and early and middle Miocene, with the possible exception of Aulophyseter, had teeth in their upper jaws. Acrophyseter, from the late Miocene, also had teeth in both the upper and lower jaws as well as a short rostrum and an upward curving mandible (lower jaw). These anatomical differences suggest that fossil species may not have necessarily been deep-sea squid eaters like the modern sperm whale, but that some genera mainly ate fish. Zygophyseter, dated from the middle to late Miocene and found in southern Italy, had teeth in both jaws and appears to have been adapted to feed on large prey, rather like the modern Orca (Killer Whale). Other fossil sperm whales with adaptations similar to this are collectively known as killer sperm whales.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nPhylogeny\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe traditional view has been that Mysticeti (baleen whales) and Odontoceti (toothed whales) arose from more primitive whales early in the Oligocene period, and that the super-family Physeteroidea, which contains the sperm whale, dwarf sperm whale, and pygmy sperm whale, diverged from other toothed whales soon after that, over .Mchedlidze, G. \\\"Sperm whales, evolution\\\", pp. 1172–1174 in Perrin From 1993 to 1996, molecular phylogenetics analyses by Milinkovitch and colleagues, based on comparing the genes of various modern whales, suggested that the sperm whales are more closely related to the baleen whales than they are to other toothed whales, which would have meant that Odontoceti were not monophyletic; in other words, it did not consist of a single ancestral toothed whale species and all its descendants. However, more recent studies, based on various combinations of comparative anatomy and molecular phylogenetics, criticised Milinkovitch's analysis on technical grounds and reaffirmed that the Odontoceti are monophyletic.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThese analyses also confirm that there was a rapid evolutionary radiation (diversification) of the Physeteroidea in the Miocene period. The Kogiidae (dwarf and pygmy sperm whales) diverged from the Physeteridae (true sperm whales) at least .\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nRelationship with humans\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSperm whaling\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSpermaceti, obtained primarily from the spermaceti organ, and sperm oil, obtained primarily from the blubber in the body, were much sought after by eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century whalers. These substances found a variety of commercial applications, such as candles, soap, cosmetics, machine oil, other specialised lubricants, lamp oil, pencils, crayons, leather waterproofing, rust-proofing materials and many pharmaceutical compounds. Ambergris, a solid, waxy, flammable substance produced in the digestive system of sperm whales, was also sought as a fixative in perfumery.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nPrior to the early eighteenth century, hunting was mostly by indigenous Indonesians. Legend has it that sometime in the early eighteenth century, around 1712, Captain Christopher Hussey, while cruising for right whales near shore, was blown offshore by a northerly wind, where he encountered a sperm whale pod and killed one. Although the story may not be true, sperm whales were indeed soon exploited by American whalers. Judge Paul Dudley, in his Essay upon the Natural History of Whales (1725), states that one Atkins, ten or twelve years in the trade, was among the first to catch sperm whales sometime around 1720 off the New England coast.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThere were only a few recorded catches during the first few decades (1709–1730s) of offshore sperm whaling. Instead, sloops concentrated on Nantucket Shoals, where they would have taken right whales or went to the Davis Strait region to catch bowhead whales. By the early 1740s, with the advent of spermaceti candles (before 1743), American vessels began to focus on sperm whales. The diary of Benjamin Bangs (1721–1769) shows that, along with the bumpkin sloop he sailed, he found three other sloops flensing sperm whales off the coast of North Carolina in late May 1743. On returning to Nantucket in the summer 1744 on a subsequent voyage, he noted that \\\"45 spermacetes are brought in here this day,\\\" another indication that American sperm whaling was in full swing.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nAmerican sperm whaling soon spread from the east coast of the American colonies to the Gulf Stream, the Grand Banks, West Africa (1763), the Azores (1765), and the South Atlantic (1770s). From 1770 to 1775 Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island ports produced 45,000 barrels of sperm oil annually, compared to 8,500 of whale oil. In the same decade, the British began sperm whaling, employing American ships and personnel. By the following decade, the French had entered the trade, also employing American expertise. Sperm whaling increased until the mid-nineteenth century. Spermaceti oil was important in public lighting (for example, in lighthouses, where it was used in the United States until 1862, when it was replaced by lard oil, in turn replaced by petroleum) and for lubricating the machines (such as those used in cotton mills) of the Industrial Revolution. Sperm whaling declined in the second half of the nineteenth century, as petroleum came into broader use. In that sense, petroleum use may be said to have protected whale populations from even greater exploitation. Sperm whaling in the eighteenth century began with small sloops carrying only one or two whaleboats.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe fleet's scope and size increased over time, and larger ships entered the fishery. In the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century sperm whaling ships sailed to the equatorial Pacific, the Indian Ocean, Japan, the coast of Arabia, Australia and New Zealand. Hunting could be dangerous to the crew, since sperm whales (especially bulls) will readily fight to defend themselves against attack, unlike most baleen whales. When dealing with a threat, sperm whales will use their huge head effectively as a battering ram. Arguably the most famous sperm whale counter-attack occurred on 20 November 1820, when a whale claimed to be about long rammed and sank the Nantucket whaleship Essex. Only 8 out of 21 sailors survived to be rescued by other ships. This instance is popularly believed to have inspired Herman Melville's famous book Moby-Dick.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sperm whale's ivory-like teeth were often sought by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century whalers, who used them to produce inked carvings known as scrimshaw. Thirty teeth of the sperm whale can be used for ivory. Each of these teeth, up to 20 cm and 8 cm across, are hollow for the first half of their length. Like walrus ivory, sperm whale ivory has two distinct layers. However, sperm whale ivory contains a much thicker inner layer. Though a widely practised art in the nineteenth century, scrimshaw using genuine sperm whale ivory declined substantially after the retirement of the whaling fleets in the 1880s. Currently the Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), prevents the sales of or trade in sperm whale ivory harvested after 1973 or scrimshaw crafted from it.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nModern whaling was more efficient than open-boat whaling, employing steam-powered ships and exploding harpoons. Initially, modern whaling activity focused on large baleen whales, but as these populations were taken, sperm whaling increased. Spermaceti, the fine waxy oil produced by sperm whales, was in high demand. In both the 1941 to 1942 and 1942 to 1943 seasons, Norwegian expeditions took over 3,000 sperm whales off the coast of Peru alone. After the war, whaling continued unabated to obtain oil for cosmetics and high-performance machinery, such as automobile transmissions.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe hunting led to the near extinction of large whales, including sperm whales, until bans on whale oil use were instituted in 1972. The International Whaling Commission gave the species full protection in 1985 but hunting by Japan in the northern Pacific Ocean continued until 1988.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nIt is estimated that the historic worldwide population numbered 1,100,000 before commercial sperm whaling began in the early eighteenth century. By 1880 it had declined by an estimated 29 percent. From that date until 1946, the population appears to have partially recovered as whaling activity decreased, and after World War II, the whale population increases to 33 percent of the pre-whaling population. Between 184,000 and 236,000 sperm whales were killed by the various whaling nations in the nineteenth century, while in the twentieth century, at least 770,000 were taken, the majority between 1946 and 1980.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSperm whales increase levels of primary production and carbon export by depositing iron-rich faeces into surface waters of the Southern Ocean. The iron-rich faeces cause phytoplankton to grow and take up more carbon from the atmosphere. When the phytoplankton dies, it sinks to the deep ocean and takes the atmospheric carbon with it. By reducing the abundance of sperm whales in the Southern Ocean, whaling has resulted in an extra 2 million tonnes of carbon remaining in the atmosphere each year.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nRemaining sperm whale populations are large enough that the species' conservation status is rated as vulnerable rather than endangered. However, the recovery from centuries of commercial whaling is a slow process, particularly in the South Pacific, where the toll on breeding-age males was severe.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nCurrent conservation status\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe total number of sperm whales in the world is unknown, but is thought to be in the hundreds of thousands. The conservation outlook is brighter than for many other whales. Commercial whaling has ceased, and the species is protected almost worldwide, though records indicate that in the eleven-year period starting from 2000, Japan has caught 51 sperm whales. Fishermen do not target the creatures sperm whales eat, but long-line fishing operations in the Gulf of Alaska have complained about sperm whales stealing fish from their lines.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nCurrently, entanglement in fishing nets and collisions with ships represent the greatest threats to the sperm whale population. Other threats include ingestion of marine debris, ocean noise, and chemical pollution. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) regards the sperm whale as being \\\"Vulnerable\\\". The species is listed as endangered on the United States Endangered Species Act.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSperm whales are listed on Appendix I and Appendix II of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). It is listed on Appendix I as this species has been categorized as being in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant proportion of their range and CMS Parties strive towards strictly protecting these animals, conserving or restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them. It is listed on Appendix II as it has an unfavourable conservation status or would benefit significantly from international co-operation organised by tailored agreements. It is also covered by the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS) and the Memorandum of Understanding for the Conservation of Cetaceans and Their Habitats in the Pacific Islands Region (Pacific Cetaceans MOU).\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nCultural importance\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nRope-mounted teeth are important cultural objects throughout the Pacific. In New Zealand, the Māori know them as \\\"rei puta\\\"; such whale tooth pendants were rare objects because sperm whales were not actively hunted in traditional Māori society. Whale ivory and bone were taken from beached whales. In Fiji the teeth are known as tabua, traditionally given as gifts for atonement or esteem (called sevusevu), and were important in negotiations between rival chiefs. Friedrich Ratzel in The History of Mankind reported in 1896 that, in Fiji, whales' or cachalots' teeth were the most-demanded article of ornament or value. They occurred often in necklaces. Today the tabua remains an important item in Fijian life. The teeth were originally rare in Fiji and Tonga, which exported teeth, but with the Europeans' arrival, teeth flooded the market and this \\\"currency\\\" collapsed. The oversupply led in turn to the development of the European art of scrimshaw.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nHerman Melville's novel Moby-Dick is based on a true story about a sperm whale that attacked and sank the whaleship Essex. Melville associated the sperm whale with the Bible's Leviathan. The fearsome reputation perpetuated by Melville was based on bull whales' ability to fiercely defend themselves from attacks by early whalers, occasionally resulting in the destruction of the whaling ships.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe sperm whale was designated as the Connecticut state animal by the CT General Assembly in 1975. It was selected because of its specific contribution to the state's history and because of its present-day plight as an endangered species.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nWatching sperm whales\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nSperm whales are not the easiest of whales to watch, due to their long dive times and ability to travel long distances underwater. However, due to the distinctive look and large size of the whale, watching is increasingly popular. Sperm whale watchers often use hydrophones to listen to the clicks of the whales and locate them before they surface. Popular locations for sperm whale watching include the town of Kaikoura on New Zealand's South Island, Andenes and Tromsø in Arctic Norway; as well as the Azores, where the continental shelf is so narrow that whales can be observed from the shore, and Dominica where a long-term scientific research program, The Dominica Sperm Whale Project, has been in operation since 2005.\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nPlastic waste\",\n \"Sperm whale\\n\\nThe introduction of plastic waste to the ocean environment by humans is new. Sperm whales are now occasionally found with pieces of plastic in their stomachs.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe beluga whale or white whale (Delphinapterus leucas) is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. It is one of two members of the family Monodontidae, along with the narwhal, and the only member of the genus Delphinapterus. This marine mammal is commonly referred to as the beluga, melonhead, or sea canary due to its high-pitched twitter.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nIt is adapted to life in the Arctic, so has anatomical and physiological characteristics that differentiate it from other cetaceans. Amongst these are its unmistakable all-white colour and the absence of a dorsal fin. It possesses a distinctive protuberance at the front of its head which houses an echolocation organ called the melon, which in this species is large and plastic (deformable). The beluga's body size is between that of a dolphin's and a true whale's, with males growing up to long and weighing up to 1600 kg. This whale has a stocky body. A large percentage of its weight is blubber, as is true of many cetaceans. Its sense of hearing is highly developed and its echolocation (sonar) allows it to move about and find blowholes under sheet ice.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBelugas are gregarious and form groups of up to 10 animals on average, although during the summer, they can gather in the hundreds or even thousands in estuaries and shallow coastal areas. They are slow swimmers, but can dive to 700 m below the surface. They are opportunistic feeders and their diets vary according to their locations and the season. They mainly eat fish, crustaceans, and other deep-sea invertebrates.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe majority of belugas live in the Arctic Ocean and the seas and coasts around North America, Russia and Greenland; their worldwide population is thought to number around 150,000. They are migratory and the majority of groups spend the winter around the Arctic ice cap; when the sea ice melts in summer, they move to warmer river estuaries and coastal areas. Some populations are sedentary and do not migrate over great distances during the year.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe native peoples of North America and Russia have hunted belugas for many centuries. They were also hunted commercially during the 19th century and part of the 20th century. Whale hunting has been under international control since 1973. Currently, only certain Inuit and Alaska Native groups are allowed to carry out subsistence hunting of belugas. Other threats include natural predators (polar bears and killer whales), contamination of rivers (e.g. with PCBs, which bioaccumulate up the food chain, and infectious diseases.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nFrom a conservation perspective, the beluga was placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List in 2008 as being \\\"near threatened\\\"; the subpopulation from the Cook Inlet in Alaska is considered Critically Endangered and is under the protection of the United States' Endangered Species Act. Of seven Canadian beluga populations, the two inhabiting eastern Hudson Bay and Ungava Bay are listed as endangered.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBelugas are one of the cetaceans most commonly kept in captivity in aquariums and wildlife parks in North America, Europe, and Asia; they are popular with the public due to their colour and expression.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nTaxonomy\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe beluga was first described in 1776 by Peter Simon Pallas. It is a member of the Monodontidae family, which is in turn part of the toothed whale parvorder. The Irrawaddy dolphin was once placed in the same family; recent genetic evidence suggests these dolphins belong to the Delphinidae family. The narwhal is the only other species within the Monodontidae besides the beluga. A skull has been discovered with intermediate characteristics supporting the hypothesis that hybridization is possible between these two families.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe name of the genus, Delphinapterus, means \\\"dolphin without fin\\\" (from the Greek δελφίν (delphin), dolphin and απτερος (apteros), without fin) and the species name leucas means \\\"white\\\" (from the Greek λευκας (leukas), white). The Red List of Threatened Species gives both beluga and white whale as common names, though the former is now more popular. The English name comes from the Russian белуха (belukha), which derives from the word белый (bélyj), meaning \\\"white\\\". The name beluga in Russian refers to an unrelated species, a fish, beluga sturgeon.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe whale is also colloquially known as the sea canary on account of its high-pitched squeaks, squeals, clucks, and whistles. A Japanese researcher says he taught a beluga to \\\"talk\\\" by using these sounds to identify three different objects, offering hope that humans may one day be able to communicate effectively with sea mammals. A similar observation has been made by Canadian researchers, where a beluga which died in 2007 \\\"talked\\\" when he was still a subadult. Another example is NOC, a beluga whale that could mimic the rhythm and tone of human language. Beluga whales in the wild have been reported to imitate human voices.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nEvolution\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nMitochondrial DNA studies have shown modern cetaceans last shared a common ancestor between 30 and 34 million years ago. The family Monodontidae separated relatively early from the other odontoceti; it split from the Delphinoidea between 11 and 15 million years ago, and from the Phocoenidae, its closest relatives in evolutionary terms, more recently still.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe beluga's earliest known ancestor is the prehistoric Denebola brachycephala from the late Miocene period (9–10 million years ago). A single fossil from the Baja California Peninsula indicates the family once inhabited warmer waters. The fossil record also indicates, in comparatively recent times, the beluga's range varied with that of the polar ice packs expanding during ice ages and contracting when the ice retreated. Counter-evidence to this theory comes from the finding in 1849 of fossilised beluga bones in Vermont in the United States, 240 km from the Atlantic Ocean. The bones were discovered during construction of the first railroad between Rutland and Burlington in Vermont, when workers unearthed the bones of a mysterious animal in Charlotte. Buried nearly 10 ft below the surface in a thick blue clay, these bones were unlike those of any animal previously discovered in Vermont. Experts identified the bones as those of a beluga. Because Charlotte is over 150 mi from the nearest ocean, early naturalists were at a loss to explain the presence of the bones of a marine mammal buried beneath the fields of rural Vermont.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe remains were found to be preserved in the sediments of the Champlain Sea, an extension of the Atlantic Ocean within the continent resulting from the rise in sea level at the end of the ice ages some 12,000 years ago. Today, the Charlotte whale is the official Vermont State Fossil (making Vermont the only state whose official fossil is that of a still extant animal).\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nDescription\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nIts body is round, particularly when well fed, and tapers less smoothly to the head than the tail. The sudden tapering to the base of its neck gives it the appearance of shoulders, unique among cetaceans. The tailfin grows and becomes increasingly and ornately curved as the animal ages. The flippers are broad and short—making them almost square-shaped.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nLongevity\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nPreliminary investigations suggested a beluga's life expectancy was rarely more than 30 years. The method used to calculate the age of a beluga is based on counting the layers of dentin and dental cement in a specimen's teeth, which were originally thought to be deposited once or twice a year. The layers can be readily identified as one layer consists of opaque dense material and the other is transparent and less dense. It is therefore possible to estimate the age of the individual by extrapolating the number of layers identified and the estimated frequency with which the deposits are laid down. A 2006 study using radiocarbon dating of the dentine layers showed the deposit of this material occurs with a lesser frequency (once per year) than was previously thought. The study therefore estimated belugas can live for 70 or 80 years.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nSize\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe species presents a moderate degree of sexual dimorphism, as the males are 25% longer than the females and are sturdier. Adult male belugas can range from , while the females measure 3 to. Males weigh between 1100 and, occasionally up to 1900 kg while females weigh between 700 and. They rank as mid-sized species among toothed whales.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBoth sexes reach their maximum size by the time they are 10 years old. The beluga's body shape is stocky and fusiform (cone-shaped with the point facing backwards), and they frequently have folds of fat, particularly along the ventral surface. Between 40% and 50% of their body weight is fat, which is a higher proportion than for cetaceans that do not inhabit the Arctic, where fat only represents 30% of body weight. The fat forms a layer that covers all of the body except the head, and it can be up to 15 cm thick. It acts as insulation in waters with temperatures between 0 and 18 °C, as well as being an important reserve during periods without food.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nColor\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe adult beluga is rarely mistaken for any other species, because it is completely white or whitish-grey in colour. Calves are usually born grey, and by the time they are a month old, have turned dark grey or blue grey. They then start to progressively lose their pigmentation until they attain their distinctive white colouration, at the age of seven years in females and 9 in males. The white colouration of the skin is an adaptation to life in the Arctic that allows belugas to camouflage themselves in the polar ice caps as protection against their main predators, polar bears and killer whales. Unlike other cetaceans, the belugas seasonally shed their skin. During the winter, the epidermis thickens and the skin can become yellowish, mainly on the back and fins. When they migrate to the estuaries during the summer, they rub themselves on the gravel of the riverbeds to remove the cutaneous covering.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nHead and neck\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nLike most toothed whales, it has a compartment found at the centre of the forehead that contains an organ used for echolocation called a melon, which contains fatty tissue. The shape of the beluga's head is unlike that of any other cetacean, as the melon is extremely bulbous, lobed, and visible as a large frontal prominence. Another distinctive characteristic it possesses is the melon is malleable; its shape is changed during the emission of sounds. The beluga is able to change the shape of its head by blowing air around its sinuses to focus the emitted sounds. This organ contains fatty acids, mainly isovaleric acid (60.1%) and long-chain branched acids (16.9%), a very different composition from its body fat, and which could play a role in its echolocation system.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nUnlike many dolphins and whales, the seven vertebrae in the neck are not fused together, allowing the animal to turn its head laterally without needing to rotate its body. This gives the head a lateral manoeuvrability that allows an improved field of view and movement and helps in catching prey and evading predators in deep water. The rostrum has about eight to 10 small, blunt, and slightly curved teeth on each side of the jaw and a total of 36 to 40 teeth. Belugas do not use their teeth to chew, but for catching hold of their prey; they then tear them up and swallow them nearly whole. Belugas only have a single spiracle, which is located on the top of the head behind the melon, and has a muscular covering, allowing it to be completely sealed. Under normal conditions, the spiracle is closed and an animal must contract the muscular covering to open the spiracle. A beluga's thyroid gland is larger than that of terrestrial mammals – weighing three times more than that of a horse – which helps it to maintain a greater metabolism during the summer when it lives in river estuaries.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nIt is the marine cetacean that most frequently develops hyperplastic and neoplastic lesions of the thyroid.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nFins\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe fins retain the bony vestiges of the beluga's mammalian ancestors, and are firmly bound together by connective tissue. The fins are small in relation to the size of the body, rounded and oar-shaped, and slightly curled at the tips. These versatile extremities are mainly used as a rudder to control direction, to work in synchrony with the tailfin and for agile movement in shallow waters up to 3 m deep. The fins also contain a mechanism for regulating body temperature, as the arteries feeding the fin's muscles are surrounded by veins that dilate or contract to gain or lose heat. The tailfin is flat with two oar-like lobes, it does not have any bones, and is made up of hard, dense, fibrous connective tissue. The tailfin has a distinctive curvature along the lower edge. The longitudinal muscles of the back provide the ascending and descending movement of the tailfin, which has a similar thermoregulation mechanism to the pectoral fins.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBelugas have a dorsal ridge, rather than a dorsal fin. The absence of the dorsal fin is reflected in the genus name of the species—apterus the Greek word for \\\"wingless\\\". The evolutionary preference for a dorsal ridge rather than a fin is believed to be an adaptation to under-ice conditions, or possibly as a way of preserving heat. The crest is hard and, along with the head, can be used to open holes in ice up to 8 cm thick.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nSenses\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe beluga has a very specialized sense of hearing and its auditory cortex is highly developed. It can hear sounds within the range of 1.2 to 120 kHz, with the greatest sensitivity between 10 and 75 kHz, where the average hearing range for humans is 0.02 to 20 kHz. The majority of sounds are most probably received by the lower jaw and transmitted towards the middle ear. In the toothed whales, the lower jawbone is broad with a cavity at its base, which projects towards the place where it joins the cranium. A fatty deposit inside this small cavity connects to the middle ear. Toothed whales also possess a small external auditory hole a few centimetres behind their eyes; each hole communicates with an external auditory conduit and an eardrum. It is not known if these organs are functional or simply vestigial.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBelugas are able to see within and outside of water, but their vision is relatively poor when compared to dolphins. Their eyes are especially adapted to seeing under water, although when they come into contact with the air, the crystalline lens and the cornea adjust to overcome the associated myopia (the range of vision under water is short). A beluga's retina has cones and rods, which also suggests they can see in low light. The presence of cone cells indicates they can see colours, although this suggestion has not been confirmed. Glands located in the medial corner of their eyes secrete an oily, gelatinous substance that lubricates the eye and helps flush out foreign bodies. This substance forms a film that protects the cornea and the conjunctiva from pathogenic organisms.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nStudies on captive animals show they seek frequent physical contact with other belugas. Areas in the mouth have been found that could act as chemoreceptors for different tastes, and they can detect the presence of blood in water, which causes them to react immediately by displaying typical alarm behaviour. Like the other toothed whales, their brains lack olfactory bulbs and olfactory nerves, which suggests they do not have a sense of smell.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBehaviour\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThese cetaceans are highly sociable and they regularly form small groups, or pods, that may contain between two and 25 individuals, with an average of 10 members. Pods tend to be unstable, meaning individuals tend to move from pod to pod. Radio tracking has even shown belugas can start out in one pod and within a few days be hundreds of miles away from that pod. These pods contain animals of both sexes, and are led by a dominant male. Many hundreds and even thousands of individuals can be present when the pods join together in river estuaries during the summer. This can represent a significant proportion of the total population and is when they are most vulnerable to being hunted.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThey are cooperative animals and frequently hunt in coordinated groups. The animals in a pod are very sociable and often chase each other as if they are playing or fighting, and they often rub against each other.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nIn captivity, they can be seen to be constantly playing, vocalizing, and swimming around each other. They show a great deal of curiosity towards humans and frequently approach the windows in the tanks to observe them. Belugas may also playfully spit at humans or other whales. It is not unusual for an aquarium handler to be drenched by one of his charges. Some researchers believe spitting originated with blowing sand away from crustaceans at the sea bottom.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBelugas also show a great degree of curiosity towards humans in the wild, and frequently swim alongside boats. They also play with objects they find in the water; in the wild, they do this with wood, plants, dead fish, and bubbles they have created. During the breeding season, adults have been observed carrying objects such as plants, nets, and even the skeleton of a dead reindeer on their heads and backs. Captive females have also been observed displaying this behaviour, carrying items such as floats and buoys, after they have lost a calf; experts consider this interaction with the objects could be acting as a substitute behaviour.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nSwimming and diving\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBelugas are slower swimmers than the other toothed whales, such as the killer whale and the common bottlenose dolphin, because they are less hydrodynamic and have limited movement of their tailfins, which produce the greatest thrust. They frequently swim at between 3 and, although they are able to maintain a speed of 22 km/h for up to 15 min. Unlike most cetaceans, they are capable of swimming backwards. Belugas swim on the surface between 5% and 10% of the time, while for the rest of the time they swim at a depth sufficient to cover their bodies. They do not jump out of the water like dolphins or killer whales.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThese animals usually only dive to depths to 20 m, although they are capable of diving to greater depths. Individual captive animals have been recorded at depths between 400 and 647 m below sea level, while animals in the wild have been recorded as diving to a depth of more than 700 m, with the greatest recorded depth being 872 m. A dive normally lasts 3 to 5 min, but can last up to 18 min. In the shallower water of the estuaries, a diving session may last around two minutes; the sequence consists of five or six rapid, shallow dives followed by a deeper dive lasting up to one minute. The average number of dives per day varies between 31 and 51.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nAll cetaceans, including belugas, have physiological adaptations designed to conserve oxygen while they are under water. During a dive, these animals will reduce their heart rate from 100 beats a minute to between 12 and 20. Blood flow is diverted away from certain tissues and organs and towards the brain, heart and lungs, which require a constant oxygen supply. The amount of oxygen dissolved in the blood is 5.5%, which is greater than that found in land-based mammals and is similar to that of Weddell seals (a diving marine mammal). One study found a female beluga had 16.5 l of oxygen dissolved in her blood. Lastly, the beluga's muscles contain high levels of the protein myoglobin, which stores oxygen in muscle. Myoglobin concentrations are several times greater than for terrestrial mammals, which help prevent oxygen deficiency during dives.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBeluga whales often accompany bowhead whales, for curiosity and to secure polynya feasible to breathe as bowheads are capable of breaking through ice from underwater by headbutting.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nDiet\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBelugas play an important role in the structure and function of marine resources in the Arctic Ocean, as they are the most abundant toothed whales in the region. They are opportunistic feeders; their feeding habits depend on their locations and the season. For example, when they are in the Beaufort Sea, they mainly eat Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida) and the stomachs of belugas caught near Greenland were found to contain rose fish (Sebastes marinus), Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides), and northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis), while in Alaska their staple diet is Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch). In general, the diets of these cetaceans consist mainly of fish; apart from those previously mentioned, other fish they feed on include capelin (Mallotus villosus), smelt, sole, flounder, herring, sculpin, and other types of salmon. They also consume a great quantity of invertebrates, apart from shrimp, such as squid, crabs, clams, octopus, sea snails, bristle worms, and other deep-sea species. Animals in captivity eat 2.5% to 3.0% of their body weight per day, which equates to 18.2 to 27.2 kg.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nForaging on the seabed typically takes place at depths between 20 and 40 m, although they can dive to depths of 700 m in search of food. Their flexible necks provide a wide range of movement while they are searching for food on the ocean floor. Some animals have been observed to suck up water and then forcefully expel it to uncover their prey hidden in the silt on the seabed. As their teeth are neither large nor sharp, belugas must use suction to bring their prey into their mouths; it also means their prey has to be consumed whole, which in turn means it cannot be too large or the belugas run the risk of it getting stuck in their throats. They also join together into coordinated groups of five or more to feed on shoals of fish by steering the fish into shallow water, where the belugas then attack them. For example, in the estuary of the Amur River, where they mainly feed on salmon, groups of six or eight individuals join together to surround a shoal of fish and prevent their escape. Individuals then take turns feeding on the fish.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nReproduction\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nEstimations of the age of sexual maturity for beluga whales vary considerably; the majority of authors estimate males reach sexual maturity when they are between four and seven years old, and females reach maturity when they are between four and nine years old. The average age at which females first give birth is 8.5 years and fertility begins to decrease when they are 25, with no births recorded for females older than 41.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nFemale belugas typically give birth to one calf every three years. Most mating occurs usually February through May, but some mating occurs at other times of year. The beluga may have delayed implantation. Gestation has been estimated to last 12.0 to 14.5 months, but information derived from captive females suggests a longer gestation period up to 475 days (15.8 months).\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nCalves are born over a protracted period that varies by location. In the Canadian Arctic, calves are born between March and September, while in Hudson Bay, the peak calving period is in late June, and in Cumberland Sound, most calves are born from late July to early August. Births usually take place in bays or estuaries where the water is warm with a temperature of 10 to 15 °C. Newborns are about long, weigh about 80 kg, and are grey in colour. They are able to swim alongside their mothers immediately after birth. The newborn calves nurse under water and initiate lactation a few hours after birth; thereafter, they feed at intervals around an hour. Studies of captive females have indicated their milk composition varies between individuals and with the stage of lactation; it has an average content of 28% fat, 11% protein, 60.3% water, and less than 1% residual solids. The milk contains about 92 cal per ounce.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe calves remain dependent on their mothers for nursing for the first year, when their teeth appear. After this, they start to supplement their diets with shrimp and small fish. The majority of the calves continue nursing until they are 20 months old, although occasionally lactation can continue for more than two years, and lactational anoestrus may not occur. Alloparenting (care by females different from the mother) has been observed in captive belugas, including spontaneous and long-term milk production. This suggests this behaviour, which is also seen in other mammals, may be present in belugas in the wild.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nCommunication and echolocation\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBelugas use sounds and echolocation for movement, communication, to find breathing holes in the ice, and to hunt in dark or turbid waters. They produce a rapid sequence of clicks that pass through the melon, which acts as an acoustic lens to focus the sounds into a beam that is projected forward through the surrounding water. These sounds spread through the water at a speed of nearly 1.6 km per second, some four times faster than the speed of sound in the air. The sound waves rebound from objects in the water and return as echoes that are heard and interpreted by the animal. This enables them to determine the distance, speed, size, shape, and even the internal structure of the objects within the beam of sound. They also use this ability when moving around the thick ice sheets of the Arctic, to find areas of unfrozen water for breathing, or air pockets trapped under the frozen sheet ice.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nSome evidence indicates belugas are highly sensitive to the noise pollution produced by humans. In one study, the maximum frequencies produced by an individual located in San Diego Bay, California, were between 40 and 60 kHz. The same individual produced sounds with a maximum frequency of 100 to 120 kHz on being transferred to Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii. The difference in frequencies is thought to be a response to the difference in environmental noise in the two areas.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThese cetaceans communicate using sounds of such high frequency; their calls sometimes sound like bird songs, so belugas have been given the nickname \\\"canaries of the sea\\\". Like the other toothed whales, belugas do not possess vocal cords and the sounds are probably produced by the movement of air between the nasal sacks, which are located near to the blowhole.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBelugas are amongst the most vocal cetaceans. They use their vocalisations for echolocation, during mating, and in communication. They possess a large repertoire, as they can emit up to 11 different sounds, such as cackles, whistles, trills, and squawks. They also make sounds by grinding their teeth or splashing, but they rarely use body language to make visual displays with their pectoral fins or tailfins, nor do they perform somersaults or jumps in the way other species do, such as dolphins.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nDistribution\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe beluga inhabits a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. During the summer, they can mainly be found in the deep waters ranging from 76°N to 80°N, particularly along the coasts of Alaska, northern Canada, western Greenland, and northern Russia. The southernmost extent of their range includes isolated populations in the St. Lawrence River in the Atlantic, and the Amur River delta, the Shantar Islands, and the waters surrounding Sakhalin Island in the Sea of Okhotsk.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nMigration\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBelugas have a seasonal migratory pattern. When the summer sites become blocked with ice during the autumn, they move to spend the winter in the open sea alongside the pack ice or in areas covered with ice, surviving by using polynyas to surface and breathe. In summer after the sheet ice has melted, they move to coastal areas with shallower water (1–3 m deep), although sometimes they migrate towards deeper waters (>800 m). In the summer, they occupy estuaries and the waters of the continental shelf, and on occasion, they even swim up the rivers. A number of incidents have been reported where groups or individuals have been found hundreds or even thousands of kilometres from the ocean. One such example comes from 9 June 2006, when a young beluga carcass was found in the Tanana River near Fairbanks in central Alaska, nearly 1700 km from the nearest ocean habitat. Belugas sometimes follow migrating fish, leading Alaska state biologist Tom Seaton to speculate it had followed migrating salmon up the river at some point in the previous autumn.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe rivers they most often travel up include: the Northern Dvina, the Mezen, the Pechora, the Ob and the Yenisei in Asia; the Yukon and the Kuskokwim in Alaska, and the Saint Lawrence in Canada. Spending time in a river has been shown to stimulate an animal's metabolism and facilitates the seasonal renewal of the epidermal layer. In addition, the rivers represent a safe haven for newborn calves where they will not be preyed upon by killer whales. Calves often return to the same estuary as their mother in the summer, meeting her sometimes even after becoming fully mature.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe migration season is relatively predictable, as it is basically determined by the amount of daylight and not by other variable physical or biological factors, such as the condition of the sea ice. Vagrants may travel further south to areas such as Irish and Scottish waters, islands of Orkney and Hebrides, and to Japanese waters. There had been several vagrant individuals demonstrated seasonal residencies at Volcano Bay, and a unique whale were used to return annually to areas adjacent to Shibetsu in Nemuro Strait in the 2000s. On rarer occasions, individuals of vagrancy can reach the Korean Peninsula. A few other individuals have been confirmed to return to the coasts of Hokkaido, including brackish waters such as Lake Notoro.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nSome populations are not migratory and certain resident groups will stay in well-defined areas, for example in Cook Inlet, the estuary of the Saint Lawrence River and Cumberland Sound. The population in Cook Inlet stays in the waters furthest inside the inlet during the summer and until the end of autumn, then during the winter, they disperse to the deeper water in the centre of the inlet, but without completely leaving it.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nIn April, the animals that spend the winter in the centre and southwest of the Bering Sea move to the north coast of Alaska and the east coast of Russia. The populations living in the Ungava Bay and the eastern and western sides of Hudson Bay overwinter together beneath the sea ice in Hudson Strait. The populations of the White Sea, the Kara Sea and the Laptev Sea overwinter in the Barents Sea. In the spring, the groups separate and migrate to their respective summer sites.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nHabitat\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBelugas exploit a varied range of habitats; they are most commonly seen in shallow waters close to the coast, but they have also been reported to live for extended periods in deeper water, where they feed and give birth to their young.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nIn coastal areas, they can be found in coves, fjords, canals, bays, and shallow waters in the Arctic Ocean that are continuously lit by sunlight. They are also often seen during the summer in river estuaries, where they feed, socialize, and give birth to young. These waters usually have a temperature between 8 and 10 °C. The mudflats of Cook Inlet in Alaska are a popular location for these animals to spend the first few months of summer. In the eastern Beaufort Sea, female belugas with their young and immature males prefer the open waters close to land; the adult males live in waters covered by ice near to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, while the younger males and females with slightly older young can be found nearer to the ice shelf. Generally, the use of different habitats in summer reflects differences in feeding habits, risk from predators, and reproductive factors for each of the subpopulations.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nPopulation\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe global beluga population is made up of a number of subpopulations. The scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission recognises these 29 subpopulations:\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe estimate of population sizes is complicated because the boundaries for some of these groups overlap geographically or seasonally. The IUCN estimated the world beluga population in 2008 to be well in excess of 150,000.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThreats\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nHunting\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe native populations of the Canadian, Alaskan, and Russian Arctic regions hunt belugas for their meat, blubber, and skin. The cured skin is the only cetacean skin that is sufficiently thick to be used as leather. Belugas were easy prey for hunters due to their predictable migration patterns and the high population density in estuaries and surrounding coastal areas during the summer.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nCommercial whaling by European and American whalers during the 18th and 19th centuries decreased beluga populations in the Canadian Arctic. The animals were hunted for their meat and blubber, while the Europeans used the oil from the melon as a lubricant for clocks, machinery, and lighting in lighthouses. Mineral oil replaced whale oil in the 1860s, but the hunting of these animals continued unabated. In 1863, the cured skin could be used to make horse harnesses, machine belts for saw mills, and shoelaces. These manufactured items ensured the hunting of belugas continued for the rest of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Between 1868 and 1911, Scottish and American whalers killed more than 20,000 belugas in Lancaster Sound and Davis Strait.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nDuring the 1920s, fishermen in the Saint Lawrence River estuary considered belugas to be a threat to the fishing industry, as they eat large quantities of cod, salmon, tuna, and other fish caught by the local fishermen. The presence of belugas in the estuary was, therefore, considered to be undesirable; in 1928, the Government of Quebec offered a reward of 15 dollars for each dead beluga. The Quebec Department of Fisheries launched a study into the influence of these cetaceans on local fish populations in 1938. The unrestricted killing of belugas continued into the 1950s, when the supposed voracity of the belugas was found to be overestimated and did not adversely affect fish populations. L'Isle-aux-Coudres is the setting for the classic 1963 National Film Board of Canada documentary Pour la suite du monde, which depicts a one-off resurrection of the beluga hunt.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe Arctic's native peoples still carry out subsistence hunting of belugas to obtain food and raw materials. This practice is a part of their culture, but doubts still remain whether the number of whales killed may be sustainable. The number of animals killed is about 200 to 550 in Alaska and around 1,000 in Canada. However, in areas such as Cook Inlet, Ungava Bay, and western Greenland, previous levels of commercial whaling have put the species in danger of extinction, and continued hunting by the native peoples may mean some populations will continue to decline. The Canadian sites are the focus of discussions between the local communities and the Canadian government, with the objective of permitting sustainable hunting that does not put the species at risk of extinction.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nPredation\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nDuring the winter, belugas commonly become trapped in the ice without being able to escape to open water, which may be several kilometres away. Polar bears take particular advantage of these situations and are able to locate the belugas using their sense of smell. The bears swipe at the belugas and drag them onto the ice to eat them. They are able to capture large individuals in this way; in one documented incident, a bear weighing between 150 and 180 kg was able to capture an animal that weighed 935 kg.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nKiller whales are able to capture both young and adult belugas. They live in all the seas of the world and share the same habitat as belugas in the sub-Arctic region. Attacks on belugas by killer whales have been reported in the waters of Greenland, Russia, Canada, and Alaska. A number of killings have been recorded in Cook Inlet, and experts are concerned the predation by killer whales will impede the recovery of this subpopulation, which has already been badly depleted by hunting. The killer whales arrive at the beginning of August, but the belugas are occasionally able to hear their presence and evade them. The groups near to or under the sea ice have a degree of protection, as the killer whale's large dorsal fin, up to 2 m in length, impedes their movement under the ice and does not allow them to get sufficiently close to the breathing holes in the ice.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nContamination\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe beluga is considered an excellent sentinel species (indicator of environment health and changes), because it is long-lived, at the top of the food web, bears large amounts of fat and blubber, relatively well-studied for a cetacean, and still somewhat common.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nHuman pollution can be a threat to belugas' health when they congregate in river estuaries. Chemical substances such as DDT and heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium have been found in individuals of the Saint Lawrence River population. Local beluga carcasses contain so many contaminants, they are treated as toxic waste. Levels of polychlorinated biphenyls between 240 and 800 ppm have been found in belugas' brains, liver and muscles, with the highest levels found in males. These levels are significantly greater than those found in Arctic populations. These substances have a proven adverse effect on these cetaceans, as they cause cancers, reproductive diseases, and the deterioration of the immune system, making individuals more susceptible to pneumonias, ulcers, cysts, tumours, and bacterial infections. Although the populations that inhabit the river estuaries run the greatest risk of contamination, high levels of zinc, cadmium, mercury, and selenium have also been found in the muscles, livers, and kidneys of animals that live in the open sea.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nFrom a sample of 129 beluga adults from the Saint Lawrence River examined between 1983 and 1999, a total of 27% had suffered cancer. This is a higher percentage than that documented for other populations of this species and is much higher than for other cetaceans and for the majority of terrestrial mammals; in fact, the rate is only comparable to the levels found in humans and some domesticated animals. For example, the rate of intestinal cancer in the sample is much higher than for humans. This condition is thought to be directly related to environmental contamination, in this case by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and coincides with the high incidence of this disease in humans residing in the area. The prevalence of tumours suggests the contaminants identified in the animals that inhabit the estuary are having a direct carcinogenic effect or they are at least causing an immunological deterioration that is reducing the inhabitants' resistance to the disease.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nIndirect human disturbance may also be a threat. While some populations tolerate small boats, most actively try to avoid ships. Whale-watching has become a booming activity in the St. Lawrence and Churchill River areas, and acoustic contamination from this activity appears to have an effect on belugas. For example, a correlation appears to exist between the passage of belugas across the mouth of the Saguenay River, which has decreased by 60%, and the increase in the use of recreational motorboats in the area. A dramatic decrease has also been recorded in the number of calls between animals (decreasing from 3.4 to 10.5 calls/min to 0 or\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nPapillomaviruses have been found in the stomachs of belugas in the Saint Lawrence River. Animals in this location have also been recorded as suffering infections caused by herpesviruses and in certain cases to be suffering from encephalitis caused by the protozoan Sarcocystis. Cases have been recorded of ciliate protozoa colonising the spiracle of certain individuals, but they not thought to be pathogens or at least they are not very harmful.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe bacterium Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, which probably comes from eating infected fish, poses a threat to belugas kept in captivity, causing anorexia and dermal plaques and lesions that can lead to septicemia. This condition can cause death if it is not diagnosed and treated in time with antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nA study of infections caused by parasitic worms in a number of individuals of both sexes found the presence of larvae from a species from the Contracaecum genus in their stomachs and intestines, Anisakis simplex in their stomachs, Pharurus pallasii in their ear canals, Hadwenius seymouri in their intestines, and Leucasiella arctica in their rectums.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nRelationship with humans\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nCaptivity\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBelugas were among the first whale species to be kept in captivity. The first beluga was shown at Barnum's Museum in New York City in 1861. For most of the 20th century, Canada was the predominant source for belugas destined for exhibition. Until the early 1960s, they were taken from the St. Lawrence River estuary (famously captured in the film documentary Pour la suite du monde) and from 1967 from the Churchill River estuary. This continued until 1992, when the practice was banned. Since Canada ceased to be the supplier of these animals, Russia has become the largest provider. Individuals are caught in the Amur River delta and the far eastern seas of the country, and then are either transported domestically to aquaria in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Sochi, or exported to foreign nations, including Canada.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nToday, it remains one of the few whale species kept at aquaria and marine parks across North America, Europe, and Asia. As of 2006, 30 belugas were in Canada and 28 in the United States, and 42 deaths in captivity had been reported up to that time. A single specimen can reportedly fetch up to US$100,000 on the market. The beluga's popularity with visitors reflects its attractive colour and its range of facial expressions. The latter is possible because while most cetacean \\\"smiles\\\" are fixed, the extra movement afforded by the beluga's unfused cervical vertebrae allows a greater range of apparent expression.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nTo provide some enrichment while in captivity, aquaria train belugas to perform behaviors for the public and for medical exams, such as blood draws and ultrasound, provide toys, and allow the public to play recorded or live music.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nMost belugas found in aquaria are caught in the wild, as captive-breeding programs have not had much success so far. For example, despite best efforts, as of 2010, only two male whales had been successfully used as stud animals in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums beluga population, Nanuq at SeaWorld San Diego and Naluark at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, USA. Nanuq has fathered 10 calves, five of which survived birth. Naluark at Shedd Aquarium has fathered four living offspring. Naluark has been relocated to Mystic Aquarium in the hope that he will breed with two of their females. The first beluga calf born in captivity in Europe was born in L'Oceanogràfic marine park in Valencia, Spain, in November 2006. However, the calf died 25 days later after suffering metabolic complications, infections, and not being able to feed properly.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nBetween 1960 and 1992, the United States Navy carried out a program that included the study of marine mammals' abilities with echolocation, with the objective of improving the detection of underwater objects. The program started with dolphins, but a large number of belugas were also used from 1975 on. The program included training these mammals to carry equipment and material to divers working under water, the location of lost objects, surveillance of ships and submarines, and underwater monitoring using cameras held in their mouths. A similar program was implemented by the Russian Navy during the Cold War, in which belugas were also trained for antimining operations in Arctic waters.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nIn 2009 during a free-diving competition in a tank of icy water in Harbin, China, a captive beluga brought a cramp-paralyzed diver from the bottom of the pool up to the surface by holding her foot in its mouth, saving the diver's life.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nWhale watching\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nWhale watching has become an important activity in the recovery of the economies of towns in Hudson Bay near to the Saint Lawrence and Churchill Rivers. The best time to see belugas is during the summer, when they meet in large numbers in the estuaries of the rivers and in their summer habitats. The animals are easily seen due to their high numbers and their curiosity regarding the presence of humans.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nHowever, the boats' presence poses a threat to the animals, as it distracts them from important activities such as feeding, social interaction and reproduction. In addition, the noise produced by the motors has an adverse effect on their auditory function and reduces their ability to detect their prey, communicate, and navigate. To protect these marine animals during whale-watching activities, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has published a “Guide for observing marine life”. The guide recommends boats carrying the whale watchers keep their distance from the cetaceans and it expressly prohibits chasing, harassing, obstructing, touching, or feeding them.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nSome regular migrations do occur into Russian EEZ of Sea of Japan such as to Rudnaya Bay, where diving with wild belugas became a less-known but popular attraction.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nHuman speech\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nMale belugas in captivity can mimic the pattern of human speech, several octaves lower than typical whale calls. It is not the first time a beluga has been known to sound human, and they often shout like children, in the wild. One captive beluga, after overhearing divers using an underwater communication system, caused one of the divers to surface by imitating their order to get out of the water. Subsequent recordings confirmed that the beluga had become skilled at imitating the patterns and frequency of human speech. After several years, this beluga ceased making these sounds.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nConservation status\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nAs of 2008, the beluga is listed as \\\"near threatened\\\" by the IUCN due to uncertainty about threats to their numbers and the number of belugas over parts of its range (especially the Russian Arctic), and the expectation that if current conservation efforts cease, especially hunting management, the beluga population is likely to qualify for \\\"threatened\\\" status within five years. Prior to 2008, the beluga was listed as \\\"vulnerable\\\", a higher level of concern. IUCN cited the stability of the largest subpopulations and improved census methods that indicate a larger population than previously estimated.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nSubpopulations are subject to differing levels of threat and warrant individual assessment. The nonmigratory Cook Inlet subpopulation is listed as \\\"Critically Endangered\\\" by the IUCN as of 2006 and is listed as Endangered under the Endangered Species Act as of October 2008. \\nThis was due to overharvesting of belugas prior to 1998. The population has failed to recover, though the reported harvest has been small. The most recently published estimate as of May 2008 was 302 (CV=0.16) in 2006. In addition, the National Marine Fisheries Service indicated the 2007 aerial survey's point estimate was 375.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nLegal protection\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe US Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 outlawing the persecution and hunting of all marine mammals within US coastal waters. The act has been amended a number of times to permit subsistence hunting by native peoples, temporary capture of restricted numbers for research, education and public display, and to decriminalise the accidental capture of individuals during fishing operations. The act also states that all whales in US territorial waters are under the jurisdiction of the National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of NOAA.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nTo prevent hunting, belugas are protected under the 1986 International Moratorium on Commercial Whaling; however, hunting of small numbers of belugas is still allowed. Since it is very difficult to know the exact population of belugas because their habitats include inland waters away from the ocean, they easily come in contact with oil and gas development centres. To prevent whales from coming in contact with industrial waste, the Alaskan and Canadian governments are relocating sites where whales and waste come in contact.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe beluga whale is listed on appendix II\\\"[http://www.cms.int/documents/appendix/Appendices_COP9_E.pdf Appendix II]\\\" of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). As amended by the Conference of the Parties in 1985, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2008. Effective: 5 March 2009. of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). It is listed on Appendix II as it has an unfavourable conservation status or would benefit significantly from international co-operation organised by tailored agreements. All toothed whales are protected under the CITES that was signed in 1973 to regulate the commercial exploitation of certain species.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe isolated beluga population in the Saint Lawrence River has been legally protected since 1983. In 1988 Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Environment Canada, a governmental agency that supervises national parks, implemented the Saint Lawrence Action Plan with the aim of reducing industrial contamination by 90% by 1993; as of 1992, the emissions had been reduced by 59%.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nCultural references\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nPour la suite du monde, is a Canadian documentary film released in 1963 about traditional beluga hunting carried out by the inhabitants of L'Isle-aux-Coudres on the Saint Lawrence River.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nWhite Whale Records was an American record company that operated between 1965 and 1971 in Los Angeles, California, it was the record company of The Turtles. The company's logo was the silhouette of a beluga with the words \\\"White Whale\\\" above it.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe children's singer Raffi released an album called Baby Beluga in 1980. The album starts with the sound of whales communicating, and includes songs representing the ocean and whales playing. The song \\\"Baby Beluga\\\" was composed after Raffi saw a recently born beluga calf in Vancouver Aquarium.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nYamaha's Beluga motorcycle (Riva 80/CV80) which had an 80-cc engine was produced from 1981 until 1987 and sold throughout the world, particularly in Canada, the USA, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, and Japan.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe Beluga class submarine (project 1710 Mackerel) was an experimental Russian submarine whose prototype operated until 1997, with the whole project being discontinued in the mid-2000s.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe fuselage design of the Airbus Beluga, one of the world's biggest cargo planes, is very similar to that of a beluga; it was originally called the Super Transporter, but the nickname Beluga became more popular and was then officially adopted.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nThe German company SkySails GmbH & Co. KG, a subsidiary of the Beluga Shipping group based in Hamburg, tested a new propulsion system for ships that involved a large wing similar to that used in paragliding and which has demonstrated a reduction in fuel use between 10% and 35%. The programme to prove the efficiency of the system was called Project Beluga, as it involved the ship MS Beluga Skysails. The company's insignia, a beluga's tailfin, was printed on the giant wing, which had a surface area of 160 m2.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nA 2002 episode of science fiction series Dark Angel titled \\\"Dawg Day Afternoon\\\" claims that beluga whales are the result of a hybridisation between a humpback whale and a dolphin.\",\n \"Beluga whale\\n\\nIn the Disney/Pixar film Finding Dory, the character Bailey is a beluga whale.\"\n]","isConversational":false}}},{"rowIdx":138290,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"qg_4457"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"What J. D. Salinger book was Mark David Chapman carrying with him when he shot John Lennon outside the Dakota apartments on Dec 8, 1980?"},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"The Catcher in the Rye"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":["catcher in rye","little shirley beans","catcher and rye","mr antolini","club ernies","agerstown pa","db caulfield","d b caulfield","faith cavendish","sally hayes","edmont hotel","mr spencer","agerstown pennsylvania","estelle fletcher","jane gallagher","phoebe caulfield"],"string":"[\n \"catcher in rye\",\n \"little shirley beans\",\n \"catcher and rye\",\n \"mr antolini\",\n \"club ernies\",\n \"agerstown pa\",\n \"db caulfield\",\n \"d b caulfield\",\n \"faith cavendish\",\n \"sally hayes\",\n \"edmont hotel\",\n \"mr spencer\",\n \"agerstown pennsylvania\",\n \"estelle fletcher\",\n \"jane gallagher\",\n \"phoebe caulfield\"\n]","isConversational":false},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["J. D. Salinger\n\nJerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American writer who won acclaim early in life. He led a very private life for more than a half-century. He published his final original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980.","J. D. Salinger\n\nSalinger was raised in Manhattan and began writing short stories while in secondary school. Several were published in Story magazine in the early 1940s before he began serving in World War II. In 1948, his critically acclaimed story \"A Perfect Day for Bananafish\" appeared in The New Yorker magazine, which became home to much of his later work. In 1951, his novel The Catcher in the Rye was an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield was influential, especially among adolescent readers. The novel remains widely read and controversial, selling around 250,000 copies a year.","J. D. Salinger\n\nThe success of The Catcher in the Rye led to public attention and scrutiny. Salinger became reclusive, publishing new work less frequently. He followed Catcher with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953); a volume containing a novella and a short story, Franny and Zooey (1961); and a volume containing two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled \"Hapworth 16, 1924\", appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.","J. D. Salinger\n\nAfterward, Salinger struggled with unwanted attention, including a legal battle in the 1980s with biographer Ian Hamilton and the release in the late 1990s of memoirs written by two people close to him: Joyce Maynard, an ex-lover; and Margaret Salinger, his daughter. In 1996, a small publisher announced a deal with Salinger to publish \"Hapworth 16, 1924\" in book form, but amid the ensuing publicity the release was indefinitely delayed. He made headlines around the globe in June 2009 when he filed a lawsuit against another writer for copyright infringement resulting from that writer's use of one of the characters from The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger died of natural causes on January 27, 2010, at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. In November 2013, three unpublished stories by Salinger were briefly posted online. One of the stories, \"The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls\", is said to be a prequel to The Catcher in the Rye.","J. D. Salinger\n\nEarly life and experiences","J. D. Salinger\n\nJerome David Salinger was born in New York City, on New Year's Day, 1919. His father, Sol Salinger, sold kosher cheese, and was from a Jewish family of Lithuanian descent, his father having been the rabbi for the Adath Jeshurun congregation in Louisville, Kentucky. Salinger's mother, Marie (née Jillich), was born in Atlantic, Iowa, of Scottish, German, and Irish descent, but changed her name to Miriam and considered herself Jewish after marrying Salinger's father. Salinger did not learn that his mother was not of Jewish ancestry until just after he celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah. His only sibling was his older sister Doris (1911–2001).","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn youth, Salinger attended public schools on the West Side of Manhattan. Then in 1932, the family moved to Park Avenue, and Salinger was enrolled at the McBurney School, a nearby private school. At McBurney, he managed the fencing team, wrote for the school newspaper and appeared in plays. He \"showed an innate talent for drama\", though his father opposed the idea of J.D.'s becoming an actor. \n Salinger had trouble fitting in at his new school and took measures to conform, such as calling himself Jerry. (His family called him Sonny. )","J. D. Salinger\n\nHis parents then enrolled him at Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Salinger began writing stories \"under the covers [at night], with the aid of a flashlight\". Salinger was the literary editor of the class yearbook, Cross Sabres. He also participated in the Glee Club, Aviation Club, French Club, and the Non-Commissioned Officers Club. Salinger's Valley Forge 201 file reveals that he was a \"mediocre\" student, and unlike the overachievement enjoyed by members of the Glass family he would go on to write about, his recorded IQ was far from that of a genius. He graduated in 1936.","J. D. Salinger\n\nSalinger started his freshman year at New York University in 1936. He considered studying special education but dropped out the following spring. That fall, his father urged him to learn about the meat-importing business, and he went to work at a company in Vienna, Austria. He left Austria one month before it was annexed by Nazi Germany on March 12, 1938.","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn the fall of 1938, Salinger attended Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and wrote a column called \"skipped diploma\", which included movie reviews. He dropped out after one semester.","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn 1939, Salinger attended a Columbia University School of General Studies evening writing class taught by Whit Burnett, longtime editor of Story magazine. According to Burnett, Salinger did not distinguish himself until a few weeks before the end of the second semester, at which point \"he suddenly came to life\" and completed three stories. Burnett told Salinger that his stories were skillful and accomplished, accepting \"The Young Folks\", a vignette about several aimless youths, for publication in Story. Salinger's debut short story was published in the magazine's March–April 1940 issue. Burnett became Salinger's mentor, and they corresponded for several years.","J. D. Salinger\n\nWorld War II","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn 1942, Salinger started dating Oona O'Neill, daughter of the playwright Eugene O'Neill. Despite finding the debutante self-absorbed (he confided to a friend that \"Little Oona's hopelessly in love with little Oona\"), he called her often and wrote her long letters. Their relationship ended when Oona began seeing Charlie Chaplin, whom she eventually married. In late 1941, Salinger briefly worked on a Caribbean cruise ship, serving as an activity director and possibly as a performer.","J. D. Salinger\n\nThe same year, Salinger began submitting short stories to The New Yorker. Seven of Salinger's stories were rejected by the magazine that year, including \"Lunch for Three\", \"Monologue for a Watery Highball\", and \"I Went to School with Adolf Hitler\". In December 1941, however, the publication accepted \"Slight Rebellion off Madison\", a Manhattan-set story about a disaffected teenager named Holden Caulfield with \"pre-war jitters\". When Japan carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor that month, the story was rendered \"unpublishable\"; it did not appear in the magazine until 1946. In the spring of 1942, several months after the United States entered World War II, Salinger was drafted into the army, wherein he saw combat with the 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. He was present at Utah Beach on D-Day, in the Battle of the Bulge, and the Battle of Hürtgen Forest.","J. D. Salinger\n\nDuring the campaign from Normandy into Germany, Salinger arranged to meet with Ernest Hemingway, a writer who had influenced him and was then working as a war correspondent in Paris. Salinger was impressed with Hemingway's friendliness and modesty, finding him more \"soft\" than his gruff public persona. Hemingway was impressed by Salinger's writing and remarked: \"Jesus, he has a helluva talent.\" The two writers began corresponding; Salinger wrote Hemingway in July 1946 that their talks were among his few positive memories of the war. Salinger added that he was working on a play about Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of his story \"Slight Rebellion off Madison\", and hoped to play the part himself.","J. D. Salinger\n\nSalinger was assigned to a counter-intelligence division, for which he used his proficiency in French and German to interrogate prisoners of war. In April 1945 he entered a liberated concentration camp, probably one of Dachau's sub-camps. Salinger earned the rank of Staff Sergeant and served in five campaigns. Salinger's experiences in the war affected him emotionally. He was hospitalized for a few weeks for combat stress reaction after Germany was defeated, and he later told his daughter: \"You never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live.\" Both of his biographers speculate that Salinger drew upon his wartime experiences in several stories, such as \"For Esmé—with Love and Squalor\", which is narrated by a traumatized soldier. Salinger continued to write while serving in the army, publishing several stories in slick magazines such as Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post. He also continued to submit stories to The New Yorker, but with little success; it rejected all of his submissions from 1944 to 1946, a group of 15 poems in 1945 alone.","J. D. Salinger\n\nPost-war years","J. D. Salinger\n\nAfter Germany's defeat, Salinger signed up for a six-month period of \"Denazification\" duty in Germany for the Counterintelligence Corps. He lived in Weissenburg and, soon after, married Sylvia Welter. He brought her to the United States in April 1946, but the marriage fell apart after eight months and Sylvia returned to Germany. In 1972, Salinger's daughter Margaret was with him when he received a letter from Sylvia. He looked at the envelope, and without reading it, tore it apart. It was the first time he had heard from her since the breakup, but as Margaret put it, \"when he was finished with a person, he was through with them.\"","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn 1946, Whit Burnett agreed to help Salinger publish a collection of his short stories through Story Press's Lippincott Imprint. Titled The Young Folks, the collection was to consist of twenty stories—ten, like the title story and \"Slight Rebellion off Madison\", were already in print; ten were previously unpublished. Though Burnett implied the book would be published and even negotiated Salinger a $1,000 advance on its sale, Lippincott overruled Burnett and rejected the book. Salinger blamed Burnett for the book's failure to see print, and the two became estranged.","J. D. Salinger\n\nBy the late 1940s, Salinger had become an avid follower of Zen Buddhism, to the point that he \"gave reading lists on the subject to his dates\" and arranged a meeting with Buddhist scholar D. T. Suzuki.","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn 1947, the author submitted a short story titled simply \"The Bananafish\" to The New Yorker. William Maxwell, the magazine's fiction editor, was impressed enough with \"the singular quality of the story\" that the magazine asked Salinger to continue revising it. He spent a year reworking it with New Yorker editors and the magazine accepted the story, now titled \"A Perfect Day for Bananafish\", and published it in the January 31, 1948 issue. The magazine thereon offered Salinger a \"first-look\" contract that allowed them right of first refusal on any future stories. The critical acclaim accorded \"Bananafish\", coupled with problems Salinger had with stories being altered by the \"slicks\", led him to publish almost exclusively in The New Yorker. \"Bananafish\" was also the first of Salinger's published stories to feature the Glasses, a fictional family consisting of two retired vaudeville performers and their seven precocious children: Seymour, Buddy, Boo Boo, Walt, Waker, Zooey, and Franny. Salinger eventually published seven stories about the Glasses, developing a detailed family history and focusing particularly on Seymour, the brilliant but troubled eldest child.","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn the early 1940s, Salinger had confided in a letter to Whit Burnett that he was eager to sell the film rights to some of his stories in order to achieve financial security. According to Ian Hamilton, Salinger was disappointed when \"rumblings from Hollywood\" over his 1943 short story \"The Varioni Brothers\" came to nothing. Therefore, he immediately agreed when, in mid-1948, independent film producer Samuel Goldwyn offered to buy the film rights to his short story \"Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut\". Though Salinger sold his story with the hope—in the words of his agent Dorothy Olding—that it \"would make a good movie\", the film version of \"Wiggily\" was lambasted by critics upon its release in 1949. Renamed My Foolish Heart and starring Dana Andrews and Susan Hayward, the melodramatic film departed to such an extent from Salinger's story that Goldwyn biographer A. Scott Berg referred to it as a \"bastardization\". As a result of this experience, Salinger never again permitted film adaptations to be made from his work.","J. D. Salinger\n\nWhen Brigitte Bardot wanted to buy the rights to \"A Perfect Day for Bananafish\", Salinger refused the request, but told his friend, Lillian Ross, longtime staff writer for The New Yorker, \"She's a cute, talented, lost enfante, and I'm tempted to accommodate her, pour le sport.\"","J. D. Salinger\n\nThe Catcher in the Rye","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn the 1940s, Salinger confided to several people that he was working on a novel featuring Holden Caulfield, the teenage protagonist of his short story \"Slight Rebellion off Madison\", and The Catcher in the Rye was published on July 16, 1951, by Little, Brown and Company. The novel's plot is simple, detailing 16-year-old Holden's experiences in New York City following his expulsion and departure from an elite college preparatory school. Not only was he expelled from his current school, he had also been expelled from three previous schools. The book is more notable for the persona and testimonial voice of its first-person narrator, Holden. He serves as an insightful but unreliable narrator who expounds on the importance of loyalty, the \"phoniness\" of adulthood, and his own duplicity. In a 1953 interview with a high school newspaper, Salinger admitted that the novel was \"sort of\" autobiographical, explaining, \"My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book ... [I]t was a great relief telling people about it.\"","J. D. Salinger\n\nInitial reactions to the book were mixed, ranging from The New York Times hailing Catcher as \"an unusually brilliant first novel\" to denigrations of the book's monotonous language and the \"immorality and perversion\" of Holden, who uses religious slurs and freely discusses casual sex and prostitution. The novel was a popular success; within two months of its publication, The Catcher in the Rye had been reprinted eight times. It spent 30 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list.","J. D. Salinger\n\nThe book's initial success was followed by a brief lull in popularity, but by the late 1950s, according to Ian Hamilton, it had \"become the book all brooding adolescents had to buy, the indispensable manual from which cool styles of disaffectation could be borrowed.\" It has been compared to Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Newspapers began publishing articles about the \"Catcher Cult\", and the novel was banned in several countries—as well as some U.S. schools—because of its subject matter and what Catholic World reviewer Riley Hughes called an \"excessive use of amateur swearing and coarse language\". According to one angry parent's tabulation, 237 instances of \"goddamn,\" 58 uses of the synonym for a person of illegitimate birth, 31 \"Chrissakes,\"and one incident of flatulence constituted what was wrong with Salinger's book.","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn the 1970s, several U.S. high school teachers who assigned the book were fired or forced to resign. A 1979 study of censorship noted that The Catcher in the Rye \"had the dubious distinction of being at once the most frequently censored book across the nation and the second-most frequently taught novel in public high schools\" (after John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men). The book remains widely read; in 2004, the novel was selling about 250,000 copies per year, \"with total worldwide sales over 10 million copies\".","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn the wake of its 1950s success, Salinger received (and rejected) numerous offers to adapt The Catcher in the Rye for the screen, including one from Samuel Goldwyn. Since its publication, there has been sustained interest in the novel among filmmakers, with Billy Wilder, Harvey Weinstein, and Steven Spielberg among those seeking to secure the rights. Salinger stated in the 1970s that \"Jerry Lewis tried for years to get his hands on the part of Holden.\" Salinger repeatedly refused, though, and in 1999, Joyce Maynard definitively concluded: \"The only person who might ever have played Holden Caulfield would have been J. D. Salinger.\"","J. D. Salinger\n\nWriting in the 1950s and move to Cornish","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn a July 1951 profile in Book of the Month Club News, Salinger's friend and New Yorker editor William Maxwell asked Salinger about his literary influences. Salinger responded: \"A writer, when he's asked to discuss his craft, ought to get up and call out in a loud voice just the names of the writers he loves. I love Kafka, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Proust, O'Casey, Rilke, Lorca, Keats, Rimbaud, Burns, E. Brontë, Jane Austen, Henry James, Blake, Coleridge. I won't name any living writers. I don't think it's right.\" In letters written in the 1940s, Salinger had expressed his admiration of three living, or recently deceased, writers: Sherwood Anderson, Ring Lardner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald; Ian Hamilton wrote that Salinger even saw himself for some time as \"Fitzgerald's successor\". Salinger's \"A Perfect Day for Bananafish\" has an ending similar to that of Fitzgerald's earlier published short story \"May Day\".","J. D. Salinger\n\nSalinger wrote friends of a momentous change in his life in 1952, after several years of practicing Zen Buddhism, while reading The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna about Hindu religious teacher Sri Ramakrishna. He became an adherent of Ramakrishna's Advaita Vedanta Hinduism, which advocated celibacy for those seeking enlightenment, and detachment from human responsibilities such as family. Salinger's religious studies were reflected in some of his writing. The story \"Teddy\" features a ten-year-old child who expresses Vedantic insights. He also studied the writings of Ramakrishna's disciple Vivekananda; in the story \"Hapworth 16, 1924\", the character of Seymour Glass describes him as \"one of the most exciting, original and best-equipped giants of this century.\"","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn 1953, Salinger published a collection of seven stories from The New Yorker (\"Bananafish\" among them), as well as two that the magazine had rejected. The collection was published as Nine Stories in the United States, and \"For Esmé—with Love and Squalor\" in the UK, after one of Salinger's best-known stories. The book received grudgingly positive reviews, and was a financial success—\"remarkably so for a volume of short stories\", according to Hamilton. Nine Stories spent three months on the New York Times Bestseller list. Already tightening his grip on publicity, though, Salinger refused to allow publishers of the collection to depict his characters in dust jacket illustrations, lest readers form preconceived notions of them.","J. D. Salinger\n\nAs the notoriety of The Catcher in the Rye grew, Salinger gradually withdrew from public view. In 1953, he moved from an apartment at\n300 East 57th Street, New York, to Cornish, New Hampshire. Early in his time at Cornish he was relatively sociable, particularly with students at Windsor High School. Salinger invited them to his house frequently to play records and talk about problems at school. One such student, Shirley Blaney, persuaded Salinger to be interviewed for the high school page of The Daily Eagle, the city paper. Nonetheless, after Blaney's interview appeared prominently in the newspaper's editorial section, Salinger cut off all contact with the high schoolers without explanation. He was also seen less frequently around town, meeting only one close friend—jurist Learned Hand—with any regularity. He also began to publish with less frequency. After the 1953 publication of Nine Stories, he published only four stories through the rest of the decade; two in 1955 and one each in 1957 and 1959.","J. D. Salinger\n\nMarriage and family","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn February 1955, at the age of 36, Salinger married Claire Douglas, a Radcliffe student (her father was the art critic Robert Langton Douglas). They had two children, Margaret (b. December 10, 1955) and Matthew (b. February 13, 1960). Margaret Salinger wrote in her memoir Dream Catcher that she believes her parents would not have married, nor would she have been born, had her father not read the teachings of Lahiri Mahasaya, a guru of Paramahansa Yogananda, which brought the possibility of enlightenment to those following the path of the \"householder\" (a married person with children). After their marriage, J.D. and Claire were initiated into the path of Kriya yoga in a small store-front Hindu temple in Washington, D.C., during the summer of 1955. They received a mantra and breathing exercises to practice for ten minutes twice a day.","J. D. Salinger\n\nSalinger also insisted that Claire drop out of school and live with him, only four months shy of graduation, which she did. Certain elements of the story \"Franny\", published in January 1955, are based on his relationship with Claire, including her ownership of the book The Way of the Pilgrim. Because of their isolated location and Salinger's proclivities, they hardly saw other people for long stretches of time. Claire was also frustrated by Salinger's ever-changing religious beliefs. Though she committed herself to Kriya yoga, she remembered that Salinger would chronically leave Cornish to work on a story \"for several weeks only to return with the piece he was supposed to be finishing all undone or destroyed and some new 'ism' we had to follow.\" Claire believed \"it was to cover the fact that Jerry had just destroyed or junked or couldn't face the quality of, or couldn't face publishing, what he had created.\"","J. D. Salinger\n\nAfter abandoning Kriya yoga, Salinger tried Dianetics (the forerunner of Scientology), even meeting its founder L. Ron Hubbard, but according to Claire he was quickly disenchanted with it. This was followed by an adherence to a number of spiritual, medical, and nutritional belief systems including an interest in Christian Science, Edgar Cayce, homeopathy, acupuncture, and macrobiotics.","J. D. Salinger\n\nSalinger's family life was further marked by discord after the first child was born; according to Margaret's book, Claire felt that her daughter had replaced her in Salinger's affections. The infant Margaret was sick much of the time, but Salinger, having embraced the tenets of Christian Science, refused to take her to a doctor. According to Margaret, her mother admitted to her years later that she went \"over the edge\" in the winter of 1957 and had made plans to murder her and then commit suicide. Claire had supposedly intended to do it during a trip to New York City with Salinger, but she instead acted on a sudden impulse to take Margaret from the hotel and run away. After a few months, Salinger persuaded her to return to Cornish.","J. D. Salinger\n\nLast publications and Maynard relationship","J. D. Salinger\n\nSalinger published Franny and Zooey in 1961, and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction in 1963. Each book contained two short stories or novellas, previously published in The New Yorker, about members of the Glass family. These four stories were originally published between 1955 and 1959, and were the only ones Salinger had published since Nine Stories. On the dust jacket of Franny and Zooey, Salinger wrote, in reference to his interest in privacy: \"It is my rather subversive opinion that a writer's feelings of anonymity-obscurity are the second most valuable property on loan to him during his working years.\"","J. D. Salinger\n\nOn September 15, 1961, Time magazine devoted its cover to Salinger. In an article that profiled his \"life of recluse\", the magazine reported that the Glass family series \"is nowhere near completion ... Salinger intends to write a Glass trilogy.\" Nonetheless, Salinger published only one other story after that: \"Hapworth 16, 1924\", a novella in the form of a long letter from seven-year-old Seymour Glass while at summer camp. His first new work in six years, the novella took up most of the June 19, 1965, issue of The New Yorker, and was universally critically panned. Around this time, Salinger had isolated Claire from friends and relatives and made her—in the words of Margaret Salinger—\"a virtual prisoner\". Claire separated from him in September 1966; their divorce was finalized on October 3, 1967.","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn 1972, at the age of 53, Salinger had a relationship with 18-year-old Joyce Maynard that lasted for nine months. Maynard, at this time, was already an experienced writer for Seventeen magazine. The New York Times had asked Maynard to write an article for them which, when published as \"An Eighteen-Year-Old Looks Back On Life\" on April 23, 1972, made her a celebrity. Salinger wrote a letter to her warning about living with fame. After exchanging 25 letters, Maynard moved in with Salinger the summer after her freshman year at Yale University. Maynard did not return to Yale that fall, and spent ten months as a guest in Salinger's Cornish home. The relationship ended, he told his daughter Margaret at a family outing, because Maynard wanted children, and he felt he was too old. Nevertheless, in her own autobiography, Maynard paints a different picture, saying Salinger abruptly ended the relationship and refused to take her back. She had dropped out of Yale to be with him, even forgoing a scholarship. Maynard later writes in her own memoir how she came to find out that Salinger had begun relationships with young women by exchanging letters.","J. D. Salinger\n\nOne of those letter recipients included Salinger's last wife, a nurse who was already engaged to be married to someone else when she met the author.","J. D. Salinger\n\nWhile he was living with Maynard, Salinger continued to write in a disciplined fashion, a few hours every morning. According to Maynard, by 1972 he had completed two new novels. In a rare 1974 interview with The New York Times, he explained: \"There is a marvelous peace in not publishing ... I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.\" According to Maynard, he saw publication as \"a damned interruption\". In her memoir, Margaret Salinger describes the detailed filing system her father had for his unpublished manuscripts: \"A red mark meant, if I die before I finish my work, publish this 'as is,' blue meant publish but edit first, and so on.\" A neighbor said that Salinger told him that he had written 15 unpublished novels.","J. D. Salinger\n\nSalinger's final interview was in June 1980 with Betty Eppes of The Baton Rouge Advocate, which has been represented somewhat differently, depending on the secondary source. By one account, Eppes was an attractive young woman who misrepresented herself as an aspiring novelist, and managed to record audio of the interview as well as take several photographs of Salinger, both without his knowledge or consent. In a separate account, emphasis is placed on her contact by letter writing from the local Post Office, and Salinger's personal initiative to cross the bridge to meet with the woman, who in the course of the interview made clear she was a reporter (and who did indeed, at the close, take pictures of Salinger as he departed). According to the first account, the interview ended \"disastrously\" when a local passer-by from Cornish attempted to shake the famous author's hand, at which point Salinger became enraged. A further account of the interview published later in The Paris Review, purportedly by Eppes as author, has been disowned by Eppes and separately ascribed as a derived work of Review Editor George Plimpton.","J. D. Salinger\n\nLegal conflicts","J. D. Salinger\n\nAlthough Salinger tried to escape public exposure as much as possible, he continued to struggle with unwanted attention from both the media and the public. Readers of his work and students from nearby Dartmouth College often came to Cornish in groups, hoping to catch a glimpse of him. In May 1986 Salinger learned that the British writer Ian Hamilton intended to publish a biography that made extensive use of letters Salinger had written to other authors and friends. Salinger sued to stop the book's publication. The court in Salinger v. Random House ruled that Hamilton's extensive use of the letters, including quotation and paraphrasing, was not acceptable since the author's right to control publication overrode the right of fair use.\nThe book was not published. \nLater, Hamilton published In Search of J.D. Salinger: A Writing Life (1935–65), but this book was more about his experience in tracking down information and the copyright fights over the planned biography than about Salinger himself.","J. D. Salinger\n\nAn unintended consequence of the lawsuit was that many details of Salinger's private life, including that he had spent the last twenty years writing, in his words, \"Just a work of fiction ... That's all\", became public in the form of court transcripts. Excerpts from his letters were also widely disseminated, most notably a bitter remark written in response to Oona O'Neill's marriage to Charlie Chaplin:","J. D. Salinger\n\nSalinger was romantically involved with television actress Elaine Joyce for several years in the 1980s. The relationship ended when he met Colleen O'Neill (b. June 11, 1959), a nurse and quiltmaker, whom he married around 1988. O'Neill, forty years his junior, once told Margaret Salinger that she and Salinger were trying to have a child.","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn 1995, Iranian director Dariush Mehrjui released the film Pari, an unauthorized and loose adaptation of Salinger's Franny and Zooey. Though the film could be distributed legally in Iran since the country has no official copyright relations with the United States, Salinger had his lawyers block a planned screening of the film at the Lincoln Center in 1998. Mehrjui called Salinger's action \"bewildering\", explaining that he saw his film as \"a kind of cultural exchange\".","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn 1996, Salinger gave a small publisher, Orchises Press, permission to publish \"Hapworth 16, 1924\", the previously uncollected novella. It was to be published that year, and listings for it appeared at Amazon.com and other book-sellers. After a flurry of articles and critical reviews of the story appeared in the press, the publication date was pushed back repeatedly before apparently being cancelled altogether. Amazon anticipated that Orchises would publish the story in January 2009, but at the time of his death it was still listed as \"currently unavailable\".","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn June 2009, Salinger consulted lawyers about the upcoming publication in the US of an unauthorized sequel to The Catcher in the Rye written by Swedish book publisher Fredrik Colting under the pseudonym 'J. D. California'. California's book is called 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, and appears to pick up the story of Salinger's protagonist Holden Caulfield. In Salinger's novel, Caulfield is 17 years old, wandering the streets of New York after being expelled from his private school; the California book features a 76-year-old man, \"Mr. C\", musing on having escaped his nursing home. Salinger's New York literary agent Phyllis Westberg told Britain's Sunday Telegraph: \"The matter has been turned over to a lawyer\". The fact that little was known about Colting and the book was set to be published by a new publishing imprint called 'Windupbird Publishing' gave rise to speculation in literary circles that the whole thing might be a stunt. District court judge Deborah A. Batts issued an injunction which prevents the book from being published within the U.S. The book's author filed an appeal on July 23, 2009; it was heard in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on September 3, 2009.","J. D. Salinger\n\nThe case was settled in 2011 when Colting agreed not to publish or otherwise distribute the book, e-book, or any other editions of 60 Years Later in the U.S. or Canada until The Catcher in the Rye enters the public domain, while also refraining from using the title \"Coming through the Rye\", dedicating the book to Salinger or referring to the title \"The Catcher in the Rye\", while Colting remains free to sell the book in other international territories without fear of interference.","J. D. Salinger\n\nLater publicity","J. D. Salinger\n\nOn October 23, 1992, The New York Times reported], \"Not even a fire that consumed at least half his home on Tuesday could smoke out the reclusive J. D. Salinger, author of the classic novel of adolescent rebellion, 'The Catcher in the Rye.' Mr. Salinger is almost equally famous for having elevated privacy to an art form.\"","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn 1999, 25 years after the end of their relationship, Joyce Maynard auctioned a series of letters Salinger had written her. Maynard's memoir of her life and her relationship with Salinger, At Home in the World: A Memoir, was published the same year. Among other topics, the book described how Maynard's mother had consulted with her on how to appeal to the aging author (who was dressing like a child), and described Joyce's relationship with him at length. In the ensuing controversy over both the memoir and the letters, Maynard claimed that she was forced to auction the letters for financial reasons; she would have preferred to donate them to the Beinecke Library. Software developer Peter Norton bought the letters for US$156,500 and announced his intention to return them to Salinger.","J. D. Salinger\n\nA year later, Salinger's daughter Margaret, by his second wife Claire Douglas, published Dream Catcher: A Memoir. In her book, she described the harrowing control that Salinger had over her mother and dispelled many of the Salinger myths established by Ian Hamilton's book. One of Hamilton's arguments was that Salinger's experience with post-traumatic stress disorder left him psychologically scarred, and that he was unable to deal with the traumatic nature of his war service. Salinger allowed that \"the few men who lived through Bloody Mortain, a battle in which her father fought, were left with much to sicken them, body and soul\", but she also painted a picture of her father as a man immensely proud of his service record, maintaining his military haircut and service jacket, and moving about his compound (and town) in an old Jeep.","J. D. Salinger\n\nBoth Margaret Salinger and Maynard characterized the author as a devoted film buff. According to Margaret, his favorite movies include Gigi (1958), The Lady Vanishes (1938), The 39 Steps (1935; Phoebe's favorite movie in The Catcher in the Rye), and the comedies of W.C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, and the Marx Bros.. Predating VCRs, Salinger had an extensive collection of classic movies from the 1940s in 16 mm prints. Maynard wrote that \"he loves movies, not films\", and Salinger argued that her father's \"worldview is, essentially, a product of the movies of his day. To my father, all Spanish speakers are Puerto Rican washerwomen, or the toothless, grinning-gypsy types in a Marx Brothers movie\". Lillian Ross, a staff writer for The New Yorker and longtime friend of Salinger's, wrote following his death, \"Salinger loved movies, and he was more fun than anyone to discuss them with. He enjoyed watching actors work, and he enjoyed knowing them. (He loved Anne Bancroft, hated Audrey Hepburn, and said that he had seen Grand Illusion ten times.)\"","J. D. Salinger\n\nMargaret also offered many insights into other Salinger myths, including her father's supposed long-time interest in macrobiotics, and involvement with \"alternative medicine\" and Eastern philosophies. A few weeks after Dream Catcher was published, Margaret's brother Matt discredited the memoir in a letter to The New York Observer. He disparaged his sister's \"gothic tales of our supposed childhood\" and stated: \"I can't say with any authority that she is consciously making anything up. I just know that I grew up in a very different house, with two very different parents from those my sister describes.\"","J. D. Salinger\n\nDeath","J. D. Salinger\n\nSalinger died of natural causes at his home in New Hampshire on January 27, 2010. He was 91. Salinger's literary representative told The New York Times that the writer had broken his hip in May 2009, but that \"his health had been excellent until a rather sudden decline after the new year.\" The representative believed that Salinger's death was not a painful one. His third wife and widow, Colleen O'Neill Zakrzeski Salinger, and Salinger's son Matt became the executors of his estate.","J. D. Salinger\n\nLiterary style and themes","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn a contributor's note Salinger gave to Harper's Magazine in 1946, he wrote: \"I almost always write about very young people\", a statement that has been referred to as his credo. Adolescents are featured or appear in all of Salinger's work, from his first published short story, \"The Young Folks\" (1940), to The Catcher in the Rye and his Glass family stories. In 1961, the critic Alfred Kazin explained that Salinger's choice of teenagers as a subject matter was one reason for his appeal to young readers, but another was \"a consciousness [among youths] that he speaks for them and virtually to them, in a language that is peculiarly honest and their own, with a vision of things that capture their most secret judgments of the world.\" For this reason, Norman Mailer once remarked that Salinger was \"the greatest mind ever to stay in prep school\". Salinger's language, especially his energetic, realistically sparse dialogue, was revolutionary at the time his first stories were published and was seen by several critics as \"the most distinguishing thing\" about his work.","J. D. Salinger\n\nSalinger identified closely with his characters, and used techniques such as interior monologue, letters, and extended telephone calls to display his gift for dialogue. Such style elements also \"[gave] him the illusion of having, as it were, delivered his characters' destinies into their own keeping.\" Recurring themes in Salinger's stories also connect to the ideas of innocence and adolescence, including the \"corrupting influence of Hollywood and the world at large\", the disconnect between teenagers and \"phony\" adults, and the perceptive, precocious intelligence of children.","J. D. Salinger\n\nContemporary critics discuss a clear progression over the course of Salinger's published work, as evidenced by the increasingly negative reviews received by each of his three post-Catcher story collections. Ian Hamilton adheres to this view, arguing that while Salinger's early stories for the \"slicks\" boasted \"tight, energetic\" dialogue, they had also been formulaic and sentimental. It took the standards of The New Yorker editors, among them William Shawn, to refine his writing into the \"spare, teasingly mysterious, withheld\" qualities of \"A Perfect Day for Bananafish\" (1948), The Catcher in the Rye, and his stories of the early 1950s. By the late 1950s, as Salinger became more reclusive and involved in religious study, Hamilton notes that his stories became longer, less plot-driven, and increasingly filled with digression and parenthetical remarks. Louis Menand agrees, writing in The New Yorker that Salinger \"stopped writing stories, in the conventional sense ...","J. D. Salinger\n\nHe seemed to lose interest in fiction as an art form—perhaps he thought there was something manipulative or inauthentic about literary device and authorial control.\" In recent years, some critics have defended certain post-Nine Stories works by Salinger; in 2001, Janet Malcolm wrote in The New York Review of Books that \"Zooey\" \"is arguably Salinger's masterpiece ... Rereading it and its companion piece \"Franny\" is no less rewarding than rereading The Great Gatsby.\"","J. D. Salinger\n\nInfluence","J. D. Salinger\n\nSalinger's writing has influenced several prominent writers, prompting Harold Brodkey (himself an O. Henry Award-winning author) to state in 1991: \"His is the most influential body of work in English prose by anyone since Hemingway.\" Of the writers in Salinger's generation, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist John Updike attested that \"the short stories of J. D. Salinger really opened my eyes as to how you can weave fiction out of a set of events that seem almost unconnected, or very lightly connected ... [Reading Salinger] stick[s] in my mind as really having moved me a step up, as it were, toward knowing how to handle my own material.\" The critic Louis Menand has observed that the early stories of Pulitzer Prize-winner Philip Roth were affected by \"Salinger's voice and comic timing\".","J. D. Salinger\n\nNational Book Award finalist Richard Yates told The New York Times in 1977 that reading Salinger's stories for the first time was a landmark experience, and that \"nothing quite like it has happened to me since\". Yates describes Salinger as \"a man who used language as if it were pure energy beautifully controlled, and who knew exactly what he was doing in every silence as well as in every word.\" Gordon Lish's O. Henry Award-winning short story \"For Jeromé—With Love and Kisses\" (1977, collected in What I Know So Far, 1984), is a parody of Salinger's \"For Esmé—with Love and Squalor\".","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn 2001, Louis Menand wrote in The New Yorker that \"Catcher in the Rye rewrites\" among each new generation had become \"a literary genre all its own\". He classed among them Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (1963), Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971), Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City (1984), and Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000). Writer Aimee Bender was struggling with her first short stories when a friend gave her a copy of Nine Stories; inspired, she later described Salinger's effect on writers, explaining: \"[I]t feels like Salinger wrote The Catcher in the Rye in a day, and that incredible feeling of ease inspires writing. Inspires the pursuit of voice. Not his voice. My voice. Your voice.\" Authors such as Stephen Chbosky, Jonathan Safran Foer, Carl Hiaasen, Susan Minot, Haruki Murakami, Gwendoline Riley, Tom Robbins, Louis Sachar, Joel Stein and John Green have cited Salinger as an influence. Musician Tomas Kalnoky of Streetlight Manifesto also cites Salinger as an influence, referencing him and Holden Caulfield, the main character of Catcher in the Rye, in the song \"Here's To Life\". Biographer Paul Alexander called Salinger \"the Greta Garbo of literature\".","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn the mid-1960s, J. D. Salinger was himself drawn to Sufi mysticism through the writer and thinker Idries Shah's seminal work The Sufis, as were others writers such as Doris Lessing and Geoffrey Grigson, and the poets Robert Graves and Ted Hughes. As well as Idries Shah, Salinger also read the Taoist philosopher Lao Tse and the Hindu Swami Vivekananda who introduced the Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world.","J. D. Salinger\n\nLegacy","J. D. Salinger\n\nIn an oral biography titled Salinger, authors David Shields and Shane Salerno assert that the author had left specific instructions authorizing a timetable, to start between 2015 and 2020, for the release of several unpublished works. According to the authors and their sources, these include five new Glass-family stories; a novel based on Salinger's relationship with his first wife, Sylvia; a novella in the form of a WWII counterintelligence officer’s diary; a \"manual\" of stories about Vedanta; and other new or retooled stories that illuminate the life of Holden Caulfield.","J. D. Salinger\n\nThe Salinger biography is also described as a companion volume to a film documentary of the same title. The directorial debut of writer Shane Salerno, Salinger was made over nine years and received a limited theatrical release on September 6, 2013.","J. D. Salinger\n\nList of works","J. D. Salinger\n\nBooks","J. D. Salinger\n\n* The Catcher in the Rye (1951)\n* Nine Stories (1953)\n** \"A Perfect Day for Bananafish\" (1948)\n** \"Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut\" (1948)\n** \"Just Before the War with the Eskimos\" (1948)\n** \"The Laughing Man\" (1949)\n** \"Down at the Dinghy\" (1949)\n** \"For Esmé—with Love and Squalor\" (1950)\n** \"Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes\" (1951)\n** \"De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period\" (1952)\n** \"Teddy\" (1953)\n* Franny and Zooey (1961)\n** \"Franny\" (1955)\n** \"Zooey\" (1957)\n* Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963)\n** \"Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters\" (1955)\n** \"Seymour: An Introduction\" (1959)\n* Three Early Stories (2014)\n** \"The Young Folks\" (1940)\n** \"Go See Eddie\" (1940)\n** \"Once a Week Won't Kill You\" (1944)","J. D. Salinger\n\nPublished and anthologized stories","J. D. Salinger\n\n* \"Go See Eddie\" (1940, republished in Fiction: Form & Experience, ed. William M. Jones, 1969 and in Three Early Stories, 2014)\n* \"The Young Folks\" (1940, republished in Three Early Stories, 2014)\n* \"The Hang of It\" (1941, republished in The Kit Book for Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, 1943)\n* \"The Long Debut of Lois Taggett\" (1942, republished in Stories: The Fiction of the Forties, ed. Whit Burnett, 1949)\n* \"Once a Week Won't Kill You\" (1944, republished in Three Early Stories, 2014)\n* \"A Boy in France\" (1945, republished in Post Stories 1942–45, ed. Ben Hibbs, 1946 and July/August 2010 issue of Saturday Evening Post magazine)\n* \"This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise\" (1945, republished in The Armchair Esquire, ed. L. Rust Hills, 1959)\n* \"Slight Rebellion off Madison\" (1946, republished in Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker, ed. David Remnick, 2000)\n* \"A Girl I Knew\" (1948, republished in Best American Short Stories 1949, ed. Martha Foley, 1949)","J. D. Salinger\n\nPublished and unanthologized stories","J. D. Salinger\n\n* \"The Heart of a Broken Story\" (1941)\n* \"Personal Notes of an Infantryman\" (1942)\n* \"The Varioni Brothers\" (1943)\n* \"Both Parties Concerned\" (1944)\n* \"Soft-Boiled Sergeant\" (1944)\n* \"Last Day of the Last Furlough\" (1944)\n* \"Elaine\" (1945)\n* \"The Stranger\" (1945)\n* \"I'm Crazy\" (1945)\n* \"A Young Girl in 1941 with No Waist at All\" (1947)\n* \"The Inverted Forest\" (1947)\n* \"Blue Melody\" (1948)\n* \"Hapworth 16, 1924\" (1965)","J. D. Salinger\n\nUnpublished stories","J. D. Salinger\n\n*\"Mrs. Hincher\" (1942)\n*\"The Last and Best of the Peter Pans\" (1942)\n*\"The Children's Echelon\" (1944)\n*\"Two Lonely Men\" (1944)\n*\"The Magic Foxhole\" (1944)\n*\"Birthday Boy\" (1946)\n*\"The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls\" (1947)\n*\"Paula\" (1948)","J. D. Salinger\n\nMedia portrayals and references","J. D. Salinger\n\n*J.D. Salinger appears as a character (voiced by Alan Arkin) in several episodes of Bojack Horseman (season 2 episodes 6, 7, 8, and 10), where he is said to have faked his own death to escape public attention (A Netflix Original Series, July 7, 2015).","J. D. Salinger\n\nNotes","J. D. Salinger\n\nCitations","Mark David Chapman\n\nMark David Chapman (born May 10, 1955) is an American prison inmate who murdered John Lennon on December 8, 1980. Chapman shot Lennon outside The Dakota apartment building in New York City. Chapman fired at Lennon five times, hitting him four times in the back. Chapman later remained at the crime scene reading J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye until the police arrived and arrested him. He repeatedly said that the novel was his statement.","Mark David Chapman\n\nChapman's legal team put forward an insanity defense based on expert testimony that he was in a delusional psychotic state at the time, but nearing the trial, Chapman instructed his lawyer that he wanted to plead guilty, based on what he had decided was the will of God. The judge allowed the plea change without further psychiatric assessment after Chapman denied hearing voices, and sentenced him to a prison term of 20 years to life with a stipulation that mental health treatment be provided. Chapman was imprisoned in 1981 and has been denied parole eight times amidst campaigns against his release.","Mark David Chapman\n\nPersonal background","Mark David Chapman\n\nChapman was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1955. His father, David Curtis Chapman, was a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, and his mother, Diane Elizabeth (née Pease), was a nurse. His younger sister, Susan, was born seven years later. Chapman stated that as a boy, he lived in fear of his father, who he said was physically abusive towards his mother and unloving towards him. Chapman began to fantasize about having king-like power over a group of imaginary \"little people\" who lived in the walls of his bedroom. Chapman attended Columbia High School in Decatur, Georgia. By the time he was fourteen, Chapman was using drugs, skipping classes, and he once ran away from home to live on the streets of Atlanta for two weeks. He said that he was bullied at school because he was not a good athlete.","Mark David Chapman\n\nIn 1971, Chapman became a born again Presbyterian and distributed Biblical tracts. He met his first girlfriend, Jessica Blankenship. He began work as a YMCA summer camp counselor; he was very popular with the children, who nicknamed him \"Nemo\". He won an award for Outstanding Counselor and was made assistant director. Those who knew him in the caretaking professions unanimously called him an outstanding worker. A friend recommended The Catcher in the Rye to Chapman, and the story eventually took on great personal significance for him, to the extent that he reportedly wished to model his life after its protagonist, Holden Caulfield. After graduating from Columbia High School, Chapman moved for a time to Chicago and played guitar in churches and Christian nightspots while his friend did impersonations. He worked successfully for World Vision with Vietnamese refugees at a resettlement camp at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, after a brief visit to Lebanon for the same work. He was named an area coordinator and a key aide to the program director, David Moore, who later said that Chapman cared deeply for the children and worked hard. Chapman accompanied Moore to meetings with government officials, and President Gerald Ford shook his hand.","Mark David Chapman\n\nChapman joined his girlfriend, Jessica Blankenship, as a student at Covenant College, an evangelical Presbyterian liberal arts college in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. However, Chapman fell behind in his studies and became obsessed with guilt over having an affair. He started having suicidal thoughts and began to feel like a failure. He dropped out of Covenant College, and his girlfriend broke off their relationship soon after. He returned to work at the resettlement camp, but left after an argument. Chapman worked as a security guard, eventually taking a week-long course to qualify as an armed guard. He again attempted college but dropped out. He went to Hawaii and then began contemplating suicide. In 1977, Chapman attempted suicide by carbon monoxide asphyxiation. He connected a hose to his car's exhaust pipe, but the hose melted and the attempt failed. A psychiatrist admitted him to Castle Memorial Hospital for clinical depression. Upon his release, he began working at the hospital. His parents began divorce proceedings, and his mother joined Chapman in Hawaii.","Mark David Chapman\n\nIn 1978, Chapman went on a six-week trip around the world, inspired partly by the film Around the World in Eighty Days, visiting Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Delhi, Beirut, Geneva, London, Paris and Dublin. He began a relationship with his travel agent, a Japanese-American woman named Gloria Abe. They married on June 2, 1979. Chapman went to work at Castle Memorial Hospital as a printer, working alone rather than with staff and patients. He was fired by the Castle Memorial Hospital, rehired, then got into a shouting match with a nurse and quit. He took a job as a night security guard and began drinking heavily. Chapman developed a series of obsessions, including artwork, The Catcher in the Rye, music, and John Lennon. In September 1980, he wrote a letter to a friend, Lynda Irish, in which he stated, \"I'm going nuts.\" He signed the letter, \"The Catcher in the Rye\". Chapman had no criminal convictions up to this point.","Mark David Chapman\n\nPlan to murder John Lennon","Mark David Chapman\n\nChapman allegedly started planning to kill Lennon three months prior to the murder.","Mark David Chapman\n\nHe had been a big Beatles fan, idolizing Lennon, and played guitar himself, but turned against him after becoming a Christian; he was angered at Lennon's comment that the Beatles were \"more popular than Jesus.\" In the South, there were demonstrations, album burnings, boycotts, and projectiles were thrown. Some members of Chapman's prayer group made a joke \"It went, 'Imagine, imagine if John Lennon was dead.'\" Chapman's childhood friend Miles McManushe recalls his referring to the song as \"communist\". Jan Reeves, sister of one of Chapman's best friends, reports that Chapman \"seemed really angry toward John Lennon, and he kept saying he could not understand why John Lennon had said it [that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus]. According to Mark, there should be nobody more popular than the Lord Jesus Christ. He said it was blasphemy.\"","Mark David Chapman\n\nChapman had later also been influenced by reading in a library book (John Lennon: One Day at a Time by Anthony Fawcett) about Lennon's life in New York. According to his wife Gloria, \"He was angry that Lennon would preach love and peace but yet have millions [of dollars].\" Chapman later said that \"He told us to imagine no possessions, and there he was, with millions of dollars and yachts and farms and country estates, laughing at people like me who had believed the lies and bought the records and built a big part of their lives around his music.\"","Mark David Chapman\n\nHe said that he chose Lennon after seeing him on the cover of The Beatles' album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He also recalls having listened to Lennon's John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album in the weeks before the murder and has stated: \"I would listen to this music and I would get angry at him, for saying that he didn't believe in God... and that he didn't believe in the Beatles. This was another thing that angered me, even though this record had been done at least 10 years previously. I just wanted to scream out loud, 'Who does he think he is, saying these things about God and heaven and the Beatles?' Saying that he doesn't believe in Jesus and things like that. At that point, my mind was going through a total blackness of anger and rage. So I brought the Lennon book home, into this The Catcher in the Rye milieu where my mindset is Holden Caulfield and anti-phoniness.\"","Mark David Chapman\n\nChapman also said that he had a further list of people in mind, including Johnny Carson, Marlon Brando, Walter Cronkite, Elizabeth Taylor, George C. Scott, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, but John Lennon seemed to be the easiest to find. He separately said that he was particularly infatuated by Lennon. Chapman's planning has been described as 'muddled'. Chapman went to New York in October 1980, intending to kill Lennon. He left in order to obtain ammunition from his unwitting friend in Atlanta, Dana Reeves, and returned to New York in November.","Mark David Chapman\n\nAfter being inspired by the film Ordinary People, Chapman returned to Hawaii, telling his wife he had been obsessed with killing Lennon. He showed her the gun and bullets, but she did not inform the police or mental health services. He made an appointment to see a clinical psychologist, but before it occurred he flew back to New York, on December 6, 1980. At one point, he considered committing suicide by jumping from the Statue of Liberty. Chapman says that the message \"Thou Shalt Not Kill\" flashed on the TV at him, and was also on a wall hanging put up by his wife in their apartment; on the night before the murder, Chapman and his wife discussed on the phone about getting help with his problems by first working on his relationship with God.","Mark David Chapman\n\nOn December 7, 1980, the day before the killing, Chapman accosted singer-songwriter James Taylor at the 72nd Street subway station. According to Taylor, \"The guy had sort of pinned me to the wall and was glistening with maniacal sweat and talking some freak speak about what he was going to do and his stuff with how John was interested, and he was going to get in touch with John Lennon.\" He also reportedly offered cocaine to a taxi driver.","Mark David Chapman\n\nOn the day of the murder, David Bowie was appearing on Broadway in the play The Elephant Man. \"I was second on his list,\" Bowie later said. \"Chapman had a front-row ticket to The Elephant Man the next night. John and Yoko were supposed to sit front-row for that show, too. So the night after John was killed there were three empty seats in the front row. I can’t tell you how difficult that was to go on. I almost didn’t make it through the performance.”","Mark David Chapman\n\nMurder of John Lennon","Mark David Chapman\n\nOn December 8, 1980, Chapman left his room at the Sheraton Hotel, leaving personal items behind which the police would later find, and bought a copy of The Catcher in the Rye in which he wrote \"This is my statement\", signing it \"Holden Caulfield\". He then spent most of the day near the entrance to The Dakota apartment building where Lennon and Yoko Ono lived, talking to fans and the doorman. Early in the morning, a distracted Chapman missed seeing Lennon step out of a cab and enter the Dakota. Later in the morning, Chapman met Lennon's housekeeper who was returning from a walk with their five-year-old son Sean. Chapman reached in front of the housekeeper to shake Sean's hand and said that he was a beautiful boy, quoting Lennon's song \"Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)\". Around 5:00 p.m., Lennon and Ono left The Dakota for a recording session at Record Plant Studios. As they walked toward their limousine, Chapman shook hands with Lennon and asked for him to sign a copy of his album, Double Fantasy. Photographer Paul Goresh took a photo of Lennon signing Chapman's album.","Mark David Chapman\n\nChapman later said in an interview that he tried to get Goresh to stay, and that he asked another Lennon fan lingering at the building's entrance to go out with him that night. He suggested that if the girl had accepted his invitation, or the photographer had stayed, he would not have murdered Lennon that evening; but he probably would have tried another day.","Mark David Chapman\n\nAround 10:50 p.m., the Lennons' limousine returned to the Dakota. Lennon and Ono got out, passed Chapman and walked toward the archway entrance of the building. From the street behind them, Chapman fired five shots from a .38 special revolver, four of which hit Lennon in the back and left shoulder, puncturing the left lung and left subclavian artery.","Mark David Chapman\n\nAt the time, one newspaper reported that, before firing, Chapman softly called out \"Mr. Lennon\" and dropped into a crouched position. Chapman said that he does not recall saying anything and that Lennon did not turn around.","Mark David Chapman\n\nChapman remained at the scene, appearing to be reading The Catcher in the Rye, until the police arrived. The New York City Police Department officers who first responded, recognizing that Lennon's wounds were severe, decided to transport him to Roosevelt Hospital. Chapman was arrested without incident. In his statement to police three hours later, Chapman stated, \"I’m sure the big part of me is Holden Caulfield, who is the main person in the book. The small part of me must be the Devil.\" Lennon was pronounced dead by Dr. Stephan Lynn at 11:07 p.m. at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center.","Mark David Chapman\n\nLegal process","Mark David Chapman\n\nChapman was charged with second degree murder. He told police that he had used hollow-point bullets \"because they are more deadly\" and\n\"to ensure Lennon's death\". Gloria Chapman, who had known of her husband's preparations for killing Lennon but took no action, was not charged. Chapman later said that he harbored a \"deep-seated resentment\" toward his wife, \"that she didn't go to somebody, even the police, and say, 'Look, my husband's bought a gun and he says he's going to kill John Lennon'.\"","Mark David Chapman\n\nMental state assessment","Mark David Chapman\n\nMore than a dozen psychologists and psychiatrists studied Chapman in the six months prior to trial—three for the prosecution, six for the defense, and several more on behalf of the court. A battery of standard diagnostic procedures and over 200 hours of clinical interviews were conducted. All six defense experts concluded that Chapman was psychotic; five diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, while the sixth felt his symptoms were more consistent with manic depression. The three prosecution experts declared that his delusions fell short of psychosis, and instead diagnosed various personality disorders. The court-appointed experts concurred with the prosecution's examiners that he was delusional, yet competent to stand trial. The examinations were notable for the fact that Chapman was more cooperative with the prosecution's mental health experts than with those for the defense, possibly (according to one psychiatrist) because he did not wish to be considered \"crazy\", and persuaded himself that the defense experts only declared him insane because they were hired to do so.","Mark David Chapman\n\nThe Rev. Charles McGowan, who had been pastor of Chapman's old church, Chapel Woods Presbyterian in Decatur, Ga., visited Chapman as well, and told him of his conviction that religion held the key to his crime. \"I believe there was a demonic power at work,\" he said. Chapman initially embraced his old religion with new fervor as a result; but after McGowan revealed information to the press that Chapman had told him in confidence, Chapman disavowed his renewed interest in Christianity and reverted to his initial explanation: that he had killed Lennon to promote the reading of The Catcher in the Rye. When asked why it was so important for people to read the book, Chapman said he \"didn't know\" and \"didn't really care either—that was not his job.\"","Mark David Chapman\n\nPlea","Mark David Chapman\n\nLawyer Herbert Adlerberg was assigned to represent Chapman but, amid threats of lynching, withdrew. Police feared that Lennon fans might storm the hospital so they transferred Chapman to Rikers Island.","Mark David Chapman\n\nIn January 1981, at the initial hearing, Chapman's new lawyer, Jonathan Marks, entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. In February, Chapman sent a handwritten statement to The New York Times urging everyone to read The Catcher in the Rye, calling it an \"extraordinary book that holds many answers.\" The defense team sought to establish witnesses as to Chapman's mental state at the time of the killing. It was reported they were confident he would be found not guilty by reason of insanity, in which case he would have been committed to a state mental hospital and received treatment.","Mark David Chapman\n\nHowever, in June, Chapman told Marks he wanted to drop the insanity defense and plead guilty. Marks objected with \"serious questions\" over Chapman's sanity, and legally challenged his competence to make this decision. In the pursuant hearing on June 22, Chapman said that God had told him to plead guilty and that he would not change his plea or ever appeal, regardless of his sentence. Marks told the court that he opposed Chapman's change of plea but that Chapman would not listen to him. Judge Dennis Edwards refused a further assessment, saying that Chapman had made the decision of his own free will, and declared him competent to plead guilty.","Mark David Chapman\n\nSentencing","Mark David Chapman\n\nOn August 24, 1981, the sentencing hearing took place. Two experts gave evidence on Chapman's behalf. Judge Edwards interrupted Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a research psychiatrist then relatively inexperienced in the courtroom, indicating that the purpose of the hearing was to determine the sentence and that there was no question of Chapman's criminal responsibility. Lewis has maintained that Chapman's decision to change his plea did not appear reasonable or explicable, and she implies the judge did not want to allow an independent competency assessment. The district attorney argued that Chapman committed the murder as an easy route to fame. When Chapman was asked if he had anything to say, he rose and read the passage from The Catcher in the Rye, when Holden tells his little sister, Phoebe, what he wants to do with his life:\nAnyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff.","Mark David Chapman\n\nWhat I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. The judge ordered psychiatric treatment in prison and sentenced Chapman to 20-years-to-life, 5 years less than the maximum sentence of 25-years-to-life. Chapman was given five years less than the maximum because he pleaded guilty to second degree murder, thereby avoiding the time and expense of a trial.","Mark David Chapman\n\nImprisonment","Mark David Chapman\n\nIn 1981, Chapman was imprisoned at Attica, outside of Buffalo, New York. After Chapman fasted for 26 days in February 1982, the New York State Supreme Court authorized the state to force feed him. Martin Von Holden, the director of the Central New York Psychiatric Center, said that Chapman still refused to eat with other inmates but agreed to take liquid nutrients. Chapman was confined to a Special Handling Unit (SHU) for violent and at-risk prisoners, in part due to concern that he might be harmed by Lennon's fans in the general population. There were 105 prisoners in the building who were \"not considered a threat to him,\" according to the New York State Department of Correctional Services. He had his own prison cell, but spent \"most of his day outside his cell working on housekeeping and in the library.\"","Mark David Chapman\n\nChapman worked in the prison as a legal clerk and kitchen helper. He was barred from participating in the Cephas Attica workshops, a charitable organization which helps inmates to adjust to life outside prison. He was also prohibited from attending the prison's violence and anger management classes due to concern for his safety. Chapman reportedly likes to read and write short stories. At his parole board hearing in 2004, he described his plans; \"I would immediately try to find a job, and I really want to go from place to place, at least in the state, church to church, and tell people what happened to me and point them the way to Christ.\" He also said that he thought that there was a possibility he could find work as a farmhand or return to his previous trade as a printer.","Mark David Chapman\n\nChapman is in the Family Reunion Program, and is allowed one conjugal visit a year with his wife, since he accepted solitary confinement. The program allows him to spend up to 42 hours alone with his wife in a specially built prison home. He also gets occasional visits from his sister, clergy, and a few friends. In 2004, James Flateau, a spokesman for the state's Department of Correctional Services, said that Chapman had been involved in three \"minor incidents\" between 1989 and 1994 for delaying an inmate count and refusing to follow an order. Chapman was transferred to the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, which is east of Buffalo, on May 15, 2012.","Mark David Chapman\n\nParole applications and campaigns","Mark David Chapman\n\nAs the result of his sentence of 20 years to life, Chapman first became eligible for parole in 2000, and is entitled to a hearing every two years. Since that time, Chapman has been denied parole eight times by a three-member board. Shortly before Chapman's first hearing, Yoko Ono sent a letter to the board opposing his release from prison. In addition, New York State Senator Michael Nozzolio, chairman of the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, wrote to Parole Board Chairman Brion Travis saying: \"It is the responsibility of the New York State Parole Board to ensure that public safety is protected from the release of dangerous criminals like Chapman.\"","Mark David Chapman\n\nAt the 50-minute hearing in 2000, Chapman said that he was not a danger to society. The parole board concluded that releasing Chapman would \"deprecate the seriousness of the crime and serve to undermine respect for the law\" and that Chapman's granting of media interviews represented a continued interest in \"maintaining your notoriety.\" They noted that although Chapman had a good disciplinary record while in prison, he had been in the SHU and didn't access \"anti-violence and/or anti-aggression programming.\" Robert Gangi, a lawyer for the Correctional Association of New York, said that he thought it unlikely Chapman would ever be freed because the board would not risk the \"political heat\" of releasing Lennon's killer. In 2002, the parole board stated again that releasing Chapman after 22 years in prison would \"deprecate the seriousness\" of the crime, and that while his behavioral record continued to be positive, it was no predictor of his potential community behavior. The parole board held a third hearing in 2004, and declined parole yet again.","Mark David Chapman\n\nOne of the reasons given by the board was having subjected Ono to \"monumental suffering by her witnessing the crime.\" Another factor was concern for Chapman's safety; several Lennon fans had threatened to kill him if he were released. Ono's letter opposing his release stated that Chapman would not be safe outside of prison. The board reported that its decision was based on the interview, a review of records and deliberation. Around 6,000 people had signed an online petition against Chapman's release by this time.","Mark David Chapman\n\nIn October 2006, the parole board held a 16-minute hearing and concluded that his release would not be in the best interest of the community or his own personal safety. On December 8, 2006, the 26th anniversary of Lennon's death, Yoko Ono published a one-page advertisement in several newspapers saying that December 8 should be a \"day of forgiveness,\" and that she was not yet sure if she was ready to forgive Chapman. Chapman's fifth hearing was on August 12, 2008. He was denied parole \"due to concern for the public safety and welfare.\" On July 27, 2010, in advance of Chapman's scheduled sixth parole hearing, Ono said that she would again oppose parole for Chapman stating that her safety, that of John's sons, and Chapman's would be at risk. She added, \"I am afraid it will bring back the nightmare, the chaos and confusion [of that night] once again.\" On August 11, 2010, the parole board postponed the hearing until September, stating that it was awaiting the receipt of additional information to complete Chapman's record.","Mark David Chapman\n\nOn September 7, the board denied Chapman's latest parole application, with the panel stating \"release remains inappropriate at this time and incompatible with the welfare of the community.\"","Mark David Chapman\n\nChapman's seventh parole hearing was held before a three-member board on August 22, 2012. The following day, the denial of his application was announced, with the board stating, “Despite your positive efforts while incarcerated, your release at this time would greatly undermine respect for the law and tend to trivialize the tragic loss of life which you caused as a result of this heinous, unprovoked, violent, cold and calculated crime.” Chapman's eighth parole application was denied in August 2014. At the hearing, Chapman said, \"I am sorry for being such an idiot and choosing the wrong way for glory.\" \"I found my peace in Jesus,\" he continued. \"I know him. He loves me. He has forgiven me. He has helped in my life like you wouldn't believe.\" Chapman's next parole hearing is scheduled for August 2016.","Mark David Chapman\n\nImpact","Mark David Chapman\n\nFollowing the murder, and for the first six years in Attica, Chapman refused all requests for interviews. James R. Gaines interviewed him and wrote a three-part, 18,000-word People magazine series in February and March 1987. Chapman told the parole board he regretted the interview. Chapman later gave a series of audio-taped interviews to Jack Jones of the Democrat and Chronicle. In 1992 Jones published a book, Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman, the Man Who Killed John Lennon.","Mark David Chapman\n\nAlso in 1992, Chapman gave two television interviews. On December 4, 1992, 20/20 aired an interview that he gave to Barbara Walters, his first television interview since the shooting. On December 17, 1992, Larry King interviewed Chapman on his program Larry King Live. In 2000, with his first parole hearing approaching, Jack Jones asked Chapman to tell his story for Mugshots, a CourtTV program. Chapman refused to go on camera but, after praying over it, consented to tell his story in a series of audiotapes.","Mark David Chapman\n\nChapman's experiences during the weekend on which he committed the murder have been turned into a feature-length movie called Chapter 27, in which he is played by Jared Leto. The film was written and directed by Jarrett Schaefer and is based on the Jones book. The film's title is a reference to The Catcher in the Rye, which has 26 chapters. Chapter 27 premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007 and received polarized reactions from critics. The film had a limited release in theaters in the United States in March 2008. Chapter 27 was released widely onto DVD on September 30, 2008. Another film was made before the feature film entitled The Killing of John Lennon starring Jonas Ball as Chapman, which documents Chapman's life before and up to the murder and portrays Chapman in a somewhat sympathetic light. The film features Ball as Chapman narrating the film and states that all the words are Chapman's own.","Mark David Chapman\n\nA number of conspiracy theories have been published, based on CIA and FBI surveillance of Lennon due to his left-wing activism, and on the actions of Mark Chapman in the murder or subsequent legal proceedings. Barrister and journalist Fenton Bresler raised the idea in a book published in 1990. Liverpool playwright Ian Carroll, who has staged a drama conveying the theory that Chapman was manipulated by a rogue wing of the CIA, suggests Chapman wasn't so crazy that he couldn't manage a long trip from Hawaii to New York shortly prior to the murder. Claims include that Chapman was a Manchurian candidate, including speculation on links to the CIA's Project MKULTRA. At least one author has argued that forensic evidence proves Chapman did not commit the murder, while others have criticized the theories as based on possible or suspected connections and circumstances.","Mark David Chapman\n\nIn 1982, Rhino Records released a compilation of Beatles-related novelty and parody songs, called Beatlesongs. It featured a cover caricature of Chapman by William Stout. Following its release, Rhino recalled the record and replaced it with another cover. New York-based band Mindless Self Indulgence released a track entitled \"Mark David Chapman\" on their album If. Irish band The Cranberries recorded a song called \"I Just Shot John Lennon\" for their 1996 album To the Faithful Departed. It cites events that took place outside the Dakota on the night of Lennon's murder. The title of the song comes from Chapman's own words.","Mark David Chapman\n\nAustin, Texas-based art rock band ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead have also released a song called \"Mark David Chapman\" from their 1999 album Madonna. Julian Cope's 1988 album Autogeddon contains a song called \"Don't Call Me Mark Chapman\" whose lyrics suggest it is told from the point of view of Lennon's murderer. Filipino band Rivermaya released a song called \"Hangman (I Shot the Walrus)\" on their album Atomic Bomb (1997), supposedly written from Mark Chapman's point of view.","Mark David Chapman\n\nChapman's obsession with the central character and message of the The Catcher in the Rye added to controversy about the novel. Some links have been drawn between Chapman's and the book's themes of adolescent sensitivity and depression on the one hand, and anti-social and violent thoughts on the other. This connection was made in the play Six Degrees of Separation and its film adaptation by the character played by Will Smith.","Mark David Chapman\n\nLinks have sometimes been drawn between Chapman's actions and those of other killers or attempted killers. John Hinckley, who only months later tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, was also associated with The Catcher in the Rye. Furthermore, John Hinckley's father, John Hinckley, Sr, was president of World Vision, for whom Chapman was employed. A writer who experienced mental illness in the same city as Jared Loughner has suggested that examples such as Chapman's show the need to challenge stigma about mental health problems and ensure there are good community mental health services including crisis intervention.","Death of John Lennon\n\nJohn Lennon was an English musician who gained worldwide fame as one of the members of the Beatles, for his subsequent solo career, and for his political activism and pacifism. On 8 December 1980, Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City. Lennon had just returned from Record Plant Studio with his wife, Yoko Ono.","Death of John Lennon\n\nAfter sustaining four major gunshot wounds, Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital. At the hospital, it was stated that nobody could have lived for more than a few minutes after sustaining such injuries. Shortly after local news stations reported Lennon's death, crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of the Dakota. Lennon was cremated at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York two days after his death; the ashes were given to Ono, who chose not to hold a funeral for him. The first media report of Lennon's death to a US national audience was announced by Howard Cosell, on ABC's Monday Night Football.","Death of John Lennon\n\nEvents preceding his death","Death of John Lennon\n\n8 December 1980","Death of John Lennon\n\nPhotographer Annie Leibovitz went to the Lennons' apartment to do a photo shoot for Rolling Stone magazine. Leibovitz promised Lennon that a photo with Ono would make the front cover of the magazine, even though she initially tried to get a picture with Lennon by himself. Leibovitz said, \"Nobody wanted [Ono] on the cover\". Lennon insisted that both he and his wife be on the cover, and after taking the pictures, Leibovitz left their apartment at 3:30 p.m. After the photo shoot, Lennon gave what would be his last interview, to San Francisco DJ Dave Sholin, for a music show to be broadcast on the RKO Radio Network. At 5:40 p.m., Lennon and Ono, delayed by a late limousine, left their apartment to mix the song \"Walking on Thin Ice\" (an Ono song featuring Lennon on lead guitar) at the Record Plant Studio.","Death of John Lennon\n\nMark David Chapman","Death of John Lennon\n\nAs Lennon and Ono walked to a limousine, shared with the RKO Radio crew, they were approached by several people seeking autographs. Among them was Mark David Chapman. It was common for fans to wait outside the Dakota to meet Lennon and ask for his autograph. Chapman, a 25-year-old security guard from Honolulu, Hawaii, had previously travelled to New York to murder Lennon in October (before the release of Double Fantasy), but had changed his mind and returned home. Chapman silently handed Lennon a copy of Double Fantasy, and Lennon obliged with an autograph. After signing the album, Lennon asked, \"Is this all you want?\" Chapman smiled and nodded in agreement. Photographer and Lennon fan Paul Goresh took a photo of the encounter. \nChapman had been waiting for Lennon outside the Dakota since mid-morning, and had even approached the Lennons' five-year-old son, Sean, who was with the family nanny, Helen Seaman, when they returned home in the afternoon. According to Chapman, he briefly touched the boy's hand.","Death of John Lennon\n\nThe Lennons spent several hours at the Record Plant studio before returning to the Dakota, at approximately 10:50 pm. Lennon had decided against dining out so he could be home in time to say goodnight to his son, before going on to the Stage Deli restaurant with Ono. Lennon liked to oblige any fans who had been waiting for long periods of time to meet him with autographs or pictures, once saying during an interview with BBC Radio's Andy Peebles on 6 December 1980: \"People come and ask for autographs, or say 'Hi', but they don't bug you.\" The Lennons exited their limousine on 72nd Street instead of driving into the more secure courtyard of the Dakota.","Death of John Lennon\n\nMurder","Death of John Lennon\n\nThe Dakota's doorman, Jose Perdomo, and a nearby cab driver saw Chapman standing in the shadows by the archway. As Lennon passed by, he glanced briefly at Chapman, appearing to recognize him from earlier. Seconds later, Chapman took aim directly at the center of Lennon's back and fired five hollow-point bullets at him from a Charter Arms .38 Special revolver in rapid succession from a range of about nine or ten feet (about 3 m) away. Based on statements made that night by NYPD Chief of Detectives James Sullivan, numerous radio, television, and newspaper reports claimed at the time that, before firing, Chapman called out \"Mr. Lennon\" and dropped into a combat stance. Later court hearings and witness interviews did not include either \"Mr. Lennon\" or the \"combat stance\" description. Chapman has said he does not remember calling out to Lennon before he fired, but he claimed to have taken a \"combat stance\" in a 1992 interview with Barbara Walters. The first bullet missed, passing over Lennon's head and hitting a window of the Dakota building. Two of the next bullets struck Lennon in the left side of his back, and two more penetrated his left shoulder.","Death of John Lennon\n\nLennon, bleeding profusely from external wounds and also from his mouth, staggered up five steps to the security/reception area, saying, \"I'm shot, I'm shot\". He then fell to the floor, scattering cassettes that he had been carrying. The concierge, Jay Hastings, first started to make a tourniquet, but upon ripping open Lennon's blood-stained shirt and realizing the severity of his multiple injuries, he covered Lennon's chest with his uniform jacket, removed his blood-covered glasses, and summoned the police.","Death of John Lennon\n\nOutside, doorman Perdomo shook the gun out of Chapman's hand then kicked it across the sidewalk. Chapman then removed his coat and hat in preparation for the arrival of police—to show he was not carrying any concealed weapons—and sat down on the sidewalk. Perdomo shouted at Chapman, \"Do you know what you've just done?\" to which Chapman calmly replied, \"Yes, I just shot John Lennon.\" The first policemen to arrive were Steven Spiro and Peter Cullen, who were at 72nd Street and Broadway when they heard a report of shots fired at the Dakota. The officers arrived around two minutes later and found Chapman sitting \"very calmly\" on the sidewalk. They reported that Chapman had dropped the revolver to the ground and was holding a paperback book, J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. They immediately put Chapman in handcuffs and placed him in the back seat of their squad car. Chapman made no attempt to flee or resist arrest.","Death of John Lennon\n\nThe second team, officers Herb Frauenberger and his partner, Tony Palma, arrived a few minutes later. They found Lennon lying face down on the floor of the reception area with Hastings attending to him, blood pouring from his mouth and his clothing already soaked with blood. Realizing the extent of his injuries, the policemen decided not to wait for an ambulance and immediately carried Lennon into their squad car and rushed him to St Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center. Officer James Moran said they placed Lennon in the back seat. Reportedly, Moran asked, \"Are you John Lennon?\" to which Lennon nodded and replied \"Yes.\" There are conflicting accounts of this, however. According to another account by officer Bill Gamble, Lennon nodded slightly and tried to speak, but could only manage to make a gurgling sound, and lost consciousness shortly thereafter.","Death of John Lennon\n\nDr. Stephan Lynn, head of the Emergency Department, who had been called in again after having just returned home after a 13-hour-long work shift, received Lennon in the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital a few minutes before 11:00 pm when Officers Frauenberger and Moran arrived, with Moran carrying Lennon on his back from their squad car and onto a gurney, into the emergency room demanding a doctor for a multiple gunshot wound victim. When Lennon arrived, he had no pulse and was not breathing. Dr. Lynn, two other doctors, a nurse and two or three other medical attendants worked on Lennon for ten to 15 minutes in a desperate attempt to resuscitate him. As a last resort, Dr. Lynn cut open Lennon's chest and attempted manual heart massage to restore circulation, but he quickly discovered that the damage to the blood vessels above and around Lennon's heart from the multiple bullet wounds was too great. Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival in the emergency room at the Roosevelt Hospital at 11:15 pm by Dr. Lynn, but the time of 11:07 pm has also been reported. Lennon's body was then taken to the city morgue at 520 First Avenue and autopsied.","Death of John Lennon\n\nThe cause of death was reported as \"hypovolemic shock, caused by the loss of more than 80% of blood volume due to multiple through-and-through gunshot wounds to the chest and aortic arch\". The pathologist who performed the autopsy on Lennon also stated in his report that even with prompt medical treatment, no person could have lived for more than a few minutes with such multiple bullet injuries to all of the major arteries and veins around the heart.","Death of John Lennon\n\nThe surgeon also noted—as did other witnesses—that, at the moment Lennon was pronounced dead, a Beatles song (\"All My Loving\") came over the hospital's sound system.","Death of John Lennon\n\nThree of the four bullets that struck Lennon's back passed completely through his body and out of his chest, one of which hit and became lodged in his upper left arm, while the fourth lodged itself in his aorta beside his heart; nearly all of them would have been fatal by themselves as each bullet hit vital arteries around the heart. As Lennon had been shot four times at close range with hollow-point bullets, Lennon's affected organs (particularly his left lung) and major blood vessels above his heart were virtually destroyed upon impact. Lynn later stated to reporters on the extent of Lennon's injuries: \"If he [Lennon] had been shot this way in the middle of the operating room with a whole team of surgeons ready to work on him... he still wouldn't have survived his injuries\".","Death of John Lennon\n\nWhen told by Dr. Lynn of her husband's death, Ono started sobbing and said, \"Oh no, no, no, no ... tell me it's not true!\" Dr. Lynn remembers that Ono lay down and began hitting her head against the floor, but calmed down when a nurse gave Lennon's wedding ring to her. She was led away from Roosevelt Hospital by Geffen Records' president, David Geffen, in a state of shock.","Death of John Lennon\n\nAnnouncements","Death of John Lennon\n\nMonday Night Football","Death of John Lennon\n\nOno asked the hospital not to report to the media that her husband was dead until she had informed their five-year-old son Sean, who was at home. Ono said he was probably watching television and did not want him to learn of his father's death from a TV announcement.","Death of John Lennon\n\nMeanwhile, news producer Alan J. Weiss from WABC-TV had been waiting to be treated in the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital due to having been involved in an accident earlier that evening while riding his motorcycle. Weiss recalled in an interview for the CNN series Crimes of the Century in 2013 that he had seen Lennon being wheeled into the room surrounded by several police officers. After he learned what happened, Weiss called back to the station to relay the information. Eventually, word made its way through the chain of command to ABC News president Roone Arledge, who was tasked with finding a way to bring this major development to the viewing audience.","Death of John Lennon\n\nWhile all of this was happening Arledge, who was also the president of the network's sports division, was presiding over ABC's telecast of Monday Night Football in his capacity as its executive producer. At the exact moment he received word of Lennon's death, the game between the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins was tied with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter and the Patriots were driving toward the potential winning score.","Death of John Lennon\n\nAs the Patriots tried to put themselves in position for a field goal, Arledge informed Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell of the shooting and suggested that they be the ones to report on the murder. Cosell, who had previously interviewed Lennon on a 1974 broadcast, was chosen to do so but was apprehensive of it at first, as he felt the game should take precedence and that it was not their place to break such a big story. Gifford convinced Cosell otherwise, saying that he should not \"hang on to (the news)\" as the significance of the event was much greater than the finish of the game.","Death of John Lennon\n\nThe following exchange begins with thirty seconds left in the fourth quarter, shortly after Gifford and Cosell were informed of what had transpired.","Death of John Lennon\n\nCosell: ... but (the game)'s suddenly been placed in total perspective for us; I'll finish this, they're in the hurry-up offense.Gifford: Third down, four. (Chuck) Foreman ... it'll be fourth down. (Matt) Cavanaugh will let it run down for one final attempt, he'll let the seconds tick off to give Miami no opportunity whatsoever. (Whistle blows.) Timeout is called with three seconds remaining, John Smith is on the line. And I don't care what's on the line, Howard, you have got to say what we know in the booth.Cosell: Yes, we have to say it. Remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous perhaps, of all of the Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that news flash, which, in duty bound, we have to take. Frank?Gifford: (after a pause) Indeed, it is.","Death of John Lennon\n\nOther announcements","Death of John Lennon\n\nIt has been claimed that the first nationally-telecast bulletin about the shooting was made by Kathleen Sullivan as part of a standard newscast on Cable News Network; Sullivan reported that Lennon had been shot but his condition was not known at the time of the bulletin. NBC-TV momentarily broke into its East Coast feed of The Best of Carson for its bulletin of Lennon's death before returning in the middle of a comedy piece being performed by Johnny Carson.","Death of John Lennon\n\nNew York rock station WNEW-FM 102.7 immediately suspended all programming and opened its lines to calls from listeners. Stations throughout the country switched to special programming devoted to Lennon and/or Beatles music.","Death of John Lennon\n\nThe following day, Ono issued a statement: \"There is no funeral for John. John loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him. Love, Yoko and Sean.\"","Death of John Lennon\n\nAftermath","Death of John Lennon\n\nLennon's murder triggered an outpouring of grief around the world on an unprecedented scale. Lennon's remains were cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, Westchester County, N.Y.; no funeral was held. Ono sent word to the chanting crowd outside the Dakota that their singing had kept her awake; she asked that they re-convene at Central Park's Naumburg Bandshell the following Sunday for ten minutes of silent prayer. On 14 December 1980, millions of people around the world responded to Ono's request to pause for ten minutes of silence to remember Lennon. Thirty thousand gathered in Liverpool, and the largest group—over 225,000—converged on New York's Central Park, close to the scene of the shooting. For those ten minutes, every radio station in New York City went off the air.","Death of John Lennon\n\nAt least three Beatles fans committed suicide after the murder, leading Ono to make a public appeal asking mourners not to give in to despair. Ono released a solo album, Season of Glass, in 1981. The cover of the album is a photograph of Lennon's blood-spattered glasses. That same year she also released \"Walking on Thin Ice\", the song the Lennons had mixed at the Record Plant less than an hour before he was murdered, as a single. Chapman pleaded guilty in 1981 to murdering Lennon. Under the terms of his guilty plea, Chapman was sentenced to 20-years-to-life and later automatically became eligible for parole up until 2000.[http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39037888/ns/today-entertainment/ John Lennon killer Chapman denied parole - Entertainment - Celebrities - TODAY.com] However, Chapman has been denied parole eight times and remains incarcerated at the Wende Correctional Facility.","Death of John Lennon\n\nMemorials and tributes","Death of John Lennon\n\nAnnie Leibovitz's photo of a naked Lennon embracing his wife, taken on the day of the murder, was the cover of Rolling Stones 22 January 1981 issue, most of which was dedicated to articles, letters and photographs commemorating Lennon's life and death. In 2005 the American Society of Magazine Editors ranked it as the top magazine cover of the last 40 years.","Death of John Lennon\n\nGeorge Harrison released a tribute song, \"All Those Years Ago\", which featured Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, in 1981. McCartney released his tribute, \"Here Today\", on his 1982 album, Tug of War. Elton John, who had recorded the number-one hit \"Whatever Gets You thru the Night\" with Lennon, teamed up with his lyricist Bernie Taupin and recorded a tribute to Lennon, entitled \"Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny).\" It appeared on his 1982 album, Jump Up!, and peaked at #13 on the US Singles Chart that year. When he performed the song at a sold-out concert in Madison Square Garden in August 1982, he was joined on stage by Ono and Sean. Queen, during their Game Tour, performed a cover of Lennon's solo song \"Imagine\" at concerts after Lennon's death. Queen also performed the song \"Life Is Real\", from the album Hot Space (1982), in his honour. It was written by singer Freddie Mercury.","Death of John Lennon\n\nRoxy Music added a cover version of the song \"Jealous Guy\" to their set while touring in Germany, which they recorded and released in March 1981. The song was their only UK #1 hit, topping the charts for two weeks. It features on many Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music collections, though not always in its full-length version.","Death of John Lennon\n\nPaul Simon's homage to Lennon, \"The Late Great Johnny Ace\", initially sings of the rhythm and blues singer Johnny Ace, who is said to have shot himself in 1954, then goes on to reference John Lennon, as well as President John F. Kennedy who was assassinated in 1963, the year Beatlemania started. Simon had actually premiered the song during Simon & Garfunkel's reunion Concert in Central Park in 1981; near the end of the song, a fan ran onto the stage, possibly in response to Simon mentioning Lennon in the lyrics. The man was dragged offstage by Simon's personnel, saying to Simon, \"I have to talk to you\"; all of which can be seen in the DVD of the concert. The song also appears on Simon's 1983 Hearts and Bones album.","Death of John Lennon\n\nDavid Bowie, who befriended Lennon in the mid-1970s (Lennon co-wrote and performed on Bowie's US #1 hit \"Fame\" in 1975), performed a tribute to Lennon in the final show of his Serious Moonlight Tour at the Hong Kong Coliseum on 8 December 1983—the third anniversary of Lennon's death. Bowie announced that the last time he saw Lennon was in Hong Kong, and after announcing \"On this day, December the 8th 1980, John Lennon was shot and killed outside of his New York apartment,\" he performed Lennon's \"Imagine\".","Death of John Lennon\n\nDavid Gilmour of Pink Floyd wrote and recorded the song \"Murder\" in response to Lennon's death; the song was released on Gilmour's solo album, About Face (1984).","Death of John Lennon\n\nIn 1985, New York City dedicated an area of Central Park directly across from the Dakota as Strawberry Fields, where Lennon had frequently walked. In a symbolic show of unity, countries from around the world donated trees and the city of Naples, Italy, donated the Imagine mosaic centerpiece. A symbolic grave for Lennon was erected in Prague's Mala Strana square, which hosted demonstrations during the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.","Death of John Lennon\n\nLennon was honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991. In 1994, the breakaway autonomous republic of Georgia, Republic of Abkhazia, issued two postage stamps featuring the faces of Lennon and Groucho Marx, rather than portraits of Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx, spoofing Abkhazia's Communist past. On 8 December 2000, Cuba's President Fidel Castro unveiled a bronze statue of Lennon in a park in Havana. In 2000, the John Lennon Museum was opened at the Saitama Super Arena in the city of Saitama, Japan (but closed on 30 September 2010), and Liverpool renamed its airport Liverpool John Lennon Airport, adopting the motto, \"Above us only sky\", in 2002. The minor planet 4147 Lennon, discovered 12 January 1983 by B. A. Skiff at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory, was named in memory of Lennon. On 9 December 2006, in the city of Puebla, Mexico, a plaque was revealed, honouring Lennon's contribution to music, culture and peace. On 9 October 2007, Ono dedicated a new memorial called the Imagine Peace Tower, located on the island of Viðey, off the coast of Reykjavík, Iceland.","Death of John Lennon\n\nEach year, between 9 October and 8 December, it projects a vertical beam of light high into the sky in Lennon's memory. In 1990 a group of citizens came forward with an initiative to rename one of the streets of Warsaw in honour of John Lennon. The petition had approximately 5000 supporting signatures and passed through city council unchallenged.","Death of John Lennon\n\nEvery 8 December a memorial ceremony is held in front of the Capitol Records building on Vine Street in Hollywood, California. People also light candles in front of Lennon's Hollywood Walk of Fame star, outside the Capitol Building. From 28 to 30 September 2007, Durness held the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival which was attended by Julia Baird (Lennon's half-sister), who read from Lennon's writings and her own books, and Stanley Parkes, Lennon's Scottish cousin. Parkes said, \"Me and Julia [Baird] are going to be going to the old family croft to tell stories\". Musicians, painters and poets from across the UK performed at the festival.","Death of John Lennon\n\nIn 2009, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's New York City annexe hosted a special John Lennon exhibit, which included many mementos and personal effects from Lennon's life, as well as the clothes he was wearing when he was murdered, still in the brown paper bag from Roosevelt Hospital. Ono still places a lit candle in the window of Lennon's room in the Dakota on 8 December. In 2012, Bob Dylan released the Lennon tribute \"Roll on John\" on his Tempest album.","Death of John Lennon\n\nOn film","Death of John Lennon\n\nTwo films depicting the murder of Lennon were released close together more than 25 years after the event. The first of the two, The Killing of John Lennon, was released on 7 December 2007. Directed by Andrew Piddington, the movie had Jonas Ball play Mark David Chapman. The second film was Chapter 27, released on 28 March 2008. Directed by J. P. Schaefer, Mark David Chapman was played by Jared Leto. Lennon was portrayed by actor Mark Lindsay Chapman, who coincidentally has the same first and last name as the person who killed Lennon. Lindsay Chapman had previously been cast (and billed then as 'Mark Lindsay') in NBC Television's John & Yoko: A Love Story in 1985, but the role of Lennon was re-cast when it was revealed that the actor's real surname was Chapman."],"string":"[\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nJerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American writer who won acclaim early in life. He led a very private life for more than a half-century. He published his final original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nSalinger was raised in Manhattan and began writing short stories while in secondary school. Several were published in Story magazine in the early 1940s before he began serving in World War II. In 1948, his critically acclaimed story \\\"A Perfect Day for Bananafish\\\" appeared in The New Yorker magazine, which became home to much of his later work. In 1951, his novel The Catcher in the Rye was an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield was influential, especially among adolescent readers. The novel remains widely read and controversial, selling around 250,000 copies a year.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nThe success of The Catcher in the Rye led to public attention and scrutiny. Salinger became reclusive, publishing new work less frequently. He followed Catcher with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953); a volume containing a novella and a short story, Franny and Zooey (1961); and a volume containing two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled \\\"Hapworth 16, 1924\\\", appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nAfterward, Salinger struggled with unwanted attention, including a legal battle in the 1980s with biographer Ian Hamilton and the release in the late 1990s of memoirs written by two people close to him: Joyce Maynard, an ex-lover; and Margaret Salinger, his daughter. In 1996, a small publisher announced a deal with Salinger to publish \\\"Hapworth 16, 1924\\\" in book form, but amid the ensuing publicity the release was indefinitely delayed. He made headlines around the globe in June 2009 when he filed a lawsuit against another writer for copyright infringement resulting from that writer's use of one of the characters from The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger died of natural causes on January 27, 2010, at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. In November 2013, three unpublished stories by Salinger were briefly posted online. One of the stories, \\\"The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls\\\", is said to be a prequel to The Catcher in the Rye.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nEarly life and experiences\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nJerome David Salinger was born in New York City, on New Year's Day, 1919. His father, Sol Salinger, sold kosher cheese, and was from a Jewish family of Lithuanian descent, his father having been the rabbi for the Adath Jeshurun congregation in Louisville, Kentucky. Salinger's mother, Marie (née Jillich), was born in Atlantic, Iowa, of Scottish, German, and Irish descent, but changed her name to Miriam and considered herself Jewish after marrying Salinger's father. Salinger did not learn that his mother was not of Jewish ancestry until just after he celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah. His only sibling was his older sister Doris (1911–2001).\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn youth, Salinger attended public schools on the West Side of Manhattan. Then in 1932, the family moved to Park Avenue, and Salinger was enrolled at the McBurney School, a nearby private school. At McBurney, he managed the fencing team, wrote for the school newspaper and appeared in plays. He \\\"showed an innate talent for drama\\\", though his father opposed the idea of J.D.'s becoming an actor. \\n Salinger had trouble fitting in at his new school and took measures to conform, such as calling himself Jerry. (His family called him Sonny. )\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nHis parents then enrolled him at Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Salinger began writing stories \\\"under the covers [at night], with the aid of a flashlight\\\". Salinger was the literary editor of the class yearbook, Cross Sabres. He also participated in the Glee Club, Aviation Club, French Club, and the Non-Commissioned Officers Club. Salinger's Valley Forge 201 file reveals that he was a \\\"mediocre\\\" student, and unlike the overachievement enjoyed by members of the Glass family he would go on to write about, his recorded IQ was far from that of a genius. He graduated in 1936.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nSalinger started his freshman year at New York University in 1936. He considered studying special education but dropped out the following spring. That fall, his father urged him to learn about the meat-importing business, and he went to work at a company in Vienna, Austria. He left Austria one month before it was annexed by Nazi Germany on March 12, 1938.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn the fall of 1938, Salinger attended Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and wrote a column called \\\"skipped diploma\\\", which included movie reviews. He dropped out after one semester.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn 1939, Salinger attended a Columbia University School of General Studies evening writing class taught by Whit Burnett, longtime editor of Story magazine. According to Burnett, Salinger did not distinguish himself until a few weeks before the end of the second semester, at which point \\\"he suddenly came to life\\\" and completed three stories. Burnett told Salinger that his stories were skillful and accomplished, accepting \\\"The Young Folks\\\", a vignette about several aimless youths, for publication in Story. Salinger's debut short story was published in the magazine's March–April 1940 issue. Burnett became Salinger's mentor, and they corresponded for several years.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nWorld War II\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn 1942, Salinger started dating Oona O'Neill, daughter of the playwright Eugene O'Neill. Despite finding the debutante self-absorbed (he confided to a friend that \\\"Little Oona's hopelessly in love with little Oona\\\"), he called her often and wrote her long letters. Their relationship ended when Oona began seeing Charlie Chaplin, whom she eventually married. In late 1941, Salinger briefly worked on a Caribbean cruise ship, serving as an activity director and possibly as a performer.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nThe same year, Salinger began submitting short stories to The New Yorker. Seven of Salinger's stories were rejected by the magazine that year, including \\\"Lunch for Three\\\", \\\"Monologue for a Watery Highball\\\", and \\\"I Went to School with Adolf Hitler\\\". In December 1941, however, the publication accepted \\\"Slight Rebellion off Madison\\\", a Manhattan-set story about a disaffected teenager named Holden Caulfield with \\\"pre-war jitters\\\". When Japan carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor that month, the story was rendered \\\"unpublishable\\\"; it did not appear in the magazine until 1946. In the spring of 1942, several months after the United States entered World War II, Salinger was drafted into the army, wherein he saw combat with the 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. He was present at Utah Beach on D-Day, in the Battle of the Bulge, and the Battle of Hürtgen Forest.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nDuring the campaign from Normandy into Germany, Salinger arranged to meet with Ernest Hemingway, a writer who had influenced him and was then working as a war correspondent in Paris. Salinger was impressed with Hemingway's friendliness and modesty, finding him more \\\"soft\\\" than his gruff public persona. Hemingway was impressed by Salinger's writing and remarked: \\\"Jesus, he has a helluva talent.\\\" The two writers began corresponding; Salinger wrote Hemingway in July 1946 that their talks were among his few positive memories of the war. Salinger added that he was working on a play about Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of his story \\\"Slight Rebellion off Madison\\\", and hoped to play the part himself.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nSalinger was assigned to a counter-intelligence division, for which he used his proficiency in French and German to interrogate prisoners of war. In April 1945 he entered a liberated concentration camp, probably one of Dachau's sub-camps. Salinger earned the rank of Staff Sergeant and served in five campaigns. Salinger's experiences in the war affected him emotionally. He was hospitalized for a few weeks for combat stress reaction after Germany was defeated, and he later told his daughter: \\\"You never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live.\\\" Both of his biographers speculate that Salinger drew upon his wartime experiences in several stories, such as \\\"For Esmé—with Love and Squalor\\\", which is narrated by a traumatized soldier. Salinger continued to write while serving in the army, publishing several stories in slick magazines such as Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post. He also continued to submit stories to The New Yorker, but with little success; it rejected all of his submissions from 1944 to 1946, a group of 15 poems in 1945 alone.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nPost-war years\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nAfter Germany's defeat, Salinger signed up for a six-month period of \\\"Denazification\\\" duty in Germany for the Counterintelligence Corps. He lived in Weissenburg and, soon after, married Sylvia Welter. He brought her to the United States in April 1946, but the marriage fell apart after eight months and Sylvia returned to Germany. In 1972, Salinger's daughter Margaret was with him when he received a letter from Sylvia. He looked at the envelope, and without reading it, tore it apart. It was the first time he had heard from her since the breakup, but as Margaret put it, \\\"when he was finished with a person, he was through with them.\\\"\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn 1946, Whit Burnett agreed to help Salinger publish a collection of his short stories through Story Press's Lippincott Imprint. Titled The Young Folks, the collection was to consist of twenty stories—ten, like the title story and \\\"Slight Rebellion off Madison\\\", were already in print; ten were previously unpublished. Though Burnett implied the book would be published and even negotiated Salinger a $1,000 advance on its sale, Lippincott overruled Burnett and rejected the book. Salinger blamed Burnett for the book's failure to see print, and the two became estranged.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nBy the late 1940s, Salinger had become an avid follower of Zen Buddhism, to the point that he \\\"gave reading lists on the subject to his dates\\\" and arranged a meeting with Buddhist scholar D. T. Suzuki.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn 1947, the author submitted a short story titled simply \\\"The Bananafish\\\" to The New Yorker. William Maxwell, the magazine's fiction editor, was impressed enough with \\\"the singular quality of the story\\\" that the magazine asked Salinger to continue revising it. He spent a year reworking it with New Yorker editors and the magazine accepted the story, now titled \\\"A Perfect Day for Bananafish\\\", and published it in the January 31, 1948 issue. The magazine thereon offered Salinger a \\\"first-look\\\" contract that allowed them right of first refusal on any future stories. The critical acclaim accorded \\\"Bananafish\\\", coupled with problems Salinger had with stories being altered by the \\\"slicks\\\", led him to publish almost exclusively in The New Yorker. \\\"Bananafish\\\" was also the first of Salinger's published stories to feature the Glasses, a fictional family consisting of two retired vaudeville performers and their seven precocious children: Seymour, Buddy, Boo Boo, Walt, Waker, Zooey, and Franny. Salinger eventually published seven stories about the Glasses, developing a detailed family history and focusing particularly on Seymour, the brilliant but troubled eldest child.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn the early 1940s, Salinger had confided in a letter to Whit Burnett that he was eager to sell the film rights to some of his stories in order to achieve financial security. According to Ian Hamilton, Salinger was disappointed when \\\"rumblings from Hollywood\\\" over his 1943 short story \\\"The Varioni Brothers\\\" came to nothing. Therefore, he immediately agreed when, in mid-1948, independent film producer Samuel Goldwyn offered to buy the film rights to his short story \\\"Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut\\\". Though Salinger sold his story with the hope—in the words of his agent Dorothy Olding—that it \\\"would make a good movie\\\", the film version of \\\"Wiggily\\\" was lambasted by critics upon its release in 1949. Renamed My Foolish Heart and starring Dana Andrews and Susan Hayward, the melodramatic film departed to such an extent from Salinger's story that Goldwyn biographer A. Scott Berg referred to it as a \\\"bastardization\\\". As a result of this experience, Salinger never again permitted film adaptations to be made from his work.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nWhen Brigitte Bardot wanted to buy the rights to \\\"A Perfect Day for Bananafish\\\", Salinger refused the request, but told his friend, Lillian Ross, longtime staff writer for The New Yorker, \\\"She's a cute, talented, lost enfante, and I'm tempted to accommodate her, pour le sport.\\\"\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nThe Catcher in the Rye\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn the 1940s, Salinger confided to several people that he was working on a novel featuring Holden Caulfield, the teenage protagonist of his short story \\\"Slight Rebellion off Madison\\\", and The Catcher in the Rye was published on July 16, 1951, by Little, Brown and Company. The novel's plot is simple, detailing 16-year-old Holden's experiences in New York City following his expulsion and departure from an elite college preparatory school. Not only was he expelled from his current school, he had also been expelled from three previous schools. The book is more notable for the persona and testimonial voice of its first-person narrator, Holden. He serves as an insightful but unreliable narrator who expounds on the importance of loyalty, the \\\"phoniness\\\" of adulthood, and his own duplicity. In a 1953 interview with a high school newspaper, Salinger admitted that the novel was \\\"sort of\\\" autobiographical, explaining, \\\"My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book ... [I]t was a great relief telling people about it.\\\"\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nInitial reactions to the book were mixed, ranging from The New York Times hailing Catcher as \\\"an unusually brilliant first novel\\\" to denigrations of the book's monotonous language and the \\\"immorality and perversion\\\" of Holden, who uses religious slurs and freely discusses casual sex and prostitution. The novel was a popular success; within two months of its publication, The Catcher in the Rye had been reprinted eight times. It spent 30 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nThe book's initial success was followed by a brief lull in popularity, but by the late 1950s, according to Ian Hamilton, it had \\\"become the book all brooding adolescents had to buy, the indispensable manual from which cool styles of disaffectation could be borrowed.\\\" It has been compared to Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Newspapers began publishing articles about the \\\"Catcher Cult\\\", and the novel was banned in several countries—as well as some U.S. schools—because of its subject matter and what Catholic World reviewer Riley Hughes called an \\\"excessive use of amateur swearing and coarse language\\\". According to one angry parent's tabulation, 237 instances of \\\"goddamn,\\\" 58 uses of the synonym for a person of illegitimate birth, 31 \\\"Chrissakes,\\\"and one incident of flatulence constituted what was wrong with Salinger's book.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn the 1970s, several U.S. high school teachers who assigned the book were fired or forced to resign. A 1979 study of censorship noted that The Catcher in the Rye \\\"had the dubious distinction of being at once the most frequently censored book across the nation and the second-most frequently taught novel in public high schools\\\" (after John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men). The book remains widely read; in 2004, the novel was selling about 250,000 copies per year, \\\"with total worldwide sales over 10 million copies\\\".\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn the wake of its 1950s success, Salinger received (and rejected) numerous offers to adapt The Catcher in the Rye for the screen, including one from Samuel Goldwyn. Since its publication, there has been sustained interest in the novel among filmmakers, with Billy Wilder, Harvey Weinstein, and Steven Spielberg among those seeking to secure the rights. Salinger stated in the 1970s that \\\"Jerry Lewis tried for years to get his hands on the part of Holden.\\\" Salinger repeatedly refused, though, and in 1999, Joyce Maynard definitively concluded: \\\"The only person who might ever have played Holden Caulfield would have been J. D. Salinger.\\\"\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nWriting in the 1950s and move to Cornish\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn a July 1951 profile in Book of the Month Club News, Salinger's friend and New Yorker editor William Maxwell asked Salinger about his literary influences. Salinger responded: \\\"A writer, when he's asked to discuss his craft, ought to get up and call out in a loud voice just the names of the writers he loves. I love Kafka, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Proust, O'Casey, Rilke, Lorca, Keats, Rimbaud, Burns, E. Brontë, Jane Austen, Henry James, Blake, Coleridge. I won't name any living writers. I don't think it's right.\\\" In letters written in the 1940s, Salinger had expressed his admiration of three living, or recently deceased, writers: Sherwood Anderson, Ring Lardner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald; Ian Hamilton wrote that Salinger even saw himself for some time as \\\"Fitzgerald's successor\\\". Salinger's \\\"A Perfect Day for Bananafish\\\" has an ending similar to that of Fitzgerald's earlier published short story \\\"May Day\\\".\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nSalinger wrote friends of a momentous change in his life in 1952, after several years of practicing Zen Buddhism, while reading The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna about Hindu religious teacher Sri Ramakrishna. He became an adherent of Ramakrishna's Advaita Vedanta Hinduism, which advocated celibacy for those seeking enlightenment, and detachment from human responsibilities such as family. Salinger's religious studies were reflected in some of his writing. The story \\\"Teddy\\\" features a ten-year-old child who expresses Vedantic insights. He also studied the writings of Ramakrishna's disciple Vivekananda; in the story \\\"Hapworth 16, 1924\\\", the character of Seymour Glass describes him as \\\"one of the most exciting, original and best-equipped giants of this century.\\\"\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn 1953, Salinger published a collection of seven stories from The New Yorker (\\\"Bananafish\\\" among them), as well as two that the magazine had rejected. The collection was published as Nine Stories in the United States, and \\\"For Esmé—with Love and Squalor\\\" in the UK, after one of Salinger's best-known stories. The book received grudgingly positive reviews, and was a financial success—\\\"remarkably so for a volume of short stories\\\", according to Hamilton. Nine Stories spent three months on the New York Times Bestseller list. Already tightening his grip on publicity, though, Salinger refused to allow publishers of the collection to depict his characters in dust jacket illustrations, lest readers form preconceived notions of them.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nAs the notoriety of The Catcher in the Rye grew, Salinger gradually withdrew from public view. In 1953, he moved from an apartment at\\n300 East 57th Street, New York, to Cornish, New Hampshire. Early in his time at Cornish he was relatively sociable, particularly with students at Windsor High School. Salinger invited them to his house frequently to play records and talk about problems at school. One such student, Shirley Blaney, persuaded Salinger to be interviewed for the high school page of The Daily Eagle, the city paper. Nonetheless, after Blaney's interview appeared prominently in the newspaper's editorial section, Salinger cut off all contact with the high schoolers without explanation. He was also seen less frequently around town, meeting only one close friend—jurist Learned Hand—with any regularity. He also began to publish with less frequency. After the 1953 publication of Nine Stories, he published only four stories through the rest of the decade; two in 1955 and one each in 1957 and 1959.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nMarriage and family\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn February 1955, at the age of 36, Salinger married Claire Douglas, a Radcliffe student (her father was the art critic Robert Langton Douglas). They had two children, Margaret (b. December 10, 1955) and Matthew (b. February 13, 1960). Margaret Salinger wrote in her memoir Dream Catcher that she believes her parents would not have married, nor would she have been born, had her father not read the teachings of Lahiri Mahasaya, a guru of Paramahansa Yogananda, which brought the possibility of enlightenment to those following the path of the \\\"householder\\\" (a married person with children). After their marriage, J.D. and Claire were initiated into the path of Kriya yoga in a small store-front Hindu temple in Washington, D.C., during the summer of 1955. They received a mantra and breathing exercises to practice for ten minutes twice a day.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nSalinger also insisted that Claire drop out of school and live with him, only four months shy of graduation, which she did. Certain elements of the story \\\"Franny\\\", published in January 1955, are based on his relationship with Claire, including her ownership of the book The Way of the Pilgrim. Because of their isolated location and Salinger's proclivities, they hardly saw other people for long stretches of time. Claire was also frustrated by Salinger's ever-changing religious beliefs. Though she committed herself to Kriya yoga, she remembered that Salinger would chronically leave Cornish to work on a story \\\"for several weeks only to return with the piece he was supposed to be finishing all undone or destroyed and some new 'ism' we had to follow.\\\" Claire believed \\\"it was to cover the fact that Jerry had just destroyed or junked or couldn't face the quality of, or couldn't face publishing, what he had created.\\\"\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nAfter abandoning Kriya yoga, Salinger tried Dianetics (the forerunner of Scientology), even meeting its founder L. Ron Hubbard, but according to Claire he was quickly disenchanted with it. This was followed by an adherence to a number of spiritual, medical, and nutritional belief systems including an interest in Christian Science, Edgar Cayce, homeopathy, acupuncture, and macrobiotics.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nSalinger's family life was further marked by discord after the first child was born; according to Margaret's book, Claire felt that her daughter had replaced her in Salinger's affections. The infant Margaret was sick much of the time, but Salinger, having embraced the tenets of Christian Science, refused to take her to a doctor. According to Margaret, her mother admitted to her years later that she went \\\"over the edge\\\" in the winter of 1957 and had made plans to murder her and then commit suicide. Claire had supposedly intended to do it during a trip to New York City with Salinger, but she instead acted on a sudden impulse to take Margaret from the hotel and run away. After a few months, Salinger persuaded her to return to Cornish.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nLast publications and Maynard relationship\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nSalinger published Franny and Zooey in 1961, and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction in 1963. Each book contained two short stories or novellas, previously published in The New Yorker, about members of the Glass family. These four stories were originally published between 1955 and 1959, and were the only ones Salinger had published since Nine Stories. On the dust jacket of Franny and Zooey, Salinger wrote, in reference to his interest in privacy: \\\"It is my rather subversive opinion that a writer's feelings of anonymity-obscurity are the second most valuable property on loan to him during his working years.\\\"\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nOn September 15, 1961, Time magazine devoted its cover to Salinger. In an article that profiled his \\\"life of recluse\\\", the magazine reported that the Glass family series \\\"is nowhere near completion ... Salinger intends to write a Glass trilogy.\\\" Nonetheless, Salinger published only one other story after that: \\\"Hapworth 16, 1924\\\", a novella in the form of a long letter from seven-year-old Seymour Glass while at summer camp. His first new work in six years, the novella took up most of the June 19, 1965, issue of The New Yorker, and was universally critically panned. Around this time, Salinger had isolated Claire from friends and relatives and made her—in the words of Margaret Salinger—\\\"a virtual prisoner\\\". Claire separated from him in September 1966; their divorce was finalized on October 3, 1967.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn 1972, at the age of 53, Salinger had a relationship with 18-year-old Joyce Maynard that lasted for nine months. Maynard, at this time, was already an experienced writer for Seventeen magazine. The New York Times had asked Maynard to write an article for them which, when published as \\\"An Eighteen-Year-Old Looks Back On Life\\\" on April 23, 1972, made her a celebrity. Salinger wrote a letter to her warning about living with fame. After exchanging 25 letters, Maynard moved in with Salinger the summer after her freshman year at Yale University. Maynard did not return to Yale that fall, and spent ten months as a guest in Salinger's Cornish home. The relationship ended, he told his daughter Margaret at a family outing, because Maynard wanted children, and he felt he was too old. Nevertheless, in her own autobiography, Maynard paints a different picture, saying Salinger abruptly ended the relationship and refused to take her back. She had dropped out of Yale to be with him, even forgoing a scholarship. Maynard later writes in her own memoir how she came to find out that Salinger had begun relationships with young women by exchanging letters.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nOne of those letter recipients included Salinger's last wife, a nurse who was already engaged to be married to someone else when she met the author.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nWhile he was living with Maynard, Salinger continued to write in a disciplined fashion, a few hours every morning. According to Maynard, by 1972 he had completed two new novels. In a rare 1974 interview with The New York Times, he explained: \\\"There is a marvelous peace in not publishing ... I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.\\\" According to Maynard, he saw publication as \\\"a damned interruption\\\". In her memoir, Margaret Salinger describes the detailed filing system her father had for his unpublished manuscripts: \\\"A red mark meant, if I die before I finish my work, publish this 'as is,' blue meant publish but edit first, and so on.\\\" A neighbor said that Salinger told him that he had written 15 unpublished novels.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nSalinger's final interview was in June 1980 with Betty Eppes of The Baton Rouge Advocate, which has been represented somewhat differently, depending on the secondary source. By one account, Eppes was an attractive young woman who misrepresented herself as an aspiring novelist, and managed to record audio of the interview as well as take several photographs of Salinger, both without his knowledge or consent. In a separate account, emphasis is placed on her contact by letter writing from the local Post Office, and Salinger's personal initiative to cross the bridge to meet with the woman, who in the course of the interview made clear she was a reporter (and who did indeed, at the close, take pictures of Salinger as he departed). According to the first account, the interview ended \\\"disastrously\\\" when a local passer-by from Cornish attempted to shake the famous author's hand, at which point Salinger became enraged. A further account of the interview published later in The Paris Review, purportedly by Eppes as author, has been disowned by Eppes and separately ascribed as a derived work of Review Editor George Plimpton.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nLegal conflicts\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nAlthough Salinger tried to escape public exposure as much as possible, he continued to struggle with unwanted attention from both the media and the public. Readers of his work and students from nearby Dartmouth College often came to Cornish in groups, hoping to catch a glimpse of him. In May 1986 Salinger learned that the British writer Ian Hamilton intended to publish a biography that made extensive use of letters Salinger had written to other authors and friends. Salinger sued to stop the book's publication. The court in Salinger v. Random House ruled that Hamilton's extensive use of the letters, including quotation and paraphrasing, was not acceptable since the author's right to control publication overrode the right of fair use.\\nThe book was not published. \\nLater, Hamilton published In Search of J.D. Salinger: A Writing Life (1935–65), but this book was more about his experience in tracking down information and the copyright fights over the planned biography than about Salinger himself.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nAn unintended consequence of the lawsuit was that many details of Salinger's private life, including that he had spent the last twenty years writing, in his words, \\\"Just a work of fiction ... That's all\\\", became public in the form of court transcripts. Excerpts from his letters were also widely disseminated, most notably a bitter remark written in response to Oona O'Neill's marriage to Charlie Chaplin:\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nSalinger was romantically involved with television actress Elaine Joyce for several years in the 1980s. The relationship ended when he met Colleen O'Neill (b. June 11, 1959), a nurse and quiltmaker, whom he married around 1988. O'Neill, forty years his junior, once told Margaret Salinger that she and Salinger were trying to have a child.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn 1995, Iranian director Dariush Mehrjui released the film Pari, an unauthorized and loose adaptation of Salinger's Franny and Zooey. Though the film could be distributed legally in Iran since the country has no official copyright relations with the United States, Salinger had his lawyers block a planned screening of the film at the Lincoln Center in 1998. Mehrjui called Salinger's action \\\"bewildering\\\", explaining that he saw his film as \\\"a kind of cultural exchange\\\".\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn 1996, Salinger gave a small publisher, Orchises Press, permission to publish \\\"Hapworth 16, 1924\\\", the previously uncollected novella. It was to be published that year, and listings for it appeared at Amazon.com and other book-sellers. After a flurry of articles and critical reviews of the story appeared in the press, the publication date was pushed back repeatedly before apparently being cancelled altogether. Amazon anticipated that Orchises would publish the story in January 2009, but at the time of his death it was still listed as \\\"currently unavailable\\\".\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn June 2009, Salinger consulted lawyers about the upcoming publication in the US of an unauthorized sequel to The Catcher in the Rye written by Swedish book publisher Fredrik Colting under the pseudonym 'J. D. California'. California's book is called 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, and appears to pick up the story of Salinger's protagonist Holden Caulfield. In Salinger's novel, Caulfield is 17 years old, wandering the streets of New York after being expelled from his private school; the California book features a 76-year-old man, \\\"Mr. C\\\", musing on having escaped his nursing home. Salinger's New York literary agent Phyllis Westberg told Britain's Sunday Telegraph: \\\"The matter has been turned over to a lawyer\\\". The fact that little was known about Colting and the book was set to be published by a new publishing imprint called 'Windupbird Publishing' gave rise to speculation in literary circles that the whole thing might be a stunt. District court judge Deborah A. Batts issued an injunction which prevents the book from being published within the U.S. The book's author filed an appeal on July 23, 2009; it was heard in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on September 3, 2009.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nThe case was settled in 2011 when Colting agreed not to publish or otherwise distribute the book, e-book, or any other editions of 60 Years Later in the U.S. or Canada until The Catcher in the Rye enters the public domain, while also refraining from using the title \\\"Coming through the Rye\\\", dedicating the book to Salinger or referring to the title \\\"The Catcher in the Rye\\\", while Colting remains free to sell the book in other international territories without fear of interference.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nLater publicity\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nOn October 23, 1992, The New York Times reported], \\\"Not even a fire that consumed at least half his home on Tuesday could smoke out the reclusive J. D. Salinger, author of the classic novel of adolescent rebellion, 'The Catcher in the Rye.' Mr. Salinger is almost equally famous for having elevated privacy to an art form.\\\"\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn 1999, 25 years after the end of their relationship, Joyce Maynard auctioned a series of letters Salinger had written her. Maynard's memoir of her life and her relationship with Salinger, At Home in the World: A Memoir, was published the same year. Among other topics, the book described how Maynard's mother had consulted with her on how to appeal to the aging author (who was dressing like a child), and described Joyce's relationship with him at length. In the ensuing controversy over both the memoir and the letters, Maynard claimed that she was forced to auction the letters for financial reasons; she would have preferred to donate them to the Beinecke Library. Software developer Peter Norton bought the letters for US$156,500 and announced his intention to return them to Salinger.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nA year later, Salinger's daughter Margaret, by his second wife Claire Douglas, published Dream Catcher: A Memoir. In her book, she described the harrowing control that Salinger had over her mother and dispelled many of the Salinger myths established by Ian Hamilton's book. One of Hamilton's arguments was that Salinger's experience with post-traumatic stress disorder left him psychologically scarred, and that he was unable to deal with the traumatic nature of his war service. Salinger allowed that \\\"the few men who lived through Bloody Mortain, a battle in which her father fought, were left with much to sicken them, body and soul\\\", but she also painted a picture of her father as a man immensely proud of his service record, maintaining his military haircut and service jacket, and moving about his compound (and town) in an old Jeep.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nBoth Margaret Salinger and Maynard characterized the author as a devoted film buff. According to Margaret, his favorite movies include Gigi (1958), The Lady Vanishes (1938), The 39 Steps (1935; Phoebe's favorite movie in The Catcher in the Rye), and the comedies of W.C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, and the Marx Bros.. Predating VCRs, Salinger had an extensive collection of classic movies from the 1940s in 16 mm prints. Maynard wrote that \\\"he loves movies, not films\\\", and Salinger argued that her father's \\\"worldview is, essentially, a product of the movies of his day. To my father, all Spanish speakers are Puerto Rican washerwomen, or the toothless, grinning-gypsy types in a Marx Brothers movie\\\". Lillian Ross, a staff writer for The New Yorker and longtime friend of Salinger's, wrote following his death, \\\"Salinger loved movies, and he was more fun than anyone to discuss them with. He enjoyed watching actors work, and he enjoyed knowing them. (He loved Anne Bancroft, hated Audrey Hepburn, and said that he had seen Grand Illusion ten times.)\\\"\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nMargaret also offered many insights into other Salinger myths, including her father's supposed long-time interest in macrobiotics, and involvement with \\\"alternative medicine\\\" and Eastern philosophies. A few weeks after Dream Catcher was published, Margaret's brother Matt discredited the memoir in a letter to The New York Observer. He disparaged his sister's \\\"gothic tales of our supposed childhood\\\" and stated: \\\"I can't say with any authority that she is consciously making anything up. I just know that I grew up in a very different house, with two very different parents from those my sister describes.\\\"\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nDeath\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nSalinger died of natural causes at his home in New Hampshire on January 27, 2010. He was 91. Salinger's literary representative told The New York Times that the writer had broken his hip in May 2009, but that \\\"his health had been excellent until a rather sudden decline after the new year.\\\" The representative believed that Salinger's death was not a painful one. His third wife and widow, Colleen O'Neill Zakrzeski Salinger, and Salinger's son Matt became the executors of his estate.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nLiterary style and themes\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn a contributor's note Salinger gave to Harper's Magazine in 1946, he wrote: \\\"I almost always write about very young people\\\", a statement that has been referred to as his credo. Adolescents are featured or appear in all of Salinger's work, from his first published short story, \\\"The Young Folks\\\" (1940), to The Catcher in the Rye and his Glass family stories. In 1961, the critic Alfred Kazin explained that Salinger's choice of teenagers as a subject matter was one reason for his appeal to young readers, but another was \\\"a consciousness [among youths] that he speaks for them and virtually to them, in a language that is peculiarly honest and their own, with a vision of things that capture their most secret judgments of the world.\\\" For this reason, Norman Mailer once remarked that Salinger was \\\"the greatest mind ever to stay in prep school\\\". Salinger's language, especially his energetic, realistically sparse dialogue, was revolutionary at the time his first stories were published and was seen by several critics as \\\"the most distinguishing thing\\\" about his work.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nSalinger identified closely with his characters, and used techniques such as interior monologue, letters, and extended telephone calls to display his gift for dialogue. Such style elements also \\\"[gave] him the illusion of having, as it were, delivered his characters' destinies into their own keeping.\\\" Recurring themes in Salinger's stories also connect to the ideas of innocence and adolescence, including the \\\"corrupting influence of Hollywood and the world at large\\\", the disconnect between teenagers and \\\"phony\\\" adults, and the perceptive, precocious intelligence of children.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nContemporary critics discuss a clear progression over the course of Salinger's published work, as evidenced by the increasingly negative reviews received by each of his three post-Catcher story collections. Ian Hamilton adheres to this view, arguing that while Salinger's early stories for the \\\"slicks\\\" boasted \\\"tight, energetic\\\" dialogue, they had also been formulaic and sentimental. It took the standards of The New Yorker editors, among them William Shawn, to refine his writing into the \\\"spare, teasingly mysterious, withheld\\\" qualities of \\\"A Perfect Day for Bananafish\\\" (1948), The Catcher in the Rye, and his stories of the early 1950s. By the late 1950s, as Salinger became more reclusive and involved in religious study, Hamilton notes that his stories became longer, less plot-driven, and increasingly filled with digression and parenthetical remarks. Louis Menand agrees, writing in The New Yorker that Salinger \\\"stopped writing stories, in the conventional sense ...\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nHe seemed to lose interest in fiction as an art form—perhaps he thought there was something manipulative or inauthentic about literary device and authorial control.\\\" In recent years, some critics have defended certain post-Nine Stories works by Salinger; in 2001, Janet Malcolm wrote in The New York Review of Books that \\\"Zooey\\\" \\\"is arguably Salinger's masterpiece ... Rereading it and its companion piece \\\"Franny\\\" is no less rewarding than rereading The Great Gatsby.\\\"\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nInfluence\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nSalinger's writing has influenced several prominent writers, prompting Harold Brodkey (himself an O. Henry Award-winning author) to state in 1991: \\\"His is the most influential body of work in English prose by anyone since Hemingway.\\\" Of the writers in Salinger's generation, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist John Updike attested that \\\"the short stories of J. D. Salinger really opened my eyes as to how you can weave fiction out of a set of events that seem almost unconnected, or very lightly connected ... [Reading Salinger] stick[s] in my mind as really having moved me a step up, as it were, toward knowing how to handle my own material.\\\" The critic Louis Menand has observed that the early stories of Pulitzer Prize-winner Philip Roth were affected by \\\"Salinger's voice and comic timing\\\".\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nNational Book Award finalist Richard Yates told The New York Times in 1977 that reading Salinger's stories for the first time was a landmark experience, and that \\\"nothing quite like it has happened to me since\\\". Yates describes Salinger as \\\"a man who used language as if it were pure energy beautifully controlled, and who knew exactly what he was doing in every silence as well as in every word.\\\" Gordon Lish's O. Henry Award-winning short story \\\"For Jeromé—With Love and Kisses\\\" (1977, collected in What I Know So Far, 1984), is a parody of Salinger's \\\"For Esmé—with Love and Squalor\\\".\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn 2001, Louis Menand wrote in The New Yorker that \\\"Catcher in the Rye rewrites\\\" among each new generation had become \\\"a literary genre all its own\\\". He classed among them Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (1963), Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971), Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City (1984), and Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000). Writer Aimee Bender was struggling with her first short stories when a friend gave her a copy of Nine Stories; inspired, she later described Salinger's effect on writers, explaining: \\\"[I]t feels like Salinger wrote The Catcher in the Rye in a day, and that incredible feeling of ease inspires writing. Inspires the pursuit of voice. Not his voice. My voice. Your voice.\\\" Authors such as Stephen Chbosky, Jonathan Safran Foer, Carl Hiaasen, Susan Minot, Haruki Murakami, Gwendoline Riley, Tom Robbins, Louis Sachar, Joel Stein and John Green have cited Salinger as an influence. Musician Tomas Kalnoky of Streetlight Manifesto also cites Salinger as an influence, referencing him and Holden Caulfield, the main character of Catcher in the Rye, in the song \\\"Here's To Life\\\". Biographer Paul Alexander called Salinger \\\"the Greta Garbo of literature\\\".\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn the mid-1960s, J. D. Salinger was himself drawn to Sufi mysticism through the writer and thinker Idries Shah's seminal work The Sufis, as were others writers such as Doris Lessing and Geoffrey Grigson, and the poets Robert Graves and Ted Hughes. As well as Idries Shah, Salinger also read the Taoist philosopher Lao Tse and the Hindu Swami Vivekananda who introduced the Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nLegacy\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nIn an oral biography titled Salinger, authors David Shields and Shane Salerno assert that the author had left specific instructions authorizing a timetable, to start between 2015 and 2020, for the release of several unpublished works. According to the authors and their sources, these include five new Glass-family stories; a novel based on Salinger's relationship with his first wife, Sylvia; a novella in the form of a WWII counterintelligence officer’s diary; a \\\"manual\\\" of stories about Vedanta; and other new or retooled stories that illuminate the life of Holden Caulfield.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nThe Salinger biography is also described as a companion volume to a film documentary of the same title. The directorial debut of writer Shane Salerno, Salinger was made over nine years and received a limited theatrical release on September 6, 2013.\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nList of works\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nBooks\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\n* The Catcher in the Rye (1951)\\n* Nine Stories (1953)\\n** \\\"A Perfect Day for Bananafish\\\" (1948)\\n** \\\"Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut\\\" (1948)\\n** \\\"Just Before the War with the Eskimos\\\" (1948)\\n** \\\"The Laughing Man\\\" (1949)\\n** \\\"Down at the Dinghy\\\" (1949)\\n** \\\"For Esmé—with Love and Squalor\\\" (1950)\\n** \\\"Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes\\\" (1951)\\n** \\\"De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period\\\" (1952)\\n** \\\"Teddy\\\" (1953)\\n* Franny and Zooey (1961)\\n** \\\"Franny\\\" (1955)\\n** \\\"Zooey\\\" (1957)\\n* Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963)\\n** \\\"Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters\\\" (1955)\\n** \\\"Seymour: An Introduction\\\" (1959)\\n* Three Early Stories (2014)\\n** \\\"The Young Folks\\\" (1940)\\n** \\\"Go See Eddie\\\" (1940)\\n** \\\"Once a Week Won't Kill You\\\" (1944)\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nPublished and anthologized stories\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\n* \\\"Go See Eddie\\\" (1940, republished in Fiction: Form & Experience, ed. William M. Jones, 1969 and in Three Early Stories, 2014)\\n* \\\"The Young Folks\\\" (1940, republished in Three Early Stories, 2014)\\n* \\\"The Hang of It\\\" (1941, republished in The Kit Book for Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, 1943)\\n* \\\"The Long Debut of Lois Taggett\\\" (1942, republished in Stories: The Fiction of the Forties, ed. Whit Burnett, 1949)\\n* \\\"Once a Week Won't Kill You\\\" (1944, republished in Three Early Stories, 2014)\\n* \\\"A Boy in France\\\" (1945, republished in Post Stories 1942–45, ed. Ben Hibbs, 1946 and July/August 2010 issue of Saturday Evening Post magazine)\\n* \\\"This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise\\\" (1945, republished in The Armchair Esquire, ed. L. Rust Hills, 1959)\\n* \\\"Slight Rebellion off Madison\\\" (1946, republished in Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker, ed. David Remnick, 2000)\\n* \\\"A Girl I Knew\\\" (1948, republished in Best American Short Stories 1949, ed. Martha Foley, 1949)\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nPublished and unanthologized stories\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\n* \\\"The Heart of a Broken Story\\\" (1941)\\n* \\\"Personal Notes of an Infantryman\\\" (1942)\\n* \\\"The Varioni Brothers\\\" (1943)\\n* \\\"Both Parties Concerned\\\" (1944)\\n* \\\"Soft-Boiled Sergeant\\\" (1944)\\n* \\\"Last Day of the Last Furlough\\\" (1944)\\n* \\\"Elaine\\\" (1945)\\n* \\\"The Stranger\\\" (1945)\\n* \\\"I'm Crazy\\\" (1945)\\n* \\\"A Young Girl in 1941 with No Waist at All\\\" (1947)\\n* \\\"The Inverted Forest\\\" (1947)\\n* \\\"Blue Melody\\\" (1948)\\n* \\\"Hapworth 16, 1924\\\" (1965)\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nUnpublished stories\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\n*\\\"Mrs. Hincher\\\" (1942)\\n*\\\"The Last and Best of the Peter Pans\\\" (1942)\\n*\\\"The Children's Echelon\\\" (1944)\\n*\\\"Two Lonely Men\\\" (1944)\\n*\\\"The Magic Foxhole\\\" (1944)\\n*\\\"Birthday Boy\\\" (1946)\\n*\\\"The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls\\\" (1947)\\n*\\\"Paula\\\" (1948)\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nMedia portrayals and references\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\n*J.D. Salinger appears as a character (voiced by Alan Arkin) in several episodes of Bojack Horseman (season 2 episodes 6, 7, 8, and 10), where he is said to have faked his own death to escape public attention (A Netflix Original Series, July 7, 2015).\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nNotes\",\n \"J. D. Salinger\\n\\nCitations\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nMark David Chapman (born May 10, 1955) is an American prison inmate who murdered John Lennon on December 8, 1980. Chapman shot Lennon outside The Dakota apartment building in New York City. Chapman fired at Lennon five times, hitting him four times in the back. Chapman later remained at the crime scene reading J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye until the police arrived and arrested him. He repeatedly said that the novel was his statement.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nChapman's legal team put forward an insanity defense based on expert testimony that he was in a delusional psychotic state at the time, but nearing the trial, Chapman instructed his lawyer that he wanted to plead guilty, based on what he had decided was the will of God. The judge allowed the plea change without further psychiatric assessment after Chapman denied hearing voices, and sentenced him to a prison term of 20 years to life with a stipulation that mental health treatment be provided. Chapman was imprisoned in 1981 and has been denied parole eight times amidst campaigns against his release.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nPersonal background\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nChapman was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1955. His father, David Curtis Chapman, was a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, and his mother, Diane Elizabeth (née Pease), was a nurse. His younger sister, Susan, was born seven years later. Chapman stated that as a boy, he lived in fear of his father, who he said was physically abusive towards his mother and unloving towards him. Chapman began to fantasize about having king-like power over a group of imaginary \\\"little people\\\" who lived in the walls of his bedroom. Chapman attended Columbia High School in Decatur, Georgia. By the time he was fourteen, Chapman was using drugs, skipping classes, and he once ran away from home to live on the streets of Atlanta for two weeks. He said that he was bullied at school because he was not a good athlete.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nIn 1971, Chapman became a born again Presbyterian and distributed Biblical tracts. He met his first girlfriend, Jessica Blankenship. He began work as a YMCA summer camp counselor; he was very popular with the children, who nicknamed him \\\"Nemo\\\". He won an award for Outstanding Counselor and was made assistant director. Those who knew him in the caretaking professions unanimously called him an outstanding worker. A friend recommended The Catcher in the Rye to Chapman, and the story eventually took on great personal significance for him, to the extent that he reportedly wished to model his life after its protagonist, Holden Caulfield. After graduating from Columbia High School, Chapman moved for a time to Chicago and played guitar in churches and Christian nightspots while his friend did impersonations. He worked successfully for World Vision with Vietnamese refugees at a resettlement camp at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, after a brief visit to Lebanon for the same work. He was named an area coordinator and a key aide to the program director, David Moore, who later said that Chapman cared deeply for the children and worked hard. Chapman accompanied Moore to meetings with government officials, and President Gerald Ford shook his hand.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nChapman joined his girlfriend, Jessica Blankenship, as a student at Covenant College, an evangelical Presbyterian liberal arts college in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. However, Chapman fell behind in his studies and became obsessed with guilt over having an affair. He started having suicidal thoughts and began to feel like a failure. He dropped out of Covenant College, and his girlfriend broke off their relationship soon after. He returned to work at the resettlement camp, but left after an argument. Chapman worked as a security guard, eventually taking a week-long course to qualify as an armed guard. He again attempted college but dropped out. He went to Hawaii and then began contemplating suicide. In 1977, Chapman attempted suicide by carbon monoxide asphyxiation. He connected a hose to his car's exhaust pipe, but the hose melted and the attempt failed. A psychiatrist admitted him to Castle Memorial Hospital for clinical depression. Upon his release, he began working at the hospital. His parents began divorce proceedings, and his mother joined Chapman in Hawaii.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nIn 1978, Chapman went on a six-week trip around the world, inspired partly by the film Around the World in Eighty Days, visiting Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Delhi, Beirut, Geneva, London, Paris and Dublin. He began a relationship with his travel agent, a Japanese-American woman named Gloria Abe. They married on June 2, 1979. Chapman went to work at Castle Memorial Hospital as a printer, working alone rather than with staff and patients. He was fired by the Castle Memorial Hospital, rehired, then got into a shouting match with a nurse and quit. He took a job as a night security guard and began drinking heavily. Chapman developed a series of obsessions, including artwork, The Catcher in the Rye, music, and John Lennon. In September 1980, he wrote a letter to a friend, Lynda Irish, in which he stated, \\\"I'm going nuts.\\\" He signed the letter, \\\"The Catcher in the Rye\\\". Chapman had no criminal convictions up to this point.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nPlan to murder John Lennon\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nChapman allegedly started planning to kill Lennon three months prior to the murder.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nHe had been a big Beatles fan, idolizing Lennon, and played guitar himself, but turned against him after becoming a Christian; he was angered at Lennon's comment that the Beatles were \\\"more popular than Jesus.\\\" In the South, there were demonstrations, album burnings, boycotts, and projectiles were thrown. Some members of Chapman's prayer group made a joke \\\"It went, 'Imagine, imagine if John Lennon was dead.'\\\" Chapman's childhood friend Miles McManushe recalls his referring to the song as \\\"communist\\\". Jan Reeves, sister of one of Chapman's best friends, reports that Chapman \\\"seemed really angry toward John Lennon, and he kept saying he could not understand why John Lennon had said it [that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus]. According to Mark, there should be nobody more popular than the Lord Jesus Christ. He said it was blasphemy.\\\"\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nChapman had later also been influenced by reading in a library book (John Lennon: One Day at a Time by Anthony Fawcett) about Lennon's life in New York. According to his wife Gloria, \\\"He was angry that Lennon would preach love and peace but yet have millions [of dollars].\\\" Chapman later said that \\\"He told us to imagine no possessions, and there he was, with millions of dollars and yachts and farms and country estates, laughing at people like me who had believed the lies and bought the records and built a big part of their lives around his music.\\\"\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nHe said that he chose Lennon after seeing him on the cover of The Beatles' album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He also recalls having listened to Lennon's John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album in the weeks before the murder and has stated: \\\"I would listen to this music and I would get angry at him, for saying that he didn't believe in God... and that he didn't believe in the Beatles. This was another thing that angered me, even though this record had been done at least 10 years previously. I just wanted to scream out loud, 'Who does he think he is, saying these things about God and heaven and the Beatles?' Saying that he doesn't believe in Jesus and things like that. At that point, my mind was going through a total blackness of anger and rage. So I brought the Lennon book home, into this The Catcher in the Rye milieu where my mindset is Holden Caulfield and anti-phoniness.\\\"\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nChapman also said that he had a further list of people in mind, including Johnny Carson, Marlon Brando, Walter Cronkite, Elizabeth Taylor, George C. Scott, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, but John Lennon seemed to be the easiest to find. He separately said that he was particularly infatuated by Lennon. Chapman's planning has been described as 'muddled'. Chapman went to New York in October 1980, intending to kill Lennon. He left in order to obtain ammunition from his unwitting friend in Atlanta, Dana Reeves, and returned to New York in November.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nAfter being inspired by the film Ordinary People, Chapman returned to Hawaii, telling his wife he had been obsessed with killing Lennon. He showed her the gun and bullets, but she did not inform the police or mental health services. He made an appointment to see a clinical psychologist, but before it occurred he flew back to New York, on December 6, 1980. At one point, he considered committing suicide by jumping from the Statue of Liberty. Chapman says that the message \\\"Thou Shalt Not Kill\\\" flashed on the TV at him, and was also on a wall hanging put up by his wife in their apartment; on the night before the murder, Chapman and his wife discussed on the phone about getting help with his problems by first working on his relationship with God.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nOn December 7, 1980, the day before the killing, Chapman accosted singer-songwriter James Taylor at the 72nd Street subway station. According to Taylor, \\\"The guy had sort of pinned me to the wall and was glistening with maniacal sweat and talking some freak speak about what he was going to do and his stuff with how John was interested, and he was going to get in touch with John Lennon.\\\" He also reportedly offered cocaine to a taxi driver.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nOn the day of the murder, David Bowie was appearing on Broadway in the play The Elephant Man. \\\"I was second on his list,\\\" Bowie later said. \\\"Chapman had a front-row ticket to The Elephant Man the next night. John and Yoko were supposed to sit front-row for that show, too. So the night after John was killed there were three empty seats in the front row. I can’t tell you how difficult that was to go on. I almost didn’t make it through the performance.”\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nMurder of John Lennon\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nOn December 8, 1980, Chapman left his room at the Sheraton Hotel, leaving personal items behind which the police would later find, and bought a copy of The Catcher in the Rye in which he wrote \\\"This is my statement\\\", signing it \\\"Holden Caulfield\\\". He then spent most of the day near the entrance to The Dakota apartment building where Lennon and Yoko Ono lived, talking to fans and the doorman. Early in the morning, a distracted Chapman missed seeing Lennon step out of a cab and enter the Dakota. Later in the morning, Chapman met Lennon's housekeeper who was returning from a walk with their five-year-old son Sean. Chapman reached in front of the housekeeper to shake Sean's hand and said that he was a beautiful boy, quoting Lennon's song \\\"Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)\\\". Around 5:00 p.m., Lennon and Ono left The Dakota for a recording session at Record Plant Studios. As they walked toward their limousine, Chapman shook hands with Lennon and asked for him to sign a copy of his album, Double Fantasy. Photographer Paul Goresh took a photo of Lennon signing Chapman's album.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nChapman later said in an interview that he tried to get Goresh to stay, and that he asked another Lennon fan lingering at the building's entrance to go out with him that night. He suggested that if the girl had accepted his invitation, or the photographer had stayed, he would not have murdered Lennon that evening; but he probably would have tried another day.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nAround 10:50 p.m., the Lennons' limousine returned to the Dakota. Lennon and Ono got out, passed Chapman and walked toward the archway entrance of the building. From the street behind them, Chapman fired five shots from a .38 special revolver, four of which hit Lennon in the back and left shoulder, puncturing the left lung and left subclavian artery.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nAt the time, one newspaper reported that, before firing, Chapman softly called out \\\"Mr. Lennon\\\" and dropped into a crouched position. Chapman said that he does not recall saying anything and that Lennon did not turn around.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nChapman remained at the scene, appearing to be reading The Catcher in the Rye, until the police arrived. The New York City Police Department officers who first responded, recognizing that Lennon's wounds were severe, decided to transport him to Roosevelt Hospital. Chapman was arrested without incident. In his statement to police three hours later, Chapman stated, \\\"I’m sure the big part of me is Holden Caulfield, who is the main person in the book. The small part of me must be the Devil.\\\" Lennon was pronounced dead by Dr. Stephan Lynn at 11:07 p.m. at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nLegal process\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nChapman was charged with second degree murder. He told police that he had used hollow-point bullets \\\"because they are more deadly\\\" and\\n\\\"to ensure Lennon's death\\\". Gloria Chapman, who had known of her husband's preparations for killing Lennon but took no action, was not charged. Chapman later said that he harbored a \\\"deep-seated resentment\\\" toward his wife, \\\"that she didn't go to somebody, even the police, and say, 'Look, my husband's bought a gun and he says he's going to kill John Lennon'.\\\"\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nMental state assessment\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nMore than a dozen psychologists and psychiatrists studied Chapman in the six months prior to trial—three for the prosecution, six for the defense, and several more on behalf of the court. A battery of standard diagnostic procedures and over 200 hours of clinical interviews were conducted. All six defense experts concluded that Chapman was psychotic; five diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, while the sixth felt his symptoms were more consistent with manic depression. The three prosecution experts declared that his delusions fell short of psychosis, and instead diagnosed various personality disorders. The court-appointed experts concurred with the prosecution's examiners that he was delusional, yet competent to stand trial. The examinations were notable for the fact that Chapman was more cooperative with the prosecution's mental health experts than with those for the defense, possibly (according to one psychiatrist) because he did not wish to be considered \\\"crazy\\\", and persuaded himself that the defense experts only declared him insane because they were hired to do so.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nThe Rev. Charles McGowan, who had been pastor of Chapman's old church, Chapel Woods Presbyterian in Decatur, Ga., visited Chapman as well, and told him of his conviction that religion held the key to his crime. \\\"I believe there was a demonic power at work,\\\" he said. Chapman initially embraced his old religion with new fervor as a result; but after McGowan revealed information to the press that Chapman had told him in confidence, Chapman disavowed his renewed interest in Christianity and reverted to his initial explanation: that he had killed Lennon to promote the reading of The Catcher in the Rye. When asked why it was so important for people to read the book, Chapman said he \\\"didn't know\\\" and \\\"didn't really care either—that was not his job.\\\"\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nPlea\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nLawyer Herbert Adlerberg was assigned to represent Chapman but, amid threats of lynching, withdrew. Police feared that Lennon fans might storm the hospital so they transferred Chapman to Rikers Island.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nIn January 1981, at the initial hearing, Chapman's new lawyer, Jonathan Marks, entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. In February, Chapman sent a handwritten statement to The New York Times urging everyone to read The Catcher in the Rye, calling it an \\\"extraordinary book that holds many answers.\\\" The defense team sought to establish witnesses as to Chapman's mental state at the time of the killing. It was reported they were confident he would be found not guilty by reason of insanity, in which case he would have been committed to a state mental hospital and received treatment.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nHowever, in June, Chapman told Marks he wanted to drop the insanity defense and plead guilty. Marks objected with \\\"serious questions\\\" over Chapman's sanity, and legally challenged his competence to make this decision. In the pursuant hearing on June 22, Chapman said that God had told him to plead guilty and that he would not change his plea or ever appeal, regardless of his sentence. Marks told the court that he opposed Chapman's change of plea but that Chapman would not listen to him. Judge Dennis Edwards refused a further assessment, saying that Chapman had made the decision of his own free will, and declared him competent to plead guilty.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nSentencing\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nOn August 24, 1981, the sentencing hearing took place. Two experts gave evidence on Chapman's behalf. Judge Edwards interrupted Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a research psychiatrist then relatively inexperienced in the courtroom, indicating that the purpose of the hearing was to determine the sentence and that there was no question of Chapman's criminal responsibility. Lewis has maintained that Chapman's decision to change his plea did not appear reasonable or explicable, and she implies the judge did not want to allow an independent competency assessment. The district attorney argued that Chapman committed the murder as an easy route to fame. When Chapman was asked if he had anything to say, he rose and read the passage from The Catcher in the Rye, when Holden tells his little sister, Phoebe, what he wants to do with his life:\\nAnyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nWhat I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. The judge ordered psychiatric treatment in prison and sentenced Chapman to 20-years-to-life, 5 years less than the maximum sentence of 25-years-to-life. Chapman was given five years less than the maximum because he pleaded guilty to second degree murder, thereby avoiding the time and expense of a trial.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nImprisonment\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nIn 1981, Chapman was imprisoned at Attica, outside of Buffalo, New York. After Chapman fasted for 26 days in February 1982, the New York State Supreme Court authorized the state to force feed him. Martin Von Holden, the director of the Central New York Psychiatric Center, said that Chapman still refused to eat with other inmates but agreed to take liquid nutrients. Chapman was confined to a Special Handling Unit (SHU) for violent and at-risk prisoners, in part due to concern that he might be harmed by Lennon's fans in the general population. There were 105 prisoners in the building who were \\\"not considered a threat to him,\\\" according to the New York State Department of Correctional Services. He had his own prison cell, but spent \\\"most of his day outside his cell working on housekeeping and in the library.\\\"\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nChapman worked in the prison as a legal clerk and kitchen helper. He was barred from participating in the Cephas Attica workshops, a charitable organization which helps inmates to adjust to life outside prison. He was also prohibited from attending the prison's violence and anger management classes due to concern for his safety. Chapman reportedly likes to read and write short stories. At his parole board hearing in 2004, he described his plans; \\\"I would immediately try to find a job, and I really want to go from place to place, at least in the state, church to church, and tell people what happened to me and point them the way to Christ.\\\" He also said that he thought that there was a possibility he could find work as a farmhand or return to his previous trade as a printer.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nChapman is in the Family Reunion Program, and is allowed one conjugal visit a year with his wife, since he accepted solitary confinement. The program allows him to spend up to 42 hours alone with his wife in a specially built prison home. He also gets occasional visits from his sister, clergy, and a few friends. In 2004, James Flateau, a spokesman for the state's Department of Correctional Services, said that Chapman had been involved in three \\\"minor incidents\\\" between 1989 and 1994 for delaying an inmate count and refusing to follow an order. Chapman was transferred to the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, which is east of Buffalo, on May 15, 2012.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nParole applications and campaigns\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nAs the result of his sentence of 20 years to life, Chapman first became eligible for parole in 2000, and is entitled to a hearing every two years. Since that time, Chapman has been denied parole eight times by a three-member board. Shortly before Chapman's first hearing, Yoko Ono sent a letter to the board opposing his release from prison. In addition, New York State Senator Michael Nozzolio, chairman of the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, wrote to Parole Board Chairman Brion Travis saying: \\\"It is the responsibility of the New York State Parole Board to ensure that public safety is protected from the release of dangerous criminals like Chapman.\\\"\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nAt the 50-minute hearing in 2000, Chapman said that he was not a danger to society. The parole board concluded that releasing Chapman would \\\"deprecate the seriousness of the crime and serve to undermine respect for the law\\\" and that Chapman's granting of media interviews represented a continued interest in \\\"maintaining your notoriety.\\\" They noted that although Chapman had a good disciplinary record while in prison, he had been in the SHU and didn't access \\\"anti-violence and/or anti-aggression programming.\\\" Robert Gangi, a lawyer for the Correctional Association of New York, said that he thought it unlikely Chapman would ever be freed because the board would not risk the \\\"political heat\\\" of releasing Lennon's killer. In 2002, the parole board stated again that releasing Chapman after 22 years in prison would \\\"deprecate the seriousness\\\" of the crime, and that while his behavioral record continued to be positive, it was no predictor of his potential community behavior. The parole board held a third hearing in 2004, and declined parole yet again.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nOne of the reasons given by the board was having subjected Ono to \\\"monumental suffering by her witnessing the crime.\\\" Another factor was concern for Chapman's safety; several Lennon fans had threatened to kill him if he were released. Ono's letter opposing his release stated that Chapman would not be safe outside of prison. The board reported that its decision was based on the interview, a review of records and deliberation. Around 6,000 people had signed an online petition against Chapman's release by this time.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nIn October 2006, the parole board held a 16-minute hearing and concluded that his release would not be in the best interest of the community or his own personal safety. On December 8, 2006, the 26th anniversary of Lennon's death, Yoko Ono published a one-page advertisement in several newspapers saying that December 8 should be a \\\"day of forgiveness,\\\" and that she was not yet sure if she was ready to forgive Chapman. Chapman's fifth hearing was on August 12, 2008. He was denied parole \\\"due to concern for the public safety and welfare.\\\" On July 27, 2010, in advance of Chapman's scheduled sixth parole hearing, Ono said that she would again oppose parole for Chapman stating that her safety, that of John's sons, and Chapman's would be at risk. She added, \\\"I am afraid it will bring back the nightmare, the chaos and confusion [of that night] once again.\\\" On August 11, 2010, the parole board postponed the hearing until September, stating that it was awaiting the receipt of additional information to complete Chapman's record.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nOn September 7, the board denied Chapman's latest parole application, with the panel stating \\\"release remains inappropriate at this time and incompatible with the welfare of the community.\\\"\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nChapman's seventh parole hearing was held before a three-member board on August 22, 2012. The following day, the denial of his application was announced, with the board stating, “Despite your positive efforts while incarcerated, your release at this time would greatly undermine respect for the law and tend to trivialize the tragic loss of life which you caused as a result of this heinous, unprovoked, violent, cold and calculated crime.” Chapman's eighth parole application was denied in August 2014. At the hearing, Chapman said, \\\"I am sorry for being such an idiot and choosing the wrong way for glory.\\\" \\\"I found my peace in Jesus,\\\" he continued. \\\"I know him. He loves me. He has forgiven me. He has helped in my life like you wouldn't believe.\\\" Chapman's next parole hearing is scheduled for August 2016.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nImpact\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nFollowing the murder, and for the first six years in Attica, Chapman refused all requests for interviews. James R. Gaines interviewed him and wrote a three-part, 18,000-word People magazine series in February and March 1987. Chapman told the parole board he regretted the interview. Chapman later gave a series of audio-taped interviews to Jack Jones of the Democrat and Chronicle. In 1992 Jones published a book, Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman, the Man Who Killed John Lennon.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nAlso in 1992, Chapman gave two television interviews. On December 4, 1992, 20/20 aired an interview that he gave to Barbara Walters, his first television interview since the shooting. On December 17, 1992, Larry King interviewed Chapman on his program Larry King Live. In 2000, with his first parole hearing approaching, Jack Jones asked Chapman to tell his story for Mugshots, a CourtTV program. Chapman refused to go on camera but, after praying over it, consented to tell his story in a series of audiotapes.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nChapman's experiences during the weekend on which he committed the murder have been turned into a feature-length movie called Chapter 27, in which he is played by Jared Leto. The film was written and directed by Jarrett Schaefer and is based on the Jones book. The film's title is a reference to The Catcher in the Rye, which has 26 chapters. Chapter 27 premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007 and received polarized reactions from critics. The film had a limited release in theaters in the United States in March 2008. Chapter 27 was released widely onto DVD on September 30, 2008. Another film was made before the feature film entitled The Killing of John Lennon starring Jonas Ball as Chapman, which documents Chapman's life before and up to the murder and portrays Chapman in a somewhat sympathetic light. The film features Ball as Chapman narrating the film and states that all the words are Chapman's own.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nA number of conspiracy theories have been published, based on CIA and FBI surveillance of Lennon due to his left-wing activism, and on the actions of Mark Chapman in the murder or subsequent legal proceedings. Barrister and journalist Fenton Bresler raised the idea in a book published in 1990. Liverpool playwright Ian Carroll, who has staged a drama conveying the theory that Chapman was manipulated by a rogue wing of the CIA, suggests Chapman wasn't so crazy that he couldn't manage a long trip from Hawaii to New York shortly prior to the murder. Claims include that Chapman was a Manchurian candidate, including speculation on links to the CIA's Project MKULTRA. At least one author has argued that forensic evidence proves Chapman did not commit the murder, while others have criticized the theories as based on possible or suspected connections and circumstances.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nIn 1982, Rhino Records released a compilation of Beatles-related novelty and parody songs, called Beatlesongs. It featured a cover caricature of Chapman by William Stout. Following its release, Rhino recalled the record and replaced it with another cover. New York-based band Mindless Self Indulgence released a track entitled \\\"Mark David Chapman\\\" on their album If. Irish band The Cranberries recorded a song called \\\"I Just Shot John Lennon\\\" for their 1996 album To the Faithful Departed. It cites events that took place outside the Dakota on the night of Lennon's murder. The title of the song comes from Chapman's own words.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nAustin, Texas-based art rock band ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead have also released a song called \\\"Mark David Chapman\\\" from their 1999 album Madonna. Julian Cope's 1988 album Autogeddon contains a song called \\\"Don't Call Me Mark Chapman\\\" whose lyrics suggest it is told from the point of view of Lennon's murderer. Filipino band Rivermaya released a song called \\\"Hangman (I Shot the Walrus)\\\" on their album Atomic Bomb (1997), supposedly written from Mark Chapman's point of view.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nChapman's obsession with the central character and message of the The Catcher in the Rye added to controversy about the novel. Some links have been drawn between Chapman's and the book's themes of adolescent sensitivity and depression on the one hand, and anti-social and violent thoughts on the other. This connection was made in the play Six Degrees of Separation and its film adaptation by the character played by Will Smith.\",\n \"Mark David Chapman\\n\\nLinks have sometimes been drawn between Chapman's actions and those of other killers or attempted killers. John Hinckley, who only months later tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, was also associated with The Catcher in the Rye. Furthermore, John Hinckley's father, John Hinckley, Sr, was president of World Vision, for whom Chapman was employed. A writer who experienced mental illness in the same city as Jared Loughner has suggested that examples such as Chapman's show the need to challenge stigma about mental health problems and ensure there are good community mental health services including crisis intervention.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nJohn Lennon was an English musician who gained worldwide fame as one of the members of the Beatles, for his subsequent solo career, and for his political activism and pacifism. On 8 December 1980, Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City. Lennon had just returned from Record Plant Studio with his wife, Yoko Ono.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nAfter sustaining four major gunshot wounds, Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital. At the hospital, it was stated that nobody could have lived for more than a few minutes after sustaining such injuries. Shortly after local news stations reported Lennon's death, crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of the Dakota. Lennon was cremated at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York two days after his death; the ashes were given to Ono, who chose not to hold a funeral for him. The first media report of Lennon's death to a US national audience was announced by Howard Cosell, on ABC's Monday Night Football.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nEvents preceding his death\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\n8 December 1980\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nPhotographer Annie Leibovitz went to the Lennons' apartment to do a photo shoot for Rolling Stone magazine. Leibovitz promised Lennon that a photo with Ono would make the front cover of the magazine, even though she initially tried to get a picture with Lennon by himself. Leibovitz said, \\\"Nobody wanted [Ono] on the cover\\\". Lennon insisted that both he and his wife be on the cover, and after taking the pictures, Leibovitz left their apartment at 3:30 p.m. After the photo shoot, Lennon gave what would be his last interview, to San Francisco DJ Dave Sholin, for a music show to be broadcast on the RKO Radio Network. At 5:40 p.m., Lennon and Ono, delayed by a late limousine, left their apartment to mix the song \\\"Walking on Thin Ice\\\" (an Ono song featuring Lennon on lead guitar) at the Record Plant Studio.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nMark David Chapman\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nAs Lennon and Ono walked to a limousine, shared with the RKO Radio crew, they were approached by several people seeking autographs. Among them was Mark David Chapman. It was common for fans to wait outside the Dakota to meet Lennon and ask for his autograph. Chapman, a 25-year-old security guard from Honolulu, Hawaii, had previously travelled to New York to murder Lennon in October (before the release of Double Fantasy), but had changed his mind and returned home. Chapman silently handed Lennon a copy of Double Fantasy, and Lennon obliged with an autograph. After signing the album, Lennon asked, \\\"Is this all you want?\\\" Chapman smiled and nodded in agreement. Photographer and Lennon fan Paul Goresh took a photo of the encounter. \\nChapman had been waiting for Lennon outside the Dakota since mid-morning, and had even approached the Lennons' five-year-old son, Sean, who was with the family nanny, Helen Seaman, when they returned home in the afternoon. According to Chapman, he briefly touched the boy's hand.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nThe Lennons spent several hours at the Record Plant studio before returning to the Dakota, at approximately 10:50 pm. Lennon had decided against dining out so he could be home in time to say goodnight to his son, before going on to the Stage Deli restaurant with Ono. Lennon liked to oblige any fans who had been waiting for long periods of time to meet him with autographs or pictures, once saying during an interview with BBC Radio's Andy Peebles on 6 December 1980: \\\"People come and ask for autographs, or say 'Hi', but they don't bug you.\\\" The Lennons exited their limousine on 72nd Street instead of driving into the more secure courtyard of the Dakota.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nMurder\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nThe Dakota's doorman, Jose Perdomo, and a nearby cab driver saw Chapman standing in the shadows by the archway. As Lennon passed by, he glanced briefly at Chapman, appearing to recognize him from earlier. Seconds later, Chapman took aim directly at the center of Lennon's back and fired five hollow-point bullets at him from a Charter Arms .38 Special revolver in rapid succession from a range of about nine or ten feet (about 3 m) away. Based on statements made that night by NYPD Chief of Detectives James Sullivan, numerous radio, television, and newspaper reports claimed at the time that, before firing, Chapman called out \\\"Mr. Lennon\\\" and dropped into a combat stance. Later court hearings and witness interviews did not include either \\\"Mr. Lennon\\\" or the \\\"combat stance\\\" description. Chapman has said he does not remember calling out to Lennon before he fired, but he claimed to have taken a \\\"combat stance\\\" in a 1992 interview with Barbara Walters. The first bullet missed, passing over Lennon's head and hitting a window of the Dakota building. Two of the next bullets struck Lennon in the left side of his back, and two more penetrated his left shoulder.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nLennon, bleeding profusely from external wounds and also from his mouth, staggered up five steps to the security/reception area, saying, \\\"I'm shot, I'm shot\\\". He then fell to the floor, scattering cassettes that he had been carrying. The concierge, Jay Hastings, first started to make a tourniquet, but upon ripping open Lennon's blood-stained shirt and realizing the severity of his multiple injuries, he covered Lennon's chest with his uniform jacket, removed his blood-covered glasses, and summoned the police.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nOutside, doorman Perdomo shook the gun out of Chapman's hand then kicked it across the sidewalk. Chapman then removed his coat and hat in preparation for the arrival of police—to show he was not carrying any concealed weapons—and sat down on the sidewalk. Perdomo shouted at Chapman, \\\"Do you know what you've just done?\\\" to which Chapman calmly replied, \\\"Yes, I just shot John Lennon.\\\" The first policemen to arrive were Steven Spiro and Peter Cullen, who were at 72nd Street and Broadway when they heard a report of shots fired at the Dakota. The officers arrived around two minutes later and found Chapman sitting \\\"very calmly\\\" on the sidewalk. They reported that Chapman had dropped the revolver to the ground and was holding a paperback book, J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. They immediately put Chapman in handcuffs and placed him in the back seat of their squad car. Chapman made no attempt to flee or resist arrest.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nThe second team, officers Herb Frauenberger and his partner, Tony Palma, arrived a few minutes later. They found Lennon lying face down on the floor of the reception area with Hastings attending to him, blood pouring from his mouth and his clothing already soaked with blood. Realizing the extent of his injuries, the policemen decided not to wait for an ambulance and immediately carried Lennon into their squad car and rushed him to St Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center. Officer James Moran said they placed Lennon in the back seat. Reportedly, Moran asked, \\\"Are you John Lennon?\\\" to which Lennon nodded and replied \\\"Yes.\\\" There are conflicting accounts of this, however. According to another account by officer Bill Gamble, Lennon nodded slightly and tried to speak, but could only manage to make a gurgling sound, and lost consciousness shortly thereafter.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nDr. Stephan Lynn, head of the Emergency Department, who had been called in again after having just returned home after a 13-hour-long work shift, received Lennon in the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital a few minutes before 11:00 pm when Officers Frauenberger and Moran arrived, with Moran carrying Lennon on his back from their squad car and onto a gurney, into the emergency room demanding a doctor for a multiple gunshot wound victim. When Lennon arrived, he had no pulse and was not breathing. Dr. Lynn, two other doctors, a nurse and two or three other medical attendants worked on Lennon for ten to 15 minutes in a desperate attempt to resuscitate him. As a last resort, Dr. Lynn cut open Lennon's chest and attempted manual heart massage to restore circulation, but he quickly discovered that the damage to the blood vessels above and around Lennon's heart from the multiple bullet wounds was too great. Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival in the emergency room at the Roosevelt Hospital at 11:15 pm by Dr. Lynn, but the time of 11:07 pm has also been reported. Lennon's body was then taken to the city morgue at 520 First Avenue and autopsied.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nThe cause of death was reported as \\\"hypovolemic shock, caused by the loss of more than 80% of blood volume due to multiple through-and-through gunshot wounds to the chest and aortic arch\\\". The pathologist who performed the autopsy on Lennon also stated in his report that even with prompt medical treatment, no person could have lived for more than a few minutes with such multiple bullet injuries to all of the major arteries and veins around the heart.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nThe surgeon also noted—as did other witnesses—that, at the moment Lennon was pronounced dead, a Beatles song (\\\"All My Loving\\\") came over the hospital's sound system.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nThree of the four bullets that struck Lennon's back passed completely through his body and out of his chest, one of which hit and became lodged in his upper left arm, while the fourth lodged itself in his aorta beside his heart; nearly all of them would have been fatal by themselves as each bullet hit vital arteries around the heart. As Lennon had been shot four times at close range with hollow-point bullets, Lennon's affected organs (particularly his left lung) and major blood vessels above his heart were virtually destroyed upon impact. Lynn later stated to reporters on the extent of Lennon's injuries: \\\"If he [Lennon] had been shot this way in the middle of the operating room with a whole team of surgeons ready to work on him... he still wouldn't have survived his injuries\\\".\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nWhen told by Dr. Lynn of her husband's death, Ono started sobbing and said, \\\"Oh no, no, no, no ... tell me it's not true!\\\" Dr. Lynn remembers that Ono lay down and began hitting her head against the floor, but calmed down when a nurse gave Lennon's wedding ring to her. She was led away from Roosevelt Hospital by Geffen Records' president, David Geffen, in a state of shock.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nAnnouncements\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nMonday Night Football\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nOno asked the hospital not to report to the media that her husband was dead until she had informed their five-year-old son Sean, who was at home. Ono said he was probably watching television and did not want him to learn of his father's death from a TV announcement.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nMeanwhile, news producer Alan J. Weiss from WABC-TV had been waiting to be treated in the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital due to having been involved in an accident earlier that evening while riding his motorcycle. Weiss recalled in an interview for the CNN series Crimes of the Century in 2013 that he had seen Lennon being wheeled into the room surrounded by several police officers. After he learned what happened, Weiss called back to the station to relay the information. Eventually, word made its way through the chain of command to ABC News president Roone Arledge, who was tasked with finding a way to bring this major development to the viewing audience.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nWhile all of this was happening Arledge, who was also the president of the network's sports division, was presiding over ABC's telecast of Monday Night Football in his capacity as its executive producer. At the exact moment he received word of Lennon's death, the game between the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins was tied with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter and the Patriots were driving toward the potential winning score.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nAs the Patriots tried to put themselves in position for a field goal, Arledge informed Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell of the shooting and suggested that they be the ones to report on the murder. Cosell, who had previously interviewed Lennon on a 1974 broadcast, was chosen to do so but was apprehensive of it at first, as he felt the game should take precedence and that it was not their place to break such a big story. Gifford convinced Cosell otherwise, saying that he should not \\\"hang on to (the news)\\\" as the significance of the event was much greater than the finish of the game.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nThe following exchange begins with thirty seconds left in the fourth quarter, shortly after Gifford and Cosell were informed of what had transpired.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nCosell: ... but (the game)'s suddenly been placed in total perspective for us; I'll finish this, they're in the hurry-up offense.Gifford: Third down, four. (Chuck) Foreman ... it'll be fourth down. (Matt) Cavanaugh will let it run down for one final attempt, he'll let the seconds tick off to give Miami no opportunity whatsoever. (Whistle blows.) Timeout is called with three seconds remaining, John Smith is on the line. And I don't care what's on the line, Howard, you have got to say what we know in the booth.Cosell: Yes, we have to say it. Remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous perhaps, of all of the Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that news flash, which, in duty bound, we have to take. Frank?Gifford: (after a pause) Indeed, it is.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nOther announcements\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nIt has been claimed that the first nationally-telecast bulletin about the shooting was made by Kathleen Sullivan as part of a standard newscast on Cable News Network; Sullivan reported that Lennon had been shot but his condition was not known at the time of the bulletin. NBC-TV momentarily broke into its East Coast feed of The Best of Carson for its bulletin of Lennon's death before returning in the middle of a comedy piece being performed by Johnny Carson.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nNew York rock station WNEW-FM 102.7 immediately suspended all programming and opened its lines to calls from listeners. Stations throughout the country switched to special programming devoted to Lennon and/or Beatles music.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nThe following day, Ono issued a statement: \\\"There is no funeral for John. John loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him. Love, Yoko and Sean.\\\"\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nAftermath\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nLennon's murder triggered an outpouring of grief around the world on an unprecedented scale. Lennon's remains were cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, Westchester County, N.Y.; no funeral was held. Ono sent word to the chanting crowd outside the Dakota that their singing had kept her awake; she asked that they re-convene at Central Park's Naumburg Bandshell the following Sunday for ten minutes of silent prayer. On 14 December 1980, millions of people around the world responded to Ono's request to pause for ten minutes of silence to remember Lennon. Thirty thousand gathered in Liverpool, and the largest group—over 225,000—converged on New York's Central Park, close to the scene of the shooting. For those ten minutes, every radio station in New York City went off the air.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nAt least three Beatles fans committed suicide after the murder, leading Ono to make a public appeal asking mourners not to give in to despair. Ono released a solo album, Season of Glass, in 1981. The cover of the album is a photograph of Lennon's blood-spattered glasses. That same year she also released \\\"Walking on Thin Ice\\\", the song the Lennons had mixed at the Record Plant less than an hour before he was murdered, as a single. Chapman pleaded guilty in 1981 to murdering Lennon. Under the terms of his guilty plea, Chapman was sentenced to 20-years-to-life and later automatically became eligible for parole up until 2000.[http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39037888/ns/today-entertainment/ John Lennon killer Chapman denied parole - Entertainment - Celebrities - TODAY.com] However, Chapman has been denied parole eight times and remains incarcerated at the Wende Correctional Facility.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nMemorials and tributes\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nAnnie Leibovitz's photo of a naked Lennon embracing his wife, taken on the day of the murder, was the cover of Rolling Stones 22 January 1981 issue, most of which was dedicated to articles, letters and photographs commemorating Lennon's life and death. In 2005 the American Society of Magazine Editors ranked it as the top magazine cover of the last 40 years.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nGeorge Harrison released a tribute song, \\\"All Those Years Ago\\\", which featured Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, in 1981. McCartney released his tribute, \\\"Here Today\\\", on his 1982 album, Tug of War. Elton John, who had recorded the number-one hit \\\"Whatever Gets You thru the Night\\\" with Lennon, teamed up with his lyricist Bernie Taupin and recorded a tribute to Lennon, entitled \\\"Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny).\\\" It appeared on his 1982 album, Jump Up!, and peaked at #13 on the US Singles Chart that year. When he performed the song at a sold-out concert in Madison Square Garden in August 1982, he was joined on stage by Ono and Sean. Queen, during their Game Tour, performed a cover of Lennon's solo song \\\"Imagine\\\" at concerts after Lennon's death. Queen also performed the song \\\"Life Is Real\\\", from the album Hot Space (1982), in his honour. It was written by singer Freddie Mercury.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nRoxy Music added a cover version of the song \\\"Jealous Guy\\\" to their set while touring in Germany, which they recorded and released in March 1981. The song was their only UK #1 hit, topping the charts for two weeks. It features on many Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music collections, though not always in its full-length version.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nPaul Simon's homage to Lennon, \\\"The Late Great Johnny Ace\\\", initially sings of the rhythm and blues singer Johnny Ace, who is said to have shot himself in 1954, then goes on to reference John Lennon, as well as President John F. Kennedy who was assassinated in 1963, the year Beatlemania started. Simon had actually premiered the song during Simon & Garfunkel's reunion Concert in Central Park in 1981; near the end of the song, a fan ran onto the stage, possibly in response to Simon mentioning Lennon in the lyrics. The man was dragged offstage by Simon's personnel, saying to Simon, \\\"I have to talk to you\\\"; all of which can be seen in the DVD of the concert. The song also appears on Simon's 1983 Hearts and Bones album.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nDavid Bowie, who befriended Lennon in the mid-1970s (Lennon co-wrote and performed on Bowie's US #1 hit \\\"Fame\\\" in 1975), performed a tribute to Lennon in the final show of his Serious Moonlight Tour at the Hong Kong Coliseum on 8 December 1983—the third anniversary of Lennon's death. Bowie announced that the last time he saw Lennon was in Hong Kong, and after announcing \\\"On this day, December the 8th 1980, John Lennon was shot and killed outside of his New York apartment,\\\" he performed Lennon's \\\"Imagine\\\".\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nDavid Gilmour of Pink Floyd wrote and recorded the song \\\"Murder\\\" in response to Lennon's death; the song was released on Gilmour's solo album, About Face (1984).\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nIn 1985, New York City dedicated an area of Central Park directly across from the Dakota as Strawberry Fields, where Lennon had frequently walked. In a symbolic show of unity, countries from around the world donated trees and the city of Naples, Italy, donated the Imagine mosaic centerpiece. A symbolic grave for Lennon was erected in Prague's Mala Strana square, which hosted demonstrations during the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nLennon was honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991. In 1994, the breakaway autonomous republic of Georgia, Republic of Abkhazia, issued two postage stamps featuring the faces of Lennon and Groucho Marx, rather than portraits of Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx, spoofing Abkhazia's Communist past. On 8 December 2000, Cuba's President Fidel Castro unveiled a bronze statue of Lennon in a park in Havana. In 2000, the John Lennon Museum was opened at the Saitama Super Arena in the city of Saitama, Japan (but closed on 30 September 2010), and Liverpool renamed its airport Liverpool John Lennon Airport, adopting the motto, \\\"Above us only sky\\\", in 2002. The minor planet 4147 Lennon, discovered 12 January 1983 by B. A. Skiff at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory, was named in memory of Lennon. On 9 December 2006, in the city of Puebla, Mexico, a plaque was revealed, honouring Lennon's contribution to music, culture and peace. On 9 October 2007, Ono dedicated a new memorial called the Imagine Peace Tower, located on the island of Viðey, off the coast of Reykjavík, Iceland.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nEach year, between 9 October and 8 December, it projects a vertical beam of light high into the sky in Lennon's memory. In 1990 a group of citizens came forward with an initiative to rename one of the streets of Warsaw in honour of John Lennon. The petition had approximately 5000 supporting signatures and passed through city council unchallenged.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nEvery 8 December a memorial ceremony is held in front of the Capitol Records building on Vine Street in Hollywood, California. People also light candles in front of Lennon's Hollywood Walk of Fame star, outside the Capitol Building. From 28 to 30 September 2007, Durness held the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival which was attended by Julia Baird (Lennon's half-sister), who read from Lennon's writings and her own books, and Stanley Parkes, Lennon's Scottish cousin. Parkes said, \\\"Me and Julia [Baird] are going to be going to the old family croft to tell stories\\\". Musicians, painters and poets from across the UK performed at the festival.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nIn 2009, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's New York City annexe hosted a special John Lennon exhibit, which included many mementos and personal effects from Lennon's life, as well as the clothes he was wearing when he was murdered, still in the brown paper bag from Roosevelt Hospital. Ono still places a lit candle in the window of Lennon's room in the Dakota on 8 December. In 2012, Bob Dylan released the Lennon tribute \\\"Roll on John\\\" on his Tempest album.\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nOn film\",\n \"Death of John Lennon\\n\\nTwo films depicting the murder of Lennon were released close together more than 25 years after the event. The first of the two, The Killing of John Lennon, was released on 7 December 2007. Directed by Andrew Piddington, the movie had Jonas Ball play Mark David Chapman. The second film was Chapter 27, released on 28 March 2008. Directed by J. P. Schaefer, Mark David Chapman was played by Jared Leto. Lennon was portrayed by actor Mark Lindsay Chapman, who coincidentally has the same first and last name as the person who killed Lennon. Lindsay Chapman had previously been cast (and billed then as 'Mark Lindsay') in NBC Television's John & Yoko: A Love Story in 1985, but the role of Lennon was re-cast when it was revealed that the actor's real surname was Chapman.\"\n]","isConversational":false}}},{"rowIdx":138291,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"qg_4459"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Who's missing: Jason, Mary Ellen, Erin, Ben, Jim-Bob, Elizabeth"},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"John-Boy"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":["john boy","johnboy"],"string":"[\n \"john boy\",\n \"johnboy\"\n]","isConversational":false},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["The Waltons\n\nThe Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show is centered on a family in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II.","The Waltons\n\nThe series pilot aired as a television movie entitled The Homecoming: A Christmas Story and was broadcast on December 19, 1971. Beginning in September 1972, the series originally aired on CBS for a total of nine seasons. After the series was canceled by CBS in 1981, NBC aired three television movie sequels in 1982, with three more in the 1990s on CBS. The Waltons was produced by Lorimar Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution in syndication.","The Waltons\n\nPremise","The Waltons\n\nSetting","The Waltons\n\nThe main story takes place in Walton's Mountain, a fictional town at the foot of a mountain in fictitious Jefferson County, Virginia.","The Waltons\n\nThe actual place upon which the stories are based is in Nelson County, Virginia and is the community of Schuyler.","The Waltons\n\nThe time period is from 1933 to 1946, during the Great Depression and World War II, during the presidential administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman. The year 1933 is suggested by a reference to the opening of the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago, a brief shot of an automobile registration, and it is divulged in episode 18 that the date is in the spring of 1933. The last episode of season one, \"An Easter Story\", is set in February–April 1934. The year 1934 takes two seasons to cover, while some successive years are covered over the course of a few months.","The Waltons\n\nThe series finale, \"The Revel\", revolves around a party and the invitation date is given as June 4, 1946. A span of 13 years is therefore covered in nine seasons. There are some chronological errors, which ostensibly do not hinder the storyline.","The Waltons\n\nA Thanksgiving reunion show, A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion, filmed in 1993, takes place in 1963, and revolves around President John F. Kennedy's assassination; A Walton Wedding, made in 1995, is set in 1964; and, the latest reunion show, A Walton Easter, filmed in 1997, is set in 1969.","The Waltons\n\nThe series began relating stories that occurred 38 years in the past, and ended with its last reunion show set 28 years in the past.","The Waltons\n\nStory","The Waltons\n\nThe story is about the family of John Walton Jr. (known as John-Boy): his six siblings, his parents John and Olivia Walton, and the elder John's parents Zebulon \"Zeb\" and Esther Walton. John-Boy is the oldest of the children (17 years old in the beginning ), who becomes a journalist and novelist. Each episode is narrated at the opening and closing by a middle-aged John Jr. (voiced by author Earl Hamner on whom John-Boy is based). John Sr. manages to eke out a living for his family by operating a lumber mill with his sons' help as they grow older. The family income is augmented by some small-scale farming, and John occasionally hunts to put meat on the table.","The Waltons\n\nThe family shares hospitality with relatives and strangers as they are able. The small community named after their property is also home to folk of various income levels, ranging from the well-to-do Baldwin sisters, two elderly spinsters who distill moonshine that they call \"Papa's recipe\"; Ike Godsey, postmaster and owner of the general store with his somewhat snobbish wife Corabeth (a Walton cousin; she calls her husband \"Mr. Godsey\"); an African-American couple, Verdie and Harley Foster; Maude, a sassy octogenarian artist who paints on wood; Flossie Brimmer, a friendly though somewhat gossipy widow who runs a nearby boarding house; and Yancy Tucker, a good-hearted handyman with big plans but little motivation. Jefferson County sheriff Ep Bridges keeps law and order in Walton's Mountain. The entire family (except for John) attends a Baptist church, of which Olivia and Grandma Esther are the most regular attendees. The church that the Hamners actually attended was Schuyler Baptist Church, near the Hamner homeplace and is still in operation. The church has helped host several events honoring Earl Hamner, Jr., including one in 2014.","The Waltons\n\nIn the signature scene that closes almost every episode, the family house is enveloped in darkness, save for one, two or three lights in the upstairs bedroom windows. Through voice-overs, two or more characters make some brief comments related to that episode's events, and then bid each other goodnight, after which the lights go out.","The Waltons\n\nAfter completing high school, John-Boy attends fictional Boatwright University in the fictional nearby town of Westham. He later goes to New York City to work as a journalist.","The Waltons\n\nDuring the latter half of the 1976–77 season, Grandma Esther Walton suffers a stroke and returns home shortly before the death of her husband, Grandpa Zeb Walton (reflecting Ellen Corby's real-life stroke and the death of Will Geer, the actors who portrayed the characters).","The Waltons\n\nDuring the series' last few years, Mary Ellen and Ben start their own families; Erin, Jason and John Boy are married in later television movie sequels.","The Waltons\n\nWorld War II deeply affects the family. All four Walton boys enlist in the military. Mary Ellen's physician husband, Curtis \"Curt\" Willard, is sent to Pearl Harbor and is reported to have perished in the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. Years later, Mary Ellen hears of sightings of her \"late\" husband, investigates and finds him alive (played by another actor), but brooding over his war wounds and living under an assumed name. She divorces him and later remarries.","The Waltons\n\nJohn-Boy's military plane is shot down, while Olivia becomes a volunteer at the VA hospital and is seen less and less; she eventually develops tuberculosis and enters an Arizona sanitarium. Olivia's cousin, Rose Burton, moves into the Walton house to look after the brood. Two years later, John Sr. moves to Arizona to be near Olivia. Grandma appears in only a handful of episodes during the eighth season (she was usually said to be visiting relatives in nearby Buckingham County).","The Waltons\n\nSix feature-length movies were made after the series' run; set from 1947 through 1969, they aired between 1982 and 1997.","The Waltons\n\nProduction","The Waltons\n\nPilot movie","The Waltons\n\nThe Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971) was not originally intended to be a pilot for a series, but it became one because it was so popular. Except for the children and Grandma Walton, the actors for the movie were not the same as for the series. The musical score was by Oscar-winning composer Jerry Goldsmith (Goldsmith also scored several episodes of the first season, but the producers believed his TV movie theme was too gentle and requested he write a new theme for the series ) and was later released on an album by Film Score Monthly paired with James Horner's score for the 1982 TV movie Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.","The Waltons\n\nPatricia Neal (as Olivia) won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Drama. The movie was also nominated for three Emmys: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie (Neal), Outstanding Writing Achievement in Drama - Adaptation (Earl Hamner), and Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Drama - A Single Program (Fielder Cook).","The Waltons\n\nCharacters","The Waltons\n\nThe following is a brief summary of the main characters. See main article for a more complete list.","The Waltons\n\n* John \"John-Boy\" Walton Jr. (Richard Thomas, seasons 1–5, guest season 6, three movie sequels; Robert Wightman, seasons 8–9 and one movie sequel), the eldest of the seven children\n* John Walton Sr. (Ralph Waite), the family patriarch\n* Olivia Walton (Michael Learned, seasons 1–7, guest season 8, and four movies), the matriarch\n* Zebulon \"Grandpa\" Walton (Will Geer, seasons 1–6), John's father\n* Esther \"Grandma\" Walton (Ellen Corby, seasons 1–5 & 7, sporadically in other seasons, and in five movies), John's mother\n* Jason Walton (Jon Walmsley, entire series and six movies ), second-oldest brother; musically talented\n* Mary Ellen Walton (Judy Norton Taylor, entire series and six movies), headstrong oldest daughter; becomes a nurse \n* Erin Walton (Mary Elizabeth McDonough, entire series and six movies), second Walton daughter; works as a telephone operator and as manufacturing supervisor\n* Benjamin \"Ben\" Walton (Eric Scott, entire series and six movies), third Walton son; has an entrepreneurial spirit\n* James Robert \"Jim-Bob\" Walton (David W.","The Waltons\n\nHarper, entire series and six movies), youngest Walton son; mechanically inclined\n* Elizabeth Walton (Kami Cotler, entire series and six movies), youngest of the seven children\n* Cindy Walton (Leslie Winston), seasons 7-9 and four of the reunion movies, Ben's wife\n* Rose Burton (Peggy Rea, seasons 8–9 and one sequel), Olivia's matronly cousin who fills in as matriarch during Olivia's absence","The Waltons\n\nInspiration","The Waltons\n\nEarl Hamner's rural childhood growing up in the unincorporated community of Schuyler, Virginia, provided the basis for the setting and many of the storylines of The Waltons. His family and the community provided many life experiences which aided in the characters, values, area, and human-interest stories of his books, movies, and television series. Hamner provided the voice-over of the older John-Boy, usually heard at the beginning and end of each episode.","The Waltons\n\nJohn-Boy Walton's fictional alma mater, Boatwright University, is patterned after Richmond College, which became part of the University of Richmond on Boatwright Drive near Westham Station in The West End of Richmond, Virginia, about seventy miles east of Schuyler.","The Waltons\n\nFilming","The Waltons\n\nThe town of Walton's Mountain was built in the rear area of the Warner Bros. Studios, but the mountain itself was part of the range opposite Warner studios in Burbank, California. The Waltons' house facade was built in the back of the Warner Brothers lot. After the series concluded, the set was destroyed. For the reunion shows, a replica Waltons' house facade was built on the Here Come the Brides set on the Columbia Ranch studio, now part of the Warner Brothers studios. The Waltons' house is still used as scenery at Warner Brothers. For example, it served as the Dragonfly Inn on The Gilmore Girls.","The Waltons\n\nBroadcast and release","The Waltons\n\nSome sources indicate CBS put the show on its Fall 1972 schedule in response to congressional hearings on the quality of television. Backlash from a 1971 decision to purge most rural-oriented shows from the network lineup may have also been a factor. The network gave The Waltons an undesirable timeslot – Thursdays at 8 p.m., opposite two popular programs: The Flip Wilson Show on NBC and The Mod Squad on ABC. \"The rumor was that they put it against Flip Wilson and The Mod Squad because they didn't think it would survive. They thought, 'We can just tell Congress America doesn't want to see this',\" Kami Cotler, who played Elizabeth Walton, said in a 2012 interview. Ralph Waite was reluctant to audition for the part of John Walton because he didn't want to be tied to a long-running TV series, but his agent persuaded him by saying, \"It will never sell. You do the pilot. You pick up a couple of bucks and then you go back to New York.\"","The Waltons\n\nReception","The Waltons\n\nNielsen ratings","The Waltons\n\n*Season 1 (1972–73): #20 \n*Season 2 (1973–74): #2 \n*Season 3 (1974–75): #8 \n*Season 4 (1975–76): #14 \n*Season 5 (1976–77): #15 \n*Season 6 (1977–78): #21 \n*Season 7 (1978–79): Not in the Top 30 \n*Season 8 (1979–80): Not in the Top 30 \n*Season 9 (1980–81): #30","The Waltons\n\nAccolades","The Waltons\n\nThe Waltons won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 1973. Also in 1973 Richard Thomas won the Emmy for Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Michael Learned won the Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama Series three times (1973, 1974, and 1976). Ellen Corby was also a three-time winner in the Supporting Actress category, winning in 1973, 1975, and 1976. Will Geer was awarded the Supporting Actor Emmy in 1975. Veteran actress Beulah Bondi won an Emmy in 1977 for Lead Actress in a Single Performance for her guest appearance as Martha Corrine Walton in the episode \"The Pony Cart\" (Episode #111). She first appeared in The Waltons episode \"The Conflict\" (Episode #51) as the widow of Zeb Walton's brother.","The Waltons\n\nThe series also earned a Peabody Award for its first season.","The Waltons\n\nIn 2013, TV Guide ranked The Waltons No. 34 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time.","The Waltons\n\nHome media","The Waltons\n\nDVD releases","The Waltons\n\nWarner Home Video has released all nine seasons and six TV movies of The Waltons on DVD in Region 1. Seasons 1–4 have been released in Region 2. The pilot movie, The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, was released by Paramount Home Entertainment. Lorimar produced the series, CBS produced the pilot film, which is why Paramount, under CBS Home Entertainment, handles home video rights for The Homecoming.","The Waltons\n\nGerman-release DVDs provide German or English sound-track options, with dubbed German voices, or the original English soundtrack, although episode titles, in German, are not always either literal or precise translations of the original English-language titles.","The Waltons\n\nStreaming","The Waltons\n\nSeasons 1–9 are available via streaming through services such as Amazon Video.","The Waltons\n\nSyndication","The Waltons\n\nLorimar sold the distribution rights of The Waltons to Warner Bros. Television to avoid a lawsuit owing to the similarities between the series and the film Spencer's Mountain, which Warners owned. Warner Bros. acquired Lorimar in 1989, and has continued to syndicate the series ever since. Reruns currently air in the U.S. on INSP, the Hallmark Channel. In Canada, The Waltons airs on Vision TV and BookTelevision.","The Waltons\n\nIn the UK, the series was broadcast on BBC 1 and BBC 2 during the 1970s/1980s - the first three seasons were broadcast on BBC 2 from February 18, 1974 to May 17, 1976, on Mondays at 20.00 GMT, and seasons 4 and 5 were shown on BBC One from September 5, 1976 to August 30, 1977, on Sundays at 16.10 in 1976 and Tuesdays at 19.00 through 1977. After that, seasons 6-9 would be broadcast on BBC 2 again, starting on April 30, 1979 and concluding in April 1983. The three reunion TV movies filmed in 1982 were also shown on BBC 2 from December 21 to December 28, 1983. The show was repeated on Channel 4 in the 1990s; it currently airs on True Entertainment in the UK."],"string":"[\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nThe Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show is centered on a family in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nThe series pilot aired as a television movie entitled The Homecoming: A Christmas Story and was broadcast on December 19, 1971. Beginning in September 1972, the series originally aired on CBS for a total of nine seasons. After the series was canceled by CBS in 1981, NBC aired three television movie sequels in 1982, with three more in the 1990s on CBS. The Waltons was produced by Lorimar Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution in syndication.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nPremise\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nSetting\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nThe main story takes place in Walton's Mountain, a fictional town at the foot of a mountain in fictitious Jefferson County, Virginia.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nThe actual place upon which the stories are based is in Nelson County, Virginia and is the community of Schuyler.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nThe time period is from 1933 to 1946, during the Great Depression and World War II, during the presidential administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman. The year 1933 is suggested by a reference to the opening of the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago, a brief shot of an automobile registration, and it is divulged in episode 18 that the date is in the spring of 1933. The last episode of season one, \\\"An Easter Story\\\", is set in February–April 1934. The year 1934 takes two seasons to cover, while some successive years are covered over the course of a few months.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nThe series finale, \\\"The Revel\\\", revolves around a party and the invitation date is given as June 4, 1946. A span of 13 years is therefore covered in nine seasons. There are some chronological errors, which ostensibly do not hinder the storyline.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nA Thanksgiving reunion show, A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion, filmed in 1993, takes place in 1963, and revolves around President John F. Kennedy's assassination; A Walton Wedding, made in 1995, is set in 1964; and, the latest reunion show, A Walton Easter, filmed in 1997, is set in 1969.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nThe series began relating stories that occurred 38 years in the past, and ended with its last reunion show set 28 years in the past.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nStory\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nThe story is about the family of John Walton Jr. (known as John-Boy): his six siblings, his parents John and Olivia Walton, and the elder John's parents Zebulon \\\"Zeb\\\" and Esther Walton. John-Boy is the oldest of the children (17 years old in the beginning ), who becomes a journalist and novelist. Each episode is narrated at the opening and closing by a middle-aged John Jr. (voiced by author Earl Hamner on whom John-Boy is based). John Sr. manages to eke out a living for his family by operating a lumber mill with his sons' help as they grow older. The family income is augmented by some small-scale farming, and John occasionally hunts to put meat on the table.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nThe family shares hospitality with relatives and strangers as they are able. The small community named after their property is also home to folk of various income levels, ranging from the well-to-do Baldwin sisters, two elderly spinsters who distill moonshine that they call \\\"Papa's recipe\\\"; Ike Godsey, postmaster and owner of the general store with his somewhat snobbish wife Corabeth (a Walton cousin; she calls her husband \\\"Mr. Godsey\\\"); an African-American couple, Verdie and Harley Foster; Maude, a sassy octogenarian artist who paints on wood; Flossie Brimmer, a friendly though somewhat gossipy widow who runs a nearby boarding house; and Yancy Tucker, a good-hearted handyman with big plans but little motivation. Jefferson County sheriff Ep Bridges keeps law and order in Walton's Mountain. The entire family (except for John) attends a Baptist church, of which Olivia and Grandma Esther are the most regular attendees. The church that the Hamners actually attended was Schuyler Baptist Church, near the Hamner homeplace and is still in operation. The church has helped host several events honoring Earl Hamner, Jr., including one in 2014.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nIn the signature scene that closes almost every episode, the family house is enveloped in darkness, save for one, two or three lights in the upstairs bedroom windows. Through voice-overs, two or more characters make some brief comments related to that episode's events, and then bid each other goodnight, after which the lights go out.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nAfter completing high school, John-Boy attends fictional Boatwright University in the fictional nearby town of Westham. He later goes to New York City to work as a journalist.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nDuring the latter half of the 1976–77 season, Grandma Esther Walton suffers a stroke and returns home shortly before the death of her husband, Grandpa Zeb Walton (reflecting Ellen Corby's real-life stroke and the death of Will Geer, the actors who portrayed the characters).\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nDuring the series' last few years, Mary Ellen and Ben start their own families; Erin, Jason and John Boy are married in later television movie sequels.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nWorld War II deeply affects the family. All four Walton boys enlist in the military. Mary Ellen's physician husband, Curtis \\\"Curt\\\" Willard, is sent to Pearl Harbor and is reported to have perished in the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. Years later, Mary Ellen hears of sightings of her \\\"late\\\" husband, investigates and finds him alive (played by another actor), but brooding over his war wounds and living under an assumed name. She divorces him and later remarries.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nJohn-Boy's military plane is shot down, while Olivia becomes a volunteer at the VA hospital and is seen less and less; she eventually develops tuberculosis and enters an Arizona sanitarium. Olivia's cousin, Rose Burton, moves into the Walton house to look after the brood. Two years later, John Sr. moves to Arizona to be near Olivia. Grandma appears in only a handful of episodes during the eighth season (she was usually said to be visiting relatives in nearby Buckingham County).\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nSix feature-length movies were made after the series' run; set from 1947 through 1969, they aired between 1982 and 1997.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nProduction\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nPilot movie\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nThe Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971) was not originally intended to be a pilot for a series, but it became one because it was so popular. Except for the children and Grandma Walton, the actors for the movie were not the same as for the series. The musical score was by Oscar-winning composer Jerry Goldsmith (Goldsmith also scored several episodes of the first season, but the producers believed his TV movie theme was too gentle and requested he write a new theme for the series ) and was later released on an album by Film Score Monthly paired with James Horner's score for the 1982 TV movie Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nPatricia Neal (as Olivia) won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Drama. The movie was also nominated for three Emmys: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie (Neal), Outstanding Writing Achievement in Drama - Adaptation (Earl Hamner), and Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Drama - A Single Program (Fielder Cook).\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nCharacters\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nThe following is a brief summary of the main characters. See main article for a more complete list.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\n* John \\\"John-Boy\\\" Walton Jr. (Richard Thomas, seasons 1–5, guest season 6, three movie sequels; Robert Wightman, seasons 8–9 and one movie sequel), the eldest of the seven children\\n* John Walton Sr. (Ralph Waite), the family patriarch\\n* Olivia Walton (Michael Learned, seasons 1–7, guest season 8, and four movies), the matriarch\\n* Zebulon \\\"Grandpa\\\" Walton (Will Geer, seasons 1–6), John's father\\n* Esther \\\"Grandma\\\" Walton (Ellen Corby, seasons 1–5 & 7, sporadically in other seasons, and in five movies), John's mother\\n* Jason Walton (Jon Walmsley, entire series and six movies ), second-oldest brother; musically talented\\n* Mary Ellen Walton (Judy Norton Taylor, entire series and six movies), headstrong oldest daughter; becomes a nurse \\n* Erin Walton (Mary Elizabeth McDonough, entire series and six movies), second Walton daughter; works as a telephone operator and as manufacturing supervisor\\n* Benjamin \\\"Ben\\\" Walton (Eric Scott, entire series and six movies), third Walton son; has an entrepreneurial spirit\\n* James Robert \\\"Jim-Bob\\\" Walton (David W.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nHarper, entire series and six movies), youngest Walton son; mechanically inclined\\n* Elizabeth Walton (Kami Cotler, entire series and six movies), youngest of the seven children\\n* Cindy Walton (Leslie Winston), seasons 7-9 and four of the reunion movies, Ben's wife\\n* Rose Burton (Peggy Rea, seasons 8–9 and one sequel), Olivia's matronly cousin who fills in as matriarch during Olivia's absence\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nInspiration\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nEarl Hamner's rural childhood growing up in the unincorporated community of Schuyler, Virginia, provided the basis for the setting and many of the storylines of The Waltons. His family and the community provided many life experiences which aided in the characters, values, area, and human-interest stories of his books, movies, and television series. Hamner provided the voice-over of the older John-Boy, usually heard at the beginning and end of each episode.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nJohn-Boy Walton's fictional alma mater, Boatwright University, is patterned after Richmond College, which became part of the University of Richmond on Boatwright Drive near Westham Station in The West End of Richmond, Virginia, about seventy miles east of Schuyler.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nFilming\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nThe town of Walton's Mountain was built in the rear area of the Warner Bros. Studios, but the mountain itself was part of the range opposite Warner studios in Burbank, California. The Waltons' house facade was built in the back of the Warner Brothers lot. After the series concluded, the set was destroyed. For the reunion shows, a replica Waltons' house facade was built on the Here Come the Brides set on the Columbia Ranch studio, now part of the Warner Brothers studios. The Waltons' house is still used as scenery at Warner Brothers. For example, it served as the Dragonfly Inn on The Gilmore Girls.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nBroadcast and release\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nSome sources indicate CBS put the show on its Fall 1972 schedule in response to congressional hearings on the quality of television. Backlash from a 1971 decision to purge most rural-oriented shows from the network lineup may have also been a factor. The network gave The Waltons an undesirable timeslot – Thursdays at 8 p.m., opposite two popular programs: The Flip Wilson Show on NBC and The Mod Squad on ABC. \\\"The rumor was that they put it against Flip Wilson and The Mod Squad because they didn't think it would survive. They thought, 'We can just tell Congress America doesn't want to see this',\\\" Kami Cotler, who played Elizabeth Walton, said in a 2012 interview. Ralph Waite was reluctant to audition for the part of John Walton because he didn't want to be tied to a long-running TV series, but his agent persuaded him by saying, \\\"It will never sell. You do the pilot. You pick up a couple of bucks and then you go back to New York.\\\"\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nReception\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nNielsen ratings\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\n*Season 1 (1972–73): #20 \\n*Season 2 (1973–74): #2 \\n*Season 3 (1974–75): #8 \\n*Season 4 (1975–76): #14 \\n*Season 5 (1976–77): #15 \\n*Season 6 (1977–78): #21 \\n*Season 7 (1978–79): Not in the Top 30 \\n*Season 8 (1979–80): Not in the Top 30 \\n*Season 9 (1980–81): #30\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nAccolades\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nThe Waltons won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 1973. Also in 1973 Richard Thomas won the Emmy for Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Michael Learned won the Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama Series three times (1973, 1974, and 1976). Ellen Corby was also a three-time winner in the Supporting Actress category, winning in 1973, 1975, and 1976. Will Geer was awarded the Supporting Actor Emmy in 1975. Veteran actress Beulah Bondi won an Emmy in 1977 for Lead Actress in a Single Performance for her guest appearance as Martha Corrine Walton in the episode \\\"The Pony Cart\\\" (Episode #111). She first appeared in The Waltons episode \\\"The Conflict\\\" (Episode #51) as the widow of Zeb Walton's brother.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nThe series also earned a Peabody Award for its first season.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nIn 2013, TV Guide ranked The Waltons No. 34 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nHome media\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nDVD releases\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nWarner Home Video has released all nine seasons and six TV movies of The Waltons on DVD in Region 1. Seasons 1–4 have been released in Region 2. The pilot movie, The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, was released by Paramount Home Entertainment. Lorimar produced the series, CBS produced the pilot film, which is why Paramount, under CBS Home Entertainment, handles home video rights for The Homecoming.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nGerman-release DVDs provide German or English sound-track options, with dubbed German voices, or the original English soundtrack, although episode titles, in German, are not always either literal or precise translations of the original English-language titles.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nStreaming\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nSeasons 1–9 are available via streaming through services such as Amazon Video.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nSyndication\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nLorimar sold the distribution rights of The Waltons to Warner Bros. Television to avoid a lawsuit owing to the similarities between the series and the film Spencer's Mountain, which Warners owned. Warner Bros. acquired Lorimar in 1989, and has continued to syndicate the series ever since. Reruns currently air in the U.S. on INSP, the Hallmark Channel. In Canada, The Waltons airs on Vision TV and BookTelevision.\",\n \"The Waltons\\n\\nIn the UK, the series was broadcast on BBC 1 and BBC 2 during the 1970s/1980s - the first three seasons were broadcast on BBC 2 from February 18, 1974 to May 17, 1976, on Mondays at 20.00 GMT, and seasons 4 and 5 were shown on BBC One from September 5, 1976 to August 30, 1977, on Sundays at 16.10 in 1976 and Tuesdays at 19.00 through 1977. After that, seasons 6-9 would be broadcast on BBC 2 again, starting on April 30, 1979 and concluding in April 1983. The three reunion TV movies filmed in 1982 were also shown on BBC 2 from December 21 to December 28, 1983. The show was repeated on Channel 4 in the 1990s; it currently airs on True Entertainment in the UK.\"\n]","isConversational":false}}},{"rowIdx":138292,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"qg_4464"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance is used by what insurance company?"},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Geico"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":["government employees insurance company","15 minutes could save you 15 percent or more on car insurance","geico","geico casualty company","lauren wallace","geico direct","geico com","geico insurance","even caveman can do it","geico indemnity company","geico general insurance company","tony nicely"],"string":"[\n \"government employees insurance company\",\n \"15 minutes could save you 15 percent or more on car insurance\",\n \"geico\",\n \"geico casualty company\",\n \"lauren wallace\",\n \"geico direct\",\n \"geico com\",\n \"geico insurance\",\n \"even caveman can do it\",\n \"geico indemnity company\",\n \"geico general insurance company\",\n \"tony nicely\"\n]","isConversational":false},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["GEICO\n\nThe Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO) is an American auto insurance company headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It is the second largest auto insurer in the United States, after State Farm. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway that as of 2015 provided coverage for more than 22 million motor vehicles owned by more than 14 million policy holders. GEICO writes private passenger automobile insurance in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. GEICO sells its policies through local agents, called GEICO Field Representatives, and over the phone directly to the consumer, and through their website. Its mascot is a Gold dust day gecko with a Cockney accent, voiced by English actor Jake Wood. GEICO is well known in popular culture for its advertising, having made a large number of commercials intended\nto entertain viewers.","GEICO\n\nHistory","GEICO\n\nGEICO was founded in 1936 by Leo Goodwin Sr. and his wife Lillian Goodwin to provide auto insurance directly to federal government employees and their families. Since 1925, Goodwin had worked for USAA, an insurer which specialized in insuring only military personnel; he decided to start his own company after rising as far as a civilian could go in USAA's military-dominated hierarchy. Based on Goodwin's experience at USAA, GEICO's original business model was predicated on the assumption that federal employees as a group would constitute a less risky and more financially stable pool of insureds, as opposed to the general public. Despite the presence of the word \"government\" in its name, GEICO has always been a private corporation not affiliated with any government organization.","GEICO\n\nIn 1937, the Goodwins relocated GEICO from San Antonio, Texas to Washington, D.C. and reincorporated the company as a D.C. corporation after realizing that their business model would work best in the place with the highest concentration of federal employees.","GEICO\n\nAn important figure in GEICO's history is David Lloyd Kreeger, who became president of the company in 1964 and helped steer it into a major insurance enterprise. In 1948, he formed a group of investors who bought into GEICO right before it went public that year. He became senior vice president and general counsel of the company. Six years after becoming president of GEICO in 1964, he was named chairman and chief executive officer. He retained those titles until he retired in 1975. He continued as chairman of the executive committee until 1979, when he was named honorary chairman.","GEICO\n\nIn 1974, under Kreeger's leadership, GEICO began to insure the general public, after real-time access to computerized driving records became available throughout the United States, and it was briefly the fifth-largest U.S. auto insurer. By 1975, it was clear that GEICO had expanded far too rapidly (during the 1973–75 recession) when it reported a $126.5 million loss. To prevent GEICO from collapsing, a consortium of 45 insurance companies agreed to take over a quarter of its policies, and it was forced to issue a stock offering (thus diluting existing stockholders) to raise money to pay claims. It took five years (during which the company shrank significantly) and a massive reorganization to set GEICO on the path to recovery.","GEICO\n\nGEICO has also offered other types of insurance besides auto, including homeowner's insurance from 1962 to 1996. A sister company, the Government Employees Life Insurance Company (GELICO), offered life insurance from 1975 to 1985. Although GEICO has since focused on its core auto insurance competency (selling GELICO to Legal & General), it uses its established direct sales infrastructure to market homeowner's and other types of insurance underwritten by other companies.","GEICO\n\nIn 1996, after many years as a publicly traded firm, GEICO became a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.","GEICO\n\nGEICO generally deals directly with consumers via telephone and internet; however, the local agent program has more than 150 offices countrywide. GEICO is now the second largest writer of private auto insurance in the United States.","GEICO\n\nAfter several years of denying claims and even canceling policies for policyholders that used their personal car for ridesharing companies such as Uber and Lyft, GEICO began offering rideshare coverage in select states in 2015, including in high-population states such as Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Georgia. The policy, which is issued through GEICO's commercial department, has received critical praise from insurance experts and quickly launched GEICO as the largest insurance provider for TNC drivers.","GEICO\n\nAdvertising campaigns","GEICO\n\nGEICO has many well-known ad campaigns. In 2012 GEICO spent over $1.1 billion in advertising, or 6.8% of its revenue. All are made and produced by The Martin Agency, which is based in Richmond, Virginia. GEICO ads have featured several well-known mascots, including:\n* The GEICO Gecko is the most prevalent spokesperson mascot and speaks with a Cockney accent. * The GEICO Cavemen (from ads claiming using their website is \"so easy, a caveman could do it\"). * Maxwell, the GEICO \"Piggy\" who shouts a long \"Whee\" and appears in more radio and TV commercials. * Actor Mike McGlone, who uses film noir-style narration to compare the ease of GEICO to things, famous people, or idioms. (\"Could switching to GEICO really save you 15% or more on car insurance?...Is having a snowball fight with pitching great Randy Johnson a bad idea?\") The scene is then acted out, with typically humorous results. In addition to Johnson, other ads have included Charlie Daniels, Andrés Cantor, Foghorn Leghorn, Elmer Fudd, R. Lee Ermey, and Ed \"Too Tall\" Jones among others, including Maxwell the Piggy.","GEICO\n\n* The \"money savers\" campaign enlisted actors to portray average consumers who have resorted to various humorous extremes in order to save money, such as teaching a dog to sing or teaching a group of Guinea pigs to row a boat and perform some mundane task for the consumer, and then presented switching to GEICO as an easy alternative to such endeavors with the common line \".... there's an easier way to save money.\"\n* The \"Happier Than....\" duo features Jimmy (actor Timothy Ryan Cole) and Ronnie (musician Alex Harvey) playing a guitar and a mandolin, respectively, on a small portable stage. They comment on a fictitious preceding event, such as a man dressed in 15th century attire laughing as he leads a trio of speed boats with the painted names Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria.","GEICO\n\nAfter cutting to the duo, one says to the other \"You know, folks who save hundreds of dollars by switching to GEICO sure are happy.\" The other then replied, \"How happy are they, (Jimmy/Ronnie)?\" and in the case above, the response is \"Happier than Christopher Columbus with speedboats!\"\n* CASH, the stack of cash that represents the money you could have saved by switching to GEICO.","GEICO\n\nThere are also GEICO ads that feature stories from GEICO customers about situations in which the company assisted them, but are translated by celebrities like Little Richard and Joan Rivers. Film trailer announcer Don LaFontaine appeared in one such ad, shortly before his death. The tag announcer for these spots was D.C. Douglas. GEICO is also an official sponsor of the National Hockey League and themed commercials for that always feature members of the hometown Washington Capitals.","GEICO\n\nMotorsports","GEICO\n\nGEICO has long been involved in motorsports sponsorships. Since 2008, the company has sponsored the Germain Racing team, first in the NASCAR Nationwide Series with Mike Wallace, and later in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with Max Papis and Casey Mears. Mears has driven the #13 GEICO car since the fall of 2010.","GEICO\n\nCompetition","GEICO\n\nGEICO's major competitors include Amica Mutual Insurance, Liberty Mutual Insurance, State Farm, Allstate, 21st Century Insurance, Progressive, Nationwide Insurance, and United Services Automobile Association."],"string":"[\n \"GEICO\\n\\nThe Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO) is an American auto insurance company headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It is the second largest auto insurer in the United States, after State Farm. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway that as of 2015 provided coverage for more than 22 million motor vehicles owned by more than 14 million policy holders. GEICO writes private passenger automobile insurance in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. GEICO sells its policies through local agents, called GEICO Field Representatives, and over the phone directly to the consumer, and through their website. Its mascot is a Gold dust day gecko with a Cockney accent, voiced by English actor Jake Wood. GEICO is well known in popular culture for its advertising, having made a large number of commercials intended\\nto entertain viewers.\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nHistory\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nGEICO was founded in 1936 by Leo Goodwin Sr. and his wife Lillian Goodwin to provide auto insurance directly to federal government employees and their families. Since 1925, Goodwin had worked for USAA, an insurer which specialized in insuring only military personnel; he decided to start his own company after rising as far as a civilian could go in USAA's military-dominated hierarchy. Based on Goodwin's experience at USAA, GEICO's original business model was predicated on the assumption that federal employees as a group would constitute a less risky and more financially stable pool of insureds, as opposed to the general public. Despite the presence of the word \\\"government\\\" in its name, GEICO has always been a private corporation not affiliated with any government organization.\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nIn 1937, the Goodwins relocated GEICO from San Antonio, Texas to Washington, D.C. and reincorporated the company as a D.C. corporation after realizing that their business model would work best in the place with the highest concentration of federal employees.\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nAn important figure in GEICO's history is David Lloyd Kreeger, who became president of the company in 1964 and helped steer it into a major insurance enterprise. In 1948, he formed a group of investors who bought into GEICO right before it went public that year. He became senior vice president and general counsel of the company. Six years after becoming president of GEICO in 1964, he was named chairman and chief executive officer. He retained those titles until he retired in 1975. He continued as chairman of the executive committee until 1979, when he was named honorary chairman.\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nIn 1974, under Kreeger's leadership, GEICO began to insure the general public, after real-time access to computerized driving records became available throughout the United States, and it was briefly the fifth-largest U.S. auto insurer. By 1975, it was clear that GEICO had expanded far too rapidly (during the 1973–75 recession) when it reported a $126.5 million loss. To prevent GEICO from collapsing, a consortium of 45 insurance companies agreed to take over a quarter of its policies, and it was forced to issue a stock offering (thus diluting existing stockholders) to raise money to pay claims. It took five years (during which the company shrank significantly) and a massive reorganization to set GEICO on the path to recovery.\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nGEICO has also offered other types of insurance besides auto, including homeowner's insurance from 1962 to 1996. A sister company, the Government Employees Life Insurance Company (GELICO), offered life insurance from 1975 to 1985. Although GEICO has since focused on its core auto insurance competency (selling GELICO to Legal & General), it uses its established direct sales infrastructure to market homeowner's and other types of insurance underwritten by other companies.\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nIn 1996, after many years as a publicly traded firm, GEICO became a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nGEICO generally deals directly with consumers via telephone and internet; however, the local agent program has more than 150 offices countrywide. GEICO is now the second largest writer of private auto insurance in the United States.\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nAfter several years of denying claims and even canceling policies for policyholders that used their personal car for ridesharing companies such as Uber and Lyft, GEICO began offering rideshare coverage in select states in 2015, including in high-population states such as Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Georgia. The policy, which is issued through GEICO's commercial department, has received critical praise from insurance experts and quickly launched GEICO as the largest insurance provider for TNC drivers.\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nAdvertising campaigns\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nGEICO has many well-known ad campaigns. In 2012 GEICO spent over $1.1 billion in advertising, or 6.8% of its revenue. All are made and produced by The Martin Agency, which is based in Richmond, Virginia. GEICO ads have featured several well-known mascots, including:\\n* The GEICO Gecko is the most prevalent spokesperson mascot and speaks with a Cockney accent. * The GEICO Cavemen (from ads claiming using their website is \\\"so easy, a caveman could do it\\\"). * Maxwell, the GEICO \\\"Piggy\\\" who shouts a long \\\"Whee\\\" and appears in more radio and TV commercials. * Actor Mike McGlone, who uses film noir-style narration to compare the ease of GEICO to things, famous people, or idioms. (\\\"Could switching to GEICO really save you 15% or more on car insurance?...Is having a snowball fight with pitching great Randy Johnson a bad idea?\\\") The scene is then acted out, with typically humorous results. In addition to Johnson, other ads have included Charlie Daniels, Andrés Cantor, Foghorn Leghorn, Elmer Fudd, R. Lee Ermey, and Ed \\\"Too Tall\\\" Jones among others, including Maxwell the Piggy.\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\n* The \\\"money savers\\\" campaign enlisted actors to portray average consumers who have resorted to various humorous extremes in order to save money, such as teaching a dog to sing or teaching a group of Guinea pigs to row a boat and perform some mundane task for the consumer, and then presented switching to GEICO as an easy alternative to such endeavors with the common line \\\".... there's an easier way to save money.\\\"\\n* The \\\"Happier Than....\\\" duo features Jimmy (actor Timothy Ryan Cole) and Ronnie (musician Alex Harvey) playing a guitar and a mandolin, respectively, on a small portable stage. They comment on a fictitious preceding event, such as a man dressed in 15th century attire laughing as he leads a trio of speed boats with the painted names Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria.\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nAfter cutting to the duo, one says to the other \\\"You know, folks who save hundreds of dollars by switching to GEICO sure are happy.\\\" The other then replied, \\\"How happy are they, (Jimmy/Ronnie)?\\\" and in the case above, the response is \\\"Happier than Christopher Columbus with speedboats!\\\"\\n* CASH, the stack of cash that represents the money you could have saved by switching to GEICO.\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nThere are also GEICO ads that feature stories from GEICO customers about situations in which the company assisted them, but are translated by celebrities like Little Richard and Joan Rivers. Film trailer announcer Don LaFontaine appeared in one such ad, shortly before his death. The tag announcer for these spots was D.C. Douglas. GEICO is also an official sponsor of the National Hockey League and themed commercials for that always feature members of the hometown Washington Capitals.\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nMotorsports\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nGEICO has long been involved in motorsports sponsorships. Since 2008, the company has sponsored the Germain Racing team, first in the NASCAR Nationwide Series with Mike Wallace, and later in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with Max Papis and Casey Mears. Mears has driven the #13 GEICO car since the fall of 2010.\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nCompetition\",\n \"GEICO\\n\\nGEICO's major competitors include Amica Mutual Insurance, Liberty Mutual Insurance, State Farm, Allstate, 21st Century Insurance, Progressive, Nationwide Insurance, and United Services Automobile Association.\"\n]","isConversational":false}}},{"rowIdx":138293,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"qg_4465"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"The continental divide, the point at which watersheds tend to drain to the Pacific, instead of the Atlantic, lies principally along which mountain range?"},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"The Rocky Mountains"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":["rockies","rockys","rockie mountains","central rocky mountains","rocky mountains","western rocky mountains","rocky mountain system","rocky mountain","history of rocky mountains","rockymountains"],"string":"[\n \"rockies\",\n \"rockys\",\n \"rockie mountains\",\n \"central rocky mountains\",\n \"rocky mountains\",\n \"western rocky mountains\",\n \"rocky mountain system\",\n \"rocky mountain\",\n \"history of rocky mountains\",\n \"rockymountains\"\n]","isConversational":false},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nThe Continental Divide of the Americas (also known as the Continental Gulf of Division, the Great Divide, or merely the Continental Divide) is the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas. The Continental Divide extends from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellan, and separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from (1) those river systems that drain into the Atlantic Ocean (including those that drain into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea), and (2) along the northernmost reaches of the Divide, those river systems that drain into the Arctic Ocean.","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nThough there are many other hydrological divides in the Americas, the Great Divide is by far the most prominent of these because it tends to follow a line of high peaks along the main ranges of the Rocky Mountains and Andes, at a generally much higher elevation than the other hydrological divisions.\n__TOC__","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nGeography","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nThe Continental Divide of the Americas begins at Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, the westernmost point on the mainland of the Americas. The Divide crosses northern Alaska into the Yukon, then zig-zags south into British Columbia via the Cassiar Mountains and Omineca Mountains and northern Nechako Plateau to Summit Lake, north of the city of Prince George and just south of the community of McLeod Lake. From there the Divide traverses the McGregor Plateau to the spine of the Rockies, following the crest of the Canadian Rockies southeast to the 120th meridian west, from there forming the boundary between southern British Columbia and southern Alberta.","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nThe Divide crosses into the United States in northwestern Montana, at the boundary between Waterton Lakes National Park and Glacier National Park. In Canada, it forms the western boundary of Waterton Lakes National Park, and in the US bisects Glacier National Park. Further south, the Divide forms the backbone of the Rocky Mountain Front (Front Range) in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, heads south towards Helena and Butte, then west past the namesake community of Divide, Montana through the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness to the Bitterroot Range, where it forms the eastern third of the state boundary between Idaho and Montana. The Divide crosses into Wyoming within Yellowstone National Park and continues southeast into Colorado where it reaches its highest point in North America at the summit of Grays Peak at 4352 m . It crosses US Hwy 160 in southern Colorado at Wolf Creek Pass, where a line symbolizes the division. The Divide then proceeds south into western New Mexico, passing along the western boundary of the endorheic Plains of San Agustin. Although the Divide represents the height of land between watersheds, it does not always follow the highest ranges/peaks within each state or province.","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nIn Mexico, it passes through Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Querétaro, México, the Federal District, Morelos, Puebla, Oaxaca, and Chiapas. In Central America, it continues through southern Guatemala, southwestern Honduras, western Nicaragua, western/southwestern Costa Rica, and southern Panama. The divide reaches its lowest point in Central America at the Isthmus of Rivas at 47 m in Nicaragua.","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nThe Divide continues into South America, where it follows the peaks of the Andes Mountains, traversing western Colombia, central Ecuador, western and southwestern Peru, and eastern Chile (essentially conforming to the Chile-Bolivia and Chile-Argentina boundaries), southward to the southern end of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nIn North America, another, mainly non-mountainous divide, the Laurentian Divide (or Northern Divide), further separates the Hudson Bay-Arctic Ocean drainage region from the Atlantic watershed region. Secondary divides separate the watersheds that flow into the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River (ultimately into the Atlantic) from watersheds that flow to the Atlantic via the Missouri-Mississippi complex. Another secondary divide follows the Appalachian chain, which separates those streams and rivers that flow directly into the Atlantic Ocean from those that exit via the Mississippi River.","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nTriple points","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nTriple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park, Montana, is the point where two of the principal continental divides in North America converge, the Great Divide and the Northern or Laurentian Divide. From this point, waters flow to the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean via the Gulf of Mexico, and the Arctic Ocean via Hudson Bay. Most geographers, geologists, meteorologists, and oceanographers consider this point the hydrological apex of North America. This is not the only place on earth where two oceanic divides meet, i.e., where waters from a single point area feed into three different oceans. This status of Triple Divide Peak is the main reason behind the designation of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park as the \"Crown of the Continent\" of North America. Sources differ, however, on whether Hudson Bay is part of the Atlantic or Arctic Ocean. Hudson Bay's waters flow predominantly to the Atlantic and do not directly contribute to the Arctic Ocean.","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nAnother triple divide or triple point occurs in Canada at an unimportant-looking hump on the border between Alberta and British Columbia, on the south slope of Snow Dome. At 2940 m, the point is higher than Triple Divide Peak. The exact location of the triple point is somewhat indeterminate because the Columbia Icefield and the snow on top of it shift from year to year. The snow that falls on it (about 10 m per year) doesn't really flow downhill as water, it creeps downhill in the form of glacial ice.","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nIce flowing away from that point down the Athabasca Glacier goes to the Arctic Ocean, via the Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers. Ice flowing west goes to the Pacific Ocean via Bryce Creek and the Bush and Columbia Rivers. Ice flowing down the Saskatchewan Glacier goes via the North Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, and Nelson Rivers into Hudson Bay. Some people believe the point on the south slope of Snow Dome to be the hydrological apex of North America because they consider Hudson Bay an extension of the Atlantic Ocean. Despite the fact that many people think of it as being an Arctic water body, Hudson Bay lies entirely south of the Arctic Circle. The channels to the north of it are almost completely cut off by Baffin Island, so nearly all of the water that enters it flows out east via Hudson Strait into the North Atlantic Ocean rather than north into the Arctic Ocean.The result is that nearly all of the ice flowing down the Saskatchewan Glacier eventually ends up as water in the Atlantic Ocean \n.","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nIn fact, there are such triple divide points wherever any two continental divides meet. North America can be considered to have five major drainage systems: into the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, plus Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Within this system there are four continental divides and three triple points, the two mentioned previously and a third near Hibbing, Minnesota where the Northern Divide intersects the Saint Lawrence Seaway divide. Since there is no true consensus on what a continental divide is, there is no real agreement on where the triple points are. However, the main Continental Divide described in this article is a far more distinctive geological feature than the others and its two main triple points are much more prominent.","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nHiking trail","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nThe Continental Divide Trail (CDT) follows the Divide through the U.S. from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. The trail itself is a corridor of pathways - i.e. dedicated footpaths or back roads, either on or near the Continental Divide. A less-developed Canadian extension called the Great Divide Trail continues through five national parks and six provincial parks, ending at Kakwa Lake in east-central British Columbia.","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nExceptions","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nMany endorheic regions in North America complicate the simple view of east or west, \"ocean-bound\" water flow. Several endorheic basins appear to straddle the Continental Divide, including the Great Divide Basin in Wyoming, the Plains of San Agustin in New Mexico, the Guzmán Basin in New Mexico and Chihuahua, Mexico, and the Bolsón de Mapimí in Mexico. However, such a basin can be conceptually assigned to one side of the Divide or the other by its lowest perimeter pass; in other words, the proper assignment can be made by determining how the drainage would occur if the basin were to overflow. In line with this, USGS topographic maps show a unique path for the Divide even when a basin is adjacent.","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nAnother kind of exception occurs when a stream falling onto the Divide splits and flows in both directions, or a lake straddling the divide overflows in both directions. Examples of these are, respectively, North Two Ocean Creek and Isa Lake, both located on the Continental Divide in Wyoming. The Panama Canal has this same feature, being man-made. Both the Chagres and Gatun rivers flow into Gatun Lake, which empties to both oceans.","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nNumerous small lakes along the Divide in the Rocky Mountains between Alberta and British Columbia flow into both provinces and thus into both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. An example is the \"Committee Punch Bowl\", a small lake named by Sir George Simpson, governor of the Hudson Bay Company, while touring his vast Canadian fur-trading empire in 1825. According to historical sources, \"The small circular basin of water at the summit, twenty yards in diameter, is dignified with the name of the 'Committee's Punch Bowl' in honour of which the Governor treated them (his fur traders) to a bottle of wine as they had 'neither time nor convenience to make a bowl of punch, although a glass of it would have been acceptable.'\" The reference is to the governing committee of the Hudson's Bay Company in London, England.","Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nThe Alpine Club of Canada's Abbot Pass Hut sits directly astride the Divide in Abbot Pass on the boundary between Banff National Park and Yoho National Park, and thus rainwater falling on the eastern half of the roof flows via Lake Louise into Hudson Bay, while rain falling on the western half flows via Lake O'Hara into the Pacific Ocean. Ski Resort Sunshine Village crosses the Divide, causing confusion about which province skiers should pay taxes to, Alberta or British Columbia. British Columbia has a 7% provincial sales tax which Alberta does not have.","Mountain range\n\nA mountain range (also mountain barrier, belt, or system) is a geographic area containing numerous geologically related mountains. A mountain system or system of mountain ranges, sometimes is used to combine several geological features that are geographically (regionally) related. On Earth, most significant mountain ranges are the result of plate tectonics, though mountain ranges are formed by a range of processes, are found on many planetary mass objects in the Solar System and are likely a feature of most terrestrial planets.","Mountain range\n\nMountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys. Individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geologic structure or petrology. They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, and volcanic landforms resulting in a variety of rock types.","Mountain range\n\nMajor ranges","Mountain range\n\nMost geologically young mountain ranges on the Earth's land surface are associated with either the Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide Belt. The Pacific Ring of Fire includes the Andes of South America, extends through the North American Cordillera along the Pacific Coast, the Aleutian Range, on through Kamchatka, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, to New Zealand. The Andes is 7000 km long and is often considered the world's longest mountain system.","Mountain range\n\nThe Alpide belt includes Indonesia and southeast Asia, through the Himalaya, and ends in the Alps, Spain and Atlas Mountains. The belt also includes other European and Asian mountain ranges. The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, which is 8848 m high and traverses the border between China and Nepal.","Mountain range\n\nMountain ranges outside of these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera, the Urals, the Appalachians, the Scandinavian Mountains, the Altai Mountains and the Hijaz Mountains. If the definition of a mountain range is stretched to include underwater mountains, then the Ocean Ridges form the longest continuous mountain system on Earth, with a length of .","Mountain range\n\nDivisions and categories","Mountain range\n\nThe mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a tree structure, where mountain ranges can contain sub-ranges. The sub-range relationship is often expressed as a parent-child relationship. For example, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge Mountains are sub-ranges of the Appalachian Mountains. Equivalently, the Appalachians are the parent of the White Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains, and the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains are children of the Appalachians.","Mountain range\n\nThe parent-child expression extends to the sub-ranges themselves: the Sandwich Range and the Presidential Range are children of the White Mountains, while the Presidential Range is parent to the Northern Presidential Range and Southern Presidential Range.","Mountain range\n\nClimate","Mountain range\n\nThe position of mountains influences climate, such as rain or snow. When air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools producing orographic precipitation (rain or snow). As the air descends on the leeward side, it warms again (in accordance with the adiabatic lapse rate) and is drier, having been stripped of much of its moisture. Often, a rain shadow will affect the leeward side of a range.","Mountain range\n\nErosion","Mountain range\n\nMountain ranges are constantly subjected to erosional forces which work to tear them down. Erosion is at work while the mountains are being uplifted and long after until the mountains are reduced to low hills and plains. The rugged topography of a mountain range is the product of erosion. The basins adjacent to an eroding mountain range are filled with sediments which are buried and turned into sedimentary rock.","Mountain range\n\nThe early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an example. As the uplift was occurring some 10000 ft of mostly Mesozoic sedimentary strata were removed by erosion over the core of the mountain range and spread as sand and clays across the Great Plains to the east. This mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing uplift. The removal of such a mass from the core of the range most likely caused further uplift as the region adjusted isostatically in response to the removed weight.","Mountain range\n\nExtraterrestrial \"Montes\"","Mountain range\n\nMountains on other planets and natural satellites of the Solar System are often isolated and formed mainly by processes such as impacts, though there are examples of mountain ranges (or \"Montes\") somewhat similar to those on Earth. Saturn's moon Titan and Pluto, in particular exhibit large mountain ranges in chains composed mainly of ices rather than rock. Examples include the Mithrim Montes and Doom Mons on Titan, and Norgay Montes and Hillary Montes on Pluto. Some terrestrial planets other than Earth also exhibit rocky mountain ranges, such as Maxwell Montes on Venus taller than any on Earth and Tartarus Montes on Mars, Jupiter's moon Io has mountain ranges formed from tectonic processes including Boösaule Montes, Dorian Montes, Hi'iaka Montes and Euboea Montes."],"string":"[\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nThe Continental Divide of the Americas (also known as the Continental Gulf of Division, the Great Divide, or merely the Continental Divide) is the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas. The Continental Divide extends from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellan, and separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from (1) those river systems that drain into the Atlantic Ocean (including those that drain into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea), and (2) along the northernmost reaches of the Divide, those river systems that drain into the Arctic Ocean.\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nThough there are many other hydrological divides in the Americas, the Great Divide is by far the most prominent of these because it tends to follow a line of high peaks along the main ranges of the Rocky Mountains and Andes, at a generally much higher elevation than the other hydrological divisions.\\n__TOC__\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nGeography\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nThe Continental Divide of the Americas begins at Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, the westernmost point on the mainland of the Americas. The Divide crosses northern Alaska into the Yukon, then zig-zags south into British Columbia via the Cassiar Mountains and Omineca Mountains and northern Nechako Plateau to Summit Lake, north of the city of Prince George and just south of the community of McLeod Lake. From there the Divide traverses the McGregor Plateau to the spine of the Rockies, following the crest of the Canadian Rockies southeast to the 120th meridian west, from there forming the boundary between southern British Columbia and southern Alberta.\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nThe Divide crosses into the United States in northwestern Montana, at the boundary between Waterton Lakes National Park and Glacier National Park. In Canada, it forms the western boundary of Waterton Lakes National Park, and in the US bisects Glacier National Park. Further south, the Divide forms the backbone of the Rocky Mountain Front (Front Range) in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, heads south towards Helena and Butte, then west past the namesake community of Divide, Montana through the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness to the Bitterroot Range, where it forms the eastern third of the state boundary between Idaho and Montana. The Divide crosses into Wyoming within Yellowstone National Park and continues southeast into Colorado where it reaches its highest point in North America at the summit of Grays Peak at 4352 m . It crosses US Hwy 160 in southern Colorado at Wolf Creek Pass, where a line symbolizes the division. The Divide then proceeds south into western New Mexico, passing along the western boundary of the endorheic Plains of San Agustin. Although the Divide represents the height of land between watersheds, it does not always follow the highest ranges/peaks within each state or province.\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nIn Mexico, it passes through Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Querétaro, México, the Federal District, Morelos, Puebla, Oaxaca, and Chiapas. In Central America, it continues through southern Guatemala, southwestern Honduras, western Nicaragua, western/southwestern Costa Rica, and southern Panama. The divide reaches its lowest point in Central America at the Isthmus of Rivas at 47 m in Nicaragua.\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nThe Divide continues into South America, where it follows the peaks of the Andes Mountains, traversing western Colombia, central Ecuador, western and southwestern Peru, and eastern Chile (essentially conforming to the Chile-Bolivia and Chile-Argentina boundaries), southward to the southern end of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nIn North America, another, mainly non-mountainous divide, the Laurentian Divide (or Northern Divide), further separates the Hudson Bay-Arctic Ocean drainage region from the Atlantic watershed region. Secondary divides separate the watersheds that flow into the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River (ultimately into the Atlantic) from watersheds that flow to the Atlantic via the Missouri-Mississippi complex. Another secondary divide follows the Appalachian chain, which separates those streams and rivers that flow directly into the Atlantic Ocean from those that exit via the Mississippi River.\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nTriple points\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nTriple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park, Montana, is the point where two of the principal continental divides in North America converge, the Great Divide and the Northern or Laurentian Divide. From this point, waters flow to the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean via the Gulf of Mexico, and the Arctic Ocean via Hudson Bay. Most geographers, geologists, meteorologists, and oceanographers consider this point the hydrological apex of North America. This is not the only place on earth where two oceanic divides meet, i.e., where waters from a single point area feed into three different oceans. This status of Triple Divide Peak is the main reason behind the designation of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park as the \\\"Crown of the Continent\\\" of North America. Sources differ, however, on whether Hudson Bay is part of the Atlantic or Arctic Ocean. Hudson Bay's waters flow predominantly to the Atlantic and do not directly contribute to the Arctic Ocean.\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nAnother triple divide or triple point occurs in Canada at an unimportant-looking hump on the border between Alberta and British Columbia, on the south slope of Snow Dome. At 2940 m, the point is higher than Triple Divide Peak. The exact location of the triple point is somewhat indeterminate because the Columbia Icefield and the snow on top of it shift from year to year. The snow that falls on it (about 10 m per year) doesn't really flow downhill as water, it creeps downhill in the form of glacial ice.\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nIce flowing away from that point down the Athabasca Glacier goes to the Arctic Ocean, via the Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers. Ice flowing west goes to the Pacific Ocean via Bryce Creek and the Bush and Columbia Rivers. Ice flowing down the Saskatchewan Glacier goes via the North Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, and Nelson Rivers into Hudson Bay. Some people believe the point on the south slope of Snow Dome to be the hydrological apex of North America because they consider Hudson Bay an extension of the Atlantic Ocean. Despite the fact that many people think of it as being an Arctic water body, Hudson Bay lies entirely south of the Arctic Circle. The channels to the north of it are almost completely cut off by Baffin Island, so nearly all of the water that enters it flows out east via Hudson Strait into the North Atlantic Ocean rather than north into the Arctic Ocean.The result is that nearly all of the ice flowing down the Saskatchewan Glacier eventually ends up as water in the Atlantic Ocean \\n.\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nIn fact, there are such triple divide points wherever any two continental divides meet. North America can be considered to have five major drainage systems: into the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, plus Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Within this system there are four continental divides and three triple points, the two mentioned previously and a third near Hibbing, Minnesota where the Northern Divide intersects the Saint Lawrence Seaway divide. Since there is no true consensus on what a continental divide is, there is no real agreement on where the triple points are. However, the main Continental Divide described in this article is a far more distinctive geological feature than the others and its two main triple points are much more prominent.\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nHiking trail\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nThe Continental Divide Trail (CDT) follows the Divide through the U.S. from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. The trail itself is a corridor of pathways - i.e. dedicated footpaths or back roads, either on or near the Continental Divide. A less-developed Canadian extension called the Great Divide Trail continues through five national parks and six provincial parks, ending at Kakwa Lake in east-central British Columbia.\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nExceptions\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nMany endorheic regions in North America complicate the simple view of east or west, \\\"ocean-bound\\\" water flow. Several endorheic basins appear to straddle the Continental Divide, including the Great Divide Basin in Wyoming, the Plains of San Agustin in New Mexico, the Guzmán Basin in New Mexico and Chihuahua, Mexico, and the Bolsón de Mapimí in Mexico. However, such a basin can be conceptually assigned to one side of the Divide or the other by its lowest perimeter pass; in other words, the proper assignment can be made by determining how the drainage would occur if the basin were to overflow. In line with this, USGS topographic maps show a unique path for the Divide even when a basin is adjacent.\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nAnother kind of exception occurs when a stream falling onto the Divide splits and flows in both directions, or a lake straddling the divide overflows in both directions. Examples of these are, respectively, North Two Ocean Creek and Isa Lake, both located on the Continental Divide in Wyoming. The Panama Canal has this same feature, being man-made. Both the Chagres and Gatun rivers flow into Gatun Lake, which empties to both oceans.\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nNumerous small lakes along the Divide in the Rocky Mountains between Alberta and British Columbia flow into both provinces and thus into both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. An example is the \\\"Committee Punch Bowl\\\", a small lake named by Sir George Simpson, governor of the Hudson Bay Company, while touring his vast Canadian fur-trading empire in 1825. According to historical sources, \\\"The small circular basin of water at the summit, twenty yards in diameter, is dignified with the name of the 'Committee's Punch Bowl' in honour of which the Governor treated them (his fur traders) to a bottle of wine as they had 'neither time nor convenience to make a bowl of punch, although a glass of it would have been acceptable.'\\\" The reference is to the governing committee of the Hudson's Bay Company in London, England.\",\n \"Continental Divide of the Americas\\n\\nThe Alpine Club of Canada's Abbot Pass Hut sits directly astride the Divide in Abbot Pass on the boundary between Banff National Park and Yoho National Park, and thus rainwater falling on the eastern half of the roof flows via Lake Louise into Hudson Bay, while rain falling on the western half flows via Lake O'Hara into the Pacific Ocean. Ski Resort Sunshine Village crosses the Divide, causing confusion about which province skiers should pay taxes to, Alberta or British Columbia. British Columbia has a 7% provincial sales tax which Alberta does not have.\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nA mountain range (also mountain barrier, belt, or system) is a geographic area containing numerous geologically related mountains. A mountain system or system of mountain ranges, sometimes is used to combine several geological features that are geographically (regionally) related. On Earth, most significant mountain ranges are the result of plate tectonics, though mountain ranges are formed by a range of processes, are found on many planetary mass objects in the Solar System and are likely a feature of most terrestrial planets.\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nMountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys. Individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geologic structure or petrology. They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, and volcanic landforms resulting in a variety of rock types.\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nMajor ranges\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nMost geologically young mountain ranges on the Earth's land surface are associated with either the Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide Belt. The Pacific Ring of Fire includes the Andes of South America, extends through the North American Cordillera along the Pacific Coast, the Aleutian Range, on through Kamchatka, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, to New Zealand. The Andes is 7000 km long and is often considered the world's longest mountain system.\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nThe Alpide belt includes Indonesia and southeast Asia, through the Himalaya, and ends in the Alps, Spain and Atlas Mountains. The belt also includes other European and Asian mountain ranges. The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, which is 8848 m high and traverses the border between China and Nepal.\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nMountain ranges outside of these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera, the Urals, the Appalachians, the Scandinavian Mountains, the Altai Mountains and the Hijaz Mountains. If the definition of a mountain range is stretched to include underwater mountains, then the Ocean Ridges form the longest continuous mountain system on Earth, with a length of .\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nDivisions and categories\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nThe mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a tree structure, where mountain ranges can contain sub-ranges. The sub-range relationship is often expressed as a parent-child relationship. For example, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge Mountains are sub-ranges of the Appalachian Mountains. Equivalently, the Appalachians are the parent of the White Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains, and the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains are children of the Appalachians.\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nThe parent-child expression extends to the sub-ranges themselves: the Sandwich Range and the Presidential Range are children of the White Mountains, while the Presidential Range is parent to the Northern Presidential Range and Southern Presidential Range.\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nClimate\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nThe position of mountains influences climate, such as rain or snow. When air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools producing orographic precipitation (rain or snow). As the air descends on the leeward side, it warms again (in accordance with the adiabatic lapse rate) and is drier, having been stripped of much of its moisture. Often, a rain shadow will affect the leeward side of a range.\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nErosion\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nMountain ranges are constantly subjected to erosional forces which work to tear them down. Erosion is at work while the mountains are being uplifted and long after until the mountains are reduced to low hills and plains. The rugged topography of a mountain range is the product of erosion. The basins adjacent to an eroding mountain range are filled with sediments which are buried and turned into sedimentary rock.\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nThe early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an example. As the uplift was occurring some 10000 ft of mostly Mesozoic sedimentary strata were removed by erosion over the core of the mountain range and spread as sand and clays across the Great Plains to the east. This mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing uplift. The removal of such a mass from the core of the range most likely caused further uplift as the region adjusted isostatically in response to the removed weight.\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nExtraterrestrial \\\"Montes\\\"\",\n \"Mountain range\\n\\nMountains on other planets and natural satellites of the Solar System are often isolated and formed mainly by processes such as impacts, though there are examples of mountain ranges (or \\\"Montes\\\") somewhat similar to those on Earth. Saturn's moon Titan and Pluto, in particular exhibit large mountain ranges in chains composed mainly of ices rather than rock. Examples include the Mithrim Montes and Doom Mons on Titan, and Norgay Montes and Hillary Montes on Pluto. Some terrestrial planets other than Earth also exhibit rocky mountain ranges, such as Maxwell Montes on Venus taller than any on Earth and Tartarus Montes on Mars, Jupiter's moon Io has mountain ranges formed from tectonic processes including Boösaule Montes, Dorian Montes, Hi'iaka Montes and Euboea Montes.\"\n]","isConversational":false}}},{"rowIdx":138294,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"qg_4468"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"What was the name by which we called Thailand before 1939 and between 1945 and 1949?"},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Siam"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":["thailand","kingdom of thailand","kingdom of thai","เมืองไทย","prathet thai","name of thailand","thayland","taihland","muang thai","iso 3166 1 th","skateboarding in thailand","thai kingdom","sport in thailand","siam thailand","sayam","siam","ratcha anachak thai","ราชอาณาจักรไทย","etymology of thailand","tailand","thailande","ประเทศไทย","thai empire"],"string":"[\n \"thailand\",\n \"kingdom of thailand\",\n \"kingdom of thai\",\n \"เมืองไทย\",\n \"prathet thai\",\n \"name of thailand\",\n \"thayland\",\n \"taihland\",\n \"muang thai\",\n \"iso 3166 1 th\",\n \"skateboarding in thailand\",\n \"thai kingdom\",\n \"sport in thailand\",\n \"siam thailand\",\n \"sayam\",\n \"siam\",\n \"ratcha anachak thai\",\n \"ราชอาณาจักรไทย\",\n \"etymology of thailand\",\n \"tailand\",\n \"thailande\",\n \"ประเทศไทย\",\n \"thai empire\"\n]","isConversational":false},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Thailand\n\nThailand ( or ; , );, officially the Kingdom of Thailand (, ;), formerly known as Siam (; ), is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula. It is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Myanmar. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. With a total area of approximately 513000 km2, Thailand is the world's 51st-largest country. It is the 20th-most-populous country in the world, with around 66 million people. The capital and largest city is Bangkok.","Thailand\n\nThailand is governed by the National Council for Peace and Order that took power in the May 2014 coup d'état. Its monarchy is headed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has reigned since 1946 as Rama IX, as he is the ninth monarch of the Chakri Dynasty. He is currently the world's longest-serving head of state and the country's longest-reigning monarch; he has reigned for .","Thailand\n\nThailand experienced rapid economic growth between 1985 and 1996, becoming a newly industrialised country and a major exporter. Manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism are leading sectors of the economy. Among the ten ASEAN countries, Thailand ranks third in quality of life. and the country's HDI is rated as \"high\". Its large population and growing economic influence have made it a middle power in the region and around the world.","Thailand\n\nEtymology","Thailand\n\nEtymology of \"Siam\"","Thailand\n\nThe country has always been called Mueang Thai by its citizens. By others, it is known by the exonym Siam ( ,, also spelled Siem, Syâm, or Syâma). The word Siam has been identified with the Sanskrit Śyāma (श्याम, meaning \"dark\" or \"brown\"). The names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word. The word Śyâma is possibly not its origin, but a learned and artificial distortion.","Thailand\n\nThe signature of King Mongkut (r. 1851 – 1868) reads SPPM (Somdet Phra Poramenthra Maha) Mongkut King of the Siamese, giving the name \"Siam\" official status until 23 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand. Thailand was renamed Siam from 1945 to 11 May 1949, after which it again reverted to Thailand.","Thailand\n\nEtymology of \"Thailand\"","Thailand\n\nAccording to George Cœdès, the word Thai (ไทย) means \"free man\" in the Thai language, \"differentiating the Thai from the natives encompassed in Thai society as serfs.\" A famous Thai scholar argued that Thai () simply means \"people\" or \"human being\", since his investigation shows that in some rural areas the word \"Thai\" was used instead of the usual Thai word \"khon\" (คน) for people.","Thailand\n\nWhile Thai people will often refer to their country using the polite form prathet Thai (), they most commonly use the more colloquial term mueang Thai () or simply Thai, the word mueang, archaically a city-state, commonly used to refer to a city or town as the centre of a region. Ratcha Anachak Thai () means \"kingdom of Thailand\" or \"kingdom of Thai\". Etymologically, its components are: ratcha (Sanskrit raja \"king, royal, realm\") ; -ana- (Pali āṇā \"authority, command, power\", itself from an Old Indo-Aryan form ājñā of the same meaning) -chak (from Sanskrit cakra- \"wheel\", a symbol of power and rule). The Thai National Anthem (), written by Luang Saranupraphan during the extremely patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as: prathet Thai (Thai: ประเทศไทย). The first line of the national anthem is: prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai (), \"Thailand is the unity of Thai flesh and blood.\"","Thailand\n\nHistory","Thailand\n\nThere is evidence of human habitation in Thailand that has been dated at 40,000 years before the present, with stone artefacts dated to this period at Tham Lod Rockshelter in Mae Hong Son. Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, Thailand was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India, starting with the Kingdom of Funan around the 1st century CE to the Khmer Empire. Thailand in its earliest days was under the rule of the Khmer Empire, which had strong Hindu roots, and the influence among Thais remains even today.","Thailand\n\nIndian influence on Thai culture was partly the result of direct contact with Indian settlers, but mainly it was brought about indirectly via the Indianized kingdoms of Dvaravati, Srivijaya, and Cambodia. E.A. Voretzsch believes that Buddhism must have been flowing into Siam from India in the time of the Indian Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire and far on into the first millennium after Christ. Later Thailand was influenced by the south Indian Pallava dynasty and north Indian Gupta Empire.","Thailand\n\nAccording to George Cœdès, \"The Thai first enter history of Farther India in the eleventh century with the mention of Syam slaves or prisoners of war in\" Champa epigraphy, and \"in the twelfth century, the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat\" where \"a group of warriors\" are described as Syam. Additionally, \"the Mongols, after the seizure of Ta-li on January 7, 1253 and the pacification of Yunnan in 1257, did not look with disfavor on the creation of a series of Thai principalities at the expense of the old Indianized kingdoms.\" The Menam Basin was originally populated by the Mons, and the location of Dvaravati in the 7th century, followed by the Khmer Empire in the 11th. The History of the Yuan mentions an embassy from the kingdom of Sukhothai in 1282. In 1287, three Thai chiefs, Mangrai, Ngam Muang, and Ram Khamhaeng formed a \"strong pact of friendship\".","Thailand\n\nAfter the fall of the Khmer Empire in the 13th century, various states thrived there, established by the various Tai peoples, Mons, Khmers, Chams and Ethnic Malays, as seen through the numerous archaeological sites and artefacts that are scattered throughout the Siamese landscape. Prior to the 12th century however, the first Thai or Siamese state is traditionally considered to be the Buddhist Sukhothai Kingdom, which was founded in 1238.","Thailand\n\nFollowing the decline and fall of the Khmer empire in the 13th–15th century, the Buddhist Tai kingdoms of Sukhothai, Lanna, and Lan Xang (now Laos) were on the rise. However, a century later, the power of Sukhothai was overshadowed by the new Kingdom of Ayutthaya, established in the mid-14th-century in the lower Chao Phraya River or Menam area.","Thailand\n\nAyutthaya's expansion centred along the Menam while in the northern valleys the Lanna Kingdom and other small Tai city-states ruled the area. In 1431, the Khmer abandoned Angkor after Ayutthaya forces invaded the city. Thailand retained a tradition of trade with its neighbouring states, from China to India, Persia, and Arab lands. Ayutthaya became one of the most vibrant trading centres in Asia. European traders arrived in the 16th century, beginning with the Portuguese, followed by the French, Dutch, and English. The Burmese–Siamese War (1765–1767) left Ayutthaya burned and sacked by King Hsinbyushin.","Thailand\n\nAfter the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 to the Burmese, Taksin moved the capital to Thonburi for approximately 15 years. The current Rattanakosin era of Thai history began in 1782 following the establishment of Bangkok as capital of the Chakri Dynasty under King Rama I the Great. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, \"A quarter to a third of the population of some areas of Thailand and Burma were slaves in the 17th through the 19th centuries.\"","Thailand\n\nDespite European pressure, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian nation to never have been colonised. This has been ascribed to the long succession of able rulers in the past four centuries who exploited the rivalry and tension between French Indochina and the British Empire. As a result, the country remained a buffer state between parts of Southeast Asia that were colonised by the two colonial powers, Great Britain and France. Western influence nevertheless led to many reforms in the 19th century and major concessions, most notably the loss of a large territory on the east side of the Mekong to the French and the step-by-step absorption by Britain of the Shan and Karen people areas and Malay Peninsula.","Thailand\n\n20th century","Thailand\n\nAs part of the concessions which the Chakkri Dynasty offered to the British Empire in return for their support, Siam ceded four predominantly ethnic-Malay southern provinces to the British Empire in the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909. These four provinces (Kelantan,Tringganu, Kedah, Perlis) would later became Malaysia's four northern states.","Thailand\n\nIn 1917, Siam joined the Allies of World War I and is counted as one of the victors of World War I.","Thailand\n\nIn 1932, a bloodless revolution carried out by the Khana Ratsadon group of military and civilian officials resulted in a transition of power, when King Prajadhipok was forced to grant the people of Siam their first constitution, thereby ending centuries of absolute monarchy.","Thailand\n\nIn 1939, the name of the kingdom, \"Siam\", was changed to \"Thailand\".","Thailand\n\nWorld War II","Thailand\n\nDuring World War II, the Empire of Japan demanded the right to move troops across Thailand to the Malayan frontier. The Japanese invasion of Thailand on 8 December 1941 occurred in co-ordination with attacks throughout Asia and engaged the Royal Thai Army for six to eight hours before Plaek Phibunsongkhram ordered an armistice. Shortly thereafter, Japan was granted free passage, and on 21 December 1941, Thailand and Japan signed a military alliance with a secret protocol, wherein Tokyo agreed to help Thailand regain territories lost to the British and French.","Thailand\n\nSubsequently, Thailand declared war on the United States and the United Kingdom on 25 January 1942, and undertook to \"assist\" Japan in its war against the Allies, while at the same time maintaining an active anti-Japanese Free Thai Movement. Approximately 200,000 Asian labourers (mainly romusha) and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) worked on the Burma Railway, which is commonly known as the \"Death Railway\".","Thailand\n\nAfter the war, Thailand emerged as an ally of the United States. As with many of the developing nations during the Cold War, Thailand then went through decades of political instability characterised by a number of coups d'état, as one military regime replaced another, but eventually progressed towards a stable, prosperous democracy in the 1980s.","Thailand\n\nFile:BlackCeramicBanChiangCultureThailand1200-800BCE.jpg|Pottery discovered near Ban Chiang in Udon Thani Province, the earliest dating to 2100 BCE.\nFile:Pimai1.jpg|Phimai, Prasat Phimai is the largest temple in the country from the Khmer Empire.\nFile:วัดพนัญเชิงวรวิหาร by Pholtograph.jpg|The immense 19 m gilded statue of a seated Buddha in Wat Phanan Choeng, the latter from 1324, pre-dates the founding of the city of Ayutthaya\nFile:Wat Si Chum in Sukhothai.jpg|A 15 m Buddha image in Sukhothai, Phra Achana , built in the 13th century\nFile:Iudea-Ayutthaya.jpg|Painting of Ayutthaya, ordered by the Dutch East India Company, 1665.\nFile:Siamese envoys at Versailles.jpg|Kosa Pan present King Narai's letter to Louis XIV at Versailles, 1 September 1686.","Thailand\n\nPolitics and government","Thailand\n\nThe politics of Thailand is currently conducted within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government and a hereditary monarch is head of state. The judiciary is supposed to be independent of the executive and the legislative branches, although judicial rulings are suspected of being based on political considerations rather than on existing law.","Thailand\n\nConstitutional history","Thailand\n\nSince the political reform of the absolute monarchy in 1932, Thailand has had 19 constitutions and charters. Throughout this time, the form of government has ranged from military dictatorship to electoral democracy, but all governments have acknowledged a hereditary monarch as the head of state.","Thailand\n\n28 June 1932","Thailand\n\nPrior to 1932, the Kingdom of Siam did not possess a legislature, as all legislative powers were vested in the person of the monarch. This had been the case since the foundation of the Sukhothai Kingdom in the 12th century as the king was seen as a \"Dharmaraja\" or \"king who rules in accordance with Dharma\", (the Buddhist law of righteousness). However, on 24 June 1932 a group of civilians and military officers, calling themselves the Khana Ratsadon (or People's Party) carried out a bloodless revolution in which the 150 years of absolute rule of the Chakri Dynasty ended. In its stead the group advocated a constitutional form of monarchy with an elected legislature.","Thailand\n\nThe \"Draft Constitution\" of 1932 signed by King Prajadhipok created Thailand's first legislature, a People's Assembly with 70 appointed members. The assembly met for the first time on 28 June 1932, in the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall. The Khana Ratsadon decided that the people were not yet ready for an elected assembly. They later changed their minds. By the time the \"permanent\" constitution came into force in December of that year, elections were scheduled for 15 November 1933. The new constitution changed the composition of the assembly to 78 directly elected and 78 appointed (by the Khana Ratsadon), together totalling 156 members.","Thailand\n\n1932 to 1973","Thailand\n\nThe history of Thailand from 1932 to 1973 was dominated by military dictatorships which were in power for much of the period. The main personalities of the period were the dictator Luang Phibunsongkhram (better known as Phibun), who allied the country with Japan during the Second World War, and the civilian politician Pridi Phanomyong, who founded Thammasat University and was briefly the prime minister after the war.","Thailand\n\nJapan invaded Thailand on 8 December 1941. For events subsequent to the abdication of the king, including the name change of 1939, up to the coup d'état of 1957, see Plaek Pibulsonggram.","Thailand\n\nA succession of military dictators followed Pridi's ousting — Phibun again, Sarit Dhanarajata and Thanom Kittikachorn — under whom traditional, authoritarian rule was combined with increasing modernisation and westernisation under the influence of the US. The end of the period was marked by Thanom's resignation, following a massacre of pro-democracy protesters led by Thammasat students. Thanom misread the situation as a coup d'état, and fled, leaving the country leaderless. HM appointed Thammasat University chancellor Sanya Dharmasakti PM by royal command.","Thailand\n\nThailand helped the USA and South Vietnam in the Vietnam War between 1965–1971. The USAF based F-4 Phantom fighters at Udon and Ubon Air Base, and stationed B-52s at U-Tapao. Thai forces also saw heavy action in the covert war in Laos that occurred from 1964 to 1972.","Thailand\n\n1973 to 1997","Thailand\n\n1997 to 2001","Thailand\n\nThe 1997 Constitution was the first constitution to be drafted by popularly elected Constitutional Drafting Assembly, and was popularly called the \"people's constitution\". The 1997 Constitution created a bicameral legislature consisting of a 500-seat House of Representatives (สภาผู้แทนราษฎร, sapha phu thaen ratsadon) and a 200-seat Senate (วุฒิสภา, wutthisapha). For the first time in Thai history, both houses were directly elected.","Thailand\n\nMany human rights were explicitly acknowledged, and measures were established to increase the stability of elected governments. The House was elected by the first past the post system, where only one candidate with a simple majority could be elected in one constituency. The Senate was elected based on the provincial system, where one province could return more than one senator depending on its population size.","Thailand\n\nThe two houses of the National Assembly have two different terms. In accordance with the constitution the Senate is elected to a six-year term, while the House is elected to a four-year term. Overall the term of the National Assembly is based on that of the House. The National Assembly each year will sit in two sessions: an \"ordinary session\" and a \"legislative session\". The first session of the National Assembly must take place within thirty days after the general election of the House of Representatives. The first session must be opened by the king in person by reading a Speech from the Throne; this ceremony is held in the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall. He may also appoint the crown prince or a representative to carry out this duty. It is also the duty of the king to prorogue sessions through a royal decree when the House term expires. The king also has the prerogative to call extraordinary sessions and prolong sessions upon advice of the House of Representatives.","Thailand\n\nThe National Assembly may host a \"joint-sitting\" of both Houses under several circumstances. These include: The appointment of a regent, any alteration to the 1924 Palace Law of Succession, the opening of the first session, the announcement of policies by the Cabinet of Thailand, the approval of the declaration of war, the hearing of explanations and approval of a treaty and the amendment of the Constitution.","Thailand\n\nMembers of the House of Representatives served four-year terms, while senators served six-year terms. The 1997 People's Constitution also promoted human rights more than any other constitution. The court system (ศาล, san) included a constitutional court with jurisdiction over the constitutionality of parliamentary acts, royal decrees, and political matters.","Thailand\n\n2001 to 2008","Thailand\n\nThe January 2001 general election, the first election under the 1997 Constitution, was called the most open, corruption-free election in Thai history. \nThai Rak Thai Party, led by Thaksin Shinawatra won the election. The Thaksin government was the first in Thai history to complete a four-year term. The 2005 election had the highest voter turnout in Thai history, and Thai Rak Thai Party won an absolute majority. However, despite efforts to clean up the system, vote buying and electoral violence remained electoral problems in 2005.","Thailand\n\nThe PollWatch Foundation, Thailand's most prominent election watchdog, declared that vote buying in this election, specifically in the north and the northeast, was more serious than in the 2001 election. The organisation also accused the government of violating the election law by abusing state power in presenting new projects in a bid to seek votes.","Thailand\n\n2006 coup d'état","Thailand\n\nWithout meeting much resistance, a military junta overthrew the interim government of Thaksin Shinawatra on 19 September 2006. The junta abrogated the constitution, dissolved Parliament and the Constitutional Court, detained and later removed several members of the government, declared martial law, and appointed one of the king's Privy Counselors, General Surayud Chulanont, as the Prime Minister. The junta later wrote a highly abbreviated interim constitution and appointed a panel to draft a new permanent constitution. The junta also appointed a 250-member legislature, called by some critics a \"chamber of generals\" while others claimed that it lacks representatives from the poor majority.","Thailand\n\nIn this interim constitution draft, the head of the junta was allowed to remove the prime minister at any time. The legislature was not allowed to hold a vote of confidence against the cabinet and the public was not allowed to file comments on bills. This interim constitution was later surpassed by the permanent constitution on 24 August 2007. Martial law was partially revoked in January 2007. The ban on political activities was lifted in July 2007, following the 30 May dissolution of the Thai Rak Thai party. The new constitution was approved by referendum on 19 August, which led to a return to a democratic general election on 23 December 2007.","Thailand\n\n2008–2010 political crisis","Thailand\n\nThe People's Power Party (Thailand), led by Samak Sundaravej formed a government with five smaller parties. Following several court rulings against him in a variety of scandals, and surviving a vote of no confidence, and protesters blockading government buildings and airports, in September 2008, Sundaravej was found guilty of conflict of interest by the Constitutional Court of Thailand (due to being a host in a TV cooking program), and thus, ended his term in office.","Thailand\n\nHe was replaced by PPP member Somchai Wongsawat. As of October 2008, Wongsawat was unable to gain access to his offices, which were occupied by protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy. On 2 December 2008, Thailand's Constitutional Court in a highly controversial ruling found the Peoples Power Party guilty of electoral fraud, which led to the dissolution of the party according to the law. It was later alleged in media reports that at least one member of the judiciary had a telephone conversation with officials working for the Office of the Privy Council and one other. The phone call was taped and has since circulated on the Internet. In it, the callers discuss finding a way to ensure the ruling PPP party would be disbanded. Accusations of judicial interference were levelled in the media but the recorded call was dismissed as a hoax. However, in June 2010, supporters of the eventually disbanded PPP were charged with tapping a judge's phone.","Thailand\n\nImmediately following what many media described as a \"judicial coup\", a senior member of the Armed Forces met with factions of the governing coalition to get their members to join the opposition and the Democrat Party was able to form a government, a first for the party since 2001. The leader of the Democrat party, and former leader of the opposition, Abhisit Vejjajiva was appointed and sworn-in as the 27th Prime Minister, together with the new cabinet on 17 December 2008.","Thailand\n\nIn April 2009, protests by the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD, or \"Red Shirts\") forced the cancellation of the Fourth East Asia Summit after protesters stormed the Royal Cliff hotel venue in Pattaya, smashing the glass doors of the venue to gain entry, and a blockade prevented the Chinese premier at the time, Wen Jiabao, from attending. The summit was eventually held in Thailand in October 2009.","Thailand\n\nAbout a year later, a set of new \"Red Shirts\" protests resulted in 87 deaths (mostly civilian and some military) and 1,378 injured. When the army tried to disperse the protesters on 10 April 2010, the army was met with automatic gunfire, grenades, and fire bombs from the opposition faction in the army, known as the \"watermelon\". This resulted in the army returning fire with rubber bullets and some live ammunition. During the time of the \"red shirt\" protests against the government, there have been numerous grenade and bomb attacks against government offices and the homes of government officials. Gas grenades were fired at \"yellow-shirt\" protesters, that were protesting against the \"red-shirts\" and in favour of the government, by unknown gunmen killing one pro-government protester, the government stated that the Red Shirts were firing the weapons at civilians. Red-shirts continued to hold a position in the business district of Bangkok and it was shut down for several weeks.","Thailand\n\nOn 3 July 2011, the oppositional Pheu Thai Party, led by Yingluck Shinawatra (the youngest sister of Thaksin Shinawatra), won the general election by a landslide (265 seats in the House of Representatives, out of 500). She had never previously been involved in politics, Pheu Thai campaigning for her with the slogan 'Thaksin thinks, Pheu Thai acts'. Yingluck is the nation's first female prime minister and her role was officially endorsed in a ceremony presided over by King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The Pheu Thai Party is a continuation of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party.","Thailand\n\n2013–2014 political crisis","Thailand\n\nProtests recommenced in late 2013, as a broad alliance of protestors, led by former opposition deputy leader Suthep Thaugsuban, demanded an end to the so-called Thaksin regime. A blanket amnesty for people involved in the 2010 protests, altered at the last minute to include all political crimes – including all convictions against Thaksin – triggered a mass show of discontent, with numbers variously estimated between 98,500 (the police) and 400,000 (an aerial photo survey done by the Bangkok Post), taking to the streets. The Senate was urged to reject the bill to quell the reaction, but the measure failed. A newly named group, the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) along with allied groups, escalated the pressure, with the opposition Democrat party resigning en masse to create a parliamentary vacuum. Protesters demands variously evolved as the movement's numbers grew, extending a number of deadlines and demands that became increasingly unreasonable or unrealistic, yet attracting a groundswell of support. They called for the establishment of an indirectly elected “people’s council”—in place of Yingluck's government—that will cleanse Thai politics and eradicate the Thaksin regime.","Thailand\n\nIn response to the intensive protests, Yingluck dissolved parliament on 9 December 2013 and proposed a new election for 2 February 2014, a date that was later approved by the election commission. The PDRC insisted that the prime minister stand down within 24 hours, regardless of her actions, with 160,000 protesters in attendance at Government House on 9 December. Yingluck insisted that she would continue her duties until the scheduled election in February 2014, urging the protesters to accept her proposal: \"Now that the government has dissolved parliament, I ask that you stop protesting and that all sides work towards elections. I have backed down to the point where I don't know how to back down any further.\"","Thailand\n\nIn response to the Electoral Commission (EC)'s registration process for party-list candidates—for the scheduled election in February 2014—anti-government protesters marched to the Thai-Japanese sports stadium, the venue of the registration process, on 22 December 2013. Suthep and the PDRC led the protest, of which security forces claimed that approximately 270,000 protesters joined. Yingluck and the Pheu Thai Party reiterated their election plan and anticipate presenting a list of 125 party-list candidates to the EC.","Thailand\n\nOn 7 May 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled that Yingluck would have to step down as the Prime Minister as she was deemed to have abused her power in transferring a high-level government official. On 21 August 2014 she was replaced by army chief General Prayut Chan-o-cha.","Thailand\n\n2014 coup d'état","Thailand\n\nOn 20 May 2014 the Thai army declared martial law and began to deploy troops in the capital, denying that it was a coup attempt. On 22 May, the army admitted that it was a coup and that it was taking control of the country and suspending the country's constitution. On the same day, the military imposed a curfew between the hours of 22:00–05:00, ordering citizens and visitors to remain indoors during this period. On 21 August 2014 the National Assembly of Thailand elected the army chief, General Prayut Chan-o-cha, as prime minister. Martial law was declared formally ended on 1 April 2015. \"Uniformed or ex-military men have led Thailand for 55 of the 83 years since absolute monarchy was overthrown in 1932,...\" observed one journalist in 2015.","Thailand\n\n2014 to present","Thailand\n\nThe ruling junta led by Prayuth Chan-o-cha promised to hold new elections, but wants to enact a new constitution before the elections are held. An initial draft constitution was rejected by government officials in 2015. A national referendum, the first since the 2014 coup, on a newly drafted constitution is scheduled for early August 2016. The new draft constitution would grant the constitutional court final authority in times of crisis, a power previously held by the King. The draft would also allow a person other than a member of parliament to be the prime minister, which would open the prime minister post to a military official. However, there remain deep disagreements regarding how much power should rest with the democratically elected government. There are indications that public debate in the run up to the referendum will be severely curtailed by the military government. The head of the Thai army, Gen. Theerachai Nakvanich, has announced the setting up of re-education camps for critics of the regime, \"aimed at people who are still unable to understand the workings of the government and the National Council for Peace and Order\".","Thailand\n\nAdministrative divisions","Thailand\n\nThailand is divided into 76 provinces (จังหวัด, changwat), which are gathered into five groups of provinces by location. There are also two specially-governed districts: the capital Bangkok (Krung Thep Maha Nakhon) and Pattaya. Bangkok is at provincial level and thus often counted as a province.","Thailand\n\nEach province is divided into districts and the districts are further divided into sub-districts (tambons). there were 877 districts (อำเภอ, amphoe) and the 50 districts of Bangkok (เขต, khet). Some parts of the provinces bordering Bangkok are also referred to as Greater Bangkok (ปริมณฑล, pari monthon). These provinces include Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Samut Prakan, Nakhon Pathom and Samut Sakhon. The name of each province's capital city (เมือง, mueang) is the same as that of the province. For example, the capital of Chiang Mai Province (Changwat Chiang Mai) is Mueang Chiang Mai or Chiang Mai.","Thailand\n\nSouthern region","Thailand\n\nThailand controlled the Malay Peninsula as far south as Malacca in the 15th century and held much of the peninsula, including Temasek (Singapore), some of the Andaman Islands, and a colony on Java, but eventually contracted when the British used force to guarantee their suzerainty over the sultanate.","Thailand\n\nMostly the northern states of the Malay Sultanate presented annual gifts to the Thai king in the form of a golden flower—a gesture of tribute and an acknowledgement of vassalage. The British intervened in the Malay State and with the Anglo-Siamese Treaty tried to build a railway from the south to Bangkok. Thailand relinquished sovereignty over what are now the northern Malay provinces of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, and Terengganu to the British. Satun and Pattani Provinces were given to Thailand.","Thailand\n\nThe Malay peninsular provinces were occupied by the Japanese during World War II, and infiltrated by the Malayan Communist Party (CPM) from 1942 to 2008, when they sued for peace with the Malaysian and Thai governments after the CPM lost its support from Vietnam and China subsequent to the Cultural Revolution. Recent insurgent uprisings may be a continuation of separatist fighting which started after World War II with Sukarno's support for the PULO. Most victims since the uprisings have been Buddhist and Muslim bystanders.","Thailand\n\nForeign relations","Thailand\n\nThe foreign relations of Thailand are handled by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.","Thailand\n\nThailand participates fully in international and regional organisations. It is a major non-NATO ally and Priority Watch List Special 301 Report of the United States. The country remains an active member of ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Thailand has developed increasingly close ties with other ASEAN members: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam, whose foreign and economic ministers hold annual meetings. Regional co-operation is progressing in economic, trade, banking, political, and cultural matters. In 2003, Thailand served as APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) host. Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, currently serves as Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In 2005 Thailand attended the inaugural East Asia Summit.","Thailand\n\nIn recent years, Thailand has taken an increasingly active role on the international stage. When East Timor gained independence from Indonesia, Thailand, for the first time in its history, contributed troops to the international peacekeeping effort. Its troops remain there today as part of a UN peacekeeping force. As part of its effort to increase international ties, Thailand has reached out to such regional organisations as the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Thailand has contributed troops to reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.","Thailand\n\nThaksin initiated negotiations for several free trade agreements with China, Australia, Bahrain, India, and the US. The latter especially was criticised, with claims that uncompetitive Thai industries could be wiped out.","Thailand\n\nThaksin also announced that Thailand would forsake foreign aid, and work with donor countries to assist in the development of neighbours in the Greater Mekong Sub-region. Thaksin sought to position Thailand as a regional leader, initiating various development projects in poorer neighbouring countries like Laos. More controversially, he established close, friendly ties with the Burmese dictatorship.","Thailand\n\nThailand joined the US-led invasion of Iraq, sending a 423-strong humanitarian contingent. It withdrew its troops on 10 September 2004. Two Thai soldiers died in Iraq in an insurgent attack.","Thailand\n\nAbhisit appointed Peoples Alliance for Democracy leader Kasit Piromya as foreign minister. In April 2009, fighting broke out between Thai and Cambodian troops on territory immediately adjacent to the 900-year-old ruins of Cambodia's Preah Vihear Hindu temple near the border. The Cambodian government claimed its army had killed at least four Thais and captured 10 more, although the Thai government denied that any Thai soldiers were killed or injured. Two Cambodian and three Thai soldiers were killed. Both armies blamed the other for firing first and denied entering the other's territory.","Thailand\n\nArmed forces","Thailand\n\nThe Royal Thai Armed Forces ( constitute the military of the Kingdom of Thailand. It consists of the Royal Thai Army (กองทัพบกไทย), the Royal Thai Navy (กองทัพเรือไทย), and the Royal Thai Air Force (กองทัพอากาศไทย). It also incorporates various paramilitary forces.","Thailand\n\nThe Thai Armed Forces have a combined manpower of 306,000 active duty personnel and another 245,000 active reserve personnel. The head of the Thai Armed Forces (จอมทัพไทย, Chom Thap Thai) is the king, although this position is only nominal. The armed forces are managed by the Ministry of Defence of Thailand, which is headed by the Minister of Defence (a member of the cabinet of Thailand) and commanded by the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters, which in turn is headed by the Chief of Defence Forces of Thailand. In 2011, Thailand's known military expenditure totalled approximately US$5.1 billion.","Thailand\n\nAccording to the constitution, serving in the armed forces is a duty of all Thai citizens. However, only males over the age of 21, who have not gone through reserve training of the Army Reserve Force Students, are given the option of volunteering for the armed forces, or participating in the random draft. The candidates are subjected to varying lengths of training, from six months to two years of full-time service, depending on their education, whether they have partially completed the reserve training course, and whether they volunteered prior to the draft date (usually 1 April every year).","Thailand\n\nCandidates with a recognised bachelor's degree serve one year of full-time service if they are conscripted, or six months if they volunteer at their district office (สัสดี, satsadi). Likewise, the training length is also reduced for those who have partially completed the three-year reserve training course (ร.ด., ro do). A person who completed one year out of three will only have to serve full-time for one year. Those who completed two years of reserve training will only have to do six months of full-time training, while those who complete three years or more of reserve training will be exempted entirely.","Thailand\n\nRoyal Thai Armed Forces Day is celebrated on 18 January, commemorating the victory of Naresuan of the Ayutthaya Kingdom in battle against the crown prince of the Taungoo Dynasty in 1593.","Thailand\n\nGeography","Thailand\n\nTotalling 513120 km2, Thailand is the world's 51st-largest country by total area. It is slightly smaller than Yemen and slightly larger than Spain.","Thailand\n\nThailand comprises several distinct geographic regions, partly corresponding to the provincial groups. The north of the country is the mountainous area of the Thai highlands, with the highest point being Doi Inthanon in the Thanon Thong Chai Range at above sea level. The northeast, Isan, consists of the Khorat Plateau, bordered to the east by the Mekong River. The centre of the country is dominated by the predominantly flat Chao Phraya river valley, which runs into the Gulf of Thailand.","Thailand\n\nSouthern Thailand consists of the narrow Kra Isthmus that widens into the Malay Peninsula. Politically, there are six geographical regions which differ from the others in population, basic resources, natural features, and level of social and economic development. The diversity of the regions is the most pronounced attribute of Thailand's physical setting.","Thailand\n\nThe Chao Phraya and the Mekong River are the indispensable water courses of rural Thailand. Industrial scale production of crops use both rivers and their tributaries. The Gulf of Thailand covers 320000 km2 and is fed by the Chao Phraya, Mae Klong, Bang Pakong, and Tapi Rivers. It contributes to the tourism sector owing to its clear shallow waters along the coasts in the southern region and the Kra Isthmus. The eastern shore of the Gulf of Thailand is an industrial centre of Thailand with the kingdom's premier deepwater port in Sattahip and its busiest commercial port, Laem Chabang.","Thailand\n\nThe Andaman Sea is a precious natural resource as it hosts the most popular and luxurious resorts in Asia. Phuket, Krabi, Ranong, Phang Nga, and Trang and their islands all lay along the coasts of the Andaman Sea and despite the 2004 tsunami, they are a tourist magnet for visitors from around the world.","Thailand\n\nPlans have resurfaced for a canal which would connect the Andaman Sea to the Gulf of Thailand, analogous to the Suez and the Panama Canals. The idea has been greeted positively by Thai politicians as it would cut fees charged by the Ports of Singapore, improve ties with China and India, lower shipping times, and eliminate pirate attacks in the Strait of Malacca, and support the Thai government's policy of being the logistical hub for Southeast Asia. The canal, it is claimed, would improve economic conditions in the south of Thailand, which relies heavily on tourism income, and it would also change the structure of the Thai economy by making it an Asia logistical hub. The canal would be a major engineering project and has an expected cost of US$20–30 billion.","Thailand\n\nClimate","Thailand\n\nMost of Thailand has a \"tropical wet and dry or savanna climate\" type (Köppen's Tropical savanna climate). The south and the eastern tip of the east have a tropical monsoon climate.","Thailand\n\nCountrywide, temperatures normally range from an average annual high of 38 °C to a low of 19 °C. During the dry season, the temperature rises dramatically in the second half of March, spiking to well over 40 °C in some areas by mid-April when the sun passes its zenith.","Thailand\n\nSouthwest monsoons that arrive between May and July (except in the south) signal the advent of the rainy season (ruedu fon). This lasts into October and the cloud covering reduces the temperature again, with the high humidity experienced as 'hot and sticky'. November and December mark the onset of the dry season and night temperatures on high ground can occasionally drop to a light frost. Temperatures begin to climb again in January.","Thailand\n\nWildlife","Thailand\n\nThe elephant is Thailand's national symbol. Although there were 100,000 domesticated elephants in Thailand in 1850, the population of elephants has dropped to an estimated 2,000. Poachers have long hunted elephants for ivory, meat, and hides. Young elephants are often captured for use in tourist attractions or as work animals, although their use has declined since the government banned logging in 1989. There are now more elephants in captivity than in the wild, and environmental activists claim that elephants in captivity are often mistreated.","Thailand\n\nPoaching of protected species remains a major problem. Hunters have decimated the populations of tigers, leopards, and other large cats for their valuable pelts. Many animals (including tigers, bears, crocodiles, and king cobras) are farmed or hunted for their meat, which is considered a delicacy, and for their supposed medicinal properties. Although such trade is illegal, the famous Bangkok market Chatuchak is still known for the sale of endangered species.","Thailand\n\nThe practice of keeping wild animals as pets threatens several species. Baby animals are typically captured and sold, which often requires killing the mother. Once in captivity and out of their natural habitat, many pets die or fail to reproduce. Affected populations include the Asiatic black bear, Malayan sun bear, white-handed lar, pileated gibbon and binturong.","Thailand\n\nEducation","Thailand\n\nIn 2014 the literacy rate was 93.5%. Education is provided by a well-organized school system of kindergartens, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools, numerous vocational colleges, and universities. The private sector of education is well developed and significantly contributes to the overall provision of education which the government would not be able to meet with public establishments. Education is compulsory up to and including age 14, with the government providing free education through to age 17.","Thailand\n\nTeaching relies heavily on rote learning rather than on student-centred methodology. The establishment of reliable and coherent curricula for its primary and secondary schools is subject to such rapid changes that schools and their teachers are not always sure what they are supposed to be teaching, and authors and publishers of textbooks are unable to write and print new editions quickly enough to keep up with the volatility. Issues concerning university entrance has been in constant upheaval for a number of years. Nevertheless, Thai education has seen its greatest progress in the years since 2001. Most of the present generation of students are computer literate. Thailand was ranked 54th out of 56 countries globally for English proficiency, the second-lowest in Asia.","Thailand\n\nStudents in ethnic minority areas score consistently lower in standardised national and international tests.","Thailand\n\nThis is likely due to unequal allocation of educational resources, weak teacher training, poverty, and low Thai language skill, the language of the tests.","Thailand\n\nExtensive nationwide IQ tests were administered to 72,780 Thai students from December 2010 to January 2011. The average IQ was found to be 98.59, which is higher than previous studies have found. IQ levels were found to be inconsistent throughout the country, with the lowest average of 88.07 found in the southern region of Narathiwat Province and the highest average of 108.91 reported in Nonthaburi Province. The Ministry of Public Health blames the discrepancies on iodine deficiency and steps are being taken to require that iodine be added to table salt, a practice common in many Western countries.","Thailand\n\nIn 2013, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology announced that 27,231 schools would receive classroom-level access to high-speed internet.","Thailand\n\nScience and technology","Thailand\n\nThe National Science and Technology Development Agency is an agency of the government of Thailand which supports research in science and technology and its application in the Thai economy.","Thailand\n\nThe Synchrotron Light Research Institute (SLRI) is a Thai synchrotron light source for physics, chemistry, material science, and life sciences. It is at the Suranaree University of Technology (SUT), in Nakhon Ratchasima, about 300 km northeast of Bangkok. The institute, financed by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), houses the only large scale synchrotron in Southeast Asia. It was originally built as the SORTEC synchrotron in Japan and later moved to Thailand and modified for 1.2 GeV operation. It provides users with regularly scheduled light.","Thailand\n\nInternet","Thailand\n\nIn Bangkok, there are 23,000 free public Wi-Fi Internet hotspots. The Internet in Thailand includes 10Gbit/s high speed fibre-optic lines that can be leased and ISPs such as KIRZ that provide residential Internet services.","Thailand\n\nThe Internet is censored by the Thai government, making some sites unreachable. The organisations responsible are the Royal Thai Police, the Communications Authority of Thailand, and the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT).","Thailand\n\nEconomy","Thailand\n\nThailand is an emerging economy and is considered a newly industrialised country. Thailand had a 2013 GDP of US$673 billion (on a purchasing power parity [PPP] basis). Thailand is the 2nd largest economy in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. Thailand ranks midway in the wealth spread in Southeast Asia as it is the 4th richest nation according to GDP per capita, after Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia.","Thailand\n\nThailand functions as an anchor economy for the neighbouring developing economies of Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia. In the third quarter of 2014, the unemployment rate in Thailand stood at 0.84% according to Thailand's National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB).","Thailand\n\nRecent economic history","Thailand\n\nThailand experienced the world's highest economic growth rate from 1985 to 1996 – averaging 12.4% annually. In 1997 increased pressure on the baht, a year in which the economy contracted by 1.9%, led to a crisis that uncovered financial sector weaknesses and forced the Chavalit Yongchaiyudh administration to float the currency. Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh was forced to resign after his cabinet came under fire for its slow response to the economic crisis. The baht was pegged at 25 to the US dollar from 1978 to 1997. The baht reached its lowest point of 56 to the US dollar in January 1998 and the economy contracted by 10.8% that year, triggering the Asian financial crisis.","Thailand\n\nThailand's economy started to recover in 1999, expanding 4.2–4.4% in 2000, thanks largely to strong exports. Growth (2.2%) was dampened by the softening of the global economy in 2001, but picked up in the subsequent years owing to strong growth in Asia, a relatively weak baht encouraging exports, and increased domestic spending as a result of several mega projects and incentives of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, known as Thaksinomics. Growth in 2002, 2003, and 2004 was 5–7% annually.","Thailand\n\nGrowth in 2005, 2006, and 2007 hovered around 4–5%. Due both to the weakening of the US dollar and an increasingly strong Thai currency, by March 2008 the dollar was hovering around the 33 baht mark. While Thaksinomics has received criticism, official economic data reveals that between 2001 and 2011, Isan's GDP per capita more than doubled to US$1,475, while, over the same period, GDP in the Bangkok area increased from US$7,900 to nearly US$13,000.","Thailand\n\nWith the instability surrounding major 2010 protests, the GDP growth of Thailand settled at around 4–5%, from highs of 5–7% under the previous civilian administration. Political uncertainty was identified as the primary cause of a decline in investor and consumer confidence. The IMF predicted that the Thai economy would rebound strongly from the low 0.1% GDP growth in 2011, to 5.5% in 2012 and then 7.5% in 2013, due to the monetary policy of the Bank of Thailand, as well as a package of fiscal stimulus measures introduced by the incumbent Yingluck Shinawatra government.","Thailand\n\nFollowing the Thai military coup of 22 May 2014, the AFP global news agency published an article that claimed that the nation was on the verge of recession. The article focused on the departure of nearly 180,000 Cambodians from Thailand due to fears of an immigration clampdown, but concluded with information on the Thai economy's contraction of 2.1% quarter-on-quarter, from January to the end of March 2014.","Thailand\n\nExports and manufacturing","Thailand\n\nThe economy of Thailand is heavily export-dependent, with exports accounting for more than two-thirds of gross domestic product (GDP). Thailand exports over US$105 billion worth of goods and services annually. Major exports include rice, textiles and footwear, fishery products, rubber, jewellery, cars, computers, and electrical appliances.","Thailand\n\nSubstantial industries include electric appliances, components, computer components, and vehicles. Thailand's recovery from the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis depended mainly on exports, among various other factors. , the Thai automotive industry was the largest in Southeast Asia and the 9th largest in the world. The Thailand industry has an annual output of near 1.5 million vehicles, mostly commercial vehicles.","Thailand\n\nMost of the vehicles built in Thailand are developed and licensed by foreign producers, mainly Japanese and South Korean. The Thai car industry takes advantage of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) to find a market for many of its products. Eight manufacturers, five Japanese, two US, and Tata of India, produce pick-up trucks in Thailand. Thailand is the second largest consumer of pick-up trucks in the world, after the US. In 2014, pick-ups accounted for 42% of all new vehicle sales in Thailand.","Thailand\n\nTourism","Thailand\n\nTourism makes up about 6% of the economy. Thailand was the most visited country in Southeast Asia in 2013, according to the World Tourism Organisation. \nEstimates of tourism receipts directly contributing to the Thai GDP of 12 trillion baht range from 9 percent (1 trillion baht) (2013) to 16 percent. When including the indirect effects of tourism, it is said to account for 20.2 percent (2.4 trillion baht) of Thailand's GDP.","Thailand\n\nThe Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) uses the slogan \"Amazing Thailand\" to promote Thailand internationally. In 2015, this was supplemented by a \"Discover Thainess\" campaign.","Thailand\n\nAsian tourists primarily visit Thailand for Bangkok and the historical, natural, and cultural sights in its vicinity. Western tourists not only visit Bangkok and surroundings, but in addition many travel to the southern beaches and islands. The north is the chief destination for trekking and adventure travel with its diverse ethnic minority groups and forested mountains. The region hosting the fewest tourists is Isan in the northeast. To accommodate foreign visitors, the Thai government established a separate tourism police with offices in the major tourist areas and its own central emergency telephone number.","Thailand\n\nThailand's attractions include diving sites, sandy beaches, hundreds of tropical islands, nightlife, archaeological sites, museums, hill tribes, flora and bird life, palaces, Buddhist temples and several World Heritage sites. Many tourists follow courses during their stay in Thailand. Popular are classes in Thai cooking, Buddhism and traditional Thai massage. Thai national festivals range from Thai New Year Songkran to Loy Krathong. Many localities in Thailand also have their own festivals. Among the best-known are the \"Elephant Round-up\" in Surin, the \"Rocket Festival\" in Yasothon and the \"Phi Ta Khon\" festival in Dan Sai. Thai cuisine has become famous worldwide with its enthusiastic use of fresh herbs and spices.","Thailand\n\nBangkok shopping malls offer a variety of international and local brands. Towards the north of the city, and easily reached by skytrain or underground, is the \"Chatuchak Weekend Market\". It is possibly the largest market in the world, selling everything from household items to live, and sometimes endangered, animals. The \"Pratunam Market\" specialises in fabrics and clothing. The night markets in the Silom area and on Khaosan Road are mainly tourist-oriented, selling items such as T-shirts, handicrafts, counterfeit watches and sunglasses. In the vicinity of Bangkok one can find several floating markets such as the one in Damnoen Saduak. The \"Sunday Evening Walking Street Market\", held on Rachadamnoen Road inside the old city, is a shopping highlight of a visit to Chiang Mai up in northern Thailand. It attracts many locals as well as foreigners. The \"Night Bazaar\" is Chiang Mai's more tourist-oriented market, sprawling over several city blocks just east of the old city walls towards the river.","Thailand\n\nProstitution in Thailand and sex tourism also form a de facto part of the economy. Cultural milieu combined with poverty and the lure of money have caused prostitution and sex tourism in particular to flourish in Thailand. One estimate published in 2003 placed the trade at US$4.3 billion per year or about 3% of the Thai economy.[http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/26/1069825832486.html?oneclick\ntrue Thailand mulls legal prostitution.] The Age, 26 November 2003 According to research by Chulalongkorn University on the Thai illegal economy, prostitution in Thailand in the period between 1993 and 1995, made up around 2.7% of the GDP. It is believed that at least 10% of tourist dollars are spent on the sex trade.","Thailand\n\nAgriculture","Thailand\n\nForty-nine per cent of Thailand's labour force is employed in agriculture. This is down from 70% in 1980. Rice is the most important crop in the country and Thailand had long been the world's leading exporter of rice, until recently falling behind both India and Vietnam. Thailand has the highest percentage of arable land, 27.25%, of any nation in the Greater Mekong Subregion. About 55% of the arable land area is used for rice production.","Thailand\n\nAgriculture has been experiencing a transition from labour-intensive and transitional methods to a more industrialised and competitive sector.Henri Leturque and Steve Wiggins 2010. [http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id\n5108&titlethailands-progress-agriculture-transition-sustained-productivity-growth Thailand's progress in agriculture: Transition and sustained productivity growth]. London: Overseas Development Institute Between 1962 and 1983, the agricultural sector grew by 4.1% per year on average and continued to grow at 2.2% between 1983 and 2007. The relative contribution of agriculture to GDP has declined while exports of goods and services have increased.","Thailand\n\nEnergy","Thailand\n\n75% of Thailand's electrical generation is powered by natural gas in 2014. Coal-fired power plants produce an additional 20% of electricity, with the remainder coming from biomass, hydro, and biogas.","Thailand\n\nThailand produces roughly one-third of the oil it consumes. It is the second largest importer of oil in SE Asia. Thailand is a large producer of natural gas, with reserves of at least 10 trillion cubic feet. After Indonesia, it is the largest coal producer in SE Asia, but must import additional coal to meet domestic demand.","Thailand\n\nTransportation","Thailand\n\nDemographics","Thailand\n\nThailand had a population of 66,720,153 . Thailand's population is largely rural, concentrated in the rice-growing areas of the central, northeastern, and northern regions. Thailand had an urban population of 45.7% , concentrated mostly in and around the Bangkok Metropolitan Area.","Thailand\n\nThailand's government-sponsored family planning program resulted in a dramatic decline in population growth from 3.1% in 1960 to around 0.4% today. In 1970, an average of 5.7 people lived in a Thai household. At the time of the 2010 census, the average Thai household size was 3.2 people.","Thailand\n\nEthnic groups","Thailand\n\nAbout 75–95% of the population is ethnically Tai, which includes four major regional groups: central Thai, northeastern Thai (Khon [Lao] Isan), northern Thai (Khon Mueang); and southern Thai. Thai Chinese, those of significant Chinese heritage, are 14% of the population, while Thais with partial Chinese ancestry comprise up to 40% of the population. Thai Malays represent 3% of the population, with the remainder consisting of Mons, Khmers and various \"hill tribes\". The country's official language is Thai and the primary religion is Theravada Buddhism, which is practised by around 95% of the population.","Thailand\n\nEthnic Thais make up the majority of Thailand's population, 95.9% in 2010. This number includes Thai Chinese, a historically and economically important minority. The remaining 4.1% of the population are Burmese (2.0%), others 1.3%, and unspecified 0.9%.","Thailand\n\nThailand is home to a large immigrant community of around 200,000 foreigners. Some 41,000 Britons alone live in Thailand. Increasing numbers of migrants from neighbouring Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia, as well as from Nepal and India, have pushed the total number of non-national residents to around 3.5 million , up from an estimated 2 million in 2008, and about 1.3 million in the year 2000.","Thailand\n\nPopulation centres","Thailand\n\nLanguage","Thailand\n\nThe official language of Thailand is Thai, a Tai–Kadai language closely related to Lao, Shan in Myanmar, and numerous smaller languages spoken in an arc from Hainan and Yunnan south to the Chinese border. It is the principal language of education and government and spoken throughout the country. The standard is based on the dialect of the central Thai people, and it is written in the Thai alphabet, an abugida script that evolved from the Khmer alphabet. Several other dialects exist, and coincide with the regional designations. Southern Thai is spoken in the southern provinces, and Northern Thai is spoken in the provinces that were formerly part of the independent kingdom of Lan Na.","Thailand\n\nThailand is also host to several other minority languages, the largest of which is the Lao dialect of Isan spoken in the northeastern provinces. Although sometimes considered a Thai dialect, it is a Lao dialect, and the region in where it is traditionally spoken was historically part of the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang. In the far south, Kelantan-Pattani Malay is the primary language of Malay Muslims. Varieties of Chinese are also spoken by the large Thai Chinese population, with the Teochew dialect best-represented.","Thailand\n\nNumerous tribal languages are also spoken, including many Austroasiatic languages such as Mon, Khmer, Viet, Mlabri and Orang Asli; Austronesian languages such as Cham and Moken; Sino-Tibetan languages like Lawa, Akha, and Karen; and other Tai languages such as Tai Yo, Phu Thai, and Saek. Hmong is a member of the Hmong–Mien languages, which is now regarded as a language family of its own.","Thailand\n\nEnglish is a mandatory school subject, but the number of fluent speakers remains low, especially outside cities.","Thailand\n\nReligion","Thailand\n\nThailand's prevalent religion is Theravada Buddhism, which is an integral part of Thai identity and culture. Active participation in Buddhism is among the highest in the world. According to the 2000 census, 94.6% of the country's population self-identified as Buddhists of the Theravada tradition. Muslims constitute the second largest religious group in Thailand, comprising 4.6% of the population.","Thailand\n\nIslam is concentrated mostly in the country's southernmost provinces: Pattani, Yala, Satun, Narathiwat, and part of Songkhla Chumphon, which are predominantly Malay, most of whom are Sunni Muslims. Christians represent 0.7% of the population, with the remaining population consisting of Sikhs and Hindus, who live mostly in the country's cities. There is also a small but historically significant Jewish community in Thailand dating back to the 17th century.","Thailand\n\nCulture","Thailand\n\nThai culture has been shaped by many influences, including Indian, Lao, Burmese, Cambodian, and Chinese.","Thailand\n\nIts traditions incorporate a great deal of influence from India, China, Cambodia, and the rest of Southeast Asia. Thailand's national religion, Theravada Buddhism, is central to modern Thai identity. Thai Buddhism has evolved over time to include many regional beliefs originating from Hinduism, animism, as well as ancestor worship. The official calendar in Thailand is based on the Eastern version of the Buddhist Era (BE), which is 543 years ahead of the Gregorian (Western) calendar. Thus the year 2015 is 2558 BE in Thailand.","Thailand\n\nSeveral different ethnic groups, many of which are marginalised, populate Thailand. Some of these groups spill over into Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia and have mediated change between their traditional local culture, national Thai, and global cultural influences. Overseas Chinese also form a significant part of Thai society, particularly in and around Bangkok. Their successful integration into Thai society has allowed for this group to hold positions of economic and political power. Thai Chinese businesses prosper as part of the larger bamboo network, a network of overseas Chinese businesses operating in the markets of Southeast Asia that share common family and cultural ties.","Thailand\n\nThe traditional Thai greeting, the wai, is generally offered first by the younger of the two people meeting, with their hands pressed together, fingertips pointing upwards as the head is bowed to touch face to fingertips, usually coinciding with the spoken words \"sawatdi khrap\" for male speakers, and \"sawatdi kha\" for females. The elder may then respond in the same way. Social status and position, such as in government, will also have an influence on who performs the wai first. For example, although one may be considerably older than a provincial governor, when meeting it is usually the visitor who pays respect first. When children leave to go to school, they are taught to wai their parents to indicate their respect. The wai is a sign of respect and reverence for another, similar to the namaste greeting of India and Nepal.","Thailand\n\nAs with other Asian cultures, respect towards ancestors is an essential part of Thai spiritual practice. Thais have a strong sense of hospitality and generosity, but also a strong sense of social hierarchy. Seniority is paramount in Thai culture. Elders have by tradition ruled in family decisions or ceremonies. Older siblings have duties to younger ones.","Thailand\n\nTaboos in Thailand include touching someone's head or pointing with the feet, as the head is considered the most sacred and the foot the lowest part of the body.","Thailand\n\nCuisine","Thailand\n\nThai cuisine blends five fundamental tastes: sweet, spicy, sour, bitter, and salty. Common ingredients used in Thai cuisine include garlic, chillies, lime juice, lemon grass, coriander, galangal, palm sugar, and fish sauce (nam pla). The staple food in Thailand is rice, particularly jasmine variety rice (also known as \"hom Mali\" rice) which forms a part of almost every meal. Thailand was long the world's largest exporter of rice, and Thais domestically consume over 100 kg of milled rice per person per year. Over 5,000 varieties of rice from Thailand are preserved in the rice gene bank of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), based in the Philippines. The king of Thailand is the official patron of IRRI.","Thailand\n\nMedia","Thailand\n\nThai society has been influenced in recent years by its widely available multi-language press and media. There are some English and numerous Thai and Chinese newspapers in circulation. Most Thai popular magazines use English headlines as a chic glamour factor. Many large businesses in Bangkok operate in English as well as other languages.","Thailand\n\nThailand is the largest newspaper market in Southeast Asia with an estimated circulation of over 13 million copies daily in 2003. Even upcountry, out of Bangkok, the media flourish. For example, according to Thailand's Public Relations Department Media Directory 2003–2004, the nineteen provinces of Isan, Thailand's northeastern region, hosted 116 newspapers along with radio, TV, and cable. Since then, another province, Bueng Kan, was incorporated, totalling twenty provinces. In addition, a military coup on 22 May 2014 led to severe state restrictions on all media and forms of expression.","Thailand\n\nUnits of measurement","Thailand\n\nThailand generally uses the metric system, but traditional units of measurement for land area are used, and imperial units of measurement are occasionally used for building materials, such as wood and plumbing fixtures. Years are numbered as B.E. (Buddhist Era) in educational settings, the civil service, government, and on contracts and newspaper datelines. In banking, and increasingly in industry and commerce, standard Western year (Christian or Common Era) counting is the standard practice.","Thailand\n\nSports","Thailand\n\nMuay Thai (, RTGS: Muai Thai,, lit. \"Thai boxing\") is a native form of kickboxing and Thailand's signature sport. It incorporates kicks, punches, knees and elbow strikes in a ring with gloves similar to those used in Western boxing and this has led to Thailand gaining medals at the Olympic Games in boxing.","Thailand\n\nAssociation football has overtaken muay Thai as the most widely followed sport in contemporary Thai society. Thailand national football team has played the AFC Asian Cup six times and reached the semifinals in 1972. The country has hosted the Asian Cup twice, in 1972 and in 2007. The 2007 edition was co-hosted together with Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. It is not uncommon to see Thais cheering their favourite English Premier League teams on television and walking around in replica kit. Another widely enjoyed pastime, and once a competitive sport, is kite flying.","Thailand\n\nVolleyball is rapidly growing as one of the most popular sport. The Women team has often participated World Championship,World Cup,and World Grand Prix Asian Championship. They also won Asian Championship twice and Asian Cup once. By the success of the women team, the men team has been growing as well.","Thailand\n\nTakraw (Thai: ตะกร้อ) is a sport native to Thailand, in which the players hit a rattan ball and are only allowed to use their feet, knees, chest, and head to touch the ball. Sepak takraw is a form of this sport which is similar to volleyball. The players must volley a ball over a net and force it to hit the ground on the opponent's side. It is also a popular sport in other countries in Southeast Asia. A rather similar game but played only with the feet is Buka ball.","Thailand\n\nSnooker has enjoyed increasing popularity in Thailand in recent years, with interest in the game being stimulated by the success of Thai snooker player James Wattana in the 1990s. Other notable players produced by the country include Ratchayothin Yotharuck, Noppon Saengkham and Dechawat Poomjaeng.","Thailand\n\nRugby is also a growing sport in Thailand with the Thailand national rugby union team rising to be ranked 61st in the world. Thailand became the first country in the world to host an international 80 kg welterweight rugby tournament in 2005. The national domestic Thailand Rugby Union (TRU) competition includes several universities and services teams such as Chulalongkorn University, Mahasarakham University, Kasetsart University, Prince of Songkla University, Thammasat University, Rangsit University, the Thai Police, the Thai Army, the Thai Navy and the Royal Thai Air Force. Local sports clubs which also compete in the TRU include the British Club of Bangkok, the Southerners Sports Club (Bangkok) and the Royal Bangkok Sports Club.","Thailand\n\nThailand has been called the golf capital of Asia as it is a popular destination for golf. The country attracts a large number of golfers from Japan, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, and Western countries who come to play golf in Thailand every year. The growing popularity of golf, especially among the middle classes and immigrants, is evident as there are more than 200 world-class golf courses nationwide, and some of them are chosen to host PGA and LPGA tournaments, such as Amata Spring Country Club, Alpine Golf and Sports Club, Thai Country Club, and Black Mountain Golf Club.","Thailand\n\nBasketball is a growing sport in Thailand, especially on the professional sports club level. The Chang Thailand Slammers won the 2011 ASEAN Basketball League Championship. The Thailand national basketball team had its most successful year at the 1966 Asian Games where it won the silver medal.","Thailand\n\nOther sports in Thailand are slowly growing as the country develops its sporting infrastructure. The success in sports like weightlifting and taekwondo at the last two summer Olympic Games has demonstrated that boxing is no longer the only medal option for Thailand.","Thailand\n\nSporting venues","Thailand\n\nThammasat Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Bangkok. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The stadium holds 25,000. It is on Thammasat University's Rangsit campus. It was built for the 1998 Asian Games by construction firm Christiani and Nielsen, the same company that constructed the Democracy Monument in Bangkok.","Thailand\n\nRajamangala National Stadium is the biggest sporting arena in Thailand. It currently has a capacity of 65,000. It is in Bang Kapi, Bangkok. The stadium was built in 1998 for the 1998 Asian Games and is the home stadium of the Thailand national football team.","Thailand\n\nThe well-known Lumpini Boxing Stadium will host its final Muay Thai boxing matches on 7 February 2014 after the venue first opened in December 1956. Managed by the Royal Thai Army, the stadium was officially selected for the purpose of muay Thai bouts following a competition that was staged on 15 March 1956. From 11 February 2014, the stadium will relocate to Ram Intra Road, due to the new venue's capacity to accommodate audiences of up to 3,500. Foreigners typically pay between 1,000–2,000 baht to view a match, with prices depending on the location of the seating.","Thailand\n\nHost city","Thailand\n\nUniversiade","Thailand\n\n* 24th Summer Universiade, Bangkok 2007","Thailand\n\nAsian Games","Thailand\n\n* 5th Asian Games, Bangkok 1966\n* 6th Asian Games, Bangkok 1970\n* 8th Asian Games, Bangkok 1978\n* 13th Asian Games, Bangkok, 1998\nAsian Indoor and Martial Arts Games","Thailand\n\n* 1st Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, Bangkok 2005\n* 3rd Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, Bangkok 2009","Thailand\n\nAsian Beach Games","Thailand\n\n* 4th Asian Beach Games, Phuket 2014","Thailand\n\nSoutheast Asian Games","Thailand\n\n* 1st Southeast Asian Games, Bangkok 1959\n* 4th Southeast Asian Games, Bangkok 1967\n* 8th Southeast Asian Games, Bangkok 1975\n* 13th Southeast Asian Games, Bangkok 1985\n* 18th Southeast Asian Games, Chiang Mai 1995\n* 24th Southeast Asian Games, Nakhon Ratchasima 2007","Thailand\n\nASEAN Para Games","Thailand\n\n* 4th ASEAN Para Games, Nakhon Ratchasima 2008\nASEAN University Games","Thailand\n\n* 1st ASEAN University Games, Chiang Mai 1981\n* 5th ASEAN University Games, Pattaya 1988\n* 10th ASEAN University Games, Bangkok 1999\n* 15th ASEAN University Games, Chiang Mai 2010","Thailand\n\nASEAN School Games","Thailand\n\n* 1st ASEAN School Games, Suphanburi 2009\n* 8th ASEAN School Games, Chiang Mai 2016","Thailand\n\nInternational rankings","World War II\n\nWorld War II (often abbreviated to WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of \"total war\", the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust (in which approximately 11 million people were killed) and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres (in which approximately one million were killed, and which included the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history.","World War II\n\nThe Empire of Japan aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific and was already at war with the Republic of China in 1937, but the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. The war continued primarily between the European Axis powers and the coalition of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, with campaigns including the North Africa and East Africa campaigns, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz bombing campaign, the Balkan Campaign as well as the long-running Battle of the Atlantic.","World War II\n\nIn June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history, which trapped the major part of the Axis' military forces into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European territories in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific.","World War II\n\nThe Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, and Germany was defeated in North Africa and then, decisively, at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. In 1943, with a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Allied invasion of Italy which brought about Italian surrender, and Allied victories in the Pacific, the Axis lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands.","World War II\n\nThe war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet and Polish troops and the subsequent German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 August and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, and the Soviet Union's declaration of war on Japan and invasion of Manchuria, Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945. Thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies.","World War II\n\nWorld War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. The United Nations (UN) was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, and France—became the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia and Africa began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and to create a common identity.","World War II\n\nChronology","World War II\n\nThe start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland; Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931.","World War II\n\nOthers follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and the two wars merged in 1941. This article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935.; ; Yisreelit, Hevrah Mizrahit (1965). Asian and African Studies, p. 191.For 1941 see ; Kellogg, William O (2003). American History the Easy Way. Barron's Educational Series. p. 236 ISBN 0-7641-1973-7.There is also the viewpoint that both World War I and World War II are part of the same \"European Civil War\" or \"Second Thirty Years War\": ; . The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939.","World War II\n\nThe exact date of the war's end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945 (V-J Day), rather than the formal surrender of Japan (2 September 1945). A peace treaty with Japan was signed in 1951 to formally tie up any loose ends such as compensation to be paid to Allied prisoners of war who had been victims of atrocities. A treaty regarding Germany's future allowed the reunification of East and West Germany to take place in 1990 and resolved other post-World War II issues.","World War II\n\nBackground","World War II\n\nEurope","World War II\n\nWorld War I had radically altered the political European map, with the defeat of the Central Powers—including Austria-Hungary, Germany and the Ottoman Empire—and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, which eventually led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Allies of World War I, such as France, Belgium, Italy, Greece and Romania, gained territory, and new nation-states were created out of the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman and Russian Empires.","World War II\n\nTo prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was created during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. The organisation's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military and naval disarmament, and settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration.","World War II\n\nDespite strong pacifist sentiment after World War I, its aftermath still caused irredentist and revanchist nationalism in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses incurred by the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all of its overseas colonies, while German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's armed forces.","World War II\n\nThe German Empire was dissolved in the German Revolution of 1918–1919, and a democratic government, later known as the Weimar Republic, was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by Britain and France to secure Italian entrance into the war were not fulfilled with the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian, and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, promising the creation of a \"New Roman Empire\".","World War II\n\nAdolf Hitler, after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933. He abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of the world order, and soon began a massive rearmament campaign. It was at this time that political scientists began to predict that a second Great War might take place. Meanwhile, France, to secure its alliance, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription.","World War II\n\nHoping to contain Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front; however, in June 1935, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of eastern Europe, drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect though, the Franco-Soviet pact was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same year.","World War II\n\nHitler defied the Versailles and Locarno treaties by remilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936. He encountered little opposition from other European powers. In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the Rome–Berlin Axis. A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy would join in the following year.","World War II\n\nAsia","World War II\n\nThe Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese communist allies. In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Japanese Empire, which had long sought influence in China as the first step of what its government saw as the country's right to rule Asia, used the Mukden Incident as a pretext to launch an invasion of Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo.","World War II\n\nToo weak to resist Japan, China appealed to the League of Nations for help. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until the Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan. After the 1936 Xi'an Incident, the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan.","World War II\n\nPre-war events","World War II\n\nItalian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)","World War II\n\nThe Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with the invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia) by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia), which was launched from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI); in addition, it exposed the weakness of the League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did nothing when the former clearly violated the League's own Article X. Germany was the only major European nation to support the invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria.","World War II\n\nSpanish Civil War (1936–39)","World War II\n\nWhen civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to the Nationalist rebels, led by General Francisco Franco. The Soviet Union supported the existing government, the Spanish Republic. Over 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades, also fought against the Nationalists. Both Germany and the USSR used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The bombing of Guernica by the German Condor Legion in April 1937 heightened widespread concerns that the next major war would include extensive terror bombing attacks on civilians..Tony Judt said that the \"communist strategy in Spain turns out to have been a dry run for the seizure of power in Eastern Europe after 1945.\" See \nThe Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, bargained with both sides during the Second World War, but never concluded any major agreements. He did send volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front under German command but Spain remained neutral and did not allow either side to use its territory.","World War II\n\nJapanese invasion of China (1937)","World War II\n\nIn July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Beijing after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior co-operation with Germany. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but, after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the Japanese. Totten, Samuel. Dictionary of Genocide. 2008, 298–9.","World War II\n\nIn March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by Japanese in May. In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan, but the city was taken by October. Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war.","World War II\n\nSoviet-Japanese border conflicts","World War II\n\nIn the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union and Mongolia. The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron, which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. With the devastating Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939 and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets, this policy would prove difficult to maintain. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed a Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron, promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward, eventually leading to its war with the United States and the Western Allies.","World War II\n\nEuropean occupations and agreements","World War II\n\nIn Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers. Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population; and soon Britain and France followed the counsel of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement, which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands. Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary and Poland.","World War II\n\nAlthough all of Germany's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish \"war-mongers\" and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navy to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German client state, the Slovak Republic. Hitler also delivered an ultimatum to Lithuania, forcing the concession of the Klaipėda Region.","World War II\n\nGreatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig, Britain and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to Romania and Greece. Shortly after the Franco-British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel. Hitler accused Britain and Poland of trying to \"encircle\" Germany and renounced the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact.","World War II\n\nIn August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression treaty with a secret protocol. The parties gave each other rights to \"spheres of influence\" (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany; eastern Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia for the USSR). It also raised the question of continuing Polish independence. The agreement was crucial to Hitler because it assured that Germany would not have to face the prospect of a two-front war, as it had in World War I, after it defeated Poland.","World War II\n\nThe situation reached a general crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. In a private meeting with the Italian foreign minister, Count Ciano, Hitler asserted that Poland was a \"doubtful neutral\" that needed to either yield to his demands or be \"liquidated\" to prevent it from drawing off German troops in the future \"unavoidable\" war with the Western democracies. He did not believe Britain or France would intervene in the conflict. On 23 August Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that Britain had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it.","World War II\n\nIn response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which only served as a pretext to worsen relations. On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of Danzig, and to allow a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor in which the German minority would vote on secession. The Poles refused to comply with the German demands and on the night of 30–31 August in a violent meeting with the British ambassador Neville Henderson, Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected.","World War II\n\nCourse of the war","World War II\n\nWar breaks out in Europe (1939–40)","World War II\n\nOn 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland under the false pretext that the Poles had carried out a series of sabotage operations against German targets near the border. Two days later, on 3 September, after a British ultimatum to Germany to cease military operations was ignored, Britain and France, followed by the fully independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth—Australia (3 September), Canada (10 September), New Zealand (3 September), and South Africa (6 September)—declared war on Germany. However, initially the alliance provided limited direct military support to Poland, consisting of a cautious, half-hearted French probe into the Saarland.., observes that, while it is true that Poland was far away, making it difficult for the French and British to provide support, \"[f]ew Western historians of World War II ... know that the British had committed to bomb Germany if it attacked Poland, but did not do so except for one raid on the base of Wilhelmshafen. The French, who committed to attack Germany in the west, had no intention of doing so.\" The Western Allies also began a naval blockade of Germany, which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort.","World War II\n\nGermany responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which was to later escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic.","World War II\n\nOn 17 September 1939, after signing a cease-fire with Japan, the Soviets invaded Poland from the east. The Polish army was defeated and Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on 27 September, with final pockets of resistance surrendering on 6 October. Poland's territory was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union, with Lithuania and Slovakia also receiving small shares. After the defeat of Poland's armed forces, the Polish resistance established an Underground State and a partisan Home Army. About 100,000 Polish military personnel were evacuated to Romania and the Baltic countries; many of these soldiers later fought against the Germans in other theatres of the war. Poland's Enigma codebreakers were also evacuated to France.","World War II\n\nOn 6 October Hitler made a public peace overture to Britain and France, but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. Chamberlain rejected this on 12 October, saying \"Past experience has shown that no reliance can be placed upon the promises of the present German Government.\" After this rejection Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France, but bad weather forced repeated postponements until the spring of 1940.","World War II\n\nAfter signing the German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation, the Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—to allow it to station Soviet troops in their countries under pacts of \"mutual assistance\". Finland rejected territorial demands, prompting a Soviet invasion in November 1939. The resulting Winter War ended in March 1940 with Finnish concessions. Britain and France, treating the Soviet attack on Finland as tantamount to its entering the war on the side of the Germans, responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting the USSR's expulsion from the League of Nations.","World War II\n\nIn June 1940, the Soviet Union forcibly annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and the disputed Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and Hertza. Meanwhile, Nazi-Soviet political rapprochement and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for war.","World War II\n\nWestern Europe (1940–41)","World War II\n\nIn April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the Allies were attempting to cut off by unilaterally mining neutral Norwegian waters. Denmark capitulated after a few hours, and despite Allied support, during which the important harbour of Narvik temporarily was recaptured from the Germans, Norway was conquered within two months. British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the replacement of the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, with Winston Churchill on 10 May 1940.","World War II\n\nGermany launched an offensive against France and, adhering to the Manstein Plan also attacked the neutral nations of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg on 10 May 1940. That same day British forces landed in Iceland and the Faroes to preempt a possible German invasion of the islands. The U.S. in close co-operation with the Danish envoy to Washington D.C., agreed to protect Greenland, laying the political framework for the formal establishment of bases in April 1941. The Netherlands and Belgium were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics in a few days and weeks, respectively. The French-fortified Maginot Line and the main body the Allied forces which had moved into Belgium were circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly wooded Ardennes region, mistakenly perceived by Allied planners as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles. As a result, the bulk of the Allied armies found themselves trapped in an encirclement and were beaten. The majority were taken prisoner, whilst over 300,000, mostly British and French, were evacuated from the continent at Dunkirk by early June, although abandoning almost all of their equipment.","World War II\n\nOn 10 June, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom. Paris fell to the Germans on 14 June and eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany and was soon divided into German and Italian occupation zones, and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime, which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet but the British feared the Germans would seize it, so on 3 July, the British attacked it.","World War II\n\nThe Battle of Britain began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours. On 19 July, Hitler again publicly offered to end the war, saying he had no desire to destroy the British Empire. The United Kingdom rejected this ultimatum. The main German air superiority campaign started in August but failed to defeat RAF Fighter Command, and a proposed invasion was postponed indefinitely on 17 September. The German strategic bombing offensive intensified as night attacks on London and other cities in the Blitz, but largely failed to disrupt the British war effort.","World War II\n\nUsing newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic. The British scored a significant victory on 27 May 1941 by sinking the German battleship Bismarck. Perhaps most importantly, during the Battle of Britain the Royal Air Force had successfully resisted the Luftwaffe's assault, and the German bombing campaign largely ended in May 1941.","World War II\n\nThroughout this period, the neutral United States took measures to assist China and the Western Allies. In November 1939, the American Neutrality Act was amended to allow \"cash and carry\" purchases by the Allies. In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased. In September, the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases. Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention into the conflict well into 1941.","World War II\n\nAlthough Roosevelt had promised to keep the United States out of the war, he nevertheless took concrete steps to prepare for war. In December 1940 he accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out negotiations as useless, calling for the US to become an \"arsenal for democracy\" and promoted the passage of Lend-Lease aid to support the British war effort. In January 1941 secret high level staff talks with the British began for the purposes of determining how to defeat Germany should the US enter the war. They decided on a number of offensive policies, including an air offensive, the \"early elimination\" of Italy, raids, support of resistance groups, and the capture of positions to launch an offensive against Germany.","World War II\n\nAt the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact united Japan, Italy and Germany to formalise the Axis Powers. The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country, with the exception of the Soviet Union, not in the war which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia and Romania joined the Tripartite Pact. Romania would make a major contribution (as did Hungary) to the Axis war against the USSR, partially to recapture territory ceded to the USSR, partially to pursue its leader Ion Antonescu's desire to combat communism.","World War II\n\nMediterranean (1940–41)","World War II\n\nItaly began operations in the Mediterranean, initiating a siege of Malta in June, conquering British Somaliland in August, and making an incursion into British-held Egypt in September 1940. In October 1940, Italy started the Greco-Italian War because of Mussolini's jealousy of Hitler's success but within days was repulsed and pushed back into Albania, where a stalemate soon occurred. The United Kingdom responded to Greek requests for assistance by sending troops to Crete and providing air support to Greece. Hitler decided that when the weather improved he would take action against Greece to assist the Italians and prevent the British from gaining a foothold in the Balkans, to strike against the British naval dominance of the Mediterranean, and to secure his hold on Romanian oil.","World War II\n\nIn December 1940, British Commonwealth forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa. The offensive in North Africa was highly successful and by early February 1941 Italy had lost control of eastern Libya and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission by a carrier attack at Taranto, and neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan.","World War II\n\nThe Germans soon intervened to assist Italy. Hitler sent German forces to Libya in February, and by the end of March they had launched an offensive which drove back the Commonwealth forces which had been weakened to support Greece. In under a month, Commonwealth forces were pushed back into Egypt with the exception of the besieged port of Tobruk. The Commonwealth attempted to dislodge Axis forces in May and again in June, but failed on both occasions.","World War II\n\nBy late March 1941, following Bulgaria's signing of the Tripartite Pact, the Germans were in position to intervene in Greece. Plans were changed, however, because of developments in neighbouring Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav government had signed the Tripartite Pact on 25 March, only to be overthrown two days later by a British-encouraged coup. Hitler viewed the new regime as hostile and immediately decided to eliminate it. On 6 April Germany simultaneously invaded both Yugoslavia and Greece, making rapid progress and forcing both nations to surrender within the month. The British were driven from the Balkans after Germany conquered the Greek island of Crete by the end of May. Although the Axis victory was swift, bitter partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, which continued until the end of the war.","World War II\n\nThe Allies did have some successes during this time. In the Middle East, Commonwealth forces first quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria, then, with the assistance of the Free French, invaded Syria and Lebanon to prevent further such occurrences.","World War II\n\nAxis attack on the USSR (1941)","World War II\n\nWith the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia, the two powers signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border.","World War II\n\nHitler believed that Britain's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later. He therefore decided to try to strengthen Germany's relations with the Soviets, or failing that, to attack and eliminate them as a factor. In November 1940, negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the Tripartite Pact. The Soviets showed some interest, but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued the directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union.","World War II\n\nOn 22 June 1941, Germany, supported by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, with Germany accusing the Soviets of plotting against them. They were joined shortly by Finland and Hungary.. The primary targets of this surprise offensive were the Baltic region, Moscow and Ukraine, with the ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line, from the Caspian to the White Seas. Hitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate Lebensraum (\"living space\") by dispossessing the native population and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.","World War II\n\nAlthough the Red Army was preparing for strategic counter-offensives before the war, Barbarossa forced the Soviet supreme command to adopt a strategic defence. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By the middle of August, however, the German Army High Command decided to suspend the offensive of a considerably depleted Army Group Centre, and to divert the 2nd Panzer Group to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad. The Kiev offensive was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made further advance into Crimea and industrially developed Eastern Ukraine (the First Battle of Kharkov) possible.","World War II\n\nThe diversion of three quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from France and the central Mediterranean to the Eastern Front prompted Britain to reconsider its grand strategy. In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany The British and Soviets invaded Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and Iran's oil fields. In August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter.","World War II\n\nBy October Axis operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region were achieved, with only the sieges of Leningrad and Sevastopol continuing. A major offensive against Moscow was renewed; after two months of fierce battles in increasingly harsh weather the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops were forced to suspend their offensive. Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet capability to resist was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The blitzkrieg phase of the war in Europe had ended.","World War II\n\nBy early December, freshly mobilised reserves allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops. This, as well as intelligence data which established that a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East would be sufficient to deter any attack by the Japanese Kwantung Army, allowed the Soviets to begin a massive counter-offensive that started on 5 December all along the front and pushed German troops 100 - west.","World War II\n\nWar breaks out in the Pacific (1941)","World War II\n\nIn 1939 the United States had renounced its trade treaty with Japan and beginning with an aviation gasoline ban in July 1940 Japan had become subject to increasing economic pressure. During this time, Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by late September. Despite several offensives by both sides, the war between China and Japan was stalemated by 1940. To increase pressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to better position Japanese forces in the event of a war with the Western powers, Japan invaded and occupied northern Indochina. Afterwards, the United States embargoed iron, steel and mechanical parts against Japan. Other sanctions soon followed.","World War II\n\nIn August of that year, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted harsh measures in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists. Continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in armed clashes in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation. In March, the Japanese 11th army attacked the headquarters of the Chinese 19th army but was repulsed during Battle of Shanggao. In September, Japan attempted to take the city of Changsha again and clashed with Chinese nationalist forces.","World War II\n\nGerman successes in Europe encouraged Japan to increase pressure on European governments in Southeast Asia. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan some oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies, but negotiations for additional access to their resources ended in failure in June 1941. In July 1941 Japan sent troops to southern Indochina, thus threatening British and Dutch possessions in the Far East. The United States, United Kingdom and other Western governments reacted to this move with a freeze on Japanese assets and a total oil embargo.","World War II\n\nSince early 1941 the United States and Japan had been engaged in negotiations in an attempt to improve their strained relations and end the war in China. During these negotiations Japan advanced a number of proposals which were dismissed by the Americans as inadequate. At the same time the US, Britain, and the Netherlands engaged in secret discussions for the joint defence of their territories, in the event of a Japanese attack against any of them. Roosevelt reinforced the Philippines (an American protectorate scheduled for independence in 1946) and warned Japan that the US would react to Japanese attacks against any \"neighboring countries\".","World War II\n\nFrustrated at the lack of progress and feeling the pinch of the American-British-Dutch sanctions, Japan prepared for war. On 20 November it presented an interim proposal as its final offer. It called for the end of American aid to China and to supply oil and other resources to Japan. In exchange they promised not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia and to withdraw their forces from their threatening positions in southern Indochina. The American counter-proposal of 26 November required that Japan evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with all Pacific powers. That meant Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in China, or seizing the natural resources it needed in the Dutch East Indies by force;: \"The United States cut off oil exports to Japan in the summer of 1941, forcing Japanese leaders to choose between going to war to seize the oil fields of the Netherlands East Indies or giving in to U.S.","World War II\n\npressure.\", listing various military and diplomatic developments, observes that \"the threat to Japan was not purely economic.\" the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war.","World War II\n\nJapan planned to rapidly seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific; the Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war. To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter it was further planned to neutralise the United States Pacific Fleet and the American military presence in the Philippines from the outset. On 7 December 1941 (8 December in Asian time zones), Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific. These included an attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, landings in Thailand and Malaya and the battle of Hong Kong.","World War II\n\nThese attacks led the United States, Britain, China, Australia and several other states to formally declare war on Japan, whereas the Soviet Union, being heavily involved in large-scale hostilities with European Axis countries, maintained its neutrality agreement with Japan. Germany, followed by the other Axis states, declared war on the United States in solidarity with Japan, citing as justification the American attacks on German war vessels that had been ordered by Roosevelt.","World War II\n\nAxis advance stalls (1942–43)","World War II\n\nIn January 1942, the Big Four (the United States, Britain, Soviet Union, China) and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the Declaration by United Nations, thereby affirming the Atlantic Charter, and agreeing to not to sign a separate peace with the Axis powers.","World War II\n\nDuring 1942, Allied officials debated on the appropriate grand strategy to pursue. All agreed that defeating Germany was the primary objective. The Americans favoured a straightforward, large-scale attack on Germany through France. The Soviets were also demanding a second front. The British, on the other hand, argued that military operations should target peripheral areas to wear out German strength, lead to increasing demoralisation, and bolster resistance forces. Germany itself would be subject to a heavy bombing campaign. An offensive against Germany would then be launched primarily by Allied armour without using large-scale armies. Eventually, the British persuaded the Americans that a landing in France was infeasible in 1942 and they should instead focus on driving the Axis out of North Africa.","World War II\n\nAt the Casablanca Conference in early 1943, the Allies reiterated the statements issued in the 1942 Declaration by the United Nations, and demanded the unconditional surrender of their enemies.\nThe British and Americans agreed to continue to press the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the Mediterranean supply routes. Although the British argued for further operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the war, in May 1943, the Americans extracted a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediterranean to an invasion of the Italian mainland and to invade France in 1944.","World War II\n\nPacific (1942–43)","World War II\n\nBy the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally Thailand had almost fully conquered Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, and Rabaul, inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners. Despite stubborn resistance by Filipino and US forces, the Philippine Commonwealth was eventually captured in May 1942, forcing its government into exile. On 16 April, in Burma, 7,000 British soldiers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division during the Battle of Yenangyaung and rescued by the Chinese 38th Division. Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in the South China Sea, Java Sea and Indian Ocean, and bombed the Allied naval base at Darwin, Australia. In January 1942, the only Allied success against Japan was a Chinese victory at Changsha. These easy victories over unprepared US and European opponents left Japan overconfident, as well as overextended.","World War II\n\nIn early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to capture Port Moresby by amphibious assault and thus sever communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The planned invasion was thwarted when an Allied task force centered on two American fleet carriers fought Japanese naval forces to a draw in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier Doolittle Raid, was to seize Midway Atoll and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to occupy the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. In early June, Japan put its operations into action but the Americans, having broken Japanese naval codes in late May, were fully aware of the plans and force dispositions and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive victory at Midway over the Imperial Japanese Navy.","World War II\n\nWith its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan chose to focus on a belated attempt to capture Port Moresby by an overland campaign in the Territory of Papua. The Americans planned a counter-attack against Japanese positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily Guadalcanal, as a first step towards capturing Rabaul, the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia.","World War II\n\nBoth plans started in July, but by mid-September, the Battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the northern part of the island, where they faced Australian and United States troops in the Battle of Buna-Gona. Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops. In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first, an offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942, went disastrously, forcing a retreat back to India by May 1943. The second was the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese front-lines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved mixed results.","World War II\n\nEastern Front (1942–43)","World War II\n\nDespite considerable losses, in early 1942 Germany and its allies stopped a major Soviet offensive in central and southern Russia, keeping most territorial gains they had achieved during the previous year. In May the Germans defeated Soviet offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkov, and then launched their main summer offensive against southern Russia in June 1942, to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and occupy Kuban steppe, while maintaining positions on the northern and central areas of the front. The Germans split Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A advanced to the lower Don River and struck south-east to the Caucasus, while Army Group B headed towards the Volga River. The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad on the Volga.","World War II\n\nBy mid-November, the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad in bitter street fighting when the Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad and an assault on the Rzhev salient near Moscow, though the latter failed disastrously. By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been forced to surrender, and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans launched another attack on Kharkov, creating a salient in their front line around the Russian city of Kursk.","World War II\n\nWestern Europe/Atlantic & Mediterranean (1942–43)","World War II\n\nExploiting poor American naval command decisions, the German navy ravaged Allied shipping off the American Atlantic coast. By November 1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive, Operation Crusader, in North Africa, and reclaimed all the gains the Germans and Italians had made. In North Africa, the Germans launched an offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the Gazala Line by early February, followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives. Concerns the Japanese might use bases in Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invade the island in early May 1942. An Axis offensive in Libya forced an Allied retreat deep inside Egypt until Axis forces were stopped at El Alamein. On the Continent, raids of Allied commandos on strategic targets, culminating in the disastrous Dieppe Raid, demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.","World War II\n\nIn August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a second attack against El Alamein and, at a high cost, managed to deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta. A few months later, the Allies commenced an attack of their own in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya. This attack was followed up shortly after by Anglo-American landings in French North Africa, which resulted in the region joining the Allies. Hitler responded to the French colony's defection by ordering the occupation of Vichy France; although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to scuttle their fleet to prevent its capture by German forces. The now pincered Axis forces in Africa withdrew into Tunisia, which was conquered by the Allies in May 1943.","World War II\n\nIn early 1943 the British and Americans began the Combined Bomber Offensive, a strategic bombing campaign against Germany. The goals were to disrupt the German war economy, reduce German morale, and \"de-house\" the civilian population.","World War II\n\nAllies gain momentum (1943–44)","World War II\n\nAfter the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Canadian and U.S. forces were sent to eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians. Soon after, the U.S. with support from Australian and New Zealand forces began major operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands, and to breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives, and additionally neutralised the major Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline Islands. In April, the Allies launched an operation to retake Western New Guinea.","World War II\n\nIn the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 preparing for large offensives in central Russia. On 4 July 1943, Germany attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets' deeply echeloned and well-constructed defences and, for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled the operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success. This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies' invasion of Sicily launched on 9 July which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month. Also, in July 1943 the British firebombed Hamburg killing over 40,000 people.","World War II\n\nOn 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own counter-offensives, thereby dispelling any chance of German victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk marked the end of German superiority, giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front. The Germans tried to stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortified Panther-Wotan line, but the Soviets broke through it at Smolensk and by the Lower Dnieper Offensives.","World War II\n\nOn 3 September 1943, the Western Allies invaded the Italian mainland, following Italy's armistice with the Allies. Germany responded by disarming Italian forces, seizing military control of Italian areas, and creating a series of defensive lines. German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon established a new client state in German occupied Italy named the Italian Social Republic, causing an Italian civil war. The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November.","World War II\n\nGerman operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By May 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective, the resulting sizeable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign. In November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran. The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory, while the latter included agreement that the Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany's defeat.","World War II\n\nFrom November 1943, during the seven-week Battle of Changde, the Chinese forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition, while awaiting Allied relief. . In January 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte Cassino and tried to outflank it with landings at Anzio. By the end of January, a major Soviet offensive expelled German forces from the Leningrad region, ending the longest and most lethal siege in history.","World War II\n\nThe following Soviet offensive was halted on the pre-war Estonian border by the German Army Group North aided by Estonians hoping to re-establish national independence. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the Baltic Sea region. By late May 1944, the Soviets had liberated Crimea, largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made incursions into Romania, which were repulsed by the Axis troops. The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, on 4 June, Rome was captured.; .The weeks after the fall of Rome saw a dramatic upswing in German atrocities in Italy (). The period featured massacres with victims in the hundreds at Civitella (; ), Fosse Ardeatine (), and Sant'Anna di Stazzema (), and is capped with the Marzabotto massacre.","World War II\n\nThe Allies had mixed success in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions, an operation against British positions in Assam, India, and soon besieged Commonwealth positions at Imphal and Kohima. In May 1944, British forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma, and Chinese forces that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 besieged Japanese troops in Myitkyina. The second Japanese invasion of China aimed to destroy China's main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields. By June, the Japanese had conquered the province of Henan and begun a new attack on Changsha in the Hunan province.","World War II\n\nAllies close in (1944)","World War II\n\nOn 6 June 1944 (known as D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure,: \"Stalin always believed that Britain and America were delaying the second front so that the Soviet Union would bear the brunt of the war.\" the Western Allies invaded northern France. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also attacked southern France. These landings were successful, and led to the defeat of the German Army units in France. Paris was liberated by the local resistance assisted by the Free French Forces, both led by General Charles de Gaulle, on 25 August and the Western Allies continued to push back German forces in western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spearheaded by a major airborne operation in the Netherlands failed. After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, but failed to cross the Rur river in a large offensive. In Italy, Allied advance also slowed due to the last major German defensive line.","World War II\n\nOn 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus (\"Operation Bagration\") that destroyed the German Army Group Centre almost completely. Soon after that another Soviet strategic offensive forced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The Soviet advance prompted resistance forces in Poland to initiate several uprisings against the German occupation. However, the largest of these in Warsaw where German soldiers massacred 200,000 civilians and a national uprising in Slovakia did not receive Soviet support and were subsequently suppressed by the Germans. The Red Army's strategic offensive in eastern Romania cut off and destroyed the considerable German troops there and triggered a successful coup d'état in Romania and in Bulgaria, followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side.","World War II\n\nIn September 1944, Soviet troops advanced into Yugoslavia and forced the rapid withdrawal of German Army Groups E and F in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off. By this point, the Communist-led Partisans under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who had led an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and engaged in delaying efforts against German forces further south. In northern Serbia, the Red Army, with limited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a joint liberation of the capital city of Belgrade on 20 October. A few days later, the Soviets launched a massive assault against German-occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of Budapest in February 1945. Unlike impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, bitter Finnish resistance to the Soviet offensive in the Karelian Isthmus denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to a Soviet-Finnish armistice on relatively mild conditions, although Finland later shifted to the Allied side.","World War II\n\nBy the start of July 1944, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In China, the Japanese had more successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August. Soon after, they invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by mid-December.","World War II\n\nIn the Pacific, US forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944, they began their offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands, and decisively defeated Japanese forces in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. These defeats led to the resignation of the Japanese Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo, and provided the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces invaded the Filipino island of Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history.","World War II\n\nAxis collapse, Allied victory (1944–45)","World War II\n\nOn 16 December 1944, Germany made a last attempt on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes to split the Western Allies, encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and capture their primary supply port at Antwerp to prompt a political settlement. By January, the offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled. In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets and Poles attacked in Poland, pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and overran East Prussia. On 4 February, US, British, and Soviet leaders met for the Yalta Conference. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.","World War II\n\nIn February, the Soviets entered Silesia and Pomerania, while Western Allies entered western Germany and closed to the Rhine river. By March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encircling the German Army Group B, while the Soviets advanced to Vienna. In early April, the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across western Germany, while Soviet and Polish forces stormed Berlin in late April. American and Soviet forces joined on Elbe river on 25 April. On 30 April 1945, the Reichstag was captured, signalling the military defeat of Nazi Germany.","World War II\n\nSeveral changes in leadership occurred during this period. On 12 April, President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by Harry Truman. Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on 28 April. Two days later, Hitler committed suicide, and was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz.","World War II\n\nGerman forces surrendered in Italy on 29 April. Total and unconditional surrender was signed on 7 May, to be effective by the end of 8 May. German Army Group Centre resisted in Prague until 11 May.","World War II\n\nIn the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the Philippine Commonwealth advanced in the Philippines, clearing Leyte by the end of April 1945. They landed on Luzon in January 1945 and recaptured Manila in March following a battle which reduced the city to ruins. Fighting continued on Luzon, Mindanao, and other islands of the Philippines until the end of the war. On the night of 9–10 March, B-29 bombers of the US Army Air Forces struck Tokyo with incendiary bombs, which killed 100,000 people within a few hours. Over the next five months, American bombers firebombed 66 other Japanese cities, causing the destruction of untold numbers of buildings and the deaths of between 350,000–500,000 Japanese civilians.","World War II\n\nIn May 1945, Australian troops landed in Borneo, over-running the oilfields there. British, American, and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma in March, and the British pushed on to reach Rangoon by 3 May. Chinese forces started to counterattack in Battle of West Hunan that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945. American naval and amphibious forces also moved towards Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by the end of June. At the same time American bombers were destroying Japanese cities, American submarines cut off Japanese imports, drastically reducing Japan's ability to supply its overseas forces.","World War II\n\nOn 11 July, Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier agreements about Germany, and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of all Japanese forces by Japan, specifically stating that \"the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction\". During this conference, the United Kingdom held its general election, and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Prime Minister.","World War II\n\nThe Allies called for unconditional Japanese surrender in the Potsdam declaration of 27 July, but the Japanese government was internally divided on whether to make peace and did not respond. In early August, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Like the Japanese cities previously bombed by American airmen, the US and its allies justified the atomic bombings as a military necessity, to avoid invading the Japanese home islands which would cost the lives of between 250,000–500,000 Allied troops and millions of Japanese troops and civilians. Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, invaded Japanese-held Manchuria, and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the largest Japanese fighting force. The Red Army also captured Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On 15 August 1945, Japan surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed aboard the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, ending the war.","World War II\n\nAftermath","World War II\n\nThe Allies established occupation administrations in Austria and Germany. The former became a neutral state, non-aligned with any political bloc. The latter was divided into western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the USSR, accordingly. A denazification program in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society.","World War II\n\nGermany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory. Among the eastern territories, Silesia, Neumark and most of Pomerania were taken over by Poland, East Prussia was divided between Poland and the USSR, followed by the expulsion of the 9 million Germans from these provinces, as well as the expulsion of 3 million Germans from the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia to Germany. By the 1950s, every fifth West German was a refugee from the east. The Soviet Union also took over the Polish provinces east of the Curzon line, from which 2 million Poles were expelled; north-east Romania, parts of eastern Finland, and the three Baltic states were also incorporated into the USSR.","World War II\n\nIn an effort to maintain peace, the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as a common standard for all member nations..The UDHR is viewable here [http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/]. The great powers that were the victors of the war—the United States, Soviet Union, China, Britain, and France—formed the permanent members of the UN's Security Council. The five permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes, between the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China in 1971, and between the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over.","World War II\n\nGermany had been de facto divided, and two independent states, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic were created within the borders of Allied and Soviet occupation zones, accordingly. The rest of Europe was also divided into Western and Soviet spheres of influence. Most eastern and central European countries fell into the Soviet sphere, which led to establishment of Communist-led regimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet occupation authorities. As a result, Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Albania became Soviet satellite states. Communist Yugoslavia conducted a fully independent policy, causing tension with the USSR.","World War II\n\nPost-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact; the long period of political tensions and military competition between them, the Cold War, would be accompanied by an unprecedented arms race and proxy wars.","World War II\n\nIn Asia, the United States led the occupation of Japan and administrated Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Korea, formerly under Japanese rule, was divided and occupied by the US in the South and the Soviet Union in the North between 1945 and 1948. Separate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th parallel in 1948, each claiming to be the legitimate government for all of Korea, which led ultimately to the Korean War.","World War II\n\nIn China, nationalist and communist forces resumed the civil war in June 1946. Communist forces were victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan in 1949. In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the creation of Israel marked the escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict. While European colonial powers attempted to retain some or all of their colonial empires, their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading to decolonisation.","World War II\n\nThe global economy suffered heavily from the war, although participating nations were affected differently. The US emerged much richer than any other nation; it had a baby boom and by 1950 its gross domestic product per person was much higher than that of any of the other powers and it dominated the world economy. The UK and US pursued a policy of industrial disarmament in Western Germany in the years 1945–1948.. Because of international trade interdependencies this led to European economic stagnation and delayed European recovery for several years. .","World War II\n\nRecovery began with the mid-1948 currency reform in Western Germany, and was sped up by the liberalisation of European economic policy that the Marshall Plan (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused. . The post-1948 West German recovery has been called the German economic miracle. Italy also experienced an economic boom and the French economy rebounded. By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin, and although it received a quarter of the total Marshall Plan assistance, more than any other European country, continued relative economic decline for decades.","World War II\n\nThe Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era. Japan experienced incredibly rapid economic growth, becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world by the 1980s. China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.","World War II\n\nImpact","World War II\n\nCasualties and war crimes","World War II\n\nEstimates for the total number of casualties in the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 75 million people died in the war, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians. \nMany of the civilians died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings, disease, and starvation.","World War II\n\nThe Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths. The largest portion of military dead were 5.7 million ethnic Russians, followed by 1.3 million ethnic Ukrainians. A quarter of the people in the Soviet Union were wounded or killed. Germany sustained 5.3 million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Front and during the final battles in Germany.","World War II\n\nOf the total number of deaths in World War II, approximately 85 percent—mostly Soviet and Chinese—were on the Allied side and 15 percent were on the Axis side. Many of these deaths were caused by war crimes committed by German and Japanese forces in occupied territories. An estimated 11 to 17 million. civilians died either as a direct or as an indirect result of Nazi ideological policies, including the systematic genocide of around 6 million Jews during the Holocaust, along with a further 5 to 6 million ethnic Poles and other Slavs (including Ukrainians and Belarusians) —Roma, homosexuals, and other ethnic and minority groups. Hundreds of thousands (varying estimates) of ethnic Serbs, along with gypsies and Jews, were murdered by the Axis-aligned Croatian Ustaše in Yugoslavia, and retribution-related killings were committed just after the war ended.","World War II\n\nIn Asia and the Pacific, between 3 million and more than 10 million civilians, mostly Chinese (estimated at 7.5 million ), were killed by the Japanese occupation forces. The best-known Japanese atrocity was the Nanking Massacre, in which fifty to three hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered. Mitsuyoshi Himeta reported that 2.7 million casualties occurred during the Sankō Sakusen. General Yasuji Okamura implemented the policy in Heipei and Shantung.","World War II\n\nAxis forces employed biological and chemical weapons. The Imperial Japanese Army used a variety of such weapons during its invasion and occupation of China (see Unit 731) and in early conflicts against the Soviets. Both the Germans and Japanese tested such weapons against civilians and, sometimes on prisoners of war.","World War II\n\nThe Soviet Union was responsible for the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers, and the imprisonment or execution of thousands of political prisoners by the NKVD, in the Baltic states, and eastern Poland annexed by the Red Army.","World War II\n\nThe mass-bombing of civilian areas, notably the cities of Warsaw, Rotterdam and London; including the aerial targeting of hospitals and fleeing refugees by the German Luftwaffe, along with the bombing of Tokyo, and German cities of Dresden, Hamburg and Cologne by the Western Allies may be considered as war crimes. The latter resulted in the destruction of more than 160 cities and the death of more than 600,000 German civilians. However, no positive or specific customary international humanitarian law with respect to aerial warfare existed before or during World War II.","World War II\n\nConcentration camps, slave labour, and genocide","World War II\n\nThe German government led by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party was responsible for the Holocaust, the killing of approximately 6 million Jews, as well as 2.7 million ethnic Poles, and 4 million others who were deemed \"unworthy of life\" (including the disabled and mentally ill, Soviet prisoners of war, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Romani) as part of a programme of deliberate extermination. About 12 million, most of whom were Eastern Europeans, were employed in the German war economy as forced labourers.","World War II\n\nIn addition to Nazi concentration camps, the Soviet gulags (labour camps) led to the death of citizens of occupied countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as German prisoners of war (POWs) and even Soviet citizens who had been or were thought to be supporters of the Nazis. Sixty percent of Soviet POWs of the Germans died during the war. Richard Overy gives the number of 5.7 million Soviet POWs. Of those, 57 percent died or were killed, a total of 3.6 million. Soviet ex-POWs and repatriated civilians were treated with great suspicion as potential Nazi collaborators, and some of them were sent to the Gulag upon being checked by the NKVD.","World War II\n\nJapanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also had high death rates. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East found the death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1 percent (for American POWs, 37 percent), seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians. While 37,583 prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from the United States were released after the surrender of Japan, the number of Chinese released was only 56.","World War II\n\nAccording to historian Zhifen Ju, at least five million Chinese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo were enslaved between 1935 and 1941 by the East Asia Development Board, or Kōain, for work in mines and war industries. After 1942, the number reached 10 million. The US Library of Congress estimates that in Java, between 4 and 10 million romusha (Japanese: \"manual laborers\"), were forced to work by the Japanese military. About 270,000 of these Javanese labourers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in South East Asia, and only 52,000 were repatriated to Java.","World War II\n\nOn 19 February 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, interning about 100,000 Japanese living on the West Coast. Canada had a similar program. In addition, 14,000 German and Italian citizens who had been assessed as being security risks were also interned..","World War II\n\nIn accordance with the Allied agreement made at the Yalta Conference millions of POWs and civilians were used as forced labour by the Soviet Union. In Hungary's case, Hungarians were forced to work for the Soviet Union until 1955.","World War II\n\nOccupation","World War II\n\nIn Europe, occupation came under two forms. In Western, Northern and Central Europe (France, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries, and the annexed portions of Czechoslovakia) Germany established economic policies through which it collected roughly 69.5 billion reichmarks (27.8 billion US Dollars) by the end of the war, this figure does not include the sizeable plunder of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods. Thus, the income from occupied nations was over 40 percent of the income Germany collected from taxation, a figure which increased to nearly 40 percent of total German income as the war went on.","World War II\n\nIn the East, the much hoped for bounties of Lebensraum were never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Soviet scorched earth policies denied resources to the German invaders. Unlike in the West, the Nazi racial policy encouraged excessive brutality against what it considered to be the \"inferior people\" of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed by mass executions. Although resistance groups formed in most occupied territories, they did not significantly hamper German operations in either the East or the West until late 1943.","World War II\n\nIn Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as being part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, essentially a Japanese hegemony which it claimed was for purposes of liberating colonised peoples. Although Japanese forces were originally welcomed as liberators from European domination in some territories, their excessive brutality turned local public opinion against them within weeks. During Japan's initial conquest it captured 4000000 oilbbl of oil (~5.5×105 tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces, and by 1943 was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to , 76 percent of its 1940 output rate.","World War II\n\nHome fronts and production","World War II\n\nIn Europe, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and British Dominions) had a 30 percent larger population and a 30 percent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis (Germany and Italy); if colonies are included, it then gives the Allies more than a 5:1 advantage in population and nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP. In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan, but only an 89 percent higher GDP; this is reduced to three times the population and only a 38 percent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included.","World War II\n\nThough the Allies' economic and population advantages were largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkrieg attacks of Germany and Japan, they became the decisive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies, as the war largely settled into one of attrition. While the Allies' ability to out-produce the Axis is often attributed to the Allies having more access to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan's reluctance to employ women in the labour force, Allied strategic bombing, and Germany's late shift to a war economy contributed significantly. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted war, and were not equipped to do so. To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of slave labourers; Germany used about 12 million people, mostly from Eastern Europe, while Japan used more than 18 million people in Far East Asia.","World War II\n\nAdvances in technology and warfare","World War II\n\nAircraft were used for reconnaissance, as fighters, bombers, and ground-support, and each role was advanced considerably. Innovation included airlift (the capability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies, equipment, and personnel); and of strategic bombing (the bombing of enemy industrial and population centres to destroy the enemy's ability to wage war). Anti-aircraft weaponry also advanced, including defences such as radar and surface-to-air artillery, such as the German 88 mm gun. The use of the jet aircraft was pioneered and, though late introduction meant it had little impact, it led to jets becoming standard in air forces worldwide.","World War II\n\nAdvances were made in nearly every aspect of naval warfare, most notably with aircraft carriers and submarines. Although aeronautical warfare had relatively little success at the start of the war, actions at Taranto, Pearl Harbor, and the Coral Sea established the carrier as the dominant capital ship in place of the battleship.","World War II\n\nIn the Atlantic, escort carriers proved to be a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and helping to close the Mid-Atlantic gap. Carriers were also more economical than battleships because of the relatively low cost of aircraft and their not requiring to be as heavily armoured. Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during the First World War, were anticipated by all sides to be important in the second. The British focused development on anti-submarine weaponry and tactics, such as sonar and convoys, while Germany focused on improving its offensive capability, with designs such as the Type VII submarine and wolfpack tactics. Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as the Leigh light, hedgehog, squid, and homing torpedoes proved victorious.","World War II\n\nLand warfare changed from the static front lines of World War I to increased mobility and combined arms. The tank, which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon. In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced than it had been during World War I, and advances continued throughout the war with increases in speed, armour and firepower.","World War II\n\nAt the start of the war, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications. This idea was challenged by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank guns against armour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat. This, along with Germany's use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France. Many means of destroying tanks, including indirect artillery, anti-tank guns (both towed and self-propelled), mines, short-ranged infantry antitank weapons, and other tanks were utilised. Even with large-scale mechanisation, infantry remained the backbone of all forces, and throughout the war, most infantry were equipped similarly to World War I.","World War II\n\nThe portable machine gun spread, a notable example being the German MG34, and various submachine guns which were suited to close combat in urban and jungle settings. The assault rifle, a late war development incorporating many features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the standard postwar infantry weapon for most armed forces.","World War II\n\nMost major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security involved in using large codebooks for cryptography by designing ciphering machines, the most well known being the German Enigma machine. Development of SIGINT (signals intelligence) and cryptanalysis enabled the countering process of decryption. Notable examples were the Allied decryption of Japanese naval codes and British Ultra, a pioneering method for decoding Enigma benefiting from information given to Britain by the Polish Cipher Bureau, which had been decoding early versions of Enigma before the war. Another aspect of military intelligence was the use of deception, which the Allies used to great effect, such as in operations Mincemeat and Bodyguard. Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world's first programmable computers (Z3, Colossus, and ENIAC), guided missiles and modern rockets, the Manhattan Project's development of nuclear weapons, operations research and the development of artificial harbours and oil pipelines under the English Channel."],"string":"[\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand ( or ; , );, officially the Kingdom of Thailand (, ;), formerly known as Siam (; ), is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula. It is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Myanmar. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. With a total area of approximately 513000 km2, Thailand is the world's 51st-largest country. It is the 20th-most-populous country in the world, with around 66 million people. The capital and largest city is Bangkok.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand is governed by the National Council for Peace and Order that took power in the May 2014 coup d'état. Its monarchy is headed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has reigned since 1946 as Rama IX, as he is the ninth monarch of the Chakri Dynasty. He is currently the world's longest-serving head of state and the country's longest-reigning monarch; he has reigned for .\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand experienced rapid economic growth between 1985 and 1996, becoming a newly industrialised country and a major exporter. Manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism are leading sectors of the economy. Among the ten ASEAN countries, Thailand ranks third in quality of life. and the country's HDI is rated as \\\"high\\\". Its large population and growing economic influence have made it a middle power in the region and around the world.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nEtymology\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nEtymology of \\\"Siam\\\"\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe country has always been called Mueang Thai by its citizens. By others, it is known by the exonym Siam ( ,, also spelled Siem, Syâm, or Syâma). The word Siam has been identified with the Sanskrit Śyāma (श्याम, meaning \\\"dark\\\" or \\\"brown\\\"). The names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word. The word Śyâma is possibly not its origin, but a learned and artificial distortion.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe signature of King Mongkut (r. 1851 – 1868) reads SPPM (Somdet Phra Poramenthra Maha) Mongkut King of the Siamese, giving the name \\\"Siam\\\" official status until 23 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand. Thailand was renamed Siam from 1945 to 11 May 1949, after which it again reverted to Thailand.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nEtymology of \\\"Thailand\\\"\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAccording to George Cœdès, the word Thai (ไทย) means \\\"free man\\\" in the Thai language, \\\"differentiating the Thai from the natives encompassed in Thai society as serfs.\\\" A famous Thai scholar argued that Thai () simply means \\\"people\\\" or \\\"human being\\\", since his investigation shows that in some rural areas the word \\\"Thai\\\" was used instead of the usual Thai word \\\"khon\\\" (คน) for people.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nWhile Thai people will often refer to their country using the polite form prathet Thai (), they most commonly use the more colloquial term mueang Thai () or simply Thai, the word mueang, archaically a city-state, commonly used to refer to a city or town as the centre of a region. Ratcha Anachak Thai () means \\\"kingdom of Thailand\\\" or \\\"kingdom of Thai\\\". Etymologically, its components are: ratcha (Sanskrit raja \\\"king, royal, realm\\\") ; -ana- (Pali āṇā \\\"authority, command, power\\\", itself from an Old Indo-Aryan form ājñā of the same meaning) -chak (from Sanskrit cakra- \\\"wheel\\\", a symbol of power and rule). The Thai National Anthem (), written by Luang Saranupraphan during the extremely patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as: prathet Thai (Thai: ประเทศไทย). The first line of the national anthem is: prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai (), \\\"Thailand is the unity of Thai flesh and blood.\\\"\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nHistory\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThere is evidence of human habitation in Thailand that has been dated at 40,000 years before the present, with stone artefacts dated to this period at Tham Lod Rockshelter in Mae Hong Son. Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, Thailand was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India, starting with the Kingdom of Funan around the 1st century CE to the Khmer Empire. Thailand in its earliest days was under the rule of the Khmer Empire, which had strong Hindu roots, and the influence among Thais remains even today.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nIndian influence on Thai culture was partly the result of direct contact with Indian settlers, but mainly it was brought about indirectly via the Indianized kingdoms of Dvaravati, Srivijaya, and Cambodia. E.A. Voretzsch believes that Buddhism must have been flowing into Siam from India in the time of the Indian Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire and far on into the first millennium after Christ. Later Thailand was influenced by the south Indian Pallava dynasty and north Indian Gupta Empire.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAccording to George Cœdès, \\\"The Thai first enter history of Farther India in the eleventh century with the mention of Syam slaves or prisoners of war in\\\" Champa epigraphy, and \\\"in the twelfth century, the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat\\\" where \\\"a group of warriors\\\" are described as Syam. Additionally, \\\"the Mongols, after the seizure of Ta-li on January 7, 1253 and the pacification of Yunnan in 1257, did not look with disfavor on the creation of a series of Thai principalities at the expense of the old Indianized kingdoms.\\\" The Menam Basin was originally populated by the Mons, and the location of Dvaravati in the 7th century, followed by the Khmer Empire in the 11th. The History of the Yuan mentions an embassy from the kingdom of Sukhothai in 1282. In 1287, three Thai chiefs, Mangrai, Ngam Muang, and Ram Khamhaeng formed a \\\"strong pact of friendship\\\".\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAfter the fall of the Khmer Empire in the 13th century, various states thrived there, established by the various Tai peoples, Mons, Khmers, Chams and Ethnic Malays, as seen through the numerous archaeological sites and artefacts that are scattered throughout the Siamese landscape. Prior to the 12th century however, the first Thai or Siamese state is traditionally considered to be the Buddhist Sukhothai Kingdom, which was founded in 1238.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nFollowing the decline and fall of the Khmer empire in the 13th–15th century, the Buddhist Tai kingdoms of Sukhothai, Lanna, and Lan Xang (now Laos) were on the rise. However, a century later, the power of Sukhothai was overshadowed by the new Kingdom of Ayutthaya, established in the mid-14th-century in the lower Chao Phraya River or Menam area.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAyutthaya's expansion centred along the Menam while in the northern valleys the Lanna Kingdom and other small Tai city-states ruled the area. In 1431, the Khmer abandoned Angkor after Ayutthaya forces invaded the city. Thailand retained a tradition of trade with its neighbouring states, from China to India, Persia, and Arab lands. Ayutthaya became one of the most vibrant trading centres in Asia. European traders arrived in the 16th century, beginning with the Portuguese, followed by the French, Dutch, and English. The Burmese–Siamese War (1765–1767) left Ayutthaya burned and sacked by King Hsinbyushin.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAfter the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 to the Burmese, Taksin moved the capital to Thonburi for approximately 15 years. The current Rattanakosin era of Thai history began in 1782 following the establishment of Bangkok as capital of the Chakri Dynasty under King Rama I the Great. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, \\\"A quarter to a third of the population of some areas of Thailand and Burma were slaves in the 17th through the 19th centuries.\\\"\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nDespite European pressure, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian nation to never have been colonised. This has been ascribed to the long succession of able rulers in the past four centuries who exploited the rivalry and tension between French Indochina and the British Empire. As a result, the country remained a buffer state between parts of Southeast Asia that were colonised by the two colonial powers, Great Britain and France. Western influence nevertheless led to many reforms in the 19th century and major concessions, most notably the loss of a large territory on the east side of the Mekong to the French and the step-by-step absorption by Britain of the Shan and Karen people areas and Malay Peninsula.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n20th century\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAs part of the concessions which the Chakkri Dynasty offered to the British Empire in return for their support, Siam ceded four predominantly ethnic-Malay southern provinces to the British Empire in the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909. These four provinces (Kelantan,Tringganu, Kedah, Perlis) would later became Malaysia's four northern states.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nIn 1917, Siam joined the Allies of World War I and is counted as one of the victors of World War I.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nIn 1932, a bloodless revolution carried out by the Khana Ratsadon group of military and civilian officials resulted in a transition of power, when King Prajadhipok was forced to grant the people of Siam their first constitution, thereby ending centuries of absolute monarchy.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nIn 1939, the name of the kingdom, \\\"Siam\\\", was changed to \\\"Thailand\\\".\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nWorld War II\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nDuring World War II, the Empire of Japan demanded the right to move troops across Thailand to the Malayan frontier. The Japanese invasion of Thailand on 8 December 1941 occurred in co-ordination with attacks throughout Asia and engaged the Royal Thai Army for six to eight hours before Plaek Phibunsongkhram ordered an armistice. Shortly thereafter, Japan was granted free passage, and on 21 December 1941, Thailand and Japan signed a military alliance with a secret protocol, wherein Tokyo agreed to help Thailand regain territories lost to the British and French.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nSubsequently, Thailand declared war on the United States and the United Kingdom on 25 January 1942, and undertook to \\\"assist\\\" Japan in its war against the Allies, while at the same time maintaining an active anti-Japanese Free Thai Movement. Approximately 200,000 Asian labourers (mainly romusha) and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) worked on the Burma Railway, which is commonly known as the \\\"Death Railway\\\".\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAfter the war, Thailand emerged as an ally of the United States. As with many of the developing nations during the Cold War, Thailand then went through decades of political instability characterised by a number of coups d'état, as one military regime replaced another, but eventually progressed towards a stable, prosperous democracy in the 1980s.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nFile:BlackCeramicBanChiangCultureThailand1200-800BCE.jpg|Pottery discovered near Ban Chiang in Udon Thani Province, the earliest dating to 2100 BCE.\\nFile:Pimai1.jpg|Phimai, Prasat Phimai is the largest temple in the country from the Khmer Empire.\\nFile:วัดพนัญเชิงวรวิหาร by Pholtograph.jpg|The immense 19 m gilded statue of a seated Buddha in Wat Phanan Choeng, the latter from 1324, pre-dates the founding of the city of Ayutthaya\\nFile:Wat Si Chum in Sukhothai.jpg|A 15 m Buddha image in Sukhothai, Phra Achana , built in the 13th century\\nFile:Iudea-Ayutthaya.jpg|Painting of Ayutthaya, ordered by the Dutch East India Company, 1665.\\nFile:Siamese envoys at Versailles.jpg|Kosa Pan present King Narai's letter to Louis XIV at Versailles, 1 September 1686.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nPolitics and government\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe politics of Thailand is currently conducted within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government and a hereditary monarch is head of state. The judiciary is supposed to be independent of the executive and the legislative branches, although judicial rulings are suspected of being based on political considerations rather than on existing law.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nConstitutional history\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nSince the political reform of the absolute monarchy in 1932, Thailand has had 19 constitutions and charters. Throughout this time, the form of government has ranged from military dictatorship to electoral democracy, but all governments have acknowledged a hereditary monarch as the head of state.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n28 June 1932\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nPrior to 1932, the Kingdom of Siam did not possess a legislature, as all legislative powers were vested in the person of the monarch. This had been the case since the foundation of the Sukhothai Kingdom in the 12th century as the king was seen as a \\\"Dharmaraja\\\" or \\\"king who rules in accordance with Dharma\\\", (the Buddhist law of righteousness). However, on 24 June 1932 a group of civilians and military officers, calling themselves the Khana Ratsadon (or People's Party) carried out a bloodless revolution in which the 150 years of absolute rule of the Chakri Dynasty ended. In its stead the group advocated a constitutional form of monarchy with an elected legislature.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe \\\"Draft Constitution\\\" of 1932 signed by King Prajadhipok created Thailand's first legislature, a People's Assembly with 70 appointed members. The assembly met for the first time on 28 June 1932, in the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall. The Khana Ratsadon decided that the people were not yet ready for an elected assembly. They later changed their minds. By the time the \\\"permanent\\\" constitution came into force in December of that year, elections were scheduled for 15 November 1933. The new constitution changed the composition of the assembly to 78 directly elected and 78 appointed (by the Khana Ratsadon), together totalling 156 members.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n1932 to 1973\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe history of Thailand from 1932 to 1973 was dominated by military dictatorships which were in power for much of the period. The main personalities of the period were the dictator Luang Phibunsongkhram (better known as Phibun), who allied the country with Japan during the Second World War, and the civilian politician Pridi Phanomyong, who founded Thammasat University and was briefly the prime minister after the war.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nJapan invaded Thailand on 8 December 1941. For events subsequent to the abdication of the king, including the name change of 1939, up to the coup d'état of 1957, see Plaek Pibulsonggram.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nA succession of military dictators followed Pridi's ousting — Phibun again, Sarit Dhanarajata and Thanom Kittikachorn — under whom traditional, authoritarian rule was combined with increasing modernisation and westernisation under the influence of the US. The end of the period was marked by Thanom's resignation, following a massacre of pro-democracy protesters led by Thammasat students. Thanom misread the situation as a coup d'état, and fled, leaving the country leaderless. HM appointed Thammasat University chancellor Sanya Dharmasakti PM by royal command.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand helped the USA and South Vietnam in the Vietnam War between 1965–1971. The USAF based F-4 Phantom fighters at Udon and Ubon Air Base, and stationed B-52s at U-Tapao. Thai forces also saw heavy action in the covert war in Laos that occurred from 1964 to 1972.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n1973 to 1997\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n1997 to 2001\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe 1997 Constitution was the first constitution to be drafted by popularly elected Constitutional Drafting Assembly, and was popularly called the \\\"people's constitution\\\". The 1997 Constitution created a bicameral legislature consisting of a 500-seat House of Representatives (สภาผู้แทนราษฎร, sapha phu thaen ratsadon) and a 200-seat Senate (วุฒิสภา, wutthisapha). For the first time in Thai history, both houses were directly elected.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nMany human rights were explicitly acknowledged, and measures were established to increase the stability of elected governments. The House was elected by the first past the post system, where only one candidate with a simple majority could be elected in one constituency. The Senate was elected based on the provincial system, where one province could return more than one senator depending on its population size.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe two houses of the National Assembly have two different terms. In accordance with the constitution the Senate is elected to a six-year term, while the House is elected to a four-year term. Overall the term of the National Assembly is based on that of the House. The National Assembly each year will sit in two sessions: an \\\"ordinary session\\\" and a \\\"legislative session\\\". The first session of the National Assembly must take place within thirty days after the general election of the House of Representatives. The first session must be opened by the king in person by reading a Speech from the Throne; this ceremony is held in the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall. He may also appoint the crown prince or a representative to carry out this duty. It is also the duty of the king to prorogue sessions through a royal decree when the House term expires. The king also has the prerogative to call extraordinary sessions and prolong sessions upon advice of the House of Representatives.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe National Assembly may host a \\\"joint-sitting\\\" of both Houses under several circumstances. These include: The appointment of a regent, any alteration to the 1924 Palace Law of Succession, the opening of the first session, the announcement of policies by the Cabinet of Thailand, the approval of the declaration of war, the hearing of explanations and approval of a treaty and the amendment of the Constitution.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nMembers of the House of Representatives served four-year terms, while senators served six-year terms. The 1997 People's Constitution also promoted human rights more than any other constitution. The court system (ศาล, san) included a constitutional court with jurisdiction over the constitutionality of parliamentary acts, royal decrees, and political matters.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n2001 to 2008\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe January 2001 general election, the first election under the 1997 Constitution, was called the most open, corruption-free election in Thai history. \\nThai Rak Thai Party, led by Thaksin Shinawatra won the election. The Thaksin government was the first in Thai history to complete a four-year term. The 2005 election had the highest voter turnout in Thai history, and Thai Rak Thai Party won an absolute majority. However, despite efforts to clean up the system, vote buying and electoral violence remained electoral problems in 2005.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe PollWatch Foundation, Thailand's most prominent election watchdog, declared that vote buying in this election, specifically in the north and the northeast, was more serious than in the 2001 election. The organisation also accused the government of violating the election law by abusing state power in presenting new projects in a bid to seek votes.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n2006 coup d'état\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nWithout meeting much resistance, a military junta overthrew the interim government of Thaksin Shinawatra on 19 September 2006. The junta abrogated the constitution, dissolved Parliament and the Constitutional Court, detained and later removed several members of the government, declared martial law, and appointed one of the king's Privy Counselors, General Surayud Chulanont, as the Prime Minister. The junta later wrote a highly abbreviated interim constitution and appointed a panel to draft a new permanent constitution. The junta also appointed a 250-member legislature, called by some critics a \\\"chamber of generals\\\" while others claimed that it lacks representatives from the poor majority.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nIn this interim constitution draft, the head of the junta was allowed to remove the prime minister at any time. The legislature was not allowed to hold a vote of confidence against the cabinet and the public was not allowed to file comments on bills. This interim constitution was later surpassed by the permanent constitution on 24 August 2007. Martial law was partially revoked in January 2007. The ban on political activities was lifted in July 2007, following the 30 May dissolution of the Thai Rak Thai party. The new constitution was approved by referendum on 19 August, which led to a return to a democratic general election on 23 December 2007.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n2008–2010 political crisis\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe People's Power Party (Thailand), led by Samak Sundaravej formed a government with five smaller parties. Following several court rulings against him in a variety of scandals, and surviving a vote of no confidence, and protesters blockading government buildings and airports, in September 2008, Sundaravej was found guilty of conflict of interest by the Constitutional Court of Thailand (due to being a host in a TV cooking program), and thus, ended his term in office.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nHe was replaced by PPP member Somchai Wongsawat. As of October 2008, Wongsawat was unable to gain access to his offices, which were occupied by protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy. On 2 December 2008, Thailand's Constitutional Court in a highly controversial ruling found the Peoples Power Party guilty of electoral fraud, which led to the dissolution of the party according to the law. It was later alleged in media reports that at least one member of the judiciary had a telephone conversation with officials working for the Office of the Privy Council and one other. The phone call was taped and has since circulated on the Internet. In it, the callers discuss finding a way to ensure the ruling PPP party would be disbanded. Accusations of judicial interference were levelled in the media but the recorded call was dismissed as a hoax. However, in June 2010, supporters of the eventually disbanded PPP were charged with tapping a judge's phone.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nImmediately following what many media described as a \\\"judicial coup\\\", a senior member of the Armed Forces met with factions of the governing coalition to get their members to join the opposition and the Democrat Party was able to form a government, a first for the party since 2001. The leader of the Democrat party, and former leader of the opposition, Abhisit Vejjajiva was appointed and sworn-in as the 27th Prime Minister, together with the new cabinet on 17 December 2008.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nIn April 2009, protests by the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD, or \\\"Red Shirts\\\") forced the cancellation of the Fourth East Asia Summit after protesters stormed the Royal Cliff hotel venue in Pattaya, smashing the glass doors of the venue to gain entry, and a blockade prevented the Chinese premier at the time, Wen Jiabao, from attending. The summit was eventually held in Thailand in October 2009.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAbout a year later, a set of new \\\"Red Shirts\\\" protests resulted in 87 deaths (mostly civilian and some military) and 1,378 injured. When the army tried to disperse the protesters on 10 April 2010, the army was met with automatic gunfire, grenades, and fire bombs from the opposition faction in the army, known as the \\\"watermelon\\\". This resulted in the army returning fire with rubber bullets and some live ammunition. During the time of the \\\"red shirt\\\" protests against the government, there have been numerous grenade and bomb attacks against government offices and the homes of government officials. Gas grenades were fired at \\\"yellow-shirt\\\" protesters, that were protesting against the \\\"red-shirts\\\" and in favour of the government, by unknown gunmen killing one pro-government protester, the government stated that the Red Shirts were firing the weapons at civilians. Red-shirts continued to hold a position in the business district of Bangkok and it was shut down for several weeks.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nOn 3 July 2011, the oppositional Pheu Thai Party, led by Yingluck Shinawatra (the youngest sister of Thaksin Shinawatra), won the general election by a landslide (265 seats in the House of Representatives, out of 500). She had never previously been involved in politics, Pheu Thai campaigning for her with the slogan 'Thaksin thinks, Pheu Thai acts'. Yingluck is the nation's first female prime minister and her role was officially endorsed in a ceremony presided over by King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The Pheu Thai Party is a continuation of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n2013–2014 political crisis\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nProtests recommenced in late 2013, as a broad alliance of protestors, led by former opposition deputy leader Suthep Thaugsuban, demanded an end to the so-called Thaksin regime. A blanket amnesty for people involved in the 2010 protests, altered at the last minute to include all political crimes – including all convictions against Thaksin – triggered a mass show of discontent, with numbers variously estimated between 98,500 (the police) and 400,000 (an aerial photo survey done by the Bangkok Post), taking to the streets. The Senate was urged to reject the bill to quell the reaction, but the measure failed. A newly named group, the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) along with allied groups, escalated the pressure, with the opposition Democrat party resigning en masse to create a parliamentary vacuum. Protesters demands variously evolved as the movement's numbers grew, extending a number of deadlines and demands that became increasingly unreasonable or unrealistic, yet attracting a groundswell of support. They called for the establishment of an indirectly elected “people’s council”—in place of Yingluck's government—that will cleanse Thai politics and eradicate the Thaksin regime.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nIn response to the intensive protests, Yingluck dissolved parliament on 9 December 2013 and proposed a new election for 2 February 2014, a date that was later approved by the election commission. The PDRC insisted that the prime minister stand down within 24 hours, regardless of her actions, with 160,000 protesters in attendance at Government House on 9 December. Yingluck insisted that she would continue her duties until the scheduled election in February 2014, urging the protesters to accept her proposal: \\\"Now that the government has dissolved parliament, I ask that you stop protesting and that all sides work towards elections. I have backed down to the point where I don't know how to back down any further.\\\"\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nIn response to the Electoral Commission (EC)'s registration process for party-list candidates—for the scheduled election in February 2014—anti-government protesters marched to the Thai-Japanese sports stadium, the venue of the registration process, on 22 December 2013. Suthep and the PDRC led the protest, of which security forces claimed that approximately 270,000 protesters joined. Yingluck and the Pheu Thai Party reiterated their election plan and anticipate presenting a list of 125 party-list candidates to the EC.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nOn 7 May 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled that Yingluck would have to step down as the Prime Minister as she was deemed to have abused her power in transferring a high-level government official. On 21 August 2014 she was replaced by army chief General Prayut Chan-o-cha.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n2014 coup d'état\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nOn 20 May 2014 the Thai army declared martial law and began to deploy troops in the capital, denying that it was a coup attempt. On 22 May, the army admitted that it was a coup and that it was taking control of the country and suspending the country's constitution. On the same day, the military imposed a curfew between the hours of 22:00–05:00, ordering citizens and visitors to remain indoors during this period. On 21 August 2014 the National Assembly of Thailand elected the army chief, General Prayut Chan-o-cha, as prime minister. Martial law was declared formally ended on 1 April 2015. \\\"Uniformed or ex-military men have led Thailand for 55 of the 83 years since absolute monarchy was overthrown in 1932,...\\\" observed one journalist in 2015.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n2014 to present\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe ruling junta led by Prayuth Chan-o-cha promised to hold new elections, but wants to enact a new constitution before the elections are held. An initial draft constitution was rejected by government officials in 2015. A national referendum, the first since the 2014 coup, on a newly drafted constitution is scheduled for early August 2016. The new draft constitution would grant the constitutional court final authority in times of crisis, a power previously held by the King. The draft would also allow a person other than a member of parliament to be the prime minister, which would open the prime minister post to a military official. However, there remain deep disagreements regarding how much power should rest with the democratically elected government. There are indications that public debate in the run up to the referendum will be severely curtailed by the military government. The head of the Thai army, Gen. Theerachai Nakvanich, has announced the setting up of re-education camps for critics of the regime, \\\"aimed at people who are still unable to understand the workings of the government and the National Council for Peace and Order\\\".\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAdministrative divisions\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand is divided into 76 provinces (จังหวัด, changwat), which are gathered into five groups of provinces by location. There are also two specially-governed districts: the capital Bangkok (Krung Thep Maha Nakhon) and Pattaya. Bangkok is at provincial level and thus often counted as a province.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nEach province is divided into districts and the districts are further divided into sub-districts (tambons). there were 877 districts (อำเภอ, amphoe) and the 50 districts of Bangkok (เขต, khet). Some parts of the provinces bordering Bangkok are also referred to as Greater Bangkok (ปริมณฑล, pari monthon). These provinces include Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Samut Prakan, Nakhon Pathom and Samut Sakhon. The name of each province's capital city (เมือง, mueang) is the same as that of the province. For example, the capital of Chiang Mai Province (Changwat Chiang Mai) is Mueang Chiang Mai or Chiang Mai.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nSouthern region\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand controlled the Malay Peninsula as far south as Malacca in the 15th century and held much of the peninsula, including Temasek (Singapore), some of the Andaman Islands, and a colony on Java, but eventually contracted when the British used force to guarantee their suzerainty over the sultanate.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nMostly the northern states of the Malay Sultanate presented annual gifts to the Thai king in the form of a golden flower—a gesture of tribute and an acknowledgement of vassalage. The British intervened in the Malay State and with the Anglo-Siamese Treaty tried to build a railway from the south to Bangkok. Thailand relinquished sovereignty over what are now the northern Malay provinces of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, and Terengganu to the British. Satun and Pattani Provinces were given to Thailand.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe Malay peninsular provinces were occupied by the Japanese during World War II, and infiltrated by the Malayan Communist Party (CPM) from 1942 to 2008, when they sued for peace with the Malaysian and Thai governments after the CPM lost its support from Vietnam and China subsequent to the Cultural Revolution. Recent insurgent uprisings may be a continuation of separatist fighting which started after World War II with Sukarno's support for the PULO. Most victims since the uprisings have been Buddhist and Muslim bystanders.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nForeign relations\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe foreign relations of Thailand are handled by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand participates fully in international and regional organisations. It is a major non-NATO ally and Priority Watch List Special 301 Report of the United States. The country remains an active member of ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Thailand has developed increasingly close ties with other ASEAN members: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam, whose foreign and economic ministers hold annual meetings. Regional co-operation is progressing in economic, trade, banking, political, and cultural matters. In 2003, Thailand served as APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) host. Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, currently serves as Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In 2005 Thailand attended the inaugural East Asia Summit.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nIn recent years, Thailand has taken an increasingly active role on the international stage. When East Timor gained independence from Indonesia, Thailand, for the first time in its history, contributed troops to the international peacekeeping effort. Its troops remain there today as part of a UN peacekeeping force. As part of its effort to increase international ties, Thailand has reached out to such regional organisations as the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Thailand has contributed troops to reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThaksin initiated negotiations for several free trade agreements with China, Australia, Bahrain, India, and the US. The latter especially was criticised, with claims that uncompetitive Thai industries could be wiped out.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThaksin also announced that Thailand would forsake foreign aid, and work with donor countries to assist in the development of neighbours in the Greater Mekong Sub-region. Thaksin sought to position Thailand as a regional leader, initiating various development projects in poorer neighbouring countries like Laos. More controversially, he established close, friendly ties with the Burmese dictatorship.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand joined the US-led invasion of Iraq, sending a 423-strong humanitarian contingent. It withdrew its troops on 10 September 2004. Two Thai soldiers died in Iraq in an insurgent attack.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAbhisit appointed Peoples Alliance for Democracy leader Kasit Piromya as foreign minister. In April 2009, fighting broke out between Thai and Cambodian troops on territory immediately adjacent to the 900-year-old ruins of Cambodia's Preah Vihear Hindu temple near the border. The Cambodian government claimed its army had killed at least four Thais and captured 10 more, although the Thai government denied that any Thai soldiers were killed or injured. Two Cambodian and three Thai soldiers were killed. Both armies blamed the other for firing first and denied entering the other's territory.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nArmed forces\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe Royal Thai Armed Forces ( constitute the military of the Kingdom of Thailand. It consists of the Royal Thai Army (กองทัพบกไทย), the Royal Thai Navy (กองทัพเรือไทย), and the Royal Thai Air Force (กองทัพอากาศไทย). It also incorporates various paramilitary forces.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe Thai Armed Forces have a combined manpower of 306,000 active duty personnel and another 245,000 active reserve personnel. The head of the Thai Armed Forces (จอมทัพไทย, Chom Thap Thai) is the king, although this position is only nominal. The armed forces are managed by the Ministry of Defence of Thailand, which is headed by the Minister of Defence (a member of the cabinet of Thailand) and commanded by the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters, which in turn is headed by the Chief of Defence Forces of Thailand. In 2011, Thailand's known military expenditure totalled approximately US$5.1 billion.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAccording to the constitution, serving in the armed forces is a duty of all Thai citizens. However, only males over the age of 21, who have not gone through reserve training of the Army Reserve Force Students, are given the option of volunteering for the armed forces, or participating in the random draft. The candidates are subjected to varying lengths of training, from six months to two years of full-time service, depending on their education, whether they have partially completed the reserve training course, and whether they volunteered prior to the draft date (usually 1 April every year).\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nCandidates with a recognised bachelor's degree serve one year of full-time service if they are conscripted, or six months if they volunteer at their district office (สัสดี, satsadi). Likewise, the training length is also reduced for those who have partially completed the three-year reserve training course (ร.ด., ro do). A person who completed one year out of three will only have to serve full-time for one year. Those who completed two years of reserve training will only have to do six months of full-time training, while those who complete three years or more of reserve training will be exempted entirely.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nRoyal Thai Armed Forces Day is celebrated on 18 January, commemorating the victory of Naresuan of the Ayutthaya Kingdom in battle against the crown prince of the Taungoo Dynasty in 1593.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nGeography\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nTotalling 513120 km2, Thailand is the world's 51st-largest country by total area. It is slightly smaller than Yemen and slightly larger than Spain.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand comprises several distinct geographic regions, partly corresponding to the provincial groups. The north of the country is the mountainous area of the Thai highlands, with the highest point being Doi Inthanon in the Thanon Thong Chai Range at above sea level. The northeast, Isan, consists of the Khorat Plateau, bordered to the east by the Mekong River. The centre of the country is dominated by the predominantly flat Chao Phraya river valley, which runs into the Gulf of Thailand.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nSouthern Thailand consists of the narrow Kra Isthmus that widens into the Malay Peninsula. Politically, there are six geographical regions which differ from the others in population, basic resources, natural features, and level of social and economic development. The diversity of the regions is the most pronounced attribute of Thailand's physical setting.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe Chao Phraya and the Mekong River are the indispensable water courses of rural Thailand. Industrial scale production of crops use both rivers and their tributaries. The Gulf of Thailand covers 320000 km2 and is fed by the Chao Phraya, Mae Klong, Bang Pakong, and Tapi Rivers. It contributes to the tourism sector owing to its clear shallow waters along the coasts in the southern region and the Kra Isthmus. The eastern shore of the Gulf of Thailand is an industrial centre of Thailand with the kingdom's premier deepwater port in Sattahip and its busiest commercial port, Laem Chabang.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe Andaman Sea is a precious natural resource as it hosts the most popular and luxurious resorts in Asia. Phuket, Krabi, Ranong, Phang Nga, and Trang and their islands all lay along the coasts of the Andaman Sea and despite the 2004 tsunami, they are a tourist magnet for visitors from around the world.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nPlans have resurfaced for a canal which would connect the Andaman Sea to the Gulf of Thailand, analogous to the Suez and the Panama Canals. The idea has been greeted positively by Thai politicians as it would cut fees charged by the Ports of Singapore, improve ties with China and India, lower shipping times, and eliminate pirate attacks in the Strait of Malacca, and support the Thai government's policy of being the logistical hub for Southeast Asia. The canal, it is claimed, would improve economic conditions in the south of Thailand, which relies heavily on tourism income, and it would also change the structure of the Thai economy by making it an Asia logistical hub. The canal would be a major engineering project and has an expected cost of US$20–30 billion.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nClimate\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nMost of Thailand has a \\\"tropical wet and dry or savanna climate\\\" type (Köppen's Tropical savanna climate). The south and the eastern tip of the east have a tropical monsoon climate.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nCountrywide, temperatures normally range from an average annual high of 38 °C to a low of 19 °C. During the dry season, the temperature rises dramatically in the second half of March, spiking to well over 40 °C in some areas by mid-April when the sun passes its zenith.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nSouthwest monsoons that arrive between May and July (except in the south) signal the advent of the rainy season (ruedu fon). This lasts into October and the cloud covering reduces the temperature again, with the high humidity experienced as 'hot and sticky'. November and December mark the onset of the dry season and night temperatures on high ground can occasionally drop to a light frost. Temperatures begin to climb again in January.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nWildlife\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe elephant is Thailand's national symbol. Although there were 100,000 domesticated elephants in Thailand in 1850, the population of elephants has dropped to an estimated 2,000. Poachers have long hunted elephants for ivory, meat, and hides. Young elephants are often captured for use in tourist attractions or as work animals, although their use has declined since the government banned logging in 1989. There are now more elephants in captivity than in the wild, and environmental activists claim that elephants in captivity are often mistreated.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nPoaching of protected species remains a major problem. Hunters have decimated the populations of tigers, leopards, and other large cats for their valuable pelts. Many animals (including tigers, bears, crocodiles, and king cobras) are farmed or hunted for their meat, which is considered a delicacy, and for their supposed medicinal properties. Although such trade is illegal, the famous Bangkok market Chatuchak is still known for the sale of endangered species.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe practice of keeping wild animals as pets threatens several species. Baby animals are typically captured and sold, which often requires killing the mother. Once in captivity and out of their natural habitat, many pets die or fail to reproduce. Affected populations include the Asiatic black bear, Malayan sun bear, white-handed lar, pileated gibbon and binturong.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nEducation\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nIn 2014 the literacy rate was 93.5%. Education is provided by a well-organized school system of kindergartens, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools, numerous vocational colleges, and universities. The private sector of education is well developed and significantly contributes to the overall provision of education which the government would not be able to meet with public establishments. Education is compulsory up to and including age 14, with the government providing free education through to age 17.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nTeaching relies heavily on rote learning rather than on student-centred methodology. The establishment of reliable and coherent curricula for its primary and secondary schools is subject to such rapid changes that schools and their teachers are not always sure what they are supposed to be teaching, and authors and publishers of textbooks are unable to write and print new editions quickly enough to keep up with the volatility. Issues concerning university entrance has been in constant upheaval for a number of years. Nevertheless, Thai education has seen its greatest progress in the years since 2001. Most of the present generation of students are computer literate. Thailand was ranked 54th out of 56 countries globally for English proficiency, the second-lowest in Asia.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nStudents in ethnic minority areas score consistently lower in standardised national and international tests.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThis is likely due to unequal allocation of educational resources, weak teacher training, poverty, and low Thai language skill, the language of the tests.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nExtensive nationwide IQ tests were administered to 72,780 Thai students from December 2010 to January 2011. The average IQ was found to be 98.59, which is higher than previous studies have found. IQ levels were found to be inconsistent throughout the country, with the lowest average of 88.07 found in the southern region of Narathiwat Province and the highest average of 108.91 reported in Nonthaburi Province. The Ministry of Public Health blames the discrepancies on iodine deficiency and steps are being taken to require that iodine be added to table salt, a practice common in many Western countries.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nIn 2013, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology announced that 27,231 schools would receive classroom-level access to high-speed internet.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nScience and technology\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe National Science and Technology Development Agency is an agency of the government of Thailand which supports research in science and technology and its application in the Thai economy.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe Synchrotron Light Research Institute (SLRI) is a Thai synchrotron light source for physics, chemistry, material science, and life sciences. It is at the Suranaree University of Technology (SUT), in Nakhon Ratchasima, about 300 km northeast of Bangkok. The institute, financed by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), houses the only large scale synchrotron in Southeast Asia. It was originally built as the SORTEC synchrotron in Japan and later moved to Thailand and modified for 1.2 GeV operation. It provides users with regularly scheduled light.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nInternet\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nIn Bangkok, there are 23,000 free public Wi-Fi Internet hotspots. The Internet in Thailand includes 10Gbit/s high speed fibre-optic lines that can be leased and ISPs such as KIRZ that provide residential Internet services.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe Internet is censored by the Thai government, making some sites unreachable. The organisations responsible are the Royal Thai Police, the Communications Authority of Thailand, and the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT).\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nEconomy\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand is an emerging economy and is considered a newly industrialised country. Thailand had a 2013 GDP of US$673 billion (on a purchasing power parity [PPP] basis). Thailand is the 2nd largest economy in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. Thailand ranks midway in the wealth spread in Southeast Asia as it is the 4th richest nation according to GDP per capita, after Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand functions as an anchor economy for the neighbouring developing economies of Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia. In the third quarter of 2014, the unemployment rate in Thailand stood at 0.84% according to Thailand's National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB).\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nRecent economic history\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand experienced the world's highest economic growth rate from 1985 to 1996 – averaging 12.4% annually. In 1997 increased pressure on the baht, a year in which the economy contracted by 1.9%, led to a crisis that uncovered financial sector weaknesses and forced the Chavalit Yongchaiyudh administration to float the currency. Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh was forced to resign after his cabinet came under fire for its slow response to the economic crisis. The baht was pegged at 25 to the US dollar from 1978 to 1997. The baht reached its lowest point of 56 to the US dollar in January 1998 and the economy contracted by 10.8% that year, triggering the Asian financial crisis.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand's economy started to recover in 1999, expanding 4.2–4.4% in 2000, thanks largely to strong exports. Growth (2.2%) was dampened by the softening of the global economy in 2001, but picked up in the subsequent years owing to strong growth in Asia, a relatively weak baht encouraging exports, and increased domestic spending as a result of several mega projects and incentives of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, known as Thaksinomics. Growth in 2002, 2003, and 2004 was 5–7% annually.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nGrowth in 2005, 2006, and 2007 hovered around 4–5%. Due both to the weakening of the US dollar and an increasingly strong Thai currency, by March 2008 the dollar was hovering around the 33 baht mark. While Thaksinomics has received criticism, official economic data reveals that between 2001 and 2011, Isan's GDP per capita more than doubled to US$1,475, while, over the same period, GDP in the Bangkok area increased from US$7,900 to nearly US$13,000.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nWith the instability surrounding major 2010 protests, the GDP growth of Thailand settled at around 4–5%, from highs of 5–7% under the previous civilian administration. Political uncertainty was identified as the primary cause of a decline in investor and consumer confidence. The IMF predicted that the Thai economy would rebound strongly from the low 0.1% GDP growth in 2011, to 5.5% in 2012 and then 7.5% in 2013, due to the monetary policy of the Bank of Thailand, as well as a package of fiscal stimulus measures introduced by the incumbent Yingluck Shinawatra government.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nFollowing the Thai military coup of 22 May 2014, the AFP global news agency published an article that claimed that the nation was on the verge of recession. The article focused on the departure of nearly 180,000 Cambodians from Thailand due to fears of an immigration clampdown, but concluded with information on the Thai economy's contraction of 2.1% quarter-on-quarter, from January to the end of March 2014.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nExports and manufacturing\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe economy of Thailand is heavily export-dependent, with exports accounting for more than two-thirds of gross domestic product (GDP). Thailand exports over US$105 billion worth of goods and services annually. Major exports include rice, textiles and footwear, fishery products, rubber, jewellery, cars, computers, and electrical appliances.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nSubstantial industries include electric appliances, components, computer components, and vehicles. Thailand's recovery from the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis depended mainly on exports, among various other factors. , the Thai automotive industry was the largest in Southeast Asia and the 9th largest in the world. The Thailand industry has an annual output of near 1.5 million vehicles, mostly commercial vehicles.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nMost of the vehicles built in Thailand are developed and licensed by foreign producers, mainly Japanese and South Korean. The Thai car industry takes advantage of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) to find a market for many of its products. Eight manufacturers, five Japanese, two US, and Tata of India, produce pick-up trucks in Thailand. Thailand is the second largest consumer of pick-up trucks in the world, after the US. In 2014, pick-ups accounted for 42% of all new vehicle sales in Thailand.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nTourism\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nTourism makes up about 6% of the economy. Thailand was the most visited country in Southeast Asia in 2013, according to the World Tourism Organisation. \\nEstimates of tourism receipts directly contributing to the Thai GDP of 12 trillion baht range from 9 percent (1 trillion baht) (2013) to 16 percent. When including the indirect effects of tourism, it is said to account for 20.2 percent (2.4 trillion baht) of Thailand's GDP.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) uses the slogan \\\"Amazing Thailand\\\" to promote Thailand internationally. In 2015, this was supplemented by a \\\"Discover Thainess\\\" campaign.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAsian tourists primarily visit Thailand for Bangkok and the historical, natural, and cultural sights in its vicinity. Western tourists not only visit Bangkok and surroundings, but in addition many travel to the southern beaches and islands. The north is the chief destination for trekking and adventure travel with its diverse ethnic minority groups and forested mountains. The region hosting the fewest tourists is Isan in the northeast. To accommodate foreign visitors, the Thai government established a separate tourism police with offices in the major tourist areas and its own central emergency telephone number.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand's attractions include diving sites, sandy beaches, hundreds of tropical islands, nightlife, archaeological sites, museums, hill tribes, flora and bird life, palaces, Buddhist temples and several World Heritage sites. Many tourists follow courses during their stay in Thailand. Popular are classes in Thai cooking, Buddhism and traditional Thai massage. Thai national festivals range from Thai New Year Songkran to Loy Krathong. Many localities in Thailand also have their own festivals. Among the best-known are the \\\"Elephant Round-up\\\" in Surin, the \\\"Rocket Festival\\\" in Yasothon and the \\\"Phi Ta Khon\\\" festival in Dan Sai. Thai cuisine has become famous worldwide with its enthusiastic use of fresh herbs and spices.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nBangkok shopping malls offer a variety of international and local brands. Towards the north of the city, and easily reached by skytrain or underground, is the \\\"Chatuchak Weekend Market\\\". It is possibly the largest market in the world, selling everything from household items to live, and sometimes endangered, animals. The \\\"Pratunam Market\\\" specialises in fabrics and clothing. The night markets in the Silom area and on Khaosan Road are mainly tourist-oriented, selling items such as T-shirts, handicrafts, counterfeit watches and sunglasses. In the vicinity of Bangkok one can find several floating markets such as the one in Damnoen Saduak. The \\\"Sunday Evening Walking Street Market\\\", held on Rachadamnoen Road inside the old city, is a shopping highlight of a visit to Chiang Mai up in northern Thailand. It attracts many locals as well as foreigners. The \\\"Night Bazaar\\\" is Chiang Mai's more tourist-oriented market, sprawling over several city blocks just east of the old city walls towards the river.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nProstitution in Thailand and sex tourism also form a de facto part of the economy. Cultural milieu combined with poverty and the lure of money have caused prostitution and sex tourism in particular to flourish in Thailand. One estimate published in 2003 placed the trade at US$4.3 billion per year or about 3% of the Thai economy.[http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/26/1069825832486.html?oneclick\\ntrue Thailand mulls legal prostitution.] The Age, 26 November 2003 According to research by Chulalongkorn University on the Thai illegal economy, prostitution in Thailand in the period between 1993 and 1995, made up around 2.7% of the GDP. It is believed that at least 10% of tourist dollars are spent on the sex trade.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAgriculture\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nForty-nine per cent of Thailand's labour force is employed in agriculture. This is down from 70% in 1980. Rice is the most important crop in the country and Thailand had long been the world's leading exporter of rice, until recently falling behind both India and Vietnam. Thailand has the highest percentage of arable land, 27.25%, of any nation in the Greater Mekong Subregion. About 55% of the arable land area is used for rice production.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAgriculture has been experiencing a transition from labour-intensive and transitional methods to a more industrialised and competitive sector.Henri Leturque and Steve Wiggins 2010. [http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id\\n5108&titlethailands-progress-agriculture-transition-sustained-productivity-growth Thailand's progress in agriculture: Transition and sustained productivity growth]. London: Overseas Development Institute Between 1962 and 1983, the agricultural sector grew by 4.1% per year on average and continued to grow at 2.2% between 1983 and 2007. The relative contribution of agriculture to GDP has declined while exports of goods and services have increased.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nEnergy\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n75% of Thailand's electrical generation is powered by natural gas in 2014. Coal-fired power plants produce an additional 20% of electricity, with the remainder coming from biomass, hydro, and biogas.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand produces roughly one-third of the oil it consumes. It is the second largest importer of oil in SE Asia. Thailand is a large producer of natural gas, with reserves of at least 10 trillion cubic feet. After Indonesia, it is the largest coal producer in SE Asia, but must import additional coal to meet domestic demand.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nTransportation\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nDemographics\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand had a population of 66,720,153 . Thailand's population is largely rural, concentrated in the rice-growing areas of the central, northeastern, and northern regions. Thailand had an urban population of 45.7% , concentrated mostly in and around the Bangkok Metropolitan Area.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand's government-sponsored family planning program resulted in a dramatic decline in population growth from 3.1% in 1960 to around 0.4% today. In 1970, an average of 5.7 people lived in a Thai household. At the time of the 2010 census, the average Thai household size was 3.2 people.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nEthnic groups\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAbout 75–95% of the population is ethnically Tai, which includes four major regional groups: central Thai, northeastern Thai (Khon [Lao] Isan), northern Thai (Khon Mueang); and southern Thai. Thai Chinese, those of significant Chinese heritage, are 14% of the population, while Thais with partial Chinese ancestry comprise up to 40% of the population. Thai Malays represent 3% of the population, with the remainder consisting of Mons, Khmers and various \\\"hill tribes\\\". The country's official language is Thai and the primary religion is Theravada Buddhism, which is practised by around 95% of the population.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nEthnic Thais make up the majority of Thailand's population, 95.9% in 2010. This number includes Thai Chinese, a historically and economically important minority. The remaining 4.1% of the population are Burmese (2.0%), others 1.3%, and unspecified 0.9%.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand is home to a large immigrant community of around 200,000 foreigners. Some 41,000 Britons alone live in Thailand. Increasing numbers of migrants from neighbouring Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia, as well as from Nepal and India, have pushed the total number of non-national residents to around 3.5 million , up from an estimated 2 million in 2008, and about 1.3 million in the year 2000.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nPopulation centres\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nLanguage\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe official language of Thailand is Thai, a Tai–Kadai language closely related to Lao, Shan in Myanmar, and numerous smaller languages spoken in an arc from Hainan and Yunnan south to the Chinese border. It is the principal language of education and government and spoken throughout the country. The standard is based on the dialect of the central Thai people, and it is written in the Thai alphabet, an abugida script that evolved from the Khmer alphabet. Several other dialects exist, and coincide with the regional designations. Southern Thai is spoken in the southern provinces, and Northern Thai is spoken in the provinces that were formerly part of the independent kingdom of Lan Na.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand is also host to several other minority languages, the largest of which is the Lao dialect of Isan spoken in the northeastern provinces. Although sometimes considered a Thai dialect, it is a Lao dialect, and the region in where it is traditionally spoken was historically part of the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang. In the far south, Kelantan-Pattani Malay is the primary language of Malay Muslims. Varieties of Chinese are also spoken by the large Thai Chinese population, with the Teochew dialect best-represented.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nNumerous tribal languages are also spoken, including many Austroasiatic languages such as Mon, Khmer, Viet, Mlabri and Orang Asli; Austronesian languages such as Cham and Moken; Sino-Tibetan languages like Lawa, Akha, and Karen; and other Tai languages such as Tai Yo, Phu Thai, and Saek. Hmong is a member of the Hmong–Mien languages, which is now regarded as a language family of its own.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nEnglish is a mandatory school subject, but the number of fluent speakers remains low, especially outside cities.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nReligion\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand's prevalent religion is Theravada Buddhism, which is an integral part of Thai identity and culture. Active participation in Buddhism is among the highest in the world. According to the 2000 census, 94.6% of the country's population self-identified as Buddhists of the Theravada tradition. Muslims constitute the second largest religious group in Thailand, comprising 4.6% of the population.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nIslam is concentrated mostly in the country's southernmost provinces: Pattani, Yala, Satun, Narathiwat, and part of Songkhla Chumphon, which are predominantly Malay, most of whom are Sunni Muslims. Christians represent 0.7% of the population, with the remaining population consisting of Sikhs and Hindus, who live mostly in the country's cities. There is also a small but historically significant Jewish community in Thailand dating back to the 17th century.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nCulture\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThai culture has been shaped by many influences, including Indian, Lao, Burmese, Cambodian, and Chinese.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nIts traditions incorporate a great deal of influence from India, China, Cambodia, and the rest of Southeast Asia. Thailand's national religion, Theravada Buddhism, is central to modern Thai identity. Thai Buddhism has evolved over time to include many regional beliefs originating from Hinduism, animism, as well as ancestor worship. The official calendar in Thailand is based on the Eastern version of the Buddhist Era (BE), which is 543 years ahead of the Gregorian (Western) calendar. Thus the year 2015 is 2558 BE in Thailand.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nSeveral different ethnic groups, many of which are marginalised, populate Thailand. Some of these groups spill over into Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia and have mediated change between their traditional local culture, national Thai, and global cultural influences. Overseas Chinese also form a significant part of Thai society, particularly in and around Bangkok. Their successful integration into Thai society has allowed for this group to hold positions of economic and political power. Thai Chinese businesses prosper as part of the larger bamboo network, a network of overseas Chinese businesses operating in the markets of Southeast Asia that share common family and cultural ties.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe traditional Thai greeting, the wai, is generally offered first by the younger of the two people meeting, with their hands pressed together, fingertips pointing upwards as the head is bowed to touch face to fingertips, usually coinciding with the spoken words \\\"sawatdi khrap\\\" for male speakers, and \\\"sawatdi kha\\\" for females. The elder may then respond in the same way. Social status and position, such as in government, will also have an influence on who performs the wai first. For example, although one may be considerably older than a provincial governor, when meeting it is usually the visitor who pays respect first. When children leave to go to school, they are taught to wai their parents to indicate their respect. The wai is a sign of respect and reverence for another, similar to the namaste greeting of India and Nepal.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAs with other Asian cultures, respect towards ancestors is an essential part of Thai spiritual practice. Thais have a strong sense of hospitality and generosity, but also a strong sense of social hierarchy. Seniority is paramount in Thai culture. Elders have by tradition ruled in family decisions or ceremonies. Older siblings have duties to younger ones.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nTaboos in Thailand include touching someone's head or pointing with the feet, as the head is considered the most sacred and the foot the lowest part of the body.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nCuisine\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThai cuisine blends five fundamental tastes: sweet, spicy, sour, bitter, and salty. Common ingredients used in Thai cuisine include garlic, chillies, lime juice, lemon grass, coriander, galangal, palm sugar, and fish sauce (nam pla). The staple food in Thailand is rice, particularly jasmine variety rice (also known as \\\"hom Mali\\\" rice) which forms a part of almost every meal. Thailand was long the world's largest exporter of rice, and Thais domestically consume over 100 kg of milled rice per person per year. Over 5,000 varieties of rice from Thailand are preserved in the rice gene bank of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), based in the Philippines. The king of Thailand is the official patron of IRRI.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nMedia\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThai society has been influenced in recent years by its widely available multi-language press and media. There are some English and numerous Thai and Chinese newspapers in circulation. Most Thai popular magazines use English headlines as a chic glamour factor. Many large businesses in Bangkok operate in English as well as other languages.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand is the largest newspaper market in Southeast Asia with an estimated circulation of over 13 million copies daily in 2003. Even upcountry, out of Bangkok, the media flourish. For example, according to Thailand's Public Relations Department Media Directory 2003–2004, the nineteen provinces of Isan, Thailand's northeastern region, hosted 116 newspapers along with radio, TV, and cable. Since then, another province, Bueng Kan, was incorporated, totalling twenty provinces. In addition, a military coup on 22 May 2014 led to severe state restrictions on all media and forms of expression.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nUnits of measurement\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand generally uses the metric system, but traditional units of measurement for land area are used, and imperial units of measurement are occasionally used for building materials, such as wood and plumbing fixtures. Years are numbered as B.E. (Buddhist Era) in educational settings, the civil service, government, and on contracts and newspaper datelines. In banking, and increasingly in industry and commerce, standard Western year (Christian or Common Era) counting is the standard practice.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nSports\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nMuay Thai (, RTGS: Muai Thai,, lit. \\\"Thai boxing\\\") is a native form of kickboxing and Thailand's signature sport. It incorporates kicks, punches, knees and elbow strikes in a ring with gloves similar to those used in Western boxing and this has led to Thailand gaining medals at the Olympic Games in boxing.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAssociation football has overtaken muay Thai as the most widely followed sport in contemporary Thai society. Thailand national football team has played the AFC Asian Cup six times and reached the semifinals in 1972. The country has hosted the Asian Cup twice, in 1972 and in 2007. The 2007 edition was co-hosted together with Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. It is not uncommon to see Thais cheering their favourite English Premier League teams on television and walking around in replica kit. Another widely enjoyed pastime, and once a competitive sport, is kite flying.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nVolleyball is rapidly growing as one of the most popular sport. The Women team has often participated World Championship,World Cup,and World Grand Prix Asian Championship. They also won Asian Championship twice and Asian Cup once. By the success of the women team, the men team has been growing as well.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nTakraw (Thai: ตะกร้อ) is a sport native to Thailand, in which the players hit a rattan ball and are only allowed to use their feet, knees, chest, and head to touch the ball. Sepak takraw is a form of this sport which is similar to volleyball. The players must volley a ball over a net and force it to hit the ground on the opponent's side. It is also a popular sport in other countries in Southeast Asia. A rather similar game but played only with the feet is Buka ball.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nSnooker has enjoyed increasing popularity in Thailand in recent years, with interest in the game being stimulated by the success of Thai snooker player James Wattana in the 1990s. Other notable players produced by the country include Ratchayothin Yotharuck, Noppon Saengkham and Dechawat Poomjaeng.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nRugby is also a growing sport in Thailand with the Thailand national rugby union team rising to be ranked 61st in the world. Thailand became the first country in the world to host an international 80 kg welterweight rugby tournament in 2005. The national domestic Thailand Rugby Union (TRU) competition includes several universities and services teams such as Chulalongkorn University, Mahasarakham University, Kasetsart University, Prince of Songkla University, Thammasat University, Rangsit University, the Thai Police, the Thai Army, the Thai Navy and the Royal Thai Air Force. Local sports clubs which also compete in the TRU include the British Club of Bangkok, the Southerners Sports Club (Bangkok) and the Royal Bangkok Sports Club.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThailand has been called the golf capital of Asia as it is a popular destination for golf. The country attracts a large number of golfers from Japan, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, and Western countries who come to play golf in Thailand every year. The growing popularity of golf, especially among the middle classes and immigrants, is evident as there are more than 200 world-class golf courses nationwide, and some of them are chosen to host PGA and LPGA tournaments, such as Amata Spring Country Club, Alpine Golf and Sports Club, Thai Country Club, and Black Mountain Golf Club.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nBasketball is a growing sport in Thailand, especially on the professional sports club level. The Chang Thailand Slammers won the 2011 ASEAN Basketball League Championship. The Thailand national basketball team had its most successful year at the 1966 Asian Games where it won the silver medal.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nOther sports in Thailand are slowly growing as the country develops its sporting infrastructure. The success in sports like weightlifting and taekwondo at the last two summer Olympic Games has demonstrated that boxing is no longer the only medal option for Thailand.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nSporting venues\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThammasat Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Bangkok. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The stadium holds 25,000. It is on Thammasat University's Rangsit campus. It was built for the 1998 Asian Games by construction firm Christiani and Nielsen, the same company that constructed the Democracy Monument in Bangkok.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nRajamangala National Stadium is the biggest sporting arena in Thailand. It currently has a capacity of 65,000. It is in Bang Kapi, Bangkok. The stadium was built in 1998 for the 1998 Asian Games and is the home stadium of the Thailand national football team.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nThe well-known Lumpini Boxing Stadium will host its final Muay Thai boxing matches on 7 February 2014 after the venue first opened in December 1956. Managed by the Royal Thai Army, the stadium was officially selected for the purpose of muay Thai bouts following a competition that was staged on 15 March 1956. From 11 February 2014, the stadium will relocate to Ram Intra Road, due to the new venue's capacity to accommodate audiences of up to 3,500. Foreigners typically pay between 1,000–2,000 baht to view a match, with prices depending on the location of the seating.\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nHost city\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nUniversiade\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n* 24th Summer Universiade, Bangkok 2007\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAsian Games\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n* 5th Asian Games, Bangkok 1966\\n* 6th Asian Games, Bangkok 1970\\n* 8th Asian Games, Bangkok 1978\\n* 13th Asian Games, Bangkok, 1998\\nAsian Indoor and Martial Arts Games\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n* 1st Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, Bangkok 2005\\n* 3rd Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, Bangkok 2009\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nAsian Beach Games\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n* 4th Asian Beach Games, Phuket 2014\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nSoutheast Asian Games\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n* 1st Southeast Asian Games, Bangkok 1959\\n* 4th Southeast Asian Games, Bangkok 1967\\n* 8th Southeast Asian Games, Bangkok 1975\\n* 13th Southeast Asian Games, Bangkok 1985\\n* 18th Southeast Asian Games, Chiang Mai 1995\\n* 24th Southeast Asian Games, Nakhon Ratchasima 2007\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nASEAN Para Games\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n* 4th ASEAN Para Games, Nakhon Ratchasima 2008\\nASEAN University Games\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n* 1st ASEAN University Games, Chiang Mai 1981\\n* 5th ASEAN University Games, Pattaya 1988\\n* 10th ASEAN University Games, Bangkok 1999\\n* 15th ASEAN University Games, Chiang Mai 2010\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nASEAN School Games\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\n* 1st ASEAN School Games, Suphanburi 2009\\n* 8th ASEAN School Games, Chiang Mai 2016\",\n \"Thailand\\n\\nInternational rankings\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nWorld War II (often abbreviated to WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of \\\"total war\\\", the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust (in which approximately 11 million people were killed) and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres (in which approximately one million were killed, and which included the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe Empire of Japan aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific and was already at war with the Republic of China in 1937, but the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. The war continued primarily between the European Axis powers and the coalition of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, with campaigns including the North Africa and East Africa campaigns, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz bombing campaign, the Balkan Campaign as well as the long-running Battle of the Atlantic.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history, which trapped the major part of the Axis' military forces into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European territories in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, and Germany was defeated in North Africa and then, decisively, at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. In 1943, with a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Allied invasion of Italy which brought about Italian surrender, and Allied victories in the Pacific, the Axis lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet and Polish troops and the subsequent German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 August and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, and the Soviet Union's declaration of war on Japan and invasion of Manchuria, Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945. Thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nWorld War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. The United Nations (UN) was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, and France—became the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia and Africa began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and to create a common identity.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nChronology\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland; Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOthers follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and the two wars merged in 1941. This article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935.; ; Yisreelit, Hevrah Mizrahit (1965). Asian and African Studies, p. 191.For 1941 see ; Kellogg, William O (2003). American History the Easy Way. Barron's Educational Series. p. 236 ISBN 0-7641-1973-7.There is also the viewpoint that both World War I and World War II are part of the same \\\"European Civil War\\\" or \\\"Second Thirty Years War\\\": ; . The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe exact date of the war's end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945 (V-J Day), rather than the formal surrender of Japan (2 September 1945). A peace treaty with Japan was signed in 1951 to formally tie up any loose ends such as compensation to be paid to Allied prisoners of war who had been victims of atrocities. A treaty regarding Germany's future allowed the reunification of East and West Germany to take place in 1990 and resolved other post-World War II issues.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nBackground\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nEurope\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nWorld War I had radically altered the political European map, with the defeat of the Central Powers—including Austria-Hungary, Germany and the Ottoman Empire—and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, which eventually led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Allies of World War I, such as France, Belgium, Italy, Greece and Romania, gained territory, and new nation-states were created out of the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman and Russian Empires.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nTo prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was created during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. The organisation's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military and naval disarmament, and settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nDespite strong pacifist sentiment after World War I, its aftermath still caused irredentist and revanchist nationalism in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses incurred by the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all of its overseas colonies, while German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's armed forces.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe German Empire was dissolved in the German Revolution of 1918–1919, and a democratic government, later known as the Weimar Republic, was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by Britain and France to secure Italian entrance into the war were not fulfilled with the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian, and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, promising the creation of a \\\"New Roman Empire\\\".\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAdolf Hitler, after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933. He abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of the world order, and soon began a massive rearmament campaign. It was at this time that political scientists began to predict that a second Great War might take place. Meanwhile, France, to secure its alliance, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nHoping to contain Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front; however, in June 1935, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of eastern Europe, drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect though, the Franco-Soviet pact was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same year.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nHitler defied the Versailles and Locarno treaties by remilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936. He encountered little opposition from other European powers. In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the Rome–Berlin Axis. A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy would join in the following year.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAsia\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese communist allies. In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Japanese Empire, which had long sought influence in China as the first step of what its government saw as the country's right to rule Asia, used the Mukden Incident as a pretext to launch an invasion of Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nToo weak to resist Japan, China appealed to the League of Nations for help. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until the Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan. After the 1936 Xi'an Incident, the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nPre-war events\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nItalian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with the invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia) by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia), which was launched from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI); in addition, it exposed the weakness of the League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did nothing when the former clearly violated the League's own Article X. Germany was the only major European nation to support the invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nSpanish Civil War (1936–39)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nWhen civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to the Nationalist rebels, led by General Francisco Franco. The Soviet Union supported the existing government, the Spanish Republic. Over 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades, also fought against the Nationalists. Both Germany and the USSR used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The bombing of Guernica by the German Condor Legion in April 1937 heightened widespread concerns that the next major war would include extensive terror bombing attacks on civilians..Tony Judt said that the \\\"communist strategy in Spain turns out to have been a dry run for the seizure of power in Eastern Europe after 1945.\\\" See \\nThe Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, bargained with both sides during the Second World War, but never concluded any major agreements. He did send volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front under German command but Spain remained neutral and did not allow either side to use its territory.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nJapanese invasion of China (1937)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Beijing after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior co-operation with Germany. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but, after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the Japanese. Totten, Samuel. Dictionary of Genocide. 2008, 298–9.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by Japanese in May. In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan, but the city was taken by October. Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nSoviet-Japanese border conflicts\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union and Mongolia. The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron, which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. With the devastating Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939 and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets, this policy would prove difficult to maintain. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed a Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron, promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward, eventually leading to its war with the United States and the Western Allies.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nEuropean occupations and agreements\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers. Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population; and soon Britain and France followed the counsel of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement, which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands. Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary and Poland.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAlthough all of Germany's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish \\\"war-mongers\\\" and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navy to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German client state, the Slovak Republic. Hitler also delivered an ultimatum to Lithuania, forcing the concession of the Klaipėda Region.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nGreatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig, Britain and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to Romania and Greece. Shortly after the Franco-British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel. Hitler accused Britain and Poland of trying to \\\"encircle\\\" Germany and renounced the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression treaty with a secret protocol. The parties gave each other rights to \\\"spheres of influence\\\" (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany; eastern Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia for the USSR). It also raised the question of continuing Polish independence. The agreement was crucial to Hitler because it assured that Germany would not have to face the prospect of a two-front war, as it had in World War I, after it defeated Poland.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe situation reached a general crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. In a private meeting with the Italian foreign minister, Count Ciano, Hitler asserted that Poland was a \\\"doubtful neutral\\\" that needed to either yield to his demands or be \\\"liquidated\\\" to prevent it from drawing off German troops in the future \\\"unavoidable\\\" war with the Western democracies. He did not believe Britain or France would intervene in the conflict. On 23 August Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that Britain had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which only served as a pretext to worsen relations. On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of Danzig, and to allow a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor in which the German minority would vote on secession. The Poles refused to comply with the German demands and on the night of 30–31 August in a violent meeting with the British ambassador Neville Henderson, Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nCourse of the war\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nWar breaks out in Europe (1939–40)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOn 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland under the false pretext that the Poles had carried out a series of sabotage operations against German targets near the border. Two days later, on 3 September, after a British ultimatum to Germany to cease military operations was ignored, Britain and France, followed by the fully independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth—Australia (3 September), Canada (10 September), New Zealand (3 September), and South Africa (6 September)—declared war on Germany. However, initially the alliance provided limited direct military support to Poland, consisting of a cautious, half-hearted French probe into the Saarland.., observes that, while it is true that Poland was far away, making it difficult for the French and British to provide support, \\\"[f]ew Western historians of World War II ... know that the British had committed to bomb Germany if it attacked Poland, but did not do so except for one raid on the base of Wilhelmshafen. The French, who committed to attack Germany in the west, had no intention of doing so.\\\" The Western Allies also began a naval blockade of Germany, which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nGermany responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which was to later escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOn 17 September 1939, after signing a cease-fire with Japan, the Soviets invaded Poland from the east. The Polish army was defeated and Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on 27 September, with final pockets of resistance surrendering on 6 October. Poland's territory was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union, with Lithuania and Slovakia also receiving small shares. After the defeat of Poland's armed forces, the Polish resistance established an Underground State and a partisan Home Army. About 100,000 Polish military personnel were evacuated to Romania and the Baltic countries; many of these soldiers later fought against the Germans in other theatres of the war. Poland's Enigma codebreakers were also evacuated to France.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOn 6 October Hitler made a public peace overture to Britain and France, but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. Chamberlain rejected this on 12 October, saying \\\"Past experience has shown that no reliance can be placed upon the promises of the present German Government.\\\" After this rejection Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France, but bad weather forced repeated postponements until the spring of 1940.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAfter signing the German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation, the Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—to allow it to station Soviet troops in their countries under pacts of \\\"mutual assistance\\\". Finland rejected territorial demands, prompting a Soviet invasion in November 1939. The resulting Winter War ended in March 1940 with Finnish concessions. Britain and France, treating the Soviet attack on Finland as tantamount to its entering the war on the side of the Germans, responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting the USSR's expulsion from the League of Nations.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn June 1940, the Soviet Union forcibly annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and the disputed Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and Hertza. Meanwhile, Nazi-Soviet political rapprochement and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for war.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nWestern Europe (1940–41)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the Allies were attempting to cut off by unilaterally mining neutral Norwegian waters. Denmark capitulated after a few hours, and despite Allied support, during which the important harbour of Narvik temporarily was recaptured from the Germans, Norway was conquered within two months. British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the replacement of the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, with Winston Churchill on 10 May 1940.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nGermany launched an offensive against France and, adhering to the Manstein Plan also attacked the neutral nations of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg on 10 May 1940. That same day British forces landed in Iceland and the Faroes to preempt a possible German invasion of the islands. The U.S. in close co-operation with the Danish envoy to Washington D.C., agreed to protect Greenland, laying the political framework for the formal establishment of bases in April 1941. The Netherlands and Belgium were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics in a few days and weeks, respectively. The French-fortified Maginot Line and the main body the Allied forces which had moved into Belgium were circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly wooded Ardennes region, mistakenly perceived by Allied planners as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles. As a result, the bulk of the Allied armies found themselves trapped in an encirclement and were beaten. The majority were taken prisoner, whilst over 300,000, mostly British and French, were evacuated from the continent at Dunkirk by early June, although abandoning almost all of their equipment.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOn 10 June, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom. Paris fell to the Germans on 14 June and eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany and was soon divided into German and Italian occupation zones, and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime, which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet but the British feared the Germans would seize it, so on 3 July, the British attacked it.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe Battle of Britain began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours. On 19 July, Hitler again publicly offered to end the war, saying he had no desire to destroy the British Empire. The United Kingdom rejected this ultimatum. The main German air superiority campaign started in August but failed to defeat RAF Fighter Command, and a proposed invasion was postponed indefinitely on 17 September. The German strategic bombing offensive intensified as night attacks on London and other cities in the Blitz, but largely failed to disrupt the British war effort.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nUsing newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic. The British scored a significant victory on 27 May 1941 by sinking the German battleship Bismarck. Perhaps most importantly, during the Battle of Britain the Royal Air Force had successfully resisted the Luftwaffe's assault, and the German bombing campaign largely ended in May 1941.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThroughout this period, the neutral United States took measures to assist China and the Western Allies. In November 1939, the American Neutrality Act was amended to allow \\\"cash and carry\\\" purchases by the Allies. In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased. In September, the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases. Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention into the conflict well into 1941.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAlthough Roosevelt had promised to keep the United States out of the war, he nevertheless took concrete steps to prepare for war. In December 1940 he accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out negotiations as useless, calling for the US to become an \\\"arsenal for democracy\\\" and promoted the passage of Lend-Lease aid to support the British war effort. In January 1941 secret high level staff talks with the British began for the purposes of determining how to defeat Germany should the US enter the war. They decided on a number of offensive policies, including an air offensive, the \\\"early elimination\\\" of Italy, raids, support of resistance groups, and the capture of positions to launch an offensive against Germany.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAt the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact united Japan, Italy and Germany to formalise the Axis Powers. The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country, with the exception of the Soviet Union, not in the war which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia and Romania joined the Tripartite Pact. Romania would make a major contribution (as did Hungary) to the Axis war against the USSR, partially to recapture territory ceded to the USSR, partially to pursue its leader Ion Antonescu's desire to combat communism.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nMediterranean (1940–41)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nItaly began operations in the Mediterranean, initiating a siege of Malta in June, conquering British Somaliland in August, and making an incursion into British-held Egypt in September 1940. In October 1940, Italy started the Greco-Italian War because of Mussolini's jealousy of Hitler's success but within days was repulsed and pushed back into Albania, where a stalemate soon occurred. The United Kingdom responded to Greek requests for assistance by sending troops to Crete and providing air support to Greece. Hitler decided that when the weather improved he would take action against Greece to assist the Italians and prevent the British from gaining a foothold in the Balkans, to strike against the British naval dominance of the Mediterranean, and to secure his hold on Romanian oil.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn December 1940, British Commonwealth forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa. The offensive in North Africa was highly successful and by early February 1941 Italy had lost control of eastern Libya and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission by a carrier attack at Taranto, and neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe Germans soon intervened to assist Italy. Hitler sent German forces to Libya in February, and by the end of March they had launched an offensive which drove back the Commonwealth forces which had been weakened to support Greece. In under a month, Commonwealth forces were pushed back into Egypt with the exception of the besieged port of Tobruk. The Commonwealth attempted to dislodge Axis forces in May and again in June, but failed on both occasions.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nBy late March 1941, following Bulgaria's signing of the Tripartite Pact, the Germans were in position to intervene in Greece. Plans were changed, however, because of developments in neighbouring Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav government had signed the Tripartite Pact on 25 March, only to be overthrown two days later by a British-encouraged coup. Hitler viewed the new regime as hostile and immediately decided to eliminate it. On 6 April Germany simultaneously invaded both Yugoslavia and Greece, making rapid progress and forcing both nations to surrender within the month. The British were driven from the Balkans after Germany conquered the Greek island of Crete by the end of May. Although the Axis victory was swift, bitter partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, which continued until the end of the war.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe Allies did have some successes during this time. In the Middle East, Commonwealth forces first quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria, then, with the assistance of the Free French, invaded Syria and Lebanon to prevent further such occurrences.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAxis attack on the USSR (1941)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nWith the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia, the two powers signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nHitler believed that Britain's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later. He therefore decided to try to strengthen Germany's relations with the Soviets, or failing that, to attack and eliminate them as a factor. In November 1940, negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the Tripartite Pact. The Soviets showed some interest, but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued the directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOn 22 June 1941, Germany, supported by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, with Germany accusing the Soviets of plotting against them. They were joined shortly by Finland and Hungary.. The primary targets of this surprise offensive were the Baltic region, Moscow and Ukraine, with the ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line, from the Caspian to the White Seas. Hitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate Lebensraum (\\\"living space\\\") by dispossessing the native population and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAlthough the Red Army was preparing for strategic counter-offensives before the war, Barbarossa forced the Soviet supreme command to adopt a strategic defence. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By the middle of August, however, the German Army High Command decided to suspend the offensive of a considerably depleted Army Group Centre, and to divert the 2nd Panzer Group to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad. The Kiev offensive was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made further advance into Crimea and industrially developed Eastern Ukraine (the First Battle of Kharkov) possible.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe diversion of three quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from France and the central Mediterranean to the Eastern Front prompted Britain to reconsider its grand strategy. In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany The British and Soviets invaded Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and Iran's oil fields. In August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nBy October Axis operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region were achieved, with only the sieges of Leningrad and Sevastopol continuing. A major offensive against Moscow was renewed; after two months of fierce battles in increasingly harsh weather the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops were forced to suspend their offensive. Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet capability to resist was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The blitzkrieg phase of the war in Europe had ended.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nBy early December, freshly mobilised reserves allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops. This, as well as intelligence data which established that a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East would be sufficient to deter any attack by the Japanese Kwantung Army, allowed the Soviets to begin a massive counter-offensive that started on 5 December all along the front and pushed German troops 100 - west.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nWar breaks out in the Pacific (1941)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn 1939 the United States had renounced its trade treaty with Japan and beginning with an aviation gasoline ban in July 1940 Japan had become subject to increasing economic pressure. During this time, Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by late September. Despite several offensives by both sides, the war between China and Japan was stalemated by 1940. To increase pressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to better position Japanese forces in the event of a war with the Western powers, Japan invaded and occupied northern Indochina. Afterwards, the United States embargoed iron, steel and mechanical parts against Japan. Other sanctions soon followed.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn August of that year, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted harsh measures in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists. Continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in armed clashes in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation. In March, the Japanese 11th army attacked the headquarters of the Chinese 19th army but was repulsed during Battle of Shanggao. In September, Japan attempted to take the city of Changsha again and clashed with Chinese nationalist forces.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nGerman successes in Europe encouraged Japan to increase pressure on European governments in Southeast Asia. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan some oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies, but negotiations for additional access to their resources ended in failure in June 1941. In July 1941 Japan sent troops to southern Indochina, thus threatening British and Dutch possessions in the Far East. The United States, United Kingdom and other Western governments reacted to this move with a freeze on Japanese assets and a total oil embargo.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nSince early 1941 the United States and Japan had been engaged in negotiations in an attempt to improve their strained relations and end the war in China. During these negotiations Japan advanced a number of proposals which were dismissed by the Americans as inadequate. At the same time the US, Britain, and the Netherlands engaged in secret discussions for the joint defence of their territories, in the event of a Japanese attack against any of them. Roosevelt reinforced the Philippines (an American protectorate scheduled for independence in 1946) and warned Japan that the US would react to Japanese attacks against any \\\"neighboring countries\\\".\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nFrustrated at the lack of progress and feeling the pinch of the American-British-Dutch sanctions, Japan prepared for war. On 20 November it presented an interim proposal as its final offer. It called for the end of American aid to China and to supply oil and other resources to Japan. In exchange they promised not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia and to withdraw their forces from their threatening positions in southern Indochina. The American counter-proposal of 26 November required that Japan evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with all Pacific powers. That meant Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in China, or seizing the natural resources it needed in the Dutch East Indies by force;: \\\"The United States cut off oil exports to Japan in the summer of 1941, forcing Japanese leaders to choose between going to war to seize the oil fields of the Netherlands East Indies or giving in to U.S.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\npressure.\\\", listing various military and diplomatic developments, observes that \\\"the threat to Japan was not purely economic.\\\" the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nJapan planned to rapidly seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific; the Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war. To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter it was further planned to neutralise the United States Pacific Fleet and the American military presence in the Philippines from the outset. On 7 December 1941 (8 December in Asian time zones), Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific. These included an attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, landings in Thailand and Malaya and the battle of Hong Kong.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThese attacks led the United States, Britain, China, Australia and several other states to formally declare war on Japan, whereas the Soviet Union, being heavily involved in large-scale hostilities with European Axis countries, maintained its neutrality agreement with Japan. Germany, followed by the other Axis states, declared war on the United States in solidarity with Japan, citing as justification the American attacks on German war vessels that had been ordered by Roosevelt.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAxis advance stalls (1942–43)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn January 1942, the Big Four (the United States, Britain, Soviet Union, China) and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the Declaration by United Nations, thereby affirming the Atlantic Charter, and agreeing to not to sign a separate peace with the Axis powers.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nDuring 1942, Allied officials debated on the appropriate grand strategy to pursue. All agreed that defeating Germany was the primary objective. The Americans favoured a straightforward, large-scale attack on Germany through France. The Soviets were also demanding a second front. The British, on the other hand, argued that military operations should target peripheral areas to wear out German strength, lead to increasing demoralisation, and bolster resistance forces. Germany itself would be subject to a heavy bombing campaign. An offensive against Germany would then be launched primarily by Allied armour without using large-scale armies. Eventually, the British persuaded the Americans that a landing in France was infeasible in 1942 and they should instead focus on driving the Axis out of North Africa.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAt the Casablanca Conference in early 1943, the Allies reiterated the statements issued in the 1942 Declaration by the United Nations, and demanded the unconditional surrender of their enemies.\\nThe British and Americans agreed to continue to press the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the Mediterranean supply routes. Although the British argued for further operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the war, in May 1943, the Americans extracted a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediterranean to an invasion of the Italian mainland and to invade France in 1944.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nPacific (1942–43)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nBy the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally Thailand had almost fully conquered Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, and Rabaul, inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners. Despite stubborn resistance by Filipino and US forces, the Philippine Commonwealth was eventually captured in May 1942, forcing its government into exile. On 16 April, in Burma, 7,000 British soldiers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division during the Battle of Yenangyaung and rescued by the Chinese 38th Division. Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in the South China Sea, Java Sea and Indian Ocean, and bombed the Allied naval base at Darwin, Australia. In January 1942, the only Allied success against Japan was a Chinese victory at Changsha. These easy victories over unprepared US and European opponents left Japan overconfident, as well as overextended.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to capture Port Moresby by amphibious assault and thus sever communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The planned invasion was thwarted when an Allied task force centered on two American fleet carriers fought Japanese naval forces to a draw in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier Doolittle Raid, was to seize Midway Atoll and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to occupy the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. In early June, Japan put its operations into action but the Americans, having broken Japanese naval codes in late May, were fully aware of the plans and force dispositions and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive victory at Midway over the Imperial Japanese Navy.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nWith its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan chose to focus on a belated attempt to capture Port Moresby by an overland campaign in the Territory of Papua. The Americans planned a counter-attack against Japanese positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily Guadalcanal, as a first step towards capturing Rabaul, the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nBoth plans started in July, but by mid-September, the Battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the northern part of the island, where they faced Australian and United States troops in the Battle of Buna-Gona. Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops. In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first, an offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942, went disastrously, forcing a retreat back to India by May 1943. The second was the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese front-lines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved mixed results.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nEastern Front (1942–43)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nDespite considerable losses, in early 1942 Germany and its allies stopped a major Soviet offensive in central and southern Russia, keeping most territorial gains they had achieved during the previous year. In May the Germans defeated Soviet offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkov, and then launched their main summer offensive against southern Russia in June 1942, to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and occupy Kuban steppe, while maintaining positions on the northern and central areas of the front. The Germans split Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A advanced to the lower Don River and struck south-east to the Caucasus, while Army Group B headed towards the Volga River. The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad on the Volga.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nBy mid-November, the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad in bitter street fighting when the Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad and an assault on the Rzhev salient near Moscow, though the latter failed disastrously. By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been forced to surrender, and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans launched another attack on Kharkov, creating a salient in their front line around the Russian city of Kursk.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nWestern Europe/Atlantic & Mediterranean (1942–43)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nExploiting poor American naval command decisions, the German navy ravaged Allied shipping off the American Atlantic coast. By November 1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive, Operation Crusader, in North Africa, and reclaimed all the gains the Germans and Italians had made. In North Africa, the Germans launched an offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the Gazala Line by early February, followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives. Concerns the Japanese might use bases in Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invade the island in early May 1942. An Axis offensive in Libya forced an Allied retreat deep inside Egypt until Axis forces were stopped at El Alamein. On the Continent, raids of Allied commandos on strategic targets, culminating in the disastrous Dieppe Raid, demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a second attack against El Alamein and, at a high cost, managed to deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta. A few months later, the Allies commenced an attack of their own in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya. This attack was followed up shortly after by Anglo-American landings in French North Africa, which resulted in the region joining the Allies. Hitler responded to the French colony's defection by ordering the occupation of Vichy France; although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to scuttle their fleet to prevent its capture by German forces. The now pincered Axis forces in Africa withdrew into Tunisia, which was conquered by the Allies in May 1943.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn early 1943 the British and Americans began the Combined Bomber Offensive, a strategic bombing campaign against Germany. The goals were to disrupt the German war economy, reduce German morale, and \\\"de-house\\\" the civilian population.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAllies gain momentum (1943–44)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAfter the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Canadian and U.S. forces were sent to eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians. Soon after, the U.S. with support from Australian and New Zealand forces began major operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands, and to breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives, and additionally neutralised the major Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline Islands. In April, the Allies launched an operation to retake Western New Guinea.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 preparing for large offensives in central Russia. On 4 July 1943, Germany attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets' deeply echeloned and well-constructed defences and, for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled the operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success. This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies' invasion of Sicily launched on 9 July which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month. Also, in July 1943 the British firebombed Hamburg killing over 40,000 people.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOn 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own counter-offensives, thereby dispelling any chance of German victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk marked the end of German superiority, giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front. The Germans tried to stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortified Panther-Wotan line, but the Soviets broke through it at Smolensk and by the Lower Dnieper Offensives.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOn 3 September 1943, the Western Allies invaded the Italian mainland, following Italy's armistice with the Allies. Germany responded by disarming Italian forces, seizing military control of Italian areas, and creating a series of defensive lines. German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon established a new client state in German occupied Italy named the Italian Social Republic, causing an Italian civil war. The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nGerman operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By May 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective, the resulting sizeable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign. In November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran. The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory, while the latter included agreement that the Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany's defeat.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nFrom November 1943, during the seven-week Battle of Changde, the Chinese forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition, while awaiting Allied relief. . In January 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte Cassino and tried to outflank it with landings at Anzio. By the end of January, a major Soviet offensive expelled German forces from the Leningrad region, ending the longest and most lethal siege in history.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe following Soviet offensive was halted on the pre-war Estonian border by the German Army Group North aided by Estonians hoping to re-establish national independence. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the Baltic Sea region. By late May 1944, the Soviets had liberated Crimea, largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made incursions into Romania, which were repulsed by the Axis troops. The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, on 4 June, Rome was captured.; .The weeks after the fall of Rome saw a dramatic upswing in German atrocities in Italy (). The period featured massacres with victims in the hundreds at Civitella (; ), Fosse Ardeatine (), and Sant'Anna di Stazzema (), and is capped with the Marzabotto massacre.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe Allies had mixed success in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions, an operation against British positions in Assam, India, and soon besieged Commonwealth positions at Imphal and Kohima. In May 1944, British forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma, and Chinese forces that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 besieged Japanese troops in Myitkyina. The second Japanese invasion of China aimed to destroy China's main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields. By June, the Japanese had conquered the province of Henan and begun a new attack on Changsha in the Hunan province.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAllies close in (1944)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOn 6 June 1944 (known as D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure,: \\\"Stalin always believed that Britain and America were delaying the second front so that the Soviet Union would bear the brunt of the war.\\\" the Western Allies invaded northern France. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also attacked southern France. These landings were successful, and led to the defeat of the German Army units in France. Paris was liberated by the local resistance assisted by the Free French Forces, both led by General Charles de Gaulle, on 25 August and the Western Allies continued to push back German forces in western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spearheaded by a major airborne operation in the Netherlands failed. After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, but failed to cross the Rur river in a large offensive. In Italy, Allied advance also slowed due to the last major German defensive line.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOn 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus (\\\"Operation Bagration\\\") that destroyed the German Army Group Centre almost completely. Soon after that another Soviet strategic offensive forced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The Soviet advance prompted resistance forces in Poland to initiate several uprisings against the German occupation. However, the largest of these in Warsaw where German soldiers massacred 200,000 civilians and a national uprising in Slovakia did not receive Soviet support and were subsequently suppressed by the Germans. The Red Army's strategic offensive in eastern Romania cut off and destroyed the considerable German troops there and triggered a successful coup d'état in Romania and in Bulgaria, followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn September 1944, Soviet troops advanced into Yugoslavia and forced the rapid withdrawal of German Army Groups E and F in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off. By this point, the Communist-led Partisans under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who had led an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and engaged in delaying efforts against German forces further south. In northern Serbia, the Red Army, with limited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a joint liberation of the capital city of Belgrade on 20 October. A few days later, the Soviets launched a massive assault against German-occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of Budapest in February 1945. Unlike impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, bitter Finnish resistance to the Soviet offensive in the Karelian Isthmus denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to a Soviet-Finnish armistice on relatively mild conditions, although Finland later shifted to the Allied side.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nBy the start of July 1944, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In China, the Japanese had more successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August. Soon after, they invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by mid-December.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn the Pacific, US forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944, they began their offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands, and decisively defeated Japanese forces in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. These defeats led to the resignation of the Japanese Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo, and provided the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces invaded the Filipino island of Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAxis collapse, Allied victory (1944–45)\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOn 16 December 1944, Germany made a last attempt on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes to split the Western Allies, encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and capture their primary supply port at Antwerp to prompt a political settlement. By January, the offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled. In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets and Poles attacked in Poland, pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and overran East Prussia. On 4 February, US, British, and Soviet leaders met for the Yalta Conference. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn February, the Soviets entered Silesia and Pomerania, while Western Allies entered western Germany and closed to the Rhine river. By March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encircling the German Army Group B, while the Soviets advanced to Vienna. In early April, the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across western Germany, while Soviet and Polish forces stormed Berlin in late April. American and Soviet forces joined on Elbe river on 25 April. On 30 April 1945, the Reichstag was captured, signalling the military defeat of Nazi Germany.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nSeveral changes in leadership occurred during this period. On 12 April, President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by Harry Truman. Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on 28 April. Two days later, Hitler committed suicide, and was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nGerman forces surrendered in Italy on 29 April. Total and unconditional surrender was signed on 7 May, to be effective by the end of 8 May. German Army Group Centre resisted in Prague until 11 May.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the Philippine Commonwealth advanced in the Philippines, clearing Leyte by the end of April 1945. They landed on Luzon in January 1945 and recaptured Manila in March following a battle which reduced the city to ruins. Fighting continued on Luzon, Mindanao, and other islands of the Philippines until the end of the war. On the night of 9–10 March, B-29 bombers of the US Army Air Forces struck Tokyo with incendiary bombs, which killed 100,000 people within a few hours. Over the next five months, American bombers firebombed 66 other Japanese cities, causing the destruction of untold numbers of buildings and the deaths of between 350,000–500,000 Japanese civilians.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn May 1945, Australian troops landed in Borneo, over-running the oilfields there. British, American, and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma in March, and the British pushed on to reach Rangoon by 3 May. Chinese forces started to counterattack in Battle of West Hunan that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945. American naval and amphibious forces also moved towards Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by the end of June. At the same time American bombers were destroying Japanese cities, American submarines cut off Japanese imports, drastically reducing Japan's ability to supply its overseas forces.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOn 11 July, Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier agreements about Germany, and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of all Japanese forces by Japan, specifically stating that \\\"the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction\\\". During this conference, the United Kingdom held its general election, and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Prime Minister.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe Allies called for unconditional Japanese surrender in the Potsdam declaration of 27 July, but the Japanese government was internally divided on whether to make peace and did not respond. In early August, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Like the Japanese cities previously bombed by American airmen, the US and its allies justified the atomic bombings as a military necessity, to avoid invading the Japanese home islands which would cost the lives of between 250,000–500,000 Allied troops and millions of Japanese troops and civilians. Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, invaded Japanese-held Manchuria, and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the largest Japanese fighting force. The Red Army also captured Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On 15 August 1945, Japan surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed aboard the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, ending the war.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAftermath\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe Allies established occupation administrations in Austria and Germany. The former became a neutral state, non-aligned with any political bloc. The latter was divided into western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the USSR, accordingly. A denazification program in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nGermany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory. Among the eastern territories, Silesia, Neumark and most of Pomerania were taken over by Poland, East Prussia was divided between Poland and the USSR, followed by the expulsion of the 9 million Germans from these provinces, as well as the expulsion of 3 million Germans from the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia to Germany. By the 1950s, every fifth West German was a refugee from the east. The Soviet Union also took over the Polish provinces east of the Curzon line, from which 2 million Poles were expelled; north-east Romania, parts of eastern Finland, and the three Baltic states were also incorporated into the USSR.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn an effort to maintain peace, the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as a common standard for all member nations..The UDHR is viewable here [http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/]. The great powers that were the victors of the war—the United States, Soviet Union, China, Britain, and France—formed the permanent members of the UN's Security Council. The five permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes, between the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China in 1971, and between the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nGermany had been de facto divided, and two independent states, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic were created within the borders of Allied and Soviet occupation zones, accordingly. The rest of Europe was also divided into Western and Soviet spheres of influence. Most eastern and central European countries fell into the Soviet sphere, which led to establishment of Communist-led regimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet occupation authorities. As a result, Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Albania became Soviet satellite states. Communist Yugoslavia conducted a fully independent policy, causing tension with the USSR.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nPost-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact; the long period of political tensions and military competition between them, the Cold War, would be accompanied by an unprecedented arms race and proxy wars.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn Asia, the United States led the occupation of Japan and administrated Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Korea, formerly under Japanese rule, was divided and occupied by the US in the South and the Soviet Union in the North between 1945 and 1948. Separate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th parallel in 1948, each claiming to be the legitimate government for all of Korea, which led ultimately to the Korean War.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn China, nationalist and communist forces resumed the civil war in June 1946. Communist forces were victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan in 1949. In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the creation of Israel marked the escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict. While European colonial powers attempted to retain some or all of their colonial empires, their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading to decolonisation.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe global economy suffered heavily from the war, although participating nations were affected differently. The US emerged much richer than any other nation; it had a baby boom and by 1950 its gross domestic product per person was much higher than that of any of the other powers and it dominated the world economy. The UK and US pursued a policy of industrial disarmament in Western Germany in the years 1945–1948.. Because of international trade interdependencies this led to European economic stagnation and delayed European recovery for several years. .\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nRecovery began with the mid-1948 currency reform in Western Germany, and was sped up by the liberalisation of European economic policy that the Marshall Plan (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused. . The post-1948 West German recovery has been called the German economic miracle. Italy also experienced an economic boom and the French economy rebounded. By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin, and although it received a quarter of the total Marshall Plan assistance, more than any other European country, continued relative economic decline for decades.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era. Japan experienced incredibly rapid economic growth, becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world by the 1980s. China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nImpact\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nCasualties and war crimes\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nEstimates for the total number of casualties in the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 75 million people died in the war, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians. \\nMany of the civilians died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings, disease, and starvation.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths. The largest portion of military dead were 5.7 million ethnic Russians, followed by 1.3 million ethnic Ukrainians. A quarter of the people in the Soviet Union were wounded or killed. Germany sustained 5.3 million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Front and during the final battles in Germany.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOf the total number of deaths in World War II, approximately 85 percent—mostly Soviet and Chinese—were on the Allied side and 15 percent were on the Axis side. Many of these deaths were caused by war crimes committed by German and Japanese forces in occupied territories. An estimated 11 to 17 million. civilians died either as a direct or as an indirect result of Nazi ideological policies, including the systematic genocide of around 6 million Jews during the Holocaust, along with a further 5 to 6 million ethnic Poles and other Slavs (including Ukrainians and Belarusians) —Roma, homosexuals, and other ethnic and minority groups. Hundreds of thousands (varying estimates) of ethnic Serbs, along with gypsies and Jews, were murdered by the Axis-aligned Croatian Ustaše in Yugoslavia, and retribution-related killings were committed just after the war ended.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn Asia and the Pacific, between 3 million and more than 10 million civilians, mostly Chinese (estimated at 7.5 million ), were killed by the Japanese occupation forces. The best-known Japanese atrocity was the Nanking Massacre, in which fifty to three hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered. Mitsuyoshi Himeta reported that 2.7 million casualties occurred during the Sankō Sakusen. General Yasuji Okamura implemented the policy in Heipei and Shantung.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAxis forces employed biological and chemical weapons. The Imperial Japanese Army used a variety of such weapons during its invasion and occupation of China (see Unit 731) and in early conflicts against the Soviets. Both the Germans and Japanese tested such weapons against civilians and, sometimes on prisoners of war.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe Soviet Union was responsible for the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers, and the imprisonment or execution of thousands of political prisoners by the NKVD, in the Baltic states, and eastern Poland annexed by the Red Army.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe mass-bombing of civilian areas, notably the cities of Warsaw, Rotterdam and London; including the aerial targeting of hospitals and fleeing refugees by the German Luftwaffe, along with the bombing of Tokyo, and German cities of Dresden, Hamburg and Cologne by the Western Allies may be considered as war crimes. The latter resulted in the destruction of more than 160 cities and the death of more than 600,000 German civilians. However, no positive or specific customary international humanitarian law with respect to aerial warfare existed before or during World War II.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nConcentration camps, slave labour, and genocide\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe German government led by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party was responsible for the Holocaust, the killing of approximately 6 million Jews, as well as 2.7 million ethnic Poles, and 4 million others who were deemed \\\"unworthy of life\\\" (including the disabled and mentally ill, Soviet prisoners of war, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Romani) as part of a programme of deliberate extermination. About 12 million, most of whom were Eastern Europeans, were employed in the German war economy as forced labourers.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn addition to Nazi concentration camps, the Soviet gulags (labour camps) led to the death of citizens of occupied countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as German prisoners of war (POWs) and even Soviet citizens who had been or were thought to be supporters of the Nazis. Sixty percent of Soviet POWs of the Germans died during the war. Richard Overy gives the number of 5.7 million Soviet POWs. Of those, 57 percent died or were killed, a total of 3.6 million. Soviet ex-POWs and repatriated civilians were treated with great suspicion as potential Nazi collaborators, and some of them were sent to the Gulag upon being checked by the NKVD.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nJapanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also had high death rates. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East found the death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1 percent (for American POWs, 37 percent), seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians. While 37,583 prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from the United States were released after the surrender of Japan, the number of Chinese released was only 56.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAccording to historian Zhifen Ju, at least five million Chinese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo were enslaved between 1935 and 1941 by the East Asia Development Board, or Kōain, for work in mines and war industries. After 1942, the number reached 10 million. The US Library of Congress estimates that in Java, between 4 and 10 million romusha (Japanese: \\\"manual laborers\\\"), were forced to work by the Japanese military. About 270,000 of these Javanese labourers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in South East Asia, and only 52,000 were repatriated to Java.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOn 19 February 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, interning about 100,000 Japanese living on the West Coast. Canada had a similar program. In addition, 14,000 German and Italian citizens who had been assessed as being security risks were also interned..\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn accordance with the Allied agreement made at the Yalta Conference millions of POWs and civilians were used as forced labour by the Soviet Union. In Hungary's case, Hungarians were forced to work for the Soviet Union until 1955.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nOccupation\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn Europe, occupation came under two forms. In Western, Northern and Central Europe (France, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries, and the annexed portions of Czechoslovakia) Germany established economic policies through which it collected roughly 69.5 billion reichmarks (27.8 billion US Dollars) by the end of the war, this figure does not include the sizeable plunder of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods. Thus, the income from occupied nations was over 40 percent of the income Germany collected from taxation, a figure which increased to nearly 40 percent of total German income as the war went on.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn the East, the much hoped for bounties of Lebensraum were never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Soviet scorched earth policies denied resources to the German invaders. Unlike in the West, the Nazi racial policy encouraged excessive brutality against what it considered to be the \\\"inferior people\\\" of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed by mass executions. Although resistance groups formed in most occupied territories, they did not significantly hamper German operations in either the East or the West until late 1943.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as being part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, essentially a Japanese hegemony which it claimed was for purposes of liberating colonised peoples. Although Japanese forces were originally welcomed as liberators from European domination in some territories, their excessive brutality turned local public opinion against them within weeks. During Japan's initial conquest it captured 4000000 oilbbl of oil (~5.5×105 tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces, and by 1943 was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to , 76 percent of its 1940 output rate.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nHome fronts and production\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn Europe, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and British Dominions) had a 30 percent larger population and a 30 percent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis (Germany and Italy); if colonies are included, it then gives the Allies more than a 5:1 advantage in population and nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP. In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan, but only an 89 percent higher GDP; this is reduced to three times the population and only a 38 percent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThough the Allies' economic and population advantages were largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkrieg attacks of Germany and Japan, they became the decisive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies, as the war largely settled into one of attrition. While the Allies' ability to out-produce the Axis is often attributed to the Allies having more access to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan's reluctance to employ women in the labour force, Allied strategic bombing, and Germany's late shift to a war economy contributed significantly. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted war, and were not equipped to do so. To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of slave labourers; Germany used about 12 million people, mostly from Eastern Europe, while Japan used more than 18 million people in Far East Asia.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAdvances in technology and warfare\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAircraft were used for reconnaissance, as fighters, bombers, and ground-support, and each role was advanced considerably. Innovation included airlift (the capability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies, equipment, and personnel); and of strategic bombing (the bombing of enemy industrial and population centres to destroy the enemy's ability to wage war). Anti-aircraft weaponry also advanced, including defences such as radar and surface-to-air artillery, such as the German 88 mm gun. The use of the jet aircraft was pioneered and, though late introduction meant it had little impact, it led to jets becoming standard in air forces worldwide.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAdvances were made in nearly every aspect of naval warfare, most notably with aircraft carriers and submarines. Although aeronautical warfare had relatively little success at the start of the war, actions at Taranto, Pearl Harbor, and the Coral Sea established the carrier as the dominant capital ship in place of the battleship.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nIn the Atlantic, escort carriers proved to be a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and helping to close the Mid-Atlantic gap. Carriers were also more economical than battleships because of the relatively low cost of aircraft and their not requiring to be as heavily armoured. Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during the First World War, were anticipated by all sides to be important in the second. The British focused development on anti-submarine weaponry and tactics, such as sonar and convoys, while Germany focused on improving its offensive capability, with designs such as the Type VII submarine and wolfpack tactics. Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as the Leigh light, hedgehog, squid, and homing torpedoes proved victorious.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nLand warfare changed from the static front lines of World War I to increased mobility and combined arms. The tank, which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon. In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced than it had been during World War I, and advances continued throughout the war with increases in speed, armour and firepower.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nAt the start of the war, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications. This idea was challenged by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank guns against armour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat. This, along with Germany's use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France. Many means of destroying tanks, including indirect artillery, anti-tank guns (both towed and self-propelled), mines, short-ranged infantry antitank weapons, and other tanks were utilised. Even with large-scale mechanisation, infantry remained the backbone of all forces, and throughout the war, most infantry were equipped similarly to World War I.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nThe portable machine gun spread, a notable example being the German MG34, and various submachine guns which were suited to close combat in urban and jungle settings. The assault rifle, a late war development incorporating many features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the standard postwar infantry weapon for most armed forces.\",\n \"World War II\\n\\nMost major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security involved in using large codebooks for cryptography by designing ciphering machines, the most well known being the German Enigma machine. Development of SIGINT (signals intelligence) and cryptanalysis enabled the countering process of decryption. Notable examples were the Allied decryption of Japanese naval codes and British Ultra, a pioneering method for decoding Enigma benefiting from information given to Britain by the Polish Cipher Bureau, which had been decoding early versions of Enigma before the war. Another aspect of military intelligence was the use of deception, which the Allies used to great effect, such as in operations Mincemeat and Bodyguard. Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world's first programmable computers (Z3, Colossus, and ENIAC), guided missiles and modern rockets, the Manhattan Project's development of nuclear weapons, operations research and the development of artificial harbours and oil pipelines under the English Channel.\"\n]","isConversational":false}}},{"rowIdx":138295,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"qg_4469"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Which company is responsible for \"The Gun that Won the West\"?"},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Winchester Repeating Arms"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":["winchester repeating arms corporation","winchester arms","winchester repeating arms company","winchester rifles and shotguns","winchester repeating arms","winchester firearms"],"string":"[\n \"winchester repeating arms corporation\",\n \"winchester arms\",\n \"winchester repeating arms company\",\n \"winchester rifles and shotguns\",\n \"winchester repeating arms\",\n \"winchester firearms\"\n]","isConversational":false},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester rifle is a comprehensive term describing a series of lever-action repeating rifles manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Evolved from the 1860 Henry rifle, Winchester rifles were among the earliest repeaters. The Model 1873 was particularly successful, being colloquially known as \"The Gun that Won the West\".","Winchester rifle\n\nMost popular of all was the Model 1894, a new design by John Browning widely adopted as a hunting rifle that saw production of over 6 million units before its domestic discontinuation 112 years later in 2006. It went back into production by Miroku Corp. in 2010.","Winchester rifle\n\nPredecessors","Winchester rifle\n\nIn 1848, Walter Hunt of New York patented his \"Volition Repeating Rifle\" incorporating a tubular magazine, which was operated by two levers and complex linkages. The Hunt rifle fired what he called the \"Rocket Ball\", an early form of caseless ammunition in which the powder charge was contained in the bullet's hollow base. Hunt's design was fragile and unworkable, but in 1849 Lewis Jennings purchased the Hunt patents and developed a functioning, if still complex, version which was produced in small numbers by Robbins & Lawrence of Windsor, Vermont until 1852.","Winchester rifle\n\nHorace Smith and Daniel Wesson of Norwich, Connecticut acquired the Jennings patent from Robbins & Lawrence, as well as shop foreman Benjamin Tyler Henry. Smith made several improvements to the Jennings design, and in 1855 Smith and Wesson together with several investors formed a corporation, the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company, to manufacture Smith's modification of the Hunt-Jennings, the Volcanic lever-action pistol and rifle. Its largest stockholder was Oliver Winchester.","Winchester rifle\n\nFor the Volcanic rifle, Smith added a primer charge to Hunt's \"Rocket Ball\" and thus created one of the first fixed metallic cartridges which incorporated bullet, primer and powder in one self-contained unit. While still with the company Smith went a step further and added a cylindrical copper case to hold the bullet and powder with the primer in the case rim, thus creating one of the most significant inventions in firearms history, the metallic rimfire cartridge. Smith's cartridge, the .22 Short, would be introduced commercially in 1857 with the landmark Smith & Wesson Model 1 revolver and is still manufactured today.","Winchester rifle\n\nThe Volcanic rifle had only limited success, which was partially attributable to the design and poor performance of the Hunt-derived Volcanic cartridge: a hollow conical ball filled with black powder and sealed by a cork primer. Although the Volcanic's repeater design far outpaced the rival technology, the unsatisfactory power and reliability of the .25 and .32 caliber \"Rocket Balls\" were little match for the competitors' larger calibers. Wesson had left Volcanic soon after it was formed and Smith followed eight months later, to create the Smith & Wesson Revolver Company. Volcanic moved to New Haven in 1856, but by the end of that year became insolvent. Oliver Winchester purchased the bankrupt firm's assets from the remaining stockholders, and reorganized it as the New Haven Arms Company in April 1857.","Winchester rifle\n\nBenjamin Henry continued to work with Smith's cartridge concept, and perfected the much larger, more powerful .44 Henry cartridge. Henry also supervised the redesign of the rifle to use the new ammunition, retaining only the general form of the breech mechanism and the tubular magazine. This became the Henry rifle of 1860, which was manufactured by the New Haven Arms Company, and used in considerable numbers by certain Union army units in the American Civil War. Confederates called the Henry \"that damned Yankee rifle that they load on Sunday and shoot all week!\"","Winchester rifle\n\nDevelopment","Winchester rifle\n\nAfter the war, Oliver Winchester renamed New Haven Arms the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The company modified and improved the basic design of the Henry rifle, creating the first Winchester rifle: the Model 1866. It retained the .44 Henry cartridge, was likewise built on a bronze-alloy frame, and had an improved magazine and a wooden forearm. In 1873 Winchester introduced the steel-framed Model 1873 chambering the more potent .44-40 centerfire cartridge. In 1876, in a bid to compete with the powerful single-shot rifles of the time, Winchester brought out the Model 1876 (Centennial Model). While it chambered more powerful cartridges than the 1866 and 1873 models, the toggle link action was not strong enough for the popular high-powered rounds used in Sharps or Remington single-shot rifles.","Winchester rifle\n\nFrom 1883, John Moses Browning worked in partnership with Winchester, designing a series of rifles and shotguns, most notably the lever-action Winchester Model 1886, Model 1892, Model 1894, and Model 1895 rifles, along with the lever-action Model 1887/1901 shotgun, the pump-action Model 1890 rifle, and the pump-action Model 1893/1897 shotgun.","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester lever-action repeating rifles","Winchester rifle\n\nModel 1866","Winchester rifle\n\nThe first Winchester rifle – the Winchester Model 1866 – was originally chambered for the rimfire .44 Henry. Nicknamed the \"Yellow Boy\" because of its receiver of a bronze/brass alloy called gunmetal, it was famous for its rugged construction and lever-action \"repeating rifle\" mechanism that allowed the user to fire a number of shots before having to reload. Nelson King's improved patent remedied flaws in the Henry rifle by incorporating a loading gate on the side of the frame and integrating a round, sealed magazine which was covered by a forestock.","Winchester rifle\n\nFrance purchased 6,000 Model 1866 rifles along with 4.5 million .44 Henry cartridges during the Franco-Prussian War. The Ottoman Empire purchased 45,000 Model 1866 muskets and 5,000 carbines in 1870 and 1871. These rifles were used in the 1877 Russo-Turkish War, causing much surprise when outnumbered Turks at the Siege of Plevna inflicted many times more casualties than their opponents armed with single-shot Krnka and Berdan rifles. The Model 1866 compelled Russians to develop a new rifle, the Mosin–Nagant, after the war.","Winchester rifle\n\nThe Swiss Army initially selected the Model 1866 to replace their existing single-shot Milbank-Amsler rifles. However, ensuing political pressure to adopt a domestic design resulted in the Vetterli Model 1867, a bolt-action design utilizing a copy of the Winchester's tubular magazine, being adopted instead.","Winchester rifle\n\nModel 1873","Winchester rifle\n\nThe Model 1873 was one of the most successful Winchester rifles of its day, gaining the reputation as \"The Gun that Won the West\". Still an icon in the modern day, it was manufactured between 1873 and 1919. Originally chambered for the .44-40 cartridge, it was later produced in .38-40 and .32-20, all of which were also popular handgun cartridges of the day, allowing users to carry just one type of ammunition. The Model 1873 was produced in three variations: a 24-inch barrel rifle, 20-inch barrel carbine, and a \"musket\" (a term that, at the time, denoted a full length military-style stock, not to be confused with a true smoothbore musket). The easy to transport and handle carbine was the most popular, while the musket accounted for less than 5–10 percent of total production.","Winchester rifle\n\nDue to feeding problems, the original Model 1873 was never offered in the military standard .45 Colt cartridge, although a number of modern reproductions are chambered for the round. The popularity of the original Model 1873 led Colt to manufacture a .44-40 version of the Single Action Army revolver called the \"Frontier Six Shooter\".","Winchester rifle\n\nTo both celebrate and enhance the Model 1873's prestige, Winchester established a coveted One of One Thousand grade in 1875. Barrels producing unusually small groupings during test-firing were fitted to rifles with set triggers and a special finish. Marked One of One Thousand, they sold for a then princely $100. A popular 1950 Western starring Jimmy Stewart, \"Winchester '73\", was based on the coveted gun. Promotions included a search for One of One Thousand rifles by Universal Studios, with advertisements in sporting magazines and posters in sporting goods stores.","Winchester rifle\n\nA second grade of Model 1873 barrels producing above average accuracy were fitted to rifles marked One of One Hundred, and sold for $20 over list. Approximately 136 One of One Thousand Model 1873s were sold, and only eight One of One Hundreds.Lewis, Edmund One of One Hundred October 2005 American Rifleman pp. 96, 129 & 134","Winchester rifle\n\nIn all, over 720,000 Model 1873s were produced. Long unavailable, the rifle returned to production under license from the Olin company in 2013, joining the Model 1892 and the Model 1894 being manufactured in Japan by the Miroku Corporation for FN/Browning. The new ten shot Model 1873 is only available with a 20\" round barrel chambered in .357 Magnum/.38 Special. Nearly faithful in design to the original, including the trigger disconnect safety, sliding dustcover, and a crescent-shaped buttplate. It incorporates two safety improvements: a firing pin block preventing it from moving forward unless the trigger is pulled, and a cartridge carrier modification to eject used casings away from the shooter.","Winchester rifle\n\nModel 1876","Winchester rifle\n\nThe Winchester Model 1876, or Centennial Model, was a heavier-framed rifle than the Models 1866 and 1873, chambered for full-powered centerfire rifle cartridges suitable for big-game hunting, rather than the handgun-size rimfire and rimfire rounds of its predecessors. While similar in design to the 1873, the 1876 was actually based on a prototype 1868 lever-action rifle that was never commercially produced by Winchester.","Winchester rifle\n\nIntroduced to celebrate the American Centennial Exposition, the Model 1876 earned a reputation as a durable and powerful hunting rifle. Four versions were produced: a 22 in barrel Carbine, a 26 in barrel Express Rifle with a half-length magazine, a 28 in barrel Sporting Rifle, and a 32 in barrel Musket. Standard rifles had a blued finish while deluxe models were casehardened. Collectors identify a first model with no dust cover, a second model with a dust cover rail fastened by a screw, and a third model with an integral dust cover. Total production was 63,871 including 54 One of One Thousand Model 1876s and only seven of the One of One Hundred grade.","Winchester rifle\n\nOriginally chambered for the new .45-75 Winchester Centennial cartridge (designed to replicate the .45-70 ballistics in a shorter case), versions in .40-60 Winchester, .45-60 Winchester and .50-95 Express followed; the '76 in the latter chambering is the only repeater known to have been in widespread use by professional buffalo hunters. The Canadian North-West Mounted Police used the '76 in .45-75 as a standard long arm for many years with 750 rifles purchased for the force in 1883; the Mountie-model '76 carbine was also issued to the Texas Rangers. Theodore Roosevelt used an engraved, pistol-gripped half-magazine '76 during his early hunting expeditions in the West and praised it. A '76 was also found in the possession of Apache warrior Geronimo after his surrender in 1886.","Winchester rifle\n\nThe Model 1876 toggle-link action receiver was too short to handle popular big-game cartridges, including the .45-70, and production ceased in 1897, as big-game hunters preferred the smoother Model 1886 action chambered for longer and more powerful cartridges.","Winchester rifle\n\nModel 1886","Winchester rifle\n\nThe Model 1886 continued the trend towards chambering heavier rounds, and had an all-new and considerably stronger locking-block action than the toggle-link Model 1876. It was designed by John Moses Browning, who had a long and profitable relationship with Winchester from the 1880s to the early 1900s. William Mason made some improvements to Browning's original design. In many respects the Model 1886 was a true American express rifle, as it could be chambered in the more powerful black powder cartridges of the day, such as the .45-70 Government, long a Winchester goal. The 1886 proved capable of handling not only the .45 Gov't but also .45-90 and the huge .50-110 Express \"buffalo\" cartridges, and in 1903 was chambered for the smokeless high-velocity .33 WCF. In 1935, Winchester introduced a slightly modified M1886 as the Model 71, chambered for the more powerful .348 Winchester cartridge.","Winchester rifle\n\nModel 1892","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester returned to its roots with the Model 1892, which, like the first lever-action guns, was primarily chambered for shorter, lower-pressure handgun rounds. The Model 1892 incorporates a much stronger Browning action (based on the larger M1886) than the earlier Henry-derived arms of the 1860s and 1870s. 1,004,675 Model 1892 rifles were made by Winchester, and although the company phased them out in the 1930s, replicas are still being made by the Brazilian arms maker, Rossi, and by Chiappa Firearms, an Italian factory. In its modern form, using updated materials and production techniques, the Model 1892's action is strong enough to chamber high pressure handgun rounds, such as .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .454 Casull. The Winchester '92 was commonly used in Hollywood Western movies and TV shows as a substitute for the Winchester '66 and '73 models because of its similar appearance, while being cheaper and easier to acquire.","Winchester rifle\n\nModel 1894","Winchester rifle\n\nThe John Browning-designed Winchester Model 1894 is the most prevalent of the Winchester repeating rifles. The Model 1894 was first chambered for the .32-40 cartridge, and later, a variety of calibers such as .25-35 WCF, .30-30, .32 Winchester Special, the .38-55 Winchester. Winchester was the first company to manufacture a civilian rifle chambered for the new smokeless propellants, and although delays prevented the .30-30 cartridge from appearing on the shelves until 1895, it remained the first commercially available smokeless powder round for the North American consumer market. Though initially it was too expensive for most shooters, the Model 1894 went on to become one of the best-selling hunting rifles of all time—it has the distinction of being the first sporting rifle to sell over one million units, ultimately selling over seven million before U.S.-production was discontinued in 2006. The Winchester .30-30 configuration is practically synonymous with \"deer rifle\" in the United States. In the early 20th century, the rifles designation was abbreviated to \"Model 94\", as was done with all older Winchester designs still in production (for example, Model 97, Model 12, etc.).","Winchester rifle\n\nModel 1895","Winchester rifle\n\nThe Winchester Model 1895 has the distinction of being the first Winchester lever-action rifle to load from a box magazine instead of a tube under the barrel. This allowed the Model 1895 to be chambered for military cartridges with spitzer (pointed) projectiles, and the rifle was used by the armed forces of a number of nations including the United States, Great Britain, and Imperial Russia. The Russian production models could also be loaded using charger clips, a feature not found on any other lever-action rifle. Calibers included .30-40 Krag (.30 US or .30 Army), .303 British, .30-03 Springfield, .30-06 Springfield, 7.62×54mmR, and .405 Winchester. Theodore Roosevelt used a Model 1895 in .405 on African safaris and called it his \"medicine gun\" for lions. In 1908 the 1895 Winchester became the first commercially produced sporting rifle chambered in .30-06 (then called \".30 Gov't 06\").","Winchester rifle\n\nModel 88","Winchester rifle\n\nIntroduced in 1955, 60 years after Winchester's last all-new lever-action design, the Model 88 was unlike any previous design. A short-throw lever operated a three-lug rotating bolt and rounds were fed vertically from a detachable box magazine. These bolt-action features in a lever-action permitted the use of high-powered modern short-case cartridges with spitzer bullets: .243 Winchester, .284 Winchester, .308 Winchester and .358 Winchester. The Model 88 was discontinued in 1973 and is the third best-selling lever-action rifle in Winchester's history, following only the M1894 and M1892. The later Sako Finnwolf and Browning BLR have similar actions.","Winchester rifle\n\nModel 9422","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester's Model 9422 was introduced in 1972. It was designed to capture the image of the traditional lever-actions with exposed hammer, straight grip, tube magazine and barrel bands. Unlike older Winchester lever actions it came grooved for scope mounting. It was offered in .22 Long Rifle and .22 WMR, and was priced at the high end of the .22 LR sporting rifle market.","Winchester rifle\n\nThe 9422 action design was original and extremely reliable. The feed system handled the cartridge from the magazine to the breech face by its rim, and the slide cammed the rear of the breechblock up into the locking recess. A concealed polymer buffer above the breech gave a firm-feeling lockup and a very positive unlocking motion.","Winchester rifle\n\nThe 9422 had worldwide appeal to customers raised on Western fiction and to parents looking for a way to introduce their children to shooting. Over the course of production a higher-finished model called the 9422 XTR, a .17 rimfire model, and several commemorative models were offered. Production ended in 2005.","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester Model 1885 single-shot rifle","Winchester rifle\n\nIn 1885, Winchester entered the single-shot market with the Model 1885 rifle, which John Browning had designed in 1878. The Winchester Single Shot, known to most shooters as either the \"Low-wall\" or \"High-wall\" depending on model, was produced to satisfy the demands of the growing sport of \"Match Shooting\", excelling at it, with Major Ned H. Roberts (inventor of the .257 Roberts cartridge) describing the Model 1885 Single Shot as \"the most reliable, strongest, and altogether best single shot rifle ever produced.\" Winchester produced nearly 140,000 Single Shot rifles from 1885 to 1920, and it was found that the falling-block Model 1885 had been built with one of the strongest actions known at that time. Winchester also produced a large number of Single Shots in .22 caliber rimfire for the US Army as a marksmanship training rifle, the \"Winder musket.\"","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester bolt-action rifles","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester lever-action rifles remained the most popular in the US through WWI and the interwar period. However, advances in the development of bolt-action rifles made them increasingly preferred over lever actions. These new rifles, such as Mauser's Gewehr 98 and the US M1903 Springfield, featured box magazines that could chamber pointed \"Spitzer\" bullets, which lever-action rifles with tubular magazines could not use for safety reasons (a pointed bullet can accidentally fire the round in front of it in a tubular magazine). The most influential bolt-action designs, as developed by Mauser and other military manufacturers, had front-locking lugs, which both stabilized the cartridge head and strengthened the action. This allowed for ammunition to reach unprecedented velocities, increasing long-range accuracy while not compromising operator safety. The bolt action was also simpler and cheaper to manufacture than high-powered lever-action guns like Winchester's 1886 and 1895 models, making them extremely competitive in the marketplace.","Winchester rifle\n\nIn response to the increasing competition from these bolt-action rifles, Winchester introduced the Winchester Model 54 in 1925. This was not Winchester's first bolt rifle (that being the Winchester-Hotchkiss rifle of 1878), but it was by-far their most successful to date. It was based indirectly on the Mauser Gewehr 98 design, but with modifications and popular North American chamberings such as the widely available .30-06 Springfield, which made it more appealing to American hunters than the European imports or sporterised military rifles. The Model 70 was developed from the Model 54, which it replaced in 1936. The Model 70, often dubbed the \"rifleman's rifle\", was produced continuously at New Haven (except during WWII) until 2006. Production was subsequently resumed at FN Herstal's plant in Columbia, South Carolina. In 2013, assembly was moved to Portugal.","Winchester rifle\n\nIn 1920 Winchester introduced the Model 52 .22 bolt-action target rifle, which from its inception and for years thereafter was America's reference standard smallbore match rifle. A sporter model of this action was also made from 1934–59. Starting in 1900, Winchester also manufactured inexpensive single-shot .22 bolt-action \"boy's rifles\", including the models 1900, 1902, 1904 and Thumb Trigger (99), and mid-range .22 bolt action repeaters including the Models 69, 72 and 75.","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester semi-automatic rifles","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester Models 1903 and 63","Winchester rifle\n\nThe Winchester Model 1903 was the first commercially available semi-automatic .22 rimfire caliber in the United States. Designed by T.C. Johnson, the Model 1903 was chambered for the unique .22 Winchester Automatic cartridge. In 1919, the Model 1903 moniker was shortened to Model 03, and following a partial redesign in the 1930s, was renamed the Model 63. The Model 63, introduced in 1933, was chambered for the popular and widely available .22 Long Rifle cartridge. It was initially made with a 20-inch barrel, then with a 23-inch barrel from 1936 until the end of production in 1958. About 175,000 Model 63 rifles were manufactured, with the last 10,000 having grooved receiver tops for scope mounting. Both the 1903/03 and the 63 have tubular magazines in the butt stock of the rifle and are loaded through a slot in the right side of the butt stock.","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester Models 1905, 1907, and 1910","Winchester rifle\n\nThe early center fire Winchester self-loading series of rifles began with the Model 1905, chambered for the .32SL and .35SL cartridges. Following a demand for a higher-powered self-loading rifle, the Models 1907 and 1910 were introduced along with their respective cartridges, the .351SL and .401SL.","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester repeating shotguns","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester Model 1887/1901","Winchester rifle\n\nThe Winchester Model 1887 was the first successful repeating shotgun design, developed by John Browning and produced by Winchester from 1887–1920. Browning felt that a pump-action would be much more appropriate for a repeating shotgun, but as Winchester was primarily a lever-action firearms company they felt that their new shotgun must also be a lever-action for reasons of brand recognition. The M1887 was chambered for 12-gauge black powder shotshells, and after the switch to smokeless powder at the end of the 19th Century, the M1901 was introduced, being chambered for 10-gauge smokeless shells. Although a technically sound gun design, the market for lever-action shotguns waned considerably after the introduction of the Winchester 1897 and other contemporary pump-action shotguns. Modern reproductions of the gun have been manufactured by Norinco in China, ADI Ltd. in Australia and Chiappa Firearms in Italy. Reproductions have sold particularly well in Australia on account of the National Firearms Agreement ban on pump-action and self-loading shotguns.","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester Model 1893/1897","Winchester rifle\n\nAnother Browning design, the Winchester Model 1893 was the first successful pump-action shotgun design; as strengthened in 1897 for smokeless-propellant shells, it remained in production until the mid-1950s. Unusual for a repeating shotgun, the Model 1897 could be taken apart for easier carriage/storage, and was available in a variety of barrel lengths from 20 to 36 inches. During World War I it was issued as a trench gun, with short barrel, heat shield and bayonet.","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester Model 1911","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester's long association with John Browning came to an end when the company refused to accept Browning's terms for the right to manufacture his revolutionary 1898 design for a self-loading shotgun; the landmark Browning Auto-5 was produced instead by Fabrique Nationale in Europe and later by Remington Arms in the US. However, Browning's semi-automatic patents had been so tightly drafted by Winchester's own lawyers that it took years for T. C. Johnson to develop a self-loading shotgun which didn't infringe them, resulting in the Model 1911 SL. The 1911 was a flawed and potentially dangerous design, and was not commercially successful; as a result, production ceased in 1925.","Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester Model 1912","Winchester rifle\n\nDesigned by T.C. Johnson as an internal-hammer modification of the Model 1897, the Model 1912 (later re dubbed the Model 12) was one of the most successful pump shotguns ever made, with nearly 2 million produced before its cancellation in 1963. Like the Model 1897 it came in take-down form, and likewise was issued in trench gun and combat versions during both World Wars, Korea and Vietnam. The Model 12 was popular with the military, law enforcement, hunters, and sporting clay competitors, the latter regarding it as having superior balance and \"point\" among pump-actions.","Winchester rifle\n\n1964 changes","Winchester rifle\n\nIn the mid-to late 1950s, a management change at Winchester led to an extensive and extremely controversial redesign of their firearms in 1964. This is regarded by many as the year the \"real\" Winchester ceased to be, and consequently \"pre-'64\" rifles command higher prices than those made afterwards. Winchester itself went on to have a troubled future as competition from both the US and abroad began to decrease its sales. Although in the 1970s the company attempted to recover its reputation by bringing out the well-received Super-X Model 1 semiautomatic shotgun, produced along pre-1964 lines, the cost of manufacture again proved unsustainable. In 1980, the company was split into parts and sold off. The name \"Winchester\" remained with the ammunition making side of the company, and this branch continues to be profitable. The arms making side and New Haven facilities went to U.S. Repeating Arms, which struggled to keep the company going under a variety of owners and management teams. It finally announced plans to close the New Haven facility, the producers of the Model 94, in 2006.","Winchester rifle\n\nOn August 15 of 2006, Olin Corporation, the owner of the Winchester trademarks, announced that it had gone into a new license agreement with Browning to make Winchester brand rifles and shotguns, but not at the closed Winchester plant in New Haven. Browning, based in Morgan, Utah, and the former licensee, U.S. Repeating Arms Company, are both subsidiaries of FN Herstal. Then, in 2008, FN Herstal announced plans to produce Model 70 rifles at its plant in Columbia, SC. In 2013, the assembly was moved to Portugal."],"string":"[\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester rifle is a comprehensive term describing a series of lever-action repeating rifles manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Evolved from the 1860 Henry rifle, Winchester rifles were among the earliest repeaters. The Model 1873 was particularly successful, being colloquially known as \\\"The Gun that Won the West\\\".\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nMost popular of all was the Model 1894, a new design by John Browning widely adopted as a hunting rifle that saw production of over 6 million units before its domestic discontinuation 112 years later in 2006. It went back into production by Miroku Corp. in 2010.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nPredecessors\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nIn 1848, Walter Hunt of New York patented his \\\"Volition Repeating Rifle\\\" incorporating a tubular magazine, which was operated by two levers and complex linkages. The Hunt rifle fired what he called the \\\"Rocket Ball\\\", an early form of caseless ammunition in which the powder charge was contained in the bullet's hollow base. Hunt's design was fragile and unworkable, but in 1849 Lewis Jennings purchased the Hunt patents and developed a functioning, if still complex, version which was produced in small numbers by Robbins & Lawrence of Windsor, Vermont until 1852.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nHorace Smith and Daniel Wesson of Norwich, Connecticut acquired the Jennings patent from Robbins & Lawrence, as well as shop foreman Benjamin Tyler Henry. Smith made several improvements to the Jennings design, and in 1855 Smith and Wesson together with several investors formed a corporation, the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company, to manufacture Smith's modification of the Hunt-Jennings, the Volcanic lever-action pistol and rifle. Its largest stockholder was Oliver Winchester.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nFor the Volcanic rifle, Smith added a primer charge to Hunt's \\\"Rocket Ball\\\" and thus created one of the first fixed metallic cartridges which incorporated bullet, primer and powder in one self-contained unit. While still with the company Smith went a step further and added a cylindrical copper case to hold the bullet and powder with the primer in the case rim, thus creating one of the most significant inventions in firearms history, the metallic rimfire cartridge. Smith's cartridge, the .22 Short, would be introduced commercially in 1857 with the landmark Smith & Wesson Model 1 revolver and is still manufactured today.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nThe Volcanic rifle had only limited success, which was partially attributable to the design and poor performance of the Hunt-derived Volcanic cartridge: a hollow conical ball filled with black powder and sealed by a cork primer. Although the Volcanic's repeater design far outpaced the rival technology, the unsatisfactory power and reliability of the .25 and .32 caliber \\\"Rocket Balls\\\" were little match for the competitors' larger calibers. Wesson had left Volcanic soon after it was formed and Smith followed eight months later, to create the Smith & Wesson Revolver Company. Volcanic moved to New Haven in 1856, but by the end of that year became insolvent. Oliver Winchester purchased the bankrupt firm's assets from the remaining stockholders, and reorganized it as the New Haven Arms Company in April 1857.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nBenjamin Henry continued to work with Smith's cartridge concept, and perfected the much larger, more powerful .44 Henry cartridge. Henry also supervised the redesign of the rifle to use the new ammunition, retaining only the general form of the breech mechanism and the tubular magazine. This became the Henry rifle of 1860, which was manufactured by the New Haven Arms Company, and used in considerable numbers by certain Union army units in the American Civil War. Confederates called the Henry \\\"that damned Yankee rifle that they load on Sunday and shoot all week!\\\"\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nDevelopment\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nAfter the war, Oliver Winchester renamed New Haven Arms the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The company modified and improved the basic design of the Henry rifle, creating the first Winchester rifle: the Model 1866. It retained the .44 Henry cartridge, was likewise built on a bronze-alloy frame, and had an improved magazine and a wooden forearm. In 1873 Winchester introduced the steel-framed Model 1873 chambering the more potent .44-40 centerfire cartridge. In 1876, in a bid to compete with the powerful single-shot rifles of the time, Winchester brought out the Model 1876 (Centennial Model). While it chambered more powerful cartridges than the 1866 and 1873 models, the toggle link action was not strong enough for the popular high-powered rounds used in Sharps or Remington single-shot rifles.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nFrom 1883, John Moses Browning worked in partnership with Winchester, designing a series of rifles and shotguns, most notably the lever-action Winchester Model 1886, Model 1892, Model 1894, and Model 1895 rifles, along with the lever-action Model 1887/1901 shotgun, the pump-action Model 1890 rifle, and the pump-action Model 1893/1897 shotgun.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester lever-action repeating rifles\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nModel 1866\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nThe first Winchester rifle – the Winchester Model 1866 – was originally chambered for the rimfire .44 Henry. Nicknamed the \\\"Yellow Boy\\\" because of its receiver of a bronze/brass alloy called gunmetal, it was famous for its rugged construction and lever-action \\\"repeating rifle\\\" mechanism that allowed the user to fire a number of shots before having to reload. Nelson King's improved patent remedied flaws in the Henry rifle by incorporating a loading gate on the side of the frame and integrating a round, sealed magazine which was covered by a forestock.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nFrance purchased 6,000 Model 1866 rifles along with 4.5 million .44 Henry cartridges during the Franco-Prussian War. The Ottoman Empire purchased 45,000 Model 1866 muskets and 5,000 carbines in 1870 and 1871. These rifles were used in the 1877 Russo-Turkish War, causing much surprise when outnumbered Turks at the Siege of Plevna inflicted many times more casualties than their opponents armed with single-shot Krnka and Berdan rifles. The Model 1866 compelled Russians to develop a new rifle, the Mosin–Nagant, after the war.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nThe Swiss Army initially selected the Model 1866 to replace their existing single-shot Milbank-Amsler rifles. However, ensuing political pressure to adopt a domestic design resulted in the Vetterli Model 1867, a bolt-action design utilizing a copy of the Winchester's tubular magazine, being adopted instead.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nModel 1873\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nThe Model 1873 was one of the most successful Winchester rifles of its day, gaining the reputation as \\\"The Gun that Won the West\\\". Still an icon in the modern day, it was manufactured between 1873 and 1919. Originally chambered for the .44-40 cartridge, it was later produced in .38-40 and .32-20, all of which were also popular handgun cartridges of the day, allowing users to carry just one type of ammunition. The Model 1873 was produced in three variations: a 24-inch barrel rifle, 20-inch barrel carbine, and a \\\"musket\\\" (a term that, at the time, denoted a full length military-style stock, not to be confused with a true smoothbore musket). The easy to transport and handle carbine was the most popular, while the musket accounted for less than 5–10 percent of total production.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nDue to feeding problems, the original Model 1873 was never offered in the military standard .45 Colt cartridge, although a number of modern reproductions are chambered for the round. The popularity of the original Model 1873 led Colt to manufacture a .44-40 version of the Single Action Army revolver called the \\\"Frontier Six Shooter\\\".\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nTo both celebrate and enhance the Model 1873's prestige, Winchester established a coveted One of One Thousand grade in 1875. Barrels producing unusually small groupings during test-firing were fitted to rifles with set triggers and a special finish. Marked One of One Thousand, they sold for a then princely $100. A popular 1950 Western starring Jimmy Stewart, \\\"Winchester '73\\\", was based on the coveted gun. Promotions included a search for One of One Thousand rifles by Universal Studios, with advertisements in sporting magazines and posters in sporting goods stores.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nA second grade of Model 1873 barrels producing above average accuracy were fitted to rifles marked One of One Hundred, and sold for $20 over list. Approximately 136 One of One Thousand Model 1873s were sold, and only eight One of One Hundreds.Lewis, Edmund One of One Hundred October 2005 American Rifleman pp. 96, 129 & 134\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nIn all, over 720,000 Model 1873s were produced. Long unavailable, the rifle returned to production under license from the Olin company in 2013, joining the Model 1892 and the Model 1894 being manufactured in Japan by the Miroku Corporation for FN/Browning. The new ten shot Model 1873 is only available with a 20\\\" round barrel chambered in .357 Magnum/.38 Special. Nearly faithful in design to the original, including the trigger disconnect safety, sliding dustcover, and a crescent-shaped buttplate. It incorporates two safety improvements: a firing pin block preventing it from moving forward unless the trigger is pulled, and a cartridge carrier modification to eject used casings away from the shooter.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nModel 1876\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nThe Winchester Model 1876, or Centennial Model, was a heavier-framed rifle than the Models 1866 and 1873, chambered for full-powered centerfire rifle cartridges suitable for big-game hunting, rather than the handgun-size rimfire and rimfire rounds of its predecessors. While similar in design to the 1873, the 1876 was actually based on a prototype 1868 lever-action rifle that was never commercially produced by Winchester.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nIntroduced to celebrate the American Centennial Exposition, the Model 1876 earned a reputation as a durable and powerful hunting rifle. Four versions were produced: a 22 in barrel Carbine, a 26 in barrel Express Rifle with a half-length magazine, a 28 in barrel Sporting Rifle, and a 32 in barrel Musket. Standard rifles had a blued finish while deluxe models were casehardened. Collectors identify a first model with no dust cover, a second model with a dust cover rail fastened by a screw, and a third model with an integral dust cover. Total production was 63,871 including 54 One of One Thousand Model 1876s and only seven of the One of One Hundred grade.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nOriginally chambered for the new .45-75 Winchester Centennial cartridge (designed to replicate the .45-70 ballistics in a shorter case), versions in .40-60 Winchester, .45-60 Winchester and .50-95 Express followed; the '76 in the latter chambering is the only repeater known to have been in widespread use by professional buffalo hunters. The Canadian North-West Mounted Police used the '76 in .45-75 as a standard long arm for many years with 750 rifles purchased for the force in 1883; the Mountie-model '76 carbine was also issued to the Texas Rangers. Theodore Roosevelt used an engraved, pistol-gripped half-magazine '76 during his early hunting expeditions in the West and praised it. A '76 was also found in the possession of Apache warrior Geronimo after his surrender in 1886.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nThe Model 1876 toggle-link action receiver was too short to handle popular big-game cartridges, including the .45-70, and production ceased in 1897, as big-game hunters preferred the smoother Model 1886 action chambered for longer and more powerful cartridges.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nModel 1886\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nThe Model 1886 continued the trend towards chambering heavier rounds, and had an all-new and considerably stronger locking-block action than the toggle-link Model 1876. It was designed by John Moses Browning, who had a long and profitable relationship with Winchester from the 1880s to the early 1900s. William Mason made some improvements to Browning's original design. In many respects the Model 1886 was a true American express rifle, as it could be chambered in the more powerful black powder cartridges of the day, such as the .45-70 Government, long a Winchester goal. The 1886 proved capable of handling not only the .45 Gov't but also .45-90 and the huge .50-110 Express \\\"buffalo\\\" cartridges, and in 1903 was chambered for the smokeless high-velocity .33 WCF. In 1935, Winchester introduced a slightly modified M1886 as the Model 71, chambered for the more powerful .348 Winchester cartridge.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nModel 1892\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester returned to its roots with the Model 1892, which, like the first lever-action guns, was primarily chambered for shorter, lower-pressure handgun rounds. The Model 1892 incorporates a much stronger Browning action (based on the larger M1886) than the earlier Henry-derived arms of the 1860s and 1870s. 1,004,675 Model 1892 rifles were made by Winchester, and although the company phased them out in the 1930s, replicas are still being made by the Brazilian arms maker, Rossi, and by Chiappa Firearms, an Italian factory. In its modern form, using updated materials and production techniques, the Model 1892's action is strong enough to chamber high pressure handgun rounds, such as .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .454 Casull. The Winchester '92 was commonly used in Hollywood Western movies and TV shows as a substitute for the Winchester '66 and '73 models because of its similar appearance, while being cheaper and easier to acquire.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nModel 1894\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nThe John Browning-designed Winchester Model 1894 is the most prevalent of the Winchester repeating rifles. The Model 1894 was first chambered for the .32-40 cartridge, and later, a variety of calibers such as .25-35 WCF, .30-30, .32 Winchester Special, the .38-55 Winchester. Winchester was the first company to manufacture a civilian rifle chambered for the new smokeless propellants, and although delays prevented the .30-30 cartridge from appearing on the shelves until 1895, it remained the first commercially available smokeless powder round for the North American consumer market. Though initially it was too expensive for most shooters, the Model 1894 went on to become one of the best-selling hunting rifles of all time—it has the distinction of being the first sporting rifle to sell over one million units, ultimately selling over seven million before U.S.-production was discontinued in 2006. The Winchester .30-30 configuration is practically synonymous with \\\"deer rifle\\\" in the United States. In the early 20th century, the rifles designation was abbreviated to \\\"Model 94\\\", as was done with all older Winchester designs still in production (for example, Model 97, Model 12, etc.).\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nModel 1895\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nThe Winchester Model 1895 has the distinction of being the first Winchester lever-action rifle to load from a box magazine instead of a tube under the barrel. This allowed the Model 1895 to be chambered for military cartridges with spitzer (pointed) projectiles, and the rifle was used by the armed forces of a number of nations including the United States, Great Britain, and Imperial Russia. The Russian production models could also be loaded using charger clips, a feature not found on any other lever-action rifle. Calibers included .30-40 Krag (.30 US or .30 Army), .303 British, .30-03 Springfield, .30-06 Springfield, 7.62×54mmR, and .405 Winchester. Theodore Roosevelt used a Model 1895 in .405 on African safaris and called it his \\\"medicine gun\\\" for lions. In 1908 the 1895 Winchester became the first commercially produced sporting rifle chambered in .30-06 (then called \\\".30 Gov't 06\\\").\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nModel 88\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nIntroduced in 1955, 60 years after Winchester's last all-new lever-action design, the Model 88 was unlike any previous design. A short-throw lever operated a three-lug rotating bolt and rounds were fed vertically from a detachable box magazine. These bolt-action features in a lever-action permitted the use of high-powered modern short-case cartridges with spitzer bullets: .243 Winchester, .284 Winchester, .308 Winchester and .358 Winchester. The Model 88 was discontinued in 1973 and is the third best-selling lever-action rifle in Winchester's history, following only the M1894 and M1892. The later Sako Finnwolf and Browning BLR have similar actions.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nModel 9422\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester's Model 9422 was introduced in 1972. It was designed to capture the image of the traditional lever-actions with exposed hammer, straight grip, tube magazine and barrel bands. Unlike older Winchester lever actions it came grooved for scope mounting. It was offered in .22 Long Rifle and .22 WMR, and was priced at the high end of the .22 LR sporting rifle market.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nThe 9422 action design was original and extremely reliable. The feed system handled the cartridge from the magazine to the breech face by its rim, and the slide cammed the rear of the breechblock up into the locking recess. A concealed polymer buffer above the breech gave a firm-feeling lockup and a very positive unlocking motion.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nThe 9422 had worldwide appeal to customers raised on Western fiction and to parents looking for a way to introduce their children to shooting. Over the course of production a higher-finished model called the 9422 XTR, a .17 rimfire model, and several commemorative models were offered. Production ended in 2005.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester Model 1885 single-shot rifle\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nIn 1885, Winchester entered the single-shot market with the Model 1885 rifle, which John Browning had designed in 1878. The Winchester Single Shot, known to most shooters as either the \\\"Low-wall\\\" or \\\"High-wall\\\" depending on model, was produced to satisfy the demands of the growing sport of \\\"Match Shooting\\\", excelling at it, with Major Ned H. Roberts (inventor of the .257 Roberts cartridge) describing the Model 1885 Single Shot as \\\"the most reliable, strongest, and altogether best single shot rifle ever produced.\\\" Winchester produced nearly 140,000 Single Shot rifles from 1885 to 1920, and it was found that the falling-block Model 1885 had been built with one of the strongest actions known at that time. Winchester also produced a large number of Single Shots in .22 caliber rimfire for the US Army as a marksmanship training rifle, the \\\"Winder musket.\\\"\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester bolt-action rifles\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester lever-action rifles remained the most popular in the US through WWI and the interwar period. However, advances in the development of bolt-action rifles made them increasingly preferred over lever actions. These new rifles, such as Mauser's Gewehr 98 and the US M1903 Springfield, featured box magazines that could chamber pointed \\\"Spitzer\\\" bullets, which lever-action rifles with tubular magazines could not use for safety reasons (a pointed bullet can accidentally fire the round in front of it in a tubular magazine). The most influential bolt-action designs, as developed by Mauser and other military manufacturers, had front-locking lugs, which both stabilized the cartridge head and strengthened the action. This allowed for ammunition to reach unprecedented velocities, increasing long-range accuracy while not compromising operator safety. The bolt action was also simpler and cheaper to manufacture than high-powered lever-action guns like Winchester's 1886 and 1895 models, making them extremely competitive in the marketplace.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nIn response to the increasing competition from these bolt-action rifles, Winchester introduced the Winchester Model 54 in 1925. This was not Winchester's first bolt rifle (that being the Winchester-Hotchkiss rifle of 1878), but it was by-far their most successful to date. It was based indirectly on the Mauser Gewehr 98 design, but with modifications and popular North American chamberings such as the widely available .30-06 Springfield, which made it more appealing to American hunters than the European imports or sporterised military rifles. The Model 70 was developed from the Model 54, which it replaced in 1936. The Model 70, often dubbed the \\\"rifleman's rifle\\\", was produced continuously at New Haven (except during WWII) until 2006. Production was subsequently resumed at FN Herstal's plant in Columbia, South Carolina. In 2013, assembly was moved to Portugal.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nIn 1920 Winchester introduced the Model 52 .22 bolt-action target rifle, which from its inception and for years thereafter was America's reference standard smallbore match rifle. A sporter model of this action was also made from 1934–59. Starting in 1900, Winchester also manufactured inexpensive single-shot .22 bolt-action \\\"boy's rifles\\\", including the models 1900, 1902, 1904 and Thumb Trigger (99), and mid-range .22 bolt action repeaters including the Models 69, 72 and 75.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester semi-automatic rifles\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester Models 1903 and 63\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nThe Winchester Model 1903 was the first commercially available semi-automatic .22 rimfire caliber in the United States. Designed by T.C. Johnson, the Model 1903 was chambered for the unique .22 Winchester Automatic cartridge. In 1919, the Model 1903 moniker was shortened to Model 03, and following a partial redesign in the 1930s, was renamed the Model 63. The Model 63, introduced in 1933, was chambered for the popular and widely available .22 Long Rifle cartridge. It was initially made with a 20-inch barrel, then with a 23-inch barrel from 1936 until the end of production in 1958. About 175,000 Model 63 rifles were manufactured, with the last 10,000 having grooved receiver tops for scope mounting. Both the 1903/03 and the 63 have tubular magazines in the butt stock of the rifle and are loaded through a slot in the right side of the butt stock.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester Models 1905, 1907, and 1910\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nThe early center fire Winchester self-loading series of rifles began with the Model 1905, chambered for the .32SL and .35SL cartridges. Following a demand for a higher-powered self-loading rifle, the Models 1907 and 1910 were introduced along with their respective cartridges, the .351SL and .401SL.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester repeating shotguns\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester Model 1887/1901\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nThe Winchester Model 1887 was the first successful repeating shotgun design, developed by John Browning and produced by Winchester from 1887–1920. Browning felt that a pump-action would be much more appropriate for a repeating shotgun, but as Winchester was primarily a lever-action firearms company they felt that their new shotgun must also be a lever-action for reasons of brand recognition. The M1887 was chambered for 12-gauge black powder shotshells, and after the switch to smokeless powder at the end of the 19th Century, the M1901 was introduced, being chambered for 10-gauge smokeless shells. Although a technically sound gun design, the market for lever-action shotguns waned considerably after the introduction of the Winchester 1897 and other contemporary pump-action shotguns. Modern reproductions of the gun have been manufactured by Norinco in China, ADI Ltd. in Australia and Chiappa Firearms in Italy. Reproductions have sold particularly well in Australia on account of the National Firearms Agreement ban on pump-action and self-loading shotguns.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester Model 1893/1897\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nAnother Browning design, the Winchester Model 1893 was the first successful pump-action shotgun design; as strengthened in 1897 for smokeless-propellant shells, it remained in production until the mid-1950s. Unusual for a repeating shotgun, the Model 1897 could be taken apart for easier carriage/storage, and was available in a variety of barrel lengths from 20 to 36 inches. During World War I it was issued as a trench gun, with short barrel, heat shield and bayonet.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester Model 1911\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester's long association with John Browning came to an end when the company refused to accept Browning's terms for the right to manufacture his revolutionary 1898 design for a self-loading shotgun; the landmark Browning Auto-5 was produced instead by Fabrique Nationale in Europe and later by Remington Arms in the US. However, Browning's semi-automatic patents had been so tightly drafted by Winchester's own lawyers that it took years for T. C. Johnson to develop a self-loading shotgun which didn't infringe them, resulting in the Model 1911 SL. The 1911 was a flawed and potentially dangerous design, and was not commercially successful; as a result, production ceased in 1925.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nWinchester Model 1912\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nDesigned by T.C. Johnson as an internal-hammer modification of the Model 1897, the Model 1912 (later re dubbed the Model 12) was one of the most successful pump shotguns ever made, with nearly 2 million produced before its cancellation in 1963. Like the Model 1897 it came in take-down form, and likewise was issued in trench gun and combat versions during both World Wars, Korea and Vietnam. The Model 12 was popular with the military, law enforcement, hunters, and sporting clay competitors, the latter regarding it as having superior balance and \\\"point\\\" among pump-actions.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\n1964 changes\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nIn the mid-to late 1950s, a management change at Winchester led to an extensive and extremely controversial redesign of their firearms in 1964. This is regarded by many as the year the \\\"real\\\" Winchester ceased to be, and consequently \\\"pre-'64\\\" rifles command higher prices than those made afterwards. Winchester itself went on to have a troubled future as competition from both the US and abroad began to decrease its sales. Although in the 1970s the company attempted to recover its reputation by bringing out the well-received Super-X Model 1 semiautomatic shotgun, produced along pre-1964 lines, the cost of manufacture again proved unsustainable. In 1980, the company was split into parts and sold off. The name \\\"Winchester\\\" remained with the ammunition making side of the company, and this branch continues to be profitable. The arms making side and New Haven facilities went to U.S. Repeating Arms, which struggled to keep the company going under a variety of owners and management teams. It finally announced plans to close the New Haven facility, the producers of the Model 94, in 2006.\",\n \"Winchester rifle\\n\\nOn August 15 of 2006, Olin Corporation, the owner of the Winchester trademarks, announced that it had gone into a new license agreement with Browning to make Winchester brand rifles and shotguns, but not at the closed Winchester plant in New Haven. Browning, based in Morgan, Utah, and the former licensee, U.S. Repeating Arms Company, are both subsidiaries of FN Herstal. Then, in 2008, FN Herstal announced plans to produce Model 70 rifles at its plant in Columbia, SC. In 2013, the assembly was moved to Portugal.\"\n]","isConversational":false}}},{"rowIdx":138296,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"qg_4470"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"What New Orleans Jazz Legend was commonly known as Satchmo, short for Satchelmouth?"},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Louis Armstrong"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":["armstrong louis 22satchmo 22","louis 22satchmo 22 armstrong","armstrong louis","armstrong louis pops","louis armstrong","louis pops armstrong","sachimo","luois armstrong","louis 22pops 22 armstrong","louis satchmo armstrong","louis “satchmo” armstrong","louie armstrong","daniel louis armstrong","armstrong louis 22pops 22","louis daniel armstrong","satchelmouth musician","louis armstong","louis armstrong discography","louis amstrong","louis armstrong and his orchestra","sachmo","armstrong louis satchmo","satchmo"],"string":"[\n \"armstrong louis 22satchmo 22\",\n \"louis 22satchmo 22 armstrong\",\n \"armstrong louis\",\n \"armstrong louis pops\",\n \"louis armstrong\",\n \"louis pops armstrong\",\n \"sachimo\",\n \"luois armstrong\",\n \"louis 22pops 22 armstrong\",\n \"louis satchmo armstrong\",\n \"louis “satchmo” armstrong\",\n \"louie armstrong\",\n \"daniel louis armstrong\",\n \"armstrong louis 22pops 22\",\n \"louis daniel armstrong\",\n \"satchelmouth musician\",\n \"louis armstong\",\n \"louis armstrong discography\",\n \"louis amstrong\",\n \"louis armstrong and his orchestra\",\n \"sachmo\",\n \"armstrong louis satchmo\",\n \"satchmo\"\n]","isConversational":false},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans (, ,, or; ) is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. The New Orleans metropolitan area (New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area) had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a larger trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502.","New Orleans\n\nThe city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and strongly influenced by their European culture. It is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage.Cultures well represented in New Orleans' history include French, Native American, African, Spanish, Cajun, German, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Latino, and Vietnamese. New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music (particularly as the birthplace of jazz), and its annual celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras, dating to French colonial times. The city is often referred to as the \"most unique\"The term \"most unique\" is grammatically incorrect, as the word \"unique\" is a superlative. See for example:Merriam-Webster Dictionary of American Usage, Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1994.Fowler, Henry, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA, 2003.Nicholson, Margaret, A Dictionary of American English Usage, New York: Oxford University Press, 1957. in the United States.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana, straddling the Mississippi River. The city and Orleans Parish () are coterminous. The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St. Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south, and Jefferson to the south and west. Lake Pontchartrain, part of which is included in the city limits, lies to the north and Lake Borgne lies to the east.","New Orleans\n\nBefore Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish was the most populous parish in Louisiana. It now ranks third in population, trailing neighboring Jefferson Parish, and East Baton Rouge Parish.","New Orleans\n\nHistory","New Orleans\n\nBeginnings through the 19th century","New Orleans\n\nLa Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans) was founded May 7, 1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time. His title came from the French city of Orléans.","New Orleans\n\nThe French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris (1763). During the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez successfully launched a southern campaign against the British from the city in 1779. New Orleans () remained under Spanish control until 1803, when it reverted briefly to French oversight. Nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré (French Quarter) dates from the Spanish period, the most notable exception being the Old Ursuline Convent.","New Orleans\n\nNapoleon sold Louisiana (New France) to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Creoles, and Africans. Later immigrants were Irish, Germans, and Italians. Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city.","New Orleans\n\nThe Haitian Revolution ended in 1804 and established the second republic in the Western Hemisphere and the first republic led by Black people. It had occurred over several years in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue. Thousands of refugees from the revolution, both whites and free people of color (affranchis or gens de couleur libres), arrived in New Orleans, often bringing African slaves with them. While Governor Claiborne and other officials wanted to keep out additional free Black men, the French Creoles wanted to increase the French-speaking population. As more refugees were allowed in Louisiana, Haitian émigrés who had first gone to Cuba also arrived. Many of the white Francophones had been deported by officials in Cuba in retaliation for Bonapartist schemes in Spain.","New Orleans\n\nNearly 90 percent of these immigrants settled in New Orleans. The 1809 migration brought 2,731 whites; 3,102 free persons of African descent; and 3,226 enslaved persons of African descent, doubling the city's population. The city became 63 percent black in population, a greater proportion than Charleston, South Carolina's 53 percent.","New Orleans\n\nDuring the final campaign of the War of 1812, the British sent a force of 11,000 soldiers, marines, and sailors, in an attempt to capture New Orleans. Despite great challenges, General Andrew Jackson, with support from the U.S. Navy on the river, successfully cobbled together a motley military force of: militia from Louisiana and Mississippi, including free men of color, U.S. Army regulars, a large contingent of Tennessee state militia, Kentucky riflemen, Choctaw fighters, and local privateers (the latter led by the pirate Jean Lafitte), to decisively defeat the British troops, led by Sir Edward Pakenham, in the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815. The armies had not learned of the Treaty of Ghent which had been signed on December 24, 1814 however the treaty did not call for cessation of hostilities until after both governments had ratified the treaty and the US government did not ratify it until February 16, 1815. The fighting in Louisiana had begun in December 1814 and did not end until late January, after the Americans held off the British Navy during a ten-day siege of Fort St. Philip.","New Orleans\n\n(The Royal Navy went on to capture Fort Bowyer near Mobile, before the commanders received news of the peace treaty.)","New Orleans\n\nAs a principal port, New Orleans played a major role during the antebellum era in the Atlantic slave trade. Its port also handled huge quantities of commodities for export from the interior and imported goods from other countries, which were warehoused and transferred in New Orleans to smaller vessels and distributed the length and breadth of the vast Mississippi River watershed. The river in front of the city was filled with steamboats, flatboats, and sailing ships. Despite its role in the slave trade, New Orleans at the same time had the largest and most prosperous community of free persons of color in the nation, who were often educated and middle-class property owners.","New Orleans\n\nDwarfing in population the other cities in the antebellum South, New Orleans had the largest slave market in the domestic slave trade, which expanded after the United States' ending of the international trade in 1808. Two-thirds of the more than one million slaves brought to the Deep South arrived via the forced migration of the domestic slave trade. The money generated by the sale of slaves in the Upper South has been estimated at 15 percent of the value of the staple crop economy. The slaves represented half a billion dollars in property. An ancillary economy grew up around the trade in slaves—for transportation, housing and clothing, fees, etc., estimated at 13.5 percent of the price per person. All of this amounted to tens of billions of dollars (2005 dollars, adjusted for inflation) during the antebellum period, with New Orleans as a prime beneficiary.","New Orleans\n\nAccording to the historian Paul Lachance,","New Orleans\n\nAfter the Louisiana Purchase, numerous Anglo-Americans migrated to the city. The population of the city doubled in the 1830s and by 1840, New Orleans had become the wealthiest and the third-most populous city in the nation. Large numbers of German and Irish immigrants began arriving in the 1840s, working as laborers in the busy port. In this period, the state legislature passed more restrictions on manumissions of slaves, and virtually ended it in 1852.","New Orleans\n\nIn the 1850s, white Francophones remained an intact and vibrant community; they maintained instruction in French in two of the city's four school districts (all were white).Gitlin, The Bourgeois Frontier, p. 166 In 1860, the city had 13,000 free people of color (gens de couleur libres), the class of free, mostly mixed-race people that developed during French and Spanish rule. The census recorded 81 percent as mulatto, a term used to cover all degrees of mixed race. Mostly part of the Francophone group, they constituted the artisan, educated and professional class of African Americans. Most blacks were still enslaved, working at the port, in domestic service, in crafts, and mostly on the many large, surrounding sugar cane plantations.","New Orleans\n\nAfter growing by 45 percent in the 1850s, by 1860, the city had nearly 170,000 people The city was a destination for immigrants. It had grown in wealth, with a \"per capita income [that] was second in the nation and the highest in the South.\" The city had a role as the \"primary commercial gateway for the nation's booming mid-section.\" The port was the third largest in the nation in terms of tonnage of imported goods, after Boston and New York, handling 659,000 tons in 1859.","New Orleans\n\nAs the French Creole elite feared, during the Civil War their world changed. In 1862, following the occupation by the Navy after the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, Northern forces under Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, a respected state lawyer of the Massachusetts militia, occupied the City. Later New Orleans residents nicknamed him as \"Beast\" Butler, because of a military order he issued. After his troops had been assaulted and harassed in the streets by Southern women, his order warned that future such occurrences would result in his men treating such \"ladies\" as those \"plying their avocation in the streets,\" implying that they would treat the women like prostitutes. Accounts of this spread like wildfire across the South and the North. He also came to be called \"Spoons\" Butler because of the alleged looting that his troops did while occupying New Orleans.","New Orleans\n\nButler abolished French language instruction in city schools; statewide measures in 1864 and, after the war, 1868 further strengthened English-only policy imposed by federal representatives. With the predominance of English speakers in the city and state, that language had already become dominant in business and government. By the end of the 19th century, French usage in the city had faded significantly; it was also under pressure from new immigrants: English speakers such as the Irish, and other Europeans, such as the Italians and Germans. However, as late as 1902 \"one-fourth of the population of the city spoke French in ordinary daily intercourse, while another two-fourths was able to understand the language perfectly,\" and as late as 1945, one still encountered elderly Creole women who spoke no English. The last major French language newspaper in New Orleans, L'Abeille de la Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans Bee), ceased publication on December 27, 1923, after ninety-six years. According to some sources, Le Courrier de la Nouvelle Orleans continued until 1955.","New Orleans\n\nAs the city was captured and occupied early in the war, it was spared the destruction through warfare suffered by many other cities of the American South. The Union Army eventually extended its control north along the Mississippi River and along the coastal areas of the State. As a result, most of the southern portion of Louisiana was originally exempted from the liberating provisions of the 1863 \"Emancipation Proclamation\" issued by President Abraham Lincoln.\nLarge numbers of rural ex-slaves and some free people of color from the City volunteered for the first regiments of Black troops in the War. Led by Brig. Gen. Daniel Ullman (1810-1892), of the 78th Regiment of New York State Volunteers Militia, they were known as the \"Corps d'Afrique.\" While that name had been used by a militia before the war, that group was composed of free people of color. The new group was made up mostly of former slaves. They were supplemented in the last two years of the War by newly organized United States Colored Troops, who played an increasingly important part in the war.","New Orleans\n\nViolence throughout the South, especially the Memphis Riots of 1866 followed by the New Orleans Riot in July of that year, resulted in Congress passing the Reconstruction Act and the Fourteenth Amendment, to extend the protections of full citizenship to freedmen and free people of color. Louisiana and Texas were put under the authority of the \"Fifth Military District\" of the United States during Reconstruction. Louisiana was eventually readmitted to the Union in 1868; its Constitution of 1868 granted universal manhood suffrage and established universal public education. Both blacks and whites were elected to local and state offices. In 1872, lieutenant governor P.B.S. Pinchback, who was of mixed race, succeeded Henry Clay Warmouth for a brief period as Republican governor of Louisiana, becoming the first governor of African descent of an American state. The next African American to serve as governor was Douglas Wilder, elected in Virginia in 1989. For a time, New Orleans operated a racially integrated public school system.","New Orleans\n\nWartime damage to levees and cities along the Mississippi River adversely affected southern crops and trade for the port city for some time. The federal government contributed to restoring infrastructure, but it took time. The nationwide financial recession and Panic of 1873 also adversely affected businesses and slowed economic recovery.","New Orleans\n\nFrom 1868, elections in Louisiana were marked by violence, as white insurgents tried to suppress black voting and disrupt Republican gatherings. Violence continued around elections. The disputed 1872 gubernatorial election resulted in conflicts that ran for years. The \"White League\", an insurgent paramilitary group that supported the Democratic Party, was organized in 1874 and operated in the open, violently suppressing the black vote and running off Republican officeholders. In 1874, in the Battle of Liberty Place, 5,000 members of the White League fought with city police to take over the state offices for the Democratic candidate for governor, holding them for three days. By 1876, such tactics resulted in the white Democrats, the so-called Redeemers, regaining political control of the state legislature. The federal government gave up and withdrew its troops in 1877, ending Reconstruction.","New Orleans\n\nWhite Democrats passed Jim Crow laws, establishing racial segregation in public facilities. In 1889, the legislature passed a constitutional amendment incorporating a \"grandfather clause\" that effectively disfranchised freedmen as well as the propertied people of color free before the war. Unable to vote, African Americans could not serve on juries or in local office, and were closed out of formal politics for several generations in the state. It was ruled by a white Democratic Party. Public schools were racially segregated and remained so until 1960.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans' large community of well-educated, often French-speaking free persons of color (gens de couleur libres), who had been free prior to the Civil War, sought to fight back against Jim Crow. They organized the Comité des Citoyens (Citizens Committee) to work for civil rights. As part of their legal campaign, they recruited one of their own, Homer Plessy, to test whether Louisiana's newly enacted Separate Car Act was constitutional. Plessy boarded a commuter train departing New Orleans for Covington, Louisiana, sat in the car reserved for whites only, and was arrested. The case resulting from this incident, Plessy v. Ferguson, was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896. The court ruled that \"separate but equal\" accommodations were constitutional, effectively upholding Jim Crow measures. In practice, African-American public schools and facilities were underfunded in Louisiana and across the South. The Supreme Court ruling contributed to this period as the nadir of race relations in the United States. The rate of lynchings of black men was high across the South, as other states also disfranchised blacks and sought to impose Jim Crow to establish white supremacy.","New Orleans\n\nThroughout New Orleans' history, until the early 20th century when medical and scientific advances ameliorated the situation, the city suffered repeated epidemics of yellow fever and other tropical and infectious diseases.","New Orleans\n\n20th century","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans' zenith as an economic and population center, in relation to other American cities, occurred in the decades prior to 1860. At this time New Orleans was the nation's fifth-largest city and was significantly larger than all other American South population centers. New Orleans continued to increase in population from the mid-19th century onward, but rapid economic growth shifted to other areas of the country, meaning that New Orleans' relative importance steadily declined. First to emerge in importance were the new industrial and railroad hubs of the Midwest, then the rapidly growing metropolises of the Pacific Coast in the decades before and after the turn of the 20th century. Construction of railways and highways decreased river traffic, diverting goods to other transportation corridors and markets. Thousands of the most ambitious blacks left New Orleans and the state in the Great Migration around World War II and after, many for West Coast destinations. In the post-war period, other Sun Belt cities in the South and West surpassed New Orleans in population.","New Orleans\n\nFrom the late 1800s, most U.S. censuses recorded New Orleans' slipping rank among American cities. Reminded every ten years of its declining relative importance, New Orleans would periodically mount attempts to regain its economic vigor and pre-eminence, with varying degrees of success.","New Orleans\n\nBy the mid-20th century, New Orleanians recognized that their city was being surpassed as the leading urban area in the South. By 1950, Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta exceeded New Orleans in size, and in 1960 Miami eclipsed New Orleans, even as the latter's population reached what would be its historic peak that year. As with other older American cities in the postwar period, highway construction and suburban development drew residents from the center city to newer housing outside. The 1970 census recorded the first absolute decline in the city's population since it joined the United States. The New Orleans metropolitan area continued expanding in population, however, just not as rapidly as other major cities in the Sun Belt. While the port remained one of the largest in the nation, automation and containerization resulted in significant job losses. The city's relative fall in stature meant that its former role as banker to the South was inexorably supplanted by competing companies in larger peer cities. New Orleans' economy had always been based more on trade and financial services than on manufacturing, but the city's relatively small manufacturing sector also shrank in the post–World War II period.","New Orleans\n\nDespite some economic development successes under the administrations of DeLesseps \"Chep\" Morrison (1946–1961) and Victor \"Vic\" Schiro (1961–1970), metropolitan New Orleans' growth rate consistently lagged behind more vigorous cities.","New Orleans\n\nCivil Rights Movement","New Orleans\n\nDuring the later years of Morrison's administration, and for the entirety of Schiro's, the city was a center of the Civil Rights Movement. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was founded in the city, lunch counter sit-ins were held in Canal Street stores, and a prominent and violent series of confrontations occurred in 1960 when the city attempted school desegregation, following the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). When six-year-old Ruby Bridges integrated William Frantz Elementary School in the city's Ninth Ward, she was the first child of color to attend a previously all-white school in the South. The Civil Rights Movement's success in gaining federal passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 provided enforcement of constitutional rights, including voting for blacks. Together, these resulted in the most far-reaching changes in New Orleans' 20th century history.","New Orleans\n\nThough legal and civil equality were re-established by the end of the 1960s, a large gap in income levels and educational attainment persisted between the city's White and African-American communities. As the middle class and wealthier members of both races left the center city, its population's income level dropped, and it became proportionately more African American. From 1980, the African-American majority has elected officials from its own community. They have struggled to narrow the gap by creating conditions conducive to the economic uplift of the African-American community.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans became increasingly dependent on tourism as an economic mainstay by the administrations of Sidney Barthelemy (1986–1994) and Marc Morial (1994–2002). Relatively low levels of educational attainment, high rates of household poverty, and rising crime threatened the prosperity of the city in the later decades of the century. The negative effects of these socioeconomic conditions contrasted with the changes to the economy of the United States, which were based on a post-industrial, knowledge-based paradigm in which mental skills and education were far more important to advancement than manual skills.","New Orleans\n\nDrainage and flood control","New Orleans\n\nIn the 20th century, New Orleans' government and business leaders believed they needed to drain and develop outlying areas to provide for the city's expansion. The most ambitious development during this period was a drainage plan devised by engineer and inventor A. Baldwin Wood, designed to break the surrounding swamp's stranglehold on the city's geographic expansion. Until then, urban development in New Orleans was largely limited to higher ground along the natural river levees and bayous. Wood's pump system allowed the city to drain huge tracts of swamp and marshland and expand into low-lying areas. Over the 20th century, rapid subsidence, both natural and human-induced, resulted in these newly populated areas declining to several feet below sea level.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans was vulnerable to flooding even before the city's footprint departed from the natural high ground near the Mississippi River. In the late 20th century, however, scientists and New Orleans residents gradually became aware of the city's increased vulnerability. In 1965, flooding from Hurricane Betsy killed dozens of residents, although the majority of the city remained dry. The rain-induced flood of May 8, 1995, demonstrated the weakness of the pumping system. After that event, measures were undertaken to dramatically upgrade pumping capacity. By the 1980s and 1990s, scientists observed that extensive, rapid, and ongoing erosion of the marshlands and swamp surrounding New Orleans, especially that related to the Mississippi River – Gulf Outlet Canal, had the unintended result of leaving the city more exposed to hurricane-induced catastrophic storm surges than earlier in its history.","New Orleans\n\n21st century","New Orleans\n\nHurricane Katrina","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans was catastrophically affected by what the University of California Berkeley's Dr. Raymond B. Seed called \"the worst engineering disaster in the world since Chernobyl,\" when the Federal levee system failed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. By the time the hurricane approached the city at the end of August 2005, most residents had evacuated. As the hurricane passed through the Gulf Coast region, the city's federal flood protection system failed, resulting in the worst civil engineering disaster in American history. Floodwalls and levees constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers failed below design specifications and 80% of the city flooded. Tens of thousands of residents who had remained in the city were rescued or otherwise made their way to shelters of last resort at the Louisiana Superdome or the New Orleans Morial Convention Center. More than 1,500 people were recorded as having died in Louisiana, most in New Orleans, and others are still unaccounted for. Before Hurricane Katrina, the city called for the first mandatory evacuation in its history, to be followed by another mandatory evacuation three years later with Hurricane Gustav.","New Orleans\n\nHurricane Rita","New Orleans\n\nThe city was declared off-limits to residents while efforts to clean up after Hurricane Katrina began. The approach of Hurricane Rita in September 2005 caused repopulation efforts to be postponed, and the Lower Ninth Ward was reflooded by Rita's storm surge.","New Orleans\n\nPost-disaster recovery","New Orleans\n\nBecause of the scale of damage, many people settled permanently outside the city in other areas where they had evacuated, as in Houston. Federal, state, and local efforts have been directed at recovery and rebuilding in severely damaged neighborhoods. The Census Bureau in July 2006 estimated the population of New Orleans to be 223,000; a subsequent study estimated that 32,000 additional residents had moved to the city as of March 2007, bringing the estimated population to 255,000, approximately 56% of the pre-Katrina population level. Another estimate, based on data on utility usage from July 2007, estimated the population to be approximately 274,000 or 60% of the pre-Katrina population. These estimates are somewhat smaller than a third estimate, based on mail delivery records, from the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center in June 2007, which indicated that the city had regained approximately two-thirds of its pre-Katrina population. In 2008, the Census Bureau revised its population estimate for the city upward, to 336,644. Most recently, 2010 estimates show that neighborhoods that did not flood are near 100% of their pre-Katrina populations, and in some cases, exceed 100% of their pre-Katrina populations.","New Orleans\n\nSeveral major tourist events and other forms of revenue for the city have returned. Large conventions are being held again, such as those held by the American Library Association and American College of Cardiology. College football events such as the Bayou Classic, New Orleans Bowl, and Sugar Bowl returned for the 2006–2007 season. The New Orleans Saints returned that season as well, following speculation of a move. The New Orleans Hornets (now named the Pelicans) returned to the city fully for the 2007–2008 season, having partially spent the 2006–2007 season in Oklahoma City. New Orleans successfully hosted the 2008 NBA All-Star Game and the 2008 BCS National Championship Game. The city hosted the first and second rounds of the 2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. New Orleans and Tulane University hosted the Final Four Championship in 2012. Additionally, the city hosted the Super Bowl XLVII on February 3, 2013 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.","New Orleans\n\nMajor annual events such as Mardi Gras and the Jazz & Heritage Festival were never displaced or canceled. Also, an entirely new annual festival, \"The Running of the Bulls New Orleans\", was created in 2007.","New Orleans\n\nGeography","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans is located at (29.964722, −90.070556) on the banks of the Mississippi River, approximately 105 mi upriver from the Gulf of Mexico. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 350 sqmi, of which 169 sqmi is land and 181 sqmi (52%) is water. Orleans Parish is the smallest parish by land area in Louisiana.","New Orleans\n\nThe city is located in the Mississippi River Delta on the east and west banks of the Mississippi River and south of Lake Pontchartrain. The area along the river is characterized by ridges and hollows.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans was originally settled on the natural levees or high ground, along the Mississippi River. After the Flood Control Act of 1965, the US Army Corps of Engineers built floodwalls and man-made levees around a much larger geographic footprint that included previous marshland and swamp. Whether or not this human interference has caused subsidence is a topic of debate. A study by an associate professor at Tulane University claims:","New Orleans\n\nOn the other hand, a report by the American Society of Civil Engineers claims that \"New Orleans is subsiding (sinking)\":","New Orleans\n\nIn May 2016, NASA published a study that details the sinking rate of New Orleans.","New Orleans\n\nA recent study by Tulane and Xavier University notes that 51% of New Orleans is at or above sea level, with the more densely populated areas generally on higher ground. The average elevation of the city is currently between one and two feet (0.5 m) below sea level, with some portions of the city as high as 20 ft at the base of the river levee in Uptown and others as low as 7 ft below sea level in the farthest reaches of Eastern New Orleans.","New Orleans\n\nIn 2005, storm surge from Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic failure of the federally designed and built levees, flooding 80% of the city. A report by the American Society of Civil Engineers says that \"had the levees and floodwalls not failed and had the pump stations operated, nearly two-thirds of the deaths would not have occurred\".","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans has always had to consider the risk of hurricanes, but the risks are dramatically greater today due to coastal erosion from human interference. Since the beginning of the 20th century, it has been estimated that Louisiana has lost 2000 sqmi of coast (including many of its barrier islands), which once protected New Orleans against storm surge. Following Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers has instituted massive levee repair and hurricane protection measures to protect the city.","New Orleans\n\nIn 2006, Louisiana voters overwhelmingly adopted an amendment to the state's constitution to dedicate all revenues from off-shore drilling to restore Louisiana's eroding coast line. Congress has allocated $7 billion to bolster New Orleans' flood protection.","New Orleans\n\nAccording to a study by the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council, levees and floodwalls surrounding New Orleans—no matter how large or sturdy—cannot provide absolute protection against overtopping or failure in extreme events. Levees and floodwalls should be viewed as a way to reduce risks from hurricanes and storm surges, not as measures that completely eliminate risk. For structures in hazardous areas and residents who do not relocate, the committee recommended major floodproofing measures—such as elevating the first floor of buildings to at least the 100-year flood level.","New Orleans\n\nCityscape","New Orleans\n\nThe Central Business District of New Orleans is located immediately north and west of the Mississippi River, and was historically called the \"American Quarter\" or \"American Sector.\" It was developed after the heart of French and Spanish settlement. It includes Lafayette Square. Most streets in this area fan out from a central point in the city. Major streets of the area include Canal Street, Poydras Street, Tulane Avenue and Loyola Avenue. Canal Street functions as the street which divides the traditional \"downtown\" area from the \"uptown\" area.","New Orleans\n\nEvery street crossing Canal Street between the Mississippi River and Rampart Street, which is the northern edge of the French Quarter, has a different name for the \"uptown\" and \"downtown\" portions. For example, St. Charles Avenue, known for its street car line, is called Royal Street below Canal Street, though where it traverses the Central Business District between Canal and Lee Circle, it is properly called St. Charles Street. Elsewhere in the city, Canal Street serves as the dividing point between the \"South\" and \"North\" portions of various streets. In the local parlance downtown means \"downriver from Canal Street\", while uptown means \"upriver from Canal Street\". Downtown neighborhoods include the French Quarter, Tremé, the 7th Ward, Faubourg Marigny, Bywater (the Upper Ninth Ward), and the Lower Ninth Ward. Uptown neighborhoods include the Warehouse District, the Lower Garden District, the Garden District, the Irish Channel, the University District, Carrollton, Gert Town, Fontainebleau, and Broadmoor. However, the Warehouse and the Central Business District, despite being above Canal Street, are frequently called \"Downtown\" as a specific region, as in the Downtown Development District.","New Orleans\n\nOther major districts within the city include Bayou St. John, Mid-City, Gentilly, Lakeview, Lakefront, New Orleans East, and Algiers.","New Orleans\n\nHistoric and residential architecture","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans is world-famous for its abundance of unique architectural styles which reflect the city's historical roots and multicultural heritage. Though New Orleans possesses numerous structures of national architectural significance, it is equally, if not more, revered for its enormous, largely intact (even post-Katrina) historic built environment. Twenty National Register Historic Districts have been established, and fourteen local historic districts aid in the preservation of this tout ensemble. Thirteen of the local historic districts are administered by the New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission (HDLC), while one—the French Quarter—is administered by the Vieux Carre Commission (VCC). Additionally, both the National Park Service, via the National Register of Historic Places, and the HDLC have landmarked individual buildings, many of which lie outside the boundaries of existing historic districts.","New Orleans\n\nMany styles of housing exist in the city, including the shotgun house and the bungalow style. Creole townhouses, notable for their large courtyards and intricate iron balconies, line the streets of the French Quarter. Throughout the city, there are many other historic housing styles: Creole cottages, American townhouses, double-gallery houses, and Raised Center-Hall Cottages. St. Charles Avenue is famed for its large antebellum homes. Its mansions are in various styles, such as Greek Revival, American Colonial and the Victorian styles of Queen Anne and Italianate architecture. New Orleans is also noted for its large, European-style Catholic cemeteries, which can be found throughout the city.","New Orleans\n\nTallest buildings","New Orleans\n\nFor much of its history, New Orleans' skyline consisted of only low- and mid- rise structures. The soft soils of New Orleans are susceptible to subsidence, and there was doubt about the feasibility of constructing large high rises in such an environment. Developments in engineering throughout the twentieth century eventually made it possible to build sturdy foundations to support high rise structures in the city, and in the 1960s, the World Trade Center New Orleans and Plaza Tower were built, demonstrating the viability of tall skyscrapers in New Orleans. One Shell Square took its place as the city's tallest building in 1972. The oil boom of the 1970s and early 1980s redefined New Orleans' skyline with the development of the Poydras Street corridor. Today, most of New Orleans' tallest buildings are clustered along Canal Street and Poydras Street in the Central Business District.","New Orleans\n\nClimate","New Orleans\n\nThe climate of New Orleans is humid subtropical (Köppen climate classification Cfa), with short, generally mild winters and hot, humid summers. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from in January to in July and August. The lowest recorded temperature was 6 F on February 13, 1899. The highest recorded temperature was 104 F on June 24, 2009. Dewpoints in the summer months are relatively high, ranging from to .","New Orleans\n\nThe average precipitation is annually; the summer months are the wettest, while October is the driest month. Precipitation in winter usually accompanies the passing of a cold front. On average, there are 77 days of 90 °F+ highs, 8.1 days per winter where the high does not exceed 50 °F, and 8.0 nights with freezing lows annually; in a typical year the coldest night will be around 30 °F. It is rare for the temperature to reach 100 °F or dip below 25 °F.","New Orleans\n\nHurricanes pose a severe threat to the area, and the city is particularly at risk because of its low elevation; because it is surrounded by water from the north, east, and south; and because of Louisiana's sinking coast. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, New Orleans is the nation's most vulnerable city to hurricanes. Indeed, portions of Greater New Orleans have been flooded by: the Grand Isle Hurricane of 1909, the New Orleans Hurricane of 1915, 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane, Hurricane Flossy in 1956, Hurricane Betsy in 1965, Hurricane Georges in 1998, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and Hurricane Gustav in 2008, with the flooding in Betsy being significant and in a few neighborhoods severe, and that in Katrina being disastrous in the majority of the city. New Orleans experiences snowfall only on rare occasions. A small amount of snow fell during the 2004 Christmas Eve Snowstorm and again on Christmas (December 25) when a combination of rain, sleet, and snow fell on the city, leaving some bridges icy. Before that, the last White Christmas was in 1964 and brought . Snow fell again on December 22, 1989, when most of the city received 1 –.","New Orleans\n\nThe last significant snowfall in New Orleans was on the morning of December 11, 2008.","New Orleans\n\nDemographics","New Orleans\n\nAccording to the 2010 Census, 343,829 people and 189,896 households were in New Orleans. The racial and ethnic makeup of the city was 60.2% African American, 33.0% White, 2.9% Asian (1.7% Vietnamese, 0.3% Indian, 0.3% Chinese, 0.1% Filipino, 0.1% Korean), 0.0% Pacific Islander, and 1.7% were people of two or more races. People of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 5.3% of the population; 1.3% of New Orleans is Mexican, 1.3% Honduran, 0.4% Cuban, 0.3% Puerto Rican, and 0.3% Nicaraguan.","New Orleans\n\nThe last population estimate before Hurricane Katrina was 454,865, as of July 1, 2005. A population analysis released in August 2007 estimated the population to be 273,000, 60% of the pre-Katrina population and an increase of about 50,000 since July 2006. A September 2007 report by The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, which tracks population based on U.S. Postal Service figures, found that in August 2007, just over 137,000 households received mail. That compares with about 198,000 households in July 2005, representing about 70% of pre-Katrina population. More recently, the Census Bureau revised upward its 2008 population estimate for the city, to 336,644 inhabitants. In 2010, estimates showed that neighborhoods that did not flood were near 100% of their pre-Katrina populations, and in some cases, exceeded 100% of their pre-Katrina populations.","New Orleans\n\nA 2006 study by researchers at Tulane University and the University of California, Berkeley determined that there are as many as 10,000 to 14,000 illegal immigrants, many from Mexico, currently residing in New Orleans. Janet Murguía, president and chief executive officer of the National Council of La Raza, stated that there could be up to 120,000 Hispanic workers in New Orleans. In June 2007, one study stated that the Hispanic population had risen from 15,000, pre-Katrina, to over 50,000.","New Orleans\n\nA recent article released by The Times-Picayune indicated that the metropolitan area had undergone a recent influx of 5,300 households in the later half of 2008, bringing the population to around 469,605 households or 88.1% of its pre-Katrina levels. While the area's population has been on an upward trajectory since the storm, much of that growth was attributed to residents returning after Katrina. Many observers predicted that growth would taper off, but the data center's analysis suggests that New Orleans and the surrounding parishes are benefiting from an economic migration resulting from the global financial crisis of 2008–2009. \n, 90.31% of New Orleans residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 4.84% spoke Spanish, 1.87% Vietnamese, and 1.05% spoke French. In total, 9.69% of New Orleans's population age 5 and older spoke a mother language other than English.","New Orleans\n\nReligion","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans' colonial history of French and Spanish settlement has resulted in a strong Catholic tradition. Catholic missions administered to slaves and free people of color, establishing schools for them. In addition, many late 19th and early 20th century European immigrants, such as the Irish, some Germans, and Italians, were Catholic. In New Orleans and the surrounding Louisiana Gulf Coast area, the predominant religion is Catholicism. Within the Archdiocese of New Orleans (which includes not only the city but the surrounding Parishes as well), 35.9% percent of the population is Roman Catholic. The influence of Catholicism is reflected in many of the city's French and Spanish cultural traditions, including its many parochial schools, street names, architecture, and festivals, including Mardi Gras.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans also notably has a distinctive variety of Louisiana Voodoo, due in part to syncretism with African and Afro-Caribbean Roman Catholic beliefs. The fame of the voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau contributed to this, as did New Orleans' distinctly Caribbean cultural influences.New Orleans, \"now under the flag of the United States, is still very much a Caribbean city....\" \n Although the tourism industry has strongly associated Voodoo with the city, only a small number of people are serious adherents to the religion.","New Orleans\n\nJewish settlers, primarily Sephardim, were part of New Orleans from the early nineteenth century. some migrated from the communities established in the colonial years in Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia. The merchant Abraham Cohen Labatt helped found the first Jewish congregation in Louisiana in the 1830s, which became known as the Portuguese Jewish Nefutzot Yehudah congregation (as he and some other members were Sephardic Jews, whose ancestors had lived in Portugal and Spain). Jews from eastern Europe came as immigrants in the late 19th and 20th centuries. By the 21st century, there were 10,000 Jews in New Orleans. This number dropped to 7,000 after the disruption of Hurricane Katrina. In the wake of Katrina, all New Orleans synagogues lost members, but most re-opened in their original locations. The exception was Congregation Beth Israel, the oldest and most prominent Orthodox synagogue in the New Orleans region. Beth Israel's building in Lakeview was destroyed by flooding. After seven years of holding services in temporary quarters, a rebuilt synagogue was consecrated in August 2012 on land purchased from its new neighbor, the Reform Congregation Gates of Prayer in Metairie.","New Orleans\n\nEthnic groups","New Orleans\n\nthere had been increases in the Hispanic population in the New Orleans area, including in Kenner, central Metairie, and Terrytown in Jefferson Parish and eastern New Orleans and Mid-City in New Orleans proper.\"[http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/06/hispanic_population_booms_in_k.html Hispanic population booms in Kenner and elsewhere in New Orleans area]\" ([http://www.webcitation.org/6bLThfA9h Archive]). The Times-Picayune. June 15, 2011. Retrieved on September 7, 2015.","New Orleans\n\nPrior to Hurricane Katrina there were few persons of Brazilian origin in the city, but after Katrina and by 2008 a population emerged, with Portuguese speakers becoming the second most common English as a second language group in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans-sponsored ESL classes after the Spanish speakers. Many Brazilians worked in skilled trades such as tile and flooring, with fewer day laborers. Many of them moved from Brazilian communities in the Northeastern United States, Florida, and Georgia, and Brazilians settled throughout the New Orleans metropolitan area. Most of the Brazilians were illegal immigrants. In January 2008 Bruce Nolan of the Houston Chronicle stated that the midrange of the various estimations and guesses of the New Orleans Brazilian population wa 3,000 but that no entity or organization had determined exactly how many Brazilians resided in the city. By 2008 many small churches, shops, and restaurants catering to Brazilians in the New Orleans area opened.","New Orleans\n\nChanges in population","New Orleans\n\nThe city of New Orleans faced a decreasing population before and after Hurricane Katrina. Beginning in 1960, the population of the city decreased due to several factors such as the city's reliance on oil and tourism, nationwide increases in suburbanization, and a migration of jobs to surrounding parishes. This economic and population decline is linked to high levels of poverty, which in 1960 was the fifth highest of all US cities, and was almost twice the national average in 2005, at 24.5%. Furthermore, New Orleans experienced an increase in residential segregation from 1900 to 1980, leaving the poor, who were disproportionately African American in low-lying locations within the city's core, making them especially susceptible to flood and storm damage.","New Orleans\n\nHurricane Katrina, which displaced 800,000 people in total, contributed significantly to continue shrinking New Orleans' population. , the population of New Orleans was at 76% of what it was in 2005. African Americans, renters, the elderly, and people with low income were disproportionately impacted by Hurricane Katrina compared to affluent and white residents. In the aftermath of Katrina, city government commissioned groups such as Bring New Orleans Back Commission, the New Orleans Neighborhood Rebuilding Plan, the Unified New Orleans Plan, and the Office of Recovery Management to contribute to plans addressing depopulation. Their ideas included shrinking the city's footprint from before the storm, incorporating community voices into development plans, and creating green spaces, some of which incited controversy.","New Orleans\n\nFrom 2010 to 2014 the city grew by 12%, adding an average of more than 10,000 new residents each year following the 2010 Census.","New Orleans\n\nEconomy","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans has one of the largest and busiest ports in the world, and metropolitan New Orleans is a center of maritime industry. The New Orleans region also accounts for a significant portion of the nation's oil refining and petrochemical production, and serves as a white-collar corporate base for onshore and offshore petroleum and natural gas production.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans is a center for higher learning, with over 50,000 students enrolled in the region's eleven two- and four-year degree granting institutions. A top-50 research university, Tulane University, is located in New Orleans' Uptown neighborhood. Metropolitan New Orleans is a major regional hub for the health care industry and boasts a small, globally competitive manufacturing sector. The center city possesses a rapidly growing, entrepreneurial creative industries sector, and is renowned for its cultural tourism. Greater New Orleans, Inc. (GNO, Inc.) acts as the first point-of-contact for regional economic development, coordinating between Louisiana's Department of Economic Development and the various parochial business development agencies.","New Orleans\n\nPort","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans was developed as a strategically located trading entrepôt, and it remains, above all, a crucial transportation hub and distribution center for waterborne commerce. The Port of New Orleans is the 5th-largest port in the United States based on volume of cargo handled, and second-largest in the state after the Port of South Louisiana. It is the 12th-largest in the U.S. based on value of cargo. The Port of South Louisiana, also based in the New Orleans area, is the world's busiest in terms of bulk tonnage. When combined with the Port of New Orleans, it forms the 4th-largest port system in volume handled. Many shipbuilding, shipping, logistics, freight forwarding and commodity brokerage firms either are based in metropolitan New Orleans or maintain a large local presence. Examples include Intermarine, Bisso Towboat, Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, Trinity Yachts, Expeditors International, Bollinger Shipyards, IMTT, International Coffee Corp, Boasso America, Transoceanic Shipping, Transportation Consultants Inc., Dupuy Storage & Forwarding and Silocaf. The largest coffee-roasting plant in the world, operated by Folgers, is located in New Orleans East.","New Orleans\n\nLike Houston, New Orleans is located in proximity to the Gulf of Mexico and the many oil rigs that lie just offshore. Louisiana ranks fifth among states in oil production and eighth in reserves in the United States. It has two of the four Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) storage facilities: West Hackberry in Cameron Parish and Bayou Choctaw in Iberville Parish. Other infrastructure includes 17 petroleum refineries, with a combined crude oil distillation capacity of nearly , the second highest in the nation after Texas. Louisiana's numerous ports include the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), which is capable of receiving ultra large oil tankers. Given the quantity of oil importing, Louisiana is home to many major pipelines supplying the nation: Crude Oil (Exxon, Chevron, BP, Texaco, Shell, Scurloch-Permian, Mid-Valley, Calumet, Conoco, Koch Industries, Unocal, U.S. Dept. of Energy, Locap); Product (TEPPCO Partners, Colonial, Plantation, Explorer, Texaco, Collins); and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Dixie, TEPPCO, Black Lake, Koch, Chevron, Dynegy, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Dow Chemical Company, Bridgeline, FMP, Tejas, Texaco, UTP). Several major energy companies have regional headquarters in the city or its suburbs, including Royal Dutch Shell, Eni and Chevron.","New Orleans\n\nNumerous other energy producers and oilfield services companies are also headquartered in the city or region, and the sector supports a large professional services base of specialized engineering and design firms, as well as an term office for the federal government's Minerals Management Service.","New Orleans\n\nBusiness","New Orleans\n\nThe city is the home to a single Fortune 500 company: Entergy, a power generation utility and nuclear powerplant operations specialist. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the city lost its other Fortune 500 company, Freeport-McMoRan, when it merged its copper and gold exploration unit with an Arizona company and relocated that division to Phoenix, Arizona. Its McMoRan Exploration affiliate remains headquartered in New Orleans. Other companies either headquartered or with significant operations in New Orleans include: Pan American Life Insurance, Pool Corp, Rolls-Royce, Newpark Resources, AT&T, TurboSquid, iSeatz, IBM, Navtech, Superior Energy Services, Textron Marine & Land Systems, McDermott International, Pellerin Milnor, Lockheed Martin, Imperial Trading, Laitram, Harrah's Entertainment, Stewart Enterprises, Edison Chouest Offshore, Zatarain's, Waldemar S. Nelson & Co., Whitney National Bank, Capital One, Tidewater Marine, Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits, Parsons Brinckerhoff, MWH Global, CH2M HILL, Energy Partners Ltd, The Receivables Exchange, GE Capital, and Smoothie King.","New Orleans\n\nTourist and convention business","New Orleans\n\nTourism is another staple of the city's economy. Perhaps more visible than any other sector, New Orleans' tourist and convention industry is a $5.5 billion juggernaut that accounts for 40 percent of New Orleans' tax revenues. In 2004, the hospitality industry employed 85,000 people, making it New Orleans' top economic sector as measured by employment totals. The city also hosts the World Cultural Economic Forum (WCEF). The forum, held annually at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center, is directed toward promoting cultural and economic development opportunities through the strategic convening of cultural ambassadors and leaders from around the world. The first WCEF took place in October 2008.","New Orleans\n\nOther","New Orleans\n\nFederal agencies and the Armed forces have significant facilities in the area. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals operates at the US Courthouse downtown. NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility is located in New Orleans East and is operated by Lockheed Martin. It is a large manufacturing facility that produced the external fuel tanks for the space shuttles. The Michoud facility lies within the enormous New Orleans Regional Business Park, also home to the National Finance Center, operated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Crescent Crown distribution center. Other large governmental installations include the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Command, located within the University of New Orleans Research and Technology Park in Gentilly, Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans; and the headquarters for the Marine Force Reserves in Federal City in Algiers.","New Orleans\n\nTop employers","New Orleans\n\nAccording to the City's 2008 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:","New Orleans\n\nCulture and contemporary life","New Orleans\n\nTourism","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans has many visitor attractions, from the world-renowned French Quarter; to St. Charles Avenue, (home of Tulane and Loyola Universities, the historic Pontchartrain Hotel, and many 19th-century mansions); to Magazine Street, with its boutique stores and antique shops.","New Orleans\n\nAccording to current travel guides, New Orleans is one of the top ten most-visited cities in the United States; 10.1 million visitors came to New Orleans in 2004. Prior to 2005's Hurricane Katrina, there were 265 hotels with 38,338 rooms in the Greater New Orleans Area. In May 2007, there were over 140 hotels and motels in operation with over 31,000 rooms.","New Orleans\n\nA 2009 Travel + Leisure poll of \"America's Favorite Cities\" ranked New Orleans first in ten categories, the most first-place rankings of the 30 cities included. According to the poll, New Orleans is the best U.S. city as a spring break destination and for \"wild weekends\", stylish boutique hotels, cocktail hours, singles/bar scenes, live music/concerts and bands, antique and vintage shops, cafés/coffee bars, neighborhood restaurants, and people watching. The city also ranked second for the following: friendliness (behind Charleston, South Carolina), gay-friendliness (behind San Francisco), bed and breakfast hotels/inns, and ethnic food. However, the city was voted last in terms of active [?] residents, and it placed near the bottom in cleanliness, safety, and as a family destination.","New Orleans\n\nThe French Quarter (known locally as \"the Quarter\" or Vieux Carré), which was the colonial-era city and is bounded by the Mississippi River, Rampart Street, Canal Street, and Esplanade Avenue, contains many popular hotels, bars, and nightclubs. Notable tourist attractions in the Quarter include Bourbon Street, Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral, the French Market (including Café du Monde, famous for café au lait and beignets), and Preservation Hall. Also in the French Quarter is the old New Orleans Mint, a former branch of the United States Mint which now operates as a museum, and The Historic New Orleans Collection, a museum and research center housing art and artifacts relating to the history of New Orleans and the Gulf South.","New Orleans\n\nClose to the Quarter is the Tremé community, which contains the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park and the New Orleans African American Museum — a site which is listed on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.","New Orleans\n\nTo tour the port, one can ride the Natchez, an authentic steamboat with a calliope, which cruises the Mississippi the length of the city twice daily. Unlike most other places in the United States, New Orleans has become widely known for its element of elegant decay. The city's historic cemeteries and their distinct above-ground tombs are attractions in themselves, the oldest and most famous of which, Saint Louis Cemetery, greatly resembles Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.","New Orleans\n\nThe National WWII Museum, opened in the Warehouse District in 2000 as the \"National D-Day Museum,\" has undergone a major expansion. Nearby, Confederate Memorial Hall, the oldest continually-operating museum in Louisiana (although under renovation since Katrina), contains the second-largest collection of Confederate Civil War memorabilia in the world. Art museums in the city include the Contemporary Arts Center, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) in City Park, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans also boasts a decidedly natural side. It is home to the Audubon Nature Institute (which consists of Audubon Park, the Audubon Zoo, the Aquarium of the Americas, and the Audubon Insectarium), and home to gardens which include Longue Vue House and Gardens and the New Orleans Botanical Garden. City Park, one of the country's most expansive and visited urban parks, has one of the largest stands (if not the largest stand) of oak trees in the world.","New Orleans\n\nThere are also various points of interest in the surrounding areas. Many wetlands are found in close proximity to the city, including Honey Island Swamp and Barataria Preserve. Chalmette Battlefield and National Cemetery, located just south of the city, is the site of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans.","New Orleans\n\nIn 2009, New Orleans ranked No. 7 on Newsmax magazine's list of the \"Top 25 Most Uniquely American Cities and Towns,\" a piece written by current CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg. In determining his ranking, Greenberg cited the city's rebuilding effort post-Katrina as well as its mission to become eco-friendly.","New Orleans\n\nEntertainment and performing arts","New Orleans\n\nThe New Orleans area is home to numerous celebrations, the most popular of which is Carnival, often referred to as Mardi Gras. Carnival officially begins on the Feast of the Epiphany, also known as the \"Twelfth Night\". Mardi Gras (French for \"Fat Tuesday\"), the final and grandest day of festivities, is the last Tuesday before the Catholic liturgical season of Lent, which commences on Ash Wednesday.","New Orleans\n\nThe largest of the city's many music festivals is the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Commonly referred to simply as \"Jazz Fest\", it is one of the largest music festivals in the nation, featuring crowds of people from all over the world, coming to experience music, food, arts, and crafts. Despite the name, it features not only jazz but a large variety of music, including both native Louisiana music and international artists. Along with Jazz Fest, New Orleans' Voodoo Experience (\"Voodoo Fest\") and the Essence Music Festival are both large music festivals featuring local and international artists.","New Orleans\n\nOther major festivals held in the city include Southern Decadence, the French Quarter Festival, and the Tennessee Williams/ New Orleans Literary Festival.","New Orleans\n\nIn 2002, Louisiana began offering tax incentives for film and television production. This led to a substantial increase in the number of films shot in the New Orleans area and brought the nickname \"Hollywood South.\" Films which have been filmed or produced in and around New Orleans include: Ray, Runaway Jury, The Pelican Brief, Glory Road, All the King's Men, Déjà Vu, Last Holiday, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 12 Years a Slave, and numerous others. In 2006, work began on the Louisiana Film & Television studio complex, based in the Tremé neighborhood. Louisiana began to offer similar tax incentives for music and theater productions in 2007, leading many to begin referring to New Orleans as \"Broadway South.\"","New Orleans\n\nThe first theatre in New Orleans was the French-language Theatre de la Rue Saint Pierre, which opened in 1792. The first opera in New Orleans was given there in 1796. In the nineteenth century the city was the home of two of America's most important venues for the performance of French opera, the Théâtre d'Orléans and later the French Opera House. Today, opera is performed by the New Orleans Opera.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans has always been a significant center for music, showcasing its intertwined European, Latin American, and African cultures. The city's unique musical heritage was born in its colonial and early American days from a unique blending of European musical instruments with African rhythms. As the only North American city to have allowed slaves to gather in public and play their native music (largely in Congo Square, now located within Louis Armstrong Park), New Orleans gave birth to an indigenous music: jazz. Soon, brass bands formed, gaining popular attraction which continues today. The Louis Armstrong Park area, near the French Quarter in Tremé, contains the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. The city's music was later significantly influenced by Acadiana, home of Cajun and Zydeco music, and by Delta blues.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans' unique musical culture is further evident in its traditional funerals. A spin on military brass band funerals, New Orleans traditional funerals feature sad music (mostly dirges and hymns) on the way to the cemetery and happier music (hot jazz) on the way back. Such musical funerals are still held when a local musician, a member of a social club, krewe, or benevolent society, or a noted dignitary has passed. Until the 1990s, most locals preferred to call these \"funerals with music,\" but visitors to the city have long dubbed them \"jazz funerals.\"","New Orleans\n\nMuch later in its musical development, New Orleans was home to a distinctive brand of rhythm and blues that contributed greatly to the growth of rock and roll. An example of the New Orleans' sound in the 1960s is the #1 US hit \"Chapel of Love\" by the Dixie Cups, a song which knocked the Beatles out of the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. New Orleans became a hotbed for funk music in the 1960s and 1970s, and by the late 1980s, it had developed its own localized variant of hip hop, called bounce music. While never commercially successful outside of the Deep South, it remained immensely popular in the poorer neighborhoods of the city throughout the 1990s.","New Orleans\n\nA cousin of bounce, New Orleans hip hop has seen commercial success locally and internationally, producing Lil Wayne, Master P, Birdman, Juvenile, Cash Money Records, and No Limit Records. Additionally, the wave of popularity of cowpunk, a fast form of southern rock, originated with the help of several local bands, such as The Radiators, Better Than Ezra, Cowboy Mouth, and Dash Rip Rock. Throughout the 1990s, many sludge metal bands started in the area. New Orleans' heavy metal bands like Eyehategod, Soilent Green, Crowbar, and Down have incorporated styles such as hardcore punk, doom metal, and southern rock to create an original and heady brew of swampy and aggravated metal that has largely avoided standardization.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans is the southern terminus of the famed Highway 61.","New Orleans\n\nFood","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans is world-famous for its food. The indigenous cuisine is distinctive and influential. From centuries of amalgamation of the local Creole, haute Creole, and New Orleans French cuisines, New Orleans food has developed. Local ingredients, French, Spanish, Italian, African, Native American, Cajun, Chinese, and a hint of Cuban traditions combine to produce a truly unique and easily recognizable Louisiana flavor.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans is known for specialties like beignets (locally pronounced like \"ben-yays\"), square-shaped fried pastries that could be called \"French doughnuts\" (served with café au lait made with a blend of coffee and chicory rather than only coffee); and Po-boy and Italian Muffuletta sandwiches; Gulf oysters on the half-shell, fried oysters, boiled crawfish, and other seafood; étouffée, jambalaya, gumbo, and other Creole dishes; and the Monday favorite of red beans and rice. (Louis Armstrong often signed his letters, \"Red beans and ricely yours\".) Another New Orleans specialty is the praline, a candy made with brown sugar, granulated sugar, cream, butter, and pecans. The city also has notable street food including the Asian inspired beef Yaka mein.","New Orleans\n\nDialect","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans has developed a distinctive local dialect of American English over the years that is neither Cajun nor the stereotypical Southern accent, so often misportrayed by film and television actors. It does, like earlier Southern Englishes, feature frequent deletion of the pre-consonantal \"r\". This dialect is quite similar to New York City area accents such as \"Brooklynese\", to people unfamiliar with either. There are many theories regarding how it came to be, but it likely resulted from New Orleans' geographic isolation by water and the fact that the city was a major immigration port throughout the 19th century. As a result, many of the ethnic groups who reside in Brooklyn also reside in New Orleans, such as the Irish, Italians (especially Sicilians), and Germans, among others, as well as a very sizable Jewish community.","New Orleans\n\nOne of the strongest varieties of the New Orleans accent is sometimes identified as the Yat dialect, from the greeting \"Where y'at?\" This distinctive accent is dying out generation by generation in the city itself, but remains very strong in the surrounding parishes.","New Orleans\n\nLess visibly, various ethnic groups throughout the area have retained their distinctive language traditions to this day. Although rare, languages still spoken are the Kreyol Lwiziyen by the Creoles; an archaic Louisiana-Canarian Spanish dialect spoken by the Isleño people and older members of the population; and Cajun.","New Orleans\n\nSports","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans' professional sports teams include the 2009 Super Bowl XLIV champion New Orleans Saints (NFL), the New Orleans Pelicans (NBA), and the New Orleans Zephyrs (PCL). It is also home to the Big Easy Rollergirls, an all-female flat track roller derby team, and the New Orleans Blaze, a women's football team. A local group of investors began conducting a study in 2007 to see if the city could support a Major League Soccer team. New Orleans is also home to two NCAA Division I athletic programs, the Tulane Green Wave of the American Athletic Conference and the UNO Privateers of the Southland Conference.","New Orleans\n\nThe Mercedes-Benz Superdome is the home of the Saints, the Sugar Bowl, and other prominent events. It has hosted the Super Bowl a record seven times (1978, 1981, 1986, 1990, 1997, 2002, and 2013). The Smoothie King Center is the home of the Pelicans, VooDoo, and many events that are not large enough to need the Superdome. New Orleans is also home to the Fair Grounds Race Course, the nation's third-oldest thoroughbred track. The city's Lakefront Arena has also been home to sporting events.","New Orleans\n\nEach year New Orleans plays host to the Sugar Bowl, the New Orleans Bowl and the Zurich Classic, a golf tournament on the PGA Tour. In addition, it has often hosted major sporting events that have no permanent home, such as the Super Bowl, ArenaBowl, NBA All-Star Game, BCS National Championship Game, and the NCAA Final Four. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Marathon and the Crescent City Classic are two road running events held annually in the city.","New Orleans\n\nNational protected areas","New Orleans\n\n*Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge\n*Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve (part)\n*New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park","New Orleans\n\nGovernment","New Orleans\n\nThe City of New Orleans is a political subdivision of the State of Louisiana. It has a mayor-council government according to a Home Rule Charter adopted in 1954, as later amended. The city council consists of seven council members, who are elected by district and two at-large councilmembers. The current mayor, Mitch Landrieu, was elected on February 6, 2010 and assumed office on May 3, 2010. \nThe Orleans Parish Civil Sheriff's Office serves papers involving lawsuits and provides security for the Civil District Court and Juvenile Courts. The Criminal Sheriff, Marlin Gusman, maintains the parish prison system, provides security for the Criminal District Court, and provides backup for the New Orleans Police Department on an as-needed basis. An ordinance in 2006 established an Office of Inspector General for city government.","New Orleans\n\nThe city of New Orleans and the parish of Orleans operate as a merged city-parish government. Before the city of New Orleans became co-extensive with Orleans Parish, Orleans Parish was home to numerous smaller communities. The original city of New Orleans was composed of what are now the 1st through 9th wards. The city of Lafayette (including the Garden District) was added in 1852 as the 10th and 11th wards. In 1870, Jefferson City, including Faubourg Bouligny and much of the Audubon and University areas, was annexed as the 12th, 13th, and 14th wards. Algiers, on the west bank of the Mississippi, was also annexed in 1870, becoming the 15th ward.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans' government is now largely centralized in the city council and mayor's office, but it maintains a number of relics from earlier systems when various sections of the city ran much of their affairs separately. For example, New Orleans has seven elected tax assessors, each with their own staff, representing various districts of the city, rather than one centralized office. A constitutional amendment passed on November 7, 2006, will consolidate the seven assessors into one by 2010. On February 18, 2010, Errol Williams was elected as the first city-wide assessor. The New Orleans government operates both a fire department and the New Orleans Emergency Medical Services.","New Orleans\n\nCrime and safety","New Orleans\n\nCrime has been recognized as an ongoing problem for New Orleans, although the issue is outside the view of most visitors to the city. As in other U.S. cities of comparable size, the incidence of homicide and other violent crimes is highly concentrated in certain impoverished neighborhoods, such as housing projects.","New Orleans\n\nIn 2012, Travel+Leisure named New Orleans the #2 \"America's Dirtiest City\", down from a #1 \"Dirtiest\" status of the previous year. The magazine surveyed both national readership and local residents, from a list of prominent cities having the most visible illegal littering, dumping, and other environmental crime conditions.","New Orleans\n\nAcross New Orleans, homicides peaked in 1994 at 86 murders per 100,000 residents. By 2009, despite a 17% decrease in violent crime in the city, the homicide rate remained among the highest in the United States, at between 55 and 64 per 100,000 residents. In 2010, New Orleans was 49.1 per 100,000, and in 2012, that number climbed to 53.2. This is the highest rate among cities of 250,000 population or larger. Offenders in New Orleans are almost exclusively black men, with 97% of the offenders being black and 95% being male.","New Orleans\n\nThe violent crime rate was also a key issue in the city's 2010 mayoral race. In January 2007, several thousand New Orleans residents marched through city streets and gathered at City Hall for a rally demanding police and city leaders tackle the crime problem. Then-Mayor Ray Nagin said he was \"totally and solely focused\" on addressing the problem. Later, the city implemented checkpoints during late night hours in problem areas. The murder rate climbed 14% higher in 2011 to 57.88 per 100,000 retaining its status as the 'Murder Capital of the United States' and rising to 21 in the world.","New Orleans\n\nEducation","New Orleans\n\nColleges and universities","New Orleans\n\nThere are several higher education institutions in the city:\n*Tulane University, a major research university founded in 1834.\n*Loyola University New Orleans, a Jesuit university founded in 1912.\n*University of New Orleans, a large public research university in the city.\n*Xavier University of Louisiana, the only historically black Catholic university in the United States.\n*Southern University at New Orleans, an historically black university in the Southern University System.\n*Dillard University, a private, historically black liberal arts college founded in 1869.\n*Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center\n*Our Lady of Holy Cross College, a Catholic liberal arts college founded in 1916.\n*Notre Dame Seminary\n*New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary\n*Delgado Community College, founded in 1921.\n*William Carey College School of Nursing\n*Herzing College\n*New Orleans Culinary Institute","New Orleans\n\nPrimary and secondary schools","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans Public Schools (NOPS) is the name given to the city's public school system. Pre-Katrina, NOPS was one of the area's largest systems (along with the Jefferson Parish public school system). In the years leading up to Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans public school system was widely recognized as the lowest performing school district in Louisiana. According to researchers Carl L. Bankston and Stephen J. Caldas, only 12 of the 103 public schools within the city limits of New Orleans showed reasonably good performance at the beginning of the 21st century.","New Orleans\n\nFollowing Hurricane Katrina, the state of Louisiana took over most of the schools within the system (all schools that fell into a nominal \"worst-performing\" metric); many of these schools, in addition to others that were not subject to state takeover, were subsequently granted operating charters giving them administrative independence from the Orleans Parish School Board, the Recovery School District and/or the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). At the start of the 2014 school year, all public school students in the NOPS system will attend these independent public charter schools, making New Orleans \"the nation's first completely privatized public school district in the nation.\"","New Orleans\n\nThe last few years have witnessed significant and sustained gains in student achievement, as outside operators like KIPP, the Algiers Charter School Network, and the Capital One – University of New Orleans Charter School Network have assumed control of dozens of schools. The most recent release of annual school performance scores (October 2009) demonstrated continued growth in the academic performance of New Orleans' public schools. If the scores of all public schools in New Orleans (Orleans Parish School Board-chartered, Recovery School District-chartered, Recovery School District-operated, etc.) are considered, an overall school district performance score of 70.6 results. This score represents a 6% increase over an equivalent 2008 metric, and a 24% improvement when measured against an equivalent pre-Katrina (2004) metric, when a district score of 56.9 was posted. Notably, this score of 70.6 approaches the score (78.4) posted in 2009 by the adjacent, suburban Jefferson Parish public school system, though that system's performance score is itself below the state average of 91.","New Orleans\n\nThis longstanding pattern is changing, however, as the NOPS system is engaged in the most promising and far-reaching public school reforms in the nation, reforms aimed at decentralizing power away from the pre-Katrina school board central bureaucracy to individual school principals and independent public charter school boards, monitoring charter school performance by granting renewable, five-year operating contracts permitting the closure of those not succeeding, and vesting choice in parents of public schools students, allowing them to enroll their children in almost any school in the district.","New Orleans\n\nLibraries","New Orleans\n\nThere are numerous academic and public libraries and archives in New Orleans, including Monroe Library at Loyola University, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library at Tulane University, the Law Library of Louisiana, and the Earl K. Long Library at the University of New Orleans.","New Orleans\n\nThe New Orleans Public Library includes 13 locations, most of which were damaged by Hurricane Katrina. However, only four libraries remained closed in 2007. The main library includes a Louisiana Division housing city archives and special collections.","New Orleans\n\nOther research archives are located at the Historic New Orleans Collection and the Old U.S. Mint.","New Orleans\n\nAn independently operated lending library called Iron Rail Book Collective specializes in radical and hard-to-find books. The library contains over 8,000 titles and is open to the public. It was the first library in the city to re-open after Hurricane Katrina.","New Orleans\n\nThe Louisiana Historical Association was founded in New Orleans in 1889. It operated first at Howard Memorial Library. Then its own Memorial Hall was added to Howard Library. The design for the new building was undertaken by the New Orleans architect Thomas Sully.","New Orleans\n\nMedia","New Orleans\n\nHistorically, the major newspaper in the area was The Times-Picayune. The paper made headlines of its own in 2012 when owner Advance Publications cut its print schedule to three days each week, instead focusing its efforts on its website, NOLA.com. That action briefly the made New Orleans the largest city in the country without a daily newspaper, until the Baton Rouge newspaper The Advocate began a New Orleans edition in September 2012. In June 2013, the Times-Picayune resumed daily printing with a condensed newsstand tabloid edition, nicknamed TP Street, which is published on the three days each week that its namesake broadsheet edition is not printed. (The Picayune has not returned to daily delivery.) With the resumption of daily print editions from the Times-Picayune and the launch of the New Orleans edition of The Advocate, now The New Orleans Advocate, the city now has two daily newspapers for the first time since the afternoon States-Item ceased publication on May 31, 1980.","New Orleans\n\nIn addition to the daily newspapers, weekly publications include The Louisiana Weekly and Gambit Weekly. Also in wide circulation is the Clarion Herald, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.","New Orleans\n\nGreater New Orleans is the 54th largest Designated Market Area (DMA) in the U.S., serving 566,960 homes. Major television network affiliates serving the area include:","New Orleans\n\n*4 WWL (CBS)\n*6 WDSU (NBC)\n*8 WVUE (Fox)\n*12 WYES (PBS)\n*20 WHNO (LeSEA)\n*26 WGNO (ABC)\n*32 WLAE (PBS)\n*38 WNOL (The CW)\n*42 KGLA (Telemundo)\n*49 WPXL (ION)\n*54 WUPL (MyNetworkTV)","New Orleans\n\nTwo radio stations that were influential in promoting New Orleans-based bands and singers were 50,000-watt WNOE-AM (1060) and 10,000-watt WTIX (690 AM). These two stations competed head-to-head from the late 1950s to the late 1970s.","New Orleans\n\nWWOZ, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Station, broadcasts, 24 hours per day, modern and traditional jazz, blues, rhythm and blues, brass band, gospel, cajun, zydeco, Caribbean, Latin, Brazilian, African, bluegrass, and Irish at 90.7 FM and at www.wwoz.org.","New Orleans\n\nWTUL, a local college radio station (Tulane University), broadcasts a wide array of programming, including 20th century classical, reggae, jazz, showtunes, indie rock, electronic music, soul/funk, goth, punk, hip hop, New Orleans music, opera, folk, hardcore, Americana, country, blues, Latin, cheese, techno, local, world, ska, swing and big band, kids shows, and even news programming from DemocracyNow. WTUL is listener supported and non-commercial. The disc jockeys are volunteers, many of them college students.","New Orleans\n\nLouisiana's film and television tax credits have spurred some growth in the television industry, although to a lesser degree than in the film industry. Many films and advertisements have in part or whole been filmed in the city, as have television programs such as The Real World: New Orleans in 2000,Thompson, Richard. [http://www.nola.com/tv/index.ssf/2010/03/real_world_dirty_business_gets.html \"Real World New Orleans: Toothbrush-as-toilet scrubber sickens housemate, triggers police action\"] Nola.com; March 21, 2010 The Real World: Back to New Orleans in 2009 and 2010 and Bad Girls Club: New Orleans in 2011.","New Orleans\n\nTransportation","New Orleans\n\nStreetcars","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans has four active streetcar lines:\n* The St. Charles Streetcar Line is the oldest continuously operating streetcar line in America and each car is a historic landmark. It runs from Canal Street all the way to the other end of St. Charles Avenue, then turns right into South Carrolton Avenue to its terminal at Carrolton and Claiborne. * The Riverfront Streetcar Line runs parallel to the river from Esplanade Street through the French Quarter to Canal Street to the Convention Center above Julia Street in the Arts District. * The Canal Streetcar Line uses the Riverfront line tracks from the intersection of Canal Street and Poydras Street, down Canal Street, then branches off and ends at the cemeteries at City Park Avenue, with a spur running from the intersection of Canal and Carrollton Avenue to the entrance of City Park at Esplanade, near the entrance to the New Orleans Museum of Art. * The Loyola-UPT Streetcar Line, opened on 28 January 2013, runs along Loyola Avenue from New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal to Canal Street, then continues along Canal Street to the river, and on weekends on the Riverfront line tracks to French Market.","New Orleans\n\nMore lines are at the planning stage, and one is under construction in the French quarter, in approximate prolongation to the new section of the Loyola Avenue line, to begin service in 2015.","New Orleans\n\nThe city's streetcars were also featured in the Tennessee Williams play, A Streetcar Named Desire. The streetcar line to Desire Street became a bus line in 1948. There are proposals to revive a Desire streetcar line, running along the neutral grounds of North Rampart and St. Claude, as far downriver as Poland Avenue, near the Industrial Canal.","New Orleans\n\nHurricane Katrina destroyed the power lines supplying the St. Charles Avenue line. The associated levee failures flooded the Mid-City facility storing the red streetcars which normally run on the Riverfront and Canal Street lines. Restoration of service has been gradual, with vintage St. Charles line cars running on the Riverfront and Canal lines until the more modern Czech-built red cars are back in service; they are being individually restored at the RTA's facility between Willow and Jeannette streets in the Carrollton neighborhood. On December 23, 2007, streetcars were restored to running on the St. Charles line up to Carrolton Avenue. The much-anticipated re-opening of the second portion of the historic route, which continues until the intersection of Carrolton Avenue and Claiborne Avenue, was commemorated on June 28, 2008.[http://www.norta.com New Orleans Regional Transit Authority].","New Orleans\n\nBicycling","New Orleans\n\nThe city's flat landscape, simple street grid, and mild winters, facilitate bicycle ridership, helping to make New Orleans eighth among U.S. cities in its rate of bicycle and pedestrian transportation,[http://www.nola.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2010/05/bicycle_second_line_celebrates.html Nola.com] and sixth in terms of the percentage of bicycling commuters.[http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/10/biking_new_orleans_might_be_le.html Nola.com] The city's bicyclists benefit from being located at the start of the Mississippi River Trail, a 3000 mi bicycle path that stretches from the city's Audubon Park to Minnesota. The first 25 mi of the path, through Destrehan, is paved with a smooth macadam surface. Bicyclists looking to cross the river have access to the city's ferries. Since the 2005 levee-breach, the city has actively sought to promote bicycling by constructing a $1.5 million bike trail from Mid-City to Lake Pontchartrain, and by adding over 37 mi of bicycle lanes to various streets, including St. Charles Avenue. In 2009, Tulane University contributed to these efforts by converting the main street through its Uptown campus, McAlister Place, into a pedestrian mall opened to bicycle traffic. In 2010, work began to add a bicycle corridor from the French Quarter to Lakeview, and 14 mi of additional bike lanes on existing streets.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans has also been recognized as a place with an abundance of uniquely decorated and uniquely designed bicycles.","New Orleans\n\nBuses","New Orleans\n\nPublic transportation in the city is operated by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (\"RTA\"). There are many bus routes connecting the city and suburban areas. The RTA lost 200+ buses due to Hurricane Katrina, this would mean that there would be a 30–60 minute waiting period for the next bus to come to the bus stop, and the streetcars took until 2008 to return, so the RTA placed an order for 38 Orion VII Next Generation clean diesel buses, which arrived in July 2008. The RTA has these new buses running on biodiesel. The Jefferson Parish Department of Transit Administration operates Jefferson Transit, which provides service between the city and its suburbs.","New Orleans\n\nRoads","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans is served by Interstate 10, Interstate 610 and Interstate 510. I-10 travels east-west through the city as the Pontchartrain Expressway. In the far eastern part of the city, New Orleans East, it is known as the Eastern Expressway. I-610 provides a direct shortcut for traffic passing through New Orleans via I-10, allowing that traffic to bypass I-10's southward curve. In the future, New Orleans will have another interstate highway, Interstate 49, which will be extended from its current terminus in Lafayette to the city.","New Orleans\n\nIn addition to the interstate highways, U.S. 90 travels through the city, while U.S. 61 terminates in the city's downtown center. In addition, U.S. 11 terminates in the eastern portion of the city.","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans is home to many bridges, the Crescent City Connection is perhaps the most notable. It serves as New Orleans' major bridge across the Mississippi River, providing a connection between the city's downtown on the eastbank and its westbank suburbs. Other bridges that cross the Mississippi River in the New Orleans area are the Huey P. Long Bridge, over which U.S. 90 travels, and the Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge, which carries Interstate 310.","New Orleans\n\nThe Twin Span Bridge, a five-mile (8 km) causeway in eastern New Orleans, carries I-10 across Lake Pontchartrain. Also in eastern New Orleans, Interstate 510/LA 47 travels across the Intracoastal Waterway/Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal via the Paris Road Bridge, connecting New Orleans East and suburban Chalmette.","New Orleans\n\nThe tolled Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, consisting of two parallel bridges are, at 24 mi long, the longest bridges in the world. Built in the 1950s (southbound span) and 1960s (northbound span), the bridges connect New Orleans with its suburbs on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain via Metairie.","New Orleans\n\nAirports","New Orleans\n\nThe metropolitan area is served by the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, located in the suburb of Kenner. New Orleans also has several regional airports located throughout the metropolitan area. These include the Lakefront Airport, Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans (locally known as Callender Field) in the suburb of Belle Chasse and Southern Seaplane Airport, also located in Belle Chasse. Southern Seaplane has a 3200 ft runway for wheeled planes and a 5000 ft water runway for seaplanes. New Orleans International suffered some damage as a result of Hurricane Katrina, but as of April 2007, it contained the most traffic and is the busiest airport in the state of Louisiana and the sixth busiest in the Southeast.","New Orleans\n\nRail","New Orleans\n\nThe city is served by rail via Amtrak. The New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal is the central rail depot, and is served by three trains: the Crescent, operating between New Orleans and New York City; the City of New Orleans, operating between New Orleans and Chicago; and the Sunset Limited, operating through New Orleans between Orlando and Los Angeles. From late August 2005 to the present, the Sunset Limited has remained officially an Orlando-to-Los Angeles train, being considered temporarily truncated due to the lingering effects of Hurricane Katrina. At first (until late October 2005) it was truncated to a San Antonio-to-Los Angeles service; since then (from late October 2005 on) it has been truncated to a New Orleans-to-Los Angeles service. As time has passed, particularly since the January 2006 completion of the rebuilding of damaged tracks east of New Orleans by their owner, CSX Transportation, the obstacles to restoration of the Sunset Limited's full route have been more managerial and political than physical.","New Orleans\n\nWith the strategic benefits of both a major international port and one of the few double-track Mississippi River crossings, the city is served by six of the seven Class I railroads in North America: Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, Norfolk Southern Railway, Kansas City Southern Railway, CSX Transportation and Canadian National Railway. The New Orleans Public Belt Railroad provides interchange services between the railroads.","New Orleans\n\nRecently, many have proposed extending New Orleans' public transit system by adding light rail routes from downtown, along Airline Highway through the airport to Baton Rouge and from downtown to Slidell and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Proponents of this idea claim that these new routes would boost the region's economy, which has been badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, and serve as an evacuation option for hospital patients out of the city.","New Orleans\n\nFerries","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans has had continuous ferry service since 1827, with three routes in current operation. The Canal Street Ferry (or Algiers Ferry) connects downtown New Orleans at the foot of Canal Street with the National Historic Landmark District of Algiers Point on the other side of the Mississippi River (\"West Bank\" in local parlance) and is popular with tourists and locals alike. This downtown ferry terminal also serves the Canal Street/Gretna Ferry, connecting Gretna, Louisiana. The Gretna Ferry serves pedestrians and bicyclists only. The Canal Street Ferry services passenger vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians, as does a third ferry miles downriver, connecting Chalmette, Louisiana and Lower Algiers.","New Orleans\n\nNotable people","New Orleans\n\nNicknames","New Orleans\n\nThe city's several nicknames are illustrative:","New Orleans\n\n* Crescent City alludes to the course of the Lower Mississippi River around and through the city. * The Big Easy was possibly a reference by musicians in the early 20th century to the relative ease of finding work there. It also may have originated in the Prohibition era, when the city was considered one big speak-easy due to the inability of the federal government to control alcohol sales in open violation of the 18th Amendment. The term was used by local columnist Betty Gillaud in the 1970s to contrast life in the city to that of New York City. The name also refers to New Orleans' status as a major city, at one time \"one of the cheapest places in America to live.\"\n* The City that Care Forgot has been used since at least 1938, and refers to the outwardly easy-going, carefree nature of many of the residents. * America's Most Interesting City appears on welcome signs at the city limits. * Hollywood South is a reference to the large number of films, big and small, shot in the city since 2002.","New Orleans\n\nSince 2005 the nickname has also frequently been applied to Shreveport, in northwestern Louisiana, which became an important location for movie and television production after Hurricane Katrina displaced shooting in New Orleans. * The Northernmost Caribbean City is a reference from The Boston Globe, as well as other travel guides due in part to the similarities of culture with the Caribbean islands.","New Orleans\n\nSister cities","New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans has ten sister cities: \n* Caracas, Venezuela\n* Durban, South Africa \n* Innsbruck, Austria\n* Juan-les-Pins, France\n* Maracaibo, Venezuela\n* Matsue, Shimane, Japan\n* Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico\n* Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo\n* San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina\n* Tegucigalpa, Honduras","New Orleans\n\nTwinnings and Partnerships","New Orleans\n\n* Batumi, Georgia","Dixieland\n\nDixieland, sometimes referred to as hot jazz or traditional jazz, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century.","Dixieland\n\nThe first use of the term \"Dixieland\" with reference to music was in the name of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, whose 1917 recordings fostered popular awareness of the new style of music. At that time, there was no issue of subgenres of jazz, so \"Dixieland\" referred to the band and not the music. A revival movement for traditional jazz, formed in reaction to the orchestrated sounds of the swing era and the perceived chaos of the new bebop sounds of the 1940s (referred to as \"Chinese music\" by Louis Armstrong), pulled \"Dixieland\" out from the somewhat forgotten band's name for the music they championed. The revival movement included elements of the Chicago style that developed during the 1920s, such as the use of a string bass instead of a tuba, and chordal instruments, in addition to the original format of the New Orleans style. That reflected the fact that virtually all of the recorded repertoire of New Orleans musicians was from the period when the format was already evolving beyond the traditional New Orleans format.","Dixieland\n\n\"Dixieland\" may in that sense be regarded as denoting the jazz revival movement of the 1940s and 1950s as much as any particular subgenre of jazz. The essential elements that were accepted as within the style were the traditional front lines consisting of trumpets, trombones, and clarinets, and ensemble improvisation over a 2-beat rhythm.","Dixieland\n\nThe Dixieland revival renewed the audience for musicians who had continued to play in traditional jazz styles and revived the careers of New Orleans musicians who had become lost in the shuffle of musical styles that had occurred over the preceding 20 to 25 years. Younger black musicians largely shunned the revival, largely because of a distaste for tailoring their music to what they saw as nostalgia entertainment for white audiences with whom they did not share such nostalgia. The Jim Crow associations of the name \"Dixieland\" also did little to attract younger black musicians to the revival.","Dixieland\n\nThe Dixieland revival music during the 1940s and 1950s gained a broad audience that established traditional jazz as an enduring part of the American cultural landscape, and spawned revival movements in Europe. Well-known jazz standard tunes such as \"Basin Street Blues\" and \"When the Saints Go Marching In\" are known even to non-jazz fans thanks to the enduring popularity of traditional jazz. The Vietnam-era protest song \"Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag\" is based on tonal centers and the \"B\" refrain from the New Orleans standard \"Muskrat Ramble\". Traditional jazz is a major tourist attraction for New Orleans to the present day. It has been an influence on the styles of more modern players such as Charles Mingus and Steve Coleman.","Dixieland\n\nNew Orleans music combined earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime, and blues with collective, polyphonic improvisation. The \"standard\" band consists of a \"front line\" of trumpet (or cornet), trombone, and clarinet, with a \"rhythm section\" of at least two of the following instruments: guitar or banjo, string bass or tuba, piano, and drums. The Dixieland sound is created when one instrument (usually the trumpet) plays the melody or a variation on it, and the other instruments improvise around that melody. This creates a more polyphonic sound than the heavily arranged big band sound of the 1930s or the straight melodies (with or without harmonizing) of bebop in the 1940s.","Dixieland\n\nThe \"West Coast revival\" began in the late 1930s in San Francisco which used banjo and tuba. The Dutch \"old-style jazz\" was played with trumpets, trombones and saxophones accompanied by a single clarinet, sousaphone and a section of Marching percussion usually including a washboard.","Dixieland\n\nHistory","Dixieland\n\nDixieland is the name given to early jazz styles by traditional jazz revivalists, starting in the 1940s and 1950s. The name is a reference to the \"Old South\", specifically anything south of the Mason-Dixon line. The term encompasses earlier brass band marches, French Quadrilles, biguine, ragtime, and blues with collective, polyphonic improvisation. While instrumentation and size of bands can be very flexible, the \"standard\" band consists of a \"front line\" of trumpet (or cornet), trombone, and clarinet, with a \"rhythm section\" of at least two of the following instruments: guitar or banjo, string bass or tuba, piano, and drums. Louis Armstrong's All-Stars was the band most popularly identified with Dixieland during the 1940s, although Armstrong's own influence was to move the music beyond the traditional New Orleans style.","Dixieland\n\nThe definitive Dixieland sound is created when one instrument (usually the trumpet) plays the melody or a recognizable paraphrase or variation on it, and the other instruments of the \"front line\" improvise around that melody. This creates a more polyphonic sound than the arranged ensemble playing of the big band sound or the straight \"head\" melodies of bebop.","Dixieland\n\nDuring the 1930s and 1940s, the earlier group-improvisation style fell out of favor with the majority of younger black players, while some older players of both races continued on in the older style. Though younger musicians developed new forms, many beboppers revered Armstrong and quoted fragments of his recorded music in their own improvisations.","Dixieland\n\nThe Dixieland revival in the late 1940s and 1950s brought many semi-retired musicians a measure of fame late in their lives as well as bringing retired musicians back onto the jazz circuit after years of not playing (e.g., Kid Ory and Red Nichols). Many Dixieland groups of the revival era consciously imitated the recordings and bands of decades earlier. Other musicians continued to create innovative performances and new tunes. For example, in the 1950s a style called \"Progressive Dixieland\" sought to blend polyphonic improvisation with bebop-style rhythm. Spike Jones & His New Band and Steve Lacy played with such bands. This style is sometimes called \"Dixie-bop\". Lacy went on to apply that approach to the music of Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, and Herbie Nichols.","Dixieland\n\nEtymology","Dixieland\n\nWhile the term Dixieland is still in wide use, the term's appropriateness is a hotly debated topic in some circles. For some it is the preferred label (especially bands on the USA's West coast and those influenced by the 1940s revival bands), while others would rather use terms like Classic jazz or Traditional jazz. Some of the latter consider Dixieland a derogatory term implying superficial hokum played without passion or deep understanding of the music and because \"Dixie\" is a reference to pre Civil War Southern States.","Dixieland\n\nDixieland is often today applied to bands playing in a traditional style. Bands such as those of Eddie Condon and Muggsy Spanier were tagged with the Dixieland label.","Dixieland\n\nModern Dixieland","Dixieland\n\nToday there are three main active streams of Dixieland jazz:","Dixieland\n\nChicago style","Dixieland\n\n\"Chicago style\" is often applied to the sound of Chicagoans such as Jimmy McPartland, Eddie Condon, Muggsy Spanier, and Bud Freeman. The rhythm sections of these bands substitute the string bass for the tuba and the guitar for the banjo. Musically, the Chicagoans play in more of a swing-style 4-to-the-bar manner. The New Orleanian preference for an ensemble sound is deemphasized in favor of solos. Chicago-style dixieland also differs from its southern origin by being faster paced, resembling the hustle-bustle of city life. Chicago-style bands play a wide variety of tunes, including most of those of the more traditional bands plus many of the Great American Songbook selections from the 1930s by George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin. Non-Chicagoans such as Pee Wee Russell and Bobby Hackett are often thought of as playing in this style. This modernized style came to be called Nicksieland, after Nick's Greenwich Village night club, where it was popular, though the term was not limited to that club.","Dixieland\n\nWest Coast revival","Dixieland\n\nThe \"West Coast revival\" is a movement that was began in the late 1930s by Lu Watters and his Yerba Buena Jazz Band in San Francisco and extended by trombonist Turk Murphy. It started out as a backlash to the Chicago style, which is closer in development towards swing. The repertoire of these bands is based on the music of Joe \"King\" Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and W.C. Handy. Bands playing in the West Coast style use banjo and tuba in the rhythm sections, which play in a two-to-the-bar rhythmic style.","Dixieland\n\nFamous traditional Dixieland tunes include: \"When the Saints Go Marching In\", \"Muskrat Ramble\", \"Struttin' with Some Barbecue\", \"Tiger Rag\", \"Dippermouth Blues\", \"Milenberg Joys\", \"Basin Street Blues\", \"Tin Roof Blues\", \"At the Jazz Band Ball\", \"Panama\", \"I Found a New Baby\", \"Royal Garden Blues\" and many others. All of these tunes were widely played by jazz bands of the pre-WWII era, especially Louis Armstrong. They came to be grouped as Dixieland standards beginning in the 1950s.","Dixieland\n\nDutch \"Old-style jazz\"","Dixieland\n\nLargely occurring at the same time as the \"New Orleans Traditional\" revival movement in the United States, traditional jazz music made a come-back in the Low Countries. However, most Dutch jazz bands (such as The Ramblers) had long since evolved into the Swing-era while the few remaining traditional jazz bands (such as the Dutch Swing College Band) did not partake in the broader traditional revival movement, and continued to play ragtime and early jazz, greatly limiting the number of bands aspiring jazz musicians could join or (as they were using instruments unavailable to most Dutch musicians such as double basses and the piano) were forced to improvise, resulting in a new form of jazz ensemble generally referred to \"Oude Stijl\" (\"Old Style\") jazz in Dutch.","Dixieland\n\nInfluenced by the instrumentation of the two principal orchestral forms of the wind band in the Netherlands and Belgium, the \"harmonie\" and the \"fanfare\", traditional Dutch jazz bands do not feature a piano and contain no stringed instruments apart from the banjo. They include multiple trumpets, trombones and saxophones accompanied by a single clarinet, sousaphone and a section of Marching percussion usually including a washboard.","Dixieland\n\nThe music played by Dutch jazz bands includes both the original New Orleans tunes, as well as the songs of the revival era. In terms of playing style, Dutch jazz bands occupy a position between revivalist and original New Orleans jazz, with more solos than the latter but without abandoning the principle of ensemble playing. With the average band containing up to 15-players, Dutch jazz bands tend to be the largest ensembles to play traditional jazz music.","Dixieland\n\nStyles influenced by traditional jazz","Dixieland\n\nMusical styles showing influences from traditional jazz include later styles of jazz, rhythm and blues, and early rock and roll. Traditional New Orleans second-line drumming and piano playing are prominent in the music of Fats Domino. The New Orleans drummer Idriss Muhammed adapted second-line drumming to modern jazz styles and gained crossover influence on the R&B style of James Brown. Charles Mingus paid homage to traditional jazz styles with compositions such as Eat Dat Chicken and My Jellyroll Soul. The contemporary New Orleans Brass Band styles, such as the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, The Primate Fiasco, the Hot Tamale Brass Band and the Rebirth Brass Band have combined traditional New Orleans brass band jazz with such influences as contemporary jazz, funk, hip hop, and rap. The M-BASE (Multi-Basic Array of Synchronous Extemporization) improvisational concept used by ensembles including Cassandra Wilson, Geri Allen, Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Graham Haynes, Kevin Eubanks and others is an extension of the polyphonic improvisation of New Orleans jazz.","Dixieland\n\nPartial list of Dixieland musicians","Dixieland\n\nSome of the artists historically identified with Dixieland are mentioned in List of jazz musicians. Some of the best-selling and famous Dixieland artists of the post-WWII era:\n* Louis Armstrong All-Stars, organized in the late 1940s, featured at various times Earl \"Fatha\" Hines, Barney Bigard, Edmond Hall, Jack Teagarden, Trummy Young, Arvell Shaw, Billy Kyle, Marty Napoleon, Big Sid Catlett, Cozy Cole, Barrett Deems and Danny Barcelona. * Kenny Ball, had a top-40 hit with \"Midnight in Moscow\" in the early 1960s, is a leader of the British Trad movement. * Eddie Condon, guitarist who led bands and ran a series of nightclubs in New York City and had a popular radio series. Successor bands played until the 1970s, and their mainstream style is still heard today, especially in touring bands led by cornetist Ed Polcer who was a co-owner of Condon's last nightclub in New York. * Jim Cullum Jazz Band, led by cornetist Jim Cullum, based in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in 1962 in partnership with his late father, was originally known as the Happy Jazz Band. The Jim Cullum Jazz Band is currently featured on the long-running USA public radio series, [http://www.riverwalk.org/ Riverwalk Jazz].","Dixieland\n\nCullum's [http://landing.com/ Landing Jazz Club] has been in continuous operation on the San Antonio Riverwalk since 1963. * The Mission City Hot Rhythm Cats, co-led by cornetist David Jellema and former Jim Cullum Jazz Band trombonist Mike Pittsley, is a relatively new 6-piece San Antonio-based traditional jazz band composed of many former JCJB members. * Steamboat Willie, a veteran musician of Dixieland, jazz and ragtime music still playing at the Cafe Beignet in New Orleans today. * The Dukes of Dixieland, the Assunto family band of New Orleans. A successor band continues on in New Orleans today. * Pete Fountain, clarinetist who led popular bands in New Orleans, retired recently. * Al Hirt, trumpeter who had a string of top-40 hits in the 1960s, led bands in New Orleans until his death. * Ward Kimball, leader of the Firehouse Five Plus Two based in Los Angeles. * George Lewis was a New Orleans clarinetist featured at Preservation Hall in the 1960s, also led his own band. * Turk Murphy, trombonist who led a band at Earthquake McGoons and other San Francisco venues from the late 1940s through the 1970s.","Dixieland\n\n* Chris Tyle, cornetist, trumpeter, drummer, clarinetist, saxophonist, leader of the Silver Leaf Jazz Band. Also known as a jazz writer and educator. A member of the Jazz Journalists Association.","Dixieland\n\nFestivals","Dixieland\n\n* In the United States, the largest traditional jazz festival, the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, is held in Sacramento, California annually on Memorial Day weekend, with about 100,000 visitors and about 150 bands from all over the world. Other smaller festivals and jazz parties arose in the late 1960s as the rock revolution displaced many of the jazz nightclubs. * The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana features jazz and many other genres by local, national, and internationally known artists. * In Tarragona, Catalonia, the Tarragona International Dixieland Festival (Catalan: Festival Internacional Dixieland de Tarragona), Spain's only dixieland festival, has been held annually the week before Easter, since 1994, with 25 bands from all over the world and 100 performances in streets, theatres, cafés and hotels. * In Dresden, Germany, a week-long international Dixieland festival has been held every year since 1970. The event culminates in a parade with floats. * In Davenport, Iowa, the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival is held on the Mississippi River waterfront each summer celebrating Dixieland music and the life of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, a 1920s musician from Davenport. It is combined with a prestigious road race, the \"Bix 7\".","Dixieland\n\n* In Ghent, Belgium, every year during the second week of July there is an international Jazz festival","Dixieland\n\nPeriodicals","Dixieland\n\nThere are several active periodicals devoted to traditional jazz: The Mississippi Rag, the Jazz Rambler, and the American Rag published in the US; and to an extent Jazz Journal published in Europe.","Dixieland\n\nQuotations","Jazz\n\nJazz is a music genre that originated from African American communities of New Orleans in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African American and European American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz spans a period of over a hundred years, encompassing a very wide range of music, making it difficult to define. Jazz makes heavy use of improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation and the swing note, as well as aspects of European harmony, American popular music, the brass band tradition, and African musical elements such as blue notes and African-American styles such as ragtime. Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience and styles to the art form as well. Intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as \"one of America's original art forms\".","Jazz\n\nAs jazz spread around the world, it drew on different national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to many distinctive styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass-band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz, a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisational style and Gypsy jazz (a style that emphasized musette waltzes) were the prominent styles. Bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging \"musician's music\" which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed in the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, linear melodic lines.","Jazz\n\nThe 1950s saw the emergence of free jazz, which explored playing without regular meter, beat and formal structures, and in the mid-1950s, hard bop emerged, which introduced influences from rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano playing. Modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock music's rhythms, electric instruments and the highly amplified stage sound. In the early 1980s, a commercial form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful, garnering significant radio airplay. Other styles and genres abound in the 2000s, such as Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz.","Jazz\n\nEtymology and definition","Jazz\n\nThe question of the origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm, a slang term dating back to 1860 meaning \"pep, energy.\" The earliest written record of the word is in a 1912 article in the Los Angeles Times in which a minor league baseball pitcher described a pitch which he called a jazz ball \"because it wobbles and you simply can’t do anything with it.\"","Jazz\n\nThe use of the word in a musical context was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune. Archived at Observatoire Musical Français, Paris-Sorbonne University. Its first documented use in a musical context in New Orleans was in a November 14, 1916 Times-Picayune article about \"jas bands.\" In an interview with NPR, musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of the original slang connotations of the term, saying: \"When Broadway picked it up, they called it 'J-A-Z-Z.. It wasn't called that. It was spelled 'J-A-S-S.' That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, you wouldn't say it in front of ladies.\" The American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century.","Jazz\n\nJazz has proved to be very difficult to define, since it encompasses such a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years, from ragtime to the 2010-era rock-infused fusion. Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditions, such as European music history or African music. But critic Joachim-Ernst Berendt argues that its terms of reference and its definition should be broader, defining jazz as a \"form of art music which originated in the United States through the confrontation of the Negro with European music\" and arguing that it differs from European music in that jazz has a \"special relationship to time defined as 'swing'\", involves \"a spontaneity and vitality of musical production in which improvisation plays a role\" and contains a \"sonority and manner of phrasing which mirror the individuality of the performing jazz musician\". In the opinion of Robert Christgau, \"most of us would say that inventing meaning while letting loose is the essence and promise of jazz.\"","Jazz\n\nA broader definition that encompasses all of the radically different eras of jazz has been proposed by Travis Jackson: \"it is music that includes qualities such as swing, improvising, group interaction, developing an 'individual voice', and being open to different musical possibilities\". Krin Gibbard has provided an overview of the discussion on definitions, arguing that \"jazz is a construct\" that, while artificial, still is useful to designate \"a number of musics with enough in common to be understood as part of a coherent tradition\". In contrast to the efforts of commentators and enthusiasts of certain types of jazz, who have argued for narrower definitions that exclude other types, the musicians themselves are often reluctant to define the music they play. As Duke Ellington, one of jazz's most famous figures, said: \"It's all music\".","Jazz\n\nElements and issues","Jazz\n\nImprovisation","Jazz\n\nAlthough jazz is considered highly difficult to define, at least in part because it contains so many varied subgenres, improvisation is consistently regarded as being one of its key elements. The centrality of improvisation in jazz is attributed to influential earlier forms of music: the early blues, a form of folk music which arose in part from the work songs and field hollers of the African-American slaves on plantations. These were commonly structured around a repetitive call-and-response pattern, but early blues was also highly improvisational. European classical music performance is evaluated by its fidelity to the musical score, with much less discretion over interpretation, ornamentation and accompaniment: the classical performer's primary goal is to play a composition as it was written. In contrast, jazz is often characterized as the product of group creativity, interaction, and collaboration, which places varying degrees of value on the contributions of composer (if there is one) and performers.","Jazz\n\nIn jazz, the skilled performer will interpret a tune in very individual ways, never playing the same composition the same way twice; depending on the performer's mood and personal experience, interactions with other musicians, or even members of the audience, a jazz musician may alter melodies, harmonies or time signature at will.","Jazz\n\nThe approach to improvisation has developed enormously over the history of the music. In early New Orleans and Dixieland jazz, performers took turns playing the melody, while others improvised countermelodies. By the swing era, big bands were coming to rely more on arranged music: arrangements were either written or learned by ear and memorized, while individual soloists would improvise within these arrangements. Later, in bebop the focus shifted back toward small groups and minimal arrangements; the melody would be stated briefly at the start and end of a piece, but the core of the performance would be the series of improvisations. Later styles such as modal jazz abandoned the strict notion of a chord progression, allowing the individual musicians to improvise even more freely within the context of a given scale or mode. In many forms of jazz, a soloist is often supported by a rhythm section consisting of one or more chordal instruments (piano, guitar, etc.), double bass playing the basslines and drum kit. These performers provide accompaniment by playing chords and rhythms that outline the song structure and complement the soloist.","Jazz\n\nIn avant-garde and free jazz idioms, the separation of soloist and band is reduced, and there is license, or even a requirement, for the abandoning of chords, scales and rhythmic meters.","Jazz\n\nTradition and race","Jazz\n\nSince at least the emergence of bebop, forms of jazz that are commercially oriented or influenced by popular music have been criticized by purists. According to Bruce Johnson, there has always been a \"tension between jazz as a commercial music and an art form\". Traditional jazz enthusiasts have dismissed bebop, free jazz, the 1970s jazz fusion era and much else as periods of debasement of the music and betrayals of the tradition. An alternative viewpoint is that jazz is able to absorb and transform influences from diverse musical styles, and that, by avoiding the creation of 'norms', other newer, avant-garde forms of jazz will be free to emerge.","Jazz\n\nTo some African Americans, jazz has highlighted their contribution to American society and helped bring attention to black history and culture, but for others, the music and term \"jazz\" are reminders of \"an oppressive and racist society and restrictions on their artistic visions\". Amiri Baraka argues that there is a distinct \"white jazz\" music genre expressive of whiteness. White jazz musicians appeared in the early 1920s in the Midwestern United States, as well as other areas. Bix Beiderbecke was one of the most prominent white jazz musicians. An influential style referred to as the Chicago School (or Chicago Style) was developed by white musicians including Bud Freeman, Jimmy McPartland. Frank Teschemacher, Dave Tough, and Eddie Condon. Others from Chicago such as Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa became leading members of big-band swing during the 1930s.","Jazz\n\nRole of women","Jazz\n\nWomen jazz performers and composers have contributed throughout jazz history. While women such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Ethel Waters, Betty Carter, Adelaide Hall, Abbey Lincoln, and Anita O'Day are famous for their jazz singing, women have achieved much less recognition for their contributions as composers, bandleaders, and instrumental performers. Other notable jazz women include piano player Lil Hardin Armstrong and jazz songwriters Irene Higginbotham (1918-1988) and Dorothy Fields (1905-1974). Women began playing instruments in jazz in the early 1920s, with the piano being one of the earliest instruments used which allowed female artists a degree of social acceptance. Some well known artists of the time include Sweet Emma Barrett, Mary Lou Williams, Billie Pierce, Jeanette Kimball and Lovie Austin.","Jazz\n\nWhen the men were drafted for WWII, many all-women big band jazz bands took over. The International Sweethearts of Rhythm (founded 1937) was a well-known jazz group of this era, becoming the first all-women integrated band in the U.S., touring Europe in 1945 and becoming the first black women to travel with the USO. The dress codes of the era required women to wear strapless dresses and high heeled shoes, which was somewhat of a hindrance to the integration of women into the big bands of suit-wearing men. Nevertheless, women were hired into many of the big-league big bands such as Woody Herman and Gerald Wilson.","Jazz\n\nHistory","Jazz\n\nJazz originated in the late 19th to early 20th century as interpretations of American and European classical music entwined with African and slave folk songs and the influences of West African culture. Its composition and style have changed many times throughout the years with each performer's personal interpretation and improvisation, which is also one of the greatest appeals of the genre.","Jazz\n\nOrigins","Jazz\n\nBlended African and European music sensibilities","Jazz\n\nBy 1866, the Atlantic slave trade had brought nearly 400,000 Africans to North America. The slaves came largely from West Africa and the greater Congo River basin, and brought strong musical traditions with them. The African traditions primarily make use of a single-line melody and call-and-response pattern, and the rhythms have a counter-metric structure and reflect African speech patterns.","Jazz\n\nLavish festivals featuring African-based dances to drums were organized on Sundays at Place Congo, or Congo Square, in New Orleans until 1843. There are historical accounts of other music and dance gatherings elsewhere in the southern United States. Robert Palmer said of percussive slave music:","Jazz\n\nUsually such music was associated with annual festivals, when the year's crop was harvested and several days were set aside for celebration. As late as 1861, a traveler in North Carolina saw dancers dressed in costumes that included horned headdresses and cow tails and heard music provided by a sheepskin-covered \"gumbo box\", apparently a frame drum; triangles and jawbones furnished the auxiliary percussion. There are quite a few [accounts] from the southeastern states and Louisiana dating from the period 1820–1850. Some of the earliest [Mississippi] Delta settlers came from the vicinity of New Orleans, where drumming was never actively discouraged for very long and homemade drums were used to accompany public dancing until the outbreak of the Civil War.","Jazz\n\nAnother influence came from the harmonic style of hymns of the church, which black slaves had learned and incorporated into their own music as spirituals. The origins of the blues are undocumented, though they can be seen as the secular counterpart of the spirituals. However, as Gerhard Kubik points out, whereas the spirituals are homophonic, rural blues and early jazz \"was largely based on concepts of heterophony.\"","Jazz\n\nDuring the early 19th century an increasing number of black musicians learned to play European instruments, particularly the violin, which they used to parody European dance music in their own cakewalk dances. In turn, European-American minstrel show performers in blackface popularized the music internationally, combining syncopation with European harmonic accompaniment. In the mid-1800s the white New Orleans composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk adapted slave rhythms and melodies from Cuba and other Caribbean islands into piano salon music. New Orleans was the main nexus between the Afro-Caribbean and African-American cultures.","Jazz\n\nAfrican rhythmic retention","Jazz\n\nThe \"Black Codes\" outlawed drumming by slaves, which meant that African drumming traditions were not preserved in North America, unlike in Cuba, Haiti, and elsewhere in the Caribbean. African-based rhythmic patterns were retained in the United States in large part through \"body rhythms\" such as stomping, clapping, and patting juba.","Jazz\n\nIn the opinion of jazz historian Ernest Borneman, what preceded New Orleans jazz before 1890 was \"Afro-Latin music\", similar to what was played in the Caribbean at the time. A three-stroke pattern known in Cuban music as tresillo is a fundamental rhythmic figure heard in many different slave musics of the Caribbean, as well as the Afro-Caribbean folk dances performed in New Orleans Congo Square and Gottschalk's compositions (for example \"Souvenirs From Havana\" (1859)). Tresillo is the most basic and most prevalent duple-pulse rhythmic cell in sub-Saharan African music traditions and the music of the African Diaspora.","Jazz\n\nTresillo is heard prominently in New Orleans second line music and in other forms of popular music from that city from the turn of the 20th century to present. \"By and large the simpler African rhythmic patterns survived in jazz ... because they could be adapted more readily to European rhythmic conceptions,\" the Jazz historian Gunther Schuller observed. \"Some survived, others were discarded as the Europeanization progressed.\"","Jazz\n\nIn the post-Civil War period (after 1865), African Americans were able to obtain surplus military bass drums, snare drums and fifes, and an original African-American drum and fife music emerged, featuring tresillo and related syncopated rhythmic figures. This was a drumming tradition that was distinct from its Caribbean counterparts, expressing a uniquely African-American sensibility. \"The snare and bass drummers played syncopated cross-rhythms,\" observed the writer Robert Palmer (writer), speculating that \"this tradition must have dated back to the latter half of the nineteenth century, and it could have not have developed in the first place if there hadn't been a reservoir of polyrhythmic sophistication in the culture it nurtured.\"","Jazz\n\n\"Spanish tinge\"—the Afro-Cuban rhythmic influence","Jazz\n\nAfrican-American music began incorporating Afro-Cuban rhythmic motifs in the 19th century, when the habanera (Cuban contradanza) gained international popularity. Musicians from Havana and New Orleans would take the twice-daily ferry between both cities to perform, and the habanera quickly took root in the musically fertile Crescent City. John Storm Roberts states that the musical genre habanera \"reached the U.S. twenty years before the first rag was published.\" For the more than quarter-century in which the cakewalk, ragtime, and proto-jazz were forming and developing, the habanera was a consistent part of African-American popular music.","Jazz\n\nHabaneras were widely available as sheet music, and were the first written music which was rhythmically based on an African motif (1803), From the perspective of African-American music, the habanera rhythm (also known as congo, tango-congo, or tango. ) can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat. The habanera was the first of many Cuban music genres which enjoyed periods of popularity in the United States, and reinforced and inspired the use of tresillo-based rhythms in African-American music.","Jazz\n\nNew Orleans native Louis Moreau Gottschalk's piano piece \"Ojos Criollos (Danse Cubaine)\" (1860) was influenced by the composer's studies in Cuba: the habanera rhythm is clearly heard in the left hand. In Gottschalk's symphonic work \"A Night in the Tropics\" (1859), the tresillo variant cinquillo appears extensively. The figure was later used by Scott Joplin and other ragtime composers.","Jazz\n\nComparing the music of New Orleans with the music of Cuba, Wynton Marsalis observes that tresillo is the New Orleans \"clave\", a Spanish word meaning 'code' or 'key', as in the key to a puzzle, or mystery. Although technically the pattern is only half a clave, Marsalis makes the point that the single-celled figure is the guide-pattern of New Orleans music. Jelly Roll Morton called the rhythmic figure the Spanish tinge, and considered it an essential ingredient of jazz.","Jazz\n\n1890s–1910s","Jazz\n\nRagtime","Jazz\n\nThe abolition of slavery in 1865 led to new opportunities for the education of freed African Americans. Although strict segregation limited employment opportunities for most blacks, many were able to find work in entertainment. Black musicians were able to provide entertainment in dances, minstrel shows, and in vaudeville, during which time many marching bands were formed. Black pianists played in bars, clubs and brothels, as ragtime developed.","Jazz\n\nRagtime appeared as sheet music, popularized by African-American musicians such as the entertainer Ernest Hogan, whose hit songs appeared in 1895. Two years later, Vess Ossman recorded a medley of these songs as a banjo solo known as \"Rag Time Medley\". Also in 1897, the white composer William H. Krell published his \"Mississippi Rag\" as the first written piano instrumental ragtime piece, and Tom Turpin published his \"Harlem Rag\", the first rag published by an African-American.","Jazz\n\nThe classically trained pianist Scott Joplin produced his \"Original Rags\" in 1898, and in 1899 had an international hit with \"Maple Leaf Rag\", a multi-strain ragtime march with four parts that feature recurring themes and a bass line with copious seventh chords. Its structure was the basis for many other rags, and the syncopations in the right hand, especially in the transition between the first and second strain, were novel at the time.","Jazz\n\nAfrican-based rhythmic patterns such as tresillo and its variants, the habanera rhythm and cinquillo, are heard in the ragtime compositions of Joplin, Turpin, and others. Joplin's \"Solace\" (1909) is generally considered to be within the habanera genre: both of the pianist's hands play in a syncopated fashion, completely abandoning any sense of a march rhythm. Ned Sublette postulates that the tresillo/habanera rhythm \"found its way into ragtime and the cakewalk,\" whilst Roberts suggests that \"the habanera influence may have been part of what freed black music from ragtime's European bass.\"","Jazz\n\nBlues","Jazz\n\nAfrican genesis","Jazz\n\nBlues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre, which originated in African-American communities of primarily the \"Deep South\" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from their spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants and rhymed simple narrative ballads.","Jazz\n\nThe African use of pentatonic scales contributed to the development of blue notes in blues and jazz. As Kubik explains:\nMany of the rural blues of the Deep South are stylistically an extension and merger of basically two broad accompanied song-style traditions in the west central Sudanic belt:\n* A strongly Arabic/Islamic song style, as found for example among the Hausa. It is characterized by melisma, wavy intonation, pitch instabilities within a pentatonic framework, and a declamatory voice.\n* An ancient west central Sudanic stratum of pentatonic song composition, often associated with simple work rhythms in a regular meter, but with notable off-beat accents (1999: 94).","Jazz\n\nW. C. Handy: early published blues","Jazz\n\nW. C. Handy became intrigued by the folk blues of the Deep South whilst traveling through the Mississippi Delta. In this folk blues form, the singer would improvise freely within a limited melodic range, sounding like a field holler, and the guitar accompaniment was slapped rather than strummed, like a small drum which responded in syncopated accents, functioning as another \"voice\". Handy and his band members were formally trained African-American musicians who had not grown up with the blues, yet he was able to adapt the blues to a larger band instrument format, and arrange them in a popular music form.","Jazz\n\nHandy wrote about his adopting of the blues:","Jazz\n\nThe primitive southern Negro, as he sang, was sure to bear down on the third and seventh tone of the scale, slurring between major and minor. Whether in the cotton field of the Delta or on the Levee up St. Louis way, it was always the same. Till then, however, I had never heard this slur used by a more sophisticated Negro, or by any white man. I tried to convey this effect ... by introducing flat thirds and sevenths (now called blue notes) into my song, although its prevailing key was major ..., and I carried this device into my melody as well.","Jazz\n\nThe publication of his \"Memphis Blues\" sheet music in 1912 introduced the 12-bar blues to the world (although Gunther Schuller argues that it is not really a blues, but \"more like a cakewalk\" ). This composition, as well as his later \"St. Louis Blues\" and others, included the habanera rhythm,W. C. Handy, Father of the Blues: An Autobiography, edited by Arna Bontemps: foreword by Abbe Niles. Macmillan Company, New York; (1941), pp. 99, 100 (no ISBN in this first printing). and would become jazz standards. Handy's music career began in the pre-jazz era, and contributed to the codification of jazz through the publication of some of the first jazz sheet music.","Jazz\n\nWithin the context of Western harmony","Jazz\n\nThe blues form which is ubiquitous in jazz is characterized by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues progression is the most common. An important part of the sound are the blue notes which, for expressive purposes, are sung or played flattened, or gradually bent (minor 3rd to major 3rd) in relation to the pitch of the major scale. The blues were the key that opened up an entirely new approach to Western harmony, ultimately leading to a high level of harmonic complexity in jazz.","Jazz\n\nNew Orleans","Jazz\n\nThe music of New Orleans had a profound effect on the creation of early jazz. Many early jazz performers played in venues throughout the city, such as the brothels and bars of the red-light district around Basin Street, known as \"Storyville\". In addition to dance bands, there were numerous marching bands who played at lavish funerals (later called jazz funerals), which were arranged by the African-American and European American communities. The instruments used in marching bands and dance bands became the basic instruments of jazz: brass, reeds tuned in the European 12-tone scale, and drums. Small bands which mixed self-taught and well educated African-American musicians, many of whom came from the funeral-procession tradition of New Orleans, played a seminal role in the development and dissemination of early jazz. These bands travelled throughout Black communities in the Deep South and, from around 1914 onwards, Afro-Creole and African-American musicians played in vaudeville shows which took jazz to western and northern US cities.","Jazz\n\nIn New Orleans, a white marching band leader named Papa Jack Laine integrated blacks and whites in his marching band. Laine was known as \"the father of white jazz\" because of the many top players who passed through his bands (including George Brunies, Sharkey Bonano and the future members of the Original Dixieland Jass Band). Laine was a good talent scout. During the early 1900s jazz was mostly done in the African-American and mulatto communities, due to segregation laws. The red light district of Storyville, New Orleans was crucial in bringing jazz music to a wider audience via tourists who came to the port city. Many jazz musicians from the African-American communities were hired to perform live music in brothels and bars, including many early jazz pioneers such as Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton, in addition to those from New Orleans other communities such as Lorenzo Tio and Alcide Nunez. Louis Armstrong also got his start in Storyville and would later find success in Chicago (along with others from New Orleans) after the United States government shut down Storyville in 1917.","Jazz\n\nSyncopation","Jazz\n\nThe cornetist Buddy Bolden led a band who are often mentioned as one of the prime originators of the style later to be called \"jazz\". He played in New Orleans around 1895–1906, before developing a mental illness; there are no recordings of him playing. Bolden's band is credited with creating the big four, the first syncopated bass drum pattern to deviate from the standard on-the-beat march. As the example below shows, the second half of the big four pattern is the habanera rhythm.","Jazz\n\nAfro-Creole pianist Jelly Roll Morton began his career in Storyville. From 1904, he toured with vaudeville shows around southern cities, also playing in Chicago and New York. In 1905 he composed his \"Jelly Roll Blues\", which on its publication in 1915 became the first jazz arrangement in print, introducing more musicians to the New Orleans style.","Jazz\n\nMorton considered the tresillo/habanera (which he called the Spanish tinge) to be an essential ingredient of jazz. In his own words: Now in one of my earliest tunes, \"New Orleans Blues,\" you can notice the Spanish tinge. In fact, if you can't manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning, I call it, for jazz.","Jazz\n\nMorton was a crucial innovator in the evolution from the early jazz form known as ragtime to jazz piano, and could perform pieces in either style; in 1938, Morton made a series of recordings for the Library of Congress, in which he demonstrated the difference between the two styles. Morton's solos however were still close to ragtime, and were not merely improvisations over chord changes as in later jazz; but his use of the blues was of equal importance.","Jazz\n\nSwing","Jazz\n\nMorton loosened ragtime's rigid rhythmic feeling, decreasing its embellishments and employing a swing feeling. Swing is the most important and enduring African-based rhythmic technique used in jazz. An oft quoted definition of swing by Louis Armstrong is: \"if you don't feel it, you'll never know it.\" The New Harvard Dictionary of Music states that swing is: \"An intangible rhythmic momentum in jazz ... Swing defies analysis; claims to its presence may inspire arguments.\" The dictionary does nonetheless provide the useful description of triple subdivisions of the beat contrasted with duple subdivisions: swing superimposes six subdivisions of the beat over a basic pulse structure or four subdivisions. This aspect of swing is far more prevalent in African-American music than in Afro-Caribbean music. One aspect of swing, which is heard in more rhythmically complex Diaspora musics, places strokes in-between the triple and duple-pulse \"grids\".","Jazz\n\nNew Orleans brass bands are a lasting influence, contributing horn players to the world of professional jazz with the distinct sound of the city whilst helping black children escape poverty. The leader of New Orleans' Camelia Brass Band, D'Jalma Ganier, taught Louis Armstrong to play trumpet; Armstrong would then popularize the New Orleans style of trumpet playing, and then expand it. Like Jelly Roll Morton, Armstrong is also credited with the abandonment of ragtime's stiffness in favor of swung notes. Armstrong, perhaps more than any other musician, codified the rhythmic technique of swing in jazz, and broadened the jazz solo vocabulary.","Jazz\n\nThe Original Dixieland Jass Band made the music's first recordings early in 1917, and their \"Livery Stable Blues\" became the earliest released jazz record. That year, numerous other bands made recordings featuring \"jazz\" in the title or band name, but most were ragtime or novelty records rather than jazz. In February 1918 during World War I, James Reese Europe's \"Hellfighters\" infantry band took ragtime to Europe, then on their return recorded Dixieland standards including \"Darktown Strutters' Ball\".","Jazz\n\nOther regions","Jazz\n\nIn the northeastern United States, a \"hot\" style of playing ragtime had developed, notably James Reese Europe's symphonic Clef Club orchestra in New York, which played a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall in 1912. The Baltimore rag style of Eubie Blake influenced James P. Johnson's development of stride piano playing, in which the right hand plays the melody, while the left hand provides the rhythm and bassline.","Jazz\n\nIn Ohio and elsewhere in the midwest the major influence was ragtime, until about 1919. Around 1912, when the four-string banjo and saxophone came in, musicians began to improvise the melody line, but the harmony and rhythm remained unchanged. A contemporary account states that blues could only be heard in jazz in the gut-bucket cabarets, which were generally looked down upon by the Black middle-class.","Jazz\n\n1920s and 1930s","Jazz\n\nJazz Age","Jazz\n\nFrom 1920 to 1933 Prohibition in the United States banned the sale of alcoholic drinks, resulting in illicit speakeasies which became lively venues of the \"Jazz Age\", hosting popular music including current dance songs, novelty songs and show tunes. Jazz began to get a reputation as being immoral, and many members of the older generations saw it as threatening the old cultural values and promoting the new decadent values of the Roaring 20s. Professor Henry van Dyke of Princeton University wrote: \"... it is not music at all. It's merely an irritation of the nerves of hearing, a sensual teasing of the strings of physical passion.\" The media too began to denigrate jazz. The New York Times used stories and headlines to pick at jazz: Siberian villagers were said by the paper to have used jazz to scare off bears, when in fact they had used pots and pans; another story claimed that the fatal heart attack of a celebrated conductor was caused by jazz.","Jazz\n\nIn 1919 Kid Ory's Original Creole Jazz Band of musicians from New Orleans began playing in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where in 1922 they became the first black jazz band of New Orleans origin to make recordings. That year also saw the first recording by Bessie Smith, the most famous of the 1920s blues singers. Chicago meanwhile was the main center developing the new \"Hot Jazz\", where King Oliver joined Bill Johnson. Bix Beiderbecke formed The Wolverines in 1924.","Jazz\n\nDespite its Southern black origins, there was a larger market for jazzy dance music played by white orchestras. In 1918 Paul Whiteman and his orchestra became a hit in San Francisco, California, signing with Victor Talking Machine Company in 1920 and becoming the top bandleader of the 1920s, giving \"hot jazz\" a white component, hiring white musicians including Bix Beiderbecke, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Frankie Trumbauer, and Joe Venuti. In 1924 Whiteman commissioned Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which was premiered by his orchestra. After the band successfully toured Europe, huge hot jazz orchestras in theater pits caught on with other whites, including Fred Waring, Jean Goldkette, and Nathaniel Shilkret. Whiteman's success was based on a \"rhetoric of domestication\" according to which he had elevated and rendered valuable (read \"white\") a previously inchoate (read \"black\") kind of music.","Jazz\n\nWhiteman's success caused blacks to follow suit, including Earl Hines (who opened in The Grand Terrace Cafe in Chicago in 1928), Duke Ellington (who opened at the Cotton Club in Harlem in 1927), Lionel Hampton, Fletcher Henderson, Claude Hopkins, and Don Redman, with Henderson and Redman developing the \"talking to one another\" formula for \"hot\" Swing music.","Jazz\n\nIn 1924 Louis Armstrong joined the Fletcher Henderson dance band for a year, as featured soloist. The original New Orleans style was polyphonic, with theme variation and simultaneous collective improvisation. Armstrong was a master of his hometown style, but by the time he joined Henderson's band, he was already a trailblazer in a new phase of jazz, with its emphasis on arrangements and soloists. Armstrong's solos went well beyond the theme-improvisation concept, and extemporized on chords, rather than melodies. According to Schuller, by comparison, the solos by Armstrong's bandmates (including a young Coleman Hawkins), sounded \"stiff, stodgy,\" with \"jerky rhythms and a grey undistinguished tone quality.\" The following example shows a short excerpt of the straight melody of \"Mandy, Make Up Your Mind\" by George W. Meyer and Arthur Johnston (top), compared with Armstrong's solo improvisations (below) (recorded 1924). (The example approximates Armstrong's solo, as it doesn't convey his use of swing.)","Jazz\n\nAlso in the 1920s Skiffle, jazz played with homemade instruments such as washboard, jugs, musical saw, kazoos, etc. began to be recorded in Chicago, Ill., later merging with country music.","Jazz\n\nArmstrong's solos were a significant factor in making jazz a true 20th-century language. After leaving Henderson's group, Armstrong formed his virtuosic Hot Five band, where he popularized scat singing.","Jazz\n\nJelly Roll Morton recorded with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in an early mixed-race collaboration, then in 1926 formed his Red Hot Peppers.","Jazz\n\nBy 1930 the New Orleans-style ensemble was a relic, and jazz belonged to the world.","Jazz\n\nSwing","Jazz\n\nThe 1930s belonged to popular swing big bands, in which some virtuoso soloists became as famous as the band leaders. Key figures in developing the \"big\" jazz band included bandleaders and arrangers Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Harry James, and Jimmie Lunceford. Although it was a collective sound, swing also offered individual musicians a chance to \"solo\" and improvise melodic, thematic solos which could at times be very complex \"important\" music.","Jazz\n\nSwing was also dance music. It was broadcast on the radio \"live\" nightly across America for many years, especially by Earl Hines and his Grand Terrace Cafe Orchestra broadcasting coast-to-coast from Chicago (well placed for \"live\" US time-zones).","Jazz\n\nOver time, social strictures regarding racial segregation began to relax in America: white bandleaders began to recruit black musicians and black bandleaders white ones. In the mid-1930, Benny Goodman hired pianist Teddy Wilson, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and guitarist Charlie Christian to join small groups. In the 1930s, Kansas City Jazz as exemplified by tenor saxophonist Lester Young (inventor of much of hipster jargon) marked the transition from big bands to the bebop influence of the 1940s. An early 1940s style known as \"jumping the blues\" or jump blues used small combos, uptempo music and blues chord progressions, drawing on boogie-woogie from the 1930s.","Jazz\n\nBeginnings of European jazz","Jazz\n\nAs only a limited number of American jazz records were released in Europe, European jazz traces many of its roots to American artists such as James Reese Europe, Paul Whiteman and Lonnie Johnson, who visited Europe during and after World War I. It was their live performances which inspired European audiences' interest in jazz, as well as the interest in all things American (and therefore exotic) which accompanied the economic and political woes of Europe during this time. The beginnings of a distinct European style of jazz began to emerge in this interwar period.","Jazz\n\nBritish jazz began with a tour by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1919. In 1926 Fred Elizalde and His Cambridge Undergraduates began broadcasting on the BBC.","Jazz\n\nThis distinct style entered full swing in France with the Quintette du Hot Club de France, which began in 1934. Much of this French jazz was a combination of African-American jazz and the symphonic styles in which French musicians were well-trained; in this, it is easy to see the inspiration taken from Paul Whiteman, since his style was also a fusion of the two. Belgian guitar virtuoso Django Reinhardt popularized gypsy jazz, a mix of 1930s American swing, French dance hall \"musette\" and Eastern European folk with a languid, seductive feel; the main instruments are steel stringed guitar, violin, and double bass, and solos pass from one player to another as the guitar and bass play the role of the rhythm section. Some music researchers hold that it was Philadelphia's Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti who pioneered the guitar-violin partnership typical of the genre, which was brought to France after they had been heard live or on Okeh Records in the late 1920s.","Jazz\n\n1940s and 1950s","Jazz\n\n\"American music\"—the influence of Ellington","Jazz\n\nBy the 1940s, Duke Ellington's music had transcended the bounds of swing, bridging jazz and art music in a natural synthesis. Ellington called his music \"American Music\" rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as \"beyond category.\" These included many of the musicians who were members of his orchestra, some of whom are considered among the best in jazz in their own right, but it was Ellington who melded them into one of the most well-known jazz orchestral units in the history of jazz. He often composed specifically for the style and skills of these individuals, such as \"Jeep's Blues\" for Johnny Hodges, \"Concerto for Cootie\" for Cootie Williams (which later became \"Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me\" with Bob Russell's lyrics), and \"The Mooche\" for Tricky Sam Nanton and Bubber Miley. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's \"Caravan\" and \"Perdido\", which brought the \"Spanish Tinge\" to big-band jazz. Several members of the orchestra remained with him for several decades.","Jazz\n\nThe band reached a creative peak in the early 1940s, when Ellington and a small hand-picked group of his composers and arrangers wrote for an orchestra of distinctive voices who displayed tremendous creativity.","Jazz\n\nBebop","Jazz\n\nIn the early 1940s, bebop-style performers began to shift jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging \"musician's music.\" The most influential bebop musicians included saxophonist Charlie Parker, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown, and drummer Max Roach. Divorcing itself from dance music, bebop established itself more as an art form, thus lessening its potential popular and commercial appeal.","Jazz\n\nComposer Gunther Schuller wrote:\n ... In 1943 I heard the great Earl Hines band which had Bird in it and all those other great musicians. They were playing all the flatted fifth chords and all the modern harmonies and substitutions and Dizzy Gillespie runs in the trumpet section work. Two years later I read that that was 'bop' and the beginning of modern jazz ... but the band never made recordings.","Jazz\n\nDizzy Gillespie wrote:\n ... People talk about the Hines band being 'the incubator of bop' and the leading exponents of that music ended up in the Hines band. But people also have the erroneous impression that the music was new. It was not. The music evolved from what went before. It was the same basic music. The difference was in how you got from here to here to here ... naturally each age has got its own shit.","Jazz\n\nRhythm","Jazz\n\nSince bebop was meant to be listened to, not danced to, it could use faster tempos. Drumming shifted to a more elusive and explosive style, in which the ride cymbal was used to keep time while the snare and bass drum were used for accents. This led to a highly syncopated linear rhythmic complexity.","Jazz\n\nHarmony","Jazz\n\nBebop musicians employed several harmonic devices which were not previously typical in jazz, engaging in a more abstracted form of chord-based improvisation. Bebop scales are traditional scales with an added chromatic passing note; bebop also uses \"passing\" chords, substitute chords, and altered chords. New forms of chromaticism and dissonance were introduced into jazz, and the dissonant tritone (or \"flatted fifth\") interval became the \"most important interval of bebop\" Chord progressions for bebop tunes were often taken directly from popular swing-era songs and reused with a new and more complex melody to form new compositions, a practice which was already well-established in earlier jazz, but came to be central to the bebop style. Bebop made use of several relatively common chord progressions, such as blues (at base, I-IV-V, but infused with II-V motion) and 'rhythm changes' (I-VI-II-V) - the chords to the 1930s pop standard \"I Got Rhythm.\" Late bop also moved towards extended forms that represented a departure from pop and show tunes.","Jazz\n\nThe harmonic development in bebop is often traced back to a transcendent moment experienced by Charlie Parker while performing \"Cherokee\" at Clark Monroe's Uptown House, New York, in early 1942:\n I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used, ... and I kept thinking there's bound to be something else. I could hear it sometimes. I couldn't play it.... I was working over 'Cherokee,' and, as I did, I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing. It came alive—Parker.","Jazz\n\nGerhard Kubik postulates that the harmonic development in bebop sprang from the blues and other African-related tonal sensibilities, rather than 20th-century Western art music as some have suggested:\n Auditory inclinations were the African legacy in [Parker's] life, reconfirmed by the experience of the blues tonal system, a sound world at odds with the Western diatonic chord categories. Bebop musicians eliminated Western-style functional harmony in their music while retaining the strong central tonality of the blues as a basis for drawing upon various African matrices.","Jazz\n\nSamuel Floyd states that blues were both the bedrock and propelling force of bebop, bringing about three main developments:\n* A new harmonic conception, using extended chord structures that led to unprecedented harmonic and melodic variety.\n* A developed and even more highly syncopated, linear rhythmic complexity and a melodic angularity in which the blue note of the fifth degree was established as an important melodic-harmonic device.\n* The reestablishment of the blues as the music's primary organizing and functional principle.","Jazz\n\nAs Kubik explained:\nWhile for an outside observer, the harmonic innovations in bebop would appear to be inspired by experiences in Western \"serious\" music, from Claude Debussy to Arnold Schoenberg, such a scheme cannot be sustained by the evidence from a cognitive approach. Claude Debussy did have some influence on jazz, for example, on Bix Beiderbecke's piano playing. And it is also true that Duke Ellington adopted and reinterpreted some harmonic devices in European contemporary music. West Coast jazz would run into such debts as would several forms of cool jazz, but bebop has hardly any such debts in the sense of direct borrowings. On the contrary, ideologically, bebop was a strong statement of rejection of any kind of eclecticism, propelled by a desire to activate something deeply buried in self. Bebop then revived tonal-harmonic ideas transmitted through the blues and reconstructed and expanded others in a basically non-Western harmonic approach. The ultimate significance of all this is that the experiments in jazz during the 1940s brought back to African-American music several structural principles and techniques rooted in African traditions","Jazz\n\nThese divergences from the jazz mainstream of the time initially met with a divided, sometimes hostile, response among fans and fellow musicians, especially established swing players, who bristled at the new harmonic sounds. To hostile critics, bebop seemed to be filled with \"racing, nervous phrases\". But despite the initial friction, by the 1950s bebop had become an accepted part of the jazz vocabulary.","Jazz\n\nAfro-Cuban jazz (cu-bop)","Jazz\n\nMachito and Mario Bauza","Jazz\n\nThe general consensus among musicians and musicologists is that the first original jazz piece to be overtly based in clave was \"Tanga\" (1943), composed by Cuban-born Mario Bauza and recorded by Machito and his Afro-Cubans in New York City. \"Tanga\" began as a spontaneous descarga (Cuban jam session), with jazz solos superimposed on top.","Jazz\n\nThis was the birth of Afro-Cuban jazz. The use of clave brought the African timeline, or key pattern, into jazz. Music organized around key patterns convey a two-celled (binary) structure, which is a complex level of African cross-rhythm. Within the context of jazz however, harmony is the primary referent, not rhythm. The harmonic progression can begin on either side of clave, and the harmonic \"one\" is always understood to be \"one\". If the progression begins on the \"three-side\" of clave, it is said to be in 3-2 clave. If the progression begins on the \"two-side\", its in 2-3 clave.","Jazz\n\nBobby Sanabria mentions several innovations of Machito's Afro-Cubans, citing them as the first band: to wed big band jazz arranging techniques within an original composition, with jazz oriented soloists utilizing an authentic Afro-Cuban based rhythm section in a successful manner; to explore modal harmony (a concept explored much later by Miles Davis and Gil Evans) from a jazz arranging perspective; and to overtly explore the concept of clave counterpoint from an arranging standpoint (the ability to weave seamlessly from one side of the clave to the other without breaking its rhythmic integrity within the structure of a musical arrangement). They were also the first band in the United States to publicly utilize the term Afro-Cuban as the band's moniker, thus identifying itself and acknowledging the West African roots of the musical form they were playing. It forced New York City's Latino and African-American communities to deal with their common West African musical roots in a direct way, whether they wanted to acknowledge it publicly or not.","Jazz\n\nDizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo","Jazz\n\nIt was Mario Bauzá who introduced bebop innovator Dizzy Gillespie to the Cuban conga drummer and composer Chano Pozo. Gillespie and Pozo's brief collaboration produced some of the most enduring Afro-Cuban jazz standards. \"Manteca\" (1947) is the first jazz standard to be rhythmically based on clave. According to Gillespie, Pozo composed the layered, contrapuntal guajeos (Afro-Cuban ostinatos) of the A section and the introduction, while Gillespie wrote the bridge. Gillespie recounted: \"If I'd let it go like [Chano] wanted it, it would have been strictly Afro-Cuban all the way. There wouldn't have been a bridge. I thought I was writing an eight-bar bridge, but ... I had to keep going and ended up writing a sixteen-bar bridge.\" The bridge gave \"Manteca\" a typical jazz harmonic structure, setting the piece apart from Bauza's modal \"Tanga\" of a few years earlier.","Jazz\n\nGillespie's collaboration with Pozo brought specific African-based rhythms into bebop. While pushing the boundaries of harmonic improvisation, cu-bop, as it was called, also drew more directly from African rhythmic structures. Jazz arrangements with a \"Latin\" A section and a swung B section, with all choruses swung during solos, became common practice with many \"Latin tunes\" of the jazz standard repertoire. This approach can be heard on pre-1980 recordings of \"Manteca\", \"A Night in Tunisia\", \"Tin Tin Deo\", and \"On Green Dolphin Street\".","Jazz\n\nAfrican cross-rhythm","Jazz\n\nCuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria first recorded his composition \"Afro Blue\" in 1959. \n\"Afro Blue\" was the first jazz standard built upon a typical African three-against-two (3:2) cross-rhythm, or hemiola. The song begins with the bass repeatedly playing 6 cross-beats per each measure of 12/8, or 6 cross-beats per 4 main beats—6:4 (two cells of 3:2). The following example shows the original ostinato \"Afro Blue\" bass line; the slashed noteheads indicate the main beats (not bass notes), where you would normally tap your foot to \"keep time.\"","Jazz\n\nWhen John Coltrane covered \"Afro Blue\" in 1963, he inverted the metric hierarchy, interpreting the tune as a 3/4 jazz waltz with duple cross-beats superimposed (2:3). Originally a B pentatonic blues, Coltrane expanded the harmonic structure of \"Afro Blue.\"","Jazz\n\nPerhaps the most respected Afro-cuban jazz combo of the late 1950s was vibraphonist Cal Tjader's band. Tjader had Mongo Santamaria, Armando Peraza, and Willie Bobo on his early recording dates.","Jazz\n\nDixieland revival","Jazz\n\nIn the late 1940s there was a revival of \"Dixieland\" music, harking back to the original contrapuntal New Orleans style. This was driven in large part by record company reissues of early jazz classics by the Oliver, Morton, and Armstrong bands of the 1930s. There were two types of musicians involved in the revival: the first group was made up of those who had begun their careers playing in the traditional style and were returning to it (or continuing what they had been playing all along), such as Bob Crosby's Bobcats, Max Kaminsky, Eddie Condon, and Wild Bill Davison. Most of these players were originally Midwesterners, although there were a small number of New Orleans musicians involved. The second group of revivalists consisted of younger musicians, such as those in the Lu Watters band, Conrad Janis, and Ward Kimball and his Firehouse Five Plus Two Jazz Band. By the late 1940s, Louis Armstrong's Allstars band became a leading ensemble. Through the 1950s and 1960s, Dixieland was one of the most commercially popular jazz styles in the US, Europe, and Japan, although critics paid little attention to it.","Jazz\n\nCool jazz and West Coast jazz","Jazz\n\nIn 1944 jazz impresario Norman Granz organized the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles, which helped make a star of Nat \"King\" Cole and Les Paul. In 1946 he founded Clef Records, discovering Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson in 1949, and merging Clef Records with his new label Verve Records in 1956, which advanced the career of Ella Fitzgerald et al.","Jazz\n\nBy the end of the 1940s, the nervous energy and tension of bebop was replaced with a tendency toward calm and smoothness with the sounds of cool jazz, which favored long, linear melodic lines. It emerged in New York City, and dominated jazz in the first half of the 1950s. The starting point was a collection of 1949 and 1950 singles by a nonet led by Miles Davis, released as the Birth of the Cool (1957). Later cool jazz recordings by musicians such as Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Gil Evans, Stan Getz, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Gerry Mulligan usually had a \"lighter\" sound that avoided the aggressive tempos and harmonic abstraction of bebop.","Jazz\n\nCool jazz later became strongly identified with the West Coast jazz scene, as typified by singers Chet Baker, Mel Tormé, and Anita O'Day, but it also had a particular resonance in Europe, especially Scandinavia, where figures such as baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin and pianist Bengt Hallberg emerged. The theoretical underpinnings of cool jazz were laid out by the Chicago pianist Lennie Tristano, and its influence stretches into such later developments as bossa nova, modal jazz, and even free jazz.","Jazz\n\nHard bop","Jazz\n\nHard bop is an extension of bebop (or \"bop\") music which incorporates influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano playing. Hard bop was developed in the mid-1950s, coalescing in 1953 and 1954; it developed partly in response to the vogue for cool jazz in the early 1950s, and paralleled the rise of rhythm and blues. Miles Davis' 1954 performance of \"Walkin'\" at the first Newport Jazz Festival announced the style to the jazz world. The quintet Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, fronted by Blakey and featuring pianist Horace Silver and trumpeter Clifford Brown, were leaders in the hard bop movement along with Davis.","Jazz\n\nModal jazz","Jazz\n\nModal jazz is a development which began in the later 1950s which takes the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Previously, a solo was meant to fit into a given chord progression, but with modal jazz the soloist creates a melody using one (or a small number of) modes. The emphasis is thus shifted from harmony to melody: \"Historically, this caused a seismic shift among jazz musicians, away from thinking vertically (the chord), and towards a more horizontal approach (the scale),\" explained pianist Mark Levine.","Jazz\n\nThe modal theory stems from a work by George Russell. Miles Davis introduced the concept to the greater jazz world with Kind of Blue (1959), an exploration of the possibilities of modal jazz which would become the best selling jazz album of all time. In contrast to Davis' earlier work with hard bop and its complex chord progression and improvisation, the entire Kind of Blue album was composed as a series of \"modal sketches\", in which each performer was given a set of scales that defined the parameters of their improvisation and style. \"I didn't write out the music for Kind of Blue, but brought in sketches for what everybody was supposed to play because I wanted a lot of spontaneity,\" recalled Davis. The track \"So What\" has only two chords: D-7 and E-7.","Jazz\n\nOther innovators in this style include Jackie McLean, and two of the musicians who had also played on Kind of Blue: John Coltrane and Bill Evans.","Jazz\n\nBy the 1950s, Afro-Cuban jazz had been using modes for at least a decade, as much of it borrowed from Cuban popular dance forms which are structured around multiple ostinatos with only a few chords. A case in point is Mario Bauza's \"Tanga\" (1943), the first Afro-Cuban jazz piece. Machito's Afro-Cubans recorded modal tunes in the 1940s, featuring jazz soloists such as Howard McGhee, Brew Moore, Charlie Parker and Flip Phillips. However, there is no evidence that Davis or other mainstream jazz musicians were influenced by the use of modes in Afro-Cuban jazz, or other branches of Latin jazz.","Jazz\n\nFree jazz","Jazz\n\nFree jazz, and the related form of avant-garde jazz broke through into an open space of \"free tonality\" in which meter, beat, and formal symmetry all disappeared, and a range of World music from India, Africa and Arabia were melded into an intense, even religiously ecstatic or orgiastic style of playing. While loosely inspired by bebop, free jazz tunes gave players much more latitude; the loose harmony and tempo was deemed controversial when this approach was first developed. The bassist Charles Mingus is also frequently associated with the avant-garde in jazz, although his compositions draw from myriad styles and genres.","Jazz\n\nThe first major stirrings came in the 1950s with the early work of Ornette Coleman (whose 1960 album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation coined the term) and Cecil Taylor. In the 1960s exponents included Albert Ayler, Gato Barbieri, Carla Bley, Don Cherry, Larry Coryell, John Coltrane, Bill Dixon, Jimmy Giuffre, Steve Lacy, Michael Mantler, Sun Ra, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, and John Tchicai. In developing his late style, Coltrane was especially influenced by the dissonance of Ayler's trio with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray, a rhythm section honed with Cecil Taylor as leader. In November 1961 Coltrane played a gig at the Village Vanguard, which resulted in the classic Chasin' the 'Trane, which Down Beat magazine panned as \"Anti-Jazz\". On his 1961 tour of France he was booed, but persevered, signing with the new Impulse! Records in 1960 and turning it into \"the house that Trane built\", while championing many younger free jazz musicians, notably Archie Shepp, who often played with trumpeter Bill Dixon, who organized the 4-day \"October Revolution in Jazz\" in Manhattan in 1964, the first free jazz festival.","Jazz\n\nA series of recordings with the Classic Quartet in the first half of 1965 show Coltrane's playing becoming increasingly abstract, with greater incorporation of devices like multiphonics, utilization of overtones, and playing in the altissimo register, as well as a mutated return to Coltrane's sheets of sound. In the studio, he all but abandoned his soprano to concentrate on the tenor saxophone. In addition, the quartet responded to the leader by playing with increasing freedom. The group's evolution can be traced through the recordings The John Coltrane Quartet Plays, Living Space and Transition (both June 1965), New Thing at Newport (July 1965), Sun Ship (August 1965) and First Meditations (September 1965).","Jazz\n\nIn June 1965 Coltrane and 10 other musicians recorded Ascension, a 40-minute long piece without breaks that included adventurous solos by young avante-garde musicians as well as Coltrane, and was controversial primarily for the collective improvisation sections that separated the solos. Dave Liebman later called it \"the torch that lit the free jazz thing.\". After recording with the quartet over the next few months, Coltrane invited Pharoah Sanders to join the band in September 1965. While Coltrane used over-blowing frequently as an emotional exclamation-point, Sanders would opt to overblow his entire solo, resulting in a constant screaming and screeching in the altissimo range of the instrument.","Jazz\n\nFree jazz in Europe","Jazz\n\nFree jazz quickly found a foothold in Europe, in part because musicians such as Ayler, Taylor, Steve Lacy and Eric Dolphy spent extended periods there, and European musicians Michael Mantler, John Tchicai et al. traveled to the U.S. to learn it firsthand. A distinctive European contemporary jazz (often incorporating elements of free jazz but not limited to it) also flourished because of the emergence of European musicians such as Peter Brötzmann, John Surman, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Albert Mangelsdorff, Kenny Wheeler, and Mike Westbrook, who were anxious to develop new approaches reflecting their national and regional musical cultures and contexts. Since the 1960s various creative centers of jazz have developed in Europe, such as the creative jazz scene in Amsterdam. Following the work of veteran drummer Han Bennink and pianist Misha Mengelberg, musicians started to explore free music by collectively improvising until a certain form (melody, rhythm, or even famous song) is found by the band. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead documented the free jazz scene in Amsterdam and some of its main exponents such as the ICP (Instant Composers Pool) orchestra in his book New Dutch Swing.","Jazz\n\nSince the 1990s Keith Jarrett has been prominent in defending free jazz from criticism by traditionalists.","Jazz\n\n1960s and 1970s","Jazz\n\nLatin jazz","Jazz\n\nLatin jazz is the term used to describe jazz which employs Latin American rhythms, and is generally understood to have a more specific meaning than simply jazz from Latin America. A more precise term might be Afro-Latin jazz, as the jazz subgenre typically employs rhythms that either have a direct analog in Africa, or exhibit an African rhythmic influence beyond what is ordinarily heard in other jazz. The two main categories of Latin jazz are Afro-Cuban jazz and Brazilian jazz.","Jazz\n\nIn the 1960s and 1970s many jazz musicians had only a basic understanding of Cuban and Brazilian music, and jazz compositions which used Cuban or Brazilian elements were often referred to as \"Latin tunes\", with no distinction between a Cuban son montuno and a Brazilian bossa nova. Even as late as 2000, in Mark Gridley's Jazz Styles: History and Analysis, a bossa nova bass line is referred to as a \"Latin bass figure.\" It was not uncommon during the 1960s and 1970s to hear a conga playing a Cuban tumbao while the drumset and bass played a Brazilian bossa nova pattern. Many jazz standards such as \"Manteca\", \"On Green Dolphin Street\" and \"Song for My Father\" have a \"Latin\" A section and a swung B section. Typically, the band would only play an even-eighth \"Latin\" feel in the A section of the head, and swing throughout all of the solos. Latin jazz specialists like Cal Tjader tended to be the exception. For example, on a 1959 live Tjader recording of \"A Night in Tunisia\", pianist Vince Guaraldi soloed through the entire form over an authentic mambo.","Jazz\n\nAfro-Cuban jazz","Jazz\n\nAfro-Cuban jazz often uses Afro-Cuban instruments such as congas, timbales, güiro and claves, combined with piano, double bass, etc. Afro-Cuban jazz began with Machito's Afro-Cubans in the early 1940s, but took off and entered the mainstream in the late 1940s when bebop musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Billy Taylor began experimenting with Cuban rhythms. Mongo Santamaria and Cal Tjader further refined the genre in the late 1950s.","Jazz\n\nAlthough a great deal of Cuban-based Latin jazz is modal, Latin jazz is not always modal: it can be as harmonically expansive as post-bop jazz. For example, Tito Puente recorded an arrangement of \"Giant Steps\" done to an Afro-Cuban guaguancó. A Latin jazz piece may momentarily contract harmonically, as in the case of a percussion solo over a one or two-chord piano guajeo.","Jazz\n\nGuajeos","Jazz\n\nGuajeo is the name for the typical Afro-Cuban ostinato melodies which are commonly used motifs in Latin jazz compositions. They originated in the genre known as son. Guajeos provide a rhythmic and melodic framework that may be varied within certain parameters, whilst still maintaining a repetitive - and thus \"danceable\" - structure. Most guajeos are rhythmically based on clave (rhythm).","Jazz\n\nGuajeos are one of the most important elements of the vocabulary of Afro-Cuban descarga (jazz-inspired instrumental jams), providing a means of tension and resolution and a sense of forward momentum, within a relatively simple harmonic structure. The use of multiple, contrapuntal guajeos in Latin jazz facilitates simultaneous collective improvisation based on theme variation. In a way, this polyphonic texture is reminiscent of the original New Orleans style of jazz.","Jazz\n\nAfro-Cuban jazz renaissance","Jazz\n\nFor most of its history, Afro-Cuban jazz had been a matter of superimposing jazz phrasing over Cuban rhythms. But by the end of the 1970s a new generation of New York City musicians had emerged who were fluent in both salsa dance music and jazz, leading to a new level of integration of jazz and Cuban rhythms. This era of creativity and vitality is best represented by the Gonzalez brothers Jerry (congas and trumpet) and Andy (bass). During 1974-1976 they were members of one of Eddie Palmieri's most experimental salsa groups: salsa was the medium, but Palmieri was stretching the form in new ways. He incorporated parallel fourths, with McCoy Tyner-type vamps. The innovations of Palmieri, the Gonzalez brothers and others led to an Afro-Cuban jazz renaissance in New York City.","Jazz\n\nThis occurred in parallel with developments in Cuba The first Cuban band of this new wave was Irakere. Their \"Chékere-son\" (1976) introduced a style of \"Cubanized\" bebop-flavored horn lines that departed from the more angular guajeo-based lines which were typical of Cuban popular music and Latin jazz up until that time. It was based on Charlie Parker's composition \"Billie's Bounce\", jumbled together in a way that fused clave and bebop horn lines. In spite of the ambivalence of some band members towards Irakere's Afro-Cuban folkloric / jazz fusion, their experiments forever changed Cuban jazz: their innovations are still heard in the high level of harmonic and rhythmic complexity in Cuban jazz, and in the jazzy and complex contemporary form of popular dance music known as timba.","Jazz\n\nAfro-Brazilian jazz","Jazz\n\nBrazilian jazz such as bossa nova is derived from samba, with influences from jazz and other 20th-century classical and popular music styles. Bossa is generally moderately paced, with melodies sung in Portuguese or English, whilst he related term jazz-samba describes an adaptation of street samba into jazz.","Jazz\n\nThe bossa nova style was pioneered by Brazilians João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim, and was made popular by Elizete Cardoso's recording of \"Chega de Saudade\" on the Canção do Amor Demais LP. Gilberto's initial releases, and the 1959 film Black Orpheus, achieved significant popularity in Latin America; this spread to North America via visiting American jazz musicians. The resulting recordings by Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz cemented bossa nova's popularity and led to a worldwide boom, with 1963's Getz/Gilberto, numerous recordings by famous jazz performers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, and the eventual entrenchment of the bossa nova style as a lasting influence in world music.","Jazz\n\nBrazilian percussionists such as Airto Moreira and Naná Vasconcelos also influenced jazz internationally by introducing Afro-Brazilian folkloric instruments and rhythms into a wide variety of jazz styles, thus attracting a greater audience to them.","Jazz\n\nPost-bop","Jazz\n\nPost-bop jazz is a form of small-combo jazz derived from earlier bop styles. The genre's origins lie in seminal work by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. Generally, the term post-bop is taken to mean jazz from the mid-sixties onwards that assimilates influences from hard bop, modal jazz, the avant-garde and free jazz, without necessarily being immediately identifiable as any of the above.","Jazz\n\nMuch post-bop was recorded for Blue Note Records. Key albums include Speak No Evil by Shorter; The Real McCoy by McCoy Tyner; Maiden Voyage by Hancock; Miles Smiles by Davis; and Search for the New Land by Lee Morgan (an artist who is not typically associated with the post-bop genre). Most post-bop artists worked in other genres as well, with a particularly strong overlap with the later hard bop.","Jazz\n\nSoul jazz","Jazz\n\nSoul jazz was a development of hard bop which incorporated strong influences from blues, gospel and rhythm and blues to create music for small groups, often the organ trio of Hammond organ, drummer and tenor saxophonist. Unlike hard bop, soul jazz generally emphasized repetitive grooves and melodic hooks, and improvisations were often less complex than in other jazz styles. It often had a steadier \"funk\" style groove, which was different from the swing rhythms typical of much hard bop.","Jazz\n\nHorace Silver had a large influence on the soul jazz style, with songs that used funky and often gospel-based piano vamps. Important soul jazz organists included Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy Smith and Johnny Hammond Smith, and influential tenor saxophone players included Eddie \"Lockjaw\" Davis and Stanley Turrentine.","Jazz\n\nAfrican-inspired","Jazz\n\nThemes","Jazz\n\nThere was a resurgence of interest in jazz and other forms of African-American cultural expression during the Black Arts Movement and Black nationalist period of the 1960s and 1970s. African themes became popular, and many new jazz compositions were given African-related titles: \"Black Nile\" (Wayne Shorter), \"Blue Nile\" (Alice Coltrane), \"Obirin African\" (Art Blakey), \"Zambia\" (Lee Morgan), \"Appointment in Ghana\" (Jackie McLean), \"Marabi\" (Cannonball Adderley), \"Yoruba\" (Hubert Laws), and many more. Pianist Randy Weston's music incorporated African elements, such as in the large-scale suite \"Uhuru Africa\" (with the participation of poet Langston Hughes) and \"Highlife: Music From the New African Nations.\" Both Weston and saxophonist Stanley Turrentine covered the Nigerian Bobby Benson's piece \"Niger Mambo\", which features Afro-Caribbean and jazz elements within a West African Highlife style. Some musicians, including Pharoah Sanders, Hubert Laws and Wayne Shorter, began using African instruments such as kalimbas, bells, beaded gourds and other instruments which were not traditional to jazz.","Jazz\n\nRhythm","Jazz\n\nDuring this period there was an increased use of the typical African 12/8 cross-rhythmic structure in jazz. Herbie Hancock's \"Succotash\" on Inventions and Dimensions (1963) is an open-ended modal 12/8 improvised jam, in which Hancock's pattern of attack-points, rather than the pattern of pitches, is the primary focus of his improvisations, accompanied by Paul Chambers on bass, percussionist Osvaldo Martinez playing a traditional Afro-Cuban chekeré part and Willie Bobo playing an Abakuá bell pattern on a snare drum with brushes.","Jazz\n\nThe first jazz standard composed by a non-Latino to use an overt African 12/8 cross-rhythm was Wayne Shorter's \"Footprints\" (1967). On the version recorded on Miles Smiles by Miles Davis, the bass switches to a 4/4 tresillo figure at 2:20. \"Footprints\" is not, however, a Latin jazz tune: African rhythmic structures are accessed directly by Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums) via the rhythmic sensibilities of swing. Throughout the piece, the four beats, whether sounded or not, are maintained as the temporal referent. In the example below, the main beats are indicated by slashed noteheads, which do not indicate bass notes.","Jazz\n\nPentatonic scales","Jazz\n\nThe use of pentatonic scales was another trend associated with Africa. The use of pentatonic scales in Africa probably goes back thousands of years.","Jazz\n\nMcCoy Tyner perfected the use of the pentatonic scale in his solos, and also used parallel fifths and fourths, which are common harmonies in West Africa.","Jazz\n\nThe minor pentatonic scale is often used in blues improvisation, and like a blues scale, a minor pentatonic scale can be played over all of the chords in a blues. The following pentatonic lick was played over blues changes by Joe Henderson on Horace Silver's \"African Queen\" (1965).","Jazz\n\nJazz pianist, theorist, and educator Mark Levine refers to the scale generated by beginning on the fifth step of a pentatonic scale as the V pentatonic scale.","Jazz\n\nLevine points out that the V pentatonic scale works for all three chords of the standard II-V-I jazz progression. This is a very common progression, used in pieces such as Miles Davis' \"Tune Up.\" The following example shows the V pentatonic scale over a II-V-I progression.","Jazz\n\nAccordingly, John Coltrane's \"Giant Steps\" (1960), with its 26 chords per 16 bars, can be played using only three pentatonic scales. Coltrane studied Nicolas Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, which contains material that is virtually identical to portions of \"Giant Steps\". The harmonic complexity of \"Giant Steps\" is on the level of the most advanced 20th-century art music. Superimposing the pentatonic scale over \"Giant Steps\" is not merely a matter of harmonic simplification, but also a sort of \"Africanizing\" of the piece, which provides an alternate approach for soloing. Mark Levine observes that when mixed in with more conventional \"playing the changes\", pentatonic scales provide \"structure and a feeling of increased space.\"","Jazz\n\nJazz fusion","Jazz\n\nIn the late 1960s and early 1970s, the hybrid form of jazz-rock fusion was developed by combining jazz improvisation with rock rhythms, electric instruments and the highly amplified stage sound of rock musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa. Jazz fusion often uses mixed meters, odd time signatures, syncopation, complex chords and harmonies.","Jazz\n\nAccording to AllMusic:\n...until around 1967, the worlds of jazz and rock were nearly completely separate. [However, ...] as rock became more creative and its musicianship improved, and as some in the jazz world became bored with hard bop and did not want to play strictly avant-garde music, the two different idioms began to trade ideas and occasionally combine forces.\"","Jazz\n\nMiles Davis' new directions","Jazz\n\nIn 1969 Davis fully embraced the electric instrument approach to jazz with In a Silent Way, which can be considered his first fusion album. Composed of two side-long suites edited heavily by producer Teo Macero, this quiet, static album would be equally influential to the development of ambient music.","Jazz\n\nAs Davis recalls:\nThe music I was really listening to in 1968 was James Brown, the great guitar player Jimi Hendrix, and a new group who had just come out with a hit record, \"Dance to the Music\", Sly and the Family Stone... I wanted to make it more like rock. When we recorded In a Silent Way I just threw out all the chord sheets and told everyone to play off of that.\"","Jazz\n\nTwo contributors to In a Silent Way also joined organist Larry Young to create one of the early acclaimed fusion albums: Emergency! by The Tony Williams Lifetime.","Jazz\n\nPsychedelic-jazz","Jazz\n\nBitches Brew","Jazz\n\nDavis' Bitches Brew (1970) album was his most successful of this era. Although inspired by rock and funk, Davis' fusion creations were original, and brought about a new type of avant-garde, electronic, psychedelic-jazz, as far from pop music as any other Davis work.","Jazz\n\nHerbie Hancock","Jazz\n\nPianist Herbie Hancock (a Davis alumnus) released four albums in the short-lived (1970–1973) psychedelic-jazz subgenre: Mwandishi (1972), Crossings (1973) and Sextant (1973). The rhythmic background was a mix of rock, funk, and African-type textures.","Jazz\n\nMusicians who had previously worked with Davis formed the four most influential fusion groups: Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra emerged in 1971, and were soon followed by Return to Forever and The Headhunters.","Jazz\n\nWeather Report","Jazz\n\nWeather Report's self-titled electronic and psychedelic Weather Report debut album caused a sensation in the jazz world on its arrival in 1971, thanks to the pedigree of the group's members (including percussionist Airto Moreira), and their unorthodox approach to music. The album featured a softer sound than would be the case in later years (predominantly using acoustic bass with Shorter exclusively playing soprano saxophone, and with no synthesizers involved), but is still considered a classic of early fusion. It built on the avant-garde experiments which Joe Zawinul and Shorter had pioneered with Miles Davis on Bitches Brew, including an avoidance of head-and-chorus composition in favour of continuous rhythm and movement – but took the music further. To emphasise the group's rejection of standard methodology, the album opened with the inscrutable avant-garde atmospheric piece \"Milky Way\", which featured by Shorter's extremely muted saxophone inducing vibrations in Zawinul's piano strings while the latter pedalled the instrument. Down Beat described the album as \"music beyond category\", and awarded it Album of the Year in the magazine's polls that year.","Jazz\n\nWeather Report's subsequent releases were creative funk-jazz works.","Jazz\n\nJazz-rock","Jazz\n\nAlthough some jazz purists protested against the blend of jazz and rock, many jazz innovators crossed over from the contemporary hard bop scene into fusion. As well as the electric instruments of rock (such as electric guitar, electric bass, electric piano and synthesizer keyboards), fusion also used the powerful amplification, \"fuzz\" pedals, wah-wah pedals and other effects that were used by 1970s-era rock bands. Notable performers of jazz fusion included Miles Davis, Eddie Harris, keyboardists Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, vibraphonist Gary Burton, drummer Tony Williams (drummer), violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, guitarists Larry Coryell, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Frank Zappa, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and bassists Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke. Jazz fusion was also popular in Japan, where the band Casiopea released over thirty fusion albums.","Jazz\n\nAccording to jazz writer Stuart Nicholson, \"just as free jazz appeared on the verge of creating a whole new musical language in the 1960s ... jazz-rock briefly suggested the promise of doing the same\" with albums such as Williams' Emergency! (1970) and Davis' Agharta (1975), which Nicholson said \"suggested the potential of evolving into something that might eventually define itself as a wholly independent genre quite apart from the sound and conventions of anything that had gone before.\" This development was stifled by commercialism, Nicholson said, as the genre \"mutated into a peculiar species of jazz-inflected pop music that eventually took up residence on FM radio\" at the end of the 1970s.","Jazz\n\nJazz-funk","Jazz\n\nBy the mid-1970s the sound known as jazz-funk had developed, characterized by a strong back beat (groove), electrified sounds and, often, the presence of electronic analog synthesizers. Jazz-funk also draws influences from traditional African music, Afro-Cuban rhythms and Jamaican reggae, notably Kingston bandleader Sonny Bradshaw. Another feature is the shift of emphasis from improvisation to composition: arrangements, melody and overall writing became important. The integration of funk, soul and R&B music into jazz resulted in the creation of a genre whose spectrum is wide and ranges from strong jazz improvisation to soul, funk or disco with jazz arrangements, jazz riffs and jazz solos, and sometimes soul vocals.","Jazz\n\nEarly examples are Herbie Hancock's Headhunters band and Miles Davis' On the Corner album, which in 1972 began Davis' foray into jazz-funk and was, he claimed, an attempt at reconnecting with the young black audience which had largely forsaken jazz for rock and funk. While there is a discernible rock and funk influence in the timbres of the instruments employed, other tonal and rhythmic textures, such as the Indian tambora and tablas and Cuban congas and bongos, create a multi-layered soundscape. The album was a culmination of sorts of the musique concrète approach that Davis and producer Teo Macero had begun to explore in the late 1960s.","Jazz\n\nOther trends","Jazz\n\nJazz continued to expand and change, influenced by other types of music such as world music, avant garde classical music and rock and pop. Jazz musicians began to improvise on unusual instruments, such as the jazz harp (Alice Coltrane), the electrically amplified and wah-wah pedaled jazz violin (Jean-Luc Ponty) and the bagpipes (Rufus Harley). In 1966 jazz trumpeter Don Ellis and Indian sitar player Harihar Rao founded the Hindustani Jazz Sextet. In 1971 guitarist John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra began playing a mix of rock and jazz infused with East Indian influences. In the 1970s the ECM record label began in Germany with artists including Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley, the Pat Metheny Group, Jan Garbarek, Ralph Towner, Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor, John Surman, and Eberhard Weber, establishing a new chamber music aesthetic which featured mainly acoustic instruments, occasionally incorporating elements of world music and folk.","Jazz\n\n1980s","Jazz\n\nIn 1987, the United States House of Representatives and Senate passed a bill proposed by Democratic Representative John Conyers, Jr. to define jazz as a unique form of American music, stating:\n... that jazz is hereby designated as a rare and valuable national American treasure to which we should devote our attention, support and resources to make certain it is preserved, understood and promulgated.\nIt passed in the House of Representatives on September 23, 1987 and in the Senate on November 4, 1987.HR-57 Center [http://www.hr57.org/hconres57.html HR-57 Center for the Preservation of Jazz and Blues, with the six-point mandate.]","Jazz\n\nResurgence of traditionalism","Jazz\n\nThe 1980s saw something of a reaction against the Fusion and Free Jazz that had dominated the 1970s. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis emerged early in the decade, and strove to create music within what he believed was the tradition, rejecting both fusion and free jazz and creating extensions of the small and large forms initially pioneered by artists such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, as well as the hard bop of the 1950s. It's debatable whether Marsalis' critical and commercial success was a cause or a symptom of the reaction against Fusion and Free Jazz and the resurgence of interest in the kind of jazz pioneered in the 1960s (particularly Modal Jazz and Post-Bop); nonetheless there were many other manifestations of a resurgence of traditionalism, even if Fusion and Free Jazz were by no means abandoned and continued to develop and evolve.","Jazz\n\nFor example, several musicians who had been prominent in the fusion genre during the 1970s began to record acoustic jazz once more, including Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. Other musicians who had experimented with electronic instruments in the previous decade had abandoned them by the 1980s, for example Bill Evans, Joe Henderson and Stan Getz. Even the 1980s music of Miles Davis, although certainly still fusion, adopted a far more accessible and recognisably jazz-oriented approach than his abstract work of the mid-1970s, such as a return to a theme-and-solos approach.","Jazz\n\nThe emergence of young jazz talent beginning to perform in older, established musicians' groups further impacted the resurgence of traditionalism in the jazz community. In the 1970s, the groups of Betty Carter and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers retained their conservative jazz approaches in the midst of fusion and jazz- rock, and in addition to difficulty booking their acts, struggled to find younger generations of personnel to authentically play traditional styles such as hard bop and bebop. In the late 1970s, however, a resurgence of younger jazz players in Blakey's band began to occur. This movement included musicians such as Valery Ponomarev and Bobby Watson, Dennis Irwin and James Williams.\nIn the 1980s, in addition to Wynton and Branford Marsalis, the emergence of pianists in the Jazz Messengers such as Donald Brown, Mulgrew Miller, and later, Benny Green, bassists such as Charles Fambrough, Lonnie Plaxico (and later, Peter Washington and Essiet Essiet) horn players such as Bill Pierce, Donald Harrison and later Javon Jackson and Terence Blanchard emerged as talented jazz musicians, all of whom made significant contributions in later 1990s and 2000s jazz music.","Jazz\n\n[http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Blakey/chron.htmJ Drummerworld: Art Blakey].","Jazz\n\nThe young Jazz Messengers' contemporaries, including Roy Hargrove, Marcus Roberts, Wallace Roney and Mark Whitfield were also influenced by Wynton Marsalis's emphasis toward jazz tradition. These younger rising stars rejected avant-garde approaches and instead championed the acoustic jazz sound of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and early recordings of the first Miles Davis quintet. This group of \"Young Lions\" sought to reaffirm jazz as a high art tradition comparable to the discipline of European classical music.","Jazz\n\nIn addition, Betty Carter's rotation of young musicians in her group foreshadowed many of New York's preeminent traditional jazz players later in their careers. Among these musicians were Jazz Messenger alumni Benny Green, Branford Marsalis and Ralph Peterson, Jr., as well as Kenny Washington, Lewis Nash, Curtis Lundy, Cyrus Chestnut, Mark Shim, Craig Handy, Greg Hutchinson and Marc Cary, Taurus Mateen and Geri Allen.","Jazz\n\nBlue Note Records's O.T.B. ensemble featured a rotation of young jazz musicians such as Kenny Garrett, Steve Wilson, Kenny Davis, Renee Rosnes, Ralph Peterson, Jr., Billy Drummond and Robert Hurst.","Jazz\n\nA similar reaction took place against free jazz. According to Ted Gioia:","Jazz\n\nthe very leaders of the avant garde started to signal a retreat from the core principles of Free Jazz. Anthony Braxton began recording standards over familiar chord changes. Cecil Taylor played duets in concert with Mary Lou Williams, and let her set out structured harmonies and familiar jazz vocabulary under his blistering keyboard attack. And the next generation of progressive players would be even more accommodating, moving inside and outside the changes without thinking twice. Musicians such as David Murray or Don Pullen may have felt the call of free-form jazz, but they never forgot all the other ways one could play African-American music for fun and profit.","Jazz\n\nPianist Keith Jarrett — whose bands of the 1970s had played only original compositions with prominent free jazz elements — established his so-called 'Standards Trio' in 1983, which, although also occasionally exploring collective improvisation, has primarily performed and recorded jazz standards. Chick Corea similarly began exploring jazz standards in the 1980s, having neglected them for the 1970s.","Jazz\n\nSmooth jazz","Jazz\n\nIn the early 1980s a commercial form of jazz fusion called \"pop fusion\" or \"smooth jazz\" became successful, garnering significant radio airplay in \"quiet storm\" time slots at radio stations in urban markets across the U.S. This helped to establish or bolster the careers of vocalists including Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, Chaka Khan and Sade, as well as saxophonists including Grover Washington, Jr., Kenny G, Kirk Whalum, Boney James and David Sanborn. In general, smooth jazz is downtempo (the most widely played tracks are of 90–105 beats per minute), and has a lead melody-playing instrument (saxophone, especially soprano and tenor, and legato electric guitar are popular).","Jazz\n\nIn his Newsweek article \"The Problem With Jazz Criticism\", Stanley Crouch considers Miles Davis' playing of fusion to be a turning point that led to smooth jazz. Critic Aaron J. West has countered the often negative perceptions of smooth jazz, stating:\nI challenge the prevalent marginalization and malignment of smooth jazz in the standard jazz narrative. Furthermore, I question the assumption that smooth jazz is an unfortunate and unwelcomed evolutionary outcome of the jazz-fusion era. Instead, I argue that smooth jazz is a long-lived musical style that merits multi-disciplinary analyses of its origins, critical dialogues, performance practice, and reception.","Jazz\n\nAcid jazz, nu jazz and jazz rap","Jazz\n\nAcid jazz developed in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s, influenced by jazz-funk and electronic dance music. Acid jazz often contains various types of electronic composition (sometimes including Sampling (music) or a live DJ cutting and scratching), but it is just as likely to be played live by musicians, who often showcase jazz interpretation as part of their performance. Jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers and Donald Byrd are often credited as the forerunners of acid jazz.","Jazz\n\nNu jazz is influenced by jazz harmony and melodies, and there are usually no improvisational aspects. It can be very experimental in nature and can vary widely in sound and concept. It ranges from the combination of live instrumentation with the beats of jazz house (as exemplified by St Germain, Jazzanova and Fila Brazillia) to more band-based improvised jazz with electronic elements (for example The Cinematic Orchestra, Kobol and the Norwegian \"future jazz\" style pioneered by Bugge Wesseltoft, Jaga Jazzist and Nils Petter Molvær).","Jazz\n\nJazz rap developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and incorporates jazz influences into hip hop. In 1988, Gang Starr released the debut single \"Words I Manifest\", which sampled Dizzy Gillespie's 1962 \"Night in Tunisia\", and Stetsasonic released \"Talkin' All That Jazz\", which sampled Lonnie Liston Smith. Gang Starr's debut LP No More Mr. Nice Guy (1989) and their 1990 track \"Jazz Thing\" sampled Charlie Parker and Ramsey Lewis. The groups which made up the Native Tongues Posse tended toward jazzy releases: these include the Jungle Brothers' debut Straight Out the Jungle (1988), and A Tribe Called Quest's People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990) and The Low End Theory (1991). Rap duo Pete Rock & CL Smooth incorporated jazz influences on their 1992 debut Mecca and the Soul Brother. Rapper Guru's Jazzmatazz series began in 1993, using jazz musicians during the studio recordings.","Jazz\n\nThough jazz rap had achieved little mainstream success, Miles Davis' final album Doo-Bop (released posthumously in 1992) was based around hip hop beats and collaborations with producer Easy Mo Bee. Davis' ex-bandmate Herbie Hancock also absorbed hip-hop influences in the mid-1990s, releasing the album Dis Is Da Drum in 1994.","Jazz\n\nPunk jazz and jazzcore","Jazz\n\nThe relaxation of orthodoxy which was concurrent with post-punk in London and New York City led to a new appreciation of jazz. In London, the Pop Group began to mix free jazz and dub reggae into their brand of punk rock. In New York, No Wave took direct inspiration from both free jazz and punk. Examples of this style include Lydia Lunch's Queen of Siam,Bangs, Lester. \"Free Jazz / Punk Rock\". Musician Magazine, 1979. [http://www.notbored.org/bangs.html] Access date: July 20, 2008. Gray, the work of James Chance and the Contortions (who mixed Soul with free jazz and punk) and the Lounge Lizards (the first group to call themselves \"punk jazz\").","Jazz\n\nJohn Zorn took note of the emphasis on speed and dissonance that was becoming prevalent in punk rock, and incorporated this into free jazz with the release of the Spy vs. Spy album in 1986, a collection of Ornette Coleman tunes done in the contemporary thrashcore style. In the same year, Sonny Sharrock, Peter Brötzmann, Bill Laswell and Ronald Shannon Jackson recorded the first album under the name Last Exit (free jazz band), a similarly aggressive blend of thrash and free jazz. These developments are the origins of jazzcore, the fusion of free jazz with hardcore punk.","Jazz\n\nM-Base","Jazz\n\nThe M-Base movement started in the 1980s, when a loose collective of young African-American musicians in New York which included Steve Coleman, Greg Osby and Gary Thomas developed a complex but grooving sound.","Jazz\n\nIn the 1990s most M-Base participants turned to more conventional music, but Coleman, the most active participant, continued developing his music in accordance with the M-Base concept. Coleman's audience decreased, but his music and concepts influenced many musicians, both in terms of music technique and of the music's meaning. Hence, M-Base changed from a movement of a loose collective of young musicians to a kind of informal Coleman \"school\", with a much advanced but already originally implied concept. Steve Coleman's music and M-Base concept gained recognition as \"next logical step\" after Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.","Jazz\n\n1990s–2010s","Jazz\n\nSince the 1990s jazz has been characterized by a pluralism in which no one style dominates, but rather a wide range of active styles and genres are popular. Individual performers often play in a variety of styles, sometimes in the same performance. Pianist Brad Mehldau and power trio The Bad Plus have explored contemporary rock music within the context of the traditional jazz acoustic piano trio, recording instrumental jazz versions of songs by rock musicians. The Bad Plus have also incorporated elements of free jazz into their music. A firm avant-garde or free jazz stance has been maintained by some players, such as saxophonists Greg Osby and Charles Gayle, while others, such as James Carter, have incorporated free jazz elements into a more traditional framework.","Jazz\n\nOn the other side, even a singer like Harry Connick, Jr. (who has ten number-1 US jazz albums) is sometimes called a jazz musician, although there are only a few elements from jazz history in his mainly pop oriented music. Other recent vocalists have achieved popularity with a mix of traditional jazz and pop/rock forms, such as Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Cassandra Wilson, Kurt Elling and Jamie Cullum.","Jazz\n\nA number of players who usually perform in largely straight-ahead settings have emerged since the 1990s, including pianists Jason Moran and Vijay Iyer, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, trumpeters Roy Hargrove and Terence Blanchard, saxophonists Chris Potter and Joshua Redman, clarinetist Ken Peplowski and bassist Christian McBride.","Jazz\n\nAlthough jazz-rock fusion reached the height of its popularity in the 1970s, the use of electronic instruments and rock-derived musical elements in jazz continued in the 1990s and 2000s. Musicians using this approach include Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, John Scofield and the Swedish group e.s.t.","Jazz\n\nIn 2001 Ken Burns's documentary Jazz was premiered on PBS, featuring Wynton Marsalis and other experts reviewing the entire history of jazz to that time."],"string":"[\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans (, ,, or; ) is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. The New Orleans metropolitan area (New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area) had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a larger trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and strongly influenced by their European culture. It is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage.Cultures well represented in New Orleans' history include French, Native American, African, Spanish, Cajun, German, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Latino, and Vietnamese. New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music (particularly as the birthplace of jazz), and its annual celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras, dating to French colonial times. The city is often referred to as the \\\"most unique\\\"The term \\\"most unique\\\" is grammatically incorrect, as the word \\\"unique\\\" is a superlative. See for example:Merriam-Webster Dictionary of American Usage, Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1994.Fowler, Henry, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA, 2003.Nicholson, Margaret, A Dictionary of American English Usage, New York: Oxford University Press, 1957. in the United States.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana, straddling the Mississippi River. The city and Orleans Parish () are coterminous. The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St. Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south, and Jefferson to the south and west. Lake Pontchartrain, part of which is included in the city limits, lies to the north and Lake Borgne lies to the east.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nBefore Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish was the most populous parish in Louisiana. It now ranks third in population, trailing neighboring Jefferson Parish, and East Baton Rouge Parish.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nHistory\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nBeginnings through the 19th century\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nLa Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans) was founded May 7, 1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time. His title came from the French city of Orléans.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris (1763). During the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez successfully launched a southern campaign against the British from the city in 1779. New Orleans () remained under Spanish control until 1803, when it reverted briefly to French oversight. Nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré (French Quarter) dates from the Spanish period, the most notable exception being the Old Ursuline Convent.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNapoleon sold Louisiana (New France) to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Creoles, and Africans. Later immigrants were Irish, Germans, and Italians. Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe Haitian Revolution ended in 1804 and established the second republic in the Western Hemisphere and the first republic led by Black people. It had occurred over several years in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue. Thousands of refugees from the revolution, both whites and free people of color (affranchis or gens de couleur libres), arrived in New Orleans, often bringing African slaves with them. While Governor Claiborne and other officials wanted to keep out additional free Black men, the French Creoles wanted to increase the French-speaking population. As more refugees were allowed in Louisiana, Haitian émigrés who had first gone to Cuba also arrived. Many of the white Francophones had been deported by officials in Cuba in retaliation for Bonapartist schemes in Spain.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNearly 90 percent of these immigrants settled in New Orleans. The 1809 migration brought 2,731 whites; 3,102 free persons of African descent; and 3,226 enslaved persons of African descent, doubling the city's population. The city became 63 percent black in population, a greater proportion than Charleston, South Carolina's 53 percent.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nDuring the final campaign of the War of 1812, the British sent a force of 11,000 soldiers, marines, and sailors, in an attempt to capture New Orleans. Despite great challenges, General Andrew Jackson, with support from the U.S. Navy on the river, successfully cobbled together a motley military force of: militia from Louisiana and Mississippi, including free men of color, U.S. Army regulars, a large contingent of Tennessee state militia, Kentucky riflemen, Choctaw fighters, and local privateers (the latter led by the pirate Jean Lafitte), to decisively defeat the British troops, led by Sir Edward Pakenham, in the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815. The armies had not learned of the Treaty of Ghent which had been signed on December 24, 1814 however the treaty did not call for cessation of hostilities until after both governments had ratified the treaty and the US government did not ratify it until February 16, 1815. The fighting in Louisiana had begun in December 1814 and did not end until late January, after the Americans held off the British Navy during a ten-day siege of Fort St. Philip.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\n(The Royal Navy went on to capture Fort Bowyer near Mobile, before the commanders received news of the peace treaty.)\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nAs a principal port, New Orleans played a major role during the antebellum era in the Atlantic slave trade. Its port also handled huge quantities of commodities for export from the interior and imported goods from other countries, which were warehoused and transferred in New Orleans to smaller vessels and distributed the length and breadth of the vast Mississippi River watershed. The river in front of the city was filled with steamboats, flatboats, and sailing ships. Despite its role in the slave trade, New Orleans at the same time had the largest and most prosperous community of free persons of color in the nation, who were often educated and middle-class property owners.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nDwarfing in population the other cities in the antebellum South, New Orleans had the largest slave market in the domestic slave trade, which expanded after the United States' ending of the international trade in 1808. Two-thirds of the more than one million slaves brought to the Deep South arrived via the forced migration of the domestic slave trade. The money generated by the sale of slaves in the Upper South has been estimated at 15 percent of the value of the staple crop economy. The slaves represented half a billion dollars in property. An ancillary economy grew up around the trade in slaves—for transportation, housing and clothing, fees, etc., estimated at 13.5 percent of the price per person. All of this amounted to tens of billions of dollars (2005 dollars, adjusted for inflation) during the antebellum period, with New Orleans as a prime beneficiary.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nAccording to the historian Paul Lachance,\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nAfter the Louisiana Purchase, numerous Anglo-Americans migrated to the city. The population of the city doubled in the 1830s and by 1840, New Orleans had become the wealthiest and the third-most populous city in the nation. Large numbers of German and Irish immigrants began arriving in the 1840s, working as laborers in the busy port. In this period, the state legislature passed more restrictions on manumissions of slaves, and virtually ended it in 1852.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nIn the 1850s, white Francophones remained an intact and vibrant community; they maintained instruction in French in two of the city's four school districts (all were white).Gitlin, The Bourgeois Frontier, p. 166 In 1860, the city had 13,000 free people of color (gens de couleur libres), the class of free, mostly mixed-race people that developed during French and Spanish rule. The census recorded 81 percent as mulatto, a term used to cover all degrees of mixed race. Mostly part of the Francophone group, they constituted the artisan, educated and professional class of African Americans. Most blacks were still enslaved, working at the port, in domestic service, in crafts, and mostly on the many large, surrounding sugar cane plantations.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nAfter growing by 45 percent in the 1850s, by 1860, the city had nearly 170,000 people The city was a destination for immigrants. It had grown in wealth, with a \\\"per capita income [that] was second in the nation and the highest in the South.\\\" The city had a role as the \\\"primary commercial gateway for the nation's booming mid-section.\\\" The port was the third largest in the nation in terms of tonnage of imported goods, after Boston and New York, handling 659,000 tons in 1859.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nAs the French Creole elite feared, during the Civil War their world changed. In 1862, following the occupation by the Navy after the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, Northern forces under Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, a respected state lawyer of the Massachusetts militia, occupied the City. Later New Orleans residents nicknamed him as \\\"Beast\\\" Butler, because of a military order he issued. After his troops had been assaulted and harassed in the streets by Southern women, his order warned that future such occurrences would result in his men treating such \\\"ladies\\\" as those \\\"plying their avocation in the streets,\\\" implying that they would treat the women like prostitutes. Accounts of this spread like wildfire across the South and the North. He also came to be called \\\"Spoons\\\" Butler because of the alleged looting that his troops did while occupying New Orleans.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nButler abolished French language instruction in city schools; statewide measures in 1864 and, after the war, 1868 further strengthened English-only policy imposed by federal representatives. With the predominance of English speakers in the city and state, that language had already become dominant in business and government. By the end of the 19th century, French usage in the city had faded significantly; it was also under pressure from new immigrants: English speakers such as the Irish, and other Europeans, such as the Italians and Germans. However, as late as 1902 \\\"one-fourth of the population of the city spoke French in ordinary daily intercourse, while another two-fourths was able to understand the language perfectly,\\\" and as late as 1945, one still encountered elderly Creole women who spoke no English. The last major French language newspaper in New Orleans, L'Abeille de la Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans Bee), ceased publication on December 27, 1923, after ninety-six years. According to some sources, Le Courrier de la Nouvelle Orleans continued until 1955.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nAs the city was captured and occupied early in the war, it was spared the destruction through warfare suffered by many other cities of the American South. The Union Army eventually extended its control north along the Mississippi River and along the coastal areas of the State. As a result, most of the southern portion of Louisiana was originally exempted from the liberating provisions of the 1863 \\\"Emancipation Proclamation\\\" issued by President Abraham Lincoln.\\nLarge numbers of rural ex-slaves and some free people of color from the City volunteered for the first regiments of Black troops in the War. Led by Brig. Gen. Daniel Ullman (1810-1892), of the 78th Regiment of New York State Volunteers Militia, they were known as the \\\"Corps d'Afrique.\\\" While that name had been used by a militia before the war, that group was composed of free people of color. The new group was made up mostly of former slaves. They were supplemented in the last two years of the War by newly organized United States Colored Troops, who played an increasingly important part in the war.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nViolence throughout the South, especially the Memphis Riots of 1866 followed by the New Orleans Riot in July of that year, resulted in Congress passing the Reconstruction Act and the Fourteenth Amendment, to extend the protections of full citizenship to freedmen and free people of color. Louisiana and Texas were put under the authority of the \\\"Fifth Military District\\\" of the United States during Reconstruction. Louisiana was eventually readmitted to the Union in 1868; its Constitution of 1868 granted universal manhood suffrage and established universal public education. Both blacks and whites were elected to local and state offices. In 1872, lieutenant governor P.B.S. Pinchback, who was of mixed race, succeeded Henry Clay Warmouth for a brief period as Republican governor of Louisiana, becoming the first governor of African descent of an American state. The next African American to serve as governor was Douglas Wilder, elected in Virginia in 1989. For a time, New Orleans operated a racially integrated public school system.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nWartime damage to levees and cities along the Mississippi River adversely affected southern crops and trade for the port city for some time. The federal government contributed to restoring infrastructure, but it took time. The nationwide financial recession and Panic of 1873 also adversely affected businesses and slowed economic recovery.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nFrom 1868, elections in Louisiana were marked by violence, as white insurgents tried to suppress black voting and disrupt Republican gatherings. Violence continued around elections. The disputed 1872 gubernatorial election resulted in conflicts that ran for years. The \\\"White League\\\", an insurgent paramilitary group that supported the Democratic Party, was organized in 1874 and operated in the open, violently suppressing the black vote and running off Republican officeholders. In 1874, in the Battle of Liberty Place, 5,000 members of the White League fought with city police to take over the state offices for the Democratic candidate for governor, holding them for three days. By 1876, such tactics resulted in the white Democrats, the so-called Redeemers, regaining political control of the state legislature. The federal government gave up and withdrew its troops in 1877, ending Reconstruction.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nWhite Democrats passed Jim Crow laws, establishing racial segregation in public facilities. In 1889, the legislature passed a constitutional amendment incorporating a \\\"grandfather clause\\\" that effectively disfranchised freedmen as well as the propertied people of color free before the war. Unable to vote, African Americans could not serve on juries or in local office, and were closed out of formal politics for several generations in the state. It was ruled by a white Democratic Party. Public schools were racially segregated and remained so until 1960.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans' large community of well-educated, often French-speaking free persons of color (gens de couleur libres), who had been free prior to the Civil War, sought to fight back against Jim Crow. They organized the Comité des Citoyens (Citizens Committee) to work for civil rights. As part of their legal campaign, they recruited one of their own, Homer Plessy, to test whether Louisiana's newly enacted Separate Car Act was constitutional. Plessy boarded a commuter train departing New Orleans for Covington, Louisiana, sat in the car reserved for whites only, and was arrested. The case resulting from this incident, Plessy v. Ferguson, was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896. The court ruled that \\\"separate but equal\\\" accommodations were constitutional, effectively upholding Jim Crow measures. In practice, African-American public schools and facilities were underfunded in Louisiana and across the South. The Supreme Court ruling contributed to this period as the nadir of race relations in the United States. The rate of lynchings of black men was high across the South, as other states also disfranchised blacks and sought to impose Jim Crow to establish white supremacy.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThroughout New Orleans' history, until the early 20th century when medical and scientific advances ameliorated the situation, the city suffered repeated epidemics of yellow fever and other tropical and infectious diseases.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\n20th century\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans' zenith as an economic and population center, in relation to other American cities, occurred in the decades prior to 1860. At this time New Orleans was the nation's fifth-largest city and was significantly larger than all other American South population centers. New Orleans continued to increase in population from the mid-19th century onward, but rapid economic growth shifted to other areas of the country, meaning that New Orleans' relative importance steadily declined. First to emerge in importance were the new industrial and railroad hubs of the Midwest, then the rapidly growing metropolises of the Pacific Coast in the decades before and after the turn of the 20th century. Construction of railways and highways decreased river traffic, diverting goods to other transportation corridors and markets. Thousands of the most ambitious blacks left New Orleans and the state in the Great Migration around World War II and after, many for West Coast destinations. In the post-war period, other Sun Belt cities in the South and West surpassed New Orleans in population.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nFrom the late 1800s, most U.S. censuses recorded New Orleans' slipping rank among American cities. Reminded every ten years of its declining relative importance, New Orleans would periodically mount attempts to regain its economic vigor and pre-eminence, with varying degrees of success.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nBy the mid-20th century, New Orleanians recognized that their city was being surpassed as the leading urban area in the South. By 1950, Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta exceeded New Orleans in size, and in 1960 Miami eclipsed New Orleans, even as the latter's population reached what would be its historic peak that year. As with other older American cities in the postwar period, highway construction and suburban development drew residents from the center city to newer housing outside. The 1970 census recorded the first absolute decline in the city's population since it joined the United States. The New Orleans metropolitan area continued expanding in population, however, just not as rapidly as other major cities in the Sun Belt. While the port remained one of the largest in the nation, automation and containerization resulted in significant job losses. The city's relative fall in stature meant that its former role as banker to the South was inexorably supplanted by competing companies in larger peer cities. New Orleans' economy had always been based more on trade and financial services than on manufacturing, but the city's relatively small manufacturing sector also shrank in the post–World War II period.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nDespite some economic development successes under the administrations of DeLesseps \\\"Chep\\\" Morrison (1946–1961) and Victor \\\"Vic\\\" Schiro (1961–1970), metropolitan New Orleans' growth rate consistently lagged behind more vigorous cities.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nCivil Rights Movement\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nDuring the later years of Morrison's administration, and for the entirety of Schiro's, the city was a center of the Civil Rights Movement. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was founded in the city, lunch counter sit-ins were held in Canal Street stores, and a prominent and violent series of confrontations occurred in 1960 when the city attempted school desegregation, following the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). When six-year-old Ruby Bridges integrated William Frantz Elementary School in the city's Ninth Ward, she was the first child of color to attend a previously all-white school in the South. The Civil Rights Movement's success in gaining federal passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 provided enforcement of constitutional rights, including voting for blacks. Together, these resulted in the most far-reaching changes in New Orleans' 20th century history.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThough legal and civil equality were re-established by the end of the 1960s, a large gap in income levels and educational attainment persisted between the city's White and African-American communities. As the middle class and wealthier members of both races left the center city, its population's income level dropped, and it became proportionately more African American. From 1980, the African-American majority has elected officials from its own community. They have struggled to narrow the gap by creating conditions conducive to the economic uplift of the African-American community.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans became increasingly dependent on tourism as an economic mainstay by the administrations of Sidney Barthelemy (1986–1994) and Marc Morial (1994–2002). Relatively low levels of educational attainment, high rates of household poverty, and rising crime threatened the prosperity of the city in the later decades of the century. The negative effects of these socioeconomic conditions contrasted with the changes to the economy of the United States, which were based on a post-industrial, knowledge-based paradigm in which mental skills and education were far more important to advancement than manual skills.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nDrainage and flood control\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nIn the 20th century, New Orleans' government and business leaders believed they needed to drain and develop outlying areas to provide for the city's expansion. The most ambitious development during this period was a drainage plan devised by engineer and inventor A. Baldwin Wood, designed to break the surrounding swamp's stranglehold on the city's geographic expansion. Until then, urban development in New Orleans was largely limited to higher ground along the natural river levees and bayous. Wood's pump system allowed the city to drain huge tracts of swamp and marshland and expand into low-lying areas. Over the 20th century, rapid subsidence, both natural and human-induced, resulted in these newly populated areas declining to several feet below sea level.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans was vulnerable to flooding even before the city's footprint departed from the natural high ground near the Mississippi River. In the late 20th century, however, scientists and New Orleans residents gradually became aware of the city's increased vulnerability. In 1965, flooding from Hurricane Betsy killed dozens of residents, although the majority of the city remained dry. The rain-induced flood of May 8, 1995, demonstrated the weakness of the pumping system. After that event, measures were undertaken to dramatically upgrade pumping capacity. By the 1980s and 1990s, scientists observed that extensive, rapid, and ongoing erosion of the marshlands and swamp surrounding New Orleans, especially that related to the Mississippi River – Gulf Outlet Canal, had the unintended result of leaving the city more exposed to hurricane-induced catastrophic storm surges than earlier in its history.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\n21st century\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nHurricane Katrina\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans was catastrophically affected by what the University of California Berkeley's Dr. Raymond B. Seed called \\\"the worst engineering disaster in the world since Chernobyl,\\\" when the Federal levee system failed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. By the time the hurricane approached the city at the end of August 2005, most residents had evacuated. As the hurricane passed through the Gulf Coast region, the city's federal flood protection system failed, resulting in the worst civil engineering disaster in American history. Floodwalls and levees constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers failed below design specifications and 80% of the city flooded. Tens of thousands of residents who had remained in the city were rescued or otherwise made their way to shelters of last resort at the Louisiana Superdome or the New Orleans Morial Convention Center. More than 1,500 people were recorded as having died in Louisiana, most in New Orleans, and others are still unaccounted for. Before Hurricane Katrina, the city called for the first mandatory evacuation in its history, to be followed by another mandatory evacuation three years later with Hurricane Gustav.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nHurricane Rita\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe city was declared off-limits to residents while efforts to clean up after Hurricane Katrina began. The approach of Hurricane Rita in September 2005 caused repopulation efforts to be postponed, and the Lower Ninth Ward was reflooded by Rita's storm surge.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nPost-disaster recovery\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nBecause of the scale of damage, many people settled permanently outside the city in other areas where they had evacuated, as in Houston. Federal, state, and local efforts have been directed at recovery and rebuilding in severely damaged neighborhoods. The Census Bureau in July 2006 estimated the population of New Orleans to be 223,000; a subsequent study estimated that 32,000 additional residents had moved to the city as of March 2007, bringing the estimated population to 255,000, approximately 56% of the pre-Katrina population level. Another estimate, based on data on utility usage from July 2007, estimated the population to be approximately 274,000 or 60% of the pre-Katrina population. These estimates are somewhat smaller than a third estimate, based on mail delivery records, from the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center in June 2007, which indicated that the city had regained approximately two-thirds of its pre-Katrina population. In 2008, the Census Bureau revised its population estimate for the city upward, to 336,644. Most recently, 2010 estimates show that neighborhoods that did not flood are near 100% of their pre-Katrina populations, and in some cases, exceed 100% of their pre-Katrina populations.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nSeveral major tourist events and other forms of revenue for the city have returned. Large conventions are being held again, such as those held by the American Library Association and American College of Cardiology. College football events such as the Bayou Classic, New Orleans Bowl, and Sugar Bowl returned for the 2006–2007 season. The New Orleans Saints returned that season as well, following speculation of a move. The New Orleans Hornets (now named the Pelicans) returned to the city fully for the 2007–2008 season, having partially spent the 2006–2007 season in Oklahoma City. New Orleans successfully hosted the 2008 NBA All-Star Game and the 2008 BCS National Championship Game. The city hosted the first and second rounds of the 2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. New Orleans and Tulane University hosted the Final Four Championship in 2012. Additionally, the city hosted the Super Bowl XLVII on February 3, 2013 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nMajor annual events such as Mardi Gras and the Jazz & Heritage Festival were never displaced or canceled. Also, an entirely new annual festival, \\\"The Running of the Bulls New Orleans\\\", was created in 2007.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nGeography\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans is located at (29.964722, −90.070556) on the banks of the Mississippi River, approximately 105 mi upriver from the Gulf of Mexico. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 350 sqmi, of which 169 sqmi is land and 181 sqmi (52%) is water. Orleans Parish is the smallest parish by land area in Louisiana.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe city is located in the Mississippi River Delta on the east and west banks of the Mississippi River and south of Lake Pontchartrain. The area along the river is characterized by ridges and hollows.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans was originally settled on the natural levees or high ground, along the Mississippi River. After the Flood Control Act of 1965, the US Army Corps of Engineers built floodwalls and man-made levees around a much larger geographic footprint that included previous marshland and swamp. Whether or not this human interference has caused subsidence is a topic of debate. A study by an associate professor at Tulane University claims:\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nOn the other hand, a report by the American Society of Civil Engineers claims that \\\"New Orleans is subsiding (sinking)\\\":\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nIn May 2016, NASA published a study that details the sinking rate of New Orleans.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nA recent study by Tulane and Xavier University notes that 51% of New Orleans is at or above sea level, with the more densely populated areas generally on higher ground. The average elevation of the city is currently between one and two feet (0.5 m) below sea level, with some portions of the city as high as 20 ft at the base of the river levee in Uptown and others as low as 7 ft below sea level in the farthest reaches of Eastern New Orleans.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nIn 2005, storm surge from Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic failure of the federally designed and built levees, flooding 80% of the city. A report by the American Society of Civil Engineers says that \\\"had the levees and floodwalls not failed and had the pump stations operated, nearly two-thirds of the deaths would not have occurred\\\".\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans has always had to consider the risk of hurricanes, but the risks are dramatically greater today due to coastal erosion from human interference. Since the beginning of the 20th century, it has been estimated that Louisiana has lost 2000 sqmi of coast (including many of its barrier islands), which once protected New Orleans against storm surge. Following Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers has instituted massive levee repair and hurricane protection measures to protect the city.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nIn 2006, Louisiana voters overwhelmingly adopted an amendment to the state's constitution to dedicate all revenues from off-shore drilling to restore Louisiana's eroding coast line. Congress has allocated $7 billion to bolster New Orleans' flood protection.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nAccording to a study by the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council, levees and floodwalls surrounding New Orleans—no matter how large or sturdy—cannot provide absolute protection against overtopping or failure in extreme events. Levees and floodwalls should be viewed as a way to reduce risks from hurricanes and storm surges, not as measures that completely eliminate risk. For structures in hazardous areas and residents who do not relocate, the committee recommended major floodproofing measures—such as elevating the first floor of buildings to at least the 100-year flood level.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nCityscape\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe Central Business District of New Orleans is located immediately north and west of the Mississippi River, and was historically called the \\\"American Quarter\\\" or \\\"American Sector.\\\" It was developed after the heart of French and Spanish settlement. It includes Lafayette Square. Most streets in this area fan out from a central point in the city. Major streets of the area include Canal Street, Poydras Street, Tulane Avenue and Loyola Avenue. Canal Street functions as the street which divides the traditional \\\"downtown\\\" area from the \\\"uptown\\\" area.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nEvery street crossing Canal Street between the Mississippi River and Rampart Street, which is the northern edge of the French Quarter, has a different name for the \\\"uptown\\\" and \\\"downtown\\\" portions. For example, St. Charles Avenue, known for its street car line, is called Royal Street below Canal Street, though where it traverses the Central Business District between Canal and Lee Circle, it is properly called St. Charles Street. Elsewhere in the city, Canal Street serves as the dividing point between the \\\"South\\\" and \\\"North\\\" portions of various streets. In the local parlance downtown means \\\"downriver from Canal Street\\\", while uptown means \\\"upriver from Canal Street\\\". Downtown neighborhoods include the French Quarter, Tremé, the 7th Ward, Faubourg Marigny, Bywater (the Upper Ninth Ward), and the Lower Ninth Ward. Uptown neighborhoods include the Warehouse District, the Lower Garden District, the Garden District, the Irish Channel, the University District, Carrollton, Gert Town, Fontainebleau, and Broadmoor. However, the Warehouse and the Central Business District, despite being above Canal Street, are frequently called \\\"Downtown\\\" as a specific region, as in the Downtown Development District.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nOther major districts within the city include Bayou St. John, Mid-City, Gentilly, Lakeview, Lakefront, New Orleans East, and Algiers.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nHistoric and residential architecture\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans is world-famous for its abundance of unique architectural styles which reflect the city's historical roots and multicultural heritage. Though New Orleans possesses numerous structures of national architectural significance, it is equally, if not more, revered for its enormous, largely intact (even post-Katrina) historic built environment. Twenty National Register Historic Districts have been established, and fourteen local historic districts aid in the preservation of this tout ensemble. Thirteen of the local historic districts are administered by the New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission (HDLC), while one—the French Quarter—is administered by the Vieux Carre Commission (VCC). Additionally, both the National Park Service, via the National Register of Historic Places, and the HDLC have landmarked individual buildings, many of which lie outside the boundaries of existing historic districts.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nMany styles of housing exist in the city, including the shotgun house and the bungalow style. Creole townhouses, notable for their large courtyards and intricate iron balconies, line the streets of the French Quarter. Throughout the city, there are many other historic housing styles: Creole cottages, American townhouses, double-gallery houses, and Raised Center-Hall Cottages. St. Charles Avenue is famed for its large antebellum homes. Its mansions are in various styles, such as Greek Revival, American Colonial and the Victorian styles of Queen Anne and Italianate architecture. New Orleans is also noted for its large, European-style Catholic cemeteries, which can be found throughout the city.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nTallest buildings\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nFor much of its history, New Orleans' skyline consisted of only low- and mid- rise structures. The soft soils of New Orleans are susceptible to subsidence, and there was doubt about the feasibility of constructing large high rises in such an environment. Developments in engineering throughout the twentieth century eventually made it possible to build sturdy foundations to support high rise structures in the city, and in the 1960s, the World Trade Center New Orleans and Plaza Tower were built, demonstrating the viability of tall skyscrapers in New Orleans. One Shell Square took its place as the city's tallest building in 1972. The oil boom of the 1970s and early 1980s redefined New Orleans' skyline with the development of the Poydras Street corridor. Today, most of New Orleans' tallest buildings are clustered along Canal Street and Poydras Street in the Central Business District.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nClimate\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe climate of New Orleans is humid subtropical (Köppen climate classification Cfa), with short, generally mild winters and hot, humid summers. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from in January to in July and August. The lowest recorded temperature was 6 F on February 13, 1899. The highest recorded temperature was 104 F on June 24, 2009. Dewpoints in the summer months are relatively high, ranging from to .\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe average precipitation is annually; the summer months are the wettest, while October is the driest month. Precipitation in winter usually accompanies the passing of a cold front. On average, there are 77 days of 90 °F+ highs, 8.1 days per winter where the high does not exceed 50 °F, and 8.0 nights with freezing lows annually; in a typical year the coldest night will be around 30 °F. It is rare for the temperature to reach 100 °F or dip below 25 °F.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nHurricanes pose a severe threat to the area, and the city is particularly at risk because of its low elevation; because it is surrounded by water from the north, east, and south; and because of Louisiana's sinking coast. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, New Orleans is the nation's most vulnerable city to hurricanes. Indeed, portions of Greater New Orleans have been flooded by: the Grand Isle Hurricane of 1909, the New Orleans Hurricane of 1915, 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane, Hurricane Flossy in 1956, Hurricane Betsy in 1965, Hurricane Georges in 1998, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and Hurricane Gustav in 2008, with the flooding in Betsy being significant and in a few neighborhoods severe, and that in Katrina being disastrous in the majority of the city. New Orleans experiences snowfall only on rare occasions. A small amount of snow fell during the 2004 Christmas Eve Snowstorm and again on Christmas (December 25) when a combination of rain, sleet, and snow fell on the city, leaving some bridges icy. Before that, the last White Christmas was in 1964 and brought . Snow fell again on December 22, 1989, when most of the city received 1 –.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe last significant snowfall in New Orleans was on the morning of December 11, 2008.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nDemographics\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nAccording to the 2010 Census, 343,829 people and 189,896 households were in New Orleans. The racial and ethnic makeup of the city was 60.2% African American, 33.0% White, 2.9% Asian (1.7% Vietnamese, 0.3% Indian, 0.3% Chinese, 0.1% Filipino, 0.1% Korean), 0.0% Pacific Islander, and 1.7% were people of two or more races. People of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 5.3% of the population; 1.3% of New Orleans is Mexican, 1.3% Honduran, 0.4% Cuban, 0.3% Puerto Rican, and 0.3% Nicaraguan.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe last population estimate before Hurricane Katrina was 454,865, as of July 1, 2005. A population analysis released in August 2007 estimated the population to be 273,000, 60% of the pre-Katrina population and an increase of about 50,000 since July 2006. A September 2007 report by The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, which tracks population based on U.S. Postal Service figures, found that in August 2007, just over 137,000 households received mail. That compares with about 198,000 households in July 2005, representing about 70% of pre-Katrina population. More recently, the Census Bureau revised upward its 2008 population estimate for the city, to 336,644 inhabitants. In 2010, estimates showed that neighborhoods that did not flood were near 100% of their pre-Katrina populations, and in some cases, exceeded 100% of their pre-Katrina populations.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nA 2006 study by researchers at Tulane University and the University of California, Berkeley determined that there are as many as 10,000 to 14,000 illegal immigrants, many from Mexico, currently residing in New Orleans. Janet Murguía, president and chief executive officer of the National Council of La Raza, stated that there could be up to 120,000 Hispanic workers in New Orleans. In June 2007, one study stated that the Hispanic population had risen from 15,000, pre-Katrina, to over 50,000.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nA recent article released by The Times-Picayune indicated that the metropolitan area had undergone a recent influx of 5,300 households in the later half of 2008, bringing the population to around 469,605 households or 88.1% of its pre-Katrina levels. While the area's population has been on an upward trajectory since the storm, much of that growth was attributed to residents returning after Katrina. Many observers predicted that growth would taper off, but the data center's analysis suggests that New Orleans and the surrounding parishes are benefiting from an economic migration resulting from the global financial crisis of 2008–2009. \\n, 90.31% of New Orleans residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 4.84% spoke Spanish, 1.87% Vietnamese, and 1.05% spoke French. In total, 9.69% of New Orleans's population age 5 and older spoke a mother language other than English.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nReligion\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans' colonial history of French and Spanish settlement has resulted in a strong Catholic tradition. Catholic missions administered to slaves and free people of color, establishing schools for them. In addition, many late 19th and early 20th century European immigrants, such as the Irish, some Germans, and Italians, were Catholic. In New Orleans and the surrounding Louisiana Gulf Coast area, the predominant religion is Catholicism. Within the Archdiocese of New Orleans (which includes not only the city but the surrounding Parishes as well), 35.9% percent of the population is Roman Catholic. The influence of Catholicism is reflected in many of the city's French and Spanish cultural traditions, including its many parochial schools, street names, architecture, and festivals, including Mardi Gras.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans also notably has a distinctive variety of Louisiana Voodoo, due in part to syncretism with African and Afro-Caribbean Roman Catholic beliefs. The fame of the voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau contributed to this, as did New Orleans' distinctly Caribbean cultural influences.New Orleans, \\\"now under the flag of the United States, is still very much a Caribbean city....\\\" \\n Although the tourism industry has strongly associated Voodoo with the city, only a small number of people are serious adherents to the religion.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nJewish settlers, primarily Sephardim, were part of New Orleans from the early nineteenth century. some migrated from the communities established in the colonial years in Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia. The merchant Abraham Cohen Labatt helped found the first Jewish congregation in Louisiana in the 1830s, which became known as the Portuguese Jewish Nefutzot Yehudah congregation (as he and some other members were Sephardic Jews, whose ancestors had lived in Portugal and Spain). Jews from eastern Europe came as immigrants in the late 19th and 20th centuries. By the 21st century, there were 10,000 Jews in New Orleans. This number dropped to 7,000 after the disruption of Hurricane Katrina. In the wake of Katrina, all New Orleans synagogues lost members, but most re-opened in their original locations. The exception was Congregation Beth Israel, the oldest and most prominent Orthodox synagogue in the New Orleans region. Beth Israel's building in Lakeview was destroyed by flooding. After seven years of holding services in temporary quarters, a rebuilt synagogue was consecrated in August 2012 on land purchased from its new neighbor, the Reform Congregation Gates of Prayer in Metairie.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nEthnic groups\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nthere had been increases in the Hispanic population in the New Orleans area, including in Kenner, central Metairie, and Terrytown in Jefferson Parish and eastern New Orleans and Mid-City in New Orleans proper.\\\"[http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/06/hispanic_population_booms_in_k.html Hispanic population booms in Kenner and elsewhere in New Orleans area]\\\" ([http://www.webcitation.org/6bLThfA9h Archive]). The Times-Picayune. June 15, 2011. Retrieved on September 7, 2015.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nPrior to Hurricane Katrina there were few persons of Brazilian origin in the city, but after Katrina and by 2008 a population emerged, with Portuguese speakers becoming the second most common English as a second language group in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans-sponsored ESL classes after the Spanish speakers. Many Brazilians worked in skilled trades such as tile and flooring, with fewer day laborers. Many of them moved from Brazilian communities in the Northeastern United States, Florida, and Georgia, and Brazilians settled throughout the New Orleans metropolitan area. Most of the Brazilians were illegal immigrants. In January 2008 Bruce Nolan of the Houston Chronicle stated that the midrange of the various estimations and guesses of the New Orleans Brazilian population wa 3,000 but that no entity or organization had determined exactly how many Brazilians resided in the city. By 2008 many small churches, shops, and restaurants catering to Brazilians in the New Orleans area opened.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nChanges in population\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe city of New Orleans faced a decreasing population before and after Hurricane Katrina. Beginning in 1960, the population of the city decreased due to several factors such as the city's reliance on oil and tourism, nationwide increases in suburbanization, and a migration of jobs to surrounding parishes. This economic and population decline is linked to high levels of poverty, which in 1960 was the fifth highest of all US cities, and was almost twice the national average in 2005, at 24.5%. Furthermore, New Orleans experienced an increase in residential segregation from 1900 to 1980, leaving the poor, who were disproportionately African American in low-lying locations within the city's core, making them especially susceptible to flood and storm damage.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nHurricane Katrina, which displaced 800,000 people in total, contributed significantly to continue shrinking New Orleans' population. , the population of New Orleans was at 76% of what it was in 2005. African Americans, renters, the elderly, and people with low income were disproportionately impacted by Hurricane Katrina compared to affluent and white residents. In the aftermath of Katrina, city government commissioned groups such as Bring New Orleans Back Commission, the New Orleans Neighborhood Rebuilding Plan, the Unified New Orleans Plan, and the Office of Recovery Management to contribute to plans addressing depopulation. Their ideas included shrinking the city's footprint from before the storm, incorporating community voices into development plans, and creating green spaces, some of which incited controversy.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nFrom 2010 to 2014 the city grew by 12%, adding an average of more than 10,000 new residents each year following the 2010 Census.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nEconomy\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans has one of the largest and busiest ports in the world, and metropolitan New Orleans is a center of maritime industry. The New Orleans region also accounts for a significant portion of the nation's oil refining and petrochemical production, and serves as a white-collar corporate base for onshore and offshore petroleum and natural gas production.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans is a center for higher learning, with over 50,000 students enrolled in the region's eleven two- and four-year degree granting institutions. A top-50 research university, Tulane University, is located in New Orleans' Uptown neighborhood. Metropolitan New Orleans is a major regional hub for the health care industry and boasts a small, globally competitive manufacturing sector. The center city possesses a rapidly growing, entrepreneurial creative industries sector, and is renowned for its cultural tourism. Greater New Orleans, Inc. (GNO, Inc.) acts as the first point-of-contact for regional economic development, coordinating between Louisiana's Department of Economic Development and the various parochial business development agencies.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nPort\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans was developed as a strategically located trading entrepôt, and it remains, above all, a crucial transportation hub and distribution center for waterborne commerce. The Port of New Orleans is the 5th-largest port in the United States based on volume of cargo handled, and second-largest in the state after the Port of South Louisiana. It is the 12th-largest in the U.S. based on value of cargo. The Port of South Louisiana, also based in the New Orleans area, is the world's busiest in terms of bulk tonnage. When combined with the Port of New Orleans, it forms the 4th-largest port system in volume handled. Many shipbuilding, shipping, logistics, freight forwarding and commodity brokerage firms either are based in metropolitan New Orleans or maintain a large local presence. Examples include Intermarine, Bisso Towboat, Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, Trinity Yachts, Expeditors International, Bollinger Shipyards, IMTT, International Coffee Corp, Boasso America, Transoceanic Shipping, Transportation Consultants Inc., Dupuy Storage & Forwarding and Silocaf. The largest coffee-roasting plant in the world, operated by Folgers, is located in New Orleans East.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nLike Houston, New Orleans is located in proximity to the Gulf of Mexico and the many oil rigs that lie just offshore. Louisiana ranks fifth among states in oil production and eighth in reserves in the United States. It has two of the four Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) storage facilities: West Hackberry in Cameron Parish and Bayou Choctaw in Iberville Parish. Other infrastructure includes 17 petroleum refineries, with a combined crude oil distillation capacity of nearly , the second highest in the nation after Texas. Louisiana's numerous ports include the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), which is capable of receiving ultra large oil tankers. Given the quantity of oil importing, Louisiana is home to many major pipelines supplying the nation: Crude Oil (Exxon, Chevron, BP, Texaco, Shell, Scurloch-Permian, Mid-Valley, Calumet, Conoco, Koch Industries, Unocal, U.S. Dept. of Energy, Locap); Product (TEPPCO Partners, Colonial, Plantation, Explorer, Texaco, Collins); and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Dixie, TEPPCO, Black Lake, Koch, Chevron, Dynegy, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Dow Chemical Company, Bridgeline, FMP, Tejas, Texaco, UTP). Several major energy companies have regional headquarters in the city or its suburbs, including Royal Dutch Shell, Eni and Chevron.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNumerous other energy producers and oilfield services companies are also headquartered in the city or region, and the sector supports a large professional services base of specialized engineering and design firms, as well as an term office for the federal government's Minerals Management Service.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nBusiness\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe city is the home to a single Fortune 500 company: Entergy, a power generation utility and nuclear powerplant operations specialist. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the city lost its other Fortune 500 company, Freeport-McMoRan, when it merged its copper and gold exploration unit with an Arizona company and relocated that division to Phoenix, Arizona. Its McMoRan Exploration affiliate remains headquartered in New Orleans. Other companies either headquartered or with significant operations in New Orleans include: Pan American Life Insurance, Pool Corp, Rolls-Royce, Newpark Resources, AT&T, TurboSquid, iSeatz, IBM, Navtech, Superior Energy Services, Textron Marine & Land Systems, McDermott International, Pellerin Milnor, Lockheed Martin, Imperial Trading, Laitram, Harrah's Entertainment, Stewart Enterprises, Edison Chouest Offshore, Zatarain's, Waldemar S. Nelson & Co., Whitney National Bank, Capital One, Tidewater Marine, Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits, Parsons Brinckerhoff, MWH Global, CH2M HILL, Energy Partners Ltd, The Receivables Exchange, GE Capital, and Smoothie King.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nTourist and convention business\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nTourism is another staple of the city's economy. Perhaps more visible than any other sector, New Orleans' tourist and convention industry is a $5.5 billion juggernaut that accounts for 40 percent of New Orleans' tax revenues. In 2004, the hospitality industry employed 85,000 people, making it New Orleans' top economic sector as measured by employment totals. The city also hosts the World Cultural Economic Forum (WCEF). The forum, held annually at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center, is directed toward promoting cultural and economic development opportunities through the strategic convening of cultural ambassadors and leaders from around the world. The first WCEF took place in October 2008.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nOther\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nFederal agencies and the Armed forces have significant facilities in the area. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals operates at the US Courthouse downtown. NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility is located in New Orleans East and is operated by Lockheed Martin. It is a large manufacturing facility that produced the external fuel tanks for the space shuttles. The Michoud facility lies within the enormous New Orleans Regional Business Park, also home to the National Finance Center, operated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Crescent Crown distribution center. Other large governmental installations include the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Command, located within the University of New Orleans Research and Technology Park in Gentilly, Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans; and the headquarters for the Marine Force Reserves in Federal City in Algiers.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nTop employers\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nAccording to the City's 2008 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nCulture and contemporary life\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nTourism\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans has many visitor attractions, from the world-renowned French Quarter; to St. Charles Avenue, (home of Tulane and Loyola Universities, the historic Pontchartrain Hotel, and many 19th-century mansions); to Magazine Street, with its boutique stores and antique shops.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nAccording to current travel guides, New Orleans is one of the top ten most-visited cities in the United States; 10.1 million visitors came to New Orleans in 2004. Prior to 2005's Hurricane Katrina, there were 265 hotels with 38,338 rooms in the Greater New Orleans Area. In May 2007, there were over 140 hotels and motels in operation with over 31,000 rooms.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nA 2009 Travel + Leisure poll of \\\"America's Favorite Cities\\\" ranked New Orleans first in ten categories, the most first-place rankings of the 30 cities included. According to the poll, New Orleans is the best U.S. city as a spring break destination and for \\\"wild weekends\\\", stylish boutique hotels, cocktail hours, singles/bar scenes, live music/concerts and bands, antique and vintage shops, cafés/coffee bars, neighborhood restaurants, and people watching. The city also ranked second for the following: friendliness (behind Charleston, South Carolina), gay-friendliness (behind San Francisco), bed and breakfast hotels/inns, and ethnic food. However, the city was voted last in terms of active [?] residents, and it placed near the bottom in cleanliness, safety, and as a family destination.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe French Quarter (known locally as \\\"the Quarter\\\" or Vieux Carré), which was the colonial-era city and is bounded by the Mississippi River, Rampart Street, Canal Street, and Esplanade Avenue, contains many popular hotels, bars, and nightclubs. Notable tourist attractions in the Quarter include Bourbon Street, Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral, the French Market (including Café du Monde, famous for café au lait and beignets), and Preservation Hall. Also in the French Quarter is the old New Orleans Mint, a former branch of the United States Mint which now operates as a museum, and The Historic New Orleans Collection, a museum and research center housing art and artifacts relating to the history of New Orleans and the Gulf South.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nClose to the Quarter is the Tremé community, which contains the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park and the New Orleans African American Museum — a site which is listed on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nTo tour the port, one can ride the Natchez, an authentic steamboat with a calliope, which cruises the Mississippi the length of the city twice daily. Unlike most other places in the United States, New Orleans has become widely known for its element of elegant decay. The city's historic cemeteries and their distinct above-ground tombs are attractions in themselves, the oldest and most famous of which, Saint Louis Cemetery, greatly resembles Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe National WWII Museum, opened in the Warehouse District in 2000 as the \\\"National D-Day Museum,\\\" has undergone a major expansion. Nearby, Confederate Memorial Hall, the oldest continually-operating museum in Louisiana (although under renovation since Katrina), contains the second-largest collection of Confederate Civil War memorabilia in the world. Art museums in the city include the Contemporary Arts Center, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) in City Park, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans also boasts a decidedly natural side. It is home to the Audubon Nature Institute (which consists of Audubon Park, the Audubon Zoo, the Aquarium of the Americas, and the Audubon Insectarium), and home to gardens which include Longue Vue House and Gardens and the New Orleans Botanical Garden. City Park, one of the country's most expansive and visited urban parks, has one of the largest stands (if not the largest stand) of oak trees in the world.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThere are also various points of interest in the surrounding areas. Many wetlands are found in close proximity to the city, including Honey Island Swamp and Barataria Preserve. Chalmette Battlefield and National Cemetery, located just south of the city, is the site of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nIn 2009, New Orleans ranked No. 7 on Newsmax magazine's list of the \\\"Top 25 Most Uniquely American Cities and Towns,\\\" a piece written by current CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg. In determining his ranking, Greenberg cited the city's rebuilding effort post-Katrina as well as its mission to become eco-friendly.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nEntertainment and performing arts\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe New Orleans area is home to numerous celebrations, the most popular of which is Carnival, often referred to as Mardi Gras. Carnival officially begins on the Feast of the Epiphany, also known as the \\\"Twelfth Night\\\". Mardi Gras (French for \\\"Fat Tuesday\\\"), the final and grandest day of festivities, is the last Tuesday before the Catholic liturgical season of Lent, which commences on Ash Wednesday.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe largest of the city's many music festivals is the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Commonly referred to simply as \\\"Jazz Fest\\\", it is one of the largest music festivals in the nation, featuring crowds of people from all over the world, coming to experience music, food, arts, and crafts. Despite the name, it features not only jazz but a large variety of music, including both native Louisiana music and international artists. Along with Jazz Fest, New Orleans' Voodoo Experience (\\\"Voodoo Fest\\\") and the Essence Music Festival are both large music festivals featuring local and international artists.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nOther major festivals held in the city include Southern Decadence, the French Quarter Festival, and the Tennessee Williams/ New Orleans Literary Festival.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nIn 2002, Louisiana began offering tax incentives for film and television production. This led to a substantial increase in the number of films shot in the New Orleans area and brought the nickname \\\"Hollywood South.\\\" Films which have been filmed or produced in and around New Orleans include: Ray, Runaway Jury, The Pelican Brief, Glory Road, All the King's Men, Déjà Vu, Last Holiday, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 12 Years a Slave, and numerous others. In 2006, work began on the Louisiana Film & Television studio complex, based in the Tremé neighborhood. Louisiana began to offer similar tax incentives for music and theater productions in 2007, leading many to begin referring to New Orleans as \\\"Broadway South.\\\"\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe first theatre in New Orleans was the French-language Theatre de la Rue Saint Pierre, which opened in 1792. The first opera in New Orleans was given there in 1796. In the nineteenth century the city was the home of two of America's most important venues for the performance of French opera, the Théâtre d'Orléans and later the French Opera House. Today, opera is performed by the New Orleans Opera.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans has always been a significant center for music, showcasing its intertwined European, Latin American, and African cultures. The city's unique musical heritage was born in its colonial and early American days from a unique blending of European musical instruments with African rhythms. As the only North American city to have allowed slaves to gather in public and play their native music (largely in Congo Square, now located within Louis Armstrong Park), New Orleans gave birth to an indigenous music: jazz. Soon, brass bands formed, gaining popular attraction which continues today. The Louis Armstrong Park area, near the French Quarter in Tremé, contains the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. The city's music was later significantly influenced by Acadiana, home of Cajun and Zydeco music, and by Delta blues.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans' unique musical culture is further evident in its traditional funerals. A spin on military brass band funerals, New Orleans traditional funerals feature sad music (mostly dirges and hymns) on the way to the cemetery and happier music (hot jazz) on the way back. Such musical funerals are still held when a local musician, a member of a social club, krewe, or benevolent society, or a noted dignitary has passed. Until the 1990s, most locals preferred to call these \\\"funerals with music,\\\" but visitors to the city have long dubbed them \\\"jazz funerals.\\\"\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nMuch later in its musical development, New Orleans was home to a distinctive brand of rhythm and blues that contributed greatly to the growth of rock and roll. An example of the New Orleans' sound in the 1960s is the #1 US hit \\\"Chapel of Love\\\" by the Dixie Cups, a song which knocked the Beatles out of the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. New Orleans became a hotbed for funk music in the 1960s and 1970s, and by the late 1980s, it had developed its own localized variant of hip hop, called bounce music. While never commercially successful outside of the Deep South, it remained immensely popular in the poorer neighborhoods of the city throughout the 1990s.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nA cousin of bounce, New Orleans hip hop has seen commercial success locally and internationally, producing Lil Wayne, Master P, Birdman, Juvenile, Cash Money Records, and No Limit Records. Additionally, the wave of popularity of cowpunk, a fast form of southern rock, originated with the help of several local bands, such as The Radiators, Better Than Ezra, Cowboy Mouth, and Dash Rip Rock. Throughout the 1990s, many sludge metal bands started in the area. New Orleans' heavy metal bands like Eyehategod, Soilent Green, Crowbar, and Down have incorporated styles such as hardcore punk, doom metal, and southern rock to create an original and heady brew of swampy and aggravated metal that has largely avoided standardization.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans is the southern terminus of the famed Highway 61.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nFood\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans is world-famous for its food. The indigenous cuisine is distinctive and influential. From centuries of amalgamation of the local Creole, haute Creole, and New Orleans French cuisines, New Orleans food has developed. Local ingredients, French, Spanish, Italian, African, Native American, Cajun, Chinese, and a hint of Cuban traditions combine to produce a truly unique and easily recognizable Louisiana flavor.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans is known for specialties like beignets (locally pronounced like \\\"ben-yays\\\"), square-shaped fried pastries that could be called \\\"French doughnuts\\\" (served with café au lait made with a blend of coffee and chicory rather than only coffee); and Po-boy and Italian Muffuletta sandwiches; Gulf oysters on the half-shell, fried oysters, boiled crawfish, and other seafood; étouffée, jambalaya, gumbo, and other Creole dishes; and the Monday favorite of red beans and rice. (Louis Armstrong often signed his letters, \\\"Red beans and ricely yours\\\".) Another New Orleans specialty is the praline, a candy made with brown sugar, granulated sugar, cream, butter, and pecans. The city also has notable street food including the Asian inspired beef Yaka mein.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nDialect\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans has developed a distinctive local dialect of American English over the years that is neither Cajun nor the stereotypical Southern accent, so often misportrayed by film and television actors. It does, like earlier Southern Englishes, feature frequent deletion of the pre-consonantal \\\"r\\\". This dialect is quite similar to New York City area accents such as \\\"Brooklynese\\\", to people unfamiliar with either. There are many theories regarding how it came to be, but it likely resulted from New Orleans' geographic isolation by water and the fact that the city was a major immigration port throughout the 19th century. As a result, many of the ethnic groups who reside in Brooklyn also reside in New Orleans, such as the Irish, Italians (especially Sicilians), and Germans, among others, as well as a very sizable Jewish community.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nOne of the strongest varieties of the New Orleans accent is sometimes identified as the Yat dialect, from the greeting \\\"Where y'at?\\\" This distinctive accent is dying out generation by generation in the city itself, but remains very strong in the surrounding parishes.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nLess visibly, various ethnic groups throughout the area have retained their distinctive language traditions to this day. Although rare, languages still spoken are the Kreyol Lwiziyen by the Creoles; an archaic Louisiana-Canarian Spanish dialect spoken by the Isleño people and older members of the population; and Cajun.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nSports\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans' professional sports teams include the 2009 Super Bowl XLIV champion New Orleans Saints (NFL), the New Orleans Pelicans (NBA), and the New Orleans Zephyrs (PCL). It is also home to the Big Easy Rollergirls, an all-female flat track roller derby team, and the New Orleans Blaze, a women's football team. A local group of investors began conducting a study in 2007 to see if the city could support a Major League Soccer team. New Orleans is also home to two NCAA Division I athletic programs, the Tulane Green Wave of the American Athletic Conference and the UNO Privateers of the Southland Conference.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe Mercedes-Benz Superdome is the home of the Saints, the Sugar Bowl, and other prominent events. It has hosted the Super Bowl a record seven times (1978, 1981, 1986, 1990, 1997, 2002, and 2013). The Smoothie King Center is the home of the Pelicans, VooDoo, and many events that are not large enough to need the Superdome. New Orleans is also home to the Fair Grounds Race Course, the nation's third-oldest thoroughbred track. The city's Lakefront Arena has also been home to sporting events.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nEach year New Orleans plays host to the Sugar Bowl, the New Orleans Bowl and the Zurich Classic, a golf tournament on the PGA Tour. In addition, it has often hosted major sporting events that have no permanent home, such as the Super Bowl, ArenaBowl, NBA All-Star Game, BCS National Championship Game, and the NCAA Final Four. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Marathon and the Crescent City Classic are two road running events held annually in the city.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNational protected areas\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\n*Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge\\n*Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve (part)\\n*New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nGovernment\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe City of New Orleans is a political subdivision of the State of Louisiana. It has a mayor-council government according to a Home Rule Charter adopted in 1954, as later amended. The city council consists of seven council members, who are elected by district and two at-large councilmembers. The current mayor, Mitch Landrieu, was elected on February 6, 2010 and assumed office on May 3, 2010. \\nThe Orleans Parish Civil Sheriff's Office serves papers involving lawsuits and provides security for the Civil District Court and Juvenile Courts. The Criminal Sheriff, Marlin Gusman, maintains the parish prison system, provides security for the Criminal District Court, and provides backup for the New Orleans Police Department on an as-needed basis. An ordinance in 2006 established an Office of Inspector General for city government.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe city of New Orleans and the parish of Orleans operate as a merged city-parish government. Before the city of New Orleans became co-extensive with Orleans Parish, Orleans Parish was home to numerous smaller communities. The original city of New Orleans was composed of what are now the 1st through 9th wards. The city of Lafayette (including the Garden District) was added in 1852 as the 10th and 11th wards. In 1870, Jefferson City, including Faubourg Bouligny and much of the Audubon and University areas, was annexed as the 12th, 13th, and 14th wards. Algiers, on the west bank of the Mississippi, was also annexed in 1870, becoming the 15th ward.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans' government is now largely centralized in the city council and mayor's office, but it maintains a number of relics from earlier systems when various sections of the city ran much of their affairs separately. For example, New Orleans has seven elected tax assessors, each with their own staff, representing various districts of the city, rather than one centralized office. A constitutional amendment passed on November 7, 2006, will consolidate the seven assessors into one by 2010. On February 18, 2010, Errol Williams was elected as the first city-wide assessor. The New Orleans government operates both a fire department and the New Orleans Emergency Medical Services.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nCrime and safety\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nCrime has been recognized as an ongoing problem for New Orleans, although the issue is outside the view of most visitors to the city. As in other U.S. cities of comparable size, the incidence of homicide and other violent crimes is highly concentrated in certain impoverished neighborhoods, such as housing projects.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nIn 2012, Travel+Leisure named New Orleans the #2 \\\"America's Dirtiest City\\\", down from a #1 \\\"Dirtiest\\\" status of the previous year. The magazine surveyed both national readership and local residents, from a list of prominent cities having the most visible illegal littering, dumping, and other environmental crime conditions.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nAcross New Orleans, homicides peaked in 1994 at 86 murders per 100,000 residents. By 2009, despite a 17% decrease in violent crime in the city, the homicide rate remained among the highest in the United States, at between 55 and 64 per 100,000 residents. In 2010, New Orleans was 49.1 per 100,000, and in 2012, that number climbed to 53.2. This is the highest rate among cities of 250,000 population or larger. Offenders in New Orleans are almost exclusively black men, with 97% of the offenders being black and 95% being male.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe violent crime rate was also a key issue in the city's 2010 mayoral race. In January 2007, several thousand New Orleans residents marched through city streets and gathered at City Hall for a rally demanding police and city leaders tackle the crime problem. Then-Mayor Ray Nagin said he was \\\"totally and solely focused\\\" on addressing the problem. Later, the city implemented checkpoints during late night hours in problem areas. The murder rate climbed 14% higher in 2011 to 57.88 per 100,000 retaining its status as the 'Murder Capital of the United States' and rising to 21 in the world.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nEducation\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nColleges and universities\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThere are several higher education institutions in the city:\\n*Tulane University, a major research university founded in 1834.\\n*Loyola University New Orleans, a Jesuit university founded in 1912.\\n*University of New Orleans, a large public research university in the city.\\n*Xavier University of Louisiana, the only historically black Catholic university in the United States.\\n*Southern University at New Orleans, an historically black university in the Southern University System.\\n*Dillard University, a private, historically black liberal arts college founded in 1869.\\n*Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center\\n*Our Lady of Holy Cross College, a Catholic liberal arts college founded in 1916.\\n*Notre Dame Seminary\\n*New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary\\n*Delgado Community College, founded in 1921.\\n*William Carey College School of Nursing\\n*Herzing College\\n*New Orleans Culinary Institute\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nPrimary and secondary schools\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans Public Schools (NOPS) is the name given to the city's public school system. Pre-Katrina, NOPS was one of the area's largest systems (along with the Jefferson Parish public school system). In the years leading up to Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans public school system was widely recognized as the lowest performing school district in Louisiana. According to researchers Carl L. Bankston and Stephen J. Caldas, only 12 of the 103 public schools within the city limits of New Orleans showed reasonably good performance at the beginning of the 21st century.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nFollowing Hurricane Katrina, the state of Louisiana took over most of the schools within the system (all schools that fell into a nominal \\\"worst-performing\\\" metric); many of these schools, in addition to others that were not subject to state takeover, were subsequently granted operating charters giving them administrative independence from the Orleans Parish School Board, the Recovery School District and/or the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). At the start of the 2014 school year, all public school students in the NOPS system will attend these independent public charter schools, making New Orleans \\\"the nation's first completely privatized public school district in the nation.\\\"\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe last few years have witnessed significant and sustained gains in student achievement, as outside operators like KIPP, the Algiers Charter School Network, and the Capital One – University of New Orleans Charter School Network have assumed control of dozens of schools. The most recent release of annual school performance scores (October 2009) demonstrated continued growth in the academic performance of New Orleans' public schools. If the scores of all public schools in New Orleans (Orleans Parish School Board-chartered, Recovery School District-chartered, Recovery School District-operated, etc.) are considered, an overall school district performance score of 70.6 results. This score represents a 6% increase over an equivalent 2008 metric, and a 24% improvement when measured against an equivalent pre-Katrina (2004) metric, when a district score of 56.9 was posted. Notably, this score of 70.6 approaches the score (78.4) posted in 2009 by the adjacent, suburban Jefferson Parish public school system, though that system's performance score is itself below the state average of 91.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThis longstanding pattern is changing, however, as the NOPS system is engaged in the most promising and far-reaching public school reforms in the nation, reforms aimed at decentralizing power away from the pre-Katrina school board central bureaucracy to individual school principals and independent public charter school boards, monitoring charter school performance by granting renewable, five-year operating contracts permitting the closure of those not succeeding, and vesting choice in parents of public schools students, allowing them to enroll their children in almost any school in the district.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nLibraries\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThere are numerous academic and public libraries and archives in New Orleans, including Monroe Library at Loyola University, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library at Tulane University, the Law Library of Louisiana, and the Earl K. Long Library at the University of New Orleans.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe New Orleans Public Library includes 13 locations, most of which were damaged by Hurricane Katrina. However, only four libraries remained closed in 2007. The main library includes a Louisiana Division housing city archives and special collections.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nOther research archives are located at the Historic New Orleans Collection and the Old U.S. Mint.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nAn independently operated lending library called Iron Rail Book Collective specializes in radical and hard-to-find books. The library contains over 8,000 titles and is open to the public. It was the first library in the city to re-open after Hurricane Katrina.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe Louisiana Historical Association was founded in New Orleans in 1889. It operated first at Howard Memorial Library. Then its own Memorial Hall was added to Howard Library. The design for the new building was undertaken by the New Orleans architect Thomas Sully.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nMedia\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nHistorically, the major newspaper in the area was The Times-Picayune. The paper made headlines of its own in 2012 when owner Advance Publications cut its print schedule to three days each week, instead focusing its efforts on its website, NOLA.com. That action briefly the made New Orleans the largest city in the country without a daily newspaper, until the Baton Rouge newspaper The Advocate began a New Orleans edition in September 2012. In June 2013, the Times-Picayune resumed daily printing with a condensed newsstand tabloid edition, nicknamed TP Street, which is published on the three days each week that its namesake broadsheet edition is not printed. (The Picayune has not returned to daily delivery.) With the resumption of daily print editions from the Times-Picayune and the launch of the New Orleans edition of The Advocate, now The New Orleans Advocate, the city now has two daily newspapers for the first time since the afternoon States-Item ceased publication on May 31, 1980.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nIn addition to the daily newspapers, weekly publications include The Louisiana Weekly and Gambit Weekly. Also in wide circulation is the Clarion Herald, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nGreater New Orleans is the 54th largest Designated Market Area (DMA) in the U.S., serving 566,960 homes. Major television network affiliates serving the area include:\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\n*4 WWL (CBS)\\n*6 WDSU (NBC)\\n*8 WVUE (Fox)\\n*12 WYES (PBS)\\n*20 WHNO (LeSEA)\\n*26 WGNO (ABC)\\n*32 WLAE (PBS)\\n*38 WNOL (The CW)\\n*42 KGLA (Telemundo)\\n*49 WPXL (ION)\\n*54 WUPL (MyNetworkTV)\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nTwo radio stations that were influential in promoting New Orleans-based bands and singers were 50,000-watt WNOE-AM (1060) and 10,000-watt WTIX (690 AM). These two stations competed head-to-head from the late 1950s to the late 1970s.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nWWOZ, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Station, broadcasts, 24 hours per day, modern and traditional jazz, blues, rhythm and blues, brass band, gospel, cajun, zydeco, Caribbean, Latin, Brazilian, African, bluegrass, and Irish at 90.7 FM and at www.wwoz.org.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nWTUL, a local college radio station (Tulane University), broadcasts a wide array of programming, including 20th century classical, reggae, jazz, showtunes, indie rock, electronic music, soul/funk, goth, punk, hip hop, New Orleans music, opera, folk, hardcore, Americana, country, blues, Latin, cheese, techno, local, world, ska, swing and big band, kids shows, and even news programming from DemocracyNow. WTUL is listener supported and non-commercial. The disc jockeys are volunteers, many of them college students.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nLouisiana's film and television tax credits have spurred some growth in the television industry, although to a lesser degree than in the film industry. Many films and advertisements have in part or whole been filmed in the city, as have television programs such as The Real World: New Orleans in 2000,Thompson, Richard. [http://www.nola.com/tv/index.ssf/2010/03/real_world_dirty_business_gets.html \\\"Real World New Orleans: Toothbrush-as-toilet scrubber sickens housemate, triggers police action\\\"] Nola.com; March 21, 2010 The Real World: Back to New Orleans in 2009 and 2010 and Bad Girls Club: New Orleans in 2011.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nTransportation\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nStreetcars\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans has four active streetcar lines:\\n* The St. Charles Streetcar Line is the oldest continuously operating streetcar line in America and each car is a historic landmark. It runs from Canal Street all the way to the other end of St. Charles Avenue, then turns right into South Carrolton Avenue to its terminal at Carrolton and Claiborne. * The Riverfront Streetcar Line runs parallel to the river from Esplanade Street through the French Quarter to Canal Street to the Convention Center above Julia Street in the Arts District. * The Canal Streetcar Line uses the Riverfront line tracks from the intersection of Canal Street and Poydras Street, down Canal Street, then branches off and ends at the cemeteries at City Park Avenue, with a spur running from the intersection of Canal and Carrollton Avenue to the entrance of City Park at Esplanade, near the entrance to the New Orleans Museum of Art. * The Loyola-UPT Streetcar Line, opened on 28 January 2013, runs along Loyola Avenue from New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal to Canal Street, then continues along Canal Street to the river, and on weekends on the Riverfront line tracks to French Market.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nMore lines are at the planning stage, and one is under construction in the French quarter, in approximate prolongation to the new section of the Loyola Avenue line, to begin service in 2015.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe city's streetcars were also featured in the Tennessee Williams play, A Streetcar Named Desire. The streetcar line to Desire Street became a bus line in 1948. There are proposals to revive a Desire streetcar line, running along the neutral grounds of North Rampart and St. Claude, as far downriver as Poland Avenue, near the Industrial Canal.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nHurricane Katrina destroyed the power lines supplying the St. Charles Avenue line. The associated levee failures flooded the Mid-City facility storing the red streetcars which normally run on the Riverfront and Canal Street lines. Restoration of service has been gradual, with vintage St. Charles line cars running on the Riverfront and Canal lines until the more modern Czech-built red cars are back in service; they are being individually restored at the RTA's facility between Willow and Jeannette streets in the Carrollton neighborhood. On December 23, 2007, streetcars were restored to running on the St. Charles line up to Carrolton Avenue. The much-anticipated re-opening of the second portion of the historic route, which continues until the intersection of Carrolton Avenue and Claiborne Avenue, was commemorated on June 28, 2008.[http://www.norta.com New Orleans Regional Transit Authority].\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nBicycling\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe city's flat landscape, simple street grid, and mild winters, facilitate bicycle ridership, helping to make New Orleans eighth among U.S. cities in its rate of bicycle and pedestrian transportation,[http://www.nola.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2010/05/bicycle_second_line_celebrates.html Nola.com] and sixth in terms of the percentage of bicycling commuters.[http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/10/biking_new_orleans_might_be_le.html Nola.com] The city's bicyclists benefit from being located at the start of the Mississippi River Trail, a 3000 mi bicycle path that stretches from the city's Audubon Park to Minnesota. The first 25 mi of the path, through Destrehan, is paved with a smooth macadam surface. Bicyclists looking to cross the river have access to the city's ferries. Since the 2005 levee-breach, the city has actively sought to promote bicycling by constructing a $1.5 million bike trail from Mid-City to Lake Pontchartrain, and by adding over 37 mi of bicycle lanes to various streets, including St. Charles Avenue. In 2009, Tulane University contributed to these efforts by converting the main street through its Uptown campus, McAlister Place, into a pedestrian mall opened to bicycle traffic. In 2010, work began to add a bicycle corridor from the French Quarter to Lakeview, and 14 mi of additional bike lanes on existing streets.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans has also been recognized as a place with an abundance of uniquely decorated and uniquely designed bicycles.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nBuses\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nPublic transportation in the city is operated by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (\\\"RTA\\\"). There are many bus routes connecting the city and suburban areas. The RTA lost 200+ buses due to Hurricane Katrina, this would mean that there would be a 30–60 minute waiting period for the next bus to come to the bus stop, and the streetcars took until 2008 to return, so the RTA placed an order for 38 Orion VII Next Generation clean diesel buses, which arrived in July 2008. The RTA has these new buses running on biodiesel. The Jefferson Parish Department of Transit Administration operates Jefferson Transit, which provides service between the city and its suburbs.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nRoads\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans is served by Interstate 10, Interstate 610 and Interstate 510. I-10 travels east-west through the city as the Pontchartrain Expressway. In the far eastern part of the city, New Orleans East, it is known as the Eastern Expressway. I-610 provides a direct shortcut for traffic passing through New Orleans via I-10, allowing that traffic to bypass I-10's southward curve. In the future, New Orleans will have another interstate highway, Interstate 49, which will be extended from its current terminus in Lafayette to the city.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nIn addition to the interstate highways, U.S. 90 travels through the city, while U.S. 61 terminates in the city's downtown center. In addition, U.S. 11 terminates in the eastern portion of the city.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans is home to many bridges, the Crescent City Connection is perhaps the most notable. It serves as New Orleans' major bridge across the Mississippi River, providing a connection between the city's downtown on the eastbank and its westbank suburbs. Other bridges that cross the Mississippi River in the New Orleans area are the Huey P. Long Bridge, over which U.S. 90 travels, and the Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge, which carries Interstate 310.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe Twin Span Bridge, a five-mile (8 km) causeway in eastern New Orleans, carries I-10 across Lake Pontchartrain. Also in eastern New Orleans, Interstate 510/LA 47 travels across the Intracoastal Waterway/Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal via the Paris Road Bridge, connecting New Orleans East and suburban Chalmette.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe tolled Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, consisting of two parallel bridges are, at 24 mi long, the longest bridges in the world. Built in the 1950s (southbound span) and 1960s (northbound span), the bridges connect New Orleans with its suburbs on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain via Metairie.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nAirports\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe metropolitan area is served by the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, located in the suburb of Kenner. New Orleans also has several regional airports located throughout the metropolitan area. These include the Lakefront Airport, Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans (locally known as Callender Field) in the suburb of Belle Chasse and Southern Seaplane Airport, also located in Belle Chasse. Southern Seaplane has a 3200 ft runway for wheeled planes and a 5000 ft water runway for seaplanes. New Orleans International suffered some damage as a result of Hurricane Katrina, but as of April 2007, it contained the most traffic and is the busiest airport in the state of Louisiana and the sixth busiest in the Southeast.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nRail\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe city is served by rail via Amtrak. The New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal is the central rail depot, and is served by three trains: the Crescent, operating between New Orleans and New York City; the City of New Orleans, operating between New Orleans and Chicago; and the Sunset Limited, operating through New Orleans between Orlando and Los Angeles. From late August 2005 to the present, the Sunset Limited has remained officially an Orlando-to-Los Angeles train, being considered temporarily truncated due to the lingering effects of Hurricane Katrina. At first (until late October 2005) it was truncated to a San Antonio-to-Los Angeles service; since then (from late October 2005 on) it has been truncated to a New Orleans-to-Los Angeles service. As time has passed, particularly since the January 2006 completion of the rebuilding of damaged tracks east of New Orleans by their owner, CSX Transportation, the obstacles to restoration of the Sunset Limited's full route have been more managerial and political than physical.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nWith the strategic benefits of both a major international port and one of the few double-track Mississippi River crossings, the city is served by six of the seven Class I railroads in North America: Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, Norfolk Southern Railway, Kansas City Southern Railway, CSX Transportation and Canadian National Railway. The New Orleans Public Belt Railroad provides interchange services between the railroads.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nRecently, many have proposed extending New Orleans' public transit system by adding light rail routes from downtown, along Airline Highway through the airport to Baton Rouge and from downtown to Slidell and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Proponents of this idea claim that these new routes would boost the region's economy, which has been badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, and serve as an evacuation option for hospital patients out of the city.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nFerries\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans has had continuous ferry service since 1827, with three routes in current operation. The Canal Street Ferry (or Algiers Ferry) connects downtown New Orleans at the foot of Canal Street with the National Historic Landmark District of Algiers Point on the other side of the Mississippi River (\\\"West Bank\\\" in local parlance) and is popular with tourists and locals alike. This downtown ferry terminal also serves the Canal Street/Gretna Ferry, connecting Gretna, Louisiana. The Gretna Ferry serves pedestrians and bicyclists only. The Canal Street Ferry services passenger vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians, as does a third ferry miles downriver, connecting Chalmette, Louisiana and Lower Algiers.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNotable people\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNicknames\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nThe city's several nicknames are illustrative:\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\n* Crescent City alludes to the course of the Lower Mississippi River around and through the city. * The Big Easy was possibly a reference by musicians in the early 20th century to the relative ease of finding work there. It also may have originated in the Prohibition era, when the city was considered one big speak-easy due to the inability of the federal government to control alcohol sales in open violation of the 18th Amendment. The term was used by local columnist Betty Gillaud in the 1970s to contrast life in the city to that of New York City. The name also refers to New Orleans' status as a major city, at one time \\\"one of the cheapest places in America to live.\\\"\\n* The City that Care Forgot has been used since at least 1938, and refers to the outwardly easy-going, carefree nature of many of the residents. * America's Most Interesting City appears on welcome signs at the city limits. * Hollywood South is a reference to the large number of films, big and small, shot in the city since 2002.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nSince 2005 the nickname has also frequently been applied to Shreveport, in northwestern Louisiana, which became an important location for movie and television production after Hurricane Katrina displaced shooting in New Orleans. * The Northernmost Caribbean City is a reference from The Boston Globe, as well as other travel guides due in part to the similarities of culture with the Caribbean islands.\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nSister cities\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nNew Orleans has ten sister cities: \\n* Caracas, Venezuela\\n* Durban, South Africa \\n* Innsbruck, Austria\\n* Juan-les-Pins, France\\n* Maracaibo, Venezuela\\n* Matsue, Shimane, Japan\\n* Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico\\n* Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo\\n* San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina\\n* Tegucigalpa, Honduras\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\nTwinnings and Partnerships\",\n \"New Orleans\\n\\n* Batumi, Georgia\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nDixieland, sometimes referred to as hot jazz or traditional jazz, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nThe first use of the term \\\"Dixieland\\\" with reference to music was in the name of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, whose 1917 recordings fostered popular awareness of the new style of music. At that time, there was no issue of subgenres of jazz, so \\\"Dixieland\\\" referred to the band and not the music. A revival movement for traditional jazz, formed in reaction to the orchestrated sounds of the swing era and the perceived chaos of the new bebop sounds of the 1940s (referred to as \\\"Chinese music\\\" by Louis Armstrong), pulled \\\"Dixieland\\\" out from the somewhat forgotten band's name for the music they championed. The revival movement included elements of the Chicago style that developed during the 1920s, such as the use of a string bass instead of a tuba, and chordal instruments, in addition to the original format of the New Orleans style. That reflected the fact that virtually all of the recorded repertoire of New Orleans musicians was from the period when the format was already evolving beyond the traditional New Orleans format.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\n\\\"Dixieland\\\" may in that sense be regarded as denoting the jazz revival movement of the 1940s and 1950s as much as any particular subgenre of jazz. The essential elements that were accepted as within the style were the traditional front lines consisting of trumpets, trombones, and clarinets, and ensemble improvisation over a 2-beat rhythm.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nThe Dixieland revival renewed the audience for musicians who had continued to play in traditional jazz styles and revived the careers of New Orleans musicians who had become lost in the shuffle of musical styles that had occurred over the preceding 20 to 25 years. Younger black musicians largely shunned the revival, largely because of a distaste for tailoring their music to what they saw as nostalgia entertainment for white audiences with whom they did not share such nostalgia. The Jim Crow associations of the name \\\"Dixieland\\\" also did little to attract younger black musicians to the revival.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nThe Dixieland revival music during the 1940s and 1950s gained a broad audience that established traditional jazz as an enduring part of the American cultural landscape, and spawned revival movements in Europe. Well-known jazz standard tunes such as \\\"Basin Street Blues\\\" and \\\"When the Saints Go Marching In\\\" are known even to non-jazz fans thanks to the enduring popularity of traditional jazz. The Vietnam-era protest song \\\"Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag\\\" is based on tonal centers and the \\\"B\\\" refrain from the New Orleans standard \\\"Muskrat Ramble\\\". Traditional jazz is a major tourist attraction for New Orleans to the present day. It has been an influence on the styles of more modern players such as Charles Mingus and Steve Coleman.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nNew Orleans music combined earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime, and blues with collective, polyphonic improvisation. The \\\"standard\\\" band consists of a \\\"front line\\\" of trumpet (or cornet), trombone, and clarinet, with a \\\"rhythm section\\\" of at least two of the following instruments: guitar or banjo, string bass or tuba, piano, and drums. The Dixieland sound is created when one instrument (usually the trumpet) plays the melody or a variation on it, and the other instruments improvise around that melody. This creates a more polyphonic sound than the heavily arranged big band sound of the 1930s or the straight melodies (with or without harmonizing) of bebop in the 1940s.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nThe \\\"West Coast revival\\\" began in the late 1930s in San Francisco which used banjo and tuba. The Dutch \\\"old-style jazz\\\" was played with trumpets, trombones and saxophones accompanied by a single clarinet, sousaphone and a section of Marching percussion usually including a washboard.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nHistory\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nDixieland is the name given to early jazz styles by traditional jazz revivalists, starting in the 1940s and 1950s. The name is a reference to the \\\"Old South\\\", specifically anything south of the Mason-Dixon line. The term encompasses earlier brass band marches, French Quadrilles, biguine, ragtime, and blues with collective, polyphonic improvisation. While instrumentation and size of bands can be very flexible, the \\\"standard\\\" band consists of a \\\"front line\\\" of trumpet (or cornet), trombone, and clarinet, with a \\\"rhythm section\\\" of at least two of the following instruments: guitar or banjo, string bass or tuba, piano, and drums. Louis Armstrong's All-Stars was the band most popularly identified with Dixieland during the 1940s, although Armstrong's own influence was to move the music beyond the traditional New Orleans style.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nThe definitive Dixieland sound is created when one instrument (usually the trumpet) plays the melody or a recognizable paraphrase or variation on it, and the other instruments of the \\\"front line\\\" improvise around that melody. This creates a more polyphonic sound than the arranged ensemble playing of the big band sound or the straight \\\"head\\\" melodies of bebop.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nDuring the 1930s and 1940s, the earlier group-improvisation style fell out of favor with the majority of younger black players, while some older players of both races continued on in the older style. Though younger musicians developed new forms, many beboppers revered Armstrong and quoted fragments of his recorded music in their own improvisations.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nThe Dixieland revival in the late 1940s and 1950s brought many semi-retired musicians a measure of fame late in their lives as well as bringing retired musicians back onto the jazz circuit after years of not playing (e.g., Kid Ory and Red Nichols). Many Dixieland groups of the revival era consciously imitated the recordings and bands of decades earlier. Other musicians continued to create innovative performances and new tunes. For example, in the 1950s a style called \\\"Progressive Dixieland\\\" sought to blend polyphonic improvisation with bebop-style rhythm. Spike Jones & His New Band and Steve Lacy played with such bands. This style is sometimes called \\\"Dixie-bop\\\". Lacy went on to apply that approach to the music of Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, and Herbie Nichols.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nEtymology\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nWhile the term Dixieland is still in wide use, the term's appropriateness is a hotly debated topic in some circles. For some it is the preferred label (especially bands on the USA's West coast and those influenced by the 1940s revival bands), while others would rather use terms like Classic jazz or Traditional jazz. Some of the latter consider Dixieland a derogatory term implying superficial hokum played without passion or deep understanding of the music and because \\\"Dixie\\\" is a reference to pre Civil War Southern States.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nDixieland is often today applied to bands playing in a traditional style. Bands such as those of Eddie Condon and Muggsy Spanier were tagged with the Dixieland label.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nModern Dixieland\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nToday there are three main active streams of Dixieland jazz:\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nChicago style\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\n\\\"Chicago style\\\" is often applied to the sound of Chicagoans such as Jimmy McPartland, Eddie Condon, Muggsy Spanier, and Bud Freeman. The rhythm sections of these bands substitute the string bass for the tuba and the guitar for the banjo. Musically, the Chicagoans play in more of a swing-style 4-to-the-bar manner. The New Orleanian preference for an ensemble sound is deemphasized in favor of solos. Chicago-style dixieland also differs from its southern origin by being faster paced, resembling the hustle-bustle of city life. Chicago-style bands play a wide variety of tunes, including most of those of the more traditional bands plus many of the Great American Songbook selections from the 1930s by George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin. Non-Chicagoans such as Pee Wee Russell and Bobby Hackett are often thought of as playing in this style. This modernized style came to be called Nicksieland, after Nick's Greenwich Village night club, where it was popular, though the term was not limited to that club.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nWest Coast revival\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nThe \\\"West Coast revival\\\" is a movement that was began in the late 1930s by Lu Watters and his Yerba Buena Jazz Band in San Francisco and extended by trombonist Turk Murphy. It started out as a backlash to the Chicago style, which is closer in development towards swing. The repertoire of these bands is based on the music of Joe \\\"King\\\" Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and W.C. Handy. Bands playing in the West Coast style use banjo and tuba in the rhythm sections, which play in a two-to-the-bar rhythmic style.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nFamous traditional Dixieland tunes include: \\\"When the Saints Go Marching In\\\", \\\"Muskrat Ramble\\\", \\\"Struttin' with Some Barbecue\\\", \\\"Tiger Rag\\\", \\\"Dippermouth Blues\\\", \\\"Milenberg Joys\\\", \\\"Basin Street Blues\\\", \\\"Tin Roof Blues\\\", \\\"At the Jazz Band Ball\\\", \\\"Panama\\\", \\\"I Found a New Baby\\\", \\\"Royal Garden Blues\\\" and many others. All of these tunes were widely played by jazz bands of the pre-WWII era, especially Louis Armstrong. They came to be grouped as Dixieland standards beginning in the 1950s.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nDutch \\\"Old-style jazz\\\"\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nLargely occurring at the same time as the \\\"New Orleans Traditional\\\" revival movement in the United States, traditional jazz music made a come-back in the Low Countries. However, most Dutch jazz bands (such as The Ramblers) had long since evolved into the Swing-era while the few remaining traditional jazz bands (such as the Dutch Swing College Band) did not partake in the broader traditional revival movement, and continued to play ragtime and early jazz, greatly limiting the number of bands aspiring jazz musicians could join or (as they were using instruments unavailable to most Dutch musicians such as double basses and the piano) were forced to improvise, resulting in a new form of jazz ensemble generally referred to \\\"Oude Stijl\\\" (\\\"Old Style\\\") jazz in Dutch.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nInfluenced by the instrumentation of the two principal orchestral forms of the wind band in the Netherlands and Belgium, the \\\"harmonie\\\" and the \\\"fanfare\\\", traditional Dutch jazz bands do not feature a piano and contain no stringed instruments apart from the banjo. They include multiple trumpets, trombones and saxophones accompanied by a single clarinet, sousaphone and a section of Marching percussion usually including a washboard.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nThe music played by Dutch jazz bands includes both the original New Orleans tunes, as well as the songs of the revival era. In terms of playing style, Dutch jazz bands occupy a position between revivalist and original New Orleans jazz, with more solos than the latter but without abandoning the principle of ensemble playing. With the average band containing up to 15-players, Dutch jazz bands tend to be the largest ensembles to play traditional jazz music.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nStyles influenced by traditional jazz\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nMusical styles showing influences from traditional jazz include later styles of jazz, rhythm and blues, and early rock and roll. Traditional New Orleans second-line drumming and piano playing are prominent in the music of Fats Domino. The New Orleans drummer Idriss Muhammed adapted second-line drumming to modern jazz styles and gained crossover influence on the R&B style of James Brown. Charles Mingus paid homage to traditional jazz styles with compositions such as Eat Dat Chicken and My Jellyroll Soul. The contemporary New Orleans Brass Band styles, such as the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, The Primate Fiasco, the Hot Tamale Brass Band and the Rebirth Brass Band have combined traditional New Orleans brass band jazz with such influences as contemporary jazz, funk, hip hop, and rap. The M-BASE (Multi-Basic Array of Synchronous Extemporization) improvisational concept used by ensembles including Cassandra Wilson, Geri Allen, Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Graham Haynes, Kevin Eubanks and others is an extension of the polyphonic improvisation of New Orleans jazz.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nPartial list of Dixieland musicians\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nSome of the artists historically identified with Dixieland are mentioned in List of jazz musicians. Some of the best-selling and famous Dixieland artists of the post-WWII era:\\n* Louis Armstrong All-Stars, organized in the late 1940s, featured at various times Earl \\\"Fatha\\\" Hines, Barney Bigard, Edmond Hall, Jack Teagarden, Trummy Young, Arvell Shaw, Billy Kyle, Marty Napoleon, Big Sid Catlett, Cozy Cole, Barrett Deems and Danny Barcelona. * Kenny Ball, had a top-40 hit with \\\"Midnight in Moscow\\\" in the early 1960s, is a leader of the British Trad movement. * Eddie Condon, guitarist who led bands and ran a series of nightclubs in New York City and had a popular radio series. Successor bands played until the 1970s, and their mainstream style is still heard today, especially in touring bands led by cornetist Ed Polcer who was a co-owner of Condon's last nightclub in New York. * Jim Cullum Jazz Band, led by cornetist Jim Cullum, based in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in 1962 in partnership with his late father, was originally known as the Happy Jazz Band. The Jim Cullum Jazz Band is currently featured on the long-running USA public radio series, [http://www.riverwalk.org/ Riverwalk Jazz].\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nCullum's [http://landing.com/ Landing Jazz Club] has been in continuous operation on the San Antonio Riverwalk since 1963. * The Mission City Hot Rhythm Cats, co-led by cornetist David Jellema and former Jim Cullum Jazz Band trombonist Mike Pittsley, is a relatively new 6-piece San Antonio-based traditional jazz band composed of many former JCJB members. * Steamboat Willie, a veteran musician of Dixieland, jazz and ragtime music still playing at the Cafe Beignet in New Orleans today. * The Dukes of Dixieland, the Assunto family band of New Orleans. A successor band continues on in New Orleans today. * Pete Fountain, clarinetist who led popular bands in New Orleans, retired recently. * Al Hirt, trumpeter who had a string of top-40 hits in the 1960s, led bands in New Orleans until his death. * Ward Kimball, leader of the Firehouse Five Plus Two based in Los Angeles. * George Lewis was a New Orleans clarinetist featured at Preservation Hall in the 1960s, also led his own band. * Turk Murphy, trombonist who led a band at Earthquake McGoons and other San Francisco venues from the late 1940s through the 1970s.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\n* Chris Tyle, cornetist, trumpeter, drummer, clarinetist, saxophonist, leader of the Silver Leaf Jazz Band. Also known as a jazz writer and educator. A member of the Jazz Journalists Association.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nFestivals\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\n* In the United States, the largest traditional jazz festival, the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, is held in Sacramento, California annually on Memorial Day weekend, with about 100,000 visitors and about 150 bands from all over the world. Other smaller festivals and jazz parties arose in the late 1960s as the rock revolution displaced many of the jazz nightclubs. * The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana features jazz and many other genres by local, national, and internationally known artists. * In Tarragona, Catalonia, the Tarragona International Dixieland Festival (Catalan: Festival Internacional Dixieland de Tarragona), Spain's only dixieland festival, has been held annually the week before Easter, since 1994, with 25 bands from all over the world and 100 performances in streets, theatres, cafés and hotels. * In Dresden, Germany, a week-long international Dixieland festival has been held every year since 1970. The event culminates in a parade with floats. * In Davenport, Iowa, the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival is held on the Mississippi River waterfront each summer celebrating Dixieland music and the life of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, a 1920s musician from Davenport. It is combined with a prestigious road race, the \\\"Bix 7\\\".\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\n* In Ghent, Belgium, every year during the second week of July there is an international Jazz festival\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nPeriodicals\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nThere are several active periodicals devoted to traditional jazz: The Mississippi Rag, the Jazz Rambler, and the American Rag published in the US; and to an extent Jazz Journal published in Europe.\",\n \"Dixieland\\n\\nQuotations\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nJazz is a music genre that originated from African American communities of New Orleans in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African American and European American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz spans a period of over a hundred years, encompassing a very wide range of music, making it difficult to define. Jazz makes heavy use of improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation and the swing note, as well as aspects of European harmony, American popular music, the brass band tradition, and African musical elements such as blue notes and African-American styles such as ragtime. Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience and styles to the art form as well. Intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as \\\"one of America's original art forms\\\".\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAs jazz spread around the world, it drew on different national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to many distinctive styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass-band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz, a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisational style and Gypsy jazz (a style that emphasized musette waltzes) were the prominent styles. Bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging \\\"musician's music\\\" which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed in the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, linear melodic lines.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe 1950s saw the emergence of free jazz, which explored playing without regular meter, beat and formal structures, and in the mid-1950s, hard bop emerged, which introduced influences from rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano playing. Modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock music's rhythms, electric instruments and the highly amplified stage sound. In the early 1980s, a commercial form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful, garnering significant radio airplay. Other styles and genres abound in the 2000s, such as Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nEtymology and definition\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe question of the origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm, a slang term dating back to 1860 meaning \\\"pep, energy.\\\" The earliest written record of the word is in a 1912 article in the Los Angeles Times in which a minor league baseball pitcher described a pitch which he called a jazz ball \\\"because it wobbles and you simply can’t do anything with it.\\\"\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe use of the word in a musical context was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune. Archived at Observatoire Musical Français, Paris-Sorbonne University. Its first documented use in a musical context in New Orleans was in a November 14, 1916 Times-Picayune article about \\\"jas bands.\\\" In an interview with NPR, musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of the original slang connotations of the term, saying: \\\"When Broadway picked it up, they called it 'J-A-Z-Z.. It wasn't called that. It was spelled 'J-A-S-S.' That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, you wouldn't say it in front of ladies.\\\" The American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nJazz has proved to be very difficult to define, since it encompasses such a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years, from ragtime to the 2010-era rock-infused fusion. Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditions, such as European music history or African music. But critic Joachim-Ernst Berendt argues that its terms of reference and its definition should be broader, defining jazz as a \\\"form of art music which originated in the United States through the confrontation of the Negro with European music\\\" and arguing that it differs from European music in that jazz has a \\\"special relationship to time defined as 'swing'\\\", involves \\\"a spontaneity and vitality of musical production in which improvisation plays a role\\\" and contains a \\\"sonority and manner of phrasing which mirror the individuality of the performing jazz musician\\\". In the opinion of Robert Christgau, \\\"most of us would say that inventing meaning while letting loose is the essence and promise of jazz.\\\"\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nA broader definition that encompasses all of the radically different eras of jazz has been proposed by Travis Jackson: \\\"it is music that includes qualities such as swing, improvising, group interaction, developing an 'individual voice', and being open to different musical possibilities\\\". Krin Gibbard has provided an overview of the discussion on definitions, arguing that \\\"jazz is a construct\\\" that, while artificial, still is useful to designate \\\"a number of musics with enough in common to be understood as part of a coherent tradition\\\". In contrast to the efforts of commentators and enthusiasts of certain types of jazz, who have argued for narrower definitions that exclude other types, the musicians themselves are often reluctant to define the music they play. As Duke Ellington, one of jazz's most famous figures, said: \\\"It's all music\\\".\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nElements and issues\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nImprovisation\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAlthough jazz is considered highly difficult to define, at least in part because it contains so many varied subgenres, improvisation is consistently regarded as being one of its key elements. The centrality of improvisation in jazz is attributed to influential earlier forms of music: the early blues, a form of folk music which arose in part from the work songs and field hollers of the African-American slaves on plantations. These were commonly structured around a repetitive call-and-response pattern, but early blues was also highly improvisational. European classical music performance is evaluated by its fidelity to the musical score, with much less discretion over interpretation, ornamentation and accompaniment: the classical performer's primary goal is to play a composition as it was written. In contrast, jazz is often characterized as the product of group creativity, interaction, and collaboration, which places varying degrees of value on the contributions of composer (if there is one) and performers.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn jazz, the skilled performer will interpret a tune in very individual ways, never playing the same composition the same way twice; depending on the performer's mood and personal experience, interactions with other musicians, or even members of the audience, a jazz musician may alter melodies, harmonies or time signature at will.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe approach to improvisation has developed enormously over the history of the music. In early New Orleans and Dixieland jazz, performers took turns playing the melody, while others improvised countermelodies. By the swing era, big bands were coming to rely more on arranged music: arrangements were either written or learned by ear and memorized, while individual soloists would improvise within these arrangements. Later, in bebop the focus shifted back toward small groups and minimal arrangements; the melody would be stated briefly at the start and end of a piece, but the core of the performance would be the series of improvisations. Later styles such as modal jazz abandoned the strict notion of a chord progression, allowing the individual musicians to improvise even more freely within the context of a given scale or mode. In many forms of jazz, a soloist is often supported by a rhythm section consisting of one or more chordal instruments (piano, guitar, etc.), double bass playing the basslines and drum kit. These performers provide accompaniment by playing chords and rhythms that outline the song structure and complement the soloist.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn avant-garde and free jazz idioms, the separation of soloist and band is reduced, and there is license, or even a requirement, for the abandoning of chords, scales and rhythmic meters.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nTradition and race\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nSince at least the emergence of bebop, forms of jazz that are commercially oriented or influenced by popular music have been criticized by purists. According to Bruce Johnson, there has always been a \\\"tension between jazz as a commercial music and an art form\\\". Traditional jazz enthusiasts have dismissed bebop, free jazz, the 1970s jazz fusion era and much else as periods of debasement of the music and betrayals of the tradition. An alternative viewpoint is that jazz is able to absorb and transform influences from diverse musical styles, and that, by avoiding the creation of 'norms', other newer, avant-garde forms of jazz will be free to emerge.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nTo some African Americans, jazz has highlighted their contribution to American society and helped bring attention to black history and culture, but for others, the music and term \\\"jazz\\\" are reminders of \\\"an oppressive and racist society and restrictions on their artistic visions\\\". Amiri Baraka argues that there is a distinct \\\"white jazz\\\" music genre expressive of whiteness. White jazz musicians appeared in the early 1920s in the Midwestern United States, as well as other areas. Bix Beiderbecke was one of the most prominent white jazz musicians. An influential style referred to as the Chicago School (or Chicago Style) was developed by white musicians including Bud Freeman, Jimmy McPartland. Frank Teschemacher, Dave Tough, and Eddie Condon. Others from Chicago such as Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa became leading members of big-band swing during the 1930s.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nRole of women\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nWomen jazz performers and composers have contributed throughout jazz history. While women such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Ethel Waters, Betty Carter, Adelaide Hall, Abbey Lincoln, and Anita O'Day are famous for their jazz singing, women have achieved much less recognition for their contributions as composers, bandleaders, and instrumental performers. Other notable jazz women include piano player Lil Hardin Armstrong and jazz songwriters Irene Higginbotham (1918-1988) and Dorothy Fields (1905-1974). Women began playing instruments in jazz in the early 1920s, with the piano being one of the earliest instruments used which allowed female artists a degree of social acceptance. Some well known artists of the time include Sweet Emma Barrett, Mary Lou Williams, Billie Pierce, Jeanette Kimball and Lovie Austin.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nWhen the men were drafted for WWII, many all-women big band jazz bands took over. The International Sweethearts of Rhythm (founded 1937) was a well-known jazz group of this era, becoming the first all-women integrated band in the U.S., touring Europe in 1945 and becoming the first black women to travel with the USO. The dress codes of the era required women to wear strapless dresses and high heeled shoes, which was somewhat of a hindrance to the integration of women into the big bands of suit-wearing men. Nevertheless, women were hired into many of the big-league big bands such as Woody Herman and Gerald Wilson.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nHistory\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nJazz originated in the late 19th to early 20th century as interpretations of American and European classical music entwined with African and slave folk songs and the influences of West African culture. Its composition and style have changed many times throughout the years with each performer's personal interpretation and improvisation, which is also one of the greatest appeals of the genre.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nOrigins\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBlended African and European music sensibilities\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBy 1866, the Atlantic slave trade had brought nearly 400,000 Africans to North America. The slaves came largely from West Africa and the greater Congo River basin, and brought strong musical traditions with them. The African traditions primarily make use of a single-line melody and call-and-response pattern, and the rhythms have a counter-metric structure and reflect African speech patterns.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nLavish festivals featuring African-based dances to drums were organized on Sundays at Place Congo, or Congo Square, in New Orleans until 1843. There are historical accounts of other music and dance gatherings elsewhere in the southern United States. Robert Palmer said of percussive slave music:\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nUsually such music was associated with annual festivals, when the year's crop was harvested and several days were set aside for celebration. As late as 1861, a traveler in North Carolina saw dancers dressed in costumes that included horned headdresses and cow tails and heard music provided by a sheepskin-covered \\\"gumbo box\\\", apparently a frame drum; triangles and jawbones furnished the auxiliary percussion. There are quite a few [accounts] from the southeastern states and Louisiana dating from the period 1820–1850. Some of the earliest [Mississippi] Delta settlers came from the vicinity of New Orleans, where drumming was never actively discouraged for very long and homemade drums were used to accompany public dancing until the outbreak of the Civil War.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAnother influence came from the harmonic style of hymns of the church, which black slaves had learned and incorporated into their own music as spirituals. The origins of the blues are undocumented, though they can be seen as the secular counterpart of the spirituals. However, as Gerhard Kubik points out, whereas the spirituals are homophonic, rural blues and early jazz \\\"was largely based on concepts of heterophony.\\\"\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nDuring the early 19th century an increasing number of black musicians learned to play European instruments, particularly the violin, which they used to parody European dance music in their own cakewalk dances. In turn, European-American minstrel show performers in blackface popularized the music internationally, combining syncopation with European harmonic accompaniment. In the mid-1800s the white New Orleans composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk adapted slave rhythms and melodies from Cuba and other Caribbean islands into piano salon music. New Orleans was the main nexus between the Afro-Caribbean and African-American cultures.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAfrican rhythmic retention\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe \\\"Black Codes\\\" outlawed drumming by slaves, which meant that African drumming traditions were not preserved in North America, unlike in Cuba, Haiti, and elsewhere in the Caribbean. African-based rhythmic patterns were retained in the United States in large part through \\\"body rhythms\\\" such as stomping, clapping, and patting juba.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn the opinion of jazz historian Ernest Borneman, what preceded New Orleans jazz before 1890 was \\\"Afro-Latin music\\\", similar to what was played in the Caribbean at the time. A three-stroke pattern known in Cuban music as tresillo is a fundamental rhythmic figure heard in many different slave musics of the Caribbean, as well as the Afro-Caribbean folk dances performed in New Orleans Congo Square and Gottschalk's compositions (for example \\\"Souvenirs From Havana\\\" (1859)). Tresillo is the most basic and most prevalent duple-pulse rhythmic cell in sub-Saharan African music traditions and the music of the African Diaspora.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nTresillo is heard prominently in New Orleans second line music and in other forms of popular music from that city from the turn of the 20th century to present. \\\"By and large the simpler African rhythmic patterns survived in jazz ... because they could be adapted more readily to European rhythmic conceptions,\\\" the Jazz historian Gunther Schuller observed. \\\"Some survived, others were discarded as the Europeanization progressed.\\\"\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn the post-Civil War period (after 1865), African Americans were able to obtain surplus military bass drums, snare drums and fifes, and an original African-American drum and fife music emerged, featuring tresillo and related syncopated rhythmic figures. This was a drumming tradition that was distinct from its Caribbean counterparts, expressing a uniquely African-American sensibility. \\\"The snare and bass drummers played syncopated cross-rhythms,\\\" observed the writer Robert Palmer (writer), speculating that \\\"this tradition must have dated back to the latter half of the nineteenth century, and it could have not have developed in the first place if there hadn't been a reservoir of polyrhythmic sophistication in the culture it nurtured.\\\"\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\n\\\"Spanish tinge\\\"—the Afro-Cuban rhythmic influence\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAfrican-American music began incorporating Afro-Cuban rhythmic motifs in the 19th century, when the habanera (Cuban contradanza) gained international popularity. Musicians from Havana and New Orleans would take the twice-daily ferry between both cities to perform, and the habanera quickly took root in the musically fertile Crescent City. John Storm Roberts states that the musical genre habanera \\\"reached the U.S. twenty years before the first rag was published.\\\" For the more than quarter-century in which the cakewalk, ragtime, and proto-jazz were forming and developing, the habanera was a consistent part of African-American popular music.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nHabaneras were widely available as sheet music, and were the first written music which was rhythmically based on an African motif (1803), From the perspective of African-American music, the habanera rhythm (also known as congo, tango-congo, or tango. ) can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat. The habanera was the first of many Cuban music genres which enjoyed periods of popularity in the United States, and reinforced and inspired the use of tresillo-based rhythms in African-American music.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nNew Orleans native Louis Moreau Gottschalk's piano piece \\\"Ojos Criollos (Danse Cubaine)\\\" (1860) was influenced by the composer's studies in Cuba: the habanera rhythm is clearly heard in the left hand. In Gottschalk's symphonic work \\\"A Night in the Tropics\\\" (1859), the tresillo variant cinquillo appears extensively. The figure was later used by Scott Joplin and other ragtime composers.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nComparing the music of New Orleans with the music of Cuba, Wynton Marsalis observes that tresillo is the New Orleans \\\"clave\\\", a Spanish word meaning 'code' or 'key', as in the key to a puzzle, or mystery. Although technically the pattern is only half a clave, Marsalis makes the point that the single-celled figure is the guide-pattern of New Orleans music. Jelly Roll Morton called the rhythmic figure the Spanish tinge, and considered it an essential ingredient of jazz.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\n1890s–1910s\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nRagtime\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe abolition of slavery in 1865 led to new opportunities for the education of freed African Americans. Although strict segregation limited employment opportunities for most blacks, many were able to find work in entertainment. Black musicians were able to provide entertainment in dances, minstrel shows, and in vaudeville, during which time many marching bands were formed. Black pianists played in bars, clubs and brothels, as ragtime developed.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nRagtime appeared as sheet music, popularized by African-American musicians such as the entertainer Ernest Hogan, whose hit songs appeared in 1895. Two years later, Vess Ossman recorded a medley of these songs as a banjo solo known as \\\"Rag Time Medley\\\". Also in 1897, the white composer William H. Krell published his \\\"Mississippi Rag\\\" as the first written piano instrumental ragtime piece, and Tom Turpin published his \\\"Harlem Rag\\\", the first rag published by an African-American.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe classically trained pianist Scott Joplin produced his \\\"Original Rags\\\" in 1898, and in 1899 had an international hit with \\\"Maple Leaf Rag\\\", a multi-strain ragtime march with four parts that feature recurring themes and a bass line with copious seventh chords. Its structure was the basis for many other rags, and the syncopations in the right hand, especially in the transition between the first and second strain, were novel at the time.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAfrican-based rhythmic patterns such as tresillo and its variants, the habanera rhythm and cinquillo, are heard in the ragtime compositions of Joplin, Turpin, and others. Joplin's \\\"Solace\\\" (1909) is generally considered to be within the habanera genre: both of the pianist's hands play in a syncopated fashion, completely abandoning any sense of a march rhythm. Ned Sublette postulates that the tresillo/habanera rhythm \\\"found its way into ragtime and the cakewalk,\\\" whilst Roberts suggests that \\\"the habanera influence may have been part of what freed black music from ragtime's European bass.\\\"\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBlues\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAfrican genesis\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBlues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre, which originated in African-American communities of primarily the \\\"Deep South\\\" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from their spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants and rhymed simple narrative ballads.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe African use of pentatonic scales contributed to the development of blue notes in blues and jazz. As Kubik explains:\\nMany of the rural blues of the Deep South are stylistically an extension and merger of basically two broad accompanied song-style traditions in the west central Sudanic belt:\\n* A strongly Arabic/Islamic song style, as found for example among the Hausa. It is characterized by melisma, wavy intonation, pitch instabilities within a pentatonic framework, and a declamatory voice.\\n* An ancient west central Sudanic stratum of pentatonic song composition, often associated with simple work rhythms in a regular meter, but with notable off-beat accents (1999: 94).\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nW. C. Handy: early published blues\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nW. C. Handy became intrigued by the folk blues of the Deep South whilst traveling through the Mississippi Delta. In this folk blues form, the singer would improvise freely within a limited melodic range, sounding like a field holler, and the guitar accompaniment was slapped rather than strummed, like a small drum which responded in syncopated accents, functioning as another \\\"voice\\\". Handy and his band members were formally trained African-American musicians who had not grown up with the blues, yet he was able to adapt the blues to a larger band instrument format, and arrange them in a popular music form.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nHandy wrote about his adopting of the blues:\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe primitive southern Negro, as he sang, was sure to bear down on the third and seventh tone of the scale, slurring between major and minor. Whether in the cotton field of the Delta or on the Levee up St. Louis way, it was always the same. Till then, however, I had never heard this slur used by a more sophisticated Negro, or by any white man. I tried to convey this effect ... by introducing flat thirds and sevenths (now called blue notes) into my song, although its prevailing key was major ..., and I carried this device into my melody as well.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe publication of his \\\"Memphis Blues\\\" sheet music in 1912 introduced the 12-bar blues to the world (although Gunther Schuller argues that it is not really a blues, but \\\"more like a cakewalk\\\" ). This composition, as well as his later \\\"St. Louis Blues\\\" and others, included the habanera rhythm,W. C. Handy, Father of the Blues: An Autobiography, edited by Arna Bontemps: foreword by Abbe Niles. Macmillan Company, New York; (1941), pp. 99, 100 (no ISBN in this first printing). and would become jazz standards. Handy's music career began in the pre-jazz era, and contributed to the codification of jazz through the publication of some of the first jazz sheet music.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nWithin the context of Western harmony\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe blues form which is ubiquitous in jazz is characterized by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues progression is the most common. An important part of the sound are the blue notes which, for expressive purposes, are sung or played flattened, or gradually bent (minor 3rd to major 3rd) in relation to the pitch of the major scale. The blues were the key that opened up an entirely new approach to Western harmony, ultimately leading to a high level of harmonic complexity in jazz.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nNew Orleans\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe music of New Orleans had a profound effect on the creation of early jazz. Many early jazz performers played in venues throughout the city, such as the brothels and bars of the red-light district around Basin Street, known as \\\"Storyville\\\". In addition to dance bands, there were numerous marching bands who played at lavish funerals (later called jazz funerals), which were arranged by the African-American and European American communities. The instruments used in marching bands and dance bands became the basic instruments of jazz: brass, reeds tuned in the European 12-tone scale, and drums. Small bands which mixed self-taught and well educated African-American musicians, many of whom came from the funeral-procession tradition of New Orleans, played a seminal role in the development and dissemination of early jazz. These bands travelled throughout Black communities in the Deep South and, from around 1914 onwards, Afro-Creole and African-American musicians played in vaudeville shows which took jazz to western and northern US cities.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn New Orleans, a white marching band leader named Papa Jack Laine integrated blacks and whites in his marching band. Laine was known as \\\"the father of white jazz\\\" because of the many top players who passed through his bands (including George Brunies, Sharkey Bonano and the future members of the Original Dixieland Jass Band). Laine was a good talent scout. During the early 1900s jazz was mostly done in the African-American and mulatto communities, due to segregation laws. The red light district of Storyville, New Orleans was crucial in bringing jazz music to a wider audience via tourists who came to the port city. Many jazz musicians from the African-American communities were hired to perform live music in brothels and bars, including many early jazz pioneers such as Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton, in addition to those from New Orleans other communities such as Lorenzo Tio and Alcide Nunez. Louis Armstrong also got his start in Storyville and would later find success in Chicago (along with others from New Orleans) after the United States government shut down Storyville in 1917.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nSyncopation\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe cornetist Buddy Bolden led a band who are often mentioned as one of the prime originators of the style later to be called \\\"jazz\\\". He played in New Orleans around 1895–1906, before developing a mental illness; there are no recordings of him playing. Bolden's band is credited with creating the big four, the first syncopated bass drum pattern to deviate from the standard on-the-beat march. As the example below shows, the second half of the big four pattern is the habanera rhythm.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAfro-Creole pianist Jelly Roll Morton began his career in Storyville. From 1904, he toured with vaudeville shows around southern cities, also playing in Chicago and New York. In 1905 he composed his \\\"Jelly Roll Blues\\\", which on its publication in 1915 became the first jazz arrangement in print, introducing more musicians to the New Orleans style.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nMorton considered the tresillo/habanera (which he called the Spanish tinge) to be an essential ingredient of jazz. In his own words: Now in one of my earliest tunes, \\\"New Orleans Blues,\\\" you can notice the Spanish tinge. In fact, if you can't manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning, I call it, for jazz.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nMorton was a crucial innovator in the evolution from the early jazz form known as ragtime to jazz piano, and could perform pieces in either style; in 1938, Morton made a series of recordings for the Library of Congress, in which he demonstrated the difference between the two styles. Morton's solos however were still close to ragtime, and were not merely improvisations over chord changes as in later jazz; but his use of the blues was of equal importance.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nSwing\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nMorton loosened ragtime's rigid rhythmic feeling, decreasing its embellishments and employing a swing feeling. Swing is the most important and enduring African-based rhythmic technique used in jazz. An oft quoted definition of swing by Louis Armstrong is: \\\"if you don't feel it, you'll never know it.\\\" The New Harvard Dictionary of Music states that swing is: \\\"An intangible rhythmic momentum in jazz ... Swing defies analysis; claims to its presence may inspire arguments.\\\" The dictionary does nonetheless provide the useful description of triple subdivisions of the beat contrasted with duple subdivisions: swing superimposes six subdivisions of the beat over a basic pulse structure or four subdivisions. This aspect of swing is far more prevalent in African-American music than in Afro-Caribbean music. One aspect of swing, which is heard in more rhythmically complex Diaspora musics, places strokes in-between the triple and duple-pulse \\\"grids\\\".\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nNew Orleans brass bands are a lasting influence, contributing horn players to the world of professional jazz with the distinct sound of the city whilst helping black children escape poverty. The leader of New Orleans' Camelia Brass Band, D'Jalma Ganier, taught Louis Armstrong to play trumpet; Armstrong would then popularize the New Orleans style of trumpet playing, and then expand it. Like Jelly Roll Morton, Armstrong is also credited with the abandonment of ragtime's stiffness in favor of swung notes. Armstrong, perhaps more than any other musician, codified the rhythmic technique of swing in jazz, and broadened the jazz solo vocabulary.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe Original Dixieland Jass Band made the music's first recordings early in 1917, and their \\\"Livery Stable Blues\\\" became the earliest released jazz record. That year, numerous other bands made recordings featuring \\\"jazz\\\" in the title or band name, but most were ragtime or novelty records rather than jazz. In February 1918 during World War I, James Reese Europe's \\\"Hellfighters\\\" infantry band took ragtime to Europe, then on their return recorded Dixieland standards including \\\"Darktown Strutters' Ball\\\".\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nOther regions\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn the northeastern United States, a \\\"hot\\\" style of playing ragtime had developed, notably James Reese Europe's symphonic Clef Club orchestra in New York, which played a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall in 1912. The Baltimore rag style of Eubie Blake influenced James P. Johnson's development of stride piano playing, in which the right hand plays the melody, while the left hand provides the rhythm and bassline.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn Ohio and elsewhere in the midwest the major influence was ragtime, until about 1919. Around 1912, when the four-string banjo and saxophone came in, musicians began to improvise the melody line, but the harmony and rhythm remained unchanged. A contemporary account states that blues could only be heard in jazz in the gut-bucket cabarets, which were generally looked down upon by the Black middle-class.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\n1920s and 1930s\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nJazz Age\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nFrom 1920 to 1933 Prohibition in the United States banned the sale of alcoholic drinks, resulting in illicit speakeasies which became lively venues of the \\\"Jazz Age\\\", hosting popular music including current dance songs, novelty songs and show tunes. Jazz began to get a reputation as being immoral, and many members of the older generations saw it as threatening the old cultural values and promoting the new decadent values of the Roaring 20s. Professor Henry van Dyke of Princeton University wrote: \\\"... it is not music at all. It's merely an irritation of the nerves of hearing, a sensual teasing of the strings of physical passion.\\\" The media too began to denigrate jazz. The New York Times used stories and headlines to pick at jazz: Siberian villagers were said by the paper to have used jazz to scare off bears, when in fact they had used pots and pans; another story claimed that the fatal heart attack of a celebrated conductor was caused by jazz.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn 1919 Kid Ory's Original Creole Jazz Band of musicians from New Orleans began playing in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where in 1922 they became the first black jazz band of New Orleans origin to make recordings. That year also saw the first recording by Bessie Smith, the most famous of the 1920s blues singers. Chicago meanwhile was the main center developing the new \\\"Hot Jazz\\\", where King Oliver joined Bill Johnson. Bix Beiderbecke formed The Wolverines in 1924.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nDespite its Southern black origins, there was a larger market for jazzy dance music played by white orchestras. In 1918 Paul Whiteman and his orchestra became a hit in San Francisco, California, signing with Victor Talking Machine Company in 1920 and becoming the top bandleader of the 1920s, giving \\\"hot jazz\\\" a white component, hiring white musicians including Bix Beiderbecke, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Frankie Trumbauer, and Joe Venuti. In 1924 Whiteman commissioned Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which was premiered by his orchestra. After the band successfully toured Europe, huge hot jazz orchestras in theater pits caught on with other whites, including Fred Waring, Jean Goldkette, and Nathaniel Shilkret. Whiteman's success was based on a \\\"rhetoric of domestication\\\" according to which he had elevated and rendered valuable (read \\\"white\\\") a previously inchoate (read \\\"black\\\") kind of music.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nWhiteman's success caused blacks to follow suit, including Earl Hines (who opened in The Grand Terrace Cafe in Chicago in 1928), Duke Ellington (who opened at the Cotton Club in Harlem in 1927), Lionel Hampton, Fletcher Henderson, Claude Hopkins, and Don Redman, with Henderson and Redman developing the \\\"talking to one another\\\" formula for \\\"hot\\\" Swing music.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn 1924 Louis Armstrong joined the Fletcher Henderson dance band for a year, as featured soloist. The original New Orleans style was polyphonic, with theme variation and simultaneous collective improvisation. Armstrong was a master of his hometown style, but by the time he joined Henderson's band, he was already a trailblazer in a new phase of jazz, with its emphasis on arrangements and soloists. Armstrong's solos went well beyond the theme-improvisation concept, and extemporized on chords, rather than melodies. According to Schuller, by comparison, the solos by Armstrong's bandmates (including a young Coleman Hawkins), sounded \\\"stiff, stodgy,\\\" with \\\"jerky rhythms and a grey undistinguished tone quality.\\\" The following example shows a short excerpt of the straight melody of \\\"Mandy, Make Up Your Mind\\\" by George W. Meyer and Arthur Johnston (top), compared with Armstrong's solo improvisations (below) (recorded 1924). (The example approximates Armstrong's solo, as it doesn't convey his use of swing.)\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAlso in the 1920s Skiffle, jazz played with homemade instruments such as washboard, jugs, musical saw, kazoos, etc. began to be recorded in Chicago, Ill., later merging with country music.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nArmstrong's solos were a significant factor in making jazz a true 20th-century language. After leaving Henderson's group, Armstrong formed his virtuosic Hot Five band, where he popularized scat singing.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nJelly Roll Morton recorded with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in an early mixed-race collaboration, then in 1926 formed his Red Hot Peppers.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBy 1930 the New Orleans-style ensemble was a relic, and jazz belonged to the world.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nSwing\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe 1930s belonged to popular swing big bands, in which some virtuoso soloists became as famous as the band leaders. Key figures in developing the \\\"big\\\" jazz band included bandleaders and arrangers Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Harry James, and Jimmie Lunceford. Although it was a collective sound, swing also offered individual musicians a chance to \\\"solo\\\" and improvise melodic, thematic solos which could at times be very complex \\\"important\\\" music.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nSwing was also dance music. It was broadcast on the radio \\\"live\\\" nightly across America for many years, especially by Earl Hines and his Grand Terrace Cafe Orchestra broadcasting coast-to-coast from Chicago (well placed for \\\"live\\\" US time-zones).\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nOver time, social strictures regarding racial segregation began to relax in America: white bandleaders began to recruit black musicians and black bandleaders white ones. In the mid-1930, Benny Goodman hired pianist Teddy Wilson, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and guitarist Charlie Christian to join small groups. In the 1930s, Kansas City Jazz as exemplified by tenor saxophonist Lester Young (inventor of much of hipster jargon) marked the transition from big bands to the bebop influence of the 1940s. An early 1940s style known as \\\"jumping the blues\\\" or jump blues used small combos, uptempo music and blues chord progressions, drawing on boogie-woogie from the 1930s.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBeginnings of European jazz\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAs only a limited number of American jazz records were released in Europe, European jazz traces many of its roots to American artists such as James Reese Europe, Paul Whiteman and Lonnie Johnson, who visited Europe during and after World War I. It was their live performances which inspired European audiences' interest in jazz, as well as the interest in all things American (and therefore exotic) which accompanied the economic and political woes of Europe during this time. The beginnings of a distinct European style of jazz began to emerge in this interwar period.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBritish jazz began with a tour by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1919. In 1926 Fred Elizalde and His Cambridge Undergraduates began broadcasting on the BBC.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThis distinct style entered full swing in France with the Quintette du Hot Club de France, which began in 1934. Much of this French jazz was a combination of African-American jazz and the symphonic styles in which French musicians were well-trained; in this, it is easy to see the inspiration taken from Paul Whiteman, since his style was also a fusion of the two. Belgian guitar virtuoso Django Reinhardt popularized gypsy jazz, a mix of 1930s American swing, French dance hall \\\"musette\\\" and Eastern European folk with a languid, seductive feel; the main instruments are steel stringed guitar, violin, and double bass, and solos pass from one player to another as the guitar and bass play the role of the rhythm section. Some music researchers hold that it was Philadelphia's Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti who pioneered the guitar-violin partnership typical of the genre, which was brought to France after they had been heard live or on Okeh Records in the late 1920s.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\n1940s and 1950s\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\n\\\"American music\\\"—the influence of Ellington\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBy the 1940s, Duke Ellington's music had transcended the bounds of swing, bridging jazz and art music in a natural synthesis. Ellington called his music \\\"American Music\\\" rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as \\\"beyond category.\\\" These included many of the musicians who were members of his orchestra, some of whom are considered among the best in jazz in their own right, but it was Ellington who melded them into one of the most well-known jazz orchestral units in the history of jazz. He often composed specifically for the style and skills of these individuals, such as \\\"Jeep's Blues\\\" for Johnny Hodges, \\\"Concerto for Cootie\\\" for Cootie Williams (which later became \\\"Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me\\\" with Bob Russell's lyrics), and \\\"The Mooche\\\" for Tricky Sam Nanton and Bubber Miley. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's \\\"Caravan\\\" and \\\"Perdido\\\", which brought the \\\"Spanish Tinge\\\" to big-band jazz. Several members of the orchestra remained with him for several decades.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe band reached a creative peak in the early 1940s, when Ellington and a small hand-picked group of his composers and arrangers wrote for an orchestra of distinctive voices who displayed tremendous creativity.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBebop\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn the early 1940s, bebop-style performers began to shift jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging \\\"musician's music.\\\" The most influential bebop musicians included saxophonist Charlie Parker, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown, and drummer Max Roach. Divorcing itself from dance music, bebop established itself more as an art form, thus lessening its potential popular and commercial appeal.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nComposer Gunther Schuller wrote:\\n ... In 1943 I heard the great Earl Hines band which had Bird in it and all those other great musicians. They were playing all the flatted fifth chords and all the modern harmonies and substitutions and Dizzy Gillespie runs in the trumpet section work. Two years later I read that that was 'bop' and the beginning of modern jazz ... but the band never made recordings.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nDizzy Gillespie wrote:\\n ... People talk about the Hines band being 'the incubator of bop' and the leading exponents of that music ended up in the Hines band. But people also have the erroneous impression that the music was new. It was not. The music evolved from what went before. It was the same basic music. The difference was in how you got from here to here to here ... naturally each age has got its own shit.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nRhythm\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nSince bebop was meant to be listened to, not danced to, it could use faster tempos. Drumming shifted to a more elusive and explosive style, in which the ride cymbal was used to keep time while the snare and bass drum were used for accents. This led to a highly syncopated linear rhythmic complexity.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nHarmony\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBebop musicians employed several harmonic devices which were not previously typical in jazz, engaging in a more abstracted form of chord-based improvisation. Bebop scales are traditional scales with an added chromatic passing note; bebop also uses \\\"passing\\\" chords, substitute chords, and altered chords. New forms of chromaticism and dissonance were introduced into jazz, and the dissonant tritone (or \\\"flatted fifth\\\") interval became the \\\"most important interval of bebop\\\" Chord progressions for bebop tunes were often taken directly from popular swing-era songs and reused with a new and more complex melody to form new compositions, a practice which was already well-established in earlier jazz, but came to be central to the bebop style. Bebop made use of several relatively common chord progressions, such as blues (at base, I-IV-V, but infused with II-V motion) and 'rhythm changes' (I-VI-II-V) - the chords to the 1930s pop standard \\\"I Got Rhythm.\\\" Late bop also moved towards extended forms that represented a departure from pop and show tunes.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe harmonic development in bebop is often traced back to a transcendent moment experienced by Charlie Parker while performing \\\"Cherokee\\\" at Clark Monroe's Uptown House, New York, in early 1942:\\n I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used, ... and I kept thinking there's bound to be something else. I could hear it sometimes. I couldn't play it.... I was working over 'Cherokee,' and, as I did, I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing. It came alive—Parker.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nGerhard Kubik postulates that the harmonic development in bebop sprang from the blues and other African-related tonal sensibilities, rather than 20th-century Western art music as some have suggested:\\n Auditory inclinations were the African legacy in [Parker's] life, reconfirmed by the experience of the blues tonal system, a sound world at odds with the Western diatonic chord categories. Bebop musicians eliminated Western-style functional harmony in their music while retaining the strong central tonality of the blues as a basis for drawing upon various African matrices.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nSamuel Floyd states that blues were both the bedrock and propelling force of bebop, bringing about three main developments:\\n* A new harmonic conception, using extended chord structures that led to unprecedented harmonic and melodic variety.\\n* A developed and even more highly syncopated, linear rhythmic complexity and a melodic angularity in which the blue note of the fifth degree was established as an important melodic-harmonic device.\\n* The reestablishment of the blues as the music's primary organizing and functional principle.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAs Kubik explained:\\nWhile for an outside observer, the harmonic innovations in bebop would appear to be inspired by experiences in Western \\\"serious\\\" music, from Claude Debussy to Arnold Schoenberg, such a scheme cannot be sustained by the evidence from a cognitive approach. Claude Debussy did have some influence on jazz, for example, on Bix Beiderbecke's piano playing. And it is also true that Duke Ellington adopted and reinterpreted some harmonic devices in European contemporary music. West Coast jazz would run into such debts as would several forms of cool jazz, but bebop has hardly any such debts in the sense of direct borrowings. On the contrary, ideologically, bebop was a strong statement of rejection of any kind of eclecticism, propelled by a desire to activate something deeply buried in self. Bebop then revived tonal-harmonic ideas transmitted through the blues and reconstructed and expanded others in a basically non-Western harmonic approach. The ultimate significance of all this is that the experiments in jazz during the 1940s brought back to African-American music several structural principles and techniques rooted in African traditions\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThese divergences from the jazz mainstream of the time initially met with a divided, sometimes hostile, response among fans and fellow musicians, especially established swing players, who bristled at the new harmonic sounds. To hostile critics, bebop seemed to be filled with \\\"racing, nervous phrases\\\". But despite the initial friction, by the 1950s bebop had become an accepted part of the jazz vocabulary.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAfro-Cuban jazz (cu-bop)\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nMachito and Mario Bauza\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe general consensus among musicians and musicologists is that the first original jazz piece to be overtly based in clave was \\\"Tanga\\\" (1943), composed by Cuban-born Mario Bauza and recorded by Machito and his Afro-Cubans in New York City. \\\"Tanga\\\" began as a spontaneous descarga (Cuban jam session), with jazz solos superimposed on top.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThis was the birth of Afro-Cuban jazz. The use of clave brought the African timeline, or key pattern, into jazz. Music organized around key patterns convey a two-celled (binary) structure, which is a complex level of African cross-rhythm. Within the context of jazz however, harmony is the primary referent, not rhythm. The harmonic progression can begin on either side of clave, and the harmonic \\\"one\\\" is always understood to be \\\"one\\\". If the progression begins on the \\\"three-side\\\" of clave, it is said to be in 3-2 clave. If the progression begins on the \\\"two-side\\\", its in 2-3 clave.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBobby Sanabria mentions several innovations of Machito's Afro-Cubans, citing them as the first band: to wed big band jazz arranging techniques within an original composition, with jazz oriented soloists utilizing an authentic Afro-Cuban based rhythm section in a successful manner; to explore modal harmony (a concept explored much later by Miles Davis and Gil Evans) from a jazz arranging perspective; and to overtly explore the concept of clave counterpoint from an arranging standpoint (the ability to weave seamlessly from one side of the clave to the other without breaking its rhythmic integrity within the structure of a musical arrangement). They were also the first band in the United States to publicly utilize the term Afro-Cuban as the band's moniker, thus identifying itself and acknowledging the West African roots of the musical form they were playing. It forced New York City's Latino and African-American communities to deal with their common West African musical roots in a direct way, whether they wanted to acknowledge it publicly or not.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nDizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIt was Mario Bauzá who introduced bebop innovator Dizzy Gillespie to the Cuban conga drummer and composer Chano Pozo. Gillespie and Pozo's brief collaboration produced some of the most enduring Afro-Cuban jazz standards. \\\"Manteca\\\" (1947) is the first jazz standard to be rhythmically based on clave. According to Gillespie, Pozo composed the layered, contrapuntal guajeos (Afro-Cuban ostinatos) of the A section and the introduction, while Gillespie wrote the bridge. Gillespie recounted: \\\"If I'd let it go like [Chano] wanted it, it would have been strictly Afro-Cuban all the way. There wouldn't have been a bridge. I thought I was writing an eight-bar bridge, but ... I had to keep going and ended up writing a sixteen-bar bridge.\\\" The bridge gave \\\"Manteca\\\" a typical jazz harmonic structure, setting the piece apart from Bauza's modal \\\"Tanga\\\" of a few years earlier.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nGillespie's collaboration with Pozo brought specific African-based rhythms into bebop. While pushing the boundaries of harmonic improvisation, cu-bop, as it was called, also drew more directly from African rhythmic structures. Jazz arrangements with a \\\"Latin\\\" A section and a swung B section, with all choruses swung during solos, became common practice with many \\\"Latin tunes\\\" of the jazz standard repertoire. This approach can be heard on pre-1980 recordings of \\\"Manteca\\\", \\\"A Night in Tunisia\\\", \\\"Tin Tin Deo\\\", and \\\"On Green Dolphin Street\\\".\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAfrican cross-rhythm\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nCuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria first recorded his composition \\\"Afro Blue\\\" in 1959. \\n\\\"Afro Blue\\\" was the first jazz standard built upon a typical African three-against-two (3:2) cross-rhythm, or hemiola. The song begins with the bass repeatedly playing 6 cross-beats per each measure of 12/8, or 6 cross-beats per 4 main beats—6:4 (two cells of 3:2). The following example shows the original ostinato \\\"Afro Blue\\\" bass line; the slashed noteheads indicate the main beats (not bass notes), where you would normally tap your foot to \\\"keep time.\\\"\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nWhen John Coltrane covered \\\"Afro Blue\\\" in 1963, he inverted the metric hierarchy, interpreting the tune as a 3/4 jazz waltz with duple cross-beats superimposed (2:3). Originally a B pentatonic blues, Coltrane expanded the harmonic structure of \\\"Afro Blue.\\\"\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nPerhaps the most respected Afro-cuban jazz combo of the late 1950s was vibraphonist Cal Tjader's band. Tjader had Mongo Santamaria, Armando Peraza, and Willie Bobo on his early recording dates.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nDixieland revival\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn the late 1940s there was a revival of \\\"Dixieland\\\" music, harking back to the original contrapuntal New Orleans style. This was driven in large part by record company reissues of early jazz classics by the Oliver, Morton, and Armstrong bands of the 1930s. There were two types of musicians involved in the revival: the first group was made up of those who had begun their careers playing in the traditional style and were returning to it (or continuing what they had been playing all along), such as Bob Crosby's Bobcats, Max Kaminsky, Eddie Condon, and Wild Bill Davison. Most of these players were originally Midwesterners, although there were a small number of New Orleans musicians involved. The second group of revivalists consisted of younger musicians, such as those in the Lu Watters band, Conrad Janis, and Ward Kimball and his Firehouse Five Plus Two Jazz Band. By the late 1940s, Louis Armstrong's Allstars band became a leading ensemble. Through the 1950s and 1960s, Dixieland was one of the most commercially popular jazz styles in the US, Europe, and Japan, although critics paid little attention to it.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nCool jazz and West Coast jazz\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn 1944 jazz impresario Norman Granz organized the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles, which helped make a star of Nat \\\"King\\\" Cole and Les Paul. In 1946 he founded Clef Records, discovering Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson in 1949, and merging Clef Records with his new label Verve Records in 1956, which advanced the career of Ella Fitzgerald et al.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBy the end of the 1940s, the nervous energy and tension of bebop was replaced with a tendency toward calm and smoothness with the sounds of cool jazz, which favored long, linear melodic lines. It emerged in New York City, and dominated jazz in the first half of the 1950s. The starting point was a collection of 1949 and 1950 singles by a nonet led by Miles Davis, released as the Birth of the Cool (1957). Later cool jazz recordings by musicians such as Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Gil Evans, Stan Getz, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Gerry Mulligan usually had a \\\"lighter\\\" sound that avoided the aggressive tempos and harmonic abstraction of bebop.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nCool jazz later became strongly identified with the West Coast jazz scene, as typified by singers Chet Baker, Mel Tormé, and Anita O'Day, but it also had a particular resonance in Europe, especially Scandinavia, where figures such as baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin and pianist Bengt Hallberg emerged. The theoretical underpinnings of cool jazz were laid out by the Chicago pianist Lennie Tristano, and its influence stretches into such later developments as bossa nova, modal jazz, and even free jazz.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nHard bop\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nHard bop is an extension of bebop (or \\\"bop\\\") music which incorporates influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano playing. Hard bop was developed in the mid-1950s, coalescing in 1953 and 1954; it developed partly in response to the vogue for cool jazz in the early 1950s, and paralleled the rise of rhythm and blues. Miles Davis' 1954 performance of \\\"Walkin'\\\" at the first Newport Jazz Festival announced the style to the jazz world. The quintet Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, fronted by Blakey and featuring pianist Horace Silver and trumpeter Clifford Brown, were leaders in the hard bop movement along with Davis.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nModal jazz\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nModal jazz is a development which began in the later 1950s which takes the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Previously, a solo was meant to fit into a given chord progression, but with modal jazz the soloist creates a melody using one (or a small number of) modes. The emphasis is thus shifted from harmony to melody: \\\"Historically, this caused a seismic shift among jazz musicians, away from thinking vertically (the chord), and towards a more horizontal approach (the scale),\\\" explained pianist Mark Levine.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe modal theory stems from a work by George Russell. Miles Davis introduced the concept to the greater jazz world with Kind of Blue (1959), an exploration of the possibilities of modal jazz which would become the best selling jazz album of all time. In contrast to Davis' earlier work with hard bop and its complex chord progression and improvisation, the entire Kind of Blue album was composed as a series of \\\"modal sketches\\\", in which each performer was given a set of scales that defined the parameters of their improvisation and style. \\\"I didn't write out the music for Kind of Blue, but brought in sketches for what everybody was supposed to play because I wanted a lot of spontaneity,\\\" recalled Davis. The track \\\"So What\\\" has only two chords: D-7 and E-7.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nOther innovators in this style include Jackie McLean, and two of the musicians who had also played on Kind of Blue: John Coltrane and Bill Evans.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBy the 1950s, Afro-Cuban jazz had been using modes for at least a decade, as much of it borrowed from Cuban popular dance forms which are structured around multiple ostinatos with only a few chords. A case in point is Mario Bauza's \\\"Tanga\\\" (1943), the first Afro-Cuban jazz piece. Machito's Afro-Cubans recorded modal tunes in the 1940s, featuring jazz soloists such as Howard McGhee, Brew Moore, Charlie Parker and Flip Phillips. However, there is no evidence that Davis or other mainstream jazz musicians were influenced by the use of modes in Afro-Cuban jazz, or other branches of Latin jazz.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nFree jazz\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nFree jazz, and the related form of avant-garde jazz broke through into an open space of \\\"free tonality\\\" in which meter, beat, and formal symmetry all disappeared, and a range of World music from India, Africa and Arabia were melded into an intense, even religiously ecstatic or orgiastic style of playing. While loosely inspired by bebop, free jazz tunes gave players much more latitude; the loose harmony and tempo was deemed controversial when this approach was first developed. The bassist Charles Mingus is also frequently associated with the avant-garde in jazz, although his compositions draw from myriad styles and genres.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe first major stirrings came in the 1950s with the early work of Ornette Coleman (whose 1960 album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation coined the term) and Cecil Taylor. In the 1960s exponents included Albert Ayler, Gato Barbieri, Carla Bley, Don Cherry, Larry Coryell, John Coltrane, Bill Dixon, Jimmy Giuffre, Steve Lacy, Michael Mantler, Sun Ra, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, and John Tchicai. In developing his late style, Coltrane was especially influenced by the dissonance of Ayler's trio with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray, a rhythm section honed with Cecil Taylor as leader. In November 1961 Coltrane played a gig at the Village Vanguard, which resulted in the classic Chasin' the 'Trane, which Down Beat magazine panned as \\\"Anti-Jazz\\\". On his 1961 tour of France he was booed, but persevered, signing with the new Impulse! Records in 1960 and turning it into \\\"the house that Trane built\\\", while championing many younger free jazz musicians, notably Archie Shepp, who often played with trumpeter Bill Dixon, who organized the 4-day \\\"October Revolution in Jazz\\\" in Manhattan in 1964, the first free jazz festival.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nA series of recordings with the Classic Quartet in the first half of 1965 show Coltrane's playing becoming increasingly abstract, with greater incorporation of devices like multiphonics, utilization of overtones, and playing in the altissimo register, as well as a mutated return to Coltrane's sheets of sound. In the studio, he all but abandoned his soprano to concentrate on the tenor saxophone. In addition, the quartet responded to the leader by playing with increasing freedom. The group's evolution can be traced through the recordings The John Coltrane Quartet Plays, Living Space and Transition (both June 1965), New Thing at Newport (July 1965), Sun Ship (August 1965) and First Meditations (September 1965).\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn June 1965 Coltrane and 10 other musicians recorded Ascension, a 40-minute long piece without breaks that included adventurous solos by young avante-garde musicians as well as Coltrane, and was controversial primarily for the collective improvisation sections that separated the solos. Dave Liebman later called it \\\"the torch that lit the free jazz thing.\\\". After recording with the quartet over the next few months, Coltrane invited Pharoah Sanders to join the band in September 1965. While Coltrane used over-blowing frequently as an emotional exclamation-point, Sanders would opt to overblow his entire solo, resulting in a constant screaming and screeching in the altissimo range of the instrument.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nFree jazz in Europe\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nFree jazz quickly found a foothold in Europe, in part because musicians such as Ayler, Taylor, Steve Lacy and Eric Dolphy spent extended periods there, and European musicians Michael Mantler, John Tchicai et al. traveled to the U.S. to learn it firsthand. A distinctive European contemporary jazz (often incorporating elements of free jazz but not limited to it) also flourished because of the emergence of European musicians such as Peter Brötzmann, John Surman, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Albert Mangelsdorff, Kenny Wheeler, and Mike Westbrook, who were anxious to develop new approaches reflecting their national and regional musical cultures and contexts. Since the 1960s various creative centers of jazz have developed in Europe, such as the creative jazz scene in Amsterdam. Following the work of veteran drummer Han Bennink and pianist Misha Mengelberg, musicians started to explore free music by collectively improvising until a certain form (melody, rhythm, or even famous song) is found by the band. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead documented the free jazz scene in Amsterdam and some of its main exponents such as the ICP (Instant Composers Pool) orchestra in his book New Dutch Swing.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nSince the 1990s Keith Jarrett has been prominent in defending free jazz from criticism by traditionalists.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\n1960s and 1970s\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nLatin jazz\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nLatin jazz is the term used to describe jazz which employs Latin American rhythms, and is generally understood to have a more specific meaning than simply jazz from Latin America. A more precise term might be Afro-Latin jazz, as the jazz subgenre typically employs rhythms that either have a direct analog in Africa, or exhibit an African rhythmic influence beyond what is ordinarily heard in other jazz. The two main categories of Latin jazz are Afro-Cuban jazz and Brazilian jazz.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn the 1960s and 1970s many jazz musicians had only a basic understanding of Cuban and Brazilian music, and jazz compositions which used Cuban or Brazilian elements were often referred to as \\\"Latin tunes\\\", with no distinction between a Cuban son montuno and a Brazilian bossa nova. Even as late as 2000, in Mark Gridley's Jazz Styles: History and Analysis, a bossa nova bass line is referred to as a \\\"Latin bass figure.\\\" It was not uncommon during the 1960s and 1970s to hear a conga playing a Cuban tumbao while the drumset and bass played a Brazilian bossa nova pattern. Many jazz standards such as \\\"Manteca\\\", \\\"On Green Dolphin Street\\\" and \\\"Song for My Father\\\" have a \\\"Latin\\\" A section and a swung B section. Typically, the band would only play an even-eighth \\\"Latin\\\" feel in the A section of the head, and swing throughout all of the solos. Latin jazz specialists like Cal Tjader tended to be the exception. For example, on a 1959 live Tjader recording of \\\"A Night in Tunisia\\\", pianist Vince Guaraldi soloed through the entire form over an authentic mambo.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAfro-Cuban jazz\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAfro-Cuban jazz often uses Afro-Cuban instruments such as congas, timbales, güiro and claves, combined with piano, double bass, etc. Afro-Cuban jazz began with Machito's Afro-Cubans in the early 1940s, but took off and entered the mainstream in the late 1940s when bebop musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Billy Taylor began experimenting with Cuban rhythms. Mongo Santamaria and Cal Tjader further refined the genre in the late 1950s.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAlthough a great deal of Cuban-based Latin jazz is modal, Latin jazz is not always modal: it can be as harmonically expansive as post-bop jazz. For example, Tito Puente recorded an arrangement of \\\"Giant Steps\\\" done to an Afro-Cuban guaguancó. A Latin jazz piece may momentarily contract harmonically, as in the case of a percussion solo over a one or two-chord piano guajeo.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nGuajeos\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nGuajeo is the name for the typical Afro-Cuban ostinato melodies which are commonly used motifs in Latin jazz compositions. They originated in the genre known as son. Guajeos provide a rhythmic and melodic framework that may be varied within certain parameters, whilst still maintaining a repetitive - and thus \\\"danceable\\\" - structure. Most guajeos are rhythmically based on clave (rhythm).\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nGuajeos are one of the most important elements of the vocabulary of Afro-Cuban descarga (jazz-inspired instrumental jams), providing a means of tension and resolution and a sense of forward momentum, within a relatively simple harmonic structure. The use of multiple, contrapuntal guajeos in Latin jazz facilitates simultaneous collective improvisation based on theme variation. In a way, this polyphonic texture is reminiscent of the original New Orleans style of jazz.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAfro-Cuban jazz renaissance\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nFor most of its history, Afro-Cuban jazz had been a matter of superimposing jazz phrasing over Cuban rhythms. But by the end of the 1970s a new generation of New York City musicians had emerged who were fluent in both salsa dance music and jazz, leading to a new level of integration of jazz and Cuban rhythms. This era of creativity and vitality is best represented by the Gonzalez brothers Jerry (congas and trumpet) and Andy (bass). During 1974-1976 they were members of one of Eddie Palmieri's most experimental salsa groups: salsa was the medium, but Palmieri was stretching the form in new ways. He incorporated parallel fourths, with McCoy Tyner-type vamps. The innovations of Palmieri, the Gonzalez brothers and others led to an Afro-Cuban jazz renaissance in New York City.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThis occurred in parallel with developments in Cuba The first Cuban band of this new wave was Irakere. Their \\\"Chékere-son\\\" (1976) introduced a style of \\\"Cubanized\\\" bebop-flavored horn lines that departed from the more angular guajeo-based lines which were typical of Cuban popular music and Latin jazz up until that time. It was based on Charlie Parker's composition \\\"Billie's Bounce\\\", jumbled together in a way that fused clave and bebop horn lines. In spite of the ambivalence of some band members towards Irakere's Afro-Cuban folkloric / jazz fusion, their experiments forever changed Cuban jazz: their innovations are still heard in the high level of harmonic and rhythmic complexity in Cuban jazz, and in the jazzy and complex contemporary form of popular dance music known as timba.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAfro-Brazilian jazz\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBrazilian jazz such as bossa nova is derived from samba, with influences from jazz and other 20th-century classical and popular music styles. Bossa is generally moderately paced, with melodies sung in Portuguese or English, whilst he related term jazz-samba describes an adaptation of street samba into jazz.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe bossa nova style was pioneered by Brazilians João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim, and was made popular by Elizete Cardoso's recording of \\\"Chega de Saudade\\\" on the Canção do Amor Demais LP. Gilberto's initial releases, and the 1959 film Black Orpheus, achieved significant popularity in Latin America; this spread to North America via visiting American jazz musicians. The resulting recordings by Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz cemented bossa nova's popularity and led to a worldwide boom, with 1963's Getz/Gilberto, numerous recordings by famous jazz performers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, and the eventual entrenchment of the bossa nova style as a lasting influence in world music.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBrazilian percussionists such as Airto Moreira and Naná Vasconcelos also influenced jazz internationally by introducing Afro-Brazilian folkloric instruments and rhythms into a wide variety of jazz styles, thus attracting a greater audience to them.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nPost-bop\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nPost-bop jazz is a form of small-combo jazz derived from earlier bop styles. The genre's origins lie in seminal work by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. Generally, the term post-bop is taken to mean jazz from the mid-sixties onwards that assimilates influences from hard bop, modal jazz, the avant-garde and free jazz, without necessarily being immediately identifiable as any of the above.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nMuch post-bop was recorded for Blue Note Records. Key albums include Speak No Evil by Shorter; The Real McCoy by McCoy Tyner; Maiden Voyage by Hancock; Miles Smiles by Davis; and Search for the New Land by Lee Morgan (an artist who is not typically associated with the post-bop genre). Most post-bop artists worked in other genres as well, with a particularly strong overlap with the later hard bop.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nSoul jazz\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nSoul jazz was a development of hard bop which incorporated strong influences from blues, gospel and rhythm and blues to create music for small groups, often the organ trio of Hammond organ, drummer and tenor saxophonist. Unlike hard bop, soul jazz generally emphasized repetitive grooves and melodic hooks, and improvisations were often less complex than in other jazz styles. It often had a steadier \\\"funk\\\" style groove, which was different from the swing rhythms typical of much hard bop.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nHorace Silver had a large influence on the soul jazz style, with songs that used funky and often gospel-based piano vamps. Important soul jazz organists included Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy Smith and Johnny Hammond Smith, and influential tenor saxophone players included Eddie \\\"Lockjaw\\\" Davis and Stanley Turrentine.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAfrican-inspired\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThemes\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThere was a resurgence of interest in jazz and other forms of African-American cultural expression during the Black Arts Movement and Black nationalist period of the 1960s and 1970s. African themes became popular, and many new jazz compositions were given African-related titles: \\\"Black Nile\\\" (Wayne Shorter), \\\"Blue Nile\\\" (Alice Coltrane), \\\"Obirin African\\\" (Art Blakey), \\\"Zambia\\\" (Lee Morgan), \\\"Appointment in Ghana\\\" (Jackie McLean), \\\"Marabi\\\" (Cannonball Adderley), \\\"Yoruba\\\" (Hubert Laws), and many more. Pianist Randy Weston's music incorporated African elements, such as in the large-scale suite \\\"Uhuru Africa\\\" (with the participation of poet Langston Hughes) and \\\"Highlife: Music From the New African Nations.\\\" Both Weston and saxophonist Stanley Turrentine covered the Nigerian Bobby Benson's piece \\\"Niger Mambo\\\", which features Afro-Caribbean and jazz elements within a West African Highlife style. Some musicians, including Pharoah Sanders, Hubert Laws and Wayne Shorter, began using African instruments such as kalimbas, bells, beaded gourds and other instruments which were not traditional to jazz.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nRhythm\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nDuring this period there was an increased use of the typical African 12/8 cross-rhythmic structure in jazz. Herbie Hancock's \\\"Succotash\\\" on Inventions and Dimensions (1963) is an open-ended modal 12/8 improvised jam, in which Hancock's pattern of attack-points, rather than the pattern of pitches, is the primary focus of his improvisations, accompanied by Paul Chambers on bass, percussionist Osvaldo Martinez playing a traditional Afro-Cuban chekeré part and Willie Bobo playing an Abakuá bell pattern on a snare drum with brushes.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe first jazz standard composed by a non-Latino to use an overt African 12/8 cross-rhythm was Wayne Shorter's \\\"Footprints\\\" (1967). On the version recorded on Miles Smiles by Miles Davis, the bass switches to a 4/4 tresillo figure at 2:20. \\\"Footprints\\\" is not, however, a Latin jazz tune: African rhythmic structures are accessed directly by Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums) via the rhythmic sensibilities of swing. Throughout the piece, the four beats, whether sounded or not, are maintained as the temporal referent. In the example below, the main beats are indicated by slashed noteheads, which do not indicate bass notes.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nPentatonic scales\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe use of pentatonic scales was another trend associated with Africa. The use of pentatonic scales in Africa probably goes back thousands of years.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nMcCoy Tyner perfected the use of the pentatonic scale in his solos, and also used parallel fifths and fourths, which are common harmonies in West Africa.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe minor pentatonic scale is often used in blues improvisation, and like a blues scale, a minor pentatonic scale can be played over all of the chords in a blues. The following pentatonic lick was played over blues changes by Joe Henderson on Horace Silver's \\\"African Queen\\\" (1965).\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nJazz pianist, theorist, and educator Mark Levine refers to the scale generated by beginning on the fifth step of a pentatonic scale as the V pentatonic scale.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nLevine points out that the V pentatonic scale works for all three chords of the standard II-V-I jazz progression. This is a very common progression, used in pieces such as Miles Davis' \\\"Tune Up.\\\" The following example shows the V pentatonic scale over a II-V-I progression.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAccordingly, John Coltrane's \\\"Giant Steps\\\" (1960), with its 26 chords per 16 bars, can be played using only three pentatonic scales. Coltrane studied Nicolas Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, which contains material that is virtually identical to portions of \\\"Giant Steps\\\". The harmonic complexity of \\\"Giant Steps\\\" is on the level of the most advanced 20th-century art music. Superimposing the pentatonic scale over \\\"Giant Steps\\\" is not merely a matter of harmonic simplification, but also a sort of \\\"Africanizing\\\" of the piece, which provides an alternate approach for soloing. Mark Levine observes that when mixed in with more conventional \\\"playing the changes\\\", pentatonic scales provide \\\"structure and a feeling of increased space.\\\"\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nJazz fusion\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn the late 1960s and early 1970s, the hybrid form of jazz-rock fusion was developed by combining jazz improvisation with rock rhythms, electric instruments and the highly amplified stage sound of rock musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa. Jazz fusion often uses mixed meters, odd time signatures, syncopation, complex chords and harmonies.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAccording to AllMusic:\\n...until around 1967, the worlds of jazz and rock were nearly completely separate. [However, ...] as rock became more creative and its musicianship improved, and as some in the jazz world became bored with hard bop and did not want to play strictly avant-garde music, the two different idioms began to trade ideas and occasionally combine forces.\\\"\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nMiles Davis' new directions\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn 1969 Davis fully embraced the electric instrument approach to jazz with In a Silent Way, which can be considered his first fusion album. Composed of two side-long suites edited heavily by producer Teo Macero, this quiet, static album would be equally influential to the development of ambient music.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAs Davis recalls:\\nThe music I was really listening to in 1968 was James Brown, the great guitar player Jimi Hendrix, and a new group who had just come out with a hit record, \\\"Dance to the Music\\\", Sly and the Family Stone... I wanted to make it more like rock. When we recorded In a Silent Way I just threw out all the chord sheets and told everyone to play off of that.\\\"\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nTwo contributors to In a Silent Way also joined organist Larry Young to create one of the early acclaimed fusion albums: Emergency! by The Tony Williams Lifetime.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nPsychedelic-jazz\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBitches Brew\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nDavis' Bitches Brew (1970) album was his most successful of this era. Although inspired by rock and funk, Davis' fusion creations were original, and brought about a new type of avant-garde, electronic, psychedelic-jazz, as far from pop music as any other Davis work.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nHerbie Hancock\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nPianist Herbie Hancock (a Davis alumnus) released four albums in the short-lived (1970–1973) psychedelic-jazz subgenre: Mwandishi (1972), Crossings (1973) and Sextant (1973). The rhythmic background was a mix of rock, funk, and African-type textures.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nMusicians who had previously worked with Davis formed the four most influential fusion groups: Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra emerged in 1971, and were soon followed by Return to Forever and The Headhunters.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nWeather Report\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nWeather Report's self-titled electronic and psychedelic Weather Report debut album caused a sensation in the jazz world on its arrival in 1971, thanks to the pedigree of the group's members (including percussionist Airto Moreira), and their unorthodox approach to music. The album featured a softer sound than would be the case in later years (predominantly using acoustic bass with Shorter exclusively playing soprano saxophone, and with no synthesizers involved), but is still considered a classic of early fusion. It built on the avant-garde experiments which Joe Zawinul and Shorter had pioneered with Miles Davis on Bitches Brew, including an avoidance of head-and-chorus composition in favour of continuous rhythm and movement – but took the music further. To emphasise the group's rejection of standard methodology, the album opened with the inscrutable avant-garde atmospheric piece \\\"Milky Way\\\", which featured by Shorter's extremely muted saxophone inducing vibrations in Zawinul's piano strings while the latter pedalled the instrument. Down Beat described the album as \\\"music beyond category\\\", and awarded it Album of the Year in the magazine's polls that year.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nWeather Report's subsequent releases were creative funk-jazz works.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nJazz-rock\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAlthough some jazz purists protested against the blend of jazz and rock, many jazz innovators crossed over from the contemporary hard bop scene into fusion. As well as the electric instruments of rock (such as electric guitar, electric bass, electric piano and synthesizer keyboards), fusion also used the powerful amplification, \\\"fuzz\\\" pedals, wah-wah pedals and other effects that were used by 1970s-era rock bands. Notable performers of jazz fusion included Miles Davis, Eddie Harris, keyboardists Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, vibraphonist Gary Burton, drummer Tony Williams (drummer), violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, guitarists Larry Coryell, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Frank Zappa, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and bassists Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke. Jazz fusion was also popular in Japan, where the band Casiopea released over thirty fusion albums.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAccording to jazz writer Stuart Nicholson, \\\"just as free jazz appeared on the verge of creating a whole new musical language in the 1960s ... jazz-rock briefly suggested the promise of doing the same\\\" with albums such as Williams' Emergency! (1970) and Davis' Agharta (1975), which Nicholson said \\\"suggested the potential of evolving into something that might eventually define itself as a wholly independent genre quite apart from the sound and conventions of anything that had gone before.\\\" This development was stifled by commercialism, Nicholson said, as the genre \\\"mutated into a peculiar species of jazz-inflected pop music that eventually took up residence on FM radio\\\" at the end of the 1970s.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nJazz-funk\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBy the mid-1970s the sound known as jazz-funk had developed, characterized by a strong back beat (groove), electrified sounds and, often, the presence of electronic analog synthesizers. Jazz-funk also draws influences from traditional African music, Afro-Cuban rhythms and Jamaican reggae, notably Kingston bandleader Sonny Bradshaw. Another feature is the shift of emphasis from improvisation to composition: arrangements, melody and overall writing became important. The integration of funk, soul and R&B music into jazz resulted in the creation of a genre whose spectrum is wide and ranges from strong jazz improvisation to soul, funk or disco with jazz arrangements, jazz riffs and jazz solos, and sometimes soul vocals.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nEarly examples are Herbie Hancock's Headhunters band and Miles Davis' On the Corner album, which in 1972 began Davis' foray into jazz-funk and was, he claimed, an attempt at reconnecting with the young black audience which had largely forsaken jazz for rock and funk. While there is a discernible rock and funk influence in the timbres of the instruments employed, other tonal and rhythmic textures, such as the Indian tambora and tablas and Cuban congas and bongos, create a multi-layered soundscape. The album was a culmination of sorts of the musique concrète approach that Davis and producer Teo Macero had begun to explore in the late 1960s.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nOther trends\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nJazz continued to expand and change, influenced by other types of music such as world music, avant garde classical music and rock and pop. Jazz musicians began to improvise on unusual instruments, such as the jazz harp (Alice Coltrane), the electrically amplified and wah-wah pedaled jazz violin (Jean-Luc Ponty) and the bagpipes (Rufus Harley). In 1966 jazz trumpeter Don Ellis and Indian sitar player Harihar Rao founded the Hindustani Jazz Sextet. In 1971 guitarist John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra began playing a mix of rock and jazz infused with East Indian influences. In the 1970s the ECM record label began in Germany with artists including Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley, the Pat Metheny Group, Jan Garbarek, Ralph Towner, Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor, John Surman, and Eberhard Weber, establishing a new chamber music aesthetic which featured mainly acoustic instruments, occasionally incorporating elements of world music and folk.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\n1980s\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn 1987, the United States House of Representatives and Senate passed a bill proposed by Democratic Representative John Conyers, Jr. to define jazz as a unique form of American music, stating:\\n... that jazz is hereby designated as a rare and valuable national American treasure to which we should devote our attention, support and resources to make certain it is preserved, understood and promulgated.\\nIt passed in the House of Representatives on September 23, 1987 and in the Senate on November 4, 1987.HR-57 Center [http://www.hr57.org/hconres57.html HR-57 Center for the Preservation of Jazz and Blues, with the six-point mandate.]\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nResurgence of traditionalism\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe 1980s saw something of a reaction against the Fusion and Free Jazz that had dominated the 1970s. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis emerged early in the decade, and strove to create music within what he believed was the tradition, rejecting both fusion and free jazz and creating extensions of the small and large forms initially pioneered by artists such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, as well as the hard bop of the 1950s. It's debatable whether Marsalis' critical and commercial success was a cause or a symptom of the reaction against Fusion and Free Jazz and the resurgence of interest in the kind of jazz pioneered in the 1960s (particularly Modal Jazz and Post-Bop); nonetheless there were many other manifestations of a resurgence of traditionalism, even if Fusion and Free Jazz were by no means abandoned and continued to develop and evolve.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nFor example, several musicians who had been prominent in the fusion genre during the 1970s began to record acoustic jazz once more, including Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. Other musicians who had experimented with electronic instruments in the previous decade had abandoned them by the 1980s, for example Bill Evans, Joe Henderson and Stan Getz. Even the 1980s music of Miles Davis, although certainly still fusion, adopted a far more accessible and recognisably jazz-oriented approach than his abstract work of the mid-1970s, such as a return to a theme-and-solos approach.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe emergence of young jazz talent beginning to perform in older, established musicians' groups further impacted the resurgence of traditionalism in the jazz community. In the 1970s, the groups of Betty Carter and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers retained their conservative jazz approaches in the midst of fusion and jazz- rock, and in addition to difficulty booking their acts, struggled to find younger generations of personnel to authentically play traditional styles such as hard bop and bebop. In the late 1970s, however, a resurgence of younger jazz players in Blakey's band began to occur. This movement included musicians such as Valery Ponomarev and Bobby Watson, Dennis Irwin and James Williams.\\nIn the 1980s, in addition to Wynton and Branford Marsalis, the emergence of pianists in the Jazz Messengers such as Donald Brown, Mulgrew Miller, and later, Benny Green, bassists such as Charles Fambrough, Lonnie Plaxico (and later, Peter Washington and Essiet Essiet) horn players such as Bill Pierce, Donald Harrison and later Javon Jackson and Terence Blanchard emerged as talented jazz musicians, all of whom made significant contributions in later 1990s and 2000s jazz music.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\n[http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Blakey/chron.htmJ Drummerworld: Art Blakey].\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe young Jazz Messengers' contemporaries, including Roy Hargrove, Marcus Roberts, Wallace Roney and Mark Whitfield were also influenced by Wynton Marsalis's emphasis toward jazz tradition. These younger rising stars rejected avant-garde approaches and instead championed the acoustic jazz sound of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and early recordings of the first Miles Davis quintet. This group of \\\"Young Lions\\\" sought to reaffirm jazz as a high art tradition comparable to the discipline of European classical music.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn addition, Betty Carter's rotation of young musicians in her group foreshadowed many of New York's preeminent traditional jazz players later in their careers. Among these musicians were Jazz Messenger alumni Benny Green, Branford Marsalis and Ralph Peterson, Jr., as well as Kenny Washington, Lewis Nash, Curtis Lundy, Cyrus Chestnut, Mark Shim, Craig Handy, Greg Hutchinson and Marc Cary, Taurus Mateen and Geri Allen.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nBlue Note Records's O.T.B. ensemble featured a rotation of young jazz musicians such as Kenny Garrett, Steve Wilson, Kenny Davis, Renee Rosnes, Ralph Peterson, Jr., Billy Drummond and Robert Hurst.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nA similar reaction took place against free jazz. According to Ted Gioia:\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nthe very leaders of the avant garde started to signal a retreat from the core principles of Free Jazz. Anthony Braxton began recording standards over familiar chord changes. Cecil Taylor played duets in concert with Mary Lou Williams, and let her set out structured harmonies and familiar jazz vocabulary under his blistering keyboard attack. And the next generation of progressive players would be even more accommodating, moving inside and outside the changes without thinking twice. Musicians such as David Murray or Don Pullen may have felt the call of free-form jazz, but they never forgot all the other ways one could play African-American music for fun and profit.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nPianist Keith Jarrett — whose bands of the 1970s had played only original compositions with prominent free jazz elements — established his so-called 'Standards Trio' in 1983, which, although also occasionally exploring collective improvisation, has primarily performed and recorded jazz standards. Chick Corea similarly began exploring jazz standards in the 1980s, having neglected them for the 1970s.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nSmooth jazz\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn the early 1980s a commercial form of jazz fusion called \\\"pop fusion\\\" or \\\"smooth jazz\\\" became successful, garnering significant radio airplay in \\\"quiet storm\\\" time slots at radio stations in urban markets across the U.S. This helped to establish or bolster the careers of vocalists including Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, Chaka Khan and Sade, as well as saxophonists including Grover Washington, Jr., Kenny G, Kirk Whalum, Boney James and David Sanborn. In general, smooth jazz is downtempo (the most widely played tracks are of 90–105 beats per minute), and has a lead melody-playing instrument (saxophone, especially soprano and tenor, and legato electric guitar are popular).\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn his Newsweek article \\\"The Problem With Jazz Criticism\\\", Stanley Crouch considers Miles Davis' playing of fusion to be a turning point that led to smooth jazz. Critic Aaron J. West has countered the often negative perceptions of smooth jazz, stating:\\nI challenge the prevalent marginalization and malignment of smooth jazz in the standard jazz narrative. Furthermore, I question the assumption that smooth jazz is an unfortunate and unwelcomed evolutionary outcome of the jazz-fusion era. Instead, I argue that smooth jazz is a long-lived musical style that merits multi-disciplinary analyses of its origins, critical dialogues, performance practice, and reception.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAcid jazz, nu jazz and jazz rap\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAcid jazz developed in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s, influenced by jazz-funk and electronic dance music. Acid jazz often contains various types of electronic composition (sometimes including Sampling (music) or a live DJ cutting and scratching), but it is just as likely to be played live by musicians, who often showcase jazz interpretation as part of their performance. Jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers and Donald Byrd are often credited as the forerunners of acid jazz.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nNu jazz is influenced by jazz harmony and melodies, and there are usually no improvisational aspects. It can be very experimental in nature and can vary widely in sound and concept. It ranges from the combination of live instrumentation with the beats of jazz house (as exemplified by St Germain, Jazzanova and Fila Brazillia) to more band-based improvised jazz with electronic elements (for example The Cinematic Orchestra, Kobol and the Norwegian \\\"future jazz\\\" style pioneered by Bugge Wesseltoft, Jaga Jazzist and Nils Petter Molvær).\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nJazz rap developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and incorporates jazz influences into hip hop. In 1988, Gang Starr released the debut single \\\"Words I Manifest\\\", which sampled Dizzy Gillespie's 1962 \\\"Night in Tunisia\\\", and Stetsasonic released \\\"Talkin' All That Jazz\\\", which sampled Lonnie Liston Smith. Gang Starr's debut LP No More Mr. Nice Guy (1989) and their 1990 track \\\"Jazz Thing\\\" sampled Charlie Parker and Ramsey Lewis. The groups which made up the Native Tongues Posse tended toward jazzy releases: these include the Jungle Brothers' debut Straight Out the Jungle (1988), and A Tribe Called Quest's People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990) and The Low End Theory (1991). Rap duo Pete Rock & CL Smooth incorporated jazz influences on their 1992 debut Mecca and the Soul Brother. Rapper Guru's Jazzmatazz series began in 1993, using jazz musicians during the studio recordings.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThough jazz rap had achieved little mainstream success, Miles Davis' final album Doo-Bop (released posthumously in 1992) was based around hip hop beats and collaborations with producer Easy Mo Bee. Davis' ex-bandmate Herbie Hancock also absorbed hip-hop influences in the mid-1990s, releasing the album Dis Is Da Drum in 1994.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nPunk jazz and jazzcore\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe relaxation of orthodoxy which was concurrent with post-punk in London and New York City led to a new appreciation of jazz. In London, the Pop Group began to mix free jazz and dub reggae into their brand of punk rock. In New York, No Wave took direct inspiration from both free jazz and punk. Examples of this style include Lydia Lunch's Queen of Siam,Bangs, Lester. \\\"Free Jazz / Punk Rock\\\". Musician Magazine, 1979. [http://www.notbored.org/bangs.html] Access date: July 20, 2008. Gray, the work of James Chance and the Contortions (who mixed Soul with free jazz and punk) and the Lounge Lizards (the first group to call themselves \\\"punk jazz\\\").\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nJohn Zorn took note of the emphasis on speed and dissonance that was becoming prevalent in punk rock, and incorporated this into free jazz with the release of the Spy vs. Spy album in 1986, a collection of Ornette Coleman tunes done in the contemporary thrashcore style. In the same year, Sonny Sharrock, Peter Brötzmann, Bill Laswell and Ronald Shannon Jackson recorded the first album under the name Last Exit (free jazz band), a similarly aggressive blend of thrash and free jazz. These developments are the origins of jazzcore, the fusion of free jazz with hardcore punk.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nM-Base\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nThe M-Base movement started in the 1980s, when a loose collective of young African-American musicians in New York which included Steve Coleman, Greg Osby and Gary Thomas developed a complex but grooving sound.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn the 1990s most M-Base participants turned to more conventional music, but Coleman, the most active participant, continued developing his music in accordance with the M-Base concept. Coleman's audience decreased, but his music and concepts influenced many musicians, both in terms of music technique and of the music's meaning. Hence, M-Base changed from a movement of a loose collective of young musicians to a kind of informal Coleman \\\"school\\\", with a much advanced but already originally implied concept. Steve Coleman's music and M-Base concept gained recognition as \\\"next logical step\\\" after Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\n1990s–2010s\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nSince the 1990s jazz has been characterized by a pluralism in which no one style dominates, but rather a wide range of active styles and genres are popular. Individual performers often play in a variety of styles, sometimes in the same performance. Pianist Brad Mehldau and power trio The Bad Plus have explored contemporary rock music within the context of the traditional jazz acoustic piano trio, recording instrumental jazz versions of songs by rock musicians. The Bad Plus have also incorporated elements of free jazz into their music. A firm avant-garde or free jazz stance has been maintained by some players, such as saxophonists Greg Osby and Charles Gayle, while others, such as James Carter, have incorporated free jazz elements into a more traditional framework.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nOn the other side, even a singer like Harry Connick, Jr. (who has ten number-1 US jazz albums) is sometimes called a jazz musician, although there are only a few elements from jazz history in his mainly pop oriented music. Other recent vocalists have achieved popularity with a mix of traditional jazz and pop/rock forms, such as Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Cassandra Wilson, Kurt Elling and Jamie Cullum.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nA number of players who usually perform in largely straight-ahead settings have emerged since the 1990s, including pianists Jason Moran and Vijay Iyer, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, trumpeters Roy Hargrove and Terence Blanchard, saxophonists Chris Potter and Joshua Redman, clarinetist Ken Peplowski and bassist Christian McBride.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nAlthough jazz-rock fusion reached the height of its popularity in the 1970s, the use of electronic instruments and rock-derived musical elements in jazz continued in the 1990s and 2000s. Musicians using this approach include Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, John Scofield and the Swedish group e.s.t.\",\n \"Jazz\\n\\nIn 2001 Ken Burns's documentary Jazz was premiered on PBS, featuring Wynton Marsalis and other experts reviewing the entire history of jazz to that time.\"\n]","isConversational":false}}},{"rowIdx":138297,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"qg_4471"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"There are no member countries of the United Nations that begin with the letter x or what other letter?"},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"W"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":["🅆","double u","w letter","🅦","🄦","double v","🆆","double ues","⒲","double you","ⓦ","ｗ","w"],"string":"[\n \"🅆\",\n \"double u\",\n \"w letter\",\n \"🅦\",\n \"🄦\",\n \"double v\",\n \"🆆\",\n \"double ues\",\n \"⒲\",\n \"double you\",\n \"ⓦ\",\n \"ｗ\",\n \"w\"\n]","isConversational":false},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["United Nations\n\nThe United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193. The headquarters of the United Nations is in Manhattan, New York City, and experiences extraterritoriality. Further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states. Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights, fostering social and economic development, protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict.","United Nations\n\nThe United Nations Charter was drafted at a conference in April–June 1945; this charter took effect 24 October 1945, and the UN began operation. The UN's mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in major actions in Korea and the Congo, as well as approving the creation of the state of Israel in 1947. The organization's membership grew significantly following widespread decolonization in the 1960s, and by the 1970s its budget for economic and social development programmes far outstripped its spending on peacekeeping. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military and peacekeeping missions across the world with varying degrees of success.","United Nations\n\nThe UN has six principal organs: the General Assembly (the main deliberative assembly); the Security Council (for deciding certain resolutions for peace and security); the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) (for promoting international economic and social co-operation and development); the Secretariat (for providing studies, information, and facilities needed by the UN); the International Court of Justice (the primary judicial organ); and the United Nations Trusteeship Council (inactive since 1994). UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, and UNICEF. The UN's most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by South Korean Ban Ki-moon since 2007. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UN's work.","United Nations\n\nThe organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UN's effectiveness have been mixed. Some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased.","United Nations\n\nHistory","United Nations\n\nBackground","United Nations\n\nIn the century prior to the UN's creation, several international treaty organizations and conferences had been formed to regulate conflicts between nations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the Paris Peace Conference established the League of Nations to maintain harmony between countries. This organization resolved some territorial disputes and created international structures for areas such as postal mail, aviation, and opium control, some of which would later be absorbed into the UN. However, the League lacked representation for colonial peoples (then half the world's population) and significant participation from several major powers, including the US, USSR, Germany, and Japan; it failed to act against the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in 1935, the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, and German expansions under Adolf Hitler that culminated in the Second World War.","United Nations\n\n1942 \"Declaration of United Nations\" by the Allies of World War II","United Nations\n\nThe earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. The text of the \"Declaration by United Nations\" was drafted by President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Roosevelt aide Harry Hopkins, while meeting at the White House, 29 December 1941. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France. \"Four Policemen\" was coined to refer four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which was emerged in Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries. \"On New Year's Day 1942, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, Maxim Litvinov, of the USSR, and T. V. Soong, of China, signed a short document which later came to be known as the United Nations Declaration and the next day the representatives of twenty-two other nations added their signatures.\" The term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, which Stalin approved after Roosevelt insisted. By 1 March 1945, 21 additional states had signed.","United Nations\n\nA JOINT DECLARATION BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND, THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS, CHINA, AUSTRALIA, BELGIUM, CANADA, COSTA RICA, CUBA, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, GREECE, GUATEMALA, HAITI, HONDURAS, INDIA, LUXEMBOURG, NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NICARAGUA, NORWAY, PANAMA, POLAND, SOUTH AFRICA, YUGOSLAVIA","United Nations\n\nThe Governments signatory hereto,","United Nations\n\nHaving subscribed to a common program of purposes and principles embodied in the Joint Declaration of the President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of Great Britain dated August 14, 1941, known as the Atlantic Charter,","United Nations\n\nBeing convinced that complete victory over their enemies is essential to defend life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as in other lands, and that they are now engaged in a common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world,","United Nations\n\nDECLARE:","United Nations\n\n(1) Each Government pledges itself to employ its full resources, military or economic, against those members of the Tripartite Pact and its adherents with which such government is at war.","United Nations\n\n(2) Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto and not to make a separate armistice or peace with the enemies.","United Nations\n\nThe foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism.","United Nations\n\nDuring the war, the United Nations became the official term for the Allies. To join countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis.","United Nations\n\nFounding the UN 1945","United Nations\n\nThe United Nations was formulated and negotiated among the delegations from the Soviet Union, the UK, the US and China at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944. After months of planning, the UN Conference on International Organization opened in San Francisco, 25 April 1945, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations involved in drafting the United Nations Charter. \"The heads of the delegations of the sponsoring countries took turns as chairman of the plenary meetings: Anthony Eden, of Britain, Edward Stettinius, of the United States, T. V. Soong, of China, and Vyacheslav Molotov, of the Soviet Union. At the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov.\" The UN officially came into existence 24 October 1945, upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council—France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the UK and the US—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories.","United Nations\n\nThe first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council took place in London beginning 6 January 1946. The General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the United Nations, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory. The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General.","United Nations\n\nCold War era","United Nations\n\nThough the UN's primary mandate was peacekeeping, the division between the US and USSR often paralysed the organization, generally allowing it to intervene only in conflicts distant from the Cold War. (A notable exception was a Security Council resolution in 1950 authorizing a US-led coalition to repel the North Korean invasion of South Korea, passed in the absence of the USSR.) In 1947, the General Assembly approved a resolution to partition Palestine, approving the creation of the state of Israel. Two years later, Ralph Bunche, a UN official, negotiated an armistice to the resulting conflict. In 1956, the first UN peacekeeping force was established to end the Suez Crisis; however, the UN was unable to intervene against the USSR's simultaneous invasion of Hungary following that country's revolution.","United Nations\n\nIn 1960, the UN deployed United Nations Operation in the Congo (UNOC), the largest military force of its early decades, to bring order to the breakaway State of Katanga, restoring it to the control of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by 1964. While travelling to meet with rebel leader Moise Tshombe during the conflict, Dag Hammarskjöld, often named as one of the UN's most effective Secretaries-General, died in a plane crash; months later he was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1964, Hammarskjöld's successor, U Thant, deployed the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, which would become one of the UN's longest-running peacekeeping missions.","United Nations\n\nWith the spread of decolonization in the 1960s, the organization's membership saw an influx of newly independent nations. In 1960 alone, 17 new states joined the UN, 16 of them from Africa. On 25 October 1971, with opposition from the United States, but with the support of many Third World nations, the mainland, communist People's Republic of China was given the Chinese seat on the Security Council in place of the Republic of China that occupied Taiwan; the vote was widely seen as a sign of waning US influence in the organization. Third World nations organized into the Group of 77 coalition under the leadership of Algeria, which briefly became a dominant power at the UN. In 1975, a bloc comprising the USSR and Third World nations passed a resolution, over strenuous US and Israeli opposition, declaring Zionism to be racism; the resolution was repealed in 1991, shortly after the end of the Cold War.","United Nations\n\nWith an increasing Third World presence and the failure of UN mediation in conflicts in the Middle East, Vietnam, and Kashmir, the UN increasingly shifted its attention to its ostensibly secondary goals of economic development and cultural exchange. By the 1970s, the UN budget for social and economic development was far greater than its peacekeeping budget.","United Nations\n\nPost-Cold War","United Nations\n\nAfter the Cold War, the UN saw a radical expansion in its peacekeeping duties, taking on more missions in ten years than it had in the previous four decades. Between 1988 and 2000, the number of adopted Security Council resolutions more than doubled, and the peacekeeping budget increased more than tenfold. The UN negotiated an end to the Salvadoran Civil War, launched a successful peacekeeping mission in Namibia, and oversaw democratic elections in post-apartheid South Africa and post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia. In 1991, the UN authorized a US-led coalition that repulsed the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Brian Urquhart, Under-Secretary-General from 1971 to 1985, later described the hopes raised by these successes as a \"false renaissance\" for the organization, given the more troubled missions that followed.","United Nations\n\nThough the UN Charter had been written primarily to prevent aggression by one nation against another, in the early 1990s the UN faced a number of simultaneous, serious crises within nations such as Somalia, Haiti, Mozambique, and the former Yugoslavia. The UN mission in Somalia was widely viewed as a failure after the US withdrawal following casualties in the Battle of Mogadishu, and the UN mission to Bosnia faced \"worldwide ridicule\" for its indecisive and confused mission in the face of ethnic cleansing. In 1994, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda failed to intervene in the Rwandan Genocide amid indecision in the Security Council.","United Nations\n\nBeginning in the last decades of the Cold War, American and European critics of the UN condemned the organization for perceived mismanagement and corruption. In 1984, the US President, Ronald Reagan, withdrew his nation's funding from UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, founded 1946) over allegations of mismanagement, followed by Britain and Singapore. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General from 1992 to 1996, initiated a reform of the Secretariat, reducing the size of the organization somewhat. His successor, Kofi Annan (1997–2006), initiated further management reforms in the face of threats from the United States to withhold its UN dues.","United Nations\n\nIn the late 1990s and 2000s, international interventions authorized by the UN took a wider variety of forms. The UN mission in the Sierra Leone Civil War of 1991–2002 was supplemented by British Royal Marines, and the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was overseen by NATO.In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq despite failing to pass a UN Security Council resolution for authorization, prompting a new round of questioning of the organization's effectiveness. Under the current Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, the UN has intervened with peacekeepers in crises including the War in Darfur in Sudan and the Kivu conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and sent observers and chemical weapons inspectors to the Syrian Civil War. In 2013, an internal review of UN actions in the final battles of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009 concluded that the organization had suffered \"systemic failure\". One hundred and one UN personnel died in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the worst loss of life in the organization's history.","United Nations\n\nStructure","United Nations\n\nThe United Nations' system is based on five principal organs: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice. A sixth principal organ, the Trusteeship Council, suspended operations in 1994, upon the independence of Palau, the last remaining UN trustee territory.","United Nations\n\nFour of the five principal organs are located at the main UN Headquarters in New York City. The International Court of Justice is located in The Hague, while other major agencies are based in the UN offices at Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. Other UN institutions are located throughout the world. The six official languages of the United Nations, used in intergovernmental meetings and documents, are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. On the basis of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, the UN and its agencies are immune from the laws of the countries where they operate, safeguarding the UN's impartiality with regard to the host and member countries.","United Nations\n\nBelow the six organs sit, in the words of the author Linda Fasulo, \"an amazing collection of entities and organizations, some of which are actually older than the UN itself and operate with almost complete independence from it\". These include specialized agencies, research and training institutions, programmes and funds, and other UN entities.","United Nations\n\nThe United Nations obey the Noblemaire principle, which is binding on any organization that belongs to the united nations system. This principle calls for salaries that will draw and keep citizens of countries where salaries are highest, and also calls for equal pay for work of equal value independent of the employee's nationality. Staff salaries are subject to an internal tax that is administered by the UN organizations.","United Nations\n\nGeneral Assembly","United Nations\n\nThe General Assembly is the main deliberative assembly of the United Nations. Composed of all United Nations member states, the assembly meets in regular yearly sessions, but emergency sessions can also be called. The assembly is led by a president, elected from among the member states on a rotating regional basis, and 21 vice-presidents. The first session convened 10 January 1946 in the Methodist Central Hall Westminster in London and included representatives of 51 nations.","United Nations\n\nWhen the General Assembly votes on important questions, a two-thirds majority of those present and voting is required. Examples of important questions include recommendations on peace and security; election of members to organs; admission, suspension, and expulsion of members; and budgetary matters. All other questions are decided by a majority vote. Each member country has one vote. Apart from approval of budgetary matters, resolutions are not binding on the members. The Assembly may make recommendations on any matters within the scope of the UN, except matters of peace and security that are under consideration by the Security Council.","United Nations\n\nDraft resolutions can be forwarded to the General Assembly by eight committees:\n*General Committee – a supervisory committee consisting of the assembly's president, vice-president, and committee heads\n*Credentials Committee – responsible for determining the credentials of each member nation's UN representatives\n*First Committee (Disarmament and International Security)\n*Second Committee (Economic and Financial)\n*Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural)\n*Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization)\n*Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary)\n*Sixth Committee (Legal)","United Nations\n\nSecurity Council","United Nations\n\nThe Security Council is charged with maintaining peace and security among countries. While other organs of the United Nations can only make \"recommendations\" to member states, the Security Council has the power to make binding decisions that member states have agreed to carry out, under the terms of Charter Article 25. The decisions of the Council are known as United Nations Security Council resolutions.","United Nations\n\nThe Security Council is made up of fifteen member states, consisting of five permanent members—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and ten non-permanent members—Angola (term ends 2016), Chad (2015), Chile (2015), Jordan (2015), Lithuania (2015), Malaysia (2016), New Zealand (2016), Nigeria (2015), Spain (2016), and Venezuela (2016). The five permanent members hold veto power over UN resolutions, allowing a permanent member to block adoption of a resolution, though not debate. The ten temporary seats are held for two-year terms, with member states voted in by the General Assembly on a regional basis. The presidency of the Security Council rotates alphabetically each month.","United Nations\n\nSecretariat","United Nations\n\nThe UN Secretariat is headed by the Secretary-General, assisted by a staff of international civil servants worldwide. It provides studies, information, and facilities needed by United Nations bodies for their meetings. It also carries out tasks as directed by the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, and other UN bodies.","United Nations\n\nThe Secretary-General acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the UN. The position is defined in the UN Charter as the organization's \"chief administrative officer\". Article 99 of the charter states that the Secretary-General can bring to the Security Council's attention \"any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security\", a phrase that Secretaries-General since Trygve Lie have interpreted as giving the position broad scope for action on the world stage. The office has evolved into a dual role of an administrator of the UN organization and a diplomat and mediator addressing disputes between member states and finding consensus to global issues.","United Nations\n\nThe Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly, after being recommended by the Security Council, where the permanent members have veto power. There are no specific criteria for the post, but over the years it has become accepted that the post shall be held for one or two terms of five years, that the post shall be appointed on the basis of geographical rotation, and that the Secretary-General shall not originate from one of the five permanent Security Council member states. The current Secretary-General is Ban Ki-moon, who replaced Kofi Annan in 2007 and was elected for a second term to conclude at the end of 2016.","United Nations\n\nInternational Court of Justice","United Nations\n\nThe International Court of Justice (ICJ), located in The Hague, in the Netherlands, is the primary judicial organ of the UN. Established in 1945 by the UN Charter, the Court began work in 1946 as the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice. The ICJ is composed of 15 judges who serve 9-year terms and are appointed by the General Assembly; every sitting judge must be from a different nation.","United Nations\n\nIt is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, sharing the building with the Hague Academy of International Law, a private centre for the study of international law. The ICJ's primary purpose is to adjudicate disputes among states. The court has heard cases related to war crimes, illegal state interference, ethnic cleansing, and other issues. The ICJ can also be called upon by other UN organs to provide advisory opinions.","United Nations\n\nEconomic and Social Council","United Nations\n\nThe Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) assists the General Assembly in promoting international economic and social co-operation and development. ECOSOC has 54 members, which are elected by the General Assembly for a three-year term. The president is elected for a one-year term and chosen amongst the small or middle powers represented on ECOSOC. The council has one annual meeting in July, held in either New York or Geneva. Viewed as separate from the specialized bodies it co-ordinates, ECOSOC's functions include information gathering, advising member nations, and making recommendations. Owing to its broad mandate of co-ordinating many agencies, ECOSOC has at times been criticized as unfocused or irrelevant.","United Nations\n\nECOSOC's subsidiary bodies include the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which advises UN agencies on issues relating to indigenous peoples; the United Nations Forum on Forests, which co-ordinates and promotes sustainable forest management; the United Nations Statistical Commission, which co-ordinates information-gathering efforts between agencies; and the Commission on Sustainable Development, which co-ordinates efforts between UN agencies and NGOs working toward sustainable development. ECOSOC may also grant consultative status to non-governmental organizations; by 2004, more than 2,200 organizations had received this status.","United Nations\n\nSpecialized agencies","United Nations\n\nThe UN Charter stipulates that each primary organ of the UN can establish various specialized agencies to fulfill its duties. Some best-known agencies are the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO). The UN performs most of its humanitarian work through these agencies. Examples include mass vaccination programmes (through WHO), the avoidance of famine and malnutrition (through the work of the WFP), and the protection of vulnerable and displaced people (for example, by UNHCR).","United Nations\n\nMembership","United Nations\n\nWith the addition of South Sudan 14 July 2011, there are United Nations member states, including all undisputed independent states apart from Vatican City. \nThe UN Charter outlines the rules for membership:","United Nations\n\nIn addition, there are two non-member observer states of the United Nations General Assembly: the Holy See (which holds sovereignty over Vatican City) and the State of Palestine. The Cook Islands and Niue, both states in free association with New Zealand, are full members of several UN specialized agencies and have had their \"full treaty-making capacity\" recognized by the Secretariat.","United Nations\n\nGroup of 77","United Nations\n\nThe Group of 77 at the UN is a loose coalition of developing nations, designed to promote its members' collective economic interests and create an enhanced joint negotiating capacity in the United Nations. Seventy-seven nations founded the organization, but by November 2013 the organization had since expanded to 133 member countries. The group was founded 15 June 1964 by the \"Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries\" issued at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The group held its first major meeting in Algiers in 1967, where it adopted the Charter of Algiers and established the basis for permanent institutional structures.","United Nations\n\nObjectives","United Nations\n\nPeacekeeping and security","United Nations\n\nThe UN, after approval by the Security Council, sends peacekeepers to regions where armed conflict has recently ceased or paused to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage combatants from resuming hostilities. Since the UN does not maintain its own military, peacekeeping forces are voluntarily provided by member states. These soldiers are sometimes nicknamed \"Blue Helmets\" for their distinctive gear. The peacekeeping force as a whole received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988.","United Nations\n\nIn September 2013, the UN had peacekeeping soldiers deployed on 15 missions. The largest was the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), which included 20,688 uniformed personnel. The smallest, United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), included 42 uniformed personnel responsible for monitoring the ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir. UN peacekeepers with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) have been stationed in the Middle East since 1948, the longest-running active peacekeeping mission.","United Nations\n\nA study by the RAND Corporation in 2005 found the UN to be successful in two out of three peacekeeping efforts. It compared efforts at nation-building by the United Nations to those of the United States, and found that seven out of eight UN cases are at peace, as compared with four out of eight US cases at peace. Also in 2005, the Human Security Report documented a decline in the number of wars, genocides, and human rights abuses since the end of the Cold War, and presented evidence, albeit circumstantial, that international activism—mostly spearheaded by the UN—has been the main cause of the decline in armed conflict in that period. Situations in which the UN has not only acted to keep the peace but also intervened include the Korean War (1950–53) and the authorization of intervention in Iraq after the Gulf War (1990–91).","United Nations\n\nThe UN has also drawn criticism for perceived failures. In many cases, member states have shown reluctance to achieve or enforce Security Council resolutions. Disagreements in the Security Council about military action and intervention are seen as having failed to prevent the Bangladesh genocide in 1971, the Cambodian genocide in the 1970s, and the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Similarly, UN inaction is blamed for failing to either prevent the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 or complete the peacekeeping operations in 1992–93 during the Somali Civil War. UN peacekeepers have also been accused of child rape, soliciting prostitutes, and sexual abuse during various peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Liberia, Sudan and what is now South Sudan, Burundi, and Ivory Coast. Scientists cited UN peacekeepers from Nepal as the likely source of the 2010–13 Haiti cholera outbreak, which killed more than 8,000 Haitians following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.","United Nations\n\nIn addition to peacekeeping, the UN is also active in encouraging disarmament. Regulation of armaments was included in the writing of the UN Charter in 1945 and was envisioned as a way of limiting the use of human and economic resources for their creation. The advent of nuclear weapons came only weeks after the signing of the charter, resulting in the first resolution of the first General Assembly meeting calling for specific proposals for \"the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction\". The UN has been involved with arms-limitation treaties, such as the Outer Space Treaty (1967), the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1968), the Seabed Arms Control Treaty (1971), the Biological Weapons Convention (1972), the Chemical Weapons Convention (1992), and the Ottawa Treaty (1997), which prohibits landmines. Three UN bodies oversee arms proliferation issues: the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Preparatory Commission.","United Nations\n\nHuman rights","United Nations\n\nOne of the UN's primary purposes is \"promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion\", and member states pledge to undertake \"joint and separate action\" to protect these rights.","United Nations\n\nIn 1948, the General Assembly adopted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted by a committee headed by Franklin D. Roosevelt's widow, Eleanor, and including the French lawyer René Cassin. The document proclaims basic civil, political, and economic rights common to all human beings, though its effectiveness toward achieving these ends has been disputed since its drafting. The Declaration serves as a \"common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations\" rather than a legally binding document, but it has become the basis of two binding treaties, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In practice, the UN is unable to take significant action against human rights abuses without a Security Council resolution, though it does substantial work in investigating and reporting abuses.","United Nations\n\nIn 1979, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, followed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. With the end of the Cold War, the push for human rights action took on new impetus. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was formed in 1993 to oversee human rights issues for the UN, following the recommendation of that year's World Conference on Human Rights. Jacques Fomerand, a scholar of the UN, describes this organization's mandate as \"broad and vague\", with only \"meager\" resources to carry it out. In 2006, it was replaced by a Human Rights Council consisting of 47 nations. Also in 2006, the General Assembly passed a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and in 2011 it passed its first resolution recognizing the rights of LGBT people.","United Nations\n\nOther UN bodies responsible for women's rights issues include United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, a commission of ECOSOC founded in 1946; the United Nations Development Fund for Women, created in 1976; and the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, founded in 1979. The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, one of three bodies with a mandate to oversee issues related to indigenous peoples, held its first session in 2002.","United Nations\n\nEconomic development and humanitarian assistance","United Nations\n\nAnother primary purpose of the UN is \"to achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character\". Numerous bodies have been created to work towards this goal, primarily under the authority of the General Assembly and ECOSOC. In 2000, the 192 United Nations member states agreed to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015.","United Nations\n\nThe UN Development Programme (UNDP), an organization for grant-based technical assistance founded in 1945, is one of the leading bodies in the field of international development. The organization also publishes the UN Human Development Index, a comparative measure ranking countries by poverty, literacy, education, life expectancy, and other factors. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), also founded in 1945, promotes agricultural development and food security. UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) was created in 1946 to aid European children after the Second World War and expanded its mission to provide aid around the world and to uphold the Convention on the Rights of the Child.","United Nations\n\nThe World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are independent, specialized agencies and observers within the UN framework, according to a 1947 agreement. They were initially formed separately from the UN through the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944. The World Bank provides loans for international development, while the IMF promotes international economic co-operation and gives emergency loans to indebted countries.","United Nations\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO), which focuses on international health issues and disease eradication, is another of the UN's largest agencies. In 1980, the agency announced that the eradication of smallpox had been completed. In subsequent decades, WHO largely eradicated polio, river blindness, and leprosy. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), begun in 1996, co-ordinates the organization's response to the AIDS epidemic. The UN Population Fund, which also dedicates part of its resources to combating HIV, is the world's largest source of funding for reproductive health and family planning services.","United Nations\n\nAlong with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the UN often takes a leading role in co-ordinating emergency relief. The World Food Programme (WFP), created in 1961, provides food aid in response to famine, natural disasters, and armed conflict. The organization reports that it feeds an average of 90 million people in 80 nations each year. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), established in 1950, works to protect the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless people. UNHCR and WFP programmes are funded by voluntary contributions from governments, corporations, and individuals, though the UNHCR's administrative costs are paid for by the UN's primary budget.","United Nations\n\nOther","United Nations\n\nSince the UN's creation, over 80 colonies have attained independence. The General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 1960 with no votes against but abstentions from all major colonial powers. The UN works toward decolonization through groups including the UN Committee on Decolonization, created in 1962. The committee lists seventeen remaining \"Non-Self-Governing Territories\", the largest and most populous of which is Western Sahara.","United Nations\n\nBeginning with the formation of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) in 1972, the UN has made environmental issues a prominent part of its agenda. A lack of success in the first two decades of UN work in this area led to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which sought to give new impetus to these efforts. In 1988, the UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), another UN organization, established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which assesses and reports on research on global warming. The UN-sponsored Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997, set legally binding emissions reduction targets for ratifying states.","United Nations\n\nThe UN also declares and co-ordinates international observances, periods of time to observe issues of international interest or concern. Examples include World Tuberculosis Day, Earth Day, and the International Year of Deserts and Desertification.","United Nations\n\nFunding","United Nations\n\nThe UN is financed from assessed and voluntary contributions from member states. The General Assembly approves the regular budget and determines the assessment for each member. This is broadly based on the relative capacity of each country to pay, as measured by its gross national income (GNI), with adjustments for external debt and low per capita income. The two-year budget for 2012–13 was $5.512 billion in total.","United Nations\n\nThe Assembly has established the principle that the UN should not be unduly dependent on any one member to finance its operations. Thus, there is a \"ceiling\" rate, setting the maximum amount that any member can be assessed for the regular budget. In December 2000, the Assembly revised the scale of assessments in response to pressure from the United States. As part of that revision, the regular budget ceiling was reduced from 25% to 22%. For the least developed countries (LDCs), a ceiling rate of 0.01% is applied. In addition to the ceiling rates, the minimum amount assessed to any member nation (or \"floor\" rate) is set at 0.001% of the UN budget ($55,120 for the two year budget 2013-2014).","United Nations\n\nA large share of the UN's expenditure addresses its core mission of peace and security, and this budget is assessed separately from the main organizational budget. The peacekeeping budget for the 2015–16 fiscal year was $8.27 billion, supporting 82,318 troops deployed in 15 missions around the world. UN peace operations are funded by assessments, using a formula derived from the regular funding scale that includes a weighted surcharge for the five permanent Security Council members, who must approve all peacekeeping operations. This surcharge serves to offset discounted peacekeeping assessment rates for less developed countries. In 2013, the top 10 providers of assessed financial contributions to United Nations peacekeeping operations were the United States (28.38%), Japan (10.83%), France (7.22%), Germany (7.14%), the United Kingdom (6.68%), China (6.64%), Italy (4.45%), the Russian Federation (3.15%), Canada (2.98%), and Spain (2.97%).","United Nations\n\nSpecial UN programmes not included in the regular budget, such as UNICEF and the World Food Programme, are financed by voluntary contributions from member governments, corporations, and private individuals.","United Nations\n\nEvaluations, awards, and criticism","United Nations\n\nA number of agencies and individuals associated with the UN have won the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their work. Two Secretaries-General, Dag Hammarskjöld and Kofi Annan, were each awarded the prize (in 1961 and 2001, respectively), as were Ralph Bunche (1950), a UN negotiator, René Cassin (1968), a contributor to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the US Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1945), the latter for his role in the organization's founding. Lester B. Pearson, the Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs, was awarded the prize in 1957 for his role in organizing the UN's first peacekeeping force to resolve the Suez Crisis. UNICEF won the prize in 1965, the International Labour Organization in 1969, the UN Peace-Keeping Forces in 1988, the International Atomic Energy Agency (which reports to the UN) in 2005, and the UN-supported Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2013. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was awarded in 1954 and 1981, becoming one of only two recipients to win the prize twice. The UN as a whole was awarded the prize in 2001, sharing it with Annan.","United Nations\n\nSince its founding, there have been many calls for reform of the United Nations but little consensus on how to do so. Some want the UN to play a greater or more effective role in world affairs, while others want its role reduced to humanitarian work. There have also been numerous calls for the UN Security Council's membership to be increased, for different ways of electing the UN's Secretary-General, and for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. Jacques Fomerand states the most enduring divide in views of the UN is \"the North–South split\" between richer Northern nations and developing Southern nations. Southern nations tend to favor a more empowered UN with a stronger General Assembly, allowing them a greater voice in world affairs, while Northern nations prefer an economically laissez-faire UN that focuses on transnational threats such as terrorism.","United Nations\n\nAfter World War II, the French Committee of National Liberation was late to be recognized by the US as the government of France, and so the country was initially excluded from the conferences that created the new organization. The future French president Charles de Gaulle criticized the UN, famously calling it a machin (\"contraption\"), and was not convinced that a global security alliance would help maintain world peace, preferring direct defence treaties between countries. Throughout the Cold War, both the US and USSR repeatedly accused the UN of favoring the other. In 1953, the USSR effectively forced the resignation of Trygve Lie, the Secretary-General, through its refusal to deal with him, while in the 1950s and 1960s, a popular US bumper sticker read, \"You can't spell communism without U.N.\" In a sometimes-misquoted statement, President George W. Bush stated in February 2003 (referring to UN uncertainty towards Iraqi provocations under the Saddam Hussein regime) that \"free nations will not allow the United Nations to fade into history as an ineffective, irrelevant debating society.\" In contrast, the French President, François Hollande, stated in 2012 that \"France trusts the United Nations.","United Nations\n\nShe knows that no state, no matter how powerful, can solve urgent problems, fight for development and bring an end to all crises... France wants the UN to be the centre of global governance.\" Critics such as Dore Gold, an Israeli diplomat, Robert S. Wistrich, a British scholar, Alan Dershowitz, an American legal scholar, Mark Dreyfus, an Australian politician, and the Anti-Defamation League consider UN attention to Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be excessive. In September 2015, Saudi Arabia's Faisal bin Hassan Trad has been elected Chair of the United Nations Human Rights Council panel that appoints independent experts, a move criticized by human rights groups.","United Nations\n\nCritics have also accused the UN of bureaucratic inefficiency, waste, and corruption. In 1976, the General Assembly established the Joint Inspection Unit to seek out inefficiencies within the UN system. During the 1990s, the US withheld dues citing inefficiency and only started repayment on the condition that a major reforms initiative was introduced. In 1994, the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) was established by the General Assembly to serve as an efficiency watchdog. In 1994, former Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UN to Somalia Mohamed Sahnoun published \"Somalia: The Missed Opportunities\", a book in which he analyses the reasons for the failure of the 1992 UN intervention in Somalia, showing that, between the start of the Somali civil war in 1988 and the fall of the Siad Barre regime in January 1991, the UN missed at least three opportunities to prevent major human tragedies; when the UN tried to provide humanitarian assistance, they were totally outperformed by NGOs, whose competence and dedication sharply contrasted with the UN's excessive caution and bureaucratic inefficiencies. If radical reform was not undertaken, warned Mohamed Sahnoun, then the UN would continue to respond to such crisis with inept improvisation.","United Nations\n\nIn 2004, the UN faced accusations that its recently ended Oil-for-Food Programme—in which Iraq had been allowed to trade oil for basic needs to relieve the pressure of sanctions—had suffered from widespread corruption, including billions of dollars of kickbacks. An independent inquiry created by the UN found that many of its officials had been involved, as well as raising \"significant\" questions about the role of Kojo Annan, the son of Kofi Annan.","United Nations\n\nIn evaluating the UN as a whole, Jacques Fomerand writes that the \"accomplishments of the United Nations in the last 60 years are impressive in their own terms. Progress in human development during the 20th century has been dramatic and the UN and its agencies have certainly helped the world become a more hospitable and livable place for millions.\" Evaluating the first 50 years of the UN's history, the author Stanley Meisler writes that \"the United Nations never fulfilled the hopes of its founders, but it accomplished a great deal nevertheless\", citing its role in decolonization and its many successful peacekeeping efforts. The British historian Paul Kennedy states that while the organization has suffered some major setbacks, \"when all its aspects are considered, the UN has brought great benefits to our generation and ... will bring benefits to our children's and grandchildren's generations as well.\""],"string":"[\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193. The headquarters of the United Nations is in Manhattan, New York City, and experiences extraterritoriality. Further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states. Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights, fostering social and economic development, protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe United Nations Charter was drafted at a conference in April–June 1945; this charter took effect 24 October 1945, and the UN began operation. The UN's mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in major actions in Korea and the Congo, as well as approving the creation of the state of Israel in 1947. The organization's membership grew significantly following widespread decolonization in the 1960s, and by the 1970s its budget for economic and social development programmes far outstripped its spending on peacekeeping. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military and peacekeeping missions across the world with varying degrees of success.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe UN has six principal organs: the General Assembly (the main deliberative assembly); the Security Council (for deciding certain resolutions for peace and security); the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) (for promoting international economic and social co-operation and development); the Secretariat (for providing studies, information, and facilities needed by the UN); the International Court of Justice (the primary judicial organ); and the United Nations Trusteeship Council (inactive since 1994). UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, and UNICEF. The UN's most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by South Korean Ban Ki-moon since 2007. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UN's work.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UN's effectiveness have been mixed. Some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nHistory\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nBackground\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nIn the century prior to the UN's creation, several international treaty organizations and conferences had been formed to regulate conflicts between nations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the Paris Peace Conference established the League of Nations to maintain harmony between countries. This organization resolved some territorial disputes and created international structures for areas such as postal mail, aviation, and opium control, some of which would later be absorbed into the UN. However, the League lacked representation for colonial peoples (then half the world's population) and significant participation from several major powers, including the US, USSR, Germany, and Japan; it failed to act against the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in 1935, the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, and German expansions under Adolf Hitler that culminated in the Second World War.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\n1942 \\\"Declaration of United Nations\\\" by the Allies of World War II\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. The text of the \\\"Declaration by United Nations\\\" was drafted by President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Roosevelt aide Harry Hopkins, while meeting at the White House, 29 December 1941. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France. \\\"Four Policemen\\\" was coined to refer four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which was emerged in Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries. \\\"On New Year's Day 1942, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, Maxim Litvinov, of the USSR, and T. V. Soong, of China, signed a short document which later came to be known as the United Nations Declaration and the next day the representatives of twenty-two other nations added their signatures.\\\" The term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, which Stalin approved after Roosevelt insisted. By 1 March 1945, 21 additional states had signed.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nA JOINT DECLARATION BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND, THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS, CHINA, AUSTRALIA, BELGIUM, CANADA, COSTA RICA, CUBA, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, GREECE, GUATEMALA, HAITI, HONDURAS, INDIA, LUXEMBOURG, NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NICARAGUA, NORWAY, PANAMA, POLAND, SOUTH AFRICA, YUGOSLAVIA\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe Governments signatory hereto,\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nHaving subscribed to a common program of purposes and principles embodied in the Joint Declaration of the President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of Great Britain dated August 14, 1941, known as the Atlantic Charter,\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nBeing convinced that complete victory over their enemies is essential to defend life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as in other lands, and that they are now engaged in a common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world,\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nDECLARE:\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\n(1) Each Government pledges itself to employ its full resources, military or economic, against those members of the Tripartite Pact and its adherents with which such government is at war.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\n(2) Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto and not to make a separate armistice or peace with the enemies.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nDuring the war, the United Nations became the official term for the Allies. To join countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nFounding the UN 1945\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe United Nations was formulated and negotiated among the delegations from the Soviet Union, the UK, the US and China at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944. After months of planning, the UN Conference on International Organization opened in San Francisco, 25 April 1945, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations involved in drafting the United Nations Charter. \\\"The heads of the delegations of the sponsoring countries took turns as chairman of the plenary meetings: Anthony Eden, of Britain, Edward Stettinius, of the United States, T. V. Soong, of China, and Vyacheslav Molotov, of the Soviet Union. At the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov.\\\" The UN officially came into existence 24 October 1945, upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council—France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the UK and the US—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council took place in London beginning 6 January 1946. The General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the United Nations, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory. The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nCold War era\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThough the UN's primary mandate was peacekeeping, the division between the US and USSR often paralysed the organization, generally allowing it to intervene only in conflicts distant from the Cold War. (A notable exception was a Security Council resolution in 1950 authorizing a US-led coalition to repel the North Korean invasion of South Korea, passed in the absence of the USSR.) In 1947, the General Assembly approved a resolution to partition Palestine, approving the creation of the state of Israel. Two years later, Ralph Bunche, a UN official, negotiated an armistice to the resulting conflict. In 1956, the first UN peacekeeping force was established to end the Suez Crisis; however, the UN was unable to intervene against the USSR's simultaneous invasion of Hungary following that country's revolution.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nIn 1960, the UN deployed United Nations Operation in the Congo (UNOC), the largest military force of its early decades, to bring order to the breakaway State of Katanga, restoring it to the control of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by 1964. While travelling to meet with rebel leader Moise Tshombe during the conflict, Dag Hammarskjöld, often named as one of the UN's most effective Secretaries-General, died in a plane crash; months later he was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1964, Hammarskjöld's successor, U Thant, deployed the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, which would become one of the UN's longest-running peacekeeping missions.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nWith the spread of decolonization in the 1960s, the organization's membership saw an influx of newly independent nations. In 1960 alone, 17 new states joined the UN, 16 of them from Africa. On 25 October 1971, with opposition from the United States, but with the support of many Third World nations, the mainland, communist People's Republic of China was given the Chinese seat on the Security Council in place of the Republic of China that occupied Taiwan; the vote was widely seen as a sign of waning US influence in the organization. Third World nations organized into the Group of 77 coalition under the leadership of Algeria, which briefly became a dominant power at the UN. In 1975, a bloc comprising the USSR and Third World nations passed a resolution, over strenuous US and Israeli opposition, declaring Zionism to be racism; the resolution was repealed in 1991, shortly after the end of the Cold War.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nWith an increasing Third World presence and the failure of UN mediation in conflicts in the Middle East, Vietnam, and Kashmir, the UN increasingly shifted its attention to its ostensibly secondary goals of economic development and cultural exchange. By the 1970s, the UN budget for social and economic development was far greater than its peacekeeping budget.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nPost-Cold War\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nAfter the Cold War, the UN saw a radical expansion in its peacekeeping duties, taking on more missions in ten years than it had in the previous four decades. Between 1988 and 2000, the number of adopted Security Council resolutions more than doubled, and the peacekeeping budget increased more than tenfold. The UN negotiated an end to the Salvadoran Civil War, launched a successful peacekeeping mission in Namibia, and oversaw democratic elections in post-apartheid South Africa and post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia. In 1991, the UN authorized a US-led coalition that repulsed the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Brian Urquhart, Under-Secretary-General from 1971 to 1985, later described the hopes raised by these successes as a \\\"false renaissance\\\" for the organization, given the more troubled missions that followed.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThough the UN Charter had been written primarily to prevent aggression by one nation against another, in the early 1990s the UN faced a number of simultaneous, serious crises within nations such as Somalia, Haiti, Mozambique, and the former Yugoslavia. The UN mission in Somalia was widely viewed as a failure after the US withdrawal following casualties in the Battle of Mogadishu, and the UN mission to Bosnia faced \\\"worldwide ridicule\\\" for its indecisive and confused mission in the face of ethnic cleansing. In 1994, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda failed to intervene in the Rwandan Genocide amid indecision in the Security Council.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nBeginning in the last decades of the Cold War, American and European critics of the UN condemned the organization for perceived mismanagement and corruption. In 1984, the US President, Ronald Reagan, withdrew his nation's funding from UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, founded 1946) over allegations of mismanagement, followed by Britain and Singapore. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General from 1992 to 1996, initiated a reform of the Secretariat, reducing the size of the organization somewhat. His successor, Kofi Annan (1997–2006), initiated further management reforms in the face of threats from the United States to withhold its UN dues.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nIn the late 1990s and 2000s, international interventions authorized by the UN took a wider variety of forms. The UN mission in the Sierra Leone Civil War of 1991–2002 was supplemented by British Royal Marines, and the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was overseen by NATO.In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq despite failing to pass a UN Security Council resolution for authorization, prompting a new round of questioning of the organization's effectiveness. Under the current Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, the UN has intervened with peacekeepers in crises including the War in Darfur in Sudan and the Kivu conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and sent observers and chemical weapons inspectors to the Syrian Civil War. In 2013, an internal review of UN actions in the final battles of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009 concluded that the organization had suffered \\\"systemic failure\\\". One hundred and one UN personnel died in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the worst loss of life in the organization's history.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nStructure\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe United Nations' system is based on five principal organs: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice. A sixth principal organ, the Trusteeship Council, suspended operations in 1994, upon the independence of Palau, the last remaining UN trustee territory.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nFour of the five principal organs are located at the main UN Headquarters in New York City. The International Court of Justice is located in The Hague, while other major agencies are based in the UN offices at Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. Other UN institutions are located throughout the world. The six official languages of the United Nations, used in intergovernmental meetings and documents, are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. On the basis of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, the UN and its agencies are immune from the laws of the countries where they operate, safeguarding the UN's impartiality with regard to the host and member countries.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nBelow the six organs sit, in the words of the author Linda Fasulo, \\\"an amazing collection of entities and organizations, some of which are actually older than the UN itself and operate with almost complete independence from it\\\". These include specialized agencies, research and training institutions, programmes and funds, and other UN entities.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe United Nations obey the Noblemaire principle, which is binding on any organization that belongs to the united nations system. This principle calls for salaries that will draw and keep citizens of countries where salaries are highest, and also calls for equal pay for work of equal value independent of the employee's nationality. Staff salaries are subject to an internal tax that is administered by the UN organizations.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nGeneral Assembly\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe General Assembly is the main deliberative assembly of the United Nations. Composed of all United Nations member states, the assembly meets in regular yearly sessions, but emergency sessions can also be called. The assembly is led by a president, elected from among the member states on a rotating regional basis, and 21 vice-presidents. The first session convened 10 January 1946 in the Methodist Central Hall Westminster in London and included representatives of 51 nations.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nWhen the General Assembly votes on important questions, a two-thirds majority of those present and voting is required. Examples of important questions include recommendations on peace and security; election of members to organs; admission, suspension, and expulsion of members; and budgetary matters. All other questions are decided by a majority vote. Each member country has one vote. Apart from approval of budgetary matters, resolutions are not binding on the members. The Assembly may make recommendations on any matters within the scope of the UN, except matters of peace and security that are under consideration by the Security Council.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nDraft resolutions can be forwarded to the General Assembly by eight committees:\\n*General Committee – a supervisory committee consisting of the assembly's president, vice-president, and committee heads\\n*Credentials Committee – responsible for determining the credentials of each member nation's UN representatives\\n*First Committee (Disarmament and International Security)\\n*Second Committee (Economic and Financial)\\n*Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural)\\n*Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization)\\n*Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary)\\n*Sixth Committee (Legal)\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nSecurity Council\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe Security Council is charged with maintaining peace and security among countries. While other organs of the United Nations can only make \\\"recommendations\\\" to member states, the Security Council has the power to make binding decisions that member states have agreed to carry out, under the terms of Charter Article 25. The decisions of the Council are known as United Nations Security Council resolutions.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe Security Council is made up of fifteen member states, consisting of five permanent members—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and ten non-permanent members—Angola (term ends 2016), Chad (2015), Chile (2015), Jordan (2015), Lithuania (2015), Malaysia (2016), New Zealand (2016), Nigeria (2015), Spain (2016), and Venezuela (2016). The five permanent members hold veto power over UN resolutions, allowing a permanent member to block adoption of a resolution, though not debate. The ten temporary seats are held for two-year terms, with member states voted in by the General Assembly on a regional basis. The presidency of the Security Council rotates alphabetically each month.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nSecretariat\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe UN Secretariat is headed by the Secretary-General, assisted by a staff of international civil servants worldwide. It provides studies, information, and facilities needed by United Nations bodies for their meetings. It also carries out tasks as directed by the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, and other UN bodies.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe Secretary-General acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the UN. The position is defined in the UN Charter as the organization's \\\"chief administrative officer\\\". Article 99 of the charter states that the Secretary-General can bring to the Security Council's attention \\\"any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security\\\", a phrase that Secretaries-General since Trygve Lie have interpreted as giving the position broad scope for action on the world stage. The office has evolved into a dual role of an administrator of the UN organization and a diplomat and mediator addressing disputes between member states and finding consensus to global issues.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly, after being recommended by the Security Council, where the permanent members have veto power. There are no specific criteria for the post, but over the years it has become accepted that the post shall be held for one or two terms of five years, that the post shall be appointed on the basis of geographical rotation, and that the Secretary-General shall not originate from one of the five permanent Security Council member states. The current Secretary-General is Ban Ki-moon, who replaced Kofi Annan in 2007 and was elected for a second term to conclude at the end of 2016.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nInternational Court of Justice\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe International Court of Justice (ICJ), located in The Hague, in the Netherlands, is the primary judicial organ of the UN. Established in 1945 by the UN Charter, the Court began work in 1946 as the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice. The ICJ is composed of 15 judges who serve 9-year terms and are appointed by the General Assembly; every sitting judge must be from a different nation.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nIt is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, sharing the building with the Hague Academy of International Law, a private centre for the study of international law. The ICJ's primary purpose is to adjudicate disputes among states. The court has heard cases related to war crimes, illegal state interference, ethnic cleansing, and other issues. The ICJ can also be called upon by other UN organs to provide advisory opinions.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nEconomic and Social Council\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) assists the General Assembly in promoting international economic and social co-operation and development. ECOSOC has 54 members, which are elected by the General Assembly for a three-year term. The president is elected for a one-year term and chosen amongst the small or middle powers represented on ECOSOC. The council has one annual meeting in July, held in either New York or Geneva. Viewed as separate from the specialized bodies it co-ordinates, ECOSOC's functions include information gathering, advising member nations, and making recommendations. Owing to its broad mandate of co-ordinating many agencies, ECOSOC has at times been criticized as unfocused or irrelevant.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nECOSOC's subsidiary bodies include the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which advises UN agencies on issues relating to indigenous peoples; the United Nations Forum on Forests, which co-ordinates and promotes sustainable forest management; the United Nations Statistical Commission, which co-ordinates information-gathering efforts between agencies; and the Commission on Sustainable Development, which co-ordinates efforts between UN agencies and NGOs working toward sustainable development. ECOSOC may also grant consultative status to non-governmental organizations; by 2004, more than 2,200 organizations had received this status.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nSpecialized agencies\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe UN Charter stipulates that each primary organ of the UN can establish various specialized agencies to fulfill its duties. Some best-known agencies are the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO). The UN performs most of its humanitarian work through these agencies. Examples include mass vaccination programmes (through WHO), the avoidance of famine and malnutrition (through the work of the WFP), and the protection of vulnerable and displaced people (for example, by UNHCR).\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nMembership\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nWith the addition of South Sudan 14 July 2011, there are United Nations member states, including all undisputed independent states apart from Vatican City. \\nThe UN Charter outlines the rules for membership:\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nIn addition, there are two non-member observer states of the United Nations General Assembly: the Holy See (which holds sovereignty over Vatican City) and the State of Palestine. The Cook Islands and Niue, both states in free association with New Zealand, are full members of several UN specialized agencies and have had their \\\"full treaty-making capacity\\\" recognized by the Secretariat.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nGroup of 77\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe Group of 77 at the UN is a loose coalition of developing nations, designed to promote its members' collective economic interests and create an enhanced joint negotiating capacity in the United Nations. Seventy-seven nations founded the organization, but by November 2013 the organization had since expanded to 133 member countries. The group was founded 15 June 1964 by the \\\"Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries\\\" issued at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The group held its first major meeting in Algiers in 1967, where it adopted the Charter of Algiers and established the basis for permanent institutional structures.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nObjectives\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nPeacekeeping and security\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe UN, after approval by the Security Council, sends peacekeepers to regions where armed conflict has recently ceased or paused to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage combatants from resuming hostilities. Since the UN does not maintain its own military, peacekeeping forces are voluntarily provided by member states. These soldiers are sometimes nicknamed \\\"Blue Helmets\\\" for their distinctive gear. The peacekeeping force as a whole received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nIn September 2013, the UN had peacekeeping soldiers deployed on 15 missions. The largest was the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), which included 20,688 uniformed personnel. The smallest, United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), included 42 uniformed personnel responsible for monitoring the ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir. UN peacekeepers with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) have been stationed in the Middle East since 1948, the longest-running active peacekeeping mission.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nA study by the RAND Corporation in 2005 found the UN to be successful in two out of three peacekeeping efforts. It compared efforts at nation-building by the United Nations to those of the United States, and found that seven out of eight UN cases are at peace, as compared with four out of eight US cases at peace. Also in 2005, the Human Security Report documented a decline in the number of wars, genocides, and human rights abuses since the end of the Cold War, and presented evidence, albeit circumstantial, that international activism—mostly spearheaded by the UN—has been the main cause of the decline in armed conflict in that period. Situations in which the UN has not only acted to keep the peace but also intervened include the Korean War (1950–53) and the authorization of intervention in Iraq after the Gulf War (1990–91).\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe UN has also drawn criticism for perceived failures. In many cases, member states have shown reluctance to achieve or enforce Security Council resolutions. Disagreements in the Security Council about military action and intervention are seen as having failed to prevent the Bangladesh genocide in 1971, the Cambodian genocide in the 1970s, and the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Similarly, UN inaction is blamed for failing to either prevent the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 or complete the peacekeeping operations in 1992–93 during the Somali Civil War. UN peacekeepers have also been accused of child rape, soliciting prostitutes, and sexual abuse during various peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Liberia, Sudan and what is now South Sudan, Burundi, and Ivory Coast. Scientists cited UN peacekeepers from Nepal as the likely source of the 2010–13 Haiti cholera outbreak, which killed more than 8,000 Haitians following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nIn addition to peacekeeping, the UN is also active in encouraging disarmament. Regulation of armaments was included in the writing of the UN Charter in 1945 and was envisioned as a way of limiting the use of human and economic resources for their creation. The advent of nuclear weapons came only weeks after the signing of the charter, resulting in the first resolution of the first General Assembly meeting calling for specific proposals for \\\"the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction\\\". The UN has been involved with arms-limitation treaties, such as the Outer Space Treaty (1967), the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1968), the Seabed Arms Control Treaty (1971), the Biological Weapons Convention (1972), the Chemical Weapons Convention (1992), and the Ottawa Treaty (1997), which prohibits landmines. Three UN bodies oversee arms proliferation issues: the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Preparatory Commission.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nHuman rights\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nOne of the UN's primary purposes is \\\"promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion\\\", and member states pledge to undertake \\\"joint and separate action\\\" to protect these rights.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nIn 1948, the General Assembly adopted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted by a committee headed by Franklin D. Roosevelt's widow, Eleanor, and including the French lawyer René Cassin. The document proclaims basic civil, political, and economic rights common to all human beings, though its effectiveness toward achieving these ends has been disputed since its drafting. The Declaration serves as a \\\"common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations\\\" rather than a legally binding document, but it has become the basis of two binding treaties, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In practice, the UN is unable to take significant action against human rights abuses without a Security Council resolution, though it does substantial work in investigating and reporting abuses.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nIn 1979, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, followed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. With the end of the Cold War, the push for human rights action took on new impetus. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was formed in 1993 to oversee human rights issues for the UN, following the recommendation of that year's World Conference on Human Rights. Jacques Fomerand, a scholar of the UN, describes this organization's mandate as \\\"broad and vague\\\", with only \\\"meager\\\" resources to carry it out. In 2006, it was replaced by a Human Rights Council consisting of 47 nations. Also in 2006, the General Assembly passed a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and in 2011 it passed its first resolution recognizing the rights of LGBT people.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nOther UN bodies responsible for women's rights issues include United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, a commission of ECOSOC founded in 1946; the United Nations Development Fund for Women, created in 1976; and the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, founded in 1979. The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, one of three bodies with a mandate to oversee issues related to indigenous peoples, held its first session in 2002.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nEconomic development and humanitarian assistance\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nAnother primary purpose of the UN is \\\"to achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character\\\". Numerous bodies have been created to work towards this goal, primarily under the authority of the General Assembly and ECOSOC. In 2000, the 192 United Nations member states agreed to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe UN Development Programme (UNDP), an organization for grant-based technical assistance founded in 1945, is one of the leading bodies in the field of international development. The organization also publishes the UN Human Development Index, a comparative measure ranking countries by poverty, literacy, education, life expectancy, and other factors. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), also founded in 1945, promotes agricultural development and food security. UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) was created in 1946 to aid European children after the Second World War and expanded its mission to provide aid around the world and to uphold the Convention on the Rights of the Child.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are independent, specialized agencies and observers within the UN framework, according to a 1947 agreement. They were initially formed separately from the UN through the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944. The World Bank provides loans for international development, while the IMF promotes international economic co-operation and gives emergency loans to indebted countries.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe World Health Organization (WHO), which focuses on international health issues and disease eradication, is another of the UN's largest agencies. In 1980, the agency announced that the eradication of smallpox had been completed. In subsequent decades, WHO largely eradicated polio, river blindness, and leprosy. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), begun in 1996, co-ordinates the organization's response to the AIDS epidemic. The UN Population Fund, which also dedicates part of its resources to combating HIV, is the world's largest source of funding for reproductive health and family planning services.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nAlong with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the UN often takes a leading role in co-ordinating emergency relief. The World Food Programme (WFP), created in 1961, provides food aid in response to famine, natural disasters, and armed conflict. The organization reports that it feeds an average of 90 million people in 80 nations each year. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), established in 1950, works to protect the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless people. UNHCR and WFP programmes are funded by voluntary contributions from governments, corporations, and individuals, though the UNHCR's administrative costs are paid for by the UN's primary budget.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nOther\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nSince the UN's creation, over 80 colonies have attained independence. The General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 1960 with no votes against but abstentions from all major colonial powers. The UN works toward decolonization through groups including the UN Committee on Decolonization, created in 1962. The committee lists seventeen remaining \\\"Non-Self-Governing Territories\\\", the largest and most populous of which is Western Sahara.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nBeginning with the formation of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) in 1972, the UN has made environmental issues a prominent part of its agenda. A lack of success in the first two decades of UN work in this area led to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which sought to give new impetus to these efforts. In 1988, the UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), another UN organization, established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which assesses and reports on research on global warming. The UN-sponsored Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997, set legally binding emissions reduction targets for ratifying states.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe UN also declares and co-ordinates international observances, periods of time to observe issues of international interest or concern. Examples include World Tuberculosis Day, Earth Day, and the International Year of Deserts and Desertification.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nFunding\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe UN is financed from assessed and voluntary contributions from member states. The General Assembly approves the regular budget and determines the assessment for each member. This is broadly based on the relative capacity of each country to pay, as measured by its gross national income (GNI), with adjustments for external debt and low per capita income. The two-year budget for 2012–13 was $5.512 billion in total.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nThe Assembly has established the principle that the UN should not be unduly dependent on any one member to finance its operations. Thus, there is a \\\"ceiling\\\" rate, setting the maximum amount that any member can be assessed for the regular budget. In December 2000, the Assembly revised the scale of assessments in response to pressure from the United States. As part of that revision, the regular budget ceiling was reduced from 25% to 22%. For the least developed countries (LDCs), a ceiling rate of 0.01% is applied. In addition to the ceiling rates, the minimum amount assessed to any member nation (or \\\"floor\\\" rate) is set at 0.001% of the UN budget ($55,120 for the two year budget 2013-2014).\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nA large share of the UN's expenditure addresses its core mission of peace and security, and this budget is assessed separately from the main organizational budget. The peacekeeping budget for the 2015–16 fiscal year was $8.27 billion, supporting 82,318 troops deployed in 15 missions around the world. UN peace operations are funded by assessments, using a formula derived from the regular funding scale that includes a weighted surcharge for the five permanent Security Council members, who must approve all peacekeeping operations. This surcharge serves to offset discounted peacekeeping assessment rates for less developed countries. In 2013, the top 10 providers of assessed financial contributions to United Nations peacekeeping operations were the United States (28.38%), Japan (10.83%), France (7.22%), Germany (7.14%), the United Kingdom (6.68%), China (6.64%), Italy (4.45%), the Russian Federation (3.15%), Canada (2.98%), and Spain (2.97%).\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nSpecial UN programmes not included in the regular budget, such as UNICEF and the World Food Programme, are financed by voluntary contributions from member governments, corporations, and private individuals.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nEvaluations, awards, and criticism\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nA number of agencies and individuals associated with the UN have won the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their work. Two Secretaries-General, Dag Hammarskjöld and Kofi Annan, were each awarded the prize (in 1961 and 2001, respectively), as were Ralph Bunche (1950), a UN negotiator, René Cassin (1968), a contributor to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the US Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1945), the latter for his role in the organization's founding. Lester B. Pearson, the Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs, was awarded the prize in 1957 for his role in organizing the UN's first peacekeeping force to resolve the Suez Crisis. UNICEF won the prize in 1965, the International Labour Organization in 1969, the UN Peace-Keeping Forces in 1988, the International Atomic Energy Agency (which reports to the UN) in 2005, and the UN-supported Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2013. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was awarded in 1954 and 1981, becoming one of only two recipients to win the prize twice. The UN as a whole was awarded the prize in 2001, sharing it with Annan.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nSince its founding, there have been many calls for reform of the United Nations but little consensus on how to do so. Some want the UN to play a greater or more effective role in world affairs, while others want its role reduced to humanitarian work. There have also been numerous calls for the UN Security Council's membership to be increased, for different ways of electing the UN's Secretary-General, and for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. Jacques Fomerand states the most enduring divide in views of the UN is \\\"the North–South split\\\" between richer Northern nations and developing Southern nations. Southern nations tend to favor a more empowered UN with a stronger General Assembly, allowing them a greater voice in world affairs, while Northern nations prefer an economically laissez-faire UN that focuses on transnational threats such as terrorism.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nAfter World War II, the French Committee of National Liberation was late to be recognized by the US as the government of France, and so the country was initially excluded from the conferences that created the new organization. The future French president Charles de Gaulle criticized the UN, famously calling it a machin (\\\"contraption\\\"), and was not convinced that a global security alliance would help maintain world peace, preferring direct defence treaties between countries. Throughout the Cold War, both the US and USSR repeatedly accused the UN of favoring the other. In 1953, the USSR effectively forced the resignation of Trygve Lie, the Secretary-General, through its refusal to deal with him, while in the 1950s and 1960s, a popular US bumper sticker read, \\\"You can't spell communism without U.N.\\\" In a sometimes-misquoted statement, President George W. Bush stated in February 2003 (referring to UN uncertainty towards Iraqi provocations under the Saddam Hussein regime) that \\\"free nations will not allow the United Nations to fade into history as an ineffective, irrelevant debating society.\\\" In contrast, the French President, François Hollande, stated in 2012 that \\\"France trusts the United Nations.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nShe knows that no state, no matter how powerful, can solve urgent problems, fight for development and bring an end to all crises... France wants the UN to be the centre of global governance.\\\" Critics such as Dore Gold, an Israeli diplomat, Robert S. Wistrich, a British scholar, Alan Dershowitz, an American legal scholar, Mark Dreyfus, an Australian politician, and the Anti-Defamation League consider UN attention to Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be excessive. In September 2015, Saudi Arabia's Faisal bin Hassan Trad has been elected Chair of the United Nations Human Rights Council panel that appoints independent experts, a move criticized by human rights groups.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nCritics have also accused the UN of bureaucratic inefficiency, waste, and corruption. In 1976, the General Assembly established the Joint Inspection Unit to seek out inefficiencies within the UN system. During the 1990s, the US withheld dues citing inefficiency and only started repayment on the condition that a major reforms initiative was introduced. In 1994, the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) was established by the General Assembly to serve as an efficiency watchdog. In 1994, former Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UN to Somalia Mohamed Sahnoun published \\\"Somalia: The Missed Opportunities\\\", a book in which he analyses the reasons for the failure of the 1992 UN intervention in Somalia, showing that, between the start of the Somali civil war in 1988 and the fall of the Siad Barre regime in January 1991, the UN missed at least three opportunities to prevent major human tragedies; when the UN tried to provide humanitarian assistance, they were totally outperformed by NGOs, whose competence and dedication sharply contrasted with the UN's excessive caution and bureaucratic inefficiencies. If radical reform was not undertaken, warned Mohamed Sahnoun, then the UN would continue to respond to such crisis with inept improvisation.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nIn 2004, the UN faced accusations that its recently ended Oil-for-Food Programme—in which Iraq had been allowed to trade oil for basic needs to relieve the pressure of sanctions—had suffered from widespread corruption, including billions of dollars of kickbacks. An independent inquiry created by the UN found that many of its officials had been involved, as well as raising \\\"significant\\\" questions about the role of Kojo Annan, the son of Kofi Annan.\",\n \"United Nations\\n\\nIn evaluating the UN as a whole, Jacques Fomerand writes that the \\\"accomplishments of the United Nations in the last 60 years are impressive in their own terms. Progress in human development during the 20th century has been dramatic and the UN and its agencies have certainly helped the world become a more hospitable and livable place for millions.\\\" Evaluating the first 50 years of the UN's history, the author Stanley Meisler writes that \\\"the United Nations never fulfilled the hopes of its founders, but it accomplished a great deal nevertheless\\\", citing its role in decolonization and its many successful peacekeeping efforts. The British historian Paul Kennedy states that while the organization has suffered some major setbacks, \\\"when all its aspects are considered, the UN has brought great benefits to our generation and ... will bring benefits to our children's and grandchildren's generations as well.\\\"\"\n]","isConversational":false}}},{"rowIdx":138298,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"qg_4473"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"On December 10, 1906, which totally badassed US president won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War, the first American ever to win a Nobel Prize?"},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Teddy Roosevelt"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":["t ros","cowboy president","theodore roosavelt","trust buster","president theodore roosevelt","teddy roosvelt","teddy rosevelt","t roosevelt","roosevelt theodore","feddy roosevelt","cowboy of dakotas","teddy rose","26th president of united states","teddy roosevelt foreign policy","teddy roose","teodoro roosevelt","theodore roosevelt","theodor roosevelt","t roosevelt administration","teddy roosevelt"],"string":"[\n \"t ros\",\n \"cowboy president\",\n \"theodore roosavelt\",\n \"trust buster\",\n \"president theodore roosevelt\",\n \"teddy roosvelt\",\n \"teddy rosevelt\",\n \"t roosevelt\",\n \"roosevelt theodore\",\n \"feddy roosevelt\",\n \"cowboy of dakotas\",\n \"teddy rose\",\n \"26th president of united states\",\n \"teddy roosevelt foreign policy\",\n \"teddy roose\",\n \"teodoro roosevelt\",\n \"theodore roosevelt\",\n \"theodor roosevelt\",\n \"t roosevelt administration\",\n \"teddy roosevelt\"\n]","isConversational":false},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["President of the United States\n\nThe President of the United States of America (POTUS) is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.","President of the United States\n\nThe President of the United States is considered one of the world's most powerful people, leading the world's only contemporary superpower. The role includes being the commander-in-chief of the world's most expensive military with the largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by real and nominal GDP. The office of the president holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad.","President of the United States\n\nArticle II of the U.S. Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The power includes execution of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The president is largely responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is enrolled. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States. Since the founding of the United States, the power of the president and the federal government has grown substantially.","President of the United States\n\nThe president is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term, and is one of only two nationally elected federal officers, the other being the Vice President of the United States. The Twenty-second Amendment, adopted in 1951, prohibits anyone from ever being elected to the presidency for a third full term. It also prohibits a person from being elected to the presidency more than once if that person previously had served as president, or acting president, for more than two years of another person's term as president. In all, 43 individuals have served 44 presidencies (counting Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms separately) spanning 56 full four-year terms. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th and current president. On November 6, 2012, he was re-elected and is currently serving the 57th term. The next presidential election is scheduled to take place on November 8, 2016; on January 20, 2017, the newly elected president will take office.","President of the United States\n\nOrigin","President of the United States\n\nIn 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, recognized the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British. Desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. As a central authority, Congress under the Articles was without any legislative power; it could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, nor any taxes or local commercial regulations enforceable upon citizens. This institutional design reflected the conception of how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress, while severally lodging the rest within their own respective state governments.","President of the United States\n\nOnly after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1, 1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them.","President of the United States\n\nIn 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak, their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another, witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed.","President of the United States\n\nFollowing the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, the Annapolis delegates called for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia.","President of the United States\n\nWhen the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rhode Island did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature. New York offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter. It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U.S. Constitution emerged.","President of the United States\n\nPowers and duties","President of the United States\n\nArticle I legislative role","President of the United States\n\nThe first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto. The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options:\n# Sign the legislation; the bill then becomes law.\n# Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections; the bill does not become law, unless each house of Congress votes to override the veto by a two-thirds vote.\n# Take no action. In this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation. After 10 days, not counting Sundays, two possible outcomes emerge:\n#* If Congress is still convened, the bill becomes law.\n#* If Congress has adjourned, thus preventing the return of the legislation, the bill does not become law. This latter outcome is known as the pocket veto.","President of the United States\n\nIn 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the president's veto power with the Line Item Veto Act. The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the president then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In Clinton v. City of New York, , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.","President of the United States\n\nArticle II executive powers","President of the United States\n\nWar and foreign affairs powers","President of the United States\n\nPerhaps the most important of all presidential powers is the command of the United States Armed Forces as its commander-in-chief. While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, the president has ultimate responsibility for direction and disposition of the military. The present-day operational command of the Armed Forces (belonging to the Department of Defense) is normally exercised through the Secretary of Defense, with assistance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the Combatant Commands, as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan (UCP). The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Alexander Hamilton explains this in Federalist No. 69: Congress, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual. Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation.","President of the United States\n\nWhile historically presidents initiated the process for going to war, critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1990.","President of the United States\n\nAlong with the armed forces, the president also directs U.S. foreign policy. Through the Department of State and the Department of Defense, the president is responsible for the protection of Americans abroad and of foreign nationals in the United States. The president decides whether to recognize new nations and new governments, and negotiates treaties with other nations, which become binding on the United States when approved by two-thirds vote of the Senate.","President of the United States\n\nAlthough not constitutionally provided, presidents also sometimes employ \"executive agreements\" in foreign relations. These agreements frequently regard administrative policy choices germane to executive power; for example, the extent to which either country presents an armed presence in a given area, how each country will enforce copyright treaties, or how each country will process foreign mail. However, the 20th century witnessed a vast expansion of the use of executive agreements, and critics have challenged the extent of that use as supplanting the treaty process and removing constitutionally prescribed checks and balances over the executive in foreign relations. Supporters counter that the agreements offer a pragmatic solution when the need for swift, secret, and/or concerted action arises.","President of the United States\n\nAdministrative powers","President of the United States\n\nThe president is the head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to \"take care that the laws be faithfully executed.\" The executive branch has over four million employees, including members of the military.","President of the United States\n\nPresidents make numerous executive branch appointments: an incoming president may make up to 6,000 before taking office and 8,000 more while serving. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers, are all appointed by a president with the \"advice and consent\" of a majority of the Senate. When the Senate is in recess for at least ten days, the president may make recess appointments. Recess appointments are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate.","President of the United States\n\nThe power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove purely executive officials at will. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute.","President of the United States\n\nThe president additionally possesses the ability to direct much of the executive branch through executive orders that are grounded in federal law or constitutionally granted executive power. Executive orders are reviewable by federal courts and can be superseded by federal legislation.","President of the United States\n\nTo manage the growing federal bureaucracy, Presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Within the Executive Office, the President's innermost layer of aides (and their assistants) are located in the White House Office.","President of the United States\n\nJuridical powers","President of the United States\n\nThe president also has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. However, these nominations do require Senate confirmation. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to U.S. district courts, presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of Senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves, as is often done just before the end of a presidential term, not without controversy.","President of the United States\n\nHistorically, two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties. George Washington first claimed privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution, or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege. When Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, , that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution. When President Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in Clinton v. Jones, , that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits. These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined.","President of the United States\n\nAdditionally, federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees, but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president.","President of the United States\n\nThe state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security. Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in Totten v. United States , when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy. However, the privilege was not formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court until United States v. Reynolds , where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege. Before the September 11 attacks, use of the privilege had been rare, but increasing in frequency. Since 2001, the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation, thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims, as in the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions.","President of the United States\n\nLegislative facilitator","President of the United States\n\nThe Constitution's Ineligibility Clause prevents the President (and all other executive officers) from simultaneously being a member of Congress. Therefore, the president cannot directly introduce legislative proposals for consideration in Congress. However, the president can take an indirect role in shaping legislation, especially if the president's political party has a majority in one or both houses of Congress. For example, the president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress. The president can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally mandated, periodic reports to Congress. These reports may be either written or oral, but today are given as the State of the Union address, which often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year. Additionally, the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made.","President of the United States\n\nIn the 20th century critics began charging that too many legislative and budgetary powers have slid into the hands of presidents that should belong to Congress. As the head of the executive branch, presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress. One critic charged that presidents could appoint a \"virtual army of 'czars' – each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House.\" Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it. This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional. Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an \"increasingly swollen executive branch\" and \"the eclipse of Congress.\"","President of the United States\n\nAccording to Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution, the president may convene either or both houses of Congress. If both houses cannot agree on a date of adjournment, the president may appoint a date for Congress to adjourn.","President of the United States\n\nCeremonial roles","President of the United States\n\nAs head of state, the president can fulfill traditions established by previous presidents. William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., on the Washington Senators' Opening Day. Every president since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare.","President of the United States\n\nThe President of the United States has served as the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America since the founding of the organization.","President of the United States\n\nOther presidential traditions are associated with American holidays. Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children. Beginning in 1947 during the Harry S. Truman administration, every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual national thanksgiving turkey presentation held at the White House. Since 1989, when the custom of \"pardoning\" the turkey was formalized by George H. W. Bush, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life.","President of the United States\n\nPresidential traditions also involve the president's role as head of government. Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition. Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president.","President of the United States\n\nDuring a state visit by a foreign head of state, the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn, a custom begun by John F. Kennedy in 1961. This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening.","President of the United States\n\nThe modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as \"propagandized leadership\" which has a \"mesmerizing power surrounding the office.\" Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo-ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras. One critic wrote the image of John F. Kennedy was described as carefully framed \"in rich detail\" which \"drew on the power of myth\" regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions. As a result, some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents: voters expect a president to \"drive the economy, vanquish enemies, lead the free world, comfort tornado victims, heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit-card fees.\"","President of the United States\n\nCritics of presidency's evolution","President of the United States\n\nMost of the nation's Founding Fathers expected the Congress, which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution, to be the dominant branch of government; they did not expect a strong executive. However, presidential power has shifted over time, which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful, unchecked, unbalanced, and \"monarchist\" in nature. Critic Dana D. Nelson believes presidents over the past thirty years have worked towards \"undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies.\" She criticizes proponents of the unitary executive for expanding \"the many existing uncheckable executive powers – such as executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements – that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid, interference or consent from Congress.\" Activist Bill Wilson opined that the expanded presidency was \"the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule.\"","President of the United States\n\nSelection process","President of the United States\n\nEligibility","President of the United States\n\nArticle II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the following qualifications for holding the presidency:\n* be a natural-born citizen of the United States;Foreign-born American citizens who met the age and residency requirements at the time the Constitution was adopted were also eligible for the presidency. However, this allowance has since become obsolete.\n* be at least thirty-five years old;\n* be a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.","President of the United States\n\nThe Twelfth Amendment precludes anyone ineligible to being the president from becoming the vice president.","President of the United States\n\nA person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions:\n* Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no person can be elected president more than twice. The amendment also specifies that if any eligible person serves as president or acting president for more than two years of a term for which some other eligible person was elected president, the former can only be elected president once. Scholars disagree over whether a person precluded by the Twenty-second Amendment to being elected president is also precluded to being vice president. \n* Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, upon conviction in impeachment cases, the Senate has the option of disqualifying convicted individuals from holding federal office, including that of president. \n* Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, no person who swore an oath to support the Constitution, and later rebelled against the United States, can become president. However, this disqualification can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress.","President of the United States\n\nCampaigns and nomination","President of the United States\n\nThe modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's nominee for president. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. The most common previous profession by U.S. presidents is lawyer.","President of the United States\n\nNominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.","President of the United States\n\nElection and oath","President of the United States\n\nThe president is elected indirectly. A number of electors, collectively known as the Electoral College, officially select the president. On Election Day, voters in each of the states and the District of Columbia cast ballots for these electors. Each state is allocated a number of electors, equal to the size of its delegation in both Houses of Congress combined. Generally, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College.","President of the United States\n\nThe winning slate of electors meet at its state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, to vote. They then send a record of that vote to Congress. The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president—acting in that role's capacity as President of the Senate—and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which was elected at the same time as the president.","President of the United States\n\nPursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the president's term of office begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. This date, known as Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the four-year terms of both the president and the vice president. Before executing the powers of the office, a president is constitutionally required to take the presidential oath:","President of the United States\n\nAlthough not required, presidents have traditionally palmed a Bible while swearing the oath and have added, \"So help me God!\" to the end of the oath. Further, although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths, presidents are traditionally sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States.","President of the United States\n\nTenure and term limits","President of the United States\n\nThe term of office for president and vice president is four years. George Washington, the first president, set an unofficial precedent of serving only two terms, which subsequent presidents followed until 1940. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt, attempts at a third term were encouraged by supporters of Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt; neither of these attempts succeeded. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt declined to seek a third term, but allowed his political party to \"draft\" him as its presidential candidate and was subsequently elected to a third term. In 1941, the United States entered World War II, leading voters to elect Roosevelt to a fourth term in 1944. But Roosevelt died only 82 days after taking office for the fourth term on 12 April 1945.","President of the United States\n\nAfter the war, and in response to Roosevelt being elected to third and fourth terms, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted. The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than half of another president's term. Harry S. Truman, president when this amendment was adopted, was exempted from its limitations and briefly sought a third (a second full) term before withdrawing from the 1952 election.","President of the United States\n\nSince the amendment's adoption, four presidents have served two full terms: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Barack Obama has been elected to a second term, and will complete his term on 20 January 2017, if he does not die or resign before that date. Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush sought a second term, but were defeated. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before completing it. Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president under the amendment to be eligible to serve more than two terms in total, having served for only fourteen months following John F. Kennedy's assassination. However, Johnson withdrew from the 1968 Democratic Primary, surprising many Americans. Gerald Ford sought a full term, after serving out the last two years and five months of Nixon's second term, but was not elected.","President of the United States\n\nVacancy or disability","President of the United States\n\nVacancies in the office of President may arise under several possible circumstances: death, resignation and removal from office.","President of the United States\n\nArticle II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the House of Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for \"treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.\" Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 gives the Senate the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. The House has thus far impeached two presidents: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was subsequently convicted by the Senate; however, Johnson was acquitted by just one vote.","President of the United States\n\nUnder Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the president may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate stating the reasons for the transfer. The president resumes the discharge of the presidential powers and duties upon transmitting, to those two officials, a written declaration stating that resumption. This transfer of power may occur for any reason the president considers appropriate; in 2002 and again in 2007, President George W. Bush briefly transferred presidential authority to Vice President Dick Cheney. In both cases, this was done to accommodate a medical procedure which required Bush to be sedated; both times, Bush returned to duty later the same day.","President of the United States\n\nUnder Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the vice president, in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet, may transfer the presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate that the president is unable to discharge the presidential powers and duties. If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president; however, the president can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers and duties. If the vice president and Cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim.","President of the United States\n\nThe United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president, but does not regulate its form or the conditions for its validity. Pursuant to federal law, the only valid evidence of the president's resignation is a written instrument to that effect, signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. This has only occurred once, when Richard Nixon delivered a letter to Henry Kissinger to that effect.","President of the United States\n\nSection 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment states that the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death or resignation of the preceding president. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 provides that if the offices of President and Vice President are each either vacant or are held by a disabled person, the next officer in the presidential line of succession, the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president. The line then extends to the President pro tempore of the Senate, followed by every member of the Cabinet. These persons must fulfill all eligibility requirements of the office of President to be eligible to become acting president; ineligible individuals are skipped. There has never been a special election for the office of President.","President of the United States\n\nCompensation","President of the United States\n\nSince 2001, the president has earned a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001.","President of the United States\n\nThe White House in Washington, D.C., serves as the official place of residence for the president. As well as access to the White House staff, facilities available to the president include medical care, recreation, housekeeping, and security services. The government pays for state dinners and other official functions, but the president pays for personal, family and guest dry cleaning and food; the high food bill often amazes new residents. Naval Support Facility Thurmont, popularly known as Camp David, is a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the president and guests. Blair House, located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park, is a complex of four connected townhouses exceeding 70000 sqft of floor space which serves as the president's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed.","President of the United States\n\nFor ground travel, the president uses the presidential state car, which is an armored limousine built on a heavily modified Cadillac-based chassis.[http://www.secretservice.gov/press/GPA02-09_Limo.pdf New Presidential Limousine enters Secret Service Fleet] U.S. Secret Service Press Release (January 14, 2009) Retrieved on January 20, 2009. One of two identical Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified versions of Boeing 747-200B airliners, serve as long distance travel for the president and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board (although any U.S. Air Force aircraft the President is aboard is designated as \"Air Force One\" for the duration of the flight). In-country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes while overseas trips are handled with both, one primary and one backup. Any civilian aircraft the President is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight. The president also has access to a fleet of thirty-five U.S. Marine Corps helicopters of varying models, designated Marine One when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet.","President of the United States\n\nFlights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the President is actually aboard to any would-be threats.","President of the United States\n\nThe U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the sitting president and the first family. As part of their protection, presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition.","President of the United States\n\nFile:White House lawn (1).tif|The White House","President of the United States\n\nFile:Camp David 1959.jpg|Camp David\nFile:Blair House daylight.jpg|Blair House\nFile:GPA02-09 US SecretService press release 2009 Limousine Page 3 Image.jpg|State car\nFile:Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore.jpg|Air Force One\nFile:Marine One (1970).jpg|Marine One","President of the United States\n\nPost-presidency","President of the United States\n\nBeginning in 1959, all living former presidents were granted a pension, an office, and a staff. The pension has increased numerous times with Congressional approval. Retired presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries, which was $199,700 each year in 2012. Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions. The Former Presidents Act, as amended, also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges. Prior to 1997, all former presidents, their spouses, and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president's death. In 1997, Congress passed legislation limiting secret service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office. On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime secret service protection for him, George W. Bush, and all subsequent presidents. A spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for secret service protection.","President of the United States\n\nSome presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include William Howard Taft's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after World War II. Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected president again four years later in 1892. Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House: John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, serving there for seventeen years, and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875. John Tyler served in the provisional Congress of the Confederate States during the Civil War and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before that body first met.","President of the United States\n\nPresidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events. Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman. Jimmy Carter has become a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton has also worked as an informal ambassador, most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from North Korea. Clinton has also been active politically since his presidential term ended, working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his reelection campaign.","President of the United States\n\nFile:Carter 2k14.tif|Jimmy Carter39th (1977–81)\nFile:President George H. W.tif|George H. W. Bush41st (1989–93)\nFile:Clinton 2k15.tif|Bill Clinton42nd (1993–2001)\nFile:Bush 2k14.tif|George W. Bush43rd (2001–09)","President of the United States\n\nPresidential libraries","President of the United States\n\nSince Herbert Hoover, each president has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education, such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Texas A&M University and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin.","President of the United States\n\nAs many presidents live for many years after leaving office, several of them have personally overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries, some even making arrangements for their own burial at the site. Several presidential libraries therefore contain the graves of the president they document, such as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The graves are viewable by the general public visiting these libraries.","President of the United States\n\nTimeline of Presidents","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria and the seas around Korea, Japan and the Yellow Sea.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nRussia sought a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean for their navy and for maritime trade. Vladivostok was operational only during the summer, whereas Port Arthur, a naval base in Liaodong Province leased to Russia by China, was operational all year. Since the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, negotiations between Russia and Japan proved impractical. Russia had demonstrated an expansionist policy in the Siberian Far East from the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century. Through threat of Russian expansion, Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as being within the Japanese sphere of influence. Russia refused and demanded Korea north of the 39th parallel to be a neutral buffer zone between Russia and Japan. The Japanese government perceived a Russian threat to its strategic interests and chose to go to war. After negotiations broke down in 1904, the Japanese Navy opened hostilities by attacking the Russian Eastern Fleet at Port Arthur in a surprise attack.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nRussia suffered numerous defeats by Japan, but Tsar Nicholas II was convinced that Russia would win and chose to remain engaged in the war; at first, to await the outcomes of certain naval battles, and later to preserve the dignity of Russia by averting a \"humiliating peace\". The war concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt. The complete victory of the Japanese military surprised world observers. The consequences transformed the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage. Scholars continue to debate the historical significance of the war.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nHistorical background","Russo-Japanese War\n\nIn 1853 Commodore Perry of the US Navy arrived in Japan and brought an end to Japan's policy of self-isolation by forcing the Tokugawa shogunate to sign the Convention of Kanagawa the following year. This encounter with a modern Western power served to portray the West as having a confrontational and imperialist political agenda, which Japan viewed with respect through World War II. Japan sought to maintain its autonomy and resisted colonialism by Western nations. The Meiji Restoration in 1868 served as an early Japanese response to the challenges of the modern world.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nAfter the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Meiji government endeavored to assimilate Western ideas, technological advances and customs. By the late 19th century, Japan had transformed itself into a modernized industrial state. The Japanese wanted to preserve their sovereignty and be recognized as equal with the Western powers.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nTsarist Russia, as a major imperial power, had ambitions in the East. By the 1890s it had extended its realm across Central Asia to Afghanistan, absorbing local states in the process. The Russian Empire stretched from Poland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the east. With its construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the port of Vladivostok, Russia hoped to further consolidate its influence and presence in the region. In the Tsushima incident of 1861 Russia had directly assaulted Japanese territory. Fearing Russian expansion, Japan regarded Korea (and to a lesser extent Manchuria) as a protective buffer.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nSino-Japanese War (1894–95)","Russo-Japanese War\n\nBetween the Meiji Restoration and its participation in World War I, the Empire of Japan fought in two significant wars. The first war Japan fought was the First Sino-Japanese War, fought in 1894 and 1895. The war revolved around the issue of control and influence over Korea under the rule of the Joseon dynasty. From the 1880s onward, there had been vigorous competition for influence in Korea between China and Japan. The Korean court was prone to factionalism, and was badly divided by a reformist faction that was pro-Japanese and a more conservative faction that was pro-Chinese. In 1884, a pro-Japanese coup attempt was put down by Chinese troops, and a \"residency\" under General Yuan Shikai was established in Seoul. A peasant rebellion led by the Tonghak religious movement led to a request by the Korean government for the Qing dynasty to send in troops to stabilize the country. The Empire of Japan responded by sending their own force to Korea to crush the Tonghak and installed a puppet government in Seoul. China objected and war ensued.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nHostilities proved brief, with Japanese ground troops routing Chinese forces on the Liaodong Peninsula and nearly destroying the Chinese Navy in the Battle of the Yalu River. Japan and China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ceded the Liaodong Peninsula and the island of Taiwan to Japan. After the peace treaty, Russia, Germany, and France forced Japan to withdraw from the Liaodong Peninsula. The leaders of Japan did not feel that they possessed the strength to resist the combined might of Russia, Germany and France, and so gave in to the ultimatum presented by St. Petersburg, Berlin and Paris. At the same time, the Japanese did not abandon their attempts to force Korea into the Japanese sphere of influence. On 8 October 1895, Queen Min of Korea, the leader of the anti-Japanese and pro-Chinese faction at the Korean court was murdered by Japanese agents within the halls of the Gyeongbokgung palace, an act that backfired badly as it turned Korean public opinion against Japan. In early 1896, King Gojong of Korea fled to the Russian legation in Seoul under the grounds that his life was in danger from Japanese agents, and Russian influence in Korea started to predominate.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nIn the aftermath of the flight of the king, a popular uprising overthrew the pro-Japanese government and several cabinet ministers were lynched on the streets.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nIn 1897, Russia occupied the Liaodong Peninsula, built the Port Arthur fortress, and based the Russian Pacific Fleet in the port. Russia's acquisition of Port Arthur was primarily an anti-British move to counter the British occupation of Wei-hai-Wei, but in Japan, this was perceived as an anti-Japanese move. Germany occupied Jiaozhou Bay, built the Tsingtao fortress, and based the German East Asia Squadron in this port. Between 1897–1903, the Russians built the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) in Manchuria. The Chinese Eastern Railroad was owned jointly by the Russian and Chinese governments, but the company's management was entirely Russian, the line was built to the Russian gauge and Russian troops were stationed in Manchuria to protect rail traffic on the CER from bandit attacks. The headquarters of the CER company was located in the new Russian-built city of Harbin, the \"Moscow of the Orient\". From 1897 onwards, Manchuria-while still nominally part of the \"Great Qing Empire\"-started to resemble more and more a Russian province.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nRussian encroachment","Russo-Japanese War\n\nIn December 1897 a Russian fleet appeared off Port Arthur. After three months, in 1898, China and Russia negotiated a convention by which China leased (to Russia) Port Arthur, Talienwan and the surrounding waters. The two parties further agreed that the convention could be extended by mutual agreement. The Russians clearly expected such an extension, for they lost no time in occupying the territory and in fortifying Port Arthur, their sole warm-water port on the Pacific coast and of great strategic value. A year later, to consolidate their position, the Russians began to build a new railway from Harbin through Mukden to Port Arthur, the South Manchurian Railroad. The development of the railway became a contributory factor to the Boxer Rebellion, when Boxer forces burned the railway stations.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe Russians also began to make inroads into Korea. By 1898 they had acquired mining and forestry concessions near the Yalu and Tumen rivers, causing the Japanese much anxiety. Japan decided to attack before the Russians completed the Trans-Siberian Railway.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nBoxer Rebellion","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe Russians and the Japanese both contributed troops to the eight-member international force sent in 1900 to quell the Boxer Rebellion and to relieve the international legations under siege in the Chinese capital, Beijing. Russia had already sent 177,000 soldiers to Manchuria, nominally to protect its railways under construction. The troops of the Qing Empire and the participants of the Boxer Rebellion could do nothing against such a massive army and were ejected from Manchuria. After the Boxer Rebellion, 100,000 Russian soldiers were stationed in Manchuria. The Russian troops settled in and despite assurances they would vacate the area after the crisis, by 1903 the Russians had not established a timetable for withdrawal and had actually strengthened their position in Manchuria.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nPre-war negotiations","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe Japanese statesman Itō Hirobumi started to negotiate with the Russians. He regarded Japan as too weak to evict the Russian militarily, so he proposed giving Russia control over Manchuria in exchange for Japanese control of northern Korea. Meanwhile, Japan and Britain had signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902, the British seeking to restrict naval competition by keeping the Russian Pacific seaports of Vladivostok and Port Arthur from their full use. The alliance with the British meant, in part, that if any nation allied itself with Russia during any war against Japan, then Britain would enter the war on Japan's side. Russia could no longer count on receiving help from either Germany or France without there being a danger of British involvement in the war. With such an alliance, Japan felt free to commence hostilities, if necessary.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nOn 28 July 1903, the Japanese minister in St. Petersburg was instructed to present his country's view opposing Russia's consolidation plans in Manchuria. On 12 August, the Japanese minister handed in the following document to serve as the basis for further negotiations: \n# Mutual engagement to respect the independence and territorial integrity of the Chinese and Korean empires and to maintain the principle of equal opportunity for the commerce and industry of all nations in those countries. # Reciprocal recognition of Japan's preponderating interests in Korea and Russia's special interests in railway enterprises in Manchuria, and of the right of Japan to take in Korea and of Russia to take in Manchuria such measures as may be necessary for the protection of their respective interests as above defined, subject, however, to the provisions of article I of this agreement. # Reciprocal undertaking on the part of Russia and Japan not to impede development of those industrial and commercial activities respectively of Japan in Korea and of Russia in Manchuria, which are not inconsistent with the stipulations of article I of this agreement.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nAdditional engagement on the part of Russia not to impede the eventual extension of the Korean railway into southern Manchuria so as to connect with the East China and Shan-hai-kwan-Newchwang lines. # Reciprocal engagement that in case it is found necessary to send troops by Japan to Korea, or by Russia to Manchuria, for the purpose either of protecting the interests mentioned in article II of this agreement, or of suppressing insurrection or disorder calculated to create international complications, the troops so sent are in no case to exceed the actual number required and are to be forthwith recalled as soon as their missions are accomplished. # Recognition on the part of Russia of the exclusive right of Japan to give advice and assistance in the interest of reform and good government in Korea, including necessary military assistance. # This agreement to supplant all previous arrangements between Japan and Russia respecting Korea. On 3 October, the Russian minister to Japan, Roman Rosen, presented to the Japanese government the Russian counterproposal as the basis of negotiations, as follows: \n# Mutual engagement to respect the independence and territorial integrity of the Korean Empire.","Russo-Japanese War\n\n# Recognition by Russia of Japan's preponderating interests in Korea and of the right of Japan to give advice and assistance to Korea tending to improve the civil administration of the empire without infringing the stipulations of article I. # Engagement on the part of Russia not to impede the commercial and industrial undertakings of Japan in Korea, nor to oppose any measures taken for the purpose of protecting them so long as such measures do not infringe the stipulations of article I. # Recognition of the right of Japan to send for the same purpose troops to Korea, with the knowledge of Russia, but their number not to exceed that actually required, and with the engagement on the part of Japan to recall such troops as soon as their mission is accomplished. # Mutual engagement not to use any part of the territory of Korea for strategical purposes nor to undertake on the coasts of Korea any military works capable of menacing the freedom of navigation in the Straits of Korea.","Russo-Japanese War\n\n# Mutual engagement to consider that part of the territory of Korea lying to the north of the 39th parallel as a neutral zone into which neither of the contracting parties shall introduce troops. # Recognition by Japan of Manchuria and its littoral as in all respects outside her sphere of interest. # This agreement to supplant all previous agreements between Russia and Japan respecting Korea.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nNegotiations then followed; although by early January 1904, the Japanese government had realised that Russia was neither interested in settling the Manchurian nor Korean issues. Instead, Russia's goal was buying time – via diplomacy – to further buildup militarily. Nevertheless, on 13 January 1904, Japan proposed a formula by which Manchuria would be outside the Japanese sphere of influence and, reciprocally, Korea outside Russia's. By 4 February 1904, no formal reply had been received and on 6 February Kurino Shinichiro, the Japanese minister, called on the Russian foreign minister, Count Lamsdorf, to take his leave. Japan severed diplomatic relations with Russia on 6 February 1904.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nPotential diplomatic resolution of territorial concerns between Japan and Russia failed; historians have argued that this directly resulted from the actions of Tsar Nicholas II. One crucial error of Nicholas was his mismanagement of government. Although certain scholars contend the situation arose from the determination of Tsar Nicholas II to use the war against Japan to spark a revival in Russian patriotism, no historical evidence supports this claim. The Tsar's advisors did not support the war, foreseeing problems in transporting troops and supplies from European Russia to the East. Convinced that his rule was divinely ordained and that he held responsibility to God, Nicholas II held the ideals of preserving the autocracy and defending the dignity, honor, and worth of Russia. This attitude by the Tsar led to repeated delays in negotiations with the Japanese government. The Japanese understanding of this can be seen from a telegram dated 1 December 1903 from Japanese minister of foreign affairs, Komura, to the minister to Russia, in which he stated:","Russo-Japanese War\n\n\"...the Japanese government have at all times during the progress of the negotiations made it a special point to give prompt answers to all propositions of the Russian government. The negotiations have now been pending for no less than four months, and they have not yet reached a stage where the final issue can with certainty be predicted. In these circumstances the Japanese government cannot but regard with grave concern the situation for which the delays in negotiations are largely responsible\".","Russo-Japanese War\n\nErrors by Nicholas II in managing the Russian government also led to his misinterpreting the type of situation in which Russia was to become involved in with Japan. Some scholars have suggested that Tsar Nicholas II dragged Japan into war intentionally, in hopes of reviving Russian nationalism. This notion is disputed by a comment made by Nicholas to Kaiser William of Germany, saying there would be no war because he \"did not wish it\". \nThis does not reject the claim that Russia played an aggressive role in the East, which it did; rather, it means that Russia unwisely calculated that Japan would not go to war against its far larger and seemingly superior navy and army. Nicholas held the Japanese in contempt as \"yellow monkeys\", and he took for granted that the Japanese would simply yield in the face of Russia's superior power, which thus explains his unwillingness to compromise. Evidence of Russia's false sense of security and superiority to Japan is seen by Russian reference to Japan as a big mistake.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nDeclaration of war","Russo-Japanese War\n\nJapan issued a declaration of war on 8 February 1904.Some scholarly researchers credit Enjiro Yamaza with drafting the text of the Japanese declaration of war – see Naval Postgraduate School (US) thesis: Na, Sang Hyung. [http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?LocationU2&doc\nGetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA475769 \"The Korean-Japanese Dispute over Dokdo/Takeshima,\" p. 62 n207] December 2007, citing Byang-Ryull Kim. (2006). Ilbon Gunbu'ui Dokdo Chim Talsa (The Plunder of Dokdo by the Japanese Military), p. 121. However, three hours before Japan's declaration of war was received by the Russian government, the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked the Russian Far East Fleet at Port Arthur. Tsar Nicholas II was stunned by news of the attack. He could not believe that Japan would commit an act of war without a formal declaration, and had been assured by his ministers that the Japanese would not fight. When the attack came, according to Cecil Spring Rice, first secretary at the British Embassy, it left the Tsar \"almost incredulous\". Russia declared war on Japan eight days later.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nJapan, in response, made reference to the Russian attack on Sweden in 1809 without declaration of war, and the requirement to declare war before commencing hostilities was not made international law until the Second Hague Peace Conference was held in October 1907.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe Qing Empire favoured the Japanese position and even offered military aid, but Japan declined it. However, Yuan Shikai sent envoys to Japanese generals several times to deliver foodstuffs and alcoholic drinks. Native Manchurians joined the war on both sides as hired troops.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nCampaign of 1904","Russo-Japanese War\n\nPort Arthur, on the Liaodong Peninsula in the south of Manchuria, had been fortified into a major naval base by the Russian Imperial Army. Since it needed to control the sea in order to fight a war on the Asian mainland, Japan's first military objective was to neutralize the Russian fleet at Port Arthur.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nBattle of Port Arthur","Russo-Japanese War\n\nOn the night of 8 February 1904, the Japanese fleet under Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō opened the war with a surprise torpedo boat destroyer attack on the Russian ships at Port Arthur. The attack heavily damaged the Tsesarevich and Retvizan, the heaviest battleships in Russia's far Eastern theater, and the 6,600 ton cruiser Pallada.\n These attacks developed into the Battle of Port Arthur the next morning. A series of indecisive naval engagements followed, in which Admiral Togo was unable to attack the Russian fleet successfully as it was protected by the shore batteries of the harbour, and the Russians were reluctant to leave the harbour for the open seas, especially after the death of Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov on 13 April 1904. Although the actual Battle of Port Arthur was indecisive, the initial attacks had a devastating psychological effect on Russia, which had been confident about the prospect of war. The Japanese had seized the initiative while the Russians waited in port.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThese engagements provided cover for a Japanese landing near Incheon in Korea. From Incheon the Japanese occupied Seoul and then the rest of Korea. By the end of April, the Japanese Imperial Army under Kuroki Itei was ready to cross the Yalu River into Russian-occupied Manchuria.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nBlockade of Port Arthur","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe Japanese attempted to deny the Russians use of Port Arthur. During the night of 13–14 February, the Japanese attempted to block the entrance to Port Arthur by sinking several concrete-filled steamers in the deep water channel to the port, but they sank too deep to be effective. A similar attempt to block the harbour entrance during the night of 3–4 May also failed. In March, the charismatic Vice Admiral Makarov had taken command of the First Russian Pacific Squadron with the intention of breaking out of the Port Arthur blockade.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nOn 12 April 1904, two Russian pre-dreadnought battleships, the flagship Petropavlovsk and the Pobeda, slipped out of port but struck Japanese mines off Port Arthur. The Petropavlovsk sank almost immediately, while the Pobeda had to be towed back to port for extensive repairs. Admiral Makarov, the single most effective Russian naval strategist of the war, perished on the battleship Petropavlovsk.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nOn 15 April 1904, the Russian government made overtures threatening to seize the British war correspondents who were taking the ship Haimun into warzones to report for the London-based Times newspaper, citing concerns about the possibility of the British giving away Russian positions to the Japanese fleet.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe Russians quickly learned, and soon employed, the Japanese tactic of offensive minelaying. On 15 May 1904, two Japanese battleships, the and the , were lured into a recently laid Russian minefield off Port Arthur, each striking at least two mines. The Hatsuse sank within minutes, taking 450 sailors with her, while the Yashima sank while under tow towards Korea for repairs. On 23 June 1904, a breakout attempt by the Russian squadron, now under the command of Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft, failed. By the end of the month, Japanese artillery were firing shells into the harbour.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nSiege of Port Arthur","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe Siege of Port Arthur commenced in April 1904. Japanese troops tried numerous frontal assaults on the fortified hilltops overlooking the harbour, which were defeated with Japanese casualties in the thousands. Eventually, though, with the aid of several batteries of 11-inch (280 mm) Krupp howitzers, the Japanese were able to capture the key hilltop bastion in December 1904. From this vantage point, the long-range artillery was able to shell the Russian fleet, which was unable to retaliate effectively against the land-based artillery and was unable or unwilling to sail out against the blockading fleet. Four Russian battleships and two cruisers were sunk in succession, with the fifth and last battleship being forced to scuttle a few weeks later. Thus, all capital ships of the Russian fleet in the Pacific were sunk. This is probably the only example in military history when such a scale of devastation was achieved by land-based artillery against major warships.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nMeanwhile, attempts to relieve the besieged city by land also failed, and, after the Battle of Liaoyang in late August, the northern Russian force that might have been able to relieve Port Arthur retreated to Mukden (Shenyang). Major General Anatoly Stessel, commander of the Port Arthur garrison, believed that the purpose of defending the city was lost after the fleet had been destroyed. \nIn general, the Russian defenders were suffering disproportionate casualties each time the Japanese attacked. In particular, several large underground mines were exploded in late December, resulting in the costly capture of a few more pieces of the defensive line.\nStessel, therefore, decided to surrender to the surprised Japanese generals on 2 January 1905. He made his decision without consulting either the other military staff present, or the Tsar and military command, who all disagreed with the decision. Stessel was convicted by a court-martial in 1908 and sentenced to death on account of an incompetent defense and for disobeying orders. He was later pardoned.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nAnglo-Japanese intelligence co-operation","Russo-Japanese War\n\nEven before the war, British and Japanese intelligence had co-operated against Russia. During the war, Indian Army stations in Malaya and China often intercepted and read wireless and telegraph cable traffic relating to the war, which was shared with the Japanese. In their turn, the Japanese shared information about Russia with the British with one British official writing of the \"perfect quality\" of Japanese intelligence. In particular, British and Japanese intelligence gathered much evidence that Germany was supporting Russia in the war as part of a bid to disturb the balance of power in Europe, which led to British officials increasingly perceiving that country as a threat to the international order.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nBattle of Yalu River","Russo-Japanese War\n\nIn contrast to the Japanese strategy of rapidly gaining ground to control Manchuria, Russian strategy focused on fighting delaying actions to gain time for reinforcements to arrive via the long Trans-Siberian railway, which was incomplete near Irkutsk at the time. On 1 May 1904, the Battle of Yalu River became the first major land battle of the war; Japanese troops stormed a Russian position after crossing the river. The defeat of the Russian Eastern Detachment removed the perception that the Japanese would be an easy enemy, that the war would be short, and that Russia would be the overwhelming victor. This battle was also the first battle in decades to be an Asian victory over a European power and marked Russia's inability to match Japan's military prowess. Japanese troops proceeded to land at several points on the Manchurian coast, and in a series of engagements, drove the Russians back towards Port Arthur. The subsequent battles, including the Battle of Nanshan on 25 May 1904, were marked by heavy Japanese losses largely from attacking entrenched Russian positions.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nBattle of the Yellow Sea","Russo-Japanese War\n\nWith the death of Admiral Stepan Makarov during the siege of Port Arthur in April 1904, Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft was appointed command of the battle fleet and was ordered to make a sortie from Port Arthur and deploy his force to Vladivostok. Flying his flag in the French-built pre-dreadnought Tsesarevich, Vitgeft proceeded to lead his six battleships, four cruisers, and 14 torpedo boat destroyers into the Yellow Sea in the early morning of 10 August 1904. Waiting for him was Admiral Togo and his fleet of four battleships, 10 cruisers, and 18 torpedo boat destroyers.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nAt approximately 12:15, the battleship fleets obtained visual contact with each other, and at 13:00 with Togo crossing Vitgeft's T, they commenced main battery fire at a range of about eight miles, the longest ever conducted up to that time. For about thirty minutes the battleships pounded one another until they had closed to less than four miles and began to bring their secondary batteries into play. At 18:30, a hit from one of Togo's battleships struck Vitgeft's flagship's bridge, killing him instantly.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nWith the Tsesarevichs helm jammed and their admiral killed in action, she turned from her battle line, causing confusion among her fleet. However, Togo was determined to sink the Russian flagship and continued pounding her, being saved only by the gallant charge of the American-built Russian battleship Retvizan, whose captain successfully drew away Togo's heavy fire from the Russian flagship. Knowing of the impending battle with the battleship reinforcements arriving from Russia (the Baltic Fleet), Togo chose not to risk his battleships by pursuing his enemy as they turned about and headed back into Port Arthur, thus ending naval history's longest-range gunnery duel up to that time and the first modern clash of steel battleship fleets on the high seas.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nBaltic Fleet redeploys","Russo-Japanese War\n\nMeanwhile, the Russians were preparing to reinforce their Far East Fleet by sending the Baltic Fleet, under the command of Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky. After a false start caused by engine problems and other mishaps, the squadron finally departed on 15 October 1904, and sailed half way around the world from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific via the Cape of Good Hope in the course of a seven-month odyssey that was to attract worldwide attention. The fleet was forced to take this longer route after the Dogger Bank incident on 21 October 1904, where the Russian fleet fired on British fishing boats that they mistook for enemy torpedo boats. This caused the British to deny them access to the Suez Canal, thus forcing them around Africa, and nearly sparking a war with the United Kingdom (an ally of Japan, but neutral, unless provoked).","Russo-Japanese War\n\nCampaign of 1905","Russo-Japanese War\n\nWith the fall of Port Arthur, the Japanese 3rd Army could continue northward to reinforce positions south of Russian-held Mukden. With the onset of the severe Manchurian winter, there had been no major land engagements since the Battle of Shaho the previous year. The two sides camped opposite each other along 60 to 70 mi of front lines south of Mukden.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nBattle of Sandepu","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe Russian Second Army under General Oskar Gripenberg, between 25 and 29 January, attacked the Japanese left flank near the town of Sandepu, almost breaking through. This caught the Japanese by surprise. However, without support from other Russian units the attack stalled, Gripenberg was ordered to halt by Kuropatkin and the battle was inconclusive. The Japanese knew that they needed to destroy the Russian army in Manchuria before Russian reinforcements arrived via the Trans-Siberian railroad.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nBattle of Mukden","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe Battle of Mukden commenced on 20 February 1905. In the following days Japanese forces proceeded to assault the right and left flanks of Russian forces surrounding Mukden, along a 50 mi front. Approximately half a million men were involved in the fighting. Both sides were well entrenched and were backed by hundreds of artillery pieces. After days of harsh fighting, added pressure from the flanks forced both ends of the Russian defensive line to curve backwards. Seeing they were about to be encircled, the Russians began a general retreat, fighting a series of fierce rearguard actions, which soon deteriorated in the confusion and collapse of Russian forces. On 10 March 1905, after three weeks of fighting, General Kuropatkin decided to withdraw to the north of Mukden. The Russians lost 90,000 men in the battle.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe retreating Russian Manchurian Army formations disbanded as fighting units, but the Japanese failed to destroy them completely. The Japanese themselves had suffered heavy casualties and were in no condition to pursue. Although the Battle of Mukden was a major defeat for the Russians and was the most decisive land battle ever fought by the Japanese, the final victory still depended on the navy.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nBattle of Tsushima","Russo-Japanese War\n\nAfter a stopover of several weeks at the minor port of Nossi-Bé, Madagascar, that had been reluctantly allowed by neutral France in order not to jeopardize its relations with its Russian ally, the Russian Baltic fleet proceeded to Cam Ranh Bay in French Indochina passing on its way through the Singapore Strait between 7 and 10 April 1905. The fleet finally reached the Sea of Japan in May 1905. The logistics of such an undertaking in the age of coal power was astounding. The squadron required approximately 500,000 tons of coal to complete the journey, yet by international law, it was not allowed to coal at neutral ports, forcing the Russian authorities to acquire a large fleet of colliers to supply the fleet at sea. The weight of the ships' stores needed for such a long journey was to be another major problem. The Russian Second Pacific Squadron (the renamed Baltic Fleet) sailed 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km) to relieve Port Arthur. The demoralizing news that Port Arthur had fallen reached the fleet while it was still at Madagascar. Admiral Rozhestvensky's only hope now was to reach the port of Vladivostok.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThere were three routes to Vladivostok, with the shortest and most direct passing through Tsushima Strait between Korea and Japan. However, this was also the most dangerous route as it passed between the Japanese home islands and the Japanese naval bases in Korea.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nAdmiral Togo was aware of Russian progress and understood that, with the fall of Port Arthur, the Second and Third Pacific squadrons would try to reach the only other Russian port in the Far East, Vladivostok. Battle plans were laid down and ships were repaired and refitted to intercept the Russian fleet.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe Japanese Combined Fleet, which had originally consisted of six battleships, was now down to four (two had been lost to mines), but still retained its cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats. The Russian Second Pacific Squadron contained eight battleships, including four new battleships of the Borodino class, as well as cruisers, destroyers and other auxiliaries for a total of 38 ships.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nBy the end of May, the Second Pacific Squadron was on the last leg of its journey to Vladivostok, taking the shorter, riskier route between Korea and Japan, and travelling at night to avoid discovery. Unfortunately for the Russians, while in compliance with the rules of war, the two trailing hospital ships had continued to burn their lights, which were spotted by the Japanese armed merchant cruiser Shinano Maru. Wireless communication was used to inform Togo's headquarters, where the Combined Fleet was immediately ordered to sortie. Still receiving naval intelligence from scouting forces, the Japanese were able to position their fleet so that they would \"cross the T\" of the Russian fleet. The Japanese engaged the Russians in the Tsushima Straits on 27–28 May 1905. The Russian fleet was virtually annihilated, losing eight battleships, numerous smaller vessels, and more than 5,000 men, while the Japanese lost three torpedo boats and 116 men. Only three Russian vessels escaped to Vladivostok. After the Battle of Tsushima, a combined Japanese Army and Navy operation occupied Sakhalin Island to force the Russians into suing for peace.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nPeace and aftermath","Russo-Japanese War\n\nTreaty of Portsmouth","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe defeats of the Russian Army and Navy shook up Russian confidence. Throughout 1905, the Imperial Russian government was rocked by revolution. The population was against escalation of the war. The empire was certainly capable of sending more troops, but the poor state of the economy, the embarrassing defeats of the Russian Army and Navy by the Japanese, and the relative unimportance of the disputed land to Russia made the war extremely unpopular. Tsar Nicholas II elected to negotiate peace so he could concentrate on internal matters after the disaster of Bloody Sunday on 22 January 1905.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nBoth sides accepted the offer of Theodore Roosevelt, the President of the United States, to mediate; meetings were held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with Sergius Witte leading the Russian delegation and Baron Komura, a graduate of Harvard, leading the Japanese delegation. The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed on 5 September 1905 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery, Maine, while the delegates stayed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Witte became Russian Prime Minister the same year.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nAfter courting the Japanese, Roosevelt decided to support the Tsar's refusal to pay indemnities, a move that policymakers in Tokyo interpreted as signifying that the United States had more than a passing interest in Asian affairs. Russia recognized Korea as part of the Japanese sphere of influence and agreed to evacuate Manchuria. Japan would annex Korea in 1910 (Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910), with scant protest from other powers.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nRussia also signed over its 25-year leasehold rights to Port Arthur, including the naval base and the peninsula around it, and ceded the southern half of Sakhalin Island to Japan. Both would be taken back by the Soviet Union following the defeat of the Japanese in World War II.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nRoosevelt earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his effort. George E. Mowry concludes that Roosevelt handled the arbitration well, doing an \"excellent job of balancing Russian and Japanese power in the Orient, where the supremacy of either constituted a threat to growing America.\"","Russo-Japanese War\n\nCasualties","Russo-Japanese War\n\nSources do not agree on a precise number of deaths from the war because of a lack of body counts for confirmation. The number of Japanese Army dead in combat is put at around 47,000 with around 27,000 additional casualties from disease, and between 6,000 and 12,000 wounded. Estimates of Russian Army dead range from around 40,000 to around 70,000 men. The total number of army dead is generally stated as around 130,000 to 170,000. China suffered 20,000 civilian deaths, and financially the loss amounted to over 69 million taels' worth of silver.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nDuring many of the battles at sea, several thousand soldiers being transported drowned after their ships went down. There was no consensus about what to do with transported soldiers at sea, and as a result, many of the ships failed or refused to rescue soldiers that were left shipwrecked. This led to the creation of the second Geneva Convention in 1906, which gave protection and care for shipwrecked soldiers in armed conflict.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nPolitical consequences","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThis was the first major military victory in the modern era of an Asian power over a European nation. Russia's defeat was met with shock in the West and across the Far East. Japan's prestige rose greatly as it came to be seen as a modern nation. Concurrently, Russia lost virtually its entire Pacific and Baltic fleets, and also much international esteem. This was particularly true in the eyes of Germany and Austria-Hungary before World War I. Russia was France's and Serbia's ally, and that loss of prestige had a significant effect on Germany's future when planning for war with France, and Austria-Hungary's war with Serbia.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nIn the absence of Russian competition, and with the distraction of European nations during World War I, combined with the Great Depression that followed, the Japanese military began efforts to dominate China and the rest of Asia, which eventually led to the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War theatres of World War II.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nEffects in Russia","Russo-Japanese War\n\nAlthough popular support for the war had existed following the Japanese attack on Port Arthur in 1904, discontent occurred following continued defeats at the hands of Japan. For many Russians, the immediate shock of unexpected humiliation at the hands of Japan caused the conflict to be viewed as a metaphor for the shortcomings of the Romanov autocracy. Popular discontent in Russia after the war added more fuel to the already simmering Russian Revolution of 1905, an event Nicholas II had hoped to avoid entirely by taking intransigent negotiating stances prior to coming to the table. Twelve years later, that discontent boiled over into the February Revolution of 1917. In Poland, which Russia partitioned in the late 18th century, and where Russian rule already caused two major uprisings, the population was so restless that an army of 250,000–300,000—larger than the one facing the Japanese—had to be stationed to put down the unrest.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nSome political leaders of the Polish insurrection movement (in particular, Józef Piłsudski) sent emissaries to Japan to collaborate on sabotage and intelligence gathering within the Russian Empire and even plan a Japanese-aided uprising.For Polish–Japanese negotiations and relations during the war, see:Bert Edström, The Japanese and Europe: Images and Perceptions, Routledge, 2000, ISBN 1-873410-86-7, [https://books.google.com/books?vidISBN1873410867&id\nltmXn9rUGD8C&pgPA126&lpg\nPA126&qPoles&vq\nPoles&dqrusso-japanese+war+Poles&sig\nd0-YuSdw_7PspjQ_Rva2S7a7JSo pp.126–133] Jerzy Lerski, \"A Polish Chapter of the Russo-Japanese War\", Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, III/7 p. 69–96","Russo-Japanese War\n\nIn Russia, the defeat of 1905 led in the short term to a reform of the Russian military that allowed it to face Germany in World War I. However, the revolts at home following the war planted seeds that presaged the Russian Revolution of 1917. This was because Tsar Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto, which included only limited reforms such as the Duma and failed to address the societal problems of Russia at the time.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nEffects on Japan","Russo-Japanese War\n\nJapan had become the rising Asian power and had proven that its military could combat the major powers in Europe with success. Most Western powers were stunned that the Japanese not only prevailed but decisively defeated Russia. In the Russo-Japanese War, Japan had also portrayed a sense of readiness in taking a more active and leading role in Asian affairs, which in turn had led to widespread nationalism throughout the region.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nAlthough the war had ended in a victory for Japan, Japanese public opinion was shocked by the very restrained peace terms which were negotiated at the war's end.[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res\n9C01E5D8103AE733A25750C0A96F9C946497D6CF&scp5&sq\norder+of+meiji&st=p \"Japan's Present Crisis and Her Constitution; The Mikado's Ministers Will Be Held Responsible by the People for the Peace Treaty – Marquis Ito May Be Able to Save Baron Komura,\"] New York Times. 3 September 1905. Widespread discontent spread through the populace upon the announcement of the treaty terms. Riots erupted in major cities in Japan. Two specific requirements, expected after such a costly victory, were especially lacking: territorial gains and monetary reparations to Japan. The peace accord led to feelings of distrust, as the Japanese had intended to retain all of Sakhalin Island, but were forced to settle for half of it after being pressured by the United States, with President Roosevelt opting to support Nicholas II’s stance on not ceding territory or paying reparations. The Japanese had wanted reparations to help families recover from lost fathers and sons as well as heavy taxation from the government. Without them, they were at a loss.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe U.S held strength in the Asian region from aggravating European imperialist encroachment. To Japan, this represented a developing threat to the autonomy of the region. U.S.-Japanese relations would recover a bit in the early 20th century, but by the early 1920s, few in Japan believed that the United States meant anything positive for the future of Asia. By the 1930s, the U.S. presence in Asian affairs, along with the instability in China and the collapse of the Western economic order, Japan would act aggressively with respect to China, setting the precedent that would ultimately culminate in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Some scholars suggest that Japan's road to World War II had begun not upon winning the Russo-Japanese War, but when it lost the peace.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nTreatment of civilians","Russo-Japanese War\n\nDuring the fighting in Manchuria, Russian troops routinely looted and burned Chinese villages, raped the women and killed all who resisted or who were just in the way. The Russian justification for all this was that Chinese civilians, being Asian, must have been helping their fellow Asians, the Japanese, inflict defeat on the Russians, and therefore deserved to be punished. The Russian troops were gripped by the fear of the \"Yellow Peril\", and saw all Asians, not just the Japanese, as the enemy. All the Russian soldiers were much feared by the Chinese population of Manchuria, but it was the Cossacks whom they feared the most on the account of their brutality and insatiable desire to loot. Largely because of the more disciplined behavior of the Japanese, the Han and Manchu population of Manchuria tended to be pro-Japanese. Even the Japanese were much prone to looting, albeit in a considerably less brutal manner than the Russians and to summarily executing any Chinese or Manchu whom they suspected of being spies. The city of Liaoyang had the misfortune to be sacked three times within three days; first by the Russians, then by the Chinese police, and finally by the Japanese.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe Japanese hired Chinese bandits known variously as the Chunguses, Chunchuse or khunhuzy to engage in guerrilla warfare by attacking Russian supply columns. Only once did the Chunguses attack Japanese forces, and that attack was apparently motivated by the Chunguses mistaking the Japanese forces for a Russian one. Zhang Zuolin, a prominent bandit leader and the future \"Old Marshal\" who would rule Manchuria as a warlord between 1916–28 worked as a Chunguse for the Japanese. Manchuria was still officially part of the Chinese Empire, and the Chinese civil servants tried their best to be neutral as Russian and Japanese troops marched across Manchuria. In the parts of Manchuria occupied by the Japanese, Tokyo appointed \"civil governors\" who worked to improve health, sanitation and the state of the roads. These activities were self-interested as improved roads lessened Japanese logistics problems while improved health amongst the Chinese lessened the dangers of diseases infecting the Japanese troops. By contrast, the Russian made no effort to improve sanitation or health amongst the Chinese they ruled over, and destroyed everything when they retreated. Many Chinese tended to see the Japanese as the lesser evil.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nHistorical significance","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe effects and impact of the Russo-Japanese War introduced a number of characteristics that came to define 20th century politics and warfare. Many of the technological innovations brought on by the Industrial Revolution first became present on the battlefield in the Russo-Japanese War. Weapons and armaments were more technological than ever before. Technological developments of modern armaments, such as rapid firing artillery and machine guns, as well as more accurate carbine rifles, were first used on a mass scale in the Russo-Japanese War. The improved capability of naval forces was also demonstrated. Military operations on both sea and land demonstrated that warfare in a new age of technology had undergone a considerable change since the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71.\nMost army commanders had previously envisioned using these weapon systems to dominate the battlefield on an operational and tactical level but, as events played out, these technological advancements forever altered the capacity in which mankind would wage war. \nFor East Asia it was the first confrontation after thirty years involving two modern armed forces.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe advanced weaponry led to massive casualty counts. Neither Japan nor Russia had prepared for the number of deaths that would occur in this new kind of warfare, or had the resources to compensate for these losses. This also left its impression on society at large, with the emergence of transnational and nongovernmental organizations, like the Red Cross, becoming prominent after the war. The emergence of such organizations can be regarded as the beginning of a meshing together of civilizations through the identification of common problems and challenges; a slow process dominating much of the 20th century.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nDebate with respect to the Russo-Japanese War preluding World War II is a topic of interest to scholars today. Arguments that are favorable toward this perspective consider characteristics specific to the Russo-Japanese War to the qualities definitive of \"total war\". Numerous aspects of total war characterize the Russo-Japanese War. Encompassed on both ends was the mass mobilization of troops into battle. For both Russia and Japan, the war required extensive economic support in the form of production of equipment, armaments, and supplies at such a scale that required both domestic support as well as foreign aid. The conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War also demonstrated the need for world leaders to regard domestic response to foreign policy, which is argued by some scholars as setting in motion the dissolution of the Romanov dynasty by demonstrating the inefficiencies of tsarist Russia's government.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nReception around the world","Russo-Japanese War\n\nTo the Western powers, Japan's victory demonstrated the emergence of a new Asian regional power. With the Russian defeat, some scholars have argued that the war had set in motion a change in the global world order with the emergence of Japan as not only a regional power, but rather, the main Asian power. Rather more than the possibilities of diplomatic partnership were emerging, however. The Japanese success increased self-confidence among anti-colonial nationalists in colonised Asian countries – Vietnamese, Indonesians, Indians and Filipinos – and to those in countries like Turkey and Iran in immediate danger of being absorbed by the Western powers. It also encouraged the Chinese who, despite having been at war with the Japanese only a decade before, still considered Westerners the greater threat. \"We regarded that Russian defeat by Japan as the defeat of the West by the East. We regarded the Japanese victory as our own victory,\" declared Sun Yat-sen. And Jawaharlal Nehru, \"Japan's victory lessened the feeling of inferiority from which most of us suffered. A great European power had been defeated, thus Asia could still defeat Europe as it had done in the past.\"","Russo-Japanese War\n\nIn Europe too, subject populations were similarly encouraged. James Joyce's novel Ulysses, set in Dublin in 1904, contains hopeful Irish allusions as to the outcome of the war. And in partitioned Poland the artist Józef Mehoffer chose 1905 to paint his \"Europa Jubilans\" (Europe rejoicing), which portrays an aproned maid taking her ease on a sofa against a background of Eastern artefacts. Executed following demonstrations against the war and Russian cultural suppression, and in the year of Russia’s defeat, its subtly coded message looks forward to a time when the Tsarist masters will be defeated in Europe as they had been in Asia.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe significance of the war for oppressed classes as well as subject populations was clear too to the Socialist thinker Rosa Luxemburg: \"The Russo-Japanese War now gives to all an awareness that even war and peace in Europe – its destiny – isn't decided between the four walls of the European concert, but outside it, in the gigantic maelstrom of world and colonial politics. And it’s in this that the real meaning of the current war resides for social-democracy, even if we set aside its immediate effect: the collapse of Russian absolutism. This war brings the gaze of the international proletariat back to the great political and economic connectedness of the world, and violently dissipates in our ranks the particularism, the pettiness of ideas that form in any period of political calm.\" It was this realisation of the universal significance of the war that underlines the historical importance of the conflict and its outcome.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nAssessment of war results","Russo-Japanese War\n\nRussia had lost two of its three fleets. Only its Black Sea Fleet remained, and this was the result of an earlier treaty that had prevented the fleet from leaving the Black Sea. Japan became the sixth-most powerful naval force, while the Russian Navy declined to one barely stronger than that of Austria–Hungary. The actual costs of the war were large enough to affect the Russian economy and, despite grain exports, the nation developed an external balance of payments deficit. The cost of military re-equipment and re-expansion after 1905 pushed the economy further into deficit, although the size of the deficit was obscured.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe Japanese were on the offensive for most of the war and used massed infantry assaults against defensive positions, which would later become the standard of all European armies during World War I. The battles of the Russo-Japanese War, in which machine guns and artillery took a heavy toll on Russian and Japanese troops, were a precursor to the trench warfare of World War I. A German military advisor sent to Japan, Jakob Meckel, had a tremendous impact on the development of the Japanese military training, tactics, strategy, and organization. His reforms were credited with Japan's overwhelming victory over China in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. However, his over-reliance on infantry in offensive campaigns also led to a large number of Japanese casualties.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nMilitary and economic exhaustion affected both countries. Japanese historians regard this war as a turning point for Japan, and a key to understanding the reasons why Japan may have failed militarily and politically later. After the war, acrimony was felt at every level of Japanese society and it became the consensus within Japan that their nation had been treated as the defeated power during the peace conference. As time went on, this feeling, coupled with the sense of \"arrogance\" at becoming a Great Power, grew and added to growing Japanese hostility towards the West, and fueled Japan's military and imperial ambitions. Only five years after the war, Japan de jure annexed Korea as part of its colonial empire. In 1931, 21 years later, Japan invaded Manchuria in the Mukden Incident. This culminated in the invasion of East, Southeast and South Asia in World War II, in an attempt to create a great Japanese colonial empire, the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. As a result, most Chinese historians consider the Russo-Japanese War as a key development of Japanese militarism.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nFollowing the victory of the Battle of Tsushima, Japan's erstwhile English ally presented a lock of Admiral Nelson's hair to the Imperial Japanese Navy, judging its performance then as on a par with Britain's victory at Trafalgar in 1805. It is still on display at Kyouiku Sankoukan, a public museum maintained by the Japan Self-Defense Force. Nevertheless, there was a consequent change in English strategic thinking, resulting in enlargement of its naval docks at Auckland, New Zealand; Bombay, British India; Fremantle and Sydney, Australia; Simon's Town, Cape Colony; Singapore and British Hong Kong. The naval war confirmed the direction of the British Admiralty's thinking in tactical terms even as it undermined its strategic grasp of a changing world. Tactical orthodoxy, for example, assumed that a naval battle would imitate the conditions of stationary combat and that ships would engage in one long line sailing on parallel courses; but more flexible tactical thinking would now be required as a firing ship and its target maneuvered independently.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe US and Australian reaction to the war had also been mixed, with fears of a Yellow Peril eventually shifting from China to Japan. American figures such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Lothrop Stoddard saw the victory as a challenge to white supremacy. A few Australian invasion literature novels appeared.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nMilitary attachés and observers","Russo-Japanese War\n\nMilitary and civilian observers from every major power closely followed the course of the war. Most were able to report on events from the perspective of embedded positions within the land and naval forces of both Russia and Japan. These military attachés and other observers prepared first-hand accounts of the war and analytical papers. In-depth observer narratives of the war and more narrowly focused professional journal articles were written soon after the war; and these post-war reports conclusively illustrated the battlefield destructiveness of this conflict. This was the first time the tactics of entrenched positions for infantry defended with machine guns and artillery became vitally important. Both would become dominant factors in World War I.\nEven though entrenched positions had already been a significant part of both the Franco-Prussian War and the American Civil War, it is now apparent that the high casualty counts, and the tactical lessons readily available to observer nations, were completely disregarded in preparations for war in Europe, and during much of the course of World War I.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nIn 1904–1905, Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton was the military attaché of the British Indian Army serving with the Japanese Army in Manchuria. As one of the several military attachés from Western countries, he was the first to arrive in Japan after the start of the war. \nHe therefore would be recognized as the dean of multi-national attachés and observers in this conflict, although out-ranked by British field marshal, William Gustavus Nicholson, 1st Baron Nicholson, who was later to become chief of the Imperial General Staff.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nFinancing","Russo-Japanese War\n\nDespite its gold reserves of 106.3 million pounds, Russia's pre-war financial situation was not enviable. The country had large budget deficits year after year, and was largely dependent on borrowed money.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nRussia's war effort was funded primarily by France, in a series of loans totalling 800 million francs (30.4 million pounds); another loan in the amount of 600 million francs was agreed upon, but later cancelled. These loans were extended within a climate of mass bribing of the French press (made necessary by Russia's precarious economic and social situation and poor military performance). Although initially reluctant to participate in the war, the French government and major banks were co-operative since it became clear that Russian and French economic interests were tied. In addition to French money, Russia secured a loan in the amount of 500 million marks (24.5 million pounds) from Germany, who also financed Japan's war effort.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nConversely, Japan's pre-war gold reserves were a modest 11.7 million pounds; a major portion of the total cost of the war was covered by money borrowed from the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nDuring his canvassing expedition in London, the Japanese vice-governor of the Bank of Japan met Jacob Schiff, an American banker and head of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.. Schiff, in response to Russia's anti-Jewish pogroms and sympathetic to Japan's cause, extended a critical series of loans to the Empire of Japan, in the amount of 200 million US dollars (41.2 million pounds).","Russo-Japanese War\n\nJapan's total war expenditure was 2,150 million yen, of which 38%, or 820 million yen, was raised overseas.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nList of battles","Russo-Japanese War\n\n* 1904 Battle of Port Arthur, 8 February: naval battle inconclusive\n* 1904 Battle of Chemulpo Bay, 9 February: naval battle Japanese victory\n* 1904 Battle of Yalu River, 30 April to 1 May: Japanese victory\n* 1904 Battle of Nanshan, 25 to 26 May, Japanese victory\n* 1904 Battle of Te-li-Ssu, 14 to 15 June, Japanese victory\n* 1904 Battle of Motien Pass, 17 July, Japanese victory\n* 1904 Battle of Tashihchiao, 24 July, Japanese victory\n* 1904 Battle of Hsimucheng, 31 July, Japanese victory\n* 1904 Battle of the Yellow Sea, 10 August: naval battle Japanese victory strategically, tactically inconclusive\n* 1904 Battle off Ulsan, 14 August: naval battle Japanese victory\n* 1904–1905 Siege of Port Arthur, 19 August to 2 January: Japanese victory\n* 1904 Battle of Liaoyang, 25 August to 3 September: inconclusive\n* 1904 Battle of Shaho, 5 to 17 October: inconclusive\n* 1905 Battle of Sandepu, 26 to 27 January: inconclusive\n* 1905 Battle of Mukden, 21 February to 10 March: Japanese victory\n* 1905 Battle of Tsushima, 27 to 28 May naval battle: Japanese victory","Russo-Japanese War\n\nCultural legacy","Russo-Japanese War\n\nGraphic arts","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe Russo-Japanese War was covered by dozens of foreign journalists who sent back sketches that were turned into lithographs and other reproducible forms. Propaganda images were circulated by both sides, often in the form of postcards and based on insulting racial stereotypes. These were produced not only by the combatants but by those from European countries who supported one or the other side or had a commercial or colonial stake in the area. War photographs were also popular, appearing in both the press and in book form.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nIn Russia, the war was covered by anonymous satirical graphic luboks for sale in markets, recording the war for the domestic audience. Around 300 were made before their creation was banned by the Russian government. Their Japanese equivalents were woodblock prints. These had been common during the Sino-Japanese war a decade earlier and celebrations of the new conflict tended to repeat the same imagery and situations. But by this time in Japan postcards had become the most common form of communication and they soon replaced prints as a medium for topographical imagery and war reportage. In some ways, however, they were still dependent on the print for their pictorial conventions, not least in issuing the cards in series that assembled into a composite scene or design, either as diptychs, triptychs or even more ambitious formats. However, captioning swiftly moved from the calligraphic side inscription to a printed title below, and not just in Japanese but in English and other European languages. There was a lively sense that these images served not only as mementoes but also as propaganda statements.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nWar artists were to be found on the Russian side and even figured among the casualties. Vasily Vereshchagin went down with the Petropavlovsk, Admiral Makarov’s flagship, when it was sunk by mines. However, his last work, a picture of a council of war presided over by the admiral, was recovered almost undamaged. Another artist, Mykola Samokysh, first came to notice for his reports during the war and the paintings worked up from his diary sketch-books. Other depictions appeared after the event. The two by the Georgian naïve painter Niko Pirosmani from 1906 must have been dependent on newspaper reports since he was not present. Then Yury Repin made an episode during the Battle of Yalu River the subject of a broad heroic canvas in 1914 at the outset of World War I.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nMusic","Russo-Japanese War\n\nOn either side, there were lyrics lamenting the necessity of fighting in a foreign land, far from home. One of the earliest of several Russian songs still performed today was the waltz \"Amur's Waves\" (Amurskie volny), which evokes the melancholy of standing watch on the frontier between Russia and Manchuria.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nTwo others grew out of incidents during the war. \"On the Hills of Manchuria\" (Na sopkah Manchzhurii) (1906) is another waltz composed by Ilya Shatrov, a decorated military musician whose regiment suffered badly in the battle of Mukden. Originally only the music was published, under the longer title \"The Mokshansky Regiment on the Hills of Manchuria\"; the words by Stepan Petrov were added later. These lyrics mourned the fallen lying in their graves and threatened revenge. Another song, Variag, commemorates the Battle of Chemulpo Bay in which that cruiser and the gunboat Korietz steamed out to confront an encircling Japanese squadron rather than surrender. That act of heroism was first celebrated in a German song by Rudolf Greintz in 1907 but was quickly translated into Russian and sung to a martial accompaniment.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nNikolai Rimsky-Korsakov also reacted to the war by composing the satirical opera The Golden Cockerel, completed in 1907. Although it was ostensibly based on a verse fairy tale by Alexander Pushkin written in 1834, the authorities quickly realised its true target and immediately banned it from performance. The opera was premiered in 1909, after Rimsky-Korsakov's death, and even then with modifications required by the censors.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nPoetry","Russo-Japanese War\n\nSome Japanese poetry dealing with the war still has a high profile. General Nogi Maresuke’s \"Outside the Goldland fortress\" was learned by generations of schoolchildren and valued for its bleak stoicism. The army surgeon Mori Ōgai kept a verse diary which tackled such themes as racism, strategic mistakes and the ambiguities of victory which can now be appreciated in historical hindsight. Nowadays too there is growing appreciation of Yosano Akiko’s parting poem to her brother as he left for the war, which includes the critical lines.\n:Never let them kill you, brother! \n:His Imperial Majesty would not come out to fight ... \n:How could He possibly make them believe \n:that it is honourable to die? \nEven the Emperor Meiji himself entered the poetic lists, writing in answer to all the lamentations about death in a foreign land that the patriotic soul returns to the homeland.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nEuropean treatments were similarly varied. Jane H. Oakley attempted an epic treatment of the conflict in the 86 cantos of her contemporary A Russo-Japanese War Poem (Brighton 1905). The French poet Blaise Cendrars was later to represent himself as on a Russian train on its way to Manchuria at the time in his La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France (1913) and energetically evoked the results of the war along the way:\nI saw the silent trains the black trains returning from the Far East and passing like phantoms…\nAt Talga 100,000 wounded were dying for lack of care\nI visited the hospitals of Krasnoyarsk\nAnd at Khilok we encountered a long convoy of soldiers who had lost their minds\nIn the pesthouses I saw gaping gashes wounds bleeding full blast\nAnd amputated limbs danced about or soared through the raucous air \nMuch later, the Scottish poet Douglas Dunn devoted an epistolary poem in verse to the naval war in The Donkey's Ears: Politovsky’s Letters Home (2000). This follows the voyage of the Russian Imperial Navy flagship Kniaz to its sinking at the battle of Tsushima.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nFiction","Russo-Japanese War\n\nFictional coverage of the war began even before it was over. An early example was Allen Upward’s The International Spy, being the secret history of the Russo-Japanese War (1904). Set in both Russia and Japan, it ends with the Dogger Bank incident involving the Baltic Fleet. The political thinking displayed there is typical of the time. There is great admiration for the Japanese, who were English allies. Russia is in turmoil, but the main impetus towards war is not imperialism as such but commercial forces. \"Every student of modern history has remarked the fact that all recent wars have been promoted by great combinations of capitalists. The causes which formerly led to war between nation and nation have ceased to operate\" (p. 40). The true villain plotting in the background, however, is the German Emperor, seeking to destabilise the European balance of power in his country’s favour. Towards the end of the novel, the narrator steals a German submarine and successfully foils a plot to involve the English in the war.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe submarine motif reappeared in George Griffith’s science fiction novel, The Stolen Submarine (1904), although in this case it is a French super-submarine which its developer sells to the Russians for use against the Japanese in another tale of international intrigue.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThough most English-language fiction of the period took the Japanese side, the Rev. W. W. Walker’s Canadian novella, Alter Ego (1907), is an exception. It features a Canadian volunteer in the Russian army who, on his return, agrees to talk about his experiences to an isolated upcountry community and relates his part in the battle of Mukden. Though this incident only occupies two of the book’s six chapters, it is used to illustrate the main message there, that war is \"anti-Christian and barbarous, except in a defensive sense\" (Ch.3).","Russo-Japanese War\n\nVarious aspects of the war were also common in contemporary children’s fiction. Categorised as Boys' Own adventure stories, they offer few insights into the conflict, being generally based on news articles and sharing unreflectingly in the contemporary culture of imperialism. Among these, Herbert Strang was responsible for two novels: Kobo: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War (1905), told from the Japanese side, and Brown of Moukden (1906), viewed from the Russian side. Three more were written by the prolific American author, Edward Stratemeyer: Under the Mikado's Flag, or Young Soldiers of Fortune (1904); At the Fall of Port Arthur, or a young American in the Japanese navy (1905); and Under Togo for Japan, or Three Young Americans on Land and Sea (1906). Two other English stories begin with the action at Port Arthur and follow the events thereafter: A Soldier of Japan: a tale of the Russo-Japanese War by Captain Frederick Sadleir Brereton, and The North Pacific (1905) by Willis Boyd Allen (1855–1938).","Russo-Japanese War\n\nTwo more also involve young men fighting in the Japanese navy: Americans in For the Mikado, a Japanese Middy in Action (1905) by Kirk Munroe, and a temporarily disgraced English officer in Under the Ensign of the Rising Sun (1916) by Harry Collingwood, the pen-name of William Joseph Cosens Lancaster (1851–1922), whose speciality was naval fiction.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nRussian novelist Alexey Novikov-Priboy really did serve in the Baltic Fleet and wrote about the conflict on his return, but his early work was suppressed. It was not until the changed political climate under Soviet rule that he began writing his historical epic Tsushima, based on his personal experiences on board the battleship Orel as well as on testimonies of fellow sailors and government archives. The first part was published in 1932, the second in 1935, and the whole novel was later awarded the Stalin Prize. It describes the heroism of Russian sailors and certain officers whose defeat, in accordance with the new Soviet thinking, was due to the criminal negligence of the Imperial Naval command. A German novel by Frank Thiess, originally published as Tsushima in 1936 (and later translated as The Voyage of Forgotten Men), covered the same journey round the world to defeat.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nLater there appeared a first-hand account of the siege of Port Arthur by Alexander Stepanov (1892–1965). He had been present there as the 12-year-old son of a battery commander and his novel, Port Arthur: a historical narrative (1944), is based on his own diaries and his father's notes. The work is considered one of the best historical novels of the Soviet period. A later novel in which the war appears is Valentin Pikul’s The Three Ages of Okini-San (1981). Centred on the life of Vladimir Kokovtsov, who rose through the ranks to admiral of the Russian fleet, it covers the period from the Russo-Japanese War through to the February and October Revolutions. A much later Russian genre novel uses the period of the war as background. This is Boris Akunin's The Diamond Chariot (2003), in the first part of which the detective Erast Fandorin is charged with protecting the Trans-Siberian Railway from Japanese sabotage.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nThe main historical novel dealing with the war from the Japanese side is Shiba Ryōtarō's immense Clouds above the hill, published serially in several volumes between 1968–72. The closely researched story spans the decade from the Sino-Japanese War to the Russo-Japanese War and went on to become the nation’s favourite book.","Russo-Japanese War\n\nFilmography","Russo-Japanese War\n\nSee also film list about Russo-Japanese war","Russo-Japanese War\n\n* Port Arthur (1936)\n* Kreiser Varyag (1946)\n* Nichiro sensō shōri no hishi: Tekichū ōdan sanbyaku-ri (1957)\n* Meiji tennô to nichiro daisenso (1958)\n* The Battle of the Japan Sea (1969, 佐藤 勝: 日本海大海戦, Nihonkai-Daikaisen) depicts the naval battles of the war, the attacks on the Port Arthur highlands, and the subterfuge and diplomacy of Japanese agents in Sweden. Admiral Togo is portrayed by Toshiro Mifune.\n* The Battle of Tsushima (1975) [documentary], depiction of the naval Battle of Tsushima\n* The Battle of Port Arthur (1980, sometimes referred as 203 Kochi ) depiction of the Siege of Port Arthur\n* Nihonkai daikaisen: Umi yukaba (1983)\n* Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983). Russian-born British spy Sidney Reilly's role in providing intelligence that allowed the Japanese surprise attack that started the Siege of Port Arthur is dramatised in the second episode of this TV series \n* Bogatstvo (2004)\n* Saka no Ue no Kumo (2009)"],"string":"[\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe President of the United States of America (POTUS) is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe President of the United States is considered one of the world's most powerful people, leading the world's only contemporary superpower. The role includes being the commander-in-chief of the world's most expensive military with the largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by real and nominal GDP. The office of the president holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nArticle II of the U.S. Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The power includes execution of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The president is largely responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is enrolled. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States. Since the founding of the United States, the power of the president and the federal government has grown substantially.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe president is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term, and is one of only two nationally elected federal officers, the other being the Vice President of the United States. The Twenty-second Amendment, adopted in 1951, prohibits anyone from ever being elected to the presidency for a third full term. It also prohibits a person from being elected to the presidency more than once if that person previously had served as president, or acting president, for more than two years of another person's term as president. In all, 43 individuals have served 44 presidencies (counting Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms separately) spanning 56 full four-year terms. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th and current president. On November 6, 2012, he was re-elected and is currently serving the 57th term. The next presidential election is scheduled to take place on November 8, 2016; on January 20, 2017, the newly elected president will take office.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nOrigin\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nIn 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, recognized the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British. Desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. As a central authority, Congress under the Articles was without any legislative power; it could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, nor any taxes or local commercial regulations enforceable upon citizens. This institutional design reflected the conception of how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress, while severally lodging the rest within their own respective state governments.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nOnly after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1, 1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nIn 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak, their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another, witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nFollowing the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, the Annapolis delegates called for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nWhen the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rhode Island did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature. New York offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter. It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U.S. Constitution emerged.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nPowers and duties\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nArticle I legislative role\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto. The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options:\\n# Sign the legislation; the bill then becomes law.\\n# Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections; the bill does not become law, unless each house of Congress votes to override the veto by a two-thirds vote.\\n# Take no action. In this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation. After 10 days, not counting Sundays, two possible outcomes emerge:\\n#* If Congress is still convened, the bill becomes law.\\n#* If Congress has adjourned, thus preventing the return of the legislation, the bill does not become law. This latter outcome is known as the pocket veto.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nIn 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the president's veto power with the Line Item Veto Act. The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the president then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In Clinton v. City of New York, , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nArticle II executive powers\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nWar and foreign affairs powers\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nPerhaps the most important of all presidential powers is the command of the United States Armed Forces as its commander-in-chief. While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, the president has ultimate responsibility for direction and disposition of the military. The present-day operational command of the Armed Forces (belonging to the Department of Defense) is normally exercised through the Secretary of Defense, with assistance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the Combatant Commands, as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan (UCP). The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Alexander Hamilton explains this in Federalist No. 69: Congress, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual. Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nWhile historically presidents initiated the process for going to war, critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1990.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nAlong with the armed forces, the president also directs U.S. foreign policy. Through the Department of State and the Department of Defense, the president is responsible for the protection of Americans abroad and of foreign nationals in the United States. The president decides whether to recognize new nations and new governments, and negotiates treaties with other nations, which become binding on the United States when approved by two-thirds vote of the Senate.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nAlthough not constitutionally provided, presidents also sometimes employ \\\"executive agreements\\\" in foreign relations. These agreements frequently regard administrative policy choices germane to executive power; for example, the extent to which either country presents an armed presence in a given area, how each country will enforce copyright treaties, or how each country will process foreign mail. However, the 20th century witnessed a vast expansion of the use of executive agreements, and critics have challenged the extent of that use as supplanting the treaty process and removing constitutionally prescribed checks and balances over the executive in foreign relations. Supporters counter that the agreements offer a pragmatic solution when the need for swift, secret, and/or concerted action arises.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nAdministrative powers\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe president is the head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to \\\"take care that the laws be faithfully executed.\\\" The executive branch has over four million employees, including members of the military.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nPresidents make numerous executive branch appointments: an incoming president may make up to 6,000 before taking office and 8,000 more while serving. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers, are all appointed by a president with the \\\"advice and consent\\\" of a majority of the Senate. When the Senate is in recess for at least ten days, the president may make recess appointments. Recess appointments are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove purely executive officials at will. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe president additionally possesses the ability to direct much of the executive branch through executive orders that are grounded in federal law or constitutionally granted executive power. Executive orders are reviewable by federal courts and can be superseded by federal legislation.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nTo manage the growing federal bureaucracy, Presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Within the Executive Office, the President's innermost layer of aides (and their assistants) are located in the White House Office.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nJuridical powers\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe president also has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. However, these nominations do require Senate confirmation. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to U.S. district courts, presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of Senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves, as is often done just before the end of a presidential term, not without controversy.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nHistorically, two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties. George Washington first claimed privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution, or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege. When Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, , that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution. When President Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in Clinton v. Jones, , that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits. These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nAdditionally, federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees, but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security. Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in Totten v. United States , when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy. However, the privilege was not formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court until United States v. Reynolds , where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege. Before the September 11 attacks, use of the privilege had been rare, but increasing in frequency. Since 2001, the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation, thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims, as in the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nLegislative facilitator\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe Constitution's Ineligibility Clause prevents the President (and all other executive officers) from simultaneously being a member of Congress. Therefore, the president cannot directly introduce legislative proposals for consideration in Congress. However, the president can take an indirect role in shaping legislation, especially if the president's political party has a majority in one or both houses of Congress. For example, the president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress. The president can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally mandated, periodic reports to Congress. These reports may be either written or oral, but today are given as the State of the Union address, which often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year. Additionally, the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nIn the 20th century critics began charging that too many legislative and budgetary powers have slid into the hands of presidents that should belong to Congress. As the head of the executive branch, presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress. One critic charged that presidents could appoint a \\\"virtual army of 'czars' – each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House.\\\" Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it. This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional. Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an \\\"increasingly swollen executive branch\\\" and \\\"the eclipse of Congress.\\\"\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nAccording to Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution, the president may convene either or both houses of Congress. If both houses cannot agree on a date of adjournment, the president may appoint a date for Congress to adjourn.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nCeremonial roles\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nAs head of state, the president can fulfill traditions established by previous presidents. William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., on the Washington Senators' Opening Day. Every president since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe President of the United States has served as the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America since the founding of the organization.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nOther presidential traditions are associated with American holidays. Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children. Beginning in 1947 during the Harry S. Truman administration, every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual national thanksgiving turkey presentation held at the White House. Since 1989, when the custom of \\\"pardoning\\\" the turkey was formalized by George H. W. Bush, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nPresidential traditions also involve the president's role as head of government. Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition. Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nDuring a state visit by a foreign head of state, the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn, a custom begun by John F. Kennedy in 1961. This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as \\\"propagandized leadership\\\" which has a \\\"mesmerizing power surrounding the office.\\\" Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo-ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras. One critic wrote the image of John F. Kennedy was described as carefully framed \\\"in rich detail\\\" which \\\"drew on the power of myth\\\" regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions. As a result, some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents: voters expect a president to \\\"drive the economy, vanquish enemies, lead the free world, comfort tornado victims, heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit-card fees.\\\"\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nCritics of presidency's evolution\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nMost of the nation's Founding Fathers expected the Congress, which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution, to be the dominant branch of government; they did not expect a strong executive. However, presidential power has shifted over time, which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful, unchecked, unbalanced, and \\\"monarchist\\\" in nature. Critic Dana D. Nelson believes presidents over the past thirty years have worked towards \\\"undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies.\\\" She criticizes proponents of the unitary executive for expanding \\\"the many existing uncheckable executive powers – such as executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements – that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid, interference or consent from Congress.\\\" Activist Bill Wilson opined that the expanded presidency was \\\"the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule.\\\"\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nSelection process\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nEligibility\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nArticle II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the following qualifications for holding the presidency:\\n* be a natural-born citizen of the United States;Foreign-born American citizens who met the age and residency requirements at the time the Constitution was adopted were also eligible for the presidency. However, this allowance has since become obsolete.\\n* be at least thirty-five years old;\\n* be a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe Twelfth Amendment precludes anyone ineligible to being the president from becoming the vice president.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nA person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions:\\n* Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no person can be elected president more than twice. The amendment also specifies that if any eligible person serves as president or acting president for more than two years of a term for which some other eligible person was elected president, the former can only be elected president once. Scholars disagree over whether a person precluded by the Twenty-second Amendment to being elected president is also precluded to being vice president. \\n* Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, upon conviction in impeachment cases, the Senate has the option of disqualifying convicted individuals from holding federal office, including that of president. \\n* Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, no person who swore an oath to support the Constitution, and later rebelled against the United States, can become president. However, this disqualification can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nCampaigns and nomination\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's nominee for president. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. The most common previous profession by U.S. presidents is lawyer.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nNominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nElection and oath\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe president is elected indirectly. A number of electors, collectively known as the Electoral College, officially select the president. On Election Day, voters in each of the states and the District of Columbia cast ballots for these electors. Each state is allocated a number of electors, equal to the size of its delegation in both Houses of Congress combined. Generally, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe winning slate of electors meet at its state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, to vote. They then send a record of that vote to Congress. The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president—acting in that role's capacity as President of the Senate—and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which was elected at the same time as the president.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nPursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the president's term of office begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. This date, known as Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the four-year terms of both the president and the vice president. Before executing the powers of the office, a president is constitutionally required to take the presidential oath:\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nAlthough not required, presidents have traditionally palmed a Bible while swearing the oath and have added, \\\"So help me God!\\\" to the end of the oath. Further, although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths, presidents are traditionally sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nTenure and term limits\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe term of office for president and vice president is four years. George Washington, the first president, set an unofficial precedent of serving only two terms, which subsequent presidents followed until 1940. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt, attempts at a third term were encouraged by supporters of Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt; neither of these attempts succeeded. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt declined to seek a third term, but allowed his political party to \\\"draft\\\" him as its presidential candidate and was subsequently elected to a third term. In 1941, the United States entered World War II, leading voters to elect Roosevelt to a fourth term in 1944. But Roosevelt died only 82 days after taking office for the fourth term on 12 April 1945.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nAfter the war, and in response to Roosevelt being elected to third and fourth terms, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted. The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than half of another president's term. Harry S. Truman, president when this amendment was adopted, was exempted from its limitations and briefly sought a third (a second full) term before withdrawing from the 1952 election.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nSince the amendment's adoption, four presidents have served two full terms: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Barack Obama has been elected to a second term, and will complete his term on 20 January 2017, if he does not die or resign before that date. Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush sought a second term, but were defeated. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before completing it. Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president under the amendment to be eligible to serve more than two terms in total, having served for only fourteen months following John F. Kennedy's assassination. However, Johnson withdrew from the 1968 Democratic Primary, surprising many Americans. Gerald Ford sought a full term, after serving out the last two years and five months of Nixon's second term, but was not elected.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nVacancy or disability\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nVacancies in the office of President may arise under several possible circumstances: death, resignation and removal from office.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nArticle II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the House of Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for \\\"treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.\\\" Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 gives the Senate the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. The House has thus far impeached two presidents: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was subsequently convicted by the Senate; however, Johnson was acquitted by just one vote.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nUnder Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the president may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate stating the reasons for the transfer. The president resumes the discharge of the presidential powers and duties upon transmitting, to those two officials, a written declaration stating that resumption. This transfer of power may occur for any reason the president considers appropriate; in 2002 and again in 2007, President George W. Bush briefly transferred presidential authority to Vice President Dick Cheney. In both cases, this was done to accommodate a medical procedure which required Bush to be sedated; both times, Bush returned to duty later the same day.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nUnder Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the vice president, in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet, may transfer the presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate that the president is unable to discharge the presidential powers and duties. If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president; however, the president can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers and duties. If the vice president and Cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president, but does not regulate its form or the conditions for its validity. Pursuant to federal law, the only valid evidence of the president's resignation is a written instrument to that effect, signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. This has only occurred once, when Richard Nixon delivered a letter to Henry Kissinger to that effect.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nSection 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment states that the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death or resignation of the preceding president. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 provides that if the offices of President and Vice President are each either vacant or are held by a disabled person, the next officer in the presidential line of succession, the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president. The line then extends to the President pro tempore of the Senate, followed by every member of the Cabinet. These persons must fulfill all eligibility requirements of the office of President to be eligible to become acting president; ineligible individuals are skipped. There has never been a special election for the office of President.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nCompensation\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nSince 2001, the president has earned a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe White House in Washington, D.C., serves as the official place of residence for the president. As well as access to the White House staff, facilities available to the president include medical care, recreation, housekeeping, and security services. The government pays for state dinners and other official functions, but the president pays for personal, family and guest dry cleaning and food; the high food bill often amazes new residents. Naval Support Facility Thurmont, popularly known as Camp David, is a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the president and guests. Blair House, located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park, is a complex of four connected townhouses exceeding 70000 sqft of floor space which serves as the president's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nFor ground travel, the president uses the presidential state car, which is an armored limousine built on a heavily modified Cadillac-based chassis.[http://www.secretservice.gov/press/GPA02-09_Limo.pdf New Presidential Limousine enters Secret Service Fleet] U.S. Secret Service Press Release (January 14, 2009) Retrieved on January 20, 2009. One of two identical Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified versions of Boeing 747-200B airliners, serve as long distance travel for the president and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board (although any U.S. Air Force aircraft the President is aboard is designated as \\\"Air Force One\\\" for the duration of the flight). In-country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes while overseas trips are handled with both, one primary and one backup. Any civilian aircraft the President is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight. The president also has access to a fleet of thirty-five U.S. Marine Corps helicopters of varying models, designated Marine One when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nFlights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the President is actually aboard to any would-be threats.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nThe U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the sitting president and the first family. As part of their protection, presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nFile:White House lawn (1).tif|The White House\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nFile:Camp David 1959.jpg|Camp David\\nFile:Blair House daylight.jpg|Blair House\\nFile:GPA02-09 US SecretService press release 2009 Limousine Page 3 Image.jpg|State car\\nFile:Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore.jpg|Air Force One\\nFile:Marine One (1970).jpg|Marine One\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nPost-presidency\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nBeginning in 1959, all living former presidents were granted a pension, an office, and a staff. The pension has increased numerous times with Congressional approval. Retired presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries, which was $199,700 each year in 2012. Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions. The Former Presidents Act, as amended, also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges. Prior to 1997, all former presidents, their spouses, and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president's death. In 1997, Congress passed legislation limiting secret service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office. On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime secret service protection for him, George W. Bush, and all subsequent presidents. A spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for secret service protection.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nSome presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include William Howard Taft's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after World War II. Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected president again four years later in 1892. Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House: John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, serving there for seventeen years, and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875. John Tyler served in the provisional Congress of the Confederate States during the Civil War and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before that body first met.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nPresidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events. Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman. Jimmy Carter has become a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton has also worked as an informal ambassador, most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from North Korea. Clinton has also been active politically since his presidential term ended, working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his reelection campaign.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nFile:Carter 2k14.tif|Jimmy Carter39th (1977–81)\\nFile:President George H. W.tif|George H. W. Bush41st (1989–93)\\nFile:Clinton 2k15.tif|Bill Clinton42nd (1993–2001)\\nFile:Bush 2k14.tif|George W. Bush43rd (2001–09)\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nPresidential libraries\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nSince Herbert Hoover, each president has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education, such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Texas A&M University and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nAs many presidents live for many years after leaving office, several of them have personally overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries, some even making arrangements for their own burial at the site. Several presidential libraries therefore contain the graves of the president they document, such as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The graves are viewable by the general public visiting these libraries.\",\n \"President of the United States\\n\\nTimeline of Presidents\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria and the seas around Korea, Japan and the Yellow Sea.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nRussia sought a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean for their navy and for maritime trade. Vladivostok was operational only during the summer, whereas Port Arthur, a naval base in Liaodong Province leased to Russia by China, was operational all year. Since the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, negotiations between Russia and Japan proved impractical. Russia had demonstrated an expansionist policy in the Siberian Far East from the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century. Through threat of Russian expansion, Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as being within the Japanese sphere of influence. Russia refused and demanded Korea north of the 39th parallel to be a neutral buffer zone between Russia and Japan. The Japanese government perceived a Russian threat to its strategic interests and chose to go to war. After negotiations broke down in 1904, the Japanese Navy opened hostilities by attacking the Russian Eastern Fleet at Port Arthur in a surprise attack.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nRussia suffered numerous defeats by Japan, but Tsar Nicholas II was convinced that Russia would win and chose to remain engaged in the war; at first, to await the outcomes of certain naval battles, and later to preserve the dignity of Russia by averting a \\\"humiliating peace\\\". The war concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt. The complete victory of the Japanese military surprised world observers. The consequences transformed the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage. Scholars continue to debate the historical significance of the war.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nHistorical background\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nIn 1853 Commodore Perry of the US Navy arrived in Japan and brought an end to Japan's policy of self-isolation by forcing the Tokugawa shogunate to sign the Convention of Kanagawa the following year. This encounter with a modern Western power served to portray the West as having a confrontational and imperialist political agenda, which Japan viewed with respect through World War II. Japan sought to maintain its autonomy and resisted colonialism by Western nations. The Meiji Restoration in 1868 served as an early Japanese response to the challenges of the modern world.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nAfter the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Meiji government endeavored to assimilate Western ideas, technological advances and customs. By the late 19th century, Japan had transformed itself into a modernized industrial state. The Japanese wanted to preserve their sovereignty and be recognized as equal with the Western powers.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nTsarist Russia, as a major imperial power, had ambitions in the East. By the 1890s it had extended its realm across Central Asia to Afghanistan, absorbing local states in the process. The Russian Empire stretched from Poland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the east. With its construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the port of Vladivostok, Russia hoped to further consolidate its influence and presence in the region. In the Tsushima incident of 1861 Russia had directly assaulted Japanese territory. Fearing Russian expansion, Japan regarded Korea (and to a lesser extent Manchuria) as a protective buffer.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nSino-Japanese War (1894–95)\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nBetween the Meiji Restoration and its participation in World War I, the Empire of Japan fought in two significant wars. The first war Japan fought was the First Sino-Japanese War, fought in 1894 and 1895. The war revolved around the issue of control and influence over Korea under the rule of the Joseon dynasty. From the 1880s onward, there had been vigorous competition for influence in Korea between China and Japan. The Korean court was prone to factionalism, and was badly divided by a reformist faction that was pro-Japanese and a more conservative faction that was pro-Chinese. In 1884, a pro-Japanese coup attempt was put down by Chinese troops, and a \\\"residency\\\" under General Yuan Shikai was established in Seoul. A peasant rebellion led by the Tonghak religious movement led to a request by the Korean government for the Qing dynasty to send in troops to stabilize the country. The Empire of Japan responded by sending their own force to Korea to crush the Tonghak and installed a puppet government in Seoul. China objected and war ensued.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nHostilities proved brief, with Japanese ground troops routing Chinese forces on the Liaodong Peninsula and nearly destroying the Chinese Navy in the Battle of the Yalu River. Japan and China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ceded the Liaodong Peninsula and the island of Taiwan to Japan. After the peace treaty, Russia, Germany, and France forced Japan to withdraw from the Liaodong Peninsula. The leaders of Japan did not feel that they possessed the strength to resist the combined might of Russia, Germany and France, and so gave in to the ultimatum presented by St. Petersburg, Berlin and Paris. At the same time, the Japanese did not abandon their attempts to force Korea into the Japanese sphere of influence. On 8 October 1895, Queen Min of Korea, the leader of the anti-Japanese and pro-Chinese faction at the Korean court was murdered by Japanese agents within the halls of the Gyeongbokgung palace, an act that backfired badly as it turned Korean public opinion against Japan. In early 1896, King Gojong of Korea fled to the Russian legation in Seoul under the grounds that his life was in danger from Japanese agents, and Russian influence in Korea started to predominate.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nIn the aftermath of the flight of the king, a popular uprising overthrew the pro-Japanese government and several cabinet ministers were lynched on the streets.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nIn 1897, Russia occupied the Liaodong Peninsula, built the Port Arthur fortress, and based the Russian Pacific Fleet in the port. Russia's acquisition of Port Arthur was primarily an anti-British move to counter the British occupation of Wei-hai-Wei, but in Japan, this was perceived as an anti-Japanese move. Germany occupied Jiaozhou Bay, built the Tsingtao fortress, and based the German East Asia Squadron in this port. Between 1897–1903, the Russians built the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) in Manchuria. The Chinese Eastern Railroad was owned jointly by the Russian and Chinese governments, but the company's management was entirely Russian, the line was built to the Russian gauge and Russian troops were stationed in Manchuria to protect rail traffic on the CER from bandit attacks. The headquarters of the CER company was located in the new Russian-built city of Harbin, the \\\"Moscow of the Orient\\\". From 1897 onwards, Manchuria-while still nominally part of the \\\"Great Qing Empire\\\"-started to resemble more and more a Russian province.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nRussian encroachment\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nIn December 1897 a Russian fleet appeared off Port Arthur. After three months, in 1898, China and Russia negotiated a convention by which China leased (to Russia) Port Arthur, Talienwan and the surrounding waters. The two parties further agreed that the convention could be extended by mutual agreement. The Russians clearly expected such an extension, for they lost no time in occupying the territory and in fortifying Port Arthur, their sole warm-water port on the Pacific coast and of great strategic value. A year later, to consolidate their position, the Russians began to build a new railway from Harbin through Mukden to Port Arthur, the South Manchurian Railroad. The development of the railway became a contributory factor to the Boxer Rebellion, when Boxer forces burned the railway stations.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe Russians also began to make inroads into Korea. By 1898 they had acquired mining and forestry concessions near the Yalu and Tumen rivers, causing the Japanese much anxiety. Japan decided to attack before the Russians completed the Trans-Siberian Railway.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nBoxer Rebellion\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe Russians and the Japanese both contributed troops to the eight-member international force sent in 1900 to quell the Boxer Rebellion and to relieve the international legations under siege in the Chinese capital, Beijing. Russia had already sent 177,000 soldiers to Manchuria, nominally to protect its railways under construction. The troops of the Qing Empire and the participants of the Boxer Rebellion could do nothing against such a massive army and were ejected from Manchuria. After the Boxer Rebellion, 100,000 Russian soldiers were stationed in Manchuria. The Russian troops settled in and despite assurances they would vacate the area after the crisis, by 1903 the Russians had not established a timetable for withdrawal and had actually strengthened their position in Manchuria.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nPre-war negotiations\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe Japanese statesman Itō Hirobumi started to negotiate with the Russians. He regarded Japan as too weak to evict the Russian militarily, so he proposed giving Russia control over Manchuria in exchange for Japanese control of northern Korea. Meanwhile, Japan and Britain had signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902, the British seeking to restrict naval competition by keeping the Russian Pacific seaports of Vladivostok and Port Arthur from their full use. The alliance with the British meant, in part, that if any nation allied itself with Russia during any war against Japan, then Britain would enter the war on Japan's side. Russia could no longer count on receiving help from either Germany or France without there being a danger of British involvement in the war. With such an alliance, Japan felt free to commence hostilities, if necessary.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nOn 28 July 1903, the Japanese minister in St. Petersburg was instructed to present his country's view opposing Russia's consolidation plans in Manchuria. On 12 August, the Japanese minister handed in the following document to serve as the basis for further negotiations: \\n# Mutual engagement to respect the independence and territorial integrity of the Chinese and Korean empires and to maintain the principle of equal opportunity for the commerce and industry of all nations in those countries. # Reciprocal recognition of Japan's preponderating interests in Korea and Russia's special interests in railway enterprises in Manchuria, and of the right of Japan to take in Korea and of Russia to take in Manchuria such measures as may be necessary for the protection of their respective interests as above defined, subject, however, to the provisions of article I of this agreement. # Reciprocal undertaking on the part of Russia and Japan not to impede development of those industrial and commercial activities respectively of Japan in Korea and of Russia in Manchuria, which are not inconsistent with the stipulations of article I of this agreement.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nAdditional engagement on the part of Russia not to impede the eventual extension of the Korean railway into southern Manchuria so as to connect with the East China and Shan-hai-kwan-Newchwang lines. # Reciprocal engagement that in case it is found necessary to send troops by Japan to Korea, or by Russia to Manchuria, for the purpose either of protecting the interests mentioned in article II of this agreement, or of suppressing insurrection or disorder calculated to create international complications, the troops so sent are in no case to exceed the actual number required and are to be forthwith recalled as soon as their missions are accomplished. # Recognition on the part of Russia of the exclusive right of Japan to give advice and assistance in the interest of reform and good government in Korea, including necessary military assistance. # This agreement to supplant all previous arrangements between Japan and Russia respecting Korea. On 3 October, the Russian minister to Japan, Roman Rosen, presented to the Japanese government the Russian counterproposal as the basis of negotiations, as follows: \\n# Mutual engagement to respect the independence and territorial integrity of the Korean Empire.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\n# Recognition by Russia of Japan's preponderating interests in Korea and of the right of Japan to give advice and assistance to Korea tending to improve the civil administration of the empire without infringing the stipulations of article I. # Engagement on the part of Russia not to impede the commercial and industrial undertakings of Japan in Korea, nor to oppose any measures taken for the purpose of protecting them so long as such measures do not infringe the stipulations of article I. # Recognition of the right of Japan to send for the same purpose troops to Korea, with the knowledge of Russia, but their number not to exceed that actually required, and with the engagement on the part of Japan to recall such troops as soon as their mission is accomplished. # Mutual engagement not to use any part of the territory of Korea for strategical purposes nor to undertake on the coasts of Korea any military works capable of menacing the freedom of navigation in the Straits of Korea.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\n# Mutual engagement to consider that part of the territory of Korea lying to the north of the 39th parallel as a neutral zone into which neither of the contracting parties shall introduce troops. # Recognition by Japan of Manchuria and its littoral as in all respects outside her sphere of interest. # This agreement to supplant all previous agreements between Russia and Japan respecting Korea.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nNegotiations then followed; although by early January 1904, the Japanese government had realised that Russia was neither interested in settling the Manchurian nor Korean issues. Instead, Russia's goal was buying time – via diplomacy – to further buildup militarily. Nevertheless, on 13 January 1904, Japan proposed a formula by which Manchuria would be outside the Japanese sphere of influence and, reciprocally, Korea outside Russia's. By 4 February 1904, no formal reply had been received and on 6 February Kurino Shinichiro, the Japanese minister, called on the Russian foreign minister, Count Lamsdorf, to take his leave. Japan severed diplomatic relations with Russia on 6 February 1904.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nPotential diplomatic resolution of territorial concerns between Japan and Russia failed; historians have argued that this directly resulted from the actions of Tsar Nicholas II. One crucial error of Nicholas was his mismanagement of government. Although certain scholars contend the situation arose from the determination of Tsar Nicholas II to use the war against Japan to spark a revival in Russian patriotism, no historical evidence supports this claim. The Tsar's advisors did not support the war, foreseeing problems in transporting troops and supplies from European Russia to the East. Convinced that his rule was divinely ordained and that he held responsibility to God, Nicholas II held the ideals of preserving the autocracy and defending the dignity, honor, and worth of Russia. This attitude by the Tsar led to repeated delays in negotiations with the Japanese government. The Japanese understanding of this can be seen from a telegram dated 1 December 1903 from Japanese minister of foreign affairs, Komura, to the minister to Russia, in which he stated:\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\n\\\"...the Japanese government have at all times during the progress of the negotiations made it a special point to give prompt answers to all propositions of the Russian government. The negotiations have now been pending for no less than four months, and they have not yet reached a stage where the final issue can with certainty be predicted. In these circumstances the Japanese government cannot but regard with grave concern the situation for which the delays in negotiations are largely responsible\\\".\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nErrors by Nicholas II in managing the Russian government also led to his misinterpreting the type of situation in which Russia was to become involved in with Japan. Some scholars have suggested that Tsar Nicholas II dragged Japan into war intentionally, in hopes of reviving Russian nationalism. This notion is disputed by a comment made by Nicholas to Kaiser William of Germany, saying there would be no war because he \\\"did not wish it\\\". \\nThis does not reject the claim that Russia played an aggressive role in the East, which it did; rather, it means that Russia unwisely calculated that Japan would not go to war against its far larger and seemingly superior navy and army. Nicholas held the Japanese in contempt as \\\"yellow monkeys\\\", and he took for granted that the Japanese would simply yield in the face of Russia's superior power, which thus explains his unwillingness to compromise. Evidence of Russia's false sense of security and superiority to Japan is seen by Russian reference to Japan as a big mistake.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nDeclaration of war\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nJapan issued a declaration of war on 8 February 1904.Some scholarly researchers credit Enjiro Yamaza with drafting the text of the Japanese declaration of war – see Naval Postgraduate School (US) thesis: Na, Sang Hyung. [http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?LocationU2&doc\\nGetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA475769 \\\"The Korean-Japanese Dispute over Dokdo/Takeshima,\\\" p. 62 n207] December 2007, citing Byang-Ryull Kim. (2006). Ilbon Gunbu'ui Dokdo Chim Talsa (The Plunder of Dokdo by the Japanese Military), p. 121. However, three hours before Japan's declaration of war was received by the Russian government, the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked the Russian Far East Fleet at Port Arthur. Tsar Nicholas II was stunned by news of the attack. He could not believe that Japan would commit an act of war without a formal declaration, and had been assured by his ministers that the Japanese would not fight. When the attack came, according to Cecil Spring Rice, first secretary at the British Embassy, it left the Tsar \\\"almost incredulous\\\". Russia declared war on Japan eight days later.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nJapan, in response, made reference to the Russian attack on Sweden in 1809 without declaration of war, and the requirement to declare war before commencing hostilities was not made international law until the Second Hague Peace Conference was held in October 1907.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe Qing Empire favoured the Japanese position and even offered military aid, but Japan declined it. However, Yuan Shikai sent envoys to Japanese generals several times to deliver foodstuffs and alcoholic drinks. Native Manchurians joined the war on both sides as hired troops.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nCampaign of 1904\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nPort Arthur, on the Liaodong Peninsula in the south of Manchuria, had been fortified into a major naval base by the Russian Imperial Army. Since it needed to control the sea in order to fight a war on the Asian mainland, Japan's first military objective was to neutralize the Russian fleet at Port Arthur.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nBattle of Port Arthur\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nOn the night of 8 February 1904, the Japanese fleet under Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō opened the war with a surprise torpedo boat destroyer attack on the Russian ships at Port Arthur. The attack heavily damaged the Tsesarevich and Retvizan, the heaviest battleships in Russia's far Eastern theater, and the 6,600 ton cruiser Pallada.\\n These attacks developed into the Battle of Port Arthur the next morning. A series of indecisive naval engagements followed, in which Admiral Togo was unable to attack the Russian fleet successfully as it was protected by the shore batteries of the harbour, and the Russians were reluctant to leave the harbour for the open seas, especially after the death of Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov on 13 April 1904. Although the actual Battle of Port Arthur was indecisive, the initial attacks had a devastating psychological effect on Russia, which had been confident about the prospect of war. The Japanese had seized the initiative while the Russians waited in port.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThese engagements provided cover for a Japanese landing near Incheon in Korea. From Incheon the Japanese occupied Seoul and then the rest of Korea. By the end of April, the Japanese Imperial Army under Kuroki Itei was ready to cross the Yalu River into Russian-occupied Manchuria.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nBlockade of Port Arthur\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe Japanese attempted to deny the Russians use of Port Arthur. During the night of 13–14 February, the Japanese attempted to block the entrance to Port Arthur by sinking several concrete-filled steamers in the deep water channel to the port, but they sank too deep to be effective. A similar attempt to block the harbour entrance during the night of 3–4 May also failed. In March, the charismatic Vice Admiral Makarov had taken command of the First Russian Pacific Squadron with the intention of breaking out of the Port Arthur blockade.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nOn 12 April 1904, two Russian pre-dreadnought battleships, the flagship Petropavlovsk and the Pobeda, slipped out of port but struck Japanese mines off Port Arthur. The Petropavlovsk sank almost immediately, while the Pobeda had to be towed back to port for extensive repairs. Admiral Makarov, the single most effective Russian naval strategist of the war, perished on the battleship Petropavlovsk.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nOn 15 April 1904, the Russian government made overtures threatening to seize the British war correspondents who were taking the ship Haimun into warzones to report for the London-based Times newspaper, citing concerns about the possibility of the British giving away Russian positions to the Japanese fleet.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe Russians quickly learned, and soon employed, the Japanese tactic of offensive minelaying. On 15 May 1904, two Japanese battleships, the and the , were lured into a recently laid Russian minefield off Port Arthur, each striking at least two mines. The Hatsuse sank within minutes, taking 450 sailors with her, while the Yashima sank while under tow towards Korea for repairs. On 23 June 1904, a breakout attempt by the Russian squadron, now under the command of Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft, failed. By the end of the month, Japanese artillery were firing shells into the harbour.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nSiege of Port Arthur\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe Siege of Port Arthur commenced in April 1904. Japanese troops tried numerous frontal assaults on the fortified hilltops overlooking the harbour, which were defeated with Japanese casualties in the thousands. Eventually, though, with the aid of several batteries of 11-inch (280 mm) Krupp howitzers, the Japanese were able to capture the key hilltop bastion in December 1904. From this vantage point, the long-range artillery was able to shell the Russian fleet, which was unable to retaliate effectively against the land-based artillery and was unable or unwilling to sail out against the blockading fleet. Four Russian battleships and two cruisers were sunk in succession, with the fifth and last battleship being forced to scuttle a few weeks later. Thus, all capital ships of the Russian fleet in the Pacific were sunk. This is probably the only example in military history when such a scale of devastation was achieved by land-based artillery against major warships.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nMeanwhile, attempts to relieve the besieged city by land also failed, and, after the Battle of Liaoyang in late August, the northern Russian force that might have been able to relieve Port Arthur retreated to Mukden (Shenyang). Major General Anatoly Stessel, commander of the Port Arthur garrison, believed that the purpose of defending the city was lost after the fleet had been destroyed. \\nIn general, the Russian defenders were suffering disproportionate casualties each time the Japanese attacked. In particular, several large underground mines were exploded in late December, resulting in the costly capture of a few more pieces of the defensive line.\\nStessel, therefore, decided to surrender to the surprised Japanese generals on 2 January 1905. He made his decision without consulting either the other military staff present, or the Tsar and military command, who all disagreed with the decision. Stessel was convicted by a court-martial in 1908 and sentenced to death on account of an incompetent defense and for disobeying orders. He was later pardoned.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nAnglo-Japanese intelligence co-operation\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nEven before the war, British and Japanese intelligence had co-operated against Russia. During the war, Indian Army stations in Malaya and China often intercepted and read wireless and telegraph cable traffic relating to the war, which was shared with the Japanese. In their turn, the Japanese shared information about Russia with the British with one British official writing of the \\\"perfect quality\\\" of Japanese intelligence. In particular, British and Japanese intelligence gathered much evidence that Germany was supporting Russia in the war as part of a bid to disturb the balance of power in Europe, which led to British officials increasingly perceiving that country as a threat to the international order.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nBattle of Yalu River\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nIn contrast to the Japanese strategy of rapidly gaining ground to control Manchuria, Russian strategy focused on fighting delaying actions to gain time for reinforcements to arrive via the long Trans-Siberian railway, which was incomplete near Irkutsk at the time. On 1 May 1904, the Battle of Yalu River became the first major land battle of the war; Japanese troops stormed a Russian position after crossing the river. The defeat of the Russian Eastern Detachment removed the perception that the Japanese would be an easy enemy, that the war would be short, and that Russia would be the overwhelming victor. This battle was also the first battle in decades to be an Asian victory over a European power and marked Russia's inability to match Japan's military prowess. Japanese troops proceeded to land at several points on the Manchurian coast, and in a series of engagements, drove the Russians back towards Port Arthur. The subsequent battles, including the Battle of Nanshan on 25 May 1904, were marked by heavy Japanese losses largely from attacking entrenched Russian positions.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nBattle of the Yellow Sea\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nWith the death of Admiral Stepan Makarov during the siege of Port Arthur in April 1904, Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft was appointed command of the battle fleet and was ordered to make a sortie from Port Arthur and deploy his force to Vladivostok. Flying his flag in the French-built pre-dreadnought Tsesarevich, Vitgeft proceeded to lead his six battleships, four cruisers, and 14 torpedo boat destroyers into the Yellow Sea in the early morning of 10 August 1904. Waiting for him was Admiral Togo and his fleet of four battleships, 10 cruisers, and 18 torpedo boat destroyers.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nAt approximately 12:15, the battleship fleets obtained visual contact with each other, and at 13:00 with Togo crossing Vitgeft's T, they commenced main battery fire at a range of about eight miles, the longest ever conducted up to that time. For about thirty minutes the battleships pounded one another until they had closed to less than four miles and began to bring their secondary batteries into play. At 18:30, a hit from one of Togo's battleships struck Vitgeft's flagship's bridge, killing him instantly.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nWith the Tsesarevichs helm jammed and their admiral killed in action, she turned from her battle line, causing confusion among her fleet. However, Togo was determined to sink the Russian flagship and continued pounding her, being saved only by the gallant charge of the American-built Russian battleship Retvizan, whose captain successfully drew away Togo's heavy fire from the Russian flagship. Knowing of the impending battle with the battleship reinforcements arriving from Russia (the Baltic Fleet), Togo chose not to risk his battleships by pursuing his enemy as they turned about and headed back into Port Arthur, thus ending naval history's longest-range gunnery duel up to that time and the first modern clash of steel battleship fleets on the high seas.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nBaltic Fleet redeploys\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nMeanwhile, the Russians were preparing to reinforce their Far East Fleet by sending the Baltic Fleet, under the command of Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky. After a false start caused by engine problems and other mishaps, the squadron finally departed on 15 October 1904, and sailed half way around the world from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific via the Cape of Good Hope in the course of a seven-month odyssey that was to attract worldwide attention. The fleet was forced to take this longer route after the Dogger Bank incident on 21 October 1904, where the Russian fleet fired on British fishing boats that they mistook for enemy torpedo boats. This caused the British to deny them access to the Suez Canal, thus forcing them around Africa, and nearly sparking a war with the United Kingdom (an ally of Japan, but neutral, unless provoked).\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nCampaign of 1905\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nWith the fall of Port Arthur, the Japanese 3rd Army could continue northward to reinforce positions south of Russian-held Mukden. With the onset of the severe Manchurian winter, there had been no major land engagements since the Battle of Shaho the previous year. The two sides camped opposite each other along 60 to 70 mi of front lines south of Mukden.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nBattle of Sandepu\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe Russian Second Army under General Oskar Gripenberg, between 25 and 29 January, attacked the Japanese left flank near the town of Sandepu, almost breaking through. This caught the Japanese by surprise. However, without support from other Russian units the attack stalled, Gripenberg was ordered to halt by Kuropatkin and the battle was inconclusive. The Japanese knew that they needed to destroy the Russian army in Manchuria before Russian reinforcements arrived via the Trans-Siberian railroad.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nBattle of Mukden\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe Battle of Mukden commenced on 20 February 1905. In the following days Japanese forces proceeded to assault the right and left flanks of Russian forces surrounding Mukden, along a 50 mi front. Approximately half a million men were involved in the fighting. Both sides were well entrenched and were backed by hundreds of artillery pieces. After days of harsh fighting, added pressure from the flanks forced both ends of the Russian defensive line to curve backwards. Seeing they were about to be encircled, the Russians began a general retreat, fighting a series of fierce rearguard actions, which soon deteriorated in the confusion and collapse of Russian forces. On 10 March 1905, after three weeks of fighting, General Kuropatkin decided to withdraw to the north of Mukden. The Russians lost 90,000 men in the battle.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe retreating Russian Manchurian Army formations disbanded as fighting units, but the Japanese failed to destroy them completely. The Japanese themselves had suffered heavy casualties and were in no condition to pursue. Although the Battle of Mukden was a major defeat for the Russians and was the most decisive land battle ever fought by the Japanese, the final victory still depended on the navy.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nBattle of Tsushima\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nAfter a stopover of several weeks at the minor port of Nossi-Bé, Madagascar, that had been reluctantly allowed by neutral France in order not to jeopardize its relations with its Russian ally, the Russian Baltic fleet proceeded to Cam Ranh Bay in French Indochina passing on its way through the Singapore Strait between 7 and 10 April 1905. The fleet finally reached the Sea of Japan in May 1905. The logistics of such an undertaking in the age of coal power was astounding. The squadron required approximately 500,000 tons of coal to complete the journey, yet by international law, it was not allowed to coal at neutral ports, forcing the Russian authorities to acquire a large fleet of colliers to supply the fleet at sea. The weight of the ships' stores needed for such a long journey was to be another major problem. The Russian Second Pacific Squadron (the renamed Baltic Fleet) sailed 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km) to relieve Port Arthur. The demoralizing news that Port Arthur had fallen reached the fleet while it was still at Madagascar. Admiral Rozhestvensky's only hope now was to reach the port of Vladivostok.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThere were three routes to Vladivostok, with the shortest and most direct passing through Tsushima Strait between Korea and Japan. However, this was also the most dangerous route as it passed between the Japanese home islands and the Japanese naval bases in Korea.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nAdmiral Togo was aware of Russian progress and understood that, with the fall of Port Arthur, the Second and Third Pacific squadrons would try to reach the only other Russian port in the Far East, Vladivostok. Battle plans were laid down and ships were repaired and refitted to intercept the Russian fleet.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe Japanese Combined Fleet, which had originally consisted of six battleships, was now down to four (two had been lost to mines), but still retained its cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats. The Russian Second Pacific Squadron contained eight battleships, including four new battleships of the Borodino class, as well as cruisers, destroyers and other auxiliaries for a total of 38 ships.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nBy the end of May, the Second Pacific Squadron was on the last leg of its journey to Vladivostok, taking the shorter, riskier route between Korea and Japan, and travelling at night to avoid discovery. Unfortunately for the Russians, while in compliance with the rules of war, the two trailing hospital ships had continued to burn their lights, which were spotted by the Japanese armed merchant cruiser Shinano Maru. Wireless communication was used to inform Togo's headquarters, where the Combined Fleet was immediately ordered to sortie. Still receiving naval intelligence from scouting forces, the Japanese were able to position their fleet so that they would \\\"cross the T\\\" of the Russian fleet. The Japanese engaged the Russians in the Tsushima Straits on 27–28 May 1905. The Russian fleet was virtually annihilated, losing eight battleships, numerous smaller vessels, and more than 5,000 men, while the Japanese lost three torpedo boats and 116 men. Only three Russian vessels escaped to Vladivostok. After the Battle of Tsushima, a combined Japanese Army and Navy operation occupied Sakhalin Island to force the Russians into suing for peace.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nPeace and aftermath\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nTreaty of Portsmouth\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe defeats of the Russian Army and Navy shook up Russian confidence. Throughout 1905, the Imperial Russian government was rocked by revolution. The population was against escalation of the war. The empire was certainly capable of sending more troops, but the poor state of the economy, the embarrassing defeats of the Russian Army and Navy by the Japanese, and the relative unimportance of the disputed land to Russia made the war extremely unpopular. Tsar Nicholas II elected to negotiate peace so he could concentrate on internal matters after the disaster of Bloody Sunday on 22 January 1905.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nBoth sides accepted the offer of Theodore Roosevelt, the President of the United States, to mediate; meetings were held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with Sergius Witte leading the Russian delegation and Baron Komura, a graduate of Harvard, leading the Japanese delegation. The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed on 5 September 1905 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery, Maine, while the delegates stayed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Witte became Russian Prime Minister the same year.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nAfter courting the Japanese, Roosevelt decided to support the Tsar's refusal to pay indemnities, a move that policymakers in Tokyo interpreted as signifying that the United States had more than a passing interest in Asian affairs. Russia recognized Korea as part of the Japanese sphere of influence and agreed to evacuate Manchuria. Japan would annex Korea in 1910 (Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910), with scant protest from other powers.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nRussia also signed over its 25-year leasehold rights to Port Arthur, including the naval base and the peninsula around it, and ceded the southern half of Sakhalin Island to Japan. Both would be taken back by the Soviet Union following the defeat of the Japanese in World War II.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nRoosevelt earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his effort. George E. Mowry concludes that Roosevelt handled the arbitration well, doing an \\\"excellent job of balancing Russian and Japanese power in the Orient, where the supremacy of either constituted a threat to growing America.\\\"\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nCasualties\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nSources do not agree on a precise number of deaths from the war because of a lack of body counts for confirmation. The number of Japanese Army dead in combat is put at around 47,000 with around 27,000 additional casualties from disease, and between 6,000 and 12,000 wounded. Estimates of Russian Army dead range from around 40,000 to around 70,000 men. The total number of army dead is generally stated as around 130,000 to 170,000. China suffered 20,000 civilian deaths, and financially the loss amounted to over 69 million taels' worth of silver.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nDuring many of the battles at sea, several thousand soldiers being transported drowned after their ships went down. There was no consensus about what to do with transported soldiers at sea, and as a result, many of the ships failed or refused to rescue soldiers that were left shipwrecked. This led to the creation of the second Geneva Convention in 1906, which gave protection and care for shipwrecked soldiers in armed conflict.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nPolitical consequences\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThis was the first major military victory in the modern era of an Asian power over a European nation. Russia's defeat was met with shock in the West and across the Far East. Japan's prestige rose greatly as it came to be seen as a modern nation. Concurrently, Russia lost virtually its entire Pacific and Baltic fleets, and also much international esteem. This was particularly true in the eyes of Germany and Austria-Hungary before World War I. Russia was France's and Serbia's ally, and that loss of prestige had a significant effect on Germany's future when planning for war with France, and Austria-Hungary's war with Serbia.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nIn the absence of Russian competition, and with the distraction of European nations during World War I, combined with the Great Depression that followed, the Japanese military began efforts to dominate China and the rest of Asia, which eventually led to the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War theatres of World War II.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nEffects in Russia\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nAlthough popular support for the war had existed following the Japanese attack on Port Arthur in 1904, discontent occurred following continued defeats at the hands of Japan. For many Russians, the immediate shock of unexpected humiliation at the hands of Japan caused the conflict to be viewed as a metaphor for the shortcomings of the Romanov autocracy. Popular discontent in Russia after the war added more fuel to the already simmering Russian Revolution of 1905, an event Nicholas II had hoped to avoid entirely by taking intransigent negotiating stances prior to coming to the table. Twelve years later, that discontent boiled over into the February Revolution of 1917. In Poland, which Russia partitioned in the late 18th century, and where Russian rule already caused two major uprisings, the population was so restless that an army of 250,000–300,000—larger than the one facing the Japanese—had to be stationed to put down the unrest.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nSome political leaders of the Polish insurrection movement (in particular, Józef Piłsudski) sent emissaries to Japan to collaborate on sabotage and intelligence gathering within the Russian Empire and even plan a Japanese-aided uprising.For Polish–Japanese negotiations and relations during the war, see:Bert Edström, The Japanese and Europe: Images and Perceptions, Routledge, 2000, ISBN 1-873410-86-7, [https://books.google.com/books?vidISBN1873410867&id\\nltmXn9rUGD8C&pgPA126&lpg\\nPA126&qPoles&vq\\nPoles&dqrusso-japanese+war+Poles&sig\\nd0-YuSdw_7PspjQ_Rva2S7a7JSo pp.126–133] Jerzy Lerski, \\\"A Polish Chapter of the Russo-Japanese War\\\", Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, III/7 p. 69–96\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nIn Russia, the defeat of 1905 led in the short term to a reform of the Russian military that allowed it to face Germany in World War I. However, the revolts at home following the war planted seeds that presaged the Russian Revolution of 1917. This was because Tsar Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto, which included only limited reforms such as the Duma and failed to address the societal problems of Russia at the time.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nEffects on Japan\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nJapan had become the rising Asian power and had proven that its military could combat the major powers in Europe with success. Most Western powers were stunned that the Japanese not only prevailed but decisively defeated Russia. In the Russo-Japanese War, Japan had also portrayed a sense of readiness in taking a more active and leading role in Asian affairs, which in turn had led to widespread nationalism throughout the region.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nAlthough the war had ended in a victory for Japan, Japanese public opinion was shocked by the very restrained peace terms which were negotiated at the war's end.[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res\\n9C01E5D8103AE733A25750C0A96F9C946497D6CF&scp5&sq\\norder+of+meiji&st=p \\\"Japan's Present Crisis and Her Constitution; The Mikado's Ministers Will Be Held Responsible by the People for the Peace Treaty – Marquis Ito May Be Able to Save Baron Komura,\\\"] New York Times. 3 September 1905. Widespread discontent spread through the populace upon the announcement of the treaty terms. Riots erupted in major cities in Japan. Two specific requirements, expected after such a costly victory, were especially lacking: territorial gains and monetary reparations to Japan. The peace accord led to feelings of distrust, as the Japanese had intended to retain all of Sakhalin Island, but were forced to settle for half of it after being pressured by the United States, with President Roosevelt opting to support Nicholas II’s stance on not ceding territory or paying reparations. The Japanese had wanted reparations to help families recover from lost fathers and sons as well as heavy taxation from the government. Without them, they were at a loss.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe U.S held strength in the Asian region from aggravating European imperialist encroachment. To Japan, this represented a developing threat to the autonomy of the region. U.S.-Japanese relations would recover a bit in the early 20th century, but by the early 1920s, few in Japan believed that the United States meant anything positive for the future of Asia. By the 1930s, the U.S. presence in Asian affairs, along with the instability in China and the collapse of the Western economic order, Japan would act aggressively with respect to China, setting the precedent that would ultimately culminate in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Some scholars suggest that Japan's road to World War II had begun not upon winning the Russo-Japanese War, but when it lost the peace.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nTreatment of civilians\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nDuring the fighting in Manchuria, Russian troops routinely looted and burned Chinese villages, raped the women and killed all who resisted or who were just in the way. The Russian justification for all this was that Chinese civilians, being Asian, must have been helping their fellow Asians, the Japanese, inflict defeat on the Russians, and therefore deserved to be punished. The Russian troops were gripped by the fear of the \\\"Yellow Peril\\\", and saw all Asians, not just the Japanese, as the enemy. All the Russian soldiers were much feared by the Chinese population of Manchuria, but it was the Cossacks whom they feared the most on the account of their brutality and insatiable desire to loot. Largely because of the more disciplined behavior of the Japanese, the Han and Manchu population of Manchuria tended to be pro-Japanese. Even the Japanese were much prone to looting, albeit in a considerably less brutal manner than the Russians and to summarily executing any Chinese or Manchu whom they suspected of being spies. The city of Liaoyang had the misfortune to be sacked three times within three days; first by the Russians, then by the Chinese police, and finally by the Japanese.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe Japanese hired Chinese bandits known variously as the Chunguses, Chunchuse or khunhuzy to engage in guerrilla warfare by attacking Russian supply columns. Only once did the Chunguses attack Japanese forces, and that attack was apparently motivated by the Chunguses mistaking the Japanese forces for a Russian one. Zhang Zuolin, a prominent bandit leader and the future \\\"Old Marshal\\\" who would rule Manchuria as a warlord between 1916–28 worked as a Chunguse for the Japanese. Manchuria was still officially part of the Chinese Empire, and the Chinese civil servants tried their best to be neutral as Russian and Japanese troops marched across Manchuria. In the parts of Manchuria occupied by the Japanese, Tokyo appointed \\\"civil governors\\\" who worked to improve health, sanitation and the state of the roads. These activities were self-interested as improved roads lessened Japanese logistics problems while improved health amongst the Chinese lessened the dangers of diseases infecting the Japanese troops. By contrast, the Russian made no effort to improve sanitation or health amongst the Chinese they ruled over, and destroyed everything when they retreated. Many Chinese tended to see the Japanese as the lesser evil.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nHistorical significance\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe effects and impact of the Russo-Japanese War introduced a number of characteristics that came to define 20th century politics and warfare. Many of the technological innovations brought on by the Industrial Revolution first became present on the battlefield in the Russo-Japanese War. Weapons and armaments were more technological than ever before. Technological developments of modern armaments, such as rapid firing artillery and machine guns, as well as more accurate carbine rifles, were first used on a mass scale in the Russo-Japanese War. The improved capability of naval forces was also demonstrated. Military operations on both sea and land demonstrated that warfare in a new age of technology had undergone a considerable change since the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71.\\nMost army commanders had previously envisioned using these weapon systems to dominate the battlefield on an operational and tactical level but, as events played out, these technological advancements forever altered the capacity in which mankind would wage war. \\nFor East Asia it was the first confrontation after thirty years involving two modern armed forces.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe advanced weaponry led to massive casualty counts. Neither Japan nor Russia had prepared for the number of deaths that would occur in this new kind of warfare, or had the resources to compensate for these losses. This also left its impression on society at large, with the emergence of transnational and nongovernmental organizations, like the Red Cross, becoming prominent after the war. The emergence of such organizations can be regarded as the beginning of a meshing together of civilizations through the identification of common problems and challenges; a slow process dominating much of the 20th century.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nDebate with respect to the Russo-Japanese War preluding World War II is a topic of interest to scholars today. Arguments that are favorable toward this perspective consider characteristics specific to the Russo-Japanese War to the qualities definitive of \\\"total war\\\". Numerous aspects of total war characterize the Russo-Japanese War. Encompassed on both ends was the mass mobilization of troops into battle. For both Russia and Japan, the war required extensive economic support in the form of production of equipment, armaments, and supplies at such a scale that required both domestic support as well as foreign aid. The conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War also demonstrated the need for world leaders to regard domestic response to foreign policy, which is argued by some scholars as setting in motion the dissolution of the Romanov dynasty by demonstrating the inefficiencies of tsarist Russia's government.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nReception around the world\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nTo the Western powers, Japan's victory demonstrated the emergence of a new Asian regional power. With the Russian defeat, some scholars have argued that the war had set in motion a change in the global world order with the emergence of Japan as not only a regional power, but rather, the main Asian power. Rather more than the possibilities of diplomatic partnership were emerging, however. The Japanese success increased self-confidence among anti-colonial nationalists in colonised Asian countries – Vietnamese, Indonesians, Indians and Filipinos – and to those in countries like Turkey and Iran in immediate danger of being absorbed by the Western powers. It also encouraged the Chinese who, despite having been at war with the Japanese only a decade before, still considered Westerners the greater threat. \\\"We regarded that Russian defeat by Japan as the defeat of the West by the East. We regarded the Japanese victory as our own victory,\\\" declared Sun Yat-sen. And Jawaharlal Nehru, \\\"Japan's victory lessened the feeling of inferiority from which most of us suffered. A great European power had been defeated, thus Asia could still defeat Europe as it had done in the past.\\\"\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nIn Europe too, subject populations were similarly encouraged. James Joyce's novel Ulysses, set in Dublin in 1904, contains hopeful Irish allusions as to the outcome of the war. And in partitioned Poland the artist Józef Mehoffer chose 1905 to paint his \\\"Europa Jubilans\\\" (Europe rejoicing), which portrays an aproned maid taking her ease on a sofa against a background of Eastern artefacts. Executed following demonstrations against the war and Russian cultural suppression, and in the year of Russia’s defeat, its subtly coded message looks forward to a time when the Tsarist masters will be defeated in Europe as they had been in Asia.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe significance of the war for oppressed classes as well as subject populations was clear too to the Socialist thinker Rosa Luxemburg: \\\"The Russo-Japanese War now gives to all an awareness that even war and peace in Europe – its destiny – isn't decided between the four walls of the European concert, but outside it, in the gigantic maelstrom of world and colonial politics. And it’s in this that the real meaning of the current war resides for social-democracy, even if we set aside its immediate effect: the collapse of Russian absolutism. This war brings the gaze of the international proletariat back to the great political and economic connectedness of the world, and violently dissipates in our ranks the particularism, the pettiness of ideas that form in any period of political calm.\\\" It was this realisation of the universal significance of the war that underlines the historical importance of the conflict and its outcome.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nAssessment of war results\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nRussia had lost two of its three fleets. Only its Black Sea Fleet remained, and this was the result of an earlier treaty that had prevented the fleet from leaving the Black Sea. Japan became the sixth-most powerful naval force, while the Russian Navy declined to one barely stronger than that of Austria–Hungary. The actual costs of the war were large enough to affect the Russian economy and, despite grain exports, the nation developed an external balance of payments deficit. The cost of military re-equipment and re-expansion after 1905 pushed the economy further into deficit, although the size of the deficit was obscured.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe Japanese were on the offensive for most of the war and used massed infantry assaults against defensive positions, which would later become the standard of all European armies during World War I. The battles of the Russo-Japanese War, in which machine guns and artillery took a heavy toll on Russian and Japanese troops, were a precursor to the trench warfare of World War I. A German military advisor sent to Japan, Jakob Meckel, had a tremendous impact on the development of the Japanese military training, tactics, strategy, and organization. His reforms were credited with Japan's overwhelming victory over China in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. However, his over-reliance on infantry in offensive campaigns also led to a large number of Japanese casualties.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nMilitary and economic exhaustion affected both countries. Japanese historians regard this war as a turning point for Japan, and a key to understanding the reasons why Japan may have failed militarily and politically later. After the war, acrimony was felt at every level of Japanese society and it became the consensus within Japan that their nation had been treated as the defeated power during the peace conference. As time went on, this feeling, coupled with the sense of \\\"arrogance\\\" at becoming a Great Power, grew and added to growing Japanese hostility towards the West, and fueled Japan's military and imperial ambitions. Only five years after the war, Japan de jure annexed Korea as part of its colonial empire. In 1931, 21 years later, Japan invaded Manchuria in the Mukden Incident. This culminated in the invasion of East, Southeast and South Asia in World War II, in an attempt to create a great Japanese colonial empire, the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. As a result, most Chinese historians consider the Russo-Japanese War as a key development of Japanese militarism.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nFollowing the victory of the Battle of Tsushima, Japan's erstwhile English ally presented a lock of Admiral Nelson's hair to the Imperial Japanese Navy, judging its performance then as on a par with Britain's victory at Trafalgar in 1805. It is still on display at Kyouiku Sankoukan, a public museum maintained by the Japan Self-Defense Force. Nevertheless, there was a consequent change in English strategic thinking, resulting in enlargement of its naval docks at Auckland, New Zealand; Bombay, British India; Fremantle and Sydney, Australia; Simon's Town, Cape Colony; Singapore and British Hong Kong. The naval war confirmed the direction of the British Admiralty's thinking in tactical terms even as it undermined its strategic grasp of a changing world. Tactical orthodoxy, for example, assumed that a naval battle would imitate the conditions of stationary combat and that ships would engage in one long line sailing on parallel courses; but more flexible tactical thinking would now be required as a firing ship and its target maneuvered independently.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe US and Australian reaction to the war had also been mixed, with fears of a Yellow Peril eventually shifting from China to Japan. American figures such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Lothrop Stoddard saw the victory as a challenge to white supremacy. A few Australian invasion literature novels appeared.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nMilitary attachés and observers\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nMilitary and civilian observers from every major power closely followed the course of the war. Most were able to report on events from the perspective of embedded positions within the land and naval forces of both Russia and Japan. These military attachés and other observers prepared first-hand accounts of the war and analytical papers. In-depth observer narratives of the war and more narrowly focused professional journal articles were written soon after the war; and these post-war reports conclusively illustrated the battlefield destructiveness of this conflict. This was the first time the tactics of entrenched positions for infantry defended with machine guns and artillery became vitally important. Both would become dominant factors in World War I.\\nEven though entrenched positions had already been a significant part of both the Franco-Prussian War and the American Civil War, it is now apparent that the high casualty counts, and the tactical lessons readily available to observer nations, were completely disregarded in preparations for war in Europe, and during much of the course of World War I.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nIn 1904–1905, Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton was the military attaché of the British Indian Army serving with the Japanese Army in Manchuria. As one of the several military attachés from Western countries, he was the first to arrive in Japan after the start of the war. \\nHe therefore would be recognized as the dean of multi-national attachés and observers in this conflict, although out-ranked by British field marshal, William Gustavus Nicholson, 1st Baron Nicholson, who was later to become chief of the Imperial General Staff.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nFinancing\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nDespite its gold reserves of 106.3 million pounds, Russia's pre-war financial situation was not enviable. The country had large budget deficits year after year, and was largely dependent on borrowed money.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nRussia's war effort was funded primarily by France, in a series of loans totalling 800 million francs (30.4 million pounds); another loan in the amount of 600 million francs was agreed upon, but later cancelled. These loans were extended within a climate of mass bribing of the French press (made necessary by Russia's precarious economic and social situation and poor military performance). Although initially reluctant to participate in the war, the French government and major banks were co-operative since it became clear that Russian and French economic interests were tied. In addition to French money, Russia secured a loan in the amount of 500 million marks (24.5 million pounds) from Germany, who also financed Japan's war effort.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nConversely, Japan's pre-war gold reserves were a modest 11.7 million pounds; a major portion of the total cost of the war was covered by money borrowed from the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nDuring his canvassing expedition in London, the Japanese vice-governor of the Bank of Japan met Jacob Schiff, an American banker and head of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.. Schiff, in response to Russia's anti-Jewish pogroms and sympathetic to Japan's cause, extended a critical series of loans to the Empire of Japan, in the amount of 200 million US dollars (41.2 million pounds).\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nJapan's total war expenditure was 2,150 million yen, of which 38%, or 820 million yen, was raised overseas.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nList of battles\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\n* 1904 Battle of Port Arthur, 8 February: naval battle inconclusive\\n* 1904 Battle of Chemulpo Bay, 9 February: naval battle Japanese victory\\n* 1904 Battle of Yalu River, 30 April to 1 May: Japanese victory\\n* 1904 Battle of Nanshan, 25 to 26 May, Japanese victory\\n* 1904 Battle of Te-li-Ssu, 14 to 15 June, Japanese victory\\n* 1904 Battle of Motien Pass, 17 July, Japanese victory\\n* 1904 Battle of Tashihchiao, 24 July, Japanese victory\\n* 1904 Battle of Hsimucheng, 31 July, Japanese victory\\n* 1904 Battle of the Yellow Sea, 10 August: naval battle Japanese victory strategically, tactically inconclusive\\n* 1904 Battle off Ulsan, 14 August: naval battle Japanese victory\\n* 1904–1905 Siege of Port Arthur, 19 August to 2 January: Japanese victory\\n* 1904 Battle of Liaoyang, 25 August to 3 September: inconclusive\\n* 1904 Battle of Shaho, 5 to 17 October: inconclusive\\n* 1905 Battle of Sandepu, 26 to 27 January: inconclusive\\n* 1905 Battle of Mukden, 21 February to 10 March: Japanese victory\\n* 1905 Battle of Tsushima, 27 to 28 May naval battle: Japanese victory\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nCultural legacy\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nGraphic arts\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe Russo-Japanese War was covered by dozens of foreign journalists who sent back sketches that were turned into lithographs and other reproducible forms. Propaganda images were circulated by both sides, often in the form of postcards and based on insulting racial stereotypes. These were produced not only by the combatants but by those from European countries who supported one or the other side or had a commercial or colonial stake in the area. War photographs were also popular, appearing in both the press and in book form.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nIn Russia, the war was covered by anonymous satirical graphic luboks for sale in markets, recording the war for the domestic audience. Around 300 were made before their creation was banned by the Russian government. Their Japanese equivalents were woodblock prints. These had been common during the Sino-Japanese war a decade earlier and celebrations of the new conflict tended to repeat the same imagery and situations. But by this time in Japan postcards had become the most common form of communication and they soon replaced prints as a medium for topographical imagery and war reportage. In some ways, however, they were still dependent on the print for their pictorial conventions, not least in issuing the cards in series that assembled into a composite scene or design, either as diptychs, triptychs or even more ambitious formats. However, captioning swiftly moved from the calligraphic side inscription to a printed title below, and not just in Japanese but in English and other European languages. There was a lively sense that these images served not only as mementoes but also as propaganda statements.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nWar artists were to be found on the Russian side and even figured among the casualties. Vasily Vereshchagin went down with the Petropavlovsk, Admiral Makarov’s flagship, when it was sunk by mines. However, his last work, a picture of a council of war presided over by the admiral, was recovered almost undamaged. Another artist, Mykola Samokysh, first came to notice for his reports during the war and the paintings worked up from his diary sketch-books. Other depictions appeared after the event. The two by the Georgian naïve painter Niko Pirosmani from 1906 must have been dependent on newspaper reports since he was not present. Then Yury Repin made an episode during the Battle of Yalu River the subject of a broad heroic canvas in 1914 at the outset of World War I.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nMusic\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nOn either side, there were lyrics lamenting the necessity of fighting in a foreign land, far from home. One of the earliest of several Russian songs still performed today was the waltz \\\"Amur's Waves\\\" (Amurskie volny), which evokes the melancholy of standing watch on the frontier between Russia and Manchuria.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nTwo others grew out of incidents during the war. \\\"On the Hills of Manchuria\\\" (Na sopkah Manchzhurii) (1906) is another waltz composed by Ilya Shatrov, a decorated military musician whose regiment suffered badly in the battle of Mukden. Originally only the music was published, under the longer title \\\"The Mokshansky Regiment on the Hills of Manchuria\\\"; the words by Stepan Petrov were added later. These lyrics mourned the fallen lying in their graves and threatened revenge. Another song, Variag, commemorates the Battle of Chemulpo Bay in which that cruiser and the gunboat Korietz steamed out to confront an encircling Japanese squadron rather than surrender. That act of heroism was first celebrated in a German song by Rudolf Greintz in 1907 but was quickly translated into Russian and sung to a martial accompaniment.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nNikolai Rimsky-Korsakov also reacted to the war by composing the satirical opera The Golden Cockerel, completed in 1907. Although it was ostensibly based on a verse fairy tale by Alexander Pushkin written in 1834, the authorities quickly realised its true target and immediately banned it from performance. The opera was premiered in 1909, after Rimsky-Korsakov's death, and even then with modifications required by the censors.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nPoetry\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nSome Japanese poetry dealing with the war still has a high profile. General Nogi Maresuke’s \\\"Outside the Goldland fortress\\\" was learned by generations of schoolchildren and valued for its bleak stoicism. The army surgeon Mori Ōgai kept a verse diary which tackled such themes as racism, strategic mistakes and the ambiguities of victory which can now be appreciated in historical hindsight. Nowadays too there is growing appreciation of Yosano Akiko’s parting poem to her brother as he left for the war, which includes the critical lines.\\n:Never let them kill you, brother! \\n:His Imperial Majesty would not come out to fight ... \\n:How could He possibly make them believe \\n:that it is honourable to die? \\nEven the Emperor Meiji himself entered the poetic lists, writing in answer to all the lamentations about death in a foreign land that the patriotic soul returns to the homeland.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nEuropean treatments were similarly varied. Jane H. Oakley attempted an epic treatment of the conflict in the 86 cantos of her contemporary A Russo-Japanese War Poem (Brighton 1905). The French poet Blaise Cendrars was later to represent himself as on a Russian train on its way to Manchuria at the time in his La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France (1913) and energetically evoked the results of the war along the way:\\nI saw the silent trains the black trains returning from the Far East and passing like phantoms…\\nAt Talga 100,000 wounded were dying for lack of care\\nI visited the hospitals of Krasnoyarsk\\nAnd at Khilok we encountered a long convoy of soldiers who had lost their minds\\nIn the pesthouses I saw gaping gashes wounds bleeding full blast\\nAnd amputated limbs danced about or soared through the raucous air \\nMuch later, the Scottish poet Douglas Dunn devoted an epistolary poem in verse to the naval war in The Donkey's Ears: Politovsky’s Letters Home (2000). This follows the voyage of the Russian Imperial Navy flagship Kniaz to its sinking at the battle of Tsushima.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nFiction\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nFictional coverage of the war began even before it was over. An early example was Allen Upward’s The International Spy, being the secret history of the Russo-Japanese War (1904). Set in both Russia and Japan, it ends with the Dogger Bank incident involving the Baltic Fleet. The political thinking displayed there is typical of the time. There is great admiration for the Japanese, who were English allies. Russia is in turmoil, but the main impetus towards war is not imperialism as such but commercial forces. \\\"Every student of modern history has remarked the fact that all recent wars have been promoted by great combinations of capitalists. The causes which formerly led to war between nation and nation have ceased to operate\\\" (p. 40). The true villain plotting in the background, however, is the German Emperor, seeking to destabilise the European balance of power in his country’s favour. Towards the end of the novel, the narrator steals a German submarine and successfully foils a plot to involve the English in the war.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe submarine motif reappeared in George Griffith’s science fiction novel, The Stolen Submarine (1904), although in this case it is a French super-submarine which its developer sells to the Russians for use against the Japanese in another tale of international intrigue.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThough most English-language fiction of the period took the Japanese side, the Rev. W. W. Walker’s Canadian novella, Alter Ego (1907), is an exception. It features a Canadian volunteer in the Russian army who, on his return, agrees to talk about his experiences to an isolated upcountry community and relates his part in the battle of Mukden. Though this incident only occupies two of the book’s six chapters, it is used to illustrate the main message there, that war is \\\"anti-Christian and barbarous, except in a defensive sense\\\" (Ch.3).\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nVarious aspects of the war were also common in contemporary children’s fiction. Categorised as Boys' Own adventure stories, they offer few insights into the conflict, being generally based on news articles and sharing unreflectingly in the contemporary culture of imperialism. Among these, Herbert Strang was responsible for two novels: Kobo: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War (1905), told from the Japanese side, and Brown of Moukden (1906), viewed from the Russian side. Three more were written by the prolific American author, Edward Stratemeyer: Under the Mikado's Flag, or Young Soldiers of Fortune (1904); At the Fall of Port Arthur, or a young American in the Japanese navy (1905); and Under Togo for Japan, or Three Young Americans on Land and Sea (1906). Two other English stories begin with the action at Port Arthur and follow the events thereafter: A Soldier of Japan: a tale of the Russo-Japanese War by Captain Frederick Sadleir Brereton, and The North Pacific (1905) by Willis Boyd Allen (1855–1938).\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nTwo more also involve young men fighting in the Japanese navy: Americans in For the Mikado, a Japanese Middy in Action (1905) by Kirk Munroe, and a temporarily disgraced English officer in Under the Ensign of the Rising Sun (1916) by Harry Collingwood, the pen-name of William Joseph Cosens Lancaster (1851–1922), whose speciality was naval fiction.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nRussian novelist Alexey Novikov-Priboy really did serve in the Baltic Fleet and wrote about the conflict on his return, but his early work was suppressed. It was not until the changed political climate under Soviet rule that he began writing his historical epic Tsushima, based on his personal experiences on board the battleship Orel as well as on testimonies of fellow sailors and government archives. The first part was published in 1932, the second in 1935, and the whole novel was later awarded the Stalin Prize. It describes the heroism of Russian sailors and certain officers whose defeat, in accordance with the new Soviet thinking, was due to the criminal negligence of the Imperial Naval command. A German novel by Frank Thiess, originally published as Tsushima in 1936 (and later translated as The Voyage of Forgotten Men), covered the same journey round the world to defeat.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nLater there appeared a first-hand account of the siege of Port Arthur by Alexander Stepanov (1892–1965). He had been present there as the 12-year-old son of a battery commander and his novel, Port Arthur: a historical narrative (1944), is based on his own diaries and his father's notes. The work is considered one of the best historical novels of the Soviet period. A later novel in which the war appears is Valentin Pikul’s The Three Ages of Okini-San (1981). Centred on the life of Vladimir Kokovtsov, who rose through the ranks to admiral of the Russian fleet, it covers the period from the Russo-Japanese War through to the February and October Revolutions. A much later Russian genre novel uses the period of the war as background. This is Boris Akunin's The Diamond Chariot (2003), in the first part of which the detective Erast Fandorin is charged with protecting the Trans-Siberian Railway from Japanese sabotage.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nThe main historical novel dealing with the war from the Japanese side is Shiba Ryōtarō's immense Clouds above the hill, published serially in several volumes between 1968–72. The closely researched story spans the decade from the Sino-Japanese War to the Russo-Japanese War and went on to become the nation’s favourite book.\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nFilmography\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\nSee also film list about Russo-Japanese war\",\n \"Russo-Japanese War\\n\\n* Port Arthur (1936)\\n* Kreiser Varyag (1946)\\n* Nichiro sensō shōri no hishi: Tekichū ōdan sanbyaku-ri (1957)\\n* Meiji tennô to nichiro daisenso (1958)\\n* The Battle of the Japan Sea (1969, 佐藤 勝: 日本海大海戦, Nihonkai-Daikaisen) depicts the naval battles of the war, the attacks on the Port Arthur highlands, and the subterfuge and diplomacy of Japanese agents in Sweden. Admiral Togo is portrayed by Toshiro Mifune.\\n* The Battle of Tsushima (1975) [documentary], depiction of the naval Battle of Tsushima\\n* The Battle of Port Arthur (1980, sometimes referred as 203 Kochi ) depiction of the Siege of Port Arthur\\n* Nihonkai daikaisen: Umi yukaba (1983)\\n* Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983). Russian-born British spy Sidney Reilly's role in providing intelligence that allowed the Japanese surprise attack that started the Siege of Port Arthur is dramatised in the second episode of this TV series \\n* Bogatstvo (2004)\\n* Saka no Ue no Kumo (2009)\"\n]","isConversational":false}}},{"rowIdx":138299,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"qg_4475"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, the story (and movie) about a boy/man who ages in reverse, was written by what great Jazz Age writer?"},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"F. Scott Fitzgerald"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":["francis scott fitzgerald","f fitzgerald","f scott fitzgerald","scott fitzgerald","f francis scott fitzgerald","francis fitzgerald","francis scott key fitzgerald","f s fitzgerald"],"string":"[\n \"francis scott fitzgerald\",\n \"f fitzgerald\",\n \"f scott fitzgerald\",\n \"scott fitzgerald\",\n \"f francis scott fitzgerald\",\n \"francis fitzgerald\",\n \"francis scott key fitzgerald\",\n \"f s fitzgerald\"\n]","isConversational":false},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\n\"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button\" is a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and first published in Colliers Magazine on May 27, 1922. It was subsequently anthologized in his book Tales of the Jazz Age, which is occasionally published as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories.","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nPlot","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nIn 1860 Baltimore, Benjamin is born with the physical appearance of a 70-year-old man, already capable of speech. His father Roger invites neighborhood boys to play with him and orders him to play with children's toys, but Benjamin obeys only to please his father. At five, Benjamin is sent to kindergarten but is quickly withdrawn after he repeatedly falls asleep during child activities.","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nWhen Benjamin turns 12, the Button family realizes that he is aging backwards. At the age of 18, Benjamin enrolls in Yale College, but is sent home by officials, who think he is a 50-year-old lunatic.","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nIn 1880, when Benjamin is 20, his father gives him a control of Roger Button & Co. Wholesale Hardware. He meets the young Hildegarde Moncrief, a daughter of General Moncrief, and falls in love with her. Hildegarde mistakes Benjamin for a 50-year-old brother of Roger Button; she prefers older men and marries him six months later, but remains ignorant of his condition. Years later, Benjamin's business has been successful, but he is tired of Hildegarde because her beauty has faded and she nags him. Bored at home, he enlists in the Spanish–American War in 1898 and achieves great triumph in the military, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He retires from the army to focus on his company, and receives a medal.","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nIn 1910, Benjamin, now looking like a 20-year-old, turns over control of his company to his son, Roscoe, and enrolls at Harvard University. His first year there is a great success: he dominates in football and takes revenge against Yale for rejecting him years before. However, during his junior and senior years he is only 16 years old, too weak to play football and barely able to cope with the academic work.","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nAfter graduation, Benjamin returns home, only to learn that his wife has moved to Italy. He lives with Roscoe, who treats him sternly, and forces Benjamin to call him \"uncle.\" As the years progress, Benjamin grows from a moody teenager into a child. Eventually, Roscoe has a child of his own who later attends kindergarten with Benjamin. After kindergarten, Benjamin slowly begins to lose memory of his earlier life. His memory fades away to the point where he cannot remember anything except his nurse. Everything fades to darkness shortly after.","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nSimilar stories","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nFitzgerald, in his introduction to the story, remarks that he came across a similar plot in Samuel Butler's Note-Books several weeks after publishing Benjamin Button.","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nA story with a similar plot was published in 1921 by the Austrian author Roda Roda in Die sieben Leidenschaften (The seven tempers; Rikola Verlag, Vienna 1922) under the title \"Antonius de Padua Findling\".","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nJ. G. Ballard's 1961 story \"Mr F. is Mr F.\" features a man who regresses from adulthood to infancy when his wife becomes pregnant.","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nIn W. P. Kinsella's 1986 novel, The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, the character Marylyle Baron tells a tale about \"strange happenings\" in Johnson County Iowa: \"The Backwards Plague\" struck in the early 1900s. Young men and women in their late teens to early twenties suddenly started losing body mass. Eventually, they regressed to their birth weight, looking like new born babies. At that point the plague stopped, and its victims began to grow again.","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nIn T. H. White's \"The Once and Future King\", an Arthurian fantasy novel published in 1958, Merlin the magician is depicted as growing younger.","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nIn the comic 2000AD, issue 308, 19 March 1983, there is a story called \"The Reversible Man\" which starts with the man lying on the ground having died and he travels backwards through his life getting younger. He sees his children get 'unborn' and he 'unmeets' his wife and he regresses to babyhood and is eventually unborn himself.","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nAnother story based on a similar plot is The Confessions of Max Tivoli, a novel by Andrew Sean Greer.","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nFilm adaptation","The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\nThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button was released as a motion picture late in 2008 starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and directed by David Fincher. The screenplay differs greatly from the short story. Only the title, Benjamin's name, and most aspects of the aging process are retained in the screenplay."],"string":"[\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\n\\\"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button\\\" is a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and first published in Colliers Magazine on May 27, 1922. It was subsequently anthologized in his book Tales of the Jazz Age, which is occasionally published as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories.\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nPlot\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nIn 1860 Baltimore, Benjamin is born with the physical appearance of a 70-year-old man, already capable of speech. His father Roger invites neighborhood boys to play with him and orders him to play with children's toys, but Benjamin obeys only to please his father. At five, Benjamin is sent to kindergarten but is quickly withdrawn after he repeatedly falls asleep during child activities.\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nWhen Benjamin turns 12, the Button family realizes that he is aging backwards. At the age of 18, Benjamin enrolls in Yale College, but is sent home by officials, who think he is a 50-year-old lunatic.\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nIn 1880, when Benjamin is 20, his father gives him a control of Roger Button & Co. Wholesale Hardware. He meets the young Hildegarde Moncrief, a daughter of General Moncrief, and falls in love with her. Hildegarde mistakes Benjamin for a 50-year-old brother of Roger Button; she prefers older men and marries him six months later, but remains ignorant of his condition. Years later, Benjamin's business has been successful, but he is tired of Hildegarde because her beauty has faded and she nags him. Bored at home, he enlists in the Spanish–American War in 1898 and achieves great triumph in the military, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He retires from the army to focus on his company, and receives a medal.\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nIn 1910, Benjamin, now looking like a 20-year-old, turns over control of his company to his son, Roscoe, and enrolls at Harvard University. His first year there is a great success: he dominates in football and takes revenge against Yale for rejecting him years before. However, during his junior and senior years he is only 16 years old, too weak to play football and barely able to cope with the academic work.\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nAfter graduation, Benjamin returns home, only to learn that his wife has moved to Italy. He lives with Roscoe, who treats him sternly, and forces Benjamin to call him \\\"uncle.\\\" As the years progress, Benjamin grows from a moody teenager into a child. Eventually, Roscoe has a child of his own who later attends kindergarten with Benjamin. After kindergarten, Benjamin slowly begins to lose memory of his earlier life. His memory fades away to the point where he cannot remember anything except his nurse. Everything fades to darkness shortly after.\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nSimilar stories\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nFitzgerald, in his introduction to the story, remarks that he came across a similar plot in Samuel Butler's Note-Books several weeks after publishing Benjamin Button.\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nA story with a similar plot was published in 1921 by the Austrian author Roda Roda in Die sieben Leidenschaften (The seven tempers; Rikola Verlag, Vienna 1922) under the title \\\"Antonius de Padua Findling\\\".\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nJ. G. Ballard's 1961 story \\\"Mr F. is Mr F.\\\" features a man who regresses from adulthood to infancy when his wife becomes pregnant.\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nIn W. P. Kinsella's 1986 novel, The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, the character Marylyle Baron tells a tale about \\\"strange happenings\\\" in Johnson County Iowa: \\\"The Backwards Plague\\\" struck in the early 1900s. Young men and women in their late teens to early twenties suddenly started losing body mass. Eventually, they regressed to their birth weight, looking like new born babies. At that point the plague stopped, and its victims began to grow again.\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nIn T. H. White's \\\"The Once and Future King\\\", an Arthurian fantasy novel published in 1958, Merlin the magician is depicted as growing younger.\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nIn the comic 2000AD, issue 308, 19 March 1983, there is a story called \\\"The Reversible Man\\\" which starts with the man lying on the ground having died and he travels backwards through his life getting younger. He sees his children get 'unborn' and he 'unmeets' his wife and he regresses to babyhood and is eventually unborn himself.\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nAnother story based on a similar plot is The Confessions of Max Tivoli, a novel by Andrew Sean Greer.\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nFilm adaptation\",\n \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\\n\\nThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button was released as a motion picture late in 2008 starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and directed by David Fincher. The screenplay differs greatly from the short story. Only the title, Benjamin's name, and most aspects of the aging process are retained in the screenplay.\"\n]","isConversational":false}}}],"truncated":false,"partial":false},"paginationData":{"pageIndex":1382,"numItemsPerPage":100,"numTotalItems":138384,"offset":138200,"length":100}},"jwt":"eyJhbGciOiJFZERTQSJ9.eyJyZWFkIjp0cnVlLCJwZXJtaXNzaW9ucyI6eyJyZXBvLmNvbnRlbnQucmVhZCI6dHJ1ZX0sImlhdCI6MTc3ODAzMDgzMiwic3ViIjoiL2RhdGFzZXRzL01lbW9yeUFzTW9kYWxpdHkvVHJpdmlhUUEiLCJleHAiOjE3NzgwMzQ0MzIsImlzcyI6Imh0dHBzOi8vaHVnZ2luZ2ZhY2UuY28ifQ.P9CMjvPeHBW1W7sGNabACpfGrqfIUljj8ouq07V1DhnTsNG1t-7ZdKO7ciSXTG2bwkPptmNfXwhs_jXie21MBA","displayUrls":true,"splitSizeSummaries":[{"config":"default","split":"train","numRows":138384,"numBytesParquet":4149441207},{"config":"default","split":"validation","numRows":17944,"numBytesParquet":531588839},{"config":"default","split":"test","numRows":17210,"numBytesParquet":506953567}]},"discussionsStats":{"closed":0,"open":0,"total":0},"fullWidth":true,"hasGatedAccess":true,"hasFullAccess":true,"isEmbedded":false,"savedQueries":{"community":[],"user":[]}}">
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qg_4300 | Featuring William Hartnell in the title role, Nov 23, 1963 saw the debut of what BBC sci-fi series, the world's longest running series in that genre? | Doctor Who | [
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"William Hartnell\n\nWilliam Henry Hartnell (8 January 1908 – 23 April 1975), also known as Billy Hartnell or Bill Hartnell, was an English actor. Hartnell played the first incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, from 1963 to 1966. He was also known for his roles as Sergeant Grimshaw, the title character of the fi... |
qg_4302 | What fictional boxer, nicknamed The Italian Stallion, ended with a career record of 57-23-1? | Rocky Balboa | [
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"Boxing\n\nBoxing is a martial art and combat sport in which two people wearing protective gloves throw punches at each other for a predetermined set of time in a boxing ring.",
"Boxing\n\nAmateur boxing is both an Olympic and Commonwealth sport and is a common fixture in most international games—it also has its ... |
qg_4303 | What cartoonist drew Calvin and Hobbes from 1985 to 1995? | Bill Watterson | [
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"Cartoonist\n\nA cartoonist (also comic strip creator) is a visual artist who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is often created for entertainment, political commentary, or advertising. Cartoonists may work in many formats, such as animation, booklets, comic strips, comic books, editorial cartoons, graphi... |
qg_4304 | What Disney Channel star, and favorite of everyone here tonight, was born on Nov 23, 1992 with the first names Destiny Hope? | Miley Cyrus | [
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"miley cyprus",
"destiny hope",
"mily cyrus",
"billy ray cyrus daughter",
"m cyrus",
"miley cirrus",
"happy hippie foundation",
"mandy jiroux",
"mai... | [
"Disney Channel\n\nDisney Channel (originally called The Disney Channel from 1983 to 1997 and commonly shortened to Disney from 1997 to 2002 and stylized as Disney CHANNEL since 2002) is an American basic cable and satellite television network that serves as the flagship property of owner Disney Channels Worldwide,... |
qg_4307 | The 2009 Major League Soccer title game, pitting Real Salt Lake against the Los Angeles Galaxy, was hosted in what US city this year? | Seattle | [
"seattleites",
"seatle",
"jet city",
"seattle wash",
"seattle washington usa",
"seattle us wa",
"weather in seattle",
"emerald city washington",
"seattleans",
"seattle united states",
"city of seattle",
"舍路",
"st anne seattle",
"seattle weekly news",
"seattle",
"seattle s",
"seattle ... | [
"Major League Soccer\n\nMajor League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league, sanctioned by U.S. Soccer, that represents the sport's highest level in both the United States and Canada. MLS constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada. The league is composed ... |
qg_4311 | What movie, a staple of the midnight circuit, is the longest running theatrical release in film history, having first been released on September 26, 1975? | Rocky Horror Picture Show | [
"rhps",
"trhps",
"brad majors",
"rhpc",
"revenge of old queen",
"doctor everett scott",
"dr everett scott",
"frank n furter",
"rocky horror picture show riff raff",
"rocky horror picture show",
"janet weiss rocky horror",
"denton affair",
"dr frank n furter"
] | [
"The Rocky Horror Picture Show\n\nThe Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 British musical comedy horror film directed by Jim Sharman. The screenplay was written by Sharman and Richard O'Brien based on the 1973 musical stage production The Rocky Horror Show, music, book and lyrics by O'Brien. The production is a par... |
qg_4312 | Name the year: Pixar Animation opens it's doors; Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after launch; Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone's secret vault on TV; The Statue of Liberty is reopened; Fox Broadcasting is born; | 1986 | [
"one thousand nine hundred and eighty six"
] | [
"Pixar\n\nPixar Animation Studios (Pixar), is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. Pixar is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Luxo Jr., a character from the short film of the same name, is the studio's mascot.",
"Pixar\n\nPixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, p... |
qg_4313 | Nov 25, 1867 saw Alfred Nobel patent what famous invention that led to the immense fortune that allowed him to endow the various prizes that bear his name? | Dynamite | [
"dynamite",
"dynamited",
"dinamite"
] | [
"Alfred Nobel\n\nAlfred Bernhard Nobel (; ; 21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer.",
"Alfred Nobel\n\nKnown for inventing dynamite, Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer t... |
qg_4315 | In Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe, what does the title character name the native he befriends? | Friday | [
"parasceve",
"friday 12th",
"fryeeday",
"tgiff",
"thank goodness it s friday",
"prosabbaton",
"prosábbaton",
"frigg s day",
"friday"
] | [
"Robinson Crusoe\n\nRobinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a travelogue of true incidents. It was published under the full title ... |
qg_4316 | Boris Badenov, Natasha Fatale, and Fearless Leader are routinely thwarted in their various nefarious plots by what famous duo? | Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Bullwinkle the Moose | [
"rocky flying squirrel and bullwinkle moose"
] | [
"Boris Badenov\n\nBoris Badenov (Борис Баденов) is the main antagonist of the 1959-1964 animated cartoons Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show, collectively referred to as The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show for short. He was voiced by Paul Frees.",
"Boris Badenov\n\nBadenov's name is a play on that of the 16t... |
qg_4318 | November 22, 1955 saw the untimely death of Shemp Howard. With what group is he more famously linked? | The Three Stooges | [
"three stooges",
"dewey shaftem howe",
"comedy iii productions",
"dope slap",
"three stooges in color",
"3 stooges"
] | [
"Shemp Howard\n\nShemp Howard (March 11, 1895 – November 22, 1955 ) was an American actor and comedian. Born Samuel Horwitz, he was called \"Shemp\" because \"Sam\" came out that way in his mother's thick Litvak accent. He is best known today for his role as the third stooge in the Three Stooges, a role he first ... |
qg_4319 | Malibu Stacy is the Barbie clone as featured on what TV series? | The Simpsons | [
"flanders tv show",
"good vs evil simpsons tv ad",
"simpsons com",
"simpsons tv series",
"list of advertisements featuring simpsons characters",
"simpsons jokes",
"culturally significant words and phrases from simpsons",
"beach simpsons tv ad",
"list of made up words in simpsons",
"jokes on simpso... | [
"Barbie\n\nBarbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration.",
"Barbie\n\nBarbie is the figurehead of a brand of Mattel d... |
qg_4320 | Paul Shaffer, Canadian and bandleader, was born on Nov 28, 1949. On which entertainers show does he provide the music? | The Late Show with David Letterman | [
"biff henderson s cavalcade of surprisingly spot on superstar celebrity look alikes",
"lsdl",
"is this anything",
"gerard mulligan",
"oprah log",
"late show with david letterman",
"lswdl"
] | [
"Paul Shaffer\n\nPaul Allen Wood Shaffer, CM (; born November 28, 1949) is a Canadian-American singer, actor, voice actor, author, comedian, and multi-instrumentalist who served as David Letterman's musical director, band leader and sidekick on the entire run of both Late Night with David Letterman (1982–1993) and ... |
qg_4321 | Father and son Baby Doc Duvalier and Papa Doc Duvalier spent 30 years as leaders of which country? | Haiti | [
"arrondissements and communes of haiti",
"iso 3166 1 ht",
"history of haitian nationality",
"république d haïti",
"hayti",
"name of haiti",
"ayiti",
"haitian ancestry",
"repiblik ayiti",
"republic of haiti",
"haïti",
"haiti",
"administrative divisions of haiti",
"subdivisions of haiti",
... | [
"Jean-Claude Duvalier\n\nJean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed “Baby Doc” () (3 July 19514 October 2014), was the President of Haiti from 1971 until his overthrow by a popular uprising in 1986. He succeeded his father François \"Papa Doc\" Duvalier as the ruler of Haiti after the latter's death in 1971. After assuming po... |
qg_4322 | What noted statesman once expressed a preference for the turkey instead of the bald eagle as the national bird of the U.S.? | Benjamin Franklin | [
"tradesman of philidelphia",
"abigail twitterfield",
"busybody",
"franklinic",
"abigail afterwit",
"benjamin ben franklin",
"ben franklin",
"sidi mehemet ibrahim",
"betty diligent",
"benjamin franklin bust",
"franklinian",
"anthony afterwit",
"benjamin franklin",
"friend to poor",
"ben f... | [
"Bald eagle\n\nThe bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus, from Greek hali \"sea\", aiētos \"eagle\", leuco \"white\", cephalos \"head\") is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla). Its range includes m... |
qg_4323 | First published on November 24, 1859, what book had the alternate title the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life? | On The Origin of Species | [
"on origin of species",
"origin of species chapter 5",
"origin of species chapter 3",
"on origin of species by means of natural selection",
"origin of species introduction",
"origin of species chapter 10",
"origin of species chapter 11",
"origin of species glossary",
"origin of species chapter 7",
... | [
"On the Origin of Species\n\nOn the Origin of Species, published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through... |
qg_4324 | Bill Bixby starred as the human Dr. Bruce Banner in the 1970's TV series The Incredible Hulk. Which former Mr. Universe portrayed the Hulk in that very same series? | Lou Ferrigno | [
"lou ferrrigno",
"lou ferigno",
"ferrigno",
"lou farigno",
"lou ferrigno",
"lou ferringo",
"lou ferrigno jr",
"little gurly man",
"shanna ferrigno"
] | [
"The Incredible Hulk (1978 TV series)\n\nThe Incredible Hulk is an American television series based on the Marvel Comics character The Hulk. The series aired on the CBS television network and starred Bill Bixby as David Banner, Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk, and Jack Colvin as Jack McGee.",
"The Incredible Hulk (1978 ... |
qg_4326 | Dan (D. B.) Cooper leapt from a 727 operated by what airline, disappearing into the inky dark with $200,000 cash, the only unsolved U.S. aircraft hijacking? | Northwest | [
"ordinal direction",
"north south east and west",
"direction finding watch",
"northeast",
"intermediate direction",
"southeast direction",
"5 cardinal point",
"intermediate directions",
"ordinal directions",
"cardinal points",
"southeast ordinal direction",
"cardinal direction",
"northeast d... | [
"Aircraft hijacking\n\nAircraft hijacking (also known as air piracy or aircraft piracy, especially within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States, and informally as skyjacking) is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group.[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/49/46502] In mos... |
qg_4330 | November 27, 1701 saw the birth of a Swedish astronomer, who proposed what temperature scale where in which water freezes at 0 degrees and boils at 100 degrees? | Celsius | [
"degree centigrade",
"degrees centigrade",
"centigrade scale",
"celsius temperature",
"centigrade temperature",
"degree c",
"℃",
"degc",
"degree celsius",
"c°",
"centesimal degree",
"centigrade degree",
"centigrade",
"centigrade temperature scale",
"cdeg",
"degree celcius",
"centrigr... | [
"List of Dutch inventions and discoveries\n\nThe Netherlands, despite its comparatively modest size and population, had a considerable part in the making of the modern society. Rybczynski, Witold (1987). Home: A Short History of an Idea. According to Witold Rybczynski’s Home: A Short History of an Idea, private spa... |
qg_4331 | Whos missing: Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers, Minnesota Timberwolves? | Oklahoma City Thunder | [
"o k thunder",
"okla city thunder",
"nba oklahoma city franchise",
"oklahoma city nba",
"okc thunder",
"oklahoma city nba franchise",
"oklahoma city national basketball association team",
"oklahoma city nba team",
"o k c thunder",
"oklahoma city thunder",
"ok thunder",
"oklahoma city nba seaso... | [
"Denver Nuggets\n\nThe Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as a charter franchi... |
qg_4332 | Is the sea horse a mammal, fish or mollusk? | Fish | [
"🐟",
"finfish",
"marine fish",
"fishes or fish",
"fisshes",
"sick fish",
"ichthyofauna",
"fishbones",
"fishes",
"inchthyic",
"fush",
"fish vs fishes",
"fishes versus fish",
"fish proteins",
"fish or fishes",
"fish",
"fish biology",
"piscines",
"ichthyoid",
"fin fish",
"fish ... | [
"Seahorse\n\nSeahorse is the name given to 54 species of small marine fishes in the genus Hippocampus. \"Hippocampus\" comes from the Ancient Greek word hippos meaning \"horse\" and kampos meaning \"sea monster\". The word \"seahorse\" is often written as two separate words (sea horse), or hyphenated (sea-horse). ... |
qg_4333 | What drink consists of 5 parts Vodka, 2 parts Coffee liqueur, and 3 parts fresh cream? | White Russian | [
"white russian disambiguation",
"white russians",
"russian whites",
"22white 22 russian",
"22white 22 russians",
"white russian"
] | [
"Vodka\n\nVodka (, ) is a distilled beverage composed primarily of water and ethanol, sometimes with traces of impurities and flavorings. Traditionally, vodka is made by the distillation of fermented cereal grains or potatoes, though some modern brands use other substances, such as fruits or sugar.",
"Vodka\n\nSi... |
qg_4334 | In response to the crappy reputation High Fructose Corn Syrup has these days, the Corn Refiners Association has applied for permission to rename it to what? | Corn Sugar | [
"corn sugar disambiguation",
"corn sugar"
] | [
"High fructose corn syrup\n\nHigh-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) (also called glucose-fructose, isoglucose and glucose-fructose syrup ) is a sweetener made from corn starch that has been processed by glucose isomerase to convert some of its glucose into fructose. HFCS was first marketed in the early 1970s by the Cli... |
qg_4335 | According to the pangram, the quick what jumps over the lazy dog? | brown fox | [] | [
"Pangram\n\nA Pangram (, pan gramma, \"every letter\") or holoalphabetic sentence for a given alphabet is a sentence using every letter of the alphabet at least once. Pangrams have been used to display typefaces, test equipment, and develop skills in handwriting, calligraphy, and keyboarding.",
"Pangram\n\nThe be... |
qg_4337 | “4 out of 5 dentists surveyed would recommend sugarless gum to their patients who chew gum.” was used to advertise what company’s product? | Trident | [
"leister",
"trident",
"fuscina",
"🔱",
"leisters",
"fascina",
"tridents",
"gig spear",
"trisool"
] | [
"Trident (gum)\n\nTrident is a brand of sugar free chewing gum. It was introduced by Cadbury in the United Kingdom. In many other European countries, Trident is branded as Stimorol gum; it is generally the same as Trident.",
"Trident (gum)\n\nBackground",
"Trident (gum)\n\nWhen artificial sweeteners became wide... |
qg_4338 | Broadcast on live TV, what Dallas nightclub owner shot and killed total asshat Lee Harvey Oswald? | Jack Ruby | [
"tom howard attorney",
"jack rubenstein",
"jack leon ruby",
"jacob leon rubenstein",
"karen bennett carlin",
"jack leon rubenstein",
"jack ruby and mafia",
"jack ruby",
"jacob rubenstein"
] | [
"Lee Harvey Oswald\n\nLee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was an American sniper who assassinated President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. According to five U.S. government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1963), the Warren Commission (196... |
qg_4344 | On November 22, 1986, which boxer became the youngest WBC Heavyweight champion, at age 20 years, 4 months, when he scored a TKO over Trevor Berbick in the second round? | Mike Tyson | [
"mike g tyson",
"malik abdul aziz",
"michael tyson",
"michael gerard tyson",
"iron mike tyson",
"malik abdul azeez",
"desiree washington",
"exodus tyson",
"mike tyson"
] | [
"Boxing\n\nBoxing is a martial art and combat sport in which two people wearing protective gloves throw punches at each other for a predetermined set of time in a boxing ring.",
"Boxing\n\nAmateur boxing is both an Olympic and Commonwealth sport and is a common fixture in most international games—it also has its ... |
qg_4346 | Released on Nov 22, 1995, what Oscar nominated movie was the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery? | Toy Story | [
"toy story 1",
"you are toy",
"to infinity and beyond catchphrase",
"toy story",
"to infinity and beyond",
"toy story soundtrack",
"to infity and beyond catchphrase",
"toy story 3 d",
"toystory",
"production of toy story",
"live action toy story",
"toy story movie"
] | [
"Frozen (2013 film)\n\nFrozen is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 53rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Snow Qu... |
qg_4347 | Mario Batali, Cat Cora, Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto and Micael Symon compete on what show? | Iron Chef: America | [
"iron chef america series",
"iron chef america"
] | [
"Mario Batali\n\nMario Francesco Batali (born September 19, 1960) is an American chef, writer, restaurateur, and media personality. In addition to his classical culinary training, he is an expert on the history and culture of Italian cuisine, including regional and local variations. Batali co-owns restaurants in N... |
qg_4349 | What is the name of the pawn shop featured in the hit History Channel show Pawn Stars? | Gold & Silver Pawn Shop | [
"gold silver pawn shop",
"pawn star",
"pawnstars",
"pawn stars",
"world famous gold silver pawn shop",
"i got buddy"
] | [
"Pawn Stars\n\nPawn Stars is an American reality television series, shown on History, and produced by Leftfield Pictures. The series is filmed in Las Vegas, Nevada, where it chronicles the daily activities at the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, a 24-hour family business opened in 1989 and operated by patria... |
qg_4350 | Known as the Beehive State, what was the 45th state to join the Union on January 4, 1896? | Utah | [
"history of mining in utah",
"geography of utah",
"45th state",
"utah united states",
"youtah",
"us ut",
"transportation in utah",
"utahn",
"state of utah",
"beehive state",
"salt lake seagulls",
"transport in utah",
"utah state",
"politics of utah",
"utah state nickname",
"forty fifth... | [
"Utah\n\nUtah ( or) is a state in the western United States. It became the 45th state admitted to the U.S. on January 4, 1896. Utah is the 13th-largest by area, 31st-most-populous, and 10th-least-densely populated of the 50 United States. Utah has a population of nearly 3 million (Census estimate for July 1, 2015),... |
qg_4351 | Sparking a 1970s TV show, which military branch conducted the Project Blue Book UFO study? | Air Force | [
"air force",
"airforce",
"air forces",
"air combat units"
] | [
"Project Blue Book\n\nProject Blue Book was one of a series of systematic studies of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) conducted by the United States Air Force. It started in 1952, and it was the third study of its kind (the first two were projects Sign (1947) and Grudge (1949)). A termination order was given for ... |
qg_4354 | What Washington city, incorporated on Nov 29, 1881, uses the motto Near Nature, Near Perfect? | Spokane | [
"spokane",
"spokane spokane valley coeur d alene wa id combined statistical area",
"spokompton",
"west spokane washington",
"spokane spokane valley coeur d alene wa id csa",
"spokane wash",
"spokane washington metropolitan area",
"un locode usgeg",
"spokane metropolitan area",
"spokane spokane val... | [
"Spokane, Washington\n\nSpokane ( ) is a city in the state of Washington, in the northwestern United States. Spokane is the seat of Spokane County. It is located on the Spokane River, west of the Rocky Mountain foothills in eastern Washington, 92 mi south of the Canadian border, approximately 20 mi from the Washing... |
qg_4356 | What bow-tie wearing TV host and comedian, who got his start on Almost Live!, is known as the Science Guy? | Bill Nye | [
"william sanford nye",
"bill ny",
"bill nye science guy",
"billy nye",
"nye bill",
"bill nuy",
"science guy",
"william sanford 22bill 22 nye",
"nye labs",
"bill nigh",
"bill bill bill bill",
"bill nye",
"william s nye",
"will ny"
] | [
"Almost Live!\n\nAlmost Live! is a local sketch comedy television show in Seattle, Washington, USA, produced and broadcast by NBC affiliate KING-TV from 1984 to 1999. A re-packaged version of the show also aired on Comedy Central from 1992 to 1993, and episodes aired on WGRZ-TV in the late 1990s. The show was broad... |
qg_4357 | What was the van that Scooby Doo and friends travelled around in called? | The mystery Machine | [
"scooby feces",
"scooby doo tv series",
"i would have gotten away with it if it weren t for you meddling kids",
"mystery machine",
"black knight ghost",
"list of scooby doo episodes",
"zentuo",
"scooby doo",
"skooby doo",
"momsy and dada doo",
"scooby do",
"scoobydo",
"adult themes and scoob... | [
"Scooby-Doo\n\nScooby-Doo is an American animated cartoon franchise, comprising several animated television series produced from 1969 to the present day. The original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears in 1969. This Saturday-morning carto... |
qg_4359 | Nov 30, 1835 saw the birth of what famed American humorist and novelist, known for works such as The Prince and the Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, along with some other famous works? | Mark Twain | [
"twain mark",
"samuel longhorn clemens",
"samuel l clemens",
"samuel langhorne clemens",
"sl clemens",
"reports of my death are greatly exaggerated",
"sam clemens",
"samuel langhorn clemens",
"soleather",
"twainesque",
"mark twain",
"sam langhorne clemens",
"marc twain",
"samuel longhorne ... | [
"The Prince and the Pauper\n\nThe Prince and the Pauper is a novel by American author Mark Twain. It was first published in 1881 in Canada, before its 1882 publication in the United States. The novel represents Twain's first attempt at historical fiction. Set in 1547, it tells the story of two young boys who are id... |
qg_4360 | Arboreal describes a creature which commonly lives in what? | trees | [
"wood layers",
"big tree",
"sapling",
"parts of tree",
"treee",
"treed",
"arboreus",
"tree",
"macrophanerophyte",
"🌳"
] | [
"Arboreal locomotion\n\nArboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. The habitats pose numerous mechanical challenges to animals moving th... |
qg_4362 | Popularized in a speech by Winston Churchill, what was the popular name for the ideological and physical boundary between Western and Eastern Europe during the Cold War? | Iron Curtain | [
"iron curtain nuclear battle",
"sinews of peace",
"iron curtain speech",
"eiserner vorhang",
"jernteppe",
"iron curtain",
"teló d acer"
] | [
"Winston Churchill\n\nSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a non-academic historian, a writer (as Winston... |
qg_4363 | What school does Harry Potter attend? | Hogwarts | [
"hogwarts houses",
"chamber of silent",
"slytherin",
"hogwarts school",
"ordinary wizarding level",
"hogwards",
"n e w t",
"hogwart s",
"list of hogwarts quidditch teams",
"hogwarts express",
"hogwart s school of witchcraft and wizardry",
"newt",
"hogwarts layout",
"locations in hogwarts",... | [
"Harry Potter\n\nHarry Potter is a series of fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the life of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Ha... |
qg_4364 | How many players per team are there in a game of beach volleyball? | 2 | [
"two"
] | [
"Team\n\nA team is a group of people or other animals linked in a common purpose. Human teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.",
"Team\n\nA group does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary... |
qg_4366 | On a traditional statue of the courtroom standard Lady Justice, she holds a set of scales in her left hand and what item in the other? | Sword | [
"single edges",
"double edged sword",
"doubleedge swords",
"doubleedged",
"blade weapon",
"single edge swords",
"oneedged sword",
"double edged",
"blade weapons",
"single edged swords",
"⚔",
"european medieval sword",
"twoedged sword",
"double edge sword",
"sword weapon",
"two edge swo... | [
"Lady Justice\n\nIustitia, Justitia or Lady Justice (, the Roman goddess of Justice, who is equivalent to the Greek goddess Themis) is an allegorical personification of the moral force in judicial systems. Her attributes are a blindfold, a balance and a sword. She often appears as a pair with Prudentia, who hold... |
qg_4368 | Not counting hybrid clubs, a standard golf club bag includes Woods, wedges, chippers, putters, and what? | Irons | [
"irons surname",
"irons",
"irons disambiguation"
] | [
"Hybrid (golf)\n\nA hybrid is a type of club used in the sport of golf with a design borrowing from both irons and woods while differing from both. The name \"hybrid\" comes from genetics to denote a mixture of two different species with desirable characteristics of both, and the term here has been generalized, com... |
qg_4370 | Used to carry oxygen throughout your body, you create billions of new red blood cells every day. Where in your body are those red blood cells created? | Bone marrow | [
"yellow bone marrow",
"myeloic tissue",
"red bone marrow",
"stroma of bone marrow",
"bone marrow stroma",
"bone marrow",
"bone marrow stromal cells",
"medulla ossea",
"bone marrow barrier",
"bone marrow cells",
"bone marrow donation",
"bone marrow diseases",
"myeloid to erythroid ratio",
"... | [
"Red blood cell\n\nRed blood cells (RBCs), also called erythrocytes, are the most common type of blood cell and the vertebrate organism's principal means of delivering oxygen (O2) to the body tissues—via blood flow through the circulatory system. RBCs take up oxygen in the lungs or gills and release it into tissu... |
qg_4372 | From the Latin ferrum, what element, with an atomic number 26, uses the symbol Fe? | Iron | [
"nephro fer",
"iorn",
"fe 40",
"reduced iron",
"ferryl",
"element 26",
"iron compounds",
"iron rope",
"iron truss",
"ferretts",
"feratab",
"ed in sol",
"yieronia",
"ferrousal",
"extraction of iron",
"7439 89 6",
"siderol",
"feostat",
"iron essay",
"ferrous compounds",
"ferro ... | [
"Iron\n\nIron is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from , ultimately from ferre to bear or carry) and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's cr... |
qg_4374 | Consisting of 20 quires of 25 sheets, the ream is a common retail unit of what product? | Paper | [
"sheets of paper",
"printer paper",
"granite paper",
"paper",
"paper sheet",
"loose paper",
"sheet of paper",
"homemade paper",
"paper stock",
"scratch paper",
"papper"
] | [
"Units of paper quantity\n\nVarious measures of paper quantity have been and are in use. Although there are no S.I. units such as quires and bales, there are ISOISO 4046-3:2002 Paper, board, pulps and related terms – Vocabulary – Part 3: Paper-making terminology (2002), quoted in ISO 22414:2004(E) Paper – Cut-size... |
qg_4375 | Using the word correctly, if something is 'decimated', by what percentage is it reduced? | Ten percent | [
"fourplay double exposure album",
"double exposure band",
"ten percent",
"locker room album"
] | [
"Percentage\n\nIn mathematics, a percentage is a number or ratio expressed as a fraction of 100. It is often denoted using the percent sign, \"%\", or the abbreviations \"pct.\", \"pct\"; sometimes the abbreviation \"pc\" is also used. A percentage is a dimensionless number (pure number).",
"Percentage\n\nExampl... |
qg_4378 | What can be a plot, a projectile propellant, and a type of green tea? | Gunpowder | [
"nitrous powder",
"火藥",
"blackpowder",
"serpentine powder",
"black gunpowder",
"blasting powder",
"black powder",
"gun powder",
"gunpowder",
"process of corning black powder",
"invention of powder"
] | [
"Green tea\n\nGreen tea is made from Camellia sinensis leaves that have not undergone the same withering and oxidation applied when processing Camellia sinensis into oolong tea and black tea. Green tea originated in China, but its production has spread to many countries in Asia.",
"Green tea\n\nSeveral varieties ... |
qg_4379 | In what US city did seamstress Rosa Parks refuse to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, thereby getting arrested and starting a year long bus boycott? | Montgomery, AL | [
"cradle of confederacy",
"montgomery al",
"capital of alabama",
"montgomery ala",
"un locode usmgm",
"downtown montgomery alabama",
"montgomery alabama",
"southern convention"
] | [
"Rosa Parks\n\nRosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African American civil rights activist, whom the United States Congress called \"the first lady of civil rights\" and \"the mother of the freedom movement\". Her birthday, February 4, and the day she was arrested, December 1, ... |
qg_4380 | According to the song, who left Kenny Rogers with four hungry children and crops in the field? | Lucille | [
"lucille song",
"lucille",
"lucille disambiguation"
] | [
"Kenny Rogers\n\nKenneth Ray \"Kenny\" Rogers (born August 21, 1938) is an American singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.",
"Kenny Rogers\n\nThough he has been most successful with country audiences, he has charted more than 120 hit singles across various... |
qg_4383 | Who's missing: Carrie Bradshaw, Samantha Jones, Charlotte York | Miranda Hobbes | [
"miranda hobbes"
] | [
"Sex and the City\n\nSex and the City is an American romantic comedy television series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of 94 episodes. Throughout its six-year run, the show received contributions from various producers, writers and... |
qg_4384 | What is the most populous city in the great state of Alaska? | Anchorage | [
"un locode usanc",
"woodrow alaska",
"city of anchorage",
"anchorage county",
"municipality of anchorage alaska",
"brownville alaska",
"greater anchorage area borough",
"anchorage municipality census area ak",
"anchorage municipality census area alaska",
"city and borough of anchorage alaska",
"... | [
"Alaska\n\nAlaska is a U.S. state situated in the northwest extremity of the Americas. The Canadian administrative divisions of British Columbia and Yukon border the state to the east; it has a maritime border with Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort seas–the south... |
qg_4385 | What is the name of the whaling ship that is the focus of the classic Moby Dick? | Pequod | [
"pequod",
"pequod disambiguation"
] | [
"Moby-Dick\n\nMoby-Dick; or, The Whale is a novel by American writer Herman Melville, published in 1851 during the period of the American Renaissance. Sailor Ishmael tells the story of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the white whale which on the previous whaling ... |
qg_4386 | What nursery rhyme concludes with Violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you? | Roses are red | [
"roses are red disambiguation",
"sugar is sweet",
"roses are red violets are blue",
"roses are red",
"roses are red song"
] | [
"Roses Are Red\n\n\"Roses Are Red\" can refer to a specific poem, or a class of poems inspired by that poem. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19798. It is most commonly used as a love poem.",
"Roses Are Red\n\nLyrics",
"Roses Are Red\n\nThe most common modern form of the poem is:",
"Roses Are Red\n\nR... |
qg_4388 | The 4th largest fast food chain, and second largest hamburger chain (by store numbers), what company opened its first store in Miami, Fla on December 4, 1954? | Burger King | [
"big buckin chicken",
"burger king archive 4",
"burger king archive 5",
"burger king",
"bk lounge",
"burger king worldwide",
"burger king corporation",
"burger king worldwide inc",
"bk com",
"burger king archive 3",
"burger king archive 7",
"burgerking",
"burger king archive 2",
"burger ki... | [
"Miami\n\nMiami (; ) is a seaport city on the Atlantic Ocean in south Florida. As the seat of Miami-Dade County, the municipality is the principal, central, and most populous of its metropolitan area and part of the second-most populous metropolis in the southeastern United States. According to the U.S. Census Bu... |
qg_4390 | In the world of Skeet shooting, also known as Inanimate Bird Shooting, what is the name of the small round disk that serves as the target? | Clay pigeon | [
"clay pigeon disambiguation",
"clay pigeon",
"clay pigeons disambiguation",
"clay pigeons"
] | [
"Skeet shooting\n\nSkeet shooting is a recreational and competitive activity where participants, using shotguns, attempt to break clay targets mechanically flung into the air from two fixed stations at high speed from a variety of angles.",
"Skeet shooting\n\nSkeet is one of the three major disciplines of competi... |
qg_4391 | Given its own glass, what drink consists of 4 parts whisky, 1 sugar cube, 2 dashes Angostura bitters, and a splash of soda water? | An Old Fashioned | [
"oldfashioned",
"old fashionedness",
"old fashioned",
"old fashioned disambiguation"
] | [
"Angostura bitters\n\nAngostura bitters is a concentrated bitters, or botanically infused alcoholic mixture, made of water, 44.7% ethanol, gentian, herbs and spices, by House of Angostura in Trinidad and Tobago. It is typically used for flavouring beverages or (less often) food. The bitters were first produced in... |
qg_4394 | The International Court of Justice, otherwise known as the World Court, is located in what country? | The Netherlands | [
"capitals of holland",
"northern netherlands",
"nederlandia",
"pays bas",
"olanda",
"climate of netherlands",
"neatherlands",
"netherland",
"european netherlands",
"nyderlandai",
"administrative divisions of netherlands",
"dutch inhabitants",
"mainland netherlands",
"iso 3166 1 nl",
"sub... | [
"International Court of Justice\n\nThe International Court of Justice (; commonly referred to as the World Court or ICJ) is the primary judicial branch of the United Nations (UN). Seated in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, the court settles legal disputes submitted to it by states and provides advisory o... |
qg_4395 | November 30, 2004 saw what Jeopardy! champion, who holds the record for the most consecutive wins on the show, lose to Nancy Zerg on his 75th appearance? | Ken Jennings | [
"nancy zerg",
"ken jennings iii",
"ken william jennings iii",
"ken jennings",
"ken jennings game summaries",
"kenneth william jennings iii",
"kenneth wayne jennings iii"
] | [
"Jeopardy!\n\nJeopardy! is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show features a quiz competition in which contestants are presented with general knowledge clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in the form of questions. The original daytime version debuted on NBC on M... |
qg_4396 | On December 1, 1955, who was famously arrested on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to obey bus driver James Blake's order to move to the back of the bus, sparking a year long boycott of the bus service? | Rosa Parks | [
"rosa lee parks",
"rosa l parks",
"parks rosa lee",
"rosa mccauley",
"rose parks",
"rosa parks",
"joseph skipper",
"death of rosa parks",
"rosa parkes",
"rosa park",
"rosa louise parks",
"rosa louise mccauley"
] | [
"Montgomery, Alabama\n\nMontgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama and is the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for Richard Montgomery, it is located on the Alabama River, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 Census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764. It is the second-largest city in... |
qg_4397 | November 30 is a time to celebrate the birthday of what TV personality, known as The World’s Oldest Teenager, who hosted American Bandstand and still does the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve broadcast every December 31st? | Dick Clark | [
"richard w clark",
"dick clark",
"for now dick clark so long",
"richard wagstaff clark",
"richard clark entertainer",
"dick clark entertainer",
"richard 22dick 22 clark"
] | [
"American Bandstand\n\nAmerican Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer. The show featured teenagers dancing to Top 40 music introduced by Clark; at least one popular ... |
qg_4398 | Dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic, today is World AIDS day. What color ribbon is worn to mark the day? | Red | [
"red colour",
"incarnadined",
"reddened",
"aztec red",
"255 0 0",
"color red",
"incarnadines",
"reddeners",
"reddens",
"raudur",
"firebrick red",
"incarnadine",
"redest",
"reddener",
"rauður",
"red political adjective",
"redly",
"reddishness",
"redness",
"red",
"reddest",
"... | [
"Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS\n\nHIV/AIDS is a global pandemic. As of 2014, approximately 36.9 million people are living with HIV globally. In 2012, approximately 17.2 million are men, 16.8 million are women and 3.4 million are less than 15 years old.[http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/unaid... |
qg_4399 | By what name, shared by a Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman movie, do the sports teams from The University of Alabama play? | The Crimson Tide | [
"crimson tide",
"crimson tide disambiguation"
] | [
"Denzel Washington\n\nDenzel Hayes Washington, Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received three Golden Globe awards, a Tony Award, and two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for the historical war drama film Glory (1989) and Best Actor for his role as a corrupt cop in the ... |
qg_4400 | “Dirty Harry” Callahan is a cop in what city’s police department? | San Francisco | [
"san francisco city and county",
"mckinley elementary school san francisco",
"san francisco california u s",
"san fransciso",
"city by bay",
"friscoe",
"climate of san francisco",
"san francisco calif",
"san francisco california us",
"san francisco usa",
"weather in san francisco",
"san franci... | [
"Dirty Harry (character)\n\nInspector Harold Francis \"Dirty Harry\" Callahan is a fictional character in the Dirty Harry film series, encompassing Dirty Harry (1971), Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983) and The Dead Pool (1988). Callahan is portrayed by Clint Eastwood in each movie.",
... |
qg_4403 | The first issue of Playboy magazine was on newsstands in December, 1953. Which starlet/model was featured as the first centerfold? | Marilyn Monroe | [
"norma jeane",
"norma jean dougherty",
"norma jean dimaggio",
"norma jean baker",
"marylin monroe",
"marilyn munro",
"marilyn monroe miller",
"norma jean mortenson",
"norma jean baker mortenson",
"marliyn monroe",
"charles stanley gifford",
"norma jean mortensen",
"norma jeane mortenson",
... | [
"Playboy\n\nPlayboy is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. Notable for its centerfolds of nude and semi-nude models (Playmates), Playboy played an important role in t... |
qg_4405 | Taking her stage name from a Queen song, what singer was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in 1986? | Lady Gaga | [
"list of lady gaga concerts tours",
"luc carl",
"high princess stache",
"still have fun",
"little monsters fandom",
"ladygaga",
"lady caca",
"fancy pants lady gaga song",
"mother monster",
"list of lady gaga concert tours",
"little monsters social networking site",
"lady gaga band",
"monster... | [
"Stage name\n\nA stage name, also called a screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.",
"Stage name\n\nMotivation to use a stage name",
"Stage name\n\nA performer will often take a stage name because his/her real name is considered unattr... |
qg_4407 | Name the year: The Euro becomes official currency; Mandalay Bay opens in Vegas; Columbine; SpongeBob SquarePants debuts; Lance Armstrong wins his first Tour de France; WTO riots paralyze Seattle; | 1999 | [
"one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine"
] | [
"Mandalay\n\nMandalay ( or; ) is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located 445 mi north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census).",
"Mandalay\n\nMandalay is the economic centre of Upper Burma and considered the centre of Bur... |
qg_4411 | Qualcomm stadium is the home to what NFL team? | San Diego Chargers | [
"san diego chargers depth chart",
"san diego chargers",
"charger s",
"chargers",
"sd chargers",
"los angeles chargers",
"san diego changers",
"logos and uniforms of san diego chargers"
] | [
"Qualcomm Stadium\n\nQualcomm Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in San Diego, California, United States. The stadium opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium and was later known for many years as Jack Murphy Stadium. Since 1997, the stadium's naming rights are owned by Qualcomm, a San Diego-based telecommunications equ... |
qg_4413 | What is the shoemakers model of the human foot called? | A Last | [
"last",
"last disambiguation"
] | [
"Shoemaking\n\nShoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or craftsmansh... |
qg_4414 | Former Representative from the 5th district, Rahm Emanuel was born on Nov 29, 1959. What government position does he hold? | White House Chief of Staff | [
"chief of staff",
"white house chief of staff",
"white house cos",
"chief of staff to president"
] | [
"Rahm Emanuel\n\nRahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician who serves as the 55th mayor of Chicago. A member of the Democratic Party, Emanuel was elected in 2011, becoming Chicago's first Jewish mayor. He was reelected on April 7, 2015.",
"Rahm Emanuel\n\nBorn in Chicago, Emanuel is... |
qg_4415 | Currently the 3rd most popular search engine, what is the name of Microsoft's competitor to Google? | Bing | [
"bing web search engine",
"bing local",
"bing sidebar",
"bing images",
"bing bing search engine",
"ms bing",
"bing com",
"bing answers",
"bing explore",
"bing",
"bing visual search",
"bing and decide",
"bing search engine",
"msn search",
"bing web",
"bing website",
"bing search engin... | [
"Web search engine\n\nA web search engine is a software system that is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are generally presented in a line of results often referred to as search engine results pages (SERPs). The information may be a mix of web pages, images, and other typ... |
qg_4422 | Which famous bodybuilder advertised his ability to transform a "97 pound weakling" into a muscle man? | Charles Atlas | [
"insult that made man out of mac",
"angelo siciliano",
"charles atlas",
"97 pound weakling"
] | [
"Bodybuilding\n\nBodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's musculature. An individual who engages in this activity is referred to as a bodybuilder. In competitive amateur and professional bodybuilding, bodybuilders appear in lineups doing specified poses, and later per... |
qg_4423 | Who's missing? Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer ,John G. Roberts, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor. A bonus point if you can tell me why the missing person is missing. | John Paul Stevens | [
"stevens j",
"john paul stephens",
"john paul stevens",
"justice stevens",
"justice john paul stevens",
"john p stevens",
"j p stevens",
"justice john stevens"
] | [
"Antonin Scalia\n\nAntonin Gregory Scalia (; March 11, 1936 – February 12 / 13, 2016) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. Appointed to the Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, Scalia was described as the intellectual anchor for the originalist a... |
qg_4426 | March 3, 1991 saw George Holliday videotaped what event that eventually lead to a series of riots that resulted in 53 deaths? | The beating of Rodney King | [
"george holliday witness",
"beating of rodney king",
"rodney king beatings",
"rodney g king",
"can t we all just get along",
"straight alta pazz recording company",
"glen king",
"rodney king incident",
"why can t we all just get along",
"rodney glen king",
"rodney king",
"can t we all just get... | [
"Rodney King\n\nRodney Glen King III (April 2, 1965 – June 17, 2012) was an American taxi driver who became nationally known after being beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers following a high-speed car chase while drunk on March 3, 1991. A witness, George Holliday, videotaped much of the beating from hi... |
qg_4427 | Doctor Julius Hibbert is the resident General Practitioner on what TV series? | The Simpsons | [
"flanders tv show",
"good vs evil simpsons tv ad",
"simpsons com",
"simpsons tv series",
"list of advertisements featuring simpsons characters",
"simpsons jokes",
"culturally significant words and phrases from simpsons",
"beach simpsons tv ad",
"list of made up words in simpsons",
"jokes on simpso... | [
"Dr. Hibbert\n\nDr. Julius M. Hibbert, usually referred to as Dr. Hibbert, is a recurring character on the animated series The Simpsons. His speaking voice is provided by Harry Shearer and his singing voice was by Thurl Ravenscroft, and he first appeared in the episode \"Bart the Daredevil\". Dr. Hibbert is Spring... |
qg_4430 | The role that would eventually become synonymous with Peter Falk, Lt. Columbo, was originally offered to what legendary crooner, who turned it down? | Bing Crosby | [
"bing crosby actor",
"harry l crosby",
"bing crosby productions",
"harry lillis crosby jr",
"crosby bing",
"bing cosby",
"harry lillis crosby",
"harry crosby jr",
"bing crosby enterprises",
"bing crosby",
"harry lillis 22bing 22 crosby",
"harry lillis bing crosby",
"harry l crosby jr"
] | [
"Columbo\n\nColumbo is an American television series starring Peter Falk as Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. The character and show, created by William Link and Richard Levinson, popularized the inverted detective story format, which begins by showing the commission of the cri... |
qg_4433 | What American actor, born on Dec 8, 1936, was equally famous for his role as Caine on TVs Kung Fu and for dying in a Bangkok hotel closet in a case of autoerotic asphyxiation gone awry? | David Carradine | [
"john arthur carradine",
"david carradine"
] | [
"Erotic asphyxiation\n\nErotic asphyxiation or breath control play is the intentional restriction of oxygen to the brain for the purposes of sexual arousal. This sexual practice is variously called asphyxiophilia, autoerotic asphyxia, hypoxyphilia. The term autoerotic asphyxiation is used when the act is done by a ... |
qg_4435 | In the board game Operation, which ailment requires the removal of a small, plastic wrench? | Wrenched Ankle | [
"wrenched ankle"
] | [
"Operation (game)\n\nOperation is a battery-operated game of physical skill that tests players' hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. The game's prototype was invented in 1964 by John Spinello, a University of Illinois industrial design student at the time, who sold his rights to the game to Milton Bradley f... |
qg_4436 | What 1984 slasher film featured a fedora wearing main villain wearing a red and green sweater with a metal-clawed brown leather glove on his right hand? | A Nightmare on Elm Street | [
"nightmare on elm",
"wes craven s nightmare on elm street",
"nancy thompson film character",
"nancy thompson film charecter",
"anoes",
"nightmare on elm street 1",
"nightmare on elm street 1984 film",
"nightmare on elms street",
"nightmare on elm street",
"nightmare on elm st",
"nightmare on elm... | [
"Slasher film\n\nSlasher films are a subgenre of horror films, typically involving a violent psychopath murdering several victims, usually with bladed tools. Although the term \"slasher\" is sometimes used informally as a generic term for any horror movie involving murder, analysts of the genre cite an established ... |
qg_4438 | Dec 7, 1941 saw the attack on the US Naval facilities at Pearl Harbor, HI. The sinking of what battleship, now the site of a major memorial, accounted for over half the loss of life during the attack when 1,177 sailors died? | USS Arizona | [
"uss arizona",
"u s s arizona"
] | [
"Attack on Pearl Harbor\n\nThe attack on Pearl Harbor, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, the Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, and Operation Z during planning, was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base ... |
qg_4439 | Born on Dec 9, 1886, which Brooklyn, NY resident invented the process of flash freezing food to prevent damage to the food? | Clarence Birdseye | [
"clarence frank birdseye",
"birdseye frozen foods",
"clarence birdseye"
] | [
"Flash freezing\n\nFlash freezing refers to the process in various industries whereby objects are frozen in a few hours by subjecting them to cryogenic temperatures, or in direct contact with liquid nitrogen at .",
"Flash freezing\n\nThe freezing process results in ice crystals formed from intra- and extracellu... |
qg_4443 | According to a once-popular myth, oysters could only be eaten in months containing what letter in their names? | R | [
"ʀ letter",
"ʀ",
"🅁",
"ｒ",
"🅡",
"🄡",
"vox canina",
"r letter",
"ar letter",
"🆁",
"r",
"vōx canīna",
"⒭"
] | [
"Myth\n\nA myth is a traditional or legendary story, collection or study. It is derived from the Greek word mythos (μῦθος), which simply means \"story\". Mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. A myth also can be a story to explain why something exists.",
"Myth\n\nH... |
qg_4445 | What long running PBS staple features a purple, anthropomorphic Tyrannosaurus Rex known for his "I love you" song? | Barney and Friends | [
"banrey and firends",
"b harnii",
"barny dinosaur",
"ron clumsy yak",
"barney friend",
"barney friends kids cast",
"baby bop",
"barney barney friends character",
"barney got shot by g i joe",
"barney friends",
"bareny and friends",
"barney and friends",
"barney purple dinosaur",
"i love yo... | [
"Barney & Friends\n\nBarney & Friends is an American children's television series aimed at children from ages 1 to 8, created by Sheryl Leach and produced by HIT Entertainment. It premiered on PBS Kids on April 6, 1992. The series features the title character Barney, a purple anthropomorphic tyrannosaurus rex who c... |
qg_4447 | After clashing with Zeus and his allies, what race of Greek gods was banished to Tartarus, the pit of torment lying beneath the depths of Hades? | Titans | [
"titans television series",
"titan video game",
"titan disambiguation",
"titan novel",
"titan",
"titans tv series",
"titan television series",
"titans"
] | [
"Zeus\n\nZeus (; , Zeús,; Modern , Días) was the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter.",
"Zeus\n\nZeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, th... |
qg_4448 | Featuring Steven Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren, and Patti Scialfa, what is the name of the group that backs up Bruce Springsteen? | E Street Band | [
"e street band",
"aaron thomas moeller"
] | [
"Steven Van Zandt\n\nSteven Van Zandt (born November 22, 1950) is an American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve. He is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin... |
qg_4449 | From the Greek for a district in Thessaly, what element, whit the atomic number of 12, uses the symbol Mg? | Magnesium | [
"magnesium threonate",
"magnesium compounds",
"element 12",
"magnessium",
"c8h14mgo10",
"magnesium ribbon",
"mg²⁺",
"mg2",
"⚩",
"magnesium l threonate",
"magnesium"
] | [
"Magnesium\n\nMagnesium is a chemical element with symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray solid which bears a close physical resemblance to the other five elements in the second column (Group 2, or alkaline earth metals) of the periodic table: all Group 2 elements have the same electron configuration in... |
qg_4450 | As portrayed in the 1984 movie Amadeus, what classical composer is accused of having had a hand in the death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, on Dec 5, 1791? | Antonio Salieri | [
"antonio salieri",
"anton salieri",
"salieri",
"antionio salieri",
"antoine salieri"
] | [
"Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart\n\nThe composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died on 5 December 1791 at the age of 35. The circumstances of his death have attracted much research and speculation. Some principal sources of contention are as follows.",
"Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart\n\n*Whether Mozart declined grad... |
qg_4451 | December 7, 1863 saw the birth of what businessman, who along with business partner Alvah C Roebuck, opened their first store in Chicago in 1886? | Richard Warren Sears | [
"sears richard warren",
"richard w sears",
"r w sears",
"richard warren sears"
] | [
"Alvah Curtis Roebuck\n\nAlvah Curtis Roebuck (January 9, 1864 – June 18, 1948) was a manager at, Sears, Roebuck and Company with his partner Richard Warren Sears.",
"Alvah Curtis Roebuck\n\nEarly life",
"Alvah Curtis Roebuck\n\nAlvah Curtis Roebuck was born on January 9, 1864 in Lafayette, Indiana. He began wo... |
qg_4452 | For a point each, name the 2 countries surrounding the Republic of Equatorial Guinea. | Cameroon, Gabon | [
"cameroon gabon"
] | [
"Equatorial Guinea\n\nEquatorial Guinea (, , ), officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea (, , ), is a country located in Central Africa, with an area of 28000 km2. Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name evokes its location near both the Equator and the Gulf of Guinea. Equatorial Guine... |
qg_4453 | Known as the Sooner State, what was the 48th state to join the Union on Nov 16, 1907? | Oklahoma | [
"sooner state",
"religion in oklahoma",
"oklahoma",
"us ok",
"oklahoma u s state",
"46th state",
"oklahoma united states",
"oklahoma state",
"transportation in oklahoma",
"forty sixth state",
"energy in oklahoma",
"education in oklahoma",
"oclahoma",
"sports in oklahoma",
"oklaholma",
... | [
"Oklahoma\n\nOklahoma (Cherokee: Asgaya gigageyi / ᎠᏍᎦᏯ ᎩᎦᎨᏱ; or transliterated from English as ᎣᎦᎳᎰᎹ (òɡàlàhoma), Pawnee: Uukuhuúwa, Cayuga: Gahnawiyoˀgeh ) is a state located in the South Central United States. Oklahoma is the 20th most extensive and the 28th most populous of the 50 United States. The state's ... |
qg_4454 | Sperm, beluga, and pilot are all types of what? | Whales | [
"whale",
"whales",
"whale behaviour",
"🐋",
"whale behavior",
"mating whales",
"whale pump",
"whale anatomy",
"🐳",
"whale reproduction",
"cryptic cetaceans",
"whales in captivity",
"whale sounding"
] | [
"Sperm whale\n\nThe sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), or cachalot, is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of genus Physeter, and one of three extant species in the sperm whale family, along with the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale of the genus... |
qg_4457 | What J. D. Salinger book was Mark David Chapman carrying with him when he shot John Lennon outside the Dakota apartments on Dec 8, 1980? | The Catcher in the Rye | [
"catcher in rye",
"little shirley beans",
"catcher and rye",
"mr antolini",
"club ernies",
"agerstown pa",
"db caulfield",
"d b caulfield",
"faith cavendish",
"sally hayes",
"edmont hotel",
"mr spencer",
"agerstown pennsylvania",
"estelle fletcher",
"jane gallagher",
"phoebe caulfield"... | [
"J. D. Salinger\n\nJerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American writer who won acclaim early in life. He led a very private life for more than a half-century. He published his final original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980.",
"J. D. Salinger\n\nSalinger was raised i... |
qg_4459 | Who's missing: Jason, Mary Ellen, Erin, Ben, Jim-Bob, Elizabeth | John-Boy | [
"john boy",
"johnboy"
] | [
"The Waltons\n\nThe Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show is centered on a family in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II.",
"The Waltons\n\nThe series pilot aired as... |
qg_4464 | Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance is used by what insurance company? | Geico | [
"government employees insurance company",
"15 minutes could save you 15 percent or more on car insurance",
"geico",
"geico casualty company",
"lauren wallace",
"geico direct",
"geico com",
"geico insurance",
"even caveman can do it",
"geico indemnity company",
"geico general insurance company",
... | [
"GEICO\n\nThe Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO) is an American auto insurance company headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It is the second largest auto insurer in the United States, after State Farm. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway that as of 2015 provided coverage for more t... |
qg_4465 | The continental divide, the point at which watersheds tend to drain to the Pacific, instead of the Atlantic, lies principally along which mountain range? | The Rocky Mountains | [
"rockies",
"rockys",
"rockie mountains",
"central rocky mountains",
"rocky mountains",
"western rocky mountains",
"rocky mountain system",
"rocky mountain",
"history of rocky mountains",
"rockymountains"
] | [
"Continental Divide of the Americas\n\nThe Continental Divide of the Americas (also known as the Continental Gulf of Division, the Great Divide, or merely the Continental Divide) is the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas. The Continental Divide extends from the Bering Strait to... |
qg_4468 | What was the name by which we called Thailand before 1939 and between 1945 and 1949? | Siam | [
"thailand",
"kingdom of thailand",
"kingdom of thai",
"เมืองไทย",
"prathet thai",
"name of thailand",
"thayland",
"taihland",
"muang thai",
"iso 3166 1 th",
"skateboarding in thailand",
"thai kingdom",
"sport in thailand",
"siam thailand",
"sayam",
"siam",
"ratcha anachak thai",
"ร... | [
"Thailand\n\nThailand ( or ; , );, officially the Kingdom of Thailand (, ;), formerly known as Siam (; ), is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula. It is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west b... |
qg_4469 | Which company is responsible for "The Gun that Won the West"? | Winchester Repeating Arms | [
"winchester repeating arms corporation",
"winchester arms",
"winchester repeating arms company",
"winchester rifles and shotguns",
"winchester repeating arms",
"winchester firearms"
] | [
"Winchester rifle\n\nWinchester rifle is a comprehensive term describing a series of lever-action repeating rifles manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Evolved from the 1860 Henry rifle, Winchester rifles were among the earliest repeaters. The Model 1873 was particularly successful, being colloqui... |
qg_4470 | What New Orleans Jazz Legend was commonly known as Satchmo, short for Satchelmouth? | Louis Armstrong | [
"armstrong louis 22satchmo 22",
"louis 22satchmo 22 armstrong",
"armstrong louis",
"armstrong louis pops",
"louis armstrong",
"louis pops armstrong",
"sachimo",
"luois armstrong",
"louis 22pops 22 armstrong",
"louis satchmo armstrong",
"louis “satchmo” armstrong",
"louie armstrong",
"daniel ... | [
"New Orleans\n\nNew Orleans (, ,, or; ) is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. The New Orleans metropolitan area (New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area) had a popula... |
qg_4471 | There are no member countries of the United Nations that begin with the letter x or what other letter? | W | [
"🅆",
"double u",
"w letter",
"🅦",
"🄦",
"double v",
"🆆",
"double ues",
"⒲",
"double you",
"ⓦ",
"ｗ",
"w"
] | [
"United Nations\n\nThe United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict. At its founding, the UN had 5... |
qg_4473 | On December 10, 1906, which totally badassed US president won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War, the first American ever to win a Nobel Prize? | Teddy Roosevelt | [
"t ros",
"cowboy president",
"theodore roosavelt",
"trust buster",
"president theodore roosevelt",
"teddy roosvelt",
"teddy rosevelt",
"t roosevelt",
"roosevelt theodore",
"feddy roosevelt",
"cowboy of dakotas",
"teddy rose",
"26th president of united states",
"teddy roosevelt foreign poli... | [
"President of the United States\n\nThe President of the United States of America (POTUS) is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.",
"President of th... |
qg_4475 | The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, the story (and movie) about a boy/man who ages in reverse, was written by what great Jazz Age writer? | F. Scott Fitzgerald | [
"francis scott fitzgerald",
"f fitzgerald",
"f scott fitzgerald",
"scott fitzgerald",
"f francis scott fitzgerald",
"francis fitzgerald",
"francis scott key fitzgerald",
"f s fitzgerald"
] | [
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)\n\n\"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button\" is a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and first published in Colliers Magazine on May 27, 1922. It was subsequently anthologized in his book Tales of the Jazz Age, which is occasionally published as The Curious C... |
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